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Teemu Pulkkinen

International Transactions: Galchenyuk, Perlini, Pulkkinen, Tracey

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The former third-overall selection of the 2012 NHL Draft won’t return to North America anytime soon. According to a public announcement from the Kontinental Hockey League, forward Alex Galchenyuk has signed a two-year extension with the Amur Khabarovsk.

Galchenyuk has played in the KHL for the last two seasons, scoring 16 goals and 42 points in 61 games with SKA St. Petersburg during his first year outside North America since the 2012-13 season. The Milwaukee, WI native’s time with Amur has been mutually beneficial, scoring 20 goals and 37 points in 53 games en route to a KHL All-Star appearance. Alex Broadhurst joins him as the only other American on the team’s roster.

Despite the strong offensive production in Russia, there’s likely little interest for Galchenyuk to return to any NHL organization. Less than two weeks after signing a one-year deal with the Arizona Coyotes in 2023, it was revealed that Galchenyuk had been arrested on multiple charges, leading the Coyotes to terminate his contract. He entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program shortly after.

Other international transactions:

  • Another former first-round pick, Brendan Perlini, has signed a new contract overseas. The NL’s Lausanne HC announced they’d signed Perlini for the remainder of the 2024-25 season after his contract was mutually terminated with the KHL’s Spartak Moskva after only four games. It’ll be Perlini’s second attempt in the NL, scoring nine goals and 16 points in 21 games for HC Ambrì-Piotta in the 2020-21 season. He’s also a veteran of 262 NHL and 98 AHL contests scoring 81 and 72 points respectively.
  • Former prospect for the Detroit Red Wings, Teemu Pulkkinen, is signing on with a third team this season. HC La Chaux-de-Fonds, a team in the second tier of professional ice hockey in Switzerland, announced a contract for Pulkkinen for the remainder of the season. Given that he’s already been mutually terminated from contracts in Germany and Slovakia this season, this appears to be one of the final seasons for Pulkkinen’s professional career.
  • Forward Brayden Tracey’s professional career might be grinding to a halt. After flailing out of the Anaheim Ducks organization after being the 29th overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft, Tracey signed a one-year deal with the Finnish Liiga’s Jukurit to rebuild his value. Instead, after scoring only one goal and five assists in 13 contests, Jukurit announced yesterday they’ve mutually terminated Tracey’s contract. Tracey was interested in returning to North America when he originally signed but could have difficulty finding a new landing spot with that production.

Minor Moves: Pánik, Reedy, Pulkkinen

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Longtime NHL winger Richard Pánik is continuing his trek around Europe and Russia. After spending the first part of 2024-25 in his native Slovakia with HC Slovan Bratislava, the Kontinental Hockey League announced today that the 33-year-old has signed with Russian side Traktor Chelyabinsk for the remainder of the season.

Pánik last played in the NHL with the Islanders in 2021-22. Once a 20-goal scorer with the Blackhawks in 2016-17, he’s been relatively productive over the past three years while continuing his professional career overseas. He was decent with Bratislava in the early going, compiling six goals and 13 points in 18 games before leaving for tougher competition in the KHL. He spent last season in the Czech Extraliga, where he amassed 20 goals and 34 points in 51 games with HC Oceláři Třinec and HC Dynamo Pardubice.

A second-round pick of the Lightning in 2009, Pánik has undoubtedly had a journeyman’s career. In his NHL time, he suited up for seven clubs in 10 seasons, posting 195 points in 521 games with the Bolts, Maple Leafs, Blackhawks, Coyotes, Capitals, Red Wings, and Isles. He also suited up for three Ontario Hockey League squads in his major junior career and has signed on with five different European franchises since 2022.

Some other minor moves involving former NHLers:

  • Ex-Sharks center prospect Scott Reedy has finally found a place to play for 2024-25, signing a tryout with the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals. Now 25, the Minnesota native spent last season under contract with the Stars but was limited to 12 AHL contests due to injury, registering five goals and two assists. After being a Group VI unrestricted free agent over the summer, the 2017 fourth-rounder of San Jose will now look to catch on with his third NHL organization since turning pro out of the University of Minnesota in 2021. Reedy recorded seven goals and two assists in 35 NHL games with the Sharks in 2021-22 before being traded to Dallas for Jacob Peterson the following year.
  • Once a depth NHLer in the mid-2010s, Finnish scoring winger Teemu Pulkkinen has terminated his contract with Germany’s Schwenninger Wild Wings to pursue options back in his home country, the team announced. The former Red Wings, Wild and Coyotes winger had four goals and 11 points in 22 Deutsche Eishockey Liga games this season. Since leaving North America back in 2018, Pulkkinen has suited up with seven teams across Russia, Belarus, China and Germany. He amassed 13 goals and 22 points in 83 NHL games between the 2013-14 and 2016-17 campaigns.

Snapshots: CBA Talks, COVID Restrictions, KHL

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There have been no serious negotiations between the NHL and NHLPA for more than a week, according to Kevin McGran. The two sides have been near-silent, a tactic that reminds McGran of the previous lockouts, including one in 2012 that he details in today’s piece for the Toronto Star. Other reporters and insiders have expressed the same thing over the past few days, but McGran’s piece includes one potentially jaw-dropping nugget—some league governors may have agreed to the memorandum of understanding on Gary Bettman’s recommendation, which guaranteed player salaries for the upcoming season, without actually reading it first.

It’s not clear at all when the two sides will finally agree on something, but McGran predicts an early-January deal that would have the season starting in February. That would potentially line up with the suggestion that Darren Dreger of TSN made on Twitter this morning, noting that even if a deal is reached soon, postponing training camps until after the holidays “has to be considered.”

  • Part of that consideration will be the varied county, state, provincial, and federal health guidelines. In Santa Clara County, where the San Jose Sharks reside, new restrictions have limited the preparation even further. Kevin Kurz of The Athletic relates a statement from the Sharks, which explains that the team is reviewing local options for rehab and training while revising their current voluntary programs. The San Francisco 49ers of the NFL, who are also based in Santa Clara, will hold their “home” games the next two weeks in Arizona. Remember, the Sharks are one of seven teams expected to receive an extra week of training camp before the season begins, after failing to qualify for the bubble postseason this summer.
  • While the NHL tries to get a season underway, the KHL continues to play as if little has changed. Today saw quite the transaction, with Magnus Paajarvi and Teemu Pulkkinen swapping teams. Paajarvi, 29, played nearly 500 games in the NHL before heading to the KHL in 2019 and will be going from Yaroslavl Lokomotiv to Dynamo Moscow. Pulkkinen, 28, has played the last three seasons in the KHL after a short NHL career and had 14 points for Moscow this season.

Teemu Pulkkinen Signs In KHL

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The Vegas Golden Knights won’t have Teemu Pulkkinen in the lineup this season, as the restricted free agent has decided to sign in the KHL. Pulkkinen today signed a one-year contract with Dinamo Minsk, explaining why he didn’t file for arbitration earlier this offseason. Pulkkinen never did play for the Golden Knights, instead spending the year with the Chicago Wolves of the AHL.

The 26-year old forward has been an elite minor league scoring threat for many years, registering seasons of 59, 61 and 65 points through his professional career. In 241 AHL regular season contests he’s produced 222 points, but hasn’t ever really been able to crack an NHL lineup one a full-time basis. Selected by the Detroit Red Wings in the fourth round of the 2010 draft, he played 70 games for the club across three seasons, recording 20 points but never being able to find consistent minutes. That’s mostly because of a perceived lack of footspeed and defensive awareness, something that he can get away with at the lower levels.

In the KHL, Pulkkinen’s offensive skills are bound to shine through. It will be interesting to see if he considers a return to North America after his one year is up, or whether he’ll be content to play out the rest of his career overseas. One would think that Jokerit would want him back at some point if possible, after he found a ton of success with the team before joining the Red Wings organization.

Vegas Golden Knights Sign Colin Miller To Four-Year Deal

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The Vegas Golden Knights have signed restricted free agent Colin Miller to a four-year, $15.5MM contract worth an AAV of $3.875MM, according the Associated Press’ Stephen Whyno. The deal makes him the highest paid defenseman with the Golden Knights.

Miller was one of the key components for Vegas during an impressive run in its inaugural season that took them all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals. The 25-year-old had his best year as a pro player with the Golden Knights. He led all defenseman with 41 points, including 10 goals and 31 assists and was a key contributor in the team’s playoff run, where he tallied three goals and seven points in 20 games. He was also a critical part of the team’s power play unit. For Miller, it marks a big raise as he played the last two seasons for $1MM per year.

Acquired through the expansion draft from the Boston Bruins, Miller has quickly taken the reigns as the top defenseman along with Nate Schmidt in Vegas. His average ice time for the year increased from over 15 minutes a game last year in Boston to 19:21 this year with the Golden Knights. Considered to have an elite-level slapshot as he had a record-breaking shot back in the 2015 AHL Hardest Shot competition, clocking in at 105.5 mph, Vegas has asked him to shoot more, which he did all season. However, more importantly, Miller’s defensive game has rounded out this year, which has been key to the blueliner’s success.

The four-year deal means the team opted to offer him a long-term deal that ate into two future unrestricted years. At $3.875MM, the Golden Knights got solid value again from a young, emerging player. The team still has quite a few restricted free agents it must deal with including No. 1 center William Karlsson, as well as Shea Theodore, Tomas Nosek, William Carrier, Philip Holm and Teemu Pulkkinen. Vegas remains in a good situation cap-wise as the team still has a little under $15MM in salary cap space left after the Miller signing and that doesn’t include the money they will get back for David Clarkson, who’s $5.25MM contract can be put onto LTIR when the season starts.

 

Waivers & Recalls: 10/02/17

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The waiver wire is very busy today as teams pare down their rosters. The season begins this week, and teams will try to sneak through some veterans and prospects to keep them in the organization. Here is the entire list of waivers for today:

Malcolm Subban (BOS)
Phillip Di Giuseppe (CAR)
John Ramage (CBJ)
Luke Gazdic (CGY)
Garnet Hathaway (CGY)
Jean-Francois Berube (CHI)
Tomas Jurco (CHI)
Jordin Tootoo (CHI)
Gabriel Bourque (COL)
Curtis McKenzie (DAL)
Patrik Nemeth (DAL)
David Booth (DET)
Ryan Sproul (DET)
Ryan Murphy (MIN)
Byron Froese (MTL)
Andreas Martinsen (MTL)
Brian Gibbons (NJD)
Brian Strait (NJD)
Steve Bernier (NYI)
Stephen Gionta (NYI)
Matt Read (PHI)
Brandon Bollig (SJ)
Troy Grosenick (SJ)
Brandon Mashinter (SJ)
Jordan Binnington (STL)
Cory Conacher (TB)
Colin Greening (TOR)
Vincent LoVerde (TOR)
Chris Mueller (TOR)
Kerby Rychel (TOR)
Ben Smith (TOR)
Garret Sparks (TOR)
Andrey Pedan (VAN)
Teemu Pulkkinen (VGK)
Anthony Peluso (WSH)
J.C. Lipon (WPG)

Salary Cap Deep Dive: Vegas Golden Knights

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Navigating the Salary Cap is probably one of the more important tasks for any general manager to have. Teams that can avert total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful. Those that don’t see struggles and front office changes.

PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation heading into the 2017-18 season. This will focus more on those players who are integral parts of the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL. All cap figures are courtesy of CapFriendly.

Vegas Golden Knights

Current Cap Hit: $69,375,832 (under the $75MM Upper Limit)

Entry-Level Contracts

F Alex Tuch (Two years remaining, $925K)
D Shea Theodore (One year remaining, $863K)

Potential Bonuses

Tuch: $425K

While the brand-new franchise is focused on building up a powerhouse team over the next five years, which means draft picks and more draft picks, which will create a revolving door at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, there should be at least one constant who is already locked in for the future in Theodore. The just-turned 22-year-old is considered to be a long-term piece and despite the team’s overwhelming defensive logjam, the hope is Theodore is on the team’s opening day roster. Theodore shined last year during Anaheim’s playoff run when he along with several other defenseman had to step in for injured players and fared well. Theodore, a offensive defenseman, was a first-round pick of the Ducks in 2013 and despite having just nine points in 39 regular season games last year, he put up eight goals in 14 playoff games.

Tuch, a talented forward acquired near the expansion draft in a side deal with the Minnesota Wild, has a chance to immediately make the team out of training camp. The 21-year-old wing was a first-round pick in 2014 and scored 18 goals for the AHL’s Iowa Wild last year.

One Year Remaining, Non-Entry-Level

F James Neal ($5MM, UFA)
F Mikhail Grabovski ($5MM, UFA)
D Jason Garrison ($4.6MM, UFA)
F David Perron ($3.75MM, UFA)
D Luca Sbisa ($3.6MM, UFA)
D Clayton Stoner ($3.25MM, UFA)
D Brayden McNabb ($1.7MM, UFA)
D Jonathon Merrill ($1.14MM, RFA)
F William Karlsson ($1MM, RFA)
D Colin Miller ($1MM, RFA)
D Deryk Engelland ($1MM, UFA)
G Calvin Pickard ($1MM, RFA)
F Jon Marchessault ($750K, UFA)
F Teemu Pulkkinen ($700K, RFA)

The Golden Knights will be looking to move as many of their players at the trade deadline as they can. Neal should be their biggest trade bait as many teams wouldn’t mind adding a goal-scorer right in time for the playoffs. The 30-year-old wing is coming off a 23-goal season in Nashville and has scored 165 goals in the last six seasons combined. The team hopes that playing on a top line should keep his scoring numbers up high so that his price increases at the perfect time, but a recent report that a wrist injury suffered during the playoffs last year is still affecting Neal and he will miss two to four weeks is concerning. The team also has high hopes it can move Perron. After putting up a career-high 28 goals in 2013-14, he has struggled with injuries but rebounded last year with an 18 goal season. If he can stay healthy and produce similar numbers, he might be worth a mid to late pick.

One key decision the team will have to make is what to do with Marchessault, who is coming off a 30-goal season a year ago in Florida. At $750K, he is a bargain for the next year, but if he can duplicate his numbers from last year, he would be in line for a big payday. Complicating the situation is that Vegas head coach Gerard Gallant is a big fan of the 26-year-old and was the head coach in Florida wlast year when Marchessault started his breakout season.

The team also has a number of restricted free agents who they will likely hold onto. While Pickard’s name is rarely mentioned in Vegas as he is the current backup, don’t be surprised if Pickard is penciled in as the goaltender of the future. The 25-year-old struggled with Colorado last year (although he did have one of the worst teams around him), but was a promising prospect before that. Miller is another who should be retained. The 24-year-old was a promising defender in Boston who was just beginning to get full-time work. He got into 61 games last year and showed quite a bit of promise. Karlsson should get a bottom line spot in the lineup. The 24-year-old is coming off a 25-point season and the team hopes he takes his game up a notch.

While Grabovski likely won’t see the ice ever in Las Vegas (freeing the team of his $5MM cap hit), Garrison is a defender who may prove to have some value if he can produce on one of the team’s top defensive lines. The 32-year-old struggled at times in Tampa Bay and his offensive numbers have declined in the past couple of years. McNabb is considered to be an excellent defender and should provide solid defense for Vegas. He missed a lot of time due to a broken collarbone injury he suffered last October, forcing the 26-year-old in and out of the lineup all season and he eventually lost his starting job at the end of the year, but should get regular minutes with the Golden Knights. Sbisa is another player who should get playing time in hopes the team can move him later this year. The 27-year-old blueliner was a solid defenseman, but few teams were interested in his $3.6MM pricetag.

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Vegas Golden Knights Sign Teemu Pulkkinen

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After a season that saw Teemu Pulkkinen put on waivers on several occasions and spend time with three different organizations, he has a new home for 2017-18. Pulkkinen, the Vegas Golden Knights’ selection from the Arizona Coyotes in the expansion draft has signed a one-year deal with the club for $700K. He was a restricted free agent with arbitration rights, but did not file before yesterday’s deadline. Teemu Pulkkinen

An incredible AHL scorer, Pulkkinen has received very little opportunity in the NHL throughout his career. While he possesses a huge shot and scoring instincts that can create offense all by himself, his skating ability has been critiqued at times along with his defensive responsibility. Last year, he scored 36 points in 47 games with the Iowa Wild after being selected off waivers from the Detroit Red Wings, only to be later traded to Arizona.

In the desert, Pulkkinen played just four games while being a healthy scratch several times. Through 83 NHL games in his career, he has 22 points but certainly will get a chance with the Golden Knights who will likely be desperate for goal scoring of any sort. Many of the forwards they chose have limited offensive upside, but Pulkkinen will surely produce at some rate if given the opportunity.

Vegas now has three restricted free agents remaining in Nate Schmidt (who filed for arbitration), Griffen Reinhart and Brendan Leipsic.

Arizona Coyotes Acquire Teemu Pulkkinen From Minnesota Wild

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After clearing waivers today, Teemu Pulkkinen is off to Arizona. The Coyotes have acquired the minor league scoring winger from the Minnesota Wild for future considerations. As the Coyotes continue their rebuild, the team has added another dangerous offensive player to their minor league stables. Teemu Pulkkinen

Pulkkinen was picked off waivers by the Wild earlier this year from the Detroit Red Wings, but still hasn’t been able to establish himself as a force in the NHL. His AHL numbers are outstanding but some believe that his skating ability is not yet strong enough to compete in the big leagues. Now he’ll likely get an extended chance with Arizona to prove those naysayers wrong, as according to Dave Vest of NHL.com he will join the team in Boston for their game tomorrow night. The Coyotes have nothing to lose this season and can give Pulkkinen time in the NHL to see if he can come close the nearly point-per-game pace he’s established in the minors.

As Arizona sells off its expiring assets, they’ve now completed two deals with Minnesota in the past 24 hours. Yesterday they dealt Martin Hanzal in a larger deal and perhaps had agreed to include Pulkkinen after seeing what happened on waivers today. The Coyotes have continued to stockpile young talent both at the NHL level and in the minors, hoping that in a few seasons they will have enough to compete for the Stanley Cup.

Their newest Finnish forward is just 25 years old and is now on his third franchise. With just 79 games under his belt in the NHL he’ll be up for arbitration this summer as he becomes a restricted free agent for the third time. The rest of this season will likely determine his future in the league.

Greg McKegg, Zac Dalpe Claimed Off Waivers

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According to Pierre LeBrun of ESPN, the Tampa Bay Lightning have claimed Greg McKegg off waivers from the Florida Panthers, and the Columbus Blue Jackets claimed Zac Dalpe from the Minnesota Wild. Both Ryan Carter and Teemu Pulkkinen cleared today.

McKegg will join a crowded group in Tampa Bay after the team called up both Adam Erne and Yanni Gourde this morning as well. The former third-round pick may be another option for the team should the decide to trade any forwards before Wednesday’s trade deadline. Though he hasn’t found much success at the NHL level thus far in his career, he does provide some center depth for a team that has an expiring contract in Brian Boyle likely on the market.

Minnesota had been trying to slip Dalpe through waivers to reset his clock before the Wednesday trade deadline according to Michael Russo of the Star Tribune, but will now have to give him up to the Columbus Blue Jackets who are dealing with some injuries up front and could use some help. The former Carolina Hurricanes second-round pick has bounced around the AHL ranks throughout his career and will hope for an extended look at the NHL level with his new team.

As Russo points out, the Wild are willing to trade Pulkkinen after he cleared waivers, and a team could immediately install the elite AHL scorer into their minor league system. Should they find a taker, he’ll likely not command a big price after the Wild acquired him off waivers from the Red Wings earlier this seaosn.

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