Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

ECHL

Minor Transactions: 07/25/23

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

Although NHL news has predictably slowed at this point in the offseason, there is still quite a bit of player movement activity in the wider world of professional hockey. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable moves from minor leagues and foreign professional leagues across the world.

  • On July 19th, it was announced that former San Jose Sharks prospect Marcus Vela would be leaving MoDo Hockey Ornskoldsvik rather than remain with the team for its first season back in the SHL. Today we learned where Vela’s next stop will be: Slovakia. The 26-year-old has signed with HC Banska Bystrica of the Slovak Tipos Extraliga. He’s the third forward native to British Columbia that the club have added this summer, joining Swiss second-division point-per-game scorer Matt Wilkins and former UConn Huskies captain Carter Turnbull. Vela split last season between two HockeyAllsvenskan clubs, MoDo and Vasterviks IK, acquitting himself well in his first season in Europe scoring 29 points in 46 games.
  • Former Carolina Hurricanes prospect Max Zimmer will not return to the ICEHL’s Vienna Capitals after an extremely successful first season with the club. The 25-year-old 2016 fourth-round pick scored 28 goals and 53 points in 48 regular-season games in the Austrian capital, as well as nine points in seven playoff games. The year before, Zimmer had scored 19 goals and 40 points in 48 games for the ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits, and earned his most meaningful AHL experience yet: 14 games with the Charlotte Checkers. Despite the Capitals’ best efforts to secure an agreement on a contract extension, the four-season Wisconsin Badger could now be headed back to North America or perhaps another ICEHL club for his next campaign.
  • 20-year-old Swedish defenseman Fred Nilsson has signed a try-out contract with the SHL’s Leksands IF, earning a chance to compete for a regular role with the club. 2022-23 was Nilsson’s first as a full-time pro hockey player, and he played a total of 48 games for Kristianstads IK, a club that ended their season relegated to third-tier HockeyEttan. Nilsson was the number-six defenseman for Kristianstads last season, averaging 14:48 time on ice per game. That usage doesn’t exactly suggest he’s ready for a full-time role in Sweden’s top division with Leksands, though he’ll nonetheless receive the opportunity to prove himself in the lead-up to the start of the club’s regular season.
  • 2018 Winnipeg Jets draft pick Austin Wong has signed a three-year contract with the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star. The 22-year-old pivot played a total of 83 games across three seasons for Harvard University, registering 15 points. Wong’s most recent season was his most challenging yet, at least offensively speaking, as he only generated one point in 30 games. Wong has shown some flashes of offense before, such as when he scored 15 goals for the Fargo Force in the USHL in 2020-21, but the offense has failed to materialize at the college level. According to CapFriendly, the Jets retain the exclusive rights to sign Wong, who was ranked 174th among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting in his draft year, until August 2024. Given Wong’s lack of development in college and this three-year KHL deal, there is effectively zero chance the Jets will sign Wong, though.
  •  25-year-old former Michigan Tech forward Tommy Parrottino had a strong first season as a professional hockey player in the ECHL, scoring 23 goals and 39 points in 66 games for the Iowa Heartlanders. Rather than continue in the North American third-tier league, Parrottino has made the choice to instead head overseas and sign with the EIHL’s Dundee Stars. Parrottino, the second-overall pick in the 2016 USHL Entry Draft, is the second quality ECHL scorer the Stars have imported in the past few days, as the team also signed Carter Johnson from the Maine Mariners on the 21st. Dundee won just 13 of 54 games last season and were the worst team in the EIHL standings, meaning they’ll hope the additions of Parrottino, Johnson, and other quality ECHL players can make them a more competitive outfit for 2023-24.
  • Niklas Würschl played full-time in the ICEHL for the first time this past season, skating in a total of 48 games for the Vienna Capitals across regular-season and playoff play. The 23-year-old blueliner didn’t exactly produce much, scoring three points in a limited role, but did show himself to be capable of handling the rigors of ICEHL action. Now, he’s changed teams, signing with Austrian rivals Black Wings Linz. Former ECHL All-Star Matt Murphy left Linz to sign in Slovakia while blueline regular Ramón Schnetzer signed in Switzerland, leaving Linz with a need to add to their back end. They’ve added a quality ICEHL prospect in Würschl, who has a chance to see regular minutes for the team next season and further establish himself in his native Austria’s top pro league.
  • Although 27-year-old netminder Claes Endre has struggled quite a bit since his stellar 2020-21 campaign as the number-one goalie for HockeyAllsvenskan side AIK, he’s earned another contract in Sweden’s second division. He’s signed with Södertälje SK, a team needing to add a goalie as star starter Nikita Tolopilo departed via a contract with the Vancouver Canucks. Endre will form a tandem with 28-year-old American Tomas Sholl, a former ECHL Goalie of the Year with the Idaho Steelheads who posted a 68-20-9 record and .930 save percentage across 99 career games in North America’s third-tier league. Sholl presumably has the upper hand given the success he’s found not only in the ECHL but also in the ICEHL over the past two seasons, (.923 save percentage in 84 total games for Italy’s HC Pustertal) though Endre does have the advantage of having prior experience in the Allsvenskan. Although Endre’s return to AIK did not yield the same results as he had in 2020-21 (he posted a .915 save percentage in 41 games that year, but a .891 this past season) Södertälje are likely hoping his competition with Sholl for starts will provide a strong environment for Endre to succeed.

This page may be updated throughout the day

Minor Transactions: 07/24/23

at CDT | by 1 Comment

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: 07/19/23

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

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.

Snapshots: Pekarcik, ECHL, Hurricanes

at CDT | by 5 Comments

One St. Louis Blues 2023 draft choice has found a playing home for next season. 76th overall pick Juraj Pekarcik will be heading stateside to the USHL, committing to the Dubuque Fighting Saints for 2023-24 after spending his career until now in his native Slovakia.

This is a rather consequential choice for the QMJHL’s Acadie-Bathurst Titan, who just used the second overall pick on Pekarcik in this year’s CHL Import Draft. However, the USHL has had quite the influx of Slovak talent in recent seasons, and it makes sense Pekarcik would choose to go to a league where he knows what the development experience will be like. The 6-foot-2 winger doesn’t turn 18 until September and registered 20 points in 16 games with HK Nitra’s junior club in the Slovak U-20 circuit last season. He also added ten points in seven games for Slovakia at last year’s IIHF U-18 World Junior Championship.

More from across the league today:

  • The Buffalo Sabres confirmed the Jacksonville Icemen as their next ECHL affiliate today, as expected. It amounts to a swap of affiliates between the Sabres and New York Rangers, now affiliated with the Cincinnati Cyclones, Buffalo’s previous affiliate in the second-tier minor league. The current Sabres team does have one connection to the Icemen – assistant coach Jason Christie, who coached the Icemen for four seasons before heading to the Sabres in 2021 and remains the ECHL’s all-time leader in games coached.
  • Without an AHL affiliate to store their prospects next season, the Carolina Hurricanes have loaned a trio of Finnish prospects back to their home country, per team reporter Walt Ruff. 20-year-old defenseman Aleksi Heimosalmi will head back to Assat, where he’s spent the past two seasons on loan from Carolina after they selected him 44th overall in 2021. Right wing Tuukka Tieksola, their 2019 fourth-round pick, is heading back to Finland with Lukko after recording 24 points in 52 games with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves last year. Lastly, forward Ville Koivunen is heading back to Karpat, where he’s played most of his career to date after recording 28 points in 52 games with them last season. Doing this early in the summer gives Carolina less to worry about when figuring out where to assign their prospects closer to the start of the season.

Minor Transactions: 07/16/23

at CDT | by 1 Comment

As free agent activity in the NHL slows down, most of the player-movement focus in the world’s top league revolves around upcoming arbitration cases for restricted free agents. Just as those prominent players and their representatives are hard at work negotiating terms of new contracts or preparing cases for the arbitration process, teams across the hockey world are hard at work signing players and adding players to their rosters for next season. As always, we’ll keep track of notable transactions from around the world of professional hockey here.

  • Zachary Senyshyn, a player perhaps best known for being part of the Boston Bruins’ infamous trio of consecutive first-round picks at the 2015 draft, has decided to continue his pro career overseas. The speedy 26-year-old forward has signed a contract with the Schwenninger Wild Wings of the DEL. The move comes after Senyshyn’s most recent season in North America, a year where he struggled to make much of an impact and ended up traded for future considerations mid-season. While Senyshyn scored 19 goals and earned an NHL call-up in 2021-22 he only managed 18 points in 62 games in 2022-23. Senyshyn already crossed the 260 professional games threshold last season and this year crossed the 320 game threshold, meaning per the AHL’s development rule he no longer qualifies as a “development player” under any of those two limits. That would make earning another shot in the AHL even more difficult and has likely contributed to his choice to take his services to Germany.
  • The AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins have re-signed forward Trenton Bliss to a one-year contract extension. Bliss is fresh off a stellar campaign in the ECHL for the Griffins’ affiliate, the Toledo Walleye. He scored 40 points in 38 regular-season games and 14 points in 13 playoff contests. The 25-year-old former Michigan Tech All-Star was the ECHL’s Rookie of the Month for January and clearly impressed in the third-tier league. While he struggled to make much of an impact in his extensive AHL exposure (he scored just four points in 30 games for Grand Rapids) this extension gives him another chance to compete for an AHL job or potentially return as a leading scorer for the Walleye.
  • 24-year-old Nicholas Guay has earned a one-year contract extension from his club, the Trois-Rivieres Lions, after a solid first season in the ECHL. Guay is a former captain of two QMJHL teams and was a top scorer at the Major Junior level. He dipped his toes into the world of professional hockey in 2021-22 but had more success playing University hockey, scoring 25 points in 18 games. He potted 12 goals and 47 points for the Lions last season, tied for third-most on the team, and will now be able to return to their lineup and make a push for consideration for an AHL call-up/
  • Former ECHL scorer Matthew Alfaro is off to Germany after his first campaign as a relatively regular AHLer. The 26-year-old Calgary Native played his way into the AHL relatively quickly after making a strong start to his pro career in 2020-21. He scored 41 points in 61 games for the Wheeling Nailers and the following season managed to skate in a total of 36 AHL games, notching 12 points. That combined with his point-per-game production with the Nailers earned him a more regular job in the AHL with the Abbotsford Canucks, though he only managed nine points in 37 games of combined regular-season and postseason action. Now, he’s off to play for the Ravensburg Townstars of the DEL2, one of the oldest clubs in German hockey.
  • Vladislav Kodola, a middle-six center in the KHL, has signed a two-year contract with Dynamo Minsk after a recent trade landed him back in his home country. Once an import player for the OHL’s Sarnia Sting, Kodola developed into a quality professional player with Cherepovets Severstal in the KHL, eventually becoming one of the team’s top forwards. He scored a career-high 32 points in 54 games in 2020-21 and even earned the right to represent Belarus at the 2021 IIHF Men’s World Championships. He was traded to Dynamo Moscow last summer and his production declined, which likely contributed to Moscow dealing him to Minsk, where signed this two-year deal.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 07/15/23

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

As we’re just a month-and-a-half away from the start of the professional hockey season in Europe, (the first games of the Champions Hockey League season are scheduled for the last day of August) many teams are hard at work signing players and finalizing the team they’ll be hoping will bring them to glory in 2023-24. As always, we’ll recap player movement from around the hockey world here, from minor leagues to the European pro hockey circuit.

  • 938-game NHL veteran Anton Strålman has signed a contract with HV71 in his native Sweden, a move that likely marks the conclusion of his North American pro career. Strålman, 36, last played top-division pro hockey in Sweden way back in 2006-07, the second of two seasons he spent manning the blueline for Timra. Although Strålman earned a one-year, $1MM contract from the Boston Bruins last season the depth of Boston’s blueline meant it was extremely difficult for Strålman to earn a place in the NHL lineup. He ultimately played only eight games in Boston, his final one coming in late November. He finished 2022-23 in the AHL, and will now shift his focus to a league he led in average ice time the last time he played there.
  • Ostap Safin, a 2017 Edmonton Oilers fourth-round pick, has signed a tryout contract with Lada Togliatti in the KHL. Now 24 years old, Safin earned an entry-level deal from the Oilers in 2018, nearly a year after he was drafted. He had scored 58 points in 61 games as an import player in the QMJHL, and looked like a promising prospect for Oilers fans to track. Then a significant shoulder injury cost Safin most of his 2018-19 season, and while he managed to return for the postseason he could only muster two points in 23 games. Safin turned pro the following year and played in the ECHL with the Wichita Thunder, earning a spot in the ECHL All-Star game and scoring 35 points in 54 games. Safin failed to find a place in the AHL, though, and by the end of 2021-22 his time in the Oilers organization had clearly concluded. He left for his native Czechia to play in their top league, but only scored 13 points in 41 games for HC Sparta Praha. Now, he’ll look to earn a job in the KHL and translate his tantalizing physical tools into tangible production in a challenging pro league.
  • The AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals have announced the signing of Carson Gicewicz to a one-year AHL contract. The six-foot-three New York native just wrapped up his second full season as a professional hockey player and has logged a total of 117 games in the AHL, almost all with the Rockford IceHogs. An NCAA Men’s Hockey National Champion at UMass Amherst, Gicewicz has carved out a role as a physical depth center in the AHL. The 26-year-old was traded by the IceHogs to the Rochester Americans for their playoff push in the middle of last season, although he only skated in three games for the Amerks. With this one-year deal he latches on with the Admirals and will likely be under consideration for a fourth-line center role, similar to the role he occupied in his brief time in Rochester.
  • After one season playing Canadian University hockey, former QMJHL star Simon Pinard has made the choice to turn pro. According to a team announcement, he’s signed a two-year AHL contract with the Henderson Silver Knights, the affiliate of the Vegas Golden Knights. Pinard, 22, is an undrafted player who spent last season at the University of New Brunswick, scoring 29 points in 29 games. The season before, he scored 91 points in 67 games in the QMJHL splitting time between the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada and Gatineau Olympiques. By signing Pinard to a deal with a two-year term, the Silver Knights are clearly making a bet that the five-foot-eleven Canadian forward can translate some of his USports and QMJHL productivity to the professional level.
  • 2022-23 was longtime Cleveland Monsters center Justin Scott’s first away from Cleveland, the only pro team he’s suited up for. Now, the 2023-24 campaign is set to be Scott’s first away from North America. The 27-year-old has signed with the Straubing Tigers of the DEL. Scott parlayed a successful final season with the Barrie Colts in the OHL and an exceptional 17 goals in 15 games playoff run into a an entry-level contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Scott was solid in his first season in the AHL, scoring 13 goals and 23 points in 53 games. While he endured a difficult sophomore slump, Scott quickly grew into a reliable regular for the Monsters and by his finals season there he was wearing a letter on his jersey and scoring 16 goals and 34 points in 76 games. Scott didn’t fare nearly as well in his one season with a different AHL club, the Colorado Eagles, scoring just 11 points in 53 games. Now he’s off to Germany, where he could end up an important all-around player for a club looking to make a deep playoff run after losing in Game Seven of the DEL Quarterfinals to Wolfsburg.
  • While the Tigers bring in one import player in Scott, they lose another as Canadian defenseman Trent Bourque signed a contract with Tingsryds AIF of HockeyAllsvenskan, the second tier of Swedish pro hockey. The former St. Louis Blues draft pick has spent parts of the last two seasons in the DEL with the Tigers, though he didn’t feature in the team’s playoff push or series against Wolfsburg. The six-foot-two 25-year-old former OHL mainstay began his pro career in the ECHL but couldn’t quite find his footing during AHL call-ups, leading to a move to Europe. With this new contract, Bourque is set to help Tingsryds in their attempt to avoid relegation to third-tier HockeyEttan after only narrowly avoiding that fate in 2022-23.
  • Tikhon Chayka is beginning his pro career after two seasons as the number-one goalie for the Prince Albert Raiders in the WHL. Chayka, who turns 20 in August, signed with Dynamo Minsk in his native Belarus. While Chayka is highly unlikely to feature in the KHL immediately, he was decent in his two seasons in the WHL. While his numbers declined in 2022-23, he had a solid .904 save percentage in 51 games in 2021-22. He could be in line to see time in the crease in Minsk once the incumbent starting goalie, Philadelphia Flyers prospect Alexei Kolosov, heads to North America to begin his recently-signed entry-level deal.
  • After four seasons at Canisius College, 24-year-old defenseman Lincoln Erne is turning pro. He’s signed a one-year ECHL contract with the Tulsa Oilers, and heads to Oklahoma after a strong senior collegiate campaign. Erne led Canisius to the NCAA Tournament and an AHA conference championship. The minutes-eating defensive defenseman doesn’t have much of an offensive game but will hope to bring his trademark physicality, size, and defensive responsibility to Tulsa and begin to climb the ladder of North American pro hockey.
  • After three seasons in the ECHL, former Boston College defenseman Luke McInnis is changing teams for the first time. The 24-year-old blueliner signed a contract with the Indy Fuel, confirming his exit from the Orlando Solar Bears, his club of the last three years. The Fuel acquired McInnis’ rights from Orlando in a trade last month, targeting the undersized defenseman after he ranked second among Solar Bears blueliners with 25 points in just 45 games. While the Solar Bears endured a difficult campaign, the Fuel made the ECHL playoffs and have now added some defensive reinforcements for next season.
  • Former Minnesota Wild prospect Gustav Bouramman has signed a one-year contract extension with his current club, the Graz99ers of the ICEHL. The deal lands Bouramman a second campaign in Austria, marking the first time in his professional career that he’s spent consecutive campaigns with the same organization. Bouramman overcame some early injuries to score 18 points in 31 ICEHL games, helping Graz reach the postseason. Before he landed in the ICEHL Bouramman spent three years playing in the HockeyAllsvenskan, and before that point he began his pro career as a regular on the blueline of the Rapid City Rush in the ECHL.
  • The EIHL’s Guildford Flames have secured the services of bruising defenseman Kyle Locke for a third campaign, inking him to a one-year extension. Called “probably the most significant physical presence” on the Flames’ roster by his head coach, Locke has logged 133 total games for Guildford and helped them to the EIHL playoffs in back-to-back years. He’s combined for 147 career penalty minutes in his career in the EIHL, and will now continue his career in England as the most menacing player on the Guildford defense.

Snapshots: Constantine, Jarry, Tulsa Oilers

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

Kevin Constantine, a former NHL head coach who served as bench boss for the Pittsburgh Penguins, San Jose Sharks, and New Jersey Devils has been hired as the next head coach of the WHL’s Wenatchee Wild. The 64-year-old American has worked behind the bench of WHL teams before, with a combined eight seasons of experience in the league across two stints with the Everett Silvertips.

Constantine reached the WHL Finals in 2003-04, and since his last stint with the Silvertips ended after 2016-17 he’s had quite the coaching journey. Constantine has coached in South Korea, Poland, and has most recently served as head coach for Fehervar AV19 in the ICEHL and as Hungary’s head coach at the 2023 IIHF Men’s World Championships. Constantine will coach a Wild team stocked with some high-end NHL prospects, including three NHL first-round picks: Matthew Savoie, Conor Geekie, and Zach Benson.

Some other notes from across the hockey world:

  • Penguins netminder Tristan Jarry told the media today that he’s feeling “100% right now” in terms of his health. Jarry, 28, recently signed a major five-year, $5.375MM AAV contract extension to remain the Penguins’ number-one netminder for what will likely be the rest of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang’s playing days. Given the significant investment the Penguins have made in Jarry’s future, his health is of the utmost importance to the entire organization. Jarry has struggled with injuries in recent seasons, so hearing from him that he’s feeling recovered and at his full capacity is encouraging news for the Penguins’ hopes of competing next season.
  • The Anaheim Ducks have announced that they’ve extended their affiliation agreement with the ECHL’s Tulsa Oilers, extending a developmental and business relationship that began in 2020. While it’s not entirely common to see teams utilize ECHL affiliates to develop premier prospects, the option to develop a player in North America’s third-tier league is still a valuable one to have. The Detroit Red Wings utilized their ECHL affiliate to develop 2021 15th overall pick Sebastian Cossa, and now by extending this affiliation agreement the Ducks have secured their ability to elect a similar path for their own prospects moving forward.

Minor Transactions: 07/13/23

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

While activity on the NHL free agent market has slowed to a crawl, as most notable free agents have found their team for next season, there’s still quite a bit of player movement outside the world’s top league. As always, we’ll keep track of notable transactions made by teams in minor and foreign professional leagues here.

  • 2010 Florida Panthers first-round pick Quinton Howden is set to play for Vasterviks IK in HockeyAllsvenskan, according to a report from Expressen’s Johan Svensson. The 31-year-old has had quite the journey since leaving the North American pro circuit for the 2017-18 season. He’s played in Belarus, Russia, Germany, Finland, France, and now returns to Sweden to play there for a second time. He finished last season with Grenoble in France’s Ligue Magnus, managing just three points in 12 playoff games for the club. Now he’ll look to help Vasterviks compete in a highly competitive league full of clubs vying for promotion to the SHL.
  • Liam Finlay, an ECHL All-Star as a rookie, has signed a contract extension to remain with the Allen Americans. Finlay, 26, is an undersized forward who has had a successful pro career since leaving the University of Denver. Finlay has been a productive contributor in the DEL2, Slovak league, and Finnish Mestis, and scored 33 goals and 70 points in his 54-game ECHL rookie season. Now, he’ll remain with the Americans and will look to take home a Kelly Cup championship next season.
  • The DEL2’s leading scorer, former Toronto Maple Leaf Marcel Muller, has signed a contract with the DEL’s Straubing Tigers. He’ll return to Germany’s top division after scoring 70 points in 50 games for the Krefeld Pinguine in the second division. While he couldn’t lead his club to promotion he himself made his way back to the league where he’s scored 352 points in 541 career games.
  • Former Tucson Roadrunner Trevor Cheek has left HockeyAllvenskan after two seasons to join the ICEHL’s Vienna Capitals. The 30-year-old Canadian forward racked up the most penalty minutes in HockeyAllsvenskan in 2021-22 and scored 59 points in 85 games across two seasons. Cheek was a productive player at the ECHL level and now heads to the Austrian capital looking to bring some grit and scoring ability to the ICEHL semifinalists.
  • After a productive ECHL rookie season, longtime Ohio State Buckeye Quinn Preston has made the choice to cross the Atlantic and sign with the EIHL’s Belfast Giants. Preston, 25, heads to Northern Ireland after his first full season as a professional. He scored 23 goals and 61 points in just 62 games for the Wichita Thunder, and he brings leadership value having served as an alternate captain for his final two seasons as a Buckeye. He’ll bring those positive qualities to the reigning EIHL champions with the hope of helping them defend their title next season.
  • Two-time NCAA Men’s Hockey national champion Louie Roehl has signed a one-year contract extension with the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers. 2022-23 was Roehl’s first campaign as a professional hockey player, and he got into 60 games for the Nailers and scored 24 points. The five-foot-ten right-shot blueliner was a steady presence on head coach Derek Army’s blueline and his quality play has secured him another year on the squad.
  • The ECHL’s Fort Wayne Komets have signed two players to one-year ECHL contracts: forwards Parker Saretsky and Kamerin Nault. For Saretsky, 24, this deal is his first professional contract and finalizes where he’ll be beginning his career as a professional hockey player. Saretsky just concluded a four-year NCAA career at Michigan Tech, setting a career-high with 20 points in 39 games as a senior. As for Nault, 27, he’s already got 108 ECHL games under his belt and arrives with the Comets after finishing last season in Scotland with the EIHL’s Fife Flyers.
  • Former Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Andrew Nielsen has signed with the ECHL’s Trois-Rivieres Lions. The 65th overall pick at the 2015 NHL draft, Nielsen never quite lived up to the hype he generated after his rookie season in the AHL. The hefty six-foot-four, 230 pound Western Canadian blueliner scored 14 goals and 39 points in 74 games as an AHL rookie, and added 82 penalty minutes on top of that. Although he won a Calder Cup the following season Nielsen has gone from promising young AHLer to ECHLer and AHL call-up option. Nielsen did have a strong season last year with the Utah Grizzlies, though, reaching the ECHL All-Star Game and registering 41 points and 166 PIMs in 47 games. He earned three AHL call-ups and 10 AHL games last season and will look to lead the blueline in Trois-Rivieres next season.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Snapshots: Flames, Canucks, Lake Tahoe

at CDT | by 21 Comments

Missing out on the entirety of the 2022-23 NHL season due to a personal issue, defenseman Oliver Kylington is set to get going for the Calgary Flames this upcoming year. In a report from Ryan Pike of Flames Nation, Kylington is “excited” to return to the Flames this year. With one year, $2.5MM remaining on Kylington’s contract, Pike notes that the team has not yet engaged with him on contract extension conversations.

One player that the team has engaged in contract talks with is forward Dillon Dube (Tweet Link). Dube has been incrementally improving his game for years, capping off the 2022-23 year with his best performance, an 18-goal and 27-assist effort in 82 games played.

Luckily for the Flames, Dube will be a restricted free agent at the end of his three-year, $9.6MM contract signed back before the 2021-22 season, giving them a decent amount of control over the situation. In context, forward Tyler Toffoli is already off to the New Jersey Devils, and Elias Lindholm and Mikael Backlund are unsure about their future, Dube may have a significant role opening up for himself on Calgary’s roster.

Other snapshots:

  •  Today, the Vancouver Canucks released their ECHL affiliate for the 2023-24 NHL season, and it will be the Kalamazoo Wings. This will not be their first partnership, as Kalamazoo featured as the Canucks’ ECHL affiliate from 1984-1987, 2011-2015, and again from 2017-2021. Throughout their history as a team, the Wings have never won the Kelly Cup in the ECHL, but have employed NHL talent such as Ron Hextall, Jamie Langenbrunner, and Manny Fernandez.
  • Continuing on with news from the ECHL, the league has approved a new team, one that will reside in Lake Tahoe, CA. The team is unnamed up to this point, but it will be the 29th team granted admittance into the NHL’s second-tier minor league system. Interestingly enough, the team will be owned by former professional quarterback, and 2007 Heisman Trophy Winner, Tim Tebow.

Snapshots: Pettersson, Blackhawks, Draper, Rangers

at CDT | by 8 Comments

In an appearance on CHEK’s Donnie and Dhali (video link), J.P. Barry, the agent for center Elias Pettersson, indicated that he doesn’t expect to have any discussions about a possible contract extension for his client until the end of the summer.  It’s not a matter of early discussions not going well but rather a decision to just take a break for the summer and reassess closer to training camp.  The 24-year-old is eligible to put pen to paper on a new deal now and is certainly coming off a great showing in 2022-23, notching 39 goals and 63 assists (both career highs) while finishing tenth in league scoring.  The Canucks owe him a qualifying offer of $8.82MM next summer and his performance last year coupled with an anticipated jump in the salary cap could have his camp looking to surpass $10MM on his next agreement.  That’s a deal that is going to take some time to put together.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • Speaking with reporters today including Charlie Roumeliotis of NBC Sports Chicago, Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson indicated he feels that the bulk of the heavy lifting this summer is done although they will need to finalize a deal with RFA Philipp Kurashev who filed for arbitration today. Chicago has been active this summer, adding veterans Taylor Hall, Nick Foligno, Corey Perry, and Ryan Donato up front to augment an offense that has also added top pick Connor Bedard (who also needs to sign his entry-level deal).  They still have ample cap space so if the opportunity presents itself to utilize it over the coming weeks, it wouldn’t be shocking to see the Blackhawks make another move at some point.
  • After spending the last four seasons as Detroit’s Director of Amateur Scouting, the team announced that Kris Draper has been named as the Red Wings’ new Assistant GM; Draper will retain his old position as well. As a player, Draper spent 17 seasons with the Red Wings as a key checking center, helping them win four Stanley Cup titles.  He retired in 2011 and immediately joined Detroit’s front office, working his way up from Special Assistant to the GM.
  • The Rangers have a new affiliate team as the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones announced that they have affiliated with the organization. Previously, the Cyclones had been with Buffalo for the past six seasons while New York had been with Jacksonville since 2021.

Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

scroll to top