Five Key Stories: 11/28/22 – 12/4/22
As the calendar turned to December, there was some notable news around the hockey world over the past seven days which is recapped in our key stories.
Another Stroke For Letang: Back in 2014, Penguins defenseman Kris Letang suffered a stroke which resulted in doctors finding a small hole in the wall of his heart and caused him to miss two months. He had played more than 500 games since then so it wasn’t expected that he’d have another one but that’s indeed what happened. Fortunately, this one isn’t believed to be as severe as the one from eight years ago but there is no timetable for when he might be able to return. Letang was off to a nice start to his season before this happened as he had a dozen points in 21 games while logging just shy of 24 minutes a night on their back end.
Clearing Waivers: A couple of years ago, Calvin Petersen was pegged to become the goalie of the present and future for the Kings and he was rewarded with a three-year, $15MM contract that began this season. However, he struggled last year with a save percentage of just .895 and that was even worse this season, checking in at .868 through his first ten appearances. That resulted in him being waived and clearing, resulting in a demotion to AHL Ontario where both he and the team hope that he’ll be able to turn things around. Veteran Pheonix Copley will be Jonathan Quick’s backup for the time being. Also clearing waivers this past week was veteran center Riley Sheahan who had his deal with Buffalo terminated; he quickly signed in Switzerland.
Eight For Hintz: The Stars weren’t able to reach a max-term agreement with Jason Robertson this summer but they were able to do so with one of their other core forwards as they inked Roope Hintz to an eight-year extension that carries a cap hit of $8.45MM. The deal, which kicks in next season, also contains a no-move clause for the final seven seasons, the only ones he was eligible for trade protection in. Hintz had a breakout year last season, notching 37 goals and 35 assists in 80 games and is off to an even better start points-wise this year, collecting 26 in his first 23 contests. Dallas now has four forwards that will carry a cap charge of at least $7.75MM next season with Robertson – the league leader in goals, being at the bottom of that group.
Formenton Ineligible To Play: It’s not very often that a restricted free agent makes it all the way to the signing deadline without a contract and it’s rarer that a player doesn’t sign by then. However, that’s what happened with Senators RFA winger Alex Formenton who now becomes ineligible to play in the NHL this season. Ottawa had been trying to trade him but was unable to find a taker at their asking price which was believed to be a second-round pick. Formenton now could try to find a team overseas to play with this season but it’s quite possible that won’t happen right away until the NHL releases its findings from its own investigation regarding the Hockey Canada World Junior 2018 sexual assault investigation; Formenton was part of that team. The Sens will retain his rights as a restricted free agent.
Injury News: Ryan Ellis was only able to play in four games last season but that will be four more than he’s able to play this year as he has been ruled out for the season. With him missing this much time, it’s fair to start to wonder if this is the end of his playing days even with four years left on his deal after this one. Meanwhile, Tyler Bertuzzi’s contract year continues to not go according to plan as he’ll miss the next six weeks after undergoing hand surgery. Injuries have limited the 27-year-old pending UFA to just nine games so far while the Red Wings will once again be down one of their top wingers for an extended stretch. Then there’s Blue Jackets winger Jakub Voracek, who has been out for the last month due to a concussion. GM Jarmo Kekalainen indicated this is a long-term issue while Voracek is set to meet the media on Monday to provide further clarity on the situation.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
West Notes: Iafallo, Dumba, Mrazek
The Kings are expected to welcome back winger Alex Iafallo to the lineup on their upcoming road trip, reports Zach Dooley of LA Kings Insider. The 28-year-old suffered a lower-body injury back in mid-October after a strong start that saw him pick up at least a point per game in each of his first four contests and has been out since then. Last season, Iafallo was tied for fifth on the team in goals (17) while finishing sixth in points with 37 and his return will give Los Angeles another proven forward in the middle six to bolster what has already been a strong offense this season with the team averaging just over 3.4 goals per game so far. He skated on the third line in practice today and could be available as soon as Tuesday’s contest against Ottawa.
More from the West:
- Matt Dumba’s future with the Wild has seemingly been in question for years now as trade speculation has been plentiful but he has always stuck around. However, Michael Russo and Joe Smith of The Athletic feel (subscription link) that it will be different this time around and that Minnesota is likely to move the 28-year-old by the trade deadline in March. Dumba has struggled this season and has just seven points in 24 games and with prospect Brock Faber not far away from being NHL-ready (he’s expected to turn pro after his college season ends), it’s possible that they’d eye him for Dumba’s spot, allowing them to reallocate his $6MM elsewhere. Even with him struggling, Dumba would be an interesting addition to the trade block over the next few months.
- Blackhawks goaltender Petr Mrazek will be out at least a week after suffering a groin injury in last night’s contest against the Rangers, relays Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times (Twitter link). The veteran is no stranger to dealing with groin trouble over his career although fortunately for him, this one appears to be a shorter-term issue. The fact he’ll be out for at least a week will make him eligible to be placed on IR which would give Chicago an extra roster spot. They had one available yesterday but used that to bring up goalie Jaxson Stauber earlier today.
Decision Time Is Coming For Kings And Brandt Clarke
One of the underlying themes for junior-aged players in the NHL is noting when they officially burn the first year of their entry-level contract once they play in their tenth game of the season. Some teams are comfortable going past that point and are more concerned with the second threshold of 40 games on the active roster when a player accrues a year of service time towards UFA eligibility. Others try to drag out the decision as long as they can to allow for extra evaluation time.
The Kings are clearly in the latter category when it comes to defenseman Brandt Clarke. Los Angeles selected the 19-year-old eighth overall in 2021 following a strong season with Barrie of the OHL. He returned to the Colts last season and simply dominated, notching 59 points in 55 games and did well enough in six preseason games to earn a spot on the opening roster.
Before going any further, it’s worth noting that the agreement between the NHL and CHL prohibits junior-aged players from playing in the minors until their age-20 year (with the exception being if they’ve already played four seasons of major junior). With Clarke not in his age-20 year, his playing options this season are the NHL and the OHL only.
Los Angeles quickly burned through Clarke’s nine games, the last of which came on November 1st. At that time, they opted to hold him out of the lineup long enough to satisfy the conditions needed to make him eligible for a two-week conditioning stint with AHL Ontario which supersedes the NHL/CHL agreement in that one scenario and it’s not one that can be used repeatedly. Clarke went down, played in five games with the Reign, and was recalled on Sunday where he has been scratched ever since.
It’s certainly understandable that the Kings might not want to return him to junior, a league that Clarke has proven all that he really needs to prove. In that sense, dropping down to a lower level might be perceived as stagnating his development. However, simply not playing isn’t exactly helping his development either. There’s something to be gained from practicing with the big club, but that’s only for a certain amount of time before not suiting up becomes problematic. Plus, keeping a player up with no intention of playing him isn’t the most efficient use of cap space as the Kings could stand to benefit from banking some extra room to use closer to the trade deadline this season.
There’s one way that the Kings could kick this decision a little further down the road. If Clarke is invited to participate at Team Canada’s training camp for the upcoming World Juniors, Los Angeles could hold him on the roster for a few more days and then loan him to Canada’s squad. They would then reserve the ability to recall him at that time when they could evaluate him in a few more practices and then decide what to do. If they were to loan him to the OHL before Canada’s camp begins, they wouldn’t be able to recall Clarke back to Los Angeles.
That would then take them to the OHL trade deadline (January 10th) where they could see if he’s moved to a more favorable situation or if Barrie, who could add top draft prospect Eduard Sale after the World Juniors, loads up, creating a better opportunity for him to return to. At this point, it appears that this is the route that they’re likely to take.
In the meantime, barring a change of heart that puts him in the lineup in the coming days (they next play Tuesday against Ottawa), it appears the waiting game for Clarke will continue for at least a few more days but with Canada’s camp starting soon, they’ll have a decision to make in the near future.
Kings Loan Aidan Dudas To AHL
12/4/22: Per a team announcement, Dudas has been loaned back to AHL Ontario.
12/3/22: The roster shuffling in Los Angeles has been rather frequent in recent weeks although it has often involved the same few players. That isn’t the case this time around as the team announced that they’ve recalled center Aidan Dudas from Ontario of the AHL.
This will be the 22-year-old’s first promotion to the full NHL roster after only previously having a pair of one-day taxi squad stints in the 2020-21 campaign. Dudas, a fourth-round pick of the Kings back in 2018 (113th overall), has played in 18 games with the Reign this season and is tied for the team lead in goals with six. He’s in the final year of his entry-level deal and will be a restricted free agent this summer so it appears they want to take at least a quick look to see how he is progressing.
Los Angeles was only carrying 22 players on their active roster following the re-assignment of Tyler Madden to Ontario on Friday. As a result, they didn’t need to make an additional move to open up a spot for Dudas to be recalled.
Snapshots: Sabres, Boeser, Schedule
The Sabres could have defenseman Jacob Bryson back in the lineup tomorrow against San Jose, relays Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News (Twitter link). The 25-year-old has missed the last couple of weeks with a lower-body injury sustained against St. Louis. Bryson is in his second full NHL campaign and has a goal and five assists in 20 games this season while averaging a little under 18 minutes a night.
Meanwhile, Lysowski also tweets that winger Vinnie Hinostroza left practice early today as he’s battling what’s believed to be a minor injury. The veteran missed Thursday’s game against Colorado with the injury as well. Hinostroza was a capable depth scorer last season with 13 goals in 62 games but is still looking for his first of the season. However, with eight assists in 15 games, Hinostroza is averaging the best assist-per-game rate of his eight-year career.
Elsewhere around the NHL:
- It has been a bit of a tough season so far for Canucks winger Brock Boeser and there’s more tough news coming for him as head coach Bruce Boudreau confirmed to Sportsnet 650’s Brendan Batchelor (Twitter link) that winger Brock Boeser will be a healthy scratch tonight against Arizona. Boeser has just three goals so far through his first 18 games (although he does have 11 assists) and Boudreau is calling this decision “tough love”. It sounds like this is a short-term decision but Vancouver will certainly need more from Boeser if they want to get back into the playoff picture; they sit five points out of the last Wild Card heading into today’s action.
- Last month, the Predators had a pair of their games postponed due to a water main break in their arena. Today, the league announced the makeup dates for those contests. Nashville will host the Blue Jackets on January 17th while they will host the Avalanche on April 14th, one day after the regular season is set to conclude.
Senators Recall Jacob Larsson
The Senators have brought up some extra defensive depth, announcing (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled Jacob Larsson from Belleville of the AHL. Ottawa had an open roster spot so no corresponding move needed to be made.
The 25-year-old is in his first season with the Senators after coming over in free agency following his non-tender by Anaheim last summer. Larsson has played in three games with Ottawa so far this season during a recall last month, logging a little under 13 minutes per game while being held off the scoresheet. Meanwhile, he has suited up in 16 contests at the minor league level, picking up four assists.
The move comes on the heels of Artem Zub and Travis Hamonic both taking pucks up high last night against the Rangers, the former to the face and the latter to the throat. Zub has already been ruled out for tonight per Postmedia’s Ken Warren (Twitter link) and Nick Holden will return to the lineup in his place. Meanwhile, Larsson will suit up if Hamonic is unable to play tonight against San Jose.
East Notes: Atkinson, Lundell, Bardreau, Lysell
It appears as if the Flyers could soon have winger Cam Atkinson available as the winger indicated to reporters including NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman (Twitter link) that he has been medically cleared to return to the lineup. The 33-year-old has yet to play this season due to an upper-body injury and at this point, it appears that simply getting into game-level conditioning is what’s holding him back from making his season debut. Whenever he does return, Atkinson will be a welcome addition to a Philadelphia team that sits 30th in the NHL in goals scored so far this season as he finished second on the team in scoring in 2021-22 with 50 points in 73 games.
More from the Eastern Conference:
- The Panthers announced (Twitter link) that center Anton Lundell will not play tonight due to an upper-body injury. This means that once again, Florida will be forced to play short a player as they do not have enough cap space to call anyone up. While they’d become eligible for a cap-exempt recall after today’s game, Lundell’s absence appears to be a short-term one as he’s expected to play against Winnipeg on Tuesday. The sophomore middleman has 13 points in 24 games so far this season.
- Cole Bardreau’s latest stint with the Islanders didn’t last long as the team announced (Twitter link) that the winger has been returned to Bridgeport of the AHL. The 29-year-old did make his season debut last night, his first NHL action since the 2019-20 campaign. Bardreau, for now at least, returns to the minors where he has nine goals in 19 games with Bridgeport but with Cal Clutterbuck still not skating, it’s possible that Bardreau is brought up again in the coming days.
- With the World Juniors fast approaching, Sweden has approached the Bruins about winger Fabian Lysell, reports Mark Divver of the New England Hockey Journal (Twitter link). The 19-year-old is playing with AHL Providence this season and is off to a nice start to his first professional campaign as he sits third on the team with 14 points in 17 games. While some teams hesitate to loan their players from the NHL, it’d be a little surprising if Boston wasn’t amenable to loaning the 19-year-old for his final opportunity to play in that tournament.
Isac Lundestrom To Miss Six Weeks
It has been a tough season for Anaheim’s Isac Lundestrom and things just got a little worse for him as the team announced (Twitter link) that the center will miss the next six weeks due to a fractured finger. The injury was sustained during Thursday’s loss to Dallas.
The 23-year-old had a breakout year last season that saw him put up 29 points in 80 games after putting up just 15 over his first three NHL campaigns in limited action. That was enough for Anaheim to hand him a two-year bridge deal this summer, one that carries a cap hit of $1.8MM. However, Lundestrom has struggled through the first quarter of this season as he has just a goal and five assists through 24 games although he is among the team leaders in shorthanded ice time.
While Pavol Regenda is likely to take his place in the lineup for the time being as the only extra forward with the team on their current road trip, Lundestrom’s absence creates an opportunity for Mason McTavish to play down the middle more frequently for the time being. Anaheim has deployed the rookie on the wing at times this season as teams often do with young centers to ease them in but McTavish is anchoring the fourth line this afternoon against Minnesota.
Colorado Places Josh Manson On IR
The injury list continues to grow for the Avalanche as the team confirmed to Bennett Durando of The Denver Post (Twitter link) that defenseman Josh Manson has been placed on injured reserve retroactive to Thursday. He has left the team to be re-evaluated and is listed as week-to-week.
The 31-year-old is in his first full year with the Avs after being acquired in a trade near the deadline from Anaheim last season. After being a top-four defender with Anaheim, Colorado has opted to use Manson in a bit of a lower role so far as he’s logging just shy of 17 minutes per game (a career low) through his first 21 contests. Despite that, he has chipped in with six points while averaging more than two hits per contest.
Andreas Englund, who was recalled from AHL Colorado yesterday, is taking Manson’s spot on the active roster.
The defending Stanley Cup champions have been hit hard by the injury bug this season. Gabriel Landeskog and Darren Helm are on LTIR while Valeri Nichushkin, Kurtis MacDermid, and Shane Bowers will join Manson on injured reserve. Meanwhile, Evan Rodrigues and Bowen Byram are also currently injured but remain on Colorado’s active roster. In spite of all the injuries, the Avalanche enter tonight’s game against Boston with 27 points in 21 games, good enough to place them third in the Central Division.
Lightning Activate Anthony Cirelli From LTIR
As expected, the Lightning will get a big boost to their lineup as head coach Jon Cooper confirmed to reporters including Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link) that they will activate center Anthony Cirelli from LTIR and he will make his season debut tonight when they host Toronto.
The 25-year-old has missed all 23 games of the season after undergoing shoulder surgery back in June following their loss to Colorado in the Stanley Cup Final. He suffered an AC joint sprain at some point in the postseason. At the time, it was expected that he’d miss between four and six months; Cirelli will wind up missing a little more than five as a result of the procedure.
Cirelli signed an eight-year, $50MM extension back in July that will run from 2023-24 through 2030-31, meaning he will be a go-to two-way center for Tampa Bay for the long haul. Last season, he picked up 17 goals and 26 assists in 76 games for the Lightning, the third time in four years that he has picked up between 39 and 44 points. On top of that, he finished in the top five in Selke Trophy voting for the second time in three seasons; that award is given to the league’s best defensive forward. Cirelli logged over 18 minutes a game last season but is going to be eased back into the lineup as he’ll play on the third line tonight against the Maple Leafs.
To create the cap room that’s required to activate Cirelli, the team sent winger Cole Koepke to AHL Syracuse earlier today while they waived Philippe Myers on Friday. If Myers clears, Tampa Bay will be able to clear $1.125MM off their books which will give them just enough room to bring Cirelli onto the active roster. The Lightning will continue to be in LTIR as Brent Seabrook is on their books through next season with his playing days already having come to an end.