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Archives for January 2025

Snapshots: Evans, Ersson, Nichushkin, Utah, Chara

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The Canadiens were believed to have been offered a mid-second-round pick back at the draft for center Jake Evans, reports Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli.  He adds that the Capitals may have been the team making the offer.  Evans is in the middle of what is likely to be a career year as he has 11 goals and 14 assists in 50 games while being the league leader for shorthanded ice time by a forward.  A pending unrestricted free agent, Evans has a very affordable $1.7MM cap charge this season and could plausibly double that on the open market this summer.  Montreal will have to decide if it’s worth accepting what’s likely to be a similar offer by the March 7th trade deadline or trying to sign him to a contract extension in the coming weeks.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • The Flyers announced that goaltender Samuel Ersson has officially been added to Sweden’s entry for the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off. He’ll take the place of injured netminder Jacob Markstrom.  Ersson has a 2.77 GAA and a .893 SV% in 27 appearances this season while picking up 15 of Philadelphia’s 23 wins.  As things stand, he’s likely to serve as Sweden’s third-string option for the tournament.
  • It appears that Avalanche winger Valeri Nichushkin will be out until after the 4 Nations Face-Off, relays Evan Rawal of the Denver Gazette (Twitter link). The 29-year-old has yet to play in 2025 due to a lower-body injury.  It looked like he was close to returning earlier this month but ultimately suffered a setback, changing his designation to week-to-week.  When available, Nichushkin has done well, tallying 11 goals and six assists in 21 games but Colorado won’t have him in the lineup for a while yet.
  • The Utah Hockey Club announced that they are no longer pursuing some of their preferred team names following the trademark issues that were revealed last week. The team will now run another voting campaign with only three names on the ballot – their current moniker, Mammoth, and Wasatch.  This round of voting will occur in-arena during Utah’s next four home games, beginning with tonight’s.
  • Bruins GM Don Sweeney confirmed to Kevin Paul Dupont of The Boston Globe that they are in discussions about bringing back long-time blueliner Zdeno Chara in an advisory role. Chara spent 14 years with Boston, playing over 1,000 games with the franchise while winning the Norris Trophy back in 2009.  Sweeney added that the role, the specifics of which are still being discussed, would likely have him working with both the players and the coaching staff.

Sharks Notes: Rentals, Sturm, Kostin, Rutta, Dellandrea, Granlund

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The Sharks are expected to once again be sellers in advance of March 7th’s trade deadline with the team well out of the playoff picture.  This is around the time of year where teams will often start talking about extensions with players they want to keep.  That doesn’t appear to be the case at the moment for San Jose as GM Mike Grier told reporters including Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News that while he has a sense of what his pending free agents are looking for, there haven’t been any negotiations with them and is unsure if there will be any before the deadline.

Their UFA crop includes veteran centers Mikael Granlund and Nico Sturm, winger Luke Kunin, plus defensemen Cody Ceci and Jan Rutta.  If they are going to try to move them, they won’t be able to retain any salary, however, as their three retention slots have already been used.  However, Grier indicated that he’s not too worried about that as he feels interested teams will either have or be able to open up the cap room to add any of those players to the point where retention wouldn’t necessarily have been needed.

More from San Jose:

  • It looks as if there won’t be much help on the horizon on the injury front. Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now notes (Twitter link) that Sturm, winger Klim Kostin, and Rutta are all unlikely to play until after the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off.  Speculatively, getting those players into some game action will be needed if they have any hopes of moving them before the deadline.  They should, however, get center Ty Dellandrea back sooner.  Peng mentions that Dellandrea skated today as he works his way back from an upper-body injury that landed him on IR last week.
  • Granlund missed practice today due to illness, relays Max Miller of The Hockey News (Twitter link). He’ll accompany the team on their trip to Seattle but isn’t a lock to suit up.  After putting up 60 points in 69 games last season, Granlund is scoring at a similar clip this year with 44 points in 51 games, leading the team in assists and points.

Canucks Announce Four Roster Moves

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The Canucks will get some help tonight versus Nashville as the team announced (Twitter link) that forward Dakota Joshua and defenseman Noah Juulsen have been activated off injured reserve.  To make room on the roster, winger Kiefer Sherwood was placed on injured reserve while winger Max Sasson was assigned to AHL Abbotsford.

Joshua had missed nearly the last four weeks with a leg injury.  It has been a tough year overall for him as his start to the campaign was delayed while recovering from testicular cancer.  Upon returning, he wasn’t as impactful as he was last season.  He has two goals and two assists through 24 outings although his physicality is still present as he has 83 hits while logging 12:21 per night with limited time on special teams.

As for Juulsen, he landed on IR retroactively last week with an undisclosed injury.  He winds up missing a little over two weeks with the issue.  Juulsen has played in 32 games this season, predominantly on Vancouver’s third pairing.  He’s still looking for his first point but does have 57 blocks and 89 hits in 16:34 of playing time per night, the highest that number has been since the 2018-19 season.

Sherwood has been a nice addition to Vancouver’s bottom six group this season.  He has recorded 13 goals and eight assists in 47 games while recording a league-high 273 hits; for comparison, no other player has reached 185.  He left last Thursday’s game with an undisclosed injury and assuming they back-date his placement, Sherwood will be eligible to return as soon as Friday versus Dallas.

Sasson loses his roster spot to make the activations happen.  He has been up with Vancouver for six separate stints this season, spanning 24 games altogether where he has two goals and four assists in a little over 10 minutes a night.  After putting up 42 points in 56 AHL games last season, Sasson’s per-game numbers are down a bit with Abbotsford this year although he still has nine points in 16 outings.

Sharks Reassign Scott Sabourin, Vítek Vaněček

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The Sharks reassigned winger Scott Sabourin to AHL San Jose on Wednesday, per a team announcement. They also sent goaltender Vítek Vaněček, who hasn’t played since mid-December due to a cheekbone fracture, to the minors on a conditioning loan, signaling he’s close to a return. Only Sabourin comes off the active roster with those moves – Vaněček remains on injured reserve – so San Jose is left with one open spot.

Sabourin received his first recall of the season last Friday when the Sharks made a flurry of roster moves, including promoting Colin White from his AHL deal. The 32-year-old enforcer got into game action the following day but struggled with a minus-two rating against the Panthers in 10:27 of ice time. Comprising a fourth line with Barclay Goodrow and recent waiver pickup Walker Duehr, the Sharks were out-attempted 14-3 with Sabourin on the ice.

It marked Sabourin’s fourth NHL game for the Sharks since signing a two-year, two-way deal in San Jose as a free agent in 2023. The veteran of 13 professional seasons posted career-highs with 18 goals and 192 PIMs in 59 AHL games last year, but he’s been limited to five goals and 14 points with 48 PIMs in 35 appearances in 2024-25.

The 6’4″, 207-lb cruiserweight made previous NHL stops with the Maple Leafs and Senators before arriving in the Bay Area. He’d also inked NHL contracts with the Ducks and Kings in the past but never got into NHL games for them.

Sabourin does not need waivers for today’s reassignment because he cleared them preseason and was only on the Sharks’ active roster for five days. His demotion could signal that one of the Sharks’ many other IR-bound players other than Vaněček could be close to returning, or it could indicate they plan on keeping three goalies on the active roster once Vaněček returns instead of sending top prospect Yaroslav Askarov back to the minors.

Flames’ Kevin Bahl Out Week-To-Week

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The Calgary Flames have designated defenseman Kevin Bahl as out week-to-week with an upper-body injury per TSN’s Salim Nadim Valji. Bahl suffered what appeared to be a head injury after receiving a big hit against the boards from Minnesota’s Jakub Lauko in Calgary’s Saturday night win. Bahl has missed the Flames’ two games since. He’ll now be a candidate for injured reserve, while the Flames will get assured for carrying eight defenseman on their roster leading into the weekend.

Bahl is in the midst of a career year. He has scored 14 points in 47 games, already surpassing his career-high 11 points in 82 games set last season. That boost in scoring has come in tandem with a strong defensive presence, helping Bahl gradually climb the lineup in his first season with the Flames. He has averaged just over 21 minutes of ice time each game, making him the team’s third-most utilized defenseman behind Rasmus Andersson and MacKenzie Weegar. Bahl also ranks third on the blue-line in blocks (79) and hits (67). It’s been beyond an encouraging season for the 24-year-old, who was traded to the Flames alongside a first round draft pick in exchange for Jacob Markstrom this summer. Bahl had previously spent the last three seasons trying, and failing, to earn secure ice time in the Devils defense. Now on a blue-line decimated by Calgary’s 2023-24 trading of Nikita Zadorov, Chris Tanev, and Noah Hanifin – Bahl seems to finally be finding his footing at the top flight.

Calgary has recalled Tyson Barrie from an AHL conditioning stint to fill in for Bahl. Barrie played his first game since early November on Tuesday. He recorded one assist, a -1, and one penalty in 17:20 of ice time. That’s certainly a welcome return for the 14-year-veteran who only had two points in nine games this season entering the contest. Barrie will now have a chance to prove he still belongs in the NHL, even at the age of 33, with big minutes opened up in Bahl’s absence.

Maple Leafs Activate Max Pacioretty, Place Matthew Knies On IR

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have activated veteran winger Max Pacioretty off of injured reserve. He has missed the team’s last three games with an upper-body injury. It wasn’t apparent when Pacioretty suffered the injury, which first popped up when he missed practice on January 20th. In a corresponding move, Toronto has also placed winger Matthew Knies on injured reserve with his own upper-body injury. Knies was injured one week ago, after taking a hard hit from Kirill Marchenko in the second period of Toronto’s January 22nd loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Knies’ IR designation can be made retroactive to that game, allowing Toronto to activate him as soon as he’s back to full health. Knies will still be on a ticking clock, though, with just two games left on Toronto’s schedule before they go on a two-week break for the 4-Nations Face-Off.

Losing Knies has been a hard blow the Maple Leafs lineup. The team has lost each of their last two games, getting held to one goal in both outings. Rookie Jacob Quillan received his NHL debut in Knies’ absence on Saturday, but the lineup vacancy will now turn back over to Pacioretty. The 17-year-pro has had a quiet season, marred by injuries, in his first year with the Maple Leafs. He has just five goals and 12 points through 32 games, a far lower scoring pace than he managed even just last year, when Pacioretty netted 23 points in 47 games for the Washington Capitals. Returning from injury will give Pacioretty a chance to snap the eight-game scoring drought he was riding prior to injury. He had six points, split evenly, in nine games prior to that drought – painting a clear picture of a hot-and-cold season.

Even with Pacioretty back, the Leafs will miss Knies for as long as he stays out. The 22-year-old winger is once again showing signs of improvement, with 18 goals and 31 points in 47 games this season. That’s a 54-point scoring pace across 82 games, far better than the 35 points Knies scored in 80 games last year. He’s earned a strong top-six role with that production, averaging nearly 18-and-a-half minutes each game. There’s been no indication of just how much longer Knies may miss, but he’ll be quickly slotted back into the top of Toronto’s lineup as soon as he’s back. Notably, head coach Craig Berube said that he plans to provide goaltender Anthony Stolarz with every chance he can to return before the team’s 4-Nations break. That mindset could also help Knies get back onto the ice before the team returns on February 22nd.

Senators’ Nick Cousins To Miss 6-8 Weeks

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Ottawa Senators forward Nick Cousins will be out through at least early March after suffering a knee injury in the team’s Saturday win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. Cousins suffered the injury on a knee-to-knee collision with Leafs rookie Jacob Quillan. Both players needed help off the ice after the hit, though Quillian ultimately avoided an injury. Senators head coach Travis Green shared that Cousins would miss significant time immediately after the game. Now the forward could be a candidate for long-term injured reserve, though Cousins is getting different opinions on the severity of his injury, per TSN’s Bruce Garrioch.

Cousins has been a reliable bottom-six forward for the Senators, appearing in 46 of the team’s 48 games and averaging just over 12 minutes of ice time prior to his injury. He has five goals and 13 points on the year, just shy of the 15 points he managed in 69 games with the Florida Panthers last season. Cousins continues to sit off of his team’s special teams units – which should make his role a bit less of a headache to replace.

Since Cousins’ injury, top forward Joshua Norris has made his return to the Senators lineup. That addition should fill their hole for the time being, with Adam Gaudette and Matthew Highmore securing routine roles on the fourth line. Ottawa also successfully passed winger Cole Reinhardt through waivers on Wednesday, which grants him a 30-day waiver exemption and gives Ottawa a movable extra forward. Reinhardt has two points, a goal and an assist through 12 games this season. They’re the first points of his career, in some of his first NHL games, though he made his NHL debut in the 2021-22 season. Reinhardt has since been a productive member of the AHL’s Belleville Senators. He leads that team in points-per-game this season, with 16 points in 13 games. Ottawa could also turn towards rookie Stephen Halliday – Belleville’s leading scorer with 27 points – should they need additional support over the next two months.

In other Senators news, defenseman Nick Jensen returned to the team’s practice in a full-contact jersey on Wednesday. Jensen has missed the team’s last two games with an undisclosed injury. His status for Ottawa’s Thursday matchup against the Washington Capitals is undetermined, but Jensen is expected to return soon, per Sportsnet’s Alex Adams. Jensen has 18 points in 48 games this season – the second-highest scoring pace of his 10-year career behind his 29 points in 77 games of the 2022-23 season.

Finally, star goaltender Linus Ullmark should return within the next few games, per Garrioch. Ullmark has missed the last 16 games with a back injury. He’s been an integral piece to the Senators’ lineup in his first year with the club, boasting a 12-7-2 record and .915 save percentage through 23 games this season. He’ll be a critical addition when he’s back to full health.

Canadiens’ Kaiden Guhle Out Indefinitely With Quadricep Laceration

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1:12 p.m.: Guhle sustained a lacerated quadricep muscle that was surgically repaired overnight, the team announced. He’s been released from the hospital but will be out indefinitely.

10:09 a.m.: In a corresponding move, defenseman Jayden Struble has been reinstated from his conditioning loan to AHL Laval. The 23-year-old lefty was held without a point and took two minor penalties with a plus-one rating in a pair of contests for the minor-league club.

8:10 a.m.: The Montreal Canadiens announced that defenseman Kaiden Guhle has suffered a lower-body injury and will need further evaluation. Guhle sustained the injury in the third period of last night’s 4-1 loss to Winnipeg when he fell into the corner awkwardly. He appeared to catch an edge on the play as he was trying to pinch in from the blue line, his right leg fell behind him and jammed into the boards, suffering the full weight of the impact. Guhle required assistance to get to the dressing room and did not appear to bear any weight on his right leg.

The 16th overall pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft is in his third NHL season and has become a huge piece of Montreal’s back end, averaging over 21 minutes a night of ice team and seeing the third most deployment at even strength on the team. Guhle has also been tasked with taking on some of the most difficult minutes in Montreal, starting nearly 60% of his shifts in the defensive zone and taking on the toughest assignments.

Montreal does have some good young defensemen in the AHL right now, however, none will be able to make the jump up from Laval and handle the duties that Guhle has been taking on.

Montreal is in the thick of the Eastern Conference’s race for the Wild Card spots, and losing Guhle for an extended period would be a big blow to their playoff hopes. However, there is a break in February for the Four Nations Face-Off, which could allow Guhle some recovery time, should he need it.

Montreal could also look outside the organization for help as they have 12 draft picks in this year’s draft and will have almost $6.5MM in cap space to work with at the NHL Trade Deadline.

Utah, Miloš Kelemen Mutually Terminate Contract

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Jan. 29: Kelemen cleared waivers and will have his deal terminated, per Friedman.

Jan. 28: Utah Hockey Club depth winger Miloš Kelemen landed on unconditional waivers Tuesday, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. It’s the first step for a mutual contract termination, which will occur if he clears tomorrow.

Kelemen, 25, made the move from Arizona to Utah last summer after two seasons in the Coyotes organization. The Slovak forward was briefly a restricted free agent but quickly signed a two-way deal to play his third season in North America. He cleared waivers to begin the season, but after scoring once through 11 games with AHL Tucson, Utah granted him a loan to the Czech Extraliga with HC Dynamo Pardubice.

That’s where Kelemen has suited up since late November, posting six points (4 G, 2 A) in 12 games for the top-level Czech club. He was slated to be a Group VI unrestricted free agent this summer and was destined to remain in Europe once Utah lost his NHL rights, so the two sides are just terminating their relationship early to allow Kelemen to better plan for next season.

Standing at 6’2″ and 218 lbs, Kelemen was somewhat of an intriguing undrafted free agent signing by the Coyotes in 2022. He largely did well in Tucson aside from this year’s early-season struggles, totaling 68 points in 124 games for the AHL club. He also got into 24 NHL games with Arizona over his first two seasons stateside, scoring a goal and an assist with a minus-seven rating and 46 hits.

Utah will gain a contract slot after terminating Kelemen’s deal, giving them four open spaces.

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