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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.

This page will be updated throughout the day.

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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