It was a bit of a quieter week around the NHL with most of the major news coming on the injury and scheduling front. Those are highlighted in the top stories of the week.
McNabb To LTIR: The Golden Knights will be without an important piece on their back end as Brayden McNabb has been placed on LTIR, meaning he will miss at least 10 games or 21 days due to his lower-body injury. He joins Alex Pietrangelo (CPRA list) as blueliners that are unavailable for Vegas. The team had been forced to dress just five defenders for several games this season as a result of their cap situation so while they’ll certainly miss McNabb’s contribution, his placement at least frees up enough short-term cap space for them to be able to dress a normal lineup.
New Title For Drury: For the past few years, Chris Drury has come up as a target for any team looking for a new GM although most of those interview requests were rebuffed by the Rangers. While the Penguins did get permission, Drury abruptly withdrew his name from consideration just before it was announced that he had been ‘promoted’ to associate GM. That’s not a particularly common job title around the league and Drury’s role hasn’t really changed but the change likely gives him a pay raise and extra job security. It seems like only a matter of time before Drury gets his opportunity to run an NHL franchise but for now, he’s sticking around with the Rangers.
MacKinnon Injury: Colorado will be without their top scorer for a little while as Nathan MacKinnon has been listed as week-to-week with a lower-body injury. It’s yet another blow to an Avalanche squad that has been hit extremely hard by the injury bug thus far as five other regulars are also on a similar timeline to return though of those, only Pavel Francouz is currently on LTIR. Their cap situation made it so that they’ve had to play short a player once already this season. But losing MacKinnon – their top scorer – is an even bigger blow; he’s off to another strong start with 14 points in 10 games which is his best point-per-game mark of his career. The Avs got a bit of a reprieve when some of their games were postponed and they were hardly the only team in that situation.
Schedule Changes: With several teams have multiple players on the COVID Protocol Related Absences list, there were quite a few changes made in the schedule beyond Colorado’s postponements. The Sabres and Wild both saw their season paused. With Colorado and Minnesota both off, the league then rescheduled a pair of games between the Blues and Coyotes to allow them to keep playing. But the biggest changes came on Saturday when 27 East Division games were rescheduled with all eight teams seeing games moved around. Considering we’re not quite at the one-quarter mark of the season yet, it’s safe to say that the schedule makers will still have quite a bit of work ahead of them.
Surgery For Mrazek: The Hurricanes will be without their starting goaltender for a while as Petr Mrazek underwent successful surgery on his right thumb. There is no timetable for his return. The 28-year-old was off to a stellar start to his season with a 0.99 GAA and a .955 SV%, numbers that place him in the league lead in both categories. It’s a big blow for Carolina who will now turn to James Reimer and Alex Nedeljkovic to hold down the fort in his absence.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
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