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Isaac Ratcliffe

Nashville Predators Reassign Kevin Gravel

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The Nashville Predators have loaned Kevin Gravel back to the AHL after he cleared waivers on the weekend. He’ll be joined there by newcomer Isaac Ratcliffe, who was also assigned to the Milwaukee Admirals after being acquired from the Philadelphia Flyers last night.

Gravel, 30, has played in 14 games for the Predators this season, most recently suiting up last night for all of 12 shifts. The coaching staff has never shown much trust in the rangy defender, but he still represents some valuable depth as a player with over 120 games of NHL experience.

With the Predators returning home for a game tomorrow night and Cal Foote coming in to give the team another option on defense, Gravel—who was up under emergency conditions—was no longer needed. Foote’s arrival gave them eight defensemen, though that may not last long, given the rumors swirling around Dante Fabbro and Mattias Ekholm.

If Nashville does move multiple defensemen before Friday’s deadline, Gravel will likely be right back up to help fill in down the stretch. The veteran is in the first season of a two-year deal he signed last summer.

Nashville Predators Acquire Isaac Ratcliffe

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The Nashville Predators aren’t just selling at the deadline. Last night they made a smaller deal to acquire Isaac Ratcliffe from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for future considerations. The move gives the former top prospect a new home, and perhaps a fresh start as he continues to struggle at the professional level.

Selected 35th overall in 2017, Ratcliffe was a force to be reckoned with for the Guelph Storm of the OHL. The 6’6″ winger could lean on smaller junior players and bully his way to the net, resulting in massive point totals and sky-high expectations. In his final year with Guelph he scored 50 goals in 65 regular season games, while adding 105 penalty minutes. He seemed like the perfect Flyers prospect.

Unfortunately, that performance never carried over to the AHL. Ratcliffe scored just 15 points as a rookie in 2019-20, and was limited by injuries the following year. His best performance so far was in 2021-22 when he had 11 goals and 28 points for Lehigh Valley, while also making his NHL debut. Through 10 games with the Flyers, he had four points—not bad for a young player still finding his way, and encouraging enough to earn a new one-year deal with the club.

This year has been a disaster though, with just two goals and four points in 26 minor league contests. Given his age and performance so far, Ratcliffe was a real candidate to go unqualified in the offseason. He’ll get a chance to catch on in Nashville before that happens, though his future as an NHL player is still completely unclear.

Waivers: 09/30/22

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After waivers opened yesterday, quite a few players have ended up on the wire today. Teams keep making cuts to their rosters, and any veteran player needs to clear before being assigned to the minor leagues. Here are the names on waivers today.

Dallas Stars 

Riley Barber
Ben Gleason
Tanner Kero
Jerad Rosburg
Joseph Cecconi
Rhett Gardner

Detroit Red Wings

Chase Pearson

Florida Panthers

Connor Bunnaman

New York Rangers

Andy Welinski
Tim Gettinger

Philadelphia Flyers

Isaac Ratcliffe
Linus Sandin

San Jose Sharks

C.J. Suess
Andrew Agozzino

Tampa Bay Lightning

Daniel Walcott
Darren Raddysh
Maxime Lagace
Trevor Carrick

Washington Capitals

Michael Sgarbossa
Riley Sutter
Mike Vecchione
Hunter Shepard

Philadelphia Flyers Extend Isaac Ratcliffe

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The Philadelphia Flyers have gotten some business done today, finalizing an extension with one of their restricted free agents: Isaac Ratcliffe. Per a team announcement, Ratcliffe has signed a one-year, two-way contract carrying a $813K cap hit.

Ratcliffe, 23, spent most of last season with the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms, and got ten games in with the main Flyers squad. Ratcliffe had his most productive professional season yet, scoring 11 goals and 28 points in 59 AHL games, a total that ranked fourth among Phantoms forwards. The six-foot-six, 200-pound winger is a former top prospect who was drafted 35th overall at the 2017 draft.

Ratcliffe was drafted so high thanks in part to his prolific scoring numbers in junior hockey. In his draft year, Ratcliffe scored 28 goals and 54 points, and followed that season up with a successful final year in the OHL, scoring 50 goals and 82 points. Ratcliffe has struggled to translate his goal-scoring prowess from juniors to the pro ranks, and his issues as a skater have largely been to blame.

Per The Athletic’s Charlie O’Connor, Ratcliffe will be in a position to contend for a fourth-line role on the Flyers in training camp, and this one-year extension indicates that 2022-23 will be a do-or-die year for Ratcliffe and his future as a developmental project in the Flyers organization.

In his media availability following free agency, Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher alluded to 2022-23 being an “important” year for many of the team’s young players to prove they still had NHL potential, and it’s likely that Ratcliffe is one of those young players who needs a strong season to remain in the organization’s long-term plans.

East Notes: Bratt, Olofsson, Ratcliffe, Rangers

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Devils winger Jesper Bratt is one of eight remaining restricted free agents around the league.  GM Tom Fitzgerald spoke with reporters today; Catherine Bogart of New Jersey’s team website provided Fitzgerald’s update on the status of negotiations with the 22-year-old:

Jesper’s agent and I have been in constant communication.  We’re trying to find a common ground on their thoughts on how a deal should be structured versus how we think a deal should be structured. I see a lot of parallels with Jesper’s situation with the Mackenzie Blackwood situation, and you know the contract negotiations.

Blackwood recently inked a three-year, $8.4MM deal coming off of his entry-level contract, the same situation that Bratt finds himself in.  He has had between 32 and 36 points in each of his three NHL seasons and had a career-high 16 tallies in 2019-20.  Even if they can come to terms in the next day or two, it’s unlikely that the Devils will have Bratt in the lineup on opening night as he will have to get his work visa, fly over from Sweden, and go through mandatory quarantine protocols before being cleared to suit up.

More from the East Division:

  • Sabres winger Victor Olofsson left practice early after crashing into the net, relays NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti (Twitter link). While Olofsson was able to briefly return, he was not on the ice for their final session of the day.  He is currently being evaluated, per head coach Ralph Krueger.
  • Included in the Flyers’ announcement of their training camp roster was a note that winger Isaac Ratcliffe will be out for at least four weeks after sustaining a fractured rib in training. The 21-year-old made his pro debut last season, notching six goals and nine assists in 53 games with Lehigh Valley of the AHL.
  • The Rangers announced (Twitter link) that centers Mika Zibanejad and Justin Richards plus goaltender Keith Kinkaid are all listed as day-to-day and will not be available when on-ice workouts begin early next week. No further explanations were given for their absences.  Meanwhile, GM Jeff Gorton confirmed that the team will not recall winger Vitali Kravtsov from his loan to Chelyabinsk of the KHL until that season is complete, relays Vince Z. Mercogliano of USA Today (via Twitter).  The 21-year-old has a dozen goals and five assists in 34 games so far this season.

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