Capitals Activate T.J. Oshie Off Injured Reserve
The Capitals welcomed back a veteran winger to their lineup tonight as Sammi Silber of The Hockey News relayed that T.J. Oshie was taken off injured reserve. He took the place of winger Tom Wilson in the lineup with the team announcing (Twitter link) that Wilson was out due to an upper-body injury.
Oshie had missed nearly three weeks due to a non-contact upper-body injury. While his numbers on the season (ten goals and eight assists in 38 games) are a bit underwhelming for someone who is used to being a key secondary scorer, the 37-year-old has been much more productive as of late. Since the calendar turned to 2024, Oshie has tallied eight goals and six assists in 17 contests, way closer to the level of output that Washington needs and expects from the veteran.
As for Wilson, he is in the middle of a down year offensively as well. Through 61 games, he has 15 goals and 13 assists while once again being among the league leaders in penalty minutes. However, his 0.46 points-per-game average is his lowest since the 2017-18 campaign. That’s not what the Capitals were hoping for when they signed him to a seven-year, $45.5MM contract extension back in August. Oshie will take Wilson’s place on Washington’s second line.
While center Nic Dowd and defenseman Martin Fehervary have been cleared for contact in recent days, they both have not yet been activated off injured reserve. When that time comes, the Capitals will be back up to 23 skaters on their active roster after carrying the minimum in recent days.
Five Key Stories: 3/4/24 – 3/10/24
The trade deadline has come and gone and as expected, it wound up being a busy few days across the league. The full Friday activity is recapped here while several of the biggest swaps are specifically noted in our key stories.
Shakeup In Colorado: Heading into the trade deadline, the Avalanche were thought to be looking for center help and perhaps a backup goalie. They wound up being quite active. They picked up Sean Walker from Philadelphia in exchange for Ryan Johansen and Colorado’s 2025 first-round pick. With an extra defender and a hole down the middle, they then moved blueliner Bowen Byram to Buffalo for Casey Mittelstadt in one of the biggest moves of the week. Byram, a former top-four pick, is a big loss but Mittelstadt gives them a legitimate offensive threat to anchor the second line. GM Chris MacFarland then shook up his bottom six group with a trio of moves, acquiring winger Yakov Trenin from Nashville and winger Brandon Duhaime from Minnesota while moving Ben Meyers to Anaheim to cap a busy few days. All that and they wound up not getting the goalie.
Vegas Goes All In: It has been a rough go as of late for the Golden Knights who have slipped to a Wild Card spot in the West. That didn’t stop GM Kelly McCrimmon from going for it. First, he picked up winger Anthony Mantha (with 50% retention) from Washington for a second-round pick and a fourth-rounder. The Golden Knights then added defenseman Noah Hanifin from Calgary for a 2025 first-round pick, a conditional 2025 third-rounder, and blueliner Daniil Miromanov, then flipped a 2024 fifth-rounder to Philadelphia to get Hanifin’s cost down to 25% of his AAV. That gave them enough room to make the most surprising move of trade deadline day, acquiring center Tomas Hertl along with a pair of third-round picks from San Jose in exchange for center prospect David Edstrom and a 2025 first-round pick; San Jose retained 17.05% of Hertl’s AAV in the swap. Hertl is out for a few more weeks at least but if Vegas is able to hold onto a playoff spot, they certainly have strengthened their lineup and could be a force in the West.
Devils Fire Ruff: The week wasn’t all about trade-related activity. The Devils elected to make a coaching change, firing head coach Lindy Ruff while promoting Travis Green to the interim role. Ruff, who had signed a multi-year extension back in October, was in his fourth season behind New Jersey’s bench with the team playing to a 128-125-28 record. Last season, he helped lead the Devils to a 112-point campaign, their best in franchise history but this year, the team had underachieved and is on the outside looking in at a playoff spot which resulted in the change. Green, meanwhile, was New Jersey’s associate coach this season and has head coaching experience from his time with Vancouver. He’ll be in the role for the remainder of the season and GM Tom Fitzgerald will re-assess from there.
Extensions: At this time of year, there are often plenty of extension as players often find themselves in ‘extend or be traded’ situations. There were several of those as Nashville took center Thomas Novak off the market after signing him to a three-year, $10.5MM extension, a nice reward for a player who was a regular in the minors a year and a half ago. The Flyers inked Nick Seeler to a four-year, $12.8MM extension, quite a raise for a player making the minimum on a two-way contract which helped pave the way for the Walker trade. Seattle had one of the more tradable wingers on deadline day in Jordan Eberle but instead of moving him, they agreed to a two-year, $9.5MM extension, one that is a small pay cut but gives him full no-trade protection in return.
The extensions weren’t all just extend or be traded players, however. The Capitals opted to not wait for the summer to work out a new deal with defenseman Rasmus Sandin, giving him a five-year, $23MM extension that buys them three extra years of club control. Meanwhile, the Panthers took care of one of their key pending unrestricted free agents as they handed blueliner Gustav Forsling a max-term eight-year, $46MM extension. Claimed off waivers in 2021, Forsling has gone from a depth defender to one of the anchors on the back end for Florida.
More Big Moves: There were several other big moves across the league. The league-leading Panthers made a notable acquisition up front, acquiring winger Vladimir Tarasenko for a 2025 third-round pick and a conditional 2024 fourth-rounder. Tarasenko had full trade protection and made it known that he wanted to go to Florida which didn’t help Ottawa in terms of maximizing his value. The Hurricanes, not a team that typically goes after prominent rentals, broke that trend as they added winger Jake Guentzel (who is nearing a return from his upper-body injury) along with blueliner Ty Smith from Pittsburgh for winger Michael Bunting, forward prospects Ville Koivunen, Vasiliy Ponomarev, and Cruz Lucius, a conditional 2024 first-round pick, and a conditional 2024 fifth-round pick. The first-rounder becomes a second if Carolina doesn’t make the Stanley Cup Final while the fifth only moves if Carolina wins the Stanley Cup.
Some Western teams made key splashes as well. Edmonton elected to add to their center depth by bringing in Adam Henrique and Sam Carrick from Anaheim in exchange for a 2024 first-round selection as well as a conditional 2025 fifth-round selection that becomes a fourth if the Oilers win the Stanley Cup. In order to get a total of 75% retention on Henrique, the Oilers also flipped Tampa Bay a conditional 2025 fourth-rounder. Winnipeg made one trade of note last month with the addition of Sean Monahan but made another one when they sent a 2025 second-round pick and a 2024 third-rounder to New Jersey for Tyler Toffoli. All players acquired in this section by contenders are pending unrestricted free agents.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Multiple Teams Showing Interest In Marcus Sylvegard
With the trade deadline now behind us, the focus will shift in the coming weeks and months to the undrafted free agent market. We’ve already seen several major junior players sign while college free agency will pick up soon as well. Meanwhile, there are some international free agents that will also garner interest.
One of those appears to be Swedish winger Marcus Sylvegard. The 24-year-old is putting the finishing touches on arguably his best SHL season as he has 23 goals and 18 assists in 50 games so far with Vaxjo with one game remaining on the schedule. It’s his second straight season reaching the 40-point mark after failing to reach 20 in his first five seasons at that level which likely helped get him on the NHL radar.
SportExpressen’s Johan Svensson reports that the Panthers, Avalanche, and Flames are among NHL teams who have shown interest in his services so far with Florida believed to have shown the most interest at this point. A signing won’t be imminent, however, with Sylvegard indicating that his focus will be on the upcoming league playoffs so it stands to reason that he won’t choose his next team until after his postseason comes to an end.
Regardless of whomever he signs with, Sylvegard will be subject to entry-level restrictions. He’ll be entering his age-25 year next season so he will be capped at inking a one-year deal; the maximum compensation for an entry-level deal in 2024-25 is $975K plus performance bonuses.
Devils Reassign Akira Schmid
4:10 p.m.: The Devils have returned Schmid to Utica after dropping today’s game against the Hurricanes 4-2. Barring injuries, that’s where he’ll remain for the rest of the season. He likely won’t be needed for Monday’s game against the Rangers as Kahkonen reportedly made it to New Jersey after the loss, James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now reports.
10:45 a.m.: After acquiring Jake Allen and Kaapo Kahkonen in separate trades on Friday, the Devils returned goaltender Akira Schmid to AHL Utica. However, his stint will be short-lived for now as team reporter Amanda Stein relays (Twitter link) that Schmid has been recalled and will serve as the backup today versus Carolina.
Kahkonen hasn’t made it to New Jersey just yet while Allen will require a work visa, a process that will be delayed due to the weekend so he likely won’t be available until closer to the middle of next week. Accordingly, they needed a second option behind Nico Daws for today so this will qualify as an emergency recall, not one of their four post-deadline regular recalls.
It has been a disappointing season for Schmid so far. After taking over as the starter down the stretch last season and into the playoffs, the 23-year-old has struggled mightily this season, posting a 3.15 GAA and a .895 SV% through 19 appearances. Things haven’t gone any better with the Comets either with his numbers down there (3.47 and .886 respectively) being worse than at the NHL level.
One of the positives from New Jersey’s pivot to a new tandem entirely is that both Schmid and Daws will get to return to Utica for the stretch run, allowing them to both play some meaningful games down the stretch with the Comets in a tight battle for a playoff spot. However, it will be a few more days before that will be able to happen.
Central Notes: Coyotes, Kovalenko, Zaitsev
The Coyotes had a fairly underwhelming trade deadline after getting minimal returns for Mathew Dumba and Jason Zucker but as PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan notes, GM Bill Armstrong did not have the green light to retain salary which certainly restricted their options on the trade front to teams who had the cap space to take on the full contract of which there were few.
Meanwhile, Armstrong indicated that there was strong interest in centers Nick Bjugstad and Alexander Kerfoot along with winger Michael Carcone. All three players have one year left on their respective contracts and are at price tags that range from below market value to affordable so it’s no surprise teams were calling the Coyotes about those players. Clearly, there wasn’t an offer to their liking so all three remain in Arizona, at least for now.
More from the Central:
- Avalanche prospect Nikolai Kovalenko left his KHL playoff finale today with what looked to be a knee issue, notes Evan Rawal of Colorado Hockey Now. The 24-year-old had another productive year with KHL Torpedo, notching 35 points in 42 games while on loan from Colorado. Kovalenko is on an NHL contract and has widely been expected to make the jump and play out the stretch with the Avs. That is, as long as this injury doesn’t change those plans.
- The Blackhawks will welcome back defenseman Nikita Zaitsev tonight against Washington, relays Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times. The 32-year-old had missed the last 19 games with a knee injury and bone fracture. Zaitsev has played in 26 games so far this season, recording two goals and five assists along with 52 blocks and 55 hits. Meanwhile, his average ice time is down to 15:56 per night, a career low. That’s not exactly the ideal platform season that Zaitsev was looking for as he’ll be hitting unrestricted free agency in July.
Atlantic Notes: Bernard-Docker, Marner, Lindholm, Lightning
The Senators received some trade interest in defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker, reports Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. However, it appears that Ottawa placed a fairly high price tag on the 23-year-old, one that other teams weren’t willing to pay. Bernard-Docker actually cleared waivers back in training camp but has spent most of the year up with Ottawa, picking up 12 points and 108 blocked shots in 52 games while logging just under 16 minutes a night. Signed for one more year after this one at an affordable $805K price tag, it’s understandable that the Sens would have had some interest in Bernard-Docker, perhaps not just from buyers either. Instead, he’ll remain with Ottawa through the rest of the season at least.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic:
- Maple Leafs winger Mitch Marner is listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury and won’t play tonight versus Montreal, relays David Alter of The Hockey News (Twitter link). He will be re-evaluated in Toronto to assess the extent of the injury. Marner is once again one of Toronto’s top scorers this season, leading the team in assists with 51 and sitting third in points with 56. He had been on pace to reach 100 points for the first time but if he misses more than just a few games with this injury, that milestone could ultimately be out of reach.
- Before their game this afternoon against Pittsburgh, the Bruins announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Hampus Lindholm was cleared to return to the lineup. The 30-year-old had missed the last nine games due to a knee injury. Lindholm’s second full season in Boston hasn’t been anywhere near as productive as his first when he had 53 points but he still has a goal and 18 assists through 56 games while logging nearly 24 minutes a night.
- While the Lightning returned defensemen Emil Martinsen Lilleberg and Maxwell Crozier to the minors yesterday, Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times mentions (Twitter link) that one of the two could be recalled as extra depth for their upcoming four-game road trip. Martinsen Lilleberg has played in 23 games with Tampa Bay so far, logging nearly 16 minutes a night while Crozier has made 13 appearances, averaging just shy of 13 minutes per contest.
Golden Knights Place William Carrier On LTIR, Recall Brendan Brisson
After adding several players in trades leading up to the trade deadline, the Golden Knights needed some more cap space. To create that room in the short term, CapFriendly reports (Twitter link) that they’ve placed winger William Carrier and his $1.4MM AAV on LTIR. They’ve used some of that space immediately as they’ve recalled winger Brendan Brisson from AHL Henderson, per the AHL’s transactions log.
The 29-year-old has missed the last two months with an upper-body injury that he underwent surgery for back in January. At the time he was given a designation of week-to-week so it appears that recovery from the injury has gone slower than anticipated. He joins Mark Stone and Robin Lehner as players currently on LTIR; newly-acquired center Tomas Hertl is out long-term term but is not on LTIR at the moment.
Carrier is a pending unrestricted free agent and missing this much time due to injury certainly isn’t going to help things if he makes it to the open market in July. Before getting hurt, Carrier had five goals and two assists along with 71 hits in 33 games while averaging 11L16 per night, his lowest ATOI since the 2020-21 campaign.
As for Brisson, it’s his sixth recall of the season and he has played well in limited action with the big club. Through 12 appearances so far, the 22-year-old has two goals and four assists while averaging 12:39 a night. He also has 13 goals and 15 assists in 42 games with the Silver Knights. With Vegas only having 11 healthy forwards on the active roster before his promotion, they should be able to classify this as an emergency recall, one that wouldn’t count against their post-deadline limit of four.
Penguins Recall Jonathan Gruden
Yesterday, the Penguins opted to bring up one of the three players they had assigned to the minors in forward Valtteri Puustinen. Today, they’ve brought up a second one as the team announced (Twitter link) that forward Jonathan Gruden has been recalled from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
The 23-year-old has spent most of the season at the AHL level, tallying 13 goals and 10 assists in 41 games. Meanwhile, this will be his fourth recall of the year and Gruden got into nine games with Pittsburgh in the first three, scoring once while chipping in with 26 hits in 8:32 per game. He’s playing on a one-year, two-way deal worth the league minimum at the NHL level and will be a restricted free agent this summer.
Notably, the Penguins don’t have the cap space to execute this recall so there is a secondary transaction that hasn’t been announced. With Jansen Harkins expected to be out for a while, he has likely been transferred to LTIR which would open up another $850K in LTIR space, enough to cover Gruden’s $775K AAV.
Barring an unannounced injury to one of their current forwards, Gruden’s recall should burn one of their four post-deadline non-emergency recalls.
Canucks Recall Vasily Podkolzin
After being papered down to the minors yesterday, Vasily Podkolzin is back up with the Canucks as the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled him from AHL Abbotsford.
The 22-year-old was the tenth pick back in 2019 and spent the full 2021-22 season with Vancouver. However, last season, he split the season between the NHL and the AHL, and this year, they decided he’d be best served playing big minutes in his final season of waiver exemption.
This season, Podkolzin has played in 44 games with Abbotsford, collecting 15 goals and 13 assists. He also has seen action in three games with Vancouver this month but has been primarily limited to fourth-line duty. That’s likely to continue to be the case moving forward.
Podkolzin had been shuffled back and forth over the last week but that should change now. With Vancouver having a dozen healthy forwards before this roster move, that means this will count as one of their four allowable post-deadline regular recalls so his stint with the Canucks should be longer this time around. Notably, his promotion effectively caps Vancouver out as they won’t be able to afford another recall. That likely played a role in their decision yesterday not to sign Phil Kessel as an extra depth player after he had worked out with Abbotsford recently.
Sabres Notes: Girgensons, Thompson, Greenway, Captaincy
While the Sabres had some trade discussions involving forward Zemgus Girgensons, GM Kevyn Adams told reporters including Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News that their preference is to re-sign the pending unrestricted free agent. The 30-year-old has spent his entire ten-year NHL career in Buffalo after they made him a first-round pick (14th overall) back in 2012. While Girgensons hasn’t become the two-way threat they envisioned (he hasn’t surpassed the 20-point mark since his sophomore year), he has been an important checker while Adams lauded his dressing room presence. Girgensons has a $2.5MM salary this season and it’s hard to see him commanding much more than that as he has just seven goals and two assists through 46 games so far this season.
More from Buffalo:
- The team welcomed back center Tage Thompson back in the lineup today against Edmonton, per a team announcement. The 26-year-old had missed Thursday’s game with an upper-body injury. It has been a tough year for Thompson who has been limited to 35 points in 53 games after putting up 47 goals and 47 assists last season. Meanwhile, winger Jordan Greenway was out for today’s contest with an injury after taking a high stick against Nashville on Thursday. After struggling last season, the 27-year-old has fared a bit better in his first full season with Buffalo, collecting 21 points and 101 hits in 52 games so far.
- With the Sabres moving captain Kyle Okposo on Friday, they have a decision to make on the captaincy front. Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News relays (Twitter link) that the team will decide on naming a new alternate in the coming days. However, naming a permanent replacement for Okposo will likely wait until next season.