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Flames Place Justin Kirkland On IR, Recall Two

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The Calgary Flames have recalled forwards Jakob Pelletier and Walker Duehr, two of the top three scorers for the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers. They’ve made room for the call-ups by assigning forward Adam Klapka to the minor leagues, and placing Justin Kirkland on injured reserve. This latter move was first reported by Ryan Pike of Flames Nation. Kirkland left Calgary’s Friday loss to Columbus early with a lower-body injury. He sat out of the team’s Saturday game, and will now miss at least three more games while on IR.

Pelletier and Duehr have been core pieces of the Wranglers roster over the last month. They both have 19 points in 20 games, with Duehr’s scoring split as 11 goals and eight assists and Pelletier posting three goals and 16 assists. Duehr has been particularly red-hot, with eight points in his last 10 games. He also boasts more NHL experience between the two, stepping into 68 games across the last four seasons and scoring an evenly-split 18 points. Pelletier has played 37 NHL games of his own across the last three seasons, netting four goals and 10 points. Neither of the two have found their stride at the top flight just yet, but stand as two of Calgary’s top prospects outside of the NHL – especially Pelletier, who was selected 26th-overall in the 2019 NHL Draft.

One of the two will likely slot into Calgary’s lineup right away, set to fill Klapka’s role on the fourth-line wing. Right-shot Duehr seems the sensible choice. Klapka will return to the minors after playing through six NHL games with no scoring. He has five goals and eight points in seven AHL games this year, and potted 46 points in 65 games last season. He’ll get a chance to return to that level of production on this assignment, while hoping his Wranglers teammates don’t leapfrog him on the depth chart.

Devils Recall Mike Hardman, Nathan Legare; Assign Shane Bowers

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The New Jersey Devils have recalled forwards Mike Hardman and Nathan Legare, and assigned forward Shane Bowers. Bowers will head back to the minors after a week on the NHL roster. He stepped into three games on this call-up, recording no socring, a -2, and two penalty minutes while averaging a little over eight minutes of ice time.

New Jersey will swap out the unproductive Bowers with veteran minor-leaguers Hardman and Legare. Only the former has played in the NHL, stepping into 37 games with the Chicago Blackhawks between 2020 and 2023. He scored three points in his first eight career games, but only added two assists in the proceeding 29. Hardman has also amassed 174 games across four seasons in the AHL. He started his career there with similar productivity – netting 32 points in his first 43 games – but he’s only added 63 points in 131 games since. Legare has been even less productive, with just three points, all goals, in 18 games this season. He’s managed just 50 points in four seasons and 197 career games in the AHL.

Hardman seems to be the more likely of the two to step into the lineup, receiving a well-timed call-up after winning the AHL’s ’Player of the Week’ award with seven points in a three-game span.

Hardman’s call-up comes at a good time, just days after he won the AHL’s ’Player of the Week’ award with seven points in a three-game span last week. His NHL precedent likely makes him New Jersey’s next-man-up, though both call-ups could line up with New Jersey bearing with injuries to Curtis Lazar, Nathan Bastian, and Tomas Tatar.

Islanders Recall Marcus Hogberg, Semyon Varlamov Day-To-Day

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The New York Islanders have recalled goaltender Marcus Hogberg under emergency conditions. He’ll fill in for backup Semyon Varlamov, who is day-to-day with a lower-body injury but is expected to travel with the team to Montreal. Varlamov played through New York’s Friday overtime-loss to the Washington Capitals and didn’t seem to suffer an injury. He backed up Ilya Sorokin’s shutout win on Saturday as well.

But it seems Varlamov may now need a break to ensure he’s at full health. The 36-year-old goaltender has appeared in 10 games this season, recording a 3-4-3 record and .889 save percentage. Varlamov has finished with a save percentage below .900 just once in his 17-year NHL career – when he managed a .898 in 24 games of the 2016-17 season. He more often finds his save percentage north of .910 – a mark he’s hit 12 different times, including his .918 in 28 games last season. Varlamov has been as consistent as a pro goaltender can be, making his losing record to start this season all the more surprising.

Hogberg has a chance to return to the NHL lineup should Varlamov step back. He’s spent the start of the season splitting AHL starts with Jakub Skarek. Both goalies have made 10 starts but Hogberg has the better stat line – posting a 2-4-3 record and .908 save percentage, to Skarek’s 3-7-0 record and .896 save percentage. Hogberg made a return to North American pros for this season after spending the last three years starting for Linkopings HC of Sweden’s SHL. He performed well in the role, playing at least 40 games and surpassing a .900 save percentage in each season. Hogberg combined for 59 wins and a .909 save percentage in 124 games over the three year stretch, picking up the tendency for strong play in Sweden that he showed prior to his 2016 move to North America. Hogberg played in 42 NHL games for the Ottawa Senators between 2018 and 2021 – recording nine wins and a .894.

Red Wings Recall Sebastian Cossa On Emergency Basis

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The Detroit Red Wings have recalled top goalie prospect Sebastian Cossa under emergency conditions, after starter Cam Talbot left Sunday’s game early. Talbot was replaced by Ville Husso, who allowed three goals on 18 shots as the Red Wings. Head coach Derek Lalonde didn’t have any updates on Talbot’s outlook, though Cossa’s recall suggests he may miss the next few days. Detroit is already without backup goaltender Alex Lyon, who isn’t expected to travel on the team’s two-game road trip due to a lower-body injury.

This is the first recall of Cossa’s career. He was the 15th-overall pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, becoming the 13th-highest drafted goaltender in league history and the highest since Spencer Knight went 13th-overall in 2019. Cossa played in a third WHL season after his first-round selection, setting 33 wins and a .913 save percentage in 46 games – and leading the Edmonton Oil Kings to the third Ed Chynoweth Cup as WHL champions in franchise history. Cossa turned pro in the following year, getting assigned to start in the ECHL thanks to a heap of lineup competition in Grand Rapids. He took the third-tier assignment in stride, posting 26 wins and a .913 save percentage – enough to win out the AHL starting role in 2023-24. After showing his resilience in climbing Detroit’s depth chart, Cossa showed his consistency last season – posting a .913 save percentage for the third-straight season, this time in 40 games played and coupled by 22 wins.

Cossa has continued to perform admirably this season, once again serving as Grand Rapids’ clear-cut starter and currently sat with nine wins and a .925 in 14 games. He’s clearly Detroit’s next man up, while the AHL crease will now be held down by Carter Gylander and Jack Campbell. The latter – another former first-round goalie selection – has yet to make his season debut or team debut, after starting the year in the NHL Player’s Assistance program. Campbell could prove a longer-term fill-in once he gets a few games under his belt, should Detroit want Cossa to continue receiving routine ice time.

Leafs Place Jani Hakanpaa On IR, Recall Marshall Rifai

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have placed defenseman Jani Hakanpaa on injured reserve with a lower-body injury, retroactive to November 16th. Hakanpaa will be eligible to be activated as soon as he’s healthy, though no specifics have been provided on Hakanpaa’s injury or timeline. In a corresponding move, the Maple Leafs have recalled defender Marshall Rifai from the Toronto Marlies. It’s Rifai’s first call-up of the season after clearing waivers and getting assigned to the minors on October 7th.

It’s not clear if Hakanpaa’s lower-body injury is connected to the knee injury that delayed his start to the season. He underwent an arthroscopic procedure last Spring, after his 2023-24 season was cut short in mid-March. He didn’t need any further testing after that procedure, and went on to sign a two-year deal with Toronto on July 1st – though the deal wasn’t formalized until September 11th, when it was adjusted to a one-year deal.

Hakanpaa didn’t return to full health until November 13th. He’s stepped into the lineup twice this season, recording no scoring, four blocked shots, and a -1. He was apparently injured in his second appearance, and has missed Toronto’s four games since. Hakanpaa has rotated into the bottom of Toronto’s blue-line with Simon Benoit and Conor Timmins. That role will now be handed to Rifai, who’s recorded four points – split evenly – through 17 AHL games this season. He has also recorded a Marlies-leading +10.

Rifai played in the first two NHL games of his career last season, recording no scoring and a +1. He averaged just-under 12 minutes of ice time in the pair of outings. Rifai has spent the bulk of the last two seasons in the AHL since signing as an undrafted college free agent in 2022. He recorded 25 points in 126 games across the pair of seasons.

Afternoon Notes: Sheary, Talbot, Celebrini, Hughes

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have reassigned Conor Sheary. He was called up on Saturday to serve as the 11th forward in Tampa’s 5-3 loss to Toronto. He managed no scoring, three shots, and one hit in 12:18 of ice time. Sheary’s was on his first call-up since passing through waivers and being assigned to the minors on October 24th.

This season has awarded Sheary his first AHL games since 2015-16. He’s made 11 appearances with the Syracuse Crunch, recording three goals and seven points – good for seventh on the team in scoring.  He’s fallen a long way over the last two seasons, recording just 15 points in 57 games with Tampa Bay last season – and not managing any scoring in four NHL games this year. That scoring skid has pulled the rug from under him, defaulting Sheary to a minor-league role just two seasons after he played in all 82 games for the Washington Capitals. He scored 15 goals and 37 points in that season – one year after a 19-goal, 43-point year. That production is more than enough to uphold an NHL roster spot, but it’s yet to translate to Tampa Bay. Sheary will look to continue his hot scoring in Syracuse, and take better advantage of his next shot at the Lightning lineup.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Detroit Red Wings goaltender Cam Talbot left the team’s Sunday game early with a lower-body injury, shares Helene St. James of The Detroit Free Press. Talbot was relieved by Ville Husso, marking his first NHL game sine November 9th. Husso went on to save 15 of the 18 shots he faced. Head coach Derek Lalonde didn’t have any updates on Talbot after the game, though he did mention that Talbot pulled himself from the game. St. James went on to mention that Detroit would be down both of their top-two goalies, should Talbot miss extended time, with backup Alex Lyon missing the last three games with an undisclosed injury. The pair of injuries would push Husso back into the starting role that he lost at the beginning of the season, but Detroit would still need to recall a body to fill-in as backup. Top goalie prospect Sebastian Cossa has earned the lion’s share of AHL starts, recording eight wins and a .929 through 13 games this season. He would be a great, high-upside recall – but Detroit could also turn towards veteran Jack Campbell for spot starts. Campbell has yet to make his season debut after starting the year in the NHL Player’s Assistance program
  • Star San Jose Sharks rookie Macklin Celebrini has won November’s ‘Rookie of the Month’ after scoring seven goals and 12 points in 14 games. He becomes the first Sharks rookie to win the award since Tomas Hertl in 2013-14. Celebrini has bounced back incredibly well from a string of nagging lower-body injuries holding him out of 11 games earlier in the year. He has eight goals and 14 points in 15 games this season, on pace to score 38 goals and 66 points through 71 games. Achieving that scoring would make Celebrini the highest-scoring rookie in Sharks history, beating out Pat Falloon’s 59 points in 1991-92, and Logan Couture’s 56 points in 2010-11.
  • Superstar Vancouver Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes has achieved a more notable milestone out West, setting Vancouver’s record for all-time assist from a defenseman. Hughes clinched the superlative with the lone assist on a Jake DeBrusk’s first goal on Sunday. He’d go on to assist DeBrusk’s next two goals as well, in the latter’s first hat-trick as a Canuck. The scoring brought Hughes up to 313 assists in 388 games, pushing him past the 310 assists that Alexander Edler recorded in 925 games with Vancouver; nearly three-times as long as it took Hughes. At his current rate of 0.81 assists-per-game, Hughes would need 1,025 career games to pass Henrik Sedin’s franchise record of 830 assists.

Wild Recall David Jiricek, Assign Travis Boyd

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Top defense prospect David Jiricek has officially joined the Minnesota Wild, receiving an official call-up after a trade from the Columbus Blue Jackets placed him on the AHL Iowa Wild roster. Minnesota made room for Jiricek’s recall by re-assigning fowrard Travis Boyd to the minors. Jiricek will head to the NHL while Daemon Hunt, who went the other way in the trade alongside four draft picks, has been assigned to the AHL by Columbus.

Wild head coach John Hynes told reporters, including Dylan Loucks of The Hockey News, that Jiricek is expected to join the team’s practices on Monday.

The Minnesota defense has been firing on all cylinders this season. Half of the blue-line has recorded 10-or-more points on the season, with Jacob Middleton and Brock Faber each tied for the scoring lead with 12 points in 24 games. The bunch has supported Minnesota to the best goals-against per-game of any team in the NHL. They allow just 2.33 goals-against on average, well ahead of the second-place Winnipeg Jets’ 2.50 average. That standing could make ice time hard to find for Jiricek, who only has one assist in six NHL games this season. Jiricek is an incredibly talented puck-carrier, and earned a commendable 10 points in 43 games as a rookie last season. But Jiricek’s impact off of the puck, and overall agility, have left a lot to be desired – part of why he’s totaled a -10 through 53 career games.

Jiricek won’t support Minnesota’s pursuit of top defensive metrics, but his uspide as an offensive asset is sky-high. He was drafted sixth overall in the 2022 NHL Draft after earning an everyday role in the Czechia Extraliga at 16. He played through 67 games, and scored 20 points, with Plzen HC between 2019 and 2022 – but suffered a long-term, lower-body injury at the 2022 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. The injury would deprive Jiricek of five months of action in his draft year, though he returned with two points in four World Championship games – just enough to convince Columbus that he was still worthy of a top-10 pick.

Jiricek followed the draft with four points in seven games at the rescheduled 2022 World Junior Championships, and joined the Cleveland Monsters one month later. He was productive as a rookie, netting 38 points in his first 55 AHL games – but not managing any scoring through his first four NHL games, waiting until 2023-24 to record his first NHL point. Jiricek has continued to perform well in the minors, with 19 points in 29 AHL games last year and three points in four games this year, but hasn’t yet translated that production to the top flight. Minnesota will represent a change of scenery, so long as he can beat out Zach Bogosian, Jonathon Merrill, or Declan Chisholm for minutes.

Meanwhile, Travis Boyd will return to the minors after two scoreless games for Minnesota. He’s scored two goals and 11 points in 13 games with the Iowa Wild this season, which still stands as second on the team in scoring behind Ben Jones’ 12 points in 14 games. Boyd is a top, veteran presence for Iowa – and should return to a top role with this assignment.

Blue Jackets Recall Mikael Pyyhtia

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11:30 AM: Chinakhov will indeed sit out on Sunday, with NHL.com’s Jeff Svoboda confirming the winger didn’t travel with the team to Chicago. The Blue Jackets will continue their road trip with a four-game trip into Western Canada, potentially hindering Chinkahov’s ability to return soon – though he could join the team partway through their trip.

10:30 AM: The Columbus Blue Jackets have recalled Mikael Pyyhtia. He was sent to the minor leagues on November 20th after making the Blue Jackets roster out of training camp. Pyyhtia’s call-up could suggest that Columbus winger Yegor Chinakhov won’t be healthy for the team’s Sunday game. Chinakhov is day-to-day with an upper-body injury, and sat out of the team’s Friday win over Calgary.

Pyyhtia played in four games during his AHL stint. He scored in three of those outings for five points total – including a three-assist night in an overtime win over Milwaukee. That’s a welcome bout of scoring after Pyyhtia managed just one goal through 17 games to start his NHL season. Pyyhtia was similarly snakebit last season, recording just two assists in 17 games – after earning a midseason call-up from the AHL. The 2024-25 season marks Pyyhtia’s second full year in North America, having made the move to Ohio at the end of the Liiga’s 2022-23 campaign. He played in parts of four seasons with TPS prior to coming over, recording 63 points in 140 games.

Pyyhtia has never been known as a top-scorer, but this call-up gives him a chance to return to the NHL lineup with wind in his sails. Chinakhov was replaced on Friday by the return of top-six forward Cole Sillinger, though Columbus’ bottom-six could use a spark in scoring. Pyyhtia could step in for any of Zach Aston-Reese, James van Riemsdyk, or Kevin Labanc – with the latter the favorite to step out of the lineup recently.

Snapshots: Kucherov, Pageau, Red Wings, Ehlers, Hinds

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Prior to their game against Toronto tonight, the Lightning found themselves without their top scorer.  Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times relayed (Twitter link) that winger Nikita Kucherov is listed as day-to-day with an undisclosed injury.  The 31-year-old led the league in scoring last season, notching 44 goals and 100 assists, both career highs, in 81 games.  While Kucherov isn’t producing at quite that level this year, he came into the night tied for fifth in scoring with 12 goals and 22 assists in 34 games, a 127-point pace.

Elsewhere around the NHL:

  • The Islanders didn’t have center Jean-Gabriel Pageau in their lineup tonight against Buffalo. Ethan Sears of the New York Post notes (Twitter link) that the veteran is listed as day-to-day with an undisclosed injury.   The 32-year-old has five goals and five assists in 23 games so far this season while averaging 17:47 per game, his highest ATOI since the 2019-20 season.  A specialist at the faceoff dot, Pageau is winning just over 60% of his draws early on, a mark that would be his best if he can maintain it.
  • Red Wings goaltender Alex Lyon won’t accompany the team on their two-game road trip, mentions Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press (Twitter link). He’s dealing with a lower-body injury with no timeline for his return.  Lyon has a 2.74 GAA and a .911 SV% in nine appearances so far.  Meanwhile, St. James notes that winger Patrick Kane will miss his fourth straight game on Sunday due to an upper-body injury but there is a chance he’ll be available to return on Tuesday in Boston.  The veteran is off to a quiet start by his standards, collecting just three goals and seven assists in 20 games.
  • Though he left Friday’s game with a lower-body injury, Jets winger Nikolaj Ehlers is listed as questionable for Sunday’s contest in Dallas, per team reporter Mitchell Clinton. The 28-year-old is off to a solid start in the final year of his contract, with nine goals and 16 assists in 24 games.  With 25 points, Ehlers sits third on Winnipeg in scoring.
  • The Ducks announced that they’ve re-assigned defenseman Tyson Hinds back to AHL San Diego. The 21-year-old was brought up twice by Anaheim over the last couple of weeks but didn’t see any game action.  Hinds, a third-round pick in 2021, has two goals in 13 games so far this season for the Gulls.

Kraken Recall Mitchell Stephens, Activate Vince Dunn Off LTIR

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Prior to their game tonight against San Jose, the Kraken announced (Twitter link) that forward Mitchell Stephens was recalled from AHL Coachella Valley.  Additionally, defenseman Vince Dunn has been activated off LTIR according to the NHL’s media site.

Stephens is in his first season with Seattle after signing a two-year, two-way deal with them early in free agency back in July.  The 27-year-old is a veteran of 95 career NHL appearances between Tampa Bay, Detroit, and Montreal.  Stephens got into 23 appearances with the latter last season, notching three points while winning over 55% of his faceoffs in a little over nine minutes a night of playing time.

It’s his first recall of the season and it comes following somewhat of a slow start to his season.  Stephens has three goals and an assist in 11 games so far with the Firebirds.  By comparison, he had 35 points in 49 games with AHL Laval just last season.

Meanwhile, the return of Dunn is a welcome one for the Kraken.  He has been one of the more impactful blueliners league-wide in recent years, especially on the offensive side of things after putting up 110 points in 140 games between 2022-23 and 2023-24 while logging over 23 minutes of ice time each night.  Prior to suffering an upper-body injury that kept him out for nearly six weeks, Dunn was off to a good start on that front this season as well, notching three points in his first four outings.

Dunn’s return gives Seattle now three above-average threats from the back end which will help an offense that’s near the middle of the pack in terms of goals scored.  Brandon Montour is off to a solid start in his first season with the Kraken while Ryker Evans has helped pick up the offensive slack in Dunn’s absence.  Both players enter tonight’s action with 15 points, good for a tie for third in team scoring.

While there has been no announcement from the team, the only way that Seattle could have activated Dunn and recalled Stephens was by transferring winger Jordan Eberle to LTIR.  The captain is expected to be out for at least the next three months after undergoing pelvic surgery a little more than a week ago.

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