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Colorado Eagles Hire Dan Hinote As Associate Coach

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After Steve Konowalchuk left this summer to become the next head coach of the Springfield Thunderbirds, the AHL’s Colorado Eagles had a position to fill as associate coach. The team has found their man from the NHL ranks as the team announced they have hired Dan Hinote.

Hinote is a veteran of nine years in the NHL from 1999 to 2009 with six of those years coming with the Colorado Avalanche. The former player was a reliable bottom-six player for the Avalanche and the St. Louis Blues throughout his career and helped Colorado win the Stanley Cup in 2001. Hinote played one year for MODO Hockey in the Elitserien before becoming an assistant coach with the Columbus Blue Jackets for the 2010-11 NHL season.

The Blue Jackets struggled mightily during Hinote’s tenure as an assistant coach as the team finished outside the playoff picture in their last days of residing in the Western Conference. Columbus qualified for the postseason in Hinote’s last year on the bench but was quickly eliminated in the first round by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Hinote was transitioned to a professional scout with the Blue Jackets organization until the 2018-19 season.

Over the next two years, Hinote worked with the US National Team Development Program in Plymouth, MI as an associate coach and also worked with the Team USA U18 in the 2019 World Junior Championship and the Team USA U17 in the 2020 World Junior Championship. After a successful run in the USHL and on the international stage, the Nashville Predators hired Hinote as an assistant coach ahead of the 2020-21 NHL campaign.

Hinote was in charge of a Predators’ penalty kill that had fallen towards the league basement as they finished 29th place in the NHL with a 75.58% success rate. Nashville climbed to 18th in the 2021-22 season, sixth in the 2022-23 season, before falling back to 22nd this past year. Hinote will have much more responsibility as an associate coach with the Eagles and returns to the Avalanche organization after nearly two decades away.

Canadiens Hire Pascal Vincent As AHL Head Coach

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According to a club announcement, the Canadiens have named Pascal Vincent as the next head coach of their AHL affiliate, the Laval Rocket. Vincent’s appointment comes nearly a month after he was fired as head coach of the Blue Jackets.

Vincent, 52, returns to a minor-league head coaching role after spending the last three seasons behind the Columbus bench. After being brought on as an associate coach ahead of the 2021-22 season, he was promoted to head coach shortly before the 2023-24 season due to Mike Babcock’s abrupt resignation following an NHLPA investigation. Under Vincent, the Blue Jackets remained rather hapless, limping to a 27-43-12 record and their second straight season with fewer than 30 wins.

But Vincent has a more comfortable track record of success in the AHL, where he served as head coach of the Jets’ affiliate, the Manitoba Moose, from 2016-17 to 2020-21. With the Moose, Vincent took home the AHL’s Coach of the Year Award in 2017-18 after guiding them to a 42-26-8 record, their third-best in franchise history.

Vincent is no stranger to the Montreal/Laval market. He was born in Laval and served as the general manager and head coach of the QMJHL’s Montreal Juniors from 2008-09 to 2010-11. The Canadiens were on the hunt for a new head coach for the Rocket after Jean-François Houle, who they signed to a multi-year extension in May, left the club to take over as head coach of Clarkson University.

AHL Notes: Checkers, Sonne, Hall

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The Charlotte Checkers of the American Hockey League have a new controlling interest as the team announced that Zawyer Sports & Entertainment has acquired the majority ownership in the team. The team’s now-former majority owner, Michael Kahn, will remain on as the team’s largest minority owner. Kahn was previously the controlling ownership party since 2006.

It will be Zawyer Sports & Entertainment’s first crack at an AHL franchise as the ownership group already carries a considerable presence in the ECHL. According to the public announcement, the group owns and operates the Jacksonville Icemen, Tahoe Knight Monsters, and the Savannah Ghost Pirates. The team also manages the Allen Americans and the Atlanta Gladiators of the ECHL.

Nothing will change in the day-to-day business operations or the front office of the Checkers per the agreement and the team will still serve as the primary affiliate of the NHL’s Florida Panthers. In regards to the purchase, CEO of Zawyer Sports & Entertainment, Andy Kaufmann said, “The Checkers are a team rich with history and an incredible fan base and we are honored to do our part in making Checkers Nation proud – not just on game days, but all year long in this very special community. We have already made an impact here in the community with Gastonia Baseball, and we are eager to grow our footprint in the region by providing local families with quality entertainment, community outreach and competitive hockey“.

Other AHL notes:

  • With assistant coach Jessica Campbell graduating to the NHL level with the Seattle Kraken — the team’s AHL affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, was on the search for a new coach. The team ended their search today by announcing the hire of Brennan Sonne as the team’s new assistant coach. Sonne recently earned a remarkable record as head coach of the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades for the last three years. Under his tutelage, the team amassed a record of 136-54-13 while reaching two WHL Eastern Conference Finals appearances.
  • It didn’t take Curtis Hall long to find a new home after not receiving a qualifying offer from the Boston Bruins as the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters announced they had signed the young forward to an AHL contract for the 2024-25 season. Hall has spent the last four years with the Bruins organization split between the AHL and the ECHL. It has been difficult for him to factor into games, however, as Hall has scored six goals and 16 points in 124 contests at the game’s highest minor league level.

Evening Notes: Ceci, Hrkac, Kovalenko

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The Edmonton Oilers will have a market of teams interested in defenseman Cody Ceci, should they want to trade him away, per Frank Seravalli of the Daily Faceoff on Bob Stauffer’s Oilers Now podcast. Seravalli added, “Right (shot) defensemen in that pay range are always in demand. Just go look at the pay range this summer and look at some of the money thrown around. Cody Ceci at that number is probably quite palatable.”

Ceci carries a $3.25MM cap hit through next season, before entering unrestricted free agency next summer, making him a manageable rental on a new team. But it’s hard to imagine Edmonton, who still carries $6.2MM in cap space, will be quick to move Ceci unless they need urgent relief. The 30-year-old defender held firm to his quant role in the middle of Edmonton’s lineup this year, posting five goals and 25 points through 79 regular season games. It was the second-most he’s scored int he last five seasons, though three points shy of his career-high. Nonetheless, Ceci provided the hard, two-line passing and general defensive stoutness to properly back Edmonton’s top lines, even if his performances with the Oilers have been far from exciting. On the open market, Ceci offers the presence of an 11-year vet with 88 career playoff games – just enough to warrant a cheap return.

Other notes from around the league:

  • The Anaheim Ducks have hired former NHL forward Tony Hrkac as their Director of Professional Scouting, shares Derek Lee of The Hockey News. Hrkac has served as a pro scout with the Tampa Bay Lightning since the 2015-16 season, after serving in a variety of coaching roles in Wisconsin. He’ll now take the next step in his managerial career at an apt time, joining the team amid a Mighty Ducks rebrand having played in 140 games as a Mighty Duck during his own career.
  • Dynamic Colorado Avalanche prospect Nikolai Kovalenko has returned to the United States for training after a brief vacation, shares Evan Rawal of Colorado Hockey Now. That news should set Kovalenko up for a full run at the NHL lineup next season, after scoring three points in four AHL games and appearing in two Stanley Cup Playoff games at the end of the season. The 24-year-old became a highly acclaimed prospect with 54 points in 56 games during the 2022-23 KHL season – a performance he followed with 35 points in 42 games. He’ll now look to bring his dynamic scoring ability to the NHL, where fans should get a much clearer picture of his long-term upside.

Utah Exploring Extension Or Trade With Victor Söderström

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The Utah Hockey Club is reportedly exploring the possibility of either an extension or a trade of defenseman Victor Söderström, shares Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports (Twitter link). Söderström is Utah’s only remaining restricted free agent after the team extended both Barrett Hayton and Egor Sokolov last week.

Söderström’s contract is a bit harder to work out. The 2019 11th-overall pick failed to earn a consistent NHL role on his entry-level deal. He’s instead muddled between the NHL and AHL lineups, with his playing time becoming somewhat of a spectacle for Coyotes fans. Söderström has spent plenty of time with the NHL roster since his debut in 2021, though routine healthy scratches have limited him to just 53 games since. He’s done little with the chances, netting just one goal – scored in his third career game – and 10 assists at the NHL level. He similarly struggled to score in the AHL early in his career, with just 50 points through his three seasons and 108 games in the minor leagues. Söderström started to buck that trend this year, though, playing through his first full season spent in one spot since 2019-20. He posted nine goals and 32 points in 62 games with the Tuscon Roadrunners this season – career-highs in every category.

It was a promising year for the 23-year-old defender, even if his stat line didn’t jump off the page. Still, fans got a strong glimpse of what Söderström offers at a top level. He showed a strong ability to champion transition up the ice, with heads-up passing and strong positioning, helped along by an improving ability to close down opponents as they enter the attacking zone. While not high-scoring, Söderström showed he could bring those positives on a nightly basis, underlined by added confidence in stepping into space in the offensive end.

Söderström showed glimpses of a former blue-chip prospect this season, though he still seems far off from vindicating his top-15 draft selection. There are reasons to hold onto hope, though, as he showed distinct improvement under a consistent role. Matching that at the NHL level could pay dividends – and Utah has an open spot on their second pairing that Söderström could push for. But he’ll face distinct competition from Michael Kesselring, Juuso Valimaki, and top prospect Maveric Lamoureux for the role – having already lost a fight for minutes with the former two last season.

That competition is enough to have Utah gauging that Söderström may garner on the open market. It’s hard to think many teams would be quick to pay up for a former top prospect yet to vindicate his draft capital – nor is Utah likely too eager to make a move that won’t favor them with a signing still a possibility. This has all of the makings of trade winds bound to drag on for a while, but with an attractive offer, a new team could land the talents of a former top pick with plenty of room to grow next season.

Hurricanes Sign Dominik Badinka To Entry-Level Contract

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The Carolina Hurricanes have signed 2024 34th-overall selection Dominik Badinka to a three-year entry-level contract. The deal will carry a league-minimum $775K salary at the NHL level, an $85K salary at the AHL level, and $282.15K in signing bonuses. Badinka becomes the third player from this year’s second round to earn his first NHL contract, joining Pittsburgh forward Tanner Howe and Washington defenseman Leon Muggli.

Badinka earned a near-first-round selection with a standout season in Sweden, where he fought his way into routine SHL ice time with the Malmo Redhawks on the back of 13 points in 17 U20 games. That production didn’t carry to the top flight, though, with Badinka posting just four points in 33 SHL games. Still, his aggressive edge and strong puck skills shined through despite the low scoring. He didn’t shy away from physicality, either, showing no fear engaging in puck battles with players 10 or 15 years his senior. He’s at his best with the puck on his stick, a knack for carrying the puck into the neutral zone and joining the rush. Badinka knows how to match the pace of a pro game – and did well at using quick passes and sharp skating to create space in the offensive end. But his aggressive positioning and naive fundamentals are both apparent drawbacks, and will no doubt be Badinka’s key areas of improvement as he prepares for North American pros.

Badinka is currently committed to joining Malmo for next season, surely hoping to take his first step forward in the SHL after planting his feet last year. But this entry-level contract could be enough to sway the young, feisty defender towards making a move to America before the end of the season. Badinka shared his eagerness to move to North Carolina with Chip Alexander of The News & Observer, saying he feels he can be NHL-ready within a year or two. He’ll become the next in a long string of Hurricanes defenders to jump to the pro level should that hold true, joining Scott Morrow and Ronan Seeley in the fight for NHL ice time.

Steven Kampfer Expected To Sign In KHL

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Utah Hockey Club defenseman Steven Kampfer is expected to sign a one-year deal with the KHL’s Traktor Chelyabinsk, per Craig Morgan of Go PHNX Sports and Mikhail Zislis of Russia’s Sport-Express (Twitter link). The deal will take him out of unrestricted free agency in the NHL, after not re-signing with Utah. Kampfer will be returning to Russia after spending the 2021-22 season with the Kazan Ak-Bars. He proved plenty productive on the international trip, posting 30 points – a career-high in Kampfer’s professional career.

Once a stout seventh defenseman in the NHL, Kampfer’s role has since dwindled into a starring role in the minor leagues. Utah, then Arizona, traded for Kampfer ahead of the 2023 Trade Deadline, sending future considerations in return for the Tuscon Roadrunners’ new top defender. That’s exactly the role that Kampfer assumed, totaling 29 points in 60 games with the club since the trade and donning their captaincy this year.

Kampfer, 35, kicked off his pro career with a fourth-round selection in the 2007 NHL Draft, hearing his name called by the Anaheim Ducks though he’d begin his career three years later with the Boston Bruins. He showed stout defense and good grit in a 38-game rookie season in 2010-11, though Kampfer quickly struggled to score at the top level. He’d go on to spend the next 11 seasons bouncing between strong AHL minutes and minimal NHL minutes, ultimately slotting into just 231 career games and posting a measly 39 points. He’s bucked that trend a bit in the minors, with 170 points across 378 career games, though it’s clear that Kampfer’s best offense came overseas. He’ll return to that well next season, looking to make the most of the final years of his career.

Minor Transactions: 7/13/24

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The hockey summer has entered a standstill, with moves around Europe headlining much of the news. We’ll keep track of the notable signings here:

  • Starting in North America, former St. Louis Blues forward prospect Keean Washkurak has signed a one-year, minor league deal with the Belleville Senators. Washkurak entered unrestricted free agency this summer, after not receiving a qualifying offer from St. Louis. He didn’t have much to show prospective new teams, with just four goals and 10 points in 63 AHL games last season. It was another low-scoring and low-minutes year for Washkurak, who’s totaled a measly 46 points across 176 AHL games since turning pro in 2020. He’s so far spent his career on two two-way NHL contracts with the Blues – a status that he’ll now have to work his way back to with Belleville.
  • Goaltender Zane McIntyre has signed a one-year deal with the Straubing Tigers of the DEL, Germany’s top league. The move ends McIntyre’s nine-year tour around the AHL; a trip that took him through stops with six different clubs, including the Providence Bruins and Iowa Wild. McIntyre has generally filled a backup role throughout his career, ultimately totaling 153 wins and a .908 save percentage in 300 AHL games. He’s now set for his first full year in Europe, though he did spend a brief six games with the KHL’s Dynamo Riga during the 2020-21 season.
  • Kyle Keyser is joining the string of goaltenders moving internationally, signing a one-year deal with the Kunlun Red Star, China’s KHL club. Keyser has spent the last six seasons with the Providence Bruins, though he’s split his time between the roles of AHL backup and ECHL starter. The 25-year-old Keyser has totaled 29 wins and a .902 in 73 AHL games and 16 wins and a .891 in 42 ECHL across his career. He’ll fight for better production in a more prominent role with Kunlun.

* This post will be updated throughout the day.

AHL Signings: 7/12/24

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With the major dust settled in NHL free agency, teams’ AHL affiliates are looking to fill out their roster to complement the many two-way additions made around the league so far this summer. Expect many minor-league-only contracts signed as the month progresses. Here are today’s:

  • The Springfield Thunderbirds announced they’ve signed veteran defenseman Scott Harrington to a one-year contract. Harrington, 31, has 255 games of NHL experience and last suited up in 2022-23 for the Ducks and Sharks. He spent last season in Switzerland with the ZSC Lions of the National League, where injuries limited him to four assists, 2 PIMs and a +4 rating in 14 games. He’ll look to get back on track in North America and will take part in his eighth AHL season, now with the Blues’ affiliate. In addition to Anaheim and San Jose, Harrington has also spent time in the Blue Jackets, Maple Leafs and Penguins organizations.
  • The Milwaukee Admirals have signed forward Kale Howarth to a one-year deal and center Kyle Marino to a two-year pact, per a team announcement. Neither brings NHL experience to the club, which serves as the Predators’ primary affiliate. Howarth, 27, was a 2017 fifth-round pick of the Blue Jackets but wasn’t signed to an entry-level contract upon finishing up his collegiate career at UConn in 2021. He’s spent the last three seasons in the Blackhawks organization on AHL contracts, splitting his time between the Rockford IceHogs and their ECHL affiliate, the Indy Fuel. Injuries cost him a solid chunk of last season, limiting him to 20 total games. He had six points in 50 games with the IceHogs since turning pro. Marino, 29, will fill out an enforcer role and can play defense if necessary as well. The 6’3″, 220-lb aggressor spent last season with the Chicago Wolves, where he had four points and a career-high 114 PIMs in 65 games. Like Howarth, he’s entering his fourth AHL season.
  • The Kings organization has added some goalie depth in the form of Dryden McKay, who inked a one-year contract with the Ontario Reign today. The 26-year-old has spent most of the last two seasons with the ECHL’s Newfoundland Growlers, the second-tier affiliate of the Maple Leafs, which ceased operations shortly before the end of the 2023-24 campaign. McKay, who was an intriguing addition to the Toronto pipeline after winning the Hobey Baker Award as the top player in college hockey with Minnesota State in 2021-22, has been unimpressive. He posted a .899 SV% and 3.18 GAA with a 27-20-5 record for Newfoundland the past two years. He has two AHL games to his name, both in 2022-23, recording a .885 SV% and 3.38 GAA for the Toronto Marlies.
  • The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins have signed defenseman Mats Lindgren to a one-year deal, the club announced. Lindgren, 20 in August, lands with the Pittsburgh organization after finishing his junior career with the WHL’s Red Deer Rebels. The smooth-skating left-shot defender was drafted 106th overall in 2022 by the Sabres but wasn’t offered an ELC before the June 1 deadline, thus becoming a UFA. He’ll try to work his way up toward earning an NHL deal with Pittsburgh after recording 41 points and a -4 rating in 63 games for Red Deer last season.

AHL Approves 23-Team Playoff Format For 2025

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According to Tony Androckitis of Inside AHL Hockey, the American Hockey League’s Board of Governors has approved a 23-team playoff format for the 2025 Calder Cup playoffs. The league has run the format for the past two seasons and will be revisited after the current AHL Collective Bargaining Agreement expires on August 31st, 2025.

The last time the AHL has run a 16-team playoff format in the Calder Cup playoffs came back in the 2018-19 season. After the Calder Cup playoffs were canceled in 2020 and 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the playoffs returned in 2022 to an adjusted format. The only teams in the league who did not qualify for the playoffs were the bottom two teams in each division.

The expanded playoff format did not do much for increased competition during the 2022 Calder Cup playoffs as the Calder Cup Finals was comprised of the Springfield Thunderbirds and the Chicago Wolves who earned a bye into the Division semifinals after the regular season. Since then, only the Rochester Americans and Hartford Wolf Pack have made it as far as the Division Finals for teams that would not have made it into the playoffs in a 16-team format.

It will be interesting to see the arguments for and against continuing the 23-team playoff format in the next collective bargaining agreement for the AHL. Some organizations that otherwise wouldn’t have made it into the playoffs are now guaranteed two games of postseason revenue while the players also earn a spot to play for the league’s highest trophy. However, since there has been no evidence to suggest that the new format leads to increased parity or competition in the Calder Cup playoffs, it would not be a surprise to see the league return to the traditional 16-team format.

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