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AHL Notes: Konowalchuk, Zloty, Wylie, Polei

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Filling out the rest of their bench before the start of the 2023-24 AHL season, the Colorado Eagles have hired Steve Konowalchuk as an associate coach (Tweet Link). This will be Konowalchuk’s third stint within the Colorado Avalanche organization, both as a player and as a coach.

In his playing career, Konowalchuk was originally drafted in the third round of the 1991 NHL Draft. Never an elite point-scorer by any stretch of the imagination, Konowalchuk was a quality defensive player for the Washington Capitals for a little over a decade, assisting in the team’s run to the Stanley Cup Final in 1998. Right before the 2002-03 campaign, Konowalchuk was named the tenth captain in Capitals history and would hold that role for two seasons, after a draft day trade sent him to the Avalanche in 2004. Playing in 14 seasons in the NHL, Konowalchuk had his career unfortunately cut short by a Long QT Syndrome diagnosis in 2006.

Taking a few seasons away from the game, Konowalchuk finally returned to the NHL, serving as an assistant coach in Colorado under head coach Joe Sacco from 2009-2011. Konowalchuk then headed Northwest, signing on with the Seattle Thunderbirds of the WHL as a head coach, a position he would hold until the 2017-18 season. He had a brief stay with the Anaheim Ducks, serving as an assistant coach with the team for one season, before then settling in with the New York Rangers for three years as a scout. Finally, Konowalchuk oversaw the head coaching operation with the Red Deer Rebels of the WHL as his last stop before joining the Eagles.

Other notes:

  • The Texas Stars have announced the signing of defenseman Ben Zloty to a one-year contract for the 2023-24 AHL season. An undrafted player out of the WHL, Zloty spent the last four years with the Winnipeg Ice, serving as an assistant captain in his final season with the team. In a total of 207 games spent with a single organization, Zloty scored 26 goals and 163 assists for the Ice and also scored three goals and 37 assists in 34 playoff games in his final two years in Winnipeg.
  • A former fifth-round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers, defenseman Wyatte Wylie has reached a one-year AHL agreement with the Ontario Reign. Appearing as a solid prospect after his last season with the Everett Silvertips of the WHL, Wylie hasn’t been able to transfer his puck-moving ability to the AHL up to this point. In 131 games played, all for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, Wylie has scored nine goals and 26 assists in total. Although not much came of it in the long run, Wylie was finally able to appear in a Calder Cup playoff race for the first time in three seasons, going scoreless in three games.
  • Now a seasoned veteran of the AHL, forward Evan Polei has agreed to a one-year contract with the Phantoms for next season. This will be the fifth team Polei has played on in the last six seasons, having also spent time with the Bakersfield Condors, San Antonio Rampage, Cleveland Monsters, and Manitoba Moose. The most successful stretch of play came during his time in Manitoba, scoring back-to-back 20-point seasons. Polei will serve as an experienced veteran in the bottom six of the Phantom’s lineup, showing off the ability to chip in timely goals.

Minor Transactions: 08/01/23

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As the calendar turns to August, more and more clubs across the hockey world are putting the finishing touches on the roster they’ll bring into their training camps for next season. Most major European pro leagues begin in early to mid-September, including Liiga, the DEL, the Swiss NL, and the SHL. Liiga preseason actually begins on Friday, meaning we’re quickly reaching the point when the 2023-24 season truly begins overseas. As always, we’ll keep track of notable player movement in minor and foreign leagues here.

  • 27-year-old defenseman Bobby Nardella has found success pretty much everywhere he’s played over the last decade, from being a star USHLer to a second-team All-American at Notre Dame to now a Calder Cup Champion in the AHL in just his fourth season of pro hockey. But despite his strong play in the AHL regular season with the Hershey Bears, the undersized left-shot blueliner hasn’t yet earned his first NHL game, and now he’s guaranteed that he won’t receive that chance at least until 2024-25. Nardella signed a one-year contract with HV71 in the SHL. Nardella heads to Jönköping with 47 games of SHL experience already under his belt, as he played there on loan during the COVID-19-impacted 2020-21 campaign. He led Djurgårdens IF in scoring with 33 points in 47 games and will likely be a key player next year for HV71.
  • Like Nardella, Sami Lepistö played a key role as a defenseman during a Hershey Bears Calder Cup championship, scoring 42 points in 70 games during the team’s championship season in 2008-09. Unlike Nardella, Lepistö played in 14 career NHL games by the end of that season and the following season he broke into the NHL full-time with the Coyotes. Lepistö would ultimately play in 176 NHL games before embarking on a long and extremely successful career in Europe that would see him win two Olympic medals and be named to three consecutive KHL All-Star games. Today, Lepistö, 38, announced his retirement due to medical considerations, ending his storied career that saw him last play for the SCL Tigers in the Swiss NL, where he helped the club avoid relegation.
  • A stunning goal from 32-year-old defenseman Miks Indrašis sent the home crowd in Riga into a frenzy earlier this summer, lifting Latvia to an upset victory over heavily-favored Sweden in the quarterfinals of the IIHF Men’s World Championships, one of the biggest wins in the history of Latvian hockey. Now, Indrašis is headed to the country he upset to continue his pro career. He’s signed a one-year contract with Brynäs IF in HockeyAllsvenskan, the second tier of Swedish hockey. Indrašis is a lanky six-foot-four blueliner who scored 29 points in 53 games for the DEL’s Schwenningen Wild Wings and is likely to play a regular role for Brynäs during what will be his first campaign playing in Scandinavia.
  • 2007 Nashville Predators second-round pick and former ECHL Kelly Cup Playoffs MVP Jeremy Smith has signed a three-year contract extension to remain with the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star through his age-36 season.  The American netminder has played for Kunlun since 2019-20 and is the franchise’s all-time leader in wins and saves. Smith represented China at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and is coming off of a strong bounce-back season as Kunlun’s number-one goalie, posting an impressive .914 save percentage despite a grisly 10-24-2 overall record.
  • Veteran DEL defenseman Jonas Müller, a regular representative of Germany in IIHF play, has signed an early four-year contract extension to remain with his club Eisbären Berlin. Although Berlin endured a difficult 2022-23 season, Müller ended his campaign on a highly positive note as he played a role in Germany taking home a silver medal at the 2023 IIHF Men’s World Championships. Müller also has a silver medal from the 2018 Winter Olympics and despite being just 27 years old already has over 400 DEL games on his resume and two league championships. Müller averaged the most nightly minutes of any Berlin player and this contract ensures he’ll be the team’s defensive centerpiece moving forward.
  • Former Montreal Canadiens prospect Martin Réway finished his 2022-23 campaign on a high note, scoring 12 points in 13 playoff games for Slovakia’s HK Spisska Nova Ves. Per a social media announcement from the club, Réway has signed a contract for next season with HK 32 Liptovský Mikuláš. Réway, 28, was a 2013 fourth-round pick who starred in the QMJHL but only managed five games playing in the AHL for the Canadiens’ affiliate. Réway’s last few years have been among the most productive in his career and this signing with Liptovský Mikuláš will potentially help the club avoid relegation to the second tier of Slovak hockey.

This page may be updated throughout the day.

Dmitri Samorukov Signs AHL Contract In Penguins Organization

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The AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins have signed former Edmonton Oilers and St. Louis Blues defenseman Dmitri Samorukov to a contract for the 2023-24 season, per a team announcement today. The move does make him a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins organization on contract with their AHL affiliate. However, without an NHL contract, any NHL team can still place offers for (and sign) Samorukov.

A 2017 third-round selection of the Oilers, Samorukov was once viewed as one of their organization’s more intriguing defensive prospects. After a 2021-22 season in which he only appeared in one NHL contest for the Oilers, however, they dealt him to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for young forward Klim Kostin, a swap of young prospects who both needed fresh starts on new teams.

While Kostin panned out into a solid depth forward for Edmonton last year, the same can’t be said for Samorukov, who spent most of the season in the minors again. St. Louis only iced the 24-year-old in two games, in which he was held off the scoresheet and averaged 14:53 of ice time. He did, however, post a career-high four goals and 20 points in 69 games with the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds, with whom he played a top-four role.

Samorukov is only the second defender Wilkes-Barre/Scranton has under AHL contract. However, he’ll now need to compete with a bevy of Penguins prospects who will be given priority for ice time and development purposes. While he should still be an everyday player at the AHL level, he likely won’t receive as much opportunity as he did last season in Springfield while under contract with the Blues.

Minor Transactions: 07/27/23

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Today has been an active day for player movement across the world of professional hockey, as numerous teams in the many pro leagues of North America and Europe are looking to secure quality players for next season. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable moves made in those minor and foreign leagues.

  • 26-year-old defenseman Gabriel Carlsson won the AHL’s Calder Cup in dramatic fashion last month, helping the Hershey Bears to victory in overtime of Game Seven of the league’s final series. Now, he’s likely headed back to his home country of Sweden to play in the SHL for the first time since 2017. Carlsson, a 2015 first-round pick, has reportedly signed a “long-term” contract with the Växjö Lakers, according to Hans Abrahamsson and Tomas Rose of Sportbladet, a Swedish news outlet. If this signing ends up finalized, it will move Carlsson from one defending champion to another. It would also mean that Växjö and the Washington Capitals organization have essentially made a trade, swapping Carlsson for Hardy Häman Aktell, Växjö’s top blueliner from last season who left to sign with the Capitals in April. Carlsson played in six games for the Capitals last season, averaging 13:46 TOI per night, and scored 15 points in 59 games as a top-four regular for the Bears.
  • The AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms have re-signed 22-year-old second-year netminder Nolan Maier to a one-year AHL contract. Maier is an undrafted Canadian goalie who made his professional debut last season, appearing in 24 games for the Philadelphia Flyers’ ECHL affiliate, the Reading Royals, and 10 games in the AHL for Lehigh Valley across the regular season and playoffs. Maier posted a 12-8-3 record, 2.89 goals-against-average, and .892 save percentage for the Royals and a 5-2-2-/.2.85/.885 mark in Lehigh Valley. As Cal Petersen and Felix Sanadstrom are likely to take up the vast majority of available AHL starts Maier, the WHL’s all-time leader in wins, is likely to start the year once again in the ECHL.
  • The AHL’s Ontario Reign re-signed two depth players, Nikita Pavlychev and Tyler Inamoto to one-year AHL contracts. Each player spent most of the season with the ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits, and Pavlychev was one of the team’s best scorers on a points-per-game basis. He potted 25 goals and 45 points in 36 games, his third season on the AHL/ECHL bubble since leaving Pennsylvania State University. For Inamoto, 2022-23 was his first campaign as a professional and the six-foot-two left-shot blueliner played in 36 ECHL games and earned seven games in the AHL.
  • Former Moncton Wildcats top scorer and ECHL All-Star Jeremy McKenna re-signed with the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds for the 2023-24 season, where he will likely resume his role as a premium ECHL scorer and first-choice AHL call-up option. The 24-year-old Alberta native has been an exceptional ECHL player since turning pro in 2020-21, and he has 100 points in 99 career games there. In the AHL, McKenna has struggled (just 26 points in 71 career AHL games) though he has had some moments of success. His recent run in the playoffs with the Firebirds included the most consistent production he’s ever provided in the AHL, and his 12 points in 18 games there should give the Firebirds confidence that he could even compete for a more permanent AHL role in training camp in a few months.
  • After a year where he posted the third-highest save percentage in the WHL as the number-two goalie for the Lethbridge Hurricanes, Bryan Thomson has earned a contract with an AHL club to begin his pro career. The 21-year-old has signed a two-year AHL contract with the Texas Stars, and will likely end up starting his pro career in the ECHL with the Stars’ affiliate, the Idaho Steelheads. Texas already has Remi Poirier and Matthew Murray set as their tandem for next season, so Thompson will likely factor in at the ECHL level with the hope of sneaking into some AHL starts if he performs well there.
  • ECHL All-Star Collin Adams has left the New York Islanders’ farm system to sign with the ECHL’s Kalamazoo Wings. The 25-year-old 2016 Islanders draft pick spent most of his rookie pro season in the AHL with the Bridgeport Islanders, but only managed 11 points in 45 games. This past season, Adams spent more time in the ECHL with the Worcester Railers and his numbers began to look more like they were in his final two seasons playing college hockey at the University of North Dakota. Adams posted 32 points in 30 games for the Railers and could end up a top scorer for the Wings playing on this newly-signed contract.
  • 2018-19 Hobey Baker Award finalist Patrick Newell has returned to North America, signing an ECHL contract with the Orlando Solar Bears. The 27-year-old was a coveted college prospect at the end of his career at St. Cloud State and signed an entry-level deal with the New York Rangers. He failed to make a real dent in the American League with the Hartford Wolf Pack, just 27 points in 87 games. Newell left to play in Norway at the conclusion of his contract with the Rangers organization and scored 51 points in 42 games there. He split last season between clubs in Hungary and Sweden’s second division and has now decided to try his hand in the ECHL for the first time in his career.
  • Avery Winslow, an alternate captain for the OHL’s North Bay Battalion for the last two seasons, is beginning his professional career with the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers. The soon-to-be 21-year-old left-shot blueliner signed a one-year ECHL contract with the Nailers, heading to West Virginia having concluded his OHL career. He led the Battalion to within one win of the OHL’s championship series earlier this year and scored a combined 19 points in 60 regular season and playoff games in 2022-23 in North Bay.
  • One of the ECHL’s more improved players last season was former Merrimack College captain Tyler Drevitch, who improved his production for the Wheeling Nailers from nine points in 45 games to 18 goals and 33 points in 72 games. That improvement earned him a contract with the ECHL’s Savannah Ghost Pirates, who are likely interested in his combination of bruising physicality (he totaled 179 penalty minutes in 2022-23) and goal-scoring touch. He joins his little brother Logan Drevitch, 25, his teammate from Merrimack who scored 37 points in 69 games for Savannah as an ECHL rookie last season and signed an extension with the Ghost Pirates on Monday.
  • Victor Hadfield, the 22-year-old grandson of New York Rangers legend Vic Hadfield, re-signed with the ECHL’s Jacksonville Icemen today. This extension makes 2023-24 Hadfield’s third campaign in Duval County, the place he landed in March 2022 after he was traded from the South Carolina Stingrays. Hadfield is a left winger just like his famous grandfather and scored seven goals and 14 points in 44 games last season.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 07/26/23

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Today’s been quite a busy day for player movement around the world of pro hockey, as numerous teams in the many pro leagues are looking to secure quality players for next season. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable moves made in those minor and foreign leagues.

  • Michael Frolík, the 2006 10th overall pick and a veteran of over 850 NHL games has signed with Rytíři Kladno, his hometown team in the Czech Extraliga. This is the second longtime NHL player who has secured his place in Kladno for next season this week, as captain Tomáš Plekanec re-signed with the club on July 24th. Frolík, now 35, last played in North America on a PTO with the St. Louis Blues, though he ultimately failed to make the team in St. Louis and chose to sign with Lausanne in the Swiss National League. This past season Frolík made the move to his home country in Czechia, and ended up scoring 24 points in 48 games for Bílí Tygři Liberec. Now, he’ll join Plekanec as an expected top player for his hometown team in Kladno.
  • 182-game NHL veteran Michael Chaput, a longtime NHL-AHL tweener, has had his contract terminated with his KHL club, Kazakhstan’s Barys Astana. Chaput wasn’t available for most of 2022-23, meaning he only played in 10 games in the KHL, scoring three goals. It was his first campaign overseas after a long pro career in the NHL and AHL, and as recently as 2021-22 Chaput was a productive AHLer. He scored 33 points in 57 games for the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins that year and could potentially return to the AHL now that he’s a free agent.
  • Yesterday, the defending Calder Cup champion Hershey Bears signed a top-scoring ECHL rookie to a one-year AHL contract. The team signed 25-year-old former Yale University and UConn center Kevin O’Neil, rewarding him with an AHL contract after he scored 50 points in 53 games for their ECHL affiliate, the South Carolina Stingrays. The five-foot-eleven center was never all that productive playing college hockey (he scored 60 points in 130 career games) but ever since making his pro debut he’s been on a roll. He got a ten-game cameo late last season with the Stingrays and scored 10 points, and now has scored at a near point-per-game rate his rookie year while also earning two AHL call-ups. The real test for this fall will be seeing if he can push for a more regular spot in the AHL with Hershey, and now with this contract he’ll have the chance to do just that.
  • The AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms, affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers, signed former UConn and Notre Dame captain Adam Karashik to a one-year AHL contract extension, securing his place with the team for 2023-24. 2022-23 was Karashik’s first full season as a professional hockey player, and although he began in the ECHL by the time he was called up to Lehigh Valley in early January he didn’t look back. Karashik was a regular in the Phantoms’ lineup for both February and March, and ended his season with 23 games played in the AHL. This extension gives Karashik the chance to continue establishing himself as a regular at the AHL level.
  • The Rochester Americans, AHL affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres, have signed ECHL defenseman Brandon Fortunato to a one-year AHL contract. Fortunato, 27, spent last season with the ECHL’s Jacksonville IceMen, scoring 23 points in 48 games. Fortunato in total has played in over 130 ECHL games and has played in 23 AHL games, though the most recent were in 2021-22.
  • 28-year-old winger Jimmy Soper successfully worked his way from the fourth-tier SPHL to the ECHL in 2021-22, going from 22 points in 47 games with the SPHL’s Macon Mayhem to an impressive 43 points in 69 games with the ECHL’s Tulsa Oilers. Although Soper’s time in Tulsa ended last season via a trade to the Rapid City Rush, Soper played well enough to secure his spot in the ECHL for next season. He’s signed a one-year contract extension with the Rush after scoring 19 points in 28 games there, and now based on how productive he’s been in the ECHL over the past two seasons it seems he may have put the SPHL firmly in the past of his career.
  • St. Cloud State defenseman Ondřej Trejbal is turning pro, having finished his four-year career in college hockey. The 24-year-old Czech blueliner will bring some size (six-foot-three) and nearly 130 games of NCAA experience to his first pro destination: Liiga’s SaiPa. The club announced a one-year contract for Trejbal containing a trial period until September 2023 as well as a club option to extend the contract through next season as well. It’ll be a major step up in competition level for Trejbal to go from playing college hockey against his peers to Liiga hockey against seasoned professionals, though it’ll also be a major opportunity for him to start his pro career in an exceptional league. The team also announced that Finnish defenseman Atso Lehtinen, who finished 2022-23 with SaiPa but spent most of the season in second-tier Mestis, would not see his tryout period result in a full-time contract.
  • 22-year-old former Erie Otters star Maxim Golod finished his third season as a full-time pro player on a low note, scoring just one point in his final five games. He couldn’t quite build up momentum with the ECHL’s Indy Fuel the same way he did with the Tulsa Oilers, where he scored 43 points in 42 games, and now he’s made the decision to sign in Sweden’s HockeyAllsvenskan rather than return to the ECHL. He’s signed with the Nybro Vikings and the hope will be for him to be a top offensive player just as he was at times in the OHL and ECHL.
  • 29-year-old former ECHL First-Team All-Star Patrick Watling is transferring from Slovakia to the United Kingdom. The center has signed a one-year deal with the EIHL’s Sheffield Steelers, and according to the team release will pursue an MBA degree at a local university while also playing for the Steelers. Watling hasn’t yet played in the EIHL, and 2022-23 was his first as an overseas pro player, but given the fact that he was relatively productive in Slovakia (30 points in 34 games across two teams) and scored a whopping 77 points in 55 games for the Wheeling Nailers in his most recent AHL season, he’ll be a likely candidate to compete for the scoring lead for the Steelers.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Pacific Notes: Pettersson, Mangiapane, Hickey

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Canucks center Elias Pettersson is now eligible for a contract extension since he has entered the final season of his three-year, $22.05MM deal, one that carries a qualifying offer next summer of $8.82MM.  Speaking with Postmedia’s Ben Kuzma, former Vancouver assistant GM Chris Gear (who used to handle negotiations for Vancouver) pegged a rough range of a new deal for Pettersson between $9.5MM and $10.25MM.  The 24-year-old hit career highs across the board last season with 39 goals, 63 assists, and 102 points, finishing tenth in league scoring so his value is certainly at its peak.  Speculatively, if that’s the approximate range that a contract for Pettersson would be at this point, Vancouver might need to go close to the top mark to get him to put pen to paper on it a year early as another 100-point showing next season could push that price tag even higher.

Elsewhere in the Pacific:

  • In an interview with Ryan Dittrick of the Flames’ team site, winger Andrew Mangiapane indicated that there are no more restrictions as he works his way back from offseason shoulder surgery, paving the way for him to be fully ready for training camp in the fall. The 27-year-old is coming off a down year offensively; after putting up 35 goals in 2021-22, he managed just 17 last season despite an increase in playing time.  Both sides are certainly hoping that the nagging shoulder trouble played a significant role in that sizable drop in production.
  • The Golden Knights AHL affiliate in Henderson announced the signing of defenseman Brandon Hickey to a one-year deal. The 27-year-old was originally drafted by Calgary back in 2014 but declined to sign with them or Arizona who acquired his rights three years later.  However, Hickey agreed to sign with Buffalo a year later but failed to advance past the AHL level, eventually being non-tendered.  Since then, Hickey has split time between the AHL and ECHL; he got into 17 games on a tryout last season with the Silver Knights, collecting a goal and an assist.

Minor Transactions: 07/21/23

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Although it’s generally a slow period for player movement in the NHL as teams hone in on arbitration cases, that isn’t the case for clubs in minor and overseas professional leagues. Just as the Maple Leafs begin an arbitration hearing with netminder Ilya Samsonov (no pre-arbitration agreement could be reached, according to The Hockey News’ David Alter) teams in quite a few leagues across the world, including the German DEL in particular, have been active making moves. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable ones here.

  • 2014 fifth-overall pick Michael Dal Colle is nearing a contract with the DEL’s Iserlohn Roosters, according to a report from Eishockey News in Germany. Dal Colle, 27, is a former top prospect who began his European pro career last season with TPS Turku in the Finnish Liiga. Dal Colle wasn’t horrible, but he only managed four goals and a total of 19 points in 36 games for Turku, and has now ended his association with the club at one year. The former AHL All-Star now heads to the Roosters, who finished the 2022-23 campaign 13th in the DEL standings.
  • Another forward with some NHL games on his resume rumored to be nearing a contract in the DEL is Joseph Cramarossa, a former Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild player. Cramarossa split last season between the Wild organization and Adler Mannheim in the DEL. He played with the Wild in both Iowa and Minnesota until he was placed on unconditional waivers so he could join Mannheim. After scoring eight points in 15 regular-season games and just one point in seven postseason games, Cramarossa has made the choice to continue in the DEL and join the Frankfurt Lions, a mid-table team from last season.
  • 2011 12th overall pick Ryan Murphy has signed a contract with EHC Red Bull Salzburg of the Central European ICEHL, according to a team announcement. This signing confirms Murphy will spend a second year playing in Europe since he last played in North America. Murphy, a 30-year-old defenseman, spent last season with Ufa Salavat Yulayev in the KHL, scoring 17 points in 43 games and earning the right to play in the KHL All-Star Game. Murphy was the 2020-21 AHL Defenseman of the Year and brings a stellar resume (including 175 games of NHL experience) to Austria and the defending ICEHL champions.
  • 25-year-old former NCAA winger Kohen Olischefski began this season with the hope of establishing himself in the AHL and earning a full-time spot with the Rochester Americans. While he finished the year playing postseason games for the Amerks, Olischefski spent most of the season in the ECHL with the Cincinnati Cyclones. Olischefski could only manage two goals in 16 AHL games and scored 26 points in 43 ECHL games. Now, the versatile forward has signed a contract with Dusseldorf EG in the DEL, choosing to continue his pro career overseas after his rookie campaign in North America.
  • EHC Red Bull Munich, the defending DEL Champions, have signed former Detroit Red Wing Adam Almquist. The move replaces former AHL and DEL Defenseman of the Year Zach Redmond, who agreed to a mutual contract termination after a season spent playing a significant role on Munich’s blueline. The 32-year-old Almquist last played in North America in 2013-14, scoring 53 points in 73 games for the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins and earning two games with the Red Wings. He scored his first (and only, to this date) NHL goal that season, before moving on to have a strong pro career in Europe with stops in Sweden, Switzerland, Belarus, and Russia.
  • Alexandre Grenier, a former quality prospect in the Vancouver Canucks system, has signed with the Cologne Sharks in the DEL. The 31-year-old 2011 90th overall pick is a two-time AHL All-Star who last played in North America in 2018-19 with his hometown Laval Rocket. He’s had a successful run overseas since then, including a season with Langnau in Switzerland that saw him post 48 points in 47 games. Grenier is no stranger to the DEL, either, and has 84 points in 99 career games in Germany’s top league.
  • Elias Rosén, cousin of Buffalo Sabres first-rounder Isak Rosén, has signed with the Vaxjo Lakers in the SHL, the defending Swedish champions. Rosen wrapped up a four-year collegiate career with Bemidji State University last season and made his pro debut on an ATO with the ECHL’s Kansas City Mavericks. The five-foot-ten left-shot defenseman was an accomplished player in college, earning First-Team All-Star honors in his conference for three consecutive years, including his 2020-21 campaign that saw him named conference Defensive Player of the Year. He acquitted himself well in a limited sample size of games with Kansas City, scoring nine points in 14 games, and has now earned a shot to establish himself with a top team in one of the best leagues outside the NHL.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 7/20/23

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We are well into the dog days of summer as many NHL management groups and broadcasters are turning their attention to arbitration cases and summer holidays. While things are typically slow this time of year there have been several signings today from around the hockey world:

  • Former Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Dmitri Korobov has signed a contract with Dinamo Minsk of the KHL. No terms of the contract have been released. Korobov has spent the last two years with Dinamo and posted three goals and four assists in 49 games this past season. His NHL career was a short one as he dressed in just three games and posted a single assist with the Lightning in a short call-up during the 2013-14 season. The 34-year-old spent two seasons in the AHL with Tampa Bay’s AHL affiliate the Syracuse Crunch, dressing in 136 games and scoring six goals and 42 assists.
  • The Utica Comets have announced that they’ve signed defenseman Will MacKinnon to a two-way AHL contract for the 2023-24 season. The 23-year-old Plymouth, Michigan native will be getting his first opportunity in the AHL as he spent the past two seasons playing in the ECHL with the Reading Royals where he posted seven goals and 20 assists in 88 games. MacKinnon has never posted much in the way of offense dating all the way back to his NCAA days but did put up 26 points last season in 71 ECHL games which has earned him a look in the AHL for the upcoming year.
  • Colorado Avalanche AHL affiliate the Colorado Eagles have signed defenseman Michael Underwood to a one-year AHL extension. Underwood signed a PTO with the Eagles back in March of this year and dressed in three AHL games with the franchise where he was held scoreless. The 25-year-old has been a defensive defenseman throughout his professional and college career never topping seven points in any one season. In five NCAA seasons with Clarkson University and Michigan State University, Underwood had a total of six goals and 17 assists in 167 games.
  • Nolan Moyle, the captain of the Michigan Wolverines last season, has found where he’ll be beginning his professional career: China. Moyle has signed with the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star, landing there after playing five seasons at Michigan. A defense-first right winger, Moyle didn’t score much as a Wolverine (just 46 points in 164 career games) but now has a chance to hold down a defensive role in one of the world’s more competitive professional leagues.
  • The ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears have made a significant addition, signing 26-year-old Aaron Luchuk on a one-year contract. Luchuk had been with the Solar Bears for two seasons before this past season trying his luck in Europe. Luchuck played for three teams across two leagues and couldn’t quite find his footing in 2022-23, so now he returns to the league he led in scoring in 2020-21. Luchuk has 187 points in 181 career ECHL games and is likely to be a major help to the franchise as they look to return to the Kelly Cup playoffs.
  •  Another college hockey captain has selected where he’ll be starting his pro career. Notre Dame captain Nick Leivermann has signed a contract with the Hershey Bears, the defending Calder Cup champions. The 24-year-old Minnesota native played five seasons with Notre Dame and has had two consecutive productive campaigns. He scored 20 points in 29 games last season and had 27 points in 32 games this season. While the Bears are likely to have a competitive blueline as they defend their Calder Cup title, Leivermann’s success in his collegiate career suggests he could end up a factor in the AHL sooner rather than later.

This page may be updated throughout the day.

Gemel Smith Signs In KHL

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Although 29-year-old forward Gemel Smith scored 53 points in 54 AHL games, this past season was Smith’s first campaign in over a half-decade that he did not feature in any NHL games.

Now, the veteran of 356 AHL games and 91 games in the NHL is headed to play for an overseas club for the first time in his pro career. According to a team announcement, Smith has signed with Dynamo Minsk in the KHL.

Smith joins 2015 first-round pick Nick Merkley, Calder Cup Champion Sam Anas, former AHL blueliner Kodie Curran, and former Cornell University star Yanni Kaldis as an overseas professional rostered by Belarus’ KHL club.

Seeing as he has been a prolific AHL scorer in recent seasons and brings genuine NHL experience, Smith is likely to be expected to be among Minsk’s top scorers for next season. While the NHL door is certainly not closed moving forward as Smith isn’t even 30 years old yet, he’ll want to have as productive a season as possible with Minsk if he hopes on returning to the world’s top league in the future.

Considering Smith’s resume, it’s possible he could get a two-way contract as soon as next summer, though he’ll likely need to put up some numbers next to Merkley and Minsk’s other offensive players in order to do so.

Minor Transactions: 07/19/23

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NHL teams have been hard at work in advance of upcoming arbitration cases, looking to find the sort of common ground on new contracts that leads to signings and avoids the arbitration process. Just as those top teams have been working to sign players for next season (the Vegas Golden Knights worked especially hard today, signing two players) professional hockey clubs around the world are also signing players and tweaking the teams they’ll bring into the next campaign. Here, we’ll keep track of notable moves that are made.

  • The Coachella Valley Firebirds, the AHL affiliate of the Seattle Kraken, have re-signed forward Ian McKinnon for the 2023-24 campaign. Although the Firebirds as a team ended the season heartbroken (they lost the Calder Cup championship in overtime of Game Seven at home) McKinnon personally had his strongest season as a professional. The six-foot-two bruiser only scored three points, to be sure, but he played in a career-high 36 AHL games and didn’t play a single game in the ECHL for the first time in his pro career. Now, he’s earned another year with the Firebirds where he’ll add some muscle to the bottom of their lineup and be a contender to rack up triple-digit penalty minutes once again.
  • Hayden Verbeek, a former Montreal Canadiens prospect and the nephew of Anaheim Ducks GM Pat Verbeek, has signed with the Crimmitschau Ice Pirates of Germany’s second-tier DEL2. Verbeek, 25, was a top-six forward for the Soo Greyhounds late in his OHL career and has become quite the journeyman recently. He has 26 points in 31 career ECHL games for three different teams and has also skated in AHL games for both the Laval Rocket and Grand Rapids Griffins. He spent last season in the Slovak league, where he scored 33 points in 44 games for HK Spisska Nova Ves. A capable all-around player, Verbeek led the Slovak league in short-handed goals and now moves to Germany to make a push for promotion to the DEL.
  • Although former San Jose Sharks prospect Marcus Vela played a helpful role in getting MoDo Hockey Ornskoldsvik promoted to the SHL in the spring, he won’t be joining the club for their return season in Sweden’s top league. Although Vela’s contract was automatically extended when the team defeated Djurgarden and won promotion, the player and club mutually agreed on a contract termination. 2022-23 was the 26-year-old Canadian’s first campaign overseas, and he played well across two HockeyAllsvenskan teams, totaling 29 points in 46 games. He could now opt to return to the ECHL, where he has in the past been productive for the Toledo Walleye, or could continue playing overseas.
  • 29-year-old minor league netminder Adam Carlson is retiring from playing the game, according to an announcement from his club, the ECHL’s Rapid City Rush. Carlson is leaving to take up goalie coaching roles in his home state of Minnesota, and ends his career having played nearly 200 games in the ECHL and eight in the AHL. Carlson was a member of the Rush organization for a combined four years, four of the strongest of his professional career. Carlson’s best year came in 2018-19, when he played in 45 games and posted a .916 save percentage, and he has started for other clubs including the Hershey Bears and Manitoba Moose.
  • Former ECHL All-Star Jalen Smereck has signed a contract extension to remain with the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones. Smereck is coming off of an exceptional two-season run playing in both Germany and Cincinnati. He scored 34 points in 46 games for the Bietigheim Steelers in the DEL in 2021-22, and without him this season the Steelers won just 14 games out of 56 and were relegated to the DEL2. This past season, Smereck scored 50 points in 53 games, the highest points-per-game scoring rate of any ECHL defenseman playing on a full-time basis. An elite defenseman in the ECHL, Smereck will now play a second season in Cincinnati and hope to earn an AHL call-up.
  • Nolan Volcan, the former captain of the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds, is beginning his professional career after three seasons at the University of Alberta. He’s signed an ECHL deal with the Fort Wayne Komets. The five-foot-nine 25-year-old forward scored 58 points in 76 games in Alberta and tallied 231 points in 321 WHL games. Volcan won a WHL championship with the Thunderbirds and now joins an ECHL club hoping to make some noise in the playoffs after a first-round exit last year.
  • The ECHL’s Maine Mariners have poached one of the league’s top young scorers from the Wheeling Nailers: Brooklyn Kalmikov. A QMJHL champion in 2020-21, the 22-year-old finished his junior career by scoring 34 goals and 72 points in 62 games. He turned pro this past season and skated in 66 games for the Nailers. He ranked second on the team in scoring, potting 23 goals and 52 points. Kalmikov even earned an AHL call-up to the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins, and though he went scoreless in three games he’ll likely get another chance if he can produce as well in Maine as he did in West Virginia.
  • Former Detroit Red Wing Jan Mursak signed with Klagenfurt in the ICEHL, according to a team announcement. The 2006 sixth-round pick was just the second Slovenian-born player to skate in the NHL (behind Los Angeles Kings captain Anze Kopitar) and ended up playing 45 games for the Red Wings across three seasons. Mursak was at one point Slovenia’s captain for international competitions, including the 2018 Winter Olympics, and has spent the last three seasons with Frolunda in the SHL. Now, he heads to Austria hoping to help Klagenfurt return to the Champions Hockey League and top of the ICEHL.
  • 2018-19 ECHL First-Team All-Star Matt Petgrave and 185-game Liiga veteran Niklas Nevalainen have both re-signed with their club of last season, the EIHL’s Sheffield Steelers. Petgrave excelled in his first season in England, scoring 48 points in 54 games and showcasing all-situations value on the powerplay and penalty kill. Although he only managed two points in four playoff games, he’ll likely be among the Steelers’ top scorers next season. Nevalainen, 30, is a former everyday defenseman in the top league of his native Finland, though he hasn’t played there since 2020-21. He spent 2021-22 playing in Norway and now seems to have found a home in England, where he scored 23 points last season.

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