Injury Notes: Fehérváry, Bjornfot, Suter
Washington Capitals defenseman Martin Fehérváry has returned to practice in a normal jersey, according to team reporter Tarik El-Bashir. This is an important development for both Fehérváry and the Capitals, as the defenseman has missed the team’s last three contests with a lower-body injury.
Fehérváry is a top-four defenseman in Washington, averaging 18:19 time-on-ice per game. He also takes regular shifts on head coach Spencer Carbery’s penalty kill. Should he be ready to return to the ice, he would need to be activated off of injured reserve. The Capitals currently have a full 23-man roster, so to activate Fehérváry a player may need to be sent to the AHL’s Hershey Bears.
Some other injury updates from across the NHL:
- Los Angeles Kings defenseman Tobias Bjornfot, who is currently playing for the team’s AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign, left last night’s game against the Coachella Valley Firebirds with an injury. He had to be stretchered off of the ice after taking a hit from Firebirds forward Jacob Melanson, who was assessed a five-minute major and game misconduct for boarding on the play. Bjornfot, 23, has played in three games for Ontario this season and one game for Los Angeles.
- Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet told the media yesterday, including The Athletic’s Harman Dayal, that forward Pius Suter would not travel on the team’s road trip as he continues to be evaluated for an undisclosed injury. Although Suter, 27, has struggled to find the scoresheet he has played some important minutes for the Canucks. He averages over 15 minutes of ice time per game and skates on both special teams units, so the Canucks will definitely hope that whatever is keeping him out of the lineup is not an ailment that will cost him significant time.
Minor Transactions: 11/22/23
After a day that did not feature a single NHL game, the world’s top league is back with a whopping 14 games today, meaning all but four of the league’s clubs will be playing tonight.
Highlights from today’s schedule include a playoff rematch between two Atlantic Division contenders when the Florida Panthers take on the Boston Bruins, and two intriguing matches out west between possible Stanley Cup contenders with the Dallas Stars taking on the Vegas Golden Knights and the Colorado Avalanche taking on the Vancouver Canucks.
Outside the NHL, the Champions Hockey League Round of 16 continues with two games: German champions EHC Red Bull Munich against HC Genève-Servette, and Austria’s HC Innsbruck against Lukko Rauma. In the AHL, two of the league’s top teams will play tonight as Ivan Miroshnichenko‘s Hershey Bears take on Ty Smith‘s Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins. The continued grind of the 2023-24 season has naturally caused quite a bit of player movement outside the NHL, so as always, we’ll keep track of notable transactions here.
- Swedish netminder Niklas Rubin has signed a one-year contract extension with his current club, Liiga’s Ässät Pori. Rubin, 27, has had a strong career so far in both Sweden and Finland, and is arguably now in the most prominent role of his career. Starting in 2016, Rubin emerged as one of the top netminders in the HockeyAllsvenskan, posting a brilliant .929 save percentage across 81 career games. He then moved to be the backup for Frölunda HC in the SHL, and won a Champions Hockey League title in 2019-2020. In 2022-23, Rubin got his first shot as a starter in a European top flight, playing in 47 games for Pori. He did very well there, posting a .922 save percentage en route to the playoffs. So far this season, Rubin has a .918 save percentage as Pori have gotten off to a decent start, and given his early form this year it’s easy to see why Ässät club management have made the decision to extend Rubin.
- 20-year-old SHL forward Dennis Värmhed has signed a two-year contract extension with Timrå IK. Timrå is not actually the club he’ll play for in the immediate term, though, as the SHL side has loaned him to HockeyAllsvenskan’s Tingsryds AIF. Värmhed served as Timrå’s captain and top player for their J20 team last season, and that year earned him 14 games in the SHL in 2022-23. So far this season, Värmhed has played in 17 SHL games for Timrå, but has not found much success. So the club is loaning him to the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan in the hopes that playing in a professional league with a lower talent level will be best for his development.
- Genève-Servette HC has signed 21-year-old forward Christophe Cavalleri to a one-year contract extension. The six-foot-four center played in a total of 18 games for Geneva last season, including six postseason games on the club’s NL championship run. This season, Cavalleri appears to have taken some genuine steps forward in his development. After scoring just two points in 12 games on loan with second-tier SL side HC La Chaux-de-Fonds last year, Cavalleri is already up to eight points in 11 games this campaign. While he hasn’t yet had the same level of success in the NL, this extension provides him another campaign on his contract to continue pushing for regular appearances with Geneva.
- Former Minnesauga Steelheads and Peterborough Petes forward Nick Isaacson was traded in the ECHL earlier this week, sent to the Cincinnati Cyclones from the Jacksonville Icemen in exchange for future considerations. Isaacson, a physical six-foot-three forward, is a University of Guelph product who began his pro career in 2021-22 with the South Carolina Stingrays in the ECHL. He was decent there, scoring 11 points in 26 games, and his performances earned him a three-game look at the AHL level with the Hershey Bears. 2022-23 was a difficult year, though, as he bounced between the Maine Mariners and IceMen, only playing in five total games. So far this year, Isaacson has two points in five games but has not found his way onto the scoresheet since an early November contest against the Savannah Ghost Pirates. The Cyclones traded forward James Hardie to the Rapid City Rush on Monday, so Isaacson appears to be Hardie’s replacement.
- Former SPHL star Aaron Aragon has signed with the ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies, replacing forward Jared Power on their roster. Power was released in a corresponding move. Aragon, 26, is an undersized winger who began his pro career last season. He scored 39 points in 41 games for the SPHL’s Macon Mayhem, a year that earned him six ECHL games with the Savannah Ghost Pirates. Aragon began this season with the Idaho Steelheads, and scored five points in four games, with Idaho winning all four contests. But the Steelheads did not dress Aragon after their November 10th win over the Wheeling Nailers and released Aragon on November 16th. Now he’s signed in Utah, a team that could use some scoring help as they have registered the second-fewest goals scored in the ECHL this year.
- 2018 Carolina Hurricanes seventh-round pick Jacob Kucharski was released by the ECHL’s Reading Royals, ending a tough stint there that included just three games played. Kucharski had not seen game action since November 5th and had not even served as a backup since November 11th, as Reading have reverted to a tandem of Nolan Maier and St. Louis Blues prospect Will Cranley. Kucharski struggled in Reading, posting an .852 save percentage and 5.09 goals-against-average in his limited game action.
This page may be updated throughout the day.
Ottawa Senators Reassign Mads Søgaard
Nov. 19: The Senators returned Søgaard to Belleville early this morning after their trip to Sweden concluded, per a team release.
Nov. 18: The Ottawa Senators have recalled netminder Mads Søgaard from their AHL affiliate, the Belleville Senators. With Joonas Korpisalo out due to a minor day-to-day injury, it will be Søgaard who serves as a backup to starter Anton Forsberg in Sweden.
Søgaard, 22, is a big six-foot-seven netminder is a native of Aalborg, Denmark, and has played in a total of 21 career NHL games. He’s had a strong start to the season, posting a .923 save percentage and inspiring confidence in those who predict him to be the Senators’ “goalie of the future.”
Søgaard will likely return to Belleville after the Senators’ trip in order to resume his role as a tandem goalie there. With a big season in the AHL, Søgaard could push Forsberg for the backup/1B role in Ottawa.
After this season, Forsberg will have just one year and $2.75MM remaining on his deal, although Søgaard will still be ineligible for waivers so the Senators will be in no rush to make a change.
Tampa Bay Lightning Recall Cole Koepke
The Tampa Bay Lightning have recalled forward Cole Koepke from their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch.
As reported by the Tampa Bay Times’ Eduardo A. Encina, this recall “serves as an indication that Anthony Cirelli may not be available” for the team’s game today against the Edmonton Oilers. Cirelli left the Lightning’s last game after taking a puck to the upper body.
The Lightning recalled Koepke rather than Waltteri Merelä, who they just sent down yesterday. This could be to give Merelä some continuity with one team, as well as to potentially give Koepke the chance to play in his first NHL game this season.
Koepke, 25, is a hard-working 2018 sixth-round pick who rode a breakout 2021-22 campaign to 17 NHL games the following season. He didn’t score much at all last year, though, managing just one point at the NHL level and 19 in the AHL.
So far this season, Koepke has six points in 11 games for the Crunch. At six-foot-one, 200 pounds, Koepke doesn’t offer the imposing size that Merelä brings, though he does play with quite a bit of energy. He averaged just over nine minutes of ice time per game in his NHL run last season.
Brett Ritchie Signs In KHL
Veteran forward Brett Ritchie is headed overseas for the first time in his professional career, signing a one-year contract with Dynamo Minsk of the KHL.
The 30-year-old winger did not receive an NHL contract this summer, instead signing a PTO with the Florida Panthers. He spent training camp and preseason in Sunrise, but failed to earn a contract from the club.
A veteran of 391 NHL games, Ritchie was the 44th overall pick of the 2011 draft by the Dallas Stars, selected out of the OHL’s Sarnia Sting.
After his OHL campaign concluded with a 76-point campaign on the Niagara IceDogs, Ritchie turned pro and had an exceptional AHL rookie season. He scored 29 goals and 59 points in 81 combined regular-season and playoff games, helping the Texas Stars win the Calder Cup.
Ritchie made his NHL debut the following season, in 2014-15, but only managed nine points in 31 games. Ritchie’s NHL breakthrough came in 2016-17, when he scored 16 goals in a full 78-game NHL season.
He had proven himself to be a capable NHL bottom-six winger, and he remained an NHL player exclusively (besides a 12-game AHL stint in 2019-20) through the 2022-23 season.
Ritchie will not be an NHLer this season, though, as rather than potentially sign an AHL deal with a pathway to an NHL contract (the pathway Joel Kiviranta successfully took with the Colorado Avalanche, for example) Ritchie has elected to play in the KHL.
He joins a Minsk team currently 14-12-4, sitting seventh in their conference standings. A look at Minsk’s scoresheet paints the picture as to why they might have gone out and signed a big-name former NHLer import player such as Ritchie. Their top scorer, AHL veteran Sam Anas, has scored just 18 points in 29 games.
They could very much use another winger with NHL experience beyond former Anaheim Duck Sam Volkov, so Ritchie fills that role. While it’s no guarantee Ritchie will be productive in the KHL, his consistent scoring success at the AHL level suggests he may be able to fill a scoring power forward’s role against KHL competition.
If he does so and posts a productive campaign in Belarus, one shouldn’t rule out the possibility Ritchie receives another chance to earn an NHL contract.
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Chicago Blackhawks Recall Filip Roos
The Chicago Blackhawks have recalled defenseman Filip Roos from their AHL affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs. In a corresponding move, the Blackhawks placed veteran Nikita Zaitsev on the team non-roster list, as he is currently out due to personal reasons.
Roos, 24, is an undrafted Swedish blueliner who signed with the Blackhawks out of Skellefteå AIK and the SHL in the summer of 2022. In his first season in North America, Roos split time between the AHL and NHL, skating in 17 games for the Blackhawks and 39 for the IceHogs.
So far this season, Roos has played in 10 games in Rockford, scoring four points. With Zaitsev away, Roos will compete with Isaak Phillips for the team’s now-open lineup spot.
The slot in head coach Luke Richardson’s lineup that has been vacated by Zaitsev is on the team’s third pairing, alongside 21-year-old University of Minnesota-Duluth product Wyatt Kaiser.
Arizona Coyotes Recall Vladislav Kolyachonok
The Arizona Coyotes have recalled defenseman Vladislav Kolyachonok from their AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners.
Kolyachonok’s recall comes off the heels of a report from PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan, who wrote that defenseman Juuso Välimäki will be out “for a while” after taking a hard shot to the face.
Kolyachonok, 22, is a defenseman who the Coyotes are decently familiar with at the NHL level, as he played in 32 games for the NHL club in 2021-22 and in two games last season. So far this year Kolyachonok has played exclusively in Tucson, where he has scored two goals and three points in 11 games.
With Välimäki out, Kolyachonok could slot in directly where Välimäki plays in the lineup, on the team’s second pairing next to Matt Dumba.
Alternatively, veteran Troy Stecher could move up to the second pairing, which would put Kolyachonok or team seventh defenseman Michael Kesselring on the bottom pairing next to Joshua Brown.
Minor Transactions: 11/16/23
NHL hockey is going international today as the Detroit Red Wings and Ottawa Senators are set to face off in Stockholm, Sweden. All 14 clubs in Sweden’s top professional league, the SHL, play today as well, meaning it’s a hectic day for hockey in the country. Elsewhere in Europe, potential top 2024 draft prospect Konsta Helenius‘ Liiga side Jukurit is set to take on JYP, while the current DEL leaders Eisbaren Berlin are taking on the Augsburg Panthers.
Player movement across the hockey world in both minor and foreign leagues mirrors how busy the schedule is, and as always we’ll keep track of notable transactions here.
- Lucas Lessio, a former NHLer who began what has been an extensive career in European hockey in 2016-17, has left his club HC Bolzano of the ICEHL to sign in the DEL2 with Krefeld Pinguine. Although Krefeld have had a decent 9-7-1 start to the season, they have made a significant add in Lessio. The 30-year-old former Arizona Coyote played for Krefeld for two years from 2020 to 2022, scoring 37 goals and 62 points in 93 games. He was with the club when they suffered relegation from the DEL, and now with this signing, he’ll have the chance to lead them back to the German top flight.
- Jerome Flaake, a two-time DEL champion and a veteran of over 700 DEL games has been signed by Krefeld alongside Lessio. The 33-year-old Toronto Maple Leafs 2008 fifth-round pick was a star player for the now-defunct Hamburg Freezers, though he never quite reached the same heights again in the DEL. Last season, Flaake helped ERC Ingolstadt reach the DEL finals, and now after scoring just three points in 12 games for Augsburg, he’s headed down a division to help Krefeld with their promotion push.
- Former Montreal Canadiens prospect Arvid Henrikson has signed with AIK of the Swedish second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan. The big six-foot-five blueliner has spent this season so far with Västerviks IK, playing a total of 16 games. Henrikson hadn’t received more than bottom-pairing minutes for the club since October and has not played at all in over a week. Now he’ll play with AIK, a club he once captained at the U-18 level. It’s a big step up in the standings for Henrikson, who moves from HockeyAllsvenskan’s 13th-ranked club to the team currently third in the standings and looking like a potential promotion candidate.
- Former Providence College forward Bryan Lemos has decided to leave the EIHL’s Guildford Flames, citing homesickness, to return to the ECHL’s Indy Fuel, the club he played for in 2021-22 and 2022-23. Lemos only managed three points in nine games for Guildford, though he did conclude his time there with a goal in the team’s big 3-1 victory over the reigning champion Belfast Giants. Lemos has had success with the Fuel before, and has scored a total of 25 goals and 67 points in 92 games with the club.
- Journeyman American blueliner Charlie Dodero has signed with the ICEHL’s HK Olimpija Ljubljana today, adding a sixth country to the list of places he has played in during his career. The former Sudbury Wolves alternate captain spent last season in France’s Ligue Magnus with the Rouen Dragons, helping the club capture a French title and the Champions Hockey League spot that comes alongside it. Before 2022-23, Dodero was a regular face in the Central European ICEHL with two Austrian clubs, the Vienna Capitals and Graz99ers. Dodero last played in North America in 2018-19 with the Idaho Steelheads and has 46 AHL games on his resume, all of them coming with the Syracuse Crunch. Now, Dodero will look to add some edge to their blueline in the Slovenian capital, looking to help a club that is at the moment just a few places ahead of his former ICEHL teams near the bottom of the league’s standings.
This page may be updated throughout the day.
Edmonton Oilers Make Several Roster Moves
The Edmonton Oilers have announced several roster moves: defenseman Philip Broberg as well as forwards Raphael Lavoie and Adam Erne have been recalled from the team’s AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors, while forwards Mattias Janmark and Dylan Holloway have been placed on long-term injured reserve. Janmark’s LTIR placement is retroactive to October 26th.
Janmark, 30, has not played since that date and is currently dealing with a shoulder injury. He still has not yet returned to skating, so his LTIR placement reflects the long-term nature of his absence. A veteran bottom-six forward, Janmark scored 10 goals and 25 points last season but has been held off the scoresheet through seven games this year.
Holloway has been hit with some really poor luck, as just shortly after playing what some in the Edmonton media referred to as his “best game as an Edmonton Oiler” Saturday against the Seattle Kraken he has landed on LTIR.
Holloway went hard into the boards against the New York Islanders Monday night, leaving the game before its conclusion.
Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said after the game that Holloway’s absence would be “longer-term,” an unfortunate reality that Holloway’s placement on LTIR reflects.
A fast and energetic forward, Holloway’s offensive production in the NHL hasn’t quite matched what he posted at the University of Wisconsin or what the Oilers likely expected when they drafted him 14th overall in 2020. This season was viewed as a crucial one for Holloway’s offensive development, and now with this injury, he has been hit with a potentially significant setback.
As for the recalls, bringing Broberg back into the fold affords Knoblauch more options on defense as he, before these moves, had just six defensemen on his roster. With Broberg now available, he could opt to shift Vincent Desharnais out of the everyday lineup, something that might be necessary as the hulking six-foot-seven rearguard has struggled this season.
Broberg, who is just a few short months older than Holloway, is in many ways in a similar situation. He’s also a player the Oilers spent a premium pick on who has yet to truly figure out how to make an impact in the NHL. Perhaps with the games afforded to him by this recall, Broberg will be able to make strides in establishing himself as a regular at the game’s highest level.
Erne, 28, is a veteran bottom-six forward who has been recalled to bolster the depth Knoblauch has at his disposal on offense. While he has not scored in six NHL games this season, he does bring nearly 400 games of NHL experience to the table. Lavoie, 23, is notably less experienced but has had a genuine AHL breakout over the last two seasons, putting together an impressive run of offensive production.
He’s gotten a chance in the Oilers’ top-nine already this season, but now with two new voices behind the Oilers bench it’s unsurprising that he’s gotten another shot to impress.
These recalls fill out the Oilers roster to a degree the team may not have been able to do without Janmark’s $1MM cap hit on LTIR. Now Knoblauch has additional players at his disposal on the NHL roster who can hopefully help the Oilers dig themselves out of the colossal early-season hole they dug themselves into.
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Calgary Flames Reportedly “Open For Business” Regarding Potential Trades
To public knowledge, Calgary Flames defenseman Nikita Zadorov is the only member of the team to request a trade. With the Flames 26th in the NHL with a 5-8-2 record, though, the club could very well end up trading quite a few more veterans this season than just Zadorov.
According to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun, the Flames are “open for business” regarding potential trades. LeBrun writes that Calgary is “ready to shift gears” into more of a rebuild or re-tool direction, and that word has spread during the GM meetings in Toronto that “the Flames are willing to listen on most of their pending unrestricted free agents.” (subscription link)
The Flames have quite a few pending UFA’s of note, players who would likely be among the best players available during the 2024 trade deadline season. They’re players who are strong enough and valuable enough to potentially shift the balance of power in any division they are dealt to, meaning they could command the type of high prices in terms of asset cost that the Flames would likely be hoping would fuel a quick turnaround for the club.
Likely to be the top player on any list of players available from Calgary is pending UFA center Elias Lindholm.
The 28-year-old Swedish pivot has played like a true first-line center at times with the Flames, including a stellar 2021-22 campaign that saw him score 42 goals, 82 points, and finish second place in Selke Trophy voting.
Lindholm’s production has declined since Johnny Gaudreau‘s departure, just as the Flames have declined as a team.
But if placed in a situation where he has strong chemistry with his wingers, just as he did centering Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk, it’s possible Lindholm could quickly find himself back in the conversation as one of the best two-way centers in hockey.
Centers with that kind of ability, pivots who could credibly call themselves first-line centers recently in their careers, are very rarely made available. When the St. Louis Blues traded Ryan O’Reilly last season, O’Reilly’s production was on a far steeper, more lasting decline and O’Reilly was further removed from his last point-per-game season. Yet O’Reilly, alongside bottom-sixer Noel Acciari, still netted the Maple Leafs’ first, second, and third-round picks alongside prospect Mikhail Abramov.
Although it’s obviously no guarantee, Lindholm’s overall profile merits at the very least a comparable trade package to what the Blues received for O’Reilly, though it’s fair to argue that Calgary deserves a little bit more.
Beyond just Lindholm, the Flames have even more pending UFA’s who are likely to attract attention on the trade market, especially on defense where just Rasmus Andersson and MacKenzie Weegar are under long-term team control.
If a contending team is seeking a left-shot defenseman with two-way ability, there may not be a better player available than Noah Hanifin. The 26-year-old has averaged over 21 minutes per night in Calgary, and two years ago set a career-high with 48 points. He’s established himself as a legitimate top-pairing defenseman, if maybe not a true number-one blueliner.
Those players are extremely valuable and rarely made available, which would mean Hanifin draws a bidding war between defense-needy teams. As a result, it’s hard to see a scenario where Hanifin is traded and a first-round pick, at the very least, does not head to Calgary as part of the return. (Unless the Flames do not target draft picks, which appears unlikely but is of course a possibility)
If a contending team is looking for a right-shot blueliner with an exceptional track record of shutdown defensive play, veteran Chris Tanev is a pending UFA and fits the bill there. The 33-year-old has led the Flames in short-handed ice time per game in each season since he arrived, and is widely respected as one of the game’s premier defensive defensemen.
His offense appears to have dried up compared to the career-best season he posted in 2021-22, but that’s not a major issue. He’s of interest to teams due to his stellar defensive track record, and it’s that track record that could net the Flames a solid return package should he be dealt before the 2024 trade deadline.
Although the Flames’ struggles this season paint a picture of a club with little going right, a pivot to more of a re-tool type of team direction could change things quickly. The Flames happen to have a collection of valuable players on expiring contracts, something that for a team looking to contend in the immediate term would represent a major issue.
But for a team looking to infuse its veteran core with quality young talent, those pending UFAs represent a significant opportunity to leverage on the trade market. According to LeBrun’s report, that appears to be the route the Flames prefer to go down, meaning it could be an extremely interesting few months for Flames fans, despite the on-ice issues.
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