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Archives for December 2022

Vancouver Canucks Recall William Lockwood, Reassign Nils Aman

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The Vancouver Canucks made a pair of corresponding transactions today, recalling right wing William Lockwood from the Abbotsford Canucks and sending down center Nils Aman.

Lockwood is having a strong season in the minors, notching 12 goals in 24 games with Abbotsford. It’s already a career-high in the AHL for him.

He’s played once in the NHL this season, registering an assist and a +1 rating in a November 15 win against the Buffalo Sabres. He could easily add to that total over the next few days as he battles with players like Sheldon Dries and Jack Studnicka for a spot in the lineup.

Aman had played in all 35 Canucks games up until this point in the season, so it’s surprising to see him sent down without much indication. A 22-year-old free agent signing out of Sweden, Aman impressed in training camp and has a goal and four assists so far in his young NHL career.

He heads to Abbotsford where he’ll get more ice time and a bit more offensive opportunity.

Senators Recall Jake Lucchini, Reassign Dillon Heatherington

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Dec 30, 11:18 am: Ottawa has returned Heatherington to the minors, signaling that fan favorite Artem Zub could be close to a return to the lineup.

Dec 27, 9:51 am: The Senators have brought back some extra depth as the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled defenseman Dillon Heatherington and winger Jake Lucchini from Belleville of the AHL.

Heatherington should be used to the frequent shuffling by now as this is his third recall of the month and fourth of the season overall.  Despite the recalls, the 27-year-old has only suited up with Ottawa once this year.  He has spent the bulk of his time with Belleville where he has five points in 19 games.

As for Lucchini, he made his NHL debut earlier this month against Montreal.  The 27-year-old has been quite productive in the minors this season with 23 points in 25 games after putting up 51 points with Belleville last season.

The recalls come on the heels of some injury news as head coach D.J. Smith told TSN 1200 (Twitter link) that winger Tyler Motte has a broken finger, Rourke Chartier has an upper-body injury, and Erik Brannstrom has a lower-body issue.  As a result, Heatherington and Lucchini might be a little more than just spare players this time around.

Calgary Flames Re-Assign Dennis Gilbert, Recall Radim Zohorna

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Dec 30, 11:13 am: Less than 24 hours later, Calgary has brought Zohorna back up to the roster from the Wranglers. Calgary plays tomorrow against the Vancouver Canucks.

Dec 29, 12:54 pm: The Calgary Flames, fresh off a win against the Seattle Kraken and headed home for a game on Saturday against the Vancouver Canucks, have sent two players to the minor leagues. Dennis Gilbert and Radim Zohorna have been assigned to the Calgary Wranglers of the AHL for the time being.

The moves will allow the Flames to bank a little more cap space over the next few days, as they continue to prepare for a trade deadline without much wiggle room.

Gilbert was only activated from injured reserve yesterday and has played just a single game for the Flames over the last month. The 26-year-old has one point in eight NHL appearances this season, averaging just over ten minutes a game.

Zohorna, meanwhile, went scoreless in his five games with the team earlier this month – all five of which the Flames ended up losing. The 26-year-old was nabbed off waivers at the beginning of the season from the Pittsburgh Penguins but hasn’t quite made the impact some expected.

It is very likely that at least one if not both will be back up when the Flames go on the road again next week.

Winnipeg Jets Sign Danny Zhilkin To Entry-Level Contract

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The Winnipeg Jets have signed 2022 draft choice Danny Zhilkin to a three-year, entry-level contract. Zhilkin’s agent, Dan Milstein, announced the news Friday morning.

PuckPedia reports Zhilkin’s contract carries an $860,000 cap hit with a $775,000 NHL salary in all three years. The remainder is paid in signing and performance bonuses.

Winnipeg drafted Zhilkin, who just turned 19 earlier this month, with the 77th overall selection in 2022. Viewed by some as a potential late first-round pick at the time, Zhilkin fell to Winnipeg in the third round.

He’s doing well in his third season with the OHL’s Guelph Storm, with 25 points in 23 games. He’s a well-rounded offensive talent, but some two-way concerns kept him further down on the draft board.

Snapshots: Hajek, Manninen, Nosek

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It’s been a tough stretch for defenseman Libor Hajek with the New York Rangers. After being one of the two rather intriguing prospects acquired from the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Ryan McDonagh/J.T. Miller trade nearly five years ago, he hasn’t panned out as a regular on Broadway (much like the other acquired prospect, Brett Howden).

Hajek’s now been scratched for a seventh straight game and has been leapfrogged on the depth chart by younger players and AHL veterans alike, notes The New York Post’s Larry Brooks. Head coach Gerard Gallant called out Hajek’s consistency as the reason for his consistent benching. The 24-year-old has a lone goal in 16 appearances this season, playing below 14 minutes per game.

  • With injuries beginning to pile up again for the Vegas Golden Knights, some wondered about European free agent signing Sakari Manninen as a potential call-up option for the minors. However, The Athletic’s Jesse Granger said today that Manninen is week-to-week with a lower-body injury and hasn’t played for the AHL’s Henderson Silver Knights in nearly a month. The internationally successful Finn has 12 points in 20 games with Henderson this year, his first in North America.
  • After missing yesterday’s game, the Boston Bruins said Tomas Nosek’s absence was more precautionary as he works through “maintenance.” However, the issue may be a bit more severe than that, as he wasn’t a full participant in practice this morning. Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald did note that Nosek skated on his own before practice.

New York Islanders Place Oliver Wahlstrom, Simon Holmstrom On IR

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New York Islanders wingers Simon Holmstrom and Oliver Wahlstrom have been moved to injured reserve, according to a team tweet Friday morning. Both are out with lower-body injuries, although Wahlstrom is out indefinitely while Holmstrom is day-to-day.

Wahlstrom’s IR placement, which is retroactive to December 27, is a bit different than anticipated. Newsday’s Andrew Gross reported Wednesday that the team believed Wahlstrom had sustained a head injury in their game against the Pittsburgh Penguins the night before. While Wahlstrom still figures to be out of the lineup long-term, it’s not with the head injury that was reported initially.

Meanwhile, Holmstrom could return at any time, given the shorter-term nature of his injury. His IR placement is retroactive to December 23, so his seven-day minimum stay on injured reserve ends today.

Wahlstrom is putting up respectable numbers this season, especially given his paltry usage of 12:10 per game. His 16 points in 35 games are tied for seventh on the team, and he’s easily within striking distance of his career-high 24 points.

The 21-year-old Holmstrom has played in his first 14 NHL games this season after the team drafted him 23rd overall in 2019. He scored his first NHL goal earlier this month against the Vegas Golden Knights and has two points on the season. If other injured Islanders forwards return to the lineup before he does, he could likely be returned to the AHL’s Bridgeport Islanders after coming off injured reserve.

What Your Team Is Thankful For: Winnipeg Jets

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As we approach the end of the year, PHR continues its look at what teams are thankful for in 2022-23. 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 Winnipeg Jets.

Who are the Jets thankful for?

Josh Morrissey.

The emergence of Norriss-err, Morrissey this season has been a huge reason for the Jets’ early success, setting a career-high with 40 points through his first 35 games. There’s nothing like a true No. 1 defenseman to change the fate of a team, and after the disappointing 2021-22 season the Jets are right back in the Central Division playoff picture. Morrissey is playing more than 23 minutes a night, sits second in scoring among defensemen, and has quickly made the eight-year, $50MM contract he signed in 2019 look like a bargain.

At a $6.25MM cap hit through the 2027-28 season, Morrissey’s development has made it possible for the Jets to stay legitimate contenders moving forward. It wasn’t so long ago that things looked like a disaster in Winnipeg. The team was struggling, Mark Scheifele was a rumored trade chip, and Pierre-Luc Dubois wasn’t willing to commit long-term. But things are looking a lot better these days, and a big part of that is because of the outstanding performance of Morrissey every night.

What are the Jets thankful for?

The return of Vezina-caliber Connor Hellebuyck.

If things continue the way they are now, Hellebuyck is going to lead the league in saves for the fifth-straight season. But while he continues to strap on the pads nearly every night, the performance has gone up and down over the last few years. When he won the Vezina Trophy in 2020, he had a .922 save percentage. This season, he’s at .927. The improvement to team defense is part of it, but Hellebuyck has been outstanding so far, keeping the Jets alive every night.

He leads the league in shutouts with three and has already racked up 17.9 goals saved above average. Linus Ullmark’s .938 save percentage and 20-1-1 record put him as the front-runner right now, but Hellebuyck looks like he’ll be right there when the Vezina voting takes place.

It’s simple. When you have one of the best goalies in the league, you have a chance for the Stanley Cup. Right now, the Jets have one of the best goalies in the league, and with Hellebuyck’s history, it’s hard to believe it will end anytime soon.

What would the Jets be even more thankful for?

Some better injury luck.

Even though they are in the mix and playing well, the Jets’ can’t seem to stay healthy. Mason Appleton, Nikolaj Ehlers, Saku Maenalanen, Nate Schmidt, Logan Stanley, and Blake Wheeler are all currently on injured reserve, while Cole Perfetti is also dealing with a more minor issue. That’s more than $25MM on the sidelines, and a group that could be considered an entire core of some rosters.

When Hellebuyck missed practice earlier this month, the heart of many Jets fans jumped into their throat, expecting the worse. The netminder was only dealing with an illness, but it showed just how delicate their success is right now. A few more injuries and they might fall completely off the table, a couple fewer and they might go on a dominant run. There’s a lot of talent on the Jets roster – if they can keep it on the ice, they have a good chance at contending in the Western Conference.

What should be on the Jets’ holiday wishlist?

Another center.

The thing is, there’s no guarantee that the team ever does get fully healthy. With so many wingers out, they have Adam Lowry playing the wing on the second line, meaning Kevin Stenlund and David Gustafsson are their third and fourth-line centers. You can think all you want that they have done a good job in a tough situation, but Gustafsson hasn’t scored a single goal in 34 games and Stenlund is a minor league veteran with fewer than 80 NHL games under his belt.

When someone comes back they will be able to use Lowry in the middle of the third line again, but if Winnipeg is going to make a real run they should shore up that position with a little more depth. They’ve had players like Andrew Copp, Bryan Little, and Paul Stastny in that role in the past to great success.

That’s not to say it’s the only hole. David Rittich as a backup is a little scary, and the third defense pairing has been a rotating cast of characters all season. But the team only really has three legitimate centers at this point. It needs to be a focus, if the Jets do anything at the deadline.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Poll: Who Will Finish With The Best Chance At First Overall?

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Success at the World Junior Championship doesn’t guarantee success in the NHL. It’s a junior tournament, after all, and there are countless examples of players who star there only to find it difficult to translate their game to the professional level. Esa Keskinen, for example, is one of the highest-scoring players of all time with 31 points in two tournaments. The fifth-round pick never came over to North America (likely due to his small stature during a different era of hockey), playing out his career in Finland and Sweden instead.

But even as scouts are starting to place less importance on performance there, the World Juniors plays an important role in something else for future stars: an introduction to a wider audience.

In the grand scheme of hockey fans, there aren’t many watching Regina Pats games. They might not get a chance to see future first-overall pick Connor Bedard on a very regular basis, if at all. So when he puts up seven points in one game or comes within one goal of the Canadian record from a ridiculous angle suddenly fans from across the league start dreaming about him pulling on their sweater next season.

Tanking for the first-overall pick doesn’t work all that well in hockey. The draft lottery gives hope to around half the league (depending on trades) and causes anxiety for those clubs at the bottom of the standings. Going into tonight’s games, the Chicago Blackhawks have the best odds of winning the right to select Bedard. Chicago has lost nine of their last ten and 25 of 33 on the year. Their .303 winning percentage would be the third worst in the salary cap era if it continued all year. The two teams ahead (or behind) them though – the 2016-17 Colorado Avalanche and 2019-20 Detroit Red Wings – both failed to win the lottery.

Colorado fell to fourth after three teams jumped them, and got the consolation prize of Cale Makar. The Red Wings fell three spots too and had to settle for Lucas Raymond.

There have been some changes since then, meaning Chicago (or whoever finishes last) won’t drop quite so far. But coming last still by no means guarantees the top pick. In fact, a team like the Montreal Canadiens could theoretically end up with an even greater chance, even without finishing last. The Canadiens have their own pick and Florida’s, who are also currently out of the playoff picture. Should the Panthers drop even further, Montreal would essentially have two cracks to move up.

There is also a lot of hockey left to play. One more win would tie the Blackhawks with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Two would bring them even with the Anaheim Ducks, who have played three more games. There’s a long race to be run by quite a few teams.

So as you watch Bedard (and Adam Fantilli) pile goals onto an overmatched Austrian squad, who do you think will enter the draft lottery with the best chance? Cast your vote below and explain how you see it playing out in the comments.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Montreal Canadiens Activate Brendan Gallagher

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The Montreal Canadiens have announced that forward Brendan Gallagher will play tonight, meaning he has been activated off of injured reserve.

Gallagher has been out for most of December with a lower-body injury. Partly due to his absence from their lineup, the Canadiens have struggled recently, winning just three of their last ten games.

Although Gallagher’s production isn’t what it once was (he scored just 24 points last season and has eight in 22 games this year) he remains an active producer of scoring chances and the analytics community has largely viewed his play quite positively.

One of the Canadiens’ most passionate leaders, Montreal will be hoping that Gallagher’s’ return to health can help their scoring attack. Backed by the league’s worst power play, the Canadiens have scored just four goals in their last three games.

Gallagher should be an improvement over some of the forwards the Canadiens have been playing. Now healthy and back in the lineup, Gallagher will hope to get back to the level of production he showed a few years ago, such as in 2019-20 when he scored at a 60-point pace.

Vancouver Canucks Activate Travis Dermott

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After recalling him from his conditioning loan two days ago, the Vancouver Canucks have activated defenseman Travis Dermott off of long-term injured reserve. (LTIR)

This activation puts Dermott in a position to make his season debut for Vancouver. The move puts eight defensemen now on the team’s active roster. Riley Stillman will likely come out of the lineup in favor of Dermott, landing Dermott on a pair with veteran Luke Schenn.

The Canucks acquired Dermott, 26, from the Toronto Maple Leafs in a trade last season. He played 17 games for the Canucks, scoring two points. He didn’t play a huge role in that time, featuring only sporadically on special teams while playing in just under 17 minutes a night.

Previously, Dermott had been seen as a promising young blueliner for the Maple Leafs, who picked him 34th overall at the 2015 draft. Injuries had been a consistent issue, though, and the most games played he’s registered in a season in his career has been 64.

With this activation from LTIR, Dermott will hope to remain healthy for an extended period. If he can match availability with quality play, he’ll put himself in a strong position for the summer, when he’ll be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent.

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