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Patrik Nemeth Signs In Switzerland

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After more than a decade playing hockey in North America and over 500 NHL games, veteran defenseman Patrik Nemeth has made the choice to sign in Switzerland and continue his pro career overseas.

According to a team announcement, he’s signed a two-year deal with SC Bern of the Swiss National League, joining other former NHLers Julius Honka, Sven Baertschi, Martin Frk, Oscar Lindberg, Colton Sceviour, and Dominik Kahun playing for the 16-time NL champions.

This move concludes a steep decline in NHL value for Nemeth, who only two years ago today signed a three-year, $2.5MM AAV contract with the New York Rangers as an unrestricted free agent.

The hope was that Nemeth could anchor the Rangers’ bottom-pairing and be the sort of stay-at-home left-shot defenseman who could help prized prospect Nils Lundkvist, a young right-shot blueliner and fellow Swede, adjust to the NHL.

Nemeth struggled badly in New York, though, ultimately spending most of the team’s run to the Eastern Conference Final as a healthy scratch.

He was subsequently traded to the Arizona Coyotes with the Rangers attaching two second-rounders in order to incentivize Arizona to take on Nemeth’s deal. The fact that the Rangers were willing to sacrifice two genuinely valuable draft picks just to be rid of Nemeth illustrates how far his value had fallen after just one season, and unfortunately, that decline would continue into his Coyotes tenure.

The fact that Arizona spent last season short on established defensive talent meant that Nemeth would play a larger role for the Coyotes than he did in New York. Nemeth averaged nearly 18 minutes of ice time per night, up from 16:38 with the Rangers, and he was head coach André Tourigny’s most frequently-used penalty killer averaging 3:15 per night short-handed.

Despite boasting an above-average goalie in Karel Vejmelka, though, the Coyotes had the sixth-worst penalty kill in the NHL, indicating that Nemeth was likely overmatched as a team’s short-handed minutes-eater.

The Coyotes ultimately opted to buy out Nemeth rather than retain him for the final year of his deal, giving them significant cap savings this upcoming season at a $1.167MM cost for 2024-25.

Seeing as he’s still just 31 years old, played a relatively significant role last season, offers over 500 games of NHL experience, and offers the type of size (six-foot-four, 230 pounds) NHL teams covet, it’s somewhat surprising Nemeth opted to sign in Switzerland rather than hold out for an NHL contract.

But seeing as he might be in two-way deal territory, opting for some more security and stability to play in Switzerland (which is also closer to home for Nemeth, who hails from Stockholm) is a completely understandable choice.

Now Nemeth, who played significant minutes representing Sweden at the 2023 IIHF Men’s World Championships, will likely play a significant role on Bern’s blueline and look to lead the team on a bounce-back season after they finished eighth out of 14 in the regular-season standings in 2022-23.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Minor Transactions: 07/27/23

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Today has been an active day for player movement across the world of professional hockey, as numerous teams in the many pro leagues of North America and Europe are looking to secure quality players for next season. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable moves made in those minor and foreign leagues.

  • 26-year-old defenseman Gabriel Carlsson won the AHL’s Calder Cup in dramatic fashion last month, helping the Hershey Bears to victory in overtime of Game Seven of the league’s final series. Now, he’s likely headed back to his home country of Sweden to play in the SHL for the first time since 2017. Carlsson, a 2015 first-round pick, has reportedly signed a “long-term” contract with the Växjö Lakers, according to Hans Abrahamsson and Tomas Rose of Sportbladet, a Swedish news outlet. If this signing ends up finalized, it will move Carlsson from one defending champion to another. It would also mean that Växjö and the Washington Capitals organization have essentially made a trade, swapping Carlsson for Hardy Häman Aktell, Växjö’s top blueliner from last season who left to sign with the Capitals in April. Carlsson played in six games for the Capitals last season, averaging 13:46 TOI per night, and scored 15 points in 59 games as a top-four regular for the Bears.
  • The AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms have re-signed 22-year-old second-year netminder Nolan Maier to a one-year AHL contract. Maier is an undrafted Canadian goalie who made his professional debut last season, appearing in 24 games for the Philadelphia Flyers’ ECHL affiliate, the Reading Royals, and 10 games in the AHL for Lehigh Valley across the regular season and playoffs. Maier posted a 12-8-3 record, 2.89 goals-against-average, and .892 save percentage for the Royals and a 5-2-2-/.2.85/.885 mark in Lehigh Valley. As Cal Petersen and Felix Sanadstrom are likely to take up the vast majority of available AHL starts Maier, the WHL’s all-time leader in wins, is likely to start the year once again in the ECHL.
  • The AHL’s Ontario Reign re-signed two depth players, Nikita Pavlychev and Tyler Inamoto to one-year AHL contracts. Each player spent most of the season with the ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits, and Pavlychev was one of the team’s best scorers on a points-per-game basis. He potted 25 goals and 45 points in 36 games, his third season on the AHL/ECHL bubble since leaving Pennsylvania State University. For Inamoto, 2022-23 was his first campaign as a professional and the six-foot-two left-shot blueliner played in 36 ECHL games and earned seven games in the AHL.
  • Former Moncton Wildcats top scorer and ECHL All-Star Jeremy McKenna re-signed with the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds for the 2023-24 season, where he will likely resume his role as a premium ECHL scorer and first-choice AHL call-up option. The 24-year-old Alberta native has been an exceptional ECHL player since turning pro in 2020-21, and he has 100 points in 99 career games there. In the AHL, McKenna has struggled (just 26 points in 71 career AHL games) though he has had some moments of success. His recent run in the playoffs with the Firebirds included the most consistent production he’s ever provided in the AHL, and his 12 points in 18 games there should give the Firebirds confidence that he could even compete for a more permanent AHL role in training camp in a few months.
  • After a year where he posted the third-highest save percentage in the WHL as the number-two goalie for the Lethbridge Hurricanes, Bryan Thomson has earned a contract with an AHL club to begin his pro career. The 21-year-old has signed a two-year AHL contract with the Texas Stars, and will likely end up starting his pro career in the ECHL with the Stars’ affiliate, the Idaho Steelheads. Texas already has Remi Poirier and Matthew Murray set as their tandem for next season, so Thompson will likely factor in at the ECHL level with the hope of sneaking into some AHL starts if he performs well there.
  • ECHL All-Star Collin Adams has left the New York Islanders’ farm system to sign with the ECHL’s Kalamazoo Wings. The 25-year-old 2016 Islanders draft pick spent most of his rookie pro season in the AHL with the Bridgeport Islanders, but only managed 11 points in 45 games. This past season, Adams spent more time in the ECHL with the Worcester Railers and his numbers began to look more like they were in his final two seasons playing college hockey at the University of North Dakota. Adams posted 32 points in 30 games for the Railers and could end up a top scorer for the Wings playing on this newly-signed contract.
  • 2018-19 Hobey Baker Award finalist Patrick Newell has returned to North America, signing an ECHL contract with the Orlando Solar Bears. The 27-year-old was a coveted college prospect at the end of his career at St. Cloud State and signed an entry-level deal with the New York Rangers. He failed to make a real dent in the American League with the Hartford Wolf Pack, just 27 points in 87 games. Newell left to play in Norway at the conclusion of his contract with the Rangers organization and scored 51 points in 42 games there. He split last season between clubs in Hungary and Sweden’s second division and has now decided to try his hand in the ECHL for the first time in his career.
  • Avery Winslow, an alternate captain for the OHL’s North Bay Battalion for the last two seasons, is beginning his professional career with the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers. The soon-to-be 21-year-old left-shot blueliner signed a one-year ECHL contract with the Nailers, heading to West Virginia having concluded his OHL career. He led the Battalion to within one win of the OHL’s championship series earlier this year and scored a combined 19 points in 60 regular season and playoff games in 2022-23 in North Bay.
  • One of the ECHL’s more improved players last season was former Merrimack College captain Tyler Drevitch, who improved his production for the Wheeling Nailers from nine points in 45 games to 18 goals and 33 points in 72 games. That improvement earned him a contract with the ECHL’s Savannah Ghost Pirates, who are likely interested in his combination of bruising physicality (he totaled 179 penalty minutes in 2022-23) and goal-scoring touch. He joins his little brother Logan Drevitch, 25, his teammate from Merrimack who scored 37 points in 69 games for Savannah as an ECHL rookie last season and signed an extension with the Ghost Pirates on Monday.
  • Victor Hadfield, the 22-year-old grandson of New York Rangers legend Vic Hadfield, re-signed with the ECHL’s Jacksonville Icemen today. This extension makes 2023-24 Hadfield’s third campaign in Duval County, the place he landed in March 2022 after he was traded from the South Carolina Stingrays. Hadfield is a left winger just like his famous grandfather and scored seven goals and 14 points in 44 games last season.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Carolina Hurricanes Sign Sebastian Aho To Eight-Year Extension

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The Carolina Hurricanes have announced an eight-year, $9.75MM AAV contract extension for star center Sebastian Aho.

This is a massively consequential contract extension for the Hurricanes, who secure Aho through the 2031-32 season at a 15% raise from his previous cap hit of $8.46MM. The $78MM total value of the deal makes it the largest contract in Hurricanes franchise history.

According to PuckPedia, the contract carries a full no-move clause and no-trade clause for its first seven years before converting to a 15-team no-trade clause in year eight.

Hurricanes GM Don Waddell issued the following statement regarding the extension:

Sebastian has developed into one of the best two-way centers in hockey. He’s a tremendous leader on and off the ice who sets a great example for our younger players. We’re grateful that he’s decided to stay in Carolina for the foreseeable future.

It didn’t necessarily always look like Aho would be in Carolina for the long term, as his current contract was actually an offer sheet he signed with the Montreal Canadiens that was designed to walk him directly to UFA status.

But the Hurricanes did the widely expected move and matched the hostile offer for Aho, and have now secured him for what is likely to be the prime years of his playing career at a $9.75MM AAV. The deal gives Aho the 17th-highest cap hit in the NHL, tied with Johnny Gaudreau of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

After scoring 36 goals and 67 points last season it might be a stretch to call Aho a top-20 player league-wide.

But before last year, Aho scored at above or near a point-per-game rate every season since 2018-19, while also seeing consistent minutes on a Hurricanes penalty kill that has long ranked among the league’s best. That’s the Aho that could genuinely be called a top-20 player in the NHL.

While Aho might not be the Art Ross Trophy-contending 100+ point dominant offensive center some Hurricanes fans might wish he’d be, he’s still a true first-line center who, excluding last season’s moderately declined production, has played at an elite level for quite some time now.

His impact on both ends of the ice is immense, and the Hurricanes simply do not have anyone on their roster or in their prospect pool who projects as a difference-making number-one center the way Aho does.

This contract certainly isn’t cheap, of course, but it’s also a totally reasonable price to pay for Aho as long as his decline to 67 points last season doesn’t prove a sign of things to come. A similarly-aged center in Mathew Barzal of the New York Islanders net $9.15MM on his own massive contract extension, and Barzal has been significantly less productive than Aho over the course of the last few years and doesn’t offer the same defensive value.

Seeing as Carolina purchased eight UFA years of Aho, they were never going to get a true discount on his contract. But with the cap set to rise over the next few seasons, getting Aho at an AAV below $10MM is hard to complain about.

With Aho now locked up and projected second-line center Jesperi Kotkaniemi under contract through 2029-30, the Hurricanes may feel they’ve secured their first and second-line centers for the rest of the decade.

If Kotkaniemi can build on his 43-point performance from last season and the momentum he had in the second half, he could become a strong second-line center behind Aho. Alongside this contract extension, that would give the Hurricanes a potentially elite two-way first-line center and a decent second-line center at a total cost of $14.57MM against the cap.

As the cap rises, we could very well see a star player or two end up commanding a $14MM AAV before the end of the decade, and it’s with that view of the future that this Aho extension feels most valuable. If Aho can manage to perform up to the standard he’s set over the past few seasons, let alone grow past that standard, he’ll provide genuine surplus value on this $9.75MM AAV.

Seeing as this deal doesn’t commit the Hurricanes to Aho deep into his thirties, the contract contains relatively minimal downside risk, meaning it should be considered a home run signing for the franchise.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Minor Transactions: 07/26/23

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Today’s been quite a busy day for player movement around the world of pro hockey, as numerous teams in the many pro leagues are looking to secure quality players for next season. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable moves made in those minor and foreign leagues.

  • Michael Frolík, the 2006 10th overall pick and a veteran of over 850 NHL games has signed with Rytíři Kladno, his hometown team in the Czech Extraliga. This is the second longtime NHL player who has secured his place in Kladno for next season this week, as captain Tomáš Plekanec re-signed with the club on July 24th. Frolík, now 35, last played in North America on a PTO with the St. Louis Blues, though he ultimately failed to make the team in St. Louis and chose to sign with Lausanne in the Swiss National League. This past season Frolík made the move to his home country in Czechia, and ended up scoring 24 points in 48 games for Bílí Tygři Liberec. Now, he’ll join Plekanec as an expected top player for his hometown team in Kladno.
  • 182-game NHL veteran Michael Chaput, a longtime NHL-AHL tweener, has had his contract terminated with his KHL club, Kazakhstan’s Barys Astana. Chaput wasn’t available for most of 2022-23, meaning he only played in 10 games in the KHL, scoring three goals. It was his first campaign overseas after a long pro career in the NHL and AHL, and as recently as 2021-22 Chaput was a productive AHLer. He scored 33 points in 57 games for the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins that year and could potentially return to the AHL now that he’s a free agent.
  • Yesterday, the defending Calder Cup champion Hershey Bears signed a top-scoring ECHL rookie to a one-year AHL contract. The team signed 25-year-old former Yale University and UConn center Kevin O’Neil, rewarding him with an AHL contract after he scored 50 points in 53 games for their ECHL affiliate, the South Carolina Stingrays. The five-foot-eleven center was never all that productive playing college hockey (he scored 60 points in 130 career games) but ever since making his pro debut he’s been on a roll. He got a ten-game cameo late last season with the Stingrays and scored 10 points, and now has scored at a near point-per-game rate his rookie year while also earning two AHL call-ups. The real test for this fall will be seeing if he can push for a more regular spot in the AHL with Hershey, and now with this contract he’ll have the chance to do just that.
  • The AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms, affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers, signed former UConn and Notre Dame captain Adam Karashik to a one-year AHL contract extension, securing his place with the team for 2023-24. 2022-23 was Karashik’s first full season as a professional hockey player, and although he began in the ECHL by the time he was called up to Lehigh Valley in early January he didn’t look back. Karashik was a regular in the Phantoms’ lineup for both February and March, and ended his season with 23 games played in the AHL. This extension gives Karashik the chance to continue establishing himself as a regular at the AHL level.
  • The Rochester Americans, AHL affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres, have signed ECHL defenseman Brandon Fortunato to a one-year AHL contract. Fortunato, 27, spent last season with the ECHL’s Jacksonville IceMen, scoring 23 points in 48 games. Fortunato in total has played in over 130 ECHL games and has played in 23 AHL games, though the most recent were in 2021-22.
  • 28-year-old winger Jimmy Soper successfully worked his way from the fourth-tier SPHL to the ECHL in 2021-22, going from 22 points in 47 games with the SPHL’s Macon Mayhem to an impressive 43 points in 69 games with the ECHL’s Tulsa Oilers. Although Soper’s time in Tulsa ended last season via a trade to the Rapid City Rush, Soper played well enough to secure his spot in the ECHL for next season. He’s signed a one-year contract extension with the Rush after scoring 19 points in 28 games there, and now based on how productive he’s been in the ECHL over the past two seasons it seems he may have put the SPHL firmly in the past of his career.
  • St. Cloud State defenseman Ondřej Trejbal is turning pro, having finished his four-year career in college hockey. The 24-year-old Czech blueliner will bring some size (six-foot-three) and nearly 130 games of NCAA experience to his first pro destination: Liiga’s SaiPa. The club announced a one-year contract for Trejbal containing a trial period until September 2023 as well as a club option to extend the contract through next season as well. It’ll be a major step up in competition level for Trejbal to go from playing college hockey against his peers to Liiga hockey against seasoned professionals, though it’ll also be a major opportunity for him to start his pro career in an exceptional league. The team also announced that Finnish defenseman Atso Lehtinen, who finished 2022-23 with SaiPa but spent most of the season in second-tier Mestis, would not see his tryout period result in a full-time contract.
  • 22-year-old former Erie Otters star Maxim Golod finished his third season as a full-time pro player on a low note, scoring just one point in his final five games. He couldn’t quite build up momentum with the ECHL’s Indy Fuel the same way he did with the Tulsa Oilers, where he scored 43 points in 42 games, and now he’s made the decision to sign in Sweden’s HockeyAllsvenskan rather than return to the ECHL. He’s signed with the Nybro Vikings and the hope will be for him to be a top offensive player just as he was at times in the OHL and ECHL.
  • 29-year-old former ECHL First-Team All-Star Patrick Watling is transferring from Slovakia to the United Kingdom. The center has signed a one-year deal with the EIHL’s Sheffield Steelers, and according to the team release will pursue an MBA degree at a local university while also playing for the Steelers. Watling hasn’t yet played in the EIHL, and 2022-23 was his first as an overseas pro player, but given the fact that he was relatively productive in Slovakia (30 points in 34 games across two teams) and scored a whopping 77 points in 55 games for the Wheeling Nailers in his most recent AHL season, he’ll be a likely candidate to compete for the scoring lead for the Steelers.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Patrice Bergeron Announces Retirement

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Boston Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron, one of the greatest players in franchise history and arguably the greatest defensive forward of all time, announced his retirement today.

Bergeron provided a statement regarding this decision in both French and English, which can be read in full here. An excerpt from the statement reads:

Finally, to the next generation of hockey players. I had a dream at 12 years old, and through hard work and perseverance my dreams came true more than I ever could have imagined. Respect the game and your peers. Welcome adversity and simply enjoy yourself. No matter where you go from there the game will bring you so much happiness.

As I step away today, I have no regrets. I have only gratitude that I lived my dream, and excitement for what is next for my family and I. I left everything out there and I’m humbled and honored it was representing this incredible city and for the Boston Bruins fans.

Bergeron turned 38 yesterday, and has been a regular in the NHL since his rookie season in 2003-04.

It was evident early on that Bergeron was something of a special player. Not many players drafted 45th overall take an immediate step into the NHL at the age of 18, and even fewer have as productive of a rookie season as Bergeron had.

He stepped straight into the Bruins’ lineup from the QMJHL and scored 16 goals and 39 points, averaging over 16 minutes per night.

By the age of 20, Bergeron had become a true top-six center in the NHL, scoring 31 goals and 73 points in his second full season. At the age of 24, Bergeron first appeared on a Selke Trophy ballot, and soon he would set the gold standard for defensive play by a center in the NHL. Bergeron’s victory in the Selke Trophy voting has been a formality for much of his career, and he finishes his playing days having won the prestigious award a record six times.

Beyond just setting the standard for two-way excellence, Bergeron has long been viewed as one of the game’s exceptional leaders. Bergeron won both the Mark Messier Leadership Award (2020-21) and King Clancy Memorial Trophy (2012-13) and was a yearly fixture on the Lady Byng Trophy ballot.

He also set the standard for work at the face-off dot, leading the NHL in face-off win percentage four times and posting a career 58.9% win rate.

Bergeron had long served as an alternate captain for the Bruins before taking up the captain’s role after the departure of Zdeno Chara. Under his watch, the Bruins had their most successful era of hockey since Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito tore the league apart in the early 1970s. The Bruins won three Prince of Wales trophies during Bergeron’s tenure, three Presidents’ Trophies, and the franchise’s first Stanley Cup since 1972.

In 2011 Bergeron truly shined, scoring 20 points in 23 playoff games, including the Stanley Cup-winning goal. While the Bruins undoubtedly would have loved to go on one last deep playoff run during Bergeron’s final season, a year where they set records for regular-season success, the organization is undoubtedly more than happy with the more than a decade of legitimate Stanley Cup contention Bergeron led them through.

Beyond just his work for the Bruins, Bergeron found success representing Canada internationally. At times forming a lethal two-way line alongside Bruins teammate Brad Marchand and superstar Sidney Crosby, Bergeron took home the gold medal at the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics as well as the World Cup of Hockey in 2016.

A slam-dunk first-ballot Hall of Famer, Bergeron re-defined what it meant to be a two-way center in the NHL over the course of his career. Whenever NHL draft prospects playing center are asked who they’d like to emulate in the NHL, Bergeron is frequently the most commonly referenced name. That’s despite the existence of centers that have long surpassed Bergeron in offensive production, such as Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon.

That likely reflects something that made Bergeron truly valuable: so much of what made him special was something another player could feasibly replicate through an immense amount of hard work.

If a player doesn’t possess the natural talent of a McDavid or a MacKinnon, expecting them to reflect those players in the NHL is impossible. But Bergeron, on the other hand, is a player whose many great qualities can be mimicked.

Not only did Bergeron provide Boston with exceptional individual on-ice value, he also provided the organization with an invaluable role model for other players to follow. His relatively affordable contracts created a team-friendly financial structure under the salary cap for the Bruins to be able to field a contending team year after year. Countless Bruins players, such as Pavel Zacha, for example, have seen their game improve after practice after practice under Bergeron’s wing.

Teams across the NHL dream of establishing a clear team culture that emphasizes excellence and selflessness both on and off the ice, as well as the importance of shared sacrifice in the pursuit of winning. Bergeron embodied that culture for the Bruins throughout his career, and for nearly two decades the Bruins and the city of Boston were better for it.

Even after his retirement, Bergeron is likely to be viewed as the pinnacle of two-way excellence for centers in the NHL and will continue to be a name oft-cited by draft prospects looking to establish credibility as a two-way player.

Although he leaves Boston in a relatively unclear spot down the middle (the team’s two top-six centers projected for next season are Zacha and Charlie Coyle, neither of whom have ever scored 60 points in the NHL) the franchise can ask nothing more of Bergeron, who played on a below-market $2.5MM contract last season.

Bergeron will now get to enjoy his retirement and leave a Bruins organization that will be eternally grateful for the nearly two decades of leadership, class, and on-ice excellence he provided.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Florida Panthers Extend Eetu Luostarinen

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The Florida Panthers have announced a three-year contract extension with forward Eetu Luostarinen, which carries a $3MM AAV according to Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli. The deal pays the soon-to-be-25-year-old Luostarinen through the 2026-2027 season, covering his two remaining years of RFA eligibility as well as buying out one UFA year. CapFriendly reports Luostarinen will earn $1MM in base salary in all three seasons, supplemented by a $2.5MM signing bonus in 2024-25, a $2MM signing bonus in 2025-26, and a $1.5MM signing bonus in 2026-27.

Panthers GM Bill Zito offered the following statement regarding the signing:

Eetu is a dynamic two-way center whose speed and strength allow him to excel on any line. His consistency and dependability are a great asset to our forward group, and we are excited about what he can continue to bring to our lineup in the coming seasons.

Although Luostarinen finished the season injured and didn’t quite have the impact during the Panthers’ miracle run to the Stanley Cup Final he’d likely hoped to have, his 2022-23 season was undoubtedly his best as a professional hockey player, even going back to his productive days in Liiga in his native Finland.

Luostarinen arrived in Florida as part of the trade that sent Vincent Trocheck to the Carolina Hurricanes.

At the time, he was a 2017 second-round pick whose rangy six-foot-three frame and productivity in Liiga for KalPa suggested legitimate NHL upside, only he had struggled to make a consistent impact in his first season in North America.

As recently as last season, Luostarinen’s 26 points stood as a career-high for any season in North America.

This past year, though, Luostarinen finally put together all his tools at the NHL level and scored 17 goals and 43 points in 82 games. As Zito alluded to, Luostarinen’s combination of size and speed, as well as his versatility to be able to be used throughout the lineup made him an important player for the Panthers. He really clicked under first-year head coach Paul Maurice, and with this contract extension is likely to be a staple on a Panthers scoring line moving forward.

Luostarinen will make $1.5MM against the cap next season before this contract kicks in, and while the team might have struggled to afford this AAV next season, the cap’s expected rise could make things a bit easier for 2024-25.

Assuming Luostarinen can be relied upon to at the very least match his production from last season, this signing is a savvy bet from Zito. $3MM is already an affordable price to pay for 17 goals and 43 points of production, but if Luostarinen takes another step in his game this deal is a candidate to provide significant surplus value.

Seeing as the Panthers are intent on competing for a Stanley Cup in the next few seasons, getting Luostarinen locked up at this manageable price tag is a nice bit of business by the team’s front office.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. 

Minor Transactions: 07/25/23

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Although NHL news has predictably slowed at this point in the offseason, there is still quite a bit of player movement activity in the wider world of professional hockey. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable moves from minor leagues and foreign professional leagues across the world.

  • On July 19th, it was announced that former San Jose Sharks prospect Marcus Vela would be leaving MoDo Hockey Ornskoldsvik rather than remain with the team for its first season back in the SHL. Today we learned where Vela’s next stop will be: Slovakia. The 26-year-old has signed with HC Banska Bystrica of the Slovak Tipos Extraliga. He’s the third forward native to British Columbia that the club have added this summer, joining Swiss second-division point-per-game scorer Matt Wilkins and former UConn Huskies captain Carter Turnbull. Vela split last season between two HockeyAllsvenskan clubs, MoDo and Vasterviks IK, acquitting himself well in his first season in Europe scoring 29 points in 46 games.
  • Former Carolina Hurricanes prospect Max Zimmer will not return to the ICEHL’s Vienna Capitals after an extremely successful first season with the club. The 25-year-old 2016 fourth-round pick scored 28 goals and 53 points in 48 regular-season games in the Austrian capital, as well as nine points in seven playoff games. The year before, Zimmer had scored 19 goals and 40 points in 48 games for the ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits, and earned his most meaningful AHL experience yet: 14 games with the Charlotte Checkers. Despite the Capitals’ best efforts to secure an agreement on a contract extension, the four-season Wisconsin Badger could now be headed back to North America or perhaps another ICEHL club for his next campaign.
  • 20-year-old Swedish defenseman Fred Nilsson has signed a try-out contract with the SHL’s Leksands IF, earning a chance to compete for a regular role with the club. 2022-23 was Nilsson’s first as a full-time pro hockey player, and he played a total of 48 games for Kristianstads IK, a club that ended their season relegated to third-tier HockeyEttan. Nilsson was the number-six defenseman for Kristianstads last season, averaging 14:48 time on ice per game. That usage doesn’t exactly suggest he’s ready for a full-time role in Sweden’s top division with Leksands, though he’ll nonetheless receive the opportunity to prove himself in the lead-up to the start of the club’s regular season.
  • 2018 Winnipeg Jets draft pick Austin Wong has signed a three-year contract with the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star. The 22-year-old pivot played a total of 83 games across three seasons for Harvard University, registering 15 points. Wong’s most recent season was his most challenging yet, at least offensively speaking, as he only generated one point in 30 games. Wong has shown some flashes of offense before, such as when he scored 15 goals for the Fargo Force in the USHL in 2020-21, but the offense has failed to materialize at the college level. According to CapFriendly, the Jets retain the exclusive rights to sign Wong, who was ranked 174th among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting in his draft year, until August 2024. Given Wong’s lack of development in college and this three-year KHL deal, there is effectively zero chance the Jets will sign Wong, though.
  •  25-year-old former Michigan Tech forward Tommy Parrottino had a strong first season as a professional hockey player in the ECHL, scoring 23 goals and 39 points in 66 games for the Iowa Heartlanders. Rather than continue in the North American third-tier league, Parrottino has made the choice to instead head overseas and sign with the EIHL’s Dundee Stars. Parrottino, the second-overall pick in the 2016 USHL Entry Draft, is the second quality ECHL scorer the Stars have imported in the past few days, as the team also signed Carter Johnson from the Maine Mariners on the 21st. Dundee won just 13 of 54 games last season and were the worst team in the EIHL standings, meaning they’ll hope the additions of Parrottino, Johnson, and other quality ECHL players can make them a more competitive outfit for 2023-24.
  • Niklas Würschl played full-time in the ICEHL for the first time this past season, skating in a total of 48 games for the Vienna Capitals across regular-season and playoff play. The 23-year-old blueliner didn’t exactly produce much, scoring three points in a limited role, but did show himself to be capable of handling the rigors of ICEHL action. Now, he’s changed teams, signing with Austrian rivals Black Wings Linz. Former ECHL All-Star Matt Murphy left Linz to sign in Slovakia while blueline regular Ramón Schnetzer signed in Switzerland, leaving Linz with a need to add to their back end. They’ve added a quality ICEHL prospect in Würschl, who has a chance to see regular minutes for the team next season and further establish himself in his native Austria’s top pro league.
  • Although 27-year-old netminder Claes Endre has struggled quite a bit since his stellar 2020-21 campaign as the number-one goalie for HockeyAllsvenskan side AIK, he’s earned another contract in Sweden’s second division. He’s signed with Södertälje SK, a team needing to add a goalie as star starter Nikita Tolopilo departed via a contract with the Vancouver Canucks. Endre will form a tandem with 28-year-old American Tomas Sholl, a former ECHL Goalie of the Year with the Idaho Steelheads who posted a 68-20-9 record and .930 save percentage across 99 career games in North America’s third-tier league. Sholl presumably has the upper hand given the success he’s found not only in the ECHL but also in the ICEHL over the past two seasons, (.923 save percentage in 84 total games for Italy’s HC Pustertal) though Endre does have the advantage of having prior experience in the Allsvenskan. Although Endre’s return to AIK did not yield the same results as he had in 2020-21 (he posted a .915 save percentage in 41 games that year, but a .891 this past season) Södertälje are likely hoping his competition with Sholl for starts will provide a strong environment for Endre to succeed.

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Minor Transactions: 07/24/23

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It’s another busy Monday in the wide world of professional hockey, with quite a few players either finding new teams for next season or securing new contracts with the clubs they’ve already represented. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable moves from minor leagues and foreign professional leagues across the world.

  • 1001-game NHL veteran Tomáš Plekanec isn’t retiring anytime soon. The 40-year-old longtime NHL center signed a contract extension to remain the captain of Rytíři Kladno, his hometown team in the Czech Extraliga. Plekanec ended his NHL career in 2018-19 and after two seasons playing for Brno, he joined Kladno upon their promotion back to the top division. Joining all-time great Jaromir Jagr with the club, Plekanec has scored at almost a point-per-game rate the last two seasons and will likely continue to play a major role for the team in the coming campaign thanks to this new contract.
  • Luke Adam, a former Buffalo Sabres top prospect, has elected to leave Germany after a seven-year run in the DEL to sign with HC Plzen in the Czech Extraliga. The 33-year-old was a Sabres second-round pick at the 2008 draft and a few seasons after he was drafted he looked to be a long-term piece for Buffalo. In 2011, The Hockey Writers projected him as “a formidable 3rd line center for the Sabres for many years down the road,” and it’s easy to see why they did so by looking at Adam’s rookie season in pro hockey. He scored 29 goals and 62 points in 57 AHL games, winning the AHL’s Rookie of the Year award as well as AHL All-Star honors. But Adam’s standout qualities in the AHL never translated to the NHL, and he left for the DEL in the summer of 2016. Adam has a strong 233 points in 317 career DEL games and scored 17 goals and 36 points in 54 games for the Straubing Tigers last season. While the Tigers have made some major additions this summer, such as veteran NHL defenseman Justin Braun, they’ll be without Adam next season.
  • Former Winnipeg Jets prospect Scott Kosmachuk has signed a one-year, one-way KHL contract with Lada Togliatti in Russia. The player, who has eight NHL games on his record from 2015-16, is a 29-year-old 2012 third-round pick who played last season with TPS Turku in the Finnish Liiga, scoring 17 points in 29 games. Before arriving in Turku, Kosmachuk had a two-year run as the leading scorer for VSV EC in the ICEHL, racking up 93 points in 90 games and earning All-Star honors. If he can translate some of the production he’s had in Liiga, the ICEHL, and even the AHL going back to his 2017-18 campaign with the Hartford Wolf Pack, he’ll be a quality addition to Lada.
  • Lada added a second international import today: 2013 Pittsburgh Penguins draft pick Troy Josephs. The 29-year-old has been around a point-per-game scorer with both the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers and Swiss second-tier’s EHC Visp. Though he struggled in the AHL, which presents a step up in talent level compared to the ECHL, Joseph more recently established himself in Switzerland’s top division with Lugano, posting 49 points in 86 games and proving he can hang in one of the world’s better pro leagues.
  • James Shearer, a former captain of the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings and WHL champion, has made the decision to leave the ECHL after his first full season in the league to sign a contract in the United Kingdom with the EIHL’s Coventry Blaze. While Shearer is far from the first player to head to the EIHL after his ECHL rookie season, the move is somewhat surprising given the role Shearer played for the Utah Grizzlies as a rookie. In addition to posting 23 points in 54 games, the 26-year-old blueliner was, as Blaze head coach Danny Stewart put it, “eating up good minutes in playoffs and relied upon in key situations,” and also serving as a team alternate captain. The Grizzlies added defenseman Brian Yoon, the captain of the NCAA’s Colorado College, a few days ago, though, which may have prompted Shearer’s exit.
  • Former Dallas Stars prospect Emil Molin signed a one-year contract extension with KooKoo Kouvola in the Finnish Liiga, securing a second season with the club he joined last July. The 30-year-old winger had a decent debut season in Liiga, scoring 11 goals and 25 points. Those numbers are more in line with how Molin produced in his earlier days with Brynas IF, his former club, rather than his form later in his tenure there. Molin has one season of hockey in North America on his record, with 11 games total in the AHL and a 46-points-in-54-games run with the ECHL’s Idaho Steelheads.
  • 2015 Philadelphia Flyers fourth-round pick Samuel Dove-McFalls is headed to Germany, signing a contract with Lausitzer Füchse of the DEL2. Dove-McFalls was a high-end QMJHLer earlier in his career, winning a league championship with the Saint John Sea Dogs in 2016-17 and captaining the Rimouski Oceanic the year after. Dove-McFalls also was named the QMJHL’s Best Defensive Forward in his final season of major junior before beginning a four-year run of Canadian University hockey. The 26-year-old scored 13 goals and 34 points in 38 games for the ECHL’s Fort Wayne Komets and earned 16 AHL games with the Bakersfield Condors in what was his first full season as a professional hockey player. He’ll now join a team looking for promotion to the DEL and will likely play a major role at the club.

Dallas Stars Extend GM Jim Nill

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The Dallas Stars have announced a two-year contract extension for reigning GM of the Year Jim Nill, who is entering his 11th season at the top of Stars hockey operations. Stars owner Tom Gaglardi issued the following statement regarding the extension:

Jim has proven himself to be one of the best general managers in the NHL. He has meticulously built a team through free agency, trades and the NHL Draft that’s among the best in the League, while also ensuring that the Stars are championship contenders for years to come. He’ll be able to continue his vision of working toward our goal of bringing another Stanley Cup to the state of Texas.

Although some have speculated about when Nill, 65, would retire and leave the Stars to another GM, it seems he has at the very least another two seasons in his current role. Like every GM, Nill has made his fair share of mistakes, but looking at his overall body of work it’s abundantly clear that he’s done an exceptional job building the Stars. Although a Stanley Cup has eluded them, the Stars have gone on multiple deep playoff runs under Nill’s watch, including to the 2019-20 Stanley Cup Final.

Nill could have very easily built a team to compete around their core of Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin, and then once those players regressed plunged the team into a rebuild. But instead of doing so, he proactively built a new competitive window, a new core of players for the next generation of Stars hockey while the incumbent core players were still at the top of their game.

While a significant amount of credit must also go to the franchise’s scouting staff, Nill’s 2017 draft is the stuff of legend. Armed with two first-rounders and a second-round pick, the Stars drafted Miro Heiskanen, Jake Oettinger, and Jason Robertson. That’s a franchise-defining number-one defenseman, a potentially elite starting goalie, and a game-breaking winger who recently scored 109 points in his age-23 season.

Beyond just 2017, Nill’s draft record is among the best of any GM in the NHL. He drafted a number-one center in Roope Hintz in the second round of the 2015 draft, and a player who looks like a star in the making in Wyatt Johnston with the 23rd pick of the 2021 draft, to name a few notable hits.

Although Nill has made his fair share of moves he’s likely preferred to have not made (the Ryan Suter signing from the summer of 2021 is beginning to look like a mistake) his mistakes are generously outweighed by his success stories. As Dallas Stars radio analyst Bruce LeVine put it, you may not “find a General Manager who is more universally liked and respected” than Nill, who now has two more years to chase down a Stanley Cup in Dallas.

Minor Transactions: 07/23/23

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As NHL teams deal with arbitration cases and potentially court one of the remaining NHL-caliber free agents on the open market, there is still quite a bit of player movement activity in minor and foreign professional leagues. As always, we’ll keep track of those moves here:

  • Lukáš Klok, a UFA signing from last summer by the Arizona Coyotes who ended up playing just four games in the Desert, signed a two-year contract with the KHL’s Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk. Klok is a 28-year-old Czech blueliner who has significant experience in several European pro leagues. This deal returns Klok to where he played in 2021-22, and Klok’s KHL stint was arguably the most successful of his career on an individual basis. Seeing as he scored 31 points in 44 games and earned an NHL contract the last time he played for Nizhnekamsk, it’s easy to see why he’d want to re-unite with the club after a difficult 2022-23 that saw him bounce from Arizona to Sweden before finishing the year in Switzerland.
  • Former New York Rangers prospect Dávid Skokan is moving on from his club of the last three seasons, Slovakia’s HK Poprad. The 34-year-old has been a star in the Slovak league in recent seasons, although he’s seen his numbers decline more recently. Over his first two campaigns in Poprad Skokan scored 83 points in 78 games, but this past season he only managed 18 points in 36 games. Having lost his spot as Poprad’s leading scorer, Skokan will look for his next opportunity in pro hockey.
  • Former Vancouver Canucks prospect Andrew Sarauer is hanging up his skates, according to an announcement from his club Fehérvár AV19. Sarauer, 38, had been with Hungary’s ICEHL club since 2013, save for one season spent in Austria. He once served as Fehérvár’s captain and has totaled over 350 points in over 450 games playing pro hockey in Central Europe. Sarauer has also represented Hungary at international events, including the 2016 IIHF Men’s World Championships. He last played in North America in 2012-13, and he was a prolific scorer in the ECHL with 238 points in 250 career games there.
  • Jonas Emmerdahl, the captain of the EIHL’s Fife Flyers, has signed a contract extension to remain with the club. The 31-year-old Swedish blueliner has logged 151 games across three seasons in Scotland and has posted 42 points. Before heading to the United Kingdom, Emmerdahl was a steady presence in HockeyAllsvenskan, the second tier of hockey in his home country. Fife have been one of the EIHL’s worst-performing teams during Emmerdahl’s tenure there, but the hope will be that he can help lead a turnaround next year playing on this contract extension.
  • One of the players Fife is likely hoping will lead that turnaround is Aleksi Mäkelä, a player the team signed today. Although Mäkelä spent last season playing in Italy in the AlpsHL, he does have an impressive resume including over 250 games in the Finnish Liiga and a Liiga championship from his 2017-18 season with Kärpät. He’ll join Emmerdahl on the left side of Fife’s blueline and will provide the type of experience in a high-end European league that can be very valuable.
  • After four consecutive campaigns in the HockeyAllsvenskan, including a run to the league quarterfinals last season, Kristianstads IK now find themselves back in Sweden’s third-tier HockeyEttan. Today, the club announced on social media that they have secured the services of their captain, Dennis Svensson, for another season as they look to bounce back from this setback. The 30-year-old center returned to Kristianstads upon their promotion to the second tier, having just finished the prior season in the SHL with Djurgården. He had played for Kristianstads before both in HockeyEttan and at the youth level. He scored 12 points in 25 games last season and will likely play a crucial role in the team’s upcoming campaign.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

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