Call up / Send down
The Devils have recalled Seth Helgeson from Albany (AHL).
Helgeson, 26, has no points in five games with New Jersey, but has scored two goals with four assists (six points) in 31 games with Albany.
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NHL Transactions & Roster Moves
Call up / Send down
The Devils have recalled Steven Santini from Albany (AHL).
Santini, 21, has two goals and three assists in 13 games with the Devils this season. He was sent to Albany during the All-Star break, but returns after a strong showing before the break. The former second round pick hasn’t recorded a point in 15 games with Albany.
Call up / Send down
The Devils recalled Karl Stollery from Albany (AHL).
Stollery, 29, has three assists in eight games with the Devils and was sent down during the All-Star break and returns with the break wrapping up. Stollery has nine assists in 33 games with Albany.
Call up / Send down
The Penguins have recalled Carter Rowney from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (AHL).
Rowney, 27, has registered 10 goals and 11 assists (21 points) in 24 games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton this season. Rowney could make his NHL debut tonight if Patric Hornqvist (lower-body) can’t play.
Call up / Send down
The Blues have recalled Ivan Barbashev from Chicago (AHL).
Barbashev, 21, was a second round pick (No. 33 overall) in 2014 and this is his first NHL call-up. With Kyle Brodziak out for five weeks, Barbashev will get a chance to make his NHL debut. The Russian centre has picked up 19 goals and 18 assists (37 points) in 44 games with Chicago this season.
Call up / Send down
The Ducks have recalled Kalle Kossila from San Diego (AHL). #BellLetsTalk
Kossila, 23, signed with the Ducks as an undrafted free agent and has collected 27 points (9G / 18A) in 33 games with San Diego. Kossila could make his NHL debut Wednesday vs. the Oilers.
Call up / Send down
The Jets have recalled Brian Strait from Manitoba (AHL).
Strait, 29, has collected five assists in 27 games with Manitoba this season and could make his Jets’ debut on Thursday. Strait has 27 points (6G / 21A) in 182 career NHL games with the Penguins and Islanders.
Call up / Send down
The Blues have reassigned Pheonix Copley to Chicago (AHL).
Copley allowed five goals on 29 shots in the Blues’ loss in Winnipeg on Saturday. With Jake Allen ready to return in Minnesota, Copley returns to Chicago, where he has gone 11-4-1 with a 2.32 GAA and .920 SV%.
Call up / Send down
The Sabres have recalled Casey Nelson from Rochester (AHL).
Nelson, 24, has scored four goals with five assists (nine points) in 27 games with Rochester this season. He appeared in eight games with the Sabres earlier this season, but failed to record a point. He could draw into the lineup on Saturday because Jake McCabe is likely out due to a shoulder injury.
Call up / Send down
The Ducks recalled Shea Theodore on Friday.
Theodore continues to be sent down, called up, sent down and called back up to help save money. The 21-year-old has seven points (1G / 6A) in 23 games with the Ducks and nine points (1G / 8A) in 11 games with San Diego (AHL).
Call up / Send down
The Ducks recalled Corey Tropp from San Diego (AHL).
Tropp,27, has scored eight goals and 21 assists (29 points) in 32 games with San Diego this season. He should make his Ducks’ debut on Saturday with Jakob Silfverberg not playing. Tropp has 27 points (6G / 21A) in 148 career NHL games, with the Sabres and Blue Jackets.
Call up / Send down
The Stars have recalled Julius Honka from Texas (AHL).
Honka, 21, had three assists in eight games with the Stars earlier this season. The 2014 No.14 pick is offensively gifted and comes back to the Stars with 21 points (5G / 16A) in 30 games with Texas. He has been recalled to replace Johnny Oduya, who has been placed on IR.
Call up / Send down
The Coyotes have recalled Christian Fischer from Tucson (AHL).
Fischer, 19, was a second round pick (No. 32 overall) in 2015 and this is his first NHL call-up. Fischer has picked up 32 points (16G / 16A) in 31 games in his first AHL season after posting 90 points (40G / 50A) in 66 games with the Windsor Spitfires (OHL) last year.
Call up / Send down
The Coyotes have reassigned Laurent Dauphin to Tucson (AHL).
Dauphin appeared in four games and was a healthy scratch for two during this call-up. Overall, he has two goals and one assist in 24 games with the Coyotes this season. The 21-year-old will go back to Tucson, where he has collected 11 points (5G / 6A) in 11 games this season.
Call up / Send down
The Blues have recalled Pheonix Copley from Chicago (AHL).
Copley, 25, has gone 11-4-1 with a 2.32 GAA and .920 SV% in 18 games with Chicago this season. The Blues’ No.1 Jake Allen has struggled mightily recently, so they will leave him in St. Louis when the Blues depart for Winnipeg for Saturday’s game. The Blues did not name a starter for Saturday, so the North Pole, Alaska native could make his first career NHL start.
Call up / Send down
The Blue Jackets have recalled Markus Hannikainen from Cleveland (AHL).
Hannikainen, 23, has no points in five games with the Blue Jackets this season. He has spent the majority of the year with the Monsters, where he registered nine goals and five assists (14 points) in 25 AHL games. Hannikainen will replace Matt Calvert in the lineup.
Call up / Send down
The Canucks have sent Andrey Pedan to Utica (AHL).
Pedan, 23, never appeared in a game during his call-up and will swap places with Jordan Subban as he heads back to Utica. Pedan has two goals and one assist (three points) in 22 games with Utica.
Call up / Send down
The Canucks have recalled Jordan Subban from Utica (AHL).
Subban, 21, was a fourth round pick in 2013 (115th overall) and this is his first NHL call-up. The brother of PK and Malcolm has picked up nine goals and 13 assists (22 points) in 34 games with Utica this season and could make his NHL debut this weekend.
Call up / Send down
The Senators have recalled Casey Bailey from Binghamton (AHL).
Bailey has failed to record a point in four games with Ottawa this season. During his time in Binghamton, the 25-year-old has scored 10 goals with five assists (15 points) in 33 games.
Call up / Send down
The Hurricanes have sent Alex Nedeljkovic to Charlotte (AHL).
Nedeljkovic, 21, played 30 minutes after replacing Cam Ward and stopped all 17 shots he faced in his first taste of the NHL. Nedeljkovic returns to Charlotte where he has gone 5-12-0 with a 3.30 GAA and .884 SV% in 18 games 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.