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Detroit Red Wings Sign Cross Hanas

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The Detroit Red Wings have inked a top prospect, signing Cross Hanas to a three-year entry-level contract. Hanas currently plays for the Portland Winterhawks of the WHL, where he will remain for the rest of the CHL season.

Hanas, 20, was picked 55th overall by the Red Wings in 2020 after a decent sophomore season with the Winterhawks but has turned some heads this year with his strong play. The Texas native has scored 22 goals and 70 points in 53 games, leading a Portland team that has already clinched a playoff spot and has its eyes set on the WHL championship.

Every time the Winterhawks get a powerplay, the puck goes onto Hanas’ stick, where he has racked up 20 assists with the man advantage (and leads the team with 48 overall). He also happens to lead all Portland forwards in penalty minutes with 65, a good chunk of which came from a boarding incident that earned him a two-game suspension in January.

Once Portland’s season is over, Hanas will likely be joining the Grand Rapids Griffins for the next stop in his hockey career. Whether that happens at the tail end of this AHL season or next, he’ll be another interesting prospect to watch come through the Red Wings’ system.

Snapshots: Draft Capital, Juniors, Anderson

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When it comes to acquiring rentals at the trade deadline, the most used currency is draft picks. Dozens of picks usually change hands, with several first-round selections being tossed around to try and give teams the best chance at the Stanley Cup. This year has an interesting “wrinkle” according to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, who reports that 2023 selections are seemingly preferred over 2022 picks at the moment.

There’s no doubt that the excitement around next year’s draft is palpable. Not only is there Connor Bedard and Matvei Michkov at the very top (though the latter’s status is a bit complicated by the recent change in the NHL-KHL relationship) but an early feeling that 2023 will be an impressive draft well into the middle rounds. That opinion manifested in a recent trade between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Arizona Coyotes. In it, the Maple Leafs surrendered a conditional pick that is either a 2023 third or 2025 second. Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong even explained at the time that they believed 2023 would be a very strong draft, and that they would take that pick if “the player is there” when the turn comes up.

  • There soon may be another league for scouts to visit, as Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News reports that an announcement on a new junior hockey league based on the west coast is expected tomorrow. The league, yet unnamed, is backed by four NHL franchises and spearheaded, according to Kennedy, by Ben Robert, founding partner of West Coast Hockey Sports and Entertainment. The league would potentially give players from the area an alternative to the USHL or CHL.
  • Craig Anderson is expected to generate some “tire kicking” according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, though the insider notes that it is likely up to the veteran goaltender on whether he goes or stays. Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman also touched on Anderson in the latest 32 Thoughts podcast for Sportsnet, explaining how much the Buffalo Sabres have appreciated his leadership this season. Anderson, 40, has a .907 save percentage in 18 appearances this season, winning career game number 301 on Sunday at the Heritage Classic.

CHL Cancels Canada-Russia Series

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The CHL has canceled the 2022 Canada-Russia series, releasing the following statement:

The Canadian Hockey League strongly condemns the recent actions by Russia involving military force in Ukraine and encourages a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

The event was canceled in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with both sides winning three games the last time it was held in 2019. It is normally a premier scouting event held in November with representatives from each of the three leagues that make up the CHL, plus a select team from Russia. That will no longer be possible, but the more immediate concern is the rest of the statement and some reporting that emerged earlier in the day.

Dan Milstein, an agent of many of the Russian players in North America, tweeted that the CHL is expected to announce a ban on Russian and Belarusian players from the upcoming draft. Further down in their original statement, the CHL instead says that the date and format of the 2022 Import Draft has yet to be determined and will be announced at a later date. They are “supportive of their [current players] continued development regardless of their country of origin.”

In 2021, 16 Russian players and 11 Belarusian players were selected in the Import Draft.

Washington Capitals Sign Henry Rybinski

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2:05pm: The team has made it official, announcing the three-year entry-level contract that will start in 2022-23.

12:30pm: The Washington Capitals are getting into the CHL free agent forward market, as Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic reports that the team has signed Henry Rybinski from the WHL. Rybinski currently plays for the Seattle Thunderbirds and was originally drafted by the Florida Panthers in 2019. Because he failed to sign a contract with them by last summer, he became a free agent and quickly started to draw interest from around the league.

Today is the first day teams can sign free agent prospects to entry-level contracts that kick in for the 2022-23 season and given his age, Rybinski will be signing a three-year deal. The 20-year-old forward has been outstanding this season for the Seattle Thunderbirds, recording 18 goals and 54 points in 39 games. That’s good enough for 27th in league scoring even though he’s played up to 15 games fewer than some of his competitors.

Rybinski was in Edmonton Oilers development camp last August, and before that had been in camps run by the Panthers. That’s actually where he transitioned back to center, the position he now plays full-time. Adding another center prospect to the pipeline is never a bad thing, and Washington–like Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay, who added players today–always needs to refresh the system in ways outside of the draft because of their perennial contender status and trade deadline escapades. There’s still a long road ahead of someone like Rybinski, but when his contract is made official, he’ll be taking a big step.

2022 CHL Top Prospect Game Roster Announced

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On March 23 in Kitchener, Ontario, the 40 best draft-eligible prospects from the CHL will take part in one of the most intriguing scouting events of the season. The 2022 CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game is a place where the best-on-best battle for attention in front of scouts from every team in the league, trying to show exactly what kind of player they can be when the competition increases.

It’s not often you get to see players from the OHL, WHL, and QMJHL all compete with and against each other. Shane Wright, who has long been expected to go first overall in this summer’s draft–though that opinion has been questioned of late–will be there, along with other players competing for top spots like Matthew Savoie and Conor Geekie.

The full roster of talent is below, while teams will be announced at a later date:

G Mason Beaupit
G Tyler Brennan
G Reid Dyck
G Ivan Zhigalov

D Michael Buchinger
D Jorian Donovan
D Isaiah George
D Kevin Korchinski
D Maveric Lamoureux
D Mats Lindgren
D Tristian Luneau
D Ty Nelson
D Denton Mateychuk
D Pavel Mintyukov
D Owen Pickering
D Noah Warren

F Maxim Barbashev
F Owen Beck
F Luca Del Bel Belluz
F Josh Filmon
F Jagger Firkus
F Nathan Gaucher
F Ruslan Gazizov
F Conor Geekie
F David Goyette
F Jordan Gustafson
F Hunter Haight
F Jake Karabela
F Paul Ludwinski
F Bryce McConnell-Barker
F Fraser Minten
F Matthew Poitras
F Vinzenz Rohrer
F Matyas Sapovaliv
F Matthew Savoie
F Reid Schaefer
F Matthew Seminoff
F Antonin Verreault
F Shane Wright
F Danny Zhilkin

Snapshots: World Cup, Top Prospects, Memorial Cup

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When the NHL first appeared headed to the 2022 Olympic Games, it signaled what would have been the first best-on-best action since the 2016 World Cup. Even that event came with the caveat of Team North America, a young-guns squad that kept some top talent off their respective countries. Connor McDavid, for instance, has still never worn a Canada sweater at a top-tier international event and hasn’t even taken part in the World Championship since 2018.

Perhaps there is reason to believe that is going to change, as Pierre LeBrun explained on TSN’s Insider Trading that the NHL and NHLPA have made progress on a potential 2024 World Cup of Hockey. There is also surprising support for it to be held partway through the 2023-24 season, something that had previously been fought against by the owners. This tournament would be held in addition to NHL participation in the 2026 Olympics in Italy, meaning hockey fans could be finally getting a chance to see best-on-best action in the coming years.

  • Speaking of best-on-best, the CHL prospects game was originally scheduled to take place a few days ago has been rescheduled to March 23 in Kitchener, according to Corey Pronman of The Athletic. The event pits the best draft-eligible players in the OHL, WHL, and QMJHL against each other and provides a great scouting opportunity for NHL executives. The Ontario government is currently scheduled to lift all capacity restrictions on indoor events on March 14, which would potentially allow a full building for the showcase.
  • Another marquee scouting event on the calendar is the Memorial Cup tournament, which hasn’t been held since 2019 because of the pandemic. This year’s event is scheduled to be held in Saint John, with the Sea Dogs automatically entered as the host team. Darren Dreger of TSN adds that because of all the postponements that have happened in the CHL this season, the Memorial Cup is going to be pushed into June.

Minor Transactions: 12/12/21

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With a lighter schedule at the NHL level today, expect some moves from other niches of the hockey world. For those more minor moves, we’ll keep an ongoing list of today’s transactions right here.

  • There’s a junior trade on the block today, as WHL netminder Cole Tisdale was dealt from the Tri-City Americans to the Prince Albert Raiders Saturday night in exchange for a 2025 seventh-round pick, a team release from the Raiders confirms. The 19-year-old netminder is playing his first full WHL season but now finds himself on his third team. Originally a draft pick of the Kelowna Rockets, he was moved to Tri-City after six games with Kelowna this year. After just two games there, he now finds himself in Prince Albert looking for some stability.
  • As the Pittsburgh Penguins organization becomes healthier, the baby Penguins in AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton are making corresponding moves. Today, they re-assigned forward Shaw Boomhower to the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers, per a team tweet. The 23-year-old Boomhower took last season off from hockey entirely but has impressed with six points in 12 games in Wheeling. He didn’t get into a game with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton during his callup.

Dmitry Zavgorodniy Assigned To KHL

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After assigning Yan Kuznetsov to the CHL a few days ago, the Calgary Flames have found some extra playing time for another one of their prospects. Dmitry Zavgorodniy has been assigned to HC Sochi in the KHL, which will hopefully give him a bit of a bigger opportunity.

Zavgorodniy, 21, was a seventh-round pick of the Flames in 2018 and signed his entry-level contract a year later. That deal, which slid forward one season, will expire after the 2022-23 campaign. He spent most of last season with the Stockton Heat, scoring four points in 29 games, but has been held scoreless in six appearances for the AHL squad this year.

The most recent of those appearances was weeks ago, as he fell out of the regular rotation even for the bottom six. He’ll now head overseas, but remain under contract with the Flames. A very strong junior player, Zavgorodniy had 29 goals and 67 points in 40 games for the Rimouski Oceanic in 2019-20.

Yan Kuznetsov Loaned To CHL

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It’s not that often that you see a player go from the NCAA to the AHL to the CHL, but that’s exactly what’s about to happen for Yan Kuznetsov. The Calgary Flames prospect has been loaned to the Saint John Seadogs of the QMJHL after 12 games with the Stockton Heat this season.

Kuznetsov, 19, was the 50th overall pick in the 2020 draft after his freshman year at the University of Connecticut, and he returned in 2020-21 for his sophomore season. After the college campaign ended, he signed his entry-level deal with the Flames and suited up six times down the stretch for Stockton. The 6’4″ defenseman has failed to register a single point in 18 games for the Heat overall and will now get to test himself at the junior level, something that will only help develop his overall game.

Notably, he’ll be available for Russia at the World Juniors again, which would be his second time at the tournament, and also will likely play in the Memorial Cup given it is set to be hosted in Saint John this season. A trade could potentially change that obviously, but Kuznetsov will spend the rest of the year in the CHL competing against players his age.

Selected 22nd overall in the 2021 CHL Import Draft, this was always a possibility for the big defenseman. Saint John picked him after he already made his AHL debut, meaning they had an inkling he could end up back in junior at some point. He’s joining a team that is currently 12-8-3 on the year and in eighth place in the QMJHL standings, but still has big expectations. He’s also going to be joining fellow Calgary draft picks Jeremie Poirier and Ryan Francis, the latter of whom also made his AHL debut with the Heat last season before he returned to Saint John.

Minor Transactions: 11/14/21

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There’s a six-game slate in the NHL tonight on this Hall of Fame weekend, but transaction action keeps rolling along at lower levels of the game as well. As COVID rears its ugly head again, affecting the rosters of multiple teams this season, teams in the AHL and ECHL have had to adjust their rosters as they lose players to their NHL affiliates. Keep track of today’s minor transactions right here.

  • As the Ottawa Senators deal with the NHL’s worst COVID outbreak this season, the AHL’s Belleville Senators made a minor trade yesterday, acquiring forward Chris Wilkie from the Rockford IceHogs in exchange for future considerations. Wilkie, a product of Colorado College, was originally a sixth-round draft pick of the Florida Panthers back in 2015. This is his second professional season, and he notched a goal and assist in his Belleville debut yesterday.
  • Defenseman Alec Rauhauser was returned to the ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits today after being loaned to the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda. Rauhauser, an undrafted free agent, spent last season in the Florida Panthers organization after four seasons at Bowling Green State University. He made his AHL debut in one game with the Syracuse Crunch but spent the majority of the season in Greenville. In 52 games over two seasons, Rauhauser has 13 ECHL points.
  • The AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms recalled forward Charlie Gerard from the ECHL’s Reading Royals today. Gerard is in his second professional season after a four-year run at Minnesota State University-Mankato and showed promise last season with 34 points in 49 games in the ECHL with the Utah Grizzlies. Now with the Phantoms on a professional contract, he’ll get his chance to show what he can do within the Flyers organization.

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