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Minnesota Wild Place Filip Gustavsson On Injured Reserve

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The Minnesota Wild have announced that netminder Filip Gustavsson has been placed on injured reserve. Gustavsson was knocked out of his last start due to a lower-body injury, and The Athletic’s Michael Russo reports that Gustavsson is set for “another MRI” tomorrow, and is expected to miss “at least a couple weeks.”

Additionally, Russo reports that superstar winger Kirill Kaprizov, who was also knocked out of the same game as Gustavsson, will be out for one to two weeks due to injury.

These two developments are significant blows to the Wild’s hopes of re-entering the Western Conference playoff picture. Although the club is 7-3 in its last 10 games and has been extremely good since hiring John Hynes, they have also lost their last two games. It’s difficult for any club to deal with the loss of its best skater and best netminder, but that’s especially true for a Wild team whose ability to build quality depth has been compromised by significant cap penalties.

The loss of Gustavsson, 25, for a potentially extended period is a massive one. Although his .903 save percentage this season is a far cry from the .931 he posted last year, he has significantly improved as the season has gone on and has seemingly recovered from a very poor start.

With Gustavsson, out, the Wild will have to turn to Marc-André Fleury and Zane McIntyre. Fleury is a legendary goalie but his .893 save percentage this season indicates that he might not be able to keep the Wild in games the same way Gustavsson has. McIntyre, 31, is an experienced third goalie but his .884 save percentage in 12 AHL contests this season suggests he could have trouble playing in the NHL on a regular basis.

It’s unlikely, given the cap constraints they are working under, that the Wild will add meaningful external help at the goalie position. Instead, the team will have to hope that getting more consistent starts, as he did earlier in his career when he was the undisputed number-one goalie for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Vegas Golden Knights, will inspire enough improvement in Fleury’s form to keep Minnesota in the playoff chase.

As for the loss of Kaprizov, the Wild gave veteran Nic Petan a shot in the team’s top-six as a replacement for Kaprizov. While Petan has excelled at the AHL level, he’s 28 years old and his 188-game NHL career suggests he should not be counted on to provide offense on any sort of consistent basis.

The Wild’s installation of Petan in Kaprizov’s place shows how the team’s lack of salary cap space directly impacts the team’s NHL options. CapFriendly projects the club to have just $40K in cap space, meaning Petan is likely on the Wild’s roster by virtue of his extremely affordable $762.5k cap hit, rather than his merits in the NHL.

Another team might have given the first crack at filling Kaprizov’s spot to a younger player such as Sammy Walker, someone who has scored in the AHL but hasn’t quite gotten a major chance to show his skills at the NHL level. But Walker’s cap hit is $855k, meaning the Wild would need to jump through quite a few more hoops to recall Walker compared to Petan.

In any case, the team’s form has been significantly improved under Hynes and those improvements should leave Wild fans confident in their team moving forward. That being said, these two injury announcements pose a significant threat to the Wild’s ability to keep pace with other Western Conference playoff hopefuls.

Tampa Bay Lightning Recall Philippe Myers, Reassign Sean Day

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have swapped seventh defensemen. They’ve reassigned Sean Day back to the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch, and recalled Philippe Myers to fill his spot on their roster.

Day has been on the NHL roster for the Lightning a few times this season, but he has not yet skated in an NHL game. He’s been the team’s seventh defenseman on a few occasions but hasn’t dressed for a game in the NHL since 2021-22.

Myers, on the other hand, has played in one game for the Lightning this season. Tampa Bay originally acquired the 26-year-old with the hope that he could carve out a consistent NHL role, but he didn’t do so and ultimately played in just 11 games at the NHL level.

He’s been in Syracuse for most of this season and has played a big role, combining both size and mobility for the Crunch. Standing six-foot-six, Myers gives the Lightning some more size and physicality at the seventh defenseman role compared to Day.

Tyson Jost, Michael Hutchinson Clear Waivers

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Dec. 29: Jost and Hutchinson both passed through waivers unclaimed, per Friedman.

Dec. 28: According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, forward Tyson Jost and goaltender Michael Hutchinson have been placed on waivers by the Buffalo Sabres and Detroit Red Wings, respectively.

Jost, 25, arrives on waivers in the midst of a difficult contract season in Buffalo. The pending unrestricted free agent is making $2MM against the cap but has not provided much return on investment for the Sabres. He’s scored just four points in 29 games this season and has seen his role on the team erode compared to last year.

Last season, Jost averaged 13:20 time-on-ice per game and saw over a minute of penalty-killing time per game as well.

So far this season, Jost has dropped under a minute short-handed and has seen his overall ice time drop dangerously close to the 10 minute plateau.

That decline in role has come alongside his significantly reduced production, and now he’ll be made available to all 31 other teams.

It’s a relatively quick turnaround for Jost, a player who just last night skated as the Sabres’ number-one center in the absence of Tage Thompson. But in a different sense, Jost’s return to the AHL (which seems likely as his $2MM cap hit makes claiming him a difficult prospect for most teams across the league) has been a long time coming. The former top prospect played well at the BCHL and NCAA levels but has struggled to make his mark on the NHL.

Jost’s ability to play a two-way game meant that earlier in his career, Jost could be trusted to play in a bottom-six role at the NHL level. As a result, he never got to play in the AHL on any sort of extended basis. That meant that he never got the chance to learn how to score on a consistent basis as a professional, and his offensive game never quite took off.

Now he’ll likely land with the Sabres’ AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans, and get the chance to potentially play in a starring offensive role that he never received in the NHL. For the Sabres, sending him to the AHL would save the team some cap space and would also clear a roster spot to be used on a different player.

As for Hutchinson, he’s already cleared waivers this season (for his original assignment to the AHL) and has been through the process numerous times before in his career as a third goalie.

As an established veteran netminder in a league perpetually in need of quality goaltending, there is a chance Hutchinson gets claimed. His league-minimum cap hit is easy for most teams to fit into their financial picture, although his AHL performance (5-7-1 .895 save percentage) is not hugely encouraging.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

What Your Team Is Thankful For: Philadelphia Flyers

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As the new year approaches, PHR will be taking a look at what teams are thankful for in 2023-24. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. We’ll examine what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the Philadelphia Flyers.

Who are the Flyers thankful for?

John Tortorella

The dominant storyline of this Flyers season has been the team’s unexpected competitiveness. The team is currently 18-11-4, which places them third place in the Metropolitan Division but only one point behind the New York Islanders with a game in hand.

Tortorella’s fingerprints are all over the Flyers’ unexpected strength this season.

Tortorella has long been highly regarded for his ability to get the most out of teams who enter most nights at a talent disadvantage compared to their opponents.

He keeps his teams highly accountable, extremely hard-working, and generally maintains a fierce commitment to a hard-to-break-down defensive structure.

The 2023-24 Flyers have been exactly that sort of team. While they’re among the league’s lower-scoring teams, they rank inside the top 10 in terms of the fewest goals surrendered per game and surrender the fifth-fewest shots against per game. In addition, their penalty kill is a bright spot as it ranks fifth in the NHL, killing penalties at an 87.5% rate.

Tortorella is accomplishing all this with the help of talented defensive players such as Sean Couturier and Scott Laughton, though he has also overseen significant player development for specific Flyers. Owen Tippett and Morgan Frost went from first-round “bust” conversations to scoring 27 goals and 46 points, respectively, while blueliners such as Sean Walker and Rasmus Ristolainen have each notably improved under Tortorella’s watch from where they were before.

The Flyers are attempting a large-scale, long-term rebuild with the hope of building a contending team that can compete for Stanley Cups on a legitimate basis for a long period of time. Part of that strategy has been acquiring high-end players through the draft, and it’s true that Tortorella’s success has made it less likely that the Flyers will have a top pick at the 2024 draft.

That being said, the development of the existing players in the Flyers organization is also of paramount importance to the Flyers’ rebuild, and much of the Flyers’ recent winning under Tortorella has come off the back of the development of numerous players.

What are the Flyers thankful for?

A weaker-than-expected Metropolitan Division.

Remember how the Flyers are within striking distance of second place in the Metropolitan Division? Let’s look at how they got there. While the Flyers’ climb in the standings has been in large part due to their own improved play, the sputtering form of many teams who were expected to be division heavyweights this season has helped them along.

Porous goaltending and an inconsistent offensive attack has cost the Hurricanes this season, and while they are comfortably in a Wild Card spot they do not appear to be the contenders for the division title that they have been in recent years.

The Capitals have recovered from a slow start under new head coach Spencer Carbery, but their offensive attack does not have the juice it has had in recent years, and they do not have a single player currently on pace to score 55 or more points.

The Devils have fought through poor goaltending and poor defensive play all season, and those issues combined with injuries have led to a far slower-than-expected start. And in Pittsburgh, team-wide inconsistency has led to a squad capable of decimating a team 7-0 on one night (as they did yesterday) and then losing by the same margin on another.

While each of those teams could reasonably re-enter the playoff picture over the course of the rest of the season, so far their struggles have paved the way for Flyers fans to have legitimate hope for playoff hockey. Is that something that could be reasonably hoped for just a few months ago? Probably not, which means Flyers fans have quite a bit to be thankful for.

What would the Flyers be even more thankful for?

An improved power play.

The Flyers’ blueprint for success this season has been mixing hard work and a stringent commitment to defensive hockey in order to grind out wins against teams who frequently boast more talented lineups. While that blueprint has brought the Flyers into playoff position in this early portion of the season, there have been some costs attached.

First and foremost, the Flyers’ power play currently ranks as the NHL’s worst, converting on just 10.6% of its chances. Even the St. Louis Blues, who suffered through a historically poor start on the man advantage, have now surpassed the Flyers.

In part due to the Flyers’ inability to put together consistent offense on the power play, several of the team’s offensive players have either failed to take meaningful steps forward or taken steps back in terms of production.

Morgan Frost scored 46 points last season but instead of vaulting into the 50-60 point region, he is now on pace to score 32 points. It’s a similar story for Noah Cates, who scored 38 points as a rookie but scored only four this season before going down with an injury. There was hope Tyson Foerster would make an instant impact after scoring seven points in eight games down the stretch last season, but his adjustment has been slower than anticipated and he is on pace to score 33 points.

The Flyers’ defensemen, goaltenders, and select forwards are enjoying positive campaigns for their development. But unless the power play can get on track, the Flyers won’t be operating to their maximum capabilities from a player development perspective.

What should be on the Flyers’ holiday wish list?

An answer to Sean Walker’s future in Philadelphia.

One of the breakout players for the Flyers this season has been Walker, a 29-year-old defenseman acquired this past summer from the Los Angeles Kings. He has seen his ice time leap up from just 14:50 per game last season to 20:49 in this campaign. He’s helped anchor one of the league’s better penalty kill units and is even seeing some time on the power play.

But although Walker has emerged as one of the Flyers’ top blueliners, the reality is that he’s already 29 years old and his improved play will likely mean he’ll command a pay raise over his $2.65MM cap hit this season. For a Flyers team still building for a contending window a little bit more distant in the future, (for when Matvei Michkov is able to sign from Russia, for example) it’s fair to wonder if Walker fits into that timeline.

Any Walker extension would likely deliver the most return on investment in its first few years, and with Ristolainen and Travis Sanheim already on hefty contract extensions, there may not be room for another veteran addition.

This leaves the Flyers in a difficult spot. Do they dangle Walker on the trade market, where he would potentially be a top right-shot option and net the team valuable future assets? Or do they retain him as their own “rental” player to help them keep hold of the playoff spot they currently sit in, even if that means allowing Walker to leave in free agency?

The Flyers’ play moving forward will likely dictate which route they choose to go down, but more than anything else Flyers fans should be hoping to receive some sort of clarity on the future of one of this season’s bigger breakout players.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Detroit Red Wings Reassign Simon Edvinsson

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The Detroit Red Wings have announced that defenseman Simon Edvinsson has been sent back down to the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins.

Whereas Edvinsson had been sent down earlier in a paper transaction, this move appears to be more lasting as it comes just as veteran blueliners Jeff Petry and Olli Määttä return to the Red Wings’ lineup.

The sixth overall pick at the 2021 draft, Edvinsson will return to a Grand Rapids team that he has starred for so far this season. In 25 games there he has scored six goals and 16 points, and he has paired that strong offensive production with refinements to his defensive game.

At the NHL level, Edvinsson played a sheltered role as the Red Wings sought to ease him into his first NHL games. He recorded his first point in last night’s loss to the Minnesota Wild, and could very well end up back in Detroit as the team’s first call-up whenever injury trouble strikes again, or if the Red Wings elect to move on from one of their established defensemen.

While there are likely Red Wings fans who would like to see Edvinsson remain in the NHL at the cost of regular ice time to a player like Määttä or Petry, it’s hardly a developmental setback for Edvinsson to play a heavy dose of minutes for a well-established AHL franchise.

Injury Updates: Werenski, Carpenter, Cates

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Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski has dealt with significant injury issues in recent years, including an injury that knocked him out for most of last season. That bad luck continued last night when Werenski was knocked out of the team’s game against the New Jersey Devils after an awkward collision with Devils forward Ondřej Palát.

Today, team reporter Jeff Svoboda relayed word from Blue Jackets head coach Pascal Vincent, who said that Werenski is still being evaluated but the injury is most likely going to keep Werenski out on a week-to-week basis. An extended Werenski absence could very well deal a killing blow to the Blue Jackets’ already long-shot playoff hopes, as the team would need to replace a defenseman scoring at a 60-point pace who plays over 24 minutes per night, including on both special teams units.

Some other injury updates from across the NHL:

  • The San Jose Sharks announced that forward Ryan Carpenter has been activated off of injured reserve. In a corresponding move, the team placed forward Givani Smith on injured reserve, retroactive to December 21st. Carpenter has missed the last 10 games with an undisclosed injury and has five points in 18 games so far this season playing as a defensive/penalty-killing specialist in San Jose. Smith 25, has played in 26 games this season and has logged three points and 33 penalty minutes.
  • According to The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz, Philadelphia Flyers forward Noah Cates skated today as part of his recovery from a lower-body injury that was originally slated to cost him six to eight weeks. Cates was not having the strongest sophomore campaign before his injury, and his offensive production had declined sharply compared to last season. But in his rookie year he showed himself to be a promising defensive forward, so regardless of his struggles so far this year the Flyers have to be hoping that he’ll return to full strength relatively soon.

Central Notes: Barrie, Barlow, Spurgeon

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The Nashville Predators announced today that defenseman Tyson Barrie has suffered an upper-body injury and is out on a day-to-day timeline. Barrie did not play in the team’s loss last night against the Carolina Hurricanes.

It’s been a difficult season for Barrie, who has not performed up to expectations under the new regime in Nashville. The Predators have reportedly given Barrie permission to seek a trade. Seeing as the 32-year-old is a pending unrestricted free agent, Barrie’s performance this season is of heightened long-term importance to the player, so it makes sense that he would look elsewhere for a more advantageous situation in order to enter the open market on the strongest footing possible. But before he can even consider that, he’ll now need to focus on getting back to full health.

Some other notes from the Central Division:

  • One of the Winnipeg Jets’ top prospects, Colby Barlow, is returning to the lineup of his OHL team the Owen Sound Attack. (News via Jets reporter Jamie Thomas) Barlow was selected 18th overall by the Jets at this past summer’s draft and is in the midst of a crucial development season with Owen Sound. He has not played since November 8th, but when healthy scored nine goals and 14 points in 14 games.
  • Minnesota Wild captain Jared Spurgeon has a “decent chance” of returning from injury to play in the team’s game Saturday against the Winnipeg Jets, according to The Athletic’s Michael Russo. That would be a big add for the Wild, as Spurgeon has not played since December 10th. The Wild have fared well in his absence but they surely miss the heavy minutes he plays. If nothing else, his return could help lessen the workload placed on the shoulders of rookie Brock Faber, who has gotten close to 30 minutes in several games since Spurgeon got hurt.

Minnesota Wild Hire Cody Franson As AHL Assistant Coach

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The Minnesota Wild have made two moves today regarding their AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild. They have hired former NHL defenseman Cody Franson as an assistant coach, replacing Pat Dwyer, who was promoted to the NHL when the Wild hired John Hynes.

In addition, Minnesota has reassigned defenseman Daemon Hunt to AHL Iowa in a move that, based on the number of recent transactions he has been involved in, could very well be just a paper transaction. Hunt was originally recalled on December 26th, but has not actually played in an AHL game since December 12th.

That being said, The Athletic’s Michael Russo reported today that defenseman Jared Spurgeon is back at Wild practice. Spurgeon has not played since December 10th but as the Wild’s most important defenseman he would obviously draw into the team’s lineup automatically, and the ripple effect of his return to health could mean Hunt returns to the AHL on a more permanent basis.

Hunt, 21, was the 65th overall pick at the 2020 draft and is in his second professional campaign. He jumped from the WHL to the AHL full-time last season and ended up playing in 65 games for Iowa, scoring just 11 points. His offensive game has seen a real uptick so far this season (he has nine points in 11 games) and Minnesota has rewarded that growth with his first set of NHL games. He’s played in nine NHL contests this season, averaging 10:07 time-on-ice. He’s registered one assist, 15 blocked shots, and four hits in those games.

As for Franson, this hire represents the 550-game NHL veteran’s first crack at coaching. The former AHL All-Star retired after a strong 2021-22 season with the Hershey Bears, a year in which he scored 35 points.

The Wild have quite a few defensive prospects in need of development in Iowa so a hire of someone who was so recently successful at both the AHL and NHL level is easy to understand.

West Notes: Gavrikov, Chrona, Girard

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The Los Angeles Kings have announced that defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov has been activated off of injured reserve. In addition, defenseman Jacob Moverare has been recalled from the Kings’ AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign. Gavrikov has not played since December 10th, and had been dealing with a lower-body injury.

Gavrikov has played a top-four role in Los Angeles, averaging just under 20 minutes of ice time per night with a regular penalty-killing role. He’s provided the Kings with decent value on the $5.875MM investment they made in him, and if he keeps it up he’ll be in a strong position to hit free agency at the end of 2024-25. Moverare, 25, has skated in 16 games at the AHL level so far this season and five in the NHL.

Some other notes from the Western Conference:

  • The San Jose Sharks have recalled netminder Magnus Chrona from their AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda. The move was made to give the Sharks an additional goaltender to cover for the fact that regular tandem netminder MacKenzie Blackwood is not feeling well. In a corresponding move, defenseman Jacob MacDonald was placed on injured reserve, which clears the roster spot to be used on Chrona. Chrona, a former NCAA National Champion at the University of Denver, has a .900 save percentage in 11 games in what has been his rookie pro campaign.
  • Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar told the media today (including Guerilla Sports’ Jesse Montano) that defenseman Samuel Girard will not play tonight, but also “hinted” that there is a chance he plays Friday against the St. Louis Blues. Girard returned to skating on December 21st, and is working his way back to game readiness after entering the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program.

Nikolai Khabibulin Signs In KHL

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3:45 PM: An official release from Torpedo shed some light on the reasoning behind the decision to sign Khabibulin. In a (translated) statement, Larionov did appear to mention the idea that this signing would help Torpedo from a financial and popularity perspective, specifically pointing to Spartak Moscow’s recent signing of Ilya Kovalchuk.

But in addition to that side of the equation, Torpedo does claim to have legitimate sporting reasons to sign the soon-to-be-51-year-old veteran. With former San Jose Sharks goalie Alexei Melnichuk now off to Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, the team has a legitimate need for a third goalie. So they’ve signed Khabibulin to fill that role.

2:10 PM: In an extremely surprising move, four-time NHL All-Star and 2004 Stanley Cup champion Nikolai Khabibulin, 50, has decided to resume his playing career and sign a one-year contract with the KHL’s Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod.

It’s been an active day for Torpedo, who already boasts two quality NHL prospects in Bogdan Konyushkov (MTL) and Anton Silayev (potential 2024 top-10 pick), alongside a former AHLer in Madison Bowey. Khabibulin was serving on head coach Igor Larionov’s staff as the goalie coach, but now he has elected to throw his hat in the ring as a player.

Torpedo doesn’t appear to have an immediate need for goaltending, as starter Adam Húska and backup Ivan Kulbakov each have strong numbers this season. Neither goalie appears to have suffered an injury that would necessitate such a move, either. It’s possible this signing was made with economic considerations since Khabibulin is a popular former star NHLer.

Khabibulin won Olympic gold in 1992 with the unified team of former Soviet republics and was named the best goaltender at the 2002 Olympics, helping Russia win the bronze medal along the way.

The veteran of nearly 800 NHL games remains a popular star player and could generate Torpedo a significant amount of attention should he end up playing games as part of this contract.

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