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Archives for December 2018

P.K. Subban, Viktor Arvidsson Activated From Injured Reserve

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The Nashville Predators have lost four straight games and released their stranglehold on the Central Division, but are finally getting healthy again. The team today activated both P.K. Subban and Viktor Arvidsson from injured reserve, and expect to have them both in the lineup immediately. Subban and Arvidsson have both missed more than a month of game action. To make room, Yannick Weber has been moved to injured reserve.

It’s been a tough season for Subban, who has suited up just 18 times for the Predators and has been sidelined since November 13th with this most recent injury. The Norris winner has 12 points on the year and is one of the engines that drives the Nashville attack, something they’ve sorely missed over the last few weeks. The team now sits four points behind the Winnipeg Jets for the Central Division lead, despite allowing the fewest goals in the entire league. Getting Subban back may lead to a few more risky plays, but has always made the Predators a much better team overall given his ability to push the play forward.

Arvidsson meanwhile has been out even longer, playing just a single game since October 30th. The diminutive forward has scored 13 points in 13 games this year and is the straw that stirs the drink at even-strength, recording all eight of his goals there. Still just 25 years old, Arvidsson looked like he was playing the best hockey of his career at the beginning of the year and could really push the Predators back into contention for the Presidents’ Trophy if he comes back to full strength quickly.

Zdeno Chara Set To Return For Boston Bruins

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The Boston Bruins will be without Charlie McAvoy tonight as he deals with some “lingering effects” after blocking a shot, but the team will not be without reinforcements. Zdeno Chara, Kevan Miller and Jake Debrusk are all set to return to the lineup for the Bruins. The team is taking on the New Jersey Devils tonight at home as they try to catch the Buffalo Sabres in the Atlantic Division.

Chara, 41, has been out since November 14th with a knee injury but had been playing extremely well for the Bruins through the early part of the season. The ageless veteran defenseman had logged an average of more than 22 minutes going into the game he suffered the injury, and was the team’s most important penalty killer. While not the same offensive threat he was in his prime, Chara still moves the puck effectively and can smother offensive players in the Boston end. Getting him and Miller back will do wonders to help a defense corps that has been beaten up all season long.

While health on the blue line matters, getting Debrusk back might be even more important for the Bruins. The 22-year old forward hasn’t played since December 6th, but is an integral part of the Boston forward group. His offense, while inconsistent this season, is needed for the team to become more balanced up front and not rely solely on the “big three” (or four, given David Krejci’s recent resurgence). Debrusk’s 10 goals still puts him fourth on the entire roster, five ahead of Joakim Nordstrom and Ryan Donato who come in tied for fifth. That’s not a lot of secondary scoring, something the Bruins will need to find if they want to go deep into the playoffs.

Craig Anderson Diagnosed With Concussion

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We now know what the upper-body injury is that kept Craig Anderson out of the Ottawa Senators last game. The veteran goaltender has suffered a concussion and will not be available to the team this weekend. Defenseman Justin Falk has also been diagnosed with a concussion and will not be available. In the meantime, the team has recalled goaltender Marcus Hogberg from the minor leagues.

The Senators season is trending the way many expected after a surprisingly effective start, and losing Anderson for any length of time will only weaken their position in the league. The veteran goaltender has a .905 save percentage on the season but is obviously the Senators best choice, given the rest of their depth at the position. Hogberg will join Mike McKenna in the crease for the time being, while former backup Mike Condon has still played in just a single game for the Belleville Senators while dealing with a hip injury.

The 37-year old Anderson still has another year on his contract at $4.75MM and was considered a potential trade candidate before the injury. That potential may disappear now if he can’t get himself back to playing well before the deadline comes around in a couple of months, especially given that his contract is of the 35+ variety. That means Anderson’s cap hit will stay on the books even if he retires or is bought out, which should scare off any potential buyers when added to a recent concussion. Hopefully he’ll be able to put this injury behind him quickly and get back to playing.

NHL Announces All-Star Captains

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The 2019 NHL All-Star captains have been revealed today, and there will be a nice mix of old and new leading the way in the mid-season tournament. Auston Matthews, Alex Ovechkin, Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid will captain their respective divisions after outstanding starts to the year. The players were selected through fan vote.

Matthews is perhaps the most surprising, given that he has missed a good chunk of the season with a shoulder injury. Still, the young Toronto Maple Leafs star has 19 goals and 34 points in 23 games and is an obvious choice as a player to market in the United States. Born in California and raised in Arizona, Matthews is a perfect poster boy for the idea that anyone can learn to play and excel at hockey regardless of their background.

McDavid and MacKinnon were easy choices after starting the year on fire once again, and are arguably the two best young players in the league today. The pair of Canadian centers should compete again in the fastest skater competition, given the incredible speeds they operate at every night. MacKinnon’s linemate Mikko Rantanen may have a bit of a bone to pick with him, given that the talented winger is actually leading the league in scoring.

No one should be surprised by the fact that Ovechkin can still hang around with these young stars, but it is still impressive just how well he has performed this year. In a season that some expected a “Stanley Cup hangover,” the great Washington Capitals forward leads the league in goals with 29 through his first 35 games and may very well win the eighth Maurice Richard trophy of his career. Now 33, there’s no slowing down the Russian sniper who has a whopping 21 goals at even-strength.

Minor Transactions: 12/27/18

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The holiday season is coming to an end and NHL hockey is back on the schedule. 26 teams will get their season back underway this evening, and will have to make some minor roster moves to prepare. We’ll be here keeping track of all of those transactions.

  • The Washington Capitals have recalled defenseman Tyler Lewington from the minor leagues, indicating that Brooks Orpik is still not ready to return. Lewington made his NHL debut earlier this month and has been a steady presence for the Hershey Bears this season.
  • Marcus Hogberg has been recalled by the Ottawa Senators, meaning it doesn’t look good for Craig Anderson as he looks to recover from an upper-body injury. Hogberg will join Mike McKenna in the crease tomorrow night for the Senators if Anderson is unable to go.
  • The Toronto Maple Leafs have recalled Trevor Moore once again under emergency conditions, as they plan to use the forward as a replacement for the injuried Tyler Ennis and Zach Hyman. The Maple Leafs could actually recall another player, and very well could in time to serve as insurance for tomorrow’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
  • Brandon Pirri is back up with the Vegas Golden Knights and is expected to play tonight. Max Pacioretty remains sidelined for the time being, giving Pirri a chance to show that he can be a regular part of an NHL lineup once again. The 27-year old sniper has three goals and four points in his first three games with the Golden Knights this year.
  • Like every day, the Los Angeles Kings have made a transaction with three of their fringe players, recalling Michael Amadio, Daniel Brickley and Sean Walker. The team has been banking cap space daily by sending players up and down on paper transactions, and will continue to do so.
  • The Colorado Avalanche have recalled Ryan Graves, who is still waiting to make his NHL debut. The 23-year old defenseman was acquired last season from the New York Rangers, and has eight points in 22 games this year for the Colorado Eagles of the AHL.

2018 Year In Review: March

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2018 has been quite a busy year in the hockey world.  There have been several big trades and free agent signings, plenty of changes behind the bench, and much more.  Over the coming days, PHR will take a look back at the top stories from around the game on a month-by-month basis.  Next up is a look back at March, a much quieter month around the league with the trade deadline having passed.

Surgery For Hanzal: Martin Hanzal’s first season in Dallas was nothing short of a disaster.  He had frequent minor injuries and when he was healthy, he wasn’t productive.  Things came to a head after he underwent spinal fusion surgery, ending his season prematurely.  The initial timeline was a six-to-seven month recovery but it ultimately kept him out until earlier this month.  Unfortunately for him and the Stars, the 31-year-old appears to be dealing with another back injury once again.

MacLellan Extension: Just days after the trade deadline, the Capitals announced that they had given GM Brian MacLellan a multi-year contract extension.  The reward was well-deserved after he reshaped the team and had the team in contention at the time despite losing several core veterans from the previous season due to salary cap reasons.  The move looks even better now after Washington went on to win the Stanley Cup back in June.  Some eyebrows were raised when Barry Trotz didn’t receive an extension at the same time and we all know how that ultimately turned out.

One More Year For Chara: Just days after he turned 41, Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara decided that he wasn’t finished with the NHL just yet.  He inked a one-year, $5MM extension, a salary that actually represented a $1MM raise on his salary from the 2017-18 season.  The contract also carries $1.75MM of performance bonuses, $1.25MM of which have already been achieved (he can also earn $250K if Boston makes the playoffs and another $250K if he wins the Stanley Cup).  The veteran has missed the last six weeks with a knee issue but prior to getting injured, he was still logging over 21 minutes a night and providing a steadying presence on Boston’s back end.

Francis Out As GM: It didn’t take too long for new Hurricanes owner to start making changes as Ron Francis was relieved of his duties as Carolina’s GM and ‘promoted’ to President of Hockey Operations.  This started a bizarre and highly public search for a replacement before candidates started withdrawing from consideration as the month progressed.  Dundon ultimately decided to take a step back from the process which didn’t wind up resolving itself until May.

Four Years For Nutivaara: Blue Jackets defenseman Markus Nutivaara had a nice breakout year in his second NHL season and was rewarded for his efforts, signing a four-year, $10.8MM extension.  The 24-year-old is still playing a third pairing role most nights in Columbus but showed himself to be capable of moving up when injuries struck and is currently on pace for a new career high points as well as ice time per game.

On top of these, there was a frenzy of college players signing including drafted prospects putting pen to paper to burn the first year of their entry-level contract right away.  Notable players in this situation included Henrik Borgstrom (FLA), Ryan Donato (BOS), Adam Gaudette (VAN), Jordan Greenway (MIN), Casey Mittelstadt (BUF), Dylan Sikura (CHI), and Troy Terry (ANA).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Goalie Notes: Senators, Schneider, Rangers

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The Senators were looking to acquire a goalie when Mike Condon went down with a hip issue shortly after being sent to the minors, reports Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch.  Even though the team is hopeful that the netminder will be able to return next month, he suggests that they may still want to add some depth between the pipes in case injuries strike as they don’t want to bring up prospect Filip Gustavsson from the AHL just yet; he’s in his rookie AHL campaign.  They could look to bring in an AHL veteran or perhaps someone on a cheap deal at the NHL level that would allow them to return Mike McKenna to the minors and put him back in the third-string role that he was originally expected to fill.

More goalie notes from around the hockey world:

  • There is no timeline for when Devils goaltender Cory Schneider will return to the lineup, notes Abbey Mastracco of the Bergen Record. The veteran was put on IR last week with an abdominal strain.  This season has not gone well at all for the 32-year-old who has posted a nightmarish 4.66 GAA with a .852 SV% in seven appearances so far.  Instead of potentially having a 1A/1B tandem with Keith Kinkaid, the latter has had to take on the bulk of the workload and is starting to falter.  With that in mind, rookie Mackenzie Blackwood may be in line for some more playing time coming out of the break.
  • If the Rangers are able to get top goalie prospect Igor Shesterkin signed for next season, that will change the fortunes for current backup Alexandar Georgiev. Brett Cyrgalis of the New York Post notes that the Russian prospect is in the final year of his KHL deal and New York will be taking a run at signing him after that time.  It’s highly unlikely that Shesterkin, who the team hopes is their starter of the future, would agree to any AHL time so that would force Georgiev into a number three role.  While he’ll still be waiver-exempt next season meaning that they could keep him around for depth, they could also try to capitalize on his trade value at that time as young goalies with NHL experience are often coveted around the league.

Minor Transactions: 12/26/18

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As the 4 PM CST threshold has passed (meaning roster moves made after that point count only against the cap starting tomorrow), teams can start to bring players back up from the minors.  Teams are already beginning to take advantage of that, announcing some moves in advance of games resuming on Thursday.  We’ll keep tabs of those moves here.

  • The Hurricanes have recalled wingers Clark Bishop and Janne Kuokkanen, per a team release.  Both moves were expected as the pair were sent down just prior to the roster freeze to get them off the salary cap for a few days.  Bishop has played in 16 games with Carolina this year, picking up a goal and an assist while being a bit more productive with the AHLs Checkers, collecting five points in 15 contests.  Meanwhile, Kuokkanen has been held off the scoresheet in four NHL games but has been one of the top AHL producers, tallying 27 points in just 29 games.
  • The Devils announced (Twitter link) that center John Quenneville has been recalled from Binghamton of the AHL.  This move was also expected after he was sent down just before the holiday break.  The 22-year-old has been productive in the minors, averaging a point-per-game in 19 AHL contests but that has yet to translate into much NHL production as he is pointless in 11 games with New Jersey so far this season.

Matt Dumba Undergoes Surgery, Out At Least Three Months

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Last week, it was reported that Wild defenseman Mathew Dumba was set to undergo surgery and was going to miss a significant amount of time.  The team announced that he has undergone a successful procedure to repair a ruptured right pectoralis muscle and will miss a minimum of three months.  The injury occurred last Saturday in a first period fight with Matthew Tkachuk of the Flames.

The 24-year-old has been one of the top offensive threats among NHL defensemen, scoring a dozen goals while adding ten assists in 32 games so far this season.  The rest of Minnesota’s back end has combined for just 13 tallies on the year so this is a significant blow to their attack.  He also ranks second on the team in ice time per night at over 23 minutes which will be difficult to fill from within.  Greg Pateryn will be counted on to log some extra minutes on the right side but he has been better served on the third pairing in recent years.

The Wild find themselves in a bit of a freefall having lost four straight games and nine of their last dozen.  Despite that, they are still just two points out of the final playoff spot in the West but they may need to turn to the trade market to find Dumba’s replacement.  With nearly $26MM already tied up in their back end for next season, they may prefer to add a rental player but there don’t project to be many impact rentals available between now and the trade deadline.

Right now, Minnesota has the ability to add a player making roughly $3.4MM in a full-season salary, per CapFriendly.  They can place Dumba on LTIR to give them some more space and allow them to go over the Upper Limit in the short term but as Michael Russo of The Athletic notes (subscription required), the team is hopeful that the blueliner will be able to return before the end of the season.  With that in mind, GM Paul Fenton will have to factor in the fact he’ll have to get the team back in salary cap compliance later in the season into his thought process before deciding who to try to add in the weeks to come which will likely lower the Wild to lower-priced players.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Impact Defensive Rentals Could Be Quite Rare At Trade Deadline

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For an NHL team to grind their way to a Stanley Cup, a few things are almost always necessary. A hot goaltender, who can steal at least a few games through the long playoff run, center depth that can lift linemates up and provide secondary scoring, and extra defensemen who are able to step into the lineup when a top option inevitably suffers an injury. The postseason in hockey is a brutal period of injury for almost every player, and often leads to players suiting up despite major injuries.

Though you might not be able to guarantee the play of your starting goaltender at the trade deadline, you can give your team some help in the other two categories by going after players on expiring contracts. Rentals, as they are referred to because of their short-term nature, are always flipped around the league in the last few weeks of February as teams prepare for a potential playoff run. All but one team usually regret those acquisitions, but they continue anyway.

This year, the rental center market could have some legitimate impact talent in it with names like Matt Duchene, Kevin Hayes and even perhaps Eric Staal shopped by struggling teams down the stretch. Obviously any of those names or the several others available could be re-signed instead, but there should be at least a few options for teams looking to upgrade down the middle.

On defense though, teams might have to settle for players more suited to bottom-pairing or depth roles. That’s not because of a lack of pending free agents on the blue line—although the recent extensions for players like Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Drew Doughty and Ryan Ellis certainly changed the market—but because of the situations their respective teams are in this season.

When looking at the group that is scheduled to be available on July 1st, one name immediately stands out. Erik Karlsson doesn’t have a long-term extension with the San Jose Sharks yet, but that doesn’t mean he won’t before the end of the year. In order for San Jose to be eligible to sign Karlsson to an eight-year deal, they have to wait until after the trade deadline to pass. Perhaps the two sides are just waiting on that to happen, though it’s very unlikely the Sharks would trade Karlsson even if they aren’t. First of all, the Ottawa Senators included a clause in the summer blockbuster that essentially prevents Karlsson from being traded to the Eastern Conference. If the star defenseman ends up on an Eastern roster by the end of the year, San Jose would have to send over another first-round pick. But San Jose is also fighting for first place in the Pacific Division, and likely would choose to keep Karlsson regardless as a sort of “own rental.”

That same situation surrounds the other impact defensive options. Tyler Myers, Jake Gardiner and Anton Stralman are arguably the next three best rentals, and all could potentially be on different teams next season. But the Winnipeg Jets, Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning are all legitimate Stanley Cup contenders and need these players to keep them on that track. Zdeno Chara can make an impact, but holds a full no-movement clause and almost certainly will not leave Boston even if they fell out of the playoff race (something that seems unlikely anyway).

Those circumstances mean that the defensive rental market could be relatively shallow this season, with Alex Edler really being the crown jewel. Edler has been logging huge minutes for the Vancouver Canucks as they continue their rebuild and could help several teams, but beyond that names like Nick Jensen, Roman Polak and Alex Petrovic start popping up. That’s not to say there won’t be movement, but if you’re looking for real impact help teams might have to look for players with a little more term.

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