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Frankie Corrado

Chris Wideman, Frank Corrado Sign Overseas

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With the start of the 2020-21 NHL season likely pushed back several months, players on the seven teams already eliminated have a very long wait before they can get into game action. For minor league free agents in those organizations, seeking out new opportunities is obviously a priority. Today, both Frank Corrado and Chris Wideman, players with NHL experience, have decided to sign overseas.

Corrado, 27, spent the 2019-20 season with the Belleville Senators of the AHL, recording 10 points in 36 games. The fifth-round pick has suited up 80 times in the NHL counting regular season and playoff games but has been limited to mostly minor league work the last few seasons. He’ll now take his talents to Sweden where he has signed with MODO, who now play in Sweden’s second league after suffering relegation a few years ago.

Wideman meanwhile will be headed to the KHL after playing this season with the San Diego Gulls of the AHL. The 30-year old Wideman was once a regular on the Ottawa Senators blueline but has bounced around the league the last few seasons and found himself firmly in the minor leagues in 2019-20. With 181 NHL games under his belt, he’ll try to find success overseas for the first time.

Frank Corrado Signs AHL Contract With Toronto Marlies

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Some may remember Frank Corrado from his time with the Toronto Maple Leafs, patiently waiting for a turn in the lineup that never seemed to come. Corrado was in the Maple Leafs organization for nearly two full seasons, but only played 41 games with the club and routinely sat in the press box as the extra instead of even getting playing time at the minor league level. Dealt to the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2017, he at least was given the chance to suit up more often for their AHL affiliate, though still didn’t receive much NHL playing time.

Corrado is now heading back to that Maple Leafs organization, as the now 25-year old defenseman has signed an AHL contract with the Toronto Marlies to try and get his professional career back on track. Coming off a major knee injury, he’ll try to work his way into the defending Calder Cup champions lineup and show he still has enough left to challenge for an NHL role.

Corrado was originally selected by the Vancouver Canucks in 2011, but has played in just 76 NHL games and 175 regular season AHL contests over parts of seven seasons. That’s an impressively low total for a defenseman who has shown at times to be a quality puck-mover and capable of handling himself at both ends of the ice. Though the NHL is now several steps away, he’ll be given another opportunity at the AHL level.

Laurent Brossoit And Frank Corrado Clear Waivers

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Sunday — Friedman reports that both Brossoit and Corrado have cleared waivers. Broissoit has been assigned to the Bakersfield Condors, while Corrado is headed for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

Saturday — A pair of players are on the wire today as the Oilers have placed goalie Laurent Brossoit on waivers while the Penguins have done the same with defenseman Frank Corrado, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link).

Brossoit’s placement comes as no surprise on the heels of their acquisition of Al Montoya from Montreal earlier in the week.  Montoya is now ready to be activated off of injured reserve with his concussion symptoms now gone so Brossoit became the odd man out.

This season, the 24-year-old netminder has posted a 3.22 GAA and a .886 SV% in 13 appearances, numbers that are well below the league average.  However, he had fared better as of late, allowing two or fewer goals in three of his last four starts.

As for Corrado, he has been up-and-down with Pittsburgh this season but has seen limited action.  In five games with the big club, he has averaged just 11:30 in ice time while being held off the scoresheet.  He has been more productive with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL, putting up nine points in 19 games.  Although he already cleared waivers once this season, Corrado has spent more than 30 days on the NHL roster since then which requires him to pass through once again.

Minor Transactions: 12/9/17

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As usual, Saturday is set to be a busy one with 24 teams in action which means there should be a fair bit of roster juggling throughout the day.  We’ll keep tabs on those moves here.

  • The Coyotes have loaned goaltender Marek Langhamer to HC Kometa Brno of the Czech Extraliga, reports Craig Morgan of Arizona Sports (Twitter link). This alleviates a logjam between the pipes at the AHL level with Adin Hill and Hunter Miska already with their AHL affiliate in Tucson plus veteran Michael Leighton who is on loan to Vegas’ farm team in Chicago.  Arizona will retain Langhamer’s rights while he is on loan.
  • Pittsburgh has flipped depth defensemen, announcing that they have assigned Frank Corrado to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL while recalling blueliner Kevin Czuczman. Corrado had only been recalled on Thursday and didn’t see any action since then.  As for Czuczman, he leads the Baby Penguins in points by a defender with 14 through 22 games.  He last saw NHL action back in 2013-14 with the Islanders, who had signed and played him immediately after his collegiate season ended.
  • Sonny Milano’s back-and-forth season continues.  The Blue Jackets announced that they have recalled the winger from Cleveland of the AHL.  He has spent the bulk of the season with Columbus, tallying ten points in 24 games while adding a pair of assists in two minor league contests.

Penguins Recall Warsofsky, Reassign Corrado

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Fresh off back-to-back shootout losses, the Pittsburgh Penguins are looking to tighten up their defense ahead of games against the New York Rangers and Chicago Blackhawks this week. One step they’re taking to achieve that goal is the promotion of David Warsofsky from the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. In a corresponding move, fellow defenseman Frank Corrado has been sent down the minors to make room.

Warsofsky has skated in six games with Pittsburgh this season, but is no stranger to the system having played in 12 contests with the team last year as well. At just 5’9″, 170 lbs., the former Boston University blue liner does not exactly strike fear into the hearts of his opponents with his physicality. His career -9 rating doesn’t instill much confidence in his defense play either. However, Warsofsky is actually a very dependable puck-moving defenseman, who plays responsibly with the puck and can be leaned upon for minutes without risking a lapse in defensive play. While his Wilkes-Barre/Scranton compatriots like Cameron Gaunce, Chad Ruhwedel, and more were back and forth from Pittsburgh over much of the past few months, Warsofsky has excelled as the #1 defenseman for the AHL squad. As solid as he can be in his own end, where Warsofsky really shines is on the offensive, where he has posted AHL career highs this season. The AHL All-Star is currently ranked fifth among minor league defensemen in scoring. As hockey fans have seen for close to a decade now, the Pittsburgh Penguins are certainly not above the mantra of the “the best defense is a good offense”.

Meanwhile, the recently acquired Corrado will take a trip across Pennsylvania to join the Jr. Penguins for a while. Corrado wanted out of Toronto at the Trade Deadline due to a perceived lack of opportunity, and the Maple Leafs granted his wish by sending him to Pittsburgh in a deal that saw veteran forward Eric Fehr go the other way. However, despite multiple injuries on the Penguins’ blue line, opportunity has not knocked much for Corrado in Pittsburgh either. Corrado has skated in just two games for Pittsburgh thus far, the same number he played in with Toronto before being moved, and has been held without a point and has failed to make much of a difference in any matter. In the Penguins’ 2-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Thursday, Corrado was on the ice for just under six minutes. Pittsburgh will get the young defenseman some play time now, and hope that he can rediscover his game in the minors and return to the NHL level and make more of an impact if called upon.

Snapshots: Kreider, Hanzal, Carlson, Corrado

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The New York Rangers and Dallas Stars have met twice this season, and NHL Player Safety has had to get involved both times.

Back in December, Stars center Cody Eakin earned a four-game suspension for running over Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist (Streamable link of incident). The two teams met again last night, and Eakin was involved in another incident, though this time it was on the receiving end. Early in the second period, Chris Kreider picked a fight with Eakin, likely out of retribution for Eakin’s run-in with Lundqvist. During the fight, Kreider grabbed Eakin’s helmet and hit Eakin in the head with it (GIF via @myregularface).

Kreider has been fined $5K for the incident, which is the maximum allowable fine under the CBA. Under NHL rules, Kreider should have been ejected for attempting to “deliberately [injure] an opponent by throwing a stick or any other object or piece of equipment at an opposing player.”

Instead, he only received the usual five-minute major for fighting. The swing happened quickly, so perhaps the referees missed it or didn’t deem it to be a deliberate action.

  • The struggling Arizona Coyotes will be without one of their top players when they visit the Winnipeg Jets. Martin Hanzal has left the team temporarily to “attend to a family matter,” according to Dave Vest of the Arizona Coyotes. Hanzal has 15 points in 37 games for the second-to-last-place Coyotes. He’s expected to be dealt sometime before the NHL trade deadline on March 1.
  • Washington Capitals defenseman John Carlson is doubtful for Thursday night’s game in St. Louis, according to coach Barry Trotz (via Isabelle Khurshudyan). Carlson missed Monday night’s epic 8-7 loss in Pittsburgh with a lower-body injury. Carlson has 25 points in 43 games this year. Trotz said the team may call up a defenseman before next game; Khurshudyan believes Aaron Ness is the likely call-up. Ness has 16 points in 31 games with the Hershey Bears.
  • While Morgan Rielly being out day-to-day is bad news for Toronto Maple Leafs, it’s good news for Frankie Corrado. Corrado has appeared in just one game at the NHL level this season, and will get a short window to make a good impression on Mike Babcock. Corrado told TSN’s Kristen Shilton that he’s “a hockey player, so it’s nice to play hockey.”

Snapshots: NHL Three Stars, Toews, Bickell, Maple Leafs

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Nicklas Backstrom, Brad Marchand, and Brock McGinn have been named the NHL’s Three Stars of the Week.

Backstrom had three goals and 10 points in four games as the Capitals continued their nine-game winning streak. He has 13 points on that winning streak, and is currently on a six-game point streak. Backstrom is 10th in NHL scoring with 42 points in 43 games.

Marchand had the second-most points in the last week (behind only the aforementioned first star of the week) with 4-4-8 in three games. He had a three-point game in the Bruins’ win over the Blues before being held pointless in a loss to Nashville. He finished off the week with a career-high five-point night in a 6-3 win over Philadelphia. Marchand is seventh in NHL scoring with 43 points in 46 games.

McGinn had seven points in three games as the Hurricanes continued their four-game winning streak. Carolina is now one point out of a wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference. McGinn has 12 points on the season in 28 games this season, with seven coming in the last week.

  • Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews may want to remember the old Mark Twain quote which says that “reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated.” On his morning appearance on TSN 1260, Bob McKenzie talked about Toews’ struggles and suggested that “a lot of people are writing obituaries on Toews’ career right now,” which McKenzie believes is “real premature.” Toews has 21 points in 37 games this season, which puts him on pace for 41 points in 73 games. That would be a career-low at a time when offensive players ought to be in their prime; even in the 2012-13 lockout-shortened season, Toews scored 48 points in 47 games. Prior to this season, Toews has scored at 0.88 PPG. That’s fallen year-over-year since 12-13, and is now at 0.57. If the Blackhawks want to capitalize on the final year of a cheap Artemi Panarin, they’ll need their captain to kick it into a higher gear.
  • Some very good news out of Carolina on Monday, as veteran winger Bryan Bickell practiced for the second time in the last week, according to Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer. Bickell has not played since the end of October, when he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Bickell was acquired by the Hurricanes in the summer in a salary-dump trade from Chicago, where he won three Stanley Cups.
  • Over at Maple Leafs practice, Martin Marincin and Frankie Corrado are both on the ice. Marincin is wearing a red non-contact jersey as he returns to practice one month after suffering an injury that was expected to keep him out of the lineup between 4-6 weeks. Meanwhile, Corrado returns to the NHL after a two-week conditioning stint with the Toronto Marlies where he had three assists in seven games. He’s appeared in just one NHL game this season.

Monday Morning Recalls And Demotions

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10:23am: TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reports that Mike Babcock announced that Tyler Bozak and Ben Smith are both considered day-to-day with a lower-body injury and an upper-body injury respectively.

In Nashville, the Predators have recalled defenseman Adam Pardy from the AHL, as P.K. Subban will be out of the lineup. Subban did not accompany the Predators on their current two-game road trip.

9:53am: A couple Ontario-based NHL teams have made roster moves on Monday morning.

The Ottawa Senators have assigned Casey Bailey and Ben Harpur to the Binghamton Senators of the AHL, according to Bruce Garrioch. The right-winger Bailey was held pointless in two games with the Senators, but has 14 points in 25 games with the AHL’s Senators. Harper appeared in one game and was also held pointless. The defenseman has three assists in 20 AHL games this season. Garrioch reports that the demotions were made because Fredrik Claesson is ready to return after suffering a lower-body injury earlier this month.

The Senators are not skating on Monday, so it’s not yet known how severe Andrew Hammond’s injury is. Hammond left Sunday night’s game just 16 minutes in with an apparent ankle injury. Should the Hamburglar be unable to go, Garrioch suggests that Matt O’Connor would get the call. Starting goaltender Craig Anderson is away from the team to be with his wife Nicholle, and is not expected back before Christmas.

Over to Toronto, where the Maple Leafs have announced the recall of center Frederik Gauthier. In a related move, injured defenseman Martin Marincin has been placed on injured reserve. Marincin is expected to be out for four-to-six weeks after sustaining a lower-body injury last week. Gauthier has four points in 16 games with the Toronto Marlies of the AHL. The Athletic’s David Alter reports Gauthier is centering the fourth line at practice on Monday morning.

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The Maple Leafs are without three regulars at practice this morning; defenseman Jake Gardiner, Tyler Bozak and Ben Smith were all missing, so Alter wonders if that explains Gauthier’s recall. Much-scratched defenseman Frankie Corrado was bounced between pairings throughout practice but will be in the lineup when the Maple Leafs host former coach Randy Carlyle and the Anaheim Ducks on Monday night.

Maple Leafs Notes: Marincin, Corrado, Matthews

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According to a variety of NHL reporters including Chris Johnston, Kristen Shilton, and David Alter, the Toronto Maple Leafs will be without Martin Marincin for the next four-to-six weeks.

The big defenseman reportedly has a lower-body injury. It was previously reported as a potential back injury, after Marincin left Saturday night’s game versus the Bruins after falling awkwardly. Marincin has 5 points in 16 games so far this season, a much better pace than any previous season in his career.

This could be an opportunity for Frankie Corrado to see some playing time in the NHL. Corrado recently expressed disappointment with Mike Babcock’s handling of him in his two seasons with his hometown Maple Leafs, having played just 40 games out of a possible 111. He’s played just once this season. Corrado was a fifth-round pick of the Vancouver Canucks, but was claimed on waivers last October. The Leafs have carried him as an eighth defenseman for the majority of that time to avoid losing him on waivers.

[Related: Maple Leafs Depth Chart]

Meanwhile, Maple Leafs’ first-overall pick Auston Matthews faced his childhood team, the Arizona Coyotes, for the first time in his career. Matthews is a native of Scottsdale, Arizona and has skated with players like Shane Doan in summers past.

While Matthews scored his fourteenth goal of the season in his first game against the Coyotes, Toronto ultimately lost in the shootout at the hands of former Leaf Peter Holland. Holland was traded to the Coyotes one week ago after a tough start to the season with the Maple Leafs, where he only appeared in eight games.

Frank Corrado Voices Displeasure Over Lack Of Playing Time

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Maple Leafs defenseman Frank Corrado finds himself in nearly an identical situation as last season when it comes to not getting into the lineup.  While he has been healthy for all of Toronto’s 28 games this year, he has played just once, spending the rest of the time as a scratch.  Last year, he kept quiet about his displeasure but speaking with David Alter of The Athletic, Corrado isn’t hiding his frustration this time around:

“It’s frustrating now. When you don’t get to play for a month and a half, and you’ve played in one game all year, it takes its toll on you mentally… Yeah, you’re in the NHL. It’s not that the novelty has worn off; it’s just that it’s time to play. It’s time to have a career. I feel like the more I’m not playing, that’s food off my table. That’s kind of the way I see it right now.”

Corrado joined the Leafs just before the season opener in 2015-16 after being claimed off of waivers from Vancouver.  Despite being fully healthy, he didn’t make it into Toronto’s lineup until the middle of December and it was only in late January where he started to play regularly.  He finished the season with six points in 39 games and was hoping to be more of a regular this year.  Unfortunately for Corrado, that hasn’t been the case.

The 23 year old confirmed to Alter that he has not asked for a trade although he noted that he has been in contact with GM Lou Lamoriello regarding his lack of playing time.

“I talked to Lou and he’s been supportive with me. He told me he likes me, and he wants me here. It does make me feel better about the situation, but at the end of the day, the coach is the one who makes the lineup and if the coach doesn’t like you, then you’re not going to play. And that’s where I’m at right now.”

Toronto has been carrying eight defensemen this season, in part because they don’t want to risk losing Corrado to waivers like Vancouver did last year.  With Martin Marincin out indefinitely with a back injury, Corrado should at least move up one slot on the depth chart for the time being.  However, given how little he has played this year, it’s not out of the question that if another injury were to strike, the team could opt to pull someone up from their AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, to avoid the risk of putting someone who has been scratched this long into the lineup.  In the meantime, Corrado will continue to bide his time while he awaits his second appearance in a Maple Leaf uniform this season.

[Related: Maple Leafs Depth Chart]

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