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Minor Transactions: 11/23/23

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As today is American Thanksgiving and 14 NHL games were played last night, the schedule for high-level hockey in North America is relatively light today.

Although it’s just OHL and QMJHL teams that will play today on this side of the Atlantic, over in Europe things are, as one would expect, quite a bit more active. The entirety of Sweden’s SHL will play today, as will eight teams in Finland’s Liiga and two apiece in the German DEL and Swiss NL. With an eye on today’s games, we’ll keep track of notable player movement throughout the hockey world here.

  • The most active team in pro hockey yesterday may have been the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones, who sit sixth in the ECHL’s Western Conference with a 7-5 record. On November 22nd, the club made two trades and two free agent additions. The first trade was technically made by AHL teams, with the Cyclones-affiliated Hartford Wolf Pack acquiring forward Tim Doherty from the Chicago Wolves, and then loaning Doherty to Cincinnati. Doherty is a 28-year-old scorer who played college hockey at the University of Maine and has broken out as a star ECHLer with the Maine Mariners. He scored 21 goals and 73 points in just 69 games last season, and has eight points through ten games this campaign. He’ll instantly be expected to be a difference-making offensive forward for the Cyclones.
  • The Cyclones didn’t end their offensive additions with Doherty, though, as they also signed winger Lincoln Griffin to a contract. The versatile forward was claimed off of waivers by Cincinnati from the Greenville Swamp Rabbits in 2021, and that decision instantly paid dividends for the club. Griffin scored 21 goals and 46 points in his first 57 games with the club, and then scored 17 goals and 37 points in 2022-23, en route to the ECHL All-Star game. He signed with Slovakia’s HK Nitra for 2023-24, but with just two points in 12 games, Griffin has elected to forgo the rest of the season in Nitra to return to his old stomping grounds in the Queen City.
  • To make room for these forward acquisitions, the Cyclones dealt forward Adam Berg in a trade with the Utah Grizzlies. Berg, 26, is in his second ECHL season after getting into 19 games near the end of 2022-23 with the Cyclones. Berg was signed to Cincinnati after a strong final season playing Canadian university hockey at Brock University, a year where he scored 15 goals and 29 points in 24 games. Berg has just two points in eight games so far this season for Cincinnati, so perhaps this change-of-scenery trade to Utah will help Berg better establish himself in the ECHL. Berg is the second forward the Grizzlies, who have the third-fewest goals scored in the ECHL, have added this week. They also signed former SPHL scorer Aaron Aragon as well.
  • The final addition by the Cyclones from yesterday was on the defensive side of the equation. The team signed blueliner Josh Burnside, returning a fixture from the Cyclones’ 2022-23 squad back to Cincinnati. The left-shot defenseman skated in 61 games for Cincinnati last year, posting 13 points and 42 penalty minutes. The former Mississauga Steelheads top-four defenseman signed in England this past summer, with the EIHL’s Coventry Blaze. He went on to play four games for Coventry before he elected to leave the club and return to the ECHL.
  • Defenseman Adam Holwell, a 2017-18 Memorial Cup and QMJHL champion with the Acadie-Bathurst Titan, has transferred from the EIHL’s Fife Flyers to Erste Liga’s Corona Brașov, a club in Romania. The Canadian blueliner, who posted 141 points in 329 career QMJHL games, began his pro career last season with his hometown Newfoundland Growlers in the ECHL. Holwell wasn’t great there, though, scoring just three points in 18 combined regular season and playoff games. He didn’t return to the ECHL for his first full campaign as a professional, instead signing in Scotland with the EIHL’s Fife Flyers. Holwell only managed one point in eight games for Fife, and has not played since a November 5th loss at the Guildford Flames where he registered a -3 rating. With Fife winning three of four games since Holwell last dressed for the team, a mutual parting of ways appears to have been the best course of action for both player and club. Holwell will now head to Romania, where he’ll look to carve out a regular role for a team currently sitting in the middle of the standings of the Erste Liga, a league comprised of clubs from both Romania and Hungary.
  • HockeyAllsvenskan’s Kalmar HC has signed veteran netminder Christian Engstrand to a one-year contract. The 35-year-old was playing on a short-term contract with the ICEHL’s EC-KAC, and had posted a 6-1-1 record, .939 save percentage, and 1.48 goals-against-average in eight games there. Kalmar is in need of some help in net, as while Jonathan Stålberg has been serviceable as the starter, 19-year-old backup Alexander Hellnemo has shown himself to not quite be ready for such a role. The 35-year-old Engstrand is a quality veteran goalie with some accomplishments on his resume. Most recently, Engstrand led the ICEHL in save percentage and goals-against-average for EC-KAC last season. Earlier in his career, Engstrand had achieved many feats in Swedish pro hockey, such as posting a .935 save percentage in 2012-13 for Linköping HC, posting a .950 save percentage in the Champions Hockey League in 2015-16, and leading Mora IK to promotion from HockeyAllsvenskan to the SHL in 2016-17. While he has not played in Sweden since 2020-21 with HC Vita Hästen, Engstrand is an experienced netminder capable of backstopping Kalmar for their push for SHL promotion.
  • Eero Elo, once a quality goal scorer in the Finnish Liiga, KHL, and both Swiss leagues has signed with EHC Freiburg of the German second-tier DEL2. The 33-year-old former Minnesota Wild prospect spent last season playing second-division hockey in Switzerland for HC Thurgau, scoring 20 goals and 44 points in 53 combined regular season and playoff games. Once a player who scored 26 goals in Liiga, Eero has regressed since those days and has not played in a premier European league on a regular basis since his 2019-20 season split between Liiga’s Lukko Rauma and NL’s SCL Tigers. Freiburg are currently 10th in the DEL2 standings, though they rank second in the division in goals scored. Perhaps adding even more firepower through the addition of Elo is what the club needs to climb the DEL2 table.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 11/16/23

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NHL hockey is going international today as the Detroit Red Wings and Ottawa Senators are set to face off in Stockholm, Sweden. All 14 clubs in Sweden’s top professional league, the SHL, play today as well, meaning it’s a hectic day for hockey in the country. Elsewhere in Europe, potential top 2024 draft prospect Konsta Helenius’ Liiga side Jukurit is set to take on JYP, while the current DEL leaders Eisbaren Berlin are taking on the Augsburg Panthers.

Player movement across the hockey world in both minor and foreign leagues mirrors how busy the schedule is, and as always we’ll keep track of notable transactions here.

  • Lucas Lessio, a former NHLer who began what has been an extensive career in European hockey in 2016-17, has left his club HC Bolzano of the ICEHL to sign in the DEL2 with Krefeld Pinguine. Although Krefeld have had a decent 9-7-1 start to the season, they have made a significant add in Lessio. The 30-year-old former Arizona Coyote played for Krefeld for two years from 2020 to 2022, scoring 37 goals and 62 points in 93 games. He was with the club when they suffered relegation from the DEL, and now with this signing, he’ll have the chance to lead them back to the German top flight.
  • Jerome Flaake, a two-time DEL champion and a veteran of over 700 DEL games has been signed by Krefeld alongside Lessio. The 33-year-old Toronto Maple Leafs 2008 fifth-round pick was a star player for the now-defunct Hamburg Freezers, though he never quite reached the same heights again in the DEL. Last season, Flaake helped ERC Ingolstadt reach the DEL finals, and now after scoring just three points in 12 games for Augsburg, he’s headed down a division to help Krefeld with their promotion push.
  • Former Montreal Canadiens prospect Arvid Henrikson has signed with AIK of the Swedish second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan. The big six-foot-five blueliner has spent this season so far with Västerviks IK, playing a total of 16 games. Henrikson hadn’t received more than bottom-pairing minutes for the club since October and has not played at all in over a week. Now he’ll play with AIK, a club he once captained at the U-18 level. It’s a big step up in the standings for Henrikson, who moves from HockeyAllsvenskan’s 13th-ranked club to the team currently third in the standings and looking like a potential promotion candidate.
  • Former Providence College forward Bryan Lemos has decided to leave the EIHL’s Guildford Flames, citing homesickness, to return to the ECHL’s Indy Fuel, the club he played for in 2021-22 and 2022-23. Lemos only managed three points in nine games for Guildford, though he did conclude his time there with a goal in the team’s big 3-1 victory over the reigning champion Belfast Giants. Lemos has had success with the Fuel before, and has scored a total of 25 goals and 67 points in 92 games with the club.
  • Journeyman American blueliner Charlie Dodero has signed with the ICEHL’s HK Olimpija Ljubljana today, adding a sixth country to the list of places he has played in during his career. The former Sudbury Wolves alternate captain spent last season in France’s Ligue Magnus with the Rouen Dragons, helping the club capture a French title and the Champions Hockey League spot that comes alongside it. Before 2022-23, Dodero was a regular face in the Central European ICEHL with two Austrian clubs, the Vienna Capitals and Graz99ers. Dodero last played in North America in 2018-19 with the Idaho Steelheads and has 46 AHL games on his resume, all of them coming with the Syracuse Crunch. Now, Dodero will look to add some edge to their blueline in the Slovenian capital, looking to help a club that is at the moment just a few places ahead of his former ICEHL teams near the bottom of the league’s standings.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 11/12/23

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The looming presence of the NFL regular season on the sports calendar as well as the European hockey international break means that today’s schedule around the world of hockey is lighter than normal. There are still a few games on the docket, including a contest in the AHL between the Hartford Wolf Pack and Providence Bruins that was the Wolf Pack interim head coach Steve Smith.

Even though today isn’t very busy in terms of game action, the transaction wire remains active as teams around the world add, subtract, and extend players. As always, we’ll keep track of notable moves here.

  • Ottawa Senators 2022 third-round pick Tomas Hamara was traded in the OHL, sent to the Brantford Bulldogs from the Kitchener Rangers in exchange for two draft picks. The 19-year-old defenseman, who has represented Czechia at two IIHF World Junior Championships, has scored just three points in 18 games for Kitchener this season and will look for an uptick in production with the Bulldogs.
  • 25-year-old Norwegian netminder Jonas Arntzen has signed a three-year contract with his current club, Örebro HK of the SHL. Arntzen is currently in his fourth season as the backup to former NHLer Jhonas Enroth with Örebro, and he even played in 13 playoff games last season as Örebro made a run to the SHL Semifinals. This season, he has played five games and posted a .899 save percentage.
  • Journeyman Swedish netminder Robin Rahm has added a seventh country to the list of nations he’s played professional hockey in, signing a one-month contract with Slovenia’s HK Olimpija Ljubljana. The 37-year-old joins the ICEHL side to fill the void left by an injury to starter Lukáš Horák. Rahm has a .901 save percentage in 30 career ICEHL games, all of them from 2018-19 with EC Graz. In addition to that move in net. Ljubljana has also announced that forward Ville Leskinen has had his short-term deal converted to a full-time contract, coming after he scored four goals and five points in 12 games with the club.
  • Czech Extraliga club HC Vítkovice have signed forward Marcel Barinka, 22. The former Halifax Mooseheads forward was in the midst of his fourth season in the DEL, having bounced from Cologne to Berlin to Augsburg and then finally to Iserlohn. Barinka has had success playing internationally with Czechia but has struggled to find the scoresheet at the club level. The hope will be that he can unlock some offense with Vítkovice, who rank 1oth out of 14 clubs in the Czech Extraliga in goals scored.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 10/17/23

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It’s a busy hockey day across the world, as the Champions Hockey League prepares for Game Day 6. This brings together a slew of exciting matchups, including a bout between Sweden’s Farjestad and Germany’s Munich Red Bulls. Farjestad has excelled in the CHL so far this season, winning four of their five games and averaging 4.4 goals-for and 1.8 goals-against on a per-game basis. Munich is coming off a tough loss in their home league but boasts one of the few offenses that can keep up with Farjestad. Munich also has the league’s scoring leader: former NHL first-round pick Jonathon Blum.

Hockey fans will have plenty to keep them busy with seven CHL games, and nine NHL games, on the slate today. The transaction wire remains as busy as the action on the ice and, as always, we’ll track notable player movement here.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Former Vancouver Canuck Josh Teves Signs In Italy

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Italian club HC Bolzano of the Austrian ICEHL has signed former Vancouver Canucks defenseman Josh Teves to a one-year contract, according to a team press release. The move fills out Bolzano’s roster for the 2023-24 campaign, which also includes former Montreal Canadien and Phoenix Coyote Lucas Lessio.

This is Teves’ third European team in the last two seasons after he failed to secure an NHL or AHL contract in the 2022 off-season. After signing with Liiga club JYP, he struggled in a top-four role to start the year and slowly slid down the depth chart, totaling ten points in 48 games and a -16 rating. With just weeks left in the season, JYP and Teves mutually terminated their contract, and he immediately signed with Swiss club SC Bern, where he had two points and a +3 rating in 13 combined regular-season and playoff games to close out 2022-23.

Without much to prove he can be a serviceable top-four defender at the top flight of European pro hockey, he drops down to a slightly less competitive league in the ICEHL. While still a solid European network that sends teams to the Champions Hockey League, it’s not a league that routinely produces NHL draftees or even free agents.

It’s been a tough few seasons for Teves after signing with the Canucks as an undrafted free agent out of Princeton University in 2019 when he looked like a rather promising depth add. He made his NHL debut with Vancouver to end that season, although it would end up being the only appearance of his career to date (and, likely, ever). Unfortunately, injuries limited his playing time the following season, and his development never recovered. He would score just one goal and six points in 52 games with the AHL’s Utica Comets while a member of the Canucks organization over the next two years and Vancouver didn’t issue him a qualifying offer when his entry-level contract expired in 2021. He then signed an AHL deal with the Rochester Americans for 2021-22, the Buffalo Sabres’ affiliate, although he failed to capture much attention despite playing a full 72-game season. There, he recorded a career-high six goals, 15 assists, 21 points, and a -8 rating.

In Bolzano, the 28-year-old Teves will look to prove that he can still shoulder heavy minutes at the pro level and hope to rebuild some career stock, even if just to return to a higher-level European pro league next season.

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: 07/25/23

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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: 07/23/23

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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.

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Minor Transactions: 07/15/23

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As we’re just a month-and-a-half away from the start of the professional hockey season in Europe, (the first games of the Champions Hockey League season are scheduled for the last day of August) many teams are hard at work signing players and finalizing the team they’ll be hoping will bring them to glory in 2023-24. As always, we’ll recap player movement from around the hockey world here, from minor leagues to the European pro hockey circuit.

  • 938-game NHL veteran Anton Strålman has signed a contract with HV71 in his native Sweden, a move that likely marks the conclusion of his North American pro career. Strålman, 36, last played top-division pro hockey in Sweden way back in 2006-07, the second of two seasons he spent manning the blueline for Timra. Although Strålman earned a one-year, $1MM contract from the Boston Bruins last season the depth of Boston’s blueline meant it was extremely difficult for Strålman to earn a place in the NHL lineup. He ultimately played only eight games in Boston, his final one coming in late November. He finished 2022-23 in the AHL, and will now shift his focus to a league he led in average ice time the last time he played there.
  • Ostap Safin, a 2017 Edmonton Oilers fourth-round pick, has signed a tryout contract with Lada Togliatti in the KHL. Now 24 years old, Safin earned an entry-level deal from the Oilers in 2018, nearly a year after he was drafted. He had scored 58 points in 61 games as an import player in the QMJHL, and looked like a promising prospect for Oilers fans to track. Then a significant shoulder injury cost Safin most of his 2018-19 season, and while he managed to return for the postseason he could only muster two points in 23 games. Safin turned pro the following year and played in the ECHL with the Wichita Thunder, earning a spot in the ECHL All-Star game and scoring 35 points in 54 games. Safin failed to find a place in the AHL, though, and by the end of 2021-22 his time in the Oilers organization had clearly concluded. He left for his native Czechia to play in their top league, but only scored 13 points in 41 games for HC Sparta Praha. Now, he’ll look to earn a job in the KHL and translate his tantalizing physical tools into tangible production in a challenging pro league.
  • The AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals have announced the signing of Carson Gicewicz to a one-year AHL contract. The six-foot-three New York native just wrapped up his second full season as a professional hockey player and has logged a total of 117 games in the AHL, almost all with the Rockford IceHogs. An NCAA Men’s Hockey National Champion at UMass Amherst, Gicewicz has carved out a role as a physical depth center in the AHL. The 26-year-old was traded by the IceHogs to the Rochester Americans for their playoff push in the middle of last season, although he only skated in three games for the Amerks. With this one-year deal he latches on with the Admirals and will likely be under consideration for a fourth-line center role, similar to the role he occupied in his brief time in Rochester.
  • After one season playing Canadian University hockey, former QMJHL star Simon Pinard has made the choice to turn pro. According to a team announcement, he’s signed a two-year AHL contract with the Henderson Silver Knights, the affiliate of the Vegas Golden Knights. Pinard, 22, is an undrafted player who spent last season at the University of New Brunswick, scoring 29 points in 29 games. The season before, he scored 91 points in 67 games in the QMJHL splitting time between the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada and Gatineau Olympiques. By signing Pinard to a deal with a two-year term, the Silver Knights are clearly making a bet that the five-foot-eleven Canadian forward can translate some of his USports and QMJHL productivity to the professional level.
  • 2022-23 was longtime Cleveland Monsters center Justin Scott’s first away from Cleveland, the only pro team he’s suited up for. Now, the 2023-24 campaign is set to be Scott’s first away from North America. The 27-year-old has signed with the Straubing Tigers of the DEL. Scott parlayed a successful final season with the Barrie Colts in the OHL and an exceptional 17 goals in 15 games playoff run into a an entry-level contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Scott was solid in his first season in the AHL, scoring 13 goals and 23 points in 53 games. While he endured a difficult sophomore slump, Scott quickly grew into a reliable regular for the Monsters and by his finals season there he was wearing a letter on his jersey and scoring 16 goals and 34 points in 76 games. Scott didn’t fare nearly as well in his one season with a different AHL club, the Colorado Eagles, scoring just 11 points in 53 games. Now he’s off to Germany, where he could end up an important all-around player for a club looking to make a deep playoff run after losing in Game Seven of the DEL Quarterfinals to Wolfsburg.
  • While the Tigers bring in one import player in Scott, they lose another as Canadian defenseman Trent Bourque signed a contract with Tingsryds AIF of HockeyAllsvenskan, the second tier of Swedish pro hockey. The former St. Louis Blues draft pick has spent parts of the last two seasons in the DEL with the Tigers, though he didn’t feature in the team’s playoff push or series against Wolfsburg. The six-foot-two 25-year-old former OHL mainstay began his pro career in the ECHL but couldn’t quite find his footing during AHL call-ups, leading to a move to Europe. With this new contract, Bourque is set to help Tingsryds in their attempt to avoid relegation to third-tier HockeyEttan after only narrowly avoiding that fate in 2022-23.
  • Tikhon Chayka is beginning his pro career after two seasons as the number-one goalie for the Prince Albert Raiders in the WHL. Chayka, who turns 20 in August, signed with Dynamo Minsk in his native Belarus. While Chayka is highly unlikely to feature in the KHL immediately, he was decent in his two seasons in the WHL. While his numbers declined in 2022-23, he had a solid .904 save percentage in 51 games in 2021-22. He could be in line to see time in the crease in Minsk once the incumbent starting goalie, Philadelphia Flyers prospect Alexei Kolosov, heads to North America to begin his recently-signed entry-level deal.
  • After four seasons at Canisius College, 24-year-old defenseman Lincoln Erne is turning pro. He’s signed a one-year ECHL contract with the Tulsa Oilers, and heads to Oklahoma after a strong senior collegiate campaign. Erne led Canisius to the NCAA Tournament and an AHA conference championship. The minutes-eating defensive defenseman doesn’t have much of an offensive game but will hope to bring his trademark physicality, size, and defensive responsibility to Tulsa and begin to climb the ladder of North American pro hockey.
  • After three seasons in the ECHL, former Boston College defenseman Luke McInnis is changing teams for the first time. The 24-year-old blueliner signed a contract with the Indy Fuel, confirming his exit from the Orlando Solar Bears, his club of the last three years. The Fuel acquired McInnis’ rights from Orlando in a trade last month, targeting the undersized defenseman after he ranked second among Solar Bears blueliners with 25 points in just 45 games. While the Solar Bears endured a difficult campaign, the Fuel made the ECHL playoffs and have now added some defensive reinforcements for next season.
  • Former Minnesota Wild prospect Gustav Bouramman has signed a one-year contract extension with his current club, the Graz99ers of the ICEHL. The deal lands Bouramman a second campaign in Austria, marking the first time in his professional career that he’s spent consecutive campaigns with the same organization. Bouramman overcame some early injuries to score 18 points in 31 ICEHL games, helping Graz reach the postseason. Before he landed in the ICEHL Bouramman spent three years playing in the HockeyAllsvenskan, and before that point he began his pro career as a regular on the blueline of the Rapid City Rush in the ECHL.
  • The EIHL’s Guildford Flames have secured the services of bruising defenseman Kyle Locke for a third campaign, inking him to a one-year extension. Called “probably the most significant physical presence” on the Flames’ roster by his head coach, Locke has logged 133 total games for Guildford and helped them to the EIHL playoffs in back-to-back years. He’s combined for 147 career penalty minutes in his career in the EIHL, and will now continue his career in England as the most menacing player on the Guildford defense.

Minor Transactions: 07/13/23

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While activity on the NHL free agent market has slowed to a crawl, as most notable free agents have found their team for next season, there’s still quite a bit of player movement outside the world’s top league. As always, we’ll keep track of notable transactions made by teams in minor and foreign professional leagues here.

  • 2010 Florida Panthers first-round pick Quinton Howden is set to play for Vasterviks IK in HockeyAllsvenskan, according to a report from Expressen’s Johan Svensson. The 31-year-old has had quite the journey since leaving the North American pro circuit for the 2017-18 season. He’s played in Belarus, Russia, Germany, Finland, France, and now returns to Sweden to play there for a second time. He finished last season with Grenoble in France’s Ligue Magnus, managing just three points in 12 playoff games for the club. Now he’ll look to help Vasterviks compete in a highly competitive league full of clubs vying for promotion to the SHL.
  • Liam Finlay, an ECHL All-Star as a rookie, has signed a contract extension to remain with the Allen Americans. Finlay, 26, is an undersized forward who has had a successful pro career since leaving the University of Denver. Finlay has been a productive contributor in the DEL2, Slovak league, and Finnish Mestis, and scored 33 goals and 70 points in his 54-game ECHL rookie season. Now, he’ll remain with the Americans and will look to take home a Kelly Cup championship next season.
  • The DEL2’s leading scorer, former Toronto Maple Leaf Marcel Muller, has signed a contract with the DEL’s Straubing Tigers. He’ll return to Germany’s top division after scoring 70 points in 50 games for the Krefeld Pinguine in the second division. While he couldn’t lead his club to promotion he himself made his way back to the league where he’s scored 352 points in 541 career games.
  • Former Tucson Roadrunner Trevor Cheek has left HockeyAllvenskan after two seasons to join the ICEHL’s Vienna Capitals. The 30-year-old Canadian forward racked up the most penalty minutes in HockeyAllsvenskan in 2021-22 and scored 59 points in 85 games across two seasons. Cheek was a productive player at the ECHL level and now heads to the Austrian capital looking to bring some grit and scoring ability to the ICEHL semifinalists.
  • After a productive ECHL rookie season, longtime Ohio State Buckeye Quinn Preston has made the choice to cross the Atlantic and sign with the EIHL’s Belfast Giants. Preston, 25, heads to Northern Ireland after his first full season as a professional. He scored 23 goals and 61 points in just 62 games for the Wichita Thunder, and he brings leadership value having served as an alternate captain for his final two seasons as a Buckeye. He’ll bring those positive qualities to the reigning EIHL champions with the hope of helping them defend their title next season.
  • Two-time NCAA Men’s Hockey national champion Louie Roehl has signed a one-year contract extension with the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers. 2022-23 was Roehl’s first campaign as a professional hockey player, and he got into 60 games for the Nailers and scored 24 points. The five-foot-ten right-shot blueliner was a steady presence on head coach Derek Army’s blueline and his quality play has secured him another year on the squad.
  • The ECHL’s Fort Wayne Komets have signed two players to one-year ECHL contracts: forwards Parker Saretsky and Kamerin Nault. For Saretsky, 24, this deal is his first professional contract and finalizes where he’ll be beginning his career as a professional hockey player. Saretsky just concluded a four-year NCAA career at Michigan Tech, setting a career-high with 20 points in 39 games as a senior. As for Nault, 27, he’s already got 108 ECHL games under his belt and arrives with the Comets after finishing last season in Scotland with the EIHL’s Fife Flyers.
  • Former Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Andrew Nielsen has signed with the ECHL’s Trois-Rivieres Lions. The 65th overall pick at the 2015 NHL draft, Nielsen never quite lived up to the hype he generated after his rookie season in the AHL. The hefty six-foot-four, 230 pound Western Canadian blueliner scored 14 goals and 39 points in 74 games as an AHL rookie, and added 82 penalty minutes on top of that. Although he won a Calder Cup the following season Nielsen has gone from promising young AHLer to ECHLer and AHL call-up option. Nielsen did have a strong season last year with the Utah Grizzlies, though, reaching the ECHL All-Star Game and registering 41 points and 166 PIMs in 47 games. He earned three AHL call-ups and 10 AHL games last season and will look to lead the blueline in Trois-Rivieres next season.

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