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Evening Notes: Couture, Pesce, Kings, Johnsson

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Originally, Sharks captain Logan Couture wasn’t supposed to miss much time due to his lower-body injury.  However, he still has yet to play this season with Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News relaying that the middleman hasn’t just suffered one setback in his recovery but rather two separate ones last month.  GM Mike Grier added that they’re not in a position at this point to say if he’ll be back in a month or two, only that it’s something he’s not able to play through.  San Jose could certainly use Couture’s offensive skills – he’s coming off a 67-point showing last season – but clearly, he won’t be making his season debut anytime soon.

Elsewhere around the NHL:

  • The Hurricanes welcomed back Brett Pesce to the lineup tonight against Florida. He had missed eight straight games due to a lower-body injury, hardly an ideal start to a contract year.  Pesce had been in trade speculation dating back to the summer but that cooled off with the injury.  Tony DeAngelo was a healthy scratch as a result of Pesce’s return.  Carolina never put Pesce on the injured list despite him missing three weeks so no corresponding roster move needs to be made.
  • The near-daily roster shuffling in Los Angeles continues as the Kings announced (Twitter link) that they’ve assigned defenseman Jordan Spence and center Jaret Anderson-Dolan to AHL Ontario. The moves get them out of LTIR for a day, allowing them to bank a tiny amount of cap space which will be useful when Viktor Arvidsson is cleared to return.  Los Angeles is back in action Saturday against Philadelphia and both players will almost certainly be back on the roster at that time.
  • As expected, veteran winger Andreas Johnsson has indeed signed with SHL Skelleftea, per a team release. The 28-year-old signed with Pittsburgh in the summer but cleared waivers in training camp and didn’t report to the minors.  The Penguins granted him his release earlier this week, paving the way for him to sign back home and play with his older brother.  It’s a four-year deal for Johnsson which means his days of playing in North America may very well be over.

Golden Knights Assign Kaedan Korczak To AHL

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With Vegas set to welcome back Zach Whitecloud to their lineup tonight, they needed to create the salary cap and roster room needed to do so.  That move has been made as PuckPedia relays (Twitter link) that blueliner Kaedan Korczak has been assigned to AHL Henderson.

The 22-year-old was sent down at the end of training camp before being recalled following Whitecloud’s LTIR placement.  While he didn’t suit up in every game, he has been relatively productive when he has played, notching a goal and three assists in seven contests while logging a little under 16 minutes a night.  For his NHL career, Korczak has six points in 18 appearances, impressive numbers considering he’s coming off a 14-point showing in 50 games with the Silver Knights last season.

Meanwhile, Whitecloud’s return will be a welcome one.  The 26-year-old was a steady part of their third pairing last season, notching 12 points, 97 hits, and 90 blocks in 59 regular season games while averaging a little over 17 minutes per appearance.  That playing time went up in the playoffs to a little under 19 minutes per contests while he added eight points in 22 games to help Vegas win the Stanley Cup.

With this assignment and Whitecloud’s subsequent activation, Vegas is down to just $85K in LTIR space while Robin Lehner and Daniil Miromanov still on there.  That said, the Golden Knights are still carrying a full 23-man roster so they shouldn’t be facing a situation where they have to play short a player for a game (due to not being able to afford a recall) for a little while at least.

Ottawa Senators Recall Matthew Highmore

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The Ottawa Senators have recalled forward Matthew Highmore from the team’s AHL affiliate, the Belleville Senators. Per the team’s announcement, Highmore will make his Senators debut tonight against the Vancouver Canucks.

He’ll replace forward Zack MacEwen in the team’s lineup, according to Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. MacEwen has been on the Senators’ roster on an emergency recall and has averaged under six minutes of ice time in the Senators’ last two games.

Assuming Highmore is a direct replacement for MacEwen, he’ll draw into head coach D.J. Smith’s fourth line, alongside Roby Järventie and Parker Kelly. Whereas MacEwen brings imposing size and physicality to that role (but not all that much else), Highmore has a bit more offensive touch. The undrafted former QMJHL champion was an AHL All-Star as a rookie and scored a career-high 61 points in 68 games last season for the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds.

The Senators gave Highmore a hefty $400k AHL salary to be a key offensive contributor to Belleville, and so far he has delivered with seven points in nine games. Although he has just 27 points in 139 career NHL games, the addition of Highmore adds some skill to the Senators’ fourth line in place of some physicality.

With Ottawa playing Vancouver rather than the Toronto Maple Leafs (who have enforcer Ryan Reaves on their roster) and the Tampa Bay Lightning (who employ Tanner Jeannot and Austin Watson) it’s understandable that Smith might see himself more in need of offensive energy from his fourth line rather than imposing physicality.

Kraken Recall Shane Wright And Ryan Winterton

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Seattle has added some reinforcements to its roster in advance of their game tomorrow against Colorado.  The team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled forwards Shane Wright and Ryan Winterton from AHL Coachella Valley.

Wright was the fourth overall selection back in 2022 but wasn’t deemed to be ready for full-time action in the NHL.  Since he wasn’t eligible to play in the minors on a full-time basis, Seattle gave him spot duty in the NHL (eight games where he had a goal and an assist) plus a one-time conditioning assignment in the minors until the World Juniors.  After that event, he was sent back to major junior where he had 37 points in 20 games.  Once his Kingston team was eliminated, he became eligible to play in the minors and played in all 24 postseason contests with the Firebirds, notching nine points.

Following training camp, Seattle successfully received a waiver for Wright to play in Coachella Valley this season over returning for what would have been his final season in junior.  He’s off to a nice start in the minors this season, picking up six points in his first seven games, putting him tied for fourth on the team in scoring.

As Wright doesn’t turn 20 until early January, the nine-game threshold for junior-aged players still comes into play.  Wright can play up to nine times for Seattle this season without officially burning the first year of his entry-level contract.  Accordingly, it wouldn’t be surprising if this winds up being a shorter-term recall, one that lets them evaluate where he’s at before returning him to the Firebirds where he’d receive more playing time.  Should he play in ten or more games, the next threshold to watch for would be 40 games on the NHL roster at which point he’d receive a year of service time towards free agent eligibility.

As for Winterton, the 20-year-old was a third-round pick by the Kraken in 2021 and he certainly has outperformed that draft slot.  While injuries limited him to just 34 regular season games with OHL London last year, he was quite impactful during the Knights’ playoff run.  During that time, he picked up 13 goals and 16 assists in 21 games to lead the league in playoff scoring.

Winterton is now in his first professional campaign and is off to a good start as well, collecting three goals and two helpers in his first seven games.  Unlike Wright, the nine-game threshold doesn’t matter for Winterton.

Seattle had two vacant roster spots so no corresponding moves needed to be made to add Wright and Winterton to the active roster.  One of them seems likely to replace Jordan Eberle; Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times reports that the winger suffered a cut from a skate blade to the upper part of his leg in practice today.  He underwent tests to determine the severity of the injury although GM Ron Francis feels the worst-case scenario was avoided.

Florida Panthers Send Jonah Gadjovich To AHL On Conditioning Loan

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The Florida Panthers have announced that forward Jonah Gadjovich has been sent to the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers under the terms of a conditioning loan.

Gadjovich has been on injured reserve for the team while recovering from an upper-body injury, and he was slated to return at some point in November. He’ll now be able to hit the ice for the Checkers, returning to the AHL for the first time since 2020-21.

Gadjovich, 25, has played in 79 career NHL games, almost entirely with the San Jose Sharks. A 2017 second-round pick, the Sharks claimed Gadjovich off of waivers from the Vancouver Canucks, an organization Gadjovich had risen standing with thanks to a 2020-21 campaign where he scored 15 goals in just 19 AHL games.

Gadjovich’s goal-scoring abilities from the OHL (he scored 46 goals in one season for the Owen Sound Attack) and AHL have not translated to the NHL level, where he’s played more as a grinder and occasional fighter. Gadjovich has racked up 148 penalty minutes in his NHL career, and it’s likely that his best chance at carving out a long career at the game’s top level lies in his physicality.

The Panthers lost quite a bit of bite in the offseason when Radko Gudas signed in Anaheim, so the return of Gadjovich to full health could help beef up their NHL lineup. Should Gadjovich land on head coach Paul Maurice’s fourth line in Sunrise, a player such as William Lockwood may shift to the AHL, as he’s currently scoreless through five NHL games but is a relatively established AHL scorer.

Minor Transactions: 11/07/23

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Today’s schedule is absolutely overflowing with hockey, including 10 games in the NHL. Highlights from the game’s highest level include matchups between the New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings as well as the New Jersey Devils and Colorado Avalanche, games that will be nationally televised in the United States. In addition, there is a 2021 Stanley Cup Final rematch on the docket, with head coach Martin St. Louis’ Montreal Canadiens taking on the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Although the schedule outside the NHL is quite a bit lighter today, overseas professional leagues have kept busy adding and subtracting players. As always, we’ll keep track of notable player movement here.

  • Ottawa Senators offseason signing Jiří Smejkal has been linked to a move back overseas, where he would play for IK Oskarshamn of the SHL. The report originates from TSN’s Shawn Simpson, who wrote that Smejkal “didn’t come over to play in the minors.” Smejkal, 27, signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Senators that carries an $82.5k AHL salary. There was some hope that Smejkal could make the NHL roster after scoring 23 goals and 43 points in 49 SHL games last season, but he only registered one point in five preseason games. The hope was that Smejkal’s size and ability to play physical could lend himself to a fourth-line role, but that hasn’t happened as he’s played exclusively at AHL Belleville. If Smejkal doesn’t view there to be a viable path to the NHL with Ottawa then it appears he could very well return to Oskarshamn, where he would not only be better lined up to represent Czecha at the IIHF World Championships, but could also potentially take home more money.
  • Former Edmonton Oilers netminder Mikko Koskinen won’t be extending his time with the Swiss National League’s HC Lugano beyond this season, according to a team announcement. The team has instead decided to bring in former Red Wings prospect Joren Van Pottelberghe on a three-year deal beginning next season. Van Pottelberghe was the starter for NL rival EHC Biel-Beinne from 2020-2022, but he has been relegated to backup duty due to the arrival of Harri Säteri. He’ll get another shot to be a starter with Lugano, while Koskinen will have to continue his career elsewhere. Since arriving in Switzerland from Edmonton, Koskinen has posted an .895 save percentage in 44 games for Lugano.
  • 2009 New York Rangers second-round pick Ethan Werek has signed with Slovakia’s HC Slovan Bratislava, a club in Slovakia’s capital. Werek, 32, split last season between the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star and Czechia’s Mountfield HK. He’s scored decently well in spurts in both the KHL and Czech Extraliga, and could end up a productive forward in the Slovak league. Werek also brings some international experience to Slovan, having represented China at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
  • A bit of a rare occurrence happened in European hockey yesterday, as a team in the Finnish Liiga and the Czech Extraliga made a “trade” of sorts. Liiga’s SaiPa reached a mutual contract termination with Jan Lukáš, while Czechia’s HK Mountfield did the same with netminder Henri Kiviaho. Then, Lukáš signed with Mountfield to replace Kiviaho while Kiviaho did the same at SaiPa. Lukáš, 30, is an experienced netminder who was a quality tandem goalie in the Extraliga last season, but struggled immensely to start the year for SaiPa. He moves to more favorable surroundings in his home country. Kiviaho is, like Lukáš, a veteran goalie with some Champions Hockey League experience. According to Mountfield’s announcement, Kiviaho had been (via his agent) pushing for a greater workload than the club was able to provide, so they’ve opted to transfer him to SaiPa instead.
  • Former NHL depth defenseman Cameron Schilling has agreed to a mutual contract termination with his club of the last two seasons, Djurgårdens IF. The 35-year-old one-time AHL All-Star has a total of 10 NHL games on his resume, though he left North America midway through 2021-22 to sign in Djurgården. The club had an immediate need for reinforcements at the time as they were trending towards relegation, a fate they did eventually suffer. Schilling played a minutes-eating role for the team last season as they fell just short of promotion back to the SHL, and now he won’t be with the team as they look to make the jump this year.
  • Philadelphia Flyers fans might remember Russian forward Roman Lyubimov from the 2016-17 season, when he played in 47 games for the club, registering eight points. Lyubimov returned to the KHL after that season, the league where he would remain a regular forward until now. After a season where he posted just three points in 43 games for Spartak Moscow, Lyubimov has left the KHL and signed in France’s Ligue Magnus, with Grenoble. Grenoble is looking to re-claim the French league title and Champions Hockey League spot from Rouen, so they’ve added a forward with experience in two of the world’s top leagues in order to do so.
  • Former college hockey star Julian Napravnik is rumored to be headed for the DEL via a report from Germany, specifically with the league’s Frankfurt Lions in mind. The 26-year-old German forward was a two-time First-Team Conference All-Star at Minnesota State Mankato, and his 49 points in 40 games helped the team reach the NCAA Men’s Hockey National Championship game. Since that point, Napravnik has struggled to get on he ice and has played in a total of 22 career AHL games, scoring a total of seven points. A move to Germany might be better suited for him, though it may come as a bit of a disappointment that he couldn’t make more of a push towards consideration for an NHL contract.
  • Justin Allen, the former captain of NCAA Division-III Utica College, has been traded from the ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals to the Allen Americans in exchange for future considerations. Allen, 26, signed with the Admirals at the conclusion of his NCAA career and made an instant impact, registering seven assists in 10 games. As the Admirals this season have taken on quite a few NHL prospects, such as 2019 third-round pick Domenick Fensore, he’s been squeezed out of a spot in the ECHL this season, and hasn’t been able to skate in a game yet this season. He’ll get a better chance to do so in Allen, a team in dire need of defensive reinforcements as they currently average over five goals against per game.
  • Canadian netminder Cody Porter has signed with HockeyAllsvenskan’s Västerviks IK, according to a team announcement. The 26-year-old former Calgary Hitmen starter has had a bit of a winding hockey journey. He suited up for five different teams in his first professional season in 2018-19, playing for clubs from everywhere including Huntsville, Alabama and Elmira, New York. He then transferred to Poland, before spending 2021-22 as the backup goalie for IPK in Finland’s Mestis, their second division. Last season, Porter played the highest-level hockey of his career, skating in five total games in Liiga. He’ll get a chance now to compete for starts with Västerviks, a club whose incumbent goalies have each posted unconvincing performances so far this season.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Oilers Recall James Hamblin On Emergency Basis

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When Connor Brown wasn’t able to play on Saturday, the Oilers were forced to play short a player.  In doing so, they created a short-term cap-exempt emergency recall.  The team announced that the recall has been used on James Hamblin who has been promoted from AHL Bakersfield.

The 24-year-old made his NHL debut last season with Edmonton, getting into ten games with the big club.  He was held without a point but recorded a dozen shots on goal while averaging just under nine minutes per game.  He spent most of last season in the minors where he had 10 goals and 18 assists in 52 games with the Condors.  This season, Hamblin is off to a good start with two goals and three helpers in six contests, helping him earn this promotion.

Hamblin is in the final season of a two-year, entry-level contract which carries a cap hit of $807.5K.  The AAV being that low permitted him to be the recall; teams are limited to bringing up a player making no more than $100K above the league minimum salary ($775K this year) when using a cap-exempt promotion.  Once Brown or Mattias Janmark return from their respective injuries, Hamblin will need to be returned to Bakersfield.

Ducks Activate Alex Killorn, Assign Robert Hagg To AHL

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The Ducks are welcoming back a key forward tonight as they announced that they have activated winger Alex Killorn from injured reserve.  To make room for him on the roster, defenseman Robert Hagg was returned to AHL San Diego.

Killorn landed the richest deal for a forward in free agency last summer with Anaheim inking the 34-year-old to a four-year, $25MM agreement.  He was coming off a career year with Tampa Bay, one that saw him record 27 goals and 37 assists in 82 games while adding five points in six playoff contests against Toronto.

While the Ducks aren’t expected to be contending in the short term, GM Pat Verbeek clearly prioritized adding some veterans to what was (and still is) a pretty young roster and was hoping that Killorn would line up in a prominent role to start the season.  Instead, he suffered a fractured finger during the preseason, one that kept him out of the lineup for nearly five weeks.

As for Hagg, he was recalled just yesterday so his time with the big club was certainly short-lived.  He was brought up to serve as an extra defender with Tristan Luneau on a conditioning assignment but as Luneau remains part of Anaheim’s active roster while with San Diego, the Ducks needed Hagg’s roster spot to activate Killorn in advance of tonight’s game against Vegas.  He has played in three games for the Gulls so far this season.

Tampa Bay Lightning Assign Waltteri Merelä To AHL

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have assigned forward Waltteri Merelä to their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch.

Merelä, 25, has played this season entirely in the NHL and has been held scoreless through ten contests with the Lightning. As a waiver-exempt player, sending Merelä to the AHL allows Tampa Bay to activate veteran forward Tyler Motte off of injured reserve without needing to risk losing a player on waivers in order to create the necessary room on the roster.

A signing out of Tappara Tampere of the Finnish Liiga, Merelä has averaged nearly 11 minutes time-on-ice per game including 1:20 short-handed time on ice per game. Although he hasn’t scored yet, Merelä was a solid scorer in Liiga and should be capable of putting some points together at least at the AHL level.

Merelä brings a winning pedigree to Syracuse as a two-time Liiga champion and one-time winner of the Champions Hockey League. If the six-foot-three forward can find a way to translate some of his scoring success in Finland to the AHL ice, he should be able to find his way back to Tampa this season.

For Tampa Bay, this reassignment serves as a potential indication that Motte is ready to return to the lineup. The return of Motte would be a welcome development, as he is a respected fourth-liner who hasn’t had the chance to really make an impact for the Lightning just yet. He has played in just one game this season, the team’s opening game against the Nashville Predators.

Ducks Recall Robert Hagg

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The Ducks have made a roster move in advance of tomorrow’s game against Vegas.  They’ve announced that they have recalled defenseman Robert Hagg from AHL San Diego.

Hagg is in his first season with Anaheim after signing a one-year, $775K one-way deal with them in the first week of free agency.  However, despite a decent showing in the preseason where he had a goal and an assist in just two appearances, the Ducks waived him late in training camp.  He cleared and was assigned to the Gulls where he has played in three games, recording a single assist.  It’s his first AHL action since back in the 2016-17 campaign when he was with Philadelphia,

The 28-year-old battled injuries last season, resulting in him getting into just 38 games with Detroit where he had seven points and 111 hits.  For his career, Hagg has 16 goals, 47 assists, and 985 hits in 338 contests over parts of seven seasons.

On the surface, it appears that this is merely a depth-related promotion.  Anaheim recently loaned Tristan Luneau to San Diego on a conditioning stint, leaving them with just six healthy blueliners on their roster.  Luneau’s stint can last for up to two weeks so it appears that Hagg will serve as injury insurance in the youngster’s absence.

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