Minor Transactions: 4/16/2026
The wave of minor-league assignments is continuing with the NHL regular season nearly completed. Pro Hockey Rumors will continue to track the movement around the AHL in the latest minor transactions tracker:
- The Philadelphia Flyers have recalled goalie prospect Carson Bjarnason in preperation for their first round matchup against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Bjarnason will serve as a black ace with the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms eliminated from playoff contention. Bjarnason recorded 14 wins and a .887 save percentage in 32 AHL games this season. He also split results, and recorded a .881 save percentage, in two ECHL games. This was Bjarnason’s first year of professional hockey after four seasons with the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings. The 20 year old recorded a .903 save percentage across 156 career games in the WHL.
- The Colorado Avalanche are also padding their room of black aces, recalling forwards Alex Barre-Boulet and Jason Polin. Both players spent the bulk of their year in the AHL. Barre-Boulet led the Colorado Eagles with 26 goals and 70 points in 69 games – and added one assist in the only NHL game of his season. Polin was slightly less productive, with 21 points in 45 AHL games and no scoring in three NHL games. The duo will offer forward depth behind an Avalanche squad that has rotated through injuries this season.
- Forward Cole O’Hara could make his NHL debut in the Nashville Predators’ season finale. The 23 year old has been called up after leading the Milwaukee Admirals in goals (19) and ranking fourth in points (44) through 65 games this season. This was also O’Hara’s first pro season after three years at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He had a breakout season last year, netting 22 goals and 51 points in 40 games – 33 more points than he managed in 37 games of the 2023-24 season. O’Hara kept that scoring up through his rookie season in the AHL and could now get a chance to score against NHL talent.
- Headed back to the minors is goaltender Brandon Halverson, who recently helped the Tampa Bay Lightning respond to Jonas Johansson‘s short-term injury. Halverson recorded one loss and a .810 save percentage in 57 minutes – and two games – of NHL action this season. He started for the Syracuse Crunch for much of the year and recorded 24 wins and a .906 save percentage in 42 AHL games. He’ll now return to his post to help Syracuse keep up their strong play into the Calder Cup Playoffs.
- The Calgar Flames have also called up a goaltender. Prospect Arsenii Sergeev is on the NHL roster under emergency conditions with Devin Cooley set to miss Calgary’s season finale due to illness. Sergeev will make his NHL debut in game 82. The 24 year old recorded five wins and a .898 save percentage in 28 AHL games this season. He also split results, and recorded a .922 save percentage, in 12 ECHL games. Sergeev was a strong starter in college, recording save percentages north of .910 in two seasons with the University of Connecticut and one season at Pennsylvania State University. Thursday could be the bright side to a quiet season for the first-year pro.
- Top Edmonton Oilers prospect Isaac Howard has been loaned to the AHL. He will support the Bakersfield Condors’ push in the Calder Cup Playoffs. Howard scored 22 goals and 47 points in 45 AHL games this season. He ranked second in goals on Bakersfield and was the only Condor to score above a point-per-game pace this season. Howard also scored five points in the first 29 games of his NHL career this season. The 2025 Hobey Baker Award winner is also a first-year pro and should fill a substantial role in the AHL postseason.
- The Washington Capitals have assigned 2025 second-round pick Milton Gastrin to the AHL following the end of his season in Sweden’s HockeyAllsvenskan. Gastrin racked up 10 goals and 24 points in 39 games in Sweden’s second-tier pro league and added four more points in 13 playoff games. He scored 42 points in 40 games in Sweden’s U20 league in the 2024-25 season. The bulky Gastrin should bring a boost of forechecking pressure and playmaking ability to the Hershey Bears lineup just in time for their perennial run into the postseason.
- A cohort of top prospects is headed to the Grand Rapids Griffins. The Detroit Red Wings have assigned Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, Carter Mazur, Axel Sandin Pellikka, and Dominik Shine to the minor leagues. Brandsegg-Nygard finished the year third on the Griffins in scoring with 44 points in 58 games. He added one assist in 14 NHL games. Shine finished the year with 37 points in 38 AHL games and three points in 18 NHL games. Mazur was also a point-per-game player in the minors, with 15 points in 14 AHL games – but no scoring in eight NHL appearances. Of the bunch, Sandin-Pellikka was the only to play the bulk of his year in the NHL. He scored 21 points in 68 games of his first season in North America. The quartet should each assume top-end roles on a Griffins lineup that has added a substantial amount of talent late in the season.
Capitals Notes: Ovechkin, Leonard, Dubois, Sandin, Wilson
The Capitals had their locker cleanout day today, and naturally, Alex Ovechkin continues to be prodded with questions about whether he’s returning for a 22nd NHL season in the fall. He maintains that he needs a little bit of time over the summer to decide with his family, but made things clear today that retirement is far from a sure thing in his mind. “I’m pretty sure it’s not my last game,” he said regarding Tuesday night’s win over the Blue Jackets, via Sammi Silber of The Hockey News.
In an interview earlier this month, Ovechkin said his family’s input, plus how he feels health-wise after a few weeks off, will be the most important factors in his decision. He’ll be 41 in September, but skated in all 82 games this year. It’s the first time he’s done that since 2017-18, although he rarely misses any stretches of significance. The league’s all-time leading goal-scorer still managed a 32-goal, 64-point year to lead the Caps in both categories. His 2.98 shots per game were a career low by a significant margin, though, so there’s definitely some cracks starting to show in his production.
More from the Caps today:
- Right-winger Ryan Leonard is heading to the World Championship to represent the United States on the heels of his rookie season, he told Silber. This year’s event kicks off on May 15 and will be hosted by Zurich and Fribourg, Switzerland. The 2023 eighth overall pick made a smooth transition to full-time duties after being limited to one goal in nine games at the tail end of last year, coming out of Boston College. The 21-year-old finished fifth on the Caps in goals (20), eighth in assists (25), and eighth in points (45) while averaging 14:25 of ice time per game with 124 hits. The 6’1″ bang-and-crash sniper previously had an assist in six games for the U.S. national team at the 2024 Worlds and captained them to gold at the 2025 World Juniors.
- Center Pierre-Luc Dubois broke his hand in Game 80 of the season against the Penguins last Saturday, he confirmed to Silber. He gutted it out and played the next day, but ended up sitting out for the season finale against Columbus after the Caps were eliminated from the playoff picture. That, plus an abdominal surgery in November, limited the top-six middleman to just 29 appearances on the year. Missing so much of Dubois, who was an excellent second-line pivot for them last season, had a considerable impact on the team’s overall regression. When healthy, he managed a 5-14–19 scoring line with a -4 rating while averaging 16:49 per game.
- Joining him on the offseason injury rehab list this summer is defenseman Rasmus Sandin. He also got hurt in that Saturday game against the Penguins and was still in a knee brace today. It doesn’t appear he’ll need surgery and can walk under his own power, but will need “quite a bit of rehab” this offseason, he told Silber, so it won’t be an ideal rest period for him. Sandin averaged 19:12 of ice time per game this season, sliding up and down the depth chart, while posting five goals and 29 points in 73 games with a +4 rating. Fresh off his 26th birthday last month, he just wrapped up year two of the five-year, $23MM extension he signed with the Caps in 2024.
- Tom Wilson also played through the back half of the season and the Olympics with a high ankle sprain, Silber relays. He only missed about two weeks in January with it and while he said it was certainly playable, he was never at 100%. That was evident as he only managed eight goals and 20 points in 31 games after returning after starting the year with a 22-20–42 line in 41 games.
Capitals Reassign Ivan Miroshnichenko, Ilya Protas, Clay Stevenson
The Capitals announced that they’ve reassigned forwards Ivan Miroshnichenko and Ilya Protas, as well as goaltender Clay Stevenson, to AHL Hershey. Their season is over after last night’s win over the Blue Jackets, although their four-game win streak to end the season wasn’t enough to get them into playoff position.
Protas and Stevenson had been called up as injury replacements in recent days, while Miroshnichenko had been up with the NHL squad since the trade deadline. With Hershey yet to clinch a Calder Cup Playoff berth, they’ll head back down now to hopefully get them over the hump. They currently have a three-point cushion on a spot with three games remaining.
Of all the names here, it would be least surprising to see Miroshnichenko’s on Washington’s opening night roster in the fall. That’s due partly to the fact he’ll lose his waiver exemption following this season. Considering he’s cost-controlled at $925K through 2027-28 and was the 20th overall pick just four years ago, there’s a slim chance he’d clear if the Caps tried to pass him through.
The 22-year-old left-winger has also legitimately earned a longer look with his steadily improving AHL track record. Over parts of three seasons in Hershey, he’s amassed a 44-54–98 scoring line in 138 games with a +15 rating. A 6’1″, 194-lb power forward with an above-average scoring touch, he has 35 tucks in 91 AHL games over the past two seasons after a slow start to his North American pro career in the goal-scoring department.
He’s gotten double-digit NHL games in each of the past three seasons, too, but the production hasn’t clicked yet. He added 13 games to his resume down the stretch this year, tallying two goals and an assist with a +1 rating. He largely assumed a fourth-line role after Nic Dowd was shipped out of town to the Golden Knights, averaging just 9:38 per game.
Miroshnichenko’s physical brand lends itself toward making him an effective fourth-liner on his way toward being the top-nine fixture Washington drafted him to be. That lack of ice time is precisely why he hasn’t had the opportunity to contribute more. He’s only averaged 10:33 per game across 52 career appearances (five goals, 13 points) with little to no power play opportunities, particularly this season.
Nonetheless, his points-per-game output in Hershey has steadily improved from season to season. With Brandon Duhaime and David Kämpf ticketed for unrestricted free agency, there’s a clear path for him to assume a regular role in Washington next season if they aren’t brought back.
As for Protas, the 19-year-old kicked off his NHL career with a bang in the past few days. The younger brother of teammate Aliaksei had a three-point performance in just his second career outing and totaled a goal and three assists through a four-game call-up, coinciding with Washington’s brief tear to end the year.
A third-round pick in 2024, the 6’5″, 201-lb playmaker’s development has been nothing short of a dream. He made the jump from the USHL to the OHL for his post-draft season and absolutely exploded for 50 goals and 124 points in 61 games for the Windsor Spitfires, taking home OHL Second Team All-Star honors.
His transition to the pro game in Hershey has been especially smooth. He’s already an All-Star caliber player in the minors and leads the Bears with 28 goals and 62 points in 66 games. He, too, should be a clear favorite to win a spot in camp in the fall, but with a waiver exemption and two years left on his entry-level contract, he could be the victim of a numbers game if it comes to that.
Stevenson, the Caps’ third-stringer, had also dressed for the final four games of the year while backup Charlie Lindgren was nursing an upper-body injury. The 27-year-old started Game 82 last night, making 27 saves on 28 shots for his third win of the season and of his career. He made three straight starts for the Caps shortly before the Olympic break when both Lindgren and Thompson were hurt. Across his four starts this season, the Dartmouth product amassed a 3-1-0 record with a sparkling .921 SV% and 2.00 GAA. That was good for 3.2 goals saved above expected, per MoneyPuck.
There was concern that Stevenson would be lost on waivers at the beginning of this season. He’s had some bursts in the AHL, where he’s got a Calder Cup ring and owns a .910 SV%, 2.64 GAA, and a 16-12-4 record in 34 games this year. He’s still got another year left on his deal, so if he manages to clear again in the fall, he’ll be resuming his role as the Caps’ #3.
Conditional Pick Finalized In John Carlson Trade
- As mentioned in a previous article, conditional draft picks included in trades will finalize now that every potential team has qualified for a postseason spot. Now that the Anaheim Ducks have qualified for the playoffs, the Washington Capitals will acquire Anaheim’s 2026 first-round pick from the John Carlson trade, instead of Anaheim having an option for this year’s or next (via PuckPedia).
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Capitals Recall Clay Stevenson
The Washington Capitals announced that they have recalled goaltender Clay Stevenson from their AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears. In a corresponding move, netminder Mitchell Gibson has been reassigned to the Bears.
These two transactions have likely been made with Hershey’s best interests in mind. The Capitals need to have a goalie from the Bears on their NHL roster because incumbent backup Charlie Lindgren is sidelined with an upper-body injury. Stevenson, 27, started Hershey’s game yesterday against the Charlotte Checkers, saving 21 of 22 shots in a 2-1 victory.
Hershey plays this afternoon against the Charlotte Checkers. Reassigning Gibson puts him in a position to potentially start that game. With just four games remaining on their schedule, today’s contest is very important to the Bears as they look to clinch their spot in the playoffs.
By swapping Gibson for Stevenson on the Capitals’ NHL roster, the team has switched who will back up Logan Thompson for today’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. It’ll now be Stevenson. Since he played last night, the Capitals are now carrying some added risk: in the event Thompson is unavailable due to injury or other circumstances, they could be forced to play a goalie in Stevenson who played just last night, and has had to travel on short notice. That would hardly be ideal for a team that needs to avoid a regulation loss to keep their slim playoff hopes alive.
But in exchange for taking on the additional risk that comes with running Stevenson as the backup today, the Capitals have significantly upgraded the goalie available to Hershey for its important matchup today against Charlotte. Gibson, 26, has thoroughly outplayed Hershey’s No. 3 goalie, 23-year-old Garin Bjorklund, this season. Gibson has a .907 save percentage in 22 games compared to Bjorklund’s .876 save percentage in 17 games.
Put simply: this transaction may allow the Bears to start Gibson against the Checkers instead of Bjorklund, which could notably increase the team’s odds of winning an important late-season game.
There is some risk at the NHL level attached to this transaction, as was previously mentioned. But the Capitals have long proven to be an organization that is deeply invested in the success of their AHL affiliate, and today’s transaction further underscores that fact.
Capitals’ Pierre-Luc Dubois, Rasmus Sandin Leave With Injury
The Washington Capitals lost two important players during Saturday’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Center Pierre-Luc Dubois sustained an upper-body injury after crashing into the boards on the first goal of the game, while defenseman Rasmus Sandin was helped off the ice with a lower-body injury later in the game. No update or timeline was provided for either player per NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti.
Both players have filled key roles for the Capitals all season long. Dubois missed 48 games between November and February due to a lower-body injury that required surgery. He returned to a top-six role in early-February and has scored 17 points in 21 games since. That production has provided a nice spark after Dubois failed to score in his first six games of the season. The 27 year old notched a career-high 66 points in 82 games during his first season with the Capitals last year. Sandin has stayed glued into Washington’s top-four and has 29 points and a plus-four in 72 games this season. He scored 30 points in 82 games last year.
With the duo out of the lineup, Washington will need to lean more on rookies Ilya Protas and Cole Hutson to continue bringing an impact. Both players are off to hot starts in their NHL careers. Protas has four points in his first two games, while Hutson has scored eight points in his first 11 games. Both have already worked their way onto Washington’s top powerplay unit, which fired on all cylinders during Saturday’s win. They will look to directly make up for Dubois and Sandin, while forward Ethen Frank and defenseman Timothy Liljegren could be called down from the press box.
The Capitals have two games remaining in their season and sit well outside of playoff contention. A pair of injuries could quickly redirect Washington’s focus towards deploying their young hopefuls, and resting their veterans, in preparation for a better season next year.
Alex Ovechkin Won’t Make Retirement Decision Until Offseason
Capitals legend Alex Ovechkin has continually kicked the can down the road on the concept of retirement over the past several months. The pending unrestricted free agent did so again today, telling John Walton of Monumental Sports Network that he won’t make a call on his future until this summer.
“Not yet,” Ovechkin said when prompted directly about retirement. “We’re going to make a decision in the summer. I have to talk to my family, with Ted [Leonsis, Capitals owner], with [GM Chris Patrick and POHO Brian MacLellan].”
When asked about the most important factor in his decision, Ovechkin said it would be his health. “I’m going to be 41 years old in September, so you just have to be smart about it.”
Of course, Ovechkin’s age-40 season has included his hallmark durability. He’s played in all 78 games for the Caps, albeit averaging a more conservative 17:29 per game, while maintaining his usual position as the team’s scoring leader with 31 goals and 61 points. While it’s the lowest points-per-game figure of his 21-year career, that’s perhaps more indicative of Washington’s offensive struggles as a whole: the team is only scoring 3.15 goals per game after reaching 3.49 last season.
Ovechkin’s decline has been remarkably slow, but it is still evident. He’s only averaging 2.91 shots on goal per game this season, a career low by a wide margin. His physicality isn’t there either, hovering at a career-low 1.64 hits per game.
That’s all to be expected. The fact that he’s still a clear-cut top-six contributor at this stage of his career is remarkable in its own right. He’s in the final year of the five-year, $47.5MM deal he inked in 2021 and will presumably only sign a one-year deal if he does opt to return, likely at a reduced cap hit from his current $9.5MM impact. Defensive warts notwithstanding, he’d still be an effective top-nine piece at worst next year if he stays on his current trajectory.
The question isn’t whether he can, it’s whether he believes it’s a good idea. Ovechkin has long maintained the wish to play at least one full season back home in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League before hanging up the skates for good. Doing so while he could still conceivably be an All-Star level threat there is no doubt of interest to him.
Image courtesy of Danny Wild-Imagn Images.
Capitals Recall Mitch Gibson
The Capitals recalled goaltender Mitch Gibson from AHL Hershey on Tuesday, the team announced. He is expected to dress as Logan Thompson‘s backup tonight against the Maple Leafs after Charlie Lindgren missed yesterday’s practice due to an undisclosed injury, head coach Spencer Carbery said (via Tom Gulitti of NHL.com).
Gibson started the season as Washington’s fifth-string netminder, sitting behind Thompson, Lindgren, and their initial AHL duo of Clay Stevenson and Garin Bjorklund. He wasn’t on an NHL contract, either. He was a fourth-round pick by the Caps in 2018 and has been playing pro in the organization since 2023, but he wasn’t issued a qualifying offer when his two-way deal expired last summer, making him an unrestricted free agent.
Nonetheless, he returned to Hershey on a minor-league deal and was assigned to ECHL South Carolina to start the season. The former ECAC champion with Harvard impressed with a .917 SV% and 2.32 GAA in 13 games before earning a recall to Hershey in December, as an injury to Lindgren caused an organizational domino effect. He’s essentially remained in the AHL ever since, leapfrogging Bjorklund and competing with Stevenson for positioning as Washington’s primary call-up option. In 22 outings with Hershey this season, Gibson has a .907 SV%, 2.79 GAA, and a 9-8-5 record with one shutout.
His numbers in Hershey prompted the Caps to sign him to a two-year, two-way deal in February, regaining his NHL rights and making him a call-up option. He was waived the same day and cleared. This will be the 26-year-old’s first time dressing for an NHL regular-season game; he’d previously only been rostered as a playoff emergency backup.
If Washington decides to shut Lindgren down for the final four games of the regular season, there’s a chance Gibson could make his NHL debut on either half of this weekend’s back-to-back against the Penguins. The Caps aren’t mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, trailing the Senators by five points for the second wild card spot with three other teams to leapfrog; time isn’t on their side. Their chances to make the playoffs are down to 3%, per MoneyPuck, and would only climb to 5% with a win over Toronto tonight.
Capitals Recall Ilya Protas
The Washington Capitals have recalled top center prospect Ilya Protas from the AHL’s Hershey Bears. It is a headline that Capitals fans have waited all season for and comes just two days after a six-point night in the AHL. Protas leads Hershey, and all AHL rookies, with 28 goals and 62 points in 66 games this season. He could make his NHL debut as soon as Wednesday per NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti.
Washington could give one of their top prospects a look with four games left in the season. All four games are against Eastern Conference and will be must-win contests with the Capitals sat one point outside of the second Wild Card. Protas could be an X-factor addition at the perfect time. He has continued a breakout performance that began with a move to the OHL in 2024.
Protas moved from his home country of Belarus to the USHL’s Des Moines Buccaneers for the 2023-24 season. He was an immediate, top-six impact and finished the year with 51 points in 61 games. The majority of that scoring came late in the season, helping the 6-foot-5 Protas slide under the radar enough to land in the third round of the 2024 NHL Draft. He followed the selection with a move to the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires, where his offensive skill quickly boomed next to New York Rangers prospect Liam Greentree. Protas led the Spitfires, and ranked second in the OHL, in scoring with an incredible 50-goals and 124 points in 61 games. His scoring was the second-most ever recorded by a European in the OHL behind compatriot and six-year NHL veteran Sergei Kostitsyn, who scored 131 points in 2006-07.
That hot scoring hasn’t left in Protas’ first pro season. Neither has his talent for creating chances, made evident by his five-assist performance in Hershey’s Saturday night win over the Hartford Wolf Pack. Protas has shown a strong ability to drive the puck into the slot. He offers an impressive amount of stickhandling ability and playmaking focus in a big frame. They’re the same traits that have helped his older brother, Washington’s Aliaksei Protas, notch a career-high 30 goals and 66 points in 76 games last season. The older Protas has 49 points in 72 games this year.
Now, the brothers could seek to make one final heave towards the playoffs together. It is not clear where the younger Protas will line up if he does make his NHL debut. He could step onto the third-line left-wing over Anthony Beauvillier or take on a center role and bump Justin Sourdif to the wing. Either move would likely bump Ethen Frank out of the lineup, after he posted no scoring and a minus-one in his last two games.
Protas And Frank Return Tonight
The Capitals will welcome back a pair of forwards tonight as they continue their push for a playoff spot against Buffalo. NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti reports (Twitter links) that Aliaksei Protas and Ethen Frank are set to return to the lineup. They’re set to take the place of Ivan Miroshnichenko and David Kampf, who will be healthy scratches.
Protas had missed the past two games with an upper-body injury. While he’s not scoring at the same rate as last year when he had 30 goals and 36 assists in 76 games, the 25-year-old has still been one of Washington’s top scorers with 23 goals and 24 assists through 70 appearances. Frank, meanwhile, was waived by the Capitals in training camp but was recalled soon after and has been a regular since then, notching 12 goals and 12 assists in 64 games, earning a two-year extension for his efforts. He had been out for nearly two weeks with a lower-body injury.