Blackhawks winger prospect Niklas Nordgren made his season debut this weekend for HIFK’s under-20 team after missing the start of the season with a “health condition concern” according to Scott Powers of The Athletic. The 19-year-old Nordgren recorded two assists in the final two minutes of HIFK’s 5-3 win over Jokerit in Nuorten Sm-Liiga on Sunday.
Nordgren, a 2018 third-round pick, split time between juniors and Finland’s top men’s division, Liiga, last season with 19 points (six goals, 13 assists) in 13 junior games and seven points (four goals, three assists) in 15 Liiga games.
Andrei Altybarmakyan, LW (KHL, HK Sochi)
Weekly stats: 3 GP, 4 SOG, -3
Season stats: 20 GP, 2G, 4A, -4, 21 PIM, 9 Hits, 6 BLS, 12:00 ATOI
Altybarmakyan had a super quiet week with no points and four shots on goal, with all of them coming in a 1-0 loss to Metallurg.
Victor Ejdsell, C (SHL, Färjestad BK)
Weekly stats: 2 GP, 1A, 2 SOG
Season stats: 18 GP, 5G, 6A, 4 PIM, +1, 16:23
Ejdsell, who returned to Sweden this season, had a secondary assist and one shot in Färjestad BK’s 3-2 overtime loss to Växjö. He was extended a qualifying offer by Chicago so he could return to North America, but it seems unlikely.
Mathias From, W (HockeyAllsvenskan, Modo)
Weekly stats: 2 GP, 7 SOG
Season stats: 19, 6G, 6A, 6 PIM, +10
Modo’s win streak grew to four games with two victories, but From didn’t register a point. Six of his seven shots on goal came against Vasteras in a 7-3 blowout victory. The Danish winger will have to put up big numbers for Chicago to want to sign him.
Jakub Galvas, LH-D (Liiga, Jukurit)
Weekly stats: 2 GP, 3 SOG, 2 PIM
Season stats: 21 GP, 1G, 9A, -8, 8 PIM, 20:59 ATOI
After being sheltered a bit with his ice time at the start of the month, Galvas was back to his 20-minute a night showing this past week and had three shots but didn’t score a point for a third straight game. He’s still Jukurit’s top scoring defenseman and is tied for third in scoring on the team overall.
Artur Kayumov, W (KHL, Lokomotiv)
Weekly stats: 3 GP, 10 SOG, +1, 3 Hits, 2 BLS
Season stats: 28 GP, 4G, 5A, +5, 4 PIM, 13 Hits, 16 BLS, 15:24 ATOI
Kayumov is one of many Blackhawks prospects that’s struggling to score as he hasn’t found the back of the net since Oct. 26, a span of seven games for him. He had at least three shots on goal in all three games this past week which Lokomotiv won.
Roope Laavainen, RH-D (Liiga, KooKoo)
Weekly stats: 3 GP, 1A, 5 SOG, +1
Season stats: 17 GP, 3A, 4 PIM
Since we last checked in Laavainen was traded from HPK to KooKoo. He’s maintained a shutdown role and logged about 11 minutes per game. He saw a big increase in playing time with 17:01 minutes of ice time against Assat and had an assist in the game off his shot from the blue line. He had a season-high five shots in the game.
Ivan Nalimov, G (KHL, HK Sochi)
Weekly stats: 0-2, 5 GA
Season stats: 2-5, 2.01 GAA, .921 SV%
Nalimov dropped both his starts last week. He stopped 26 of 30 shots in a 5-1 loss to Avtomobilist then made 13 saves in a 1-0 loss to Metallurg.
Wouter Peeters, G (EIHL, Guilford)
Weekly stats: DNP
Season stats: 1-1, 3.53 GAA, .887 SV%
Peeters did not play this past week.
Antti Saarela, C (Liiga, Ilves)
Weekly stats: 3 GP, 1A, 5 SOG, 2 PIM
Season stats: 14 GP, 1G, 3A, 4 PIM, 44.9 FO%, +4, 10:30 ATOI
Saarela snapped his five-game skid without a point Saturday with a secondary assist off a neutral zone faceoff win in Ilves’ win over Sport. The third-line center had a better showing at the dot in his second and third games of the week, going 55.6 and 57.1 percent in each game, respectively.
Max Shalunov, C (KHL, CSKA Moscow)
Weekly stats: 2 GP, 1A, 8 SOG, 55.5 FO%
Season stats: 21 GP, 4G, 3A, 8 PIM, +4, 53.2 FO%, 11 hits, 8 BLS, 14:50 ATOI
Shalunov had a secondary assist, three shots on goal and was 4-for-4 on faceoffs in CSKA’s 3-2 overtime loss to Spartak. He followed that with five shots on goal, but struggled at the dot by going 4-for-10.