It’s ramp-up time for international hockey across the world. The 2023 World Junior A Challenge will play its medal games on Sunday, the Spengler Cup is 10 days away from its kickoff, matched by the kickoff of the 2024 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships kicking off on the same day. Teams are finalizing their lineups and beginning travel for the latter two tournaments and with an uptick in games has come an uptick in player movement. As always, we’ll keep track of notable player transactions here:
- 153-game veteran of the NHL Michael Hutchinson has signed a one-year contract with the AHL’s Grand Rapid Griffins that will carry the goalie through the remainder of the 2023-24 season. Hutchinson has appeared in 13 games for Grand Rapids this season under a professional try-out contract. He gets promoted to a full contract after setting a 5-7-1 record and .895 save percentage with the Griffins. Hutchinson has spent the last five seasons bouncing between the NHL and AHL, failing to record more than 30 games in any league since the 2015-16 season. The now 33-year-old goaltender has played all across North America, playing for five different NHL clubs and seven different AHL clubs since becoming a pro in 2010-11. Hutchinson was drafted by the Boston Bruins – a club he never played an NHL game for – in the third round of the 2008 NHL Draft.
- Belarusian National Team player Shane Prince has signed a new, one-year contract with Spartak Moscow of the KHL . This deal will carry him through the rest of the 2023-24 season. Prince has become a prominent member of Russia’s top league since moving to the country for the 2018-19 season. He’s since totaled 167 points in 256 games in the KHL, intermixed with 19 appearances and 12 points in the National League, Switzerland’s top league. Prince also began playing with Belarus’ national team at the 2021 World Cup, and other international matchups that year, and most recently joined the team in their win of the Channel One Cup. Prince was once a highly-regarded NHL draft prospect, hearing his name called by the Ottawa Senators in the second round of the 2011 NHL Draft. But despite a strong OHL career, Prince was never able to get it going in the NHL or AHL. He totaled 38 points in 128 NHL games, and 150 points in 210 AHL games, before his move to Russia.
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