Predators Claim Liam Foudy Off Waivers From Blue Jackets
The Predators have added some extra forward depth as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that they’ve claimed forward Liam Foudy off waivers from the Blue Jackets.
The 23-year-old was a first-round pick by Columbus back in 2018 (23rd overall) out of OHL London. While he put up a point per game with the Knights in his post-draft season, consistent production has been tough to come by in the pros. Foudy has just seven goals and 12 assists in 90 career NHL contests over parts of five seasons. Things have gone a lot better for him in the minors with AHL Cleveland as he has 35 points in 41 appearances at that level but needed to clear waivers to get back there. Clearly, that didn’t happen.
Once viewed as a possible important part of their rebuild, the Blue Jackets have since stockpiled several young middlemen which effectively pushed Foudy, a natural center, to the wing. While the position swap worked better for him as a speedster, their extra depth ultimately knocked him out of the lineup first and now off the roster entirely.
Meanwhile, Nashville is in the midst of shaking up its forward group under new GM Barry Trotz. Bringing in Foudy is a no-risk proposition for them as he’s on a contract that’s below the league minimum and he will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights next summer. Notably, the Preds had a full roster so a move needed to be made to add Foudy to the active roster. That move was done by placing defenseman Luke Schenn on IR. Schenn was injured in the season opener and was given a four-to-six-week recovery timeline.
Canucks Activate Ilya Mikheyev Off IR
The Canucks are getting back a key winger in the lineup tonight as the team announced (Twitter link) that Ilya Mikheyev will make his season debut, meaning that he has been activated off injured reserve. He’s expected to skate on the second line with Elias Pettersson and Andrei Kuzmenko.
The 29-year-old had a productive first season with Vancouver last year when he was healthy as he recorded 13 goals and 15 assists in just 46 games while logging just shy of 17 minutes per night. His 28 points were four shy of his career high despite missing over 40% of the games due to injuries.
Mikheyev suffered a torn ACL back in February, undergoing surgery soon after. At the time, the expectation was that he’d be ready for the start of the season but that wasn’t the case as he wound up not playing in the preseason while the team eventually scaled him back in practice to a non-contact jersey. Fortunately for Vancouver, it turns out that he didn’t need too much more recovery time.
The Canucks had been carrying 22 players so they don’t need to make a corresponding move to create an open roster spot to activate Mikheyev.
Chicago Blackhawks Assign Cole Guttman To AHL
According to Charlie Roumeliotis of NBC Sports Chicago, the Chicago Blackhawks have assigned forward Cole Guttman to their AHL affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs.
Guttman, 24, was a healthy scratch for the Blackhawks’ past two games and has seemingly played his way back to the AHL in the early part of this season.
The five-foot-nine pivot has skated in three NHL games this year for head coach Luke Richardson, tallying one goal.
The Blackhawks signed Guttman as a college free agent after his productive final collegiate season, and he had an impressive debut season as a pro last year. But despite the early success he had as a professional, especially in the AHL, he’s been passed this season on the Blackhawks’ center depth chart.
Guttman began the year as Richardson’s third-line center, skating between Boris Katchouk and Andreas Athanasiou.
He’s since lost that job to Mackenzie Entwistle, who offers far more size at the position, but scored just four more points than Guttman last season despite playing in 52 additional NHL games.
With Lukas Reichel entrenched as the team’s second-line center (despite his early-season struggles) and Connor Bedard untouchable on the Blackhawks’ top line, there simply isn’t much room for Guttman in the lineup outside of that third-line center role.
It’s seemingly been made clear with the consecutive games spent as a healthy scratch that the Blackhawks want to see more from Guttman in order for him to retain a regular spot in their lineup. With this reassignment, the next step for him will be to play some impactful games for the IceHogs so he can earn a recall to Chicago and re-enter their lineup on stronger footing.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Montreal Canadiens Recall Joel Armia, Assign Filip Mešár To OHL
The Montreal Canadiens have announced two roster moves: veteran forward Joel Armia has been recalled from the team’s AHL affiliate, the Laval Rocket, and 2022 first-round pick Filip Mešár has been assigned to the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers.
With second-line center Kirby Dach now confirmed to be out for the rest of the season, the Canadiens had a need for an extra forward on their NHL roster. The player they have chosen to fill Dach’s spot is the veteran Armia, 30.
The owner of a $3.4MM cap hit through next season, Armia has had three consecutive difficult seasons in Montreal.
The six-foot-three, 216-pound former top prospect has at times been an impact player in Montreal (such as in 2019-20 when he scored 16 goals and 30 points in just 58 games) but his consistency has been sorely lacking.
With training camp battles for forward spots highly competitive in the Canadiens’ preseason, Armia failed to secure a role on the team’s season-opening roster and was sent to Laval after clearing waivers.
An opportunity to play a top-line role and reset his game in the minors seems to have been the right call for Armia, who has scored four goals and five points in four AHL games this season.
Now back on the Canadiens’ NHL roster, Armia is likely to receive fourth-line winger duty with either him or Michael Pezzetta sitting in the press box as the team’s spare forward.
As for Mešár, the 2022 26th overall pick heads back to Kitchener after failing to earn a regular role on a Rocket team flush with quality scoring-line winger options. He did score his first career AHL point in yesterday’s win over the Rochester Americans, but was playing as a fourth-line right-winger next to Riley McKay and Jan Myšák.
The Canadiens seem to believe that the best path forward for Mešár’s development is to play a major role in the OHL rather than a limited role in the AHL.
Mešár’s underwhelming debut season in the OHL last year (he scored 51 points in 52 games) indicates that he still has some unfinished business in that league, so the hope will be that he’ll have a highly productive (if not dominant) final season playing junior hockey.
Since two Laval forwards are now leaving the team’s lineup, these departures could pave the way for Canadiens prospect Jared Davidson to play an increased role for the Rocket. The 21-year-old 2022 fifth-round pick had an impressive training camp and preseason but has fallen victim to the numbers game in Laval and played just one game so far for the team.
With Armia and Mešár no longer in the picture and fellow prospect Emil Heineman out with an injury, the roadblocks to Davidson receiving a regular role in the AHL could now be cleared.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Minor Transactions: 10/21/23
It’s another busy day around the world of professional hockey, including in the NHL. Almost the entire NHL is set to play today, starting with a matinee contest set to feature Alex DeBrincat‘s return to Ottawa. Overseas, most of Europe’s major pro leagues have games on schedule, including the SHL, Liiga, and Swiss NL.
Just as teams across the hockey world are busy preparing for games, many teams are also still hard at work looking to add, subtract, or extend players. As always, we’ll keep track of notable player transactions here:
- Former Brandon Wheat Kings star and Carolina Hurricanes prospect Stelio Mattheos has made the choice to continue his pro career overseas. Mattheos has signed a contract with Södertälje SK in Sweden’s HockeyAllsvenskan, the second tier of pro hockey in the country. Now 24, Mattheos has spent the bulk of his time since graduating out of the WHL in the AHL with the Chicago Wolves. He’s only amassed 27 points in 112 career AHL games, though, so perhaps he’ll find more of a scoring touch in a place like the Allsvenskan, where Mattheos could find seizing a scoring-line role an easier prospect.
- 28-year-old winger Erik Brown, a former Bridgeport Islanders / Sound Tigers AHLer, has made the decision to conclude his playing career at the age of 28. Brown was slated to play this season for Vaasan Sport in the Finnish Liiga, formally beginning his overseas pro career. Due to his decision to retire, though, he’ll finish his time in Vaasa with just 12 games played and a respectable seven points. Once a college hockey captain and leading scorer at Rochester Institute of Technology, Brown won a conference title as a freshman and went on to play some playoff hockey in the AHL with the Islanders.
- This season, Boston Bruins defensive prospect Jonathan Myrenberg appears to have made the full-time jump from the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan to the SHL. Yesterday, that jump was seemingly confirmed as Myrenberg was signed to a contract extension by his SHL club, Linköping HC. The 20-year-old right-shot blueliner had his rights acquired by the Bruins in the Jack Studnicka trade, and Boston retains the exclusive rights to sign Myrenberg until June 1st, 2025. So far, Myrenberg has scored three assists in 12 games for Linköping, averaging 17:03 TOI per game.
This page may be updated throughout the day.
Columbus Blue Jackets Extend AHL Affiliate
Since the 2015 season, after changing their AHL affiliation away from the Springfield Falcons, the Columbus Blue Jackets have maintained an affiliation agreement with the Cleveland Monsters. Today, the Blue Jackets organization announced that they would be extending that agreement under a new multi-year agreement between the two parties.
Given the fact that the team already had a previous agreement for this season, and a multi-year agreement suggests the agreement is two years or more, this will cement the Monsters as the longest-serving AHL affiliate of Columbus over their franchise history. As the Blue Jackets officially became an NHL team during the 2000-01 NHL season, their first AHL affiliate would be the Syracuse Crunch, an affiliate that would last until 2010. They would then come to an agreement with the now-defunct Falcons, before finally landing with the Monsters at the start of the 2015-16 season.
Notably, in their first season as the direct AHL affiliate of the Blue Jackets, the Monsters would go on to win the 2016 Calder Cup, sweeping the Hershey Bears in the final series, becoming the first Columbus affiliate to win a championship. At that time, the team was led by Oliver Bjorkstrand and has now transitioned to being led by Trey Fix-Wolansky.
In the announcement, Blue Jackets Director of Player Personnel, Chris Clark, spoke in high regard for the relationship saying:
“Giving our young players an opportunity to grow and develop both on and off the ice in a world-class environment like the one they have with the Cleveland Monsters is very special and we couldn’t be prouder and more excited that our partnership will continue for many years to come. Both organizations share a commitment to succeed at the highest level, while growing the game and having a positive impact in our communities and state and we look forward to continuing that work together.“
Detroit Red Wings Recall Jonatan Berggren
Monday: After the team’s back-to-back wins over the Ottawa Senators and Calgary Flames this weekend, CapFriendly is reporting that the Red Wings have loaned Berggren back to the Griffins.
Friday: Earlier today, it was reported that Detroit Red Wings forward, Robby Fabbri, would miss the next four weeks with a lower-body injury. As Fabbri will now land on the injured reserved for the team, the Red Wings announced that they have recalled forward Jonatan Berggren from the Grand Rapids Griffins under emergency conditions.
This confirms an earlier report from Kevin Weekes of ESPN, who indicated that Berggren would likely replace Fabbri once the injury news became public. After spending most of last year in the NHL with Detroit, Berggren will get the opportunity to stay with the team long-term, after surprisingly not making the team out of training camp earlier this month.
Becoming one of the sneakier draft choices made towards the end of the Ken Holland era for the Red Wings, Berggren has excelled at every level since being drafted by Detroit in the second round of the 2018 NHL Draft. In his last season playing for Skellefteå AIK of the SHL back during the 2020-21 season, Berggren impressed with 12 goals and 33 assists in 49 games played. Next season, making his professional debut in North America, Berggren would score 21 goals and 43 assists in 70 games for the Griffins, leading the team in points during his rookie campaign.
Last year, after getting off to a point-per-game start in the AHL, Berggren would get the call-up to Detroit, staying with the team for the rest of the season (minus a week stint in the AHL in February). In his rookie season, Berggren would score 15 goals and 13 assists in 67 games played, relatively modest numbers in hindsight, but it was good for ninth on the team in scoring.
Coming into this year, Berggren would have seemed like a relatively easy choice to make the Red Wings roster out of camp, but over the offseason, the team added six new forwards into the mix through trades and free agency, as well as the return of both Fabbri and Michael Rasmussen to start the season. Although not a star-studded roster by any means, Detroit has become a relatively deep team over the last few seasons.
Transaction Notes: Zohorna, Toninato, Honka
The Pittsburgh Penguins have announced that forward Radim Zohorna has been recalled from the club’s AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins. In addition, forward Jansen Harkins has cleared waivers and been assigned to Wilkes-Barre Scranton. Harkins, 26, arrived in Pittsburgh via a waiver claim from the Winnipeg Jets, and has played in four NHL games for the Penguins. He hasn’t registered a point in that span and most recently was playing on head coach Mike Sullivan’s third line alongside Drew O’Connor and Lars Eller.
Harkins has been a stellar AHLer in the past, such as last season when he scored 50 points in just 44 games for the Manitoba Moose, so he’s likely to be an impact forward in Wilkes-Barre Scranton. Harkins’ replacement, Zohorna, brings more size to the Penguins’ bottom-six, though he has not produced as well in North America as Harkins has. The Penguins’ bottom-six forwards as a whole have left the team wanting more, so perhaps this move will help spark an uptick in form for the Penguins’ bottom-sixers.
Some other transaction-related notes from across the NHL:
- The Winnipeg Jets have recalled veteran center Dominic Toninato from their AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose. With Gabriel Vilardi now out for an extended period, the Jets were in need of a new player to serve as the organization’s 13th forward. Toninato, who has 37 points in his last 52 AHL games, is a reliable veteran pivot for head coach Rick Bowness to work with, and he’s likely to fill in on the team’s fourth line should he end up dressing for games.
- Carolina Hurricanes defensive prospect Anttoni Honka has been loaned to JYP Jyväskylä of the Finnish Liiga, the club he’s played almost all of his 205-game Liiga career with. The 23-year-old 2019 third-round pick was originally slated to play ECHL hockey with the Norfolk Admirals, but rather than play third-tier hockey in North America he appears to have chosen to return to Finland’s top league. Since the Hurricanes currently do not have an AHL affiliate, the team has struggled to find places in the AHL for its prospects to develop. Honka joins 2020 41st overall pick Noel Gunler as Hurricanes prospects originally sent to the ECHL who have instead elected to continue their development in Europe.
Columbus Blue Jackets Activate Zach Werenski, Waive Liam Foudy
The Columbus Blue Jackets have announced three roster moves. Star defenseman Zach Werenski has been activated off of injured reserve, and forward Liam Foudy has been placed on waivers for the purpose of assignment to the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters as a corresponding move.
Also, prospect forward Jordan Dumais was activated off of injured reserve and loaned to the Halifax Mooseheads of the QMJHL.
It had been anticipated by some that defenseman David Jiricek would find himself returned to the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters whenever Werenski ended up returning to the lineup.
That’s not the case, though, and according to team reporter Jeff Svoboda Jiricek is actually projected to retain his spot on head coach Pascal Vincent’s nightly lineup. Per Svoboda, 2018 eighth-overall pick Adam Boqvist is likely to be headed for the press box to make room for Werenski’s return.
This activation is great news for the Blue Jackets, who have only enjoyed 14 total games of Werenski both this season and last. Injuries have dogged Werenski in recent years, but when healthy he’s among the NHL’s most dynamic blueliners.
Widely considered a true number-one defenseman, having Werenski in the lineup significantly enhances the Blue Jackets’ ability to compete on a nightly basis.
The result of Werenski’s activation is that Foudy, 23, gets exposed to waivers. The Blue Jackets spent the 18th overall pick at the 2018 draft to select Foudy out of the London Knights of the OHL. The Blue Jackets seemed to be making a bet that Foudy’s genuinely elite speed would allow him to develop into not only an elite OHL scorer but also an impact NHLer.
So far, that bet hasn’t paid off, as Foudy has just 19 points in 90 career NHL games. In his longest stretch of extended NHL action, the 2022-23 season, Foudy managed just 14 points in 62 games. Owner of a $762.5k cap hit through the end of the season, claiming the pending RFA could be an intriguing possibility for teams who may believe they can harness Foudy’s past potential as a prospect in ways the Blue Jackets to this point have not been able to.
As for the move to activate Dumais, what’s notable here is that the Blue Jackets were unable to secure a waiver to allow the 19-year-old to spend 2023-24 in the AHL.
There’s an argument to be made that Dumais has absolutely nothing left to prove at the QMJHL level (he did score 140 points in just 64 games last season, after all) but it seems that such arguments may not have been enough to earn Dumais the type of waiver from the CHL that Shane Wright received. So he’s headed back to the Halifax Mooseheads, where he could very well post video game-like numbers for another season.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Robby Fabbri Out Four Weeks With Lower-Body Injury
The Detroit Red Wings have announced that forward Robby Fabbri will be out for four weeks with a lower-body injury. The team also clarified that this injury is not related to Fabbri’s knee, which is notable as Fabbri’s knee has been the cause of significant injury troubles in the past.
Fabbri has not appeared on the ice for the Red Wings since the team’s season-opening loss to the New Jersey Devils on October 12th. Fabbri’s absence was originally believed to only be for a single game, but seeing as Fabbri failed to return to the ice it seems that original projection may have been too optimistic.
Fabbri’s one game so far this season was spent on the Red Wings’ second line alongside Lucas Raymond and offseason signing J.T. Compher.
Although he only played in 28 games last season, Fabbri scored at a 47-point pace. There was some hope that the 27-year-old, who is making $4MM against the cap through 2024-25, would be in line for a potential career-best season on a top-six line with Compher and Raymond. The Red Wings will now have to wait to see if those hopes will end up materializing into actual production, though, as Fabbri will be out of commission into the middle of November.
As for how the Red Wings have fared in Fabbri’s absence, Derek Lalonde’s squad has collected three consecutive wins and has scored 16 goals in that span of time. While a healthy Fabbri would hardly have hurt the team’s offensive attack, the Red Wings look well-positioned to remain highly competitive despite losing Fabbri.