Morning Notes: Lysell, Quinn, Cumiskey
Michael Derosa of The Hockey News is reporting that one of the Boston Bruins top forward prospects could miss significant time with an injury. 21-year-old Fabian Lysell suffered an apparent upper-body injury on March 23rd after he fell into the boards in a game against the Charlotte Checkers. The 2021 first-round pick has spent the season in the AHL with the Providence Bruins and has heated up recently registering seven assists in his last five games.
Lysell is in his second season of professional hockey and has posted 15 goals and 35 assists in 56 games this year with Providence. The timing of Lysell’s injury is particularly unfortunate as he was making a case for a call-up with his solid numbers this season.
In other morning notes:
- Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News is reporting that Sabres forward Jack Quinn joined the team this morning to take part in practice as a full participant. Quinn had surgery on January 29th for a lower-body injury and was expected to miss eight weeks. The 22-year-old hasn’t played since January 27th and has five goals and seven assists in 17 games this season for the Sabres. The Cobden, Ontario native was expected to take a big step this season but has dealt with multiple injury issues in what has turned into a lost season for him and the Sabres. Buffalo has 10 games remaining this season and currently sits six points behind the Washington Capitals who for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Capitals have 12 games left on the schedule. Quinn did not comment on when he will dress for a game, but based on reports from practice it could happen sooner than later.
- Former Colorado Avalanche defenseman Kyle Cumiskey has reportedly signed a two-year extension with Düsseldorfer EG to continue his career in the DEL. The 37-year-old played 139 career NHL games over parts of six seasons with the Avalanche and Chicago Blackhawks and has spent the last four seasons in Germany. The Abbotsford, British Columbia native last saw action in North America during the 2019-20 season when he was a member of the AHL’s Binghamton Devils.
Afternoon Notes: Global Series, Athanasiou, Foote
The NHL has announced their Global Series matchups for the 2024-25 season, with the Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils slated to face off in Prague, Czechia on October 4th and 5th, and the Florida Panthers and Dallas Stars set to play in Tampere, Finland on November 1st and 2nd.
The games will mark homecomings for players on all sides, headlined by Florida star Aleksander Barkov‘s return to his hometown of Tampere. He grew up through Tampere’s youth hockey program, playing for the Tappara Tampere (often shortened to just ‘Tappara’) at every level from U16 in to his professional debut in the Liiga. Barkov’s father, who shares the same name, ranks fifth in Tappara’s all-time scoring, with 416 points in 517 Liiga games. He also coached for the program, though he never oversaw his son. Top Stars scorer Roope Hintz was born in Nokia, Finland – just outside of Tampere. He and Barkov are two of the eight Finns between the Florida and Dallas lineups. When asked about visiting home, Barkov said, “It’s more than a dream come true because you don’t even dream about this… This will probably be one of the best days in my life.”
Meanwhile, New Jersey Devils winger Ondrej Palat will be able to stay at his house in Prague while the team visits. Palat grew up playing in Vitkovice, just a few hours outside of Prague, and told NHL.com that he’s excited to play in front of friends and family. Fellow Devil Tomas Nosek grew up much closer to Prague, in Pardubice. The pair are the only two Czechs on New Jersey’s roster, with recent recall Lukas Rousek being the only one on Buffalo’s roster. However, the two teams do have plenty of other talents from Central Europe – including Germans Nico Daws (NJD) and John-Jason Peterka (BUF), Swiss skaters Nico Hischier, Jonas Siegenthaler, and Timo Meier (NJD), and Slovakia’s Simon Nemec.
Other notes from around the league:
- Andreas Athanasiou is expected to make his return from injury on Tuesday night, when the Chicago Blackhawks take on the Anaheim Ducks. Athanasiou has been out for the last four months with a groin injury, playing just 11 games this season. He’ll re-enter the lineup still searching for his first goal on the year, recording just four assists prior to his injury. Athanasiou has proven to be an effective winger in Chicago, scoring 20 goals and 40 points in 81 games last season.
- The New Jersey Devils have formally activated Nolan Foote off of non-roster injured reserve. He’s been working his way back from an upper-body injury suffered during the pre-season that’s since delayed his season debut. Foote was primarily a minor-leaguer last season, scoring 20 goals and 37 points in 55 games with the AHL’s Utica Comets. He’s also managed five goals and seven points in 19 career NHL games, dating back to his debut in 2020-21.
Minor Transactions: 02/09/24
As the NHL trade deadline approaches, transfer activity continues overseas as many of the major European leagues are approaching the end of their regular seasons. A handful of former NHL-affiliated players have been on the move recently, so it’s a good time to check in on where some familiar faces are suiting up overseas:
- Former Red Wings netminder Jared Coreau has played for various European teams since departing the North American circuit in 2020. The 32-year-old was one of the best netminders in the Slovak Extraliga last season, but his numbers have cratered this year with a .889 SV% and 7-13-0 record in 20 games for HC Slovan Bratislava. That’s led him to transfer to the Swedish second-tier league, HockeyAllsvenskan, to join Brynäs IF as they attempt to regain promotion to the SHL. Brynäs holds the top spot in the league after being relegated from the SHL last season – the first time they dropped out of the SHL in 63 years. Coreau will run in tandem with Ducks prospect Damian Clara as they aim to close the deal over the coming weeks.
- One-time Panthers defense prospect Ben Finkelstein abruptly announced his retirement today, ending his four-year pro career. The 26-year-old was a seventh-round pick in the 2016 draft out of high school, but a four-year collegiate stint split between St. Lawrence University and Boston College didn’t yield him an entry-level contract after graduating in 2020. He played two seasons in the ECHL, leading all blue-liners in points with 62 in just 36 games in the 2021-22 campaign, before heading overseas that summer. He was under contract with the DEL’s Eisbären Berlin, where he had 15 assists and a -6 rating in 37 games before sustaining an injury.
This page may be updated throughout the day.
Minor Transactions: 01/01/24
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.