Emerson Etem Signs With Lugano Of Swiss League
Former Arizona Coyotes forward Emerson Etem has chosen to give up on the NHL and head overseas to Switzerland. Etem signed today for the remainder of the season with Lugano of the Swiss National League, according to EliteProspects.com.
The 25-year-old wing signed a one-year deal this offseason to play with the Arizona Coyotes, but didn’t make the squad and instead found himself with the Tucson Roadrunners. He eventually asked to be released and was put on unconditional waivers on Dec. 31.
Etem, a former first-round pick in 2010, struggled to etch out an NHL career as he has never played a full NHL season. His best season was in the 2015-16 season when he played 58 games between the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks. He had seven goals and eight assists, but couldn’t parlay that into further success. He was waived by the Canucks at the start of the 2016-17 season and picked up by Anaheim, the team that originally drafted him, but only got into three Ducks’ games all season.
In 16 AHL games with the Roadrunners this season, Etem had four goals and one assist.
Anaheim Claims J.T. Brown, Places Logan Shaw On Waivers
The Anaheim Ducks claimed J.T. Brown off of waivers Sunday and placed Logan Shaw on waivers to make space for him, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Brown, who was placed on waivers Saturday by the Tampa Bay Lightning, will now join the Ducks in hopes of providing some bottom-six offense for them.
Brown played sparingly in Tampa Bay, who was looking to free up roster space so the team can audition some of its top youngsters from their AHL franchise. They 27-year-old has spent six seasons with Tampa Bay, but has seen his playing time drop to an all-time low of 9:22. He has played in just 24 games for the Lightning this year, often being a healthy scratch. He has a goal and three assists on the year and might be best known this season for raising his fist in protest during the national anthem on Oct. 7. Brown is the second Lightning player to be lost to waivers this season as they lost Gabriel Dumont earlier this year to Ottawa.
The 25-year Shaw, on the other hand, has seen a significant amount of action this year, mostly on the team’s fourth line, as he’s played in 42 of the team’s 44 games. However, with just two goals and six assists this year while averaging 11:29 of ice time, the team hopes he might clear waivers and they can keep him with their AHL affiliate.
Calgary Places Jaromir Jagr On Injured Reserve
After discussing a parting of ways last week, the Calgary Flames placed veteran Jaromir Jagr on injured reserve Sunday with a lower-body injury and have recalled winger Ryan Lomberg to take his place, according to Todd Cordell of HockeyBuzz.
The two parties had been reportedly looking into finding Jagr a new home after reports came out that the two parties had decided to split. The 45-year-old veteran has not been a good fit in Calgary this year as he has struggled through the year with injuries and has just one goal and six assists in 22 games. The Flames gave Jagr’s agent permission to seek a trade and there was also talk that a European team also had interest in the veteran. However, eight days later, nothing has changed and the team opted instead to open a roster spot.
While Lomberg is not one of the top forwards on the Stockton Heat, the team called up the 23-year-old, who is known to be a fan favorite with the Heat due to his blue-collar work ethic and attitude. The undrafted free agent has four goals and seven assists in 33 games this year and also has accumulated 82 penalty minutes.
Minor Transactions: 1/14/18
With one of the biggest slate of games Saturday, at least since the bye weeks have started, the NHL has just four games today, but several teams will be making moves to prepare for their coming games or their bye weeks.
- The Winnipeg Jets announced they have assigned three players to the Manitoba Moose of the AHL Sunday, including goaltender Michael Hutchinson, and forwards Brendan Lemieux and Jack Roslovic. With the Jets off until Saturday, all three will be sent down to get more playing time. Hutchinson was an emergency call-up to fill in for goaltender Steve Mason, who left the team with an illness, but the AHL goaltender did not see any action. The 21-year-old Lemieux has played in eight games with the Jets. He has one goal and 19 penalty minutes, while Roslovic, the team’s 2015 first-round pick, has played in four games this year and is pointless.
- The New York Islanders announced they made an emergency recall of Tanner Fritz from the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the AHL Sunday after they placed veteran forward Andrew Ladd on injured reserve. The 26-year-old Fritz is having a solid season with Bridgport, putting up 10 goals and 27 assists in 32 games. He has played three games with the Islanders already this year with no points. Ladd, suffered an upper-body injury Jan. 5 in a game against Pittsburgh, and is still not ready to return. Ladd has nine goals and nine assists this year.
- Fox Sports’ Jon Rosen tweets that the Los Angeles Kings recalled forward Jonny Brodzinski from the Ontario Reign this afternoon. The 24-year-old forward has already played 22 games for Los Angeles and has two goals on the year, but has received just an average of 9:36 minutes of ice time this year. He has been thriving, however, with Ontario as he has six goals and eight assists in 11 AHL games this year.
- The Carolina Hurricanes announced that they have reassigned center Lucas Wallmark to Charlotte of the AHL. Wallmark suited up this afternoon against Calgary but with the team now off on their bye week, this will allow him to keep playing. He has a goal in four games with Carolina so far this season while adding 23 points in 20 games at the minor league level.
Eastern Notes: Lightning Roster, Hall, Ryan
The Tampa Bay Lightning started their bye week Friday, yet made news this afternoon when they placed forward J.T. Brown on waivers. However, Tampa Bay Times’ Joe Smith writes that general manager Steve Yzerman said the move was made to open some roster flexibility for potential callups from their AHL Syracuse Crunch roster.
Smith writes the team is enamored with the play of several of their AHL players, including Adam Erne, Carter Verhaeghe, Alexander Volkov and Matthew Peca and have suggested on many occasions the team may want to see some of them in a Lightning uniform this season.
“I wanted the flexibility within our roster, when the time comes, to recall players currently excelling in Syracuse and give them an opportunity to play,” Yzerman told the Times.
Erne has received some praise from Yzerman already, saying he’s “been playing his way out of the American League.” The 22-year-old wing was a second-round pick in 2013 and has 11 goals and 25 points in 37 games with the Crunch. He played 26 games for Tampa Bay last year. Verhaeghe, a former third-rounder in 2013, has eight goals and 16 assists in 24 games. Volkov, the team’s second-round pick in the 2017 draft, has 10 goals and 22 assists in his first season in the AHL and is just 20 years old. Peca was named as an AHL all-star and leads the team with 29 points.
- The Athletic’s Craig Custance (subscription required) interviewed New Jersey Devils head coach John Hynes, who says that wing Taylor Hall has made a successful transition to team leader, but it took a while. Hall, who was acquired by trade in the offseason two years ago was unhappy about being traded to New Jersey, although he said it had more to do with the troubles in Edmonton and his inability to turn the franchise’s success around. Hynes added that it took a full year for Hall to recover from the change. However, the 26-year-old former first overall pick in 2010 spoke with general manager Ray Shero after last season and they talked about him taking over the leadership role this season and he’s done just that. He has 15 goals and 27 assists in 39 games this year. “Now, I think you see a guy, he’s gone through that mourning period and now, this is his team,” said Hynes. “New Jersey’s his team, it’s his city, he has pride in what we’re doing. He’s bought in and he’s helping drive our team to become a much more competitive team than we have been in the past.”
- The Athletic’s Eric Duhatschek writes (subscription required) that the best way for the Ottawa Senators to make a contract work for future 2019 unrestricted free agent Erik Karlsson work would be spend this offseason working hard to unload the contract of veteran Bobby Ryan. The scribe writes that while center Matt Duchene will also need a new contract, he is already making $6MM and likely wouldn’t command a contract too much more than that. However, Karlsson is likely to cost at least $10MM per year and possibly as much as $12MM per year if the salary cap continues to rise. If the team can find a way to unload Ryan, who will make $7.25MM for the next four seasons after this one, that would solve a lot of Ottawa’s problems. Duhatschek suggests finding a way to have the Vegas Golden Knights, who should have up to $40MM in cap space available next year, take Ryan off their hands and even suggests the Senators retain half his salary to make that work.
Metropolitan Notes: Ho-Sang, Bailey, Couturier, Rowney
New York Islanders forward Joshua Ho-Sang isn’t having the season he expected. After being called up late in the season a year ago and putting up solid numbers, the 21-year-old winger hoped for a full NHL season this year with the Islanders with a chance to play on one of the team’s top lines. However, while the 2014 first-round pick has played in 22 games this year for the Islanders, he has also found himself playing a significant amount of time with the AHL’s Bridgeport Sound Tigers and most recently found himself scratched from the lineup Wednesday for what sounds like discipline reasons, according to the New York Posts’ Greg Joyce.
“He’s a baby,” Bridgeport coach Brent Thompson said. “He’s a baby, he’s immature and he’s got a lot of growing to do. I’m excited. The upside of him is outstanding. He worked hard today, he’s been working really hard. We all make mistakes, we all have bad games. It’s how do we respond from those and what do we learn from them? Every piece of this season for Josh, with us, is a development piece. It’s just going to be a longer process with some people.”
Ho-Sang has played 16 games with Bridgport and has four goals and eight assists for the Sound Tigers. However, he wasn’t thrilled with his benching.
“Yeah, I’m only young, but I’m burning years off my NHL career. It sucks,” Ho-Sang said. “You want to be up top. For me, I didn’t look at it this way until this year. I was looking forward to hopefully my first [full] NHL season.”
- Still with the Islanders, Dan Rosen of NHL.com writes that New York Islanders head coach Doug Weight said that winger Josh Bailey will return to the lineup next week after having missed two games with a lower-body injury. Recently named to the all-star game, the 28-year-old is having a big season with 12 goals and 38 assists in 42 games. His return should be welcome news for the Islanders, who are dealing with multiple injuries. The Islanders announced today they have lost forward Casey Cizikas with an upper-body injury and may miss a few games. “It’s upper body and it’s not great. We’ll find out after we get a look at it, but he won’t be playing the next little while at least. He won’t be on the trip,” said Weight.
- Philly.com’s Sam Carchidi writes that despite the fact that Philadelphia Flyers forward Claude Giroux was the all-star choice by the NHL, he believes that center Sean Couturier is the Flyers first-half MVP. While Giroux has picked up 52 points in the first 42 games this season, Couturier, who has 23 goals and 42 points in 42 games, has gone from a defensive-minded center (which he still is) and become a top scorer finally. Even Giroux admitted that Courturier should have gotten the all-star nod over himself. “I really think he deserves to be there, even in my place,” said Giroux, the Flyers’ lone all-star representative. “If there’s one guy that really deserves it, it’s him.”
- The Pittsburgh Penguins placed forward Carter Rowney on injured reserve today with an upper-body injury after he was injured back on Jan. 2 against Philadelphia. Despite being listed as being out for a minimum of four weeks back on Jan. 4, he was not put on IR immediately. Rowney, who has served as the year’s third and fourth line center at different points during the season, has struggled so far this year with just two goals and two assists in 27 games. No corresponding moves have been made yet.
Snapshots: van Riemsdyk, Hutchinson, Dal Colle
Expect James van Riemsdyk to stay with the Toronto Maple Leafs all season. That’s what TSN’s Darren Dreger writes in his latest column, positing that he and fellow pending unrestricted free agents Tyler Bozak and Leo Komarov, are best used as “own rentals” for the playoff push.
While there are some big numbers floating around for any potential van Riemsdyk extension, he’s continued to play an important role on the Maple Leafs, tying Auston Matthews for first on the team in goals with 19.
- The Winnipeg Jets have recalled Michael Hutchinson from the AHL for tonight’s game, explaining that Steve Mason has fallen ill and can’t back up Connor Hellebuyck. To make room, the team has placed Adam Lowry on injured reserve. Hutchinson is an extremely interesting goaltender to keep an eye on this year, as he’s headed for unrestricted free agency in the summer. Though he’s stuck in the minor leagues this season due to Mason’s signing, the 27-year old has dominated the AHL with a .942 save percentage and could land an NHL job in the summer. In 99 career NHL games he does hold a .910 save percentage, and could be an excellent backup option.
- New York Islanders head coach Doug Weight has confirmed that Michael Dal Colle will make his NHL debut tomorrow, the second-last player to do so from the first round of the 2014 draft. Only Connor Bleackley, who never signed with the Colorado Avalanche and re-entered the draft in 2016 (going in the fifth round), is left. Dal Colle was selected fifth overall, and still has some real upside to his game, but will have to quickly prove that he’s ready to take the next step.
Minor Transactions: 01/12/18
The NHL has five more contests on the schedule for tonight, including the second half of a home-and-home between the Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes. Carolina took the first match 3-1 last night, and will look to make up more ground at tonight’s affair.
- The Columbus Blue Jackets have just one game remaining until they take their five-day bye week, and have sent a pair of players down to the minor leagues in the meantime. Zac Dalpe and Dean Kukan are on their way back to the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters, where the latter will play in the AHL All-Star game later this month.
- Maxim Mamin‘s time with the Florida Panthers has come to an end for now, as he’s headed back to the AHL. Like the Blue Jackets, the Panthers will be going on their break after tonight’s game against the Calgary Flames and want Mamin to continue to play.
- Travis Boyd has been recalled by the Washington Capitals, giving them another option in their second game in two nights as several players battle injury and illness. Boyd has played two games with the Capitals this season, but has yet to score his first NHL point.
- The Pittsburgh Penguins have recalled Casey DeSmith from the AHL, which likely means an injury of some sort for Matthew Murray or Tristan Jarry. The Penguins play tomorrow afternoon against the Detroit Red Wings, before welcoming the New York Rangers in on Sunday.
- Philadelphia has recalled Tyrell Goulbourne once again, bringing up the young winger prior to their game tomorrow against New Jersey. The Flyers have given Goulbourne two games so far this season, but he’s played extremely sparingly in them. He’s still looking for his first NHL point.
- As the Buffalo Sabres head into their bye week, both Brendan Guhle and Linus Ullmark have been returned to the Rochester Americans. It’s not clear if either will return after the week is up, but with the Sabres seemingly accepting their disappointing fate of another missed playoff opportunity it wouldn’t be surprising.
- After enjoying their week off, the Rangers have recalled Vinni Lettieri from the minor leagues prior to their game tomorrow. Lettieri continued to play in the AHL while the team had their bye week, staying fresh during his first full season of professional hockey. The 22-year old has made an impact in the minor leagues and NHL so far, recording 23 points in 35 games across the two levels.
- Kevin Gravel is up for the third time this season, as the Los Angeles Kings recalled the young defenseman today. Gravel has suited up for just three games, being used more as an insurance policy than key player. Coming off the bye, the Kings have three straight games on home ice including a pair against teams chasing them in the Pacific Division.
- Ondrej Kase and Jared Boll are back from the minor leagues now that the Anaheim Ducks are finished their bye week. It’s interesting that Boll gets the recall instead of Kevin Roy, who was sent down along with Kase when the week off began, but with Corey Perry back in the lineup Roy will get top minutes at the AHL level and stay ready for his next opportunity.
- Brett Pesce has been moved to injured reserve by the Carolina Hurricanes, and in his roster spot the team has recalled Lucas Wallmark. Wallmark, 22, has played just two games with the Hurricanes this season, but recorded his first NHL goal last month. He obviously won’t help fill the role of Pesce, but could contribute up front if he makes it into the forward lineup at some point.
New York Islanders Recall Three Players From AHL
The New York Islanders have recalled three players from Bridgeport in the AHL, bringing up Michael Dal Colle and Anthony Beauvillier on emergency conditions, and Sebastian Aho under normal conditions.
While Beauvillier and Aho both have had stints with the Islanders previously, the most interesting name may be Dal Colle. Selected fifth overall in the 2014 draft, Dal Colle has yet to make it to the NHL during his professional career. Instead, he’s now played 114 games at the AHL level, scoring 60 points in the process.
Though there is no guarantee he gets into a game this time around, seeing him up with the NHL squad will be a welcome sight for many New York fans who have been waiting for his debut. Dal Colle is one of just two players from the first round of the 2014 draft yet to make an NHL appearance, and is well behind his contemporaries at the top of the draft.
The emergency recalls likely mean that Andrew Ladd and Josh Bailey, both of whom sat out recently with injuries, will not return when the Islanders take on the New York Rangers on Saturday night. Neither has been placed on injured reserve.
Michael Paliotta Traded To Texas Stars
The Toronto Marlies have traded minor-league defenseman Michael Paliotta to the Texas Stars for future considerations. Paliotta was signed to an AHL contract this summer, after spending last season in the New York Rangers organization on a two-way deal. This deal doesn’t rid the Maple Leafs of a contract since Paliotta was only on an AHL deal, meaning they are still at the 50-contract limit.
Selected by the Chicago Blackhawks in the third round of the 2011 draft, Paliotta has just two NHL games under his belt. Last season he suited up for 52 contests with the Hartford Wolf Pack, scoring 14 points. The 24-year old had played just eight times for the Marlies on a crowded blueline this season, and should get more of an opportunity for Texas.