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Shane Prince Signs In KHL

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Despite the announcement that he would be returning to North America after his recent contract termination in Switzerland, veteran forward Shane Prince has instead signed with Sibir Novosibirsk in the KHL. The former New York Islanders player will spend the rest of the season with his new club, after which he could once again pursue opportunities back in North America.

Prince, 26, became an unrestricted free agent in the most recent offseason after not receiving a qualifying offer from the Islanders, and decided to take his talents overseas. After signing a two-year contract with HC Davos in the NLA, he recorded six points in 16 games before requesting his release. The team granted it and terminated his contract to allow him the opportunity to return to North America, something that clearly has not happened. After the season with Sibir, he will once again be an unrestricted free agent.

Once a promising prospect in the Ottawa Senators program, Prince failed to translate his huge minor league offense into much at the NHL level and was routinely bounced between the two levels. His career high came in 2016-17 with the Islanders when he registered 18 points in 50 games, but still couldn’t find much consistent playing time. After an injury plagued 2017-18 campaign, the team bid him farewell instead of risking salary arbitration.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Snapshots: Martinsson, Kovar, Niagara

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Eric Martinsson’s days with the Minnesota Wild seem to be numbered, but he’s not likely to be too upset about it. Swedish new source “Hockey News SE” reports that the Martinsson and the Wild have come to a mutual agreement that the recent free agent signing is to be placed on unconditional waivers in the near future for the purpose of terminating his contract. Martinsson, 26, signed with Minnesota back in May, looking to make the jump overseas after a successful stretch in the Swedish Hockey League with the Vaxjo Lakers. Instead of earning a spot on the NHL roster, Martinsson was in fact a relatively early cut from training camp. While the puck-moving blue liner has nine points through 13 games with the AHL’s Iowa Wild, he seems no closer to pushing for a chance in Minnesota than he did before the season began. As such, Martinsson would like to return home to Sweden and the Wild are expected to oblige him. Eric Martinsson is just the latest in a stream of players departing the North American minors to return to Europe this season, although Hockey New SE speculates that Martinsson’s return will be of considerable interest to many teams in the SHL.

  • Veteran forward Jan Kovar is also pondering a return to Europe. Kovar signed with the New York Islanders this summer after years of success in the KHL and in his native Czech Republic. Kovar was expected to not only compete for a job with the Isles, but potentially even center a scoring line. Instead, Kovar proved to be a poor fit with the team in camp and did not crack the starting lineup. His contract was quickly terminated, but in holding out hope for another NHL opportunity, he signed with the AHL’s Providence Bruins. Kovar has nine points in ten games with Providence, while their parent club, the Boston Bruins, have struggled with injuries and consistency, but no contract offer seems to be coming. The Providence Journal’s Mark Divver now reports that Kovar has not practiced with the team in two days and is supposedly weighing overseas contract offers. Divver believes that Kovar has offers in the KHL and NLA, as well as back home in the Czech Republic, but no such opportunities in North America. Divver additionally questions whether Kovar plays with the requisite pace to succeed in the NHL, a criticism that has come up frequently during his brief efforts this season.
  • Less than 25 games into the season doesn’t seem to be too early for a blockbuster trade in the Ontario Hockey League. The Kingston Frontenacs, with just seven win thus far the second-worst record in the league, have cashed in on two of their best assets. The Niagara Ice Dogs announced today that they have acquired Jason Robertson and Jacob Paquette from Kingston. Robertson, a second-round pick of the Dallas Stars in 2017, has back-to-back 80+ point seasons and is currently fourth among OHL scoring leaders with 38 points and second in goals with 23. Paquette, a seventh-round pick of the Nashville Predators in 2017, is a big, physical defender and a locker room leader as well. Niagara is currently tied for second in the Central Division and tied for sixth overall in the league, but will almost certainly see a considerable boost from this trade. Yet, Kingston also received a king’s ransom in the deal. The Ice Dogs surrendered a total of eleven future draft picks, including three second-rounders and three third-rounders, as well as promising draft-eligible defenseman Billy Constantinou and forward Ian Martin. The Frontenacs may have disappointed their fans by virtually giving up on the season less than halfway in, but will reward them with a solid flow of talent for years to come.

Kristian Vesalainen Recalled By Winnipeg Jets

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November 20: Vesalainen has been reassigned to the Manitoba Moose once again, meaning he will likely use his contract clause to return to Finland and join the KHL.  It’s an extremely tough situation for the Jets, who obviously want him to remain in North America if possible.

November 16:  With reports surfacing that Kristian Vesalainen was set to leave the minor leagues and go back to the KHL after his rights were acquired this week by Jokerit, the Winnipeg Jets instead have recalled him from the AHL. It’s not completely clear if Vesalainen forced the recall with a threat of exercising his contract clause, but he’ll be in the NHL either way for the time being.

The Jets now find themselves in something of a predicament. Vesalainen can exercise the assignment clause at any point if they try to send him back to the minor leagues, but if he’s not ready to play on a full-time basis they risk wasting a year of his development just sitting him in the NHL press box. It’s clear they don’t want him returning to the KHL at the moment, but it’s hard to imagine they’d keep him on the sidelines for very long. After all, the 19-year old forward is a huge part of the Jets future after selecting him 24th overall in 2017 and already giving him his NHL debut this season. He recorded one point in that five-game NHL stint, and has eight in eight with the Manitoba Moose.

A strong, skilled forward, Vesalainen has already dominated the Finnish league and could do the same to the KHL if given the chance. Jokerit is also an excellent program, and is off to a great start this season at 18-5-3. The problem the Jets may see is that a team as strong as Jokerit might not give Vesalainen extensive ice time, especially if they know he won’t be back the following season. For now, the young forward will be in the NHL, but this is a story to follow closely in the coming days.

Snapshots: Team Canada, Rieder, Vesalainen

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The World Junior Championship is just over a month away, and the selection camp for Team Canada will begin on December 10th in Victoria, British Columbia. That camp will decide who takes part in the top junior tournament in the world, and there are already projections being made on who will be attending. Sam Cosentino of Sportsnet breaks down who he believes will be there battling for roster spots, and the group includes plenty of already drafted NHL prospects. Evan Bouchard (Oilers), Noah Dobson (Islanders) and Ty Smith (Devils) highlight an impressive blue line, while Alex Formenton (Senators), Cody Glass (Golden Knights) and Morgan Frost (Flyers) appear in a forward group that is going to have to cut some extremely talented prospects.

Perhaps most notably is the appearance of Alexis Lafreniere, who isn’t eligible for selection until 2020 but is the early favorite to go first overall. Even though he only turned 17 last month, Lafreniere already has 54 goals and 116 points in 81 regular season QMJHL games. Players as young as him often get left out of tournaments like this given they’ll have other chances in the future, but the Canadian brain trust may just have to bring him along like they have other exceptional talents in the past.

Overseas Notes: Merzlikins, Everberg, Bartulis, Boychuk

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The Columbus Blue Jackets will apparently have another name to consider in net next season. The Swiss Hockey News reports that young goaltender Elvis Merzlikins is expected to make the jump to North America next year. Merzlikins, 24, was Columbus’ third-round pick in 2014 and has been a standout member of the NLA’s HC Lugano ever since. The Latvian keeper took over Lugano’s starting job in 2015-16 at just 20 years old and has performed admirably. So far this year, he has been especially impressive; though 16 appearances, Merzlikins holds a .932 save percentage and a 2.19 goals against average. Fortunately for him, Merzlikins is in the final year of his NLA contract and is reportedly bound for the next level once it expires. Given his impressive performance, Merzlikins is likely to compete for the starting role with the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters and push for NHL appearances. With only Joonas Korpisalo and untested Matiss Kivlenieks under team control beyond this season, the Blue Jackets face questions in net moving forward and hope Merzlikins could potentially provide some answers.

  • The Swiss Hockey News also relays the news that Dennis Everberg has quickly found a new home. Everberg cleared unconditional waivers and had his contract with the Winnipeg Jets terminated only this morning, but clearly had a new opportunity lined up. Everberg has signed with EV Zug of the NLA, with whom he is surely going to take a much larger role than he had relegated to the minors with Winnipeg. Ironically, Zug was in search of a top forward after another former NHL forward, Viktor Stalberg, departed the team for the KHL’s Avangard Omsk last month.
  • Oskars Bartulis continues to make the most of his post-NHL career. A third-round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers back in 2005, Bartulis played in 66 games with the team but could never quite stand out. After spending much of his time in North America down in the AHL, Bartulis returned to Europe in 2012. Almost immediately, he began establishing himself as one of the top shutdown defenders in the KHL. Even thouhg his play has tailed off somewhat, Bartulis spent the last three years as the captain of Admiral Vladivostok and is still well-respected in the league. When he did not sign a new contract this off-season, there were questions about whether he was done. Yet, he’s back for another season at the age of 31. The KHL reports that Bartulis has signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Kunlun Red Star and should fit in well on a roster that is chock full of talented former NHLers.
  • On the other end of the spectrum, former top NHL prospect Zach Boychuk has been released from his contract with the KHL’s Severstal Cherepovets. Boychuk had been disappointing this year, with just four points in 25 games. In his first season with Severstal, the team was not willing to wait any longer to see if his play improved. The long-time Carolina Hurricane has been overseas for three years now and was very effective just last season with HC Slovan Bratislava. It remains to be seen what the next step is in the career of the capable forward.

Snapshots: Boeser, Kaprizov, Europe

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The Vancouver Canucks have sent Brock Boeser back to Vancouver to see a specialist about his groin injury, and will not play tomorrow night against the Boston Bruins according to Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet. The move is precautionary in nature, but the Canucks cannot risk further injury to one of their star players after surprising the league with such a hot start. The team is currently on a six game road trip that will end in Boeser’s home state of Minnesota a week from today.

Vancouver is currently tied for the lead in the Pacific Division despite having played one more game than the San Jose Sharks, and will continue to try and ride a hot Elias Pettersson towards at least a wild card spot. Boeser is the obvious complement to Pettersson up front, but after a serious injury ended his 2017-18 season and already missing three games earlier this year with the groin issue, the team can’t afford to rush him back again. Even with their surprise performance through the first month of the season, GM Jim Benning and the entire organization has to worry about the future and how to get a healthy and productive Boeser back on the ice.

  • It may have been just GM Paul Fenton that traveled to Russia to speak with prized prospect Kirill Kaprizov, but don’t think the entire Minnesota Wild organization wasn’t keeping close tabs on the meeting. According to Michael Russo of The Athletic (subscription required), Wild owner Craig Leipold wanted to accompany Fenton on the trip but thanks to an injured hip could only send a personal letter, written in Russian. Though the young forward is still under contract in the KHL until 2020, Fenton told Leipold that he thinks Kaprizov “would come right now if he could.” The Wild are still a long way from knowing for sure if they can pencil the dynamic forward into their 2020-21 lineup, but this meeting—and the letter—seem to have at least moved the conversation in the right direction.
  • Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic caught up with Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly on TSN radio today, and was told that it is “inevitable” that there will eventually be NHL teams in Europe. The league has worked hard to expand their brand overseas in recent years, including the Global Series games that have seen NHL teams play regular season matches on foreign soil (or ice, as it were). The KHL has already expanded outside of Russia and into several other countries including China, Finland and Slovakia, meaning the NHL would have a fight on their hands if they wanted to put down roots in any of those markets.

Vancouver Canucks Not Closing Door On Nikita Tryamkin

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In the spring of 2017, just after the Vancouver Canucks finished a disappointing season at 30-43-9 and had fired their head coach Willie Desjardins. The team had plenty to be excited about though, as they’d flipped some assets at the deadline for young forwards Nikolay Goldobin and Jonathan Dahlen while signing Brock Boeser out of the college ranks and seeing him excel right away. The team also had three young talents on defense that were showing promise, in Troy Stecher, Ben Hutton and Nikita Tryamkin. Unfortunately, the latter decided to return to Russia and the KHL after his first full NHL season and has been there ever since.

Now 24, Tryamkin is in the midst of his second season with his hometown Yekaterinburg since returning to the KHL, and is continuing his development. After averaging more than 21 minutes a night last season, his numbers have dropped to a still-repsectible 19 minutes on average. The massive 6’7″ defenseman has just three points on the season, but is still a very interesting player for the Canucks to keep an eye on. Though Tryamkin is signed until 2020 in the KHL, Vancouver GM Jim Benning told Sportsnet radio this morning that they are still hoping he returns to North America at some point and “have not closed that door.”

The Canucks are a team on the rise now, and may be even more attractive to a player like Tryamkin in the 2020-21 season. By then, Chris Tanev, Michael Del Zotto and Alexander Edler will have already reached unrestricted free agency and may not be around, while the team should be very competitive in the Western Conference. The team does still have young defensemen Olli Juolevi and Quinn Hughes on the way, but there will still likely be room for the hulking Russian somewhere on the blue line. Tryamkin’s size and skating ability make him a unique type of player, one that could balance out what should be a very skilled defense corps in a few years.

Paul Fenton To Meet With Kirill Kaprizov In Russia

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One of the biggest question marks surrounding the Minnesota Wild after they fired former GM Chuck Fletcher, was what would happen with prized—but distant—prospect Kirill Kaprizov. Kaprizov has been playing in the KHL since being drafted by the Wild in 2015, but had recently made contact with Fletcher and begun to discuss a potential future in the NHL. That progress seemed to have gone out the window and little was reported about the relationship between new GM Paul Fenton and their young Russian star, something that is set to change over the next few days.

According to several reporters including Michael Russo of The Athletic, Fenton will travel tomorrow to Russia to meet with Kaprizov in person, have dinner and watch him play. Obviously this doesn’t mean Kaprizov will be coming to North America right away, given his contract runs until 2020 with CSKA Moscow, but it does at least initiate contact once again between the two sides. There are ways out of KHL contracts, and though that is certainly not imminent, the Wild do see Kaprizov as part of their future. The 21-year old forward is off to another outstanding start in Russia, scoring 10 goals and 17 points in his first 22 games.

Drafting Russian-born players without any prior contact is always a risk given the existence of the KHL, and for Kaprizov it was no different. He fell all the way to the fifth round in the 2015 draft given his small stature and relative obscurity, and infamously didn’t even speak with the Wild for quite some time. It didn’t take long for the whole world to see how talented he was though, as he broke out in the KHL and took home a World Junior silver medal in the 2015-16 season. The U20 captaincy was next for him, as was a 42-point KHL campaign in 2016-17. Last season saw Kaprizov make the move to the more powerful CSKA squad, while also winning an Olympic gold medal and suiting up for Russia at the World Championship.

It’s obvious to see that the undersized forward is one of the most talented players not in the NHL at the moment, and many believe he could be a game-changing talent in the NHL. That’s exactly the kind of player the Wild have been looking for, in order to move them away from a slower defensively-minded team and towards the quicker, skill-based NHL. There’s still lots of work to do, but the fact that Fenton is sitting down with Kaprizov is a start.

Slava Voynov Has Applied For NHL Reinstatement

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Slava Voynov, former Los Angeles Kings defenseman that was suspended because of a domestic abuse case, has been trying to find a way back into the NHL since leaving the KHL after last season. Today, Dennis Bernstein of The Fourth Period and Sirius XM NHL Network Radio tweets that Voynov has indeed applied for reinstatement and passes along a quote from NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly:

We’re in process of an intense factual investigation. I’m not in a position to give timeline. When investigation is done, Commissioner will deal with his application for reinstatement.

Even if Voynov was reinstated, he would likely face a lengthy suspension from the league and would have to convince a team to complete a sign and trade with the Kings. That process may prove even more difficult than the league’s investigation, since it would come with a hailstorm of bad public relations for any team. Voynov is a talented, right-handed defenseman, but was essentially exiled from the NHL in 2014 and doesn’t have any clear suitors in the league yet.

Just because teams haven’t come out and shown their interest, doesn’t mean there isn’t any though. Earlier this summer, Katie Strang of The Athletic detailed in an unlocked story the entire Voynov saga and reported that “multiple NHL teams” have shown some interest. That doesn’t mean that any of them would step up to sign the 28-year old, given the obviously horrendous optics the signing would bring. For now, we’ll just have to wait for the NHL’s investigation to conclude and see if Commissioner Gary Bettman even rules that Voynov is eligible for reinstatement.

Eeli Tolvanen Expected To Stay In North America For Full Season

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After Eeli Tolvanen lit up the KHL as a teenager last season, some expected him to step right into the NHL and not look back. His chance came at the end of the season with the Nashville Predators, but after some struggles in three outings was kept off the playoff roster entirely. Tolvanen would get another chance at training camp this summer, but ended up sent to the Milwaukee Admirals to work on his game at the minor league level. That assignment came with a catch though, as Tolvanen’s entry-level contract has a clause in it which would allow him to return to the KHL after ten AHL games if he so chose.

Tolvanen has now played eight games in the minor leagues and will reach the ten mark this weekend, but isn’t expected to be going anywhere. Pierre LeBrun said as much on the most recent edition of TSN’s Insider Trading, and as Paul Skrbina writes for the Tennessean, Tolvanen this week even told a Finnish radio station outright that he’d be staying in North America.

Obviously things could change over the next few days, but Tolvanen staying in North America is good news for the Predators as it means they’ll have the chance to monitor his development more closely. It also means that they will be able to recall him at a moment’s notice if they feel he’s grown enough to compete at the NHL level, which is likely why he wants to stay close as well. The 19-year old is armed with a wicked shot and excellent offensive instincts, but has to learn how to create more chances for himself instead of just waiting for an opportunity to let a shot fly. He does have five assists (and one goal) in eight minor league games, and continues to take steps towards his eventual NHL ceiling. For now, he’ll stay in the AHL and learn to dominate on North American ice just like he did last season for Jokerit.

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