The Colorado Avalanche made some roster tweaks early this morning, sending both Martin Kaut and Mikhail Maltsev to their AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles. This isn’t the first roster shuffle of the year for either of these players, as both have split time this year between the Eagles and the Avalanche.
This transaction, though, is likely more of a cap-related paper transaction than a move made with the intention of getting Kaut and Maltsev into AHL games. Without any corresponding call-ups, this move has left the avalanche with just ten forwards on their active roster. While it’s entirely possible that Kaut and/or Maltsev are headed to the AHL for an extended period, that doesn’t look like the likely outcome of these roster moves at the moment.
Some other notes from across the hockey world:
- Derek MacKenzie, a retired former NHLer with over 600 career games on his resume, seems to have found a new coaching job. After departing the Florida Panthers this summer, (he was there as an assistant coach from 2018-19 through 2020-21) MacKenzie looks set to join the OHL’s Sudbury Wolves as their next head coach, per Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek. The Wolves make this move hoping that MacKenzie will be the person to turn their season around amid a 3-8-2 start that led to the firing of coach Craig Duncanson.
- Washington Capitals defenseman Dmitry Orlov left last night’s contest against the Arizona Coyotes with a lower-body injury. While the full extent of that injury is not yet known, we do have some more information on Orlov’s status. NBC Sports Washington’s Matt Weyrich reports that Orlov wasn’t on the ice for the start of Capitals practice this morning. Per coach Peter Laviolette, Orlov’s status is considered day-to-day.
The hits just keep on coming for Washington. They’ve lost all of their star players except Ovechkin and Kuemper. The young guys are capable of playing well, but they have not yet learned how to win and are playing not to lose in third periods which leads to… losing despite strong first and second periods. Alexeyev is still working his way back from offseason shoulder surgery as well.
IMO, the Caps chances of making the playoffs this year were already a toss up and this just makes things even harder. Still a chance this ends up hardening the team in the long run if they can battle through this and still at least be at .500 or so when guys start coming back.
Only 22.5% of teams out of a playoff spot at American Thanksgiving make the playoffs. So if they’re out of position by November 24, they should look at a minimum of a re-tool, if not an outright rebuild. But Laviolette isn’t signed past this year, and neither is the entire veteran D corps, other than Carlson. So the team looks like it’ll be adding pieces over the summer. The big question is if they’re gonna move pieces at the deadline.
I feel like the defense has been better overall. Don’t know if that DK, or if guys like Protas and Strome are upgrades from last year. But yeah, it’s gonna be tough to scrap back. Maybe they’ll hit big in the lottery and get Bedard. I still haven’t given up on them yet though