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Snapshots: Rask, Housley, Carrier

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TSN’s Chris Johnston notes on Thursday’s edition of Insider Trading that free agent goaltender Tuukka Rask is working his way back after offseason surgery to repair a torn labrum and could be ready to return to game action as soon as January. Johnston notes specifically that Rask could be an option for Team Finland at the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, potentially a huge boost to an already strong Finnish program. While Johnston reports that Rask’s main focus in his “mind and his heart” remains with the Boston Bruins, the door isn’t completely closed on other options, either. Regardless, it’s good to see one of the league’s best goalies of his generation working his way back to health for what could be his last chance at a championship.

More notes from around the league:

  • Arizona Coyotes assistant coach Phil Housley has entered the league’s COVID-19 protocol, per the team’s public relations department. He won’t travel with the team on their upcoming road trip. He’ll miss three games, including a back-to-back set against the Chicago Blackhawks and Nashville Predators this Friday and Saturday. Arizona’s next home game is a week from today against the Columbus Blue Jackets, and pending test results, Housley could be available to return then.
  • According to the team, Nashville Predators defenseman Alexandre Carrier is out for Thursday night’s game against the St. Louis Blues with an upper-body injury. The Predators note that he’ll be evaluated further when the team returns home. Carrier blocked a shot that hit him up high during Wednesday night’s game against the Dallas Stars and did not return.

Alex Formenton, Matt Murray, Nikita Zaitsev Placed In COVID Protocol

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5:27 pm: Per the Senators’ communications team, defenseman Nikita Zaitsev has also been placed in COVID-19 protocol just a half-hour ahead of Thursday’s game. Lassi Thomson will make his NHL debut tonight in place of Zaitsev.

9:35 am: Another day, another pair of unavailable players for the Ottawa Senators. The team has announced that Alex Formenton and Matt Murray have been placed in the COVID protocol. Andrew Agozzino, Dillon Heatherington, and Lassi Thomson have all been recalled from the AHL as tonight’s game is still currently scheduled to proceed.

Formenton and Murray join a growing list of players in the protocol for Ottawa, which also includes Connor Brown, Victor Mete, Austin Watson, Nick Holden, Dylan Gambrell, Josh Brown, and assistant coach Jack Capuano. That is a huge chunk of the team, including several important pieces. The Senators are scheduled to play the Los Angeles Kings this evening, before welcoming in the Pittsburgh Penguins and Calgary Flames for a back-to-back over the weekend.

The team did not confirm whether Formenton and Murray tested positive, only that they have been entered into the protocol.

In terms of call-ups, Thomson is certainly an interesting one given his experience to this point. The 21-year-old defenseman has yet to play a game at the NHL level, but is showing well in the minor leagues. Selected 19th overall in 2019, he has two points in six games with the Belleville Senators this season.

League Notes: Nash, All-Star Events, DeAngelo

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The Columbus Blue Jackets will retire Rick Nash’s No. 61 on March 5, 2022, raising it to the rafters of Nationwide Arena. This will be the first number retired in Blue Jackets history, but certainly makes sense given Nash’s place on the club’s all-time leaderboards.

First in goals, assists, points, and games played, Nash was the original superstar for the club, winning the Rocket Richard Trophy in just his second season in the NHL. He would move on to New York and then Boston during a 15-year playing career, but returned to Columbus to work as a special advisor in 2019 and is now the team’s director of player development. Even if you weren’t a Blue Jackets fan, jaw-dropping moments like Nash’s goal against the Arizona Coyotes put the club on the national stage.

  • The league is considering two new All-Star events on the Las Vegas Strip, according to Greg Wyshynski of ESPN. The upcoming All-Star festivities will be held in Las Vegas on February 4-5, and undoubtedly have some new flare thanks to the city that’s putting them on. The traditional skills competitions, Wyshynski reports, would still be held inside T-Mobile Arena and these new events would have a “Vegas touch to them.”
  • Tony DeAngelo has been issued a $2,000 fine for diving/embellishment, which is the penalty for the player’s second incident of the season. He was first issued a warning following an incident on October 31, and then received this fine for one on November 6. While this kind of fine doesn’t seem like much when compared to an NHL salary, upon a team’s fifth incident in one season, the head coach is also given a fine. It’s never good to take money from the pocket of the person who controls your ice time.

Snapshots: World Juniors, Poehling, Domi

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The World Junior tournament is coming quickly, with the first game just over six weeks from now. As players are sent back to their respective junior teams after short NHL stints, the available options for the event are becoming more clear. Scott Wheeler of The Athletic projects the rosters for the U.S., Canada, Russia, Sweden, and Finland, the groups that are dominated by NHL-drafted prospects.

He also gives his predictions on how the tournament will play out, including medals for three of the usual powerhouses. The tournament is always a point of attention on the hockey calendar as fans around the world get a chance to see the next wave of NHL stars compete at a high level.

  • Ryan Poehling, who won silver and bronze medals at the World Juniors a few years ago, will make his season debut for the Montreal Canadiens tonight. The 22-year-old is off to a great start in the minor leagues with six points in seven games for the Laval Rocket and will get a chance to show he’s ready for the next level. After making quite a splash by scoring a hat trick in his NHL debut more than two years ago, Poehling has only managed two points in 27 games at the highest level.
  • Though he’s completed his mandatory quarantine, Max Domi remains in the protocol for the Columbus Blue Jackets as he goes through the other health screenings involved to make sure he’s strong enough to return. The 26-year-old forward hasn’t played since October 31 and has just four games under his belt this season.

AHL Shuffle: 11/11/21

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It’s a very busy night around the NHL, with 11 games on the schedule. As we enter mid-November, teams are starting to understand whether they will be truly able to compete for the Stanley Cup or whether this will be another rebuilding year. As teams try to change that fate or learn to accept it, we’ll keep track of all the minor shuffling.

Atlantic Division

  • The Montreal Canadiens made the recalls of Mattias Norlinder and Ryan Poehling official, with the latter set to make his season debut for the team. Norlinder meanwhile finished his AHL conditioning loan and now will have to either stay with the Canadiens or be assigned back overseas–he has a European Assignment Clause in his contract that would stop him from staying at the AHL level.

Metropolitan Division

  • The Carolina Hurricanes have assigned Jamieson Rees to the Chicago Wolves, after he started the year on the injured non-roster list. Reese had meniscus surgery on his right knee last month but appears to be nearing a return to action. The 20-year-old forward was picked in the second round in 2019 and had 14 points in 29 games for the Wolves last season.

Central Division

Pacific Division

This page will be updated throughout the day

Mike Smith Suffers Setback; Returns To Edmonton

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The Edmonton Oilers are in the middle of a road trip that carries them through Detroit, Boston, Buffalo, St. Louis, and Winnipeg, but find themselves in first place in the Pacific Division. Their offense has been nearly unstoppable, but their goaltending has also been excellent to start the year. That’s despite Mike Smith dealing with an injury and Mikko Koskinen carrying the load; the latter has a 7-1 record with a .920 save percentage through eight games, easily the best numbers of his career to this point.

Koskinen could have to keep it up for the next while, as Smith has suffered a setback in his injury recovery and returned to Edmonton, according to Jason Gregor of TSN. Oilers head coach Dave Tippett told him that “it is a concern for sure” and that Smith will get more imaging back in Edmonton to evaluate the issue.

For now, it’s Koskinen and Stuart Skinner for the Oilers as they try to navigate this road trip. The team was defeated by the Detroit Red Wings in the first game, with Skinner allowing three goals on 38 shots in just the second start of his young career. It’s hard for fans to trust Koskinen as the de facto starter at this point after he has struggled in that role in the past. The big netminder has a .909 save percentage overall for the Oilers, with a 63-48-9 record.

In the case of Smith, though he has been relatively healthy in recent years, injury was always going to be a concern moving forward. The veteran goaltender is one of the oldest players in the league at 39 (40 in March) and has a lot of miles on his body from a long career in the NHL. His 645 games played puts him 43rd all-time among NHL goaltenders and he has faced more shots than all but 33 netminders–18,815 in fact.

Still, the hope should be that Koskinen can get them through this stretch and Smith can return at some point. If either of those things turn bad, the Oilers may find themselves in the market for another goaltender. Though Skinner is obviously talented, his inexperience is certainly something to consider for a team that has Stanley Cup aspirations.

Senators And Canadiens Have Shown Interest In Vitali Kravtsov

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Back when Rangers winger Vitali Kravtsov refused his assignment to AHL Hartford and was given permission to seek a trade, it was reported that several teams had shown interest in the 21-year-old.  According to Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, the Senators and Canadiens were the two teams with the most interest in acquiring the 2018 first-rounder.

Kravtsov came to North America last season after a good showing with Traktor Chelyabinsk of the KHL where he potted 16 goals in 49 games.  However, that production didn’t carry over to New York as he had just two goals and two assists in 20 contests with the Rangers.  He had a goal in three preseason contests this year but it wasn’t enough to make the team as he was sent down.  It was only last week that Kravtsov was officially loaned back to Chelyabinsk to get some playing time and he made an immediate impact, scoring twice while adding an assist in his first game back.

Ottawa has been known to be seeking forward help going back to the start of the season and as a team that’s only now just trying to start to emerge from their rebuild, Kravtsov is the type of player that they would want to add to their existing young core.  As for Montreal, their depth is limited when it comes to left-shot wingers so there would be a spot in the bottom six for him to try and fill.

Of course, given his draft pedigree, New York placed a high price tag on Kravtsov’s services, one that clearly no one has met yet.  The fact that he’s now playing again can only help his value over sitting at home and a good showing back in the KHL could be enough for teams to up the ante on their offer.  Based on Seravalli’s report, the Senators and Canadiens will be among the teams keeping a close eye on how Kravtsov does in the weeks to come.

Snapshots: Senators, Cernak, Greenway

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The NHL currently has no plans to postpone and reschedule any of Ottawa’s games in the midst of their COVID outbreak, reports Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch.  Josh Brown became the sixth Senators player to be sidelined along with associate coach Jack Capuano which was enough to lead some to believe that yesterday’s game against Boston could be postponed.  However, they were able to get enough reinforcements to ice a full lineup for that contest.  Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly indicated that the league is “monitoring the situation” but that they would prefer to not have to reschedule games if possible.  The Sens begin a stint of three games in four days on Thursday so this situation will be one to monitor if more players have to be quarantined.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak will miss at least a few games due to an upper-body injury sustained on Tuesday, head coach Jon Cooper told Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times. The 24-year-old logs over 20 minutes a game on Tampa Bay’s back end including the second-most penalty kill time among their defenders so his absence will be a tough one to fill.  They will get Mikhail Sergachev back from suspension on Saturday but Jan Rutta and Cal Foote will also be called upon to play more minutes.
  • The Wild have activated winger Jordan Greenway from IR and will have him in their lineup tonight against Arizona, relays Sarah McLellan of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. The 24-year-old suffered a high ankle sprain two weeks ago versus Seattle and missed the last four games.  It’s a contract year for Greenway who will be a restricted free agent with arbitration eligibility this summer so not missing extended time will certainly help his cause.  He has two assists in seven games this season after recording 32 points in 56 contests in 2020-21.

Bob Murray Resigns As Ducks GM

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A day after being placed on administrative leave, Ducks general manager Bob Murray has tendered his resignation and will enroll in an alcohol abuse program, per a team announcement.  Jeff Solomon, who was named the interim GM yesterday pending an investigation into Murray, will retain that title for the time being.  Murray released the following statement:

I want to apologize to anyone adversely affected by my behavior. I vow to make changes to my life, starting with enrolling in a treatment program. I want to thank Henry and Susan Samueli, and Michael Schulman, as working for them has been one of the highlights of my career. As I step away from the Ducks, I will focus my attention on where it should be: improving my life for the betterment of my family and friends.

Murray had been with the organization since 2005 when he joined them as their Senior VP of Hockey Operations and GM of their AHL affiliate which was in Portland at the time.  The 66-year-old was promoted to GM midway through the 2008-09 campaign where he took over for Brian Burke, a role he had held ever since until today.

Over that stretch, Murray made a whopping 105 trades and signed 287 contracts, per CapFriendly.  Among his notable signings were the eight-year deals handed to franchise mainstays Corey Perry ($69MM) and Ryan Getzlaf (66MM) which remain the richest contracts in franchise history plus the eight-year pacts that defenseman Cam Fowler ($52MM) and goaltender John Gibson ($51.2MM) are currently on, ones that have generally been viewed as team-friendly deals over the years.  Anaheim made eight playoff appearances with Murray running the show, getting as far as the Western Conference Final in two of those years.

As for Solomon, he’s in his first year with Anaheim after being hired just a few months ago following 14 seasons in the front office for the Kings.  It appears as if the interim GM title could very well be his through the end of the season; owners Henry and Susan Samueli indicated in a statement that they will now undergo a “methodical, extensive search” that they hope to complete no later than next summer.  Accordingly, Solomon will have an opportunity to make a strong case for the full-time role; helping get Anaheim to the playoffs after missing three straight years would certainly help on that front; the Ducks are off to a good start with a 7-4-3 record early on, good enough for second in the Pacific Division and are definitely in the mix in the early going.

ESPN’s Emily Kaplan was the first to report Murray’s resignation.

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