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Archives for April 2022

East Notes: Joseph, Mikheyev, Kuraly

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Mathieu Joseph has made an immediate impression on the Senators who acquired him before the trade deadline in a swap that sent Nick Paul to Tampa Bay.  After being in a limited role with the Lightning, the 25-year-old has had a chance to play a bigger role in Ottawa and has made the most of it, notching 12 points in 11 games.  However, his season may have come to an early end as head coach D.J. Smith told TSN’s Claire Hanna (Twitter link) that his injury is a little worse than they expected and will keep him out longer than anticipated.  While Smith stated that the injury isn’t serious, with only two weeks left in the season, it’s possible that Joseph has played his final game of 2021-22.  A restricted free agent this summer with arbitration eligibility, Joseph appears to be in line to land considerably more than his $813K qualifying offer.

Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference:

  • The Maple Leafs won’t engage in contract discussions with winger Ilya Mikheyev until after the season, notes Sportsnet’s Luke Fox. The pending UFA is having a career year despite missing 29 games due to a thumb injury as he has 17 goals and nine assists in 45 games, including four shorthanded tallies.  That has the 27-year-old in a good position to potentially double his current $1.645MM AAV on the open market this summer.
  • Blue Jackets center Sean Kuraly will return to the lineup after missing the last two games due to a stint in COVID protocol, relays Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch (Twitter link). He’ll take the place of Brendan Gaunce in the lineup.  Kuraly has set new career bests in goals (12) and points (28) in 72 games this season in his first year with Columbus.

Sharks Sign Thomas Bordeleau

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Earlier this week, San Jose signed center Thomas Bordeleau to an AHL tryout agreement, allowing them to get his start in the pros with the Barracuda.  He made quite the impression over his first two games as the Sharks announced that they’ve converted Bordeleau to a three-year, entry-level contract.  Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.  Interim GM Joe Will released the following statement:

Thomas is a skilled playmaker with a high hockey IQ at both ends of the ice. He consistently shows up in high-level competition and has a history of playing his best in crucial moments.

The 20-year-old was a second-round pick of the Sharks (38th overall) back in 2020 and he certainly impressed in his two seasons at Michigan.  This year, he played in 37 games for the Wolverines, finishing tied for fourth on the team in scoring with 12 goals and 25 assists.  Bordeleau played an important role as Michigan made it to the Frozen Four before falling to Denver, the eventual champion.

The timing of this deal is a little intriguing in that had Bordeleau stayed on his AHL tryout for the rest of the year and then signed his entry-level contract, San Jose would have had him for three years under entry-level restrictions.  Instead, by converting him now (he’s on his way to Minnesota to meet up with the team tomorrow), he’ll burn the first year now but won’t accrue a season of service time towards UFA eligibility.  San Jose is certainly battling injury issues – they’re expected to dress just 16 skaters tonight against Dallas, per Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News (Twitter link) – so Bordeleau should have a chance to see a lot of playing time over the final two weeks of the season.

West Notes: Gaudreau, Hynes, Perunovich

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The Flames are facing an interesting cap crunch for next season.  Matthew Tkachuk is owed a $9MM qualifying offer, Andrew Mangiapane’s 31 goals plus arbitration eligibility has him looking at a sizable raise, and top scorer Johnny Gaudreau is set to become an unrestricted free agent.  Sportsnet’s Rory Boylen tried to peg where Gaudreau’s price tag should be on his next deal, suggesting an $8.5MM AAV could be the right fit for him and Calgary which would represent a $1.75MM jump on his current cap hit.  The 28-year-old is in the middle of a career year that sees him with 101 points in 74 games but with only mild salary cap increases coming over the next couple of seasons, it’s possible that it limits Gaudreau’s leverage if he tries to aim closer to the $10MM mark.

More from the West:

  • Discussions on a new contract for Predators head coach John Hynes won’t begin until the season is over, reports Adam Vingan of The Athletic (subscription link). Nashville has played to an 89-61-8 record since he took over partway through the 2019-20 season so there’s little reason to think a coaching change is on the horizon.  The Preds have a team option for next season which would likely be exercised if the two sides are unable to reach an agreement on a longer-term deal.
  • Blues defenseman Scott Perunovich has resumed skating, relays Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The youngster underwent wrist surgery in early March and is expected to be re-evaluated at the eight-week mark.  We’re still a little more than two weeks away from that point so he’s still a long way from being cleared to return to the lineup for the playoffs.  In 19 games this season, the rookie has six assists while averaging 15:27 of ice time per contest.

Tyler Motte Out For The Rest Of The Regular Season

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Not long before the trade deadline hit, the Rangers sent a 2023 fourth-round draft pick to Vancouver to pick up winger Tyler Motte with an eye on deepening their bottom six and adding some more grit to their roster.  Unfortunately for them, they haven’t been able to use Motte much so far due to injury, one that head coach Gerard Gallant acknowledged to Mollie Walker of the New York Post will keep him out at least for the rest of the regular season.  A return for the playoffs is far from a guarantee either as Gallant indicated that “I just heard he’s out for quite a while”.

The 27-year-old played in nine games before suffering an upper-body injury last month and while he was held without a point, he averaged three hits a game while playing primarily on the fourth line while taking a regular turn shorthanded as well.  With Vancouver, Motte had 15 points and 90 hits in 49 games and was in the middle of making a case for a decent-sized raise on his $1.225MM AAV as he gets set to reach the open market for the first time this summer.

Fortunately for the Rangers, they have a surplus of forwards at the moment as evidenced by the 16 healthy ones they have on their active roster.  Alexis Lafreniere got the night off on Wednesday and Gallant indicated they’d be looking to get some regulars some rest over the final couple of weeks of the season (Ryan Reaves is sitting today).  But most of those 16 don’t play the type of role that Motte does and New York will undoubtedly be hoping that he’ll be able to return at some point in the playoffs.

Blackhawks To Burn First Year Of Lukas Reichel’s Entry-Level Contract

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Generally speaking, the nine-game threshold for junior-aged players only comes into effect at the beginning of the year when teams need to decide what to do with their prospects that are pushing to make the team out of training camp and can’t go to the minors.  That wasn’t the case for the Blackhawks and winger Lukas Reichel as he was able to play in the AHL and has spent most of the season there.

However, the 19-year-old is in his third stint with Chicago this season and has played in nine games so far.  Interim head coach Derek King indicated to reporters including Charlie Roumeliotis of NBC Sports Chicago that he will play in his tenth this afternoon against Nashville.  Reichel, the 17th pick in 2020, hasn’t recorded a point yet in the NHL but has played quite well with AHL Rockford, recording 21 goals and 28 assists in 49 games.  He’s expected to return to the IceHogs at some point over the next couple of weeks as well to help in their playoff run.

Roumeliotis suggests that burning the first year this season may actually be more beneficial to the Blackhawks from a longer-term planning perspective.  When he’s up for a new deal in the 2024 offseason, he’ll only have at most two full NHL seasons under his belt which should keep the AAV lower, giving Chicago a bit more short-term cap flexibility.  Chicago will have some pricey contracts expiring by then – particularly those of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane at $10.5MM each – but having a core piece on a cheaper second deal certainly can’t hurt.

It’s worth noting that Chicago will not lose a year of team control by doing this.  In order to receive a year of service time, Reichel would have needed to have gotten to 40 games on the active roster and that’s clearly not going to happen with the Blackhawks already mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.  As a result of this, Reichel will need his second contract a year sooner but Chicago will still have seven years of team control remaining.

Tristan Jarry Out Week-To-Week

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Despite clinching a playoff berth on Wednesday, this week may finish as a disappointing one for Penguins fans. Goaltender Tristan Jarry, who was strong in that playoff-clinching win, is out with a lower-body injury, and Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan stated that the team has designated Jarry’s status as “week to week.” Since the playoffs begin in just over two weeks, such a designation is highly concerning for the Penguins. Although it is definitely possible that Jarry returns in time for the team’s first playoff game, this recent development is not an optimistic one.

Goaltending is perhaps the single most important factor that can separate good teams from bad teams, and this season Jarry has greatly helped the Penguins distinguish themselves as firmly in the “good” category. Jarry, 26, has bounced back from the pessimism surrounding his play in the 2021 playoffs to post a strong .919 save percentage in 58 appearances this season. There have been many nights where Jarry’s heroics have given the Penguins a chance to win their game. Given Jarry’s struggles in last season’s playoffs, it is likely very important to both the team and the player that Jarry is able to carry over his regular-season performance into the playoffs, in order to wash away the stain some of last year’s mistakes have made on his reputation as a potentially elite goaltender.

While a week-to-week designation does leave room for Jarry to return in time for the playoffs, it still does do some damage to the Penguins’ outlook this season. Even if his return is quick and he manages to re-enter the lineup in time for the playoffs, he will have lost a few valuable starts that could help him ramp up for the increased intensity of playoff hockey. That being said, though, a return from injury with little time to ramp up did not seem to hurt Montreal’s Carey Price when he was in a similar situation last season. So, this injury is far from a death sentence for the Penguins’ season, but as of right now the team and its fanbase have to warm themselves up to the possibility of backup Casey DeSmith still manning the crease by the time the playoffs start. DeSmith has not been bad this season, with a .906 mark in 21 games, but he has not matched Jarry’s brilliance. With uncertain futures ahead for franchise icons Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, this injury development further clouds the near-term future of the Penguins.

AHL Shuffle: 04/16/22

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Today features a major slate of games on the docket, highlighted by some quality contests between playoff teams. The Colorado Avalanche are taking on the Carolina Hurricanes in what very well could be a Stanley Cup Final preview, and in addition, the schedule features other matchups between quality teams such as Minnesota vs. St. Louis, Boston vs. Pittsburgh, and Edmonton vs. Vegas. As there always is in the NHL, there will be shuffling between the NHL and AHL, and we’ll keep track of that here.

Atlantic Division

  • The Ottawa Senators have made a swap of backup goalies. The team announced that goaltender Mads Sogaard has been sent down to the AHL’s Belleville Senators, and in his place netminder Filip Gustavsson has been recalled. Sogaard, 21, returns to Belleville where has been for the majority of this season. He has a .906 in 31 games in the AHL and a .889 in two games for the big club. Gustavsson, 23, has been up and down from the NHL and AHL more often this season than Sogaard has, as he has appeared in 15 games for Ottawa and 18 games for Belleville. Gustavsson has a .913 save percentage this year for Belleville and an .886 mark for Ottawa.
  • The Boston Bruins have returned defenseman Jack Ahcan to the Providence Bruins of the AHL. Ahcan has played in five NHL games this season for Boston, but did not play in this latest call-up, last playing March 10th. The 24-year-old has played more regularly for Providence, posting 22 points in 42 games this season in the AHL.

Metropolitan Division

  • The Philadelphia Flyers have recalled goaltender Felix Sandstrom from the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms on an emergency basis. Sandstrom, 25, has appeared in 42 games for the Phantoms this season and has a .901 save percentage. He has also appeared in two NHL games this season and has a .924 save percentage there. Flyers coach Mike Yeo recently signaled that starting goalie Carter Hart may be out for the rest of the Flyers’ season, which would make Sandstrom’s recall necessary.
  • The New York Islanders have sent goaltender Ken Appleby back to the Worcester Railers of the ECHL. It was a confusing call-up for some, selecting a goaltender from the ECHL, with the Islanders announcing that goaltender Semyon Varlamov would not be able to play or back-up last night in Montreal due to a non-COVID illness, however as the team explained, Appleby and the Railers were geographically close to the Islanders, playing in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec.

Central Division

Pacific Division

  • The San Jose Sharks have brought up winger Jasper Weatherby from the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda.  This will be the 24-year-old’s third stint with the Sharks this season. He has 14 points in 45 NHL games so far while being a bit more productive in the minors with 15 points in 25 games.

This page is updated throughout the day.

Injury Notes: MacEachern, Bruins, Flyers

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The regular season is over for Mackenzie MacEachern, but fortunately his Blues are planning to play well beyond then. The team announced today that MacEachern has been placed on the Long-Term Injured Reserve with an upper-body injury. The LTIR placement requires that MacEachern sit for ten games and the Blues have just eight games left on the regular season slate. The 27-year-old forward did his best to stay off the shelf; after missing the past three games, MacEachern was back at practice today but was forced to leave early, reports Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The cap-strapped Blues had little choice but to add MacEachern to the LTIR and recall forward Dakota Joshua from AHL Springfield on an emergency basis. The swap actually adds the superior player to the roster, as Joshua has more games played, average time on ice, goals, points, plus/minus and more with the Blues this season.

  • It took injuries to David Pastrnak, Hampus Lindholm, Matt Grzelcyk, Brandon Carlo, and Linus Ullmark to send the Boston Bruins into their first three-game losing streak of the season, the final team in the NHL to fall in three straight this year. As the team looks to right the ship on Saturday against the Pittsburgh Penguins, they’re hoping that improved health could help. Grzelcyk was back in the lineup on Thursday night and defense partner could be the next to return, reports beat writer Eric Russo. Carlo was back at practice on Friday and there is optimism that he can return tomorrow from an undisclosed injury. Ullmark, who left Thursday’s game after the first period, did not practice and could be dealing with a concussion, but for now is considered day-to-day. Pastrnak and Lindholm skated by themselves on Friday and there is still no timetable for their return. While there is something to be said for being bit by the injury bug before the postseason, especially for a Boston team that has been decimated in the playoffs in recent years, this rough patch is potentially costing the Bruins their shot at divisional playoff berth as opposed to a wild card spot.
  • The Philadelphia Flyers had no update on injured defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen today, as it is looking increasingly likely that his season is over. Olivia Reiner of the Philadelphia Inquirer relays that head coach Mike Yeo does not expect Ristolainen to return “any time soon” from an upper-body injury. There was also no update on Cam York, who is out with a lower-body injury and considered day-to-day. There is slightly more optimism surrounding Cam Atkinson, who is also out with a lower-body ailment. Atkinson won’t play on Saturday at Buffalo, but could suit up on Sunday for the second game of the home-and-home with the Sabres.

Canucks’ Bo Horvat Out Rest Of Regular Season

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Though the Vancouver Canucks are still in the playoff hunt in the Western Conference, they face an uphill battle to qualify for the postseason. The team sits three points behind the Vegas Golden Knights for the final spot in the Pacific, with the Los Angeles Kings between them, and are even further behind the Nashville Predators and Dallas Stars in the wild card hunt. Vancouver deserves recognition for their second-half turnaround, but still seem likely to fall short.

With today’s news, the Canucks’ playoff hopes now seem all but dashed. With exactly two weeks remaining in their regular season schedule, Vancouver has announced that captain Bo Horvat has been shut down due to an undisclosed lower-body injury. Horvat will be re-evaluated… in two weeks. The announcement comes as a relative surprise; Horvat left Thursday’s game after blocking a shot, but that decision was deemed precautionary and he has since been considered merely day-to-day. As it turns out, the prognosis is much more severe.

Horvat, 26, is Vancouver’s leading goal scorer with 31 tallies on the year. He is also fourth on the Canucks in scoring with 52 points in 70 games and second among forwards in time on ice, not to mention their top face-off man. In his fourth consecutive season of at least .70 points per game, Horvat potentially could have set a career-high in scoring this season if not for the injury. Now, Horvat will have to sit and watch as his team likely misses the playoffs and heads into a contract year in 2022-23 with an even more uncertain future.

To add to the bad news, the Canucks also confirmed the suspicion that young winger Nils Hoglander will not return from injury this season. Hoglander has missed the past month with a “week-to-week” groin injury with little update on his status in the interim. Today, Vancouver reported that Hoglander has in fact undergone surgery to correct the core muscle/groin injury and there is no timetable for his return. The typical recovery period for such a procedure is three to eight weeks, meaning Hoglander’s regular season is over and barring a miraculous stretch run and postseason, he is done for the year.

 

Penguins Make Two Prospect Moves

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Pittsburgh’s AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton announced that they’ve signed goaltender Joel Blomqvist to a tryout agreement while also re-assigning defenseman Niclas Almari from Lukko in Finland to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

The 20-year-old Blomqvist was a second-round pick of the Penguins back in 2020 with the selection they acquired from Ottawa in exchange for Matt Murray.  He recently wrapped up his season with Karpat in the SM-liiga where he led the league in GAA (1.32) and SV% (.940) in 20 games.  He has not yet signed his entry-level deal with Pittsburgh and still is under contract for another year in Finland so this may not be an immediate precursor to him getting an entry-level pact but rather just a way to keep him playing for a little while longer.

As for Almari, the 23-year-old is in the final season of his entry-level deal.  He played in 11 AHL games and six ECHL contests before being loaned back overseas a little over two months ago.  The return home didn’t do much for his production as he had just two assists in 22 games between the regular season and playoffs so he will need to impress down the stretch if he wants to receive a qualifying offer this summer.

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