Minor Transactions: 12/11/24
As has been the case throughout the season, there have been a bunch of minor moves around the NHL, primarily for roster management purposes. Here’s a rundown of those that haven’t already been covered.
- The Kraken announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled forward Ryan Winterton from AHL Coachella Valley. The 21-year-old has been shuffled back and forth multiple times in the early going this season. Winterton has played in six games with Seattle, picking up an assist while averaging 10:45 per game of ice time. With the Firebirds, Winterton has been quite productive, recording seven goals and eight assists in 16 games so far.
- The Canucks announced (Twitter link) that they’ve returned defenseman Mark Friedman to AHL Vancouver. The 28-year-old was recalled in late November but only got into one game while on recall. After clearing waivers in training camp, Friedman got into eight games with Abbotsford, notching a goal and three assists.
- The Avalanche continued their trend of near-daily transactions. Colorado assigned forward Ivan Ivan, defenseman Keaton Middleton, and goalie Trent Miner to the minors, per the AHL’s transactions log. Ivan has played exclusively with the Avs this season and has eight points in 30 games so it’s safe to say this is another paper move for salary cap reasons. The others aren’t as certain. Middleton has seen limited action in his three games and with the Avs having seven other healthy blueliners, they could opt to keep him down. Miner, meanwhile, was brought up with newcomer Mackenzie Blackwood being sick so his assignment could mean that Blackwood is ready to make his debut with Colorado in which case Miner would stay with the Eagles.
- After being named to Czechia’s preliminary World Junior roster yesterday, the Kings have loaned defenseman Jakub Dvorak to the national team, per the AHL’s transactions log. Considering that he’s seeing regular action with the Reign, it’s likely that he’s going to make the team so Los Angeles could have tried to see if they could keep him a little longer before loaning him out like Seattle intends to do with winger Eduard Sale but instead, Dvorak will join the Czechs for their full training camp.
Avalanche Notes: Miner, Blackwood, Prishchepov
The Colorado Avalanche will likely be down a goaltender when they face Pittsburgh on Tuesday. The Avalanche are awaiting the arrival of Mackenzie Blackwood, after being traded for Alexandar Georgiev. To split the gap, Colorado has recalled AHL starting goaltender Trent Miner.
This is Miner’s second call-up of the season. His first was a one-day stop with the NHL roster on November 15th, in response to an injury to Georgiev. Miner backed up Justus Annunen for one game, and would end up taking over the crease just one minute into the second period after the latter allowed three goals on six shots. Miner stopped 12 of 13 shots in what was inadvertently his NHL debut – but Colorado couldn’t climb out of the hole Annunen dug, and ultimately lost the game 5-2.
Aside from the spot fill-in, Miner has proven the consistent in a Colorado Eagles goaltending room that also features Kaapo Kahkonen and Kevin Mandolese. Miner leads the team in games played with 11 appearances, but his 5-4-2 record and .895 rank behind Mandolese, who has a 6-2-0 record and .915 in nine games. Miner will likely be headed back to the minors once Blackwood arrives in Colorado, giving him a chance to maintain his spot over Mandolese on Colorado’s call-up list.
Other notes from Denver:
- Blackwood hasn’t arrived in Colorado yet, but the team is apparently already looking forward to his future. They’re hoping to land an extension before Blackwood hits free agency this summer, general manager Chris MacFarland told Max Miller of The Hockey News. Blackwood is near the end of a two-year, $4.7MM contract signed with San Jose on July 1, 2023. It was a sort of ‘prove-it’ contract, giving Blackwood a chance at hardy minutes after he lost the starting role in New Jersey. He didn’t start the deal too promising, posting a 10-25-4 record and .899 save percentage through 44 games with the league-worst Sharks last season. But his 2.4 goals-saved-above-expected (GSAx) – a stat that ranked 17th in the league per MoneyPuck – spoke to Blackwood’s hidden upside. He’s started to reveal that this year, with six wins and a .910 save percentage in 19 games so far. Blackwood has also posted 3.9 GSAx – again ranking him 17th in the league among goalies with 10-or-more starts. He’ll look to keep that momentum going behind a much stronger Colorado team, and earn a bit more certainty on his next deal.
- As they’ve done many times before, Colorado has also sent a waiver-exempt player to the minors on their off-day to accrue daily cap space. The target this time is forward Nikita Prishchepov, who hasn’t managed any scoring through 10 NHL games this season. Prishchepov was a seventh-round selection in the 2024 NHL Draft and became just the third draftee to make his NHL debut – behind first-round picks Macklin Celebrini and Jett Luchanko. Prishchepov has yet to record his first NHL point, though he’ll enter conversation with just Celebrini if and when he does. He’ll likely be back on the Avlanache roster ahead of their Tuesday matchup, but he’d get a chance to build on six points in 12 AHL games should he stay in the minor leagues.
Avalanche Re-Assign Trent Miner, Alexandar Georgiev Out Day-To-Day
11/16: Miner played 34 minutes of Colorado’s loss to the Washington Capitals last night and has been reassigned to the AHL’s Colorado Eagles per a team announcement. The Avalanche don’t have another game until Monday so Miner could return to the NHL level then.
11/15: The Avalanche announced Friday that they’ve recalled goalie Trent Miner from AHL Colorado. He’ll serve as the backup to Justus Annunen tonight against the Capitals. Alexandar Georgiev has been ruled out with an upper-body injury and is day-to-day. The team also confirmed that forward Chris Wagner had been assigned to the AHL after clearing waivers, opening up the roster spot for Miner’s recall.
Miner, 23, will dress for an NHL game for the first time more than five years after the Avalanche selected him in the seventh round of the 2019 draft. The 6’1″ netminder has spent the last three seasons splitting time between the AHL and ECHL Utah, although he got upgraded to a full-time AHL role for 2024-25.
Miner is coming off somewhat of a breakout 2023-24 campaign. He cemented his spot on this year’s AHL roster during an 18-game call-up from the ECHL last season, during which he shut the door with a 2.10 GAA, .930 SV%, one shutout, and a 9-6-1 record. He was set to become a restricted free agent last summer, but the Avs inked him to a two-way extension in May.
So far this season, Miner has split AHL duties with offseason trade acquisition Kevin Mandolese. He’s been outplayed by the new guy but has still put up decent numbers, logging a 2.34 GAA, .905 SV%, and a 3-2-1 record in six games.
Meanwhile, the injury is unfortunate timing for Georgiev. The 28-year-old had been getting his feet under him after a disastrous start to the season and had started four games in a row, posting a strong .913 SV% over that stretch. He played all 60 minutes in Colorado’s last game against the Kings on Wednesday, so it’s unclear when he sustained the injury.
With a .863 SV% and -8.8 GSAA, Georgiev has still been quite underwhelming on the whole this season. The Bulgaria-born netminder didn’t receive a single Vezina Trophy last year despite leading the league with 38 wins due to his subpar .897 SV% and career-worst -11.9 GSAA.
Avalanche Re-Sign Trent Miner To One-Year Deal
The Avalanche are bringing back depth netminder Trent Miner on a one-year contract, per a team announcement. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Miner, 23, was a pending restricted free agent after completing his three-year, entry-level contract. The 2019 seventh-round pick has spent the majority of his time with the Avs in the ECHL, where he has a strong .911 SV%, 2.88 GAA, 10 shutouts and a 39-32-3 record in 76 appearances.
The Manitoba native got an extended look in the AHL with the Colorado Eagles for the first time this season and took advantage of the opportunity. He led all Eagles netminders with a .930 SV%, albeit in only 18 games, along with a 2.10 GAA and 9-6-1 record.
He becomes the third netminder under contract for the Avs next year behind their NHL duo of Alexandar Georgiev and Justus Annunen. While they’ll add more depth to fill out their minor-league ranks and firm up their injury insurance, he likely did enough in his AHL stint to avoid assignment back to the ECHL next season, at least to start.
His development helps shoulder the loss of depth netminders Arvid Holm and Ivan Prosvetov, who are both pending Group Six unrestricted free agents and are heading overseas. Holm, 25, recently signed a three-year deal with Rögle BK of the Swedish Hockey League after struggling in limited AHL action this season, while Prosvetov is expected to return home to Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League after losing the NHL backup job to Annunen midseason.
Miner was not eligible for salary arbitration this offseason. He will remain waivers exempt for the entirety of 2024-25, so the Avalanche can give him his first NHL recall without fear of losing him when returning him to the minors. The one-year extension makes him an RFA again in 2025.
Minor Transactions: 10/19/23
With the ECHL starting up its season tonight, NHL and AHL teams have been shuffling players to that level in recent days. Some of those recent moves are highlighted in our latest batch of minor transactions.
- The Senators’ AHL affiliate announced the assignments of forward Philippe Daoust and defenceman Donovan Sebrango to ECHL Allen. Daoust was a sixth-round pick back in 2020 but was limited to just nine games last season due to injury. He had seven points with Belleville but will get more time to work on his rehab at the ECHL level. Meanwhile, Sebrango was acquired from Detroit as part of the Alex DeBrincat trade this summer and split last season between their AHL and ECHL affiliates. Both players are entering the second year of their entry-level contracts.
- Colorado’s AHL squad announced that they’ve sent goaltender Trent Miner, forward Ryan Sandelin, and defenseman Gianni Fairbrother to ECHL Utah. Miner posted a 3.04 GAA along with a .910 SV% in 37 games with the Grizzlies last season and is in the final season of his entry-level deal. Sandelin wrapped up his college career last year with Minnesota State (Mankato), putting up 29 points in 38 games which helped him earn a minor league deal. As for Fairbrother, the Avalanche acquired him as part of the Alex Newhook trade this summer but missed all of last season with a knee injury. He’s also in the final season of his entry-level pact.
- Former NHL blueliner Christian Jaros is on the move to the KHL as he has signed with Severstal Cherepovets, per a team release. The 27-year-old received a two-year deal. Jaros has 94 career NHL games under his belts over parts of five seasons between Ottawa, San Jose, and New Jersey but opted to head overseas last season, seeing action with two separate KHL squads.