Call up / Send down
The Predators have reassigned Viktor Stalberg to Milwaukee (AHL).
Stalberg has been a healthy scratch for the last three games, but will return to Milwaukee, where he has 12 points (7G / 5A) in 14 games.
NHL Transactions & Roster Moves
Call up / Send down
The Jets have recalled Carl Klingberg from St. John’s (AHL).
Klingberg, 24, has 15 goals and 15 assists (30 points) in 51 games with St. John’s this season. He has just one goal in his last 10 games, but his recall likely means that either Drew Stafford or Mathieu Perreault will go on IR and Klingberg can be expected to play on Thursday in Washington.
Call up / Send down
The Predators have recalled Anthony Bitetto and he will play tonight.
The Predators thought they would have Cody Franson in the lineup tonight, but with his immigration issues the Predators had to recall Bitetto to be the sixth defenseman tonight.
Call up / Send down
The Sharks have reassigned Matt Tennyson to Worcester (AHL).
Tennyson, 24, had two goals and six assists in 27 games with the Sharks. With Justin Braun returning to the lineup tonight, they reassigned Tennyson to make room for Braun. Tennyson has six points (3G / 3A) in 19 games in Worcester.
Call up / Send down
The Senators have recalled Chris Driedger from Evansville (AHL).
Driedger, 20, has gone 8-25-2 with a 3.75 GAA and .888 SV% in 36 games with Evansville this season. With Craig Anderson and Robin Lehner out, Driedger will be Andrew Hammond’s backup on Wednesday.
Call up / Send down
The Red Wings have recalled Teemu Pulkkinen from Grand Rapids (AHL).
The Red Wings finally sent Petr Mrazek back to Grand Rapids last night, creating a roster spot for Pulkkinen. The 23-year-old had one goal in six games with the Red Wings earlier in the season. He has dominated at the AHL level—he leads the NHL in goals with 30, which is seven more than second and points with 57, which is four more than second.
Call up / Send down
The Maple Leafs have recalled Sam Carrick from Toronto (AHL).
Carrick, 23, will likely be in the lineup tonight with Trevor Smith banged up and Olli Jokinen unlikely to play. Carrick has no points in 10 games with the Leafs this season, but has 20 points (5G / 15A) in 40 games with the Marlies.
Call up / Send down
The Blue Jackets have recalled Marko Dano from Springfield (AHL).
Dano, 20, registered one goal and one assist in eight games with the Blue Jackets earlier in the season. He has spent the majority of his time in Springfield where he has collected 18 points (10G / 8A) in 37 games.
Call up / Send down
The Red Wings have reassigned Petr Mrazek to Grand Rapids (AHL).
Mrazek, 23, filled in admirably while Jonas Gustavsson was out and then played even better when he became the team’s starter when Jimmy Howard went down. Overall he was 13-5-1 with a 2.55 GAA and .909 SV% in 20 games with the Red Wings. He will be back if another injury happens in the crease and he will definitely have a permanent spot on the team in 2015-16.
Call up / Send down
The Ducks recalled Emerson Etem from Norfolk (AHL).
Etem, 22, has registered two goals and four assists in 27 games with the Ducks this season. While in Nofolk he has recorded 13 goals and eight assists (21 points in 22 games.
Call up / Send down
The Flyers have sent Anthony Stolarz down to Lehigh Valley (AHL).
Stolarz did not get into a game during his recall and with Rob Zepp now healthy, Stolarz will swap places with him and head back to Lehigh Valley. The 21-year-old is 7-10-1 with a 3.04 GAA and .911 SV% in the AHL.
Call up / Send down
The Flyers have recalled Rob Zepp from Lehigh Valley (AHL).
When Steve Mason went down with a lower-body injury, the Flyers recalled Anthony Stolarz because Rob Zepp was dealing with a minor injury in Lehigh Valley. Now that Zepp is healthy, he has swapped places with Stolarz and will be in the lineup on Tuesday vs. Blue Jackets. Zepp is 3-1-0 with a 2.92 GAA and .889 SV% at the NHL level this season.
Call up / Send down
Subban is expected to be recalled and join the Bruins in Edmonton.
Subban had recently been sent down and did not get into any games during his recall. The 2012 first round pick has gone 10-10-3 with a 2.47 GAA and .920 SV% in Providence (AHL) and there is reportedly a lot of interest in him with the trade deadline looming. The belief is that he is being recalled and could start on Wednesday as an NHL showcase before the deadline. It is even more interesting because the game is vs. Edmonton, a team who is believed to be interested in Subban and a team with players like Jordan Eberle, who the Bruins are very interested in.
Call up / Send down
The Canucks have recalled Alex Biega from Utica (AHL).
Biega, 26, has three goals and 12 assists (15 points) in 42 games with Utica this season. With Yannick Weber likely going into the lineup for Alex Edler, Biega has been recalled to be the Canucks seventh defenseman.
Call up / Send down
The Senators recalled Shane Prince from Binghamton (AHL).
Prince, 22, was the Senators second round pick (61st overall) in 2011. The 5-foot-11, 190 lbs. forward has registered 18 goals and 20 assists (38 points) in 47 games with Binghamton this season. He is expected to make his NHL debut on Monday.
Call up / Send down
The Maple Leafs have recalled Brandon Kozun from Toronto (AHL).
Kozun, 24, has one assist in six games with the Maple Leafs this season. While in the AHL, Kozun has registered 11 points (5G / 6A) in 23 games.
Call up / Send down
The Maple Leafs recalled Petter Granberg from Toronto (AHL).
Granberg was sent down yesterday, but when the Maple Leafs traded Cody Franson to the Predators a spot on the Leafs blue line opened back up. Granberg will likely lineup next to Morgan Rielly on Tuesday.
Call up / Send down
The Maple Leafs have acquired Olli Jokinen, Brendan Leipsic and a 2015 first round pick from the Predators for Cody Franson and Mike Santorelli.
Jokinen is a pending unrestricted free agent at the end of the season and was just a salary dump for the Predators. The veteran centre has been a healthy scratch in eight of the last nine games. He has registered three goals and three assists in 48 games this season.
Call up / Send down
The Maple Leafs have sent Petter Granberg to Toronto (AHL).
Granberg did not get into the lineup during his recall, but heads back to the AHL where he has seven points (1G / 6A) in 29 games.
Call up / Send down
The Red Wings have sent Jakub Kindl to Grand Rapids (AHL) on a conditioning stint.
Kindl has not played since December 27th because of an elbow injury. He will play a few games with the Griffins before returning to the Red Wings and likely replacing Alexey Marchenko on the blue line.
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.