Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
The Columbus Blue Jackets saw to it that the Cleveland Monsters could take two major steps forward hours before the NHL trade deadline arrived on Friday afternoon.
The Blue Jackets acquired goaltender Malcolm Subban from St. Louis and defenseman Jakub Zboril from Boston, assigning both to the Monsters. Subban was 11-14-4 with a 2.94 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage in 31 games with Springfield this season, while Zboril had nine assists in 31 games with Providence after spending the previous three seasons in the NHL. Both players are former first-round draft picks, Subban in 2012 and Zboril in 2015.
A player must have been on an AHL roster by Friday’s 3 p.m. ET deadline in order to be sent down to the AHL at any point through the rest of the season. Organizations across the NHL made moves to shore up their AHL rosters.
In Subban’s case, his arrival gives the Monsters, who are in a fight for first place in the North Division, a playoff-tested netminder and someone who can help relieve some of the workload for AHL All-Star Jet Greaves, who has faced more shots than any other goaltender in the league. Last season Subban helped to lead Rochester to the Eastern Conference Finals, going 8-6 with 2.56 GAA and a .916 save percentage in the postseason.
Getting the Monsters to the Calder Cup Playoffs and on a run is a strong priority for Columbus president of hockey operations John Davidson and his hockey staff, which includes Cleveland general manager Chris Clark. The Monsters have made only one playoff appearance since winning the Calder Cup in 2016, and with a roster that includes highly regarded prospects like David Jiricek, Luca Del Bel Belluz, Corson Ceulemans and Stanislav Svozil, management wants them to get valuable postseason experience this spring. The Monsters’ 2016 championship run helped to prepare and propel several players on to long NHL careers, including Josh Anderson, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Anton Forsberg, Joonas Korpisalo, Sonny Milano and Zach Werenski.
Cleveland will finish the weekend tied with Syracuse for first in the North after dropping a pair of games in Laval, and will return home to open a five-game homestand Wednesday against Grand Rapids. A Greaves-Subban tandem in net should make the home stretch less treacherous; Greaves is an undrafted prospect who has turned himself into a candidate for a much longer look with the Blue Jackets at some point. Hopes are high for the 22-year-old, who has made three NHL starts this season.
“I think it’s confidence,” head coach Trent Vogelhuber said of how Greaves has blossomed. “Right from the start two years ago when he came in, he was a pro. He comes in at 20 years old, and with most of those kids you’re going through habits, the way you practice, and even helping away from the rink, everything down to sleep and food. A lot of kids just don’t know. Jet came in as a pro.
“First to the rink. Last out. Crosses every ‘t.’ Dots every ‘i.’ Works harder than anybody. He’s a leader for us because of the way that he carries himself, the teammate that he is. He’s a glue teammate everybody loves.”
Cleveland’s young core will continue to be tested. Vogelhuber played on that championship team eight years ago and knows what his players could be in for, both down the regular-season stretch and into the spring. But he is excited for what high-pressure games can mean for his players.
“There’s a great opportunity for players to be pushed to their best,” Vogelhuber said. “It’s the best thing for them to be pushed mentally, physically every game because teams aren’t taking it easy. I think that just expedites some of that growth of the things that we’re looking for these kids.”
The Evgeny Kuznetsov era in Hershey lasted only a couple of days. But the NHL star still left an impression.
“The room was buzzing,” Bears head coach Todd Nelson said Kuznetsov practiced with the team for the first time on Tuesday. “There was so much energy, it was just incredible.”
Kuznetsov got to Giant Center after being assigned by the parent Washington Capitals in the next step in his reinstatement from the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program, bringing with him 568 points in 724 career NHL games and a Stanley Cup championship with the Caps in 2018. In addition to Tuesday’s practice, he participated in a Bears community event and then accompanied the team on a lengthy bus ride to Charlotte on Wednesday.
And while the Bears acknowledged the possibility that they might not ever see Kuznetsov in their lineup, they still could not help but admit thinking about the possibilities.
“Waking up this morning, I felt different,” captain Dylan McIlrath said Tuesday. “Excited. Great to see him walking through the doors, hearing his token laugh. It brought big energy, big buzz to the rink. It was fun.”
Alas, a longer union was not to be. Hours before the NHL trade deadline on Friday, the Capitals sent Kuznetsov to the Carolina Hurricanes. So it goes in hockey, especially come deadline time. Plans change. The Capitals had a chance to ease some salary-cap pressure and get a 2025 third-round pick in the process, so they took it.
Still, the Bears are plenty primed for another go in the Calder Cup Playoffs. They received forward Pierrick Dubé and his 24 goals back from the Capitals to start the week. And they got Matthew Phillips, who scored 36 AHL goals a year ago, after he was re-claimed off waivers from Pittsburgh. The 25-year-old made his Hershey debut last night and contributed a goal and an assist in a 3-2 win at Charlotte.
And while Hershey will not have forward Mike Sgarbossa back after the Capitals elected to keep him on their roster for the rest of the season, a pair of first-round picks in Hendrix Lapierre and Ivan Miroshnichenko are eligible to return to Hershey, and Ethen Frank, Riley Sutter and Lucas Johansen returned this weekend from injury absences.
The Calgary Flames and Dallas Stars struck another deal before the NHL trade deadline arrived as they exchanged two young forwards.
Riley Damiani went to the Flames organization for Emilio Pettersen in a move that will provide each prospect with a fresh start.
Damiani, who turns 24 on March 20, was voted the AHL’s rookie of the year with the Texas Stars in 2020-21. Now in his fourth pro campaign, he had 23 points (10 goals, 13 assists) in 53 games for Texas. Pettersen, who turns 24 next month, had 30 points (seven goals, 23 assists) in 54 games for the Calgary Wranglers as a fourth-year pro. Last season he had 19 goals and 44 points in 61 games.
The Damiani-Pettersen swap was the second one between Calgary and Dallas involving AHL players; on Feb. 28, the Flames acquired rookie defenseman Artem Grushnikov from the Stars. The 21-year-old, a 2021 second-round pick by Dallas, had played 44 games with Texas before the move.
The Stars also got a major boost internally with the return of defenseman Gavin Bayreuther. The experienced hand, a key offseason signing by Dallas, had been out since opening night before returning for this weekend’s two-game home set against San Jose.
Damiani can make his Wranglers debut this afternoon when they play the first of back-to-back home games against Ontario.
“[The move is] a change of scenery, a different group, plus I’m going to a really good team, so I’m excited,” Damiani told calgarywranglers.com. “I felt like I wasn’t really on very many people’s radars coming into the trade deadline, but I’m glad to be getting this opportunity and for the Flames to give me a chance here, so I appreciate that.”
Earlier this season, Texas head coach Neil Graham had praised Damiani’s ability to shift roles and evolve. Adding more elements to his game can make him a stronger NHL recall option.
“He’s been in a crossroads of really establishing his role on a day-to-day basis,” Graham said at the time. “Where I have to give him credit is he’s done a really nice job adding minutes to his game on our penalty kill. He’s been a trusted commodity out there.
“Not unlike a lot of players, he had a lot of success in that first year. You could instantly see the offensive upside. The last couple years some of the pucks haven’t gone in quite as readily. So what does he do? You’ve got to control those things to add opportunity and availability. When you can add options, you’re doing yourself a favor. You’re making yourself more available for whatever those needs may be.”
Depending on how the Los Angeles Kings’ fortunes evolve over the next several weeks, Ontario could be adding a pair of first-round picks.
The Kings made AHL All-Star defenseman Brandt Clarke and forward Alex Turcotte available for the Reign before Friday’s deadline. Both have been with Los Angeles since the All-Star break but had provided strong performances in Ontario before earning promotions to the Kings.
The 21-year-old Clarke, who went eighth overall in the 2021 NHL Draft, notched 33 points (eight goals, 25 assists) in 32 games with the Reign and is still tied for second in points among rookie blueliners despite having played only two AHL games this calendar year. He has collected six points (two goals, four assists) in 16 games for the Kings. Turcotte, 23, has overcome injury problems to put together a solid season that includes 23 points (seven goals, 16 assists) in 30 games for the Reign. The fifth overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft has a goal and two assists in his 15 games with the Kings.
The Kings sit comfortably in the NHL’s Western Conference standings eight points above the playoff line, so the pair could remain in the NHL for some time. For now, however, Ontario continues to roll. The Reign will take a seven-game point streak (6-0-0-1) with them into today’s match-up with Calgary.
TheAHL.com will have a further breakdown of the NHL trade deadline’s impact on AHL teams on Monday. More moves around the AHL could be on the way as the league has its own trade/loan deadline set for this coming Friday.
TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams has been on the American Hockey League beat for nearly two decades for outlets including NHL.com, Sportsnet, TSN, The Hockey News, SiriusXM NHL Network Radio and SLAM! Sports, and was most recently the co-host of The Hockey News On The ‘A’ podcast. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.