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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.

This page will be updated throughout the day

Minor Transactions: 02/11/23

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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.

This page will be updated throughout the day

Minor Transactions: 02/06/23

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NHL teams return to the ice tonight after the conclusion of the All-Star break. Twelve teams are set to do battle, and the slate of contests is highlighted by newly-minted $68MM man Bo Horvat’s debut with the New York Islanders and Anthony Beauvillier’s debut for the Vancouver Canucks. As fans enjoy tonight’s games, teams in minor and foreign leagues are making tweaks to their rosters. We’ll keep track of those moves here.

  • 2002 34th overall pick Tobias Stephan will hang up his skates. Swiss club HC Lausanne has announced that Stephan will retire at the end of this season. While the 39-year-old goalie never quite stuck in North America and was limited to just 11 career NHL games, he is an extremely accomplished veteran of the Swiss league. He won NLA Goalie of the Year in 2009-10 and has won a Spengler Cup and Swiss Cup over the course of a 20-year career at the top of his country’s professional hockey ladder.
  • Former Vancouver Canuck Marc Michaelis has made the choice to switch clubs at the end of the season. Regning Swiss champions EV Zug have announced the signing of Michaelis to a contract to a two-year deal, set to begin next season. Michaelis was a coveted college free agent after scoring 162 points in his 142-game career for Minnesota State, and he got 15 games with the Canucks in 2020-21. He didn’t manage to get on the scoresheet, though, and signed with the Toronto Marlies. His AHL tenure in Toronto was shaky as well, leading to an exit back to Europe. Michaelis’ debut in the Swiss league has gone extremely well, and he has formed a deadly partnership with former top prospect Aleksi Saarela. With 15 goals and 39 points in 44 games, Michaelis will be headed elsewhere for next season.
  • Liiga’s TPS Turku have signed veteran defenseman Taneli Ronkainen on loan from Oulun Karpat for the rest of the season. Ronkainen is an experienced blueliner in Finland’s top league, having won a championship in 2017-18. He has nearly 300 games of experience in Liiga, and will be able to reinforce a TPS Turku blueline that has been solid so far this year, ranking sixth in goals-against this season.
  • Young Finnish winger Jere Henriksson has had his three-game loan to HPK Hameenlinna converted into a full loan, and has additionally signed an extension for next year as well. The 21-year-old already has over 120 games of Liiga experience to his name, and won the league title last season with Tappara Tampere.
  • Veteran KHL forward Nikita Pivtsakin and his club, HC Sochi, have agreed to a mutual contract termination. The 31-year-old, who has over 500 games of KHL experience under his belt and won World Juniors gold for Russia in 2010-2011, will now look elsewhere to continue his career. Pivtsakin has scored six points in 50 games in the KHL this season, and perhaps this release is meant to give him a chance to return to the Finnish Liiga, where he was last season when he played 16 games for KalPa Kuopio.

This page will be updated throughout the day

Minor Transactions: 01/13/23

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It’s a light Friday on the NHL calendar, with just three games for NHL fans to enjoy. Among those games is a highlight, though, with the Winnipeg Jets, a Central Division contender, taking on the Pittsburgh Penguins, who are hoping to gain ground in an extremely competitive Eastern Conference playoff race. As fans across the world take in these games, teams in minor and overseas leagues are making tweaks to their rosters. We’ll keep track of those moves here.

  • Former AHL blueliner and 2014 San Jose Sharks second-round pick Julius Bergman is moving down a division. The 27-year-old defenseman, who is perhaps best known as part of the 2019 Matt Duchene trade, has signed with Sodertalje SK of Sweden’s HockeyAllsvenskan, the league below the top-tier SHL. Bergman has played 28 games at the SHL level this season with Brynas, but he hasn’t managed to register a point. He’ll now head down a level in order to help Sodertalje make a push toward promotion.
  • Lukas Klok, a former member of the Arizona Coyotes organization, has signed a contract for the rest of the season in the Swiss League. He’s headed to HC Lugano, just a short period after leaving the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners in order to sign in the SHL. Klok played four games in Tucson, 11 for Rogle in the SHL, and now heads to Switzerland to play for his third team since departing the KHL.
  • 2022 New York Islanders third-round pick Quinn Finley has been traded in the USHL. Finley, 18, has been sent from his current club, the Madison Capitals, to the Chicago Steel, home of several top prospects including Jayden Perron and Macklin Celebrini. This trade allows Finley to join the USHL’s best team as he prepares to play for the University of Wisconsin in the fall.
  • 2020 Florida Panthers seventh-rounder Elliot Ekmark is headed to HockeyAllsvenskan on a one-month loan. His current club, SHL side Linkopings HC, have loaned him for a month to IF Bjorkloven, one of the best teams in the Swedish second division. Per CapFriendly, the Panthers have until June 1st, 2024 to decide whether to extend Ekmark an entry-level deal in order to retain his exclusive rights. Ekmark has played seven games at Sweden’s highest level this season and has registered three points.
  • Just two days after he parted ways with Brynas, former NHLer Kevin Roy has found a new home. Liiga’s HIFK Helsinki has signed a contract for the rest of the season with Roy, 29. Roy spent last season with the AHL’s Laval Rocket, scoring 33 points in 62 games. This year, his six-game run with Brynas is the only place he’s played, and he scored one goal in that six-game run.
  • Matej Machovsky, a former member of the Detroit Red Wings organization, has left his current club, KalPa of the Finnish Liiga. Per a team announcement, KalPa is alleging that Machovsky breached his contract with the team, and it’s possible that Machovsky’s ability to transfer to another club could be impacted. The 29-year-old netminder left his native Czechia to sign in Finland last summer, and now seemingly faces significant uncertainty as to the future of his professional career.
  • Veteran DEL forward Phil Hungerecker has signed an extension to remain with his current club, Schwenninger Wild Wings. The 28-year-old former DEL rookie of the year signed with the Wild Wings last summer and has helped them thus far stand comfortably outside the league’s relegation zone, scoring 10 points in 37 games in the process.
  • Severi Lahtinen, an established contributor in Liiga, has had the next two years of his contract confirmed by his current club, JYP Jyvaskyla. The 24-year-old has scored 19 points in 33 games this season and has helped JYP make a modest jump in performance so far this season.
  • One of the many young players hoping to help get Djurgardens IF back to the SHL this season, David Blomgren, has signed a contract extension to remain in Stockholm. The 19-year-old forward has developed in Djurgardens’ junior teams for many years, impressing at each level he’s played at. This season is his debut on Djurgarden’s first team, and he’s played 30 games so far at the HockeyAllsvenskan level, scoring six points and helping Djurgarden stay within striking distance of promotion.
  • The ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals have acquired the playing rights to goaltender Logan Flodell from the Allen Americans. Flodell, 25, arrives in Norfolk coming off of a nightmarish stretch with the Americans. In eleven games he’s posted a 1-9 record, a 3.86 goals-against-average, and a grisly .889 save percentage. Flodell will presumably compete with yesterday’s waiver claim, Joe Murdaca, for opportunities in the crease for the Admirals. These transactions illustrate the ripple effect that can happen across a three-tiered NHL organization when a goaltender faces an absence. Predators prospect Tomas Vomacka was called up to AHL Milwaukee yesterday after Yaroslav Askarov left to make his NHL debut. Left with just one goalie given the absence of Vomacka, the Admirals have now claimed one goalie and acquired another via a trade. These moves illustrate how the circumstances of just one netminder at the top of an organization can cause major changes to the careers of multiple players lower down the totem pole.
  • A top player in the German third division has been rewarded by heading up a level. Krefeld Pinguine, a team in Germany’s second-tier DEL2, has signed Victor Knaub to a contract. The 26-year-old has been playing with EV Fussen in the third tier of German hockey scoring 19 points in 17 games. Now he gets a chance to impress with a club that was in the DEL just a year ago.

This page will be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 01/12/23

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There are quite a few intriguing contests on the NHL calendar for tonight, including a celebration of now-retired defenseman P.K. Subban in Montreal as the Canadiens take on the Nashville Predators. Fans can also enjoy two of the NHL’s top-10 teams, the Boston Bruins and Seattle Kraken, do battle as well, among many other games. As people across the hockey world take in these matchups, numerous teams in overseas leagues and minor leagues are making tweaks to their rosters. We’ll track those moves here.

  • 2018 Dallas Stars second-round pick Albin Eriksson has signed an extension with his current club, BIK Karlskoga, a team in Sweden’s second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan. The Stars let their exclusive rights to sign Eriksson expire last summer, seemingly not seeing enough development in his game to merit signing him to an entry-level deal. The six-foot-three winger has fared better in the Allsvenskan than he did in the SHL and Liiga, and he’s currently leading Karlskoga in goal scoring with 14 goals and 26 points in 33 games.
  • Veteran Liiga forward Panu Mieho has left for Sweden, signing a two-year contract with Timra in the SHL. By signing this deal, Mieho leaves Ilves Tampere in his fifth year with the club. Mieho’s scoring has been down this season, as he’s managed just seven points in 23 games, so perhaps the 27-year-old is hoping this move to the SHL can help improve his form.
  • Harri Pesonen, captain of Switzerland’s SCL Tigers, has signed a two-year extension to remain with his team. Pesonen is actually a former NHLer, having played four games for the New Jersey Devils in 2012-13. He’s played exclusively in Europe since 2014, and has been an elite forward in the Swiss league. Pesonen has scored 26 points in 34 games this year for the Tigers and is a two-time IIHF World Champion and a one-time Olympic Gold Medalist.
  • Former Boston College star Julius Mattila has signed a one-year extension with his current club, Lukko, of the Finnish Liiga. An alternate captain at Lukko, Mattila has been a consistent scorer in Finland. He has 78 points in 153 career games in Finland’s top league and helped Lukko win the 2020-21 Liiga title.
  • HC Sparta Praha has signed two players to two-year contract extensions: Ondrej Miklis and David Nemecek. Miklis, 26, transferred from Kladno in 2021 and is establishing himself in Czechia’s top league. Nemecek, 27, is a top defenseman for Prague. He is in his third season with the team and has spent three seasons of his career in North America, having patrolled the blueline in the OHL, WHL, and USHL.
  • Sandro Schonberger is going to continue his captaincy of the DEL’s Straubing Tigers for another season. The German forward is in his fifteenth season with the Bavarian club, and he’s in his tenth as the team’s captain. Despite a budget that is reportedly one of the lowest in the DEL, the Tigers have managed to consistently reach the DEL’s playoffs under Schonberger, a testament to the 35-year-old’s leadership and play.
  • Another DEL veteran has signed an extension with his current club: Sven Ziegler. The 28-year-old forward, who is a veteran of over 400 DEL games, will remain with the Iserlohn Roosters for another season, per a team announcement. Ziegler has been with the Roosters for the past two seasons, leaving Straubing in 2021 to sign in Iserlohn.
  • Former Kootenay Ice forward Arnaud Jacquemet has signed a two-year extension to remain with his current team, Geneve-Servette HC. The 34-year-old is closing in on a decade spent playing in Geneva and is in his fifth season as an alternate captain for the team. On his watch, Geneva has managed to win two Spengler Cups, and this year he’s scored seven points in 26 games.
  • Yesterday, just a short period after acquiring him via trade, the Orlando Solar Bears released goaltender Joe Murdaca. The acquisition of Murdaca led to the team’s release of veteran netminder Brad Barone, and now with Murdaca gone, it means the Solar Bears have let go of two netminders in under a week. It’s likely that the return of prospect goalie Jack LaFontaine from the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch had something to do with these moves, as he’ll now resume his role as the Solar Bears’ undisputed number-one goalie. The Solar Bears were Murdaca’s sixth career ECHL team, and now he’s moved on to his seventh, having been claimed off of waivers by the Norfolk Admirals.
  • Jordan Kaplan, the 25-year-old brother of Philadelphia Flyers third-round pick Devin Kaplan, was released by the Newfoundland Growlers yesterday, per the ECHL’s official transactions page. Kaplan made his professional debut with the Adirondack Thunder last season, scoring 32 points in 65 games after a four-season collegiate career spent at Sacred Heart University and the University of Vermont. He signed with the Norfolk Admirals in August, but after scoring just one point in 11 games he left to join the Reading Royals. Kaplan got just three games in Reading before he was released, and just under a month ago he signed in Newfoundland. Now, he’s been claimed off of waivers by the Worchester Railers.
  • Just one day after signing him, the ECHL’s Jacksonville Icemen have released forward Kyle Blaney. The 31-year-old ECHL veteran scored 43 points in 65 games last season for the Kalamazoo Wings and will now be forced to find a new team to continue his career with, now that this signing in Jacksonville has ended without a single game played.

This page will be updated throughout the day. 

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