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Archives for July 2023

Snapshots: Comtois, Johnson, Hockey Canada

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Max Comtois remains unsigned nearly four weeks into free agency after being non-tendered by Anaheim who opted not to give him a $2.445MM qualifying offer.  Speaking with TVA Sports’ Louis Butcher, the 24-year-old called the parting of ways a mutual decision.  Back in 2021-22, Comtois looked to have a breakout year, picking up 16 goals and 17 assists in 55 games but has struggled offensively since then, tallying just 15 goals and 20 helpers in 116 contests over the last two years.

Despite the struggles, Comtois revealed that a handful of teams have shown interest in him thus far, giving him confidence that he’ll have a place to play when training camps open up in mid-September.  While he wouldn’t reveal which ones have shown interest, he did indicate that his hometown Canadiens are not among the teams that have reached out to his camp to express any interest in signing him.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • Free agent winger Luke Johnson has decided to try his hand overseas as Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL announced they’ve signed the 28-year-old to a one-year deal. Johnson, a veteran of 32 NHL games dating back to 2018-19, has spent most of his professional career in the minors, suiting up in 333 AHL contests.  That plus his NHL time now qualifies him for veteran status in the AHL – teams are capped with how many veteran-status players they can dress per game – so it’s not entirely surprising to see Johnson look elsewhere.  Last season, he had 18 points in 67 games with San Jose’s farm team.
  • Hockey Canada didn’t hold an in-person summer evaluation camp as they often do but they revealed the list of players that took part in their virtual meetings. The majority of the 45 players on the list have already been drafted while 2024 top prospect Macklin Celebrini is also on there.  Canada’s roster in the December World Juniors will likely be comprised of many players on this list.

Avalanche Sign, Loan Nikolai Kovalenko

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Jul 26: After officially signing him to a two-year entry-level contract worth $896,250 per season yesterday, CapFriendly confirms Colorado has loaned Kovalenko back to Torpedo for next season.

Jul 22: It appears that Colorado will soon be signing one of their prospects.  Torpedo of the KHL announced on their Twitter account that the Avalanche will be signing winger Nikolai Kovalenko to an entry-level contract but will loan him back to Torpedo for the upcoming season.

The 23-year-old was a sixth-round pick of the Avs back in 2018 (171st overall) and has certainly outperformed his draft stock since then.  Last season, he had a breakout year in his first season with Torpedo, notching 21 goals and 33 assists in 56 games.  For context, his previous career best in points in the KHL was 21.  That performance put him third in the league in points per game.

That performance appears to have landed Kovalenko on the NHL radar.  His contract will be a two-year agreement, meaning he’ll be able to suit up full time in North America in 2024-25 or when his KHL playoffs come to an end this season.  The KHL regular season ends in late February so it’s quite possible that Kovalenko will be available to Colorado late in the 2023-24 campaign.

If he’s able to have a repeat of his 2022-23 performance next year, Kovalenko could be an interesting addition to the Avs down the stretch this coming year, giving them a low-cost addition to their forward group where he’d likely start in their bottom six.  Regardless of whether he suits up for the Avalanche next season, his contract will count against their limit of 50.

Hurricanes “Not Close” On Extension Talks With Pending UFAs

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Today was a ceremonious day for the Carolina Hurricanes organization, locking in franchise center Sebastian Aho to the richest deal in franchise history. Don’t expect groundbreaking extensions for any other Hurricane hitting the open market in 2024, though. General manager Don Waddell told reporters, including the North State Journal’s Cory Lavalette today, that the team “isn’t close” on extensions with any of their other pending UFAs.

This rather consequential list includes, first and foremost, long-rumored trade target defenseman Brett Pesce. It’s long been believed that Carolina would trade Pesce sooner rather than later if an extension wasn’t in the cards, and Waddell confirmed that that was the case today. It’s fair to wonder whether his quote today increases Pesce trade speculation in the coming days, especially since little is known about the list of teams who’ve called the ’Canes about Pesce’s services.

Moving out Pesce with haste would free up more space for the Hurricanes to pursue Erik Karlsson, who they’ve also been connected to on the trade market for many weeks. Bringing in Anthony DeAngelo for his second stint in a Carolina jersey also seems like a targeted backup plan if Carolina trades Pesce but fails to nab Karlsson, the 2023 Norris Trophy winner, in a trade from the San Jose Sharks.

Pesce isn’t the only notable Hurricane headed for unrestricted free agency next summer, however. On offense, Teuvo Teravainen and his five-year, $27MM deal signed in 2019 are set to expire. While he had arguably his worst season in a Hurricanes jersey last year, registering just 12 goals and 37 points in 68 games, he’s been one of Carolina’s top scorers for the better part of the previous half-decade. That being said, he’s also destined for a reduced role next season, with the addition of Michael Bunting in the team’s top six and Seth Jarvis likely to surpass him on the team’s depth chart. It makes sense why the Hurricanes wouldn’t want to pay Teravainen what he believes he’s worth, especially at this stage without any clear evidence of a permanent decline. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him hit the UFA market for the first time next July.

There’s also the matter of fan-favorite depth forward Jordan Martinook, a vital locker-room fixture with the team who’s had a tumultuous season in Raleigh. Placed on waivers (and cleared) before the season started to create some salary cap flexibility, Martinook would go on to play a pivotal depth role for Carolina in 2022-23. His 21 assists and 34 points in 82 games were both career highs, and he notched a remarkable 12 points in 15 playoff games as the Hurricanes marched on to the Eastern Conference Final yet again. Entering the final season of a three-year, $5.4MM contract signed in 2021, Martinook’s stock is at an all-time high. If there is an extension to be had here, don’t expect it to come before the New Year.

Finally, at least among the significant roster pieces headed for free agency next year, Pesce’s defense partner remains without a contract past 2024. Brady Skjei is now in the final season of a six-year, $31.5MM contract, and he’s had a rather up-and-down tenure with Carolina since they acquired him via trade in 2021. He’s been inconsistent defensively over the life of his contract but has settled into posting solid second-pairing numbers for the Hurricanes, at least from an offensive standpoint – he registered a career-high 18 goals last year after posting 39 points in 82 games the year before. While an effective player, he’s also not worth the $5.25MM per season they’re paying him – at least not for Carolina’s needs. With multiple high-end defense prospects on the way, it again shouldn’t be a surprise that the Hurricanes aren’t chomping at the bit to extend him.

Rounding out the list of pending UFAs for Carolina in 2024 are forwards Brendan Lemieux and Stefan Noesen, defenseman Jalen Chatfield, and goalie Antti Raanta. DeAngelo is also slated for unrestricted free agency in 2024 as well. All of those players were either signed to one-year deals this summer or have sub-$1MM cap hits.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Colorado Avalanche Re-Sign Ben Meyers

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The Colorado Avalanche have re-signed forward Ben Meyers to a one-year contract, according to a team release. In doing so, the team has locked up their last remaining RFA this offseason and has their financial picture set for 2023-24, notwithstanding any further UFA additions. Per The Athletic’s Peter Baugh, it’s a league-minimum pact with a $775K cap hit.

Meyers, 24, has already had a solid taste of NHL action, having skated in 44 regular-season games with the Avalanche over the past two seasons while tallying five goals but no assists. The young center also appeared in six of seven games in Colorado’s first-round playoff loss to the Seattle Kraken this spring.

The Delano, Minnesota product split 2022-23 evenly between the Avalanche and the AHL’s Colorado Eagles, playing at least 30 games in each league. Last year’s big fish undrafted free agent signing out of the University of Minnesota skated in 39 contests with the Avs last season, notching four of his five career goals. He fared much better offensively in the minors, posting six goals and 18 assists for 24 points in 30 games with the Eagles.

It’s impossible to talk about Meyers without discussing his incredulous senior season with the University of Minnesota in 2021-22, which saw him explode for 41 points in 34 games and earned him nods to the U.S. National Team at both the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and the 2022 IIHF World Championship in Finland.

Next season, Meyers will look to stick with the Avs full-time. Colorado would certainly appreciate it if he could, as cost-effective pieces are increasingly crucial with another season of limited salary cap flexibility. Currently, he’s slated to take on fourth-line center responsibilities, and his ice time will likely creep higher than the 9:35 per game he received last season.

Meyers will be waiver-exempt to start the season, although it’s a designation that won’t last for long. He has just ten NHL games remaining before he loses his exempt status and will require waivers to be assigned to the Eagles.

Re-signing Meyers leaves the Avalanche with $2.025MM in projected cap space with a 21-player roster and captain Gabriel Landeskog on long-term injured reserve, per CapFriendly.

Free Agent Profile: Josh Bailey

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Often overlooked among a given year’s unrestricted free agent class are the late additions – unqualified RFAs and bought-out players. Longtime New York Islander Josh Bailey falls into the latter category. Unlike other prominent bought-out names, such as Matt Duchene and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, he remains unsigned as we enter August.

Bailey was one of the more underrated franchise cornerstones in the league for quite a while. Never really viewed as a high-end piece, Bailey didn’t let that stop him from being one of the more consistent Islanders forwards throughout the 2010s. A gifted playmaker, Bailey was money in the bank for between 40 and 60 points and played well enough, no matter who you put him with. He’d begun to drop off after his 30th birthday like so many others, however, leading the Islanders to deal him to the Chicago Blackhawks, along with a 2026 second-round pick, for future considerations last month. Chicago promptly bought him out, making Bailey a UFA for the first time in his 15-year NHL career.

It’s been all quiet on the western front for Bailey as of late. However, reports immediately after Chicago bought out Bailey suggested the Ottawa Senators were circling the veteran winger. It’s a fit that makes a fair bit of sense for both sides, given Ottawa’s lack of scoring depth, especially on their fourth line.

His built-in versatility makes him an attractive option for a bottom-six role as he ages, and he’s still a valuable playmaker and penalty-killer in isolation. His declining speed and skating limit him from being effective in a top-six role, but there are far worse veteran additions to plug-and-play this late into the offseason.

Stats

2022-23: 64 GP, 8-17-25, +3 rating, 2 PIMs, 72 shots, 48.2% CF, 15:08 ATOI
Career: 1057 GP, 184-396-580, -48 rating, 241 PIMs, 1591 shots, 48.1% CF, 16:32 ATOI

Potential Suitors

Any team with any cap space to spare could likely fit Bailey in. He’s unlikely to command over $1MM on a one-year deal and is ineligible for performance bonuses. While he’s unlikely to take a role with a team already filled out on the wings, quite a few teams could use Bailey as an upgrade on their bottom two lines.

As mentioned earlier, Ottawa is quite a clear fit in the Eastern Conference. They have over $5MM in cap space to spare, per CapFriendly. While they still have Shane Pinto to re-sign, he won’t command all of it. Bailey is a significant upgrade over the team’s currently projected fourth-line wingers, Parker Kelly and Egor Sokolov, and he could help catalyze some offense from the team’s third and fourth lines. They could use it after taking a goal-scoring hit in their top six by swapping Alex DeBrincat for Dominik Kubalik.

He could also head out to a team with a winning pedigree – the Colorado Avalanche. After a flurry of offseason additions, including Ross Colton and Ryan Johansen, the team still has a handful of depth forward spots available for competition. Bailey’s a more experienced option than Fredrik Olofsson, who Colorado acquired from the Dallas Stars in exchange for future considerations earlier this summer and promptly extended on a league-minimum contract. If nothing else, he’d give Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar more options to organize his second, third and fourth lines. There are many question marks regarding how the Avs’ opening night lineup card will look in any event.

Projected Contract

Bailey did not appear in our Top 50 UFA rankings list, nor was he eligible, thanks to his buyout. There’s no feasible way his next deal lands anywhere close to his previous $5MM cap hit or even his $3.5MM salary that he was due for 2023-24, especially at this point in the summer. However, a handful of playoff-hopeful or contending teams (as outlined above) could afford the veteran on a deal worth $1MM or less. Given his declining role and production, he’s likely to receive a number in that range from any team that approaches him, regardless of their contention status.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Flames Sign First-Round Pick Samuel Honzek

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The Calgary Flames announced today they’ve signed forward Samuel Honzek, their first-round pick in last month’s 2023 NHL Draft. It’s a standard three-year, entry-level contract, and FlamesNation’s Ryan Pike reports it carries an average annual value of $950K. Selected 16th overall by the Flames, Honzek is the tenth 2023 first-round talent to sign his entry-level deal.

Calgary selected the 18-year-old Slovak forward out of the WHL’s Vancouver Giants. Able to play both wing and center, Honzek leveraged his massive 6-foot-4 frame to register 23 goals and 56 points in 43 games for the Giants during an injury-shortened campaign. He may have gone earlier than some expected, but it’s hard to be too angry about the pick value Calgary got with Honzek in the mid-teens.

Honzek headlined a quietly intriguing 2023 draft class for the Flames, who also nabbed Canadian defenseman Étienne Morin in the second round and high-scoring Russian winger Aydar Suniev in the third. The intelligent and all-around smooth-skating Honzek is the prize of their class, though, and he ranks as the organization’s fourth-best forward in the pipeline, according to DobberProspects.

Calgary will likely return Honzek to junior hockey next season, which will slide his entry-level contract back a year to 2024-25. Given Honzek was 18 at the time of signing his ELC, Calgary is allowed to execute this maneuver twice. If he’s not ready for full-time NHL play in 2024 either, the Flames could delay the start of Honzek’s deal to 2025-26, keeping him under contract for a six-figure cap hit as far along as 2028.

Coyotes, Logan Cooley Close To Entry-Level Contract

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It appears prized center prospect Logan Cooley will not be returning to the University of Minnesota for his sophomore season. Per a report from PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan (backed up by this rather cryptic tweet from the team itself), the Arizona Coyotes are “gaining momentum” on signing Cooley to an entry-level contract and bringing him to the NHL in 2023-24. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman adds he’d be “very surprised” if Cooley does not sign within the next two days.

Cooley has been one of the more hot-button names in the Coyotes organization after he opted not to sign an entry-level deal earlier this offseason, a decision he partially attributed at the time to the team’s proposed arena plan in Tempe falling through. He acknowledged this to Morgan in an interview earlier this month but also said, “There’s still some things I want to accomplish in college before I make the step to the NHL. I’d say the arena played a little factor, but it wasn’t do or die like I’m not coming or anything like that.”

Arizona selected Cooley with the third overall pick in 2022, a pick that was somewhat controversial at the time with top prospect Shane Wright still available. They have to be excited with early returns, though, as Cooley led Minnesota all the way to a national championship loss with 22 goals and 60 points in just 39 games as a freshman. His points total was eclipsed only by fellow freshman and 2023 Hobey Baker Award winner Adam Fantilli, who went to the Columbus Blue Jackets at third overall last month.

Adding Cooley to a top-six forward group that’s already gained Jason Zucker in free agency suddenly gives the rebuilding Coyotes quite a formidable attack at the top of their lineup. Led by Clayton Keller, emerging as a true star after scoring 37 goals and 86 points in 82 games last year, Arizona’s offense is quickly resembling that of a playoff bubble team rather than a basement-dweller. They’re not likely to reach postseason play in 2024 with the state of their defense, but getting their best center prospect under contract is a big step in Arizona’s return to on-ice relevancy.

This certainly isn’t music to the ears of the University of Minnesota, who could unexpectedly lose their best player two months after he committed to rejoin the team. Cooley, along with Toronto Maple Leafs forward Matthew Knies and St. Louis Blues prospect Jimmy Snuggerud, arguably formed the best line in college hockey last season. Only Snuggerud will remain in a Golden Gophers jersey next season.

Signing a three-year entry-level deal would keep Cooley under contract in the desert through 2025-26, after which he’d be a restricted free agent. While unlikely, he is eligible for assignment to the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners this season.

Maple Leafs To Place Matt Murray On LTIR

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced that they will be placing goaltender Matt Murray on the LTIR prior to the start of the 2023-24 season. No details on Murray’s injury were provided in the release, which will surely lead to a lot of speculation in the coming days. With Murray joining Jake Muzzin on LTIR, the Maple Leafs will remain $2.1MM over the salary cap, meaning that they will need to do some cap gymnastics in the coming weeks to try and get under the $83.5MM salary cap by October.

Murray’s first season in Toronto was a difficult one for the former two-time Stanley Cup champion as he battled inconsistency and injuries once again. The Thunder Bay, Ontario native hasn’t been able to steady his game or remain in the net since his time with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Murray was dealt by the Penguins to the Ottawa Senators in October 2020 and quickly signed a four-year extension worth $24MM. The deal was heavily criticized at the time as being too rich and too long for a goaltender that had struggled to stay healthy and consistent.

The Senators were then forced into a cap dump last summer as they traded Murray to the Maple Leafs along with two draft picks for future considerations. Trading for Murray was a good idea in theory from former general manager Kyle Dubas, however, in reality, the deal never worked out for Toronto as Murray was unable to bounce back or stay healthy. Murray dressed in just 26 games going 14-8-2 with a 3.01 goals-against average and a .903 save percentage.

The move will effectively end any talks of a buyout, which is ultimately the best outcome for the player and team. Matt Murray will retain his entire $8MM salary for the upcoming season and the Leafs will be able to use the entire $4.7MM of the cap space that would have been allocated to Murray.

It is quite the fall from grace for a netminder who looked like a budding superstar just six years ago. Murray won back-to-back Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins as a rookie and looked like he was the future of the Penguins when the team moved on from franchise icon Marc-Andre Fleury. However, Murray’s career began to derail a short time later due to multiple injuries and inconsistent play and since then he has been unable to right the ship.

Carolina Hurricanes Sign Sebastian Aho To Eight-Year Extension

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The Carolina Hurricanes have announced an eight-year, $9.75MM AAV contract extension for star center Sebastian Aho.

This is a massively consequential contract extension for the Hurricanes, who secure Aho through the 2031-32 season at a 15% raise from his previous cap hit of $8.46MM. The $78MM total value of the deal makes it the largest contract in Hurricanes franchise history.

According to PuckPedia, the contract carries a full no-move clause and no-trade clause for its first seven years before converting to a 15-team no-trade clause in year eight.

Hurricanes GM Don Waddell issued the following statement regarding the extension:

Sebastian has developed into one of the best two-way centers in hockey. He’s a tremendous leader on and off the ice who sets a great example for our younger players. We’re grateful that he’s decided to stay in Carolina for the foreseeable future.

It didn’t necessarily always look like Aho would be in Carolina for the long term, as his current contract was actually an offer sheet he signed with the Montreal Canadiens that was designed to walk him directly to UFA status.

But the Hurricanes did the widely expected move and matched the hostile offer for Aho, and have now secured him for what is likely to be the prime years of his playing career at a $9.75MM AAV. The deal gives Aho the 17th-highest cap hit in the NHL, tied with Johnny Gaudreau of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

After scoring 36 goals and 67 points last season it might be a stretch to call Aho a top-20 player league-wide.

But before last year, Aho scored at above or near a point-per-game rate every season since 2018-19, while also seeing consistent minutes on a Hurricanes penalty kill that has long ranked among the league’s best. That’s the Aho that could genuinely be called a top-20 player in the NHL.

While Aho might not be the Art Ross Trophy-contending 100+ point dominant offensive center some Hurricanes fans might wish he’d be, he’s still a true first-line center who, excluding last season’s moderately declined production, has played at an elite level for quite some time now.

His impact on both ends of the ice is immense, and the Hurricanes simply do not have anyone on their roster or in their prospect pool who projects as a difference-making number-one center the way Aho does.

This contract certainly isn’t cheap, of course, but it’s also a totally reasonable price to pay for Aho as long as his decline to 67 points last season doesn’t prove a sign of things to come. A similarly-aged center in Mathew Barzal of the New York Islanders net $9.15MM on his own massive contract extension, and Barzal has been significantly less productive than Aho over the course of the last few years and doesn’t offer the same defensive value.

Seeing as Carolina purchased eight UFA years of Aho, they were never going to get a true discount on his contract. But with the cap set to rise over the next few seasons, getting Aho at an AAV below $10MM is hard to complain about.

With Aho now locked up and projected second-line center Jesperi Kotkaniemi under contract through 2029-30, the Hurricanes may feel they’ve secured their first and second-line centers for the rest of the decade.

If Kotkaniemi can build on his 43-point performance from last season and the momentum he had in the second half, he could become a strong second-line center behind Aho. Alongside this contract extension, that would give the Hurricanes a potentially elite two-way first-line center and a decent second-line center at a total cost of $14.57MM against the cap.

As the cap rises, we could very well see a star player or two end up commanding a $14MM AAV before the end of the decade, and it’s with that view of the future that this Aho extension feels most valuable. If Aho can manage to perform up to the standard he’s set over the past few seasons, let alone grow past that standard, he’ll provide genuine surplus value on this $9.75MM AAV.

Seeing as this deal doesn’t commit the Hurricanes to Aho deep into his thirties, the contract contains relatively minimal downside risk, meaning it should be considered a home run signing for the franchise.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Minor Transactions: 07/26/23

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Today’s been quite a busy day for player movement around the world of pro hockey, as numerous teams in the many pro leagues are looking to secure quality players for next season. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable moves made in those minor and foreign leagues.

  • Michael Frolík, the 2006 10th overall pick and a veteran of over 850 NHL games has signed with Rytíři Kladno, his hometown team in the Czech Extraliga. This is the second longtime NHL player who has secured his place in Kladno for next season this week, as captain Tomáš Plekanec re-signed with the club on July 24th. Frolík, now 35, last played in North America on a PTO with the St. Louis Blues, though he ultimately failed to make the team in St. Louis and chose to sign with Lausanne in the Swiss National League. This past season Frolík made the move to his home country in Czechia, and ended up scoring 24 points in 48 games for Bílí Tygři Liberec. Now, he’ll join Plekanec as an expected top player for his hometown team in Kladno.
  • 182-game NHL veteran Michael Chaput, a longtime NHL-AHL tweener, has had his contract terminated with his KHL club, Kazakhstan’s Barys Astana. Chaput wasn’t available for most of 2022-23, meaning he only played in 10 games in the KHL, scoring three goals. It was his first campaign overseas after a long pro career in the NHL and AHL, and as recently as 2021-22 Chaput was a productive AHLer. He scored 33 points in 57 games for the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins that year and could potentially return to the AHL now that he’s a free agent.
  • Yesterday, the defending Calder Cup champion Hershey Bears signed a top-scoring ECHL rookie to a one-year AHL contract. The team signed 25-year-old former Yale University and UConn center Kevin O’Neil, rewarding him with an AHL contract after he scored 50 points in 53 games for their ECHL affiliate, the South Carolina Stingrays. The five-foot-eleven center was never all that productive playing college hockey (he scored 60 points in 130 career games) but ever since making his pro debut he’s been on a roll. He got a ten-game cameo late last season with the Stingrays and scored 10 points, and now has scored at a near point-per-game rate his rookie year while also earning two AHL call-ups. The real test for this fall will be seeing if he can push for a more regular spot in the AHL with Hershey, and now with this contract he’ll have the chance to do just that.
  • The AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms, affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers, signed former UConn and Notre Dame captain Adam Karashik to a one-year AHL contract extension, securing his place with the team for 2023-24. 2022-23 was Karashik’s first full season as a professional hockey player, and although he began in the ECHL by the time he was called up to Lehigh Valley in early January he didn’t look back. Karashik was a regular in the Phantoms’ lineup for both February and March, and ended his season with 23 games played in the AHL. This extension gives Karashik the chance to continue establishing himself as a regular at the AHL level.
  • The Rochester Americans, AHL affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres, have signed ECHL defenseman Brandon Fortunato to a one-year AHL contract. Fortunato, 27, spent last season with the ECHL’s Jacksonville IceMen, scoring 23 points in 48 games. Fortunato in total has played in over 130 ECHL games and has played in 23 AHL games, though the most recent were in 2021-22.
  • 28-year-old winger Jimmy Soper successfully worked his way from the fourth-tier SPHL to the ECHL in 2021-22, going from 22 points in 47 games with the SPHL’s Macon Mayhem to an impressive 43 points in 69 games with the ECHL’s Tulsa Oilers. Although Soper’s time in Tulsa ended last season via a trade to the Rapid City Rush, Soper played well enough to secure his spot in the ECHL for next season. He’s signed a one-year contract extension with the Rush after scoring 19 points in 28 games there, and now based on how productive he’s been in the ECHL over the past two seasons it seems he may have put the SPHL firmly in the past of his career.
  • St. Cloud State defenseman Ondřej Trejbal is turning pro, having finished his four-year career in college hockey. The 24-year-old Czech blueliner will bring some size (six-foot-three) and nearly 130 games of NCAA experience to his first pro destination: Liiga’s SaiPa. The club announced a one-year contract for Trejbal containing a trial period until September 2023 as well as a club option to extend the contract through next season as well. It’ll be a major step up in competition level for Trejbal to go from playing college hockey against his peers to Liiga hockey against seasoned professionals, though it’ll also be a major opportunity for him to start his pro career in an exceptional league. The team also announced that Finnish defenseman Atso Lehtinen, who finished 2022-23 with SaiPa but spent most of the season in second-tier Mestis, would not see his tryout period result in a full-time contract.
  • 22-year-old former Erie Otters star Maxim Golod finished his third season as a full-time pro player on a low note, scoring just one point in his final five games. He couldn’t quite build up momentum with the ECHL’s Indy Fuel the same way he did with the Tulsa Oilers, where he scored 43 points in 42 games, and now he’s made the decision to sign in Sweden’s HockeyAllsvenskan rather than return to the ECHL. He’s signed with the Nybro Vikings and the hope will be for him to be a top offensive player just as he was at times in the OHL and ECHL.
  • 29-year-old former ECHL First-Team All-Star Patrick Watling is transferring from Slovakia to the United Kingdom. The center has signed a one-year deal with the EIHL’s Sheffield Steelers, and according to the team release will pursue an MBA degree at a local university while also playing for the Steelers. Watling hasn’t yet played in the EIHL, and 2022-23 was his first as an overseas pro player, but given the fact that he was relatively productive in Slovakia (30 points in 34 games across two teams) and scored a whopping 77 points in 55 games for the Wheeling Nailers in his most recent AHL season, he’ll be a likely candidate to compete for the scoring lead for the Steelers.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

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