NHL Hockey Player News

Spencer Stastney(D)|NSH
Call Up
Call Up
Stastney has been recalled from Milwaukee (AHL).

Stastney was a fifth-round pick of the Predators in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft. The 24-year-old defenseman played 20 games with the Predators last season, scoring four points (2G / 2A), but has exclusively played in the AHL this season. He has three points (1G / 2A) in 10 games with Milwaukee (AHL) this season.

Source:
Alex Daugherty 2025-01-02T19:32:35.153Z
Spencer Stastney
Riley Stillman(D)|CAR
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Send Down
Stillman has been reassigned to Chicago (AHL).

Stillman was signed by the Hurricanes in the offseason but has yet to play a game in the 2024-25 season. His last NHL game was in the 2022-23 season as a member of the Buffalo Sabres when he had three points (1G / 2A) in 18 games. He has four points (1G / 3A) in nine games with the Chicago Wolves (AHL) this season.

Source:
Walt Ruff 2025-01-02T15:37:53.263Z
Riley Stillman
Arttu Hyry(RW)|DAL
Call Up
Call Up
Hyry has been recalled from the Texas Stars (AHL).

Hyry was signed as an undrafted forward in the offseason and will make his NHL debut with Dallas on Thursday. The 23-year-old impressed in training camp and has been solid at the AHL-level, scoring 26 points (14G / 12A) in 29 games with Texas this season.

Source:
Dallas Stars 2025-01-02T15:30:10.710Z
Arttu Hyry
Juha Jaaska(LW)|CAR
Call Up
Call Up
Jaaska has been recalled from Chicago (AHL).

Jaaska joined Chicago (AHL) from HIFK (Liiga) in the offseason and has earned himself his first career call-up to Carolina after putting up seven goals and 16 points in 25 games with the Wolves. The 26-year-old undrafted winger had 67 points in his previous 113 games played with HIFK before heading to North America in the summer.

Source:
Walt Ruff 2025-01-01T22:43:49.926Z
Juha Jaaska
Justin Hryckowian(C)|DAL
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Send Down
Hryckowian has been loaned to the Texas Stars (AHL).

Hryckowian played the last two games for the Stars, replacing an injured Mason Marchment, averaging 6:40 time-on-ice and scoring zero points. Before his call-up, the 23-year-old Hryckowian had a strong season in the AHL, sitting second on the team with 26 points (12G / 14A) in 27 games.

Source:
Dallas Stars 2025-01-01T17:50:18.071Z
Justin Hryckowian
Connor Ingram(G)|UTA
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Send Down
Ingram (upper-body) has been assigned to Tucson (AHL) on a conditioning loan.

Ingram has not played since suffering an upper-body injury on November 18th, missing 18 games, but appears to be nearing a return after being assigned to Tuscon (AHL) for a conditioning stint. Utah HC will hope that the forced time off helped Ingram rediscover his game from a season ago as he had struggled before his injury, sporting an ugly 3.61 GAA and .871 SV% in 13 games (6-4-3)

Source:
Brogan Houston 2024-12-31T18:41:34.849Z
Connor Ingram

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.