Nashville Predators Claim Samuel Fagemo Off Waivers From Los Angeles
The Nashville Predators have claimed winger Samuel Fagemo off waivers from the Los Angeles Kings, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports Monday. All other players placed on waivers yesterday, aside from new Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jansen Harkins, cleared.
While he may only have 13 NHL games to his name, this is a bit of a tough loss for the Kings. The team’s 50th overall pick in 2019, Fagemo has yet to crack the NHL full-time but looked good in a nine-game call-up last season, recording two goals and an assist despite receiving a paltry 7:51 per game. He tore things up in the minors in the goal-scoring department for a second straight season, too, posting 23 goals in 56 games with the AHL’s Ontario Reign to finish second on the team in goals.
The Kings have a lot of forward prospects, but it’s a pool that’s quickly evaporating as players like Quinton Byfield and Arthur Kaliyev are now full-time NHLers. Los Angeles had signed Fagemo to a one-year, two-way contract paying him $775K in the NHL and $100K in the AHL in July after his entry-level contract expired.
Fagemo, 23, now battles for a bottom-six spot with the Predators just over a week before the start of the regular season. His addition to the roster puts a fire under veterans like Kiefer Sherwood and Cole Smith to hang onto their fourth-line roles, while a youngster like Philip Tomasino also needs to step things up as he hasn’t quite secured a top-nine role throughout camp thus far. Given Tomasino still does not require waivers for assignment to the AHL, he could very well start the season with AHL Milwaukee after the Fagemo claim despite recording 18 points in 31 NHL contests last season.
Evening Notes: Hartman, Zuccarello, Islanders/Rangers
After finalizing extensions for both Marcus Foligno and Mats Zuccarello today, Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerin confirmed to The Athletic’s Joe Smith that things are also “heading that way” regarding an extension for center/winger Ryan Hartman. That confirms a report from The Athletic’s Michael Russo earlier this week that Minnesota had begun extension talks with all three players.
Guerin didn’t give a firm timeline on when we could see an extension for Hartman announced, and there’s likely still a little bit of work to be done, but it could be as soon as early next week. Hartman, a winger for most of his NHL career, shifted to center in his second season with Minnesota out of roster need and quickly ended up on the team’s top unit between Zuccarello and Kirill Kaprizov. Hartman’s statement season came in 2021-22, exploding for a career-high 34 goals and 65 points while playing in all 82 games. He couldn’t quite follow it up, however, as injuries limited him to 59 appearances in 2022-23, in which he posted 15 goals and 37 points.
While he has been an admirable pinch-hitter for the Wild at an extreme position of need in his prime, he’s not an ideal long-term solution as a pivot given his rather poor performance in the faceoff circle – he’s posted just a 43.6% win rate over the past three seasons despite taking well over 2,000 draws. He does still carry immense value as a versatile middle-six forward, however, and he’s in line to earn a significant raise over his current $1.7MM cap hit. Evolving-Hockey projects an extension for Hartman to come in at around the $5.5MM mark per season with a four-year term as the most likely – a more expensive deal but similar nonetheless to the one Foligno signed earlier today.
Elsewhere around the league tonight:
- Sticking with Minnesota, PuckPedia added some further clarity on the inner workings of Zuccarello’s two-year, $4.125MM cap hit extension signed today. Given the front-loaded structure of the deal, which sees him earn $4.7MM in 2024-25 compared to just $3.55MM in 2025-26, plus its label as a 35+ deal, the contract is essentially buyout-proof and will not earn the Wild any cap relief should they opt to execute one in the summer of 2025. Zuccarello will be 38 entering the final season of the extension, but he’s produced well over market value for the Wild over his four seasons there and, even accounting for some natural decline, should be worth the money given an increased cap ceiling in the final season of the extension.
- Moving East, watchful eyes may have noticed tonight’s preseason Battle of New York between the Islanders and Rangers didn’t go on as scheduled. That’s because the game was postponed earlier today due to the local state of emergency declared due to extreme flooding in Brooklyn and throughout the New York metropolitan area. A home game for the Islanders at UBS Arena, the tilt has been pushed to Saturday night at 6 p.m. CT or 7 p.m. local time.
Training Camp Cuts: 09/28/23
Today should see more significant cuts from league-wide rosters. Up until now, players attending camps on amateur tryouts or young draft picks getting returned to their junior clubs have mostly dominated this list. We’re now 12 days from the start of the regular season, though, and that means the playing season waiver period will open today at 1 p.m. CT. Therefore, any players under NHL contract who need to clear waivers to be assigned to the minors can be cut from camp as early as this afternoon. As CapFriendly notes, placing a player on waivers now carries no disadvantage compared to executing the same move later in camp. While a player technically has a ten-game, 30-day clock after a recall to the NHL roster before waivers are again required, this does not start until the regular season begins on October 10. With all that in mind, here are all of today’s cuts from camps league-wide.
Boston Bruins: (via team release)
F Joey Abate (to Providence, AHL)
F Vincent Arseneau (to Providence, AHL)
F Justin Brazeau (to Providence, AHL)
F Curtis Hall (to Providence, AHL)
F Owen Pederson (to Providence, AHL)
D Ethan Ritchie (to Providence, AHL)
G Shane Starrett (to Providence, AHL)
F Luke Toporowski (to Providence, AHL)
Buffalo Sabres (via team release)
D Mats Lindgren (to Red Deer, WHL)
D Norwin Panocha (to Chicoutimi, QMJHL)
Colorado Avalanche (via DNVR’s Meghan Angley)
D Jeremy Hanzel (to Spokane, WHL)
D Saige Weinstein (to Spokane, WHL)
Edmonton Oilers (via team release)
G Tyler Parks (to Bakersfield, AHL)
D Xavier Bernard (to Bakersfield, AHL)
D Noah Ganske (to Bakersfield, AHL)
D Jake Johnson (to Bakersfield, AHL)
D Connor Corcoran (to Bakersfield, AHL)
F Cam Wright (to Bakersfield, AHL)
F Ture Linden (to Bakersfield, AHL)
F Dino Kambeitz (to Bakersfield, AHL)
F Ethan De Jong (to Bakersfield, AHL)
F Matvey Petrov (to Bakersfield, AHL)
F Jayden Grubbe (to Bakersfield, AHL)
F Jake Chiasson (to Bakersfield, AHL)
F Carl Berglund (to Bakersfield, AHL)
F Tyler Tullio (to Bakersfield, AHL)
D Maximus Wanner (to Bakersfield, AHL)
Philadelphia Flyers (via team release)
G Carson Bjarnason (to Brandon, WHL)
Pittsburgh Penguins (via team release)
F Corey Andonovski (to Wilkes-Barre Scranton, AHL)
F Avery Hayes (to Wilkes-Barre Scranton, AHL)
F Marc Johnstone (to Wilkes-Barre Scranton, AHL)
F Austin Rueschhoff (to Wilkes-Barre Scranton, AHL)
D Isaac Belliveau (to Wilkes-Barre Scranton, AHL)
D Justin Lee (to Wilkes-Barre Scranton, AHL)
D Dmitri Samorukov (to Wilkes-Barre Scranton, AHL)
D Jack St. Ivany (to Wilkes-Barre Scranton, AHL)
G Joel Blomqvist (to Wilkes-Barre Scranton, AHL)
Toronto Maple Leafs (via team release)
F Jacob Frasca (released from ATO to Barrie, OHL)
Calgary Flames (via team release)
F Mark Duarte (to Calgary, AHL)
F Alex Gallant (to Calgary, AHL)
F Rory Kerins (to Calgary, AHL)
F Mitch McLain (to Calgary, AHL)
F Ilya Nikolaev (to Calgary, AHL)
G Connor Murphy (to Calgary, AHL)
G Matt Radomsky (to Calgary, AHL)
This page will be updated throughout the day.
Vancouver Canucks Expected To Waive Spencer Martin
The Vancouver Canucks are expected to place goaltender Spencer Martin on waivers today unless a trade materializes in the next few hours, reports Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Martin, a candidate to compete for the backup job behind Thatcher Demko just a few weeks ago, was pushed down the team’s depth chart after the Canucks acquired Casey DeSmith in a trade with Montreal last week.
Even without acquiring DeSmith, the path to a roster spot in Vancouver for Martin wasn’t solid. After falling flat in his first shot at full-time NHL duties last season, many speculated that 22-year-old netminder Arturs Silovs may get the backup spot to start the season after a strong showing at the World Championship, guiding Latvia to a bronze medal. With DeSmith now in the fold, however, that point is moot, and both netminders are slated for AHL Abbotsford to start the season.
However, sending both netminders down will make for quite the crowded crease in Abbotsford. Vancouver also has Zach Sawchenko and Nikita Tolopilo signed to two-way contracts, plus 22-year-old Jonathan Lemieux is signed to an AHL contract for 2023-24. Lemieux is likely destined for assignment to ECHL Kalamazoo, but that would still leave four goalies competing for ice time at the AHL level. It’s clear why Vancouver would look to move on from Martin, the most veteran of the bunch at 28 years old.
Martin had been an AHL netminder for all of his pro career up until last season. A six-game stint near the end of 2021-22 with Vancouver earned him the upper hand on capturing the backup spot behind Demko to start 2022-23, going 3-0-3 in six starts with a sparkling .950 save percentage and 1.74 goals-against average. However, that momentum failed to translate when Martin did assume the backup role. He was arguably one of the worst netminders in the NHL last season – while his 11-15-1 record in 27 starts wasn’t awful, his .871 save percentage and 3.99 goals-against average fell far below the league average. To visualize it better, Martin conceded 27.5 more goals than the average NHL netminder would have given the same workload and shot volume.
That being said, he could still get some interest on the trade market from teams looking to fill a third-string-shaped hole on their goalie depth chart. The Columbus Blue Jackets come to mind with few options behind Elvis Merzlikins and Daniil Tarasov, both of whom have recent injury histories. 130-game NHL veteran Aaron Dell is in camp on a professional tryout, however.
Chris Snow Will Not Wake Up After Brain Injury
This article has been updated with the link to the Flames’ donation page for ALS research at Canadian institutes. You can contribute to ALS research here.
Calgary Flames assistant general manager Chris Snow will not wake up after sustaining a catastrophic brain injury caused by lack of oxygen due to cardiac arrest Tuesday, his wife, Kelsie, confirmed this morning. Snow, who has been battling ALS since his diagnosis in 2019, is 42 years old.
Snow began his career in hockey as a beat writer for both the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and Boston Globe but got a prominent chance with an NHL team early on in his career. He transitioned directly into a hefty role with the Minnesota Wild, named their director of hockey operations for the 2006-07 season at age 25. He served in that role for the following four seasons, after which he immediately joined the Flames as their director of statistical and video analysis in 2010.
He held that role in Calgary for a full decade before earning a well-deserved promotion to assistant general manager under then-GM Brad Treliving in 2020, less than one year after his ALS diagnosis. This summer, along with promoting Craig Conroy to GM after Treliving’s departure, Snow had the title of vice president of data/analytics added to his AGM title.
Snow was one of the most inspirational figures in the hockey community over his career, beginning with his meteoric ascent to front-office roles all the way through his family’s very transparent approach to handling ALS. Both Chris and Kelsie became very public advocates for ALS research, something Chris participated in via clinical trials multiple times.
Conroy was visibly emotional at yesterday’s press conference introducing Mikael Backlund as the team’s new captain, saying, “It doesn’t seem right not have Snowy here with me.” Multiple reports indicated Treliving, now the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, left the team to be in Calgary yesterday with the Snow family.
PHR and the entire hockey community send their deepest condolences to the Snow family, their friends, and the Flames organizations during this incredibly difficult time.
East Notes: Palmieri, Laine, Matheson
The New York Islanders may not have forward Kyle Palmieri available to them to begin the season, head coach Lane Lambert told reporters today (link via Ethan Sears of the New York Post). Palmieri has yet to practice with the team during training camp, and this certainly seems like a more significant injury issue than what the Islanders called “maintenance” almost a week ago.
Palmieri has been skating on his own throughout camp but has not come close to appearing in a preseason contest. It does seem unlikely that Palmieri’s absence will stretch into something significantly long-term, but missing the season opener would mean at least a three-week absence from the original undisclosed injury, which is certainly nothing to brush off. It will be a significant hole for the Islanders to fill if he does miss time, given the 32-year-old winger is again ticketed for a top-six role, likely alongside Pierre Engvall and Brock Nelson. Palmieri was limited to 55 games last season due to injury, but he did manage to increase his production pace after a poor 2021-22 campaign, recording 16 goals and 33 points.
More updates from around the Eastern Conference tonight:
- Even after the departure of Mike Babcock and Brad Larsen behind the Columbus Blue Jackets bench, the Patrik Laine at center experiment hasn’t ended yet. The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline reports that Laine has taken line rushes at center during each of the past two Blue Jackets practices and today was centering the team’s top line between Johnny Gaudreau and Kirill Marchenko. Shifting Laine to center full-time would certainly take the load off rookie Adam Fantilli, who could start the season in a more sheltered third-line role down the middle. It would also relieve the responsibilities of captain Boone Jenner, who was forced into averaging over 20 minutes per game last season thanks to the team’s thin depth down the middle. Laine did play a few games at center last season before an arm injury ended his campaign in late March.
- Montreal Canadiens defenseman Mike Matheson was a late scratch for tonight’s preseason tilt against the Ottawa Senators, and Sportsnet’s Eric Engels reports the circumstances surrounding said scratch are still unknown. If it’s injury-related, Habs fans can hope it’s only precautionary for their de facto number-one defenseman. If the team has any hopes of making noise with their young core in a suffocatingly tight Atlantic Division, Matheson’s play will be a huge part of it. The 29-year-old notched a career-high 34 points last season despite playing in just 48 games and still managed a +7 rating on a bottom-feeding team.
Dylan Gambrell Sustains Concussion, Out Long-Term
Toronto Maple Leafs center Dylan Gambrell sustained a concussion in practice yesterday and is “out for the foreseeable future,” head coach Sheldon Keefe informed reporters today (relayed by Mark Masters of TSN). Gambrell signed a one-year, one-way league-minimum deal to join Toronto shortly after free agency opened in July.
It’s an unfortunate development for Gambrell, who hoped to compete for a fourth-line role to start the season in Toronto. That already became less likely with William Nylander shifting to center, bumping David Kämpf down to the fourth line, but it now seems even more likely Gambrell will be waived when healthy and, if he clears, assigned to the AHL’s Toronto Marlies. There is no current timeline for his return, but if he’s expected to miss at least ten games and 24 days to start the season, he could join Matt Murray and Jake Muzzin on long-term injured reserve, giving Toronto some much-needed salary cap maneuverability to start the season, even with just his marginal $775K cap hit. With the unpredictability of recovery timelines from concussions, this scenario could very well play out.
Gambrell, 27, is entering his seventh NHL season. After beginning his career with the San Jose Sharks, he spent the last two seasons with the Ottawa Senators, playing a fourth-line center role. Despite recording over a point per game during all three of his collegiate campaigns at the University of Denver, he hasn’t had any sustained success at the NHL level. Last season, he recorded four goals, six assists and ten points in 60 games, winning just 45.1% of his draws and posting quite poor possession numbers (44.8% Corsi For, -8.2% relative Corsi For at even strength). Overall, he’s notched 40 points in 223 games, along with a -28 rating throughout his six-year career.
This opens up a clearer path for one of his former Sharks teammates, Noah Gregor, to sign a contract with the team after attending camp on a PTO. Gregor has routinely taken line rushes at left wing alongside Kämpf and Ryan Reaves throughout camp and hit the ten-goal mark for the first time in his four-year career last season with San Jose.
Calgary Flames Extend Mikael Backlund; Name Him Captain
4:13 p.m.: The Calgary Flames have officially announced the contract according to a team press release. Confirming a lot of the rumors circulating about the reported contract extension, the Flames have also made Backlund their 21st captain in franchise history.
3:14 p.m.: CapFriendly has confirmed Backlund’s two-year, $4.5MM 35+ contract is filed with the league. Despite the eligibility for performance bonuses, it appears initially the entire $9MM value of the contract is paid out in base salary. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun adds the deal includes a full no-movement clause that actually kicks in immediately and will retroactively apply to the final season of his current contract. There is also a 15-team no-trade list that will kick in on January 1, 2026.
2:25 p.m.: The Calgary Flames are close to finalizing a contract extension with captaincy candidate Mikael Backlund, per a report from TSN’s Chris Johnston. The deal is pending some “final issues” that need to be resolved, but it appears the Flames will retain at least one of their many pending unrestricted free agents. Johnston reports that, when finalized, the deal will carry a $4.5MM average annual value for two seasons, keeping him in Calgary through 2025-26.
Backlund, 34, has been one of the Flames’ most consistent talents of the past decade and is coming off one of the best seasons of his career. He’s far from an elite shooter, but he makes up for that deficiency in spades with solid playmaking, high-end work ethic, and strong defensive play at even strength and on the penalty kill. His 60.6% Corsi For at even strength last season was the second-best mark on the team behind defenseman MacKenzie Weegar, and he averaged roughly two minutes per game on both special teams units. Combined with a career-high 37 assists, plus 19 goals and 56 total points, Backlund was arguably the Flames’ third-best forward last season behind the team’s goals leader, Tyler Toffoli, and their assists leader, Elias Lindholm.
Over the years, Calgary also leaned on Backlund heavily in the faceoff dot. While his career win rate of 48.9% is nothing special, the sheer volume of draws he takes is staggering for a non-top-line center. He took 1,386 faceoffs last season – tied for the fourteenth most in the league with Columbus’ Boone Jenner and Minnesota’s Joel Eriksson Ek.
This deal marks a decrease in pay for Backlund, which wasn’t the expectation after his strong season. Backlund is coming off the only long-term deal of his career: a six-year, $32.1MM extension signed before the 2018-19 season. With this season remaining at a $5.35MM cap hit, Backlund’s given the Flames 77 goals, 142 assists, 219 points, and a +70 rating in 365 games played while averaging 17:45 per game over the life of the deal. Consistency has been the name of the game for Calgary’s future captain, who also has ten goals and 17 points in 27 postseason games since 2019.
However, this offseason opened with hesitancy regarding Backlund’s future in Calgary. Shortly after the Flames were eliminated from playoff contention in April, Backlund expressed uncertainty about re-upping with the only NHL organization he’s ever known. That plotline continued through to July, where Backlund again said he wasn’t sure he’d remain in Calgary and tied his willingness to extend to the team’s performance out of the gate after a disappointing 2022-23 campaign. The tide finally turned yesterday when Johnston reported the two sides had commenced extension talks.
The next logical question to raise is the future of Elias Lindholm. If Backlund’s extension influences Lindholm to fast-track a deal to remain in Calgary past this season, it will solidify one of the more well-rounded center corps in the Pacific Division for the next three seasons with Nazem Kadri in the mix long-term as well. That gives plenty of runway for 2020 first-round pick Connor Zary, as the 22-year-old now looks back on track to make an impact in the NHL soon after a breakout 2022-23 with the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers.
Backlund is currently projected to center the team’s second line out of the gate with Blake Coleman and Andrew Mangiapane on his wings. If that holds up, don’t expect his ice time to dip too much below the 18:09 per game he saw last season, especially if new head coach Ryan Huska continues to use Backlund consistently on both special teams units. A responsible two-way center who can shoulder heavy minutes for a $4.5MM cap hit seems like a great value proposition, even if he will be 37 by the time the deal expires.
In getting this deal done early, the Flames also gain some more financial certainty for the 2024-25 season, something they need desperately, with eight rostered players currently slated for unrestricted free agency and an additional three for restricted free agency. With Backlund’s new cap hit, CapFriendly projects the Flames at $30.95MM in cap space assuming a roster size of 12 and a raised Upper Limit of $87.5MM.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Cole Eiserman Decommits From University Of Minnesota, Joins Boston University
1:55 p.m.: Later Wednesday, Eiserman announced on his Instagram page that he’s committed to Boston University, opening up the possibility for Celebrini and Eiserman to be linemates at the college level should Celebrini stick around for a second season. The move surely vaults an already strong BU team into the national championship conversation for each of the next two seasons.
1:20 p.m.: American-born left-winger Cole Eiserman won’t be playing college hockey at the University of Minnesota starting in 2024-25, per Evan Marinofsky of the New England Hockey Journal. The presumptive second-overall pick in next year’s 2024 NHL Draft has de-committed from the school and plans to join a university closer to his Massachusetts home.
Eiserman is already off to a hot start this season, leading the U.S. National Development Program’s U18 squad with five goals and eight points through four games. Across major public scout rankings early in the 2023-24 league year, he is the consensus second-overall choice behind Canadian forward Macklin Celebrini, who will suit up for Boston University this season despite not turning 18 until after the collegiate season is over in June.
After recording 86 points in 50 games with the USHL’s Chicago Steel in 2022-23, Celebrini could be one-and-done at the collegiate level with a strong freshman season. The same could be said for Eiserman, although he will spend at least one season after his draft year playing in college – initially expected to be with Minnesota. He’s taken a more slow-burn approach to his development.
That approach has paid massive dividends thus far for Eiserman, who’s racked up video-game goal totals in nearly every level he’s played. He scored 26 goals in just 20 games for the U18 team last season and scored 43 goals and 72 points in 40 games across a larger sample size for the U17 squad as well.
It’s been the same story internationally, too. Eiserman represented the US at both the 2022 World U17 Hockey Challenge and the 2023 IIHF U18 World Championship, notching 12 goals in seven games at the former and nine goals in seven games at the latter. In fact, Eiserman has scored over a goal per game in every league and tournament he’s played in dating back to 2020-21 when his publically available stats began.
That all lines up to make this a consequential loss for Minnesota, who unexpectedly lost star pivot Logan Cooley this summer as he turned pro with the Arizona Coyotes. He’ll be replaced in the lineup by Chicago Blackhawks 2023 first-round pick Oliver Moore, but he’s a risk to turn pro after one season as well. It’s also an extremely consequential move for the NCAA’s Hockey East conference, which will likely gain Eiserman’s superstar talent for the 2024-25 season.
Flames’ Jakob Pelletier Out Indefinitely With Shoulder Injury
Calgary Flames rookie forward Jakob Pelletier is out indefinitely after sustaining a left shoulder injury during a preseason game Monday against the Seattle Kraken, according to a team announcement. The 22-year-old will undergo shoulder surgery next week.
Pelletier sustained the injury late in the first period on a hit from behind from Kraken winger Marian Studenic, who received a boarding major and game misconduct on the play. He was able to skate off under his own power but was favoring his upper body.
Calgary’s 26th overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, Pelletier made his NHL debut last season after earning AHL All-Rookie Team honors in 2021-22. Skating in 24 contests with the Flames, the Québec City-born winger notched three goals and four assists for seven points. He fell two games short of losing his Calder Trophy eligibility for 2023-24.
Pelletier’s minor-league play since turning pro in 2021 has been simply outstanding, recording 43 goals and 56 points for 99 points in 101 games. That production, plus a decent NHL showing despite clashing with head coach Darryl Sutter last season, was expected to earn him a spot in Calgary’s new-look opening-night lineup under rookie NHL head coach Ryan Huska. Now, unfortunately, it seems that won’t be the case.
His absence from the opening night lineup could open up a spot for journeyman Dryden Hunt on the fourth line. Hunt, 27, had quite the whirlwind season last year, spending time under contract with four NHL organizations (New York Rangers, Colorado Avalanche, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Calgary). He didn’t dress in any NHL action for the Flames, reporting to the AHL’s Wranglers after acquiring him via trade from Toronto, but he did impress in the minors with 15 points in 17 games. He has 202 games of NHL experience to his name and plays with some speed and tenacity that could make him an attractive fourth-line fit, presumably alongside Kevin Rooney and Walker Duehr.
Given Pelletier’s unique status as a rookie but having logged significant NHL action last season, his cap hit will not be zeroed out should Calgary place him on season-opening injured reserve as would be the case with many other rookie players on two-way deals. Instead, because he played less than 50 games last season, his cap hit if placed on SOIR will be reduced from $863K to $406K, per PuckPedia. $406K would also be the amount of cap relief given if Calgary instead placed him on long-term injured reserve, assuming they determine Pelletier will miss the ten games and 24 days required for such a move. That could be impactful savings early on for a team without the salary cap flexibility to carry a full 23-man roster.