Canucks Recall Nils Aman And Arshdeep Bains
The Canucks have been quite busy on the transactions front over the last couple of weeks, shuffling players back and forth to save cap space and, in some cases, pause the waiver clock of certain players. But with Friday’s trade of Daniel Sprong, they had a roster spot to try to fill on top of the usual paper moves. They’ve done so by announcing (Twitter link) the recalls of center Nils Aman and winger Arshdeep Bains from AHL Abbotsford.
Aman cleared waivers last weekend after spending the first few weeks of the season in the NHL. The 24-year-old had a very limited role over that stretch, however, only getting into four games and being scratched for the rest. He had two assists in those outings on the fourth line but is more known for being a defensive player than a point producer at the top level. Aman got into two games with Abbotsford following the demotion, picking up a pair of helpers there as well.
As for Bains, he has been no stranger to the shuffle as this is his fifth recall of the season already. The 23-year-old has a goal in seven games so far this season while collecting 12 hits and averaging 11:40 per night. Despite the frequent assignments to Abbotsford, Bains has played for them just once so far; he had a goal and two helpers in that contest.
With the promotions, Vancouver is now back to a full 23-player roster. That said, with the frequency of their moves over the first few weeks of the season, that’s unlikely to be the case for too long.
Penguins Recall Tristan Jarry, Assign Matt Nieto To AHL On Conditioning Loan
Two weeks ago, the Penguins opted to send goaltender Tristan Jarry to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on a conditioning loan. That loan has a two-week limit which has now expired. Accordingly, the team announced (Twitter link) that he has been recalled from the minors. Jarry remained on Pittsburgh’s active roster while in the AHL so no corresponding move was needed. Meanwhile, the team has also sent winger Matt Nieto to the AHL on a conditioning loan.
Jarry got off to a particularly rocky start to his season, posting a 5.47 GAA and a .836 SV% in his first three starts. While that’s a small sample size, it was certainly cause for some concern. Accordingly, when Alex Nedeljkovic returned, Pittsburgh elected not to send youngster Joel Blomqvist back to the minors, instead keeping three goalies.
After doing that briefly, the Penguins sent Jarry back from their road trip to work with their goalie coach away from the rest of the team. After a couple of days of that, the sides decided that a stint in the minors made sense. Jarry certainly made the most of it, getting into five minor league contests, putting up a 2.16 GAA and a .926 SV% in those outings.
It will be interesting to see how Pittsburgh opts to deploy Jarry. They might be inclined to give him another NHL start relatively quickly to see if he can continue his improved performance but a three-goalie rotation is often difficult to work with. Blomqvist has impressed in his first taste of NHL action and doesn’t deserve to lose much time or be sent down while Nedeljkovic is in the first season of a two-year deal signed a few months ago to keep him in the fold. For now, at least, it looks like they’ll carry three netminders and try to make it work.
As for Nieto, it has been more than 11 months since he last saw game action. The 32-year-old is coming back from a knee injury and is on LTIR. This means that his conditioning loan carries a shorter timeline than Jarry as the standard one is capped at three games and six days although two games can be added to that with league permission if it’s necessary. Nieto had four points in 22 games with Pittsburgh last season and is in the final year of his deal which carries a $900K AAV.
Lightning Assign Gage Goncalves To AHL
Gage Goncalves’ first NHL stint of the season was a short-lived one. The Lightning announced today that they’ve reassigned the forward to AHL Syracuse.
The 23-year-old was recalled earlier this week and got into two games with Tampa Bay. He was held off the scoresheet in those outings while logging a little over ten minutes per game. Goncalves had a big year offensively with the Crunch last season, collecting 58 points in 69 games and was off to a good start prior to his recall this year, notching four assists and four appearances thus far.
While Goncalves was recalled to take Brayden Point’s spot in the lineup due to his lower-body injury, this assignment shouldn’t be interpreted as Point being ready to return yet; he didn’t participate in practice today. However, Tampa Bay is off until Thursday so this assignment will free up a bit more cap space at a minimum while giving Goncalves a chance to play with the Crunch. If Point isn’t ready to return by Thursday’s game, Goncalves will probably be promoted once again.
Golden Knights Recall Jonas Rondbjerg, Place Nic Hague On IR
The Golden Knights have placed defenseman Nic Hague on IR, per the NHL’s media site. With the open roster spot, the team announced (Twitter link) that forward Jonas Rondbjerg has been recalled from AHL Henderson.
Rondbjerg is no stranger to the NHL-AHL shuttle in recent years as he has played in at least 13 games with Vegas in each of the last three seasons. In 2023-24, the 25-year-old got into 20 games with the Golden Knights, recording two goals and an assist while averaging 11:17 per night. Overall, he has three goals and seven helpers in 63 career appearances in Vegas.
While he hasn’t been a big point producer in the NHL, Rondbjerg has been much more effective offensively in the minors. Last season, he had nine goals and 16 assists in 48 appearances with the Silver Knights and is off to a decent start this year with two goals and two assists in his first seven games, helping to earn this recall.
As for Hague, the 25-year-old last played on Saturday and has been out with an undisclosed injury since then. He’s off to a quiet start to his season, notching just one goal in nine games along with 12 blocks and 13 hits while averaging just over 16 minutes a night, a number that skews a bit low due to missing time due to injury in two straight games. Assuming they back-dated the IR placement to Sunday, Hague will be available to return as soon as Monday against Seattle.
While Rondbjerg’s cap hit actually comes in slightly below the league minimum salary, his recall does push Vegas into using LTIR, meaning they’ll stop banking cap space for the time being. Accordingly, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him at least papered back to the minors on Saturday to get them back under the $88MM Upper Limit again.
Lucas Johansen Signs With AHL Henderson
Former Capitals first-round pick Lucas Johansen is joining the Golden Knights organization on a one-year contract with AHL Henderson, per a team announcement.
Johansen, 27 next week, had remained in the Washington organization through last season. He was mainly a fixture with the team’s AHL club in Hershey, though, appearing in just nine NHL games after being selected 28th overall in the 2016 draft.
A career-high six of those NHL games came for Johansen in 2023-24. He recorded his second career NHL assist and added a +1 rating, four shots on goal, and seven blocks while averaging 14:16 per game. With so little NHL experience, he quickly met the requirements for Group VI unrestricted free agency and hit the open market a year ahead of schedule.
Johansen inked a professional tryout with the Predators in September, hoping to stick around the former stomping grounds of his older brother, Ryan Johansen. However, he was released from the NHL camp less than two weeks later and was subsequently let go from a brief tryout with their AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals.
He heads to Nevada to join the Silver Knights on a full-fledged contract for the rest of the season, not a PTO. The British Columbia native brings 257 games of AHL experience to Vegas’ feeder club, all of which came in a Hershey Bears sweater. The 6’2″ left-shot defenseman totaled 20 goals, 72 assists, and 92 points with a +11 rating and is coming off back-to-back Calder Cup championships.
In the NHL’s eyes, Johansen remains an unrestricted free agent and can sign with any club. However, Vegas is the most likely, given their front office displayed enough interest to bring him in on a minor-league deal. If an NHL team signed him to a two-way contract, he would need to clear waivers to return to the AHL.
Devils Fire AHL Head Coach Kevin Dineen, Promote Ryan Parent
The New Jersey Devils have relieved Utica Comets head coach Kevin Dineen of his duties and promoted Ryan Parent as interim head coach for the remainder of the year, per NHL.com’s Mike Morreale. Utica has lost each of their first nine games, only taking one to extra time. They’re being outscored 16-to-40 in the outings. New Jersey has also hired Eric Weinrich as an interim assistant coach.
It’s been a dismal start for the Devils’ affiliate. Only two players on the team are scoring at-or-above a point-per game pace – Nolan Foote, who has eight points in eight games, and Seamus Casey, with seven points in five games. Utica has struggled even with the pair’s production, with seven Comets still searching for their first point of the season and an additional nine looking for their second.
The early struggles were enough for New Jersey to call an early end to Dineen’s fourth season at the helm. He joined Utica in 2021-22, posting a hardy 43-20-9 record and earning the Comets a first-round bye in the postseason. But that didn’t help them much in the Division semifinals, with Utica falling to Rochester 3-2. Dineen returned Utica to the playoffs in the following year – though with a worser record of 35-27-10. That forced them to participate in the first-round play-in, where they beat Laval 2-0, but Utica again failed to work past the Division semifinals – this time falling to Toronto 3-1. The pair of playoff losses highlighted Dineen’s slide, and he’d fail to lead Utica to the postseason for a third time last year – continuing to slip with a 32-29-11 record.
Dineen’s struggles have hit a peak this year, and he’ll now be replaced by another former pro player in Ryan Parent. Parent – a 2005 first-round pick who played in 251 career AHL games across 10 seasons – joined the Devils organization as an AHL coach in 2018, when the team was still affiliated with the Binghamton Devils. He joined the organization’s move to Utica in 2021 – staying a reliable feature of the Devils’ prospect development.
In speaking on Parent’s promotion, Utica general manager Dan MacKinnon said, “In his seven years with our AHL affiliate, Ryan Parent has established a track record of transparently communicating with young players and teaching good habits, while drawing on his own playing experiences… Those characteristics will serve him well in this new role where he will need to develop, lead, and relate to players at all different stages of their pro hockey careers.” MacKinnon also noted that New Jersey felt the need to make a change while the season was still young.
Flyers Place Ryan Poehling On IR, Recall Anthony Richard
The Philadelphia Flyers have placed forward Ryan Poehling, retroactive to Saturday November 2nd. The details of Poehling’s injury weren’t revealed, though he didn’t join the Flyers on their three-game road trip that started on Tuesday due to personal reasons. Philadelphia hosts San Jose on Monday, November 11th – which will stand as Poehling’s next chance to return to the lineup.
Poehling appeared in all 12 of Philadelphia’s games before Tuesday, recording five assists, six penalty minutes, and 21 shot attempts while averaging just over 13 minutes of ice time. He’s searching for his footing this season after establishing a routine, middle-six role in his first season with the Flyers last year. Poehling earned 11 goals and 28 points in 77 games in that role. He also carried the heftiest faceoff responsibility of his career, winning 461 of 938 draws – good for a 49.1 faceoff-percentage, third-highest among Flyers centers. While his start to this season has been slow-coming, Poehling still leaves a noticeable hole in a struggling Flyers’ bottom-six.
In a corresponding move, the Flyers have also recalled centerman Anthony Richard from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Richard is in his first year with the Flyers organization, continuing his string of one-year tenures after spending the last three seasons in tenures with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Montreal Canadiens, and Boston Bruins organizations. Lehigh Valley has proven Richard’s best sparring grounds so far though, where he currently sits with a team-leading nine points in seven games. He’s pulled the thread of top-end minor-league scoring through yet another season, after netting 55 points in 59 games last season and 67 points in 60 games in 2022-23.
Richard not only stands as one of Lehigh Valley’s hottest scorers, but also one of the longest-tenured veterans in the program. He boasts 309 points across 488 games and 10 seasons in the AHL, adding eight points – split evenly – in 24 career NHL games. This season is standing as a career-year for Richard, marking the highest production of his career – on pace for 92 points across a full AHL season. He could now get a chance to carry that momentum into the NHL, but he’ll need to earn a lineup spot first. Philadelphia is currently utilizing Noah Cates and Nicolas Deslauriers to fill Poehling’s vacancy at fourth-line center. Cates has posted an impressive 57.1 faceoff-percentage on 63 draws this season – which should be enough to hold down the role in the face of new pressure from Richard.
Philadelphia Flyers Acquire Ben Gleason From Oilers
The Philadelphia Flyers have acquired defenseman Ben Gleason from the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for defenseman Ronnie Attard. The swap sees a pair of AHL defensemen on the move as neither player has been able to secure a full-time NHL role to this point in their respective careers. The move is necessary for the Oilers, as their affiliate, the Condors, are short on veterans as they embark on a four-game, seven-day marathon through Canada.
At the age of 26, Gleason has spent the entirety of this season with the Oilers AHL affiliate in Bakersfield. The native of Ortonville, Michigan, has a goal and three assists in those seven games and has registered 15 shots on goal. He originally signed with the Dallas Stars as a free agent back in 2018 and played four NHL games with the Stars that year, grabbing his first NHL point on November 10th, 2018. He went on to play five seasons with Dallas’ AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars, and then eventually signed as a free agent with the Oilers in the summer of 2023.
Attard was drafted by Philadelphia back in 2019 (72nd overall) and went on to play 29 NHL games in the past three years, posting two goals and four assists. The 25-year-old has dressed in 123 career AHL games with Lehigh Valley between 2022-24 and has 22 goals and 37 assists during that time.
Canucks’ Nils Aman Clears Waivers, Assigned To AHL
11/3: Aman has cleared waivers and been assigned to the AHL, per a team release.
11/2: With Dakota Joshua nearing a return to the lineup, the Canucks need to open up a roster spot for him. It appears that Nils Aman will be the one losing his spot as the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve placed him on waivers for the purpose of assigning him to AHL Abbotsford.
The 24-year-old has taken an interesting route to the NHL. Originally drafted in the sixth round by Colorado in 2020, Aman didn’t sign with them and then signed with Vancouver two years later. After a short stint in the minors to start 2022-23, he was up with the big club the rest of the way, getting into 68 games. Aman also spent time in the AHL last season, collecting 15 points in as many games while also getting into 43 NHL contests, tallying four goals and three assists while his waiver exemption expired.
He signed a two-year, $1.65MM extension in late November, ensuring that he’d remain a low-cost option for Vancouver for a little while longer. However, Aman has only played in four of their first nine games this season, although he does have a pair of assists but it evidently wasn’t enough to keep his roster spot secure.
As far as waiver placements go, this is one of the more intriguing ones. Aman already has 115 career NHL games (and 25 points) under his belt and with a cap hit only $50K above the league minimum, he’s a player most teams could afford if they’re looking to either add a depth piece or shake up the back end of their forward group so he’s far from a guarantee to clear.
Interestingly, this isn’t a move that Vancouver necessarily had to make. They’ve been sending two players back and forth from Abbotsford in recent days with one of them being winger Arshdeep Bains. The Canucks could have simply elected to send Bains down when Joshua returns to create the roster spot. Instead, it appears Bains will have a bit more of an opportunity to try to secure a full-time spot in the lineup.
Rangers Activate Jimmy Vesey Off LTIR, Assign Matt Rempe To AHL
The Rangers will welcome back Jimmy Vesey to their lineup tomorrow against the Islanders after he spent the first few weeks of the season on LTIR. In a corresponding move, the team announced (Twitter link) that winger Matt Rempe has been re-assigned to AHL Hartford.
Vesey was injured partway through training camp, sustaining a lower-body injury that has kept him out of all ten games the Rangers have played so far. With the 31-year-old basically being a full participant in practice for the past week, it comes as no surprise that he was activated as soon as he was eligible.
Vesey was a solid depth scorer for New York last season, notching 13 goals and 13 assists in 80 games despite averaging just 12:23 per game, a career low. He’s playing in the second and final season of a two-year, $1.6MM contract, a deal that has proven to be a team-friendly one thus far.
His return means that Rempe’s second stint with the Rangers this season was rather short-lived. New York sent him to Hartford last week, recalling him just four days later after a pair of outings with the Wolf Pack. The 22-year-old has played in just three games this season with New York and has been held off the scoresheet while averaging just 5:26 per game. Given that he’s waiver-exempt, it makes sense for him to go to Hartford and play more of a regular role with them for the time being.