Blues Sign Simon Robertsson To Entry-Level Contract
The Blues have announced the signing of right-wing prospect Simon Robertsson to a three-year, entry-level contract. Financial terms were not disclosed.
A third-round pick by the Blues in 2021, Robertsson has spent the entirety of his post-draft career under contract with Skellefteå AIK of the Swedish Hockey League. He hasn’t landed a full-time spot in the lineup, though, and has been routinely loaned out to lower-level clubs.
2022-23 was a particularly tumultuous season for him, suiting up for clubs in the SHL, the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan, the third-tier HockeyEttan, and Sweden’s top junior league, the J20 Nationell. He did manage decent production in limited action with Skellefteå, scoring five goals and seven points in 16 regular-season games before adding a goal in eight playoff games.
Robertsson, 21, earned more stability and SHL minutes this year, making 42 total appearances with Skellefteå compared to 15 with Brynäs IF of the HockeyAllsvenskan. The sharp-shooting winger had two goals and four points in 27 regular-season games for Skellefteå and was a bottom-six regular by the time the playoffs rolled around, posting a goal and an assist in 15 games as they took home the league championship earlier this week.
Few expected Robertsson to be available when the Blues selected 71st overall. Numerous public rankings, including TSN’s Bob McKenzie’s polling of NHL scouts, graded Robertsson as a likely late first-round or early second-round pick.
The 6’0″ winger won’t be in consideration for an NHL roster spot yet, but signing his ELC means he could come to North America and suit up for AHL Springfield next season. He’ll be waiver-exempt for his first three seasons under contract or his first 80 NHL games, whichever comes first, and will become a restricted free agent when his contract expires in 2027.
Blues Sign Samuel Johannesson, Marcus Sylvegard
12:15 p.m.: St. Louis has now confirmed the signings of both Johannesson and Sylvegård, as previously reported, although financial terms were not disclosed. It’s a one-year entry-level agreement for Sylvegard. PuckPedia reports both deals carry cap hits of $870K, broken down into a $775K base salary, $95K signing bonus, $80K games played bonus, and $82.5K minors salary.
10:00 a.m.: The Blues are landing unrestricted free-agent defenseman Samuel Johannesson from the Swedish Hockey League’s Örebro HK, HockeyNews.se reports. League rules dictate it’ll be a two-year, entry-level contract when announced for the 23-year-old.
Johannesson was a sixth-round pick of the Blue Jackets in 2020, but his exclusive signing rights lapsed in June 2022 after he didn’t ink an ELC. He was already knocking on the door of being a full-time SHL player by the time he was drafted, skating in 44 games for Rögle BK in 2019-20, and has only solidified that standing since then. The 5’11” right-shot blue liner has bounced around with a few organizations, landing with Brynäs IF in 2022-23 and joining Örebro for this season after Brynäs lost their relegation series last summer and ended up in the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan.
He’s now emerged as a solid puck-mover and one of the better offensive defenders in the SHL since earning top-of-the-lineup minutes with Brynäs last season. The Halmstad, Sweden, native remained in top-four minutes for Örebro, finishing second on the team in points with 27 (11 goals, 16 assists) in 43 games with a +5 rating. He added a goal in three playoff games as Örebro lost its play-in series to Luleå HF.
Johannesson was under contract with Örebro through 2024-25, so the Blues will need to buy him out – something HockeyNews.se says is important for an Örebro club that’s struggling financially. His deal will expire after the 2025-26 season, and the Blues will control his signing rights as an RFA. He’s their second expected signing out of the SHL this offseason, joining 24-year-old winger Marcus Sylvegård.
Devils Extend Shane Bowers, Sign Ryan Schmelzer
The Devils announced that they’ve re-signed forward Shane Bowers to a two-year, two-way contract. The deal carries a cap hit and a base salary of $775K each season. He’ll earn a $200K minors salary in 2024-25 and a $225K minors salary in 2025-26 with a $250K guarantee. New Jersey also inked free-agent forward Ryan Schmelzer to a two-year, two-way deal worth $775K in the NHL and $275K in the AHL in both seasons.
Bowers, 24, had his signing rights picked up by the Devils in a minor-league trade with the Bruins last June and promptly inked a one-year, two-way extension ($775K/$125K) to cover the 2023-24 campaign. The 2017 first-round pick cleared waivers at the end of training camp but received two brief call-ups during the season, one in January and one in April, totaling just over two weeks. He averaged just 9:27 in eight games with New Jersey, failing to record a point and going 7 for 22 on faceoffs with a +1 rating and seven shots. In 43 games with AHL Utica this year, he was limited to 10 goals, four assists and 14 points in 43 games with a -12 rating.
Despite being with his fourth organization since being drafted by the Senators seven years ago, this was Bowers’ first real look in the NHL. He made his NHL debut with the Avalanche last season but was injured after logging just 1:46 of ice time. The Nova Scotian is firmly organizational depth at this point of his career, and unless he works his way into Utica’s top six next season and has a major offensive resurgence, he’s close to peaking as an AHL fixture.
Schmelzer, 30, lands his first NHL contract, but he’s no stranger to the Devils. He’s spent the last six seasons on minor-league contracts with their AHL affiliates in Binghamton and Utica and has served as their captain for the last three seasons. 2023-24 marked a career year for the Canisius College product, leading the club in points with 52 (18 goals, 34 assists) while playing in all 72 games with a team-high +14 rating. Now, with a contract in New Jersey in hand, the 6’2″ center will be eligible for NHL call-ups next year.
Both contracts will expire following the 2025-26 season, at which point Bowers will still have his signing rights controlled by the Devils as an RFA with arbitration eligibility. Schmelzer will be a UFA.
Bruins Activate Derek Forbort From LTIR
The Bruins removed defenseman Derek Forbort from long-term injured reserve yesterday, per CapFriendly. He didn’t suit up in Boston’s Game 4 win but is now officially an option for the rest of the series.
Forbort, 32, missed much of the season with a lower-body injury that had lingered since October. The Bruins shut him down semi-permanently at the trade deadline, announcing he’d be out for the rest of the regular season and was moved to LTIR to give them some additional cap space, used to acquire Pat Maroon from the Wild and Andrew Peeke from the Blue Jackets. His last NHL game was a 5-1 loss to the Islanders on March 2.
He made only 35 appearances in the regular season, his fewest since 2019-20. He also failed to score a goal for the first time since that season but contributed four assists and a +8 rating while averaging 17:48 per game.
Boston brought Forbort in on a three-year, $9MM contract in free agency in 2021 that’s expiring this offseason. He started his tenure in Boston as an above-average shutdown defender, controlling 53.1% of expected goals when on the ice in 2021-22, per Hockey Reference. He remained one of their top penalty killers throughout, but his even-strength role slowly dwindled over the life of the deal, as did his possession metrics.
If Forbort is called upon for playoff action, he won’t come in completely cold. He posted a -1 rating in two appearances with AHL Providence on a recent conditioning stint that ended last week. The 2010 first-round pick of the Kings has played in all 14 Boston playoff games in 2022 and 2023, posting two assists and a -2 rating while averaging 16:54 per game.
Avalanche Recall Nikolai Kovalenko
The Avalanche have added winger Nikolai Kovalenko to their playoff roster ahead of this afternoon’s Game 4 against the Jets, Colorado Hockey Now’s Evan Rawal reports. Colorado is carrying only one healthy extra skater, defenseman Caleb Jones, so Kovalenko has a decent chance to make his NHL debut today if there’s an injury or other lineup change to the Avs’ forward group. Pregame line rushes indicate he’s replacing Joel Kiviranta, who has one assist and a +2 rating in the series while averaging 10:14 per game.
Kovalenko, 24, only arrived in North America last month. The Russian winger has shot up the prospect ranks recently, breaking out as a first-line caliber player with Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod of the Kontinental Hockey League. The 2018 sixth-round pick signed his entry-level contract last summer but was returned to Torpedo for 2023-24 with the expectation that he’d join the Avs when his season ended overseas.
That didn’t quite come to fruition, at least immediately. Kovalenko played through an injury during his brief playoff run with Torpedo that required some rehabilitation upon arriving in Denver, so the Avs assigned him to AHL Colorado to get into some practice and brief game action. The son of longtime NHL winger Andrei Kovalenko ended up making his AHL debut a couple of weeks ago, posting two goals and two assists in six combined regular-season and playoff games thus far.
Kovalenko’s good skating and playmaking skills have made him one of the top point producers in the KHL over the past two years, totaling 32 goals, 57 assists, and 89 points in 98 appearances for Torpedo since 2022. He’s expected to make a strong push to crack the Avs’ opening night roster next season. His ELC still covers the 2024-25 campaign, costing $896,250 against the cap.
Red Wings Sign Andrew Gibson To Entry-Level Contract
2023 second-round pick Andrew Gibson has signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Red Wings beginning in 2024-25, per a team announcement. The 19-year-old defenseman will immediately report to AHL Grand Rapids, which leads Rockford 1-0 in their best-of-five Central Division Semifinal series.
Gibson will get his first taste of professional hockey for now, but the right-shot blue-liner will likely return to major junior play next season. He doesn’t turn 20 until February 2025, making him ineligible for a full-time assignment to the AHL. As he’s not expected to compete for an NHL roster spot just yet, the Red Wings will return him to the Ontario Hockey League’s Soo Greyhounds next season and slide the first year of his ELC to 2025-26.
The Ontario native is coming off a decent post-draft season. In 68 games with the Greyhounds, he finished seventh on the club in points with 44 (12 goals, 32 assists) and led them with a +36 rating. He added two assists and a +5 rating in 11 playoff games as the Greyhounds were eliminated in the second round by the Saginaw Spirit.
Gibson was taken 42nd overall by Detroit last year, slightly higher than the consensus heading into the draft. Elite Prospects gave him a “C” grade in their 2023 draft guide, praising his physical play, zone exit and passing abilities, and overall hockey sense. Offensive execution remained an issue for him this season, and he likely won’t be close to a top point-producer in the pros, but has the skill sets as a solid two-way man near the bottom of a lineup. He was one of three second-round picks Detroit had last year – the 42nd overall pick was acquired from the Blues in 2022 as part of the return for defenseman Nick Leddy.
If Gibson plays less than 10 NHL games next season as expected, his lone entry-level slide will take effect and delay his expiration until 2028.
College Notes: Gallagher, Powell, Whitelaw
After a busy few weeks on the college transactions front, things have slowed down in recent days. However, there still has been a bit of news surrounding some NHL-drafted prospects which are noted here.
- Bruins blueline prospect Ty Gallagher has transferred to Colorado College, reports Mark Divver of the New England Hockey Journal (Twitter link). Boston selected the 21-year-old in the seventh round in 2021, taking him 217th overall out of the U.S. National Team Development Program. Gallagher has spent the last three seasons at Boston University but saw his role and numbers drop this season, going from 21 points in 40 games in his sophomore year to just five assists in 37 contests this year. He’ll hope that the move will give him a bigger role and thus a better chance at landing an entry-level deal.
- Lightning prospect Eamon Powell announced on his Instagram page that he has elected to return for his fifth and final season at Boston College next season. The 21-year-old was a fourth-round pick by Tampa Bay back in 2020 (116th overall) and after a slow first couple of years, he took a good step forward offensively last season, notching 22 points in 36 games. This season, Powell took an even bigger leap forward, averaging nearly a point per game with 38 in 40 contests which led some to believe he’d turn pro. Instead, the defenseman will stick around for another year. Tampa Bay will now retain Powell’s rights through next year instead of having to sign him by August 15th.
- Blue Jackets prospect William Whitelaw recently announced (Twitter link) that he has transferred to the University of Michigan for next season. The 19-year-old was a third-round pick last year, going 66th overall after a near-point-per-game season in the USHL. However, offensive success was a little harder to come by this season at Wisconsin, as he was limited to 10 goals and seven assists in 37 games. Those numbers aren’t bad for a first-year player but he opted for a change of scenery. Whitelaw is the fourth NHL-drafted prospect to transfer out of Wisconsin in recent weeks, joining Pittsburgh’s Cruz Lucius, Detroit’s Brady Cleveland, and Minnesota’s Charlie Stramel.
Lightning To Activate Mikhail Sergachev From LTIR, Expected For Game 4
Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev is taking normal line rushes during warmup ahead of tonight’s must-win Game 4 against the Panthers, indicating he’s been activated off long-term injured reserve, per the team’s Chris Krenn. Sergachev has been out since fracturing his fibula and tibia during a game on Feb. 7, and head coach Jon Cooper said earlier this month that he wasn’t expected back until the second round at the earliest. The team later confirmed he’ll be entering the lineup as they try to stave off early elimination against their cross-state rivals.
Sergachev, 25, hasn’t played a full game in over four months. He sustained a lower-body injury against the Blues on Dec. 19 that kept him out of game action through the All-Star break and sustained the freak double-break in his left leg while attempting to lay a hit on Rangers winger Alexis Lafrenière in his first game back.
Those injuries limited the top-four fixture to 34 appearances in the regular season, his fewest as a Lightning. Before his initial injury, Sergachev was struggling to recapture his 2022-23 form that earned him Norris Trophy consideration for the first time. Offensively, his points per game pace dropped from 0.81 to 0.56, and his possession metrics dipped slightly as well. The latter was to be expected, though, after a salary cap crunch forced the Lightning to part with many key depth players after last season.
He was actually on the ice for fewer expected goals against per game at even strength than he was last season, something you wouldn’t glean from his -16 rating. That was tanked due to the majority of Sergachev’s playing time coming while starting netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy was out recovering from preseason back surgery, forcing inexperienced backup Jonas Johansson into most of the starts to begin the year.
Line rushes indicate he’ll be paired with Erik Černák as the Lightning begin to try and climb out of a 3-0 series deficit. The two were routinely partners when Sergachev was healthy this season, playing 238 minutes together in 31 games. Per MoneyPuck, the pair controlled 48% of expected goals when deployed together.
They’ll operate as Cooper’s second defense pairing behind Victor Hedman and Mathew Dumba in Game 4. Dumba moves up alongside Hedman as Darren Raddysh is a late scratch with an undisclosed injury. Raddysh took just two shifts in the third period of Game 3.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Jets Recall Axel Jonsson-Fjallby
Following a third-period collapse in Friday’s loss to Colorado which saw the Jets allow five unanswered goals, they’ve opted to make a roster move. The team announced today (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled winger Axel Jonsson-Fjallby from AHL Manitoba.
The 26-year-old split the regular season between the Jets and Moose. Jonsson-Fjallby started the season in the minors after clearing waivers in training camp but after coming up on emergency recall in mid-November, he wound up sticking around for nearly three months. He played in 26 games along the way, picking up two goals and three assists plus 30 hits while averaging a little over eight minutes a night.
While he wasn’t much of an offensive threat in Winnipeg, Jonsson-Fjallby was one at the AHL level, tallying a dozen goals and 18 assists in 41 regular season contests. He also played in both playoff contests but Manitoba was eliminated by Texas in the opening round. Accordingly, Jonsson-Fjallby might not be the only player coming up to the big club in the coming days as the Jets will likely put together a ‘Black Aces’ squad to keep skating through the playoffs.
Kraken Re-Assign Eduard Sale To AHL
In recent days, Seattle has been signing some of their junior prospects and then assigning them to the AHL to keep their seasons going. When it comes to Eduard Sale, he was already under contract but he will also continue his 2023-24 campaign as the Kraken have re-assigned him to AHL Coachella Valley, per the AHL’s transactions log.
The 19-year-old was a first-round pick by the Kraken last year, going 20th overall. He was rated considerably higher than that heading into the season but a quiet season with HC Kometa Brno of the Czech Extraliga hurt his stock despite good showings playing against his own age group in the World Juniors and World Under-18s.
This season, Sale decided to try his hand in North America, coming to the OHL where Barrie held his rights. He was a bit quieter than expected offensively, collecting 20 points in 25 games with them before being moved to Kitchener at the trade deadline where his output dipped a bit more to 18 points in 24 contests. In between, he did well again at the World Juniors, averaging a point per game. Sale finished up his junior campaign on a high note, notching 12 points in 10 games before Kitchener was swept in the second round.
Now, Sale will join the Firebirds for his first taste of North American professional hockey. Having been drafted out of his native Czechia, he’s not subject to the usual NHL/CHL transfer restrictions. Accordingly, Sale will be eligible to play in the minors full-time next season if Seattle decides they want to test him at a higher level so a good showing in the coming weeks could certainly make a difference in their plans for him.