As per usual, we’re keeping track of some of the notable moves from around the minors and European leagues today:
- Diminutive winger Austin Ortega won’t be heading to Russia after all. The 30-year-old California native signed a one-year deal with Admiral Vladivostok of the Kontinental Hockey League back in May, but the league announced today that Admiral had terminated his contract. Ortega spent a brief period in the Ducks’ system after graduating from the University of Nebraska-Omaha in 2017, and while he was immensely productive with 45 points in 29 ECHL games and 21 points in 35 AHL games, he didn’t earn an NHL contract. He’s been overseas since 2018 and spent the last three seasons with EHC Munich in Germany, where he won a DEL championship in 2023.
- As reported earlier in the week, former Hurricanes defense prospect Griffin Mendel is heading to the Czech Extraliga on a one-year deal with Rytiri Kladno, the team announced. Mendel, 25, split last year between the AHL’s Chicago Wolves and the ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals while on a two-way deal with Carolina, but the 6’6″ left-shot was limited to 14 points and a -6 rating in 52 games across the two leagues. He wasn’t given a qualifying offer back in June, becoming an unrestricted free agent.
- 26-year-old defenseman Griffin Luce has settled for an ECHL deal with the Islanders’ affiliate, the Worcester Railers, after spending last season on a two-way deal with the Predators’ AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals. Luce checks in at 6’3″ and 216 lbs and was demoted to Nashville’s ECHL affiliate in Atlanta for most of last year, where he had 12 points in 63 games with a -9 rating. The stay-at-home defender will look to work his way back up the organizational depth chart and perhaps earn an AHL deal with New York’s primary affiliate in Bridgeport later on.
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