Ian Mitchell Linked To Swiss League
Red Wings depth defenseman Ian Mitchell is expected to sign with Bern of Switzerland’s National League when he becomes a free agent this summer, according to Swiss outlet He Shoots He Scores.
Mitchell, 27, once looked like he’d be a long-term piece on the Blackhawks’ blue line. Drafted in the second round in 2017, he was an NCHC champion with and captained the University of Denver before turning pro in 2020.
The 6’0″ righty has yet to eclipse the career high of 39 games played he set with Chicago as a first-year pro, though. A gifted puck-mover, he could never honestly challenge for the top-four deployment and power-play stability he needed to be effective. He was shipped to the Bruins in the 2023 Taylor Hall/Nick Foligno deal before getting non-tendered last summer.
Mitchell signed a one-year, one-way, league minimum deal with Detroit in free agency. They were likely hoping he could be a valuable press-box piece and depth puck-mover if needed, but he hasn’t spent a day on Detroit’s roster this season after being cut from training camp and clearing waivers.
Mitchell had appeared in at least one NHL game in each of the last five seasons with Chicago and Boston, but that streak is in jeopardy now. His output with AHL Grand Rapids hasn’t been great, either. His 4-13–17 scoring line through 40 games ranks third among Grand Rapids defenders in scoring, but he’s usually good for at least a half a point per game in the minors. His +23 rating is on track to be a career-high, though.
Smooth-skating defenders tend to thrive in the NL, where he now looks to continue his career. SC Bern is historically one of the league’s top clubs but has had a rough go of things this decade. He will join a group that already has former NHLers Hardy Haman Aktell, Anton Lindholm, Joel Vermin, and Waltteri Merela signed through next season.
Olle Lycksell Linked To Swiss League
Senators forward Olle Lycksell is spurning interest from clubs in his native Sweden in an effort to move to Switzerland’s National League next season, Johan Svensson and Mattias Persson of Expressen report. In any event, it’s clear the pending Group VI unrestricted free agent won’t be re-signing with Ottawa or any other NHL team, for that matter.
Lycksell is in his fourth season stateside, but just his first in the Sens organization. A sixth-round pick by the Flyers in 2017, he spent several years coming up through the SHL before signing with Philadelphia in 2021. Philly loaned him back to Sweden’s Växjö Lakers for the following campaign, where he had a career-best 14 goals and 34 points in 47 games before being brought to North America the following season.
The 5’11” winger has been a consistently high-end AHL producer ever since. He averaged over a point per game twice through his four seasons to date and has 61 goals and 145 points in 160 career minor-league games, including 17 points in 25 outings with the Belleville Senators this year. It hasn’t translated into NHL success, though. He’s seen big-league action each year, three times with the Flyers and back earlier this season with the Sens, but only has two goals and 13 points in 52 career games. Being an unnatural fit for a fourth-line role, he’s had some wildly inconsistent possession impacts and hasn’t shown enough to push for a top-six role.
The 26-year-old will now be a Group VI UFA for the second summer in a row since he’s stayed under 80 career NHL appearances. His archetype makes him primed for offensive success in one of Europe’s top leagues in Switzerland, where he should immediately become one of the league’s leading scorers if he transfers there.
Juho Lammikko Clears Unconditional Waivers, Signs In Switzerland
Feb. 7: Lammikko wasn’t an unrestricted free agent for long. Zurich in Switzerland’s NL announced that they’ve signed him to a three-year deal that runs through the 2027-28 campaign.
Feb. 6: Lammikko cleared waivers and is now a UFA, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.
Feb. 5: The Devils announced they’ve placed forward Juho Lammikko on unconditional waivers for the purpose of terminating his contract. Assuming he clears tomorrow, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent and can return to Europe or sign elsewhere in North America.
New Jersey placed Lammikko on standard waivers last month for roster flexibility, but never assigned him to the minors. Yesterday, the Devils finally sent him down to Utica as the corresponding move for Nick Bjugstad‘s acquisition. Evidently, he’s refused to accept the assignment and is in breach of his contract as a result.
Lammikko, 30, returned to the NHL this summer when he signed a one-year, $800K deal with New Jersey last June. His season started inauspiciously on injured reserve due to a lower-body injury. He got back into action in late October but has been a healthy scratch for long stretches at a time. In 24 games dressed, he’s managed two assists and a -4 rating while averaging 9:53 of ice time per game.
A checking center who commonly shifts to the wing, Lammikko’s possession numbers have been ugly. He’s only controlled 42.7% of shot attempts at 5-on-5 despite being used in a relatively sheltered role and has been shelled in possession quality as well.
Lammikko was a third-round pick by the Panthers in 2014. He joined the organization for the 2016-17 campaign and climbed through the minors before making his NHL debut two years later. He notched 11 points in 84 games for the Cats over parts of two seasons, interrupted by a stint back in Europe, before being traded to the Canucks shortly before the 2021-22 campaign. That resulted in Lammikko making a career-high 75 appearances for Vancouver, notching seven goals and 15 points while averaging over 12 minutes per game.
Despite that decent showing as a bottom-six middleman, his NHL career paused again there. He headed back to Europe with Switzerland’s ZSC Lions, emerging as one of the National League’s top power forwards during that time. After racking up 112 points in 144 games with a +60 rating over three years, he attempted his third NHL arrival with the Devils. With his unwillingness to accept a minor-league assignment, a return to the top Swiss league or somewhere else in Europe should be the expectation.
Kaapo Kahkonen Eyeing International Options For Next Season
Aside from serving as a backup in Montreal for one game this season, goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen has been exclusively in the minors with AHL Laval. It was similar in 2024-25 as despite multiple waiver claims, he only got into two NHL contests with the rest coming in the minors.
With it becoming clearer that he is viewed as more of a third-string option around the NHL instead of a possible backup, it appears that Kahkonen is exploring other options for next season. Expressen’s Johan Svensson and Mattias Persson report (subscription link) that Kahkonen intends to play overseas next season and is eyeing a spot in either Sweden’s SHL or Switzerland’s NL.
A fourth-round pick by Minnesota back in 2014, Kahkonen was, for a time, viewed as a possible goalie of the future for them. San Jose felt the same way, acquiring him in 2022 for Jacob Middleton in the hopes that a change of scenery could get him going and stabilize their goaltending situation at the same time.
That didn’t happen and it would be fair to say that Kahkonen has had a bit of a nomadic journey since then. In less than two years, the 29-year-old has spent time with San Jose, New Jersey, Winnipeg, Colorado, Florida (AHL only), and now Montreal after the Canadiens signed him to a one-year, one-way deal worth $1.15MM on the opening day of free agency.
For his career, Kahkonen has played in 140 games at the NHL level, posting a 3.34 GAA along with a .898 SV%, numbers that played a big role in his bouncing around as of late. He’s been considerably better than that in the minors this season, putting up a 2.67 GAA with a .905 SV% in 20 games in Laval.
Rather than test the market to see if another opportunity to be a well-paid number three option materializes next season, it looks as if Kahkonen will look to play closer to home instead. He’ll likely have to take a pay cut to do so, however, as seven-figure contracts for players are few and far between in other leagues. But if riding around in the minors isn’t something he wants to do moving forward, heading back overseas is the logical next step for Kahkonen.
Lassi Thomson Linked To Swiss League
After spending last season in Sweden, the Senators elected to bring back defenseman Lassi Thomson for this season. The hope was that he might be able to play his way higher on Ottawa’s depth chart and perhaps see some NHL action.
However, that hasn’t been the case. Aside from a brief recall to the big club that didn’t result in NHL action, the 25-year-old has played exclusively with AHL Belleville in 2025-26. Through 33 games, Thomson has been reasonably productive with seven goals and six assists.
However, with his fate now seemingly solidified as a minor leaguer, Thomson appears to be pondering his next change of scenery. Expressen’s Johan Svensson reports that the blueliner is looking to play with HC Lugano in Switzerland next season, suggesting that a contract might already be in place.
Thomson’s team from last season, Malmö of the SHL, has also shown interest in bringing him back into the fold. While that doesn’t appear to be happening for next season, it could still happen for the stretch run. Svensson notes that Thomson is technically under contract there for this year (he exercised an NHL out clause to rejoin the Senators) and that the defenseman is amenable to return to Sweden this season. Speculatively, that would come in the form of a contract termination in order to clear his minor league salary off Ottawa’s books.
If such a move doesn’t materialize, Thomson will be eligible for Group Six unrestricted free agency next summer so Ottawa will be losing his rights anyway. A first-round pick (19th overall) in 2019, Thomson has just 18 NHL games under his belt, a number that doesn’t appear likely to increase for the foreseeable future with him having an eye on overseas opportunities once again.
Minor Transactions: 12/20/2025
The midpoint of the season has sparked a flurry of action across the hockey world. Some players are finally being moved from a slow start to the season, while others are finding their first contracts of the year. The notable moves have been rounded up and captured below:
- Former New York Islanders center Leo Komarov has signed a one-year contract with HC Davos of Switzerland’s National League. The 38-year-old Estonian spent the last two seasons with HIFK of Finland’s Liiga. He scored 23 points in 55 games with the club, but wasn’t able to secure a contract for this season. That will change with a move to Switzerland, marking the eighth professional hockey league that Komarov has played in – on top of tenures in Finland’s Mestis and Liiga, Russia’s KHL, the AHL and NHL, and Sweden’s SHL. He will offer Davos veteran depth.
- Also signing an overseas contract is former Buffalo Sabres goaltender Dustin Tokarski, who has left his professional try-out contract with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins to sign a deal with Lowen Frankfurt of Germany’s DEL. Tokarski made two appearances with Grand Rapids on his try-out, posting one win and a .929 save percentage. He posted a .897 Sv% in 21 AHL games, and a .902 Sv% in six NHL games, in the Carolina Hurricanes’ organization last season. He’ll join Frankfurt for the second-half of the year and could have an open path to the starting role, with all three of Frankfurt’s goaltenders posting sub-.900 Sv% through the first half of the season.
- Hard-hitting Utah Mammoth prospect Tomas Lavoie has been traded in the QMJHL. He will head to the Chicoutimi Saguenéens in exchange for five draft picks, including a first-rounder, headed back to the Cape Breton Eagles. Lavoie was a core piece of the Eagles this season, offering stalwart defense and reliable puck-moving. The former third-round pick has 21 points in 24 games this season and could bring a reliable, shutdown role to a Saguenéens lineup currently leaning on high-octane defenders like Alex Huang.
- Seattle Kraken prospect Alexis Bernier will also head to the Saguenéens in exchange for Leo-Gabriel Gosselin and five draft picks. Bernier is a volume shooter who racked up 14 goals and 46 points in 59 games with the Baie-Comeau Drakkar last season, but hasn’t yet played this year. He could be due for a major breakout after rivaling point-per-game scoring last season, which should only bolster a Saguenéens lineup that has already propped up shoot-first wingers Maxim Massé and Émile Guité. The Saguenéens will go all-in on this season before likely losing Masse, Guite, and many others to pro deals.
Derick Brassard Comes Out Of Retirement, Signs In Switzerland
Longtime NHL center Derick Brassard is coming out of retirement and has signed with Genève-Servette of Switzerland’s National League for the remainder of the season, as first reported by Nicolas St-Pierre of the “Dans le Vestiaire” podcast.
Brassard, 38, hasn’t played since suiting up for the Senators in the 2022-23 season. He tore a ligament in his ankle late in the season and, after trying to push his recovery as a free agent during 2023-24, announced his retirement after he sat out the year.
The sixth overall pick in the 2006 draft by the Blue Jackets, Brassard did manage to eke out crossing the 1,000-game mark before ending his NHL career. In his heyday, he was a high-end second-line center and fringe first-line piece for the Rangers, who acquired him from Columbus in 2013 in a deal that sent Marián Gáborík the other way. Three years later, he was involved in another high-profile trade, being sent to the Senators for Mika Zibanejad.
That deal marked a turning point for the worse in Brassard’s career. He’d flirted with the 60-point mark in his last two years with the Blueshirts and had averaged 50 points per 82 games. After the deal, he’d only top 40 points once and 30 points three times. He didn’t last a full two seasons in Ottawa either, and was shipped to the Penguins at the 2018 trade deadline. That kicked off an all-time journeyman run for Brassard, who ended up playing for eight teams in the span of five seasons. Between 2017-18 and 2021-22, he logged stints for the Panthers, Avalanche, Islanders, Coyotes, Flyers, and Oilers in addition to his time in Ottawa and Pittsburgh. He then returned to the Sens as a free agent before wrapping up his career.
Now, the Quebec native will play international hockey for only the second time in his career. He saw six games of action for Austria’s EC Salzburg during the 2012 lockout, recording four goals and an assist.
He’ll link up with a Genève-Servette roster that includes plenty of familiar faces. They boast over 2,200 games of NHL experience, including Jimmy Vesey, Jan Rutta, Jesse Puljujärvi, and Markus Granlund.
Metropolitan Notes: Hamilton, Foerster, Keller
Devils defenseman Dougie Hamilton left Thursday’s victory over Montreal with an undisclosed injury and he’ll be out for a few games at least. Team reporter Amanda Stein relays (Twitter link) that the veteran will be out for a minimum of a week, which suggests that he’s likely to land on injured reserve before long with New Jersey carrying the maximum of 23 players at the moment. The 32-year-old had been off to a solid start to the season before the injury, picking up four goals and three assists in 14 games while logging nearly 21 minutes a night of playing time. Colton White will take Hamilton’s spot in the lineup for the time being after being recalled earlier this week; he suited up this afternoon against Pittsburgh for his first NHL game since April 13, 2023.
More from the Metropolitan:
- Flyers winger Tyson Foerster skated before practice yesterday as he works his way back from a lower-body injury, notes Gabriela Carroll of The Philadelphia Inquirer. The 23-year-old landed on IR earlier this week retroactive to November 1st, meaning he can be activated at any time since he has now served the minimum of one week. Foerster was off to a good start before the injury, collecting four goals and three assists in 11 games while logging over 18 minutes a night of playing time.
- Capitals goalie prospect Antoine Keller has terminated his minor league deal with Washington to head back overseas. HC Ajoie in Switzerland announced that they’ve signed the 21-year-old to a two-year contract. Keller was a seventh-round pick by Washington back in 2023 and spent last season in the NL, albeit in a backup role with Lausanne where he only played in 13 games. Keller was also on France’s roster at the most recent Worlds and could be part of their group for the upcoming Olympics as well. Washington has until June 1, 2027 to sign Keller to an entry-level deal or they will lose his rights.
Minor Transactions: 11/03/2025
It’s not a hugely packed day on the NHL schedule, with just four games on the docket. That’s also the case outside of the NHL, where most European pro leagues aren’t playing and the AHL has just one contest – a game between the Manitoba Moose, the affiliate of the Winnipeg Jets, and the Texas Stars who are the affiliate of the Dallas Stars. What has been active today, though, even without many games to be played, has been player movement outside of the NHL. There are quite a few transactions to go over from the wider world of professional hockey, so we’ll recap all the notable moves here:
- Veteran goalie Louis Domingue, a longtime NHL backup or organizational third goalie, left KHL side Sibir Novosibirsk after just 11 games played. Per a translated copy of the team’s official announcement, Novosibirsk cited “family reasons” as the reason for Domingue’s release. The 33-year-old goalie, who has played in 144 games over the course of his NHL career, signed in Russia in July, marking his first entry into the European pro hockey circuit. His adjustment to the KHL game did not go well, as he posted an 0-9-0 record with an .892 save percentage and 3.83 goals-against average. Domingue played last season on a one-year, one-way $775K contract, and will now look to continue his career elsewhere. He has performed well as an AHL goalie throughout his time in North America, so given his level of experience and track record, a return to North America, perhaps even on an AHL contract, cannot be ruled out. A team such as the Chicago Wolves could be a fit for his services, as they could benefit from some veteran reinforcement in the crease. Their two incumbent netminders, Amir Miftakhov and Nikita Quapp, are short on AHL experience and have posted respective save percentages of .878 and .852 so far this season.
- 2019 Anaheim Ducks first-round pick Brayden Tracey has found a place to play out the 2025-26 season, signing a one-year contract with Mora IK of HockeyAllsvenskan, Sweden’s second-tier league. Tracey originally signed his entry-level contract in November 2019, but was unable to secure a second NHL contract after three underwhelming pro campaigns with the San Diego Gulls. He was reasonably productive, scoring 31 points in 55 games as a rookie, for example, and even earned the right to make his NHL debut. But he wasn’t retained by the team and started 2024-25 on an AHL PTO with the Bakersfield Condors, one that did not materialize into a full-time AHL deal. Tracey then split the rest of the season between Jukurit of the Finnish Liiga (scoring six points in 13 games) and Slovan Bratislava of the Slovak Extraliga, scoring eight points in 11 combined regular season and playoff games. The 6’0″ forward, still just 24 years old, heads to a Mora team that has gotten off to a slow start to the season, and they will likely look for him to help boost an offense that currently ranks fourth-to-last in goals scored in the league.
- Former Philadelphia Flyers goalie Felix Sandstrom has left Finnish Liiga side Karpat Oulu, as his fixed-term contract with the team expired Nov. 2. Sandstrom originally signed the deal in September as part of the club’s response to an injury suffered by incumbent starter Visa Vedenpaa, who is a 2023 draft pick of the Seattle Kraken. Sandstrom didn’t have a great stretch with Karpat, going 3-6-1 with a .872 save percentage. A 2015 third-round pick of the Flyers, Sandstrom ultimately became the organization’s No. 3 goalie, playing in a total of 30 NHL games across his six-year career in North American pro hockey. Sandstrom played well enough to earn a one-way contract year for 2023-24, but the Flyers ultimately moved on from him in 2024 and he signed a one-year, two-way deal with a $450K guarantee with the Buffalo Sabres for 2024-25. Sandstrom struggled to get into games for the Rochester Americans, getting into just 19 contests, in large part due to the success of top prospect goalie Devon Levi. Now that his short-term deal in Liiga has expired, the experienced goalie will need to find another spot to continue what has been a solid pro career.
- Another goalie who was once playing on an NHL contract was involved in player transaction news today: Hugo Alnefelt. Liiga’s HIFK confirmed that the 2019 Tampa Bay Lightning draft pick would remain with the club for the duration of the 2025-26 season after passing through the trial period of his loan. Alnefelt is contracted to Swedish side HV71, but after he went 8-16-1 with a .899 save percentage in 28 SHL games last season, the club elected to move forward with other goalies for 2025-26. HV71 worked with Alnefelt to find a place for him to get playing time in 2025-26, and they elected to loan him to HIFK in Liiga. Alnefelt has played in six games so far in Finland, posting a .889 save percentage and 2.94 goals-against average. Alnefelt was a tandem goalie for the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch for three seasons, from 2021-22 through 2023-24. He posted an .895 save percentage across 86 games, and was not signed to an NHL contract extension upon the expiry of his entry-level deal, prompting his move back to Europe.
- 2017 Detroit Red Wings fifth-round pick Cole Fraser was traded in the ECHL today, as the Worcester Railers traded the defenseman to the Cincinnati Cyclones for future considerations. The big right-shot blueliner has been in the ECHL since he signed with the Kansas City Mavericks at the conclusion of his junior career with the OHL’s Peterborough Petes. Across his 288-game career in North America’s third-tier pro league, Fraser has scored 62 points and has earned a call-up to play in the AHL once. That call-up came in 2021-22, when he skated in a Nov. 14 contest for the Belleville Senators against the Utica Comets, a 4-1 loss for the Senators. Fraser played a defensive role through six games this season with the Railers, ranking second on the team in shorthanded ice time per game.
- The ECHL’s Maine Mariners acquired forward Owen Gallatin from the Fort Wayne Komets in exchange for cash considerations, according to a team announcement. The 23-year-old is in the first full season of his professional career, having dipped his toes into pro hockey late last season after the conclusion of his NCAA career. Gallatin signed with the Komets after playing four seasons with the University of Minnesota-Duluth, including a strong junior campaign where he scored 30 points in 37 games. Gallatin’s production dipped in his senior year, and he wasn’t able to earn consistent ice time at the start of 2025-26 with Fort Wayne, leading to this early-season trade to Maine.
- Another first-year pro player was traded in the ECHL today, with the South Carolina Stingrays acquiring forward Tanner Edwards from the Toledo Walleye. The 25-year-old was the most penalized player in the USHL in 2019-20, his lone season of USHL hockey, racking up 206 penalty minutes in just 37 games. He then played four years of college hockey, his first three with Minnesota State (where he won two CCHA conference titles) before spending his senior year with his hometown program Alaska-Anchorage. Edwards has just one pro game to his name at this point, an Oct. 25 game against the Bloomington Bison in which he registered his first pro fight.
- There was a trade in the Czech Extraliga today, with HC Energie Karlovy Vary acquiring Jan Bambula from HC Vitkovice Ridera in exchange for forward Jan Sir. Bambula, 24, was in the midst of his second season with Vitkovice. He scored 13 points in 35 games last season and began this year with five points in 19 games before today’s trade. A speedy, offensively-oriented undersized winger, Bambula’s acquisition could boost Karlovy Vary’s offensive attack. Sir, 25, joined Karlovy Vary for 2024-25 after a five-year pro career with Bili Tygri Liberec, which was also his junior team. The 6’2″ pivot doesn’t offer the speed or offensive ability that Bambula is credited with, but brings the ability to play down the middle, additional size, and defensive versatility. He’s gone scoreless through 20 games this season, though he has been the team’s leading penalty-killing forward so far this season. While Bambula isn’t a direct replacement in that role as a winger, his speed did allow him to carve out a role on Vitkovice’s penalty kill, meaning he could end up taking Sir’s vacated spot on Karlovy Vary’s penalty kill.
- Liiga side Ilves Tampere announced today that forwards Julius Hermonen and Joel Kerkkanen would not continue with the club upon the recent conclusion of their fixed-term contracts. Hermonen, 28, has nearly 300 games of Liiga experience, though he only managed two assists across 14 games for Ilves. He did score a goal in Champions Hockey League play, as part of a 5-0 victory over HC Kometa Brno. Kerkkanen, 26, isn’t an established quantity in Finland’s top division the way Hermonen is, with just 41 Liiga games to his name. But he has been quite successful in Finland’s second-tier Mestis, even putting together a point-per-game season in 2022-23 with JoKP. That scoring ability hasn’t translated to the Liiga level, though, and he registered just one point in his four games in Tampere.
- Veteran Swedish netminder Jonas Gunnarsson, who was once a member of the Nashville Predators organization, signed a deal with HockeyAllsvenskan club AIK today. The 33-year-old has experience in Sweden’s second division, helping teams to promotion to the SHL on two separate occasions: 2014-15 with the Malmo Redhawks, and 2021-22 with HV71. 2021-22 was Gunnarsson’s most recent season in the Allsvenskan, and he performed very well, registering the most shutouts in the league and posting a .907 save percentage. He served as Joni Ortio‘s backup for HV71 in its first year back in the SHL in 2022-23, before earning a role as a starter in Liiga with Ilves in 2023-24. He was solid in Liiga, posting a .912 save percentage in 36 games, and then spent 2024-25 with Graz in the ICEHL. Now he’s back in the league where he’s been successful in the past, and will look to stabilize an AIK goaltending situation that has been an issue for the team so far in 2025-26.
- The SHL’s Vaxjo Lakers signed veteran forward Erik Andersson to a one-year contract, according to a team announcement. The 31-year-old winger is a defensive specialist who brings a large amount of experience in Sweden’s top league. He has played in 471 games, and while he’s only registered 74 points, he should be able to contribute on Vaxjo’s penalty kill in short order. Vaxjo’s penalty kill currently ranks fifth in the league in success rate, but with the potential for injuries, the signing of Andersson provides the team with suitable cover to be able to sustain its shorthanded success in the event that natural attrition of a long hockey season leads to regular penalty killers becoming unavailable.
Minor Transactions: 10/29/2025
Yesterday was a notably busy day for hockey, as all 32 NHL clubs took the ice as part of the league’s “Frozen Frenzy” programming. As a result, today’s calendar of games is light, with just one NHL game to be played: the Toronto Maple Leafs taking on the Columbus Blue Jackets. With that said, that doesn’t mean there aren’t games played in the wider world of pro hockey – the AHL has 12 games set to be played tonight, and numerous European pro leagues have also had games today.
Player movement outside the NHL has a similarly high level of activity, and here we’ll run down the notable moves of the past few days from around the world of professional hockey:
- 170-game NHL veteran Nic Petan terminated his contract with Swiss pro side HC Ambri-Piotta today, ending a 15-game stint with the club that has gone very poorly. The 30-year-old signed a two-year deal with Ambri-Piotta this past summer with the expectation that he’d be one of the team’s most relied-upon offensive generators. But through 15 games, Petan has registered only four points. It wasn’t an issue of ice time, as he’s averaged nearly 17 minutes of time per game and two minutes of power-play time per game, both he and Ambri-Piotta as a whole have struggled immensely to put the puck in the net. That hasn’t been a problem for Petan for most of his (non-NHL) pro career, as he’s a former AHL All-Star who once led the entire CHL in scoring. He has 289 points in 296 career AHL games and was one of the AHL’s highest-paid two-way players, with a $550K AHL salary when he last played, but that sterling track record wasn’t able to translate to Switzerland. He’ll now look for a new landing spot to continue his pro career.
- Lada Togliatti, one of the KHL’s worst teams so far this season, made a few player moves today. First, they placed 23-year-old Canadian forward Joshua Lawrence on waivers, placing in question the player’s KHL future. Lawrence, who is the brother of Tynan Lawrence, one of the top-ranked prospects for the 2026 draft, is an undrafted player who worked his way up the European pro hockey ladder to reach the KHL. After his time as a star scorer in the QMJHL ended, Lawrence played almost two highly-successful seasons in the Swiss second division before getting the chance to finish 2024-25 in Liiga with Lahti Pelicans. his 13 points in 22 games for the Pelicans earned him a shot in the KHL with Lada, but after scoring just two points in 14 games, he’s been waived.
- To reinforce their forward group in the absence of Lawrence, Lada signed two KHL veterans to one-year contracts: Nikita Setdikov and Anton Burdasov. Setdikov, 30, brings nearly 300 games of KHL experience to the table, and he most recently played for Barys Astana, scoring 18 points in 51 games. The year prior, he was one of the top scorers for Nizhnekamsk Neftekhimik, scoring 30 points in 57 games. Burdasov, 34, has 663 games of KHL experience, and is a Gagarin Cup Champion as well as a former All-Star. He also played in Astana last season to limited success, but was a high-end, near point-per-game scorer as recently as 2022-23.
- Former Boston Bruins farmhand Zane McIntyre has returned to the North American pro game after spending a year overseas. The 33-year-old netminder has signed a contract with the ECHL’s Tahoe Knight Monsters, per the league’s official transactions report. McIntyre spent last season with the Straubing Tigers of the German DEL, playing in 28 games to an .889 save percentage and 2.67 goals-against average. Among the 23 DEL goalies with at least 15 games played last year, McIntyre’s .889 save percentage ranked 22nd. With this newly-signed contract, he’s returning to the North American minor leagues, where he’s had quite a bit more success. A former top NCAA netminder, McIntyre has played in 300 AHL games and is a former All-Star. Since expected starter Jordan Papirny was recalled to the Henderson Silver Knights yesterday, McIntyre could get the chance to hold down the fort for the Knight Monsters for as long as Papirny remains in the AHL.
- Former New York Rangers prospect Nico Gross signed a three-year contract extension with his current club, HC Davos of the Swiss NL. A 2018 fourth-rounder of the Rangers, Gross hasn’t played pro hockey in North America to this point in his career, but appears to have settled in nicely in the top pro league of his home country. Gross won two NL titles with EV Zug in 2021 and 2022 before transferring to Davos in advance of the 2024-25 season. This extension comes at a somewhat curious time for Gross. His ice time has declined sharply so far in 2025-26 – Gross is averaging 14:28 time-on-ice per game so far this season, per the NL’s stats page, but averaged 16:59 time-on-ice per game last season.
- Former Chicago Blackhawks prospect Milton Oscarson signed a three-year extension with Örebro HK of the SHL, according to a team announcement. The Blackhawks spent a sixth-round pick at the 2023 entry draft to acquire him, but after he wasn’t able to develop offensively at the SHL level, they elected to let their exclusive rights to sign him expire this past summer. Although he hasn’t scored much, Oscarson has been a regular player for Örebro for more than three years now, and is currently playing 14:10 per game for the team, good for seventh among Örebro forwards.
- After playing just six games for the team, the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs traded 2007-born defenseman Caden Campion to the WHL’s Wenatchee Wild in exchange for an eighth-round selection at the 2029 WHL Prospects Draft. The 6’1 right-shot blueliner spent last season in the BCHL, splitting his year between the Chilliwack Chiefs and Alberni Valley Bulldogs. Drafted 29th overall in the 2023 USHL Futures Draft, Campion’s WHL career hasn’t started off in ideal fashion, but this trade provides him with the chance to get a fresh start with a new team.
- Gavin Gould, a two-time WCHA Champion with the Michigan Tech Huskies, has retired from pro hockey, per a social media announcement. Gould, 29, won back-to-back conference titles in his first two years playing college hockey but wasn’t able to build on that momentum in his final two years in the NCAA. He began his pro career in 2021 in the ECHL, and bounced between five different ECHL clubs across his nearly 200-game career. Gould’s most productive stretch came in 2021-22, when he scored 26 points in 23 games for the Allen Americans after a mid-season move from the Greenville Swamp Rabbits.