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Avalanche Notes: Manson, Wood, Lehkonen

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Ryan Boulding of NHL.com is reporting that Colorado Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson will not dress tonight when the Avalanche take on the Vegas Golden Knights. Manson suffered an undisclosed injury at Avalanche practice on Monday and did not play against the Boston Bruins on Monday night. The 32-year-old has five goals and seven assists in 37 games this season, his second full year with Colorado.

Manson joins an ever-growing list of Avalanche players who are out of the lineup, although it is not known how long he will continue to miss games. Very little is known about Manson’s injury at the moment, and it is expected that there will be an update on his status in the coming days.

In other Avalanche notes:

  • Ryan Boulding is also reporting that Avalanche forward Miles Wood will not play tonight as he is dealing with an illness. Like Manson, Wood also missed Monday night’s game against Boston and tested positive for influenza according to Evan Rawal of Colorado Hockey Now. Wood is in his first season with the Avalanche after signing a six-year contract on July 1st. The 28-year-old has scored at a comparable rate to his career average this season with six goals and six assists in 39 games. He has been much more responsible with and without the puck this year with Colorado as Wood has reduced his turnover rate dramatically, while also increasing his takeaway numbers.
  • Evan Rawal of Colorado Hockey Now is reporting that Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar would love to see forward Artturi Lehkonen play on their upcoming road trip, but it is not a guarantee. Lehkonen will reportedly join the team when they begin their road trip on Friday starting in Toronto and could play for the first time since November 9th. Lehkonen was sidelined with a neck injury after a scary fall into the boards and was originally given a 10–12-week recovery timeline that he is eight weeks into. When he can return the 28-year-old will provide a big boost to Colorado’s top-6 particularly if he can get back to his level of play from last season. This year Lehkonen has three goals and five assists in 12 games.

Anaheim Ducks Claim Gustav Lindstrom Off Waivers

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Chris Johnston of TSN is reporting that the Anaheim Ducks have claimed defenseman Gustav Lindstrom off waivers from the Montreal Canadiens. Lindstrom was originally acquired by the Canadiens from the Detroit Red Wings along with a 2025 fourth-round pick in exchange for defenseman Jeff Petry. The trade happened towards the end of last summer after Petry had been moved to Montreal by the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The 25-year-old Lindstrom was drafted by Detroit 38th overall in the 2017 NHL entry draft and emerged as an NHL option during the 2019-2020 season as he posted one assist in a 16-game NHL audition. The following year during the pandemic-shorted season, Lindstrom dressed in just 13 NHL games and put up three points, while struggling with turnovers and defensive miscues.

The turnovers became a theme in Lindstrom’s play during his first full NHL season in 2021-22 when Lindstrom dressed in 63 games and averaged over 16 minutes of ice time per game. Lindstrom did emerge as a talented shot blocker and a physical option on the back end, but his sloppy play with the puck became a problem for the young defender.

This year with Montreal, Lindstrom has played in 13 games and has a career-high three goals and an assist. Despite his goal-scoring, Lindstrom has not played for Montreal since December 9th and was expected to be sent to the Laval Rocket of the AHL if he cleared waivers.

With the waiver claim, the Ducks will have a free look at a talented, albeit flawed, young defenseman.

NHL Names Western Conference All-Stars

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Sportsnet is reporting that the NHL has named the first 16 selections from the Western Conference who will appear in the NHL All-Star Game that will take place February 3rd in Toronto.

The game will be held in Canada for the first time since 2012, when it was held in Ottawa. Toronto hasn’t hosted the game since 2000 and this year will be the first time that the NHL uses a four-team, three-on-three format in combination with the fantasy draft format that was used from 2011-2015. The league will name four captains, one for each team, who will take part in a draft to select their teams on February 1st.

The initial players named from the Western Conference are as follows:

Central Division

Arizona: LW Clayton Keller (4th appearance)
Chicago: C Connor Bedard (1st appearance)
Colorado: C Nathan MacKinnon (3rd appearance)
Dallas: G Jake Oettinger (1st appearance)
Minnesota: LW Kirill Kaprizov (3rd appearance)
Nashville: C Filip Forsberg (1st appearance)
St. Louis: C Robert Thomas (1st appearance)
Winnipeg: G Connor Hellebuyck (3rd appearance)

Pacific Division

Anaheim: LW Frank Vatrano (1st appearance)
Calgary: C Elias Lindholm (1st appearance)
Edmonton: C Connor McDavid (7th appearance)
Los Angeles: G Cam Talbot (1st appearance)
San Jose: C Tomas Hertl (1st appearance)
Seattle: RW Oliver Bjorkstrand (1st appearance)
Vancouver: D Quinn Hughes (1st appearance)
Vegas: C Jack Eichel (1st appearance)

The initial announcements of 32 players (one player to represent each team) tonight will be followed by the naming of the final 12 all-stars in the coming weeks. Those 12 players will be decided by a fan vote on NHL.com as well as several of the NHL’s social media platforms.

NHL Names Eastern Conference All-Stars

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Sportsnet is reporting that the NHL has named the first 16 selections from the Eastern Conference. These players will appear in the NHL All-Star Game that will take place February 3rd in Toronto.

The game will be held in Canada for the first time since 2012 when it was held in Ottawa. Toronto hasn’t hosted the game since 2000 and it will be highlighted by Toronto Maple Leafs superstar Auston Matthews who was named alongside 15 other Eastern Conference players.

The league names one player to represent each team at the game, all of whom will be named this evening. After which the final 12 players will be decided by a fan vote on NHL.com as well as several of the NHL’s social media platforms.

The initial Eastern Conference players are as follows:

Atlantic Division

Boston: RW David Pastrnak (3rd appearance)
Buffalo: D Rasmus Dahlin  (1st appearance)
Detroit: RW Alex DeBrincat (1st appearance)
Florida: C Sam Reinhart (1st appearance)
Montreal: C Nick Suzuki (3rd appearance)
Ottawa: LW Brady Tkachuk (4th appearance)
Tampa Bay: RW Nikita Kucherov (5th appearance)
Toronto: C Auston Matthews (3rd appearance)

Metropolitan Division

Carolina: F Sebastian Aho (1st appearance)
Columbus: C Boone Jenner (1st appearance)
New Jersey: C Jack Hughes (3rd appearance)
NY Islanders: C Mathew Barzal (1st appearance)
NY Rangers: G Igor Shesterkin (2nd appearance)
Philadelphia: C Travis Konecny (1st appearance)
Pittsburgh: C Sidney Crosby (6th appearance)
Washington: LW Tom Wilson (1st appearance)

The first 16 Western Conference all-stars will be named during the first intermission of tonight’s matchup between the Boston Bruins and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

More to come…

Snapshots: Flames, Three Stars, Lightning

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The Fourth Period is reporting that the Calgary Flames picked up trade talks with several teams last week as they look to potentially move on from several pending unrestricted free agents. The Fourth Period cited sources saying that the New Jersey Devils were one of the teams they talked to and even linked the Devils to both Noah Hanifin and Chris Tanev.

The Flames currently have a record of 15-16-5 through their first 36 games which puts them five points out of a playoff spot as they near the halfway point of the regular season. The team will have a big decision to make in the coming weeks as they also have center Elias Lindholm on an expiring contract, and he is reportedly looking for a deal in the range of $9MM annually.

The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta also believes that teams have expressed interest in Flames defenseman MacKenzie Weegar, but it’s hard to believe Calgary would deal him given that he is in the first year of an eight-year contract and has a full no-trade clause.

Other notes from around the league:

  • The NHL has announced its Three Stars of the Month, with Nathan MacKinnon taking First Star, Auston Matthews winning Second Star, and Connor Hellebuyck being named Third Star. MacKinnon won on the heels of an 11-goal, 29-point performance in 15 games in December, while Matthew’s put up 15 goals and six assists in just 12 games. Hellebuyck’s December performance saw him post an impressive 7-0-2 record, which was good enough for a Third Star.
  • Tampa Bay Lightning writer Chris Krenn is reporting that the Lightning were forced to dress just five defensemen tonight due to injuries and salary cap constraints. The Lightning lost Erik Cernak and Haydn Fleury recently to injury and with no cap space to make a recall, the Lightning were forced to play the Winnipeg Jets one defender short of a full six. The Lightning will be eligible to make an emergency recall after tonight, but due to the language in the Roster Emergency Exception rule, they must wait until the second game to be eligible to recall a player under emergency conditions.

Five Key Stories: 12/18/23 – 12/24/23

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The holiday break is upon us so it was a relatively quiet week around the NHL.  Nonetheless, there was some news of note which is recapped in our key stories.

Hutton Extension: Not long after signing with Vegas the first time, Ben Hutton inked a two-year extension, the last season of which is 2023-24.  But instead of testing the open market next summer, he has decided to stick with the Golden Knights, signing another two-year extension.  The new deal will carry a cap hit of $975K, a raise of $125K on his current contract.  The 30-year-old was expected to be a depth defender but has basically been a regular this season, getting into 29 games so far, picking up nine points while logging over 16 minutes a night.

Poitras Loaned: The Bruins will be without one of their regular centers for the next couple of weeks as they loaned Matthew Poitras to Team Canada for the upcoming World Juniors.  The 19-year-old made a strong early impression in Boston this season, earning a full-time spot in the lineup and while he had slowed down a bit lately, he still has 13 points in 27 games.  Notably, this delays Boston’s timeline for needing to decide on allowing him to accrue a full season of service time toward free agency.  That threshold is 40 games on the roster (not 40 games played) but since he’s on loan, that clock will stop for the time being.

Smith Fired: The Senators have been a trendy pick to be a playoff team for a few years now but they have continually come up short.  After another sluggish start this season, the team opted to make a change, firing head coach D.J. Smith.  Taking his place is long-time NHL bench boss Jacques Martin who had joined Ottawa earlier this month as a consultant.  Smith departs Ottawa with a 131-154-32 coaching record, good for just a .464 points percentage while the Sens never finished higher than sixth in the division under his tutelage.  At 71, Martin is hardly a long-term option behind the bench but it seems likely he’ll serve as the coach for the rest of this season.  He’ll be tasked with trying to fix Ottawa’s consistency issues along with their challenges in the defensive end.  However, they hit the break 15 points out of a playoff spot so a second-half postseason push seems rather unlikely at this point.

Bear To Washington: Over the last few weeks, free agent Ethan Bear has been speculatively linked to Washington.  That deal is now one step closer to being made official as the team announced that they expect to sign him at a later date.  The reasoning for not doing so right away likely corresponded with the holiday break; with Bear still working his way back from a shoulder injury, there’s little need for them to sign and pay him until he’s ready to play.  Speculatively, a deal should be finalized this coming week or soon after.  The 26-year-old logged over 18 minutes a night on the back end with Vancouver last season and will give the Capitals some quality depth as they look to hang onto a playoff spot.

Injury News: There was some good and bad news on the injury front across the NHL.  The Red Wings welcomed back captain Dylan Larkin after missing a little more than a week of action after sustaining a head injury against Ottawa, one that yielded a six-game suspension for David Perron which is still going through the appeal process.  Meanwhile, in Minnesota, the Wild will be without Mats Zuccarello on a week-to-week basis due to an upper-body injury.  The 36-year-old is still going strong this season, averaging a point per game in his first 28 contests.  Anaheim had plenty of injury news as well as they welcomed back center Mason McTavish and Jamie Drysdale early in the week while losing Leo Carlsson for four to six weeks in that same game.  Then on Saturday, they activated Trevor Zegras off IR after he missed 20 games with a lower-body injury.  The Ducks are well out of playoff contention but getting some of their top young players back will certainly be beneficial from a development standpoint.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

NHLPA Files Appeal On Behalf Of David Perron

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Sportsnet is reporting that the NHLPA has filed an appeal on behalf of Detroit Red Wings forward David Perron after he was suspended six games for cross-checking Ottawa Senators defenseman Artem Zub on Saturday night. Perron cross-checked Zub after a battle in front of the Senators net turned ugly resulting in Perron’s teammate Dylan Larkin being severely injured after taking multiple shots to the head and neck area from Mathieu Joseph and Parker Kelly. While Larkin lay motionless on the ice, Perron went after Zub and crosschecked him in the face which ultimately resulted in the suspension.

The incident was out of character as Perron doesn’t have a history of suspensions or supplemental discipline. It was certainly a heat of the moment reaction from the 35-year-old but one which will cost him to miss some games. The fact that Perron doesn’t have a history of disciplinary actions could play in his favor while he goes through the appeal process.

Perron’s appeal will go right to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman who will make a decision on the matter. If Bettman opts not to grant Perron the appeal, he can go to an independent arbitrator who will then decide. If the suspension remains in place at six games, the native of Sherbrooke, Quebec wouldn’t be able to return to the Red Wings lineup until their matchup on December 22nd against the Philadelphia Flyers.

The six-game suspension to Perron is the longest suspension handed down by the NHL’s Department of Player Safety in nearly two years and highlighted a busy weekend for George Parros and company.

Brendan Smith And Austin Watson Fined By DOPS

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The NHL’s Department of Player Safety had a busy day today levying two fines to two different players. New Jersey Devils defenseman Brendan Smith and Tampa Bay Lightning forward Austin Watson will be both lighter in the wallet after the official announcements this afternoon.

Smith was fined for a dangerous trip in last night’s game against the Seattle Kraken. The incident occurred midway through the third period when Smith tripped Kraken center Devin Shore, which led to a minor penalty. Smith’s fine is the maximum allowed under the collective bargaining agreement and will cost him $2,864.58. Smith’s fine comes just a week after he was suspended two games for slashing Philadelphia forward Travis Konecny.

Meanwhile, Watson was fined for an incident that occurred at the end of regulation in a game against the Nashville Predators. Watson fired a puck at Predators defenseman Jeremy Lauzon and was quickly assessed a minor penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct and a 10-minute misconduct. The penalties had little consequence for Watson as the game was over at that point, however, they did initiate a brawl on the ice. Watson will face a fine of $2,022.57 which is the maximum allowed under the CBA. Lauzon appeared injured on the play and struggled to get off the ice as he slammed his stick in frustration, no word yet on his status.

The money from both players’ fines will go to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

Penguins Recall Three Players, Place Noel Acciari On IR

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The Pittsburgh Penguins’ bottom two lines will have a very different look tonight when they take on the Florida Panthers. The Penguins are desperate to turn things around after a very poor showing against the Tampa Bay Lightning two nights ago and are hoping a shakeup in their bottom six can fix some of their issues. Today the Penguins announced that they’ve recalled forwards Marc Johnstone, Jonathan Gruden, and Valtteri Puustinen from their AHL affiliate.

Johnstone is in his first year with the Penguins organization after signing a two-year, two-way contract on July 2nd. At 27 years old he has never dressed in an NHL game before, meaning he could see his first NHL action in a Penguins jersey. Thus far this season the native of Cranford, New Jersey has two goals and three assists at the AHL level in 21 games.

Gruden was acquired by the Penguins from the Ottawa Senators in the Matt Murray trade back in October 2020 after he was selected in the fourth round of the 2018 NHL entry draft. He dressed in three NHL games in Pittsburgh last season tallying zero points while averaging just over five minutes of ice time per game. In the AHL this season, Gruden has registered five goals and five assists in 21 games.

Puustinen is probably the most intriguing of the three call-ups as he has the longest track record of offensive success at the AHL level. He has started slowly this year with just five goals and five assists in 18 games but does have one NHL game under his belt back in 2022. In his only NHL action Puustinen recorded an assist in just over ten minutes of action.

The recalls demonstrate just how desperate the Penguins are to find a fix to their bottom six woes. Pittsburgh hasn’t been able to find much success outside of their top two lines, and with injuries to Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell, their lack of NHL quality depth is beginning to become apparent.

In a corresponding move, the Penguins also assigned forwards Alex Nylander and Joona Koppanen to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the AHL. Many thought that Nylander turned a corner at the end of last season, but his play this year has been uninspired. He had no points in five games during this recall and looked overwhelmed on most of his shifts. Koppanen didn’t fare any better, going pointless in three games. He struggled on the Penguins’ fourth line with Pittsburgh unable to generate much of anything offensively with the 25-year-old on the ice.

Finally, the Penguins also announced that they’ve placed center Noel Acciari on the injured reserve. Acciari struggled to start the season but was starting to settle in on the fourth line when he was hurt. He also found a role on the Penguins penalty kill which has been one of the few bright spots for the Penguins this season. Acciari has been unable to dress in the Penguins past three games and won’t be eligible to get back in the lineup until next Tuesday. In 22 games this season, the 32-year-old has two goals and one assist while averaging over 12 minutes of ice time per game.

Evening Notes: Olympics, Smith, Laine

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On TSN’s Insider Trading today, Pierre LeBrun relayed some of the reservations the NHL might be having about a potential NHL return to Olympic hockey participation in 2026. The NHL hasn’t taken part in the Olympics since the 2014 Sochi Olympics in Russia, a tournament in which Canada took gold. The league did not participate in the events in 2018 and opted not to return in 2022 due to COVID concerns as well as concerns surrounding travel.

LeBrun told viewers that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman spoke to the NHL board of governors and had concerns about the Olympic arena in Milan, Italy which is not built yet and has a projected timeline that would see construction conclude just six to eight weeks before the Olympics begin.

On top of that, there remains no agreement on many important details such as families travelling to the Olympics as well as an agreement on the players’ insurance.

Lebrun added that he believes this is the most negative he has heard the NHL talk about 2026 Olympic participation but he does add that NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly is not pessimistic towards NHL players returning to the Olympics.

In other evening notes:

  • The Nashville Predators announced that forward Cole Smith missed tonight’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks with an apparent illness. The 28-year-old is currently listed as day-to-day, and it is unknown whether he will be able to suit up on Thursday when the Predators take on the Tampa Bay Lightning. Smith has just one full NHL season under his belt and has started this year at a solid pace with four goals and five assists in 24 games while averaging nearly three hits a game.
  • Aaron Portzline of The Athletic is reporting that Columbus Blue Jackets forward Patrik Laine was a scratch tonight due to an illness. No word yet on any timeline for Laine to return as the news came out just before the start of the Blue Jackets’ game against the Los Angeles Kings. Mathieu Olivier was expected to be scratched for the game but took Laine’s place in the lineup and scored his first goal of the season in the 4-3 loss. Laine has struggled out of the game this season and has been a healthy scratch at times, he has just five goals and two assists in 16 games thus far which is well short of the numbers he has put up in recent years where he has been a point-a-game player.

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