Call up / Send down
The Devils have Mike Sislo back to Albany (AHL).
Sislo has registered one assist in 10 total games ith the Devils this season. Sislo heads back to Albany where he has 11 points (7G / 4A) in 21 games.
NHL Hockey Player News
Call up / Send down
The Devils have Stefan Matteau back to Albany (AHL).
Matteau did not get into a game during his recall. He heads back to the AHL where he has one goal and eight assists in 26 games.
Call up / Send down
The Lightning have sent Andrei Vasilevskiy back to Syracuse (AHL).
Vasilevskiy only had to make 10 saves in the Lightning’s 5-1 win over the Sabres last night. The Lightning wanted to get him another NHL game with Ben Bishop a little banged up, but the Sabres only registering 11 shots wasn’t much of a test for the young net minder.
Call up / Send down
The Maple Leafs have recalled Greg McKegg from Toronto (AHL).
McKegg, 22, has seven goals and eight assists (15 points) in 23 games with the Marlies this season. He has played in one career NHL game since being drafted 62nd overall in 2010.
Call up / Send down
The Lightning have recalled Nikita Nesterov from Syracuse (AHL).
Nesterov, 5-foot-11, 199 pounds, has played in 32 games with the Crunch this season, recording three goals and 14 points with at plus-4 rating and 26 penalty minutes. He leads all Syracuse blue-liners for goals and points while ranking tied for second for plus/minus.
Call up / Send down
The Ducks have sent Max Friberg back to Norfolk (AHL).
Friberg failed to record a point while playing 8:47 in his NHL debut on Sunday. His return to the AHL opens up a roster spot for Corey Perry to be activated from IR.
Call up / Send down
The Avalanche recalled Borna Rendulic from Lake Erie (AHL).
Rendulic will be in Denver on Wednesday to play against the Philadelphia Flyers. The Avs had a shortened 20-man roster Monday at St. Louis with no healthy scratches. They used defenseman Nick Holden as a forward on the fourth line. With Lake Erie, Rendulic has four goals and four assists in 26 games this season. Rendulic will likely play on a line with left wing Cody McLeod and center Marc-Andre Cliche.
Call up / Send down
The Wild have sent John Curry back to Iowa.
With Niklas Backstrom set to return from an illness, Curry will head back to the minors.
Call up / Send down
The Blue Jackets have recalled Sean Collins from Springfield (AHL).
Collins, 26, who has appeared in two games with Columbus earlier this season, has posted 19 points (10G / 9A) and 14 penalty minutes with an even plus/minus rating in 28 games with Springfield.
Call up / Send down
The Hurricanes recalled Ryan Murphy from Charlotte (AHL).
Murphy, 21, leads all Charlotte skaters this season with 17 assists and seven power-play assists/points, and his 17 points rank tied for first on the team. He is one of eight AHL defensemen to hold a share of his team’s scoring lead, and ranks third among AHL blueliners in assists.
Call up / Send down
Dany Heatley cleared waivers and has been sent to Norfolk (AHL).
Heatley will head to the AHL for the first time in his career. He failed to record a point in six games with the Ducks. Heatley will report and try to gain the attention of other teams so that the Ducks will be able to trade him.
Call up / Send down
The Sharks have sent Chris Tierney back to Worcester (AHL).
Tierney, 20, has two assists in 14 games with San Jose this season. He heads back to Worcester where he has 10 points (1G / 9A) in 12 games.
Call up / Send down
The Red Wings have recalled Xavier Ouellet from Grand Rapids (AHL).
Ouellet, 21, has been recalled because Jakub Kindl is out with a lower-body injury. Ouellet will be in the lineup on Wednesday. He has been great for the Red Wings this season and has tallied two points (1G / 1A) in nine games with Detroit. He has registered eight points (1G / 7A) in 21 games with Grand Rapids.
Call up / Send down
Matt Hackett has cleared waivers and been reassigned to Rochester (AHL).
Hackett is expected to make his season debut shortly after missing the first three months after undergoing offseason knee surgery.
Call up / Send down
The Devils recalled Mike Sislo from Albany (AHL).
Sislo, 26, has 11 points (7G / 4A) in 21 games with Albany this season. In nine games with the Devils he has one assist.
Call up / Send down
The Maple Leafs have sent goalie Christopher Gibson back to Toronto (AHL).
Gibson was recalled to backup James Reimer for the last two games because Jonathan Bernier was out with an illness. With Gibson going back to the minors, Bernier is obviously ready to go on Wednesday vs. the Bruins.
Call up / Send down
The Lightning have recalled Andrei Vasilevskiy from Syracuse (AHL).
There is no word on any injury to Ben Bishop or Evgeni Nabokov at this time, but Vasilevskiy will join the Lightning in Buffalo for Wednesday’s game. Vasilevskiy was excellent in his time with the Lightning while Ben Bishop was injured—he went 2-1-0 with a 2.01 GAA and .940 SV%.
Call up / Send down
The Penguins have reassigned Jeff Zatkoff to Wilkes-Barre Scranton (AHL).
Zatkoff heads back to the AHL where he ranks fourth in the league in GAA (1.85) and 10th in SV% (.925) while posting a 10-6-1 record. His return to the minors means that Thomas Greiss is set to return after missing time with the mumps.
Call up / Send down
The Oilers have sent Brad Hunt back to Oklahoma City (AHL).
Hunt had two assists and an EVEN rating in five games during his recall. He has a total of three points (1G / 2A) in 11 games with the Oilers this season. His demotion creates room for Nikita Nikitin to be activated from IR.
Call up / Send down
Derek Roy cleared waivers and will be assigned to Milwaukee (AHL).
Roy, 31, will head back to the AHL for the first time since 2005-6 when he had 20 points (7G / 13A) in eight games with the Rochester Americans. He had 10 points (1G / 9A) in 26 games with the Predators 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.