Markus Nutivaara Signs With Liiga’s Kärpät
Former NHL defenseman Markus Nutivaara is launching a comeback bid after retiring two years ago due to hip issues. Kärpät, which plays in the Finnish rearguard’s hometown of Oulu, announced they’ve signed him to a one-year deal.
While the 31-year-old Nutivaara has only been retired for two years, it’s been longer than that since he actually played. His last appearance at any level came with the Panthers on Oct. 29, 2021, his lone appearance of the 2021-22 campaign. He logged an assist but played just 7:01 as he attempted a comeback from his first of multiple hip surgeries.
Nutivaara was an unrestricted free agent the following summer and attempted to get his career back on track by signing a one-year deal with the Sharks, but his continued hip problems prevented him from making an appearance for them. The 6’1″ lefty has remained unsigned ever since.
A seventh-round pick out of Kärpät by the Blue Jackets in 2015 – three years after he was initially eligible for selection – Nutivaara made the jump to North America one year later. He remained an NHL fixture aside from a three-game stint in the minors in 2017-18, becoming a good two-way piece in a depth role for Columbus. Although he consistently saw bottom-pairing deployment, averaging 15:48 per game, he still managed a 17-43–60 scoring line with a +25 rating in 244 appearances for the Jackets in his four years there.
Columbus traded Nutivaara to Florida following the 2019-20 season. He played 30 out of 56 regular-season games for the Cats in the COVID-shortened 2021 season, recording 10 points and a plus-one rating.
His comeback bid comes after Nutivaara had another hip procedure in November 2024 to have an artificial joint installed, Kärpät said. Even if he can’t get back into game shape, Nutivaara said his recovery has gone well enough to allow him to return to a relatively normal, pain-free life.
Nutivaara won a Liiga championship with Kärpät in his rookie year back in 2014-15, contributing six points in 16 playoff games for a roster led by former NHL winger Joonas Donskoi that also included a 17-year-old Sebastian Aho.
Snapshots: Pacioretty, Rossi, True
Heading into August, one of the better veteran scoring options left on the market is winger Max Pacioretty. Michael Augello of The Hockey News theorized on five (although it’s actually seven) potential destinations for Pacioretty in what could be the last season of his professional career.
Pacioretty (36) is coming off another injury-plagued season, this time with the Toronto Maple Leafs. In his lowest-producing offensive season since his sophomore campaign with the Montreal Canadiens during the 2009-10 season, Pacioretty scored five goals and 13 points in 37 games, averaging 13:30 of ice time per game. Fortunately, Pacioretty had a stronger showing in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs, scoring three goals and eight points in 11 games, including the series-clincher in the Maple Leafs’ opening-round series against the Ottawa Senators.
Augello’s hypothetical destinations include Pacioretty’s former teams: the Canadiens and Maple Leafs, a team from the New York metropolitan area, the Detroit Red Wings, or the Edmonton Oilers. Whether for geographical location, nostalgic purposes, or for putting him in the best position to win the first Stanley Cup of his career, all five destinations make sense for Pacioretty in the twilight years of his career.
Other snapshots:
- In a minor update to the impasse between center Marco Rossi and the Minnesota Wild, Joe Smith and Michael Russo of The Athletic indicated in a new article that the two sides haven’t spoken since June. The gap is well known, with Rossi seeking a long-term deal similar to that of his teammate Matt Boldy, while the Wild remain firm in their desire for a bridge contract. The pair of journalists argues that Rossi is unlikely to sign a new deal, let alone speak to Minnesota’s management, until the start of training camp in September.
- According to a team announcement, former NHL and AHL veteran Alexander True has signed a one-year deal with the Finnish Liiga’s JYP. Now two years removed from playing in the AHL with the Charlotte Checkers, True’s first professional season overseas was fairly disappointing. Playing for the SHL’s MoDo Hockey, True scored seven goals and 17 points in 52 games with a -15 rating last season.
Morning Notes: Berard, Nabokov, Kärki
Rangers winger Brett Berard played through most of his rookie season with a labrum tear, he told Mollie Walker of the New York Post.
He sustained the shoulder injury back in November in what was just his fourth career NHL game, but it wasn’t significant enough to keep him out of game action through the remainder of the regular season. While he was initially named to the United States’ roster for the 2025 World Championship on the heels of his first taste of NHL hockey, he ended up pulling out to fully rehab the injury as he aims to crack New York’s opening night roster for the first time in the fall.
“Just kind of lingered all year, wore a brace all year,” Berard said. “It was good to kind of get that situated. It feels good, it feels strong. So just trying to get it all better, but we feel a lot better now.”
Berard, who turns 23 in September, scored six goals and 10 points in 35 appearances for the Rangers last season while averaging 10:43 per game. The 2020 fifth-round pick will likely build on that deployment this season, as the Blueshirts’ roster turnover over the last few months means there are a couple of top-nine spots for the taking, one of which he’ll hope to grab. The diminutive but high-energy lefty also scored 23 points in 30 games for the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack last season.
More from around the league:
- Avalanche goaltending prospect Ilya Nabokov has officially put pen to paper on a one-year deal to keep him in Russia for 2025-26 with the KHL’s Metallurg Magnitogorsk, the league announced. Nabokov signed his entry-level contract with Colorado in May, but it was quickly reported that the Avs planned to loan him back to Metallurg for the upcoming season. While he was initially draft-eligible in 2021, he was finally selected in the second round in 2024 on the heels of a dominant postseason for Metallurg that earned him a Gagarin Cup championship, playoff MVP honors, and the KHL’s Rookie of the Year award. He’ll likely compete for the No. 2 job behind Mackenzie Blackwood when he comes to North America in 2026-27.
- Golden Knights defense prospect Arttu Kärki is on the move in his native Finland, with HIFK announcing they’ve signed him to a two-year contract. Vegas selected Kärki in the third round of the 2023 draft but hasn’t yet signed him; they have until June 1, 2027, to do so before they lose his rights. The 20-year-old lefty got his first taste of professional hockey last season and split the campaign between Tappara and Ässät in Finland’s top league, recording 14 points and a -11 rating in 43 games. The shot-minded rearguard will look for more offensive success as he remains in Liiga with HIFK.
International Notes: Vecchione, Andersson, Ratkovic-Berndtsson, Jurmo, Dickinson
Veteran farmhand Mike Vecchione has signed on with Traktor Chelyabinsk of the Kontinental Hockey League, Tony Androckitis of Inside AHL Hockey reports. The Hershey Bears, where Vecchione had spent the last four seasons on both two-way deals with the Capitals and AHL-only contracts, said Monday that he would be heading overseas.
Vecchione, 32, last played in the NHL in a one-game call-up for Washington in the 2021-22 season. It was just his third career appearance, and he saw just over five minutes of ice time in a shootout win over the Hurricanes late in the year.
After also spending the following season on a two-way deal with the Capitals but not seeing any NHL recalls, Washington opted not to re-sign him. He remained in the organization on AHL contracts with the Bears, though, and finished fifth on the club in scoring last season with a 19-20–39 line in 68 games.
The former Union College standout was never drafted, but after erupting for an NCAA-leading 63 points in 38 games in his senior season at Union, he was the top college free agent in 2017 and made his NHL debut with the Flyers to end the season. Unfortunately, that never turned into anything resembling a full-time NHL role. The 5’10” forward has remained almost exclusively in the AHL ever since, recording 300 points in 473 career games over the last eight years with stops in Lehigh Valley, San Antonio, Colorado, and Hershey.
Vecchione is the second player who spent last season with the Bears to sign with Traktor in the past few days. Pierrick Dube, who was under an NHL contract with Washington for the last two years but was non-tendered last month, signed with them a few days back.
Here’s more from international waters:
- Former lottery pick Lias Andersson has signed a two-year extension with Switzerland’s EHC Biel-Bienne through the 2027-28 season, the team announced. The 2017 No. 7 overall pick by the Rangers headed to the National League club last summer after being non-tendered by the Canadiens and flourished, recording a 15-18–33 scoring line in 40 contests to lead the team in points per game (0.825). He’ll turn 27 in October, and the chances of him ever building on his 110-game NHL career remain slim, but he’s surely happy with the fit after a couple of years of strong AHL production, with few additional NHL chances to show for it.
- The Sabres have until June 1, 2026, to sign 2022 seventh-round pick Joel Ratkovic-Berndtsson before losing his rights, something they don’t appear likely to do based on his development trajectory so far. The 21-year-old just signed a one-year deal with Karlskrona HK, putting him in Sweden’s third-tier pro league – HockeyEttan – for 2025-26. The 6’0″ winger also spent most of last season in that league with Vasterviks IK, where he impressed with 29 points in 28 games, but failing to climb into a regular role in even the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan at this stage of his development is essentially a disqualifier for any NHL potential. He only recorded one assist in nine second-tier games last season while on loan to Tingsryds AIF.
- As expected, former Flames prospect Joni Jurmo has returned home after mutually terminating his entry-level contract earlier this month. The defenseman has signed a one-year deal with Liiga’s Kiekko-Espoo, per a club announcement. He last played in Finland’s top level in 2023-24, limited to five points and a plus-three rating across 46 games for Ilves and KooKoo.
- After being non-tendered by the Blues last month, center Tanner Dickinson is headed to the Slovak Extraliga to play with HC Presov, the team announced on its Facebook page. St. Louis let the 23-year-old become an unrestricted free agent after he scored 15 points in 57 games for the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds last season. A 2020 fourth-round pick who had good scoring numbers in juniors, COVID and injuries completely derailed his development. The Ohio native only played 38 games combined in his first three post-draft seasons, only three of which were professional.
Maple Leafs’ Roni Hirvonen Signs With Liiga’s Kärpät
Maple Leafs center prospect Roni Hirvonen is returning home to Finland on a one-year contract with Liiga’s Kärpät, per a team announcement Monday. Hirvonen is a pending restricted free agent after completing his entry-level contract. Toronto can retain his NHL signing rights through the 2028-29 season if they issue him a qualifying offer.
A second-round pick by the Leafs in 2020, Hirvonen has been a serviceable middle-six forward in Finland and the AHL, but hasn’t seen much forward progression in his game. His point-per-game rates in his five seasons since being drafted are strikingly similar: 0.39 in 2020-21 with Ässät, 0.57 in 2021-22 and 0.49 in 2022-23 with HIFK, and 0.35 in 2023-24 and 0.36 in 2024-25 with Toronto’s AHL affiliate.
While the 5’10”, 179-lb Hirvonen is only 23 years old and likely still has upside as a fourth-line piece, the lack of offensive progression indicates nothing else in the tank. Unsurprisingly, his play style was always that of a more defensively-minded forward. Nonetheless, he’s dealt with some injuries. He hasn’t played close to a full AHL schedule since arriving in North America two years ago, posting a 17-17–34 scoring line for the Marlies while playing in 96 of 144 possible regular-season games.
Hirvonen likely wanted more opportunity to develop his two-way game and, as a result, will return to a more familiar environment and, ideally, more consistent playing time, before attempting a return to North America next offseason or further down the line. Notable players selected after Hirvonen in the 2020 draft include Will Cuylle (one spot after at No. 60 overall), Alex Laferriere (No. 83), and Nils Åman (No. 167).
Eetu Mäkiniemi Signs One-Year Deal With Liiga’s TPS
Finnish goaltender Eetu Mäkiniemi is headed home on a one-year deal with TPS of the first-tier Liiga, per a club announcement. The Flyers’ fifth-stringer this season was a pending Group VI unrestricted free agent.
Mäkiniemi, 26, once had legitimate NHL upside but has been derailed by injuries in the past few years. That continued in 2024-25. He reported to AHL Lehigh Valley after being cut from training camp and, after posting a 3.03 GAA, .899 SV%, and a 3-0-2 record in five games, sustained a sports hernia in mid-November and never returned after undergoing surgery.
A fourth-round pick by the Hurricanes in 2017, Mäkiniemi signed his entry-level deal with Carolina and came to North America for the 2021-22 campaign. He impressed in limited action with AHL Chicago, posting a .922 SV% and 2.06 GAA in 14 appearances along with an 11-2-1 record. Buried among a bevy of strong netminding prospects in the Canes’ system, though, he was deemed expendable and traded to the Sharks the following summer in the deal that sent Brent Burns from San Jose to Carolina.
Mäkiniemi made his NHL debut the following season, posting a 1-0-1 record with a .906 SV% and 2.13 GAA in one start and one relief appearance for the lowly Sharks in a pair of contests in December 2022. He never made it back to the top level, though. After being demoted to ECHL Wichita for a time the following year, he reached Group VI UFA status for the first time and opted instead to latch on with the Flyers on a two-way deal last summer in hopes of climbing up their depth chart. While he had a decent AHL start and strong training camp, his injury derailed any chance of that.
He’ll now return to Liiga to rediscover some consistency and hopefully stay healthy. The 6’2″, 183-lb netminder last played in the top flight with Ilves in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons, recording a 2.43 GAA, .911 SV%, two shutouts, and a 15-14-11 record in 41 appearances. He’ll presumably be TPS’ starter ahead of 20-year-old World Juniors silver medalist Noa Vali, who struggled in his first full-time Liiga season in 2024-25 with a .887 SV% in 26 showings. A strong year for Mäkiniemi, particularly since he only signed a one-year deal, could land him another NHL contract in the summer of 2026.
Karson Kuhlman Signs With Sweden’s Rögle BK
Former NHL winger Karson Kuhlman has signed a one-year contract with Rögle BK of the Swedish Hockey League, the club announced. There won’t be a return to North America in 2025-26 for the Minnesota native, who spent last year in Finland with Lukko.
Kuhlman, whose season in Finland this year was the first overseas one of his career, did well to rejuvenate his production. His most recent season stateside was an exceptionally difficult one. Kuhlman inked a two-way deal with the Islanders for 2023-24 but was buried in the minors for the entire season after clearing waivers, putting together a lowly 12-10–22 scoring line with a -29 rating in 72 games for AHL Bridgeport. That’s garish production for someone with nearly 150 games of NHL experience, even for a depth piece.
The former NCAA championship tournament MVP found much more offensive success in Finland. He served as an alternate captain for Lukko and led the club in scoring with a 21-25–46 line in 60 games, helping them finish atop the Liiga regular-season standings for the first time in four years. He was Liiga’s player of the month in December while posting the highest points per game rate of his professional career in any league.
Instead of searching for an NHL two-way deal this summer and battling it out for a roster spot in training camp, he’ll opt for more security in what will presumably be a top-six role with Rögle. The team has been a middle-of-the-pack one in the SHL for the past few years, but has been active this offseason, landing ex-NHLers Mark Friedman and Fredrik Olofsson in recent weeks. They’re still rather light on offensive firepower, though, and Kuhlman has a chance to play the same starring role for them as he did for Lukko.
Kuhlman, undrafted, last saw NHL action in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs with the Jets. He has a 12-18–30 career scoring line in 147 games with Boston, Seattle, and Winnipeg.
Oilers Sign Viljami Marjala
The Oilers have made another addition to their prospect pool. The team announced that they have signed forward Viljami Marjala to a two-year, entry-level contract. PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that the deal will carry a cap hit of $872.5K and an AAV of $975K including his signing bonus and games-played bonus.
The 22-year-old was originally a fifth-round pick by Buffalo back in 2021, going 159th overall. However, the Sabres elected not to sign him by last Sunday’s deadline, making Marjala an unrestricted free agent and Edmonton quickly pounced.
Marjala finished fifth in Finland’s Liiga in assists this season with 44, two ahead of defenseman Atro Leppanen, who also signed with the Oilers recently. However, he had just eight goals with TPS Turku, less than half of the 17 he put up in 2023-24 which may have played a role in Buffalo letting him go.
Marjala signed with Karpat in Finland a little more than a month ago, inking a one-year deal plus an option that evidently contained an NHL out clause. It’s possible that Edmonton will loan him back there for next season, or they could have him start with AHL Bakersfield to get his feet wet at that level. It won’t be Marjala’s first taste of hockey in North America, however, as he spent two years in the QMJHL, the first of which helped get him originally drafted.
Liiga Forward Jesse Kiiskinen Offers Red Wings Upside
The Detroit Red Wings acquired Finnish forward Jesse Kiiskinen and a second-round pick from the Nashville Predators ahead of last year’s draft, in a deal that sent shutdown defender Andrew Gibson back the other way. The Wings followed the deal up by flipping the second-round pick to the San Jose Sharks, as a sweetener to get the team to acquire NHL defenseman Jake Walman. Detroit acquired nothing of value in their ditching of Walman – and even then, their pre-draft swap of Kiiskinen and Gibson already appears to be paying dividends.
Kiiskinen was originally drafted by Nashville in the third-round of the 2023 NHL Draft, following a year where he ranked sixth in point-per-game scoring in Finland’s U20 league. He was a clear bet on frame – standing at six-foot-1 and 185-pounds in his draft year and playing a game centered around using a mix of speed and strength to create space. Kiiskinen played through his rookie season in the Liiga following his draft selection, but his early struggles quickly cast doubt on his upside. He scored just 10 points in 38 pro games – fewer points than most of his younger peers in the 2024 draft class. But Kiiskinen stepped up to the plate in Finland’s continental friendlies, and shined through a glimmer of hope with 16 points in seven games with the country’s U19 squad.
It was on the heels of those international performances that Nashville chose to trade the Finnish winger – surely hoping that they could bank on a few strong performances masking an otherwise quiet year. But, on top of their many blunders this year, Nashville was also forced to pay for their impatience with Kiiskinen – as he emerged as one of Finland’s top underage talents. The skillful winger broke out in full with 30 assists and 44 points in 46 Liiga games. That scoring stands as the most a U20 Liiga player has scored since Aleksi Heponiemi (46 points in 2018-19), Sebastian Aho (45 points, 2015-16), and Aleksander Barkov (48 points in 2012-13). In fact, 14 of the 15 names at the top of the Liiga’s U20 scoring leaderboards have gone on to play in the NHL. With this scoring output, Kiiskinen also joins peers like Teuvo Teravainen, Jani Nyman, Juuso Parssinen, and Kaapo Kakko.
Kiiskinen is still multiple steps – and an entry-level contract – away from contributing to the NHL; and the array of talent from his NHL peers ranges from superstar to healthy scratch. But there’s plenty to life from Kiiskinen’s season. He looked strong and in-control throughout the year, with quick feet and little hesitation to throw the body. He dominated possession through the neutral zone and on the outskirts of the offensive end, and used quick hands and cheeky passes to take advantage of tight lanes that opened in the defense. Kiiskinen also maintained his strong offense into international play, recording a team-leading six goals and seven points in seven games of the 2025 World Junior Championship. No other Finn managed more than three goals.
The Red Wings may not have a shiny new winger just yet, but they must be ecstatic about the upside Kiiskinen offers. He was a final cut for Finland’s World Championship squad, and will now entertain the possibility of returning to a top-end Liiga role or moving on to the AHL next season. If he pursues the latter, he’ll undoubtedly be following in the footsteps of top Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Ville Koivunen – who managed 56 points in 63 AHL games this year after scoring as many in 59 Liiga games last year. It’s a path that’s been trailed already, and one that could lead Kiiskinen to a quick NHL debut once he makes the decision to come over. While it’s certainly comparing apples to oranges, it’s hard not to be excited about that outcome – especially after acquiring it for a stout defender who scored just 24 points in 54 OHL games this season.
Photo courtesy of David Reginek-Imagn Images.
Blackhawks RFA Aku Raty Signs In Finland
Blackhawks pending restricted free agent forward Aku Raty won’t be returning to the club next season. He’s inked a two-year contract with Karpat of his native Finland’s Liiga, the club announced today.
Chicago acquired Raty from the Mammoth in a minor trade-deadline deal, headlined by retired defenseman Shea Weber‘s contract changing hands from Utah to the Hawks. The 23-year-old was a fifth-round pick by the Coyotes in 2019 and made his NHL debut in the franchise’s final game in 2023-24, recording an assist. That stands as his only NHL appearance to date. While he made the trip to Utah with all of his former Arizona teammates, he was assigned back to AHL Tucson at the beginning of the season and never got a call-up.
Raty’s minor-league showing in 2024-25 was also a steep regression from the prior year, which was his first in North America. The 6’0″ winger was among Tucson’s top scorers in his first taste of AHL hockey with a 15-29–44 scoring line in 55 games, more than earning a brief look in the Coyotes’ lineup. But Raty posted just four goals and 15 assists for 19 points in 50 games for Tucson this year, combined with a -12 rating, before being dealt to the Blackhawks. A change of scenery with Chicago’s affiliate in Rockford helped somewhat, posting six points in 15 outings down the stretch, but that evidently wasn’t enough for him to consider remaining in the Chicago organization.
Raty will return to Karpat, where he played most of his youth hockey and spent three Liiga seasons from 2019-20 to 2021-22. His breakout campaign overseas in 2022-23 came after he transferred to Ilves. The Blackhawks can still retain his signing rights through 2029 if they opt to issue him a qualifying offer.