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NHL Transactions & Roster Moves

Adam Johnson(C)|FA
Call Up
Call Up
The Penguins have recalled Adam Johnson from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (AHL).

Johnson had two assists in his first six career NHL games with the Penguins last season. The 25-year-old centre had two assists in his season debut with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton this year. He will take Alex Galchenyuk’s spot on the roster.

Source:
Seth Rorabaugh 2019-10-09T22:36:11.229Z
Adam Johnson
Nelson Nogier(D)|FA
Call Up
Call Up
The Jets have recalled Nelson Nogier from Manitoba (AHL).

Winnipeg’s blueline remains in flux and Nogier could make his season debut on Tuesday. The 6-foot-3, 208 lbs. defenseman had just nine points (1G / 8A) in 74 AHL games last season. He has not recorded a point in 11 career NHL games.

Source:
Sara Orlesky 2019-10-08T14:12:31.049Z
Nelson Nogier
Sam Lafferty(C)|FLA
Call Up
Call Up
The Penguins have recalled Sam Lafferty from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (AHL) on an emergency basis.

Lafferty was a fourth-round pick of the Penguins back in 2014 and he is expected to make his NHL debut on Tuesday because Evgeni Malkin and Nick Bjugstad are out with lower-body injuries. Lafferty was held pointless in his first AHL game of this season but had 49 points (13G / 46A) in 70 games last year.

Source:
@penguins 2019-10-08T13:59:19.850Z
Sam Lafferty
Andrew Agozzino(LW)|FA
Call Up
Call Up
The Penguins have recalled Andrew Agozzino from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (AHL) on an emergency basis.

Agozzino led the Colorado Eagles (AHL) with 60 points (26G / 34A) in 56 games last season and signed with the Penguins this summer. He was held pointless in his Wilkes-Barre/Scranton debut but has been recalled because both Evgeni Malkin and Nick Bjugstad are out for Tuesday’s game. The 28-year-old winger has five points (1G / 4A) in 21 career NHL games.

Source:
@penguins 2019-10-08T13:57:39.697Z
Andrew Agozzino
Oliwer Kaski(D)|FA
Call Up
Call Up
The Red Wings have recalled Oliwer Kaski from Grand Rapids (AHL).

Kaski was one of the Red Wings big offseason additions. The 24-year-old Finnish defenseman had 51 points (19G / 32A) in 59 games in Finland’s top league and scored a goal in his AHL debut. With two Red Wings defensemen going on IR (Jonathan Ericsson and Trevor Daley) Kaski and the newly acquired Alex Biega are coming up from Grand Rapids.

Source:
Ansar Khan 2019-10-08T01:10:31.400Z
Oliwer Kaski
Alex Biega(RD)|FA
Call Up
Call Up
The Red Wings have recalled Alex Biega from Grand Rapids (AHL).

Biega was acquired from the Canucks late on Sunday night and quickly gets recalled with both Trevor Daley and Jonathan Ericsson going on IR. Biega had 16 points (2G / 14A) and averaged 2.5 hits and 1.1 blocked shots per game in 41 games last year.

Source:
Ansar Khan 2019-10-08T01:08:23.082Z
Alex Biega
Ryan Kuffner(LW)|FA
Call Up
Call Up
The Red Wings have recalled Ryan Kuffner from Grand Rapids (AHL).

Kuffner turned pro last year after finishing his senior year at Princeton University. The 23-year-old winger did not register a point in 10 games with the Red Wings and was sent to Grand Rapids to start 2019-20. He scored a goal in his AHL debut and could draw into the lineup on Tuesday with Frans Nielsen going on IR with an undisclosed injury.

Source:
Ansar Khan 2019-10-08T01:06:41.213Z
Ryan Kuffner
Evgeny Svechnikov(LW)|SJS
Call Up
Call Up
The Red Wings have recalled Evgeny Svechnikov from Grand Rapids (AHL).

Svechnikov had his 2018-19 season cut short after undergoing right knee surgery in mid-October. He started the season with the Griffins and had three points (1G / 2A) in the first game of the season. The 2015 first-round pick (No.19 overall) has four points (2G / 2A) in 16 career NHL games.

Source:
Ansar Khan 2019-10-08T01:04:50.615Z
Evgeny Svechnikov
Conor Timmins(D)|BUF
Send Down
Send Down
The Avalanche have reassigned Conor Timmins to Colorado (AHL).

Timmins, who did not record a point while averaging just 10:24 TOI/gm in his first two career NHL games, heads to the Eagles where he’ll play a much larger role. The 2017 second-round pick (No.32 overall) had 41 points (8G / 33A) in 36 OHL games last year and will be a quality offensive defensman for the Eagles.

Source:
Mike Chambers 2019-10-07T18:40:28.366Z
Conor Timmins
Sami Niku(LD)|FA
Call Up
Call Up
The Jets have recalled Sami Niku from Manitoba (AHL).

With Dmitry Kulikov away from the team due to a personal matter, Sami Niku comes up from the Moose, where he has two assists in two games this season. With very few quality NHL defensemen on the roster, Niku should play in Pittsburgh on Tuesday—he had four points (1G / 3A) in 30 NHL games last year.

Source:
Brian Munz 2019-10-07T18:27:26.055Z
Sami Niku
Vitaly Abramov(RW)|OTT
Call Up
Call Up
The Senators have recalled Vitaly Abramov from Belleville (AHL).

Abramov made his NHL debut with the Senators last year but opened the year with Belleville. With Filip Chlapik and Drake Batherson being re-assigned on Sunday, Abramov comes up and will likely be in the lineup on Thursday. Abramov had 29 points (16G / 13A) in 70 AHL games last season.

Source:
@Media_Sens 2019-10-07T14:24:22.460Z
Vitaly Abramov

NHL Roster Moves

NHL roster moves are essentially transactions that alter a team’s lineup. The roster move could make the team better or worse. In some cases, the move is inconsequential. Fan favourites could leave for greener pastures. A struggling player could get sent down to the farm team. A lousy contract might get put on waivers. Even worse, players may get strategically buried on the long-term injury reserve list because they’re not worth the cap hit. The possibilities are somewhat endless.

Types of NHL Roster Moves

Don’t worry; Daily Faceoff has you covered when trying to grasp the concept of a league ruled by the complexities of the almighty salary cap. Below, we break down the strategy behind roster moves so you can get a leg up in your DFS league.

Free agent signings

NHL rosters are primarily constructed by player signings. The front office reaches out to what are referred to as “free agents.” Both the front office and the player’s agent work out the terms of a deal. How teams sign deals varies depending on what type of free agents they’re dealing with.

Rookie Deals

Rookie’s sign something called an entry-level contract which is usually capped at a certain amount of money per year. Under the NHL’s current collective bargaining agreement, the longest an entry-level contract can be signed is three years.

Restricted Free Agent Contracts

After that, a player becomes a restricted free agent (RFA). Technically, they can sign with teams outside of who they played for in the past season by accepting an offer sheet. That said, if the player’s first team extends a qualifying offer, any team competing for the player’s services will have to offer up a certain amount of compensation in the form of draft picks. Of course, that’s if the player agrees to the offer sheet and their current team doesn’t match it.

Unrestricted Free Agent Contracts

Players can become unrestricted free agents (UFA) when their current RFA deal is up and they can go wherever they want. If they sign a contract extension, they can sign for up to eight years. Alternatively, they can sign a seven-year deal if they test the open market. Fun fact: pending UFAs might be motivated to play their hearts out to secure the bag in their next deal. Keep that in mind, fantasy players.

Blockbuster trades

Trades make for some of the most interesting NHL roster moves. To this day, the infamous Patrick Roy deal still gets talked about in NHL circles. What happens in a trade is that two or maybe even three teams link up and iron out a deal. There might be deals that are referred to as “hockey trades,” meaning that both teams get something of equal value. For example, one team gives up a first-line centre for a top-pairing right-handed defenceman. Some NHL trades involve bad teams selling off their moveable assets, such as upcoming free agents, for future considerations, including draft picks or prospects.

Injuries

Depending on how badly a player gets injured, several things can happen. They can be out of a game or two, with the team opting to keep the severity of the injury private (a common pet peeve for fantasy players). Players can be put on the injury reserve for injuries that can keep them out for a calendar week. This frees up a roster spot so someone from within the team’s system, or sometimes outside of it, can come in and replace them while they’re getting back in tip-top shape. If the player needs over a week to recover after a serious injury, they will get put on long-term injury reserve.

Waivers

In typical NHL roster moves jargon, when a player goes on waivers, other teams can claim them from their current team. A player usually goes on waivers when they’re signed to a one-way deal, meaning they can’t be sent down to the minors willy-nilly like a rookie on a two-way deal. Before the player gets sent down, other teams can claim the player on the “waiver wire.” If the player isn’t claimed, they go to the minors to play in the AHL.

Call Ups

Outside of signings, player callups are one of the most popular NHL transactions. Most teams call up players when they’re performing well in the AHL or if there’s an injury on the main roster. Usually, when a player gets called up to the NHL, one gets sent down to the minors.

Contract Buyouts

Of course, you’ve probably worked with someone who’s pretty lazy. People from afar think that person is a “good fit,” but internally, everyone hates the person. Oftentimes, that person finds a way to get fired. Well, newsflash: the same thing happens in NHL dressing rooms. Sometime players who have a history of poor performance have the audacity to ask for more money come contract time. Their team has the option to buyout their contract, or in extreme cases of misconduct, their contract can be terminated. If they’re not being bought out, the front office is laughing while the player’s agent is showing themselves out of the building. For the players who are actually good and could command big bucks on the open market, teams hustle to get them signed up for a new deal. If the player hits the open market, all bets are off…. Coaching Changes

Losing a head coach that sucked at their job and replacing them with a new one can ignite a team. Historically, decent teams perform strongly when they get a new coach. For how long those “strong performances” sustain themselves over the course of a season is a whole other story.

Rules Around NHL Roster Moves

NHL rules aren’t made to be broken. If they’re written in the collective bargaining agreement (CBA), you may as well say they’re written in stone. Let’s talk about those “set in stone” rules.

Trade Deadline

Teams have a certain amount of time each season to make NHL trades and signings. The date varies from season to season, but it usually falls between the end of February and early March so that roster’s are set before the Stanley Cup playoffs begin. After the deadline, players can still be moved, but they will not be eligible to play for the rest of the regular season or playoffs. You’ll usually see prospects who are playing abroad get dealt after the deadline, if any trades are made at all.

[Editor’s note: can include link to new DFO Stanley Cup page here]

Strategy Behind NHL Roster Moves

General managers and hands-on hockey ops executives are always thinking about the future. If their team is going to miss the playoffs and it’s a good draft year, they might be inclined to sell, meaning they’ll try to offload decent players in return for cap space, draft picks and younger players. The opposite can be said for good teams. They’ll be looking to add to what they already have to make a run for the cup.

If you’re a DFS player or even in a dynasty league, you can exploit that by buying low on players who are playing for bad teams but have the potential to increase their production if they get traded to a good team. Having access to a good data set can help ease the trouble of anticipating how good a player will be going to and from a certain team.

The Salary Cap

When general managers sleep at night, they probably have nightmares about the salary cap. “The cap,” as hockey insiders like Frank Seravalli refer to it when discussing NHL transactions, dictates how much a team can spend on its roster. There’s a “floor,” meaning a team has to spend at least this much per year. Then, there’s a “ceiling” that teams can’t go over lest they pay the price in draft pick compensation and fines, amongst other things. The salary cap makes it difficult for teams to trade players with high cap hits. It also creates a market in itself for teams that want to get over the “floor” by taking on other teams’ bad contracts. In a world beyond reality, most would favour a luxury tax system like the one Major League Baseball implements.

How NHL Roster Moves Impact Sports Betting

Look, if you don’t want to put up with another year of getting beat by your co-worker’s child in fantasy, you have to put as much effort into your team as that 10-year-old weasel will. That means keeping up with the news. Changing your lineups on a daily basis. Trading players at their peak value. Buying them from others when they’re at their lowest. For the love all of things good, change your injured players out for healthy ones. If you’re a sports bettor, any NHL roster can change the money line or the total in a game, especially if a star player is hurt or a team is playing its third-string goalie. Staying in the loop will give bettors a better chance at finding an edge.