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Minor Transactions: 07/03/23

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NHL free agency has moved from the “frenzy” stage that defines July 1st to more of a steady flow of news, and just as NHL teams are adding players for next season so are teams in minor leagues and pro leagues across the hockey world. We’ll keep track of notable transactions here.

  • Former Chicago Blackhawks 20-goal scorer Richard Panik has signed with HC Ocelari Trinec of the Czech Extraliga. Panik, 32, is a veteran of over 500 NHL games, last playing in the league in 2021-22 with the New York Islanders. He signed overseas for 2022-23 and scored nine points in 19 games for Lausanne HC in the Swiss National League. Now Panik will return to the club he played for in his youth and the team the Tampa Bay Lightning selected him out of at the 2009 draft.
  • Jonah Gadjovich, a regular on the San Jose Sharks for the past two seasons, signed a one-year AHL deal with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers yesterday. A 2017 second-round pick, Gadjovich played 78 games for the Sharks across two seasons, averaging nearly nine minutes of ice time per game. Gadjovich is a big, physical winger who has 10 career NHL points, and will now return to the AHL for next season. Gadjovich’s last stretch in the AHL was quite successful (15 goals in 18 games for the Utica Comets in 2020-21) so this contract is Gadjovich’s chance to put together a productive season to earn another NHL deal.
  • The AHL’s Providence Bruins have signed two players to one-year, two-way AHL/ECHL contracts: goalie Shane Starrett and defenseman Ethan Ritchie. Starrett, 28, was the number-one goalie for the ECHL’s Kansas City Mavericks last season and re-established himself in North America’s third-tier league with a .913 save percentage in 54 games played. That was an important development for Starrett, who spent the year as the starter for the EIHL’s Glasgow Clan. Starrett does have some AHL experience (including a 42-game stretch with the Bakersfield Condors in 2018-19 where he posted a .918 save percentage) and will bolster the goaltending depth behind Brandon Bussi and Kyle Keyser in Providence, likely to spend most of his time with the ECHL’s Maine Mariners. Ritchie, 21, gets signed after his overage OHL season where he scored 44 points in 65 games with the Sarnia Sting. The brother of 2023 Colorado Avalanche first-rounder Calum Ritchie, he’ll now begin his pro career either in Maine or Providence.
  • Although his production declined from 19 goals and 43 points in 2021-22 to just six and 19 in 2022-23, John Stevens has earned a two-year AHL contract extension with the Abbotsford Canucks. The 29-year-old former Northeastern Husky has been in the Vancouver Canucks’ minor-league system for the past four seasons, and Abbotsford GM Ryan Johnson said Stevens “personifies what we are as an organization.” He brings leadership value as a former NCAA captain and an alternate captain for Abbotsford, and if he can get back to his 2021-22 numbers he’ll be one of the AHL Canucks’ most important players.
  • The Grand Rapids Griffins have poached the captain of the Providence Bruins, signing right-shot blueliner Josiah Didier to an AHL deal. Didier, 30, led the AHL in plus-minus rating in 2019-20 and is a Calder Cup champion. He’s played nearly 400 career games in the American League, and joins recent NHL signing Brogan Rafferty as a move that will help beef up the right side of the defense in Grand Rapids.
  • 28-year-old blueliner Ryan McKinnon, a former captain of two different QMJHL teams during his junior career, has signed a one-year, one-way AHL contract with the Belleville Senators. McKinnon split last season between the AHL’s Bridgeport Islanders and ECHL’s Worcester Railers, and hasn’t yet played a season as a full-time AHLer. That’s what makes the one-way status of this deal significant, as McKinnon worked his way up from being a full-time ECHLer in Worcester to a place on the AHL/ECHL bubble, a space he’s lived in for most of his pro career. Now, he’ll have a chance to establish himself as a full-time AHL player in Belleville.
  • Longtime minor leaguer Mark Alt spent most of last season as a free agent, ultimately latching on with the DEL’s Straubing Tigers for their playoff push and seven postseason games. Now, the Tigers have announced that Alt will not return to the club as he focuses on a full-time role outside of hockey. While there’s no word on if Alt, 31, is ending his eleven-season pro career, it’s certainly possible that Alt’s decision not to continue in Europe is an indication that he’s moving away from hockey. In any case, Alt has nearly 500 AHL games on his resume and has played in 20 NHL games, meaning regardless of what he chooses for his future he’s had a hockey career to be proud of.
  • Two-time AHL All-Star and former NHLer Matt Fraser will remain with his current club, the ICEHL’s EC-KAC, after the team decided not to exercise their opt-out clause for next season. Fraser, 33, has played in Klagenfurt for the last three seasons and took home an ICEHL title for them in 2020-21, scoring the championship-winning goal himself. Fraser last played in North America way back in 2015-16, though he’s had a successful run in Europe since he crossed the Atlantic. Fraser ranked second on Klagenfurt in goals with 14 last season and will likely remain one of the team’s top goal-scoring options moving forward.
  • The KHL’s Barys Astana made a few significant moves earlier this month, and perhaps the two biggest were the club’s signings of Eddie Pasquale, one of the KHL’s top goaltenders, and former NHLer Pontus Aberg. Pasquale, 32, returns to Kazakhstan to play for the team he began his KHL career with in 2019-20. Pasquale took home KHL Goaltender of the Year honors in 2020-21 and posted a .927 save percentage in 50 games last season for Metallurg Magnitogorsk. Aberg, 29, was a point-per-game player in 22 games for the Swiss NL’s Rapperswil-Jona Lakers, and now returns to the KHL for the second time in his career. He spent 2020-21 with Traktor Chelyabinsk, scoring 23 points in 49 games before leaving the league that offseason to return to North America.
  • Alex Ciernik, a recent fourth-round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers, will play with HockeyAllsvenskan’s Vasterviks IK on a permanent basis after spending 10 games there on loan last season. The 18-year-old was selected 120th overall at the 2023 draft last week, and has 12 points in 37 career games at Sweden’s second-highest level of pro hockey.

This page may be updated throughout the day.

Minor Transactions: 6/22/23

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We’re now less than a week away from the draft. Trades and extensions are set to dominate the news wire over the coming weeks, but we’re still taking a moment to check in on some notable moves outside of the NHL. Today’s notable minor transactions will be displayed here:

  • Former Anaheim Ducks winger Giovanni Fiore is on the move overseas, joining KHL club Admiral Vladivostok on a one-year deal for 2023-24. Since leaving the North American circuit in 2020, the Canadian had three productive seasons in Germany with the DEL’s Eisbaren Berlin, totaling 46 goals and 86 points in 133 games. An undrafted free agent signing out of the QMJHL by the Ducks, Fiore played his sole NHL game back in 2017-18, his first season of pro hockey.
  • Ex-Los Angeles Kings prospect Cole Hults will play in his second European league in as many years, signing a one-year deal with Slovak club HKM Zvolen. A 2017 fifth-round pick, the bruising two-way defender had a very successful stint at Penn State before turning pro, where, unfortunately, his offense never translated. He spent just one season in the Kings organization, recording five points in 19 games with the AHL’s Ontario Reign before he was traded to the Arizona Coyotes in 2021. The team opted not to qualify him when his contract expired a year later, and he continued his pro career overseas with Italian club HC Bolzano, where he dominated defensively in the ICEHL.
  • 2018 Stanley Cup Champion Shane Gersich won the Calder Cup in dramatic fashion last night, and now could be headed to play in Europe for the first time in his career. The 26-year-old longtime Washington Capitals farmhand reportedly has an agreement with Vasteras IK, a team in Sweden’s HockeyAllsvenskan, per SportExpressen’s Johan Svensson. Gersich has 113 points in 277 career AHL games across five seasons but had fallen out of the regular lineup in Hershey, only playing in six total playoff contests.
  • After fifteen seasons with the Vaxjo Lakers, where he helped the club earn their promotion from the second-division HockeyAllsvenskan, four SHL titles, and reach the Champions Hockey League final, team captain Erik Josefsson, 36, has announced his retirement. A staple for a consistently competitive SHL side for the past fifteen years, Josefsson played over 750 games for Vaxjo and scored nearly 150 points at the top level of Swedish hockey. He captained them to a league championship this spring and now retires as the club’s all-time leader in games played.
  • Former Buffalo Sabre Nick Baptiste has signed a one-year contract with reigning Liiga and Champions Hockey League champions Tappara Tampere. Baptiste heads to Nokia Arena from Cologne in the DEL, where he scored 14 goals and 34 points in 46 games. This won’t be Baptiste’s first time playing in Tampere, as he scored 21 goals and 35 points for Tappara’s neighbors, Ilves Tampere, in 2021-22. Baptiste last played in North America in 2020-21 with the AHL’s Texas Stars, scoring 12 goals and 23 points in 34 games in Cedar Park.
  • 2014 Dallas Stars second-round pick Brett Pollock had an extremely successful run with Slovakia’s HC Kosice after his mid-season transfer from the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star, and now he’s extended his contract with Kosice. Pollock left China to sign in Slovakia in December of last season and made an instant impact. He scored 11 goals and 19 points in 24 regular-season contests and led Kosice to a Slovakian championship leading their league’s playoffs in goals with seven in 17 games. Pollock is a former ECHL All-Star who has found success as a journeyman scorer in recent years, with stops in Germany, Sweden, and China. He last played in North America in 2019-20 in the ECHL with the Allen Americans and will now get some more stability and continuity in his career thanks to this extension with Kosice.
  • Former University of Denver star defenseman Joey Laleggia signed a two-year contract with Switzerland’s HC Lugano, joining a whole host of former NHLers such as Mikko Koskinen, Markus Granlund, and more. While Laleggia never made the NHL himself, he was a productive offensive blueliner at the AHL level and a highly-decorated player in his days in the NCAA. He was a Hobey Baker Award finalist and was his conference’s player of the year. He has played the entirety of his overseas pro career in the SHL, and led all HV71 blueliners with 33 points in 40 games last season.
  • While Anaheim Ducks prospect Sasha Pastujov prepares to make his professional debut in North America, his two brothers Nick Pastujov and Michael Pastujov have made the choice to continue their pro careers overseas. The pair have signed contracts with the ICEHL’s Pioneers Vorarlberg, joining the league’s worst-performing club from last season. Pioneers struggled mightily to score goals last season, with their season-long total of 92 goals, well below the league-average mark of 140. The hope is that the Pastujov brothers can help in that regard, as Nick captained the ECHL’s Kansas City Mavericks and scored 35 points in 42 games last season while Michael contributed a solid 26 points in 37 games for the ECHL’s Iowa Heartlanders.

This page will be updated throughout the day.

Minor Transactions: 06/17/23

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

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

This page will be updated throughout the day.

Minor Transactions: 06/15/23

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With the Stanley Cup Final now concluded there remains just one major hockey competition left to be completed before the offseason can truly begin. The AHL’s Calder Cup Finals continue tonight as the Seattle Kraken’s affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds take on the Hershey Bears, affiliates of the Washington Capitals. After Joey Daccord’s back-to-back shutout performances brought Coachella Valley to a 2-0 lead, Hershey managed to weather a late comeback and take a massive overtime victory on home ice, tightening the series considerably.

As these two teams battle for AHL supremacy clubs across the hockey world are working on assembling a roster they hope can bring them a championship by this time next year. We’ll keep track of notable transactions here.

  • Three-time Liiga champion Mikko Niemela has had his contract with Karpat terminated by mutual agreement. Niemela had been with Karpat since he was a youth player, with his first games on record coming in 2005-06 at the U16 level. Save for a few loan spells to other clubs he’s been a consistent presence on their blueline and in total has played over 500 games at Finland’s highest level of hockey across 13 seasons. He finished this past season with Brynas IF in the SHL where he was unable to help them avoid relegation to the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan. Now, at 32 years old, Niemela will look for a new opportunity to continue his long European pro career.
  • Connor McCarthy, an ECAC First-Team All-Star at Clarkson University is heading overseas for the first time in his professional career. The massive six-foot-seven blueliner tried his hand at North American pro hockey in the New York Islanders’ minor league system, serving as a regular for their ECHL affiliate, the Worcester Railers, for the past two seasons. While he managed to get into 10 AHL games in 2021-22 he only got into two this past campaign and has now decided to sign with HC Banska Bystrica of Slovakia’s Tipos Extraliga.
  • The SHL’s IK Oskarshamn have announced a two-year contract extension with blueliner Niclas Burstrom, a veteran of 543 games in Sweden’s top tier of hockey. The five-foot-eight defenseman won the SHL’s Salming Trophy, awarded to Swedish defenseman of the year, in 2015-16 and just recently finished his first campaign in Oskarshamn. He scored one goal and 12 points in 46 games and will now hope to help his club return to the SHL playoffs after a seventh-place 2022-23 finish.
  • Liiga club SaiPa and forward Tino Metsavainio have mutually agreed to terminate the player’s contract, per a team announcement. Metsavainio enjoyed a breakout season in Liiga’s top league quickly after signing with SaiPa, scoring a career-high 20 points in 49 games. His production declined steeply this year, though, and he finished with eight points in 55 games – less than half of his prior total. With that disappointing campaign now in his rear-view mirror Metsavainio is now a free agent and able to sign elsewhere for a fresh start.
  • Just one year after he led the DEL in scoring by players under 23 years old, German forward Tim Wohlgemuth has had his contract terminated with Adler Mannheim by mutual agreement. Wohlgemuth’s offensive production declined from 35 points in 2021-22 to 24 this past season, and it seems a change of scenery is in order as a result. Wohlgemuth’s playoff performance was particularly disappointing as he only managed one point in 10 games, a solid decline from his prior performances when he was a consistent contributor. Now he’ll likely land with another DEL team and look to revive the momentum he had been building in past years.
  • Anrei Hakulinen, captain of Liiga’s Lukko for the past two seasons, has signed with the DEL’s Augsburger Panther. It’s a major signing for the German side as Hakulinen ranked second in scoring for Lukko this past year and helped them reach third place on Liiga’s regular-season table. Now he’ll join a DEL side that ranked second-to-last in 2022-23 and will likely serve as a major boost to their odds of avoiding relegation once again.
  • The club that got relegated instead of Augsburg, the Bietigheim Steelers, have lost another player to a surviving DEL team: 21-year-old Robert Kneisler. Kneisler joins Grizzlys Wolfsburg, semifinalists these past playoffs. He only managed seven points in 53 games for the Steelers in 2022-23 but should help round out the depth of Wolfsburg’s roster as they hope to take the next step in the playoffs in 2023-24.
  • While MoDo Hockey Ornskoldsvik were promoted to the SHL this spring with a dramatic seven-game victory over Djurgarden, 28-year-old defenseman Josef Ingman won’t be following them into Sweden’s top pro hockey league. Ingman has signed with HockeyAllsvenskan’s Ostersunds IK, a club that ranked among the worst teams in Sweden’s second tier. He’ll likely play a major role on their blueline and hope to repeat the strong form he displayed in 2022-23, a year he finished with a two-assist performance in Game Seven against Djurgarden.
  • The reigning Slovak champions, HC Kosice, have gotten a bit stronger, poaching forward Filip Krivosik from HK Nitra. Krivosik has played quite well since returning to Slovakia after a half-decade in Finland, scoring 50 points across two seasons and 18 points in 27 combined playoff games. The big six-foot-three forward, 24, will be afforded a significant opportunity in Kosice and has been signed to help the club win a tenth Extraliga title.
  • Austin Farley, once among the top first-year scorers in college hockey, has signed a one-year contract extension with Slovakia’s HC Nove Zamsky. The former University of Minnesota-Duluth winger enjoyed a breakout campaign in Czechia, scoring 15 goals and 45 points in 48 games. Farley last played in North America in 2020-21, as he got into 19 games with the ECHL’s Kansas City Mavericks but only managed three points. He’s had more success on European ice and now is extending his stay in Europe for another season with this contract extension.

Minor Transactions: 6/7/23

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The transitional period between the postseason and the offseason continues, with the latter starting to heat up after a significant three-team deal yesterday. With the AHL’s playoffs all but wrapped up as well, transaction news will now flood in from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean as non-NHL leagues continue in their busiest signing periods of the year. As always, we’re keeping tabs on any and all notable transactions from outside the NHL right here.

  • 24-year-old defender Markus Phillips will spend next year in Hungary, signing with Fehérvár AV19 of the primarily Austrian ICEHL. Phillips, a former Los Angeles Kings (and briefly Winnipeg Jets) prospect, never did make it to the NHL after a promising draft year in 2016-17, when his 43 points and +41 rating in 63 OHL games earned him the 118th overall selection in that year’s draft. Since then, he struggled to find his footing professionally in the AHL and ECHL and spent the 2022-23 overseas with Finnish club Ässät.
  • The AHL’s Providence Bruins today signed forward Justin Brazeau to a one-year contract extension, per Mark Divver of the New England Hockey Journal. The massive 6-foot-5, 220-pound winger has developed into a top-flight AHL winger in the past two seasons with Toronto and Providence and recorded a career-high 45 points in 67 games last season. The former captain of the OHL’s North Bay Battalion will look to build on that total and hopefully earn an NHL deal as he enters his mid/late-20s.

This page will be updated throughout the day

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

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