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Minor Transactions: 01/01/24

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One of professional hockey’s marquee events takes place today, with the NHL’s Winter Classic taking place between the two most recent expansion franchises. In addition to that game, games in the CHL, ICEHL and EIHL have been played, as well as an exhibition contest between the U.S. National Team Development Program and the NCAA’s Minnesota Golden Gophers. As we begin 2024 in pro hockey, player movement is as active as ever. As always, we’ll keep track of notable transactions here.

  • Former Florida Panthers 31-goal scorer David Booth has found a team for 2023-24. He’s signed a contract with Eisbären Regensburg of DEL2, the second tier of German hockey. Booth, 39, spent last season with Storhamar in Norway’s Eliteserien, scoring 23 points in 17 regular-season games and 18 points in 17 postseason contests. He last played in the NHL in 2017-18 before moving to the KHL to play for Dinamo Minsk. Regensburg are dealing with a long-term injury to star forward Richard Diviš, who originally helped the team achieve promotion from the third-tier Oberliga to the DEL2. Booth has been brought in to cover for that loss, with the hope that he will help keep them in contention for promotion to the DEL.
  • Nick Jermain, a former captain of Quinnipiac University’s men’s hockey team, has signed a contract with Anglet of Ligue Magnus, the top league of pro hockey in France. The 27-year-old Connecticut native actually began his professional career overseas in 2020-21, skating in 15 games in England for the EIHL’s Coventry Blaze. He signed in the ECHL the following year and ended up scoring 31 points in 67 games playing for both the Maine Mariners and Fort Wayne Komets. He was re-signed for the following year by Maine but left mid-season after scoring just nine points, and he spent the rest of 2022-23 with HK Poprad in the Slovak league. This signing marks back-to-back years Jermain has left the ECHL for an overseas transfer mid-season, as this year he began the campaign with the Trois-Rivieres Lions but has now departed for France.
  • 24-year-old German forward Alexander Ehl has signed a one-year contract extension with the DEL’s Düsseldorfer EG, his current team. Ehl, who stands just five-foot-eight, has been a regular in the DEL since 2020-21, and worked his way into the league from the Oberliga. He’s been a consistent bottom-six forward for Düsseldorf in that span and is currently on pace for a career year with 17 points in 29 games.
  • A stable start to the year with Czechia’s HC Litvínov for reliable stay-at-home blueliner Kevin Czuczman has earned him a one-year contract extension. The former AHL alternate captain has played in 15 career NHL games but left North America in 2022-23 to sign with Ilves Tampere of the Finnish Liiga. He played in the Champions Hockey League and 31 league games for Ilves, and now appears to have found a home in the Czech league. In addition to Czuczman, Litvínov has also reached one-year extensions with Latvian import Kristaps Zile as well as veteran Nicolas Hlava.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 12/25/23

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With the holidays fully upon us, we have arrived at a short break on the pro hockey schedule. The only two games to appear on the schedule for today are in Kazakhstan’s professional league, with both HK Almaty and Kulager Petropavlovsk collecting victories today.

But although game action has understandably stopped today, there is still some activity in terms of player movement. As always, we’ll recap those moves here:

  • After playing 129 games in the ECHL across three seasons and four different teams, defenseman Elijah Vilio has elected to transfer overseas to the Dundee Stars of the EIHL. The 26-year-old began his professional career in 2021-22, signing with the ECHL’s Atlanta Gladiators after a standout stretch playing college hockey in British Columbia. He had a solid rookie year, scoring 30 points in 64 total games, but he was traded to Rapid City in March of that season and then traded once again before the month was over. Vilio began 2022-23 with the Norfolk Admirals but was eventually traded to the Savannah Ghost Pirates, who extended him for 2023-24. Vilio had six points in 10 games this season, but has not appeared in their lineup since December 2nd, and now will join a Dundee team in need of some assistance. Dundee head coach Mark LeFebvre said the team has “struggled to get pucks transitioned from our defensive zone to the neutral zone,” and is optimistic that the addition of Vilio will help the team in that area as they look to climb the EIHL standings.
  • Gregor MacLeod, currently a top-10 scorer in Germany’s DEL, has signed a two-year extension with his current club Kölner Haie. The 25-year-old former Drummondville Voltigeurs star began his pro career playing on AHL deals with the Grand Rapids Griffins but ultimately fizzled out there with both Grand Rapids and their ECHL affiliate the Toledo Walleye. In Summer 2021, MacLeod elected to try his luck overseas and signed with the Nürnberg Ice Tigers, a club he found instant success with. His 17 goals and 49 points in 56 games last season brought Nürnberg to the postseason, and his success there saw him get poached by Cologne, who inked him to a one-year deal. That signing has paid major dividends as MacLeod currently leads his team in scoring, so the two parties today elected to extend their business relationship by another two seasons.
  • After a solid 30-game start to his rookie Liiga campaign, Juuso Ketola has been signed to a one-year contract extension by his current club, HPK. The 23-year-old right-shot blueliner earned his shot in Liiga after scoring 41 points in 37 games in Finland’s second-tier Mestis last season. So far with HPK Ketola has shown no signs of slowing down, and his 15 points this season rank second on his team behind only Liiga veteran Teemu Rautiainen and former AHL All-Star Danick Martel. Ketola combines offensive ability with a physical edge, and his strong start in Liiga has earned him another season with HPK at the very least.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 12/08/23

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It’s a busy day around the world of sports, hockey included. Not only are sports fans everywhere likely captivated by the free agency of baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani, a process that is being diligently covered by our friends at MLB Trade Rumors, but there is also player movement activity across the many leagues of pro hockey to pay attention to. Trade rumors are flying around a few quality NHL defensemen, and the waiver wire is active as well. As always, we’ll keep track of notable player movement from minor and overseas leagues here.

  • Former Philadelphia Flyer Jackson Cates, the brother of Flyers center Noah Cates, has been released from his tryout agreement with the AHL’s Bridgeport Islanders. The 26-year-old University of Minnesota-Duluth product signed with the Flyers as a college free agent and ended up playing in 20 total games for the club across three seasons. He spent more time in the AHL with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, including a 65-game slate with the team last year in which he managed 23 points. The Flyers elected not to re-sign Cates for 2023-24, resulting in him latching on with the Islanders on tryout agreements. After 12 games in Bridgeport Cates has only managed one point, though, and that point came all the way back on October 14th. Now he’ll likely have to look for opportunities elsewhere to continue his professional career.
  • Former Moncton Wildcats captain Nicholas Welsh has transferred from Liiga’s JYP Jyväskylä to the Augsburg Panthers of the German DEL. The 26-year-old offensive defenseman is no stranger to the DEL. He played for the Nürnberg Ice Tigers from 2021 to 2023 before electing to sign in Liiga over the summer. His 22-game run with JYP did not go well, as he managed just three points in that span and saw his ice time decline sharply from the start of the year. He’s likely to find more success with Augsburg, who are in need of defensive reinforcements after an injury to veteran David Warsofsky. Welsh last played in North America in 2020-21, when he got into 17 games with the AHL’s Rochester Americans.
  • 28-year-old Adam Brodecki, a veteran of over 300 SHL games, has signed a short-term contract with the SHL’s Frölunda HC. Brodecki spent last season with Rytíři Kladno in the Czech Extraliga, scoring 20 points in 45 games, but lingered on the free agent market before signing a short-term deal with the Växjö Lakers, helping them as injury issues struck their forward corps. Now, Brodecki will get the chance to represent Frölunda as they are set to lose a few players to Sweden’s World Juniors squad.
  • Former WHL star Jaedon Descheneau has signed a one-year deal with the DEL’s Berlin Polar Bears, according to a team announcement. The five-foot-eight former St. Louis Blues prospect heads to Germany for a second tour of duty there, as he also spent 2018-19 as a top offensive player for Düsseldorfer EG. Although began his pro career in North America, Descheneau left the AHL/ECHL circuit after just one season. He bounced from California to Switzerland, then to Germany, then Sweden, then to Finland, and now is headed back to Germany. Along the way Descheneau has generally been a productive offensive player, although he has struggled with injuries and inconsistency over the last two years. With Berlin currently sat at the top of the DEL table, they add a talented scorer in Descheneau.
  • Former WHL champion Reece Harsch, a six-foot-four right-shot defenseman, has elected to leave the EIHL’s Fife Flyers in the midst of a second campaign there. The former Seattle Thunderbirds blueliner began his pro career in 2021-22, skating in five AHL games for the Abbotsford Canucks and seven ECHL games for the Toledo Walleye. The then-23-year-old would that summer depart for Scotland, where he would play in 50 games for the Flyers. Now, after 10 games this year with Fife, Harsch has decided to leave the club and potentially look elsewhere to continue his young professional career.
  • 2022 Seattle Kraken fourth-round pick Tyson Jugnauth has decided to leave the University of Wisconsin Badgers, the number-six team in men’s college hockey, in order to join the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks. The Winterhawks acquired Jugnauth’s WHL playing rights via trade earlier this week, trading four draft picks to be able to add the player. Jugnauth had seen his role decline as a sophomore after his 15-point freshman campaign, and for the team’s last game, he was listed as a seventh-defenseman. As an offensive player who prioritizes speed and puck-carrying ability, Jugnauth’s development would be best served by having stability in terms of role and who his defensive partner is. That’s not something he was finding at Wisconsin, so he’s elected to join the Winterhawks rather than remain with the Badgers.

Former Ducks Coach Dallas Eakins Signs As GM In Germany

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Former Anaheim Ducks head coach Dallas Eakins has signed a deal with Adler Mannheim of the DEL, Germany’s top league. Eakins will serve as general manager of the team and assist with coaching through the end of the 2023-24 season, before reassessing the position next off-season.

This is an interesting career move for Eakins, whose entire professional hockey career has come in North America up to this point. The 56-year-old head coach previously played 609 career AHL games, and 120 NHL games, as part of a career that spanned from his 10th-round selection in the 1985 NHL Draft to his retirement in 2004. Eakins was never particularly productive, recording 134 career AHL points and nine career NHL points. He also recorded 1051 penalty minutes in the AHL and 208 in the NHL.

Eakins took on an assistant coaching role with the Toronto Marlies for the 2005-06 season and was promoted to an assistant role with the Maple Leafs in the year after. After a couple of years behind the Leafs’ bench, Eakins went back to the AHL to serve as the Marlies’ head coach for four seasons. It wasn’t until the 2013-14 season that Eakins finally took on an NHL head coaching role, joining the Edmonton Oilers. He would lose the role to Todd Nelson partway through the proceeding 2014-15 season and returned for another four seasons in the AHL, before joining the Anaheim Ducks for the last four seasons. It’s been a back-and-forth career for Eakins. His best years came with the Toronto Marlies, who he took to the AHL’s Calder Cup Playoffs Finals in 2011-12. He hasn’t been apart of the Stanley Cup Playoffs since his playing career in 1999.

Eakins is replacing Jan-Axel Alavaara as Adler Mannheim’s general manager. Alavaara was in the role for the last five seasons, after spending a couple of years as an amateur scout with the Buffalo Sabres. Eakins also relieves head coach Johan Lundskog, who has coaching experience in the GMHL, ECHL, SHL, and National League. Lundskog was in his first year with Adler Mannheim.

Minor Transactions: 11/16/23

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NHL hockey is going international today as the Detroit Red Wings and Ottawa Senators are set to face off in Stockholm, Sweden. All 14 clubs in Sweden’s top professional league, the SHL, play today as well, meaning it’s a hectic day for hockey in the country. Elsewhere in Europe, potential top 2024 draft prospect Konsta Helenius’ Liiga side Jukurit is set to take on JYP, while the current DEL leaders Eisbaren Berlin are taking on the Augsburg Panthers.

Player movement across the hockey world in both minor and foreign leagues mirrors how busy the schedule is, and as always we’ll keep track of notable transactions here.

  • Lucas Lessio, a former NHLer who began what has been an extensive career in European hockey in 2016-17, has left his club HC Bolzano of the ICEHL to sign in the DEL2 with Krefeld Pinguine. Although Krefeld have had a decent 9-7-1 start to the season, they have made a significant add in Lessio. The 30-year-old former Arizona Coyote played for Krefeld for two years from 2020 to 2022, scoring 37 goals and 62 points in 93 games. He was with the club when they suffered relegation from the DEL, and now with this signing, he’ll have the chance to lead them back to the German top flight.
  • Jerome Flaake, a two-time DEL champion and a veteran of over 700 DEL games has been signed by Krefeld alongside Lessio. The 33-year-old Toronto Maple Leafs 2008 fifth-round pick was a star player for the now-defunct Hamburg Freezers, though he never quite reached the same heights again in the DEL. Last season, Flaake helped ERC Ingolstadt reach the DEL finals, and now after scoring just three points in 12 games for Augsburg, he’s headed down a division to help Krefeld with their promotion push.
  • Former Montreal Canadiens prospect Arvid Henrikson has signed with AIK of the Swedish second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan. The big six-foot-five blueliner has spent this season so far with Västerviks IK, playing a total of 16 games. Henrikson hadn’t received more than bottom-pairing minutes for the club since October and has not played at all in over a week. Now he’ll play with AIK, a club he once captained at the U-18 level. It’s a big step up in the standings for Henrikson, who moves from HockeyAllsvenskan’s 13th-ranked club to the team currently third in the standings and looking like a potential promotion candidate.
  • Former Providence College forward Bryan Lemos has decided to leave the EIHL’s Guildford Flames, citing homesickness, to return to the ECHL’s Indy Fuel, the club he played for in 2021-22 and 2022-23. Lemos only managed three points in nine games for Guildford, though he did conclude his time there with a goal in the team’s big 3-1 victory over the reigning champion Belfast Giants. Lemos has had success with the Fuel before, and has scored a total of 25 goals and 67 points in 92 games with the club.
  • Journeyman American blueliner Charlie Dodero has signed with the ICEHL’s HK Olimpija Ljubljana today, adding a sixth country to the list of places he has played in during his career. The former Sudbury Wolves alternate captain spent last season in France’s Ligue Magnus with the Rouen Dragons, helping the club capture a French title and the Champions Hockey League spot that comes alongside it. Before 2022-23, Dodero was a regular face in the Central European ICEHL with two Austrian clubs, the Vienna Capitals and Graz99ers. Dodero last played in North America in 2018-19 with the Idaho Steelheads and has 46 AHL games on his resume, all of them coming with the Syracuse Crunch. Now, Dodero will look to add some edge to their blueline in the Slovenian capital, looking to help a club that is at the moment just a few places ahead of his former ICEHL teams near the bottom of the league’s standings.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 11/07/23

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Today’s schedule is absolutely overflowing with hockey, including 10 games in the NHL. Highlights from the game’s highest level include matchups between the New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings as well as the New Jersey Devils and Colorado Avalanche, games that will be nationally televised in the United States. In addition, there is a 2021 Stanley Cup Final rematch on the docket, with head coach Martin St. Louis’ Montreal Canadiens taking on the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Although the schedule outside the NHL is quite a bit lighter today, overseas professional leagues have kept busy adding and subtracting players. As always, we’ll keep track of notable player movement here.

  • Ottawa Senators offseason signing Jiří Smejkal has been linked to a move back overseas, where he would play for IK Oskarshamn of the SHL. The report originates from TSN’s Shawn Simpson, who wrote that Smejkal “didn’t come over to play in the minors.” Smejkal, 27, signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Senators that carries an $82.5k AHL salary. There was some hope that Smejkal could make the NHL roster after scoring 23 goals and 43 points in 49 SHL games last season, but he only registered one point in five preseason games. The hope was that Smejkal’s size and ability to play physical could lend himself to a fourth-line role, but that hasn’t happened as he’s played exclusively at AHL Belleville. If Smejkal doesn’t view there to be a viable path to the NHL with Ottawa then it appears he could very well return to Oskarshamn, where he would not only be better lined up to represent Czecha at the IIHF World Championships, but could also potentially take home more money.
  • Former Edmonton Oilers netminder Mikko Koskinen won’t be extending his time with the Swiss National League’s HC Lugano beyond this season, according to a team announcement. The team has instead decided to bring in former Red Wings prospect Joren Van Pottelberghe on a three-year deal beginning next season. Van Pottelberghe was the starter for NL rival EHC Biel-Beinne from 2020-2022, but he has been relegated to backup duty due to the arrival of Harri Säteri. He’ll get another shot to be a starter with Lugano, while Koskinen will have to continue his career elsewhere. Since arriving in Switzerland from Edmonton, Koskinen has posted an .895 save percentage in 44 games for Lugano.
  • 2009 New York Rangers second-round pick Ethan Werek has signed with Slovakia’s HC Slovan Bratislava, a club in Slovakia’s capital. Werek, 32, split last season between the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star and Czechia’s Mountfield HK. He’s scored decently well in spurts in both the KHL and Czech Extraliga, and could end up a productive forward in the Slovak league. Werek also brings some international experience to Slovan, having represented China at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
  • A bit of a rare occurrence happened in European hockey yesterday, as a team in the Finnish Liiga and the Czech Extraliga made a “trade” of sorts. Liiga’s SaiPa reached a mutual contract termination with Jan Lukáš, while Czechia’s HK Mountfield did the same with netminder Henri Kiviaho. Then, Lukáš signed with Mountfield to replace Kiviaho while Kiviaho did the same at SaiPa. Lukáš, 30, is an experienced netminder who was a quality tandem goalie in the Extraliga last season, but struggled immensely to start the year for SaiPa. He moves to more favorable surroundings in his home country. Kiviaho is, like Lukáš, a veteran goalie with some Champions Hockey League experience. According to Mountfield’s announcement, Kiviaho had been (via his agent) pushing for a greater workload than the club was able to provide, so they’ve opted to transfer him to SaiPa instead.
  • Former NHL depth defenseman Cameron Schilling has agreed to a mutual contract termination with his club of the last two seasons, Djurgårdens IF. The 35-year-old one-time AHL All-Star has a total of 10 NHL games on his resume, though he left North America midway through 2021-22 to sign in Djurgården. The club had an immediate need for reinforcements at the time as they were trending towards relegation, a fate they did eventually suffer. Schilling played a minutes-eating role for the team last season as they fell just short of promotion back to the SHL, and now he won’t be with the team as they look to make the jump this year.
  • Philadelphia Flyers fans might remember Russian forward Roman Lyubimov from the 2016-17 season, when he played in 47 games for the club, registering eight points. Lyubimov returned to the KHL after that season, the league where he would remain a regular forward until now. After a season where he posted just three points in 43 games for Spartak Moscow, Lyubimov has left the KHL and signed in France’s Ligue Magnus, with Grenoble. Grenoble is looking to re-claim the French league title and Champions Hockey League spot from Rouen, so they’ve added a forward with experience in two of the world’s top leagues in order to do so.
  • Former college hockey star Julian Napravnik is rumored to be headed for the DEL via a report from Germany, specifically with the league’s Frankfurt Lions in mind. The 26-year-old German forward was a two-time First-Team Conference All-Star at Minnesota State Mankato, and his 49 points in 40 games helped the team reach the NCAA Men’s Hockey National Championship game. Since that point, Napravnik has struggled to get on he ice and has played in a total of 22 career AHL games, scoring a total of seven points. A move to Germany might be better suited for him, though it may come as a bit of a disappointment that he couldn’t make more of a push towards consideration for an NHL contract.
  • Justin Allen, the former captain of NCAA Division-III Utica College, has been traded from the ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals to the Allen Americans in exchange for future considerations. Allen, 26, signed with the Admirals at the conclusion of his NCAA career and made an instant impact, registering seven assists in 10 games. As the Admirals this season have taken on quite a few NHL prospects, such as 2019 third-round pick Domenick Fensore, he’s been squeezed out of a spot in the ECHL this season, and hasn’t been able to skate in a game yet this season. He’ll get a better chance to do so in Allen, a team in dire need of defensive reinforcements as they currently average over five goals against per game.
  • Canadian netminder Cody Porter has signed with HockeyAllsvenskan’s Västerviks IK, according to a team announcement. The 26-year-old former Calgary Hitmen starter has had a bit of a winding hockey journey. He suited up for five different teams in his first professional season in 2018-19, playing for clubs from everywhere including Huntsville, Alabama and Elmira, New York. He then transferred to Poland, before spending 2021-22 as the backup goalie for IPK in Finland’s Mestis, their second division. Last season, Porter played the highest-level hockey of his career, skating in five total games in Liiga. He’ll get a chance now to compete for starts with Västerviks, a club whose incumbent goalies have each posted unconvincing performances so far this season.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Tyler Ennis Signs In Germany

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Although 700-game NHL veteran Tyler Ennis was linked to a return to the North American pro circuit after a season spent in Switzerland, a true NHL opportunity never materialized for the 34-year-old forward.

Now, rather than try his luck in North America, Ennis has decided to play another season in Europe. Per a team announcement, Ennis has signed a one-year contract with Adler Mannheim of the German DEL. In Mannheim, Ennis will join with other former NHLers such as Jyrki Jokipakka, Tom Kühnhackl, and Linden Vey.

Having just turned 34 years old, it’s not unreasonable to think Ennis may have merited a chance to compete for an NHL job in training camp and preseason. He had a strong first full season in Europe, scoring 13 goals and 33 points for SC Bern in the Swiss National League.

Ennis has three 20-goal NHL seasons on his resume, although he struggled to the tune of just 24 points in 57 games in his most recent NHL campaign.

Instead of the NHL, Ennis joins a Mannheim team currently sitting second in the DEL standings with a 9-2-1 record. But although the club has had a stellar start, they rank outside the league’s top five in terms of goals scored, so perhaps that motivated club management to add some external offensive reinforcement.

That’s exactly what Ennis is capable of providing. While he’s likely disappointed to not receive the NHL shot he was linked to in September, he has a chance to spend this season as a genuine star forward for one of the best teams in German hockey.

Minor Transactions: 10/18/23

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The Champions Hockey League is entering its final day of the regular season, with five remaining games on the slate. This includes a bout between Oceláři Třinec and the Aalborg Pirates where Oceláři will be looking to solidify their spot in the CHL postseason; currently sitting one win away from a spot in the Top 16. If Oceláři can’t leave with a win, the Belfast Giants may be in place to leapfrog them with a win over Dynamo Pardubice. Belfast sits a win back from Oceláři in the standings, on the fringe of the playoffs.

The transaction wire is staying lively in light of such exciting hockey going on around the world. And as always, we’ll track those moves here.

  • 26-year-old centerman Colt Conrad has signed with the Fischtown Pinguins of the DEL, Germany’s top league. Conrad has spent part of the last five seasons in the minor leagues, recording 42 ECHL games and 115 AHL games in that span. The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Conrad out of Western Michigan University in 2019.
  • The Laval Rockets have signed goaltender Joe Vrbetic to a one-year, two-way AHL contract. Vrbetic played in four games with Laval last season, recording a .871 save percentage and 2-1-0 record. The bulk of his year was spent with Trois-Rivieres of the ECHL, where he played 28 games and recorded a .896 save percentage. The 2022-23 season was Vrbetic’s first year of professional hockey, after three years of supporting the North Bay Battalion in the OHL.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 10/05/23

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With the start of the NHL regular season now under a week away, the opening-night rosters of many NHL teams are coming more and more into view. That has a trickle-down effect for the rest of pro hockey, as a player finding out he won’t have his PTO made into a full-time NHL deal could prompt that player to sign a contract with an overseas team, for example. This, alongside the ups and downs of early-season hockey in top pro leagues overseas, has prompted quite a bit of player movement and as always we’ll keep track of those transactions here.

  • Seven years after he was selected fifth overall at the 2016 NHL draft, former Vancouver Canucks defenseman Olli Juolevi has made the decision to return to Europe to continue his professional career. The 25-year-old Helsinki native has signed a short-term contract with the SHL’s Timrå IK, a club off to a strong 4-2 start. The deal is set to last until Liiga’s November break. Juolevi had previously been playing for the Arizona Coyotes on a PTO but failed to earn a full-time contract in Arizona after a few preseason contests. Last season was Juolevi’s first since the year he made his NHL debut that he didn’t skate in a single game at the NHL level, and he ultimately played in 38 games for the San Diego Gulls, scoring 14 points.
  • 2022 Arizona Coyotes second-round pick Julian Lutz has made an interesting move for his development, leaving defending DEL champions EHC Red Bull München in order to play USHL hockey for the Green Bay Gamblers. It’s a somewhat unusual move, as traditionally players move from developmental leagues into top professional leagues, not the other way around. But this move is somewhat understandable for Lutz, who has been buried in a depth role on a stacked Munich team. Going to Green Bay will allow the six-foot-two, 185-pound winger to play against his peers, and will give him the opportunity to have a monster season and put up the kind of box score numbers his resume currently sorely lacks.
  • Former WHL and AHL star Brendan Ranford has signed a one-year contract with HC Slovan Bratislava, the club he previously represented for the 2020-21 season. Since leaving the AHL for Europe in late 2018, Ranford has become an impactful, top-line scorer in three different European leagues. He’s spent the last two seasons in the DEL, posting 95 points across 95 total games. Slovan are likely signing Ranford with the hope of adding an elite scorer, which is what Ranford was when he last played in Slovakia, as he scored 12 goals and 32 points in just 29 games. The historic club based in Slovakia’s capital have gotten off to a slow 2-3-1 start in this 2023-24 Tipos Extraliga season, so perhaps this move will give the club the spark it needs to resume its place among the country’s elite clubs.
  • The ECHL’s Idaho Steelheads have signed two forwards just at the start of their pro careers: Nick Nardella and Daniel Hardie. Nardella, 24, signed an ATO with the Cincinnati Cyclones last season at the conclusion of his NCAA career with Michigan Tech. He ended up scoring one assist in four games in Cincinnati before he moved to the Iowa Heartlanders, where he impressed scoring three goals in three games. Now, he’ll head to Idaho alongside Hardie, who hasn’t yet made his pro debut but was once the leading scorer of a QMJHL team, the 2018-19 Charlottetown Islanders.
  • Former College hockey star Trevor Mingoia, once an NCAA Champion with Providence College, has had his contract with Liiga’s Kärpät terminated by mutual agreement. This wasn’t the winger’s first go-around in the top division of Finnish hockey, although Mingoia’s time with KooKoo Kouvola from 2019-2021 was notably more successful. Mingoia spent two seasons with KooKoo and scored a total of 27 goals and 64 points in 73 games. Kärpät were likely optimistic they would get that kind of form out of Mingoia after he starred for two seasons in the DEL with the Wolfsburg Grizzlys, helping them to the DEL semifinals last season, but it wasn’t to be and now both parties will look elsewhere moving forward.
  • Veteran Swedish forward Robin Alvarez has decided to test himself playing in Finland for the first time in his career, signing a one-year contract with Ilves Tampere of Liiga. The 36-year-old veteran has exclusively played in his native Sweden so far in his career and has logged over 700 career games combined between the SHL and HockeyAllsvenskan levels. Alvarez brings extensive Champions Hockey League experience to Ilves, having played a total of 31 games in the prestigious European tournament. Ilves currently sit fourth in the Liiga table and are looking to gain ground on their neighbors Tappara Tampere, the defending Liiga and Champions Hockey League winners.
  • Defenseman Teemu Suhonen, once a star blueliner for Jukurit Mikkeli in both its Liiga and Mestis days, has signed a one-month contract with a rival Liiga club: Vaasan Sport. The undersized 34-year-old defenseman spent last season with Liiga’s JYP, scoring 15 points in 46 games. Sport said in its announcement of the deal that the club needed to act quickly to respond to an injury to defenseman Carl-Johan Lerby, and their signing of Suhonen should help the team survive Lerby’s absence.
  • Slovakia’s HK Nitra have agreed on an early contract termination with forward Patrick Bajkov, a key summer signing of the club. Nitra were likely hoping that Bajkov’s prolific scoring at the ECHL level (he managed 69 points in 71 games for the Reading Royals in 2021-22) would translate to the top level of Slovak pro hockey. That hasn’t happened, though, and Bajkov will now conclude his tenure with Nitra at six games, a run where he failed to register a point and found himself tagged with a minus-seven plus-minus rating. Bajkov last played for Nitra in their October 1st contest, but skated under 2:30 of total ice time as the club fell by a 9-3 score. As Nitra seek a reboot after a catastrophic start to the season, it’s been agreed upon by both parties that ending Bajkov’s contract is the best path forward for each side, especially seeing as a replacement for Bajkov, Stephen Harper, was brought in a few days ago.
  • The so far undefeated Cardiff Devils have made an addition to their forward corps, signing power forward Brandon Alderson to an EIHL contract. The six-foot-three, 194-pound veteran has been a point-per-game scorer in the OHL, ECHL, DEL2, and Slovak league, and is coming off of an exceptional campaign playing third-division pro hockey in Germany. Alderson scored a whopping 37 goals and 79 points for the Hannover Scorpions, and Cardiff are likely hoping that his track record of high-scoring numbers can translate to the top division of pro hockey in the United Kingdom.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 10/02/23

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

It’s another busy day around the world of hockey, with activity both on the schedule and on the transaction wire. The highlight of today’s slate of games overseas was a contest between SKA St. Petersburg and HK Sochi in the KHL. Top NHL prospect Matvei Michkov’s three-point performance lifted Sochi over St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg is the club that owns Michkov’s KHL rights, and Michkov may have had extra motivation to put together a strong performance as St. Petersburg opened the season with Michkov as a healthy scratch before loaning him back to Sochi.

Beyond just games, today featured quite a few moves in top European leagues as well. As always, we’ll keep track of them here.

  • 2010 13th overall pick Brandon Gormley has found a team for 2023-24. According to an official announcement, he’s signed a one-year contract with the Iserlohn Roosters of the DEL. Gormley heads to Germany to reinforce the blueline of a Roosters team that has struggled early on in this DEL campaign. They have currently surrendered the most goals in the DEL through six games of league play, so the hope will be that Gormley can translate his extensive experience in top European leagues into defensive stops for the Roosters.
  • The SHL’s IK Oskarshamn have struggled mightily at the start of this SHL campaign, so the club has responded to its injuries and underperformance by agreeing to a short-term contract with veteran forward Olli Palola. Palola, 35, is a highly experienced name in European hockey, having represented his country at two IIHF Men’s World Championships. He’s led the Finnish Liiga in goals before and is a former Liiga All-Star, so perhaps his addition will serve as a spark that will help improve the club’s form. Palola split last season between the SHL’s Timra IK and HIFK Helsinki, scoring a total of 13 points in 35 games.
  • After spending a season playing in Italy, Shawn McBride has made the decision to return to the North American pro circuit. He’s signed a one-year ECHL contract with the Idaho Steelheads, the club he spent 2021-22 with. McBride floundered in pro hockey until arriving in Idaho, where he would score 12 goals and 35 points in 69 games. That solid showing earned him a contract in the AlpsHL with the Broncos in Italy, and scored 16 goals and 36 points in 36 games there, and now he’s back in the ECHL for another go-around with the Steelheads.
  • Veteran defenseman Anton Mylläri has signed a contract containing a three-month trial period with the Lahti Pelicans, the club he played for last season. 2022-23 was Mylläri’s first full season in Liiga, and he acquitted himself well, helping the Pelicans reach the league finals where they would ultimately fall to Tappara Tampere. Mylläri was a top-four defenseman for the Pelicans last season, averaging 18:00 time on ice per game, and now will get a chance to resume that role for a Pelicans team that has got off to a slow start in 2023-24.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

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