Buffalo Sabres Recall Zach Metsa
The Buffalo Sabres announced this morning that they have recalled defenseman Zach Metsa from their AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans.
Metsa was originally reassigned at the start of the Olympic break. He’s spent a larger portion of this season on the Sabres’ NHL roster. Since Buffalo next plays on Wednesday, the same day the Americans have their next game, Metsa would not get the chance to play in any additional games by remaining on the AHL roster, hence today’s recall.
Today’s recall comes during what has been the most successful campaign of Metsa’s pro career. The 27-year-old is an undrafted player who signed with the Sabres coming out of college, where he captained Quinnipiac University to a national championship in 2022-23. Metsa has developed at a steady pace at the AHL level, going from 24 points in 54 games in his rookie season to 46 points in 69 games as a second-year pro.
This season, Metsa has 15 points in 16 games as his performances earned him a depth role at the NHL level. While he hasn’t yet earned the trust of head coach Lindy Ruff to the point where he’s trusted to play a strong diet of minutes (he averages just 9:42 time on ice per game) he has gotten into 26 NHL games.
If Metsa can continue to earn the trust of Ruff, the Sabres could end up getting real surplus value on Metsa’s contract. The two-year deal he signed in July of last year has an additional season remaining at a $775K NHL salary and $325K total guarantee.
While Metsa isn’t playing very much in the NHL right now, if he can build himself to the point where he’s relied on as a capable third-pairing or even No. 7 defenseman, his league-minimum NHL cap hit should give the Sabres solid cap savings next to what a comparable player might cost on the open market.
When Metsa was sent down on Feb. 6, he was reassigned alongside two young Sabres forwards: Konsta Helenius and Isak Rosén. Neither player has been recalled to this point, but given how well each has played at the AHL level this season, it would be a surprise to see them spend too much time in Rochester in the remaining portion of the season.
Mammoth Recall Scott Perunovich And Kevin Connauton
With Olli Maatta still taking part in the Olympics, the Mammoth have brought up some extra defensive depth for practice. The team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled defensemen Scott Perunovich and Kevin Connauton from AHL Tucson.
Perunovich is in his first season with Utah after signing a one-year, two-way deal with them back in free agency. A veteran of 108 career NHL appearances, he has yet to make one this season as he has played exclusively with the Roadrunners, his first extended AHL run since 2022-23. The 27-year-old has been quite productive in Tucson, notching three goals and 27 assists in 43 games to lead all team blueliners in scoring.
As for Connauton, he has 360 career NHL outings under his belt but none since the 2021-22 campaign. The 35-year-old is in the second and final season of his two-way deal and has suited up in 23 games with the Roadrunners this season where he has two assists. At this point, it seems likely that both he and Perunovich’s time with the big club will be short-lived with Utah’s back end fully healthy coming out of the break.
With the recalls, Utah’s active roster now sits at 22 players, one shy of the maximum. It’s worth noting that the team has moved Maatta and winger Clayton Keller to non-roster status, so it’s possible that another player will be brought up for practice purposes over the next couple of days.
Two Prospects Receive 20-Game Suspensions In AHL
A pair of NHL prospects will be waiting quite a while before they can play their next game. Earlier this week, the AHL announced that Rockford goalie Stanislav Berezhnoy and Coachella Valley forward David Goyette have received 20-game suspensions for violating the terms of the AHL/PHPA Performance Enhancing Substance Program. The program essentially replicates the NHL’s penalties for violations, meaning that this is a first-time offence for both players. They will be ineligible for recall to the NHL while serving their bans.
Berezhnoy is in his first season in North America after the Blackhawks signed him to a two-year, entry-level contract last summer. The 22-year-old has played in 15 games so far this season for the IceHogs, largely serving as Drew Commesso’s backup. Berezhnoy has a 5-9-1 record with a 3.18 GAA and a .888 SV% in those outings. He received a brief NHL recall in January when Chicago’s starting tandem was unavailable but didn’t see any game action.
As for Goyette, he’s in the second season of his entry-level deal. Drafted in the second round (61st overall) by the Kraken back in 2022, the 21-year-old was a productive scorer in junior but that has yet to translate to the pros. Goyette had 282 points in three OHL seasons (spanning 197 games) but had 18 points in 54 outings with the Firebirds last season and has just 10 in 47 appearances in 2025-26. He hasn’t seen any NHL action so far in his career.
Both players will be able to return before the playoffs. Berezhnoy is eligible to return on April 11th while Goyette can play one day sooner. At that point, there will be just over a week left in the AHL season and if either team is still fighting for a playoff spot since then, it could be risky to put them in after being off for so long.
AHL Free Agents To Watch For Ahead Of The Trade Deadline
The list of players in an NHL organization doesn’t end with those actively signed. AHL and ECHL affiliates can have players under contract, too, so while they’re playing with an affiliated farm team, their signing rights aren’t directly tied to their NHL parent.
That doesn’t stop NHL clubs from snapping up talent that was initially brought in on minor-league deals, though. It’s common for teams to do at the trade deadline, making them eligible for a recall down the stretch or participate in playoff action if needed. There are a few standout names worth monitoring this season that might be worthy investments for teams to add as options on two-way deals.
Ben Berard, LW (Vancouver Canucks)
At 27, Berard doesn’t have the upside of anyone else here. The 6’0″ winger is in his third pro season after a lengthy run at Cornell. He entered the year with just six points in 34 career AHL games on his resume and spent nearly all of last season in the ECHL.
He’s been one of the better stories on an Abbotsford team that’s had a dreadful follow-up season to last year’s Calder Cup championship, though. On a club that’s scoring just 2.18 goals per game, he’s tied for the team lead in points with 23 in 46 games. There isn’t much of an NHL future for him given his age and development curve, but considering Vancouver might sell off more assets for futures ahead of the deadline and they’re light on capable recall options, a two-way deal might be in the cards to reward his efforts.
Atley Calvert, C (Pittsburgh Penguins)
The 22-year-old Saskatchewan native has no relation to former NHLer Matt Calvert. He’s nonetheless made an impression in the Pens organization in his second professional season. Undrafted, he played his junior hockey for his hometown Moose Jaw Warriors in the WHL before signing with AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in 2024.
As a first-year pro on a minor-league deal, few batted an eye when Calvert spent a good chunk of 2024-25 in the ECHL. He was impressive in his AHL call-ups, though, recording 14 points in 26 games. He carried that momentum through to this season, where he’s stuck on WBS’ roster full-time and ranks fourth on the team in scoring with a 9-17–26 line in 48 games. He’s got good size at 6’0″ and 194 lbs. Breaking through a crowded Pens prospect pool for a full-time NHL role is unlikely, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see the organization reward one of their depth breakout talents with an NHL commitment.
Philippe Daoust, C (Ottawa Senators)
Daoust will be a familiar name to Sens fans. He was under contract with the club for the last three seasons, signing his entry-level deal after being selected in the sixth round in 2020. He was non-tendered in June, ending his formal NHL relationship with Ottawa, but he chose to stick around in the organization on an AHL-only deal with Belleville.
The 24-year-old center has now exploded for 12 goals and 40 points in 46 games. He’s tied for second on the team in scoring behind Arthur Kaliyev and is top-30 in the AHL in points. That’s a remarkable spike for a player who looked like a non-factor throughout most of his entry-level deal, with injuries limiting him to just 18 combined AHL and ECHL appearances from 2022-24.
Kyle Keyser, G (Colorado Avalanche)
There aren’t many non-NHL contracted goalies who have played more than 10 games in the NHL this season. In fact, there are only two of them.
Keyser, at 11 games, leads the league with a .943 SV% and has an 8-1- 1 record with two shutouts. For an Avs team with largely unproven and young depth options behind their two bona fide NHLers, he’d be a shrewd signing to serve as their emergency backup in the postseason.
The 26-year-old is in his seventh AHL season, most of which were spent in the Bruins organization. He’s got a .907 SV% in 84 career games at the level.
Gabe Klassen, C (Pittsburgh Penguins)
Klassen wasn’t drafted despite being a junior standout with the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks. His stock was harmed by his draft year coming after the truncated 2020-21 season. After that, though, he was the Winterhawks’ captain for two years and rattled off three straight 30-plus goal seasons, including a 106-point dominant showing in 2023-24.
The undersized pivot caught on with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton last year but was buried in the ECHL – a product of being at the bottom of the ladder as a first-year pro on a minor-league deal. He’s avoided any time with ECHL Wheeling this season, though, and is now a regular contributor in the Baby Pens’ top nine. With 12 goals and 22 points in 40 games, he ranks fourth and eighth on the team in those respective categories. His 5’10” frame will be his biggest obstacle to being an NHLer, but it’s clear he produces more with increased opportunities.
Snapshots: Maurice, Morrissey, Davies
Finland wound up in second place in its group at the Olympics and have a chance at a bye before the quarterfinals. However, at one point, it looked like the team could have been led by a different bench boss. Helsingen Sanomat’s Sami Hoffren and Teemu Suvinen report that following a tough showing at the 4 Nations Face-Off and World Championship, a group of NHL veterans made an effort to try to get Panthers head coach Paul Maurice appointed to Finland’s coaching staff for these Olympics. GM Jere Lehtinen acknowledged discussing the idea with the players who wanted the change but nothing further came of it with head coach Antti Pennanen remaining in charge, a role he will hold through the spring of 2027 at a minimum.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey missed Friday’s Olympic game against Switzerland and has already been ruled out for Sunday’s contest against France, relays Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press (Twitter link). However, Canada’s head coach Jon Cooper indicated that “by no means is he out for the tournament.” That suggests that the undisclosed injury is at least relatively minor if he’s going to potentially be back within the next week. That would be a big boost for Canada’s back end as well as Winnipeg’s with a busy stretch of games coming up after the break.
- After having his contract with Florida terminated a little more than a week ago, Josh Davies has found a new team. The AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals announced that they’ve signed the forward to a deal for the remainder of the season. Drafted in the sixth round in 2022, Davies has played primarily in the ECHL over his professional career and it appears he was willing to walk away from the rest of his NHL deal to get an opportunity to play at the AHL level for the first time this season.
Islanders Sign Scott Reedy To AHL Tryout
The AHL’s Bridgeport Islanders have signed center Scott Reedy to a professional tryout, per Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News. He has yet to play this season.
Reedy’s return to hockey comes over 11 months after his last appearance of any kind and nearly four years after his last NHL game. A fourth-round pick by the Sharks in 2017, he developed nicely over four seasons at the University of Minnesota and capped off his collegiate career with an All-Star, point-per-game campaign in 2020-21.
He turned pro and split the following season evenly between San Jose’s NHL and AHL clubs. He did well enough in a bottom-six role, scoring seven goals and a pair of assists in 35 games while seeing 11:11 of ice time per night. The speedy 6’2″ pivot also recorded 18 goals and 27 points in just 38 AHL games, leading to optimism he could be a solid depth contributor at the NHL level.
Reedy never got another chance, though. He was limited to five goals and 15 points in 38 AHL games the following season before being traded to the Stars. He was highly productive when healthy over the next season and a half, but was decimated by injuries. From his acquisition in March 2023 to the end of his contract following 2023-24, he only managed 30 appearances for AHL Texas while recording 11 goals and 17 points.
The Minnesota native went unqualified by the Stars that summer and ended up going unsigned until December, when he landed an AHL tryout from the Predators’ minor-league affiliate in Milwaukee. He finished out the year with four goals and nine points in 25 games before becoming a free agent again.
He’ll take the same pathway to playing time this time around, albeit with only about two months left in the campaign. He joins a much-improved Bridgeport roster that’s hovering around .500 this season after finishing with a disastrous 15-50-7 record in 2024-25.
Evening Notes: Blueger, Fowler, McKenna
The Vancouver Canucks are expected to have a high asking price for potential rental center Teddy Blueger, as written by Thomas Drance in an article with The Athletic from last week.
The 31-year-old had to miss a large portion of the season with an undisclosed injury, but since being activated on January 21, he’s been on a hot streak with five points in his last five games. Never notching more than 28 points in a campaign, Blueger is more of a penalty killing role player, but especially in such a thin center market, with a $1.8MM cap hit, he will come at a premium.
Nearly three years ago, Blueger was traded from Pittsburgh to Vegas for a third round pick, then catching on with Vancouver as a free agent. It’s hard to imagine the Canucks will part with him for less than that, considering demand and his strong play of late.
Contenders will have a chance to watch Blueger play a large role against elite competition on the global stage. He is helping lead Team Latvia in the Olympic Games, before coming back to the bottom ranked Canucks heading into the Trade Deadline season.
Elsewhere across the league:
- Montreal Canadiens top goalie prospect Jacob Fowler will miss AHL All Star festivities due to an upper-body injury, the Laval Rocket shared. The 21-year-old has proven to be a steal, chosen in the third round of the 2023 draft out of Boston College and now one of the league’s premier goaltender prospects. Fowler has a .914 save percentage, good for fourth in the AHL, on the sixth-ranked Rocket. Still early in his professional career, the Florida native already appeared in 10 games with the big club this season and performed well. The Rocket noted that he will still “remain on the bench” so it is likely precautionary and no cause for real concern.
- Top 2026 draft prospect Gavin McKenna is expected to return this weekend, according to Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald. NHL scouts were apparently notified that the Penn State star will be in action at Michigan in a huge matchup between the two top five ranked Big 10 teams. McKenna has had an eventful February, starting with an arrest and felony aggravated assault charges, which were eventually withdrawn. He still faces a misdemeanor charge, but an initial court date tomorrow has been postponed, meaning the 18-year-old can focus fully on the Wolverines.
Snapshots: Flyers, Curran, Rifai
Flyers executives have said before that the team will ultimately decide whether they buy or sell heading into next month’s trade deadline. Jackie Spiegel of the Philadelphia Inquirer examines their situation, suggesting that while they might not want to throw in the towel on the season just yet, selling is the logical route for them to take. Philadelphia sits eight points out of a playoff spot with a team in the bottom ten in offense so the odds of a successful playoff push are low. On the other hand, their list of pending unrestricted free agents isn’t exactly the most appealing, headlined by veteran wingers Carl Grundstrom and Nicolas Deslauriers. Accordingly, even if they do opt to sell, it could be a fairly quiet deadline unless they want to move players signed beyond the upcoming season.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- Avalanche prospect Max Curran will make the move to the NCAA next season. The forward announced on his Instagram page earlier this week that he will play at UMass in 2026-27. Curran was a fifth-round pick by Colorado back in 2024, going 161st overall. This season, the 19-year-old has 14 goals and 27 assists in 31 games with WHL Edmonton. Had he not made the move, Colorado would have needed to have either signed him or dropped his rights by June 1st. Going to college will now push that timeline back, giving the Avs more time to decide his future.
- The Maple Leafs’ AHL affiliate announced on Friday (Twitter link) that defenseman Marshall Rifai was returned to the Marlies. The move comes as no surprise with the Olympic break in full effect. Rifai recently returned from a preseason injury and has four assists in a dozen games in the minors. Recalled late last month, Rifai got into one game with the Maple Leafs but saw just 9:40 of playing time. The demotion will allow him to keep playing and also land Toronto some extra cap flexibility heading into next month’s trade deadline.
Flyers’ Ty Murchison Expected To Be Out For Season With Injury
The Philadelphia Flyers will lose a strong call-up option for the rest of the year. Defenseman Ty Murchison, who made his NHL debut in December, has sustained an upper-body injury and isn’t expected to return this season per Lehigh Valley Phantoms broadcaster Bob Rotruck. Murchison sustained the injury during Lehigh Valley’s January 11th loss to the Providence Bruins. He has missed eight games since.
Murchison was having a succesful start to his pro career. The AHL rookie only had six points in 29 games – but his 46 penalty minutes ranked third on Lehigh Valley, and his staunch defense earned him a call-up to the NHL while Philadelphia adjusted to blue-line injuries. Murchison went on to play in three games with the Flyers, netting no scoring and a plus-one. He earned incremently more ice time over those three games, before being reassigned.
Murchison brings an physical, defense-first presence that proved quickly valuable in Lehigh Valley. That continues the pattern of hard-earned hockey that followed Murchison through four years at Arizona State University. He only scored 23 points in 145 games with the Sun Devils – but, again, his propensity for hard-hitting hockey proved intimidating at the college flight.
The 23-year-old Murchison seems well set to vie for a bottom-pair role in Philadelphia one day. He could have even earned that role at the tail-end of this season, after Philadelphia traded Egor Zamula following Murchison’s NHL debut. Now, it seems he’ll have to wait for a smooth recovery next season before he rejoins the fight for NHL minutes.
Lightning Place Jack Finley On Waivers
The Tampa Bay Lightning have made another roster move ahead of the NHL’s looming break, placing centerman Jack Finley on waivers per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
Finley lost his waiver exemption just over two weeks ago, after being called up on December 20th. Teams across the NHL will now have a chance to add the 23-year-old, former second-round draft pick.
Finley has spent the bulk of the season on Tampa Bay’s roster. He won an extra forward role out of training camp and rotated into the lineup throughout November. The Lightning briefly assigned Finley to the minors in mid-December on the heels of a five-game scoring drought. The move seemed to provide a spark. Finley scored three points in three AHL games, returned to the NHL with a two-point performance, and earned an outright fourth-line role amid a handful of injuries.
But Finley hasn’t kept his hot streak alive in a nightly role. He has recorded no points and a minus-one over his last 10 appearances, even despite Tampa Bay posting a 9-0-1 record and +19 goal differntial in those games. Finley has bridged his lack of production by averaging the fourth-most hits per game on the team.
Tampa Bay will need more than that to keep the offense firing on all cylinders. A waiver designation could give the Lightning a chance to assign Finley to the minors, where he racked up 60 points in 92 games over the last two seasons. That is, if another team isn’t interested in locking Finley into their own bottom-six role.