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Andreas Johnsson Linked To SHL’s Skellefteå AIK, Placed On Unconditional Waivers

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Nov. 8: Pittsburgh has placed Johnsson on unconditional waivers Wednesday, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. This move initiates the process of Johnsson being able to sign with an SHL club, presumptively Skellefteå, although it may be a day later than initially planned.

Nov. 6: Veteran winger Andreas Johnsson signed a one-year, one-way deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins this summer to attempt to extend his NHL career. That hasn’t worked out, as he failed to make the team out of camp and hasn’t reported to the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins after clearing waivers one month ago.

Now, it seems his days under contract with the Penguins are ending. Johnsson is expected to sign a three-year contract on Wednesday with Skellefteå AIK of the Swedish Hockey League, according to Hans Abrahamsson and Tomas Ros of Sportbladet.

To do this, Johnsson must have his contract with the Penguins terminated. If the report out of Sweden is accurate, expect Johnsson to be on waivers tomorrow for the purposes of mutual contract termination. After clearing Wednesday, he’ll be able to sign with Skellefteå.

Johnsson hoped a reunion with GM Kyle Dubas in Pittsburgh would prove fruitful. Dubas wasn’t part of the Toronto Maple Leafs regime that drafted Johnsson in the seventh round of the 2013 Draft, but he was heavily involved in his development. He had joined the organization and was the GM of the AHL’s Toronto Marlies by the time Johnsson came to North America in 2016, and he was at the helm of the Leafs when Johnsson posted a 20-goal, 43-point rookie season in 2018-19. Both of those marks remain career highs.

The 28-year-old has slowly slipped down depth charts over the past few seasons with the New Jersey Devils and, briefly, the San Jose Sharks. He played just 13 NHL games between the two teams last season, instead spending most of the season in the minors with the AHL’s Utica Comets, where he recorded 30 points in 36 games.

That showed Johnsson still can be a high-end contributor at lower levels of the game, but likely not in the NHL at this stage. He aims to return to his home country, where he hasn’t played pro hockey since 2016.

If he signs with Skellefteå, the speedy winger will be reunited with his older brother, Jonathan Johnsson, although the 30-year-old center is sidelined until December with an undisclosed injury. While never drafted by an NHL team, the older Johnsson has been quite productive over the last three seasons and change for Skellefteå, recording 40 goals, 90 assists and 130 points in 181 contests.

Skellefteå currently sits eighth in the 14-team SHL with a record of 8-7-1-0. They play home to a handful of NHL-drafted prospects, including Detroit Red Wings 2023 first-round pick Axel Sandin Pellikka. Some skilled NHL veterans, such as Oscar Lindberg and Dylan Sikura, also call Skellefteå home.

Minor Transactions: 11/07/23

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Today’s schedule is absolutely overflowing with hockey, including 10 games in the NHL. Highlights from the game’s highest level include matchups between the New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings as well as the New Jersey Devils and Colorado Avalanche, games that will be nationally televised in the United States. In addition, there is a 2021 Stanley Cup Final rematch on the docket, with head coach Martin St. Louis’ Montreal Canadiens taking on the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Although the schedule outside the NHL is quite a bit lighter today, overseas professional leagues have kept busy adding and subtracting players. As always, we’ll keep track of notable player movement here.

  • Ottawa Senators offseason signing Jiří Smejkal has been linked to a move back overseas, where he would play for IK Oskarshamn of the SHL. The report originates from TSN’s Shawn Simpson, who wrote that Smejkal “didn’t come over to play in the minors.” Smejkal, 27, signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Senators that carries an $82.5k AHL salary. There was some hope that Smejkal could make the NHL roster after scoring 23 goals and 43 points in 49 SHL games last season, but he only registered one point in five preseason games. The hope was that Smejkal’s size and ability to play physical could lend himself to a fourth-line role, but that hasn’t happened as he’s played exclusively at AHL Belleville. If Smejkal doesn’t view there to be a viable path to the NHL with Ottawa then it appears he could very well return to Oskarshamn, where he would not only be better lined up to represent Czecha at the IIHF World Championships, but could also potentially take home more money.
  • Former Edmonton Oilers netminder Mikko Koskinen won’t be extending his time with the Swiss National League’s HC Lugano beyond this season, according to a team announcement. The team has instead decided to bring in former Red Wings prospect Joren Van Pottelberghe on a three-year deal beginning next season. Van Pottelberghe was the starter for NL rival EHC Biel-Beinne from 2020-2022, but he has been relegated to backup duty due to the arrival of Harri Säteri. He’ll get another shot to be a starter with Lugano, while Koskinen will have to continue his career elsewhere. Since arriving in Switzerland from Edmonton, Koskinen has posted an .895 save percentage in 44 games for Lugano.
  • 2009 New York Rangers second-round pick Ethan Werek has signed with Slovakia’s HC Slovan Bratislava, a club in Slovakia’s capital. Werek, 32, split last season between the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star and Czechia’s Mountfield HK. He’s scored decently well in spurts in both the KHL and Czech Extraliga, and could end up a productive forward in the Slovak league. Werek also brings some international experience to Slovan, having represented China at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
  • A bit of a rare occurrence happened in European hockey yesterday, as a team in the Finnish Liiga and the Czech Extraliga made a “trade” of sorts. Liiga’s SaiPa reached a mutual contract termination with Jan Lukáš, while Czechia’s HK Mountfield did the same with netminder Henri Kiviaho. Then, Lukáš signed with Mountfield to replace Kiviaho while Kiviaho did the same at SaiPa. Lukáš, 30, is an experienced netminder who was a quality tandem goalie in the Extraliga last season, but struggled immensely to start the year for SaiPa. He moves to more favorable surroundings in his home country. Kiviaho is, like Lukáš, a veteran goalie with some Champions Hockey League experience. According to Mountfield’s announcement, Kiviaho had been (via his agent) pushing for a greater workload than the club was able to provide, so they’ve opted to transfer him to SaiPa instead.
  • Former NHL depth defenseman Cameron Schilling has agreed to a mutual contract termination with his club of the last two seasons, Djurgårdens IF. The 35-year-old one-time AHL All-Star has a total of 10 NHL games on his resume, though he left North America midway through 2021-22 to sign in Djurgården. The club had an immediate need for reinforcements at the time as they were trending towards relegation, a fate they did eventually suffer. Schilling played a minutes-eating role for the team last season as they fell just short of promotion back to the SHL, and now he won’t be with the team as they look to make the jump this year.
  • Philadelphia Flyers fans might remember Russian forward Roman Lyubimov from the 2016-17 season, when he played in 47 games for the club, registering eight points. Lyubimov returned to the KHL after that season, the league where he would remain a regular forward until now. After a season where he posted just three points in 43 games for Spartak Moscow, Lyubimov has left the KHL and signed in France’s Ligue Magnus, with Grenoble. Grenoble is looking to re-claim the French league title and Champions Hockey League spot from Rouen, so they’ve added a forward with experience in two of the world’s top leagues in order to do so.
  • Former college hockey star Julian Napravnik is rumored to be headed for the DEL via a report from Germany, specifically with the league’s Frankfurt Lions in mind. The 26-year-old German forward was a two-time First-Team Conference All-Star at Minnesota State Mankato, and his 49 points in 40 games helped the team reach the NCAA Men’s Hockey National Championship game. Since that point, Napravnik has struggled to get on he ice and has played in a total of 22 career AHL games, scoring a total of seven points. A move to Germany might be better suited for him, though it may come as a bit of a disappointment that he couldn’t make more of a push towards consideration for an NHL contract.
  • Justin Allen, the former captain of NCAA Division-III Utica College, has been traded from the ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals to the Allen Americans in exchange for future considerations. Allen, 26, signed with the Admirals at the conclusion of his NCAA career and made an instant impact, registering seven assists in 10 games. As the Admirals this season have taken on quite a few NHL prospects, such as 2019 third-round pick Domenick Fensore, he’s been squeezed out of a spot in the ECHL this season, and hasn’t been able to skate in a game yet this season. He’ll get a better chance to do so in Allen, a team in dire need of defensive reinforcements as they currently average over five goals against per game.
  • Canadian netminder Cody Porter has signed with HockeyAllsvenskan’s Västerviks IK, according to a team announcement. The 26-year-old former Calgary Hitmen starter has had a bit of a winding hockey journey. He suited up for five different teams in his first professional season in 2018-19, playing for clubs from everywhere including Huntsville, Alabama and Elmira, New York. He then transferred to Poland, before spending 2021-22 as the backup goalie for IPK in Finland’s Mestis, their second division. Last season, Porter played the highest-level hockey of his career, skating in five total games in Liiga. He’ll get a chance now to compete for starts with Västerviks, a club whose incumbent goalies have each posted unconvincing performances so far this season.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

SHL’s IK Oskarshamn Signs Austin Wagner

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IK Oskarshamn of the Swedish Hockey League announced they’ve signed forward Austin Wagner for the remainder of the 2023-24 season. Wagner had attended NHL training camp on a PTO with the Penguins, and while he was never officially released from his tryout, he did not sign a standard contract with Pittsburgh.

Wagner, 26, split last season between the Kings and Blackhawks organizations but only appeared in NHL games with Chicago. The Calgary-born natural winger posted a goal and an assist in seven games with the Blackhawks last season, averaging 12:08 per game and posting a -2 rating. Wagner, who also recorded 12 points in 24 games with AHL Ontario last year, could not secure a roster spot in Pittsburgh over veteran additions like Noel Acciari and Matthew Nieto nor in-house options like Drew O’Connor.

Wagner has split his time in the pro leagues almost evenly in the NHL and AHL since turning pro in 2017. A 2015 fourth-round draft choice of the Kings, Wagner has 178 games of NHL experience dating back to 2018, recording 23 goals and 19 assists for 42 points. After giving the Kings some solid depth production while on his entry-level deal, his effectiveness diminished after signing a three-year, $3.4MM extension with the team in 2020, a deal that he played most of in the minors. While slated for restricted free agency last summer, the Blackhawks did not issue him a qualifying offer after acquiring him via trade from the Kings on deadline day in March.

Oskarshamn is off to a tough start this season, sitting second-to-last in the league with a 3-9-2-0 record and 13 points. The club, which earned promotion from the HockeyAllsvenskan in 2019, will need to kick things into high gear to avoid relegation back to the second-tier league next Spring. Wagner joins an offense currently led by former Senators prospect Viktor Lodin, who has five goals and nine assists for 14 points in 14 contests.

Minor Transactions: 10/26/23

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There’s quite a bit of hockey on the schedule for today, including a total of 11 NHL games. Highlights from the NHL include a battle between contending teams when the Toronto Maple Leafs take on the Dallas Stars, and an important game for the Edmonton Oilers as they look to turn their season around against the New York Rangers.

Over in Europe, many of the top pro leagues in the continent have contests on schedule today, including the SHL, DEL, and Liiga. With the season well underway in every notable professional league across the hockey world, the transaction wire is active as expected. As always, we’ll keep track of notable moves here.

  • Veteran defenseman and former NHLer Brandon Manning has reportedly made the decision to leave the German DEL after two seasons with Straubing Tigers. According to SportExpressen’s Johan Svensson, Manning has signed with HockeyAllsvenskan’s IF Björklöven. Manning, 33, is a two-time AHL All-Star with over 250 NHL games on his resume. He skated in top-pairing minutes for the Tigers over the past two seasons, which were his first two campaigns playing overseas. He now heads to Björklöven, joining a club that is currently second in the HockeyAllsvenskan standings and looking to make a push for promotion to the SHL.
  • Former Pittsburgh Penguins blueliner Juuso Riikola has signed a one-year contract extension with his current club, SCL Tigers of the Swiss National League. This season has been Riikola’s first with the team, and he’s so far played in 17 games and notched seven points. Riikola was once a key depth piece for the Penguins, who dressed him in 80 total NHL games across four seasons. Riikola’s last campaign in North America was in 2021-22, when he scored 35 points for the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins. Riikola returned to Europe for 2022-23 and skated in 42 SHL games for IK Oskarshamn, scoring 19 points.
  • Jérémy Grégoire, a former Montreal Canadiens prospect, has extended his short-term deal with Ilves Tampere into a full one-year contract. Grégoire, 28, is currently in his second season playing hockey overseas. The Canadian center joined the ICEHL’s Vienna Capitals last season after seven years in the AHL and led them to the playoffs scoring 35 points in 39 games. That performance earned him a chance in one of Europe’s top leagues, Liiga, and so far he’s played in 13 league games for Ilves, scoring three points. Grégoire has played more of a down-the-lineup role for Ilves, and has helped his new team get off to a strong start in the Liiga standings as well as reach the playoffs of the Champions Hockey League.
  • Ilves has made another transaction, loaning Florida Panthers prospect Jakub Kos to HC Kometa Brno in Kos’ native Czechia. The 20-year-old winger was a 2021 sixth-round pick of the Panthers who has spent most of the last few years playing second-division Finnish hockey with KooVee Tampere. Rather than stick in Tampere for another season, though, it appears Kos is opting to play top-level hockey in his home country with Brno, a team that currently sits in the middle of the Czech Extraliga standings.
  • One-time Liiga scoring leader Henrik Haapala has signed a one-year contract with Swiss National League club Lausanne. The 29-year-old Finnish forward has transferred from Genève-Servette HC, the club he scored 10 points in nine games with this season. Haapala is one of the more accomplished in-his-prime scoring forwards in Europe, having served as a point-per-game force for both Ilves and Tappara Tampere. He’ll now likely become a go-to scoring option for Lausanne, joining former NHLers Michael Raffl and Jiří Sekáč with the team.
  • Former Los Angeles Kings prospect Johan Södergran has signed a two-year contract extension with the SHL’s MoDo Hockey Ornskoldsvik. Södergran was a playoff hero of MoDo’s promotion-winning 2022-23 campaign after he scored just 17 points in 52 regular-season games but added 12 points in 17 postseason contests. He’s started off decently well for MoDo this season, scoring six points in 12 games, and now will get to remain with the club for what it hopes will be a few more seasons in the Swedish top flight.
  • Veteran SHL defenseman Gustav Backström has signed a four-year contract extension with his club Örebro Hockey. This is a somewhat expected transaction, as Backström has been a part of Örebro in some form or another for 11 straight years. Now 28, the six-foot-two blueliner has settled into a top-four, minutes-eating role at Örebro, and has helped them to the playoffs in three straight years. Those performances have been rewarded today with this four-year contract extension.
  • Anthony Firriolo, the former captain of Army’s NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey program has been claimed off of waivers in the ECHL by the Indy Fuel. Firrolo concluded his NCAA career last spring and dipped his toes into the waters of pro hockey with the ECHL’s Jacksonville IceMen, skating in five total games for the club. He signed with the Atlanta Gladiators in July, but did not end up suiting up for the team in any regular-season games. Now he’ll join a Fuel team seeking improved defensive performances after surrendering 10 goals in its first three contests of this young season.
  • Carter Allen has decided to sign in Europe for the 2023-24 season, leaving the ECHL after two years. Allen, 27, is a physical defenseman who broke into the ECHL as a member of the South Carolina Stingrays in 2021-22. He scored 10 points in 63 games for the club, adding on 58 penalty minutes as the team stumbled to a 28-38-6 record. He then split 2022-23 between South Carolina and the Cincinnati Cyclones, who claimed him off of waivers in late March. Now he’s joining the Coventry Blaze, a club in the EIHL, the top division of pro hockey in the United Kingdom. The Blaze have just one win in league play so far this season and have surrendered the most goals in the EIHL, so this defensive reinforcement comes at an urgent time for the team.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 10/21/23

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It’s another busy day around the world of professional hockey, including in the NHL. Almost the entire NHL is set to play today, starting with a matinee contest set to feature Alex DeBrincat’s return to Ottawa. Overseas, most of Europe’s major pro leagues have games on schedule, including the SHL, Liiga, and Swiss NL.

Just as teams across the hockey world are busy preparing for games, many teams are also still hard at work looking to add, subtract, or extend players. As always, we’ll keep track of notable player transactions here:

  • Former Brandon Wheat Kings star and Carolina Hurricanes prospect Stelio Mattheos has made the choice to continue his pro career overseas. Mattheos has signed a contract with Södertälje SK in Sweden’s HockeyAllsvenskan, the second tier of pro hockey in the country. Now 24, Mattheos has spent the bulk of his time since graduating out of the WHL in the AHL with the Chicago Wolves. He’s only amassed 27 points in 112 career AHL games, though, so perhaps he’ll find more of a scoring touch in a place like the Allsvenskan, where Mattheos could find seizing a scoring-line role an easier prospect.
  • 28-year-old winger Erik Brown, a former Bridgeport Islanders / Sound Tigers AHLer, has made the decision to conclude his playing career at the age of 28. Brown was slated to play this season for Vaasan Sport in the Finnish Liiga, formally beginning his overseas pro career. Due to his decision to retire, though, he’ll finish his time in Vaasa with just 12 games played and a respectable seven points. Once a college hockey captain and leading scorer at Rochester Institute of Technology, Brown won a conference title as a freshman and went on to play some playoff hockey in the AHL with the Islanders.
  • This season, Boston Bruins defensive prospect Jonathan Myrenberg appears to have made the full-time jump from the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan to the SHL. Yesterday, that jump was seemingly confirmed as Myrenberg was signed to a contract extension by his SHL club, Linköping HC. The 20-year-old right-shot blueliner had his rights acquired by the Bruins in the Jack Studnicka trade, and Boston retains the exclusive rights to sign Myrenberg until June 1st, 2025. So far, Myrenberg has scored three assists in 12 games for Linköping, averaging 17:03 TOI per game.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 10/10/23

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The start of the NHL regular season has finally come, with three games on the schedule including the highly anticipated NHL debut of generational prospect Connor Bedard. But while the NHL season is just beginning, top leagues across the hockey world are already several weeks into their regular season. As a result, player movement remains active and as always we’ll keep track of notable transactions here.

  • Russian center Marat Khusnutdinov, the 37th overall pick in 2020 and the number-six prospect in the Minnesota Wild system per EP Rinkside was traded in the KHL today. (subscription link) He was sent to HK Sochi alongside monetary compensation, with his former club receiving Croatian forward Borna Rendulic in return. It’s a major swing for Sochi, who are trading their leading scorer to SKA in order to acquire Khusnutdinov. The 21-year-old center had an extremely impressive 2022-23, scoring 41 points in 63 games in a league notoriously difficult for young players to succeed in. He’s gone scoreless through six games this season, though, and has been receiving below 10 minutes of ice time in some games. Now, he’ll have the chance to potentially play with superstar prospect Matvei Michkov, a player who also began this season with SKA, and who has scored 12 points in 11 games to start the season.
  • In a somewhat surprising move, Ottawa Senators goalie prospect Leevi Merilainen, 22, was assigned to the ECHL’s Allen Americans. This is likely a result of Mads Søgaard and Kevin Mandolese earning the right to serve as the Belleville Senators’ AHL tandem, though it could also be that the Senators would prefer Merilainen get some ECHL experience under his belt before he’s exposed to the rigors of the AHL full-time. Merilainen is one of the Senators’ best goalie prospects, and he spent 2022-23 mostly with Kärpät in Liiga, posting a .917 save percentage and 2.05 goals-against-average in 42 games played.
  • According to a report from SportExpressen’s Johan Svensson, Carolina Hurricanes prospect Noel Gunler will return to Sweden for the 2023-24 season. Gunler was loaned to the ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals earlier this week, but could end up instead loaned overseas where he has played most of his pro career. Seeing as Gunler scored eight goals and 18 points in just 31 AHL games last season, there has been some belief that his development would not be best served by playing in the ECHL. Since the Hurricanes do not have an AHL affiliate of their own, the only option for Gunler to play in the AHL would be on loan to another AHL franchise. Since premium offensive roles in the AHL are typically reserved for proven AHL veterans or prized prospects of a team’s NHL affiliate, it would be no surprise if the Hurricanes struggled to find a suitable landing spot for Gunler. As a result, if this report out of Sweden is to be believed, Gunler will end up playing 2023-24 in the SHL rather than the ECHL.
  • AHL enforcer Brandon Baddock has found a new team, signing a one-year AHL contract with the Rockford IceHogs. The 28-year-old spent last season with the Iowa Wild, scoring seven points in 67 games to go along with 130 penalty minutes. Baddock brings grit and physicality to the table, something the IceHogs might have prioritized due to the number of young prospects still relatively new to pro hockey slated to play on their roster.
  • Montreal Canadiens 2022 seventh-round pick Miguël Tourigny is slated to make his North American pro debut with the ECHL’s Trois-Rivières Lions. The five-foot-eight blueliner was assigned to Montreal’s ECHL affiliate today. Tourigny’s development has been somewhat unconventional thus far, as the 21-year-old spent his first professional season in Slovakia, where he scored 26 points in 44 games. Tourigny does not yet have an entry-level contract with the Canadiens but did sign a one-year, one-way AHL contract with the Laval Rocket this summer.
  • Goalie prospect Tomáš Suchánek, 20, has signed a one-year AHL contract with the San Diego Gulls, according to a team announcement. Suchánek made a name for himself at the 2023 World Juniors, leading the tournament in save percentage (.939) and earning a silver medal for Czechia. He was a WHL Second-Team All-Star as the starter for the Tri-City Americans as he posted a .912 save percentage in 46 games played. Now, he has a definite landing spot in pro hockey after a successful tryout with the Ducks organization.
  • 23-year-old Swiss defenseman David Aebischer (not to be confused with the former NHL netminder) will be changing clubs this summer, as he’s signed a five-year contract with HC Lugano. Aebischer is currently in his third season as a regular blueliner with SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers, another National League team. Aebischer routinely plays over 20 minutes per night with the Lakers is off to a fast start with the club, scoring eight points in 10 games. He’s slated to become a long-term anchor for Lugano, and if he can keep up something close to his current scoring pace he may even draw NHL interest down the line, though being undersized (he’s five-foot-ten) by NHL standards will work against him.
  • Columbus Blue Jackets prospect goalie Nolan Lalonde was traded to the OHL’s Sarnia Sting today alongside three draft picks, with former San Jose Sharks prospect Benjamin Gaudreau headed to the Erie Otters in return. Lalonde, 19, posted a grisly .868 save percentage with the Otters last season and has struggled to the tune of a .837 mark in four games this season. Perhaps a fresh start with the Sting will help reverse his OHL fortunes.
  • Former ECHL star Brady Ferguson has carved out a solid career for himself in the SHL as a middle-six forward with Rögle BK, and he even earned the honor of wearing an “A” on his jersey starting last season. He won the 2021-22 Champions Hockey League with the club, and has now decided to extend his contract with the club by another season. As has teammate Michael Kapla, a defenseman who also played with Ferguson in the ECHL. Kapla, 29, is the former captain of UMass-Lowell and actually has five NHL games on his resume. He scored 28 points in 44 games last season for Rögle.
  • Former Norwegian rookie of the year Eskil Wold impressed by playing 49 games in the Finnish Liiga at the age of 20. But he only scored one goal and two points for HPK Hämeenlinna, and this season he has decided to transfer to a lower level of competition. He’s signed with the Nybro Vikings of HockeyAllsvenskan, the second tier of Swedish pro hockey, and will likely have a chance to be more productive there than he was able to be in Liiga.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 10/05/23

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With the start of the NHL regular season now under a week away, the opening-night rosters of many NHL teams are coming more and more into view. That has a trickle-down effect for the rest of pro hockey, as a player finding out he won’t have his PTO made into a full-time NHL deal could prompt that player to sign a contract with an overseas team, for example. This, alongside the ups and downs of early-season hockey in top pro leagues overseas, has prompted quite a bit of player movement and as always we’ll keep track of those transactions here.

  • Seven years after he was selected fifth overall at the 2016 NHL draft, former Vancouver Canucks defenseman Olli Juolevi has made the decision to return to Europe to continue his professional career. The 25-year-old Helsinki native has signed a short-term contract with the SHL’s Timrå IK, a club off to a strong 4-2 start. The deal is set to last until Liiga’s November break. Juolevi had previously been playing for the Arizona Coyotes on a PTO but failed to earn a full-time contract in Arizona after a few preseason contests. Last season was Juolevi’s first since the year he made his NHL debut that he didn’t skate in a single game at the NHL level, and he ultimately played in 38 games for the San Diego Gulls, scoring 14 points.
  • 2022 Arizona Coyotes second-round pick Julian Lutz has made an interesting move for his development, leaving defending DEL champions EHC Red Bull München in order to play USHL hockey for the Green Bay Gamblers. It’s a somewhat unusual move, as traditionally players move from developmental leagues into top professional leagues, not the other way around. But this move is somewhat understandable for Lutz, who has been buried in a depth role on a stacked Munich team. Going to Green Bay will allow the six-foot-two, 185-pound winger to play against his peers, and will give him the opportunity to have a monster season and put up the kind of box score numbers his resume currently sorely lacks.
  • Former WHL and AHL star Brendan Ranford has signed a one-year contract with HC Slovan Bratislava, the club he previously represented for the 2020-21 season. Since leaving the AHL for Europe in late 2018, Ranford has become an impactful, top-line scorer in three different European leagues. He’s spent the last two seasons in the DEL, posting 95 points across 95 total games. Slovan are likely signing Ranford with the hope of adding an elite scorer, which is what Ranford was when he last played in Slovakia, as he scored 12 goals and 32 points in just 29 games. The historic club based in Slovakia’s capital have gotten off to a slow 2-3-1 start in this 2023-24 Tipos Extraliga season, so perhaps this move will give the club the spark it needs to resume its place among the country’s elite clubs.
  • The ECHL’s Idaho Steelheads have signed two forwards just at the start of their pro careers: Nick Nardella and Daniel Hardie. Nardella, 24, signed an ATO with the Cincinnati Cyclones last season at the conclusion of his NCAA career with Michigan Tech. He ended up scoring one assist in four games in Cincinnati before he moved to the Iowa Heartlanders, where he impressed scoring three goals in three games. Now, he’ll head to Idaho alongside Hardie, who hasn’t yet made his pro debut but was once the leading scorer of a QMJHL team, the 2018-19 Charlottetown Islanders.
  • Former College hockey star Trevor Mingoia, once an NCAA Champion with Providence College, has had his contract with Liiga’s Kärpät terminated by mutual agreement. This wasn’t the winger’s first go-around in the top division of Finnish hockey, although Mingoia’s time with KooKoo Kouvola from 2019-2021 was notably more successful. Mingoia spent two seasons with KooKoo and scored a total of 27 goals and 64 points in 73 games. Kärpät were likely optimistic they would get that kind of form out of Mingoia after he starred for two seasons in the DEL with the Wolfsburg Grizzlys, helping them to the DEL semifinals last season, but it wasn’t to be and now both parties will look elsewhere moving forward.
  • Veteran Swedish forward Robin Alvarez has decided to test himself playing in Finland for the first time in his career, signing a one-year contract with Ilves Tampere of Liiga. The 36-year-old veteran has exclusively played in his native Sweden so far in his career and has logged over 700 career games combined between the SHL and HockeyAllsvenskan levels. Alvarez brings extensive Champions Hockey League experience to Ilves, having played a total of 31 games in the prestigious European tournament. Ilves currently sit fourth in the Liiga table and are looking to gain ground on their neighbors Tappara Tampere, the defending Liiga and Champions Hockey League winners.
  • Defenseman Teemu Suhonen, once a star blueliner for Jukurit Mikkeli in both its Liiga and Mestis days, has signed a one-month contract with a rival Liiga club: Vaasan Sport. The undersized 34-year-old defenseman spent last season with Liiga’s JYP, scoring 15 points in 46 games. Sport said in its announcement of the deal that the club needed to act quickly to respond to an injury to defenseman Carl-Johan Lerby, and their signing of Suhonen should help the team survive Lerby’s absence.
  • Slovakia’s HK Nitra have agreed on an early contract termination with forward Patrick Bajkov, a key summer signing of the club. Nitra were likely hoping that Bajkov’s prolific scoring at the ECHL level (he managed 69 points in 71 games for the Reading Royals in 2021-22) would translate to the top level of Slovak pro hockey. That hasn’t happened, though, and Bajkov will now conclude his tenure with Nitra at six games, a run where he failed to register a point and found himself tagged with a minus-seven plus-minus rating. Bajkov last played for Nitra in their October 1st contest, but skated under 2:30 of total ice time as the club fell by a 9-3 score. As Nitra seek a reboot after a catastrophic start to the season, it’s been agreed upon by both parties that ending Bajkov’s contract is the best path forward for each side, especially seeing as a replacement for Bajkov, Stephen Harper, was brought in a few days ago.
  • The so far undefeated Cardiff Devils have made an addition to their forward corps, signing power forward Brandon Alderson to an EIHL contract. The six-foot-three, 194-pound veteran has been a point-per-game scorer in the OHL, ECHL, DEL2, and Slovak league, and is coming off of an exceptional campaign playing third-division pro hockey in Germany. Alderson scored a whopping 37 goals and 79 points for the Hannover Scorpions, and Cardiff are likely hoping that his track record of high-scoring numbers can translate to the top division of pro hockey in the United Kingdom.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 10/02/23

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It’s another busy day around the world of hockey, with activity both on the schedule and on the transaction wire. The highlight of today’s slate of games overseas was a contest between SKA St. Petersburg and HK Sochi in the KHL. Top NHL prospect Matvei Michkov’s three-point performance lifted Sochi over St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg is the club that owns Michkov’s KHL rights, and Michkov may have had extra motivation to put together a strong performance as St. Petersburg opened the season with Michkov as a healthy scratch before loaning him back to Sochi.

Beyond just games, today featured quite a few moves in top European leagues as well. As always, we’ll keep track of them here.

  • 2010 13th overall pick Brandon Gormley has found a team for 2023-24. According to an official announcement, he’s signed a one-year contract with the Iserlohn Roosters of the DEL. Gormley heads to Germany to reinforce the blueline of a Roosters team that has struggled early on in this DEL campaign. They have currently surrendered the most goals in the DEL through six games of league play, so the hope will be that Gormley can translate his extensive experience in top European leagues into defensive stops for the Roosters.
  • The SHL’s IK Oskarshamn have struggled mightily at the start of this SHL campaign, so the club has responded to its injuries and underperformance by agreeing to a short-term contract with veteran forward Olli Palola. Palola, 35, is a highly experienced name in European hockey, having represented his country at two IIHF Men’s World Championships. He’s led the Finnish Liiga in goals before and is a former Liiga All-Star, so perhaps his addition will serve as a spark that will help improve the club’s form. Palola split last season between the SHL’s Timra IK and HIFK Helsinki, scoring a total of 13 points in 35 games.
  • After spending a season playing in Italy, Shawn McBride has made the decision to return to the North American pro circuit. He’s signed a one-year ECHL contract with the Idaho Steelheads, the club he spent 2021-22 with. McBride floundered in pro hockey until arriving in Idaho, where he would score 12 goals and 35 points in 69 games. That solid showing earned him a contract in the AlpsHL with the Broncos in Italy, and scored 16 goals and 36 points in 36 games there, and now he’s back in the ECHL for another go-around with the Steelheads.
  • Veteran defenseman Anton Mylläri has signed a contract containing a three-month trial period with the Lahti Pelicans, the club he played for last season. 2022-23 was Mylläri’s first full season in Liiga, and he acquitted himself well, helping the Pelicans reach the league finals where they would ultimately fall to Tappara Tampere. Mylläri was a top-four defenseman for the Pelicans last season, averaging 18:00 time on ice per game, and now will get a chance to resume that role for a Pelicans team that has got off to a slow start in 2023-24.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 09/22/23

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It’s another busy day across the world of pro hockey, both in North America where NHL training camps are fully underway and in Europe, where the top pro leagues are fully into their regular season. Today’s slate of games featured some major contests, highlighted by an upset 5-2 win by Cologne on the road against the reigning DEL champions, Munich. Over in Finland, former University of Vermont star netminder Stefanos Lekkas enjoyed a stellar start to his Liiga career, guiding KalPa Kuopio to a shutout victory over Lukko Rauma.

The action happening on the ice all around the world of hockey is mirrored by the action on the transaction wire. As always, we’ll keep track of notable moves here.

  • Former Calgary Flames prospect Jack Beck, who did not sign an entry-level first with the Flames before the team’s exclusive rights expired June 1st, has been traded in the OHL. The Soo Greyhounds have acquired Beck, 20, for a 2026 second-round pick and 2027 third-round pick in the OHL Priority Selection. Beck was a sixth-round pick of the Flames at the 2021 draft, selected there despite the OHL not holding a 2020-21 campaign. Beck scored 12 goals and 53 points for the Ottawa 67’s last season, and scored 12 points in 11 playoff games.
  • Longtime South Carolina Stingrays defenseman Andrew Cherniwchan announced his retirement from pro hockey today. Cherniwchan has the third-most games played all-time for the Stingrays, and served as their captain for three seasons. He’s a one-time ECHL All-Star who has quite a few long playoff runs to remember in South Carolina, and although Cherniwchan did not end up making it to the NHL he does have nearly 200 AHL games on his resume.
  • 2018 Philadelphia Flyers sixth-round pick Gavin Hain has found a landing spot to turn pro, signing a one-year ECHL deal with the Iowa Heartlanders. The former USNTDP pivot has spent the last half-decade with the University of North Dakota. He took a real step forward in his senior year, scoring a career-high 11 goals and 18 points in 36 games. The number-one pick of the 2016 USHL Futures Draft will have a chance to establish himself in pro hockey with a Heartlanders franchise still looking for its first-ever winning season.
  • Former Edmonton Oilers prospect Filip Berglund extended his contract with the SHL’s Örebro Hockey for three additional seasons. The 26-year-old rearguard was the 91st overall pick at the 2016 draft by the Oilers, selected after a strong draft season that saw him post 41 points in 43 games at the J20 level for Skellefteå AIK. He led Swedish junior hockey in scoring by a blueliner, and went on to play as an SHL regular for a half-decade. In 2020, Berglund signed an entry-level deal with the Oilers and spent the second year of the deal, 2021-22, in the AHL. He skated in 53 games for the Bakersfield Condors and helped them reach the playoffs, but didn’t register a goal and only totaled six regular-season points. He returned to Sweden for 2022-23, joining Örebro, where he’ll now remain for a few more years after helping the team on a deep SHL playoff run in his debut campaign.
  • Colorado Avalanche fans may recognize the name of Sami Aittokallio, a netminder who appeared in two games for the club and was a fourth-round pick of the team in 2010. Since leaving the North American pro circuit for the 2015-16 campaign, Aittokallio has had a solid career overseas, and today he found a team to suit up for, at least for the next two weeks. Liiga’s JYP has signed him to a two-week contract, set to last for the duration of an injury suffered by incumbent starter Veini Vehviläinen. Aittokallio spent the last two years playing in Germany, posting a stellar .923 save percentage for the Bietigheim Steelers, who were at the time a newly promoted DEL club. But last season, Aittokallio went 5-20-0 as Bietigheim were relegated to DEL2, a circumstance that may have contributed to the fact that he’s now signing a short-term deal rather than a full-time job to play as a starting goalie.
  • Former Nizhny Novgorod Torpedo captain Anton Shenfeld has signed a one-year contract with the KHL’s Chinese club, Kunlun Red Star. Shenfeld is coming off a difficult 2022-23 season, one where he scored just three points in 28 games playing in Siberia for Sibir Novosibirsk. He was once a quality top-six forward for both Novgorod and Tolyatti Lada, and the hope for the Red Star is likely that he’ll find a way to recapture some of that form.
  • Sergei Boikov, a former Colorado Avalanche defensive prospect, has signed a two-year KHL contract with HC Avangard Omsk. The club acquired his sporting rights from Dynamo Moscow in exchange for monetary compensation. Boikov has been a regular on Moscow’s blueline for the last three seasons, skating in a total of 123 games for the club. He hasn’t scored very much (he has just 17 career KHL points) but offers decent size, physicality, and some championship experience. (Boikov won the ECHL’s Kelly Cup with the Colorado Eagles in 2017)
  • Alexander Karachun has established himself as a quality DEL scorer over the past two years with the Schwenninger Wild Wings, totaling 25 points in 37 games last season. The club has announced that Karachun has extended his contract through 2025 with the team, meaning he’ll be able to help in the Wild Wings’ fight to keep its place in the DEL through 2025. Karachun wasn’t always a success in the DEL, and he struggled to put points on the board earlier in his career with the Wolfsburg Grizzlies. But an above-point-per-game season in the DEL2 launched him back into the DEL, and he hasn’t looked back, helping the Wild Wings stave off relegation for the past two seasons.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

International Check-In: Lindbom, Lekkerimaki, KHL Scoring Leaders, Michkov

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Top international leagues such as those in Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, and Russia often play a crucial role in NHL player development, but many of those storylines don’t get much coverage outside of teams’ local media. PHR is aiming to change that by shining a light this season on some notable stats and trends concerning NHL-affiliated talent suiting up overseas this season, keeping tabs on some potential future stars.

Vegas Golden Knights 2021 seventh-round pick Carl Lindbom has seen a sharp rise in stock since draft day, and his start to the 2023-24 campaign can only be described as meteoric. The 20-year-old netminder is on loan from Vegas to SHL club Färjestad BK this season after signing his entry-level contract earlier in the summer, and he’s stolen the starting role from overseas veteran (and former Golden Knight) Maxime Lagace thanks to a strong pre-season showing, posting a 2-0-0 record and .936 save percentage in two Champions Hockey League tournament appearances earlier this month. That translated into Lindbom getting the start for Färjestad in their first two games of the SHL league calendar, conceding just one goal in each of their games against Växjö and Skellefteå en route to a 2-0 start to the season with a .952 save percentage to back things up.

Sticking in Sweden, many watchful eyes will be on Vancouver Canucks 2022 first-round pick Jonathan Lekkerimäki after an inconsistent 2022-23 campaign. He’s on loan from Vancouver to the SHL’s Örebro HK this year after spending last season in the second-tier Allsvenskan, and he looks like he’s fitting right in to start the year. Assuming a top-six role out of the gate, the right winger has two goals through his first two outings, both coming on the power play.

Moving over to Russia, it’s been a strong start to the season for three players with NHL ties: Nikita Gusev, Ivan Morozov and Nikolay Goldobin, who currently occupy the top three on the KHL’s points leaderboard. Gusev, who remains under contract with Dynamo Moscow through this season, is averaging nearly 20 minutes per game and leads the league with 11 points through seven games, helping the squad to a 5-2-0 start. After a disappointing end to his NHL tenure with the New Jersey Devils and Florida Panthers in 2020-21, the 31-year-old could be looking at an NHL comeback next summer after what looks to be three strong campaigns in his home country.

Morozov was the Golden Knights’ second-round pick in 2018, and they’ve loaned him out to Spartak Moscow for this season after an underwhelming performance with AHL Henderson last season, in which he netted just 17 points in 58 games. He’s got three goals and ten points through seven games to start the season, however, including a three-assist performance in Spartak’s season-opening loss against Kunlun Red Star.

Rumors have also swirled about a potential NHL return for the 27-year-old Goldobin in recent months, but nothing came to fruition this offseason. He obviously hasn’t let that affect his play, recording eight goals through seven games for Spartak to lead the KHL. His last full NHL season came in 2018-19 with the Vancouver Canucks.

Finally, things are looking up once again for future Philadelphia Flyers star Matvei Michkov after KHL powerhouse SKA St. Petersburg loaned him out to bottom-dweller HK Sochi for the consecutive season. After playing a combined 6:12 through SKA’s first four games of the campaign, Michkov has assumed a top-six role once again in Sochi and is delivering the goods with two assists and a combined 12 shots on goal through his first two games, helping Sochi win back-to-back games. Their record is 3-3-1 through the first seven games of the season after winning just nine games throughout all of the 2022-23 campaign.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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