Metropolitan Notes: Palat, Greaves, Aho
Devils winger Ondrej Palat didn’t take part in the morning skate today, making it unlikely that he’ll suit up tonight against Ottawa. He was previously listed as questionable after missing Thursday’s game with an undisclosed injury. However, as team reporter Amanda Stein relays (Twitter link), the 33-year-old took to the ice after the morning skate which suggests he’s probably not too far off from being able to return. It hasn’t been a great year for Palat as he has just 13 goals and 12 assists through 67 games while his playing time has dipped under 14 minutes a night for the first time since his first taste of NHL action back in 2012-13. But with New Jersey dealing with a long list of injuries, they’ll certainly be hoping that Palat’s absence is a short one.
More from the Metropolitan:
- After being recalled yesterday to serve as the backup goalie in Daniil Tarasov’s absence, the Blue Jackets announced that goaltender Jet Greaves has been returned to AHL Cleveland. The 23-year-old has been up and down several times this season and has gotten into six games with Columbus where he has a 2.83 GAA with a .905 SV%. Greaves has spent most of the year with the Monsters, putting up a 2.84 GAA and a .915 SV% in 34 appearances and will go from one team in a push for a Wild Card spot to another in the battle for the final spots in the AHL’s North Division playoffs.
- The Penguins announced (Twitter link) that they’ve returned defenseman Sebastian Aho to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. The 29-year-old has been up and down in recent days on emergency recall but it appears he’ll now go back to an extended stay in the minors. Aho is in his first season in Pittsburgh’s organization but injuries have limited him to just 17 outings in the AHL where he has seven assists.
Lightning Recall Brandon Halverson, Reassign Cam Atkinson
The Tampa Bay Lightning have recalled goaltender Brandon Halverson from the minor leagues. It is his first formal call-up with Tampa Bay, after signing a two-year, $1.6MM contract with the club on February 3rd. Halverson ad spent the season on an AHL contract with the Syracuse Crunch prior to that deal. In a corresponding move, Tampa Bay has also reassigned veteran forward Cam Atkinson to the minor leagues. It is the second time that Atkinson has been assigned to the minor leagues this season.
Halverson’s recall represents little more than roster padding as the Lightning prepare for back-to-back road games against Utah and Vegas this weekend. The 28-year-old netminder will step in as Tampa Bay’s third string for the trip, operating behind Andrei Vasilievskiy and Jonas Johansson. Halverson earns the recognition after posting an impressive 16-9-8 record and .913 save percentage in 34 AHL games this season. The numbers are closely in line with his statline from last season, when he maintained a .913 through both 14 AHL games and 32 ECHL games in Tampa Bay’s system.
Halverson joined the Lightning organization on a minor-league contract before the 2023-24 campaign. Before that, he was a journeyman minor leaguer – working through depth-chart stints with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, Arizona Coyotes, and Dallas Stars. But Halverson spent the bulk of his pro career with the New York Rangers, who originally drafted him in the second-round of the 2014 NHL Draft. Halverson made his pro debut two seasons later, and quickly carved out a habit of average play in the AHL and solid play in the ECHL. His biggest moment came in the 2017-18 season, when he made a 12-minute NHL debut in relief of Rangers legend Henrik Lundqvist. Halverson allowed one goal on six shots. He was reassigned soon after that came, and returned to bouncing between second and third tier pros.
Atkinson, meanwhile, returns to the minors after playing just two games in the month of March. He scored one goal and played just 16 total minutes of ice time in those appearances. The point brings Atkinson up to three points in his last five NHL games, though that stretch dates as far back as February 6th. He’s become Tampa Bay’s extra forward, on the back of just nine points in 38 games this season. Atkinson did not play in any AHL games on his previous assignment. He’ll have one chance to play this weekend, with the Crunch set to host the Rochester Americans on Saturday. If he does, Atkinson will be playing in his first AHL game since the 2012-13 season. He scored 38 points in 33 AHL games that year.
Pacific Notes: Moore, Wennberg, Lombardi
The Anaheim Ducks’ AHL affiliate, the San Diego Gulls, today signed defenseman Ian Moore to an amateur tryout, per a team announcement. Moore spent four seasons playing collegiately at Harvard University. At the ivy-league school, Moore put up 56 points in 122 games and the 6’3, 200-pound defender was named team captain the last two seasons. He was drafted by the Ducks in the third round of the 2020 draft. With his college career over, Moore immediately becomes one of the franchise’s top defensive prospects, along with Tarin Smith, who has scored 58 points in 63 WHL games this season, and Tristan Luneau, who has scored 42 points in 46 AHL games.
More from the Pacific:
- San Jose Sharks’ veteran forward Alexander Wennberg is a game-time decision for tomorrow’s game, per Bay Area News Group’s Curtis Pashelka. Pashelka goes on to note that there is optimism he will be able to suit up. In 64 games this season, the 30-year-old Wennberg has put up 31 points. Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky added that the injury is something Wennberg has been dealing with for some time. Wennberg had been serving in a bottom-six role until the trade of Mikael Granlund to the Stars in February. Wennberg has since been serving as the team’s second-line center. He has one year remaining on his two year, $10MM AAV contract he signed last July.
- On Monday, the Los Angeles Kings honored former president and GM Dean Lombardi, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. After his first stint as a general manager fizzled out with the Sharks, Lombardi oversaw tremendous success in his time in LA, which resulted in two Stanley Cup winning teams. Lombardi saw success in developing draft picks (perhaps most notably with Drew Doughty) but also made aggressive trades for veterans like Mike Richards and Jeff Carter. Since being let go by the team in 2017, Lombardi has served as an executive with the Flyers. During Monday’s celebration, as Friedman notes, Lombardi took time to state that he believes the game is getting too expensive for some children to play. He called it a “grassroots problem” that excludes some athletes from being able to pick up the game.
Devils Recall Nolan Foote
The New Jersey Devils have recalled forward Nolan Foote from the minor leagues. New Jersey opted not to practice on Friday, keeping reporters from clearly seeing who Foote could be filling in for. Both Ondrej Palat and Curtis Lazar are questionable for Saturday’s game against the Ottawa Senators due to undisclosed injuries. Both forwards sat out of the team’s Thursday loss to the Calgary Flames.
While it’s unclear if he’ll step into the lineup, this recall is nonetheless good news for Foote. It’s just his second call-up of the season, after he spent 10 days on the NHL roster in November. Foote stepped into two NHL games on that stint but didn’t manage any scoring. He’s been far more productive in the minors, where he leads the Utica Comets in scoring with 39 points in 53 games. He’s also second on the team with 18 goals, behind Brian Halonen‘s 21 goals. The performance has been a welcome return to form for Foote, after he missed all but eight games of the 2023-24 season with injury. Prior to that, Foote had scored 37 points in 55 AHL games in the 2022-23 campaign. He’s lapped those totals this year, and could now get a chance at hardy NHL minutes.
Foote has appeared in 25 NHL games across the last five seasons. He started off hot, with six points in his first 13 career games. But he’s added just two points since then. On the back of an improved groove in the minors, this recall could be a chance to get back onto an NHL scoresheet. Palat’s absence could open up third-line minutes, while Lazar vacates a fourth-line role. It’s likely New Jersey will allocate the bulk of minutes, and special team roles, to players like Daniel Sprong and Erik Haula. That likely leaves a minute, fourth-line role for Foote, should he be the preferred lineup choice. The Devils also have centerman Justin Dowling on the NHL roster and available to cover injuries.
Snapshots: Hurricanes, Askarov, Soderblom, Greentree, Francis
It appears that the Hurricanes will get some help on the injury front as they begin a three-game road trip on Thursday in San Jose. Team reporter Walt Ruff mentions (Twitter link) that defenseman Dmitry Orlov should be ready to return after missing the last two weeks with an upper-body injury. The 33-year-old has four goals and 20 assists in 62 games this season while logging a little under 20 minutes a night.
Meanwhile, the news isn’t as good for winger Andrei Svechnikov. Ruff added that it wasn’t initially known if the 24-year-old would be accompanying the team on the trip. Last week, the hope was that Svechnikov would be back for the Hurricanes sometime this week but that appears to be more in question now. He has 18 goals and 25 assists in 63 outings this season.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- Sharks goaltender Yaroslav Askarov is hoping to be cleared to skate with the AHL’s Barracuda next week as he works his way back from a lower-body injury, relays Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News (Twitter link). The 22-year-old has a 3.10 GAA and a .896 SV% in 13 games with the Sharks this season and is likely to be recalled at some point down the stretch to get a few more games in with the big club.
- It has been a rough go as of late for Blackhawks goaltender Arvid Soderblom. He has won just one of his last ten games while posting a SV% of just .881, 20 points below his mark for the season at .901. Despite that, Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times notes that at the moment, the team is still operating under the plan that he’ll serve as Spencer Knight’s backup for next season. Soderblom will be owed a $1MM qualifying offer this summer with salary arbitration rights and with 82 NHL games now under his belt, it’s possible that Chicago could feel the risk of a hearing is too great. Accordingly, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them try to work on getting him signed before the tender deadline in June.
- Kings prospect Liam Greentree was suspended for two games today by the OHL for a checking from behind incident on Sunday, the league announced (Twitter link). The 19-year-old was the 26th pick last June and sits tied for second in the league in points (with 119) while being fourth in goals (49) and second in assists (70). Windsor only has two games remaining in the regular season so he won’t be able to move up those leaderboards even further.
- Ducks prospect Will Francis will join AHL San Diego for their stretch run, reports Matt Wellens of the Duluth News-Tribune. The 24-year-old blueliner was a sixth-round pick back in 2019, going 163rd overall. Francis is a three-time cancer survivor, missing time in three of his four collegiate campaigns at the University of Minnesota-Duluth due to the illness, limiting him to just 39 games overall, five of which came this season.
Wild Recall Liam Ohgren Under Emergency Conditions
The Minnesota Wild have recalled top wing prospect Liam Ohgren under emergency conditions. The move comes after an unnamed member of the Wild fell sick, per Michael Russo of The Athletic. Forward Marcus Foligno is also facing a day-to-day absence and sat out of Monday’s game. Ohgren will be eligible to play should both Foligno and the ill Wild player both need to sit out. The Wild’s next game comes against Seattle on Wednesday.
This move returns Ohgren to the NHL roster after 11 days, and four games, in the minor leagues. He didn’t manage any scoring in his first two games back in the minors, but amassed two goals and five points in a pair of games this weekend. That scoring brought Ohgren up to 28 points, split evenly, in 29 AHL games this season. He is the only Iowa Wild skater still rivaling point-per-game scoring, and ranks sixth on the team in total points despite playing fewer games than Iowa forward with more than 10 points.
Despite hot scoring in the minors, Ohgren still hasn’t found his groove at the NHL level. He has just four points in 23 games with Minnesota this season, adding to his two points in four NHL games last year. The Wild have moved Ohgren around the bottom-six to try and spark his scoring, though he’s averaged just 11:06 in ice time through the full season.
This call-up will give Ohgren another chance to spark his NHL scoring after a hot weekend in the minor leagues. He’ll need specific circumstances to prompt a return to the Minnesota lineup, including another absence for lineup fixture Foligno – who’s scored 22 points in 67 games from a third-line role this season. Ohgren will likely absorb most of Foligno’s minutes, should he get to play.
Canucks Sign Aku Koskenvuo To Entry-Level Contract
The Vancouver Canucks have signed collegiate goaltender Aku Koskenvuo to a three-year entry-level contract. The deal comes after Koskenvuo’s junior year at Harvard University came to an end on Sunday. He was a strong goaltender until the very end of his collegiate career, making 47 saves on 49 shots in Harvard’s final game of the season. It was his fourth-consecutive start and second-consecutive overtime appearance. Koskenvuo made 138 saves on 147 shots in his last four games of the season.
Koskenvuo earned Harvard’s starting role through the latter half of this season, after spending his freshman year as the third-string and last season splitting starts. He climbed to the full-time role on the back of an 8-9-1 record, .902 save percentage, and 2.81 goals-against-average in 20 games this season. The stat line was a slight lateral step from his sophomore totals last year, when Koskenvuo managed a 5-6-4 record, .910 Sv%, and 2.95 GAA.
The Canucks drafted Koskenvuo in the fifth round of the 2021 NHL Draft, after his first full season in Finland’s U20 SM-sarja. In what was a shortened 2020-21 season, Koskenvuo posted a .893 Sv% and 2.92 GAA in 13 games with HIFK’s U20 club. He followed it up with a .897 Sv% and 2.79 GAA in 27 U20 games in 2021-22. Through the mix, Koskenvuo also served as a go-to option for Team Finland’s international juniors clubs. He recorded a .874 Sv% and 3-3-0 record in six games of the 2021 World U18 Championship; but cratered at the 2023 World Junior Championships with a .842 Sv% an 4.47 GAA en route to an 0-2-0 record.
Koskenvuo will join a crowded goalie room in the Canucks organization. He’ll spar for minutes with players like Arturs Silovs, Nikita Tolopilo, and Ty Young at the AHL level. Tolopilo has served as the starter for the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks and has a .896 Sv% and 2.74 GAA in 30 appearances. Young leads the minor squad in save percentage, with a .905 in just nine AHL appearances.
Panthers Recall Tobias Bjornfot
The Florida Panthers have recalled defenseman Tobias Bjornfot from the AHL. This move comes after Dmitry Kulikov was injured in the first period of the team’s Sunday loss to the New York Islanders, after getting wrapped up on Islanders forward Anthony Duclair. This marks Bjornfot’s second call-up as a member of the Panthers organization, after spending 20 days on the NHL roster in January. He stepped into eight NHL games on the recall and managed no scoring.
Bjornfot has otherwise spent the rest of the season in the minors. He’s amassed 16 points, 22 penalty minutes, and a plus-one in 43 games with the Charlotte Checkers, good for third on the team’s blue-line in scoring. It’s just his third full season in the NHL since making his professional debut in the 2019-20 season. He spent the bulk of that year with the AHL’s Ontario Reign where he recorded 19 points, 12 penalty minutes, and a plus-13 in 44 games. Bjornfot received the first three games of his NHL career in the mix of those minor league minutes, and earned a hardier shot at the Los Angeles Kings lineup over the next two years. But he only managed 14 points through the first 106 games of his NHL career, prompting a return to the minors for the start of the 2022-23 campaign. Bjornfot scored 12 points in 50 AHL games that year.
Bjornfot followed another middling year in the minors with a winding journey last season. He appeared in games for Los Angeles, Vegas, and Florida throughout the 2023-24 season – and moved between each team through two separate waiver claims. Ultimately, Bjornfot couldn’t find his footing in any of his new destinations – and managed no scoring through 11 NHL games or five AHL games on the season. He’s returned to the scoresheet through the first half of this year, but still hasn’t found a consistent stride.
There’s been no indication as to whether Kulikov will be available for Florida’s Thursday matchup against the Columbus Blue Jackets. He’ll vacate a top-pair role if he does have to sit out, opening the door for Bjornfot to earn modest ice time as Florida mends an already-weakened blue-line. Bjornfot has averaged 13:24 in ice time through his eight NHL appearances this season. A lineup nod would give Bjornfot another chance to earn his first point as a member of the Florida Panthers – and his first NHL point outside of the Los Angeles Kings organization.
West Notes: Trouba, Foligno, Utah, Biakabutuka
Ducks defenseman Jacob Trouba will not face any supplemental discipline from his hit on St. Louis forward Jordan Kyrou on Sunday, notes Matthew DeFranks of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Twitter link). The hit occurred in the first period and no penalty was assessed on the play while Kyrou remained in the game. While it looked as if contact was made with Kyrou’s head, the league determined that the head was not the principal point of contact, and Trouba connected with Kyrou’s arm and shoulder as well.
More from the West:
- The Wild announced (Twitter link) that winger Marcus Foligno was scratched from tonight’s game against Los Angeles due to an upper-body injury. The 33-year-old leads Minnesota in hits with 219 through 67 games this season but his offensive production has been limited once again as he has just 11 goals and 11 assists while logging a little over 14 minutes a night. There’s no word yet on how long Foligno might be out for.
- It appears that Utah Hockey Club has settled on its team name moving forward, according to CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd (Twitter link). However, there’s no timeline just yet for when that name will be revealed. The latest fan vote on the name came in late January with Mammoth, Outlaws (replacing Wasatch), and Hockey Club as the three options.
- The Ducks have reassigned defenseman Jeremie Biakabutuka to ECHL Tulsa, per an announcement from their AHL affiliate in San Diego. He was promoted to the Gulls last month, getting into 11 games but with Stian Solberg recently being sent to the AHL, Anaheim decided that they were best off getting Biakabutuka more playing time at the lower level. The 23-year-old has 15 points in 21 outings with Tulsa and has one year left on this one on his entry-level contract.
Evening Notes: Svechnikov, Brodin, Capobianco
A new week rolling around has brought updates on injured and absent players to teams around the league. The most impactful news lands in Carolina, where the Hurricanes welcomed top-line winger Andrei Svechnikov back to the practice sheet after he missed the last three games with an upper-body injury. It was Svechnikov’s first multi-game absence of the season.
Svechnikov has built a tendency for long-term injuries. He’s only played more than 70 games in a single season twice in his seven-year NHL career – first in his rookie season, when he played in all 82 games, and then in the 2021-22 campaign, when he appeared in 78 games. The other five years of his career have been marred by injury, including a torn ACL that required an extended absence. Those missed games have held Svehcnikov back from reach top scoring totals, despite the fact that he tallied 72 goals and 176 points in 201 games between 2022 and 2024. That scoring pace would equate to 71 points across an 82-game season – a pace Svechnikov falls just shy of with his 43 points in 63 games this year. Still, his ability to stick in the lineup this year has been encouraging. Now back to full health once again, he’ll look to jump back up the scoring charts with 15 games left in Carolina’s season.
More notes from around the league:
- Top-pair Minnesota Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin also returned to practice on Monday per Joe Smith of The Athletic. Smith adds that head coach John Hynes dubbed Brodin as day-to-day and out for Monday night’s game. The top shutdown defender has missed Minnesota’s last seven games with a lower-body injury, pulling him deeper into the well of absences this year. He’s now played in just 38 of the Wild’s 67 games on the year. Those routine absences have held Brodin to just 18 points on the season. That mark stands as the highest points-per-game average of Brodin’s career (.474), just narrowly beating out his previous career high set when he scored 27 points in 62 games last season (.435). But without a clean bill of health, Brodin hasn’t had a chance to relish in a newfound scoring gear. For yet another time this season, he’ll now be tasked with getting back to full speed so he can support Minnesota’s top defense pair with a tough streak coming up.
- The Dallas Stars have reassigned depth defenseman Kyle Capobianco after recalling him on Saturday to fill in for the ill Lian Bichsel. Capobianco served as Dallas’ seventh man in their Saturday night matchup against the Colorado Avalanche, while Brendan Smith filled Bichsel’s role. This was only Capobianco’s second call-up since joining the Dallas Stars organization this summer. He appeared in his only NHL game of the season on January 31st – and set no scoring, four penalty minutes, and a minus-two in 11:23 of ice time. He’s otherwise been a fixture of the AHL lineup, where he’s managed an impressive 35 points in 49 games. That mark leads the AHL Texas Stars’ blue-line in scoring, though it is slightly below the scoring pace that led Capobianco to 54 points in 69 games with the Manitoba Moose last season.