Brendan Smith signed a four-year, $17.4MM contract in the offseason with the New York Rangers after an impressive run last season, but hasn’t been anything close to what the team had hoped for. After struggling through 44 games with the team, he was eventually waived and sent to the minor leagues to toil with the Hartford Wolf Pack despite his huge salary.
That might have built some frustration in the 29-year old, who according to Larry Brooks of the New York Post has broken his hand while fighting teammate Vinni Lettieri in practice on Sunday. That puts an end to Smith’s season, and perhaps his career in New York if the team decides a buyout is the only course of action.
- Brayden Schenn will not face any supplementary discipline for his hit last night on Boston Bruins forward David Krejci, despite his history of charging in the league. Schenn was given a two-minute minor penalty for the hit which had substantial—but according to the league unavoidable—contact to the head. The St. Louis Blues forward has been suspended twice in the past for charging, but escaped without further penalty this time.
- Patrik Laine suffered just a bruise to his foot after blocking a shot, but the Jets are still going to be precaucious with their superstar teenager. Laine isn’t expected to play for at least the next two games, and Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun gives a rough estimate of 4-14 days before he’ll be back in the lineup. Laine is in a race for the Maurice Richard trophy as the league’s leading goal scorer, but is a key part of the Jets chances to take home the Stanley Cup.
- Braden Holtby has tweaked something and is dealing with a minor injury, meaning the Washington Capitals have called up Pheonix Copley to back up Philip Grubauer tonight. Holtby isn’t expected to miss much time though, as he didn’t even leave practice today according to Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post. Copley was re-acquired as part of the Kevin Shattenkirk deal last season, but hasn’t played for the Capitals yet this year.
There’s a deal the Rangers would like to have back. They gave up last year’s 3rd and a 2nd round pick belonging to the Send this year and then signed him to a four year deal. Ouch.
Go wings!
And Wings fan always complain about Holland… that was a pretty good move. He even got a 1st, 2nd and 3rd rounder for Tatar lol. He got two picks for Mrazek too. He hands out crap contracts but boy he sure knows how to move them and get value in return. If he figures out how to move DeKeyser and Nielsen, I’d say he’s due for a bonus lol.
It was a good deal for Tatar for sure…but wouldn’t say that Holland is really good at dumping terrible contracts lol. He has so many of them that one of them should have worked out. Plus Tatar was actually one of the better contracts he signed lol. Vegas has a lot of picks at their disposal and they got a young player with a fair pay for good term. That’s late picks in each round…not a windfall by any measure.
…late picks in each round on a terrible draft year. If anything…they picked his pocket getting one of his better signed core players. Think about it haha
This is a terrible draft year?