Minor Transactions: 12/20/2025
The midpoint of the season has sparked a flurry of action across the hockey world. Some players are finally being moved from a slow start to the season, while others are finding their first contracts of the year. The notable moves have been rounded up and captured below:
- Former New York Islanders center Leo Komarov has signed a one-year contract with HC Davos of Switzerland’s National League. The 38-year-old Estonian spent the last two seasons with HIFK of Finland’s Liiga. He scored 23 points in 55 games with the club, but wasn’t able to secure a contract for this season. That will change with a move to Switzerland, marking the eighth professional hockey league that Komarov has played in – on top of tenures in Finland’s Mestis and Liiga, Russia’s KHL, the AHL and NHL, and Sweden’s SHL. He will offer Davos veteran depth.
- Also signing an overseas contract is former Buffalo Sabres goaltender Dustin Tokarski, who has left his professional try-out contract with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins to sign a deal with Lowen Frankfurt of Germany’s DEL. Tokarski made two appearances with Grand Rapids on his try-out, posting one win and a .929 save percentage. He posted a .897 Sv% in 21 AHL games, and a .902 Sv% in six NHL games, in the Carolina Hurricanes’ organization last season. He’ll join Frankfurt for the second-half of the year and could have an open path to the starting role, with all three of Frankfurt’s goaltenders posting sub-.900 Sv% through the first half of the season.
- Hard-hitting Utah Mammoth prospect Tomas Lavoie has been traded in the QMJHL. He will head to the Chicoutimi Saguenéens in exchange for five draft picks, including a first-rounder, headed back to the Cape Breton Eagles. Lavoie was a core piece of the Eagles this season, offering stalwart defense and reliable puck-moving. The former third-round pick has 21 points in 24 games this season and could bring a reliable, shutdown role to a Saguenéens lineup currently leaning on high-octane defenders like Alex Huang.
- Seattle Kraken prospect Alexis Bernier will also head to the Saguenéens in exchange for Leo-Gabriel Gosselin and five draft picks. Bernier is a volume shooter who racked up 14 goals and 46 points in 59 games with the Baie-Comeau Drakkar last season, but hasn’t yet played this year. He could be due for a major breakout after rivaling point-per-game scoring last season, which should only bolster a Saguenéens lineup that has already propped up shoot-first wingers Maxim Massé and Émile Guité. The Saguenéens will go all-in on this season before likely losing Masse, Guite, and many others to pro deals.
Utah Signs Tomas Lavoie To Entry-Level Deal
The Utah Hockey Club signed defense prospect Tomas Lavoie to his entry-level contract. The three-year deal presumably begins with the 2025-26 campaign. He could still finish the year on a tryout with AHL Tucson.
Lavoie was a third-round pick in last year’s draft, technically part of Utah’s first class of selections after the franchise acquired the Coyotes’ hockey operations assets. The 19-year-old has spent the last three seasons with the Cape Breton Eagles of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League. Since he just had his birthday on Monday, he’s not old enough for a full-time AHL assignment next season and will be returned to the Eagles for a fourth QMJHL season next fall in the likely event he doesn’t make Utah’s NHL roster out of training camp. His ELC would slide to 2026-27 in that scenario, running through the 2028-29 campaign.
A Quebec native, Utah selected Lavoie with a pick Arizona acquired from the Avalanche in the 2021 Darcy Kuemper trade. The 6’4″, 215-lb righty projects as a defensive specialist at the professional level but has a decent offensive toolbox, evidenced by his breakout campaign in Cape Breton in 2024-25. After recording 40 points through his first 124 QMJHL games, he exploded for 15-40–55 in 60 games this season to lead Eagles defensemen in scoring.
McKeen’s Hockey didn’t rank Lavoie among their top 15 prospects in Utah’s system in their preseason rankings, but by the time February rolled around, Scott Wheeler of The Athletic tabbed him as the No. 9 talent in their pool. He notes Lavoie’s footspeed has improved since last season and tabs him as a likely third-pair option for Utah in the future and a legitimate depth call-up option at minimum.
He’ll likely join the Roadrunners for the final few weeks of the regular season, joining Utah’s No. 2 and 3-ranked defense prospects in Maveric Lamoureux and Artem Duda. He’ll jump to Tucson full-time in 2026-27 before competing for an NHL job.