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Jets Sign Parker Ford To Two-Year Contract

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The Winnipeg Jets have signed forward Parker Ford to a two-year, two-way, $1.625MM contract. The deal will carry an $812.5K salary at the NHL level. Ford entered restricted free agency this summer after spending the last three seasons on an entry-level contract.

Ford went undrafted through his years of eligibility in 2019, 2020, and 2021. Those years spanned his final year in the USHL and first two seasons at Providence College. He didn’t catch NHL attention until his upperclass seasons with the Friars, where he became known for his endless motor and strong play in the dirty areas of the ice. He looked like a true coach’s favorite, made impacts in all three zones, and worked his way to 53 points in 75 games over his junior and senior seasons.

Those marks were enough to earn Ford a three-year, entry-level contract at the end of the 2022-23 season. He joined the AHL’s Manitoba Moose for their final eight games of the regular season, and jumped to scoring with four points, only to go without any points in five postseason games. Ford found better balance in the lineup as an AHL rookie last season. He finished the year with 18 goals and 41 points in 72 games, good for sixth on the Moose in scoring. That carved him out a hardy role in Manitoba’s top-six this season – a role Ford vindicated with 14 goals and 21 points in 41 games. He also earned his NHL debut this season, and scored one goal in three games with the Jets lineup.

A two-year deal will reward Ford’s carved out role in the AHL. He’ll likely head straight back to Manitoba’s top-six next season, but could find his way into a fourth-line, NHL role after fellow Jets depth forward Mason Appleton signed with the Detroit Red Wings this summer. Ford is a hard-working, well-rounded winger who is still largely undefined at the top flight, with only a few games in his NHL career and 121 games in his AHL career.

Hurricanes Promote Daniel Bochner Among Multiple Staff Changes

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The Carolina Hurricanes have announced multiple staff and structure changes across their hockey operations and management departments. Most notably, they’ve hired Daniel Bochner as a full-time development coach, after he spent the last two seasons in a part-time coaching role with both the Hurricanes and the KHL’s SKA St. Petersburg. Bochner will move to Raleigh, from Russia, for this hire and work with both the NHL and AHL lineups.

Bochner has built up a rich career across the hockey world. He was originally born in Toronto, but began playing for Israel’s U18 club at the age of 15. He joined the club in their debut at the World Junior Championship Division-III tournament in 2001, and debuted with the country’s men’s roster at the World Championship Division-II tournament later that year. Bochner continued to be a fixture of Israel’s national roster through 2011, and racked up three points across 13 total appearances at the World Championship.

Bochner retired from his playing career in 2011, and turned towards head coaching with the Don Mills Flyers’ AAA club in 2013. He led the Flyers’ 2000-birth year through their 14U, 15U, and 16U seasons. Current Utah Mammoth forward Jack McBain served as the team’s captain in all three seasons. Bochner left Don Mills for a youth coach role with the KHL’s Ak Bars Kazan in 2016, briefly returned to coach the Vaughan Kings 14U AAA team in 2017, then moved full-time into a development coach role with SKA St. Petersburg in 2018.

His role with SKA included serving as a development coach for the KHL and MHL (junior) clubs, as well as with Russia’s National Men’s roster. He also served as an assistant coach for the KHL club from 2020 to 2023. Bochner’s role spanned some impressive rosters, and allowed him to work closely with top NHL skaters and prospects – including Yaroslav Askarov, Ivan Demidov, Matvei Michkov, Kirill Marchenko, and Hurricanes prospect Timur Kol. Bochner will now leave seven years with SKA behind to work full-time with Carolina’s top two rosters.

The Hurricanes have also announced that CBA-specialist Earl Schwartz has been promoted to the role of CBA and Salary Cap Analyst. He will the title of Compliance Assistant after three years in the role. Schwartz began his niched career publicly, writing CBA-related analysis for LeafsNation and a personal newsletter. Now, he’ll take another step forward in a Hurricanes organization that’s seen multiple staff take unconventional paths into their roles.

Carolina has further promoted Jorge Alves into the role of head equipment manager. He will take over for Bob Gorman, who has worked with the Hurricanes since 1976 and will continue to support the team in a reduced role. Alves will be joined by Patrick Budds, who has been promoted to assistant equipment manager from his role of equipment assistant. Filling that latter role will be CJ Reif, who worked with the Chicago Wolves last season.

The Hurricanes have also hired Zach Ellenthal and Dennis King as pro scouts. Ellenthal spent the last four seasons with the SHL’s Rogle BK, while King previously served in the Edmonton Oilers’ analytics department. King will join former Oilers peer Tyler Dellow in Carolina.

Carolina rounds out the hires with changes in their athletic training and nutrition rooms. Koryd Lavimoniere will step into an assistant trainer role after serving as the head trainer of the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds last season; and Kristin Pirigyi will move into a newly-created, full-time nutritionist role after previously serving as a nutrition consultant.

Photo courtesy of David Kirouac-USA TODAY Sports.

AHL Notes: Meehan, Stalletti, Cossa

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The Philadelphia Flyers have signed former Los Angeles Kings’ fifth-round selection Ben Meehan to an AHL contract for 2025-26, per Tony Androckitis of Inside AHL Hockey.

A left-handed defenseman, Meehan was selected by the Kings with the 140th overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft. Meehan would then go on to play five seasons in the NCAA at UMass-Lowell, where he served as team captain each of the past two seasons. In 145 games with the River Hawks, Meehan produced 13 goals, 55 assists, and 68 points.

Following his collegiate career, Meehan signed an amateur tryout contract (ATO) with the AHL’s Iowa Wild in March, but only appeared in two games with the organization, recording zero points and a minus-one rating. The 6’0″, 187-pound Boston native will provide the Flyers and their AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, with a young depth option on the blue line.

Elsewhere in the AHL:

  • The AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds have hired Vince Stalletti as their goaltending coach, per a team release. Stalletti spent the last five seasons in the NCAA as the goaltending coach at the University of Connecticut. Under his tutelage last season, goaltender Callum Tung (now in the New York Rangers system) posted a school-record .933 save percentage and helped lead the program to its first-ever NCAA Tournament. Stalletti replaces Colin Zulianello, who was promoted to be the Seattle Kraken’s goaltending coach under new head coach Lane Lambert.
  • While Detroit Red Wings’ goaltender Sebastian Cossa, 22, may be ready for a spot on the opening night roster, he might be best served starting the season in the AHL, where he can get consistent playing time, suggests The Athletic’s Max Bultman. Selected 15th overall in the 2021 NHL Draft, Cossa has performed well over two full seasons with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins. He’s compiled a 43-24-14 record, recorded a save percentage at or north of .910 in both years, and registered three shutouts. Cossa also appeared in his first NHL game last season, recording the win while stopping 12 of 14 shots. And while Cossa has the pedigree and AHL experience to warrant a full-time opportunity in Detroit, the Red Wings traded for presumable starter John Gibson and have veteran Cam Talbot signed for one more year. As Bultman notes, the plan may be for Talbot to back up Gibson this upcoming season, with Cossa stepping into that role in 2026–27, just as Gibson’s contract is set to expire as well.

Minor Transactions: 7/15/25

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It has been a busy 24 hours transactions-wise around the NHL with several restricted free agents signing before their qualifying offers expire later today.  Meanwhile, there have been some other minor signings involving free agents which we’ll run through here.

  • After spending the last four seasons in Seattle’s system on an NHL deal, defenseman Gustav Olofsson will be staying there on a different contract. The Kraken’s AHL affiliate in Coachella Valley announced that they’ve signed the blueliner to a two-year minor-league deal.  Olofsson is a veteran of 63 NHL games but saw just four games with Seattle.  Last season, the 30-year-old played in 51 games with the Firebirds, picking up three goals and 14 assists.
  • Lehigh Valley, affiliate of the Flyers, announced the signings of wingers Zayde Wisdom and Garrett Wilson to one-year deals. Wisdom was a fourth-round pick by Philadelphia back in 2020 and had 32 points in 68 games with the Phantoms last season but wasn’t tendered a qualifying offer last month.  Wilson, meanwhile, is a veteran of 84 NHL games but last played at the top level in 2019.  He had 14 goals and 14 assists in Lehigh Valley last season in 63 games.
  • After spending last season on a two-way deal with San Jose, unrestricted free agent defenseman Joey Keane is heading back to Russia as he has signed a two-year deal with Spartak Moskva, per a team release. The 26-year-old originally started in Carolina’s system but went to Spartak once his entry-level deal ended, spending two years there before coming back to North America last season.  In 2024-25, Keane had 11 points in 38 games, a stat line identical to his second season with Spartak.
  • Bruins prospect Cole Chandler has committed to Northeastern, reports the Northeastern Hockey Blog (Twitter link). The forward was a fifth-round pick last month after putting up 32 points in 64 games with QMJHL Shawinigan during the regular season while adding a dozen more in 16 playoff outings.  He’ll return to the Cataractes for the upcoming season and then move to the NCAA starting in 2026-27.

Snapshots: Hartley, Penguins, Desnoyers, Army

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Long-time NHL head coach Bob Hartley has decided to return to coaching.  The KHL announced (Twitter link) that Hartley has been hired by Lokomotiv Yaroslavl as their new bench boss.  The 64-year-old will be making his second foray into coaching in Russia having spent four seasons coaching Avangard Omsk before leaving them in 2022; he hadn’t coached anywhere since then.  Hartley is also a veteran of 944 NHL games between Colorado, Atlanta, and Calgary with his teams playing to a .556 points percentage.  He won the Stanley Cup back in 2001 but only made the playoffs in three of ten seasons after that.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • While Fenway Sports Group has said that they’re only interested in selling a small portion of the Penguins, their old ownership group continues to look into the possibility of one day buying a controlling stake, reports Josh Yohe of The Athletic (subscription link). The group, led by long-time Penguin legend Mario Lemieux, sold the team back in 2021 with a franchise valuation of $900MM.  Since then, franchise values have gone up with Forbes recently pegging the team’s value at nearly double that amount so re-acquiring even a controlling interest in the team might be costlier than what they received for it not quite four years ago.
  • The Wild’s AHL team in Iowa announced that they’ve signed forward Elliot Desnoyers to a one-year, one-way contract. The 23-year-old has four career NHL games under his belt, coming with Philadelphia back in 2022-23.  Since then, Desnoyers has played exclusively in the AHL and had 19 points in 59 games which wasn’t enough to earn a qualifying offer last month.
  • The Avalanche’s AHL affiliate announced the hiring of Derek Army as an assistant coach. The 34-year-old spent parts of the last five seasons as head coach of ECHL Wheeling, becoming the winningest coach in franchise history with a 153-137-19 record over that stretch.  Army also spent the past four seasons as their Director of Hockey Operations but will now focus exclusively on coaching with the Eagles.

Flyers Promote John Snowden To AHL Head Coach, Hire Two Assistants

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The Philadelphia Flyers have promoted John Snowden to the role of Lehigh Valley Phantoms head coach. He will fill a hole opened when Ian Laperrière was appointed an advisor to NHL general manager Daniel Briere in June. The Flyers also announced they’ve hired Nick Schultz and Terrence Wallin as AHL assistant coaches.

Lehigh Valley will move forward under the charge of Snowden, who served as an assistant coach to Lapierre through the last two seasons. He has nine years of experience in various roles throughout ECHL and AHL hockey. That includes one year as the Newfoundland Growlers’ head coach, one year as the club’s Director of Hockey Operations, and two years as an assistant with the Toronto Marlies.

Snowden’s roots as a coach run as far back as his own days as a minor league player. He played through five seasons in both the ECHL and former Central Hockey League (CHL), and stepped up as a player-coach for the Bloomington PrairieThunder during their sole CHL season in 2010-11. He scored 36 points in 66 games, and supported Bloomington to a loss in the first round of the playoffs. Snowden ultimately totaled 239 points in 304 CHL games, and 210 points in 305 ECHL games.

Philidelphia will also promote Schultz into the first bench role of his professional career next season. He has spent the last two seasons as the Assistant Director of Player Development with the NHL club, and has served as a development coach for the club since 2019. Schultz also coached the Philadelphia Flyers Elite AAA club’s 2007 birth-year from 13U to 16U. He led the team to an AYHL 14U championship in 2022.

Schultz is much better known as a former stalwart defender in the NHL. He was the 33rd-overall pick in 2000, and went on to amass 1,066 NHL games across 15 seasons and four clubs. He served as captain for the Minnesota Wild in 2007-08, and an assistant captain role with the Wild and Edmonton Oilers from 2010 to 2014. Schultz closed his career with three seasons in Philadelphia, where he totaled 29 points in 189 games. He opted to stick around the club after retiring in 2017, and will now kickoff the next chapter of his career in the Flyers’ system.

Wallin will also receive his first AHL coaching role on Lehigh Valley’s turned over bench. He was formerly a rooted member of the ECHL, playing through five seasons in the league from 2015-16 to 2019-20. But his club – the Maine Mariners – opted to not participate in the 2020-21 season. When they returned in 2021-22, Wallin had moved from player to assistant coach. He was promoted to the head coach role in 2022, and added the general manager title in 2023. In four years with Wallin on the bench, the Mariners posted a 140-125-23 record and made three playoff appearances.

Kieffer Bellows Signs One-Year Deal With SHL’s Brynas IF

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Former Nashville Predators winger Kieffer Bellows has decided to take his talents overseas after reaching unrestricted free agency this summer. He has signed a one-year contract with Brynas IF of Sweden’s SHL, per a press release on the team’s website. This will be Bellows’ first stint in European pros after spending the last seven seasons split between the NHL and AHL.

Bellows never found more than a fourth-line role at the top level, and often served more as an injury fill-in through his stints with the New York Islanders, Philadelphia Flyers, and Predators. That role often landed Bellows on the top-line of his club’s AHL roster, where his talents as a high-motor, physical scorer shined through much clearer. He recorded 19 points and a lofty 101 penalty minutes in 73 games of his rookie AHL season, all the way back in 2018-19. He swung the needle back towards scoring in his sophomore campaign – netting 22 goals, 31 points, and 49 penalty minutes in 52 AHL games during the 2019-20 season.

That swing earned Bellows a move to the NHL in 2020 – one that wouldn’t be reversed until the 2022-23 season. By then, he had amassed 95 career games and 28 points at the NHL level – with nearly half of both coming during his 2021-22 season with the Islanders, when Bellows potted 19 points in 45 games. But his game continued to seem better-suited for the minor flight, and Bellows went on to add to his resume with 90 points and 112 PIMs through 108 AHL games between 2022 and 2025. That includes 31 points and 56 PIMs with the Milwaukee Admirals this year – a performance that was intercut by Bellows also racking up four points in 19 games with the Predators.

On the heels of that surge back to AHL success, Bellows will now opt to move to Sweden. He joins a strong Brynas roster that finished first in the league, but lost to Lulea in the championship, last season. Bellows should take up the role of top-six grinder complimenting former NHL names like Jakob Silfverberg, Oskar Lindblom, and Johan Larsson. He’ll also join up with NHL prospects Michal Svrcek (Detroit), Lucas Pettersson (Anaheim), and Gustav Hillstrom (New Jersey).

Tristan Luneau Poised To Make Big Impact For Ducks

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The Anaheim Ducks have quietly built an impressive stockpile of talented, young defenders. Players like Jackson LaCombe, Olen Zellweger, and Pavel Mintyukov are beginning to prove as much on the left-hand side, but Anaheim is still searching for that same kind of breakout on the right-side. After a fantastic rookie season in the minor leagues, Tristan Luneau who seems best positioned to bring exactly that jolt as soon as next season.

There’s a steep learning curve for young defenders transitioning to the pro flight – especially for slight-framed, puck-movers who don’t engage physically like Luneau. He showed signs of those struggles in the seven NHL games, and six AHL games, he played through in the 2023-24 season. While Luneau’s three points in the NHL was an impressive jump to production, he struggled to clear out the front of the net or stop opponents from entering the defensive end. Luneau was set to mitigate those early-career learning pains with a trip to the 2024 World Junior Championship – where he surely would’ve dominated his younger peers – before an illness and eventual knee infection effectively ended his season before the tournament even began.

With that, Luneau’s first year of pro hockey – and his first chance to represent Team Canada – came to an abrupt close. It left the Victoriaville-native in a confusing spot. His nifty puck-handling and blue-line playmaking translated seamlessly to the top flight, but he showed through multiple areas of needed growth. With a long-term absence to boot, Anaheim opted for the safe approach for Luneau’s return in the 2024-25 season – defaulting him to the minor-leagues for the entire season after a brief, six-game stint in the NHL in October.

A year removed, that decision has paid dividends. Luneau finished the year with 52 points in 59 games. That scoring pace – 0.88 points-per-game – is the third-highest a U21 defender has managed in the AHL since 2000, and interestingly the highest from a defender outside of the Los Angeles Kings pipeline (Brandt Clarke, 0.92 in 2023-24; Jordan Spence, 0.91 in 2021-22). On top of reaching a tremendous scoring height, Luneau also added a heap of confidence in the gritty areas of the ice. He was diving into puck battles and scrums in the slot with the prowess his 6-foot-1, 195-pound frame should provide. The result was not only an increased ability to win pucks in the corners, and hold his ground in the slot – but truly more opportunities for Luneau to win possession and command movement up the ice.

He, in many ways, returned to the end-to-end commander role he became known for in the QMJHL. Luneau was creating as many plays as he joined, and worked his way onto the AHL’s end-of-season All-Rookie team as a result. He was once an incredibly high-regarded prospect, earning first-round acclaim through points of his juniors career. Anaheim eventually landed Luneau in the middle of the 2022 second-round, and early returns seem to suggest he’s on the way to becoming a day-two steal. Luneau showed his ability to score at a top level through his first seven games in the NHL two seasons ago. Now – after vindicating that ability with a dominant year in the minors – he’s added the additional oomph needed to stretch his offense across a full season.

With a season-ending injury now well in the rearview mirror, Luneau seems poised to jump quickly back into the NHL, where his downhill-drive could pair perfectly with the all-three-zones ability of LaCombe or Mintyukov. He’ll be a favorite to make the Ducks roster directly out of training camp, and could soon be yet another young player to find his way to success on the Anaheim blue-line.

Morning Notes: Comtois, Kuznetsov, AHL

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Back in the spring, Max Comtois was believed to be receiving some interest to return to North America.  However, it appears the offers weren’t to his liking, relays Sport-Express’ Mikhail Zislis, who notes that the winger is expected to sign a two-year deal to remain with Dynamo Moscow of the KHL.  Comtois was quite productive with them last season, picking up 21 goals and 29 assists in 62 regular season games while adding 13 points in 15 playoff contests.  He has 87 points in 211 career NHL contests but it appears he won’t have a chance to add to those totals for another couple of years at least.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • While the Canadiens are known to be searching for center help, they are not among the teams pursuing Evgeny Kuznetsov. His agent, Shumi Babaev, told Louis-Andre Lariviere of La Page Sportive that Montreal has informed him that they won’t be offering Kuznetsov a contract.  The 33-year-old had 37 points in 39 games with SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL last season where he was teammates with Canadiens winger Ivan Demidov who is expected to play his first full NHL season in 2025-26.  Kuznetsov has 575 points in 743 games at the NHL level over an 11-year career but managed just 23 points in 64 games in 2023-24 between Carolina and Washington.
  • On Thursday, the AHL released its end-of-season Excellence Awards. Avalanche defenseman Jacob MacDonald was the winner of the President’s Award for player excellence after setting a league record for most goals by a blueliner with 31, helping earn him the Eddie Shore Award as the league’s outstanding defenseman.  Meanwhile, the newly established Bruce Landon Award for the most outstanding hockey operations executive went to Canadiens assistant GM John Sedgwick, who also serves as the GM of AHL Laval.

Minor Transactions: 7/11/25

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While the frequency of signings has certainly dried up as of late, there are still some free agents at the lower levels looking for new homes.  Some of those have inked recent contracts; we’ll run down those moves and other minor transactions here.

  • The Blackhawks’ AHL affiliate in Rockford announced that they’ve signed defenseman Andrew Perrott and forward Connor Mylymok to one-year AHL contracts. Perrott split last season between Washington’s AHL and ECHL affiliates, tallying 140 penalty minutes between the two levels.  Mylymok, meanwhile, was held off the scoresheet in eight games with AHL Calgary while posting 23 points in 40 outings with ECHL Rapid City.
  • Winger Robert Mastrosimone has signed with AHL Charlotte, an affiliate of the Hurricanes, per a team release. The 24-year-old was a second-round pick by Detroit back in 2019 but didn’t sign with them, ultimately becoming a free agent where he spent the last two seasons on a minor league deal with Toronto.  Mastrosimone played in 50 games for the Marlies in 2024-25, collecting 10 goals and four assists.
  • The Marlies announced that they’ve re-signed forwards Cedric Pare and Sam Stevens to one-year AHL deals. Pare was a capable secondary scorer last season for the Maple Leafs’ affiliate, notching 12 goals and 14 assists in 59 games.  Stevens, meanwhile, was limited to just 21 games with the Marlies in his first professional season, picking up two goals and two assists.
  • Earlier this week, Rangers prospect Artyom Gonchar has committed to play for OHL Sudbury next season, the junior team announced. The defenseman, who is the nephew of long-time NHLer Sergei Gonchar, was a third-round pick last month, going 89th overall.  Gonchar spent last season with MHL Magnitogorsk, tallying 25 points in 50 games.

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