The first trade after the holiday roster freeze is a small one as Tampa Bay and Anaheim have made a swap of veteran AHL players. The Lightning announced that they’ve acquired defenseman Patrick Sieloff from the Ducks in exchange for forward Chris Mueller.
The 25-year-old Sieloff has bounced around in recent years as this will be his third organization in 2019 alone. He has spent this season with Anaheim’s AHL affiliate in San Diego, recording a goal and 16 penalty minutes in 19 games. Sieloff has played in two career NHL games, scoring in both of them but will most likely serve as extra depth in case of injury on Tampa Bay’s back end.
Mueller, 33, has been a productive scorer at the minor league level over the past decade but it has yet to translate into many NHL opportunities as he has just 52 games over his belt between three different franchises. He has switched teams five separate times over the past six seasons, all in free agency where he was signed to help boost scoring on their farm teams. One of those was Anaheim, who had him back in 2015-16. Mueller has 11 goals and 12 assists in 31 games with Syracuse and will immediately be the top scorer in AHL San Diego, the Ducks’ affiliate.
Both players are on two-way contracts for the league minimum at the NHL level this season. Sieloff will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights this summer if he receives a qualifying offer while Mueller will once again hit the open market in July.