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Snapshots: Calder Trophy, Ullmark, Fritz

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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

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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.

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Snapshots: Parayko, Norfolk Admirals, Penguins TV Deal

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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

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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

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

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

This page will be updated throughout the day.

Minor Transactions: 08/28/23

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The last week of August is upon us, meaning NHL training camps are now just a few weeks away. Across the hockey world, seasons are much closer to beginning, however, meaning transaction activity is beginning to dry up. There are still a few pieces of news to parse through, however.

  • The Reading Royals, ECHL affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers and Lehigh Valley Phantoms, have locked in forward Mason McCarty and goalie Jacob Kucharski for the 2023-24 season, per a team release. McCarty, hailing from Blackie, Alberta, is entering his third professional season after accruing 13 goals and 12 assists for 25 points in 43 games with the ECHL’s Kalamazoo Wings last season. Now 26, McCarty’s history includes stints in the WHL with the Red Deer Rebels and Saskatoon Blades, as well as three years suiting up for Acadia University in the Canadian collegiate circuit. Kucharski, a seventh-round pick in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft by the Carolina Hurricanes (who still hold his NHL signing rights), will suit up for his inaugural full professional season in Reading. He’s earned NCAA Atlantic Hockey Goaltender of the Year honors and won two consecutive NCAA titles with American International College. Kucharski also participated in development camp with the Hurricanes in 2018 and 2019 but hasn’t yet landed an entry-level deal.

This page will be updated throughout the day.

Minor Transactions: 08/25/23

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The following is a list of notable minor-league and overseas transactions for August 25, 2023:

  • Former Pittsburgh Penguins forward Adam Johnson has signed a one-year deal with the EIHL’s Nottingham Panthers, according to a team release. Johnson, 29, heads to Britain after spending last season in Germany with the DEL’s Augsburger Panther. There, he tied for fifth in team scoring with seven goals and 15 assists for 22 points in 45 games. An undrafted free agent signing out of the University of Minnesota-Duluth in 2017, Johnson recorded four points in 13 games with Pittsburgh from 2018 to 2020. He last suited up in North America in the AHL in 2021-22, splitting the season between the Ontario Reign and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
  • The ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones have signed OHL standout James Hardie to a one-year contract extension, per a team announcement. Hardie, 21, suited up in two regular-season games and ten playoff games for the Cyclones to conclude last season after finishing his major junior career as captain of the Mississauga Steelheads. After clocking over a point-per-game over the past three seasons with Mississauga, it’s admittedly surprising Hardie wasn’t able to secure an AHL contract, but perhaps a lackluster playoff performance in Cincinnati (just a goal and an assist) hurt his ability to land a contract in North America’s second-highest pro tier. Instead, he’ll again suit up for the new ECHL affiliate of the New York Rangers, hoping to work his way up the pro ladder.

This page will be updated throughout the day.

Winnipeg Jets Announce ECHL Affiliation With Norfolk Admirals

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The Winnipeg Jets have signed a new affiliation agreement with the Norfolk Admirals of the ECHL for the 2023-24 season, according to a team release.

Winnipeg hasn’t had a full-time ECHL affiliate since the 2020-21 season, the last of a four-year partnership with the Jacksonville Icemen. The last two seasons were their first without an ECHL affiliate since the franchise’s inaugural season in Winnipeg in 2011-12.

The Admirals had spent the last two seasons affiliated with the Carolina Hurricanes and the AHL’s Chicago Wolves. The agreement ended this summer, with the Wolves franchise choosing to operate independently of an NHL parent club.

This Norfolk franchise is not the same one some hockey fans will remember from the 2000s and early 2010s. That team played in the AHL from 2000 to 2015, after which they relocated to San Diego to become the Gulls, the current top affiliate of the Anaheim Ducks. The current iteration of the Admirals began in 2015, relocating from Bakersfield to continue playing in the ECHL.

It’s been an extremely tough stretch for the Admirals since relocating, however. They’ve finished well below the .500 mark every season since their inception and are still looking for their first playoff appearance.

They haven’t even cracked the 30-win mark since their inaugural 2015-16 season, but that’s something the Admirals are hoping to change by signing on with the Jets. Admirals general manager and head coach Jeff Carr gave the following statement:

Last year, our organization made a concerted, positive transformation to our on and off-ice product that our incredible city and fanbase has been desperate for. This affiliation helps us build a solid base as we continue to ascend in our new culture. Winnipeg’s dedication to winning and development is no secret in the hockey world. With the depth that Winnipeg has and their view on development, they’re going to be very involved with our roster. We both felt joining forces together with the goals of character, winning, and development outweighed any obstacle of geographical distance.

It certainly will be a haul for any player shuttling between Norfolk and the AHL’s Manitoba Moose. The cities of Winnipeg and Norfolk are separated by a straight-line distance of 1,375 miles and separated by an indirect commercial flight of at least five hours. While most NHL teams have brought their AHL affiliates closer to home over the past decade, it’s still somewhat common for ECHL affiliates to be more than halfway across the continent from their NHL (or AHL) parents.

One player in the Jets organization set to be impacted considerably by this move is goalie prospect Thomas Milic, The Athletic’s Murat Ates notes. Winnipeg’s fifth-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft is set to return to his final season of major junior hockey with the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds in 2023-24 but is a likely candidate for a starting role in the ECHL when he does turn pro. The 20-year-old netminder earned his draft selection after being passed over twice, thanks to winning a gold medal with Canada at the World Juniors and a WHL championship with Seattle last season.

Minor Transactions: 08/22/23

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The start of the season for teams in many overseas professional leagues is rapidly approaching, and many top clubs in Europe are already well underway playing preseason games. For example, the SHL’s Malmö Redhawks and Linköping HC have a preseason match scheduled for later today, as do Rouen Dragons, the reigning French champions. As we inch ever closer to the full start of the season in minor and foreign professional leagues, many teams are still making moves to add players and finalize their plans for the year. As always, we’ll keep track of those transactions here.

  • Veteran forward Niklas Olausson is set to sign with Linköping, according to SportExpressen’s Johan Svensson. The signing would put the 37-year-old forward in a position to eventually play his 500th game at the top level of Swedish hockey, assuming he can stay healthy and in head coach Klas Östman’s nightly lineup. Olausson has played in Linköping before, skating in a total of 64 games across two seasons, 2006-07 and 2007-08. It could be a season of milestones for Olausson, as on top of potentially playing in his 500th game in the SHL, Olausson can also reach other milestones such as his 100th career goal at that level (he currently has 97) and 200th assist (he has 199). At the very least, this signing could give him more stability than he had last year, as he began 2022-23 in the Swiss second division with EHC Basel before transferring to the ICEHL’s Graz99ers in Austria and then finishing the year as a reinforcement for the SHL playoffs with Luleå.
  • 28-year-old defenseman Kyle Pouncy completed his second consecutive season as a regular ECHL player at the end of 2022-23, establishing himself in North America’s third-tier league. Now, he’s off to Scotland to continue his professional career. The six-foot-three Kamloops, BC native has signed with the Dundee Stars of the EIHL, the top tier of professional hockey in the United Kingdom. Pouncy joins former Cincinnati Cyclones defenseman Sean Allen, who signed in Dundee yesterday, as ECHL imports brought to head coach Marc LeFebvre’s squad. In the team release, LeFebvre said Pouncy “skates very well and his game is going to be a great fit for the Olympic ice sheet.” The hope will be that Pouncy can help LeFebvre lead a bounce-back season for Dundee, who finished with just 13 wins in 54 league games last season.
  • The USHL’s Lincoln Stars are looking to make a competitive push for 2023-24 after losing in the league semifinals last spring, and to do so they’ve plucked a solid forward from the Youngstown Phantoms, the reigning USHL champions. The Stars announced their acquisition of forward Justin Varner and a draft pick in exchange for two draft choices. Varner, 19, has spent the last two seasons playing for Youngstown, and has collected 27 points in each campaign. Varner had committed to Michigan State University in November 2022, though he’ll instead now play a third USHL season and spend 2023-24 in Lincoln.
  • Joonas Lohisalo and Sisu Yliniemi, two top-30 scorers in Finland’s premier junior hockey league (U20 SM-Sarja) have been loaned to Hermes Kokkola in Mestis, Finland’s second-tier men’s league, for the 2023-24 campaign. The two 20-year-old prospects belong to Liiga side Kärpät and ranked second and third in scoring, respectively, on the club’s U20 team. Lohisalo is a six-foot-two left winger who played seven games for Hermes last season, scoring three goals and four points. Yliniemi is a five-foot-nine center who scored four points in his five-game run with Hermes last season and even got a one-game Liiga call-up to Kärpät as well.
  • The ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears have signed two second-year players to one-year ECHL contracts: Ryan Cox and Chris Perna. Cox, 25, dipped his toes in the ECHL last spring, playing in 12 games with the Toledo Walleye after the conclusion of his collegiate career with Niagara University. Cox got off to a fast start, scoring 11 points in 12 games, including a six-points-in-three-games performance that earned him ECHL Player of the Week honors. Seeing as he’s leaving a juggernaut Walleye squad for a Solar Bears team that missed the playoffs last season, it’s unlikely that Cox will maintain near point-per-game production next season, though his fast start to his pro career does give hope that he can become a difference-maker for Orlando and help them return to the postseason. As for Perna, he’s a 25-year-old right-shot blueliner who skated in 54 games for the Utah Grizzlies last season, scoring eight points in what was his rookie professional campaign. He played the fourth-most games of any Grizzlies defenseman last season and will be in the mix for a regular role in Orlando this fall.
  • The ECHL’s Iowa Heartlanders have acquired forward Will Calverley from the Florida Everblades in a trade announced today, sending the playing rights to defenseman Riese Zmolek to Florida in return. The 25-year-old Calverley signed with the Everblades at the conclusion of his collegiate career with Merrimack College last season, and the former Rochester Institute of Technology captain turned that amateur tryout agreement into a full-time contract. He scored five points in 12 playoff games en route to Florida’s Kelly Cup title, and will now join the Heartlanders, who send their captain, Zmolek to Florida in return. Zmolek, 26, captained the Heartlanders last season and has skated in 78 total regular-season games in Iowa. He earned 12 AHL games last season as part of call-ups and could play a big role for the Everblades should he sign there.
  • Veteran forward Tanner Sorenson has signed an ECHL contract with the Kalamazoo Wings, returning to North America’s third-tier league after a season spent overseas playing in England. The former ECHL All-Star has played all but three games of his 291-game ECHL career with the Wings, and has scored a total of 218 points. He’s been an above-point-per-game scorer before in the ECHL, and he registered 15 goals and 31 points in 49 games for the EIHL’s Nottingham Panthers last season. He stands a good chance at returning to the top-six role he long occupied in Kalamazoo, and will hope to help them return to the postseason for the first time since 2019.
  • The KHL’s Lada Togliatti acquired netminder Vladislav Podyapolsky from SKA St. Petersburg in a trade today, sending monetary compensation to SKA in return. It’s another big change for Podyapolsky, the one-time KHL All-Star whose struggles last season cost him his role as the starting goalie for Cherepovets Severstal. Podyapolsky posted a .920 save percentage in 2021-22 and for two seasons before that was Severstal’s number-one goalie, but he managed only a .900 save percentage for SKA last season and will now look to get a fresh start with Lada.
  • Slovenian forward Rok Ticar, a regular representative of his country at international tournaments (including the IIHF Men’s World Championships earlier this summer) has signed a contract with the ICEHL’s Vienna Capitals. It’s a major move for Vienna, as they’re securing the services of Austrian rivals EC-KAC’s top scorer from the last two seasons. Ticar, 34, scored 15 goals and 40 points in 43 games last season and brings championship experience, having won the ICEHL in 2020-21.
  • High-flying Russian forward Kirill Tyutyayev signed a one-year contract extension with ECHL Toledo. Although Tyutyayev struggled in the AHL last season, scoring just five points in 30 games for the Grand Rapids Griffins, but he torched the ECHL in Toledo to the tune of 47 points in 31 regular-season games. The 23-year-old 2019 Red Wings draft pick emerged as a lethal offensive creator at the ECHL level and this extension will give him the platform to potentially have a monster campaign for the Walleye and even earn his way back to the ECHL.
  • 2013 Nashville Predators seventh-round pick Wade Murphy signed a one-year contract extension in the ECHL with the Idaho Steelheads. Murphy, 29, had a breakout season in Idaho, emerging as a key scorer during their run to the Kelly Cup final. He potted 21 goals and 43 points in 54 regular-season games and added 12 goals and 20 points in 20 playoff games. That performance has secured him a second season in Idaho, and he’ll likely remain a crucial forward for the Steelheads.

This page will be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 08/19/23

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Even over the weekend, moves from the AHL and other notable leagues are trickling in as teams across the hockey world round out their opening night rosters for 2023-24. Expect continued movement on the minor-league and European league front, especially over the next two weeks, with some seasons kicking off as early as September 1. Here’s a listing of today’s notable minor moves:

  • 2014 Minnesota Wild sixth-round pick Chase Lang is staying with the ECHL’s Indy Fuel for next season, per a release from the club. Lang, now 26, has played in the ECHL since the Wild let him become a UFA after completing his entry-level contract in 2019. The 6-foot-1 forward recorded 20 points and 97 penalty minutes in 45 games for the Fuel last season, finishing second on the team in time spent in the penalty box. Lang hasn’t played an extended AHL role since he skated in 22 games with the Iowa Wild in 2017-18, and he spent the entirety of the final season of his ELC on an ECHL assignment with the Allen Americans. It’ll be a long road back for Lang to earn an AHL contract at this stage, let alone an NHL deal.

This page will be updated throughout the day.

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