Call up / Send down
The Oilers recalled Jason LaBarbera on Monday.
With Ilya Bryzgalov out with an upper-body injury, LaBarbera has been recalled to likely serve as Devan Dubnyk's backup tonight.
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NHL Transactions & Roster Moves
Call up / Send down
Miller was recalled from Providence on Monday.
Miller could be in the lineup Thursday with Adam McQuaid and Torey Krug not skating this morning. He appeared in three games with the Bruins in November, he did not record a point.
Call up / Send down
The Coyotes have assigned defenseman Rostislav Klesla to the Portland Pirates (AHL).
Klesla cleared waivers and was sent down last Wednesday, but was recalled on Friday, now three days later he is back in the AHL.
Call up / Send down
The Devils have recalled Tim Sestito from Albany (AHL).
Sestito will make his season debut tonight vs. the Canadiens. With Ryan Carter out, he is expected to slot in on the fourth line instead of Mattias Tedenby. He has five goals and 13 points in 21 games with Albany this season, but has just three career assists in 70 NHL games.
Call up / Send down
Travis Morin has been recalled from the Texas Stars (AHL).
Morin, 29, leads the AHL with 29 points (11G / 18A) in 19 games with Texas. The 6-foot-1, 190-pound forward has skated in three games for Dallas this season, posting two shots and a plus-1 rating for the NHL club.
Call up / Send down
The Senators have sent Derek Grant down to Binghamton (AHL).
Grant skated in 20 games with the Sens, averaging 9:34 TOI and recording two assists and a minus-3 rating. He returns to the AHL where he has two goals in three games.
Call up / Send down
The Senators have sent Mark Borowiecki down to Binghamton (AHL).
Borowiecki appeared in 13 games during his call-up. He recorded his first NHL goal, a minus-2 rating and 48 penalty minutes. He returns to the AHL where he has no points in nine games.
Call up / Send down
The Senators have recalled Mike Hoffman from Binghamton (AHL).
Hoffman is having a tremendous season in the AHL, he has 11 goals and 26 points - which is good for second in AHL scoring. The 24-year-old was the 130th overall pick in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.
Call up / Send down
Brule has cleared waivers and the Coyotes have assigned him to Portland (AHL).
Brule has been with Portland on a professional tryout, but signed a two-way deal yesterday which required him to go through waivers. He went unclaimed and will remain with the Pirates where he has six goals and two assists in eight games.
Call up / Send down
The Stars have recalled Jamie Oleksiak from Texas (AHL).
Oleksiak has three goals and two assists in 22 games with Texas this season. He appeared in 16 games on Dallas' blueline last season where he had two assists and a minus-5 rating. He will be fighting with Kevin Connauton for playing time.
Call up / Send down
The Predators have recalled Joe Piskula from Milwaukee (AHL).
Piskula, 29, has just 10 games of NHL experience with the Flames and Kings. He has skated in 18 games with Milwaukee this season recording five assists. He will make his Predators debut tonight with Kevin Klein and Shea Weber sidelined.
Call up / Send down
The Capitals have reassigned Michael Latta to Hershey (AHL).
Latta has played in 16 games with the Capitals this season, recording one goal and three assists while averaging 7:52 TOI. His return to the AHL means that Jay Beagle should stay in the lineup tonight and either Brooks Laich or Martin Erat will slide back in.
Call up / Send down
The Capitals have recalled Dmitry Orlov from Hershey (AHL).
Orlov has been recalled on numerous occasions this season, but has yet to make an appearance on the Capitals blueline. He has three goals and nine points in 11 games with Hershey.
Call up / Send down
The Capitals have recalled Philipp Grubauer from Hershey (AHL).
Grubauer is 4-4-1 with a 2.60 GAA and a .910 SV% with Hershey this season. He made two NHL appearances last season going 0-1-0 with a 3.57 GAA and .915 SV%. With Michal Neuvurth going down with a lower-body injury last night and Braden Holtby making the start, Grubauer could be in line to start tonight vs. the Islanders.
Call up / Send down
The Ducks have recalled defenseman Alex Grant from the Norfolk Admirals (AHL).
Grant, 24, has six goals and 12 points with a plus-2 rating and 10 penalty minutes (PIM) in 19 games with Norfolk this season. At the time of his recall, Grant ranked tied for third among AHL defensemen in goals and tied for 12th in scoring.
Call up / Send down
The Minnesota Wild has recalled forward Erik Haula from the Iowa Wild (AHL) because Mike Rupp has been designated non-roster status and will leave the team for personal reasons.
Haula is tied for 2nd on Iowa with 10 points (4G / 6A) in 18 games this season. The 5-foot-11, 192-pound forward is expected to make his NHL debut tonight as the Minnesota hosts Colorado. The 22-year-old totaled two assists in six games with Houston (AHL) last season and two points in five playoff contests.
Call up / Send down
The Coyotes have reassigned Chris Brown to Portland (AHL).
The 22-year-old Brown has played in five games with the Coyotes this season, recording 17 PIM. He has also collected four goals and 8 assists with 31 PIM and a plus-nine rating in 15 games with the Pirates.
Call up / Send down
The Coyotes have recalled defenseman Rostislav Klesla and assigned forward Chris Brown to the Portland Pirates (AHL).
Well that didn't last long. Klesla was put on waivers and sent to Portland earlier this week, but he is already back with the big club. The 31-year-old Klesla has recorded one goal and two assists with 10 penalty minutes (PIM) in 15 games with the Coyotes this season.
Call up / Send down
The Maple Leafs have recalled Carter Ashton after placing Joffrey Lupul on IR.
Ashton has appeared in 13 games with Toronto this season. He has averaged 7:56 TOI while recording one assist and 12 penalty minutes.
Call up / Send down
The Calgary Flames announced today that they have recalled Max Reinhart from the Abbotsford Heat of the American Hockey League.
Reinhart takes Galiardi's roster spot. He has 12 points in 19 games with the AHL Heat this season.
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.