Lightning Make Three Roster Moves
The Lightning were busy on the roster move front as they get set to take on Seattle today. The team announced that defenseman Declan Carlile has been recalled from AHL Syracuse. He takes the place of J.J. Moser who has landed on injured reserve. Meanwhile, forward Jack Finley has been activated from season-opening injured reserve and was assigned to the Crunch, per the AHL’s transactions log.
It’s Carlile’s first recall of the season. The 24-year-old made his NHL debut last year, getting into one game with Tampa Bay and with a strong season in the minors, he received a two-year, two-way deal back in June. In 2024-25, Carlile has played in 21 games with the Crunch and has been a bit quieter than normal offensively, recording just one goal and two assists. By comparison, he had 27 points in 61 games with Syracuse last season and 24 points in 69 outings in 2022-23.
As for Moser, he was injured on Thursday against Calgary. The 24-year-old is in his first season with Tampa Bay after being acquired from Utah at the draft as part of the Mikhail Sergachev deal. Moser has fit in relatively well with his new team thus far, recording 10 points in 27 games along with 39 blocked shots in just under 20 minutes a night of playing time, ranking him third among Lightning blueliners. As a result of the placement, he will miss at least the next three games and is eligible to return on December 22nd against Florida.
Finley, meanwhile, did not take part in training camp with the Lightning due to an undisclosed injury that has kept him out until now. The 22-year-old was a second-round pick back in 2020, going 57th overall. Finley had a solid sophomore professional season in 2023-24 with the Crunch, notching 13 goals and 19 assists in 52 games. He’s in the final year of his entry-level contract and will be a restricted free agent this summer. Since Finley wasn’t on the NHL roster at all last season, there was no cap hit while he was on SOIR.
Bruins Claim Oliver Wahlstrom Off Waivers From Islanders
Amidst some offensive struggles, the Bruins have added some depth up front. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that Boston has claimed winger Oliver Wahlstrom off waivers from the Islanders.
It has been a bit of a tumultuous tenure for Wahlstrom and the Isles in recent years. The 24-year-old was the 11th overall pick back in 2018 after showing plenty of offensive promise with the US National Team Development Program. He opted to turn pro after just one year at Boston College and the hope was that he’d become a reliable offensive player for New York before too long.
However, that never really came to fruition. Wahlstrom’s NHL career got off to a good start in 2020-21 when he picked up 12 goals and nine assists in 44 games in the shortened season. He followed that up with 13 goals and 11 helpers in 73 games the following season, a small uptick in overall production but a notable drop in points per game. He was somewhat productive in limited action in 2022-23 when he had 16 points in 35 games but things went off the rails last year when he was a frequent healthy scratch and collected just six points in 32 games.
That led to some speculation that the two sides could be parting ways, a belief that carried over to the summer. Instead, the two sides worked out a one-year, $1MM contract in late July. However, while Wahlstrom was largely able to secure a regular role in New York’s lineup this season, his playing time and production have both been limited. His 10:04 ATOI is a career low while he has just two goals and two assists in 27 appearances, leading to his waiver placement on Friday.
It’s a low-risk pickup for the Bruins who have just enough cap space to absorb Wahlstrom’s contract without needing to make any other roster moves. If things go well, they’ll be able to keep him under club control for two more years although he will be arbitration-eligible. Boston is now at the maximum of 23 players on its active roster.
Maple Leafs Activate Bobby McMann, Assign Nikita Grebenkin To AHL
The Maple Leafs will be welcoming a forward back to their lineup against Detroit tonight. The team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve activated winger Bobby McMann off injured reserve. To make room on the roster, winger Nikita Grebenkin was re-assigned to AHL Toronto.
McMann has missed the last seven games due to a lower-body injury but skated on the third line in practice on Friday, suggesting a return was imminent. The 28-year-old has played in 21 games with the Leafs this season, notching six goals and one assist in 14 minutes a night of ice time. McMann scored at a similar clip in 2023-24, tallying 15 times in 56 appearances, becoming a quality bottom-six piece along the way after clearing waivers at the beginning of that season.
As for Grebenkin, it’s the second time this week he has been sent down. Initially demoted on Tuesday, he was brought back up two days later although he didn’t play against Anaheim. The 21-year-old is in his first season in North America and has been held off the scoresheet in seven games with the big club but has been productive with the Marlies, tallying four goals and six assists in 13 appearances with them.
Wild Activate Mats Zuccarello And Jonas Brodin
While the Wild lost a key blueliner to LTIR on Friday, there is some good news on the injury front for them. Michael Russo of The Athletic relays (Twitter link) that winger Mats Zuccarello has been activated off LTIR while defenseman Jonas Brodin has been activated off IR. Both players are expected to return today versus Philadelphia.
Zuccarello has missed the last month due to a lower-body injury, stalling what had been a strong start to his season. Prior to the injury, the 37-year-old had eight goals and six assists in 17 games while logging over 17 minutes of playing time. That performance came on the heels of putting up 63 points in 69 games last season, showing he’s still quite capable of playing in the top six.
While Minnesota is among the top teams in the league in the standings, their offense enters play today ranked 14th in the NHL, just above the middle of the pack. Accordingly, getting a key producer like Zuccarello back should be a considerable boost to their attack.
As for Brodin, he has missed a little more than two weeks due to an upper-body injury. The 31-year-old got off to a decent start offensively with eight points in 18 appearances while once again being a key shot-blocker, still sitting second on the Wild with 45 despite missing 11 games. Brodin is one of their defensive anchors on the penalty kill as well; his 2:15 SH TOI per game leads the team.
The Wild only had one open roster spot before activating Zuccarello and Brodin. While not yet announced by the team, defenseman Cameron Crotty has been returned to AHL Iowa; he was recalled on Monday but didn’t suit up with Minnesota.
Stars Recall Magnus Hellberg
With Casey DeSmith out with the flu, the Stars needed a second goaltender for their game tonight against St. Louis. That netminder will be Magnus Hellberg as the team announced (Twitter link) that the veteran has been recalled from AHL Texas.
The 34-year-old is in his first season with Dallas after signing a one-year, two-way deal with them in mid-August, one worth the league minimum of $775K in the NHL and containing a guaranteed $475K payout. Hellberg has played in 13 games so far with Texas and isn’t off to the best of starts, putting up a 3.08 GAA with a .894 SV% but makes more sense to bring up on a short-term basis than prospect Remi Poirier, his backup in the minors.
Hellberg does have some NHL experience under his belt, albeit limited. He has seen NHL action in six of the last ten years, compiling 26 appearances altogether where he has a 3.08 GAA and a .890 SV%. Most of that action came in the 2022-23 campaign when he got into 18 games between Ottawa and Detroit.
Dallas had an open roster spot before bringing Hellberg up so no corresponding move needed to be made to add him to the roster.
Blues Acquire Cam Fowler From Ducks
Cam Fowler‘s 15-year career with the Anaheim Ducks has come to an end. The St. Louis Blues organization announced they’ve acquired Fowler (38.5% retained) and a 2027 fourth-round pick for defensive prospect Jeremie Biakabutuka and a 2027 second-round pick.
Once the trade call is finalized, the Ducks organization will have parted with their longest-tenured player. Fowler was only nine games away from reaching the 1000th of his career with Anaheim but will now accomplish the career mark as a member of the Blues.
Consistency has been the name of the game for Fowler throughout his career. Anaheim selected Fowler with the 12th overall pick of the 2010 NHL Draft and debuted a year later during the 2010-11 season. He finished his rookie campaign with 10 goals and 40 points in 76 contests finishing eighth in Calder Trophy voting.
He’s averaged approximately 38 points a season for the next 14 years and impressively averaged 23 minutes of ice time per game across that timeline. His career CorsiFor% of 49.7% and career on-ice save percentage in all situations of 90.2% show that the Ducks have leaned on Fowler’s two-way play and used him in nearly all situations. 
St. Louis is filling a clear need on the left side of their defense for less than expected. The Blues organization will owe Fowler just under $4MM a year for the remainder of this season and next and he has the experience to move up and down the lineup.
Key injuries to Torey Krug and Nick Leddy have left a sizeable hole in the lineup. Philip Broberg has been a bright spot in the top-four but the team can’t continue to utilize Ryan Suter or Pierre-Olivier Joseph as the other option.
The addition of Fowler isn’t expected to pull St. Louis up the standings but it shouldn’t hurt their chances either. The Blues are four points back of the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference with one game in hand on their division rivals, the Colorado Avalanche.
At any rate, the acquisition of Fowler gives them cost certainty on their blue line for next season. Fowler makes seven St. Louis defensemen signed beyond this season and they’ll likely reprise their roles next year. The team could move out of Leddy’s contract as he’s also being paid $4MM by the Blues but their top-four is likely set.
Biakabutuka, from Longueuil, Quebec, is in his second full year with the Blues organization. He’s primarily spent time in the ECHL with the Orlando Solar Bears and Florida Everblades where he’s collected five goals and 22 points in 76 contests. It’s unlikely he’ll suit up for the Ducks in the AHL meaning he’ll suit up for their ECHL affiliate in Tulsa.
In the announcement from the Blues organization, the team also shared they’ve sent down defenseman Matthew Kessel to their AHL affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds. St. Louis didn’t require eight defensemen on the active roster and Kessel was the only waiver exempt among them.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Friedman was the first to report the majority of the trade package.
Friedman was the first to report Biakabutuka was included in the deal.
Golden Knights Sign Keegan Kolesar To Three-Year Extension
The Golden Knights are keeping another veteran in the fold for a few more years. The team announced that they’ve signed winger Keegan Kolesar to a three-year, $7.5MM extension that begins in the 2025-26 season.
The 27-year-old was set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer. Instead, he’ll stay with Vegas through the 2028-29 campaign and will get a nice raise along the way. Kolesar carries a $1.4MM salary and cap charge in the final year of his current deal, meaning he’ll get an increase of $1.1MM per season on this new agreement.
The Golden Knights acquired Kolesar back in 2017 from Columbus, flipping a mid-second-round pick to the Blue Jackets for his rights; Columbus wound up selecting Alexandre Texier with that selection. He was initially drafted in the third round (69th overall) by Columbus.
Kolesar has been a full-time regular for the Golden Knights since the 2020-21 season. Along the way, he has chipped in a bit offensively while becoming one of the more physical wingers in the league, notching at least 246 hits in each of the last three years.
This season, Kolesar has been more impactful in the offensive zone. He has already notched seven goals on the season, good for sixth on the team and just one shy of his career-high that he has reached in each of the last two seasons. He’s also still collecting more than three hits per game on average while his ATOI of 12:55 is also the highest of his career.
With that in mind, Kolesar was going to be heading for a fair-sized raise on the open market had this deal not been reached, especially since rugged wingers tend to generate a lot of interest in free agency. Instead, he’ll be sticking around with the Golden Knights where he’ll remain one of their longest-tenured players.
Minor Transactions: 12/13/24
There have been plenty of minor moves around the hockey world today. We’ll run down the ones with NHL connections here.
- The Oilers announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Josh Brown has been recalled from AHL Bakersfield. The 30-year-old inked a three-year, $3MM deal with Edmonton over the summer but wound up clearing waivers and has spent most of the year with the Condors, picking up three assists and 50 penalty minutes in 16 games while playing just three times with Edmonton so far. With Alec Regula not with the team yet, it’s possible that Brown’s promotion is merely a short-term one.
- The Rangers have brought up some extra defensive depth in the absence of K’Andre Miller. The team announced (Twitter link) that veteran Chad Ruhwedel has been recalled from AHL Hartford. Ruhwedel has only played once with New York this season but has recorded three assists in 11 games with the Wolf Pack. The 34-year-old has 365 career NHL contests under his belt over parts of 13 seasons.
- The Canucks continue their frequent roster shuffling, announcing (Twitter link) that forwards Aatu Raty, Max Sasson, and defenseman Mark Friedman were assigned to AHL Abbotsford. Sasson has been moved back and forth quite often over the last few weeks while Friedman was papered down earlier this week. Raty’s last assignment was in mid-November and considering he already has 20 games with Vancouver under his belt, it’s safe to say he’ll be back up quickly as well.
- Veteran forward Gemel Smith has caught on with another team as he has joined AHL Bridgeport on a PTO, per a team release. The 30-year-old played in seven games with Syracuse earlier in the season, picking up four points. Smith has 25 career points at the NHL level spanning 91 games over parts of six seasons.
Atlantic Notes: Reinhardt, Norris, Lafferty, Stolarz, McMann, Talbot
The Senators announced Friday that they’ve recalled left-winger Cole Reinhardt from AHL Belleville.
The 24-year-old has been subject to multiple paper transactions this season, but this doesn’t appear to be one of them. Reinhardt has been in Belleville since Sunday and hasn’t been rostered for either of Ottawa’s last two games. He could enter the lineup tonight against the Hurricanes instead of center Zack Ostapchuk, who left Wednesday’s 5-1 win over the Ducks with an undisclosed injury.
Ottawa would need someone to shift to center – Reinhardt has never played the position meaningfully at the professional level. One of Nick Cousins, Noah Gregor or Ridly Greig will likely move to take Ostapchuk’s spot as fourth-line center while Reinhardt slots in on their wing.
In five NHL appearances this season, the 24-year-old Calgary native has a goal and an assist with a -2 rating and 14 hits while averaging 9:15 per game. He’s been dynamic when on assignment to the B-Sens, posting five goals and 10 assists for 15 points in only 12 games. He’s the only Belleville player producing more than a point per game.
In other Sens news, the league announced that center Joshua Norris had been fined $2,000 for being issued his second embellishment citation this season. The incident that spurred the fine occurred on Dec. 5 against the Red Wings, with the league positing that Norris overreacted to a holding offense from Detroit rookie Marco Kasper (video link).
Elsewhere in the Atlantic Division:
- Sabres forward Sam Lafferty practiced in a regular jersey this morning and could be an option to return to the lineup this weekend, head coach Lindy Ruff told Paul Hamilton of WGR Sports Radio 550. Lafferty has been on injured reserve for over a week with a lower-body issue and has missed Buffalo’s last six games, all of them losses amid a larger eight-game winless streak. Prior to getting hurt, the 29-year-old was averaging just 9:48 per game and had been limited to one goal in 22 appearances with a -2 rating. Buffalo signed him to a two-year, $4MM deal in free agency over the summer to contribute as a fourth-line piece and kill penalties, the latter of which he’s rarely done – he averages just 32 seconds per game shorthanded.
- It’s all good news on the injury front for the Maple Leafs. Netminder Anthony Stolarz is only day-to-day with his lower-body injury after leaving last night’s win over the Ducks after the first period, head coach Craig Berube said today (via Jonas Siegel of The Athletic). The 30-year-old leads the league with a .927 SV% and has started 17 of Toronto’s 29 games, on pace to break last year’s career-high 24. He’ll likely miss their next two games against the Red Wings and Sabres, but the lack of an IR placement suggests he may be available next Wednesday against the Stars. Berube also said that winger Bobby McMann, who’s missed seven games with a lower-body issue, is “very close” to returning (per David Alter of The Hockey News).
- Red Wings starter Cam Talbot re-aggravated the lower-body injury that kept him out for most of this month and will be unavailable tomorrow against Toronto, per the team’s Daniella Bruce. He made 32 saves on 34 shots in a loss to the Flyers last night, bringing his SV% on the year up to a strong .916 mark. The team will wait to recall a backup for No. 3 option Ville Husso until tomorrow, Bruce said.
Jets, Henri Nikkanen Mutually Terminate Contract
Dec. 13: Nikkanen cleared waivers and has had his contract terminated, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. He has signed a two-year deal with SaiPa of the Finnish Liiga.
Dec. 12: The Jets announced that they’ve placed forward prospect Henri Nikkanen on unconditional waivers for the purpose of terminating his contract.
Nikkanen, 23, will assumedly head back to his native Finland or elsewhere in Europe if he clears. It hasn’t been the smoothest of runs for the 6’5″ pivot, who’s actually spent quite a bit of time in North America. He’s suited up exclusively for Winnipeg’s AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose, since signing his entry-level contract at the end of the 2021-22 season and coming over to Canada.
Despite some good offensive production in the Finnish junior system and some good flashes in the pro-level Liiga, Nikkanen’s point totals with the Moose never got off the ground. The left-shot center has totaled only 13 goals and 19 assists for 32 points in 140 contests with the Moose. This season, he’s only played in 13 of 21 games and has been limited to a goal and three assists.
Nikkanen is in the final season of his entry-level contract and was set to be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights at season’s end. Assuming he clears, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent tomorrow and the Jets will lose his NHL rights.
Winnipeg will free up a contract slot with the move, bringing their total deals to 41 out of the 50-contract limit.