Overseas Notes: Loans, Kurashev, Kniazev
If the NHL season is going to begin in January, players from around the world will soon have to make their way back to North America to begin a quarantine. Official training camps for the seven teams that didn’t take part in this summer’s bubble postseason are expected to be three weeks long, while some players are already getting together for informal skates all around the league. With that in mind, the loan agreements for Mikhail Maltsev and Emil Bemstrom have both expired.
Maltsev, 22, is a New Jersey Devils prospect who had been playing for SKA St. Petersburg, the same team he’d been a part of before coming to North America in the first place last season. The big forward scored 21 points in 49 games for the Binghamton Devils last year and will try to take another step forward in the upcoming season. Bemstrom, 21, is one of the Columbus Blue Jackets’ top young players, who scored 20 points in 56 NHL games last season. He was on loan in Finland with HIFK and dominated the league, scoring 17 points in 16 games.
- Philipp Kurashev, who is on loan with HC Lugano in Switzerland, will not be back on the ice until December 8 thanks to a COVID-19 outbreak in the league. It’s not clear if Kurashev himself tested positive, with the release just indicating that several members of Lugano and HC Bienne were infected. Kurashev, 21, was a fourth-round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks and has scored eight points in 12 games so far this season.
- San Jose Sharks prospect Artemi Kniazev has been added to Russia’s U20 roster, according to Corey Pronman of The Athletic. The 19-year-old defenseman was selected 48th overall in 2019 is currently on loan in Russia, spending time in the MHL and VHL so far this year. Kniazev recorded 43 points in 51 games last year for the Chicoutimi Sagueneens of the QMJHL, often carrying the puck up the ice himself with his excellent skating ability.
Minor Transactions: 11/28/20
While the transaction lists for North American leagues remain relatively empty given unknown and delayed start dates, hockey is alive and well in Europe and those leagues and teams continue to collect loans and signings from North America. Keep up with all of the minor moves, overseas and otherwise, right here:
- Despite his status as a second-round pick, goaltender Olof Lindbom has still not seen any action in the SHL, Sweden’s top league, since he was drafted by the New York Rangers in 2018. That could change soon, as the SHL’s Malmo Redhawks have announced that they have acquired Lindbom on loan from the Allsvenskan’s Mora IK. This is not Lindbom’s first promotion, but he has only ever sat as a backup in previous opportunities. However, this loan was prompted by an injury to Malmo starter Oscar Alsenfelt, leaving former Boston Bruins prospect Lars Volden, who has struggled of late, as the only other keeper on the roster. Lindom’s odds of finally making his first SHL appearance seem high. He needs to get used to facing top competition if he hopes to ever compete for a roster spot in New York given their deep stable of talented, young goaltenders.
- After four seasons with the AHL’s Rochester Americans, the first three spent on an entry-level contract, Eric Cornel will not return to the team this season. The Buffalo Sabres’ 2014 second-round pick has signed a one-year deal with the DEL’s Nurnberg Ice Tigers, the club announced. Cornel was a productive two-way forward for Rochester, even if he didn’t live up to his draft billing. He has a chance to take on even more responsibility and improve his scoring numbers in Germany. Cornel will join a Nurnberg team that rosters a number of former NHL players and prospects.
- Joe Whitney has also made the move to Germany, signing a one-year deal with the Iserlohn Roosters per a team announcement. Whitney is a veteran of 450 AHL games as well as a cup of coffee in the NHL, but has not played in North America since 2017-18. The veteran forward is coming off back-to-back strong seasons in Sweden with the SHL’s Linkoping HC, but has seemingly opted to try his hand somewhere new.
- A fellow journeyman with considerable AHL experience and a brief showing in the NHL, Morgan Ellis finds himself looking for a new job after being released by the KHL’s Dinamo Riga. Ellis has made stops in the DEL, SHL, and KHL over the past three years and expected to remain in the KHL this season, but was terminated by mutual agreement, according to the team. The former Montreal Canadiens prospect defenseman will have to look elsewhere, in Europe or perhaps back in North America, for a place to play this season.
Philadelphia Flyers Loan Michael Raffl To Austria
As had been rumored for some time, the Philadelphia Flyers have confirmed today that veteran forward Michael Raffl has been loaned overseas until the start of NHL training camp. However, this loan has some special significance. Raffl, one of the NHL’s few Austrian players, will get the chance to suit up for his hometown team, Villacher SV of the IceHL.
Raffl, 31, just signed a two-year extension with the Philly in March and is awaiting the start of his eight season with the club. In the meantime, the career Flyer is looking for a place to play in preparation for the NHL season, which does not yet have a solidified start date. In terms of convenience and fit, there is no better option than Villacher, as it is located in Raffl’s hometown and is the program that he played all of his developmental hockey with, including parts of six seasons with the top pro team.
The current iteration of Villacher has far more talent on paper than when Raffl last played for the team, but it has not shown on the ice so far this season. Despite having a number of players with North American pro experience, including Kristers Gudlevskis, Jordan Caron, and Scott Kosmachuk, Villacher has just two wins in it’s first 13 games and sits tenth out of eleven teams in the IceHL. Raffl hopes that what amounts to some preseason conditioning can also help to turn the team’s season around and propel them towards a consecutive playoff qualification.
Blackhawks Loan Philipp Kurashev And Michal Teply
Nov 24: After playing just a single game with BK Mlada Boleslav, Teply’s loan has been changed to HC Stadion Litomerice.
Sep 5: Chicago has opted to loan two more prospects overseas as they announced that they’ve loaned center Philipp Kurashev to HC Lugano of the Swiss NLA and winger Michal Teply to BK Mlada Boleslav of the Czech Extraliga. Both players will likely return when NHL training camps for 2020-21 get underway.
Kurashev played his first full professional season in 2019-20, suiting up in 36 games with AHL Rockford, collecting seven goals and 12 assists in 36 games. However, he was not recalled by the Blackhawks at any point during the season. The 20-year-old was a fourth-round pick (120th overall) in 2018 and has two years remaining on his contract.
As for Teply, the 19-year-old opted to leave the Czech Republic to play junior hockey with the Winnipeg Ice of the WHL this season. The decision proved to be a smart one as he had 29 goals and 34 assists in 53 games which earned himself an entry-level contract back in April. Teply was a fourth-round pick of Chicago (105th overall) back in 2019. He’s still eligible to play in the WHL this season but Teply could also suit up for Rockford whenever their 2020-21 season kicks off.
The two players join winger Tim Soderlund (Almtuna, Allsvenskan) and winger Matej Chalupa (Hradec Kralove, Czech Extraliga) as Chicago prospects that are on loan.
Dan Vladar Loaned To HC Dynamo Pardubice
Just a few months after his eye-popping three-year extension, Dan Vladar will soon be back on the ice. The Boston Bruins have loaned the young goaltender to HC Dynamo Pardubice in the Czech Republic until training camps open in North America. His new Czech team has been dealing with injuries at the goaltending position, but may not actually get Vladar for that long, depending on when the Bruins believe he’ll have to come back to prepare for the upcoming AHL season. Some prospects around the NHL have already terminated their loan agreements and are coming to North America (though, usually those are for Canadian teams with stricter traveling quarantine protocols).
Vladar, 23, was absolutely outstanding for the Providence Bruins in 2019-20. He posted the AHL’s best goals-against average, 1.79, and save percentage, .936, in 25 appearances, going 14-7-1 in the process. He also played one game for the Atlanta Gladiators of the ECHL and even made his NHL debut by entering a postseason game for Boston.
Selected 75th overall in 2015, Vladar has a chance to be the future starter for the Bruins, who are currently going with a mid-thirties tandem of Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak, both on expiring deals. To get there, he’ll have to continue on the strong development track he’s shown so far, meaning game action is crucially important. With no clear timeline for the AHL, getting some ice time in Europe can only help him prepare for the upcoming season.
Vancouver Canucks Loan Petrus Palmu To Germany
Unlike many players who have bee shipped overseas in recent months while the NHL waits for their season to begin, Petrus Palmu is no stranger to loans. The Vancouver Canucks prospects has spent parts of each of his three pro seasons on loan in his native Finland. As such, it should come as no surprise that he has again been loaned away. Instead, the surprise is that rather than return to the Liiga, Palmu has been loaned to ERC Ingolstadt of Germany’s DEL.
Ingolstadt announced on Monday that they were pleased to have negotiated a loan with the Canucks to land Palmu. As opposed to many recent loan announcements, the team’s release also did not mention any shortened timeline or return for NHL training camp. Instead, it seems possible that this could be a season-long loan for the young forward.
Palmu, 23, is a skilled and speedy forward, as evidenced by a near 100-point season in the OHL and solid production in the Liiga. However, his size continues to be a concern when it comes to his NHL prospects. At 5’6″ and 170 lbs., Palmu is undersized to be competing against elite competition and to this point the Canucks seem hesitant to even place him in the AHL, beyond just a dozen games two years ago. Perhaps another strong season in Europe, this time in a new league, will convince them to give him a shot .
Urho Vaakanainen, Cooper Zech Loaned Overseas
Two young Boston Bruins defensemen have been loaned overseas this morning, with Urho Vaakanainen heading to SaiPa in Finland’s top league and Cooper Zech heading to HK Nitra in Slovakia. Both players are expected back in North America when NHL training camps open.
Vaakanainen will grab the headlines here, especially after his name was included in trade speculation recently. The 21-year-old defenseman was a first-round pick in 2017 but has played just seven NHL games to this point. That doesn’t mean his potential has diminished, but the clock is ticking on his opportunity to show he can be a legitimate top-four option for the Bruins.
For now, Vaakanainen will return to the club he played for during the 2017-18 season, the last before he came to North America. The 6’1″ defenseman scored 11 points in 43 games as a teenager for SaiPa that year, while also suiting up for the Finns at the World Juniors. The shine that surrounded his prospect status then has dulled a bit in the meantime, so this is a great opportunity to get back on the ice and prove his development has not stalled.
For Zech, simply getting into some more games is the most important part of his loan. The 21-year-old signed a two-year with the Providence Bruins of the AHL in the spring of 2019, leaving Ferris State after just one season of college hockey. He scored 14 points in 45 games for Providence this season but needs to produce at an even higher rate if he is to ever be considered for an NHL spot.
Mikko Lehtonen Terminates KHL Loan
Next stop, Toronto. Mikko Lehtonen has terminated his contract with Jokerit of the KHL and will be heading to North America soon to join the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Lehtonen, 26, signed a one-year contract with the Maple Leafs in May that will represent his first opportunity in the NHL. The smooth-skating Finn was undrafted but continued to develop overseas, winning the KHL Defenseman of the Year award last season. He scored 49 points in 60 games to earn that honor, a pace that he was blowing out of the water this year as he scored at a point-per-game rate.
Unfortunately, Lehtonen was limited to just 17 games with Jokerit this year because of COVID-19. The defenseman contracted the disease in October and had to wait out a quarantine with the rest of his teammates, though he only experienced mild symptoms.
Still, his performance should have fans in Toronto excited about his potential as a top-four option in the NHL. Lehtonen’s not a flashy player but racks up points with quick breakout passes and a heavy dose of shots in the offensive zone. His ability to score from the point could make him a candidate to run one of Toronto’s powerplay units, taking over the role from the departed Tyson Barrie.
Like all the other players under contract, Lehtonen will have to wait on the league’s final decision for when training camp officially starts. But with no loan agreement holding him back, he can head to Toronto to start his quarantine and begin to prepare for his first chance in the NHL.
Quinton Byfield Will Not Leave WJC For NHL
Part of the deal when the Chicago Blackhawks loaned Kirby Dach to Canada’s World Junior selection camp was that if the NHL got up and running before the tournament started, he could potentially be called away from the team and back to his pro organization. The same can’t be said about Los Angeles Kings prospect Quinton Byfield, who told reporters today including Scott Wheeler of The Athletic that he will be playing in the junior tournament regardless of when NHL camps open, returning to the Kings afterward.
Byfield looked somewhat overmatched at the tournament last year when he made the club as a 17-year-old but is expected to play a huge role for Canada at this year’s event. The second-overall pick is coming off an incredible season with the Sudbury Wolves of the OHL in which he scored 32 goals and 82 points in 45 games. He still received a gold medal as part of Team Canada but recorded just a single assist and no goals in his seven-game tournament.
This year he’ll be back for another medal and it’ll be his play that could determine Canada’s fate. Byfield was on the first line today between Samuel Poulin and Peyton Krebs for camp Team Red, though that doesn’t mean much this early on.
It is interesting to see the different approaches from teams around the league. Alexis Lafreniere for instance, who is still eligible for the event, is not at the selection camp, instead focusing on the start of his NHL career with the New York Rangers. Detroit Red Wings prospect Moritz Seider, who captained the German squad a year ago, was also not released for the tournament. Byfield is expected to push for an NHL spot immediately, but the Kings obviously believe this event is beneficial to his long-term development.
Nashville Predators Loan Frederic Allard To Villacher SV
The Nashville Predators have found some playing time for one of their prospects, loaning Frederic Allard to Villacher SV of the ICEHL, Austria’s professional league. Allard will remain overseas only until the start of Nashville’s training camp.
Selected 78th overall in 2016, Allard has found and filled a key role with the Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL the last three seasons, racking up 74 points in 181 games. The 22-year-old still has NHL upside, but for years it has been difficult for prospects to crack through in Nashville. The team already has Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis, and Mattias Ekholm taking up the majority of playing time and this offseason brought in Mark Borowiecki and Matt Benning to round out the depth chart.
For Allard, getting on the ice and into competitive games is the only way he’s going to keep his development path pointed in the right direction. This is the final year of his entry-level contract, meaning he’ll be a restricted free agent next summer looking for either a new deal with the Predators or a fresh start somewhere else. This minor league season is important, and getting an early start overseas should only help him when things begin back home.