Lightning Recall Steven Santini
The Lightning announced that they’ve recalled veteran defenseman Steven Santini from AHL Syracuse. Tampa Bay has an open roster spot and ample cap space, so no corresponding move is necessary.
Santini’s recall suggests that Erik Černák will be unavailable against the Oilers after he left Sunday’s game against the Canucks with an undisclosed injury. The 29-year-old, who gets his first recall since January 2023, will likely sit in the press box while Nicklaus Perbix, who served as a healthy scratch against Vancouver, re-enters the lineup.
A second-round pick by the Devils back in 2013, Santini is now on his fifth NHL organization and third in the last three years. He signed a one-year, two-way deal with the Bolts on July 2 after spending last season in the Kings organization on assignment to AHL Ontario.
Santini successfully cleared waivers during the preseason and has played in 14 of 22 games for Syracuse since then, recording five points and a -2 rating. He’s serving as an alternate captain, his third season doing so as an AHLer after holding the honor with Utica in 2020-21 and Springfield in 2021-22.
The 6’2″, 209-lb righty has 123 NHL games under his belt but none since a four-game run with the Blues in 2022-23. He has five goals and 18 assists for 23 career NHL points with a -8 rating, averaging 17:12 per game. Teams have historically been out-chanced pretty heavily with Santini on the ice at even strength, only controlling 42.6% of shot attempts.
The Bolts can keep Santini around for up to 30 days or play him in 10 games before he requires waivers to return to Syracuse.
Waiver Wire: 10/6/24
Today is the major day for the waiver wire as most teams in the NHL are preparing the 23-man rosters for the 2024-25 NHL season. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman confirmed that all players on waivers from yesterday have cleared. The following list is each player placed on waivers this afternoon as reported by PuckPedia.
Boston Bruins
F Patrick Brown
G Brandon Bussi
G Jiri Patera
D Billy Sweezey
F Jeffrey Viel
Buffalo Sabres
D Kale Clague
G James Reimer
F Lukas Rousek
Calgary Flames
G Devin Cooley
F Jakob Pelletier
F Cole Schwindt
Carolina Hurricanes
F Josiah Slavin
D Ty Smith
F Ryan Suzuki
Chicago Blackhawks
Detroit Red Wings
F Sheldon Dries
D Justin Holl
D William Lagesson
D Brogan Rafferty
F Joe Snively
Edmonton Oilers
D Josh Brown
F Drake Caggiula
F Raphael Lavoie
G Olivier Rodrigue
Los Angeles Kings
G Pheonix Copley
F Samuel Fagemo
F Jack Studnicka
Nashville Predators
New Jersey Devils
F Shane Bowers
D Nick DeSimone
F Nolan Foote
D Colton White
New York Islanders
D Samuel Bolduc
F Pierre Engvall
F Hudson Fasching
F Liam Foudy
G Marcus Hogberg
D Grant Hutton
F Fredrik Karlstrom
G Jakub Skarek
New York Rangers
Ottawa Senators
Pittsburgh Penguins
D Sebastian Aho
F Bokondji Imama
St. Louis Blues
D Corey Schueneman
D Tyler Tucker
Tampa Bay Lightning
F Gage Goncalves
D Steven Santini
F Jesse Ylonen
Toronto Maple Leafs
G Matt Murray
D Marshall Rifai
Utah Hockey Club
Vancouver Canucks
Vegas Golden Knights
F Zach Aston-Reese
F Tanner Laczynski
F Jonas Rondbjerg
Washington Capitals
Winnipeg Jets
Minor Free Agent Signings: Atlantic Division
With over 180 deals signed during the first day of free agency yesterday, some smaller names may have gotten lost in the shuffle. Here’s a list of names that have inked two-way deals with Atlantic Division clubs since the market opened yesterday, per CapFriendly. Some of these may have been included in our main coverage yesterday, while others went under the radar. All contracts carry the league-minimum $775K cap hit unless stated otherwise). Those listed here are likely to begin 2024-25 with each team’s AHL affiliate.
Boston Bruins
F Cole Koepke (one year)
D Jordan Oesterle (two years)
D Billy Sweezey (two years)
F Riley Tufte (one year)
F Jeffrey Viel (one year)
Buffalo Sabres
F Joshua Dunne (two years)
F Mason Jobst (one year)
F Brett Murray (one year)
D Jack Rathbone (one year)
G Felix Sandström (one year)
Detroit Red Wings
F Sheldon Dries (two years)
F Joe Snively (one year)
Florida Panthers
F Rasmus Asplund (one year)
Montreal Canadiens
none
Ottawa Senators
D Jeremy Davies (one year)
F Hayden Hodgson (one year)
F Garrett Pilon (two years)
D Filip Roos (one year)
Tampa Bay Lightning
D Derrick Pouliot (one year)
D Steven Santini (one year)
F Jesse Ylönen (one year)
Toronto Maple Leafs
none
Lightning Sign Jesse Ylönen, Two Others To Two-Way Deals
The Lightning are picking up winger Jesse Ylönen on a two-way contract, Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times reports. He was non-tendered by the Canadiens yesterday, making him a UFA. They also inked veteran depth defenders Derrick Pouliot and Steven Santini to one-year, two-way pacts with $775K cap hits, per CapFriendly.
Ylönen, 24, has the greatest chance to crack the Tampa roster out of camp. The 2018 second-round pick struggled to produce with Montreal last season, limited to four goals and eight points in 57 games. But his minor-league numbers (32 points in 39 AHL GP in 2022-23) suggest greater offensive upside, something he may get the chance to showcase with many depth spots up for grabs in Tampa. He’ll compete for time with recent adds like Zemgus Girgensons and internal options like Mitchell Chaffee and Gage Goncalves.
Pouliot and Santini, meanwhile, are solely depth signings for AHL Syracuse, with the Lightning’s top seven defensemen already locked in. Pouliot, 30, remains a quality power-play option in the minors, suiting up in the Stars organization with AHL Texas last year. There, he recorded nine goals and 46 points in 64 games and earned a brief cup of coffee in the NHL with Dallas, where he went without a point in five games. Once a top-ten pick by the Penguins in 2012, he hasn’t stuck around as an NHL full-timer since 2018-19 with the Canucks.
Santini, 29, is a 6’2″ right-shot defender who’s changing NHL organizations for the second summer in a row. After a few years in the Blues’ pipeline, he spent last season on a one-year deal with the Kings, where he had 10 points and a +9 rating in 64 games for AHL Ontario. A second-round pick of the Devils in 2013, he has 123 games of NHL experience, mostly with New Jersey. He last suited up in the NHL for St. Louis in 2022-23, recording an assist in a four-game call-up.
Kings Sign David Rittich, Steven Santini
Aside from the free agent deals for both Andreas Englund and Mikhail Maltsev, the team has also announced separate signings of goaltender David Rittich, and defenseman Steven Santini. Both players received one-year deals, while Rittich will make $875K at the NHL level, and Santini will receive $800K.
It was previously reported that the Kings were targeting a goalie to sign to a relatively cheap contract to pair with incumbent Pheonix Copley to complete their goalie tandem. They’ve found exactly that in Rittich, 30. Rittich spent last season as Connor Hellebuyck‘s backup with the Winnipeg Jets, posting a .901 save percentage in 21 games. 
He’s been a backup goaltender for the past three seasons, but before that point he received a greater workload as a member of the Calgary Flames.
Before the Flames’ signing of Jacob Markstrom, Rittich received 40+ games played from the Flames and performed decently well, scoring a .911 save percentage in 2018-19 and a .907 in 2019-20.
Copley managed to post a 26-6-3 record with a .903 save percentage last season, so if Rittich can manage to post similar numbers next season the Kings should be in decent shape.
They’ve got quite a bit of talent all throughout their roster and seem to be looking to emulate the Golden Knights from early in these past playoffs, wherein a cheap netminder good enough to give his team a chance to win consistently is propelled to victories by a talent-rich roster.
Conventional wisdom has stated that teams need strong, reliable goaltenders to be able to have playoff success, but the Golden Knights bucked that trend by winning a Stanley Cup behind a netminder with a career-high of 27 NHL games played in a single season. Now, the Kings look to be attempting to do a similar thing.
As for Santini, he’s a 28-year-old six-foot-two blueliner with 123 games of NHL experience under his belt. He’s played a handful of NHL games in the last few seasons but has largely been an AHL defender in that time frame. He’ll likely get a shot in training camp to make the NHL roster but will be overwhelmingly likely to play most of his games with the AHL’s Ontario Reign.
The Kings faced quite a few injury issues last season, so in signing Santini, Los Angeles has secured some experienced depth in case the injury bug bites once again.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
St. Louis Blues Re-Assign Steven Santini To AHL
With yesterday’s news that star St. Louis Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko is nearing a return from injured reserve, the Blues have made a move to clear space on their roster for Tarasenko’s return. Per a team announcement, veteran depth defenseman Steven Santini has been sent down to the team’s AHL affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds.
Santini, 27, was originally recalled from Springfield on January 4th. He played in four games for the Blues from January 7th to January 12th but has been a healthy scratch since. In those four games, Santini averaged just over 12 and a half minutes of ice time per night, and he registered six hits and ten blocked shots.
In Springfield, Santini served as an alternate captain and an important top-four, penalty-killing defenseman on a team that made the Calder Cup final. This season, he’s resumed his top-four, stay-at-home role for the Thunderbirds.
He’s not an offensive producer and has just five points in 32 AHL games this season, but he’s a relied-upon stay-at-home defender at that level and should help Springfield in that area now that he’s been sent back to the AHL.
St. Louis Blues Recall Steven Santini; Reassign Tyler Tucker
The St. Louis Blues have put Tyler Tucker in the lineup just four times this season, with none of those coming since his latest recall. Instead of staying as the extra defenseman in the NHL, he’s headed back to the minor leagues to play. The Blues have reassigned Tucker to the Springfield Thunderbirds while recalling Steven Santini to take his place on the active roster.
Tucker, 22, was a seventh-round pick of the Blues in 2018 but quickly became a fan favorite at the minor league level thanks to a fearless attitude and all-around ability. In his AHL career, the defenseman has racked up 193 penalty minutes in 125 games, adding 38 points. He was integral to the Thunderbirds’ playoff run last season, and came back this year with a bit more offensive flair to his game. Thirteen of those 38 career points have come in just 24 games.
If the Blues think they might have something in Tucker, he can’t sit in the press box all year. Santini, Despite once being an intriguing prospect in his own right, is now 27 and doesn’t have much developing to do. He can serve as the extra defenseman at the NHL level, where he has 119 games of experience over his career.
The Blues are back in action tomorrow night in New Jersey, before heading to Montreal and Minnesota to finish the road trip.
Steven Santini Assigned To AHL
With the Springfield Thunderbirds about to start their next Calder Cup playoff series on Sunday, Steven Santini has been assigned back to the AHL.
The St. Louis Blues defenseman played just three minutes in his one NHL playoff appearance this season, game four against the Minnesota Wild. That was just five shifts as the team tried to get through some injuries on defense and ended up dressing an extra body.
Now, Santini can go back to Springfield where he spent most of the season, and help them try to get past the Charlotte Checkers, a team the Thunderbirds have been battling all season long. The two clubs finished with the exact same winning percentage in the Atlantic Division, but Springfield lost the tiebreaker, meaning home ice advantage goes to Charlotte. Because it’s a five-game series, that means things actually start off in Springfield on Sunday afternoon.
Santini, 27, had 24 points in 66 games for Springfield this season and is signed through next year on a two-way contract with the Blues.
Snapshots: Blidh, Santini, Rubins
Boston Bruins forward Anton Blidh expressed frustration over his role and ice-time with the team through the last few weeks of the regular season and in the playoffs. In talking to Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic, Blidh mentioned that he did not appreciate being scratched in all seven of the Bruins’ playoff games, as well as 11 of the final 12 regular season games, and even said that at times, he would have preferred to be in the AHL, where he could have played regularly. Shinzawa suggested that while Blidh did have his positives and perhaps could have challenged forward Nick Foligno for ice-time, he did have his drawbacks and Bruins Head Coach Bruce Cassidy ultimately preferred to go with Foligno’s experience in these situations.
A pending UFA, Blidh does not have to endure his frustrations with the Bruins any longer if he chooses not to. Originally a sixth-round draft pick of Boston in 2013, Blidh has played parts of six seasons with the team, tallying four goals and eight assists in 70 career games in that time. Some of Blidh’s frustration can be understood, as a look back at the last three seasons shows that Blidh has played in 49 NHL games in that period, but just 15 AHL games. This season, Blidh played in 32 contests for Boston, but played zero AHL games. Even with COVID-shortened seasons, playing in just 64 games over three seasons could foreseeably be frustrating for any player.
- The St. Louis Blues announced that they have recalled defenseman Steven Santini from the Springfield Thunderbirds of the AHL. After spending the entire year with Springfield, putting up 18 points in 66 games, Santini has shuffled back and forth between Springfield and St. Louis in the month of May, even getting his first NHL action of the 2021-22 season against the Minnesota Wild in the first round of the playoffs. It’s unclear if there is a specific motive behind the Blues’ decision to recall Santini, however it does raise eyebrows given the team’s rash of injuries to their defensemen late this season and into the first round, which necessitated Santini’s playoff appearance in the first place.
- It appears that Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Kristians Rubins will head to the World Championships to join Team Latvia (link). Listed at 6’5″ and 227 pounds, Rubins has made a name for himself as an imposing, physical defender who can shut down the opposition. In 58 games with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies this season, Rubins had one goal an 10 assists, and was even able to make his NHL debut for the Maple Leafs, playing in three games in December. The 24-year-old may have joined Latvia sooner, however he was on the Maple Leafs roster in the playoffs as a reserve.
St. Louis Blues Extend Steven Santini
The St. Louis Blues have decided that Steven Santini should stay in the organization, signing the defenseman to a two-year extension. The contract is of the two-way variety, meaning Santini will earn less at the AHL level. Santini was scheduled to become an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent at the end of the season but is now under contract through the 2022-23 campaign. PuckPedia has the full contract details, which include a $750K average annual value at the NHL level.
One thing to note in any contract signed these days is how it will affect the upcoming expansion draft, but Santini doesn’t figure to make much of an impact there. The 26-year-old defenseman will likely not be protected, but also does not fill the exposure requirements for the Blues—he doesn’t have the required games played over the last two seasons to serve as the one signed defenseman the team must expose.
Instead, this contract extension is just making sure a valuable depth piece remains in the organization. Santini found his way to St. Louis after the Nashville Predators bought out his contract last October, signing a one-year two-way deal with the Blues a few days later. He cleared waivers at the beginning of the season, meaning he could play in the minor leagues or serve as an extra body on the taxi squad. This season, he has played just five games at the AHL level and one for the Blues, but obviously showed enough in practice to earn himself a nice new deal.
Unless he manages to secure himself a roster spot at training camp, Santini will need to clear waivers again next season in order to reach the minor leagues.