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Minor Transactions: 12/2/21

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It’s been a busy day for news at the NHL level, with unfortunately a high number of COVID protocol placements over the past few days. It’s caused a ripple effect across leagues, with teams making rapid roster transactions in order to keep up. Here’s a list of today’s minor transactions across the hockey world:

  • Netminder Evan Fitzpatrick has been sent back down to the ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits from the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers. Fitzpatrick was a high draft pick (59th overall) of the St. Louis Blues in 2016 but was left unqualified this offseason after some rough stints in the ECHL. He joined the Panthers on a PTO for training camp, didn’t earn a deal, but stayed in the organization on a minor-league deal. He’s having a much better start to this season – despite a 1-3-0 record, he’s posted a .927 save percentage.

Justin Faulk Enters COVID Protocol

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The St. Louis Blues announced Thursday, just minutes ahead of their game against Tampa Bay, that defenseman Justin Faulk has been placed in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol.

Faulk, who’s in the second year of a seven-year, $45.5MM contract, is having his best season in a Blues uniform. He leads the team in +/- (+9) and is tied for the team lead in points among defensemen (10), all while averaging more than 23 minutes per game.

He joins forward Tyler Bozak and goalie Jordan Binnington as the Blues on the protocol list. James Neal, Klim Kostin, and David Perron are all injured, adding to their list of absences.

Jake Walman will dress against Tampa Bay in place of Faulk. He’s played in 14 games this season, notching two assists.

Vegas Golden Knights Sign Zach Dean

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The Vegas Golden Knights have signed one of their 2021 draft picks, inking Zach Dean to a three-year entry-level contract. Dean currently plays for the Gatineau Olympiques of the QMJHL, where he will remain this season.

Selected 30th overall in the most recent draft, the 18-year-old forward has actually only played seven games for Gatineau so far after suffering an injury in Golden Knights camp. He’s been outstanding in those games though, racking up nine points and 21 shots on goal. He’s also been playing center, despite sometimes being listed as a winger, an important distinction for the young prospect.

Signing his entry-level deal means he’s part of the Golden Knights family, but it doesn’t mean he’ll be in the NHL anytime soon. His contract will slide forward and it’s likely that Dean stays in junior for the 2022-23 season as well. Recently invited to Canada’s World Junior selection camp, if he doesn’t make the squad this year he’ll be a leading candidate for an impact role a year from now.

Jack Eichel Resumes Skating

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If you doubted Jack Eichel’s suggested three-month recovery timeline after his artificial disk replacement surgery, perhaps you should think again. The Vegas Golden Knights center was seen back on the ice today in North Carolina (at what appears to be the Extreme Ice Center just outside of Charlotte) by one of the scouts for Brandon Wong Hockey, just three weeks after going under the knife.

Obviously there is still a long way to go for the 25-year-old center, but seeing him back skating has to be encouraging for a Golden Knights squad that took a huge chance and acquired Eichel last month. The team sent Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs and a package of draft picks to the Buffalo Sabres while taking on Eichel’s entire contract, one which pays him $10MM every season through 2025-26.

The last time Eichel played an injury-free season, he racked up 36 goals and 78 points. Unfortunately, that was in the COVID-shortened 2019-20 season, which seems like a decade ago after the saga that has transpired since. His 2020-21 campaign ended after 21 games and a neck injury, leading to months and months of fighting with the Sabres over his preferred treatment. Even before that he had expressed a desire to potentially go elsewhere if the team was going to go through another rebuild, and he eventually got his wish on both, sent to the Golden Knights who allowed him to get the neck procedure his representatives had been pushing for.

Now, Vegas faces a massive cap crunch if Eichel is to return in the regular season, something that is still clearly up in the air despite his appearance on the ice. There is at least the possibility that he could return only for the playoffs where there is no salary cap–similar to what the Tampa Bay Lightning did with Nikita Kucherov last season–but if the three-month timeline is correct, he’ll be ready far sooner than that.

Dustin Tokarski Placed In COVID Protocol

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Malcolm Subban can’t get to the Buffalo Sabres fast enough. The team has announced that Dustin Tokarski has been placed in the COVID protocol, forcing them to recall Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen from the AHL. Buffalo made a trade for Subban earlier today but will have to go with Luukkonen and Aaron Dell until he arrives.

Casey Mittelstadt has also been activated from injured reserve ahead of tonight’s game against the Florida Panthers.

It’s certainly not an ideal situation for Buffalo, given that Tokarski was the more reliable of the two they currently had healthy and in the NHL. The 32-year-old journeyman has a .903 save percentage in 14 appearances this season, compared to Dell’s brutal .862 in five games. While Luukkonen was always supposed to take over the net at some point, the issue so far has been his own struggles in the minor leagues. The 22-year-old netminder has an .888 in 12 appearances with the Rochester Americans, and adding Subban was very clearly about allowing the Sabres to keep him in the AHL to develop further.

Now with Tokarski out that’s not possible, at least for today. The team did not confirm whether Tokarski has tested positive for coronavirus, but if he has and is experiencing any symptoms, he’ll be held out for a minimum of ten days. That would mean at least five games, meaning when Subban does arrive, he very well may immediately become the NHL starter for the next little while.

Yan Kuznetsov Loaned To CHL

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It’s not that often that you see a player go from the NCAA to the AHL to the CHL, but that’s exactly what’s about to happen for Yan Kuznetsov. The Calgary Flames prospect has been loaned to the Saint John Seadogs of the QMJHL after 12 games with the Stockton Heat this season.

Kuznetsov, 19, was the 50th overall pick in the 2020 draft after his freshman year at the University of Connecticut, and he returned in 2020-21 for his sophomore season. After the college campaign ended, he signed his entry-level deal with the Flames and suited up six times down the stretch for Stockton. The 6’4″ defenseman has failed to register a single point in 18 games for the Heat overall and will now get to test himself at the junior level, something that will only help develop his overall game.

Notably, he’ll be available for Russia at the World Juniors again, which would be his second time at the tournament, and also will likely play in the Memorial Cup given it is set to be hosted in Saint John this season. A trade could potentially change that obviously, but Kuznetsov will spend the rest of the year in the CHL competing against players his age.

Selected 22nd overall in the 2021 CHL Import Draft, this was always a possibility for the big defenseman. Saint John picked him after he already made his AHL debut, meaning they had an inkling he could end up back in junior at some point. He’s joining a team that is currently 12-8-3 on the year and in eighth place in the QMJHL standings, but still has big expectations. He’s also going to be joining fellow Calgary draft picks Jeremie Poirier and Ryan Francis, the latter of whom also made his AHL debut with the Heat last season before he returned to Saint John.

Kirill Semyonov Clears Unconditional Waivers

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Dec 2: Semyonov has cleared waivers and will see his contract terminated. Yesterday, Maple Leafs’ head coach Sheldon Keefe explained that the forward expressed a desire to return to the KHL on the way back from the team’s latest road trip.

Dec 1: The Kirill Semyonov experiment in Toronto is coming to an end, as the Russian forward has been placed on unconditional waivers. Semyonov will see his contract terminated, making him a free agent that can sign with a new NHL team or return to the KHL.

Semyonov, 27, signed a one-year, entry-level contract with the Maple Leafs this season, expecting to be in the mix for the bottom-six after a long, successful career in the KHL. The undrafted forward hit a career-high of 46 points in 62 games during the 2019-20 season and won a Gagarin Cup championship in 2021. When he arrived it seemed to be going well, with a strong showing in the preseason for Toronto. Still, he ended up in the minors to start the year, where he played nine games and put up nine points.

Recently, Semyonov had been recalled to the main roster but with the addition of veteran forward Kyle Clifford, even the spare roster spot was going to be difficult to secure. Now, after being sent down yesterday in favor of Joey Anderson, Semyonov is on waivers and will leave the organization entirely.

It will be interesting to see whether he tries to catch on with another NHL team at some point, or if Semyonov’s NHL story ends after just three games. He failed to score a point in any of those and will leave the Maple Leafs still waiting for his first NHL goal. When terminated, the contract will come completely off the books for Toronto.

Buffalo Sabres Acquire Malcolm Subban

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The Buffalo Sabres have struggled to find consistent netminding all year, and now appear to be throwing another name into the ring. The Sabres have acquired Malcolm Subban from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for future considerations.

Subban, 27, is certainly not a guaranteed upgrade to the goaltending the Sabres have at the moment. A first-round pick from 2012, the veteran netminder has just 82 games of NHL experience to this point most of that coming with the Vegas Golden Knights as the team’s original backup. Subban posted a .901 save percentage in those 63 appearances with Vegas, but has a .899 overall for his career. Last season, he played in 16 games for the Blackhawks and posted a .900, but was pushed down the depth chart once again when they acquired Marc-Andre Fleury in the offseason.

After clearing waivers at the start of the year, Subban was sent to the Rockford IceHogs of the AHL where he has appeared in three games. While his numbers there certainly don’t paint a pretty picture, this move will allow the Sabres to leave Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, still the team’s top goaltending prospect, in the minor leagues while Subban helps the NHL squad.

Currently, the team was going with a tandem of Dustin Tokarski and Aaron Dell, as Craig Anderson continues to deal with an injury. Those two have combined for an .894 on the season so far, not exactly what the team is looking for as they try to support their young roster. It’s not that the Sabres are really trying to contend for the playoffs as they start another rebuild, but it’s difficult to develop any talent when they’re losing every night. The team is 3-6-1 in their last ten and plummeting down the standings, thanks in part to goaltending that has allowed the fifth-most goals against in the league.

It’s also a great opportunity for Subban, if only to show that he can be an NHL backup again at this point in his career. His two-year contract will expire at the end of the season, at which point he’ll be looking for a new job. Given that the deal is a one-way contract, he was still earning his $950K salary in the minor leagues. The Blackhawks can cross that off the books now that he’s with Buffalo, even if they aren’t really getting anything of value in return.

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was first to report a deal was being worked out. 

More to come…

Jordan Binnington Placed In COVID Protocol

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The St. Louis Blues’ battle with COVID continues, as this time their starting goaltender has entered the protocol. Jordan Binnington is now unavailable to the team and the Blues have recalled Charlie Lindgren to take his place on the roster, but unfortunately, they don’t have the cap space to use him tonight. The team will have to use an emergency goalie for one game–similar to what the Toronto Maple Leafs did earlier this season–and then add Lindgren under the emergency recall rules for Friday. Kyle Konin, a 23-year-old netminder who last played at Grand Valley State University, will be the backup tonight.

Binnington joins Tyler Bozak, who was placed in the protocol a few days ago. This isn’t the first time the Blues have been without key players though, and as things are currently going around the league, appears it likely won’t be the last. St. Louis confirmed that Binnington has tested positive, meaning if he experiences any symptoms, he’ll be held out for a minimum of ten days.

That means tonight against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Blues will likely have Ville Husso in net, who dealt with his own stint in the COVID protocol earlier this season. The team is also scheduled to play the Florida Panthers on Saturday before traveling home, something that Binnington won’t be able to do if he’s stuck in quarantine. He’ll have to stay behind and re-join the team down the line, potentially after he misses the next five or six games.

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