{"id":461506,"date":"2026-02-06T04:20:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T04:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/461506\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T04:20:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T04:20:07","slug":"2-5-2026-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/461506\/","title":{"rendered":"2\/5\/2026 \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n By Gabriel Foley<\/a> |
\n at February 5, 2026 9:00 pm <\/p>\n

The NHL has one night of games left before a three-week break for the 2026 Winter Olympics. That has left many teams scrambling to make sure their waiver-exempt players are assigned to the minor leagues, which will allow them to stay on the ice for up to a dozen games on the AHL calendar. Pro Hockey Rumors will capture those transactions, and more, in the latest minor transactions tracker:<\/p>\n

The most notable prospect headed to the minors is Nashville Predators winger Matthew Wood<\/a>, per a team release<\/a>. Wood has spent the bulk of the season with the NHL club after a call-up in late October. He has scored nine goals and 17 points in 46 games, enough to rank seventh among all Predators forwards in scoring. Wood also scored one goal in the first two AHL games of his career earlier this season. He joined the Predators\u2019 roster at the end of the 2024-25 campaign after posting 39 points in as many games with the University of Minnesota. Now, the volume-shooter could find a way to rediscover his scoring touch while also buoying the Admirals\u2019 roster.
\nThe Washington Capitals joined the goalie run, assigning<\/a> Garin Bjorklund<\/a> to the AHL in a corresponding move to Logan Thompson<\/a>\u2018s activation from injured reserve. Bjorklund has only played in the minors this season, recording four wins and a .879 SV% in 11 AHL games and four wins and a .929 SV% in seven ECHL games. This move will allow him to continue carving out an AHL role after spending the last three seasons in the ECHL.
\nVeteran goaltender Jon Gillies<\/a> is back in the minors as AHL Syracuse announced<\/a> that they\u2019ve signed him to a PTO deal.\u00a0 It\u2019s his second stint of the season with the Crunch but the first only lasted one game.\u00a0 Gillies has seen action in parts of five NHL seasons but has played exclusively in the minors over the past couple of years.\u00a0 He has a 2.91 GAA and a .905 SV% in 27 games with ECHL Orlando this season.
\nFollowing yesterday\u2019s game against Edmonton, the Flames announced<\/a> that they\u2019ve returned winger Matvei Gridin<\/a> and defenceman Hunter Brzustewicz<\/a> to AHL Calgary to keep them playing during the break.\u00a0 Gridin has three goals and three assists in 13 games with the Flames this season over a pair of stints with them despite not turning 20 until next month.\u00a0 Brzustewicz, meanwhile, picked up his first career NHL goal late last month and has that marker plus an assist in 18 NHL appearances so far.
\nAfter tonight\u2019s game, the Devils announced<\/a> that forward Lenni Hameenaho<\/a> and defenseman Colton White<\/a> were assigned to AHL Utica.\u00a0 Hameenaho impressed in his first taste of NHL action, picking up two goals and two assists in nine games.\u00a0 White, meanwhile, was a healthy scratch tonight and heads back to the Comets with four assists in 23 games in New Jersey so far this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Gabriel Foley | at February 5, 2026 9:00 pm The NHL has one night of games left…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[3063,64,63,7525,236992,236993,236994,61659,236995,120779,221107,7523,7519,575,85,206,4791],"class_list":["post-461506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ahl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-calgary-flames","tag-colton-white","tag-garin-bjorklund","tag-hunter-brzustewicz","tag-jon-gillies","tag-lenni-hameenaho","tag-matthew-wood","tag-matvei-gridin","tag-nashville-predators","tag-new-jersey-devils","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-transactions","tag-washington-capitals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}