Prospect Notes: Oswald, Pattersson, Pinchuk
The Edmonton Oilers are again looking overseas to bolster their forward core. According to Frank Seravalli of Victory+, the Oilers are the betting favorites to land forward Veit Oswald this summer, despite other teams having interest.
Oswald, 21, has spent the last several years playing for the DEL’s EHC München. He wasn’t on most people’s radar a few years ago, scoring 10 goals and 17 points in 38 games. He was included on Team Germany’s U20 team for the 2023-24 IIHF World Junior Championship, where he scored three goals and five points in four games. Oswald’s output was decent for the tournament, but his 27 PIMs caused too much negative attention for any additional interest.
However, he broke out in a big way this year. Oswald finished the 2025-26 campaign with 12 goals and 26 points in 38 games with a +16 rating, adding another two goals in six postseason contests. Although he didn’t challenge for any scoring leaders, he continues to improve on both sides of the puck, making NHL teams more willing to afford him an opportunity in North America.
Additional prospect notes:
- The AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks announced that the team has recalled forward Riley Patterson from the OHL’s Niagara IceDogs. Patterson, 20, was drafted 125th overall by the Vancouver Canucks in the 2024 NHL Draft. He had an impressive 2025-26 season with the IceDogs, registering 40 goals and 84 points in 60 games. If he plays down the stretch for Abbotsford, it will be the first professional contest of his career.
- A few weeks ago, reports indicated that nearly the entire league had shown an interest in forward Vitali Pinchuk, who scored 31 goals and 66 points in 65 games as a 24-year-old for the KHL’s Dinamo Minsk this season. Unsurprisingly, Anthony Di Marco of the Daily Faceoff shared that the Philadelphia Flyers are one of the 29 teams to have contacted Pinchuk about playing in North America next season. Pinchuk hasn’t played in North America since the 2019-20 campaign, when he appeared in 54 games for the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers.
Morning Notes: Panthers, Tracy, Scheel
Florida Panthers defensemen Aaron Ekblad and Dmitry Kulikov each suffered injuries in yesterday’s win over the Ottawa Senators, head coach Paul Maurice announced postgame. Per team reporter Jameson Olive, both defensemen “sound like they could miss time” with these injuries.
Ekblad appeared to suffer the injury after blocking a shot with his hand. Maurice told the media, including Florida Hockey Now’s George Richards, that Ekblad doesn’t look good as a result of the injury, and while he is still being evaluated, is likely to miss some time. Ekblad has been Florida’s No. 3 defenseman this season and has 26 points in 72 games while averaging 22:28 time on ice per game. Kulikov has been Florida’s No. 5 defenseman and appeared to suffer his injury after taking a puck to the face. Per Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald, Kulikov is set for a CT scan to help determine the full extent of his injury.
Other notes from around the hockey world:
- The Henderson Silver Knights, AHL affiliate of the Vegas Golden Knights, announced yesterday the signing of NCAA free agent goalie Alexander Tracy to an AHL contract for the 2026-27 season. Tracy will report to the ECHL’s Tahoe Knight Monsters for the rest of 2025-26. He was ranked as the No. 9 player in this year’s NCAA free agent class by the team at Elite Prospects, who called him “a refined goaltender whose greatest asset is that he boasts very few flaws.” Tracy has been a strong goalie at just about every level he’s played at. Playing college hockey for Minnesota State (Mankato), he posted a .927 save percentage in 115 career games, won two conference titles, a conference goalie and player of the year award, and was a Hobey Baker Memorial Award finalist. He is also a Clark Cup champion and playoff MVP from his days in the USHL, and was a top goalie during his lone season in the NAHL. Now, he’ll hope to sustain that track record of brilliance at the ECHL level to begin his pro career.
- Adam Scheel, a former member of the Dallas Stars organization who proved to be a star goaltender in the NCAA and ECHL, has signed a contract for next season to join the Frankfurt Lions of the DEL. The 26-year-old concluded a four-year run playing pro hockey in North America last summer when he signed a one-year deal to be a tandem goalie for Barys Astana, a Kazakh club in the KHL. He ended up making the KHL’s All-Star Game, posting a .908 save percentage in 32 games despite owning a 10-18-1 record. Scheel is a significant signing for Frankfurt, as he has over 100 games of AHL experience under his belt and has proven himself in the KHL. He is set to join a Frankfurt team that ranked as the second-worst in the DEL this season and surrendered the second-most goals.
Snapshots: Schneider, Gibson, Lajoie
New York Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider is one of the top trade assets the Rangers have at their disposal in advance of the deadline next week. According to The Athletic’s Vincent Z. Mercogliano, “Schneider being traded feels like a 50-50 proposition,” and Rangers GM Chris Drury is reportedly “content” to retain Schneider if no team is willing to meet the high asking price he has set.
According to Mercogliano, the Rangers’ preference in any Schneider deal is a “hockey trade,” meaning they’re looking for younger players who are NHL-ready or at least very close to being NHL-ready. That falls in line with how the Rangers have framed their current team direction, being that of a “re-tool” rather than a full-scale rebuild. Whether the Rangers will be able to receive the kind of offers for Schneider that they’re looking for is still unclear. It would not be a huge surprise to see New York receive considerable interest in Schneider, of course, given his age, positional value and what he has accomplished as an NHL player thus far.
Other notes from around the hockey world:
- Former New York Islanders goalie Christopher Gibson has signed in the DEL, joining the Schwenninger Wild Wings of Germany’s top pro league. The former Islanders goalie has 16 NHL games on his resume and has played in 244 career AHL games. He was last in North America in 2022-23 when he got into 20 games for the AHL Coachella Valley Firebirds, and has bounced between several European teams. So far in 2025-26, he has played in four games for Italian club HC Bolzano of the ICEHL, posting an .879 save percentage and 1-3 record.
- Defenseman Maxime Lajoie, a former member of the Ottawa Senators, signed a one-year contract extension with KHL club Avangard Omsk. The team’s official statement called Lajoie an “indispensable part” of the team’s defense, something that is underscored by his 37 points in 60 games this season. Like Gibson, Lajoie also last played in North America as a member of the AHL Firebirds. In 2024-25, Lajoie scored 38 points in 70 games for Coachella. He has played in the NHL most recently in 2023-24, with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Transaction Notes: Chrona, Makiniemi, Senyshyn
Nashville Predators AHL goalie Magnus Chrona will head overseas to the SHL next season, according to a report from Aftonbladet’s Simon Eld. Per the report, Chrona has signed a contract with Swedish club Brynäs, and will join the team starting in the 2026-27. The 25-year-old is currently playing out a one-year, two-way contract with Nashville, and is set to become a Group VI unrestricted free agent unless he plays in 19 NHL games this season. Getting into that many NHL games at this point appears to be almost impossible for Chrona, as veteran Matt Murray appears to be clearly ahead of him in terms of who would receive a recall to Nashville in the event of an injury to Juuse Saros or Justus Annunen.
An NCAA national champion and former NCHC Goalie of the Year, Chrona has had an up-and-down pro career to this point. He was forced into some difficult on-ice situations in his rookie season as a member of the Sharks, and was dealt to Nashville in the summer of 2024 as part of the trade that sent Yaroslav Askarov to San Jose. He’s been the No. 2 goalie for the AHL Milwaukee Admirals since the deal, playing behind Murray. He posted a .903 save percentage in 30 games last season, and has duplicated that mark in 13 AHL games this season. Looking ahead to next season, one wonders if either goalie playing for the Predators’ ECHL affiliate, the Atlanta Gladiators, might get a shot to earn a regular role in Milwaukee. 2019 fifth-rounder Ethan Haider has a .926 save percentage in 16 ECHL games this season, and won his lone AHL start of the year. 23-year-old T.J. Semptimphelter, a former Hobey Baker nominee, has a .942 save percentage through the first 18 games of his ECHL career. Both players are playing out one-year contracts this season.
Other notable recent transactions from around the hockey world:
- Another former Sharks netminder signed a contract this week, with Finland’s Eetu Makiniemi signing a one-year contract extension with his current club, Liiga’s TPS Turku. Makiniemi played in two NHL games for the Sharks in 2022-23 before playing through the 2024-25 season at the AHL level. He elected to leave the AHL after playing just five games for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms last season, and has been solid for TPS. Playing in a tandem with 20-year-old Noa Vali, Makiniemi has a .903 save percentage in 22 games. He’s been the more reliable netminder in the tandem for TPS this season, as Vali has an .887 save percentage through 20 games this year.
- 2015 Boston Bruins first-round pick Zachary Senyshyn has agreed to a contract termination with his DEL club, the Schwenninger Wild Wings. Senyshyn was in the middle of a third consecutive DEL campaign with the club, where he has been a reliable top-six goal scorer. Senyshyn, who has over 300 games of AHL experience, left North America at the end of 2022-23 to sign in the DEL, and he has helped the Wild Wings reach at least the playoff qualifiers in both of his prior seasons in Germany. He’ll now look to continue his career elsewhere, and there is no word at this point as to where he might end up signing. He had 10 goals and 15 points in 31 DEL games this season.
Minor Transactions: 12/20/2025
The midpoint of the season has sparked a flurry of action across the hockey world. Some players are finally being moved from a slow start to the season, while others are finding their first contracts of the year. The notable moves have been rounded up and captured below:
- Former New York Islanders center Leo Komarov has signed a one-year contract with HC Davos of Switzerland’s National League. The 38-year-old Estonian spent the last two seasons with HIFK of Finland’s Liiga. He scored 23 points in 55 games with the club, but wasn’t able to secure a contract for this season. That will change with a move to Switzerland, marking the eighth professional hockey league that Komarov has played in – on top of tenures in Finland’s Mestis and Liiga, Russia’s KHL, the AHL and NHL, and Sweden’s SHL. He will offer Davos veteran depth.
- Also signing an overseas contract is former Buffalo Sabres goaltender Dustin Tokarski, who has left his professional try-out contract with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins to sign a deal with Lowen Frankfurt of Germany’s DEL. Tokarski made two appearances with Grand Rapids on his try-out, posting one win and a .929 save percentage. He posted a .897 Sv% in 21 AHL games, and a .902 Sv% in six NHL games, in the Carolina Hurricanes’ organization last season. He’ll join Frankfurt for the second-half of the year and could have an open path to the starting role, with all three of Frankfurt’s goaltenders posting sub-.900 Sv% through the first half of the season.
- Hard-hitting Utah Mammoth prospect Tomas Lavoie has been traded in the QMJHL. He will head to the Chicoutimi Saguenéens in exchange for five draft picks, including a first-rounder, headed back to the Cape Breton Eagles. Lavoie was a core piece of the Eagles this season, offering stalwart defense and reliable puck-moving. The former third-round pick has 21 points in 24 games this season and could bring a reliable, shutdown role to a Saguenéens lineup currently leaning on high-octane defenders like Alex Huang.
- Seattle Kraken prospect Alexis Bernier will also head to the Saguenéens in exchange for Leo-Gabriel Gosselin and five draft picks. Bernier is a volume shooter who racked up 14 goals and 46 points in 59 games with the Baie-Comeau Drakkar last season, but hasn’t yet played this year. He could be due for a major breakout after rivaling point-per-game scoring last season, which should only bolster a Saguenéens lineup that has already propped up shoot-first wingers Maxim Massé and Émile Guité. The Saguenéens will go all-in on this season before likely losing Masse, Guite, and many others to pro deals.
Flames Assign Matvei Gridin, Activate Jonathan Huberdeau
The Calgary Flames have assigned winger Matvei Gridin to the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers to make room to activate Jonathan Huberdeau off of injured reserve. Huberdeau has been sidelined since sustaining an undisclosed injury in a preseason matchup against the Vancouver Canucks on October 1st. He missed the first seven games of Calgary’s season.
Gridin played in the first four games of his NHL career to start the season, but found his way to the press box after posting one goal and a minus-three. He is among Calgary’s top prospects, and is set to become one of just six 19-year-olds in the AHL. A taste of NHL minutes, and continued pro challenge in the minors, could be exactly what Gridin needs to grow his game.
He looked fast and flashy in the QMJHL last year, posting 96 points in 72 games over the course of the Shawinigan Cataractes’ full season. That performance earned him the QMJHL’s ‘Rookie of the Year’ award. The 2024 first-round pick spent two seasons in the USHL prior to his draft. He scored 99 points in 108 total games in the league. That includes a league-leading 83-point season in 2023-24, the second-highest scoring season in Muskegon Lumberjacks history.
While Gridin develops in the minors, Huberdeau will look to keep up his momentum from last season. He scored 16 points in 18 games to finish the 2024-25 season, pushing him to 28 goals and 62 points in 81 games on the year. It was Huberdeau’s highest-scoring season since he posted 115 points with the Florida Panthers in 2021-22. His dip in scoring with the Flames has shadowed his last three seasons, but he showed a click next to Morgan Frost and Matthew Coronato that could propel the Flames’ offense this season. Coronato currently leads Calgary in scoring, with three points in five games. Frost has two points.
Snapshots: Toews, Drouin, O’Regan
Jonathan Toews was at Winnipeg Jets practice today, reports Jets team reporter Mitchell Clinton. Toews had been out on a day-to-day timeline since leaving Tuesday’s preseason game against the Minnesota Wild with an injury. While it is not immediately clear if Toews will be fully healthy for the Jets’ preseason opener, this is nonetheless a positive development for both the Jets and Toews himself.
Toews’ health is one of the most significant storylines to watch in Winnipeg this season, as the three-time Stanley Cup champion is attempting to return to full-time NHL action after missing both 2023-24 and 2024-25 due to the lingering effects of long COVID and Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome. Toews was a valuable player when he was last in the NHL, scoring 37 points in 2021-22 and 31 points (in 53 games) in 2022-23. The Jets have been searching for a steady second-line center to pencil in behind Mark Scheifele since the retirement of Bryan Little, and Toews will be the latest player to get a chance to prove he can handle the responsibility.
Other notes from around the hockey world:
- Jonathan Drouin is back at New York Islanders practice after missing three practices due to illness, reports Newsday’s Andrew Gross. Drouin returns to full health at an important time as the Islanders prepare to finalize their roster and enter the 2025-26 regular season. Drouin signed a two-year, $4MM AAV contract this past summer to bring him to Long Island, a solid reward for the player after he revitalized his career as a member of the Colorado Avalanche. Drouin, who scored 37 points in 43 games last season, is currently pencilled into the Islanders’ top line alongside Bo Horvat and fellow offseason addition (and fellow former Montreal Canadien) Emil Heineman.
- Former San Jose Sharks forward Danny O’Regan has found a place to play for 2025-26. The 31-year-old former AHL Rookie of the Year and Boston University star has signed a one-year contract with the DEL’s Schwenningen Wild Wings. The Wild Wings’ translated press release indicates that the team made the signing in part as a response to the fact that offseason import signing Tim Gettinger is facing an extended absence due to injury. While O’Regan won’t provide the physicality Gettinger brings, he does bring more offensive touch – he scored a healthy 27 points in 65 KHL games last season and has a superior scoring record in the AHL when compared to Gettinger.
Transactions Notes: Poolman, Allison, Malmquist
Unrestricted free agent defenseman Colton Poolman has signed with the Glasgow Clan of the United Kingdom’s Elite Ice Hockey League, the team announced.
While Poolman doesn’t have an NHL game to his name, he’s spent the last five seasons on two-way deals. The 29-year-old was initially an undrafted free agent signing by the Flames out of the University of North Dakota in 2020. He switched teams in free agency last summer, signing with the Sabres. He was then traded to the Penguins in a minor-league swap in January.
Injuries significantly limited Poolman’s playing time last season. He made just five appearances for AHL Rochester while in Buffalo’s organization before the trade to the Penguins. He got slightly more playing time with AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton after the swap, recording four points and a +12 rating in 15 appearances.
The 6’0″, 201-lb lefty has long been a stable defensive presence at the minor-league level. While not a point producer by any stretch, he does have 44 of them with a career +45 rating in 233 AHL appearances since making his professional debut five years ago.
He joins the Clan as presumptuously one of the better shutdown defenders in the EIHL, which isn’t on par with Europe’s other top-division national leagues. The team’s two career games of NHL experience come from former Avalanche depth netminder Sami Aittokallio.
More minor moves from around the sport:
- Former Flyers winger Wade Allison has signed a one-year deal with the Straubing Tigers of Germany’s DEL, according to a team release. Allison headed overseas last summer after being a Group VI unrestricted free agent and signed with Kazakhstan’s Barys Astana in the KHL, but he only had two goals in 12 games before being released in November. He hasn’t played since and will now stage a comeback with Straubing. The 27-year-old power forward had a 13-9–22 scoring line in 75 appearances for Philadelphia from 2020 to 2023.
- While there was some speculation that University of St. Thomas product Liam Malmquist might be in line for an NHL deal coming out of college this offseason, that won’t be the case. The 24-year-old Minnesota native has signed in the Stars organization with ECHL Idaho, the club announced. Malmquist was the Tommies’ leading scorer in his senior season with 20 goals and 45 points in 38 outings. He scored his first two professional goals with AHL Manitoba in a five-game tryout to end last season.
Transactions Notes: Flyers, Pokka, Robins
Earlier today, rather than reporting the transactions they might make, Kevin Kurz of The Athletic reported on the transactions that the Philadelphia Flyers won’t be making at the close of the offseason. According to Kurz, the Flyers have no intentions of bringing in anyone on a professional tryout agreement for the team’s training camp.
The news isn’t surprising, considering the Flyers have a fairly saturated forward core, and many of the top remaining free agents play up front. However, it is interesting that Philadelphia isn’t interested in different possibilities regarding their defensive core, especially on the right side.
If the Flyers aim for balanced handedness on defense, they have set themselves up to give bottom-pairing minutes to defenseman Noah Juulsen, who signed a one-year, $900K contract with Philadelphia at the start of free agency. Given that he’s coming off a season-ending injury and didn’t play particularly well prior, Juulsen isn’t expected to raise the Flyers’ competitiveness level significantly. There aren’t many remaining names that may be enticed by a PTO offer, as mentioned before, but veterans Jon Merrill and Erik Johnson could potentially fit the bill, and would each represent an upgrade over Juulsen.
Other transaction notes:
- A former second-round pick of the 2012 NHL Draft is on the move in the DEL. According to a team announcement, defenseman Ville Pokka has signed with EHC München for the 2025-26 season. It’s been eight years since Pokka has played professionally in North America, but did spent several years in the AHL with the Rockford IceHogs and Belleville Senators. Throughout those four years, Pokka was productive on the offensive side of the puck, scoring 31 goals and 138 points in 289 games.
- Another former second-round pick is on the move internationally. After scoring eight goals and 24 points in 56 games split between the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda and Senators last season, the Czech Extraliga’s Rytíři Kladno announced they’ve signed forward Tristen Robins. Unlike Pokka, Robins debuted in the NHL, participating in three games for the San Jose Sharks during the 2022-23 season, yet failing to register his first point.
Tanner Kero Signs With DEL’s Kolner Haie
The Kölner Haie of Germany’s DEL have signed forward Tanner Kero to a contract for the 2025-26 season, according to a team release.
Kero has played 134 career games over five NHL seasons, most recently as a fringe roster option for the Stars in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons. He produced solid offense for his limited minutes, logging a 3-10–13 scoring line in 62 appearances across the two campaigns while averaging 10:13 per night. He was actually something of a full-time piece for Dallas in the COVID-shortened season, never heading down to the AHL and making 39 out of a possible 56 appearances that year.
Before his run in Dallas, his prior NHL experience came over a three-year run with the Blackhawks from 2015-18. The undrafted free agent out of Michigan Tech made a career-high 47 appearances for Chicago in 2016-17, seeing consistent time as a third and fourth-line center while recording a 6-10–16 scoring line.
While he’s always been a strong minor-league scoring option, that was never enough to land him any long-term NHL stability. Since his last NHL appearance, he spent an additional season in the Stars organization with AHL Texas, recording 50 points in 69 games during the 2022-23 season. He spent the following year on a minor-league contract with the AHL’s Colorado Eagles before heading overseas for the first time last summer, signing with HV71 in Sweden.
Kero only managed nine goals and 22 points in 52 games for the SHL club, which narrowly avoided relegation to the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan. That was a sharp dropoff from his AHL production in the prior campaign, and he understandably wasn’t brought back after completing his one-year deal.
Instead of returning to more familiar waters in North America, Kero will now test the German circuit in hopes of gaining some new life offensively. The 33-year-old joins Brady Austin, Ryan MacInnis, Patrick Russell, and Dominik Uher as names on the Haie’s roster with NHL experience.