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Minor Transactions: 11/15/25

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While regular season play around the hockey world has been underway for a while now, there are still some free agents looking for places to suit up.  A pair of former NHLers were able to find new deals recently; those are among the moves in our latest minor transactions roundup.

  • Veteran goaltender Dustin Tokarski has signed a tryout deal with AHL Grand Rapids, per a team release. The 36-year-old has 86 career NHL appearances under his belt over parts of ten seasons but has seen plenty of action in the minors with 444 outings in 16 years.  Last season, Tokarski played in six games with Carolina (winning four), posting a 2.18 GAA and a .902 SV% while also getting into 21 outings with AHL Chicago where he had a 2.84 GAA and a .897 SV%.
  • Former NHL winger Linus Omark has left his team in Switzerland to play for his home team in Sweden’s third division as Overtornea announced on their Facebook page that they’ve signed him. Omark had 32 points in 79 career NHL games between Edmonton and Buffalo but has been playing overseas since 2014, spending time in four different countries.  Omark made quite the first impression for his new team, picking up six points in his debut.
  • Veteran Luke Witkowski isn’t ready to call it a career as SHL Brynas announced that they’ve signed him for the remainder of the season. The 35-year-old, who has played both on the back end and the wing, is joining the team as a defenseman.  Witkowski has 13 points, 162 penalty minutes, and 292 hits in 132 career NHL games over parts of seven seasons.  In 2024-25, he suited up with SHL Skelleftea, notching three points in 25 games.
  • The Oilers have reassigned defenseman Beau Akey from ECHL Fort Wayne to AHL Bakersfield, per the AHL’s transactions log. The first-year pro missed the first month of the season with an injury and was sent down to the Komets in what amounted to a four-game conditioning stint where he had his first professional goal.

Minor Transactions: 11/03/2025

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It’s not a hugely packed day on the NHL schedule, with just four games on the docket. That’s also the case outside of the NHL, where most European pro leagues aren’t playing and the AHL has just one contest – a game between the Manitoba Moose, the affiliate of the Winnipeg Jets, and the Texas Stars who are the affiliate of the Dallas Stars. What has been active today, though, even without many games to be played, has been player movement outside of the NHL. There are quite a few transactions to go over from the wider world of professional hockey, so we’ll recap all the notable moves here:

  • Veteran goalie Louis Domingue, a longtime NHL backup or organizational third goalie, left KHL side Sibir Novosibirsk after just 11 games played. Per a translated copy of the team’s official announcement, Novosibirsk cited “family reasons” as the reason for Domingue’s release. The 33-year-old goalie, who has played in 144 games over the course of his NHL career, signed in Russia in July, marking his first entry into the European pro hockey circuit. His adjustment to the KHL game did not go well, as he posted an 0-9-0 record with an .892 save percentage and 3.83 goals-against average. Domingue played last season on a one-year, one-way $775K contract, and will now look to continue his career elsewhere. He has performed well as an AHL goalie throughout his time in North America, so given his level of experience and track record, a return to North America, perhaps even on an AHL contract, cannot be ruled out. A team such as the Chicago Wolves could be a fit for his services, as they could benefit from some veteran reinforcement in the crease. Their two incumbent netminders, Amir Miftakhov and Nikita Quapp, are short on AHL experience and have posted respective save percentages of .878 and .852 so far this season.
  • 2019 Anaheim Ducks first-round pick Brayden Tracey has found a place to play out the 2025-26 season, signing a one-year contract with Mora IK of HockeyAllsvenskan, Sweden’s second-tier league. Tracey originally signed his entry-level contract in November 2019, but was unable to secure a second NHL contract after three underwhelming pro campaigns with the San Diego Gulls. He was reasonably productive, scoring 31 points in 55 games as a rookie, for example, and even earned the right to make his NHL debut. But he wasn’t retained by the team and started 2024-25 on an AHL PTO with the Bakersfield Condors, one that did not materialize into a full-time AHL deal. Tracey then split the rest of the season between Jukurit of the Finnish Liiga (scoring six points in 13 games) and Slovan Bratislava of the Slovak Extraliga, scoring eight points in 11 combined regular season and playoff games. The 6’0″ forward, still just 24 years old, heads to a Mora team that has gotten off to a slow start to the season, and they will likely look for him to help boost an offense that currently ranks fourth-to-last in goals scored in the league.
  • Former Philadelphia Flyers goalie Felix Sandstrom has left Finnish Liiga side Karpat Oulu, as his fixed-term contract with the team expired Nov. 2. Sandstrom originally signed the deal in September as part of the club’s response to an injury suffered by incumbent starter Visa Vedenpaa, who is a 2023 draft pick of the Seattle Kraken. Sandstrom didn’t have a great stretch with Karpat, going 3-6-1 with a .872 save percentage. A 2015 third-round pick of the Flyers, Sandstrom ultimately became the organization’s No. 3 goalie, playing in a total of 30 NHL games across his six-year career in North American pro hockey. Sandstrom played well enough to earn a one-way contract year for 2023-24, but the Flyers ultimately moved on from him in 2024 and he signed a one-year, two-way deal with a $450K guarantee with the Buffalo Sabres for 2024-25. Sandstrom struggled to get into games for the Rochester Americans, getting into just 19 contests, in large part due to the success of top prospect goalie Devon Levi. Now that his short-term deal in Liiga has expired, the experienced goalie will need to find another spot to continue what has been a solid pro career.
  • Another goalie who was once playing on an NHL contract was involved in player transaction news today: Hugo Alnefelt. Liiga’s HIFK confirmed that the 2019 Tampa Bay Lightning draft pick would remain with the club for the duration of the 2025-26 season after passing through the trial period of his loan. Alnefelt is contracted to Swedish side HV71, but after he went 8-16-1 with a .899 save percentage in 28 SHL games last season, the club elected to move forward with other goalies for 2025-26. HV71 worked with Alnefelt to find a place for him to get playing time in 2025-26, and they elected to loan him to HIFK in Liiga. Alnefelt has played in six games so far in Finland, posting a .889 save percentage and 2.94 goals-against average. Alnefelt was a tandem goalie for the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch for three seasons, from 2021-22 through 2023-24. He posted an .895 save percentage across 86 games, and was not signed to an NHL contract extension upon the expiry of his entry-level deal, prompting his move back to Europe.
  • 2017 Detroit Red Wings fifth-round pick Cole Fraser was traded in the ECHL today, as the Worcester Railers traded the defenseman to the Cincinnati Cyclones for future considerations. The big right-shot blueliner has been in the ECHL since he signed with the Kansas City Mavericks at the conclusion of his junior career with the OHL’s Peterborough Petes. Across his 288-game career in North America’s third-tier pro league, Fraser has scored 62 points and has earned a call-up to play in the AHL once. That call-up came in 2021-22, when he skated in a Nov. 14 contest for the Belleville Senators against the Utica Comets, a 4-1 loss for the Senators. Fraser played a defensive role through six games this season with the Railers, ranking second on the team in shorthanded ice time per game.
  • The ECHL’s Maine Mariners acquired forward Owen Gallatin from the Fort Wayne Komets in exchange for cash considerations, according to a team announcement. The 23-year-old is in the first full season of his professional career, having dipped his toes into pro hockey late last season after the conclusion of his NCAA career. Gallatin signed with the Komets after playing four seasons with the University of Minnesota-Duluth, including a strong junior campaign where he scored 30 points in 37 games. Gallatin’s production dipped in his senior year, and he wasn’t able to earn consistent ice time at the start of 2025-26 with Fort Wayne, leading to this early-season trade to Maine.
  • Another first-year pro player was traded in the ECHL today, with the South Carolina Stingrays acquiring forward Tanner Edwards from the Toledo Walleye. The 25-year-old was the most penalized player in the USHL in 2019-20, his lone season of USHL hockey, racking up 206 penalty minutes in just 37 games. He then played four years of college hockey, his first three with Minnesota State (where he won two CCHA conference titles) before spending his senior year with his hometown program Alaska-Anchorage. Edwards has just one pro game to his name at this point, an Oct. 25 game against the Bloomington Bison in which he registered his first pro fight.
  • There was a trade in the Czech Extraliga today, with HC Energie Karlovy Vary acquiring Jan Bambula from HC Vitkovice Ridera in exchange for forward Jan Sir. Bambula, 24, was in the midst of his second season with Vitkovice. He scored 13 points in 35 games last season and began this year with five points in 19 games before today’s trade. A speedy, offensively-oriented undersized winger, Bambula’s acquisition could boost Karlovy Vary’s offensive attack. Sir, 25, joined Karlovy Vary for 2024-25 after a five-year pro career with Bili Tygri Liberec, which was also his junior team. The 6’2″ pivot doesn’t offer the speed or offensive ability that Bambula is credited with, but brings the ability to play down the middle, additional size, and defensive versatility. He’s gone scoreless through 20 games this season, though he has been the team’s leading penalty-killing forward so far this season. While Bambula isn’t a direct replacement in that role as a winger, his speed did allow him to carve out a role on Vitkovice’s penalty kill, meaning he could end up taking Sir’s vacated spot on Karlovy Vary’s penalty kill.
  • Liiga side Ilves Tampere announced today that forwards Julius Hermonen and Joel Kerkkanen would not continue with the club upon the recent conclusion of their fixed-term contracts. Hermonen, 28, has nearly 300 games of Liiga experience, though he only managed two assists across 14 games for Ilves. He did score a goal in Champions Hockey League play, as part of a 5-0 victory over HC Kometa Brno. Kerkkanen, 26, isn’t an established quantity in Finland’s top division the way Hermonen is, with just 41 Liiga games to his name. But he has been quite successful in Finland’s second-tier Mestis, even putting together a point-per-game season in 2022-23 with JoKP. That scoring ability hasn’t translated to the Liiga level, though, and he registered just one point in his four games in Tampere.
  • Veteran Swedish netminder Jonas Gunnarsson, who was once a member of the Nashville Predators organization, signed a deal with HockeyAllsvenskan club AIK today. The 33-year-old has experience in Sweden’s second division, helping teams to promotion to the SHL on two separate occasions: 2014-15 with the Malmo Redhawks, and 2021-22 with HV71. 2021-22 was Gunnarsson’s most recent season in the Allsvenskan, and he performed very well, registering the most shutouts in the league and posting a .907 save percentage. He served as Joni Ortio’s backup for HV71 in its first year back in the SHL in 2022-23, before earning a role as a starter in Liiga with Ilves in 2023-24. He was solid in Liiga, posting a .912 save percentage in 36 games, and then spent 2024-25 with Graz in the ICEHL. Now he’s back in the league where he’s been successful in the past, and will look to stabilize an AIK goaltending situation that has been an issue for the team so far in 2025-26.
  • The SHL’s Vaxjo Lakers signed veteran forward Erik Andersson to a one-year contract, according to a team announcement. The 31-year-old winger is a defensive specialist who brings a large amount of experience in Sweden’s top league. He has played in 471 games, and while he’s only registered 74 points, he should be able to contribute on Vaxjo’s penalty kill in short order. Vaxjo’s penalty kill currently ranks fifth in the league in success rate, but with the potential for injuries, the signing of Andersson provides the team with suitable cover to be able to sustain its shorthanded success in the event that natural attrition of a long hockey season leads to regular penalty killers becoming unavailable.

Pontus Johansson Drawing NHL Interest

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The highest-scoring under-25 defenseman in the SHL is already drawing NHL interest early into the 2025-26 campaign. According to a new report from Rasmus Kågstrom in Sweden, blueliner Pontus Johansson is generating NHL interest from multiple NHL clubs, per his agent, Martin Nilsson.

Despite indicating that multiple NHL teams had already reached out regarding Johansson’s future availability, Nilsson wouldn’t offer any specific names. Still, there’s no questioning he’s off to a tremendous start, scoring four goals and 12 points through his first 15 games for Skellefteå AIK.

However, it’s important to contextualize Johansson’s sudden breakout. If he continues his scoring pace and doesn’t miss a game this season, he’ll finish with 14 goals and 42 points in 52 games, which would nearly double his career output across five years already. He has already surpassed his performance from last year, when he scored three goals and accumulated 11 points in 51 games.

Given that his career-high before this season barely topped double digits, and he’s only two years removed from being demoted to the HockeyAllsvenskan during his time with Frölunda HC, there should be some skepticism from NHL front offices on the legitimacy of Johansson’s current breakout.

Nonetheless, every team could benefit from a smooth-skating, puck-moving defenseman on its blue line. This means the same NHL teams that are currently interested will likely follow Johansson throughout the entire 2025-26 season. Should he maintain his output throughout the rest of the season, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a club sign him relatively quickly at the conclusion of the SHL season.

Oliver Kylington Signs In Sweden

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A veteran blueliner has found a place to play this season.  Djurgarden of the SHL announced that they’ve signed defenseman Oliver Kylington to a one-year contract.

The 28-year-old was a second-round pick by Calgary back in 2015 and showed some flashes of upside over his six-year stint with the team.  It looked like he had turned a corner in 2021-22 when he collected nine goals and 22 assists in 73 games, putting him in a spot to be a potential top-four piece for them.  However, he was away from the team on a leave of absence for the next year and a half and played a limited role after that, resulting in the Flames going in a different direction last summer when he became a free agent.

Kylington wasn’t able to get the types of offers he was initially seeking in free agency, resulting in him waiting more than a month before he signed a one-year, $1.05MM contract with Colorado.  But playing time was hard to come by as he suited up in just 13 games with the Avs before being moved to the Islanders near the trade deadline; New York flipped him to Anaheim the next day.  Kylington played in just six games following the swap and then hit the open market this summer.

Kylington inked a PTO agreement with Carolina in late August with the hopes of landing a roster spot with them.  However, after three preseason games, he was cut fairly early, sending him back to free agency.  Clearly, no other NHL offers materialized so he has decided to head home where he’ll play a regular role in the hopes of boosting his stock next summer.

With 220 career NHL appearances under his belt, it’s quite possible that Kylington finds his way back to North America at some point, especially if he goes and plays an impactful role with Djurgarden.  But for now, his time at the top level has come to an end.

Flames Assign Matvei Gridin, Activate Jonathan Huberdeau

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The Calgary Flames have assigned winger Matvei Gridin to the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers to make room to activate Jonathan Huberdeau off of injured reserve. Huberdeau has been sidelined since sustaining an undisclosed injury in a preseason matchup against the Vancouver Canucks on October 1st. He missed the first seven games of Calgary’s season.

Gridin played in the first four games of his NHL career to start the season, but found his way to the press box after posting one goal and a minus-three. He is among Calgary’s top prospects, and is set to become one of just six 19-year-olds in the AHL. A taste of NHL minutes, and continued pro challenge in the minors, could be exactly what Gridin needs to grow his game.

He looked fast and flashy in the QMJHL last year, posting 96 points in 72 games over the course of the Shawinigan Cataractes’ full season. That performance earned him the QMJHL’s ’Rookie of the Year’ award. The 2024 first-round pick spent two seasons in the USHL prior to his draft. He scored 99 points in 108 total games in the league. That includes a league-leading 83-point season in 2023-24, the second-highest scoring season in Muskegon Lumberjacks history.

While Gridin develops in the minors, Huberdeau will look to keep up his momentum from last season. He scored 16 points in 18 games to finish the 2024-25 season, pushing him to 28 goals and 62 points in 81 games on the year. It was Huberdeau’s highest-scoring season since he posted 115 points with the Florida Panthers in 2021-22. His dip in scoring with the Flames has shadowed his last three seasons, but he showed a click next to Morgan Frost and Matthew Coronato that could propel the Flames’ offense this season. Coronato currently leads Calgary in scoring, with three points in five games. Frost has two points.

Minor Transactions: 10/10/2025

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Although no NHL teams are set to play tonight, the wider hockey world isn’t without its fair share of games. Numerous junior hockey teams are set to play tonight, as well as NCAA hockey programs and clubs in European professional leagues. Even though the season is now fully underway almost everywhere in pro hockey, teams are still completing transactions and player movement remains as alive as ever. Here, we’ll rundown today’s player movement from around the hockey world:

  • After signing two PTO’s to start the season, 255-game NHL veteran Scott Harrington has found a full-time contract for the 2024-25 season. The 32-year-old defenseman signed a two-year AHL contract with the Belleville Senators, and as is customary for AHL contracts, the financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. Harrington began this past preseason on a PTO with the Nashville Predators before he was released, and then signed a PTO in Belleville. Once a regular depth defenseman for the Columbus Blue Jackets, Harrington last played in the NHL in 2022-23, skating in 17 games for the Anaheim Ducks. He spent last season with the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds, scoring five points in 49 games. For the purposes of the AHL’s development rule, Harrington is considered a veteran player.
  • Former Buffalo Sabres forward Nicholas Baptiste has signed a contract with HK Dukla Trencin of the Slovak Extraliga. The 30-year-old is a former OHL star who has been on quite the pro hockey journey since leaving North America in 2021-22. Baptiste began with Liiga’s Ilves Tampere, scoring 35 points in 52 games en route for the league’s bronze medal. He spent the following year in Germany with the Cologne Sharks, before returning to Tampere to play with Tappara, where he would end up winning the Liiga title. Baptiste began last season in the KHL with Vityaz Moscow Region, but left to join the DEL’s Augsburg Panthers after scoring just three points in 11 games in Russia. Now he’ll continue his pro career in Slovakia, joining 277-game AHL veteran and fellow former CHL star Jordy Bellerive.
  • In what is the latest example of a player deciding to join an NCAA hockey program after already making his pro debut, New York Islanders draft pick Justin Gill has enrolled at Merrimack College and joined their ice hockey program. Gill is a 2023 fifth-rounder of the Islanders who signed an AHL contract last July. He spent 2024-25 in the Islanders’ minor-league system, scoring seven points in 35 games for the AHL’s Bridgeport Islanders and 22 points in 23 games for the ECHL’s Worcester Railers. According to College Hockey Insider’s Mike McMahon, the NCAA cleared Gill’s eligibility to play this past week.
  • Seattle Kraken 2025 seventh-round pick Karl Annborn has been sent to HockeyAllsvenskan club Vasteras IK for a full-season loan. The 18-year-old right-shot blueliner is under contract with SHL side HV71, but split time this season between HV71’s senior team (where he received limited minutes in seven SHL games) and the club’s J20 Nationell squad. With this loan to Sweden’s second-tier league, Annborn will see a path to more consistent ice time against professional competition, and he skated in just over 14 minutes in his debut with Vasteras today. Although Annborn was a seventh-rounder at this year’s draft, he was ranked higher by some outlets, including 32nd among International skaters by NHL Central Scouting and 126th overall by EliteProspects.
  • Former Kamloops Blazers alternate captain Brodi Stewart began his professional career playing for four seasons in Austria, working his way up from the AlpsHL’s Steel Wings Linz to Linz’s most senior team, the ICEHL’s Black Wings. Now, he’s set to make his North American pro debut. Per the ECHL’s Transactions Wire, Stewart signed a standard player contract with the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones. The 5’11 forward wasn’t a big scorer in Linz, managing just 27 points across 105 ICEHL games. But Stewart did manage to help Linz make a run to Game 7 of the league’s semifinals, where they fell to EC-KAC.
  • The OHL’s Flint Firebirds announced the addition of Michigan native Darian Anderson, meaning the 18-year-old prospect will continue his junior hockey career in the OHL, rather than the USHL where he played in 2024-25. The 6’3 forward, who has made a verbal commitment to play college hockey at Clarkson University, played in 44 games for the USHL’s Lincoln Stars last season, scoring 16 points. Anderson was drafted by Flint in the fifth round of the 2022 OHL Priority Selection, and now that selection will pay dividends for the junior hockey franchise.
  • 23-year-old Frolunda HC forward Noah Hasa has signed a three-year contract extension to remain with his team for the foreseeable future. A product of Frolunda’s youth system, Hasa worked his way up their junior hockey ranks before ultimately serving as captain of their J20 Nationell team. He broke into Frolunda’s first team on a full-time basis in 2023-24, after spending one year on loan in HockeyAllsvenskan with Vasterviks IK. In his first two seasons in the SHL, Hasa scored 19 points in 95 games, though he is off to a faster start in 2025-26, scoring four points in 10 games.
  • Former Bemidji State University defenseman Ruslan Pedan has signed a one-year KHL contract to play 2025-26 with Admiral Vladivostok. The 30-year-old blueliner is set to play in his 300th career KHL game when he makes his debut for Admiral, and he spent the last two seasons playing for Vityaz Moscow Region. Pedan has bounced around Russia’s top pro league since leaving the NCAA at the end of the 2015-16 season, first splitting time between the KHL and second-tier VHL before breaking into the KHL on a full-time basis in 2020-21 with the since-rebranded Kunlun Red Star.

Calvin De Haan Signs With SHL’s Rögle BK

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Sep. 12th: As expected, the SHL’s Rögle BK announced they’ve signed de Haan to a one-year contract for the 2025-26 campaign.

Aug. 31st: Veteran defender Calvin de Haan’s NHL days appear to be behind him. His agent has been pitching offers from European clubs to him for the past couple of weeks, and he’s being pursued aggressively by Swedish club Brynäs IF, Johan Svensson of Expressen reports.

Brynäs, the reigning SHL regular-season champions, have de Haan as their “absolute main target” to add defensive depth with two weeks before their regular-season schedule begins, Svensson writes. Their early offseason moves didn’t leave them with a lot of defensive depth to start with, an issue that has been exacerbated by a knee injury to veteran Simon Bertilsson, which will keep him out past New Year’s.

De Haan has no desire to stay in North America if it means a minor-league role, Svensson reports. If he’s only open to a one-way deal with a clear path to an NHL roster spot, his options are slim to none as a result. Svensson didn’t mention his willingness to stake things out on a PTO agreement, but if stability is the reason he’s spurned two-way and AHL offers so far, it stands to reason he wouldn’t have any interest in a tryout, either.

That means an everyday role in a top European league will be the next step in the 34-year-old’s career after 13 NHL seasons and nearly 700 games. Last season was a tough one for the 2009 No. 12 overall pick. He was a frequent healthy scratch and only made 47 appearances, his lowest total since the COVID-shortened 2021 season. He had eight assists with a -4 rating and averaged 14:58 per game while playing a No. 7/8 role for the Avalanche and Rangers, moving between clubs in the Ryan Lindgren trade.

De Haan was clearly displeased with how his tenure in New York went, using some colorful language to articulate his lack of usage down the stretch despite the team continuing to slide out of the playoff picture. He only got into three games for the Blueshirts – his first three after being acquired – and was then benched for the last month-plus of the schedule.

If the move to Brynäs is solidified, he’ll join a club that already likely has the most games of NHL experience on its roster in all of Europe. He would become the seventh player on their roster with at least 200 games of NHL time, joining Nicklas Bäckström, Robert Hägg, Michal Kempný, Johan Larsson, Oskar Lindblom, and Jakob Silfverberg.

SHL’s Växjö Lakers HC Sign Brogan Rafferty

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The SHL’s Växjö Lakers HC has strengthened its defensive lineup as it aims for postseason qualification for the 13th consecutive year. According to a team announcement, the Lakers have signed defenseman Brogan Rafferty to a two-year contract.

Before signing as an undrafted free agent and debuting with the Vancouver Canucks toward the end of the 2018-19 campaign, Rafferty enjoyed a strong three-year career with the NCAA’s Quinnipiac University. Although he departed four years before the program won its first national championship in 2023, Rafferty scored 10 goals and 65 points in 116 games for the Bobcats before becoming one of only 11 alumni to participate in an NHL contest.

The West Dundee, IL native appeared in two games for the Canucks to close out the 2018-19 campaign and spent the entire next season with their then-AHL affiliate, the Utica Comets. Earning All-Rookie First Team honors that year, Rafferty finished with seven goals and 45 points in 54 games with a +17 rating.

Unfortunately, despite his success as a rookie in the AHL, Rafferty spent the entire 2020-21 campaign on Vancouver’s taxi squad, participating in just one game for the Canucks, where he collected his first assist. Rather than continue his stay with Vancouver, Rafferty signed a one-year deal with the Anaheim Ducks the following offseason.

Since then, Rafferty has only played in the AHL, spending time with the San Diego Gulls (Anaheim), Coachella Valley Firebirds (Seattle Kraken), and Grand Rapids Griffins (Detroit Red Wings). Although he hasn’t played in the NHL since the 2020-21 season, he put together an exceptional performance with the Firebirds during the 2022-23 campaign, collecting nine goals and 51 points in 72 games with a +28 rating. Helping Coachella Valley reach the Calder Cup Final, Rafferty scored two goals and 11 points in 26 postseason contests.

Blue Jackets Prospect Malte Vass Transfers To Boston University

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Sept. 1: Vass has made his college commitment official as Boston University recently announced (Twitter link) that the blueliner will indeed suit up for them this season.  He’s their final addition to a class that saw them add multiple NHL draft picks including Ryder Ritchie, Haoxi Wang, and Sacha Boisvert, among others.

Aug. 9: It’s not very often that a player will leave a professional team to go to college but it does happen periodically with international players.  It appears that Blue Jackets prospect Malte Vass will be one of them as Varmlands Folkblad’s Johan Ekberg reports (subscription link) that the blueliner is leaving Sweden to play in the NCAA next season.  Which school he has chosen to go to yet remains unknown but Boston University is a school that is believed to have shown interest in him.

Vass was a third-round pick by Columbus last month, going 76th overall.  However, he was rated much higher on their draft board as Brian Hedger of The Columbus Dispatch relayed after the draft that the Blue Jackets had Vass within the top 15 in their rankings, a sign that they clearly viewed him as being first-round-worthy.

Vass spent last season in Farjestad’s system, playing predominantly with their junior team where he had 11 points and 53 penalty minutes in 40 games.  However, he also got into five games with their SHL club where he was held off the scoresheet.  It’s likely that he would have had a chance to get some more action at their top level in 2025-26 but that’s no longer in the cards.

Vass noted that the recent change to allow CHL players to play in the NCAA expedited his decision to come to North America as the spot that’s being made available to him now might not have been available next year, given the number of junior players now seeking a school to play at.  It will be interesting to see if other international players start to feel that same pressure and up the urgency to pursue an NCAA spot as well over the next couple of years.

International Notes: Smith, Yip, Josefson, Barron

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As the Shanghai Dragons begin their first season in the KHL under their new name, they’re parting ways with a pair of longtime fixtures under the club’s former moniker, Kunlun Red Star. Former NHL winger Brandon Yip and goaltender Jeremy Smith will not return to the club in 2025-26, the league announced today.

Both Smith and Yip played long enough for Kunlun to earn Chinese player licenses and suited up for the country in top-level competition when they hosted the 2022 Winter Olympics. Yip served as captain and also helped them gain promotion from Division 2A to Division 1B of the World Championship that same year.

Yip continued to serve as Kunlun’s captain until last season, but injuries limited the former Avalanche and Predators forward to two assists in eight games. He played parts of seven seasons for Kunlun since joining the club in 2017, and the 40-year-old now presumably ends his professional career as the franchise’s all-time leader in goals (92), assists (93), and points (185).

As for Smith, the former ECHL MVP and longtime NHL farmhand had been Kunlun’s starter since he first headed overseas in 2019. The 36-year-old Michigan native was arguably one of the league’s best netminders, considering the often porous defense in front of him, logging a respectable .912 SV% in 184 games for the club despite holding an overall record of 53-103-12.

Elsewhere from around hockey:

  • Ex-Devils forward Jacob Josefson’s attempted comeback after three years away is successful, at least for now. After skating for SHL club Djurgårdens IF on a tryout basis during the preseason, he’s landed a full contract with the club for the upcoming regular season, the team announced today. The 34-year-old, who has only played for Djurgården in his home country, dating back to his youth hockey days, has not played a professional game since 2021 and has served in their front office for the past three seasons. He had a 20-44–64 scoring line in 315 career NHL games with New Jersey and Buffalo from 2010 to 2018.
  • After spending the last four seasons with AHL Tucson in the Arizona and Utah organizations, power winger Travis Barron is headed to Austria on a one-year deal with Black Wings Linz of the ICEHL. He was a Group VI unrestricted free agent this summer and turned 27 last month. He was previously pursuing KHL offers but was evidently unsuccessful, leading to him signing in a less competitive but still premier European league. A seventh-round pick by the Avalanche back in 2016, Barron has 43 goals and 93 points in 305 career AHL games.

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