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Red Wings Recall Austin Watson, Assign Ville Husso

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Detroit Red Wings goaltender Ville Husso has officially cleared waivers, making him eligible to be assigned to the minor leagues. In a corresponding move, Detroit also recalled forward Austin Watson. Watson is expected to step into the lineup on Monday with forward Christian Fischer dealing with a day-to-day, upper-body injury.

Watson has built a name for himself as one of the league’s final true grinders. He recorded 307 penalty minutes in 175 games over the last three seasons, the seventh-most of any NHL forwards in that span. He climbed that leaderboard while filling a bottom-line role for the Ottawa Senators and Tampa Bay Lightning, with minimal scoring along the way – totaling just 31 points since 2021-22. Detroit marks Watson’s fourth NHL team, after starting his career by spending 10 years, 515 games, and 705 penalty minutes with the Nashville Predators.

While Watson tries to return to the role of NHL fourth-line grinder that he’s become used to, Husso will prepare for his first extended stint in the minors since the 2019-20 season. He’s been a full-time NHL goalie ever since – save for one conditioning game last year. Husso started in Detroit’s season opener this year but got pulled for Cam Talbot after allowing four goals on 14 shots. That was all it took to become the odd man out among Talbot and Alex Lyon. He won’t get any clearer of a path to minutes in Grand Rapids, where top Wings prospect Sebastian Cossa has continued to perform strong as the unrivaled starter. Cossa has managed a .913 save percentage in each of the last three seasons – coming in the WHL, ECHL, and AHL respectively – and started this season off with two strong games this weekend. Grand Rapids’ goaltending situation will be worth monitoring through the short term, as the Griffins try to decide between their top pro prospect and the priciest goalie on Detroit’s payroll.

East Notes: Tavares, Woll, Lindgren, Aston-Reese, Red Wings

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Toronto Maple Leafs centerman John Tavares continued to sit out of the team’s practices on Monday as he recovers from illness, shares TSN’s Mark Masters. Head coach Craig Berube said that Tavares is close to a return, but wasn’t quite fit enough for practice today. Tavares already missed Toronto’s Saturday win over the Pittsburgh Penguins, replaced in the lineup by Bobby McMann and Steven Lorentz.

Tavares is taking on a much different look this season, no longer donning the team’s ‘C’ and taking yet another hit in ice time. He’s averaged roughly 17 minutes through two games on the year, continuing his slip from 18 minutes in each of the last four seasons, and 19 minutes in his first two years with the Leafs. The 2009 first-overall pick is now 34 and entering the sunset years of his career, but that hasn’t meant a lack of scoring, as Tavares continues challenging point-per-game production with 29 goals and 65 points in 80 games last year. He’s now totaled 420 points in 442 games with Toronto, including a career-high 88 points in 2018-19, his first year with the club.

In addition to updates on Tavares, Masters also shared that goaltender Joseph Woll returned to the ice before the team’s formal practice, with Berube saying he could practice tomorrow. Toronto placed Woll on injured reserve with a lower-body injury on October 9th. This marks his first return to skating, and notable progress as he looks to return to the role of starting goalie. In the meantime, Dennis Hildeby and Anthony Stolarz will continue to hold down Toronto’s crease.

Other notes from out East:

  • New York Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren returned to full contact at the team’s Monday practice, shares Vince Mercogliano of USA Today Sports. Mercogliano points out that Lindgren isn’t eligible to return until Thursday because of his IR placement on October 7th. Head coach Peter Laviolette shared that Lindgren’s injury was suffered in a fight with Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield, hence his full visor today. Lindgren recorded 17 points in 76 games with the Rangers last season, providing much-needed defensive accumen to the team’s top-four. He’ll get a chance to return to those top minutes when he’s eligible to return on Thursday.
  • Columbus Blue Jackets centerman Zach Aston-Reese was spotted at the team’s practice, though not a part of line rushes shares Aaron Portzline of The Athletic. Aston-Reese exited the team’s Saturday game early following a high hit on his first shift of the game.  exiting the team’s Saturday game early, He’s gone without a point in two games with Columbus so far, though will certainly appreciate the chance to earn an NHL role after spending all of last season in the AHL, scoring 30 points in 61 games. Portzline points out that, should Aston-Reese sit, it will be Dylan Gambrell filling his role on the Columbus fourth-line.
  • Both forward Christian Fischer and defenseman Jeff Petry continue to sit out of Detroit’s practices with injury shares Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press. Both players are nursing upper-body, day-to-day ailments and are expected to miss Detroit’s Monday night game. St. James notes that their absence on Monday will allow Austin Watson to join the lineup. Albert Johansson will be the likely favorite for any vacant role on defense. Both Fischer and Petry figure to contribute depth roles when they’re able to return.

Red Wings Place Ville Husso On Waivers

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The Detroit Red Wings have placed goaltender Ville Husso on waivers for the purpose of a loan to the AHL, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Husso is in the final year of a three-year, $14.25MM contract signed with Detroit in the summer of 2022. His $4.75MM cap hit is tied for the eighth-highest in Detroit.

Detroit’s plan to carry three goaltenders has been clear since they signed Cam Talbot to a two-year, $5MM contract on July 1st. Talbot joined a room already rife with competition between Alex Lyon and Husso. Lyon has been the odd-man-out in the early going, standing as the only Wings goalie to not yet start a game. Husso wasn’t inspiring in the matchup he received, allowing four goals on 14 shots and getting pulled for Talbot. That weak performance seems to be the spark behind his waiving today, despite Husso’s .940 save percentage through three pre-season games suggesting some upside.

The Red Wings will now move forward with Cam Talbot as their clear-cut starter, rewarding his 54 saves on 56 shots (.964) through two games so far. Lyon will step up as the team’s backup just a few months removed from winning the starting role over Husso, recording 21 wins and a .904 in 44 games last season. Meanwhile, Husso’s path to ice time won’t become any clearer if he heads to the minor leagues, with Grand Rapids currently led by top prospect Sebastian Cossa. Cossa managed one win and 64 saves on 68 shots (.941) through Grand Rapids’ first two games of the season this weekend, and has posted a .913 save percentage in each of the last three seasons. Even pitted against the near-$5MM man that is Husso, it’d be hard to award starts to any other Griffins goalie – only increasing the excitement around Detroit’s crowded goalie room.

Red Wings’ Christian Fischer Out Day-To-Day

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The Detroit Red Wings have announced that forward Christian Fischer will miss the team’s Monday game as he’s day-to-day with an upper-body injury. He left Detroit’s Saturday matchup after the first shift of the second period, seeming staggered after a sandwiched hit from Nashville’s Jeremy Lauzon and Mark Jankowski. Fischer recorded one shot through six shifts prior to his exit. Head coach Derek Lalonde shared that the team is considering calling up a forward, though they may instead opt to run 11 forwards and seven defenders, per Ansar Khan of MLive.

Fischer has returned to his role as a go-to depth forward for the Red Wings, playing in 13:34 of ice time in Detroit’s first game. A pair of shot attempts and a -1 represent the only changes to his statline so far. Fischer recorded five goals and 19 points in 79 games from Detroit’s fourth line last year. That was enough to earn him another one-year deal in Detroit, though he’s still searching for the third-line role and hot production he earned through a seven years with the Coyotes. Fischer managed a career-high 15 goals and 33 points with Arizona in 2017-18, and rivaled that mark again with 13 goals and 27 points in 2022-23.

Fischer is a hard-nosed and effective depth forward, making his absence notable even in a minor role. Detroit doesn’t have an extra forward on the roster as it stands, though they’ll have their pick of hardened depth forwards, like Joe Snively or Sheldon Dries, or top prospects, like Nate Danielson and Marco Kasper, should they opt to call someone up from Grand Rapids. The Griffins kicked off their regular season this weekend, with Kasper, Carter Mazur, and Dominik Shine the only forwards to record a point through their first two games.

Riley Sheahan Announces Retirement

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Longtime Detroit Red Wings forward Riley Sheahan has announced his retirement from professional hockey, per an article from Bill Potrecz of BP Sports Niagara. Sheahan was a 2010 first-round pick and went on to play in 637 NHL games and 120 AHL games across a 12-year career, spanning six NHL franchises. Sheahan hasn’t played since the 2022-23 season when he left a middling role with the Buffalo Sabres and Rochester Americans for 12 games with EHC Biel-Bienne of Switzerland’s top league.

Sheahan’s was drafted after his freshman season at the University of Notre Dame, and played through his junior year before turning pro at the end of the 2011-12 season. His 66 points across 114 games with the Fighting Irish quickly translated to the pro flight, with Sheahan scoring 38 points across his first 79 games in the AHL. He was up to an NHL role by 2013-14, scoring 24 points in 42 games as a rookie – just enough to solidify an everyday spot on Detroit’s fourth line. The responsible and hard-nosed winger supported Detroit through the next four seasons before a 2017 trade sent him to Pittsburgh in a swap for Scott Wilson and draft picks. Sheahan’s role didn’t grow much in Pittsburgh, and he was flipped roughly one season later in Pittsburgh’s acquisition of Nick Bjugstad and Jared McCann from Florida. That second trade kicked off Sheahan’s journeyman tenure – as he’d go through moves north to Edmonton, east to Buffalo, and west to Seattle over the course of the next three seasons. He served as a depth forward everywhere he went, only surpassing the 25-point mark three times in his career – the 2014-15 (36), 2015-16 (25), and 2017-18 (32) seasons.

Sheahan struggled with injuries through his later career, landing on IR in 2019, 2021, and 2022. The final designation – a move to IR on October 7, 2022 – was the result of an undisclosed injury, and Sheahan would only play in eight more games in North American pros before his career came to a close. He’ll now hang up his skates having scored 194 points in the NHL and 61 in the AHL. Sheahan shared with Potrecz that he’s now supporting Sunday night development skates with the Niagara North Stars, and said he hasn’t closed off the idea of trying to grow his coaching role one day – though he emphasized that his wife and two young children will come first.

Brandsegg-Nygard Insisted On Being Sent To Swedish League Over AHL

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  • The Red Wings wanted to assign prospect Michael Brandsegg-Nygard to AHL Grand Rapids but the first rounder and his camp insisted on him being assigned back to Sweden, relays Norren’s Robin Lindgren (Twitter link). The 19-year-old spent last season with Mora in the second-tier Allsvenskan level where he had 18 points in 41 games but his rights are now held by SHL Skelleftea.  It’s believed that Brandsegg-Nygard feels that playing at the top level in Sweden will be better for his development than suiting up for the Griffins in the minors.

Red Wings Recall Justin Holl, Jeff Petry Out Day-To-Day

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Oct. 12: According to a team announcement, the Red Wings officially summoned Holl from AHL Grand Rapids this morning.

Oct. 11: The Detroit Red Wings are expected to recall defender Justin Holl from the minor leagues as Jeff Petry (upper-body) deals with a day-to-day injury, shares Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press. Petry left the team’s Thursday night game partway through the second period, though it wasn’t clear when he sustained the injury. He recorded one shot, one hit, and a -1 in nine minutes of ice time. At the least, he is expected to miss Detroit’s Saturday game.

This move gives Holl another chance at earning a role with the Red Wings after failing to make the team out of training camp. That resulted in Holl being placed on waivers and sent to the minor leagues for the first time since the 2017-18 season when he played an integral role on the Calder Cup Championship-winning Toronto Marlies. Holl used that season to spring into the NHL, grabbing onto the seventh-defender role for the Maple Leafs in 2018-19 and earning an everyday role in 2019-20.

He’d record 285 games across six seasons with the Leafs – recording 11 goals, 82 points, and 150 penalty minutes. That wasn’t enough to hang onto his spot amid Toronto’s blue-line flux last summer, leading Holl to sign a three-year, $10.2MM deal with the Red Wings in 2023. He worked into 38 games with Detroit last season, netting five assists and 22 penalty minutes but failing to score. That poor performance foreshadowed the 32-year-old’s downfall, and he now finds himself grappling for any NHL minutes just over a year after signing his multi-year deal.

This injury doesn’t guarantee Holl’s path to a role. Wings head coach Derek Lalonde adds that the team is considering utilizing seven defenders – including Albert Johansson – until Petry returns. Johansson managed 21 points in 66 AHL games last season while emerging as a capable defender with an effective reach on his side of the red line. He survived Detroit’s training camp cuts and would be making his NHL debut, should Lalonde choose to deploy him.

Red Wings Activate, Reassign Shai Buium

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  • The Detroit Red Wings are gaining some defensive depth with their AHL affiliate to start the year. The organization announced they activated defenseman Shai Buium from the season-opening injured reserve and assigned him to the Grand Rapids Griffins. Buium will begin his first season in professional hockey after signing his entry-level contract with the Red Wings at the end of last year’s NCAA season. He finished his collegiate career at the University of Denver with 14 goals and 75 points in 120 games with two National Championships.

    [SOURCE LINK]

Red Wings Sign, Waive Auston Watson

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Oct. 8, 1:13 p.m.: Watson cleared waivers today, per Friedman. He was on yesterday’s roster submission but has now been assigned to AHL Grand Rapids, per Ansar Khan of MLive.com.

Oct. 7, 1:14 p.m.: Detroit placed Watson on waivers Monday, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. Since he’s been signed and waived on the same day, he can be designated non-roster and not count against the cap for the Red Wings’ opening-night submission.

Oct. 7, 10:02 a.m.: Winger Austin Watson has converted on his professional tryout and signed a two-way deal with the Red Wings, per a team announcement. It’s a league-minimum $775K cap hit and NHL salary with a $200K AHL salary and $275K guarantee, per PuckPedia. As pointed out by The Athletic’s Max Bultman on Sunday, he’ll likely start the season on the NHL roster.

The Wings opened up a roster spot by cutting center prospect Marco Kasper to AHL Grand Rapids yesterday. Watson will need to clear waivers if Detroit wants to send the veteran enforcer to the minors at any point this season, but for now, all signs point to him starting as their 13th forward.

Watson, 32, has 515 games of NHL experience across 10 seasons. He suited up for the Lightning last year after another successful PTO but recorded just two goals and four points in 33 games with 93 PIMs and a +2 rating. The right-shot winger has displayed some offensive upside in flashes, recording 14 goals once during his time with the Predators and hitting the 10-goal mark again with the Senators in 2021-22. But he’s a fourth-line option at most, averaging 10 goals and 19 points per 82 games over his career.

But the 6’4″, 204-lb winger is still an effective physical presence. His possession metrics don’t indicate his heavy style of play translates into any positive impacts defensively at even strength, but he consistently ranks among his team’s hit leaders and has topped 100 PIMs in a season twice (2017-18, 2022-23).

Miscellaneous Transactions: 10/7/24

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Today marks the eve of the official start of the 2024-25 NHL regular season. All 32 teams are expected to finalize their 23-man rosters today and several transactions coming along with it. Some of these moves will be considered “paper transactions” so clubs can maximize their cap space for the regular season as most of these names will be involved in new transactions over the coming days. Here’s a look at some of today’s action:

  • Arthur Staple of The Athletic reports the New York Rangers have placed Jimmy Vesey on long-term injured reserve and Ryan Lindgren on injured reserve to start the season. In a major sway with their AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack, the Rangers have sent down Adam Edstrom, Matt Rempe, William Cuylle, Victor Mancini, and Brett Berard while recalling Jake Leschyshyn, Adam Sykora, Anton Blidh, and Ben Harpur.
  • The Pittsburgh Penguins reassigned promising defensive prospect, Harrison Brunicke, to the WHL’s Kamploop Blazers. Brunicke was the 44th overall pick of the 2024 NHL Draft and became a popular candidate to make the Penguins’ roster out of training camp. He scored 10 goals and 21 points in 49 games for the Blazers last season and will now look to extrapolate on that during his third year with the team.
  • Despite suiting up in three games for the Tampa Bay Lightning during the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs; defenseman Maxwell Crozier will not make the team out of camp. The organization announced they assigned Crozier to their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch, to start the 2024-25 NHL season. He tallied two assists in 13 regular season games for the Bolts last year.
  • The San Jose Sharks made their final four cuts from their training camp roster earlier today. The team announced they assigned defensemen Luca Cagnoni and Jack Thompson and forwards Ethan Cardwell and Collin Graf to their AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda.
  • The Ottawa Senators recently released their 23-man roster to start the year and with that came a few roster cuts. Graeme Nichols of The Hockey News reported the Senators reassigned Jan Jenik after passing through waivers and Zack Ostapchuk to their AHL affiliate, the Belleville Senators.
  • Unsurprisingly, the Buffalo Sabres sent Lukas Rousek and Kale Clague to their AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans, after the two cleared waivers earlier today. Rousek has been a rock-solid player for the Americans over the last two years with 26 goals and 97 points in 121 games.
  • To make space for their final 23-man roster, the Carolina Hurricanes made a series of roster moves. Walt Ruff, an employee for the organization, reported the Hurricanes sent down Josiah Slavin, Ty Smith, and Ryan Suzuki who all cleared waivers earlier today to their AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves. Forward prospect Jackson Blake has also been assigned to AHL Chicago but the Hurricanes are expected to make more moves before their regular season opener on Friday.
  • When the Colorado Avalanche announced their opening night roster for the 2024-25 campaign, they also announced a few transactions. The team reassigned Adam Scheel, T.J. Tynan, Nikolai Kovalenko, Ondrej Pavel, and Ivan Ivan to their AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles. Colorado only has 11 forwards currently listed on the roster so there is a reasonable assumption the team will bring one of the forwards back up to the NHL roster before their regular season opener.
  • Forward James Malatesta became the odd man out for the Columbus Blue Jackets as the team announced he was the final cut from the training camp roster. The quick forward will look to grow his game with the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters after scoring 12 goals and 22 points in 56 games for the team last year in addition to one goal and two points in nine postseason contests.
  • All five players placed on waivers by the Detroit Red Wings yesterday have cleared and been assigned to their AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins. The team announced defensemen Justin Holl, William Lagesson, and Brogan Rafferty were reassigned with forwards Joe Snively and Sheldon Dries.
  • The Los Angeles Kings have made their final training camp cuts as they announced their official opening night roster. Samuel Fagemo, Jack Studnicka, and Pheonix Copley have all been assigned to their AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign, after clearing waivers yesterday while forward prospect Koehn Ziemmer has been loaned to the WHL’s Prince George Cougars.
  • One surprising training camp cut came out of the St. Louis Blues preseason. The team announced Zachary Bolduc, Tyler Tucker, and Corey Schueneman had been assigned to their AHL affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds. The Blues front office brass may be looking for more offensive accomplishments from Bolduc before making him a full-time NHL player after only scoring eight goals and 25 points in 50 games in the AHL last year.

This page will be updated with additional transactions. 

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