Atlantic Notes: Point, Paquette, Caufield, Athanasiou

Tampa Bay center Brayden Point appears to be close to returning to the lineup.  Bryan Burns of the Lightning’s website notes (Twitter link) that Point could be ready to go for the Canadian portion of their upcoming road trip which comes on Thursday.  Point was one of the prominent restricted free agents this summer and eventually agreed to a three-year contract, one that allowed the team to not have to move anyone else out to fit him in but also guarantees him a $9MM qualifying offer one year in advance of being eligible to become an unrestricted free agent.  Meanwhile, Burns notes that center Cedric Paquette is still two weeks away from returning after sustaining an undisclosed injury late last month.

More from the Atlantic Division:

• While most players that go the college route plan to be there for a few years, that doesn’t appear to be the case for Canadiens winger Cole Caufield. The 2019 first-rounder told Guillaume Lefrancois of La Presse that he’s hoping to turn pro at the end of his freshman season at Wisconsin and join Montreal for a potential playoff push.  If that was to happen, he would still be eligible to have his contract slide a year as long as he played in nine games or fewer.
• Red Wings forward Andreas Athanasiou is listed as a game-time decision for their season-opener tonight in Nashville, reports MLive’s Ansar Khan. He sustained an undisclosed injury early in the preseason and just returned to practice on Friday for the first time.  Athanasiou is coming off his first career 30-goal season and is slated to become a restricted free agent with salary arbitration eligibility this summer.