Minor Transactions: 12/18/23

Just five NHL contests are slated to be played tonight, although among that group of games there are a few with very intriguing storylines attached.

The Pittsburgh Penguins host the Minnesota Wild in what could be Marc-André Fleury’s final trip to PPG Paints Arena as an active player, although Fleury is not starting in the game. Matthew Tkachuk returns to Calgary tonight as the Flames host the Florida Panthers in a game that features quite a few former teammates. And out west in Winnipeg, the Montreal Canadiens take on the Jets in a contest that will always have stakes attached due to the hatred still felt in the Montreal market towards Mark Scheifele. Scheifele’s hit on Jake Evans from the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs, one that the NHL’s Department of Player Safety called “predatory,” is still fresh in the memory of many Canadiens fans, something that adds extra heat to the relatively rare matchups between the two clubs.

Just as tonight’s schedule is packed with intriguing storylines, player movement across the world of professional hockey has been packed with activity. As always, we’ll keep track of notable player movement here:

• Former AHL All-Star netminder Kasimir Kaskisuo has been signed to a PTO by the AHL’s Laval Rocket, returning Kaskisuo to the American League after a two-year stint in the SHL. After spending a year as the taxi squad netminder for the Nashville Predators, Kaskisuo left North America to sign with Leksands IF in the SHL. He served as the starter there for 2021-22, posting a .910 save percentage in 46 games. He led Leksands to the SHL’s postseason and played in four Champions Hockey League games, but the following year saw his role as the team’s starter usurped by Lithuanian international Mantas Armalis. Kaskisuo re-enters the AHL at a dire time for the Rocket, who sit 28th in the AHL standings. Laval’s goaltending has been horrific this season, and the team leads the AHL in goals surrendered with 102. The next-worst team has given up 92 goals, and neither of the team’s two goalies (Jakub Dobeš, Strauss Mann) have save percentages above .885. The hope with this signing could be that Kaskisuo, who has a .909 career AHL save percentage, provides some much-needed stability in net for this young Rocket team.
• In more news related to the Montreal Canadiens, prospect defenseman Petteri Nurmi has signed a one-year contract extension with his current club, HPK in the Finnish Liiga. The 21-year-old left-shot blueliner was drafted 194th overall by the Canadiens at the 2022 draft, and has been a regular for HPK for the last three seasons. He’s scored six points in 30 games this year and is HPK’s number-six defenseman, averaging 17:48 time-on-ice per game. The Canadiens hold the exclusive rights to sign Nurmi to an entry-level contract until June 1st, 2024, and this extension may not impact their decision-making on whether to extend him an offer as they could opt to get Nurmi on an ELC and then loan him back to HPK. As a seventh-rounder who has not yet been signed, though, it’s far from a guarantee that Nurmi receives an entry-level offer from the Canadiens, making the rest of this season an important stretch for the young blueliner.
• Just one season removed from winning the Slovak Extraliga title, HC Slovan Bratislava currently sits 11th out of 12 teams in the league standings. Their struggles this season have prompted significant player movement in recent days, as this past week has already seen two defensemen and one forward depart the club. Slovan has made a signing to replace one of those two departed defensemen, inking Swedish international Jonas Ahnelöv to a one-year deal. A 36-year-old former Arizona Coyotes third-round pick, Ahnelöv is a left-shot defenseman with a ton of experience. He represented Sweden at the 2018 Winter Olympics and the 2014 IIHF Men’s World Championships. He’s also a veteran of over 500 games in the SHL, one of Europe’s top leagues, and brings leadership value having captained MoDo Hockey in 2014-15. Ahnelöv spent the last four years at Leksands, leading the club to the postseason on three occasions.
• 23-year-old Finnish-American forward Joonas Oden has signed a one-year contract with Austrian club Pioneers Vorarlberg, a team that competes in the Central European ICEHL. The forward tried his luck at becoming a regular in Liiga and by 2021-22 looked to be successful, as he scored 11 goals and 29 points in 56 games for Ilves Tampere. But after scoring just two points in 14 postseason games for Ilves, Oden struggled the following campaign and eventually moved to SaiPa. He began the year at SaiPa but only scored four points in 14 games. Now he’ll head to the ICEHL, a league that Pioneers has struggled in since joining last season.

This page may be updated throughout the day.