Minnesota Wild Recall Vinni Lettieri
After assigning recent callup, Samuel Walker, back to their AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild, earlier today, the Minnesota Wild have called up a different forward to take his place in the lineup. The team announced that they have recalled Vinni Lettieri, a recent signee of the organization after spending the last two years in Anaheim and Boston, respectively.
An undrafted college free agent coming out of the University of Minnesota after the 2016-17 season, Lettieri would originally sign on with the New York Rangers under a two-year contract. Primarily playing with the Hartford Wolf Pack of the AHL during his three-year run in the Rangers organization, Lettieri would impress at the league’s highest minor league level. However, although garnering solid production at the AHL level, Lettieri would fail to score more than 10 points over 46 games as a Ranger.
Before starting the 2020-21 season, Lettieri would sign a back-to-back one-year contracts with the Anaheim Ducks organization, once again spending much of his time in the AHL. Given the team’s competitiveness at the time, Lettieri was able to play in 31 games for the Ducks during the 2021-22 season, scoring five goals and five assists, the best statistical output he’s had to this day.
After his time in the Ducks organization ended, Lettieri found his most recent landing spot in the Boston Bruins organization on a one-year contract. In 48 games played for the team’s AHL affiliate, the Providence Bruins, Lettieri scored 23 goals and 26 points, which was good for second on the team in scoring even after missing a month of action with a lower-body injury.
Already off to a hot start in Iowa to start this season, Lettieri will once again get the opportunity to prove his worth at the NHL level. However, with Minnesota starting off the season tied for 28th in goals against, Lettieri may have to focus primarily on keeping the puck out of his own net.
Adam Clendening Signs In Finland
According to a team announcement, longtime AHL defenseman Adam Clendening has signed a one-year contract with Ilves Tampere of the Finnish Liiga.
Clendening has yet to make his debut in European professional hockey. He’s spent the past four seasons exclusively in the AHL, including a strong 2021-22 campaign where he scored 42 points in 74 games. Clendening split last season between the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs and Hartford Wolf Pack, before joining the New York Rangers’ training camp on a PTO.
He did not earn a full-time deal with the Rangers, whose minor-league defensive depth chart is crowded with six players on NHL contracts. Rather than potentially return to the AHL, where Clendening has over 500 career games and is a two-time All-Star, he has opted to try his luck in one of Europe’s top professional leagues.
Clendening joins an Ilves team with the opportunity to make an impact on both ends of the ice. The team hasn’t received a ton of offense from blueliners so far this year (their leading scorer from the back end has just six points in 14 games) and despite sitting third in Liiga standings, has surrendered the sixth-most goals in league play.
With Ilves targeting long playoff runs in both the Champions Hockey League and Liiga, getting an experienced defensive reinforcement like Clendening is a major addition. For Clendening, he’ll have the chance to, at 30, begin his overseas career playing in a state-of-the-art arena while competing for some of the continent’s top trophies.
Big Hype Prospects: Roy, Brzustewicz, Stankoven, Lindbom, Iginla
Welcome to PHR’s Big Hype Prospects series. Like the MLB Trade Rumors series of the same name, we’re taking a look at the performances of top prospects from across the hockey world. We’ll look at drafted prospects who are rising, others who are struggling, and prospects for the upcoming draft who are notable.
Five Big Hype Prospects
Joshua Roy, RW, Montreal Canadiens (Laval Rocket, AHL)
5GP 5G 6A 11pts
Perhaps the biggest test NHL prospects face, other than the jump to the NHL itself, is the jump from playing exclusively against one’s peers to playing against men.
The players who oftentimes have years of experience playing professional hockey under their belt present a steep challenge for those prospects who might have been accustomed to using purely physical, skating, or skill-based advantages to success without layering those skills together into a more comprehensive package.
Oftentimes, successful players at the major junior level, for example, will find the tactics that worked for them against their peers to be wholly ineffective against pros. They’ll find their habits need changing, their strategies in need of a tweak, and perhaps their entire identities as players need to be re-examined.
That doesn’t seem to be something Roy, a Canadiens prospect, will have to consider. The 150th overall pick at the 2021 draft, Roy has always been a player of tremendous upside. He was the first overall pick at the 2019 QMJHL Entry Draft, but the struggles of his first two seasons in the QMJHL dramatically decreased his NHL draft stock.
After his fifth-round selection, Roy exploded to score 51 goals and 119 points the very next season. In his final season in the QMJHL, Roy’s production dipped slightly as the player focused his efforts on developing not only the defensive side of his game but also more pro-ready offensive habits.
Those efforts have paid off massively to start the 2023-24 season. As a rookie pro player, Roy currently leads the entire AHL in scoring with five goals and 11 points in just five games. He’s become the genuine offensive centerpiece of the Laval Rocket, and has begun to build chemistry with another top Canadiens forward prospect: Sean Farrell.
The recall of Joel Armia in the place of the injured Kirby Dach indicates that the Canadiens would prefer to keep Roy in the AHL and hopefully have him continue playing like a dominant offensive force.
But if he can keep up his scoring at this kind of level, one has to imagine that an NHL call-up isn’t too far off for the 20-year-old fifth-rounder.
Hunter Brzustewicz, RHD, Vancouver Canucks (Kitchener Rangers, OHL)
10GP 5G 15A 20pts
Looking to revamp their prospect pool at a position of need, the Canucks spent their top two draft choices, including the 11th overall selection, on right-shot defensemen last season. So far, while Tom Willander is certainly performing up to expectations at Boston University, it’s Brzustewicz who has impressed the most to start the season.
The 75th overall pick in the 2023 draft, Brzustewicz has become the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers’ true number-one defenseman. He’s responded to that important role with stellar production, and he currently leads the entire OHL in scoring with 20 points in 10 games.
Brzustewicz has helped the Rangers look like a true offensive powerhouse early this season, with the team currently averaging a whopping 5.1 goals per game.
Although Brzustewicz still has some work to do on the defensive side of things to truly place himself in consideration for an NHL job down the line, his early form this season makes clear that his offensive talent is undeniable.
Logan Stankoven, C/RW, Dallas Stars (Texas Stars, AHL)
4GP 4G 3A 7pts
Although there is always worry that high-scoring junior players will struggle to translate their scoring to the professional level, those worries are typically amplified when a player stands just five feet, eight inches tall.
One of the CHL’s most dynamic scorers over the past two years, Stankoven has long been tagged with concerns from some scouts that the things that made him so prolific for the Kamloops Blazers simply won’t be accessible in a professional environment.
So far, Stankoven has shown that he can, in fact, remain a dynamic offensive scorer in the challenging environment of the AHL.
Stankoven currently leads AHL Texas in scoring through four games, with four goals and seven points in that span.
The truly special aspects of Stankoven’s game seem to have traveled with him to Texas, and the progress he made in his final WHL season in terms of making his offensive approach more pro-ready has shown itself so far this year.
Stankoven has thus far thrived despite the immense physicality of the AHL, and so far his size has not limited his effectiveness in the areas he’s counted on most.
The Stars have a lot of offensive talent at the NHL level, so there may not be room for Stankoven to get an NHL shot this season without injuries.
But regardless of which level he plays in this season, these first few games have shown that Stankoven should be a force to be reckoned with, even at the pro level.
Carl Lindbom, G, Vegas Golden Knights (Färjestad BK, SHL)
7GP 5-2 0.99 GAA .950 sv% 1 shutout
When an NHL team spends a seventh-round pick on a goaltender, the selection is typically motivated more by a desire to retain the exclusive rights to sign that player as he develops rather than any realistic expectation that the goalie will become a big part of his NHL team’s future.
While first-rounders are almost always assured entry-level contracts due to their draft position, no such assurances exist for seventh-rounders. A seventh-round selection allows a team to keep tabs on a player, letting the player’s development guide whether he ultimately receives an NHL contract offer.
This past summer, Lindbom’s stellar development earned him an entry-level deal from the Golden Knights.
In the 2019 and 2020 drafts, the seventh round yielded some elite netminder prospects, namely Devon Levi of the Buffalo Sabres and Dustin Wolf of the Calgary Flames. From the 2021 class, Lindbom appears to have the best chance of continuing that streak.
Picked with the third-to-last selection in the class, Lindbom, 20, is a goalie who relies more on his athleticism and speed than his size. Last season was his first as a regular member of a tandem at the professional level, and he was exceptional. He posted a .930 save percentage and 1.86 goals-against-average in 36 games for Djurgårdens IF in the HockeyAllsvenskan.
This season, Lindbom has moved from Sweden’s second tier to its first-tier (SHL) and has excelled despite the increase in talent level and challenge.
Currently playing in tandem with former Golden Knight Maxime Legace, Lindbom has put up video game numbers. He’s 5-2 through seven games with a 0.99 goals-against-average and a .950 save percentage. His club, Färjestad BK, has given up just 20 goals through 12 games this season, which ranks third-best in the entire SHL.
While it’s fair to question how much a favorable defensive environment in Färjestad has contributed to Lindbom’s early success this season (Legace has also put up strong numbers, after all) it’s clear that the jump from the Allsvenskan to the SHL likely won’t be the source of major issues for Lindbom.
If he can keep up his success from these first few games into the rest of the season, Lindbom could very well find himself playing for the AHL’s Henderson Silver Knights next year, placing him within arm’s reach of the NHL.
Tij Iginla, C, 2024 Draft Prospect (Kelowna Rockets, WHL)
11GP 12G 7A 19pts
As the son of Jarome Iginla, an era-defining NHL superstar, Tij Iginla will always be a player with high expectations following him.
As a top-10 pick of the 2021 WHL Bantam Draft, Iginla was, before this season, viewed as a bit of a disappointment. He struggled to make a dent in an absolutely stacked Seattle Thunderbirds forward corps last season and was not widely considered a top prospect for the 2024 draft.
It’s early, but Iginla’s current form with the Kelowna Rockets is doing wonders to change that narrative. The 17-year-old forward is, despite an August birthday, currently in third place in the entire WHL in goal scoring. He’s tallied 12 goals in 12 games, and his 19 points rank second among the league’s under-18 forwards.
Iginla has already crossed his point total from last season despite playing in 37 fewer games and has formed a deadly partnership with Washington Capitals 2023 second-rounder Andrew Cristall.
While he’s not quite the prototypical power forward his father was, (he’s a little shorter, weighs quite a bit less, and is notably more disciplined) it’s not easy to avoid seeing at least some of Jarome whenever Tij snipes the puck straight past a WHL goalie.
There’s still a lot of the season left to be played, and the 2024 draft class is filled with talented players. But so far, Iginla has done more than most draft prospects in terms of raising his stock in the early part of the season.
Just how far he’s able to climb will be one of the more intriguing storylines in the WHL this season.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Hurricanes Reassign Callahan Burke To AHL
10/22/23: The Hurricanes have reassigned Burke back to the AHL’s Colorado Eagles. He made his Hurricanes debut last night in Denver for the team’s contest against the Colorado Avalanche, registering 7:06 time on ice.
10/21/23: Late last night, the Hurricanes made a roster move, announcing the recall of forward Callahan Burke from AHL Colorado on an emergency basis. It’s unclear at this time which Carolina player’s availability is in question for their game tonight against the Avalanche.
The Hurricanes acquired Burke from the Avs earlier this month in exchange for defenseman Caleb Jones. The swap amounted to a cost-cutting move for the Hurricanes as they moved Jones’ one-way deal for Burke’s two-way pact which only carries a guaranteed salary of $125K.
Burke had his best season at the AHL level in 2022-23, recording 16 goals and 23 assists in 70 games with the Eagles. That also earned the 26-year-old his first taste of NHL action as he got into a pair of games with the Avs. This season, he an assist in two games with the Eagles; Carolina opted to keep him with Colorado’s farm team since they don’t have an AHL affiliate of their own this season. Now, he might get a chance to play against his former team tonight.
Minnesota Wild Reassign Sammy Walker To AHL
The Minnesota Wild have reassigned forward Sammy Walker to the team’s AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild. The move lands Walker back in the AHL just four days after he was originally recalled.
Walker, 24, played in two games for Minnesota on this most recent call-up. Walker struggled in both contests and saw his ice time decline to just 7:26 last night, despite the game extending into overtime.
As the team has suffered back-to-back losses, it appears Minnesota will likely call up a different forward to fill Walker’s vacated spot on their roster with the hope that a fresh addition can help spark a return to winning ways.
This reassignment will also help out AHL Iowa, who have struggled to start the season. The team is currently 1-3 with a -10 goal differential despite playing just four games. Two of the team’s losses have been genuine blowouts and Iowa’s 11 goals scored rank 21st in the AHL.
Walker was a star rookie for Iowa last season, scoring 27 goals and 48 points in 56 games. The consistent offense he displayed as a Minnesota Golden Gopher seemed to translate to the AHL level, meaning his return to Iowa should give the team a better chance of winning games.
The priority for Minnesota, though, lies at the NHL level where the team is looking to keep pace in what will be a highly competitive Central Division.
In terms of candidates to fill Walker’s vacated role on a line with Joel Eriksson Ek and Marcus Johansson, 336-game NHL veteran Jujhar Khaira could get a shot if the team wants more of a defensive flavor in their call-up, while Nic Petan or prospect Adam Beckman would give more of an offensive touch.
Buffalo Sabres Assign Matt Savoie To AHL On Conditioning Loan
The Buffalo Sabres have sent 2022 eighth-overall pick Matt Savoie to the AHL’s Rochester Americans on a conditioning loan.
Savoie was injured at the team’s prospect tournament and has been on injured reserve to start the season. This loan will allow Savoie to get some games under his belt in the AHL, a league he played two playoff games in at the end of the 2022-23 campaign.
Savoie, who will turn 20 on January 1st, misses the cut-off for automatic AHL eligibility by just one day. The Sabres have reportedly petitioned the WHL to give Savoie an exemption and allow him to play in the AHL, but while Seattle Kraken prospect Shane Wright received one such exemption from the OHL, the Sabres have reportedly not been optimistic about Savoie’s odds of receiving one from the WHL.
That reality means that once Savoie’s conditioning assignment has concluded, he’ll in all likelihood be on his way back to the WHL, where he’ll play for the Wenatchee Wild.
The WHL’s Wild have struggled so far this season without Savoie or Zach Benson, who was a surprise addition to the Sabres’ NHL roster to start the season. Savoie scored 95 points in the WHL last year and would be a massive, difference-making addition for Wenatchee.
There’s also always the chance that Savoie ends up called back to the Sabres’ NHL roster, although that possibility becomes more unlikely if Benson maintains his hold on a spot in head coach Don Granato’s lineup.
Tyler Ennis Signs In Germany
Although 700-game NHL veteran Tyler Ennis was linked to a return to the North American pro circuit after a season spent in Switzerland, a true NHL opportunity never materialized for the 34-year-old forward.
Now, rather than try his luck in North America, Ennis has decided to play another season in Europe. Per a team announcement, Ennis has signed a one-year contract with Adler Mannheim of the German DEL. In Mannheim, Ennis will join with other former NHLers such as Jyrki Jokipakka, Tom Kühnhackl, and Linden Vey.
Having just turned 34 years old, it’s not unreasonable to think Ennis may have merited a chance to compete for an NHL job in training camp and preseason. He had a strong first full season in Europe, scoring 13 goals and 33 points for SC Bern in the Swiss National League.
Ennis has three 20-goal NHL seasons on his resume, although he struggled to the tune of just 24 points in 57 games in his most recent NHL campaign.
Instead of the NHL, Ennis joins a Mannheim team currently sitting second in the DEL standings with a 9-2-1 record. But although the club has had a stellar start, they rank outside the league’s top five in terms of goals scored, so perhaps that motivated club management to add some external offensive reinforcement.
That’s exactly what Ennis is capable of providing. While he’s likely disappointed to not receive the NHL shot he was linked to in September, he has a chance to spend this season as a genuine star forward for one of the best teams in German hockey.
Latest On Pittsburgh Penguins Roster
The Pittsburgh Penguins finally found a goal scorer in their bottom six forwards as Radim Zohorna lit the lamp in the final minutes of the Penguins’ 4-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues last night. Zohorna was playing in his first game of the season after being sent down to the AHL after a strong training camp and formed a unit with fellow winger Drew O’Connor and center Lars Eller.
After the game, Penguins Coach Mike Sullivan was visibly frustrated with his team’s play, and while he didn’t talk about roster decisions going forward, General Manager Kyle Dubas has been. Dubas spoke with NHL On TNT just a few nights ago and said he wanted the bottom six forwards to be tougher to play against and added that he didn’t feel the group was there yet. Dubas’ comments sparked speculation that the Penguins could be looking to make a move in the bottom six and they did by waiving Jansen Harkins and re-calling Zohorna before last night’s game. The Penguins also health-scratched defenseman P.O. Joseph in favor of Ryan Shea who made his NHL debut on the Penguins’ third pairing.
Kyle Dubas stocked up on fringe NHL talent in the offseason and has stashed many of those options in the AHL specifically for a moment like this. The Penguins AHL affiliate has so many veterans in fact that Alex Nylander and Andreas Johnsson had to be veteran scratches for last night’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins game. On top of Nylander, Johnsson, and Harkins, the Penguins also have Vinnie Hinostroza, Rem Pitlick, and Colin White as former NHLers who could be called up to shuffle the furniture in the Penguins bottom six.
Josh Yohe of The Athletic wrote in his 10 Postgame Observations piece that Sullivan typically doesn’t make major changes after a loss, but given the team’s recent record and his comments, he implies that it could happen. The Penguins third line of O’Connor, Eller and Zohorna was very good last night, however, the fourth line of Matthew Nieto, Jeff Carter and Noel Acciari has offered very little to the team and appears to be constantly chasing the play. That group is at the bottom of the Penguins lineup in almost every analytical statistic and has a combined zero points in five games together. Sullivan has been apprehensive about scratching Carter in the past and became defensive with the media last season on multiple occasions when the topic was asked about.
It might be just five games into the season but given that the Penguins are 2-3 against five teams that didn’t make the playoffs last season, there could be big changes brewing in Pittsburgh as Dubas and company try to find an identity for the bottom six forwards. A competent bottom-six has been something the Penguins have lacked since they lost Brandon Tanev (and Jared McCann via trade) in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft and it was one of the big reasons they missed the playoffs in 2023.
Connor McDavid Suffers An Apparent Injury
It has been a bumpy start to the season for the Edmonton Oilers, and things could become even more difficult. Greg Wyshynski of ESPN is reporting that Oilers superstar center Connor McDavid suffered an apparent injury in the third period of Edmonton’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Winnipeg Jets last night.
McDavid’s last shift occurred with 4:20 left in the third period as he remained on the bench through the final minutes of regulation as well as all of overtime. The 26-year-old phenom’s final two shifts were 33 and 34 seconds long, a huge decrease from his usual shift length of 56 seconds. McDavid could be seen in visible discomfort on his final shift as he grabbed at his side on a rush play.
After the game Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft said he had yet to speak with the trainers, but he believed McDavid’s ailment was a muscular issue. He added that the team would likely have more information later today or tomorrow.
The Oilers can ill afford to lose McDavid for any length of time. Edmonton is viewed as a cup contender by many pundits, although they haven’t started the season like one. The Oilers already sit nine points behind the defending Stanley Cup Champion Vegas Golden Knights and have only collected three points through five games.
Even with McDavid in the lineup Edmonton has struggled. They’ve posted a record of 1-3-1 on the season and have twice blown leads including a two-goal lead last night against Winnipeg. McDavid has done his part thus far with eight points in five games, however, the rest of the team has been outworked and overmatched throughout much of the season.
If McDavid is out for any length of time the Oilers start to the season could go from bumpy to rocky very quickly.
Flames, Noah Hanifin Making Progress On Extension
Speaking during the Saturday Headlines segment during Sportsnet’s Hockey Night in Canada coverage, Elliotte Friedman reports things are trending in a positive direction between the Flames and defenseman Noah Hanifin, and an extension for the pending UFA defenseman is a realistic outcome.
This is a continuation of a lengthy positive swing in relations between the Flames’ front office and their slate of pending UFAs. It began with captain Mikael Backlund, who inked a pre-season extension (and was awarded the captaincy) despite previously stating he’d wait out to see how the team began their season before deciding whether or not to extend. The fact these talks are even occurring is another significant sign for the better. Hanifin reportedly made it known to GM Craig Conroy this summer that he wasn’t open to signing an extension with the team, but he reversed course once players reported to training camps in September.
Hanifin has gotten off to a strong start on the scoresheet, leading all Flames defenders in assists (and points) with four. He’s logged 22:49 per game, a touch higher than last season’s 22:39, which was already a career-high. His pairing with the now-suspended Rasmus Andersson has had the most defensive struggles out of all the Flames’ main units, however, controlling just 40% of expected goals at even strength, per MoneyPuck.
That being said, five games is an awfully small sample size, and Hanifin has a recent history of very strong possession play. He’s become a core piece of both the Flames’ power play and penalty kill units over the past three seasons as well, logging over 30 points in three of his five full seasons as a Flame.
It could be a rather rich proposition to keep Hanifin in Alberta, however. Evolving Hockey projects an extension for the 26-year-old to boast an eight-year term with a $7.5MM cap hit, certainly expected value for a pending UFA top-pairing blueliner given the recent market. But whether or not the Flames can afford that plus a hypothetical extension for Elias Lindholm in the $8MM-$9MM range remains to be seen. Both player’s current cap hits are a fraction of their projected extension costs – Lindholm at $4.85MM and Hanifin at $4.95MM. It will be difficult to shoulder such a significant increase for a team already dealing with a significant cap crunch early into the 2023-24 season.
Without Andersson in the lineup, five of the Flames’ six defenders, including Hanifin are destined for free agency next summer. MacKenzie Weegar, locked up through 2031, is the only exception.