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Detroit Red Wings Recall Erik Gustafsson

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The Detroit Red Wings have recalled Erik Gustafsson from their AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins. In a corresponding move, the club has placed forward Elmer Soderblom on injured reserve, retroactive to Nov. 9.

These moves place Gustafsson in position to potentially make his season debut for 2025-26. The veteran did not make the Red Wings’ NHL roster out of training camp, and has spent the entirety of the season thus far in the AHL. Through 10 games with Grand Rapids, Gustafsson has eight points, and is the most experienced blueliner available on the Griffins for the Red Wings to call up.

This recall indicates that Gustafsson is above fellow veteran Justin Holl in the team’s call-up priority order. Holl has just three points in 11 AHL games this season, though it’s important to draw a distinction between the style each blueliner plays when comparing the two. Holl has a more defensively-oriented game than Gustafsson, who is a natural puck-mover and power play quarterback.

Gustafsson was also the more successful NHL player than Holl, or at least reached a higher peak at the NHL level. In 2018-19, Gustafsson scored 60 points, leading all Chicago Blackhawks defensemen in scoring. As recently as 2022-23, Gustafsson remained an effective generator of offense from the blue line. He scored 42 points in 70 games between the Washington Capitals and Toronto Maple Leafs, and followed that up with 31 points in 76 games playing 2023-24 for the New York Rangers.

It was after that strong campaign on Broadway that Gustafsson earned the two-year, $2MM AAV deal he’s currently playing out. His tenure in Michigan hasn’t gone to plan, though, as he scored just 18 points in 60 games in 2024-25 and appears to have been passed by several young defensemen, something that culminated in him needing to start the year in the AHL.

With this recall, he gets the chance to return to an NHL roster and perhaps get into some NHL games. While Gustafsson wouldn’t be a natural fit for that role as a left-handed defenseman, his addition to the roster could allow the Red Wings to take veteran Travis Hamonic, who has struggled this season, out of the lineup.

The chance to get back into the NHL and potentially hold down a spot in an NHL lineup is a significant opportunity for Gustafsson. As a pending UFA, spending the year in the AHL would likely do significant damage to his hopes of securing a strong contract in the upcoming free agent market. Assuming he gets the chance to draw into head coach Todd McLellan’s lineup, it’ll be very important that he finds a way to make a positive contribution.

Soderblom, a forward, was also involved in a transaction today, although his was more of a procedural move to clear a roster spot for Gustafsson to occupy. Soderblom has been out for two weeks with an undisclosed injury, and it’s unclear at this point what his timeline is to return.

The fact that his IR placement was retroactive does provide Detroit with the flexibility to activate him whenever he’s ready, though, bypassing the customary one-week waiting period mandated by standard, non-retroactive IR placements.

Latest On Andrei Svechnikov

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On last night’s Saturday Headlines segment of Sportsnet’s NHL broadcast, Elliotte Friedman reported an interesting development coming out of Carolina. He noted that “earlier on in the season,” Carolina Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov “was unhappy” with his usage at the time under head coach Rod Brind’Amour. As a result, per Friedman, “the inference was made” to the Hurricanes that “if they wanted to trade” Svechnikov, “he wouldn’t be upset about it,” he “would be open to the idea” of a trade from the Hurricanes.

Friedman then added that “there were some teams that called the Hurricanes” to inquire about trading for Svechnikov, but were told that the club still views the player as a cornerstone one, and that any hypothetical trade for Svechnikov would need to begin with “a monster offer.”  Friedman also noted that since that point earlier in the season, “things have cooled off” as Svechnikov’s usage has increased and he’s been placed on the team’s first line alongside Seth Jarvis and Sebastian Aho.

But if Svechnikov’s usage slips back to where it was earlier in the year, Friedman’s reporting suggests his name could re-enter trade conversations. While it’s reasonable for Carolina to value Svechnikov highly, other teams could fairly point out that his recent production hasn’t matched that valuation.

The 25-year-old has 12 points in 21 games this season, good for a 47-point 82-game pace. That’s somewhat misleading, though, because Svechnikov has those 12 points in his last 13 games since being moved into the top-six, and began the season scoreless through eight games. So it does appear, at least as far as this season is concerned, that Svechnikov’s production is highly dependent on how he’s utilized in the lineup.

Dating back to last season, Svechnikov’s offensive impact has been more modest than expected for a player of his pedigree. He scored 48 points in 72 games last season, though he did add eight goals and 12 points in 15 postseason contests. Svechnikov has shown flashes of becoming the kind of superstar winger he was projected to become when he was drafted, but those flashes haven’t been consistent enough for the player to truly ascend to the point where he’s considered a league-wide star.

On a team that has long chased a true superstar winger, including last year’s short-lived swing for Mikko Rantanen, Svechnikov being on pace for a second straight sub-50-point season stands out.

But the good thing about Svechnikov, from the Hurricanes’ perspective, is that regardless of his numbers at any given time, anyone who watches him can see he’s far more talented than the average player who produces at a similar rate. He’s shown the ability to score at near point-per-game rates, as he had 52 points in 59 games in 2023-24 and 55 points in 64 games in 2022-23.

But if his usage frustrates him again and his scoring continues to lag behind his 2022–24 levels, it’s natural that trade chatter would pick up. It’d certainly be a difficult deal to pull off given Svechnikov’s value to the Hurricanes, as well as his $7.75MM cap hit, but it’d also be a deal a massive portion of the NHL’s teams would likely have at least some level of interest in being involved in.

While it doesn’t appear that a trade is in any way likely at this point in time, Friedman’s reporting indicates that his status and usage in Carolina will at least be a storyline to watch moving forward.

Photos courtesy of Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Morning Notes: Texier, Misa, Skinner, McCabe

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While St. Louis Blues forward Alexandre Texier is not yet a free agent as he awaits word on whether he’s cleared unconditional waivers for the purposes of contract termination, that hasn’t stopped reporters from getting info on which teams are most likely to land the 26-year-old’s services once he becomes a free agent as is expected. On yesterday’s Saturday Headlines segment on Sportsnet, Elliotte Friedman reported that “the favorite” to land Texier at this point is the Montreal Canadiens.

The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun did report yesterday that Texier’s representatives are deciding between two Eastern Conference teams, and with Friedman naming the Canadiens as a favorite, it appears one of those two teams has been revealed. The Ottawa Citizen’s Bruce Garrioch reported yesterday that the Ottawa Senators expressed interest in acquiring Texier, but it’s unclear at this time whether they’re one of the two finalists. Texier’s tenure as a St. Louis Blue was unequivocally a disappointment, as he played just 39 games across two seasons and scored just 12 points. While he might not seem like the kind of player who would merit this kind of league wide attention as a free agent, it’s worth noting that Texier did score 30 points in 78 games in 2023-24. But perhaps more importantly, it’s very difficult at this early stage of the season for teams to add external talent that is NHL-caliber. The fact that Texier is available for just a small cap hit investment (and doesn’t carry the additional asset cost associated with a trade) is likely contributing to the high level of interest in his services. As NHL teams grapple with injuries testing their depth, the chance to add an NHL-ready bottom-six forward for a small amount of cap space is an opportunity most teams likely want to take advantage of.

Other notes from across the NHL:

  • San Jose Sharks forwards Michael Misa and Jeff Skinner are inching closer to a return to the ice, Curtis Pashelka of Bay Area News Group reported yesterday. Head coach Ryan Warsofsky told the media yesterday that both Misa and Skinner have resumed skating, and while Skinner is currently ahead of Misa in his recovery, Warsofsky is hopeful both will be back participating in practice by the end of next week. Misa, 18, was the No. 2 overall pick at this most recent NHL Entry Draft, and has three points through seven games this season. Getting healthy and back on the ice is arguably more important for Skinner, who is a pending UFA playing out a one-year, $3MM deal. Skinner, who scored 29 points in 72 games in 2024-25, has seven points in 17 games so far this year.
  • It was a difficult night for the Toronto Maple Leafs yesterday as they lost 5-2 to their arch rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, and now sit second-to-last in the Eastern Conference, one point above the Buffalo Sabres, who have a game in hand. Making last night’s game worse was the fact that veteran defenseman Jake McCabe left the game due to an upper-body injury, according to a team announcement. While we await an update revealing the extent of McCabe’s injury, it’s clear any extended absence for McCabe would be a major loss for Toronto. The team is already dealing with an injury to veteran Chris Tanev, and losing McCabe for any duration of time would mean the Maple Leafs would lose one of their most relied-upon defensemen. McCabe ranks second on the team among defensemen in time-on-ice per game, and leads Toronto defensemen in shorthanded time-on-ice per game.

St. Louis Blues Recall Logan Mailloux

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The St. Louis Blues announced today that defenseman Logan Mailloux has been recalled from the team’s AHL affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds.

While Mailloux struggled quite a bit during his first stint on the Blues’ NHL roster, his reassignment to the AHL was never expected to be a lengthy one. TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie reported today that the Blues had always planned for Mailloux to play five games in the AHL before returning to the NHL.

That’s exactly what’s happened thanks to this recall. Mailloux got into five games with Springfield, scoring two goals. The Blues reassigned defenseman Hunter Skinner, the player they recalled to fill Mailloux’s vacated NHL roster spot, yesterday in a move that pre-empted today’s recall.

Mailloux’s ability at the AHL level has never been in question, and his solid play in his recent five-game stint served as further proof of that. Mailloux is a two-time AHL All-Star who landed on the league’s All-Rookie team after his 47-point rookie campaign with the Laval Rocket, and on the league’s “Top Prospects” list last season, one where he scored 33 points in just 63 games.

As a player who offers a rare combination of size, strength, and offensive ability from the blueline, Mailloux has long been a coveted talent. The Blues surrendered Zachary Bolduc, coming off of a strong 19-goal rookie season, in order to acquire him. But his first nine games playing for the Blues were nothing short of a disaster, as routine defensive lapses and an inability to translate his offensive talents left him scoreless with a minus-12 rating.

Those high-profile struggles are what prompted the Blues to send Mailloux down to the AHL in order to help him “reset” his game. After five games, the hope is likely that Mailloux has gained some confidence playing in a level he’s a star at, and will be able to translate that confidence into improved play at the NHL level.

The Blues could badly use the kind of talent Mailloux has shown he could eventually become. They have won just six times in 21 games this season, and need something to help spark a turnaround. If Mailloux can begin to play up to his potential, that could be a big boost to the overall form of the team’s defense.

Central Notes: Korchinski, Bjugstad, Kalynuk

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The Chicago Blackhawks have gotten quality contributions from several young defensemen this season, but the name they haven’t heard from at the NHL level thus far in 2025-26 has been that of Kevin Korchinski. The 2022 No. 7 overall pick played in just 16 NHL games last season and has spent all of this year so far with the AHL’s Rockford Ice Hogs. While Korchinski has played well in Rockford, and has 10 assists in 15 games so far this season, his path back to the NHL in the short term, without an unforeseen injury to an NHL blueliner, looks increasingly cloudy. The Athletic’s Scott Powers wrote on Thursday that while Korchinski is “still a major part of the Blackhawks’ plans,” the emergence of Matt Grzelcyk as a quality NHL option has made it so the path for Korchinski to steal an NHL role has narrowed.

The Blackhawks’ unexpectedly strong start to 2025-26 has also complicated Korchinski’s path to an NHL call-up, according to Powers. While Chicago surrendered nine goals in a loss to the Buffalo Sabres last night, their form in that game is not indicative of how they’ve played for most of the year. Chicago has a 10-7-3 record, with a 5-3-2 record in their last ten games. They’ve positioned themselves firmly in the race for a playoff spot in this early portion of the season. While the team’s focus is still very much towards a future window of real Stanley Cup contention, an NHL team with a chance to make the playoffs is going to do everything in its power to try to reach the postseason, even teams that self-assume the tag (or are assigned the tag by the media) of a “rebuilding team.” Therefore, as s a result of Chicago’s increased focus on short-term results thanks to their success so far this year, Korchinski’s odds of quickly returning to the NHL appear to have decreased.

Other notes from the NHL’s Central Division:

  • One team that hasn’t gotten off to a strong start in 2025-26 are the St. Louis Blues, who have begun the year with just six wins out of 21 games played. While the root cause of their struggles is larger than any one player, some players have gotten off to notably slower starts than others. One player who has struggled recently is veteran Nick Bjugstad, who has been a healthy scratch of late. The Blues signed Bjugstad to a two-year, $1.75MM AAV deal this past summer in part to help stabilize their bottom-six, but that hasn’t happened, with Blues head coach Jim Montgomery telling The Athletic’s Jeremy Rutherford that the veteran is “just not having the same impact he was having” earlier in the year. While Montgomery did note that Bjugstad has “done a lot of good things” defensively, he noted that his all-around impact has slowed down. As recently as 2023-24, Bjugstad scored 22 goals and 45 points. The Blues don’t need that much production from Bjugstad, but they’ll definitely need his play to improve (along with getting similar improvements from numerous other players) if they’re to have any hope of turning around their season and returning to true playoff contention.
  • Former Blackhawks blueliner Wyatt Kalynuk was traded in the KHL yesterday, according to an official release from the league. The 28-year-old was a solid three-year NCAA player with the University of Wisconsin who left school early to begin his pro career in Chicago, getting into 21 NHL games in his rookie professional season in 2020-21. At that point, Kalynuk looked like a potential future NHL player, but his game didn’t take any expected steps forward. He got into only five NHL games in 2021-22, and ultimately left the Blackhawks organization to sign with the Vancouver Canucks. In stints with Vancouver and later the New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues, Kalynuk was unable to find a way back to an NHL roster, and after going two full seasons without an NHL game, he decided to leave the North American pro game and sign in the Finnish Liiga. His strong play in his first year in Finland (33 points in 59 games) earned Kalynuk a deal in the KHL with Ak-Bars Kazan, but he was traded to Ufa Salavat Yulayev after just two games. Now, he’s been traded a second time in 2025-26, this time landing with Gerard Gallant’s Shanghai Dragons. Gallant was the coach of the Rangers in 2022-23 when Kalynuk was in the organization, playing in 15 regular-season games, and nine playoff games for the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack.

Morning Notes: Luukkonen, Morozov, Kindel

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The Buffalo Sabres are currently carrying three goalies on their roster, and while that has worked for the club in the short term as it’s dealt with numerous injuries, keeping three netminders in the NHL over the course of a full season is generally seen as an unconventional, cumbersome roster decision. Yesterday, The Athletic’s Matthew Fairburn identified the Sabres’ NHL goaltending trio as a potential issue as it could very well “prevent the Sabres from being able to carry an offensive player who can help them.” As a result, Fairburn wrote that netminder Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen “seems like the logical odd-man out” if the Sabres do elect to continue on with just two goalies on their NHL team.

That doesn’t mean they’d simply try to send Luukkonen down, of course, and Fairburn notes that they’d need to find a trade partner for Luukkonen, which could be difficult due to the player’s inconsistent form and $4.75MM cap hit. But according to Fairburn, Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff appears to have “lost some faith” in Luukkonen, especially as he has struggled to make timely saves and stay healthy. With veteran Alex Lyon and 25-year-old waiver claim Colten Ellis both under contract through next season, as well as top goalie prospect Devon Levi, it seems the Sabres will have to make a call on which goalies they want to keep and which they would need to move on from at some point in the medium-term future. According to Fairburn, the goalie that they try to move on from could very well be Luukkonen.

Other notes from around the NHL:

  • One prospect who has significantly raised his 2026 draft stock that is University of Miami (Ohio) forward Ilia Morozov, who earlier this week was raised to an “A” grade on NHL Central Scouting’s preliminary watchlist, according to NHL.com’s Mike Morreale. An “A” grade signifies a candidate to be a first-round pick at the draft next year, and when the watchlist was first released, Morozov was assigned a “B” grade by Central Scouting. What appears to have raised Morozov’s stock has been his electric start to the season in the NCAA. Morozov has 11 points through 11 games, a point-per-game rate that is just a shade lower than projected top pick Gavin McKenna. What has helped Morozov garner so much hype has been the fact that he’s not only generating offense in the NCAA (an NCAA that has been flooded with high-level CHL talent thanks to recent rule changes) as a 17-year-old with an August birthdate, but that he’s also doing so as a player listed at 6’3″ 205 pounds on Elite Prospects. If there’s something NHL scouts often can’t resist, it’s a draft prospect who pairs dynamic offensive ability with pro-projectable size and strength. In the early part of the season, that’s exactly what Morozov has been, and his stock is soaring as a result.
  • Looking at last season’s draft, one of the standout players so far has been Pittsburgh Penguins forward Benjamin Kindel, who the team selected No. 11. At the time, most public-facing outlets had Kindel ranked later than the No. 11 slot Pittsburgh selected him at. The Athletic’s Corey Pronman gave the Penguins’ pick of Kindel a “C” grade on draft night, which was tied for his lowest grade for any selection in the 2025 first round. Kindel was ranked No. 22 on Bob McKenzie’s list, No. 21 among North American Skaters by NHL Central Scouting, and No. 33 by Pronman. But the Penguins were far higher on Kindel. Per The Athletic’s Josh Yohe, the Penguins “entered the draft with Kindel ranked as the fourth-best prospect available.” While it remains to be seen if Kindel’s career falls more in line with Pittsburgh’s No. 4 ranking or the public sphere’s evaluation of Kindel as a mid-to-late first-rounder, early returns have favored the Penguins staff. Kindel has looked like an NHL player at just 18 years old this season, scoring seven points in 18 games. He’s just one of three players projected to play all of 2025-26 in the NHL, the other two being Matthew Schaefer and Michael Misa, the top two picks of the draft.

Minor Transactions: 11/20/2025

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It’s a busy day around the hockey world, but especially on the NHL schedule, with 12 games on the docket. The highlights include a rematch of the 2025 first-round playoff series between the Montreal Canadiens and Washington Capitals, as well as two of the more positive surprise teams of the season (the Chicago Blackhawks and Seattle Kraken) facing off.

While the NHL world is busy with games to play, player movement has been slower. That’s not the case outside the NHL, where a multitude of transactions have been made across the European pro leagues and the North American minors. Here, we’ll run down notable player moves from those leagues:

  • Former NHL defenseman Christian Wolanin has signed an AHL PTO with the Providence Bruins, the AHL affiliate of the Boston Bruins. It’s been something of a surprise to see Wolanin, 30, linger on the free agent market so long. He won the Calder Cup this past spring with the Abbotsford Canucks, playing a key role for the club. He scored 40 points in 58 regular-season games and added 10 points in 17 games during Abbotsford’s playoff run. While finding a place to play in the AHL becomes considerably more difficult for veterans once they are no longer considered “development players” per the AHL’s development rule, it was still surprising to see the 2022-23 Eddie Shore Award Winner (given to the AHL’s Best Defenseman) wait until late November to sign with a team, and especially on a PTO rather than a full-time deal. Beyond being a quality AHLer, Wolanin also brings 86 games of NHL experience to the table.
  • Nikita Artamonov, one of the better prospects whose rights are owned by the Carolina Hurricanes, was loaned from his KHL team, Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, to Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk. Artamonov was one of the top young wingers in the KHL last season, scoring 22 goals and 39 points in 63 games. His production, and overall usage, has declined sharply this season, as he has just one point through 15 games with Torpedo. That appears to have prompted this loan move, where he figures to get a better opportunity. Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk currently sit fifth in the KHL’s Eastern Conference, but are one of the lower-scoring teams of their caliber. The addition of Artamonov should help them in that area, and a more consistent diet of KHL-level minutes is likely to aid Artamonov’s development.
  • Former Ottawa Senators netminder Kevin Mandolese was released from his AHL PTO with the Charlotte Checkers today, per a team announcement. Mandolese, who began the year on an NHL PTO with the Montreal Canadiens for training camp, played in just one game for the Checkers while on this PTO. In the team’s Nov. 8 contest against the Syracuse Crunch, Mandolese saved 28 of 30 shots to backstop Charlotte to a 3-2 victory. Now he’ll have to find his next place to continue his pro career. Mandolese has played in 86 career AHL games, and has an .898 career save percentage.
  • Former Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins and Texas Stars forward Oula Palve has transferred from EHC Kloten of the Swiss National League to Djurgardens IF of Sweden’s SHL. Per a team announcement, Palve will join Djurgardens on Nov. 30 on a contract running through the end of the 2025-26 season. Palve got off to a slow start with Kloten, scoring just five points across 15 games. He’s been moderately successful in the past in Sweden’s top league (he scored 35 points in 2021-22) but has been at his best in his native Finland. Palve was Liiga’s top scorer in 2023-24 with 64 points in 60 games, a performance that landed him a contract in Switzerland’s top league. But after bouncing between three Swiss clubs during his time in the NL, Palve has now landed back in Sweden where he’ll look to help Djurgardens push to climb the SHL standings.
  • 2022-23 Liiga rookie of the year Niko Huuhtanen, a Tampa Bay Lightning prospect, was reassigned from the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch to the ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears today. The 22-year-old, who was the 224th pick in the 2021 draft, looked to be one of Tampa’s more promising prospects just a few years after his selection. He scored 46 points in 52 Liiga games in 2023-24, a significant number for a league that has fewer point-per-game individual scorers compared to North American leagues. There was hope that his success in a top European pro league would allow the 6’3″ winger to translate easily to the North American pro game, but that hasn’t occurred to this point. Huuhtanen only managed 20 points in 51 games as an AHL rookie, and while he has three points in five games so far this season, he spent a month injured and two of his three points came in a blowout loss to Belleville on Nov. 1. The Lightning are likely looking to help Huuhtanen rebuild his game, and now he’ll have the chance to do so in the ECHL.
  • A trade was completed in the KHL today, with Sibir Novosibirsk trading cash considerations and young blueliner Yaroslav Belyakov for veteran KHLer Yegor Zaitsev. Zaitsev, 27, is the big prize for Sibir in this deal. He’s a 2017 New Jersey Devils draft pick who has skated in over 400 KHL games in his career. Belyakov has just 18 games of KHL experience to his name but is a 19-year-old who scored 20 points in 31 games at the MHL (junior league) level last season.
  • Veteran Czech netminder Jakub Kovar has signed a one-year contract extension to remain with HC Sparta Praha through 2026-27. The 37-year-old, who is a 2006 Philadelphia Flyers draft pick, has played for Prague since the 2022-23 campaign. He’s a former star goalie in the KHL for Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg, reaching the KHL’s All-Star game three times and leading the league in shutouts in 2020-21. Kovar has been his usual reliable self so far in 2025-26, posting a .926 save percentage across 12 games in the Czech Extraliga. Besides the Extraliga and KHL, Kovar also has some experience in the Swiss National League, thanks to a 14-game stint with ZSC Lions in 2021-22.
  • 287-game Liiga veteran Otto Makinen has signed a one-year contract extension with his current club, JYP. The 27-year-old pivot has been a revelation so far in 2025-26, scoring 16 goals in 18 games. For a player normally lauded for his two-way ability rather than his offensive production, and as someone with a career-high of 27 points in Liiga, this level of production is almost entirely unexpected. While it remains to be seen if Makinen will be able to sustain that points production over the course of a full season, this contract extension shows JYP have seen enough and would like to keep him around for at least another year.
  • Just a short period into his second ECHL campaign, forward Adam Robbins has elected to transfer overseas. The 25-year-old forward, who is a former USHL champion with the 2020-21 Chicago Steel, has signed a one-year contract with the Coventry Blaze of the EIHL, the top tier of pro hockey in the United Kingdom. Robbins began his pro career in 2024-25 with the Tahoe Knight Monsters, signing there after a solid final NCAA season with Princeton University. Robbins had scored 29 points in 30 games as a senior at Princeton, but only managed 13 points in 51 games as an ECHL rookie. Now after struggling to find a place in the Cincinnati Cyclones’ lineup in 2025-26, Robbins has decided England will be where he continues his professional career.

Injury Updates: Stolarz, Durzi, Cernak

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Toronto Maple Leafs starting netminder Anthony Stolarz has been out with an upper-body injury for a little over a week, and at the moment it’s unclear at what point he’ll be fit to return to the ice. Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube told the media today, including the Toronto Sun’s Terry Koshan, that Stolarz’s injury was “worse than we thought” and that at this point he does not have a timeline for Stolarz’s return to the ice.

While Berube did go on to add that “maybe tomorrow” Stolarz will be back on the ice, it doesn’t sound as though anything related to his recovery is set in stone. The Maple Leafs could certainly use a healthy Stolarz back on the ice and playing at his best. The team currently sits 27th in the NHL with a 9-9-2 record and averages the second-highest goals-against per game. Stolarz has an .884 save percentage in 13 games this season, but performed much better last year with a .926 save percentage in 34 games.

More injury updates from around the league:

  • The Utah Mammoth are set to get one of their better defensemen back from injury. Cole Bagley of KSL Sports relayed word from head coach Andre Tourigny that injured blueliner Sean Durzi is now considered out on a day-to-day timeline and is nearing a return to the ice. Durzi returned to practice in a regular jersey today, having missed all of the Mammoth’s games since their Oct. 11 contest against the Nashville Predators. Injuries also limited Durzi significantly in 2024-25, as he got into just 30 games. The year before that, he was highly effective, scoring a career-high 41 points in 76 games.
  • When Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak stepped onto the ice for practice this morning, most observers assumed he’d be fit to play in the team’s game tonight against the Edmonton Oilers. That didn’t come to fruition though, as his injury kept him from taking on the Oilers tonight, meaning he’ll miss a second game with an undisclosed ailment. Cernak has been Tampa Bay’s No. 4 defenseman in terms of ice time this season, averaging 19:05 time-on-ice per game including 2:48 on average on the penalty kill, second-highest on the team.

Colorado Avalanche Activate, Reassign Nikita Prishchepov

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The Colorado Avalanche announced today that they have activated forward Nikita Prishchepov off injured reserve and reassigned him to their AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles.

Prishchepov has been on injured reserve for all of 2025-26 due to an undisclosed injury. With this transaction, the Avalanche have returned the 21-year-old to the team he spent most of the 2024-25 season with.

2024-25 was Prishchepov’s first season as a member of the Avalanche organization, as he was selected in the seventh round, 217th overall at the 2024 draft as a double-overage player. He had scored 22 goals and 67 points in 63 games with Victoriaville of the QMJHL in 2023-24, and had scored at decent but not stellar rates in the two seasons prior to that.

Due to his status as a seventh-round rookie playing his first year of professional hockey, expectations for Prishchepov’s rookie season were low. He exceeded them by playing in 10 NHL games and scoring 23 points in 51 games in the AHL.

Now healthy and back in the minors, Prishchepov will be tasked with building on his solid rookie season and making a more concentrated push for an NHL call-up over the course of 2025-26.

Penguins’ Philip Tomasino Clears Waivers

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Nov. 20: Despite now being eligible for assignment to AHL Wilkes-Barre, Tomasino was present for practice with the NHL Penguins today and appears to still be on the club’s NHL roster.

He will remain eligible to be reassigned to the minors without needing to be placed on waivers until he plays in 10 cumulative NHL games since when he cleared waivers, or until he spends 30 cumulative days on an NHL roster.

Nov. 19: Tomasino went unclaimed on waivers and can now be assigned to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, per Friedman.

Nov. 18: According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Pittsburgh Penguins have placed forward Philip Tomasino on waivers today.

This move could end Tomasino’s tenure in Pittsburgh, just one year removed from when the team traded a 2027 fourth-round pick to the Nashville Predators to acquire him. The Penguins likely viewed Tomasino as a player who could potentially benefit from a change of scenery. The 2019 first-round pick was once viewed as one of the Predators’ top prospects. The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler ranked Tomasino No. 2 in the Predators’ system in 2021, writing at the time that he saw “clear top-six upside” and a player who was a “multi-faceted play-driver” that could still find a way to impact games even without consistent puck touches.

After Tomasino’s rookie season in 2021-22, it looked like Tomasino was still on track to live up to the hype he’d garnered as a prospect. He scored 11 goals and 32 points, providing useful secondary scoring to a Predators team that reached the playoffs. Tomasino would go on to score 38 points across his next 72 NHL games in 2022-23 and 2023-24, but those numbers didn’t tell the whole story.

Tomasino’s propensity for defensive lapses and inability to consistently win puck battles or play through the middle of the ice cost him the trust of Predators head coach Andrew Brunette, who took the team to the playoffs and won 47 games in his first season at the helm in Nashville. Tomasino averaged 15:36 time-on-ice under John Hynes the year prior, but his ice time fell to just 12:34 per game under Brunette.

After Tomasino scored just one point in 11 games to start 2024-25, the Predators traded him to Pittsburgh. Initially, the Penguins’ bet seemed to be paying off, as Tomasino scored three goals and four points in his first five games with the Penguins. The rest of the way, it was a relatively similar story to Tomasino’s time in Nashville. He had decent box score numbers (23 points in 50 games, a 38-point 82-game pace) but a lackluster all-around impact.

While it’s come on an accelerated timeline, Tomasino’s time in Pittsburgh appears to have followed a similar track to his time in Nashville. There were those aforementioned early flashes, followed by passable scoring numbers and a sense that he consistently left fans and coaches wanting more.

So far in his second season in Pittsburgh, Tomasino’s time has gone similarly to his later tenure as a Predator. A coaching change happened, and he’s not nearly as trusted by the new head coach, Dan Muse, as he was under former coach Mike Sullivan. Tomasino’s ice time has again declined to just over 12 minutes per night, and he’s found himself a healthy scratch on some nights, just as he was in Nashville.

Over the last few weeks, there was a growing sense in the media that Tomasino’s days on the Penguins’ NHL roster could be numbered. The Athletic’s Josh Yohe reported on Oct. 27 that the Penguins were “not thrilled with Tomasino’s current play,” and that when he was still in Pittsburgh, Sullivan “believed that Tomasino concerned himself too much with his statistics and the scoresheet and not enough with the finer aspects of the game.” Yohe also wrote that Tomasino had been “painfully invisible” in games so far in 2025-26.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Matt Vensel wrote earlier this month about how Muse had implored Tomasino to find a way to consistently “impact the game” and forge his own identity as a player at the NHL level. Vensel wrote at the time that Tomasino “would presumably be on a short list of players they would consider sending down” in the event that the Penguins needed to clear a roster spot if his play did not improve dramatically, and if he remained unable to impact the game in the kind of way Muse wanted him to.

Based on his placement on waivers today, it appears the Penguins may feel Tomasino is not likely to discover that identity or find a way to consistently impact the game in Pittsburgh. It’s important to note, of course, that Tomasino remains just 24 years old, and despite his struggle to establish himself as an NHLer, remains a player with legitimate offensive talents. While things haven’t worked out in Pittsburgh, there are only so many players going around who possess the ability to dazzle with puck skills and offensive ability. While Tomasino has only been able to show off those talents on an inconsistent basis at the NHL level, it’s possible another club could look to claim Tomasino and see if their coaching staff can unlock the potential Tomasino wasn’t able to realize with his prior two teams.

Photos courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

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