Minor Transactions: 11/07/23
Today’s schedule is absolutely overflowing with hockey, including 10 games in the NHL. Highlights from the game’s highest level include matchups between the New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings as well as the New Jersey Devils and Colorado Avalanche, games that will be nationally televised in the United States. In addition, there is a 2021 Stanley Cup Final rematch on the docket, with head coach Martin St. Louis’ Montreal Canadiens taking on the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Although the schedule outside the NHL is quite a bit lighter today, overseas professional leagues have kept busy adding and subtracting players. As always, we’ll keep track of notable player movement here.
- Ottawa Senators offseason signing Jiří Smejkal has been linked to a move back overseas, where he would play for IK Oskarshamn of the SHL. The report originates from TSN’s Shawn Simpson, who wrote that Smejkal “didn’t come over to play in the minors.” Smejkal, 27, signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Senators that carries an $82.5k AHL salary. There was some hope that Smejkal could make the NHL roster after scoring 23 goals and 43 points in 49 SHL games last season, but he only registered one point in five preseason games. The hope was that Smejkal’s size and ability to play physical could lend himself to a fourth-line role, but that hasn’t happened as he’s played exclusively at AHL Belleville. If Smejkal doesn’t view there to be a viable path to the NHL with Ottawa then it appears he could very well return to Oskarshamn, where he would not only be better lined up to represent Czecha at the IIHF World Championships, but could also potentially take home more money.
- Former Edmonton Oilers netminder Mikko Koskinen won’t be extending his time with the Swiss National League’s HC Lugano beyond this season, according to a team announcement. The team has instead decided to bring in former Red Wings prospect Joren Van Pottelberghe on a three-year deal beginning next season. Van Pottelberghe was the starter for NL rival EHC Biel-Beinne from 2020-2022, but he has been relegated to backup duty due to the arrival of Harri Säteri. He’ll get another shot to be a starter with Lugano, while Koskinen will have to continue his career elsewhere. Since arriving in Switzerland from Edmonton, Koskinen has posted an .895 save percentage in 44 games for Lugano.
- 2009 New York Rangers second-round pick Ethan Werek has signed with Slovakia’s HC Slovan Bratislava, a club in Slovakia’s capital. Werek, 32, split last season between the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star and Czechia’s Mountfield HK. He’s scored decently well in spurts in both the KHL and Czech Extraliga, and could end up a productive forward in the Slovak league. Werek also brings some international experience to Slovan, having represented China at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
- A bit of a rare occurrence happened in European hockey yesterday, as a team in the Finnish Liiga and the Czech Extraliga made a “trade” of sorts. Liiga’s SaiPa reached a mutual contract termination with Jan Lukáš, while Czechia’s HK Mountfield did the same with netminder Henri Kiviaho. Then, Lukáš signed with Mountfield to replace Kiviaho while Kiviaho did the same at SaiPa. Lukáš, 30, is an experienced netminder who was a quality tandem goalie in the Extraliga last season, but struggled immensely to start the year for SaiPa. He moves to more favorable surroundings in his home country. Kiviaho is, like Lukáš, a veteran goalie with some Champions Hockey League experience. According to Mountfield’s announcement, Kiviaho had been (via his agent) pushing for a greater workload than the club was able to provide, so they’ve opted to transfer him to SaiPa instead.
- Former NHL depth defenseman Cameron Schilling has agreed to a mutual contract termination with his club of the last two seasons, Djurgårdens IF. The 35-year-old one-time AHL All-Star has a total of 10 NHL games on his resume, though he left North America midway through 2021-22 to sign in Djurgården. The club had an immediate need for reinforcements at the time as they were trending towards relegation, a fate they did eventually suffer. Schilling played a minutes-eating role for the team last season as they fell just short of promotion back to the SHL, and now he won’t be with the team as they look to make the jump this year.
- Philadelphia Flyers fans might remember Russian forward Roman Lyubimov from the 2016-17 season, when he played in 47 games for the club, registering eight points. Lyubimov returned to the KHL after that season, the league where he would remain a regular forward until now. After a season where he posted just three points in 43 games for Spartak Moscow, Lyubimov has left the KHL and signed in France’s Ligue Magnus, with Grenoble. Grenoble is looking to re-claim the French league title and Champions Hockey League spot from Rouen, so they’ve added a forward with experience in two of the world’s top leagues in order to do so.
- Former college hockey star Julian Napravnik is rumored to be headed for the DEL via a report from Germany, specifically with the league’s Frankfurt Lions in mind. The 26-year-old German forward was a two-time First-Team Conference All-Star at Minnesota State Mankato, and his 49 points in 40 games helped the team reach the NCAA Men’s Hockey National Championship game. Since that point, Napravnik has struggled to get on he ice and has played in a total of 22 career AHL games, scoring a total of seven points. A move to Germany might be better suited for him, though it may come as a bit of a disappointment that he couldn’t make more of a push towards consideration for an NHL contract.
- Justin Allen, the former captain of NCAA Division-III Utica College, has been traded from the ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals to the Allen Americans in exchange for future considerations. Allen, 26, signed with the Admirals at the conclusion of his NCAA career and made an instant impact, registering seven assists in 10 games. As the Admirals this season have taken on quite a few NHL prospects, such as 2019 third-round pick Domenick Fensore, he’s been squeezed out of a spot in the ECHL this season, and hasn’t been able to skate in a game yet this season. He’ll get a better chance to do so in Allen, a team in dire need of defensive reinforcements as they currently average over five goals against per game.
- Canadian netminder Cody Porter has signed with HockeyAllsvenskan’s Västerviks IK, according to a team announcement. The 26-year-old former Calgary Hitmen starter has had a bit of a winding hockey journey. He suited up for five different teams in his first professional season in 2018-19, playing for clubs from everywhere including Huntsville, Alabama and Elmira, New York. He then transferred to Poland, before spending 2021-22 as the backup goalie for IPK in Finland’s Mestis, their second division. Last season, Porter played the highest-level hockey of his career, skating in five total games in Liiga. He’ll get a chance now to compete for starts with Västerviks, a club whose incumbent goalies have each posted unconvincing performances so far this season.
This page may be updated throughout the day.
Andrew Mangiapane Receives One-Game Suspension
6:00 PM: The verdict is in and Mangiapane has been assessed a one-game suspension. In the video, it’s noted that the league accepted Mangiapane’s contention that he wasn’t intending to drive McCann’s head into the ice and acknowledged that the Flames forward didn’t use his full extension of arms or body weight. However, he was deemed to have full body control, resulting in the decision to suspend him. This is the first suspension of his career and he will forfeit just over $30K in salary.
12:05 PM: The NHL’s Department of Player Safety has announced that Calgary Flames forward Andrew Mangiapane will have a hearing today for cross-checking forward Jared McCann in last night’s game against the Seattle Kraken.
The incident in question occurred at a chaotic moment during yesterday’s 6-3 Flames victory, wherein Mangiapane and other Flames players were making a push in the offensive zone, trying to get a goal past a scrambling Seattle netminder.
Mangiapane fired a backhander towards an open net that was promptly blocked by McCann, who as part of his block slid towards Mangiapane. The puck appeared to stay with McCann after the block, and, in his search for the puck under McCann, Mangiapane delivered a cross-check to the head/neck area of McCann.
McCann immediately recoiled, a whistle was blown, and Mangiapane was assessed a match penalty with a standard 15 penalty minutes added to his record. Now, Mangiapane is facing supplemental discipline by the NHL’s Department of Player Safety and could end up missing games for the Flames.
Any Mangiapane suspension would be a major blow to the Flames, who count on the 27-year-old as one of their more consistent scorers. Mangiapane currently ranks second on the Flames with seven points in 11 games, and losing him for any amount of time would make it even more difficult for the team to climb out of the 3-7-1 hole it has found itself in to start the season.
Minor Transactions: 11/05/23
It’s another busy day for hockey, although most of the game action is happening outside the NHL. Just four teams in the world’s top league are set to do battle today, although the schedule does feature quite a few games in Germany, Austria, Czechia, Slovakia, the United Kingdom, and in the CHL.
Regular-season play poses many challenges to pro clubs around the world, with injuries and underperformance often causing player movement. As always, we’ll keep track of notable transactions here.
- Former Detroit Red Wings prospect Seth Barton has decided to continue his career overseas, signing a contract with KooKoo Kouvola of the Finnish Liiga. According to the team, the contract contains a trial period lasting until the end of the calendar year and is of a one-year duration with an option to extend for another season. Barton, 24, was a 2018 third-round pick who this past summer signed an AHL deal with the Hartford Wolf Pack, re-uniting him with Ryan Martin. Martin, the GM of the Wolf Pack and assistant GM of the New York Rangers, was the GM of Barton’s former team, the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins. With Ben Harpur, Matthew Robertson, Brandon Scanlin, Nikolas Brouillard, and Connor Mackey standing in his way, Barton was unlikely to see significant time at the AHL level. So rather than potentially spend the season playing ECHL hockey with the Cincinnati Cyclones, Barton has decided to instead play in Liiga. He’ll join a KooKoo squad that is in need of defensive reinforcement as they have surrendered the second-most goals in league play.
- Kenny Johnson, the younger brother of veteran NHLer Jack Johnson, has signed a standard player contract with the ECHL’s Reading Royals. The six-foot-four former Penn State Nittany Lion concluded his four-year NCAA career last season and dipped his toes in the waters of pro hockey with games on two ECHL teams: the Orlando Solar Bears and Wheeling Nailers. Johnson has played in the Royals’ game yesterday and will look to secure a regular place in their lineup in what would be his rookie ECHL campaign.
This page may be updated throughout the day
Tampa Bay Lightning Assign Waltteri Merelä To AHL
The Tampa Bay Lightning have assigned forward Waltteri Merelä to their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch.
Merelä, 25, has played this season entirely in the NHL and has been held scoreless through ten contests with the Lightning. As a waiver-exempt player, sending Merelä to the AHL allows Tampa Bay to activate veteran forward Tyler Motte off of injured reserve without needing to risk losing a player on waivers in order to create the necessary room on the roster.
A signing out of Tappara Tampere of the Finnish Liiga, Merelä has averaged nearly 11 minutes time-on-ice per game including 1:20 short-handed time on ice per game. Although he hasn’t scored yet, Merelä was a solid scorer in Liiga and should be capable of putting some points together at least at the AHL level.
Merelä brings a winning pedigree to Syracuse as a two-time Liiga champion and one-time winner of the Champions Hockey League. If the six-foot-three forward can find a way to translate some of his scoring success in Finland to the AHL ice, he should be able to find his way back to Tampa this season.
For Tampa Bay, this reassignment serves as a potential indication that Motte is ready to return to the lineup. The return of Motte would be a welcome development, as he is a respected fourth-liner who hasn’t had the chance to really make an impact for the Lightning just yet. He has played in just one game this season, the team’s opening game against the Nashville Predators.
Mathew Barzal Fined For High-Sticking
The NHL Department of Player Safety has announced that New York Islanders forward Mathew Barzal has been fined $5,000, the maximum allowable under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, for high-sticking Carolina Hurricanes blueliner Tony DeAngelo.
The incident in question occurred in the second period of last night’s game, a comeback 4-3 win for the Hurricanes. The play was described at the time by Newsday’s Andrew Gross at the time described as “Barzal swings his stick and hits DeAngelo in the head.” Barzal took a penalty on the play.
While the fine is the maximum allowable under the CBA, it’s unlikely Barzal was truly at risk of being suspended for the play.
Instead, he’ll take a small financial hit and be able to move on to the Islanders’ next game, which is Tuesday when they host the Minnesota Wild. Barzal is one of the Islanders’ most important scorers, and he currently sits tied for third on the team in scoring with eight points in 10 games.
New York Rangers Assign Three Players To AHL
4:18 PM: The Rangers announce that all three players have been recalled from Hartford.
9:15 AM: The New York Rangers have reassigned three players to their AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack: forward Jonny Brodzinski, defenseman Connor Mackey, and goaltender Louis Domingue. The trio of players were recalled on November 3rd for the team’s eventual shootout loss to the Minnesota Wild.
Brodzinski filled in as the team’s third-line center with Filip Chytil injured and veteran Barclay Goodrow away from the team to be with his wife for the birth of their child. Mackey was recalled to serve as the team’s seventh defenseman due to the Adam Fox injury, and Domingue was recalled in order to back up Jonathan Quick, due to an injury to starter Igor Shesterkin.
Now the three players have been returned to Hartford with just Brodzinski managing to skate in an NHL game. These reassignments are of significant consequence for the Wolf Pack, who rely on Brodzinski as their captain and offensive engine. (he has six goals, 11 points in seven games) Mackey plays a top-four role in Hartford while Domingue splits starts with prospect Dylan Garand.
For the Rangers, the return of Brodzinski to the minors indicates that, at the very least, Goodrow is ready to return to the lineup. Chytil could still take some time to recover from his injury, though it’s not expected to keep him out long-term.
As for the situation in net, Domingue’s reassignment indicates that Shesterkin could be ready to at least take up backup duties for the Rangers’ next game, which is Tuesday against the Detroit Red Wings.
Beyond the lineup implications, these reassignments have an impact on the Rangers’ salary cap situation. USA Today’s Vince Z. Mercogliano reports that these reassignments mean that the Rangers no longer have to dip into their pool of newly available cap space (due to placing Fox on LTIR) and as a result, the team is now able to accrue cap space.
Latest On David Quinn
The San Jose Sharks haven’t just been winless through 11 games this season, they’ve, generally speaking, been an unmitigated disaster on the ice. Last night’s 10-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins marked back-to-back games in which the team has surrendered 10 goals, while also marking just the second time this season that the team scored more than a single goal in a game. According to Sportsnet Stats, no team has surrendered 10 goals in back-to-back games since 1965.
While the Sharks taking up a place in the NHL’s basement was entirely expected, what hasn’t been expected is just how bad the team has looked in each game this season. The Sharks have scored 12 goals this season, just one more goal than Auston Matthews alone. The team has surrendered 55 goals, which averages out to five per game and is a full eight goals higher than the next-worst team.
All in all, the Sharks’ performances this season have naturally led to questions over head coach David Quinn’s job status. San Jose Hockey Now’s Sheng Peng asked Quinn about his job security after last night’s loss, to which Quinn responded:
I guess it’s an obvious question, but if you’ve been around long, I mean, I don’t think about that for two seconds. I’ve got a job to do.
Veteran Sharks forward Nico Sturm was asked about coaching as well, and he gave this response:
It’s not about the coaches. We lose 10-1, what are the coaches [going to do]? The coaches aren’t out there and playing. It’s far too easy to play against us right now, and that’s certainly not the coach’s fault. It’s up to us as players and we’re not anywhere near where we need to be right now.
Those quotes, which come via the Mercury News’ Curtis Pashelka, indicate that this isn’t a situation where there is discord and tension between coaches and players, the kind of tension that often causes these types of lopsided losses. Instead, the Sharks’ struggles could very well be more of a reflection of the caliber of roster Quinn is working with.
That being said, Peng wrote on X last night regarding Quinn’s job status that the team will “need to show real improvement, and relatively soon.” He added that the improvement can come in the form of simply just “competing consistently & not getting embarrassed” and that the issue for Quinn’s job security may not be the fact that they are losing, but “how they’re losing.”
For Quinn to be fired so early in the season would be something of a surprise, even with how poorly the Sharks have been playing.
Quinn was GM Mike Grier’s choice to lead the team through its rebuild, a former highly successful college coach with extensive experience managing young players and coaching in a rebuilding setting in the NHL.
General Managers typically do not get a large number of head coaches to cycle through before questions start coming in about their own job status, so firing Quinn would represent a significant setback for the Sharks’ front office, an admission that their first head coaching choice had backfired to a massive degree.
But what would also be a significant setback for the Sharks would be continuing this current stretch of downright horrific performances.
The team appears to have no issue stacking losses in order to secure the best chance at projected 2024 number-one pick and San Jose Jr. Sharks product Macklin Celebrini, just as clubs had no issue losing in order to have the best chance for Connor Bedard last season. But in most cases rebuilding clubs would like to pair those losses with genuine steps forward for some of its young players.
So far, that hasn’t happened for the Sharks. The team has lost all of its games and seen many key young players fail to take the steps forward at the NHL level that the organization was hoping for.
Just one player has registered more than five points on San Jose this season (veteran Tomáš Hertl) while valued youth talent such as William Eklund and Filip Zadina have struggled to put points together.
It’s an undeniably brutal situation for a rebuilding club to be in, and it’s a situation without many clear paths out unless the team as a whole significantly improves its play. If Quinn isn’t able to guide his team to more competitive hockey on a nightly basis, the questions on his job status, which began last night, could get quite a bit harder to ignore.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Ottawa Senators Recall Roby Järventie, Zack MacEwen
The Ottawa Senators have added two players to their NHL roster, forwards Roby Järventie and Zack MacEwen. These recalls give the Senators a full roster of 23 players, while increasing their number of rostered forwards from 11 to 13.
While both players are wingers and bring decent size to the Senators, that’s about where the similarities between the two end. Järventie is a 21-year-old prospect who was the 33rd overall pick at the 2020 draft. Järventie played a season in Liiga after he was drafted and then one in the AHL before he authored a breakout AHL campaign last season.
The Tampere native scored 16 goals and 30 points in 40 games last season, which is a 54-point pace across a full 72-game AHL season. Although Belleville struggled as a whole last year, Järventie made significant strides in his play and began to show more of an ability to leverage his size and strength to survive the immense physicality of the North American game.
Now recalled to Ottawa, Järventie has a chance to make his NHL debut for head coach D.J. Smith’s side. The Senators don’t appear to have any vacancies in their top nine, although Järventie could fill in on the fourth line due to Mark Kastelic‘s injury.
As for MacEwen, the 27-year-old is a more familiar face for NHL fans, as he’s played nearly 200 career games in the league. Owner of a contract lasting through 2025-26, MacEwen is a true grinder, a six-foot-four, 240-pound wrecking ball capable of dealing some serious hurt to the opposition while also racking up quite a few penalty minutes in the process.
MacEwen appears the more conventional choice to take the fourth-line winger role vacated with Kastelic out, although it’s likely that Järventie offers more offensive upside in the role.
Jack Hughes Suffers Upper-Body Injury
November 5th: In more unfortunate news surrounding Hughes, the Devils announce that Hughes will be on a week-to-week recovery timeline, and he has not traveled with the team to Chicago.
November 4th: New Jersey Devils superstar forward Jack Hughes left last night’s eventual 4-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues with an upper-body injury, per team reporter Amanda Stein.
Midway through the first period, Hughes crashed into the boards at a significant velocity, and he was slow to get up with the impact appearing to largely be endured by his head and right shoulder. Hughes is still to be fully evaluated by the team, meaning the full extent of the injury he suffered is, at this moment, unknown.
Should Hughes miss any time, his absence would represent the biggest loss the Devils could possibly suffer from any one injury.
Hughes, 22, is the Devils’ most important player. He currently leads the entire NHL in scoring with 20 points in just 10 games, and he could even be considered an early contender for the Hart Trophy due to Connor McDavid‘s injury and the Oilers’ general struggles.
He plays in the all-important first-line center role for the Devils, skating in between Timo Meier and Tyler Toffoli. In the case that Hughes does miss some time, the Devils’ depth chart at center would be dealt another blow.
Team captain and second-line center Nico Hischier did not dress for last night’s game due to injury, meaning any Hughes absence could come at a time when the team is also missing its second-best pivot.
The result of both players being absent at one time could be that crucial top-six center roles are trusted to players originally planned to be bottom-six pivots, such as Erik Haula or Michael McLeod.
Any extended Hughes absence, especially when combined with injuries to Hischier and Tomas Nosek, could have a ripple effect covering the entire Devils’ organization. Veteran Chris Tierney is already in the Devils’ NHL lineup now, and a Hughes injury could even prompt the team to recall another center from their AHL affiliate, the Uitca Comets, just in order to be able to dress four players at the position.
The Comets are currently led in scoring by Xavier Parent and Max Willman, two players who are far from established top-end AHL players. The ripple effect of the Hughes injury could make it so Utica is even more reliant on those two centers, which might not be ideal if their early-season success is not an indication of how they’ll be able to produce on an extended basis.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Latest On Morgan Frost
At this early juncture in the 2023-24 NHL season, a look at Philadelphia Flyers center Morgan Frost‘s stat line might raise some eyebrows. Despite putting together a breakout season of sorts in 2022-23 and being entirely healthy so far this year, Frost has played in just three total contests, tied for the fewest among Flyers skaters this season.
This has led to speculation in some parts that the Flyers might be looking to trade Frost, 24, as his six consecutive games spent as a healthy scratch would seem to indicate that he no longer held a place in the Flyers’ long-term plans.
That speculation appears to not be grounded in the reality of the situation, though, according to a report from The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz. (subscription link) Kurz reports from a league source that the Flyers ” aren’t looking to move” Frost to another team, and “haven’t engaged in any serious discussions” on a Frost trade. Moreover, Kurz adds that the Flyers still view [Frost] as one of the young players they want to grow with the organization” as the team continues its rebuilding plan.
It appears that Frost’s lengthy stay in the press box was more due to the newfound depth the Flyers have at the center position rather than any mistake Frost had made in the two games he played to start the season.
With Sean Couturier once again healthy, the Flyers boast a deep group of pivots that also includes veteran Scott Laughton and Noah Cates.
Couturier is inarguably the team’s top center, but the issue for Frost has been more about Laughton and Cates. Both players scored at a comparable rate to Frost last season while also providing considerably more on the defensive side of the equation.
Laughton is a widely respected veteran with a well-known commitment to two-way hockey, while Cates was so impressive in his rookie season that he even garnered consideration on the Selke Trophy ballot.
With offseason signing Ryan Poehling offering more speed and grit than Frost could provide centering Garnet Hathaway and Nicolas Deslauriers on the Flyers’ fourth line, it becomes easier to see why Frost hasn’t been able to crack head coach John Tortorella’s nightly lineup.
Tortorella did get Frost back into the mix for their last game, placing him in the second-line center role between Travis Konecny and Tyson Foerster. That shifted Laughton down to the fourth line and Poehling to the press box, and it’ll be interesting to see whether the Flyers stick with that arrangement or choose to return Frost to healthy scratch status.
In any case, the Flyers’ decent 4-4-1 start has been partly off the back of their increased depth at the center position. It’s that depth — rather than any desire to make a change-of-scenery trade, according to Kurz’s reporting — that has caused Frost’s frequent healthy scratches so far this season.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images