Chirps from Center Ice

Rare that two AHL teams see their parents swap NHL contracts while those two AHL teams are in the same city together, on the morning of game.

It happened Friday. Oula Palve was traded to Dallas for defenseman John Nyberg.

Palve and Nyberg don’t have to go far, Wilkes-Barre plays Dallas’ AHL affiliate the Texas Stars later today.

It’s a swap of two players that had offensive gifts playing last year overseas who, for whatever reason or another, didn’t click with the organization they were currently playing with.

For Palve, he had 51 points in 53 games playing in Finland last year. This year, he has a goal and seven assists in 37 games for Wilkes-Barre. He’s bounced around lines for Mike Vellucci’s crew, until he was shuffled out for good last week.

Nyberg has the same history, touted as an offensive defenseman but never made enough of a mark to stick.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to go far to get information on Nyberg as the great Stephen Meserve’s site 100 Degree Hockey had this to say about Nyberg back in January 2019 about Nyberg:

…He has struggled to make a mark on the lineup, bouncing in and out as a healthy scratch at times and not scoring his first AHL goal until late December. The assignment should give him a chance to play solid top pair minutes and establish himself better in the North American game.

Nyberg has 19 AHL games under his belt this season with two goals, four assists and six points with a even +/- rating.

One foreign (Nyberg is Swedish) reclamation project for another, essentially.

Gameday setup for Pens / Stars hits the blog at 4, later.