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Metro Notes: Bowman, Rangers, Lindberg

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This morning, Andy Strickland of Bally Sports Midwest, reports that there may be some mutual interest between front office executive Stan Bowman and the Pittsburgh Penguins. On April 14th, the Penguins fired President of Hockey Operations Brian Burke and General Manager Ron Hextall after a disappointing season.

Bowman, who recently resigned as President of Hockey Operations with the Chicago Blackhawks after the 2021-22 season, has some serious connection to the Penguins organization. His father, legendary coach Scotty Bowman, coached the Penguins to a Stanley Cup victory during the 1991-92 season.

Starting as Director of Hockey Operations with the Blackhawks ahead of the 2005-06 season, Bowman was at the head of all decision-making beginning in the 2009-10 season, when he was named General Manager in Chicago. Under his tenure, the Blackhawks would go on to win three Stanley Cups, and would routinely put on a master class in retooling his roster to stay competitive in the salary cap era.

The major sticking point with not just the Penguins, but any team beginning a relationship with Bowman, is the involvement he had in hiding information about the former video coach Brad Aldrich’s alleged sexual abuse of former player Kyle Beach. The lead investigator at the time, Reid Schar, reported that Bowman’s failure to report the abuse likely led to further abuse of the player.

Other Metro notes:

  • As their season came to an end on Monday night, the New York Rangers have assigned Jonny Brodzinski, Jake Leschyshyn, Libor Hajek, and Louis Domingue to their AHL affiliate Hartford Wolf Pack. Because their services are no longer needed for the year in the NHL, these four will undoubtedly help Hartford compete for the Calder Cup. As things stand currently, Hartford is one win away from knocking out the Providence Bruins, shortly after knocking out the Springfield Thunderbirds in the first round.
  • Seth Rorabaugh of Tribune-Review Sports reports that Penguins prospect Filip Lindberg has signed a contract with TPS of the Finnish Liiga. Lindberg was originally drafted by Pittsburgh at 197th overall in the 2019 NHL draft. Dealing with injuries the last couple of years playing for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, Lindberg finished this year with a 6-11-1 record, posting a .896 SV% and a 3.13 GAA.

 

Minor Transactions: 04/29/23

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It’s potentially the final stand tonight for three NHL teams, with the New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings, and Tampa Bay Lightning each fighting to extend their season one more game. The postseason is also fully underway in several other North American leagues, with several AHL playoff battles already fought earlier today. As these major games get completed, teams in Europe and minor leagues are making roster moves. We’ll keep track of those transactions here.

  • 204-game NHL veteran Brian Gibbons was among the players announced today to be departing the DEL’s ERC Ingolstadt. While Ingolstadt themselves had a memorable campaign (they fell in the finals to Red Bull Munich) Gibbons himself last played in October. He scored a total of four points in just 11 games for Ingolstadt this season, and as a 35-year-old free agent his playing future seems cloudy. Also among those released by Ingolstadt is Tye McGinn, the brother of NHLers Jamie McGinn and Brock McGinn.
  • Former Dallas Stars forward Remi Elie signed a two-year contract with the SHL’s Linkoping HC. The 28-year-old 2013 second-round pick finished his first season across the Atlantic this year, notching 18 points in 32 games for rival SHL side Farjestad BK. Elie is an experienced veteran who flashed some goal-scoring tough with the Syracuse Crunch in the AHL in 2021-22, potting 17 goals in 48 games. Linkoping will hope that version of Elie can appear next season to help them rise from the basement of the SHL standings, where they finished this past year.
  • Liiga’s Tappara Tampere have gotten to work locking up key members of their second-straight championship team, inking starting netminder Christian Heljango to a contract extension. While Heljango’s regular-season save percentage dropped from a .920 last year to a .891 this season, his brilliance in the team’s title run likely erased any worry about a decline. The 26-year-old posted a 12-2 record in the postseason with a .935 save percentage. Now, he’s set to return to Tampere to try to run it back next season.
  • Two former Montreal Canadiens prospects, Martin Reway and Hayden Verbeek, are among the players announced today to not be returning to HK Spisska Nova Ves of the Czech Extraliga. Reway, 28, was a 2013 fourth-round pick who joined the team later in the season, and scored 13 points in 13 regular-season games and 12 points in 13 playoff contests. Verbeek, 25, is an undrafted player who was part of the Canadiens’ 2021 trade for defenseman Jon Merrill and notched 33 points in 44 games in his European professional debut season.
  • Fresh off of a solid performance in his return to European professional hockey, former Boston Bruins prospect Victor Berglund signed a two-year deal with Karpat in Liiga. The 23-year-old 2017 second-rounder earned an entry-level contract (something that is not a given for late-round picks) but couldn’t quite catch on in the AHL. He returned to Europe to play for HIFK Helsinki in the Finnish capital, and scored 20 points in 29 regular-season games.
  • Taylor Leier, a former Philadelphia Flyer, will not return to the DEL’s Straubing Tigers for next season, according to a team announcement. The former WHL champion and AHL All-Star had a strong two-season run with the Tigers, totaling 39 goals and 101 points in 109 games there. At 29 years old, Leier has a lot of his career ahead of him and will now look for a new opportunity in Germany or even in other leagues.

Minor Transactions: 04/28/23

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It’s another busy day in the hockey world, and the respective seasons of four NHL franchises are on the line tonight. The New York Islanders, Florida Panthers, Minnesota Wild, and defending champion Colorado Avalanche are each down in their series hoping to even the playing field and force an all-important Game 7.

Over in Europe, Czechia’s HC Ocelari Trinec captured their fourth-straight Extraliga title in a row. In Sweden, Djurgarden IF kept their dreams of promotion to the SHL alive with a dramatic game-tying goal from Linus Klasen with just two minutes left in regulation. Fredrik Forsberg scored in double overtime to force a Game Seven in their promotion play-off final against MoDo Hockey Ornskoldsvik and erase their 3-1 series deficit. With Djurgarden’s playoff run fueled by starring performances from NHL first-round picks such as Liam Ohgren and Jonathan Lekkerimaki, Game 7 on Sunday will be one to watch.

Teams across the hockey world are seeking to build a team that can create their own signature moments next season, and there have been quite a few transactions as teams attempt to build their rosters for the next campaign. We’ll keep track of those moves here.

  • Former NHL journeyman and AHL All-Star Matt Puempel has signed an extension to remain with his club of the last two seasons, the DEL’s Augsburg Panthers. Puempel, 30, was a 2011 first-round pick whose exceptional AHL scoring numbers never quite managed to translate to the NHL. He went to Europe after 2019-20 and began in the SHL with the Malmo Redhawks, but after struggling there he has played the last two years in Augsburg. He scored 55 points in 69 career DEL games.
  • Alexander Hellnemo, NHL Central Scouting’s top-ranked European goaltender for the 2023 NHL draft, has departed SHL side Skelleftea AIK to sign a two-year contract with league rival Rogle BK. The 19-year-old went undrafted in his first year of eligibility but now lands at the top of central scouting due to an impressive age-19 season. He earned nine games played with one of the SHL’s best teams and posted a .916 save percentage at the J20 Nationell level. Now, he’ll get an opportunity at Rogle to potentially make a push to play even more in Sweden’s top league.
  • Orebro of the SHL have landed a solid player, signing Finnish center Hannes Bjorninen to a two-year deal from Brynas IF, who were relegated to HockeyAllsvenskan. The 27-year-old is a master at the face-off dot, having led Liiga in face-off win percentage three times. He’s a former captain of Liiga’s Lahti Pelicans and has an Olympic gold medal and IIHF World Championship gold and silver medals in his trophy case. He’ll join a squad looking to make an even deeper run for an SHL championship next year after this season reaching the semifinals.
  • 2023 draft prospect Bennet Rossmy, Central Scouting’s 126th-ranked European skater, has signed with the DEL’s Dusseldorfer EG, leaving his club of this past season the Berlin Polar Bears. Like Hellnemo, the 19-year-old went undrafted in his first year of eligibility but offers intriguing six-foot-three size. This season’s DEL Rookie of the Year scored four points in 39 games for Berlin, having a personally successful season despite the fact that Berlin themselves disappointed, as they failed to make the playoffs despite winning it all last season.
  • 33-year-old Johan Persson will extend his prolific run of goal-scoring at Mora IK in HockeyAllsvenskan for a few more years. Per a team announcement, Persson has signed a two-year contract extension to remain with Mora. Persson helped Timra IK earn promotion to the SHL in 2017-18 and has been a leading goal scorer for the last four seasons for Mora. He’s led HockeyAllsvenskan in goal scoring the past two seasons and has scored 59 goals and 103 points in his last 102 games in Sweden’s second division.
  • Tyler Morley, a well-traveled top scorer in multiple European pro leagues is now headed to Switzerland for the first time in his career. Switzerland’s EHC Kloten announced Morley’s signing, giving them an undersized yet deadly Canadian scorer. The 31-year-old scored 16 goals and 45 points in the regular season for the DEL’s Grizzlies Wolfsburg (who fell in the Semifinals to EHC Red Bull Munich) and scored 35 points in 48 games in Liiga the year before, helping Tappara Tampere win a title. Now, he’ll hope to have that same success in the Swiss league, one of the few top European leagues he hasn’t yet skated in.
  • After a season as an alternate captain in HockeyAllsvenskan with Sodertalje SK, Johan Ivarsson has earned his place back in the SHL. The 27-year-old has signed with the Malmo Redhawks for next season. The left-shot blueliner played this past season in Sweden’s second division after two seasons in Liiga playing for TPS Turku. This is somewhat of a homecoming for Ivarsson, as he played for the Redhawks as a teenager at lower levels and even helped them achieve promotion to the SHL in 2014-15. With Malmo only narrowly avoiding relegation this season, they bring back a familiar defenseman who should add experience and stability to their back end.
  • Former Edmonton Oilers prospect Tyler Vesel is headed back to HockeyAllsvenskan to help Brynas IF earn promotion next season. The 29-year-old 2014 sixth-round pick has become something of a promotion specialist in recent years. He nearly earned IF Bjorkloven promotion in 2020-21, scoring 46 points in 51 games. Last season, he scored 46 points in 52 games and a whopping 21 points in 15 playoff games to earn HV71 Jonkoping promotion back to the SHL. His year in the SHL was less strong, and he finished with just 14 points in 46 games. Now, he’s headed back to his old stomping grounds, Sweden’s second tier of hockey, to give another club the chance to rise to Sweden’s top league.

Seattle Kraken Sign Ville Ottavainen

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7:17 PM: The Kraken have now officially announced Ottavainen’s signing.

5:22 PM: According to CapFriendly, the Seattle Kraken have signed 2021 99th-overall pick Ville Ottavainen to a three-year entry-level deal set to begin next season. The contract reportedly carries a $876k cap hit with up to $57.5k in yearly performance bonuses. The contract also allocates Ottavainen minor-league salaries of $80k in the first year of the deal and $75k in the following two seasons.

Ottavainen had spent much of his younger days developing as a member of Karpat’s youth system, before choosing to spend his draft season in the OHL with the Kitchener Rangers. Scoring just 15 points in 53 games, the OHL wasn’t the best fit for Ottavainen’s development and he ultimately went undrafted in his first year of eligibility at the 2020 draft.

As an August birthdate, though, there was always the possibility that Ottavainen was simply somewhat of a late bloomer, and upon his return to Finland with JYP he began to take some steps forward.

He was chosen in his second go-around at the draft, landing inside the 2021 class’ top-100 selections, in large part thanks to his big six-foot-five frame and the fact that he got into games with JYP at the Liiga level, a major step up from Kitchener.

Ottavainen established himself as a regular for JYP last season, and scored 14 points in 44 games, averaging just under 16 minutes of ice time per game. This season, he played in he scored 16 points in 51 games and averaged a similar amount of minutes per game.

Now that Ottavainen has more thoroughly filled out his big frame, he’s become a viable two-way defenseman in Liiga with some physicality to boot. While Ottavainen’s presence hasn’t stopped JYP from struggling considerably as a whole over the past few years, he has made himself into a legitimate NHL prospect for the Kraken.

Armed with this entry-level deal, Ottavainen could be in the mix to play for head coach Dan Bylsma’s AHL juggernaut Coachella Valley Firebirds and would give Kraken fans a big, interesting six-foot-five right-shot blueliner to pay attention to.

Nashville Predators Assign Joakim Kemell To AHL

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One of the Nashville Predators’ best prospects is about to get his first taste of professional hockey in North America. Nashville today assigned 2022 first-round pick Joakim Kemell to the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals, per a tweet from the team’s affiliate.

Kemell, a right wing, spent the 2022-23 season on loan from Nashville to JYP in Liiga, the organization where he’s spent his entire junior and professional career so far. His offensive production took a step back from his draft year, though, scoring 15 points in 43 games after scoring 23 in 39 last year.

Things deteriorated for Kemell down the stretch, with his scoring growing more inconsistent as his ice time waned. He had a solid start to the campaign, going on a four-game point streak early on, but he couldn’t replicate his success throughout the season.

Now, he gets a chance to regain some confidence and some scoring touch in Milwaukee. He joins other notable Preds prospects, such as goalie Yaroslav Askarov and forward Egor Afanasyev, as the Admirals continue their stretch run.

Minor Transactions: 03/15/23

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With the trade deadline long past us, playoff races are heating up across the NHL. The Buffalo Sabres are looking to end the league’s longest playoff drought, and their uphill climb to clinch a spot continues tonight as they take on the Washington Capitals. Meanwhile, the Toronto Maple Leafs will get the chance to test themselves against the defending Stanley Cup champions. While hockey fans across the globe take in tonight’s games, teams in minor and foreign leagues are making tweaks to their rosters. We’ll keep track of those transactions here.

  • Former Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Juuso Riikola could be headed to Switzerland for next season, according to a report from Swiss outlet Watson. After playing four seasons in the Penguins organization, Riikola returned to Europe this summer, signing with the SHL’s IK Oskarshamn. He’s done well for himself in Sweden, scoring 19 points in 42 games as an alternate captain, and is now rumored to be heading to the SCL Tigers, a team in the top tier of Swiss hockey.
  • The San Jose Sharks’ AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda, have signed University of Connecticut captain Roman Kinal, a six-foot-two 24-year-old defenseman, to an ATO agreement. This deal will allow him to be with the Barracuda as they grapple for position in the AHL’s Pacific Division, giving him his first professional experience. As their recent trade for Harvard Blueliner Henry Thrun suggested, the Sharks organization is expected to look to mine talent from the NCAA ranks, so adding an experienced college player furthers that strategy.
  • Former Washington Capitals prospect Colby Williams has signed a one-year extension with his current club, KHL side Admiral Vladivostok. The former Regina Pats captain played his first season away from North America this year, after he signed with Vladivostok over the summer. After six seasons patrolling the blueline in the AHL, Williams scored 18 points in 67 games in Russia, a performance that earned him a one-year contract extension.
  • After nine seasons and 441 games with the DEL’s Augsburger Panthers, including the last three as their captain, Calgary native Brady Lamb will be playing elsewhere. The team has announced they and Lamb have parted ways. Lamb, who led the DEL in assists by a defenseman in 2017-18, has been a the face of the Panthers in recent years, helping them reach the playoffs twice in his tenure there. Augsburg endured a difficult 2022-23 season, and now they’ll look for a fresh face of their franchise moving forward.
  • Former New York Islander Johan Sundstrom is headed to Finland to continue his career, per a report from SportExpressen’s Johan Svensson. The 30-year-old got 11 games with the Islanders in 2013-14 and has since played in Sweden, Russia, and China. After scoring 13 goals and 31 points for Frolunda in his first year back from the KHL, his effectiveness and role have declined, and he did not get into games for the club this season despite remaining on their payroll. Now, according to this report, he’ll be headed to Liiga’s Vaasan Sport to continue his pro career.
  • Former Columbus Blue Jackets forward Markus Hannikainen will leave his current club, the SHL’s HC Linkoping, according to a team announcement. The 29-year-old, who has 91 career NHL games on his resume, was unable to come to an agreement on a contract extension with the club. Since leaving North America in the summer of 2020, Hannikainen played two years for Jokerit Helsinki in the KHL before spending last season playing for Mannheim in Germany. He scored eight goals and 19 points in the SHL this season and will now look to find the next stop in his career.
  • Canadian Craig Schira, former captain of SHL side Rogle BK, will also not be returning to Linkoping for next season. He scored eight points in 76 games across two seasons for Linkoping and leaves after a difficult season that ended with Linkoping just outside the SHL’s relegation zone. He’s played in Europe since 2011-12 since leaving the Belleville Senators and has been an important defenseman for quite a few teams.
  • Defenseman Eric Martinsson, who played in 13 games for the Minnesota Wild organization in 2018-19, is leaving the SHL’s HV71. The two-time SHL champion has spent two of the last three seasons at HV71, save for last year, which he spent playing in the KHL in Kazakhstan. He scored 37 points in 51 games for HV71 in 2020-21, but registered only 12 points this season, a decline that possibly prompted this parting of ways.
  • The ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies have released defenseman Joey Colatarci, per the ECHL’s official transactions report. Colatarci, 28, has been a regular for the Grizzlies for the past two seasons but hasn’t registered a single point in 30 games this season. Now, the six-foot-two blueliner will look to find another club to continue his career in North America’s third-tier league.
  • 23-year-old defenseman Jacob Semik, an alternate captain for Arizona State University, has signed with the Grizzlies. His arrival could be seen as taking the place of the released Colatarci, who plays a similar style to him. By adding Semik, the Grizzlies give a college player a chance to make his professional debut and the opportunity to begin the process of climbing North America’s pro hockey ladder.

This page will be updated throughout the day

Minor Transactions: 02/22/23

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While the NHL schedule tonight features just three games, the league’s trade market is as busy as ever. Two trades have already been announced today, and there still could be more to come as teams look to make deals before the March 3rd trade deadline. Just as NHL teams are making changes to their rosters, teams in minor and foreign leagues have been completing transactions. We’ll keep track of those moves here.

  • 2011-12 AHL MVP and Rookie of the Year Cory Conacher, 33, is heading back to the league he once dominated. The AHL’s Charlotte Checkers announced today that Conacher has been signed to a PTO. The undrafted veteran of nearly 200 NHL games was once traded for eventual two-time Vezina Trophy runner-up Ben Bishop, and while his NHL career ultimately fizzled out, he’s been a strong scorer in the AHL and Switzerland. This signing marks Conacher’s second PTO of the season, as he signed one in November with the Belleville Senators, although he was released after scoring one assist in two games.
  • HC Sparta Praha and 2007 Florida Panthers second-round pick Michal Repik have signed a long-term extension that will run through the 2025-26 season. The 34-year-old is in his fourth season as a top scorer and captain for Prague, and has scored 23 goals and 35 points this season. He’s bounced around quite a bit since leaving North America after the 2011-12 season (when he scored 35 points in 55 AHL games and appeared in the NHL 17 times) playing in Switzerland, Finland, Russia, and Slovakia.  He was an All-Star in the KHL and AHL, and will now be the face of Sparta Praha for the foreseeable future.
  • The SHL’s HV71 has verbally agreed to a deal with former Buffalo Sabre Arttu Ruotsalainen, according to Finnish outlet Aftonbladet. Ruotsalainen, 25, will head to Jonkoping after a solid first season back in the European pro hockey circuit. Ruotsalainen is an undrafted player who crossed the Atlantic to play for the Sabres after an extremely productive three-year run with Ilves Tampere in his native Finland. While he scored quite well in the AHL (64 points in 70 total games) he couldn’t quite catch on in the NHL, and chose to sign in Switzerland last summer. He’s scored 37 points in 48 games for Kloten HC in Switzerland this season, a performance that has now reportedly landed him a deal to play in Sweden.
  • Lukas Bengtsson, one of the SHL’s best defensemen on its top team, is making a surprising move to leave league-leading Vaxjo Lakers to sign with EV Zug in Switzerland, according to SportExpressen’s Johan Svensson.  The 28-year-old former Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguin arrived in the SHL after a solid three-year run in the KHL, and has helped Vaxjo to an impressive season. He’ll now finish his season and two more with Zug, who are looking to climb the standings in Switzerland’s top league.
  • Former QMJHL star and San Jose Barracuda Thomas Gregoire has reportedly signed a three-year deal with Rogle BK of the SHL, according to SportExpressen’s Johan Svensson. It’s a contract that would end his three-year tenure with Lukko Rauma in Finland’s Liiga, a period that has gone exceptionally well. Gregoire scored 34 points in 53 games last season, and helped Lukko win the Liiga championship in 2020-21. This season, he’s scored 39 points in 50 games, leading the team in scoring, and that performance has earned him a three-year deal in Sweden. Per Svensson, he will join Rogle for next season, allowing him to complete his campaign with Liiga’s current league leaders.
  • 43 games into what is his first full season in the ECHL, forward Tyler Kirkup is headed across the Atlantic. Per a team announcement, the former Bemidji State Beaver has signed with the Coventry Blaze, a team in the EIHL, which is the top league of professional hockey in the United Kingdom. Kirkup wasn’t having a ton of scoring success with the ECHL’s Reading Royals, with just 15 points in 49 career games. He’ll now join the Blaze, who are at the moment in a solid position in the middle of the EIHL table. The Blaze have also signed Hungarian netminder Miklos Rajna, who played this season with UTE Budapest in Hungary’s Erste Liga. He’ll partner with starter Paavo Holsa and give Holsa some much-needed rest, as he’s started all but one of Coventry’s games this season.
  • The AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins have signed former WHL, Canadian University star Riley Sawchuk to a PTO for the rest of the season as well as a contract for next season. This will allow the 23-year-old to make his pro debut for the club, fresh off of a two-year stretch at Mount Royal University where he registered a whopping 87 points in just 47 games. While it’s definitely a step up in terms of challenge to go from the Canadian University circuit to the AHL, Sawchuk was also a strong scorer in his final two seasons in the WHL and will be someone to watch for Griffins fans and AHL observers alike.
  • Former Vegas Golden Knights netminder Dylan Ferguson, 24, has had his PTO with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies converted into a standard player contract. Ferguson, a Dallas Stars 2017 seventh-rounder who was acquired in the team’s trade for Marc Methot that same summer, has nine minutes of NHL experience. He won the ECHL’s Kelly Cup in 2020-21 with the Fort Wayne Komets and has gone 3-2 with an .888 save percentage in his five-game run with the Marlies.
  • The ECHL’s Savannah Ghost Pirates have acquired big 24-year-old defenseman Jeremy Masella from the Kalamazoo Wings in exchange for future considerations. Masella, WHL champion in 2018-19 with the Prince Albert Raiders, has only played in three games in all of February for the Wings. He had seemingly lost his spot to Kurt Gosselin, who the team acquired via trade from the Toledo Walleye on February 12th, and will now get a fresh start in Georgia.
  • Modo Hockey Ornskoldsvik, a club in Sweden’s second-tier league, the HockeyAllsvenskan, has signed two players to two-year extensions: 2020 Detroit Red Wings second-round pick Theodor Niederbach and Danish former ECHL All-Star Mikkel Aagaard. The former, 20, transferred to MoDo from Rogle earlier this season, moving down a level in competition. The right winger has scored 12 points in 26 games for MoDo, an improvement on the one goal in 17 games he scored for Rogle. As for Aagaard, he extends in MoDo for another two years having scored 26 goals and 38 points in 45 games this season.
  • Experienced Italian-Canadian defenseman Chad Pietroniro has been signed for the rest of the season by the EIHL’s Cardiff Devils. Pietroniro has split this season between three ECHL clubs, trying his hand at North American pro hockey after spending several seasons playing for Asiago in Italy and one year in France. The 28-year-old got into a total of 18 ECHL games for the Newfoundland Growlers, Maine Mariners, and most recently the Trois-Rivieres Lions, and now heads to Wales to continue his pro hockey career.
  • The ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits have signed goaltender Trevin Kozlowski to a contract, per a team announcement. The 25-year-old won the ECHL’s Community Service Award last season and was a top goalie for the Army West Point in the NCAA. He turned pro last season, playing 23 games for the Iowa Heartlanders and three in the AHL for the Iowa Wild. The Heartlanders traded for Kozlowski in November after he signed with the Cincinnati Cyclones a month earlier, before releasing him in late January. He had an .869 save percentage in six games this season for Iowa, and will now get a chance to continue his pro career in South Carolina.
  • Hulking six-foot-seven blueliner Steven MacLean has chosen to begin his professional career, signing a contract with the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones. The 24-year-old leaves Wilfried Laurier University’s hockey program, where he has been for three seasons. MacLean never played at the OHL level, but the Cyclones will hope their staff can get the most out of his intriguing frame in his first taste of professional action.
  • Former Edmonton Oilers prospect John McCarron has re-signed with the Florida Everblades, returning to the club he captained to a Kelly Cup victory last season. It’s a major addition for the defending champions, as McCarron has been an elite player for them for the past six seasons. The brother of Montreal Canadiens first-round pick Michael McCarron, John has scored 385 points in 406 career ECHL regular-season games, and 85 points in 94 career playoff contests, to go along with 789 combined penalty minutes.
  • 2012 Anaheim Ducks fourth-round pick Andrew O’Brien is leaving the ICEHL’s Fehervar AV19, a Hungarian club. A veteran of over 200 AHL games, O’Brien bounced from the KHL to the SHL to Liiga to the DEL after leaving North America after the 2018-19 season. Now, he’ll leave his fifth European league in just three seasons looking for a new place to play. He notched eight points and 72 penalty minutes in 36 games in Hungary.
  • Rostislav Marosz, a veteran of over 400 games in the Czech Extraliga, has been released by his club, HC Vitkovice, by mutual agreement. Marosz was in the midst of a third season in Vitkovice and had scored 16 points in 38 games this season. His production had declined from the 35 points in 53 games he scored last season, so perhaps it’s that decline that motivated this release.

This page will be updated throughout the day.

Valtteri Pulli Drawing NHL Interest

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Most of the news right now revolves around the NHL trade deadline, as media members try to find out where everyone will be playing when the dust settles. But yesterday, Jeff Marek squished in another interesting nugget during the 32 Thoughts podcast for Sportsnet.

Valtteri Pulli, an undrafted Finnish defenseman, is drawing interest from several NHL clubs.

A number of teams that have shown interest but at varying degrees. I’ve heard of a couple different teams that are really hot on him, and a couple that just will kick tires. I’m having a hard time trying to figure out who is really aggressive and who is just curious.

It sounds like the teams with interest (and again to varying degrees) are the San Jose Sharks…the Winnipeg Jets, the Boston Bruins, the Vancouver Canucks, the Nashville Predators, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the New York Islanders. 

Pulli, 21, is a 6’6″ left-shot defenseman who is in his first full season for TPS in the Finnish Liiga, and has three goals and 14 points in 47 games. While those numbers don’t sound too impressive, he has shown flashes of high offensive potential, as he learns to use his massive frame to protect the puck and get it to dangerous areas.

Of course, flashes of potential don’t get you NHL minutes, and Pulli is by no means a finished product. He’ll turn 22 next month, though, meaning teams will have lots of time to try and develop him into an impact player.

Since he turns 22 next month, Pulli will be limited to a two-year entry-level contract when he does sign.

Minor Transactions: 02/13/23

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Another day, another slate of NHL games to enjoy. Tonight’s lineup of games features matchups between two up-and-coming teams in the Buffalo Sabres and Los Angeles Kings, two playoff hopefuls in the Minnesota Wild and Florida Panthers, and two Central Division rivals in the Arizona Coyotes and Nashville Predators. As NHL fans take in tonight’s action, player movement is ever-active across the hockey world. We’ll track notable moves in minor and foreign leagues here.

  • 2019 Carolina Hurricanes fourth-round pick Tuukka Tieksola, who signed his entry-level deal with the team in 2021, has been loaned to Liiga’s Karpat for the rest of the season. Tieksola had spent this year with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves and scored 15 points in 40 games. With just one point in his last six games, though, and Karpat in the midst of a playoff push, Tieksola is headed back to Finland to get some more high-level professional experience under his belt.
  • The ECHL’s Worcester Railers have announced two trades: they have acquired forward Max Johnson from the Wheeling Nailers for future considerations, and Chris Ordoobadi from the Orlando Solar Bears in exchange for cash considerations. Johnson, 24, is in his first professional season after capping off a five-year NCAA career. Johnson was a star at Bowling Green State University, scoring around a point-per-game rate there, before he headed to the University of Wisconsin for his finals season. This trade gives Johnson a change of scenery as his pro debut with the Nailers had been difficult, and he struggled to the tune of just five points in 23 games, In Ordoobadi the Railers acquire a big, physical 28-year-old winger who was actually a waiver claim of the Railers in December 2021.
  • The ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies have released defenseman Jordon Stone. Stone was activated off of injured reserve just three days ago, and now finds himself released after playing in his first game with the team since December. Late in the third period of that game, the Grizzlies were losing 6-1 to the Rapid City Rush. After dumping the puck into the offensive zone, Stone chased it and appeared to shove a Rush player to the ground with enough force that the player’s helmet came off. As the Rush’s goaltender attempted to play the puck behind the net, Stone laid a body check on the goalie, appearing to follow through with his elbow up through the goalie’s head. Stone was assessed a game misconduct for charging, and now finds himself released by his team only a few days later.
  • The ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals have released netminder Brett Epp and forward Sam Hu. 2017 Nashville Predators fifth-round pick Tomas Vomacka was re-assigned to Norfolk as well, meaning Epp was out of a job as the team’s backup with Cale Morris already on the roster. Epp signed with Norfolk on February 8th, just a day before his team, the SPHL’s Vermilion City Bobcats, ceased operations. Epp will now look to continue his pro career elsewhere after a difficult season with the Bobcats for reasons largely out of his control. As for Hu, this release comes after a 19-game run with the Admirals that saw him score just four points. Hu split time last season between the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star in his home country, China, and in Norway with Manglerud. It’s possible a return to overseas hockey could be in the cards after this release.
  • Per a team announcement, former Boston Bruins prospect Emil Johansson will be leaving his current club, Sport Vaasa in the Finnish Liiga. Sami Hoffren of Finland’s Ilta-Sanomat reports that Johansson is set to join current DEL leaders EHC Red Bull Munich. Johansson scored 23 points in 43 games for Vaasa as their number-one defenseman and will help Munich as they chase their fourth DEL title.
  • Liiga’s Assat Pori will be without their starting netminder, Niklas Rubin, for two to three weeks as he recovers from an injury. As a result, the team has signed Canadian goaltender Cody Porter from RoKi Rovaniemi, a club in Finland’s second-tier Mestis. The 25-year-old has a .920 save percentage in 21 games for RoKi, and has been brought in to help Pori down the stretch of this season. This move was potentially motivated by Porter’s performance last Wednesday, when he stopped 24 of 26 shots against Pori playing on loan for Tappara Tampere, winning the game for his temporary club by a 6-2 margin.
  • SportExpressen’s Johan Svensson reports that 20-year-old center Ake Stakkestad will be making the leap to the SHL next season. Per Svensson’s report, Stakkestad will play for HV71 next season, on a one-year contract. Stakkestad recently returned to the ice for his current club, HockeyAllsvenskan’s BIK Karlskoga, and has scored two points in three games. In total, he has scored eight points in 13 games this season.
  • Switzerland’s HC Lugano will retain their backup netminder beyond this season. The team has announced the signing of goalie Niklas Schlegel to a three–year contract extension. The 28-year-old is a Swiss NL champion who led his league in save percentage during a brilliant 2015-16 season with the ZSC Lions. He’s currently backing up former Edmonton Oiler Mikko Koskinen and has been decent with a .903 save percentage and 2.74 goals against average.
  • 19-year-old Konsta Kapanen, the brother of Pittsburgh Penguins forward Kasperi Kapanen and son of former NHLer Sami Kapanen has been loaned to Liiga’s HPK for the rest of the season. Kapanen will seek a better opportunity at tenth-place HPK than he’d be likely to find at fifth-place KalPa, and will likely get a chance to finish his season in Liiga rather than in Mestis. KalPa also made another move today, signing veteran Jaakko Lantta to a one-year contract extension.
  • In addition to bringing in Tieksola, Karpat has also loaned netminder Karolus Kaarlehto to the SHL’s Timra IK. The 25-year-old began his season in France before a stretch playing for Karpat’s Liiga rivals, Jukurit Mikkeli. Now, he heads to Sweden to help Timra to fill the team’s backup goalie spot, a role left vacant by Thursday’s transfer of David Rautio to the SCL Tigers of Switzerland.
  • Nearly two weeks after his release from HC Slovan Bratislava, Carl Ackered has found a new place to play. The Sheffield Steelers, a club competing in the EIHL, the highest tier of professional hockey in the United Kingdom, have signed Ackered. It’s a major acquisition for the Steelers, as just two years ago Ackered led the Slovak league in points by a defenseman and was named an All-Star. He had a difficult 21-game run in the Slovak capital, though, and now returns to the league where he starred for three years as a member of the Guildford Flames.
  • HockeyAllsvenskan’s IF Bjorkloven have confirmed the transfer of former Arizona Coyotes prospect Jens Looke, a transfer we covered as a rumor two days ago. Looke is a difference-maker in Sweden’s second division, having scored 62 points in 52 games in his last season there, helping Timra earn promotion to the SHL. That’ll be his goal with Bjorkloven, who sit second in the league standings.
  • The DEL’s Grizzlys Wolfsburg have signed their captain, Canadian Spencer Machacek, to a two-year extension. The former Atlanta Thrasher has been a star in Germany, and has scored 285 points in 436 games there. He’s currently second in league scoring with 51 points in 47 games, and his extension should come as welcome news for Wolfsburg’s supporters who are hopeful the team can cement a place in the DEL playoffs.
  • 413-game KHL veteran Dmitri Yudin has signed a two-year contract extension with his current club, Ak Bars Kazan. The 27-year-old has been with Kazan since 2018-19, and before that he played for Spartak Moscow and perennial juggernauts SKA St. Petersburg. A teammate of former NHLers Alexander Radulov and Vadim Shipachyov, Yudin will hope to keep Kazan in playoff contention over the course of his new deal.
  • 23-year-old Slovenian forward Rok Kapel is headed back to the AlpsHL after spending most of this season in the higher-tier ICEHL. Per a team announcement, Kapel will play for Kitzbuheler EC moving forward, leaving HC Olimpija Ljubljana, the ICEHL club in the Slovenian capital. Kapel scored 14 goals and 29 points in 40 games for Ljubljana, leading the team in goal-scoring, and is expected to be a difference-maker moving forward now that he’s down a level of competition.
  • Nick Dineen, a star in Norway’s top professional hockey league, has signed an extension to remain with the Stavanger Oilers beyond this season. Dineen was formerly the captain at Lillehammer, where he hovered around a point-per-game scoring rate for six seasons. Financial issues at Lillehammer forced a January transfer to the Oilers, and he has continued his strong play there with 14 points in 11 games.

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Minor Transactions: 02/11/23

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

It’s been a packed day on the NHL schedule, with seven games already completed. The Montreal Canadiens took home a late comeback win against the New York Islanders, while the Tampa Bay Lightning triumphed in a 2020 Stanley Cup Final rematch that was nationally televised in the United States. As fans continue to enjoy today’s wealth of NHL action, teams in minor and foreign leagues are making tweaks to their rosters. We’ll track those moves here.

  • 2011 first-round pick Joe Morrow, who was part of the infamous trade that sent Tyler Seguin to the Dallas Stars, had his contract terminated with KHL club HK Sochi today. The 162-game NHL veteran had a difficult 31-game run in Russia, potting just nine points for the worst team in the KHL, and will now look elsewhere to continue his professional career.
  • 2014 sixth-overall pick Jake Virtanen was released by EHC Visp, a club that competes in the second division of Swiss Hockey. Emmanuel Favre of the Swiss newspaper Le Matin reported that Virtanen’s release comes after he allegedly had an altercation with a teammate. On paper, Virtanen’s numbers were solid this year (25 points in 21 games) but he’ll now need to find another home to continue his pro career as his time with Visp has ended.
  • Former Arizona Coyotes prospect Jens Looke has reportedly transferred to IF Bjorkloven, according to Johan Svensson of SportExpressen. The move takes Looke from the Finnish Liiga to the Swedish second-division, the HockeyAllsvenskan, where he has starred in the past. The last time Looke, who has 29 points in 37 games in Liiga this season, was in the HockeyAllsvenskan he scored 62 points in 52 games, helping lift Timra to promotion to the SHL. That’s exactly what he’ll hope to do with Bjorkloven this season.
  • The ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays have released netminder Mario Culina. The team lost their top scorer, Carter Turnbull, yesterday, and now augments their situation in the crease with the release of the 25-year-old Culina. Culina made his professional debut last season with 13 games played for the Fort Wayne Komets and had played two games for the Stingrays since signing with them on February 6th.
  • The exodus from SaiPa has begun. Per an announcement from his new club, SaiPa Lappeenranta’s starting netminder Niclas Westerholm has signed a contract with rival Liiga side Karpat.  SaiPa currently sit last in the Liiga standings, and with their fate looking increasingly dire Westerholm has chosen to make an exit. The 25-year-old has played 40 games this season and has an .884 save percentage. He’ll compete with Ottawa Senators prospect Leevi Merilainen and Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Joel Blomqvist.
  • Former Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Nicolas Mattinen has reportedly signed a contract to leave his current team, the ICEHL’s VSV EC at the end of the season to join the DEL’s Straubing Tigers for the 2023-24 campaign, according to Martin Quendler of Kleine Zeitung. Mattinen, 24, has been VSV’s top blueliner this season, scoring 37 points in 44 games in what has been a successful first season playing overseas professional hockey for the two-time OHL champion.
  • Adam Lapsansky, a veteran of Slovakia’s top professional league, is transferring from HC Dukla Michalovce to HC Nove Zamsky. Through this transfer Lapsansky, who has nearly 500 Slovak Extraliga games under his belt, moves up one spot on the league table. Lapsansky has scored just eight points in 25 games this season, and will hope that this transfer serves as a productive change of scenery.
  • 38-year-old Marek Hovorka, a longtime veteran of the Central European pro hockey circuit and an Olympian who represented his native Slovakia at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyongchang, has signed with Slovak club HC Kosice. Hovorka has played in Slovakia’s second division this season, scoring 14 points in 12 games for Vlci Zilina, and will now look to help Kosice as they attempt to gain ground on HKM Zvolen and HC Slovan Bratislava in the league table.

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