Call up / Send down
The Sharks have recalled Freddie Hamilton from Worcester.
Hamilton has been held off of the score sheet in seven games with the Sharks. In the AHL he has scored 11 goals with eight assists in 22 games.
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NHL Transactions & Roster Moves
Call up / Send down
The Hurricanes have recalled Anton Khudobin from Charlotte (AHL).
Khudobin, 27, played two games during his conditioning stint with the Checkers, going 1-1-0 with a 3.03 GAA and .928 SV%. He was named first star of Charlotte’s game on Monday night, stopping 41 shots in the Checkers’ 3-2 win at Rockford. Khudobin played three NHL games this season for the Hurricanes, going 2-0-0 with a 2.00 goals-against average and .929 save percentage, prior to suffering an ankle injury on October 13 against Phoenix.
Call up / Send down
The Red Wings have recalled Luke Glendening from Grand Rapids (AHL).
Glendening will get a shot to play in the Winter Classic on Wednesday. He has recorded one assist with a minus-7 rating in 16 games with the Red Wings.
Call up / Send down
The Red Wings have reassigned Tomas Jurco to Grand Rapids.
Jurco recorded two goals and one assist in seven games while he was with the Red Wings.
Call up / Send down
The Senators have recalled forward Mark Stone on an emergency basis from the club’s AHL affiliate, the Binghamton Senators.
Stone, 21, has recorded nine goals and nine assists for 18 points in 19 AHL games with the B-Sens this season. He missed 10 games after being injured during the team’s season-opener on Oct. 5 against Syracuse. The 6-2, 203-pound forward played in four regular-season games with the Senators last season, while being held scoreless. He also appeared in two NHL post-season contests (one in 2011-12 and one in 2012-13) and registered an assist in his professional debut on April 21, 2012
Call up / Send down
The Bruins have recalled forward Nick Johnson from the Providence Bruins (AHL) on an emergency basis.
Johnson will join the team Tuesday and be eligible for Tuesday night's game against the New York Islanders at TD Garden. Johnson has skated in a total of eight games with Boston this season and has registered seven shots on goal. The winger made his Bruins debut on December 10 against the Flames in Calgary. Johnson has appeared in 24 games with Providence this year, notching 11 goals and nine assists for 20 points with a plus-seven rating.
Call up / Send down
The Wild have recalled Jonathon Blum from Iowa (AHL).
The blueliner has 16 points (3G / 13A) in 29 games in Iowa this season. The Wild signed him as a free agent this summer. Blum collected seven points (1G / 6A) and six penalty minutes in 35 games with the Nashville Predators last season.
Call up / Send down
The Jets have returned Julian Melchiori to St. John's (AHL).
Melchiori has five assists in 18 games with the IceCaps.
Call up / Send down
The Canucks have recalled defenceman Frank Corrado from the AHL Utica Comets.
Corrado, 20, has recorded five points (2G / 3A) and 20 penalty minutes in 29 games with the Comets this season. The Woodbridge, ON, native made his NHL debut in the 2012.13 season and has played in three regular season NHL games and four postseason NHL games with Vancouver.
Call up / Send down
#Flames welcome Markus Granlund
Granlund is the Flames' 2nd round draft pick from 2011. He may get an opportunity to provide an offensive spark for the Flames given his AHL production but counting on anything substantial from the 20 year old may be a stretch.
Call up / Send down
Wings have reassigned center Luke Glendening to Grand Rapids.
With Helm set to return, Glendening was able to be optioned back to the minors.
Call up / Send down
Coyotes have assigned forwards Gilbert Brule and Jordan Szwarz to the Portland Pirates (AHL).
Szwarz is not expected to have any fantasy significance for the Coyotes.
Call up / Send down
Coyotes have assigned forwards Gilbert Brule and Jordan Szwarz to the Portland Pirates (AHL).
Brule is not expected to have any fantasy significance for the Coyotes.
Call up / Send down
The Blue Jackets have recalled Ryan Craig from Springfield (AHL).
Craig has skated in three games with Columbus this season and has recorded six goals and six assists in 22 games with Springfield. He could be in the lineup tonight vs. his former team if Derek MacKenzie can't play.
Call up / Send down
The Bruins have recalled Zach Trotman from Providence (AHL) on an emergency basis.
Dennis Seidenberg was just ruled out for the remainder of the season, so Trotman and David Warsofsky were recalled and are both eligible to play tonight, however only one of them is expected to dress. Trotman was a 7th round pick in 2010 and is in his third season with Providence where he has one goal and six assists in 22 games.
Call up / Send down
The Bruins have recalled David Warsofsky from Providence (AHL) on an emergency basis.
Warsofsky has been recalled and will play tonight after Dennis Seidenberg was injured in Friday's game vs. the Senators. Warsofsky has no points and a minus-1 in three games with the Bruins.
Call up / Send down
The Bruins have recalled Nick Johnson from Providence (AHL) on an emergency basis.
Johnson has been recalled and will play tonight in Ottawa after Carl Soderberg suffered an injury last night and did not travel to Ottawa. In seven games with the Bruins, Johnson has averaged 9:44 TOI with no points and a minus-3 rating.
Call up / Send down
The Red Wings will return Riley Sheahan to Grand Rapids to make room for Henrik Zetterberg's return on Saturday.
Sheahan recorded his first two assists of his NHL career on Saturday vs Toronto, they were the only points he recorded in four games during his call-up.
Call up / Send down
The Canucks have recalled Joacim Eriksson from Utica (AHL).
Eriksson was a seventh round pick of the Flyers in 2008 and has yet to play in an NHL game. He spent the last five seasons in Sweden but has started his North American hockey career 8-10-1 with a 2.77 GAA and .907 SV% with Utica. His suggests that Roberto Luongo will miss some time.
Call up / Send down
The Panthers have recalled Drew Shore from San Antonio (AHL).
Shore has no points in two games with Florida this season. With San Antonio he has yet to record a goal but has 15 assists in 28 games. His recall suggests that Scottie Upshall (upper-body) will not play tonight.
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.