Minor Transactions: 11/23/23
As today is American Thanksgiving and 14 NHL games were played last night, the schedule for high-level hockey in North America is relatively light today.
Although it’s just OHL and QMJHL teams that will play today on this side of the Atlantic, over in Europe things are, as one would expect, quite a bit more active. The entirety of Sweden’s SHL will play today, as will eight teams in Finland’s Liiga and two apiece in the German DEL and Swiss NL. With an eye on today’s games, we’ll keep track of notable player movement throughout the hockey world here.
- The most active team in pro hockey yesterday may have been the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones, who sit sixth in the ECHL’s Western Conference with a 7-5 record. On November 22nd, the club made two trades and two free agent additions. The first trade was technically made by AHL teams, with the Cyclones-affiliated Hartford Wolf Pack acquiring forward Tim Doherty from the Chicago Wolves, and then loaning Doherty to Cincinnati. Doherty is a 28-year-old scorer who played college hockey at the University of Maine and has broken out as a star ECHLer with the Maine Mariners. He scored 21 goals and 73 points in just 69 games last season, and has eight points through ten games this campaign. He’ll instantly be expected to be a difference-making offensive forward for the Cyclones.
- The Cyclones didn’t end their offensive additions with Doherty, though, as they also signed winger Lincoln Griffin to a contract. The versatile forward was claimed off of waivers by Cincinnati from the Greenville Swamp Rabbits in 2021, and that decision instantly paid dividends for the club. Griffin scored 21 goals and 46 points in his first 57 games with the club, and then scored 17 goals and 37 points in 2022-23, en route to the ECHL All-Star game. He signed with Slovakia’s HK Nitra for 2023-24, but with just two points in 12 games, Griffin has elected to forgo the rest of the season in Nitra to return to his old stomping grounds in the Queen City.
- To make room for these forward acquisitions, the Cyclones dealt forward Adam Berg in a trade with the Utah Grizzlies. Berg, 26, is in his second ECHL season after getting into 19 games near the end of 2022-23 with the Cyclones. Berg was signed to Cincinnati after a strong final season playing Canadian university hockey at Brock University, a year where he scored 15 goals and 29 points in 24 games. Berg has just two points in eight games so far this season for Cincinnati, so perhaps this change-of-scenery trade to Utah will help Berg better establish himself in the ECHL. Berg is the second forward the Grizzlies, who have the third-fewest goals scored in the ECHL, have added this week. They also signed former SPHL scorer Aaron Aragon as well.
- The final addition by the Cyclones from yesterday was on the defensive side of the equation. The team signed blueliner Josh Burnside, returning a fixture from the Cyclones’ 2022-23 squad back to Cincinnati. The left-shot defenseman skated in 61 games for Cincinnati last year, posting 13 points and 42 penalty minutes. The former Mississauga Steelheads top-four defenseman signed in England this past summer, with the EIHL’s Coventry Blaze. He went on to play four games for Coventry before he elected to leave the club and return to the ECHL.
- Defenseman Adam Holwell, a 2017-18 Memorial Cup and QMJHL champion with the Acadie-Bathurst Titan, has transferred from the EIHL’s Fife Flyers to Erste Liga’s Corona Brașov, a club in Romania. The Canadian blueliner, who posted 141 points in 329 career QMJHL games, began his pro career last season with his hometown Newfoundland Growlers in the ECHL. Holwell wasn’t great there, though, scoring just three points in 18 combined regular season and playoff games. He didn’t return to the ECHL for his first full campaign as a professional, instead signing in Scotland with the EIHL’s Fife Flyers. Holwell only managed one point in eight games for Fife, and has not played since a November 5th loss at the Guildford Flames where he registered a -3 rating. With Fife winning three of four games since Holwell last dressed for the team, a mutual parting of ways appears to have been the best course of action for both player and club. Holwell will now head to Romania, where he’ll look to carve out a regular role for a team currently sitting in the middle of the standings of the Erste Liga, a league comprised of clubs from both Romania and Hungary.
- HockeyAllsvenskan’s Kalmar HC has signed veteran netminder Christian Engstrand to a one-year contract. The 35-year-old was playing on a short-term contract with the ICEHL’s EC-KAC, and had posted a 6-1-1 record, .939 save percentage, and 1.48 goals-against-average in eight games there. Kalmar is in need of some help in net, as while Jonathan Stålberg has been serviceable as the starter, 19-year-old backup Alexander Hellnemo has shown himself to not quite be ready for such a role. The 35-year-old Engstrand is a quality veteran goalie with some accomplishments on his resume. Most recently, Engstrand led the ICEHL in save percentage and goals-against-average for EC-KAC last season. Earlier in his career, Engstrand had achieved many feats in Swedish pro hockey, such as posting a .935 save percentage in 2012-13 for Linköping HC, posting a .950 save percentage in the Champions Hockey League in 2015-16, and leading Mora IK to promotion from HockeyAllsvenskan to the SHL in 2016-17. While he has not played in Sweden since 2020-21 with HC Vita Hästen, Engstrand is an experienced netminder capable of backstopping Kalmar for their push for SHL promotion.
- Eero Elo, once a quality goal scorer in the Finnish Liiga, KHL, and both Swiss leagues has signed with EHC Freiburg of the German second-tier DEL2. The 33-year-old former Minnesota Wild prospect spent last season playing second-division hockey in Switzerland for HC Thurgau, scoring 20 goals and 44 points in 53 combined regular season and playoff games. Once a player who scored 26 goals in Liiga, Eero has regressed since those days and has not played in a premier European league on a regular basis since his 2019-20 season split between Liiga’s Lukko Rauma and NL’s SCL Tigers. Freiburg are currently 10th in the DEL2 standings, though they rank second in the division in goals scored. Perhaps adding even more firepower through the addition of Elo is what the club needs to climb the DEL2 table.
This page may be updated throughout the day.
Injury Updates: Zary, Martinez, Avalanche
Calgary Flames forward Connor Zary is out day-to-day with a lower-body injury, according to a team announcement. He did not dress for the Flames’ loss to the Nashville Predators, though the day-to-day nature of the absence does leave a chance for him to return in time for the Flames’ contest tomorrow in Dallas.
The loss of Zary, 22, is a significant one for the Flames, as he’s quickly emerged as one of the team’s more gifted offensive players. In just nine games so far this season Zary has eight points, displaying a knack for finding his way onto the scoresheet. A 2020 first-round pick, Zary’s initial transition from WHL stardom to pro hockey was rocky, but after his 25-point AHL rookie season Zary scored 21 goals and 58 points there. He scored 10 points in just six AHL games so far this season, a performance that earned him his call-up to Calgary.
Some other injury updates from the Western Conference:
- Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Alec Martinez missed yesterday’s overtime victory over the Dallas Stars due to a lower-body injury. Martinez’ vacated spot in the lineup next to Alex Pietrangelo was filled by Nicolas Hague, while Ben Hutton re-entered the lineup to fill Hague’s old role on the team’s bottom pairing next to Zach Whitecloud. Martinez is among Vegas’ most important defensemen, averaging nearly 20 minutes per night and over two minutes per night on the penalty kill.
- Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar told the media, including NHL.com’s Ryan Boulding, that forward Logan O’Connor has a lower-body injury and is out day-to-day. Additionally, forward Valeri Nichushkin left last night’s game to get stitches for his mouth but did end up returning to the contest. At the moment, O’Connor plays third-line minutes for the Avalanche on a line with Ross Colton and Miles Wood. Should he miss any time, physical spare forward Kurtis MacDermid could draw into the lineup, or they could place a player on injured reserve and recall a forward such as Ben Meyers. O’Connor, 27, has scored three goals and seven points in 17 games so far this season.
Injury Notes: Fehérváry, Bjornfot, Suter
Washington Capitals defenseman Martin Fehérváry has returned to practice in a normal jersey, according to team reporter Tarik El-Bashir. This is an important development for both Fehérváry and the Capitals, as the defenseman has missed the team’s last three contests with a lower-body injury.
Fehérváry is a top-four defenseman in Washington, averaging 18:19 time-on-ice per game. He also takes regular shifts on head coach Spencer Carbery’s penalty kill. Should he be ready to return to the ice, he would need to be activated off of injured reserve. The Capitals currently have a full 23-man roster, so to activate Fehérváry a player may need to be sent to the AHL’s Hershey Bears.
Some other injury updates from across the NHL:
- Los Angeles Kings defenseman Tobias Bjornfot, who is currently playing for the team’s AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign, left last night’s game against the Coachella Valley Firebirds with an injury. He had to be stretchered off of the ice after taking a hit from Firebirds forward Jacob Melanson, who was assessed a five-minute major and game misconduct for boarding on the play. Bjornfot, 23, has played in three games for Ontario this season and one game for Los Angeles.
- Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet told the media yesterday, including The Athletic’s Harman Dayal, that forward Pius Suter would not travel on the team’s road trip as he continues to be evaluated for an undisclosed injury. Although Suter, 27, has struggled to find the scoresheet he has played some important minutes for the Canucks. He averages over 15 minutes of ice time per game and skates on both special teams units, so the Canucks will definitely hope that whatever is keeping him out of the lineup is not an ailment that will cost him significant time.
Minor Transactions: 11/22/23
After a day that did not feature a single NHL game, the world’s top league is back with a whopping 14 games today, meaning all but four of the league’s clubs will be playing tonight.
Highlights from today’s schedule include a playoff rematch between two Atlantic Division contenders when the Florida Panthers take on the Boston Bruins, and two intriguing matches out west between possible Stanley Cup contenders with the Dallas Stars taking on the Vegas Golden Knights and the Colorado Avalanche taking on the Vancouver Canucks.
Outside the NHL, the Champions Hockey League Round of 16 continues with two games: German champions EHC Red Bull Munich against HC Genève-Servette, and Austria’s HC Innsbruck against Lukko Rauma. In the AHL, two of the league’s top teams will play tonight as Ivan Miroshnichenko‘s Hershey Bears take on Ty Smith‘s Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins. The continued grind of the 2023-24 season has naturally caused quite a bit of player movement outside the NHL, so as always, we’ll keep track of notable transactions here.
- Swedish netminder Niklas Rubin has signed a one-year contract extension with his current club, Liiga’s Ässät Pori. Rubin, 27, has had a strong career so far in both Sweden and Finland, and is arguably now in the most prominent role of his career. Starting in 2016, Rubin emerged as one of the top netminders in the HockeyAllsvenskan, posting a brilliant .929 save percentage across 81 career games. He then moved to be the backup for Frölunda HC in the SHL, and won a Champions Hockey League title in 2019-2020. In 2022-23, Rubin got his first shot as a starter in a European top flight, playing in 47 games for Pori. He did very well there, posting a .922 save percentage en route to the playoffs. So far this season, Rubin has a .918 save percentage as Pori have gotten off to a decent start, and given his early form this year it’s easy to see why Ässät club management have made the decision to extend Rubin.
- 20-year-old SHL forward Dennis Värmhed has signed a two-year contract extension with Timrå IK. Timrå is not actually the club he’ll play for in the immediate term, though, as the SHL side has loaned him to HockeyAllsvenskan’s Tingsryds AIF. Värmhed served as Timrå’s captain and top player for their J20 team last season, and that year earned him 14 games in the SHL in 2022-23. So far this season, Värmhed has played in 17 SHL games for Timrå, but has not found much success. So the club is loaning him to the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan in the hopes that playing in a professional league with a lower talent level will be best for his development.
- Genève-Servette HC has signed 21-year-old forward Christophe Cavalleri to a one-year contract extension. The six-foot-four center played in a total of 18 games for Geneva last season, including six postseason games on the club’s NL championship run. This season, Cavalleri appears to have taken some genuine steps forward in his development. After scoring just two points in 12 games on loan with second-tier SL side HC La Chaux-de-Fonds last year, Cavalleri is already up to eight points in 11 games this campaign. While he hasn’t yet had the same level of success in the NL, this extension provides him another campaign on his contract to continue pushing for regular appearances with Geneva.
- Former Minnesauga Steelheads and Peterborough Petes forward Nick Isaacson was traded in the ECHL earlier this week, sent to the Cincinnati Cyclones from the Jacksonville Icemen in exchange for future considerations. Isaacson, a physical six-foot-three forward, is a University of Guelph product who began his pro career in 2021-22 with the South Carolina Stingrays in the ECHL. He was decent there, scoring 11 points in 26 games, and his performances earned him a three-game look at the AHL level with the Hershey Bears. 2022-23 was a difficult year, though, as he bounced between the Maine Mariners and IceMen, only playing in five total games. So far this year, Isaacson has two points in five games but has not found his way onto the scoresheet since an early November contest against the Savannah Ghost Pirates. The Cyclones traded forward James Hardie to the Rapid City Rush on Monday, so Isaacson appears to be Hardie’s replacement.
- Former SPHL star Aaron Aragon has signed with the ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies, replacing forward Jared Power on their roster. Power was released in a corresponding move. Aragon, 26, is an undersized winger who began his pro career last season. He scored 39 points in 41 games for the SPHL’s Macon Mayhem, a year that earned him six ECHL games with the Savannah Ghost Pirates. Aragon began this season with the Idaho Steelheads, and scored five points in four games, with Idaho winning all four contests. But the Steelheads did not dress Aragon after their November 10th win over the Wheeling Nailers and released Aragon on November 16th. Now he’s signed in Utah, a team that could use some scoring help as they have registered the second-fewest goals scored in the ECHL this year.
- 2018 Carolina Hurricanes seventh-round pick Jacob Kucharski was released by the ECHL’s Reading Royals, ending a tough stint there that included just three games played. Kucharski had not seen game action since November 5th and had not even served as a backup since November 11th, as Reading have reverted to a tandem of Nolan Maier and St. Louis Blues prospect Will Cranley. Kucharski struggled in Reading, posting an .852 save percentage and 5.09 goals-against-average in his limited game action.
This page may be updated throughout the day.
Ottawa Senators Reassign Mads Søgaard
Nov. 19: The Senators returned Søgaard to Belleville early this morning after their trip to Sweden concluded, per a team release.
Nov. 18: The Ottawa Senators have recalled netminder Mads Søgaard from their AHL affiliate, the Belleville Senators. With Joonas Korpisalo out due to a minor day-to-day injury, it will be Søgaard who serves as a backup to starter Anton Forsberg in Sweden.
Søgaard, 22, is a big six-foot-seven netminder is a native of Aalborg, Denmark, and has played in a total of 21 career NHL games. He’s had a strong start to the season, posting a .923 save percentage and inspiring confidence in those who predict him to be the Senators’ “goalie of the future.”
Søgaard will likely return to Belleville after the Senators’ trip in order to resume his role as a tandem goalie there. With a big season in the AHL, Søgaard could push Forsberg for the backup/1B role in Ottawa.
After this season, Forsberg will have just one year and $2.75MM remaining on his deal, although Søgaard will still be ineligible for waivers so the Senators will be in no rush to make a change.
Tampa Bay Lightning Recall Cole Koepke
The Tampa Bay Lightning have recalled forward Cole Koepke from their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch.
As reported by the Tampa Bay Times’ Eduardo A. Encina, this recall “serves as an indication that Anthony Cirelli may not be available” for the team’s game today against the Edmonton Oilers. Cirelli left the Lightning’s last game after taking a puck to the upper body.
The Lightning recalled Koepke rather than Waltteri Merelä, who they just sent down yesterday. This could be to give Merelä some continuity with one team, as well as to potentially give Koepke the chance to play in his first NHL game this season.
Koepke, 25, is a hard-working 2018 sixth-round pick who rode a breakout 2021-22 campaign to 17 NHL games the following season. He didn’t score much at all last year, though, managing just one point at the NHL level and 19 in the AHL.
So far this season, Koepke has six points in 11 games for the Crunch. At six-foot-one, 200 pounds, Koepke doesn’t offer the imposing size that Merelä brings, though he does play with quite a bit of energy. He averaged just over nine minutes of ice time per game in his NHL run last season.
Brett Ritchie Signs In KHL
Veteran forward Brett Ritchie is headed overseas for the first time in his professional career, signing a one-year contract with Dynamo Minsk of the KHL.
The 30-year-old winger did not receive an NHL contract this summer, instead signing a PTO with the Florida Panthers. He spent training camp and preseason in Sunrise, but failed to earn a contract from the club.
A veteran of 391 NHL games, Ritchie was the 44th overall pick of the 2011 draft by the Dallas Stars, selected out of the OHL’s Sarnia Sting.
After his OHL campaign concluded with a 76-point campaign on the Niagara IceDogs, Ritchie turned pro and had an exceptional AHL rookie season. He scored 29 goals and 59 points in 81 combined regular-season and playoff games, helping the Texas Stars win the Calder Cup.
Ritchie made his NHL debut the following season, in 2014-15, but only managed nine points in 31 games. Ritchie’s NHL breakthrough came in 2016-17, when he scored 16 goals in a full 78-game NHL season.
He had proven himself to be a capable NHL bottom-six winger, and he remained an NHL player exclusively (besides a 12-game AHL stint in 2019-20) through the 2022-23 season.
Ritchie will not be an NHLer this season, though, as rather than potentially sign an AHL deal with a pathway to an NHL contract (the pathway Joel Kiviranta successfully took with the Colorado Avalanche, for example) Ritchie has elected to play in the KHL.
He joins a Minsk team currently 14-12-4, sitting seventh in their conference standings. A look at Minsk’s scoresheet paints the picture as to why they might have gone out and signed a big-name former NHLer import player such as Ritchie. Their top scorer, AHL veteran Sam Anas, has scored just 18 points in 29 games.
They could very much use another winger with NHL experience beyond former Anaheim Duck Sam Volkov, so Ritchie fills that role. While it’s no guarantee Ritchie will be productive in the KHL, his consistent scoring success at the AHL level suggests he may be able to fill a scoring power forward’s role against KHL competition.
If he does so and posts a productive campaign in Belarus, one shouldn’t rule out the possibility Ritchie receives another chance to earn an NHL contract.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Chicago Blackhawks Recall Filip Roos
The Chicago Blackhawks have recalled defenseman Filip Roos from their AHL affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs. In a corresponding move, the Blackhawks placed veteran Nikita Zaitsev on the team non-roster list, as he is currently out due to personal reasons.
Roos, 24, is an undrafted Swedish blueliner who signed with the Blackhawks out of Skellefteå AIK and the SHL in the summer of 2022. In his first season in North America, Roos split time between the AHL and NHL, skating in 17 games for the Blackhawks and 39 for the IceHogs.
So far this season, Roos has played in 10 games in Rockford, scoring four points. With Zaitsev away, Roos will compete with Isaak Phillips for the team’s now-open lineup spot.
The slot in head coach Luke Richardson’s lineup that has been vacated by Zaitsev is on the team’s third pairing, alongside 21-year-old University of Minnesota-Duluth product Wyatt Kaiser.
Arizona Coyotes Recall Vladislav Kolyachonok
The Arizona Coyotes have recalled defenseman Vladislav Kolyachonok from their AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners.
Kolyachonok’s recall comes off the heels of a report from PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan, who wrote that defenseman Juuso Välimäki will be out “for a while” after taking a hard shot to the face.
Kolyachonok, 22, is a defenseman who the Coyotes are decently familiar with at the NHL level, as he played in 32 games for the NHL club in 2021-22 and in two games last season. So far this year Kolyachonok has played exclusively in Tucson, where he has scored two goals and three points in 11 games.
With Välimäki out, Kolyachonok could slot in directly where Välimäki plays in the lineup, on the team’s second pairing next to Matt Dumba.
Alternatively, veteran Troy Stecher could move up to the second pairing, which would put Kolyachonok or team seventh defenseman Michael Kesselring on the bottom pairing next to Joshua Brown.
Minor Transactions: 11/16/23
NHL hockey is going international today as the Detroit Red Wings and Ottawa Senators are set to face off in Stockholm, Sweden. All 14 clubs in Sweden’s top professional league, the SHL, play today as well, meaning it’s a hectic day for hockey in the country. Elsewhere in Europe, potential top 2024 draft prospect Konsta Helenius‘ Liiga side Jukurit is set to take on JYP, while the current DEL leaders Eisbaren Berlin are taking on the Augsburg Panthers.
Player movement across the hockey world in both minor and foreign leagues mirrors how busy the schedule is, and as always we’ll keep track of notable transactions here.
- Lucas Lessio, a former NHLer who began what has been an extensive career in European hockey in 2016-17, has left his club HC Bolzano of the ICEHL to sign in the DEL2 with Krefeld Pinguine. Although Krefeld have had a decent 9-7-1 start to the season, they have made a significant add in Lessio. The 30-year-old former Arizona Coyote played for Krefeld for two years from 2020 to 2022, scoring 37 goals and 62 points in 93 games. He was with the club when they suffered relegation from the DEL, and now with this signing, he’ll have the chance to lead them back to the German top flight.
- Jerome Flaake, a two-time DEL champion and a veteran of over 700 DEL games has been signed by Krefeld alongside Lessio. The 33-year-old Toronto Maple Leafs 2008 fifth-round pick was a star player for the now-defunct Hamburg Freezers, though he never quite reached the same heights again in the DEL. Last season, Flaake helped ERC Ingolstadt reach the DEL finals, and now after scoring just three points in 12 games for Augsburg, he’s headed down a division to help Krefeld with their promotion push.
- Former Montreal Canadiens prospect Arvid Henrikson has signed with AIK of the Swedish second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan. The big six-foot-five blueliner has spent this season so far with Västerviks IK, playing a total of 16 games. Henrikson hadn’t received more than bottom-pairing minutes for the club since October and has not played at all in over a week. Now he’ll play with AIK, a club he once captained at the U-18 level. It’s a big step up in the standings for Henrikson, who moves from HockeyAllsvenskan’s 13th-ranked club to the team currently third in the standings and looking like a potential promotion candidate.
- Former Providence College forward Bryan Lemos has decided to leave the EIHL’s Guildford Flames, citing homesickness, to return to the ECHL’s Indy Fuel, the club he played for in 2021-22 and 2022-23. Lemos only managed three points in nine games for Guildford, though he did conclude his time there with a goal in the team’s big 3-1 victory over the reigning champion Belfast Giants. Lemos has had success with the Fuel before, and has scored a total of 25 goals and 67 points in 92 games with the club.
- Journeyman American blueliner Charlie Dodero has signed with the ICEHL’s HK Olimpija Ljubljana today, adding a sixth country to the list of places he has played in during his career. The former Sudbury Wolves alternate captain spent last season in France’s Ligue Magnus with the Rouen Dragons, helping the club capture a French title and the Champions Hockey League spot that comes alongside it. Before 2022-23, Dodero was a regular face in the Central European ICEHL with two Austrian clubs, the Vienna Capitals and Graz99ers. Dodero last played in North America in 2018-19 with the Idaho Steelheads and has 46 AHL games on his resume, all of them coming with the Syracuse Crunch. Now, Dodero will look to add some edge to their blueline in the Slovenian capital, looking to help a club that is at the moment just a few places ahead of his former ICEHL teams near the bottom of the league’s standings.
This page may be updated throughout the day.