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Dalibor Dvorsky

Western Notes: Misa, Dvorsky, Wild

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San Jose Sharks Director of Player Development Todd Marchant stated today that second-overall pick Michael Misa will have every opportunity to make the team this year, per Sheng Peng of Sharks Hockey Now.

In a video posted on the team’s website, Marchant shared more of his thoughts on Misa, noting that the 18-year-old is one of the smartest prospects he’s been around. In part, Marchant stated: “He comes through the neutral zone with the puck and always has his head up and is looking for people. He plays a really good give-and-go game. And he’s a centerman, which I think is really important… it gives us another option with someone in the middle.”

By selecting Misa, the Sharks have arguably added the most offensively gifted player in this year’s draft. Playing for the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit last season, the speedy forward racked up 62 goals, 72 assists, and 134 points in just 65 games. If he starts the season in San Jose, Misa would join a talented young core that includes Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith.

Misa expressed his intention to play in San Jose next season immediately after being drafted with the second overall pick, saying, “That’s where my head is at,” per Dan Rosen of NHL.com. If he doesn’t stick with the Sharks, his options include a return to Saginaw or joining his brother, Luke Misa, at Penn State.

Elsewhere in the Western Conference:

  • St. Louis Blues prospect Dalibor Dvorsky will look to earn a spot in the lineup to start next season, but he may not have to do so at the center position. President of hockey operations Doug Armstrong noted that Dvorsky can break camp as a winger, alleviating some of the pressures that come with being a young center in the league, per Lou Korac of NHL.com. With the Blues returning a deep group of centers, Dvorsky’s best path to a roster spot may be as a bottom-six winger — a role that would allow him to focus on his offensive game. The Blues selected Dvorsky 10th overall in the 2023 NHL Draft. While he made his debut with the club last season, appearing in two games, he spent the majority of the year with the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds, where he recorded 21 goals and 45 points in 61 games.
  • The Minnesota Wild have named Ray Sylvester as video coach, per a team release. Sylvester is in his third season with the organization, previously serving in a similar capacity for the AHL’s Iowa Wild. Sylvester also served stints as a video coach in the USHL, USPHL, and at Robert Morris University while still attending the school.

Young Prospects Will Give Blues A New Look In 2025-26

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St. Louis Blues fans went through a true roller-coaster this season. The team was coming off a disappointing 2023-24 campaign – marked by disappointing scoring from much of the roster, a second consecutive playoff absence, and the handoff of coaching duties from Stanley Cup winner Craig Berube to rookie NHL coach Drew Bannister. That turnover made it clear that the Blues were in quick need of a retool and a productive offseason.

But general manager Doug Armstrong didn’t lead a flashy charge over the summer. The Blues were relatively quiet through June and July, save for the risqué first-round draft pick of injured defenseman Adam Jiříček and low-cost acquisitions of Radek Faksa and Mathieu Joseph. It was an uninspiring offseason, until Armstrong shocked the hockey world by signing top Edmonton Oilers youngsters Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg to offer-sheets in August. The deals, shockingly, went through – making the Blues the first club to pull off a successful offer sheet since the Carolina Hurricanes landed Jesperi Kotkaniemi in 2021. The last successful offer sheet before Carolina was in 2007.

Broberg and Holloway made an instant impact on the Blues lineup. Alongside a shock hire of Jim Montgomery, the Blues were able to use their new additions to will out a run to the postseason, against early-season odds. But a first round exit draws attention back to the roster make up. With little offseason cap space to work with – just over $7MM after Torey Krug goes on long-term injured reserve – and only two pending free agents, it seems the Blues are already set to roll out the same group that lost hold this year.

But that’s where their prospect pool begins to sneak in. The Blues have a rare lineup of top young players ready to carve out an everyday role. Winger Jimmy Snuggerud has seemed to already do such, after netting eight points in his first 14 career games this Spring. While he occupies a strong role in the middle-six, centerman Dalibor Dvorsky will enter a winnable competition against Brayden Schenn and Oskar Sundqvist for a role in the team’s center depth. Dvorsky ranked third on the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds with 45 points in 61 games this season, and showed the heft and grit needed to play at an NHL level in his first two career games, even despite recording no scoring.

It seems wise to bet that Dvorsky will find his way into routine NHL minutes next season. He could be supported by upcoming forwards like Aleksanteri Kaskimaki and Otto Stenberg, who both flashed strong play in their first AHL season. Theo Lindstein could be a much-needed injection of youth on defense, after spending all season in a daily lineup role in Sweden’s SHL. He recorded just 14 points in 61 games on the year, but reminded the hockey world of his prowess with four points in seven games at the World Junior Championship. St. Louis even has a strong next-man-up in net, after goaltender Colten Ellis managed a dazzling 22-14-3 record and .922 save percentage in 42 AHL games. It was a continuation of Ellis’ strong play in the minors, after he posted a .924 in 16 games of the 2023-24 season.

All of those options will ensure that St. Louis’ deck stays full, even amid a summer with minimal roster flexibility. Getting a full year out of the productive Snuggerud – who already looks at home as a career-Blue – or adding the gut punch of Dvorsky down the lineup chart could go a long way towards making St. Louis a foe to fear in the Western Conference. The Blues finished fifth in the Central Division in each of the last two seasons, but managed a postseason berth by the skin of their teeth this year. With additions of more young and budding talent, their chances of more confidently locking up a summer bid should only continue to rise through the next few years.

Photo courtesy of Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

Minor Transactions: 4/16/25

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The NHL season has come to an end, or soon will, for teams around the league that missed out on this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs. That fact has driven many to begin the process of assigning their waiver-exempt players to more successful teams in the minor leagues. We’ll cover the bulk of those assignments here:

  • In a rare move with playoff implications, the St. Louis Blues have assigned top forward prospect Dalibor Dvorsky to the minor leagues. Dvorsky hasn’t played since April 9th, when he made his second career appearance in the NHL. He has no points and an average of nine minutes in ice time over his first two games. This move will return him to a star role in the minor leagues, where his 20 goals and 44 points in 59 games rank third and fourth on the Springfield Thunderbirds respectively. Springfield have squeaked into the Calder Cup playoffs with 74 points in 70 games this season. Dvorsky will be a major boost to their postseason roster, unless the Blues opt to include him in their inevitable wave of Black Ace recalls.
  • The Chicago Blackhawks have assigned top defense prospects Kevin Korchinski and Artyom Levshunov to the AHL after the end of their season, per a release from the Rockford IceHogs. Both players have manned dominant roles in the IceHogs lineup this season – Korchinski looking to find his comfort after a hard NHL role last season, and Levshunov looking to vindicate his second-overall selection in last year’s draft. They lead the Rockford blue-line in scoring, with Korchinski netting 27 points in 54 games and Levshunov scoring 22 points in 50 games. Levshunov proved the more productive in all three zones at the NHL level. He recorded six assists, eight penalty minutes, and a minus-13 in his first 18 games in the NHL. Korchisnki only scored two points in 16 NHL games this season, though his minus-five was the fourth-best on the Chicago defense. The duo will offer a well-rounded impact to Rockford’s playoff push – Korchinski bringing strong offense and Levshunov showing strong two-way play.
  • The San Jose Sharks have assigned defenseman Luca Cagnoni back to the minor leagues after recalling him to play in their latest game, per Curtis Pashelka of the Bay Area News Group. Cagnoni recorded an assist and two penalties in roughly 18 minutes of Monday’s overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks. The score was his second assist in six NHL games this season, on top of eight penalty minutes and a minus-four. Cagnoni was named to the AHL All-Rookie Team on Wednesday – high praise after he led all rookie defensemen in scoring with 14 goals and 49 points in 62 games this season. Cagnoni had a breakout season in his first professional campaign, and already seems to be outperforming his fourth-round selection in the 2023 NHL Draft. He will look to keep a good year going as the San Jose Barracuda prepare for a playoff push.
  • Winger Kailer Yamamoto represents the first veteran on this list. He’s headed back to the Tucson Roadrunners alongside goaltender Matt Villalta, after the end of the Utah Hockey Club’s inaugural season, per Cole Bagley of KSL Sports. Yamamoto has been a force in the minor leagues. He leads Tucson in scoring this season with 53 points in 52 games. It’s been a valiant performance that earned the depth forward 12 appearances in the NHL. He scored three points in those games. Villalta has stood tall as Tucson’s starting goaltender as well, with a team-leading .906 save percentage in 41 games this season. He played in just the third NHL game of his career this season and recorded a win, with 28 saves on 31 shots. Yamamoto will return to Tucson’s top-line, while Villalta will likely return to the starter’s role ahead of Jaxson Stauber.
  • The Nashville Predators have assigned Ryan Ufko back to the minor leagues, per Alex Daugherty of The Tennessean. Ufko made his NHL debut on Monday. He didn’t manage any notable stat changes in 15:37 of ice time. Ufko has emerged as a top-four defender for the Milwaukee Admirals this season. His eight goals and 29 points in 71 games lead the Admirals blue-line in scoring. Ufko is still rounding out the physical and two-way aspects of his game, but his emergence as an AHL rookie has proven promising on a Preadtors team well capable of honing defenders into NHL talents.

Blues Recall Dalibor Dvorsky

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The St. Louis Blues have recalled top center prospect Dalibor Dvorsky from the minor leagues. Dvorsky was reassigned to the AHL on Wednesday, but will now return to the Blues roster after news that top-line winger Dylan Holloway is out week-to-week with a lower-body injury.

Dvorsky made his NHL debut on his last recall. He didn’t manage any scoring in what was a productive 4-1 over the Nashville Predators, but Dvorsky looked effective enough in a bottom-line role. He returned to the minors for two games and one point this weekend, bringing his year long totals in the AHL up to 20 goals and 44 points in 59 games. That scoring ranks Dvorsky fourth on the Springfield Thunderbirds and eighth among all AHL rookies in total points. He’s carried his strong scoring into international play this season as well – netting five goals and nine points in nine games of the 2025 World Junior Championship, while captaining Team Slovakia. Everywhere he’s gone, Dvorsky has earned top scoring totals on the back of his confidence on the puck and poise on the forecheck. His strengths look like they’ll clearly translate to the top flight once he gets comfortable, and this recall could be a golden chance to find that footing before the season ends.

It seems clear that Dvorsky is headed right back into St. Louis’ lineup with this move. The Blues managed a closely-fought 5-4 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday, extending their win streak to a franchise-record 12 straight games. But nobody in St. Louis’ bottom-six managed any scoring through the record-setting win, and names like Mathieu Joseph and Radek Faksa seemed near invisible. St. Louis is now confidently in hold of a Western Conference Wild Card, and adding Dvorsky to the lineup over a quiet fourth-line veteran could go far in giving them another spark plug. With the season dwindling down, the Blues will have to find some way to make up for Holloway’s electric 63 points in 77 games this season, and 14 points in his last 10 games. High-offense rookies like Dvorsky and Jimmy Snuggerud, who recorded his first NHL point on Saturday, may be the key to keeping the offense afloat.

Blues Assign Dalibor Dvorsky To AHL

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Dalibor Dvorsky’s first NHL stint was a short-lived one.  After being recalled for the first time a little more than a week ago, the Blues announced that the center has been sent back to AHL Springfield.

Dvorsky was the tenth overall pick back in 2023 and even though he’s just 19, he is eligible to play full-time in the minors this year since he wasn’t drafted out of the CHL.  He’s done well this season with the Thunderbirds, collecting 20 goals and 23 assists in 57 games, ranking him in the top ten in points for a player considering that he’s still junior-eligible.  Dvorsky got into one game with St. Louis while on recall but was held off the scoresheet in 10:40 of playing time.

With Jimmy Snuggerud signing and jumping right into the lineup, the Blues clearly feel that Dvorsky would be best served getting regular minutes in the minors over sporadically playing at the NHL level, a decision that certainly makes sense from a development perspective.

His assignment also helps the Blues duck a little more below the $88MM spending threshold which is notable in the sense that it allows them to bank a bit more cap space to apply against their achieved bonuses, an amount that already has reached $1.725MM thanks to Ryan Suter meeting his games played targets.  Any dollar that they can save in cap space now is a dollar less of a carry-over penalty they’ll face next season, so keeping Dvorsky up to sit him would also have served little value on that front.

St. Louis Blues Recall Dalibor Dvorský For NHL Debut

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March 23: Dvorský will indeed be making his NHL debut tonight against the Predators, head coach Jim Montgomery confirmed (via Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic). He replaces Oskar Sundqvist in the lineup after he played through an undisclosed injury yesterday against the Blackhawks.

March 22: As expected, the St. Louis Blues are bringing their top prospect to the NHL ranks. The Blues announced they recalled Dalibor Dvorský from their AHL affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds, for his NHL debut.

St. Louis selected Dvorský with the 10th overall pick of the 2023 NHL Draft. The physical forward from Zvolen, Slovakia, had a season where he scored six goals and accumulated 14 points in 38 games for AIK in HockeyAllsvenskan. Additionally, he earned three points in five games while representing Slovakia’s U20 team at the 2022-23 World Junior Championship.

Dvorský began the 2023-24 season on loan with the SHL’s IK Oskarshamn. Unfortunately, after going scoreless in 10 contests and seeing his ice time cut dramatically, Dvorský moved to North America to join the OHL’s Sudbury Wolves.

Dvorský had a productive year, finishing with 45 goals and 88 points in 52 games. He ranked 13th in scoring in the OHL alongside teammates David Goyette and Quentin Musty. He registered three goals and 10 points in nine playoff contests but couldn’t help Sudbury move beyond the second round of the OHL playoffs. 

Given his impressive performance in the OHL and subsequent play during preseason play, there was an outside chance of Dvorský cracking the Blues’ roster out of training camp. However, the team delayed his NHL start, playing Dvorský in the AHL for the year. 

It’s another move that’s worked out well for the young forward. Dvorský has scored 20 goals and 43 points in 57 games in AHL Springfield, good for third on the team in scoring and tied for fifth among rookies. 

Dvorský’s debut won’t be in meaningless hockey either. The Blues are holding on to the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference thanks to a five-game winning streak. St. Louis has a relatively easy schedule coming up with two out of their next three games against the Nashville Predators. Still, they will be important games for the team to win should they hold onto their playoff spot down the stretch. 

Blues Recall Eight Players From AHL

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The St. Louis Blues have recalled eight players from the AHL in preparation for their final preseason game against the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday. The full list of call-ups includes forwards Dalibor Dvorsky, Aleksanteri Kaskimaki, Mathias Laferriere, MacKenzie MacEachern, Hugh McGing, and Dylan Peterson; as well as defensemen Samuel Johannesson and Hunter Skinner.

That’s emphasized by the fact that none of the recalled managed any preseason scoring, despite each playing in at least one game excluding Peterson. In fact, the bunch only combined for five shots through their collective 10 games. Luckily, St. Louis’ preseason wasn’t as unproductive as the Blackhawks – who’ve so far managed just four goals in four games.

St. Louis’ bunch of recalls is led by 2023’s 10th-overall selection, Dalibor Dvorsky – a popular pick to make the Blues roster headed into training camp. His demotion to the AHL likely snubs those hopes, though Dvorsky is still carrying plenty of momentum into his first professional season in North America, after recording 45 goals and 88 points in 52 OHL games last season. The Slovak has been a top prospect throughout his teens and joined Sweden’s AIK for his age 17 and 18 seasons. Playing in the HockeyAllsvenskan – Sweden’s second-tier pro league – Dvorsky combined for 17 points in 55 games across the two seasons, enough to inspire the Blues to spend their earliest draft pick since they selected Alex Pietrangelo fourth-overall in 2008.

Pending a major breakout in Saturday’s matchup, all eight recalls can expect to head back to Springfield in due time. The Thunderbirds open their season against the Laval Rocket on October 12th, while St. Louis will kick things off in Seattle on October 8th.

Blues In Rare Position To Promote Multiple Prospects

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The St. Louis Blues are in a bit of a funk. They’ve missed each of the last two postseasons – only the fourth time in the team’s 57-year history that they’ve missed consecutive playoffs – but are still being elevated by the next-level talent of players like Pavel Buchnevich, Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou, and Jordan Binnington. That’s kept the team from falling completely into the NHL’s basement, but their core is still aging rapidly. It seems the clock is ticking in St. Louis – as the Blues find themselves in urgent need of a surge in young talent to keep the lineup from falling into a rebuild.

Unfortunately, promoting young players hasn’t been much of a hallmark of recent Blues hockey. Only two teenagers – Thomas and Robby Fabbri – have played meaningful minutes in St. Louis since 2010, and still, both players faced third-line roles and plenty of scrutiny over their ice time. But they each found ways to produce, scoring 33 and 37 points in their rookie seasons respectively, and both eventually working onto St. Louis’ top line. That was short-lived for Fabbri, but the duo’s success nonetheless showed the payoff of giving top prospects NHL minutes.

The Blues have more recently seen those same patterns with 21-year-old Jake Neighbours, who worked up to an impressive 27 goals and 38 points in 77 games this season. It was Neighbours’ first full year in the NHL – though he entered with 52 games of prior experience – and he walked out the tail end of it with a firm grasp on a second-line role. Joel Hofer, 24, made a similar climb to prominence this year, appearing in 30 games and matching the .913 of starter Binnington – having graduated from two proud seasons as the AHL starter.

It’s continued evidence of young players finding success in NHL minutes – spelling tons of excitement for a Blues team preparing to host Dalibor Dvorsky, Zachary Bolduc, and Zach Dean at training camp. The latter two each received their NHL debuts last Spring, with Bolduc even formalizing his rookie season with 25 games played. But Bolduc managed just nine points, while Dean went scoreless in nine games. Their quiet scoring prevailed in the minors leagues as well, but both Bolduc and Dean took big strides in improving their ability to match pro pace. Meanwhile, Dvorsky was tearing up the OHL, recording 45 goals and 88 points in just 52 games. He looked like a pro among amateurs, likely thanks to the 38 games he played in Sweden’s HockeyAllsvenskan in 2022-23.

All three forwards are capable of a jump to the top flight, with the sturdy frames of Bolduc and Dvorsky looking especially mature. That’s great news, as St. Louis sits with, perhaps, their most uncertain bottom-six since the early-2000s. It’s a hodge-podge group, where Alexey Toropchenko stands as the only confident inclusion. Joining him will be a mix of quiet Blues veterans – like Oskar Sundqvist, Nathan Walker, and Kasperi Kapanen – and new acquisitions – like Radek Faksa, Mathieu Joseph, and Alexandre Texier. That’s plenty of manpower to round out a bottom-six, but none of those options would stand as particularly daunting against a young prospect who impresses out of camp.

Making things more exciting is St. Louis’ win of the sweepstakes for Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg. They shelled out $6.87MM in offer sheets to bring in the duo, but now add two more exciting young players into their mix of potential breakout names. Holloway is the more experienced of the two, having played in 89 games across the last two seasons. He’s only scored 18 points, split evenly, in those appearances, but looked to have a bit more momentum when he put up nine points in 25 games during the most recent postseason. Holloway has shown he’s capable of being productive with a pro role, scoring 26 points in 30 career AHL games, and should get a chance to quickly earn a prominent role on St. Louis’ lineup. Broberg’s story is largely the same – low-scoring through roughly a season’s worth of NHL appearances (13 points in 81 games) but encouraging minor-league production (65 points in 87 games) and a chance to quickly earn a major role.

That gives St. Louis the rare mix of multiple U23 prospects vying for NHL ice time, and the lineup spots to truly accommodate multiple rookies. It’s been six seasons since the Blues iced carried multiple U23 players on their everyday roster (2017-18, Robert Thomas and Vince Dunn) – but the stars are aligning, making now a better time than ever for St. Louis to fully embrace their burgeoning top prospects. If and how the quintet of Dvorsky, Bolduc, Dean, Holloway, and Broberg are able to earn out NHL roles will stand as the most prophetic question as the Blues look to finally return to the postseason.

Blues’ Dalibor Dvorsky Could Push For NHL Minutes Out Of Camp

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The St. Louis Blues 2023 first-round pick, Dalibor Dvorsky, is gearing up for his first NHL training camp, after only participating in St. Louis’ rookie development camp last season. He’s since made the jump to North America, joining the OHL’s Sudbury Wolves, where he managed electrifying results – ranking fourth in the league with 45 goals in 52 games, rounded out by 88 total points. That performance has given Dvorsky plenty of momentum heading into the first test of his pro career, and both the player and general manager Doug Armstrong seem excited to see what comes next. Armstrong told Lou Korac of NHL.com that Dvorsky could earn a shot at the NHL lineup, sharing, “He’s looked good. He’s added some muscle. He’s another guy that’s really going to push for training camp.”

Dvorsky took Armstrong’s comments in stride, telling Korac that the chance at opportunity sounds great, but that it’s ultimately on him to earn his place. That earned more praise from Armstrong, who added, “I love reading what he said, ’This is on me.’ That’s what you want. He’s looking in the mirror now and saying, ’OK, we’ll see.’ The AHL, ’We’ll see.’ And he’s not cocky about it. He’s not demanding about it. He’s just saying, ’All right, we’ll see.'”

Dvorsky’s 2023-24 season was a dazzling show of strength. While his age technically rules him out of the OHL’s definition of a rookie, his goal-scoring pace stands as the most from a first-year OHL skater since 2018, when Andrei Svechnikov managed 40 goals in 44 games. Dvorsky outscored star OHL rookie seasons, like Shane Wright’s 39 goals as at 17-years-old, or the first of Cole Perfetti’s pair of 37-goal seasons.

Dvorsky managed the production thanks to a powerful drive that simply seemed cut from a different cloth, as he excelled at using his strength and size to drive transition and create space off of the boards. He made decisions quickly and confidently when opportunity opened up, putting him one step ahead of his OHL competition. That was certainly helped by starring linemates David Goyette and Quentin Musty, though Dvorsky still flexed the makings of a serious pro talent. St. Louis is ready to put that growth to the test this fall, placing him in competition with fellow top prospect Zachary Bolduc for NHL minutes.

Snapshots: Norris, Vladar, Dvorsky

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Bruce Garrioch of The Ottawa Sun has reported that the Ottawa Senators are hopeful centerman Joshua Norris can make his season debut in their Wednesday night game. Norris has been absent for the entirety of the early season and much of training camp, continuing to nurse a shoulder injury that was initially suffered roughly one year ago.

The injury held Norris out of all but eight games in the 2022-23 season, cutting short what would have been his third NHL season. Norris played 66 games in the 2021-22 campaign, scoring a dazzling 35 goals and 55 points. His 35-goal mark was, at the time, the most scored by a Senator in a decade, although Brady Tkachuk tied it and Tim Stutzle topped it with 39 goals last year. Norris showed similar goal-scoring capabilities in his rookie season of 2020-21, netting 17 goals in 56 games, tied for third on the Ottawa roster.

Norris returned to practice centering the Senators’ third line, between Drake Batherson and Dominik Kubalik. Batherson has been one of Norris’ most common linemates throughout his first two NHL seasons, with the duo accounting for 75 goals for and 44 goals against through a combined 1042 minutes of ice time together.

More notes from around the league:

  • The latest episode of the ’Big Show with Rusic and Rose’ shared that Calgary is reengaging in preliminary trade talks for goaltender Daniel Vladar. They also shared that Calgary shopped Vladar this summer, but the cost was too high for interested teams. It’s unsure whether the Flames have changed their asking price now that the season has begun. Vladar has an expensive $2.2MM cap hit but could be a hot commodity for teams looking to bolster their goaltending room.
  • 2023 NHL Draft Top 10 pick Dalibor Dvorsky has mutually terminated his contract with IK Oskarshamn. Dvorsky was loaned to the Swedish club at the start of the year but has gone without a point through their first 10 games of the season. Dvorsky is expected to join the Sudbury Wolves of the OHL.

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