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Minor Transactions: 10/01/23

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Not only are NHL clubs hard at work preparing for the start of their regular seasons via the training camp and preseason process, but so are clubs in the various North American minor leagues, such as the AHL and ECHL, who also have a regular season to prepare for.

As a result, the transaction wire is expected to be active in those leagues, just as it is in overseas leagues, where the regular season has begun in most top leagues. Teams have injuries to respond to, underperforming squads in dire need of reinforcement, and other events occurring that prompt player movement. As always, we’ll keep track of the resulting transactions here.

  • Former NHL defenseman Madison Bowey was traded in the KHL, shipped away from the struggling Dinamo Minsk to a middle-of-the-pack Traktor Chelyabinsk side. In exchange for Bowey, former AHL blueliner Robert Hamilton was sent to Minsk. This has been Bowey’s first KHL season, and he finishes his time in Belarus with eight games played and two points. Hamilton, 29, was beginning his second season with Chelyabinsk after scoring 18 points in 32 games last season. He has scored one point in nine games so far this year and will now receive a fresh start in Minsk.
  • The AHL’s San Diego Gulls have signed prospect forward Davis Codd to a one-year contract, just in time for the early portion of the club’s training camp process. Codd hasn’t played very much over the last two seasons, skating in a total of just 36 games. His development was further impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting shutdown of the 2020-21 OHL season. He likely is chomping at the bit to get some games under his belt so he can continue his development, and that’s exactly what he’ll get in California thanks to this one-year deal.
  • Former ECHL Playoff MVP Stephen Harper has signed in Slovakia, joining HK Nitra after a strong first season overseas. The former Tucson Roadrunner scored 31 points in 54 games for Düsseldorfer EG in the German DEL, helping the club reach the postseason, where he scored six points in seven games. Nitra are in need of urgent assistance as they currently are mired at the bottom of the Slovak league’s standings and have not yet registered a regulation victory, so the hope is likely that Harper can make an instant impact.
  • The ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits have signed defenseman Max Coyle, who was an invite to the Los Angeles Kings’ 2023 prospect tournament roster, to an ECHL contract. Coyle, 25, dipped his toes into the waters of pro hockey last season by playing in three games for the ECHL’s Indy Fuel. Before those three games, Coyle was a steady blueliner for Bowling Green State University, skating in a total of 127 games for the program. The 2018-19 BCHL champion will get his first chance as a full-time pro hockey player in Greenville.
  • Former NHLer Brandon McMillan has signed a one-year contract to play in China with the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star. A longtime KHLer, McMillan has spent the last two seasons HC Ambrì-Piotta in the Swiss National League. He struggled immensely last year, scoring just 10 points in 40 games. But the 33-year-old did score three goals in 4 games to help his team win the Spengler Cup last December, and has had success in the KHL before, so there’s reason for optimism that this signing could work for the Red Star.

This page will be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 09/22/23

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It’s another busy day across the world of pro hockey, both in North America where NHL training camps are fully underway and in Europe, where the top pro leagues are fully into their regular season. Today’s slate of games featured some major contests, highlighted by an upset 5-2 win by Cologne on the road against the reigning DEL champions, Munich. Over in Finland, former University of Vermont star netminder Stefanos Lekkas enjoyed a stellar start to his Liiga career, guiding KalPa Kuopio to a shutout victory over Lukko Rauma.

The action happening on the ice all around the world of hockey is mirrored by the action on the transaction wire. As always, we’ll keep track of notable moves here.

  • Former Calgary Flames prospect Jack Beck, who did not sign an entry-level first with the Flames before the team’s exclusive rights expired June 1st, has been traded in the OHL. The Soo Greyhounds have acquired Beck, 20, for a 2026 second-round pick and 2027 third-round pick in the OHL Priority Selection. Beck was a sixth-round pick of the Flames at the 2021 draft, selected there despite the OHL not holding a 2020-21 campaign. Beck scored 12 goals and 53 points for the Ottawa 67’s last season, and scored 12 points in 11 playoff games.
  • Longtime South Carolina Stingrays defenseman Andrew Cherniwchan announced his retirement from pro hockey today. Cherniwchan has the third-most games played all-time for the Stingrays, and served as their captain for three seasons. He’s a one-time ECHL All-Star who has quite a few long playoff runs to remember in South Carolina, and although Cherniwchan did not end up making it to the NHL he does have nearly 200 AHL games on his resume.
  • 2018 Philadelphia Flyers sixth-round pick Gavin Hain has found a landing spot to turn pro, signing a one-year ECHL deal with the Iowa Heartlanders. The former USNTDP pivot has spent the last half-decade with the University of North Dakota. He took a real step forward in his senior year, scoring a career-high 11 goals and 18 points in 36 games. The number-one pick of the 2016 USHL Futures Draft will have a chance to establish himself in pro hockey with a Heartlanders franchise still looking for its first-ever winning season.
  • Former Edmonton Oilers prospect Filip Berglund extended his contract with the SHL’s Örebro Hockey for three additional seasons. The 26-year-old rearguard was the 91st overall pick at the 2016 draft by the Oilers, selected after a strong draft season that saw him post 41 points in 43 games at the J20 level for Skellefteå AIK. He led Swedish junior hockey in scoring by a blueliner, and went on to play as an SHL regular for a half-decade. In 2020, Berglund signed an entry-level deal with the Oilers and spent the second year of the deal, 2021-22, in the AHL. He skated in 53 games for the Bakersfield Condors and helped them reach the playoffs, but didn’t register a goal and only totaled six regular-season points. He returned to Sweden for 2022-23, joining Örebro, where he’ll now remain for a few more years after helping the team on a deep SHL playoff run in his debut campaign.
  • Colorado Avalanche fans may recognize the name of Sami Aittokallio, a netminder who appeared in two games for the club and was a fourth-round pick of the team in 2010. Since leaving the North American pro circuit for the 2015-16 campaign, Aittokallio has had a solid career overseas, and today he found a team to suit up for, at least for the next two weeks. Liiga’s JYP has signed him to a two-week contract, set to last for the duration of an injury suffered by incumbent starter Veini Vehviläinen. Aittokallio spent the last two years playing in Germany, posting a stellar .923 save percentage for the Bietigheim Steelers, who were at the time a newly promoted DEL club. But last season, Aittokallio went 5-20-0 as Bietigheim were relegated to DEL2, a circumstance that may have contributed to the fact that he’s now signing a short-term deal rather than a full-time job to play as a starting goalie.
  • Former Nizhny Novgorod Torpedo captain Anton Shenfeld has signed a one-year contract with the KHL’s Chinese club, Kunlun Red Star. Shenfeld is coming off a difficult 2022-23 season, one where he scored just three points in 28 games playing in Siberia for Sibir Novosibirsk. He was once a quality top-six forward for both Novgorod and Tolyatti Lada, and the hope for the Red Star is likely that he’ll find a way to recapture some of that form.
  • Sergei Boikov, a former Colorado Avalanche defensive prospect, has signed a two-year KHL contract with HC Avangard Omsk. The club acquired his sporting rights from Dynamo Moscow in exchange for monetary compensation. Boikov has been a regular on Moscow’s blueline for the last three seasons, skating in a total of 123 games for the club. He hasn’t scored very much (he has just 17 career KHL points) but offers decent size, physicality, and some championship experience. (Boikov won the ECHL’s Kelly Cup with the Colorado Eagles in 2017)
  • Alexander Karachun has established himself as a quality DEL scorer over the past two years with the Schwenninger Wild Wings, totaling 25 points in 37 games last season. The club has announced that Karachun has extended his contract through 2025 with the team, meaning he’ll be able to help in the Wild Wings’ fight to keep its place in the DEL through 2025. Karachun wasn’t always a success in the DEL, and he struggled to put points on the board earlier in his career with the Wolfsburg Grizzlies. But an above-point-per-game season in the DEL2 launched him back into the DEL, and he hasn’t looked back, helping the Wild Wings stave off relegation for the past two seasons.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 09/21/23

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As NHL training camps officially open, the professional hockey season is finally getting started in North America. While there’s still a way to go before the regular season begins in the NHL, AHL, or ECHL, we can finally see puck drop on the horizon.

In Europe, the pro hockey season is fully underway, and today’s slate of games featured numerous notable moments. Philadelphia Flyers top prospect Matvei Michkov scored an electric game-winning goal for Sochi in the KHL, while historic Finnish club Jokerit earned a long-awaited victory on the back of an overtime goal from Leevi Lemberg. It was Jokerit’s first victory in the Finnish hockey system (they play in the second division, Mestis) since 2014, before the club left Liiga for the KHL.

Teams in Europe and North America are still completing transactions to add players or otherwise modify their rosters, and as always we’ll keep track of those moves here:

  • The potential number-one pick in the 2025 NHL draft, James Hagens, announced his college commitment on social media. He and his brother, Michael, have committed to play NCAA hockey at Boston College. The Eagles already boast a wealth of highly-drafted prospects on their roster, such as 2023 fourth-overall pick Will Smith and 2022 fifth-overall pick Cutter Gauthier. While both of those names are likely to be in the NHL by the time Hagens arrives on campus, Hagens’ commitment ensures that Boston College’s pipeline of elite NHL prospects will remain intact.
  • Former Chicago Blackhawk Buddy Robinson signed a one-year contract with Traktor Chelyabinsk in the KHL. For Robinson, 31, this will be his first opportunity to play for an overseas club in his pro career. The six-foot-six physical winger played in 52 games for the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs last season, scoring 20 points. He also played in nine NHL games, and has 62 total NHL games on his resume. In the late 2010’s Robinson was a productive AHL scorer, potting 25 goals and 53 points in 74 games for the Manitoba Moose in 2017-18. But that scoring has dried up as he’s reached his late twenties and early thirties, and that could have contributed as to why Robinson has elected to sign in the KHL rather than continue in North America.
  • Saku Mäenalanen, who played 64 games for the Winnipeg Jets last season, was supposed to be spending training camp with the Colorado Avalanche on a PTO. But he reportedly failed his physical and was released from that deal. So instead of in Colorado, Mäenalanen will hit the ice in Switzerland, where he’s signed a three-year contract with the SCL Tigers of the National League. Mäenalanen has yet to play in the Swiss NL, but he has extensive experience overseas in both Liiga and the KHL. Mäenalanen has won a Liiga championship, a IIHF Men’s World Championship gold medal, and an Olympic gold medal, and now he’ll join his former Charlotte Checkers teammate Aleksi Saarela in Switzerland.
  • Fans of the Florida Panthers or Springfield Thunderbirds might recognize the name of Finnish winger Henrik Haapala from the 25 games he played in North America for those clubs in 2017-18. While Hapaala didn’t last long in the NHL or AHL, he went on to have a productive career in Europe. This past season, Hapaala scored at a point-per-game rate for Ilves Tampere in Liiga, and now he’s headed to Switzerland to continue his career. The 29-year-old has signed a one-month tryout contract with HC Genève-Servette, the reigning Swiss champions.
  • HPK Hämeenlinna of the Finnish Liiga have signed two defenders to contracts: veteran Juuso Pulli and 26-year-old Elias Ulander. Pulli spent last season with Vaasan Sport in Liiga, skating in 52 games and scoring seven points. He’s collected three Liiga bronze medals in his career and was once an alternate captain for Ilves Tampere. Ulander spent last season with HK Spisska Nova Ves in the Slovak league, and has had success in Finland before, such as in 2016-17 when he was named the U20 SM-Liiga’s best defenseman. Pulli’s contract is a one-year deal with a tryout option through November, while Ulander is on a tryout deal.
  • 2017 Anaheim Ducks fourth-round pick Kyle Olson has signed a one-year contract with the ECHL’s Reading Royals. Despite scoring at above a point-per-game rate in his final two WHL campaigns, Olson did not receive an entry-level deal from the Ducks and instead signed an AHL contract with the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins in 2020. Olson has spent the last three seasons in Pennsylvania and managed 12 goals and 21 points in 71 games in 2021-22. This past year, Olson’s production tanked, and he only managed six points in 55 games. He’s now signed with the Royals in the ECHL, likely with the hope that he’ll have a productive season in North America’s third-tier league and work his way back into the AHL.
  • The ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits have signed a one-year contract extension with 23-year-old Brett Kemp, ensuring one of the league’s more productive young talents will remain with the only ECHL franchise he’s ever known. Kemp, who once scored 77 points in 62 WHL games for the Medicine Hat Tigers has compiled 82 points in 76 career ECHL games. He’ll now be able to return to Greenville and will likely remain one of the team’s top scorers as he looks to earn more AHL call-ups to the Ontario Reign.
  • Former Baie-Comeau Drakkar scorer Jordan Martel was one of the ECHL’s breakout players last season, scoring 18 goals and 44 points in just 45 games for the Utah Grizzlies. The team confirmed he’d be returning for the 2023-24 season today, signing Martel to a one-year ECHL deal.  Martel hadn’t found much success in pro hockey until he arrived in Utah, and now he’ll have the chance to build some continuity and momentum in Utah as the team chases its fifth consecutive playoff berth.
  • The ECHL’s Toledo Walleye have signed Chase Gresock to a one-year contract, according to an official announcement. The 25-year-old forward dipped his toes into the waters of pro hockey last season, skating in two games for the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda at the conclusion of his collegiate career. Gresock was an effective NCAA player, captaining Merrimack College and scoring 31 points in 36 games for Bowling Green State in his final collegiate campaign.
  • Fiery Wheeling Nailers winger Cam Hausinger has re-signed with the only ECHL team he’s ever played for. The 24-year-old will play a third season in West Virginia and is coming off a solid 2022-23 season. He didn’t play in as many ECHL games as the year before, but he still scored 19 points in 23 games for the Nailers to go alongside his 70 penalty minutes. Hausinger also earned AHL call-ups with two franchises, the Iowa Wild and Milwaukee Admirals. It was with Milwaukee where Hausinger scored his first AHL goal, and his hope will be to get some more AHL contests under his belt in 2023-24.
  • Star scorer Johnny Curran has transferred to the most dominant club in the EIHL, signing a one-year contract with the Belfast Giants. The 28-year-old forward, who represents the United Kingdom internationally, has scored 126 career points in 155 EIHL games. He’s thus far only suited up for the Coventry Blaze, but now will get to join a Champions Hockey League-caliber team that took home the EIHL title last season.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

International Check-In: Lindbom, Lekkerimaki, KHL Scoring Leaders, Michkov

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Top international leagues such as those in Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, and Russia often play a crucial role in NHL player development, but many of those storylines don’t get much coverage outside of teams’ local media. PHR is aiming to change that by shining a light this season on some notable stats and trends concerning NHL-affiliated talent suiting up overseas this season, keeping tabs on some potential future stars.

Vegas Golden Knights 2021 seventh-round pick Carl Lindbom has seen a sharp rise in stock since draft day, and his start to the 2023-24 campaign can only be described as meteoric. The 20-year-old netminder is on loan from Vegas to SHL club Färjestad BK this season after signing his entry-level contract earlier in the summer, and he’s stolen the starting role from overseas veteran (and former Golden Knight) Maxime Lagace thanks to a strong pre-season showing, posting a 2-0-0 record and .936 save percentage in two Champions Hockey League tournament appearances earlier this month. That translated into Lindbom getting the start for Färjestad in their first two games of the SHL league calendar, conceding just one goal in each of their games against Växjö and Skellefteå en route to a 2-0 start to the season with a .952 save percentage to back things up.

Sticking in Sweden, many watchful eyes will be on Vancouver Canucks 2022 first-round pick Jonathan Lekkerimäki after an inconsistent 2022-23 campaign. He’s on loan from Vancouver to the SHL’s Örebro HK this year after spending last season in the second-tier Allsvenskan, and he looks like he’s fitting right in to start the year. Assuming a top-six role out of the gate, the right winger has two goals through his first two outings, both coming on the power play.

Moving over to Russia, it’s been a strong start to the season for three players with NHL ties: Nikita Gusev, Ivan Morozov and Nikolay Goldobin, who currently occupy the top three on the KHL’s points leaderboard. Gusev, who remains under contract with Dynamo Moscow through this season, is averaging nearly 20 minutes per game and leads the league with 11 points through seven games, helping the squad to a 5-2-0 start. After a disappointing end to his NHL tenure with the New Jersey Devils and Florida Panthers in 2020-21, the 31-year-old could be looking at an NHL comeback next summer after what looks to be three strong campaigns in his home country.

Morozov was the Golden Knights’ second-round pick in 2018, and they’ve loaned him out to Spartak Moscow for this season after an underwhelming performance with AHL Henderson last season, in which he netted just 17 points in 58 games. He’s got three goals and ten points through seven games to start the season, however, including a three-assist performance in Spartak’s season-opening loss against Kunlun Red Star.

Rumors have also swirled about a potential NHL return for the 27-year-old Goldobin in recent months, but nothing came to fruition this offseason. He obviously hasn’t let that affect his play, recording eight goals through seven games for Spartak to lead the KHL. His last full NHL season came in 2018-19 with the Vancouver Canucks.

Finally, things are looking up once again for future Philadelphia Flyers star Matvei Michkov after KHL powerhouse SKA St. Petersburg loaned him out to bottom-dweller HK Sochi for the consecutive season. After playing a combined 6:12 through SKA’s first four games of the campaign, Michkov has assumed a top-six role once again in Sochi and is delivering the goods with two assists and a combined 12 shots on goal through his first two games, helping Sochi win back-to-back games. Their record is 3-3-1 through the first seven games of the season after winning just nine games throughout all of the 2022-23 campaign.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Josh Leivo Signs With KHL’s Salavat Yulaev Ufa

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Salavat Yulaev Ufa of Russia’s KHL announced today they’ve signed winger Josh Leivo for the 2023-24 season. Reports out of Sweden emerged earlier this month that Leivo was close to signing with SHL club MoDo Hockey, but those discussions obviously fell through.

This will be Leivo’s first season overseas after appearing in NHL games in each of the last ten seasons. Now 30, the Ontario native has seen a fair bit of playing time in both the NHL and AHL since the Toronto Maple Leafs selected him in the third round of the 2011 NHL Draft. He would turn pro full-time with the Maple Leafs and AHL Marlies in 2013-14 and was a highly productive AHL player for three seasons before becoming more of a mainstay on the NHL roster – although, famously, that didn’t translate into much playing time. Under then-head coach Mike Babcock, Leivo would play in just 56 games for Toronto over the course of three seasons from 2016 to 2019 despite rarely seeing any AHL assignments, spending most of his time sitting as a healthy scratch.

After finding himself in the minors for nearly all of 2021-22, Leivo once again returned to the NHL ranks on a more consistent basis last season with the St. Louis Blues. He made 51 appearances in a bottom-six role compared to just two games for AHL Springfield. Leivo gave the Blues some solid production in the process, recording four goals and 12 assists for 16 points – his highest total since he notched 19 points in 36 games with the Vancouver Canucks in 2019-20.

The Blues didn’t offer Leivo a contract at season’s end, however, and he hit the unrestricted free-agent market on July 1. They looked to replace his role internally, giving more playing time to younger talents such as Nikita Alexandrov and Alexey Toropchenko while also bringing back some familiar faces via free agency in Mackenzie MacEachern and Oskar Sundqvist.

He now makes the jump to Ufa, where he could line up alongside one-time teammate Nikolai Kulemin, whose last season in Toronto was 2013-14 – the same year Leivo made his NHL debut. Ufa is off to a 3-2-0 start to their season thanks to four goals and six points from San Jose Sharks prospect Sasha Chmelevski. They also are playing with heavy hearts this season after retiring Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Rodion Amirov’s number 27 at the beginning of the season – he passed away from a brain tumor this summer at the age of 21.

Matvei Michkov Expected To Be Loaned Within KHL

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KHL club SKA St. Petersburg is once again loaning Philadelphia Flyers top prospect Matvei Michkov to league rival HK Sochi, according to multiple reports out of Russia. St. Petersburg loaned Michkov to the basement-dwelling club near the beginning of last season as well.

The Flyers’ seventh-overall pick in 2023 has skated just 6:12 this season, only playing in one out of St. Petersburg’s four games to begin the 2023-24 KHL season. SKA has also effectively benched another young talent, Minnesota Wild prospect Marat Khusnutdinov, despite recording 41 points in 63 games for them last year.

The move returns Michkov to a club where he should immediately play a top-line role. As an 18-year-old, Michkov recorded 20 points in 27 games for Sochi in 2022-23, leading the team in points per game by far. Sochi has dropped three of their first four games, with their lone win coming from a massive 3-1 upset over 2023 Gagarin Cup finalist Ak Bars Kazan.

This is undoubtedly positive news for Michkov’s development (and the Flyers’ brass), returning him to a role where he can actually get playing time. He’s still under contract with SKA through the 2025-26 season, though, and this song and dance without having control over where Michkov plays is likely what some teams were looking to avoid by passing on him throughout the top five of the 2023 draft.

Minor Transactions: 09/09/23

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As the start of NHL training camps draws ever closer, the news cycle for the world’s top pro hockey league is beginning to pick up after a slow few weeks. Today saw one of the better UFAs still left on the market finally sign a contract for next season (Tyler Motte, to the Tampa Bay Lightning), and a one-time 40-point scorer and first-round pick land with the Pittsburgh Penguins on a PTO. (Colin White)

Overseas, many of Europe’s top professional hockey teams are still competing in the Champions Hockey League tournament. Five games were played today, highlighted by Skellefteå AIK’s 5-2 road victory against last year’s tournament champions, Tappara Tampere. 2023 17th overall pick Axel Sandin Pellikka led the way with a goal and an assist from the blue line, a notable and encouraging performance for fans of the Detroit Red Wings.

With the season inching closer for many teams across North America and Europe, teams are still adding and subtracting players to prepare for the campaign. As always, we’ll keep track of those moves here.

  • Yesterday, the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones re-signed their leading scorer from the 2022-23 season, Zack Andrusiak. Andrusiak, 25, has found his footing as a star in the ECHL since arriving in The Queen City, scoring a total of 52 goals and 118 points in 97 career games with the club. Before becoming a Cyclone, Andrusiak had struggled in North America’s third-tier league, putting up modest numbers as a member of the Idaho Steelheads and dismal production in one shortened stint with the Orlando Solar Bears. Andrusiak’s heightened form in Cincinnati has drawn the attention of AHL teams, as Andrusiak has earned AHL call-ups with two teams and played in a total of four American league games. This contract extension returns a crucial scorer to Cincinnati’s roster to help them defend their 2022-23 Central Division title.
  • The Omaha Lancers of the USHL have acquired netminder Croix Kochendorfer from the Sioux City Musketeers in a trade, with a draft pick headed to Sioux City in return. Kochendorfer is a 19-year-old goalie prospect who played almost half of the Musketeers’ games last season, posting a .896 save percentage across 30 games. Sioux City looks poised to run with undrafted 2023 prospect Samuel Urban in net, while the Lancers have a more uncertain standing in their crease thanks to the early departure of Michael Hrabal, the recent 38th overall pick who will play at UMass Amherst this fall. Hrabal’s departure combined with this trade gives Kochendorfer a strong opportunity to take on an even greater role in the USHL.
  • In another USHL goalie move, Belarus’ Yan Shostak will continue his development with the Lincoln Stars, heading to play in North America for the first time in his career. The 19-year-old spent last season playing in Russia’s junior league, posting a .929 save percentage in 20 games despite a 4-11-2 record. He is the brother of Konstantin Shostak, the current number-one netminder for Severstal Cherepovets in the KHL. The younger Shostak undoubtedly hopes he’ll reach the heights in pro hockey his brother has achieved, and in order to do so he’ll look to perform well in the USHL with Lincoln.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

East Notes: Dahlin, Necas, Keane

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There has been recent speculation that the Sabres and defenseman Rasmus Dahlin are nearing an agreement on a contract extension.  On the latest 32 Thoughts podcast (audio link), Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that there is a bit of work still to be done but that all sides involved think that there is a deal to be done with a belief that it could be done by the opening of training camp.  The 23-year-old is coming off a breakout year that saw him record 15 goals and 58 assists in 78 games while averaging just shy of 26 minutes a night.  He has one year left on his current deal at a $6MM cap hit and coming off the year he just had, it seems likely that Dahlin could approach the $10MM mark (if not a bit more) to lock in a max-term eight-year extension now.

Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference:

  • Hurricanes forward Martin Necas is entering the final year of his contract this season and thus is eligible to sign a contract extension. However, he recently told NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti that there have been no discussions yet about a possible new deal.  The 24-year-old took a significant step forward last season, posting career highs across the board with 28 goals, 43 assists, 71 points, 240 shots, and an ATOI of 18:25 per night.  Signed for a $3MM AAV this season, Necas’ next deal could very well double that amount or more if he’s able to have a similar offensive showing in 2023-24.
  • Still with Carolina, prospect defenseman Joey Keane has signed a one-year deal with Spartak of the KHL, per a team announcement. The 24-year-old had a good first season in Russia, picking up 24 points in 64 games last year.  Keane has a pair of NHL games under his belt with the Hurricanes who retain his RFA rights through the 2026-27 campaign.  If he takes a step forward this year, he could play his way back into the mix for a spot in North America.

Minor Transactions: 09/02/23

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Although the NHL season won’t begin for more than a month, the professional hockey season in Europe has just begun. The Champions Hockey League is already fully underway, and there have already been some notable contests. For example, today the Norwegian champion Stavanger Oilers nearly defeated the reigning SHL title winners, the Växjö Lakers, but ended up falling in a shootout.

The KHL also had its season-opening games today, highlighted by a contest between Dinamo Minsk and HC Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk that saw Minsk come back from down three goals to win in overtime, powered by a two-point performance from 2015 first-round pick Nick Merkley. As more and more clubs across the hockey world return to competitive play, teams in North American minor leagues and those overseas leagues are continuing to add players. We’ll keep track of those moves here, as always.

  • Former Chicago Blackhawks prospect Sam Jardine has signed a one-year deal with the ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits, confirming his return to North American pro hockey after two years in Europe. The 30-year-old defenseman has played for the Swamp Rabbits before, in 2020-21 when he scored 44 points in 67 games for the club. That year, he earned ECHL First-Team All-Star honors as well as a chance the following season to play for HC Slovan Bratislava in the Slovak capital as well as HIFK Helsinki in Finland. Jardine spent last season playing in Wales with the EIHL’s Cardiff Devils, and now will return to his old stomping grounds for 2023-24.
  • Turner Ottenbreit, a former captain of the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds, has signed a one-year contract with the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star. Ottenbreit is a six-foot-three left-shot defenseman who has spent the last two seasons in the AHL with the Iowa Wild. He played in 57 games last season and scored 12 points, and should be able to beef up a Kunlun blueline that surrendered 44 shots in today’s season-opening victory over Spartak Moscow.
  • Former WHL star forward Luka Burzan signed a one-year contract with the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones, locking himself into another campaign with the team he finished 2022-23 on. Burzan, 23, is a former Colorado Avalanche draft pick who scored a solid 13 points in 17 games last season in Cincinnati. Burzan has scored well at each of his ECHL stops so far in his career and will look to do the same next season while potentially earning his way back to the AHL, where he played in 10 games last year.

This page may be updated throughout the day.

Madison Bowey Signs In KHL

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Sept. 2: Dinamo Minsk has indeed announced a one-year contract for Bowey.  He’s likely to make his debut with the team later today in their season opener.

Aug. 26: Unrestricted free agent defenseman Madison Bowey hasn’t been able to land a contract in North America this summer so it appears he has turned his focus overseas.  Sammi Silber of The Hockey News relays (Twitter link) that the blueliner is nearing a one-year deal with Dinamo Minsk of the KHL.

The 28-year-old signed a one-year contract with Montreal last summer but failed to see any NHL action for the first time since the 2016-17 campaign.  Bowey cleared waivers in training camp and was assigned to AHL Laval.  However, he dealt with multiple injuries throughout the year which limited him to just 35 games where he managed only 13 points.

Bowey does have 158 career games of NHL experience under his belt with four different organizations, the bulk of which came with Washington who drafted him in the second round (53rd overall) back in 2013.  Between those and his 204 AHL appearances, he qualifies for veteran status in the minors which likely hurt his value; AHL teams are limited to how many veteran skaters they’re allowed to dress and a down year like the one he had could have made teams look elsewhere to fill those slots.

With that in mind, it’s not surprising that Bowey is looking overseas.  An offensive blueliner back in junior, he could find himself with an opportunity to play a bigger role on that front which would make him a valuable piece at that level or perhaps get him back on the radar down the road in North America.

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