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Minor Transactions: 09/14/23

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The 2023-24 NHL season is coming into clearer view as each day passes, and today marks the start of the NHL Prospect Tournament in Traverse City, Michigan. Tomorrow, the Tom Kurvers Prospect Showcase begins, and can’t-miss prospect Connor Bedard was on the ice today preparing, already showcasing his impressive skills.

Overseas, today marks opening night for two major European leagues. The SHL kicks off today with seven games set to be played, highlighted by a battle between 2022 champions Färjestad BK and 2023 champions Växjö Lakers. In Germany, the DEL begins play today with defending champions EHC Red Bull München against Düsseldorfer EG.

With the hockey season finally re-starting in many places across the world, there is still some player movement as teams look to make some late additions to their lineup for the season. As always, we’ll keep track of notable transactions here.

  • Former Minnesota Wild prospect and point-per-game ECHL scorer Shawn Boudrias has decided to head overseas to continue his professional career. The 24-year-old 2018 sixth-round pick signed with Kalmar HC, a club in HockeyAllsvenskan, the second tier of Swedish hockey. Kalmar has the chance to add some serious firepower to their roster with this signing, as Boudrias scored 33 goals and 65 points for the Fort Wayne Komets in the ECHL last season. Although he faltered in the playoffs, Boudrias has put together a total of 106 points in 125 career games in the ECHL, and will now take his talents to Sweden.
  • The ECHL’s Kalamazoo Wings have signed bruising winger Nico Blachman to a one-year contract. Blachman, 25, is a six-foot-two winger who spent time with three ECHL teams last season. He was at his best in the final stop of his campaign, an 18-game run with the Norfolk Admirals. There, the Florida native scored eight points and racked up a whopping 131 penalty minutes. He’ll bring energy and physicality to Kalamazoo, who are hoping to spark a return to the postseason having not qualified for the playoffs since 2018-19.
  • Swiss forward Marc Marchon has played a big role for National League side EHC Kloten for the past few seasons now. He was with the club as they were relegated from the NL to the second-tier SL in 2017-18, and then spent four seasons playing second-division hockey with the team in an effort to push their promotion back to the NHL. Marchon’s 62 points in just 45 games powered Kloten to promotion in 2021-22, and his 22 points in 44 games (as well as leadership as the club’s captain) last season helped the club earn survival in the National League for another season. Now, it appears 2023-24 will be the end of Marchon’s current tenure in Kloten. The 28-year-old forward has signed a three-year contract with NL rivals SC Bern, a deal that contains an option for a fourth year. Marchon will play this season alongside Montreal Canadiens top prospect David Reinbacher (assuming Reinbacher doesn’t make the Canadiens out of training camp) before heading to Bern for 2024-25.
  • Responding to an injury to club captain David Warsofsky, the DEL’s Augsburg Panthers have signed well-traveled defenseman Otso Rantakari to a contract. Rantakari, 29, was a quality blueliner for HIFK Helsinki in Liiga last season, leading their defensemen in scoring with 29 points in 53 games. Rantakari has been a regular in some of Europe’s top leagues for a while, ever since his 2014-15 campaign where he won Liiga’s Rookie of the Year award. Rantakari won a Liiga title with Tappara Tampere in 2016-17 and his high-level experience in many top leagues and the Champions Hockey League will certainly assist Augsburg in the absence of Warsofsky.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 08/30/23

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Welcome to another edition of minor transactions as we dive into the lesser-known player movements, signings, and deals that might not make the front page but are nevertheless crucial in shaping the dynamics of the hockey world in Europe and crucial NHL feeder leagues. As the 2023-24 season approaches (for some teams as early as this week), teams are still fine-tuning their rosters and adding talent. Here’s a running list of minor moves for August 30, 2023:

  • Former Florida Panthers and Philadelphia Flyers center Corban Knight remains overseas as he signed a one-year contract with SC Bern in the Swiss National League, per a team announcement. This will be Knight’s first season in Switzerland – he’d spent the last four years in the KHL with Barys Nur-Sultan and Avangard Omsk. He hasn’t played in the NHL since he appeared in 23 games with the Flyers in 2018-19. Since moving overseas, the 32-year-old has been one of the most consistent top-six centers in the KHL, earning a spot on Team Canada at the 2022 Winter Olympics and recording 162 points in 222 games throughout his time in Kazakhstan and Russia.
  • After a lengthy career spanning 16 seasons in the DEL, four-time league champion Frank Mauer has announced his retirement at the age of 35. The right winger spent most of his career in Mannheim and Munich before spending his final season with Eisbären Berlin, scoring six goals and adding 11 assists for 17 points in 51 games. A rather consistent top-six scorer for years in his home country, Mauer was also on the German team that captured the silver medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics, during which he recorded a goal and three assists in six games.
  • The ECHL’s Toledo Walleye have agreed to terms on a one-year contract with forward Orrin Centazzo, per a team release. Centazzo, 23, is undersized at 5-foot-8 and 163 pounds but has packed quite a scoring punch since turning pro in 2021. Spending the last two seasons with the ECHL’s Newfoundland Growlers, he’s been among the league’s top scorers with 49 goals and 97 points in 90 games. He spent last season under AHL contract with Newfounudland’s parent club, the Toronto Marlies, where he recorded an assist in 15 games. He was loaned to the Growlers for the majority of the season.

This page will be updated throughout the day.

Minor Transactions: 08/05/23

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While there hasn’t been much activity on the transactions front around the NHL in recent days, there continues to be activity at other levels.  Here’s a rundown of some of the recent activity around the hockey world:

  • Defenseman Tommy Cross announced his retirement, his AHL team in Springfield announced (Twitter link). The 33-year-old was limited to just 18 games last season due to injury.  Cross, a former Boston prospect, hangs up his skates with nearly 600 appearances in the AHL while also getting into a total of four NHL contests, including one playoff game.
  • Former NHL center Roman Cervenka has inked a one-year extension with Rapperswil-Jona in Switzerland, per a team release. The 37-year-old had 17 points in 39 games with Calgary a decade ago but opted to return to playing overseas the following season.  Cervenka led the NL in scoring in 2022-23, notching 16 goals and 43 assists in just 43 contests.
  • Former Coyotes prospect Alexander Ruuttu is on the move as Krefeld in Germany announced that they’ve signed the forward to a one-year contract. Ruuttu was a second-round pick by Arizona back in 2011 (51st overall) but never signed an NHL deal.  Instead, he has spent the majority of his career in Finland and had six goals and two assists with Assat in the top division last season.

This post will be updated throughout the day.

Minor Transactions: 08/03/23

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It’ll likely be another busy day for player movement around the world of pro hockey as many clubs are still looking to secure quality players for next season. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable moves made in those minor and foreign leagues.

  • Star AHL scorer Riley Barber is headed overseas for the first time in his pro career. The 29-year-old has signed a one-year deal with Barys Astana in the KHL, and heads to Kazakhstan after an extremely productive 2022-23 campaign. Barber scored 32 goals and 64 points last season, leading the AHL’s Texas Stars in scoring. Barber has hovered around the point-per-game mark in terms of scoring almost every season since his 55-point rookie campaign in 2015-16, but he didn’t get into any NHL games last season. Now he’ll join other former AHLers in Jeremy Bracco, Eddie Pasquale, and Pontus Åberg in the Kazakh capital.
  • 2017 Carolina Hurricanes second-round pick Luke Martin has signed a contract with Liiga’s HIFK Helsinki, according to a team announcement. Martin spent four seasons playing college hockey at the University of Michigan after he was drafted before beginning his pro career in earnest in 2021-22. He spent most of the year in the ECHL with the Utah Grizzlies, scoring 43 points in 59 games and earning ECHL All-Rookie team honors. This past season Martin was an ECHL All-Star scoring 25 points in 25 games with the Jacksonville Icemen, a scoring pace that earned him a 28-game run in the AHL with the Colorado Eagles from January through March. Now 24, Martin will join HIFK looking to play a heavy dose of minutes in one of Europe’s best leagues likely with the hope that a strong performance there will earn him a look from an NHL club.
  • HIFK have also signed former St. Louis Blues defenseman Petteri Lindbohm, adding another experienced name to their blueline. The 29-year-old is receiving a three-year contract to play in the Finnish capital, a deal that is commensurate with his status as a high-quality defenseman in European leagues. Lindbohm has 49 NHL games on his resume and won a gold medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics and 2019 IIHF Men’s World Championships. Lindbohm spent last season with Frölunda HC in the SHL, scoring 14 points in 58 games while averaging over 20 minutes of ice time per night. He’ll likely be a minutes-eating defenseman at HIFK as well, and he could be a major help to their efforts to go to return to Liiga’s semifinals next season or potentially beyond if things break right.
  • Former Florida Panthers prospect Max Gildon has signed a one-year contract in the DEL with Adler Mannheim. The 24-year-old was the 66th overall pick at the 2017 draft, selected out of the U.S. National Team Development Program. He spent three seasons playing college hockey with the University of New Hampshire, culminating in a 2019-20 campaign that saw him post an impressive 29 points in 34 games. Gildon got off to a fast start to his pro career scoring 19 points in 32 games with the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors, on a loan from the Panthers. That got him named to the AHL’s All-Rookie team for 2020-21, but he wouldn’t be able to build on that momentum and push for an NHL call-up. Injuries wiped out pretty much the entirety of Gildon’s sophomore AHL campaign and this past season he managed just 14 points in 47 games split between Bakersfield and the Charlotte Checkers. He was not issued a qualifying offer from Florida and will now try his luck with one of the DEL’s better teams rather than continue in North America.
  • After helping his native Latvia make history winning a bronze medal at the IIHF Men’s World Championships a few months ago, former Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Mārtiņš Dzierkals has signed with Skellefteå AIK in the SHL. Dzierkals spent the last two seasons playing in Czechia for HC HC Plzeň in 2021-22 (30 points, 49 games) and HC Motor České Budějovice in 2022-23. (21 points, 52 games) Dzierkals last played in North America in 2017-18, when he scored 15 goals and 36 points in 51 games for the ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears. He then left for Dynamo Riga, then playing in the KHL, and was a nominee for the league’s rookie of the year award scoring 13 points in 42 games. Now 26 with some significant international experience under his belt (he also represented Latvia at the 2022 Winter Olympics and three other IIHF Men’s World Championships) he’ll join the SHL finalists looking to help Skellefteå go on another deep playoff run and achieve the kind of glory Latvia won earlier this summer.
  • Former Western Michigan University captain Nolan LaPorte has signed with Ferencvárosi TC of Hungary’s Erste Liga. The 31-year-old will arrive in Budapest after splitting 2022-23 between the EIHL’s Glasgow Clan and Slovakia’s HK Spisska Nova Ves. LaPorte was a key player during his time in Scotland, amassing 41 goals and 92 points in 104 games there, helping Glasgow reach the playoffs in 2021-22. LaPorte has also been a solid contributor at the ECHL level, where he has a career-high of 44 points in a single season. Ferencvárosi are looking for a player who can get them over the hump after back-to-back losses in the league finals, and the hope is likely that LaPorte can be that sort of player.
  • It’s been a quick fall from grace for former New York Islanders defense prospect Bode Wilde, who’s now signed a one-year deal with HC Banska Bystrica in Slovakia’s Extraliga. The 2018 second-round pick once looked to be on track to make a major NHL impact after he recorded 70 points in 62 games with the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit in 2018-19, but he never found his footing in the Islanders organization professionally and spent all of last season on assignment with the ECHL’s Atlanta Gladiators, where he recorded just 14 points in 56 games. The Islanders did not issue him a qualifying offer after his entry-level contract expired this summer, making him an unrestricted free agent. He heads to a Banska Bystrica team that’s fallen on tougher days after winning three straight Extraliga championships in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

This page will be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 08/01/23

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As the calendar turns to August, more and more clubs across the hockey world are putting the finishing touches on the roster they’ll bring into their training camps for next season. Most major European pro leagues begin in early to mid-September, including Liiga, the DEL, the Swiss NL, and the SHL. Liiga preseason actually begins on Friday, meaning we’re quickly reaching the point when the 2023-24 season truly begins overseas. As always, we’ll keep track of notable player movement in minor and foreign leagues here.

  • 27-year-old defenseman Bobby Nardella has found success pretty much everywhere he’s played over the last decade, from being a star USHLer to a second-team All-American at Notre Dame to now a Calder Cup Champion in the AHL in just his fourth season of pro hockey. But despite his strong play in the AHL regular season with the Hershey Bears, the undersized left-shot blueliner hasn’t yet earned his first NHL game, and now he’s guaranteed that he won’t receive that chance at least until 2024-25. Nardella signed a one-year contract with HV71 in the SHL. Nardella heads to Jönköping with 47 games of SHL experience already under his belt, as he played there on loan during the COVID-19-impacted 2020-21 campaign. He led Djurgårdens IF in scoring with 33 points in 47 games and will likely be a key player next year for HV71.
  • Like Nardella, Sami Lepistö played a key role as a defenseman during a Hershey Bears Calder Cup championship, scoring 42 points in 70 games during the team’s championship season in 2008-09. Unlike Nardella, Lepistö played in 14 career NHL games by the end of that season and the following season he broke into the NHL full-time with the Coyotes. Lepistö would ultimately play in 176 NHL games before embarking on a long and extremely successful career in Europe that would see him win two Olympic medals and be named to three consecutive KHL All-Star games. Today, Lepistö, 38, announced his retirement due to medical considerations, ending his storied career that saw him last play for the SCL Tigers in the Swiss NL, where he helped the club avoid relegation.
  • A stunning goal from 32-year-old defenseman Miks Indrašis sent the home crowd in Riga into a frenzy earlier this summer, lifting Latvia to an upset victory over heavily-favored Sweden in the quarterfinals of the IIHF Men’s World Championships, one of the biggest wins in the history of Latvian hockey. Now, Indrašis is headed to the country he upset to continue his pro career. He’s signed a one-year contract with Brynäs IF in HockeyAllsvenskan, the second tier of Swedish hockey. Indrašis is a lanky six-foot-four blueliner who scored 29 points in 53 games for the DEL’s Schwenningen Wild Wings and is likely to play a regular role for Brynäs during what will be his first campaign playing in Scandinavia.
  • 2007 Nashville Predators second-round pick and former ECHL Kelly Cup Playoffs MVP Jeremy Smith has signed a three-year contract extension to remain with the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star through his age-36 season.  The American netminder has played for Kunlun since 2019-20 and is the franchise’s all-time leader in wins and saves. Smith represented China at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and is coming off of a strong bounce-back season as Kunlun’s number-one goalie, posting an impressive .914 save percentage despite a grisly 10-24-2 overall record.
  • Veteran DEL defenseman Jonas Müller, a regular representative of Germany in IIHF play, has signed an early four-year contract extension to remain with his club Eisbären Berlin. Although Berlin endured a difficult 2022-23 season, Müller ended his campaign on a highly positive note as he played a role in Germany taking home a silver medal at the 2023 IIHF Men’s World Championships. Müller also has a silver medal from the 2018 Winter Olympics and despite being just 27 years old already has over 400 DEL games on his resume and two league championships. Müller averaged the most nightly minutes of any Berlin player and this contract ensures he’ll be the team’s defensive centerpiece moving forward.
  • Former Montreal Canadiens prospect Martin Réway finished his 2022-23 campaign on a high note, scoring 12 points in 13 playoff games for Slovakia’s HK Spisska Nova Ves. Per a social media announcement from the club, Réway has signed a contract for next season with HK 32 Liptovský Mikuláš. Réway, 28, was a 2013 fourth-round pick who starred in the QMJHL but only managed five games playing in the AHL for the Canadiens’ affiliate. Réway’s last few years have been among the most productive in his career and this signing with Liptovský Mikuláš will potentially help the club avoid relegation to the second tier of Slovak hockey.

This page may be updated throughout the day.

Michael Dal Colle Signs In Germany

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Former New York Islanders forward Michael Dal Colle is extending his stay overseas by signing a one-year deal with the DEL’s Iserlohn Roosters, per an announcement from the German club. The 2014 fifth-overall pick has not suited up in the NHL since a lone appearance with the Islanders in 2021-22.

To say Dal Colle’s career has stagnated since his draft year would be an understatement. He never stuck in the NHL full time, spending most of his pro tenure with the Islanders organization with their AHL affiliate in Bridgeport. The team cut ties with their former top prospect in the summer of 2022, letting him become a UFA by not issuing him a qualifying offer. With no other NHL offers, Dal Colle signed in Finland with Liiga club TPS, where he registered just four goals in 36 games. However, he did add a respectable 15 assists for 19 points in total.

Still, it’s far below expectations for Dal Colle, who now seems destined to play out the remainder of his pro career in Europe. The 27-year-old winger totaled just 112 NHL appearances for the Islanders across five seasons, scoring eight goals and 13 assists for 21 points. It wasn’t a case of strong minors production not translating to the pros, either. He only had one standout year in the AHL, recording 18 goals and 34 points in 34 games for Bridgeport in 2018-19, but otherwise posted rather pedestrian point totals representative of a middle-six AHL forward.

In Iserlohn, Dal Colle joins a team stuck in the throes of DEL mediocrity – never good enough to advance deep in the postseason nor bad enough to get relegated to the DEL2, Germany’s second-tier pro league. In fact, the current iteration of the Roosters has never been demoted from the DEL since their inception in 2000-01, but they’ve yet to advance past the quarterfinals in the DEL’s postseason. Iserlohn has also missed the playoffs entirely in each of the past two seasons.

Dal Colle will look to regain some scoring confidence in Germany, while Iserlohn will bank on the former top-five pick producing well for them in an extended role. He joins former Tampa Bay Lightning defense prospect Ben Thomas and former Chicago Blackhawks forward Drew LeBlanc as players with NHL experience on Iserlohn’s roster.

Minor Transactions: 07/24/23

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It’s another busy Monday in the wide world of professional hockey, with quite a few players either finding new teams for next season or securing new contracts with the clubs they’ve already represented. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable moves from minor leagues and foreign professional leagues across the world.

  • 1001-game NHL veteran Tomáš Plekanec isn’t retiring anytime soon. The 40-year-old longtime NHL center signed a contract extension to remain the captain of Rytíři Kladno, his hometown team in the Czech Extraliga. Plekanec ended his NHL career in 2018-19 and after two seasons playing for Brno, he joined Kladno upon their promotion back to the top division. Joining all-time great Jaromir Jagr with the club, Plekanec has scored at almost a point-per-game rate the last two seasons and will likely continue to play a major role for the team in the coming campaign thanks to this new contract.
  • Luke Adam, a former Buffalo Sabres top prospect, has elected to leave Germany after a seven-year run in the DEL to sign with HC Plzen in the Czech Extraliga. The 33-year-old was a Sabres second-round pick at the 2008 draft and a few seasons after he was drafted he looked to be a long-term piece for Buffalo. In 2011, The Hockey Writers projected him as “a formidable 3rd line center for the Sabres for many years down the road,” and it’s easy to see why they did so by looking at Adam’s rookie season in pro hockey. He scored 29 goals and 62 points in 57 AHL games, winning the AHL’s Rookie of the Year award as well as AHL All-Star honors. But Adam’s standout qualities in the AHL never translated to the NHL, and he left for the DEL in the summer of 2016. Adam has a strong 233 points in 317 career DEL games and scored 17 goals and 36 points in 54 games for the Straubing Tigers last season. While the Tigers have made some major additions this summer, such as veteran NHL defenseman Justin Braun, they’ll be without Adam next season.
  • Former Winnipeg Jets prospect Scott Kosmachuk has signed a one-year, one-way KHL contract with Lada Togliatti in Russia. The player, who has eight NHL games on his record from 2015-16, is a 29-year-old 2012 third-round pick who played last season with TPS Turku in the Finnish Liiga, scoring 17 points in 29 games. Before arriving in Turku, Kosmachuk had a two-year run as the leading scorer for VSV EC in the ICEHL, racking up 93 points in 90 games and earning All-Star honors. If he can translate some of the production he’s had in Liiga, the ICEHL, and even the AHL going back to his 2017-18 campaign with the Hartford Wolf Pack, he’ll be a quality addition to Lada.
  • Lada added a second international import today: 2013 Pittsburgh Penguins draft pick Troy Josephs. The 29-year-old has been around a point-per-game scorer with both the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers and Swiss second-tier’s EHC Visp. Though he struggled in the AHL, which presents a step up in talent level compared to the ECHL, Joseph more recently established himself in Switzerland’s top division with Lugano, posting 49 points in 86 games and proving he can hang in one of the world’s better pro leagues.
  • James Shearer, a former captain of the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings and WHL champion, has made the decision to leave the ECHL after his first full season in the league to sign a contract in the United Kingdom with the EIHL’s Coventry Blaze. While Shearer is far from the first player to head to the EIHL after his ECHL rookie season, the move is somewhat surprising given the role Shearer played for the Utah Grizzlies as a rookie. In addition to posting 23 points in 54 games, the 26-year-old blueliner was, as Blaze head coach Danny Stewart put it, “eating up good minutes in playoffs and relied upon in key situations,” and also serving as a team alternate captain. The Grizzlies added defenseman Brian Yoon, the captain of the NCAA’s Colorado College, a few days ago, though, which may have prompted Shearer’s exit.
  • Former Dallas Stars prospect Emil Molin signed a one-year contract extension with KooKoo Kouvola in the Finnish Liiga, securing a second season with the club he joined last July. The 30-year-old winger had a decent debut season in Liiga, scoring 11 goals and 25 points. Those numbers are more in line with how Molin produced in his earlier days with Brynas IF, his former club, rather than his form later in his tenure there. Molin has one season of hockey in North America on his record, with 11 games total in the AHL and a 46-points-in-54-games run with the ECHL’s Idaho Steelheads.
  • 2015 Philadelphia Flyers fourth-round pick Samuel Dove-McFalls is headed to Germany, signing a contract with Lausitzer Füchse of the DEL2. Dove-McFalls was a high-end QMJHLer earlier in his career, winning a league championship with the Saint John Sea Dogs in 2016-17 and captaining the Rimouski Oceanic the year after. Dove-McFalls also was named the QMJHL’s Best Defensive Forward in his final season of major junior before beginning a four-year run of Canadian University hockey. The 26-year-old scored 13 goals and 34 points in 38 games for the ECHL’s Fort Wayne Komets and earned 16 AHL games with the Bakersfield Condors in what was his first full season as a professional hockey player. He’ll now join a team looking for promotion to the DEL and will likely play a major role at the club.

Minor Transactions: 07/21/23

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Although it’s generally a slow period for player movement in the NHL as teams hone in on arbitration cases, that isn’t the case for clubs in minor and overseas professional leagues. Just as the Maple Leafs begin an arbitration hearing with netminder Ilya Samsonov (no pre-arbitration agreement could be reached, according to The Hockey News’ David Alter) teams in quite a few leagues across the world, including the German DEL in particular, have been active making moves. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable ones here.

  • 2014 fifth-overall pick Michael Dal Colle is nearing a contract with the DEL’s Iserlohn Roosters, according to a report from Eishockey News in Germany. Dal Colle, 27, is a former top prospect who began his European pro career last season with TPS Turku in the Finnish Liiga. Dal Colle wasn’t horrible, but he only managed four goals and a total of 19 points in 36 games for Turku, and has now ended his association with the club at one year. The former AHL All-Star now heads to the Roosters, who finished the 2022-23 campaign 13th in the DEL standings.
  • Another forward with some NHL games on his resume rumored to be nearing a contract in the DEL is Joseph Cramarossa, a former Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild player. Cramarossa split last season between the Wild organization and Adler Mannheim in the DEL. He played with the Wild in both Iowa and Minnesota until he was placed on unconditional waivers so he could join Mannheim. After scoring eight points in 15 regular-season games and just one point in seven postseason games, Cramarossa has made the choice to continue in the DEL and join the Frankfurt Lions, a mid-table team from last season.
  • 2011 12th overall pick Ryan Murphy has signed a contract with EHC Red Bull Salzburg of the Central European ICEHL, according to a team announcement. This signing confirms Murphy will spend a second year playing in Europe since he last played in North America. Murphy, a 30-year-old defenseman, spent last season with Ufa Salavat Yulayev in the KHL, scoring 17 points in 43 games and earning the right to play in the KHL All-Star Game. Murphy was the 2020-21 AHL Defenseman of the Year and brings a stellar resume (including 175 games of NHL experience) to Austria and the defending ICEHL champions.
  • 25-year-old former NCAA winger Kohen Olischefski began this season with the hope of establishing himself in the AHL and earning a full-time spot with the Rochester Americans. While he finished the year playing postseason games for the Amerks, Olischefski spent most of the season in the ECHL with the Cincinnati Cyclones. Olischefski could only manage two goals in 16 AHL games and scored 26 points in 43 ECHL games. Now, the versatile forward has signed a contract with Dusseldorf EG in the DEL, choosing to continue his pro career overseas after his rookie campaign in North America.
  • EHC Red Bull Munich, the defending DEL Champions, have signed former Detroit Red Wing Adam Almquist. The move replaces former AHL and DEL Defenseman of the Year Zach Redmond, who agreed to a mutual contract termination after a season spent playing a significant role on Munich’s blueline. The 32-year-old Almquist last played in North America in 2013-14, scoring 53 points in 73 games for the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins and earning two games with the Red Wings. He scored his first (and only, to this date) NHL goal that season, before moving on to have a strong pro career in Europe with stops in Sweden, Switzerland, Belarus, and Russia.
  • Alexandre Grenier, a former quality prospect in the Vancouver Canucks system, has signed with the Cologne Sharks in the DEL. The 31-year-old 2011 90th overall pick is a two-time AHL All-Star who last played in North America in 2018-19 with his hometown Laval Rocket. He’s had a successful run overseas since then, including a season with Langnau in Switzerland that saw him post 48 points in 47 games. Grenier is no stranger to the DEL, either, and has 84 points in 99 career games in Germany’s top league.
  • Elias Rosén, cousin of Buffalo Sabres first-rounder Isak Rosén, has signed with the Vaxjo Lakers in the SHL, the defending Swedish champions. Rosen wrapped up a four-year collegiate career with Bemidji State University last season and made his pro debut on an ATO with the ECHL’s Kansas City Mavericks. The five-foot-ten left-shot defenseman was an accomplished player in college, earning First-Team All-Star honors in his conference for three consecutive years, including his 2020-21 campaign that saw him named conference Defensive Player of the Year. He acquitted himself well in a limited sample size of games with Kansas City, scoring nine points in 14 games, and has now earned a shot to establish himself with a top team in one of the best leagues outside the NHL.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 07/19/23

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NHL teams have been hard at work in advance of upcoming arbitration cases, looking to find the sort of common ground on new contracts that leads to signings and avoids the arbitration process. Just as those top teams have been working to sign players for next season (the Vegas Golden Knights worked especially hard today, signing two players) professional hockey clubs around the world are also signing players and tweaking the teams they’ll bring into the next campaign. Here, we’ll keep track of notable moves that are made.

  • The Coachella Valley Firebirds, the AHL affiliate of the Seattle Kraken, have re-signed forward Ian McKinnon for the 2023-24 campaign. Although the Firebirds as a team ended the season heartbroken (they lost the Calder Cup championship in overtime of Game Seven at home) McKinnon personally had his strongest season as a professional. The six-foot-two bruiser only scored three points, to be sure, but he played in a career-high 36 AHL games and didn’t play a single game in the ECHL for the first time in his pro career. Now, he’s earned another year with the Firebirds where he’ll add some muscle to the bottom of their lineup and be a contender to rack up triple-digit penalty minutes once again.
  • Hayden Verbeek, a former Montreal Canadiens prospect and the nephew of Anaheim Ducks GM Pat Verbeek, has signed with the Crimmitschau Ice Pirates of Germany’s second-tier DEL2. Verbeek, 25, was a top-six forward for the Soo Greyhounds late in his OHL career and has become quite the journeyman recently. He has 26 points in 31 career ECHL games for three different teams and has also skated in AHL games for both the Laval Rocket and Grand Rapids Griffins. He spent last season in the Slovak league, where he scored 33 points in 44 games for HK Spisska Nova Ves. A capable all-around player, Verbeek led the Slovak league in short-handed goals and now moves to Germany to make a push for promotion to the DEL.
  • Although former San Jose Sharks prospect Marcus Vela played a helpful role in getting MoDo Hockey Ornskoldsvik promoted to the SHL in the spring, he won’t be joining the club for their return season in Sweden’s top league. Although Vela’s contract was automatically extended when the team defeated Djurgarden and won promotion, the player and club mutually agreed on a contract termination. 2022-23 was the 26-year-old Canadian’s first campaign overseas, and he played well across two HockeyAllsvenskan teams, totaling 29 points in 46 games. He could now opt to return to the ECHL, where he has in the past been productive for the Toledo Walleye, or could continue playing overseas.
  • 29-year-old minor league netminder Adam Carlson is retiring from playing the game, according to an announcement from his club, the ECHL’s Rapid City Rush. Carlson is leaving to take up goalie coaching roles in his home state of Minnesota, and ends his career having played nearly 200 games in the ECHL and eight in the AHL. Carlson was a member of the Rush organization for a combined four years, four of the strongest of his professional career. Carlson’s best year came in 2018-19, when he played in 45 games and posted a .916 save percentage, and he has started for other clubs including the Hershey Bears and Manitoba Moose.
  • Former ECHL All-Star Jalen Smereck has signed a contract extension to remain with the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones. Smereck is coming off of an exceptional two-season run playing in both Germany and Cincinnati. He scored 34 points in 46 games for the Bietigheim Steelers in the DEL in 2021-22, and without him this season the Steelers won just 14 games out of 56 and were relegated to the DEL2. This past season, Smereck scored 50 points in 53 games, the highest points-per-game scoring rate of any ECHL defenseman playing on a full-time basis. An elite defenseman in the ECHL, Smereck will now play a second season in Cincinnati and hope to earn an AHL call-up.
  • Nolan Volcan, the former captain of the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds, is beginning his professional career after three seasons at the University of Alberta. He’s signed an ECHL deal with the Fort Wayne Komets. The five-foot-nine 25-year-old forward scored 58 points in 76 games in Alberta and tallied 231 points in 321 WHL games. Volcan won a WHL championship with the Thunderbirds and now joins an ECHL club hoping to make some noise in the playoffs after a first-round exit last year.
  • The ECHL’s Maine Mariners have poached one of the league’s top young scorers from the Wheeling Nailers: Brooklyn Kalmikov. A QMJHL champion in 2020-21, the 22-year-old finished his junior career by scoring 34 goals and 72 points in 62 games. He turned pro this past season and skated in 66 games for the Nailers. He ranked second on the team in scoring, potting 23 goals and 52 points. Kalmikov even earned an AHL call-up to the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins, and though he went scoreless in three games he’ll likely get another chance if he can produce as well in Maine as he did in West Virginia.
  • Former Detroit Red Wing Jan Mursak signed with Klagenfurt in the ICEHL, according to a team announcement. The 2006 sixth-round pick was just the second Slovenian-born player to skate in the NHL (behind Los Angeles Kings captain Anze Kopitar) and ended up playing 45 games for the Red Wings across three seasons. Mursak was at one point Slovenia’s captain for international competitions, including the 2018 Winter Olympics, and has spent the last three seasons with Frolunda in the SHL. Now, he heads to Austria hoping to help Klagenfurt return to the Champions Hockey League and top of the ICEHL.
  • 2018-19 ECHL First-Team All-Star Matt Petgrave and 185-game Liiga veteran Niklas Nevalainen have both re-signed with their club of last season, the EIHL’s Sheffield Steelers. Petgrave excelled in his first season in England, scoring 48 points in 54 games and showcasing all-situations value on the powerplay and penalty kill. Although he only managed two points in four playoff games, he’ll likely be among the Steelers’ top scorers next season. Nevalainen, 30, is a former everyday defenseman in the top league of his native Finland, though he hasn’t played there since 2020-21. He spent 2021-22 playing in Norway and now seems to have found a home in England, where he scored 23 points last season.

Minor Transactions: 7/17/23

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

As we inch closer and closer to the dog days of the NHL calendar, many teams across the globe are also putting the finishing touches on finalizing their roster for the upcoming season. More and more teams from the minor leagues in North America, as well as the professional leagues overseas, continue to add to their respective rosters, and we will cover that all here.

  • A five-year veteran of the Bakersfield Condors will be making a move to the DEL in Germany, as forward Luke Esposito will be joining the Augsburger Panther for the 2023-24 season. Esposito originally joined the Grand Rapids Griffins after a standout senior season with Harvard University, but then became a regular in the lineup for the Edmonton Oilers’ AHL affiliate only a season later. Now 29 years old, although a return to the AHL is certainly possible in the future, Esposito will end with 35 goals and 81 assists in 320 games for the time being.
  • Also joining Esposito in a move to the DEL will be forward Cole Fonstad previously of the Cleveland Monsters, an AHL affiliate of the Columbus Blue Jackets. For the upcoming season, Fonstad will suit up for the Straubing Tigers. Former captain of the WHL’s Everett Silvertips, Fonstad put together a couple of productive seasons in the AHL. Rostered on the Monsters for three years, Fonstad scored 24 goals and 26 assists in 117 games.
  • Bringing back one of their best players from their run to a Calder Cup trophy in 2023, the AHL’s Hershey Bears have announced a one-year contract with defenseman Logan Day. In his first season with the Bears, Day had a mild scoring year, posting a career-low in points during the regular season with 12. However, during the 2023 Calder Cup playoffs, Day became a defenseman that the team leaned upon for their entire run. In 19 playoff games, Day scored three goals and 11 assists, finishing second on the team in scoring, and second in the AHL by all defenders.

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