{"id":113442,"date":"2025-07-06T16:41:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T16:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/113442\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T16:41:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T16:41:13","slug":"east-notes-primeau-lettieri-leonard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/113442\/","title":{"rendered":"East Notes: Primeau, Lettieri, Leonard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hurricanes RFA goaltender Cayden Primeau<\/a> signed a one-year, league minimum deal yesterday, according to a team release<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Primeau saw his signing rights transferred<\/a> from Montreal to Carolina on Monday in exchange for a 2026 seventh-round pick. The 25-year-old bounced between the NHL and AHL for his first four professional seasons coming out of Northeastern University, but won a full-time roster spot with the Habs in 2023-24, in part due to their unwillingness to expose him to waivers.<\/p>\n

He looked good in a three-goalie rotation with\u00a0Sam Montembeault<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Jake Allen<\/a>\u00a0that year but struggled mightily as Montembeault\u2019s full-time No. 2 to begin last season. He posted an .836 SV% and sky-high 4.70 GAA with a 2-3-1 record in seven starts and four relief appearances before being waived in December, clearing and heading to AHL Laval.<\/p>\n

Primeau got things back on track with a .926 SV% and 2.00 GAA in 25 games with Laval. The Canes hope he can carry that momentum into 2025-26 as he serves as the No. 3 behind the returning NHL tandem of Frederik Andersen<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Pyotr Kochetkov<\/a>, assuming he clears waivers again in the fall.<\/p>\n

Here are a couple of other league minimum signings from yesterday:<\/p>\n

The Maple Leafs brought in veteran depth center\u00a0Vinni Lettieri<\/a>, per PuckPedia<\/a>. While a one-way deal, that\u2019s presumably to guarantee him more compensation. They\u2019re hoping he clears waivers and can be an impact player for AHL Toronto after they lost some important pieces like\u00a0Nicholas Abruzzese<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Alex Steeves<\/a>\u00a0yesterday. The 30-year-old spent last year with the Bruins organization, recording five points in 26 NHL games and 48 points in 46 AHL games.
\nThe Red Wings announced<\/a> a one-year, one-way league minimum deal for winger\u00a0John Leonard<\/a>\u00a0yesterday. He joins their July 1 haul that also included\u00a0James van Riemsdyk<\/a>,\u00a0Jacob Bernard-Docker<\/a>, and\u00a0Ian Mitchell<\/a>. It\u2019s the 26-year-old\u2019s first NHL contract in a year \u2013 he spent last season on an AHL deal with Charlotte, leading the Calder Cup runner-ups in scoring with 36 goals, 25 assists, and 61 points in 72 games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hurricanes RFA goaltender Cayden Primeau signed a one-year, league minimum deal yesterday, according to a team release. Primeau…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5107],"tags":[194,29,5176,1624,93,5,195,14649,4,31,405,19411],"class_list":{"0":"post-113442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-hurricanes","8":"tag-carolina","9":"tag-carolina-hurricanes","10":"tag-carolinahurricanes","11":"tag-cayden-primeau","12":"tag-detroit-red-wings","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-hurricanes","15":"tag-john-leonard","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs","18":"tag-transactions","19":"tag-vinni-lettieri"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/114807287650199826","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}