When Henrik Lundqvist was told he required open-heart surgery late last year, he was understandably ruled out for the season. Last month, he resumed on-ice activities and thoughts of a possible return started to trickle in. Speaking with reporters yesterday including Samantha Pell of the Washington Post, Capitals GM Brian MacLellan acknowledged that he couldn’t rule out the possibility that the 39-year-old coming back though he qualified his statement by noting that Lundqvist playing remains “highly unlikely”.
With the Capitals using youngsters Vitek Vanecek and Ilya Samsonov this season, the idea of adding a veteran third goalie (even with Craig Anderson on the taxi squad) has come up. While Lundqvist is still months away from making a decision about whether or not he could return, it’s now an option that can’t be ruled out entirely. Even at that, that’s great news for him and just possibly for Washington eventually as well.
More from the East Division:
- Also from Pell’s piece, MacLellan didn’t provide much of an update on the status of extension talks for captain Alex Ovechkin. He did express optimism that a deal will eventually get done with both sides needing to find the “sweet spot” that they can agree on. Ovechkin is off to a bit of a slower start by his standards with nine goals in 22 games although he’s only one off the Capitals lead in that department.
- Sabres forward Dylan Cozens is day-to-day with an upper-body injury, relays Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald. The rookie is being evaluated to determine the severity of the issue, one that occurred early in the third period on Thursday against Pittsburgh. The 20-year-old has just five points in 20 games this season as he adapts to NHL action but had been subbing as the top center for Jack Eichel the last couple of games.
- Zach Senyshyn’s season debut with the Bruins on Thursday will be his last NHL contest for a bit. Boston Hockey Now’s Joe Haggerty notes that the winger suffered an upper-body injury in that game with head coach Bruce Cassidy stating that “he’s going to miss some time”. The 23-year-old was a first-round pick in 2015 but has been limited to just seven games at the top level so far.