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Archives for January 2021

Sharks Place Radim Simek On IR

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While San Jose was hoping that blueliner Radim Simek would be available for their season-opening set against Arizona, it appears that won’t be the case as Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News notes (Twitter link) that the blueliner has been placed on injured reserve retroactively.  Simek had been complaining about lingering knee soreness even after undergoing surgery last year and it appears it’s enough to hold him out for at least a couple of games to start.

The 28-year-old is in the first season of a four-year, $9MM deal signed last year after putting up two goals and seven assists in 49 games in 2019-20 while logging 17 minutes a night.  Defenseman Nicolas Meloche has been recalled from the taxi squad to give the Sharks seven healthy defenders on the roster.

San Jose announced several other transactions as well today.  Wingers John Leonard and Noah Gregor were both recalled from the taxi squad as well.  With three players coming up, they opted to fill two of the vacant spots as they promoted Sasha Chmelevski and Jeffrey Viel from their AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda.

Taxi Squad Shuffle: 01/14/21

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It appears as though there will be daily movement this season between the active roster and taxi squad, and although some major names may be highlighted in separate articles, this is where you’ll find the majority of news each day.

  • The Vancouver Canucks have sent Loui Eriksson to the taxi squad and recalled Justin Bailey. Given Eriksson didn’t play last night for the Canucks this doesn’t come as much of a surprise and it will allow the team to bank slightly more daily cap space. Eriksson previously cleared waivers and could also be assigned to the AHL once it gets started.
  • Stuart Skinner has been recalled from the Edmonton Oilers taxi squad under emergency conditions, giving the team an extra goaltender for tonight’s action. Evan Bouchard meanwhile has been sent to the taxi squad, while Tyler Benson, who had previously been there, has now been assigned to the AHL.
  • Staying in Western Canada, the Calgary Flames have activated Derek Ryan from the taxi squad as expected, but he’s coming with some company. The team has also activated Louis Domingue who will serve as backup this evening while David Rittich deals with a family issue. With the extra space, Artyom Zagidulin has been added to the taxi squad from the AHL roster.
  • The Nashville Predators have recalled Cole Smith from the taxi squad while sending Lukas Craggs to the AHL. Craggs already played in eight games for the Florida Everblades, recording nine points early in the season but will now compete for playing time with the Chicago Wolves. Smith, who also played a handful of games for the Everblades to start the year, is in his first season of professional hockey after being signed out of the University of North Dakota.
  • The Winnipeg Jets have brought up a pair of players as Mathieu Perreault and Logan Stanley were recalled from the taxi squad.  Perreault cleared waivers earlier in the week so they will have the ability to shuffle him back and forth until he plays in 10 NHL games or is on the NHL roster for 30 days.  Stanley, meanwhile, was a first-round pick back in 2016 but has yet to suit up with the Jets.  Winnipeg also recalled defenseman Leon Gawanke from his loan to Berlin of the DEL.
  • The Montreal Canadiens assigned Jake Evans to the taxi squad.  He played a little under nine minutes in last night’s season-opener but with them off until the weekend, they’ll shuffle him down and bank a little bit of cap space.  The team has already announced its intent to recall him for their next game on Saturday.

Latest On Pierre-Luc Dubois

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The PLD-Watch is on, as NHL fans all over the world keep an eye on the Columbus Blue Jackets forward. Pierre-Luc Dubois, who broke out last summer in the bubble by showing the entire league that he can hang with the elite players in the game, has asked for a trade out of Columbus. According to his head coach John Tortorella, the reasons for his request still aren’t clear, but it means teams all around the league are calling GM Jarmo Kekalainen to see what it would cost to acquire the 22-year-old center.

Almost everyone’s immediate thought was the Montreal Canadiens, who have been searching for a French-Canadian star to build around for years. Perhaps that thinking got to Dubois too, as NHL insider Nick Kypreos tweets that the center’s “first destination choice” would be in Montreal. According to Kypreos the Blue Jackets have asked about Nick Suzuki and were told that Alexander Romanov has been deemed “untouchable.” Brian Hedger of the Columbus Post-Dispatch has heard a package around Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Victor Mete could be the ask, but notes that for the time being, Dubois figures to suit up for the Blue Jackets and center the top line tonight.

Remember that Dubois signed a two-year, $10MM contract just two weeks ago and will be a restricted free agent once again in the summer of 2022. His performance has been strong, clearly, but he did have just 49 points in 70 games during his third full NHL season in 2019-20. Suzuki, who was the 13th overall pick in 2017, scored 41 in 71 as a rookie last season, arguably looked like the Canadiens’ best forward in the bubble and again last night. He would certainly be a high price to pay, just as Kotkaniemi, the third-overall pick from 2018 would be.

The problem for Montreal would be that the Blue Jackets figure to have up to two-thirds of the league checking in on Dubois. The Blue Jackets have made clear that they’re not rushing to get him out the door and a low-ball offer is not expected to get much traction.

For now, the Blue Jackets will have Dubois in the middle of the ice when they start their season in Nashville this evening. None of the speculation on his trade market will matter when the puck drops. At least not until the final whistle sounds.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Minor Transactions: 01/14/21

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The season has started and minor moves are sure to come down the pipeline in the coming days, especially when AHL training camps get underway tomorrow. Even now professional tryouts are being ended and rosters are being finalized. We’ll keep track of all the notable names right here.

  • The San Jose Barracuda have signed three players to professional tryouts for AHL camp, bringing in Robbie Russo, Chaz Reddekopp, and Samuel Harvey. Russo, 27, is the only one with any NHL experience and actually very surprisingly still a free agent given his AHL history. The right-handed defenseman is a dangerous offensive weapon that routinely scores 30+ points in the AHL, though that number did drop to just 19 in a shortened 2019-20 season.
  • TSN reported yesterday that several NHL PTOs had been ended, including three with the Calgary Flames. Brett Ritchie, Michael Stone and Garret Sparks were all in Flames camp, but it only seems as though Sparks has a real landing spot. The veteran goaltender is back with the Orlando Solar Bears for the time being, where he already played one game in December.
  • Three Philadelphia Flyers prospects are on their way back from overseas, as David Kase, Maksim Sushko, and Linus Hogberg have all been recalled from loan and assigned to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Kase, 23, played in six games for the Flyers last season, scoring his first NHL goal in the process. He’s been dominating in the Czech league for the early part of this season, recording 25 points in 27 games. Sushko, 21, had five points in 30 games for Dynamo Minsk of the KHL so far, while Linus Hogberg had 12 points in 27 games for Vita Hasten of the Swedish second tier.

Jonathan Toews Moved To Long-Term Injured Reserve

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The Chicago Blackhawks made some transactions today, moving Brent Seabrook to injured reserve while placing both Kirby Dach and Jonathan Toews on long-term injured reserve. While Dach is expected to miss the entire season following wrist surgery, it wasn’t clear how long Toews would be out with his reported illness. A move to LTIR means that the Blackhawks captain must miss at least ten games and 24 days, meaning he won’t be back until February at the earliest.

Chicago looked completely outmatched last night and though the Tampa Bay Lightning do that to a lot of teams, the Blackhawks don’t have the luxury of avoiding them for the rest of the year as they battle in the new Central Division.

Without Toews and Dach in the lineup, Dylan Strome was asked to play more than 21 minutes for the Blackhawks, seeing heavy deployment on both the powerplay and penalty kill. Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane were each asked to do the same, logging more than 22 minutes each. For at least the next ten games, it seems like Strome will be forced to carry a huge load for Chicago.

The Blackhawks are back in action against the Lightning tomorrow night before heading to Sunrise for a pair of games against the Florida Panthers.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Sammy Blais To Have Hearing With Department Of Player Safety

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The season is exactly one day old and the Department of Player Safety already has some work to do. The department announced today that Sammy Blais of the St. Louis Blues will have a hearing today for an illegal check to the head on Colorado Avalanche defenseman Devon Toews. Blais was given a two-minute minor penalty for elbowing during the match.

Toews was forced to leave the game but did return to log more than 22 minutes for the Avalanche.

This would be the first suspension in the new season and it seems as though any punishment would be even more punitive than normal. The schedule only has 55 more games on it for the Blues and every one of them is against a divisional opponent. The versatile Blais is an important part of head coach Craig Berube’s physical system, though he doesn’t drive offense or play a ton. His 155 hits last season led the Blues despite playing only 40 of the team’s 71 games.

Like every other team this season, St. Louis doesn’t have much time to sit around and wait for a ruling. The team is back in action against the Avalanche tomorrow night.

Craig Anderson Officially Signs With Washington Capitals

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Now that he has cleared waivers, Craig Anderson’s contract with the Washington Capitals has been officially announced. The veteran goaltender has inked a one-year deal worth $700K and will be immediately assigned to the club’s taxi squad.

Anderson, 39, comes to Washington as a pseudo-replacement for Henrik Lundqvist, after the latter was forced to sit out the season due to health concerns. Though their ages may be similar, the Capitals’ expectations of them are not. While Lundqvist was set to partner with Ilya Samsonov in the NHL, playing regularly, Anderson will slot in as the third option behind promoted Vitek Vanecek and be insurance for injury or inconsistency.

That means there is a lot riding on Samsonov, who certainly showed he could be one of the league’s best in his debut last year. Through 26 NHL games the 23-year-old goaltender has a .913 save percentage and a 16-6-2 record. Samsonov will take the lion’s share of the starts for the Capitals this year, with Vanecek, who is a strong goaltending prospect in his own right, slowly working his way in as a rookie.

Anderson meanwhile is mostly expected to watch from the sidelines, though it is quite the luxury for the Capitals to have a veteran of 648 NHL games waiting in the wings. He posted a .902 save percentage in 34 appearances last season, better than many backups around the league.

Anton Forsberg Placed On Waivers

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The Carolina Hurricanes have indeed placed Anton Forsberg back on waivers according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, just two days after claiming him from the Edmonton Oilers. In the meantime, the team was able to slip Alex Nedeljkovic through waivers, meaning they still had some depth at the goaltending position. They’ll try to do the same here with Forsberg, though Edmonton or another team could now claim him. Importantly, Chris Johnston of Sportsnet reports that Forsberg is still in Edmonton and wouldn’t need a 14-day quarantine if claimed by a different Canadian team.

If Edmonton is the only team to put in a claim, they would be able to move Forsberg directly to their taxi squad.

The Hurricanes started shopping Forsberg yesterday, hoping to complete a quick flip once Nedeljkovic got through waivers. With that in mind, clearing waivers may actually increase the veteran goaltender’s trade value. Should Forsberg clear, he would be able to be traded and then sent immediately to a taxi squad or minor league affiliate, adding depth to an organization. The need isn’t there for the Hurricanes anymore, but perhaps they can turn him into a late-round pick for nothing more than a waiver claim.

Seven Players Clear Waivers

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Jan 14: All seven players have cleared waivers and can report to a taxi squad or the minor leagues.

Jan 13: The first day of the hockey season is upon us and waivers are still jam-packed. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports that Par Lindholm (BOS), Devin Shore (EDM), Dmytro Timashov (NYI), Boo Nieves (TBL), Craig Anderson (WSH), Rodrigo Abols (FLA), and Kevin Connauton (FLA) are on waivers today.

Of course, several of these players did not have official contracts filed before today, meaning they now do.

Washington Capitals reporter Mike Vogel tweets that the team has signed Anderson to a one-year deal after bringing him into camp on a professional tryout. The deal will carry an average annual value of $700K. He will report to the team’s practice squad if he clears waivers. The Capitals have already announced that the team will go with Ilya Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek to start the season, but Anderson certainly provides a lot of experience at the position if anything goes sideways. The 39-year-old goaltender has 648 games played in his long career and carries a save percentage of .913.

Shore and Nieves are both brand new signings that their teams announced, both two-way contracts worth around $700K. Nieves’ deal was announced yesterday by the Tampa Bay Lightning, while the Edmonton Oilers announced Shore’s deal earlier this morning.

Timashov and Connauton were also both unsigned as of today, though it was clear that both had earned contracts already. The New York Islanders have been very coy with all of their training camp deals, while the Florida Panthers had kept Connauton with the group on a professional tryout. Their official contracts should be announced at some point today, given they are now on waivers.

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