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Massimo Rizzo

Evening Notes: Senators, Rizzo, Musty

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The Ottawa Senators announced that they loaned forwards Adam Gaudette and Zack Ostapchuk to their American Hockey League affiliate the Belleville Senators. The move comes on the heels of a two-goal game for Gaudette last night against the St. Louis Blues. Gaudette has had an excellent start to the season with Ottawa, posting four goals and an assist in eight games this season.

Ostapchuk on the other hand had an assist in last night’s 8-1 win, in what was his first NHL game of the season. It was a special moment for the 21-year-old as the assist represented his first NHL point. Ostapchuk dressed in seven games last season for Ottawa, going pointless.

The move is likely to be a paper transaction as the Senators don’t play again until Friday against the New York Rangers and could very well recall either player in the next few days.

In other evening notes:

  • San Jose Sharks forward prospect Quentin Musty has returned to the Sudbury Wolves of the Ontario Hockey League and is expected to play this weekend (as per Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News). San Jose re-assigned Musty back to the OHL in late September, but a week later, it was reported that the 2023 first-round pick (26th overall) had requested a trade. That same day, Sudbury released a statement talking about Musty’s trade request, saying that they would field trade offers but would also welcome Musty back if he changed his mind. Musty’s return will be a big boost for the Wolves, who have started the OHL season with a 7-5 record.
  • Philadelphia Flyers prospect Massimo Rizzo has reportedly suffered an appendicitis that required him to have surgery a few weeks ago to get his appendix removed (as per Flyers reporter Bill Meltzer). The early reports indicate that Rizzo will require a six to eight-week timeline to recover from the appendectomy. The 23-year-old is slated to play in the AHL for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms but has yet to dress in a game this season. Rizzo was originally drafted in the seventh round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft by the Carolina Hurricanes but was dealt to the Flyers in August 2023, along with a 2025 fifth-round pick in exchange for forward David Kase.

Flyers Sign Massimo Rizzo To Entry-Level Deal

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10:46 a.m.: Rizzo’s deal carries a $925K cap hit, per PuckPedia. That’s broken down into an $832.5K base salary and a $92.5K signing bonus each season. When assigned to the minors, he’ll earn a $70K salary.

10:19 a.m.: The Flyers announced this morning that they’ve signed center prospect Massimo Rizzo to a two-year entry-level contract beginning next season. Financial terms were not disclosed, nor did the team confirm if he’ll join AHL Lehigh Valley on a tryout to end the campaign.

Rizzo, 22, was selected by the Hurricanes in the seventh round of the 2019 draft but had his signing rights picked up by Philadelphia in an August 2023 trade. This was part of a complicated saga that saw the Flyers buy out the final season of defenseman Tony DeAngelo’s two-year, $10MM contract so that he could sign with Carolina.

The Hurricanes drafted Rizzo out of Penticton in the British Columbia Hockey League, and he didn’t make his collegiate debut for the University of Denver until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He broke out in a big way with the Pioneers, averaging well north of a point per game across his three seasons there and capturing two national championships. Rizzo capped off his university career with 10 goals, 34 assists and 44 points in 30 contests this season and a +24 rating. That earned him NCHC Second All-Star Team honors, a nomination to the NCAA Second All-American Team for the West Region, and Denver’s Hobey Baker Award nominee for the top player in college hockey.

The high-skill playmaker will make a decent case to challenge for a roster spot as soon as next season, although it shouldn’t be viewed as a major disappointment if he begins 2024-25 in the minors. The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler named him the fifth-best prospect in the Flyers system in February, trailing only 2023 top-10 pick Matvei Michkov and rookie winger Bobby Brink among forwards. His ELC will expire in 2026, making him an RFA at that time.

Minor Transactions: Spengler Cup Edition

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The World Junior Hockey Championship isn’t the only tournament that takes place at this time of year.  The Spengler Cup, the oldest invitational hockey tournament in the world, also gets underway on December 26th, running through the 31st.  While most of the participants are club teams across various international leagues, Canada gets to send a team as well.  Most of their players also play overseas but a handful of NHL teams have loaned players out for this event.  We’ve already covered Aaron Dell (Carolina) and Nicolas Beaudin (Montreal) but here are the other NHL-affiliated players who have been loaned; the full roster (which features several former NHL players) can be found here.

  • Penguins defenseman Ty Smith has been loaned by AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. It has been a disappointing year for the 23-year-old in the sense that he passed through waivers unclaimed.  However, he has been quite productive in the minors so far, collecting 22 points in 27 games.
  • The Senators have loaned out blueliner Dillon Heatherington from AHL Belleville. The 28-year-old has played in 24 games so far in the minors, picking up two goals and two assists.  Heatherington, a pending unrestricted free agent, got into three games with Ottawa last season.
  • Jets goalie Thomas Milic has been added to the roster from ECHL Norfolk. The first-year pro had a standout performance at the World Juniors and with WHL Seattle last season, resulting in him being drafted in his final year of eligibility.  While he has four games with AHL Manitoba this season, he has spent most of the year with the Admirals, posting a 2.44 GAA and .910 SV% in 14 games.
  • While not a direct loan from an NHL affiliate, the Flyers will also have a prospect in this event as forward Massimo Rizzo will be suiting up. The 22-year-old is in his junior year at the University of Denver and leads all Division I players with 31 points in 18 games.  He’s the only NCAA player suiting up for Canada in the event.

Flyers, Hurricanes Complete Prospect Swap

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The Philadelphia Flyers have acquired center prospect Massimo Rizzo along with a 2025 fifth-round pick from the Carolina Hurricanes, according to a team release. In return, they’ve sent the rights to forward David Kase to Carolina.

Kase is an unusual type of player to see traded, given his contract status. The 26-year-old brother of former Hurricanes forward Ondrej Kase has spent the last two seasons in the Czech Extraliga with HC Sparta Praha, not signed to an NHL contract, but remained on the Flyers’ reserve list after they issued him a qualifying offer in 2021. He got into seven NHL games with the Flyers after they selected him in the fifth round of the 2015 NHL Draft, recording one goal.

The versatile forward has logged heavy minutes in Prague the past two seasons but hasn’t had spectacular production, notching just ten goals in 68 games since returning to his home country in 2021. Kase signed a three-year agreement with Extraliga club HC Litvinov this offseason, meaning his inclusion in this trade is likely a throw-in to balance out each team’s reserve list numbers.

Rizzo comes to the Flyers after reportedly being part of the rumored Anthony DeAngelo trade between the two clubs that fell through earlier this summer. Essentially, this transaction completes the move that the NHL blocked due to cap circumvention – the Flyers later bought out DeAngelo, and Carolina signed him to a one-year, $1.675MM pact days later. This series of moves allowed the Hurricanes to acquire DeAngelo at a lower cap hit, as the maximum salary retention the Flyers could have offered via trade would’ve brought DeAngelo’s cap hit down to only $2.5MM. Thus, Carolina parted with Rizzo and a fifth-round pick to save $825K in cap space.

The 22-year-old member of Carolina’s 2019 draft class shouldn’t be overlooked as a prospect. While he may not have ideal size at 5-foot-11 and 174 pounds, he’s had a strong collegiate career and looks to be exceeding the value expected of him as a seventh-round pick. He just completed his second season with the University of Denver, leading the team with 29 assists and 46 points in 38 games. In 2021-22, he recorded 36 points in 39 games as a freshman to help lead Denver to the national championship.

Rizzo is not yet signed to an entry-level contract and will return to Denver next season if the Flyers don’t sign him now. If/when they did reach an entry-level agreement with Rizzo, he is eligible for assignment to the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

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