Capitals netminder Darcy Kuemper left practice early today after sustaining an upper-body injury, notes NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti (Twitter link). At this point, it’s unknown if he’ll be available to play on Sunday in Minnesota. If he does miss time, it will be the second time that the 32-year-old has been out with an injury this season as he missed eight games back in December. Despite that, Kuemper has had a decent first year with Washington, posting a 2.77 GAA with a .910 SV% and a league-high five shutouts in 48 starts. If Kuemper can’t play, Charlie Lindgren will take over as the interim starter for the Caps.
More from the Metropolitan:
- Still with Washington, the Capitals have re-assigned forward Bogdan Trineyev from KHL Dynamo Moscow to AHL Hershey, per a team release. The 21-year-old had 13 points in 39 games during the regular season while adding a pair of assists in the KHL playoffs before being eliminated. Trineyev got into two games with Hershey in the playoffs last season and should have a chance to see more action with them this time around.
- The Blue Jackets announced that they have re-assigned winger Mikael Pyyhtia to AHL Cleveland. The 21-year-old spent the season with TPS in Finland, picking up just seven goals in 47 games after putting up 21 in 56 contests in 2021-22 which helped him earn an entry-level contract last May. His season over there came to an end so he will now get his first taste of action in North America down the stretch.
- While Ryan Lindgren was a full participant in practice today, the defenseman isn’t likely to play tonight, relays Larry Brooks of the New York Post (Twitter link). The 25-year-old has been out for the last four weeks with an upper-body injury. The Rangers opted not to place him on LTIR at the time, opting to play short players earlier this month as a result but in hindsight, they would have been able to get away with putting him there and then send players down once Lindgren is cleared to return, which should be quite soon now.
- The Penguins recently reclassified Alexander Nylander’s recall from an emergency one to a regular one, notes Rob Rossi of The Athletic (Twitter link). In doing so, Nylander is allowed to remain up with the team even when it’s not an emergency situation but it also means they use one of their four allowable post-deadline recalls. They have two remaining now; the other was used on a paper transaction with Drew O’Connor.
That was a mistake by Drury. They were fighting for every dollar under the cap space and yet decided not to free up $3M of Lindgren’s contract. Even if he would be able to come back after 5 games it would still make sense to put him on LTIR. That would have even allowed them to sign a couple of depth players for the playoffs, especially if they picked up some of those who cleared wavers, so they could send them down to the minors either right away or when Lindgren would come back.