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Boston Bruins Activate Jeremy Swayman

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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.

What Your Team Is Thankful For: Arizona Coyotes

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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 Arizona Coyotes.

Who are the Coyotes thankful for?

Clayton Keller.

There was a time in which Clayton Keller looked more like a quality top-six player than a truly elite talent. Like someone on the bubble of first-line talent level, but without the production to back up that assessment. Those days are over. Despite suffering a gruesome lower-body injury that prematurely ended his season last year, Clayton Keller has picked up right where he left off and is cementing himself as a true face-of-the-franchise offensive talent.

Last season was a breakout of sorts for Keller. While he scored 65 points in 2017-18 as a rookie, he struggled to reach those heights in subsequent years, finishing in the 40-point range for the next two seasons and then scoring at a 51-point pace in the shortened 2020-21 season. In 2021-22, Keller reached another dimension of production, scoring 63 points, leading the Coyotes in point production despite playing in just 67 games.

This year, Keller has 17 points in 15 games and looks every bit like the elite offensive play driver he was last year. Still just 24 years old, Keller has put himself in a position to be the centerpiece of the Coyotes’ forward corps for many years to come.

Back in 2019, Keller signed an eight-year, $7.15MM AAV extension. While it was a deal that some at the time viewed as an overpayment, it now looks to be an extremely shrewd investment, seeing as the going rate for point-per-game offensive play drivers is $8MM AAV or higher.

For a franchise that has dealt with so much uncertainty over the past few years, having Keller productive and locked into a team-friendly long-term extension is the sort of thing any Arizona fan should be extremely thankful for.

What are the Coyotes thankful for?

The 2023 Draft.

As was mentioned in the first edition of our Big Hype Prospects series, the 2023 draft class at the moment looks absolutely loaded with quality talent. That sentiment is especially true at the top of the draft, since there are four players whose current prospect profiles compare quite favorably to the first-overall picks from the 2021 and 2022 drafts.

Connor Bedard needs no introduction for most hockey fans, while University of Michigan forward Adam Fantilli is authoring the most productive freshman NCAA season since Jack Eichel tore Hockey East apart as a Boston University Terrier. Russian forward Matvei Michkov shattered junior scoring records in his home country and is currently scoring at an above-point-per-game rate in the VHL. And then there’s Swedish center Leo Carlsson who has burst onto the scene with 12 points in 17 games for Orebro in the SHL.

The Coyotes haven’t been among the NHL’s worst teams yet this season, but they are widely expected to find their way to the bottom of the NHL’s standings by the time the season runs its course.

If that ends up being the case, and the Coyotes end up finishing last in the NHL standings, they will not only have the highest odds of landing the draft’s top selection, (thereby securing themselves their choice from this top tier of prospects) they’ll also have guaranteed themselves a top-three selection, meaning they will, at worst, potentially have their choice of Michkov or Carlsson.

Since the Coyotes are a franchise that is looking to build for the long term and add as many talented prospects as possible, Coyotes fans should be extremely thankful that the crop of 2023 draft-eligible prospects looks to be so talented at this early stage.

What would the Coyotes be even more thankful for?

A clearer long-term home.

The Coyotes’ arena situation has gotten significant media attention in recent years, and that attention hasn’t always been positive. At the moment, the Coyotes are currently sharing Mullett Arena with the Arizona State University Sun Devils hockey program.

While some might point out that Mullett Arena is a brand-new, state-of-the-art facility that provides a more intimate experience than any other NHL arena, it’s important to remember that the experience is only “intimate” because the arena’s capacity hovers around the 5,000 mark.

Mullett Arena is definitely a unique venue that provides some interesting opportunities for the team to pursue, but it’s unfit to be the Coyotes’ long-term home. The team is seeking a long-term arena solution in Tempe, although the likelihood of the team’s proposal becoming reality is unclear. The issue could potentially be decided via a referendum, which is hardly the sort of slam-dunk green light the franchise is definitely hoping for.

While the future on the ice is looking bright for the Coyotes, Arizona fans would have a lot more to be thankful for if the team’s off-ice future was more settled and concrete.

What should be on the Coyotes’ holiday wish list?

A busy trade market.

One of the single largest advantages Arizona has over other teams is their considerable war chest of cap space. While most NHL teams are counting their pennies in order to remain cap compliant, the Coyotes, per CapFriendly’s calculations, are on pace to have over $74MM in cap space accumulated by the trade deadline.

As a result, the Coyotes will have the bandwidth under the salary cap to act as a “broker” for any potential trades between cap-strapped teams. What this means is that the Coyotes will be able to act as a financial facilitator for other teams’ trades, in exchange for draft pick compensation. They have the ability to retain salary on two players in advance of this year’s trade deadline and may be able to charge higher prices for that retention than in prior years thanks to the leaguewide lack of cap space.

The Coyotes already have a stockpile of draft picks amassed for the 2024 draft, but their 2023 is looking comparatively thin. With the ability to add draft picks from other teams in exchange for their cap space, the Coyotes should definitely be hoping that the trade market has a lot of activity so that the demand for their cap space is as high as possible.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Anaheim Ducks Make Three Roster Moves

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The Anaheim Ducks have made three roster moves, announcing the recall of defenseman Drew Helleson, the activation of forward Sam Carrick off of the injured non-roster list, and the placement of defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk on injured reserve.

The moves put Helleson in line to potentially make his NHL debut with just 32 professional games on his resume.

Shattenkirk, 33, heads to injured reserve for the first time in his Ducks career. The former All-Star blueliner has been remarkably healthy as a Duck, although he did face significant injury issues as a member of the New York Rangers, issues that contributed to the Rangers’ expensive decision to buy him out of his $6.65MM AAV deal.

Shattenkirk is out with a lower-body injury, and since he last played on 11/9 the Ducks have the opportunity to make his injury reserve placement retroactive to that date.

Shattenkirk’s injury fill-in on the Ducks’ blueline is the 21-year-old Helleson. As mentioned, Helleson doesn’t have an NHL game on his resume, although he has been among the San Diego Gulls’ most heavily-utilized defensemen so far this season.

While Helleson has just two points in AHL 13 games so far this year, Helleson has been a valuable minute-muncher and penalty-killer in San Diego. He could find his way into the Ducks’ lineup if coach Dallas Eakins prefers a more defensively-oriented look to his lineup.

As for Carrick, the 30-year-old veteran has been a member of the Ducks’ organization since the 2016-17 season and spent last season as an NHL regular, the first year in his career where he did so.

Carrick scored 11 goals and 19 points in 64 games last season and won fans over with his physical style, his work ethic, and his ability to pitch in a goal here and there. His activation puts him in line to make his season debut for Anaheim.

Pittsburgh Penguins Activate Teddy Blueger

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have announced that forward Teddy Blueger has been activated off of injured reserve. In a corresponding move, forward Filip Hallander was re-assigned to their AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins.

This move puts Blueger in line to make his season debut. He’s missed all of the Penguins’ games this season after suffering an upper-body injury in the preseason. Last year, Blueger scored a healthy nine goals and 28 points in 65 games while also contributing as the team’s most heavily-utilized penalty-killing forward.

In Blueger’s absence, the Penguins have run offseason trade acquisition Ryan Poehling as the team’s fourth-line center. With Blueger now healthy, Poehling’s time in Blueger’s spot in the lineup may have come to an end.

The 23-year-old Poehling hasn’t been outright bad this year, but his three points in 15 games are definitely lower than the production the Penguins could expect out of Blueger. Poehling has also functioned in Blueger’s role as the Penguins’ top penalty-killing center so far this year, but with the team’s penalty kill ranked ninth-worst in the NHL with a 75.5% kill rate, it’s likely that Blueger resumes his role there as well.

The Penguins haven’t looked like a contender so far this season and currently sit second-to-last in the Metropolitan Division. While the team’s issues may run deeper than just not having their ideal fourth-line center, getting Blueger back from injury is certainly a positive development.

As for Hallander, the 22-year-old prospect forward has gotten off to a scorching hot start with AHL Wilkes-Barre Scranton. He has nine points in 10 games so far this year and should remain near the top of the team’s depth chart in terms of priority forward call-ups.

Minor Transactions: 11/09/22

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After a packed night of hockey yesterday, today’s NHL slate is a bit lighter. Four games are on the schedule for today, headlined by a primetime showdown between the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins. As we await the NHL action set to be played tonight, we have some minor league and foreign transactions to track. We’ll cover all those moves here:

  • Veini Vehvilainen, a former member of the Columbus Blue Jackets organization, has changed clubs. Per a team announcement, Vehvilainen has joined JYP, the Liiga club of his hometown, Jyvaskyla. Vehvilainen spent last season as the starter for Brynas in the SHL, putting up a .907 save percentage and 2.33 goals-against-average. He’s struggled so far this year with a grisly .854 save percentage, possibly prompting Vehvilainen to make this move. Brynas announced that they’ve signed veteran netminder Tomi Karhunen.
  • Jeremy Brodeur, the son of legendary NHL netminder Martin Brodeur, has made the choice to head overseas to continue his professional career. Brodeur has signed with the Manchester Storm of the EIHL, the top pro hockey league in the United Kingdom. Brodeur has played in two games this season, both with the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL, and now heads to a Storm club in need of help in the crease. The team’s current starting goalie, Hayden Lavigne, has a .888 save percentage through 11 games, so the Storm will hope that Brodeur can be an improvement in the net.
  • Strauss Mann, a talented goalie prospect in the San Jose Sharks organization, was recalled to the AHL San Jose Barracuda yesterday. Mann, 24, has a sterling resume so far in his career, having represented the United States at the 2022 Beijing Olympics and been an elite college netminder at the University of Michigan. His recall is possibly motivated by a desire for the Barracuda to improve their goaltending fortunes, as the incumbent tandem of Aaron Dell and Eetu Makiniemi boasts a combined .900 save percentage.

This page will be updated throughout the day

Colorado Avalanche Recall Sampo Ranta

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The Avalanche have been busy with roster shuffling this season, and their streak of moves continues today with the recall of forward Sampo Ranta from their AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles.

This move comes after it was revealed that the Avalanche would be without forward Valeri Nichushkin for a month as he recovers from ankle surgery. Martin Kaut had been playing alongside Evan Rodrigues and Alex Newhook but was sent down on Sunday. This recall paves the way for Ranta to take Kaut’s role on that line, or perhaps he will replace Mikhail Maltsev (who was also sent down) on the team’s fourth line.

Ranta, 22, was a third-round pick at the 2018 NHL draft and has been a solid mid-tier prospect for the Avalanche since he concluded his collegiate career. Ranta was a strong scorer in his final year at the University of Michigan, scoring 31 points in 31 games, and has been a modest scorer at the AHL level with 14 points in 38 games last year.

Ranta has 10 total NHL games on his resume, all coming last season. He’s in a position to grow that number in the coming weeks as the Avalanche look to stabilize their forward corps in the midst of injury troubles that have shaken up the team’s roster.

Juraj Slafkovsky To Have Hearing With Department Of Player Safety

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The Montreal Canadiens are once again under the microscope of the NHL’s Department of Player Safety. NHL Player Safety announced on Twitter that Canadiens forward Juraj Slafkovsky will have a hearing today for boarding Detroit Red Wings forward Matt Luff in last night’s game.

The incident in question came close to the end of the third period of the Red Wings’ shootout loss to the Canadiens. The Red Wings won a defensive zone faceoff, and Luff had carried the puck up to the red line. He attempted to chip a puck past Canadiens defenseman Joel Edmundson, who promptly swatted Luff’s chip attempt back down towards Luff. At that point, Luff attempted to send the bouncing puck into the offensive zone, but after whiffing on his first attempt was driven into the boards by Slafkovsky, who was gliding through the neutral zone.

Slafkovsky hit Luff in the numbers, driving him head-first into the boards. Luff looked to be in pain as he got up and left the ice, and coach Derek Lalonde said postgame that Luff would be out “long-term.”

As the 2022 first-overall pick, last night’s game was Slafkovsky’s tenth in the NHL, so it should not be a surprise that this is his first run-in with the Department of Player Safety. The Canadiens have already lost winger Josh Anderson to a two-game suspension, and it would not be a surprise to see the other Canadiens power forward be handed a similar punishment.

Carolina Hurricanes Activate Ryan Suzuki, Assign To AHL

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The Carolina Hurricanes announced today that they have activated forward Ryan Suzuki off of the injured non-roster list and assigned him to their AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves.

Suzuki had been out due to an upper-body injury, an injury that caused him to miss the entirety of the Hurricanes’ training camp and preseason.

Suzuki, 21, was the 28th overall pick at the 2019 NHL draft and has thus far struggled to translate his success at the OHL level into success in the pro ranks. Suzuki has just 24 points in 60 career AHL games, and the increased physicality has in particular been a challenge for Suzuki.

Last season, Suzuki scored 14 points in 34 AHL games. Worth noting is the developmental environment Suzuki has been placed in at AHl Chicago. The Wolves are an independently-owned AHL franchise whose first priority is competing for Calder Cups, not player development.

That’s something they do successfully, as they won the Calder Cup last year, and an entirely respectable organizational priority. But on the flip side, the club is more eager to give AHL veteran scorers such as Stefan Noesen and Andrew Poturalski the sort of offensive opportunities other organizations might reserve for their top prospects.

So while Suzuki certainly hasn’t met expectations thus far at the AHL level, it is important to note the unique developmental situation he’s been placed in, as it undoubtedly has played a role in his growth as a professional player.

Buffalo Sabres Assign Jeremy Davies To AHL

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The Buffalo Sabres have assigned defenseman Jeremy Davies to the AHL Rochester Americans, per a team announcement.

Davies was originally recalled by the Sabres on October 31st after forward Riley Sheahan was sent down, and now heads back to Rochester despite having not skated in a single game for the big club.

Davies, 25, signed in Buffalo this summer as part of a trio of depth defenders who joined the Sabres on one-year deals. He earned that contract after a solid year in the Nashville Predators organization, one where he scored 31 points in 54 AHL games. That performance earned Davies six NHL games, a decline from the 16 games he played in 2020-21.

This year, Davies has played seven games, all in Rochester. With Ilya Lyubushkin back at full health, there was simply no more need to keep Davies on the Sabres’ active roster. He now heads back to the AHL looking to help Rochester climb the AHL’s North Division standings.

Kristian Vesalainen Signs In Finland

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After a run of 15 games in the SHL, 2017 first-round pick and former Winnipeg Jets forward Kristian Vesalainen is headed home. Per a team announcement, Vesalainen has signed a contract spanning the rest of this season with Liiga club HIFK.

This signing comes after his contract with the SHL’s Malmo Redhawks was terminated, and allows Vesalainen to play in Helsinki, the city where he was born. Vesalainen has actually been a member of HIFK before, as he developed there as a junior player before heading to Frolunda in Sweden to continue his development.

Vesalainen, 23, signed in Malmo this past summer with the goal of playing a major role in the SHL, one that would allow him to flourish offensively in ways his limited role in the Jets organization wouldn’t.

That didn’t happen in Malmo, though, as Vesalainen scored just three points in 15 games and has not been used as the top-six offensive centerpiece he likely signed there to be.

He’ll now head to Liiga and join HIFK with the hope that he can find a better role in Helsinki. HIFK could certainly use the help, as they currently sit near the bottom of the Liiga standings, and their top scorers have just nine points in 20 games.

Vesalainen’s rights are still owned by the Jets until June 30th, 2026, so he’ll have a relatively long runway to build himself a strong scoring resume in Europe before attempting a potential return to the NHL.

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