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Snapshots: Belleville, Lightning, Tullio, AHL

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In the wake of groundbreaking news regarding a new NHL arena, the Ottawa Senators have also announced a three-year extension of the Belleville Senators’ lease agreement with Quinte Sports and Wellness Centre. The deal additionally includes the option to extend for an additional five years, effectively gluing the AHL Senators to Belleville until between 2030 and 2035.

Ottawa will make a confident move to keep their AHL club just a few hours away. This news comes despite the fact that Belleville has ranked in the bottom-three of AHL attendance in each of the last two seasons, with an average of 2,823 fans each game per HockeyDB. Belleville did come closer to 3,000 fans per game this season, and will look to cross that mark with a new commitment to the city.

Their one-ice performances have fluctuated in their eight years of existence. The Baby Sens have made the postseason only twice, though they did finish first and third in their division in 2020 and 2021, when the postseason was either cancelled early or outright. The club has shown glimmers of hope, and should only improve as Ottawa continues to stack their depth chart.

Other quick notes from across the NHL:

  • In more arena news, the Tampa Bay Lightning have announced a new name for their home base shares Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times. The arena formerly known as AMALIE Arena will now be named Benchmark International Arena, after naming rights were sold to the Tampa-based acquisitions firm. Details of the sale were not revealed, other than that it will run for multiple years and include $3MM in nonprofit contributions to the arena. Amalie Motor Oil Company, who held the naming rights since 2014, will continue to serve as a corporate partner of the Lightning.
  • Right winger Tyler Tullio will continue his journey across the AHL. He has signed a contract with the Tuscon Roadrunners for next season, per Tony Androckitis of Inside AHL Hockey. Tullio was traded to the Buffalo Sabres in 2024, as part of the deal that swapped top prospect Matthew Savoie for pro center Ryan McLeod. He spent 30 games with the Rochester Americans, before being loaned to the Calgary Wranglers for the rest of the season. He totaled 15 points in 43 games this season, just narrowly below the scoring pace he managed when he scored 21 points in 54 games in 2023-24, or 26 points in 63 games in 2022-23, with the Bakersfield Condors. Tullio was a fifth-round selection in the 2020 NHL Draft and should provide a nice boost of speed to Tuscon’s lineup.
  • The AHL has named Stephen Thomson as their new Vice President of Hockey Operations, per NHL.com’s Mark Divver. Divver adds that Thomson will be responsible for overseeing on-ice operations, including management of officials and disciplinary processes. Thomson has been with the AHL’s league office since 2022. He will replace Hayley Moore, who left for a role with popular agency Quartexx Management. The AHL also announced that Jeff Jordan has been hired as the Director of Hockey Operations and Central Registry after spending the last five years with the Springfield Thunderbirds. The league has also promoted Michael Demarin to Senior Manager of Hockey Administration and Governance; and Shannon Chiras to Manager of Hockey Operations.

Kraken Hire Zac Dalpe, Adam Purner To Development Team

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The Seattle Kraken have announced two late-summer hires. Recently retired pro Zac Dalpe will join the club as a Player Development Consultant, and Adam Purner will take on the role of Video Analyst, in the 2025-26 season. Dalpe played through over 15 years between the NHL and AHL lineups, while Purner has spent the last three seasons as the video coach for the AHL’s Hershey Bears.

Dalpe will waste no time in continuing his career in the hockey world, as he lands this role just over a month after announcing the end of his playing days. He was once a top center prospect, originally drafted in the second-round of the 2008 NHL Draft by the Carolina Hurricanes. Dalpe followed his draft with two seasons at The Ohio State University, where he emerged as a key part of the offense – netting 70 points in 76 games before turning pro in 2010. He seemed to be set for much of the same success at the pro flight, with 64 points in his first 70 games in the AHL.

But Dalpe struggled to maintain his scoring into the NHL flight. His career was defined by lofty scoring in the minors, but minimal scoring in the majors. Despite that, the reliable center was able to work his way to 168 appearances at the NHL level over the course of 12 seasons. He played with six clubs over that period, including four years in Carolina’s pipeline and three years with Columbus. He totaled 32 points in those appearances. Dalpe’s spot starts in the NHL were rounded out by an impressive 392 points in 574 games, and 15 seasons, in the AHL. He was a true pillar of any lineup he joined, and spent the last six seasons of his career serving as a team captain – broken up as two years wearing the Cleveland Monsters ’C’, and four years leading the Charlotte Checkers.

Dalpe’s career was defined not by lofty stats or many accolades, but instead true year-over-year reliability and a willingness to fill any role his teams needed. He’ll now use those attributes to support Seattle’s young guns as they ramp into the NHL.

Joining Dalpe will be acclaimed video coach Purner, who supported the Hershey Bears in their run to Calder Cup Championships in two of the last three seasons. Purner’s career began with five seasons as the video coach for the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks. He followed that stint with two years in a minor-league role with the New Jersey Devils’ organization, split between one year with the Binghamton Devils and one year with the Utica Comets. Purner will now receive his first NHL opportunity just a few hours away from where his career began.

Snapshots: Cooley, Murray, Mastrodonato

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With max-term contracts for re-signings set to shrink from eight years to seven next year, some feel teams will look to push to get their players signed this summer to guarantee that eighth season.  Among those eligible to sign now is Mammoth center Logan Cooley, a player Utah would undoubtedly like to lock up, especially with GM Bill Armstrong favoring long-term deals for core pieces as soon as possible.  However, Brogan Houston of the Deseret News recently argued that it’s not in Cooley’s best interest for him to extend now.  Given his stature as a young potential top-line center, he’d have to have a disastrous season to really tank his value compared to what it might be now while with the rising cap, it might be better for him to wait until next summer when the maximum term drops, allowing him to reach unrestricted free agency a year sooner.  AFP Analytics pegged a potential long-term extension for Cooley this summer to come in around seven years at around $9.5MM.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • Winger Brett Murray has been with the Sabres for the better part of a decade after he was drafted by them back in 2016. However, now that he’s on the open market, he’ll be looking for a new team as his agent Dave Gagner told Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald that the organization has informed Murray that they won’t be offering a contract to him.  The 27-year-old played in three games with Buffalo last season and has 26 appearances at the top level under his belt.  Murray spent most of last year with AHL Rochester where he had 27 goals and 22 assists in 66 games.  However, he now qualifies as a veteran under AHL roster rules which has likely limited his marketability so far.
  • The Kings have added some extra minor-league depth as their AHL affiliate in Ontario announced the signing of forward Keaton Mastrodonato to a one-year deal. The 24-year-old has two full professional seasons under his belt, split between the AHL and ECHL levels.  Last season, Mastrodonato was held off the scoresheet in the 13 games with AHL Colorado but was quite productive with ECHL Utah, tallying 19 goals and 30 assists in 53 outings with the Grizzlies.

Rocco Grimaldi, Joseph Blandisi Sign In KHL

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Former New Jersey Devils forward Joseph Blandisi has signed a two-year contract with SKA St. Petersburg of Russia’s KHL. Blandisi will be joined in the move by fellow AHL veteran Rocco Grimaldi, whose contract details haven’t yet been revealed, per Pavel Panyshev of Russia’s Championat. This will mark the first overseas move of both player’s careers, after years of rooted roles in the minor leagues.

Grimaldi boast the slightly richer career of the two, accumulating 203 NHL games and 499 AHL games over his nine-year career. He was originally drafted with the 33rd-overall pick in the 2011 NHL Draft by the Florida Panthers. Grimaldi followed his draft selection with three seasons at the University of North Dakota. He found great success in college, despite a freshman year derailed by injury, and entered the pros with wind behind his sails in the 2014-15 season.

Grimaldi scored a hot 42 points in 64 games of his AHL rookie season. That was enough to earn the first seven games of his NHL career, though he only managed one goal in those appearances. He spent the next four years firmly rooted in the rut of hot AHL scoring and meager NHL totals, until the 2018-19 Nashville Predators opted to reward Grimaldi with his first full year in the NHL. He scored just 13 points in 53 games with the club, but shined through enough to cement a bottom-six role for the next three seasons. But after not finding another gear at the top flight, Grimaldi was relegated back to the minors in 2022. His role was defined as a top AHL scorer with limited upward mobility – a sentiment that’s kept Grimaldi from receiving any NHL games in three years, despite scoring 256 points in 252 games since 2022.

Blandisi has fallen into a similar rut over recent years. After bearing through split AHL and NHL minutes between 2015 and 2020, the former sixth-round selection landed a full-time role in the minors in the 2020-21 season. He’s since found upside as both a scorer and bruiser, a role best highlighted by his 59 points and 110 penalty minutes in 70 games with the Toronto Marlies in the 2023-24 season. He followed that performance with 35 points and 82 penalty minutes in 58 games last season, bringing his career-long totals up to 321 points and 664 penalty minutes in 448 games and 10 seasons in the AHL. He also has 31 points in 101 NHL games.

Both players will look to escape middling roles in North America with a move to Russia’s top squad. They’ll join a rich squad in SKA, headlined by returning scorers Sergei Plotnikov and Marat Khairullin. Grimaldi and Blandisi should have no trouble finding hardy middle-six minutes, following SKA’s loss of Evgeny Kuznetsov and Mikhail Grigorenko this off-season. SKA finished second in their division, and got bumped from the conference quarterfinals, last season.

Snapshots: Bichsel, Brett Murray, Bakersfield Deals

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With the Dallas Stars parting ways with veterans Cody Ceci, Mathew Dumba and Brendan Smith, the door is fully open for 21-year-old defender Lian Bichsel to make a full impact on the blue line this season, per NHL.com’s Mike Heika.

Last season, during his rookie year, Bichsel, the Stars’ first-round pick in the 2022 draft (18th overall), appeared in 38 games, recording nine points, 23 blocked shots, and a team-leading 155 hits. The hulking 6’7″, 230-pound defenseman also suited up for 18 playoff games, contributing one assist and adding 75 more hits. His 16.4 hits per 60 minutes last season was nearly 10 higher than the second-place finisher (Colin Blackwell with 6.9).

A native of Switzerland, Bichsel appeared in the Swedish Hockey League for three seasons before coming over to North America, and worked his way into Dallas’ lineup in short order. And as Heika notes, Bichsel could slot into a variety of pairings on the Stars’ third defensive unit, but skating alongside veteran Alexander Petrovic would give him a steady, experienced presence. The two also have experience playing as a pairing in the AHL.

Elsewhere around the league:

  • After spending the past six seasons in the Buffalo Sabres organization, primarily with the AHL’s Rochester Americans, winger Brett Murray is on the move, per Bill Hoppe of Buffalo Hockey Beat. Despite posting a career-high 27 goals for Rochester last season, the Sabres are set to part ways with one of their key AHL leaders. A fourth-round pick in the 2016 draft, Murray played two seasons at Penn State before making the jump to the pro ranks. He went on to appear in 26 NHL games for Buffalo, recording two goals and six points.

  • The Edmonton Oilers’ top affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors, signed four players to AHL deals, per a team announcement. The team signed forwards Matt Brown and Trevor Janicke and defensemen Mats Lindgren and Luke Prokop. Of note, Propkop was a third-round selection of the Nashville Predators in the 2020 draft, while Lindgren was a fourth-round selection of the Sabres in the 2022 draft.

Snapshots: Tkachuk, Cozens, Red Wings

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The Tkachuk family has dominated late-summer headlines, leading to plenty of opportunities for the three NHL players – retired pro Keith Tkachuk, Florida Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk, and Ottawa Senators star Brady Tkachuk – to sit down with media from across the hockey world. The one throughline from each conversation has been Brady’s desire to stick with the Ottawa Senators. He told as much to ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski, sharing that the team’s push into the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs went far towards proving what the young core is capable of.

The Senators entered the 2024-25 season with one of the youngest rosters in the league – eighth-youngest, to be exact. They blazed through an incredibly successful season despite that, finishing the year with the top Eastern Conference Wild Card and just one point behind the eventual Cup-winning Panthers. Ottawa’s surge was spearheaded by young studs like Tim Stutzle, Drake Batherson, and Jake Sanderson. Those three were the only ones to score more than Tkachuk’s 29 goals and 55 points in 72 regular season games. But Tkachuk showed his importance to the squad when he led the team with four goals and seven points in six postseason games. Ottawa will return a fairly similar squad next season, and with a bode of confidence from their captain, may be able to find their way out of Wild Card standing or beyond the first round.

Other notes from around the league:

  • A key focus of the Senators’ 2025-26 season will be the performance of second-line center Dylan Cozens, who the team acquired from the Buffalo Sabres in a swap for Joshua Norris last Spring. Julian McKenzie of The Athletic shares that Cozens only needs to reach 20 goals, and maintain his all-around impact, to earn find a successful season. Cozens has only crossed the 20-goal mark once in his career – when he pushed for 31 goals and 68 points in the 2022-23 season. But he’s come close at other points, with 18 goals in 2023-24 and 16 goals last year. In fact, Cozens’ five goals in 21 games with the Senators perfectly paces him for a 20-goal performance across 82 games. That should be an achievable step for the 24-year-old centerman, though his goal will certainly be to further prove he can return to the heights of his 2023 scoring. Doing so could give Ottawa an ace up their sleeves as they look to one-up their performance from last year.
  • Years of stocking the prospect pool should begin to pay off for the Detroit Red Wings next season. They can expect three key prospects to emerge in the NHL per Max Bultman of The Athletic, who names forwards Nate Danielson and Carter Mazur, and goaltender Sebastian Cossa, as the young guns likely to break into the Detroit lineup next season. That should be an easy feat for Mazur and Cossa, who have both continuously shown their might at the AHL level. Mazur finished an injury-shortened season with 15 points in 20 AHL games, to go along with 37 points in 60 games in 2023-24. His hard-nosed style caught the eyes of Detroit’s top brass, but a freak injury cut his season down before he could play through a full NHL game. While he returns to the lineup, Cossa will aim to finally make the full-time jump, after serving as a pillar of consistency in the minor-leagues. He posted a .911 save percentage in 41 games last season, well in-line with the .913 save percentage he posted in 40 AHL games in 2023-24, and again in 46 ECHL in 2022-23. Among the bunch, it will be frail playmaker Nate Danielson who will have to show he can pop. Danielson played his first pro season last year, and scored an encouraging 39 points in 71 games. But on a Red Wings roster pushing for all they can get, he’ll need to show he can hold up to increasingly-challenging roles.

Snapshots: Davies, Ritchie, Reddekopp

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On the second day of free agency, along with signing defenseman Kaedan Korczak to a four-year contract, we had reported that the Vegas Golden Knights had also signed defenseman Jeremy Davies to a two-year deal. As it turns out, the staff at PuckPedia has informed us that Davies’ two-year contract is with the Golden Knights AHL affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights, which is an AHL contract.

It makes sense, given that Davies has not played in an NHL contest since the 2022-23 season. Even though Davies only appeared in one game for the Buffalo Sabres, he spent most of his time with their AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans.

Since his last NHL game, Davies has excelled as a defenseman in the AHL. In his last year with the AHL Americans during the 2023-24 season, he scored 12 goals and 35 points in 66 games. Last season, while playing for the Belleville Senators, the AHL affiliate of the Ottawa Senators, he scored 11 goals and recorded a total of 48 points in 72 games. He finished the season with a +9 rating, which placed him first on the team in scoring among defensemen, with a margin of 25 points ahead of the next player. For context, the Silver Knights were led in defensemen scoring by Calen Addison and Robert Hagg, each of which have moved on this summer.

Other snapshots:

  • A few days ago, it was reported that New York Islanders’ prospect Calum Ritchie had every intention of making the Islanders’ opening night roster. In a new report from Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News, we now know that he’ll be given every opportunity to do so. Citing Jeff Marek on his podcast, The Sheet, Rosner shared a quote from New York’s General Manager, Mathieu Darche, saying, If Calum comes to training camp and he outplays everyone, I’ll make room for him on the roster.”
  • In a new report out of Toledo, the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye have announced that Chaz Reddekopp will stay with the team as an assistant coach for the 2025-26 season, while also informally confirming his retirement. Reddekopp was selected 187th overall in the 2015 NHL Draft by the Los Angeles Kings, largely appearing in the ECHL throughout his professional playing career. He finished with 10 goals and 52 points in 201 ECHL contests, and one goal and 13 points in 92 AHL appearances.

West Notes: Isogai, Popovic, Nelson

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Earlier today, the AHL affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings, the Ontario Reign, announced a two-year AHL contract for an up-and-coming name from Canada’s Western Hockey League. The Reign shared that they’ve signed forward Kenta Isogai. No financial details were released.

The 20-year-old native of Nagano, Japan, recently completed his second season in the WHL. Though he started his WHL career with the Wenatchee Wild for the 2023-24 season, he was acquired by the Victoria Royals for the end of the season. He excelled at the WHL level, scoring 63 goals and 166 points in 123 games, achieving a +49 rating, along with 10 goals and 25 points in 16 postseason contests.

Given that he was also named to the WHL’s First All-Star Team last year, it’s a little surprising that Isogai has gone undrafted over the past few years. He’s a little undersized, but not to a serious degree, and should be given every opportunity to succeed in AHL Ontario.

Other notes from the Western Conference:

  • According to a team announcement, the Colorado Avalanche have hired Mark Popovic as their new skills coach. It’ll be Popovic’s first formal coaching position at the NHL level, although he’s been working as an informal consultant for the Avalanche for the past few years. He’s better known for his playing career at the AHL level, where he scored 36 goals and 134 points in 359 games from 2002 to 2007. He played under 100 games in the NHL with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and the Atlanta Thrashers.
  • The ECHL’s Iowa Heartlanders, affiliate of the Minnesota Wild, announced today that they’ve signed forward Jaxon Nelson to an ECHL contract for the 2025-26 season. The former captain of the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers had been playing for the AHL’s Providence Bruins the past few years, to disappointing results. Still, Nelson is only two years removed from scoring 19 goals and 31 points in 39 games for Minnesota.

East Notes: Keeper, Kowalsky, Terrance

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Despite signing a one-year contract with the Elite Ice Hockey League’s (EIHL) Glasgow Clan in late June, defenseman Brady Keeper won’t be playing out that contract with the team. In an announcement from the team, Keeper has decided to step away from hockey and retire at the age of 29.

A product of the NCAA’s University of Maine, Keeper signed with the Florida Panthers toward the end of the 2018-19 season as a collegiate free agent. He debuted with the Panthers during the 2018-2019 season, skating for 12:40 in a game against the Ottawa Senators on March 28, 2019. He recorded one blocked shot and two hits.

He spent the next few years moving from the Panthers to the Vancouver Canucks, before finally landing in the Montreal Canadiens organization in the 2023-24 season. Outside of an additional game with Florida, he’s only played in the AHL, finishing his career with 10 goals and 31 points in 129 games with a -2 rating and 208 PIMs. Unless he changes his mind on retirement in the next few years, his last professional hockey contest will have come with the AHL’s Laval Rocket in 2024.

Other notes from the Eastern Conference:

  • The Maine Mariners of the ECHL, affiliated with the NHL’s Boston Bruins, have added a lot of experience in their new head coach and General Manager. According to a team announcement, the Mariners have hired Rick Kowalsky as their next bench boss and General Manager, who was recently the head coach of the AHL’s Bridgeport Islanders. He began his coaching career as an assistant coach for the AHL’s Norfolk Admirals in the 2005-06 season and has won one coach of the year award in the AHL and another in the ECHL.
  • Carey Terrance, the main asset acquired by the New York Rangers from the Anaheim Ducks for Chris Kreider, is already making positive impressions in the organization. In a recent interview with Dan Rosen of NHL.com, the Rangers’ player development coach, Jed Ortmeyer, said of Terrance, “He was like, ’Yes, let me know. I want to be coached. You’re never going to hurt my feelings. I want to know. That was great to hear. He wants to be coached. He wants to get better and he’s hungry. He’s eager to learn and he wants to be great.“

Islanders Sign Sean Day To AHL Deal

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The AHL’s Bridgeport Islanders have signed left-shot defenseman Sean Day to a one-year AHL deal, according to a club announcement. He’ll presumably get a look in the Isles’ NHL camp on a PTO in hopes of turning that into an NHL contract before heading down to Bridgeport.

Day, 27, is long removed from his days as an “exceptional status” defender who gained entrance to high-level junior hockey in the OHL a year early. He was a third-round pick by the Rangers by the time he became draft-eligible in 2016 and never turned that into full-time NHL minutes. He only made his big-league debut a few years ago, skating in two games for the Lightning in the 2021-22 season.

The Belgium-born Canadian has spent most of his professional career in the Tampa organization, suiting up primarily for the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch from 2020-21 through 2023-24. His performance was inconsistent during that time, peaking with 40 points in 69 games in 2021-22 before bottoming out with only 14 assists in 63 games the following year.

Day landed another two-way contract with the Bolts for 2023-24 but again went without NHL action, posting a 5-14–23 scoring line in 54 games for Syracuse with a -3 rating. That led him to explore a short-term exodus to Europe, signing with HV71 of the Swedish Hockey League. He made 45 appearances for the top-flight club with diminished results. He had 11 points and a -18 rating in the regular season before adding an assist and a +4 rating in six relegation games to help them avoid demotion to the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan for 2025-26.

He’ll be one-and-done overseas as he returns to a more comfortable environment in North America, this time without the initial opportunity for an NHL call-up. He’ll provide 379 games of pro experience to a reshaped Bridgeport blue line that should have some younger, dynamic Isles prospects like Isaiah George and Jesse Pulkkinen playing significant roles.

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