Minor Transactions: 12/08/17
Jordan Subban heard that he’d been traded when he woke up and saw several text messages. If only he’d been keeping an eye on PHR.
We’ll keep track of all the minor moves around the league right here. Make sure to refresh throughout the day.
- The Nashville Predators have flipped backup goaltenders once again, recalling Anders Lindback and assigning Juuse Saros. Nashville has been swapping the two goaltenders all year long, though Lindback has yet to appear in an NHL game. The team has also placed Ryan Johansen on injured reserve, retroactive to December 2nd.
- The Tampa Bay Lightning have sent Jamie McBain back to the minor leagues, likely signalling a return to health for Braydon Coburn or Jake Dotchin (or both). McBain never did get into a game, and will go back to his lead role on the Syracuse Crunch.
- Mike McKenna is on his way back to the AHL after suiting up last night for the Dallas Stars. Ben Bishop wasn’t able to go for the Stars with a back injury, so Kari Lehtonen started and had McKenna on the bench counting shots. With the Stars heading home to take on the Golden Knights tomorrow, it will be interesting to see if Bishop is back in net.
- With Radko Gudas set to return after his 10-game suspension, the Philadelphia Flyers have returned T.J. Brennan to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Brennan, known solely for his offensive production from the defense position, never did get into a game with the Flyers.
- The Vacouver Canucks have sent Thatcher Demko back to the minor leagues, now that Derek Dorsett has been moved to long-term injured reserve. Demko’s recall was just a paper transaction to get the Canucks as close to the cap ceiling as possible.
- The St. Louis Blues have moved Carter Hutton to injured reserve, and brought Samuel Blais back up. Blais was sent down quickly when Ville Husso was recalled on an emergency basis, but was never expected to be down for very long. Hutton suffered the injury in practice, and caused the Blues to use a local goaltender for warm-up last night.
- Corey Crawford is back in the Chicago net, activated off injured reserve today and expected to start tonight. That means Jean-Francois Berube‘s time with the team is over for now, as he’s been reassigned to the AHL. Berube cleared waivers at the beginning of October, and has spent most of the season in Rockford.
- The San Jose Sharks have sent Danny O’Regan back to the AHL after eight games with the club, in which he actually recorded four points. O’Regan, a 23-year old center will be back up at some point as he continues to score at every level.
- Curtis McKenzie has been sent to the minor leagues by the Dallas Stars, clearing room for Martin Hanzal and Marc Methot on the roster, who both skated before practice today. Though it’s not clear when either will be ready to come back, the Stars now have two roster spots available.
- The Pittsburgh Penguins have sent Greg McKegg to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins after clearing waivers, recalling Dominik Simon to help out up front. Simon has 16 points in 20 games for the AHL club this season, but would be making his NHL season debut if he gets into a game.
Minor Transactions: 12/3/17
All but eight teams are off today, but that doesn’t mean it will be a lazy Sunday. Expect teams to perform some roster management today with a new slate of games ahead of them this week.
- The Predators have once again swapped backup goaltenders, per the AHL’s transactions page. Jusse Saros has been recalled while veteran Anders Lindback has been returned to Milwaukee, reversing the roster move made on November 30th. Saros got into a pair of games while on assignment, allowing seven goals on 52 shots.
- The Canadiens have re-assigned winger Daniel Carr to Laval of the AHL, also according to the AHL’s transactions page. He was brought up to cover for Jonathan Drouin who has missed the last two games with a lower-body injury. Carr fared quite well in those contests, recording a goal and three assists.
- The Wild assigned defenseman Ryan Murphy to Iowa of the AHL, also via the AHL’s transaction page. Murphy has only played in three games with Minnesota this season but has been quite productive at the minor league level so far, tallying 11 points in 18 games. That gets Minnesota back to eight defensemen on their roster, including Kyle Quincey who cleared waivers earlier in the week.
Earlier updates:
- The Los Angeles Kings could be getting mid-season reinforcements. Their AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign, announced last night that first-year pro prospect Austin Wagner has been medically cleared by L.A. and assigned to Ontario. Wagner, 20, had been off the ice rehabbing from off-season surgery, but participated in limited practice with the Reign over the past few weeks and is now ready to make his pro debut. The 20-year-old was selected by the Kings in the fourth round in 2015 and scored 60+ points in each of his last two seasons with the WHL’s Regina Pats. A big, tough, two-way forward with some offensive flair, Wagner has a chance to fill a role in the bottom-six in L.A. before the season is out, so long as he can get his legs under him in the minors and stay healthy.
- Following the reveal yesterday that Martin Hanzal‘s hamstring injury was of the week-to-week variety, it is no surprise that Dallas Stars beat writer Marc Stepneski reports that Hanzal has been placed on the injured reserve. In his stead, Dallas has recalled forward Jason Dickinson from the AHL’s Texas Stars. Dickinson, 22, has already played in four NHL games this season and is on pace to best his 10 games from last year. Selected in the first round in 2013 with the pick Dallas obtained from the Boston Bruins for Jaromir Jagr, Dickinson is already the most successful piece of that trade for either team, but nonetheless has overall not yet shown he was worthy of a first-round pick. Perhaps in this latest recall, things will finally click for the young forward.
- NHL.com’s Brian Hedger tweeted that the Columbus Blue Jackets have sent winger Sonny Milano to the Cleveland Monsters today. The promising 21-year-old winger has had trouble gaining consistency with Columbus as he’s put up five goals and five assists in 24 games, but hasn’t scored a goal in the last month. This isn’t the first time Milano has been sent down this season. He was assigned to Cleveland on Nov. 18 for one game with the Monsters and had an assist and subsequently recalled the following day.
- The Edmonton Oilers assigned defenseman Ryan Stanton to the Bakersfield Condors to make move for Brandon Davidson, who was claimed off waivers this morning. Stanton, a 28-year-old defender, has spent most of the season going back and forth between Bakersfield and Edmonton, serving as an emergency backup on defense. He has not made an appearance for the Oilers this year. He has one assist in 11 games for the Condors this year.
Minor Transactions: 11/20/17
With just six games on a Monday and a couple of suspensions last night, many teams may look to make minor changes to their roster for the coming week. Keep up with those moves right here:
- The Vancouver Canucks announced they have recalled defenseman Philip Holm from the Utica Comets and reassigned Patrick Wiercioch in a corresponding move. Holm will be recalled for first time as the undrafted free agent signed a one-year deal with Vancouver this summer. At 25 years of age and coming over from Sweden, he needed time to adjust to the North American hockey, but appears to be ready. He has played 15 games for Utica, leading all Comet defensemen in scoring as he has put up two goals and eight assists on the year. Wiercioch, who had been shuttled up and down for most of the season has been up with the team since Oct. 23, but has been serving as an emergency defenseman and hasn’t seen any action yet this year. He has only played two games for the Comets this season.
- The Nashville Predators announced they have recalled forward Pontus Aberg and goaltender Juuse Saros as well as Frederick Gaudreau from the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals. The team also reassigned Anders Lindback to Milwaukee. Aberg had been serving in Milwaukee on a conditioning stint since Nov. 11. The 24-year-old had cracked the team’s lineup last year after putting up a 30-goal season in Milwaukee. He then proceeded to play in 16 playoff games for Nashville, but had trouble finding playing time this year as he had only played in nine games to start the year and was often a healthy scratch. In four games for the Admirals, he had four goals and two assists. Saros, the team’s backup behind starter Pekka Rinne, has struggled in his time with the Predators. In four games, he has posted a 3.94 GAA and a .855 save percentage. He was sent down to start for Milwaukee to get in some playing time. Although he took the loss in Saturday’s game against the Cleveland Monsters, he only allowed two goals in the game, stopping 20 shots. Lindback returns to Milwaukee after serving as an emergency backup for the team on Saturday.
- Arizona Sports reported that the Arizona Coyotes have assigned defenseman Dakota Mermis to the AHL Tucson Roadrunners. The 23-year-old blueliner has played seven games for Arizona with the team’s rash of defensive injuries from Niklas Hjalmarsson and Jakob Chychrun. Hjalmarsson is expected to return to the lineup tonight.
- The Dallas Stars have recalled goaltender Mike McKenna from the AHL Texas Stars Monday as backup Kari Lehtonen is unavailable due to personal reasons, according to the team. The 34-year-old McKenna has been a journeyman in the AHL and last got into an NHL game with the Arizona Coyotes back in the 2014-15 season and has played in 22 NHL games in his career. In 12 games with Texas, he has a 3.51 GAA. The Stars also announced they have recalled defenseman Julius Honka from Texas. The 2014 first-round pick has been unable to carve out a full-time role with Dallas as he struggled to earn playing time at the start of the year. He was sent down on Oct. 31 after playing six games, putting up no points. He played eight games with the Texas Stars, but also failed to produce a point.
Nashville Predators Swap Saros, Lindback
In a surprising move, the Nashville Predators have sent goaltender Juuse Saros to the AHL and recalled Anders Lindback to take his place. After an incredible season last year, Saros looked ready to take on a bigger role with the Predators this season. Instead he’s struggled through four games, recording an .855 save percentage. Lindback meanwhile is leading the AHL in wins and carries a .918 save percentage through his first 11 games.
The move is likely to get the 22-year old Saros some more playing time and avoid stifling his development, but it does come with an interesting wrinkle. Lindback is not waiver-exempt, meaning the team only has a certain amount of time to swap them back before they would have to expose the older goaltender to the rest of the league. Since he cleared waivers before the season, he has 30 days (or 10 games) on the active roster before he needs to clear again. Though Lindback is by no means a star goaltender, he has shown over the years to be a capable backup.
Lindback was first drafted by the Predators in 2008, and made quite the impression in his first few seasons. As a rookie in 2010-11 he backed up Pekka Rinne quite admirably, recording a .918 save percentage through his 22 appearances. Nashville would eventually trade him to the Tampa Bay Lightning for some draft picks, where he was expected to grow into a starting goaltender. It would never happen, and Lindback’s career took him to several other stops including back to Sweden last year.
Still, if he shows that he can still provide solid backup goaltending on a minimum salary contract (Lindback earns just $650K in the NHL) he could be a target on waivers. For now, he’ll be asked to back up Rinne once again, many years later.
Minor Transactions: 07/27/17
While the whole league considers their options now that the Montreal Canadiens have announced Andrei Markov will not return, teams will continue to make minor changes and signings to finalize the fringes of their roster before training camp. Here we’ll keep track of all the minor signings of the day.
- The New York Islanders have signed Connor Jones according to Arthur Staple of Newsday, inking the 26-year old forward to a one-year two-way contract. Jones got into four games for the Islanders this season, his first taste of NHL action. A graduate of Quinnipac University, Jones has had a hard time replicating any offensive success in the professional ranks, and was held scoreless in his short NHL stint last year.
- The Milwaukee Admirals, the AHL affiliate of the Nashville Predators, inked former Detroit Red Wings goalie prospect Jake Paterson to a minor league contract today, per a team release. A 2012 third-round pick from the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit, the 23-year-old keeper was one of the best goalies in the ECHL last year. Not only did he lead the league in wins with 34, but he posted an impressive 2.28 GAA and .918 save percentage as well. This is the second season in a row that Paterson had dominated the ECHL and has likely earned a shot at regular AHL time. However, he joins a crowded pipeline in Milwaukee that includes Marek Mazanec, Matt O’Connor, and veteran Anders Lindback fighting for time in net. Barring an injury or two, Paterson will likely be back in the ECHL next year. Yet, Paterson was still one of the top free agent goalies remaining on the market before the Admirals scooped him up.
- If Paterson had stayed in the Red Wings organization, he would have faced a similar roadblock to AHL play time behind Calder Cup hero Jared Coreau, the recently re-acquired Tom McCollum, and Czech import Matej Machovsky. However, Pat Nagle appears to be up for the challenge. The 29-year-old minor league veteran has signed on with Detroit’s AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins, on a minor league deal, the team announced. The Michigan-native has played with Grand Rapids before – a two-game stint on loan from the ECHL’s Fort Wayne Komets in 2014-15 – and was loaned again to the Griffins last season, but did not see any action. Now officially part of the team, the veteran keeper will look to earn a permanent spot in Grand Rapids, but faces an uphill battle against both the trio of goalies ahead of him on the depth chart and his own age in inferior play at the AHL level.
Predators Sign Goaltenders Anders Lindback And Matt O’Connor
In two separate team announcements, the Western Conference champion Nashville Predators revealed that they have added some depth in net behind Pekka Rinne and Juuse Saros in the wake of parting ways with Marek Mazanec. A familiar name is returning in Anders Lindback, a 2008 draft selection and Rinne’s backup from 2010 to 2012, who has since been an NHL journeyman and spent this past season in the Swedish Hockey League. Lindback signed a two-way deal worth the minimum $650K at the NHL level. Matt O’Connor, the former Boston University star who has spent the past few years in the Ottawa Senators organization, signed a similar deal. The 24-year-old will also play on a two-way contract worth $650K in the NHL and only slightly less than Lindback in the AHL.
Anders Lindback Signs In Sweden
Swedish goaltender Anders Lindback is headed home. After months spent hoping an NHL opportunity would arise, Lindback has finally made the decision to go overseas to continue his hockey career. Over the past few weeks, rumors and speculation have predicted the move, but today Lindback officially signed with Rogle BK of the Swedish Hockey League, the top pro league in Sweden.
Originally drafted by the Nashville Predators, a steal by GM David Poile in the seventh round of the 2008 NHL Draft, Lindback made a name for himself as the sturdy, young backup to Pekka Rinne. One of the larger goalies in the NHL at 6’6″, 200 lbs., teams saw the youthful Lindback as a bona-fide future starter. However, it didn’t play out that way. Lindback signed on to be the starter for the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2012, but that never came to fruition. Lindback’s performance was lacking, and he ended up splitting time with Mathieu Garon in 2012-13, before being supplanted by Ben Bishop in 2013-14. After back-to-back seasons with a 2.90 GAA and more losses than wins, Lindback left Tampa having missed his opportunity. Lindback joined the Dallas Stars for 2014-15, but was traded mid-season for fellow disappointment Jhonas Enroth. He played the best hockey of his NHL career in 16 appearances for the Sabres, but it still wasn’t enough to earn him a starter role. Last season, Lindback played in 19 games for the Arizona Coyotes and had a career-worst .894 SV% and 3.11 GAA. Unable to even find a guaranteed contract this summer, Lindback joined the New Jersey Devils on a tryout agreement in training camp, but did not make the team. He then signed another PTO, this time with the Los Angeles Kings, who had lost Jonathan Quick and Jeff Zatkoff. However, the Kings decided to stick with their emergency backup duo of Peter Budaj and Jack Campbell, sending Lindback to the AHL’s Ontario Reign. Lindback left the team recently, signaling what very well could be the end of his pro career in North America at just age 28.
Ironically, Lindback’s new position with Rogle BK may include some adversity as well. Although he is likely to step in as the starter immediately, he will not be without competition. The team has two noteworthy young goalies, Columbus Blue Jackets prospect Oscar Dansk and Boston Bruins property Lars Volden, already on the roster. The 22-year-old Dansk, a 2012 second-round pick by Columbus, was drafted out of Sweden after dominating at the junior level in his home country. However, Dansk failed to live up to expectations, with moderate to below-average numbers in the OHL, AHL, and even ECHL, before returning to Sweden. Now in his second season with Rogle BK, Dansk continues to disappoint, posting a 2.85 GAA and .907 SV% in 20 games thus far. Dansk’s backup, Volden, has never made the trip across the Atlantic to try his hand at North American hockey. Instead, the Bruins 2011 sixth-rounder has bounced around various leagues in Europe over his career and has been a member of the Norwegian national team as well. Volden finally settled in with Rogle BK a few years ago, but has not showed signs of improvement. Although his career stats are not as blemished as Dansk’s, he has not faced the same level of competition and has been wildly pedestrian. Volden has put up very similar numbers to Dansk the past two years, which is to say that he has not done enough to unseat the struggling starter. While the duo is consistent, they are consistently average which prompted the team to bring in the veteran Lindback for a boost.
Another interesting note on Rogle BK: playing in front of Lindback will be none other than top 2017 NHL Draft prospect Timothy Liljegren. Considered by many to be second only to Nolan Patrick in the upcoming entry draft and a foregone conclusion as the first defenseman off the board, Liljegren is a rare talent at just 17 years old. With a more experienced and reliable keeper in net now, Rogle BK can give Liljegren more ice time and more responsibility, which can only help the young blue liner’s draft stock.
Kings To Sign Anders Lindback To PTO
The Los Angeles Kings are nearing a contract with unrestricted free agent goaltender Anders Lindback according to a report from Sport-Expressen’s Henrik Sjoberg (link in Swedish). Lisa Dillman of the LA Times reports (Twitter link) that it’s a PTO deal and that he will start in the AHL.
With Jeff Zatkoff also out for a few more games, the team currently has a goaltending tandem of Peter Budaj and Jack Campbell and as a result, there has been plenty of recent speculation that the Kings were going to be on the market to add some depth between the pipes.
Lindback was most recently with New Jersey back in training camp but failed to land a contract with the team as the Devils opted to keep Keith Kinkaid as their second string goalie.
The 28 year old has bounced around in recent years in various backup roles and was in Arizona last season, posting a 5-7-1 record with a 3.11 GAA and .894 save percentage, both well below the league averages. The emergence of youngster Louis Domingue also played a role in the Coyotes not renewing his contract.
In his career, Lindback has played in 130 games with Nashville, Tampa Bay, Dallas, Buffalo, and Arizona. He has a lifetime 45-58-8 record with a 2.87 GAA, a .904 SV%, and three shutouts.
Snapshots: Bruins Injuries, Crosby, Lindgren, Lindback
Judging by their roster to start the new season, the Boston Bruins’ new colors might be black and blue. Patrice Bergeron, Adam McQuaid, and Kevan Miller will all miss the season opener in Columbus on Thursday night.
While Bergeron and McQuaid are considered day-to-day with lower and upper body injuries respectively, Miller will miss approximately six weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a fracture in his left hand.
- Sidney Crosby practiced with the full Penguins this morning. Crosby took a line rush, then changed into a non-contact jersey, according to Jonathan Bombulie of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Crosby’s participation lessened throughout the practice, per Tom Gulitti of NHL.com. Crosby will not play in the Penguins season opener on Thursday.
- With Carey Price expected to miss the Canadiens season opener with the flu, Montreal has recalled goalie Charlie Lindgren to backup for Al Montoya in Buffalo on Thursday night.
- The New Jersey Devils will not be signing goaltender Anders Lindback after his PTO, according to Andrew Gross of the New Jersey Record. Lindback was brought in to cover for Cory Schneider while he was away at the World Cup of Hockey.