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Brendan Smith Out Four Weeks, Tyler Bertuzzi Out Three To Five Weeks

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An already long list of injuries continues to grow for the Red Wings as defenseman Brendan Smith is expected to miss the next four weeks with a knee injury, MLive’s Ansar Khan reports (Twitter link).  Smith was injured in a collision with Montreal left winger Phillip Danault on Saturday night.

Smith has played a regular role on the back end for Detroit this season, averaging just over 18 minutes per game of playing time while picking up a pair of goals and two assists.

It will be interesting to see if the Red Wings call anyone up to replace the 27 year old pending unrestricted free agent.  The team has been carrying eight defenders all season as they have been hesitant to expose either of Ryan Sproul or Xavier Ouellet to waivers.   However, with Smith out and Alexey Marchenko (upper body) also on injured reserve, they’re down to the minimum of six but from a cap perspective, they are already well into LTIR, per CapFriendly.

The team announced that Smith, along with forward Tyler Bertuzzi who was also injured on Saturday, have been placed on injured reserve which will free up a roster spot to call up a seventh defender if they deem it necessary.  Head coach Jeff Blashill suggested that Bertuzzi is expected to miss the next three to five weeks with a left ankle injury, Khan notes (via Twitter).  He was seen walking without crutches or a boot which was a positive sign.

[Related: Red Wings Depth Chart]

PHR Originals: 11/20/16 – 11/26/16

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While we already looked at the five key hockey stories of the week, here’s some of the original material produced by Pro Hockey Rumors from last week:

  • Glen Miller took a look at the 2016 UFA all bargain team, a list that included the likes of Eric Staal, Jonathan Marchessault, Brian Campbell, and Chad Johnson. 
  • Brian La Rose investigated some defenseman who could garner attention in the trade market, which of course, included Kevin Shattenkirk.
  • Gavin Lee compiled a list of goaltenders who would be great additions to the Vegas Golden Knights roster should they be available during the expansion draft.
  • Zach Leach conducted a deep dive into the post-Brent Burns free agent market heading into the 2017 offseason.
  • Finally, I was able to interview the Athletic’s Scott Powers who gave us his thoughts on Chicago’s play with a quarter of the season in the books.

Florida Panthers Fire Gerard Gallant

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Reported first by Nick Kypreos, the Florida Panthers have fired head coach Gerard Gallant. Brian Compton of NHL.com confirms that Gallant has been relieved of his duties. Elliotte Friedman tweets that general manager Tom Rowe will take over for Gallant. Friedman continues that despite an extension, Gallant and the front office were butting heads over the direction of the team. Panthers beat writer George Richards of the Miami Herald tweets that he tried to reach out to Gallant, but the coach had already the stadium left by taxi. The Associated Press, via a tweet from Luke DeCock, confirmed this with photos of Gallant leaving by taxi.

The Panthers are currently 11-10-1 in the Atlantic Division, good enough for fifth place and 23 points. A very busy offseason, however, ratcheted up expectations in Miami, and Gallant appears to be the first major casualty of those expectations. The move has been met with shock, and questions are already beginning to be asked of the front office and their decision to sack Gallant.

Chip Alexander tweets that Gallant met with the media following the Panthers 2-1 loss to the Hurricanes this evening. Yahoo’s Josh Cooper joins a group of puzzled analysts, tweeting that Gallant led the Panthers to 91 points in his first season behind the bench, and then 103 points last season, which included a division title.

Meanwhile, Martin Biron wonders if the Vegas Golden Knights will swoop in and hire Gallant as its first head coach.

Red Wings Notes: Injuries, Jurco, Mantha

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The injuries continue to pile up for the Detroit Red Wings after Tyler Bertuzzi, and Brendan Smith both left the game in the Red Wings 2-1 loss to Montreal Saturday night. Dylan Larkin was also roughed up, but he returned to finish out the game. Throw in Jimmy Howard, who was hurt Friday evening against New Jersey, and it’s been a rough stretch for Detroit in terms of losing player to injury. The Detroit Free Press’ Helene St. James reports that Tomas Jurco is about ready to return, but he too, has suffered his fair share of setbacks.

General manager Ken Holland believes that Jurco will be cleared to play in Tuesday’s contest against Dallas, but St. James writes that Jurco’s back continues to be a question mark. After surgery this summer, Jurco’s back flared up during his conditioning stint with AHL affiliate Grand Rapids on Friday. Doctors checked him out, and believe he will be alright for Tuesday’s contest against Dallas.

Mar 29, 2016; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Detroit Red Wings forward Anthony Mantha (39) plays the puck and Montreal Canadiens defenseman Alexei Emelin (74) defends during the third period at the Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

St. James adds that reports on Smith and Bertuzzi’s injuries won’t be available until Monday. In addition to the aforementioned Wings, Andreas Athanasiou, Alexey Marchenko, and Darren Helm are missing from the lineup.  As it stands, the Red Wings lead the league in man-games lost with 140, and the number will certainly rise after yesterday’s tilt.

In other Red Wings news:

  • Anthony Mantha has been impressive in his callup to Detroit, sniping a pair of goals that have made the highlight reel. In seven games, Mantha has four points (2-2).  Jean-Francois Chaumont spoke with Holland and it sounds as if Holland is still willing to give the nod to a veteran. (The article is in French but can be translated into English). Holland complimented Mantha’s play and his significant improvement since his days in junior hockey, but stopped short of saying his spot in Detroit is secure. Chaumont believes that Mantha will become a top scorer, and others, like Winging It In Motown’s Prashanth Iyer, show the advanced stats that reveal Mantha’s strong play in his first seven games with Detroit.
  • Add the Detroit News’ Gregg Krupa to the list of pundits who believes that Mantha is a star in the making. Krupa indicates that Mantha brings the size, scoring, and speed that will light the lamp often. Krupa also defends Holland’s decision to keep Mantha in Grand Rapids:

While praising the Wings brass these days for anything is only occasionally warranted, and fraught with the risk of targeting on social media, the fact of the matter is Holland and Devellano were right about Mantha’s performance and wise to make it plain to the player, perhaps even in publicly prominent ways. And Jeff Blashill gets the primary assist for knowing the player well enough to decide when he could play regularly with Henrik Zetterberg and supply puck retrieval and possession skills, which are as intrinsic to Mantha’s role as his ample finishing skills.

Krupa is careful to emphasize (after heaping praise on an oft-maligned front office) that the Red Wings would be hard pressed to send Mantha back down once the team is healthy again. Regardless of what the front office chooses to do, Mantha certainly has a large number of supporters who want him to stay in Detroit permanently.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Hurricanes Staal Leaves Game, Will Not Return

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Jordan Staal suffered an upper-body-injury during the first period of Carolina’s game this evening against Florida and it has since been announced by the team – via Twitter – that he will not return. Michael Smith, who is a contributor on the team’s website, added that Staal did not see a shift in the final seven minutes of the frame.

Staal is currently tied for third on the team in goals with five and his nine points rank sixth. He leads all Carolina forwards in average ice time, seeing 19:15 a night. The 28-year-old center has seven years remaining on what was originally a 10-year, $60MM contract in Carolina. The $6MM AAV makes Staal the Hurricanes highest-paid player.

More to come as details emerge.

Senators Call Up Forward McCormick From Binghamton

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Preparing to play the second half of back-to-back games tonight, the Ottawa Senators apparently have a few players battling some nagging injuries. Accordingly, the team has called up forward Max McCormick from Binghamton, as reported on Ottawa’s official website. McCormick, along with defenseman Fredrik Claesson will skate in the team’s warm-up before head coach Guy Boucher decides on the lineup for tonight.

McCormick, 24, has already appeared in four games this season for the Sens, failing to register a point while averaging just 7:26 of ice time. In 12 games for Binghamton, he has tallied three goals and four points along with 11 penalty minutes. He was originally selected by the Senators in the sixth-round of the 2011 entry draft. In 24 career NHL games, McCormick has two goals, four points and 37 penalty minutes.

Claesson has played in six games for Ottawa this season, also without netting a single point. He’s seen action in 22 NHL contests with two career assists. Claesson, like McCormick, was a 2011 draft choice, selected in the fifth-round by the Senators.

Pacific Division Notes: Boedker, Canucks, Peters, Gaudet

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After losing to Pittsburgh in the Stanley Cup Final, the San Jose Sharks, with most of their roster set to return, made just a couple of minor changes in the summer. Their headline acquisition was the signing of unrestricted free agent winger Mikkel Boedker to a four-year deal worth $16MM. The Sharks concluded after watching the Penguins storm through the postseason with a quick and deep roster that they needed an infusion of skill and speed and went out on the first day of free agency and signed Boedker to add those elements.

Unfortunately for Boedker and the Sharks, the adjustment to his new team isn’t going as smoothly as hoped. Through 22 games, the Danish forward has just two goals and is averaging less than one shot per contest. Last season, Boedker scored 17 goals and averaged better than two shots per game. Despite the presence of high-end offensive talent up front, Boedker has yet to develop chemistry with any of his fellow forwards. It got bad enough last night that Sharks coach Pete DeBoer benched Boedker for the third period of a game the Sharks would lose 3 – 2, as Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News writes.

DeBoer didn’t mince words in postgame comments regarding the benching:

“Again, we were behind going into the third. Some guys it was just circumstance. Some guys didn’t deserve to play.”

Ryan Carpenter and Micheal Haley, two fourth-line forwards, also didn’t play in the third but that would seem to be due to circumstance, as DeBoer put it.

It’s obviously far too early to label the Boedker signing a bust but it’s clear that 22 games in the investment isn’t paying off to this point for the Sharks.

Elsewhere in the Pacific:

  • Jason Botchford pens a piece for The Province listing 10 reasons to feel good about the Vancouver Canucks. Despite internal expectations to compete for a playoff spot, most pundits felt the team simply doesn’t have enough talent still in their prime to challenge for the postseason. Unfortunately for Vancouver, the latter group has proven write. But as Botchford points out, even in the midst of a bad season, there still can be reasons to feel good about the Canucks. Perhaps the topic most relevant for us was Botchford’s mention of Erik Gudbranson’s potential free agent asking price. Gudbranson was acquired in an offseason deal with Florida and is scheduled to be a restricted free agent next summer. Botchford believes that a figure of $5MM annually has been floated but suggests the early struggles, both of the team and of Gudbranson, could serve to bring that number down to something more palatable for the Canucks.
  • The Arizona Coyotes called up a couple of players in advance of their game today against Edmonton – a contest they would win 2 – 1. Sarah McClellan of AZ Central Sports reports that the team recalled goaltender Justin Peters from Tucson to backup starter Mike Smith. Louis Domingue is currently day-to-day with a lower-body-injury. According to Arizona head coach Dave Tippett, the injury is “nothing serious,” but the Coyotes wanted a fully healthy net minder up if needed. Meanwhile, according to KPNX 12 News Sports, Arizona also recalled center Tyler Gaudet from the Tucson Roadrunners of the AHL. Gaudet has made one other appearance this season for the Coyotes and has 17 games overall of NHL experience. In 11 games with the Roadrunners, Gaudet has two goals and seven points. Neither player saw action this afternoon for Arizona.

 

Five Key Stories – 11/20/16 – 11/26/16

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Last week was a busy one around the hockey world.  Here are five prominent stories from the week that was.

1) Brent Burns Signs Long-Term Extension: The top unrestricted free agent was taken off the market early as the Sharks inked Brent Burns to an eight year, $64MM contract extension.  The contract contains a limited no-trade clause as well.  The deal gives him the second highest cap hit amongst defensemen in the league behind Nashville’s P.K. Subban.  As for San Jose, they’ll now turn their focus to a pair of key pending UFAs up front in Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau.

2) Las Vegas Reveals Team Name: After months of speculation, Las Vegas owner Bill Foley revealed that the expansion franchise, which will begin play in 2017-18, will be called the Vegas Golden Knights.  The team also displayed their logo for the first time although their uniforms will be unveiled sometime in the new year.   Shortly after that, the NHL released the list of mandatory-protected players for the expansion draft which will take place in June.

Jan 31, 2016; Nashville, TN, USA; Pacific Division forward John Scott (28) of the Montreal Canadiens celebrates after a goal during the 2016 NHL All Star Game at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports3) NHL Announces Changes To All-Star Eligibility: Following last season where fans stuffed the virtual ballot box for seldom-used enforcer John Scott (who was in the minors at the time the game was held), the league made some tweaks to their eligibility rules to prevent a situation like this from happening again.  Any player who is assigned to the minors between November 1st and January 26th will not be eligible to be voted into the game.  (An exception to this rule will be players on conditioning assignments.)  Beyond that, however, fans can vote for any player; the list hasn’t been reduced to only top players from each division.

4) Canucks Sign Ben Hutton To A Two Year Extension: Vancouver locked up one of their core blueliners to a bridge deal that will carry a cap hit of $2.8MM for 2017-18 and 2018-19.  He’s in his second NHL season and has five points in 22 games so far this season while averaging over 21 minutes per night.  GM Jim Benning noted that they would like to get center Bo Horvat signed to a long-term deal next.

5) Matt Carle Retires: After clearing waivers earlier in the week, Nashville defenseman Matt Carle announced his retirement.  The 32 year old finishes his career having played parts of 12 NHL seasons with the Sharks, Flyers, Lightning, and Predators, scoring 45 goals while adding 238 assists in 730 NHL games.  He retires as the third highest point getter all-time among Alaskan-born players.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Metropolitan Notes: Berube, Rangers, Del Zotto, Carey

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Islanders head coach Jack Capuano and GM Garth Snow plan to meet regarding finding some playing time for goaltender Jean-Francois Berube, reports NHL.com’s Brian Compton (Twitter link).  Berube has been with the Isles all season but has yet to appear in a single game.

This is the second straight year he has been in this situation as a third string goalie after he was claimed off of waivers back in October of 2015.  Clearly the team thinks highly enough of him to keep him around but with Jaroslav Halak and Thomas Greiss both ahead of him on the depth chart, finding playing time for him has been a challenge; he made only seven NHL appearances last year.  It’s clear that New York believes Berube would be claimed if he were to be made available via the waiver wire once again.

The Islanders have put Halak on the trade block but have yet to find a suitable return for him while Greiss is a pending unrestricted free agent.  As a result, it seems quite plausible that they may want to protect Berube in next June’s expansion draft in which case they will likely stick with three goalies for the rest of the season which means that Berube will be in limbo for a while longer, even if they do get him into a game or two sooner than later.

[Related: Islanders Depth Chart]

More from the Metropolitan:

  • Rangers GM Jeff Gorton is riding quite the hot streak when it comes to his acquisitions since the offseason, suggests Newsday’s Steve Zipay. Of their eight pickups, only Nathan Gerbe (who was brought in to battle for one of the final couple of forwards spots) hasn’t panned out.  Considering his contract was mutually terminated last month, there were no real repercussions from that signing either.  Meanwhile, players like Mika Zibanejad, Michael Grabner (who is among the league leaders in scoring), Brandon Pirri, Nick Holden, and rookie Jimmy Vesey are all playing key roles for New York and in all but Zibanejad’s case, were brought in via free agency or for a nominal price.
  • Flyers defenseman Michael Del Zotto will return to the lineup tonight, notes CSN Philly’s Tim Panaccio. He has been a healthy scratch for the past three games after head coach Dave Hakstol wasn’t pleased with his defensive play.  He’s expected to take the place of Brandon Manning, who is believed to have a concussion.  Philadelphia is also making some lineup changes up front, moving Michael Raffl onto the front line with Brayden Schenn dropping down into a checking role.
  • Washington has re-assigned left winger Paul Carey to Hershey of the AHL, the team announced. He has played in just one game with the Caps so far this season but has 14 points (5-9-14) in 16 minor league contests.  The Capitals are off until Thursday so they’ll free up a bit of cap space by sending him down for a few days.

The Latest On Kevin Shattenkirk And Karl Alzner

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While Brent Burns’ eight year, $64MM contract took the top pending unrestricted free agent off the market, it also helps shape the asking price for some of the other top blueliners.  As part of their Saturday Headlines segment (video link), Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Nick Kypreos provided some updates regarding pending free agents Kevin Shattenkirk (St. Louis) and Karl Alzner (Washington).

Friedman reports that two teams were granted permission to speak to Shattenkirk last summer as part of a potential trade, Arizona and Edmonton.  Both teams ultimately went elsewhere for help on the back end with the Coyotes trading for the rights to (and signing) Alex Goligoski while the Oilers traded for Adam Larsson.

He added that the belief is that Shattenkirk – who had little interest in joining the Oilers – likes the idea of playing for the New York Rangers.  However, as arguably the best blueliner left on the market, there’s bound to be a bidding war for his services, one that Friedman feels could go as high as $7MM per season on a new deal.

As for Alzner, his market will be different than Shattenkirk’s as the two are very different players.  Shattenkirk is one of the better offensive producers from the back end while Alzner is regarded as one of the premier shutdown defenders league-wide.  With that reputation, Kypreos reports that the asking price on a long-term deal for Alzner could be as high as $6MM per season.

The Capitals have ten regulars in need of new contracts for next season between their restricted and unrestricted free agents which gives GM Brian MacLellan a chance to potentially reshape the roster.  As a result, it’s unlikely that they’ll be able to commit to a long-term deal with Alzner for the time being at least as they’ll want to see how this season plays out first.

If the 28 year old rearguard makes it to the open market, Kypreos suggests that the Golden Knights, with former Washington GM George McPhee at the helm, could be a strong suitor for his services.

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