Image: Todd Little
The Athletic’s Shayna Gokdman and Dom Luszczyszyn ran a mock 2027 expansion draft to stock a hypothetical 33rd team (located in Austin or Houston) and Eetu Luostarinen was the player Florida Panthers lost in the thought exercise.
Florida’s division rivals in Montreal made a pair of signings on Monday, inking centers Jared Davidson and Hunter McKown to identical one-year, two-way deals that pay $850K at the NHL level and $135K at the AHL level.
The 24-year-old Davidson played his first ten NHL games with Montreal last season and collected his first big-league assist. In 53 AHL games with the Laval Rocket he scored 16 goals and added nine assists.
McKown was a member of the Columbus Blue Jackets organization in 2025-26. He put up nine goals and 16 assists with the Cleveland Monsters. He played 12 games with the Blue Jackets in 2023 after leaving Colorado College.
The Colorado Avalanche signed center Georgii Merkulov to a one-year, two-way contract that pays $850K at the NHL level and $350K at the AHL level. Merkulov led the Providence Bruins in scoring in 2025-26, amassing 61 points in 70 games. He also played in one NHL game with Boston.