Nikolai Khabibulin Signs In KHL
3:45 PM: An official release from Torpedo shed some light on the reasoning behind the decision to sign Khabibulin. In a (translated) statement, Larionov did appear to mention the idea that this signing would help Torpedo from a financial and popularity perspective, specifically pointing to Spartak Moscow’s recent signing of Ilya Kovalchuk.
But in addition to that side of the equation, Torpedo does claim to have legitimate sporting reasons to sign the soon-to-be-51-year-old veteran. With former San Jose Sharks goalie Alexei Melnichuk now off to Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, the team has a legitimate need for a third goalie. So they’ve signed Khabibulin to fill that role.
2:10 PM: In an extremely surprising move, four-time NHL All-Star and 2004 Stanley Cup champion Nikolai Khabibulin, 50, has decided to resume his playing career and sign a one-year contract with the KHL’s Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod.
It’s been an active day for Torpedo, who already boasts two quality NHL prospects in Bogdan Konyushkov (MTL) and Anton Silayev (potential 2024 top-10 pick), alongside a former AHLer in Madison Bowey. Khabibulin was serving on head coach Igor Larionov‘s staff as the goalie coach, but now he has elected to throw his hat in the ring as a player.
Torpedo doesn’t appear to have an immediate need for goaltending, as starter Adam Húska and backup Ivan Kulbakov each have strong numbers this season. Neither goalie appears to have suffered an injury that would necessitate such a move, either. It’s possible this signing was made with economic considerations since Khabibulin is a popular former star NHLer.
Khabibulin won Olympic gold in 1992 with the unified team of former Soviet republics and was named the best goaltender at the 2002 Olympics, helping Russia win the bronze medal along the way.
The veteran of nearly 800 NHL games remains a popular star player and could generate Torpedo a significant amount of attention should he end up playing games as part of this contract.
Jets Loan Artemi Kniazev To KHL
The Jets assigned defenseman prospect Artemi Kniazev to the KHL’s Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod on Sunday, a team release states.
Kniazev, 22, will play out the remainder of 2023-24 in his home country. It will be his first stint in the Russian top league, as he’s been a full-time player in North America since coming over to play junior hockey with the QMJHL’s Chicoutimi Saguenéens in 2018.
The 6-foot, 181-pound blueliner has one NHL game under his belt, coming with the Sharks in 2021-22. He was a San Jose draft pick, selected 48th overall in 2019, but Winnipeg acquired him last summer in exchange for the signing rights to 24-year-old German defense prospect Leon Gawanke.
Gawanke, who led the Jets’ AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose, in points by defensemen last season, was frustrated with the lack of NHL time and signed a four-year deal to return to Germany before the trade to the Sharks. He then signed a one-year, two-way deal in San Jose, voiding his overseas contract. Gawanke hasn’t received an NHL call-up yet with San Jose, but he’s again leading his minor-league team in points by defensemen with 20 in 26 games for the San Jose Barracuda.
It hasn’t gone quite as well for Kniazev in his new home, however. He was a higher-ceiling point-producing prospect, notching over a point per game in his final junior season with Chicoutimi. He’d failed to crack the 30-point mark in two seasons with the Barracuda, however, and has five assists and a -12 rating through 20 games with Manitoba this season. It’s unclear whether Kniazev requested a loan back to Russia, if the Jets wanted to free up a spot on their farm squad, or if the decision was mutual.
The loan marks Kniazev’s first stint in the Nizhny Novgorod organization. He’d spent his mid-teen years developing in the Ak Bars Kazan system, also spending a short time in Kazan on loan in 2020 while the NHL was on pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nizhny Novgorod is home to quite a few top prospects for the 2024 draft, none larger (literally) than 17-year-old 6-foot-7 blueliner Anton Silayev. It’s also the team of 21-year-old free-agent winger Vasili Atanasov who, after being passed over in the past few drafts, is reportedly garnering NHL interest after notching 19 goals and 38 points through 40 games.
Winnipeg will retain Kniazev’s rights through the end of the season, at which point his entry-level contract will expire and make him a restricted free agent. If the Jets do not issue him a qualifying offer, he will be eligible to sign with any NHL team. He is not eligible for salary arbitration. If the Jets do elect to issue Kniazev a qualifying offer, but he signs a contract overseas, he will remain on their reserve list. He will need to sign with Winnipeg if he wishes to return to the NHL unless the Jets trade his signing rights elsewhere.
Minor Transactions: 12/21/23
Although the NHL’s annual holiday roster freeze is in place, player movement has not halted across the wider world of professional hockey, both in North American minor leagues as well as the many pro leagues in Europe. As always, we’ll keep track of notable player movement from those places here.
- Veteran goalie Patrik Rybár has signed a one-year contract extension with his current club: Spartak Moscow of the KHL. The 30-year-old Slovak international is in his second season with Spartak, and his third consecutive season in the KHL. He was signed out of Liiga’s Kärpät by Dynamo Minsk, and then after a year as Minsk’s backup he became Spartak’s starter for 2022-23. Rybár has been excellent since he became Spartak’s number-one goalie, with a .924 save percentage in 45 games last year and a .920 in 24 games this year. The one-time KHL All-Star is best known for the 2022 Winter Olympics, when he posted a .966 save percentage and backstopped Slovakia to a bronze medal.
- 23-year-old former Vegas Golden Knights prospect Peter DiLiberatore has had his PTO with the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners converted to a full-time deal, according to the AHL’s official transactions wire. The former Quinnipiac University alternate captain began the season with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, but then in November he moved to the AHL to play for Tucson. He has played in 13 AHL games this year and scored three points. Now with a full-time deal, DiLiberatore will get the chance to establish himself in the AHL on a more extended basis.
- 2017 Minnesota Wild third-round pick Ivan Lodnia has signed with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays. The 23-year-old was once a strong scorer at the CHL level, potting 27 goals and 62 points in his final 41 games with the OHL’s Niagara IceDogs. He began his pro career in 2020-21 with the KHL’s Dynamo Minsk, before spending 2021-22 with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves. Lodnia has not yet played in the ECHL but has four goals and eight points in 38 career games.
- Former Edmonton Oilers prospect Matt Cairns has been traded in the ECHL, with the Maine Mariners sending him to the Indy Fuel in exchange for future considerations. Maine acquired Cairns from the Cincinnati Cyclones a few days ago but ultimately did not dress him for a single game. The six-foot-three defenseman has split this season between the New York Rangers’ ECHL affiliate, the Cincinnati Cyclones, and their AHL affiliate the Hartford Wolf Pack. He has skated in five games for Hartford and 11 for Cincinnati, scoring three points for the latter club.
- Forward Jake Bricknell has been claimed off of waivers from the ECHL’s Florida Everblades by the ECHL’s Reading Royals. The 26-year-old has played in just two ECHL seasons but is now on his sixth different ECHL team. The six-foot-one, 211-pound grinder has scored two goals and three points so far in this season, and his career-high in offensive production as a pro came when he scored six goals and 17 points in 44 games for the Manchester Storm of the EIHL.
- Jakub Rychlovský, one of the breakout stars of this Czech Extraliga season, has signed a two-year contract extension with an option for a third season with his current club, Bílí Tygři Liberec. Rychlovský currently ranks third on the team in scoring with 12 goals and 23 points in 29 games, and his offense has helped the team sit fourth place in the league standings. Rychlovský has already passed his career-high in points, a high he set last season with 17 points in 52 games.
- 2011 Minnesota Wild first-round pick Zack Phillips has been signed by the EIHL’s Manchester Storm, according to a team announcement. The 31-year-old is a veteran of numerous professional leagues, having already played in England, Sweden, Slovakia, Germany, Poland, Scotland, and Hungary as well as the United States and Canada. After fizzling out in the AHL in 2016, Phillips began his European pro career and was signed by Manchester out of the German third division. Phillips played in the EIHL last season with the Fife Flyers, leading the team in scoring with 45 points in 53 games.
This page may be updated throughout the day.
Ilya Kovalchuk Signs In KHL
Former NHL superstar Ilya Kovalchuk has decided to return to the game after a two-year absence, signing a one-year contract with the KHL’s Spartak Moscow.
Kovalchuk, 40, has not played at all since his playoff run with Avangard Omsk in 2020-21 that ended in a Gagarin Cup championship. Before that short stint in Omsk, Kovalchuk had not been a fixture in the KHL since 2017-18, the final year of his time in the KHL that began with his highly controversial exit from the New Jersey Devils.
The 2001 first-round pick returned to the KHL in 2020-21 after two seasons in the NHL split between three teams: the Los Angeles Kings, Montreal Canadiens, and Washington Capitals. That raised the overall total of NHL franchises he’s played for to five, adding on the Devils and Atlanta Thrashers, teams he spent the bulk of his career weith.
Now, Kovalchuk will represent Spartak, a team that currently sits at the top of the KHL’s Western Conference. They rank first in the KHL in goals scored by a wide margin, so their addition of Kovalchuk is not one based on desperation to add offensive reinforcements. Instead, Kovalchuk will join an already-talented side that includes star Nikolay Goldobin, a former NHLer who currently has 53 points in just 40 KHL games.
While there is surely no possibility that this signing will result in Kovalchuk looking to once again return to North American pro hockey, this contract does extend the playing career of a forward who was once one of the NHL’s most electric offensive talents.
Jean-Sébastien Dea, KHL Club Mutually Terminate Contract
Former NHLer Jean-Sébastien Dea and his KHL club, Metallurg Magnitogorsk, elected to terminate the player’s KHL contract by mutual consent yesterday.
Dea was originally under contract with an NHL team for the 2023-24 campaign, but Dea and the Arizona Coyotes mutually terminated the deal in August in order for Dea to pursue an opportunity in the KHL.
Dea, 29, is an undrafted center who worked his way up from the ECHL to the NHL but had seen his call-up opportunities grow less frequent as he got closer to his thirties. Dea spent last year mostly with the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners, scoring a solid 23 goals and 50 points in 67 games. An established top-six quality AHLer, Dea has scored 50 or more points in the AHL three times.
Rather than remain in the AHL for another season where he might have potentially been called up once again, Dea elected to head overseas to pursue his first opportunity to play in a European professional league. Dea only managed six points in 18 KHL games for Metallurg, though, and his ice time had begun to slowly decline.
So rather than continue with Magnitogorsk, both the team and Dea have elected to end their business relationship.
It’s possible Dea returns to North America, where he would be a significant addition to the offensive attack of any club he signs with. It’s also possible Dea pursues other opportunities in Europe, though he may very well be weary of signing again in the KHL given how his first stint in that league has turned out.
Minor Transactions: 11/29/23
NHL player movement is beginning to heat up, as just yesterday featured a major free-agent signing as well as a former 20-goal scorer being traded. Player movement in the wider world of professional hockey mirrors that activity, especially yesterday in the KHL. As always, we’ll keep track of notable transactions from minor and overseas leagues here:
- 2014 Colorado Avalanche first-round pick Conner Bleackley was released from his ECHL team yesterday. The 27-year-old Canadian forward was playing for the Rapid City Rush this season, but had only managed to score three points in 13 ECHL games. Prior to this season, Bleackley had played two consecutive campaigns for the Maine Mariners, scoring 15 goals and 38 points in 98 games. Once nearly a point-per-game ECHLer with the Tulsa Oilers, Bleackley’s scoring numbers have dried up and his AHL call-up opportunities have dried up as well, as he hasn’t played at the game’s second-highest level since 2019-20.
- In the KHL, a one-for-one trade occurred involving two players who each were once part of an NHL organization. The Kunlun Red Star dealt Cliff Pu to Admiral Vladivostok, with the Chinese club receiving center Tyler Graovac in return. Graovac, 30, is a center with 84 games of NHL experience and two seasons under his belt in the AHL where he scored at least 20 goals. He hadn’t made much of an offensive impact for Vladivostok, though, registering just four points in 20 games. Pu, 25, is a winger who once scored 86 points in the OHL and was part of the trade that sent Jeff Skinner to Buffalo. He scored 11 goals and 20 points in 41 KHL games last season and will now leave China for Russia having scored nine points in 29 games this year.
- The Red Star also dealt one of their alternate captains, Zac Leslie, to Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk for cash compensation. Leslie, 29, is a former Los Angeles Kings prospect and OHL champion who has spent the last two years in the KHL, entirely with Kunlun. He had an impressive rookie KHL season in 2022-23, scoring 39 points in 65 games. This season, he’s only managed seven points in 30 games as the team has elected to complete a change-of-scenery trade that will send him all the way west into Tatarstan.
- Continuing what has been an extremely busy day for the KHL’s Chinese side, the club has also signed former NHLer Gemel Smith to a one-year deal. Now 29 years old, Smith last played in the NHL in 2021-22, when he received three games played with the Detroit Red Wings. After spending last year entirely in the AHL with the Syracuse Crunch (37 points in 35 games) and Henderson Silver Knights (16 points in 19 games) Smith decided to parlay has exemplary AHL production and physical style into what was potentially a lucrative KHL deal with Dynamo Minsk. He hasn’t had the start with Minsk that he’d likely have wanted, though, scoring four goals and five points in 15 games. Smith and Minsk agreed on a mutual contract termination on November 17th, and now Smith has his landing spot for where he’ll attempt to revive his rookie KHL campaign.
- Former 54-point NHLer Peter Mueller will not continue with the Czech club he’s currently playing for, HC Vítkovice. Although the 35-year-old Minnesota native was once the leading scorer of the Czech Extraliga and is pulling his weight this year with 13 points in 17 games, Vítkovice have struggled mightily. They’re currently tied for last place in the Czech Extraliga with a 5-12-2 record. With the club in an increasingly dire situation in the standings, they will now have to cope with the loss of one of their leading offensive talents.
- Drake Rymsha, a former Los Angeles Kings forward, has transferred from Slovakia’s HKM Zvolen to the ICEHL’s Red Bull Salzburg. A former OHL star with the Sarnia Sting, Rymsha was excellent in the ECHL last season scoring 24 goals and 58 points in 58 games. He parlayed that ECHL success into a shot in the Slovak Extraliga with Zvolen, and has provided strong early results with seven points in six games. That’s been enough for Salzburg to take a shot on the forward, who now has a chance to join the reigning back-to-back ICEHL champions.
This page may be updated throughout the day.
Brett Ritchie Signs In KHL
Veteran forward Brett Ritchie is headed overseas for the first time in his professional career, signing a one-year contract with Dynamo Minsk of the KHL.
The 30-year-old winger did not receive an NHL contract this summer, instead signing a PTO with the Florida Panthers. He spent training camp and preseason in Sunrise, but failed to earn a contract from the club.
A veteran of 391 NHL games, Ritchie was the 44th overall pick of the 2011 draft by the Dallas Stars, selected out of the OHL’s Sarnia Sting.
After his OHL campaign concluded with a 76-point campaign on the Niagara IceDogs, Ritchie turned pro and had an exceptional AHL rookie season. He scored 29 goals and 59 points in 81 combined regular-season and playoff games, helping the Texas Stars win the Calder Cup.
Ritchie made his NHL debut the following season, in 2014-15, but only managed nine points in 31 games. Ritchie’s NHL breakthrough came in 2016-17, when he scored 16 goals in a full 78-game NHL season.
He had proven himself to be a capable NHL bottom-six winger, and he remained an NHL player exclusively (besides a 12-game AHL stint in 2019-20) through the 2022-23 season.
Ritchie will not be an NHLer this season, though, as rather than potentially sign an AHL deal with a pathway to an NHL contract (the pathway Joel Kiviranta successfully took with the Colorado Avalanche, for example) Ritchie has elected to play in the KHL.
He joins a Minsk team currently 14-12-4, sitting seventh in their conference standings. A look at Minsk’s scoresheet paints the picture as to why they might have gone out and signed a big-name former NHLer import player such as Ritchie. Their top scorer, AHL veteran Sam Anas, has scored just 18 points in 29 games.
They could very much use another winger with NHL experience beyond former Anaheim Duck Sam Volkov, so Ritchie fills that role. While it’s no guarantee Ritchie will be productive in the KHL, his consistent scoring success at the AHL level suggests he may be able to fill a scoring power forward’s role against KHL competition.
If he does so and posts a productive campaign in Belarus, one shouldn’t rule out the possibility Ritchie receives another chance to earn an NHL contract.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Minor Transactions: 10/19/23
With the ECHL starting up its season tonight, NHL and AHL teams have been shuffling players to that level in recent days. Some of those recent moves are highlighted in our latest batch of minor transactions.
- The Senators’ AHL affiliate announced the assignments of forward Philippe Daoust and defenceman Donovan Sebrango to ECHL Allen. Daoust was a sixth-round pick back in 2020 but was limited to just nine games last season due to injury. He had seven points with Belleville but will get more time to work on his rehab at the ECHL level. Meanwhile, Sebrango was acquired from Detroit as part of the Alex DeBrincat trade this summer and split last season between their AHL and ECHL affiliates. Both players are entering the second year of their entry-level contracts.
- Colorado’s AHL squad announced that they’ve sent goaltender Trent Miner, forward Ryan Sandelin, and defenseman Gianni Fairbrother to ECHL Utah. Miner posted a 3.04 GAA along with a .910 SV% in 37 games with the Grizzlies last season and is in the final season of his entry-level deal. Sandelin wrapped up his college career last year with Minnesota State (Mankato), putting up 29 points in 38 games which helped him earn a minor league deal. As for Fairbrother, the Avalanche acquired him as part of the Alex Newhook trade this summer but missed all of last season with a knee injury. He’s also in the final season of his entry-level pact.
- Former NHL blueliner Christian Jaros is on the move to the KHL as he has signed with Severstal Cherepovets, per a team release. The 27-year-old received a two-year deal. Jaros has 94 career NHL games under his belts over parts of five seasons between Ottawa, San Jose, and New Jersey but opted to head overseas last season, seeing action with two separate KHL squads.
Minor Transactions: 10/15/23
It’s another busy day across the hockey world, although the NHL schedule is a bit sparse. Just two NHL games are set to be played today, though there has been quite a bit of action in the wider world of hockey.
Reigning German champions EHC Red Bull München were dismantled 6-2 by rivals Eisbären Berlin, thanks to two goals a piece from former NHLer Zach Boychuk and former AHLer Yannick Veilleux. Over in Scotland, a four-point performance from New York Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech‘s brother, Michael Pelech, was not enough for the Glasgow Clan to overcome the Nottingham Panthers.
As one would expect, just as the schedule is busy across the world of pro hockey, so is the transaction wire. We’ll keep track of notable player movement here.
- Just shortly after his release from Kazakh club Barys Astana, former Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Jeremy Bracco signed a one-year contract with HK Sochi, a rival KHL club. Bracco, 26, joins two top NHL prospects (Matvei Michkov and Marat Khusnutdinov) in Sochi. Bracco has been a strong offensive producer outside the NHL, and is a former AHL First-Team All-Star and a one-time 40-point scorer in the KHL. Although Sochi already has quite a bit of offensive talent in their two NHL prospects, the addition of Bracco could bolster their attack even further.
- Former Tri-City Americans captain Kyle Olson has signed overseas, officially heading to Europe for the first time in his young professional career. The 24-year-old 2017 Anaheim Ducks mid-round draft pick did not receive an entry-level deal from the club that drafted him and instead began his professional career three seasons ago on an AHL contract with the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins. After three seasons in Wilkes-Barre Scranton where he tallied just 33 points in 149 games, he found an ECHL contract in September of this year. Rather than play the season in the ECHL with the Reading Royals, though, Olson appears to have instead opted to play for HC La Chaux-de-Fonds in the Swiss SL, the second tier of hockey in Switzerland.
- L.J. Mooney, a potential top 2025 draft prospect, has decided to follow in the footsteps of his cousin Logan Cooley and commit to play college hockey at the University of Minnesota. Cooley, now an Arizona Coyotes forward, tore college hockey apart in his lone season as a Golden Gopher, forming a deadly trio alongside Matthew Knies and Jimmy Snuggerud to pile points. While at this moment in time, it’s not easy to say that Mooney will end up the same caliber of player as Cooley, he remains a highly intriguing prospect and someone who could end up making a big impact for the Golden Gophers.
- 23-year-old forward D-Jay Jerome has been traded in the ECHL, as he was sent from the Trois-Rivières Lions to the Newfoundland Growlers in exchange for cash considerations. Jerome split last season between the third-tier ECHL and fourth-tier SPHL, skating in 14 games and scoring eight points in each spell. Jerome has prior ECHL experience from the year prior, when he skated in 30 games for the Allen Americans and registered 10 points.
This page may be updated throughout the day.
Minor Transactions: 10/12/23
It’s another busy day on the NHL schedule, with quite a few teams set to make their season debuts tonight. Top prospect Adam Fantilli is set to debut for the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight, while Red Wings fans will get their first regular-season look at Alex DeBrincat wearing the winged wheel.
Regular season hockey is back just about everywhere (save for the AHL which begins tomorrow) and as a result player movement remains active across the hockey world. As always, we’ll keep track of those transactions here.
- Former Toronto Marlies star forward Jeremy Bracco and his club, the KHL’s Barys Astana, have mutually agreed to terminate the player’s contract. Bracco, 26, joined the KHL’s Kazakh club in July 2022 and had a solid first season there, scoring 14 goals and 40 points in 59 games. This season, though, Bracco has struggled and has only managed one point in six games. He’ll now look elsewhere to continue his pro career, whether it be in North America (where he is a former AHL First-Team All-Star and Calder Cup champion) or in Europe (such as Germany, where he played in 2021-22.)
- The AHL’s San Jose Barracuda have signed two forwards to one-year AHL contracts: former NHLer Justin Bailey and former Brandon Wheat Kings captain Tanner Kaspick. Bailey, 28, has been on the NHL/AHL bubble for much of his pro career, skating in NHL games for three separate teams. He’s long been a quality top-six forward at the AHL level, and scored 19 goals and 32 points in 58 games for the Bakersfield Condors last season. Kaspick, 25, hasn’t yet made his NHL debut but has been a regular AHLer for most of his professional career. He scored six points in 43 games for the Iowa Wild last season playing in a checking role.
- Undrafted forward Samuel Asselin, an undersized forward who once led the QMJHL in goals, may not have earned an NHL contract from the New York Islanders off the back of his PTO. What he earned instead was an AHL deal with the Bridgeport Islanders, something the team announced today. After his stellar final season of Major Junior hockey, Asselin spent his first year as a professional in the ECHL with the Atlanta Gladiators, scoring at a near-point-per-game rate. Since that season Asselin has been a full-time AHLer, and he set a career high in 2021-22 with eight goals and 30 points. He’ll now take his services to Bridgeport, likely with the hope of making a push for consideration for an NHL deal in the future.
- Former Vegas Golden Knights prospect Peter DiLiberatore has signed a one-year ECHL contract with the South Carolina Stingrays, according to a team announcement. DiLiberatore endured a difficult 2022-23 campaign, one in which he suited up for four different teams across the AHL and ECHL. He finished the season playing in West Virginia with the Wheeling Nailers, scoring one assist in five games. Now in South Carolina, perhaps the stability potentially offered by this signing will help DiLiberatore translate some of the production he showed in college at Quinnipiac University to the professional level.
- Last week, Jáchym Kondelík was placed on unconditional waivers by the Nashville Predators for the purpose of contract termination. Now a free agent, Kondelík has decided to sign in Czechia with Extraliga club Motor České Budějovice. Kondelík, 23, was a fourth-round pick of the Predators at the 2018 draft, selected out of the USHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks. He went on to have a quality career playing NCAA hockey with the University of Connecticut, captaining the team as a senior. He turned pro near the end of 2021-22 and played 2022-23 with the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals, making it the first full season of his pro career. He scored just 11 points in 38 games, though, and now appears to prefer continuing his career closer to home.
This page may be updated throughout the day.