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Kieffer Bellows

Predators Reassign Kieffer Bellows, Recall Kevin Gravel

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The Predators reassigned left-winger Kieffer Bellows to AHL Milwaukee on Tuesday and used his roster spot to summon defenseman Kevin Gravel from the minors, per a team announcement. Their active roster remains at 22 players, with the open spot expected to be filled by winger Luke Evangelista coming off injured reserve in the next few days.

Bellows, 26, did not suit up for Nashville in their seven games since recalling him on Jan. 11. He suited up in four straight NHL seasons from 2019-20 to 2022-23 but has been out of the league for over a year and a half. The former first-round pick ranked as one of the organization’s top prospects for a few years but never adjusted well to the pro game.

Over his seven-year pro career, he’s seen far more AHL action than NHL action, playing in 220 minor-league games compared to 95 NHL contests. He’s produced at a decent 0.60 points-per-game rate in the AHL, where he has 76 goals and 55 assists, but that’s dropped to 0.29 across his NHL promotions.

Bellows has had a rocky past few years in particular. Nashville is his fourth organization since the beginning of the 2022-23 campaign, during which he headed from the Isles to the Flyers on waivers. He did not land an NHL contract for 2023-24 after being non-tendered by Philly, settling for a minor-league pact with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, but landed a two-way deal with the Preds for 2024-25 after breaking out for 27 goals and 49 points in 52 games.

The Minnesota native has continued to produce well while on assignment to Milwaukee. He leads the team with 12 goals through 31 games and ranks fifth with 22 points. However, he’ll have to wait until his next recall to get another crack at NHL minutes.

With Evangelista’s return imminent, his chances at playing time were set to get even slimmer in the coming days. The 22-year-old right winger has missed the last seven games with a lower-body injury but has been spotted in practice recently without a no-contact designation, suggesting he’ll come off IR before the 4 Nations Face-Off next month.

Meanwhile, Gravel replaces Spencer Stastney, who the team sent to Milwaukee over the weekend, as the Preds’ extra defenseman. Nashville has recalled the 32-year-old lefty twice already this season, resulting in a trio of appearances during which he has an assist and a plus-two rating. The 6’4″, 205-lb Michigan native has averaged 18:19 per game – the most of his NHL stints since debuting in the 2015-16 season – and controlled 45.9% of shot attempts at even strength.

While a stay-at-home defender first and foremost, Gravel’s 12 points in 35 AHL games also leads Milwaukee defensemen in scoring this season. He has another year left on the two-way extension he signed in January of last year and won’t be a UFA until 2026.

Predators Recall Kieffer Bellows

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The Predators have added some extra depth up front heading into their game against Washington.  The team announced that they have recalled winger Kieffer Bellows from AHL Milwaukee.  Nashville had two open roster spots so no corresponding moves needed to be made.

The 26-year-old spent last season on a minor-league deal with Toronto.  He was quite productive with the Marlies, tallying 27 goals and 22 assists in 52 games in his first extended AHL stint since the 2018-19 campaign.  That helped him earn some NHL interest last summer as he signed a one-year, two-way deal with the Preds on the third day of free agency, a deal that pays $775K in the NHL and $225K in the minors.

Bellows cleared waivers at the start of training camp and has been with the Admirals all season.  He hasn’t been quite as productive as last season but still has 12 goals and 10 assists in 31 outings, good for second on the team in scoring; their top scorer, Vinnie Hinostroza, was brought up in late December.

Bellows has 95 career NHL appearances under his belt.  Most of those came with the Islanders but his most recent stint at the top level came with Philadelphia who claimed him off waivers in 2022-23 (before non-tendering him that summer).  Between the two teams, Bellows has 14 goals and 14 assists along with 199 hits while averaging 11 minutes a night of playing time.

Predators Sign Kieffer Bellows

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The Nashville Predators have signed forward Kieffer Bellows to a one-year, two-way contract worth $775K at the NHL per a team announcement. Bellows will join his fourth organization in as many years as a player heading into his seventh professional season.

Bellows’ prospect pedigree has fallen remarkably considering his selection in the NHL Draft. The New York Islanders drafted Bellows with the 19th overall pick of the 2016 NHL Draft and he would only score 11 goals and 25 points over 68 games with the organization. Although extending a lengthy leash to Bellows considering his underwhelming performance with the organization, he was eventually claimed off waivers by the Philadelphia Flyers in October of the 2022-23 season.

The young forward didn’t perform any better upon his change of scenery as he only mustered three goals in 27 games for the Flyers. Since suiting up for Philadelphia in the waning days of the 2022-23 regular season, Bellows has not returned to the ice in an NHL game. Shortly after the start of the 2023-24 NHL season, Bellows signed a professional tryout agreement with the Toronto Marlies without receiving any offers from NHL teams.

Bellows performed very well on his PTO with the Marlies as he scored 27 goals and 49 points in 52 games. Behind finishing fifth on the team in scoring, Bellows has now collected 64 goals and 109 points in 189 games at the AHL level. Because of his strong performances in the minor leagues, the Predators likely pursed Bellows to help their AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals.

Snapshots: Ovechkin, Vlasic, Petan, Bellows

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Washington Capitals star winger Alex Ovechkin is officially sidelined, now set to miss his second straight game with a lower-body injury, per team reporter Bailey Johnson. Ovechkin has been dealing with the injury for about a week, taking part in the optional practices and traveling with the team to New York. Ovechkin’s next chance to play will be when the Capitals face the Anaheim Ducks at home on Tuesday.

Ovechkin is experiencing the lowest goals-per-game pace of his career this season, boasting just eight through 39 games this season. But that hasn’t limited his scoring upside, with the 38-year-old still leading the Washington roster with 27 points. He also leads all Capitals forwards in ice time, averaging roughly 19-and-a-half each game. It’s been an impressive year for the 1386-game veteran of the league, who is proving just how effective he still is, even if his illustrious chase of Wayne Gretzky’s goal-scoring record may be dwindling.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Chicago Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson spoke about the likelihood of signing high-end rookie defenseman Alex Vlasic to a long-term deal – sharing that the team is definitely considering weighing the idea but wants to be sure before committing to a long-term cap hit. Vlasic currently has 10 points in 37 games this season, adding 25 penalty minutes and a +7. He ranks second in scoring among Hawks defenders, and first among the team’s multiple rookie defenders.
  • The Minnesota Wild have sent forward Nic Petan back to the minor leagues. Petan was recalled on December 31st, appearing in the team’s last five games. He managed two points and a -2 over the stretch. Petan has also appeared in 26 AHL games this season, scoring 10 goals and 28 points.
  • Kieffer Bellows has signed a minor league deal with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, officially joining the team through the rest of the season. Bellows has already appeared in 25 games with the club, scoring 14 goals and 26 points, leading the team in goals and ranking second in points. Bellows played in 27 NHL games with the Philadelphia Flyers last season, scoring three goals and recording a -7. The New York Islanders drafted Bellows 19th-overall in the 2016 NHL Draft and is one of seven players from that First Round to not yet play in 100 NHL games. He remains five games short, managing 31 points in 95 career games.

Atlantic Notes: Anderson, Chartier, Bellows

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The Canadiens announced (Twitter link) that winger Josh Anderson will not play tonight due to a lower-body injury and that he will be evaluated on a daily basis.  The 29-year-old had a dreadful start to his season as he was held without a goal for his first 24 games but since then, he has fared better with seven goals and two assists in his last 17 outings.  His spot in the lineup will be taken by Joshua Roy who was recalled late last night.  Montreal presently has over $25MM in salaries for their injured players per CapFriendly with this injury pushing that number past the $30MM mark.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic:

  • Senators center Rourke Chartier has been activated off LTIR, TSN 1200 reports (Twitter link). The 27-year-old has missed the last four weeks with a concussion.  Chartier has played in a career-high 25 games so far this season on Ottawa’s fourth line, picking up two points while winning just over half of his faceoffs.  With Anton Forsberg landing on LTIR on Friday, the Sens don’t need to make a corresponding move to get cap-compliant.
  • Nick Barden of The Hockey News points out that Kieffer Bellows’ PTO with AHL Toronto has now come to an end. After not catching on with a team to start the season, the 25-year-old joined the Marlies in early November and was quite productive, notching 14 goals and 12 assists in his 25-game stint.  Bellows is eligible to sign another PTO or a full-season contract with either the Marlies or Maple Leafs but with the success he had, the veteran of 95 career NHL appearances could also attract some interest elsewhere.

AHL’s Toronto Marlies Sign Kieffer Bellows To PTO

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Former Islanders and Flyers forward Kieffer Bellows remained without a contract for 2023-24 after a failed PTO with the Hurricanes during this year’s training camp. He’ll now get another chance to earn a roster spot in North America, this time in the minors. The AHL’s Toronto Marlies have signed Bellows to a PTO, per a team announcement Monday.

Bellows, the Islanders’ 19th overall selection in 2016, had his stint with the team run out early last year. The Islanders waived him in late October 2022 after playing him in just one game, but he didn’t clear – the Flyers decided to pick him up as a reclamation project. Unfortunately, things once again didn’t pop off for Bellows. He notched just three goals in 27 games, averaging under ten minutes a game and cleared waivers two subsequent times throughout 2022-23. In the minors with AHL Lehigh Valley, he managed 10 points in 12 games.

Unsurprisingly, the Flyers did not tender Bellows at the end of the season, given his $1.2MM qualifying offer. Thus he hit the free agent market for the first time in his career, failing to land any guaranteed NHL offers.

The 25-year-old Minnesota product has appeared in 95 NHL games since turning pro in 2018, recording 14 goals and 14 assists for 28 points. It amounts to solid fourth-line production, but inconsistency and extreme dry spells have prevented him from landing an everyday NHL job. He has struggled to make positive impacts defensively, posting a career Corsi share of 46.1% at even strength, 1.9% worse than his teammates.

The Marlies (and their NHL parent, the Maple Leafs) are no stranger to bringing in reclamation projects on both NHL and AHL deals – Alex Galchenyuk and Joshua Ho-Sang are a pair of recent examples that didn’t pay long-term dividends. With a whopping 18 forwards already on the Marlies’ roster, Bellows will need to make a significant impact at the minor-league level to land a deal. That shouldn’t be too tall a task, as aside from posting just 19 points in 73 games during his rookie season with AHL Bridgeport in 2018-19, he’s been an effective contributor in limited minor-league action.

Carolina Hurricanes Sign Kieffer Bellows, Jayden Halbgewachs To PTOs

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The Carolina Hurricanes signed two players to PTOs last night, forward Kieffer Bellows and Jayden Halbgewachs. This move grows the Hurricanes’ stable of PTO additions to six players, as the club has already signed tryout agreements with Cory Conacher, Brendan Perlini, Nick Shore, and defenseman Nathan Beaulieu.

It’s set to be a competitive training camp in Raleigh as a result, and the battle for NHL jobs should be especially fierce given that the Hurricanes don’t currently have an official AHL affiliate. Their general manager, Don Waddell, has offered assurances throughout the summer that the organization will be able to loan its players to teams in the AHL without an affiliation agreement, but without any certainty on where Hurricanes players might be playing in the NHL, it could make the pressure even greater to win one of the NHL jobs on offer.

In Bellows, the Hurricanes are adding a former top prospect who hasn’t lived up to the hype in the NHL. Bellows, 25, is the owner of an NHL-caliber shot and has hit the 20-goal mark in the AHL. But in the NHL, Bellows hasn’t been able to become any sort of consistent goal scorer, in large part thanks to his deficiencies as a skater.

The lack of time and space available in the NHL, a trademark characteristic of the world’s most difficult league, combined with Bellows’ lack of separation ability has made it almost impossible for him to get into quality scoring positions.

As a result, he’s been forced to settle for lower percentage chances when he does manage to get his shot off. (low-percentage shots he still sometimes manages to score on due to the quality of his shot)

Bellows’ inability to consistently create space for himself to get higher-quality chances could help explain why his shooting percentage over the last two years stands at a paltry 8.1%.

His lack of offensive production meant that Bellows, who stands six-foot-one, 195 pounds, was also tried in a bottom-six checking role, but he proved ineffective there too. He was claimed off of waivers by the Philadelphia Flyers this past season, but only managed three points in 27 games. The Flyers didn’t extend him a qualifying offer, and he’s been left on the UFA market until now.

The hero of the 2018 IIHF World Junior Championships and 2016 first-round pick faces a tough task in training camp trying to earn a roster on such a good Hurricanes team, but Carolina wouldn’t have signed him if they didn’t believe he at least stood a chance of winning a job on their team.

As for Halbgewachs, he’s had a very different experience in many ways to Bellows so far in his career. While Bellows is a big, powerful winger, Halbgewachs stands five-foot-eight, 160 pounds. While Bellows was a first-round pick and top prospect, Halbgewachs is an undrafted player who had to score 70 goals and 129 points in the WHL en route to his entry-level contract. But they do have some similarities. Halbgewachs, like Bellows, has proven to be a quality AHL player but has had NHL success elude him.

Halbgewachs scored 41 points in 59 AHL games last season and even earned his first NHL call-up, eventually playing in three games for the San Jose Sharks. He didn’t re-sign in San Jose, though, as at-the-time new Sharks GM Mike Grier elected not to extend Halbgewachs an offer. So Halbgewachs went to Europe, signing a SHL deal with the Växjö Lakers. He won an SHL title with Växjö, but only managed 24 points in 69 combined regular-season and playoff games.

Even more than Bellows, Halbgewachs faces long odds at winning an NHL job. A player at his size playing an offensive game typically needs to be able to stick on a scoring line to have a role, and it’s highly unlikely Halbgewachs will be able to unseat one of the Hurricanes’ incumbent scorers.

But this PTO nonetheless gives him an opportunity to test his mettle against NHL-caliber competition in training camp, and potentially play some preseason games to showcase his talents to the wider hockey world.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Philadelphia Flyers Announce Qualifying Offers

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Weeks in advance of the June 30 deadline, the Philadelphia Flyers have become the first team to announce which of their pending restricted free agents are receiving qualifying offers. Forwards Noah Cates, Morgan Frost, and Olle Lycksell, as well as defensemen Ronnie Attard and Cam York, all received qualifying offers from the team and their rights have been retained. Forwards Evan Barratt and Kieffer Bellows and defenseman Wyatte Wylie were left unqualified, and they’ll hit unrestricted free agency on July 1 if left unsigned.

The Flyers also confirmed that goalie prospect Ivan Fedotov, who missed the entire 2022-23 campaign due to military obligations in Russia after intending to leave for the United States, has had his contract tolled over to the 2023-24 season. It’s unclear what his status is and if he’s expected to join the team, but he will be under contract.

Philadelphia acquired Barratt, 24, in an October 2022 minor trade with the Chicago Blackhawks. The 2017 third-round pick spent nearly the entire season in the ECHL with the Flyers’ affiliate, the Reading Royals, where he did well with 50 points in 46 games. After managing to stick in the AHL full-time with Chicago the past two seasons, however, it was a disappointing development that he couldn’t hold the same role in the Flyers organization. He’ll spend next season overseas, where he’s already signed a contract with the DEL’s Nurnberg Ice Tigers.

Bellows was the 19th overall selection in the 2016 draft but ended up on waivers this season after the New York Islanders decided he couldn’t stick in the NHL. Philadelphia claimed him, but the 25-year-old scored just three goals in 27 NHL games and never got anything above a fourth-line role. His power-forward style has yet to truly translate to any sustained success at the NHL level, and he remains unsigned for 2023-24.

Wylie is the youngest of the Flyers to go unqualified, still just 23 years old. After a fifth-round selection in 2018, though, he’s failed to become an every-night AHL player and appeared in 45 games for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms this season. After a strong pair of seasons to finish out his junior career with the Everett Silvertips in 2019 and 2020, though, he should be able to find at least an AHL contract on the open market if the Flyers don’t retain him by the end of the month.

Philadelphia Flyers Make Several Roster Moves

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The Philadelphia Flyers have announced that forward Kieffer Bellows and goaltender Samuel Ersson have been recalled from the team’s AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. In addition, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Olivier Reiner notes that Zack MacEwen has been placed on injured reserve.

These moves bring Bellows back to the Flyers’ active roster just days after he was placed on waivers by the team. Bellows played one game in his stint in the minors, tallying an assist and three shots on goal in Lehigh Valley’s 3-0 win over the Bridgeport Islanders.

Bellows now has ten points in 12 AHL games this season, although he has found NHL success harder to come by. He has just one goal in 16 total games this season, but will at least bring some size and grit to reinforce the Flyers’ forward corps for their road trip.

In Ersson, the Flyers add a third goalie to their active roster. The 23-year-old 2018 fifth-round pick has had a strong season serving as the Flyers’ number-three goalie. At the AHL level, he’s played in 26 games and boasts a 15-10-1 record, a 2.58 goals-against-average, and a .911 save percentage.

In the NHL, Ersson has won five of his six starts with strong overall numbers: a 2.37 goals-against-average and a .918 save percentage. While teams typically don’t like to carry three goaltenders, it’s possible this recall is designed to give the Flyers a chance to use a contest on this four-game road trip to further evaluate Ersson.

The final move, putting MacEwen on injured reserve, comes as no surprise. The forward underwent surgery to repair a broken jaw in late January, and was given a five-week timeline to return to the ice. His placement on injured reserve frees a roster spot for the Flyers to work with, allowing them to bring extra bodies on their road trip.

MacEwen is on an expiring $925k AAV deal and will be eligible for restricted free agency this summer. He became an NHL regular with Philadelphia last season after he was claimed off of waivers from the Vancouver Canucks, and he ended up skating in 75 contests, where he registered three goals, nine points, and 110 penalty minutes.

Kieffer Bellows Clears Waivers

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Feb 11: Bellows has cleared waivers, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Philadelphia is cleared to assign him to the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

Feb 10: The Philadelphia Flyers have placed Kieffer Bellows on waivers today, according to Chris Johnston of NorthStar Bets. This is his third stint of the season. Bellows cleared on December 2 but has spent enough time on the NHL roster to need them again before being assigned to the minor leagues.

It just hasn’t worked out for the 24-year-old Bellows, who has 12 goals and 26 points in 83 career games. Those have been spread out across parts of four seasons, with just 16 appearances this year. The 19th overall pick from 2016 got just a handful of shifts in the last two games with Philadelphia, and isn’t doing enough at either end of the rink to warrant consistent playing time.

The thing is, with a $1.2MM contract, he also will likely go unclaimed for the second time this season. Roster spots are valuable, even with rebuilding clubs, and the fact that he’s a restricted free agent at the end of the year likely actually decreases his value. Bellows would need a $1.2MM qualifying offer and is arbitration eligible, something no team will want to pay after this season.

It’s not that his time in the NHL is over. The Flyers could sign him for a more reasonable deal and keep trying to develop him into an asset. But right now, he’s just not getting it done. Through 15 games with Philadelphia, he has one goal on 23 shots and hasn’t seen a single second of penalty-killing time. That’s not the recipe for a regular fourth-liner, especially under John Tortorella’s effort-and-defense system.

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