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Rangers Sign Andrej Sustr To PTO

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The New York Rangers have signed veteran defenseman Andrej Sustr to a PTO, according to insider Frank Seravalli. The 6’7 right-shot blueliner is a veteran of 361 NHL games, although he has not dressed for a game in the world’s top league since the 2021-22 campaign.

Sustr, now 34 years old, has spent the last two seasons of his career playing overseas, splitting time across three teams and three different leagues. He began 2024-25 with HC Dynamo Pardubice in his native Czechia, but transferred to Liiga’s Tappara Tampere in advance of their first-round Champions Hockey League matchup against Färjestad BK. With Tappara, Sustr registered 12 points in 38 games and averaged a shade over 16 minutes of ice time per game, usage that was good for a number-six role on the team.

In 2023-24, his first season back in the European pro circuit, Sustr played for Cologne in the German DEL, scoring 20 points in 44 games while playing in a top-pairing role. Sustr most recently played in North America in 2022-23, as a member of both the Minnesota Wild and Anaheim Ducks organizations. Sustr skated in 51 games and scored 14 points.

The most prominent NHL stretch of Sustr’s career came between 2013-14 and 2017-18, when he was a regular defenseman for the Tampa Bay Lightning. In Tampa, Sustr played a steady role, holding onto an NHL job for four consecutive full seasons without playing in an AHL game. The highlight of Sustr’s career came during that stretch – when he played in all 26 of the Lightning’s playoff games on their run to the 2015 Stanley Cup Final.

Now back in North America, this PTO gives Sustr a chance to enter the competition for a roster spot in New York. Although Sustr’s imposing size and playoff experience (albeit decade-old playoff experience at this point) allow him to offer something different to Rangers management compared to other defensemen on the roster bubble, such as young puck mover Scott Morrow. But with that said, it’s difficult to imagine Sustr grabbing a hold of a spot at this time. The right side of the Rangers’ defense is well-stocked with quality players, and one of William Borgen or Braden Schneider (who make $4.1MM and $2.2MM AAV, respectively) will be overwhelmingly likely to occupy the third-pairing right-side lineup slot.

The competition for the Rangers’ seventh-defenseman role looks a bit more wide-open, but Sustr will nonetheless have to contend with players Rangers executives (if not the Rangers coaching staff, which was overhauled this summer) are more familiar with. Veterans Casey Fitzgerald and Connor Mackey, and youngsters Matthew Robertson and Morrow appear to be the primary competition for that spot. Fitzgerald, Mackey, and Robertson (but not Morrow) are all subject to waivers should the team seek to assign them to its AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack.

While it is somewhat difficult to imagine Sustr turning this PTO into an NHL role with the Rangers, the signing is not without its uses. His NHL experience allows him to qualify as a veteran player for the purposes of preseason exhibition games, meaning the Rangers will have additional flexibility to rest other veterans with Sustr occupying a lineup spot. And regardless of his ultimate chances of making the team, Sustr provides valuable veteran competition for the club’s young defensemen as they seek to earn an opening-night roster spot.

Buffalo Sabres Sign Alexandar Georgiev

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The Buffalo Sabres have added a new goalie to their roster. The club announced tonight that they have signed netminder Alexandar Georgiev to a one-year, one-way $825k contract.

Georgiev, who is repped by Dan Milstein of Gold Star Hockey, had lingered on the free agent market after a sub-par 2024-25 season. It was just a few years ago that Georgiev was considered one of the NHL’s more promising young goalies. In 2022-23, his first season as the number-one for the Colorado Avalanche, Georgiev went 40-16-6 with a .919 save percentage, landing a seventh-place finish in Vezina Trophy voting. The next season, Georgiev started 62 games for the Avalanche and represented the team at the 2024 NHL All-Star Game. But despite that honor, some cracks were beginning to show in Georgiev’s performance, as his save percentage declined to .898.

Georgiev struggled mightily to begin 2024-25, and through 18 games, he had a .874 save percentage. The Avalanche decided to move on from Georgiev in December of last year, dealing him to the San Jose Sharks as part of a larger trade that put Mackenzie Blackwood in position to take up a role as the new number-one goalie in Colorado.

In San Jose, Georgiev failed to find his form. He played in 31 games for the Sharks and went 7-19-4, posting an .875 save percentage while playing behind an admittedly poor defensive group. After the season, the Sharks informed Georgiev that he was not in their plans moving forward. After the Sharks’ final game of 2024-25, the netminder told the media, including Sharks Hockey Digest’s Max Miller, that he would not be offered an extension to remain with the club.

By signing with the Sabres, Georgiev has given himself a fresh opportunity to re-establish himself as an NHL goalie. The Sabres are not the most obvious fit for Georgiev – they already have Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen entrenched as a starter, and two other netminders with NHL experience set to compete for the role behind him. Top prospect Devon Levi appeared set to battle with Alex Lyon for the right to be Luukkonen’s backup, and now it appears a third name, Georgiev, has entered the mix for that role.

The Sabres signed Lyon to a two-year, $1.5MM AAV contract this summer, and the cap hit of that deal indicates that he enters training camp as the favorite for the spot behind Luukkonen. But this addition of Georgiev adds a new, qualified veteran for the Sabres to consider. With Georgiev playing to re-establish his place as an NHL netminder, Levi fighting to retain his status as one of the game’s top goalie prospects, and Lyon looking to play a third consecutive season entirely in the NHL, the battle for the number-two goalie spot in Buffalo looks set to be one of the more intriguing roster situations to watch in this upcoming preseason.

Transactions Notes: Flyers, Pokka, Robins

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Earlier today, rather than reporting the transactions they might make, Kevin Kurz of The Athletic reported on the transactions that the Philadelphia Flyers won’t be making at the close of the offseason. According to Kurz, the Flyers have no intentions of bringing in anyone on a professional tryout agreement for the team’s training camp.

The news isn’t surprising, considering the Flyers have a fairly saturated forward core, and many of the top remaining free agents play up front. However, it is interesting that Philadelphia isn’t interested in different possibilities regarding their defensive core, especially on the right side.

If the Flyers aim for balanced handedness on defense, they have set themselves up to give bottom-pairing minutes to defenseman Noah Juulsen, who signed a one-year, $900K contract with Philadelphia at the start of free agency. Given that he’s coming off a season-ending injury and didn’t play particularly well prior, Juulsen isn’t expected to raise the Flyers’ competitiveness level significantly. There aren’t many remaining names that may be enticed by a PTO offer, as mentioned before, but veterans Jon Merrill and Erik Johnson could potentially fit the bill, and would each represent an upgrade over Juulsen.

Other transaction notes:

  • A former second-round pick of the 2012 NHL Draft is on the move in the DEL. According to a team announcement, defenseman Ville Pokka has signed with EHC München for the 2025-26 season. It’s been eight years since Pokka has played professionally in North America, but did spent several years in the AHL with the Rockford IceHogs and Belleville Senators. Throughout those four years, Pokka was productive on the offensive side of the puck, scoring 31 goals and 138 points in 289 games.
  • Another former second-round pick is on the move internationally. After scoring eight goals and 24 points in 56 games split between the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda and Senators last season, the Czech Extraliga’s Rytíři Kladno announced they’ve signed forward Tristen Robins. Unlike Pokka, Robins debuted in the NHL, participating in three games for the San Jose Sharks during the 2022-23 season, yet failing to register his first point.

KHL’s Barys Astana Terminate Olivier Rodrigue’s Contract

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In a relatively vague announcement, the KHL’s Barys Astana announced that they’ve mutually agreed with netminder Olivier Rodrigue to terminate his contract. The club announced that Rodrigue sustained an unspecified injury during training, and a subsequent medical evaluation revealed that he required additional treatment.

There could be several reasons why Rodrigue and Barys Astana decided to terminate his contract altogether. Hesitating to speculate too much, it could be a season-ending injury, or an injury that Rodrigue prefers to have treated in Canada or the United States, negating any reason for him to remain in Kazakhstan.

Additionally, there’s credibility to an argument that Rodrigue has been dealing with an injury for some time, given how his performance collapsed last year with the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors. In the 2022-23 season, Rodrigue managed a 14-14-1 record in 29 games with a .912 SV% and 2.77 GAA. Earning more playing time the following season, Rodrigue put up a 19-12-5 record in 37 games with a .916 SV% and 2.73 GAA.

Given the uncertainty in net for the Edmonton Oilers for the past several years, Rodrigue appeared to be a safety net the Oilers could give an opportunity to should their goaltending completely collapse. Unfortunately, all hope for a future in Edmonton fell apart for Rodrigue this past season.

Playing primarily for the Condors, Rodrigue recorded an 18-16-8 record in 41 games with a .897 SV% and 3.12 GAA. In his two appearances with the Oilers, Rodrigue earned one loss with an .862 SV%, giving up three goals on 18 shots in an April 7th start against the Anaheim Ducks.

Edmonton decided not to issue Rodrigue a qualifying offer this summer, leaving to last month’s contract with the Barys Astana. Unfortunately, he won’t be able to play through that deal, and it’ll be interesting to see if he lands in a different AHL organization over the course of the season.

Snapshots: Denisenko, World Cup, Perreault, Robins

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Although he decided to return home and play in the KHL this season, winger Grigori Denisenko hasn’t given up on playing in North America just yet.  In an interview with Championat’s Lev Lukin, the 25-year-old indicated his dream is still to get back to the NHL.  He hasn’t spent much time there lately, however, getting into just seven NHL games over the past two seasons with Vegas.  He spent most of last season in the minors with Henderson and Milwaukee, collecting 17 goals and 21 assists in 65 games and rather than accepting a two-way deal as a Group Six unrestricted free agent and likely starting in the minors again, he’ll try to work his way back with a big season with Ak Bars Kazan.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • Speaking to reporters including NHL.com’s Dan Rosen at the media tour earlier this week, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly provided an update on the 2028 World Cup of Hockey. They have whittled through expressions of interest from both North American and European cities and are about to begin the bidding process.  The belief is that there will be round-robin games on both continents before moving to North America only for the medal round.  Daly added that while they hope to have a qualifying round down the road, that won’t be in place for this particular event.
  • UFA winger Jacob Perreault has a team for the upcoming season as the Bruins’ AHL team in Providence announced that they’ve signed him to a one-year deal. The 23-year-old was a first-round pick by Anaheim in 2020, going 27th overall but he has struggled considerably in the pros.  Last season, he spent time with Montreal and Edmonton’s farm teams, collecting just three goals and 11 assists in 44 games, leading to a non-tender in late June.  Perreault has made one NHL appearance, that coming back in 2021-22.
  • After being non-tendered by Ottawa this summer, unrestricted free agent winger Tristen Robins has reportedly found a place to play. Inside AHL Hockey’s Tony Androckitis reports (Twitter link) that the 23-year-old is set to sign in Czechia with Kladno.  Robins was a 2020 second-round pick by San Jose and was moved to the Sens as part of the Fabian Zetterlund trade at the deadline.  Robins played in 56 AHL games last year, picking up eight goals and 16 assists.  He has three career NHL games under his belt back in the 2022-23 season.

Blues Sign Justin Carbonneau, Nikita Susuev

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The St. Louis Blues have signed 2025 first-round pick Justin Carbonneau to his entry-level contract. The team also announced they’ve signed 2023 seventh-round pick Nikita Susuev to his entry-level deal. Carbonneau was one of 33 forwards named to the Blues’ 2025 training camp roster on Wednesday. Reports suggest that he could even have a chance at making the NHL roster straight out of camp, per Marco D’Amico of RG Media.

PuckPedia reports that Carbonneau will have a cap hit of $975K before performance bonuses and an AAV of $1.392MM with those bonuses factored in.  They add that Susuev, who doesn’t have any performance bonuses in his deal, will have a cap charge of $855.

Word that Carbonneau could be headed for pro games sooner rather than later comes as no surprise. He was the main standout at the team’s 2025 rookie camp, held immediately following the NHL Draft. Fans were quickly tuned into the high-energy, hefty, and aggressively-physical style that Carbonneau brings to the ice. He was perhaps the best play-driver in the QMJHL last season, and finished the year with 46 goals – tied for the league-lead – and 89 points – second in the league – in 62 games played. Carbonneau was also the only player in the league to record more than 60 points and penalty minutes (61).

Draft pundits praised Carbonneau’s heft and strength throughout the season. He already stands at 6-foot-2, 205-pounds – plenty of size to cushion an early move to the NHL. If he doesn’t make the Blues, or if the team opts to return him after nine games, he will return to the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada for a fourth season. He has already amassed 168 points in 162 games with the team.

On the other side, Susuev – often spelled Susuyev – could finally make a push away from Russian hockey. He has bounced around the country’s major, minor, and junior leagues over the last three seasons. He’s also bounced around organizations, and ended up suiting up for five different clubs – helped along by three different loan-outs – last season alone. His stat line became a slog as a result – officially sat at 12 points in 21 MHL (junior) games, five points in 14 VHL (minor-pro) games, and one point in seven KHL (major-pro) games.

Susuev did spend the majority of the 2023-24 campaign, his age-19 season, on the KHL’s Spartak Moskva. He only racked up six points in 40 games from a depth forward role, but nonetheless gained invaluable experience on a team that finished fourth in their conference. He’s a high-skill winger, with the flash to beat defenders and the instinct to crash the net. His hockey IQ was praised by Russian scouts ahead of the draft, and he could quickly become an interesting player to follow if and when he joins the AHL ranks. For now, Susuev has officially missed the start of Spartak’s season due to injury, and it is unclear what his next step will be.

Sharks Sign No. 2 Overall Pick Michael Misa

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The Sharks have signed No. 2 overall draft pick Michael Misa to his entry-level contract, the team announced. Unsurprisingly, he receives close to the maximum allowable compensation. Per PuckPedia, he’ll receive the maximum base salary of $877.5K, signing bonus of $97.5K, and up to $1MM in Schedule “A” performance bonuses each year. His potential Schedule “B” bonuses are up to $2.25MM, $250K short of the max.

Misa was essentially a slam-dunk selection for San Jose after the Islanders took defenseman Matthew Schaefer with the first pick, although there was some smoke that the Sharks were also considering Swedish center Anton Frondell, who ended up going No. 3 to the Blackhawks. Misa, an OHL Saginaw product, was the early favorite for the top choice in the 2025 draft, gaining exceptional status and beginning his OHL career with the Spirit at the age of 15. However, a semi-conservative showing in his pre-draft year had tempered projections for Misa entering last season.

But in 2024-25, Misa looked more like the franchise-level phenom that his early hype awarded him. The left-shot center served as Saginaw’s captain and clicked at nearly a goal per game, totaling a 62-72–134 scoring line in 65 appearances to lead the entire CHL in points and, unsurprisingly, received CHL First All-Star and OHL MVP honors. He was also named the league’s Scholastic Player of the Year. That had him as the consensus No. 2 prospect in the class behind Schaefer, according to every major public ranking, by the time the season came to an end.

There will still be those out there who argue Misa deserved the top selection, especially considering Schaefer’s season ended after just 17 appearances due to a collarbone injury in December. He was the first OHLer to crack 130 points in nearly 20 years, and the last player to score more points in that league as a draft-eligible player was Patrick Kane’s 145 points in 58 games in 2006-07. Elite Prospects’ Lauren Kelly even labeled him the most complete forward in the class in June.

He thus enters his first professional season with a similar level of hype to San Jose’s No. 1 overall pick in last year’s draft, Macklin Celebrini, had 12 months ago. While the Sharks’ flurry of forward pickups in free agency indicates they aren’t necessarily banking on him being on their opening night roster, there’s plenty of flexibility for him to play meaningful minutes or, at the very least, earn a nine-game trial to start the season before burning the first year of his deal.

Stars Sign Adam Erne To PTO

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The Stars have signed Adam Erne to a professional tryout, according to the training camp roster they announced today. It will be his third consecutive season attending an NHL camp on a tryout basis.

Erne has skated in parts of eight NHL seasons as a checking winger. He spent his first three years with the Lightning, breaking out as a full-time piece with 20 points in 65 games in 2018-19. Luckily for Erne, that was a contract year. Tampa couldn’t afford to give him a seven-figure cap hit, so they traded his signing rights to the Red Wings the following summer. He spent four years in Detroit, including a career-best offensive performance that saw him produce 11 goals and 20 points in only 45 games in the shortened 2020-21 season, before tumbling down the depth chart in 2022-23 and ending up on waivers.

Initially, it was puzzling to see the lack of interest in Erne on the open market in 2023. His waiver clearance could have been chalked up to his previous $2.1MM cap hit, but he still looked like an effective NHLer with 18 points in 61 games for the lowly Wings while averaging 13:23 per game and laying 161 hits. Nonetheless, he had to settle for a tryout with the Oilers, and he was successful in converting that into a two-way deal with Edmonton for 2023-24. He only managed two points in 24 games for the Oilers, though, ending up back on waivers and spending most of the season in the AHL.

Erne landed another PTO last summer with the Rangers, although he only managed to squeeze an AHL tryout deal out of that. He only had one assist in 10 games before sustaining a lower-body injury and getting released from his tryout in November, so it’s been around 10 months since he last played. Dallas’ forward depth remains a strong suit, so he’s unlikely to be in consideration for an NHL roster spot. He’ll use this tryout opportunity to angle for a two-way contract or AHL deal to get his career back on track in the minors.

Among Dallas’ other PTOs announced today who weren’t already signed to minor-league contracts are forward Cross Hanas and goaltender Antoine Bibeau, both of whom will be looking for AHL deals. Hanas was a second-round pick by the Red Wings in 2020 and had 50 points in 146 AHL games over the three seasons of his entry-level contract before getting non-tendered this summer. Bibeau, 31, is a veteran depth option with four games of NHL experience who spent the last two seasons in Europe. He played for Finland’s KooKoo last season, recording a .905 SV% in 35 Liiga games with a 20-13-0 record.

Canadiens To Sign Kevin Mandolese To PTO

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The Canadiens are bringing goaltender Kevin Mandolese to training camp on a professional tryout, reports Frank Seravalli of Bleacher Report. He was scouring the KHL market for a guaranteed deal earlier in the summer but never landed one.

Mandolese, fresh off his 25th birthday, is a former Senators sixth-round draftee who’s since emerged as a steady minor-league presence. He’d spent his entire career in the Ottawa organization until last summer, when the Sens issued him a qualifying offer but ended up trading his signing rights to the Avalanche a couple of weeks later.

The Quebec native’s only NHL action came in 2022-23 amid a rash of injuries in Ottawa’s crease. He made three starts in February and March, performing above expectations with a .916 SV% and 3.29 GAA – only allowing 10 goals despite facing nearly 40 shots per game. For whatever reason, that strong initial showing never landed him another NHL opportunity.

Mandolese also didn’t play very much in the Colorado system last year. He made 19 appearances for the AHL’s Colorado Eagles, where he served as the primary backup to No. 3 option Trent Miner and had an 11-6-0 record in 19 showings with a .903 SV%, 2.87 GAA, and one shutout. The Avs did not issue him a qualifying offer at the end of last year, making him an unrestricted free agent.

Montreal is likely looking for a more experienced AHL option to have under contract. Starter Sam Montembeault is set in stone, but youngster Jakub Dobes will be battling with veteran free-agent pickup Kaapo Kähkönen for the No. 2 job in camp. If Kähkönen doesn’t make the team and is lost on waivers, that would leave Montreal with just three goalies under contract and top prospect Jacob Fowler without much help in AHL Laval as he kicks off his first professional season. As such, Mandolese will take a PTO with the Habs to start while they sort out whether they want to offer him a two-way NHL contract or only extend him a minor-league offer.

Panthers To Sign Tyler Motte, Ben Harpur To PTOs

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The Panthers are in agreement with forward Tyler Motte and defenseman Ben Harpur on professional tryouts, according to Frank Seravalli of Bleacher Report. They’ll get the chance to compete for NHL jobs or at least a minor-league safety net with AHL Charlotte.

Motte, 30, is entering the second decade of his professional career. A 2013 second-round pick of the Blackhawks, he debuted with them in his first full pro season in 2016-17 and has appeared in every NHL season since. He’s become a true journeyman in the process. Outside of spending parts of five seasons with the Canucks from 2018-22, he’s also logged time for the Blue Jackets, Rangers, Senators, Lightning, and Red Wings – never playing more than 70 total games for anyone other than Vancouver.

If signed, it could be Motte’s fourth straight one-year deal. He’s also no stranger to sitting on the open market for long periods, waiting until September to sign deals in 2022 and 2023. But he picked up a one-year, $800K commitment from Detroit early in free agency last summer, prefacing a campaign that saw him serve as a rather nondescript No. 13/14 forward. He averaged 11:19 per game over 55 appearances – his lowest total in a season since the shortened 2020-21 campaign – and scored four goals and five assists for nine points.

The Michigan native has never been a high-end offensive producer, only recording double-digit points three times in his nine-year career. He’s a pure energy winger with enough versatility to slot in down the middle, although his career 42.8% success rate on faceoffs isn’t terribly ideal.

He’ll join a Panthers training camp that will have stiff competition for depth forward roles. They’ve made Luke Kunin a late-summer signing while also extending a PTO to Noah Gregor just yesterday. Those names will compete alongside a group of returnees in Jesper Boqvist, Jonah Gadjovich, A.J. Greer, and Tomas Nosek for fourth-line and press box spots.

As for Harpur, he doesn’t have much chance of landing an NHL roster spot. That’s likely not the intent of having him in camp, though. The 30-year-old would bring nearly 200 games of NHL experience and over a decade of pro time in general to Florida’s depth contingent on a two-way deal. That’s an archetype the Cats are missing on their depth chart. Of their six projected non-roster defenders, according to PuckPedia, none are over the age of 25. He’d be a veteran body for AHL Charlotte, should clear waivers without issue if signed, and would be a safer, more experienced recall option in case of an injury to the NHL group.

That would make him essentially a direct replacement for Jaycob Megna, who made eight appearances down the stretch for Florida last season but signed with the Golden Knights in free agency. Harpur hasn’t played in the NHL since the 2022-23 season, when he had six points in 42 appearances for the Rangers in a bottom-pairing role. He’s remained in the New York organization since then, but injuries have limited him to just 36 games over the last two seasons with AHL Hartford.

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