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Snapshots: Johnson, Clowe, Jiricek, Karpovich

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Veteran NHL defenseman Erik Johnson is gearing up for his 18th season in the NHL, continuing his streak of playing in every season since his first-overall selection in 2007. And despite a career accoladed by a Stanley Cup win and medals at both the Olympic Games and World Championship, the 36-year-old Johnson told Jonathan Bailey of Philly Hockey Now that he hasn’t considered retirement. Johnson emphasized that he’s ready to fill any role that’d benefit the Philadelphia Flyers, even if it means limited appearances in the lineup. He said, “I’m here to help these guys on and off the ice, whether it’s 20, 30, 40, 50 games, or whatever it is. My days of 25, 26 minutes a night are behind me, and I know that, and I’m comfortable with it.”

Johnson will continue on with the Flyers, after joining the team at the 2023 Trade Deadline and re-signing to a one-year, $1MM contract this summer. He managed three points in 16 appearances with Philadelphia after the move, bringing his season totals to six points in 67 games. Those measly totals might have pushed Johnson out of a routine lineup spot, but his veteran leadership is keeping him around the league. He’ll enter next season competing with fellow vets Nick Seeler and Rasmus Ristolainen for ice time, and mentoring top young defenders Jamie Drysdale and Cameron York.

Other quick notes from around the hockey world:

  • Former NHL forward Ryane Clowe made a big step in his managerial career this summer, stepping into the San Jose Sharks’ assistant general manager role and moving up from a special advisory role with the New York Rangers. Clowe detailed the move to Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now, sharing that he wasn’t eager to leave New York but was allured by the daily role San Jose promised. Clowe will now return to the club he spent eight years of his decade-long playing career with – serving as the gritty, high-event punch behind legendary Sharks like Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton – who now both support San Jose’s front office as advisors.
  • Top St. Louis Blues prospect Adam Jiricek is expected to move to the OHL’s Brantford Bulldogs next season, per Andy Strickland of Bally Sports Midwest. It will be a make-or-break year for Jiricek, who missed the majority of the 2023-24 season with a lower-body injury suffered in December. He was among the most acclaimed defenders in the 2024 class during his age-17 season – a value vindicated by his 17th-overall selection in this year’s draft. His long-term outlook should become clearer as he looks to adjust to both a return from injury and North American hockey next season.
  • New Jersey Devils defense prospect Daniil Karpovich has signed a one-year contract with Avtomobilist of the KHL, shares James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now. Nichols adds that Karpovich will report to the VHL, Russia’s second-tier league. This news returns Karpovich to Russia, after spending last season in his home country of Belarus. Karpovich spent one year of juniors hockey in Russia, recording 35 points in 47 MHL games with Avto during the 2022-23 season. That scoring dipped to just 11 points in 49 games in Belarus’ top league last season – a trend he’ll look to buck with a return east.

Minnesota Wild Re-Sign Sammy Walker

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The Minnesota Wild organization has brought back a depth player from the past two years as they announced a one-year contract for forward Samuel Walker. Walker will earn a salary of $775K in the NHL and $125K in the AHL for the 2024-25 season.

Although Walker started as a seventh-round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2017 NHL Draft, he decided to forego his entry-level contract with the Lightning to spend the next four years in the NCAA with the University of Minnesota. Walker spent three years as the team captain for the Gophers and helped his team make it as far as the Frozen Four during his tenure with the school. Overall, Walker played in 144 games for the Gophers and scored a total of 48 goals and 112 points.

Walker became a collegiate free agent after his NCAA career ended and he quickly signed on with the Wild organization to a two-year, $1.85MM agreement. Since then, Walker has only played in 13 games for the Wild in the last two years where he has scored one goal and two points.

He has been a solid player in the minor leagues as he’s spent most of his time in the AHL with the Iowa Wild. Over the past two seasons, Walker has suited up in 126 games for AHL Iowa and has scored 41 goals and 93 points. With decent depth on the NHL roster, it may be tough for Walker to challenge for a spot on the opening night roster out of training camp. However, if there are injuries to the NHL-squad, Walker should serve as one of the first call-ups to fill in.

AHL Approves 23-Team Playoff Format For 2025

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According to Tony Androckitis of Inside AHL Hockey, the American Hockey League’s Board of Governors has approved a 23-team playoff format for the 2025 Calder Cup playoffs. The league has run the format for the past two seasons and will be revisited after the current AHL Collective Bargaining Agreement expires on August 31st, 2025.

The last time the AHL has run a 16-team playoff format in the Calder Cup playoffs came back in the 2018-19 season. After the Calder Cup playoffs were canceled in 2020 and 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the playoffs returned in 2022 to an adjusted format. The only teams in the league who did not qualify for the playoffs were the bottom two teams in each division.

The expanded playoff format did not do much for increased competition during the 2022 Calder Cup playoffs as the Calder Cup Finals was comprised of the Springfield Thunderbirds and the Chicago Wolves who earned a bye into the Division semifinals after the regular season. Since then, only the Rochester Americans and Hartford Wolf Pack have made it as far as the Division Finals for teams that would not have made it into the playoffs in a 16-team format.

It will be interesting to see the arguments for and against continuing the 23-team playoff format in the next collective bargaining agreement for the AHL. Some organizations that otherwise wouldn’t have made it into the playoffs are now guaranteed two games of postseason revenue while the players also earn a spot to play for the league’s highest trophy. However, since there has been no evidence to suggest that the new format leads to increased parity or competition in the Calder Cup playoffs, it would not be a surprise to see the league return to the traditional 16-team format.

Utah Signs Tij Iginla To Entry-Level Contract

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The Utah Hockey Club has signed its first-ever selection in franchise history as the organization announced an entry-level contract for forward Tij Iginla. According to PuckPedia, Iginla will earn $877.5K at the NHL level with a signing bonus of $97.5K each season and $1MM worth of ’A’ Performance Bonuses included in each year of the deal.

The son of Hall of Fame forward Jarome Iginla officially joins the new Utah franchise after being selected with the sixth overall pick of the 2024 NHL Draft. Iginla has spent the last two years in the Western Hockey League playing for the Seattle Thunderbirds and Kelowna Rockets and may very well end up back in Kelowna for the 2024-25 WHL season. During his rookie campaign in Seattle, Iginla scored six goals and 18 points in 48 games while playing with fellow Utah forward, Dylan Guenther. The Thunderbirds would eventually win the WHL playoffs but Iginla only factored into three games in the first round.

The Thunderbirds traded Iginla to his hometown Kelowna team and he was not viewed as a top draft prospect heading into the 2023-24 campaign. However, Iginla became one of the highest risers in the 2024 NHL Draft after scoring 13 goals and 21 points in the first 12 games of the season. He finished the year with 47 goals and 84 points in 64 games while posting another nine goals and 15 points through 11 postseason contests. Iginla also suited up for Team Canada in the 2024 under-18 World Junior Championship where he collected six goals and 12 points in seven tournament games en route to a gold medal.

Due to the depth up front possessed by Utah entering the 2024-25 season, it is highly unlikely that Iginla will crack the roster. However, after a near 50-goal campaign in the WHL last year, Iginla has little else to prove in major junior. It will be interesting to see where Utah places Iginla for the upcoming season as his development will surely be top of mind as the organization’s new top forward prospect.

San Jose Sharks Sign Ty Emberson To One-Year Deal

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11:03 AM: The Sharks have confirmed the one-year agreement with Emberson per a team announcement.

10:22 AM: Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that defenseman Ty Emberson and the San Jose Sharks have avoided arbitration. The Sharks organization will sign the young defenseman to a one-year, $950K contract for the 2024-25 NHL season, and will become a Group VI unrestricted free agent at the end of the deal if he doesn’t play more than 50 games next year.

Emberson was originally drafted with the 73rd overall pick of the 2018 NHL Draft by the Arizona Coyotes before he spent three years at the University of Wisconsin in the NCAA. Emberson turned pro after his junior season with the Badgers and scored one goal in five games with Arizona’s AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners. He did not perform well during his first professional campaign with the Roadrunners as he scored four goals and 11 points in 58 games while posting a -25 rating.

The Coyotes organization parted ways with Emberson the following summer by trading him to the New York Rangers in exchange for Patrik Nemeth, a second-round pick in 2025, and a conditional second-round pick in 2026. Emberson performed much better with the Rangers’ AHL affiliate as he scored seven goals and 27 points in 69 games for the Hartford Wolf Pack while posting a +17 rating. He also performed markedly well for the team in the postseason as he scored two goals and five points in only nine Calder Cup playoff contests.

After signing a one-year league minimum contract with New York during the following offseason, the team placed him on waivers shortly before the 2023-24 NHL season; eventually being claimed by the Sharks. With a middling defensive core, Emberson had access to NHL minutes in San Jose and scored one goal and 10 points over 30 games in his rookie season. Emberson showed effectiveness as a physical defensive defenseman with the Sharks as he posted 94 hits on the year while also achieving a 91.7% on-ice save percentage in all situations.

San Jose has made a few moves this offseason to improve their defensive core but it should not prohibit Emberson from reaching the 50-game mark. As a right-handed shot, Emberson should compete for top-four minutes as one of the best shutdown defensemen on the Sharks’ roster.

Lightning Sign J.J. Moser To Two-Year Contract

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2:52 PM: The Lightning have confirmed the signing via a public announcement.

9:18 AM: After electing for salary arbitration on July 5th, defenseman J.J. Moser and the Tampa Bay Lightning have reportedly agreed on a new contract. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports the team has signed Moser to a two-year contract worth an AAV of $3.375MM.

According to the report from Friedman, Moser will make $2.7MM during the 2024-25 season and $4.05MM in 2025-26. It will be a significant raise over Moser’s previous contract where he averaged $887K during his entry-level contract.

It will be interesting to see how the Lightning deploy Moser after acquiring him as a part of the package for defenseman Mikhail Sergachev in a draft-day trade with the Utah Hockey Club. During a three-year stint with the Arizona Coyotes, Moser quickly became a part of the team’s top four after making his NHL debut in the 2021-22 NHL season.

Over 205 regular season games with the Coyotes, Moser scored 16 goals and 72 points while averaging over 20 minutes of ice time per night. Moser played in nearly all situations in Arizona and showed flashes of being an effective two-way defenseman but did have some shortcomings on the defensive side of the puck. According to HockeyReference, Moser produced an expected +/- of -35.6 throughout his tenure in the desert — coming out to an average of nearly -12 each season. Additionally, Moser averaged an on-ice save percentage in all situations of 89.5% over his first three seasons, but some of the blame could be shared with a subpar Arizona defensive core.

With Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonagh expected to receive a bulk of the minutes on the left side of Tampa Bay’s blue line crew, Moser should get bumped down to a bottom-pairing role with the Lightning. Although his salary for next year is right on par with a bottom-pairing defenseman, his 2025-26 salary will become a bit rich if Tampa Bay decides to keep him in a similar role.

Central Notes: Cogliano, Francouz, Colorado Goaltending, Everblades

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A pair of former Avalanche players will be sticking around the organization.  The team announced that Andrew Cogliano has been appointed as a Special Assistant to General Manager Chris MacFarland while Pavel Francouz is now a Goaltending Scout.  Cogliano retired in May after a 17-year NHL career spanning nearly 1,300 NHL appearances, the last three of which were spent with the Avs.  Francouz, meanwhile, was supposed to be the backup to Alexandar Georgiev last season but didn’t play due to a lower-body injury.  He unofficially served in a scouting capacity during the season and now has had that role formalized.

More from the Central:

  • Still with the Avalanche, Corey Masisak of The Denver Post wonders if they might wait until training camp to add another netminder as they did last season when they picked up Ivan Prosvetov off waivers. Notably, Justus Annunen is now waiver-eligible and wouldn’t be a lock to clear after putting up a 2.25 GAA and a .928 SV% in 14 appearances last season.  However, with the team set to have some extra cap flexibility to start the year with Valeri Nichushkin not counting against the salary cap while in the third phase of the Player Assistance Program, Colorado could elect to carry three goalies and have a battle for the backup position extend into the regular season.
  • The Blues will have an ECHL affiliate for next season as the Florida Everblades announced that they’ve reached a multi-year affiliation agreement with St. Louis. It’s the first time the Blues have had a full affiliation at this level since the 2019-20 campaign.  The Everblades, meanwhile, have won the Kelly Cup for three straight years while affiliated with two different NHL teams, Nashville and Florida but announced last month that they’d be seeking a new parent franchise which they now have.

Minor Transactions: 7/10/24

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As the NHL transaction activity dries up, we’re seeing an uptick in their farm teams making moves to add to their roster for the upcoming season.  Here’s a rundown of today’s movement.

  • After spending last season with AHL Charlotte on an NHL contract with Florida, goaltender Mack Guzda is returning to the Checkers but this time on a minor league deal as the team announced they’ve signed him to a one-year contract. The 23-year-old was limited to just two games last season due to injury but made 29 appearances in 2022-23 where he had a 2.88 GAA with a .897 SV%.  Guzda was non-tendered by Florida last month, making him an unrestricted free agent.
  • Former Calgary farmhand Riley Damiani is off to Germany as Augsberger of the DEL has signed him to a one-year deal per a team release. The 24-year-old split last season between Dallas and Calgary after being part of the Chris Tanev deal before the trade deadline.  Damiani had 11 goals and 13 assists in 67 games between the two teams which wasn’t enough to yield him a qualifying offer in June.
  • Boston’s farm team in Providence announced a pair of additions in forward Evan Vierling and defenseman Mason Millman on one-year deals. Vierling played his first professional campaign last season and the 22-year-old was productive in limited AHL duty, notching seven points in eight games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton while adding 25 points in 34 ECHL contests.  As for Millman, the 22-year-old picked up four assists in 15 games with AHL Lehigh Valley last season while adding 26 more in 44 ECHL appearances.
  • Veteran defenseman Robbie Russo is heading for a second stint in Tucson, per a team release. The 31-year-old spent two seasons with the Roadrunners before moving on in 2020.  Last season, Russo recorded 30 points in 69 games with Utica.  He has 19 career NHL appearances under his belt, all with Detroit back in the 2016-17 campaign.
  • Winger Marcel Marcel will remain in Rockford as the IceHogs announced that they’ve re-signed him to a one-year deal. Rather than return to major junior for a final season, the 20-year-old opted to turn pro and got into 26 games with Rockford where he had five assists.  With Chicago adding considerable depth over the summer, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Marcel spend more time with ECHL Indy next season.

Capitals Sign Leon Muggli To Entry-Level Deal

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7/11: Washington has confirmed the signing according to a team announcement.

7/10: The Capitals have been active in recent days when it comes to signing their prospects.  The latest to receive a contract is Leon Muggli as PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that they’ve signed the defenseman to a three-year, entry-level contract.  The deal will carry a cap hit of $941K and an AAV of $975K; the difference being $102.5K of games-played bonuses in the agreement’s first year.

The 18-year-old was a second-round pick by Washington last month, going 54th overall.  Muggli spent most of the season with EV Zug in Switzerland’s top division where he had three goals and nine assists in 42 games; his 12 points were the most ever by a defenseman aged 17 or younger in league history.  Muggli also suited up for the Swiss internationally at the World Under-18 Championship as well as the World Juniors.

It’s worth noting that Muggli still has two years left on his deal in Switzerland.  At this point, it makes the most sense for him to remain with Zug for those seasons, allowing him to play a regular role while staying at home.  Assuming that happens, Muggli’s contract is eligible to slide twice and still have three years remaining on it heading into the 2026-27 campaign as long as he doesn’t play in ten or more NHL contests in either season.

Islanders Sign Liam Foudy, Re-Sign Tyce Thompson

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The Islanders have made a pair of moves up front as PuckPedia reports (Twitter links) that they’ve signed winger Liam Foudy to a one-year, two-way deal and re-signed winger Tyce Thompson to a one-year, two-way agreement.  Foudy will make $775K in the NHL and $225K in the minors while the agreement has a guaranteed salary of $275K.  Thompson, meanwhile, will receive $775K at the NHL level, $175K in the minors, with a total guarantee of $200K.

Foudy was a first-round pick back in 2018, going 18th overall to Columbus.  However, he has had a limited role at the top level so far.  After playing in 62 games with the Blue Jackets in 2022-23, the thought was that he’d turned the corner and had at least secured a full-time roster spot heading into last season.

However, that wasn’t the case as the 24-year-old was waived early in the season and was claimed by Nashville.  The Predators kept him around for a dozen games before waiving Foudy again in December.  He cleared that time and was sent to AHL Milwaukee where he remained for the rest of the season.  He was productive at that level with 10 goals and six assists in 28 games but was non-tendered by the Preds last month.  While New York adds Foudy via unrestricted free agency, he’s still under club control through the 2026-27 season.

As for Thompson, he started last season in New Jersey’s system before being flipped to the Isles in late November.  Between their two farm teams, the 24-year-old played in 66 games, notching three goals and 16 assists but still landed a qualifying offer.  Thompson has 11 career NHL appearances under his belt but will need to play in 69 games next season to avoid becoming a Group Six unrestricted free agent next summer.

 

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