Call up / Send down
The Canadiens have recalled David Schlemko from Laval (AHL).
NHL Transactions & Roster Moves
Call up / Send down
The Capitals have recalled Madison Bowey from Hershey (AHL).
Call up / Send down
The Coyotes have sent Emerson Etem to Tucson (AHL).
Etem has not appeared in an NHL game this season, but returns to Tucson where he has one goal and one assist in one game this season. He was sent to the AHL to create a roster spot for the Coyotes to recall Marek Langhamer after an injury to Antti Raanta on Thursday.
Call up / Send down
The Coyotes have recalled Marek Langhamer from Tucson (AHL).
Antti Raanta left Thursday’s game with a lower-body injury and was unable to return. Langhamer’s call-up suggests that Raanta will miss at least Saturday’s game vs. Boston. Look for Langhamer, who was 8-11-0 with a 3.36 GAA and .902 SV% with Tucson last year, to backup Louis Domingue while Raanta is sidelined.
Call up / Send down
The Ducks have recalled Nicolas Kerdiles from San Diego (AHL).
Kerdiles, 23, had one goal and two assists in his season debut with San Diego and could draw into the lineup for his second career NHL game tonight in Colorado. The former second round pick (No.36 overall in 2012) had 15 points (7G / 8A) in 27 AHL games a season ago.
Call up / Send down
The Wild have recalled Luke Kunin from Iowa (AHL).
Kunin, 19, was the No.15 overall pick in the 2016 NHL draft and comes up looking to make his NHL debut this weekend. Kunin turned pro at the end of last season after two years at the University of Wisconsin. In 14 AHL games, Kunin has six goals and four assists (10 points).
Call up / Send down
The Blues have recalled Sam Blais from San Antonio (AHL).
Blais had a really strong training camp and was a surprise cut from the opening night roster. Upon his return to the AHL, the 21-year-old winger posted three goals and one assist (four points) in two games with San Antonio. Look for him to make his NHL debut on Saturday.
Call up / Send down
The Blues have sent Tage Thompson to San Antonio (AHL).
Thompson had no points, three shots, five hits and a minus-3 rating in his first four games and served as a healthy scratch on Tuesday. The 6-foot-5, 186 lbs. winger will swap spots with Sam Blais and go to the AHL where he had one goal and one assist in 16 games last season.
Call up / Send down
The Ducks have sent Giovanni Fiore to San Diego (AHL).
Fiore,21, failed to record a point in his NHL debut during his brief call-up. Fiore has yet to appear in a game with San Diego this season and joins the AHL after posting 52 goals and 38 assists (90 points) in 61 games with Cape Breton (QMJHL).
Call up / Send down
Schlemko (hand) has been assigned to Laval (AHL) on a conditioning stint.
Schlemko has missed the first four games of the season with a hand injury that he suffered in the preseason. Schlemko will be a welcomed addition to the Canadiens’ blueline when he is healthy, but he’ll get at least one game in Laval before making his debut. Schlemko had two goals and 16 assists (18 points) in 62 games with San Jose last season.
Call up / Send down
The Panthers have sent Denis Malgin to Springfield (AHL).
Malgin has served as a healthy scratch in the Panthers’ first three games of the season, so he will head to the AHL to get some games in. Malgin had 12 points (3G / 9A) in 15 games with Springfield last season and 10 points (6G / 4A) in 47 NHL contests. Jared McCann and Connor Brickley have passed him on the depth chart, resulting in his healthy scratches.
Call up / Send down
The Sharks have recalled Joakim Ryan from San Jose (AHL).
With Paul Martin (ankle) sidelined, Ryan has been recalled and will make his NHL debut tonight vs. the Sabres. Ryan had 10 goals and 39 assists (49 points) in 65 games with San Jose (AHL) last season. The former seventh-round pick will make his debut on a pairing with Brent Burns.
Call up / Send down
The Flyers have sent Samuel Morin to Lehigh Valley (AHL).
Morin cracked the Flyers’ opening night roster, but never made it into the lineup through the first four games. Morin returns to Lehigh Valley, where he had 16 points (3G / 13A) and 129 PIMS in 74 games last season. He’ll be back in the NHL at some point this season.
Call up / Send down
The Rangers have sent Filip Chytil to Hartford (AHL).
Chytil averaged just 6:20 TOI in his first two NHL games and served as a healthy scratch vs. the Canadiens on Sunday. The 18-year-old will head to Hartford to work on his game—Adam Cracknell will take his spot on the roster after being claimed off of waivers from Dallas.
Call up / Send down
The Stars have recalled Remi Elie from Texas (AHL).
With Adam Cracknell being claimed off of waivers by the Rangers, the Stars had an open roster spot to bring Elie up. The 22-year-old winger brings speed and grit to the Stars’ fourth line and had seven points (1G / 6A) in 18 games with Dallas last year. Look for him to get into the lineup vs. Detroit on Tuesday.
Call up / Send down
The Bruins have recalled Danton Heinen from Providence (AHL).
Heinen, 22, spent most of last season with Providence, but did get eight games with the Bruins—he failed to record a point. The former fourth-round pick had 14 goals and 30 assists (44 points) in 64 AHL games a season ago and one helper in the first game of this season.
Call up / Send down
The Coyotes have recalled Mario Kempe from Tucson (AHL).
Kempe, 29, was a fifth round pick (No.122 overall) in 2007 but has played in just six career games in North America, spending the last three seasons in KHL and Sweden before that. Kempe had one goal and two assists (three points) in his Tucson Roadrunners debut, earning a call-up to the big club.
Call up / Send down
The Coyotes have sent Dylan Strome to Tucson (AHL).
Strome failed to record a point with three shots on goal while averaging 12:09 TOI in his first two games of the season. The Coyotes obviously feel that Strome has some things to work on, so he will head to Tucson to grow his game a bit. Mario Kempe was recalled to take Strome’s spot on the roster.
Call up / Send down
The Bruins have sent Matt Grzelcyk to Providence (AHL).
Grzelcyk cracked the opening night roster thanks to a Torey Krug preseason injury, but with Krug set to return on Monday, Grzelcyk was sent back to the AHL. The 23-year-old was a plus-1 with two shots on goal in 12:11 TOI in the season opener. He returns to Providence where he had 32 points (6G / 26A) in 70 games during his first professional campaign.
Call up / Send down
The Senators have recalled Christian Jaros from Belleville (AHL).
The Senators blueline is banged up; Erik Karlsson is still fighting a foot injury, Johnny Oduya missed Saturday’s game with a lower-body injury and Ben Harpur left that game with an upper-body ailment. Jarod was a fifth round pick in 2015 and has played just two games in North America after coming over from Sweden. Jaros will likely serve as the Senators’ seventh defenseman on their road-trip.
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.