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Nate Clurman

Minor Transactions: 1/1/25

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The calendar has flipped to a new year but don’t expect the day-to-day roster shuffling to change anytime soon.  Here’s a rundown of today’s minor and paper moves.

  • The Stars announced (Twitter link) that they’ve reassigned winger Justin Hryckowian to AHL Texas. The 23-year-old was shuffled back and forth several times last month in an effort to maximize how much cap space they’re banking.  Hryckowian played in Dallas’ last two games, picking up three hits in 13:20 of total playing time.  He has been quite productive with Texas in his first full professional season, however, collecting 12 goals and 14 assists in 27 games so far.
  • The Penguins announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Nathan Clurman has been sent back to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. He has been sent back and forth a few times lately but if Owen Pickering or Kris Letang are ready to return on Friday against Florida, then this assignment might be a longer-term one.  Clurman has played once for Pittsburgh this season but has spent most of the year in the minors, tallying a goal and four assists in 18 appearances.
  • The Hurricanes continue their frequent roster movement. With no game today, they’ve assigned goaltender Dustin Tokarski, defenseman Ty Smith, and winger Jackson Blake to AHL Chicago, per the AHL’s transactions log.  As is always the case with these moves, the paper assignments merely free up several thousand dollars in cap space.  Carolina is back in action on Thursday and all three are likely to be recalled at that time.
  • With Yaroslav Askarov up with the Sharks for the foreseeable future, their farm team has found a temporary replacement for him. Per a team release, the AHL’s Barracuda has signed goaltender Samuel St-Hilaire to an ATO agreement.  The 20-year-old had a 2.56 GAA and a .904 SV% over parts of three seasons with QMJHL Rimouski and was on Canada’s entry for the World Juniors last year.

Penguins Activate Marcus Pettersson, Place Kris Letang On IR

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have swapped defenders on injured reserve, activating Marcus Pettersson (lower-body) and shelving Kris Letang (lower-body). Pettersson suffered his injury from an awkward hit into the boards during Pittsburgh’s December 14th loss to the Ottawa Senators. He’s since missed the Penguins’ last six games. Where Letang was injured is less clear. He was a late scratch for Sunday’s game against the New York Islanders, and has been designated as day-to-day per Hailey Hunter of SportsNet Pittsburgh. The Penguins will have the ability to make Letang’s IR placement retroactive to December 29th, making him eligible to return as soon as January 5th against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Pittsburgh swaps two of their most utilized defenders with this move. Letang leads the team’s skaters in ice time, averaging 23:24 through 34 games this season. Despite that, he’s been unusually unproductive, with 16 points marking his lowest scoring pace since 2009-10. Pettersson is working to catch Letang in scoring, with 13 points in 32 games while averaging 21:47 in ice time. His scoring pace puts him on track just narrowly beat out his career-high of 30 points set last season. Pettersson also brings a healthy wave of defense back to the Penguins lineup, leading the Penguins defense in Corsi For (52.93 percent) and ranked second in plus-minus (-4). That’ll be a welcome addition to a Penguins roster that’s averaged both 3.29 goals-for and goals-against in seven games without Pettersson, including the game he was injured in.

Pettersson’s return will bump Nathan Clurman out of the lineup. Clurman made his NHL debut on Monday, recording one penalty and no scoring in 11 minutes of ice time. Letang’s move to IR allows Pittsburgh to keep Clurman as their seventh defenseman, while Pettersson lines up to Pierre-Olivier Joseph on the second pair.

Penguins’ Kris Letang Out, Nate Clurman Makes NHL Debut

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The Pittsburgh Penguins were without star defenseman Kris Letang when they took the ice for warmups on Sunday. He was announced as out with a lower-body injury right before puck-drop, paving the way for rookie Nate Clurman to make his NHL debut. Clurman received his third call-up of the season on Friday. His prior two both ended in Clurman being sent down the very next day without any ice time – both trends he’s bucked on this recall.

Pittsburgh provided no additional details on Letang’s injury. He becomes yet another impactful Penguins defender to go down with injury, joining Marcus Pettersson (undisclosed) and Owen Pickering (concussion) who are both on injured reserve. Letang missed three games earlier this season due to an illness, but has otherwise held strong to his role as Pittsburgh’s top defender. He leads the team’s skaters in average ice time with 23:24, though that number is still far from the near-25 minutes of ice time that Letang has rivaled in every season since 2011-12. That dip in utilization matches Letang’s dip in productivity. He currently has just 16 points in 34 games, his lowest scoring pace since 2009-10. Both Erik Karlsson (25) and Matt Grzelcyk (18) rank higher than Letang in scoring.

With their star veteran out, Pittsburgh turns towards an effective, two-way AHL defenseman. Clurman has recorded five points, 10 penalty minutes, and a +6 in 18 games this season. He’s already tied his scoring totals from 37 games last year. Clurman was originally a sixth-round draft pick to the Colorado Avalanche in 2016, and turned pro in 2020-21. He bounced between the ECHL and AHL lineups for two years, but found strong footing in the AHL by 2022-23 – when he totaled 15 points in 57 games. Clurman will now climb the next rung of the ladder, and get his first chance to prove he can fit at the NHL level too.

Penguins Place Owen Pickering On IR, Reassign Nate Clurman

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12/25: Nate Clurman has been returned to the minor leagues, per the AHL transaction log. Clurman didn’t play in any games on this call-up, taking him through another brief call-up without playing his NHL debut. He’ll return to a middling role in the minor leagues.

12/23: The Pittsburgh Penguins have placed top prospect Owen Pickering on injured reserve with an upper-body injury. Pickering left the team’s Saturday game against New Jersey at the end of the second period. He didn’t appear to suffer a noticeable injury but did take a hard hit against the boards from Devils forward Paul Cotter a few shifts before leaving. Regardless, Pickering will now miss at least one week, and three games, of action; though he’s helped along by the team’s brief holiday break. To fill his hole, Pittsburgh has awarded defenseman Nate Clurman with just the second call-up of his pro career. The first came last week and didn’t result in Clurman playing any games.

He has just two points in the first 14 NHL games of his career but has performed well enough defensively to work his way up to a top-pair role next to Penguins star Kris Letang. The rookie averaged 19:19 in ice time in five games prior to his injury, and even earned minutes on both special teams despite posting no scoring and a -5. He’s playing to his M.O., keeping opponents out of the low slot and letting his forwards do the heavy lifting – a role he honed with 12 games, one goal, and a +5 to start the AHL season. The performance may not be flashy, but it’s a strong start for the 20-year-old Pickering, who’s in just his first professional season after spending the last four years with the WHL’s Swift Current Broncos. Pickering was much more involved at Swift Current, serving as the club’s captain in his final two seasons and totaling 133 points in 205 career games.

Pickering will be quickly replaced by the mix of Ryan Shea and Pierre-Olivier Joseph, the latter rejoining the Penguins via trade last week. Neither player has proven very productive in their NHL minutes. Shea stands as Pittsburgh’s lowest scorer, still searching for his first point after 26 games this season. Joseph at least managed two assists in 23 games with the St. Louis Blues prior to his trade, though he complimented it with 23 penalty minutes and a -7. Clurman will move into the role of extra defender behind the duo. He has five points, 10 penalty minutes, and a +6 in 18 games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton this season, surprisingly enough to tie for fourth on the team’s blue-line in scoring. Clurman is a career minor-leaguer in his first year with the Penguins, after spending the last four seasons with the Colorado Avalanche organization, who drafted him in the 2016 sixth-round. He’s totaled 26 points in five seasons and 128 games in the AHL.

Penguins Acquire Pierre-Oliver Joseph

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After leaving the Penguins this summer, Pierre-Olivier Joseph is heading back there.  The team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve acquired the blueliner from St. Louis in exchange for future considerations.

The 25-year-old spent five seasons in Pittsburgh’s system, split between them and AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.  Over his time with the Penguins, Joseph primarily played in a depth role and was generally sixth or seventh on their depth chart.  Last season, he got into 52 games with Pittsburgh, recording 11 points while averaging a little over 15 minutes a night of ice time.  However, they elected not to tender him a qualifying offer of $935K, knowing that doing so would have given him arbitration rights.

That made him an unrestricted free agent and while the Penguins were believed to have interest in keeping him around, Joseph instead elected to sign a one-year, $950K deal with St. Louis on the same day that the Blues acquired his brother Mathieu Joseph from Ottawa.  However, the change of scenery hasn’t changed his role as Joseph has remained in that depth role.  He has played in 23 games so far this season, picking up two assists while averaging just 13:06 per night, a career low.

With the Blues bringing in Cam Fowler recently, playing time was going to be that much harder to come by for Joseph while they also have Matthew Kessel and Tyler Tucker in the minors, players with some NHL experience.  Presumably, they’ll be bringing up a defender – quite possibly one of those two – before long.  As for Pittsburgh, Marcus Pettersson landed on injured reserve yesterday while Jack St. Ivany was injured with AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton per Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Twitter link), leading GM Kyle Dubas to seek out some low-cost depth in the interim.  Joseph will once again be arbitration-eligible this summer but barring a change in role in the second half of the season, he could be trending toward being non-tendered for the second year in a row.

Following the swap, the team announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Nate Clurman was re-assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.  He was recalled on Tuesday but Joseph will take his place on the active roster.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report that Pittsburgh was acquiring Joseph.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Penguins Recall Nathan Clurman

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The Penguins announced they’ve recalled right-shot defenseman Nathan Clurman from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. The club opened an active roster spot by transferring left-shot defender Marcus Pettersson to injured reserve after listing him as week-to-week with a lower-body injury.

Clurman, 26, signed a two-way deal with the Penguins in July and has played 16 games for WBS. He’s posted a goal and four assists for five points, a slightly higher point-per-game rate than the defensive blue-liner posted in the past, while adding eight penalty minutes and a +3 rating.

It’s the first NHL recall for Clurman, who now has the opportunity to make his NHL debut tonight against the Kings. The 6’2″, 205-lb defender was a sixth-round pick of the Avalanche back in 2016 and, after a collegiate career at Notre Dame, remained in the Colorado organization on AHL and ECHL assignments until reaching Group VI unrestricted free agency last summer. Before joining Pittsburgh, Clurman had 21 points and a +20 rating in 110 games for the AHL’s Colorado Eagles from 2021 to 2024 and 27 points with a +15 rating in 62 games for the ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies.

The 2023-24 season was tough for Clurman, who stayed on the AHL roster for the entire season but didn’t receive regular playing time. He only appeared in 37 of the Eagles’ 72 games, so it wasn’t surprising to see the Avalanche let him hit the open market.

Clurman cleared waivers during the preseason, the first time he’s had to do so before an AHL assignment. He can remain on the active roster for up to 30 days or play 10 games before he needs them again to return to WBS.

As for Pettersson, his move is a mere formality. His week-to-week designation indicates he’ll miss far more time than the seven days required for a standard IR placement. So, don’t expect him to be immediately activated upon becoming eligible this weekend. He’ll miss Pittsburgh’s next three games at a minimum after sustaining the injury on Saturday against the Senators.

Waiver Wire: 10/4/24

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According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman all 17 players on waivers yesterday have cleared. There are again several players to hit the wire today as reported by Friedman:

Anaheim Ducks

F Jansen Harkins

Boston Bruins

G Michael DiPietro
F Vinni Lettieri
D Jordan Oesterle

Florida Panthers

F William Lockwood

Los Angeles Kings

F Taylor Ward

New Jersey Devils

F Justin Dowling
F Mike Hardman
F Samuel Laberge
F Nathan Légaré
F Maxwell Willman

Philadelphia Flyers

F Olle Lycksell
F Anthony Richard

Pittsburgh Penguins

F Emil Bemström
D Nate Clurman
F Jonathan Gruden
F Joona Koppanen
D Filip Král
D John Ludvig
F Samuel Poulin

Tampa Bay Lightning

G Matt Tomkins

Toronto Maple Leafs

F Alex Steeves

Washington Capitals

D Ethan Bear
F Luke Philp
F Michael Sgarbossa

Penguins Sign Anthony Beauvillier, Blake Lizotte; Three Others

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The Penguins have signed winger Anthony Beauvillier to a one-year contract in a deal that will pay him $1.25MM next season per a team announcement. Additionally, Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports the team has also come to a contract agreement with Blake Lizotte on a two-year, $3.7MM contract.

Pittsburgh also announced they’ve signed forward Jimmy Huntington to a one-year deal. His pact carries the league minimum $775K cap hit. They’re also bringing in 26-year-old right-shot defenseman Nathan Clurman on a one-year, two-way deal worth $775K NHL/$125K AHL, per PuckPedia. They also re-signed 25-year-old forward Emil Bemstrom to a one-year, one-way deal worth $775K after not issuing him a qualifying offer yesterday, PuckPedia reports.

Beauvillier finds a new home after a tough 2023-24 season that saw him bounce between three different clubs. In 60 games with the Canucks, Blackhawks and Predators, the 27-year-old had only five goals and 17 points with a -8 rating. That’s a far cry from the 15-goal form he consistently flashed with the Islanders from 2017 to 2023 until his involvement in the Bo Horvat trade sent him to Vancouver.

Pittsburgh will bank on a bit of a rebound from Beauvillier on a deal that’s almost fully buriable in the minors. After moving out Reilly Smith to the Rangers today, there could be an opening for him in the top nine and on the second power play to help him rediscover some offense. He’ll challenge players like Drew O’Connor and Rickard Rakell for a potential top-six spot but should be relatively guaranteed a third-line wing spot at worst unless more additions are coming.

Lizotte slots in nicely to the fourth-line center position, taking away some responsibility from Noel Acciari, who struggled in his first campaign with Pittsburgh last year. The former King has had good possession metrics throughout his six-year, 320-game career and is coming off a solid 15 points and +11 rating in 62 games last year. Interestingly, he’s only one year removed from a breakout campaign that saw him post 34 points in 81 games – if he can recapture that kind of offensive production, that would be a major jolt of energy into a Pittsburgh bottom six that was abysmal offensively in 2023-24.

Bemström should likely stick around on the NHL roster after inking a one-way deal, but whether he opens the season in the lineup or as an extra forward is a different question. The 25-year-old Swede has been a prolific offensive producer in the minors but hasn’t carried it over to the NHL on a consistent basis, finishing the year with a mediocre three goals and five points in 24 games with Pittsburgh after they acquired him from the Blue Jackets. There are certainly worse options to insert into the lineup in a pinch, though, and there’s always hope he can rediscover his rookie season form (10 goals, 20 points in 56 games with Columbus in 2019-20).

Huntington and Clurman will head to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and are highly unlikely to see NHL action next season. Neither has any major league experience to their name thus far in their professional careers. Huntington, 25, spent last season on a minor-league deal with the Hershey Bears, where he finished the season with 14 points in 20 playoff games en route to a Calder Cup win. Clurman, a stocky 6’2″, 205-lb defender, is 26 years old and played only 37 games for the Colorado Eagles last season, recording a goal and four assists with a +5 rating.

Colorado Avalanche Extend Nate Clurman

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The Colorado Avalanche got some offseason business out of the way today, re-signing pending restricted free agent defenseman Nate Clurman to a one-year contract extension. Per CapFriendly, the deal pays Clurman $775,000 at the NHL level and $100,000 at the AHL level.

Clurman, 25, is one of the few hometown players in the organization, hailing from Boulder, Colorado. Standing at 6-foot-2 and 205 pounds, Clurman’s strength and transitional game are the hallmarks of his style, which he’s spent the past few seasons honing within the minor ranks of the Avalanche organization.

Drafted in the sixth round of the 2016 NHL Draft directly out of high school, Clurman is one of the rare prospects to have high school hockey on his résumé after being drafted into the league. He played the 2016-17 campaign with the Culver Military Academy prep program before transferring to junior hockey the following year, splitting the season between three USHL teams.

Clurman then made the jump to college play, logging three seasons at the University of Notre Dame before turning pro and signing with the Avs. In his junior year, he served as the program’s captain and scored four goals after not lighting the lamp once throughout his first and second seasons.

His offense has actually taken a sizable jump since turning pro, as extended time with the ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies in 2021-22 did him well. It prepped him for a solid 2022-23 season, where he played in 57 regular-season games with the AHL’s Colorado Eagles, registering 15 points (three goals, 12 assists) and a +11 rating.

A full-time NHL career is likely out of the cards for Clurman at this point, given his age, but another improved season in the minors could warrant another extension next offseason and potential NHL call-ups if injuries strike.

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