Ben Harpur Signs In KHL
Veteran defenseman Ben Harpur has signed with the Shanghai Dragons of the Kontinental Hockey League for the remainder of the season, per Anton Panchenko of Championat. Harpur had hoped to land an NHL deal for this year and signed a professional tryout with the Panthers, but was released at the beginning of the month and wasn’t invited to their AHL camp, either.
Harpur, 30, has nearly 200 NHL games to his name but hasn’t logged any action since 2022-23 with the Rangers. He remained in New York’s organization for the following two seasons but played only for their AHL affiliate in Hartford. Injuries limited the 6’6″ lefty to just 36 total appearances in the minors from 2023-25, too.
An NHL return was an understandable long shot as a result, but a minor-league contract may have been within reach. Instead, the Ontario-born defender heads overseas for the first time in his 11-year pro career. He’ll do in St. Petersburg, Russia, for the China-based Dragons, who have longtime NHL bench boss Gerard Gallant at the helm and, with Harpur now in tow, carry nearly 2,000 games of combined NHL experience on their roster after rebranding from their former Kunlun Red Star identity last offseason. Harpur joins some familiar faces in Kevin Labanc, Alexander Burmistrov, and Ryan Spooner, among others. Gallant also oversaw Harpur’s most recent NHL games over two years ago.
Harpur joins a Dragons club that is quickly on the rise. The franchise never finished above .500 in their days as Kunlun Red Star, which began play back in 2016, but is off to a 9-3-3 start under Gallant and ranks second in the KHL’s Western Conference.
A fourth-round pick by the Senators in 2013, Harpur has logged time at the game’s top level with them, the Rangers, and the Predators. Topping out as a semi-reliable No. 7, the big stay-at-home rearguard has a career 2-19–21 scoring line with a -42 rating while averaging 15:38 of ice time per game. He also has 69 points and a -12 rating in 229 career AHL appearances.
Blackhawks Reassign Joey Anderson
Oct. 19: Anderson has cleared waivers and will be sent to Rockford, according to Friedman.
Oct. 18: It’s a relatively quiet day on waivers today with just one player hitting the wire. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that the Blackhawks have placed winger Joey Anderson on waivers.
The 27-year-old played in just one preseason game this fall before deciding to undergo surgery to repair which was termed as a nagging issue. As a result, he wasn’t available to start the season and was designated as injured/non-roster status. The winger returned to practice today, relays Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times (Twitter link), meaning that he has been deemed healthy enough to go on waivers.
Anderson played in 18 games with Chicago last season after making the team out of training camp. However, he was limited to just one assist in those outings despite logging over 12 minutes per game. The Blackhawks waived him in early December but kept him up for a bit after he passed through unclaimed before sending him down to AHL Rockford in early January where he stayed the rest of the way. Anderson was productive with the IceHogs, notching 17 goals and 10 assists in just 33 outings at that level.
Anderson has 169 career NHL appearances under his belt over parts of seven seasons between New Jersey, Toronto, and Chicago and is on an affordable contract, one that pays $800K this season in a one-way salary. He’ll become an unrestricted free agent next summer. However, given his recent struggles at the top level, there’s a good chance that he’ll pass through unclaimed when the waiver period expires at 1 PM CT on Sunday.
Oilers Place Alec Regula On Injured Reserve
The Oilers announced they’ve moved defenseman Alec Regula to injured reserve to open up a roster spot. It’s unclear what they plan on doing with it just yet, although it could be a corresponding IR activation for winger Mattias Janmark, who head coach Kris Knoblauch said could be back in the lineup for today’s game against the Red Wings earlier this week.
Regula has already missed three games due to an undisclosed injury. Since he’s been out of the lineup for more than a week, he’s eligible to come off IR at any time with no minimum absence. The 25-year-old skated in the Oilers’ first two games of the year after missing all of 2024-25 due to a knee injury. He started the year in the Bruins organization, and Boston waived him in early December once their doctors cleared him to return. Edmonton claimed him off the wire, but after bringing him in, determined he wasn’t ready for game action, and he remained on the non-roster list for the balance of the campaign.
That means Regula’s showings earlier this month were his first pro hockey action in well over a year and his first NHL games since November 2022 with the Blackhawks. He spent all of 2023-24 on assignment to Boston’s AHL affiliate in Providence after they acquired him from Chicago over the preceding offseason in the Nick Foligno/Taylor Hall trade.
A third-round pick by the Red Wings back in 2018, Regula’s exceptional two-way numbers in the juniors and minors have long made him an under-the-radar candidate to break out into a top-four role in the NHL if given the chance. Injuries have obviously held that breakout up. Including his pair of showings this season, Regula has 24 NHL appearances to his name. He’s registered one goal with a -6 rating and has averaged 16:49 of ice time per game. His possession numbers have checked in as fine but unimpressive, logging a 43.8 CF% at even strength with a -2.1% relative impact.
Early on, though, it looked like Regula might be a fit alongside Darnell Nurse on Edmonton’s second pairing. He got a look there to begin the year with Jake Walman starting out on IR, and the duo controlled a team-high 72.7% of expected goals before Regula’s injury, according to MoneyPuck.
For now, his absence continues. It isn’t expected to be much longer, as Knoblauch initially anticipated Regula to be able to suit up this weekend. He shouldn’t last more than a few days on IR, but it’ll be interesting to see whether he can avoid waivers when Walman eventually returns to health and the Oilers need a roster spot for him.
Oliver Kylington Signs In Sweden
A veteran blueliner has found a place to play this season. Djurgarden of the SHL announced that they’ve signed defenseman Oliver Kylington to a one-year contract.
The 28-year-old was a second-round pick by Calgary back in 2015 and showed some flashes of upside over his six-year stint with the team. It looked like he had turned a corner in 2021-22 when he collected nine goals and 22 assists in 73 games, putting him in a spot to be a potential top-four piece for them. However, he was away from the team on a leave of absence for the next year and a half and played a limited role after that, resulting in the Flames going in a different direction last summer when he became a free agent.
Kylington wasn’t able to get the types of offers he was initially seeking in free agency, resulting in him waiting more than a month before he signed a one-year, $1.05MM contract with Colorado. But playing time was hard to come by as he suited up in just 13 games with the Avs before being moved to the Islanders near the trade deadline; New York flipped him to Anaheim the next day. Kylington played in just six games following the swap and then hit the open market this summer.
Kylington inked a PTO agreement with Carolina in late August with the hopes of landing a roster spot with them. However, after three preseason games, he was cut fairly early, sending him back to free agency. Clearly, no other NHL offers materialized so he has decided to head home where he’ll play a regular role in the hopes of boosting his stock next summer.
With 220 career NHL appearances under his belt, it’s quite possible that Kylington finds his way back to North America at some point, especially if he goes and plays an impactful role with Djurgarden. But for now, his time at the top level has come to an end.
Jets Recall Brad Lambert
The Jets announced that they’ve recalled center Brad Lambert from AHL Manitoba. The team has been operating with an open roster spot since sending defenseman Kale Clague down on Thursday, so no corresponding move is required.
Lambert initially made Winnipeg’s roster out of camp. He was reassigned to Manitoba last weekend to make way for Clague, whose insurance was needed while Haydn Fleury was nursing a minor knee injury. Clague was reassigned once it was clear Fleury was available again, but Lambert wasn’t immediately brought back up. The Jets likely wanted to get him in more game action with Manitoba, which played last night, before calling him back.
The 21-year-old Finn did not record a point in his first two AHL outings of the season while he was down on the farm. Last year was a tough one for the 2022 first-rounder. After splitting his post-draft year between the AHL and juniors, he caught on full-time with the Moose in 2023-24 and erupted for 21 goals and 55 points in 64 games, leading the team in scoring. He made his NHL debut that year as well and registered an assist. His momentum fell off last year, though, tickling the twine just seven times in 61 appearances with 35 total points and a -30 rating.
Winnipeg is looking for a bounce-back from its entire farm club this year, but especially from Lambert if he’s not going to log significant NHL time. He hasn’t looked entirely out of place in his six career big-league appearances, securing a pair of assists with a +1 rating while averaging 12 minutes of ice time per night. Winnipeg has been outshot significantly in Lambert’s even-strength minutes, though.
Lambert’s recall brings the Jets back to 23 healthy players on the active roster, 14 of whom are forwards. Eleven of them have played all four games this season. The 12th spot is looking to be a rotation between rookies Lambert, Nikita Chibrikov, and Parker Ford. Chibrikov played Winnipeg’s first three games before sitting as a healthy scratch on Thursday against the Flyers, with Ford taking his place. Neither has recorded a point.
Sabres Place Justin Danforth On Injured Reserve
Oct. 18: Danforth landed on IR following today’s impressive 3-0 win over the Panthers, according to the NHL’s media site. Buffalo hasn’t yet made a corresponding recall, but they now have the flexibility to in case defenseman Jacob Bryson misses time. He’s now in concussion protocol after colliding with Florida’s Jonah Gadjovich early in the game, Ruff said (via Heather Engel of NHL.com).
Oct. 17: Sabres forward Justin Danforth will miss more than a month with the lower-body injury he sustained in Wednesday’s 8-4 drubbing of the Senators, head coach Lindy Ruff told reporters today (including Rachel Lenzi of The Buffalo News). It was never made clear what play actually caused the injury, but he left the game early in the second period and didn’t return.
It’s nothing Buffalo isn’t used to by now. Injuries have decimated their forward group early in the season. Jordan Greenway and Joshua Norris remain on injured reserve. New top-line winger Zach Benson only just made his season debut after a rather significant facial injury kept him out of the first three games, and he lit up the Sens for four assists to immediately assume the team lead in scoring.
Danforth, 32, inked a two-year, $3.6MM deal with the Sabres in free agency after spending the first four years of his NHL career with the Blue Jackets. He began the year on the fourth line but was quickly elevated into top-nine duties with Jiri Kulich and Jack Quinn when Norris got hurt in Buffalo’s first game. He’s without a point in any of his four appearances and hasn’t been particularly effective otherwise, aside from taking some faceoffs and going 54.8% on the dot, on pace for a career high. He’s managed four blocks and three hits with a -2 rating, only controlling 41.5% of shot attempts despite starting 55.6% of his shifts in the offensive zone at even strength.
The Sabres can place Danforth on injured reserve at any point if they need his roster spot, although they haven’t done so yet. They have enough cap space ($3.12MM) that long-term injured reserve shouldn’t be a consideration. For now, it appears recent call-up Joshua Dunne will maintain a spot in the lineup in Danforth’s place when Buffalo hosts the Panthers tomorrow afternoon.
Wild Recall David Jiricek And Tyler Pitlick, Assign Liam Ohgren To AHL
The Wild have made a trio of roster moves heading into their game tonight against the Flyers. The team announced that they’ve recalled defenseman David Jiricek and winger Tyler Pitlick from AHL Iowa while assigning winger Liam Ohgren to Iowa.
Jiricek has been up for most of the season but has played just once, resulting in his assignment to the minors yesterday. He suited up for Iowa last night, making him eligible to be recalled as he has fulfilled the one-game requirement, part of the new rules brought into play this season to try to cut down on paper transactions.
Jiricek hasn’t had a lot of success at the NHL level since Columbus drafted him sixth overall in 2022. He has played in just 60 games at the top level since then, 43 of which came in 2023-24; since then, he has been more of an AHL player, even after Minnesota dealt four draft picks and Daemon Hunt to acquire him last season.
Pitlick, meanwhile, is in his first season with Minnesota after signing a two-year, two-way deal with them on the opening day of free agency back in July. He’s off to a good start in Iowa with two goals through three games and has 420 career NHL appearances over parts of ten seasons with eight different franchises. His best showing came back in 2017-18 with Dallas when he had 14 goals and 13 assists in 80 games.
As for Ohgren, while he has played in all five games so far, playing time has been rather limited as he’s averaging just 9:10 per game while failing to record a point. Given that he’s still just 21 and waiver-exempt, it might be better for his development to play in a more prominent role with Iowa for a little while Pitlick, a 33-year-old veteran, is better suited to play a low-minute role on the fourth line. Ohgren had 37 points in 41 games with Iowa last season.
Kraken Place Freddy Gaudreau On Injured Reserve
Saturday: Gaudreau is set to miss some time as the team announced that he will miss four-to-six weeks with an upper-body injury.
Friday: The Kraken announced that center Frédérick Gaudreau has been placed on injured reserve after leaving last night’s game with an undisclosed issue. Forward John Hayden has been called up from AHL Coachella Valley in the corresponding move.
The nature or severity of Gaudreau’s injury isn’t known, but it looms over what’s otherwise been an inauspicious start to his tenure in Seattle. He’s got one assist through four games and has been centering the Kraken’s fourth line between Tye Kartye and Jani Nyman while factoring in on the penalty kill. He has an even rating but has been tasked with difficult defensive matchups, only controlling 41.4% of shot attempts at even strength as a result.
It’s a small sample size, though, and the Kraken should still be expecting him to be the reliable bottom-six piece he was for the previous four years for the Wild aside from a brief nosedive in 2023-24. Gaudreau averaged a 15-21–36 scoring line per 82 games in Minnesota from 2021-25, winning 49.2% of his faceoffs and averaging 15:33 of ice time per game. His possession impacts have been trailing off for quite some time, though, culminating in a career-worst 44.2 CF% last year. Seattle acquired Gaudreau, who’s signed through 2027-28 at a cap hit of $2.1MM, for a fourth-round pick back in June.
With Gaudreau and Kaapo Kakko on IR, Seattle is already without a pair of lineup regulars up front four games into the young season. They haven’t let it affect them yet, though – they’re one of four teams left without a regulation loss and boast a 2-0-2 record with a +1 goal differential.
The question now is whether the veteran Hayden will replace Gaudreau in the fourth-line center slot, or if 2024 No. 8 overall pick Berkly Catton will get a crack at making his NHL debut tomorrow against the Maple Leafs after sitting in the press box for all four games so far. It will likely be the former. If Catton is scratched for five consecutive games, he becomes eligible for a two-week conditioning stint in Coachella Valley. The 19-year-old isn’t yet eligible for a full-time AHL assignment and must be returned to his junior team, WHL Spokane, if he’s not on the NHL roster. A conditioning stint still counts against Seattle’s roster limit and is thus permitted. The Kraken took a similar approach with top-five pick Shane Wright in 2022-23 before subsequently loaning him back to juniors later in the year.
Hayden, 30, is now in his fourth year with the Kraken. He suited up 20 times for Seattle last year, his highest games played total since making 55 appearances with the Sabres in 2021-22. The bottom-six grinder has 18 goals and 39 points with a -30 rating in 269 career NHL games and has appeared in parts of nine consecutive seasons.
Evening Notes: Lycksell, Cooley, Zamula
The Ottawa Senators assigned forward Olle Lycksell to the AHL’s Belleville Senators early on Friday. Lycksell appeared in two games with Ottawa this week, but sat out of the team’s most recent game on Thursday. He didn’t manage any scoring in those appearances.
Lycksell is in his first year in the Senators’ organization after signing a one-year, two-way, league-minimum $775K contract with the club on July 1st. He spent the last three seasons bouncing between the Philadelphia Flyers’ major and minor league rosters. He totaled 11 points in 45 NHL games, and 128 points in 134 AHL games with the Flyers. He’ll look to maintain near point-per-game scoring in the minors with Belleville. If he can, he could soon return to a depth role with Ottawa.
Other notes from around the league:
- The Utah Mammoth have a colossal extension looming when top center Logan Cooley hits free agency next summer. But despite minimal talks of an extension, Cooley’s agent, Brian Bartlett, told the Daily Faceoff that he’s not worried about getting a deal done. Bartlett emphasized that Cooley still has plenty of time to work something out. There’s no doubt Mammoth fan will be watching closely for Cooley’s next contract, after he posted 109 points in 157 games with the club over his first two seasons in the NHL. He’s likely to sign a hardy extension that should cement his spot as Utah’s top center.
- The Calgary Flames are interested in acquiring a big-bodied, left-shot defenseman per Daily Faceoff’s Anthony Di Marco, who adds that Flyers defender Egor Zamula could be a prime target. Zamula played in 120 games with the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen before beginning his pro career. Now, he’s found himself on the outside of Philadelphia’s daily lineup, despite mixed results. Zamula boasts a career stat line of 40 points in 157 games. He posted a career-high 21 points and plus-three in 66 games of the 2023-24 season, but fell to just 15 points and a minus-14 in 63 games last year. That dip in scoring could make him a relatively cheap acquisition, should Calgary swing a trade.
Blackhawks Activate Landon Slaggert From IR
The Chicago Blackhawks have activated forward Landon Slaggert off of injured reserve. Slaggert missed the first five games of Chicago’s season with a lower-body injury. He took warmups before the team’s Friday night matchup against the Vancouver Canucks, but won’t play, as he continues to ease back into the lineup.
Slaggert operated on Chicago’s third-line throughout the team’s training camp. He seems well set on solidifying that standing once he’s back to full health, after clinging onto a lineup spot through the second-half of last season. Slaggert recorded just six points and a minus-seven in 33 NHL games last season – far below the 25 points and plus-nine he posted in 39 AHL games. But despite that, his hard-drive and grinder style stood tall on a fairly undersized Blackhawks team.
Slaggert racked up 92 points in 136 NCAA games between 2020 and 2024, then turned pro with the Blackhawks at the end of the 2023-24 season. He’s since appeared in 49 NHL games and scored 10 points, while filling a bottom-six role at left-wing. Should his training camp role stick, Slaggert will soon return to a line with Jason Dickinson and Ilya Mikheyev. That move would free up Ryan Donato to move back into the team’s top-six. Donato has just two points in five games this season, after posting 31 goals and 62 points in 80 games last year. Promoting him back into the top-six, and backing him with a dirty-nosed winger like Slaggert, could be the first step to getting Donato back to that lofty scoring.