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Minor Transactions 08/26/22

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We’re inching closer to the opening of NHL training camps, and most teams have finalized their offseason work. That being said, there are still some players looking for a spot for next season, especially in minor leagues and in Europe. We’ll keep track of those moves here.

  • Remi Elie, a forward with 107 NHL games under his belt, has made the choice to continue his career overseas. Today reigning Swedish champions Farjestad BK announced the signing of Elie on a one-year deal. Elie played last season with the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL, scoring 29 points in 48 games. The 27-year-old was the 40th overall pick at the 2013 draft and appeared in one NHL game last season for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
  • The 176th overall pick at the 2015 draft, Liam Dunda, is heading to Sweden to begin his pro career. Amals SK, a club in Sweden’s fourth-tier HockeyTvaan, announced the signing of Dunda today. The big 24-year-old winger most recently played for Queens University in Canadian college hockey and played for four OHL teams in his five-year major junior career.

This page will be updated throughout the day.

Carolina Hurricanes Name Brock Sheahan AHL Head Coach

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Per a team release, the Carolina Hurricanes have named Brock Sheahan the head coach of their AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves.

Sheahan, 38, becomes a professional hockey coach for the first time. He got his coaching start with Notre Dame in 2013-14 as an assistant coach, serving just one season. For four seasons from 2014 to 2018, he spent time as an assistant and associate coach for the College of the Holy Cross before getting a job with the USHL’s Chicago Steel for 2018-19.

The Steel promoted him to their head coaching role during the 2019-20 season and he never looked back. Sheahan guided the 2020-21 Chicago Steel to a Clark Cup championship, working with current NHL prospects such as Sean Farrell, Matt Coronato, Mackie Samoskevich, and Josh Doan.

The Wolves themselves are coming off a Calder Cup-winning season, spearheaded by high-end veteran firepower and elite goaltending. It was enough to get their previous head coach, Ryan Warsofsky, an assistant job with the San Jose Sharks. Sheahan will need to keep the team’s structure intact after an offseason that’s seen a lot of turnover at all spots in the Hurricanes organization.

Prospect Notes: Clang, Feuk, Veinbergs

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John Gibson’s name is beginning to come up in trade rumors more and more, and, while it seems like the Anaheim Ducks might be in a lot of goaltending trouble without him, that’s not entirely true. Behind Gibson, the team has one of the best one-two goalie prospect punches in the league, quietly adding to their prospect pool this season via trade.

That trade was the Rickard Rakell deal, where the Ducks acquired goalie prospect Calle Clang from the Pittsburgh Penguins as part of the return. Today, they’ve officially loaned Clang to Rögle BK of the SHL for the 2022-23 season, per a team tweet. Clang was the backup for Team Sweden at the 2022 World Juniors, only so due to the brilliance of Jesper Wallstedt. In two games, Clang had a .944 save percentage, complementing what was a strong rookie season for him in the SHL (2.28 GAA, .915 SV%, 10-5-0 record). While he’ll be staying there for another season, it’s probably the best for his development — the team has another high-end goalie prospect in Lukas Dostal who will receive the lion’s share of the starts for the San Diego Gulls in the AHL.

  • Calgary Flames prospect Lucas Feuk is heading to North America on an AHL contract with the Calgary Wranglers, according to his former league in Sweden, HockeyEttan. A 2019 fourth-round pick, the Flames have Feuk’s exclusive signing rights until June of next year. The 21-year-old had 27 points in 32 HockeyEttan games last year split between Väsby IK and Nybro Vikings IF. HockeyEttan is Sweden’s third-tier professional league, sitting behind the SHL and Allsvenskan.
  • Another prospect is heading to North America, according to his former team — Tampa Bay Lightning 2022 draft pick Klavs Veinbergs will suit up for the USHL’s Lincoln Stars in 2022-23. Veinbergs, 19, was drafted from Zemgale in the Latvian league and represented his country at the 2022 World Juniors. He’ll head to the USHL to continue his development, which is becoming a popular destination among Latvian players.

Jonathan Dahlen Linked To Timra

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Free agent winger Jonathan Dahlen is one of the more intriguing players still on the open market after a decent rookie campaign.  But a suitable NHL contract hasn’t materialized and that has his old team calling as Johan Svensson and Adam Johansson of Sport-Expressen report that Timra has shown interest in bringing Dahlen back for a third stint with the organization while teams in Switzerland have also inquired about his willingness to go back overseas.

The 24-year-old played in 61 games with the Sharks last season, putting up 12 goals and 10 assists, decent numbers for his first taste of NHL action.  However, with San Jose tight to the salary cap and Dahlen having arbitration eligibility, the team opted not to tender him a qualifying offer which made him an unrestricted free agent last month.

Svensson and Johansson report that a one-way NHL contract has yet to be offered despite Dahlen’s performance last season; that has likely resulted in him looking at other alternatives.  A long-term offer is believed to be on its way in the coming days from Timra, the team he has had two previous stints with in their Allsvenskan days although they’ve since moved up to the SHL.  Dahlen had a good first year in the NHL but it appears it might be his last campaign at the top level for a while.

Johan Larsson Signs In Sweden

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August 12: Larsson has indeed opted to return to Brynas, per a team release today. Brynas has Larsson locked in for three seasons, making him 33 years old at the end of the deal. Considering how effective Larsson still was this past season, though, an NHL return at that point shouldn’t be out of the question.

August 10: It appears as though Johan Larsson is heading home, as reports out of Sweden have the free agent forward signing with Brynas, the organization that developed him. Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports tweets that Larsson, who played for the Arizona Coyotes and Washington Capitals last season, had offers from several NHL teams but wanted a bigger role.

He actually received that bigger role in Arizona, where he averaged nearly 18 minutes a night for the 29 games he played. That resulted in 15 points during his time in the desert, and the continued excellent defensive play that he has brought his entire career. Even in Washington, where he saw a dramatically reduced role, he added six points in 14 games, and entered the summer as an interesting option for teams looking to increase their center depth.

Now 30, Larsson has always been an excellent defensive presence and has nearly 500 games of NHL experience. His previous career-high was 18 points, set in the 2019-20 season but he broke that in just 43 games this year. Going unsigned is rather surprising, even if it is because he was looking for a bigger role. Heading back to the SHL now could very well end his NHL career.

Of course, it’s not just role. Larsson played years for Brynas before coming to the NHL, winning U18, U20, and Elite League titles with the organization during his time there. If he does return, it will be the homecoming of a legendary club player, even if his North American career wasn’t everything he had hoped. In 488 career regular season games, Larsson scored 53 goals and 132 points.

Leo Komarov Linked To SHL

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At the end of April, SKA St. Petersburg announced several players would not be returning to the KHL club for next season. Among those was veteran NHL forward Leo Komarov, who was suddenly without a team. After some rumors earlier in the summer that suggested he would be heading to Sweden, he once again has been linked to the SHL today.

This time, it’s Brynas who are expected to sign Komarov, the same club that was connected to Johan Larsson yesterday. Now 35, Komarov actually started last season in the NHL, before agreeing to a contract termination in order to find more playing time overseas and compete in the Olympics (where he won gold). Despite his Russian-sounding name, the veteran forward was born in Estonia and grew up in Finland, which is also the country he competes for internationally.

A return to North America always seemed unlikely at this point, given how far his game had declined in recent years. An all-effort-every-time kind of player, Komarov banged and crashed his way through nearly 500 regular season games in the NHL, racking up 1,572 hits in the process. He had a career-high 19 goals and 36 points during the 2015-16 season with the Toronto Maple Leafs but would come nowhere close to those totals with the New York Islanders.

In fact, over parts of four seasons, Komarov had just 11 total goals for the Islanders, despite seeing time alongside Mathew Barzal occasionally. A contract in Sweden would likely close the book entirely on his NHL career, if it hadn’t already been shut. In 491 career regular season games, he scored 63 goals and 170 points.

Petteri Lindbohm Signs In SHL

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August 2: Lindbohm’s choice to head back to Europe is now official. Frolunda HC has signed Lindbohm, per a team announcement.

August 1: Petteri Lindbohm’s return to the NHL appears as if it will be a short-lived one.  SportExpressen’s Johan Svensson reports that the 28-year-old has been fielding interest from teams overseas and is believed to have a verbal agreement in place to sign with Frolunda of the SHL.

Lindbohm started last season with Jokerit of the KHL and did well enough to join Finland at the Olympics back in February.  When Jokerit ceased operations, he was let out of his contract and signed with Florida for the rest of the season, giving the Panthers some extra defensive depth down the stretch.

Lindbohm got into nine games with Florida, picking up an assist while averaging a little over 14 minutes per game.  However, he was a healthy scratch in all ten of their playoff contests and it appears as if there wasn’t enough of a market for him in free agency to secure another one-way contract.  Instead, he’ll head overseas where he’ll have a chance to play a big role and perhaps play his way into a third NHL opportunity down the road.

Minor Transactions: 08/01/22

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It’s been a long, slow grind since the craziness of free agency opening on July 13, with a good number of high-end free agents remaining unsigned. With many other leagues than just the NHL looking to get their rosters set for next season, though, that hasn’t been the case everywhere. Minor-league teams and overseas leagues are making moves and transactions to their squads every day, giving hockey fans something else to look at. We’ll keep track of today’s transactions right here.

  • Tim Schaller, a veteran of nearly 300 NHL games, has found a new AHL club for next season. Per a team announcement, the Milwaukee Admirals have signed Schaller to a one-year AHL contract. Schaller was, just a few years ago, a capable bottom-six center for the Boston Bruins. He scored 12 goals and 22 points in 82 games in 2017-18 and looked to have established himself in the NHL. But injury issues and underperformance relegated him to part-time duty with the Vancouver Canucks, and he’s spent the past two full seasons in the AHL. Last year with the Bakersfield Condors, Schaller posted 10 goals and 25 points in 67 games, playing in a similar defense-first bottom-six role to the one he played in the NHL. There is a leadership component to Schaller’s game, as he’s worn letters in both professional and collegiate hockey settings, and he should help an Admirals team looking to graduate its young talent and send them to Nashville.
  • Former QMJHL star, captain of the Quebec Ramparts, and longtime DEL fixture Brent Aubin is headed to France. After a disappointing 17-point season with the Iserlohn Roosters of the DEL, Aubin has signed a contract with Grenoble of the French Ligue Magnus. Aubin is a capable forward who has a long resume of productive seasons in Europe. He should help Grenoble defend their Ligue Magnus title next season and chip in as they attempt to make a run in the Champions Hockey League.
  • 2015 third-round pick Blake Speers is headed overseas. The 25-year-old center, who was traded to the Arizona Coyotes as part of the Taylor Hall trade, has signed a one-year deal with Vasteras IK of Swedish second-tier league HockeyAllsvenskan. Speers was an accomplished scorer for the OHL’s Soo Greyhounds, forming a deadly partnership with Boston Bruins 2015 first-rounder Zachary Senyshyn. But since he ended his OHL days, Speers has struggled to make much of an impact in the professional game. Speers has just 42 points in 203 NHL games and will look to help Vasteras achieve promotion to the SHL.
  • Swedish winger Jakob Lilja, who played 37 games for the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2019-20, is changing KHL teams. The forward, who has spent the past two seasons with KHL side Nur-Sultan Barys, has signed a two-year, one-way contract with HC Dynamo Moscow. Lilja has been productive in his KHL career thus far, with 62 points in 106 games. He’ll join a Dynamo squad eager to return to the KHL playoffs after a run to the conference semifinals last season.
  • KHL club Amur Khabarovsk announced the signings of two North American pro players today: Cam Lee and Andrew Calof. Lee, 25, was a star defenseman for Western Michigan University and became a regular with the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins after turning pro, playing as a bottom-pairing defenseman under coach J.D. Forrest. Calof, 31, was, like Lee, a star in the NCAA. Calof was a top scorer for Princeton University for four seasons, finishing his collegiate career with 123 points in 117 games. After graduating, Calof immediately signed a contract with SHL side Skelleftea AIK, and became an important contributor there. After a poor final season in Skelleftea and a bounce-back year for the Vaxjo Lakers, Calof left for the KHL, where he was similarly productive. He spent last season back with Vaxjo and now heads back to the KHL once again. Both Lee and Calof are capable professionals who should be able to help Amur recover from what was a difficult 2021-22 season that saw them languish near the bottom of the KHL standings.
  • Former NHL-er Brian Gibbons, a veteran of over 200 NHL games, is changing leagues once again. The two-way forward signed with Swiss club HC Lausanne after leaving North America and spent last season  SHL club HC Linkoping. Now, he’s heading to the DEL, signing with German club ERC Ingolstadt, per a team announcement. Gibbons has brought his reliable all-arond game to Europe, although while he was productive in Switzerland he struggled in the SHL. A move to the DEL should benefit him, and be a strong addition for Ingolstadt in their climb up the DEL.
  • Forward Benjamin Baumgartner, a 2020 sixth-round pick of the New Jersey Devils, is switching teams. The forward, who spent 2021-22 with HC Lausanne, has signed a two-year contract with fellow Swiss club HC Bern. Baumgartner has 71 points in 149 career games in the Swiss National League and is part of a growing movement of young Austrian hockey talent that boasts recently-drafted prospects in Minnesota Wild first-rounder Marco Rossi and Montreal Canadiens third-rounder Vinzenz Rohrer.
  • Matt Tugnutt, the son of longtime NHL goalie Ron Tugnutt, is headed for Europe. The 26-year-old spent last season in the ECHL, splitting time between the Greenville Swamp Rabbits and the Idaho Steelheads. The 26-year-old is a center and had 25 points in 53 ECHL games last season. He’s joining the Chamonix Pioneers of Ligue Magnus, with the goal of helping them secure their place in the top division of French hockey for another season.
  • After a long NCAA career, Seamus Donohue has chosen to continue his pro career overseas. The defenseman got seven games with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays last season, and now heads to Liiga club SaiPa. Donohue is a crease-clearing defenseman who lacks experience in professional hockey. He joins a SaiPa squad that has abundant opportunities to excel, seeking new faces to help them bounce back from a 2021-22 campaign that saw them finish second-to-last in Liiga. Per the team announcement, Donohue’s contract with SaiPa is a one-year deal with an option for 2023-24.
  • The AHL’s Utica Comets announced today that they’ve signed rough-and-tumble forward Noah Corson to a one-year, two-way AHL/ECHL deal. Corson turned pro in the Southern Professional Hockey League and parlayed that strong production (16 points in 19 games) into a shot with the ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals. Corson’s ECHL debut was impressive, as he posted 24 goals and 55 points in 57 games to go along with 162 PIM’s. He got a brief call-up with the Chicago Wolves and heads to Utica hoping to make their AHL squad and continue his climb up the pro hockey ladder.
  • The Minnesota Wild’s AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild, announced the signing of defenseman Matt Murphy to a one-year, two-way AHL/ECHL deal. Murphy spent time with three teams last season, getting into 21 games with the ECHL’s Fort Wayne Komets and the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks and Providence Bruins. Murphy had 14 points in 21 ECHL games and should serve as dependable depth for the Iowa Wild.

This page will be updated throughout the day.

Minor Transactions: 07/29/22

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It’s been a long, slow grind since the craziness of free agency opening on July 13, with a good number of high-end free agents remaining unsigned. With many other leagues than just the NHL looking to get their rosters set for next season, though, that hasn’t been the case everywhere. Minor-league teams and overseas leagues are making moves and transactions to their squads every day, giving hockey fans something else to look at. We’ll keep track of today’s transactions right here.

  • Goaltender Gage Alexander, a 2021 fifth-round pick of the Anaheim Ducks, was traded by his WHL team today. His Winnipeg Ice shipped him to the Swift Current Broncos, in exchange for a 2025 third-round pick. Alexander, 20, is a promising six-foot-six netminder who hasn’t had the chance to get the a starter’s workload in Winnipeg. This is actually relevant news for the Ducks, as the conventional wisdom surrounding goalie development is that they need to get as many games played as possible. Alexander wasn’t in a position to play as a starter with the Ice, but he’s now in prime position to be his team’s number-one in Swift Current. With the Broncos’ starting goalie from last season, Isaac Poulter, departed for the pro ranks, Alexander will compete with Boston Bruins 2022 draft pick Reid Dyck for the starting role in Swift Current.
  • The Toronto Maple Leafs’ AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, announced the signings of four players today, each receiving one-year AHL contracts. The players are Jack Badini, Brett Budgell, Zach O’Brien, and Zach Solow. Solow and O’Brien are each accomplished ECHL forwards, both scoring at high levels in the third-tier league with limited success at the AHL level. Badini is a 2014 third-round pick of the Anaheim Ducks who got into 46 games with their AHL affiliate last season but played in an extremely limited role. The most interesting player in the quartet is Budgell, a 21-year-old forward who has served as the captain of the QMJHL’s Charlottetown Islanders for the past two seasons. A decent scorer in each of his junior campaigns, Budgell really hit his stride in his final two years, as many CHL players do. He had 40 goals and 79 points in his final junior season, leading the Islanders on a run to the QMJHL finals. He will hope to make the Marlies this fall and translate his junior scoring to the professional game.
  • Veteran SHL forward Joel Mustonen is heading down a division. Today Swedish club IF Bjorkloven, a side that plays in the second-tier Allsvenskan, announced that they’d signed Mustonen to a two-year deal. Mustonen has been a regular face in the SHL for the past five seasons, seeing regular minutes for Frolunda and Orebro. He had a difficult 2021-22, with just nine points in 42 games, which likely led to his signing in the Allsvenskan. Mustonen will head to Bjorkloven to help the team get over the hump and secure promotion to the SHL after a finals loss to HV71.
  • After a point-per-game campaign in the ECHL that saw him earn a call-up to the AHL, undrafted forward Mitch Hults chose to head overseas, signing a contract with the Bratislava Capitals of the IceHL. A near point-per-game year in the IceHL earned Hults a chance to play in one of Europe’s top leagues, the Finnish Liiga, landing him a contract with TPS Turku. Hults’ Liiga debut was uneven, though, and despite solid power-play time he was unable to find success within the more conservative structures of Liiga, scoring just 21 points in 51 games. Now, he’s headed back to his old stomping grounds, the IceHL. Today Italian club HC Bolzano announced that they’d signed Hults to a one-year contract. Bolzano just missed out on the playoffs in 2021-22 and their addition of Hults will likely give their offensive attack a serious jolt.
  • Former Vancouver Canuck Philip Holm is headed back to the SHL. Fresh off a two-year stint in the KHL for Jokerit and Metallurg Magnitogorsk, Holm has signed a three-year deal with Orebro HK of the SHL. Holm is an accomplished defenseman, with an NHL game on his resume and a selection to Sweden’s squad for the Beijing Winter Olympics. He should help Orebro return to the playoffs for next season and reinforce a defense that ranked third-best in the SHL in goals-against last season.

This page will be updated throughout the day.

Stefan Matteau Signs In Sweden

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After spending most of last season in the minor leagues, Stefan Matteau is headed overseas. The free agent foward has signed a two-year contract with Linkoping HC of the SHL, ending his run in North America for the time being.

Matteau, 28, was a first-round pick of the New Jersey Devils back in 2012 and has bounced around the league over the last few seasons. Playing NHL games with the Devils, Montreal Canadiens, Vegas Golden Knights, Columbus Blue Jackets, and most recently the Colorado Avalanche, the versatile forward was unable to really establish himself as a full-time option.

It is somewhat interesting to see him head to Europe, given the fact that Matteau has landed NHL contracts over and over again, despite not really playing much at that level. Last season, he was signed to a one-year, two-way deal with the Avalanche that included a strong minor league guarantee of $250K. He had secured guarantees of $200K on each of his last three contracts as well.

Still, with the SHL being a very competitive league and Matteau describing this chance as an “adventure” for himself and his family, it makes sense for him to pursue the new challenge. If the two-year deal marks the end of his NHL career, he’ll finish with 92 games played and 11 points at the highest level.

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