Minor Transactions: 07/27/23

Today has been an active day for player movement across the world of professional hockey, as numerous teams in the many pro leagues of North America and Europe are looking to secure quality players for next season. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable moves made in those minor and foreign leagues.

• 26-year-old defenseman Gabriel Carlsson won the AHL’s Calder Cup in dramatic fashion last month, helping the Hershey Bears to victory in overtime of Game Seven of the league’s final series. Now, he’s likely headed back to his home country of Sweden to play in the SHL for the first time since 2017. Carlsson, a 2015 first-round pick, has reportedly signed a “long-term” contract with the Växjö Lakers, according to Hans Abrahamsson and Tomas Rose of Sportbladet, a Swedish news outlet. If this signing ends up finalized, it will move Carlsson from one defending champion to another. It would also mean that Växjö and the Washington Capitals organization have essentially made a trade, swapping Carlsson for Hardy Häman Aktell, Växjö’s top blueliner from last season who left to sign with the Capitals in April. Carlsson played in six games for the Capitals last season, averaging 13:46 TOI per night, and scored 15 points in 59 games as a top-four regular for the Bears.
• The AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms have re-signed 22-year-old second-year netminder Nolan Maier to a one-year AHL contract. Maier is an undrafted Canadian goalie who made his professional debut last season, appearing in 24 games for the Philadelphia Flyers’ ECHL affiliate, the Reading Royals, and 10 games in the AHL for Lehigh Valley across the regular season and playoffs. Maier posted a 12-8-3 record, 2.89 goals-against-average, and .892 save percentage for the Royals and a 5-2-2-/.2.85/.885 mark in Lehigh Valley. As Cal Petersen and Felix Sanadstrom are likely to take up the vast majority of available AHL starts Maier, the WHL’s all-time leader in wins, is likely to start the year once again in the ECHL.
• The AHL’s Ontario Reign re-signed two depth players, Nikita Pavlychev and Tyler Inamoto to one-year AHL contracts. Each player spent most of the season with the ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits, and Pavlychev was one of the team’s best scorers on a points-per-game basis. He potted 25 goals and 45 points in 36 games, his third season on the AHL/ECHL bubble since leaving Pennsylvania State University. For Inamoto, 2022-23 was his first campaign as a professional and the six-foot-two left-shot blueliner played in 36 ECHL games and earned seven games in the AHL.
• Former Moncton Wildcats top scorer and ECHL All-Star Jeremy McKenna re-signed with the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds for the 2023-24 season, where he will likely resume his role as a premium ECHL scorer and first-choice AHL call-up option. The 24-year-old Alberta native has been an exceptional ECHL player since turning pro in 2020-21, and he has 100 points in 99 career games there. In the AHL, McKenna has struggled (just 26 points in 71 career AHL games) though he has had some moments of success. His recent run in the playoffs with the Firebirds included the most consistent production he’s ever provided in the AHL, and his 12 points in 18 games there should give the Firebirds confidence that he could even compete for a more permanent AHL role in training camp in a few months.
• After a year where he posted the third-highest save percentage in the WHL as the number-two goalie for the Lethbridge Hurricanes, Bryan Thomson has earned a contract with an AHL club to begin his pro career. The 21-year-old has signed a two-year AHL contract with the Texas Stars, and will likely end up starting his pro career in the ECHL with the Stars’ affiliate, the Idaho Steelheads. Texas already has Remi Poirier and Matthew Murray set as their tandem for next season, so Thompson will likely factor in at the ECHL level with the hope of sneaking into some AHL starts if he performs well there.
• ECHL All-Star Collin Adams has left the New York Islanders’ farm system to sign with the ECHL’s Kalamazoo Wings. The 25-year-old 2016 Islanders draft pick spent most of his rookie pro season in the AHL with the Bridgeport Islanders, but only managed 11 points in 45 games. This past season, Adams spent more time in the ECHL with the Worcester Railers and his numbers began to look more like they were in his final two seasons playing college hockey at the University of North Dakota. Adams posted 32 points in 30 games for the Railers and could end up a top scorer for the Wings playing on this newly-signed contract.
• 2018-19 Hobey Baker Award finalist Patrick Newell has returned to North America, signing an ECHL contract with the Orlando Solar Bears. The 27-year-old was a coveted college prospect at the end of his career at St. Cloud State and signed an entry-level deal with the New York Rangers. He failed to make a real dent in the American League with the Hartford Wolf Pack, just 27 points in 87 games. Newell left to play in Norway at the conclusion of his contract with the Rangers organization and scored 51 points in 42 games there. He split last season between clubs in Hungary and Sweden’s second division and has now decided to try his hand in the ECHL for the first time in his career.
• Avery Winslow, an alternate captain for the OHL’s North Bay Battalion for the last two seasons, is beginning his professional career with the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers. The soon-to-be 21-year-old left-shot blueliner signed a one-year ECHL contract with the Nailers, heading to West Virginia having concluded his OHL career. He led the Battalion to within one win of the OHL’s championship series earlier this year and scored a combined 19 points in 60 regular season and playoff games in 2022-23 in North Bay.
• One of the ECHL’s more improved players last season was former Merrimack College captain Tyler Drevitch, who improved his production for the Wheeling Nailers from nine points in 45 games to 18 goals and 33 points in 72 games. That improvement earned him a contract with the ECHL’s Savannah Ghost Pirates, who are likely interested in his combination of bruising physicality (he totaled 179 penalty minutes in 2022-23) and goal-scoring touch. He joins his little brother Logan Drevitch, 25, his teammate from Merrimack who scored 37 points in 69 games for Savannah as an ECHL rookie last season and signed an extension with the Ghost Pirates on Monday.
• Victor Hadfield, the 22-year-old grandson of New York Rangers legend Vic Hadfield, re-signed with the ECHL’s Jacksonville Icemen today. This extension makes 2023-24 Hadfield’s third campaign in Duval County, the place he landed in March 2022 after he was traded from the South Carolina Stingrays. Hadfield is a left winger just like his famous grandfather and scored seven goals and 14 points in 44 games last season.

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