June 1st marks the unofficial beginning of the NHL offseason. This date marks the “sign by” date for unsigned players.
Teams must sign these players by 5PM ET on June 1st, or lose their exclusive signing rights to said player. CapFriendly was able to provide a full list of players who fall under these circumstances.
There is more players on this list than usual. Part of that is likely due to a lot of these players coming from the 2020 NHL Draft, a class that was clouded by spotty scouting and paused seasons in the wake of the Covid pandemic.
A lot of teams did not have the best accuracy or decisiveness in who they wanted to pick when Covid had thrown off everything. Players from that class (and the ones around it too) have had their development hurdled as a result, and the later rounds of the 2020 draft class have been all over the map in terms of success.
The Penguins, meanwhile, have two players on this list, and as 5PM comes and goes with no announcement from the team, the Penguins appear to have lost the rights to both Thimo Nickl and Nolan Collins.
Nickl, 22, was originally a fourth round pick (104th overall) by the Anaheim Ducks in 2020. He stands as the very last player that former general manager Ron Hextall ever acquired while in charge of the Pens.
On March 31st of last year, Hextall traded forward Judd Caufield, a 2019 fifth rounder by the team, to Anaheim in exchange for the defenseman Nickl.
This is one of the rare times teams made a trade after the trade deadline. NHL teams are permitted to still make deals after the deadline; the only catch is that any players acquired cannot participate in the playoffs. With both players still being well off from the NHL, that was a non factor.
Nickl has bounced around quite a lot for how young he is. After his junior years, he spent some time in the Swedish SHL for Rögle BK. Then, in 2021-22, he played more regularly for AIK in HockeyAllsvenskan.
He spent the 2022-23 season there as well, playing in 47 games and registering 8 assists with a -9 rating and 69 penalty minutes.
This year, he made the jump to North America and played with Pittsburgh’s ECHL affiliate in Wheeling. He spent the whole year with the Nailers, playing in 66 games and registering 21 points with a +25 rating. He had a harsh playoffs, however, with no points and a -3 in 9 games.
According to CapFriendly and Elite Prospects, Nickl is committed to a team in his native Austria for the 2024-25 season.
Nolan Collins, meanwhile, is a 20 year old defenseman who just wrapped up another juniors season in the OHL. In 65 games with the Sudbury Wolves, he recorded 26 points and was a +20.
Collins was a sixth round pick by the Penguins in 2022 (167th overall), the second to last draft pick Hextall made (the final one being Luke Devlin).
His first OHL season saw him record 18 points in 65 games and a -1 rating. His sophomore season saw his numbers jump across the board; he had 30 points in 63 games with a +11 rating. He also doubled his goal total from 4 to 8.
His final two years with Sudbury he served as an alternate captain.
Collins is a long-term prospect, meaning even if the Penguins decided to sign him, he is still well off from having any real chance at an NHL gig. This can often be the case for defenseman, who are trickier to evaluate and usually require more time to develop.
In the case of Collins, however, his OHL numbers probably just weren’t enticing enough for the Penguins to hand him a contract.
(Featured photo of Nolan Collins by Chris Tanouye/Getty Images)
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