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Kevin Hayes Wants To Stay In New York

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When Kevin Hayes signed a one-year contract with the New York Rangers in late July, the writing seemed to be on the wall. The big center was now scheduled to hit unrestricted free agency following 2018-19, and with the Rangers publicly announcing their desire to rebuild last season Hayes could be the next big trade chip to facilitate that dream. After all, the Boston College product had produced 25 goals for the first time in his career and could easily be moved at the deadline if he wasn’t open to a long-term deal. Not so fast though, as Hayes has been open with his desire to remain in New York past this season. In a new piece from Larry Brooks of the New York Post, Hayes explains that he can’t see himself playing for any other team:

…everybody knows how I feel about wanting to stay. I’ve loved my five years here. I love the organization, the guys, the staff, the city, the fans. I really can’t see myself anywhere else. But it’s also kind of out of my hands.

Out of his hands is right, as the Rangers will have to make the final decision on whether their short rebuild has done enough to hand over a big contract at this point. After acquiring a ton of young assets last year for names like Ryan McDonagh, Rick Nash and Michael Grabner, New York is already well on their way to a successful future. Is a soon to be 27-year old Hayes part of that, or just another chip to cash in over the next few weeks?

Heading into the post-All-Star portion of the season, New York sits sixth in the Metropolitan Division with a 21-20-7 record. That’s better than many predicted for them when the season began, and Hayes has been an integral part—if not their best player for long stretches. The center has 33 points in 39 games on the year. That kind of production would certainly be welcome moving forward, but as Brooks points out it would likely need to be on a five or six-year deal worth at least $6MM per season. That’s the kind of money you hand out when you’re ready to compete, not when you’re just looking to develop a young core.

That young core is impressive, too. Neal Pionk, Filip Chytil, Pavel Buchnevich, Brett Howden, Brady Skjei, Lias Andersson, Ryan Lindgren and others all look like they can be the next group that takes the Rangers to the playoffs, and adding more this deadline could make them quite a formidable group. That said, if the team expects to compete next season perhaps retaining names like Hayes and Chris Kreider, who is scheduled to be a free agent in 2020, is more valuable to the team than whatever they would bring back next month. For his part, Hayes hopes that is the decision the team makes.

Five Key Stories: 1/21/19 – 1/27/19

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While the activity on the trade front still hasn’t really picked up yet, there were plenty of headlines across the league.  Here are the top stories from the past seven days.

Koskinen Extension: The Oilers made an interesting gamble when they brought over Mikko Koskinen from the KHL for this season and gave him a $2.5MM deal despite having just four NHL games under his belt.  Evidently, the team likes what they’ve seen from him thus far as they signed him to a three-year, $13.5MM contract extension, cementing his status as Edmonton’s number one netminder in the process.  Koskinen has a respectable .910 save percentage on the season but has struggled considerably lately with just a .877 mark over the past month.  The move also likely increases the chances that Cam Talbot is dealt before the trade deadline.

Chiarelli Fired: It turns out that the Koskinen extension was Peter Chiarelli’s last piece of business as GM of the Oilers as shortly after that deal was announced, he was fired by the team.  Many of his moves in recent years haven’t panned out from giving Milan Lucic a seven-year contract to trading a first and second round pick for Griffin Reinhart (the first rounder became Mathew Barzal), to dealing Jordan Eberle in a trade tree that ultimately yielded Ryan Spooner (who cleared waivers this week).  However, the worst one may have been moving reigning Hart Trophy winner Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson in a highly-criticized one-for-one swap.  Keith Gretzky will take over on an interim basis and if Edmonton’s press conference to announce the move is any indication, the idea of them going all in to make the playoffs now does not appear to be likely.

Teravainen Extension: The Hurricanes locked up one of their top forwards, inking Teuvo Teravainen to a five-year, $27MM extension.  The contract also contains a ten-team no-trade clause in the final two years.  He was slated to become a restricted free agent with salary arbitration eligibility this coming summer.  Teravainen has done quite well in Carolina after being the incentive for them to take on Bryan Bickell’s contract three years ago and has emerged as a legitimate top-line forward.  After putting up an impressive 64 points last season, the 24-year-old is on pace to beat that mark this year.  If he can even come close to being a 60-point player with regularity, this deal has a chance to be a steal for the Hurricanes.

Kase Out For The Year: To say this season has been rough on the injury front for Anaheim would be a significant understatement.  They’ve lost the most man games due to injuries this season and that number will get even higher with the announcement that Ondrej Kase will undergo surgery to repair a torn labrum next week, one that carries a recovery time of five-to-six months which means his season is over.  The 23-year-old already missed 18 games earlier in the season with a concussion but despite that, he still sits second on the Ducks in goals with 11 in just 30 games.  Anaheim has been a tailspin for the past month and this news certainly won’t help their fortunes.

Hurricanes Open To Moving A Top-Four Defenseman: Adding help to the back end is something many contenders are looking to do but it’s rare that a player like that is available.  Carolina has a surplus of quality defenders and they are willing to move one of them.  It’s believed that Jaccob Slavin is the only one that is completely off the table which leaves one of Justin Faulk, Brett Pesce, or Dougie Hamilton as the ones that are likely in play.  Toronto is a team that’s known to be looking for blueline help and they’ve been keeping tabs on them in recent weeks.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Flyers Intend To Be Aggressive In Free Agency

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While the Flyers are likely to be sellers between now and the February 25th trade deadline, don’t expect it to signal the start of a rebuilding process.  In an interview with Sam Donnellon of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, team chairman Dave Scott indicated that they intend to be much more aggressive in free agency this summer and are prepared to get back to being a team that spends to the Upper Limit:

We’re going to be cap spenders. We want to build the best team possible. Chuck [Fletcher] feels good about a lot of what he inherited. He’ll do more than just draft. He has that experience. We’re going to be aggressive.

While it’s true that Philadelphia hasn’t been a team that has been overly active in free agency in recent years, it’s at least worth noting that they handed out the second-largest contract to an unrestricted free agent last summer when they signed James van Riemsdyk to a five-year, $35MM contract.  That one hasn’t gone as well as the team had hoped as the winger has been limited to just 32 games this season due to injury although he has been fairly productive in that span with 22 points (12-10-22).

Former GM Ron Hextall, for the most part, had been hesitant to commit big contracts and instead worked to free up as much salary cap flexibility as possible.  He certainly succeeded in doing that as the Flyers are currently poised to finish the season with more than $8MM in cap space, per CapFriendly, an amount that’s likely to increase as they move out a player or two by the deadline.

That alone would give them plenty to work with next summer but they also have more than $17MM in expiring contracts, a list headlined by winger Wayne Simmonds who they still hope to sign to a contract extension.  Even if that happens, they’ll still have plenty to work with over the offseason, even after re-signing pending RFAs including winger Travis Konecny plus defensemen Ivan Provorov and Travis Sanheim.

Between Scott’s comments and having plenty of money to spend with quite a few roster spots to fill over the summer, there’s a very good chance that the Flyers will look a whole lot different over the next several months compared to their current roster.

PHR Originals: 1/21/19 – 1/27/19

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Here’s a rundown of the original content on PHR over the past seven days.

While the Ducks would like to lock up winger Jakob Silfverberg, a little-known CBA element could make that a challenge.  Zach broke down what the rule is and went over how it’s going to present a significant challenge for GM Bob Murray to overcome.

With the trade deadline quickly approaching, we’ve kicked off our annual Deadline Primer series.  The Central Division is where we’ve started this season.  I took a look at the situations in Winnipeg and Dallas, Zach did the same for Nashville and Minnesota, and Holger previewed Colorado.

With the All-Star Game marking the unofficial midway point of the season, we began our look at the upcoming free agent market with the players ranked 11 through 20.  Brock Nelson and Jake Gardiner narrowly missed out on a spot in the top ten.

Gavin held his weekly live chat on Thursday.  Topics included the Wayne Simmonds situation in Philadelphia, Jason Zucker’s down season with Minnesota, who Winnipeg might try to target in the weeks to come, what Edmonton should do next, and much more.

Defensemen are in high demand with Carolina attracting plenty of attention.  With that in mind, we asked which Hurricanes blueliner is the most likely to be on the move.  Kings rearguard Jake Muzzin is also in high demand but the asking price reportedly involves a first-round pick and a quality prospect.  Will that scare teams off from acquiring him or will he be on the move?  Make your prediction here.

We had plenty of questions for the mailbag in our last call for submissions that I ran another mailbag on Saturday to cover the ones that weren’t addressed last weekend.  Not surprisingly, the trade deadline dominated the queries this time around.

Snapshots: Mock Draft, Arizona State, Jokinen

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Itching for the NHL Entry Draft already? Several fan bases are, as many teams are beyond a reasonable shot at the postseason as the unofficial second half of the season begins. After a recent rash of mid-season draft rankings were published, NHL.com writers Adam Kimelman, Mike Morreale, and Guillaume Lepage tried their hands at a mock draft of the first round for the upcoming draft. They did not conduct a lottery simulation nor did they try to predict how the playoffs would unfold, so the mock is strictly the current standings inverse. However, each of the trio made their own selections and interesting trends can already be spotted. Of course, all three had the Colorado Avalanche, using the Ottawa Senators’ first-rounder, taking U.S. National Team Development Program phenom Jack Hughes first overall. Regardless of who picks first, Hughes is the unanimous pick to go No. 1 in any scenario. There was also a consensus for Finnish winger Kaapo Kakko going second to the New Jersey Devils and Russian winger Vasili Podkolzin going third to the Los Angeles Kings. However, there was not much agreement the rest of the way. Western Hockey League centers Dylan Cozens and Kirby Dach and USNTDP forwards Alex Turcotte and Trevor Zegras went early for all three writers, but no two agreed on the fit for any one team. There was also dissent over the first defenseman taken and where, as Kimelman placed Swedish rearguard Philip Broberg at No. 6 to the New Jersey Devils, while Morreale and Lepage had Canadian blue liner Bowen Byram going No. 7 to the Florida Panthers or No. 8 to the Edmonton Oilers, respectively. One of the biggest surprises was Morreale’s selection of wunderkind goaltender Spencer Knight to the Panthers. While many consider Knight to be the best draft-eligible goalie prospect in some time, no keeper has been taken in the top ten since Carey Price in 2005. The other two writers had Knight at No. 14 to Colorado and No. 24 to the Vegas Golden Knights. Later in the round, opinions differed greatly on OHL defenseman Thomas Harley and hyped overage forward Brett Leason as well. There is still a lot to be decided about the upcoming draft board, not to mention the draft order and the impact of trades, but it is interesting to get a good look at this point in the season as the picture becomes more clear for both the teams and prospects.

  • Arizona State University continues to make waves this season in college hockey. In just their fourth year of existence as an NCAA program, ASU is currently ranked No. 17 in the country and could push for a spot in the NCAA Tournament. As AZ Central’s Jeff Metcalfe writes, the play of forward Johnny Walker and goalie Joey Daccord is making all of the difference and beginning to draw national attention. After blanking the immensely talented Boston University Terriers 3-0 on Saturday night, Walker’s two tallies put him in the NCAA lead for goal scoring, while Daccord’s shutout was his NCAA-best seventh of the year. Daccord, 22, was a seventh-round pick of the Ottawa Senators back in 2015 out of Cushing Academy and it is beginning to look like the Sens’ late-round waiver on the long-term project could pay off. Daccord is a junior and could be enticed to turn pro this off-season if Ottawa hopes to avoid him becoming a free agent after another year. Walker, 22, went undrafted as a Phoenix native playing in the NAHL and is only a sophomore at ASU. However, that won’t stop NHL teams from trying to pry him away from college to get a look at his near goal-per-game pace at the pro level. A tournament run by Arizona State would only further amplify the status of these unlikely heroes of the collegiate campaign.
  • Veteran forward Jussi Jokinen has been unable to find NHL employment this season. The fact is somewhat amazing considering Jokinen played in 14 or more games with four different NHL teams last season. The well-traveled 35-year-old signed a PTO with the Detroit Red Wings this summer, who would have become his tenth different NHL team, but it did not pan out and no one else has come calling. Finally, Jokinen has decided to move on. Finnish reporter Pasi Tuominen reports that Jokinen is set to sign with Karpat of the Liiga in his native Finland for the remainder of the season. Jokinen will be a valued mentor for top NHL prospects like Rasmus Kupari (LAK) and Aleksi Heponiemi (FLA) while with Karpat and may even lead the first-place team to a championship. Regardless, it is highly likely that Jokinen’s days in the NHL are done. The well-liked and respected forward leaves a great legacy behind him in North America, but will surely continue to play overseas for a few years to come.

 

Trade Rumors: Duchene, Lightning, Bargains

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Seemingly every year, there is speculation that a prominent impending free agent could be the one to finally bring the “sign and trade” back to the NHL. The sign and trade is relatively self explanatory; a player re-signs with his current team to a contract negotiated with a second team that he is subsequently traded to. In the current structure of the NHL, the sign and trade could hypothetically be used to add an eighth year to a contact, as free agents are limited to a cap of seven years when negotiating with a team other than their current club. This season, TSN’s Pierre LeBrun has reopened the sign and trade discussions, this time in regards to Ottawa Senators forward Matt Duchene. LeBrun speculates that Duchene has approximately two weeks to work out an extension with the Senators before the team will be forced to shop him. Ottawa has reportedly already made an initial offer of eight years and $64MM, but Duchene is likely to be eyeing an AAV closer to $9MM per year instead of $8MM. If that counter is too rich for Senators owner Eugene Melnyk and company, the team could not afford to miss out on a the potential return for Duchene at the trade deadline.

When it comes to a sign-and-trade, things get tricky for the player, which could explain why it remains such an infrequently used device in the NHL. While the eighth year is enticing for Duchene, especially at his desired salary, signing that long-term deal means a) getting another team to first agree to that contract and b) trusting the future plans for that franchise. The last time Duchene was traded, from the Colorado Avalanche to the Senators early last season, it didn’t work out so well. Duchene may be hesitant to sign with a team for eight years simply because they can afford to acquire him this season. A sign and trade also eliminates Duchene’s opportunity to test the free agent market and potentially maximize his market value. Duchene will undoubtedly be the top center on the UFA market this summer and may wish to weigh his options rather as a first-time free agent rather than commit to another team so soon before seeing what else is out there. A sign and trade works out nicely for the Senators, as they would surely receive a better return, but finding a trade partner could be difficult and getting Duchene to go along with the plan may not happen. For these reasons, a sign and trade remains an unlikely result to the ongoing Duchene saga.

  • The Tampa Bay Lightning have all the makings of a true trade deadline buyer this season: they are the first-place team in the league by a considerable margin, will have upwards of $8MM in cap space by the deadline, and are facing an impending cap crunch that could begin to dismantle their roster as early as this off-season. The Lightning are in win-now mode and, with excellent odds of winning the Stanley Cup, will look to add the best reinforcements they can ahead of the deadline. However, the Lightning may struggle to make the trades typically seen by a true buyer. Tampa Bay currently has 49 players signed to professional contracts against a cap of 50, per CapFriendly. The team probably doesn’t want to hit that 50-contract mark either, as it would take them out of the college and junior free agent market this spring. This means that the Bolts cannot simply trade picks and prospects for rental players. Instead, GM Julien BriseBois will have to get creative with sending under-contract players the other way. Only two of Tampa’s 49 “pro” players are in juniors, meaning that any trades will likely send current AHL contributors to sellers and the team will effort to do so without hurting their postseason depth. At the end of the day, Tampa Bay’s trades at the deadline may end up looking more like hockey trades – player-for-player talent swaps – than you would typically see from a deadline buyer.
  • Sportsnet’s Andrew Berkshire believes that there is great long-term value to be found in the current buyer’s market. Berkshire writes that the Los Angeles Kings’ Tyler Toffoli, the Chicago Blackhawks’ Brandon Saad, and the Florida Panthers’ Evgeni Dadonov are among the best bargains potentially available on the market due to their recent struggles and/or under-the-radar trade status. Berkshire states that Toffoli’s value is at a career-low given his current 33-point pace for the down-and-out Kings. However, Toffoli notched 47 points just last year and has 20+ goals in three of the past four seasons. The two-way forward also has a palatable $4.6MM cap hit and could be a buy-low candidate that blows up with a change of scenery. Similarly, Berkshire believes that Saad’s value is still low after bottoming out last season. He has rebounded this season, but is still on pace to fall short of the 50+ points that used to come consistently for him. At $6MM AAV for two more years, Saad’s contract isn’t egregious but is a strain for the cap-strapped Blackhawks. They could be enticed to sell low on the power forward and could very well end up on the wrong side of a Saad trade for the third time. Conversely, Berkshire believes that the Panthers are happy with Dadonov and would be reluctant to move him, but may feel pressured to sell at the deadline despite few obvious rental pieces. The play-making winger is quietly on his way to another 65-point season or better and with one year left on his contract at just $4MM, is already a bargain and could be even better elsewhere. Florida won’t give him up easily, but considering the upside that Dadonov has shown, he could still prove to be a steal even with ample trade capital going the other way.

Metropolitan Notes: Panarin, Hall, Blackwood, Pionk, Hayes

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Despite rumors that he might want to sign with the New York Rangers and talk that he loves playing in Columbus, it looks like Columbus Blue Jackets winger Artemi Panarin still hasn’t started negotiating with Columbus. In fact, Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports that the agent for Panarin, Dan Milstein said he wants another meeting with his client before he lets Columbus know whether he’s willing to negotiate a contract extension with the Blue Jackets.

Milstein and Panarin met in Miami over the weekend, but Portzline writes that the two will need a second meeting to discuss their what their next step will be. Panarin, who will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, has been unwilling to sign an extension in Columbus with rumors that he wants to move to a city that can give him more exposure. However, Panarin has fit in well with Columbus and has said that he enjoys playing there.

The 27-year-old would be one of the most intriguing free-agent options if he chooses to test the open market as he’s having another strong year with 19 goals and 53 points in 46 games and could even break some of his career-highs if he can keep those numbers up. Even if Panarin opts not to negotiate a deal with Columbus, the rumor is that the Blue Jackets would keep him for their playoff run this year. Columbus is currently in third place in the Metropolitan Division with 59 points.

  • NHL.com’s Amanda Stein reports that star forward Taylor Hall practiced on his own today, but it looks unlikely he will join the team on their road trip to face Pittsburgh on Monday. Hall has been out since Dec. 23 with a lower-body injury and missed the All-Star game because of it. However, the team was hoping the Hart Trophy winner would be ready after the break, which he apparently isn’t. Stein adds that head coach John Hynes said that Hall is progressing, but isn’t healing as quickly as originally thought.
  • The New Jersey Devils also made several roster moves today, but didn’t recall goaltender MacKenzie Blackwood. NHL.com’s Amanda Stein reports that the Devils had already decided to go with Keith Kinkaid in goal on Monday. So New Jersey decided to recall Cam Johnson instead, so Blackwood could play in the AHL All-Star Game. The team didn’t want Blackwood to miss the opportunity while sitting on the bench as the team’s backup.
  • While the New York Rangers recalled goaltender Alexandar Georgiev and forward Boo Nieves from Hartford earlier today, it’s been noted that the team didn’t bring back defenseman Ryan Lindgren, but much of that could be because defenseman Neal Pionk might be ready to return to the lineup. Pionk has missed the last three games with a lower-body injury, but the 23-year-old was practicing today with the team along with Kevin Hayes, according to New York Post’s Larry Brooks. Hayes has been out since Jan. 2.

Washington Capitals Have Lots Of Decisions To Make In Goal

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The Washington Capitals have some interesting decisions to make in the next few months when it comes to their goaltending. The team has starter Braden Holtby under contract for just one more season after this one, while backup Pheonix Copley will be an unrestricted free agent. Throw in the fact the team has highly-touted prospect Ilya Samsonov in Hershey in the AHL as well as Vitek Vanecek, who is about to play for the AHL All-Star game, and the team has quite a bit of depth.

The team’s first decision, according to the Washington Post’s Isabelle Khurshudyan is general manager Brian MacLellan must decide whether they intend to bring back Copley next season. Copley was having an impressive season until recently with 10 wins in his first 15 games, but has struggled more recently during Washington’s seven-game winless streak. In fact, Copley has gone 0-3-1 in his last four appearances, allowing 15 goals, although two of those appearance were in relief of Holtby. Of course, MacLellan said just two weeks ago that he was interested in retaining the services of Copley for another year.

“No I don’t,” said MacLellan, when asked if he needed to see more of him before re-signing him. “I think he’s pretty much continually gotten better. You watch him work in practice, you watch what [goaltending coach Scott Murray] does — I mean I talk to Scott constantly on where’s he at, where’s he going — and there’s a comfort level with him that he’s not going to get worse. He’s going to get better.”

Regardless of his recent struggles, bringing Copley back for another year would make sense as Samsanov, deemed the goaltender of the future in Washington, has struggled in the AHL with a 3.14 GAA and a .878 save percentage this season. Another year of Copley would give the prospect more time to develop as its just his first year in North America and knew little English when he arrived here last summer. However, the 21-year-old Samsanov has had a recent string of solid performances as he has gone 4-0-1 with two shutouts in his last five games, but barring injury isn’t likely to make his NHL debut this year. If someone gets recalled this season, it’s likely to be Vanecek, who is 10-8-2 with a 2.82 GAA and a .903 save percentage. Vanecek is also a coveted prospect as he was a second-round pick in 2014.

Khurshudyan also points out that whatever the team decides to do with Copley could have an effect of whether the team brings back Holtby after the 2019-20 season. With lasting salary cap issues, the team might be better off turning to Samsonov as their starter in two years rather than offer the then 31-year-old an expensive, long-term contract extension. It will likely be his last chance at a big contract, so it’s unlikely he would agree to a short-term deal to stay in Washington. Holtby returned to the All-Star game this year and is having another impressive season, but the team may have to decide between retaining Holtby or Nicklas Backstrom, who will both be unrestricted free agents in two years. Regardless, if the team opts to make Samsonov the goalie of the future, how much NHL experience will Samsonov get if Copley is in his way next season?

New York Rangers Almost Traded Ryan McDonagh To Edmonton In 2016

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In his most recent 31 Thoughts column earlier this week, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman mentioned that now-former Edmonton Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli was close to making a blockbuster trade back in 2016, just days before he traded Taylor Hall to New Jersey for Adam Larsson. Friedman, however, had no knowledge of the details of that blockbuster. However, New York Post’s Larry Brooks got a confirmation from multiple sources that the trade would have been with the New York Rangers.

Brooks reports that just before pulling the trigger on the Hall-Larsson deal, Chiarelli was close to a deal that would have sent the 2016 fourth-overall pick (used to take Jesse Puljujarvi) to the Rangers for defenseman Ryan McDonagh. The belief is that New York was interested in drafting Clayton Keller of the U.S. National Development Team with the fourth pick to begin the rebuild process then. Brooks adds there were other pieces to the deal, but points out that after the team’s first-round exit to Pittsburgh that year, the team felt it needed to re-tool their team with McDonagh being the most marketable player on the Rangers at the time.

Instead, Chiarelli turned the deal down, took Puljujarvi and sent Hall to New Jersey for Larsson, while the Rangers instead packaged Derick Brassard to Ottawa in a deal to get Mika Zibanejad. The team did discuss McDonagh with other teams at that time, including a deal with Colorado for either Nathan MacKinnon or Gabriel Landeskog, but the Avalanche weren’t that high on McDonagh’s value.

Considering how Puljujarvi has turned out in Edmonton thus far and how successful Hall has been since leaving the Oilers, the trade could have altered the outcome for Edmonton as well as Chiarelli, as McDonagh could have helped stabilize the team’s defense. However, there is no guarantee that Chiarelli still wouldn’t have moved Hall later on anyway.

Of course, the Rangers team may look quite a bit different with Keller on their team now as the 20-year-old put up a 23-goal, 65-point campaign in his rookie season last year and currently has 11 goals and 35 points this year and would have been a great piece to build around. Instead the franchise held onto McDonagh until last year’s trade deadline when they sent him and J.T. Miller to Tampa Bay in exchange for Vladislav Namestnikov, propects Libor Hajek and Brett Howden as well as a 2018 first-round pick (Nils Lundqvist) and a conditional 2019 second-rounder.

 

Minor Transactions: 01/27/19

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The All-Star festivities ended with Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby winning an award he’s never won before, All-Star MVP, as he scored two goal in the All-Star Game finals Saturday night and had eight points total as Team Metropolitan defeated Team Central, 10-5. Crosby has already won three Stanley Cups, two Hart Trophies, two Conn Smythe awards, three Lester B. Pearson (now Ted Lindsay) awards, two Art Ross Trophies and two Maurice “Rocket” Richard awards. Now he can add an All-Star MVP. However, with the 2019 All-Star games concluded, many teams will start making roster adjustments as several teams will be back on the ice on Monday. Check back to see continuing updates throughout the day.

  • The New Jersey Devils announced a number of roster moves today as the team started by placing defenseman Ben Lovejoy on injured reserve with an upper-body injury, retroactive to Jan. 15. That means the team can activate Lovejoy whenever they are ready. The team also recalled forward Kevin Rooney, defenseman Egor Yakovlev and goaltender Cam Johnson from Binghamton of the AHL. Both Rooney and Yakovlev were sent down a week ago to get some playing time in while the Devils were on break. The Devils play Monday against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
  • With a game coming up Monday as well, the Winnipeg Jets announced they have recalled defenseman Sami Niku from the Manitoba Moose of the AHL. Niku was sent down to get some playing time while the Jets were on their bye week and now will return. Niku has made 10 appearances for Winnipeg this season, but picked up his first two points on Jan. 17. He will fill in for the injured Dustin Byfuglien and Ben Chiarot, although both are rumored to be close to returning.
  • The Philadelphia Flyers are getting ready to return from their bye week and have announced they have recalled goaltender Carter Hart and forward Mikhail Vorobyev from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the AHL. The team also added they have assigned forward Dale Weise to Lehigh Valley to make room for both transactions. Weise cleared waivers on Jan. 16 and will now spend time with the Phantoms. Hart has been impressive in 12 games for the Flyers this year, posting a 2.66 GAA and a .918 save percentage and will continue his development in Philadelphia. Vorobyev struggled after making the team out of training camp, playing just seven games. However, the 22-year-old has been impressive in the AHL and will get another chance to prove that he belongs with the Flyers.
  • The New York Rangers announced they have recalled two players as they return from their bye week in forward Boo Nieves and goaltender Alexandar Georgiev from the Hartford Wolf Pack of the AHL. Both were assigned to Hartford to get extra playing time while the Rangers were off. Nieves has played 16 games for the Rangers and has two goals and seven points, while Georgiev has struggled as New York’s backup goalie with a 6-8 record, a 3.66 GAA and an .883 save percentage.
  • The Dallas Stars announced they have recalled defenseman Connor Carrick from the Texas Stars of the AHL from his conditioning loan. He played four games with Texas, putting up a goal and an assist along with 13 shots on goal. The 24-year-old came over in a trade with Toronto at the beginning of the season, but has dealt with a lower-body injury and has appeared in just 13 games this season.

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