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Cole Caufield, Joel Armia Placed In COVID Protocol

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The Montreal Canadiens can’t seem to get a healthy lineup together. Just as some of their forwards were getting back from injuries, they’ve lost Cole Caufield and Joel Armia to the COVID protocol. Both played in yesterday’s game against the Arizona Coyotes, but will now face an isolation period of at least five days if they tested positive.

That means Caufield and Armia likely won’t be available tonight against the Dallas Stars, Thursday against the Vegas Golden Knights, or Saturday against the Colorado Avalanche as the Canadiens go through a fast-paced road trip. The team will be in Minnesota on Monday, a game that technically they would be eligible for if they are able to test out of the protocol.

It’s not like having them in the lineup was adding much anyway, as both Caufield and Armia are experiencing brutal offensive seasons. Each has just a single goal on the year, despite playing 29 and 32 games respectively. Caufield’s disappearance has been especially frustrating for fans who believed he would contend for a Calder Trophy this season. The 21-year-old sniper has just eight points on the season and hasn’t scored since late November.

New general manager Kent Hughes will have to wait to get his first look at the young forward as part of the Montreal front office, but everyone understands that this is a lost year for the Canadiens anyway. Now just 7-25-5 on the season, they are last in the NHL and are in pole position for the draft lottery in a few months.

Switzerland, Slovakia Announce Olympic Rosters

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The 2022 Winter Olympics is inching closer, with pre-tournament games happening in just a few weeks. Several countries including the U.S. have announced the rosters that will compete next month and today two more revealed their NHL-less groups.

For Switzerland, it’s a roster with several familiar names including Gregory Hofmann, who only just terminated his contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Swiss finished tenth in 2018 after missing the quarterfinals because of a loss to the Czech Republic. This year they will have a chance at redemption, as they’re in a group with Czechia, the Russian Olympic Committee, and Denmark. The Swiss roster looks like this:

G Reto Berra
G Leonardo Genoni
G Joren Van Pottelberghe

D Santeri Alatalo
D Raphael Diaz
D Michael Fora
D Romain Loeffel
D Christian Marti
D Mirco Mueller
D Ramon Untersander
D Yannick Weber

F Andres Ambuhl
F Sven Andrighetto
F Christoph Bertschy
F Enzo Corvi
F Gaetan Haas
F Fabrice Herzog
F Gregory Hofmann
F Denis Hollenstein
F Denis Malgin
F Simon Moser
F Killian Mottet
F Sven Senteler
F Dario Simion
F Joel Vermin

Switzerland wasn’t alone announcing a roster today, as Slovakia also revealed the group that will travel to Beijing. Their group also has plenty of former NHL talent on it, though they’ll certainly be in tough during the group stage. Slovakia is in Group C, which also includes Finland, Sweden, and Latvia, meaning they’ll likely have to make it through the qualification playoff round.

Slovakia’s roster will look like this:

G Branislav Konrad
G Patrik Rybar
G Matej Tomek

D Michal Cajkovsky
D Peter Ceresnak
D Marek Daloga
D Martin Gernat
D Mario Grman
D Samuel Knazko
D Martin Marincin
D Simon Nemec

F Peter Cehlarik
F Marko Dano
F Adrian Holesinsky
F Marek Hrivik
F Libor Hudacek
F Tomas Jurco
F Milos Kelemen
F Michal Kristof
F Kristian Pospisil
F Pavol Regenda
F Milos Roman
F Juraj Slafkovsky
F Samuel Takac
F Peter Zuzin

Though Slovakia’s path to a medal will be difficult, their team should be very exciting. Nemec and Slafkovsky in particular are two names to watch, as top draft-eligible players for 2022. Nemec in particular has the ability to take over a game if given the chance, as he does on a routine basis for HK Nitra, his Slovakian club team. The 17-year-olds should be used to international competition by now, having both appeared at the World Championship last summer.

Taxi Squad Shuffle: 01/18/22

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It was a busy Monday in the NHL and things aren’t slowing down as the league plows ahead with their soon-to-be condensed schedule. Eight games are on the docket, including the red-hot Florida Panthers taking on the stingy Calgary Flames. The Panthers have averaged more than six goals per game over their last eight but will take on a Calgary Flames team that has allowed just 87 on the season, the fewest in the Western Conference. As they and others prepare for action, we’ll keep track of all the minor league and taxi squad shuffling right here.

Atlantic Division

  • The Ottawa Senators have recalled Mark Kastelic and Logan Shaw to the taxi squad, giving them some extra forward depth. Kastelic, 22, has 11 points in 31 games for the Belleville Senators this season to go along with 38 penalty minutes. The 6’3″ forward was a fifth-round pick in 2019 and has yet to make his NHL debut. Later in the day, the team announced that Filip Gustavsson has been recalled as Matt Murray will miss tonight’s game with a non-COVID illness.

Metropolitan Division

  • The Carolina Hurricanes have recalled Josh Leivo back to the taxi squad, moving Joey Keane to the Chicago Wolves to make room. Leivo has played in just three games for Carolina this season, spending most of the year in the minor leagues where he has 19 points in 20 games for Chicago. A veteran of more than 200 NHL contests, he’ll be an extra forward option after Martin Necas was put in the COVID protocol yesterday.
  • Michael Sgarbossa has been recalled by the Washington Capitals, giving them another forward to use against the Winnipeg Jets this evening. The Capitals lost their last game but remain within three points of first place in the Metro.
  • The Philadelphia Flyers have added Max Willman to the active roster, while sending Jackson Cates back to the AHL. Cates has played in seven games for the Flyers this season, his first full year of professional hockey after signing out of the University of Minnesota-Duluth.
  • The Pittsburgh Penguins have reassigned Anthony Angello, Kasper Bjorkvist, and Filip Hallander to the AHL, as the team is back home for the next few days. The Penguins will welcome in the Senators on Thursday before heading to Columbus for a game Friday evening.

Central Division

  • The Chicago Blackhawks have removed Seth Jones from the COVID protocol, meaning the team could make some other changes. Jakub Galvas, Mike Hardman, Cale Morris, and Josiah Slavin have all been reassigned to the Rockford IceHogs, though the minor league club doesn’t have a game until Friday.
  • The Dallas Stars have reassigned Anton Khudobin to the taxi squad, adding Ty Dellandrea to it as well. The move suggests that Braden Holtby is ready to exit the COVID protocol and retake his position alongside Jake Oettinger in the Stars’ net. Khudobin played twice last week, allowing five goals on 50 shots.
  • The Minnesota Wild have reassigned Kevin Czuczman, Hunter Jones, and Kyle Rau to the AHL, while moving Calen Addison, Matt Boldy, and Andrew Hammond back to the taxi squad. The moves don’t necessarily mean that players like Boldy are actually out of the lineup, but will save the team some cap space while they wait for their next game.
  • The Arizona Coyotes have placed Antoine Roussel in the COVID protocol, while also assigning Vladislav Kolyachonok, Victor Soderstrom, and Ivan Prosvetov to the AHL. The Coyotes are off until tomorrow when they travel to New Jersey to take on the Devils.
  • The Winnipeg Jets have reassigned Declan Chisholm to the AHL, while bringing Arvid Hom, Mikey Eyssimont, and Austin Poganski up to the taxi squad. Chisholm made his NHL debut last week, playing 13:44 against the Detroit Red Wings and recording four shots on goal.

Pacific Division

  • Jacob Ingham and Austin Strand have been sent to the AHL from the Los Angeles Kings taxi squad. The Kings are at home against the Lightning tonight after a short road trip and don’t need the extra practice bodies for the time being.
  • The Seattle Kraken have recalled Joey Daccord from the AHL, sending Max McCormick back to make room. Seattle of course claimed Karson Kuhlman on waivers yesterday, adding a forward to the active roster.
  • The Calgary Flames have activated Adam Rucizka to the active roster from the taxi squad.  The 22-year-old has played in five games with Calgary this season and scored his first career NHL goal last month.

This page will be updated throughout the day.

Montreal Canadiens Hire Kent Hughes

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The Montreal Canadiens have made a decision, hiring Kent Hughes as their next general manager. Hughes joins vice president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton in a new-look front office and will receive a five-year contract. Gorton released the following statement:

The process of hiring our new general manager allowed us to meet several highly qualified candidates. Kent is the one who stood out the most, and who we believe is the perfect person to fill the position of general manager of the Canadiens. We believe that his extensive experience as an agent will be an important asset to our organization.

Hughes, 51, has no front office experience but that does not mean he’s a newcomer to the hockey world. One of the most decorated player agents in the game, he represented players like Patrice Bergeron, Kris Letang, and Darnell Nurse from his agency Quartexx Management. He’ll now leave that role to take on the weight of Montreal, working as the francophone counterpart to Gorton’s leadership.

First connected to the Canadiens by Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, Hughes has been a longtime friend and associate of Gorton, and fits the profile of an inexperienced, French-speaking general manager that could grow into the role. He was not, according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, part of the initial wave of interviews along with names like Daniel Briere and Mathieu Darche, but he landed the job anyway as a sort of unconventional option. He leaves behind more than $290MM in active contracts according to PuckPedia, as his players will have to find new representation.

The speculation of course that Letang, Bergeron, or others could sign in Montreal will certainly ramp up as they head toward free agency, but there is also another young hockey player that will now be linked to the Canadiens. Jack Hughes–not that Jack Hughes or that Jack Hughes–is a top prospect for the 2022 draft, currently ranked seventh among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting. He is a freshman center for Northeastern University who was developed by the U.S. National Team Development Program. He also happens to be the son of the new Canadiens general manager.

With the draft scheduled for Montreal this summer, you can bet that the new front office will be hoping to make a splash. The team has been absolutely dreadful this season, finding the bottom of the barrel after a Cinderella-like run to the Stanley Cup Finals last year. A 5-2 loss to the Arizona Coyotes on Monday showed just how far things had fallen, as the Canadiens dropped to 7-25-5 on the year, dead last in the league.

Orchestrating a rebuild is not new for Gorton, who was part of the New York Rangers management group that issued a letter to fans before a scorched-earth tear-down. It will be a new experience for Hughes, as will everything about being a GM. Gorton and Hughes are set to meet with the media on Wednesday morning.

Carey Price Suffers Setback, Restarts Injury Rehab

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Montreal Canadiens VP of hockey communications Chantal Machabee issued an update to reporters today, saying that goalie Carey Price suffered a setback and is “essentially starting from scratch in his rehab for his knee,” remaining out indefinitely.

Price underwent knee surgery in late July after the conclusion of the team’s ill-fated Stanley Cup Final run. He was originally supposed to be ready for the 2021-22 season, but also took a personal leave of absence from the team prior to the start of the season. He had begun to skate with the team intermittently after returning in November, but they never issued any timeline for a return.

It’s not a promising sign for Price’s future after previous injury troubles in his career. The 34-year-old netminder is signed through 2025-26 with a cap hit of $10.5MM.

The lack of Price in the picture gave the starting role to Jake Allen, who’s been just okay. It’s hard to fault him and his .901 save percentage with the state of the team in front of him, however, as they’ve scored just 76 goals through 36 games.

A bigger issue than Allen’s play has been the lack of a reliable backup, however. With Price unavailable, the team claimed Sam Montembeault off waivers from the Florida Panthers prior to the season. He’s struggled to be a reliable NHL goalie, posting just a 1-6-3 record and .895 save percentage.

Islanders Head Coach Barry Trotz Returns To Game Action

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New York Islanders head coach Barry Trotz is back behind the bench for game action tonight after a personal leave of absence from the team for the death of his mother and clearing COVID protocol, reports Newsday’s Andrew Gross.

The team placed Trotz in COVID protocol on January 11, not getting a chance to coach the team after returning from his leave of absence. The last Islanders game Trotz coached was against Buffalo on December 30th, taking his leave of absence the next day.

However, due to a rash of postponements, Trotz has been absent only for the last three of the team’s games. Assistant coach Lane Lambert took over head coaching duties in the process.

With Trotz back at the helm, the Islanders continue a long road back toward a potential playoff spot. By standings points, the team is third-last in the Eastern Conference and 18 points behind Boston for the last wild card spot. However, they have as many as 10 games in hand on some teams, ample room to make up some difference. The eighth-place points percentage in the conference is Washington’s .654, though, and New York’s .467 mark still lags far behind.

Anaheim Ducks Interviewing Internal GM Candidates

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Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reported today that the Anaheim Ducks have started the process of interviewing internal options to fill the general manager position, currently filled by assistant GM Jeff Solomon. LeBrun named Solomon, Dave Nonis, and Martin Madden as the candidates they’ve interviewed.

The position opened up last November when Bob Murray, their GM of 12 years, resigned from the club to enter a treatment program for alcohol abuse.

The 64-year-old Solomon is actually in his first year with the Ducks organization. He was named assistant general manager and VP of hockey operations this past summer after a 14-year career with Los Angeles’ hockey operations department.

Nonis is the only one of the named candidates who have general manager experience in the NHL. He was the GM of the Vancouver Canucks from 2004 to 2008 and the GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs from 2012 to 2015. He’s worked in the NHL since 1998 and has been with Anaheim ever since departing Toronto in 2015.

Madden was also mentioned as a prospective candidate for Montreal’s GM vacancy, but those rumors have since cooled. The Québec City native was Anaheim’s director of amateur scouting from 2008 to 2020 before transitioning to his role as assistant general manager.

LeBrun mentions that Anaheim hasn’t yet begun the process of interviewing external candidates, but that should begin soon. He also notes that they haven’t yet reached out to the Tampa Bay Lightning for permission to interview their assistant general manager, Mathieu Darche, who’s one of the hotter candidates on the managerial market.

What Your Team Is Thankful For: Washington Capitals

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In the spirit of the holiday season, PHR will take a look at what teams are thankful for as the season approaches the midway mark. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. We’ll examine what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the Washington Capitals.

What are the Capitals thankful for? 

Young depth.

Make no mistake, the Capitals are still one of the most veteran teams in the league, relying mostly on the same core that took them to the 2018 Stanley Cup. But this year has been a little different on the fringes of the roster, where young players are starting to make a difference. Connor McMichael (21), Brett Leason (22), and Aliaksei Protas (21) have all been regulars this season, adding some entry-level contracts to the mix up front. Martin Fehervary (22) has also worked his way into the top-four on defense, giving the team another extremely cheap option.

It’s that inexpensive depth that allows the Capitals to spend so much on their top names, including more than half the cap on the top-six forwards. For everyone mentioned above except Leason, who is an RFA at the end of the season, those entry-level contracts will still be in effect for next year as well, when they should presumably play an even bigger role.

Who are the Capitals thankful for?

The Russian Machine.

Alex Ovechkin is having the best offensive season of his career at age 36. Through 39 games he is now on pace for 113 points, which would be one more than his career-high set in 2007-08. He’s currently the leader for both the Art Ross and Rocket Richard trophies; no one has won both in the same season since he did it in 2008. While it’s anyone’s guess whether he’ll actually win them, this performance is an absolutely incredible accomplishment for one of the league’s all-time greats.

Not only is Ovechkin dominating on the ice and helping the Capitals win, but he’s also one of the most marketable stars in the league. His pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goals record–Ovechkin needs just 138 to catch the Great One–is a storyline that every hockey fan can appreciate and get invested in. Signed to another five-year deal last summer, it appears it will only be a matter of time before Ovechkin is at the top of the goal-scoring mountain.

What would the Capitals be even more thankful for? 

More consistency from Ilya Samsonov.

When Samsonov came over from the KHL, he was lauded as one of the best goaltenders in the world that wasn’t currently in the NHL. After all, he had been a first-round pick by the Capitals in 2015 and had put up outstanding KHL numbers since he was a teenager. In his rookie season in North America he struggled in the minor leagues, but there was still plenty of optimism about his future.

After three up-and-down seasons, the question is starting to be raised about whether he’s really the long-term answer in Washington. Samsonov has just a .903 save percentage in 21 appearances this season and though that has resulted in a strong 13-4-3 record, it’s certainly not instilling a ton of confidence in fans that want another Stanley Cup. Samsonov has provided -4.0 goals saved above average, 18th-worst among all goaltenders in the NHL this season. This Washington team is good enough to contend and Vitek Vanecek has been a decent complementary option, but Samsonov taking the next step could really push them over the edge into a dominant group.

What should be on the Capitals’ wish list?

A scoring winger.

There’s basically nothing the Capitals can do this deadline without moving money out somewhere else, but if they could, adding offense on the wing would be priority number one. In a perfect world that role is filled by Anthony Mantha, coming back from shoulder surgery and stepping directly into the top-six. But Mantha isn’t even expected to start skating until next month and is still “nowhere close” to a return according to Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic.

The other options just haven’t been quite good enough to this point. Outside of Ovechkin and Tom Wilson, the Capitals’ best offensive winger to this point has been Conor Sheary with 10 goals and 19 points in 31 games. T.J. Oshie has been hampered by injury and illness all season, so he should easily climb to that third spot at some point, but that still leaves a hole where more secondary scoring needs to come.

Again, it will be extremely difficult for the Capitals to make an addition without shedding salary but there is actually a bit of opportunity there. Michal Kempny still costs $1.375MM against the cap despite being on the taxi squad, while Mantha’s placement on LTIR currently opens a bit of space that they could use in the interim. If Ovechkin wasn’t scoring at a career-best place, the offense would probably be a big talking point in Washington. Fixing that problem before it really becomes one may be prudent.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Snapshots: Three Stars, Bogosian, Stars

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The NHL has released the Three Stars from last week, with Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins taking home top spot. The veteran winger has been outstanding again this season, registering 43 points in just 30 games. With his six goals last week he has hit 20+ for the ninth consecutive season and leaves just the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season as the only year he’s missed that threshold in a 12-year NHL career (he had 18 in 45 games). Now 33, Marchand has been over a point-per-game in each of the last six seasons and currently sits eighth all-time in Bruins history with 758 points.

Second and third place went to Marc-Andre Fleury and Nikita Kucherov respectively, two more players who will likely be in the Hall of Fame one day. The Chicago Blackhawks netminder went 3-0 with a .957 save percentage and continues to create plenty of speculation as a deadline candidate around the league. Kucherov meanwhile tallied seven points in three games, taking his total to 13 in eight appearances this season. The 28-year-old now has 560 points in 523 career games.

  • The Lightning will be without Zach Bogosian for the next two to three weeks with a lower-body injury according to Joe Smith of The Athletic, continuing what has been a brutal season for the veteran defenseman. Bogosian has played in just 23 games so far, coming out very few matches with a new injury. Certainly not the model of health throughout his career, Bogosian hasn’t played more than 65 games in a single season since he was a teenager with the Atlanta Thrashers.
  • The Dallas Stars have placed Tanner Kero and a support staff member in the COVID protocol, further reducing the number of available bodies they have. Luckily, Denis Gurianov, Braden Holtby, and two other staff members were removed today and can rejoin the club. With players moving in and out on a daily basis, Riley Damiani, Rhett Gardner, and Thomas Harley have been brought back up to the taxi squad from the AHL.

Karson Kuhlman Claimed By Seattle Kraken

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Jan 17: The Seattle Kraken have claimed Kuhlman, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. The forward will likely get a bigger opportunity with the expansion club than he was ever going to get in Boston, though where he fits into the lineup isn’t yet clear. Kuhlman will remain on an NHL roster though, something he hasn’t been able to say in years past.

Jan 16: The Boston Bruins have seemingly decided that Karson Kuhlman’s time on the active roster has come to an end for the time being, as Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that the depth forward is on waivers today.

Notably, if the Bruins wanted to clear a roster spot they could have sent the waiver-exempt Oskar Steen down, but the 23-year-old forward has played well of late in his first regular taste of NHL action. Kuhlman’s placement on waivers suggests that Steen has now secured his spot on the active roster, at least for now.

Kuhlman, 26, has played in 19 games this season for the Bruins and has registered just two points. In his last appearance against the Washington Capitals, he played just over ten minutes, almost exactly what he’s averaged for the year. The undrafted free agent signing out of the University of Minnesota-Duluth has played in 75 NHL games to this point in his career, racking up 111 hits and 15 points.

Interestingly, Kuhlman actually carries a cap hit lower than the league minimum salary, as his two-year deal comes with just a $725K average annual value. That could certainly be attractive to other teams, though fourth-line claims are still relatively rare.

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