While it was a fairly light week on the NHL calendar thanks to the holiday break, we saw Alex Ovechkin move into second all-time in goals. We also saw some notable news off the ice which is recapped in our key stories.
Skinner Signs: Things haven’t gone quite as planned for the Oilers this season in goal with Jack Campbell struggling considerably in his first year with the team. However, Stuart Skinner has impressed and is starting to on a bigger share of the workload. Edmonton rewarded the youngster for his efforts thus far with a three-year extension that carries a cap hit of $2.6MM AAV and begins next season. Skinner has just 35 career NHL appearances under his belt (21 of which have come this year) so the deal carries some risk but if he winds up playing even a platoon role moving forward, the Oilers should do well with this contract. Notably, this deal will take the 24-year-old to UFA eligibility in 2026.
Gurianov Steps Away: The Stars will be without winger Denis Gurianov for at least a little while as he has been granted an indefinite leave of absence from the team for family reasons. No further information from the team was provided. The 25-year-old has had a bit of a tough start to his season with just two goals and three assists in 25 games so far. He’s currently on a one-year, $2.9MM contract and will be owed that as a qualifying offer by the team next summer to retain his RFA rights.
Four For Zub: The Senators have locked up another core player for the next little while as they reached a four-year, $18.4MM deal with defenseman Artem Zub. It’s a nice increase for the 27-year-old who will go from a $2.5MM AAV this season to a $4.6MM cap charge in 2023-24. He also receives a ten-team no-trade clause with the contract. Zub, who’s currently out with a facial injury, is logging over 22 minutes a night on the back end for Ottawa this season while averaging just shy of four hits per contest. While his offensive numbers don’t jump out, he’s second in minutes behind Thomas Chabot and has quickly become a key part of their defense corps as he’s just in his third NHL season.
Deadline Deals: While it’s still quite a while before the trade deadline, there was a soft deadline with the holiday roster freeze. The end result was a pair of small trades being made. Toronto and Colorado changed up their forward depth as the Maple Leafs sent winger Denis Malgin to the Avs for winger Dryden Hunt. The other move was also a depth swap in a rare three-team deal with Anaheim adding defenseman Michael Del Zotto, Detroit receiving forward Danny O’Regan, and Florida receiving forward Givani Smith; Smith was recalled following the swap and got into one game before the break.
Injury News: Cam Atkinson’s day-to-day injury at the beginning of training camp never healed as expected and now the Flyers will be without the winger for the rest of the season after he underwent neck surgery. He joins Ryan Ellis as key veterans that won’t wind up suiting up for Philadelphia this season. Meanwhile, Luke Kunin’s year has also come to an end after the Sharks winger underwent ACL surgery. The expected recovery timetable is six to eight months so the 25-year-old, who had 13 points in 31 games prior to the injury, should be ready for training camp in the fall. Lastly, the Blue Jackets, who have been hit hard by injuries all season long, will be without center Boone Jenner for a month after he had surgery to repair a fractured thumb. Jenner leads Columbus in goals so far this season and is their top player at the faceoff dot, winning nearly 56% of his draws.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Been watching Gurianov closely this year and he just isn’t a fit with Dallas anymore. I don’t know if it’s the family issue or what but he doesn’t fit on the second line where he is needed and he definitely doesn’t fit on the 4th line because his defense is terrible. A change of scenery is needed. Nice guy, great teammate from what I hear, just needs a new fit.
Seeing the goaltending shuffle in Edmonton (among many other towns) I was reflecting … and thinking how GODDAMN lucky we were in Boston to have Tuukka Rask give us twelve straight years of Hall of Fame-caliber goaltending. He never had so much as an *average* season: just excellence all the way, year after year after year, until his body gave out on him for good. And then? He retired instead of just clinging on for the paychecks, like a number of goalies we can name.
And it drove me bananas how many naysayers there were against Rask in Boston: he was a loser, blah blah blah, never was the starter for a Cup winner, blah blah blah. Just classless, clueless idiots.
Nha, the last four words of your post perfectly described a majority of Boston sports followers.