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Archives for October 2025

Ducks Recall Ian Moore

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The Anaheim Ducks have recalled defenseman Ian Moore from the AHL’s San Diego Gulls. They still have one open roster spot available, after placing forwards Jansen Harkins and Ryan Strome on injured reserve. Strome could be a candidate to join Anaheim on their upcoming five-game road-trip, though if he will won’t be clear until Saturday.

This stands as the first call-up of Moore’s young career. He signed to the Ducks’ roster directly out of college last season, and recorded one point in his first three NHL games before being assigned to the minor-leagues. That assignment continued through the start of this season – though Moore will now return to the NHL with five points in 10 AHL games to his name. He’s a defense-first defender, who excels in the technical areas of breaking up play and winning positioning. His strong on-ice presence earned Moore the captaincy at Harvard University in his junior and senior seasons, in 2023-24 and 2024-25.

Moore will offer a replacement for bottom-pair, right-defender Drew Helleson, who has two points in four games to start the year. Helleson played through his rookie NHL season last year, marked by 13 points and 47 penalty minutes in 56 games. He has operated as the young backer to veterans Radko Gudas and Jacob Trouba on Anaheim’s right-side.

Blackhawks Reportedly Headed Towards Kyle Davidson Extension

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The Chicago Blackhawks have an important off-season looming in 2026. The summer will be headlined by negotiations with franchise star Connor Bedard, and underscored by tough decisions with veteran free agents Nick Foligno, Ilya Mikheyev, and Jason Dickinson. With so many negotiations on the horizon, Chicago appears to be moving towards an extension with general manager Kyle Davidson, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman on the latest 32 Thoughts Podcast.

Davidson has pulled the Blackhawks together enough to take a confident step forward in the last year. They sold off veteran defender Seth Jones to acquire high-potential goaltender Spencer Knight at last year’s Trade Deadline, then awarded lofty extensions to 2024-25 leading goal-scorer Ryan Donato, top prospect Frank Nazar, and Knight.

The moves have afforded Chicago a real platform to work from. Nazar has tied Bedard for the team-lead in scoring, with both players boasting two goals and six points through the team’s first five games. Knight has also matched the bell, with an impressive .920 save percentage through his first three games. The improvements they bring to the lineup, and continued growth from Bedard, has led Chicago to a 2-2-1 record to start the year — the club’s best record through their first five games since 2022-23.

Even better, Chicago has secured Nazar and Knight through 2029 for a combined $12.43MM cap hit each season. That’s a true steal for a top scorer and starting goaltender, especially with the salary cap expected to grow by $18MM before 2028. That price, complemented by a cheap deal for Alex Vlasic ($4.6MM annual cap hit), could provide Chicago with the rare chance to spend lavishly while they pull out of a rebuild. It also provides the chance to pay Bedard the king’s ransom he’ll surely be owed, after posting the fifth-most points from a teenager since 2000 and seeming set for another big year this season.

But news of an extension for Davidson won’t thrill all. He’s overseen a 107-187-34 record since stepping up as Chicago’s GM in 2021. Davidson has overseen 10 first-round picks for the Blackhawks, though only four of those players are on the NHL roster early into the season. How Chicago will grow when star prospects like Anton Frondell, Vaclav Nestrasil Jr., and Sacha Boisvert break into the pros will be what defines the next era of Blackhawks hockey. But, the uncertainty around each of them will likely limit Davidson’s potential extension to only a few years – providing Chicago a chance to change course if their heap of top prospects don’t pan out.

Then again, those odds seem slim. Frondell leads all U21 players in the SHL in scoring, with seven goals and nine points in 11 games. He’s long been an international star of his age group, who seems well-set for success in the NHL. Chicago has also received plenty of positives from young defenders Sam Rinzel, Artyom Levshunov, and Wyatt Kaiser – who seem to be offering the star offense, reliable two-way-play, and stout defense needed to structure the blue-line. Success from other prospects like Oliver Moore, Kevin Korchinski, Mason West, and Marek Vanacker would only serve as icing on the cake of what appears to be a growing push from Chicago’s young core.

The Blackhawks expressed confidence in Davidson earlier this month. Team owner Danny Wirtz told Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times that, “Everything Kyle set out to do, he continues to deliver on.” That statement seems to suggest that the Blackhawks’ brass are okay bearing through a couple more difficult seasons, with eyes on a big boom a few years away.  It seems that confidence will lead to Chicago cementing Davidson’s overseer role sooner rather than later.

Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov Out With Illness

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have announced that star winger Nikita Kucherov will be held out of Friday night’s game by an illness. Kucherov has three points, one penalty, and a minus-eight through four games this season. He is one of seven Lightning players with three points so far.

There is simply no replacing Kucherov in the lineup, even if his early season has been quiet. He is a three-time Hart Trophy finalist, and took home the MVP title in 2019. He’s led Tampa Bay in scoring in each of the last two seasons, with an incredible 144 and 121 points respectively. At the age of 32, Kucherov has already amassed the second-most points in Lightning history (997), only behind longtime captain Steven Stamkos (1,137).

Tampa Bay will undoubtedly be handicapped without Kucherov, who has averaged 20:29 in ice time on the season. They’ll have to bump each of their right-wingers up a line, likely leading to Gage Goncalves on the top line and Conor Geekie in the top-six. That movement appears to be offering opportunity for Jack Finley, who has only played one, scoreless, game to start the season. Tampa Bay also recalled Scott Sabourin earlier today, though he is set to serve a four-game suspension in the NHL for roughing Florida Panthers’ defender Aaron Ekblad in the preseason. He’ll serve his first game of that suspension on Friday.

Lightning Place Maxwell Crozier On IR, Recall Scott Sabourin

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have placed rookie defenseman Maxwell Crozier on injured reserve per Erik Erlendsson of Lightning Insider. The move is retroactive to Tuesday, which will force Crozier out of the lineup for at least two days. Tampa Bay then used the vacant roster spot to recall Scott Sabourin from the minor leagues.

Crozier is bearing through an undisclosed injury after leaving the team’s Tuesday matchup against the Washington Capitals in the first period. He only played 4:27 in total ice time. The injury was a hit of bad luck after the top Bolts rookie scored three points in his last two games. He was the productive motor of Tampa Bay’s bottom pair, next to third-year-pro Emil Martinsen Lilleberg.

Crozier broke camp with the Lightning after posting 34 points and 75 penalty minutes in 52 AHL games last season. He entered this season with 18 games of NHL experience under his belt, though only two assists to go with it. That production set a low bar that Crozier has well cleared to start the season, making his injury timeline worth following closely.

Tampa Bay will use Crozier’s IR placement to award Sabourin for a strong start in the AHL. He scored a point in each of the Syracuse Crunch’s two games to start the season. It’s a quick start, after Sabourin posted 25 points and 111 penalty minutes with the San Jose Barracuda last season. He has played in 25 NHL games over the course of his career – stretched across stints with the Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, and San Jose Sharks. He’s scored 15 points in those appearances. Now, Sabourin could suit up for a fourth club, and offer Tamp a hotter stick than rookie Curtis Douglas, who is without a point through three games so far.

Flames Assign Matvei Gridin, Activate Jonathan Huberdeau

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The Calgary Flames have assigned winger Matvei Gridin to the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers to make room to activate Jonathan Huberdeau off of injured reserve. Huberdeau has been sidelined since sustaining an undisclosed injury in a preseason matchup against the Vancouver Canucks on October 1st. He missed the first seven games of Calgary’s season.

Gridin played in the first four games of his NHL career to start the season, but found his way to the press box after posting one goal and a minus-three. He is among Calgary’s top prospects, and is set to become one of just six 19-year-olds in the AHL. A taste of NHL minutes, and continued pro challenge in the minors, could be exactly what Gridin needs to grow his game.

He looked fast and flashy in the QMJHL last year, posting 96 points in 72 games over the course of the Shawinigan Cataractes’ full season. That performance earned him the QMJHL’s ’Rookie of the Year’ award. The 2024 first-round pick spent two seasons in the USHL prior to his draft. He scored 99 points in 108 total games in the league. That includes a league-leading 83-point season in 2023-24, the second-highest scoring season in Muskegon Lumberjacks history.

While Gridin develops in the minors, Huberdeau will look to keep up his momentum from last season. He scored 16 points in 18 games to finish the 2024-25 season, pushing him to 28 goals and 62 points in 81 games on the year. It was Huberdeau’s highest-scoring season since he posted 115 points with the Florida Panthers in 2021-22. His dip in scoring with the Flames has shadowed his last three seasons, but he showed a click next to Morgan Frost and Matthew Coronato that could propel the Flames’ offense this season. Coronato currently leads Calgary in scoring, with three points in five games. Frost has two points.

Anze Kopitar Out Week-To-Week With Foot Injury

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The Kings announced that captain Anže Kopitar has been listed out week-to-week with a foot injury. There’s no IR placement for him yet, but there could be one coming soon to give L.A. a roster spot as they’re down to 12 healthy forwards.

Kopitar, who said last month that 2025-26 will be his final season, is now ticketed for what could be the lengthiest absence of his 20-year career. The ever-durable Slovenian center has never missed more than 10 consecutive regular-season games, and that came all the way back in his rookie season in 2006-07. He hasn’t missed more than a single game in a season since 2016-17. He sustained the injury in Monday’s shootout loss to the Wild, blocking a shot with his foot that caused him to miss yesterday’s loss to the Penguins (although he was initially considered a game-time decision). He hasn’t practiced since the injury, so it’s unlikely he’s stressed it further.

The 38-year-old has been a bright spot in what’s otherwise been a dismal start to the season in Los Angeles. The club is 1-3-1, tied for the second-lowest points total in the league, and is now without its top center for the foreseeable future. Kopitar was still holding down the workload he’s had for so many years, rattling off four assists in four games while averaging 18:45 per game and going 49-for-77 (63.6%) on faceoffs. The Kings were also allowing just 1.1 goals against per 60 minutes with Kopitar on the ice at even strength, the third-best figure on the team among forwards behind Phillip Danault and Samuel Helenius.

Under the hood, things don’t look particularly dire for the Kings. They’re still controlling possession well at 5-on-5 but have fallen victim to poor finishing (8.7%) and goaltending (.861 combined SV%). Missing Kopitar’s still high-end playmaking ability won’t help the former number, though. Losing his intangibles, as well as shouldering the loss of still a top-10 two-way forward in the league, is a hard pill to swallow for a club needing to string together a few wins to avoid sinking too far below the playoff line too early in the season.

Danault was elevated into Kopitar’s role between Andrei Kuzmenko and Adrian Kempe last night. It’s unclear if that will hold or if the club might rather give the younger Quinton Byfield, who’s largely assumed to be Kopitar’s long-term successor as the Kings’ new No. 1 pivot, a shot in those minutes. They’re also without offseason addition Corey Perry, who’s missed the entire year to date with a knee injury.

Avalanche Recall Mackenzie Blackwood From Conditioning Loan

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Oct. 17: Blackwood’s conditioning stint is over, the team announced. He didn’t get into game action with the Eagles; instead, he was only there to face shots in practice with a more consistent schedule there this week than in Colorado. Blackwood was never on IR, so the recall suggests he should be available for tomorrow’s game against the Bruins.

Oct. 13: The Colorado Avalanche should be getting a big reinforcement between the pipes in a few days. The team announced that they’ve loaned netminder Mackenzie Blackwood to the AHL’s Colorado Eagles on a conditioning stint. Additionally, the team has activated defenseman Sean Behrens from the season-opening injured reserve and reassigned him to AHL Colorado.

Colorado’s reasoning behind the conditioning stint this early in the campaign is fairly simple. Blackwood is continuing to recover from a procedure performed in May and didn’t participate in any preseason games for the Avalanche or any training camp activities. Since Colorado can leave Blackwood on the conditioning stint for up to 14 days, it’ll be treated as a pseudo training camp to prepare him for the regular season.

Blackwood was phenomenal for the Avalanche last year. After being acquired from the San Jose Sharks, Blackwood took on a heavy workload, managing a 22-12-3 record in 37 games with a .913 SV% and 2.33 GAA. Unfortunately, he couldn’t help Colorado avoid another first-round exit in last year’s playoffs, registering a 3-4-0 record in seven contests with a .892 SV%.

Still, despite being without Blackwood, the Avalanche have gotten stellar goaltending out of the gates this season. Their backup, Scott Wedgewood, has a 2-0-1 record through Colorado’s first three games with a .925 SV% and 1.95 GAA. Even though it’s a small sample size, Wedgewood has already played the most minutes of any netminder this year.

Meanwhile, Behrens will return to competitive hockey for the first time in two years. After winning the National Championship with the University of Denver in 2024, Behrens signed with the Avalanche, skating in one game with the Eagles to finish the year, with one additional appearance in the postseason.

Unfortunately, a knee injury suffered during last year’s training camp cost Behrens the entire 2024-25 season. He appeared in a few games for the Avalanche’s rookie tournament, though his upcoming time with the Eagles will mark his true return to professional hockey.

Wild Acquire Oskar Olausson

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The Wild announced a trade sending defenseman Kyle Masters to the Sharks for winger Oskar Olausson. Both players were previously in the minors and will now report to their new clubs’ affiliates.

Olausson’s stay in the San Jose organization was a very brief one. The Swedish winger, who turns 23 next month, was a first-round pick by the Avalanche in 2021. After failing to land an NHL job with Colorado and taking a significant step back in the minors last year, the Avs traded Olausson to the Sharks in exchange for the signing rights to Daniil Gushchin. Olausson was waived and assigned to AHL San Jose out of camp, but had yet to play for the Barracuda this season, so he leaves the Bay Area without recording a single appearance in the organization.

It’s a swing on upside by the Wild and a prudent pickup for the cost. While Olausson only has four NHL games to his name, going without a point and averaging just 8:07 per game, there’s no long-term obligation in the pickup as they can non-tender him at the end of the season. At minimum, they’re adding some offensive depth to an Iowa club that hasn’t fared all too well in the past few years, which could, while unlikely, turn into an NHL piece down the line. Even though Olausson hasn’t developed as hoped so far, he’s still young enough to have a decent chance at a turnaround.

The 6’2″ Olausson looked like he was on the upswing as recently as the 2023-24 season. Injuries limited him to 39 appearances with AHL Colorado that year, but he managed an 11-9–20 scoring line after producing the same output in 63 games the year prior. That momentum didn’t continue into 2024-25, though. Olausson wasn’t even a top-10 scorer on the team last year and finished the campaign with an 11-15–26 scoring line in 61 appearances – not production you want to see from someone touted as a scoring winger.

While Minnesota could have had Olausson on the waiver wire for free a few weeks ago, that would have required keeping him on their NHL roster, something they’re not keen to do. They also don’t take on an additional contract by parting ways with Masters, a 2021 fourth-round pick who’s still at the ECHL level as he begins his third professional season. The 6’0″ righty has split the last two years between AHL and ECHL Iowa. He has a 1-5–6 scoring line with an even rating in 35 career AHL games and a 9-23–32 line in 59 ECHL games with a -7 rating.

For San Jose, giving Olausson up is a matter of creating more playing time in the AHL for the names they’ve drafted and continue to develop, like Ethan Cardwell, Cameron Lund, and Quentin Musty. Masters will now report to their ECHL affiliate in Wichita.

Submit Your Questions For The #PHRMailbag

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The 2025-26 NHL regular season is now underway.  As is often the case, we saw a flurry of extensions before the season started, plus one more early on in the year while there has been some interesting action early on.  With that in mind, it’s a good time to once again open up the mailbag.

Our last call for questions yielded enough questions for a pair of mailbags.  Topics in the first included one of the early CBA changes regarding paper transactions, getting out the crystal ball when it comes to non-playoff teams, and the Hughes brothers.  Meanwhile, included in the second column were thoughts on what’s next for the Flyers, what type of impact Jonathan Toews could have with Winnipeg this season, and why we don’t see a lot of prominent players signing short-term contracts compared to other leagues.

You can submit a question by using #PHRMailbag on Twitter/X or by leaving a comment down below. The mailbag will run this weekend.

Lightning Recall Steven Santini

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The Lightning announced that they have recalled right-shot defender Steven Santini from AHL Syracuse. With an open roster spot and space in their LTIR pool, they don’t need to make a corresponding move. He comes up following yesterday’s news that fellow rearguard Maxwell Crozier is out for at least the next two games, potentially longer, with an undisclosed injury.

Santini first joined Tampa Bay’s organization as a two-way signing ahead of the 2024-25 season, and he made one appearance for the club last year in December, logging a shot, hit, and two blocks in 11:37 of ice time. He signed a two-year, two-way extension in June to remain with the club through 2026-27. He cleared waivers during the preseason and has one assist in two games in Syracuse’s young season, serving as an alternate captain for the club for the second year in a row.

The 30-year-old Santini was a second-round pick by the Devils back in 2013. He has 124 total games of NHL experience, most of which came in a New Jersey uniform early in his pro career. He made 30-plus appearances in three straight years from 2016-19 but has made just 10 NHL appearances since the beginning of the 2019-20 season. He made stops in the Predators, Blues, and Kings organizations between his departure from Jersey and his arrival in Tampa. The 6’3″, 214-lb righty has a 5-18–23 scoring line in those 124 games with a -8 rating, averaging 17:10 per game with a subpar CF% of 42.1 at even strength.

A defensive specialist, he’ll slot in as a fine healthy extra with Crozier out for the time being. He isn’t expected to draw in tonight against the Red Wings; that will be Darren Raddysh after sitting as a healthy scratch for the Bolts’ last two games. Raddysh had a goal and two assists in Tampa’s first two games of the year alongside Victor Hedman, but was relegated to the press box once J.J. Moser was eligible to return from suspension.

Santini can remain on Tampa’s roster for up to 30 nonconsecutive days until he needs to clear waivers again to head back to Syracuse.

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