Teddy Purcell Waived By Los Angeles
The Los Angeles Kings have placed Teddy Purcell on waivers, according to Elliotte Friedman.
Purcell was expected to provide solid secondary scoring for a relatively-inexpensive cap hit of $1.6MM. However, he’s struggled in his first season with the Kings, with just two assists in 12 games in addition to his poor possession stats.
Purcell may have to go elsewhere to find last season’s form; he scored 43 points in 76 games split between the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers. He found good chemistry with Taylor Hall and Leon Draisaitl on the Oilers top line for much of last season before being traded at the deadline to the Panthers for a third-round pick in this past June’s entry draft.
While Purcell’s play may not warrant a waiver claim, a team may trade for him if he clears to avoid adding a contract to their 50-man limit. However, that depends on how desperate the Kings are to move on. If he is assigned to the AHL, he’ll count for $650K against the Kings cap, saving them $950K.
Pro Hockey Rumors had ranked Purcell 23rd on our list of Top 50 UFAs back in June.
Predators Claim Reid Boucher On Waivers
The Nashville Predators have claimed forward Reid Boucher on waivers from the New Jersey Devils.
Boucher won’t have to go far to join his new team, as the Devils are in Nashville for a Saturday afternoon game. No word yet on whether or not Boucher will be in the lineup against his former teammates.
Boucher was placed on waivers on Friday morning after being a healthy scratch for the previous week. He’s struggled to put points on the board so far this season, with just two in nine games. Boucher scored 19 points in 39 games with the Devils in 2015-16. He clearly has offensive talent, having scored 105 points in 164 AHL games
The Predators clearly believe they can provide Boucher with a fresh start to get him going offensively once again. With 1 injured, Nashville can use all the goals they can get.
With the return of Taylor Hall, the Devils needed to move a forward and Boucher hadn’t done enough to remain one of the top 14 forward options in New Jersey.
Jori Lehtera To Be Healthy Scratched
Jori Lehtera will be watching tonight’s game from the press box.
The skilled center will be a healthy scratch on Saturday night when St. Louis host the Winnipeg Jets, according to Lou Korac, who covers the Blues for NHL.com. It appears that Nail Yakupov will take his spot in the lineup.
Lehtera has seven points (3-4-7) in 20 games, and was demoted to the third line during last game. Earlier this season, coach Ken Hitchcock scratched Robby Fabbri to get him motivated, and now he’s doing it again with another of the Blues top-nine forwards.
Yakupov will play on the third line with Patrik Berglund and Dmitrij Jaskin. The former first-overall pick of the Edmonton Oilers has five points (2-3-5) in 16 games this season. He’s been healthy-scratched eight times so far this season, since being acquired in October for ECHL forward Zach Pochiro and a conditional draft pick.
According to Korac, Hitchcock said he’s liked Yakupov’s effort in the last three practices. His last game was November 23.
Corey Crawford Ill, Blackhawks To Dress Emergency Backup
12:04pm: Corey Crawford is undergoing an appendectomy at a Philadelphia hospital. Team physician Dr. Michael Terry said Crawford “presented this morning with acute appendicitis.”
The team is expecting a full recovery and return to action, and will update Crawford’s status when more is known.
11:19am: Less than an hour away from puck drop, the Blackhawks have signed Eric Semborski to an ATO. He’ll back up Scott Darling against the Flyers. The 23-year-old Semborski previously played club hockey at Temple U.
Because of the tight turnaround, Semborski will wear number 50, which is usually worn by the goalie that he’s replacing.
10:30am: The Blackhawks will be without their captain and their starting goalie when they take on the Flyers on Saturday afternoon.
Just a day after placing Jonathan Toews on IR, coach Joel Quenneville announced that Corey Crawford is ill and will miss the game. Crawford is not only too sick to start, but he’s also unable to serve as backup for Scott Darling.
With the Blackhawks on the road and the game starting at noon, their options are slim. Chris Hine of the Chicago Tribune suggests goaltending coach Jimmy Waite. Waite played 11 seasons in the NHL (eight with the Blackhawks) as a backup goalie. Waite has previously filled in at morning skates if the team is down a goalie.
The Blackhawks also play tomorrow evening at home to the Winnipeg Jets.
Red Wings Recall Nosek, Lashoff
With Justin Abdelkader sidelined for the next 2-4 weeks, the Detroit Red Wings have recalled big-bodied forward Tomas Nosek from the Grand Rapids Griffins of the AHL.
The Red Wings have also recalled defenseman Brian Lashoff, according to MLive’s Ansar Khan. Neither Nosek nor Lashoff are expected to play Saturday night in Pittsburgh. It appears Drew Miller will take Abdelkader’s spot in the lineup against the defending champs. Miller has played 17 games with the Red Wings this season, and has two goals to show for it.
To make room on the roster, the Red Wings placed Abdelkader on injured reserve (IR). They have also moved Andreas Athanasiou from IR to long-term injured reserve (LTIR), retroactive to November 11.
[Related: Red Wings’ depth chart]
The 6’3, 209 lbs Nosek is hovering near a point-per-game this season in the AHL after back-to-back seasons with 30-plus points. Nosek was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Red Wings back in 2014. He’s been held pointless in six NHL games so far in his career, all played last season.
Should Lashoff get into the lineup during this recall, it will be his first NHL game since 2014-15, when he played 11 games for the Red Wings. The 6’3, 220 lbs defenseman has 13 points in 117 NHL games in his career, all with Detroit.
Neither player will count for much against the salary cap. Lashoff is the higher-earner of the two, making $650K at the NHL level. Nosek is in the first year of a two-year extension signed in May and makes $613K at the NHL level.
Atlantic Notes: Barkov, Red Wings Call Up Candidates
A breakaway goal may just be what Aleksander Barkov needs to get going writes the Sun-Sentinel’s Harvey Fialkov. Barkov was sprung loose during the Panthers’ 2-1 overtime victory last night when a Red Wings line change led to Barkov being wide open at center ice. He took the long outlet pass, raced to the net, and scored a five hole winner on Petr Mrazek. Before the game, new bench boss Tom Rowe chatted with the youngster and had this to say:
“I told him not to focus on scoring, that they will start going in,” Rowe said Friday on an unscheduled day off in Ottawa given as part reward, part mental and physical break during a season-long six-game road trip.
“Keep playing the right way and have some fun.”
Fialkov writes that the goal snapped Barkov’s 21-game goal drought, the longest of his career. He adds that Barkov reacted with humor after being asked about it. His response? “I don’t even remember my last goal, so it was good to see one go in.”
In spite of a scoring drought, Barkov is second on the team in points with 15 (3-12).
In other Atlantic Division news:
- Though Drew Miller could take the vacated spot after the Red Wings announced that Justin Abdelkader will be out 2-4 weeks, general manager Ken Holland said that a move would be made from the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins. Some candidates? Forward Matt Lorito has been dynamite for the Griffins, being a point-per-game player since the Wings picked him up as a free agent this summer offering a two-year, two-way deal. Lorito was recently named AHL Player of the Week and currently sits seventh in the league with 19 points (7-12) and is also waiver exempt. Another candidate? Mitch Callahan, who is second on the Griffins in points with 14, has been knocking on the door for years. He’s a feisty winger who would go into the corners while also trying to score the “greasy goals” coach Jeff Blashill harps on. One other candidate could be Eric Tangradi, a big bodied forward who had a call up last season. It’s more likely that Miller slots in, as Blashill has already hinted that the veteran will get the call.
NHLPA Rejects League’s “CBA Extension-For-Olympics” Offer
As has been widely assumed, the NHL’s offer to the players to allow continued Olympic participation in exchange for an extension on the current collective bargaining agreement has been shut down by the players’ association. The NHLPA officially informed the league today that they are not considering a deal to continue the CBA just because the NHL is holding Olympic participation hostage. While the breakdown of these negotiations does not signal the definite end of the NHL at the Olympics nor an upcoming lockout, it would have been a win-win for hockey fans by eliminating the possibility of either.
The problem with this offer is that the players have issues with the current CBA, namely the uncapped status of escrow costing them money, and also know that they have the free will to attend the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea if they so choose. Superstars like Alexander Ovechkin have said as much, stating that they will play next winter whether the league officially participates or not. Similarly, many, like Brad Marchand, have said that it is their belief that the league has a duty to grow the game of hockey with continued Olympic participation, especially with the next two Games in Asia.
With the players taking a hard stance on playing in the Olympics, the owners felt they could extend a favorable CBA by offering up participation in exchange. It might have worked, but the owners made a mistake: it wasn’t their first demand. The league initially stated that it was concerned about costs, but would approve of the current relationship between the league and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) if the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) funded the players’ participation. When IIHF president Rene Fasel said that the Federation would indeed cover costs, that was expected to be the end of the conversation. Instead, the owner kept pushing for more, this time trying to squeeze the players. It didn’t work. The NHLPA saw right through a transparent attempt at coercion.
Don’t fret though hockey fans. The IOC has given the league until January to make a decision on their participation, and with the pressure of high profile players and a failure to gain any more with hostage tactics, the NHL will likely give in and commit to the 2018 Games. With Beijing, China and potentially Calgary or Salt Lake City after that as the two Winter Olympics following Pyeongchang, continued NHL participation seems likely, but skipping South Korea continues to be an option for the NHL. However, if many players plan to go regardless in 2018, the league may as well stay the course as Olympic participants. The other optimistic view of all of this is that, unlike 2004 and 2012, at least one side of the collective bargaining table is content with the current deal. Another lockout seems unlikely, as the owners are happy with the way things are and the players simply want a hard cap on escrow. Finding a balance in revenue distribution is never an easy task, but that is all that’s holding the NHL and NHLPA back from their easiest labor negotiation of the 21st century.
Sabres Recall Brendan Guhle From Juniors
In what can only be a desperation move, the Buffalo Sabres have made the rare mid-season re-call of a junior player, bringing in defenseman Brendan Guhle from the Prince George Cougars of the WHL. It’s a move so surprising that Twitter lit up with hockey insiders leading off the breaking news with “woah”, but that is where the Sabres are at with their defensive depth. As CapFriendly explains, there are only four narrow scenarios in which an NHL club can recall a player from juniors mid-season, and the Sabres fall into the “emergency” emergency call-up scenario, showing just how hard times are in upstate New York right now. Guhle is expected to play right away, as he will be needed in Buffalo’s game against the rival Boston Bruins tomorrow afternoons.
The Sabres defensive personnel to start the season looked to be pretty strong. New addition Dmitry Kulikov had solidified the top four with Zach Bogosian, Josh Gorges, and of course young star Rasmus Ristolainen, with Jake McCabe and Cody Franson rounding out the top six. Fast forward two months, and that depth has been obliterated. Bogosian and Kulikov have both been sidelined for weeks, and after an apparent injury last night, Gorges is set to join them. The 22-year-old Ristolainen and 23-year-old McCabe have been pressed into duty as the team’s top pair and NHL retreads Justin Falk and Taylor Fedun have been playing regular minutes as fill-ins. NCAA free agent Casey Nelson hasn’t been terrible, but with zero points and a -4 in eight games, he was demoted recently regardless of the lack of depth on the blue line. With very uninspiring options left available to the team at the AHL level, the Sabres had nowhere to turn.
Enter Guhle, the teams top defensive prospect. A 2015 second-round pick, Guhle did not make the team out of training camp earlier this year, but has drawn rave reviews from both inside and outside the organization. The team even got him into six games with their AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans, last season and he didn’t disappoint. Guhle scored four points in six games and looked at home in pro hockey. He’ll now get the chance to show he can stick around at the highest level. The 6’3″ stud prospect is a left-handed shot, which the Sabres now need, and can make plays on offense, which the league’s lowest scoring team also desperately needs. However, the 19-year-old is known even more for his sound defensive play, grit, work ethic, and hockey sense, all a rarity at that age. While Guhle’s call-up was under difficult and strange conditions, this is a player ready for the next level and he may end up staying with the Sabres through the season.
The real loser in all of this: the WHL’s Price George Cougars. It’s hard enough for a junior team to cope with unexpectedly losing a player mid-season, but this situation is even worse. The Cougars traded for Guhle just two weeks ago. The team gave up a forward and a defenseman of their own, and even more importantly, a first and third round pick in the WHL Bantam Draft to the Prince Albert Raiders, where Guhle had played most of his junior hockey. A team preparing for a run at the league title now may be without their prize acquisition for the rest of the year.
Minor Transactions: Ottawa, Colorado, Boston, Arizona
The Ottawa Senators have re-assigned forward Max McCormick to the AHL’s Binghamton Senators and recalled Buddy Robinson and Andreas Englund. McCormick was used sparingly over the last month with the team, playing in just five games. Even when he did play, McCormick averaged just seven minutes of ice time each game. He has been held scoreless so far this season and has just five shots on goal. The demotion will allow McCormick to get some play time, and the Senators will see if Robinson can bring more to the table in his stead. With just three NHL games under his belt, Robinson is still an unknown at the highest level, but did have a goal and an assist and was a +2 in his short stint with the team last season.
Meanwhile, this is the first career call-up for the young Swedish defenseman Englund. A 2014 second-round pick, Englund is a big, physical defenseman who can bring some added toughness to Ottawa. With Marc Methot day-to-day, it stands to reason that Englund will make his NHL debut tomorrow against the Florida Panthers.
Other promotions and demotions include:
- The Colorado Avalanche have returned both Samuel Henley and Gabriel Bourque to the AHL’s San Antonio Rampage. Henley made his NHL debut last night and scored his first career goal, but the Avs fell 3-2 to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Considering that Colorado is a team that should take all the scoring it can get (ranked 29th in scoring and goal differential), it seems odd that the team was so quick to send Henley back down. The 23-year-old has not put up big numbers thus far in his pro career, but is just three years removed from being a 30-goal scorer in the QMJHL. With just over five minutes of ice time on his NHL resume, the Avs were quick on the trigger to return this prospect. Bourque, on the other hand, has yet to register a point in six games with Colorado this season. He’s looked more like the player who had four points in 22 games with the Predators in 2015-16 than the player who looked like a future stud in Nashville with 16 points in 34 games in the lockout season of 2012-13. His chances at redemption may be running out.
- The Boston Bruins have promoted Anton Blidh from the Providence Bruins of the AHL, giving the young Swedish winger his first career call-up. He is expected to make his debut tomorrow in Buffalo, skating on the Bruins’ fourth line. Blidh brings the toughness and intensity that the Bruins love and coach Claude Julien has applauded his work ethic. A Boston team that has a lot of talent but whose effort has been suspect at times this season may just need the boost that a high-energy kid looking to make a name for himself can bring. The 21-year-old has nine points in 16 games and has posted a +8 in Providence. The leap in production from his first season in North America last year to this year has been apparent.
- The Arizona Coyotes have re-called Tyler Gaudet from the AHL’s Tuscon Roadrunners. A young team with deep minor league depth, Arizona has made frequent moves between Tuscon this season. Maybe it’s the shorter distance compared to when their affiliate was in Springfield, Massachusetts last season. Whatever the reason, the ease by which the Coyotes have promoted and demoted has not benefited Gaudet. The 23-year-old center was able to stick around for longer chunks of time last season, playing in 14 games, and was expected to carve out a role for himself in 2016-17. Instead, he has played in just one game despite being on the active roster multiple different times. Hopefully for Gaudet, he gets to stick around, but don’t be surprised if he’s back in Tuscon by week’s end.
NHL Eyeing Exhibition Game In China; Continues History Of International Play
According to TSN’s NHL Insider Darren Dreger, the NHL is expected to play an exhibition game in China next season. While the NHL is easily the most nationally diverse of the “Big Four” North American sports leagues and has a history of playing international games, this would be their first foray into the world’s most populous country. Whether it be just one or a series of exhibition games next season, the league building a relationship with China will result in much fanfare and a great opportunity for the growth of the game.
International play is no stranger to the NHL. As far back as 1938, the league has played games overseas. That year, the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens played a nine-game Spring series in England and France. Twenty years later, the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers did the same thing, committing to a 23-game European tour in late April and all of May. The teams visited England, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, and West Germany. In 1976, the Washington Capitals and Kansas City Scouts played four games in Japan, the NHL’s first international event in Asia. The Capitals have been busy on the international stage ever since, playing five games against the Minnesota North Stars in Stockholm, Sweden in 1980 and competing against the New York Rangers and several Swedish and Finnish pro teams in a tournament hosted by the two countries in 1981. The team from the United States capital was back at it in 1989, joined by the Calgary Flames in a series of games against European teams that took place throughout Sweden and what used to be Czechoslovakia and the USSR. The NHL returned to Sweden and the USSR the following year with an exhibition tournament including the Montreal Canadiens and Minnesota North Stars, while a similar tournament took place at the same time in West Germany and Austria featuring the St. Louis Blues and Edmonton Oilers.
While international play has not been eliminated since then, it has been dialed back significantly. Gone are the days when the NHL would send it’s teams to Europe for weeks at a time. Instead, small two or three game series took place throughout the 1990’s and early 2000’s, with teams frequently playing in London, Tokyo, Helsinki and Stockholm over the years, as well as more obscure places like the Tampa Bay Lightning and Buffalo Sabres taking on Austrian pro teams in 1998 or the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers squaring off in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2006. From 2009 to 2011, the league would send a handful of teams over to Europe during preseason to each play exhibition games against local teams or NHL foes. While many of the games took place in the usual countries, some highlights included the Chicago Blackhawks in Zurich, Switzerland in 2009, the Boston Bruins visiting Belfast, Northern Ireland in 2010, and the first visits to former Soviet nations like the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Latvia in 2010 and 2011.
However, if an exhibition game in China does come to be in 2017-18, it will be new territory for the NHL. Other than games in Japan, Asia is largely untouched by the world’s best hockey league. However, that doesn’t mean that the game has not grown regardless. The popularity of hockey in China has been on the rise for years now. The KHL was the first league to notice the trend, playing exhibition games in the country before finally establishing an expansion team there, the Kunlun Red Star, who are currently playing in their inaugural season. That’s not to say that the NHL has been slow on the uptake though. Last year, the Boston Bruins became the first team to strike a sponsorship deal with a Chinese company, O.R.G. Packaging, and sent players and personnel over this summer to conduct hockey clinics and share the brand around the country. Winger Matt Beleskey even documented the trip for the Players’ Tribune. With the NHL formalizing it’s interest in the country, expect more teams to follow suit, building relationships in one of the world’s most influential countries. Although the Bruins may have already built a local fan base and the Capitals were the NHL’s ambassadors throughout the 70’s and 80’s, it appears that the league is intent on sending west coast teams across the Pacific for the game. Though nothing is finalized, Dreger reports that early indications are that if one game is to be played it will be between the Los Angeles Kings and Vancouver Canucks.
With the next two Winter Olympic Games slated for Pyeongchang, South Korea and Beijing, China, hockey culture in Asia is more important now than it has ever been. Grassroots hockey has grown throughout the continent and we are seeing the best skill to ever come out of Asia. Japan and South Korea are both ranked in the top 25 by the IIHF, and their rankings have been improving each year. There is no doubt that the game has taken hold of the Far East. Hockey is a global game and the NHL is the undisputed face of the sport. A growing relationship between the league and a country with a population nearing 1.4 billion can only be good for the game. Hockey in China has a bright future and the NHL deserves credit for fostering its growth with plans for exhibition events.