Sabres Name Michael Leone AHL Head Coach
The Sabres have hired USA Hockey mainstay Michael Leone as the head coach of their AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans, per a team announcement Thursday. Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald was the first to report the hiring yesterday.
Leone succeeds Seth Appert, who’d been the head coach of the Amerks for the past four seasons. He was recently promoted to the NHL bench and will serve as an assistant on Lindy Ruff‘s staff as he makes his return to Buffalo.
The 36-year-old Leone had a collegiate and low-level minors career as a player, topping out in the ECHL with the Toledo Walleye in the mid-2010s. After retiring, he immediately began his coaching career as an assistant with the ECHL’s Quad City Mallards for the 2017-18 season.
The Michigan native has quickly risen up the ranks ever since. He jumped to an assistant role with Bowling Green State University the following season before joining USA Hockey in 2019, first as an assistant with their national U-17 team on a squad that boasted Calder Trophy finalist Luke Hughes on its blue line.
He hopped between the U17 and U18 teams over the next few years, also serving as an assistant for the national team at various international tournaments, before moving back to league play in 2022. Tabbed as the GM and head coach of the Green Bay Gamblers of the major junior United States Hockey League, he’s guided them to a 66-41-17 record over the past two seasons.
Leone coached multiple NHL-affiliated prospects with the Gamblers this season, namely Blackhawks 2023 second-round pick Adam Gajan, NHL Utah prospect Julian Lutz, and Lightning 2023 fourth-round pick Jayson Shaugabay.
He’ll now be entrusted with the development of a deep Sabres prospect pool in which almost every player makes a stop in Rochester at some point. Next season’s roster is likely to include 2022 first-round picks Jiri Kulich and Noah Östlund up front, with other first-round picks Isak Rosen and Matthew Savoie being potential options to suit up for the Amerks if they don’t make the NHL roster out of camp.
Snapshots: Warsofsky, Radulov, Utah Branding
The San Jose Sharks have interviewed a long list of candidates for their vacant head coaching position, including assistant coach Ryan Warsofsky who, per Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now, is now pulling ahead as the favorite for the job. He pulls ahead of a list of interviewees that features Jay Woodcroft, Matt Nieto, Jeff Blashill, Jeff Halpern, and Jeremy Colliton. Warsofsky also interviewed for San Jose’s head coach role in 2022, though he was ultimately hired behind David Quinn.
Warsofsky oversaw San Jose’s defense and penalty kill while serving behind Quinn, serving as the coach behind Erik Karlsson‘s 101-point, Norris Trophy-winning season last year. But he was also the coach behind San Jose’s 326 goals allowed this season – the third-most of any team over the last decade.
Warsofsky is just two years into his NHL coaching career – experiencing two of the staunchest extremes he could have – after leading the Chicago Wolves to the 2022 AHL Calder Cup Championship to cap off his three-year tenure as an AHL head coach. Warsofsky’s hire would follow a growing trend of teams finding their coaches internally, with each of Winnipeg, St. Louis, Seattle, and Los Angeles already promoting coaches to the NHL head coach role this off-season. The role in San Jose would be the first NHL head coaching role of Warsofsky’s still very young career.
Other notes from around the league:
- Long-time Dallas Stars forward Alexander Radulov has signed a one-year contract with the KHL’s Lokomotiv (Twitter link). Radulov has spent the last two seasons with Kazan Ak-Bars, posting a combined 41 goals and 97 points across 120 games. He’s remained productive, even at the age of 37, and will now be set to play with the fourth KHL club of his career – after four seasons with Ufa, four with CSKA Moscow, and two with Kazan. Those seasons add to Radulov’s nine-year career in the NHL, where he totaled 368 points in 524 career games spent with three different clubs. With no signs of slowing down, Radulov will look to vindicate this one-year contract with a strong season and continue his trek to becoming just the 19th KHL player to play beyond 40 years old.
- NHL Utah is down to six finalists for its permanent name after an initial vote yielded over 500,000 responses. They’ll be called the Utah Blizzards, Utah Hockey Club, Utah Mammoth, Utah Outlaws, Utah Venom or Utah Yeti beginning with the 2025-26 season. They’ll carry temporary Utah Hockey Club branding for their inaugural 2024-25 campaign. Fans can choose between the six finalists using this link.
Minor Transactions: 6/5/24
While the bulk of signings in the NHL is still at least a month away, activity around the hockey world has picked up in recent weeks. Here’s a rundown of recent moves with an NHL association.
- After having his contract terminated by Minnesota last month, winger Vladislav Firstov has returned to the KHL as Torpedo announced they’ve signed him to a one-year deal. The 22-year-old spent most of this season in Russia on loan but once that campaign ended, he suited up in ten games with AHL Iowa, picking up two goals and two assists. However, he clearly wanted to stay at home for next season, leading to his release by the Wild.
- The Canadiens’ AHL affiliate in Laval announced they’ve signed forward Israel Mianscum to a two-year contract. The 21-year-old spent his five-year junior career with QMJHL Sherbrooke and was quite productive in his overage year, tallying 35 goals and 52 assists in 61 games, both career bests. Overall, he had 215 points in 264 major junior contests.
- The Jets have invited Cornell forward Kyle Penney to their upcoming development camp, reports Mark Divver of the New England Hockey Journal (Twitter link). The 23-year-old is coming off a strong year with the Big Red, one that saw him collect 10 goals and 18 assists along with a plus-30 rating in 35 games. Penney has one season of college eligibility remaining.
- The Panthers’ AHL team in Charlotte announced they’ve re-signed defenseman Mitchell Vande Sompel to a two-year deal. The Checkers acquired the 27-year-old at the AHL trade deadline and he was a regular for them down the stretch where he had five points in 16 games. Vande Sompel was originally a draft pick of the Islanders, spending five years in their system before moving on in 2022.
- Kings prospect Matthew Mania is on the move in the OHL as Flint announced that they’ve acquired the defenseman as part of a six-player, nine-pick trade. The 19-year-old was a fifth-round pick last year, going 150th overall and is coming off an injury-riddled season that limited him to just 45 games where he had four goals and 19 assists. Los Angeles has until June 1, 2025 to sign Mania to an entry-level deal or lose his rights.
Afternoon Notes: Jeannot, Parekh, Bourque
Winger Tanner Jeannot is once again facing trade rumors, as the Tampa Bay Lightning look to clear enough cap space for a serviceable off-season. The team is facing the loss of their franchise player Steven Stamkos with just $5MM in cap space – not nearly enough to afford the services of the future Hall-of-Famer. That could push them to try and move Jeannot’s $2.665MM cap hit, though Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times shares that there’s been no legitimate discussions of a move just yet. Though Encina did speak to the idea being a tantalizing one for the Lightning, with many teams around the league still interested in acquiring Jeannot.
The Lightning acquired Jeannot from the Nashville Predators ahead of the 2023 Trade Deadline, sending the Music City defenseman Callan Foote, the picks that turned into Dylan MacKinnon (2023 third-round, 83rd-overall), Jayson Shaugabay (2023 fourth-round, 115th-overall), and Kevin Bicker (2023 fifth-round, 147th-overall), as well as a second-round pick in 2024 and a first-round pick in 2025 in return. Nashville traded the Shaugabay pick back to Tampa four months later, in exchange for a 2024 fourth-round pick, and moved the Bicker pick to the Detroit Red Wings to move up in the 2023 second-round.
Jeannot scored just four points in his 20 games with Tampa after the trade, though that didn’t dissuade their faith in him, with the Lightning signing Jenanot to a two-year, $5.3MM contract last summer – a deal that avoided the arbitration hearing Jeannot filed for. The rough-and-tumble winger wasn’t able to rekindle his spark on the new deal, though, scoring just 14 points in 55 games this season. He added 75 penalty minutes and a -10 – and tallied just one assist in four postseason games.
There’s still reported interest in Jeannot around the league despite his lacking scoring. Teams like the Calgary Flames have been looped into trade rumors, though Encina emphasized that a trade isn’t likely Plan A. Tampa will need to get a hefty return in any Jeannot trade, if only to hedge their losses from a costly 2023 move.
Other notes from around the league:
- Saginaw Spirit defenseman Zayne Parekh has won the CHL’s Defenseman of the Year Award, beating out Memorial Cup Finals competition Sam Dickinson. Parekh was dazzling this season, posting a position-leading 33 goals and 96 points in just 66 games this season. He’s just the second OHL defenseman to top 95 points since 2000, joining Ryan Ellis’ 100-point season in 2010-11. But while Ellis was already an NHL draftee, Parekh is headed into his first year of eligibility in the 2024 NHL Draft. He’s seen as one of the top defensemen in the class and should rival a top 10 selection.
- The Dallas Stars are swapping talented young forwards, with Ty Dellandrea stepping out of the Game 6 lineup in favor of Mavrik Bourque, shares Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (Twitter link). Bourque won the AHL’s ‘Les Cunningham’ MVP Award this season after posting 26 goals and 77 points in 71 games this season. Bourque formed a dynamic duo with Stars standout Logan Stankoven in the first half of the season. Dallas will look to use that pairing as their X-factor, as they face elimination at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers.
Snapshots: Firkus, McCoshen, Tung
Seattle Kraken forward prospect Jagger Firkus has won the CHL’s David Branch Player of the Year Award, after posting a Canada-leading 126 points in 63 games with the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors. He was the star of a Moose Jaw team rife with NHL talent, including Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Brayden Yager, who took home the league’s ‘Sportsman Player of the Year’ Award. Firkus and Yager were joined by Columbus Blue Jackets prospect Denton Mateychuk in Moose Jaw, forming a dominant team that won the WHL Championship and recently ranked third in the Memorial Cup.
Firkus signed his entry-level contract with Seattle ahead of the Memorial Cup and will now turn his sights towards pushing for the NHL lineup this off-season. The Kraken boast a strong prospect pool, including Shane Wright, Carson Rehkopf, and Jani Nyman – all players who could vie for an NHL opportunity of their own next season. That’ll mean plenty of competition for Firkus as he looks to adjust his aggressive offense to much tougher competition.
Other notes around the league:
- Former Florida Panthers defenseman Ian McCoshen has signed a one-year contract with the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star (Twitter link). The move continues McCoshen’s tour across international hockey, after bouncing from a 2022 stint in Finland to a 2023 stint in Czechia, where he scored 12 points in 50 games with Liberec Bili Tygri HC. McCoshen is a veteran of just 60 NHL games, scoring seven points, though he did play in 174 games across five seasons in the AHL. He managed a season-high of just 11 points over his AHL career, a number he’s since topped in both Finland and Czechia. He’ll look to do the same in China next season, though the one-year deal could suggest another move coming soon.
- BCHL goaltender Callum Tung will be attending both the Calgary Flames and Florida Panthers development camps, shares his Alberni Valley Bulldogs (Twitter link). Tung took over the Bulldogs’ starting role this season, posting 22 wins and a .917 save percentage across 38 regular season games. He managed to get even hotter in the postseason, winning 11 of 18 games and setting a .940 save percentage, though Alberni Valley ultimately fell to the Penticton Vees in the BCHL Championship. Tung remains eligible for the 2024 NHL Draft, after going overlooked in 2022 and 2023. Tung isn’t currently committed to the NCAA either, suggesting he could be ready for a big challenge should he earn it at an NHL development camp.
West Notes: Tanev, Hakanpaa, Oilers, Kylington
The Dallas Stars didn’t have any positive updates today, with head coach Pete DeBoer sharing that Chris Tanev will see doctors and “go from there”, while Jani Hakanpaa likely won’t be available for Game 5, per NHL.com’s Mike Heika (Twitter link). Tanev left Game 4 midway through the second period, after suffering a lower-body injury while blocking a shot from Evander Kane. Tanev has played in all 17 of Dallas’ playoff games and totaled a league-leading 68 blocked shots. He also leads Dallas defensemen in hits, with 26. Meanwhile, Hakanpaa will miss a 31st-straight game should he miss Game 5.
Tanev would be a major absence for the Stars, who currently carry Nils Lundkvist, Derrick Pouliot, or prospect Lian Bichsel as their extra defenders. Lundkvist has appeared in 12 postseason games this Spring, recording one assist and averaging just 4:27 in ice time each game. Pouliot could offer a more stout veteran presence, though he’s only appeared in 22 NHL games over the last three seasons combined. Pouliot spent the majority of this season with the AHL’s Texas Stars, recording nine goals and 46 points across 67 games. Regardless of the fill-in, Tanev’s absence will likely mean more ice time for the team’s top pair of Esa Lindell and Miro Heiskanen. The pair are already averaging 25 and 28 minutes of ice time respectively. Heiskanen has managed six goals and 16 points in 17 postseason games, while Lindell has posted three goals and five points.
Other notes from around the league:
- The Edmonton Oilers have hired Kalle Larsson as their ‘Senior Director of Player Development’. He will be responsible for overseeing and managing the development of Oilers’ prospects. Larsson moves to the NHL after spending 11 years with the USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints, where he served as both general manager and President of Hockey Operations at various points. Larson built Dubuque into one of the league’s most consistently successful lineups, including supporting them to a championship appearance this season – though Dubuque lost to the nearly flawless Fargo Force, who finished the regular season with just 10 regulation losses. Larsson will now move into the NHL, once again focused on developing young players into playoff-winning talents.
- The Calgary Flames are reportedly preparing an offer for defenseman Oliver Kylington, shares David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period. Kylington was a finalist for the Bill Masterton Trophy this season, after taking 18 months away from the team for personal reasons. That absence included missing the entirety of the 2022-23 campaign. Kylington totaled 33 games with Calgary this season, posting eight points, 12 penalty minutes, and a -6. He’s likely due for a cheap deal and will look to resolidify his spot on the team’s daily lineup next season.
Blue Jackets Place Brendan Gaunce On Waivers
May 27: Gaunce cleared waivers today and was subsequently assigned to AHL Cleveland, per a team announcement.
May 26: The Columbus Blue Jackets have placed forward Brendan Gaunce on waivers, per PuckPedia (Twitter link). The move was confirmed by CapFriendly (Twitter link). Gaunce captained Columbus’ AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters, this season, helping to lead the team to a first-place finish in the league’s North Division. The Monsters are now set for the Calder Cup’s Eastern Conference Finals, with that series set to begin on Thursday.
This is the second time Gaunce has been placed on waivers this season, having cleared them to join Cleveland in October. He spent the majority of his season in the minor leagues, appearing in 46 games with the Monsters and recording an AHL career-high of 19 goals and 39 points. Gaunce also appeared in 24 NHL games this season, scoring four points. It was the most time that Gaunce had spent in the NHL since his first year with Columbus in the 2021-22 season, when he totaled 30 games and seven points.
Gaunce has been on the NHL roster since March. Assuming he clears waivers, he’ll rejoin a Monsters lineup that’s breezed through the Calder Cup Playoffs, beating the Belleville Senators 3-1 after a first-round bye and sweeping the Syracuse Crunch in the North Division Finals. Gaunce has provided stout scoring and plenty of veteran leadership from the team’s second line. Those are the traits they’ll need as Cleveland takes on a Hershey Bears lineup with an identical record in these playoffs.
Lightning’s Ilya Usau Clears Waivers, Has Contract Terminated
05/26: Ilya Usau has cleared waivers and will have his contract terminated, per CapFriendly (Twitter link). His contract has now been mutually terminated
05/25: The Tampa Bay Lightning have placed centerman Ilya Usau (Usov) on unconditional waivers for the purposes of contract termination, per CapFriendly (Twitter link). Usau had one year remaining on a three-year, $2.8MM entry-level contract signed in 2022. He earned the deal following a three-game appearance with Belarus at the 2022 Olympic Qualifiers – an appearance he made in the midst of a 26-point season in the KHL. Usau has since spent the last two seasons with the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch, recording 30 points across 99 games with the team.
Usau was first draft-eligible in the 2020 NHL Draft. He spent his season with the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders, recording 22 goals and 52 points in 58 games in his first season in Canada – after growing up through the USA youth hockey system and even appearing in four USHL games in 2019. His scoring in Western Canada drew the attention of scouts, finishing the year as the 101st-ranked prospect in TSN’s Craig Button’s final rankings. But Usau went unclaimed in the draft and decided to move back to his native Minsk, Belarus, signing with the KHL’s Dinamo Minsk.
That’s likely where Usau is bound for with this move, shares James Mirtle of The Athletic (Twitter link). If that’s the case, he’ll be returning to a KHL career just four games shy of 100 career games and, presumably, a Dinamo Minsk club that extended their playoff streak to four seasons this year.
Rangers Recall 13 Players
With the Rangers seeing their AHL team eliminated in the Atlantic Division Finals earlier this week, they were free to recall some players to the big club to serve as their ‘Black Aces’ squad. After taking a few days, they’ve made their choices on who to bring up. AHL Hartford announced that the Rangers have promoted goaltender Dylan Garand, defensemen Ben Harpur, Connor Mackey, Victor Mancini, Matthew Robertson, and Brandon Scanlin, and forwards Alex Belzile, Brett Berard, Anton Blidh, Jake Leschyshyn, Brennan Othmann, Tyler Pitlick, and Adam Sykora from the Wolf Pack.
Garand was briefly up with the Rangers earlier in the playoffs when third-stringer Louis Domingue was unavailable but didn’t see any game action. The 21-year-old didn’t have a particularly strong regular season with a 3.03 GAA and a .898 SV% in 39 regular season games but was quite sharp in the playoffs, improving those numbers to 2.59 and .922 respectively in nine appearances.
Among the blueliners, only Mackey and Scanlin saw action with the Rangers during the regular season, getting into one game apiece; one of them would likely be the first from this group to get the call to play if necessary. Harpur has the most experience with 198 career appearances (including 42 with New York in 2022-23) but missed most of the season due to injury which likely takes him off the table. Mancini, meanwhile, is eligible to practice but not play as his entry-level contract doesn’t officially begin until next season.
As for the forwards, all but Belzile, Berard, and Sykora got into at least one NHL contest in 2023-24. Pitlick led the way on that front with 34 appearances but was limited to just a goal and three assists while averaging a little over 10 minutes a night. That said, he’d be the safest player to put in the lineup if necessary given his familiarity. Othmann is one of their top prospects and had a strong year in Hartford with 49 points in 67 games. While it would be riskier to put him in, his style of play fits in with the physicality of the postseason while Othmann could provide some potential offensive upside if Peter Laviolette has to shake things up.
Kings Sign Taylor Ward, Joe Hicketts To One-Year Contracts
The Los Angeles Kings have announced the signing of forward Taylor Ward and defenseman Joe Hicketts to matching one-year, two-way, league-minimum contracts. They also confirmed the previously-reported signing of forward Kaleb Lawrence to a three-year, entry-level deal yesterday.
Both Ward and Hicketts have become familiar faces in the AHL over the last three seasons. Ward stepped into pros with a one-year, entry-level contract signed in March of 2022 – a deal he earned with a strong performance on an amateur try-out agreement with the Ontario Reign, following his Senior year at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. He’s since appeared in 158 AHL games, recording 23 goals and 68 points. That includes his career-high 11 goals and 32 points posted in 71 games this season. Ward is still awaiting the first NHL call-up of his career – a feat his new contract keeps him eligible for. He added a good deal of physical confidence, especially in front of the net, last season and could be a go-to depth option, should L.A. need extra forwards next season.
Meanwhile, Hicketts will look to fight his way back to the NHL on this new deal. The 28-year-old defender also began his career as an undrafted free agent, signing a three-year entry-level contract with the Detroit Red Wings after a strong performance as a training camp invitee in 2014. He made his NHL debut a little over three years later, appearing in 22 games with the Red Wings between 2018 and 2020. Hicketts only posted five points, all assists, in those outings, adding four penalty minutes and a collective -9. He’s since spent the last four years in the minor leagues, on tours with the Griffins, the Iowa Wild, and the Reign. The stable role has led to strong results, with Hicketts posted a career-high 42 assists and 48 points in 72 games with in Iowa last season – and 20 points in 30 games with the Regin this year, after missing three months with an early-season injury. It will be that momentum that Hicketts enters the 2024-25 season with, looking to fight for an NHL role among a crowded Kings defense group.