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Snapshots: Paquette, Zuccarello, Canadiens Quarantine

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The Montreal Canadiens are absolutely ravaged at the moment by injuries and COVID, and bad turned to worse today when forward Cedric Paquette didn’t finish Saturday’s game against the Florida Panthers due to a neck injury, per TVA’s Renaud Lavoie. Montreal dressed just 11 forwards and five defensemen for that game, a 5-2 loss. They had just three players dressed with a cap hit greater than $1MM, with the majority of their lineup filled out by rookies and AHL call-ups. Paquette played a third-line role, centering Lukas Vejdemo and Alex Belzile. Paquette’s only played in 18 games this season, missing some time due to injury and suspension, but he only has one assist while averaging 9:11 per game. More injury news is certainly concerning for the 28-year-old Paquette, who signed a one-year deal with Montreal this offseason.

More notes from around the league on the first day of 2022:

  • With the Minnesota Wild missing captain Jared Spurgeon from tonight’s Winter Classic due to a lower-body injury, The Athletic’s Michael Russo tweets that right wing Mats Zuccarello will serve as the third alternate captain for the outdoor spectacle. Matt Dumba and Marcus Foligno are healthy and will serve as the other two alternates, as per usual. Zuccarello fought back from an early-season injury to have one of the most productive starts of his career, posting 24 points through 24 games. The Norwegian winger will likely reprise his role on the team’s top line, playing alongside Kirill Kaprizov and Ryan Hartman.
  • The Canadiens aren’t playing again until January 12th at the earliest as their entire upcoming four-game homestand is postponed. The team won’t complain due to the aforementioned excessive amount of lineup absences, but now, head coach Dominique Ducharme says that a five-day quarantine for the entire team upon their return to Montreal is possible and will be discussed. While it won’t affect their playing schedule, it could give a chance for players to stay healthy and help their lineup get back to having experienced NHLers in the mix.

NHL And NHLPA Recreate Taxi Squads Through All-Star Break

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6:00 pm: The NHL has officially reintroduced the taxi squad system through the All-Star Break, per CapFriendly. Like last season, there is a six-player maximum to the taxi squads. However, there are some slight changes. Non-emergency-recalled-players who were on an NHL active roster, injured reserve, or NHL non-rostered on December 22 aren’t eligible to go on the taxi squad. Waiver-exempt players aren’t eligible, either, and neither are players who’ve dressed in 16 of their team’s past 20 games. There are other minor stipulations as well.

1:15 pm: Amidst a rapidly escalating number of players being unavailable due to their placement in COVID protocols, the NHL and NHLPA are working on a few different short-term solutions, reports Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (Twitter link).  Among those is the recreation of taxi squads which would be optional for teams to use and would run through the All-Star break in early February.

The taxi squads were in use for all of last season with a record number of daily transactions occurring as teams shuffled players back and forth.  Some were to keep players fresh and seeing game action in the minors while many were simply to get players off the salary cap on days where they weren’t playing.  Assuming those same rules were to apply this season, there will be considerable activity on that front once again.

Of course, there are other considerations at play. AHL teams are already starting to have their rosters stretched thin due to outbreaks and recalls for players either in COVID protocol or out due to injury.  There would be short-term pressures at the lower minor league levels with many ECHL players signing AHL deals, creating holes for the ECHL teams to fill and so on.

Friedman notes that there are other options being discussed as well.  Cap-exempt emergency recalls with a player making less than $1MM is apparently on the table and that price point – which sits $250K above the minimum salary – is high enough for most teams to be able to call players up without much issue.  Meanwhile, with several teams having to turn to emergency backups on one-day contracts – commonly referred to as EBUG’s – Friedman reports that teams may soon be allowed to simply recall a replacement netminder rather than having to have an EBUG dress for a game first to trigger a cap-exempt recall situation.

An official announcement on the schedule, as well as any changes to protocols such as these, is expected later today.

2022 WJC Participants By NHL Team

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The 2022 World Junior Championships will get underway from Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta on Sunday. As is the norm and to be expected from the top U-20 competition in the world, the World Junior tournament field is loaded with drafted NHL talent. While most nations don’t have the prospect depth to form a roster completely composed of NHL prospects and those that do have opted to include some younger, future draft picks, there are still a whopping 106 drafted players on WJC rosters. Nine of ten WJC have at least one current NHL prospect and six of those nine have at least ten draft picks. Those players come from 30 of the NHL’s 32 teams, with the Carolina Hurricanes leading the way with ten prospects. While enjoying the WJC action in the coming days, keep track of who may one day be playing at the highest level:

Anaheim Ducks (4):
F Mason McTavish, Canada
D Ian Moore, USA
F Sasha Pastujov, USA
D Olen Zellweger, Canada

Arizona Coyotes (1):
F Dylan Guenther, Canada

Boston Bruins (1):
F Fabian Lysell, Sweden

Buffalo Sabres (4):
F Jakub Konecny, Czechia
D Nikita Novikov, Russia
D Owen Power, Canada
F Isak Rosen, Sweden

Calgary Flames (1):
F Matt Coronato, USA

Carolina Hurricanes (10):
F Nikita Guslistov, Russia
D Aleski Heimosalmi, Finland
D Ville Koivunen, Finland
D Scott Morrow, USA
F Zion Nybeck, Sweden
D Joel Nystrom, Sweden
F Alexander Pashin, Russia
F Vasily Ponomarev, Russia
G Nikita Quapp, Germany
D Ronan Seeley, Canada

Chicago Blackhawks (4):
G Drew Commesso, USA
D Wyatt Kaiser, USA
D Michael Krutil, Czechia
F Landon Slaggert, USA

Colorado Avalanche (1):
F Oskar Olausson, Sweden

Columbus Blue Jackets (4):
F Kent Johnson, Canada
D Samuel Knazko, Slovakia
F Martin Rysavy, Czechia
D Stanislav Svozil, Czechia

Dallas Stars (4):
F Mavrik Bourque, Canada
F Daniel Ljungman, Sweden
F Logan Stankoven, Canada
F Albert Sjoberg, Sweden

Detroit Red Wings (8):
G Jan Bednar, Czechia
G Sebastian Cossa, Canada
D Simon Edvinsson, Sweden
F Carter Mazur, USA
F Theodor Niederbach, Sweden
F Redmond Savage, USA
D Donovan Sebrango, Canada
D Eemil Viro, Finland

Edmonton Oilers (2):
F Xavier Borgault, Canada
D Luca Munzenberger, Germany

Florida Panthers (5):
F Elliot Ekmark, Sweden
D Kasper Puutio, Finland
F Mackie Samoskevich, USA
F Ty Smilanic, USA
F Justin Sourdif, Canada

Los Angeles Kings (6):
F Martin Chromiak, Slovakia
D Brock Faber, USA
D Helge Grans, Sweden
F Samuel Helenius, Finland
D Kirill Kirsanov, Russia
F Kasper Simontaival, Finland

Minnesota Wild (6):
F Marat Khusnutdinov, Russia
D Carson Lambos, Canada
F Pavel Novak, Czechia
D Ryan O’Rourke, Canada
D Jack Peart, USA
G Jesper Wallstedt, Sweden

Montreal Canadiens (3):
D Kaiden Guhle, Canada
F Oliver Kapanen, Finland
F Jan Mysak, Czechia

Nashville Predators (4):
G Yaroslav Askarov, Russia
F Simon Knak, Switzerland*
D Anton Olsson, Sweden
F Fedor Svechkov, Russia

New Jersey Devils (4):
F Alexander Holtz, Sweden
D Luke Hughes, USA
G Jakub Malek, Czechia
D Shakir Mukhamadullin, Russia

New York Islanders (0)

New York Rangers (4):
F Brett Berard, USA
F William Cuylle, Canada
G Dylan Garand, Canada
F Kalle Vaisanen, Finland

Ottawa Senators (5):
F Ridly Greig, Canada
F Roby Jarventie, Finland
D Tyler Kleven, USA
G Leevi Merilainen, Finland
D Jake Sanderson, USA

Philadelphia Flyers (3):
D Emil Andrae, Sweden
F Elliot Desnoyers, Canada
D Brian Zanetti, Switzerland*

Pittsburgh Penguins (3):
G Joel Blomqvist, Finland
G Calle Clang, Sweden
F Kirill Tankov, Russia

St. Louis Blues (3):
F Tanner Dickinson, USA
D Leo Loof, Sweden
F Jake Neighbors, Canada

San Jose Sharks (1):
F William Eklund, Sweden

Seattle Kraken (2):
F Matthew Beniers, USA
D Ville Ottavainen, Finland

Tampa Bay Lightning (0)

Toronto Maple Leafs (3):
F Roni Hirvonen, Finland
F Matthew Knies, USA
D Topi Niemala, Finland

Vancouver Canucks (1):
F Dmitry Zlodeyev, Russia

Vegas Golden Knights (4):
F Jakub Brabenec, Czechia
D Lukas Cormier, Canada
F Jakub Demek, Slovakia
G Jesper Vikman, Sweden

Washington Capitals (1):
F Oskar Magnusson, Sweden

Winnipeg Jets (4):
F Nikita Chibrikov, Russia
F Chaz Lucius, USA
F Cole Perfetti, Canada
F Daniel Torgersson, Sweden

*Switzerland roster pending finalization on Sunday; team has been in COVID-19 quarantine since Thursday but will be ready to begin tournament and participate as schedule, the Swiss announced.

NHL Extends Holiday Break, Postpones December 27th Games

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The NHL announced per a tweet Friday evening that all games scheduled to take place on Monday, December 27 are postponed in order to provide for adequate COVID-19 testing results after teams return from the holiday break.

Teams are still permitted to return to practice on Sunday, December 26.

There were 14 games scheduled to happen on Monday. Only the Chicago Blackhawks, Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders, and Tampa Bay Lightning are unaffected by these postponements.

The league said in their press release today that a further update on their return to play plans will come on Sunday. If an additional rash of positive tests come in that weekend, it’s exceedingly likely that further postponements will happen.

50 games had already been postponed this year, bringing the total number of postponements to 64.

NHL To Shut Down From December 22-25

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The outbreak of COVID-19 cases across the NHL has finally come to a head. The league has announced they will postpone the five games remaining on December 23, essentially lengthening the holiday break from December 22-25. Teams will report back to their facilities on December 26 and games will resume the following day.

While many of the games originally scheduled for the rest of this week have already been postponed, the early shutdown will mean that the five games still on the docket for Thursday, December 23, will now be postponed as well. That includes Flyers-Penguins, Capitals-Islanders, Stars-Blackhawks, Lightning-Coyotes, and Kings-Knights. The two games scheduled for tomorrow, Capitals-Flyers and Lightning-Knights, will proceed as scheduled before operations are suspended on Wednesday.

Rather than hold to the initial holiday break of December 24-26, players and staff will return to action a day early to resume testing. In addition to games, practice, and all other team activities being suspended during the shutdown, testing will also not occur, but the league will be eager to check in on its players before returning to action. Friedman notes that all players and staff will require a negative COVID test before re-entering team facilities.

With even more games being postponed and the mounting pressure on the NHL and its players to pull out of the 2022 Winter Olympics, with rumors abound that this decision has already been made, Bally Sports’ Andy Strickland reports that the league will be forced to use the planned Olympic break to instead make up the numerous games they have lost over the past couple of weeks. The league could address this plan and Olympic intentions when announcing the shutdown.

NHL/NHLPA Pause Cross-Border Travel, Issue Updates On Season And Olympics

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The NHL and NHLPA released a joint statement today that the league will postpone any games that require cross-border travel through the holiday break. The 12 postponed games are as follows:

Canadiens @ Islanders (12/20), Ducks @ Oilers (12/20), Blues @ Senators (12/21), Canucks @ Sharks (12/21), Canadiens @ Rangers (12/22), Jets @ Stars (12/22), Oilers @ Kings (12/22), Blues @ Maple Leafs (12/23), Hurricanes @ Senators (12/23), Canadiens @ Devils (12/23), Ducks @ Canucks (12/23), Oilers @ Sharks (12/23)

Adding on these 12 games, there are now 39 games that the league has postponed this year. As instances pop up of players stuck on the wrong side of the border and potentially unable to get home for the holidays, the pause comes now to prevent any future situations like this from occurring.

However, the NHL and NHLPA in today’s statement remained with their stance today against placing a pause on the entire regular-season schedule. The league will continue to monitor COVID outbreaks on teams on a case-by-case basis, stating that they “will be monitoring not only the number and pattern of positive COVID results but also the depth of Club line-ups so as to ensure both the health and safety of the Players and the integrity of League competition.”

The two parties also gave an update on the potential of Olympic participation, stating they’ll reach a final determination within the coming days. They’re “actively discussing the matter” and commit to remaining flexible. The NHL has until January 10, 2022, to opt out of the Olympics without incurring a financial penalty. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman speculates that an “Olympics without NHL players seems to be a reality,” but doesn’t expect a formal announcement for a few days.

Colorado Avalanche Sign Cal Burke To NHL Deal

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The Colorado Avalanche added a contract today, converting Cal Burke’s AHL deal into a one-year, two-way NHL deal. Financial terms are currently undisclosed.

Burke, a Notre Dame graduate, signed with the AHL’s Colorado Eagles in 2020-21 after going undrafted through his collegiate career. He had a slow start to his professional career with just two goals and nine points in 33 games, but he’s taken a huge step forward this season with 14 points in 19 games.

The 24-year-old Massachusetts native still has to compete with a lot of forward depth in the Avalanche organization before getting an NHL shot, though. There are five forwards with the Eagles who have gotten into NHL action with Colorado this season.

It’s most likely that Burke stays in the AHL this season barring any unforeseen circumstance, but the contract puts him into restricted free agent status with Colorado at the end of the season.

Team Canada’s Alex Pietrangelo Uncertain About Olympic Participation

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In a piece by David Schoen of the Las Vegas-Review Journal, Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo, who was one of the three players initially named to Team Canada’s roster for the 2022 Winter Olympics, now says he’s uncertain if he’ll participate in the Games.

Pietrangelo’s concerns come after the International Olympic Committee confirmed a three-to-five-week quarantine period for a positive COVID-19 test. As Pietrangelo notes in the Schoen report, he has a young family and multiple kids and, understandably, doesn’t want to risk being away from his family for that long.

It’s a recent memory for a lot of NHLers, who were forced into a similar situation for the bubble-style 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs. After the fact, many players expressed concerns and regrets about being away from their families for such a long length of time.

If he does proceed to opt-out, Pietrangelo would be the first confirmed member of an Olympic roster to do. Golden Knight teammate Robin Lehner said publicly last week that he wouldn’t be attending, but was not one of the first three players named to his native Sweden’s Olympic roster.

Obviously, losing a player of Pietrangelo’s caliber won’t be great for Team Canada. However, assuming they still have a large pool of NHLers to select from, they still prove to have the most dynamic puck-moving group of defensemen in the tournament.

Pietrangelo is third on the Golden Knights with 18 points in 26 games this season.

Jonas Johansson Placed On Waivers

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Per TSN’s Chris Johnston, the Colorado Avalanche have placed netminder Jonas Johansson on waivers.

The move isn’t surprising in the least bit after the team recalled Pavel Francouz from his conditioning loan today. Francouz is gearing up to dress for an NHL game for the first time in over a year.

After a decent end to last season when Colorado acquired him from the Buffalo Sabres, Johansson’s struggled mightily this year. Behind an injured but still sound Avalanche team, he’s posted just a .880 save percentage in nine games played.

Considering his historical struggles at the NHL level, it’s unlikely Johansson gets claimed on waivers. However, he’s one of the better third-string goalies in the league and he does now have 30 NHL games under his belt.

Injury Notes: Shesterkin, Landeskog, Kadri

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There’s some good news for the New York Rangers coming soon. NHL.com’s Dan Rosen reports that although goalie Igor Shesterkin won’t dress tonight, he’s “making progress” after taking the ice at practice this morning. Shesterkin was classified as day-to-day after a scary-looking lower-body injury last week forced him out of the lineup and onto injured reserve. He had an impeccable .937 save percentage through 18 games this year, and should certainly still be considered a candidate for the Vezina Trophy at this point in time. Backup Alexandar Georgiev has risen to the occasion after a tough start, though, posting a save percentage above .920 in three straight Rangers wins with Shesterkin absent.

More injury notes, both from Denver:

  • Injuries continue to hold back the Avalanche in 2021-22, as head coach Jared Bednar said today that captain Gabriel Landeskog will miss roughly two weeks with a lower-body injury. All of their top trio of him, Nathan MacKinnon, and Mikko Rantanen has missed time this season. Landeskog was a main focal point of Colorado’s offense, netting 27 points through 22 games this year. Andre Burakovsky will slot in his place alongside MacKinnon and Rantanen for the time being.
  • After missing Friday’s game with a lower-body injury, Nazem Kadri will be out again tonight but will likely be back Tuesday, according to Colorado Hockey Now’s Adrian Dater. Kadri has been the glue of this team throughout their injury troubles this year, scoring 23 assists and 34 points through just 22 games. Mikhail Maltsev, who was recalled today, will get into the lineup with Kadri’s absence.

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