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Minor Transactions: 12/21/23

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Although the NHL’s annual holiday roster freeze is in place, player movement has not halted across the wider world of professional hockey, both in North American minor leagues as well as the many pro leagues in Europe. As always, we’ll keep track of notable player movement from those places here.

  • Veteran goalie Patrik Rybár has signed a one-year contract extension with his current club: Spartak Moscow of the KHL. The 30-year-old Slovak international is in his second season with Spartak, and his third consecutive season in the KHL. He was signed out of Liiga’s Kärpät by Dynamo Minsk, and then after a year as Minsk’s backup he became Spartak’s starter for 2022-23. Rybár has been excellent since he became Spartak’s number-one goalie, with a .924 save percentage in 45 games last year and a .920 in 24 games this year. The one-time KHL All-Star is best known for the 2022 Winter Olympics, when he posted a .966 save percentage and backstopped Slovakia to a bronze medal.
  • 23-year-old former Vegas Golden Knights prospect Peter DiLiberatore has had his PTO with the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners converted to a full-time deal, according to the AHL’s official transactions wire. The former Quinnipiac University alternate captain began the season with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, but then in November he moved to the AHL to play for Tucson. He has played in 13 AHL games this year and scored three points. Now with a full-time deal, DiLiberatore will get the chance to establish himself in the AHL on a more extended basis.
  • 2017 Minnesota Wild third-round pick Ivan Lodnia has signed with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays. The 23-year-old was once a strong scorer at the CHL level, potting 27 goals and 62 points in his final 41 games with the OHL’s Niagara IceDogs. He began his pro career in 2020-21 with the KHL’s Dynamo Minsk, before spending 2021-22 with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves. Lodnia has not yet played in the ECHL but has four goals and eight points in 38 career games.
  • Former Edmonton Oilers prospect Matt Cairns has been traded in the ECHL, with the Maine Mariners sending him to the Indy Fuel in exchange for future considerations. Maine acquired Cairns from the Cincinnati Cyclones a few days ago but ultimately did not dress him for a single game. The six-foot-three defenseman has split this season between the New York Rangers’ ECHL affiliate, the Cincinnati Cyclones, and their AHL affiliate the Hartford Wolf Pack. He has skated in five games for Hartford and 11 for Cincinnati, scoring three points for the latter club.
  • Forward Jake Bricknell has been claimed off of waivers from the ECHL’s Florida Everblades by the ECHL’s Reading Royals. The 26-year-old has played in just two ECHL seasons but is now on his sixth different ECHL team. The six-foot-one, 211-pound grinder has scored two goals and three points so far in this season, and his career-high in offensive production as a pro came when he scored six goals and 17 points in 44 games for the Manchester Storm of the EIHL.
  • Jakub Rychlovský, one of the breakout stars of this Czech Extraliga season, has signed a two-year contract extension with an option for a third season with his current club, Bílí Tygři Liberec. Rychlovský currently ranks third on the team in scoring with 12 goals and 23 points in 29 games, and his offense has helped the team sit fourth place in the league standings. Rychlovský has already passed his career-high in points, a high he set last season with 17 points in 52 games.
  • 2011 Minnesota Wild first-round pick Zack Phillips has been signed by the EIHL’s Manchester Storm, according to a team announcement. The 31-year-old is a veteran of numerous professional leagues, having already played in England, Sweden, Slovakia, Germany, Poland, Scotland, and Hungary as well as the United States and Canada. After fizzling out in the AHL in 2016, Phillips began his European pro career and was signed by Manchester out of the German third division. Phillips played in the EIHL last season with the Fife Flyers, leading the team in scoring with 45 points in 53 games.

This page may be updated throughout the day.

Penguins Notes: Guentzel, Shea, Trade Market

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The Penguins and Jake Guentzel have not made progress on extension talks, reports Chris Johnston of The Athletic (subscription link).  The 29-year-old is a pending unrestricted free agent and is on pace for a career-high 89 points after recording 36 and 40 goals over the past two seasons.  Currently on a contract that carries a $6MM AAV, he certainly has been a value contract for Pittsburgh during that time and he’s well-positioned to make a few million per season more on a long-term deal.  With the Penguins currently on the outside looking in at a playoff spot, Johnston suggests it would be difficult to see GM Kyle Dubas letting him go straight to free agency unsigned in July.  If that’s the case, he’d be a significant addition to the trade market closer to the March 8 trade deadline.

More from Pittsburgh:

  • After clearing waivers yesterday, the Penguins didn’t immediately send Ryan Shea down to the minors which was a bit odd. However, it was a short-term decision to keep him up as Pittsburgh has now loaned him to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, per the AHL’s transactions log.  The 27-year-old has played his first 22 career NHL games this season, averaging 12:28 per night and figures to have a more prominent role in the AHL after putting up 60 points combined over the last two seasons.
  • Pittsburgh Hockey Now’s Dan Kingerski wonders if the Penguins could be a dark horse team to watch for on the trade market. If they don’t wind up re-signing Guentzel and the salary cap goes up as expected, they could have the flexibility to add another big contract over the summer, even after taking on the bulk of Erik Karlsson’s deal this past offseason.  Accordingly, that could make them a player for an impact rental player on a possible sign-and-trade deal or one with some term remaining in the coming weeks.

Minor Transactions: 12/18/23

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Just five NHL contests are slated to be played tonight, although among that group of games there are a few with very intriguing storylines attached.

The Pittsburgh Penguins host the Minnesota Wild in what could be Marc-André Fleury’s final trip to PPG Paints Arena as an active player, although Fleury is not starting in the game. Matthew Tkachuk returns to Calgary tonight as the Flames host the Florida Panthers in a game that features quite a few former teammates. And out west in Winnipeg, the Montreal Canadiens take on the Jets in a contest that will always have stakes attached due to the hatred still felt in the Montreal market towards Mark Scheifele. Scheifele’s hit on Jake Evans from the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs, one that the NHL’s Department of Player Safety called “predatory,” is still fresh in the memory of many Canadiens fans, something that adds extra heat to the relatively rare matchups between the two clubs.

Just as tonight’s schedule is packed with intriguing storylines, player movement across the world of professional hockey has been packed with activity. As always, we’ll keep track of notable player movement here:

  • Former AHL All-Star netminder Kasimir Kaskisuo has been signed to a PTO by the AHL’s Laval Rocket, returning Kaskisuo to the American League after a two-year stint in the SHL. After spending a year as the taxi squad netminder for the Nashville Predators, Kaskisuo left North America to sign with Leksands IF in the SHL. He served as the starter there for 2021-22, posting a .910 save percentage in 46 games. He led Leksands to the SHL’s postseason and played in four Champions Hockey League games, but the following year saw his role as the team’s starter usurped by Lithuanian international Mantas Armalis. Kaskisuo re-enters the AHL at a dire time for the Rocket, who sit 28th in the AHL standings. Laval’s goaltending has been horrific this season, and the team leads the AHL in goals surrendered with 102. The next-worst team has given up 92 goals, and neither of the team’s two goalies (Jakub Dobeš, Strauss Mann) have save percentages above .885. The hope with this signing could be that Kaskisuo, who has a .909 career AHL save percentage, provides some much-needed stability in net for this young Rocket team.
  • In more news related to the Montreal Canadiens, prospect defenseman Petteri Nurmi has signed a one-year contract extension with his current club, HPK in the Finnish Liiga. The 21-year-old left-shot blueliner was drafted 194th overall by the Canadiens at the 2022 draft, and has been a regular for HPK for the last three seasons. He’s scored six points in 30 games this year and is HPK’s number-six defenseman, averaging 17:48 time-on-ice per game. The Canadiens hold the exclusive rights to sign Nurmi to an entry-level contract until June 1st, 2024, and this extension may not impact their decision-making on whether to extend him an offer as they could opt to get Nurmi on an ELC and then loan him back to HPK. As a seventh-rounder who has not yet been signed, though, it’s far from a guarantee that Nurmi receives an entry-level offer from the Canadiens, making the rest of this season an important stretch for the young blueliner.
  • Just one season removed from winning the Slovak Extraliga title, HC Slovan Bratislava currently sits 11th out of 12 teams in the league standings. Their struggles this season have prompted significant player movement in recent days, as this past week has already seen two defensemen and one forward depart the club. Slovan has made a signing to replace one of those two departed defensemen, inking Swedish international Jonas Ahnelöv to a one-year deal. A 36-year-old former Arizona Coyotes third-round pick, Ahnelöv is a left-shot defenseman with a ton of experience. He represented Sweden at the 2018 Winter Olympics and the 2014 IIHF Men’s World Championships. He’s also a veteran of over 500 games in the SHL, one of Europe’s top leagues, and brings leadership value having captained MoDo Hockey in 2014-15. Ahnelöv spent the last four years at Leksands, leading the club to the postseason on three occasions.
  • 23-year-old Finnish-American forward Joonas Oden has signed a one-year contract with Austrian club Pioneers Vorarlberg, a team that competes in the Central European ICEHL. The forward tried his luck at becoming a regular in Liiga and by 2021-22 looked to be successful, as he scored 11 goals and 29 points in 56 games for Ilves Tampere. But after scoring just two points in 14 postseason games for Ilves, Oden struggled the following campaign and eventually moved to SaiPa. He began the year at SaiPa but only scored four points in 14 games. Now he’ll head to the ICEHL, a league that Pioneers has struggled in since joining last season.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Calgary Flames Activate Jacob Markström

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The Calgary Flames have activated netminder Jacob Markström off of injured reserve. In corresponding moves, defenseman Ilya Solovyov and netminder Dustin Wolf have been reassigned to the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers.

Markström has been out of the Flames’ lineup since December 2nd, but when healthy he’s been the team’s undisputed number-one goalie. Now that his broken finger has recovered enough to allow him to play, Markström will resume that number-one role for the Flames.

Although he hasn’t been in strong form for over a year, but as recently as 2021-22 he posted a .922 save percentage in 63 games played. At his best, Markström can be one of the league’s best goalies, and the Flames need him to play like that if they want to re-enter the Western Conference playoff picture.

Heading back to the AHL is Wolf, one of the league’s top goalie prospects. He’s absolutely dominated that level over the course of the last two seasons, but hasn’t quite found his footing in the NHL yet.

As for Solovyov, he made his NHL debut this season at the age of 23. The 2020 seventh-round pick has averaged 14:59 in his six games of NHL experience so far this season and has registered two assists.

Rangers Recall Connor Mackey

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The Rangers have made a roster move in advance of their game tonight against Boston, announcing (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled defenseman Connor Mackey from AHL Hartford.

The 27-year-old was on an NHL roster on a full-time basis last season, splitting time between Calgary and Arizona where he got into 30 games combined in a depth role.  That helped Mackey earn a spot on Team USA at the Worlds in the spring.  However, after inking a one-year, two-way deal in July, he was waived at the end of training camp and cleared.

Since then, Mackey has been one of the first recalls from Hartford; this is his sixth promotion of the season after being brought up on five separate occasions last month.  Despite that, he has yet to make his Ranger debut.  In between the frequent travel, Mackey has played in 15 games for the Wolf Pack where he has a goal and four assists along with 35 penalty minutes.

It’s unclear who Mackey’s recall is intended to cover for; USA Today’s Vince Z. Mercogliano relays (Twitter link) that this is believed to be a precautionary move in case one of their blueliners can’t play tonight.  If they wind up not needing him, it could end up as a sixth quick recall and demotion for Mackey.

Blackhawks Place Seth Jones On IR, Recall Wyatt Kaiser

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The Blackhawks have made a pair of moves on their back end leading up to tomorrow’s matchup against Vancouver.  The team announced that defenseman Seth Jones has been placed on injured reserve.  Taking his place on the roster is blueliner Wyatt Kaiser who has been recalled from AHL Rockford.

Jones is dealing with an upper-body injury and his placement is dated retroactive to December 10th.  That means he’ll be eligible to be activated after missing Sunday’s game.  Earlier today, head coach Luke Richardson told reporters including Scott Powers of The Athletic (Twitter link) that there is no timetable for how long his top blueliner will be out.

The 29-year-old is still looking for his first goal of the season but has 11 assists in 27 games along with 64 blocked shots.  He’s also logging 25:25 per game, ranking fifth in the NHL in ATOI among all players so Richardson will have to get creative to try to fill those minutes.

As for Kaiser, the 21-year-old is in his first full professional year and has spent most of the year with Chicago, suiting up in 21 games where he has four assists along with 27 blocks while averaging 16:34 per night.  Earlier this month, the Blackhawks opted to send him to Rockford to get him some more playing time; he got into five games with the IceHogs and was held off the scoresheet.

Senators Recall Jiri Smejkal

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Jiri Smejkal’s time in the minors was short-lived.  After being sent down on Wednesday, the team announced (Twitter link) that the forward was recalled from AHL Belleville.

The 27-year-old is in his first season in North America after spending last season with IK Oskarshamn of the SHL where he had 23 goals and 20 assists in 49 games.  The hope was that he would push for a full-time spot with Ottawa, giving them a bit of a boost to their bottom six.

However, things haven’t quite gone as planned.  He was cut in training camp and has spent the majority of the season in the minors.  Accordingly, a report surfaced last month that he could be returning to Oskarshamn but clearly, that didn’t come to fruition.

Smejkal has played in 19 games with Belleville this season, picking up three goals and six assists.  He made his NHL debut earlier this month, making two appearances with the big club, being held off the scoresheet while averaging a little under seven minutes a game.  The Sens now have a full 23-man roster with this roster move.

Panthers Recall Will Lockwood

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After sending defenseman Uvis Balinskis down yesterday, the Panthers didn’t waste any time filling their open roster spot.  The team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled winger William Lockwood from AHL Charlotte.

The 25-year-old is in his first season after splitting last year between the Canucks and Rangers, primarily suiting up with their AHL affiliates.  He became a Group Six unrestricted free agent and inked a two-year, two-way deal with the Panthers on the second day of free agency.

Lockwood has split the season between Florida and Charlotte.  He has gotten into seven games with the Panthers and has been held pointless while logging just 7:27 per night on the fourth line.  Meanwhile, with the Checkers, Lockwood has fared much better, putting up three goals and four assists in 14 games with them so far.

Lockwood is three NHL games away from needing to pass through waivers again but with the Panthers now carrying 14 forwards on their active roster, playing time may be difficult to come by in the short term.  Anton Lundell missed Florida’s last game due to illness but it’s not supposed to keep him out for long so Lockwood is likely to serve as a spare forward for the time being.

Maple Leafs Recall Pontus Holmberg

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With Ryan Reaves leaving Thursday’s game against Columbus with an injury that’s expected to keep him “out for a while” according to head coach Sheldon Keefe, the Maple Leafs had an opening up front to fill.  They’ve now filled that spot as the team announced (Twitter link) that center Pontus Holmberg has been recalled from AHL Toronto.

The 24-year-old impressed in a half-season stint in 2022-23, earning him a two-year, one-way contract that carries an AAV of $800K.  It also led to expectations that he’d be an NHL regular this season.  That hasn’t been the case, however, as Toronto is taking advantage of his waiver exemption and has shuffled him back and forth so far.

Holmberg has played in seven games with the big club this season and has been held off the scoresheet while averaging just under nine minutes a night.  However, he has been quite productive with the Marlies, tallying six goals and four assists in 11 games at the AHL level.  For now, he’s likely to serve as the 13th forward assuming Matthew Knies is able to return from his illness tonight against Pittsburgh.

Libor Hájek Signs In Czechia

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The AHL’s Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins and defenseman Libor Hájek have mutually agreed to terminate the AHL deal that was signed in October. Hájek signed a contract with HC Dynamo Pardubice that will run until 2028, according to an announcement from the Czech club.

These two moves appear to bring to an end Hájek’s time playing high-level hockey in North America. The 25-year-old moved from Czechia’s HC Kometa Brno to the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades in 2015-16, and ended up selected 37th overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning in that year’s draft.

While he was still in junior, Hájek was moved to the New York Rangers as a key part of the blockbuster Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller trade.

Hájek’s professional debut came in the Rangers organization with their AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack. Although some scouts were optimistic about how Hájek’s offensive game would develop, the growth he showed in his later WHL seasons never translated to the professional level.

He scored just five points in 58 AHL games as a rookie, and he never scored double-digit points in any season in his professional career. Hájek still grew in terms of role and importance in New York thanks to his size, physicality, and defensive acumen. He ultimately played in over 100 games for the Rangers, mostly occupying a sixth or seventh-defenseman role. He was non-tendered by the Rangers this past offseason, and there was some belief that he might be able to fill in a similar role with another organization to the one he filled in New York.

That never came to be, though, and Hájek settled on an AHL deal with the Penguins. Now, after 11 games in Wilkes-Barre Scranton, Hájek has elected to forgo the chance at returning to the NHL on a short-term basis (and the instability that comes with that pursuit) in favor of significantly increased stability around the familiar surroundings of his home country.

He joins one of Czechia’s top teams in Pardubice, a club that reached the Champions Hockey League quarterfinals and has reached the Czech postseason in three consecutive years. He has a real chance of earning some hardware this year, as Pardubice currently sits first in the Czech standings with a 20-3-4 record.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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