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Minor Transactions: 07/25/23

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

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

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Minor Transactions: 07/24/23

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It’s another busy Monday in the wide world of professional hockey, with quite a few players either finding new teams for next season or securing new contracts with the clubs they’ve already represented. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable moves from minor leagues and foreign professional leagues across the world.

  • 1001-game NHL veteran Tomáš Plekanec isn’t retiring anytime soon. The 40-year-old longtime NHL center signed a contract extension to remain the captain of Rytíři Kladno, his hometown team in the Czech Extraliga. Plekanec ended his NHL career in 2018-19 and after two seasons playing for Brno, he joined Kladno upon their promotion back to the top division. Joining all-time great Jaromir Jagr with the club, Plekanec has scored at almost a point-per-game rate the last two seasons and will likely continue to play a major role for the team in the coming campaign thanks to this new contract.
  • Luke Adam, a former Buffalo Sabres top prospect, has elected to leave Germany after a seven-year run in the DEL to sign with HC Plzen in the Czech Extraliga. The 33-year-old was a Sabres second-round pick at the 2008 draft and a few seasons after he was drafted he looked to be a long-term piece for Buffalo. In 2011, The Hockey Writers projected him as “a formidable 3rd line center for the Sabres for many years down the road,” and it’s easy to see why they did so by looking at Adam’s rookie season in pro hockey. He scored 29 goals and 62 points in 57 AHL games, winning the AHL’s Rookie of the Year award as well as AHL All-Star honors. But Adam’s standout qualities in the AHL never translated to the NHL, and he left for the DEL in the summer of 2016. Adam has a strong 233 points in 317 career DEL games and scored 17 goals and 36 points in 54 games for the Straubing Tigers last season. While the Tigers have made some major additions this summer, such as veteran NHL defenseman Justin Braun, they’ll be without Adam next season.
  • Former Winnipeg Jets prospect Scott Kosmachuk has signed a one-year, one-way KHL contract with Lada Togliatti in Russia. The player, who has eight NHL games on his record from 2015-16, is a 29-year-old 2012 third-round pick who played last season with TPS Turku in the Finnish Liiga, scoring 17 points in 29 games. Before arriving in Turku, Kosmachuk had a two-year run as the leading scorer for VSV EC in the ICEHL, racking up 93 points in 90 games and earning All-Star honors. If he can translate some of the production he’s had in Liiga, the ICEHL, and even the AHL going back to his 2017-18 campaign with the Hartford Wolf Pack, he’ll be a quality addition to Lada.
  • Lada added a second international import today: 2013 Pittsburgh Penguins draft pick Troy Josephs. The 29-year-old has been around a point-per-game scorer with both the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers and Swiss second-tier’s EHC Visp. Though he struggled in the AHL, which presents a step up in talent level compared to the ECHL, Joseph more recently established himself in Switzerland’s top division with Lugano, posting 49 points in 86 games and proving he can hang in one of the world’s better pro leagues.
  • James Shearer, a former captain of the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings and WHL champion, has made the decision to leave the ECHL after his first full season in the league to sign a contract in the United Kingdom with the EIHL’s Coventry Blaze. While Shearer is far from the first player to head to the EIHL after his ECHL rookie season, the move is somewhat surprising given the role Shearer played for the Utah Grizzlies as a rookie. In addition to posting 23 points in 54 games, the 26-year-old blueliner was, as Blaze head coach Danny Stewart put it, “eating up good minutes in playoffs and relied upon in key situations,” and also serving as a team alternate captain. The Grizzlies added defenseman Brian Yoon, the captain of the NCAA’s Colorado College, a few days ago, though, which may have prompted Shearer’s exit.
  • Former Dallas Stars prospect Emil Molin signed a one-year contract extension with KooKoo Kouvola in the Finnish Liiga, securing a second season with the club he joined last July. The 30-year-old winger had a decent debut season in Liiga, scoring 11 goals and 25 points. Those numbers are more in line with how Molin produced in his earlier days with Brynas IF, his former club, rather than his form later in his tenure there. Molin has one season of hockey in North America on his record, with 11 games total in the AHL and a 46-points-in-54-games run with the ECHL’s Idaho Steelheads.
  • 2015 Philadelphia Flyers fourth-round pick Samuel Dove-McFalls is headed to Germany, signing a contract with Lausitzer Füchse of the DEL2. Dove-McFalls was a high-end QMJHLer earlier in his career, winning a league championship with the Saint John Sea Dogs in 2016-17 and captaining the Rimouski Oceanic the year after. Dove-McFalls also was named the QMJHL’s Best Defensive Forward in his final season of major junior before beginning a four-year run of Canadian University hockey. The 26-year-old scored 13 goals and 34 points in 38 games for the ECHL’s Fort Wayne Komets and earned 16 AHL games with the Bakersfield Condors in what was his first full season as a professional hockey player. He’ll now join a team looking for promotion to the DEL and will likely play a major role at the club.

Minor Transactions: 07/23/23

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As NHL teams deal with arbitration cases and potentially court one of the remaining NHL-caliber free agents on the open market, there is still quite a bit of player movement activity in minor and foreign professional leagues. As always, we’ll keep track of those moves here:

  • Lukáš Klok, a UFA signing from last summer by the Arizona Coyotes who ended up playing just four games in the Desert, signed a two-year contract with the KHL’s Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk. Klok is a 28-year-old Czech blueliner who has significant experience in several European pro leagues. This deal returns Klok to where he played in 2021-22, and Klok’s KHL stint was arguably the most successful of his career on an individual basis. Seeing as he scored 31 points in 44 games and earned an NHL contract the last time he played for Nizhnekamsk, it’s easy to see why he’d want to re-unite with the club after a difficult 2022-23 that saw him bounce from Arizona to Sweden before finishing the year in Switzerland.
  • Former New York Rangers prospect Dávid Skokan is moving on from his club of the last three seasons, Slovakia’s HK Poprad. The 34-year-old has been a star in the Slovak league in recent seasons, although he’s seen his numbers decline more recently. Over his first two campaigns in Poprad Skokan scored 83 points in 78 games, but this past season he only managed 18 points in 36 games. Having lost his spot as Poprad’s leading scorer, Skokan will look for his next opportunity in pro hockey.
  • Former Vancouver Canucks prospect Andrew Sarauer is hanging up his skates, according to an announcement from his club Fehérvár AV19. Sarauer, 38, had been with Hungary’s ICEHL club since 2013, save for one season spent in Austria. He once served as Fehérvár’s captain and has totaled over 350 points in over 450 games playing pro hockey in Central Europe. Sarauer has also represented Hungary at international events, including the 2016 IIHF Men’s World Championships. He last played in North America in 2012-13, and he was a prolific scorer in the ECHL with 238 points in 250 career games there.
  • Jonas Emmerdahl, the captain of the EIHL’s Fife Flyers, has signed a contract extension to remain with the club. The 31-year-old Swedish blueliner has logged 151 games across three seasons in Scotland and has posted 42 points. Before heading to the United Kingdom, Emmerdahl was a steady presence in HockeyAllsvenskan, the second tier of hockey in his home country. Fife have been one of the EIHL’s worst-performing teams during Emmerdahl’s tenure there, but the hope will be that he can help lead a turnaround next year playing on this contract extension.
  • One of the players Fife is likely hoping will lead that turnaround is Aleksi Mäkelä, a player the team signed today. Although Mäkelä spent last season playing in Italy in the AlpsHL, he does have an impressive resume including over 250 games in the Finnish Liiga and a Liiga championship from his 2017-18 season with Kärpät. He’ll join Emmerdahl on the left side of Fife’s blueline and will provide the type of experience in a high-end European league that can be very valuable.
  • After four consecutive campaigns in the HockeyAllsvenskan, including a run to the league quarterfinals last season, Kristianstads IK now find themselves back in Sweden’s third-tier HockeyEttan. Today, the club announced on social media that they have secured the services of their captain, Dennis Svensson, for another season as they look to bounce back from this setback. The 30-year-old center returned to Kristianstads upon their promotion to the second tier, having just finished the prior season in the SHL with Djurgården. He had played for Kristianstads before both in HockeyEttan and at the youth level. He scored 12 points in 25 games last season and will likely play a crucial role in the team’s upcoming campaign.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 07/19/23

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NHL teams have been hard at work in advance of upcoming arbitration cases, looking to find the sort of common ground on new contracts that leads to signings and avoids the arbitration process. Just as those top teams have been working to sign players for next season (the Vegas Golden Knights worked especially hard today, signing two players) professional hockey clubs around the world are also signing players and tweaking the teams they’ll bring into the next campaign. Here, we’ll keep track of notable moves that are made.

  • The Coachella Valley Firebirds, the AHL affiliate of the Seattle Kraken, have re-signed forward Ian McKinnon for the 2023-24 campaign. Although the Firebirds as a team ended the season heartbroken (they lost the Calder Cup championship in overtime of Game Seven at home) McKinnon personally had his strongest season as a professional. The six-foot-two bruiser only scored three points, to be sure, but he played in a career-high 36 AHL games and didn’t play a single game in the ECHL for the first time in his pro career. Now, he’s earned another year with the Firebirds where he’ll add some muscle to the bottom of their lineup and be a contender to rack up triple-digit penalty minutes once again.
  • Hayden Verbeek, a former Montreal Canadiens prospect and the nephew of Anaheim Ducks GM Pat Verbeek, has signed with the Crimmitschau Ice Pirates of Germany’s second-tier DEL2. Verbeek, 25, was a top-six forward for the Soo Greyhounds late in his OHL career and has become quite the journeyman recently. He has 26 points in 31 career ECHL games for three different teams and has also skated in AHL games for both the Laval Rocket and Grand Rapids Griffins. He spent last season in the Slovak league, where he scored 33 points in 44 games for HK Spisska Nova Ves. A capable all-around player, Verbeek led the Slovak league in short-handed goals and now moves to Germany to make a push for promotion to the DEL.
  • Although former San Jose Sharks prospect Marcus Vela played a helpful role in getting MoDo Hockey Ornskoldsvik promoted to the SHL in the spring, he won’t be joining the club for their return season in Sweden’s top league. Although Vela’s contract was automatically extended when the team defeated Djurgarden and won promotion, the player and club mutually agreed on a contract termination. 2022-23 was the 26-year-old Canadian’s first campaign overseas, and he played well across two HockeyAllsvenskan teams, totaling 29 points in 46 games. He could now opt to return to the ECHL, where he has in the past been productive for the Toledo Walleye, or could continue playing overseas.
  • 29-year-old minor league netminder Adam Carlson is retiring from playing the game, according to an announcement from his club, the ECHL’s Rapid City Rush. Carlson is leaving to take up goalie coaching roles in his home state of Minnesota, and ends his career having played nearly 200 games in the ECHL and eight in the AHL. Carlson was a member of the Rush organization for a combined four years, four of the strongest of his professional career. Carlson’s best year came in 2018-19, when he played in 45 games and posted a .916 save percentage, and he has started for other clubs including the Hershey Bears and Manitoba Moose.
  • Former ECHL All-Star Jalen Smereck has signed a contract extension to remain with the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones. Smereck is coming off of an exceptional two-season run playing in both Germany and Cincinnati. He scored 34 points in 46 games for the Bietigheim Steelers in the DEL in 2021-22, and without him this season the Steelers won just 14 games out of 56 and were relegated to the DEL2. This past season, Smereck scored 50 points in 53 games, the highest points-per-game scoring rate of any ECHL defenseman playing on a full-time basis. An elite defenseman in the ECHL, Smereck will now play a second season in Cincinnati and hope to earn an AHL call-up.
  • Nolan Volcan, the former captain of the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds, is beginning his professional career after three seasons at the University of Alberta. He’s signed an ECHL deal with the Fort Wayne Komets. The five-foot-nine 25-year-old forward scored 58 points in 76 games in Alberta and tallied 231 points in 321 WHL games. Volcan won a WHL championship with the Thunderbirds and now joins an ECHL club hoping to make some noise in the playoffs after a first-round exit last year.
  • The ECHL’s Maine Mariners have poached one of the league’s top young scorers from the Wheeling Nailers: Brooklyn Kalmikov. A QMJHL champion in 2020-21, the 22-year-old finished his junior career by scoring 34 goals and 72 points in 62 games. He turned pro this past season and skated in 66 games for the Nailers. He ranked second on the team in scoring, potting 23 goals and 52 points. Kalmikov even earned an AHL call-up to the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins, and though he went scoreless in three games he’ll likely get another chance if he can produce as well in Maine as he did in West Virginia.
  • Former Detroit Red Wing Jan Mursak signed with Klagenfurt in the ICEHL, according to a team announcement. The 2006 sixth-round pick was just the second Slovenian-born player to skate in the NHL (behind Los Angeles Kings captain Anze Kopitar) and ended up playing 45 games for the Red Wings across three seasons. Mursak was at one point Slovenia’s captain for international competitions, including the 2018 Winter Olympics, and has spent the last three seasons with Frolunda in the SHL. Now, he heads to Austria hoping to help Klagenfurt return to the Champions Hockey League and top of the ICEHL.
  • 2018-19 ECHL First-Team All-Star Matt Petgrave and 185-game Liiga veteran Niklas Nevalainen have both re-signed with their club of last season, the EIHL’s Sheffield Steelers. Petgrave excelled in his first season in England, scoring 48 points in 54 games and showcasing all-situations value on the powerplay and penalty kill. Although he only managed two points in four playoff games, he’ll likely be among the Steelers’ top scorers next season. Nevalainen, 30, is a former everyday defenseman in the top league of his native Finland, though he hasn’t played there since 2020-21. He spent 2021-22 playing in Norway and now seems to have found a home in England, where he scored 23 points last season.

Minor Transactions: 06/17/23

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It’s been a quiet day for news in the NHL, with perhaps the most significant development being a report that the Seattle Kraken are looking to move on from former backup goaltender Chris Driedger. But while the NHL slowly moves into its offseason, pro teams across the hockey world are hard at work trying to add players for next season. As always, we’ll keep track of any notable moves here:

  • Former Minnesota Wild center Tyler Graovac could be headed to the KHL’s Admiral Vladivostok, according to a rumor out of Russia. The 30-year-old with 84 NHL games on his resume has played the last two seasons in the KHL, one in Belarus with Dynamo Minsk and this past year with Podolsk Vityaz in Russia. He’s played decently well at each stop, and has a combined 20 goals and 46 points in 93 career KHL games. Should this rumor prove true he’ll head to the third team of his KHL career looking to aid Vladivostok back to the Gagarin Cup playoffs.
  • Alex Ierullo, a star forward in the ECHL, has signed a three-year contract with Asiago Hockey, a club in the Central European ICEHL. It’s a significant development for Ierullo, as pacts with a three-year term aren’t exactly common in the European pro hockey circuit for import players, especially for those who have never played in Europe. Asiago is likely comfortable making such a significant investment due to just how strong Ierullo’s season was. He ranked third in the East Coast league with 87 points in just 60 games, leading the Greenville Swamp Rabbits in points with a whopping 35-point lead over the next-highest scorer on his team. Ierullo has played in the AHL for a total of nine games but hasn’t been able to translate his ECHL success to the next level, which has likely been what’s paved his way to Europe.
  • After his first full season as a professional hockey player, former Arizona State University star Johnny Walker has decided to head overseas. He’s signed a contract with the Dundee Stars of the EIHL, the top professional hockey league in the United Kingdom. Walker was once an above-point-per-game scorer in the college ranks but availability issues have mired his more recent seasons. In 2022-23 he played 33 games with the Utah Grizzlies in the ECHL, scoring a respectable 12 goals and 18 points. He added on a whopping 171 penalty minutes in that span of games, and will now bring his hard-nosed play to Scotland.
  • Gretsky has signed a contract extension in Russia. Well, Vyacheslav Gretsky that is. The 26-year-old Belarusian forward saw his first extended action in the KHL this past year for Amur Khabarovsk, scoring five points in 43 games. With Gretsky on their squad for at least another year, Khabarovsk will hope that lineup continuity from last season will help them reach the playoffs after finishing second-to-last in their conference last season.

This page will be updated throughout the day.

Minor Transactions: 02/22/23

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While the NHL schedule tonight features just three games, the league’s trade market is as busy as ever. Two trades have already been announced today, and there still could be more to come as teams look to make deals before the March 3rd trade deadline. Just as NHL teams are making changes to their rosters, teams in minor and foreign leagues have been completing transactions. We’ll keep track of those moves here.

  • 2011-12 AHL MVP and Rookie of the Year Cory Conacher, 33, is heading back to the league he once dominated. The AHL’s Charlotte Checkers announced today that Conacher has been signed to a PTO. The undrafted veteran of nearly 200 NHL games was once traded for eventual two-time Vezina Trophy runner-up Ben Bishop, and while his NHL career ultimately fizzled out, he’s been a strong scorer in the AHL and Switzerland. This signing marks Conacher’s second PTO of the season, as he signed one in November with the Belleville Senators, although he was released after scoring one assist in two games.
  • HC Sparta Praha and 2007 Florida Panthers second-round pick Michal Repik have signed a long-term extension that will run through the 2025-26 season. The 34-year-old is in his fourth season as a top scorer and captain for Prague, and has scored 23 goals and 35 points this season. He’s bounced around quite a bit since leaving North America after the 2011-12 season (when he scored 35 points in 55 AHL games and appeared in the NHL 17 times) playing in Switzerland, Finland, Russia, and Slovakia.  He was an All-Star in the KHL and AHL, and will now be the face of Sparta Praha for the foreseeable future.
  • The SHL’s HV71 has verbally agreed to a deal with former Buffalo Sabre Arttu Ruotsalainen, according to Finnish outlet Aftonbladet. Ruotsalainen, 25, will head to Jonkoping after a solid first season back in the European pro hockey circuit. Ruotsalainen is an undrafted player who crossed the Atlantic to play for the Sabres after an extremely productive three-year run with Ilves Tampere in his native Finland. While he scored quite well in the AHL (64 points in 70 total games) he couldn’t quite catch on in the NHL, and chose to sign in Switzerland last summer. He’s scored 37 points in 48 games for Kloten HC in Switzerland this season, a performance that has now reportedly landed him a deal to play in Sweden.
  • Lukas Bengtsson, one of the SHL’s best defensemen on its top team, is making a surprising move to leave league-leading Vaxjo Lakers to sign with EV Zug in Switzerland, according to SportExpressen’s Johan Svensson.  The 28-year-old former Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguin arrived in the SHL after a solid three-year run in the KHL, and has helped Vaxjo to an impressive season. He’ll now finish his season and two more with Zug, who are looking to climb the standings in Switzerland’s top league.
  • Former QMJHL star and San Jose Barracuda Thomas Gregoire has reportedly signed a three-year deal with Rogle BK of the SHL, according to SportExpressen’s Johan Svensson. It’s a contract that would end his three-year tenure with Lukko Rauma in Finland’s Liiga, a period that has gone exceptionally well. Gregoire scored 34 points in 53 games last season, and helped Lukko win the Liiga championship in 2020-21. This season, he’s scored 39 points in 50 games, leading the team in scoring, and that performance has earned him a three-year deal in Sweden. Per Svensson, he will join Rogle for next season, allowing him to complete his campaign with Liiga’s current league leaders.
  • 43 games into what is his first full season in the ECHL, forward Tyler Kirkup is headed across the Atlantic. Per a team announcement, the former Bemidji State Beaver has signed with the Coventry Blaze, a team in the EIHL, which is the top league of professional hockey in the United Kingdom. Kirkup wasn’t having a ton of scoring success with the ECHL’s Reading Royals, with just 15 points in 49 career games. He’ll now join the Blaze, who are at the moment in a solid position in the middle of the EIHL table. The Blaze have also signed Hungarian netminder Miklos Rajna, who played this season with UTE Budapest in Hungary’s Erste Liga. He’ll partner with starter Paavo Holsa and give Holsa some much-needed rest, as he’s started all but one of Coventry’s games this season.
  • The AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins have signed former WHL, Canadian University star Riley Sawchuk to a PTO for the rest of the season as well as a contract for next season. This will allow the 23-year-old to make his pro debut for the club, fresh off of a two-year stretch at Mount Royal University where he registered a whopping 87 points in just 47 games. While it’s definitely a step up in terms of challenge to go from the Canadian University circuit to the AHL, Sawchuk was also a strong scorer in his final two seasons in the WHL and will be someone to watch for Griffins fans and AHL observers alike.
  • Former Vegas Golden Knights netminder Dylan Ferguson, 24, has had his PTO with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies converted into a standard player contract. Ferguson, a Dallas Stars 2017 seventh-rounder who was acquired in the team’s trade for Marc Methot that same summer, has nine minutes of NHL experience. He won the ECHL’s Kelly Cup in 2020-21 with the Fort Wayne Komets and has gone 3-2 with an .888 save percentage in his five-game run with the Marlies.
  • The ECHL’s Savannah Ghost Pirates have acquired big 24-year-old defenseman Jeremy Masella from the Kalamazoo Wings in exchange for future considerations. Masella, WHL champion in 2018-19 with the Prince Albert Raiders, has only played in three games in all of February for the Wings. He had seemingly lost his spot to Kurt Gosselin, who the team acquired via trade from the Toledo Walleye on February 12th, and will now get a fresh start in Georgia.
  • Modo Hockey Ornskoldsvik, a club in Sweden’s second-tier league, the HockeyAllsvenskan, has signed two players to two-year extensions: 2020 Detroit Red Wings second-round pick Theodor Niederbach and Danish former ECHL All-Star Mikkel Aagaard. The former, 20, transferred to MoDo from Rogle earlier this season, moving down a level in competition. The right winger has scored 12 points in 26 games for MoDo, an improvement on the one goal in 17 games he scored for Rogle. As for Aagaard, he extends in MoDo for another two years having scored 26 goals and 38 points in 45 games this season.
  • Experienced Italian-Canadian defenseman Chad Pietroniro has been signed for the rest of the season by the EIHL’s Cardiff Devils. Pietroniro has split this season between three ECHL clubs, trying his hand at North American pro hockey after spending several seasons playing for Asiago in Italy and one year in France. The 28-year-old got into a total of 18 ECHL games for the Newfoundland Growlers, Maine Mariners, and most recently the Trois-Rivieres Lions, and now heads to Wales to continue his pro hockey career.
  • The ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits have signed goaltender Trevin Kozlowski to a contract, per a team announcement. The 25-year-old won the ECHL’s Community Service Award last season and was a top goalie for the Army West Point in the NCAA. He turned pro last season, playing 23 games for the Iowa Heartlanders and three in the AHL for the Iowa Wild. The Heartlanders traded for Kozlowski in November after he signed with the Cincinnati Cyclones a month earlier, before releasing him in late January. He had an .869 save percentage in six games this season for Iowa, and will now get a chance to continue his pro career in South Carolina.
  • Hulking six-foot-seven blueliner Steven MacLean has chosen to begin his professional career, signing a contract with the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones. The 24-year-old leaves Wilfried Laurier University’s hockey program, where he has been for three seasons. MacLean never played at the OHL level, but the Cyclones will hope their staff can get the most out of his intriguing frame in his first taste of professional action.
  • Former Edmonton Oilers prospect John McCarron has re-signed with the Florida Everblades, returning to the club he captained to a Kelly Cup victory last season. It’s a major addition for the defending champions, as McCarron has been an elite player for them for the past six seasons. The brother of Montreal Canadiens first-round pick Michael McCarron, John has scored 385 points in 406 career ECHL regular-season games, and 85 points in 94 career playoff contests, to go along with 789 combined penalty minutes.
  • 2012 Anaheim Ducks fourth-round pick Andrew O’Brien is leaving the ICEHL’s Fehervar AV19, a Hungarian club. A veteran of over 200 AHL games, O’Brien bounced from the KHL to the SHL to Liiga to the DEL after leaving North America after the 2018-19 season. Now, he’ll leave his fifth European league in just three seasons looking for a new place to play. He notched eight points and 72 penalty minutes in 36 games in Hungary.
  • Rostislav Marosz, a veteran of over 400 games in the Czech Extraliga, has been released by his club, HC Vitkovice, by mutual agreement. Marosz was in the midst of a third season in Vitkovice and had scored 16 points in 38 games this season. His production had declined from the 35 points in 53 games he scored last season, so perhaps it’s that decline that motivated this release.

This page will be updated throughout the day.

Minor Transactions: 02/17/23

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With the trade deadline just around the corner, we’ve reached a busy section of the NHL schedule. Tonight’s matchups feature some divisional rivalries, such as the Anaheim Ducks against the Los Angeles Kings as well as the Dallas Stars against the Minnesota Wild. Additionally, Connor McDavid will continue his chase for 100 points against the New York Rangers. As fans across the hockey world get ready to enjoy tonight’s games, teams in minor and foreign leagues are making roster moves. We’ll keep track of those transactions here.

  • 2011 Toronto Maple Leafs first-round pick Stuart Percy will be leaving his current club, HC Motor Ceske Budejovice, at the end of the season, according to a report from Michal Kosturik of iSport.cz. Per this report, the 29-year-old blueliner is likely to remain in the Czech Extraliga, albeit with a new club. If Percy does end up departing Ceske Budejovice, he would end a two-year run there which saw him help lead Budejovice to the Extraliga semifinals, where they lost to HC Sparta Praha. Percy last played in North America in 2019-20, when he got into 5 AHL games for the Belleville Senators.
  • The AHL’s Syracuse Crunch have signed University of Waterloo forward Daniel Walker to a one-year AHL contract, per a team announcement. The 23-year-old Walker played four years in the OHL, splitting time between the North Bay Battalion and Oshawa Generals. While led the OHL in penalty minutes with 129 in 2018-19, he found his goal-scoring touch in college, and finishes his time at Waterloo with 24 goals in 35 games. He’ll now begin his professional career in Central New York with an AHL contract in hand.
  • The ECHL’s Kalamazoo Wings have signed Canadian University defenseman Franco Sproviero, fresh off of an above-point-per-game season with the University of Western Ontario. The five-foot-nine blueliner scored 60 points in his final OHL season with the Sarnia Sting, and will now get the chance to begin his professional career in North America’s third-tier pro league. He joins a Wings team that has had a difficult season and is looking to add some scoring from their back end as their top-scoring defenseman has 21 points in 36 games.
  • The ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays have signed forward Ian Mackey, meaning he’ll join his third ECHL team of the season. The 26-year-old has gotten into games this year for the Savannah Ghost Pirates and Atlanta Gladiators and now heads to South Carolina. Last season, Mackey plied his trade playing lower-level hockey in Sweden.
  • German youngster Bennet Rossmy is reportedly transferring from the DEL’s Eisbaren Berlin to DEL rival Dusseldorfer EG for next season, according to B.Z.’s Joerg Lubrich. The 19-year-old already has 61 games of DEL experience under his belt despite still being a teenager. He helped Berlin win the DEL last season, and while he hasn’t had a ton of scoring success in Germany’s top league he has been a more impactful contributor at the DEL2 level.
  • Czech forward Jakub Izacky is concluding a six-year stint in the Hungarian Erste Liga in order to make a move to the EIHL’s Nottingham Panthers for the rest of the season. The 29-year-old heads to the United Kingdom having scored 247 points in 221 career games in the Hungarian league. He has not yet played in the EIHL,  and before Hungary the bulk of his experience came playing in Czechia’s second and third divisions. Izacky played one season in North America, scoring 21 goals and 38 points for the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs in 2012-13, which ranked him second in team scoring behind Jonathan Huberdeau, who would go on to win the Calder Trophy later that season.
  • Alexandr Peresunko has transferred from the Hungarian Erste Liga to HK Poprad of the Slovak Tipos Extraliga. The 23-year-old Ukrainian scored 37 points in 29 games for UTE Budapest, and heads to Slovakia which puts him a step up in difficulty on the European professional hockey ladder. The move is solid progress for the former Victoriaville Tigre, who scored 31 points in 57 games during the 2019-20 QMJHL season.

This page will be updated throughout the day

Minor Transactions: 02/13/23

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Another day, another slate of NHL games to enjoy. Tonight’s lineup of games features matchups between two up-and-coming teams in the Buffalo Sabres and Los Angeles Kings, two playoff hopefuls in the Minnesota Wild and Florida Panthers, and two Central Division rivals in the Arizona Coyotes and Nashville Predators. As NHL fans take in tonight’s action, player movement is ever-active across the hockey world. We’ll track notable moves in minor and foreign leagues here.

  • 2019 Carolina Hurricanes fourth-round pick Tuukka Tieksola, who signed his entry-level deal with the team in 2021, has been loaned to Liiga’s Karpat for the rest of the season. Tieksola had spent this year with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves and scored 15 points in 40 games. With just one point in his last six games, though, and Karpat in the midst of a playoff push, Tieksola is headed back to Finland to get some more high-level professional experience under his belt.
  • The ECHL’s Worcester Railers have announced two trades: they have acquired forward Max Johnson from the Wheeling Nailers for future considerations, and Chris Ordoobadi from the Orlando Solar Bears in exchange for cash considerations. Johnson, 24, is in his first professional season after capping off a five-year NCAA career. Johnson was a star at Bowling Green State University, scoring around a point-per-game rate there, before he headed to the University of Wisconsin for his finals season. This trade gives Johnson a change of scenery as his pro debut with the Nailers had been difficult, and he struggled to the tune of just five points in 23 games, In Ordoobadi the Railers acquire a big, physical 28-year-old winger who was actually a waiver claim of the Railers in December 2021.
  • The ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies have released defenseman Jordon Stone. Stone was activated off of injured reserve just three days ago, and now finds himself released after playing in his first game with the team since December. Late in the third period of that game, the Grizzlies were losing 6-1 to the Rapid City Rush. After dumping the puck into the offensive zone, Stone chased it and appeared to shove a Rush player to the ground with enough force that the player’s helmet came off. As the Rush’s goaltender attempted to play the puck behind the net, Stone laid a body check on the goalie, appearing to follow through with his elbow up through the goalie’s head. Stone was assessed a game misconduct for charging, and now finds himself released by his team only a few days later.
  • The ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals have released netminder Brett Epp and forward Sam Hu. 2017 Nashville Predators fifth-round pick Tomas Vomacka was re-assigned to Norfolk as well, meaning Epp was out of a job as the team’s backup with Cale Morris already on the roster. Epp signed with Norfolk on February 8th, just a day before his team, the SPHL’s Vermilion City Bobcats, ceased operations. Epp will now look to continue his pro career elsewhere after a difficult season with the Bobcats for reasons largely out of his control. As for Hu, this release comes after a 19-game run with the Admirals that saw him score just four points. Hu split time last season between the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star in his home country, China, and in Norway with Manglerud. It’s possible a return to overseas hockey could be in the cards after this release.
  • Per a team announcement, former Boston Bruins prospect Emil Johansson will be leaving his current club, Sport Vaasa in the Finnish Liiga. Sami Hoffren of Finland’s Ilta-Sanomat reports that Johansson is set to join current DEL leaders EHC Red Bull Munich. Johansson scored 23 points in 43 games for Vaasa as their number-one defenseman and will help Munich as they chase their fourth DEL title.
  • Liiga’s Assat Pori will be without their starting netminder, Niklas Rubin, for two to three weeks as he recovers from an injury. As a result, the team has signed Canadian goaltender Cody Porter from RoKi Rovaniemi, a club in Finland’s second-tier Mestis. The 25-year-old has a .920 save percentage in 21 games for RoKi, and has been brought in to help Pori down the stretch of this season. This move was potentially motivated by Porter’s performance last Wednesday, when he stopped 24 of 26 shots against Pori playing on loan for Tappara Tampere, winning the game for his temporary club by a 6-2 margin.
  • SportExpressen’s Johan Svensson reports that 20-year-old center Ake Stakkestad will be making the leap to the SHL next season. Per Svensson’s report, Stakkestad will play for HV71 next season, on a one-year contract. Stakkestad recently returned to the ice for his current club, HockeyAllsvenskan’s BIK Karlskoga, and has scored two points in three games. In total, he has scored eight points in 13 games this season.
  • Switzerland’s HC Lugano will retain their backup netminder beyond this season. The team has announced the signing of goalie Niklas Schlegel to a three–year contract extension. The 28-year-old is a Swiss NL champion who led his league in save percentage during a brilliant 2015-16 season with the ZSC Lions. He’s currently backing up former Edmonton Oiler Mikko Koskinen and has been decent with a .903 save percentage and 2.74 goals against average.
  • 19-year-old Konsta Kapanen, the brother of Pittsburgh Penguins forward Kasperi Kapanen and son of former NHLer Sami Kapanen has been loaned to Liiga’s HPK for the rest of the season. Kapanen will seek a better opportunity at tenth-place HPK than he’d be likely to find at fifth-place KalPa, and will likely get a chance to finish his season in Liiga rather than in Mestis. KalPa also made another move today, signing veteran Jaakko Lantta to a one-year contract extension.
  • In addition to bringing in Tieksola, Karpat has also loaned netminder Karolus Kaarlehto to the SHL’s Timra IK. The 25-year-old began his season in France before a stretch playing for Karpat’s Liiga rivals, Jukurit Mikkeli. Now, he heads to Sweden to help Timra to fill the team’s backup goalie spot, a role left vacant by Thursday’s transfer of David Rautio to the SCL Tigers of Switzerland.
  • Nearly two weeks after his release from HC Slovan Bratislava, Carl Ackered has found a new place to play. The Sheffield Steelers, a club competing in the EIHL, the highest tier of professional hockey in the United Kingdom, have signed Ackered. It’s a major acquisition for the Steelers, as just two years ago Ackered led the Slovak league in points by a defenseman and was named an All-Star. He had a difficult 21-game run in the Slovak capital, though, and now returns to the league where he starred for three years as a member of the Guildford Flames.
  • HockeyAllsvenskan’s IF Bjorkloven have confirmed the transfer of former Arizona Coyotes prospect Jens Looke, a transfer we covered as a rumor two days ago. Looke is a difference-maker in Sweden’s second division, having scored 62 points in 52 games in his last season there, helping Timra earn promotion to the SHL. That’ll be his goal with Bjorkloven, who sit second in the league standings.
  • The DEL’s Grizzlys Wolfsburg have signed their captain, Canadian Spencer Machacek, to a two-year extension. The former Atlanta Thrasher has been a star in Germany, and has scored 285 points in 436 games there. He’s currently second in league scoring with 51 points in 47 games, and his extension should come as welcome news for Wolfsburg’s supporters who are hopeful the team can cement a place in the DEL playoffs.
  • 413-game KHL veteran Dmitri Yudin has signed a two-year contract extension with his current club, Ak Bars Kazan. The 27-year-old has been with Kazan since 2018-19, and before that he played for Spartak Moscow and perennial juggernauts SKA St. Petersburg. A teammate of former NHLers Alexander Radulov and Vadim Shipachyov, Yudin will hope to keep Kazan in playoff contention over the course of his new deal.
  • 23-year-old Slovenian forward Rok Kapel is headed back to the AlpsHL after spending most of this season in the higher-tier ICEHL. Per a team announcement, Kapel will play for Kitzbuheler EC moving forward, leaving HC Olimpija Ljubljana, the ICEHL club in the Slovenian capital. Kapel scored 14 goals and 29 points in 40 games for Ljubljana, leading the team in goal-scoring, and is expected to be a difference-maker moving forward now that he’s down a level of competition.
  • Nick Dineen, a star in Norway’s top professional hockey league, has signed an extension to remain with the Stavanger Oilers beyond this season. Dineen was formerly the captain at Lillehammer, where he hovered around a point-per-game scoring rate for six seasons. Financial issues at Lillehammer forced a January transfer to the Oilers, and he has continued his strong play there with 14 points in 11 games.

This page will be updated throughout the day

Minor Transactions: 02/03/23

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While the NHL takes a brief pause to celebrate the league’s biggest stars in the All-Star Weekend, teams in minor leagues and foreign leagues are pressing forward with their respective seasons and making tweaks to their rosters. We’ll keep track of those moves here.

  • Former Detroit Red Wings farmhand Jussi Olkinoura has found his new team after securing his contract termination two days ago. Per a team announcement, the 32-year-old goalie has signed with Brynas IF, a club in the SHL. This signing marks Olkinoura’s first venture into Sweden’s top league, having already tended the crease for teams in Liiga and the KHL. Brynas’ starter this season, former NHLer Anders Lindback, has struggled to the tune of an .896 save percentage in 31 games played. He’ll now have to contend with Olkinoura, an Olympic Gold Medalist, to remain Brynas’ number-one netminder.
  • Dallas Stars prospect Antonio Stranges has been re-assigned to the Stars’ ECHL affiliate, the Idaho Steelheads. This is the second time this season Stranges has been sent to the ECHL, with the first demotion coming in December. The former OHL star hasn’t played since January 14th, and will now head back to the ECHL with the hope of getting his season back on track. Stranges has been productive in his limited action in the ECHL, scoring six points in five games, but his time in the American league has been uneven.
  • Former Ferris State University captain Liam MacDougall is headed overseas. The 25-year-old forward has signed with the Fife Flyers, a club in the EIHL, the top division of professional hockey in the United Kingdom. MacDougall heads to Scotland after an unsuccessful professional debut in the ECHL. He got a short cameo on an amateur tryout agreement with the Cincinnati Cyclones near the end of last season, registering a goal in six games. He signed with the Norfolk Admirals for this season to begin his ECHL career in earnest but struggled to make an impact, and after scoring just three points in 17 games he was released. Now nearly two months after receiving his release, MacDougall has a new team to continue his pro career with.
  • The ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals have released netminder Michael Bullion. The 25-year-old Alaska native made his pro debut with the team last season, signing after a few years of playing at the Canadian university level. He was solid in his nine-game trial run, posting a .912 save percentage and 2.67 goals-against-average. This season Bullion and the Admirals have struggled mightily to keep the puck out of the net. Through 18 games Bullion has a 3-11-2 record, a 4.08 goals-against-average, and an .877 save percentage, and now both Bullion and the Admirals will part ways seeking other options.
  • Former Boston College netminder Eric Dop has signed with the ECHL’s Wichita Thunder. The deal marks the Thunder as Dop’s fourth team of what has been quite the professional debut. After playing last season as Boston College’s starter, Dop, 24, turned pro this year and signed with the Tulsa Oilers. After three games where Dop was used only in relief for the team’s starter, he posted an .854 save percentage and as promptly traded to the Allen Americans. Dop started one game for the Americans, saving 34 out of 39 shots, and played once in relief, before he was released. He then earned a PTO with the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters before signing with the Utah Grizzlies. Dop started one game for Utah, a 6-2 loss to the Steelheads, and was released a few days later. With today’s signing, he now finds himself in Wichita with a chance to back up starter Evan Buitenhuis.
  • Danish forward Morten Jensen has signed a two-year extension to remain with his current team, Denmark’s Rungsted Seier Capital. Jensen is a star defenseman in Denmark’s Metal Ligaen, with 143 points in 177 career games there. The two-time Danish champion will look to help rise from their third-to-last place in the standings.

This page will be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 01/27/23

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It’s another busy night of games on the NHL schedule, with half of the league’s teams set to play. Highlights for tonight’s contests include the “Battle of Ontario” rivalry between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators, a Pacific Division showdown between the Seattle Kraken and Calgary Flames, and a showdown between two of the league’s better teams in the New Jersey Devils and Dallas Stars. As hockey fans enjoy the action from tonight’s vast slate of games, teams across the hockey world are making roster moves. We’ll keep track of all those transactions here.

  • According to a team announcement, former NHL defenseman Andreas Borgman will leave his current club, Frolunda HC, after this season. Borgman’s comments in the team release indicate a desire to potentially return to North America after spending the last two seasons playing in Gothenburg for Frolunda. Borgman, when he’s managed to get on the ice, has been Frolunda’s number-one defenseman this season, ranking seventh in the entire SHL in average time-on-ice per game for blueliners. He’s only played in thirteen games, though. But if the 2016-17 SHL Rookie of the Year can manage to stay healthy and productive for the rest of the season, he could find himself back in North America next year.
  •  Former Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Emil Larmi has signed a two-year extension to remain with his current club, the SHL’s Vaxjo Lakers. The 26-year-old transferred to Vaxjo last season after a successful 32-game run in Liiga with the Pelicans, where he posted a .918 save percentage. This year, he has emerged as Vaxjo’s top goalie and has led the team to a league-leading 25-7-2 record through 38 games. He’s posted a .932 save percentage and 1.74 goals-against-average through 22 games played this season. He currently ranks second in the SHL in save percentage, behind only former New York Islanders prospect Linus Soderstrom.
  • 2014 Minnesota Wild draft pick Pontus Sjalin, the brother of former Florida Panthers prospect Calle Sjalin, has signed a two-year extension to remain with his current club, Lulea HF. Sjalin has been with Lulea since 2015 when he transferred there from Leksands. Sjalin is in his seventh season as a regular at Lulea and helped them make a run to the SHL Finals last season, where they eventually fell to Farjestad BK.
  • Veteran center Ethan Werek has been released by his club of the last three seasons, the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star. The 2009 second-round pick has been playing for the Chinese KHL side since 2019-20 and even represented China at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Werek’s production has declined over the past three seasons, though, and now he has been released after scoring just seven points in 28 games.
  • Austrian forward Felix Maxa has signed a two-year extension to remain with his current club, Villacher SV. The team, who compete in the ICEHL, a Central European league with teams from Austria, Hungary, Italy, and Slovenia have signed Maxa in the midst of what has been a breakout campaign for him. He’s flown past his career high in production with 18 points in 37 games, and has cemented his future in Villach as a regular contributor.
  • Marc-Olivier Vallerand, a former captain of the QMJHL’s Quebec Ramparts, has returned to England. The EIHL’s Sheffield Steelers, a side in the top professional league of the United Kingdom, have announced the signing of Vallerand from the ICEHL’s Slovenian club: HK Olimpija Ljubljana. Vallerand was a star scorer in his last tenure in Sheffield and has scored 175 points in just 133 career games in the EIHL. He scored a respectable 13 points in 17 games for Ljubljana, and now heads back to the Steelers in what is a major coup for one of the league’s top sides.
  • Despite playing in more games in the top French professional league, Ligue Magnus, than in any other season of his career, young netminder Gaetan Richard is leaving his current club, the Bordeaux Boxers. Per a team announcement, Richard has left the club in part due to the emergence of veteran goalie Samu Perhonen. Perhonen, a 2011 Edmonton Oilers third-round pick, transferred to Bordeaux in December and has stabilized the team’s standing in the crease. Richard had posted an unimpressive .890 save percentage this season, and has not played since the arrival of Perhonen. Since Perhonen is sporting a .922 save percentage through nine games since his arrival in France and is trending towards being Bordeaux’s number-one netminder, Richard has made the choice to seek other opportunities to continue his pro career.
  • Herning Blue Fox, one of the best teams in Denmark’s top professional hockey league, has signed two North American players to contract extensions. The first, Mac Carruth, is a 2010 Chicago Blackhawks seventh-round pick who laid waste to the EIHL last season for the Cardiff Devils. Leading the Welsh side to a championship, he led his league with a .937 save percentage and also has nearly 100 ECHL games on his resume. He’ll now remain in Denmark beyond this season, where he has a .924 save percentage in 37 games, which ranks third in the league among all starters. The second player, Phil Marinaccio, led Ligue Magnus, the French pro league, in goals during the 2021-22 season, and has 17 goals and 39 points in 33 games for the Blue Fox this season.
  • The ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits have signed longtime minor leaguer Dean Yakura to their active roster. Yakura, 37, is a well-travelled veteran of lower-level minor leagues, beginning his career with the SPHL’s Pensacola Ice Flyers in 2010-11. He served as the captain of the Federal Hockey League’s Danbury Titans for two seasons and spent some time last season as depth for the Swamp Rabbits. That’s the role he’ll occupy this year with this contract.
  • The Iowa Heartanders have released goaltender Trevin Kozlowski, per the ECHL’s official transactions report. The 25-year-old netminder, who was the ECHL’s 2021-22 Community Service Award winner, has struggled so far this year to the tune of a .869 save percentage through 12 games. The Heartlanders will rely on 2019 Minnesota Wild second-rounder Hunter Jones and former Denver Pioneer Corbin Kaczperski moving forward, while Kozlowski will look elsewhere to continue his career.
  • Josh Winquist, an above-point-per-game scorer at the ECHL level, is moving overseas to continue his professional career. Per a report from Johan Svensson of SportExpressen, Vasterviks IK have signed Winquist away from his current club, the Fort Wayne Komets, for the rest of the season. It’s a badly-needed move for the Swedish side, who sit in last place in the second-division HockeyAllsvenskan. Vasterviks made it to the promotion play-offs last season, but now are looking to avoid relegation and are hoping that the addition of Winquist’s scoring abilities can keep them up.

This page will be updated throughout the day. 

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