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Rangers Loan Talyn Boyko To Finnish League

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The Rangers have seven goaltenders under contract following the recent signing of Spencer Martin to a two-year, one-way contract.  When everyone’s healthy, that means someone is going to be a third-stringer which isn’t an ideal situation.

For now, at least, the Rangers have found a solution.  The team announced (Twitter link) that they have loaned netminder Talyn Boyko to KalPa in Finland.  It wasn’t specified if this is a rest-of-season loan or something more short-term with an eye on getting him some game action.

The 23-year-old was a fourth-round pick by New York back in 2021, going 112th overall.  At the time, he was the backup with WHL Tri-City but a move to Kelowna the following season put him into the clear starting role, one he held for two seasons before turning pro in 2023-24.

Over his first two professional campaigns, Boyko played primarily at the ECHL level with Cincinnati in his rookie year and Tulsa last season, Anaheim’s affiliate.  He posted a solid 2.66 GAA and a .913 SV% in 33 games with them, earning himself a five-game look with AHL Hartford.

This season, Boyko started off the campaign as the backup goalie with the Wolf Pack, playing behind Dylan Garand.  He has made five appearances, putting up a 3.10 GAA and a .894 SV% but now with Martin in the fold (though he has yet to play since signing), he was set to be relegated to third-string status.

Instead of loaning him to a different AHL or ECHL affiliate (Callum Tung and Hugo Ollas comprise the tandem with ECHL Bloomington), the Rangers have found a different opportunity for Boyko with a look in Finland.  A pending restricted free agent, it doesn’t seem likely that Boyko will be tendered a qualifying offer as things stand so this may be a chance for him to make a case for a contract overseas for 2026-27.

Senators Activate Thomas Chabot, Assign Lassi Thomson To AHL

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The Senators have made a pair of roster moves in advance of their game tonight against San Jose.  First, the team announced that defenseman Lassi Thomson has been sent back to AHL Belleville.  That opened up a roster spot which will be filled by blueliner Thomas Chabot who has been activated off injured reserve, per the NHL’s Media site.

Chabot has missed a week and a half due to an upper-body injury sustained against Dallas.  Before the injury, the 28-year-old was his usual two-way self on the back end, picking up two goals and eight assists in 17 games while blocking 35 shots and averaging a little under 22 minutes per game of playing time, second only to fellow blueliner Jake Sanderson.

Chabot will likely play on the second pairing in his return and it would make sense for Nick Jensen to move back into the other spot on that duo, a pairing that has played a lot together in the early going.  Whose spot Chabot takes in the lineup isn’t as certain though as Nikolas Matinpalo left Thursday’s game due to an injury.  If he can’t play, then Chabot will take his place but if Matinpalo is available, it could be him or Jordan Spence being scratched.

As for Thomson, the 25-year-old was brought up earlier this week as injury insurance for the first leg of Ottawa’s road trip but didn’t see any game action.  He last played in the NHL in the 2022-23 campaign and has five assists in 18 career NHL appearances.  In 15 games with Belleville, he has three goals and an assist.

Atlantic Notes: Maple Leafs, Benson, McAvoy

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While the Maple Leafs had both Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies available at practice yesterday, it appears they’ll be without both of them for at least one more game.  Head coach Craig Berube told reporters including TSN’s Mark Masters (Twitter link) that both forwards are considered as doubtful for tonight against Montreal.  Matthews has missed the last week and a half with a lower-body injury while Knies hasn’t played since last weekend due to a lower-body injury of his own.  Both players are key cogs in Toronto’s top-five attack (in terms of goals scored) with Matthews being tied for second on the team in goals while Knies sits third in points but they’ll have to wait another game at least before returning.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic:

  • After welcoming back Jason Zucker last night against Chicago, the Sabres should get another key winger back on Sunday versus Carolina. Head coach Lindy Ruff told reporters including Matthew Fairburn of The Athletic (Twitter link) before last night’s game that winger Zach Benson probably could have suited up in that one but they elected to be cautious and give him a couple of extra days of rest.  Benson has missed a little more than three weeks with his lower-body injury but had been a strong playmaker beforehand, picking up eight assists in as many games.
  • Earlier this week, Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy underwent facial surgery after taking a redirected puck to the face against Montreal. While there’s no firm timeline for a return, ESPN’s Emily Kaplan recently reported (Twitter link) that the expectation is that he should be cleared to return for the Olympics in February.  McAvoy was part of Team USA’s entry for the 4 Nations Face-Off last winter (before being injured midway through the event) and should have a strong chance of making the Olympic roster which will be announced in early January.

Canucks Reportedly Looking To Move Lukas Reichel

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It has been an eventful year for Canucks forward Lukas Reichel.  Despite a solid start in limited action in Chicago, the Blackhawks had already decided that he was not going to be part of their long-term plans and moved him to Vancouver last month for a 2027 fourth-round pick.  With the Canucks dealing with several injuries, he was a low-cost NHL-level replacement.

Unfortunately for him and the team, that hasn’t gone quite as planned.  Reichel has been limited to just one assist in 13 games since the move and hasn’t even recorded a shot on goal in six straight contests.  As a result, he found himself a healthy scratch in yesterday’s loss to Dallas.

With some players trending toward being closer to returning, it appears that Reichel might not be in Vancouver’s plans for much longer.  In an appearance on Sportsnet 650 (audio link), CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal reported that the team has now made Reichel available and is okay with trying to move him.

While he spent a lot of his time with Chicago on the wing, Vancouver’s injury situation down the middle resulted in them trying Reichel at center, an experiment that clearly hasn’t worked out well given his struggles.  On the other hand, he’s still just 23 and with a $1.2MM cap charge, he’s someone that a lot of teams looking for forward depth could realistically afford on their books.

Of course, with Reichel not performing well, it would seem like GM Patrik Allvin would be hard-pressed to acquire a replacement 2027 fourth-round pick for his services.  But if it’s trending toward a situation where he’s on the outside looking in at a roster spot, the potential to get something over running the risk of losing him for nothing on waivers down the road might be worth looking into.

At the moment, Teddy Blueger (despite a recent setback) and Nils Hoglander are the forwards on IR who are closest to coming back.  Meanwhile, Jonathan Lekkerimaki is currently with AHL Abbotsford on what feels like a conditioning stint and it’s likely he’ll be back up sooner than later.  With 14 forwards on a full 23-player roster, each of those players will require another forward going down to make room.

At the moment, the only waiver-exempt forwards with the Canucks are Mackenzie MacEachern (who hasn’t played in ten games or been on the roster for 30 days since clearing waivers) and Max Sasson, who has played in all but three games this season.  It’s a good problem to have but a roster crunch is on the horizon for Vancouver and it looks like Reichel could soon be one of the casualties.

Central Notes: Burakovsky, Rantanen, Predators

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Blackhawks winger Andre Burakovsky suffered an undisclosed injury last night against Seattle and was quickly ruled out for tonight’s game against Buffalo as well.  However, it doesn’t sound like he’ll be out for too much longer.  Head coach Jeff Blashill indicated to CHGO Sports pregame (Twitter link) that the veteran is listed as day-to-day.  Acquired from the Kraken over the offseason, the 30-year-old has rebounded quite well with his new team.  He has seven goals and eight assists in 18 appearances so far, his best point-per-game mark since 2020-21 when he was with Colorado.  Landon Slaggert returned to the lineup tonight to take Burakovsky’s spot in the lineup.

More from the Central:

  • While Stars winger Mikko Rantanen didn’t receive any supplemental discipline for his hit on Islanders defenseman Alexander Romanov earlier in the week, he is a little lighter in the wallet. Today, the league announced that he has been fined $2K for his second citation of embellishment this season.  The first instance came back on October 16th while the second was a week and a half ago against Ottawa.  The fine money will go to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
  • With the Predators off to a tough start this season following a rough 2024-25 campaign, some have wondered if GM Barry Trotz, a long-time coach, might think about returning behind the bench if he wants to make a coaching change. Trotz poured cold water on that suggestion, telling Alex Daugherty of The Tennessean that there is a 0.0% chance he’d return behind the bench on a full-time basis.  Trotz took over as GM back in 2023 and while it used to be relatively common for someone to serve as head coach and GM, those days are long gone.  Nashville has won just six of their 20 games so far in 2025-26 after recording only 68 points last season.

Latest On Harrison Brunicke

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Generally speaking, having a key young player sitting as a healthy scratch for an extended period of time is far from ideal from a development perspective.  But that has been the case for Penguins defenseman Harrison Brunicke, a rookie blueliner who has only played twice this month and not since November 3rd.

However, it appears that his time in the press box will continue for at least a little while longer.  GM Kyle Dubas recently mentioned in an interview on the Penguins Radio Network (audio link) that the 19-year-old will remain with the big club through the weekend but will continue to be a healthy scratch.

Brunicke has now been scratched for more than five games.  While that normally doesn’t mean a lot, it does allow Pittsburgh to give him a two-week assignment to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.  That’s doable even though he’s not eligible to play there full-time due to the NHL-CHL agreement that dictates that junior players can’t play full-time in the AHL until they’re in their age-20 season.

That strategy is likely by design, even though sitting him for what will be more than three weeks was required to get to that point.  Brunicke has played in nine NHL games this season, meaning that the next one he plays this year officially will activate the first season of his entry-level contract.  He has held his own in those outings while averaging a respectable 15:43 per game of playing time.

Clearly, Dubas isn’t ready to make that call yet so this pending stint will be the next determinant in their decision.  When assigned, he can go down for a maximum of two weeks and they’ll likely time it to give him as many games in that stretch as possible.  He will continue to count against the 23-player limit while in the minors.

Dubas also acknowledged that there is a possibility that Brunicke will be loaned to play for Canada at the World Juniors; that tournament begins in a little less than five weeks from now.  Their training camp is around three weeks away and Dubas noted that they don’t want to put Brunicke in a spot where he’s going to be not playing for an extended stretch again.  That could factor into when the assignment is made.

At this point, it feels like Pittsburgh is going to drag out the decision process as long as possible.  By loaning him to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and then to the World Juniors soon after, they can kick the can on making a final call until early January.  From there, they could either bring him back to the Penguins and officially start his contract or assign him back to WHL Kamloops to play what would amount to basically half of a junior season.

Either way, playing time will soon be on the way for Brunicke but it will be a while yet before his fate for this season ultimately gets decided.

Oilers Recall Connor Clattenburg, Place Noah Philp On LTIR

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The Oilers have made a pair of roster moves in advance of their game on Saturday against Florida.  The team announced that they have recalled forward Connor Clattenburg from AHL Bakersfield.  To create enough cap space to be able to afford the recall, forward Noah Philp has been placed on LTIR.

Clattenburg was a fifth-round pick back in the 2024 draft, going 160th overall in his second year of eligibility.  The 20-year-old had 16 goals and 19 assists along with 108 penalty minutes in 46 games last season with OHL Flint before making his professional debut with one late-season game with Bakersfield.

This is Clattenburg’s first full professional season, one spent exclusively with the Condors to this point.  His offensive production has been rather limited thus far with just one goal and one assist in 15 games although his 59 penalty minutes are the fourth-highest in the league.  If he gets into Edmonton’s lineup, it’s likely that he’ll be suiting up on the fourth line.

As for Philp, he suffered an upper-body injury earlier this week and while the initial diagnosis was that he’d miss at least the next three games, he’ll be out considerably longer with this move as LTIR carries a minimum absence of 10 games and 24 days.  The 27-year-old is in his first full NHL season and has primarily played on the fourth line with the Oilers; he has two goals and an assist in 15 appearances while averaging 10:02 per night.

Jets Sign Adam Lowry To Five-Year Contract Extension

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Nov. 21st: A few days after signing his new extension, PuckPedia shared the year-by-year breakdown of Lowry’s contract:

  • 2026-27: $2.85MM salary, $2.85MM signing bonus, full no-movement clause
  • 2027-28: $5.75MM salary, full no-movement clause
  • 2028-29: $5.75MM salary, five-team trade clause
  • 2029-30: $4.35MM salary, 10-team trade clause
  • 2030-31: $3.45MM salary, 10-team trade clause

Nov. 19th: Only a few short months ago, the 2026 UFA class looked like it could be one of the best in NHL history.  But since then, the list has been thinned out quite quickly.  Another player can now be crossed off that list as the team announced that they’ve signed center Adam Lowry to a five-year contract extension.  TSN’s Darren Dreger adds (Twitter link) that the deal will carry a $5MM AAV and be worth $25MM in total.

The two sides were reported to be making progress on an extension earlier this month so it’s not too surprising to see this get across the finish line.

The 32-year-old is in the final season of his five-year, $16.25MM deal signed back in 2021.  He has never been a high-end offensive contributor in his 12-year NHL career (his highest point total is 36) but over the past few years, he has become a reliable two-way player.   The captain has long been a sound defensive player who brought plenty of physicality to the table and that’s a combination that is especially appealing in a team’s bottom six.

Lowry missed the start of the season while recovering from hip surgery but has jumped right back into his usual role since returning.  In seven games, he has a goal and two assists along with 16 hits in 14:22 of playing time.  For his career (spent in its entirety with the Jets who drafted him in the third round back in 2011), Lowry has 122 goals and 154 hits in 782 games.

This deal represents a nice raise from his current $3.25MM AAV while getting a long-term agreement for the second straight contract.  While a $5MM AAV for someone whose production is more in the third-line range, those other elements he brings made it likely that he could have landed a deal at or higher than this price point on the open market.

Meanwhile, the Jets also get some much-needed stability down the middle.  Mark Scheifele is also signed through 2030-31, meaning that Winnipeg has two of their top three centers in place for the long haul.  GM Kevin Cheveldayoff still has some work to do to secure a long-term fit for their second center position (a role filled by Jonathan Toews this year) but that’s a strong foundation down the middle to build off of.

With the signing, the Jets now have around $78.7MM in commitments for the 2026-27 season, per PuckPedia.  That gives them around $25MM in cap room based on the projected $104MM Upper Limit.  Cole Perfetti, a pending restricted free agent with salary arbitration rights, will take up a good chunk of that but the rest of their pending free agents (all unrestricted) are for players more in depth roles.  That could give Cheveldayoff a chance to try to make a splash to add another core piece to his roster, either via trade or free agency this summer.

Murat Ates of The Athletic was the first to report that an extension had been agreed upon.

Photo courtesy of Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images.

East Notes: Tkachuk, Eller, Rempe, Dowd

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The Senators haven’t had captain Brady Tkachuk available for most of the season as he has missed the last 16 games with a thumb injury.  The team has fared relatively well in his absence, compiling an 8-4-4 record without him but it’s fair to say that they’re still missing their captain.  The good news for the Sens is that he might not be out much longer.  On his latest Wingmen podcast (audio link), Tkachuk indicated that he’s hoping to return around Thanksgiving.  When he underwent surgery in mid-October, the recovery timeline was six to seven weeks so returning next week would fall within that range.  Tkachuk had 55 points in 72 games last season and assuming there are no late setbacks, he’ll soon give a big boost to an Ottawa attack that enters the night around the middle of the pack offensively, sitting 13th in goals scored.

Elsewhere in the East:

  • Still with the Senators, center Lars Eller won’t play on Thursday due to an undisclosed injury, notes Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch (Twitter link).  The 36-year-old has been a regular in Ottawa’s bottom six this season, picking up two goals and four assists in 19 games while logging a little more than 13 minutes a game of playing time.  There’s no word yet on how long he might be out for.
  • Rangers winger Matt Rempe has resumed skating as he works his way back from an upper-body injury, mentions Mollie Walker of the New York Post (Twitter link). Head coach Mike Sullivan noted that while there’s no timetable for his return, he’s up to skating three days on, one day off which is a promising sign.  Rempe has a goal, nine penalty minutes, and 30 hits in nine outings so far this season while getting a bit more ice time under Sullivan, logging nearly 10 minutes a night.
  • Capitals center Nic Dowd missed tonight’s game against Edmonton due to an upper-body injury, relays NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti (Twitter link). The 35-year-old is in the first season of a two-year, $6MM deal but has struggled offensively.  After notching double-digit goals in each of the last five years, Dowd has just one through his first 19 outings.  Bailey Johnson of The Washington Post adds (Twitter link) that the middleman won’t accompany the team to Montreal for their game on Thursday and will be evaluated further.

Canucks Injury Notes: Blueger, Garland, Hoglander, Forbort

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It has been a tough season for Canucks center Teddy Blueger.  He missed the start of the season with a lower-body injury, came back, and had the injury flare up again in his second game.  Now, things don’t appear to be going well in his recovery.  Speaking with reporters today (video link), head coach Adam Foote indicated that Blueger has suffered a setback and will be shut down for at least a few days.  The hope is that he will be able to resume skating after that.  In his first two seasons with Vancouver, the 31-year-old has put up 28 and 26 points while notching a career-high 104 hits in 2024-25 as well.  With their center depth being thinned out at the moment, they were hoping that Blueger would be able to come in and play soon but that won’t be the case.

Other news from Vancouver:

  • On the good news front, Conor Garland’s absence will wind up being just one game. After missing Sunday’s game with an undisclosed injury, Foote noted that the 29-year-old will return on Thursday against Dallas.  Garland is off to a good start to his season with five goals and eight assists in 17 games, a point-per-game rate that, if maintained, would be the best of his career.  He’s also averaging nearly 20 minutes per night which is also a personal best, coming in ahead of the career-high 18:39 set last season.
  • Foote also shared an update on winger Nils Hoglander. Out since the preseason due to lower-body surgery, he was initially expected to miss eight to ten weeks.  It appears he’s still on that trajectory but the recovery time now appears to be on the back end of that scale.  After a career year in 2023-24 that saw him record 24 goals and 36 points, his production dropped last season to just eight goals and 25 points and with the time he’s missed this season, he might be hard-pressed to match that total in 2025-26.
  • Lastly, regarding defenseman Derek Forbort, Foote said that “I think, the last couple years. When you get into the midsection stuff, whatever it is, I think they want to start from scratch and fix it.” The veteran has only played in two games this season due to the injury and Foote’s comments suggest that a return isn’t imminent.

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