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Dylan Sikura Signs In Sweden’s Top League

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Dylan Sikura has signed a deal with Skellefteå AIK of the SHL. No details of the contract have been released yet but it’s an exciting move for a player who has spent the majority of the last five seasons in the AHL. Sikura, 28, has appeared in 250 AHL games over that span, recording 93 goals and 207 points. This includes 44 points in 69 games last season, splitting time between the Rockford IceHogs and San Diego Gulls, who he joined partway through the year.

Sikura shared that moving to Sweden has been a long-running goal, saying:

It feels incredible to have signed for Skellefteå. I have always been interested in playing in Sweden and when the opportunity came I was very interested. I have played with two guys who played in Skellefteå (Andreas Wingerli and Filip Roos) and they loved the city and the team. I remember they always spoke highly of it.

Unfortunately, Wingerli and Roos no longer play for Skellefteå. But the team isn’t void of former NHL talent. Pär Lindholm, Oscar Möller, and Oscar Lindberg are all also NHL and AHL veterans that now suit up for the Swedish club. The team also carries a slew of NHL prospects, including the 17th-overall selection in this year’s draft, Axel Sandin Pellikka.

Sikura is optimistic that his style can gel well with this mix of veteran talent and young potential, saying:

I like to see myself as a playmaker who likes to shoot as well. Throughout my career, the power play has been a big part of my game so I hope to be able to make it work when I transfer it to the big ice surface in the SHL as well. I think I can use my speed and understanding of the game to hopefully score a lot of goals.

Skellefteå AIK came just a few games away from an SHL championship last season, losing in the finals to the Växjö Lakers, who won their second title in three years. Sikura will look to help Skellefteå push for a long playoff run again this year, but hopefully with a better outcome.

Josh Leivo Linked To SHL

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Despite appearing in 51 NHL games last season, former St. Louis Blues forward Josh Leivo could be continuing his pro career overseas.

According to a report from Örnsköldsviks Allehanda’s Matthias Persson, the SHL’s newly promoted MoDo Hockey is looking to sign Leivo before their season starts in less than two weeks.

It’d be a somewhat surprising move for Leivo to sign overseas since the 30-year-old has played 265 career NHL games and spent the entirety of his pro career either in the NHL or AHL.

Leivo’s first full-time NHL campaign came in 2017-18 and he only returned to the AHL many years later, in 2021-22, signing a contract to play for the Chicago Wolves.

Leivo was wildly successful in Chicago, winning a Calder Cup championship and the league’s playoff MVP award after leading the postseason in scoring. In total, Leivo played in 72 games for the Wolves combining the regular season and playoffs and scored 75 points.

That strong AHL performance landed Leivo a role back in the NHL with the Blues, and he ended up scoring 16 points in 51 games. While it’s possible that Leivo could hold out for the kind of PTO offer many players have signed over the past two weeks, it’s also possible that the stability of playing in the SHL could be appealing.

MoDo play in Örnsköldsvik, a legendary hockey town that has produced numerous NHL stars, such as the Sedin twins, Peter Forsberg, and Victor Hedman. MoDo, the local pro club, won the HockeyAllsvenskan championship last season and earned a promotion to the SHL, Sweden’s top league.

If he signs in Örnsköldsvik, Leivo will join another former Toronto Maple Leaf on the roster, Latvian international Kristians Rubins, as well as former Colorado Avalanche forward Sampo Ranta and American blueliner Daniel Brickley, who Leivo played with in Chicago.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Blues Loan Dalibor Dvorsky To Swedish League

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Back in June, the Blues made center Dalibor Dvorsky their top pick, selecting him tenth overall.  However, they’ll have to wait a little while longer for him to make his debut in North America as CapFriendly reports (Twitter link) that St. Louis has loaned Dvorsky to IK Oskarshamn of the SHL for the upcoming season.

Dvorsky spent last season in AIK’s system in Sweden, playing at three different levels.  The bulk of his playing time came at the Allsvenskan level, their second-tier pro division.  The 18-year-old held his own against the pros, picking up six goals and eight assists in 38 games.

However, it was his production against his own age group that moved Dvorsky up draft boards.  He averaged more than a point per game on AIK’s Under-20 squad, then picked up seven points in four games in the Under-18 playoffs.  Internationally, Dvorsky played for Slovakia at both the World Juniors and the World Under-18s, finishing sixth in tournament scoring for the latter with 13 points in just seven contests.

Dvorsky has a two-year deal in Sweden so this loan comes as little surprise as it’s unlikely that he would have competed for a roster spot in training camp.  The loan means that he’ll be eligible to have his contract slide next season (as long as he doesn’t play in ten or more NHL contests later on in the year) which means it would still have three seasons remaining on it in 2024-25.

Notable Former NHLers Playing In The SHL Next Year

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As overseas campaigns get ready to kick off at the beginning of next month, we’ll highlight some notable former NHLers suiting up for teams in major European leagues over the next few days. First up is the Swedish Hockey League, which sees a new face this year in Örnsköldsvik’s MoDo Hockey, which earned promotion from the second-tier Allsvenskan to play in the top flight for the first time since 2016.

D Christian Folin – Frölunda HC

Suiting up as an alternate captain for Frölunda this season, the 32-year-old Folin has two years remaining on a deal with the club he signed in 2021. A veteran of 244 NHL games, the left-shot defender most recently suited up for 16 games with the Montreal Canadiens in the 2019-20 campaign. His career-best season came with the Los Angeles Kings in 2017-18, the second of three consecutive seasons he managed to avoid AHL assignment. In 65 games, Folin recorded average possession numbers and finished the year with three goals and ten assists for 13 points. He appeared in all four playoff games as his Kings lost to the expansion Vegas Golden Knights in a first-round sweep. Since returning to his home country, the two-way defender has represented Sweden internationally at the World Championship and Winter Olympics, although his offensive game is beginning to decline. He recorded just seven assists in 37 games for Frölunda in 2022-23.

F Oscar Lindberg – Skellefteå AIK

Lindberg has played overseas for the past four seasons, but only in Russia and Switzerland. 2023-24 will be his first time playing in the Swedish top flight since 2013, and he’s doing so with the only SHL club he’s ever known in Skellefteå. Initially a second-round pick of the Phoenix Coyotes in 2010, Lindberg saw 134 out of his 252 games of NHL action in a New York Rangers uniform after he was sent there in a 2011 swap of prospects. Now 31, Lindberg recorded a career-high 13 goals and 28 points in 68 games during his rookie season with New York in 2015-16, but he never quite displayed the ability to become a long-term top-nine fixture in the NHL. He made later career stops with the Golden Knights and Ottawa Senators before leaving for Switzerland’s EV Zug after the conclusion of the 2018-19 season.

F Magnus Pääjärvi – Timrå IK

The most NHL-seasoned forward on this list, Pääjärvi will play a depth role in helping Timrå avoid relegation to the Allsvenskan for a third straight season after getting promoted in 2021. Pääjärvi also played his last NHL game with Ottawa in 2019, much like Lindberg, although he’d been in the league since the start of the decade. Now 32, Pääjärvi was the tenth overall pick in the 2009 NHL Draft, going off the board to the Edmonton Oilers. It looked like a solid selection at first – he rattled off 34 points in 80 games during his rookie season as a 19-year-old in 2010-11 on a struggling Oilers squad. However, he wouldn’t put up double-digit goal totals again until his final season in the NHL with Ottawa, instead bouncing around the Oilers, Blues and Senators as a depth forward in a fourth-line role over nearly a decade. He did appear in a very respectable 467 NHL contests before heading overseas in 2019 with the KHL’s Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, however. He hasn’t been a huge offensive factor since returning to Europe, recording just seven goals and 13 points in 40 games for Timrå last season.

F Tobias Rieder – Växjö Lakers HC

This will be Rieder’s third consecutive year suiting up for Växjö after he departed the NHL for Sweden in 2021. It’s been a fruitful tenure for the German-born forward, as he’s put up double-digit goal totals in both seasons and won an SHL title in 2022-23. Once a promising middle-six talent with the Arizona Coyotes in the mid-2010s, things went off the rails for Rieder after signing as a free agent with the Edmonton Oilers in 2018. Viewed as a surefire bet for at least around 15 goals and 30 points, Rieder instead put up a goose egg in the goal column despite playing in 67 games. Later tenures with the Buffalo Sabres and Calgary Flames went similarly poor, and the 30-year-old will likely play the rest of his career overseas.

D Anton Strålman – HV71

Strålman is returning home to Sweden after spending last season in the Boston Bruins organization. He played just eight games in the NHL, however, instead being relegated to the AHL’s Providence Bruins for most of 2022-23 after earning a contract off a PTO. The 37-year-old is likely done in the NHL after quite a respectable 938-game, 16-season career, but he’ll look to log heavy minutes for HV71 and try and rediscover his offensive touch against some easier competition. It’s a nice bookend for Strålman, who was once one of the better complementary defenders in the game and played against tough competition as a premier two-way defender for the Tampa Bay Lightning in the mid-to-late 2010s.

Honorable Mentions: F Henrik Borgström (HV71), D Brandon Davidson (Rögle), F Christoffer Ehn (Linköping), F Remi Elie (Linköping), G Jhonas Enroth (Örebro), D Oscar Fantenberg (Linköping), F Janne Kuokkanen (Malmö), F Anton Lander (Timrå), F Pär Lindholm (Skellefteå), F Alan Quine (Malmö), D David Rundblad (MoDo), D Joakim Ryan (Malmö), F Mattias Tedenby (HV71)

Sharks Loan Filip Bystedt Back To Swedish League

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The Sharks have decided that the time isn’t right for prospect Filip Bystedt to make his North American debut.  Instead, CapFriendly recently reported (Twitter link) that San Jose has loaned the center back to SHL Linköping for the upcoming season.

The 19-year-old was the 27th pick back in 2022 after a strong showing in Sweden’s junior level where he recorded 16 goals and 33 assists in 40 regular season games while adding ten points in eight playoff contests.  He also got into 15 games with Linköping at the top level in his draft year and while he didn’t produce much (one goal and one assist), he showed enough offensive promise at the junior level to warrant a first-round selection.

Last season, Bystedt was a regular at the SHL level, suiting up in 45 of their 52 games.  While he didn’t light it up like he did in junior, he still finished seventh on the team in scoring, tallying seven goals with 13 helpers while logging nearly 13 minutes a night.  Once the regular season ended, Bystedt was then sent down to the junior level where he picked up six points in four games to end his year on a high note.  Meanwhile, he was quite productive at the World Juniors, finishing tied for sixth in tournament scoring with four goals and six assists in seven games although they came up short in the medal round, finishing fourth.  That helped earn him his entry-level deal back in June.

While still junior-eligible, Bystedt was eligible to go to the AHL this coming season since he wasn’t drafted out of the CHL.  However, it appears that San Jose feels he’d be best served with another year in Sweden’s top division over suiting up with AHL Barracuda.  This means that his contract will slide for the 2023-24 campaign and will still have three years remaining on it at this point next summer.

Kenny Agostino Signs With SHL’s Skellefteå AIK

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August 23: Johan Svensson and Jennifer Engstrom of Expressen report that Skellefteå is set to terminate their agreement with Agostino just days after signing him. The club had come under criticism in Swedish circles for pursuing a player who’d spent the last two seasons playing in Russia.

August 21: Free agent left-winger Kenny Agostino has signed a one-year deal with Skellefteå AIK of the Swedish Hockey League, according to a team release.

Agostino, a veteran of 86 NHL games across six seasons, hasn’t played in North America since 2021 with the Toronto Maple Leafs and the AHL’s Toronto Marlies. The 31-year-old has spent the last two seasons in Russia with the KHL’s Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, where he’s recorded 24 goals, 27 assists and 51 points in 75 games. Most of that offensive production came in 2021-22, however, when he produced at a point-per-game clip. 2022-23 was a tough year for Agostino as he dealt with injuries and inconsistency, scoring just four goals in 29 games.

There likely would have been a spot for Agostino in many NHL organizations had he wanted to return this summer despite last season’s poor performance. He’s been a solid pinch hitter at the NHL level with strong minor-league production, posting 317 points in 348 career AHL games. Despite the limited major-league action, Agostino’s production has been fine for a bottom-six call-up – 30 points across those 86 games with the Boston Bruins, Calgary Flames, Montreal Canadiens, New Jersey Devils, St. Louis Blues, and Maple Leafs.

Opting to stay in Europe this summer could very well be an indication Agostino intends to spend the rest of his career there. It’s been quite the journey so far for the 2010 fifth-round pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins, earning true journeyman status since finishing his collegiate career at Yale in 2014. It wasn’t too long ago Agostino was viewed as one of the more reliable scoring talents outside of the NHL, as he was named to the United States roster for the 2022 Winter Olympics in China.

Agostino joins a Skellefteå roster that includes Detroit Red Wings 2023 first-round pick defenseman Axel Sandin Pellikka, as well as a trio of former Swedish NHL forwards – Oscar Lindberg, Pär Lindholm and Oscar Moller.

Minor Transactions: 08/22/23

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The start of the season for teams in many overseas professional leagues is rapidly approaching, and many top clubs in Europe are already well underway playing preseason games. For example, the SHL’s Malmö Redhawks and Linköping HC have a preseason match scheduled for later today, as do Rouen Dragons, the reigning French champions. As we inch ever closer to the full start of the season in minor and foreign professional leagues, many teams are still making moves to add players and finalize their plans for the year. As always, we’ll keep track of those transactions here.

  • Veteran forward Niklas Olausson is set to sign with Linköping, according to SportExpressen’s Johan Svensson. The signing would put the 37-year-old forward in a position to eventually play his 500th game at the top level of Swedish hockey, assuming he can stay healthy and in head coach Klas Östman’s nightly lineup. Olausson has played in Linköping before, skating in a total of 64 games across two seasons, 2006-07 and 2007-08. It could be a season of milestones for Olausson, as on top of potentially playing in his 500th game in the SHL, Olausson can also reach other milestones such as his 100th career goal at that level (he currently has 97) and 200th assist (he has 199). At the very least, this signing could give him more stability than he had last year, as he began 2022-23 in the Swiss second division with EHC Basel before transferring to the ICEHL’s Graz99ers in Austria and then finishing the year as a reinforcement for the SHL playoffs with Luleå.
  • 28-year-old defenseman Kyle Pouncy completed his second consecutive season as a regular ECHL player at the end of 2022-23, establishing himself in North America’s third-tier league. Now, he’s off to Scotland to continue his professional career. The six-foot-three Kamloops, BC native has signed with the Dundee Stars of the EIHL, the top tier of professional hockey in the United Kingdom. Pouncy joins former Cincinnati Cyclones defenseman Sean Allen, who signed in Dundee yesterday, as ECHL imports brought to head coach Marc LeFebvre’s squad. In the team release, LeFebvre said Pouncy “skates very well and his game is going to be a great fit for the Olympic ice sheet.” The hope will be that Pouncy can help LeFebvre lead a bounce-back season for Dundee, who finished with just 13 wins in 54 league games last season.
  • The USHL’s Lincoln Stars are looking to make a competitive push for 2023-24 after losing in the league semifinals last spring, and to do so they’ve plucked a solid forward from the Youngstown Phantoms, the reigning USHL champions. The Stars announced their acquisition of forward Justin Varner and a draft pick in exchange for two draft choices. Varner, 19, has spent the last two seasons playing for Youngstown, and has collected 27 points in each campaign. Varner had committed to Michigan State University in November 2022, though he’ll instead now play a third USHL season and spend 2023-24 in Lincoln.
  • Joonas Lohisalo and Sisu Yliniemi, two top-30 scorers in Finland’s premier junior hockey league (U20 SM-Sarja) have been loaned to Hermes Kokkola in Mestis, Finland’s second-tier men’s league, for the 2023-24 campaign. The two 20-year-old prospects belong to Liiga side Kärpät and ranked second and third in scoring, respectively, on the club’s U20 team. Lohisalo is a six-foot-two left winger who played seven games for Hermes last season, scoring three goals and four points. Yliniemi is a five-foot-nine center who scored four points in his five-game run with Hermes last season and even got a one-game Liiga call-up to Kärpät as well.
  • The ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears have signed two second-year players to one-year ECHL contracts: Ryan Cox and Chris Perna. Cox, 25, dipped his toes in the ECHL last spring, playing in 12 games with the Toledo Walleye after the conclusion of his collegiate career with Niagara University. Cox got off to a fast start, scoring 11 points in 12 games, including a six-points-in-three-games performance that earned him ECHL Player of the Week honors. Seeing as he’s leaving a juggernaut Walleye squad for a Solar Bears team that missed the playoffs last season, it’s unlikely that Cox will maintain near point-per-game production next season, though his fast start to his pro career does give hope that he can become a difference-maker for Orlando and help them return to the postseason. As for Perna, he’s a 25-year-old right-shot blueliner who skated in 54 games for the Utah Grizzlies last season, scoring eight points in what was his rookie professional campaign. He played the fourth-most games of any Grizzlies defenseman last season and will be in the mix for a regular role in Orlando this fall.
  • The ECHL’s Iowa Heartlanders have acquired forward Will Calverley from the Florida Everblades in a trade announced today, sending the playing rights to defenseman Riese Zmolek to Florida in return. The 25-year-old Calverley signed with the Everblades at the conclusion of his collegiate career with Merrimack College last season, and the former Rochester Institute of Technology captain turned that amateur tryout agreement into a full-time contract. He scored five points in 12 playoff games en route to Florida’s Kelly Cup title, and will now join the Heartlanders, who send their captain, Zmolek to Florida in return. Zmolek, 26, captained the Heartlanders last season and has skated in 78 total regular-season games in Iowa. He earned 12 AHL games last season as part of call-ups and could play a big role for the Everblades should he sign there.
  • Veteran forward Tanner Sorenson has signed an ECHL contract with the Kalamazoo Wings, returning to North America’s third-tier league after a season spent overseas playing in England. The former ECHL All-Star has played all but three games of his 291-game ECHL career with the Wings, and has scored a total of 218 points. He’s been an above-point-per-game scorer before in the ECHL, and he registered 15 goals and 31 points in 49 games for the EIHL’s Nottingham Panthers last season. He stands a good chance at returning to the top-six role he long occupied in Kalamazoo, and will hope to help them return to the postseason for the first time since 2019.
  • The KHL’s Lada Togliatti acquired netminder Vladislav Podyapolsky from SKA St. Petersburg in a trade today, sending monetary compensation to SKA in return. It’s another big change for Podyapolsky, the one-time KHL All-Star whose struggles last season cost him his role as the starting goalie for Cherepovets Severstal. Podyapolsky posted a .920 save percentage in 2021-22 and for two seasons before that was Severstal’s number-one goalie, but he managed only a .900 save percentage for SKA last season and will now look to get a fresh start with Lada.
  • Slovenian forward Rok Ticar, a regular representative of his country at international tournaments (including the IIHF Men’s World Championships earlier this summer) has signed a contract with the ICEHL’s Vienna Capitals. It’s a major move for Vienna, as they’re securing the services of Austrian rivals EC-KAC’s top scorer from the last two seasons. Ticar, 34, scored 15 goals and 40 points in 43 games last season and brings championship experience, having won the ICEHL in 2020-21.
  • High-flying Russian forward Kirill Tyutyayev signed a one-year contract extension with ECHL Toledo. Although Tyutyayev struggled in the AHL last season, scoring just five points in 30 games for the Grand Rapids Griffins, but he torched the ECHL in Toledo to the tune of 47 points in 31 regular-season games. The 23-year-old 2019 Red Wings draft pick emerged as a lethal offensive creator at the ECHL level and this extension will give him the platform to potentially have a monster campaign for the Walleye and even earn his way back to the ECHL.
  • 2013 Nashville Predators seventh-round pick Wade Murphy signed a one-year contract extension in the ECHL with the Idaho Steelheads. Murphy, 29, had a breakout season in Idaho, emerging as a key scorer during their run to the Kelly Cup final. He potted 21 goals and 43 points in 54 regular-season games and added 12 goals and 20 points in 20 playoff games. That performance has secured him a second season in Idaho, and he’ll likely remain a crucial forward for the Steelheads.

This page will be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 08/01/23

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As the calendar turns to August, more and more clubs across the hockey world are putting the finishing touches on the roster they’ll bring into their training camps for next season. Most major European pro leagues begin in early to mid-September, including Liiga, the DEL, the Swiss NL, and the SHL. Liiga preseason actually begins on Friday, meaning we’re quickly reaching the point when the 2023-24 season truly begins overseas. As always, we’ll keep track of notable player movement in minor and foreign leagues here.

  • 27-year-old defenseman Bobby Nardella has found success pretty much everywhere he’s played over the last decade, from being a star USHLer to a second-team All-American at Notre Dame to now a Calder Cup Champion in the AHL in just his fourth season of pro hockey. But despite his strong play in the AHL regular season with the Hershey Bears, the undersized left-shot blueliner hasn’t yet earned his first NHL game, and now he’s guaranteed that he won’t receive that chance at least until 2024-25. Nardella signed a one-year contract with HV71 in the SHL. Nardella heads to Jönköping with 47 games of SHL experience already under his belt, as he played there on loan during the COVID-19-impacted 2020-21 campaign. He led Djurgårdens IF in scoring with 33 points in 47 games and will likely be a key player next year for HV71.
  • Like Nardella, Sami Lepistö played a key role as a defenseman during a Hershey Bears Calder Cup championship, scoring 42 points in 70 games during the team’s championship season in 2008-09. Unlike Nardella, Lepistö played in 14 career NHL games by the end of that season and the following season he broke into the NHL full-time with the Coyotes. Lepistö would ultimately play in 176 NHL games before embarking on a long and extremely successful career in Europe that would see him win two Olympic medals and be named to three consecutive KHL All-Star games. Today, Lepistö, 38, announced his retirement due to medical considerations, ending his storied career that saw him last play for the SCL Tigers in the Swiss NL, where he helped the club avoid relegation.
  • A stunning goal from 32-year-old defenseman Miks Indrašis sent the home crowd in Riga into a frenzy earlier this summer, lifting Latvia to an upset victory over heavily-favored Sweden in the quarterfinals of the IIHF Men’s World Championships, one of the biggest wins in the history of Latvian hockey. Now, Indrašis is headed to the country he upset to continue his pro career. He’s signed a one-year contract with Brynäs IF in HockeyAllsvenskan, the second tier of Swedish hockey. Indrašis is a lanky six-foot-four blueliner who scored 29 points in 53 games for the DEL’s Schwenningen Wild Wings and is likely to play a regular role for Brynäs during what will be his first campaign playing in Scandinavia.
  • 2007 Nashville Predators second-round pick and former ECHL Kelly Cup Playoffs MVP Jeremy Smith has signed a three-year contract extension to remain with the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star through his age-36 season.  The American netminder has played for Kunlun since 2019-20 and is the franchise’s all-time leader in wins and saves. Smith represented China at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and is coming off of a strong bounce-back season as Kunlun’s number-one goalie, posting an impressive .914 save percentage despite a grisly 10-24-2 overall record.
  • Veteran DEL defenseman Jonas Müller, a regular representative of Germany in IIHF play, has signed an early four-year contract extension to remain with his club Eisbären Berlin. Although Berlin endured a difficult 2022-23 season, Müller ended his campaign on a highly positive note as he played a role in Germany taking home a silver medal at the 2023 IIHF Men’s World Championships. Müller also has a silver medal from the 2018 Winter Olympics and despite being just 27 years old already has over 400 DEL games on his resume and two league championships. Müller averaged the most nightly minutes of any Berlin player and this contract ensures he’ll be the team’s defensive centerpiece moving forward.
  • Former Montreal Canadiens prospect Martin Réway finished his 2022-23 campaign on a high note, scoring 12 points in 13 playoff games for Slovakia’s HK Spisska Nova Ves. Per a social media announcement from the club, Réway has signed a contract for next season with HK 32 Liptovský Mikuláš. Réway, 28, was a 2013 fourth-round pick who starred in the QMJHL but only managed five games playing in the AHL for the Canadiens’ affiliate. Réway’s last few years have been among the most productive in his career and this signing with Liptovský Mikuláš will potentially help the club avoid relegation to the second tier of Slovak hockey.

This page may be updated throughout the day.

Minor Transactions: 07/31/23

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NHL action is heating up today with a trio of depth signings this morning, followed by a potentially consequential agreement between the Minnesota Wild and promising netminder Filip Gustavsson. Transactions continue to flow in from around the minors and Europe as 2023-24 draws closer, too, so let’s take a look at today’s most notable non-NHL moves from around the hockey world:

  • Former New York Rangers, Ottawa Senators and Vegas Golden Knights forward Oscar Lindberg has signed a one-year contract with the SHL’s Skellefteå AIK, per a team release today. The move marks a return to his native Sweden for the first time since 2012-13, when he notched 44 points in 52 Elitserien (now SHL) games for Skellefteå before heading to North America the following year with the Rangers organization. Since last suiting up in the NHL for Ottawa in 2019, Lindberg has bounced around Europe, playing for EV Zug and SC Bern in the NL and Dynamo Moscow in the KHL. He’s been quite productive, too, often posting point totals close to a point-per-game pace and continuing solid defensive play. He now joins a Skellefteå team ripe with NHL prospects, including Detroit Red Wings 2023 first-round pick Axel Sandin Pellikka on defense.
  • After two years of service as an alternate captain for Czech Extraliga club HC Sparta Praha, defenseman Adam Polasek is staying in the Extraliga on a one-year deal with HC Ocelari Trinec, per the team. Polasek is a former Vancouver Canucks prospect, selected 145th overall in the 2010 NHL Draft. After spending the 2010-11 campaign in juniors with the QMJHL’s Prince Edward Island Rocket, Polasek signed his entry-level contract with the Canucks. He wouldn’t play out his deal, though, failing to find his footing in the minors and eventually having his contract terminated during its final season so that he could return home to Czechia. He’s spent most of his time in the Sparta Praha organization since then, save for a few short stints in Russia and Finland. The 32-year-old, 6-foot-3 defender now looks to bolster Trinec’s blueline, one that includes former NHLers Jakub Jerabek and Martin Marincin.
  • Liiga club Kärpät was active this morning, signing a pair of North American forwards, Connor Bunnaman and Trevor Mingoia, to one-year contracts. Bunnaman, 25, was a fourth-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers in 2016 and has since amassed over 50 NHL games and over 200 AHL games in the Flyers and Florida Panthers organizations. He spent last season solely with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers, posting his second-most productive season ever in the minors with 16 goals and seven assists for 23 points in 61 games. Mingoia, who’s spent the last five years in Europe after a short-lived North American minor pro career, previously had two productive seasons in the Liiga with KooKoo, recording 64 points in 73 games between 2019 and 2021. Undrafted, the 5-foot-11 winger spent the last two seasons with the DEL’s Grizzlys Wolfsburg.

This page will be updated throughout the day.

Minor Transactions: 07/29/23

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Player moves in the NHL are slowing to a grinding halt, although a few notable free agents remain unsigned. Those talents include the NHL’s all-time ironman, Phil Kessel (link), and top-four defender Matt Dumba (link), whose free agencies we’ve examined in detail.

However, moves are still coming in from the CHL, AHL, and major European leagues, all of which we’re keeping track of on a daily basis as the offseason rolls along. Here’s a list of today’s minor transactions for July 29, 2023:

  • The WHL’s Vancouver Giants made a significant add on the back end today, parting with valuable assets to acquire 2024 NHL Draft-eligible defenseman Marek Howell from the Moose Jaw Warriors, according to a team release. In total, the Giants gave up a solid middle-six scorer in forward Ethan Semeniuk, a 2024 first-round pick, a 2024 fifth-round pick and a 2025 second-round pick. Howell, a shutdown defender, joins the Giants after going to Moose Jaw at 16th overall in the 2021 WHL Prospects Draft, and he registered four points in 44 games during his rookie season with the Warriors last year. The Giants have finished below the .500 mark in back-to-back seasons, and they’ll look to Howell to help them get back to relevancy in the WHL’s B.C. Division. He joins a squad likely to be led by Calgary Flames 2023 first-round selection Samuel Honzek, who signed his entry-level deal with the team earlier this week. Semeniuk, who was passed over in the 2023 NHL Draft, could be a nice add for Moose Jaw in this deal – he tied for fifth on the Giants in goals last year with 12 tallies in 64 games.
  • Defenseman Anthony Constantini, formerly of the OHL’s Ottawa 67s, has found a home to begin his pro career. After four years in the nation’s capital, Constantini is heading to the lower ranks of the Swedish hockey system to join Tranås AIF of HockeyEttan, Sweden’s third-tier league below the SHL and HockeyAllsvenskan. A smooth-skating right-shot defender, Constantini logged top-four minutes for the 67’s last year and finished second among their defensemen in scoring with seven goals, 29 assists and 36 points in 67 games. He’ll try and help Tranås earn a promotion to the Allsvenskan, a feat they haven’t achieved since 2003. Constantini is the twin brother of netminder Marco Constantini, who won the OHL championship with the Hamilton Bulldogs in 2021-22 and led the league in multiple stats that season, including GAA, SV%, and shutouts.
  • Former Montreal Canadiens prospect Nichlas Torp’s latest stint in the SHL will be a short one, as he’s dropped back down a level in Swedish hockey by signing a two-year contract with Allsvenskan club Nybro Vikings IF. Selected in the sixth round of the 2007 NHL Draft, the 34-year-old never did come over to North America and has spent his entire pro career in Sweden and Germany. He’d spent the last two seasons playing with HV71, with whom he helped gain promotion from the Allsvenskan to the SHL in 2022. A strong, hard-hitting defender, Torp’s effectiveness waned in his play with HV71 last season, signaling that a move to second-tier pro hockey may be more his pace as he enters his mid-30s. Nybro will look to his veteran leadership to help them stay afloat after gaining promotion from the HockeyEttan for the first time since 2009.

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