New York Islanders Sign Christian Krygier, Jacob Pivonka To AHL Deals
The AHL’s Bridgeport Islanders have signed a duo of New York Islanders drafted prospects, defenseman Christian Krygier and forward Jacob Pivonka, to AHL contracts for the 2023-24 season. The team also signed undrafted free agent forward Riley Piercey out of juniors from the OHL’s Flint Firebirds.
After finishing their collegiate careers, Krygier’s and Pivonka’s NHL signing rights are set to expire on August 15. While the AHL signings imply the Islanders won’t be offering them entry-level contracts before then, the deals allow the Islanders to keep them within the organization and continue to evaluate them. After August 15, however, Krygier and Pivonka would still be free to sign NHL contracts with any team at any time.
The Islanders selected Krygier in the seventh round of the 2018 NHL Draft. The 23-year-old defenseman played his fifth and final season for Michigan State University in 2022-23, recording a goal and three assists in 28 games whilst serving as an alternate captain. The son of former NHLer Todd Krygier and the brother of Los Angeles Kings prospect Cole Krygier, he is a physical defenseman first and foremost, recording 228 penalty minutes during his 158 games at Michigan State. He appeared in two games with Bridgeport on a tryout after the conclusion of his collegiate season, posting a -1 rating and one shot on goal.
Pivonka, also 23, was selected three rounds earlier in 2018. The 5-foot-11 center transferred from Notre Dame to the University of Nebraska-Omaha for his final collegiate season, hitting double-digit goals for the first time in the NCAA. Known mostly for his speed and puckhandling abilities, Pivonka went pointless in four games with Bridgeport on his tryout to end the 2022-23 season.
Piercey, who will also try and earn an entry-level deal with the Islanders, plays a power forward type game. The 21-year-old winger stands at 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds and put up 70 points and 65 penalty minutes in 67 games with the Firebirds this season. After back-to-back 20-goal campaigns in junior hockey, Piercey will try and make an impact in Bridgeport’s bottom-six and impress the Islanders’ front office.
Lukáš Sedlák Signs Multi-Year Extension In Czechia
After making a short-lived attempt at an NHL return earlier this season, veteran Czech forward Lukáš Sedlák has signed a five-year contract extension with HC Dynamo Pardubice in the country’s top league, as announced today.
Sedlák played for three different teams in two different leagues in 2022-23. The 30-year-old forward signed a one-year deal with the Colorado Avalanche in free agency but played just three games before the team placed him on waivers on October 18, 2022. The Philadelphia Flyers claimed him the following day, where he recorded eight points in 27 games over two months before mutually terminating his contract with the team. This paved the way for him to play professionally in his home country for the first time, where he excelled down the stretch with 27 points in 24 games.
Sedlák had previously spent three seasons in the NHL with the Columbus Blue Jackets from 2016 to 2019. However, after seeing his ice time and role steadily decrease, Sedlák headed overseas for the 2019-20 campaign, beginning a successful three-year stint with the KHL’s Traktor Chelyabinsk.
Now, Sedlák will likely play out the remainder of his career at home. He hasn’t played in a Czech league since his draft year, splitting time between the Czech U18 and U20 levels in 2010-11. He played in North America from then onwards, including two seasons in the QMJHL and three in the AHL before earning his full-time opportunity with Columbus.
In a translated statement, Sedlák expressed excitement about the opportunity:
I am very happy for the [past] six months in Pardubice and I am glad that I can continue here. I think that we got on very well with the people in the cabin and around, and I hope that we will continue our cooperation, work even better and achieve some successes. I hope to restore the confidence of the management and at the same time meet the expectations of the fans, fulfill what they expect from me and be an important part of the team. Wearing the Pardubice jersey is unreal. The way hockey fans live and push us forward exceeded all my expectations. It’s great for us players that we can rely on them every game.
Pardubice also agreed on five-year contract extensions with former Vegas Golden Knights forward Tomáš Hyka and netminder Roman Will, who appeared in one game with the Colorado Avalanche in the 2015-16 season.
Barring a very unexpected return, Sedlák wraps up his NHL career with 18 goals, 17 assists, 35 points, and a +6 rating in 192 games. He’s currently representing Czechia at the 2023 IIHF Men’s World Championship.
Avalanche Notes: Toews, Johnson, Newhook
In the second part of this latest mailbag series for The Athletic, Avalanche beat reporter Peter Baugh commented on many of the pressing issues surrounding the 2022 Stanley Cup champions over the coming months.
One such question is the future of standout defender Devon Toews, whose team-friendly four-year contract earning him $4.1MM per season expires in 2024. While Colorado will have some extra cap space for the 2023-24 campaign due to Gabriel Landeskog‘s injury, Toews is due a gigantic raise that may complicate the long-term financial picture, especially with the trajectory of the salary cap uncertain.
Some would entertain the idea of trading the player behind him on the Avalanche depth chart, Samuel Girard, to create cap space, but Baugh says that’s not likely without an extension for Toews already in place. Given Girard’s cost certainty at a $5MM cap hit through 2027, Baugh even went so far as to suggest Toews being a potential trade candidate himself if an extension appears unlikely to materialize late into next season.
- Baugh also said he believes defender Erik Johnson, the team’s longest-tenured player, is interested in returning to the team next season. The 35-year-old is a pending free agent upon expiration of his seven-year, $6MM cap hit extension signed in 2015 and likely wouldn’t command much above the league minimum on a one-year deal. Johnson registered just eight assists in 63 games last season while again dealing with some injuries.
- Despite a lack of development this season, Baugh doesn’t think the Avalanche have lost faith in young center Alex Newhook. Expected to step into the vacated second-line center spot to begin the season, Newhook quickly slipped back into a bottom-six role and ended his regular season with 30 points in 82 games. While Colorado will likely use their additional cap flexibility this summer to add higher-end depth at center, the organization still needs more out of important young players like Newhook to maintain Cup contention.
Seattle Kraken Sign Ty Nelson To Entry-Level Contract
The Seattle Kraken have locked in their best unsigned defense prospect, signing Ty Nelson to a three-year, entry-level contract. Per the team, the contract carries a $925,000 cap hit.
Seattle selected the 19-year-old Nelson with the 68th overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft. Most public draft analysts didn’t have Nelson falling that far, with some having the right-shot defender ranked in the mid-to-late first round. Concerns about his size, as he stands at 5-foot-10, dropped him to the third round on draft day.
It’s looking like quite the pick for Seattle, though, as Nelson had another terrific season in juniors with the OHL’s North Bay Battalion in 2022-23. With his team losing in the third round of the OHL’s postseason to the Peterborough Petes, however, Nelson has now opted to get under contract with the team that drafted him.
Nelson, serving as an alternate captain for North Bay, led a team loaded with NHL-drafted forwards in postseason scoring, posting six goals and 25 points in 20 games (along with a team-leading +15 rating). He silenced a lot of doubts about his NHL ceiling this season, employing his confident puck-moving style of play to the max.
How much that production translates to the NHL remains to be seen, but he does remain one of the better prospects in the Seattle system as a whole. He’s ineligible to play in the AHL next season for Coachella Valley, however, meaning he’s likely destined for another season of juniors with North Bay.
Darnell Nurse Suspended For One Game
The NHL Department of Player Safety announced they’ve upheld the automatic one-game suspension against Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse for instigating a fight in the last five minutes of regulation time, holding him out of a pivotal Game 5 against the Vegas Golden Knights. Head coach Jay Woodcroft was also fined $10,000 as a result of the incident in last night’s Game 4 win.
The automatic suspension holds Nurse, Edmonton’s leader in average time on ice among defensemen, out of Edmonton’s most important game this season to date, with their Second Round series locked in at two games apiece against Vegas.
The incident in question occurred with 50 seconds remaining in Edmonton’s 4-1 Game 4 win, with officials determining Nurse instigated a fight with Golden Knights defenseman Nicolas Hague. With play still going on, Nurse pinched in from the hash marks to fight Hague, who was stationed in a puck battle behind the Vegas net.
It means youngster Philip Broberg, who’s averaged under seven minutes of ice time per game throughout the playoffs, will draw back into the lineup with increased responsibility. The 21-year-old has yet to record a point this postseason but does lead Oiler defenders with a +3 rating. Mattias Ekholm, who’s been paired with youngster Evan Bouchard since joining the team at the trade deadline, could elevate to the top pairing alongside Cody Ceci.
Minor Transactions: 05/11/23
As the NHL season has drawn to a close for most of the league, free agency periods for other leagues are entering their frenzy. Many North American minor leagues and European pro leagues are making significant transactions, and as always, we provide a daily running list of the most notable ones from around the men’s hockey world.
- Vancouver Canucks 2017 draft pick Petrus Palmu has signed a two-year agreement to return to TPS in the Finnish Liiga after an extremely disappointing SHL campaign in 2022-23. Palmu’s high-end European scoring production made him an appealing prospect early on in his development, but he was never able to make a dent professionally in North America after playing junior hockey with the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack. Returning to Finland after his draft year, Palmu only ever played 12 games in the Canucks system with the AHL’s Utica Comets in 2018-19, recording just one assist. Now, he’ll head back home to the Liiga, where he scored at a point-per-game pace with Jukurit in 2021-22. He split the 2022-23 season between two SHL clubs, Örebro HK and Linköping HC, but scored just one goal and nine points in 41 games.
- AHL mainstay Garrett Wilson is staying with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms for the next two seasons after signing a contract extension today. Wilson, 32, does have 84 NHL games under his belt with the Florida Panthers and Pittsburgh Penguins. He’s been exclusively in the minors since 2019-20, however, and this will be Wilson’s fourth and fifth seasons with the Phantoms. Last season, he scored 43 points in 68 games and led the AHL in penalty minutes (195).
This page will be updated throughout the day.
PHF’s Boston Pride Sign Alina Müller
1:05 pm: The Boston Pride have officially announced the signing, bringing Müller to the PHF.
12:09 pm: There have been rumblings of a major news drop in women’s hockey over the past few days, and it appears we have some clarity this morning. The Athletic’s Hailey Salvian confirmed reports that the PHF’s Boston Pride have signed Swiss forward Alina Müller, arguably the best European forward in the sport, to a one-year contract.
Müller’s career resume is impressive in its own right, but when you consider the 25-year-old hasn’t even made her North American professional debut yet, it becomes even more jaw-dropping. After recording 60 points and a staggering +45 rating in 38 points in her fifth and final season with Northeastern University this year, though, she’s ready to make her splash in North American pro hockey.
She’s already made three Olympic appearances, cracking Switzerland’s roster as a 16-year-old in 2014. With three points in six games, she provided a key depth role as Switzerland took home the bronze medal at that year’s tournament. The Swiss haven’t medalled at the Olympics since, but she’s recorded well over a point per game at both tournaments.
Müller was also named a finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award, given to the top women’s collegiate player, in all of her five seasons at Northeastern. She wraps up her career there with 98 goals, 156 assists, and 254 points in 159 games, a 1.60 points-per-game pace.
She joins a Pride team hungry to rebound after losing in the PHF’s semifinal round last season. The Pride captured back-to-back championships in 2021 and 2022, making it three total championships for the team since the league’s inception. They’ll be a much different-looking squad next season, though, especially without the services of Rookie of the Year netminder Corinne Schroeder, who posted a 19-1-0 record and a .955 save percentage in 22 games. She’s rumored to have signed a contract in free agency with the second-year Montreal Force.
Injury Notes: Samsonov, Knies, Raanta
The Toronto Maple Leafs are still in Stanley Cup contention after staving off elimination, winning last night’s Game 4 against the Florida Panthers 2-1. The victory came in large part due to the strong play of rookie netminder Joseph Woll, who stopped 24 of 25 shots and saved 2.02 goals above expected (MoneyPuck).
They’ll have to turn to Woll again for Game 5, as head coach Sheldon Keefe told reporters this morning that starter Ilya Samsonov remains unavailable with an upper-body injury. Samsonov left early in the second period of Game 3 after Maple Leafs defender Luke Schenn barrelled into him while defending a Panthers rush. Toronto’s starter for much of the season, Samsonov had been largely passable in the postseason, making key saves despite a .898 save percentage on the whole during the postseason. While Woll has just 14 combined regular-season and playoff games in his NHL career, he has a combined 10-3-0 record and has posted save percentages well over .900.
Other injury notes from the playoff landscape this morning:
- Keefe also revealed to reporters forward Matthew Knies‘ concussion symptoms are improving after missing Games 3 and 4, but he’s not yet ready to return to the lineup. Knies was knocked out of Game 2 in the first period, sustaining the concussion on a hit from Panthers center Sam Bennett. The rookie forward had cemented himself in a top-six role by the time of his injury, recording four points in his first seven playoff games.
- Carolina Hurricanes netminder Antti Raanta said he’s recovered from an illness that kept him out for the past three games, meaning he’ll back up Frederik Andersen tonight for a potentially series-clinching Game 5. Raanta started the first five games of Carolina’s First Round series against the New York Islanders but has since been superseded by Andersen, who’s posted a 4-0-0 record and .930 save percentage in five starts.
Leon Gawanke Signs Long-Term Deal In Germany
Winnipeg Jets prospect Leon Gawanke signed a four-year contract with Adler Mannheim in the German DEL, The Athletic’s Murat Ates reported on Wednesday. The deal comes after the 23-year-old defender spent the past four seasons playing in the AHL for the Manitoba Moose.
Gawanke was selected by the Jets in the fifth round, 136th overall, of the 2017 NHL Draft. He played some junior hockey in Germany before moving to North America to play for the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in the QMJHL in his draft year, 2016-17. Gawanke would then put up impressive numbers in juniors, tallying 57 points (17 goals, 40 assists) in 62 games in his final season with Cape Breton in 2018-19.
Since turning pro, Gawanke has played exclusively with the Moose, aside from a six-game loan to the DEL’s Eisbären Berlin in the COVID-affected 2020-21 season. He has shown flashes of his offensive potential in the AHL, recording 114 points (35 goals, 79 assists) across 207 games. However, his defensive game is still a work in progress, and he hasn’t received any NHL looks throughout his time in Manitoba.
Gawanke was a non-factor in five playoff games for the Moose this season, posting just one assist and a -5 rating. As a pending restricted free agent, the Jets now have the choice to issue Gawanke a qualifying offer to retain his NHL rights when his German contract expires in 2027. He’ll have just turned 28, making an NHL role seemingly unlikely.
Adler Mannheim is one of the most successful teams in the DEL, having won seven championships since the team’s inception in 1994, most recently in 2019. The club hopes that Gawanke can help them add to that total in the coming seasons as part of a defensive corps that includes multiple former NHLers in John Gilmour, Korbinian Holzer, and Jyrki Jokipakka.
Gawanke’s departure also means more opportunity for other Jets defense prospects at the AHL level, such as Tyler Bauer, Declan Chisholm, and Simon Lundmark.
Boston Bruins Sign Mason Lohrei To Entry-Level Contract
The Boston Bruins have announced the signing of defenseman Mason Lohrei to a two-year entry-level contract that will take effect from the start of the 2023-24 season. The deal comes with an annual NHL cap hit of $925,000. Further financial terms have not been disclosed.
Lohrei, 22, has had an impressive rise to the professional ranks since Boston drafted him in 2020. He played for Ohio State University for the past two seasons, where he led the team’s defense in scoring in his first year with 29 points in 31 appearances. In his sophomore year, he tallied 32 points in 40 appearances, helping to lead Ohio State to the regional finals of the NCAA Men’s Frozen Four, losing to the eventual national champion, Quinnipiac. He appeared in eight combined regular-season and playoff games for the AHL’s Providence Bruins on a PTO at the end of the season, registering an assist and a -2 rating.
Before his time at Ohio State, Lohrei spent three seasons in the USHL with the Green Bay Gamblers. His final season with the team in 2020-21 was particularly noteworthy, leading all USHL defensemen in scoring and ranked sixth overall, posting an impressive 59 points in 48 games.
Lohrei’s size and skill set make him an exciting prospect for the Bruins and undoubtedly their best one among defenders. Standing at 6-foot-4 and weighing 210 pounds, Lohrei is a strong defender, adept at moving the puck and contributing offensively. He has a natural tendency to get involved in rush plays but, at least at the collegiate level, does so routinely without getting left out to dry defensively. As usual for defenders, he’ll need some seasoning in the minors to adjust to the pro game, but he should find himself gaining some NHL looks by the 2024-25 campaign.