Prospect Notes: Mock Draft, WHL, Knies
The 2023 NHL Draft has an order, at least for the first part of the first round, and analysis continues to pour out. Today, Corey Pronman of The Athletic released his latest mock draft, with an interesting name creeping into the third spot behind Connor Bedard and Adam Fantilli.
William Smith, the top USNTDP prospect, is Pronman’s projected pick for the Columbus Blue Jackets, giving them another talented young forward to build around. Smith’s stock has continued to rise after his incredible season, though he is committed to Boston College and won’t be entering the NHL right away.
- Speaking of drafts, the WHL is set to pick the next wave of junior talent today, and Scott Wheeler of The Athletic reports that Daxon Rudolph is expected to go first overall to the Prince Albert Raiders. The 15-year-old defenseman will be one of three top-seven picks the Raiders have, as they rebuild their squad with an eye on future Memorial Cup appearances.
- Young Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Matthew Knies is “feeling better day to day,” according to Darren Dreger of TSN. The young forward suffered a concussion in his seventh playoff game for Toronto after signing out of college and making an immediate impact. With the Maple Leafs still fighting for their lives, down 3-1 to the Florida Panthers, it remains to be seen whether Knies will get another opportunity this spring.
Rangers Unlikely To Sign Jayden Grubbe
June 1st is an important date for quite a few drafted prospects. Simply put, pretty much any CHL-drafted player who was drafted two years ago has until June 1st to sign an entry-level deal or have their rights relinquished. It appears that the Rangers will be going the latter route with Jayden Grubbe as Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports (Twitter link) that they’ve informed teams that they’re unlikely to sign the 20-year-old.
Grubbe was a third-round pick by New York in 2021 (65th overall) following an injury- and pandemic-shortened 2020-21 campaign that limited him to just five games with Red Deer of the WHL. The hope was that as a big center – he stands 6’3 – he’d slowly develop into an impactful middleman and quality centers with size are typically hard to come by.
However, Grubbe didn’t exactly light things up last season, notching 14 goals and 21 assists in 68 games. For a drafted player in his post-draft season, those numbers are a bit on the low side. To his credit, Grubbe nearly doubled those totals this year, tallying 18 goals and 49 assists to finish second on the Rebels in scoring. He has been quite productive in the playoffs so far, notching a goal and nine assists in their five-game victory over Calgary.
With the Rangers notifying teams early of their intentions, they’re hoping that there will be interest from a few teams that will enable them to pick up a late-round pick to flip his rights. It wouldn’t be the best return on a high third-round selection but at this point, anything they can get is better than losing Grubbe’s rights for nothing. If no one picks up and signs Grubbe, he will re-enter the draft in June.
Minor Transactions: 03/31/23
It’s been a busy day across the hockey world, despite just four NHL games on the schedule. Today’s news cycle featured major headlines such as a season-ending surgery for William Eklund and the announcement of Jonathan Toews‘ return to the Chicago Blackhawks lineup. Over in Europe, some big games have been played, including two contests in the DEL Semifinals in Germany, and the first game of the SHL semifinals: a 6-2 win for Vaxjo over Frolunda. Two thrilling overtime contests were completed in Finland’s Liiga semifinals, including a double-overtime victory by Champions Hockey League winners Tappara Tampere.
As fans across the hockey world enjoy all the action on offer this Friday, teams in both minor leagues and foreign leagues are completing transactions and either making changes for this season or preparing for 2023-24. We’ll keep track of those moves here.
- Earlier this month, we covered reports that former NHL defenseman Juuso Riikola would be headed to Switzerland for next season. Today, those reports were made official as Swiss club SCL Tigers have announced that they have signed Riikola to a one-year contract for 2023-24. Riikola, 29, has 80 career NHL games on his resume and last played in North America last season, when he scored 35 points in 53 games for the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins. This season Riikola scored 19 points in 42 games as an alternate captain for the SHL’s IK Oskarshamn, helping them reach the first round of the SHL’s playoffs. Now, he’ll continue his pro career with the Tigers, hoping to keep them in Switzerland’s top league after the team just barely avoided relegation this season.
- The Coachella Valley Firebirds, the AHL affiliate of the Seattle Kraken, have signed NCAA free agent Max Andreev to an ATO agreement, one that will become a standard AHL player contract next season. The Cornell University product, 23, has scored 65 points in 77 games over the last three seasons he’s played. He made the ECAC’s Third All-Star team last season and served as an alternate captain this season, helping lead Cornell to an upset victory over the defending national champions the University of Denver. He’ll now join one of the AHL’s top teams with the hope of fashioning a professional career for himself and potentially even earning an NHL contract down the line.
- The AHL’s Iowa Wild have signed CHL free agent defenseman Landon Kosior to an ATO agreement for the rest of this season. Kosior, 20, is an undrafted blueliner who spent his major junior career with the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders. Kosior served as an alternate captain for the team this season and scored 63 points in 60 games, his first WHL campaign above the point-per-game threshold. As is generally expected for junior players who gain more experience, Kosior’s numbers took major jumps as he got older, and he went from 23 points in his first season with Prince Albert to the aforementioned 63 this season. With this ATO, Kosior will get his first taste of pro hockey with Iowa, and will likely get to follow along as the team prepares for the Calder Cup playoffs.
- 2022 Anaheim Ducks fifth-round pick Connor Hvidston has been signed to an ATO agreement by the Ducks’ AHL affiliate, the San Diego Gulls. The deal allows Hvidston to dip his toes into the waters of professional hockey now that his WHL season with the Swift Current Broncos is over. Hvidston was one of the youngest prospects available at the 2022 draft, just days from being in the 2023 class. He’s scored 21 goals and 65 points in 59 games this season, which ranks him third in team scoring. Seeing as he’ll have to wait until next September to turn 19, he’s still a ways away from turning pro full-time, but with this ATO agreement, he’ll at least get a firsthand look at what it takes to play professional hockey in the Ducks organization.
- Another Cornell University player has signed his first pro contract: defenseman Sebastien Dirven. The 24-year-old teammate of Andreev signed with the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers after playing three seasons with the Big Red. The big six-foot-three, 200-pound blueliner doesn’t have much of an offensive game (just 15 points in 93 career NCAA games) but will add some size and snarl to the Nailers’ blueline as they conclude what has been a difficult 2022-23 season.
- 2016 Carolina Hurricanes draft pick Noah Carroll has signed his first professional contract, landing with the ECHL’s Savannah Ghost Pirates. Carroll has spent the last four years with the University of New Brunswick on the Canadian university circuit, playing 59 games there. Before that point, the six-foot-one defenseman played for the Soo Greyhounds and Guelph Storm in the OHL, a major junior career highlighted by a 37-point final season during which he was an alternate captain.
- Cade Borchardt, the captain of one of college hockey’s better programs at Minnesota State, has signed with the ECHL’s Kansas City Mavericks. The 24-year-old’s production took a hit this season, going from 41 points to 20. But despite that decline in numbers, Borchardt earned the honor of captaining his team and finishes his collegiate career with a respectable 85 points in 121 games. In signing Borchardt, the Mavericks, who currently rank second in the ECHL’s Mountain Division, infuse some energetic young talent to their roster as they continue to grapple for playoff position.
- The ECHL’s Kalamazoo Wings have signed two players out of St. Cloud State University: Aidan Spellacy and Brendan Bushy. Spellacy, 24, is a forward who scored 12 points in 35 games this season. He’s served as an alternate captain for St. Cloud State and Robert Morris University, and he also captained his high school team, meaning he could bring some off-ice value to the Wings beyond his on-ice utility. Bushy, 24, is a six-foot-two blueliner who scored 11 points in 41 games this season playing in a top-four role.
- Former Owen Sound Attack star and OHL Champion Cameron Brace is transferring to Germany, per an announcement from his new team, the DEL’s Frankfurt Lions. The 29-year-old has spent the last two seasons in the SHL with IK Oskarshamn, scoring 52 points in 99 games there. Brace earned his shot at the SHL level after a proving himself as a professional in Denmark’s top league, where he scored 110 points in 78 games for Herning Blue Fox. Brace has fashioned himself a solid overseas professional career in the last few years, and now that career will continue in Germany.
- Longtime DEL veteran Max Renner has signed a contract for next season with the Augsburg Panthers. The 31-year-old has nearly 300 DEL games on his resume with most coming with the Straubing Tigers, save for the last two seasons spent with the Bietigheim Steelers. Renner scored nine points in 56 games last season and brings an established veteran presence to the Panthers’ defense corps.
- The ICEHL’s Black Wings Linz have signed forward Nico Feldner to a two-year contract, per a team announcement. Feldner has played the past two seasons entirely with HC Innsbruck, save for a six-game stretch with the EIHL’s Sheffield Steelers in England. Feldner scored 17 points in 43 games for Innsbruck this season and should be counted on to bolster Linz’s forward corps for the next two years as they look to return to the ICEHL’s playoffs next season.
- Matus Spodniak, a top scorer at the NCAA Division-III level with Adrian College, has signed an amateur tryout agreement with the ECHL’s Indy Fuel. The 25-year-old native of Kosice, Slovakia scored 94 points in 60 games across two seasons with Adrian College, and now the Fuel are looking to roll the dice on him to see if he can translate his game to professional hockey. This tryout will represent a significant jump in competition level for Spodniak, and he’ll have a relatively short period of time to make an impression with one of the East Coast league’s top teams.
- Spodniak’s teammate, Ty Enns, also signed an amateur tryout agreement with an ECHL club: the Toledo Walleye. Enns, 24, scored 50 points in 31 games this season and scored a total of 140 points in 106 games at the Division-III level. As mentioned with Spodniak, this jump to the ECHL will be a significant increase in difficulty for Enns, but at the very least it should be encouraging that the ECHL’s third-best team is willing to give him a tryout opportunity.
- The ECHL’s Maine Mariners are another club to dip into the pool of college free agents, signing University of Windsor forward Sean Olson. The 24-year-old scored 40 points in his 54-game career for Windsor, and standing six-foot-three 203 pounds as some size down the middle to the Mariners’ group of pivots.
Dallas Stars Sign Matthew Seminoff
The Dallas Stars have inked another prospect, signing Matthew Seminoff to a three-year entry-level contract that begins in 2023-24. The young forward currently plays for the Kamloops Blazers of the WHL, where he will remain and participate in a Memorial Cup run as the host city.
Seminoff, 19, has 82 points for the Blazers this season, good enough for third on the team, 15 points behind fellow Stars prospect Logan Stankoven. The familiarity of the two will certainly benefit them as they enter professional hockey, though Seminoff has one more year of junior to play, given he won’t turn 20 until December.
He also has much lower expectations, given he was the 179th overall pick in 2022. Even earning an entry-level deal by this point is an impressive feat, and should bode well for his future in the Stars organization. The test will be whether he can keep up that production level once Stankoven leaves the WHL next season, now that Dallas has committed to him.
The Stars may have found a nice late-round steal to join their impressive group of young forwards if he can. With Wyatt Johnston leading the way as an NHL regular, plenty more talent could be on the way to Dallas.
Snapshots: Nylander, Bear, Gogolev, Wanner
Alex Nylander’s stint in the minors was short-lived as the Penguins announced that they’ve recalled the winger from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on an emergency basis. The 25-year-old had an assist in his debut with Pittsburgh on Tuesday but was sent back to the minors soon after. In order to qualify to use an emergency recall, the Penguins appear to have a forward that won’t be available to play on Saturday against Philadelphia but with no practice today, it’s not known which player could be missing. Nylander has spent the bulk of the year in the minors, notching 25 goals and 25 assists in 54 games.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- While the Canucks have had extension talks with defenseman Ethan Bear, his agent Jason Davidson indicated in an appearance on CHEK’s Donnie and Dhali (audio link) that there haven’t been any recent discussions since the All-Star break. The 25-year-old has rebounded relatively well this season, picking up 14 points in 46 games while averaging 18:16 per game since being acquired from Carolina in late October. Bear is two years away from UFA eligibility and it’s worth noting that Davidson indicated that the contract will either be a one-year or a three-year agreement to avoid walking him right to the open market.
- It didn’t take long for winger Pavel Gogolev to find his new team. In fact, he’s going back to his old team as ECHL Newfoundland announced that the 23-year-old has signed an AHL contract with Toronto and then was loaned back to the Growlers. Gogolev has 48 points in 33 games with Newfoundland this season and was included for contract-matching purposes in the trade that saw the Maple Leafs pick up Jake McCabe and Sam Lafferty late last month. He cleared unconditional waivers earlier this week to terminate his contract.
- Last month, the WHL suspended four Moose Jaw players indefinitely pending further investigation, including Oilers prospect Maximus Wanner. Today, the league announced that all four players have been suspended for the remainder of the season. As part of their release, the league indicated that the players will be required to complete further personal conduct and respect training before becoming eligible to return next season. No specifics for what resulted in this were revealed but Edmonton police confirmed that it is not a criminal matter.
Minnesota Wild Sign Kyle Masters
The Minnesota Wild have inked another prospect, signing Kyle Masters to a three-year, entry-level contract. The deal starts in 2023-24 after Masters’ junior career ends.
Selected 118th overall in 2021, the 19-year-old defenseman hs experienced a breakout this year after a trade brought him to the Kamloops Blazers. The fourth-round pick has 11 goals and 59 points in 58 games so far, putting him seventh among all WHL defenders in scoring.
With the Blazers, Masters is headed for a Memorial Cup berth, as Kamloops will host the junior hockey tournament this year. With a chance to go out on top, he’ll head into professional hockey next year with an ELC in hand.
It’s been a busy little while for the Wild front office, who have also signed Hunter Haight, Caedan Bankier, and David Spacek, to contracts that start next season.
Anaheim Ducks To Sign Jaxsen Wiebe
The Anaheim Ducks are going to add an interesting prospect to the pipeline, as Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reports they will sign undrafted forward Jaxsen Wiebe to an entry-level contract that starts in 2023-24.
Wiebe, 20, was nothing more than a bottom-six physical presence for his first couple of seasons in the WHL, but with his offensive game rounding into form, he’s become more than just a junior hockey afterthought.
There are plenty of drafted prospects that don’t earn entry-level deals, so for him to land one just two years after scoring just three points for the Red Deer Rebels is an impressive accomplishment. Wiebe’s 27 points in 28 games—to go along with 49 penalty minutes—suggest that he might be able to fill a variety of roles at the professional level.
Whether that ever translates into NHL success remains to be seen, but the Ducks will take the chance.
Washington Capitals Sign Ryan Hofer
The rush on entry-level contracts continues, with the Washington Capitals signing Ryan Hofer to a three-year deal. It will carry an average annual value of just over $850K, and likely starts next season. Today is the first day to register entry-level contracts for 2023-24.
Hofer, 20, is currently playing for the Kamloops Blazers of the WHL, this year’s host of the Memorial Cup. He was selected in the sixth round last summer after being passed over in each of his first two years of eligibility.
The late bloomer didn’t even crack major junior until 2020-21, before exploding onto the scene last year with 25 goals and 58 points in his first full season in the WHL. This year, as an overage player, he has 36 goals and 56 points in just 53 games, split between Kamloops and the Everett Silvertips.
Hofer will get a chance to play deep into the spring with a Memorial Cup appearance as the host city gets an automatic bid. Next year, he’ll be sent to the minor leagues where he can start his pro career with the Hershey Bears.
Snapshots: Meier, Johnson, WHL Suspensions
While the major news of the day from a trade deadline perspective revolves around Jakob Chychrun, San Jose Sharks forward Timo Meier remains the top forward option on the market for many teams. We covered how teams would be potentially interested in Meier even as a rental forward, despite the fact that he has one year remaining of eligibility for restricted free agency — albeit with a pricey $10MM qualifying offer attached.
Today, The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reported that the Sharks have not yet given permission to Meier and his agent, former NHLer Claude Lemieux, to negotiate the terms of a potential contract extension with interested teams. LeBrun did note, though, that “the expectation is that will happen closer to trade offers being firmed up.” But the fact that these talks have not yet occurred could be an indication that the Meier trade process isn’t quite as far along as the Chychrun saga seems to be, especially given today’s news of Chychrun being healthy scratched.
Some other notes from across the hockey world:
- The Colorado Avalanche announced that veteran blueliner Erik Johnson would not return to tonight’s game due to a lower-body injury. Dater on Hockey’s Adrian Dater added that the “worry is it might be broken foot,” but no further information beyond that has been released. A broken foot would obviously be a massive blow for the Avalanche as they look to climb the standings down the stretch, so all involved will likely be hoping that what knocked Johnson out of the game ends up being only a minor obstacle.
- The WHL announced that four Moose Jaw Warriors players have been indefinitely suspended pending an investigation into possible violations of team rules and the WHL’s Standard of Conduct policies. No further details beyond that were given in the league’s announcement. Of note is that one of the suspended players, Maximus Wanner, is an Edmonton Oilers 2021 seventh-round pick who signed his entry-level deal with the team in September.
Chaz Lucius Undergoes Surgery; Will Miss Rest Of Season
The Winnipeg Jets have announced disappointing prospect news, tweeting that Chaz Lucius underwent shoulder surgery today and will miss the rest of the season. The young forward had been playing with the Portland Winterhawks of the WHL after being loaned back to junior last month.
Lucius, 19, was the 18th overall pick in 2021 and has taken an odd development path in the time since. He first went to the University of Minnesota for just one year, before turning pro and joining the Manitoba Moose at the beginning of this season. After just 12 games there (and a shoulder injury that kept him out for a while), he was headed to the CHL.
The NCAA-AHL-CHL route isn’t often taken, but it appeared to be paying off for Lucius, who had five goals and 15 points in his first six games for Portland. He dominated the younger, more inexperienced competition and built plenty of confidence along the way.
Now with this injury, he’ll have an odd little six-game footnote on his career. Given that he will turn 20 in May, Lucius will almost certainly return to the AHL next year instead of going to junior as an overage player, meaning his time in the WHL is over. His contract, meanwhile, will slide forward, meaning he will now reach restricted free agency in the summer of 2026.