Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Buffalo Sabres Re-Assign Riley Sheahan

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The Buffalo Sabres have announced that veteran center Riley Sheahan has been re-assigned to the team’s AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans.

The move comes after the team announced yesterday that defenseman Mattias Samuelsson would be returning to the lineup for tonight’s contest against the Montreal Canadiens.

For the Sabres to be able to activate Samuelsson, they needed to clear a roster spot, so the team has chosen to send Sheahan down.

Sheahan, 30, has been a priority call-up for the Sabres this season, functioning as a depth center on their NHL roster and a veteran presence in Rochester. In six AHL games this year Sheahan has three points, and in two NHL games, Sheahan has yet to make his mark on the score sheet.

Sheahan is a veteran of over 600 NHL games and should be expected to occupy this role as the Sabres’ top veteran depth center for the rest of this season. Playing on a $950k cap hit, Sheahan will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.

Los Angeles Kings Recall Three Players From AHL

at CDT | by 2 Comments

Nov 21: With the team back in action tomorrow night, all three players have now been recalled.

Nov 20: The Los Angeles Kings have announced that they have loaned three players to their AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign. Per the team announcement, forwards Rasmus Kupari and Lias Andersson, as well as defenseman Jacob Moverare are headed to the AHL.

Andersson and Moverare were called up a week ago, when the Kings placed Brendan Lemieux on Injured Reserve and sent down Brandt Clarke on a conditioning loan.

Now, both Andersson and Moverare will head back to Ontario. Moverare got skated in one game for the Kings, while Andersson didn’t get into the lineup.

Kupari, on the other hand, has spent most of his season in Los Angeles. The 2018 20th overall pick has four points in 12 games on just over 11 minutes of time on ice per game. Kupari has six points in six AHL games so far this year and should help bolster an Ontario attack that ranks 26th in the AHL in goals scored.

Andersson, 24, was the seventh overall pick at the 2017 draft. Los Angeles acquired him from the New York Rangers for a 2020 second-round pick hoping that a change of scenery would help his development, but things haven’t gone to plan for Andersson as a King. He has just eight points in 43 career games in Los Angeles, although he has been solid at the AHL level. Now back in Ontario, he should resume his role as a top-of-the-lineup AHL contributor.

Moverare, 24, was not a first-round pick as Andersson and Kupari were. Drafted in the fourth round in 2016, Moverare has developed into a nice depth defender for the Kings. The six-foot-three, 210-pound Swede has 20 NHL games on his resume and is trusted for his safe defense-first style.

Moverare’s 19-game NHL run last season included minutes on the Kings’ penalty kill, so expect him to return in that role if the Kings face some significant blueline injuries, as they did in 2021-22.

No corresponding call-ups were announced along with these loans, but it’s possible that Clarke is headed back to Los Angeles in the near future. These moves could also signal that Lemieux, who was sidelined with a lower-body injury, could be nearing a return.

What Your Team Is Thankful For: Calgary Flames

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

As Thanksgiving and the holiday season approaches, PHR will be taking a look at what teams are thankful for in 2022-23. 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 Calgary Flames. 

Who are the Flames thankful for?

Brad Treliving.

The Flames general manager is in his ninth season at the helm in Calgary, and before last season there were some who believed his seat was getting warm after a few difficult years.

Treliving’s choice to bring Darryl Sutter back to Alberta was a bold one, but it’s so far worked out extremely well as the bench boss recently won the Jack Adams Trophy. But the choice to hire Sutter isn’t why Flames fans are feeling thankful for Treliving this holiday season, it’s the moves he was able to make this past summer.

Early last summer, Treliving was put in an impossible situation. Two of his team’s most important players, Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk, had decided that they did not see a long-term future in Calgary. So despite the fact that he had a mandate to provide Sutter with a competitive roster, he now had to deal with the impending departures of his two most important wingers.

With Tkachuk, Treliving was able to pry a major trade package from the Florida Panthers, netting superstar winger Jonathan Huberdeau, quality all-around defenseman Mackenzie Weegar, a 2025 first-round pick, and prospect forward Cole Schwindt. Additionally, he was able to lock both Huberdeau and Weegar into long-term, market-rate contract extensions. Through the Tkachuk trade, Treliving had acquired two impact players who would be around long-term.

But he wasn’t done there. With the cap space saved through Gaudreau’s departure, Treliving signed center Nazem Kadri to a major contract.

While some worried that buying high on Kadri (who scored 87 points last season, far beyond his previous career-high of 61) would be a major miscalculation, Kadri has been worth his $7MM salary so far this season, as he has posted 15 points in 17 games.

Looking at the bigger picture beyond just the acquisitions of Kadri, Huberdeau, and Weegar, though, the Flames should be thankful for Treliving because of how he restored optimism to a beleaguered Calgary fanbase.

He was dealt an incredibly poor hand last summer and made the very most of it. While the Flames still have work to do this year to become a true Stanley Cup contender, Treliving is certainly someone for Calgary to be thankful for.

What are the Flames thankful for?

The Western Conference.

While the Flames haven’t gotten off to the best start, they remain just two points out from the Western Conference’s top Wild Card spot, with just one team (the St. Louis Blues) ahead of them on tiebreakers.

If the Flames were in the Eastern Conference, though, their 18 points would put three teams ahead of them in the chase for the second wild-card spot. If there’s one thing the Flames can be thankful for this season, it’s the fact that the West, at the moment, looks like the weaker of the NHL’s two conferences.

A lot of the difference between the Eastern Conference and Western Conference has to do with philosophy. There are quite a few teams in the West who fully expect to remain near the bottom of the standings for the duration of this season. The Arizona Coyotes, Chicago Blackhawks, and Anaheim Ducks are all more focused on their future than their present.

The Vancouver Canucks and San Jose Sharks may have each intended on being a contender this season, but they have each begun their season quite poorly and will need to improve significantly to be competitive.

Even one of the teams currently occupying one of the Western Conference’s playoff spots, the Seattle Kraken, looks to be a Martin Jones injury or decline in form away from a drop in the standings.

If the Flames were in the Eastern Conference, their path to a playoff spot would likely look a lot more treacherous. The NHL is a league of parity and they’ll still need to improve in order to get there, of course, but at the moment their path to the postseason looks more comfortable than the daunting journey some Eastern Conference clubs are currently staring down. That’s definitely something for Calgary to be thankful for.

What would the Flames be even more thankful for?

Chemistry between Jonathan Huberdeau and the Flames’ other star forwards.

Jonathan Huberdeau hasn’t been bad so far this season, but his eight points of production in 14 games is a 47-point scoring pace, a far, far cry from the 115 points he scored last year. So far, Huberdeau has struggled to find a fit on a Flames line, and the first-line left-winger spot next to Elias Lindholm is currently being occupied by a red-hot Adam Ruzicka, rather than Huberdeau.

For Huberdeau to be able to reach the heights he hit as a Panther, he’ll need to find a way to gel with one of the Flames’ top two centers, Lindholm or Kadri.

He’s locked up until the summer of 2031, of course, so he has some time to find the right fit, but if the Flames want to really get going this season they’ll need to find the right landing spot for their superstar winger.

There’s no reason to be overly worried at this point, Huberdeau’s talent didn’t simply evaporate on the journey from Florida to Alberta. But if Huberdeau could find a way to click with Kadri or Lindholm and cement his place on one of the top two lines, that would give the Flames even more to be thankful for this holiday season.

What should be on the Flames’ holiday wish list?

Improved goaltending.

The Flames have given up 58 goals this season, which is around the NHL average at this point in the season. That’s not a major issue on its own, but for a Flames club that prides itself in defensive responsibility and being tough to score against, it’s a figure that needs to be improved.

Despite the absence of Oliver Kylington, a lack of defensive talent isn’t to blame for the goals they’ve let in. The Flames still have a top-four on defense that includes Weegar, Noah Hanifin, Rasmus Andersson, and Nikita Zadorov.

There are few teams that can boast a more talented set of top-four defensemen.

No, the main issue for the Flames has been their lackluster goaltending. Starting netminder Jacob Markstrom was a Vezina Trophy contender last season, as he posted a .922 save percentage in 63 games. This year, he has an .887 in 14 games.

Daniel Vladar, the team’s backup, is in a similar situation. After posting a .906 save percentage last year, Vladar has just a .881 this year, a significant decline.

While the fact that both goalies have seen their save percentages decline suggests there is more at play than simply lackluster performance in net, the reality is the Flames’ goalie tandem has to be better.

Sutter has the Flames play a specific style of hockey, and the success of his system relies on their goaltending often being the final nail in the opposing team’s coffin. There were nights last season when Markstrom looked unbeatable. This year, those nights have been few and far between.

The success of the Flames’ goalies is integral to their team identity, so getting improved performance from each netminder should be the top item on the Flames’ wish list this winter.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Shane Wright Assigned To AHL On Conditioning Loan

at CDT | by 4 Comments

The Seattle Kraken have announced that forward Shane Wright has been assigned to their AHL affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, on a conditioning loan. Yesterday, we covered that this move might be coming, and now it’s been made official.

Wright, 18, has been a healthy scratch for five straight Kraken games, which opened up the possibility of this move. Per the NHL-CHL agreement, Wright cannot be outright assigned to the AHL. For prospects like him who were developed in the CHL, the choice is typically between sending the prospect back to the CHL for another season or keeping them in the NHL.

With Wright, those restrictions have placed the Kraken in a bind. The Kraken did not believe simply sending Wright back to the OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs would be the best option for his development, and opted to keep him on their NHL roster. But with the Kraken off to a hot start, Wright struggled to earn coach Dave Hakstol’s trust and has been sheltered in a highly limited role in the games he’s played in.

Unable to assign him to the AHL outright, the Kraken have elected this highly unorthodox strategy for Wright. He’ll be able to spend up to two weeks in Coachella Valley, a period that will likely lead into Wright being sent to Team Canada’s World Junior Championship camp.

That tournament ends in early January, and at that point, the Kraken will be faced with another choice.

They could elect to put him back on the NHL roster with the hope that he’ll be in a better position to contribute, or he can be sent back to the OHL. Since he has not yet skated in nine NHL games, the Kraken won’t have burned a year off of his entry-level deal.

Perhaps the most important factor determining if Wright heads back to the OHL after the World Juniors is what team holds his rights. Kingston hasn’t been great this season, and they currently stand in the middle of the pack in the OHL Eastern Conference standings.

It’s possible that Wright’s OHL rights are traded early in the new year, which could enhance the likelihood that GM Ron Francis and the Kraken elect the OHL route for the rest of the season.

Either way, the most important aspect of this news is that a clear, concrete plan is starting to come together regarding Wright’s developmental future. Given how chaotic his early tenure in Seattle felt for many fans, this is most definitely a positive development for everyone invested in the success of the Kraken’s top prospect.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Seattle Kraken Activate Philipp Grubauer

at CDT | by 6 Comments

The Seattle Kraken have activated goaltender Philipp Grubauer off of injured reserve. In a corresponding move, defenseman Gustav Olofsson has been reassigned to the team’s AHL affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds.

Grubauer, 30, was placed on injured reserve on October 25th after suffering an injury during a game against the Colorado Avalanche, his former team. After a moderate absence, he is now healthy and ready to return to the ice.

Complicating Grubauer’s return, though, is the current state of the Kraken and the current performance of the man signed to be Grubauer’s backup: Martin Jones. The Kraken currently sit fifth place in the Western Conference, and have a solid 9-5-3 record, with seven of those wins coming in their last ten games. Jones’ play has been a major part of that, and he at the moment is giving the Kraken some of the best goaltending in their brief franchise history.

Last season, the poor play in net was one of the major reasons the Kraken were among the NHL’s worst teams. Grubauer was perhaps the worst starting netminder in hockey in 2021-22, posting a nightmarish .889 save percentage in 55 games. Backup Chris Driedger didn’t fare much better with a .899 of his own, and this season it’s been more of the same for Grubauer. In four games this season, he has a 3.70 goals-against-average and a .860 save percentage.

In contrast, Jones has posted a .912 save percentage and 2.34 goals-against-average. So the simple answer with Grubauer returning is to maintain Jones’ starring role.

But complicating the situation, and potentially necessitating a different answer from that simple one, is the contract status of each goalie.

The Kraken have significant dollars tied to Grubauer, as he makes $5.9MM each year for the next five seasons. Jones, on the other hand, is playing on an expiring one-year, $2MM deal.

So on one hand, the Kraken likely stand to have the best odds of winning as many games as possible if Jones gets the lion’s share of starts.

But on the other, playing Jones and limiting Grubauer’s game action could further damage Grubauer’s confidence, and hurt his odds of bouncing back and playing like the quality netminder he was with the Avalanche and Washington Capitals.

The Kraken are tied to Grubauer, after all, and while Jones operating as a full-on starter may have short-term benefits, it could cost them in the long term.

This could be a difficult decision for head coach Dave Hakstol to make. But since coaches are often the first to fall if a team hits a rough patch, they typically take the “win the game in front of you” approach to roster decisions, which is entirely reasonable. So with that in mind, it seems that Grubauer’s return won’t take a major chunk out of Jones’ workload.

But regardless of what the situation looks like now, Grubauer’s return to the Kraken roster and how he is deployed is certainly something worth tracking in the coming weeks.

Picture courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Edmonton Oilers Recall Brad Malone

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The Edmonton Oilers have added to their roster, calling up forward Brad Malone from their AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors.

The 33-year-old Malone has gotten into two games for the Oilers so far this year, and has played in ten for the Condors. He has five points in those ten games with the Condors and is relied upon as priority organizational depth due to his leadership qualities and sound two-way game.

Last season, Malone scored 39 points in 52 AHL games, playing as an all-situations, heavily relied-upon center. His quality play not only earned him minutes in two of the Oilers’ playoff games, it also earned him a contract extension in the summer.

Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft in particular trusts Malone to fill in when injuries strike the Oilers, and part of that trust can likely be attributed to Woodcroft’s time coaching Malone when Woodcroft was the bench boss of the Condors. With Kailer Yamamoto not yet ready to return to the lineup, Malone draws in to provide some safe bottom-six play.

Minnesota Wild Recall Nic Petan

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

With Adam Beckman reassigned to the AHL’s Iowa Wild and Tyson Jost on waivers, the Minnesota Wild have space for another forward. Per a team announcement, they’ve recalled Nic Petan from Iowa to fill a space on their roster.

Petan, 27, was signed this summer by the team to serve as organization depth and has yet to make his NHL debut for Minnesota. This recall puts him in a position to do so. The five-foot-nine forward has been an elite AHL scorer in recent years, and he has eight points in five AHL games so far this season.

While scoring success at the NHL level has eluded Petan, the Wild have been able to get the most out of players once tagged as depth contributors, such as with Frederick Gaudreau and Ryan Hartman. Now Petan will have a chance to join that group if he can play well.

The Wild are also expecting to get Jordan Greenway back from injury in the relatively near future, but since he isn’t expected to be ready for their next game Petan will get a chance instead.

Ottawa Senators To Activate Artem Zub

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

With Nikita Zaitsev sent to Belleville, another move on defense has come for the Ottawa Senators. As reported by CapFriendly, the Senators have activated defenseman Artem Zub off of injured reserve.

The blueliner has been out with an upper-body injury since October 28th. The Senators’ blueline just recently lost top defenseman Thomas Chabot, who was placed on injured reserve on the 13th.

Zub, who has become a fan favorite since arriving in Ottawa for the 2020-21 season, should help the Senators’ defense corps stabilize in the midst of Chabot’s absence. In his seven games played this year Zub has three points and has skated in 22 minutes per game, including two minutes on the penalty kill.

Remaining healthy and productive this year is of particular importance for Zub, as he is a pending unrestricted free agent. While there will likely be significant interest in his services regardless, putting forth a quality platform year would go a long way in securing Zub either a lucrative extension in Ottawa or a major contract from another club.

What Your Team Is Thankful For: Boston Bruins

at CDT | by 3 Comments

As Thanksgiving and the holiday season approaches, PHR will be taking a look at what teams are thankful for in 2022-23. 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 Boston Bruins

Who are the Bruins thankful for?

Jim Montgomery.

The Bruins made one of the most controversial moves of this past offseason when they fired head coach Bruce Cassidy. Cassidy had taken the Bruins to within one win of a Stanley Cup championship in 2019 and had not missed the playoffs in any of his seasons coaching the Bruins. But after a disappointing first-round loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, with rumors of friction between Cassidy and the organization generating buzz, GM Don Sweeney made the choice to initiate a coaching change.

Out went Cassidy, and in came Montgomery. The 53-year-old Montgomery was the former head coach of the Dallas Stars and was hired off of Craig Berube’s St. Louis Blues staff having helped the Blues orchestrate one of their best offensive seasons in team history.

More than anything else, Montogomery represented a complete stylistic departure from Cassidy. While Cassidy was known to be a demanding coach whose style could sometimes wear players thin, Montgomery was a more laid-back, player-friendly option who was viewed as a breath of fresh air for their locker room.

At this point in the season, it’s safe to say that despite Cassidy’s initial disappointment at his Bruins exit, this seems to be a coaching move that has worked out well for all parties involved. Montgomery has the Bruins at the top of the NHL standings at this early stage, and their locker room is seemingly in great shape.

As for Cassidy, he moved on to take a role as head coach of the Vegas Golden Knights, and he has the NHL’s 31st team sitting first in the Western Conference. While it’s definitely a major risk to fire a clearly talented coach like Cassidy, the risk seems to have paid off for Boston, as they look to have a new coach who is giving them many reasons to be thankful.

What are the Bruins thankful for?

Their training staff.

A team’s training staff is an extremely important part of an NHL organization, but they often don’t receive the attention or praise they deserve. A training staff is responsible for managing the injury situations of a team’s players, and the Bruins this year have heavily leaned on theirs. Star players such as Brad Marchand, Charlie McAvoy, and Jeremy Swayman have all missed time, and yet the Bruins’ haven’t missed a beat.

In fact, both Marchand and McAvoy have returned earlier than when many may have expected them to return when their injuries were first revealed. Their recovery processes for their respective injuries seem to have gone extraordinarily well, and now the Bruins are near full health as they look to continue their scorching hot start.

While the players themselves undoubtedly deserve credit for the quick turnaround in the face of their injuries, the Bruins have to be thankful for their medical and training staff at this point in their season.

The team has capably navigated the challenge posed by the significant injuries they were hit with and the roster has returned to close to full health faster than anyone could have reasonably expected.

Injuries are inevitable over the course of an NHL season, but the Bruins’ staff has ensured that they are prepared to weather any storm injuries could force them through. That’s not something many teams can boast, and it means the Bruins’ training staff is definitely something for the team to be thankful for.

What would the Bruins be even more thankful for?

Progress in their prospect pool.

The Bruins have been a competitive team for the better part of a decade and were in the Stanley Cup Final in 2019. The cost of the team’s pursuit of another Stanley Cup championship has been that their prospect pool has suffered significantly. The Athletic’s Corey Pronman ranked the Bruins’ prospect pool last in the NHL, while EliteProspects.com ranked them 30th.

Winning games, of course, is far more important than winning prospect pool rankings. No fan would sacrifice the record of success the Bruins have had since 2011 for better placement in farm system rankings.

But that being said, a lackluster player development pipeline does hurt the Bruins’ ability to maximize their current competitive window. Their ability to win a trade deadline bidding war for a top player is limited, and the Bruins’ lack of young, cheap, developed talent may have forced their hand and led them to sign some relatively expensive contracts (Nick Foligno, Mike Reilly) to fill spots lower in their lineup.

With so much going right so far in the Bruins’ season, there aren’t many things that could happen that would make the team even more thankful. But if there’s one thing they could hope to add to what has already been a magical start to their season, it would be some accelerated progress for the team’s top prospects.

A few of Boston’s top offensive prospects, namely Georgii Merkulov and Fabian Lysell, are playing above expectations, but some, such as 2019 first-rounder John Beecher, have disappointed.

If players such as 2022 second-rounder Matthew Poitras or 2021 third-rounder Brett Harrison could take emphatic steps forward in their development, the Bruins would have that much more to be thankful for this season.

What should be on the Bruins’ holiday wish list?

Trade interest in Mike Reilly.

The Bruins don’t have any major immediate need to trade Reilly, such a trade would pose some major benefits. Sure, they would lose their top depth defenseman who they can shuffle between the NHL and AHL based on need, but in exchange, they would be rid of the $1.875MM cap hit Reilly currently costs when his salary is buried in the AHL.

Reilly is clearly no longer in the Bruins’ long-term plans and is reportedly hoping for a trade in order to resolve his current situation. Reilly’s $3MM base cap hit for this season and next complicates things and is likely the reason that he hasn’t been moved to this point, especially considering he cleared waivers.

If a team were to suddenly have interest in acquiring Reilly with limited retention required on Boston’s part, that would certainly ease the Bruins’ precarious current cap position. Reilly had 17 points in 70 games last season and could be a bounce-back possibility for some teams.

But given his $3MM cap hit and the overall shortage of cap space around the league, it seems a potential Reilly trade that doesn’t require the Bruins to attach sweetener assets is more in the “wish list” territory than the realm of realistic possibility.

Photo Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Boston Bruins Activate Jeremy Swayman

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

After missing the last two weeks with an injury, Boston Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman is back in the fold. Per a team announcement, Swayman has been activated off of injured reserve.

In a corresponding move, the Bruins have sent Keith Kinkaid to their AHL affiliate, the Providence Bruins. Swayman, 23, has been out with a lower-body injury, an injury that was originally classified as week-to-week.

The Bruins haven’t lost a step in Swayman’s absence. Backstopped by Linus Ullmark, who is off to a hot start with a .936 save percentage, and Kinkaid (who contributed one start, a 3-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres) the Bruins boast a 9-1 record in their last ten games and sit top of the NHL with 28 points.

Swayman has been just a small part of the Bruins’ early success, having gotten into just four games with a .878 save percentage. That being said, though, Swayman is sure to be an important part of the Bruins’ season moving forward. Swayman went 23-14-3 last season with a .914 save percentage and a 2.41 goals-against-average.

Swayman is part of a tandem setup with Ullmark and should help ease the load the Bruins place on Ullmark’s shoulders moving forward now that he’s back to full health.

As for Kinkaid, he heads back to Providence having put a quality NHL start on his resume. At the AHL level, Kinkaid has played in four games and has a .922 save percentage. The P-Bruins have gotten elite goaltending so far this season from Kinkaid, Kyle Keyser, and Brandon Bussi, meaning a player may need to be shuffled to the ECHL level without his performance truly meriting the demotion.

With Kinkaid back in Providence, it looks like that will be Bussi, who will head back to the ECHL’s Maine Mariners having gone 4-0 in four AHL starts with a .947 save percentage.

Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

scroll to top