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Adam Johnson Passes Away

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Former NHL forward Adam Johnson has tragically passed away after suffering a major medical emergency during a game last night with the EIHL’s Nottingham Panthers. Nottingham confirmed his passing this morning after Johnson suffered a cut during a game against the Sheffield Steelers last night. The 29-year-old was attended to by medical personnel as fans were asked to leave the arena after the incident had occurred. A statement from Johnson’s former NHL team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, can be found here.

The unfortunate sequence of events started with a collision at center ice that caused Johnson to suffer an injury to his throat. The players from both teams formed a circle around him before screens were brought onto the ice as paramedics attended to him. This morning the Panthers released an official statement saying:

The Nottingham Panthers are truly devastated to announce that Adam Johnson has tragically passed away following a freak accident at the game in Sheffield last night. The club will dearly miss him and will never forget him. Adam, our number 47, was not only an outstanding ice hockey player but also a great team-mate and an incredible person with his whole life ahead of him.

The full statement is available here.

Johnson was born in Minnesota and was in his first season in the Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL) after joining the Panthers this offseason. He began playing as a professional in 2017 after spending two years at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, where he won an NCHC championship in 2017. He spent the first three years of his pro career with the Penguins organization and did dress in some NHL games with the club, posting a goal and three assists in 13 games spread over two NHL seasons. In his AHL career, Johnson dressed in 257 career AHL games with the Ontario Reign, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. He registered 50 career AHL goals and 87 assists.

Former NHLer Matt Cullen told Rob Rossi of The Athletic that Johnson was “An unreal kid, just a great guy. A salt-of-the-earth kind of guy. So humble and a very easy person to be around. He’s one of those guys who just loves the game and being around the rink with the guys.”

PHR joins the entire hockey world in mourning the passing of Adam Johnson. Our condolences to the Johnson family and all of his teammates, friends, and peers.

Minor Transactions: 10/05/23

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With the start of the NHL regular season now under a week away, the opening-night rosters of many NHL teams are coming more and more into view. That has a trickle-down effect for the rest of pro hockey, as a player finding out he won’t have his PTO made into a full-time NHL deal could prompt that player to sign a contract with an overseas team, for example. This, alongside the ups and downs of early-season hockey in top pro leagues overseas, has prompted quite a bit of player movement and as always we’ll keep track of those transactions here.

  • Seven years after he was selected fifth overall at the 2016 NHL draft, former Vancouver Canucks defenseman Olli Juolevi has made the decision to return to Europe to continue his professional career. The 25-year-old Helsinki native has signed a short-term contract with the SHL’s Timrå IK, a club off to a strong 4-2 start. The deal is set to last until Liiga’s November break. Juolevi had previously been playing for the Arizona Coyotes on a PTO but failed to earn a full-time contract in Arizona after a few preseason contests. Last season was Juolevi’s first since the year he made his NHL debut that he didn’t skate in a single game at the NHL level, and he ultimately played in 38 games for the San Diego Gulls, scoring 14 points.
  • 2022 Arizona Coyotes second-round pick Julian Lutz has made an interesting move for his development, leaving defending DEL champions EHC Red Bull München in order to play USHL hockey for the Green Bay Gamblers. It’s a somewhat unusual move, as traditionally players move from developmental leagues into top professional leagues, not the other way around. But this move is somewhat understandable for Lutz, who has been buried in a depth role on a stacked Munich team. Going to Green Bay will allow the six-foot-two, 185-pound winger to play against his peers, and will give him the opportunity to have a monster season and put up the kind of box score numbers his resume currently sorely lacks.
  • Former WHL and AHL star Brendan Ranford has signed a one-year contract with HC Slovan Bratislava, the club he previously represented for the 2020-21 season. Since leaving the AHL for Europe in late 2018, Ranford has become an impactful, top-line scorer in three different European leagues. He’s spent the last two seasons in the DEL, posting 95 points across 95 total games. Slovan are likely signing Ranford with the hope of adding an elite scorer, which is what Ranford was when he last played in Slovakia, as he scored 12 goals and 32 points in just 29 games. The historic club based in Slovakia’s capital have gotten off to a slow 2-3-1 start in this 2023-24 Tipos Extraliga season, so perhaps this move will give the club the spark it needs to resume its place among the country’s elite clubs.
  • The ECHL’s Idaho Steelheads have signed two forwards just at the start of their pro careers: Nick Nardella and Daniel Hardie. Nardella, 24, signed an ATO with the Cincinnati Cyclones last season at the conclusion of his NCAA career with Michigan Tech. He ended up scoring one assist in four games in Cincinnati before he moved to the Iowa Heartlanders, where he impressed scoring three goals in three games. Now, he’ll head to Idaho alongside Hardie, who hasn’t yet made his pro debut but was once the leading scorer of a QMJHL team, the 2018-19 Charlottetown Islanders.
  • Former College hockey star Trevor Mingoia, once an NCAA Champion with Providence College, has had his contract with Liiga’s Kärpät terminated by mutual agreement. This wasn’t the winger’s first go-around in the top division of Finnish hockey, although Mingoia’s time with KooKoo Kouvola from 2019-2021 was notably more successful. Mingoia spent two seasons with KooKoo and scored a total of 27 goals and 64 points in 73 games. Kärpät were likely optimistic they would get that kind of form out of Mingoia after he starred for two seasons in the DEL with the Wolfsburg Grizzlys, helping them to the DEL semifinals last season, but it wasn’t to be and now both parties will look elsewhere moving forward.
  • Veteran Swedish forward Robin Alvarez has decided to test himself playing in Finland for the first time in his career, signing a one-year contract with Ilves Tampere of Liiga. The 36-year-old veteran has exclusively played in his native Sweden so far in his career and has logged over 700 career games combined between the SHL and HockeyAllsvenskan levels. Alvarez brings extensive Champions Hockey League experience to Ilves, having played a total of 31 games in the prestigious European tournament. Ilves currently sit fourth in the Liiga table and are looking to gain ground on their neighbors Tappara Tampere, the defending Liiga and Champions Hockey League winners.
  • Defenseman Teemu Suhonen, once a star blueliner for Jukurit Mikkeli in both its Liiga and Mestis days, has signed a one-month contract with a rival Liiga club: Vaasan Sport. The undersized 34-year-old defenseman spent last season with Liiga’s JYP, scoring 15 points in 46 games. Sport said in its announcement of the deal that the club needed to act quickly to respond to an injury to defenseman Carl-Johan Lerby, and their signing of Suhonen should help the team survive Lerby’s absence.
  • Slovakia’s HK Nitra have agreed on an early contract termination with forward Patrick Bajkov, a key summer signing of the club. Nitra were likely hoping that Bajkov’s prolific scoring at the ECHL level (he managed 69 points in 71 games for the Reading Royals in 2021-22) would translate to the top level of Slovak pro hockey. That hasn’t happened, though, and Bajkov will now conclude his tenure with Nitra at six games, a run where he failed to register a point and found himself tagged with a minus-seven plus-minus rating. Bajkov last played for Nitra in their October 1st contest, but skated under 2:30 of total ice time as the club fell by a 9-3 score. As Nitra seek a reboot after a catastrophic start to the season, it’s been agreed upon by both parties that ending Bajkov’s contract is the best path forward for each side, especially seeing as a replacement for Bajkov, Stephen Harper, was brought in a few days ago.
  • The so far undefeated Cardiff Devils have made an addition to their forward corps, signing power forward Brandon Alderson to an EIHL contract. The six-foot-three, 194-pound veteran has been a point-per-game scorer in the OHL, ECHL, DEL2, and Slovak league, and is coming off of an exceptional campaign playing third-division pro hockey in Germany. Alderson scored a whopping 37 goals and 79 points for the Hannover Scorpions, and Cardiff are likely hoping that his track record of high-scoring numbers can translate to the top division of pro hockey in the United Kingdom.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 09/21/23

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As NHL training camps officially open, the professional hockey season is finally getting started in North America. While there’s still a way to go before the regular season begins in the NHL, AHL, or ECHL, we can finally see puck drop on the horizon.

In Europe, the pro hockey season is fully underway, and today’s slate of games featured numerous notable moments. Philadelphia Flyers top prospect Matvei Michkov scored an electric game-winning goal for Sochi in the KHL, while historic Finnish club Jokerit earned a long-awaited victory on the back of an overtime goal from Leevi Lemberg. It was Jokerit’s first victory in the Finnish hockey system (they play in the second division, Mestis) since 2014, before the club left Liiga for the KHL.

Teams in Europe and North America are still completing transactions to add players or otherwise modify their rosters, and as always we’ll keep track of those moves here:

  • The potential number-one pick in the 2025 NHL draft, James Hagens, announced his college commitment on social media. He and his brother, Michael, have committed to play NCAA hockey at Boston College. The Eagles already boast a wealth of highly-drafted prospects on their roster, such as 2023 fourth-overall pick Will Smith and 2022 fifth-overall pick Cutter Gauthier. While both of those names are likely to be in the NHL by the time Hagens arrives on campus, Hagens’ commitment ensures that Boston College’s pipeline of elite NHL prospects will remain intact.
  • Former Chicago Blackhawk Buddy Robinson signed a one-year contract with Traktor Chelyabinsk in the KHL. For Robinson, 31, this will be his first opportunity to play for an overseas club in his pro career. The six-foot-six physical winger played in 52 games for the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs last season, scoring 20 points. He also played in nine NHL games, and has 62 total NHL games on his resume. In the late 2010’s Robinson was a productive AHL scorer, potting 25 goals and 53 points in 74 games for the Manitoba Moose in 2017-18. But that scoring has dried up as he’s reached his late twenties and early thirties, and that could have contributed as to why Robinson has elected to sign in the KHL rather than continue in North America.
  • Saku Mäenalanen, who played 64 games for the Winnipeg Jets last season, was supposed to be spending training camp with the Colorado Avalanche on a PTO. But he reportedly failed his physical and was released from that deal. So instead of in Colorado, Mäenalanen will hit the ice in Switzerland, where he’s signed a three-year contract with the SCL Tigers of the National League. Mäenalanen has yet to play in the Swiss NL, but he has extensive experience overseas in both Liiga and the KHL. Mäenalanen has won a Liiga championship, a IIHF Men’s World Championship gold medal, and an Olympic gold medal, and now he’ll join his former Charlotte Checkers teammate Aleksi Saarela in Switzerland.
  • Fans of the Florida Panthers or Springfield Thunderbirds might recognize the name of Finnish winger Henrik Haapala from the 25 games he played in North America for those clubs in 2017-18. While Hapaala didn’t last long in the NHL or AHL, he went on to have a productive career in Europe. This past season, Hapaala scored at a point-per-game rate for Ilves Tampere in Liiga, and now he’s headed to Switzerland to continue his career. The 29-year-old has signed a one-month tryout contract with HC Genève-Servette, the reigning Swiss champions.
  • HPK Hämeenlinna of the Finnish Liiga have signed two defenders to contracts: veteran Juuso Pulli and 26-year-old Elias Ulander. Pulli spent last season with Vaasan Sport in Liiga, skating in 52 games and scoring seven points. He’s collected three Liiga bronze medals in his career and was once an alternate captain for Ilves Tampere. Ulander spent last season with HK Spisska Nova Ves in the Slovak league, and has had success in Finland before, such as in 2016-17 when he was named the U20 SM-Liiga’s best defenseman. Pulli’s contract is a one-year deal with a tryout option through November, while Ulander is on a tryout deal.
  • 2017 Anaheim Ducks fourth-round pick Kyle Olson has signed a one-year contract with the ECHL’s Reading Royals. Despite scoring at above a point-per-game rate in his final two WHL campaigns, Olson did not receive an entry-level deal from the Ducks and instead signed an AHL contract with the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins in 2020. Olson has spent the last three seasons in Pennsylvania and managed 12 goals and 21 points in 71 games in 2021-22. This past year, Olson’s production tanked, and he only managed six points in 55 games. He’s now signed with the Royals in the ECHL, likely with the hope that he’ll have a productive season in North America’s third-tier league and work his way back into the AHL.
  • The ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits have signed a one-year contract extension with 23-year-old Brett Kemp, ensuring one of the league’s more productive young talents will remain with the only ECHL franchise he’s ever known. Kemp, who once scored 77 points in 62 WHL games for the Medicine Hat Tigers has compiled 82 points in 76 career ECHL games. He’ll now be able to return to Greenville and will likely remain one of the team’s top scorers as he looks to earn more AHL call-ups to the Ontario Reign.
  • Former Baie-Comeau Drakkar scorer Jordan Martel was one of the ECHL’s breakout players last season, scoring 18 goals and 44 points in just 45 games for the Utah Grizzlies. The team confirmed he’d be returning for the 2023-24 season today, signing Martel to a one-year ECHL deal.  Martel hadn’t found much success in pro hockey until he arrived in Utah, and now he’ll have the chance to build some continuity and momentum in Utah as the team chases its fifth consecutive playoff berth.
  • The ECHL’s Toledo Walleye have signed Chase Gresock to a one-year contract, according to an official announcement. The 25-year-old forward dipped his toes into the waters of pro hockey last season, skating in two games for the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda at the conclusion of his collegiate career. Gresock was an effective NCAA player, captaining Merrimack College and scoring 31 points in 36 games for Bowling Green State in his final collegiate campaign.
  • Fiery Wheeling Nailers winger Cam Hausinger has re-signed with the only ECHL team he’s ever played for. The 24-year-old will play a third season in West Virginia and is coming off a solid 2022-23 season. He didn’t play in as many ECHL games as the year before, but he still scored 19 points in 23 games for the Nailers to go alongside his 70 penalty minutes. Hausinger also earned AHL call-ups with two franchises, the Iowa Wild and Milwaukee Admirals. It was with Milwaukee where Hausinger scored his first AHL goal, and his hope will be to get some more AHL contests under his belt in 2023-24.
  • Star scorer Johnny Curran has transferred to the most dominant club in the EIHL, signing a one-year contract with the Belfast Giants. The 28-year-old forward, who represents the United Kingdom internationally, has scored 126 career points in 155 EIHL games. He’s thus far only suited up for the Coventry Blaze, but now will get to join a Champions Hockey League-caliber team that took home the EIHL title last season.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 09/03/23

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The season has started for many teams across Europe, but there are still a handful of transactions trickling in as squads make last-minute moves. There’s also still some activity on the AHL and ECHL wires as they fill out their rosters ahead of training camps. As always, we’re keeping track of today’s notable minor moves here.

  • Once a QMJHL and Memorial Cup champion with the Acadie-Bathurst Titan in 2018, forward Mitchell Balmas is heading overseas for the first time on a one-year deal with the Sheffield Steelers in the EIHL. The 25-year-old Nova Scotian had a tough first full season in pro hockey in 2022-23, recording just two goals and three points in 34 games with the AHL’s Iowa Wild. He’s shown the ability to be productive at lower levels, however, posting solid numbers with Saint Mary’s University in Canada and recording 16 points in 21 ECHL games across the last two seasons.

This page may be updated throughout the day.

 

Minor Transactions: 08/27/23

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Things may be awfully slow on the NHL news front today, but there are still a few transactions from other leagues worth mentioning. Here’s a listing of notable minor transactions for August 27, 2023:

  • Former New York Rangers forward prospect Jake Elmer has found a home for next season, signing a one-year deal in Scotland with the Dundee Stars of the EIHL. Elmer, 24, signed an entry-level deal with New York in 2019 out of the WHL after going undrafted, a contract he spent most of in the ECHL before going unqualified upon expiration in 2022. He spent most of last season in Slovakia with Extraliga club HK Nitra, where he recorded nine goals, seven assists and 16 points in 29 games. It was a tough transition to the North American pro circuit for Elmer, who lit up the WHL in his final season with the Lethbridge Hurricanes, scoring 81 points in 68 games.

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.

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: 08/02/23

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The few notable NHL signings that remain are set to wrap up in the next few days with the conclusion of arbitration hearings. It may bring the North American major pro news cycle to a halt briefly, but junior, minor pro and European teams are still making waves daily as their seasons loom. Today’s notable minor transactions can be found here:

  • The OHL’s Oshawa Generals are bringing over Minnesota Wild center prospect Rasmus Kumpulainen for the 2023-24 campaign after selecting him 13th overall in this year’s CHL Import Draft, according to a release from his team in the Finnish Liiga, Pelicans. Minnesota selected Kumpulainen with the 53rd overall pick of the 2023 NHL Draft after he notched 11 goals, 23 assists and 34 points in 41 games with Pelicans’ junior team in the U20 SM-sarja. Kumpulainen had a strong finish to the 2022-23 campaign at the IIHF U-18 World Junior Championship, recording five points in five games for Finland. A prototypical two-way center, Kumpulainen will continue to build on his offense and fill out his 6-foot-3 frame during his time in Oshawa. Pelicans also mentioned they’d reached an agreement to retain Kumpulainen’s Liiga rights through 2026.
  • Former Arizona Coyotes and Boston Bruins defense prospect Mitchell Miller is continuing his hockey career, but as expected, it’s not in North America. His 2016 assault conviction of a Black classmate with developmental disabilities has now cost him two NHL roles – including Boston parting ways with him just two days after signing him in free agency back in November. Late last month, the New York Post’s Larry Brooks reported the contract between Miller and the Bruins had officially been terminated via settlement. He’s now signed a one-year deal with HK 32 Liptovský Mikuláš in the Slovak Extraliga, per NorthStar Bets’ Chris Johnston.
  • Long-time Buffalo Sabres organizational farmhand Sean Malone is heading overseas, signing a two-year deal with NL club SCL Tigers. Malone had spent five of his six pro seasons in the Sabres organization after graduating from Harvard but got into just one NHL game with Buffalo during that time. He’d been an important top-six fixture for the AHL’s Rochester Americans, though, helping along Buffalo’s young prospects as they developed through their system. The 28-year-old center now heads to Switzerland, where he joins an offense led by Florida Panthers prospect Aleksi Saarela and former New Jersey Devil Harri Pesonen.
  • Forward Daniel Walcott is returning to the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch on a one-year deal, according to NHL.com’s Patrick Williams. A 2014 draft pick of the New York Rangers, they dealt Walcott to the Tampa Bay Lightning just a year later after signing his entry-level contract. He’s spent eight seasons with the Crunch since then, amassing 111 points across 378 games. Walcott does have one NHL appearance to his name, coming with the Lightning in 2020-21. The physical winger, who’s also played defense at times during his career, mustered a personal record of 13 goals, 32 points, and 103 penalty minutes in 67 games for Syracuse last season.
  • The OHL’s Niagara IceDogs acquired Montreal Canadiens defense prospect Daniil Sobolev from the Windsor Spitfires in exchange for three late-round 2024 OHL Draft picks today, according to a team release. Montreal drafted the physical shutdown defender with the 142nd overall pick in 2021 after he didn’t play at all in his draft year – the 2020-21 OHL season was canceled entirely due to COVID-19. Since, he’s registered three goals, 23 assists, 26 points, 92 penalty minutes, and a +37 rating in 110 games across two seasons with the Spitfires. To finish off his junior career, Sobolev joins an IceDogs team that’s finished at the bottom of the league in each of the last three seasons, winning just 12 of 68 games last season.
  • Kumpulainen isn’t the only NHL-affiliated European prospect heading to the CHL today. Carolina Hurricanes goalie prospect Jakub Vondras has committed to the OHL’s Sudbury Wolves for next season after they selected him 22nd overall in this year’s CHL Import Draft, per the league. Vondras, a sixth-round pick of Carolina in 2022, posted a sparkling .929 save percentage and 2.19 goals-against average in 29 games with HC Plzen’s U20 club in the Czech junior Extraliga last season.
  • The AHL’s Chicago Wolves have re-signed defenseman Cavan Fitzgerald to a one-year AHL contract. This move confirms that Fitzgerald, 26, will play a fourth consecutive season with Chicago. The undrafted left-shot blueliner scored 10 points in 30 games for the Wolves last season and played 17 playoff games during the team’s Calder Cup Championship run in 2022. He has 250 games of AHL experience under his belt, meaning he is just ten games away from no longer qualifying under the first tier of “development players” according to the AHL’s rules. As a result, 2023-24 is an extremely important season for Fitzgerald as he’ll need to provide consistent value for the Wolves in order to prove he’s worthy of a non-developmental player slot moving forward. AHL clubs are limited in that they can only dress five skaters who do not qualify as development players under either of the two pro games played thresholds.
  • Former Coyotes prospect Lucas Lessio has signed a one-year contract with the ICEHL’s Bolzano Foxes, making Italy the eleventh different country he’ll have played professional hockey in. Lessio, 30, has played around the world, from Croatia to China to Latvia to Germany, and spent last season playing for Klagenfurt in Austria. He didn’t score as well for Klagenfurt (14 goals, 28 points in 47 games) as he did the year before in the DEL for the Krefeld Penguins (25 goals, 41 points in 56 games) but wasn’t useless either, and will likely play an important role for the ICEHL finalists in Bolzano.
  • The Calder Cup champion Hershey Bears have signed defenseman Colin Swoyer to a one-year AHL contract. The 25-year-old spent most of last season playing AHL hockey for the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins, scoring 11 points in 36 games. Swoyer was a pending RFA for the Penguins but did not receive a qualifying offer from the organization. He did also play six games in the ECHL for the Wheeling Nailers, although those games all came in early December and after being called up for a December 17th contest against the Bears Swoyer didn’t return to the ECHL. 2022-23 was Swoyer’s first full season playing professional hockey, as he concluded his four-year NCAA career at Michigan Tech last spring and only got a five-game trial run with the Penguins before the season ended. Now he’ll head to Hershey looking to continue to establish himself in the AHL.
  • The AHL’s San Diego Gulls have signed two players to one-year AHL contracts: veteran forward Eddie Matsushima and rookie Anthony Costantini. Matsushima, 29, scored 28 goals and 47 points for the Tulsa Oilers last season, earning ECHL All-Star honors. He played NCAA Division-III hockey at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls and worked his way into professional hockey starting with the Pensacola Ice Flyers of the SPHL. He produced well enough there to earn a few cameos in the ECHL before breaking in full-time with Tulsa. Now, he’ll get a chance to continue his climb up the pro hockey ladder and skate in some AHL games. As for Costantini, he’s a 20-year-old right-shot blueliner who scored 36 points in 67 games for the Ottawa 67’s of the OHL and could now be making his pro debut with the Gulls.
  • The AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds have added some depth, signing 26-year-old Jacob Hayhurst to a one-year AHL contract. Hayhurst split last season between the ECHL’s Worcester Railers (22 points in 35 games) and AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds, where he played in a depth role and scored six points in 24 games. He’ll likely end up on the AHL/ECHL bubble for the Firebirds as well next season, serving as valuable depth as well as some veteran competition for prospects entering their first AHL campaigns such as Ryan Winterton and Tucker Robertson.
  • Rihards Bukarts, the leading scorer of the Latvian team that won the hockey-mad country their first-ever medal at an IIHF Men’s World Championship earlier this summer, will not be returning to his club of last season, Klagenfurt of the ICEHL. Bukarts, 27, scored 13 goals and 25 points in 28 games in Austria and as mentioned finished his season on a very high note, leading the Latvians with 11 points in 10 games. Bukarts has experience as a scorer in ICEHL, DEL, KHL, and Czechia, and last played in North America in 2016-17, when he scored 33 points in 37 games for the ECHL’s Manchester Monarchs.
  • Longtime University of Wisconsin forward Dominik Mersch and former Barrie Colts captain Luke Bignell have each signed ECHL contracts with the Jacksonville Icemen. Mersch, 24, concluded a five-year, 164-game career with the Badgers in March and got a two-game cameo in the AHL with the Chicago Wolves, his first taste of pro hockey. He’ll make his full-time debut as a professional player with the Icemen, as will Bignell. The 22-year-old left-shot defenseman played nearly 200 games in the OHL for the Colts and has spent the last two seasons playing on the Canadian university circuit for the University of Guelph.
  • Undrafted OHL blueliner Lleyton Moore, the former captain of the Oshawa Generals, will begin his pro career with the ECHL’s Wichita Thunder. He signed a one-year contract with the team and will look to translate his impressive numbers from major junior (he scored 54 points in 67 games in 2021-22) to the pro game in Kansas.
  • Bruising ECHL defenseman Josh Thrower, a veteran of nearly 250 games in North America’s third-tier league, has signed a one-year ECHL contract with the Norfolk Admirals. The 27-year-old played in 39 games with the Atlanta Gladiators last season and has spent three of the past four seasons with the club. Now he’s off to play for the Admirals where he will contend to lead the team in penalty minutes having already racked up 389 in the ECHL.
  • Former Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Stephen Desrocher has signed with the Fife Flyers of the EIHL. The six-foot-four defenseman and former Kingston Frontenacs captain heads to Scotland having played just 31 total games of pro hockey. He played four seasons and spent five years at the University of Western Ontario before signing in the ECHL with the Florida Everblades. He made his pro debut there and lifted the Kelly Cup with the team. He played 10 games in the AlpsHL last season with Merano HC and now heads to the United Kingdom to continue his young pro career.

This page will be updated throughout the day.

Minor Transactions: 07/28/23

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Today’s been quite a busy day for player movement around the world of pro hockey, as numerous teams in the many pro leagues are looking to secure quality players for next season. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable moves made in those minor and foreign leagues.

  • Minor-league goalie Dylan Ferguson got his first real shot in the NHL last season, starting two games for the Ottawa Senators in March and posting a .940 save percentage. But despite that significant career achievement, Ferguson only played in a total of 15 games in 2022-23, and now he’s headed overseas likely with the hope of seeing more consistent time in the crease. He’s signed a contract with Dynamo Minsk in the KHL, where he will likely battle Philadelphia Flyers prospect Alexei Kolosov for starts next season.
  • Former AHL netminder Jussi Olkinoura has collected quite a few team accomplishments in his playing career such as a Champions Hockey League title, an Olympic gold medal, and two World Championship golds. 2022-23 wasn’t his best year, though, as his club team, Brynäs IF, were relegated from the SHL to Sweden’s second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan. Olkinoura, 32, won’t remain with Brynäs as they seek promotion, as he’s signed a contract with the Lahti Pelicans of the Finnish Liiga. Olkinoura has played with the Pelicans before, posting a .910 save percentage in 39 games as their number-one starter in 2018-19. Despite making it all the way to Liiga’s finals the Pelicans were in need of a new starting goalie as their previous one, Patrik Bartošák, signed a two-year deal in Czechia. Now Olkinoura will join 23-year-old Jasper Patrikainen (.905 save percentage in 30 games in 2022-23) to form the Pelicans’ goalie tandem.
  • 2008 second-round pick and former Hobey Baker Award finalist Danny Kristo has signed with the EIHL’s Coventry Blaze. The contract completes a transfer from the Sheffield Steelers, an EIHL rival of the Blaze for whom Kristo played the 2022-23 campaign. Although the 33-year-old Minnesota native translated his scoring as a college hockey star at the University of North Dakota to the AHL level (he hit 20 goals in the AHL in three consecutive seasons from 2013-14 to 2015-16) he couldn’t quite do enough to break into the NHL, and he left to play overseas in late 2017. Kristo has since played in Latvia, Sweden, Switzerland, China, Germany, Czechia, and Slovakia, and has now settled in as a quality scorer in the United Kingdom’s top pro league. Kristo scored 12 goals and 30 points for the Steelers last season and will now head to Coventry hoping to help them make a more convincing run in the league’s playoffs.
  • Longtime minor league veteran Colton Saucerman’s return to North America proved to be short-lived, as the 31-year-old right-shot defenseman has signed a contract in England with Sheffield. After featuring in the ECHL since late 2016 and earning 41 total AHL games, Saucerman left for Europe in 2020 to sign with Austria’s HC Innsbruck of the ICEHL. He played well in Austria and earned a deal with HC Kosice in Slovakia, where he would also put together a strong campaign. That got him an ECHL contract with the Allen Americans for 2022-23, and he led their blueliners in scoring with 38 points in 63 games. Now, Saucerman is headed to England for the first time in his career to likely play a significant role on the Steelers’ defense.
  • Former San Jose Sharks netminder Alexei Melnichuk has signed a one-year contract with the KHL’s Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, the club he was traded to a little over a week ago. Melnichuk, 25, is an undrafted netminder who signed with the Sharks in 2020 and ended up playing nearly 50 games in the AHL for the San Jose Barracuda. He could only manage a .867 save percentage across that sample size in the AHL, meaning he eventually was sent down to the ECHL before heading back to Russia for 2022-23. Melnichuk played bounced between three KHL clubs last season and with this signing he’ll get the chance to fight for some stability, as he’ll battle with former New York Rangers netminder Adam Huska and incumbent starter Ivan Kulbakov (.926 save percentage in 42 KHL games in 2022-23) for time in the crease for Torpedo.
  • Former Quinnipac University blueliner and Sharks 2015 fifth-round pick Kārlis Čukste has signed a one-year contract to play in HockeyAllsvenskan with Brynäs IF. Čukste is fresh off of representing his home country of Latvia at the 2023 IIHF Men’s World Championships, helping them on a historic run that earned the hockey-mad country their best-ever performance. The six-foot-three 26-year-old stay-at-home defenseman is entering the fourth season of his professional career, and spent last year earning regular minutes for HC Oceláři Třinec in the Czech Extraliga. Čukste also brings experience from Liiga, the KHL, AHL, and ECHL to the table and will hope to help Brynäs fend off other top HockeyAllsvenskan clubs such as Djurgårdens IF to earn instant promotion back to the SHL.
  • Danish international Niklas Andersen, who has represented his home country at two IIHF Men’s World Championships, has left the Fischtown Pinguins to sign with a rival DEL club, the Augsburg Panthers. The 25-year-old forward was a high scorer in two consecutive seasons in the Danish league for Esbjerg before earning his first shot in the DEL with Fischtown. Andersen’s debut season in Germany was exceptional, as he scored 14 goals and 27 points in just 34 games. He’s not matched that total in the past two seasons, though, scoring 11 goals and 22 points in 52 games in 2021-22 and 11 goals and 20 points in 41 games last season. With this signing, he joins an Augsburg team in need of competent veteran talent, as they only narrowly avoided relegation in 2022-23.
  • Recently-promoted Slovak Extraliga side HC 19 Humenne have signed former Colorado Avalanche prospect and four-time KHL All-Star Denis Parshin to a deal for the 2022-23 season. Parshin, 37, brings 658 games of KHL experience to the table as well as experience representing Russia in international play. He’s played 82 total games in the Slovak league across three different seasons, all for HC Kosice, including 2022-23 when he scored 28 points in 34 games.
  • Physical center James Phelan racked up over 100 penalty minutes in 62 ECHL games for the Trois-Rivières Lions last season, and now he’s headed to Scotland to continue his pro career. He’s signed with the Dundee Stars in the EIHL, bringing nearly 100 games of ECHL experience as well as 47 career AHL games. Phelan hasn’t been much of a scorer at the pro level, but the 26-year-old plays with an edge and has some history of scoring from his days playing major junior hockey in the QMJHL.
  • Liiga’s KalPa Kuopio have re-signed two regulars from 2022-23 to their 2023-24 roster: Matyáš Kantner and Anton Karlsson. Karlsson, 30, is a former AHLer with the Cleveland Monsters who logged 49 games for KalPa last season. He’s a former everyday SHLer who ranked eighth among KalPa blueliners averaging 13:41 TOI per game last season. Kantner, 25, is a big winger who transferred mid-season from the Czech Extraliga and scored nine points in 17 regular-season games and three points in KalPa’s playoff series loss to the Pelicans.
  • A three-player trade was completed in the ECHL today, with the Tulsa Oilers acquiring Max Kaufman and Tristan Thompson from the Savannah Ghost Pirates in exchange for Alex Gilmour. Gilmour, 27, is a six-foot-five power forward who scored 16 goals and 40 points for Tulsa as an ECHL rookie in 2021-22 but struggled as a sophomore and only scored 18 points in 56 games. The hope for Savannah will be that a change of scenery will unlock the potential Gilmour flashed as a rookie, while in exchange for him Tulsa is adding Kaufman, 27, a former Boston University Terrier who scored 20 points in 57 games last season, and Thompson, 26, an undersized offensive defenseman who led Ghost Pirates defensemen in scoring as a sophomore player with 42 points in 72 games.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 07/26/23

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Today’s been quite a busy day for player movement around the world of pro hockey, as numerous teams in the many pro leagues are looking to secure quality players for next season. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable moves made in those minor and foreign leagues.

  • Michael Frolík, the 2006 10th overall pick and a veteran of over 850 NHL games has signed with Rytíři Kladno, his hometown team in the Czech Extraliga. This is the second longtime NHL player who has secured his place in Kladno for next season this week, as captain Tomáš Plekanec re-signed with the club on July 24th. Frolík, now 35, last played in North America on a PTO with the St. Louis Blues, though he ultimately failed to make the team in St. Louis and chose to sign with Lausanne in the Swiss National League. This past season Frolík made the move to his home country in Czechia, and ended up scoring 24 points in 48 games for Bílí Tygři Liberec. Now, he’ll join Plekanec as an expected top player for his hometown team in Kladno.
  • 182-game NHL veteran Michael Chaput, a longtime NHL-AHL tweener, has had his contract terminated with his KHL club, Kazakhstan’s Barys Astana. Chaput wasn’t available for most of 2022-23, meaning he only played in 10 games in the KHL, scoring three goals. It was his first campaign overseas after a long pro career in the NHL and AHL, and as recently as 2021-22 Chaput was a productive AHLer. He scored 33 points in 57 games for the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins that year and could potentially return to the AHL now that he’s a free agent.
  • Yesterday, the defending Calder Cup champion Hershey Bears signed a top-scoring ECHL rookie to a one-year AHL contract. The team signed 25-year-old former Yale University and UConn center Kevin O’Neil, rewarding him with an AHL contract after he scored 50 points in 53 games for their ECHL affiliate, the South Carolina Stingrays. The five-foot-eleven center was never all that productive playing college hockey (he scored 60 points in 130 career games) but ever since making his pro debut he’s been on a roll. He got a ten-game cameo late last season with the Stingrays and scored 10 points, and now has scored at a near point-per-game rate his rookie year while also earning two AHL call-ups. The real test for this fall will be seeing if he can push for a more regular spot in the AHL with Hershey, and now with this contract he’ll have the chance to do just that.
  • The AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms, affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers, signed former UConn and Notre Dame captain Adam Karashik to a one-year AHL contract extension, securing his place with the team for 2023-24. 2022-23 was Karashik’s first full season as a professional hockey player, and although he began in the ECHL by the time he was called up to Lehigh Valley in early January he didn’t look back. Karashik was a regular in the Phantoms’ lineup for both February and March, and ended his season with 23 games played in the AHL. This extension gives Karashik the chance to continue establishing himself as a regular at the AHL level.
  • The Rochester Americans, AHL affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres, have signed ECHL defenseman Brandon Fortunato to a one-year AHL contract. Fortunato, 27, spent last season with the ECHL’s Jacksonville IceMen, scoring 23 points in 48 games. Fortunato in total has played in over 130 ECHL games and has played in 23 AHL games, though the most recent were in 2021-22.
  • 28-year-old winger Jimmy Soper successfully worked his way from the fourth-tier SPHL to the ECHL in 2021-22, going from 22 points in 47 games with the SPHL’s Macon Mayhem to an impressive 43 points in 69 games with the ECHL’s Tulsa Oilers. Although Soper’s time in Tulsa ended last season via a trade to the Rapid City Rush, Soper played well enough to secure his spot in the ECHL for next season. He’s signed a one-year contract extension with the Rush after scoring 19 points in 28 games there, and now based on how productive he’s been in the ECHL over the past two seasons it seems he may have put the SPHL firmly in the past of his career.
  • St. Cloud State defenseman Ondřej Trejbal is turning pro, having finished his four-year career in college hockey. The 24-year-old Czech blueliner will bring some size (six-foot-three) and nearly 130 games of NCAA experience to his first pro destination: Liiga’s SaiPa. The club announced a one-year contract for Trejbal containing a trial period until September 2023 as well as a club option to extend the contract through next season as well. It’ll be a major step up in competition level for Trejbal to go from playing college hockey against his peers to Liiga hockey against seasoned professionals, though it’ll also be a major opportunity for him to start his pro career in an exceptional league. The team also announced that Finnish defenseman Atso Lehtinen, who finished 2022-23 with SaiPa but spent most of the season in second-tier Mestis, would not see his tryout period result in a full-time contract.
  • 22-year-old former Erie Otters star Maxim Golod finished his third season as a full-time pro player on a low note, scoring just one point in his final five games. He couldn’t quite build up momentum with the ECHL’s Indy Fuel the same way he did with the Tulsa Oilers, where he scored 43 points in 42 games, and now he’s made the decision to sign in Sweden’s HockeyAllsvenskan rather than return to the ECHL. He’s signed with the Nybro Vikings and the hope will be for him to be a top offensive player just as he was at times in the OHL and ECHL.
  • 29-year-old former ECHL First-Team All-Star Patrick Watling is transferring from Slovakia to the United Kingdom. The center has signed a one-year deal with the EIHL’s Sheffield Steelers, and according to the team release will pursue an MBA degree at a local university while also playing for the Steelers. Watling hasn’t yet played in the EIHL, and 2022-23 was his first as an overseas pro player, but given the fact that he was relatively productive in Slovakia (30 points in 34 games across two teams) and scored a whopping 77 points in 55 games for the Wheeling Nailers in his most recent AHL season, he’ll be a likely candidate to compete for the scoring lead for the Steelers.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

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