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KHL’s Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Signs Byron Froese

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July 15: The league confirmed a one-year deal for Froese with Lokomotiv today.

July 13: After predominantly playing at the AHL level for the past several years, it appears that free agent center Byron Froese has decided it’s time to try something different.  Sport-Express’ Mikhail Zizlis reports that the veteran is set to sign a one-year deal with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the KHL.

The 33-year-old spent the last two seasons on a two-way contract with the Golden Knights.  Last season, Froese got into 16 games with Vegas but wasn’t particularly productive, collecting only a single assist while winning nearly 56% of his faceoffs in 10:40 of playing time per game.  He also got into 53 contests with AHL Henderson, notching 13 goals and 18 assists.

Over his 13-year professional career, Froese has played in 141 NHL games between five different teams, recording 20 points.  But in the minors, he has been much more of an impactful scorer, tallying 140 goals and 172 assists in 513 appearances with eight different teams.

Froese could plausibly have opted to play a similar role for the upcoming season, one that saw him play a big role in the minors while being an NHL-capable recall to cover minutes on the fourth line.  But after years of being in that same role, he’ll now head overseas and should be able to play big minutes for the full season.  If things don’t go as well over there as he’s likely hoping for, Froese could easily return to North America for 2025-26 and go back to the role he has had for the last decade, so even with this news, this might not be the last we see of Froese in the NHL.

Steven Kampfer Expected To Sign In KHL

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Utah Hockey Club defenseman Steven Kampfer is expected to sign a one-year deal with the KHL’s Traktor Chelyabinsk, per Craig Morgan of Go PHNX Sports and Mikhail Zislis of Russia’s Sport-Express (Twitter link). The deal will take him out of unrestricted free agency in the NHL, after not re-signing with Utah. Kampfer will be returning to Russia after spending the 2021-22 season with the Kazan Ak-Bars. He proved plenty productive on the international trip, posting 30 points – a career-high in Kampfer’s professional career.

Once a stout seventh defenseman in the NHL, Kampfer’s role has since dwindled into a starring role in the minor leagues. Utah, then Arizona, traded for Kampfer ahead of the 2023 Trade Deadline, sending future considerations in return for the Tuscon Roadrunners’ new top defender. That’s exactly the role that Kampfer assumed, totaling 29 points in 60 games with the club since the trade and donning their captaincy this year.

Kampfer, 35, kicked off his pro career with a fourth-round selection in the 2007 NHL Draft, hearing his name called by the Anaheim Ducks though he’d begin his career three years later with the Boston Bruins. He showed stout defense and good grit in a 38-game rookie season in 2010-11, though Kampfer quickly struggled to score at the top level. He’d go on to spend the next 11 seasons bouncing between strong AHL minutes and minimal NHL minutes, ultimately slotting into just 231 career games and posting a measly 39 points. He’s bucked that trend a bit in the minors, with 170 points across 378 career games, though it’s clear that Kampfer’s best offense came overseas. He’ll return to that well next season, looking to make the most of the final years of his career.

Minor Transactions: 7/13/24

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The hockey summer has entered a standstill, with moves around Europe headlining much of the news. We’ll keep track of the notable signings here:

  • Starting in North America, former St. Louis Blues forward prospect Keean Washkurak has signed a one-year, minor league deal with the Belleville Senators. Washkurak entered unrestricted free agency this summer, after not receiving a qualifying offer from St. Louis. He didn’t have much to show prospective new teams, with just four goals and 10 points in 63 AHL games last season. It was another low-scoring and low-minutes year for Washkurak, who’s totaled a measly 46 points across 176 AHL games since turning pro in 2020. He’s so far spent his career on two two-way NHL contracts with the Blues – a status that he’ll now have to work his way back to with Belleville.
  • Goaltender Zane McIntyre has signed a one-year deal with the Straubing Tigers of the DEL, Germany’s top league. The move ends McIntyre’s nine-year tour around the AHL; a trip that took him through stops with six different clubs, including the Providence Bruins and Iowa Wild. McIntyre has generally filled a backup role throughout his career, ultimately totaling 153 wins and a .908 save percentage in 300 AHL games. He’s now set for his first full year in Europe, though he did spend a brief six games with the KHL’s Dynamo Riga during the 2020-21 season.
  • Kyle Keyser is joining the string of goaltenders moving internationally, signing a one-year deal with the Kunlun Red Star, China’s KHL club. Keyser has spent the last six seasons with the Providence Bruins, though he’s split his time between the roles of AHL backup and ECHL starter. The 25-year-old Keyser has totaled 29 wins and a .902 in 73 AHL games and 16 wins and a .891 in 42 ECHL across his career. He’ll fight for better production in a more prominent role with Kunlun.

* This post will be updated throughout the day.

KHL’s Barys Astana Signs Wade Allison

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Former Flyers right winger Wade Allison is headed overseas. Barys Astana, the lone Kazakhstan-based club in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League, announced today they’ve signed Allison to a one-year deal.

Allison, 26, is coming off a difficult 2023-24 season spent entirely in the minors after landing a full-time job in Philadelphia the year prior. The 2016 second-round pick failed to crack the team out of camp last fall and was placed on waivers, subsequently clearing and heading back to AHL Lehigh Valley, where he spent significant portions of the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons.

The 6’2″, 205-lb power forward had previously put up good offensive production in the minors, tallying 14 goals and 12 assists for 26 points in 38 games across his first two professional seasons. That, plus his physical acumen and good skating ability, landed him a job on the Flyers’ roster entering 2022-23, where he managed nine goals, six assists, 15 points and a -3 rating in 60 appearances in his lone full NHL season. He shouldered bottom-six minutes, averaging 12:54 per game, and had a negligible possession impact, with his CF% and xGF% both falling in line roughly with team averages.

They were solid enough contributions for someone who projected as an energy player regardless, but it wasn’t enough to keep him in the fold entering last year. The AHL demotion was evidently demoralizing for Allison, who lost his scoring touch and managed only 10 goals and 17 points in 46 games on the farm before being traded to the Predators for Denis Gurianov in a swap of reclamation projects at the trade deadline. Allison didn’t earn a call-up to Nashville after the trade and finished the season with three goals and two assists for five points in 14 games on assignment to their AHL affiliate in Milwaukee.

Since he’d played less than 80 NHL games throughout his career and accumulated enough years of professional service, Allison became eligible for UFA status this summer via a Group VI exemption. Both he and Gurianov failed to stick with their new clubs, and the latter is expected to join him in the KHL next season.

Allison, a Manitoba native, hits pause on his North American professional career with 13 goals, nine assists, 22 points, a -3 rating and 40 PIMs in 75 games across parts of three seasons in Philly. A strong performance with Astana, whose roster for next season boasts former NHLers Nathan Beaulieu and C.J. Smith along with Avalanche center prospect Andrei Buyalsky, could guide him back to the NHL next summer.

Snapshots: Johnson, Clowe, Jiricek, Karpovich

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Veteran NHL defenseman Erik Johnson is gearing up for his 18th season in the NHL, continuing his streak of playing in every season since his first-overall selection in 2007. And despite a career accoladed by a Stanley Cup win and medals at both the Olympic Games and World Championship, the 36-year-old Johnson told Jonathan Bailey of Philly Hockey Now that he hasn’t considered retirement. Johnson emphasized that he’s ready to fill any role that’d benefit the Philadelphia Flyers, even if it means limited appearances in the lineup. He said, “I’m here to help these guys on and off the ice, whether it’s 20, 30, 40, 50 games, or whatever it is. My days of 25, 26 minutes a night are behind me, and I know that, and I’m comfortable with it.”

Johnson will continue on with the Flyers, after joining the team at the 2023 Trade Deadline and re-signing to a one-year, $1MM contract this summer. He managed three points in 16 appearances with Philadelphia after the move, bringing his season totals to six points in 67 games. Those measly totals might have pushed Johnson out of a routine lineup spot, but his veteran leadership is keeping him around the league. He’ll enter next season competing with fellow vets Nick Seeler and Rasmus Ristolainen for ice time, and mentoring top young defenders Jamie Drysdale and Cameron York.

Other quick notes from around the hockey world:

  • Former NHL forward Ryane Clowe made a big step in his managerial career this summer, stepping into the San Jose Sharks’ assistant general manager role and moving up from a special advisory role with the New York Rangers. Clowe detailed the move to Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now, sharing that he wasn’t eager to leave New York but was allured by the daily role San Jose promised. Clowe will now return to the club he spent eight years of his decade-long playing career with – serving as the gritty, high-event punch behind legendary Sharks like Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton – who now both support San Jose’s front office as advisors.
  • Top St. Louis Blues prospect Adam Jiricek is expected to move to the OHL’s Brantford Bulldogs next season, per Andy Strickland of Bally Sports Midwest. It will be a make-or-break year for Jiricek, who missed the majority of the 2023-24 season with a lower-body injury suffered in December. He was among the most acclaimed defenders in the 2024 class during his age-17 season – a value vindicated by his 17th-overall selection in this year’s draft. His long-term outlook should become clearer as he looks to adjust to both a return from injury and North American hockey next season.
  • New Jersey Devils defense prospect Daniil Karpovich has signed a one-year contract with Avtomobilist of the KHL, shares James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now. Nichols adds that Karpovich will report to the VHL, Russia’s second-tier league. This news returns Karpovich to Russia, after spending last season in his home country of Belarus. Karpovich spent one year of juniors hockey in Russia, recording 35 points in 47 MHL games with Avto during the 2022-23 season. That scoring dipped to just 11 points in 49 games in Belarus’ top league last season – a trend he’ll look to buck with a return east.

Morning Notes: KHL, Megna, Damiani

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Legalities in how Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League operates have become important in recent months. Their relationship with the IIHF and Russian Ice Hockey Federation (FHR) left their clubs open to sanctions when KHL side CSKA Moskva signed Flyers netminder Ivan Fedotov to a two-year contract last summer despite his having a valid contract with Philadelphia. That will no longer be the case, as the KHL released a statement yesterday announcing that they’ve gained independence from the IIHF and FHR, giving them a similar status internationally as the NHL. In doing so, KHL clubs no longer need IIHF permission or governance to sign players from foreign leagues – likely the biggest reason for the move. In their statement, the league said they’ll “continue to respect the validity of contracts of other leagues” and that “Experience with the NHL shows that both parties continue to fulfill their obligations even in the absence of a signed Memorandum.”

Other updates to kick off your Wednesday:

  • The AHL’s Colorado Eagles have signed UFA forward Jayson Megna to a two-year contract, the team announced yesterday. Megna, 34, spent last season on a two-way deal with the Bruins, which yielded a lone call-up for their final game of the regular season. The Fort Lauderdale native spent parts of four seasons with the Eagles while under contract with the Avalanche from 2019-20 to 2022-23, posting 82 points (41 goals, 41 assists) in 103 games. The Nebraska-Omaha product has 204 NHL appearances under his belt since making his debut with the Penguins back in 2013-14, amassing 12 goals, 21 assists and 33 points with a -28 rating in fourth-line minutes.
  • Former Flames and Stars prospect Riley Damiani is taking his talents overseas on a one-year deal with Augsburger Panther of Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga, per a club announcement. The 24-year-old pivot was a Dallas fifth-round pick in 2018, but after parts of five seasons with their AHL affiliate, he was traded to the Flames for Emilio Pettersen at this year’s trade deadline. Damiani finished the season with only one goal in 14 games while on assignment to AHL Calgary and wasn’t given a qualifying offer upon the expiration of his contract last month, making him a UFA. Damiani made seven NHL appearances for Dallas back in 2021-22, posting a goal and an assist while averaging 8:32 per game.

Nikita Gusev Seeking NHL Return

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Earlier this week, James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now relayed (Twitter link) that veteran winger Nikita Gusev was on the ice at the Devils’ development camp.  That wasn’t necessarily just a random alumnus popping by, however, as Championat’s Dmitry Storozhev relays that Gusev is hoping to return to the NHL for next season.

The 31-year-old previously spent two years at the top level, one going much better than the other.  In his first year back in 2019-20 with New Jersey after being acquired from Vegas, Gusev did relatively well, putting up 13 goals and 31 assists in 66 games while logging a little under 15 minutes a night of ice time.  However, things went off the rails the following season as he picked up just two goals and three assists in 20 games before eventually having his contract terminated by the Devils late in the season.  From there, he signed with Florida, adding five more points in 11 games down the stretch.

But after not getting a strong market in free agency, Gusev eventually decided to return to the KHL for the 2021-22 campaign, signing with SKA St. Petersburg.  He produced a little over a point per game in his two seasons with them before moving to Dynamo Moscow for the 2023-24 campaign after having his contract with SKA terminated.

Gusev had a resurgent season with them, leading the league in assists (66) and points (89) while playing in all 68 games.  He then followed that up with ten points in nine postseason contests.  It’s the second time he has led the KHL in scoring, the first being 2018-19, the year before he first came to the NHL.

While he has received an offer to remain with Dynamo Moscow or to join other KHL franchises, it’s telling that Gusev remains unsigned; this report that he’s seeking another NHL opportunity would certainly explain why he hasn’t put pen to paper on a new deal yet.

Considering how his time in the NHL ended a few years ago and the fact that a lot of teams have done their heavy lifting roster-wise this summer, it stands to reason that Gusev won’t be able to command a $4.5MM AAV as he did last time.  However, if a team is looking to add some offensive creativity to their roster and Gusev’s asking price is more affordable, he could be a particularly intriguing pickup for someone in the coming days and weeks.

Nikita Zaitsev Signs With KHL’s SKA St. Petersburg

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July 4: Khayrullin’s report has come to fruition. It’s a four-year deal for Zaitsev with SKA, TSN’s Chris Johnston reports.

May 20: It has been a fairly steep fall from grace for defenseman Nikita Zaitsev.  A few years ago, he was logging over 20 minutes a night but he has since been included as salary cap ballast in a trade twice and had a very limited role this season with the Blackhawks.  Instead of seeing what might await him in free agency, it appears he has decided to head home as Sport-Express’ Arthur Khayrullin reports that Zaitsev is expected to sign a multi-year deal (a minimum of three years) with SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL.

The 32-year-old came to North America back in 2016 and made an immediate impact with Toronto, recording 36 points, 136 blocks, and 176 hits in 72 games while averaging more than 22 minutes per game, an impressive first year.  That earned him a seven-year, $31.5MM extension one year later and the Maple Leafs thought they had a core piece locked up for the long haul.

Unfortunately for them, it didn’t work out that way.  Zaitsev didn’t reach the 20-point mark let alone getting back to 36 over those seven seasons.  While he still logged some big minutes after being traded to Ottawa, his role eventually dwindled and eventually, the team parted with a pair of draft picks (a 2023 second-rounder and a 2026 fourth-rounder) to get Chicago to take the remaining year and a bit off their hands.

This season, Zaitsev found himself a healthy scratch on quite a few occasions while also missing time due to illness, an upper-body injury, and a knee issue that kept him out for 19 games.  As a result, he made a career-low 38 appearances, notching just seven points, 70 hits, and 69 blocks in a little under 16 minutes per contest, all career-lows as well.

With Chicago having several young defensemen on the cusp of pushing for full-time NHL duty, they weren’t going to bring Zaitsev back.  While it’s possible he could have had some interest in a depth role on an NHL roster, it looks like he’ll opt for the security of a multi-year agreement back home.  Assuming a contract gets finalized, Zaitsev will depart the NHL with 118 points in 482 career appearances, a pretty good career overall for an undrafted player.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Sharks Notes: Celebrini, Chernyshov, Afanasyev, Ulmer

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Sharks first-overall pick Macklin Celebrini will decide whether he’s turning pro for 2024-25 shortly after this week’s development camp ends, he told reporters yesterday (via San Jose Hockey Now’s Sheng Peng). The high-end two-way center prospect won the Hobey Baker Award for the top player in college hockey last season after recording 64 points in 38 games for Boston University as a freshman and didn’t turn 18 until well after the season had ended.

It’s overwhelmingly likely he’ll be in the San Jose lineup come opening night, as Peng says he’s been led to believe Celebrini is turning pro for months now. Only two first-overall picks out of college in recent memory – Erik Johnson (2006) and Owen Power (2021) – have returned to school after their draft year. In Johnson’s case, it wasn’t a return, either. He’d spent his draft year in the U.S. National Team Development Program before attending the University of Minnesota in 2006-07. Either way, both players were defenders, and neither was viewed as the true franchise talent Celebrini is.

Elsewhere out of the Bay Area:

  • San Jose is also facing a similar decision from their third pick of the draft – Russian winger Igor Chernyshov, who they picked up with the first pick of the second round (33rd overall). While he was under contract to continue with Dynamo Moskva in the Kontinental Hockey League, that may no longer be the case. Mikhail Zislis of Sport-Express reports he’s terminating the deal to head to North American juniors. Chernyshov’s agent, Dan Milstein, followed up to Peng that there’s “nothing imminent” about Chernyshov’s decision for next season but did confirm it was up in the air. If he is joining the junior ranks on this side of the Atlantic, it would be with the Saginaw Spirit of the Ontario Hockey League. They selected Chernyshov in today’s CHL Import Draft.
  • While one Russian is getting closer to San Jose, another appears to be leaving. Peng reported earlier this week that RFA forward Egor Afanasyev is set to sign a two-year deal in the KHL, presumably with CSKA Moskva, who owns his rights. The Sharks acquired Afanasyev’s signing rights in a swap with the Predators last month, sending 2020 first-round pick Ozzy Wiesblatt the other way. He made just two NHL appearances with Nashville last season but had 54 points in 56 games on assignment to AHL Milwaukee.
  • On the off-ice side, the Sharks are reportedly adding to their coaching staff in the form of former AHL Abbotsford assistant Jeff Ulmer, The Hockey News’ Max Miller reports. It’s unclear in what capacity, although there is one assistant opening on the Sharks’ bench under first-year head coach Ryan Warsofsky. Ulmer, 47, had spent the last three seasons in the Canucks organization as an assistant in Abbotsford and was also a member of the Coyotes’ player development department from 2019 to 2021.

Snapshots: Pinto, Gomez, Demidov

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The Ottawa Senators and forward Shane Pinto are discussing the possibilities of a two-year bridge contract, shares Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Citizen. Garrioch adds that Ottawa still prefers to sign Pinto to a deal closer to five or six years in length, though they’re off-put by Pinto’s request for $5MM-a-year on a long-term deal. Pinto is coming off the end of a year he’ll want to forget quickly, having been suspended for half the season for violating the league’s gambling policy and only scoring 27 points in the games he did play in.

Pinto scored 20 goals and 35 points as a rookie last season, appearing in all 82 games. The performance stamped him as one of Ottawa’s most promising young players, though his extended absence this year kept him from truly breaking out. The Senators will be hoping for that breakout on the first year of his new deal – and get the dreaded task of putting a number to their faith this summer.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Legendary New Jersey Devils forward Scott Gomez has taken to hockey management, assuming the general manager role and head coach for the BCHL’s Surrey Eagles (Twitter link). Gomez played in one season with the Eagles in 1996-97, posting 124 in 56 games as part of a championship-winning Eagles offense. He spent his next two seasons with the WHL’s Tri-City Americans, before beginning an iconic NHL career, including two years as the assistant coach of the New York Islanders from 2017 to 2019. Gomez took a break from the game after that tenure, returning with an assistant coaching role with Surry this season. He’ll now kick off his managerial career in the same place he started his playing career, certainly looking to achieve the same results.
  • Top 2024 NHL Draft prospect Ivan Demidov was dismissive when asked when he expects to move to North America in an interview with Scott Powers of The Athletic, saying only, “We’ll see what happens.” Demidov has been entrenched in rumors early in his hockey career, with many speculating that he and defenseman Artyom Levshunov are the top options for second overall. One of the few knocks against Demidov’s game has been his limited exposure to the KHL – instead playing nearly all of his hockey in the MHL, Russia’s U21 league. He similarly played off the question of whether he expects more KHL ice time next season, saying he wasn’t sure and likely wouldn’t know until after the draft. While neither answer was an outright no, Demidov’s uncertainty certainly doesn’t elicit excitement. He’ll remain an incredibly skilled player, surrounded by a litany of questions, as June 28th’s First Round draws closer.

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