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Minor Transactions: 07/24/23

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It’s another busy Monday in the wide world of professional hockey, with quite a few players either finding new teams for next season or securing new contracts with the clubs they’ve already represented. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable moves from minor leagues and foreign professional leagues across the world.

  • 1001-game NHL veteran Tomáš Plekanec isn’t retiring anytime soon. The 40-year-old longtime NHL center signed a contract extension to remain the captain of Rytíři Kladno, his hometown team in the Czech Extraliga. Plekanec ended his NHL career in 2018-19 and after two seasons playing for Brno, he joined Kladno upon their promotion back to the top division. Joining all-time great Jaromir Jagr with the club, Plekanec has scored at almost a point-per-game rate the last two seasons and will likely continue to play a major role for the team in the coming campaign thanks to this new contract.
  • Luke Adam, a former Buffalo Sabres top prospect, has elected to leave Germany after a seven-year run in the DEL to sign with HC Plzen in the Czech Extraliga. The 33-year-old was a Sabres second-round pick at the 2008 draft and a few seasons after he was drafted he looked to be a long-term piece for Buffalo. In 2011, The Hockey Writers projected him as “a formidable 3rd line center for the Sabres for many years down the road,” and it’s easy to see why they did so by looking at Adam’s rookie season in pro hockey. He scored 29 goals and 62 points in 57 AHL games, winning the AHL’s Rookie of the Year award as well as AHL All-Star honors. But Adam’s standout qualities in the AHL never translated to the NHL, and he left for the DEL in the summer of 2016. Adam has a strong 233 points in 317 career DEL games and scored 17 goals and 36 points in 54 games for the Straubing Tigers last season. While the Tigers have made some major additions this summer, such as veteran NHL defenseman Justin Braun, they’ll be without Adam next season.
  • Former Winnipeg Jets prospect Scott Kosmachuk has signed a one-year, one-way KHL contract with Lada Togliatti in Russia. The player, who has eight NHL games on his record from 2015-16, is a 29-year-old 2012 third-round pick who played last season with TPS Turku in the Finnish Liiga, scoring 17 points in 29 games. Before arriving in Turku, Kosmachuk had a two-year run as the leading scorer for VSV EC in the ICEHL, racking up 93 points in 90 games and earning All-Star honors. If he can translate some of the production he’s had in Liiga, the ICEHL, and even the AHL going back to his 2017-18 campaign with the Hartford Wolf Pack, he’ll be a quality addition to Lada.
  • Lada added a second international import today: 2013 Pittsburgh Penguins draft pick Troy Josephs. The 29-year-old has been around a point-per-game scorer with both the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers and Swiss second-tier’s EHC Visp. Though he struggled in the AHL, which presents a step up in talent level compared to the ECHL, Joseph more recently established himself in Switzerland’s top division with Lugano, posting 49 points in 86 games and proving he can hang in one of the world’s better pro leagues.
  • James Shearer, a former captain of the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings and WHL champion, has made the decision to leave the ECHL after his first full season in the league to sign a contract in the United Kingdom with the EIHL’s Coventry Blaze. While Shearer is far from the first player to head to the EIHL after his ECHL rookie season, the move is somewhat surprising given the role Shearer played for the Utah Grizzlies as a rookie. In addition to posting 23 points in 54 games, the 26-year-old blueliner was, as Blaze head coach Danny Stewart put it, “eating up good minutes in playoffs and relied upon in key situations,” and also serving as a team alternate captain. The Grizzlies added defenseman Brian Yoon, the captain of the NCAA’s Colorado College, a few days ago, though, which may have prompted Shearer’s exit.
  • Former Dallas Stars prospect Emil Molin signed a one-year contract extension with KooKoo Kouvola in the Finnish Liiga, securing a second season with the club he joined last July. The 30-year-old winger had a decent debut season in Liiga, scoring 11 goals and 25 points. Those numbers are more in line with how Molin produced in his earlier days with Brynas IF, his former club, rather than his form later in his tenure there. Molin has one season of hockey in North America on his record, with 11 games total in the AHL and a 46-points-in-54-games run with the ECHL’s Idaho Steelheads.
  • 2015 Philadelphia Flyers fourth-round pick Samuel Dove-McFalls is headed to Germany, signing a contract with Lausitzer Füchse of the DEL2. Dove-McFalls was a high-end QMJHLer earlier in his career, winning a league championship with the Saint John Sea Dogs in 2016-17 and captaining the Rimouski Oceanic the year after. Dove-McFalls also was named the QMJHL’s Best Defensive Forward in his final season of major junior before beginning a four-year run of Canadian University hockey. The 26-year-old scored 13 goals and 34 points in 38 games for the ECHL’s Fort Wayne Komets and earned 16 AHL games with the Bakersfield Condors in what was his first full season as a professional hockey player. He’ll now join a team looking for promotion to the DEL and will likely play a major role at the club.

Minor Transactions: 07/21/23

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Although it’s generally a slow period for player movement in the NHL as teams hone in on arbitration cases, that isn’t the case for clubs in minor and overseas professional leagues. Just as the Maple Leafs begin an arbitration hearing with netminder Ilya Samsonov (no pre-arbitration agreement could be reached, according to The Hockey News’ David Alter) teams in quite a few leagues across the world, including the German DEL in particular, have been active making moves. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable ones here.

  • 2014 fifth-overall pick Michael Dal Colle is nearing a contract with the DEL’s Iserlohn Roosters, according to a report from Eishockey News in Germany. Dal Colle, 27, is a former top prospect who began his European pro career last season with TPS Turku in the Finnish Liiga. Dal Colle wasn’t horrible, but he only managed four goals and a total of 19 points in 36 games for Turku, and has now ended his association with the club at one year. The former AHL All-Star now heads to the Roosters, who finished the 2022-23 campaign 13th in the DEL standings.
  • Another forward with some NHL games on his resume rumored to be nearing a contract in the DEL is Joseph Cramarossa, a former Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild player. Cramarossa split last season between the Wild organization and Adler Mannheim in the DEL. He played with the Wild in both Iowa and Minnesota until he was placed on unconditional waivers so he could join Mannheim. After scoring eight points in 15 regular-season games and just one point in seven postseason games, Cramarossa has made the choice to continue in the DEL and join the Frankfurt Lions, a mid-table team from last season.
  • 2011 12th overall pick Ryan Murphy has signed a contract with EHC Red Bull Salzburg of the Central European ICEHL, according to a team announcement. This signing confirms Murphy will spend a second year playing in Europe since he last played in North America. Murphy, a 30-year-old defenseman, spent last season with Ufa Salavat Yulayev in the KHL, scoring 17 points in 43 games and earning the right to play in the KHL All-Star Game. Murphy was the 2020-21 AHL Defenseman of the Year and brings a stellar resume (including 175 games of NHL experience) to Austria and the defending ICEHL champions.
  • 25-year-old former NCAA winger Kohen Olischefski began this season with the hope of establishing himself in the AHL and earning a full-time spot with the Rochester Americans. While he finished the year playing postseason games for the Amerks, Olischefski spent most of the season in the ECHL with the Cincinnati Cyclones. Olischefski could only manage two goals in 16 AHL games and scored 26 points in 43 ECHL games. Now, the versatile forward has signed a contract with Dusseldorf EG in the DEL, choosing to continue his pro career overseas after his rookie campaign in North America.
  • EHC Red Bull Munich, the defending DEL Champions, have signed former Detroit Red Wing Adam Almquist. The move replaces former AHL and DEL Defenseman of the Year Zach Redmond, who agreed to a mutual contract termination after a season spent playing a significant role on Munich’s blueline. The 32-year-old Almquist last played in North America in 2013-14, scoring 53 points in 73 games for the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins and earning two games with the Red Wings. He scored his first (and only, to this date) NHL goal that season, before moving on to have a strong pro career in Europe with stops in Sweden, Switzerland, Belarus, and Russia.
  • Alexandre Grenier, a former quality prospect in the Vancouver Canucks system, has signed with the Cologne Sharks in the DEL. The 31-year-old 2011 90th overall pick is a two-time AHL All-Star who last played in North America in 2018-19 with his hometown Laval Rocket. He’s had a successful run overseas since then, including a season with Langnau in Switzerland that saw him post 48 points in 47 games. Grenier is no stranger to the DEL, either, and has 84 points in 99 career games in Germany’s top league.
  • Elias Rosén, cousin of Buffalo Sabres first-rounder Isak Rosén, has signed with the Vaxjo Lakers in the SHL, the defending Swedish champions. Rosen wrapped up a four-year collegiate career with Bemidji State University last season and made his pro debut on an ATO with the ECHL’s Kansas City Mavericks. The five-foot-ten left-shot defenseman was an accomplished player in college, earning First-Team All-Star honors in his conference for three consecutive years, including his 2020-21 campaign that saw him named conference Defensive Player of the Year. He acquitted himself well in a limited sample size of games with Kansas City, scoring nine points in 14 games, and has now earned a shot to establish himself with a top team in one of the best leagues outside the NHL.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 07/19/23

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NHL teams have been hard at work in advance of upcoming arbitration cases, looking to find the sort of common ground on new contracts that leads to signings and avoids the arbitration process. Just as those top teams have been working to sign players for next season (the Vegas Golden Knights worked especially hard today, signing two players) professional hockey clubs around the world are also signing players and tweaking the teams they’ll bring into the next campaign. Here, we’ll keep track of notable moves that are made.

  • The Coachella Valley Firebirds, the AHL affiliate of the Seattle Kraken, have re-signed forward Ian McKinnon for the 2023-24 campaign. Although the Firebirds as a team ended the season heartbroken (they lost the Calder Cup championship in overtime of Game Seven at home) McKinnon personally had his strongest season as a professional. The six-foot-two bruiser only scored three points, to be sure, but he played in a career-high 36 AHL games and didn’t play a single game in the ECHL for the first time in his pro career. Now, he’s earned another year with the Firebirds where he’ll add some muscle to the bottom of their lineup and be a contender to rack up triple-digit penalty minutes once again.
  • Hayden Verbeek, a former Montreal Canadiens prospect and the nephew of Anaheim Ducks GM Pat Verbeek, has signed with the Crimmitschau Ice Pirates of Germany’s second-tier DEL2. Verbeek, 25, was a top-six forward for the Soo Greyhounds late in his OHL career and has become quite the journeyman recently. He has 26 points in 31 career ECHL games for three different teams and has also skated in AHL games for both the Laval Rocket and Grand Rapids Griffins. He spent last season in the Slovak league, where he scored 33 points in 44 games for HK Spisska Nova Ves. A capable all-around player, Verbeek led the Slovak league in short-handed goals and now moves to Germany to make a push for promotion to the DEL.
  • Although former San Jose Sharks prospect Marcus Vela played a helpful role in getting MoDo Hockey Ornskoldsvik promoted to the SHL in the spring, he won’t be joining the club for their return season in Sweden’s top league. Although Vela’s contract was automatically extended when the team defeated Djurgarden and won promotion, the player and club mutually agreed on a contract termination. 2022-23 was the 26-year-old Canadian’s first campaign overseas, and he played well across two HockeyAllsvenskan teams, totaling 29 points in 46 games. He could now opt to return to the ECHL, where he has in the past been productive for the Toledo Walleye, or could continue playing overseas.
  • 29-year-old minor league netminder Adam Carlson is retiring from playing the game, according to an announcement from his club, the ECHL’s Rapid City Rush. Carlson is leaving to take up goalie coaching roles in his home state of Minnesota, and ends his career having played nearly 200 games in the ECHL and eight in the AHL. Carlson was a member of the Rush organization for a combined four years, four of the strongest of his professional career. Carlson’s best year came in 2018-19, when he played in 45 games and posted a .916 save percentage, and he has started for other clubs including the Hershey Bears and Manitoba Moose.
  • Former ECHL All-Star Jalen Smereck has signed a contract extension to remain with the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones. Smereck is coming off of an exceptional two-season run playing in both Germany and Cincinnati. He scored 34 points in 46 games for the Bietigheim Steelers in the DEL in 2021-22, and without him this season the Steelers won just 14 games out of 56 and were relegated to the DEL2. This past season, Smereck scored 50 points in 53 games, the highest points-per-game scoring rate of any ECHL defenseman playing on a full-time basis. An elite defenseman in the ECHL, Smereck will now play a second season in Cincinnati and hope to earn an AHL call-up.
  • Nolan Volcan, the former captain of the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds, is beginning his professional career after three seasons at the University of Alberta. He’s signed an ECHL deal with the Fort Wayne Komets. The five-foot-nine 25-year-old forward scored 58 points in 76 games in Alberta and tallied 231 points in 321 WHL games. Volcan won a WHL championship with the Thunderbirds and now joins an ECHL club hoping to make some noise in the playoffs after a first-round exit last year.
  • The ECHL’s Maine Mariners have poached one of the league’s top young scorers from the Wheeling Nailers: Brooklyn Kalmikov. A QMJHL champion in 2020-21, the 22-year-old finished his junior career by scoring 34 goals and 72 points in 62 games. He turned pro this past season and skated in 66 games for the Nailers. He ranked second on the team in scoring, potting 23 goals and 52 points. Kalmikov even earned an AHL call-up to the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins, and though he went scoreless in three games he’ll likely get another chance if he can produce as well in Maine as he did in West Virginia.
  • Former Detroit Red Wing Jan Mursak signed with Klagenfurt in the ICEHL, according to a team announcement. The 2006 sixth-round pick was just the second Slovenian-born player to skate in the NHL (behind Los Angeles Kings captain Anze Kopitar) and ended up playing 45 games for the Red Wings across three seasons. Mursak was at one point Slovenia’s captain for international competitions, including the 2018 Winter Olympics, and has spent the last three seasons with Frolunda in the SHL. Now, he heads to Austria hoping to help Klagenfurt return to the Champions Hockey League and top of the ICEHL.
  • 2018-19 ECHL First-Team All-Star Matt Petgrave and 185-game Liiga veteran Niklas Nevalainen have both re-signed with their club of last season, the EIHL’s Sheffield Steelers. Petgrave excelled in his first season in England, scoring 48 points in 54 games and showcasing all-situations value on the powerplay and penalty kill. Although he only managed two points in four playoff games, he’ll likely be among the Steelers’ top scorers next season. Nevalainen, 30, is a former everyday defenseman in the top league of his native Finland, though he hasn’t played there since 2020-21. He spent 2021-22 playing in Norway and now seems to have found a home in England, where he scored 23 points last season.

Minor Transactions: 7/17/23

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As we inch closer and closer to the dog days of the NHL calendar, many teams across the globe are also putting the finishing touches on finalizing their roster for the upcoming season. More and more teams from the minor leagues in North America, as well as the professional leagues overseas, continue to add to their respective rosters, and we will cover that all here.

  • A five-year veteran of the Bakersfield Condors will be making a move to the DEL in Germany, as forward Luke Esposito will be joining the Augsburger Panther for the 2023-24 season. Esposito originally joined the Grand Rapids Griffins after a standout senior season with Harvard University, but then became a regular in the lineup for the Edmonton Oilers’ AHL affiliate only a season later. Now 29 years old, although a return to the AHL is certainly possible in the future, Esposito will end with 35 goals and 81 assists in 320 games for the time being.
  • Also joining Esposito in a move to the DEL will be forward Cole Fonstad previously of the Cleveland Monsters, an AHL affiliate of the Columbus Blue Jackets. For the upcoming season, Fonstad will suit up for the Straubing Tigers. Former captain of the WHL’s Everett Silvertips, Fonstad put together a couple of productive seasons in the AHL. Rostered on the Monsters for three years, Fonstad scored 24 goals and 26 assists in 117 games.
  • Bringing back one of their best players from their run to a Calder Cup trophy in 2023, the AHL’s Hershey Bears have announced a one-year contract with defenseman Logan Day. In his first season with the Bears, Day had a mild scoring year, posting a career-low in points during the regular season with 12. However, during the 2023 Calder Cup playoffs, Day became a defenseman that the team leaned upon for their entire run. In 19 playoff games, Day scored three goals and 11 assists, finishing second on the team in scoring, and second in the AHL by all defenders.

Minor Transactions: 07/16/23

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As free agent activity in the NHL slows down, most of the player-movement focus in the world’s top league revolves around upcoming arbitration cases for restricted free agents. Just as those prominent players and their representatives are hard at work negotiating terms of new contracts or preparing cases for the arbitration process, teams across the hockey world are hard at work signing players and adding players to their rosters for next season. As always, we’ll keep track of notable transactions from around the world of professional hockey here.

  • Zachary Senyshyn, a player perhaps best known for being part of the Boston Bruins’ infamous trio of consecutive first-round picks at the 2015 draft, has decided to continue his pro career overseas. The speedy 26-year-old forward has signed a contract with the Schwenninger Wild Wings of the DEL. The move comes after Senyshyn’s most recent season in North America, a year where he struggled to make much of an impact and ended up traded for future considerations mid-season. While Senyshyn scored 19 goals and earned an NHL call-up in 2021-22 he only managed 18 points in 62 games in 2022-23. Senyshyn already crossed the 260 professional games threshold last season and this year crossed the 320 game threshold, meaning per the AHL’s development rule he no longer qualifies as a “development player” under any of those two limits. That would make earning another shot in the AHL even more difficult and has likely contributed to his choice to take his services to Germany.
  • The AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins have re-signed forward Trenton Bliss to a one-year contract extension. Bliss is fresh off a stellar campaign in the ECHL for the Griffins’ affiliate, the Toledo Walleye. He scored 40 points in 38 regular-season games and 14 points in 13 playoff contests. The 25-year-old former Michigan Tech All-Star was the ECHL’s Rookie of the Month for January and clearly impressed in the third-tier league. While he struggled to make much of an impact in his extensive AHL exposure (he scored just four points in 30 games for Grand Rapids) this extension gives him another chance to compete for an AHL job or potentially return as a leading scorer for the Walleye.
  • 24-year-old Nicholas Guay has earned a one-year contract extension from his club, the Trois-Rivieres Lions, after a solid first season in the ECHL. Guay is a former captain of two QMJHL teams and was a top scorer at the Major Junior level. He dipped his toes into the world of professional hockey in 2021-22 but had more success playing University hockey, scoring 25 points in 18 games. He potted 12 goals and 47 points for the Lions last season, tied for third-most on the team, and will now be able to return to their lineup and make a push for consideration for an AHL call-up/
  • Former ECHL scorer Matthew Alfaro is off to Germany after his first campaign as a relatively regular AHLer. The 26-year-old Calgary Native played his way into the AHL relatively quickly after making a strong start to his pro career in 2020-21. He scored 41 points in 61 games for the Wheeling Nailers and the following season managed to skate in a total of 36 AHL games, notching 12 points. That combined with his point-per-game production with the Nailers earned him a more regular job in the AHL with the Abbotsford Canucks, though he only managed nine points in 37 games of combined regular-season and postseason action. Now, he’s off to play for the Ravensburg Townstars of the DEL2, one of the oldest clubs in German hockey.
  • Vladislav Kodola, a middle-six center in the KHL, has signed a two-year contract with Dynamo Minsk after a recent trade landed him back in his home country. Once an import player for the OHL’s Sarnia Sting, Kodola developed into a quality professional player with Cherepovets Severstal in the KHL, eventually becoming one of the team’s top forwards. He scored a career-high 32 points in 54 games in 2020-21 and even earned the right to represent Belarus at the 2021 IIHF Men’s World Championships. He was traded to Dynamo Moscow last summer and his production declined, which likely contributed to Moscow dealing him to Minsk, where signed this two-year deal.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 07/13/23

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While activity on the NHL free agent market has slowed to a crawl, as most notable free agents have found their team for next season, there’s still quite a bit of player movement outside the world’s top league. As always, we’ll keep track of notable transactions made by teams in minor and foreign professional leagues here.

  • 2010 Florida Panthers first-round pick Quinton Howden is set to play for Vasterviks IK in HockeyAllsvenskan, according to a report from Expressen’s Johan Svensson. The 31-year-old has had quite the journey since leaving the North American pro circuit for the 2017-18 season. He’s played in Belarus, Russia, Germany, Finland, France, and now returns to Sweden to play there for a second time. He finished last season with Grenoble in France’s Ligue Magnus, managing just three points in 12 playoff games for the club. Now he’ll look to help Vasterviks compete in a highly competitive league full of clubs vying for promotion to the SHL.
  • Liam Finlay, an ECHL All-Star as a rookie, has signed a contract extension to remain with the Allen Americans. Finlay, 26, is an undersized forward who has had a successful pro career since leaving the University of Denver. Finlay has been a productive contributor in the DEL2, Slovak league, and Finnish Mestis, and scored 33 goals and 70 points in his 54-game ECHL rookie season. Now, he’ll remain with the Americans and will look to take home a Kelly Cup championship next season.
  • The DEL2’s leading scorer, former Toronto Maple Leaf Marcel Muller, has signed a contract with the DEL’s Straubing Tigers. He’ll return to Germany’s top division after scoring 70 points in 50 games for the Krefeld Pinguine in the second division. While he couldn’t lead his club to promotion he himself made his way back to the league where he’s scored 352 points in 541 career games.
  • Former Tucson Roadrunner Trevor Cheek has left HockeyAllvenskan after two seasons to join the ICEHL’s Vienna Capitals. The 30-year-old Canadian forward racked up the most penalty minutes in HockeyAllsvenskan in 2021-22 and scored 59 points in 85 games across two seasons. Cheek was a productive player at the ECHL level and now heads to the Austrian capital looking to bring some grit and scoring ability to the ICEHL semifinalists.
  • After a productive ECHL rookie season, longtime Ohio State Buckeye Quinn Preston has made the choice to cross the Atlantic and sign with the EIHL’s Belfast Giants. Preston, 25, heads to Northern Ireland after his first full season as a professional. He scored 23 goals and 61 points in just 62 games for the Wichita Thunder, and he brings leadership value having served as an alternate captain for his final two seasons as a Buckeye. He’ll bring those positive qualities to the reigning EIHL champions with the hope of helping them defend their title next season.
  • Two-time NCAA Men’s Hockey national champion Louie Roehl has signed a one-year contract extension with the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers. 2022-23 was Roehl’s first campaign as a professional hockey player, and he got into 60 games for the Nailers and scored 24 points. The five-foot-ten right-shot blueliner was a steady presence on head coach Derek Army’s blueline and his quality play has secured him another year on the squad.
  • The ECHL’s Fort Wayne Komets have signed two players to one-year ECHL contracts: forwards Parker Saretsky and Kamerin Nault. For Saretsky, 24, this deal is his first professional contract and finalizes where he’ll be beginning his career as a professional hockey player. Saretsky just concluded a four-year NCAA career at Michigan Tech, setting a career-high with 20 points in 39 games as a senior. As for Nault, 27, he’s already got 108 ECHL games under his belt and arrives with the Comets after finishing last season in Scotland with the EIHL’s Fife Flyers.
  • Former Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Andrew Nielsen has signed with the ECHL’s Trois-Rivieres Lions. The 65th overall pick at the 2015 NHL draft, Nielsen never quite lived up to the hype he generated after his rookie season in the AHL. The hefty six-foot-four, 230 pound Western Canadian blueliner scored 14 goals and 39 points in 74 games as an AHL rookie, and added 82 penalty minutes on top of that. Although he won a Calder Cup the following season Nielsen has gone from promising young AHLer to ECHLer and AHL call-up option. Nielsen did have a strong season last year with the Utah Grizzlies, though, reaching the ECHL All-Star Game and registering 41 points and 166 PIMs in 47 games. He earned three AHL call-ups and 10 AHL games last season and will look to lead the blueline in Trois-Rivieres next season.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Carter Rowney Re-Signs In Germany

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Forward Carter Rowney, a veteran of over 200 NHL games and a 2017 Stanley Cup Champion with the Pittsburgh Penguins, has opted to continue his career overseas in Germany with DEL side Lowen Frankfurt for three more seasons, per an announcement from the league. The 34-year-old is now under contract with Frankfurt until 2026, likely meaning he’ll finish out his career with the club.

Rowney became an unrestricted free agent last summer after not being re-signed by the Detroit Red Wings, where he battled injuries in 2021-22 and played just 26 games on a one-year deal. The move overseas proved productive for Rowney, who exploded for 58 points in 55 games with Frankfurt last season.

The Alberta-born forward joined the Penguins organization on an AHL contract in 2013-14 after completing a four-season collegiate career with the University of North Dakota, bouncing up and down between the AHL and ECHL for a few seasons before getting an NHL deal from Pittsburgh for 2016-17. It turned out to be a shrewd move by then-general manager Jim Rutherford, as Rowney would go on to play in 20 of 25 playoff games for Pittsburgh in 2017, recording three assists in a bottom-six role while helping the Penguins capture their second consecutive Stanley Cup.

He would spend most of his professional career with the Anaheim Ducks, though, signing a three-year deal with them in free agency in 2018. He recorded a career-high seven goals and 20 points in 62 games in his first year there, 2018-19, and totaled 45 points in 152 total games as a Duck.

Rowney played a crucial role in helping Frankfurt stay in the DEL last season after earning promotion from the DEL2 the year before. The former Red Wing will also have the opportunity to mentor a future Red Wing in 2023-24, as 2023 fifth-round pick Kevin Bicker is expected to suit up for Frankfurt next season.

There likely would have been a place for him in the minors or at the bottom of an NHL lineup if he wished to return after a healthy season, but understandably, he’s opted to stay with the team that’s helped him rejuvenate his career after a tough few seasons.

Minor Transactions: 07/06/23

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The music is slowing down in this year’s game of free agent musical chairs, and fewer and fewer players remain without a seat for next season. Some top names such as Vladimir Tarasenko and Matt Dumba linger on the market, but by and large, teams have shifted towards making signings more geared to depth roles in their lineup.

Free agents of that general caliber are also the players minor-league teams and teams in foreign leagues are targeting, meaning there’s been quite a bit of player movement today across the hockey world. As always, we’ll log those transactions and provide some context to them here.

  •  Zachary Fucale, once a top goalie prospect earlier in his career, will likely play in Europe for the first time as a pro hockey player in a few months. The 28-year-old former Washington Capitals farmhand signed a two-year contract with Traktor Chelyabinsk of the KHL. Fucale posted a .902 save percentage in 38 games for the AHL’s Hershey Bears this past season and won the Calder Cup. As a two-time Spengler Cup winner, Fucale has had some success playing against European club competition, and he’ll say goodbye (for now) to North American pro hockey having appeared in four NHL games and registered a memorable shutout in his NHL debut.
  • 2018-19 AHL Defenseman of the Year and three-time AHL All-Star Zach Redmond has agreed on a mutual contract termination with his club, DEL champions EHC Red Bull Munich. The soon-to-be-35-year-old rearguard had spent the last three seasons in the Bavarian capital, leading the DEL in points by a defenseman in his first year and goals by a blueliner in his second. His seven points in 12 playoff games helped propel Munich to a DEL title over ERC Ingolstadt, and now Redmond could be eyeing a return to North American pro hockey with this contract termination.
  • The New York Islanders’ AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Islanders, announced the signings of three forwards to AHL contracts: Cole Bardreau, Jeff Kubiak, and Joey Cipollone. Bardreau, 29, scored 15 goals and 31 points in 67 AHL games last season and has been a top-nine staple in Bridgeport since 2019. Kubiak, also 29, is a defensive specialist at the AHL level who routinely features on Bridgeport’s penalty kill. He’s been with the Islanders organization since he turned pro out of Cornell University in 2017. Finally, Cipollone, 23, is a winger who won the NCAA Men’s Hockey National Championship last season with Quinnipiac University and is now set to make his pro debut.
  • Former Minnesota-Duluth captain and two-time NCAA Men’s Hockey National Champion Nick Wolff has signed a one-year contract with the AHL’s San Diego Gulls, confirming his exit from the Providence Bruins after three seasons in Rhode Island. Wolff is a 26-year-old left-shot blueliner who stands six-foot-five, 223 pounds. He’s brought physicality to a reserve role with Providence so far in his pro career, and now heads out west to a revamped San Diego Gulls squad, where he could end up playing along the right side next to one of the Ducks’ high-end young defenders, such as Olen Zellweger or former Minnesota Golden Gopher Jackson LaCombe.
  • The AHL’s Utica Comets have signed rugged defenseman Colin Felix, an NCAA Men’s Hockey National Champion at UMass Amherst, to a one-year, one-way AHL contract. The 24-year-old turned pro last fall and skated in 72 games with the ECHL’s Reading Royals. He scored eight goals and 27 points and collected 139 penalty minutes, bringing physical two-way ability to the Royals’ blueline. Now, the Comets are hoping Felix can do the same for their back end, a defense that needed to replace a right-shot blueliner after the trade of Reilly Walsh to the Boston Bruins. The Comets have also signed Jeremy Brodeur, son of legendary Devils netminder Martin Brodeur, to a two-way NHL/ECHL contract, bringing him over from the EIHL where he was the starter for the Manchester Storm.
  • Alex-Olivier Voyer, a former QMJHL star with the Sherbrooke Phoenix, has signed a one-year, one-way AHL contract with the Laval Rocket. Getting a one-way deal in the AHL is a victory for Voyer, who dropped from playing mostly in the AHL in 2021-22 to the ECHL in 2022-23. Voyer had scored only eight points in 41 games with the Providence Bruins in 21-22, but managed 23 goals and 43 points in 48 ECHL games this season, not only securing himself a spot back in North America’s second-tier pro league but also a spot in his home province.
  • Former Hobey Baker Award finalist Dylan McLaughlin has signed a contract with Vaxjo Lakers HC, the reigning champions of Sweden’s SHL. The deal is McLaughlin’s first foray into European pro hockey. The 28-year-old had a difficult 2022-23 campaign, playing just nine games total. The year before, though, McLaughlin broke out, scoring 42 points in 55 games for the Rockford IceHogs. Now McLaughlin will compete for a role in Sweden and potentially help Vaxjo secure a second consecutive title.
  • Undersized 25-year-old blueliner Joseph Duszak has climbed the pro hockey ladder since concluding an exceptional three-year NCAA career, but hasn’t yet received any NHL call-ups. He began in the ECHL with the Newfoundland Growlers, and scored 35 points in 34 games from the blueline. He was named an ECHL All-Star and ended up earning a job in the AHL with the Toronto Marlies. Duszak excelled in Toronto, scoring 52 points in 61 games in 2021-22 and earning AHL Second-Team All-Star honors. After that strong AHL campaign, Duszak likely viewed excelling overseas as his next step towards earning NHL consideration, so he signed in the KHL with Dynamo Minsk. Duszak was exceptional in Belarus, finishing behind former Boston Bruin Ryan Spooner for the team lead in points with 45 in 68 games played. Now, he’s signed a one-year AHL contract with the Springfield Thunderbirds likey with the hope of producing well once again and finally earning an NHL shot.
  • Former Buffalo Sabres prospect Jordon Southorn, one of the top blueliners in Slovakia’s Tipos Extraliga, has signed a one-year deal with the Augsburg Panthers of the DEL. The 33-year-old Canadian moved to Slovakia in 2018-19 mid-season, and made an instant impact with Banska Bystrica HC 05, winning a championship there. He led the Slovak league in points by a defenseman with 51 in 2019-20, and took home another league championship a few months ago with HC Kosice. Now, he’ll head to Germany to bolster the blueline of a club that only narrowly avoided relegation to the DEL2 in 2022-23.
  • Austrian national team defenseman Dominique Heinrich is returning to his hometown of Vienna after playing over 600 games at Austria’s top level of pro hockey with EHC Red Bull Salzburg. The five-foot-eight 32-year-old won a sixth title with Salzburg this past season, though he skated in a career-low 26 regular-season games. Now both Heinrich and Salzburg are moving in a different direction, as Heinrich has signed a contract with the Vienna Capitals, a rival ICEHL club. It’s a major signing for a Vienna team looking to finally push themselves across the finish line next season, as their many deep playoff runs since their 2016-17 title have ended in failure.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

Minor Transactions: 07/05/23

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It’s another busy day for transactions across the hockey world, and while NHL moves are just starting to trickle in (such as the Montreal Canadiens signing recent top-five pick David Reinbacher to his entry-level deal) teams in minor and foreign leagues have already been hard at work completing deals to upgrade or change their rosters. As always, we’ll keep track of those moves here.

  • The AHL’s Laval Rocket have agreed to a one-year contract with 22-year-old Noah Laaouan, a two-time recipient of the QMJHL’s Kevin Lowe Trophy for Best Defensive Defenseman. Laaouan is fresh off of his first season as a professional, one he split between the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners (two games) and ECHL’s Atlanta Gladiators (57 games). Laaouan’s deal is a two-way AHL/ECHL deal, meaning he’s more likely to end up with the Trois-Rivieres Lions though he’ll get a chance to compete with guys like Tobie Bisson and Miguel Tourigny for a role on Laval’s defense.
  • Longtime AHL veteran Vincent LoVerde, a two-time Calder Cup Champion and two-time AHL All-Star, has parted ways with his club from last season, the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star. The 34-year-old departs China after one season there, his first in the KHL. LoVerde has over 500 games of AHL experience and while he didn’t do much winning in Kunlun he did win an ICEHL championship with EHC Red Bull Salzburg in 2021-22. Now an unrestricted free agent, LoVerde may elect to return to North America or potentially continue his pro career elsewhere in one of Europe’s leagues.
  • Defenseman Jake Chelios, the son of Hockey Hall of Famer Chris Chelios and a former AHL top-four defenseman, has signed a two-year extension with the Red Star to remain in the KHL through his age-34 season. Chelios, who represents China in IIHF events and played for them at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, has been with Kunlun since 2019-20 and logged 180 career games with them. Chelios was an impact player in the AHL for a few seasons with the Charlotte Checkers from 2015 to 2017, but now seems to have elected playing with the Red Star as the best option for his career moving forward.
  • Former Chicago Blackhawks prospect Johan Mattsson signed a one-year contract with SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL, confirming his exit from his team from last season, Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg. The 31-year-old 2011 seventh-round pick played 35 games for Yekaterinburg last season, posting a .919 save percentage in the process. He’s got a career .917 save percentage in 60 KHL games playing in both Russia and Latvia (back when Dynamo Riga was in the KHL) and has also had success in his native Sweden. He’s won two Champions Hockey League titles, an SHL title, and been a top HockeyAllsvenskan goalie. Now, he’ll compete against incumbent Dmitry Nikolayev (.929 save percentage in 42 games last season) for starts with St. Petersburg.
  • The ECHL’s Maine Mariners signed forward Cameron Askew to a one-year contract extension. The deal will allow Askew, 26, to play a third season in Maine, the place where Conor Garland’s former QMJHL running mate has carved out a regular role as an ECHL power forward. Askew scored a career-high 23 goals and 38 points in his first season with the Mariners, and this past season he scored 15 goals and 32 points in 17 less games. The Mariners have made the ECHL playoffs the last two seasons, and now they’ve locked up a player who helped them reach that point each year for another campaign.
  • After a difficult season saw him part ways with his club of the last two seasons, 23-year-old German winger Tim Wohlgemuth has signed a deal with the DEL’s Cologne Sharks. Despite his young age, Wohlgemuth has already racked up 233 career games in Germany’s top pro league, and been reasonably productive to boot. In 2021-22 Wohlgemuth was among the league’s top young scorers with 35 points in 52 games, though this past season his production declined to 24 points in 51 games. Now, he’ll get a chance to play for a club a little bit lower on the league’s pecking order than Mannheim, and perhaps take on a larger role as a result.
  • At just 18 years of age, Austrian defenseman Patrick Söllinger broke into a more regular role with his hometown club, the ICEHL’s Black Wings Linz. Söllinger, a six-foot-one left-shot defenseman, played in 22 games for Linz and represented Austria at the 2023 World Junior Championships. Now, he’s been rewarded with his first professional contract, and with it he will in all likelihood get a chance to become an everyday player in Linz and help them return to the ICEHL playoffs for next season.
  • Former WHL and ECHL power forward Alex Roach, a British Columbia native, is extending his pro career in Germany another season. Roach spent the last two seasons playing in the DEL with Cologne, and now he’s moving down a division to sign with EHC Freiburg of the DEL2. Although Roach has more experience at the DEL level and has even played in the Champions Hockey League, he’s got DEL2 experience as well and has scored 36 points in 81 games at that level. Freiburg has been a middling DEL2 club for a few years now and in the past has had some close calls with relegation, so with this signing, they’ll hope Roach’s experience can inch them a little bit closer to promotion to the DEL.
  • Scott Conway, the Player of the Year and leading scorer of the EIHL, the United Kingdom’s top pro hockey league, has signed with HC Dukla Trencin of the Slovakian Extraliga, per a team social media announcement. The English-Canadian forward scored 168 points in his 104-game EIHL career, taking home numerous honors for his two-year stint as the league’s top offensive player. Conway has also found success in the ECHL, NCAA, BCHL, USHL, and now has a chance to make a career for himself in a league generally considered to have a higher talent level than the EIHL in Slovakia.

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Minor Transactions: 07/03/23

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NHL free agency has moved from the “frenzy” stage that defines July 1st to more of a steady flow of news, and just as NHL teams are adding players for next season so are teams in minor leagues and pro leagues across the hockey world. We’ll keep track of notable transactions here.

  • Former Chicago Blackhawks 20-goal scorer Richard Panik has signed with HC Ocelari Trinec of the Czech Extraliga. Panik, 32, is a veteran of over 500 NHL games, last playing in the league in 2021-22 with the New York Islanders. He signed overseas for 2022-23 and scored nine points in 19 games for Lausanne HC in the Swiss National League. Now Panik will return to the club he played for in his youth and the team the Tampa Bay Lightning selected him out of at the 2009 draft.
  • Jonah Gadjovich, a regular on the San Jose Sharks for the past two seasons, signed a one-year AHL deal with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers yesterday. A 2017 second-round pick, Gadjovich played 78 games for the Sharks across two seasons, averaging nearly nine minutes of ice time per game. Gadjovich is a big, physical winger who has 10 career NHL points, and will now return to the AHL for next season. Gadjovich’s last stretch in the AHL was quite successful (15 goals in 18 games for the Utica Comets in 2020-21) so this contract is Gadjovich’s chance to put together a productive season to earn another NHL deal.
  • The AHL’s Providence Bruins have signed two players to one-year, two-way AHL/ECHL contracts: goalie Shane Starrett and defenseman Ethan Ritchie. Starrett, 28, was the number-one goalie for the ECHL’s Kansas City Mavericks last season and re-established himself in North America’s third-tier league with a .913 save percentage in 54 games played. That was an important development for Starrett, who spent the year as the starter for the EIHL’s Glasgow Clan. Starrett does have some AHL experience (including a 42-game stretch with the Bakersfield Condors in 2018-19 where he posted a .918 save percentage) and will bolster the goaltending depth behind Brandon Bussi and Kyle Keyser in Providence, likely to spend most of his time with the ECHL’s Maine Mariners. Ritchie, 21, gets signed after his overage OHL season where he scored 44 points in 65 games with the Sarnia Sting. The brother of 2023 Colorado Avalanche first-rounder Calum Ritchie, he’ll now begin his pro career either in Maine or Providence.
  • Although his production declined from 19 goals and 43 points in 2021-22 to just six and 19 in 2022-23, John Stevens has earned a two-year AHL contract extension with the Abbotsford Canucks. The 29-year-old former Northeastern Husky has been in the Vancouver Canucks’ minor-league system for the past four seasons, and Abbotsford GM Ryan Johnson said Stevens “personifies what we are as an organization.” He brings leadership value as a former NCAA captain and an alternate captain for Abbotsford, and if he can get back to his 2021-22 numbers he’ll be one of the AHL Canucks’ most important players.
  • The Grand Rapids Griffins have poached the captain of the Providence Bruins, signing right-shot blueliner Josiah Didier to an AHL deal. Didier, 30, led the AHL in plus-minus rating in 2019-20 and is a Calder Cup champion. He’s played nearly 400 career games in the American League, and joins recent NHL signing Brogan Rafferty as a move that will help beef up the right side of the defense in Grand Rapids.
  • 28-year-old blueliner Ryan McKinnon, a former captain of two different QMJHL teams during his junior career, has signed a one-year, one-way AHL contract with the Belleville Senators. McKinnon split last season between the AHL’s Bridgeport Islanders and ECHL’s Worcester Railers, and hasn’t yet played a season as a full-time AHLer. That’s what makes the one-way status of this deal significant, as McKinnon worked his way up from being a full-time ECHLer in Worcester to a place on the AHL/ECHL bubble, a space he’s lived in for most of his pro career. Now, he’ll have a chance to establish himself as a full-time AHL player in Belleville.
  • Longtime minor leaguer Mark Alt spent most of last season as a free agent, ultimately latching on with the DEL’s Straubing Tigers for their playoff push and seven postseason games. Now, the Tigers have announced that Alt will not return to the club as he focuses on a full-time role outside of hockey. While there’s no word on if Alt, 31, is ending his eleven-season pro career, it’s certainly possible that Alt’s decision not to continue in Europe is an indication that he’s moving away from hockey. In any case, Alt has nearly 500 AHL games on his resume and has played in 20 NHL games, meaning regardless of what he chooses for his future he’s had a hockey career to be proud of.
  • Two-time AHL All-Star and former NHLer Matt Fraser will remain with his current club, the ICEHL’s EC-KAC, after the team decided not to exercise their opt-out clause for next season. Fraser, 33, has played in Klagenfurt for the last three seasons and took home an ICEHL title for them in 2020-21, scoring the championship-winning goal himself. Fraser last played in North America way back in 2015-16, though he’s had a successful run in Europe since he crossed the Atlantic. Fraser ranked second on Klagenfurt in goals with 14 last season and will likely remain one of the team’s top goal-scoring options moving forward.
  • The KHL’s Barys Astana made a few significant moves earlier this month, and perhaps the two biggest were the club’s signings of Eddie Pasquale, one of the KHL’s top goaltenders, and former NHLer Pontus Aberg. Pasquale, 32, returns to Kazakhstan to play for the team he began his KHL career with in 2019-20. Pasquale took home KHL Goaltender of the Year honors in 2020-21 and posted a .927 save percentage in 50 games last season for Metallurg Magnitogorsk. Aberg, 29, was a point-per-game player in 22 games for the Swiss NL’s Rapperswil-Jona Lakers, and now returns to the KHL for the second time in his career. He spent 2020-21 with Traktor Chelyabinsk, scoring 23 points in 49 games before leaving the league that offseason to return to North America.
  • Alex Ciernik, a recent fourth-round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers, will play with HockeyAllsvenskan’s Vasterviks IK on a permanent basis after spending 10 games there on loan last season. The 18-year-old was selected 120th overall at the 2023 draft last week, and has 12 points in 37 career games at Sweden’s second-highest level of pro hockey.

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