North Notes: Klefbom, Chabot, Canucks, Lowry
Oilers defenseman Oscar Klefbom has missed the entire season due to a shoulder injury, one that he recently underwent surgery on. While the surgery went well, the blueliner told reporters, including Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal, that there remains no timeline for when he’s able to play next season, if he’s able to return at all:
He said I might play again but there’s always going to be risks and we’ll see where I’m at after the rehab and it’s time to make a decision. We’re going to follow up, many, many times. I’m not giving up on the NHL. I’ve been playing with pain for many games for a long time but when you’re at home in your apartment or house and you can hardly sleep or put your clothes on, it gets mentally tough.
Klefbom had been an anchor on Edmonton’s back end coming into this season, averaging over 23 minutes a night over his six full-time NHL campaigns and carries a below-market cap hit at a $4.16MM AAV. However, given the uncertainty surrounding his ability to return at least at the start of next season, the 27-year-old could be left unprotected in this summer’s Seattle expansion draft, something that Klefbom himself acknowledged could make sense given his situation.
More from the North Division:
- Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot is open to playing at the World Championships, relays Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. Normally, such a statement wouldn’t carry much weight but with the pandemic, there are questions as to how many NHL players will be willing to make the trip to Latvia for the tournament which, as things stand, remains set to start on May 21st.
- As it appears that the Canucks will be looking for a new AHL affiliate, it doesn’t appear as if it will be in their own backyard. Patrick Johnston of the Vancouver Province notes that Vancouver hasn’t held any discussions yet with the operator of the Abbotsford Centre, the arena that used to house Calgary’s farm team when it was in British Columbia. Teams have made more of an effort to get their affiliates closer to their NHL squads in recent years so it wouldn’t be surprising to see them look for a city out West after being in Utica, New York since 2013.
- Jets center Adam Lowry won’t play tonight after taking a hit to the head from Toronto forward Alex Galchenyuk on Thursday night, notes Sportsnet’s Ken Wiebe (Twitter link). Lowry hasn’t been diagnosed with a concussion and the team is holding him out as a precautionary measure. Winnipeg head coach Paul Maurice listed the 28-year-old as day-to-day.
Taxi Squad Shuffle: 04/24/21
There has been plenty of roster movement between NHL teams and the taxi squad on a daily basis this season. Although some major names may be highlighted in separate articles, this is where you’ll find the majority of that shuffle news each day:
North Division
- The Jets announced that they’ve assigned Ville Heinola from the taxi squad to AHL Manitoba. The 20-year-old was recalled from Manitoba five weeks ago and has played just once since then which is hardly ideal for a prospect. He’ll get to play more regularly with the Moose for their stretch run.
- The Flames announced the recalls of Byron Froese and Glenn Gawdin to the taxi squad from AHL Stockton. Both veterans have seen limited duty with Calgary this season; Froese has a goal in six games while Gawdin has been held off the scoresheet in his five contests.
East Division
- The Devils have swapped taxi squad goalies, recalling Gilles Senn while sending down Evan Cormier, per the AHL’s transactions log. Both goalies have struggled considerably with AHL Binghamton with Senn posting a save percentage of .897 in 13 games while Cormier has managed a mark of just .879 in his seven appearances.
- The Flyers have brought up Linus Hogberg to the taxi squad while sending Felix Sandstrom back to Lehigh Valley, per the AHL’s transactions log. Hogberg is in his first season in North America and has five points in 18 AHL games while Sandstrom has a save percentage of just .838 this season.
Central Division
West Division
- The Ducks have recalled Hunter Drew and Maxim Golod from AHL San Diego to the taxi squad while sending Benoit-Olivier Groulx back to the Gulls, per the AHL’s transactions log. Drew and Golod have had limited roles in the minors and have been recalled before to get other Anaheim players on the taxi squad some playing time which is likely the case with Groulx here.
- The Kings have recalled Daniel Brickley from AHL Ontario to the taxi squad, per a team announcement. Brickley, a highly sought after college free agent in 2018, has five points in 19 games with the Reign this season and hasn’t seen NHL action since 2018-19. Meanwhile, Lias Andersson was recalled from the taxi squad; the 2017 first-rounder has two goals in 13 games this season with Los Angeles.
This page will be updated throughout the day.
East Notes: Malkin, Siegenthaler, Chara, Capitals
Penguins center Evgeni Malkin returned to practice on Friday with a non-contact jersey as he continues to work his way back from a lower-body injury that’s believed to be a knee issue, notes Chris Adamski of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The veteran has been out since mid-March and is currently on LTIR. If he’s able to return between now and the end of the regular season, Pittsburgh will need to clear just over $2.6MM off their books to get cap compliant before he can be activated. Injuries have limited the 34-year-old to just 29 games this season and he hasn’t been as productive as usual with eight goals and 16 assists in those contests.
More from the East Division:
- Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler has been placed in COVID protocol, the team announced (Twitter link). New Jersey acquired the 23-year-old earlier this month and had given him a bigger role as Siegenthaler has averaged 17:10 per game in six contests with the Devils after logging just 13:23 per game in seven matches with Washington. Colton White was recalled to take Siegenthaler’s place in the lineup.
- The Rangers were among the teams that showed considerable interest in Zdeno Chara last offseason, reports Larry Brooks of the New York Post. The 43-year-old was eyed as a mentor to what has become a very young back end with five rearguards aged 23 or younger suiting up against Philadelphia earlier in the week. However, Chara opted to sign with Washington in the hopes of a long playoff run. New York is likely going to have a similar desire to add a veteran for next year as well but they may be better served going after someone that can play a bit higher in the lineup.
- The Capitals will be keeping their AHL coaching staff around for the foreseeable future as the team announced recently that head coach Spencer Carbery, assistant coach Patrick Wellar, and associate goalie coach Alex Westlund have all signed multi-year contract extensions. Carbery is in his third season at the helm with Hershey with the Bears posting a .702 points percentage over that span. Hershey has a 16-5-2 record this season to lead the seven-team North Division in points with 34.
Jets Prospect Logan Neaton Transfers To Miami (Ohio)
There have been more players than usual transferring in college hockey in recent weeks and the Jets have seen a few prospects take that route. The latest is goaltender Logan Neaton who is heading from UMass-Lowell to Miami (Ohio), reports Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News (Twitter link).
The 22-year-old was a fifth-round pick of Winnipeg back in 2019 (144th overall) but he has hardly played since then. After playing three games in his freshman year, he was limited to just three again this year as he served as their third-string option while posting a save percentage of just .855. Now halfway through his college eligibility, a chance to go elsewhere and get more playing time certainly makes sense.
Players that transfer typically have to sit out a season first (with some exceptions) but last week, the NCAA Division I Council passed legislation that, if ratified by the Board of Directors next week, would allow players to transfer once without having to miss a year. That certainly is playing a role in the increased number of players in the transfer portal.
Speaking of that, Neaton is the third Jets college prospect to transfer in recent weeks. Jared Moe, a 2018 sixth-rounder, moved from Minnesota to Wisconsin while Harrison Blaisdell, Winnipeg’s other 2019 fifth-round selection, is currently in the transfer portal after spending his first two years with North Dakota.
Central Notes: Toews, Seguin, Acciari, Hurricanes
While the Blackhawks have been without top center Jonathan Toews all season long due to an illness, it appears as if he should be able to play next season. In a recent video appearance on NBC Sports (video link), TSN’s Darren Dreger reported that while the veteran isn’t expected to return this season, his health continues to improve and as things stand, is expected to be available for the 2021-22 campaign. Toews has two years left on his deal with a $10.5MM AAV and assuming he is back to full health by then, he would almost certainly return to his spot on Chicago’s top line; his vacancy is one that they’ve struggled to fill internally this season.
Elsewhere in the Central:
- Back at the trade deadline, Stars GM Jim Nill was hoping that center Tyler Seguin would be able to return this coming Monday. However, head coach Rick Bowness told reporters, including Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas Morning News, that the target date is just “wishful thinking” at this point. However, it doesn’t sound as if the veteran will be out much longer with Bowness indicating he’s hopeful that Seguin will be able to play sometime later in the week. He has missed the entire season after offseason hip surgery and would undoubtedly be a significant addition to a Dallas team that is four points out of the final playoff spot in the division though they have three games in hand on Nashville.
- Panthers center Noel Acciari will miss his fifth straight game tonight due to an upper-body injury, the team announced (Twitter link). The team is targeting one of their games against Nashville on Monday or Tuesday for him to return. Acciari, who was on the top line recently when Aleksander Barkov missed time, has 11 points in 36 games this season.
- Hurricanes winger Jordan Martinook won’t play today after being injured on Thursday, notes Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer. Head coach Rod Brind’Amour expressed some optimism that the 28-year-old won’t be out of the lineup for long. Meanwhile, while Teuvo Teravainen (concussion) took part in some team drills yesterday, he’s also not expected to suit up. He has played just once in the last two months because of his symptoms.
North Notes: Hyman, Podkolzin, Dubois
Maple Leafs winger Zach Hyman is in the midst of a career season offensively although he has now been slowed with a lower-body injury that will keep him out for a couple of weeks at least. Given his improvement in that end, his stock is on the rise as he gets set to enter the UFA market for the first time this summer. On the latest TSN Insider Trading segment, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic noted that a poll of several executives around the league pegged Hyman’s likely next contract anywhere between $4.5MM and $5.5MM, a significant raise on his current $2.25MM AAV. With Toronto already having nearly $70MM in commitments to just 15 players for next season, per CapFriendly, they may need to get creative to find a way to keep the 28-year-old in the fold and still be able to fill out the roster with what’s expected to be a flat $81.5MM salary cap once again.
Elsewhere in the North Division:
- At the beginning of the season, it was expected that the Canucks would bring top prospect Vasili Podkolzin over to North America at the end of his KHL season and have him burn the first year of his entry-level deal for the stretch run. However, his agent Sergey Isakov told Sport 24’s Maxim Samartsev that Podkolzin will instead stay in Russia and focus on earning a spot with their entry into next month’s World Championships. It’s a logical decision as by the time that Podkolzin secures a work visa and gets through quarantine, Vancouver’s season would be close to over if not finished already. The 20-year-old had 11 points in 35 games with SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL this season.
- While Patrik Laine has struggled considerably with Columbus, Pierre-Luc Dubois hasn’t fit in all that well with the Jets either; his 20 points in 35 games are certainly below the expectations they had for him. Along the way, he has changed position a few times. However, head coach Paul Maurice told reporters, including Ted Wyman of the Winnipeg Sun, that Dubois is being moved back to center for at least the next couple of weeks as they look to get their lines set for the playoffs. Dubois had been on the wing with Blake Wheeler out of the lineup and also started there but with the price that GM Kevin Cheveldayoff paid for him, it’s clear that they envision him as a middleman for the long-term future.
NHL Targeting October 12 Start For The 2021-22 Season
There has been an expectation that the NHL would look to have an abbreviated offseason this summer in an effort to try to get back to more of a normal calendar for the 2021-22 campaign. It appears that this is indeed the case as Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that general managers were told in today’s meeting that October 12th has been set as the target start date for next season.
That would be only about a week later than the normal start date which would allow them to get back to more of a regular schedule. Doing so also would allow them to hold close to a full-length training camp with LeBrun noting that the target date for those is September 22nd assuming there are no further delays to the schedule (or anything happen over the summer to change those plans).
At the beginning of this season, the plan was to hold the Entry Draft on July 23rd and 24th with free agency starting up on the 28th. Considering the regular season schedule has been pushed back a couple of times since then, it’s uncertain if those will remain intact or get pushed back slightly. Either way, with already less than a two-month gap between the original start to free agency and the desired start of training camps, it should be a quicker-paced offseason than it was last year.
West Notes: Garland, Nieto, Avalanche
Losing a top point producer is never ideal but especially so in the midst of a playoff race. However, it appears that the Coyotes are in that situation as Craig Morgan of AZ Coyotes Insider reports that winger Conor Garland suffered a knee injury at practice on Tuesday and that there is internal concern that he will miss significant time. The 25-year-old is tied for second on Arizona in scoring with 10 goals and 22 assists in 45 games while logging over 17 minutes a night so any extended absence would significantly hurt their chances of snagging the last playoff spot in the West Division; they sit one point up on St. Louis but the Blues have three games in hand. Garland isn’t playing tonight and the team should know more about his status over the next day or two.
More from the West Division:
- Sharks winger Matt Nieto could return this season, or not. That’s certainly an odd way to update the status of a player but head coach Bob Boughner told Curtis Pashelka of the Mercury News (Twitter link) that it’s possible that Nieto can play next week but at the same time, “it might be a marginal call whether he goes back in or not”. Nieto has been dealing with a lower-body injury for the last month and it appears that they are going to ere on the side of caution when he is cleared and if there isn’t enough time left in the year (or they fall out of the playoff race entirely), he could just be shut down. Nieto has five goals and two assists in 28 games this season.
- While Bowen Byram is now off the CPRA list, he will not accompany the Avalanche on their three-game road trip to St. Louis, reports Peter Baugh of The Athletic (Twitter link). The 19-year-old rookie has played in 19 games so far this season, recording a pair of assists while logging 17:31 on the back end. Assuming he’s able to suit up after this trip, he’ll have a couple of weeks to work on his conditioning before the playoffs get underway. Meanwhile, Baugh adds that winger Logan O’Connor, who suffered a lower-body injury at the end of March, is on the trip. Initially an injury fill-in, O’Connor has three goals and two assists in 22 games this season.
Five Key Stories: 04/12/21 – 04/18/21
The trade deadline has come and gone and while it wasn’t as busy as some had hoped for, some notable players changed teams. Unsurprisingly, those moves dominate the top stories of the week but the full deadline recaps can also be found below:
East Division
West Division
Central Division
North Division
Mantha To Washington: With Anthony Mantha having a tough season and three years left on his contract, he wasn’t viewed as a likely candidate to be dealt. Instead, just before the deadline hit, Detroit struck a deal to send the winger to Washington in exchange for Jakub Vrana, Richard Panik, plus first and second-round picks. One of those selections likely was included to get the Red Wings to take the remaining two years of Panik’s deal after he cleared waivers. Mantha and Vrana have had similar production over the past few years but Mantha’s size and upside are definitely intriguing and he has made quite the first impression, scoring in each of his first four games. Meanwhile, our readers certainly like the trade for Detroit with over 79% giving them an A grade in our poll.
Extensions: A pair of potential trade candidates were taken off the market on Monday. First, the Kings reached a four-year, $16MM extension with Alex Iafallo. The undrafted college free agent has worked his way onto the top line in Los Angeles and a top-liner for a $4MM AAV is decent value. Less than an hour later, the Flyers agreed to a five-year, $15MM deal with Scott Laughton. The 26-year-old has spent his entire NHL career – spanning parts of eight seasons – with the Flyers and while he isn’t a significant offensive producer, he plays a strong all-around game, becoming a useful part of their core in the process. Later in the week, likely using Laughton’s pact as a template, the Jets then inked Adam Lowry to a five-year, $16.25MM contract. The gritty center was going to be one of the more intriguing pivots on the open market this summer but instead will stick it out in Winnipeg where he has become an integral part of their third line.
Hall To Boston: Taylor Hall had been viewed as a prominent rental that was going to be on the move at the deadline basically from the moment he signed with Buffalo. While he has had a rough season and had just two goals with the Sabres and an $8MM price tag, there were several teams interested in his services. However, Hall was able to leverage his no-move clause to go to his preferred destination in Boston, being traded there along with Curtis Lazar for Anders Bjork and a second-round pick with Buffalo retaining half of Hall’s salary. Hall should give the Bruins an upgraded second line down the stretch if he does well and he’s off to a good start with two goals and an assist in four games. Meanwhile, the rebuild in Buffalo continues with the Sabres hoping that a change of scenery can unlock some of Bjork’s potential.
More COVID Issues: The ongoing pandemic claimed some more games on the schedule as Colorado had three of their games postponed after Philipp Grubauer, Joonas Donskoi, and Bowen Byram landed on the CPRA list. For the time being, the plan is for them to resume skating on Wednesday and their missed contests have yet to be rescheduled. Meanwhile, Vancouver’s return was also briefly delayed following some concerns being voiced by J.T. Miller; instead of starting on Friday, they resumed play on Sunday. That resulted in more than a dozen changes to the North Division schedule including the regular season for that division being extended to May 19th.
Carter To Pittsburgh: Another player that wasn’t expected to be on the move was Jeff Carter. He had spent parts of ten years in Los Angeles and with another year left on his deal at more than $5.2MM, there wasn’t expected to be much trade interest. However, the Penguins were able to get a deal done and get him to waive his no-trade protection, acquiring the 36-year-old for a pair of conditional draft picks, a 2022 third-rounder and a 2023 fourth-rounder. The first pick can upgrade a round if Pittsburgh makes the Stanley Cup Final this season with Carter playing in half of their playoff games while the second will upgrade by a round if he plays 50 games next season. Carter gives Pittsburgh some needed depth down the middle and was a big part of two Cup-winning teams with the Kings.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Snapshots: Newhook, Smith, Hardman
With Avalanche top prospect Alex Newhook turning pro late last month, it looked as if he’d become an interesting late-season recall option if for no other reason than to get his feet wet in the NHL before the playoffs. However, head coach Jared Bednar told Mike Chambers of the Denver Post that the plan for the 20-year-old is to remain in the AHL for the rest of the season. Newhook, the 16th pick in 2019, had 16 points in just a dozen games with Boston College this season while picking up six more in six contests at the World Juniors. As Colorado will need to inject some cheaper players into their lineup for next season, he should have an opportunity to push for a roster spot in training camp but it appears that will be his first crack at an NHL opportunity.
Elsewhere around the NHL:
- Golden Knights winger Reilly Smith left this afternoon’s game against Anaheim in the third period with an undisclosed injury. Following the game, head coach Peter DeBoer told reporters, including Jesse Granger of The Athletic (Twitter link) that the forward is day-to-day. Smith has had a quieter year offensively with nine goals and seven assists in 44 games after putting up at least 53 points in each of his first three seasons with Vegas.
- Blackhawks winger Mike Hardman is expected to see some game action with Chicago before the end of the season, notes Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times. The 22-year-old signed late last month with a commitment to play this season and was able to get that offer with several other teams showing interest. Hardman had 22 goals over his two seasons at Boston College.