Moose re-sign Ashton Sautner, Tyson Empey for another season

Manitoba kept two different survival tools in place by re-signing Ashton Sautner and Tyson Empey, and the move tells you exactly what the Moose want their roster to be built on next season. Sautner gives the back end a veteran left shot who has already logged 266 games in Moose colors, while Empey stays in the mix as a bottom-six center or wing who can raise the temperature when games get heavy.

The club announced the signings on June 24 and did not disclose contract terms. That leaves the hockey reason for the move to do the talking, and Sautner is the cleaner case for why Manitoba kept him. He played 68 games last season, finished with 13 points and a plus-four rating, and dressed in all seven of the team’s Calder Cup Playoff games. At 6-foot-1 and 191 pounds, the Flin Flon native has become one of the franchise’s most familiar blue-line pieces, and his 266 games rank 11th among Moose defensemen.

Sautner’s track record runs deeper than one strong season. He has 547 career AHL games across Manitoba, Abbotsford and Utica, plus 23 NHL games with the Vancouver Canucks. He also already knew the Winnipeg organization well before this latest deal, having signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Winnipeg Jets on June 23, 2023. Earlier club notes had him in the lineup for 68 games in 2022-23 as well, with 12 points, 50 penalty minutes and a full run through all five of Manitoba’s playoff games that spring. The Moose roster page has also listed him as an alternate captain, a small detail that usually says plenty about who gets trusted when the room needs order.

Empey brings a different kind of value, but Manitoba clearly sees the same kind of usefulness. He had three points and 69 penalty minutes in 24 games for the Moose last season and appeared in one playoff game. In 167 career AHL games with Manitoba, Hershey and Tucson, he has 31 points and 311 penalty minutes, which is a pretty direct signal about the role he fills. He is not being kept around to stack box-score points; he is there to tilt shifts, absorb contact and make sure Manitoba has enough bite when the lineup tightens.

His background fits that profile. Born June 29, 1995, in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Empey is listed as a center and left wing. He first reached the scoresheet with an AHL point against San Diego on Oct. 30, 2021, and scored his first AHL goal at Ontario on Jan. 23, 2022. The Moose also note 69 points in 147 ECHL games, evidence that he has shown enough offensive competence to justify a continued look.

Taken together, the two re-signings point to a Moose roster that will again lean on experience, structure and a little sandpaper. Manitoba opened the 2025-26 season with 28 players, including 15 forwards and 10 defensemen, and keeping Sautner and Empey gives the organization two familiar answers as it shapes the 2026-27 group around Winnipeg’s development pipeline.