AHL WEEKEND: NHL trade activity hits the AHL early

EP Rinkside has this look around the 31-team league to set you up for this weekend’s slate.

AND SO IT BEGINS

NHL trade deadline activity has arrived early in the AHL just in time to set up the busy weekend schedule.

With the February 25th NHL trade deadline approaching, the Arizona Coyotes and Nashville Predators struck a deal Friday involving three AHL players. Milwaukee Admirals forward Emil Pettersson went to the Arizona organization for Tucson Roadrunners forwards Laurent Dauphin and Adam Helewka. Milwaukee also sent AHL-contracted forward Jérémy Grégoire to Tucson in a separate deal.

For the 25-year-old Pettersson, older brother to Vancouver Canucks star forward Elias Pettersson, the deal represents a fresh start, especially with NHL work hard to find in Nashville. The Predators took him in the sixth round of the 2013 NHL Draft, and he played in the SHL before going to Milwaukee last season. He has gone 11-22-33 in 49 games for the Admirals and led Milwaukee in scoring last season at 13-33-46.

Milwaukee will need Dauphin and Helewka to inject offense into their line-up. The Admirals’ 2.65 goals per game have them 27th in the AHL. They have four goals in their past three games, all losses, including a 1-0 shutout by the Texas Stars in Milwaukee this week.

Dauphin, 23, will leave the Arizona organization for the second time in his four-season pro career after the Coyotes selected him in the 2013 NHL Draft’s second round. He went to the Chicago Blackhawks with defenseman Connor Murphy in the June 2017 trade for defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson. Arizona re-acquired him from the Blackhawks a year ago for forward Anthony Duclair and defenseman Adam Clendening. However, after skating in 24 games for the Coyotes in 2016-17, he had only managed three NHL appearances with Arizona since then. In 34 games for the Roadrunners, he went 6-14-20.

As for Helewka, who is also 23, he came to Arizona this past summer from the San Jose Sharks for defenseman Kyle Wood. Helewka delivered a team-best 13 goals for the Roadrunners in 41 games, and his 31 points (13-18-31) placed him second on the club.

The 23-year-old Grégoire arrived in Milwaukee in the offseason from the Laval Rocket and produced 12 points (5-7-12) in 45 appearances.

Both Milwaukee and Tucson have struggled lately. A two-game road series against the Rockford IceHogs starts Friday night for the 23-14-4-1 Roadrunners, who hold fourth place in the Pacific Division and are trying to chase down the San Diego Gulls and Bakersfield Condors. Tucson has lost four games in a row (0-3-1-0) going into a grinding six-game road trip. In all, they play eight of their next 10 games away from Tucson Arena.

With a 22-18-8-1 mark stationing them fourth in the Central Division, the Admirals are trying to fend off three Central Division teams – the IceHogs (one point behind), Texas (two points behind), and the San Antonio Rampage (five points back). Even the last-place Manitoba Moose are only eight points behind Milwaukee and owning three games in hand. They open a stretch of three home games in four days starting Friday before a seven-game road journey begins next weekend at Manitoba.

Should the Arizona organization wish to strengthen the Tucson roster before the NHL and AHL deadlines, they will have a roster flexibility to do so. With the AHL’s youngest roster at an average age of 23.5 years old, Tucson is carrying only one veteran player, forward David Ullström. Last season the Arizona organization took a very active approach to bolster the Tucson line-up in hopes of providing their prospects with AHL playoff experience. Tucson picked up forward Carter Camper and defenseman Trevor Murphy in separate deals and went on to the second round of the postseason before falling to Texas.

AROUND THE AHL

The Arizona-Nashville exchange followed another AHL-related move. On Wednesday, Belleville Senators veteran forward Max McCormick went from the Ottawa Senators to the Colorado Avalanche for second-year forward J-C Beaudin. The Avalanche sent McCormick to the Eagles for their AHL playoff push while Ottawa assigned Beaudin to Belleville.

In hot pursuit of an Atlantic Division playoff spot are the Hershey Bears, who will bring a 10-game point streak into their home double-header against the Charlotte Checkers this weekend. Hershey knocked off the Springfield Thunderbirds, 4-2, in a road game this past Wednesday and have a 9-0-0-1 run. A pair of Washington Capitals first-rounders helped in the win. Thirty-five saves from goaltender Ilya Samsonov, the 22nd pick in the 2015 NHL Draft, helped to hold off the Thunderbirds. Samsonov came to Hershey after three KHL seasons with Metallurg Magnitogorsk. Although he is still 11-11-1 | 3.00 | .885, he has held opponents to two or fewer goals in six of his past seven games. Hershey also had second-year pro Lucas Johansen back on the blue line after he missed 2 ½ months while injured. The 2016 Washington first-rounder contributed an assist and three shots on net.

Roster vacancies should open with the New York Rangers as the NHL trade deadline approaches, but the Hartford Wolf Pack are not playing like it. The season has fallen apart for the Wolf Pack, who have an eight-game losing streak (0-6-1-1) that has pushed them to the bottom of the Eastern Conference, 11 points out of an Atlantic Division playoff spot. They are on track to miss the postseason for the sixth time in the past seven seasons. They face a punishing 3-in-3 weekend that opens Friday night with the Syracuse Crunch visiting. After that, they hit the highway for a pair of games against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

Fresh off a sluggish 6-3 home loss to the rival Ontario Reign, who are last in the AHL, the San Diego Gulls are going on the road. They have a team-record six-game road trip that begins Friday at Ontario to complete the home-and-home series. From there, they move on to see the Bakersfield Condors, who have nailed down 10 consecutive wins, for a Saturday night date. They also have a two-game series at Colorado as well as against the Pacific Division-leading San Jose Barracuda.

San Diego had forward Kalle Kossila back in the line-up after he missed a month with an injury. He chipped in a goal in the loss.

With an 11-game point streak (9-0-1-1) on the line, the Providence Bruins have a home-and-home series with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers that starts Friday night in downtown Providence. There they have a 13-game point streak (10-0-3-0), a good sign for a team that finishes regular season by playing 18 of its remaining 29 games on Providence ice.

P-Bruins forward Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson, 22, has divided time between Boston and Providence, going 1-4-5 in 12 AHL games. Boston picked him up in the second round of the 2015 NHL Draft. Fellow 22-year-old forward Ryan Donato has also been hot since Boston sent him to Providence. He chipped in 1-1-2 in his first game after the assignment this past Friday at Charlotte. Also a Boston second-rounder, he went in the 2014 NHL Draft.

Texas lost number-one goaltender Landon Bow on recall to the Dallas Stars on Thursday. The 23-year-old Bow shut out Milwaukee on 29 saves on Wednesday night. He has been a workhorse for Texas, making a league-leading 34 appearances while going 18-10-4 | 2.70 | .902. Texas back-up Philippe Desrosiers has gone 3-5-0 | 2.97 | .891 in 10 games. The AHL Stars have a pair of games at Manitoba this weekend and recalled rookie Colton Point from the ECHL’s Idaho Steelheads. Point, 20, is 1-3-1 | 3.96 | .854 in five AHL contests this season.

A two-game road split against Charlotte has the Cleveland Monsters still in the thick of the North Division playoff race. Goaltender J-F Bérubé’s 40 saves helped lead them to a 5-1 win in the back-half of the series this past Wednesday. Four points out of a playoff spot, the Monsters have a two-game weekend set in Cleveland against the Binghamton Devils.

Bridgeport’s 10 overtime or shootout wins lead the AHL. Their 16 appearances in extra-time are second-most overall. Finnish forward Otto Koivula continues his impressive season in Bridgeport, posting eight points (1-7-8) in his past six games. A 2016 New York Islanders fourth-round pick, the 20-year-old went to Bridgeport after two Liiga seasons with Ilves Tampere. His 33 points (13-20-33) in 45 games put him sixth among AHL rookies.

Kaapo Kähkönen has been one of the best young goaltenders in the AHL this season. Photo: Bildbyrån

Two of the AHL’s best young goaltenders met earlier this week in San Jose, where the Iowa Wild pulled out a 4-2 win against the Barracuda. Iowa’s Kaapo Kahkonen took the win with 24 saves against San Jose’s Josef Korenar. Kähkönen, 22, is tied for the AHL lead with five shutouts and is 13-9-2 | 2.51 | .914 over 26 games in his first season in North America. Korenar is 20 years old and handled 34 of 37 Iowa shots. Through 21 games for the Barracuda, he has gone 16-4-1 | 2.24 | .921.

THIS WEEKEND