• The Ontario Reign have signed Alan Quine to a one-year AHL contract, bringing over the former NHL forward after he spent last season with the Henderson Silver Knights. Quine, 29, last played in the NHL in 2019-20 and has 106 regular season games to his name.
• One of the players that saw his exclusive draft rights expire this week, Brandon Kruse, has found a one-year AHL contract with the Toronto Marlies. The 2018 fifth-round pick failed to ink an entry-level deal with the Vegas Golden Knights by the deadline, making him an unrestricted free agent.
• Nikita Popugaev, who once announced his retirement from hockey to pursue life as a social media influencer, has signed with HK Sochi in the KHL. A fourth-round pick of the New Jersey Devils in 2017, his NHL rights are still technically owned by them and will be indefinitely.
• Logan Day is headed from Lehigh Valley to the Hershey Bears, signing a one-year AHL deal with the latter. The undrafted defenseman had 19 points in 72 games for the Phantoms last season.
• Lehigh Valley, meanwhile, has re-signed Charlie Gerard to another AHL contract, bringing back the undrafted forward for another year. In 55 games last season, Gerard had six goals and 12 points.

This page will be updated throughout the day.

He will become the 11th player to have his number retired by the team, joining Ed Giacomin (1), Brian Leetch (2), Harry Howell (3), Rod Gilbert (7), Andy Bathgate (9), Adam Graves (9), Mark Messier (11), Vic Hadfield (11), Jean Ratelle (19) and Mike Richter (35).

• The Montreal Canadiens have confirmed that young star Cole Caufield will be out for a week with an upper-body injury suffered over the weekend. The 20-year-old played against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday and then was pulled from the warmup for an intrasquad game on Sunday. With how important he is going to be for the team this year, keeping him healthy to start the season is extremely important for the Canadiens.
• It appears as though former New Jersey Devils prospect Nikita Popugaev has ended his hockey career, listing himself as an “ex hockey player” on Instagram. Popugaev was a fourth-round pick of the Devils in 2017, but never signed with the team and spent last season in the KHL. Though his rights are technically retained indefinitely by the Devils, it appears as though the 22-year-old will no longer be pursuing his career on the ice.

• The New Jersey Devils won’t be getting a second look at prospect forward Nikita Popugaev in North America any time soon. The big Russian forward has signed a one-year extension with the KHL’s Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk, the team announced. The Devils hold indefinite possession of Popugaev’s NHL rights, but there are certainly concerns that he may never be an NHL option. The polarizing prospect was considered a first-round talent at one point in the 2017 NHL Draft cycle, especially after back-to-back seasons of top-notch production in the WHL. However, work ethic concerns caused him to slip to the fourth round. He then confirmed some other suspicions by leaving the WHL for Russia, back-tracking on his perceived commitment to the North American game. Popugaev did return late in the 2018-19 season and signed an AHL contract with the Devils, staying through the following year but playing almost exclusively in the ECHL. This caused him to return to Russia again this year and he finally found some success after a mid-season trade to Nizhnekamsk. With a new deal, he hopes to build on that success again next season. Yet, in the big picture Popugaev’s struggles at the pro level in North America and Russia combined with a seemingly mutual resistance between he and the Devils to sign an entry-level contract just yet provides ample doubt that he will ever play in the NHL.
• Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Jack Thompson, arguably the best defenseman in their pipeline, is getting his first pro experience. With the OHL out of commission, Thompson has played at the junior level in Sweden this year, scoring at a point-per-game pace. However, he has returned home with his Swedish season over, but the OHL still has not returned to action. As a result, the Lightning’s AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch, have brought Thompson in on an amateur tryout basis. The 19-year-old defenseman, a 2020 third-round pick, will likely return to the OHL if the league re-starts, but in the meantime will get invaluable experience in the AHL.

Popugaev, 21, was a fourth-round pick of the Devils in 2017. However, he was considered a potential first-round pick early in the draft process due to his 6’6” stature and physical and technical gifts. His stock dropped once questions of his hockey IQ and work ethic began to overshadow is ability. Unfortunately, those questions have materialized into real problems for Popugaev early in his pro career. Following his junior career in the WHL, Popugaev returned home to Russia but failed to produce in the KHL. He finished the 2018-19 season with the AHL’s Binghamton Devils and his five points in 17 games were not enough to convince New Jersey that he was worthy of an entry-level contract. Instead, they signed him to an AHL contract, an unusual move for a drafted player. Rather than take this as a sign that he needed to work harder and improve, Popugaev instead spent this entire season in the ECHL and still only produced moderate numbers. With concerns from both team and player on what is in store for his future with the Devils, Popugaev has opted to return to the KHL, as his agent announced that he has signed a try-out deal with Dynamo Moscow. Popugaev is expected to either land an actual contract with Moscow or another KHL club once his try-out has been completed. This does not rule out the potential for a continued relationship between Popugaev and the Devils, but the team has until June 1, 2021 to sign him to an entry-level deal or else surrender his rights.

As for Larsson, his time with New Jersey and quite possibly North America is over. A former college standout who recorded back-to-back 20-point seasons with Merrimack College and Penn State University in his final two years in the NCAA, Larsson looked like he had the chops for the pro game. A versatile player who played forward and defense in college and was an excellent skater, Larsson certainly needed some seasoning in the minors but an NHL future was not impossible. However, perception was not reality for the 24-year-old. Larsson recorded two points in seven games for AHL Binghamton to close out the 2018-19 season on an amateur tryout, but after signing a one-year minor league deal he contributed only two more points this season in 19 games with Binghamton and spent just as much time in the ECHL as the AHL. Larsson has decided to return home to Sweden, as Allsvenskan club Mora IK per a team announcement. Barring an incredible turnaround in which Larsson’s play in the Allsvenskan lands him a contract in the SHL or another elite European league after next season and he continues to produce at a high level there as well, his time in North America is likely over.

• The Binghamton Devils signed Nikita Popugaev to a one-year AHL deal, meaning he won’t be heading back to the KHL just yet. Popugaev came over from Russia this season and played 17 games for the Devils, recording five points and finishing a -9. The Russian winger stands 6’6″ and was an interesting prospect coming out of the CHL in 2017 when the Devils decided to use the 98th overall pick on him. His stint in the KHL went poorly from a production standpoint, but he’ll hopefully take the next step in his development for the Devils next season.
• The Laval Rocket have agreed to terms with Nikita Jevpalovs on a one-year AHL contract. Jevpalovs went undrafted out of the QMJHL despite his 100-point campaign in 2014-15, and first signed an entry-level contract with the San Jose Sharks. Unfortunately he was not issued a qualifying offer after the 2016-17 season and decided to go overseas to the KHL. Following a disappointing season there, Jevpalovs joined the Rocket last season and recorded 25 points in 69 games.
• The San Jose Barracuda have signed Evan Weinger to a one-year AHL contract, bringing the 22-year old forward back for another season. As a rookie in 2018-19, Weinger posted 22 points in 60 regular season games and was one of the team’s best players in a first round playoff loss. Born in Los Angeles, Weinger will get a chance to keep playing close to home next season.

Still, there is plenty of potential in the 6’6″ forward and the Devils have nothing to lose with an AHL contract. Popugaev will get a chance to test his skills in the AHL while working with the team’s strong development staff to try and get him to the next level. There’s no guarantee of anything, but with fourth-round picks there rarely is.

The Devils have also avoided using a contract slot by signing Popugaev to a minor league deal, but will eventually have to make a decision over whether he deserves an entry-level contract. The team is currently sitting at 47 of a possible 50 deals, but will see 20 of those expire at the end of the season.

Even more peculiar than the gap between goal scoring in the NHL and Europe is the distribution of points. As there are fewer goals being scored in the four major European leagues, there are less opportunities to register points, even for star players. However, one would assume that there would still be plenty of standouts in each of the four leagues who find their way on to the score sheet each and every night. That would be a false assumption. Currently there are 41 players in the NHL averaging a point per game or better in at least half of their teams’ games. In the KHL, NLA, SHL, and Liiga combined, there are nine. The KHL leads the way with four such scorers, headed up by Vegas Golden Knights property Nikita Gusev, the top scoring forward in Europe with 1.30 points per game – such a mark would be seventh-best in the NHL. Familiar names Nigel Dawes and Vadim Shipachyov are also in the group, as is intriguing free agent option Dmitri Kagarlitsky. Over in the NLA, more recognizable veterans are scoring at a point-per-game clip or better, including Dustin Jeffrey, Chris DiDomenico, and Mark Arcobello. However, the league leader at 1.20 is none other than Dominik Kubalik, whose rights were just acquired by the Chicago Blackhawks last month and who could be eyeing a move to North America. The lone elite scorer in Finland is small, but skilled 23-year-old Iikka Kangasniemi, who is also certain to draw NHL interest this off-season as well. The SHL does not feature any point-per-game players currently. So, next time you feel the urge to complain about the lack of scoring or star scorers in the NHL, just take comfort in the fact that at least you’re not in Europe. All four leagues pale in comparison to the NHL in those departments this season.

• In an article for The Athletic about the future of the Columbus Blue Jackets in net, Aaron Portzline posits that prospect Elvis Merzlikins could arrive in North America before the end of the season. Merzlikins, 24, was a third-round pick by Columbus back in 2014 and has been a regular in net for HC Lugano of the NLA ever since. The Latvian goaltender gets better each year and this season has posted a .922 save percentage and 2.37 GAA that are both among the top ten keepers in Switzerland. Yet, Lugano is in danger of missing the postseason, which would hypothetically allow Merzlikins to finally make his move to Columbus as early as March. Portzline writes that many in the Blue Jackets organization feel Merzlikins is ready to play in the NHL right away, which could certainly be a possibility this season if the team does indeed opt to trade impending UFA starter Sergei Bobrovsky. Even if Lugano does make the playoffs or Columbus determines they do not want to throw him into the fire right away, the young keeper is still guaranteed to be crossing the Atlantic after this season and should compete for NHL minutes immediately next year.
• New Jersey Devils prospect Nikita Popugaev is also eyeing a jump to North America. Initially considered to be a first-round caliber talent in the 2017 NHL Draft, Popugaev ended up falling to the Devils in the fourth round due to questions about his motor and work ethic. The big winger didn’t help to quell those concerns when he left his WHL team, the Prince George Cougars, early last season to return to his native Russia. However, his current team, the KHL’s Amur Khabarovsk, have announced that Popugaev has left the team and will “try his hand” back in the U.S. His KHL contract has been terminated and he is now free to sign an entry-level contract with the Devils, but there has been no word of such a deal yet. Popugaev is still very raw and needs several more seasons of work in the minor leagues, but does have potential. The next question is whether the Devils feel that potential is worth a contract slot and the time and effort it may take to tap into it.

Popugaev, 18, was hoping for 2017 to be a year to remember. Instead, it has been a year to forget. Heading into last season, the 6’6″, 205-lb. Russian import was considered a surefire first round pick. In 2015-16, he impressed in his first junior season, recording 47 points in 70 games for the Moose Jaw Warriors. The first half of 2016-17 was even better; Popugaev had an incredible 51 points in his first 40 games, including a team-leading 22 goals to that point. Yet, the Warriors decided to trade Popugaev to another WHL contender, the Prince George Cougars, in early January. The Cougars would eventually go on to win the WHL’s B.C. Division, but due in little part to the contributions of Popugaev. The young scorer’s production dropped off entirely in Prince George, as he registered only 18 points in 31 games following the trade.

Suddenly, the draft status of the big winger came under serious fire. The initial thought was that Popugaev had the scoring touch and stick skills to be a bona fide NHLer, but also size and strength that made him more pro-ready than many of his peers. However, his struggles with the Cougars exposed Popugaev as a selfish player who preferred trying to beat defenders one-on-one rather than using his new teammates. With a skating game that was still in development and a nonexistent defensive game, the doubts over Popugaev’s offense sent him quickly sliding down draft boards. Popugev ended up as a fourth-round pick of the Devils this June, the 98th overall selection when this time last year some considered him to be a top-15 possibility.

Yet, Popugaev had the chance to bounce back in a full season with Prince George in 2017-18 and prove wrong his critics. Only, through his first thirteen games, Popugaev has only two goals and seven points, accompanied by a -13 rating. Likely fed up with the downward spiral his career has been on since his trade to the Cougars in January, Popugaev decided today that enough was enough. They young Russian has decided to return home, as the KHL announced (link in Russian) that Popugaev has signed with CSKA Moskva. Not only is jumping ship to the KHL generally not a good move for young players, but Popugaev’s willingness to cross the Atlantic at his earliest opportunity to play Canadian junior had lessened some of the concerns regarding the “Russian factor”. Now, he has done exactly what many team fear and has abandoned one of the top developmental pathways in hockey to  instead join the KHL, where he will have much less exposure and will adjust to a different style of game, even in what will likely be few minutes. In fact, Popugaev’s contract specifically allows him to be demoted not one but two levels below the KHL. Not only that, but it is a two-year deal.

In one year, Popugaev has gone from a top scorer in one of the best feeder leagues in North America and a potential NHL asset in short time to an afterthought returning to Russia out of frustration with his role and his draft slot. It’s certainly not the best look for the New Jersey prospect, but hopefully the move helps to get his career back on track.