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Seattle Kraken Waive Jesper Frödén

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May 17: Frödén has cleared waivers, per CapFriendly, and will join the Firebirds as they attempt to close out their Division Final series tonight against the Calgary Wranglers.

May 16: After their storybook second season came to a close last night, the Seattle Kraken have placed forward Jesper Frödén on waivers, according to CapFriendly. If he clears tomorrow, the move will allow him to join their AHL affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, as they look to advance to the Western Conference Final of this year’s Calder Cup Playoffs.

Frödén will almost undoubtedly clear, given he’ll be an unrestricted free agent on July 1. The 28-year-old Swedish forward suited up for Game 4 of the team’s first-round series against the Colorado Avalanche, playing just over four minutes.

An undrafted free agent, Frödén had signed with the Kraken this season after a strong first professional campaign in the Boston Bruins organization last year. He built on that initial success, registering over a point per game with Coachella Valley and earning a 14-game NHL stint with the Kraken in the regular season, posting four assists.

With Seattle’s deep forward corps on full display in the postseason, it seems unlikely Frödén would opt for a return in 2023-24. His minor-league production and decent (but limited) NHL looks suggest he may be capable of handling a bottom-six role on a more full-time basis, a chance he likely won’t get in Seattle. Look for Frödén to find a home in free agency where more opportunity exists for him to move up on the depth chart.

Pacific Notes: Draisaitl, Kannok Leipert, Ekman-Larsson, Ranford

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Edmonton Oilers star Leon Draisaitl’s season may not be over just yet. After getting eliminated in the second round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs by the Vegas Golden Knights, Draisaitl told reporters today, including Sportsnet’s Mark Spector, that he may join Team Germany at the ongoing Men’s World Championship.

If he does go, it would be his sixth appearance for Germany at the tournament, his first since 2019. The 27-year-old, coming off a career-high 128 points in 2022-23, would immediately become the best player at the tournament. Germany’s gotten off to an unlucky start during the tournament, facing stiff competition in their first three games (Sweden, USA, Finland) and losing all of them, in regulation, by one goal. Having recorded 17 points in 15 games over his last two Worlds tournaments, he’d greatly improve Germany’s attack against weaker Group A opponents down the stretch and have them rolling into the playoff stage.

  • The AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks have signed defender Alex Kannok Leipert to a one-year contract extension, as announced today. The 22-year-old defender has attended development camp with Vancouver while in Abbotsford on an AHL contract, and he’ll continue to work within the organization in hopes of earning an NHL deal. Since wrapping up his junior career with the WHL’s Vancouver Giants in 2020-21, Kannok Leipert has a goal and eight assists in 85 career AHL games, along with a +19 rating.
  • Staying in the Canucks organization, Vancouver activated defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson from injured reserve today, per CapFriendly. Ekman-Larsson, 31, missed the last 27 games of the regular season with an ankle injury. With four years remaining on his contract carrying a $7.26MM cap hit, Ekman-Larsson recorded just two goals and 22 points in 54 games, matched with a -24 rating.
  • One of the Los Angeles Kings’ longest-tenured members earned a promotion today, with the team naming Bill Ranford their director of goaltending after 17 seasons as a goalie coach. Under Ranford’s tutelage, the Kings showcased potential Hall of Famer Jonathan Quick in the crease en route to two Stanley Cups in 2012 and 2014. The added responsibilities mean Ranford will not only oversee the coaching of goalies at the NHL level but he’ll also be involved in the development and scouting of goalies at all levels inside the organization.

New Jersey Devils Extend Timur Ibragimov On AHL Contract

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New Jersey Devils prospect Timur Ibragimov will be staying in the organization next season on an AHL contract. The Utica Comets announced today they’ve reached a one-year agreement with Ibragimov, who New Jersey acquired from the San Jose Sharks in the Timo Meier trade.

San Jose had selected Ibragimov, 22, in the sixth round of the 2019 NHL Draft. The Russian winger has split the last two seasons between the AHL and ECHL, trying to acclimate his offensive game to North American ice.

Some extended ECHL time with the Wichita Thunder seemed to help Ibragimov this season, recording 32 points in 53 games there. While they aren’t earth-shattering numbers by any means, and likely why he didn’t earn an NHL contract with the Devils this offseason, he did have six points in 15 games with the Comets after the trade from San Jose.

Ibragimov also has two years of professional experience overseas under his belt, with the Russian minor league VHL in 2019-20 and a 51-game loan to TPS in the Finnish Liiga in 2020-21. With TPS, he recorded 14 points in 51 games, eventually losing in the league final.

He boasts decent size at six feet and 201 pounds, but he’ll need to maintain the scoring pace he displayed near the end of the season in Utica to avoid another ECHL demotion, especially as he’s not signed to an NHL contract.

Joseph Woll Returned To AHL

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The Toronto Marlies and Rochester Americans will resume the AHL’s North Division Finals on Wednesday evening, with the former receiving quite the reinforcement. Joseph Woll, fresh off taking over the Toronto Maple Leafs net in their second-round series, has been returned to the AHL.

Woll, 24, has been tremendous for the Marlies this season, posting a 16-4-1 record and .927 save percentage. He carried over that strong play to the NHL, where he went 6-1 in the regular season and registered a .915 in four playoff appearances.

The young netminder appears to be on track for a full-time NHL job next season, though nothing about the Maple Leafs looks set in stone at this point. If he does land a spot, it will provide the team with a significant salary cap advantage.

Woll signed a three-year extension in February 2022 that keeps him under contract through 2024-25 at a very affordable $767K cap hit. With uncertainty surrounding the future of Matt Murray, and Ilya Samsonov headed for restricted free agency, Woll could be the answer to some of Toronto’s long-standing goaltending issues.

The team has had trouble developing its own netminding prospects but showed great patience with the 62nd overall pick from 2016. Woll went to college for three years, suffered several injuries early in his pro career, and has generally progressed slowly (as goaltenders sometimes do).

For now, he’ll try to help the Marlies turn around the best-of-five series and stave off elimination, before entering a crucial offseason of training ahead of his big NHL opportunity.

Washington Capitals Sign Aaron Ness To AHL Extension

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The AHL affiliate of the Washington Capitals, the Hershey Bears, announced today that they have signed defenseman Aaron Ness to a two-year contract extension. Ness returned to the Bears for the 2022-23 season, spending the previous three years split between the Tuscon Roadrunners and Providence Bruins.

Drafted back in the 2008 NHL Draft by the New York Islanders, Ness has almost exclusively been an AHL player throughout his career. Throughout at least seven years he saw action in the NHL, Ness spent time with the Islanders, Capitals, and Arizona Coyotes. In 72 games played, Ness has one goal and six assists.

Throughout his AHL career, Ness has racked up 660 games, scoring 53 goals and 245 assists, becoming one of the most stable defensemen of the last decade. The most impressive season of his AHL career was back during his first stint with the Bears in 2019 when he scored five goals and 50 assists in 71 games played.

Although it is unlikely that Ness sees any NHL action under this contract, he will at least provide consistent play for one of the better teams in the AHL. In this year’s Calder Cup playoffs, the Bears find themselves up in their Division Final series against the Hartford Wolf Pack after one game.

 

New York Islanders Sign Christian Krygier, Jacob Pivonka To AHL Deals

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The AHL’s Bridgeport Islanders have signed a duo of New York Islanders drafted prospects, defenseman Christian Krygier and forward Jacob Pivonka, to AHL contracts for the 2023-24 season. The team also signed undrafted free agent forward Riley Piercey out of juniors from the OHL’s Flint Firebirds.

After finishing their collegiate careers, Krygier’s and Pivonka’s NHL signing rights are set to expire on August 15. While the AHL signings imply the Islanders won’t be offering them entry-level contracts before then, the deals allow the Islanders to keep them within the organization and continue to evaluate them. After August 15, however, Krygier and Pivonka would still be free to sign NHL contracts with any team at any time.

The Islanders selected Krygier in the seventh round of the 2018 NHL Draft. The 23-year-old defenseman played his fifth and final season for Michigan State University in 2022-23, recording a goal and three assists in 28 games whilst serving as an alternate captain. The son of former NHLer Todd Krygier and the brother of Los Angeles Kings prospect Cole Krygier, he is a physical defenseman first and foremost, recording 228 penalty minutes during his 158 games at Michigan State. He appeared in two games with Bridgeport on a tryout after the conclusion of his collegiate season, posting a -1 rating and one shot on goal.

Pivonka, also 23, was selected three rounds earlier in 2018. The 5-foot-11 center transferred from Notre Dame to the University of Nebraska-Omaha for his final collegiate season, hitting double-digit goals for the first time in the NCAA. Known mostly for his speed and puckhandling abilities, Pivonka went pointless in four games with Bridgeport on his tryout to end the 2022-23 season.

Piercey, who will also try and earn an entry-level deal with the Islanders, plays a power forward type game. The 21-year-old winger stands at 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds and put up 70 points and 65 penalty minutes in 67 games with the Firebirds this season. After back-to-back 20-goal campaigns in junior hockey, Piercey will try and make an impact in Bridgeport’s bottom-six and impress the Islanders’ front office.

Minor Transactions: 05/11/23

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As the NHL season has drawn to a close for most of the league, free agency periods for other leagues are entering their frenzy. Many North American minor leagues and European pro leagues are making significant transactions, and as always, we provide a daily running list of the most notable ones from around the men’s hockey world.

  • Vancouver Canucks 2017 draft pick Petrus Palmu has signed a two-year agreement to return to TPS in the Finnish Liiga after an extremely disappointing SHL campaign in 2022-23. Palmu’s high-end European scoring production made him an appealing prospect early on in his development, but he was never able to make a dent professionally in North America after playing junior hockey with the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack. Returning to Finland after his draft year, Palmu only ever played 12 games in the Canucks system with the AHL’s Utica Comets in 2018-19, recording just one assist. Now, he’ll head back home to the Liiga, where he scored at a point-per-game pace with Jukurit in 2021-22. He split the 2022-23 season between two SHL clubs, Örebro HK and Linköping HC, but scored just one goal and nine points in 41 games.
  • AHL mainstay Garrett Wilson is staying with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms for the next two seasons after signing a contract extension today. Wilson, 32, does have 84 NHL games under his belt with the Florida Panthers and Pittsburgh Penguins. He’s been exclusively in the minors since 2019-20, however, and this will be Wilson’s fourth and fifth seasons with the Phantoms. Last season, he scored 43 points in 68 games and led the AHL in penalty minutes (195).

This page will be updated throughout the day.

Gustav Rydahl Returns To SHL

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His North American hockey career is over as quickly as it began, as Gustav Rydahl has officially signed a new contract in the SHL. Reports emerged in March that the 28-year-old would be inking a multi-year deal with Frolunda, and today the club announced a five-year contract.

That effectively ends any chance of him playing in the NHL, after failing to make it with the New York Rangers and Colorado Avalanche this season. Rydahl signed a one-year, $750K deal last summer to join the Rangers after developing into one of the SHL’s most well-rounded power forwards, but would see only minor league action before being shipped to Colorado at the deadline.

After 52 unspectacular AHL contests, he’ll return to Sweden to continue his strong international career. Rydahl was part of his country’s 2022 Olympic squad, and is a significant addition for Frolunda through 2028.

Given his age, Rydahl was headed to unrestricted free agency, meaning there will be no qualifying offer or rights retained by the Avalanche.

Leon Gawanke Signs Long-Term Deal In Germany

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Winnipeg Jets prospect Leon Gawanke signed a four-year contract with Adler Mannheim in the German DEL, The Athletic’s Murat Ates reported on Wednesday. The deal comes after the 23-year-old defender spent the past four seasons playing in the AHL for the Manitoba Moose.

Gawanke was selected by the Jets in the fifth round, 136th overall, of the 2017 NHL Draft. He played some junior hockey in Germany before moving to North America to play for the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in the QMJHL in his draft year, 2016-17. Gawanke would then put up impressive numbers in juniors, tallying 57 points (17 goals, 40 assists) in 62 games in his final season with Cape Breton in 2018-19.

Since turning pro, Gawanke has played exclusively with the Moose, aside from a six-game loan to the DEL’s Eisbären Berlin in the COVID-affected 2020-21 season. He has shown flashes of his offensive potential in the AHL, recording 114 points (35 goals, 79 assists) across 207 games. However, his defensive game is still a work in progress, and he hasn’t received any NHL looks throughout his time in Manitoba.

Gawanke was a non-factor in five playoff games for the Moose this season, posting just one assist and a -5 rating. As a pending restricted free agent, the Jets now have the choice to issue Gawanke a qualifying offer to retain his NHL rights when his German contract expires in 2027. He’ll have just turned 28, making an NHL role seemingly unlikely.

Adler Mannheim is one of the most successful teams in the DEL, having won seven championships since the team’s inception in 1994, most recently in 2019. The club hopes that Gawanke can help them add to that total in the coming seasons as part of a defensive corps that includes multiple former NHLers in John Gilmour, Korbinian Holzer, and Jyrki Jokipakka.

Gawanke’s departure also means more opportunity for other Jets defense prospects at the AHL level, such as Tyler Bauer, Declan Chisholm, and Simon Lundmark.

St. Louis Blues Sign Mathias Laferriere

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Instead of becoming a restricted free agent at the end of this season, the St.Louis Blues have announced they have signed forward Mathias Laferriere to a one-year, two-way contract. Playing out the final year of a 3-year, $2.48MM contract signed in 2019, Laferriere has become a solid AHL contributor in the Blues organization.

Drafted 169th overall in the 2018 NHL Draft, Laferriere was coming off a decent scoring season for the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles of the QMJHL. In his draft year, Laferriere scored 12 goals and 29 assists in 67 games played. After being drafted, Laferriere put together a higher-scoring year in the following season, scoring 28 goals and 46 assists in 68 games played. Laferriere also helped Cape Breton in the playoffs, scoring three goals and seven assists in 11 games, losing to Rimouski Oceanic in the second round.

Laferriere would not join the Blues organization until the 2021-22 season when he suited up in 56 games for the Springfield Thunderbirds, where he would only score three goals and six assists. Whether it was perceived expectations put on himself, or just the general nerves of transitioning to professional hockey, it was quite clear that Laferriere did not look comfortable in his first season in the AHL.

Following last year’s slow start, Laferriere put together a much better season this year, scoring nine goals and 17 assists in 50 games. In his first taste of the Calder Cup playoffs, Laferriere did manage to play in Springfield’s two playoff games, scoring zero points and producing a rating of -5. In that series, Springfield was fundamentally handled by the Hartford Wolf Pack, getting outscored 13-2 in the series sweep.

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