Injury Updates: Skinner, Nečas, Capitals
Although the Sabres have the longest active playoff drought in the NHL and one that seems likelier and likelier to extend through 2023-24, their lack of team progress has not stopped individual Sabres from taking major steps forward in their career. $9MM AAV forward Jeff Skinner is coming off of a career year in which he scored 82 points, and currently has 33 points in 38 games. He’s among Buffalo’s most reliable offensive generators, which makes it all the more distressing that he’s suffered an upper-body injury, according to The Athletic’s Matthew Fairburn.
Fairburn reports that “the Sabres are waiting for the results” of the imaging Skinner underwent this morning in order to determine a timetable for his recovery. Any significant Skinner absence could be a potential killing blow to the Sabres’ long-shot playoff hopes. He’s skated on the team’s first line alongside Alex Tuch and Tage Thompson, and although three-time 20-goal scorer Victor Olofsson would see more regular time in the lineup in Skinner’s absence, the Sabres don’t have any players who appear capable of replicating Skinner’s playmaking abilities.
Other injury notes from across the NHL:
- Carolina Hurricanes team reporter Walt Ruff has provided updates from head coach Rod Brind’Amour, who says that forward Martin Nečas‘ upper-body injury “isn’t too serious,” though it may keep him out of the lineup tomorrow. Necas last played in Carolina’s December 2nd win against the New York Rangers, before getting injured. After scoring 28 goals and 71 points last season Necas is scoring at a 20-goal, 56-point pace this season.
- The Washington Post’s Bailey Johnson reports that both Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson were on the ice ahead of team practice this morning. Wilson was wearing a “fishbowl” helmet to protect his broken nose. Both players skated in the team’s most recent game Sunday against the Los Angeles Kings, but there was some fear that neither would be available tomorrow against Seattle due to injury. They’re still not confirmed to be ready to play, but today’s reporting does point in a positive direction in that regard.
Vegas Golden Knights Activate, Reassign Kaedan Korczak
The Vegas Golden Knights have announced that defenseman Kaedan Korczak has been activated off of injured reserve and subsequently reassigned to the team’s AHL affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights.
The 22-year-old last played in a December 10th contest against the San Jose Sharks, skating nearly 19 minutes in a 5-4 shootout victory. He suffered a lower-body injury during that game and was placed on injured reserve shortly afterward. Although Korczak has played in 15 NHL games this season compared to just five in the AHL, it’s understandable that the Golden Knights would want to see Korczak build back to full strength after his injury at the AHL level before throwing him back into the NHL lineup.
The six-foot-three right-shot defenseman plays with a lot of physicality, so some time in the AHL is likely required before he’ll feel comfortable re-engaging in that aggressive playstyle against NHL competition. The Golden Knights’ defense has been dealing with quite a few injuries, so it may not take too long before Korczak finds himself back in the NHL, perhaps on the team’s second pairing next to Brayden McNabb.
In the meantime, that spot is occupied by two-time QMJHL defenseman of the year Lukas Cormier, who picked up an assist in his first career NHL game on Saturday.
Florida Panthers Reassign Mackie Samoskevich
01/10/24: After a five-day stay on the NHL roster, Samoskevich has been reassigned to AHL Charlotte. He didn’t manage to get into any games while on this most recent recall, and instead served as a healthy scratch for the team’s back-to-back victories against the Colorado Avalanche and St. Louis Blues. He’ll now resume his top-of-the-lineup role with the Checkers.
01/05/24: The Florida Panthers have recalled forward Mackie Samoskevich from their AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers. According to The Hockey News’ David Dwork, forward Nick Cousins has been placed on injured reserve, clearing the roster spot to be occupied by Samoskevich.
Samoskevich, 21, began the season with the Panthers but was sent down to the AHL after two games. He’s played in a total of three NHL games this season, but his most recent one was in late October. Samoskevich has been strong in what has been his rookie AHL campaign and is now up to nine goals and 22 points in 27 games.
The 21st overall pick at the 2021 draft, Samoskevich is a highly-ranked prospect due to his strong work ethic and impressive offensive skill. He was above point-per-game at Michigan in his final season there and has played his way into the NHL picture in Florida over the last year.
Jonah Gadjovich has drawn into the Panthers’ lineup in Cousins’ absence, but Samoskevich could end up taking that spot moving forward. Samoskevich doesn’t provide the kind of physicality Gadjovich does, but swapping them out would allow Ryan Lomberg to return to the team’s fourth line alongside Will Lockwood and Kevin Stenlund.
That would place Samoskevich in Cousins’ old role next to Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen on the third line, which would give that line a bit more of an offensive spark compared to what Lomberg typically can provide.
Tampa Bay Lightning Make Several Roster Moves
01/08/24: The Lightning have now reassigned Thompson back to the Crunch. The 21-year-old made his NHL debut in Tampa’s 7-3 loss against the Boston Bruins on Saturday.
Skating as the Lightning’s seventh defenseman, Thompson received 11:39 time-on-ice in which he managed one shot on goal, two hits, and had a 32.59% expected goals share when on the ice according to Natural Stat Trick.
01/05/24: The Tampa Bay Lightning have announced that defensemen Emil Martinsen Lilleberg and Jack Thompson have been recalled from their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch, while Sean Day and Declan Carlile have been sent down.
Day and Carlile were recalled yesterday, in the aftermath of Mikhail Sergachev‘s placement on long-term injured reserve. As has been a trend for Day, his recall allowed him to serve as a healthy-scratched spare blueliner, but he did not dress for the Lightning’s game. Day has been up and down from the Lightning roster frequently over the last few weeks, and the last game he’s actually played in was on December 20th.
Carlile, 23, actually did get to play and made his NHL debut last night. He skated in almost 11-and-a-half minutes of ice time in yesterday’s game, and while he didn’t end up scoring his first NHL point he did manage two blocked shots, a hit, and a plus-one rating.
Replacing Carlile on the roster (and potentially on Tampa Bay’s third pairing) is 21-year-old Thompson, a right-shot 2020 third-round pick. Thompson is in the midst of his sophomore pro campaign and has had a strong start to the year in Syracuse, scoring 20 points in 31 games. He could make his NHL debut for Tampa tomorrow in Boston.
Although he’s a left-shot blueliner and Carlile’s spot in the lineup was on the right side, there’s a chance that Martinsen Lilleberg makes his NHL debut tomorrow instead of Thompson. The 22-year-old Norwegian defenseman was a 2021 fourth-round pick of the Arizona Coyotes who spent the last two years of his career with IK Oskarshamn in the SHL.
The Lightning signed him this offseason and he’s now playing his first career season in North America. He has 12 points in 31 games alongside 45 penalty minutes for the Crunch.
Seattle Kraken Recall Ryker Evans
The Seattle Kraken have announced that defenseman Ryker Evans has been recalled from the team’s AHL affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds.
Evans, 22, last played for the Kraken on December 27th. He’s spent all of 2024 so far with Coachella Valley, and has done very well there. The Firebirds have collected seven points out of eight available since Evans returned to their lineup, and Evans himself has scored four points in that span of games. That puts him up to 12 points in 22 games at the AHL level, which is not far off from last season’s scoring pace when he put up 44 points in 71 regular-season games.
After a stellar playoff run that saw Evans score 26 points in 26 games en route to a heartbreaking loss in overtime of Game Seven in the Calder Cup final, there was a widespread belief that 2023-24 would be the season Evans broke into the NHL with the Kraken.
The team’s first-ever second-round pick has played in nine NHL games so far this season, averaging 17:58 time-on-ice per game. He’s scored four points in those nine games while also receiving time on the club’s second power play unit.
Evans’ recall gives the Kraken a seventh defenseman on their active roster, and at the moment he figures to be a healthy scratch. With the team beginning a six-game road trip tomorrow, though, he could end up getting into some games seeing as former seventh defenseman Jaycob Megna was recently claimed off of waivers by the Chicago Blackhawks.
Calgary Flames Kevin Rooney Clears Waivers
1/9: Rooney has cleared waivers and is awaiting assignment.
1/8: The Calgary Flames have placed forward Kevin Rooney on waivers, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. The move is a precursor to Rooney getting activated off of long-term injured reserve, as should he clear waivers the Flames would be able to activate him and assign him to their AHL affiliate, the Calgary Wranglers.
In addition to this move, Sportsnet 960’s Patt Steinberg reports that forward Jakob Pelletier has been activated off of season-opening injured reserve and been assigned to the Wranglers. Pelletier is recovering from shoulder surgery, and now he can get into some AHL practices as part of that recovery. Long-term, the expectation is likely that Pelletier will return to the NHL level as that is where he scored seven points in 24 games last season.
As for Rooney, the six-foot-two veteran pivot was originally signed by the Flames to a $1.3MM AAV contract in order to serve as their fourth-line center. He’d filled that role admirably for the New York Rangers for the prior two seasons, and was fresh off of a run with the club to the Eastern Conference Final.
Rooney struggled in Calgary, and only played in 17 NHL games last season compared to 51 in the AHL. Now likely to be a Wrangler once again, the Flames will be tagged with $150k against the cap from Rooney’s deal as $1.15MM of the full $1.3MM total is considered “buried” when Rooney is on the AHL roster.
Minnesota Wild Reassign Jake Lucchini
With the news that forward Marcus Foligno has returned from his injury and is ready to play tonight as the Minnesota Wild host the Dallas Stars, the Wild have decided to send a forward down back to the AHL: Jake Lucchini.
Lucchini was a healthy scratch for the Wild’s most recent game, but now with Foligno returning it appears Nic Petan will take his spot in the team’s press box, pushing Lucchini back to the AHL’s Iowa Wild. The 28-year-old veteran of 261 AHL games last played in Iowa on December 20th, before receiving his first NHL game of the year just three days later.
The 28-year-old undrafted veteran broke out as an AHL scorer in 2021-22, potting 20 goals and 51 points for the Belleville Senators. He had an even better campaign in Belleville last year, and then the Wild committed a $300k AHL salary to Lucchini for 2023-24 in order to sign him, and he’s been a top scorer for the AHL Wild so far this year.
With 24 points in 24 games, Lucchini is among the Wild’s top AHL scorers, and with this reassignment, he’ll likely resume his role at or near the top of the team’s forward depth chart. Given the Wild’s tendency for injury this season, their significant lack of cap space, and Lucchini’s league-minimum $775k cap hit, it’s certainly possible we haven’t seen the last of Lucchini in the NHL this season.
Injury Updates: Wild, Sabres, Lehkonen
The Minnesota Wild have been dealing with an absolutely massive slate of injuries in their recent stretch of games, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel for the team. The Athletic’s Michael Russo reported today that the trio of core pillars for the Wild, Kirill Kaprizov, Filip Gustavsson, and Jared Spurgeon are all “progressing and skating,” and thereby in their “next phase” toward full returns to the ice.
Adding Kaprizov, Spurgeon, and Gustavsson back to their roster would give the Wild their number-one winger, number-one defenseman, and number-one goalie back. The team has been strong under new head coach John Hynes, but in order for them to truly have a chance of keeping up in the Central Division that trio of players will need to return to the ice sooner rather than later.
Some other injury updates from across the NHL:
- As reported by the Buffalo Times Herald’s Bill Hoppe, Buffalo Sabres wingers Victor Olofsson and Jordan Greenway are currently sick and out on a day-to-day timeline for the team. Olofsson was a healthy scratch for the team’s most recent game in favor of Eric Robinson, while Greenway skated on their third line alongside Zach Benson and Casey Mittelstadt. With captain Kyle Okposo now out week-to-week, the possibility both Greenway and Olofsson miss tomorrow’s game against the Seattle Kraken would mean the team could potentially need to recall a forward or two from the AHL’s Rochester Americans.
- Colorado Hockey Now’s Evan Rawal reports that forward Artturi Lehkonen is skating at Avalanche practice in a white jersey, meaning he has officially moved past the non-contact stage of his injury recovery. The 28-year-old Finnish winger had a breakout campaign last season when he scored at a 27-goal, 65-point 82-game pace and had scored eight points in 12 games this season before suffering his significant injury.
Calgary Flames Bring Yan Kuznetsov Back Up
1/9: The Calgary Flames brought Kuznetsov back to the NHL on Tuesday, after sending him down on Monday.
1/8: The Calgary Flames have reassigned defenseman Yan Kuznetsov back to their AHL affiliate, the Calgary Wranglers. This move comes just a few short days after Kuznetsov was first recalled from the AHL, and places him back with their top developmental affiliate before he’s had the chance to make his NHL debut.
The 21-year-old served as a spare blueliner for the Flames during their two road losses against the Philadelphia Flyers and Chicago Blackhawks. There was some hope that the big 2020 second-round pick might draw into the Flames’ lineup in place of a player such as Jordan Oesterle, but that did not end up being the case.
Blueliner Dennis Gilbert was on the receiving end of a scary hit against the Nashville Predators, and although he has not played since he appears to not be in line to miss significant time. As a result, Kuznetsov is no longer needed on the Flames’ roster as a spare defenseman. And with Oliver Kylington working his way back to full NHL readiness, that’s another factor contributing to the general sense that Kuznetsov doesn’t quite have a place in the NHL with the Flames just yet.
That’s not to say he won’t have his place there relatively soon, of course. The big defenseman was solid in his first AHL campaign last year and has been making progress this season as well. Ilya Solovyov might be ahead of him on the depth chart at the current moment, as he’s already played in six NHL games, but Kuznetsov isn’t far off and this original recall illustrated that.
San Jose Sharks Recall Scott Sabourin
The San Jose Sharks have announced that forward Scott Sabourin has been recalled from the team’s AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda. This recall puts the veteran forward in a position to play in his first NHL games since 2021-22.
The Sharks cleared a roster spot when they reassigned forward Jack Studnicka to the AHL on the fifth, and specifically appeared to need to fill that roster spot with a forward recall since they were already carrying eight blueliners.
They’ve passed over the Barracuda’s leading scorer, Daniil Gushchin, in favor of recalling Sabourin, perhaps because this recall doesn’t come with assurances of a lineup spot attached so they’d prefer the 21-year-old Gushchin remain playing big minutes in the AHL rather than play fourth-line minutes or sit in the press box at the AHL level.
That’s not to say Sabourin hasn’t earned this recall in his own way, though, as in all fairness he was on pace to score 22 goals and 32 points before this recall. The 31-year-old undrafted grinder stands six-foot-four, 207 pounds and plays with an imposing level of physicality.
He’s racked up over 1,000 career penalty minutes in the AHL, and could be a better fit for the Sharks’ fourth line compared to the 24-year-old Studnicka, a former top prospect who plays an offensive style but without the points to show for it.
Over the past two years, Sabourin has become a more productive player at the AHL level, setting a career high in production with the Belleville Senators in 2022-23. Now he’ll get another shot at the NHL level, his first since his AHL offensive breakout.