Golden Knights Place William Carrier On LTIR, Recall Brendan Brisson
After adding several players in trades leading up to the trade deadline, the Golden Knights needed some more cap space. To create that room in the short term, CapFriendly reports (Twitter link) that they’ve placed winger William Carrier and his $1.4MM AAV on LTIR. They’ve used some of that space immediately as they’ve recalled winger Brendan Brisson from AHL Henderson, per the AHL’s transactions log.
The 29-year-old has missed the last two months with an upper-body injury that he underwent surgery for back in January. At the time he was given a designation of week-to-week so it appears that recovery from the injury has gone slower than anticipated. He joins Mark Stone and Robin Lehner as players currently on LTIR; newly-acquired center Tomas Hertl is out long-term term but is not on LTIR at the moment.
Carrier is a pending unrestricted free agent and missing this much time due to injury certainly isn’t going to help things if he makes it to the open market in July. Before getting hurt, Carrier had five goals and two assists along with 71 hits in 33 games while averaging 11L16 per night, his lowest ATOI since the 2020-21 campaign.
As for Brisson, it’s his sixth recall of the season and he has played well in limited action with the big club. Through 12 appearances so far, the 22-year-old has two goals and four assists while averaging 12:39 a night. He also has 13 goals and 15 assists in 42 games with the Silver Knights. With Vegas only having 11 healthy forwards on the active roster before his promotion, they should be able to classify this as an emergency recall, one that wouldn’t count against their post-deadline limit of four.
Penguins Recall Jonathan Gruden
Yesterday, the Penguins opted to bring up one of the three players they had assigned to the minors in forward Valtteri Puustinen. Today, they’ve brought up a second one as the team announced (Twitter link) that forward Jonathan Gruden has been recalled from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
The 23-year-old has spent most of the season at the AHL level, tallying 13 goals and 10 assists in 41 games. Meanwhile, this will be his fourth recall of the year and Gruden got into nine games with Pittsburgh in the first three, scoring once while chipping in with 26 hits in 8:32 per game. He’s playing on a one-year, two-way deal worth the league minimum at the NHL level and will be a restricted free agent this summer.
Notably, the Penguins don’t have the cap space to execute this recall so there is a secondary transaction that hasn’t been announced. With Jansen Harkins expected to be out for a while, he has likely been transferred to LTIR which would open up another $850K in LTIR space, enough to cover Gruden’s $775K AAV.
Barring an unannounced injury to one of their current forwards, Gruden’s recall should burn one of their four post-deadline non-emergency recalls.
Canucks Recall Vasily Podkolzin
After being papered down to the minors yesterday, Vasily Podkolzin is back up with the Canucks as the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled him from AHL Abbotsford.
The 22-year-old was the tenth pick back in 2019 and spent the full 2021-22 season with Vancouver. However, last season, he split the season between the NHL and the AHL, and this year, they decided he’d be best served playing big minutes in his final season of waiver exemption.
This season, Podkolzin has played in 44 games with Abbotsford, collecting 15 goals and 13 assists. He also has seen action in three games with Vancouver this month but has been primarily limited to fourth-line duty. That’s likely to continue to be the case moving forward.
Podkolzin had been shuffled back and forth over the last week but that should change now. With Vancouver having a dozen healthy forwards before this roster move, that means this will count as one of their four allowable post-deadline regular recalls so his stint with the Canucks should be longer this time around. Notably, his promotion effectively caps Vancouver out as they won’t be able to afford another recall. That likely played a role in their decision yesterday not to sign Phil Kessel as an extra depth player after he had worked out with Abbotsford recently.
Sharks Recall Jacob MacDonald
After moving Nikita Okhotyuk to Calgary in a late move before Friday’s trade deadline, the Sharks were down to just six defenders on their active roster. They’ve determined who his replacement on the roster will be as the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled blueliner Jacob MacDonald from AHL San Jose.
The 30-year-old has spent most of the year with the Sharks but playing time was limited thanks to three separate injuries that kept him on injured reserve for 29 games. In between those, MacDonald got into 22 games, recording six goals and one assist along with 37 hits while averaging a little over 12 minutes a night.
Last month, the Sharks opted to place MacDonald, a pending unrestricted free agent, on waivers to give a longer look to some of their other options. He cleared and was sent to the Barracuda a little more than two weeks ago. He suited up six times for them, collecting four assists.
There’s a decent chance MacDonald might not wind up back there as Ty Emberson is on injured reserve while Matt Benning is likely done for the season so MacDonald could be in a depth role for the Sharks for the stretch run. Since this is a post-deadline recall, he would be eligible to return to the Barracuda later on while this will count as one of their four allowable regular recalls unless there’s another blueliner whose availability for their game tonight against Ottawa is in question.
Red Wings Recall Jonatan Berggren
On Friday, the Red Wings opened up a roster spot when they traded Klim Kostin to San Jose. Today, they filled that spot, announcing that they’ve recalled winger Jonatan Berggren from AHL Grand Rapids.
The 23-year-old spent most of last season with Detroit, getting into 67 games where he had 15 goals and 13 assists, not a bad rookie campaign by any stretch. However, GM Steve Yzerman was active over the course of the summer bringing in several new forwards that ultimately pushed Berggren into more of a depth role. The in-season signing of Patrick Kane bumped him down a bit more on the depth chart.
As a result, Berggren has spent most of this season in the minors with the Griffins, allowing him to play big minutes instead of being in and out of the lineup in a bottom-six role with the big club. The decision certainly made sense from a development perspective and it has worked out well as Berggren leads Grand Rapids in scoring with 19 goals and 27 points in 43 games. For perspective, no one else on the Griffins has reached the 30-point mark yet. He does have nine appearances with the Red Wings as well, collecting two goals and three helpers despite averaging barely over 10 minutes a night.
With Dylan Larkin out due to a lower-body injury, Detroit was down to just 11 healthy forwards following yesterday’s Kostin trade. Accordingly, the Red Wings should be able to classify Berggren’s promotion as an emergency one, meaning it wouldn’t count against their cap of four post-deadline regular recalls.
AHL Shuffle: 3/8/24
It’s the NHL Trade Deadline and all attention is trained on which key assets will be moved around. But NHL teams will also have to keep their minor league rosters in mind, as players will need to be on an AHL roster by 2 p.m. CT to play in the Calder Cup Playoffs. That’s led to a long list of minor league loans and paper transactions, with teams keeping the shelves of their AHL rosters stocked. Most of these players have already been or will be recalled by their teams later. This listing of transactions is sourced from CapFriendly. As always, we’ll keep track of those transactions here:
- The Kraken recalled defenseman Cale Fleury from AHL Coachella Valley. He comes up in the wake of an upper-body injury to top-pairing blue-liner Vince Dunn and will remain on the roster as an extra defenseman until Dunn is ready to return. Ryker Evans was returned to Coachella Valley to make him eligible to play in the Calder Cup Playoffs.
- The Canucks reassigned and later recalled Vasily Podkolzin from AHL Abbotsford to make him eligible to play for the lower-level Canucks in the AHL postseason.
- The Flames assigned defenseman Jordan Oesterle to AHL Calgary after he cleared waivers Friday.
- The Bruins assigned Marc McLaughlin to AHL Providence to clear cap space necessary to acquire Pat Maroon and Andrew Peeke via trades today. Defenseman Mason Lohrei was also assigned to Providence, along with winger Justin Brazeau.
- The Lightning assigned Maxwell Crozier and Emil Martinsen Lilleberg to AHL Syracuse. They could be in for a more permanent stay after Tampa picked up Mathew Dumba from the Coyotes via trade today.
- The Kings assigned forwards Alex Turcotte and Samuel Fagemo, as well as defensemen Brandt Clarke and Jacob Moverare, to AHL Ontario to make them eligible to play for the Reign in the Calder Cup Playoffs. Turcotte and Moverare were later recalled.
- The Golden Knights assigned forwards Byron Froese and Mason Morelli to AHL Henderson to clear cap space for today’s acquisition of Tomáš Hertl from the Sharks.
- The Blackhawks assigned defensemen Louis Crevier and Isaak Phillips, as well as forward Zach Sanford, to AHL Rockford to make them eligible to play in the Calder Cup Playoffs.
- The Rangers reassigned and later recalled forwards Adam Edstrom and Matt Rempe from AHL Hartford to make him eligible to play in the Calder Cup Playoffs.
- The Flyers assigned defenseman Adam Ginning to AHL Lehigh Valley after picking up veteran blue-liner Erik Johnson from the Sabres.
- The Devils assigned goaltenders Nico Daws and Akira Schmid to AHL Utica after acquiring Jake Allen and Kaapo Kähkönen in separate trades.
- The Flames assigned wingers Matthew Coronato and Jakob Pelletier to AHL Calgary to make them eligible to play in the Calder Cup Playoffs.
- The Avalanche reassigned and later recalled goaltender Justus Annunen from AHL Colorado to make him eligible to play in the Calder Cup Playoffs.
- The Maple Leafs reassigned and later recalled winger Matthew Knies from AHL Toronto to make him eligible to play in the Calder Cup Playoffs.
- The Blue Jackets recalled forward Trey Fix-Wolansky from AHL Cleveland after trading Jack Roslovic to the Rangers.
- The Canadiens assigned forward Joshua Roy and defenseman Jayden Struble to AHL Laval to make them eligible to play in the Calder Cup Playoffs.
- The Sabres recalled forward Tyson Jost and defenseman Kale Clague from AHL Rochester after trading away Johnson and Kyle Okposo. Winger Lukas Rousek and defenseman Ryan Johnson were assigned to Rochester to make them eligible to play in the Calder Cup Playoffs.
- The Capitals reassigned and later recalled goaltender Hunter Shepard and forwards Hendrix Lapierre and Ivan Miroshnichenko from AHL Hershey to make them eligible to play in the Calder Cup Playoffs.
- The Ducks sent forward Glenn Gawdin to AHL San Diego to make him eligible to play in the Calder Cup Playoffs.
- The Coyotes assigned winger Dylan Guenther and defenseman Michael Kesselring to AHL Tucson to make them eligible to play in the Calder Cup Playoffs.
- The Sharks assigned goaltender Magnus Chrona and center Thomas Bordeleau to AHL San Jose to make them eligible to play in the Calder Cup Playoffs.
This page will be updated throughout the day.
Blue Jackets Acquire Malcolm Subban
The Blue Jackets acquired minor-league goaltender Malcolm Subban from the Blues in exchange for future consideration, the team announced. Subban, who was playing for the Blues’ AHL affiliate in Springfield, will now report directly to the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters.
Subban, 30, was a first-round pick of the Bruins back in 2012 but has now settled in as a minor-league starter. After spending the last two seasons in the Sabres organization, Subban inked a one-year, two-way deal ($775K NHL/$450K AHL) with the Blues in free agency last summer to provide short-lived competition to youngster Joel Hofer in the backup role to Jordan Binnington. He hasn’t made an NHL appearance since January 2022.
He’s been half-decent with Springfield this year, recording a .907 SV% and an 11-14-4 record in 31 games. However, he’s been outplayed by the younger Vadim Zherenko, who has an 11-7-2 record and .913 SV% in 21 games. As such, the Thunderbirds are no longer relying on him to be a bona fide AHL starter, and he’ll finish out the season as a veteran presence in Cleveland to aid in their stretch run while providing a veteran call-up option for Columbus if injuries strike Elvis Merzļikins or Daniil Tarasov in the last few weeks of the season.
Subban will be a UFA this summer. This trade will likely be completed in a separate minor-league trade, with Cleveland sending an AHL-contracted player to Springfield as compensation.
West Notes: Lindholm, Maroon, Dewar, Eberle, Koch
There had been some speculation that the Canucks could flip Elias Lindholm to secure assets that would be part of a Jake Guentzel trade. However, with Guentzel now in Carolina, it appears Vancouver won’t be looking to flip Lindholm after all, reports TSN’s Chris Johnston in his latest piece for The Athletic (subscription link). The 29-year-old hasn’t lit it up yet with his new team as he has just four goals and three assists in 16 games since coming over from Calgary, not the type of stretch run he was hoping for as he heads to UFA eligibility this summer for the first time.
More from the West:
- The Wild have received interest in winger Pat Maroon and center Connor Dewar, reports The Athletic’s Michael Russo (subscription link). Maroon has missed the last month with a back injury that will keep him out for a couple more weeks but as a cheap gritty, experienced bottom-six forward, it’s not a surprise that there is still interest. The pending unrestricted free agent has 16 points in 49 games so far this season. Dewar, meanwhile, is heading for restricted free agency this summer with arbitration eligibility. The 24-year-old has 10 goals in 57 games while averaging a little over 11 minutes a night and is a key part of Minnesota’s penalty kill. With the rental center market being thin, the Wild could command a decent return if they decide to move Dewar as a result.
- The Kraken and winger Jordan Eberle were discussing a two-year deal with a cap hit of $4.5MM, relays Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli. However, Eberle is believed to be seeking a third year which is the hold-up in discussions. The 33-year-old has seen his numbers dip this season but still has 14 goals and 23 assists through 58 games. The expectation is that Eberle will either be signed or traded by the 2 PM CT deadline. If it’s the latter, Seattle will almost certainly need to retain on his current $5.5MM price tag.
- The Coyotes announced (Twitter link) that they’ve assigned defenseman Patrik Koch to AHL Tucson. The 27-year-old was recalled yesterday but didn’t play. Koch is in his first season in North America and has a goal and ten assists in 47 games with the Roadrunners so far this season.
Snapshots: Swayman, Bogosian, Irwin, Granlund
After having to go through an arbitration hearing to get a contract done with goaltender Jeremy Swayman last summer, it appears the Bruins are trying to avoid that this time around. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports in his latest 32 Thoughts column that they’ve started discussions on an extension with the netminder. Swayman is playing on a $3.475MM award that basically split the submissions from last summer’s hearing and has a nearly identical save percentage this year (.919) as he did a year ago (.920) heading into tonight’s action. With arbitration eligibility once again this summer, it’s quite possible that Swayman’s price tag pushes past the $5MM mark on a short-term deal and even higher if they could reach a long-term agreement.
Elsewhere around the NHL:
- In his latest podcast (video link), Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic reports that the Wild are trying to sign defenseman Zach Bogosian to a contract extension. Minnesota acquired the 33-year-old from Tampa Bay early in the season and he has held his own on their third pairing, logging over 17 minutes a night while recording nine points and 80 hits in 43 games. If they can’t get a deal done, however, Johnston reports that the Maple Leafs are among the teams that have checked in on Bogosian’s availability. They’ve already added on the back end with the reacquisition of Ilya Lyubushkin but if they can’t add an impact blueliner, shoring up their depth – perhaps with another second-timer with the team – isn’t necessarily a bad fall-back plan.
- One day after recalling him, the Canucks announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Matt Irwin was sent back to AHL Abbotsford. Aside from two short stints with Vancouver where he didn’t play, the 36-year-old has played exclusively in the minors where he has 10 points in 46 games so far. Carson Soucy is believed to be nearing a return from his hand injury so this assignment could suggest that the blueliner is ready to suit up.
- The Sharks are trying to be creative to make a Mikael Granlund trade work, reports TSN’s Pierre LeBrun in his latest piece for The Athletic (subscription link). The 32-year-old has had a bounce-back year playing a much bigger role in San Jose as he has 36 points in 47 while averaging nearly 21 minutes a night. However, Granlund has another year left on his deal at $5MM, a price tag that would be difficult for several buyers to afford. San Jose only has one salary retention slot left so they might prefer to take a pricey contract back over using that final slot on Granlund through next season.
Ducks Recall Alex Stalock
The Ducks made a roster move just minutes before their game tonight against Vancouver was set to start, announcing that they’ve recalled goaltender Alex Stalock from AHL San Diego. His promotion was needed with John Gibson being scratched due to illness.
The 36-year-old is in his first season with Anaheim after signing a one-year, $800K one-way contract with them back in August. While it’s his fourth recall of the year, Stalock has yet to play for the Ducks.
Instead, he has spent the majority of the year with the Gulls but has been limited to just 11 appearances at that level where he has a 3.84 GAA along with a .892 SV%. But with 179 career NHL games under his belt where he has a 2.70 GAA and a .908 SV%, it’s possible that a team or two might be interested in adding Stalock to stash in the minors as injury depth for the stretch run and it’s doubtful the asking price would be too high for his services.