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Transaction Notes: Thompson, Korczak, Fusco

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Former Devils forward Tyce Thompson has signed a one-year deal in Kazakhstan with Barys Astana of the KHL, according to a team announcement.

Thompson, 26, is the younger brother of Sabres star Tage Thompson. He was a fourth-round pick by New Jersey in 2019 out of Providence College and appeared in 11 games for the club from 2020 to 2023, recording an assist and a -4 rating.

The speedy 6’1″, 194-lb winger spent most of his time in the Devils organization on assignment to AHL Binghamton/Utica, where he had 50 points in 98 games before he was traded to the Islanders for AHL depth winger Arnaud Durandeau early in the 2023-24 season. Thompson remained in the Islanders organization through the end of last season but saw his offensive effectiveness tumble with their affiliate in Bridgeport. He had just 35 points in 116 games for the Baby Isles after recording over half a point per game in the Devils’ system, taking on more of an agitator/checking role with a team-leading 102 PIMs last year.

As a result of his age and professional experience with a lack of NHL games under his belt, Thompson became a Group VI unrestricted free agent this offseason and was not re-signed by the Islanders. He now lands in the KHL with Barys, where he’ll make more than the $200K guarantee he had on his two-way deal with the Islanders last year.

Here are more minor moves from around hockey:

  • Ex-Rangers prospect Ryder Korczak is headed to Slovakia’s top league on a one-year deal with Vlci Zilina, the club announced on Facebook. Korczak, 23 in September, was a third-round pick by the Blueshirts in 2021. He turned pro out of WHL Moose Jaw at the end of the 2022-23 campaign and had 31 points in 107 games in parts of three seasons for AHL Hartford. He was traded to the Lightning in January for winger Lucas Edmonds. He finished the season with four points in 11 combined regular-season and playoff games for AHL Syracuse before being non-tendered by Tampa in June. With presumably no NHL or AHL offers on the table, the 5’10” center joins a club that gained promotion from Slovakia’s second division just one year ago.
  • Defenseman John Fusco, who came off the Maple Leafs’ reserve list last week, has signed an AHL deal with the Capitals’ affiliate in Hershey, the team announced yesterday. Fusco, 24, was a seventh-round pick by Toronto in 2020 but went unsigned coming off his senior season at Dartmouth last year. The undersized righty had 51 points in 112 career collegiate games with Harvard and the Big Green.

Predators Sign First-Round Pick Brady Martin

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The Predators announced Wednesday that they’ve signed first-round pick Brady Martin. The fifth-overall pick receives his preset three-year entry-level deal, although salary and bonus terms weren’t disclosed.

A center out of the OHL’s Soo Greyhounds, Martin was the fourth forward off the board in June after defenseman Matthew Schaefer went first overall to the Islanders. The Predators were picking in the top five for the first time in over a decade, making Martin their highest-drafted player since Seth Jones went fourth in 2013. The organization hadn’t selected a forward in the top five since selecting David Legwand, their first draft pick in franchise history, second overall in 1998.

Martin is coming off his second season of high-level junior hockey and one of the draft’s biggest risers throughout 2024-25. After recording a 10-18–28 scoring line for the Greyhounds in his pre-draft season, he entered the year as a top-32 honorable mention in Scott Wheeler of The Athletic’s rankings but had risen to No. 26 on Wheeler’s board by the time November came around. He climbed up to No. 20 in February and No. 17 in March before a tear to end the season had him 10th on Wheeler’s board entering the draft.

His stock undoubtedly saw a boost on the back of Panthers center Sam Bennett’s playoff success – a solid long-term comparable for Martin’s heavy-hitting, two-way, physical game. While the 6’0″ pivot may not have the offensive ceiling of some forwards taken after him, he did hold his own with 33 goals and 72 points in 57 games for the Greyhounds last year to finish second on the team in scoring. He finished off the year with 11 points and a tournament-high +15 rating in seven games for Canada at the under-18 World Juniors, winning a gold medal and getting named to the tournament All-Star Team.

“He’s not just a worker type with secondary skill; there’s some play-driving and individual playmaking to his game as well,” Wheeler wrote in his final report. “He’s going to have a long career as a productive up-and-down-the-lineup center in the NHL and should be an excellent and unique middle-six C at minimum.”

Martin will likely be returning to Soo for 2025-26, but should be given an opportunity to earn at least a nine-game trial in training camp to avoid burning the first season of his contract. After that, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Martin seriously throw his hat in the ring for a second or third-line center role in Nashville for the 2026-27 season. Six of the top 13 picks from the 2024 draft – Macklin Celebrini, Artyom Levshunov, Ivan Demidov, Zayne Parekh, Zeev Buium, and Jett Luchanko – made their debuts last year.

Canucks No Longer Pursuing Jack Roslovic

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Free agent Jack Roslovic’s waiting game may have cost him a potential contract offer from one team. The Canucks have “cooled off on pursuing” the top remaining UFA, writes The Athletic’s Thomas Drance.

There were talks between the Canucks and Roslovic’s camp last month, Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK and The Athletic said at the time, leaving them as one of a small list of confirmed suitors. It wasn’t without precedent, either. Vancouver had approached Roslovic last summer as well, before he ended up taking a one-year, $2.8MM contract with the Hurricanes.

That deal saw him tie his career-high of 22 goals in 81 games while also seeing more time at center than he did in 2023-24, likely sparking some optimism that he could help fill out the Canucks’ underwhelming depth down the middle. Nonetheless, it appears Vancouver’s braintrust has now pivoted to only pursuing long-term solutions to supplement anchor Elias Pettersson and, ideally, injury-prone but high-ceiling Filip Chytil in a top-nine role.

“Vancouver is still in the market to land a centre, but the trade market is viewed as a more likely and realistic route of addressing the club’s greatest remaining need,” Drance said. “Vancouver would execute a trade today if the deal returned a credible middle-six centre — even if that centre had more of a defensive bent to their game.”

The Canucks still have $3.27MM in cap space left to facilitate a deal, per PuckPedia.

As for Roslovic, he’s getting into crunch time with only one-year deals and PTOs available for most everyone at this point of the offseason. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported in early August that there were five teams with legitimate interest in him but that he was taking his time to make a decision.

Even with that intrigue and proven top-nine capability without much risk of regression – he’s still just 28 years old – a multi-year pact may simply be out of reach for him at this point. At the beginning of the summer, AFP Analytics projected him to receive a three-year deal worth north of $4MM per season. With the way the market has broken, though, he might need to settle for another one-year deal at a comparable value to last year’s $2.8MM cap hit.

Prospect Notes: Mania, Whitelaw, Poletin

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With NCAA rosters being finalized and CHL training camps starting up soon, there’s been a flurry of activity involving NHL prospects finding new homes to continue their development for 2025-26. One of those names is ex-Kings prospect Matthew Mania, whom Ryan Sikes of Puck Preps reports will play for the University of Michigan after he announced his commitment in June.

Mania, 20, had one year of OHL eligibility remaining as an overager, but taking advantage of it is rare for a prospect with NHL aspirations. He’ll make the jump to a more challenging environment in the Big 10 conference after seeing some stagnant development since L.A. selected him in the fifth round of the 2023 draft.

The 6’1″ right-shot defenseman spent his first three junior seasons with the Sudbury Wolves before getting dealt to the Flint Firebirds last offseason. As would be expected, Mania recorded a career-high 38 assists and 45 points with a +10 rating in 2024-25, but that wasn’t much of a significant pop from his draft-year production with the Wolves three years ago (10-28–38, +21, 67 GP).

Mania joins a Michigan blue line that also landed some younger, higher-profile freshmen for 2025-26, including fellow ex-OHLer and 2024 Flames third-rounder Henry Mews. He’ll look to stand out and eventually earn an NHL contract as a free agent. Since he was drafted out of the CHL, L.A.’s signing rights expired on June 1 of this year and will not be re-extended by virtue of his move to college.

More from the NCAA/CHL world:

  • Officially moving on from Michigan after entering the transfer portal months ago is Blue Jackets center prospect William Whitelaw. He’s not going very far, though – reigning national champions Western Michigan announced on Instagram they’ve brought him in for his junior campaign. It’ll be the third school in as many years for the 2023 fifth-rounder, who spent his freshman year at Wisconsin before transferring to Michigan last summer. The undersized (5’9″, 174 lbs) pivot has a 21-14–35 scoring line in 72 career collegiate games.
  • After selecting him first overall in this year’s CHL Import Draft, the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets officially announced they’ve signed Islanders prospect Tomas Poletin. The Isles selected Poletin, 18, in the fourth round back in June. The Czech winger spent his draft year in Finland, scoring 13 goals and 20 points in 25 games for Pelicans’ under-20 club while also appearing in 15 Liiga games without a point.

Blue Jackets Sign Brendan Smith To Professional Tryout

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Defenseman Brendan Smith has signed a PTO with the Blue Jackets, according to a team release.

Smith, 36, was once a fringe top-four option but has slid into a definitive No. 7 role in recent years, even sometimes slotting in as a fourth-line winger. He spent 2024-25 with the Stars on a one-year, $1MM deal, spending most of the year in the press box and averaging a career-low 13:13 per game. He logged 32 appearances, recording six points with a -9 rating and 41 hits. The 6’2″, 200-lb lefty didn’t see any playoff action for Dallas, either.

After long stretches with the Red Wings and Rangers to begin his career, he’s now played for three teams, the Hurricanes, Devils, and Stars, in the last four seasons. Smith’s best years came in Detroit, where he topped out with 19 points in 71 games during his first full-time season in the NHL back in 2013-14. He also went his entire career with the Wings without having negative possession impacts at even strength, even once, proving there was some definite defensive upside there when they selected him in the first round in 2007.

When he moved to the Rangers, though, those possession metrics took a hit that they never really recovered from. He even ended up on waivers during the 2017-18 campaign and had a brief demotion to AHL Hartford, although he hasn’t played in the minors since then.

With Columbus, Smith now competes for a contract in a decently crowded mix of depth forwards and defensemen. His ability to jump up on the wing will certainly help his case when doing roster math. He’s not a threat to unseat a name like Erik Gudbranson or Damon Severson for a bottom-pairing role, so his best-case objective would be to unseat the more offensively gifted Jake Christiansen as an extra defender or beat out a name like the newly-signed Hudson Fasching for the 14th forward spot and be used as a flex.

Columbus already has 15 defensemen under contract, 14 of whom will staff the NHL and AHL rosters. That certainly makes it an uphill battle for Smith to land a two-way deal since his fit with AHL Cleveland would be murky.

USA Hockey Announces Olympic Orientation Camp Roster

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Like their northern counterparts, USA Hockey will host an orientation camp later this month as NHLers prepare for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, the first time they’ll be at the event in 12 years. Their event will take place in their headquarters in Plymouth, Michigan, on Aug. 26 and 27 and is “largely an administrative and team-building event and includes no formal on-ice activity or public component,” the organization said.

Their list is comprised of 44 players – two more than Canada’s – but will need to be reduced to a maximum of 25 (22 skaters and three goalies) by the time final rosters for the event are due. Orientation camp rosters are non-binding – others can still work their way in – but it’s certainly an uphill battle for anyone not viewed as an outside contender six months out from the tournament.

All countries suiting up for men’s hockey had to lock in six players to their roster earlier this summer. For the U.S., that was Jack Eichel, Quinn Hughes, Auston Matthews, Charlie McAvoy, Brady Tkachuk, and Matthew Tkachuk.

Here’s the full orientation camp roster, with an asterisk by each of the six players already locked into the roster:

Forwards

Matt Boldy (Wild)
Cole Caufield (Canadiens)
Logan Cooley (Mammoth)
Kyle Connor (Jets)
Jack Eichel (Golden Knights)*
Conor Garland (Canucks)
Jake Guentzel (Lightning)
Jack Hughes (Devils)
Patrick Kane (Red Wings)
Clayton Keller (Mammoth)
Matthew Knies (Maple Leafs)
Chris Kreider (Ducks)
Dylan Larkin (Red Wings)
Auston Matthews (Maple Leafs)*
J.T. Miller (Rangers)
Frank Nazar (Blackhawks)
Brock Nelson (Avalanche)
Shane Pinto (Senators)
Jason Robertson (Stars)
Bryan Rust (Penguins)
Tage Thompson (Sabres)
Brady Tkachuk (Senators)*
Matthew Tkachuk (Panthers)*
Vincent Trocheck (Rangers)
Alex Tuch (Sabres)

Defensemen

Brock Faber (Wild)
Adam Fox (Rangers)
Luke Hughes (Devils)
Quinn Hughes (Canucks)*
Noah Hanifin (Golden Knights)
Seth Jones (Panthers)
Jackson LaCombe (Ducks)
Charlie McAvoy (Bruins)*
Brett Pesce (Devils)
Neal Pionk (Jets)
Jake Sanderson (Senators)
Brady Skjei (Predators)
Jaccob Slavin (Hurricanes)
Alex Vlasic (Blackhawks)
Zach Werenski (Blue Jackets)

Goaltenders

Joey Daccord (Kraken)
Connor Hellebuyck (Jets)
Jake Oettinger (Stars)
Jeremy Swayman (Bruins)

KHL’s Shanghai Dragons Sign Ivan Chekhovich, Three Others

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The KHL’s Shanghai Dragons continue to fill out their roster ahead of their first season under their new name. Today, they announced the signing of four forwards with considerable North American experience – Ivan Chekhovich, Max Ellis, Nate Sucese, and Riley Sutter.

Chekhovich is the only one with NHL experience. The 5’10” winger was a seventh-round pick by the Sharks in 2017 and, after some standout offensive showings with the QMJHL’s Baie-Comeau Drakkar, looked like a potential steal. Unfortunately, his offense dried up as soon as he reached the pros. He only ever got a four-game call-up to San Jose in 2020-21, recording an assist and a -3 rating in 10:29 of ice time per game.

The Russian native only managed 32 points in 70 games for the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda in parts of four seasons. When his entry-level contract expired in 2022, the Sharks issued him a qualifying offer to retain his rights, but he ended up signing in the KHL with Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod. He’s remained in Russia ever since, and San Jose is set to lose his signing rights on July 1 next year.

The 26-year-old has been inconsistent since returning home, but could be one of the Dragons’ higher-ceiling scoring options. He scored a career-high 36 points in 47 games for Vityaz Moscow Region, which has paused operations due to financial instability, last season.

Joining him on the wing will be the undersized Ellis, a former Maple Leafs undrafted free agent signing out of Notre Dame. The 25-year-old had 34 points in 87 games for AHL Toronto in parts of three seasons before his signing rights were traded to the Stars in June 2024 for the rights to then-pending UFA Chris Tanev. Ellis did not sign with Dallas and instead landed in Finland with Liiga’s Jukurit, where he had 18 points in 25 games last season before going point-per-game in five relegation contests to help them stay in the top flight next season.

Sucese, also a 5’9″ former undrafted free agent signing, has a longer pro track record. The 29-year-old has spent the last five seasons in the AHL in the Coyotes, Wild, Hurricanes, and Rangers organizations on two-way NHL deals and minor-league contracts. He heads overseas for the first time after posting a 52-57–109 scoring line in 276 career AHL contests, including 28 points in 56 games with the Hartford Wolf Pack last year.

Shanghai will be just the second pro team in Sutter’s pro career. The bulky 25-year-old center was a third-round pick by the Capitals in 2018, and while he’s remained under NHL contract with the team up until this summer, he never took the ice for the big club and played exclusively for AHL Hershey. The son of former Flyers captain Ron Sutter is a two-time Calder Cup champion with the Bears and had 65 points in 279 games for them before becoming a Group VI unrestricted free agent this year.

Morning Notes: Blues, Fedorov, Ciernik

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Aside from 2023 10th overall pick Dalibor Dvorsky, forwards Aleksanteri Kaskimäki and Dylan Peterson have the best chance among the Blues’ young AHL-bound prospects of seeing NHL ice at some point this season, Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic relays.

Both are coming off their first full minor-league season with Springfield, although Kaskimäki is the younger one. The 21-year-old Finnish pivot was a third-rounder in 2022 and adjusted well to North American ice in his first season stateside, tying for fifth on the team in scoring with an 11-23–34 line in 63 games.

Peterson, two years Kaskimäki’s senior as a 2020 third-rounder, was in his first pro season altogether after four years at Boston University. The 6’4″ center/winger is more of a checking piece than a scorer – evidenced by his 82 PIMs – but still managed 13 tallies in 52 appearances for the Thunderbirds.

Rutherford posits they’ll have the upper hand over some potentially higher-ceiling scoring options like 2023 No. 25 pick Otto Stenberg, who only arrived in Springfield midway through last season. The organization would like to give him some more runway in the minors before considering him for a call-up.

More from around the hockey world:

  • More than 20 years after his last game for the team, the Red Wings announced today they’ll be retiring Sergei Fedorov’s No. 91 before their game on Jan. 12 against the Hurricanes. Fedorov, perhaps the most high-profile member of Detroit’s ’Russian Five,’ sits fourth in franchise history in points per game (1.05), and his cumulative +276 rating is the best of any Red Wings forward. He was a defining member of Detroit’s 1997, 1998, and 2002 championship teams and also won a pair of Selke Trophies and a Hart, twice cracking the 100-point threshold in the process.
  • Flyers prospect Alex Čiernik is hoping to continue to re-energize his development after getting past some injury troubles, he told Jackie Spiegel of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The 2023 fourth-rounder signed on with Pelicans in Finland’s Liiga for the upcoming season – his first in a top-flight European pro league – and will be coached by former Flyers forward and development coach Sami Kapanen. He scored 23 points in 46 games last season for Nybrö Vikings IF in Sweden’s second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan after missing most of his post-draft season due to multiple head injuries.

Blues Sign Milan Lucic To Professional Tryout

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The Blues have signed left winger Milan Lucic to a professional tryout, the team announced.

Lucic, 37, last played in the NHL with the Bruins in October 2023. While on injured reserve for an ankle injury, he was arrested in November and charged with assault and battery for a domestic incident. Those charges were later dropped in February 2024, but he remained in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program throughout the season and did not return to Boston for the balance of the season and became an unrestricted free agent.

Late last offseason, Lucic expressed interest in making an NHL return but said he was still in the assistance program, making him ineligible to play until he was cleared by league medical staff. He was never suspended or disciplined by the league as a direct result of his charges. The Blues confirmed in their press release today that he has been cleared from the program and thus reinstated by the league.

While once one of the league’s top power forwards in his early days with Boston, Lucic took on bottom-six journeyman status as soon as he entered his 30s. The 6’3″, 240-lb lefty hasn’t had 30 points in a season since the 2017-18 campaign. In his last three seasons plus his four-game stint with the Bruins in 2023, he averaged 10 goals, 24 points, a -12 rating, and 198 hits per 82 games while averaging 12:16 of ice time per night. For his career, he’s got a 233-353–586 scoring line in 1,177 games.

The Blues haven’t had any major roster turnover at forward this offseason, and with Lucic not playing in nearly two years, he’s at best battling for a press-box role or a two-way deal out of the gate in camp. It’s unclear if he’d be willing to accept an AHL assignment if it helped facilitate an NHL return. The Vancouver native has never played in the minors – he jumped straight from juniors to Boston when he began his NHL career back in 2007.

Even then, it’s hard to see where he fits in if not in a minor-league role. St. Louis already has its bottom-six forward group filled out, plus two extras with Nick Bjugstad, Mathieu Joseph, Jake Neighbours, Oskar Sundqvist, Pius Suter, Alexandre Texier, Alexey Toropchenko, and Nathan Walker all relatively safe locks for spots. That doesn’t include much room for top prospect Dalibor Dvorsky to land a job, let alone a veteran reclamation project like Lucic.

Reilly Walsh Signs With KHL’s Barys Astana

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Free agent defenseman Reilly Walsh has a one-year deal with Kazakhstan’s Barys Astana of the KHL, the team announced.

Walsh, 26, heads overseas for the first time in his career after spending the past several seasons as a productive minor-leaguer. He was drafted out of prep school by the Devils in the third round of the 2017 draft before going for three years at Harvard, signing his entry-level deal with New Jersey in 2020.

While the right-shot Massachusetts native has shown good offensive instincts wherever he goes, it has never translated into much NHL time. He only has one appearance to his name, posting an assist and two blocks in 14:23 of ice time for the Devils in a late-season game against the Senators in 2022.

Walsh remained in the New Jersey organization until the summer of 2023, when the Devils traded his signing rights to the Bruins in exchange for Shane Bowers. He signed a two-way contract with Boston a few weeks later, but spent the entirety of the following season on loan to AHL Providence. That gave him the trifecta needed – age 25, less than 80 games of NHL experience, and at least three years of pro experience – to reach the open market early via Group VI unrestricted free agency.

He landed a slightly richer two-way deal with the Kings last summer but met the same fate. He scored six goals and 32 points in 70 games for the AHL’s Ontario Reign and again became a Group VI UFA on July 1. He presumably landed a richer offer from Barys – although the club has had some recent financial struggles – than any two-way guarantees an NHL team was offering him, if there even were any.

Walsh pauses his career stateside for now with a 38-121–159 scoring line in 304 career AHL contests for Binghamton/Utica, Providence, and Ontario. He joins an Astana club that also has former NHLers Ian McCoshen, Olivier Rodrigue, and Mike Vecchione rostered for 2025-26.

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