Detroit Red Wings‘ re-signed big defenseman Luke Witkowski(28) to a new 2-year deal through 2023, as some back-up insurance.
The 6’2″ 210 lbs. blue liner has mostly been re-assigned to help affiliate Grand Rapids Griffins, but is easily on a short list for a big league game.
He was twice recently listed as captain of draft club, Tampa Bay Lightning (6th round, 2008, #160 overall) farm team, Syracuse Crunch and last played in the NHL, early 2019.
The former 4-year, senior captain at Western Michigan University Broncos d-man has skated 280 AHL games with a total +31 rating.
At 31-years old, he’s definitely always been in line for big contracts, but has always worked hard to maintain the level.
9th year defenseman Jon Merrill(4) signed just about one month into unrestricted free agency by Minnesota Wild after coming off a late trade that sent him to Montreal Canadiens, which resulted in an unexpected extended Cup run.
The New Jersey Devils‘ 2nd round pick in 2010 (#34 overall) spent 4 years until he was picked up by Vegas Golden Knights in their 1st season 2017 expansion draft.
He signed a 2-year deal to stay and wound up with his best overall stats in his 2nd season in Nevada, scoring highs of 3 goals, tying 12 assists and 15 points with a +16 rating.
The sizable 6’3″ 204 lbs. former 3-year University Of Michigan Wolverines‘ blue liner next signed, as 2020/2021 was starting, a 1-year deal with Detroit Red Wings.
He’s notched 3 goals and 8 assists in 33 NHL games this season with a +8 rating, so the 29-year old is off to a good run with his new club and maybe not easily, but he could reach new heights in all categories and was rewarded for his play with a new 3-year deal worth $1.2M AAV.
The Oklahoma City native must have a huge smile on his face.
12th year center Andrew Rowe(19) scores a nice loan up to after 3 years of captain for SC Rapperswill-JonaLakers to participate with HC Davos for the upcoming Spengler Cup.
The 3-year Michigan State University Spartans‘ had a seriously good junior year before deciding to turn pro under contract with Adirondack Phantoms.
He split mostly of his playing time in North America, equally between the AHL and ECHL with just over 200 games in each league.
The 6’2″ 185 lbs. forward was a point-per-game guy at the lower level with a +69 rating, but got a contract in his final frame before leaving overseas, where he posted a 13 goals, 26 assists and 39 points for Bridgeport Sound Tigers to take to a nice new deal with Mora IK.
At 33-years old, he’s got to be pretty happy still contributing, signing good deals in great places to play hockey.
Colorado Avalanche sign 2nd year right wing Callahan Burke(68) after spending the entirety of his rookie campaign inked with affiliate Colorado Eagles.
The 5’10” 185 lbs. forward has 6 goals and 8 assists in 19 AHL games this season.
He had a pair of successful junior campaigns for Cedar Rapids Roughriders of the USHL before committing to University Of Notre Fighting Irish.
The 20-year old, Boxborough, MA native (down the street from where we grew up) was team captain as a senior and will likely continue to push the envelope for a 1st recall.
Boston Bruins‘ 9th year, Finnish-born center Erik Haula(56) signed a tw0-year $2.5M AAV contract near the beginning of unrestricted free agency after coming off an ok season for Nashville Predators.
Originally a Minnesota Wild 7th round draft pick in the 2009 draft (#182 overall), he spent the first four years of his pro career with the team after being a total offensive threat for three campaigns at University Of Minnesota Golden Gophers.
The 6″ 194 lbs. forward was next grabbed in Vegas Golden Knights‘ expansion draft and signed to a lucrative three-year deal, then had his most outstanding offensive numbers right away with 29 goals and 26 assists, but a bit of a terrible -16 rating in 76 NHL games.
The 30-year old is off to maybe a bit of a slow start in 2021/2022 with only a goal an 4 assists in 14 games, but always seems to have the ability to strike for multi-point outings at any given point.
10th year defensemen Tommy Cross(4) gets signed to a 1-year 2-way NHL deal with St. Louis Blues sort of quickly into unrestricted free agency and reassigned a 2nd time to be captain of new affiliate Springfield Thunderbirds.
The 6’3″ 205 lbs. blue liner has 518 AHL games to his credit with a glorious +65 rating, 48 goals and 152 assists reaching the 200 point mark in the minors just recently.
He has only 3 games in the big league to his credit with draft club, Boston Bruins, grabbing an assist, so it’s definitely not impossible to see him score a recall.
The 32-year old, former 4-year Boston College senior captain from Simsbury, CT must just be pretty pleased his is still pulling down a major contract, despite his limited experience in the league.
8th year center T.J. Tynan(36) gets the call from new club Los Angeles Kings after igniting affiliate Ontario Reign scoring with 2 goals and 13 assists in 14 AHL games.
The 5’9″ 165 lbs. forward was voted the league’s Most Valuable Player in last season’s crazy run with 7 goals and point-per-game 27 assists and also helped Cleveland Monsters win the 2016 Championship.
At 29-years old, he has only skated 20 NHL games with one assist, but in the lower league has a total of 74 goals and 291 assists in 448 games with a +67 rating.
He was also basically a huge scoring standout through 4 years at Notre Dame University Fighting Irish and has to be at least a little happy how his career has evolved.
2nd year in Florida Panthers‘ system (6th overall), left wing Ryan Lomberg(94) gets a new contract extension for a couple more seasons after opening 2021/2022 with 2 goals and 3 assists in 14 NHL games with a +5 rating.
The scrappy 5’9″ 187 lbs. forward started his pro career on a minor league deal and even was sent to the ECHL for most of his rookie session to Adirondack Thunder, putting up close to point-per-game production, then helping the playoff push with more strikes.
He spent the entirety of his sophomore campaign up in the AHL, scoring 13 goals and 16 assists with a +15 in 68 games to gain final notice of the parent club, Calgary Flames, who signed him to a 2-year entry deal with a one year follow-up.
He received some big league time and had an assist, but couldn’t hang on with the parent club.
The 2-year University Of Maine Black Bears’ averaged close to 10 goals while he was there, but in an almost oddball move, left and returned to become captain of Youngstown Phantoms for another run through the USHL before turning pro.
While not exactly a fighter, he has gotten into some scraps with guys much bigger than him, which shows disregard but a level of balls for sure.
As an unrestricted free agent, he waited right up until the start of the new season before agreeing to terms, but almost oddly played entirely up in the show.
The 26-year old has to laugh a little at the ride he’s taken to make it stick.
Buffalo Sabres‘ 4th round pick in the 2016 draft (#99 overall), 3rd year left wing Brett Murray(57) played his first season under the guide of the parent club on an AHL contract with affiliate Rochester Americans.
The kinda giant 6’5″ 228 lbs., former year and a half Penn State University Nittany Lions‘ forward posted 9 goals in each of his first two seasons and 10+ assists before dropping a goal and 7 assists in 6 games in the current frame to earn a 2nd recall.
In his first re-appearance, he failed to connect in a win, but had an assist the next night and topped it with a two point, first NHL goal and an assist performance in a loss that should have earned him a third star award.
The Bolton, ON native took an interesting path from a first year at juniors, directingly into a first year at college hockey, but only stayed one run before returning to Youngstown Phantoms to absolutely detonate the stat sheet with a league best 41 goals and 35 assists with a +13 rating.
That was basically all the now 23 year old needed to turn pro and now he’s looking at some extended time up.
12th year veteran defenseman Jared Nightingale(3) retired after 1 game for Quad City Mallards and went on to take the assistant coach reins at Omaha Lancers of the USHL.
The big 6’3″ 205 lbs. blue liner has skated 472 AHL games, 202 ECHL after 4 years at Michigan State University Spartans.
He sort of followed a bit of a pattern coaching, two years in US juniors, two OHL and then adopted to coach a team he’d played 67 games for as team captain, Rockford Icehogs.
The 39-year old from Jackson, MI has to have a little smile on his face.
