Erik Brannstrom Recalled From Loan
The Ottawa Senators are bringing back defensive prospect Erik Brannstrom as they prepare for the upcoming season. Brannstrom’s loan with the SCL Tigers in Switzerland has now ended, with the team wishing him well back in North America.
It is a huge season for Brannstrom, the 15th overall pick in the 2017 draft. Now 21, the young defenseman made his NHL debut at the end of the 2018-19 season, played in 31 games last year for the Senators, and now will be competing for a full-time spot. A wizard with the puck, he is expected to develop into an offense-driving force for the Senators, though that didn’t come through last season when he had just four assists during his 31-game stint. He did of course produce at nearly a point-per-game clip in the AHL, but some of that production will have to translate before he can really be considered a star at the next level.
Still, he is one of the many young bright spots on a Senators roster that should be improved. The team brought in Evgenii Dadonov and Alex Galchenyuk to give them a little more punch up front, Matt Murray to stabilize the goaltending position, and players like Erik Gudbranson, Josh Brown, and Austin Watson to make the team tougher to play against. Those additions, along with the natural development of young players like Brannstrom and Brady Tkachuk, should make Senators’ games much more competitive.
While they still might not be able to compete with some of the top teams in the All-Canadian division, this is no longer a “tank” year for the Senators. Real, tangible improvements from players like Brannstrom is the goal, and losing every night won’t accomplish that.
Zach Fucale Loaned To ECHL
When the Washington Capitals signed Zach Fucale to a one-year, two-way contract this summer it made for quite the crowded crease in Hershey, the team’s AHL affiliate. With Henrik Lundqvist taking the other spot in the NHL, Pheonix Copley and Vitek Vanecek were penciled into the third and fourth-string spots. Fucale seemed likely to be headed back to the ECHL and today that’s exactly what happened. The Capitals have loaned Fucale to the South Carolina Stingrays.
Fucale, who is still only 25 despite his draft seeming like decades ago, was selected 36th overall by the Montreal Canadiens in 2013. An elite prospect who dominated at the junior level, winning the Memorial Cup and a gold medal with Canada at the WJC, he was never quite able to replicate that success at the next level.
Still, Fucale is a decorated goaltender on the international stage, winning two Spengler Cups with Canada over the years. For a fifth-string option in Washington, he’s hard to top.
South Carolina starts their season tomorrow with a match against the Greenville Swamp Rabbits to kick off the ECHL schedule.
Juuso Valimaki, Barrett Hayton Recalled From Loan
With training camp now right around the corner, players loaned all over the world will begin to make their return to North America. For the Arizona Coyotes, that means Barrett Hayton is on his way back, his loan ended with Ilves in Finland after eight games. Hayton registered four assists in his overseas stint and will return to the Coyotes with the hopes of becoming a full-time NHL player this season.
In 20 games last year, Hayton scored one goal and four points. He was allowed to leave and participate in the World Juniors, where he captained Team Canada to a gold medal but suffered a shoulder injury in the process. When the Coyotes returned for the postseason bubble, Hayton suited up three times but failed to record a point. Selected fifth overall in 2018, the 6’1″ forward has plenty of offensive upside and a work ethic to take him far, if given the opportunity. He’ll try to take over as one of the leaders in Arizona this season.
Ilves has also announced that the loan of Juuso Valimaki has ended and the Calgary Flames defenseman will also be traveling back to North America. Valimaki played in 19 games and registered 19 points, a great sign after missing the entire 2019-20 season with injury. The 16th overall pick in 2017, Valimaki had looked ready to take on a full-time role in the NHL when he suffered a major knee injury, tearing his ACL in offseason training. He didn’t play a single game last season but after an outstanding performance in Finland, he looks ready to bounce back as if he missed no development time at all.
Toronto Maple Leafs Loan Kalle Kossila To DEL
After playing just 12 games for the Toronto Marlies last season, it appears as though Kalle Kossila may not return. The veteran minor-league forward has been loaned to EHC Red Bull Munchen in the DEL today, without any indication of whether or not he’ll be back for training camp in North America.
The 27-year-old Kossila is on the second season of a two-year deal he signed with the Maple Leafs in 2019 and is due to earn a one-way salary of $700K. Signed along with several other veteran forwards to provide some depth for the organization, he suffered what was believed to be a concussion in last year’s training camp and missed a huge chunk of the season. It was eventually diagnosed as a migraine problem and he scored six points in just 12 appearances for the Marlies.
Now, apparently healthy enough to be loaned out to the DEL, Kossila will try to get his career back on track. The timing of the loan is interesting given the recent news that the NHL could be back training as soon as January, but perhaps this is just to get a bit of a head start. An undrafted signing out of St. Cloud State, the undersized forward has always been an excellent playmaker at the minor league level, recording 147 points in 182 AHL games. His NHL games haven’t gone quite as smoothly, with only three career points in 19 appearances.
Snapshots: Pacioretty, Hoffman, Kase, Sweden
News broke yesterday that the Vegas Golden Knights have had trade discussions regarding Max Pacioretty and the hockey world, desperate for any news right now, exploded with potential scenarios. Fans of nearly every team in the league pictured the 30-goal scorer in their uniform, but Jesse Granger of The Athletic believes that the Golden Knights shouldn’t rush into anything. Though he lists Pacioretty alongside Jonathan Marchessault and Marc-Andre Fleury as three names Vegas has considered moving, he reasons that it would be a step in the wrong direction to trade the former Montreal Canadiens forward due to a lack of scoring throughout the roster.
Tucked away in the piece is another note, however, and that is the Golden Knights have had no communication with Mike Hoffman‘s camp. The free agent sniper was listed as a potential target by Frank Seravalli of TSN when he broke the Pacioretty news yesterday, but it appears as though that may not be the case. The Golden Knights could obviously make contact if they do move a contract like Pacioretty’s $7MM cap hit, but time is running out for Hoffman to sign with a team before training camp starts in a few weeks.
- The Philadelphia Flyers have loaned David Kase to the Czech National Team for the upcoming Channel One Cup, which starts next week. Kase had been on loan with HC Karlovy Vary but will get a chance to compete for his country at the international tournament. At some point, the 23-year-old should be expected to return to North America to quarantine and then take part in NHL training camp, but given the tournament isn’t over until December 20, it won’t be for a little while.
- More bad news for the Swedish World Junior team as the goaltending coach has also tested positive for COVID-19, the fourth staff member in the last few days. At this point, anyone that has tested positive is not supposed to be allowed to travel to the bubble in Edmonton for the tournament, while others are not supposed to be added to the traveling party. That leaves Sweden without several key coaches, including head coach Tomas Monten and assistant Anton Lundberg. At this point, given that several players were also excluded due to positive tests, it’s not clear if Sweden will even be able to take part.
Minor Transactions: 12/05/20
With a mix of some leagues currently in action, others preparing to start, some postponing play, and others still trying to sort it all out, there has been a constant stream of minor moves with players jumping from league to league via signing, loan, reassignment, and more. Today has been no exception, as a number of players are on the move:
- With the ECHL planning to get underway next week, some NHL and AHL players have begun to be reassigned to the “AA” level to get a jumpstart on their seasons and many more moves are likely to come over the next few days. For now, the Boston Bruins have made the decision on a pair of young players, assigning goaltender Kyle Keyser and forward Matt Filipe to the Jacksonville Icemen, the Bruins’ temporary affiliate for this season. Keyser, 21, saw very limited action last year in his first pro season but the former OHL standout is looking to prove with his play this year that he too belongs in the “goalie of the future” conversation with top prospects Dan Vladar and Jeremy Swayman. Filipe, 22, is set to make his pro debut after signing with the Bruins out of nearby Northeastern University. The former Carolina Hurricanes prospect plays with size and a nose for the net, which served him well as a reliable producer in the NCAA.
- A pair of Oshawa Generals stars are getting their seasons started overseas. With the OHL not getting started until at least February, the Generals announced that NHL prospects Ty Tullio (EDM) and Allan McShane (MTL) have been loaned to Slovakia. The pair will join MHK Liptovsky Mikulas of the Slovakian Extraliga until the time that they are either recalled by their NHL clubs or by Oshawa for training camp. McShane and Tullio finished second and third respectively in scoring last season for the Generals, with 67 and 66 points apiece.
- Although Finland’s hockey seasons are currently on pause, the Dallas Stars do not plan to recall top prospect Ty Dellandrea right away, according to Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas Morning News. Dellandrea has been playing with the Liiga’s JYP this past month, recording three points in six games, and will continue practicing with the team for the time being. The Liiga is tentatively scheduled to return to action on December 20, but that start date is not guaranteed. With the NHL hoping to be up and running by mid-January with two weeks of training camp beforehand, Dellandrea may still be recalled before he can play with JYP again. The Stars hope that Dellandrea can compete for a roster spot this year and will want to make sure that he is in attendance for day one of training camp.
Marco Rossi To Attend World Juniors
If you needed another reason to tune in for the World Junior Championship later this month, you’ve got it. Marco Rossi, the Minnesota Wild forward who led the OHL in scoring last season, will soon be assigned to Team Austria for their training camp that begins this weekend according to Michael Russo of The Athletic. The Wild believe it is a “great opportunity” for Rossi to lead the Austrians, where he will likely be the team’s best player in the tournament.
Rossi, 19, is currently on loan to the ZSC Lions in Switzerland and has played one game for the pro club. The undersized center was one of the best players in the entire CHL last season, scoring 120 points in 56 games for the Ottawa 67’s and winning the Red Tilson Trophy as the OHL Most Outstanding Player. Considered one of the most NHL-ready prospects in the draft, he was selected ninth overall by the Wild and was hoping to jump right into the league.
As with everything else right now, that is entirely up in the air. The NHL doesn’t have a firm start date or even a training camp schedule, leading to the decision by the Wild to send him to the World Juniors. Rossi’s agent, Serge Payer, told Russo that he will report to Minnesota after the tournament in Edmonton.
The development of Rossi is paramount in Minnesota. The team has been searching for a new franchise center for years, and though GM Bill Guerin has acquired names like Nick Bonino, Marcus Johansson, and Nick Bjugstad this summer, all of whom have experience down the middle, it’s Rossi that still carries the hope of an entire fanbase. If he is able to fulfill his potential and find any sort of chemistry with Kirill Kaprizov, the Wild could have a duo to build around for years to come.
Even though the Wild haven’t often been considered real Stanley Cup contenders, they still have been mired in the middle of the pack and haven’t received prospects like Rossi very often. In fact, he’s the highest draft pick they’ve had since Matt Dumba went seventh overall in 2012.
Snapshots: Liiga, Paajarvi, Bradley
Just days after the QMJHL announced a month-long pause due to the heightened spread of the Coronavirus, another league is set to make a similar call, but this time it’s a pro league out of Europe. According to a number of sources including The Athletic’s Saad Yousuf, the Finnish Liiga is expected to halt all play through the month of December. This move is expected to carry over to Finland’s junior leagues as well. A number of NHL prospects will be impacted, as will NHL players currently on loan who will return to North America sooner than expected. It does seem as though the shut down will end in January, but the COVID numbers in Finland will ultimately determine when play resumes.
- Veteran NHL forward Magnus Paajarvi opted to take his talents to Russia last summer, signing a two-year deal with the KHL’s Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. His first season fell short of expectations, as Paajarvi played in only 39 games and recorded just 19 points. His second season has started off much better, as Paajarvi already has 11 ponts through 26 games and will far exceed last season if he stays healthy. Yaroslavl decided to take advantage of the success of the impending free agent, as they have traded Paajarvi to Dynamo Moscow in exchange for another name familiar to NHL fans, Teemu Pulkkinen. Given that Paajarvi was still a serviceable bottom-six forward when he left the NHL, is on pace for a superior season this year with his contract expiring, and has now abandoned any loyalty he might have felt to the KHL club he initially signed with, this could all be leading to an NHL comeback for the skilled power forward next year.
- Detroit Red Wings prospect Chase Bradley has made his collegiate selection. The 2020 seventh-round pick out of the USHL has committed to the University of Connecticut, the program announced. The St. Louis native is a hard-working forward who is expecting to take a big step forward offensively in his final junior season before moving to the NCAA. Bradley becomes the second NHL prospect commitment for the Huskies this month, as fellow 2020 seventh-rounder Ryan Tverberg (TOR) will also join UConn next season.
Prospect Notes: 2021 Draft, Team Canada, Merkley
The focus for hockey fans right now is on the upcoming NHL season, but for many 2021 draft-eligible prospects, the concern is just trying to get on the ice at all. The OHL and WHL haven’t started yet, while the QMJHL is about to shut down for a month due to increasing coronavirus numbers. Several NCAA schools have shut down their hockey programs for the year, while overseas leagues are routinely dealing with outbreaks of their own. It makes determining a draft ranking exceptionally difficult, but Scott Wheeler of The Athletic (subscription required) tried anyway, putting together his top-64 today.
At the very top without much surprise is Owen Power, the University of Michigan freshman that has dominated at every level of minor hockey. Power has the size—he stands 6’5″ and is well over 200 lbs—and skating ability to be a difference-maker in the NHL, potentially at a very young age. That said, he doesn’t project to have quite the same offensive upside as someone like Rasmus Dahlin, which means he isn’t a sure thing for the first-overall selection just yet. The 18-year-old defenseman was in the middle of some controversy last month when his college team wouldn’t release him for Team Canada’s World Junior selection camp, meaning he (likely) won’t get a chance to show what he can do on the world stage. Still, playing (and dominating) at Michigan should be more than enough for scouts to form a strong opinion on the young defender and decide whether he’s worth that top spot.
- Wheeler’s colleague Corey Pronman does his best to project what Canada’s roster will be like when the coaching staff cuts it down from 49 to 25 for the tournament later this month. Among his “locks” to make the team are Bowen Byram and Jamie Drysdale, who will return on defense and are a big reason why the loss of Power won’t really matter to the Canadians. Byram, the fourth-overall pick in 2019, and Drysdale, the sixth in 2020, could make up one of the most dynamic and skilled pairings in World Junior history should they play together for Canada. Both players can score at an elite level and skate among the best in the world, which should put them in the NHL before long.
- One young forward that never managed to make Team Canada at the WJC is now trying to lock down a role in the NHL, as Nick Merkley‘s loan with Assat in Finland comes to an end. The 23-year-old was a first-round pick in 2015 but has just two NHL games under his belt so far and is now with his second organization. In his 19-game stint overseas the New Jersey Devils forward scored 13 points, all of them after going scoreless in his first four. Merkley signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Devils in October, accepting his qualifying offer amount to try and prove he can hack it at the NHL level.
Calvin Pickard Loaned To Vienna Capitals
The Detroit Red Wings have found some ice for another one of their players, this time loaning Calvin Pickard to the Vienna Capitals. The veteran goaltender will head to Austria for the month of December, giving Vienna some depth at the position while Sebastian Wraneschitz leaves to take part in the World Junior Championship.
Pickard, 28, is in the second season of a two-year deal signed with the Red Wings in 2019 and is scheduled to earn $800K on his one-way contract. Even with his extensive experience at the NHL level he likely won’t spend much time there this season after Detroit added Thomas Greiss as a free agent. Greiss will partner with Jonathan Bernier in net for the Red Wings, while Pickard is one of five other goaltenders under contract in the organization.
That’s a crowded position given how uncertain the minor league seasons are, but for now, Pickard can focus on the playing time provided with Vienna, something he has never really experienced before. Though Pickard has never locked down an NHL job for very long, he also hasn’t ever tested the waters overseas, instead playing more than 230 games at the AHL level. Most recently, he played 33 matches for the Grand Rapids Griffins, posting a 17-12-6 record and .903 save percentage.