Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
The NHL’s roster freeze took hold at Saturday midnight and halts activity until Dec. 28.
Some organizations got ahead of that deadline and made moves to get their AHL rosters in order. The midpoint of the 2025-26 season is only weeks away, after all. From that point forward, it will be a full sprint into the second half and toward the Calder Cup Playoffs.
Let’s review some of the biggest swaps made around the AHL so far.
Bakersfield Condors
An already-productive offense got that much stronger Dec. 12 when forward Sam Poulin came to the Edmonton Oilers organization in a major deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Bakersfield is averaging 3.56 goals per game so far and is third overall on the power play at 26.5 percent (26-for-98).
But in Poulin, 24, they have someone who paced one of the AHL’s top teams, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, with 20 points (nine goals, 11 assists) in 22 contests before the trade. Poulin was a 2019 first-round pick by Pittsburgh as well. He picked up a pair of assists in his Condors debut at Tucson on Dec. 13. Used on the left side with impressive newcomer Viljami Marjala early in his Condors tenure. With Quinn Hutson and his 16 goals (second-most in the AHL) on recall to Edmonton, Poulin’s arrival is that much more important for Bakersfield.
Iowa Wild
Minnesota Wild management has shown willingness to be aggressive through a third of the 2025-26 season.
That approach, of course, resulted in a massive trade with the Vancouver Canucks on Dec. 12 that brought star defenseman Quinn Hughes to Minnesota. But Minnesota has also been looking for potential bargains. One of those attempts came Oct. 17 when they acquired forward Oskar Olausson from the San Jose Sharks.
As Iowa tries to shake off a slow start, Olausson figures to be a key part of the roster. He has been mainly used on the left side of the top-six and has generated nine points (three goals, six assists) through 23 games in Iowa green.
Lehigh Valley Phantoms
No NHL team has been more active in revamping its AHL defense corps than the Philadelphia Flyers have.
TheAHL.com examined those moves in detail earlier this month, as deals with the Dallas Stars, Ottawa Senators and Tampa Bay Lightning brought Christian Kyrou, Max Guenette and Roman Schmidt into the Philadelphia organization. All three players have since settled in on the Lehigh Valley blue line.
As usual, the Phantoms find themselves in the middle of the ultra-competitive Atlantic Division. Even with a bit of a recent dip, they remain firmly in contention. Their 14-11-1-2 record has them planted third in the division.
Rockford IceHogs
With rookie forwards Oliver Moore and Nick Lardis up with the Blackhawks, The IceHogs brought back forward Rem Pitlick in a trade with Bakersfield last week. Pitlick was with Rockford in 2023-24, he had 33 points (14 goals, 19 assists) in 27 games. He recorded 15 points in 24 games with the Condors before the deal.
Pitlick made his first game back with the IceHogs an impactful one, providing a goal and three assists in Saturday’s 7-3 win at Manitoba.
Springfield Thunderbirds
The Thunderbirds are working to undo the damage of a slow start, and St. Louis Blues management has been active in making changes to the AHL roster.
On Nov. 3, the Blues brought back defenseman Calle Rosén from the Washington Capitals. Rosén, one of the AHL’s most proven puck distributors, was part of the Springfield team that went to the Calder Cup Finals in 2022 and won a championship with the Toronto Marlies in 2018.
Springfield had averaged just 2.33 goals per game (26th in the AHL) at the time of the deal. In their 16 games since then, the team has bumped its goal production up to 2.81 goals per game.
St. Louis also sent forward Nikita Alexandrov to the Los Angeles Kings for forward Akil Thomas on Dec. 2. Thomas, 25, has yet to make his Springfield debut, however.
