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Minor Transactions: 06/04/23

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The start of the new league year and NHL free agency is inching closer, and more transaction activity is picking up throughout the world of professional hockey. We’ll keep track of moves from overseas and minor leagues here.

  • Former Vancouver Canuck Mike Zalewski will not receive a contract offer from ICEHL club Klagenfurt AC, ending his one-year stint there. A versatile forward who contributed to the 32-time Austrian champions’ penalty kill, Zalewski scored just five points in 20 games this season for Klagenfurt after a December transfer from Graz. The undrafted 30-year-old last played in North America in 2016-17, when he scored 18 points in 54 AHL games and managed to skate in one contest for the Vancouver Canucks.
  • Former college hockey star Troy Loggins has signed a one-year contract to remain with his current club, HC Nove Zamsky of the Slovakian Extraliga. The soon-to-be-28-year-old scorer transferred to Slovakia in January after beginning the season with Swedish HockeyAllsvenskan side Vasterviks IK. Before signing in Sweden last summer, Loggins had tried his luck at playing North American pro hockey and found some success at the ECHL level, scoring 25 points in 45 games for the Toledo Walleye in 2019-20. He also managed to skate in 28 AHL contests the following season, and now that he’s playing overseas he seems to have established himself as a difference-maker at the top level of Slovak pro hockey.
  • Veteran SHL rearguard Jonas Ahnelov announced he is leaving Leksands IF on social media today, confirming the end of his four-season run there. The 35-year-old 2006 third-round pick played three seasons in North America from 2008-2011, each with the AHL’s San Antonio Rampage. While he never made it to the NHL, Ahnelov has had an accomplished career patrolling the bluelines of the SHL and KHL. He’s logged over 500 games at the highest level of Swedish hockey and another 140 in Russia, and will now need to find a new team in order to continue his pro career.
  • 2020 Montreal Canadiens sixth-round pick Alexander Gordin is rumored to have signed a one-year contract with VHL club Ryazan VDV, per a report out of Russia. The 21-year-old forward was selected 171st overall at the 2020 draft by the Canadiens and this past season broke into Russia’s second-tier league, the VHL, as a regular for the first time. He scored eight goals and 12 points in 36 games for HK Rostov and also managed two points in six games at the KHL level with HK Sochi. As a drafted KHL prospect the Canadiens hold Gordin’s rights indefinitely, so they will likely continue to monitor his prospects moving forward, though with this transfer it is looking less and less likely that a future in Montreal is in the cards, though it’s obviously not impossible.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 06/02/23

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With the Stanley Cup Final set to start tomorrow, we are getting increasingly close to the start of the NHL offseason and the period of the summer where every club across the hockey world is in between seasons. Even as some teams vie for some of hockey’s highest honors, such as the Stanley Cup and Memorial Cup, most clubs are getting to work on building their teams for next season. We’ll keep track of any notable transactions overseas or minor league clubs make here:

  • Curtis McKenzie, the captain of the AHL’s Texas Stars, has signed a two-year contract extension to remain in Texas. McKenzie is on his second tour of duty with AHL Texas and has 99 NHL games on his resume, all with the Dallas Stars. A beloved part of the Stars’ 2014 Calder Cup-winning squad, McKenzie has scored 104 points in 142 games over the last two AHL campaigns. He is valued for both his on-ice contributions and also his off-ice leadership, and will now be able to help shepherd the next generation of Stars prospects on their way from Cedar Park to Dallas.
  • Former Ottawa Senator Filip Chlapik is returning to HC Sparta Praha in his native Czechia after spending last season with Switzerland’s HC Ambri-Piotta, per a team announcement. The move is a massive one for Prague as Chlapik, 25, was a dominant force during his one season in the Czech capital. In 2021-22 Chlapik scored 70 points in 53 games, leading the Czech Extraliga in all major offensive categories and winning Extraliga Player of the Year. Ambri-Piotta have already secured Chlapik’s replacement, Laurent Dauphin, but will surely miss having the 2015 second-rounder as he scored 24 goals and 37 points in 50 games in his debut season in the Swiss League.
  • Longtime AHL and ECHL netminder Joe Cannata is leaving the SHL’s IK Oskarshamn after three seasons spent with the club. The 33-year-old goalie arrived in the SHL after he was named Goalie of the Year of the second-division HockeyAllsvenskan in 2019-20, having posted a .938 save percentage in 41 games for IF Bjorkloven. Cannata, who last played in North America in 2019 with the ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies, served as Oskarshamn’s number-one goalie in 2020-21 before transitioning to more of a tandem role the last two years, ceding starts to 28-year-old Tim Juel. Now with Cannata departed and Juel signing a three-year deal with Timra, Oskarshamn will turn to Liiga star and former Arizona Coyote Marek Langhammer to man their crease.
  • Ryan Lasch, a well-traveled star in multiple major European pro leagues, is returning to Liiga’s Lahti Pelicans, the club he played for in both 2011-12 and 2020-21. The 36-year-old American has been a difference-maker at each stop of his pro career, perhaps most notably at Frolunda in the SHL where he has won the Champions Hockey League three times and the SHL title twice. Lasch has led the SHL in points three times and Liiga once, and is likely to be a key contributor for a Pelicans team hoping to win a championship after falling just short against Tappara Tampere in the finals this past season.
  • In advance of their first season in the SHL since winning promotion in April, MoDo Hockey Ornskoldsvik have signed Mikael Ruohomaa from rival SHL side Leksands IF. While Ruohomaa had a difficult 2022-23, scoring just four goals in 41 games, he is an established, productive player in Liiga, the KHL, and SHL, and should bring some reliability and scoring ability to MoDo’s lineup. As MoDo are looking to avoid relegation back to HockeyAllsvenskan next season, signings that bring in quality players such as Ruohomaa will be crucial.
  • While they’ll lose Ruohomaa to MoDo, Leksands IF have made a signing of their own, bringing in defenseman Eddie Larsson from Liiga’s HIFK Helsinki. Larsson, 32, won an SHL title with Vaxjo in 2014-15 and has nearly 500 games of SHL experience on his resume. He’ll help bolster a solid Leksands blueline that surrendered the fifth-fewest goals in the SHL last season.
  • Samuel Bucek, a star of the Slovakian league, is headed back to Slovakian side HK Nitra after a difficult campaign split between Russia and Czechia. The 24-year-old is headed home to Nitra, the club where he scored 41 goals in 50 games in 2021-22 and won the league’s MVP award. Nitra lost in the finals to HC Slovan Bratislava that season and then this season fell to 10th place in the league standings, meaning Bucek’s return to their lineup serves as a significant boost to Nitra’s hopes of returning to title contention.
  • After starring in the ECHL for the past three seasons, former Miami University (Ohio) captain Gordie Green is headed overseas to continue his pro career. The 26-year-old has signed with HC Innsbruck of the ICEHL, and will likely be counted on as a possible top scorer. Green scored 71 points in 62 games for the Toledo Walleye this past season but failed to register on the scoresheet in the six AHL games he received with the Grand Rapids Griffins and Miluwakee Admirals. Now, he’ll get a chance to impress in Austria and potentially begin the process of moving up the European pro hockey ladder.

Minor Transactions: 05/15/23

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With Game Seven between the Dallas Stars and Seattle Kraken tonight, the NHL’s second round is set to come to a close. Just four NHL franchises will remain in contention for the Stanley Cup, while the majority of teams are now earnestly preparing for their offseason work.

One minor league did give out a championship yesterday, the Federal Prospects Hockey League, a league that brands itself as being “Single-A” level. (Where the ECHL is Double-A, AHL is Triple-A, and so forth.) The Danbury Hat Tricks erased a 2-0 series deficit and took home the Commissioner’s Cup in a decisive Game Five, the first title for a Danbury team since the now-defunct Danbury Whalers won the same trophy in 2013. The Hat Tricks’ victory was another notable moment in the history of pro hockey in Danbury, a city whose former pro team, the Trashers, once rostered players with NHL experience such as Mike Rupp, Rumun Ndur, and Brent Gretzky and was the subject of a Netflix documentary.

With fewer and fewer leagues still set to play and the IIHF World Championships fully underway, teams across the hockey world are getting to work on their offseason moves. We’ll keep track of any notable transactions here:

  • After hitting the open market late last month, former NHL forward Patrice Cormier has found his next team. The 32-year-old two-time Manitoba Moose captain has signed with the DEL’s Eisbaren Berlin, a club desperate for a bounce-back season after following up their back-to-back titles with a playoff miss. Cormier is five seasons removed from his last in North America and has been in the KHL for that entire period. He spent this past season with Automobilist Yekaterinburg and scored 19 points in 55 games. He’s also had stops elsewhere in Russia and in Kazakhstan in his time since playing for the Moose.
  • Former Florida Panthers depth defenseman Colby Robak announced his retirement from professional hockey today on social media, according to the Daily Sentinel’s Ben Birnell. The 33-year-old defenseman played 47 NHL games, mostly for the Florida Panthers, between 2011-12 and 2014-15. Beyond his NHL experience, Robak’s career highlights include three seasons spent as a star defenseman for the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings, being named to the AHL All-Star game in just his second season as a professional, and leading the German DEL in points by a defenseman in 2020-21. After spending 2021-22 with the DEL’s Schwenninger Wild Wings, his third campaign in Germany and second as an alternate captain for the franchise, Robak didn’t play in 2022-23 and has now made the choice to end his playing career.
  • Matt Bradley, a former Montreal Canadiens prospect and ECHL champion, has signed with the DEL’s Straubing Tigers after spending the better part of the last two seasons playing for the Vienna Capitals in the ICEHL. The 26-year-old has played exceptionally well in the Austrian capital, notching 82 points in 67 games alongside 22 points in 22 playoff games. His success in the Central European ICEHL has now earned him a chance in Germany’s top flight, and while Vienna will now need to cope with the loss of their top scorer Bradley gains a significant opportunity to step onto a DEL playoff team and look to seize a similarly important offensive role.
  • Slovakian forward Miroslav Mucha, a recent graduate of the college hockey ranks with Lake Superior State and Michigan State University, has signed with Bili Tygri Liberec of Czechia’s Extraliga. The 25-year-old has three games of pro experience under his belt, them all coming with the ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits on a contract he signed late in the ECHL campaign. The former Michigan State captain scored 35 points in 37 games in his final season with Lake Superior State University before transferring to the Spartans for this season, and scored 17 points in his final 38 games of college hockey. Now he’ll head to Czechia, where he’ll look to score his first professional points and establish himself in the country’s top league.
  • Two-time SHL champion Eric Martinsson, a veteran of the European pro circuit, has signed with the Vaxjo Lakers of the SHL, the club he played for from 2014-2018. Martinsson is a 30-year-old blueliner who spent this past season playing for HV71, and the year before played for Barys Astana in Kazakhstan. Martinsson has 13 games of pro experience in North America, all of them coming in 2018-19 with the Iowa Wild. He scored an impressive nine points in that span but ultimately chose to return to Europe to play in Switzerland. Now, he’ll get to join the reigning Swedish champions.
  • HC Davos of Switzerland’s National League made two notable signings today. First, they inked a deal with 34-year-old veteran blueliner Noah Schneeberger, who has over 500 games of experience at the National League level. Schneeberger has played for Davos before, and won a title with the team in 2015. The other player they signed is 24-year-old Aleksi Peltonen. The captain of St. Lawrence University this past season, Peltonen is the son of Finnish Hockey Hall of Famer Ville Peltonen, who also is the head coach of Liiga side HIFK Helsinki. He’s also the grandson of another Finnish hockey Hall of Famer, Esa Peltonen, a former top scorer and champion at HIFK. Now, the younger Peltonen will get his pro career started in Switzerland, the league where his father was a head coach for two seasons.
  • Young blueliner Theodor Johnsson has made the switch from the SHL to the Finnish Liiga. The 20-year-old has transferred from the Malmo Redhawks to Liiga’s Vaasan Sport. Johnsson broke into the SHL this past season skating in 35 games for the Malmo Redhawks, a team that only narrowly avoided relegation to the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan. While he only scored three points, Johnsson’s performance in that stretch and his 18-game run for the Vaxjo Lakers last year proved good enough for Vaasan to take this chance and sign him to this contract.
  • Undersized defenseman Aleksi Anttalainen has signed a contract with SaiPa after spending the last four seasons with TPS Turku in Liiga. Anttalainen impressively carved out a role as a lineup regular for TPS the season after aging out of the QMJHL, where he played with the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada and Moncton Wildcats. Though some might look at Anttalainen’s physical attributes and typecast him as more of an offensive defenseman, Anttalainen has actually remained in the lineup in TPS despite not producing very many points. He’s scored just 24 in 149 career Liiga games, and SaiPa are clearly comfortable with the unique package of skills he’ll bring to their lineup, hoping that his blend of skating skill and physicality will help improve a team that came in last place in last season’s Liiga campaign.
  • Recent ICEHL champions EHC Red Bull Salzburg have announced that four players will not be continuing with the club. Among those names is Danish forward Nikolai Meyer, the player who scored the team’s championship-winning goal in Game Seven of the finals against HC Bolzano, and was among their top scorers on a point-per-game basis with 26 points in 31 games this season. The 29-year-old is no stranger to success in the European pro ranks, as he led HockeyAllsvenskan in scoring during his 2018-19 season with Sodertalje SK and was named the league’s forward of the year. While his short stay in Czechia with HC Plzen didn’t exactly go swimmingly, Meyer has been productive in multiple leagues across Europe and should be able to receive some interest now that he’s hit the open market.

This page will be updated throughout the day

Minor Transactions: 04/02/23

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It’s another busy day across the hockey world as we reach an important stretch of the NHL season with several teams in the thick of tight playoff races, especially in the Western Conference. The New York Islanders take on the Carolina Hurricanes in what could be a first-round playoff preview, while the Los Angeles Kings take on the Vancouver Canucks in a game that could push L.A. ahead of the Edmonton Oilers in the race for the Pacific Division’s second seed.

In Europe, multiple playoff semifinals are underway, and today Frolunda HC captured a crucial victory against Vaxjo in Sweden, tying the SHL’s semifinals at one game apiece. In Germany, Grizzlys Wolfsburg tied their DEL semifinal against EHC Red Bull Munchen 1-1, while an important third-period tie-breaking goal by former New York Rangers prospect Ty Ronning helped ERC Ingolstadt win 6-3 over Adler Mannheim and tie their side of the DEL semifinals. As fans take in all of the hockey on offer today, teams around the world are making tweaks to their roster or preparing for next season. We’ll keep track of those moves here.

  • Stanley Cup champion and former NHL top prospect Brett Connolly is among the players leaving Swiss club HC Lugano, according to a team announcement. Connolly signed in Switzerland over the summer after spending most of last season with the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs. The Canadian forward, who is still just 30 years old and was a decent NHL goal-scorer as recently as 2019-20, did well in his first year overseas, scoring 12 goals and 38 points in 45 games. He was sandwiched between two other former NHLers, Markus Granlund and Mirco Mueller, in Lugano’s scoring rankings, and he helped his side reach the Swiss playoffs.
  • Former Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Philip Samuelsson, the son of two-time Stanley Cup champion Ulf Samuelsson, is among the players announced not to be returning to the DEL’s Fischtown Pinguins. Samuelsson, 31, has 13 NHL games on his resume, the last few coming in 2015-16 with the Arizona Coyotes. Samuelsson played three straight seasons exclusively as an AHLer before heading overseas in 2019-20 to play most of the year in his native Sweden. He split the last three seasons between Leksands IF and IK Oskarshamn in the SHL before signing last summer in the DEL. He scored 31 points in 47 games for Fischtown, helping lead them to a playoff series win over the Nurnburg Ice Tigers.
  • 2008 Minnesota Wild first-round pick Tyler Cuma has signed a two-year contract with Austria’s EK Zell am See, a club in the AlpsHL, a league with many second-tier Austrian clubs as well as teams in Italy and Slovenia. The 33-year-old blueliner has played in one career NHL game, which took place in 2011-12 with the Wild. Since then, he spent two more seasons in the AHL before deciding to head to Austria, and has now played nearly 300 games at the highest level of Austrian pro hockey. He’ll be moving down a level with this move after a season spent with Innsbruck HC, where he scored nine points in 43 games.
  • Former New York Rangers prospect Andrew Yogan will not continue his career with the IceHL’s Graz99ers, per a team announcement. The 31-year-old has been a star in the ICEHL since leaving North America, with 247 points in 236 career games. Yogan made the choice to leave Austria in 2021 to play with HC Slovan Bratislava in the Slovak league, and the 52 points in 48 games he scored propelled the team to a Slovak Extraliga championship. Yogan split 2022-23 between Slovakia and Austria, scoring 15 points in 16 games for Poprad before transferring and scoring 13 goals and 20 points for Graz.
  • Dylan St. Cyr’s tryout with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins is over, per the team. The 23-year-old former Michigan State Spartan appeared in one game with the Griffins, saving seven shots in relief of Jon Lethemon during a March 31st loss to the Milwaukee Admirals. The son of famous women’s hockey goaltender Manon Rheaume, St. Cyr will now look for his next chance in professional hockey with some valuable first experience under his belt.
  • 2013 San Jose Sharks fourth-round pick Fredrik Bergvik will not be returning to HockeyAllsvenskan’s Sodertalje SK for next season. The 28-year-old has been a tandem netminder for the second-tier Swedish side for the past four seasons, spending the last two as the backup for Nikita Tolopilo, who signed with the Canucks on Friday. Bergvik posted 2 shutouts and a 5-2 record in 10 total games played, with a .902 save percentage, and will now hit the open market for the first time in several years.
  • Michal Jordan is leaving the Lakers. The former Carolina Hurricanes defenseman is among the players not returning to Switzerland’s SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers, per a team announcement. The 32-year-old spent 19 games in Switzerland after transferring there in December. Before that point, he had captained the KHL’s Amur Khabarovsk, playing over 250 games there. Jordan last appeared in the NHL in 2015-16 and will now look elsewhere to continue his pro career.

This page will be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 02/11/23

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It’s been a packed day on the NHL schedule, with seven games already completed. The Montreal Canadiens took home a late comeback win against the New York Islanders, while the Tampa Bay Lightning triumphed in a 2020 Stanley Cup Final rematch that was nationally televised in the United States. As fans continue to enjoy today’s wealth of NHL action, teams in minor and foreign leagues are making tweaks to their rosters. We’ll track those moves here.

  • 2011 first-round pick Joe Morrow, who was part of the infamous trade that sent Tyler Seguin to the Dallas Stars, had his contract terminated with KHL club HK Sochi today. The 162-game NHL veteran had a difficult 31-game run in Russia, potting just nine points for the worst team in the KHL, and will now look elsewhere to continue his professional career.
  • 2014 sixth-overall pick Jake Virtanen was released by EHC Visp, a club that competes in the second division of Swiss Hockey. Emmanuel Favre of the Swiss newspaper Le Matin reported that Virtanen’s release comes after he allegedly had an altercation with a teammate. On paper, Virtanen’s numbers were solid this year (25 points in 21 games) but he’ll now need to find another home to continue his pro career as his time with Visp has ended.
  • Former Arizona Coyotes prospect Jens Looke has reportedly transferred to IF Bjorkloven, according to Johan Svensson of SportExpressen. The move takes Looke from the Finnish Liiga to the Swedish second-division, the HockeyAllsvenskan, where he has starred in the past. The last time Looke, who has 29 points in 37 games in Liiga this season, was in the HockeyAllsvenskan he scored 62 points in 52 games, helping lift Timra to promotion to the SHL. That’s exactly what he’ll hope to do with Bjorkloven this season.
  • The ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays have released netminder Mario Culina. The team lost their top scorer, Carter Turnbull, yesterday, and now augments their situation in the crease with the release of the 25-year-old Culina. Culina made his professional debut last season with 13 games played for the Fort Wayne Komets and had played two games for the Stingrays since signing with them on February 6th.
  • The exodus from SaiPa has begun. Per an announcement from his new club, SaiPa Lappeenranta’s starting netminder Niclas Westerholm has signed a contract with rival Liiga side Karpat.  SaiPa currently sit last in the Liiga standings, and with their fate looking increasingly dire Westerholm has chosen to make an exit. The 25-year-old has played 40 games this season and has an .884 save percentage. He’ll compete with Ottawa Senators prospect Leevi Merilainen and Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Joel Blomqvist.
  • Former Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Nicolas Mattinen has reportedly signed a contract to leave his current team, the ICEHL’s VSV EC at the end of the season to join the DEL’s Straubing Tigers for the 2023-24 campaign, according to Martin Quendler of Kleine Zeitung. Mattinen, 24, has been VSV’s top blueliner this season, scoring 37 points in 44 games in what has been a successful first season playing overseas professional hockey for the two-time OHL champion.
  • Adam Lapsansky, a veteran of Slovakia’s top professional league, is transferring from HC Dukla Michalovce to HC Nove Zamsky. Through this transfer Lapsansky, who has nearly 500 Slovak Extraliga games under his belt, moves up one spot on the league table. Lapsansky has scored just eight points in 25 games this season, and will hope that this transfer serves as a productive change of scenery.
  • 38-year-old Marek Hovorka, a longtime veteran of the Central European pro hockey circuit and an Olympian who represented his native Slovakia at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyongchang, has signed with Slovak club HC Kosice. Hovorka has played in Slovakia’s second division this season, scoring 14 points in 12 games for Vlci Zilina, and will now look to help Kosice as they attempt to gain ground on HKM Zvolen and HC Slovan Bratislava in the league table.

This page will be updated throughout the day

Minor Transactions: 02/10/23

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The NHL season is back in full swing after the All-Star break, and today features four games on the schedule. Two of the more aggressive contenders for the 2023 draft’s first overall pick, the Arizona Coyotes and Chicago Blackhawks, are set to face off, while Vladimir Tarasenko makes his New York Rangers debut as they face the Seattle Kraken. As hockey fans everywhere soak in tonight’s action, teams in minor and foreign leagues are making tweaks to their rosters. We’ll track those moves here.

  • One of the DEL’s top scorers, 2018 St. Louis Blues first-round pick Dominik Bokk has signed a one-year extension with his club, the Frankfurt Lions. Bokk’s productivity has skyrocketed since he returned to European hockey. Last year, he scored just 10 points in 32 games for the AHL’s Chicago Wolves. He was loaned to Frankfurt for this season, and he has scored 49 points in 43 games, meaning his club must have been eager to put pen to paper on a contract extension.
  • After clearing waivers earlier today, former Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Linus Hogberg seems to have found his next team. Johan Svensson of SportExpressen reports that Hogberg has an agreement to join Skelleftea AIK, the SHL’s first-place team. In Skelleftea, Hogberg will join former NHLers Oscar Moller, Joakim Lindstrom, Par Lindholm, and Tom Kuhnhackl, as well as top 2023 draft prospect Axel Sandin-Pellikka.
  • A pair of minor league blueliners for San Jose Sharks affiliates have had their PTOs converted to standard player contracts, per the AHL’s official transactions page. The two 26-year olds, Darren Brady and William Riedell, have split this season between the AHL and ECHL, although they both have played exclusively at the AHL level since early December. Both players had two games of AHL experience before their call-up to San Jose, with Riedell getting his call at the conclusion of his NCAA career at Ohio State. Brady, on the other hand, had to test his mettle in both the SPHL and in a successful 32-point 47-game run in the ECHL before earning his AHL call-up.
  • The ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays have lost their top scorer. 24-year-old Carter Turnbull, a former Connecticut Husky, has signed with HKM Zvolen in Slovakia’s top professional league. Turnbull turned pro last season after a four-year NCAA career at the University of Connecticut, and was fine, scoring five points in 11 games for the Stingrays. This season, he’s become their top offensive player, and he has 42 points in 41 games. The Stingrays, who sit in the middle of the ECHL’s playoff mix, will now need to find a way to replace the hefty scoring burden Turnbull leaves behind.
  • Czech club BK Mlada Boleslav has signed two players to contract extensions. The first is 2017 Chicago Blackhawks fourth-round pick Tim Soderlund, and the second is former Providence Bruin Robert Lantosi. Soderlund, 25, moved from Djurgardens in Sweden to Boleslav just a month ago, and now commits to extending there after scoring six points in 13 games. Lantosi, 27, has scored 24 points in 40 games this season after coming over from HC Linkopings in the summer.
  • The SHL’s Vaxjo Lakers have signed a two-year extension with veteran forward Ludvig Nilsson. The 28-year-old transferred from Brynas to Vaxjo in 2019, and won an SHL title with the Lakers in 2020-21. Nilsson has scored eight points in 37 games this season playing bottom-six minutes on a talented Vaxjo team.
  • Austrian club Black Wings Linz, who play in the Central European ICEHL, have signed a two-year extension with young defenseman Niklas Bretschneider. The Vienna native already has 133 games of experience at Austria’s top level of hockey with Linz, and has played in 41 games this season as the Black Wings have fought for a playoff spot.
  •  The ECHL’s Worcester Railers have signed a contract with forward Paul Boutoussov, putting the 26-year-old in a position to make his professional debut. Boutoussov last played in 2021-22 with Babson College, a business school that competes in NCAA Division III athletics. Boutoussov’s signing is presumably to bring in some short-term help for the Railers, who are looking to stay afloat in the ECHL’s playoff race despite losing quality contributor Blake Christensen to HC Thurgau of the Swiss second division.

This page will be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 01/28/23

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With the month of January nearly concluded, we are getting ever closer to the NHL trade deadline. Numerous teams will have to make franchise-altering choices that could chart their competitive courses for years to come. Rumblings about players such as Timo Meier, Vladimir Tarasenko, and Cam Talbot, to name a few, are making headlines. As NHL fans enjoy all the best that the upcoming trade season has to offer, teams in minor and foreign leagues are making tweaks to their rosters. We’ll keep track of all those moves here.

  • The Edmonton Oilers have signed University of Alberta netminder Matt Berlin to an ATO agreement. Berlin’s services are needed due to the fact that goaltender Stuart Skinner is out with an illness. The 25-year-old will back up Jack Campbell for tonight’s game, and then in all likelihood return to the Golden Bears, where he has an .892 save percentage in five games this season.
  • Former Carolina Hurricanes prospect Callum Booth has been released from his standard player contract by the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds. The 25-year-old netminder was signed by the Firebirds in September but has largely spent time in the ECHL as Firebirds head coach Dan Bylsma has preferred a tandem of Christopher Gibson and Joey Daccord. As 28-year-old Shane Starrett has seized the crease in ECHL Kansas City, where Booth was playing, Booth now receives a release and will look for better opportunities elsewhere. Booth has struggled so far with the Mavericks, posting an .871 save percentage in nine games played. He’s fared better in his limited AHL action this year, though, winning both games to go along with a .950 save percentage.
  • Jamie Fraser, a former member of the New York Islanders organization, has come out of retirement to return to his former club, the ICEHL’s Villacher SV. Fraser had served as Villacher’s captain for three seasons and was an ICEHL All-Star last season. His addition should help the Austrian side as they make a push for the playoffs.
  • Patrik Bartosak, a former star WHL goaltender, has made his arrangements for next season. The current Lahti Pelicans netminder has signed a contract for next season with HK Mountfield, a club in his native Czechia’s Extraliga. A former Los Angeles Kings prospect, Bartosak is a highly accomplished goalie. He’s led the Extraliga in save percentage twice (and has a career .931 mark through six seasons there) and was named the 2012-13 CHL Goalie of the Year.
  • After being released by the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star yesterday, forward Ethan Werek has found a new team, HK Mountfield. Werek actually has experience in the Czech Extraliga, having played for four-time league champions HC Ocelari Trinec during the 2018-19 season, his first outside of North America. He’ll now head back to that league to help Mountfield as they attempt to reach the postseason.
  • Yesterday, Vasterviks IK, a club in Sweden’s HockeyAllsvenskan, signed ECHL star Josh Winquist. Today, additional context may have been added to that transaction. According to a team announcement, veteran forward Alexander Hilmerson has ended his season and left Vasterviks due to a knee injury. Hilmerson scored 18 points in 39 games last season, but hadn’t managed to get onto the ice this year. The club getting some clarity on Hilmerson’s status could have paved the way for Winquist’s signing. Nonetheless, this is an unfortunate setback for the veteran Swede.
  • Montreal native Jonathan Desbiens has left the top professional league of France, Ligue Magnus, to sign with a club in the United Kingdom’s top league, the EIHL. Per a team announcement, the Manchester Storm have inked a deal with Desbiens. Desbiens is a former BCHL second-team all-star who was a quality four-year scoring forward at Bentley University. He made his professional debut last season, splitting time between two ECHL clubs before moving to France. He had a successful debut for Mulhouse in France, scoring 23 points in 22 games, but had struggled to adjust to his new team, Amiens. With just seven points in 23 games this season, he’s now made the choice to leave the French league to seek a new opportunity in Manchester. If he can replicate the success he found last season, this could be a great addition to the Storm.
  • ECHL forward Brandon Yeamans was released by his club, the Florida Everblades, today. The 24-year-old was traded by the Cincinnati Cyclones earlier this month and has apparently failed to latch on with the Everblades. Yeamans made his professional debut last year after two years playing at the Canadian University level and another several playing junior hockey in Ontario. He played well enough to earn an extension for this season in September but now will seek new opportunities to continue playing professionally. Yeamans has registered 10 points and 93 penalty minutes in his 47-game ECHL career.

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. 

Minor Transactions: 01/19/23

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It’s a busy night on the NHL schedule, with 13 games set to be played. Highlights include the league-leading Boston Bruins taking on Eastern Conference rivals, the New York Rangers, the Edmonton Oilers facing the Tampa Bay Lightning, and the Toronto Maple Leafs battling the Winnipeg Jets. As fans across the world enjoy all this NHL action, teams in minor and overseas leagues are making tweaks to their rosters. We’ll keep track of those moves here.

  • Former Vancouver Canucks and Florida Panthers forward Juho Lammikko has signed a two-year extension to remain with his current club, Switzerland’s ZSC Lions. Lammikko will remain in Zurich after signing there from Vancouver in the summer. He’s been a quality contributor at Switzerland’s highest level, leading the Lions in goals with 15 in 24 games.
  • The Montreal Canadiens organization has swapped the levels of two of its minor league netminders. Big Joe Vrbetic, a seventh-round pick at the 2021 draft, is headed to the ECHL, while Philippe Desrosiers is headed to the team’s AHL affiliate, the Laval Rocket. Vrbetic has struggled thusfar in his professional debut, with a .872 save percentage in 11 games.
  • On January 11th, we covered how former ECHL star Darik Angeli had left his club, the EIHL’s Belfast Giants. We now know where Angeli is headed. He’s signed a contract with Vienna Capitals, a team in the ICEHL, a league comprising of teams in Austria, Italy, Hungary, and Slovenia. He heads to the Austrian capital after a moderately successful stint with Belfast, where he scored 12 points in 24 games.
  • The Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe has reported that ECHL defenseman Cole Fraser has left his current club, the Toledo Walleye, to sign with the EIHL’s Dundee Stars. The 23-year-old blueliner was a fifth-round pick of the Detroit Red Wings in 2017, and has played in the ECHL for the bulk of his professional career.
  • The ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays acquired forward Jackson Leppard from the Allen Americans in exchange for forward Gavin Gould. It’s a change of scenery deal for each player, as Leppard has struggled after an impressive 20-goal, 35-point professional debut, while Gould, who has just eight points this season, heads back to Allen after scoring above a point-per-game there last season.

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