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San Jose Sharks Announce Multiple Injuries

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The San Jose Sharks are set to begin camp without four notable players. General manager Mike Grier announced that Yaroslav Askarov, Logan Couture, and Shakir Mukhamadullin are out with lower-body injuries, while Marc-Edouard Vlasic is out with an upper-body injury (X Link).

None of the injuries, except for Couture, are expected to be long-term, but they will prohibit each player from joining the team at the beginning of camp. Max Miller of The Hockey News reported today that Couture hasn’t skated since his last game on January 31st, 2024, and isn’t close to resuming on-ice activities. There is little to no chance that Couture will be available to the team at training camp with Miller also reporting Couture is expected to start the year on the team’s injured reserve.

Couture was limited to only six games in the 2023-24 season due to osteitis pubis, joint inflammation that causes considerable pain and swelling in the groin and lower abdomen. It appears to be a question of not when but if Couture can return to his duties in San Jose for the 2024-25 season. He remains the highest-paid player in the organization with three years and $24MM remaining on his contract.

The team’s second highest-paid player, Vlasic, has been relatively healthy throughout his 18-year NHL career but did lose about two weeks of playing time last year in February with an upper-body injury. Vlasic has seen his playing time drop considerably over the previous four seasons after being one of the league’s best shutdown defensemen for over a decade. The acquisitions of Jake Walman and Cody Ceci over the offseason will likely lead to an even further decrease in ice time for the team’s most veteran defensemen.

The injuries to Askarov and Mukhamadullin will delay San Jose’s ability to analyze two of their better prospects heading into the season. Askarov’s success in the AHL is well-known up to this point and he is well-positioned to be the Sharks’ goaltender of the future after being acquired from the Nashville Predators late in the summer.

Mukhamadullin joined the organization in 2023 as a part of the package for Timo Meier. He skated in 55 games last year for the organization’s AHL affiliate in San Jose recording seven goals and 24 points. His size and skating ability on the blue line should make him a popular candidate to make the Sharks defensive core out of camp.

Atlantic Notes: Dahlin, Adams, Marner, Vasilevskiy

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Sabres star defenseman Rasmus Dahlin won’t be out long after sustaining an undisclosed injury in practice Wednesday. Head coach Lindy Ruff told reporters Thursday that Dahlin’s ailment is “nothing too serious” and will miss the next couple of days of practice, likely ruling him out of the Sabres’ preseason opener against the Penguins on Saturday (via Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News).

Dahlin sustained the injury on a non-contact play early in yesterday’s practice session, and Buffalo staff essentially deemed his absence precautionary. Playing in a preseason opener is always a long shot for veterans anyway, as many teams stick to the eight-veteran minimum early on in the exhibition schedule.

The 24-year-old is entering the first season of the eight-year, $88MM extension he signed last October to remain with the Sabres through most of his prime. The first overall pick in the 2018 NHL Draft finished 15th in Norris Trophy voting last season after recording a career-high 20 goals and 235 shots on goal, adding 39 assists for 59 points in 81 games. The Swedish native has averaged over 25 minutes per game in the last two seasons.

More out of the Atlantic Division:

  • Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams has faced criticism for not weaponizing all of his cap space as Buffalo attempts to end its 13-year playoff drought in 2024-25. He told Lysowski on Wednesday that there’s been “zero pushback from ownership about what we spend or can’t spend,” saying that he’ll “spend the money that we think we need to spend to win.” The Sabres have $7MM in projected cap space with a full roster, per PuckPedia, giving them space to add effectively any player they want to on trade deadline day if they’re in a position to buy.
  • Mitch Marner is open to continuing extension negotiations with the Maple Leafs as the regular season progresses, he told reporters (including Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet). But don’t expect him to be involved in them directly. “I’m going to let my agent and Brad [Treliving] do all the talking and figure stuff out. I’m just going to focus on playing hockey and trying to help this team win games,” the star winger said.
  • After missing the first few weeks of last season while recovering from back surgery, Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy is ready to return to his routine heavy workload. The four-time Vezina Trophy finalist told reporters Wednesday that he’d be comfortable playing 70-plus games if head coach Jon Cooper let him (via Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times). He might need to if the Lightning end up in a tight race for a playoff spot – Jonas Johansson will be back as Vasilevskiy’s backup for a second year in a row while boasting a subpar career .888 SV% in 61 games.

Devils Notes: Pesce, Mercer, Haula, Nemec

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New Devils defenseman Brett Pesce is still recovering from season-ending surgery and isn’t on the ice with his teammates as training camp begins, the team’s Amanda Stein relays.

Pesce, 29, is listed as week-to-week. That designation doubts his availability for the Devils’ season opener, their Global Series matchup against the Sabres in Prague on Oct. 4.

The former Hurricane underwent surgery to repair a fibula fracture he sustained in Game 2 of last year’s First Round series against the Islanders. He reached unrestricted free agency for the first time this summer, signing a six-year, $33MM contract with New Jersey on July 1.

Pesce is coming off the worst offensive season of his career, having been limited to 13 points (3 G, 10 A) in 70 contests. His 20:17 ATOI was also his lowest since his rookie season in Carolina.

His usage likely won’t improve much in a second-pairing role behind Dougie Hamilton on New Jersey’s right side, nor will there be any power-play opportunity for him with Luke Hughes also in the picture. However, the strong skater and cerebral defender has a +92 rating in 627 career contests and has controlled over 50% of expected goals at even strength for four seasons in a row.

More from the Devils as training camp gets underway:

  • Unsigned restricted free agent Dawson Mercer remains away from his teammates, but general manager Tom Fitzgerald doesn’t expect his absence to stretch out much longer. Fitzgerald told reporters Thursday, including James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now, that he thinks “we’re really close” to an agreement being finalized. Contract negotiations have been on the front burner for over a month as the sides work toward a likely short-term pact, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet said a couple of weeks back.
  • Center Erik Haula was absent from practice Thursday with an undisclosed illness, per Stein. It’s not a cause for concern this early in camp with the Devils’ first preseason game, which will likely be thin on veterans, still three days away. Haula has been a solid middle-six presence since being acquired from the Bruins in the 2022 offseason, logging 76 points in 156 games as a Devil while averaging 16:45 per night and winning 54.5% of his draws.
  • Rising sophomore defenseman Simon Nemec has full medical clearance after sustaining an injury while suiting up in an Olympic qualifier game for his native Slovakia late last month, Fitzgerald said (via Nichols). The second overall pick of the 2022 NHL Draft didn’t crack New Jersey’s opening night roster last season but quickly worked his way up the depth chart, making 60 appearances in his rookie year while finishing 14th in Calder Trophy voting. The right-shot defender projects to start the season in a third-pairing role behind Hamilton in Pesce after posting 19 points and a -7 rating with strong possession quality numbers in fringe top-four minutes in 2023-24.

Jaromír Jágr To Retire Following 2024-25 Season

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The 2024-25 season will be 52-year-old Jaromír Jágr’s last playing professional hockey. The all-time great will retire following the 2024-25 season, he told Rob Rossi of The Athletic over the phone Thursday.

It’s been over six years since the Flames assigned Jágr to Rytíři Kladno in Czechia, his hometown club, to play out the back half of a one-year deal he signed with Calgary for the 2017-18 season. That marked the end of his 24-year, 1,733-game NHL career, but it didn’t signal the end of his days playing at the professional level.

Jágr has been Kladno’s majority owner since 2011. The Penguins’ fifth overall pick in 1990 played his first two professional seasons with the club in the Czechoslovak top league before being drafted. He also played there during NHL lockouts in 1994, 2004-05, and 2012.

But by the time Jágr returned during his age 45 season, Kladno had been demoted from the top-level Czech Extraliga to the country’s second-tier pro league. Since his return, though, Kladno has stayed in the Extraliga for five out of the last eight seasons. Jágr was a force in helping them gain their initial promotion back to the top level, scoring 10 goals in 11 qualification games in 2019 to boost them back to the Extraliga for the 2019-20 campaign.

Now in his 37th season of professional hockey, Jágr is understandably no longer a premier force on the ice. The right-winger was limited to 15 regular-season appearances for Kladno last year, posting four assists and a -4 rating. He was in the lineup for Kladno’s Extraliga regular-season opener Wednesday, though, posting an assist and a -1 rating in 14:26 of ice time. It was a promising showing after tearing his hamstring less than a month ago, putting his availability for yesterday’s game in doubt.

Jágr’s NHL résumé needs no introduction. He may have never lifted the Stanley Cup in his prime, only winning it back-to-back with Pittsburgh in his first two NHL campaigns, but he was a game-changing threat in the NHL’s most offensively challenging era. Jágr won five scoring titles, including four straight from 1998 to 2001, and also won the Pearson Award (now the Ted Lindsay Award) as the most outstanding player as selected by their peers on three occasions (1999, 2000, 2006).

On the NHL’s all-time leaderboard, Jágr ranks fourth in games played, fourth in goals (766), fifth in assists (1,155), and second in points (1,921). He’s also a member of the Triple Gold Club, powering the Czechs to a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics and winning a pair of World Championship gold medals (2005, 2010).

While Jágr donned the sweater of nine NHL teams – the Penguins, Rangers, Capitals, Panthers, Devils, Flyers, Bruins, Stars, and Flames – he’ll always best be remembered for his peak years in Pittsburgh. That’s where he’ll likely return after his playing days are done next year. Rossi reported in May that the club was working to hire Jágr in a front-office role whenever he was ready to transition to the next chapter of his hockey career.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Avalanche Notes: Rantanen, Landeskog, Lehkonen, Annunen

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When asked about a potential contract extension, star Colorado Avalanche winger Mikko Rantanen has shared that he plans to stay in Denver for the foreseeable future and that the business side of things will sort itself out, per Aarif Deen of Mile High Sports.

Rantanen is coming off yet another career year, posting 42 goals and 104 points – just one point shy of the career high he sent last season, though he played in two fewer games this year. He’s emerged as the clear 1B to Nathan MacKinnon’s 1A – giving Colorado one of the most formidable top lines in the league. Rantanen has climbed to 617 points in 570 career games – with 301 of those points coming in the last three seasons alone. He seems focused on repeating the dominant scoring this season, confident that a new deal with Avalanche will come to fruition when necessary.

Other notes out of the Mile High City:

  • Head coach Jared Bednar spoke with the media ahead of Colorado’s start to training camp and among the updates, shared that there’s no news on team captain Gabriel Landeskog per Deen. Bednar mentioned that Landeskog has made big strides but that the situation remains up in the air. He hasn’t played since June of 2022, supporting Colorado’s run to the 2022 Stanley Cup after a trio of injury-shortened seasons. He’s an incredibly effective scorer when he plays, scoring 30 goals and 59 points in 51 games in his most recent season. That’s the production that fans have come to expect from their captain, leading Landeskog to 571 points across 738 career games. There’s hope that he can return to the top flight soon, though it seems he’ll need to overcome more hurdles before he’s back in the NHL.
  • Winger Artturi Lehkonen isn’t expected to attend training camp as he continues recovering from a shoulder injury that required surgery in May, shares Meghan Angley of The DNVR.com. Lehkonen only appeared in 45 games last season, but still managed an admirable 16 goals and 34 points. He’s flashed strong scoring over the last three seasons, totaling 123 points in 183 games split between Montreal and Colorado. He’ll sit out of the team’s training camp, hoping to return to a solid lineup role once he’s healthy.
  • Bednar also shared high remarks for top goalie prospect Justus Annunen, sharing that he could eat into starter Alexandar Georgiev’s workload, shares Angley. Georgiev has played in 125 games over the last two seasons,  recording a modest 78 wins and .908 save percentage. Annunen split time between the NHL and AHL last season, posting an impressive .928 save percentage in the outings. He emerged as a top-end AHL starter in 2022-23, with 22 wins and a .916 save percentage in 41 appearances. It’s not clear how the Avalanche will platoon their netminders this year, but Annunen’s recent success could be too much for Colorado to ignore.

Senators Sign Dustin Tokarski To PTO

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The Ottawa Senators have signed goaltender Dustin Tokarski to a professional try-out agreement. The move continues Tokarski’s tour around the NHL, after a reunion with the Buffalo Sabres organization last season.

Tokarski has become a noted minor-leaguer, beginning his career with a fifth-round selection in the 2008 NHL Draft. He was selected by the Tampa Bay Lightning, who promoted him to their pro ranks in the 2009-10 season. He managed a daunting 55 starts with the AHL’s Norfolk Admirals that year, but stood tall as a rookie, winning 27 games and posting a .915 save percentage. He’d hang onto Norfolk’s starting role over the next two years, even leading the team to the 2012 Calder Cup Championship with 32 wins and a .913 save percentage.

But for all of his achievements and accolades at the minor league level, Tokarski couldn’t break his way into the NHL. He played in just 10 NHL games through his first five pro seasons, not receiving his first full NHL season until 2014-15, when he spent the year backing up star Carey Price. Tokarski appeared in 17 NHL games that year, posting six wins and a .910 save percentage – but when Price went down with injury in the following year, it was Mike Condon and Ben Scrivens that got the call from Montreal. Tokarski returned to his role of AHL starter, continuing it through 2021 and even winning another Calder Cup Championship with the Charlotte Checkers in 2019.

He earned one more chance at a hardy NHL role in the 2021-22 season, as the Buffalo Sabres scrounged for goaltending support behind an aged Craig Anderson. Tokarski appeared in a career-high 29 games that season, recording 10 wins and a .899 save percentage. But, once again, he lost hold of the role in the following year, and has since spent the last two seasons back in the AHL.

Tokarski, 35, has put together a career to be proud of. He’s recorded 423 games and 14 seasons in the AHL, setting a career save percentage of .910. He’s won two AHL rings along the way – joining a 2008 WHL Championship and Memorial Cup, as well as a 2009 World Juniors Gold Medal, in his trophy cabinet. He’s stood tall in his limited NHL action too, with a career .902 through 80 games in the league, spread between five organizations. It’s hard to think that Tokarski will suddenly earn a prominent NHL role, but his PTO with the Senators will mark valuable goaltending leadership behind a revamped goaltending room.

Red Wings Sign Moritz Seider

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The Detroit Red Wings have signed star defender Moritz Seider to a seven-year, $59.85MM contract, per Sportsnet. The deal will carry an annual cap hit of $8.55MM.

With this deal, Detroit has finally signed all of their remaining restricted free agents, after signing forwards Lucas Raymond to an eight-year, $64.6MM contract and Jonatan Berggren to a one-year, $825K deal.

Seider stood as the most imposing of the trio needing a new deal. He’s been Detroit’s clear-cut #1 defender since he stepped into the NHL in 2021-22. He won the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie that season, after posting 50 points and averaging 23 minutes of ice time through all 82 games. Seider hasn’t missed a game since, recording 42 points in each of the last two seasons and continuing to average the most ice time of any Red Wings defenders. Still just 23, Seider has become an all-situations player for Wings coach Derek Lalonde – and has even started supporting linemates of his own, spending most of last season with Jake Walman or Ben Chiarot.

It’s been a long climb for Seider, who was originally a shocking choice at sixth overall in the prolific 2019 NHL Draft. He’s since played in the fourth-most NHL games (246) of the class, a full 82 games more than any other defender from the class. Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman has since leaned into the brazen European drafting, taking one European in each of the last five first rounds – ultimately landing Raymond, Simon Edvinsson, Marco Kasper, Axel Sandin-Pellika, and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard.

Critiques have questioned whether Seider’s impact is as big as the role he’s been awarded in Detroit, but there’s no arguing that the young star stands as the sole beacon of the Red Wings’ blue line. With Walman getting traded to San Jose, Seider now stands as Detroit’s only NHL defender under the age of 30 – joined by veterans that don’t command much acclaim, including Olli Maatta, Justin Holl, and Erik Gustafsson. That could change if top prospect Simon Edvinsson makes the Detroit lineup out of training camp, though that possibility remains up in the air. The Red Wings are thus locking up a core piece of their future in signing Seider long-term, giving Detroit a secure #1 to build their lineup around.

Bruins Sign Kasimir Kaskisuo To PTO

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The Boston Bruins have signed goaltender Kasimir Kaskisuo to a professional try-out agreement. The move adds another goaltender to Boston’s training camp, as the team continues to negotiate a new contract with presumed starter and restricted free agent, Jeremy Swayman.

Kaskisuo has become a journeyman around the hockey world, though his career formally began as a collegiate free agent in 2016. He signed a minor-league deal with the Toronto Marlies that year and proceeded to play his way into a routine role as one of Toronto’s many platooned goalies. He’d serve in that role for parts of five seasons, split by a brief stint with the Chicago Wolves. Kaskisuo never broke out as a star goaltender but he was proudly consistent, posting a .905 save percentage in 129 games through his first six years as a pro.

But with no clear opportunities to the NHL, Kaskisuo decided to take his talents overseas in 2021, signing with the SHL’s Leksands IF. He served as the team’s starter in 2021-22, recording an impressive .910 save percentage across 40 games, but struggled through just 14 appearances in 2022-23. Kaskisuo followed the down year with a return to North America, joining the Laval Rocket for last season and playing 13 games behind Jakub Dobes and Strauss Mann. Kaskisuo posted the highest save percentage (.909) of the bunch.

Kaskisuo will now look to continue his North American career by joining one of the most uncertain goalie rooms in the league. The Bruins have yet to sign star starter Swayman to a deal for the 2024-25 season, leaving Joonas Korpisalo and Brandon Bussi as the team’s top two options. Boston quickly runs out of depth behind that tandem, with just Michael Dipietro and Ryan Bischel signed behind their assumed starting-pair. That could pave the way for Kaskisuo to earn routine ice time, though it may once again come as part of a confused goalie tandem.

Ducks Name Radko Gudas Captain

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The Anaheim Ducks have named veteran defender Radko Gudas as the ninth captain in franchise history. He’ll succeed Ducks legend Ryan Getzlaf in the role, becoming the first to wear Anaheim’s ’C’ since Getzlaf’s retirement in 2022. Gudas also becomes the sixth NHL captain from Czechia, alongside Peter Stastny, Jaromir Jagr, Patrik Elias, Bobby Holik, and Milan Hejduk.

Gudas has put together a proud career in the NHL, appearing in 748 games as part of 12 seasons. He’s become a bit of a journeyman over that time, playing with five different clubs after starting his career in Tampa Bay. The Lightning drafted Gudas 66th overall in 2010 and promoted him to the NHL two years later. From there, it wasn’t long before the hard-hitting, stay-at-home defender worked his way into top-line minutes.

That was thanks to an overwhelming physical presence, emphasized in the 2013-14 season when Gudas recorded 273 hits – a franchise record in Tampa Bay but not a career-high for Gudas. He’d go on to top that mark twice with the Philadelphia Flyers, with 304 and 280 hits in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons respectively – again franchise records among Flyers defenders. Bruising became a core piece of Gudas’ game, and it wasn’t until the 2021-22 season that his physicality would finally hit a peak as he recorded 355 hits with the Florida Panthers, the third-most of any defender since the NHL began tracking hits – interestingly behind Jeremy Lauzon (383; 2023-24) and Mark Borowiecki (364; 2016-17).

Gudas made a move to Anaheim last summer – signing a three-year, $12MM UFA contract and bringing an end to his three-year stint with the Panthers. He once again assumed a confident, second-pairing role with the Ducks, recording 18 points in 66 games – his highest scoring since 2018-19. More than that, Gudas emerged as a clear leader amidst Anaheim’s young lineup. The Ducks have now recognized that leadership by making him the first player to wear the ’C’ on their newly-designed jerseys.

It’s a proud moment for the 36-year-old defender, who shared his thoughts on the news by saying, “I am honored to be named captain of the Anaheim Ducks and lead our team into an exciting era. The trust put in me by Pat, our management, coaches and my teammates is something I take with pride. Leadership is a shared quality amongst our team, and I look forward to representing the Ducks on the ice and also outside of the rink in the community.”

Kyle Okposo Announces Retirement

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Longtime New York Islanders and Buffalo Sabres winger Kyle Okposo has announced his retirement from the NHL in an open letter, released by agency CAA Hockey. In the letter, Okposo recounted his dreams of pursuing the NHL and the deep relationships he was able to form around the league. Okposo will be ending a decorated career, encompassing 17 NHL seasons, 1,051 games, and as of a few months ago, one Stanley Cup.

Okposo was originally selected seventh overall by the Islanders in the 2006 NHL Draft, after winning the 2006 USHL Clark Cup Championship with the Des Moines Buccaneers. He followed the draft with two productive years at the University of Minnesota, combining for 51 points in 58 games, before turning pro in the second-half of the 2007-08 season. Okposo’s production quickly translated to the AHL flight, and he earned his first NHL call-up after 35 games and 28 points in Bridgeport.

Once he was called up, Okposo didn’t look back – netting five points in his first nine NHL games, then more formally scoring 18 goals and 39 points in 65 games during his rookie season. He jumped up to New York’s second line and held his spot proudly, routinely challenging 20 goals and 50 points – peaking with a career-high 27 goals and 69 points in the 2013-14 season. Few wingers were as reliable as Okposo, and he carried that responsibility through a move to the Buffalo Sabres in 2016 – signing a seven-year deal in what was his only experience on the free agent market.

Okposo joined a Sabres team quickly approaching rock bottom. They did not once make the postseason during Okposo’s eight years with the club, but that didn’t dissuade him from latching on to his patented role in the lineup. Even through challenges with routine concussions, Okposo stood as a routine scorer, challenging 45 points every time he was able to play in a full season with the Sabres.

The consistent persistence earned Okposo the Sabres’ captaincy in 2022, succeeding Jack Eichel after his move to Vegas. Okposo wore the ’C’ for the next two seasons. But with the then-35-year-old quickly approaching his final skates, the Sabres made the difficult decision to trade their captain at the 2024 Trade Deadline, moving him to a team capable of running towards the Stanley Cup.

And thus, Okposo joined the red-hot Florida Panthers, with a fifth-round pick and the rights to defender Calle Sjalin headed back to Buffalo. Okposo filled the role of 13th-forward for Florida, only slotting into six regular season games and failing to record a point. But his energy proved invaluable in the postseason, where he appeared in 17 games and found a way to make a noticeable impact despite recording just two assists. The hard work paid off, and in his first postseason appearance since 2016 – Okposo won the Stanley Cup.

He’ll end his career on that high, but it’s hard to think his eager personality will stay away from the league for long. He hinted at that in his retirement announcement, sharing, “Thirty years of playing hockey was incredible… I believe the game is in a great place right now, but the possibilities are vast. I’m looking forward to continuing to contribute to the games as it reaches new heights.”

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