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Brett Leason Signs AHL PTO With Charlotte

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Last season, unrestricted free agent winger Brett Leason saw some regular action with Anaheim, primarily slotting in on their fourth line.  However, no firm contract has come his way just yet so to get back on the ice and playing, he has signed a PTO contract with AHL Charlotte (affiliate of the Panthers), per a team release.

The 26-year-old played in 62 games with the Ducks last season where he notched five goals and 12 assists in just under 13 minutes a night of playing time.  That output was a little below his 2023-24 output when he had 11 goals and 11 helpers in 68 contests.  While Leason was non-tendered at that time to avoid arbitration, he quickly re-signed a one-year, $1.05MM contract.  This past summer, Anaheim simply non-tendered him and moved on.

Leason took part in training camp with Minnesota on a PTO agreement and got into four games with them where he was held off the scoresheet before being let go at the end of September, sending him back to the open market.

This will be Leason’s first taste of AHL action in a while.  The last time he saw time in the minors was back in 2021-22 with Hershey when he was still in Washington’s system.  He has 18 goals and 29 assists in 114 games over parts of three seasons at that level and will look to have a strong showing there to help lock down a guaranteed contract for the rest of the season.

Panthers Recall Tobias Bjornfot

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With Dmitry Kulikov being placed on injured reserve back on Friday, the Panthers had an open roster spot at their disposal.  They’ve now filled that spot as they’ve recalled defenseman Tobias Bjornfot from AHL Charlotte, per the AHL’s transactions log.

The 24-year-old was an injury recall a couple of times last season, seeing stints with Florida back in January and March last season, getting into 14 games overall where he was held off the scoresheet while averaging just over 13 minutes per game.  For his career, Bjornfot has a goal and 14 assists in 134 NHL appearances between Los Angeles, Vegas, and Florida.

Bjornfot played in three games with the Panthers in the preseason but cleared waivers last weekend, paving the way for him to return to the Checkers.  This stint lasted all of one game and if Kulikov is indeed out longer term as expected, he may be up with Florida for a while this time.  Bjornfot had 18 points in 50 games at the AHL level last season.

With Florida deep into using LTIR (with Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, and Tomas Nosek), they’re not banking any cap room right now, meaning that Bjornfot’s recall doesn’t do much beyond cutting into their current LTIR space.  That sits at just over $1.49MM, per PuckPedia, meaning they have enough cap space for one more recall if more injuries arise.

Panthers Sign Jonah Gadjovich To Two-Year Extension

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The Florida Panthers have agreed to a two-year contract extension with left-winger Jonah Gadjovich. The deal will carry a $905K cap hit, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Florida announced the deal on Gadjovich’s 27th birthday

Few Panthers have a role as defined as Gadjovich’s. He is the team’s go-to enforcer, with a tremendous 164 penalty minutes in just 81 games between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons. Only two players across the league – Austin Watson and Matt Rempe – averaged more penalty minutes per game played in that span, and Gadjovich still recorded more total PIMs than both. He scored just eight points in the same stretch, and added three points and 33 PIMs in 16 playoff appearances.

Interestingly, Gadjovich has found a way to avoid the penalty booth to start this season – instead boasting one assist and a plus-one in three games. He has not been one for hte positive side of the scoresheet at the NHL level. Through parts of six NHL seasons, Gadjovich has only managed 19 points in 163 career games. He’s racked up the penalties, though, earning 17 PIMs in his NHL debut with the Vancouver Canucks in 2020-21 and since raising that number to 312 PIMs on his career.

While he’s found a clear way to be productive in the NHL, Gadjovich wasn’t always the default hitter in his lineup. He has racked up 46 points and 81 PIMs in 103 AHL games, and stood out as a dangerous scorer in junior hockey, with 89 goals, 155 points, and 175 PIMs in 228 OHL games.

But those days seem to be in the past. Gadjovich has evolved into Florida’s go-to option when they need a big hit, or big fight, to help turn the tides. He fills important fourth-line minutes and will now stick in that spot for two more seasons. That role has already led Gadjovich to two Stanley Cup wins, and should continue to be profitable as the Panthers have yet to lose this season.

Checkers Sign Jake Livingstone To AHL Contract

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  • According to a team announcement, the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers, the main affiliate of the Florida Panthers, have signed defenseman Jake Livingstone to a contract for the 2025-26 season. The Minnesota State University alumnus has spent the last two years with the Milwaukee Admirals after debuting with the Nashville Predators in the 2022-23 season. In that two-year stint with the Admirals, Livingstone scored nine goals and 33 points in 127 games.

    [SOURCE LINK]

Dmitry Kulikov May Require Wrist Surgery

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Late last night, the Florida Panthers quietly moved defenseman Dmitry Kulikov to the injured reserve. Unfortunately, although the team hasn’t commented on his status, reporting from George Richards of Florida Hockey Now indicates that it could be a long-term absence for their bottom-pairing blueliner.

The injury occurred during the Panthers’ win over the Philadelphia Flyers, their second game of the season. After attempting to hit Flyers forward Bobby Brink partway through the second period, Kulikov left the game after appearing to hurt his right wrist.

[SOURCE LINK]

Panthers Sign Noah Gregor To Two-Way Deal

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The Panthers announced Tuesday that they’ve agreed to terms with forward Noah Gregor on a two-way contract. He had been in training camp on a professional tryout agreement. The deal carries an NHL salary of $775K and an AHL salary of $450K, according to PuckPedia. In a pair of corresponding moves, the team also reversed yesterday’s paper demotion of winger Mackie Samoskevich to AHL Charlotte and moved Aleksander Barkov from standard injured reserve to long-term injured reserve, George Richards of Florida Hockey Now reports. Gregor’s contract won’t be registered with the league until those two moves are formalized, as Florida doesn’t have the cap space to add him to the roster until after gaining relief from Barkov’s LTIR placement.

While Gregor wasn’t on the opening night roster that Florida formally registered with the league last night, he will be eligible to play in tonight’s season opener against the Blackhawks. The six-year NHL vet made four preseason appearances for the Cats, scoring a goal and an assist while adding seven hits and a blocked shot in over 17 minutes of ice time per game. He won’t get nearly that much deployment in the regular season. The 27-year-old center has only averaged 12:19 of ice time per game across 293 career contests, and that figure has been trending down over the past few years.

It wasn’t all that surprising to see Gregor need to settle for a tryout. He also required one to land a contract with the Maple Leafs in 2023, and he has now been non-tendered for three consecutive years. That streak will end next offseason as he’ll be eligible for outright unrestricted free agency. The Alberta native is coming off his worst showing since emerging as an NHL regular with the Sharks in 2020. Splitting the year between Ottawa and San Jose, he tied a career-worst -21 rating in 52 appearances while making minimal offensive contributions – just four goals and three assists. While his high-end skating has always generated intrigue, it has rarely translated into a legitimate offensive impact. He’s only hit the 10-goal and 20-point marks once in a single season.

Nonetheless, he showed out well enough in Florida’s camp to earn another deal. The Panthers are in desperate need of cheap forward depth, as they’re virtually capped out despite starting the year with all of Barkov, Tomáš Nosek, and Matthew Tkachuk on long-term injured reserve thanks to the new rule that teams are limited to the previous year’s average salary (~$3.82MM in this case) in LTIR relief per player if their injury isn’t season-ending. After Gregor averaged only 11:06 per game last season, he’ll presumably be in the Cats’ fourth-line rotation along with returnees Jonah Gadjovich and A.J. Greer, late-offseason signing Luke Kunin, and preseason waiver claim Cole Schwindt. The two-way structure indicates he’s a candidate to end up on waivers when Nosek or Tkachuk is ready to return, depending on who comes back first.

As for Samoskevich, his quiet demotion yesterday was essential to Florida’s initial salary cap setup. The team submitted their opening night roster, which excluded the waiver-exempt Samoskevich and included Nosek and Tkachuk on LTIR, but listed Barkov on standard IR. That left the Panthers $4.55MM over the cap but with $4.6MM in relief from Nosek and Tkachuk. That set their initial LTIR capture within $50K of the maximum relief. Moving Barkov to LTIR then opens up an additional $3.82MM in space, which they used to recall Samoskevich (who also carries a $775K cap hit) and sign Gregor. After all those transactions are officially completed, the Panthers will have $2.27MM remaining in their LTIR pool, per PuckPedia.

Samoskevich, Florida’s 2021 first-round pick, will be in tonight’s lineup, presumably in a top-nine role. The 22-year-old finished 11th in Calder Trophy voting for the league’s top rookie last year with 15 goals and 31 points in 72 games.

Today’s moves also officially leave the door open for Barkov to suit up for Florida in the playoffs. He’s expected back sometime between late April and late June after he blew up his right ACL and MCL in his first practice of training camp, requiring surgery.

Carolina Hurricanes Claim Brandon Bussi

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The Carolina Hurricanes have claimed netminder Brandon Bussi off of waivers from the Florida Panthers, according to a team announcement. The Hurricanes also announced a corresponding move, placing goalie Cayden Primeau on waivers for the purposes of reassignment to the AHL’s Chicago Wolves.

At face value, this is something of a curious move, as the Hurricanes’ NHL tandem of Frederik Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov appears set in stone. It’s possible the Hurricanes made this claim with an eye to goaltending depth in the AHL, but with Primeau already in place as the organizational number-three (assuming he clears waivers) there doesn’t appear to be a significant need to add Bussi.

Accordingly, at this point, the clearest explanation for this waiver claim is that it is some form of injury insurance, similar to how the Sabres signed Alexandar Georgiev before an injury to Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was reported.

With that said, in the case that there is not an un-reported injury that prompted this waiver claim, there is another potential explanation that relates to the current state of the Hurricanes’ goalie depth:

Taking a wider-view look at the Hurricanes’ situation in net overall, the situation behind Primeau in Chicago (assuming he clears waivers) is somewhat more wide open. The Wolves currently roster three goalies below Primeau on the depth chart: Ruslan Khazheyev, Amir Miftakhov, and Nikita Quapp. The trio, combined, have just 42 games worth of AHL experience, and just one Khazheyev, played in the AHL last season. (.876 save percentage in 20 games played)

Quapp, 22, spent 2024-25 with Düsseldorf in the German DEL, and is entering his first pro season in North America. Miftakhov, 25, was stellar in 2024-25 with the KHL’s Ak Bars Kazan (.927 save percentage in 30 games) but has not played in North America since his 2021-22 split between the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch and ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears.

So, with that in mind, the reasoning behind this waiver claim becomes a bit clearer. Assuming there is no at-this-point unreported injury to either of the two Hurricanes’ starters, and assuming the Hurricanes do not have an appetite to carry three goalies on their roster for an extended period (they’ll need to because of this claim, at least for Monday), it seems as though Bussi could end up on waivers at some point in the short-term future.

If this waiver claim was indeed made with an eye to reinforcing the Wolves due to the trio of young goalies’ relative inexperience at the AHL level, it is understandable that the club would elect to claim Bussi. As things currently stand, the Hurricanes are one claim of Primeau, or one Primeau injury, from having to rely on that aforementioned trio to provide all of the goaltending for AHL Chicago. While it’s possible one (or more) of that trio is more than up to the task of playing a heavy workload without much prior AHL experience, the Hurricanes can’t be blamed if they have some uneasiness considering that prospect.

So, with this claim of Bussi, they have given themselves an opportunity to protect Chicago from that potential scenario. The 27-year-old Bussi is an ideal candidate for this kind of waiver claim for multiple reasons. First and foremost, he has no NHL experience, so he would not be the kind of goalie a team in need of NHL reinforcement in net would be expected to claim. That increases the odds Bussi will pass through waivers should the Hurricanes attempt to send him down.

Additionally, the Florida Panthers’ AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers, are still left with four netminders under contract after Bussi’s claim. Although none of Cooper Black, Kirill Gerasimyuk, Evan Cormier, or Michael Simpson are particularly experienced at the AHL level, the sheer volume of netminders set to compete for a role in the crease in Charlotte would, theoretically, decrease the odds that Florida will try to re-claim Bussi should Carolina try to sneak him through waivers.

If one of those goalies has been particularly impressive in the training camp/preseason process and looks poised to steal a greater role in the AHL than the Panthers previously expected, those odds of a re-claim from the Panthers would decrease further still.

Bussi’s stellar performance in the AHL thus far in his career (.915 save percentage across 111 games) does complicate those odds, but if the Hurricanes have room to keep him on their NHL roster through Monday, it may be worth the chance of trying to place him back on waivers in order to reinforce Chicago. Based on their claim today, it appears the Hurricanes might agree.

This entire AHL explanation could be rendered meaningless if one of the Hurricanes’ NHL goalies is injured, of course, or if the Hurricanes surprisingly decide they want to carry three goalies. But at this point, it does appear that placing Bussi on waivers once again is the most easy-to-imagine scenario for how things will play out in Carolina’s crease moving forward.

Aaron Ekblad Taken Out Of Team's Preseason Game Vs. Tampa Bay

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Florida Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad left last night’s chaotic preseason contest against the Tampa Bay Lightning early, after just 41 seconds of ice time. His removal from the game came just after Lightning forward Scott Sabourin – a longtime AHL bruiser – delivered a big hit (and a punch to the head) of Ekblad. There has been no further update on Ekblad’s status and whether he suffered an injury, though as preseason games between rivals this preseason have featured unusually intense physical play, it would be no surprise to learn Ekblad was removed from the game for precautionary reasons.

If his removal was indeed precautionary, it would appear such a move was a wise one by the Panthers. Yesterday’s game featured a whopping 312 penalty minutes and 16 ejections, with the Panthers themselves getting an eye-popping 17 power play opportunities in their 7-0 victory. The game also earned Tampa’s Roman Schmidt a hefty fine from the Department of Player Safety for cross-checking Carter Verhaeghe. It is unsurprising that the Panthers would look to be careful managing Ekblad, as the 2014 number-one overall pick has been somewhat injury-prone throughout his 732-game NHL career. Ekblad has not been healthy for a full season’s slate of games in the 2020’s, and has played in fewer than sixty games in each of the last two NHL campaigns.

  • The NHL Department of Player Safety announced initial supplemental disciplinary actions resulting from yesterday’s violent preseason contest between the Panthers and the Lightning. Defenseman J.J. Moser will have a hearing for boarding Jesper Boqvist, Sabourin will have a hearing for his aforementioned hit (and more) on Ekblad, while Gage Goncalves and Roman Schmidt will each be fined the maximum-allowable amount under the CBA ($3,125 and $2,098.52, respectively) for cross-checking. The dates and times of Moser and Sabourin’s respective hearings have not yet been determined.

Waivers: 10/4/25

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With a little over 48 hours remaining before season-opening rosters need to be submitted to the league, it’s expected to be a very busy weekend on the waiver wire.  Not surprisingly, it’s another big list of players on waivers today as 17 players have been put there, per PuckPedia.  Meanwhile, all 12 players on waivers yesterday passed through unclaimed, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (Twitter link).  Here’s today’s list of players on the wire:

Dallas Stars

F Cameron Hughes
D Vladislav Kolyachonok

Florida Panthers

D Tobias Bjornfot
G Brandon Bussi

New Jersey Devils

F Thomas Bordeleau
F Angus Crookshank
F Brian Halonen
F Zack MacEwen
D Colton White

Philadelphia Flyers

D Dennis Gilbert

Pittsburgh Penguins

D Alexander Alexeyev
D Ryan Graves
F Rafael Harvey-Pinard
F Bokondji Imama
F Samuel Poulin

San Jose Sharks

F Colin White

Utah Hockey Club

F Cameron Hebig

Graves is the headliner in today’s class, primarily due to his contract which has four years left on it.  We covered his situation in more detail earlier today.

Among the rest of the players, Bjornfot is no stranger to being in this situation but he has been claimed twice before.  He spent most of last season in the minors with Florida but did get into 14 games with the Panthers and has 134 games at the top level under his belt.  Alexeyev played sparingly last season with Washington not wanting to risk losing him for nothing on waivers but it appears that Pittsburgh doesn’t have that same level of hesitance.  Meanwhile, Kolyachonok was claimed off waivers by the Penguins back in February before being flipped to Dallas over the summer so it’s possible another team might have their eye on him as well.  Gilbert signed with the Flyers this summer after splitting last season between Ottawa and Buffalo but while the thought was that he’d at least be able to land a seventh role, that isn’t the case.

As for the forwards, San Jose’s White is by far the most experienced with 323 NHL appearances.  However, he has primarily been an AHL player in recent years and it’s likely that he will clear and be assigned to the Barracuda.  Poulin was a 2019 first-round pick but hasn’t seen much time with the Penguins, including just seven games last season.  But at 24, he’s young enough to potentially be of interest to a team that wants to take a longer look at him.  Bordeleau held his own in 27 games with the Sharks in 2023-24 but only played once for them last season before being moved in July in a swap of AHL players.  But like Poulin, he’s young enough (23) to potentially draw attention.

These players will be on waivers until 1:00 PM CT on Sunday.

Myles Fee Named Video Coach For Sweden's Olympic Team

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  • Sweden’s hockey federation revealed today that future Blues GM Alex Steen has been named as a Player Personnel Consultant for their entry into next year’s Olympics. Steen will be taking over for Doug Armstrong as GM in St. Louis after this season.  Meanwhile, Blackhawks assistant coach Anders Sorensen will have that title for the Swedes in that tournament while Panthers assistant Myles Fee will serve as their video coach.

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