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Nick Bonino Signs In The ICEHL

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After Nick Bonino received his release from the Rangers back in February and didn’t sign anywhere in free agency or the opening weeks of the season, it looked like Nick Bonino’s playing career had come to an end.  However, that’s not the case as HK Olimpija Ljubljana of the ICEHL announced on their Instagram page that they’ve signed the veteran for the remainder of the season.

The 36-year-old played in 45 games with New York last season on the fourth line but struggled, recording just one goal and four assists while logging 12:15 per night of playing time.  In late January, the Rangers elected to waive Bonino and after he passed through unclaimed, he decided not to report to AHL Hartford and was put on unconditional waivers in early February, being released after clearing once again.

Bonino has 868 career regular season games in the NHL under his belt over 15 seasons with seven different organizations.  He has 159 goals and 199 assists to his name, a very solid career for a sixth-round pick back in 2007 when he was selected 173rd overall.  It’s unlikely he’ll be adding to those totals at this point of his career but this contract suggests that he’s not ready to hang up his skates just yet.

Snapshots: Pipeline Rankings, Strome, Gaunce

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The big news over the past few days was top goalie prospect Yaroslav Askarov heading to the Sharks in a blockbuster trade and immediately signing a two-year, $4MM extension. The move has massively shifted the prospect pool of both teams, but neither find themselves in the basement of Corey Pronman’s ranking of each team’s current crop of under-23 players for The Athletic.

Predictably, his initial installment of the bottom eight is filled with recent championship contenders. The Lightning are beginning to feel the effects of trading away nearly all of their impact futures for win-now pieces in pursuit of their three straight Stanley Cup Final appearances and back-to-back championships earlier this decade, checking in at No. 32. Their biggest fish is a new addition – center Conor Geekie, acquired from the Utah Hockey Club in the Mikhail Sergachev trade at the draft. But he’s the only player in their system that Pronman feels confident will be a top-nine fixture, although he also feels confident in 2023 second-rounder Ethan Gauthier, 2021 seventh-rounder Niko Huuhtanen, and 2022 first-rounder Isaac Howard to at least be everyday NHLers. But after that, especially on defense, it’s slim pickings for Tampa as they’re still trying to extend their championship window in the post-Steven Stamkos era.

Rounding out the bottom are many other teams who have reached the Cup Final in the past few seasons, namely the Avalanche (No. 31), Oilers (No. 30), and the Golden Knights (No. 27). But some other clubs without any conference championships to claim since the pandemic, such as the Bruins (No. 29), Canucks (No. 28), Islanders (No. 25), and Penguins (No. 26), find themselves with some soul-searching to do without a ton of help coming from inside the house.

Other tidbits from around the NHL to start the week:

  • Players are slowly beginning to roll into their team’s home cities ahead of training camps next month. Capitals forward Dylan Strome is one of them, taking part in informal skates after an offseason of change in Washington (per Sammi Silber of The Hockey News). The 27-year-old enters camp intending to maintain his role as Washington’s first-line center, a job he’ll likely face a challenge for from trade acquisition Pierre-Luc Dubois. Strome has flourished in a top-six role since arriving with the Caps two years ago, setting career-highs last season with 27 goals and 67 points.
  • Defenseman Cameron Gaunce is heading overseas for the first time after a 14-year pro career split between the NHL and the AHL. He signed a one-year contract today with Hungary’s Fehérvár AV19, per a team announcement. The 34-year-old was a second-round pick of the Avalanche all the way back in 2008 and has 37 NHL games under his belt with four different teams, last appearing with the Lightning in 2019-20. The vast majority of his playing time has come in the AHL, where he racked up 51 goals, 255 assists and 306 points in 823 games. The strong two-way left-shot defender spent last season on an AHL contract with the Toronto Marlies after waiting until December to sign, posting eight points in 40 appearances. He now heads to AV19, the lone Hungarian club in Austria’s ICE Hockey League.

Minor Transactions: 01/07/24

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It’s another busy day across the world of professional hockey, with four NHL games. Outside the NHL, the schedule is jam-packed with contests in the CHL and the various European professional leagues. Just as the schedule is packed with games, the transaction wire has had quite a bit of player movement activity. As always, we’ll keep track of those moves here.

  • The AHL’s Rochester Americans have announced a procedural move that will allow defenseman Nicolas Savoie to pursue educational opportunities rather than continue with the team playing pro hockey. The 21-year-old defenseman is set to play for the University of New Brunswick in the Canadian university hockey circuit, according to CBC Sports’ Ben Steiner. Savoie is an undrafted left-shot blueliner who emerged as a strong QMJHL defenseman for the Quebec Ramparts in 2021-22. He scored at least 44 points in each of his last two seasons playing junior hockey, and took home a Memorial Cup with Quebec to cap off his QMJHL career. He played in 21 ECHL games for the Jacksonville Icemen and three AHL contests in Rochester, and will now head to University before potentially trying his hand at the pro game once again.
  • Former Montreal Canadiens prospect Michael McNiven was released by the ECHL’s Savannah Ghost Pirates today, ending a tenure with the team that began in early December. The former CHL goalie of the year was traded from the Wheeling Nailers to Savannah after posting an .859 save percentage with the Nailers. He didn’t do much better in Savannah (0-3-1 with an .899) and will now have to look elsewhere to continue his career. He does have a strong pro campaign on his resume, though, from 2018-19 when he put up a .902 save percentage in 30 games for the AHL’s Laval Rocket.
  • 29-year-old Ross Olsson’s time with the Worcester Railers has ended after one game played. The six-foot-four forward, who captained the Orlando Solar Bears last season, was released by the ECHL club today. He signed with the team yesterday and played in their loss that same day before now receiving his release. Olsson is currently working in an off-ice role at a nearby school, so he seemingly was signed for fill-in duty for that single game as the Railers were likely in need of a capable player to fill in for that short period. Olsson has been a quality ECHLer in his time in the league, scoring 28 goals and 47 points last season.
  • The ECHL’s Maine Mariners have lost their second-leading scorer, Reid Stefanson, to Europe. The 26-year-old has signed with the ICEHL’s Vienna Capitals, according to a team announcement. Stefanson had a strong first campaign in pro hockey last year, as the UMass-Lowell product scored 22 goals and 47 points. He has 22 points in 22 games so far this season and will now begin his career in Europe in the Austrian capital.
  • The ICEHL’s HC Bolzano have swapped goalies, releasing former NHLer Niklas Svedberg and signing 25-year-old Samuel Harvey. The 34-year-old Svedberg joined Bolzano this past summer but struggled through 24 games with the club, putting up an .895 save percentage. Bolzano is a club with high expectations after losing in the ICEHL’s finals last season, so they’ve turned to Harvey. Harvey played for Bolzano last season and was stellar, posting a .922 in 22 games. He led them in the playoffs as well, which earned him a shot in Liiga with Lukko Rauma. Now after 20 games in Liiga the former QMJHL star has elected to return to Italy where he’ll look to go on another deep playoff run with the Foxes.

This page may be updated throughout the day.

Minor Transactions: 12/18/23

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Just five NHL contests are slated to be played tonight, although among that group of games there are a few with very intriguing storylines attached.

The Pittsburgh Penguins host the Minnesota Wild in what could be Marc-André Fleury’s final trip to PPG Paints Arena as an active player, although Fleury is not starting in the game. Matthew Tkachuk returns to Calgary tonight as the Flames host the Florida Panthers in a game that features quite a few former teammates. And out west in Winnipeg, the Montreal Canadiens take on the Jets in a contest that will always have stakes attached due to the hatred still felt in the Montreal market towards Mark Scheifele. Scheifele’s hit on Jake Evans from the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs, one that the NHL’s Department of Player Safety called “predatory,” is still fresh in the memory of many Canadiens fans, something that adds extra heat to the relatively rare matchups between the two clubs.

Just as tonight’s schedule is packed with intriguing storylines, player movement across the world of professional hockey has been packed with activity. As always, we’ll keep track of notable player movement here:

  • Former AHL All-Star netminder Kasimir Kaskisuo has been signed to a PTO by the AHL’s Laval Rocket, returning Kaskisuo to the American League after a two-year stint in the SHL. After spending a year as the taxi squad netminder for the Nashville Predators, Kaskisuo left North America to sign with Leksands IF in the SHL. He served as the starter there for 2021-22, posting a .910 save percentage in 46 games. He led Leksands to the SHL’s postseason and played in four Champions Hockey League games, but the following year saw his role as the team’s starter usurped by Lithuanian international Mantas Armalis. Kaskisuo re-enters the AHL at a dire time for the Rocket, who sit 28th in the AHL standings. Laval’s goaltending has been horrific this season, and the team leads the AHL in goals surrendered with 102. The next-worst team has given up 92 goals, and neither of the team’s two goalies (Jakub Dobeš, Strauss Mann) have save percentages above .885. The hope with this signing could be that Kaskisuo, who has a .909 career AHL save percentage, provides some much-needed stability in net for this young Rocket team.
  • In more news related to the Montreal Canadiens, prospect defenseman Petteri Nurmi has signed a one-year contract extension with his current club, HPK in the Finnish Liiga. The 21-year-old left-shot blueliner was drafted 194th overall by the Canadiens at the 2022 draft, and has been a regular for HPK for the last three seasons. He’s scored six points in 30 games this year and is HPK’s number-six defenseman, averaging 17:48 time-on-ice per game. The Canadiens hold the exclusive rights to sign Nurmi to an entry-level contract until June 1st, 2024, and this extension may not impact their decision-making on whether to extend him an offer as they could opt to get Nurmi on an ELC and then loan him back to HPK. As a seventh-rounder who has not yet been signed, though, it’s far from a guarantee that Nurmi receives an entry-level offer from the Canadiens, making the rest of this season an important stretch for the young blueliner.
  • Just one season removed from winning the Slovak Extraliga title, HC Slovan Bratislava currently sits 11th out of 12 teams in the league standings. Their struggles this season have prompted significant player movement in recent days, as this past week has already seen two defensemen and one forward depart the club. Slovan has made a signing to replace one of those two departed defensemen, inking Swedish international Jonas Ahnelöv to a one-year deal. A 36-year-old former Arizona Coyotes third-round pick, Ahnelöv is a left-shot defenseman with a ton of experience. He represented Sweden at the 2018 Winter Olympics and the 2014 IIHF Men’s World Championships. He’s also a veteran of over 500 games in the SHL, one of Europe’s top leagues, and brings leadership value having captained MoDo Hockey in 2014-15. Ahnelöv spent the last four years at Leksands, leading the club to the postseason on three occasions.
  • 23-year-old Finnish-American forward Joonas Oden has signed a one-year contract with Austrian club Pioneers Vorarlberg, a team that competes in the Central European ICEHL. The forward tried his luck at becoming a regular in Liiga and by 2021-22 looked to be successful, as he scored 11 goals and 29 points in 56 games for Ilves Tampere. But after scoring just two points in 14 postseason games for Ilves, Oden struggled the following campaign and eventually moved to SaiPa. He began the year at SaiPa but only scored four points in 14 games. Now he’ll head to the ICEHL, a league that Pioneers has struggled in since joining last season.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

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.

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