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Snapshots: Power, Spooner, Oilers

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The Sabres are trying to work on a long-term extension for defenseman Owen Power, relays Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News.  The top pick in 2021 is already into the final year of his entry-level contract despite having just 87 career professional appearances under his belt.  79 of those came with Buffalo last season where he did well, collecting 35 points while averaging nearly 24 minutes per game which helped him finish third in Calder Trophy voting as the NHL’s top rookie.  With barely one full season of experience, a long-term agreement could be difficult to come to, one that would likely surpass the $8MM mark.  One alternative the two sides could take is to do what they did with their other first-overall blueliner (Rasmus Dahlin) and work on a bridge agreement.  However, that type of move might be better off being made next summer instead of this one.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • Long-time NHL forward is on the move in the KHL as Avangard Omsk announced they’ve added the 31-year-old on a one-year contract. Spooner recorded 167 points in 315 games across seven NHL seasons with four different organizations but has played overseas since the 2019-20 campaign.  Last season, he had 19 goals and 28 assists during the regular season for Dinamo Minsk, good for a tie for 21st in league scoring.
  • Postmedia’s Kurt Leavins suggests that the Oilers should be a team to keep an eye on when it comes to tryout offers closer to the start of training camp. Depending on what happens with the eventual new contract for RFA defenseman Evan Bouchard, Edmonton is likely going to need to have several players on the roster at the league minimum salary.  They added a couple of those early in free agency (Lane Pederson and Drake Caggiula) but as the asking price comes down for free agents still unsigned, it could be an opportunity for the Oilers to bring in a low-cost upgrade.

Minor Transactions: 08/03/23

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It’ll likely be another busy day for player movement around the world of pro hockey as many clubs are still looking to secure quality players for next season. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable moves made in those minor and foreign leagues.

  • Star AHL scorer Riley Barber is headed overseas for the first time in his pro career. The 29-year-old has signed a one-year deal with Barys Astana in the KHL, and heads to Kazakhstan after an extremely productive 2022-23 campaign. Barber scored 32 goals and 64 points last season, leading the AHL’s Texas Stars in scoring. Barber has hovered around the point-per-game mark in terms of scoring almost every season since his 55-point rookie campaign in 2015-16, but he didn’t get into any NHL games last season. Now he’ll join other former AHLers in Jeremy Bracco, Eddie Pasquale, and Pontus Åberg in the Kazakh capital.
  • 2017 Carolina Hurricanes second-round pick Luke Martin has signed a contract with Liiga’s HIFK Helsinki, according to a team announcement. Martin spent four seasons playing college hockey at the University of Michigan after he was drafted before beginning his pro career in earnest in 2021-22. He spent most of the year in the ECHL with the Utah Grizzlies, scoring 43 points in 59 games and earning ECHL All-Rookie team honors. This past season Martin was an ECHL All-Star scoring 25 points in 25 games with the Jacksonville Icemen, a scoring pace that earned him a 28-game run in the AHL with the Colorado Eagles from January through March. Now 24, Martin will join HIFK looking to play a heavy dose of minutes in one of Europe’s best leagues likely with the hope that a strong performance there will earn him a look from an NHL club.
  • HIFK have also signed former St. Louis Blues defenseman Petteri Lindbohm, adding another experienced name to their blueline. The 29-year-old is receiving a three-year contract to play in the Finnish capital, a deal that is commensurate with his status as a high-quality defenseman in European leagues. Lindbohm has 49 NHL games on his resume and won a gold medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics and 2019 IIHF Men’s World Championships. Lindbohm spent last season with Frölunda HC in the SHL, scoring 14 points in 58 games while averaging over 20 minutes of ice time per night. He’ll likely be a minutes-eating defenseman at HIFK as well, and he could be a major help to their efforts to go to return to Liiga’s semifinals next season or potentially beyond if things break right.
  • Former Florida Panthers prospect Max Gildon has signed a one-year contract in the DEL with Adler Mannheim. The 24-year-old was the 66th overall pick at the 2017 draft, selected out of the U.S. National Team Development Program. He spent three seasons playing college hockey with the University of New Hampshire, culminating in a 2019-20 campaign that saw him post an impressive 29 points in 34 games. Gildon got off to a fast start to his pro career scoring 19 points in 32 games with the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors, on a loan from the Panthers. That got him named to the AHL’s All-Rookie team for 2020-21, but he wouldn’t be able to build on that momentum and push for an NHL call-up. Injuries wiped out pretty much the entirety of Gildon’s sophomore AHL campaign and this past season he managed just 14 points in 47 games split between Bakersfield and the Charlotte Checkers. He was not issued a qualifying offer from Florida and will now try his luck with one of the DEL’s better teams rather than continue in North America.
  • After helping his native Latvia make history winning a bronze medal at the IIHF Men’s World Championships a few months ago, former Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Mārtiņš Dzierkals has signed with Skellefteå AIK in the SHL. Dzierkals spent the last two seasons playing in Czechia for HC HC Plzeň in 2021-22 (30 points, 49 games) and HC Motor České Budějovice in 2022-23. (21 points, 52 games) Dzierkals last played in North America in 2017-18, when he scored 15 goals and 36 points in 51 games for the ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears. He then left for Dynamo Riga, then playing in the KHL, and was a nominee for the league’s rookie of the year award scoring 13 points in 42 games. Now 26 with some significant international experience under his belt (he also represented Latvia at the 2022 Winter Olympics and three other IIHF Men’s World Championships) he’ll join the SHL finalists looking to help Skellefteå go on another deep playoff run and achieve the kind of glory Latvia won earlier this summer.
  • Former Western Michigan University captain Nolan LaPorte has signed with Ferencvárosi TC of Hungary’s Erste Liga. The 31-year-old will arrive in Budapest after splitting 2022-23 between the EIHL’s Glasgow Clan and Slovakia’s HK Spisska Nova Ves. LaPorte was a key player during his time in Scotland, amassing 41 goals and 92 points in 104 games there, helping Glasgow reach the playoffs in 2021-22. LaPorte has also been a solid contributor at the ECHL level, where he has a career-high of 44 points in a single season. Ferencvárosi are looking for a player who can get them over the hump after back-to-back losses in the league finals, and the hope is likely that LaPorte can be that sort of player.
  • It’s been a quick fall from grace for former New York Islanders defense prospect Bode Wilde, who’s now signed a one-year deal with HC Banska Bystrica in Slovakia’s Extraliga. The 2018 second-round pick once looked to be on track to make a major NHL impact after he recorded 70 points in 62 games with the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit in 2018-19, but he never found his footing in the Islanders organization professionally and spent all of last season on assignment with the ECHL’s Atlanta Gladiators, where he recorded just 14 points in 56 games. The Islanders did not issue him a qualifying offer after his entry-level contract expired this summer, making him an unrestricted free agent. He heads to a Banska Bystrica team that’s fallen on tougher days after winning three straight Extraliga championships in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

This page will be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 08/01/23

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As the calendar turns to August, more and more clubs across the hockey world are putting the finishing touches on the roster they’ll bring into their training camps for next season. Most major European pro leagues begin in early to mid-September, including Liiga, the DEL, the Swiss NL, and the SHL. Liiga preseason actually begins on Friday, meaning we’re quickly reaching the point when the 2023-24 season truly begins overseas. As always, we’ll keep track of notable player movement in minor and foreign leagues here.

  • 27-year-old defenseman Bobby Nardella has found success pretty much everywhere he’s played over the last decade, from being a star USHLer to a second-team All-American at Notre Dame to now a Calder Cup Champion in the AHL in just his fourth season of pro hockey. But despite his strong play in the AHL regular season with the Hershey Bears, the undersized left-shot blueliner hasn’t yet earned his first NHL game, and now he’s guaranteed that he won’t receive that chance at least until 2024-25. Nardella signed a one-year contract with HV71 in the SHL. Nardella heads to Jönköping with 47 games of SHL experience already under his belt, as he played there on loan during the COVID-19-impacted 2020-21 campaign. He led Djurgårdens IF in scoring with 33 points in 47 games and will likely be a key player next year for HV71.
  • Like Nardella, Sami Lepistö played a key role as a defenseman during a Hershey Bears Calder Cup championship, scoring 42 points in 70 games during the team’s championship season in 2008-09. Unlike Nardella, Lepistö played in 14 career NHL games by the end of that season and the following season he broke into the NHL full-time with the Coyotes. Lepistö would ultimately play in 176 NHL games before embarking on a long and extremely successful career in Europe that would see him win two Olympic medals and be named to three consecutive KHL All-Star games. Today, Lepistö, 38, announced his retirement due to medical considerations, ending his storied career that saw him last play for the SCL Tigers in the Swiss NL, where he helped the club avoid relegation.
  • A stunning goal from 32-year-old defenseman Miks Indrašis sent the home crowd in Riga into a frenzy earlier this summer, lifting Latvia to an upset victory over heavily-favored Sweden in the quarterfinals of the IIHF Men’s World Championships, one of the biggest wins in the history of Latvian hockey. Now, Indrašis is headed to the country he upset to continue his pro career. He’s signed a one-year contract with Brynäs IF in HockeyAllsvenskan, the second tier of Swedish hockey. Indrašis is a lanky six-foot-four blueliner who scored 29 points in 53 games for the DEL’s Schwenningen Wild Wings and is likely to play a regular role for Brynäs during what will be his first campaign playing in Scandinavia.
  • 2007 Nashville Predators second-round pick and former ECHL Kelly Cup Playoffs MVP Jeremy Smith has signed a three-year contract extension to remain with the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star through his age-36 season.  The American netminder has played for Kunlun since 2019-20 and is the franchise’s all-time leader in wins and saves. Smith represented China at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and is coming off of a strong bounce-back season as Kunlun’s number-one goalie, posting an impressive .914 save percentage despite a grisly 10-24-2 overall record.
  • Veteran DEL defenseman Jonas Müller, a regular representative of Germany in IIHF play, has signed an early four-year contract extension to remain with his club Eisbären Berlin. Although Berlin endured a difficult 2022-23 season, Müller ended his campaign on a highly positive note as he played a role in Germany taking home a silver medal at the 2023 IIHF Men’s World Championships. Müller also has a silver medal from the 2018 Winter Olympics and despite being just 27 years old already has over 400 DEL games on his resume and two league championships. Müller averaged the most nightly minutes of any Berlin player and this contract ensures he’ll be the team’s defensive centerpiece moving forward.
  • Former Montreal Canadiens prospect Martin Réway finished his 2022-23 campaign on a high note, scoring 12 points in 13 playoff games for Slovakia’s HK Spisska Nova Ves. Per a social media announcement from the club, Réway has signed a contract for next season with HK 32 Liptovský Mikuláš. Réway, 28, was a 2013 fourth-round pick who starred in the QMJHL but only managed five games playing in the AHL for the Canadiens’ affiliate. Réway’s last few years have been among the most productive in his career and this signing with Liptovský Mikuláš will potentially help the club avoid relegation to the second tier of Slovak hockey.

This page may be updated throughout the day.

Josh Ho-Sang Contemplating Retirement

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According to a report in Sport Express, former New York Islanders forward Josh Ho-Sang is reportedly considering retirement and has informed his KHL club, Ufa Salavat Yulaev, that he is still talking to his family about a decision. Ho-Sang was a first-round pick of the Islanders in 2014 and was never able to establish himself as an NHL regular despite possessing a ton of offensive talent.

Ho-Sang signed in the KHL last year with Ufa and in his first game against SKA in September he had an assist. Unfortunately, in that same game, he was injured and missed the remainder of the regular season. He underwent surgery and returned to play in four playoff games, where he went scoreless.

The injury itself isn’t the issue holding up Ho-Sang’s return as according to David Alter of The Hockey News it is possible that Ho-Sang could return to the KHL, but if he were to do this, he would need to become a Russian citizen. While he hasn’t ruled this out, the Thornhill, Ontario native hasn’t said that he has an interest in doing this, which is likely the issue being discussed with his family at the moment.

According to Alter, Ufa Salavat Yulaev has prepared the paperwork for Ho-Sang to become a citizen, should he decide to return to the team this season.

Ho-Sang lasted played in North America with the Toronto Marlies in 2021-22. During his time in the AHL with Toronto, he posted 16 goals and 19 assists in 47 games.

Philadelphia Flyers Submit Ivan Fedotov’s Contract Should Be Tolled

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TSN hockey insider Darren Dreger is reporting that the Philadelphia Flyers and the NHL have submitted to the International Ice Hockey Federation that goaltender Ivan Fedotov’s contract with the Flyers should be tolled since he missed this past season to complete military service in Russia. The Flyers along with the league are arguing that because he missed the entire season, the original one-year contract he signed in May 2022 should not be considered expired until next July, since he never fulfilled the agreement. The IIHF is presently considering the submission. The word tolled is a legal term written into many sports contracts that allows for the pausing or delaying of the running of the period of time set forth by a contract.

It’s been quite the saga for the 26-year-old netminder that began over a year ago. Fedotov was arrested in Russia two months after signing his contract with the Flyers. He served a year of military service and on June 14th of this year, the Flyers announced that the one-year deal would be applied this upcoming season and they would retain his NHL rights. Shortly after that in early July, the KHL announced a two-year deal for the netminder with CSKA that was recognized by the league because they believed that Fedotov did not have a valid and binding contract with an NHL club for next year.

While Fedotov is stuck between two leagues wondering what his future will be, CAA Sports’ JP Barry issued a statement today saying that he had spoken with Fedotov and that the young netminder would abide by the IIHF’s ruling that will decide which of the two contracts is valid. It’s an unusual and difficult situation for a player that has said that he just wants to get back to playing hockey. Fedotov has stated publicly that he was able to play hockey twice a week during his military service, but that the hockey in the army wasn’t very good. Fedotov has also defended his decision to sign was CSKA saying that they are a top club and would give him an opportunity to return to form before fulfilling his dream of playing in the NHL.

From the Flyers’ perspective, they would obviously welcome the addition of Fedotov to their goaltending depth chart. The club made Fedotov their seventh-round pick back in 2015, and while it has been almost a decade since they drafted him, they’d seen enough from him to warrant an entry-level contract last year. Now, the Flyers and the league are in a battle that could set a precedent going forward since the KHL and NHL don’t currently have any kind of Memorandum of Understanding. The two leagues did have such an agreement up until last year which kept teams from poaching signed players out of the other league, however, the NHL suspended the agreement.

Minor Transactions: 07/28/23

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Today’s been quite a busy day for player movement around the world of pro hockey, as numerous teams in the many pro leagues are looking to secure quality players for next season. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable moves made in those minor and foreign leagues.

  • Minor-league goalie Dylan Ferguson got his first real shot in the NHL last season, starting two games for the Ottawa Senators in March and posting a .940 save percentage. But despite that significant career achievement, Ferguson only played in a total of 15 games in 2022-23, and now he’s headed overseas likely with the hope of seeing more consistent time in the crease. He’s signed a contract with Dynamo Minsk in the KHL, where he will likely battle Philadelphia Flyers prospect Alexei Kolosov for starts next season.
  • Former AHL netminder Jussi Olkinoura has collected quite a few team accomplishments in his playing career such as a Champions Hockey League title, an Olympic gold medal, and two World Championship golds. 2022-23 wasn’t his best year, though, as his club team, Brynäs IF, were relegated from the SHL to Sweden’s second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan. Olkinoura, 32, won’t remain with Brynäs as they seek promotion, as he’s signed a contract with the Lahti Pelicans of the Finnish Liiga. Olkinoura has played with the Pelicans before, posting a .910 save percentage in 39 games as their number-one starter in 2018-19. Despite making it all the way to Liiga’s finals the Pelicans were in need of a new starting goalie as their previous one, Patrik Bartošák, signed a two-year deal in Czechia. Now Olkinoura will join 23-year-old Jasper Patrikainen (.905 save percentage in 30 games in 2022-23) to form the Pelicans’ goalie tandem.
  • 2008 second-round pick and former Hobey Baker Award finalist Danny Kristo has signed with the EIHL’s Coventry Blaze. The contract completes a transfer from the Sheffield Steelers, an EIHL rival of the Blaze for whom Kristo played the 2022-23 campaign. Although the 33-year-old Minnesota native translated his scoring as a college hockey star at the University of North Dakota to the AHL level (he hit 20 goals in the AHL in three consecutive seasons from 2013-14 to 2015-16) he couldn’t quite do enough to break into the NHL, and he left to play overseas in late 2017. Kristo has since played in Latvia, Sweden, Switzerland, China, Germany, Czechia, and Slovakia, and has now settled in as a quality scorer in the United Kingdom’s top pro league. Kristo scored 12 goals and 30 points for the Steelers last season and will now head to Coventry hoping to help them make a more convincing run in the league’s playoffs.
  • Longtime minor league veteran Colton Saucerman’s return to North America proved to be short-lived, as the 31-year-old right-shot defenseman has signed a contract in England with Sheffield. After featuring in the ECHL since late 2016 and earning 41 total AHL games, Saucerman left for Europe in 2020 to sign with Austria’s HC Innsbruck of the ICEHL. He played well in Austria and earned a deal with HC Kosice in Slovakia, where he would also put together a strong campaign. That got him an ECHL contract with the Allen Americans for 2022-23, and he led their blueliners in scoring with 38 points in 63 games. Now, Saucerman is headed to England for the first time in his career to likely play a significant role on the Steelers’ defense.
  • Former San Jose Sharks netminder Alexei Melnichuk has signed a one-year contract with the KHL’s Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, the club he was traded to a little over a week ago. Melnichuk, 25, is an undrafted netminder who signed with the Sharks in 2020 and ended up playing nearly 50 games in the AHL for the San Jose Barracuda. He could only manage a .867 save percentage across that sample size in the AHL, meaning he eventually was sent down to the ECHL before heading back to Russia for 2022-23. Melnichuk played bounced between three KHL clubs last season and with this signing he’ll get the chance to fight for some stability, as he’ll battle with former New York Rangers netminder Adam Huska and incumbent starter Ivan Kulbakov (.926 save percentage in 42 KHL games in 2022-23) for time in the crease for Torpedo.
  • Former Quinnipac University blueliner and Sharks 2015 fifth-round pick Kārlis Čukste has signed a one-year contract to play in HockeyAllsvenskan with Brynäs IF. Čukste is fresh off of representing his home country of Latvia at the 2023 IIHF Men’s World Championships, helping them on a historic run that earned the hockey-mad country their best-ever performance. The six-foot-three 26-year-old stay-at-home defenseman is entering the fourth season of his professional career, and spent last year earning regular minutes for HC Oceláři Třinec in the Czech Extraliga. Čukste also brings experience from Liiga, the KHL, AHL, and ECHL to the table and will hope to help Brynäs fend off other top HockeyAllsvenskan clubs such as Djurgårdens IF to earn instant promotion back to the SHL.
  • Danish international Niklas Andersen, who has represented his home country at two IIHF Men’s World Championships, has left the Fischtown Pinguins to sign with a rival DEL club, the Augsburg Panthers. The 25-year-old forward was a high scorer in two consecutive seasons in the Danish league for Esbjerg before earning his first shot in the DEL with Fischtown. Andersen’s debut season in Germany was exceptional, as he scored 14 goals and 27 points in just 34 games. He’s not matched that total in the past two seasons, though, scoring 11 goals and 22 points in 52 games in 2021-22 and 11 goals and 20 points in 41 games last season. With this signing, he joins an Augsburg team in need of competent veteran talent, as they only narrowly avoided relegation in 2022-23.
  • Recently-promoted Slovak Extraliga side HC 19 Humenne have signed former Colorado Avalanche prospect and four-time KHL All-Star Denis Parshin to a deal for the 2022-23 season. Parshin, 37, brings 658 games of KHL experience to the table as well as experience representing Russia in international play. He’s played 82 total games in the Slovak league across three different seasons, all for HC Kosice, including 2022-23 when he scored 28 points in 34 games.
  • Physical center James Phelan racked up over 100 penalty minutes in 62 ECHL games for the Trois-Rivières Lions last season, and now he’s headed to Scotland to continue his pro career. He’s signed with the Dundee Stars in the EIHL, bringing nearly 100 games of ECHL experience as well as 47 career AHL games. Phelan hasn’t been much of a scorer at the pro level, but the 26-year-old plays with an edge and has some history of scoring from his days playing major junior hockey in the QMJHL.
  • Liiga’s KalPa Kuopio have re-signed two regulars from 2022-23 to their 2023-24 roster: Matyáš Kantner and Anton Karlsson. Karlsson, 30, is a former AHLer with the Cleveland Monsters who logged 49 games for KalPa last season. He’s a former everyday SHLer who ranked eighth among KalPa blueliners averaging 13:41 TOI per game last season. Kantner, 25, is a big winger who transferred mid-season from the Czech Extraliga and scored nine points in 17 regular-season games and three points in KalPa’s playoff series loss to the Pelicans.
  • A three-player trade was completed in the ECHL today, with the Tulsa Oilers acquiring Max Kaufman and Tristan Thompson from the Savannah Ghost Pirates in exchange for Alex Gilmour. Gilmour, 27, is a six-foot-five power forward who scored 16 goals and 40 points for Tulsa as an ECHL rookie in 2021-22 but struggled as a sophomore and only scored 18 points in 56 games. The hope for Savannah will be that a change of scenery will unlock the potential Gilmour flashed as a rookie, while in exchange for him Tulsa is adding Kaufman, 27, a former Boston University Terrier who scored 20 points in 57 games last season, and Thompson, 26, an undersized offensive defenseman who led Ghost Pirates defensemen in scoring as a sophomore player with 42 points in 72 games.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Snapshots: Comtois, Johnson, Hockey Canada

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Max Comtois remains unsigned nearly four weeks into free agency after being non-tendered by Anaheim who opted not to give him a $2.445MM qualifying offer.  Speaking with TVA Sports’ Louis Butcher, the 24-year-old called the parting of ways a mutual decision.  Back in 2021-22, Comtois looked to have a breakout year, picking up 16 goals and 17 assists in 55 games but has struggled offensively since then, tallying just 15 goals and 20 helpers in 116 contests over the last two years.

Despite the struggles, Comtois revealed that a handful of teams have shown interest in him thus far, giving him confidence that he’ll have a place to play when training camps open up in mid-September.  While he wouldn’t reveal which ones have shown interest, he did indicate that his hometown Canadiens are not among the teams that have reached out to his camp to express any interest in signing him.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • Free agent winger Luke Johnson has decided to try his hand overseas as Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL announced they’ve signed the 28-year-old to a one-year deal. Johnson, a veteran of 32 NHL games dating back to 2018-19, has spent most of his professional career in the minors, suiting up in 333 AHL contests.  That plus his NHL time now qualifies him for veteran status in the AHL – teams are capped with how many veteran-status players they can dress per game – so it’s not entirely surprising to see Johnson look elsewhere.  Last season, he had 18 points in 67 games with San Jose’s farm team.
  • Hockey Canada didn’t hold an in-person summer evaluation camp as they often do but they revealed the list of players that took part in their virtual meetings. The majority of the 45 players on the list have already been drafted while 2024 top prospect Macklin Celebrini is also on there.  Canada’s roster in the December World Juniors will likely be comprised of many players on this list.

Avalanche Sign, Loan Nikolai Kovalenko

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Jul 26: After officially signing him to a two-year entry-level contract worth $896,250 per season yesterday, CapFriendly confirms Colorado has loaned Kovalenko back to Torpedo for next season.

Jul 22: It appears that Colorado will soon be signing one of their prospects.  Torpedo of the KHL announced on their Twitter account that the Avalanche will be signing winger Nikolai Kovalenko to an entry-level contract but will loan him back to Torpedo for the upcoming season.

The 23-year-old was a sixth-round pick of the Avs back in 2018 (171st overall) and has certainly outperformed his draft stock since then.  Last season, he had a breakout year in his first season with Torpedo, notching 21 goals and 33 assists in 56 games.  For context, his previous career best in points in the KHL was 21.  That performance put him third in the league in points per game.

That performance appears to have landed Kovalenko on the NHL radar.  His contract will be a two-year agreement, meaning he’ll be able to suit up full time in North America in 2024-25 or when his KHL playoffs come to an end this season.  The KHL regular season ends in late February so it’s quite possible that Kovalenko will be available to Colorado late in the 2023-24 campaign.

If he’s able to have a repeat of his 2022-23 performance next year, Kovalenko could be an interesting addition to the Avs down the stretch this coming year, giving them a low-cost addition to their forward group where he’d likely start in their bottom six.  Regardless of whether he suits up for the Avalanche next season, his contract will count against their limit of 50.

Minor Transactions: 07/26/23

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Today’s been quite a busy day for player movement around the world of pro hockey, as numerous teams in the many pro leagues are looking to secure quality players for next season. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable moves made in those minor and foreign leagues.

  • Michael Frolík, the 2006 10th overall pick and a veteran of over 850 NHL games has signed with Rytíři Kladno, his hometown team in the Czech Extraliga. This is the second longtime NHL player who has secured his place in Kladno for next season this week, as captain Tomáš Plekanec re-signed with the club on July 24th. Frolík, now 35, last played in North America on a PTO with the St. Louis Blues, though he ultimately failed to make the team in St. Louis and chose to sign with Lausanne in the Swiss National League. This past season Frolík made the move to his home country in Czechia, and ended up scoring 24 points in 48 games for Bílí Tygři Liberec. Now, he’ll join Plekanec as an expected top player for his hometown team in Kladno.
  • 182-game NHL veteran Michael Chaput, a longtime NHL-AHL tweener, has had his contract terminated with his KHL club, Kazakhstan’s Barys Astana. Chaput wasn’t available for most of 2022-23, meaning he only played in 10 games in the KHL, scoring three goals. It was his first campaign overseas after a long pro career in the NHL and AHL, and as recently as 2021-22 Chaput was a productive AHLer. He scored 33 points in 57 games for the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins that year and could potentially return to the AHL now that he’s a free agent.
  • Yesterday, the defending Calder Cup champion Hershey Bears signed a top-scoring ECHL rookie to a one-year AHL contract. The team signed 25-year-old former Yale University and UConn center Kevin O’Neil, rewarding him with an AHL contract after he scored 50 points in 53 games for their ECHL affiliate, the South Carolina Stingrays. The five-foot-eleven center was never all that productive playing college hockey (he scored 60 points in 130 career games) but ever since making his pro debut he’s been on a roll. He got a ten-game cameo late last season with the Stingrays and scored 10 points, and now has scored at a near point-per-game rate his rookie year while also earning two AHL call-ups. The real test for this fall will be seeing if he can push for a more regular spot in the AHL with Hershey, and now with this contract he’ll have the chance to do just that.
  • The AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms, affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers, signed former UConn and Notre Dame captain Adam Karashik to a one-year AHL contract extension, securing his place with the team for 2023-24. 2022-23 was Karashik’s first full season as a professional hockey player, and although he began in the ECHL by the time he was called up to Lehigh Valley in early January he didn’t look back. Karashik was a regular in the Phantoms’ lineup for both February and March, and ended his season with 23 games played in the AHL. This extension gives Karashik the chance to continue establishing himself as a regular at the AHL level.
  • The Rochester Americans, AHL affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres, have signed ECHL defenseman Brandon Fortunato to a one-year AHL contract. Fortunato, 27, spent last season with the ECHL’s Jacksonville IceMen, scoring 23 points in 48 games. Fortunato in total has played in over 130 ECHL games and has played in 23 AHL games, though the most recent were in 2021-22.
  • 28-year-old winger Jimmy Soper successfully worked his way from the fourth-tier SPHL to the ECHL in 2021-22, going from 22 points in 47 games with the SPHL’s Macon Mayhem to an impressive 43 points in 69 games with the ECHL’s Tulsa Oilers. Although Soper’s time in Tulsa ended last season via a trade to the Rapid City Rush, Soper played well enough to secure his spot in the ECHL for next season. He’s signed a one-year contract extension with the Rush after scoring 19 points in 28 games there, and now based on how productive he’s been in the ECHL over the past two seasons it seems he may have put the SPHL firmly in the past of his career.
  • St. Cloud State defenseman Ondřej Trejbal is turning pro, having finished his four-year career in college hockey. The 24-year-old Czech blueliner will bring some size (six-foot-three) and nearly 130 games of NCAA experience to his first pro destination: Liiga’s SaiPa. The club announced a one-year contract for Trejbal containing a trial period until September 2023 as well as a club option to extend the contract through next season as well. It’ll be a major step up in competition level for Trejbal to go from playing college hockey against his peers to Liiga hockey against seasoned professionals, though it’ll also be a major opportunity for him to start his pro career in an exceptional league. The team also announced that Finnish defenseman Atso Lehtinen, who finished 2022-23 with SaiPa but spent most of the season in second-tier Mestis, would not see his tryout period result in a full-time contract.
  • 22-year-old former Erie Otters star Maxim Golod finished his third season as a full-time pro player on a low note, scoring just one point in his final five games. He couldn’t quite build up momentum with the ECHL’s Indy Fuel the same way he did with the Tulsa Oilers, where he scored 43 points in 42 games, and now he’s made the decision to sign in Sweden’s HockeyAllsvenskan rather than return to the ECHL. He’s signed with the Nybro Vikings and the hope will be for him to be a top offensive player just as he was at times in the OHL and ECHL.
  • 29-year-old former ECHL First-Team All-Star Patrick Watling is transferring from Slovakia to the United Kingdom. The center has signed a one-year deal with the EIHL’s Sheffield Steelers, and according to the team release will pursue an MBA degree at a local university while also playing for the Steelers. Watling hasn’t yet played in the EIHL, and 2022-23 was his first as an overseas pro player, but given the fact that he was relatively productive in Slovakia (30 points in 34 games across two teams) and scored a whopping 77 points in 55 games for the Wheeling Nailers in his most recent AHL season, he’ll be a likely candidate to compete for the scoring lead for the Steelers.

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Minor Transactions: 07/25/23

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

Although NHL news has predictably slowed at this point in the offseason, there is still quite a bit of player movement activity in the wider world of professional hockey. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable moves from minor leagues and foreign professional leagues across the world.

  • On July 19th, it was announced that former San Jose Sharks prospect Marcus Vela would be leaving MoDo Hockey Ornskoldsvik rather than remain with the team for its first season back in the SHL. Today we learned where Vela’s next stop will be: Slovakia. The 26-year-old has signed with HC Banska Bystrica of the Slovak Tipos Extraliga. He’s the third forward native to British Columbia that the club have added this summer, joining Swiss second-division point-per-game scorer Matt Wilkins and former UConn Huskies captain Carter Turnbull. Vela split last season between two HockeyAllsvenskan clubs, MoDo and Vasterviks IK, acquitting himself well in his first season in Europe scoring 29 points in 46 games.
  • Former Carolina Hurricanes prospect Max Zimmer will not return to the ICEHL’s Vienna Capitals after an extremely successful first season with the club. The 25-year-old 2016 fourth-round pick scored 28 goals and 53 points in 48 regular-season games in the Austrian capital, as well as nine points in seven playoff games. The year before, Zimmer had scored 19 goals and 40 points in 48 games for the ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits, and earned his most meaningful AHL experience yet: 14 games with the Charlotte Checkers. Despite the Capitals’ best efforts to secure an agreement on a contract extension, the four-season Wisconsin Badger could now be headed back to North America or perhaps another ICEHL club for his next campaign.
  • 20-year-old Swedish defenseman Fred Nilsson has signed a try-out contract with the SHL’s Leksands IF, earning a chance to compete for a regular role with the club. 2022-23 was Nilsson’s first as a full-time pro hockey player, and he played a total of 48 games for Kristianstads IK, a club that ended their season relegated to third-tier HockeyEttan. Nilsson was the number-six defenseman for Kristianstads last season, averaging 14:48 time on ice per game. That usage doesn’t exactly suggest he’s ready for a full-time role in Sweden’s top division with Leksands, though he’ll nonetheless receive the opportunity to prove himself in the lead-up to the start of the club’s regular season.
  • 2018 Winnipeg Jets draft pick Austin Wong has signed a three-year contract with the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star. The 22-year-old pivot played a total of 83 games across three seasons for Harvard University, registering 15 points. Wong’s most recent season was his most challenging yet, at least offensively speaking, as he only generated one point in 30 games. Wong has shown some flashes of offense before, such as when he scored 15 goals for the Fargo Force in the USHL in 2020-21, but the offense has failed to materialize at the college level. According to CapFriendly, the Jets retain the exclusive rights to sign Wong, who was ranked 174th among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting in his draft year, until August 2024. Given Wong’s lack of development in college and this three-year KHL deal, there is effectively zero chance the Jets will sign Wong, though.
  •  25-year-old former Michigan Tech forward Tommy Parrottino had a strong first season as a professional hockey player in the ECHL, scoring 23 goals and 39 points in 66 games for the Iowa Heartlanders. Rather than continue in the North American third-tier league, Parrottino has made the choice to instead head overseas and sign with the EIHL’s Dundee Stars. Parrottino, the second-overall pick in the 2016 USHL Entry Draft, is the second quality ECHL scorer the Stars have imported in the past few days, as the team also signed Carter Johnson from the Maine Mariners on the 21st. Dundee won just 13 of 54 games last season and were the worst team in the EIHL standings, meaning they’ll hope the additions of Parrottino, Johnson, and other quality ECHL players can make them a more competitive outfit for 2023-24.
  • Niklas Würschl played full-time in the ICEHL for the first time this past season, skating in a total of 48 games for the Vienna Capitals across regular-season and playoff play. The 23-year-old blueliner didn’t exactly produce much, scoring three points in a limited role, but did show himself to be capable of handling the rigors of ICEHL action. Now, he’s changed teams, signing with Austrian rivals Black Wings Linz. Former ECHL All-Star Matt Murphy left Linz to sign in Slovakia while blueline regular Ramón Schnetzer signed in Switzerland, leaving Linz with a need to add to their back end. They’ve added a quality ICEHL prospect in Würschl, who has a chance to see regular minutes for the team next season and further establish himself in his native Austria’s top pro league.
  • Although 27-year-old netminder Claes Endre has struggled quite a bit since his stellar 2020-21 campaign as the number-one goalie for HockeyAllsvenskan side AIK, he’s earned another contract in Sweden’s second division. He’s signed with Södertälje SK, a team needing to add a goalie as star starter Nikita Tolopilo departed via a contract with the Vancouver Canucks. Endre will form a tandem with 28-year-old American Tomas Sholl, a former ECHL Goalie of the Year with the Idaho Steelheads who posted a 68-20-9 record and .930 save percentage across 99 career games in North America’s third-tier league. Sholl presumably has the upper hand given the success he’s found not only in the ECHL but also in the ICEHL over the past two seasons, (.923 save percentage in 84 total games for Italy’s HC Pustertal) though Endre does have the advantage of having prior experience in the Allsvenskan. Although Endre’s return to AIK did not yield the same results as he had in 2020-21 (he posted a .915 save percentage in 41 games that year, but a .891 this past season) Södertälje are likely hoping his competition with Sholl for starts will provide a strong environment for Endre to succeed.

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