The AHL’s Iowa Wild have inked goaltender Dylan Ferguson to a one-year deal, relays The Hockey News’ Dylan Loucks.
The 26-year-old joins the Wild organization after the Canucks released him from a professional tryout agreement on Sunday. He briefly provided his services in Vancouver’s camp as starter Thatcher Demko remains out with a lingering knee injury, but he became redundant after the Canucks landed free agent Kevin Lankinen on a one-year, $875K deal over the weekend.
Ferguson, a seventh-round pick of the Stars back in 2017, last saw NHL ice with the Senators in the 2022-23 season. He stopped 78 of 83 shots faced in two late-season starts for a .940 SV%, 2.52 GAA, and a 1-1-0 record.
The British Columbia native spent last season with Belarus’ Dinamo Minsk in the Kontinental Hockey League, recording a .904 SV% and 2.51 GAA in 23 games with a 9-9-0 record. The 2021 ECHL Kelly Cup champion with the Fort Wayne Komets now heads to Iowa, where he’ll compete with Minnesota prospect Samuel Hlavaj and Kyle McClellan to serve as veteran Troy Grosenick’s backup. All indications point toward the Wild carrying three goalies on their NHL roster to begin the season, meaning top prospect Jesper Wallstedt won’t be back in Iowa.
Elsewhere in the Central Division:
- Training camp line rushes indicate that Blackhawks defender Kevin Korchinski continues to trend toward starting the season in the AHL, The Athletic’s Mark Lazerus points out. He’s been paired with depth defender Louis Crevier in recent scrimmages and “will have to do something spectacular over the next two weeks to earn an NHL job out of camp,” Lazerus said. It’s far from a new development – reports last month indicated this was the likely scenario for the 2022 seventh-overall pick. He managed just 15 points in 76 games with Chicago last season with a -36 rating, and a lengthy stint with the Rockford IceHogs to begin the season would allow him to once again dominate offensively.
- Blues star Pavel Buchnevich is back on the ice at practice Tuesday, relays Lou Korac of The Hockey News and NHL.com. He’d sat out the past couple days after blocking a shot from Stars defenseman Mathew Dumba in Saturday’s 2-1 exhibition game loss. It’s an important training camp for the natural winger, who projects to start the season at center after signing a six-year, $48MM extension over the summer.
I still question the sanity of having Korchinski starting off playing in Rockford. So if he goes down there he can be a big fish in a little pond. Who gives a flying crap if he can do that? What he really needs is to learn how to evolve in a big pond rather than dominate on a little pond. Makes absolutely zero sense. If they think this will help him get confidence I say it will do the exact opposite and demoting him will make him lose confidence. Babying prospects is not the way to go here. The only good thing is with how old the guys are they brought in hopefully he’ll be up soon because one of those guys will probably get hurt.