Morning Notes: Berry, Cehlarik, Wagner
Former University of North Dakota head coach Brad Berry is set to be named head coach of the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms, reports Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald. The Phantoms’ previous head coach, Ryan Ward, is expected to join Harvard University as an assistant coach, creating a vacancy for the junior club. The team is set to fill that vacancy with someone who was recently one of the top coaches in college hockey.
Berry, 61, coached North Dakota from 2015-16 through 2024-25. During that tenure, he was named his conference’s coach of the year four times, the NCAA’s coach of the year once. He won one NCAA national championship, four conference regular season titles, and one conference playoff title. While Berry has no previous coaching experience in junior hockey, he was previously an assistant coach at both the AHL and NHL levels.
Other notes from around the hockey world:
- Peter Cehlarik, a former Boston Bruins depth forward, has signed a two-year contract with the Växjö Lakers of the SHL. The 30-year-old got into 40 NHL games from 2016 to 2020, and has since spent the last six years in Europe playing in the KHL, Swiss National League, and SHL. The Olympic Bronze Medalist is coming off of a nearly four-year run with Sweden’s Leksands IF, and scored 24 points in 45 SHL games last season as Leksands suffered relegation to the country’s second-tier league, HockeyAllsvenskan.
- Former Los Angeles Kings forward Austin Wagner has signed a one-year contract with the Frankfurt Lions of Germany’s DEL, according to a team announcement. The 29-year-old has played in 178 career NHL games, but has none since 2022-23. Wagner, who scored a career-high 12 goals for the Kings during the 2018-19 season, has spent the last three seasons playing for three different pro clubs. He spent 2023-24 in the SHL with IK Oskarshamn, where he scored 13 points in 34 games and was the SHL’s most penalized player. He spent 2024-25 back in the AHL with the Chicago Wolves, and he played for the KHL’s Shanghai Dragons in 2025-26. Now, he’ll test his luck playing in Germany’s top pro league for the first time.
Jakub Skarek Signs In Germany
Jakub Skarek has spent most of the past several seasons in a third- or fourth-string role between the pipes. As a result, rather than signing up for more of the same, he has decided to head overseas as Straubing of the DEL announced that they’ve signed the netminder for the upcoming season.
The 26-year-old was originally drafted by the Islanders back in 2018, going 72nd overall. He turned pro with them one season later and spent parts of six seasons with AHL Bridgeport, playing a little under 40 games in three of those. But Skarek wasn’t able to progress past the third-string role. He got into a pair of games with the Isles in 2025 but by then, he was down to fourth-string status in their organization.
When he became a Group Six free agent last summer, Skarek initially headed overseas, signing in Finland. However, two months later, he accepted a two-way offer from San Jose to serve as depth in their system. He received a pair of brief NHL recalls but didn’t see any game action while he was limited to just 20 games with the Barracuda, posting a 3.12 GAA with an .888 SV% in those outings. Over his seven AHL campaigns, Skarek’s GAA always started with a three while his SV% never reached the .900 mark in a single season.
With that in mind, it’s not surprising that Skarek is going back to his original plan from last summer by signing overseas. While he could have landed another two-way deal to serve as organizational depth, he should have a better shot at a more prominent role with Straubing and at this stage of his career, more playing time is needed. A good showing there could open up some other opportunities a year from now, even if those aren’t in North America.
Morning Notes: Tracey, Toporowski, Schemitsch
2019 Anaheim Ducks first-round pick Brayden Tracey has signed a contract with Blue Devils Weiden, a club in DEL2, the second tier of professional hockey in Germany. The former WHL rookie of the year has spent each of the last two seasons playing in Europe, though he has bounced between a few leagues and teams.
Tracey, who was once considered a top-10 prospect in the Ducks’ system, played three full seasons of professional hockey in North America before crossing over to Europe. His best AHL campaign came in 2021-22, when he scored 31 points in 55 games and earned his first NHL call-up and first NHL game. Tracey began his European career with Jukurit in Liiga, later transferred to Slovan Bratislava in Slovakia, and spent 2025-26 with Mora IK in HockeyAllsvenskan. Now he’s adding a fourth country, and fourth league, in the third year of his European pro career.
Other notes from around the hockey world:
- AHL forward Luke Toporowski has decided to begin his own pro career in the European leagues, as he signed a deal with the DEL’s Augsburg Panthers. The 25-year-old former WHL All-Star has spent the last four years as a full-time AHL player. In his rookie season, 2022-23, he scored 15 goals and 29 points in 47 games. He wasn’t able to build on that, but did manage 13 goals and 28 points in 53 games for the Iowa Wild in 2023-24. This past season, he scored eight goals and 16 points in 38 games split between the Hershey Bears and Colorado Eagles.
- 2015 Florida Panthers third-round pick Thomas Schemitsch has changed DEL teams, signing with the Schwenninger Wild Wings. The 6’3″ blueliner has been a steady top-four defenseman in the DEL, and scored 33 points in 52 games in that role last season for Augsburg. A DEL champion from his 2023-24 season with Berlin, Schemitsch has 64 points in 104 career games in Germany, and 103 points from 318 career AHL games.
Snapshots: Hellebuyck, Bellemare, Poirier, Cicek
One of the prominent names featured in recent trade speculation has been Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck. While a deal didn’t come to fruition at the draft, Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press feels a trade this summer remains extremely likely. With long-time playing partner Eric Comrie moving on in free agency and Stuart Skinner (a player who has made 50 or more appearances in four straight years) coming in, Winnipeg now has a bit of security if they opt to move the three-time Vezina winner. Buffalo was a speculated landing spot back at the draft while McIntyre believes that San Jose could be a suitable destination. While they have Yaroslav Askarov in the fold, their pivot to more of a win-now approach could make someone like Hellebuyck appealing while they have the cap space to fit him in. Hellebuyck hasn’t formally asked for a trade but that won’t stop the speculation about a possible move from continuing.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- While Pierre-Edouard Bellemare’s playing days are over, his days in the NHL aren’t. The Lightning announced earlier this week that they’ve hired the former center as a Player Development Specialist. It’s a return to Tampa Bay for Bellemare, who played in 153 games with them between the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons. Specifically, he will be working with their forward prospects while also spending time working in AHL Syracuse.
- After being non-tendered by Dallas last month, defenseman Jeremie Poirier has found his next team. Adler Mannheim of the DEL announced that they’ve signed the 24-year-old to a one-year contract. Poirier started the season with Calgary but was traded back in February. Between the two organizations, he had 16 points in 51 games last season but also had two years of 40-plus points in Calgary’s system before then.
- Blueliner Nick Cicek has found his next team. Earlier this week, Championat’s Anton Panchenko relayed that the defender has signed a one-year deal with KHL Shanghai. The 26-year-old last saw NHL action in 2022-23 when he played in 16 games with San Jose. Since then, Cicek has spent time in both the AHL and DEL. Last season, he played in 70 games with AHL Calgary, recording 25 points and 119 penalty minutes.
15 Players Elect For Salary Arbitration
The deadline to file for salary arbitration passed at 5 P.M. ET on July 5. 15 players elected to head to arbitartion before then, including the market’s top free agent, Dallas Stars’ winger Jason Robertson. Arbitration hearings will take place between late-July and early-August. Filing for arbitration will restrict players from negotiating contracts with any other team, removing high-value RFAs like Robertson from offer sheet eligibility. Players will have the opportunity to continue negotiating with their current team and could avoid arbitration by reaching a new deal before their hearing occurs. The full list of players who filed for salary arbitration in 2026, per Chris Johnston of The Athletic, is as follows:
F Xavier Bourgault (Ottawa Senators)
F Kirby Dach (Montreal Canadiens)
D Jamie Drysdale (Philadelphia Flyers)
G Jet Greaves (Columbus Blue Jackets)
F Alex Jefferies (New York Islanders)
F Peyton Krebs (Buffalo Sabres)
F Connor McMichael (St. Louis Blues)
F Cole Perfetti (Winnipeg Jets)
F Jason Robertson (Dallas Stars)
F Nicholas Robertson (Pittsburgh Penguins)
G Akira Schmid (Florida Panthers)
D Braden Schneider (New York Rangers)
D Ronan Seeley (Carolina Hurricanes)
F Cole Sillinger (Columbus Blue Jackets)
F Trevor Zegras (Philadelphia Flyers)
Patrick Brown Signs With DEL’s Adler Mannheim
The Boston Bruins have lost some of their organizational forward depth. According to a team announcement, the DEL’s Adler Mannheim have signed Patrick Brown for the 2026-27 season.
In all fairness, at 34 years old, Brown’s professional career in North America was likely nearing its end, anyway. He was signed as a collegiate free agent by the Carolina Hurricanes ahead of the 2014-15 campaign, and has primarily been an AHL talent for the last 11 years.
Although the Bloomfield Hills, MI native didn’t challenge for any scoring awards throughout his time in the AHL, his North American career is defined by his leadership. Brown was named captain for the Boston College Eagles for the 2013-14 NCAA season, and wore the ‘C’ for three different AHL organizations, including the Providence Bruins, for the past two years.
Despite carving out a consistent role in the AHL, Brown didn’t go without his NHL opportunities, either. Highlighted by a two-year stint with the Philadelphia Flyers in which he played 87 games from 2021 to 2023, Brown played parts of nine seasons with the Hurricanes, Golden Knights, Flyers, Senators, and Bruins. Assuming his NHL career has finished, Brown ends with 10 goals and 26 points in 164 appearances.
Understandably, his performance in the AHL has been much better. Beginning with the Charlotte Checkers in 2014-15, Brown has registered 111 goals and 286 points in 572 career games. Additionally, he captained the Checkers to a Calder Cup championship in 2019.
Minor Transactions: Kahun, Morozov, Iskhakov, Cali
Former NHL winger Dominik Kahun agreed on a mutual contract termination with his former club HC Lausanne of the Swiss National League, ending what was originally a three-year deal with the team. As a free agent, Kahun has elected to return to his native Germany and sign with EHC Red Bull Munich, according to an official announcement from the club on social media.
The move returns Kahun, 30, to the club that launched him to the NHL back in 2018. Kahun was a former star scorer for Munich, spending four seasons with the team from 2014-2018. In those four years, he went from scoring just six points in his debut season when he was fresh out of the German second division to becoming a point-per-game winger. He won three straight titles for Munich in 2016, 2017, and 2018. While he was an instant-impact NHL signing for the Chicago Blackhawks, scoring 13 goals and 37 points as a rookie, Kahun left the NHL for Switzerland after 2020-21. He has been largely stellar in the National League, serving as a point-per-game winger for SC Bern from 2021-2024. Over the last two years, Kahun has struggled more, and his stint with Lausanne was marked by inconsistency as he was great in the playoffs but not very productive in the regular season.
Other notes on player movement from around the hockey world:
- Vegas Golden Knights 2018 second-round pick Ivan Morozov has signed a one-year contract extension with the KHL’s Spartak Moscow. Morozov has spent the last three seasons with Spartak, where he has been one of the team’s most productive players and a two-time All-Star. Morozov scored a career-high 50 points in 2024-25 and managed 33 points in 49 combined regular-season and playoff contests in 2025-26. The 6’1″ center last appeared in North America during the 2022-23 season, when he registered 17 points in 58 games for Vegas’ AHL affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights.
- Another Russian forward who was selected in the second round of the 2018 NHL draft signed a KHL contract extension: Ruslan Iskhakov. Iskhakov was drafted No. 43 overall by the Islanders in 2018, and signed a two-year extension with Metallurg Magnitogorsk. Iskhakov joined Metallurg last summer from CSKA Moscow, where he was an All-Star in 2024-25. This past season, the 5’7″ forward scored 17 goals and 38 points in 65 regular-season games, and eight points in 15 playoff contests. Iskhakov played two seasons in North America, scoring 101 points in 138 total games for the AHL’s Bridgeport Islanders, and one point in one NHL game for the New York Islanders. Stefen Rosner of The Elmonters wrote today that the “ship has definitely sailed” on Iskhakov’s NHL future with the club.
- 2026 NHL Draft prospect Ryder Cali has committed to play NCAA hockey at Providence College, according to Mark Divver of New England Hockey Journal. Cali, 17, was formerly committed to Harvard University. Cali spent this past season with the North Bay Battalion of the OHL, and it is unclear at this time whether his commitment implies enrollment for 2026-27 or 2027-28, which would impact whether he will play an additional campaign in Ontario. It seems most likely he will spend at least 2026-27 in the OHL before heading to college, but that is not confirmed. Cali is considered a second-round prospect by most major draft outlets, ranked as high as No. 34 (Elite Prospects) and as low as No. 62 (Craig Button, TSN).
Sharks Sign Phillip Sinn To Entry-Level Contract
The San Jose Sharks have looked towards Germany to reinforce their blue line. Defenseman Phillip Sinn has signed a two-year, entry-level contract with the Sharks set to begin next season. Sinn spent last season with EHC Munchen of Germany’s DEL and played five games with Team Germany at the 2026 World Championships. Reports of NHL interest around Sinn was first reported by German hockey news source Eisblog.
Sinn, 22, is a true shutdown-defenseman. He scored just nine points across all levels of competition in the 2025-26 season, including three points in 35 games of his DEL season. Despite those low marks, Sinn stood out with a long reach and physical style that helped secure an otherwise offensively-leaning defense corps – led by former Carolina Hurricanes defender Ryan Murphy. Sinn was most productive in a seven-game assignment to Germany’s minor-pro league, where he recorded four assists.
The 6-foot-2 defender rose through the ranks of Austrian hockey and made his debut in the country’s top league in 2023. He finished his first pro season with seven points in 30 games with EC Salzburg and captained Team Germany at the 2024 World Junior Championships – where he scored four points in five games. Sinn has since built a tendency for very little scoring in top pro leagues, but near point-per-game scoring in minor-pro leagues, through trips in Austria and Germany. Those tenures include no scoring in 12 games in the Champions Hockey League, but two points in three games of Germany’s Deutschland Cup.
Sinn will bring another big body and shutdown ability to the Sharks defense corps. He could have a hope at one day filling the hard-working, shutdown role filled by Mario Ferraro in his final months in the Sharks lineup. That dream will be far off, though, as Sinn enters his North American career behind prospect Leo Sahlin Wallenius on the depth chart and almost certainly headed for a second-pair role in the AHL.
Minor Transactions: Stevens, Newkirk, Fontaine, Jandric
John Stevens, a veteran of nearly 400 career AHL games, will depart Liiga’s Kiekko-Espoo after one season there, according to a team announcement on social media. Stevens signed with the club last summer, a move that appeared to end – or at the very least suspend – an AHL career spanning back to the 2016-17 season. Stevens won the Calder Cup with the Abbotsford Canucks in 2024-25, but didn’t get to play in their playoff run.
A former captain at the NCAA level for the Northeastern Huskies, Stevens developed into an impactful AHL scorer in Abbotsford. He was more of a bottom-six piece during the early portion of his AHL career in the New York Islanders organization with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, but a mid-season trade to the Canucks organization in 2020 helped spark a greater level of contributions. Stevens scored a career-high 19 goals and 43 points in 2021-22, and had a solid 35 points in 68 games as recently as 2023-24. For AHLers who have exceeded their status as “development players,” finding a way to stick in the league can be a challenge. Stevens’ 2024-25 season saw his production decline by 20 points, which appears to have spelled the end of his time in North America’s second-best league. His debut season overseas saw him score 10 goals and 23 points and wear an “A” for a Kiekko-Espoo side that reached the Liiga postseason.
Other minor transactions from across the hockey world:
- Another former Islanders prospect, Reece Newkirk, has elected to swap the North American minor leagues for Finland’s top division. Newkirk, 25, has signed a one-year contract with JYP Jyväskylä for the 2026-27 season. A 2019 fifth-rounder by the Islanders, Newkirk spent three seasons in their minor-league system serving as an AHL/ECHL bubble player. He developed into a point-per-game ECHL player for the Worcester Railers while serving in a depth capacity for Bridgeport. Newkirk exited the Islanders’ farm system in 2024 and has bounced around a bit, most recently settling with the Syracuse Crunch and their ECHL affiliate, the Orlando Solar Bears. Newkirk ranked No. 2 on the Solar Bears in scoring this past season with 51 points in 52 games, while also dressing in 15 games for the Crunch.
- Former New York Rangers prospect Gabriel Fontaine has signed a two-year contract with reigning German champions Eisbären Berlin, reports Jörg Lubrich of German outlet Bild. The 29-year-old was a 2016 sixth-round pick of the Rangers and spent a half-decade in the AHL (2017-2022) before heading overseas. Fontaine’s European career began in Liiga with Lukko Rauma, but he struggled in 2023-24 scoring just 13 points in 36 games. He transferred to Germany that summer, and ended up finding a home in Berlin, where he scored 19 goals and 40 points en route to a DEL title. He signed with Red Bull Munich last summer, but wasn’t able to repeat the success he had in Berlin, scoring just 21 points in 37 games. Now, Fontaine will return to Berlin and look to help their title defense.
- The Nürnberg Ice Tigers of the DEL announced the signing of ECHL champion Chris Jandric to a one-year contract. Jandric, 27, crossed the Atlantic and signed with the DEL’s ERC Ingolstadt last summer, and he ended up playing in just 28 games during the team’s regular season. Previously, Jandric had spent the entirety of his professional career split between the AHL and ECHL. A former top NCAA defenseman with North Dakota, Jandric developed into a legitimate No. 1 defenseman at the ECHL level, with his 50 points in 54 games helping lead Trois-Rivières Lions to a Kelly Cup title in 2025. He wasn’t able to bring that level of play over to the DEL with Ingolstadt, but he will hope that can change in Nürnberg.
Transaction Notes: Ritchie, Panocha, Dubinsky
Former NHL forward Brett Ritchie has signed a contract for the 2026-27 season with Vlci Zilina, a club in the Slovakian Extraliga. The 32-year-old is a veteran of nearly 400 NHL games, playing in the league from 2014-15 through 2022-23. Ritchie last appeared in the NHL with the Arizona Coyotes, arriving there in a mid-season trade from the Calgary Flames. It was in that deal that Ritchie was actually traded for his brother, Nick Ritchie.
Since playing out 2022-23 with the Coyotes, Ritchie has continued his professional career in Europe. As most veteran NHLers who elect to try their hand in Europe do, Ritchie began in one of the continent’s top leagues: the KHL. He signed with Dynamo Minsk, but played in just 14 total games and scored just three points. The following year, he signed in Slovakia, but ended up splitting 2024-25 between that league and the German DEL. This past season, Ritchie began the year in Austria before transferring to Sheffield in the British EIHL, where he scored 12 goals and 22 points in 24 games.
Other notes on player movement from around the hockey world:
- Buffalo Sabres prospect Norwin Panocha has changed clubs, signing with the DEL’s Iserlohn Roosters. The 6’2″ defenseman was a seventh-round pick by Buffalo at the 2023 draft, selected out of Eisbären Berlin’s junior ranks. Panocha spent 2023-24 and 2024-25 split between three North American junior leagues, namely the QMJHL, WHL, and USHL. He split this past season between the DEL with Berlin and second-division DEL2 on loan to Lausitzer Füchse. Per PuckPedia, the Sabres hold the exclusive rights to sign Panocha through June 1 of next year, but it appears unlikely at this stage that he’ll earn an entry-level deal.
- The Laval Rocket announced yesterday that defenseman Aiden Dubinsky has been signed to a one-year AHL contract for next season. Dubinsky was playing on a tryout deal with the Rocket before their season ended at the hands of the Toronto Marlies in the AHL playoffs. The Rocket signed Dubinsky, 22, out of the University of Wisconsin. He skated in 39 games for the Badgers this past season, scoring six points.