{"id":84161,"date":"2025-07-22T21:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T21:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/84161\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T21:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T21:07:08","slug":"ahl-notes-bjorgvik-holm-mackinnon-lafontaine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/84161\/","title":{"rendered":"AHL Notes: Bjorgvik-Holm, MacKinnon, LaFontaine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While defenseman\u00a0<strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eliteprospects.com\/player\/477881\/ole-julian-bjorgvik-holm\" rel=\"noopener\">Ole Julian Bjorgvik-Holm<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>didn\u2019t receive a qualifying offer from the Blue Jackets last month, he\u2019s nonetheless staying in the organization on an AHL deal with their affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters, per <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Aportzline\/status\/1947681975554257116\">Aaron Portzline of The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Norwegian native is now 23 years old and was a fifth-round pick by Columbus back in 2020 from the OHL\u2019s Mississauga Steelheads. He\u2019s now played parts of four seasons in Cleveland but only managed to land a full-time role this past season, and that\u2019s putting it generously.<\/p>\n<p>The 6\u20193\u2033 lefty is a two-way defender with a physical edge, functioning as a No. 6\/7 option for the Monsters while posting seven points and 50 PIMs in 44 games last year. He spent most of 2023-24 with the ECHL\u2019s Cincinnati Cyclones, where he displayed much more offensive upside with 33 points in 57 games.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s been a serviceable depth piece, and while Columbus was no longer willing to use a contract slot on him, Bjorgvik-Holm will at least get a chance to continue his development in a familiar environment. He\u2019s now no longer eligible for a recall to the Jackets\u2019 NHL roster unless he signs a new contract with them, and he remains an unrestricted free agent in the NHL\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n<p>More news out of the AHL:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Also returning to Cleveland this season on an AHL contract is defenseman <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eliteprospects.com\/player\/285412\/will-mackinnon\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Will MacKinnon<\/strong><\/a>, Portzline notes. MacKinnon, 25, was a late-season pickup by the Monsters after serving as a depth AHL\/ECHL option in the Devils organization with Utica and Adirondack since the beginning of the 2023-24 campaign. He played just two games for Cleveland after the trade but totaled 44 AHL appearances on the year with his time in Utica, posting four points and 42 PIMs with a minus-one rating. He and Bjorgvik-Holm will both compete to avoid ECHL reassignment and provide a depth complement to their more NHL-projectable prospects.<\/li>\n<li>Goaltender\u00a0<strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eliteprospects.com\/player\/234448\/jack-lafontaine\" rel=\"noopener\">Jack LaFontaine<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>has signed a new deal to return to the AHL\u2019s Coachella Valley Firebirds, the team <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Firebirds\/status\/1947704483426746605\">announced<\/a>. LaFontaine, 27, has spent the last two years in the Kraken organization on deals with Coachella Valley but has primarily played at the ECHL level with the Kansas City Mavericks. He posted a 2.22 GAA, .914 SV%, and sparkling 21-8-1 record in 31 games for them last season, so he might earn more time up with the Firebirds this coming year. The former University of Minnesota standout has a .900 SV% in 23 career AHL appearances and made his NHL debut with the Hurricanes back in 2021-22, logging a .780 SV% in two contests.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While defenseman\u00a0Ole Julian Bjorgvik-Holm\u00a0didn\u2019t receive a qualifying offer from the Blue Jackets last month, he\u2019s nonetheless staying in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":84162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[10490,57070,293,57071,62,1650,67,132,68,57072],"class_list":{"0":"post-84161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ahl","9":"tag-jack-lafontaine","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-ole-julian-bjorgvik-holm","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-transactions","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-will-mackinnon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114898930596462543","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}