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Latest On Simon Nemec, Brett Pesce

December 16, 2025 at 4:57 pm CDT | by Ethan Hetu 1 Comment

The New Jersey Devils are among the NHL’s most injured teams at this stage of the 2025-26 campaign, and their bad luck with injuries is only set to continue. Team reporter Amanda Stein relayed word today from Devils practice that defenseman Simon Nemec will be out until at least the holiday break.

Head coach Sheldon Keefe said, per Stein, that the team will have a better idea of Nemec’s recovery in two weeks, and will be able to determine what the next step is for him at that point. Nemec suffered a lower-body injury during practice on Friday and has missed back-to-back games for the Devils.

This development throws a bit of a wrench into what has been a breakout campaign for Nemec, the 2022 No. 2 overall pick. Nemec was a dynamic prospect during his draft year and played quite well at the AHL level, but took a little bit longer than some of his peers from his draft class to find his footing at the NHL level.

While the other top-five picks from the 2022 draft (Montreal’s Juraj Slafkovsky, Utah’s Logan Cooley, Seattle’s Shane Wright, and Anaheim’s Cutter Gauthier) had each managed to break into the NHL and establish themselves in meaningful scoring roles in 2023-24 and 2024-25, Nemec’s NHL role appeared to decline after his rookie campaign.

He skated in 60 NHL games in 2023-24, but only got into 27 games at the NHL level in 2024-25. His total of AHL games played consequently rose from 13 to 34 year-over-year.

While Nemec was spending most of last season back in the AHL, Slafkovsky was putting together his second consecutive 50-point season, Cooley was emerging as a star in Utah, and both Wright and Gauthier managed solid 44-point rookie campaigns.

Fans naturally compared Nemec to his peers from that draft class, and many considered his level of progress, which appeared slower than his peers, to be a matter of concern. But that level of concern wasn’t entirely fair, as defensemen often take a little longer than forwards to come into their own at the NHL level.

It could have hardly come as a surprise to Devils management, for example, that Nemec wouldn’t have his NHL breakout at exactly the same time as the forwards drafted near him. And so far in 2025-26, all Nemec has done is put together the same kind of breakout campaign his peers managed last year.

Nemec has 18 points through 31 games this season, a 48-point full-season pace. He’s been the Devils’ No. 3 defenseman in terms of ice time this season, and is also finding his way onto the team’s power play despite the presence of Dougie Hamilton and Luke Hughes already on the Devils’ roster.

In other words, the Nemec the Devils have received this season has been exactly the kind of dynamic, two-way force the team believed they’d get when they invested the No. 2 overall pick in him. That’s what makes Nemec’s new injury such an unfortunate development, as it puts a halt on Nemec’s breakout season for at least the next two weeks.

Thankfully for New Jersey, while they’re losing Nemec to a new injury, a key veteran right-shot defenseman appears to be nearing a return from injury: Brett Pesce. Stein reported today that Pesce participated in Devils practice and will travel with the team for their upcoming road trip. While Pesce, 31, doesn’t offer the same level of offensive ability Nemec brings to the table, he does offer a shutdown element to his game that this current Devils lineup is badly missing.

Pesce led all Devils blueliners in time-on-ice per game last season and his quality performances as a defensive defenseman more than made up for the Devils’ hefty investment in him. Pesce is under contract at a $5.5MM AAV through 2029-30, and his imminent return should soften the blow of losing Nemec and allow the Devils to remain competitive in what has been a hotly contested Metropolitan Division playoff race.

Photos courtesy Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images

New Jersey Devils Brett Pesce| Simon Nemec

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St. Louis Blues Reassign Hugh McGing

December 16, 2025 at 4:35 pm CDT | by Ethan Hetu 1 Comment

The St. Louis Blues announced today that the club has reassigned forward Hugh McGing to their AHL affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds.

The 27-year-old forward was originally recalled by the Blues from Springfield on Dec. 8. McGing served as a healthy scratch the next day for the Blues’ game against the Boston Bruins, but drew into the lineup for the team’s following three contests.

McGing made an instant impact during his recall, scoring his first NHL goal during the team’s road loss to the Nashville Predators. McGing also added the first assist of his career a few nights later, during the Blues’ second loss to the Predators of December.

A 2018 fifth-round pick of the Blues, McGing played his first NHL game in 2022-23 and got into five games in 2023-24. He spent all of last season in the AHL but earned an early recall this season in part due to his record of steady production at the AHL level.

While he has just six points through 18 AHL games this season, he’s managed to score at least 30 points for the Thunderbirds in every full season he’s played there. He’s become a consistent, reliable presence in Springfield, a development that paved his way to the NHL.

While his most recent recall has come to an end, McGing’s NHL performance put him on the radar for future call-ups. Even as the Blues struggle to build momentum in the standings this season, and are at risk of playing out the latter part of their season outside of the playoff picture, each game would have serious weight for McGing, especially from a financial perspective.

He’s a pending unrestricted free agent who could leave the Blues organization for the first time in his career. He’s playing out a two-year, two-way deal that carries a league-minimum $775K NHL cap hit and a $250K AHL salary. Given his slow start to the season in terms of AHL production, he’ll need to earn as many NHL games as possible if he wants to make a push to earn a one-way contract, or a heftier AHL guarantee, in free agency this summer.

AHL| St. Louis Blues Hugh McGing

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Montreal Canadiens Reassign Sam Montembeault To AHL On Conditioning Loan

December 16, 2025 at 4:20 pm CDT | by Ethan Hetu 2 Comments

The Montreal Canadiens announced today that netminder Sam Montembeault has been reassigned to the club’s AHL affiliate, the Laval Rocket, on a conditioning loan.

According to Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports, Montembeault “agreed to be sent down to finish the week” in Laval, and Lavoie added that “it’s smarter” for Montembeault to get the chance to play for the Rocket later this week in Cleveland and then meet the team on the road in Pittsburgh on Sunday

Montembeault last appeared in a game for the Canadiens on Dec. 9, but has not started a game since Dec. 2. Montembeault has endured the worst season of his tenure in Montreal since arriving as a waiver claim early in the 2021-22 campaign.

Through 15 games this season, Montembeault has an .857 save percentage. That’s a steep decline from the quality .902 mark he posted a year ago, and his form in recent games has been a far cry from the level of performance that earned him a spot on Team Canada for the 4 Nations Face-Off.

So much of the challenge of being a high-end goaltender in the NHL is managing the mental side of the position, as the ebbs and flows of a player’s confidence can prompt wild swings in performance. The position is widely viewed as an inherently volatile one, from a performance perspective, and the wild change in Montembeault’s year-over-year performance is a clear illustration of that consensus belief in action.

Montembeault started off the season poorly, failing to register a .900 save percentage in five of his first six games of the season. Things have only spiraled downwards from that point, and as Sportsnet’s Eric Engels wrote, Montembeault “wasn’t rebuilding confidence in games with the Canadiens,” so now he’ll get the chance to rebuild his confidence at the AHL level.

Despite his struggles in 2025-26, the Canadiens appear committed to Montembeault, something that is unsurprising given the organization’s level of financial investment in the player. He remains under contract for an additional season at a $3.15MM cap hit, and while that isn’t an exorbitant or unfair sum by any means (one could actually make the argument that Montembeault was severely underpaid in the first year of that deal), it’s not exactly the kind of cap hit a team can bury in the AHL or easily move on from.

So the best route for the Canadiens and Montembeault appears to be exactly the route they’re taking, which is exhausting every option to try to rebuild Montembeault’s decimated confidence level.

With Montembeault now in Laval, the Canadiens are left with two goalies on their NHL roster. Top prospect Jacob Fowler was highly impressive in his first start against the Pittsburgh Penguins, but lost his footing a little bit during his second start, when the Canadiens collapsed and were on the wrong end of a comeback victory against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

Fowler will get the nod against the Flyers tonight, but waiting in the wings is Jakub Dobes, a 24-year-old who emerged as the club’s backup last season. Dobes has been inconsistent this season, at times performing as poorly as Montembeault, and at times showcasing the form that earned him an NHL role in 2025-26. Dobes’ most recent start was a step in the right direction, with the Czech netminder making 27 saves on 28 shots in the team’s win over the Edmonton Oilers, earning first star of the game honors in the process.

Photos courtesy of Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

AHL| Loan| Montreal Canadiens Samuel Montembeault

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Montreal Canadiens’ Mike Matheson Out Day-To-Day

December 16, 2025 at 3:50 pm CDT | by Ethan Hetu 1 Comment

The Montreal Canadiens will be without a key defenseman for their game against the Philadelphia Flyers tonight, as the club announced that blueliner Mike Matheson is out with a day-to-day injury.

While Matheson may not have quite the same high profile as former New York Islanders star Noah Dobson or reigning Calder Trophy winner Lane Hutson, he’s in the conversation as the Canadiens’ most important defenseman on a consistent nightly basis. Matheson currently leads the Canadiens in average ice time per game, playing nearly a full two minutes more than Hutson. (24:54 to 23:06)

Matheson averages so many minutes despite barely factoring into the Canadiens’ power play plans.

While Matheson was once the team’s top-unit power play quarterback (a role he played successfully, scoring 62 points in 2023-24), the additions of Dobson and Hutson have cost him that role. As a result, Matheson has shifted into a more defensive role, and now he leads the club in short-handed ice time per game, averaging 4:10 on the penalty kill each night.

Matheson spends more time per game killing penalties than any other defenseman in the Eastern Conference, and every other blueliner in the NHL besides Dallas Stars defensive anchor Esa Lindell.

The former Florida Panthers and Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman’s ability to endure a massive workload isn’t a new development. Matheson ranked No. 7 in the NHL in time on ice per game among defensemen in 2024-25, and No. 3 in the NHL in 2023-24. He currently sits No. 10 in the NHL in that same metric this season.

In other words, since arriving in Montreal, Matheson has become an invaluable do-it-all defenseman for the Canadiens, someone head coach Martin St. Louis relies upon heavily in just about every kind of on-ice situation.

Of course, Matheson has drawn some criticism at times for being mistake-prone, and he does have some forgettable moments. But the Canadiens rewarded him with a $6MM AAV contract extension that will carry him through his age-37 season for a reason, and that’s precisely why his injury and absence tonight is so significant for the Canadiens.

Thankfully for Montreal, it appears Matheson’s injury is relatively minor, and will only keep him sidelined for a few days at most. But while he is injured, it will be interesting to see how the Canadiens fill Matheson’s minutes.

They are already the NHL’s youngest team by a decent margin, and their already inexperienced blueline only becomes even more inexperienced without Matheson. And now, as a result of this injury, that blueline has approximately 25 minutes of ice time and, on average, four minutes of short-handed ice time to fill.

Photos courtesy of Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images

Montreal Canadiens Mike Matheson

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Vancouver Canucks Sign Max Sasson To Two-Year Extension

December 15, 2025 at 6:37 pm CDT | by Ethan Hetu Leave a Comment

The Vancouver Canucks announced today that forward Max Sasson has signed a two-year, $1MM AAV contract extension with the club.

Canucks GM Patrik Allvin commented on the signing in the Canucks’ official announcement, saying:

Max has made the most of the opportunity presented to him this season and has provided us with some solid play. Since signing with the organization out of college, he has shown significant improvement, using his speed and skill to build a strong foundation for his future. Max was a key contributor to our championship run last year in Abbotsford, and we’re excited to watch him continue to grow as a player.

Sasson, 25, signed an entry-level deal with the Canucks as an NCAA free agent in March of 2023. He earned that NHL deal off the back of a stellar two-season run playing college hockey at Western Michigan University. He scored 15 goals and 42 points in his second season in Kalamazoo.

Sasson was an instant-impact signing for the Canucks, quickly becoming one of their more reliable centers at the AHL level. After a seven-game cameo in 2022-23, Sasson hit the ground running during his true rookie season of 2023-24, scoring 18 goals and 42 points in 56 AHL games.

He kept growing his game into the following year, earning his first NHL call-up in November 2024. He played in a total of 29 games at the NHL level last season, scoring seven points. He spent the Spring of 2025 back in the AHL, helping the Abbotsford Canucks with the Calder Cup, scoring 14 points in 24 AHL playoff games.

Sasson began 2025-26 in the AHL but quickly rose to the NHL, earning a recall in early October after playing just two AHL games. (He scored a goal in each of those games) Sasson has begun to establish himself this season as a legitimate NHL-caliber fourth-line center, scoring six goals and eight points through 29 games this season. Head coach Adam Foote hasn’t shown a willigness to deploy Sasson much on special teams yet, but he is playing 11:01 time on ice per game mostly at even strength.

Seeing as Sasson is earning a $1MM AAV on his next deal with a relatively thin NHL résumé, it’s likely the Canucks are betting that Sasson’s upward trajectory will continue. He does still have some work to do, such as earning the trust of Foote to the point where he can be reliably used on the penalty kill, as that is usually an expectation of bottom-six centers at some point in their career. Sasson also has to improve at the faceoff dot, as he’s winning just 40% of his draws this season.

But as Allvin said, Sasson has already improved significantly since joining the Canucks, and he’s given every reason to believe he’ll be able to make those adjustments and grow into a more well-rounded NHL player. While this AAV might feel a bit high to some given that Sasson has just 58 career NHL games to his name, it’s important to take into account where the Canucks are as a franchise.

As they pivot into more of a rebuild-like direction, it’s understandable that the Canucks would want to devote some of its cap space to rewarding hard-working players who have proven to be developmental success stories for the organization. Sasson has been exactly that, and this solid contract extension is his reward for his steady growth over the last few years.

Photos courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

Vancouver Canucks Max Sasson

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Latest On Kris Letang

December 15, 2025 at 6:30 pm CDT | by Ethan Hetu 6 Comments

The Pittsburgh Penguins got off to a surprisingly strong start to 2025-26, with first-year head coach Dan Muse impressing most observers as he guided the team to a better-than-expected first two months of the season. The past week has not been kind to Pittsburgh, though, as they’ve blown leads on a routine basis leading to some dramatic, highly deflating losses. While the club very much remains in the playoff race, the team’s recent downturn has increased the level of scrutiny faced by a few key underperforming veterans.

One of the most significant underperforming names on the Penguins’ roster right now is that of veteran blueliner Kris Letang. While Letang was the Penguins’ best defenseman throughout the 2010’s and early 2020’s, he’s had a very difficult 2025-26 season.

His offensive production has been decent (16 points in 31 games, a 42-point full-season scoring pace)  but his all-around impact has left much to be desired, and his work in the defensive zone has drawn real criticism.

The Athletic’s Josh Yohe reported today that “There is considerable concern about [Letang’s] performance throughout the organization.” Letang is under contract for another two years at a $6.1MM AAV, and Yohe’s reporting indicated that a trade or a buyout coming his way is an extremely remote possibility. Letang owns a full no-move clause and buying out his deal would not provide Pittsburgh with any cap relief due to his age.

While it might seem that Letang’s steep decline in form might prompt him to consider retirement, Yohe’s reporting indicates that’s not the case, as he wrote “team sources told me [Letang] wants to keep playing in the NHL beyond this contract.”

It’s fair to question, given how he’s playing at this time, whether Letang will really be able to extend his NHL career into his 40s. But at the moment, it appears that Letang’s current level of play combined with his contract status is quickly becoming a problem area for the Penguins and their plans for the short-to-medium-term future.

The Penguins have quite a few young defensemen likely to graduate to the NHL at some point during the remainder of Letang’s contract, including names such as Harrison Brunicke, Finn Harding, and Peyton Kettles, as well as Charlie Trethewey and Quinn Beauchesne, if they develop at a more rapid pace than expected.

While Letang’s presence as the franchise’s longest-tenured blueliner could certainly help the growth of those young defensemen in many ways, those positives could be quickly outweighed by negatives if the Penguins’ reported concerns about Letang’s play materialize into an even more pronounced decline.

Photos courtesy of James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images

Pittsburgh Penguins Kris Letang

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East Notes: McDonagh, Kane, Pieniniemi

December 15, 2025 at 6:00 pm CDT | by Ethan Hetu 1 Comment

The Tampa Bay Lightning have had to manage this season with a large portion of key defensemen injured, but it appears one important veteran is closing in on a return to the ice. Lightning team reporter Benjamin Pierce relayed word from Lightning practice this morning that Ryan McDonagh skated today in a regular jersey, a key milestone in his recovery from his undisclosed injury. McDonagh remains on IR, where he has been since early November.

McDonagh, 36, played in 15 games this season before his injury, scoring six points. The 1,025-game veteran has missed Tampa Bay’s last 17 games due to his injury, an absence that has forced the Lightning to rely on less accomplished defensemen such as Charle-Edouard D’Astous and Emil Lilleberg. D’Astous especially has acquitted himself well, but expect McDonagh to resume his regular top-four role once he’s healthy. In 15 games this season, McDonagh averaged just over 20 minutes of ice time per game and leads the team in short-handed time on ice per game.

Other notes from the Eastern Conference:

  • The Athletic’s Max Bultman reported today that Detroit Red Wings veteran Patrick Kane “tweaked something” upper-body during Detroit’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks, and is out for at least the next two games. Kane, a future Hall of Fame winger, is a key offensive producer for the Red Wings. He has 23 points in 24 games this season and as one might expect plays a significant role on the club’s power play. The Red Wings slotted John Leonard into Kane’s vacated second-line right winger role, per MLive’s Ansar Khan. Leonard was an AHL All-Star last season and has scored 19 goals and 29 points in 20 games for the Grand Rapids Griffins this year.
  • The Pittsburgh Penguins lifted their suspension of prospect Emil Pieniniemi, according to Seth Rorabaugh of Tribune-Review Sports, as a result of the blueliner’s newfound willingness to report to the club’s ECHL affiliate, the Wheeling Nailers. Per Rorabaugh, while the Penguins presented Pieniniemi with a development plan, the player “disagreed with that plan” and elected to train in his native Finland, with Liiga club Karpat, rather than play in the ECHL. Now, it appears Pieniniemi will report to the ECHL and begin his season there. A 2023 third-round pick, Pieniniemi was ranked the No. 20 prospect in the Penguins’ system before the season by Elite Prospects. While the ECHL isn’t typically seen as a prime league to develop skater prospects, Penguins GM Kyle Dubas has shown an increased level of willingness to send prospects to the ECHL, dating back to his time with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Toronto’s 2017 first-round pick Timothy Liljegren played an ECHL game in 2018-19 and the Penguins have had defensive prospect Finn Harding, who the club reportedly thinks highly of, play seven games for Wheeling so far in 2025-26.

Detroit Red Wings| Pittsburgh Penguins| Tampa Bay Lightning Emil Pieniniemi| Patrick Kane| Ryan McDonagh

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St. Louis Blues Recall Otto Stenberg

December 15, 2025 at 5:40 pm CDT | by Ethan Hetu Leave a Comment

The St. Louis Blues announced today that forward Otto Stenberg has been recalled from the club’s AHL affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds.

The move puts Stenberg, 20, in a position to potentially make his NHL debut as soon as tonight during the team’s contest against the Nashville Predators. The club selected Stenberg No. 25 overall at the 2023 draft, the middle selection in the team’s trio of first-round draft choices that year. 2023 No. 10 pick Dalibor Dvorsky has already landed in the NHL, playing in a total of 25 career games so far, while No. 29 pick Theo Lindstein is still waiting, like Stenberg, to make his debut.

Stenberg is in the midst of his second season playing professional hockey in North America, and this year is his first year beginning the season in North America. In 2024-25, Stenberg began his season in the SHL before crossing the Atlantic to play in the AHL after the conclusion of the World Junior Championships. The 5’11” center has been solid at the AHL level, scoring 25 points in 59 games, and drawing positive reviews for the pace and work rate in his game.

With the Blues down an established NHL forward in Dylan Holloway, who was placed on injured reserve today, Stenberg now has an opportunity to prove himself at the NHL level for the first time. While it’s unclear at this point whether Stenberg will dress for any games, he’ll at least get his first, valuable taste of what life is like as a player in the world’s top league.

AHL| St. Louis Blues Otto Stenberg

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Latest On Matt Rempe, Mika Zibanejad

December 15, 2025 at 5:00 pm CDT | by Ethan Hetu 4 Comments

The New York Rangers activated forward Matt Rempe off of long-term injured reserve today, according to the New York Post’s Mollie Walker. Per Walker, head coach Mike Sullivan said that Rempe would be a game-time decision for the team’s game tonight against the Anaheim Ducks.

Rempe has been out since Oct. 23 with an upper-body injury, one he suffered during an early-season contest against the San Jose Sharks. The 23-year-old has missed 18 straight games due to the injury.

Rempe had one goal for one point through nine games played in 2025-26 before his injury, and was playing a limited role. Sullivan had been deploying Rempe as a fourth-line grinder, giving him just under 10 minutes of ice time per game. Rempe also got a look as a net-front player on the Rangers’ second power play unit, but was taken off and did not receive any power play time in the final three games he played before his injury.

Getting Rempe back from injured reserve will provide the Rangers with an added level of physicality for their bottom-six. While Jaroslav Chmelar is big and physical as well, few in the NHL are as physically imposing as Rempe, who stands 6’9″, 261 pounds. Rempe is under contract through the end of next season at a one-way, $975K rate, and will be an RFA with arbitration rights once his deal expires, unless the team elects to extend him before that point.

Shifting gears to a Rangers forward with significantly more experience and a significantly higher cap hit, Mika Zibanejad will not play tonight against the Ducks as he missed a team meeting, and will therefore be a healthy scratch. (per The Athletic’s Vince Z. Mercogliano) While Sullivan did acknowledge that “there are logistical challenges the city presents”  that contributed to Zibanejad’s mistake, he emphasized the importance of maintaining team rules.

Zibanejad, 32, is one of the Rangers’ key veteran players. With nearly 1,000 games played to his name, Zibanejad has been a steady top-six center with sporadic periods of star-level play in New York. While his production and overall impact isn’t quite where it was during his peak as a Ranger, Zibanejad still has 25 points in 33 games this season.

Without Zibanejad tonight, the Rangers will shift J.T. Miller back to the center position. Miller played right wing during the team’s overtime victory against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.

New York Rangers Matt Rempe| Mika Zibanejad

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Injury Notes: Sharks, Flyers, Danault, Erne

December 14, 2025 at 11:30 am CDT | by Ethan Hetu Leave a Comment

Two San Jose Sharks forwards left yesterday’s dramatic comeback victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins with injuries: Philipp Kurashev and Will Smith. Smith left the game after a hit from Penguins defender Parker Wotherspoon, while Kurashev also left the game with his own apparent upper-body injury. Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky did not have any update to give regarding the status of either player.

Since the Sharks have a day off Sunday, it’s likely the earliest the club announces an update related to the injury suffered by either player is Monday. If either player misses time, that would be a serious blow to the Sharks’ competitive hopes. Smith, the 2023 No. 4 overall pick, has scored 12 goals and 29 points in 33 games this season. His growing chemistry with franchise face Macklin Celebrini has made Sharks hockey must-watch television.

While Kurashev isn’t quite as important to the Sharks’ present and future as Smith, he nonetheless has been having himself a quality campaign. The versatile Swiss forward scored 18 goals and 54 points in 2023-24 playing alongside Blackhawks star Connor Bedard. Playing once again on a team with one of the game’s emerging superstar talents has clearly had its benefits for Kurashev. He’s scored 15 points in 31 games this season, a 40-point full-season scoring pace. That represents a significant improvement over last season, when Kurashev only managed 14 points in 51 games, a performance that got him non-tendered by the Blackhawks over the summer. With key injury updates likely set to come Monday, the Sharks will have to hope that their two forwards have only suffered something minor.

Other injury notes from across the NHL:

  • Philadelphia Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet told the media, including the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jackie Spiegel, that injured Flyers blueliners Rasmus Ristolainen and Cam York will travel with the team on its upcoming road trip, and are each nearing a return to the lineup. Tocchet said specifically that he expects York to play either today against the Carolina Hurricanes or Tuesday against the Montreal Canadiens, while he expects Ristolainen to return soon as well. York has been sidelined with an upper-body injury and last played Dec. 3, while Ristolainen has not yet played in 2025-26 as he’s been recovering from 2024-25’s season-ending surgery.
  • Some eyebrows were raised yesterday when it was revealed that Los Angeles Kings forward Phillip Danault would not play in the Kings’ Saturday contest against the Calgary Flames, due to the player’s name popping up in trade rumors over the last week. But while Danault remains a possibility to be traded, his absence yesterday was not for trade-related reasons; the veteran forward was ill, and unable to play as a result. It was reported on Dec. 8 that the Kings were exploring their options to provide Danault with a change-of-scenery type trade, but no deal has since materialized. The 32-year-old has scored at least 40 points in each of his four full seasons as a King, but has just five points in 30 games this year. He’s under contract at a $5.5MM AAV through next season.
  • Dallas Stars forward Adam Erne is continuing to progress in his recovery from his lower-body injury, and is now considered day-to-day, according to Stars head coach Glen Gulutzan. (via The Dallas Morning News’ Lia Assimakopoulos) Erne last played Nov. 11 and has missed 16 consecutive games. The 30-year-old winger signed a one-year, two-way deal with the Stars in October and scored three points in 14 games before his injury. Erne played in just 10 games last season, all coming in the AHL with the Hartford Wolf Pack. He has nearly 400 career NHL games to his name, but hasn’t played a full season entirely at the NHL level since his 2021-22 campaign with the Detroit Red Wings.

Dallas Stars| Injury| Los Angeles Kings| Philadelphia Flyers| Ryan Warsofsky| San Jose Sharks Adam Erne| Philipp Kurashev| Will Smith

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