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Vancouver Canucks Recall Collin Delia

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For the last few days, the Vancouver Canucks have been swapping Arturs Silovs and Collin Delia back and forth in order to keep both fresh. That continued today with Silovs heading back to the AHL and Delia recalled under emergency conditions.

With Thatcher Demko out since the start of December, the Canucks have been relying heavily on Spencer Martin to carry the load. Delia did get one game at the NHL level a few weeks ago but otherwise, the swaps continue to allow him to stay sharp by playing in the AHL.

Of course, Martin hasn’t been very good for the Canucks, posting an .885 save percentage behind a leaky defensive unit. In each of his last two starts – losses to the St. Louis Blues and Winnipeg Jets – he has allowed five goals on 27 shots. With the Canucks set to start a back-to-back tonight against the Seattle Kraken, before traveling to Edmonton to face Connor McDavid and the Oilers tomorrow night, Delia might get another chance to play.

After that, the team doesn’t have another back-to-back until January 14-15, meaning Martin will likely continue to start every game until Demko returns.

Rasmus Sandin Placed On Injured Reserve

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After suffering a neck injury in the Toronto Maple Leafs last game, Rasmus Sandin has been moved to injured reserve. Head coach Sheldon Keefe explained yesterday that the team would be re-evaluating him after the Christmas break, meaning a stint on IR doesn’t necessarily mean he will be out long-term. Sandin must miss at least seven days but the Maple Leafs don’t play again until December 27 after today’s afternoon match with the Philadelphia Flyers.

In his place, the team has recalled Mac Hollowell from the minor leagues. The 24-year-old Hollowell played six games with the team earlier this season when they were dealing with a number of injuries on defense, and has been excellent in the minor leagues with 10 points in 13 games for the Toronto Marlies.

Unfortunately for Hollowell, the team also recently activated Jordie Benn, who will slide into Sandin’s spot in the lineup today. The club is still without Morgan Rielly, Jake Muzzin, Victor Mete, and Carl Dahlstrom, but has still shown a strong defensive ability. Toronto sits second in goals against on the year, having allowed just 79 in 33 games.

Part of that success has been the strong play of Sandin, who has regularly gone over 20 minutes of ice time in the absence of Rielly. The 22-year-old was selected 29th overall in 2018 and has played 121 regular season games so far in his career.

Several Games Rescheduled Due To Winter Weather

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There is a massive winter storm projected to hit the east coast this weekend, and because of the timing, the NHL has decided to reschedule some games. Because the holiday break is happening, the league can’t afford to have players stranded in a road city, unable to get home for Christmas.

The following NHL games have been rescheduled:

  • Tampa Bay at Buffalo, December 23 –> March 4
  • Detroit at Ottawa, December 23 –> February 27

The AHL has also postponed some games:

  • Cleveland at Grand Rapids December 23 –> January 4
  • Syracuse at Rochester December 23 –> TBA

Players will get a little bit longer break during the holidays, though the rescheduled matches now compress the second half schedule even more. For a club like Ottawa, which is waiting on several key players to return from injury, the delay is likely a welcome one.

This list will be updated if any further games are rescheduled. 

Ryan McDonagh To Return For Predators; Jordan Gross Sent To AHL

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Dec 21: McDonagh has now been officially activated from injured reserve and will play tonight.

Dec 20: After staying up with the Nashville Predators on an emergency loan for more than two weeks, Jordan Gross has been returned to the AHL. The team had recalled him when moving Ryan McDonagh to injured reserve, and he played seven games since then.

With McDonagh returning tomorrow night against the Chicago Blackhawks and Alexandre Carrier getting back in the lineup last night, Gross is no longer needed at the NHL level.

The 33-year-old McDonagh has been out since December 2 after taking a puck to the face and is practicing with a full cage as he gets ready to return. The two-time Stanley Cup champion was averaging more than 20 minutes for the Predators when he went down, and had recorded six assists in 23 games.

While he is no longer the two-way force that dominated for the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning in his prime, McDonagh is still a very capable defender that should only strengthen a Predators team coming off a statement win over the Edmonton Oilers last night.

Coincidentally, Gross actually scored his third NHL goal in that game, as three of the four tallies from Nashville were from their defense. The 27-year-old will likely be back up at some point, should the team face any further injuries from this point.

Philadelphia Flyers Recall Samuel Ersson

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The Philadelphia Flyers have brought up an extra goaltender, recalling Samuel Ersson from the AHL. Felix Sandstrom is dealing with an illness and will not travel with the team for tomorrow’s afternoon game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Ersson, 23, has never appeared in an NHL game, but has been playing well for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms so far this season. A fifth-round pick in 2018, the Swedish netminder has a .910 save percentage in 18 games.

The team hasn’t indicated whether Sandstrom will meet them in Carolina for Friday, but if not, it would mean that either Carter Hart will start back-to-back games or Ersson will get to make his debut. With the club off after Friday until December 29, one can assume Sandstrom will be back to full health by the time they resume the season.

Boston Bruins Recall Craig Smith

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Dec 21: Smith is back with the big club, though he never really left. Recalled from the minor leagues, he will be available for tomorrow’s game (as long as they don’t send him down again).

Dec 20: The Boston Bruins will try and save a little cap space over the holiday break, assigning Craig Smith to the AHL after the veteran forward cleared waivers yesterday. Joe Haggerty of Boston Hockey Now reports that Smith remains with Boston for the time being, even though his contract has officially been loaned to the Providence Bruins.

Since the Bruins are no longer using any long-term injured reserve relief, they can accrue cap space every day they spend under the ceiling. By sending Smith’s contract down, $1.125MM of the $3.1MM cap hit will come off the books.

The 33-year-old will still be able to collect his full $4.3MM salary, but it certainly would be something to see him suit up for Providence. It’s been a decade since Smith played in the minor leagues, and even then he only spent four games in the AHL with the Milwaukee Admirals.

Selected in the fourth round of the 2009 draft, he became a star at the University of Wisconsin and stepped directly into the NHL after signing with the Nashville Predators, scoring 14 goals and 36 points as a rookie in 2011-12. The only reason he was even in the minor leagues the following season was because of the lockout-shortened season, and ever since he has been one of the most reliable middle-six forwards in the league.

After recording double-digit goals and at least 29 points in each of the last nine seasons, Smith had just four points in 18 games this year. Over an 807-game career, he has scored 192 goals and 402 points. At the end of the season, Smith’s three-year, $9.3MM deal will come to an end, leaving him an unrestricted free agent.

Cal Clutterbuck Placed On Injured Reserve

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The New York Islanders have made several transactions today, starting with Cal Clutterbuck being placed on injured reserve. His stint is retroactive to December 16, meaning he could come off in just a few days if healthy enough to return. Hudson Fasching, Simon Holmstrom, and Cory Schnieder have all been recalled from the AHL, the latter under emergency conditions.

Clutterbuck has been listed as day-to-day recently, suggesting he will be back rather soon. The veteran forward has five points in 26 games this season while playing just over 12 minutes a night.

Now 35, the bruising fourth-liner has played the same role for nearly a decade in New York and is still signed through next season at a $1.75MM cap hit.

With Kyle Palmieri and Semyon Varlamov also still dealing with minor injuries, the others will come up for the back-to-back that starts tomorrow against the New York Rangers. The Islanders will play those two games and then break for Christmas, before resuming play on the 27th, hopefully with several injured players back in the lineup.

Fasching, 27, has two goals in six appearances for the Islanders this season, while the 21-year-old Holmstrom has two points in 12 games.

Vancouver Canucks Loan Nils Hoglander, Arturs Silovs To AHL

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Before the roster freeze went into effect last night, the Vancouver Canucks completed a transaction that might raise some eyebrows. Nils Hoglander was loaned to the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks.

Hoglander, 22 (today!), looked like he was going to be a star during his rookie year, when he scored 13 goals and 27 points in 56 games. Whether it was the odd division setup, the team around him, or just some extra confidence, that level of play has been hard to come by ever since.

Last season, Hoglander had just 18 points in 60 games, and this year he has nine through his first 25. He’s been a healthy scratch several times and is averaging just 12 minutes a game.

The roster freeze does not prevent the Canucks from bringing Hoglander back up, but the move suggests he won’t be in the lineup for Vancouver when they play a back-to-back starting Thursday.

If he does play for Abbotsford, it would be the first minor league action of Hoglander’s career. The young forward stepped right from the SHL to the NHL and never looked back. Perhaps some development time to reset his game is all that’s needed to get him back on track.

The team also completed a goaltending swap, returning Artus Silovs to the AHL while recalling Collin Delia under emergency conditions.

Evening Notes: White, Subban, Chinakhov

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The Anaheim Ducks announced earlier this evening that defenseman Colton White has been sent to the San Diego Gulls, their AHL affiliate, for a conditioning loan. Unlike most conditioning loans in the minors where the player is either too young to be sent to the AHL otherwise (think Shane Wright and Brandt Clarke recently) or where the player is coming off injury, the 25-year-old White is AHL eligible and has been playing, suiting up as recently as Saturday’s game against the Edmonton Oilers.

For White, the defenseman has been playing somewhat sparingly this season, getting into just 16 of 32 games, not spending any time on IR. By going to the AHL, the defenseman should have an opportunity to play regularly and see top-end minutes during each game of the loan. Through those 16 games, White has just one point, an assist. White had spent his entire career in the New Jersey Devils organization before signing a two-year, two-way contract with Anaheim this summer.

  • The Montreal Canadiens will be paying homage to one of their greats later this season, honoring the recently-retired P.K. Subban in a pregame ceremony on January 12th before the team takes on another of Subban’s former teams, the Nashville Predators. The former Norris Trophy winner spent his first seven seasons with the Canadiens before an infamous 2016 trade sent him to Nashville in a one-for-one swap with Shea Weber. Three years later, Nashville dealt Subban to the New Jersey Devils where he finished out his career. Subban ultimately retired this summer after hitting the free agent market.
  • It would seem as though the injury issues simply couldn’t get any worse for the Columbus Blue Jackets, but on top of this morning’s news that captain Boone Jenner would require surgery, forward Yegor Chinakhov was forced to leave this evening’s game against the Dallas Stars with a lower-body injury. The forward will not return, the team announced. The injury happened early on in the game, Chinakhov colliding with a Stars player and leaving the ice gingerly. At this point, the compounding injuries do little to change things for the reeling Blue Jackets, however the silver lining to them was the ability to get young players like Chinakhov, a 2020 first-round pick, some quality minutes and opportunities. For now, Columbus will have to hold its breath that this injury won’t keep the young forward out for too long.

Buffalo Sabres Activate Ilya Lyubushkin

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The Buffalo Sabres are activating defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin ahead of tonight’s game, putting him right into the lineup. Lyubushkin hasn’t played since November 28th while dealing with an undisclosed injury. In a corresponding move, the team announced that defenseman Jeremy Davies has been returned on loan to the Rochester Americans, their AHL affiliate.

A key veteran and quality shutdown defenseman, the Sabres have surely missed Lyubushkin’s steady presence in their lineup. Though Lyubushkin doesn’t play top minutes for the Sabres, averaging just 15:24 time-on-ice this season, his 76% of defensive zone starts show just how much Buffalo trusts him in their own end.

As for Davies, the former New Jersey Devils prospect got into just one game ont his recall, his only NHL contest of the season, which came this Saturday. He’ll return to Rochester where he’s been a steady piece of their blueline amid a season of injuries and recalls affecting the entire Sabres organization. With Rochester, Davies has five points in 19 games to start the season.

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