The Charlotte Checkers, AHL affiliates of the Florida Panthers, have signed forward Robert Mastrosimone to a one-year AHL contract extension. As is custom for AHL contracts, the financial terms of the deal were not made public. A 2019 second-round pick of the Detroit Red Wings, Mastrosimone played four seasons of college hockey (three as a Boston University Terrier, one as an Arizona State Sun Devil) before turning pro in 2023-24. A point-per-game scorer at ASU, Mastrosimone struggled through the first two years of his pro career with the Toronto Marlies, putting up just 29 points in 95 games.
The Marlies didn’t re-sign Mastrosimone for a third year, and instead he signed a one-year deal in Charlotte. In October, it looked as though Mastrosimone had lost his spot in the AHL, as he was sent down to the ECHL after the Checkers signed veteran Tyler Motte to a PTO. By early December, Mastrosimone had worked his way back into the AHL by scoring nine goals and 15 points in 13 ECHL games. That stint in the third tier seemed to make a major difference for Mastrosimone, as he took his AHL performance to a new level after being recalled. He finished the 2025-26 season with 13 goals and 32 points in 49 games for the Checkers, and could be on the way to establishing himself as a full-time AHL middle-six scorer. With today’s extension news, he’ll get to continue on that path with the Checkers.
Other notes from around the hockey world:
- USA Hockey announced today that former NHLer Kevin Porter has been hired as a head coach for the U.S. National Team Development Program. Per Sean Shapiro of Elite Prospects, Porter will coach the NTDP’s U18 team. Porter spent last season as an assistant coach for the U18’s, and also coached the United States to a gold medal at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, their first win at the tournament since 2003. Before coaching at the NTDP, Porter was an assistant coach with the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins from 2020-21 through 2023-24. As a player, Porter had a 249-game NHL career and also served as a captain in the AHL with the Rochester Americans.
- As a result of the Vegas Golden Knights’ victory over the Anaheim Ducks last night, a win that propelled them to the Western Conference Finals, the 2027 third-round pick Vegas surrendered to the Nashville Predators will officially upgrade to a 2027 second-round pick. The Golden Knights sent what was originally a conditional third-round pick to Nashville as part of last summer’s Nicolas Hague/Jeremy Lauzon trade. The development gives the Predators another second-round pick to work with in next year’s draft, and means that, barring any further trades, the club will go three consecutive years with two second-round picks in the draft. The club acquired a 2026 second-rounder from the Minnesota Wild in last year’s Gustav Nyquist trade, and a 2028 second-rounder from the Wild in this past season’s Michael McCarron deal.