Red Wings Assign Ville Husso To AHL
Last season, the Red Wings primarily had three goaltenders on their roster, unwilling to run the risk of losing one through waivers. They haven’t been willing to do so this year, however. That continued today as the team announced (Twitter link) that goaltender Ville Husso has been sent down to AHL Grand Rapids.
Husso cleared waivers early in the season and has primarily played with the Griffins. However, with injuries lately to both Alex Lyon and Cam Talbot, the 29-year-old was seeing regular action with the big club, including six appearances this month. Lyon was activated off injured reserve on Wednesday while Talbot was expected to return this weekend; this move indicates that Talbot will indeed be good to at least serve as the backup on Friday against Montreal.
Husso has played in eight NHL games overall this season, posting a 3.47 GAA with a .877 SV%. However, he has fared much better in limited AHL action, compiling a 1.58 GAA with a .944 SV% in five outings with the Griffins. A pending unrestricted free agent, Husso is heading for a significant drop on his current $4.75MM price tag but a good showing in the minors could help him land at least a one-way deal from someone this coming summer. That said, playing time for him will likely be limited with Sebastian Cossa and Jack Campbell both in the fold.
With this move, the Red Wings now have one open roster spot. Even with the roster freeze about to come into effect, that spot could still be filled by someone in the next few days.
Atlantic Notes: Lyon, Talbot, Edvinsson, Barkov
Prior to tonight’s game against Philadelphia, the Red Wings announced (Twitter link) that goaltender Alex Lyon was activated off injured reserve. He had missed nearly three weeks due to a lower-body injury. The 32-year-old had played in nine games this season going into tonight’s action, posting a 2.74 GAA with a .911 SV%. Lyon has been strong value on the two-year deal he signed last summer worth $900K per season; he’s well-positioned to command considerably more on the open market in July.
Meanwhile, team broadcaster Daniella Bruce adds (Twitter link) that the team is hopeful that starter Cam Talbot will be able to return by the weekend. The 37-year-old has made just one start in the last two-plus weeks due to a lower-body injury but was off to a strong start before that and has a 2.69 GAA with a .916 SV% in 16 appearances so far. Detroit has a home-and-home set against Montreal starting on Friday so it appears that they’re targeting Talbot to be available for one of those matchups.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic Division:
- Still with the Red Wings, the team announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Simon Edvinsson suffered an upper-body injury against Philadelphia and did not return. In his first full NHL season, the 21-year-old has certainly made an impact, collecting 13 points in 29 games while averaging 21:16 per game, good for second on the team behind only Moritz Seider. Speaking with reporters after the game including MLive’s Ansar Khan (Twitter link), head coach Derek Lalonde indicated that there was no immediate update on Edvinsson’s prognosis.
- Panthers center Aleksander Barkov returned to action tonight against Minnesota, relayed team reporter Jameson Olive (Twitter link). He missed the last two games due to illness. When healthy, the 29-year-old has been an impactful contributor with 29 points in his first 22 games; his 1.31 points per game average matches his previous best which was set back in the 2021-22 campaign.
Canadiens Acquire Alexandre Carrier
The Canadiens and Predators have swapped blueliners before Thursday’s roster freeze. Montreal has acquired Alexandre Carrier from Nashville in exchange for defenseman Justin Barron. Both teams have announced the deal.
Carrier is in his seventh NHL season, all of which came with Nashville after they drafted him in the fourth round back in 2015. He has gone from a depth defender to one counted on inside their top four.
However, the 28-year-old hasn’t been able to duplicate his 2021-22 performance that saw him land a spot on the All-Rookie Team. That year, Carrier had 30 points and 124 blocks in 77 games while logging nearly 21 minutes a night of ice time. He only managed 29 points in the following two seasons and has seven in 28 outings this season while averaging just over 20 minutes per game. Carrier is currently dealing with an upper-body injury but is believed to be ready to return to the lineup, relays TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie (Twitter link).
Carrier had a chance to test unrestricted free agency for the first time this past summer but instead elected to remain in Nashville, inking a three-year, $11.25MM deal that runs through the 2026-27 campaign. With David Savard being a pending unrestricted free agent and a speculative trade candidate as a result, it stands to reason that Carrier will eventually take his role as the veteran option on the right side of Montreal’s back end, ensuring they’ll have one experienced player on that side beyond this season.
As for Barron, the 23-year-old was a first-round pick by Colorado back in 2020, going 25th overall. It’s the second time in his career that he’s been on the move after he was the centerpiece of the package that the Canadiens acquired in exchange for winger Artturi Lehkonen back at the 2022 trade deadline.
At the time, Montreal was hoping that he’d become a key cog on their back end for years to come. However, while Barron has shown flashes of being a capable NHL player, he has struggled with consistency. Last season, despite a stint with AHL Laval, he collected seven goals and six assists in 48 games while averaging 18:38 per game and it appeared as if he’d turned a corner in his development. That earned him a two-year, $2.3MM bridge deal this past summer.
Unfortunately for Barron and the Canadiens, that hasn’t been the case this season. He has been a frequent healthy scratch over the first two-plus months of the year, only getting into 17 of 31 games. In those outings, he has been limited to just one goal (without recording any assists) while his playing time has dropped to just 14:43 per game.
This move gives Nashville a younger player to try to turn into a full-time piece while saving the team $2.6MM on the salary cap. Barron will also still have two years of team control when his deal expires while Carrier will be an unrestricted free agent when his contract is up. With the Preds struggling much more than many expected this season, it will be interesting to see if GM Barry Trotz has any plans to quickly utilize those cap savings with the roster freeze approaching or if he’ll wait until the new year to try to add another piece to their roster.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Minor Transactions: 12/18/24
With the holiday roster freeze coming up shortly, there has been an uptick in smaller moves around the NHL today, not to mention a trade of note. Here’s a rundown of those transactions plus an NHL-drafted prospect on the move at the junior level.
- The Kraken announced (Twitter link) that they have re-assigned winger Ryan Winterton to AHL Coachella Valley. The 21-year-old has found himself on the transactions log quite a few times already this season but has gotten into eight games with Seattle, picking up an assist while logging 10:22 per night of playing time. Winterton has been quite productive with the Firebirds though, tallying 15 points in 16 outings with them.
- The Hurricanes have returned winger Jackson Blake, goaltender Dustin Tokarski, and defenseman Riley Stillman to AHL Chicago, per the AHL’s transactions log. Carolina has made these moves all season long to bank a bit of cap space. Even with the roster freeze, emergency recalls are still permitted for a few more days so expect them to continue this for even after Thursday.
- Capitals prospect Cam Allen is on the move in the OHL. London announced that they’ve acquired the blueliner from Guelph in exchange for defenseman Noah Jenken and seven draft picks. Allen was once rated as a first-round pick but slid in his draft year (2023) to the fifth round, going 136th overall. Washington has already signed the 19-year-old who had 25 points in 27 games prior to the swap.
Rangers Recall Matt Rempe, Assign Victor Mancini To AHL
The Kaapo Kakko swap wasn’t the only transaction the Rangers made today. Not long after the trade was made official, the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled winger Matt Rempe from AHL Hartford while re-assigning defenseman Victor Mancini to the Wolf Pack.
Rempe made his presence felt down the stretch last season and earned a spot with New York in training camp. However, the 22-year-old didn’t play much early on and since he’s still waiver-exempt, the team has elected to largely keep him in the minors this season, allowing him to get more playing time while playing a bigger role than he has typically had with the big club.
With the Rangers, Rempe has been limited to just four games this season where he has been held off the scoresheet although he has seven hits and seven penalty minutes in just 6:26 of playing time per night, an uptick from the 5:38 he played last night. In Hartford, he has suited up 18 times, picking up three goals and two assists along with 22 penalty minutes.
As for Mancini, the 22-year-old is in his first professional season after wrapping up his college career at the University of Nebraska-Omaha last year. Ideally, New York’s preference would have been for him to play big minutes in the minors but a strong early showing down there plus a need to help their back end has resulted in him primarily playing for the Rangers. With the addition of William Borgen, they can now allow Mancini to get that bigger playing time in Hartford.
Mancini has played in 15 games with New York so far this season, picking up a goal and four assists while logging 15:05 per night of playing time. He has also played in six games with the Wolf Pack, recording five points. His cap hit is $50K higher than Rempe’s, allowing them to offset a small portion of the extra $300K pro-rated that they took on in the Kakko-Borgen swap.
Penguins Acquire Pierre-Oliver Joseph
After leaving the Penguins this summer, Pierre-Olivier Joseph is heading back there. The team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve acquired the blueliner from St. Louis in exchange for future considerations.
The 25-year-old spent five seasons in Pittsburgh’s system, split between them and AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Over his time with the Penguins, Joseph primarily played in a depth role and was generally sixth or seventh on their depth chart. Last season, he got into 52 games with Pittsburgh, recording 11 points while averaging a little over 15 minutes a night of ice time. However, they elected not to tender him a qualifying offer of $935K, knowing that doing so would have given him arbitration rights.
That made him an unrestricted free agent and while the Penguins were believed to have interest in keeping him around, Joseph instead elected to sign a one-year, $950K deal with St. Louis on the same day that the Blues acquired his brother Mathieu Joseph from Ottawa. However, the change of scenery hasn’t changed his role as Joseph has remained in that depth role. He has played in 23 games so far this season, picking up two assists while averaging just 13:06 per night, a career low.
With the Blues bringing in Cam Fowler recently, playing time was going to be that much harder to come by for Joseph while they also have Matthew Kessel and Tyler Tucker in the minors, players with some NHL experience. Presumably, they’ll be bringing up a defender – quite possibly one of those two – before long. As for Pittsburgh, Marcus Pettersson landed on injured reserve yesterday while Jack St. Ivany was injured with AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton per Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Twitter link), leading GM Kyle Dubas to seek out some low-cost depth in the interim. Joseph will once again be arbitration-eligible this summer but barring a change in role in the second half of the season, he could be trending toward being non-tendered for the second year in a row.
Following the swap, the team announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Nate Clurman was re-assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. He was recalled on Tuesday but Joseph will take his place on the active roster.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report that Pittsburgh was acquiring Joseph.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Kraken Acquire Kaapo Kakko
The Kraken have added some extra depth up front, acquiring winger Kaapo Kakko from the Rangers. In return, New York receives defenseman Will Borgen, a 2025 third-round pick, and a 2025 sixth-round selection. Both teams have announced the swap.
Kakko was the second overall pick in 2019 but while he has shown flashes of being an impact player, he has also struggled to produce with consistency over his now-six-year career. The 23-year-old has only reached the 40-point mark once thus far, that coming back in 2022-23 when he had 18 goals and 22 assists in 82 games. His output dipped to just 19 points in 61 games last season, resulting in the two sides agreeing on a one-year, $2.4MM contract back in June, a move that didn’t do anything to slow the trade speculation surrounding him.
This move comes not long after Kakko voiced his frustration with being a healthy scratch over the weekend as the Rangers continued to try to shake up their lineup to snap their recent drought. That frustration was justifiable as he is off to a reasonable start this year, picking up four goals and ten assists in 30 games despite spending a lot of time in the bottom six, averaging just 13:17 per contest. Hovering around half a point per game in that role is certainly decent output, one that Seattle will welcome to add to an offensive group that sits in the middle of the pack.
As for Borgen, the soon-to-be 28-year-old has been a physical presence over his four-year tenure with Seattle who selected him from Buffalo in the expansion draft. Last season, he posted career bests in assists (22), points (25), blocked shots (111), hits (195), and ATOI (17:35) and looked to be on his way toward a bigger role on the back end. However, that hasn’t exactly been the case this season as he has been limited to just one goal and one assist in 33 games while his playing time has dropped to 15:12 per night, a career low.
Despite his struggles, NHL.com’s Dan Rosen reports (Twitter link) that the Rangers had been coveting Borgen for a while. With the departure of Jacob Trouba to Anaheim, they needed a bit more defensive depth and this move should allow Victor Mancini to return to AHL Hartford where he can have a bigger role. Borgen is also in the final season of his contract, one that pays him $2.7MM so New York takes on a small amount of money with this swap. Notably, he’s eligible for unrestricted free agency this summer while Kakko will have one more RFA year remaining.
Considering his draft stature, it seems like a fairly low price for Seattle to pay to acquire Kakko and they’ll hope that a change of scenery can help unlock the offensive potential that helped make him the number two pick. Meanwhile, with New York seemingly unsure about committing a long-term deal to him, they’ve elected to make a move more geared toward the present rather than trying to maximize value in the form of higher draft or prospect compensation. With the two selections they added, they now have seven for the upcoming draft.
Interestingly, the 2019 draft class has seen quite a few first-round picks moved already. As Peter Baugh of The Athletic points out (Twitter link), eight of the top 19 selections from that year have already been traded, including three of the top four selections. Among those who haven’t moved, a couple (Dylan Cozens and Trevor Zegras) have been in trade speculation themselves in recent months so the number of high picks on the move from that class could be growing even more soon enough.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Red Wings Return Jack Campbell From Emergency Recall
12/15: The Red Wings organization announced they’ve returned Campbell to their AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins. The roster move likely means Talbot will be healthy enough to return to the lineup before Detroit takes on the Philadelphia Flyers on December 18th.
12/13: With Cam Talbot re-aggravating his injury in practice today and Alex Lyon still not ready to return, the Red Wings need a second goalie for their game tomorrow against Toronto. Rather than bringing prospect Sebastian Cossa back up, they’ve elected to go in a different direction; the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled Jack Campbell from AHL Grand Rapids on an emergency basis.
Detroit signed the 32-year-old to a one-year, one-way deal worth the league minimum in free agency this summer after Edmonton elected to buy out the final three years of his contract back in June, paying him $9MM over the next six years not to play for them. That came on the heels of a disastrous 2023-24 campaign that saw him put up a 4.50 GAA and a .873 SV% in five early-season outings, eventually resulting in him being waived and sent to the minors.
However, Campbell hasn’t played much this season. He entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance program late in the preseason and was away from the team for six weeks. Upon his return, he was immediately waived and after passing through unclaimed, he was sent to the Griffins. Campbell has played in just two games since being sent down, posting a 2.55 GAA and a .919 SV% in those outings.
Ville Husso has been the primary starter for Detroit as of late thanks to the injuries and that’s likely to be the case versus the Maple Leafs rather than Campbell getting the nod against one of his former teams. But rather than pulling Cossa back up so quickly, the Red Wings have opted to give him the steadier minutes with the Griffins, giving Campbell at least a shot at a brief NHL stint until either Talbot or Lyon can return.
Minor Transactions: 12/14/24
It has been a busy Saturday on the transaction front across the NHL. We’ve covered several of them already but quite a few other teams have made minor moves. We’ll run through those here.
- Utah announced (Twitter link) that they’ve re-assigned defenseman Kevin Connauton to AHL Tucson. The veteran was recalled on Wednesday but with Utah claiming Dakota Mermis on Thursday, Connauton was no longer needed as a reserve defender. The 34-year-old has played in 17 games with the Roadrunners so far this season, notching three goals and three assists.
- The Senators announced (Twitter link) that forward Cole Reinhardt has been re-assigned to AHL Belleville, one day after being recalled. The 24-year-old has been quite productive in the minors so far, picking up five goals and ten assists in just 12 games which has helped earn him five games with Ottawa. In those outings, he has a goal and an assist, his first points at the NHL level.
- After being papered down on Thursday, the Blue Jackets have recalled goaltender Jet Greaves and winger Mikael Pyyhtia, per the AHL’s transactions log. Greaves made his 2024-25 Columbus debut on Thursday against Washington, making 35 saves on 37 shots in a losing effort. He has a 3.02 GAA and a .902 SV% in 15 appearances with the Monsters. As for Pyyhtia, the 22-year-old has played in 19 games with the Blue Jackets so far, collecting a goal and an assist while averaging 13:33 per night of playing time.
- After papering down defenseman Keaton Middleton and winger Givani Smith on Friday, the two are back up with the Avalanche, the team announced (Twitter link). Middleton has played in four games with the Avs this season in his first NHL action since the 2020-21 campaign; he has been held without a point while averaging 11:33 per night of ice time. Smith, meanwhile, was acquired as part of the Mackenzie Blackwood trade earlier this week after he cleared waivers. He has played in eight games between the two teams and is still looking for his first point of the season as well.
- After having his contract terminated earlier in the week, former San Jose prospect Valtteri Pulli has found his next home. HC Lugano of the Swiss NL announced that they’ve signed the blueliner for the remainder of the season. Pulli played in just two games with the AHL’s Barracuda before requesting his release earlier this week.
Canucks Looking To Move Vincent Desharnais
After establishing himself as a regular on Edmonton’s back end last season, Vincent Desharnais had enough of a market in free agency to secure a two-year, $4MM contract with Vancouver. However, things haven’t gone as well as planned and Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that the Canucks are looking to find a better fit for the blueliner.
In 2023-24, Desharnais played in 78 regular season games with Edmonton. He averaged a little less than 16 minutes a night but logged big minutes on the penalty kill, making him a serviceable bottom-pairing defender. The 28-year-old also chipped in with 11 points, 122 blocked shots, and 135 hits. Desharnais also suited up in 16 of Edmonton’s 25 playoff contests, picking up 41 blocks and 40 hits while logging 17:15 per night.
Unfortunately for Desharnais and the Canucks, he hasn’t been able to play at the same level this season. He has been a healthy scratch multiple times already and his playing time has dipped a bit as well to just 15:08 per night while recording two assists, 23 hits, and 23 blocks. With Derek Forbort now healthy and Erik Brannstrom and Noah Juulsen playing well, Desharnais might be the seventh defenseman for the time being or at least be in a timeshare for playing time. It’s safe to say they were expecting him to be a regular when they signed him.
It’s worth noting that more than half of Desharnais’ total contract is paid in the form of signing bonuses; his base salary each season is the $775K league minimum. That means nearly half of the total compensation of the contract has already been paid out which might make him a bit more appealing to more budget-conscious teams. But with his early struggles and a $2MM cap charge for next season, the Canucks likely won’t be able to command much for Desharnais’ services.
However, if they can clear his contract, that would give them more ammunition from a cap space perspective to try to make a splash on the trade front closer to the trade deadline. While Filip Hronek is on LTIR, Vancouver has largely been able to stay out of using it, meaning they continue to bank extra room on a daily basis. Accordingly, it’s possible that GM Patrik Allvin looks to make that the priority over maximizing the trade return. Either way, it’s a situation that the Canucks likely weren’t anticipating when they signed Desharnais just over five months ago.