Devils defenseman Brett Pesce still has not yet been cleared to play as he works his way back from offseason surgery, relays team reporter Amanda Stein (Twitter link). New Jersey’s top free agent signing underwent fibula surgery to repair an injury sustained in the spring in the playoffs for Carolina. Their game tonight was their final one before the main team travels to Prague this weekend for their upcoming Global Series games against Buffalo. While New Jersey still has three preseason games remaining, those will be contested by their farm team and PTO players. That means Pesce won’t have a chance to see any preseason action before the season gets underway unless they keep him off the road trip to start the season.
More from the East:
- Stein also noted that blueliner Santeri Hatakka is dealing with something that has him classified as out longer than day-to-day but he is still being evaluated to determine the exact seriousness. The 23-year-old spent most of last season with AHL Utica where he had 20 points in 48 games but also got into 12 games with the Devils, collecting two assists in a little under 15 minutes a night. Because of the NHL time last season, Hatakka will have a prorated cap charge relative to the percentage of days spent in New Jersey’s roster in 2023-24 if he starts the year on season-opening IR. That would work out to roughly 15% of his $775K AAV.
- Senators goaltender Mads Sogaard is dealing with a light strain which will keep him out for another week, notes Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. Sogaard is likely to begin the season as Ottawa’s third-string netminder but this will be his final year of waiver exemption. Meanwhile, Garrioch adds that blueliner Artem Zub is expected to return in the coming days after suffering a lower-body injury earlier this week.
- The Lightning announced that tonight’s game between them and the Predators was postponed with the region still recovering from Hurricane Helene. Instead of simply not playing the game, they will make it up on October 7th. Nashville’s regular season doesn’t start until the 10th while Tampa Bay’s kicks off one day later so the late preseason matchup shouldn’t be an issue for either side.