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Predators Activate Roman Josi Off Injured Reserve

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While Predators defenseman Roman Josi landed on IR earlier this week, he wasn’t there for long.  Alex Daugherty of The Tennessean relays (Twitter link) that the team has activated the blueliner, making him available to play today versus Los Angeles.

The 34-year-old missed the last week and a half due to a lower-body injury.  As has been the case for many of the Predators’ top players this season, Josi has struggled a bit offensively, at least relative to his production from 2023-24.  He had 85 points in 82 games a year ago, making him the Norris Trophy runner-up along the way.

This season, he has produced seven goals and 16 assists through 29 games; he sits second on the team to Filip Forsberg in points while leading the way in ATOI at 24:59 per game so he certainly hasn’t been a primary reason for their surprising struggles.  Suffice it to say, his return will certainly be a key upgrade on the blueline as they look to get back on track before the holiday break.

The Preds sent blueliners Marc Del Gaizo and Kevin Gravel down to the minors yesterday so they had ample roster space to activate Josi.  Following this move, they’re back at 22 players on their active roster.

Matt Rempe Offered In-Person Hearing With Department Of Player Safety

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Rangers winger Matt Rempe got an opportunity to return to New York following the trade of Kaapo Kakko earlier in the week.  He made a big impression in his first game back but not the one he was necessarily looking to make.  The NHL announced today that he has been offered an in-person hearing for a hit made on Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen on Friday; a clip of the hit via B/R Open Ice can be found here.

The hit came in the third period last night, one that saw him receive a five-minute major for elbowing along with a game misconduct.  Notably, the league’s release indicates that both elbowing and boarding are among the grounds being considered for supplemental discipline.

By offering an in-person hearing, the NHL now has the ability to suspend Rempe for more than five games which is the maximum had it been a telephone hearing.  That said, them offering it doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll receive six or more games either.  The Department of Player Safety relayed later in the day (Twitter link) that the hearing will be held on Sunday.

Rempe has played in 22 career regular season games and this was the fourth ejection of his young career.  He has been suspended once before, that coming back in March when he received a four-game ban for elbowing.  He will fall under repeat offender status when it comes to determining both the length of suspension and the calculation of forfeited wages where the denominator will be 82 (representing games) instead of the number of days in a particular season.

Wild Place Yakov Trenin On IR, Recall Devin Shore, Travis Boyd

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Dec. 20: Shore is back on the active roster today, as is forward Travis Boyd, according to Michael Russo of The Athletic. Boyd made a pair of appearances with the Wild last month amid one of a couple of recalls this season, averaging just 7:39 per game and controlling an abysmal 21.9% of shot attempts at even strength. The 31-year-old leads Iowa in scoring this season with 18 points (3 G, 15 A) in 17 games and has nearly 300 games of NHL experience under his belt with the Coyotes, Capitals, Maple Leafs and Canucks in addition to his brief stint in Minnesota. The Wild’s active roster is now full.

Dec. 19: The Wild made a pair of roster moves in advance of their next game against Utah on Friday.  The team announced (Twitter link) that winger Yakov Trenin has been placed on injured reserve while winger Devin Shore has been assigned to AHL Iowa.

Trenin has missed three straight games due to an upper-body injury.  Assuming this placement is back-dated, he’ll be eligible to return as soon as this weekend.  The 27-year-old is in his first season with Minnesota after signing a four-year, $14MM contract with them back in free agency, a move that hasn’t worked as well as anyone would have hoped.

After putting up double-digit goals in each of the last three years, Trenin has struggled considerably offensively this season, lighting the lamp just twice while adding one assist in 29 games.  While he sits second on the team in hits with 82, it’s safe to say that GM Bill Guerin was expecting more from his biggest free agent addition from July.

As for Shore, he cleared waivers on Tuesday but stayed with Minnesota for a couple of extra days and played last night against Florida.  He has played in 13 NHL contests so far but has been held off the scoresheet while averaging a little over eight minutes a night.  The veteran has been a strong contributor with Iowa, however, notching two goals and eight assists in 14 appearances with them.

Allowable Transactions During The Roster Freeze Period

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The NHL’s roster freeze period is now in effect.  While there usually aren’t a flurry of transactions in the days leading up to it, we saw three trades made on Wednesday while numerous teams made roster moves as well.

However, that won’t be the end of things on the roster movement front despite what the term freeze would imply.  Section 16.5 (d) in the CBA goes over what is and isn’t allowed during this period.  Let’s break that down.  The first section is as follows:

(i) For all Players on an NHL Active Roster, Injured Reserve, or Players with Non-Roster and Injured Non-Roster status as of 11:59 p.m. local time on December 19, a roster freeze shall apply through 12:01 a.m. local time December 28, with respect to Waivers, Trades and Loans; provided, however, that Players may be Recalled to NHL Clubs during this period and, provided further, that if a Player is placed on Regular Waivers prior to the roster freeze period and is claimed during such roster freeze period, the roster freeze period shall not apply and the Player shall immediately report to the claiming Club. However, during the roster freeze period a Club can make any Player transactions necessary for the Club to come into compliance with Article 50 as a result of a Player being removed from the Bona-Fide Long-Term Injury/Illness Exception.

From a waiver perspective, we’re unlikely to see any new activity on that front (unless a team needs to make a move to get cap-compliant following an LTIR activation) but Tyler Johnson’s pending termination in Boston will be able to be completed.

You might also notice in the CBA text that there’s nothing prohibiting recalls during this time.  Accordingly, teams can still bring players up and with many teams playing in three games between now and the break that starts on Tuesday, there will undoubtedly be several recalls across the NHL.

Now, let’s look at the other section of this rule which will preview a lot of the transactions that will be coming early next week:

(ii) Notwithstanding Section 16.5(d)(i), a Player on emergency Recall may be Loaned during the roster freeze period and a Player who was Recalled after December 11 may be Loaned through 11:59 p.m. local time on December 23, provided such Player is not required to be placed on Waivers during the roster freeze period in order to effectuate such Loan.

In essence, anyone recalled during the freeze is eligible to be sent down by Monday and in most circumstances, they will.  Meanwhile, anyone recalled (regular or emergency) since December 11th is eligible to be sent down.  There will be quite a few of those in that category as well, even if it’s just in an attempt to save a bit of money on the salary cap.

The one exception to this is if a player becomes waiver-eligible during this time.  This occurs when a player has been on an NHL roster for 30 days or played in 10 games since last clearing waivers.  If that happens to someone during this stretch, they’ll be ineligible to be sent down during the freeze.

With this all in mind, while there technically will be a roster freeze in place for a little over a week, there will still be considerable roster activity for the first half of it so don’t be surprised when the transactions keep coming in over the coming days.

Avalanche Recall Jere Innala

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One of Colorado’s more intriguing offseason signings is about to get an NHL opportunity.  The Avalanche announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled winger Jere Innala from AHL Colorado.  He won’t be available for tonight’s game against San Jose but will join the team on Friday in Anaheim.

The Avs signed the 26-year-old to a one-year entry-level deal back in June after a strong showing internationally for Finland at the World Championship where he had five points in eight games.  While he hadn’t played in North America at the time, Innala had a strong track record of success at home in the Liiga with HPK and HIFK before spending the last two seasons with SHL Frolunda where he had 28 points in 42 regular season games in 2023-24 before adding 11 goals and 15 points in 14 postseason contests.

With that success and the fact that Colorado struggled to find a working fourth line for a lot of last season, Innala was a speculative end-of-roster candidate in training camp.  While he had two points in three preseason games, they elected to start him in the minors with the Eagles.  With them, he got off to a solid start to his first season in North America, potting five goals and ten assists in 21 games so far.

Once again this year, the Avalanche have churned through numerous forwards at the bottom of their roster.  Chris Wagner, T.J. Tynan, Calum Ritchie, Matthew Stienburg, Givani Smith, Chase Bradley, Nikita Prishchepov, and Tye Felhaber are all forwards who have played at least once in Colorado’s bottom six this season but none of the group have more than one point (the first three have one each, the rest zero) so it appears that they’ve decided it’s time to give Innala a chance to try to secure a spot.

Predators Activate Jeremy Lauzon, Place Roman Josi On IR

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The Predators made two roster moves leading into tonight’s game versus Pittsburgh.  Per a team announcement (Twitter link), they have activated defenseman Jeremy Lauzon off injured reserve.  In a corresponding move, blueliner Roman Josi was placed on IR.

Lauzon has missed the last three weeks due to a lower-body injury.  The 27-year-old is off to a particularly quiet start offensively as he has just one assist in 22 games after putting up a career-best 14 points in 2023-24.  However, Lauzon’s physicality is the hallmark of his game and he leads the team in hits per game, checking in at 4.58, down only slightly from last year’s rate when he recorded 386 to lead the NHL by a significant margin.

As for Josi, he last played last Tuesday, meaning he will be eligible to be activated as soon as he’s cleared to return, assuming they back-date the IR placement (meaning he has already missed the required seven days).  The captain isn’t producing at quite the same rate as last year when he passed the point-per-game mark for the second time in his career but he’s still Nashville’s leader in scoring with 23 points in 29 games.

Red Wings Assign Ville Husso To AHL

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Last season, the Red Wings primarily had three goaltenders on their roster, unwilling to run the risk of losing one through waivers.  They haven’t been willing to do so this year, however.  That continued today as the team announced (Twitter link) that goaltender Ville Husso has been sent down to AHL Grand Rapids.

Husso cleared waivers early in the season and has primarily played with the Griffins.  However, with injuries lately to both Alex Lyon and Cam Talbot, the 29-year-old was seeing regular action with the big club, including six appearances this month.  Lyon was activated off injured reserve on Wednesday while Talbot was expected to return this weekend; this move indicates that Talbot will indeed be good to at least serve as the backup on Friday against Montreal.

Husso has played in eight NHL games overall this season, posting a 3.47 GAA with a .877 SV%.  However, he has fared much better in limited AHL action, compiling a 1.58 GAA with a .944 SV% in five outings with the Griffins.  A pending unrestricted free agent, Husso is heading for a significant drop on his current $4.75MM price tag but a good showing in the minors could help him land at least a one-way deal from someone this coming summer.  That said, playing time for him will likely be limited with Sebastian Cossa and Jack Campbell both in the fold.

With this move, the Red Wings now have one open roster spot.  Even with the roster freeze about to come into effect, that spot could still be filled by someone in the next few days.

Atlantic Notes: Lyon, Talbot, Edvinsson, Barkov

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Prior to tonight’s game against Philadelphia, the Red Wings announced (Twitter link) that goaltender Alex Lyon was activated off injured reserve.  He had missed nearly three weeks due to a lower-body injury.  The 32-year-old had played in nine games this season going into tonight’s action, posting a 2.74 GAA with a .911 SV%.  Lyon has been strong value on the two-year deal he signed last summer worth $900K per season; he’s well-positioned to command considerably more on the open market in July.

Meanwhile, team broadcaster Daniella Bruce adds (Twitter link) that the team is hopeful that starter Cam Talbot will be able to return by the weekend.  The 37-year-old has made just one start in the last two-plus weeks due to a lower-body injury but was off to a strong start before that and has a 2.69 GAA with a .916 SV% in 16 appearances so far.  Detroit has a home-and-home set against Montreal starting on Friday so it appears that they’re targeting Talbot to be available for one of those matchups.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic Division:

  • Still with the Red Wings, the team announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Simon Edvinsson suffered an upper-body injury against Philadelphia and did not return. In his first full NHL season, the 21-year-old has certainly made an impact, collecting 13 points in 29 games while averaging 21:16 per game, good for second on the team behind only Moritz Seider.  Speaking with reporters after the game including MLive’s Ansar Khan (Twitter link), head coach Derek Lalonde indicated that there was no immediate update on Edvinsson’s prognosis.
  • Panthers center Aleksander Barkov returned to action tonight against Minnesota, relayed team reporter Jameson Olive (Twitter link). He missed the last two games due to illness.  When healthy, the 29-year-old has been an impactful contributor with 29 points in his first 22 games; his 1.31 points per game average matches his previous best which was set back in the 2021-22 campaign.

Canadiens Acquire Alexandre Carrier

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The Canadiens and Predators have swapped blueliners before Thursday’s roster freeze.  Montreal has acquired Alexandre Carrier from Nashville in exchange for defenseman Justin Barron.  Both teams have announced the deal.

Carrier is in his seventh NHL season, all of which came with Nashville after they drafted him in the fourth round back in 2015.  He has gone from a depth defender to one counted on inside their top four.

However, the 28-year-old hasn’t been able to duplicate his 2021-22 performance that saw him land a spot on the All-Rookie Team.  That year, Carrier had 30 points and 124 blocks in 77 games while logging nearly 21 minutes a night of ice time.  He only managed 29 points in the following two seasons and has seven in 28 outings this season while averaging just over 20 minutes per game.  Carrier is currently dealing with an upper-body injury but is believed to be ready to return to the lineup, relays TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie (Twitter link).

Carrier had a chance to test unrestricted free agency for the first time this past summer but instead elected to remain in Nashville, inking a three-year, $11.25MM deal that runs through the 2026-27 campaign.  With David Savard being a pending unrestricted free agent and a speculative trade candidate as a result, it stands to reason that Carrier will eventually take his role as the veteran option on the right side of Montreal’s back end, ensuring they’ll have one experienced player on that side beyond this season.

As for Barron, the 23-year-old was a first-round pick by Colorado back in 2020, going 25th overall.  It’s the second time in his career that he’s been on the move after he was the centerpiece of the package that the Canadiens acquired in exchange for winger Artturi Lehkonen back at the 2022 trade deadline.

At the time, Montreal was hoping that he’d become a key cog on their back end for years to come.  However, while Barron has shown flashes of being a capable NHL player, he has struggled with consistency.  Last season, despite a stint with AHL Laval, he collected seven goals and six assists in 48 games while averaging 18:38 per game and it appeared as if he’d turned a corner in his development.  That earned him a two-year, $2.3MM bridge deal this past summer.

Unfortunately for Barron and the Canadiens, that hasn’t been the case this season.  He has been a frequent healthy scratch over the first two-plus months of the year, only getting into 17 of 31 games.  In those outings, he has been limited to just one goal (without recording any assists) while his playing time has dropped to just 14:43 per game.

This move gives Nashville a younger player to try to turn into a full-time piece while saving the team $2.6MM on the salary cap.  Barron will also still have two years of team control when his deal expires while Carrier will be an unrestricted free agent when his contract is up.  With the Preds struggling much more than many expected this season, it will be interesting to see if GM Barry Trotz has any plans to quickly utilize those cap savings with the roster freeze approaching or if he’ll wait until the new year to try to add another piece to their roster.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Minor Transactions: 12/18/24

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With the holiday roster freeze coming up shortly, there has been an uptick in smaller moves around the NHL today, not to mention a trade of note.  Here’s a rundown of those transactions plus an NHL-drafted prospect on the move at the junior level.

  • The Kraken announced (Twitter link) that they have re-assigned winger Ryan Winterton to AHL Coachella Valley. The 21-year-old has found himself on the transactions log quite a few times already this season but has gotten into eight games with Seattle, picking up an assist while logging 10:22 per night of playing time.  Winterton has been quite productive with the Firebirds though, tallying 15 points in 16 outings with them.
  • The Hurricanes have returned winger Jackson Blake, goaltender Dustin Tokarski, and defenseman Riley Stillman to AHL Chicago, per the AHL’s transactions log. Carolina has made these moves all season long to bank a bit of cap space.  Even with the roster freeze, emergency recalls are still permitted for a few more days so expect them to continue this for even after Thursday.
  • Capitals prospect Cam Allen is on the move in the OHL. London announced that they’ve acquired the blueliner from Guelph in exchange for defenseman Noah Jenken and seven draft picks.  Allen was once rated as a first-round pick but slid in his draft year (2023) to the fifth round, going 136th overall.  Washington has already signed the 19-year-old who had 25 points in 27 games prior to the swap.

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