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Peter DiLiberatore

Minor Transactions: 12/21/23

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Although the NHL’s annual holiday roster freeze is in place, player movement has not halted across the wider world of professional hockey, both in North American minor leagues as well as the many pro leagues in Europe. As always, we’ll keep track of notable player movement from those places here.

  • Veteran goalie Patrik Rybár has signed a one-year contract extension with his current club: Spartak Moscow of the KHL. The 30-year-old Slovak international is in his second season with Spartak, and his third consecutive season in the KHL. He was signed out of Liiga’s Kärpät by Dynamo Minsk, and then after a year as Minsk’s backup he became Spartak’s starter for 2022-23. Rybár has been excellent since he became Spartak’s number-one goalie, with a .924 save percentage in 45 games last year and a .920 in 24 games this year. The one-time KHL All-Star is best known for the 2022 Winter Olympics, when he posted a .966 save percentage and backstopped Slovakia to a bronze medal.
  • 23-year-old former Vegas Golden Knights prospect Peter DiLiberatore has had his PTO with the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners converted to a full-time deal, according to the AHL’s official transactions wire. The former Quinnipiac University alternate captain began the season with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, but then in November he moved to the AHL to play for Tucson. He has played in 13 AHL games this year and scored three points. Now with a full-time deal, DiLiberatore will get the chance to establish himself in the AHL on a more extended basis.
  • 2017 Minnesota Wild third-round pick Ivan Lodnia has signed with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays. The 23-year-old was once a strong scorer at the CHL level, potting 27 goals and 62 points in his final 41 games with the OHL’s Niagara IceDogs. He began his pro career in 2020-21 with the KHL’s Dynamo Minsk, before spending 2021-22 with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves. Lodnia has not yet played in the ECHL but has four goals and eight points in 38 career games.
  • Former Edmonton Oilers prospect Matt Cairns has been traded in the ECHL, with the Maine Mariners sending him to the Indy Fuel in exchange for future considerations. Maine acquired Cairns from the Cincinnati Cyclones a few days ago but ultimately did not dress him for a single game. The six-foot-three defenseman has split this season between the New York Rangers’ ECHL affiliate, the Cincinnati Cyclones, and their AHL affiliate the Hartford Wolf Pack. He has skated in five games for Hartford and 11 for Cincinnati, scoring three points for the latter club.
  • Forward Jake Bricknell has been claimed off of waivers from the ECHL’s Florida Everblades by the ECHL’s Reading Royals. The 26-year-old has played in just two ECHL seasons but is now on his sixth different ECHL team. The six-foot-one, 211-pound grinder has scored two goals and three points so far in this season, and his career-high in offensive production as a pro came when he scored six goals and 17 points in 44 games for the Manchester Storm of the EIHL.
  • Jakub Rychlovský, one of the breakout stars of this Czech Extraliga season, has signed a two-year contract extension with an option for a third season with his current club, Bílí Tygři Liberec. Rychlovský currently ranks third on the team in scoring with 12 goals and 23 points in 29 games, and his offense has helped the team sit fourth place in the league standings. Rychlovský has already passed his career-high in points, a high he set last season with 17 points in 52 games.
  • 2011 Minnesota Wild first-round pick Zack Phillips has been signed by the EIHL’s Manchester Storm, according to a team announcement. The 31-year-old is a veteran of numerous professional leagues, having already played in England, Sweden, Slovakia, Germany, Poland, Scotland, and Hungary as well as the United States and Canada. After fizzling out in the AHL in 2016, Phillips began his European pro career and was signed by Manchester out of the German third division. Phillips played in the EIHL last season with the Fife Flyers, leading the team in scoring with 45 points in 53 games.

This page may be updated throughout the day.

Minor Transactions: 10/12/23

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It’s another busy day on the NHL schedule, with quite a few teams set to make their season debuts tonight. Top prospect Adam Fantilli is set to debut for the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight, while Red Wings fans will get their first regular-season look at Alex DeBrincat wearing the winged wheel.

Regular season hockey is back just about everywhere (save for the AHL which begins tomorrow) and as a result player movement remains active across the hockey world. As always, we’ll keep track of those transactions here.

  • Former Toronto Marlies star forward Jeremy Bracco and his club, the KHL’s Barys Astana, have mutually agreed to terminate the player’s contract. Bracco, 26, joined the KHL’s Kazakh club in July 2022 and had a solid first season there, scoring 14 goals and 40 points in 59 games. This season, though, Bracco has struggled and has only managed one point in six games. He’ll now look elsewhere to continue his pro career, whether it be in North America (where he is a former AHL First-Team All-Star and Calder Cup champion) or in Europe (such as Germany, where he played in 2021-22.)
  • The AHL’s San Jose Barracuda have signed two forwards to one-year AHL contracts: former NHLer Justin Bailey and former Brandon Wheat Kings captain Tanner Kaspick. Bailey, 28, has been on the NHL/AHL bubble for much of his pro career, skating in NHL games for three separate teams. He’s long been a quality top-six forward at the AHL level, and scored 19 goals and 32 points in 58 games for the Bakersfield Condors last season. Kaspick, 25, hasn’t yet made his NHL debut but has been a regular AHLer for most of his professional career. He scored six points in 43 games for the Iowa Wild last season playing in a checking role.
  • Undrafted forward Samuel Asselin, an undersized forward who once led the QMJHL in goals, may not have earned an NHL contract from the New York Islanders off the back of his PTO. What he earned instead was an AHL deal with the Bridgeport Islanders, something the team announced today. After his stellar final season of Major Junior hockey, Asselin spent his first year as a professional in the ECHL with the Atlanta Gladiators, scoring at a near-point-per-game rate. Since that season Asselin has been a full-time AHLer, and he set a career high in 2021-22 with eight goals and 30 points. He’ll now take his services to Bridgeport, likely with the hope of making a push for consideration for an NHL deal in the future.
  • Former Vegas Golden Knights prospect Peter DiLiberatore has signed a one-year ECHL contract with the South Carolina Stingrays, according to a team announcement. DiLiberatore endured a difficult 2022-23 campaign, one in which he suited up for four different teams across the AHL and ECHL. He finished the season playing in West Virginia with the Wheeling Nailers, scoring one assist in five games. Now in South Carolina, perhaps the stability potentially offered by this signing will help DiLiberatore translate some of the production he showed in college at Quinnipiac University to the professional level.
  • Last week, Jáchym Kondelík was placed on unconditional waivers by the Nashville Predators for the purpose of contract termination. Now a free agent, Kondelík has decided to sign in Czechia with Extraliga club Motor České Budějovice. Kondelík, 23, was a fourth-round pick of the Predators at the 2018 draft, selected out of the USHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks. He went on to have a quality career playing NCAA hockey with the University of Connecticut, captaining the team as a senior. He turned pro near the end of 2021-22 and played 2022-23 with the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals, making it the first full season of his pro career. He scored just 11 points in 38 games, though, and now appears to prefer continuing his career closer to home.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Coyotes Invite Ryan Dzingel And Peter DiLiberatore To Training Camp

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With training camps on the horizon, the Coyotes are the latest team to get in on PTO season.  CapFriendly reports (Twitter link) that they’ve invited winger Ryan Dzingel and defenseman Peter DiLiberatore to camp when it gets underway later this month.

Dzingel is a player that many will be familiar with, including in Arizona where he spent part of the 2021-22 campaign.  The 31-year-old has seen action in 404 games over parts of seven NHL campaigns, the bulk of which came back with Ottawa who drafted him in the seventh round back in 2011.  He has had some success offensively at the top level, collecting 87 goals and 101 points but in his last couple of seasons, he has been limited to more of a depth role.

Dzingel didn’t see any NHL action last season.  He cleared waivers in training camp back in October when he was with Carolina and suffered a long-term back injury just nine games into his campaign with AHL Chicago.  While he was able to return, he was limited to just 22 games in total where he notched a pair of goals along with nine assists.

As for DiLiberatore, the 23-year-old has spent his first three professional seasons at the minor league level.  He split last season between the AHL and ECHL affiliates for Pittsburgh and Vegas, combining to pick up two goals and seven assists in 53 games.  A sixth-round pick by the Golden Knights in 2018, he was moved to the Penguins as part of the Teddy Blueger deal at the trade deadline but was non-tendered back in June.

Both players will likely be looking for a two-way deal at this point to catch on with Arizona’s AHL affiliate in Tucson.  With the Coyotes kicking off the preseason in a little over two weeks with a pair of games in Australia, they’ll get a chance to make an early impression.  Once Arizona officially terminates Liam Kirk’s deal tomorrow, they’ll have three open contract slots at their disposal although Jan Jenik remains a restricted free agent and could potentially fill one of those despite his reported trade request.

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