Minor Transactions: 8/5/17
It may be August, but hockey transactions are still ongoing. While the major names on the NHL free agent market appear to still be in a holding pattern, AHL teams have begun to fill out their rosters with minor leagues deals. The result has been a recent influx of minor news, both of AHL signings and those with less luck finding a contract in North America signing overseas. Keep track of these moves today right here:
- The EBEL has already made their presence felt this summer more so than ever before with the signings of NHL veterans like Matt Fraser, Ben Walter, and Rob Flick, and now the small Austrian-based league is back at it again. Defenseman Mat Clark has signed on with HC Bolzano for the coming season, the team announced yesterday. Clark, a veteran of nine NHL games with the Anaheim Ducks and over 400 AHL games since turning pro in 2010, is a big addition for the Foxes. Like most North American signings in the EBEL, Clark should step in and compete right away for the title of best player on the team. The big blue liner, a second-round draft pick of the Ducks in 2009, is a dominating stay-at-home threat, but has also contributed some modest offense in the AHL as well.
- If Clark had been able to find a good fit in the AHL for the 2017-18 season, one would think he would have jumped on it. Instead, he decided to take a deal overseas. Dalton Thrower, another defenseman, has chosen a different path. Thrower has signed with Allen Americans of the ECHL for the upcoming campaign. It’s quite the change in direction for Thrower’s career path, as he was not tendered a qualifying offer by the Montreal Canadiens this off-season and goes from an NHL contract to an ECHL contract. A second-round pick of the Habs just five years ago, Thrower has not come close to reaching his lofty expectations, having played almost exclusively in the ECHL since turning pro. However, softening the blow of Thrower losing his NHL connection is a familiar face joining him in Allen. The Americans announced that they have signed both he and his younger brother, Josh Thrower, who aged out of the WHL after last season. The pair are set to dominate the Allen blue line in 2017-18.
- Nolan Zajac is having the opposite fortunes of Thrower, as he’ll jump up a level ahead of next season. The younger brother of New Jersey Devils’ mainstay Travis Zajac, the 25-year-old defenseman has signed an AHL deal with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Zajac had signed with the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye out of college last off-season, but after 54 points in 61 games and strong performances on loan to three different AHL teams, he has earned a full-time role at the next level. The former University of Denver standout is a strong skater who has left his mark on the score sheet wherever he has played, Zajac will look to continue to climb through the ranks of pro hockey next season. With a big year in Lehigh Valley, the Philadelphia Flyers’ affiliate, Zajac may just end up with an NHL contract next summer and a possible divisional sibling rivalry down the road.
- The AHL’s Ontario Reign, the affiliate to the Los Angeles Kings, have re-signed two-way forward Sam Herr to a one-year extension. The former Notre Dame winger made his pro debut in 2016-17 with 14 points in 61 regular season games with the Reign and looked his best during the team’s short playoff run. The 24-year-old may not have NHL chops, but is a smart player and hard worker who will surely be able to help Ontario out in the coming season.
More to come…
Snapshots: San Antonio, Lodnia, McAvoy
The St. Louis Blues have no AHL affiliate for this season after the Chicago Wolves signed a partnership with the Vegas Golden Knights instead, and will have to distribute their minor league players throughout various teams. That won’t last long though, as Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Blues have come to a five-year agreement with the San Antonio Rampage starting in 2018-19.
The Rampage are currently the AHL affiliate of the Colorado Avalanche but there has long been rumors of the Colorado Eagles of the ECHL moving up next season and providing the Avalanche with an at-home affiliate. More and more teams are trying to bring their affiliates as close as possible so that recalls and assignments are easier, and the development staff can quickly transit between teams.
- Recently Jeff Marek of Sportsnet reported that the Erie Otters of the OHL could soon trade Minnesota Wild prospect Ivan Lodnia, and the discussions were even confirmed by the player’s agent. Now however, Otters’ GM Dave Brown told GoErie.com that a deal is “very unlikely.” Lodnia dropped to the fourth round after a poor playoff performance, but is still expected to be a top player in the OHL this season at both ends of the rink.
- Matt Kalman of NHL.com released his top prospect list for the Boston Bruins today as part of their “31 in 31” series, and the usual names are included. That said, Mike Morreale of NHL.com chimed in on Twitter saying that his personal prediction for the Calder Trophy is Bruins’ defender Charlie McAvoy, who made an impact in the playoffs and will be expected to take on a big role for the team this year. McAvoy has had immediate success at every level of his career, and now the 14th-overall pick from 2016 will face his toughest test in a full professional season.
Snapshots: Pastrnak, Walker, Coyotes
David Pastrnak remains one of the top unsigned restricted free agents in the league, and looks like he’s due for a huge raise from the Boston Bruins when a contract is finally hammered out. That doesn’t seem any closer today than it has been, as GM Don Sweeney told Ty Anderson of WEEI the negotiations are in a “holding pattern” but that there is plenty of time to get something done. Pastrnak scored 34 goals and 70 points last season, and though he’s still ineligible for arbitration is set to command quite the price on a long-term deal.
Despite only turning 21 a few months ago, Pastrnak has already completed three seasons in the NHL and is on track to become an unrestricted free agent at the age of 25. That means any deal longer than four seasons will be buying out UFA years at a premium, pushing any cap hit up and up as the length increases. Obviously, the Bruins would like to keep him around as long as possible but they’ll have to make a decision on whether to lock him into a seven or eight year deal right away, or offer him a bridge contract and revisit the negotiations in a few years. With just over $10.1MM in cap space, the team could go either route to keep their star winger in town.
- According to Michael Russo of the Star Tribune, Jack Walker has signed an AHL deal with the Minnesota Wild organization after impressing in development camp. Walker was actually a draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs as recently as 2016, but was not extended a “Bona Fide Offer” by the team and became an unrestricted free agent. That likely had to do with the combination of Walker being too old to return to junior and the Maple Leafs not having enough contract slots left—the team is currently at 49/50 with Connor Brown still to sign. Walker was a solid scoring threat in the WHL, and will try to improve his all-around game in the minor leagues.
- The Arizona Coyotes have announced a one-year affiliation with the Fort Wayne Komets of the ECHL, replacing the Rapid City Rush who have moved on to partner with the Wild. The Komets operated independently last season after ending a partnership with the Colorado Avalanche a year early, but will now house the lower Arizona prospects. Even without a parent organization the Komets reached the postseason for the fourth straight year, and will try to get back there this season. Interestingly, Brett Perlini, the older brother of Coyotes’ forward Brendan Perlini was traded to the Komets mid-season last year, where he scored 26 points in 33 games.
Minor Transactions: 07/27/17
While the whole league considers their options now that the Montreal Canadiens have announced Andrei Markov will not return, teams will continue to make minor changes and signings to finalize the fringes of their roster before training camp. Here we’ll keep track of all the minor signings of the day.
- The New York Islanders have signed Connor Jones according to Arthur Staple of Newsday, inking the 26-year old forward to a one-year two-way contract. Jones got into four games for the Islanders this season, his first taste of NHL action. A graduate of Quinnipac University, Jones has had a hard time replicating any offensive success in the professional ranks, and was held scoreless in his short NHL stint last year.
- The Milwaukee Admirals, the AHL affiliate of the Nashville Predators, inked former Detroit Red Wings goalie prospect Jake Paterson to a minor league contract today, per a team release. A 2012 third-round pick from the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit, the 23-year-old keeper was one of the best goalies in the ECHL last year. Not only did he lead the league in wins with 34, but he posted an impressive 2.28 GAA and .918 save percentage as well. This is the second season in a row that Paterson had dominated the ECHL and has likely earned a shot at regular AHL time. However, he joins a crowded pipeline in Milwaukee that includes Marek Mazanec, Matt O’Connor, and veteran Anders Lindback fighting for time in net. Barring an injury or two, Paterson will likely be back in the ECHL next year. Yet, Paterson was still one of the top free agent goalies remaining on the market before the Admirals scooped him up.
- If Paterson had stayed in the Red Wings organization, he would have faced a similar roadblock to AHL play time behind Calder Cup hero Jared Coreau, the recently re-acquired Tom McCollum, and Czech import Matej Machovsky. However, Pat Nagle appears to be up for the challenge. The 29-year-old minor league veteran has signed on with Detroit’s AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins, on a minor league deal, the team announced. The Michigan-native has played with Grand Rapids before – a two-game stint on loan from the ECHL’s Fort Wayne Komets in 2014-15 – and was loaned again to the Griffins last season, but did not see any action. Now officially part of the team, the veteran keeper will look to earn a permanent spot in Grand Rapids, but faces an uphill battle against both the trio of goalies ahead of him on the depth chart and his own age in inferior play at the AHL level.
Avalanche Re-Sign Rocco Grimaldi, Add Jesse Graham
Wednesday: The team has officially announced the contracts for both players. Grimaldi will earn $750K in the NHL, while just $170K during his time in the minor leagues.
Tuesday: The Colorado Avalanche are closing in on having all of their restricted free agents re-signed. Only big defenseman Nikita Zadorov will be left without a deal once the Avs finalize a new extension with young center Rocco Grimaldi. BSN Denver’s Adrian Dater reports that the one-year, two-way agreement should be made official soon.
Grimaldi, 24, is an extremely talented forward who has found much success at the NCAA and AHL levels, but has yet to put it together in the NHL. A second-round selection of the Florida Panthers in 2011 out of the U.S. National Development Program, Grimaldi went on to star at the University of North Dakota before turning pro in 2014. In his first AHL season with the Panthers’ then-affiliate, the San Antonio Rampage, Grimaldi recorded an impressive 42 points in 64 games. Yet, when called up to Florida, his scoring dropped off to just one point in seven games. Given a longer big league look in 2015-16, the results were the same: Grimaldi netted just five points in 20 games, whereas in the AHL he recorded 33 in 52. Fortunate enough to have ample young, talented center depth, the Panthers did not have to wait for Grimaldi to develop an NHL edge, choosing instead to trade him to the Avalanche last summer for goaltender Reto Berra. Grimaldi returned to San Antonio in 2016-17, now affiliated with Colorado, and was again a force to reckon with in the AHL, finishing third in the league in goal scoring with 31 tallies to go along with 24 assists in 72 games. However, when the Avs recalled Grimaldi for four games at the end of the season, desperately looking for a glimmer of hope after a dreadful year, he could only manage one assist.
Grimaldi may have NHL-caliber offensive talent, but he lacks the one trait you can’t teach: size. At just 5’6″, 180 lbs., Grimaldi is one of the smallest players in the league. He does not have much of two-game, essentially due to a lack of leverage in puck battles and at the face-off dot, and simply can’t skate around the competition in the NHL like he has elsewhere. Yet, the Avalanche have not lost hope. Grimaldi is not the first undersized player to try his hand at the NHL, and he won’t be the last. Similar in size to prolific players like Theo Fleury and Brian Gionta, Grimaldi may be able to make his lack of size work, especially given his considerable offensive ability. GM Joe Sakic must think so too, as he protected Grimaldi in June’s Expansion Draft, showing his commitment to the young scorer. A two-way deal is reasonable, given his lack of success in the NHL thus far, but look for Grimaldi to get a much longer look in Colorado in 2017-18.
In addition to re-upping Grimaldi, the Avalanche also made an outside hire today, signing defenseman Jesse Graham. TVA’s Renaud Lavoie reports that it is a one-year, two-way deal between Graham and Colorado, one which will pay him the league minimum of $650K at the NHL level. A sixth-round pick of the Islanders in 2012 from the Niagara Ice Dogs of the OHL, Graham has struggled to make his junior scoring ability translate to the pro game over his first three season. New York declined to tender a qualifying offer to Graham, making the 23-year-old an unrestricted free agent this off-season. Graham has yet to make his NHL debut and has spent almost as much time in the ECHL over the past few years as he has in the AHL. However, Colorado is the land of opportunity for young defenseman; the team has just three blue liners signed to one-way contracts for 2017-18: Erik Johnson, Tyson Barrie, and Mark Barberio. The aforementioned Zadorov is likely to join that group soon, but (if the roster remains the same) that still leaves at least three spots up for grabs in camp and a good shot at seeing ice time over the course of the season. With 2017 top pick Cale Makar committed to UMass for at least the next season, Graham faces competition only from the likes of Chris Bigras, Andrei Mironov, Anton Lindholm, Duncan Siemens, David Warsofsky, and (if the Avs are lucky) maybe Will Butcher. It’s not the most inspiring list of options for the NHL’s worst team last season, but it could be the perfect scenario for a player like Graham in need of career boost.
Minor Transactions: 7/25/17
For a Tuesday in late July, it’s been an especially busy day for hockey transactions, including the NHL signings of Mika Zibanejad with the New York Rangers, Robin Lehner with the Buffalo Sabres, Mark Streit with the Montreal Canadiens, and several deals by the Colorado Avalanche and New Jersey Devils. Yet, there has been a flurry of notable activity in the AHL and overseas today too, including the following:
- The once-promising NHL career of Matt Fraser has taken another odd turn away from its original path. Fraser, still just 27 years old, has signed with Dornbirner EC of the EBEL, a lower tier European league based mostly out of Austria. The team has announced the deal, though terms have not been released. Fraser moves to the EBEL after a season in Sweden, where injuries limited him to only four games with Rogle BK. Before that, many will remember Fraser as a star in the AHL for the Texas Stars and, after the Tyler Seguin trade, the Providence Bruins. Fraser even played in 60 NHL games with the Boston Bruins and Edmonton Oilers in 2014-15 and looked to be on his way to becoming an NHL regular. However, after signing a one-year deal with the Winnipeg Jets in 2015 and failing to make the team, Fraser had the worst AHL season of his career and decided to head overseas. So far, it has not worked out, but Fraser will now try his hand at EBEL action, where he could easily be the best player for Dornbirner, who currently count another former Bruin, Jamie Arniel, as their top scorer.
- Another player who failed to meet expectatiosn in North America and will now head to a lesser European league is Dane Fox. The former Erie Otters superstar, who scored 107 points in 67 games in his final OHL season, has not found anywhere near the same success at the pro level. A high-profile signing by the Vancouver Canucks in 2014, the undrafted forward has made his last junior season look very much like a fluke with his play since then. Fox has skated almost exclusively in the ECHL over the past three seasons, playing in only two AHL games and not even in consideration for an NHL look with the Canucks and Carolina Hurricanes. Now, Fox will head to Germany to play with the Nurnberg Ice Tigers of the DEL. Nurnberg is the likely favorite in the DEL next season and roster many players with NHL experience, including 2016-17 top scorer Steve Reinprecht and recent signee Tom Gilbert. Fox’s pro hockey career is very much up in the air right now, but if he can shine through on an experience Ice Tigers roster, perhaps he’ll get another shot in North America .
- The AHL’s San Diego Gulls, the Anaheim Ducks’ affiliate, has re-signed forward Jordan Samuels-Thomas to a two-year minor league deal, the league announced. The 27-year-old recorded a pro career-high 24 points and +13 rating for the Gulls last year and is a fan favorite and active member of the San Diego community. The former NCAA standout was a seventh-round pick of the Atlanta Thrashers in 2009, but was never signed to an entry-level deal after spending five years in college.
- The Chicago Wolves, now the new affiliate of the Vegas Golden Knights, have signed one of their own, inking Scooter Vaughan to a one-year deal, according to a team release. The hard-nosed defenseman worked his way up through hockey’s ranks, spending four years at the University of Michigan, three years in the ECHL, and going on four years in the AHL, with the last two spent in Chicago. The next stop could be the NHL, now that the Wolves are associated with the Knights, who obviously have the least organizational depth of any team in the league. A career-best performance in 2017-18 could earn Vaughan his first NHL contract next year.
- A pair of AHL defenseman will change teams for the upcoming season as Paul Geiger, recently of the Rochester Americans, has signed with the Hershey Bears, the Washington Capitals’ affiliate, while the Carolina Hurricanes’ minor league partners, the Charlotte Checkers, have signed former St. John’s Ice Caps defender Josiah Didier. Both Geiger and Didier are still just 24 years old and were solid college players, at Clarkson and Denver respectively, but need big seasons with their new teams after pedestrian starts to their pro careers, that is if they want to reach the NHL someday.
- The 2016-17 captain at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) has found his new home, and he’s in a good spot. Riley Bourbonnais, a 23-year-old center who was nearly a point per game player for RPI last year, has inked his first AHL deal with the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins, the feeder team of the two-time Stanley Cup champs. The team announced their newest addition and have high hopes that he can bring the same well-rounded game he showed in college to the pros.
Minor Notes: Didier, Muzito-Bagenda, Tarasov
It has been a relatively eventful day for a Monday in late July for the NHL. RFA fever and impending arbitration is occupying many general managers’ time. That said, teams have also been busy at work with their AHL rosters and reviewing their prospect situations.
The Rochester Americans, the Buffalo Sabres’ AHL affiliate, announced the signing of Daniel Muzito-Bagenda to a two-way contract. The former Missassauga Steelhead generally plays on his off wing, the right side. He’s never displayed overwhelming offensive capabilities, and did struggle slightly to adjust to the North American game after playing two seasons for MODO’s under-20 squad in Sweden. He played well for the Steelheads in their very abbreviated playoff appearance in the 2015-16, leading that team in points through their 7 games played. Last season he played in 61 games for the Amerks, tallying only 15 points.
Muzito-Bagenda has a lot to prove if he wants to push for a 4th-line call up. Still, for a 6’1 player he has decent promise and should be able to improve his output at least marginally. The only way he’ll see spot duty is if there is a mass of injuries and he leapfrogs many others. Still, at only 21, he has room to grow.
- The Charlotte Checkers, Carolina’s AHL Affiliate, signed defenseman Josiah Didier to a two-way contract today. Didier split time between the AHL in St. John’s and the ECHL in Brampton last season. It will be interesting to see if he can solidify himself some playing time this year and earn consideration for another contract down the line. He only saw 39 games of action and tallied a meager 8 points in that time. At 24 years old, the former fourth-round pick of Montreal is certainly hoping to finally put it together. His right-handed shot is certainly intriguing, but this will have to be the year to get noiced.
- The NHL website ran an intriguing piece on Columbus’ 3rd round selection at the 2017 Draft, goaltender Daniil Tarasov. Tarasov showcased some amazing ability at the 2016 World Juniors, but missed the year due to injury. He could prove another sneaky good selection by GM Jarmo Kekalainen, who has truly revitalized that franchise through solid scouting and prospect management. Finally getting recovering to ful health once again, Tarasov will ease himself back into the game by playing for the “junior KHL”, the MHL, for a team called Topar Ulfa. It will be interesting to see whether this gamble pays off, and how quickly Tarasov could push for a KHL position. His athleticism and poise definitely turned heads, but a year off can harm any player’s development.
Free Agent Profile: The Goalie Market
More than three weeks into free agency, there are still several big names available on the market. Among PHR’s Top 50 Free Agents, you can still find Thomas Vanek (#8), Jaromir Jagr (#13), Andrei Markov (#14), Drew Stafford (#21), Cody Franson (#22), and many more without NHL homes. What you can’t find is a single goalie on that list left unsigned. In fact, you would be hard pressed to find a single free agent goaltender that the casual hockey fan would recognize.
The following is list of available keepers who were on NHL contracts in 2016-17: Daniel Altshuller, Mantas Armalis, Sam Brittain, Mac Carruth, Ryan Faragher, Michael Garteig, Jonas Gunnarsson, Matt Hackett, Jake Paterson, Mackenzie Skapski, Colin Stevens, and Stephon Williams. Are none of those names standing out? They shouldn’t. Not one of those 13 players made a single NHL appearance last season and only Altshuller, Brittain, and Garteig even sat on an NHL bench. Of the group, only Hackett and Skapski have ever played in the NHL and neither one has suited up since 2014-15. The group leaves little to be desired.
This could explain why many other teams have decided to reach overseas for goalie depth this off-season, with the Nashville Predators bringing back Anders Lindback, the Minnesota Wild signing Niklas Svedberg, the Vegas Golden Knights signing Oscar Dansk, the Florida Panthers signing Harri Sateri and, most recently, the New York Rangers bringing in young Alexander Georgiev. Yet, even the foreign market is drying up. The top leagues in Sweden and Switzerland have nothing to offer net-needy NHL team, while the best remaining free agent goalies in the KHL and Finnish Liiga are 37-year-old Alexander Yeryomenko and 34-year-old Pekka Tuokkola respectively. Other KHL free agents like Riku Helenius, Drew MacIntyre, Justin Pogge, and Kevin Poulin are all former NHL wash-outs themselves who have done little to improve their stock overseas and don’t present much of an upgrade over many of the North American options.
So which keepers are the best of this rag-tag bunch? The short answer is that none are ready to make NHL starts any time soon. Every NHL free agent either spent time in the ECHL in 2016-17 or should have because of unsightly AHL numbers, whereas none of the KHL free agents were particularly impressive this past season either.
Poulin is the most likely of any to earn an NHL contract for next season, as he has more NHL experience than everyone else on this list put together – with just 50 appearances. The 27-year-old went back and forth between the New York Islanders, who drafted him in 2008, and their AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, from 2010 to 2015. In that time, Poulin had an 18-25-3 record with an .899 save percentage and 3.07 GAA. While it isn’t the best NHL stat line, it isn’t the worst either. Outside of the NHL, Poulin has always posted a save percentage of .909 or better, including a .909 exact and 2.66 GAA with Barys Astana of the KHL last year. For a team in need of a goalie, even just for AHL depth, Poulin isn’t a terrible option.
Hackett would be next on the list and also has the second-most NHL games played. Once considered the “goalie of the future” for the Minnesota Wild after a spectacular rookie season in 2011-12, the now 27-year-old’s career has gone in the opposite direction. Pedestrian play in the AHL and inconsistency in his NHL efforts took Hackett out of the running as an NHL starter, but he’s still been able to find work as a third-string backup after Minnesota with the Buffalo Sabres and Anaheim Ducks. Even after an AHL season where he was passed up on the depth chart, saw only seven games of action, and posted poor numbers, Hackett still seems like a safe bet to find a new deal somewhere.
Beyond Poulin and Hackett, a contract for any of the other free agent goalies would come as a surprise. At 23 years old, Paterson is the youngest of the free agents and has put up strong numbers in each of his first two pro seasons. However, those numbers have come in the ECHL rather than the AHL. Paterson’s junior numbers in the OHL aren’t spectacular, so the competition level of the ECHL may simply be where he’s best suited. Nevertheless, he has the most room to grow of anyone available. On the flip side, the 37-year-old Russian keeper Yeryomenko is by far the most talented goalie available statistically. The KHL veteran was arguably the best goalie in the league last year, posting a .950 save percentage and 1.29 GAA in 37 starts. There is no reason to think that Yeryomenko is eyeing a move overseas at this point in his career nor that he could adjust to the NHL’s pace of play at his age, but if he is open to it, he could be a low-risk gamble as a stop-gap veteran backup in the AHL for some team.
Potential Suitors
Luckily, most NHL teams are not in dire straits in net that they should have to be taking a long look at the current free agent market. Nearly every viable name has already been scooped up and few teams have a pressing need. However, it never hurts to have several fallback options in net, and even teams with three or four solid players can end up scooping up that one extra keeper as the off-season goes on.
The one team that really must make a move is the Columbus Blue Jackets. Yes, they have the reigning Vezina Trophy winner, Sergei Bobrovsky, and promising young backup Joonas Korpisalo, but after trading Anton Forsberg away this summer, the Blue Jackets are lacking in depth. The only other goalie under contract is Matiss Kivlenieks, who is entering his first pro season out of the USHL. Kivlenieks is probably not suited to even start at the AHL level yet, nevertheless be the next man up for Columbus. The Blue Jackets could stand to add two goalie even, though their need is great enough that they could be scouring the trade market instead for their third-stringer.
Even after replacing Ryan Miller with Anders Nilsson in free agency, the Vancouver Canucks could still use another goalie. Thatcher Demko is a stud prospect and ready to carry the bulk of AHL starts, and Richard Bachman is a good veteran AHL option capable of making an NHL spot start too. However, should Jacob Markstrom or Nilsson, both injury-prone and relatively new to their 2017-18 roles, struggle or be sidelined, Demko or possibly Bachman will be ready to go, but without much reliable backup depth in Utica. Vancouver could simply re-sign Garteig, who was in the system last year, but may want to go with a superior talent given the unproven nature of their top three goalies at the NHL level.
Expected Contract
It might be a stretch to assume that any of the goalies remaining on the free agent market, NHL or international, will sign an NHL deal this summer. If they do, it will surely be a one-year, two-way deal worth the minimum $650K or simply a minor league AHL deal. There’s not much left to offer on the market, but with some holes still in need of filling across the league, understanding the strengths and many, many weaknesses of the goalie market could help to make sense of any upcoming deals.
Minor Moves: Finn, Moore, Johnston
After spending most of last season in the ECHL, Matt Finn has reached a deal with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on a two-way AHL deal. Just like a two-way NHL contract, that means Finn will be paid different amounts between the ECHL and AHL. He will not count towards the New York Islanders’ contract limit.
Just 23, Finn has been a disappointment since being selected 35th-overall by the Maple Leafs. During his days for the Guelph Storm of the OHL, and before that in the Greater Toronto Hockey League, Finn was a dynamic two-way defenseman capable of racking up points while also shutting down the opponent’s best offensive weapons. That next-level ability disappeared in professional hockey, and he’s bounced up and down between the two minor leagues for several years.
- The San Jose Barracuda have inked Bryan Moore and David Makowski to one-way AHL contracts, bringing them in after successful seasons with the Allen Americans of the ECHL. The pair combined for 101 points in 86 games for the club, but will now get their chance to play in the AHL. Makowski, a defenseman, is best known for his play at the University of Denver where he captained the Pioneers to a NCHC Championship in 2014.
- The Manitoba Moose have hired Marty Johnston as an assistant coach, bringing him away from Carleton University in Ottawa. Johnston has coached there for seven seasons. A former minor league player, Johnston is an up-and-coming coach who may get a head coaching chance in the AHL at some point in the next few years. For now he’ll get the chance to work with some of Winnipeg’s top prospects, including Jack Roslovic and Kyle Connor if they don’t make the Jets out of camp.
Overseas Notes: Pirri, Brule, Villacher
Despite some early reports, it remains unclear whether free agent forward Brandon Pirri is leaving the NHL or not. News out of local sources in Switzerland made it sound as if the young scorer had already come to an agreement with the ZSC Lions of the NLA. However, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, one of hockey’s top news-breakers, did some digging today and has doubts about the deal. Friedman believes that Pirri still plans on staying in North America, despite what is likely ample interest from European clubs. Pirri, still just 26 years old, has not been tendered a qualifying offer in back-to-back years, despite racking up 47 points in 121 games with the New York Rangers, Anaheim Ducks, and Florida Panthers over the past two seasons. Before that, Pirri notched a 22-goal season for the Panthers in 2014-15. Yet, often described as a one-dimensional player, Pirri has been unable to find a long-term NHL home. Will he wait out the market or take a minor league deal, as Friedman suggests, or will eventually succumb to the pressure of overseas offers, like that of ZSC, and leave North America?
- One former NHLer who first turned to the ZSC Lions when he could not find a new NHL team was Gilbert Brule. The sixth overall pick of the 2005 NHL Draft by the Columbus Blue Jackets, Brule left for Swtizerland in 2012 after his once-promising career had produced only 95 points in 296 NHL games over seven pro seasons. Brule attempted a comeback the following year, but found a similar lack of success and moved on to the KHL, where he has played ever since. According to a press release from Russian club Traktor Chelyabinsk, Brule is on the move again, but still within the KHL. Traktor has acquired the now 30-year-old forward for cash compensation from Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk. Brule is coming off his best pro season in 2016-17, after posting 42 points in 52 games between Neftekhimik and Medvescak Zagreb. Brule will look to stay hot in the final season of his contract after finishing in the top 25 in points per game last season in the KHL.
- Brule’s former team, Medvescak Zagreb, has now left the KHL and has re-joined the EBEL, a league based mostly out of Austria, but that includes other European clubs like Zagreb, a Croatian team, and others from the Czech Republic, Italy, Hungary, and Slovenia. While league re-alignment has been a major story for the EBEL, another has been the active off-season for Villacher SV, the lowest-placing Austrian team in 2016-17. In the past two days, Villacher has added arguably the two biggest names of any EBEL signings this summer in Rob Flick and Ben Walter. Flick, a fourth-round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010 and a well-regarded enforcer, had been unable to crack an NHL lineup despite solid defensive play and moderate offense in the AHL and ECHL. The 26-year-old finally found his scoring touch with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays last season, notching 63 points in 60 games and will now look to keep that going with Villacher. Walter, a veteran of lower-level European hockey, was one of the top scorers in the EBEL in 2014-15 with 43 points in 50 games. Walter was a fifth-round selection of the Boston Bruins in 2004, and unlike Flick, saw 24 games of NHL action with the Bruins, New York Islanders, and New Jersey Devils. While Flick and Walter may not be massive names by any means to most North American fans, their relative talent level make them huge acquisitions for Villacher.