The Capitals got some good news and bad news on their back end for tonight’s contest against Winnipeg. The good news is that after missing 16 games, defenseman Dmitry Orlov was activated off IR, relays Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic (Twitter link). However, they also lost blueliner Erik Gustafsson to an upper-body injury, notes Samantha Pell of the Washington Post (Twitter link). The net trade-off is certainly a positive as Orlov, a long-term top-four player for them, is jumping right back onto their top pairing although Gustafsson is tied for the team lead in assists by a defender with ten.
More from the Eastern Conference:
- Prior to their game tonight against Vegas, the Bruins announced (Twitter link) that center David Krejci is out due to a lower-body injury sustained on Friday against Arizona. Fortunately for Boston, the absence is likely to be short-lived as the team hopes he’ll be ready to play in their next game on Tuesday. Krejci’s return to the NHL has been a very good one so far as the 36-year-old has 21 points in 23 games so far, the highest point-per-game average of his 16-year NHL career.
- Blue Jackets prospect Dmitry Voronkov is expected to sign with Columbus once his KHL season comes to an end, reports Aaron Portzline of The Athletic (subscription link). The 22-year-old center was a fourth-round pick by Columbus back in 2019 (114th overall) and has been a regular in the KHL since then. This season, he has 13 points in 28 games and is on pace for his best year offensively at that level. The Blue Jackets certainly could use some help down the middle and it appears they’ll get someone else to try at that position for next season in Voronkov.
- The Red Wings announced that they have recalled goaltender Magnus Hellberg from his conditioning stint with AHL Grand Rapids. The 31-year-old had a 2.50 GAA and a .932 SV% in four starts with the Griffins. He’ll be Detroit’s third-stringer so this might be the last game action he sees for a little while.
They need to convince Nedeljkovic to take a 2 week conditioning stint now! Then use Hellberg in a couple games.
I can’t remember a 3-goalie-rotation in recent seasons. To be eligible for a conditioning stint Nedeljkovic needs to be scratched for 5 consecutive games. So if he sits out the next 5 games he should be good to go. I guess he’d like to start the first leg of the back-to-back games Tuesday/Wednesday, though (first is against the Hurricanes, his former team)