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Gabriel Carlsson Signs In Sweden

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SHL club Växjö Lakers HC released a statement today confirming the earlier-reported signing of left-shot defenseman Gabriel Carlsson to a three-year contract. The former Columbus Blue Jackets and Washington Capitals defenseman signs in his home country of Sweden three days before SHL training camps begin on July 31.

A first-round draft choice of the Blue Jackets in 2015, the 26-year-old Carlsson joined the Capitals organization on a one-year, two-way deal last offseason after Columbus didn’t issue him a qualifying offer to retain his signing rights as an RFA. In hindsight, Carlsson likely received a little more hype than was warranted by his prospect status – Columbus drafted him as a shutdown defender, but registering just seven assists in 39 top-league Swedish junior games during his draft year didn’t inspire much confidence in terms of NHL projectability. Unfortunately, the concerns about Carlsson reaching his ceiling as a premiere defensive specialist turned out to be true, and he appeared in just 75 NHL contests for Columbus over parts of six seasons before the team cut him loose.

A last-ditch effort to get a full-time NHL job in Washington didn’t work out for Carlsson, either. He played just six games for the Capitals, his lowest total since 2019-20, recording two assists and a -1 rating. The season wasn’t a complete loss for Carlsson, however, as he played a top-pairing shutdown role for the AHL’s Hershey Bears and won his first professional championship in the process. Despite the Calder Cup win, his postseason play wasn’t as impressive as his regular-season performance, as he notched just two assists in 20 games and attached a -1 rating.

With that, Carlsson hit the UFA market thanks to the lack of a qualifying offer for a second straight season, obviously a fairly demoralizing experience. He’ll now participate in SHL play for the first time since 2016-17, when he posted two goals and two assists for four points and a +8 rating in 40 games for Linköping HC as a 19-year-old.

A three-year deal keeps Carlsson in Sweden through the 2025-26 season and could very well end his days of North American pro hockey. The towering 6-foot-5, 203-pound defenseman will look to help guide Växjö to their third SHL championship in four seasons after they won the title in 2021 and 2023. He joins a team ripe with former and future NHLers, including forward Tobias Rieder, defenseman Joel Persson, and high-end Buffalo Sabres center prospect Noah Östlund.

Minor Transactions: 07/28/23

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Today’s been quite a busy day for player movement around the world of pro hockey, as numerous teams in the many pro leagues are looking to secure quality players for next season. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable moves made in those minor and foreign leagues.

  • Minor-league goalie Dylan Ferguson got his first real shot in the NHL last season, starting two games for the Ottawa Senators in March and posting a .940 save percentage. But despite that significant career achievement, Ferguson only played in a total of 15 games in 2022-23, and now he’s headed overseas likely with the hope of seeing more consistent time in the crease. He’s signed a contract with Dynamo Minsk in the KHL, where he will likely battle Philadelphia Flyers prospect Alexei Kolosov for starts next season.
  • Former AHL netminder Jussi Olkinoura has collected quite a few team accomplishments in his playing career such as a Champions Hockey League title, an Olympic gold medal, and two World Championship golds. 2022-23 wasn’t his best year, though, as his club team, Brynäs IF, were relegated from the SHL to Sweden’s second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan. Olkinoura, 32, won’t remain with Brynäs as they seek promotion, as he’s signed a contract with the Lahti Pelicans of the Finnish Liiga. Olkinoura has played with the Pelicans before, posting a .910 save percentage in 39 games as their number-one starter in 2018-19. Despite making it all the way to Liiga’s finals the Pelicans were in need of a new starting goalie as their previous one, Patrik Bartošák, signed a two-year deal in Czechia. Now Olkinoura will join 23-year-old Jasper Patrikainen (.905 save percentage in 30 games in 2022-23) to form the Pelicans’ goalie tandem.
  • 2008 second-round pick and former Hobey Baker Award finalist Danny Kristo has signed with the EIHL’s Coventry Blaze. The contract completes a transfer from the Sheffield Steelers, an EIHL rival of the Blaze for whom Kristo played the 2022-23 campaign. Although the 33-year-old Minnesota native translated his scoring as a college hockey star at the University of North Dakota to the AHL level (he hit 20 goals in the AHL in three consecutive seasons from 2013-14 to 2015-16) he couldn’t quite do enough to break into the NHL, and he left to play overseas in late 2017. Kristo has since played in Latvia, Sweden, Switzerland, China, Germany, Czechia, and Slovakia, and has now settled in as a quality scorer in the United Kingdom’s top pro league. Kristo scored 12 goals and 30 points for the Steelers last season and will now head to Coventry hoping to help them make a more convincing run in the league’s playoffs.
  • Longtime minor league veteran Colton Saucerman’s return to North America proved to be short-lived, as the 31-year-old right-shot defenseman has signed a contract in England with Sheffield. After featuring in the ECHL since late 2016 and earning 41 total AHL games, Saucerman left for Europe in 2020 to sign with Austria’s HC Innsbruck of the ICEHL. He played well in Austria and earned a deal with HC Kosice in Slovakia, where he would also put together a strong campaign. That got him an ECHL contract with the Allen Americans for 2022-23, and he led their blueliners in scoring with 38 points in 63 games. Now, Saucerman is headed to England for the first time in his career to likely play a significant role on the Steelers’ defense.
  • Former San Jose Sharks netminder Alexei Melnichuk has signed a one-year contract with the KHL’s Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, the club he was traded to a little over a week ago. Melnichuk, 25, is an undrafted netminder who signed with the Sharks in 2020 and ended up playing nearly 50 games in the AHL for the San Jose Barracuda. He could only manage a .867 save percentage across that sample size in the AHL, meaning he eventually was sent down to the ECHL before heading back to Russia for 2022-23. Melnichuk played bounced between three KHL clubs last season and with this signing he’ll get the chance to fight for some stability, as he’ll battle with former New York Rangers netminder Adam Huska and incumbent starter Ivan Kulbakov (.926 save percentage in 42 KHL games in 2022-23) for time in the crease for Torpedo.
  • Former Quinnipac University blueliner and Sharks 2015 fifth-round pick Kārlis Čukste has signed a one-year contract to play in HockeyAllsvenskan with Brynäs IF. Čukste is fresh off of representing his home country of Latvia at the 2023 IIHF Men’s World Championships, helping them on a historic run that earned the hockey-mad country their best-ever performance. The six-foot-three 26-year-old stay-at-home defenseman is entering the fourth season of his professional career, and spent last year earning regular minutes for HC Oceláři Třinec in the Czech Extraliga. Čukste also brings experience from Liiga, the KHL, AHL, and ECHL to the table and will hope to help Brynäs fend off other top HockeyAllsvenskan clubs such as Djurgårdens IF to earn instant promotion back to the SHL.
  • Danish international Niklas Andersen, who has represented his home country at two IIHF Men’s World Championships, has left the Fischtown Pinguins to sign with a rival DEL club, the Augsburg Panthers. The 25-year-old forward was a high scorer in two consecutive seasons in the Danish league for Esbjerg before earning his first shot in the DEL with Fischtown. Andersen’s debut season in Germany was exceptional, as he scored 14 goals and 27 points in just 34 games. He’s not matched that total in the past two seasons, though, scoring 11 goals and 22 points in 52 games in 2021-22 and 11 goals and 20 points in 41 games last season. With this signing, he joins an Augsburg team in need of competent veteran talent, as they only narrowly avoided relegation in 2022-23.
  • Recently-promoted Slovak Extraliga side HC 19 Humenne have signed former Colorado Avalanche prospect and four-time KHL All-Star Denis Parshin to a deal for the 2022-23 season. Parshin, 37, brings 658 games of KHL experience to the table as well as experience representing Russia in international play. He’s played 82 total games in the Slovak league across three different seasons, all for HC Kosice, including 2022-23 when he scored 28 points in 34 games.
  • Physical center James Phelan racked up over 100 penalty minutes in 62 ECHL games for the Trois-Rivières Lions last season, and now he’s headed to Scotland to continue his pro career. He’s signed with the Dundee Stars in the EIHL, bringing nearly 100 games of ECHL experience as well as 47 career AHL games. Phelan hasn’t been much of a scorer at the pro level, but the 26-year-old plays with an edge and has some history of scoring from his days playing major junior hockey in the QMJHL.
  • Liiga’s KalPa Kuopio have re-signed two regulars from 2022-23 to their 2023-24 roster: Matyáš Kantner and Anton Karlsson. Karlsson, 30, is a former AHLer with the Cleveland Monsters who logged 49 games for KalPa last season. He’s a former everyday SHLer who ranked eighth among KalPa blueliners averaging 13:41 TOI per game last season. Kantner, 25, is a big winger who transferred mid-season from the Czech Extraliga and scored nine points in 17 regular-season games and three points in KalPa’s playoff series loss to the Pelicans.
  • A three-player trade was completed in the ECHL today, with the Tulsa Oilers acquiring Max Kaufman and Tristan Thompson from the Savannah Ghost Pirates in exchange for Alex Gilmour. Gilmour, 27, is a six-foot-five power forward who scored 16 goals and 40 points for Tulsa as an ECHL rookie in 2021-22 but struggled as a sophomore and only scored 18 points in 56 games. The hope for Savannah will be that a change of scenery will unlock the potential Gilmour flashed as a rookie, while in exchange for him Tulsa is adding Kaufman, 27, a former Boston University Terrier who scored 20 points in 57 games last season, and Thompson, 26, an undersized offensive defenseman who led Ghost Pirates defensemen in scoring as a sophomore player with 42 points in 72 games.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Jeremy Groleau Linked To Sweden

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After going unqualified by the New Jersey Devils last month, young defenseman Jeremy Groleau may have found his new home. The 23-year-old has a one-year agreement in place with SHL club Farjestad BK, per Hans Abrahamsson and Tomas Ros of Sportbladet.

It’s not often we see a North American-born player head to Europe immediately after completing their entry-level contract, but that appears to be Groleau’s choice. He hit the unrestricted free agent market this offseason despite seeing an increased role when in the lineup with the Devils’ AHL affiliate, the Utica Comets, but he played just 43 games and was stuck behind many higher-ceiling defenders ahead of him in the organization.

Groleau went undrafted when first eligible in 2018, but it didn’t take him long to find an NHL home. The Devils signed Groleau to a three-year entry-level contract later that summer as a free agent out of the QMJHL’s Chicoutimi Sagueneens, but the deal slid twice as he didn’t get into any NHL action during the first two seasons of the deal.

The Quebec-born defender actually has quite a bit of pro experience for a player his age, appearing in 151 AHL games for the Comets/Binghamton Devils over the past five seasons. This past season was his first real taste of any top-four action in the minors, and he responded with a career-high 10 points and a +14 rating in 43 games.

He could’ve been an intriguing target for some teams to pick up on a minor-league deal, especially given his 6-foot-3 frame and improving defensive play. Instead, he heads to one of Europe’s most successful franchises – Farjestad has won the SHL/Elitserien championship seven times since 1994 and consistently participates in the continental Champions Hockey League.

With seven healthy defenders already signed for next season, though, Groleau will have to slog it out for playing time with his new Swedish teammates. Interestingly, the report from Abrahamsson and Ros suggests Farjestad was interested in retaining NHL veteran defender Brandon Davidson, who instead signed with rival SHL club Rogle BK this morning.

Brandon Davidson Signs In Sweden

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Rögle BK of the Swedish Hockey League announced today that they have come to terms with former NHL defenseman Brandon Davidson. The 31-year-old spent parts of seven seasons in the NHL totalling 180 games while wearing seven different uniforms.

Generally regarded as a defensive defenseman, Davidson began his career with the Edmonton Oilers in 2014-15 and during his second season in the NHL, he looked as though he could be a big part of the Oilers blueline moving forward. Davidson dressed in 51 games that year posting four goals and seven assists while logging over 19 minutes of ice time a night.

Unfortunately for Davidson, he fell out of favor in the 2016-17 season and was traded to the Montreal Canadiens for David Desharnais in what seemed to be a change of scenery swap for both players. From there, Davidson never regained his footing and bounced around to six other NHL stops before eventually spending the past two seasons in the AHL with the Rochester Americans and Cleveland Monsters. This past spring Davidson signed a deal in the SHL with Färjestad BK where he played seven games and tallied a goal and an assist.

A lot of fringe NHLers have been feeling the squeeze in recent seasons due to the revenue shortages the NHL felt during the pandemic-shortened seasons. However, that is likely not the case with Davidson as he had bounced back and forth between the NHL and AHL prior to 2020.

If this is the end of his NHL career Davidson would finish with nine career goals and 14 assists in 180 NHL games.

Minor Transactions: 07/25/23

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Although NHL news has predictably slowed at this point in the offseason, there is still quite a bit of player movement activity in the wider world of professional hockey. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable moves from minor leagues and foreign professional leagues across the world.

  • On July 19th, it was announced that former San Jose Sharks prospect Marcus Vela would be leaving MoDo Hockey Ornskoldsvik rather than remain with the team for its first season back in the SHL. Today we learned where Vela’s next stop will be: Slovakia. The 26-year-old has signed with HC Banska Bystrica of the Slovak Tipos Extraliga. He’s the third forward native to British Columbia that the club have added this summer, joining Swiss second-division point-per-game scorer Matt Wilkins and former UConn Huskies captain Carter Turnbull. Vela split last season between two HockeyAllsvenskan clubs, MoDo and Vasterviks IK, acquitting himself well in his first season in Europe scoring 29 points in 46 games.
  • Former Carolina Hurricanes prospect Max Zimmer will not return to the ICEHL’s Vienna Capitals after an extremely successful first season with the club. The 25-year-old 2016 fourth-round pick scored 28 goals and 53 points in 48 regular-season games in the Austrian capital, as well as nine points in seven playoff games. The year before, Zimmer had scored 19 goals and 40 points in 48 games for the ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits, and earned his most meaningful AHL experience yet: 14 games with the Charlotte Checkers. Despite the Capitals’ best efforts to secure an agreement on a contract extension, the four-season Wisconsin Badger could now be headed back to North America or perhaps another ICEHL club for his next campaign.
  • 20-year-old Swedish defenseman Fred Nilsson has signed a try-out contract with the SHL’s Leksands IF, earning a chance to compete for a regular role with the club. 2022-23 was Nilsson’s first as a full-time pro hockey player, and he played a total of 48 games for Kristianstads IK, a club that ended their season relegated to third-tier HockeyEttan. Nilsson was the number-six defenseman for Kristianstads last season, averaging 14:48 time on ice per game. That usage doesn’t exactly suggest he’s ready for a full-time role in Sweden’s top division with Leksands, though he’ll nonetheless receive the opportunity to prove himself in the lead-up to the start of the club’s regular season.
  • 2018 Winnipeg Jets draft pick Austin Wong has signed a three-year contract with the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star. The 22-year-old pivot played a total of 83 games across three seasons for Harvard University, registering 15 points. Wong’s most recent season was his most challenging yet, at least offensively speaking, as he only generated one point in 30 games. Wong has shown some flashes of offense before, such as when he scored 15 goals for the Fargo Force in the USHL in 2020-21, but the offense has failed to materialize at the college level. According to CapFriendly, the Jets retain the exclusive rights to sign Wong, who was ranked 174th among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting in his draft year, until August 2024. Given Wong’s lack of development in college and this three-year KHL deal, there is effectively zero chance the Jets will sign Wong, though.
  •  25-year-old former Michigan Tech forward Tommy Parrottino had a strong first season as a professional hockey player in the ECHL, scoring 23 goals and 39 points in 66 games for the Iowa Heartlanders. Rather than continue in the North American third-tier league, Parrottino has made the choice to instead head overseas and sign with the EIHL’s Dundee Stars. Parrottino, the second-overall pick in the 2016 USHL Entry Draft, is the second quality ECHL scorer the Stars have imported in the past few days, as the team also signed Carter Johnson from the Maine Mariners on the 21st. Dundee won just 13 of 54 games last season and were the worst team in the EIHL standings, meaning they’ll hope the additions of Parrottino, Johnson, and other quality ECHL players can make them a more competitive outfit for 2023-24.
  • Niklas Würschl played full-time in the ICEHL for the first time this past season, skating in a total of 48 games for the Vienna Capitals across regular-season and playoff play. The 23-year-old blueliner didn’t exactly produce much, scoring three points in a limited role, but did show himself to be capable of handling the rigors of ICEHL action. Now, he’s changed teams, signing with Austrian rivals Black Wings Linz. Former ECHL All-Star Matt Murphy left Linz to sign in Slovakia while blueline regular Ramón Schnetzer signed in Switzerland, leaving Linz with a need to add to their back end. They’ve added a quality ICEHL prospect in Würschl, who has a chance to see regular minutes for the team next season and further establish himself in his native Austria’s top pro league.
  • Although 27-year-old netminder Claes Endre has struggled quite a bit since his stellar 2020-21 campaign as the number-one goalie for HockeyAllsvenskan side AIK, he’s earned another contract in Sweden’s second division. He’s signed with Södertälje SK, a team needing to add a goalie as star starter Nikita Tolopilo departed via a contract with the Vancouver Canucks. Endre will form a tandem with 28-year-old American Tomas Sholl, a former ECHL Goalie of the Year with the Idaho Steelheads who posted a 68-20-9 record and .930 save percentage across 99 career games in North America’s third-tier league. Sholl presumably has the upper hand given the success he’s found not only in the ECHL but also in the ICEHL over the past two seasons, (.923 save percentage in 84 total games for Italy’s HC Pustertal) though Endre does have the advantage of having prior experience in the Allsvenskan. Although Endre’s return to AIK did not yield the same results as he had in 2020-21 (he posted a .915 save percentage in 41 games that year, but a .891 this past season) Södertälje are likely hoping his competition with Sholl for starts will provide a strong environment for Endre to succeed.

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Minor Transactions: 07/21/23

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Although it’s generally a slow period for player movement in the NHL as teams hone in on arbitration cases, that isn’t the case for clubs in minor and overseas professional leagues. Just as the Maple Leafs begin an arbitration hearing with netminder Ilya Samsonov (no pre-arbitration agreement could be reached, according to The Hockey News’ David Alter) teams in quite a few leagues across the world, including the German DEL in particular, have been active making moves. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable ones here.

  • 2014 fifth-overall pick Michael Dal Colle is nearing a contract with the DEL’s Iserlohn Roosters, according to a report from Eishockey News in Germany. Dal Colle, 27, is a former top prospect who began his European pro career last season with TPS Turku in the Finnish Liiga. Dal Colle wasn’t horrible, but he only managed four goals and a total of 19 points in 36 games for Turku, and has now ended his association with the club at one year. The former AHL All-Star now heads to the Roosters, who finished the 2022-23 campaign 13th in the DEL standings.
  • Another forward with some NHL games on his resume rumored to be nearing a contract in the DEL is Joseph Cramarossa, a former Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild player. Cramarossa split last season between the Wild organization and Adler Mannheim in the DEL. He played with the Wild in both Iowa and Minnesota until he was placed on unconditional waivers so he could join Mannheim. After scoring eight points in 15 regular-season games and just one point in seven postseason games, Cramarossa has made the choice to continue in the DEL and join the Frankfurt Lions, a mid-table team from last season.
  • 2011 12th overall pick Ryan Murphy has signed a contract with EHC Red Bull Salzburg of the Central European ICEHL, according to a team announcement. This signing confirms Murphy will spend a second year playing in Europe since he last played in North America. Murphy, a 30-year-old defenseman, spent last season with Ufa Salavat Yulayev in the KHL, scoring 17 points in 43 games and earning the right to play in the KHL All-Star Game. Murphy was the 2020-21 AHL Defenseman of the Year and brings a stellar resume (including 175 games of NHL experience) to Austria and the defending ICEHL champions.
  • 25-year-old former NCAA winger Kohen Olischefski began this season with the hope of establishing himself in the AHL and earning a full-time spot with the Rochester Americans. While he finished the year playing postseason games for the Amerks, Olischefski spent most of the season in the ECHL with the Cincinnati Cyclones. Olischefski could only manage two goals in 16 AHL games and scored 26 points in 43 ECHL games. Now, the versatile forward has signed a contract with Dusseldorf EG in the DEL, choosing to continue his pro career overseas after his rookie campaign in North America.
  • EHC Red Bull Munich, the defending DEL Champions, have signed former Detroit Red Wing Adam Almquist. The move replaces former AHL and DEL Defenseman of the Year Zach Redmond, who agreed to a mutual contract termination after a season spent playing a significant role on Munich’s blueline. The 32-year-old Almquist last played in North America in 2013-14, scoring 53 points in 73 games for the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins and earning two games with the Red Wings. He scored his first (and only, to this date) NHL goal that season, before moving on to have a strong pro career in Europe with stops in Sweden, Switzerland, Belarus, and Russia.
  • Alexandre Grenier, a former quality prospect in the Vancouver Canucks system, has signed with the Cologne Sharks in the DEL. The 31-year-old 2011 90th overall pick is a two-time AHL All-Star who last played in North America in 2018-19 with his hometown Laval Rocket. He’s had a successful run overseas since then, including a season with Langnau in Switzerland that saw him post 48 points in 47 games. Grenier is no stranger to the DEL, either, and has 84 points in 99 career games in Germany’s top league.
  • Elias Rosén, cousin of Buffalo Sabres first-rounder Isak Rosén, has signed with the Vaxjo Lakers in the SHL, the defending Swedish champions. Rosen wrapped up a four-year collegiate career with Bemidji State University last season and made his pro debut on an ATO with the ECHL’s Kansas City Mavericks. The five-foot-ten left-shot defenseman was an accomplished player in college, earning First-Team All-Star honors in his conference for three consecutive years, including his 2020-21 campaign that saw him named conference Defensive Player of the Year. He acquitted himself well in a limited sample size of games with Kansas City, scoring nine points in 14 games, and has now earned a shot to establish himself with a top team in one of the best leagues outside the NHL.

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Minor Transactions: 07/19/23

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NHL teams have been hard at work in advance of upcoming arbitration cases, looking to find the sort of common ground on new contracts that leads to signings and avoids the arbitration process. Just as those top teams have been working to sign players for next season (the Vegas Golden Knights worked especially hard today, signing two players) professional hockey clubs around the world are also signing players and tweaking the teams they’ll bring into the next campaign. Here, we’ll keep track of notable moves that are made.

  • The Coachella Valley Firebirds, the AHL affiliate of the Seattle Kraken, have re-signed forward Ian McKinnon for the 2023-24 campaign. Although the Firebirds as a team ended the season heartbroken (they lost the Calder Cup championship in overtime of Game Seven at home) McKinnon personally had his strongest season as a professional. The six-foot-two bruiser only scored three points, to be sure, but he played in a career-high 36 AHL games and didn’t play a single game in the ECHL for the first time in his pro career. Now, he’s earned another year with the Firebirds where he’ll add some muscle to the bottom of their lineup and be a contender to rack up triple-digit penalty minutes once again.
  • Hayden Verbeek, a former Montreal Canadiens prospect and the nephew of Anaheim Ducks GM Pat Verbeek, has signed with the Crimmitschau Ice Pirates of Germany’s second-tier DEL2. Verbeek, 25, was a top-six forward for the Soo Greyhounds late in his OHL career and has become quite the journeyman recently. He has 26 points in 31 career ECHL games for three different teams and has also skated in AHL games for both the Laval Rocket and Grand Rapids Griffins. He spent last season in the Slovak league, where he scored 33 points in 44 games for HK Spisska Nova Ves. A capable all-around player, Verbeek led the Slovak league in short-handed goals and now moves to Germany to make a push for promotion to the DEL.
  • Although former San Jose Sharks prospect Marcus Vela played a helpful role in getting MoDo Hockey Ornskoldsvik promoted to the SHL in the spring, he won’t be joining the club for their return season in Sweden’s top league. Although Vela’s contract was automatically extended when the team defeated Djurgarden and won promotion, the player and club mutually agreed on a contract termination. 2022-23 was the 26-year-old Canadian’s first campaign overseas, and he played well across two HockeyAllsvenskan teams, totaling 29 points in 46 games. He could now opt to return to the ECHL, where he has in the past been productive for the Toledo Walleye, or could continue playing overseas.
  • 29-year-old minor league netminder Adam Carlson is retiring from playing the game, according to an announcement from his club, the ECHL’s Rapid City Rush. Carlson is leaving to take up goalie coaching roles in his home state of Minnesota, and ends his career having played nearly 200 games in the ECHL and eight in the AHL. Carlson was a member of the Rush organization for a combined four years, four of the strongest of his professional career. Carlson’s best year came in 2018-19, when he played in 45 games and posted a .916 save percentage, and he has started for other clubs including the Hershey Bears and Manitoba Moose.
  • Former ECHL All-Star Jalen Smereck has signed a contract extension to remain with the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones. Smereck is coming off of an exceptional two-season run playing in both Germany and Cincinnati. He scored 34 points in 46 games for the Bietigheim Steelers in the DEL in 2021-22, and without him this season the Steelers won just 14 games out of 56 and were relegated to the DEL2. This past season, Smereck scored 50 points in 53 games, the highest points-per-game scoring rate of any ECHL defenseman playing on a full-time basis. An elite defenseman in the ECHL, Smereck will now play a second season in Cincinnati and hope to earn an AHL call-up.
  • Nolan Volcan, the former captain of the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds, is beginning his professional career after three seasons at the University of Alberta. He’s signed an ECHL deal with the Fort Wayne Komets. The five-foot-nine 25-year-old forward scored 58 points in 76 games in Alberta and tallied 231 points in 321 WHL games. Volcan won a WHL championship with the Thunderbirds and now joins an ECHL club hoping to make some noise in the playoffs after a first-round exit last year.
  • The ECHL’s Maine Mariners have poached one of the league’s top young scorers from the Wheeling Nailers: Brooklyn Kalmikov. A QMJHL champion in 2020-21, the 22-year-old finished his junior career by scoring 34 goals and 72 points in 62 games. He turned pro this past season and skated in 66 games for the Nailers. He ranked second on the team in scoring, potting 23 goals and 52 points. Kalmikov even earned an AHL call-up to the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins, and though he went scoreless in three games he’ll likely get another chance if he can produce as well in Maine as he did in West Virginia.
  • Former Detroit Red Wing Jan Mursak signed with Klagenfurt in the ICEHL, according to a team announcement. The 2006 sixth-round pick was just the second Slovenian-born player to skate in the NHL (behind Los Angeles Kings captain Anze Kopitar) and ended up playing 45 games for the Red Wings across three seasons. Mursak was at one point Slovenia’s captain for international competitions, including the 2018 Winter Olympics, and has spent the last three seasons with Frolunda in the SHL. Now, he heads to Austria hoping to help Klagenfurt return to the Champions Hockey League and top of the ICEHL.
  • 2018-19 ECHL First-Team All-Star Matt Petgrave and 185-game Liiga veteran Niklas Nevalainen have both re-signed with their club of last season, the EIHL’s Sheffield Steelers. Petgrave excelled in his first season in England, scoring 48 points in 54 games and showcasing all-situations value on the powerplay and penalty kill. Although he only managed two points in four playoff games, he’ll likely be among the Steelers’ top scorers next season. Nevalainen, 30, is a former everyday defenseman in the top league of his native Finland, though he hasn’t played there since 2020-21. He spent 2021-22 playing in Norway and now seems to have found a home in England, where he scored 23 points last season.

Minor Transactions: 07/15/23

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As we’re just a month-and-a-half away from the start of the professional hockey season in Europe, (the first games of the Champions Hockey League season are scheduled for the last day of August) many teams are hard at work signing players and finalizing the team they’ll be hoping will bring them to glory in 2023-24. As always, we’ll recap player movement from around the hockey world here, from minor leagues to the European pro hockey circuit.

  • 938-game NHL veteran Anton Strålman has signed a contract with HV71 in his native Sweden, a move that likely marks the conclusion of his North American pro career. Strålman, 36, last played top-division pro hockey in Sweden way back in 2006-07, the second of two seasons he spent manning the blueline for Timra. Although Strålman earned a one-year, $1MM contract from the Boston Bruins last season the depth of Boston’s blueline meant it was extremely difficult for Strålman to earn a place in the NHL lineup. He ultimately played only eight games in Boston, his final one coming in late November. He finished 2022-23 in the AHL, and will now shift his focus to a league he led in average ice time the last time he played there.
  • Ostap Safin, a 2017 Edmonton Oilers fourth-round pick, has signed a tryout contract with Lada Togliatti in the KHL. Now 24 years old, Safin earned an entry-level deal from the Oilers in 2018, nearly a year after he was drafted. He had scored 58 points in 61 games as an import player in the QMJHL, and looked like a promising prospect for Oilers fans to track. Then a significant shoulder injury cost Safin most of his 2018-19 season, and while he managed to return for the postseason he could only muster two points in 23 games. Safin turned pro the following year and played in the ECHL with the Wichita Thunder, earning a spot in the ECHL All-Star game and scoring 35 points in 54 games. Safin failed to find a place in the AHL, though, and by the end of 2021-22 his time in the Oilers organization had clearly concluded. He left for his native Czechia to play in their top league, but only scored 13 points in 41 games for HC Sparta Praha. Now, he’ll look to earn a job in the KHL and translate his tantalizing physical tools into tangible production in a challenging pro league.
  • The AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals have announced the signing of Carson Gicewicz to a one-year AHL contract. The six-foot-three New York native just wrapped up his second full season as a professional hockey player and has logged a total of 117 games in the AHL, almost all with the Rockford IceHogs. An NCAA Men’s Hockey National Champion at UMass Amherst, Gicewicz has carved out a role as a physical depth center in the AHL. The 26-year-old was traded by the IceHogs to the Rochester Americans for their playoff push in the middle of last season, although he only skated in three games for the Amerks. With this one-year deal he latches on with the Admirals and will likely be under consideration for a fourth-line center role, similar to the role he occupied in his brief time in Rochester.
  • After one season playing Canadian University hockey, former QMJHL star Simon Pinard has made the choice to turn pro. According to a team announcement, he’s signed a two-year AHL contract with the Henderson Silver Knights, the affiliate of the Vegas Golden Knights. Pinard, 22, is an undrafted player who spent last season at the University of New Brunswick, scoring 29 points in 29 games. The season before, he scored 91 points in 67 games in the QMJHL splitting time between the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada and Gatineau Olympiques. By signing Pinard to a deal with a two-year term, the Silver Knights are clearly making a bet that the five-foot-eleven Canadian forward can translate some of his USports and QMJHL productivity to the professional level.
  • 2022-23 was longtime Cleveland Monsters center Justin Scott’s first away from Cleveland, the only pro team he’s suited up for. Now, the 2023-24 campaign is set to be Scott’s first away from North America. The 27-year-old has signed with the Straubing Tigers of the DEL. Scott parlayed a successful final season with the Barrie Colts in the OHL and an exceptional 17 goals in 15 games playoff run into a an entry-level contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Scott was solid in his first season in the AHL, scoring 13 goals and 23 points in 53 games. While he endured a difficult sophomore slump, Scott quickly grew into a reliable regular for the Monsters and by his finals season there he was wearing a letter on his jersey and scoring 16 goals and 34 points in 76 games. Scott didn’t fare nearly as well in his one season with a different AHL club, the Colorado Eagles, scoring just 11 points in 53 games. Now he’s off to Germany, where he could end up an important all-around player for a club looking to make a deep playoff run after losing in Game Seven of the DEL Quarterfinals to Wolfsburg.
  • While the Tigers bring in one import player in Scott, they lose another as Canadian defenseman Trent Bourque signed a contract with Tingsryds AIF of HockeyAllsvenskan, the second tier of Swedish pro hockey. The former St. Louis Blues draft pick has spent parts of the last two seasons in the DEL with the Tigers, though he didn’t feature in the team’s playoff push or series against Wolfsburg. The six-foot-two 25-year-old former OHL mainstay began his pro career in the ECHL but couldn’t quite find his footing during AHL call-ups, leading to a move to Europe. With this new contract, Bourque is set to help Tingsryds in their attempt to avoid relegation to third-tier HockeyEttan after only narrowly avoiding that fate in 2022-23.
  • Tikhon Chayka is beginning his pro career after two seasons as the number-one goalie for the Prince Albert Raiders in the WHL. Chayka, who turns 20 in August, signed with Dynamo Minsk in his native Belarus. While Chayka is highly unlikely to feature in the KHL immediately, he was decent in his two seasons in the WHL. While his numbers declined in 2022-23, he had a solid .904 save percentage in 51 games in 2021-22. He could be in line to see time in the crease in Minsk once the incumbent starting goalie, Philadelphia Flyers prospect Alexei Kolosov, heads to North America to begin his recently-signed entry-level deal.
  • After four seasons at Canisius College, 24-year-old defenseman Lincoln Erne is turning pro. He’s signed a one-year ECHL contract with the Tulsa Oilers, and heads to Oklahoma after a strong senior collegiate campaign. Erne led Canisius to the NCAA Tournament and an AHA conference championship. The minutes-eating defensive defenseman doesn’t have much of an offensive game but will hope to bring his trademark physicality, size, and defensive responsibility to Tulsa and begin to climb the ladder of North American pro hockey.
  • After three seasons in the ECHL, former Boston College defenseman Luke McInnis is changing teams for the first time. The 24-year-old blueliner signed a contract with the Indy Fuel, confirming his exit from the Orlando Solar Bears, his club of the last three years. The Fuel acquired McInnis’ rights from Orlando in a trade last month, targeting the undersized defenseman after he ranked second among Solar Bears blueliners with 25 points in just 45 games. While the Solar Bears endured a difficult campaign, the Fuel made the ECHL playoffs and have now added some defensive reinforcements for next season.
  • Former Minnesota Wild prospect Gustav Bouramman has signed a one-year contract extension with his current club, the Graz99ers of the ICEHL. The deal lands Bouramman a second campaign in Austria, marking the first time in his professional career that he’s spent consecutive campaigns with the same organization. Bouramman overcame some early injuries to score 18 points in 31 ICEHL games, helping Graz reach the postseason. Before he landed in the ICEHL Bouramman spent three years playing in the HockeyAllsvenskan, and before that point he began his pro career as a regular on the blueline of the Rapid City Rush in the ECHL.
  • The EIHL’s Guildford Flames have secured the services of bruising defenseman Kyle Locke for a third campaign, inking him to a one-year extension. Called “probably the most significant physical presence” on the Flames’ roster by his head coach, Locke has logged 133 total games for Guildford and helped them to the EIHL playoffs in back-to-back years. He’s combined for 147 career penalty minutes in his career in the EIHL, and will now continue his career in England as the most menacing player on the Guildford defense.

Prospect Notes: Carlsson, Clara, Wild

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The Ducks drafted center Leo Carlsson with the second-overall pick in the draft last month and he is widely considered to be one of the most NHL-ready prospects of this draft class.  However, Carlsson’s agent Matt Keator told Jim Alexander of The Press-Enterprise that there is no rush for him to make a decision on where the youngster will play in 2023-24.  Carlsson is under contract for two more years with Orebro of the SHL but as Carlsson is a first-round pick and Sweden has a transfer agreement with the NHL, a contract with Anaheim can supersede that.  Carlsson had 25 points in 44 games last season in Sweden’s top division and a decision on where he plays next season will be jointly made between him and the team.

Other prospect news from around the hockey world:

  • There were a total of a dozen NHL-drafted players in the recently-completed CHL Import Draft. One name that wasn’t on that list was Ducks goaltender Damian Clara.  Lisa Dillman of the Orange County Register notes that several CHL squads expressed an interest in bringing over the 18-year-old Italian but that the netminder remained committed to playing on loan in Sweden’s second-tier Allsvenskan next season with Brynas.  He has two years remaining on his deal over there but if things don’t go as planned for him next season, Clara would be eligible for selection in the Import Draft next summer as well.
  • Wild prospects Danila Yurov and Liam Ohgren both intend to play in North America in 2024-25, relays Joe Smith of The Athletic (subscription link). The pair were first-round picks back in 2022, going 19th and 22nd overall, respectively, and are two of Minnesota’s top prospects.  Both are under contracts with their club teams (Metallurg Magnitogorsk for Yurov and Farjestad for Ohgren) next season but the plan is for Yurov to sign once that contract expires while Ohgren, already signed, will have his deal slide once more.  The Wild will need an influx of young, cost-controllable talent and these two could push to make the jump to the NHL right away once they sign.

Minor Transactions: 07/06/23

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The music is slowing down in this year’s game of free agent musical chairs, and fewer and fewer players remain without a seat for next season. Some top names such as Vladimir Tarasenko and Matt Dumba linger on the market, but by and large, teams have shifted towards making signings more geared to depth roles in their lineup.

Free agents of that general caliber are also the players minor-league teams and teams in foreign leagues are targeting, meaning there’s been quite a bit of player movement today across the hockey world. As always, we’ll log those transactions and provide some context to them here.

  •  Zachary Fucale, once a top goalie prospect earlier in his career, will likely play in Europe for the first time as a pro hockey player in a few months. The 28-year-old former Washington Capitals farmhand signed a two-year contract with Traktor Chelyabinsk of the KHL. Fucale posted a .902 save percentage in 38 games for the AHL’s Hershey Bears this past season and won the Calder Cup. As a two-time Spengler Cup winner, Fucale has had some success playing against European club competition, and he’ll say goodbye (for now) to North American pro hockey having appeared in four NHL games and registered a memorable shutout in his NHL debut.
  • 2018-19 AHL Defenseman of the Year and three-time AHL All-Star Zach Redmond has agreed on a mutual contract termination with his club, DEL champions EHC Red Bull Munich. The soon-to-be-35-year-old rearguard had spent the last three seasons in the Bavarian capital, leading the DEL in points by a defenseman in his first year and goals by a blueliner in his second. His seven points in 12 playoff games helped propel Munich to a DEL title over ERC Ingolstadt, and now Redmond could be eyeing a return to North American pro hockey with this contract termination.
  • The New York Islanders’ AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Islanders, announced the signings of three forwards to AHL contracts: Cole Bardreau, Jeff Kubiak, and Joey Cipollone. Bardreau, 29, scored 15 goals and 31 points in 67 AHL games last season and has been a top-nine staple in Bridgeport since 2019. Kubiak, also 29, is a defensive specialist at the AHL level who routinely features on Bridgeport’s penalty kill. He’s been with the Islanders organization since he turned pro out of Cornell University in 2017. Finally, Cipollone, 23, is a winger who won the NCAA Men’s Hockey National Championship last season with Quinnipiac University and is now set to make his pro debut.
  • Former Minnesota-Duluth captain and two-time NCAA Men’s Hockey National Champion Nick Wolff has signed a one-year contract with the AHL’s San Diego Gulls, confirming his exit from the Providence Bruins after three seasons in Rhode Island. Wolff is a 26-year-old left-shot blueliner who stands six-foot-five, 223 pounds. He’s brought physicality to a reserve role with Providence so far in his pro career, and now heads out west to a revamped San Diego Gulls squad, where he could end up playing along the right side next to one of the Ducks’ high-end young defenders, such as Olen Zellweger or former Minnesota Golden Gopher Jackson LaCombe.
  • The AHL’s Utica Comets have signed rugged defenseman Colin Felix, an NCAA Men’s Hockey National Champion at UMass Amherst, to a one-year, one-way AHL contract. The 24-year-old turned pro last fall and skated in 72 games with the ECHL’s Reading Royals. He scored eight goals and 27 points and collected 139 penalty minutes, bringing physical two-way ability to the Royals’ blueline. Now, the Comets are hoping Felix can do the same for their back end, a defense that needed to replace a right-shot blueliner after the trade of Reilly Walsh to the Boston Bruins. The Comets have also signed Jeremy Brodeur, son of legendary Devils netminder Martin Brodeur, to a two-way NHL/ECHL contract, bringing him over from the EIHL where he was the starter for the Manchester Storm.
  • Alex-Olivier Voyer, a former QMJHL star with the Sherbrooke Phoenix, has signed a one-year, one-way AHL contract with the Laval Rocket. Getting a one-way deal in the AHL is a victory for Voyer, who dropped from playing mostly in the AHL in 2021-22 to the ECHL in 2022-23. Voyer had scored only eight points in 41 games with the Providence Bruins in 21-22, but managed 23 goals and 43 points in 48 ECHL games this season, not only securing himself a spot back in North America’s second-tier pro league but also a spot in his home province.
  • Former Hobey Baker Award finalist Dylan McLaughlin has signed a contract with Vaxjo Lakers HC, the reigning champions of Sweden’s SHL. The deal is McLaughlin’s first foray into European pro hockey. The 28-year-old had a difficult 2022-23 campaign, playing just nine games total. The year before, though, McLaughlin broke out, scoring 42 points in 55 games for the Rockford IceHogs. Now McLaughlin will compete for a role in Sweden and potentially help Vaxjo secure a second consecutive title.
  • Undersized 25-year-old blueliner Joseph Duszak has climbed the pro hockey ladder since concluding an exceptional three-year NCAA career, but hasn’t yet received any NHL call-ups. He began in the ECHL with the Newfoundland Growlers, and scored 35 points in 34 games from the blueline. He was named an ECHL All-Star and ended up earning a job in the AHL with the Toronto Marlies. Duszak excelled in Toronto, scoring 52 points in 61 games in 2021-22 and earning AHL Second-Team All-Star honors. After that strong AHL campaign, Duszak likely viewed excelling overseas as his next step towards earning NHL consideration, so he signed in the KHL with Dynamo Minsk. Duszak was exceptional in Belarus, finishing behind former Boston Bruin Ryan Spooner for the team lead in points with 45 in 68 games played. Now, he’s signed a one-year AHL contract with the Springfield Thunderbirds likey with the hope of producing well once again and finally earning an NHL shot.
  • Former Buffalo Sabres prospect Jordon Southorn, one of the top blueliners in Slovakia’s Tipos Extraliga, has signed a one-year deal with the Augsburg Panthers of the DEL. The 33-year-old Canadian moved to Slovakia in 2018-19 mid-season, and made an instant impact with Banska Bystrica HC 05, winning a championship there. He led the Slovak league in points by a defenseman with 51 in 2019-20, and took home another league championship a few months ago with HC Kosice. Now, he’ll head to Germany to bolster the blueline of a club that only narrowly avoided relegation to the DEL2 in 2022-23.
  • Austrian national team defenseman Dominique Heinrich is returning to his hometown of Vienna after playing over 600 games at Austria’s top level of pro hockey with EHC Red Bull Salzburg. The five-foot-eight 32-year-old won a sixth title with Salzburg this past season, though he skated in a career-low 26 regular-season games. Now both Heinrich and Salzburg are moving in a different direction, as Heinrich has signed a contract with the Vienna Capitals, a rival ICEHL club. It’s a major signing for a Vienna team looking to finally push themselves across the finish line next season, as their many deep playoff runs since their 2016-17 title have ended in failure.

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