Capitals Place Trevor Van Riemsdyk In COVID Protocol
Another day, another member of the Capitals in COVID protocol. After center Nic Dowd was placed there yesterday, the team announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk has been added to COVID protocol and will not be available for tonight’s game against Columbus.
After having a limited role last season where he played in only 20 games, van Riemsdyk had played in all 24 games for Washington this season, notching seven assists while logging over 17 minutes per night on their third pairing. The 30-year-old is also tied for the team lead in shot blocks with 36. The team did not confirm whether van Riemsdyk has tested positive for the virus, but if he has and is experiencing any symptoms, he’ll be out for a minimum of ten days.
Washington has been carrying eight defensemen lately so they won’t need to call anyone up to take van Riemsdyk’s spot on the roster. Instead, it appears that veteran Matt Irwin will draw in for him tonight based on practice lines. Irwin signed with the Capitals in free agency over the summer but he has been a healthy scratch for every game so far.
Canadiens Activate Mike Hoffman Off Injured Reserve
It has been a tough season for the Canadiens. After making the Stanley Cup Final, they’ve struggled mightily out of the gate this season and have been hit hard with injuries. While they’ve lost winger Josh Anderson for the next two to four weeks, Montreal will also get a player back for their game in Nashville tonight as the team announced (Twitter link) that winger Mike Hoffman will play which means he will be activated off injured reserve.
It hasn’t been a fun first year with Montreal for Hoffman who signed with them on the opening day of free agency last summer, inking a three-year, $13.5MM deal. An offseason training injury kept him out of training camp plus the start of the season and this injury has cost him three more weeks. In between those, he has recorded four goals and three assists in 13 games with five of those points coming on the man advantage.
The Canadiens are presently carrying a full 23-man roster even after transferring Anderson to IR on Friday. As a result, they will need to make some sort of roster move before the game in order to activate Hoffman and have him in the lineup tonight.
Prospect Notes: Peterka, Reichel, Zavgorodniy, Byfield
Sabres winger J.J. Peterka and Blackhawks winger Lukas Reichel were expected to anchor Germany’s entry into the upcoming World Juniors. However, neither player was on the preliminary camp roster that their federation announced yesterday. It’s not a matter of letting them stay in the minors a little longer before joining the team either as it was revealed that after consulting with both players, it was agreed that they will remain with their respective farm teams and not play in the tournament. Peterka is averaging more than a point per game with AHL Rochester this season while Reichel has a dozen points in 15 contests with Rockford. With both seemingly being on the cusp of a recall at some point, the decision has been made to not interrupt their progress even though it will make Germany’s attempt to stay in the top division that much harder.
More prospect news from around the hockey world:
- Flames prospect Dmitri Zavgorodniy is expected to leave AHL Stockton to return home to play in the KHL for the remainder of the season, reports Championat’s Pavel Panyshev. The 21-year-old forward has been limited to just six games this season with the Heat and going overseas would give him a chance at more playing time. He last played in the KHL with SKA St. Petersburg but his rights in that league now belong with HC Sochi after they swung a deal for his rights earlier today.
- Kings center Quinton Byfield took part in a full practice on Friday as he continues to work his way back from a fractured ankle sustained in the preseason, relays Zach Dooley of LA Kings Insider. The 2020 second-overall pick played in six games with Los Angeles last season plus 32 in AHL Ontario where he had 20 points in 32 contests, impressive numbers for someone that was basically a double underager in that league.
AHL Shuffle: 12/04/21
It’s Saturday which means it’s a busy slate on the schedule today with 20 teams in action which means there should be plenty of roster movement throughout the day. We’ll keep track of those moves here.
Atlantic Division
- The Senators announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled defenseman Dillon Heatherington from AHL Belleville. The 26-year-old played in three games with Ottawa last month, averaging more than 17 minutes a night in his first NHL action in more than two years. He’ll give the Sens some extra depth on their back end as they’re now carrying eight blueliners on their active roster.
- The Bruins have recalled center Oskar Steen and defenseman Jack Ahcan, per the AHL’s transactions log. Steen has two assists in as many games with Boston this season and has been quite productive with Providence, notching 13 points in 12 contests. Ahcan, meanwhile, made his NHL debut last season in his first professional campaign and is off to a strong start in the minors with 10 points in 17 AHL contests.
- After claiming Kale Clague and activating Mike Hoffman, the Montreal Canadiens needed to create some space. The team has announced that Laurent Dauphin and Corey Schueneman have been reassigned to the AHL’s Laval Rocket as the corresponding moves.
- The Florida Panthers have sent Aleksi Heponiemi and Matt Kiersted back to the minor leagues after this afternoon’s game, a shootout win against the St. Louis Blues. Neither one played, and the Panthers don’t hit the ice again until Tuesday.
- The Toronto Maple Leafs have activated Ondrej Kase from injured reserve, moving Kyle Clifford to the Marlies to make room on the roster. Not only does that open a roster spot, but Clifford’s $1MM cap hit comes off the books.
Metropolitan Division
- The Devils have returned defenseman Colton White back to Utica, per the AHL’s transactions log. The 24-year-old was recalled nearly a month ago from the Comets but has only played sparingly since then, suiting up just four times over that stretch. He has logged just over 13 minutes a game in six NHL contests this season (including an earlier stint with the big club) but will have an opportunity for a bigger role back in the minors.
- The Rangers have recalled goaltender Adam Huska along with center Morgan Barron, per the AHL’s transactions log. Huska is needed with Igor Shesterkin leaving Friday’s game early due to an injury and will serve as Alexandar Georgiev‘s backup in the interim with Shesterkin now on IR. As for Barron, the 23-year-old has played in two games for New York this season but has spent most of the year with AHL Hartford, notching six goals and three assists in 15 games.
Central Division
- The Blackhawks have recalled defenseman Ian Mitchell from AHL Rockford, reports Charlie Roumeliotis of NBC Sports Chicago (Twitter link). After playing in 39 NHL games last season, the 22-year-old has spent most of this season with the IceHogs, notching seven points in 15 games. He played in three games with Chicago earlier in the year but averaged less than nine minutes a game.
Pacific Division
This post will be updated throughout the day.
East Notes: Giroux, Anderson, Kase, Mikheyev
With the Flyers off to a sluggish start with only eight victories in their first 21 games, some have wondered if captain Claude Giroux, who’s on an expiring contract, could be a candidate to move between now and the trade deadline in March. However, he has a full no-move clause and told reporters today, including Olivia Reiner of the Philadelphia Inquirer, that he hasn’t given any thought about waiving that at this time. The 33-year-old is off to a good start this season with 18 points in 21 games to lead Philadelphia in scoring and with a cap hit of $8.25MM, few contenders would be able to add him at this stage of the year. If he was to decide to waive his trade protection, a trade closer to the trade deadline would be a little easier to work out.
Elsewhere in the East:
- The Sabres have released (Twitter link) an updated timeline for their injured players and a notable change is that goaltender Craig Anderson has been reclassified from week-to-week to month-to-month. The 40-year-old has missed a little more than a month now due to his upper-body injury and this change in status likely played a role in their acquisition of Malcolm Subban from Chicago on Thursday.
- The Maple Leafs could have winger Ondrej Kase back in the lineup on Saturday, relays Postmedia’s Terry Koshan (Twitter link). The 26-year-old has missed the last week with an upper-body injury after providing Toronto with some decent depth scoring to start the season with five goals in 21 games. Meanwhile, winger Ilya Mikheyev took part in practice for the first time on Friday but Koshan notes that while he is with the team on their two-game road trip, he won’t play. Regardless, he’s getting close to returning after suffering a broken thumb in the preseason.
What Your Team Is Thankful For: Chicago Blackhawks
As the holiday season approaches, PHR will take a look at what teams are thankful for as the season heads towards the one-quarter mark. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. We’ll examine what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the Chicago Blackhawks.
What are the Blackhawks most thankful for?
A fresh start.
The departures of former GM Stan Bowman and former head coach Jeremy Colliton have breathed some new life into an organization that, frankly, hasn’t had a lot of it lately. Interim bench boss Derek King has Chicago playing better with seven wins in their last ten games and while a playoff spot isn’t likely, the team is now at least starting to show some upside which bodes well for down the road and in terms of improving trade value for those who may be gone before the trade deadline. Meanwhile, interim GM Kyle Davidson has already shown he’s willing to make a big change when he let Colliton go and he’ll have the rest of the season to try to chart a new course for the franchise. Either he gets the interim tag lifted or someone else comes in but either way, it’s a fresh start.
Who are the Blackhawks most thankful for?
There haven’t been many players to consistently produce a point per game average over an extended period of time but Kane has been one of them. Over the last nine seasons before this one, he hit that mark eight times and the one he didn’t, he came close. In 2021-22, on a team that is near the bottom of the league in scoring, he’s above that mark again. It’s hard to get a strong return on what was the richest deal for a winger in NHL history for a little while but Kane has provided that for Chicago in recent years even after their playoff dominance came to an end. He’s only seven months away from being eligible to sign a contract extension and whether it’s Davidson or someone else running the ship, a new deal for Kane will be at the top of the priority list.
What would the Blackhawks be even more thankful for?
Getting any sort of production from their centers.
After missing all of last season due to Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome, Jonathan Toews has yet to score in 22 contests this season while recording just nine assists. A good chunk of that can be attributed to the energy-sapping illness but as someone that plays as critical a role as he does, they do need him to light the lamp. Kirby Dach hasn’t been able to step up in his third NHL campaign although his three goals lead all Chicago middlemen. Tyler Johnson has been hurt and will be out for a while yet, Dylan Strome can’t crack the lineup, Ryan Carpenter, Henrik Borgstrom, and Reese Johnson have been quiet, and Jujhar Khaira is what he is, a low-scoring checker. Combined, those eight players have totalled a grand total of eight goals on the season. It’s hard to win when the centers are producing that little.
What should be on the Blackhawks’ Holiday Wish List?
It all depends on what direction the team goes. If they’re going to sell, picks and prospects for expiring deals such as Marc-Andre Fleury, Kevin Lankinen, and Calvin de Haan will be what Davidson wants to add. If this hot streak continues for a little while longer and they can get themselves back into the mix, however, then the wish list would consist of adding a center that can drive the attack as well as some blueliners that can produce; only Seth Jones has scored more than once among their rearguards.
What will be on Davidson’s mind either way is trying to create or preserve cap flexibility. Alex DeBrincat is owed a $9MM qualifying offer this summer and will be a year away from UFA eligibility. That will be a big ticket to add to a team that’s already near $60MM in commitments to only 11 players for next season, per CapFriendly. Whether they’re buying or selling, some extra financial flexibility will also be near the top of their wish list in the coming months.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Injury Updates: Kuemper, Byram, Boqvist, Murphy
It appears as if Colorado’s goaltending situation will be tenuous for a little while. Following last night’s victory in Montreal, Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar told reporters including Mike Chambers of the Denver Post that starting netminder Darcy Kuemper could be out for two days or two months, meaning that there’s no timeline for his return. Kuemper is believed to have suffered his upper-body injury at Wednesday’s morning skate after taking a high shot which, coupled with Bednar’s comment, suggests that the veteran may be dealing with a concussion. With Pavel Francouz only beginning his LTI conditioning loan on Wednesday, it will be Jonas Johansson’s crease for the time being.
Other injury news from around the league:
- Still with the Avalanche, Chambers notes in a separate column that defenseman Bowen Byram’s injury isn’t a concussion but that it does pertain to the head injury he just came back from. That return only lasted two games and it wouldn’t be surprising of Colorado errs on the side of caution when it comes to determining when he returns. When healthy, the 20-year-old has impressed with nine points in 13 games while averaging nearly 20 minutes a night on the back end.
- The Devils announced (Twitter link) that they’ve activated center Jesper Boqvist from injured reserve. The 23-year-old has missed the last couple of weeks due to an upper-body injury and has split his season between New Jersey and their AHL affiliate in Utica. With the Devils, he has one assist in five games but has eight points in seven minor league contests. New Jersey had an open roster spot so no one needed to be sent down to make room for Boqvist on the active roster.
- The Blackhawks have placed defenseman Connor Murphy in concussion protocol, relays Phil Thompson of the Chicago Tribune. There is no timetable for his return. The veteran is second to Seth Jones in ATOI for Chicago’s defensemen at just under 22 minutes a night while leading the team in blocked shots with 48.
East Notes: Flyers, WHL Trade, Sabres
After a summer that featured plenty of roster turnover, the results haven’t been much different for the Flyers in the early going this season. They missed the playoffs last season and sit seventh in the Metropolitan early on this year which has them out of the postseason mix for the time being. Despite that, GM Chuck Fletcher was preaching patience at a recent press conference (video link):
I’d really like to see what we have before we start making changes. I don’t feel I’ve been able to see that to this point in time. We’re always looking, I’m talking to teams every day. If there are ways to make us better, we’ll look at it. But right now, if you just look at how we played the first 10 games versus the last 10 games, clearly one segment was way better than the other.
So we’ve shown the ability to play better than how we are right now. That’s the most important thing, we’ve got to get back, we’ve got to get playing better. Then from there, we’ll get a sense of what we really are and then we can make those decisions.
Philadelphia has battled some injury trouble early on (including in tonight’s game with Joel Farabee leaving early) which hasn’t helped their cause and that’s clearly a point of optimism for Fletcher that as their players return, they could get back on track. However, if that doesn’t happen over the next couple of months or so, they could be a team to keep an eye on before the March 21st trade deadline.
More from the East:
- A notable trade occurred in the WHL today when Canadiens prospect blueliner Kaiden Guhle was dealt to Edmonton. The 2020 first-round was acquired for a package of four draft picks including two first-rounders plus two players, headlined by 2021 Senators fourth-round selection Carson Latimer.
- The Sabres are about to get some help from the infirmary as Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News relays that center Casey Mittelstadt will return on Thursday against Florida after being injured in the season-opener versus Montreal. Blueliner Jacob Bryson will also return after missing Monday’s contest with a nagging injury. Meanwhile, winger Alex Tuch skated in a non-contact sweater at practice as he works his way back from offseason shoulder surgery while goaltender Craig Anderson also accompanied the team on their road trip although there remains no timetable for a return from his upper-body injury that has kept him out for a month.
Free Agent Henry Rybinski Receiving Interest
Generally, the market for free agent junior players isn’t typically strong. Sure, the odd late-bloomer might make it through but more often than not, the more prominent free agents come from the college ranks. However, as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports in his latest 32 Thoughts column, one CHL free agent that is generating interest is winger Henry Rybinski.
The 20-year-old was actually drafted by Florida back in the fifth round in 2019 (136th overall) but wasn’t signed by June 1st. Now that he’s too old to be drafted again, he can sign as a free agent.
Rybinski is off to a strong start in his final season with WHL Seattle, notching four goals and 11 assists in 13 games with the Thunderbirds. That’s a similar level of production to last season when he had seven goals and 21 helpers in 23 contests which wasn’t enough to get Florida to sign him.
What works in Rybinski’s favor is that Seattle has several quality draft-eligible players; they had four ranked in NHL Central Scouting’s Players to Watch headlined by defenseman Kevin Korchinski who is viewed as a possible first-round pick. That will keep scouts coming to watch the Thunderbirds play and keep Rybinski on the radar as a result.
While some players that sign contracts now have their deals sign a year, that wouldn’t be the case for Rybinski as he’s too old for that option. Meanwhile, if a team wants to sign him and ensure that they have him for three full years in their system, they’ll have to wait until future contracts (beginning the following season) can be signed on March 1st.
Red Wings Place Tyler Bertuzzi In COVID Protocol
The Red Wings will be without one of their top forwards for tonight’s contest against the Kraken as the team announced (Twitter link) that winger Tyler Bertuzzi has been placed in COVID protocol.
Bertuzzi is now the only remaining NHL player to decline the COVID vaccination which has prevented him from crossing the border to play road games in Canada this season. Despite that, he’s off to the best start of his career with nine goals and nine assists in 20 games, good for third on Detroit in scoring. That will obviously be put on hold again with him being added to the list of those in the protocol.
As is always important to note when a team places a player into protocol, it doesn’t mean that it’s a confirmed positive test. However, if it does turn out that he has tested positive, then Bertuzzi will be out for at least ten days. Detroit, who is carrying a full 23-player roster, would be eligible to designate him as non-roster status, allowing them to bring someone up from AHL Grand Rapids to take Bertuzzi’s place. With this announcement coming just before puck drop, that won’t be an option tonight but since they’re off until Saturday after this one, they’ll be able to add someone in time for their next game.