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Trade Deadline Notes: Chychrun, Myers, Zaitsev, L’Heureux

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One of the top players on the market for this trade deadline season is Arizona Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun. His trade saga has been in headlines for quite some time now, and a deal could finally be materializing for the former top prospect. We covered how the league-leading Boston Bruins were rumored to have interest in Chychrun, and now another team with interest has been revealed. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period cites “multiple well-placed sources” who say that “the Kings and Arizona Coyotes have taken things up a notch or two and have been in consistent dialogue over a potential trade.”

The Kings could use a left-handed blueliner like Chychrun, and have the sort of prospects and draft picks to interest the Coyotes. While 2020 second-overall pick Quinton Byfield is probably too much of an ask, the Kings do have the seventh-ranked prospect system according to The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler. (subscription link) The Coyotes have reportedly set a high asking price for Chychrun, but whether it’s 2019 fifth-overall pick Alex Turcotte, Harvard star Alex Laferriere, or others the Kings have the capital to meet it.

Now, for some other notes regarding the trade deadline:

  • Pagnotta also reports that the Vancouver Canucks “have been engaged in trade talks with the Toronto Maple Leafs” regarding veteran defenseman Tyler Myers. While it might be quite the challenge to find a way to make the cap hit fit into the Maple Leafs’ current structure, Pagnotta did note that Toronto is not part of Myers’ no-trade protection, eliminating that potential barrier to a deal. While most (including PHR) have concluded that the Maple Leafs’ biggest needs for the deadline lie up front, it seems GM Kyle Dubas could be targeting help for his back end as well.
  • Another defenseman that could be on the move according to Pagnotta is Ottawa Senators blueliner Nikita Zaitsev. The Senators are reportedly “actively trying to move” Zaitsev, who played in 23 NHL games this season. According to the report, the price in order to incentivize a team to take on Zaitsev’s deal could be a second-round pick.
  • Nashville Predators 2021 first-round pick Zachary L’Heureux was indefinitely suspended by the QMJHL today. The Nashville Post’s Michael Gallagher reports that the incident in question saw L’Heureux allegedly poke a 16-year-old fan with his stick after his game against the Gatineau Olympiques. While these developments have no direct impact on the Predators’ chase of a playoff spot this season, what it could impact is their deadline possibilities. L’Heureux is one of the Predators’ top-ranked prospects and would have been one of their more valuable assets to be able to surrender in exchange for an impact NHL-er. With this indefinite suspension, it now seems highly unlikely that L’Heureux would figure in any deadline deal, meaning the team’s possibilities for who to acquire could change.

Los Angeles Kings Extend Pheonix Copley

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The Los Angeles Kings have signed goaltender Pheonix Copley to a one-year, $1.5MM contract extension.

The deal comes in the wake of Copley’s impressive 2022-23 season. Copley has gone 15-3-1 in 20 games played, seizing the Kings’ starting job from franchise legend Jonathan Quick. It’s been a whirlwind campaign for Copley, who signed with the Kings over the summer undoubtedly with the idea in mind that he’d be the Kings’ number-three netminder, spending the bulk of the year with their AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign.

That didn’t happen, though, as the immense struggles of $5MM AAV netminder Cal Petersen this year (.868 save percentage in 10 games) necessitated that Copley be brought to the NHL roster to back up Quick, in order to allow Petersen to rebuild his game as the AHL starter.

While Petersen has performed quite well at the AHL level (.918 save percentage in 19 games) the Kings have kept Copley in the NHL, as he simply keeps on winning. Copley went on a seven-game winning streak from December to January, and, after taking a loss against the juggernaut Boston Bruins, won his next three games as well.

Copley’s numbers outside of his record aren’t great (.897 save percentage) but he’s put the Kings in a position to win and has given them just enough in net in order to come away with two points on most nights. While it’s not the largest sample size, it’s easy to see why the Kings have made the choice to give him a $1.5MM deal for next season.

What isn’t easy to see, though, is where Copley factors into the Kings’ future. Quick is 37 and certainly struggled this season, and also is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. In September, Quick stated that he planned on continuing his career beyond this season. While it’s possible that his lackluster performance this season has changed his outlook, it seems more likely that the ultra-competitive Quick will want to continue his career so he can end it on more productive footing.

But with Copley now on an NHL deal for next season, could Quick be forced to head elsewhere if he doesn’t want to retire? It’s always seemed as though Quick would have a place on the Kings for as long as he would want one, but perhaps the Kings’ dire situation in net this year has changed that.

What’s also possible is that the Kings may choose to buyout Petersen. Despite Petersen’s strong AHL performance, the Kings could opt to buy out Petersen in July. While the move wouldn’t save them any cap space for 2023-24, it would save them nearly $5MM the year after, at the cost of a $1.6MM cap hit for the following two years.

Minor Transactions: 02/10/23

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The NHL season is back in full swing after the All-Star break, and today features four games on the schedule. Two of the more aggressive contenders for the 2023 draft’s first overall pick, the Arizona Coyotes and Chicago Blackhawks, are set to face off, while Vladimir Tarasenko makes his New York Rangers debut as they face the Seattle Kraken. As hockey fans everywhere soak in tonight’s action, teams in minor and foreign leagues are making tweaks to their rosters. We’ll track those moves here.

  • One of the DEL’s top scorers, 2018 St. Louis Blues first-round pick Dominik Bokk has signed a one-year extension with his club, the Frankfurt Lions. Bokk’s productivity has skyrocketed since he returned to European hockey. Last year, he scored just 10 points in 32 games for the AHL’s Chicago Wolves. He was loaned to Frankfurt for this season, and he has scored 49 points in 43 games, meaning his club must have been eager to put pen to paper on a contract extension.
  • After clearing waivers earlier today, former Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Linus Hogberg seems to have found his next team. Johan Svensson of SportExpressen reports that Hogberg has an agreement to join Skelleftea AIK, the SHL’s first-place team. In Skelleftea, Hogberg will join former NHLers Oscar Moller, Joakim Lindstrom, Par Lindholm, and Tom Kuhnhackl, as well as top 2023 draft prospect Axel Sandin-Pellikka.
  • A pair of minor league blueliners for San Jose Sharks affiliates have had their PTOs converted to standard player contracts, per the AHL’s official transactions page. The two 26-year olds, Darren Brady and William Riedell, have split this season between the AHL and ECHL, although they both have played exclusively at the AHL level since early December. Both players had two games of AHL experience before their call-up to San Jose, with Riedell getting his call at the conclusion of his NCAA career at Ohio State. Brady, on the other hand, had to test his mettle in both the SPHL and in a successful 32-point 47-game run in the ECHL before earning his AHL call-up.
  • The ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays have lost their top scorer. 24-year-old Carter Turnbull, a former Connecticut Husky, has signed with HKM Zvolen in Slovakia’s top professional league. Turnbull turned pro last season after a four-year NCAA career at the University of Connecticut, and was fine, scoring five points in 11 games for the Stingrays. This season, he’s become their top offensive player, and he has 42 points in 41 games. The Stingrays, who sit in the middle of the ECHL’s playoff mix, will now need to find a way to replace the hefty scoring burden Turnbull leaves behind.
  • Czech club BK Mlada Boleslav has signed two players to contract extensions. The first is 2017 Chicago Blackhawks fourth-round pick Tim Soderlund, and the second is former Providence Bruin Robert Lantosi. Soderlund, 25, moved from Djurgardens in Sweden to Boleslav just a month ago, and now commits to extending there after scoring six points in 13 games. Lantosi, 27, has scored 24 points in 40 games this season after coming over from HC Linkopings in the summer.
  • The SHL’s Vaxjo Lakers have signed a two-year extension with veteran forward Ludvig Nilsson. The 28-year-old transferred from Brynas to Vaxjo in 2019, and won an SHL title with the Lakers in 2020-21. Nilsson has scored eight points in 37 games this season playing bottom-six minutes on a talented Vaxjo team.
  • Austrian club Black Wings Linz, who play in the Central European ICEHL, have signed a two-year extension with young defenseman Niklas Bretschneider. The Vienna native already has 133 games of experience at Austria’s top level of hockey with Linz, and has played in 41 games this season as the Black Wings have fought for a playoff spot.
  •  The ECHL’s Worcester Railers have signed a contract with forward Paul Boutoussov, putting the 26-year-old in a position to make his professional debut. Boutoussov last played in 2021-22 with Babson College, a business school that competes in NCAA Division III athletics. Boutoussov’s signing is presumably to bring in some short-term help for the Railers, who are looking to stay afloat in the ECHL’s playoff race despite losing quality contributor Blake Christensen to HC Thurgau of the Swiss second division.

This page will be updated throughout the day. 

Trade Deadline Primer: Calgary Flames

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With the All-Star break now behind us, the trade deadline looms large and is less than a month away. Where does each team stand, and what moves should they be looking to make? We continue our look around the league with the Calgary Flames. 

After an offseason that saw the Flames’ roster undergo significant upheaval, Calgary has had an uneven, often frustrating 2022-23 season. The team remains in solid position standings-wise, — tied with the Minnesota Wild for the last Wild Card spot in the Western Conference — but fans could not be blamed for expecting more from head coach Darryl Sutter’s team.

Heading into the deadline, the Flames’ status is relatively unclear. GM Brad Treliving told NHL.com’s Aaron Vickers in an interview that his team still hasn’t told him what direction he should head in in terms of transactions. He said:

Listen, we’d like to add to our team, but the most critical part is where your team’s at, right? We’ve got some work to do to get ourselves into a better position than we currently are. We’ve been up and down. There’s been some inconsistency to our game. It’s hard to sit here and start making any proclamations about what you’re going to do at the deadline. We continue to watch our team.

It sounds as though the Flames want to add for a potential playoff run, but don’t want to overextend for a team that may not be capable of true Stanley Cup contention. It’s a difficult spot to be in, especially for a franchise that has invested significant dollars in older, more established players. This leaves the Flames as one of the more interesting teams to watch in advance of the March 3rd deadline.

Record

24-18-10, 5th in the Pacific

Deadline Status

Unclear

Deadline Cap Space

$2.95MM today, $4.44MM in deadline space, 0/3 retention slots used, 45/50 contracts used, per CapFriendly.

Upcoming Draft Picks

2023: CGY 1st, CGY 2nd, CGY 4th, CGY 6th, CGY 7th

2024: CGY 1st*, CGY 2nd, CGY 3rd, CGY 4th, CGY 6th

*If Calgary’s 2024 first-rounder is between the picks of 20 and 32, the Montreal Canadiens can choose to take that pick as their return from the Sean Monahan trade.

Trade Chips

Should the Calgary Flames choose to invest in this year’s roster and add established players, the overwhelming likelihood is that the team would either deal from their prospect pool or stable of draft picks in order to get a deal done. In terms of draft picks, the conditions on the team’s 2024 first-round pick make it so they won’t be able to trade it, as it could theoretically belong to the Montreal Canadiens over a year from now.

That leaves the Flames’ 2023 first-round pick as their top draft pick available to trade. Since the Flames’ fate this season remains unclear, it would be a surprise if Treliving chose to deal that pick without any protections attached. But should the Flames be interested in acquiring one of the bigger names on the market, their 2023 first-rounder may be the starting point for any trade offer.

In terms of prospects, the Flames have a few that could be of interest to other clubs. The Flames picked just three times at the 2022 draft, and their prospect pool ranks 20th in the NHL according to The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler. (subscription link) Prized prospects Matt Coronato and Dustin Wolf are presumably off the table in any deals, and it’s likely that since the Flames haven’t firmly placed themselves in the Stanley Cup mix, they’d be similarly unwilling to deal Connor Zary or Jakob Pelletier. 2020 third-round pick Jeremie Poirier, who is having a solid rookie season in the AHL, may be the top prospect the Flames are willing to make available for other teams.

Should the Flames struggle between now and the deadline, they do have a few players on offer that could be of interest to deadline buyers. A rebuild isn’t coming anytime soon, so it’s likely that Treliving would only want to deal players not in his team’s future plans.

One such player is depth forward Trevor Lewis, who has Stanley Cup experience and could interest teams looking for a cheap, reliable addition to their bottom-six.

Another pending unrestricted free agent is Michael Stone, who has played 42 games in a depth role in Calgary this season and could be a low-price option for a team looking for defensive reinforcements.

Team Needs

1) Another scoring forward

While the Flames have playoff hopes this season, they rank just 19th in the NHL in goals for per game. Perhaps even more distressingly, the team ranks 25th in the NHL with a 19% power play scoring rate. While part of the team’s offensive struggles can be attributed to the decline in scoring numbers of the Flames’ marquee offseason additions, Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri, the lack of scoring remains a team-wide issue. Adding a lethal power play threat and someone to help reinforce Sutter’s top-six would give the Flames a major boost.

2) A player who can provide a spark

The Flames’ most pressing need is to add a scoring forward for the reasons outlined above. But what is perhaps more important is for the Flames to add a “spark,” a player or some players capable of energizing a team that hasn’t looked like the juggernaut they once appeared to be last season. While capable of playing some brilliant games, the Flames have lacked consistency and have too often looked frustrated, and stale. If they can find the type of player who is not only a skilled player but also the type of on-ice force and off-ice leader to help rejuvenate the team’s struggling superstars (Huberdeau, Kadri, Jacob Markstrom) then a hot streak could be just around the corner. For as uneven as the Flames’ campaign has been, they remain one extended hot streak from attaining contender status. While Treliving should remain focused on adding some scoring help, finding the specific kind of player who can help ignite a team-wide turnaround should be a priority as well.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Washington Capitals Recall Aliaksei Protas

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The Washington Capitals have brought forward Aliaksei Protas back to their NHL roster, per a team announcement. His recall from the AHL’s Hershey Bears comes after the team sent him to the AHL to get a few games in during the Capitals’ break.

The Capitals play the Boston Bruins tomorrow, so this recall gives head coach Peter Laviolette an extra forward to work with as he prepares to take on the league leaders. Protas, 22, is a hulking six-foot-six forward who already has 75 games of NHL experience under his belt.

Protas has played most of this season in Washington, and has scored seven goals and ten points in 42 games. Last season, Protas split time between Washington and Hershey, scoring 24 points in 42 AHL games and nine points in 33 NHL games.

Protas has played in a depth role this season, and he averages just under eleven minutes of ice time per game, the least of all Capitals skaters with more than ten games played. He’s making $795k against the cap this season and will have a $789k cap hit next season before becoming eligible for restricted free agency.

New York Rangers Reassign Will Cuylle

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Feb 9: Cuylle has now been sent back to the AHL. He played just 7:44 in the team’s win over Vancouver last night.

Feb 5: In addition to the recall of Sammy Blais that was reported yesterday, the Rangers have plucked another forward from their AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack. Will Cuylle has been called up to the team’s active roster, having been sent down from the NHL on January 28th as the Rangers prepared for a lengthy break.

Cuylle, 21, made his NHL debut on January 25th, and has played in a total of two NHL games. He didn’t see very many minutes in those two games, averaging around six minutes per night. Accordingly, he didn’t make much of an impact, save for when he registered his first career fight in a bout against Vegas Golden Knights grinder Keegan Kolesar.

At the AHL level, Cuylle has been more effective. Ranked as one of the Rangers’ better prospects since being drafted in the second round in 2020, Cuylle has made his pro debut this season and done decently well. He’s scored 21 points in 42 games, which is just four points off of the team lead. He also leads the Wolf Pack in goals with 14.

Cuylle was a prolific scorer at the OHL level, scoring 80 points in his final junior season serving as captain of the Windsor Spitfires. The Rangers are hopeful that he can become an impactful physical presence with some goal-scoring touch at the NHL level.

The recall of Cuylle and the prior recall of Blais give the Rangers a full 23-man roster. That has some significance, as if the Rangers opted to keep a bare-minimum roster, they could bank more cap space to be able to use at the trade deadline. They currently stand to have over $6MM to work with at the deadline, but that number could be impacted by the Rangers using more cap space to fill a full roster.

Minor Transactions: 02/06/23

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NHL teams return to the ice tonight after the conclusion of the All-Star break. Twelve teams are set to do battle, and the slate of contests is highlighted by newly-minted $68MM man Bo Horvat’s debut with the New York Islanders and Anthony Beauvillier’s debut for the Vancouver Canucks. As fans enjoy tonight’s games, teams in minor and foreign leagues are making tweaks to their rosters. We’ll keep track of those moves here.

  • 2002 34th overall pick Tobias Stephan will hang up his skates. Swiss club HC Lausanne has announced that Stephan will retire at the end of this season. While the 39-year-old goalie never quite stuck in North America and was limited to just 11 career NHL games, he is an extremely accomplished veteran of the Swiss league. He won NLA Goalie of the Year in 2009-10 and has won a Spengler Cup and Swiss Cup over the course of a 20-year career at the top of his country’s professional hockey ladder.
  • Former Vancouver Canuck Marc Michaelis has made the choice to switch clubs at the end of the season. Regning Swiss champions EV Zug have announced the signing of Michaelis to a contract to a two-year deal, set to begin next season. Michaelis was a coveted college free agent after scoring 162 points in his 142-game career for Minnesota State, and he got 15 games with the Canucks in 2020-21. He didn’t manage to get on the scoresheet, though, and signed with the Toronto Marlies. His AHL tenure in Toronto was shaky as well, leading to an exit back to Europe. Michaelis’ debut in the Swiss league has gone extremely well, and he has formed a deadly partnership with former top prospect Aleksi Saarela. With 15 goals and 39 points in 44 games, Michaelis will be headed elsewhere for next season.
  • Liiga’s TPS Turku have signed veteran defenseman Taneli Ronkainen on loan from Oulun Karpat for the rest of the season. Ronkainen is an experienced blueliner in Finland’s top league, having won a championship in 2017-18. He has nearly 300 games of experience in Liiga, and will be able to reinforce a TPS Turku blueline that has been solid so far this year, ranking sixth in goals-against this season.
  • Young Finnish winger Jere Henriksson has had his three-game loan to HPK Hameenlinna converted into a full loan, and has additionally signed an extension for next year as well. The 21-year-old already has over 120 games of Liiga experience to his name, and won the league title last season with Tappara Tampere.
  • Veteran KHL forward Nikita Pivtsakin and his club, HC Sochi, have agreed to a mutual contract termination. The 31-year-old, who has over 500 games of KHL experience under his belt and won World Juniors gold for Russia in 2010-2011, will now look elsewhere to continue his career. Pivtsakin has scored six points in 50 games in the KHL this season, and perhaps this release is meant to give him a chance to return to the Finnish Liiga, where he was last season when he played 16 games for KalPa Kuopio.

This page will be updated throughout the day

Calgary Flames Activate Chris Tanev

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The Calgary Flames have activated defenseman Chris Tanev, according to a team tweet. Tanev has been out with an injury since January 23rd, when he left early in a 4-3 overtime win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Flames now are left with eight defensemen on their active roster with this activation, thanks to the recent recall of Dennis Gilbert from the AHL. It’s possible Gilbert’s recall was made with the intention of him being a contingency plan in case Tanev wasn’t ready to go for tonight’s game against the New York Rangers, so he could be on the way back to the AHL should the team want to carry only seven defensemen and add another forward to the mix.

That being said, though, the Flames are on an East Coast road trip, meaning they also might prefer to keep Gilbert with the team for the rest of the trip rather than just send him home with zero games played. Worth noting is that the Flames do have veteran forward Kevin Rooney in the AHL, seemingly out of place there since the team so recently gave him a two-year, $1.3MM AAV guarantee.

The Flames get a major boost with Tanev’s return just as they enter a crucial stretch of their season. They’re looking to keep pace with other Western Conference contenders in the race for a playoff spot, and Tanev will undoubtedly help them in that pursuit. Long regarded as one of the league’s better stay-at-home defensemen, Tanev has been a crucially important defensive anchor for head coach Darryl Sutter.

Tanev is the centerpiece of the Flames’ penalty kill, skating nearly three minutes a night with the opponent on the man advantage. He’s blocked 85 shots this season as well, and beyond more traditional defensive counting stats, which have their limit in usefulness, public analytics models remain exceedingly high on Tanev’s work in the defensive zone.

While his return won’t solve the Flames’ lingering issues in net and with underperforming top forwards such as Jonathan Huberdeau, he will help the team close out games where they maintain a late lead.

For a club seeking to build momentum and return to the playoffs, getting a player like Tanev back to full health can mean the difference between picking up or leaving behind those few standings points that separate the playoff teams from the near-misses.

New York Islanders Activate Hudson Fasching

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The New York Islanders have announced that forward Hudson Fasching has been activated off of the team’s injured reserve list in advance of tonight’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers. The move leaves the team with a full 23-man roster.

Fasching has been out since a January 18th contest against the Boston Bruins due to a lower-body injury. He will in all likelihood resume his role on the Islanders’ fourth line, filling the role now-injured Cal Clutterbuck has long occupied next to Casey Cizikas and Matt Martin.

The 27-year-old has been a nice find for the Islanders this season and has set a new career-high in NHL games played with 19. While he hasn’t scored much (he has just three goals and five points) he’s provided head coach Lane Lambert with the kind of physicality and energy the organization has long valued in its bottom sixers.

Fasching arrived in the Islanders organization over the summer, signing a one-year, two-way contract. The prior season, Fasching had served as the captain of the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners for the Arizona Coyotes organization and scored 37 points in 51 AHL games.

Instead of serving as a leader and valuable power forward for the Islanders’ AHL affiliate, Fasching has firmly placed himself in the NHL mix as a depth forward and has likely earned himself another NHL deal in the process.

For players on the NHL-AHL bubble, life can sometimes lack stability as teams generally view these players as expendable. While Fasching’s play hasn’t changed that overall reality, it has so far changed his reality as he’s proved he could have more value to an NHL team than many might have believed a year ago.

Minor Transactions: 02/05/23

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It’s the final day of the NHL All-Star break, with teams set to return to the ice tomorrow night. With twelve teams set to do battle and several beginning bye weeks, it’s clear we’re right in the thick of the NHL season. As teams prepare for a crucial stretch of games leading up to the trade deadline, clubs in minor and foreign leagues are making roster tweaks. We’ll keep track of those moves here.

  • Stanley Cup champion Carter Rowney has signed an extension to remain with the Frankfurt Lions beyond this season. The 249-game NHL veteran, 33, is in his first season playing professionally in Europe after spending all of last year with the Red Wings. He’s been very good in Germany, scoring 17 goals and 46 points in 45 games, a mark that ranks him 6th on the DEL scoring leaderboard, tied with Red Bull Munich forward Yasim Ehliz.
  • HC Slovan Bratislava has brought in a replacement for the departed Carl Ackered on their blueline: Nate Kallen. The reigning Slovak champions signed Kallen, 25, to bring some two-way prowess to their back end. The 2020 Hobey Baker nominee arrives in Bratislava having spent this year with the ECHL’s Maine Mariners, where he posted 18 points in 34 games. It’s been a busy week for Slovan, as about a week ago the team made another signing, bringing in 2014 first-round pick Nikita Scherbak.
  • Former Winnipeg Jets prospect J.C. Lipon has signed an extension to remain with his current club, the DEL’s Straubing Tigers. Lipon has been a good fit in Bavaria since arriving from the KHL, scoring 17 goals and 29 points in 44 games, giving the team ample motivation to lock him down to this extension. The former Manitoba Moose alternate captain, who has nine NHL games on his resume, has helped the Tigers rank among the top teams in the DEL this season.
  • Grizzlies Wolfsburg, a team in the DEL, has reportedly signed a contract for next season with Chris Wilkie, a forward who plays for another team in their league: the Bietigheim Steelers. This is the former Florida Panthers prospect’s first professional season in Europe, and it has gone decently well. He ranks second on the Steelers in goal scoring with 12 in 36 games and offers experience from both his time as an AHL forward and from his days playing college hockey. Since the Steelers look like a real candidate for relegation to the DEL2 for next season, this reported contract gives Wilkie the chance to remain in the German top division.
  • The DEL’s Eisbaren Berlin are reportedly interested in signing Red Bull Munich forward Freddy Tiffels for next season. Tiffels is a former Pittsburgh Penguins draft pick who has spent the last half-decade as a DEL regular. He scored 49 points in 45 games last season but has seen his offense decline sharply this season to just 25 points in 45 games. Perhaps a change of scenery and a move to Berlin, as the team seems to be eyeing, could be what Tiffels needs to return to the top end of the scoring leaderboard.
  • Veteran DEL blueliner Dominik Bittner will reportedly leave his current club, Grizzlies Wolfsburg, and head to EHC Red Bull Munchen for next season. The 30-year-old has nearly 500 games of DEL experience under his belt, and has spent the last four seasons manning the blueline in Wolfsburg. He represented Germany at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and will head to the three-time DEL champions for next season.
  • Per a team announcement, French forward Justin Addamo has been released from his PTO with the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins and sent back to the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers. Adddamo, 24, is in his first professional season since leaving the college ranks. He’s done pretty well, scoring 18 goals and 25 points in 38 games, and will look to help the Nailers gain ground in the ECHL’s Central Division.
  • Forward Jimmy Soper has been traded to the ECHL’s Rapid City Rush, per the league’s official transactions report. Soper, 27, played one season for the Kitchener Rangers at the junior level and has worked his way up from Junior A to Canadian university hockey, to the SPHL, and now to the ECHL, where he’s become a solid offensive contributor. Soper, who brings offensive ability as well as an edge to his game, heads to Rapid City from the Norfolk Admirals. Soper was traded to the Admirals from the Tulsa Oilers for Tag Bertuzzi, the son of former NHLer Todd Bertuzzi and cousin of current Detroit Red Wing Tyler Bertuzzi. Soper scored 71 points in 105 games over two seasons in Tulsa, and now finds a new home in Rapid City to continue his ECHL career.
  • Aleksi Rekonen seems to have found a home in Czechia. The Finnish forward, a veteran of Liiga and the Swedish second division (HockeyAllsvenskan), has signed a contract extension to remain with his current club, HC Plzen, beyond this season. Rekonen has been solid for Plzen, scoring 10 goals and 29 points in 44 games, marks that rank second on the team in scoring.

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