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Jets, Henri Nikkanen Mutually Terminate Contract

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Dec. 13: Nikkanen cleared waivers and has had his contract terminated, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. He has signed a two-year deal with SaiPa of the Finnish Liiga.

Dec. 12: The Jets announced that they’ve placed forward prospect Henri Nikkanen on unconditional waivers for the purpose of terminating his contract.

Nikkanen, 23, will assumedly head back to his native Finland or elsewhere in Europe if he clears. It hasn’t been the smoothest of runs for the 6’5″ pivot, who’s actually spent quite a bit of time in North America. He’s suited up exclusively for Winnipeg’s AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose, since signing his entry-level contract at the end of the 2021-22 season and coming over to Canada.

Despite some good offensive production in the Finnish junior system and some good flashes in the pro-level Liiga, Nikkanen’s point totals with the Moose never got off the ground. The left-shot center has totaled only 13 goals and 19 assists for 32 points in 140 contests with the Moose. This season, he’s only played in 13 of 21 games and has been limited to a goal and three assists.

Nikkanen is in the final season of his entry-level contract and was set to be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights at season’s end. Assuming he clears, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent tomorrow and the Jets will lose his NHL rights.

Winnipeg will free up a contract slot with the move, bringing their total deals to 41 out of the 50-contract limit.

Sharks Mutually Terminate Valtteri Pulli’s Contract

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Dec. 12: No one claimed Pulli on waivers, indicating his contract with the Sharks has been terminated. The Sharks now have two open contract slots.

Dec. 11: The Sharks announced Wednesday that they placed defenseman Valtteri Pulli on unconditional waivers for mutual contract termination.

“Valtteri requested to play in Europe, and we mutually agreed to terminate his contract,” said Sharks assistant general manager Joe Will. “We want to thank Valtteri for his contributions to the organization and wish him all the best.”

San Jose signed Pulli, now 23, as an undrafted free agent out of Finland’s TPS in 2023. They were one of a few NHL teams that had interest in bringing him over from Europe, beating out the Bruins, Canucks, Islanders, Penguins, Predators, and Jets, Daily Faceoff’s Jeff Marek (then of Sportsnet) reported at the time.

However, Pulli has spent the entirety of his entry-level contract on assignment to the AHL with the San Jose Barracuda. The 6’6″, 209-lb lefty was limited to 10 points and a -8 rating in 59 appearances last season and has barely played in 2024-25, serving as a scratch for all but two of the Baby Sharks’ 21 games.

Pulli was set to become a restricted free agent at the end of the season and was highly unlikely to receive a qualifying offer, so he could have tested the open market then and returned to Europe. Instead, the Sharks will part ways with him a few months early, allowing Pulli to finish the season overseas. A return to the Liiga with TPS, where he had 19 points and a +7 rating in 82 games from 2020-21 to 2022-23, seems likely.

While unlikely, any of the NHL’s 31 other teams could acquire Pulli for the rest of the season if they place a claim before 1:00 pm CT tomorrow.

Utah Claims Dakota Mermis Off Waivers From Maple Leafs

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The Utah Hockey Club has added some veteran defensive depth in the form of Dakota Mermis, plucking him off the waiver wire from the Maple Leafs, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. The Leafs’ other waiver placement yesterday, winger Alexander Nylander, passed through unclaimed and was immediately assigned to AHL Toronto, allowing them to activate defenseman Jake McCabe from injured reserve, according to a team announcement.

Utah has been in need of extra bodies on defense seemingly all season long after John Marino sustained a lower-back injury in preseason and Sean Durzi hurt his shoulder just four games into the campaign. Other names, such as Maveric Lamoureux and Robert Bortuzzo, have landed on the shelf in recent days, leading Utah to reach deep into its minor-league depth. Just yesterday, they recalled Kevin Connauton from AHL Tucson – a 34-year-old lefty who last saw NHL ice in the 2021-22 campaign.

Mermis isn’t a gigantic upgrade over internal options like Connauton, but he does have more recent NHL experience. The 30-year-old skated in a career-high 47 games with the Wild last season, posting eight points, a -2 rating, 33 PIMs, and 45 hits while averaging 14:05 per game. He inked a one-way contract with the Maple Leafs over the summer but sustained a jaw injury in training camp. He returned to action on a conditioning loan with their AHL affiliate over the past couple weeks, posting an assist in three outings, and had landed on waivers to continue his tenure in the minors after the two-week limit on his conditioning stint ran out.

Utah had 22 players on the active roster before making the claim for Mermis, so they won’t need to make a corresponding transaction.

Oilers Place Travis Dermott On Waivers

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The Oilers have placed defenseman Travis Dermott on waivers and will assign him to AHL Bakersfield if he clears, per a club announcement Thursday.

A second-round pick of the Maple Leafs back in 2015, Dermott became an unrestricted free agent last summer after additional stops with the Canucks and Coyotes in the past few seasons. After posting seven points and a -14 rating in 50 appearances in Arizona last season, though, there wasn’t notable interest on the open market, and he had to wait until late in the summer to ink a tryout agreement with Edmonton. He was at least able to parlay a strong training camp into a contract, inking a two-way deal ($775K/$500K) on the opening day of the regular season.

While he played in the Oilers’ first three games of the season, he’s failed to establish himself as a regular in the lineup. He has no points and a -3 rating in 10 appearances this season and has been a scratch in eight straight outings dating back to Nov. 19. After the Oilers claimed the younger Alec Regula off waivers from the Bruins yesterday, it was apparent that Dermott’s job as the No. 7 option on Edmonton’s back end might be in jeopardy.

As a player on a two-way deal without a deal past this season, there might be some interest in Dermott’s 339 games of NHL experience on the waiver wire. If not, though, he’ll head to Bakersfield for his first non-conditioning AHL assignment in six years.

Maple Leafs Place Dakota Mermis, Alexander Nylander On Waivers

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The Maple Leafs placed defenseman Dakota Mermis and winger Alexander Nylander on waivers Wednesday for assignment to AHL Toronto, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports.

Mermis’ waiver placement comes after being presumably activated from long-term injured reserve. The 30-year-old lefty has been on a conditioning loan to the AHL since Nov. 27 and has played three games, notching an assist and a +2 rating.

Those games were his first action since sustaining a broken jaw early in training camp with the Leafs. The longtime depth piece for the Coyotes, Devils, and Wild underwent surgery on Sep. 26 and has provided a small amount of cap relief for Toronto since landing on LTIR at the beginning of the regular season.

Mermis landing on waivers removes his $775K cap hit from the Maple Leafs’ LTIR pool, bringing down their current cap space to $765K. That can increase back to the $1MM range tomorrow after Nylander clears waivers or is claimed by another team.

Mermis, an Illinois native, played in a career-high 47 NHL contests with Minnesota last season, posting eight points and a -2 rating while averaging 14:05 per game. He parlayed that performance into the first one-way contract of his career, albeit a league-minimum one, with Toronto on the open market over the summer.

Save for additional injuries on Toronto’s back end, though, his jaw injury likely cost Mermis a chance at NHL ice in a Leafs organization that shored up their defensive depth in a big way over the offseason. Assuming he clears waivers, he’ll likely spend most of the season in the AHL, where he’s played 434 of his 513 professional games.

Meanwhile, Nylander hits the wire after having his AHL contract torn up and replaced by an NHL commitment on Nov. 22. The 26-year-old got the summons from the minors amid a rash of forward injuries for the Maple Leafs that’s largely cleared up with Auston Matthews, Max Domi, Matthew Knies, and Max Pacioretty all returning from injuries in the past week or so.

The younger brother of Toronto star William Nylander made five NHL appearances for Toronto but did not record a point. He also had a -1 rating and averaged just 9:53 per game. Before the call-up, he had eight goals and 12 points in 14 AHL games.

Despite the lack of production, there may be some interest in his services on the waiver wire after he ended last season with 11 goals in 23 games for the Blue Jackets. The 2016 eighth-overall pick by the Sabres has 25 goals and 49 points in 126 NHL appearances in parts of seven seasons, and claiming him would require no long-term commitment – he’ll be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.

Getting Nylander off the active roster one way or another tomorrow will allow the Leafs to activate one of their few IR-bound players, likely winger Bobby McMann or defenseman Jake McCabe.

Oilers Claim Alec Regula Off Waivers From Bruins

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Dec. 11: It turns out Regula may get an NHL opportunity sooner than he thought. The Oilers announced that they’ve claimed him off waivers from Boston, opening the door for him to play his first NHL action in well over a year in the coming days. Edmonton had a pair of open roster spots, so no corresponding move is necessary. For now, he’ll slot in as the eighth defenseman on Edmonton’s roster and will compete for depth minutes with players like Ty Emberson, Travis Dermott and Troy Stecher.

Dec. 10: The Bruins activated depth defenseman Alec Regula from season-opening injured reserve on Tuesday and subsequently placed him on waivers for the purpose of assignment to AHL Providence, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports.

Regula, 24, has yet to play this season after sustaining a knee injury over the offseason. It held him out of the entirety of Boston’s training camp and preseason schedule and earned him a non-roster designation when the regular season began.

It was an inauspicious start to the 2024-25 campaign for Regula, who spent all of last season in the minors after seeing NHL ice in his previous three professional seasons. Acquired from the Blackhawks in the 2023 Taylor Hall/Nick Foligno trade, Regula led the AHL last season with a +36 rating and added four goals and 26 points in 55 games for Providence, tying his previous career highs.

When Regula can expect to touch NHL ice next is anybody’s guess. The 6’4″, 211-lb righty made 22 NHL appearances while with Chicago, scoring one goal and logging a -5 rating while averaging 16:54 per game. Initially a 2018 third-round pick of the Red Wings, he’s firmly established himself as a top two-way threat at the AHL level, but has yet to demonstrate marginally positive possession impacts in his NHL minutes.

There are likely a few names ahead of Regula that are in line for a recall, namely Ian Mitchell, who leads Providence defenders in scoring with 13 points in 22 games. Whether or not he ends up seeing NHL action during the one-year, two-way deal he inked last summer remains to be seen, although a strong showing in his delayed start to the season should help him at least earn a qualifying offer at season’s end.

Kings’ Caleb Jones Clears Waivers, Reassigned To AHL

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12/9: The Kings organization confirmed Jones has successfully cleared waivers as the team announced they’ve reassigned him to their AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign.

12/8: The Los Angeles Kings have placed defender Caleb Jones on waivers, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Jones was placed on injured reserve on November 15th, after sustaining an upper-body injury in November 13th’s loss to Colorado. He’s missed nine games since, nearly double the five games he’s played in so far this season. Jones hasn’t recorded any scoring thus far. This move will give him a chance to find his health, and scoring, with more minutes in the minor leagues.

Jones played in 12 AHL games last season – scoring six points – but has otherwise been a full-time NHL defender since the 2019-20 season. He’s played with four different clubs in that span, starting his career in 2018-19 with Edmonton. Jones gradually climbed the Oilers’ depth chart, working from the AHL, to a role as a routine call-up, then eventually becoming Edmonton’s seventh defender. He scored 19 points across three seasons and 93 games in Edmonton, all before the age of 23. That was enough promise to make Jones a focal piece in the trade that sent an aged Duncan Keith from the Chicago Blackhawks to the Edmonton Oilers. The Blackhawks continued to rotate Jones through the lineup, awarding him 51 games in 2021-22 and 73 games in 2022-23. He scored 15 and 16 points in the respective seasons, prompting Chicago to leave Jones unsigned in the 2023 off-season. He signed in Carolina, but was traded to Colorado before the start of the 2023-24 season. Jones continued to serve a minor role with the Avalanche, recording five assists in 25 NHL games and six assists in 12 AHL games.

Blackhawks’ Joey Anderson Clears Waivers

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12/9: Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman confirmed that Anderson has successfully cleared waivers. A report by Scott Powers of The Athletic indicates Anderson will stay on Chicago’s active roster for now. The organization now has 30 days to reassign Anderson to the AHL without having to send him through waivers.

12/8: The Chicago Blackhawks have placed forward Joey Anderson on waivers per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Anderson hasn’t played since November 23rd.

Anderson played in the first 12 games of Chicago’s season and rotated throughout the lineup – playing as little as 11 minutes or as much as 19 minutes through the start of the year. Despite the fluxing role, Anderson only recorded one assist, nine hits, and 13 shots.

It is Anderson’s second full season with the Chicago organization. He started last year in the minor leagues but earned a quick call-up after scoring 16 points in his first 14 games. He spent the rest of the season on the Blackhawks roster, stepping into 55 games and scoring 17 points. It was the longest he’s spent on an NHL roster in his seven-year pro career.

The New Jersey Devils originally drafted Anderson in the third round of the 2016 NHL Draft. He followed the draft with two years at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, where he scored 64 points in 77 games before signing his first pro contract in 2018-19. Anderson scored six points in his first 13 AHL games – enough to earn a quick call-up, though he wasn’t able to cement an NHL role. That’s since become a tendency, with Anderson producing well in the minors but failing to find footing at the top flight. It’s one that’s persisted through a 2020 move to Toronto, and a 2023 move to Chicago. History seems to be repeating itself once again, with Anderson set to return to the AHL, should he pass through waivers unclaimed.

Sharks Place Givani Smith On Waivers

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The San Jose Sharks are making a small change at the bottom of their lineup. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported earlier that San Jose had placed forward Givani Smith on waivers to reassign him to the AHL should he clear.

Smith’s usage has been dramatically slashed this year with the Sharks. He scored one goal and four points in 36 games last year for the Bay Area franchise but has gone scoreless in six games this year. His ice time has dropped by nearly 90 seconds this season which is a relatively large amount considering Smith was only averaging 7:49 last year.

He’s known for demonstrating a physical edge to his game from his tenure with the Detroit Red Wings. San Jose could theoretically use this toughness in their lineup to protect younger stars such as William Eklund, Macklin Celebrini, or Will Smith but they haven’t found a real need for it yet.

Smith’s skill set unfortunately isolates him in this role. If a team doesn’t need toughness, he won’t have a genuine place on the roster.

This makes Smith a relatively cheap and reliable option for any team looking to add toughness to their lineup, however. At the very least, if he goes unclaimed within the next 24 hours, Smith should find a much more consistent role with the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda. It would be Smith’s first AHL action since the 2022-23 season when he scored two goals and five points in 22 games split between the Charlotte Checkers and Grand Rapids Griffins.

Brendan Lemieux Clears Unconditional Waivers

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Saturday: Lemieux has cleared waivers, reports James Mirtle of The Athletic.  In the team’s announcement of his waiver placement yesterday, GM Eric Tulsky indicated that Lemieux requested the release to pursue a new opportunity.  A report from Puck Empire in Switzerland suggests that Lemieux is likely to sign with HC Davos of the Swiss NL.

Friday: The Carolina Hurricanes are expected to place forward Brendan Lemieux on unconditional waivers for the purpose of contract termination, per Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff. Lemieux signed a one-year, league-minimum contract in Carolina this summer but has spent the entirety of the early season in the minor leagues. He has just two goals, 30 penalty minutes, and a -4 through 12 AHL games this season. He’s the lowest-scoring forward among Chicago Wolves with 10 or more games this season.

Lemieux made a name for himself as a sharp-edged bruiser with the drive to play at the NHL level. That’s what kept him in the top league from 2017 to 2024 – through trips with the Winnipeg Jets, New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings, Philadelphia Flyers, and Carolina. He served a fourth-line role at every stop, making more noise with his penalty minutes than his scoring. Lemieux has 548 penalty minutes through 307 career games, with his statement year coming in 2019-20 – when he posted 111 PIMs in 59 games with the Rangers. He’s only added 74 career points – 36 goals and 38 assists – in those outings, with 18 points in 2019-20 also standing as a career-high.

This season marks Lemieux’s second in the Carolina organization, after playing through last year on a separate one-year contract. He earned 32 games on the deal, recording five points and 64 penalty minutes. That wasn’t enough to stick in the Hurricanes’ lineup with the emergence of top youngsters Jack Drury and Jackson Blake, pushing Lemieux to the minor leagues this season – his first time playing AHL hockey since 2017-18. With both scoring and meaningful penalties hard to come by this year, Lemieux will now look forward to more productive minutes in his next landing spot.

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