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André Burakovsky Out Week-To-Week

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Seattle Kraken forward André Burakovsky will be out on a week-to-week basis, head coach Dave Hakstol said today. (via the Seattle Times’ Kate Shefte) Hakstol added that Burakovsky’s current injury is entirely unrelated to the one that kept him out of the Kraken lineup from late October to early December.

Burakovsky appears to have suffered the injury in last night’s game, or at least aggravated it, as he only played a little over nine minutes of ice time, including just two shifts in the game’s third period.

Missing even more time would be unwelcome news for both Burakovsky and the Kraken, as their $5.5MM scoring forward has already missed multiple weeks due to an upper-body injury.

When healthy, Burakovsky is among the Kraken’s most deadly offensive threats.

But he has struggled with injuries throughout his NHL career and especially since signing in Seattle. He produced at a 65-point 82-game pace last season, his debut year with the Kraken, but only ended up playing in 49 games. He also missed the entirety of the Kraken’s playoff run, a trip to the postseason that yielded an upset victory over the Colorado Avalanche, Burakovsky’s former team.

The two-time Stanley Cup champion had returned to the lineup to play second-line minutes alongside Jared McCann and Alexander Wennberg, but now with this new injury that line will have to find a new player to fill Burakovsky’s role.

It’s especially poor news given the state of Seattle’s offense. They currently rank fourth-to-last in the NHL in goals scored per game with 2.59. Key producers from last season such as Calder Trophy winner Matty Beniers and eight-time 20-goal scorer Jordan Eberle have seen their offensive numbers take a steep decline.

The Kraken are already desperate to dig out of the early hole they’ve dug into this season, and this new stroke of extremely poor injury luck will undoubtedly damage those efforts.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

New York Islanders Acquire Robert Bortuzzo

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The New York Islanders have acquired defenseman Robert Bortuzzo from the St. Louis Blues in exchange for a 2024 seventh-round draft pick.

This news isn’t entirely surprising given the recent announcement that Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock has been placed on injured reserve. Pulock’s injury left the Islanders thin on the right side of their blueline, a significant problem for a team facing Stanley Cup contenders in its next two games. With Pulock out, the Islanders were likely to have to slot Grant Hutton into a regular role on their blueline.

While the six-foot-three Hutton has been a nice find for the Islanders as an undrafted free agent signing from a few years ago, he has just 18 games of NHL experience. While Hutton is deserving of admiration for how he has worked his way up from the college ranks to the NHL, he is not the kind of reliable veteran a coach would likely prefer to see filling in for Pulock.

Pulock plays a minutes-eating role with the Islanders, enduring tough matchups against opposing teams’ top forwards. He also plays a critical role on the team’s penalty kill, a unit that has struggled so far this season but ranked inside the league’s top 10 last year. Although Bortuzzo is far from the defenseman Pulock is, he is a clear upgrade over Hutton in a seventh-defenseman role.

Bortuzzo, an Octagon Hockey client, is a Stanley Cup champion and a veteran of over 500 NHL games. He’s played for the Blues for a decade and has generally occupied the seventh-defenseman role for the team.

He won’t offer much in the way of offensive value or puck-moving ability, but he brings above-average size standing six-foot-four, 216 pounds. Additionally, he’s an imposing physical presence and has racked up 491 career penalty minutes and over 1,000 career hits.

With this trade, the Islanders acquire a highly experienced defenseman at an affordable price, grabbing someone who can more reliably handle some of the minutes vacated by Pulock than Hutton likely could. This trade also gives the Islanders a better seventh defenseman for when Pulock does return, assuming the 29-year-old can re-enter the lineup after his mandated three-game absence.

The Islanders currently sit third in the Metropolitan Division with an 11-7-7 record. The Carolina Hurricanes, Washington Capitals, and New Jersey Devils are all teams likely to make a serious push for playoff position as the season moves forward. For the Islanders to remain in a playoff spot in such a cutthroat division, the club could not afford to roll the dice on Hutton when a player with the experience of Bortuzzo was available.

General manager Lou Lamoriello has provided that necessary defensive reinforcement with this trade, and only expended a seventh-round pick to do so. While some fans may have preferred the team target a younger blueliner who plays a style more in line with the expectations of a modern NHL defenseman, (meaning someone who has some skating ability and the capability to contribute to the transition game) it’s hard to argue with the addition of such an experienced defenseman like Bortuzzo at such a cheap price. And that’s made especially true since Bortuzzo carries just a $950k cap hit in a league where cap space is often a team’s most valuable asset.

For St. Louis, this deal accomplishes a few things. Firstly, it provides an opportunity for Bortuzzo to get into games on a more regular basis than he’d done so far this season. He hasn’t played since November 18th and has dressed for just four games this year. As a pending unrestricted free agent, the more games Bortuzzo is a healthy scratch for the harder it will be for him to secure a suitable contract on the open market.

As a ten-year veteran who helped deliver the Blues their first Stanley Cup championship, it’s understandable that the franchise would want to first and foremost do right by Bortuzzo, especially if he wasn’t in head coach Craig Berube’s long-term plans.

Prior to this trade, the Blues had been carrying eight defensemen, and 23-year-old Tyler Tucker was more likely than Bortuzzo to draw into the lineup in case of injuries. Now, they’re left with a more conventional unit of seven defensemen on their active roster, a number that offers the team an additional spot for which an extra forward can now be called up to fill. Being able to do a favor to a well-liked veteran while also adding a draft pick in the process is a tidy bit of business for Blues GM Doug Armstrong.

While this trade was completed in less-than-ideal circumstances for the Islanders, it’s a deal that works on multiple levels for both involved clubs while also providing a significant opportunity to a respected veteran who is playing in a contract year.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

New York Islanders Place Ryan Pulock On Injured Reserve

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The New York Islanders have placed defenseman Ryan Pulock on injured reserve with a lower-body injury, according to a team announcement.

The nature of Pulock’s injury, beyond the fact that it is a lower-body ailment, is not immediately clear. The 29-year-old blueliner played in yesterday’s 7-3 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets, although his 16:28 time-on-ice was quite a bit lower than normal. Pulock typically plays 23 minutes per night and can play as many as 28, as he did during a November contest against the Ottawa Senators.

Due to this IR placement, Pulock will now need to miss at least the team’s next three games. That leaves the Islanders without one of their most important defensemen for games against some potential Stanley Cup contenders. The Islanders play the Los Angeles Kings tomorrow and then face off against the Toronto Maple Leafs on December 11th. The Islanders are already missing stalwart defensive defenseman Adam Pelech, so this loss of Pulock costs the team another reliable, minutes-eating blueliner.

Paired with young Samuel Bolduc last night, Pulock occupied a crucial role inside the team’s top four at even strength and on the penalty kill.

Now, barring any external addition, it’s likely that team seventh defenseman Grant Hutton will draw into the lineup in place of Pulock. It’s extremely unlikely he plays the kind of role the team entrusts to Pulock, though. Instead, look for the team’s third pairing of recent waiver claim Mike Reilly and veteran Scott Mayfield to be leaned on more heavily by head coach Lane Lambert.

As one of the league’s lower-scoring teams, the Islanders rely on well-drilled defensive hockey and exceptional goaltending to grind out victories. That’s the formula that took the club to the playoffs last season and placed them in the Eastern Conference Finals for two consecutive years under former coach Barry Trotz.

Employing that defense-first strategy becomes quite a bit more challenging when both Pelech and Pulock are out of the lineup. It will be interesting to see what adjustments Lambert makes in order to give his squad the best chance to keep pace in what is a fiercely competitive Metropolitan division.

Trade Rumors: DeAngelo, Walker, Canadiens Goalies

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Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Tony DeAngelo “has been on the trade market for more than a month already,” according to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun. (subscription link) But according to LeBrun, “the market has been soft for DeAngelo,” and the Hurricanes’ efforts to find a trade partner for the defenseman are potentially impacted by the presence of Tyson Barrie, another right-shot power play specialist, on the trade market alongside DeAngelo.

DeAngelo’s second stint in Raleigh hasn’t quite gone as well as his first. In 2021-22, the now-28-year-old 2014 first-round pick averaged 19:49 time on ice per game and scored 10 goals and 51 points in 64 games, which is a 13-goal, 65-point 82-game pace. This season, though, he’s only averaged 16:11 time on ice, has just seven points in 16 games, and has not played since mid-November. Although he has two 50-plus point seasons on record and once appeared on some Norris Trophy ballots, DeAngelo may not be in the Hurricanes’ plans for much longer.

Some other trade notes from across the NHL:

  • TSN’s Darren Dreger reported on the Insider Trading segment yesterday that “it’s expected [the Flyers] could command as much as a first-round draft pick” in any trade involving blueliner Sean Walker. While there isn’t any indication that the Flyers are shopping Walker, the 29-year-old’s standout all-around play this season, his affordable $2.65MM cap hit, and his pending UFA status all place him among the most attractive defensemen that might be available on the trade market. If a team would like to acquire him, though, it appears the price is going to be in line with other recent blueline rentals, such as Ben Chiarot and Dmitry Orlov, who each returned first-round picks of their own.
  • LeBrun also reported in his piece today that “the Montreal Canadiens are still hoping to move a goalie,” and that they don’t want to keep three goalies on their active roster for the full season. LeBrun reports that the team is “listening to offers” on Cayden Primeau and Jake Allen, two names that make sense to deal since Samuel Montembeault recently signed a three-year extension. That being said, the team has yet to receive a trade offer for either player and trading Allen could be challenging due to his $3.85MM cap hit and the fact that he has the right to submit a seven-team no-trade list.

Arizona Coyotes Recall Patrik Koch

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The Arizona Coyotes have recalled defenseman Patrik Koch from their AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners.

The move puts the 26-year-old Slovak defenseman in a position to make his NHL debut, a debut that would come just a few short months removed from the start of his North American professional career. An undrafted veteran of the Czech and Slovak leagues, Koch was signed by Arizona this past summer after a solid season in Czechia.

Playing for HC Vítkovice, Koch scored 12 points in 46 games and helped the club reach the Czech semifinals. He also earned a spot on Slovakia’s team for the 2023 IIHF Men’s World Championship, where his country would only narrowly miss out on advancement to the playoffs.

So far this season Koch has played entirely in the AHL with the Roadrunners. He has most recently been listed on the team’s third pairing alongside Montana Onyebuchi, usage that does not indicate that he would be a prime call-up candidate. That being said, Koch provides quite a bit of bite and physicality, something other call-up candidates such as Victor Söderström or Maksymilian Szuber don’t offer as readily.

With the Coyotes preparing to play a tough Philadelphia Flyers squad that boasts fearsome forwards such as Nicolas Deslauriers and Garnet Hathaway, recalling Koch adds a bruising defenseman to an Arizona defense that is currently not overflowing with overwhelmingly physical players outside veteran Josh Brown.

Snapshots: Tinordi, Jones, Walman

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According to NBC Sports Chicago’s Charlie Roumeliotis, Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Jarred Tinordi will not practice with the Blackhawks today, as he has been placed in concussion protocol. Tinordi has already missed time this season due to an oblique injury, and has in total played in just 12 games this season.

The hope for Tinordi has to be that being in concussion protocol ends up being a precaution, and that Tinordi does not have a head injury. Not only would that be the ideal outcome for Tinordi’s health, it would also allow him to get back onto the ice sooner in what is a season of high personal importance. A pending unrestricted free agent, the physical 31-year-old will want to have the best possible season in order to set himself up for his next contract.

Some other notes from the rest of the NHL:

  • The Toronto Maple Leafs have recalled netminder Martin Jones from their AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, once again on an emergency basis. The team had originally sent Jones back down to the AHL, but with regular netminder Ilya Samsonov still not well enough to back up Joseph Woll it appears Toronto will need Jones’ services in the NHL for a little while longer. Jones has a .870 save percentage through five games with the Marlies so far this season.
  • The NHL Department of Player Safety fined Detroit Red Wings defenseman Jake Walman $2,500 for high-sticking Buffalo Sabres forward Jeff Skinner in last night’s game. The play in question appears to be more of a cross-check than a natural high-sticking, though the cross-check did appear to be unleashed on Skinner’s head. Seeing as Walman made contact with Skinner’s head, the Red Wings are likely relieved that Walman did not receive any suspension from a Department of Player Safety that often has a very low tolerance for checks to the head. Walman has emerged as a top-pairing defenseman in Detroit, so losing him for even a game would represent a significant loss.

Ilya Kovalchuk Signs In KHL

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Former NHL superstar Ilya Kovalchuk has decided to return to the game after a two-year absence, signing a one-year contract with the KHL’s Spartak Moscow.

Kovalchuk, 40, has not played at all since his playoff run with Avangard Omsk in 2020-21 that ended in a Gagarin Cup championship. Before that short stint in Omsk, Kovalchuk had not been a fixture in the KHL since 2017-18, the final year of his time in the KHL that began with his highly controversial exit from the New Jersey Devils.

The 2001 first-round pick returned to the KHL in 2020-21 after two seasons in the NHL split between three teams: the Los Angeles Kings, Montreal Canadiens, and Washington Capitals. That raised the overall total of NHL franchises he’s played for to five, adding on the Devils and Atlanta Thrashers, teams he spent the bulk of his career weith.

Now, Kovalchuk will represent Spartak, a team that currently sits at the top of the KHL’s Western Conference. They rank first in the KHL in goals scored by a wide margin, so their addition of Kovalchuk is not one based on desperation to add offensive reinforcements. Instead, Kovalchuk will join an already-talented side that includes star Nikolay Goldobin, a former NHLer who currently has 53 points in just 40 KHL games.

While there is surely no possibility that this signing will result in Kovalchuk looking to once again return to North American pro hockey, this contract does extend the playing career of a forward who was once one of the NHL’s most electric offensive talents.

Ottawa Senators Hire Jacques Martin As Senior Advisor To Coaching Staff

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The Ottawa Senators have made a change to their coaching staff — but it’s an addition, not a subtraction. They’ve turned to a familiar face, hiring Jacques Martin as a senior advisor to their coaching staff.

This move is a highly intriguing one, on multiple levels. First and foremost, the Senators are adding an extremely experienced former head coach to their staff, someone with a reputation as a strong defensive mind.

The Senators have actually surrendered the seventh-fewest goals in the entire NHL, which does not indicate an immediate need for the club to patch up its defense. That being said, the added experience definitely can’t hurt the Senators’ coaching efforts.

Experience is something Martin most definitely has, as he won a Jack Adams award all the way back in 1998-99 and first became an NHL head coach in 1986, coaching the Doug Gilmour and Bernie Federko-led St. Louis Blues.

Martin only kept that job for two seasons but he got a second chance to become a head coach when the Senators hired him in 1995-96.

Martin stayed in Ottawa until after 2003-04, embarking on a run of success that had been wholly foreign to the relatively young expansion franchise.

He reached the postseason in just his second campaign in the Canadian capital, and then eventually made it all the way to the Eastern Conference Final with star players such as Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza, Marian Hossa, and Zdeno Chara.

Martin would then take charge of the Florida Panthers, and while he never managed to reach the playoffs there he kept the Panthers above a .500 points percentage in each of his campaigns in Florida.

After that, he became the head coach of the Montreal Canadiens. His well-drilled defensive side rode excellent goaltending from Jaroslav Halak to the Eastern Conference Final, taking out two heavyweight teams in the top-seeded Washington Capitals and defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins along the way.

That stint in Montreal was Martin’s most recent as a head coach, though he did go on to have success as an assistant coach. He worked on Mike Sullivan’s staff with the Penguins as the club won the 2016-17 Stanley Cup, and then spent one year assisting David Quinn and the New York Rangers.

Martin’s appointment in Ottawa appears to come with a decent bit of intrigue. On the face of it, the Senators are simply adding a familiar face to help out a club currently struggling to build momentum in the standings. But looking at it a little bit deeper, this Senators coaching staff is currently highly embattled with a significant portion of the fanbase appearing to prefer the head coach, D.J. Smith, be dismissed.

Senators management in Steve Staios and new owner Michael Andlauer have thus far resisted firing Smith, reportedly due to a desire to maintain as much stability in the organization as possible. But in a campaign where the Senators are under so much pressure to make the playoffs, one has to wonder if the Senators can afford to retain Smith much longer, considering he is in his fifth year as the team’s head coach and has only once delivered a points percentage above .500.

By hiring Martin, the Senators have now brought a highly experienced, highly respected former head coach into their organization, someone who could now theoretically step in and serve as an interim head coach on short notice. That’s not to say this hiring is some sort of sign that a Smith firing is anything certain, of course, as the Senators’ ownership appears to remain committed to supporting Smith and prioritizing stability.

But in the case that the Senators endure another run of bad results, the type of run that would make retaining their fifth-year coach completely impossible, they now have an in-house replacement ready to take over in Martin. He’s someone with not only extensive experience in Ottawa but also extensive experience bringing out the best of the talent on his roster.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Jacob Markström Out Week-To-Week With Fractured Finger

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Calgary Flames starting netminder Jacob Markström is out week-to-week with a fractured finger, the team announced this morning. The injury won’t require surgery, and as a replacement for Markström on the team’s roster Calgary has recalled Dustin Wolf from its AHL affiliate.

Markström, 33, last played in a December 2nd loss to the Vancouver Canucks. He’s played in a total of 16 games this season for Calgary and has an .896 save percentage. That’s only a slight improvement off of last season’s form, as he posted an .892 in 59 games in 2022-23.

The year before, Markström was an elite goalie, posting a .922 save percentage in 63 games, a performance that made him the Vezina Trophy runner-up. When he plays at that level, the Flames appear to be a genuine Stanley Cup contender, but as he’s struggled to match that form in recent years the team’s overall trajectory has fallen.

Now Markström faces a setback in returning to his elite form in 2023-24, though he does have some runway to work with. Making $6MM per year through 2025-26, Markström has some time to figure things out and will hope to return from this injury fresh and ready to play as well as he did earlier in his career.

Replacing Markström on the Flames’ active roster is Wolf, who is one of the best goalie prospects in the sport. The 22-year-old 2019 seventh-round pick is an undersized, highly athletic puck-stopper who has won just about everything a goalie could hope to win before he makes it tot the NHL. Wolf is a two-time AHL Goalie of the Year, the reigning AHL MVP, a World Junior Championship gold medal-winner, a two-time WHL goalie of the year and a one-time CHL goalie of the year.

So far this season, Wolf has a .920 save percentage in 13 games with the Wranglers. He has a career save percentage of .927 in 118 AHL games. In the NHL, he has made two career starts and has a .919 save percentage. With  Markström now out for an extended period, Wolf is lined up for the most extensive NHL opportunity he’s ever received to this point in his young career.

East Notes: Thompson, Levi, Mara

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Buffalo Sabres star Tage Thompson has returned to team practice this morning, taking line rushes with Casey Mittelstadt and Jeff Skinner today. Thompson has not played since November 14th and has been working his way back from an upper-body injury.

Should Thompson return to the Sabres’ first-line next to Mittelstadt and Skinner, he would thereby be displacing winger Alex Tuch from that trio. Thompson’s return could very well result in Isak Rosén returning to the AHL’s Rochester Americans, seeing as he has no points through four NHL games this year and a spot in the team’s forward lineup would need to be cleared.

Some other notes from the Eastern Conference:

  • According to The Buffalo News’ Lance Lysowski, the Sabres are expected to recall goaltender Devon Levi from the Americans today. Netminder Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is battling an illness, so with the Sabres set to play the Detroit Red Wings tonight, Buffalo is likely to recall its top goalie prospect. Levi was sent down in order to have a “reset” after a difficult start to the season, so while he’ll likely serve as the backup for this recall he should be expected to be returned to the AHL in relatively short order.
  • Larry Brooks of The New York Post reports that former NHL defenseman Paul Mara is being promoted from his position as an assistant development coach with the Rangers to a spot on the bench of the team’s AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack. Mara will be charged with managing the Wolf Pack defense, a unit that includes prospects such as Matthew Robertson and Brandon Scanlin as well as breakout players such as Nikolas Brouillard and Mac Hollowell.

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