Capitals Notes: Malenstyn, Gibson, Persson
The Capitals announced that they’ve recalled winger Beck Malenstyn from AHL Hershey. The 25-year-old comes up a day after winger Anthony Mantha was a late scratch against Montreal due to a lower-body injury, giving them 12 healthy forwards on the roster once again. Malenstyn has played in five games with Washington so far this season, picking up a goal and an assist despite averaging just 8:34 per night of playing time. He hasn’t been much more productive in the minors either, collecting just seven goals and three assists in 39 contests. Malenstyn has one more year left on his deal after this season with it converting from a two-way pact to a one-way agreement for 2023-24.
More from Washington:
- Mitchell Gibson’s previously reported deal with the Caps is now official, per a team release. He receives a one-year, entry-level contract for next season which carries a cap hit of $867,500. The 23-year-old posted a 2.25 GAA and a .919 SV% with Harvard in 27 games this season, earning him a spot on the All-ECAC Hockey Second Team. Gibson is expected to sign a tryout agreement with AHL Hershey to finish the season with the Bears.
- The Capitals also announced that they’ve re-assigned forward Ludwig Persson to Hershey. The 19-year-old was a third-round pick last summer and is already signed to his entry-level deal. Persson spent this season playing at home in the second-tier Allsvenskan, recording four goals and 11 assists in 45 games with BIK Karlskoga. He also made one appearance at the SHL level, extending his streak to four straight seasons with at least one game played in Sweden’s top division.
Senators Assign Two To AHL
With Ottawa (and the rest of the league) off today, they have elected to send a pair of players down to the minors, announcing (Twitter link) that they’ve assigned center Ridly Greig and goaltender Leevi Merilainen to AHL Ottawa.
Greig has played in 20 games with the Sens this season including nine on this most recent recall. He fared a bit better offensively in that second stint, picking up a goal and four assists in that stretch, giving him two goals and seven helpers on the season. At the minor league level, the 20-year-old has been much more productive, tallying 13 goals and 14 assists in 35 games in his first full professional campaign.
Merilainen, meanwhile, has gotten into two games with the Senators this month. He made 34 stops in an overtime loss to Carolina on Tuesday but his second start didn’t go as well as the 20-year-old was yanked early in the second period versus Florida. Overall, he has a 4.23 GAA and a .878 SV% with the Sens after posting a 2.02 GAA and a .918 in 42 games with Karpat of the Finnish league.
Belleville is back in action on Saturday for a rematch against Cleveland as they battle for a play-in spot in the North Division so it’s unlikely that Greig and Merilainen will be recalled for Ottawa’s contest tomorrow versus Tampa Bay.
Columbus Blue Jackets Assign Four To AHL
The Columbus Blue Jackets announced Friday that they have reassigned four players to their AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters. The team has sent defensemen Marcus Bjork and Billy Sweezey and forwards Joshua Dunne and Joona Luoto to the Monsters, as announced in a team release.
As noted by The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline, the transaction gives the Monsters some serious reinforcements ahead of the team’s biggest game of the season tonight against the Laval Rocket, their adversary for the final playoff spot in the AHL’s North Division.
Bjork, 25, most recently joined the Blue Jackets on emergency recall from Cleveland on April 1 but has split his time between leagues almost evenly during his first season of pro hockey in North America. He has played 32 games with the Blue Jackets, recording three goals and eight assists for 11 points and 42 penalty minutes. The Umea, Sweden-born Bjork has also played 40 games with the Monsters this season, posting six goals, seven assists, and 13 points with 18 penalty minutes.
Dunne has recorded eight penalty minutes and ten shots on goal in 13 career games with the Blue Jackets since making his NHL debut in 2020-21, but the undrafted free agent signing out of Clarkson University is still looking for his first NHL point. The 24-year-old is enjoying his first full, healthy season with the Monsters, sitting second on the team with 20 goals and 36 points in 59 games.
Luoto, 25, has collected a single goal in 20 career NHL games with the Blue Jackets and Winnipeg Jets since making his NHL debut in 2019-20. He has skated in four games with Columbus in 2022-23, recording his first career goal on April 6 after spending last season with Tappara in Finland’s top men’s league. The Tampere-born Finn has also played in 72 games with the Monsters and Manitoba Moose over two AHL stints from 2019-23, adding 16 goals, 17 assists, 33 points, and 32 penalty minutes.
Sweezey made his NHL debut on February 26 and has played seven games with Columbus this season, registering one assist and nine penalty minutes. It’s been an unexpected rise from the minors for the 27-year-old, who got his first taste of NHL hockey due to injuries decimating the Columbus blue line. In 59 games between the Blue Jackets and Monsters this year, he’s yet to record a goal.
With a lack of healthy players available on the Columbus roster to replace the players mentioned above in the lineup, expect Columbus to recall some or all of Bjork, Sweezey, Dunne, and Luoto to the roster tomorrow ahead of their game against the New York Rangers.
Edmonton Oilers Recall Jason Demers, Place Ryan McLeod On LTIR
The Edmonton Oilers have made two roster moves, recalling veteran defenseman Jason Demers from their AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors, and placing forward Ryan McLeod on long-term injured reserve.
The recall puts Demers in a position to play his 700th career NHL game, and his first since the 2020-21 season. The 34-year-old defenseman last played in the NHL for the Arizona Coyotes, a team he landed on in a 2017 swap of pricey contracts, with Arizona sending Jamie McGinn to the Florida Panthers in return. Demers played four years with the Coyotes before signing in the KHL with Ak-Bars Kazan in the summer of 2022.
Demers played just nine games in the KHL, and his 2021-22 season was most notable for his work representing Canada at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. He scored two points as one of Canada’s most experienced defensemen, and his performance on that major stage helped him earn a PTO with the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors in October.
That PTO became a full contract with the Oilers in December, and now the forward momentum Demers has been building in his career has materialized into an NHL call-up. Demers has been playing in a top-four role with the Condors, but will likely play a limited role with the Oilers should head coach Jay Woodcroft dress him for a game.
As for McLeod, his placement on LTIR was needed to facilitate this move since the Oilers do not have the cap space to make a recall otherwise. The 23-year-old 2018 second-round pick has scored 22 points in 55 games this season as a regular bottom-sixer for Edmonton, although he hasn’t played since a March 14th contest against the Ottawa Senators. As we covered last month, reports indicate that McLeod is dealing with a shoulder injury.
Ryan O’Reilly Activated From Long-Term Injured Reserve
The Toronto Maple Leafs have activated forward Ryan O’Reilly off of long-term injured reserve, as first tweeted by CapFriendly and then confirmed by Toronto’s official lineup announcement. In order to create the necessary cap space for the move, they have assigned forwards Nick Abruzzese and Wayne Simmonds to their AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies.
O’Reilly, 32, hasn’t played in a little over a month due to a finger injury. He last played in the Maple Leafs’ 4-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on March 4th, a contest that marked his fifth-straight without a point. It’s been an up-and-down season for the former Blues captain, as he has scored just 24 points in 48 games.
O’Reilly’s inconsistent offensive production shouldn’t be referenced to understate the potential impact he can have on the Maple Leafs, though, as the 2019 Conn Smythe Trophy winner has the potential to be a game-changer for Toronto.
Now on a roster starved for playoff success, O’Reilly brings the type of Stanley Cup experience the squad has in the past been perceived as lacking.
Moreover, O’Reilly’s hat-trick performance on February 21st against the Buffalo Sabres shows that there’s still some gas left in O’Reilly’s offensive tank, and the versatility he brings to the Maple Leafs’ lineup gives head coach Sheldon Keefe a wide variety of options for how to deploy his forwards.
O’Reilly could be used as a third-line center, giving the Maple Leafs possibly the best set of four centers in the entire NHL. He could also be played on a top-six line, allowing someone like John Tavares to shift to the wing and focus more wholly on creating offense, leaving the defensive responsibilities assigned to the center to O’Reilly.
O’Reilly is playing tonight on the Maple Leafs’ third line between Alexander Kerfoot and Noel Acciari. That trio, combined with a fourth line of Zach Aston-Reese, David Kampf, and Sam Lafferty gives Toronto a bottom-six forward group that is arguably far better equipped to handle the rigors of playoff hockey than the bottom-six groups they have brought into past first-rounds.
It’s definitely true that for the Maple Leafs to finally earn the playoff success they’ve craved over the past half-decade, their stars will need to lead the way. If they want to be the first Eastern Conference team to eliminate the Tampa Bay Lightning in this decade, they’ll need to do it on the back of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, Tavares, and William Nylander.
Getting a player like O’Reilly back to full health and integrated into their lineup with a few games to spare before that all-important playoff series is a significant, positive development for Toronto. How quickly he can get back to full speed will be one of the chief storylines to monitor during tonight’s game against the Boston Bruins.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Nashville Predators Recall Zach Sanford
With just five games left in their season, the Nashville Predators are still in the race. They remain just three points behind the Winnipeg Jets and Calgary Flames, with one and two games in hand, respectively.
They’ll try to make up some ground tonight with the Carolina Hurricanes in town and have recalled Zach Sanford to give them some reinforcements.
It would be quite the feat should the Predators pull it off, given how their trade deadline went. Tanner Jeannot, Nino Niederreiter, Mattias Ekholm, and Mikael Granlund were all moved, leaving Nashville with several young players in the lineup nightly.
They’ve also been without captain Roman Josi since the middle of March, and his return is still questionable. Despite that, the Jets and Flames have each failed to really grab hold of that final playoff spot, opening the door for some Juuse Saros-led magic in the final few weeks.
Sanford, 28, has played just 11 games in the NHL this season, the fewest total of his career. The big forward has scored two points with the Predators and 28 with the Milwaukee Admirals during his time in the AHL.
Los Angeles Kings Emergency Recall Jordan Spence
The Los Angeles Kings announced Wednesday that they have recalled defenseman Jordan Spence on an emergency basis from their AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign.
Spence, 22, has been playing with the Reign for most of the season, scoring four goals and adding 38 assists in 53 games. The move comes as the Kings deal with a rash of injuries on their blue line, with Alex Edler and Mikey Anderson currently sidelined with undisclosed injuries.
The Kings are well-positioned for the stretch run, having clinched a playoff berth earlier this week. The focus now sets on playoff positioning, with the most likely outcome a rematch of last year’s First Round series against the Edmonton Oilers. Spence isn’t coming into potential NHL action cold turkey, though, having played five games earlier this season with the Kings and being involved in multiple paper transactions throughout the year. He also recorded eight points in 24 games last season with Los Angeles and appeared in three playoff games.
Spence, who was selected in the fourth round of the 2019 NHL Draft by the Kings, is a skilled puck-mover who excels in transition and logs big minutes at the minor-league level. He also possesses a solid defensive game, using his quick feet and positioning to shut down opposing forwards. He figures to be a future piece in the team’s top six defense corps, and he’s a great option to have on hand as a depth call-up at this stage in his development.
Columbus Blue Jackets Make Multiple Roster Moves
The Columbus Blue Jackets announced on Wednesday that they have recalled goaltender Jon Gillies from their AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters, on an emergency basis. In addition, the team has assigned defenseman Jake Christiansen and goaltender Jet Greaves to the Monsters.
The move to send Christiansen back to the AHL could indicate that another defenseman, Nick Blankenburg, may be available for tomorrow’s game against the New Jersey Devils, per Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch. Blankenburg has been sidelined with an ankle injury since March 27 and was considered week-to-week, but could return to the lineup after an absence of 10 days and five games.
Gillies and Greaves have once again been swapped for one another on the NHL roster as Elvis Merzlikins remains sidelined with a lower-body injury. Greaves is returning to the Monsters after making his NHL debut on Tuesday against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The 22-year-old goaltender set a franchise record for shots faced and saves in his first NHL game, stopping 46 of 49 shots in a 4-2 loss. Greaves spent less than two days on the NHL roster after he was added from Cleveland on emergency recall on Monday.
As noted by AHL beat reporter Patrick Williams, the return to Cleveland will give the young Greaves good experience in high-stakes games. The Monsters are set to face off against the Belleville Senators tonight, with both teams three points out of the final playoff spot in the AHL’s North Division.
The Blue Jackets acquired Gillies in a pre-deadline trade with the Arizona Coyotes. It took a while for him to make his first NHL appearance with the team, but he made an immediate impact, stopping 24 of 27 shots in a 4-3 overtime win over the Ottawa Senators last Sunday.
Since making his NHL debut in the 2016-17 season, the 29-year-old journeyman has gone 8-15-3 with a 3.29 goals-against average and .893 save percentage in 33 career contests with the Blue Jackets, New Jersey Devils, St. Louis Blues, and Calgary Flames.
Despite his solid performance over the weekend, Gillies has struggled in the AHL this season, posting a 3.70 goals-against average and .878 save percentage in 15 appearances with the Tucson Roadrunners before the trade. He’s yet to appear with the Monsters since Columbus acquired him over a month ago.
Meanwhile, Christiansen heads back to the Monsters after being added to the Blue Jackets’ roster on an emergency basis on March 25. The 23-year-old defenseman has recorded three assists, four penalty minutes, and 25 shots on goal in 23 games with Columbus this season. The undrafted free agent signing is in his third professional season after completing five campaigns of junior hockey with the WHL’s Everett Silvertips.
Nikita Okhotiuk Undergoes Season-Ending Surgery
The San Jose Sharks have announced that defenseman Nikita Okhotiuk underwent successful core muscle surgery yesterday. While no further details related to the injury were included in the team’s official announcement, including a more detailed recovery timeline, the announcement did state that the team expects Okhotiuk to make a full recovery in time for the Sharks’ training camp in September.
This surgery announcement ends any possibility of Okhotiuk returning to the ice and making his debut within the Sharks organization this season. The 22-year-old Russian blueliner hasn’t played since a February 11th AHL contest against the Laval Rocket, one where he fought against minor leaguer Riley McKay. It’s unknown whether the injury that knocked out Okhotiuk is in any way related to the fight, but it’s worth noting that he did return to the game after serving his penalty.
As mentioned, this injury ends the possibility of Okhotiuk skating for the Sharks’ organization for the first time this season. He was acquired by the franchise in the Timo Meier trade, alongside a package of other young Devils players and draft picks.
The 2019 second-rounder finishes his season having played a total of 30 games, 20 in the AHL and 10 in the NHL. He scored seven points across that span of games (six in the AHL) and also registered 35 penalty minutes.
Both the Sharks and Devils have been intrigued by the physicality Okhotiuk brings to the game, and it’s likely that the Sharks will give the 22-year-old the opportunity to make coach David Quinn’s opening-night lineup at training camp in the fall. With that opportunity in mind, Okhotiuk’s offseason recovery process will be of paramount importance for the short-term future of his career.
Logan Hutsko Linked To SHL
When the Florida Panthers signed Logan Hutsko in 2021, he looked like an interesting forward addition who could quickly rise through the ranks and provide some NHL value. The third-round pick had played well at Boston College and, despite his small stature, seemed to fit in Florida’s fast, creative, and versatile system.
General manager Bill Zito said he had “dynamic skill” and “unmatched determination,” noting how his pace and compete level would serve him well.
Now, two years later, it appears he might be off to Europe. A Swedish report from Johan Svensson suggests that Hutsko will sign with IK Oskarshamn for next season. As a restricted free agent this summer, he is allowed to sign overseas. The Panthers can temporarily retain his exclusive NHL rights by extending a qualifying offer, though it is unclear if he has any future in the organization.
The 24-year-old has done rather well through his first two years of AHL action, scoring 38 points as a rookie last year and 26 this season in just 39 games.
Through his time in Florida, he has not received a single call-up, and it now looks like he’ll chase a new opportunity elsewhere. Whether he ever makes an impact at the NHL level—or even suits up for a single game—still remains to be seen.