AHL Shuffle: 04/09/22
There are a dozen games on the schedule today including an Original Six matchup between Montreal and Toronto where the Maple Leafs will look to become the third team in the Eastern Conference to officially clinch a playoff spot with a victory. With that many games on tap, there should be several roster moves made throughout the day which we’ll keep track of here.
Atlantic Division
- The Maple Leafs appear to have brought up goaltender Carter Hutton as TSN’s Mark Masters notes (Twitter link) that the veteran was at the morning skate today. Hutton was acquired from Arizona back in February but remained with their AHL affiliate in Tucson. However, with Toronto’s AHL affiliate having three injured goalies plus Petr Mrazek out for the rest of the regular season, Toronto now has a use for the 36-year-old whose presence could eventually allow Erik Kallgren to go back to the minors where he’d get more playing time unless they eventually opt to send Hutton to the Marlies instead.
Metropolitan Division
- The Flyers announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled winger Hayden Hodgson from Lehigh Valley of the AHL. The 25-year-old was converted to an NHL contract just before the trade deadline and has played in five games since then, picking up a goal and an assist along with 11 penalty minutes. He’ll take the place of winger Joel Farabee who is out with a non-COVID illness.
- The Penguins announced (Twitter link) that they’ve returned center Filip Hallander to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. The 21-year-old made his NHL debut on Thursday but with Jason Zucker returning to the lineup, Pittsburgh had to either send Hallander back or convert him to one of their four allowable post-deadline regular recalls.
- The New York Islanders announced (Twitter Link) that they’ve recalled forward Andy Andreoff from the Bridgeport Islanders of the AHL. Andreoff has spent the majority of the season with Bridgeport, but did get into five games with the Islanders this season amid their COVID outbreak in late November and early December. The call-up comes with forward Casey Cizikas being suspended for one game after a hit on Carolina Hurricanes’ defenseman Brendan Smith last night. Andreoff will draw into the lineup tonight against the St. Louis Blues.
Central Division
Pacific Division
This post will be updated throughout the day.
Casey Cizikas Receives One-Game Suspension
With the Islanders in action tonight against St. Louis, the disciplinary hearing for center Casey Cizikas needed to be held quickly. That indeed happened as the Department of Player Safety has made their ruling, announcing (video link) that the veteran has received a one-game suspension for his hit last night on Carolina defenseman Brendan Smith.
The incident occurred just seven seconds into the third period with Cizikas receiving a minor penalty on the play. Smith, meanwhile, left the game and did not return with no word on how long he might be out for. It’s the first time that Cizikas has received any sort of supplementary discipline from the league.
Cizikas will forfeit $12.5K in salary as a result of the suspension and the money will go to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund. He will be eligible to return to New York’s lineup on Tuesday when they host Pittsburgh.
Metropolitan Notes: Kuraly, Penguins, Sheary, MacEwen
The Blue Jackets announced (Twitter link) that they have placed center Sean Kuraly in COVID protocol which means he will not play tonight against Detroit. The team has been dealing with the virus lately with both head coach Brad Larsen and assistant coach Steve McCarthy entering the protocol late last month (they have since returned) while associate coach Pascal Vincent entered on Monday. Kuraly has had a good first season with his hometown team, posting career highs in goals (12), points (28), faceoff wins (580), and hits (216) over 72 games.
More from the Metropolitan:
- The Penguins will welcome winger Jason Zucker back to the lineup this afternoon as he has recovered from his knee injury, relays Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter link). The veteran returned to the lineup at the end of March after missing more than two months following core muscle surgery but suffered the knee injury that very same game. It has been a frustrating year for Zucker to say the least as he has been limited to just 32 games, collecting just eight goals and six assists. Meanwhile, while winger Brock McGinn is getting closer to returning from the upper-body injury that has held him out for the last month, he isn’t quite ready to play just yet.
- Washington winger Conor Sheary will miss today’s game against Pittsburgh due to a non-COVID illness, notes Mike Vogel of the Capitals’ team website (Twitter link). He didn’t take part in Friday’s practice or travel with the team. Sheary has been a quality secondary scorer for Washington this season, collecting 35 points in 60 games.
- Flyers winger Zack MacEwen has been cleared by team doctors but will need some time before rejoining Philadelphia’s lineup, mentions Olivia Reiner of the Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link). He last played last weekend and suffered a head injury in a fight. He has seven points and 101 penalty minutes in 66 games this season.
Devils Rule Miles Wood And Jonas Siegenthaler Out For The Season
The Devils will be without a pair of regulars for the final few weeks as the team announced (Twitter link) that winger Miles Wood and defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler have been ruled out for the remainder of the season.
Wood has missed the majority of the year after undergoing hip surgery following an injury that he suffered in the preseason. He made his season debut two weeks ago against Montreal and got into two more games after that while spending some time as a healthy scratch as a precautionary measure. It appears they’re erring on the side of caution with this decision as the team is merely playing out the stretch so there’s no need to risk anything. Unfortunately for the 26-year-old, he’ll now enter restricted free agency for the final time this summer with not much of a platform year to work off of; he’ll be owed a qualifying offer of $3.5MM which is a high price to pay for someone who maxed out at 25 points in a single season over his current four-year deal.
As for Siegenthaler, his season comes to an end due to a broken hand. His first full campaign with New Jersey has been a successful one as he has logged more than 20 minutes a game while playing in all but one contest so far. After being a reserve defender for most of his NHL tenure to this point, this has been a nice turnaround for him. Siegenthaler would be a strong candidate to play for Switzerland at next month’s World Championships if he is able to recover by then; that tournament begins a little more than a month from now on May 13th.
Golden Knights Place Two On LTIR
The Golden Knights have added a bit of cap flexibility as CapFriendly reports (Twitter link) that defenseman Nicolas Hague and center Brett Howden have been transferred to LTIR. Both players were injured last month and the placements have been dated retroactive accordingly – Hague to March 15th and Howden to March 21st. With the designations, both players have to miss at least 10 games and 24 days from the placement which means Hague is pretty close to being eligible to return already.
The moves boost Vegas’ usable LTIR space to just over $5MM which gives them enough flexibility to bring other players up from AHL Henderson if need be. The Golden Knights have an extra forward and defenseman on the roster already so no further reinforcements are necessary and if they did call someone up, it would count towards one of their four post-deadline regular recalls since they’re not in an emergency situation.
However, it’s worth noting that they’re still well short of being able to free up the money to activate winger Mark Stone off LTIR; they’re still $4.45MM short of that. Of course, they tried to preemptively free up some space at the trade deadline with the since-invalidated Evgenii Dadonov trade and would need to try to make a similar move if Stone becomes ready to return. That said, they now have enough room to activate winger Reilly Smith if and when he is cleared to play which would give the Golden Knights a boost offensively as they look to get back into the playoff picture although it would basically end Hague and Howden’s regular seasons as well; there is no set timetable for them to return.
The salary cap limits expire at the end of the regular season which is still three weeks away and it looks as if the Golden Knights will be tap-dancing around that until the final buzzer sounds.
Snapshots: Meyers, Penguins, Fehr
College free agent center Ben Meyers is expected to begin interviewing with NHL teams on Sunday, reports Michael Russo of The Athletic (subscription link). The 23-year-old is widely viewed as the top player in this year’s NCAA free agent class and to that end, Russo notes more than two dozen teams are interested in signing Meyers with his hometown team in Minnesota certainly among them. Meyers, who was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, had 17 goals and 24 assists in 34 games for the Golden Gophers this season plus four points in four contests in the Olympics. He’s expected to sign a two-year, entry-level deal that will begin this season although he will not be eligible to play in the playoffs if he signs with a team that’s heading for the postseason.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- The Penguins may opt to keep their better prospects in the minors instead of using them to replace injured players over the final few weeks of the season, suggests Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL finds themselves in a close battle for a playoff spot (or play-in position, potentially) and the developmental value of having those prospects in a close race could be more beneficial than sprinkling them into the NHL lineup on a Pittsburgh team that is comfortably in a playoff spot and is simply playing for positioning.
- Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli examines the future of NHLPA Executive Director Donald Fehr. He has officially been at the head of the association since December of 2010 and isn’t on a fixed-term contract; the post is his until he chooses to leave or is asked to. Fehr himself indicated that a plan to transition to his successor “won’t be soon” but Seravalli suggests there is a level of discontentment that could necessitate a change before Fehr wants to step aside.
Injury Updates: Pacioretty, Wild, Stars, Petry
Vegas could get a key player back for tomorrow’s contest against Arizona as Ben Gotz of the Las Vegas Review-Journal relays that winger Max Pacioretty is listed as a game-time decision. The veteran has missed nearly a month with an undisclosed injury, continuing what has been a tough year on the injury front as he has been limited to just 29 games. However, the 33-year-old has been quite productive when he has been in the lineup as he has 15 goals and 14 assists. With the Golden Knights sitting two points out of the last Wild Card spot in the Western Conference heading into Friday’s slate of games, Pacioretty would undoubtedly give them a big boost as they look to get into the postseason.
Other injury updates from around the NHL:
- The Wild could get a pair of players back for Sunday’s game against Los Angeles as Sarah McLellan of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports (Twitter link) that defenseman Jon Merrill and winger Matt Boldy could both be back. Both players suffered upper-body injuries at the end of March and while Merrill has seen his role scaled back a little bit lately, Boldy has played a crucial role for Minnesota since being recalled in January, collecting 27 points in 35 games.
- Stars defenseman Esa Lindell plus wingers Jacob Peterson and Denis Gurianov have all been upgraded to game-time decisions for their game on Saturday against New Jersey, notes Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas Morning News. Each player has missed the last three games, Lindell due to an upper-body injury, Peterson a lower-body injury, and Gurianov an illness. Dallas has a two-point lead on Vegas for the final Wild Card spot in the West and getting those three back will only help their cause.
- The Canadiens could get defenseman Jeff Petry back for Saturday’s game against Toronto, mentions TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie (Twitter link). The veteran has missed the last two weeks with a lower-body injury, the latest frustration in what has been a tough season as the 34-year-old has struggled considerably, notching just 16 points in 57 games while Montreal wasn’t able to find a suitable trade for him at the deadline last month.
Dryden McKay Wins Hobey Baker Award
Minnesota State goaltender Dryden McKay didn’t take home the Mike Richter Award for the best goaltender in college hockey on Friday (Northeastern’s Devon Levi, a Buffalo prospect, got the nod there as well as the Tim Taylor Award for Rookie of the Year). However, he earned an even bigger award as the NCAA announced (Twitter link) that the netminder has won the Hobey Baker Award which is presented annually to the most outstanding men’s college hockey player in the United States. He beat out Minnesota center Ben Meyers and Denver winger Bobby Brink (a Philadelphia prospect) for the honor.
McKay actually was a finalist for the award last season that went to then-Wisconsin winger Cole Caufield. This season, the 24-year-old has had yet another dominant campaign with the Mavericks, posting a 1.27 GAA along with a .934 SV% in 42 games (where he has a 38-4 record with 10 shutouts). Of course, they have one more game to go as they will take on Denver for the national championship on Saturday.
After that game, several NHL teams are expected to try to sign McKay. His numbers throughout his four-year college career have been nothing short of stellar (a 1.45 GAA, a .932 SV%, and 34 shutouts in 139 games). While he’s a bit small compared to a lot of goalies nowadays as teams tend to prefer taller netminders – McKay stands 6’0 – this is a player that many should be willing to make an exception for.
Five Key Stories: 3/28/22 – 4/3/22
We’ve hit the home stretch of the season and while most of the activity over the past week has been college players signing contracts, there was some notable news around the NHL which is highlighted in our top stories.
Done For The Year: The Flames will be without center Sean Monahan for the rest of the season as the center will soon undergo hip surgery. It’s not the hip he had repaired last summer either which certainly is far from ideal for the veteran. Monahan’s season ends with just 23 points in 65 games and he already has been placed on LTIR. Meanwhile, Coyotes winger Clayton Keller suffered a broken leg which carries a recovery time of four to six months. While it has been a tough year offensively for many Arizona players, that wasn’t the case for Keller as he had already set a new career high in goals (28) while his 63 points were two shy of his career best. Now, the team will simply be hoping that Keller’s recovery won’t take the full six months as if that happens, his availability for the start of next season would be in question.
Ironman Streak Ends: One day, Keith Yandle’s record-setting ironman streak was going to come to an end. It turns out that day was Saturday as the Flyers decided to make the veteran a healthy scratch, ending his streak at 989 consecutive regular season games played. The move was somewhat controversial since Philadelphia is well out of the playoff picture but they’ve decided to ensure their prospects have the playing time. Yandle has struggled considerably this season with just one goal along with 14 assists in 67 games, a far cry from the type of production he was putting up in his prime.
Two More For Goligoski: When Alex Goligoski signed a one-year, $5MM contract with the Wild last summer, it looked like he might be a one-and-done player with the team heading towards a cap crunch next season. However, the defenseman has done well in his first season with his hometown team, picking up 28 points in 59 games while averaging nearly 19 minutes a night. That was enough for Minnesota to decide to keep him around a little longer as they signed him to a two-year, $4MM extension which also contains a no-move clause. Goligoski has been scratched a bit as of late after the acquisition of Jacob Middleton from San Jose but it’s still a pretty low price tag for a serviceable veteran who is set to reach the 1,000 games played mark next season.
GM Meetings Roundup: For the first time in two years, all 32 NHL general managers were able to meet in person with several items on the agenda. The key headline was that the salary cap will still increase as expected to $82.5MM next season, an increase of $1MM, one that had been in some question due to lowered revenue projections when the Canadian teams were facing attendance restrictions. While LTIR was discussed, no changes are forthcoming on that front (plus, it’s a CBA issue so changes would require the approval of the NHLPA). Additionally, there are now plans to establish a database of no-move and no-trade clauses that would be jointly filed with NHL Central Registry and the NHLPA. This, of course, comes on the heels of the since-voided Evgenii Dadonov trade where Vegas wasn’t aware that Anaheim was on Dadonov’s no-trade list.
Melnyk Passes Away: We end on a sad note as Senators owner Eugene Melnyk passed away at the age of 62. He bought the team back in 2003 back when it was in bankruptcy and relocation looked like a legitimate possibility. Since then, the team has had its fair share of ups and downs but did make it to the Stanley Cup Final back in 2007 and Ottawa has amassed several quality pieces as they look to emerge from their current rebuild in the near future. Everyone here at PHR joins those in the hockey world in extending our condolences to his family and friends.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
College Notes: Transfer Portal, Lucius, Ford
A pair of NHL-drafted prospects have entered the NCAA’s transfer portal as Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald reports (Twitter link) that Blackhawks defenseman Slava Demin and Michigan State forward Josh Nodler are looking for new schools for next season. It’s actually the second year in a row that Demin, a 2018 fourth-round pick, has been in the portal as the senior transferred from Denver to UMass for this season but had just three points in 22 games. Meanwhile, Nodler, a 2019 fifth-rounder, had 15 points in 36 games with Michigan State and will now look for a new place to play in the hopes of having a bigger role for his senior year to help his chances of getting an NHL contract from the Flames or someone else.
More college hockey news:
- Jets prospect Chaz Lucius is expected to remain at the University of Minnesota for his sophomore year, notes Sportsnet’s Ken Wiebe. The 18-year-old was the 18th-overall pick in 2021 and had 19 points in 24 games before suffering a lower-body injury in February that ended his season early. While Winnipeg will need some cheaper forwards to balance out the bigger deals they have, turning Lucius pro after that short of a college career would have been risky.
- Undrafted forward Parker Ford will return to Providence for his senior year instead of turning pro, reports Mark Divver of the New England Hockey Journal (Twitter link). The 21-year-old finished third on the Friars in scoring this season with 27 points in 38 games which undoubtedly would have had him on the radar for some teams. Instead, he’ll stay in college for one more season before making the jump to the pros.