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Archives for February 2021

Canucks Owner Has No Plan To Make Changes To Front Office

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Vancouver Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini went to Twitter earlier the evening, announcing that he has no plans to make changes to the Canucks front office.

“Of course I’m disappointed by our poor start, but the last thing we’re going to do is panic,” said Aquilini. “We’ve been better in recent games and I believe we’ll continue to improve … Contrary to what you may have read or heard, we’re sticking to the path we’re on: building on our core of young talent. Progression is not always a straight line. There is no easy fix, only patience, commitment, and hard work.”

There have been quite a few rumblings that changes might be underway in Vancouver with general manager Jim Benning at the forefront of that. The team, which took the Vegas Golden Knights to Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals, were expected to have a big year. The team had three key free agents it wanted to retain, including goaltender Jacob Markstrom, defenseman Chris Tanev and forward Tyler Toffoli. In the end, the Canucks didn’t sign any of the three with two of them headed to rival Calgary. Vancouver is currently in sixth place (out of seven teams) in the North Division with a 6-11-0 record, not where many expected them to be.

Regardless, Aquilini made it clear in his statement that no changes will happen.

“I have full confidence in Jim, Travis, and this group. I have no plans to make changes,” said Aquilini.

The Canucks also have made no attempt to extend the contract of head coach Travis Green, who is coaching in the final year of his deal. However, the team is likely waiting now to see if Green can turn the team’s success around first and there is no guarantee that the front office still won’t be shaken up at the end of the season.

Tampa Bay’s Anthony Cirelli Out Week-To-Week With Upper-Body Injury

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The Tampa Bay Lightning announced the team will be without second-line center Anthony Cirelli for a while as he will be out week-to-week with an upper-body injury. That’s a tough blow for a team that recently lost Steven Stamkos, who was put on the COVID Protocol list Friday.

Cirelli went down during the middle of the third period Thursday against the Florida Panthers and never returned. The injury didn’t look good and head coach Jon Cooper said at the time that “it didn’t look great when he came off.”

The forward has played well for the Lightning this season with four goals and 10 points in 12 games so far this year. He had 16 goals and 44 points last season in 68 games and was fourth in voting for the Selke Trophy. He is a top penalty killer for the team, another blow that the Lightning will have to deal with.

The team for now, is expected to promote Tyler Johnson to center the second line alongside both Mathieu Joseph and Blake Coleman, while Alex Killorn is penciled onto the first line to replace Stamkos.

Of course, the team is already without Nikita Kucherov (hip) and center Mitchell Stephens (lower-body injury). Both are out indefinitely.

Columbus Blue Jackets Acquire Gregory Hofmann From Carolina

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The Columbus Blue Jackets announced they made a small trade, acquiring the signing rights to Swiss forward Gregory Hofmann from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for a 2022 seventh-round pick. Hofmann is expected to stay with his NL team for the rest of his season, but The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline reports that he could join the Blue Jackets after his season ends, if that is before the Blue Jackets’ regular season ends.

This isn’t a trade, however, for the signing rights to a college player who doesn’t want to sign with the team that drafted him. Hofmann is 28 years old and was drafted in the fourth round by the Hurricanes back in 2011. Because he is Swiss, the forward’s rights never left Carolina. Hofmann has never played in North America and has not signed with the team all these years, spending his entire 12-year career with the NL, including the last two years with Zug EV.

What makes him even more intriguing for Columbus is that he spent four years playing with Blue Jackets’ goaltender Elvis Merzlikins with Lugano from 2015 to 2019, which could be the main reason that he has expressed interest in playing for Columbus. Portzline notes that the timing to Hofmann joining Columbus this year will be quite tight as the Swiss League regular season ends on May 4 and Zug EV is currently in first place in the league and likely to go to the playoffs.

Hofmann has dominated as a top forward in the past few seasons, scoring 70 goals in 132 games over the past three years. He has had eight seasons of double-digit goals.

Michael Smith of NHL.com was the first to report the trade.

COVID Protocol Related Absences: 02/13/21

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Each day, the NHL will publicly release the list of players that are unavailable to their respective teams due to being in COVID-19 protocol. On a positive note, no new players have been put on the list, but quite a few have been removed from the list. The Los Angeles Kings list is being put together now, but there has been a report from John Hoven that both Blake Lizotte and Andreas Athanasiou are both off the list:

Arizona – John Hayden
Buffalo – Dylan Cozens, Rasmus Dahlin, Curtis Lazar, Jake McCabe, Casey Mittelstadt, Brandon Montour, Tobias Rieder, Rasmus Ristolainen
Colorado –  Samuel Girard, Tyson Jost, Gabriel Landeskog
Detroit – Calvin Pickard
Los Angeles – TBA
Minnesota –  Nick Bonino, Jonas Brodin, Ian Cole, Brad Hunt, Victor Rask, Carson Soucy, Nico Sturm, Cam Talbot
New Jersey – Nathan Bastian, Jesper Bratt, Connor Carrick, Eric Comrie, Nikita Gusev, Nico Hischier, Jack Hughes, Dmitry Kulikov, Damon Severson, Ty Smith, Matt Tennyson, Sami Vatanen, Travis Zajac
NY Rangers – Filip Chytil
Philadelphia – Justin Braun, Morgan Frost, Claude Giroux, Travis Sanheim, Jakub Voracek, Scott Laughton, Oskar Lindblom*
Tampa Bay – Steven Stamkos
Vegas – Tomas Nosek

As a reminder, inclusion on this list does not mean that a player has tested positive for Coronavirus or even that they have been confirmed as a close contact to another positive person. Included in the NHL’s list of possible reasons for someone being on the list is are the following:

(1) an initial positive test which remains unconfirmed until confirmatory testing is completed pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (2) mandated isolation for symptomatic individuals pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (3) required quarantine as a high-risk close contact in accordance with the Positive Test Protocol; (4) isolation based on a confirmed positive test result and/or; (5) quarantine for travel or other reasons as outlined in the COVID-19 Protocol

Players removed today: Taylor Hall (Sabres), Ryan Carpenter (Chicago), Andreas Johnsson (Devils), Janne Kuokkanen (Devils), Michael McLeod (Devils), Kyle Palmieri (Devils), Pavel Zacha (Devils); Anthony Duclair (Panthers), Jesse Puljujarvi (Oilers), , Marcus Johansson (Wild), Jared Spurgeon (Wild), Joel Eriksson Ek (Wild), Nick Bjugstad (Wild)

Four Minnesota Wild Players Return From COVID Protocol List

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The Minnesota Wild were cleared a couple days ago to return to team activities and look ready to resume their season on Tuesday against Los Angeles. Now the team announced that it has gotten back four of its players off the COVID protocol list, including forwards Nick Bjugstad, Joel Eriksson Ek and Marcus Johansson as well as defenseman Jared Spurgeon.

All four players were on the list since Feb. 3. The team had 13 players on the list as of two days ago, so the team needed some of them back soon if they want to have a competitive team. The Wild last played on Feb. 2, falling to Colorado in a 2-1 loss.

Eriksson Ek finally looks to have turned a corner in his fourth full season with the Wild. He posted career highs a year go with eight goals and 29 points, but it looks like he’s figured things out with five goals and nine points in nine games so far this year. Bjugstad, acquired for a conditional seventh-round pick at a bargain rate from Pittsburgh during the offseason, has found a full-time role with the team, playing in 11 games and scoring two goals and three points in a bottom-six role. Johansson, also acquired this offseason in a swap with Buffalo for Eric Staal, has two goals and three points in nine games.

The biggest return will be the team’s captain in Spurgeon. who is averaging 22:13 of ATOI this season and will be key heading up the team’s blueline. Of course, Spurgeon and Johansson are still dealing with upper-body injuries that could keep them out of the lineup for a few days still, according to Sarah McLellan of the Star Tribune.

Johan Larsson Suspended Two Games For Illegal Check

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2:40 p.m.: The Department of Player Safety announced that Larsson will be suspended for two games for his check to the head of Sanford. He will miss the team’s next two games against the Blues.

9:29 p.m.: Coyotes winger Johan Larsson will have a disciplinary hearing today, the Department of Player Safety announced.  Under review is an illegal check to the head on Blues winger Zach Sanford in the third period of yesterday’s game.  A clip of the hit can be viewed here.

A minor penalty was assessed on the play and Sanford was able to play the rest of the game.  Larsson actually scored earlier in the contest, his first goal and point of the season as he has struggled in the early going this season as he adapts to his new team after leaving Buffalo in free agency.

A decision on whether or not to suspend Larsson will have to be made quickly.  The two teams are back at it again tonight in their sixth straight matchup out of seven with their schedules being rearranged due to the COVID-19-related postponements for division rivals Colorado and Minnesota.  If there is a suspension, Arizona likely won’t need to recall anyone from the taxi squad as they’re currently carrying an extra forward on their active roster.

Columbus Blue Jackets Activate Zach Werenski

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The Columbus Blue Jackets got some good news as one of their top-line defenders, Zach Werenski, has been activated off of injured reserve. The 23-year-old blueliner has missed the past three games since suffering a lower-body injury on Feb. 4 against the Dallas Stars. To make room for Werenski, Columbus has placed third-string goaltender Matiss Kivlenieks on injured reserve.

Werenski should help strengthen the team’s blueline, which has given up 12 goals in the three games that Werenski has missed, including a pair of five-goal games. Fortunately for Columbus, the Blue Jackets went 2-1 during that span. Werenski has averaged 24:09 of ice time this season and has a goal and three assists, well below his offensive numbers after posting 20 goals a season ago. He did put up three points in his previous five games before getting injured, suggesting that his offense is coming around.

Kivlenieks had been serving as the backup to Joonas Korpisalo with Elvis Merzlikins on injured reserve. Kivlenieks never saw any action and with Merzlikins activated a couple of days ago, the team has opened a roster spot by placing Kivlenieks on IR after he suffered a lower-body injury in practice a week ago and is considered day-to-day.

Senators Acquire Ryan Dzingel From Hurricanes

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Ryan Dzingel is on his way back to Ottawa as the Senators have acquired the winger from Carolina in exchange for center Cedric Paquette and winger Alex Galchenyuk.  Both teams have announced the deal which carries no salary cap retention on any of the players.

Dzingel was a bit part of Ottawa’s lineup just a few years ago, notching over 20 goals in both 2017-18 and 2018-19.  However, the 28-year-old has struggled considerably since then between his stints in Columbus as a trade deadline acquisition and Carolina, who signed him back in 2019.  This season, Dzingel has two goals and two assists in 11 games while averaging just 13:12 per night, his lowest ATOI since his rookie season.  He carries a $3.75MM cap hit this season with a $3.5MM salary.

Paquette was brought in as part of a cap-clearing move from Tampa Bay that also saw the Sens add defenseman Braydon Coburn and a second-round pick for injured winger Marian Gaborik and goalie Anders Nilsson who both went straight to LTIR.  While he was an effective fourth liner with the Lightning, that hasn’t been the case in Ottawa and the 27-year-old has been a frequent healthy scratch while barely averaging 10 minutes a game when he was in the lineup.  Paquette has a salary and AAV of $1.65MM.

As for Galchenyuk, it has not been a fun season.  The 27-year-old seemed like a low-risk, medium-reward acquisition in free agency when he signed a one-year, $1.05MM deal but he also has been a frequent scratch with Ottawa and has just one goal in eight games this season.  He’s still only two seasons removed from a 41-point season in Arizona (and three years removed from a 51-point campaign with Montreal) but he struggled considerably last season and is off to a worse start this year.  He’s now joining his fifth different team in less than three years.

It’s a low-risk deal for both teams as all three players are set to be unrestricted free agents at the end of the season.  If they rebound with their new teams, it’ll work out well and if they don’t, none were particularly irreplaceable where they were.  From Ottawa’s standpoint, they get a player who was effective for them not that long ago and free up a roster spot for another young player while for Carolina, they save some money and add a capable energy player in Paquette and an offensive wild card in Galchenyuk who they hope will be able to fill the role they envisioned for Dzingel, just at a lower price tag.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman first reported that Dzingel was on his way to Ottawa with Paquette in the deal while TSN’s Frank Seravalli was the first to report Galchenyuk’s inclusion in the swap.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Taxi Squad Shuffle: 02/13/21

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There has been plenty of roster movement between NHL teams and the taxi squad on a daily basis this season. As CapFriendly observed, there have been over 2,200 transactions already this season when there are usually closer to around 600 at this point of the year.  Although some major names may be highlighted in separate articles, this is where you’ll find the majority of that shuffle news each day.

North Division

  • The Senators announced that they have recalled goaltender Filip Gustavsson from the taxi squad in a move that was anticipated with Matt Murray not being available tonight. Artem Anisimov – who cleared waivers earlier this week – was sent to the taxi squad to make room on the roster.
  • With Toronto’s AHL season set to get underway on Monday, the Maple Leafs shuffled around their taxi squad as they announced that they’ve sent defenseman Rasmus Sandin, winger Nicholas Robertson, and center Adam Brooks to the minors while recalling blueliner Martin Marincin and winger Scott Sabourin.
  • The Canadiens have recalled center Nick Suzuki from the taxi squad, per CapFriendly.  Montreal sent him down on Friday to free up a bit of cap space but there was no doubt that the second-year player would be recalled for tonight’s game against Toronto.
  • The Vancouver Canucks announced they have activated forward Jayce Hawryluk off of long-term injured reserve and have placed forward Justin Bailey onto injured reserve. Hawryluk, who signed with Vancouver this offseason, is now eligible to play after missing the first part of the season due to an undisclosed injury. Hawryluk played in 26 games between the Florida Panthers and the Ottawa Senators last season, scoring three goals and 10 points. Bailey has played three games for the Canucks with no points.
  • The Calgary Flames recalled defenseman Connor Mackey from the taxi squad, according to Sportsnet’s Pat Steinberg. Mackey is expected to make his NHL debut tonight against Vancouver. Mackey spent the past three years at Minnesota State – Mankato. CapFriendly reports the team also swapped out forwards, recalling Byron Froese from the taxi squad, while sending Brett Ritchie back to the taxi squad.

West Division

  • The Wild announced that they’ve recalled defenseman Matt Bartkowski from the taxi squad and promoted blueliner Louis Belpedio from AHL Iowa to the taxi squad to fill Bartkowski’s vacancy. Bartkowski has played in 255 career NHL games but hasn’t played in a regular season game since 2018-19 though he suited up once in the bubble last summer.
  • The Golden Knights announced a pair of taxi squad recalls.  Joining the group from AHL Henderson are winger Patrick Brown and goaltender Logan Thompson.  Thompson’s recall is notable in that it suggests Oscar Dansk will be brought up to the NHL roster again which means Robin Lehner is likely unavailable today against San Jose.
  • The Winnipeg Jets announced they have recalled forward Kristian Vesalainen, who is expected to fill in for injured center Pierre-Luc Dubois who is listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury and is out for today’s game.
  • The Anaheim Ducks have swapped out prospect goaltenders. CapFriendly reports that the team has recalled Lukas Dostal from the San Diego Gulls of the AHL and put him on the practice squad, while reversing a similar transaction for Olle Eriksson Ek.

East Division

  • The Capitals announced that they’ve promoted goaltender Pheonix Copley to the taxi squad from AHL Hershey. Ilya Samsonov is still working his way back from COVID-19 so the move gives Washington a bit of insurance for the time being.
  • The Sabres have shuffled up their taxi squad, announcing that they have recalled defenseman Jacob Bryson plus forwards C.J. Smith and Steven Fogarty while assigning Dustin Tokarski to AHL Rochester.
  • The Devils’ farm team in Binghamton announced a series of transactions.  Defenseman Kevin Bahl plus wingers Nolan Foote and Mikhail Maltsev were all sent from the taxi squad to the AHL while goaltender Gilles Senn was recalled to the taxi squad.  The last move paved the way for New Jersey to loan Aaron Dell to Binghamton on a conditioning stint.
  • CapFriendly reports that the Boston Bruins have assigned forward Karson Kuhlman to the taxi squad. Kuhlman was recalled Friday on an emergency loan, but wasn’t needed for Saturday’s game.
  • The Carolina Hurricanes

Central Division

  • The Hurricanes announced that Alex Nedeljkovic will get the start tonight which means he has been recalled from the taxi squad.  The 25-year-old will make his second start of the season as he serves as Carolina’s backup with Petr Mrazek recovering from thumb surgery.
  • The Detroit Red Wings announced they have recalled forward Mathias Brome from the taxi squad. The 26-year-old has appeared in 13 games for the Red Wings, but have yet to register his first NHL point.
  • The Chicago Blackhawks have recalled Mikael Hakkarainen from the Rockford Ice Hogs of the AHL to the team’s taxi squad, according to NHL.com’s Brandon Cain. The transaction was likely to fill the minimum roster spots needed on the taxi squad.

This page will be updated throughout the day.

Leo Komarov Clears Waivers

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Saturday: As expected, Komarov has once again cleared waivers, Johnston reports.

Friday: According to Chris Johnston of Sportsnet, the New York Islanders have placed Leo Komarov on waivers for the second time this year. The veteran forward cleared just before the season began, but the team needed to reset his clock in order to have the ability to place him on the taxi squad. Once a player clears, they must go through the waiver process again after spending 30 days on the active roster or playing in ten NHL games. Komarov only spent one day of the last month on the taxi squad, meaning his time was about to be up.

Frankly, it appears as though the end may be approaching for Komarov, who has failed to record a single point in six games this season. The in-your-face winger was always known for his physicality and defense, but even those skills have slipped over the last year. Once a participant in the All-Star Game, Komarov has scored just 17 goals since the start of the 2017-18 campaign, despite playing 210 regular season games over that stretch.

The fact that he is still signed through next season with a $3MM cap hit all but assures that Komarov will get through waivers unclaimed, but it is not clear where his role with the Islanders really lies.

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