Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
NHL free agency continues, and signings featuring top AHL names continue to roll in from front offices.
A name from the past, top veterans, Calder Cup champions, and several AHL All-Stars are among the players who have been on the move. Organizational depth is critical, and NHL front offices are working to add that roster versatility. Even for players who will find themselves starting in the AHL come October, free agency represents an opportunity. Time and time again players who have started a season in the AHL have gone on to finish it on an NHL roster.
A full running list of the action is available here. Here are more ongoing storylines.
A former AHL MVP returns
When Daniel Carr last skated in the AHL, he was a top scorer on the brink of an NHL job. With 71 points (30 goals, 41 assists) in just 52 games for the 2018-19 Chicago Wolves, he took home the Les Cunningham Award as the AHL’s most valuable player. The following year he continued to pile up points with the Milwaukee Admirals. After a brief stint with the Washington Capitals, however, he headed overseas to play with HC Lugano in the Swiss National League.
Four seasons later, Carr is back in the AHL, inking a two-year AHL contract with Milwaukee. He still can produce plenty offensively, putting up 46 points (17 goals, 29 assists) in 39 games this past season in one of Europe’s top leagues. The Admirals have a long tradition of attracting players, including those from their past, to a top-notch set-up, and Carr is the latest one to take them up on an offer.
The captain is back
Change has definitely hit the Texas Stars, a team that went to the Western Conference Finals this spring.
Head coach Neil Graham took a promotion to Dallas to become an assistant coach. Forward Matěj Blümel and his league-leading 39 goals are off to the Boston Bruins.
One constant remains: captain Curtis McKenzie. The forward will remain with Texas on a new one-year AHL contract for his 13th pro season in 2025-26. He excelled in the Calder Cup Playoffs with 10 points (five goals, five assists) in 14 games, represented the team as a Western Conference playing captain at the 2025 AHL All-Star Classic, and topped off his season by winning the Yanick Dupre Memorial Award as the IOA/American Specialty AHL Man of the Year for his community work.
Like Milwaukee, Texas has a tradition of holding on to franchise mainstays. The Stars have former players Max Fortunus and Travis Morin behind their bench as assistants, and on Monday welcomed back Toby Petersen as their new head coach.
Florida, Charlotte stay active
Six players who dressed in Game 6 of the Calder Cup Finals for the Charlotte Checkers have already found new homes, but both they and the parent Florida Panthers have been finding capable reinforcements.
Along with signing goaltender Brandon Bussi (Providence Bruins) on the first day of free agency, the Panthers have added forwards Nolan Foote (Utica Comets) and Jack Studnicka (Ontario Reign), two proven top-six options at the AHL level. Florida management also retained forward MacKenzie Entwistle with a two-year, two-way contract. Entwistle missed most of this past season with an injury before returning to action for the Checkers in the Eastern Conference Finals and quickly resuming his place as a key contributor in head coach Geordie Kinnear’s lineup.
Charlotte also landed forward Brian Pinho with a two-year AHL contract. Pinho is coming off a career season with the Bridgeport Islanders in which he had 25 goals and 49 points in 65 games and went to the AHL All-Star Classic.
Rangers get into the mix
The New York Rangers went out and signed veteran depth, bringing two AHL All-Stars into their organization.
Defenseman Derrick Pouliot signed a two-year deal with the Rangers while forward Trey Fix-Wolansky took a one-year offer. Pouliot finished second among AHL defensemen this past season with 53 points (seven goals, 46 assists) in 70 games for the Syracuse Crunch, earning himself a selection as a First All-Star Team member. This will be Fix-Wolansky’s first time as a pro outside of the Columbus organization; he is coming off another top season with the Cleveland Monsters in which he had a team-leading 60 points (26 goals, 34 assists) in 65 games and represented the team at the 2025 AHL All-Star Classic.
Veteran goaltenders on the move
Two-time Calder Cup champion Hunter Shepard has a new home in the Ottawa Senators organization after signing a two-way deal. Shepard moves on from Hershey after playing parts of five seasons with the Bears, winning the Aldege “Baz” Bastien Memorial Award as the AHL’s most outstanding goaltender in 2023-24 and the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the most valuable player of the 2023 postseason.
Cal Petersen, an Iowa native, has a new one-year contract with the Minnesota Wild after appearing in 31 games this past season with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Also moving closer to home is 23-year-old Isaac Poulter, a Winnipeg product who signed a one-year contract with the hometown Jets after three seasons with Utica.
Jets, Wild, Golden Knights find additional help
Minnesota and Winnipeg both saw their AHL affiliates miss the Calder Cup Playoffs this past season. Work this week could help the Iowa Wild and Manitoba Moose to avoid that fate come next April.
Winnipeg gave forward Mason Shaw, Manitoba’s leading scorer, a one-year contract. The Jets also brought in forward Phil Di Giuseppe, who just won a Calder Cup championship with the Abbotsford Canucks, to go with an elite scorer in Ontario’s Samuel Fagemo, who had 43 goals in 50 games in 2023-24 and went to the AHL All-Star Classic this past season. Power forward Walker Duehr is also Winnipeg-bound after splitting this past season with the Calgary Flames and San Jose Sharks organizations; he churned out 16 goals in 36 games between the Calgary Wranglers and San Jose Barracuda. Also incoming is defenseman Kale Clague after his 39-point campaign with the Rochester Americans.
Minnesota’s depth also improved significantly as forwards Nicolas Aube-Kubel (Rangers) and Tyler Pitlick (Providence) came aboard. They are joined by newly signed blueliners Ben Gleason (Lehigh Valley) and Minnesota-born Matt Kiersted, a Calder Cup finalist this past season with Charlotte. Iowa also picked up Wyatt Newpower (Bridgeport) on a one-year AHL contract.
While the Vegas Golden Knights frequently make headlines with high-profile NHL signings, they have been busy bringing in established AHL help as well. The Henderson Silver Knights have missed the Calder Cup Playoffs three seasons in a row, but the organization should have considerably more options when building out its AHL roster. Coming to Las Vegas from the Belleville Senators are forward Cole Reinhardt and defenseman Jeremy Davies, an AHL All-Star Classic selection this past February, plus defenseman Jaycob Megna (Charlotte). All three players have two-year deals while Dylan Coghlan (Manitoba) is back in the organization for his second stint with a one-year contract.
Replenishing the ranks
After losing the likes of Fagemo and Studnicka, the Los Angeles Kings got busy on Wednesday. They signed forward Cole Guttman, who played with the Los Angeles Jr. Kings growing up, after he had a 23-goal, 57-point season with the Rockford IceHogs. He got a two-year deal while forward Logan Brown (Syracuse) and defenseman Samuel Bolduc (Bridgeport) arrive with one-year contracts.
After Hershey’s bid for a third consecutive Calder Cup championship fell short, change is all around the team. Shepard is gone. Head coach Todd Nelson left to join the Pittsburgh Penguins as an assistant coach. But the Capitals are working to keep their depth chart strong. Defenseman Louie Belpedio, someone the Bears know from his days with the rival Phantoms, took a two-year agreement with Washington. Defenseman Calle Rosén (Colorado) and forward Graeme Clarke (Iowa) are new one-year signees as well.
Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh Penguins signed defenseman Phil Kemp (Bakersfield Condors) and forward Rafaël Harvey-Pinard (Laval Rocket).
Ottawa added scoring help at forward with Olle Lycksell (Lehigh Valley) and Arthur Kaliyev (Rangers) while the Toronto Maple Leafs added long-time AHL point producer Vinni Lettieri (Providence). Forward Alex Barré-Boulet joined Colorado after one season in Laval. And as the Buffalo Sabres continue to rebuild, they are replenishing their organizational ranks. Forward Carson Meyer (San Diego Gulls) joins with a two-year contract while defenseman Zach Metsa and forward Riley Fiddler-Schultz, who had both been on AHL contract with Rochester, now have two-year NHL deals. Defenseman Zac Jones comes over from the Rangers as well.
More AHL deals, too
Forward Chris Wagner is coming home to his native Massachusetts, thanks to a two-year AHL contract with the Springfield Thunderbirds. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton also went the Massachusetts route with forward Aidan McDonough, who has a one-year AHL deal. He had 10 goals in 16 games with Charlotte before a season-ending injury.
The Calgary Wranglers are bringing back long-time AHL scorer Martin Frk and forward Alex Gallant on AHL deals while forward Matthew Phillips (Colorado) and defenseman Nikolas Brouillard (Coachella Valley) are going to San Diego.
