As the calendar flips to November, a pair of teams will be missing core players for a while. Those injuries highlight our top stories of the week.
Matthews Out At Least One Month: Toronto will be without top center Auston Matthews for at least a month due to a shoulder injury sustained last weekend. Surgery was not required. He was off to a torrid start before the injury, scoring ten goals while adding six assists in just 11 games. While losing an elite player like Matthews will hurt any team, the Maple Leafs can certainly take some comfort knowing that they still have John Tavares and Nazem Kadri down the middle which is still one of the stronger one-two punches in the league.
Voynov Applies For Reinstatement: There has been some discussion about the possibility of former Kings defenseman Slava Voynov returning to the NHL. The first step in that process is underway as Deputy Commissioner acknowledged that Voynov has applied for reinstatement and that the league is currently investigating his domestic violence incident from 2015, one that saw him plead no contest. If the NHL was to approve his request, a significant suspension is expected to be imposed that he would have to serve before he could resume playing.
Six Years For Gourde: Lightning winger Yanni Gourde has been a late-bloomer. He only cracked the NHL on a full-time basis last season but made an immediate impact, scoring 25 goals while adding 39 assists. He has followed that up with a solid start in 2018-19 and was rewarded for his efforts, inking a six-year, $31MM extension with the team. The contract also contains a full no-trade clause for the first three years and a partial one in the other three. Considering the 26-year-old has less than 120 career regular season games under his belt, there is a bit of risk here but if he can continue to produce at the rate he has since last season, Tampa Bay will get pretty good value on this deal. The team now has more than $72MM committed to just 14 players for next season so they will likely have to make a move or two to free up salary cap space at some point between now and October.
Coaching Change In Los Angeles: The first coach firing of the season came in Los Angeles as the Kings parted ways with head coach John Stevens and assistant coach Don Nachbaur. Willie Desjardins takes over as interim head coach for the rest of the year while Marco Sturm has joined the staff as an assistant, his first NHL role since retiring in January of 2014. Los Angeles has struggled out of the gate this season, posting the lowest points percentage in the league thus far with a 4-8-1 record. Desjardins will be hard-pressed to get some early success as starting goalie Jonathan Quick underwent surgery to repair a torn meniscus and has been placed on long-term injured reserve.
Extension For Rinne: Pekka Rinne decided to forego testing the UFA market, agreeing to a two-year, $10MM contract extension with the Predators. The 36-year-old has been with Nashville his entire career after they drafted him back in the eighth round back in 2004. The deal represents a notable drop from his current $7MM salary and cap hit but with Juuse Saros in the fold, it’s likely that the team will start to transition towards playing him more so the drop in pay isn’t particularly surprising.
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