Minor Transactions: 09/22/23
It’s another busy day across the world of pro hockey, both in North America where NHL training camps are fully underway and in Europe, where the top pro leagues are fully into their regular season. Today’s slate of games featured some major contests, highlighted by an upset 5-2 win by Cologne on the road against the reigning DEL champions, Munich. Over in Finland, former University of Vermont star netminder Stefanos Lekkas enjoyed a stellar start to his Liiga career, guiding KalPa Kuopio to a shutout victory over Lukko Rauma.
The action happening on the ice all around the world of hockey is mirrored by the action on the transaction wire. As always, we’ll keep track of notable moves here.
- Former Calgary Flames prospect Jack Beck, who did not sign an entry-level first with the Flames before the team’s exclusive rights expired June 1st, has been traded in the OHL. The Soo Greyhounds have acquired Beck, 20, for a 2026 second-round pick and 2027 third-round pick in the OHL Priority Selection. Beck was a sixth-round pick of the Flames at the 2021 draft, selected there despite the OHL not holding a 2020-21 campaign. Beck scored 12 goals and 53 points for the Ottawa 67’s last season, and scored 12 points in 11 playoff games.
- Longtime South Carolina Stingrays defenseman Andrew Cherniwchan announced his retirement from pro hockey today. Cherniwchan has the third-most games played all-time for the Stingrays, and served as their captain for three seasons. He’s a one-time ECHL All-Star who has quite a few long playoff runs to remember in South Carolina, and although Cherniwchan did not end up making it to the NHL he does have nearly 200 AHL games on his resume.
- 2018 Philadelphia Flyers sixth-round pick Gavin Hain has found a landing spot to turn pro, signing a one-year ECHL deal with the Iowa Heartlanders. The former USNTDP pivot has spent the last half-decade with the University of North Dakota. He took a real step forward in his senior year, scoring a career-high 11 goals and 18 points in 36 games. The number-one pick of the 2016 USHL Futures Draft will have a chance to establish himself in pro hockey with a Heartlanders franchise still looking for its first-ever winning season.
- Former Edmonton Oilers prospect Filip Berglund extended his contract with the SHL’s Örebro Hockey for three additional seasons. The 26-year-old rearguard was the 91st overall pick at the 2016 draft by the Oilers, selected after a strong draft season that saw him post 41 points in 43 games at the J20 level for Skellefteå AIK. He led Swedish junior hockey in scoring by a blueliner, and went on to play as an SHL regular for a half-decade. In 2020, Berglund signed an entry-level deal with the Oilers and spent the second year of the deal, 2021-22, in the AHL. He skated in 53 games for the Bakersfield Condors and helped them reach the playoffs, but didn’t register a goal and only totaled six regular-season points. He returned to Sweden for 2022-23, joining Örebro, where he’ll now remain for a few more years after helping the team on a deep SHL playoff run in his debut campaign.
- Colorado Avalanche fans may recognize the name of Sami Aittokallio, a netminder who appeared in two games for the club and was a fourth-round pick of the team in 2010. Since leaving the North American pro circuit for the 2015-16 campaign, Aittokallio has had a solid career overseas, and today he found a team to suit up for, at least for the next two weeks. Liiga’s JYP has signed him to a two-week contract, set to last for the duration of an injury suffered by incumbent starter Veini Vehviläinen. Aittokallio spent the last two years playing in Germany, posting a stellar .923 save percentage for the Bietigheim Steelers, who were at the time a newly promoted DEL club. But last season, Aittokallio went 5-20-0 as Bietigheim were relegated to DEL2, a circumstance that may have contributed to the fact that he’s now signing a short-term deal rather than a full-time job to play as a starting goalie.
- Former Nizhny Novgorod Torpedo captain Anton Shenfeld has signed a one-year contract with the KHL’s Chinese club, Kunlun Red Star. Shenfeld is coming off a difficult 2022-23 season, one where he scored just three points in 28 games playing in Siberia for Sibir Novosibirsk. He was once a quality top-six forward for both Novgorod and Tolyatti Lada, and the hope for the Red Star is likely that he’ll find a way to recapture some of that form.
- Sergei Boikov, a former Colorado Avalanche defensive prospect, has signed a two-year KHL contract with HC Avangard Omsk. The club acquired his sporting rights from Dynamo Moscow in exchange for monetary compensation. Boikov has been a regular on Moscow’s blueline for the last three seasons, skating in a total of 123 games for the club. He hasn’t scored very much (he has just 17 career KHL points) but offers decent size, physicality, and some championship experience. (Boikov won the ECHL’s Kelly Cup with the Colorado Eagles in 2017)
- Alexander Karachun has established himself as a quality DEL scorer over the past two years with the Schwenninger Wild Wings, totaling 25 points in 37 games last season. The club has announced that Karachun has extended his contract through 2025 with the team, meaning he’ll be able to help in the Wild Wings’ fight to keep its place in the DEL through 2025. Karachun wasn’t always a success in the DEL, and he struggled to put points on the board earlier in his career with the Wolfsburg Grizzlies. But an above-point-per-game season in the DEL2 launched him back into the DEL, and he hasn’t looked back, helping the Wild Wings stave off relegation for the past two seasons.
This page may be updated throughout the day.
Minor Transactions: 09/21/23
As NHL training camps officially open, the professional hockey season is finally getting started in North America. While there’s still a way to go before the regular season begins in the NHL, AHL, or ECHL, we can finally see puck drop on the horizon.
In Europe, the pro hockey season is fully underway, and today’s slate of games featured numerous notable moments. Philadelphia Flyers top prospect Matvei Michkov scored an electric game-winning goal for Sochi in the KHL, while historic Finnish club Jokerit earned a long-awaited victory on the back of an overtime goal from Leevi Lemberg. It was Jokerit’s first victory in the Finnish hockey system (they play in the second division, Mestis) since 2014, before the club left Liiga for the KHL.
Teams in Europe and North America are still completing transactions to add players or otherwise modify their rosters, and as always we’ll keep track of those moves here:
- The potential number-one pick in the 2025 NHL draft, James Hagens, announced his college commitment on social media. He and his brother, Michael, have committed to play NCAA hockey at Boston College. The Eagles already boast a wealth of highly-drafted prospects on their roster, such as 2023 fourth-overall pick Will Smith and 2022 fifth-overall pick Cutter Gauthier. While both of those names are likely to be in the NHL by the time Hagens arrives on campus, Hagens’ commitment ensures that Boston College’s pipeline of elite NHL prospects will remain intact.
- Former Chicago Blackhawk Buddy Robinson signed a one-year contract with Traktor Chelyabinsk in the KHL. For Robinson, 31, this will be his first opportunity to play for an overseas club in his pro career. The six-foot-six physical winger played in 52 games for the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs last season, scoring 20 points. He also played in nine NHL games, and has 62 total NHL games on his resume. In the late 2010’s Robinson was a productive AHL scorer, potting 25 goals and 53 points in 74 games for the Manitoba Moose in 2017-18. But that scoring has dried up as he’s reached his late twenties and early thirties, and that could have contributed as to why Robinson has elected to sign in the KHL rather than continue in North America.
- Saku Mäenalanen, who played 64 games for the Winnipeg Jets last season, was supposed to be spending training camp with the Colorado Avalanche on a PTO. But he reportedly failed his physical and was released from that deal. So instead of in Colorado, Mäenalanen will hit the ice in Switzerland, where he’s signed a three-year contract with the SCL Tigers of the National League. Mäenalanen has yet to play in the Swiss NL, but he has extensive experience overseas in both Liiga and the KHL. Mäenalanen has won a Liiga championship, a IIHF Men’s World Championship gold medal, and an Olympic gold medal, and now he’ll join his former Charlotte Checkers teammate Aleksi Saarela in Switzerland.
- Fans of the Florida Panthers or Springfield Thunderbirds might recognize the name of Finnish winger Henrik Haapala from the 25 games he played in North America for those clubs in 2017-18. While Hapaala didn’t last long in the NHL or AHL, he went on to have a productive career in Europe. This past season, Hapaala scored at a point-per-game rate for Ilves Tampere in Liiga, and now he’s headed to Switzerland to continue his career. The 29-year-old has signed a one-month tryout contract with HC Genève-Servette, the reigning Swiss champions.
- HPK Hämeenlinna of the Finnish Liiga have signed two defenders to contracts: veteran Juuso Pulli and 26-year-old Elias Ulander. Pulli spent last season with Vaasan Sport in Liiga, skating in 52 games and scoring seven points. He’s collected three Liiga bronze medals in his career and was once an alternate captain for Ilves Tampere. Ulander spent last season with HK Spisska Nova Ves in the Slovak league, and has had success in Finland before, such as in 2016-17 when he was named the U20 SM-Liiga’s best defenseman. Pulli’s contract is a one-year deal with a tryout option through November, while Ulander is on a tryout deal.
- 2017 Anaheim Ducks fourth-round pick Kyle Olson has signed a one-year contract with the ECHL’s Reading Royals. Despite scoring at above a point-per-game rate in his final two WHL campaigns, Olson did not receive an entry-level deal from the Ducks and instead signed an AHL contract with the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins in 2020. Olson has spent the last three seasons in Pennsylvania and managed 12 goals and 21 points in 71 games in 2021-22. This past year, Olson’s production tanked, and he only managed six points in 55 games. He’s now signed with the Royals in the ECHL, likely with the hope that he’ll have a productive season in North America’s third-tier league and work his way back into the AHL.
- The ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits have signed a one-year contract extension with 23-year-old Brett Kemp, ensuring one of the league’s more productive young talents will remain with the only ECHL franchise he’s ever known. Kemp, who once scored 77 points in 62 WHL games for the Medicine Hat Tigers has compiled 82 points in 76 career ECHL games. He’ll now be able to return to Greenville and will likely remain one of the team’s top scorers as he looks to earn more AHL call-ups to the Ontario Reign.
- Former Baie-Comeau Drakkar scorer Jordan Martel was one of the ECHL’s breakout players last season, scoring 18 goals and 44 points in just 45 games for the Utah Grizzlies. The team confirmed he’d be returning for the 2023-24 season today, signing Martel to a one-year ECHL deal. Martel hadn’t found much success in pro hockey until he arrived in Utah, and now he’ll have the chance to build some continuity and momentum in Utah as the team chases its fifth consecutive playoff berth.
- The ECHL’s Toledo Walleye have signed Chase Gresock to a one-year contract, according to an official announcement. The 25-year-old forward dipped his toes into the waters of pro hockey last season, skating in two games for the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda at the conclusion of his collegiate career. Gresock was an effective NCAA player, captaining Merrimack College and scoring 31 points in 36 games for Bowling Green State in his final collegiate campaign.
- Fiery Wheeling Nailers winger Cam Hausinger has re-signed with the only ECHL team he’s ever played for. The 24-year-old will play a third season in West Virginia and is coming off a solid 2022-23 season. He didn’t play in as many ECHL games as the year before, but he still scored 19 points in 23 games for the Nailers to go alongside his 70 penalty minutes. Hausinger also earned AHL call-ups with two franchises, the Iowa Wild and Milwaukee Admirals. It was with Milwaukee where Hausinger scored his first AHL goal, and his hope will be to get some more AHL contests under his belt in 2023-24.
- Star scorer Johnny Curran has transferred to the most dominant club in the EIHL, signing a one-year contract with the Belfast Giants. The 28-year-old forward, who represents the United Kingdom internationally, has scored 126 career points in 155 EIHL games. He’s thus far only suited up for the Coventry Blaze, but now will get to join a Champions Hockey League-caliber team that took home the EIHL title last season.
This page may be updated throughout the day.
Minor Transactions: 09/15/23
Hockey season is underway across the world, with numerous NHL teams competing in prospect tournaments and the various top European leagues beginning their regular season games. Today has already featured quite a bit of action, highlighted by a late comeback win in the Finnish Liiga by Tappara Tampere against HIFK Helsinki, led by former Buffalo Sabre Nick Baptiste.
We’re still a ways away from the start of full regular-season hockey in North America, and as a result teams in this continent’s minor leagues are still adding players in preparation for this upcoming campaign. We’ll keep track of those moves here:
- Big six-foot-six netminder Déreck Baribeau has made it back to the ECHL. The 24-year-old has signed with the Norfolk Admirals, securing himself a chance to return to North America’s third-tier professional hockey league after a year spent in Quebec playing LNAH hockey. Baribeau is the former starting goalie for the Quebec Ramparts of the QMJHL who began his pro career in 2019-20. He’s actually played in more AHL games than ECHL contests, and he has a career .903 save percentage in 29 career AHL games. Now, he’ll get the chance to compete for a role in the crease in Norfolk.
- Physical defenseman Jake Schultz has signed in the ECHL for next season, joining the Worcester Railers. The six-foot-three blueliner played in five games for Worcester last season, scoring two goals. He spent most of the year with the Binghamton Black Bears in the fourth-tier FPHL, scoring 12 goals and 33 points alongside 136 penalty minutes. Schultz was named the FPHL’s defenseman of the year last season and led the FPHL in scoring by a defenseman in 2020-21. If he can translate some of that FPHL success to the ECHL level, he could greatly expand on the 48 ECHL games already on his resume. He’ll get a chance to do so at the start of the season with Worcester.
This page may be updated throughout the day.
Minor Transactions: 09/14/23
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: 09/08/23
The professional hockey season has begun in earnest this month, with clubs across Europe beginning their seasons. Five Champions Hockey League contests were played today, with games taking place between clubs from seven different countries. Highlights include third-period heroics from American blueliner Les Lancaster to lift Finland’s Ilves Tampere over Czechia’s HC Oceláři Třinec and a 27-save shutout victory for 23-year-old Jasper Patrikainen lifting his hometown Lahti Pelicans over HC Vítkovice.
Over in the KHL, six league games were played and 2015 first-round pick Evgeny Svechnikov potted his first career KHL goal with a wrap-around tie-breaking marker for Ak Bars Kazan against the Kunlun Red Star. Even as the seasons of many clubs across the hockey world have begun, there’s still quite a bit of player movement happening in foreign and minor pro leagues. As always, we’ll keep track of those transactions here:
- Former Detroit Red Wings forward Chase Pearson has made the choice to play overseas for the first time in his hockey career. He’s signed a contract with HC HK Dukla Michalovce, a club in the top league of Slovak professional hockey. The six-foot-three center was a 2015 fourth-round pick of the Red Wings out of the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms. Pearson played three seasons of college hockey at the University of Maine (and was named Hockey East’s best defensive forward in 2018-19) before beginning his pro career with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins full-time in 2019-20. He has totaled nearly 200 career AHL games and has scored 78 career points. He has three NHL games on his resume and now heads to Slovakia where he could end up playing a big all-around role.
- Minor league netminder Jake Theut has called it a career at the age of 29, announcing his retirement on social media. Theut worked his way up from playing as a college hockey depth netminder through the lower minor leagues all the way to the ECHL and then AHL, the latter league he finally got into last season. Theut was the SPHL’s goaltender of the year in 2020-21, an honor that helped him earn a full-time ECHL job for the following two seasons. Theut played in over 60 games across two seasons for Wichita and Adirondack, and even earned an AHL call-up last March allowing him to make two starts for the Utica Comets.
- The ECHL’s Rapid City Rush have acquired the playing rights to defenseman Will Riedell from the Savannah Ghost Pirates, sending a player to be named later in return. Although Riedell will look to claim an AHL job this fall, Rapid City is where he’ll now land should he end up playing in the ECHL. The 26-year-old North Carolina native skated in 32 games for the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda last season and only 15 for the Ghost Pirates. It was an encouraging first season as a full-time pro hockey player for the former Ohio State Buckeye, and although he’ll hope to remain in the AHL for the coming season in the case he ends up needing to play in the ECHL he’ll now have to do so in Rapid City.
- The ECHL’s Tulsa Oilers have made an intriguing signing, inking netminder Julian Junca to a one-year contract. The 25-year-old French netminder has spent the past two seasons as the number-one goalie for Rapaces de Gap in Ligue Magnus, the top tier of pro hockey in France. He posted a .921 save percentage in 39 games last season, taking home Ligue Magnus’ Jean Ferrand Trophy for top netminder. He also served as France’s number-two goalie at this year’s IIHF Men’s World Championships, getting into two games for his country. Now he’ll head to Tulsa, where he’ll compete for starts against 27-year-old Rylan Toth, a former top goalie in the Canadian University circuit who played in the Erste Liga (Hungary and Romania) last season.
This page may be updated throughout the day.
Snapshots: Calder Trophy, Ullmark, Fritz
The 2023-24 Calder Trophy race should be one of the most exciting in recent memory. While Connor Bedard is undeniably the runaway favorite, there is a suite of other talented rookies that could challenge Bedard’s title. The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler and Harman Dayal recently ranked their top-20 Calder candidates. Bedard unsurprisingly took the top spot, with Arizona Coyotes center Logan Cooley, Buffalo Sabres goalie Devon Levi, and Columbus Blue Jackets forward Adam Fantilli making up the rest of the top four. The list also included names like Luke Hughes, Matthew Knies, and Joel Hofer.
The list featured more Anaheim Ducks prospects than any other team, with Leo Carlsson (#7) and Olen Zellweger (#9) ranked in the Top 10, while Lukas Dostal, Jackson LaCombe, and Pavel Mintyukov were all listed as honorable mentions. The Buffalo Sabres, Minnesota Wild, and Chicago Blackhawks were among other teams with multiple prospects featured.
Some other notes from around the NHL:
- Ty Anderson, a reporter for Boston radio show 98.5 The Sports Hub, shared that one team approached the Bruins with a, “fair, market value return” for reigning Vezina Trophy-winner Linus Ullmark. Ullmark posted a league-best save percentage (.938) and goals-against-average (1.89) last season. He followed it up with a .896 save percentage and 3.33 goals-against-average while appearing in six of Boston’s seven postseason games. And while he didn’t walk out of the postseason with any hardware, he confidently won the Vezina, receiving 22 votes to win it where no one else received more than three. Ullmark is signed to a $5MM cap hit through the next two seasons.
- The Bridgeport Islanders have signed 32-year-old forward Tanner Fritz. Fritz has been a minor league player since 2015-16 when he split time between the ECHL’s Missouri Mavericks and the Islanders AHL affiliate. His performances that season – notably his 12 points in 19 AHL games – were enough to earn him a consistent AHL role. The Grand Prairie, Alberta native got a taste of NHL experience in 2017-18, appearing in 34 games with the Islanders. He tacked on an additional eight NHL games in the following year but has been in the AHL ever since. With this deal, Fritz will remain a core piece of the Islanders depth chart, after recording 10 points in nine AHL playoff games last season.
Minor Transactions: 09/02/23
Although the NHL season won’t begin for more than a month, the professional hockey season in Europe has just begun. The Champions Hockey League is already fully underway, and there have already been some notable contests. For example, today the Norwegian champion Stavanger Oilers nearly defeated the reigning SHL title winners, the Växjö Lakers, but ended up falling in a shootout.
The KHL also had its season-opening games today, highlighted by a contest between Dinamo Minsk and HC Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk that saw Minsk come back from down three goals to win in overtime, powered by a two-point performance from 2015 first-round pick Nick Merkley. As more and more clubs across the hockey world return to competitive play, teams in North American minor leagues and those overseas leagues are continuing to add players. We’ll keep track of those moves here, as always.
- Former Chicago Blackhawks prospect Sam Jardine has signed a one-year deal with the ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits, confirming his return to North American pro hockey after two years in Europe. The 30-year-old defenseman has played for the Swamp Rabbits before, in 2020-21 when he scored 44 points in 67 games for the club. That year, he earned ECHL First-Team All-Star honors as well as a chance the following season to play for HC Slovan Bratislava in the Slovak capital as well as HIFK Helsinki in Finland. Jardine spent last season playing in Wales with the EIHL’s Cardiff Devils, and now will return to his old stomping grounds for 2023-24.
- Turner Ottenbreit, a former captain of the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds, has signed a one-year contract with the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star. Ottenbreit is a six-foot-three left-shot defenseman who has spent the last two seasons in the AHL with the Iowa Wild. He played in 57 games last season and scored 12 points, and should be able to beef up a Kunlun blueline that surrendered 44 shots in today’s season-opening victory over Spartak Moscow.
- Former WHL star forward Luka Burzan signed a one-year contract with the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones, locking himself into another campaign with the team he finished 2022-23 on. Burzan, 23, is a former Colorado Avalanche draft pick who scored a solid 13 points in 17 games last season in Cincinnati. Burzan has scored well at each of his ECHL stops so far in his career and will look to do the same next season while potentially earning his way back to the AHL, where he played in 10 games last year.
This page may be updated throughout the day.
Snapshots: Parayko, Norfolk Admirals, Penguins TV Deal
When a team in the NHL takes a step back and performs below expectations, typically there will also be a few key players on that team who have taken individual steps back, steps back that help contribute to the larger decline. The St. Louis Blues had a difficult 2022-23 season, one that saw them finish outside the playoffs. That’s been a rarity during the Blues’ current competitive run, one that yielded the franchise’s first-ever Stanley Cup championship in 2019, and one of the bigger reasons for that step back was the decline of key defenseman Colton Parayko.
Parayko, 30, is making $6.5MM AAV through 2029-30 but saw his all-around results decline from 2021-22 to 2022-23. He went from 35 points scored to 27, his ice time went down a tick, and his defensive play was not up to his usually high standards. That led to speculation that the Blues and Parayko could seek out a change of scenery in the offseason, though that didn’t end up coming to pass. Those trade rumors haven’t deterred Parayko, either, who told The Athletic’s Jeremy Rutherford that he plans on remaining a Blue “for a long time.” (subscription link) As the owner of a full no-trade clause, it’s going to be up to him whether that actually happens, and it appears moving forward both parties view a bounce-back season as the optimal solution to Parayko’s decline rather than a trade.
Some other notes from across the NHL:
- The Carolina Hurricanes have announced a working agreement with the ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals that will allow the Hurricanes to assign prospects to the ECHL club. The Admirals are the official affiliates of the Winnipeg Jets, but per this agreement, they’ll share the ability to send prospects to Norfolk alongside Winnipeg. The ECHL is typically not where NHL teams send most of their prospects, but in the case that the Hurricanes find they need to send a prospect to North America’s third-tier league they now have a clear path to do so.
- The Pittsburgh Penguins announced “SportsNet Pittsburgh” today, finalizing the home of Penguins hockey for all regionally televised games. Per the announcement, the Penguins “entered into an agreement to acquire and re-brand the existing AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh network,” the Penguins’ regional sports network from last season. There has been significant uncertainty in the regional sports broadcasting market in recent months, but with this announcement Penguins fans get some clarity as to what entity will broadcast their team’s games moving forward.
Minor Transactions: 08/31/23
It’s a big day in the wider world of professional hockey, as some of the top clubs in Europe are set to do battle in the first matchday of the Champions Hockey League. Highlights include Finnish champions Tappara Tampere taking on the Aalborg Pirates (Danish Champions) and the Liiga silver medalists, Lahti Pelicans, against the SHL champion Växjö Lakers HC. Clubs outside the Champions League as well as North American teams are still making moves to add players, so as always we’ll keep track of those transactions here.
- Former Cornell University defenseman Cody Haiskanen had an exceptional rookie season in pro hockey, leading the ECHL in plus-minus with a +53 rating, the second-highest single-season rating in ECHL history. The rangy six-foot-four blueliner scored five goals and 29 points in 61 games, and played 19 playoff games en route to the Kelly Cup Finals. Today, he signed a one-year contract extension with the Idaho Steelheads to remain with the club for this upcoming season.
- 21-year-old winger Pavel Tyutnev signed a contract with Admiral Vladivostok of the KHL today, committing his services to the club for the next two seasons. The Russian winger was ranked 49th among European skaters by NHL Central Scouting in 2020, but ended up going undrafted. He scored 17 points in 23 games at the junior level for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl last season and got into 5 games with the senior club, scoring his first KHL goal in the process. Now with this two year deal Tyutnev heads to Vladivostok with the hope of making a push for a full-time KHL job.
- Matt Tugnutt, the son of former NHL netminder Ron Tugnutt, is returning to North America after playing last season overseas in France’s Ligue Magnus. Tugnutt, 27, spent last year with Chamonix, scoring 13 goals and 29 points in 37 games. He’s signing with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, re-joining the league he played 2021-22 in. He has 25 career ECHL points in 53 career games, and has played in South Carolina before as he’s skated four games for the Greenville Swamp Rabbits.
- Former Los Angeles Kings winger Nikolay Prokhorkin has signed a one-year contract with the KHL’s Sibir Novosibirsk. Prokhorkin, 29, has 43 NHL games on his resume and has, as a 2012 fourth-round pick, attempted to break into the North American game on two occasions. Both occasions ended with his departure to the KHL, the league he’s settled into as a capable scorer. Prokhorkin’s best season came in 2018-19, when he scored 41 points in 41 games for SKA St. Petersburg. Prokhorkin is a KHL All-Star, Gagarin Cup Champion, and Olympic gold medalist, but only managed to play in three KHL games last season. Novosibirsk is where he’ll look to construct a bounce-back season on this one-year deal.
- Former Anaheim Ducks prospect Jack Badini, the 91st overall pick at the 2017 NHL draft, has signed with Stjernen Hockey, a club in the top division of Norwegian hockey. The 25-year-old American forward spent most of last season with the ECHL’s Newfoundland Growlers, scoring 16 points in 31 regular-season games. He earned nine games at the AHL level with the Toronto Marlies and has 78 career games at the AHL level, where he’s scored eight points. Badini was a solid prospect in his days in the USHL and at Harvard, but he hasn’t been able to put together a strong resume in the North American pro game, prompting this signing overseas.
This page may be updated throughout the day.
Minor Transactions: 08/30/23
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.