On what is sure to be a slow Super Bowl Sunday, we’ll keep all the minor news right here:
- The Columbus Blue Jackets have returned Markus Hannikainen to the Cleveland Monsters just a day after bringing him up. The 23-year old winger was an emergency recall and got into the game last night against the New Jersey Devils. He’s played in seven contests for the Jackets this year as he bounces up and down between leagues, scoring one goal.
- Bob McKenzie of TSN reports that Frank Corrado has cleared waivers for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and will be assigned to the AHL Marlies. We wrote yesterday about how the Alexey Marchenko claiming impacted the right-hand depth of the Maple Leafs, of which Corrado was a part.
- McKenzie also tells us that Nashville has placed Derek Grant on waivers, likely due to the acquisition of Vernon Fiddler yesterday. Grant has played just six games for Nashville since being selected off waivers from the Buffalo Sabres less than a month ago.
- The Devils have sent Karl Stollery to Albany for the time being, after bringing him up just a week ago. The defenseman has bounced up and down all season long, playing nine games for the big-league Devils so far.
- Per the AHL Transactions page, the Sharks assigned forwards Timo Meier and Kevin Labanc as well as defenseman Tim Heed to the San Jose Barracuda of the AHL. It’s highly likely that all three will be recalled in advance of their next game on Tuesday; San Jose has routinely been shuffling them back and forth between the NHL and the minors in an effort to save a bit of cap space.
- Also via the AHL Transactions page, Nashville has swapped backup goalies once again, recalling Jusse Saros and assigning Marek Mazanec to AHL Milwaukee. Saros had been sent down to get in a game with the Admirals on Saturday night as he last saw NHL action back on January 24th.
- Following their game against Montreal, the Oilers announced (Twitter link) they have assigned defensemen Jordan Oesterle and Griffin Reinhart, as well as center Anton Lander, to Bakersfield (AHL). Oesterle made his season debut on Sunday while Lander saw his first NHL action in over three weeks; Reinhart was a healthy scratch.