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NL’s SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers Sign Julius Honka

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Former top Stars prospect Julius Honka is staying in Switzerland, with the National League’s SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers announcing they’ve secured a two-year commitment from the defender beginning next season.

Honka hasn’t played in North America since 2021, and after spending two seasons with Luleå HF of the Swedish Hockey League, he arrived in Switzerland in 2023. The Lakers will mark Honka’s fourth NL team in three seasons after splitting the 2023-24 campaign between SC Bern and Genève-Servette HC and signing for 2024-25 with HC Davos. They didn’t say whether Honka’s deal has an NHL out-clause, but regardless, it’s a sign that he won’t be pursuing NHL opportunities next summer after a resurgence in his game.

Honka, who Dallas drafted 14th overall a decade ago, has 20 points and a +3 rating in 33 games with Davos, putting him fifth among NL defenders. It’s not unexpected production, either. Since being cut loose by the Stars in 2021, Honka has been a top two-way threat in the European circuit. He led the SHL in goals from a defenseman with 10 in 46 games with Luleå in 2021-22, and he led the Champions Hockey League with a +14 rating with the Swedish club the following year.

The Finnish native’s brief NHL career only spanned three seasons, accumulating 87 appearances with the Stars from 2016-17 to 2018-19. He averaged a minimal 13:57 per game and recorded two goals and 11 assists for 13 points with a -7 rating. While he was frequently criticized for a lack of physicality and defensive awareness individually, the Stars always controlled possession better at even strength with Honka on the ice than without him. He also recorded 113 points in 218 AHL games during his time in the Stars organization with a -24 rating.

This year’s Rapperswil-Jona roster is home to former NHLers Pontus Åberg, Tanner Fritz, Philip Holm, Nicklas Jensen, Jacob Larsson, and Victor Rask.

Minor Transactions: 12/10/24

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As usual, there have been a handful of minor moves around the hockey world today.  Here’s a rundown of the ones that haven’t been previously mentioned.

  • The Senators announced (Twitter link) that they’ve once again recalled Nikolas Matinpalo from AHL Belleville. The 26-year-old has been shuffled back and forth in recent days but has yet to see any game action with Ottawa in 2024-25 but got into four games with the big club last season.  Matinpalo has played in 17 games with Belleville this season, collecting two goals and four assists, nearly halfway to his point production from 2023-24.
  • Hurricanes prospect Anttoni Honka will be staying overseas next season. HC Ajoie of the Swiss NL announced that they’ve signed him to a two-year contract that begins in 2025-26.  The 24-year-old is playing for Ajoie this season while on loan from Carolina, the second straight year he has played overseas despite being on an NHL agreement; he suited up for JYP in Finland last season.  This is the final year of Honka’s entry-level deal and considering he has already decided to stay in Switzerland, there’s a good chance he’ll be non-tendered this summer.  Honka was selected late in the third round in 2019.
  • Still with Carolina, the Hurricanes have re-assigned defenseman Ty Smith to AHL Chicago, per a team release. Smith has been shuffled back and forth throughout the season while spending time in a seventh defender role at times with Carolina but has yet to get into an NHL game this season.  The 24-year-old has three goals and four helpers in seven games with the Wolves so far.
  • Former NHL winger Brendan Perlini has found a place to play this season. Spartak of the KHL announced that they’ve inked the 28-year-old for the remainder of the 2024-25 campaign.  Perlini has 262 career NHL games under his belt over parts of five seasons with four different teams, collecting 50 goals and 31 assists over that span.  He spent the last two years exclusively at the AHL level, however, and picked up nine goals and 11 assists in 37 games with AHL Charlotte last season.
  • A day after being sent down, Max Sasson has been recalled by the Canucks, the team announced (Twitter link). The 24-year-old has two assists in seven games in his first taste of NHL action this season.  Sasson also has nine points in 16 games with AHL Abbotsford.  His demotion allowed Vancouver to bank a tiny bit more cap space as they look to avoid dipping into using LTIR.

Pierre-Édouard Bellemare Signs In Switzerland

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Veteran center Pierre-Édouard Bellemare isn’t yet ready to call it quits. After being somewhat surprisingly released from a professional tryout agreement with the Avalanche during training camp, HC Ajoie of the Swiss National League announced they’d signed him for the remainder of the season.

It’s the first trip overseas in over 10 years for the 39-year-old Frenchman. Bellemare spent most of his professional career in France’s Ligue Magnus and Sweden’s HockeyAllsvenskan and Elitserien (now SHL) before landing his first NHL contract with the Flyers at age 29 after a standout showing for France at the 2014 World Championship. He immediately stuck in the NHL full-time, posting 12 points in 81 games for the Flyers in 2014-15 in a fourth-line role.

Since then, Bellemare has been a dependable and versatile fourth-line piece for the Golden Knights, Avalanche, Lightning, and Kraken. He reached the Stanley Cup Final twice – once with Vegas in their inaugural season and again with Tampa Bay in 2022, but was on the losing end both times. A free agent in the summer of 2023, he inked a cheap one-year deal with Seattle that saw him fall out of a regular lineup spot for the first time since arriving in North America. He was limited to seven points in 40 games with the Kraken, averaging a career-low 9:50 per game and failing to replicate the hard-nosed style that helped him succeed in 700 games at the sport’s highest level.

But even still, Bellemare’s possession results were good. The Kraken controlled 54.9% of shot attempts and 57.4% of expected goals, with Bellemare on the ice at even strength despite deploying him mainly in defensive situations. That could have benefitted a team looking to acquire a reliable extra forward, namely Colorado, who was already familiar with his skill set. He recorded 33 points in 122 games in an Avs uniform from 2019 to 2021. But they passed him up, a decision they’re likely regretting after another rash of injuries to their forward core on top of the trio of Gabriel Landeskog, Artturi Lehkonen and Valeri Nichushkin that they were already missing to start the season.

He’ll now head close to home with an Ajoie team that’s 2-13-1-1 through its first 17 games of the NL regular season with a -36 goal differential. Bellemare is now 700 of the 753 career NHL games on Ajoie’s roster – the other 53 belong to defenseman T.J. Brennan. It’s almost surely the end of the road for him in the NHL, but he’ll still have his chance to make his mark internationally. If Russia is still barred from participating, France will be in the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Justin Schultz Signs With HC Lugano

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HC Lugano of the Swiss National League has agreed to a one-year deal with UFA defenseman Justin Schultz, per a team release. He’s headed overseas after failing to land a one-way deal, two-way deal, or even a PTO from an NHL club this offseason.

Schultz, 34, had spent the last two years in Seattle after inking a two-year, $6MM contract with the Kraken in free agency. He remained what he has been for much of the last few years, a capable depth puck-moving presence with too many defensive shortcomings to truly lock down a top-four role. He made 143 appearances in a Kraken jersey, posting 60 points (14 G, 46 A), a -19 rating, and 62 PIMs.

A second-round pick of the Ducks back in 2008, Schultz didn’t sign with Anaheim coming out of a three-year run at Wisconsin in 2012 and instead landed with the Oilers as a free agent. The two-time NCAA All-American broke into the NHL immediately, playing in all 48 games for Edmonton during the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season and finishing seventh in Calder Trophy voting. He was a top-four fixture for the Oilers, averaging over 22 minutes per night over 248 appearances in parts of four seasons, but his box stats clearly paint the picture of a one-dimensional blue-line threat – 101 points with a -78 rating.

Edmonton traded Schultz to the Penguins near the 2016 trade deadline, where he’d have the best years of his career. While Kris Letang missed significant time with injury in the 2016-17 campaign, Schultz was briefly Pittsburgh’s No. 1 defenseman. He had a career-high 12 goals, 39 assists, and 51 points with a +27 rating in 78 games for the Pens that year, finishing 10th in Norris voting, before adding 13 points in 21 playoff games to help Pittsburgh to its second straight Stanley Cup championship.

Schultz’s offensive production and all-around play continually declined from that point, though. Upon finishing up a three-year, $16.5MM extension in 2020, he landed a two-year deal with the Capitals. He played 120 games for Washington, posting 50 points (7 G, 43 A) with a -3 rating, before heading to Seattle.

A move overseas well into his 30s could signal the end of Schultz’s NHL career. If so, he finishes with 71 goals, 253 assists, 324 points, a -57 rating, and a 49.4 CF% in 745 regular season games. He joins a Lugano defense corps with two other former NHLers, Carl Dahlström and Mirco Müller.

Antti Raanta Signs In Switzerland

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Veteran netminder Antti Raanta has signed a one-year contract with Genève-Servette HC of the Swiss National League, per a club announcement. The move comes after Raanta indicated last week his next deal would come in Europe, effectively announcing his retirement from NHL play.

The Geneva-based club moved to sign Raanta after backup netminder Gauthier Descloux sustained an injury last weekend that will keep him out indefinitely, the team said. Raanta will support 34-year-old incumbent starter Robert Mayer, who was the NL’s Goalie of the Year in 2023 and has a sparkling .923 SV% through Geneva’s first two regular-season contests.

It wasn’t surprising to see Raanta, now 35, put an end to his NHL career due to a lack of interest in him for full-time roles. Interested parties were looking at keeping Raanta in the organization as a third-string option, an understandable assumption after he posted a crater-like .872 SV% in 24 games behind the defensively stout Hurricanes last season. Instead, he’ll now land a full-time tandem role with one of Europe’s better teams. Geneva won the NL title in 2023 and won the Champions Hockey League last season and boasts NHL-experienced talent such as Markus Granlund and Sami Vatanen.

An undrafted free agent signing by the Blackhawks in 2013 out of Finland’s Ässät, Raanta went on to make 277 NHL appearances in parts of 11 seasons. Despite how last season ended, he was an extremely serviceable, if not above-average, netminder when healthy. He owns a career record of 139-80-29 with 20 shutouts, a 2.48 GAA, and .915 SV%.

Dominik Kubalík Signs In Switzerland

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Unrestricted free agent winger Dominik Kubalík has agreed to join HC Ambrì-Piotta of the Swiss National League for this season, according to a team announcement. Should he land a deal stateside before Dec. 15, his contract has an NHL opt-out clause.

Kubalík, 29, played for Ambrì-Piotta for two seasons before coming to the NHL. He recorded 89 points in 78 games there across the 2017-18 and 2018-19 campaigns, playing a pivotal role in helping them avoid relegation to the second-tier Swiss League in 2018. The following season, he was named the National League’s MVP and led the circuit in scoring before landing an NHL deal the following summer.

Kubalík heads overseas following an incredibly disappointing 2023-24 season with the Senators. After four consecutive seasons of 30-plus points with the Blackhawks and Red Wings, he produced just 11 goals and four assists for 15 points in 74 games in Ottawa while averaging a career-low 12:07 per game with a -30 rating, tied with Jakob Chychrun for the worst on the team.

The Kings selected Kubalík with the 191st pick in 2013 and sent his rights to the Blackhawks nearly six years later, never signing him to an entry-level contract. He joined Chicago for the 2019-20 season, breaking out for 30 goals and 46 points in 68 games and finishing third in Calder Trophy voting.

After two more years of decent middle-six production in the Windy City, he signed a two-year, $5MM deal in Detroit as a UFA in 2022 after going non-tendered by the Hawks. He posted 20 goals and 45 points in 81 games for the Wings in 2022-23, his best production since his rookie season, but he was traded to the Sens last summer in the Alex DeBrincat deal.

For now, Kubalík hits pause on his NHL career after making 357 appearances with three teams, averaging 21 goals, 19 assists and 40 points per 82 games. He’s also coming off a strong showing at the 2024 World Championship, where he had five goals and three assists in 10 games for Czechia as he won his first gold medal on the international stage.

International Notes: Curran, Kirk, Studenič

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Veteran defenseman Kodie Curran is continuing his lengthy career overseas. Swiss club HC Ambrì-Piotta announced Friday that they’ve signed him through the November international break with an option to extend the deal for the rest of the season.

Curran, 34, was never drafted and wound his way through various leagues, going from the Canadian university system to the AHL and ECHL, also making stops in Denmark and Norway before ending up in a starring role for Rögle BK of the Swedish Hockey League, one of the world’s best circuits. He landed his first NHL deal as a 30-year-old undrafted free agent signed by the Ducks in 2020.

However, that contract with Anaheim didn’t result in an NHL call-up. Curran spent his two-year, $2MM deal buried in the minors, recording 29 points (7 G, 22 A) in 61 games with the AHL’s San Diego Gulls before going pointless in 11 games with the AHL’s Providence Bruins after his NHL rights were dealt to Boston at the 2022 trade deadline.

Curran has spent the last two seasons in the Kontinental Hockey League with Russia’s Metallurg Magnitogorsk and Belarus’ Dinamo Minsk. He hasn’t been able to replicate his past offensive success, posting a more conservative 50 points (14 G, 36 A) in 122 games with a -5 rating. The 6’2″, 201-lb puck mover will look to impress in a depth role with Ambrì-Piotta and earn a spot on the team for the rest of the season. There, he joins former NHLers Tim Heed, Jakob Lilja, Philippe Maillet, and Gilles Senn.

More notes from the international stage:

  • Former Coyotes prospect Liam Kirk already has a home for this season with Germany’s Eisbären Berlin, but he’s still looking to put himself back on the map in hopes of another NHL deal. The 24-year-old’s performance for Great Britain at the ongoing final qualification tournament for the 2026 Winter Olympics could go a long way toward doing that, and he already has a goal in the Brits’ lone outing – unfortunately, it was a 3-1 loss to Denmark yesterday. The 2018 seventh-rounder impressed in World Championship action earlier this year, posting four points in six games, but it wasn’t enough for GB to avoid relegation back to the Division 1A tournament for 2025. Kirk also had three goals and seven assists in three games at last year’s Olympic pre-qualifiers. Kirk, who’s aiming to be the first born-and-trained British NHLer, was strong in Czech league action last season with 30 points in 52 games for HC Litvínov.
  • Ex-depth NHLer Marián Studenič was supposed to help his native Slovakia qualify for one of the three spots remaining for the Olympics, but the country’s federation announced the 25-year-old abruptly left the roster due to a disagreement over his role. The winger was a Group VI UFA this summer and opted to head overseas, signing a two-year deal with Sweden’s Färjestad BK after spending the last six years playing professionally in the Devils, Stars and Kraken organizations. He posted six points in 46 NHL games over the past four seasons and had 44 points in 64 games on assignment to the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds while under contract with Seattle last year.

International Notes: Filppula, Has, Andrighetto

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Triple Gold Club member Valtteri Filppula appears to be returning home for what is likely his final professional season. The 40-year-old is expected to join Jokerit of Finland’s second-tier Mestis for 2024-25, Sami Hoffrén and Marko Lempinen of Helsingen Sanomat report.

Filppula, a third-round pick of the Red Wings back in 2002, won the Stanley Cup with them six years later as part of a 16-year, 1,056-game NHL career. Split between the Wings, Lightning, Flyers and Islanders, he amassed 197 goals, 333 assists, 530 points, a -4 rating, and a 50.5% career win rate in the dot in the regular season.

The two-way pivot returned to Europe after becoming a free agent in 2021, and he’s spent the last three seasons in Switzerland with Genève-Servette HC of the National League. He was a premier offensive presence there, even in his late 30s, scoring 47 goals and 84 assists for 131 points in 145 games. But after a pair of seasons around a point per game, his production dropped off to 33 points in 51 games last year.

Filppula was a member of the Finnish national team that won gold at the Winter Olympics and the World Championship in 2022, making him the first Finn to win both in addition to a Stanley Cup. He now returns to Jokerit, where he played for two seasons before coming to the NHL in 2005.

The Helsinki-based franchise was once one of the top clubs in Europe, but their decision to leave the top Finnish league for Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League in 2013 proved fateful. They withdrew from the KHL midseason in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and missed 2022-23 entirely before restarting operations in Mestis last year.

More notable items from abroad:

  • Former Capitals defense prospect Martin Has has signed a tryout with HC Plzen of the Czech Extraliga, per a team announcement. A fifth-round pick back in 2019, Has never rose above the ECHL level in the Washington organization, spending 2022-23 with the South Carolina Stingrays before his signing rights expired, making him a UFA. Has, 23, spent last season with the ECHL’s Fort Wayne Komets, where the 6’4″ right-shot was limited to five points and a -14 rating in 62 games. The Czech native will now look to latch on in one of the premier European professional leagues.
  • It doesn’t appear that an NHL comeback is in the cards for Sven Andrighetto, as he’s inked a four-year extension with the Swiss National League club ZSC Lions. Andrighetto, 31, is a Zurich native, and he had 31 points in 40 games for his hometown club last year before leading them to an NL championship. The 2013 third-round pick of the Canadiens scored 31 goals and 83 points in 216 NHL games with Montreal and Colorado between 2014 and 2019.

Capitals Loan Leon Muggli To EV Zug

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The Capitals have officially loaned 2024 second-round pick Leon Muggli back to Switzerland’s EV Zug for 2024-25, the team announced today. The National League club said last month that they were in discussions to take the 18-year-old defenseman back on loan for this season after he signed his entry-level contract with Washington.

It will be Muggli’s second season with the big club after spending his entire development process in the Zug system, suiting up for their U-15, U-17 and U-20 teams since 2019. Last year, his first professional season, he became a depth fixture on the Zug blue line with 12 points (3 G, 9 A) and a +13 rating in 42 games.

The smooth-skating two-way defender was Washington’s third choice of the 2024 draft class, following winger Terik Parascak at No. 17 and diminutive defenseman Cole Hutson at No. 43. Muggli came off the board at No. 52, a pick the Caps acquired from the Golden Knights in last season’s Anthony Mantha trade.

With the loan, Muggli’s entry-level contract will slide to next season as expected since he won’t see any NHL action. If he plays fewer than 10 NHL games in 2025-26, the deal could slide again to the 2026-27 campaign, meaning he won’t be an RFA for the first time until 2028-29. That likely scenario will result in his cap hit reducing from its initial $940.8K to $875.8K due to signing bonuses being paid out in the 2024-25 and 2025-26 campaigns (contract details via PuckPedia).

Muggli returns to a Zug squad that won back-to-back NL titles in 2021 and 2022 but has been eliminated in the semifinals in two straight years. Their roster is dotted with a few former NHLers, including Gabriel Carlsson, Gregory Hofmann, and Fredrik Olofsson.

NL’s ZSC Lions Sign Santtu Kinnunen

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After making a brief go of it in North America, defenseman Santtu Kinnunen is heading back overseas. The right-shot Finn has inked a one-year deal with the ZSC Lions of the Swiss National League, per a team announcement. The former Panthers prospect was a UFA after being non-tendered last month.

Kinnunen, 25, was the Panthers’ seventh-round pick in 2018. He played four seasons in the Liiga with Pelicans and Tappara before eventually signing his entry-level contract with Florida in May 2022. Kinnunen seemed to fit in well upon arriving in the Panthers’ system and didn’t have many adjustment pains while on assignment to AHL Charlotte. The smooth-skating defender finished second among Charlotte blue-liners in scoring in 2022-23, posting 35 points (nine goals, 26 assists) with a -7 rating in 69 games.

But it wasn’t enough to earn him any in-season call-ups amid competition from a deep Florida defense at both the major and minor-league levels, nor was it enough to give him any serious chance at a roster spot last fall. Thus, entering the second and final year of his ELC, he was returned to Charlotte, where his offensive production dipped last season to four goals and 21 points in 68 games, along with a -15 rating. After spending two seasons without a call-up, it wasn’t surprising to see Kinnunen’s name on the list of RFAs who didn’t receive qualifying offers by June 30.

He returns to Europe, although not his native Finland. He signs on with a Zurich-based Lions club whose roster for next season includes former NHLers Sven Andrighetto, Rudolfs Balcers, Derek Grant, Dean Kukan, Denis Malgin, and Yannick Weber, as well as head coach Marc Crawford. Prior to heading to the Cats’ system, Kinnunen was one of the better two-way defenders in Finland, posting 23 points and a +18 rating in 54 games with Tappara in 2021-22 while helping them to the league title.

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