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KHL’s Ak Bars Kazan Acquire Grigori Denisenko

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A former first-round pick is on the move overseas. According to a report out of Russia, the KHL’s Ak Bars Kazan has acquired forward Grigori Denisenko from the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.

After an impressive season with the MHL’s Loko Yaroslavl, which saw Denisenko score nine goals and 22 points in 31 games during the 2017-18 season, the Florida Panthers selected him with the 15th overall pick of the 2018 NHL Draft. He went on to spend another two years with the KHL’s Lokomotiv, scoring 10 goals and 18 points in 63 games, including another one goal and four points in 12 postseason contests.

He was limited in playing time throughout his first two years in North America, managing four assists in eight NHL contests with the Panthers, and 14 goals and 27 points in 45 games split between the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch and Charlotte Checkers from 2020 to 2022. He received much more playing time during the 2022-23 season, scoring 12 goals and 36 points in 56 games with the Checkers.

Denisenko was ultimately claimed on the waiver wire by the Vegas Golden Knights after failing to make the Panthers’ roster out of training camp ahead of the 2023-24 campaign. Outside six appearances with Vegas, Denisenko put together his strongest season in the AHL, scoring 20 goals and 56 points in 65 games with the Henderson Silver Knights, though he failed to make either of the AHL All-Star Teams at season’s end.

It was much of the same this past season for Denisenko, scoring 10 goals and 24 points in 42 games for the Silver Knights to start the season. He was traded in mid-February to the Nashville Predators in exchange for future considerations, and concluded the year with the Milwaukee Admirals without appearing for the Predators. Despite mild improvements to his offensive game, Denisenko’s AHL career produced a dismal -56 rating across 231 games.

Although there’s no official confirmation that Denisenko has or will make the move back to the KHL, he remains without an NHL contract heading into September. If he is unwilling to begin the year in the AHL, which is likely where he would end up if he signs with another NHL team, he would be better off returning to Russia, provided that Ak Bars offers him an opportunity.

Hurricanes Sign Oliver Kylington, Givani Smith To Professional Tryouts

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The Carolina Hurricanes have signed forward Givani Smith and defenseman Oliver Kylington to professional tryouts. Both players appeared in NHL games last season.

Kylington’s NHL action was split between the Colorado Avalanche and Anaheim Ducks. He only totaled 19 games, and five points, on the year after sustaining a string of injuries throughout the 2024-25 season. Kylington stepped away from the NHL from October 2022 through January 2024 to focus on his mental health. He returned for 33 games of the Calgary Flames’ 2023-24 season and won the 2024 Bill Masterton Trophy.

Kylington is now 28 and looking to reinstate his spot in the NHL. He bounced back and forth between the major and minor leagues from 2018 to 2021 – but broke out with 31 points in 73 games of the Flames’ 2021-22 season. At his best, he looked like a smooth-moving, two-way defenseman capable of holding both blue-lines. That talent could be enough to fill the in-between role vacated by Scott Morrow when he was traded to the Rangers in June. First, Kylington will need to prove he can still play at NHL pace.

Meanwhile, Smith will look to flex his might as a bottom-of-the-lineup bruiser. He has fluctuated between the NHL and AHL for the last few seasons, and averaged at least one penalty minute per game everywhere he goes. Last season, Smith recorded no scoring and 18 PIMs in 13 NHL games, and three points and 21 PIMs in 16 AHL games. Those performances brought his career totals up to 22 points and 268 PIMs in 168 NHL games, and 55 points and 287 PIMs in 167 AHL games. He could be a candidate for an AHL contract, if he doesn’t earn a deal with the Hurricanes out of camp.

Hurricanes Sign Ivan Ryabkin To Entry-Level Contract

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The Carolina Hurricanes have signed 2025 second-round pick Ivan Ryabkin to a three-year, entry-level contract. The deal carries $235K in signing bonuses and a $85K salary at the AHL level. The NHL salary grows each year – from $775K, to $850K, to $895K. Ryabkin is expected to delay the start of the contract by moving to the QMJHL’s Charlottetown Islanders this season, though rumors suggest he could make a push for the AHL roster out of training camp, per Elite Prospects’ Cam Robinson.

Ryabkin was once lauded as the top Russian in the 2007 birth year, and even considered a potential top-20 prospect after his age-17 season. That standing took a tumble over the course of his draft season, as concerns over his workout regiment and discipline grew with Russian club Moscow Dynamo. The resulting split prompted Ryabkin to the move to the USHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks in January, after he scored just one goal and 12 points in 15 MHL games.

The mid-season move proved instantly profitable for both Ryabkin and Muskegon. The high-volume winger totaled 26 goals, 46 points, and 100 penalty minutes over a combined 41 games in the USHL. His scoring presence was the final heave that pushed Muskegon to their first Clark Cup Championship in franchise history. Ryabkin filled the sniper role to a tee, perfectly complimenting high-energy playmaker Tynan Lawrence and nifty power-forward Vaclav Nestrasil Jr..

News of his first NHL contract will make Ryabkin a must-watch player as training camps roll around. He still measures at a hefty 5-foot-11, 205-pounds, and stood out as an unpoised hitter on what was a heavily penalized Lumberjacks lineup. His scoring prowess at the junior level is unquestioned, but the 2025-26 season will be about proving his competition, drive, and level-headedness both on and off of the ice. Breaking into the minor-leagues at 19 would go a long way towards showing that growth. Ryabkin made his debut in the KHL and VHL – Russia’s top pro leagues – early into the 2024-25 season.

Simon Després Signs With LNAH’s Saint-Hyacinthe Bataillon

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A former first-round pick of the 2009 NHL Draft is returning to his native Quebec to continue his professional playing career. In a team announcement, the LNAH’s (Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey) Saint-Hyacinthe Bataillon shared that they’ve signed defenseman Simon Després to a contract for the 2025-26 season.

Després was selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins a few weeks after the organization reached its first Stanley Cup Final since the 1991-92 season. The Laval, Quebec native was playing for the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs at the time, finishing his tenure with the team after the 2010-11 season, during which he managed 25 goals and 134 points in 240 games, including six additional goals and 39 points in 58 postseason contests.

Given that the team had won the Stanley Cup in 2009 and continued as one of the best teams in the league for the next few years, there was no need for the Penguins to rush one of their top prospects to the NHL level. Still, despite spending most of his time with their AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, Pittsburgh gave Després plenty of opportunity to make his mark at the game’s top level.

Unfortunately, no such impact was made, at least on the offensive side of the puck. Over the next three and a half years, Després partook in 144 games as a Penguin, scoring five goals and 33 points with a +27 rating while averaging 15:54 of ice time. Pittsburgh had been looking for more offense from Després. Still, he was a sneakily positive defensive option, maintaining a 53.2% CorsiFor% (CF%) at even strength, and a 92.8% on-ice save percentage (oiSV%) at even strength, while also averaging nearly two hits per game.

Regardless, the Penguins felt they had seen everything they needed to regarding Després’ future with the organization, and they finally traded him to the Anaheim Ducks in 2015 for defenseman Ben Lovejoy, who had been a teammate of Després in the first two years of his NHL career. Unbeknownst to Després at the time, his move to Orange County would mark the end of his NHL career.

Severely limited by concussions, Després finished with one goal and 10 points as a Duck from the trade in 2015 to the end of the 2016-17 campaign. It’s difficult for any player, especially one who hasn’t established himself as a legitimate talent, to recover after nearly two years away from the game. Despite a five-game stretch with the AHL’s Laval Rocket during the 2018-19 season, Després has spent the rest of his professional career overseas, recently scoring six goals and 29 points in 52 games with the EIHL’s Glasgow Clan last season.

Minor Transactions: Hurlbert, Boltmann, Uens

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American forward J.P. Hurlbert, widely tabbed as a first-round pick in the 2026 draft class, will spend his draft year north of the border with the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers, the team announced.

It’s a sharp course reversal from the growing trend of CHL-committed players coming to the United States to play college hockey, as they’re now eligible to do before their usual run in junior hockey would have concluded. Hurlbert is still a University of Michigan commit – that hasn’t changed – but he wasn’t expected to join the team until his age-18 season in 2026-27. He’s still expected to attend while making the Blazers a brief detour on his development path, buying himself out of the U.S. National Team Development Program in order to do so.

Hurlbert, a Texas native, joined the USNTDP’s under-17 squad last year after playing his youth hockey with the Dallas Stars Elite program. He finished third on that club in scoring with a 19-18–37 line in 56 games, adding three assists in five games for the Americans at the under-17 World Hockey Challenge.

The 17-year-old joins a Kamloops roster headlined by Penguins 2024 second-rounder Harrison Brunicke on defense – assuming he doesn’t make Pittsburgh’s opening night roster. At forward, he’ll have Blackhawks pick Nathan Behm, a third-rounder this year, to help him out.

More minor moves from around hockey:

  • Former Flames defense prospect Jake Boltmann is landing in the Stars organization on a contract with ECHL Idaho, per a club announcement. The 23-year-old righty was a third-rounder by Calgary in 2020 but wasn’t signed following his fifth season of college hockey, so assuming he’s submitted the proper paperwork, he’s now an unrestricted free agent in the NHL’s eyes. The 6’1″, 201-lb rearguard had 20 points and 108 PIMs in 126 games with Notre Dame over four seasons before transferring to Northeastern for a fifth year. He had a 2-10–12 scoring line with 39 PIMs and a -2 rating in 35 showings for the Huskies last year.
  • Ex-Panthers farmhand Zachary Uens has signed an AHL deal with the Kraken’s affiliate in Coachella Valley. The 24-year-old was an unrestricted free agent after being non-tendered back in June before the expiry of his entry-level contract. A 2020 fourth-round pick, he saw fringe action for Florida’s AHL club in Charlotte but played mostly in the ECHL, most recently for the Savannah Ghost Pirates. The 6’2″ lefty spent all of last season there, logging 17 points and 68 PIMs in 62 games.

Senators Sign Cameron Crotty, Jan Jenik To Two-Way Deals

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The Senators announced this morning they’ve signed depth defenseman Cameron Crotty and Jan Jeník to two-way deals. Crotty’s is a two-year commitment, while Jeník’s is just for one. The pair will now vie for positioning on Ottawa’s depth chart during training camp.

Crotty, 26, only has a pair of NHL appearances to his name. Originally a third-round pick by the Coyotes in 2017, he made his NHL debut for them in 2023-24 before getting into a game with the Wild last year. The Boston University product is a 6’3″, 212-lb stay-at-home righty and captained Minnesota’s AHL affiliate in Iowa last season, recording 10 assists with 56 PIMs and a -7 rating in 64 appearances. He logged just 5:08 of ice time in his lone NHL appearance for the Wild, their penultimate game of the regular season against the Canucks.

With Crotty being at least 25 years old and having at least three seasons of professional experience with fewer than 80 NHL games played, he qualified for Group VI unrestricted free agency for the second straight summer after completing his two-way deal with the Wild. The two sides did not agree on a reunion, and he’ll now take his talents north of the border to serve as a capable call-up option if the Sens need some defensive muscle.

While Ottawa has seen some turnover among its complement of depth defensemen this offseason, that’s unlikely to produce the opportunity for Crotty to capture a roster spot in camp. Even with fellow righty Nick Jensen potentially on the shelf to start the season after undergoing a lower-body surgery, the Sens would have Artem Zub, Jordan Spence, and Nikolas Matinpalo as their top three righties, with 2024 No. 7 overall pick Carter Yakemchuk also expected to compete for a job. Even among their depth options already in the system, like Max Guenette and 2019 first-rounder Lassi Thomson, would presumably receive priority over Crotty.

As for Jeník, the soon-to-be 25-year-old was under Ottawa’s control as a restricted free agent. He got into a pair of midseason games for the Sens in 2024-25, going pointless with two hits and a -1 rating. It was his first season in the organization after the club acquired his rights from Utah last offseason and promptly re-signed him.

The 6’2″, 200-lb winger was also an Arizona third-round pick, one year after Crotty in 2018. He has the leg up on his former Coyotes teammate in NHL experience, though, recording a 4-2–6 scoring line in 24 appearances dating back to the 2020-21 campaign. He had an underwhelming performance in the scoring department for AHL Belleville last year, with 29 points in 52 games and will now look to build on that as he looks for more NHL opportunities.

Jeník should qualify for Group VI status next summer as long as he stays under 80 career NHL games, which would require him to log 56 appearances in the upcoming season.

Zach Sanford Signs With NL’s HC Lugano

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HC Lugano of the Swiss National League announced today that they’ve signed former NHL winger Zach Sanford to a one-year deal.

Sanford, 31 in November, was a second-round pick by the Capitals back in 2013. He started his career with the Caps in 2016 but played only briefly for Washington, splitting the first part of the season between the NHL and AHL rosters before he was traded to the Blues in the Kevin Shattenkirk headliner at the 2017 deadline.

He remained in the minors for an injury-plagued 2017-18 campaign but got much more of a crack at NHL minutes the following year. Sanford was among the Blues’ better fourth-line options in the regular season, totaling 20 points in 60 games, and appeared in eight playoff games as the franchise marched to its first Stanley Cup win.

The post-Cup bump was real and immediate. While he began 2019-20 on the fringes of the St. Louis lineup, he worked his way into regular top-nine minutes by the time November rolled around and carried some shooting luck to a career year. He clicked at a 17.8% rate in 58 appearances before COVID ended the season in March, scoring 16 goals and 30 points to finish seventh on the team in scoring while also finishing fourth with 109 hits.

That quality production helped the Blues along to their first division title in five years and got him penciled into the opening-night lineup when play resumed the following season in January 2021. Unfortunately, that breakout wasn’t sustainable. Despite still shooting at an above-average 14.9% rate, Sanford only managed 16 points in 52 games in his follow-up year despite averaging 14:53 of ice time per game, more than a full minute over his 2019-20 deployment.

Sanford was an RFA the following offseason and signed a one-year, $2MM deal to remain with the Blues, but he never played another game for St. Louis. They traded him to the Senators before the 2021-22 season began and had similar offensive struggles in extended minutes before getting flipped to the Jets at the trade deadline. Despite the move, he did play a career-high 80 games that year, recording a 9-12–21 scoring line with a career-high 169 hits.

The 6’4″, 206-lb winger has only logged 45 NHL appearances since then, though, and saw no usage last season. After seeing some action for the Predators, Coyotes, and Blackhawks in the past few years, he spent last year with Chicago on a two-way deal and recorded 19 goals and 43 points in 70 games for AHL Rockford.

Now headed to Switzerland, he should help replace some of the offensive production Lugano lost when high-end minor-league scorer Daniel Carr departed the club earlier this summer to make a return to North America. He brings Lugano’s roster’s tally of NHL experience to over 1,500 games, joining names like Connor Carrick, Rasmus Kupari, and Brendan Perlini, among a few others. If he lights up the Swiss circuit this year, a return to the NHL wouldn’t be out of the question for 2026-27.

Panthers Sign Luke Kunin

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The Panthers have signed versatile forward Luke Kunin to a one-year deal, the team announced. It’s a one-way, league minimum contract, according to PuckPedia.

This will be the fifth NHL stop for Kunin, who began his career as the 15th overall pick in the 2016 draft by the Wild. He turned pro the next year after two collegiate seasons at Wisconsin and got his first taste of NHL action after making Minnesota’s opening night roster in 2017-18. Over his first three years in the NHL with the Wild, he developed rather quickly and recorded a 23-29–52 scoring line in 131 games – including an optimistic 31-point showing in 63 games in 2019-20.

Minnesota traded Kunin to Nashville in the 2020 offseason in exchange for Nick Bonino. The move brought both an ice time reduction and injury troubles. He recorded a career-high 0.50 points per game in his first year with the Preds, scoring 10 goals and 19 points in the COVID-shortened 2021 season, but was limited to 38 games with a lower-body injury. His production pace dropped to 22 points over a full 82-game schedule the following year before he was traded during the offseason again, this time to San Jose for John Leonard.

Kunin returned to a regular top-nine role with increased penalty-killing responsibility for the rebuilding Sharks, but ACL surgery ended his first season in the Bay Area after recording 13 points in 31 games.

Since returning for 2023-24, Kunin has taken on more of a pure checking role with significantly decreased offensive success. He posted identical 11-7–18 scoring lines in each of the last two seasons, along with an eye-popping cumulative -58 rating, although playing mostly on the league’s worst team during that time will obviously exaggerate poor defensive impacts. San Jose understandably wasn’t keen on re-signing him this summer and instead flipped him to the Blue Jackets at the trade deadline for a fourth-round pick. He went pointless with a -5 rating in 12 games for Columbus before reaching the open market for the first time this year.

As such, a spot in Florida’s opening night lineup is far from guaranteed. He was receiving NHL interest, but he enters the Panthers organization after a tough stretch and now must compete with names like Jonah Gadjovich, A.J. Greer, and Tomas Nosek – each of whom has proven effective fourth-line pieces on a Stanley Cup champion – for ice time.

The Panthers already have a projected cap exceedance of $3.725MM, but with star winger Matthew Tkachuk likely headed for adductor surgery soon, he’ll be LTIR-eligible and allow the Cats to be compliant to begin the season.

Mason Morelli Signs With KHL’s Barys Astana

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Forward Mason Morelli has signed with Barys Astana, Kazakhstan’s representative in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League, according to a KHL press release. It’s a one-year deal.

Morelli, 29, got into NHL games with the Golden Knights each of the past two seasons. He made 10 appearances over the pair of campaigns, scoring four points and a -3 rating. Only one of those appearances came last year; the other nine were in 2023-24. He averaged 10:26 of ice time per game and controlled just 42.2% of shot attempts at even strength.

The 6’1″, 201-lb lefty was never drafted and only landed his first NHL contract, a two-year, two-way deal with Vegas, after four years on AHL deals with the Stockton Heat and Hershey Bears. The North Dakota native played primarily for the Henderson Silver Knights during his time in the Vegas organization, scoring 48 points in 104 games for them while primarily serving in a checking role. He served as an alternate captain for the minor-league club last year.

While a fine call-up option for fourth-line minutes, Morelli is likely looking for more stability and a potentially larger paycheck at this stage of his career than a two-way NHL contract provides. He’ll look to achieve both those objectives with Barys, which has been busy scooping up North American talent in the past few weeks as KHL training camps get underway. He was an unrestricted free agent after that two-way deal with the Knights expired.

Morelli becomes the sixth player on Astana’s roster with NHL experience, joining Ian McCoshen, Olivier Rodrigue, Tyce Thompson, Mike Vecchione, and Reilly Walsh.

Mammoth’s Connor Ingram Cleared By NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program

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August 20th: Goaltender Connor Ingram has been cleared by the NHLPA to return to the NHL per Belle Fraser of the Salt Lake Tribune. He will return to the Utah roster looking to earn the advantage back from Karel Vejmelka, who posted a 9-6-3 record and .889 save percentage in 18 games after Ingram stepped away. Both goaltenders have years of NHL experience behind them, and strong cases for manning Utah’s starting role next season.

March 9th: Utah goaltender Connor Ingram entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program today and will be out indefinitely, Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic reports. In a corresponding move, the club recalled netminder Jaxson Stauber from AHL Tucson earlier Sunday.

Ingram, now 27, missed most of the 2020-21 season after entering the program while a member of the Predators organization. He later told NHL.com’s Amalie Benjamin that he sought help after dealing with undiagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder throughout his career. After moving to the Coyotes in the 2022 offseason, he emerged as their starter for the 2023-24 campaign and won the Masterton Trophy for the “player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey” after a 23-win, six-shutout campaign.

Now the No. 2 option to Karel Vejmelka in Utah, Ingram missed over a month with the team initially termed an upper-body injury earlier in the season. Upon his return, he informed reporters his mother had passed away and, understandably, took extended time off (via Belle Fraser of the Salt Lake Tribune).

In 22 starts for the Club this season, Ingram has a 9-8-4 record, .882 SV%, and a 3.27 GAA. The 25-year-old Stauber has done quite well when called upon to elevate from his minor-league starting role, posting a .925 SV% and 2.23 GAA in four appearances earlier this season.

All of us at Pro Hockey Rumors wish Ingram the best as he takes time away from the lineup. He’ll be eligible to return to play upon the determination of program administrators.

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