Minor Transactions: 11/30/18
As we close in on the end of November, there are storylines aplenty around the league. William Nylander‘s contract situation should come to a close, while the Philadelphia Flyers continue to search for a new GM. Meanwhile, the Buffalo Sabres and Colorado Avalanche are pushing for the top spot in the entire NHL. With five games on the schedule for tonight, we’ll keep track of all the minor moves right here.
- Those Sabres have recalled Matt Tennyson from the minor leagues while placing Marco Scandella on injured reserve. That may mean it’s time for talented young defenseman Lawrence Pilut to make his debut, trying to prove he can bring his elite minor league production to the NHL.
- Andrew Mangiapane is on his way up to join the Calgary Flames after a great start in the AHL. The 22-year old forward has 14 points in 13 games for the Stockton Heat, continuing his strong minor league career. The Flames welcome in the Los Angeles Kings tonight as they try to extend their lead in the Pacific Division.
- The Anaheim Ducks have made a defensive swap, sending Andrej Sustr to the minor leagues in exchange for Josh Mahura. The 20-year old Mahura made his NHL debut earlier this year and is a top prospect for the Ducks, armed with explosive skating ability and offensive upside. They also assigned Kalle Kossila back to San Diego to create a roster spot for Hampus Lindholm who was activated off injured reserve.
- After acquiring Calvin Pickard yesterday off waivers, the Arizona Coyotes have assigned goaltender Hunter Miska back to the AHL. Miska played one game with the Coyotes but had to know his time was coming to an end with Antti Raanta and Darcy Kuemper both also working their way back from injury. In his place, the Coyotes have recalled Mario Kempe once again.
College Notes: Henrikson, Crone, Risers
The jump to North America has not been kind to Arvid Henrikson thus far and it has impacted his college recruitment. Yet, the big Swedish defenseman has made his decision on where he will begin his NCAA career and hopes that transition yields better results than his move to the USHL this year. Henrikson, 20, was a seventh-round pick of the Montreal Canadiens in 2016, following a point-per-game campaign in the Swedish juniors. His success in the pro ranks in Sweden has been less impressive, prompting a change in career path this off-season. Henrikson joined the Des Moines Buccaneers for the 2018-19 campaign, but has only registered one point through 18 games so far. While Henrikson has the size – 6’5″, 212 lbs. – and physical style to make a career out of being a stay-at-home defender, he has shown ample offensive ability before and hoped to showcase that side of his game in the USHL. Instead, he will hold out hope that perhaps his production will improve when he enrolls at Lake Superior State University next season. The Buccaneers announced today that Henrikson has committed to join the Lakers, where he will replace senior defenseman and Anaheim Ducks prospect Steven Ruggiero as the only drafted player in the program. Lake Superior may not be a powerhouse college program, but less spotlight and fewer expectations may be exactly what Henrikson needs to develop into the defenseman that the Canadiens hoped they were getting with a late flier a few years ago.
- When Hank Crone finished third in scoring in the USHL in 2016-17, ahead of the likes of Andrei Svechnikov, Eeli Tolvanen, and future Boston University teammate Shane Bowers, many expected that it would be enough to get him drafted. Yet, the talented albeit undersized forward again was passed up. Last season, his first with BU, also did not go according to plan. Crone managed to record just twelve points and failed to live up to the offensive prowess he showed in juniors. As a result, Crone is back in the USHL this season, re-joining the Fargo Force rather than staying on with the Terriers. Unsurprisingly, he’s back at his old ways with 21 points in 19 games. As a result, he’s also willing to try his hand at the college game again and has committed to another top program. Hockey Commitments announced today that Crone has signed on to join the University of Denver next season, where he will have three years of eligibility left to show NHL teams what they missed. If Crone is able to get it right on his second try in the NCAA, he should draw considerable interest from the pro ranks down the road.
- In his latest article about the biggest early “risers” of the most recent draft class, The Athletic’s Corey Pronman tabbed college or college-bound players as half of the most surprising performers so far this season. The top played named, who Pronman says has established himself as a “legit NHL prospect”, is Calgary Flames pick Emilio Pettersen. The Denver forward was a sixth-round pick out of the USHL after a strong but unspectacular season, but has been better than a point-per-game so far through twelve games and has looked like an elite play-maker against tough competition. Northeastern forward Tyler Madden, the Vancouver Canucks’ third-round pick, is next up. Madden has ten points through twelve games for the Huskies and has easily transitioned his two-way game to the college level. Also on Pronman’s list are UConn center Jachym Kondelik (NSH, Rd. 4), UMass center John Leonard (SJ, Rd. 6), Pettersen’s Denver teammate Brett Stapley (MTL, Rd. 7), and St. Lawrence-bound Martin Pospisil (CGY, Rd. 4), as the college game continues be a great developmental option for the NHL’s top prospects.
Minor Transactions: 11/25/18
After another busy Saturday night in the NHL that saw some outstanding performances—not to mention a career defining five-goal explosion by Patrik Laine—just four games are on the schedule for today. The action kicks off with an afternoon tilt between the Calgary Flames and Arizona Coyotes, while the Edmonton Oilers travel to Los Angeles to take on the Kings to close out the night. As teams prepare for the upcoming week of action, we’ll be here to keep track of all the minor moves.
- The Chicago Blackhawks have sent Luke Johnson to the AHL for the time being, assigning the 24-year old forward to the Rockford IceHogs. Johnson has just a single point in 13 games with the Blackhawks this season, his first in the NHL.
- It wasn’t a long NHL visit for Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Trevor Carrick, who was recalled for just one game this weekend and is now on his way back to the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL. Carrick, like usual, has been lighting up the minor leagues with his quick first pass and ability to jump into the rush, scoring 17 points in 19 games. The 24-year old can’t seem to establish himself as a full-time NHL player, but is one of the most effective puck-moving defensemen in the AHL.
- The Anaheim Ducks announced they have recalled defensemen Andrej Sustr and Andy Welinski from the San Diego Gulls and have assigned defenseman Joshua Mahura to the San Diego Gulls of the AHL. For Sustr, he returns after being placed on waivers on Oct. 26 and assigned to the AHL. A veteran of 322 NHL games, the 27-year-old played seven games for the Gulls tallying one assist. The team also brought up Welinski after assigning him to San Diego Saturday, making it a likely paper transaction. As for Mahura, the 20-year-old fared well in his NHL debut. He had been faring well in San Diego, posting eight points in 12 games and had a point in three games for the Ducks.
- The turntable for Timothy Gettinger continues as the 6-foot-6, 220-pound power forward has been recalled by the New York Rangers after being assigned to the Hartford Wolf Pack Saturday evening after being recalled by the Rangers on Friday. Gettinger, who made his NHL debut Saturday with a 7:00 minute performance, returns to the team. In 20 games for the Wolf Pack, Gettinger has seven goals and 11 points.
- The Carolina Hurricanes announced they have recalled forward Valentin Zykov and defenseman Jake Bean from the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL. Zykov has been recalled after a playing in Charlotte on a conditioning loan posting two goals in six appearances with the AHL squad. Bean will likely replace Carrick who was assigned to Charlotte earlier Sunday (see above). The team’s 13th-overall pick in 2016 will hope to make his NHL debut Tuesday in Montreal. He has three goals and 10 points in 20 games with the Checkers.
Anaheim Ducks Return Max Comtois To Juniors
The Anaheim Ducks have finally decided the fate of rookie Max Comtois, who found himself on the outside of Anaheim’s top-six in recent weeks. Despite having already burned the first year of his entry-level deal and the fact that the team couldn’t send the 19-year-old prospect to the AHL, the team decided to return him to the Drummondville Voltigeurs of the QMJHL, according to TVA’s Mikael Lalancette (translation required).
Comtois provided the Ducks with a young top-six forward at the start of the season when the team was overwhelmed with injuries to many of their veterans, including Corey Perry, Ryan Kesler, Patrick Eaves, Ondrej Kase were placed on injured reserve to start the season. While some of those players starting getting healthy, other players went down after that, including Ryan Getzlaf and Jakob Silfverberg, allowing Comtois to continue his play. The rookie reached the 10-game mark with successful numbers, posting two goals and seven assists, before having to go on injured reserve himself with a lower-body injury. Once returned, the team sent him on a conditioning loan to the AHL where he scored just once in four appearances. However, with most of Anaheim’s veterans returned and the team starting to show success, there was little opportunity for playing time at the NHL level and the team was forced to make a decision about Comtois. While he had already burned the first year of his entry-level deal by one game, the team was not allowed to send him to the AHL permanently. So to guarantee quality playing time, the team had to return him to his junior team.
It’s a big deal for his new junior team, however, as he will return to the QMJHL for his final season there, but now joins the Drummondville Voltigeurs, who gave up a fortune in draft capital to acquire Comtois’ rights from the Victoriaville Tigres back in June. Drummondville gambled on moving their 2018 first and second-round picks as well as their 2019 first and second-round picks to get Comtois only to see him make Anaheim’s roster, which looked like a disaster in October. Instead, the gamble paid off as the Voltigeurs get the star forward after all for a team competing for a title this year as they currently boast the fifth-overall record in the QMJHL.
Minor Transactions: 11/23/18
The NHL was off yesterday while America celebrated Thanksgiving, but is back with a bang today with 30 of 31 teams taking part. The action gets kicked off this afternoon with the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers battling in a Metropolitan Division matchup. With all the action there might not be a ton of minor moves, but we’ll keep track of them either way.
- The Minnesota Wild have recalled Kaapo Kahkonen from the minor leagues to backup Alex Stalock today, as Devan Dubnyk is dealing with an illness. The young goaltender was up under emergency conditions and was sent back to the Iowa Wild following the game.
- The opposite has happened for the Arizona Coyotes, as they’ve sent Hunter Miska back to the minor leagues. That’s because Antti Raanta has been activated off injured reserve, a huge turn of events for the Coyotes as they chase a playoff spot in the Western Conference.
- Eric Gryba has been reassigned to the AHL by the New Jersey Devils, as Sami Vatanen and Brian Boyle have been activated by the team. Joey Anderson, who suffered a lower-body injury earlier this week, has taken their place on injured reserve.
- The New York Rangers have brought up winger Tim Gettinger from Hartford of the AHL. The 20-year-old is off to a solid start to his first professional season, tallying seven goals and four assists through 20 games with the Wolf Pack.
- Following their game against Edmonton, the Anaheim Ducks returned defenseman Andy Welinski to San Diego of the AHL. The 25-year-old has split the season between the NHL and AHL, picking up an assist in nine games with Anaheim while logging just over 15 minutes per game. He has been more productive in the minors with five points in seven contests with the Gulls.
- Lawrence Pilut‘s NHL debut will have to wait. The Buffalo Sabres announced that they’ve returned the defenseman back to Rochester of the AHL following their victory over Montreal. His first season in North America has been a productive one as tied for the AHL lead in points with 22 in just 15 games but the Sabres opted to not give him a shot after being recalled earlier this week.
What Your Team Is Thankful For: Anaheim Ducks
As the holiday season approaches, PHR will take a look at what teams are thankful for as the season heads past the one-quarter mark. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. Let’s take a look at what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the Anaheim Ducks.
What are the Ducks most thankful for?
The resiliency of their healthy players. To say Anaheim has been hit hard by injuries so far this season would be an extreme understatement. More than half of their roster has already missed time to an ailment or two and through the first quarter of the season, they had missed a whopping 130 man-games due to injury. That many injuries to that many key players (including Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, Ryan Kesler, Cam Fowler, and now Hampus Lindholm) can derail the fortunes of a team in a hurry. Instead, the Ducks find themselves third in the Pacific Division and in a playoff spot. Considering everything they’ve gone through, that’s a pretty good accomplishment even if there have been some other teams that have underachieved thus far.
Who are the Ducks most thankful for?
For a team to have this many injuries and still be in a playoff spot, the goaltending needs to be at the top of its game. That has been the case thus far as John Gibson has posted a .927 save percentage through his first 18 starts, good for a tie for sixth in the league among qualifying netminders. He has faced the second-most shots of any goaltender in the NHL and has provided them with top-level goaltending most nights. Ryan Miller also deserves some credit as his numbers are only slightly off of Gibson’s and are among the best among backup goaltenders.
In terms of skaters, Lindholm was off to a really good start before his injury. Anaheim was asking him to play extremely heavy minutes (25:29 per night, more than three and a half minutes above his career average) and he showed he was up to the task. With him and Fowler now out, Josh Manson and Brandon Montour are going to have to pick up even more of the slack.
What would the Ducks be even more thankful for?
Beyond staying healthy, their top players being productive. While Getzlaf has hovered near the point-per-game mark, Rickard Rakell is off to a very slow start with only three goals on the campaign after seasons of 34 and 33. Adam Henrique produced close to a 30-goal pace after being acquired last year but has just five goals so far. Pontus Aberg, a waiver claim at the end of training camp (who later cleared waivers with Anaheim before being recalled in mid-October) is tied for the team lead in goals with six. Not surprisingly, this team is really struggling to score and that’s going to need to change sooner than later if they want to stay in a playoff spot.
What should be on the Ducks’ Holiday Wish List?
Adding a top-six forward would really go a long way towards stabilizing their attack in the short-term and deepening their depth if and when their forward group gets fully healthy. However, with extremely limited cap space to work with, GM Bob Murray is going to have to get creative to find a way to bring one in. In the short-term, it wouldn’t be surprising if he targets an underachieving player in need of a change of scenery in the hopes of getting a small uptick in scoring that way.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Ducks Staying In Anaheim Through 2048
The Ducks are staying in Anaheim. According to the Associated Press, Anaheim City Council has approved a new deal that will extend their current agreement with the team through 2048, with five more five-year options thereafter. The Honda Center that the Ducks play out of is owned by the city, and will now have long-term security with their biggest tenant.
It’s great news for the team even as they struggle through this season, dealing with injuries to almost all of their key players once again. The Ducks are 8-9-5 as they go into action tonight against the Vancouver Canucks, and sit fifth in the Pacific Division. While they are technically just five points out of first, the team has struggled to create offense all season and currently have the second worst goal differential in the league.
All is not lost though, and there will certainly be better times to come before this new agreement expires. The team is waiting for the next wave of talent to come, and players like Sam Steel, Max Comtois, Isac Lundestrom and Josh Mahura have already shown they can handle at least spot duty at the NHL level. All four of those players are still under the age of 21, and should mature and develop together as the old guard leave.
Since their inaugural season in 1993-94, the Ducks have reached the playoffs in 14 of 24 seasons including two trips to the Stanley Cup Finals. They took home the ultimate prize in 2007, and have missed the postseason tournament just twice since. That’s an incredible run of success for any franchise, and the news today just solidifies their place as one of the secure organizations in the league.
Pittsburgh Penguins Showed Interest In Brandon Montour
The Pittsburgh Penguins and Anaheim Ducks have made in-season trades in the past, most notably swapping Carl Hagelin for David Perron and Adam Clendening just a few months before the Penguins would go on to win the Stanley Cup. Hagelin was a huge part of that 2016 run, and Pittsburgh GM Jim Rutherford beat the rush at the trade deadline by acquiring him in mid-January. Well, now Rutherford has sent Hagelin packing and the Penguins are looking for more help to get them back into the playoff race, and he at least is looking west at an old trade partner. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet writes that Pittsburgh tried to get Brandon Montour out of Anaheim but the Ducks wouldn’t move the young defenseman. Friedman then speculates that perhaps Jakob Silfverberg could fit into the Penguins forward group, given they’ve been unable to find much help from the third and fourth lines this season.
Montour’s name has been thrown around plenty this season, with some also pondering whether he’d be a match for a potential William Nylander trade. It’s easy to see why teams—including the Ducks themselves—would covet him after recording a 32-point campaign in his first full NHL season. Montour is averaging nearly 22 minutes a game this season and has seen that ice time jump even further since Cam Fowler went down to injury. He played a career-high 29:36 in an overtime loss to the Maple Leafs last week and looks like a top-pairing option even at such a young age.
The Penguins meanwhile haven’t been able to keep the puck out of their own net this season, allowing the ninth-most even-strength goals in the league despite having only played 19 games. That’s resulted in a 7-8-4 record and a spot at the bottom of the Metropolitan Division standings. Jack Johnson hasn’t worked out as planned, and Justin Schultz is out long-term with a leg injury.
Silfverberg though presents a different way to improve the team, given that only six forwards on the team have at least 10 points this season. The 28-year old winger is a pending unrestricted free agent, and has shown an ability to be a consistent 20-goal, 40-point player in the past. That’s the kind of offensive help the Penguins could use, and something they were hoping to spark in newcomer Tanner Pearson.
Regardless of whether the Penguins actually have any interest in Silfverberg, it’s obvious that the team is still looking for ways to make their team better this season. Pittsburgh is still in win-now mode with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel all still producing at a high level, and have a known horse trader in Rutherford at the helm. It won’t be surprising to see them make another move long before the trade deadline talk heats up, and try to right this ship before it gets too far off course.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Ducks To Wait To Provide An Update On Cam Fowler's Recovery Timeline
- While the Ducks were originally planning to provide an update regarding defenseman Cam Fowler today, they’ve decided to wait a little longer before providing an estimate of how long he’ll be out, notes Elliott Teaford of the Orange County Register (Twitter link). Fowler underwent successful surgery to repair multiple facial fractures but it certainly sounds like he’ll be out for a while. That makes the news that fellow blueliner Hampus Lindholm is on injured reserve even worse for Anaheim.
Ducks Place Hampus Lindholm On Injured Reserve
The Anaheim Ducks continue to deal with a rash of injuries, as top defenseman Hampus Lindholm has now joined the sidelined. CapFriendly reports that Lindholm has been placed on the injured reserve, a change also reflected on the team’s official roster albeit not yet announced by the Ducks.
There has been no word yet on the type or extent of the injury that Lindholm has suffered, but Ducks fans will hold out hope that it is relatively minor. The team is already without Cam Fowler, on IR with a facial fracture, and have yet to see Korbinian Holzer this season due to a wrist injury. On top of a depleted back end, the team is also missing quite a few names up front, including core forwards Corey Perry and Patrick Eaves. A Lindholm absence of any length hurts, but Anaheim can ill afford a long-term hiatus.
Lindholm, 25, not only leads all Ducks skaters in ice time, but his 25:29 ATOI is seventh-best in the whole league. Lindholm is also tied for third in scoring for Anaheim with ten points, among the top scoring defensemen in the Pacific Division. Without Lindholm and Fowler, the Ducks are sorely lacking their regular leadership and top sources of production on the blue line. Although they have yet to announce this transaction as well, the team’s roster shows that defensemen Jake Dotchin and Josh Mahura have been recalled and both could soon find their way into the starting lineup, with Luke Schenn clearing waivers and destined for the AHL’s San Diego Gulls. Dotchin played in 48 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning last season, but has yet to make his Ducks debut, while first-year pro Mahura would be making his first NHL appearance. The two have performed well for San Diego this season, but face a tall task if asked to help make up for a long-term Lindholm absence in Anaheim.