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Hurricanes Reassign Justin Robidas Amid Injury Updates

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The Carolina Hurricanes saw a wave of roster updates come through during Saturday morning’s practice. Notably, winger Justin Robidas was not at practice, as he’s been reassigned to the AHL’s Chicago Wolves. Robidas won’t skate in Saturday’s match against the Manitoba Moose but should be back in time for Sunday’s rematch.

Forward William Carrier also missed practice. It is unclear if he has sustained a new injury after appearing in Friday’s win over the Winnipeg Jets. Goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov did sustain a lower-body injury that forced him out of Friday’s game, and Saturday’s practice. Defenseman Jaccob Slavin also remained out, per NHL.com’s Walt Ruff.

In better news, Ruff adds that forward Jordan Staal participated in practice despite being questionable with an illness, and center Jesperi Kotkaniemi continued to work in a non-contact jersey.

Carolina continues to face a heap of injuries despite getting Shayne Gostisbehere and K’Andre Miller back into the lineup recently. They have been forced to play hot potato with much of their lineup, routinely cycling through their lines. The Hurricanes have had six different forward lines, and 10 different defense pairings, play in at least 50 minutes of even-strength ice time this season. Their most-used forward line has been Jordan Martinook, Staal, and Carrier – a trio that could be broken up if Carrier sustained another injury. The most-used defense pairing has been Miller and Sean Walker, who reunited recently after Miller missed six games.

The Hurricanes have felt the brunt of that shuffle over November. They started the month with a 4-1-0 record, but have fallen into a back-and-forth over the last two weeks. Carolina is 4-3-2 in their last nine games, and haven’t won back-to-back games since Novmber 8th and 9th.

Injuries have forced Carolina’s healthy skaters to step up. Sophomore winger Jackson Blake ranks fourth on the team in scoring with 15 points in 24 games. Robidas was also contributing to the offense, netting one assist and a 50 percent faceoff percentage through two games in a bottom-six role.

Robidas now have three points in the first four games of his NHL career, including a pair of games he played in last season. He has been an electric scorer in the minor leagues and currently ranks third on the Wolves with 12 points in 16 games. Chicago is trying to break out of their own November slump, posting a 2-4-0 record over their last six games but winning last Wednesday’s game against the rival Rockford IceHogs by a lofty 8-4. Robidas should help the Wolves keep that offense rolling as they look for better outcomes in December.

Senators Recall Dennis Gilbert, Place Thomas Chabot On IR

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The Senators have made a pair of roster moves heading into their next game in Dallas on Sunday as the team announced that they’ve recalled Dennis Gilbert from AHL Belleville.  While not noted as part of the announcement, Ottawa has shifted defenseman Thomas Chabot to IR to make room for Gilbert on the active roster.

Gilbert will officially begin his second stint with the Senators with this promotion.  Acquired at the trade deadline last season from Buffalo, the 29-year-old played a sparing role down the stretch, suiting up just four times, where he had an assist and 11 hits in 13:02 per game of playing time.  Over the season between the two teams, Gilbert had six assists in 29 outings but logged just 10:29 per contest.

The Flyers signed Gilbert to a one-year, $875K deal over the summer but he wound up on waivers in training camp, passing through unclaimed resulting in a demotion to AHL Lehigh Valley.  He got into six games with the Phantoms where he had one assist before suffering an injury that kept him out for the better part of a month.

During that time, the Sens swung a move to bring him back into the fold, dealing the rights to unsigned RFA defenseman Max Guenette to get him.  Gilbert got into three games with Belleville following the swap and was more productive, collecting three helpers.

Chabot’s stint on Ottawa’s active roster didn’t last very long.  Activated off injured reserve last weekend, he played just once and has been listed as out with an upper-body injury since then.  If they backdate the placement to his last game played (November 22nd), he’ll technically be eligible to be activated at any time.  The 28-year-old has two goals and eight assists in 18 games so far this season.

Canucks Recall Jonathan Lekkerimaki, Assign Jiri Patera To AHL

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The Canucks have made a pair of roster moves heading into their game tonight against Los Angeles.  The team announced (Twitter link) that winger Jonathan Lekkerimaki has been recalled from AHL Abbotsford.  To make room for him on the roster, goaltender Jiri Patera has been sent down.

Lekkerimaki started the season with Vancouver but suffered an upper-body injury in the fourth game of the season.  That landed him on injured reserve for more than three weeks and upon being activated, he was sent to Abbotsford for what felt like a conditioning stint.  The 21-year-old played in five games in the AHL and was productive, notching three goals and two assists.

Lekkerimaki has a goal in his four outings at the top level this season in just under 10 minutes a night of playing time.  For his career, the 2022 first-round pick has four goals and three assists in 28 NHL outings.  It wouldn’t be surprising to see him jump right back into a bottom-six role with Lukas Reichel being a candidate to lose his spot once again.

As for Patera, he was brought up on Tuesday when Kevin Lankinen stepped away from the team for a personal matter.  He didn’t see any game action on this recall but did get into one game earlier this month where he allowed seven goals on 40 shots.  The 26-year-old has a 3.10 GAA and a .894 SV% in five games with Abbotsford.  While not announced by the team, this move suggests that Lankinen is back with the team with he and Nikita Tolopilo comprising the tandem that should dress against the Kings.

Red Wings Activate Michael Rasmussen, Reassign Erik Gustafsson to AHL

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Earlier today before their matinee game versus Tampa Bay, the Detroit Red Wings updated that forward Michael Rasmussen was activated from injured reserve, while defenseman Erik Gustafsson was sent back down to Grand Rapids (AHL). 

Rasmussen was placed on IR just two days ago, having missed three games before his return today. The former high draft pick has managed to establish himself as a solid bottom six forward capable of reaching the 30-point mark, earning himself a four-year extension worth $3.2MM per year. Since inking the deal in 2024, the British Columbia native has not performed at such a level, with only seven points in 20 games this year, but still just 26, he figures to be a useful depth forward capable of filling roles across the lineup for the near future. Sure enough, Rasmussen found the back of the net today, although the Wings fell to Tampa Bay, 6-3. 

On the other hand, Gustafsson’s fall from grace has been well documented to this point, once a 60-point getter, and in more recent years still a valuable powerplay specialist. Now at 33, in the final year of his two-year contract worth $2MM at the NHL level, Gustafsson’s NHL days are likely numbered as he has been surpassed by the Wings’ many talented young blueliners. The veteran appears to be a quick call-up for Detroit when needed, but otherwise is set to spend most of the season with the Griffins. Having a player as capable as Gustafsson in the AHL is certainly beneficial, as the Grand Rapids boasts a remarkable 14-1-1 record to-date, and the Swedish defenseman will likely continue elite AHL production, as he has eight points in 10 games. 

With December approaching, the Red Wings remain in the Wild Card mix, but as losers of three in a row, and another decisive loss today, Rasmussen will need to help drive Todd McLellan’s bottom six with possible reinforcements on the way as Steve Yzerman tries to end the team’s nine year playoff drought. 

Snapshots: Nichushkin, Blumel, Salaries, Walcott

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The Avalanche could soon be getting a key player back in their lineup.  Jesse Montano of Guerilla Sports relays (Twitter link) that winger Valeri Nichushkin was a full participant in practice today and while he won’t accompany the team on the road to play in Minnesota on Friday, he could return to the lineup Saturday versus Montreal.  The 30-year-old has missed the last two weeks due to a lower-body injury.  Nichushkin hadn’t been producing at quite the same rate as previous years in his first 17 outings this season but he still has five goals and seven assists to his name and should jump right back into a top-six role once he gets the green light.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • Bruins winger Matej Blumel will be out for a bit with a lower-body injury sustained in Wednesday’s game, head coach Marco Sturm told reporters (video link). The 25-year-old signed a one-year, $875K one-way deal with Boston this past summer as a Group Six unrestricted free agent but didn’t crack the roster out of training camp, instead starting with AHL Providence.  He averaged a point per game through his first 13 games with them, earning a recall early last week.  Blumel has been held off the scoresheet in four games since then and now it’ll be a little while before he has a chance to get on the board.
  • As part of the 50-50 revenue sharing between players and owners, there is a mechanism that allow players to receive more than their stated contracts if revenues exceed projections and the sum of money received by players is lower than 50%. It has never happened before but in his latest mailbag for The Athletic (subscription link), Chris Johnston reported that early revenue projections for the league suggest that this could happen.  While it likely wouldn’t be a big financial windfall for players, a bit more money would be a nice surprise following many years of losing money to escrow, something that has been phased out as part of the new CBA extension that kicks in next fall.  If it happens, it would be a one-time occurrence for this season and wouldn’t automatically roll over moving forward.
  • Veteran forward Daniel Walcott has caught on with a team as AHL Hartford announced that they’ve signed him to a PTO deal. The 31-year-old spent the last decade in Tampa Bay’s system with Syracuse but only made one NHL appearance back in 2020-21.  However, despite 494 appearances with the Crunch, Walcott will technically be returning to where his professional career began as he got into one game on a tryout deal with Hartford back in 2015 before his rights were moved to the Lightning a few weeks later.

Mammoth Recall Kevin Rooney, Place Olli Maatta On IR

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Kevin Rooney’s latest stint in the minors was short-lived.  After being sent back down over the weekend, the Mammoth announced today (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled the forward from AHL Tucson.  In a corresponding move, defenseman Olli Maatta was placed on injured reserve.

Rooney signed a one-year, two-way deal with Utah at the end of the preseason and quickly cleared waivers, allowing him to start the season with the Roadrunners.  In eight games with them, he has fared rather well offensively, collecting five goals and an assist.  That performance has now earned him a third recall in less than five weeks although he’s still looking to make his official Mammoth debut.

The 32-year-old played in a career-high 70 games last season with Calgary where he had five goals and five assists.  Over his career, he has 32 goals and 28 helpers in 330 NHL appearances.  Rooney may have to wait a little while yet to add to that count as he projects to be their 14th forward for the time being.

As for Maatta, he missed last night’s game against Montreal due to an undisclosed injury which has now been revealed as an upper-body issue, one that will now keep him out for the next week.  The 31-year-old is in his first full season with Utah and while he fared well last season after being acquired from Detroit in an early swap, things haven’t gone as well this season.  Through 16 outings, Maatta has just one assist while his ice time is down below 12 minutes a night, well below his career ATOI of 18:18.

With the moves, Utah’s roster remains at the maximum of 23.

Lightning Re-Assign Maxim Groshev to AHL

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The Tampa Bay Lightning announced this afternoon that defenseman Maxim Groshev is being sent back to the AHL Syracuse Crunch. The 23-year-old was called up three days ago due to Erik Černák’s week-to-week injury, but he was unable to draw into the lineup, and is set to continue his development in the AHL. 

Along with Černák’s injury, the Bolts also are missing Ryan McDonagh and Victor Hedman, their defense corps ravaged for the time being. Darren Raddysh and J.J. Moser have had to step up and play big minutes. After a slower start to the season, the injuries to their blue line could have sunk the team, but impressively, the opposite has happened. Tampa Bay has won five in a row, and eight of their last 10, a sign of the franchise’s endless resilience and sustained success. 

Groshev, interestingly, has made the rare professional transition from a forward to a defenseman, which occurred late last season in the AHL. Drafted in the third round back in 2020, the Russian spent time in the KHL before coming over in 2023-24, playing for Syracuse ever since. At 6’2” Groshev never showcased enough offense as a forward to suggest a next step into the NHL, but has looked comfortable on the back end so far this season, with six points in 17 games with the Crunch. 

Although Jon Cooper has opted for Steven Santini and Declan Carlile for now, Groshev will be especially motivated to earn his way back to an NHL debut this season, as his contract expires this summer. 

Penguins Activate Tristan Jarry, Ville Koivunen; Reassign Sergei Murashov

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have activated starting goaltender Tristan Jarry and winger Ville Koivunen off of injured reserve. Both are expected to step back into the lineup for Wednesday’s game against the Buffalo Sabres. To make room for Jarry, Pittsburgh has reassigned rookie goalie Sergey Murashov to the AHL. The Penguins also plan to healthy scratch rookie Benjamin Kindel, for development purposes, and to make room for Koivunen’s return and Tristan Broz’s NHL debut.

Murashov played in the first four games, and made the first three starts, of his NHL career on his latest recall. He was sharp throughout, posting a 1-1-1 record, one shutout, a .913 save percentage, and a 1.90 goals-against-average. Murashov will return to the AHL as the league’s reigning ’Goalie of the Month’, after he began the season with a 5-1-0 record, .935 Sv%, and 1.68 GAA in seven games. He should step right back into Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s starting role, bringing a big boost to a club that’s 5-1-0 in their last six games.

Pittsburgh won’t lose much steam swapping back to Jarry. The 10-year-veteran was in the midst of a big resurgence to start the season, after posting the first sub-.900 Sv% of his career last season. He started this yaer with a 5-2-0 record, .911 Sv%, and 2.60 GAA – firmly locking in his spot as Pittsburgh’s starter less than one year after being placed on waivers. He will look to stay hot in his return to the lineup, after missing seven games due to injury. Jarry should resume starting duties, with Arturs Silovs serving as backup.

The Penguins make a similar swap in their forward group. Kindel has been among the most exciting rookies to start the year, but appears to finally be slowing down. He has recorded one point, 11 shots on goal, and five blocks in his last six games – a quiet spell after he scored six points in seven games as October turned over to November. The Penguins have already committed to holding Kindel past his nine-game trial, helping to remove the pressure to rush the 18-year-old into a starring role. He will get a chance to take a brief break, and recollect, but should get a chance to return to the lineup soon.

Koivunen could prove a barrier to that, if he can return from injury with a hot hand. He only scored two points in 11 games before going down, a disappointing result compared to the 11 points he has scored in six AHL games. He was a star scorer for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton last season as well, netting 56 points in 63 games, and recording seven assists in the first eight NHL games of his career. Koivunen seems to have an NHL breakout incoming, and will get a chance to continue fighting for it following these roster moves.

Rangers Recall Connor Mackey, Reassign Juuso Pärssinen

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The New York Rangers have reassigned forward Juuso Pärssinen after he cleared waivers from Tuesday. With the available roster spot, the Rangers have recalled defenseman Connor Mackey, with two games left on their current road-trip. Mackey has recorded 11 shots on goal, his first point, and his first fight of the season in his last four games with the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack.

New York has rotated extra defenders for much of the season. Mackey has already spent 10 days on the NHL roster, across two call-ups. He’s alternated with Scott Morrow, who played in his first four games of the NHL season last week. Mackey could get his first NHL game of the season in a road game against Carolina or Boston, should New York want an alternative to Matthew Robertson, who has one goal and a minus-seven through 15 games this season.

Mackey has played in three games with the Rangers over the last two seasons. He has no scoring and two fights with New York, but did rack up eight points and 50 penalty minutes in 33 NHL games split between the Calgary Flames and Arizona Coyotes between 2021 and 2023. He joined the Hartford Wolf Pack after the 2022-23 season ended, and has since racked up 38 points and 193 penalty minutes in 125 AHL games.

Meanwhile, Pärssinen will head to the minors after a quiet stretch with the Rangers. He hasn’t made it onto the scoresheet – with a point or a penalty – in nine games. He only has three points and two penalty minutes in 14 games this season. New York acquired Pärssinen alongside Calvin de Haan and two draft picks in a deal that sent Ryan Lindgren to the Colorado Avalanche at last year’s Trade Deadline. This move will set Pärssinen up to play his first AHL games since the 2023-24 season, when he racked up 34 points in 50 games with the Colorado Eagles between the regular-and-post-season.

Capitals Recall Bogdan Trineyev, Place Nic Dowd On IR

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The Washington Capitals have awarded one of their top AHL scorers with the first NHL call-up of his career. Winger Bogdan Trineyev has been recalled after recording six points and 15 shots on goal in the Hershey Bears’ last six games. Trineyev is up to 12 points in 15 games this season, second-most on the team.

Washington has placed Nic Dowd on injured reserve, retroactive to his last game on November 17th, to create the roster space for Trineyev’s recall. Dowd has missed the last four games with an upper-body injury. He appears to be headed for a fifth absence, after being dubbed a game-time decision for Wednesday’s match against the Winnipeg Jets, the same designation he carried for Monday’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets, per Sammi Silber of The Hockey News in her newsletter, DCBackcheck.

Trineyev is expected to be listed as Washington’s extra forward on Wednesday. The Capitals will stick with Sonny Milano and Ethen Frank on their fourth-line wings. That duo has been red-hot as of late, with three points and five points over the last three games respectively.

A chance to be close with the NHL lineup will still be a nice reward for Trineyev, who seems to be amid his first true breakout in North America. He has held up near point-per-game scoring through the early season after posting seven points in eight games of last year’s Calder Cup Playoffs. Trineyev had previously only scored 42 points in 149 AHL games, riding a slow climb through Hershey’s lineup that was marked by incremental improvements. Trineyev played in 53 games in Russia’s KHL before moving over to the AHL full-time in 2023. He scored 13 points in his final 39 KHL games, his only scoring in the league.

Trineyev is a strong, skilled power-forward, standing at 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds. He has a hard shot and soft hands – and has grown his ability to get involved in play significantly over his first two full AHL seasons. Washington will now recognize that growth by providing the 23-year-old a chance to learn from NHL veterans.

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