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Minnesota Wild Waive Dakota Mermis

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October 29: Mermis has cleared waivers and is cleared to head to Iowa, according to Chris Johnston of TSN and NorthStar Bets.

October 28: The Minnesota Wild have placed defenseman Dakota Mermis on waivers, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.

The move was necessitated by Mermis’ return to health from an injury he suffered in the preseason. He had been on the team’s injured reserve list, and now that he’s healthy he must clear waivers in order to be sent to the AHL.

Mermis, 28, is an undrafted defenseman who has fashioned a nice career for himself as a depth defenseman. The former London Knight made his professional debut for the Springfield Falcons of the AHL in 2015-16, and then moved on to the Tucson Roadrunners and Arizona Coyotes organization after that season. In Arizona, Mermis’ development accelerated, and by his second season there he had even earned his first NHL call-up.

Now a member of his third NHL organization, Mermis has 25 NHL games played on his resume. He spent most of last season with the Wild’s AHL affiliate in Iowa, and will now head back to Des Moines to begin his 2022-23 season.

Last year Mermis had a healthy 24 points in 59 games and this year should resume his role as a valuable veteran contributor for the Wild’s top minor league affiliate.

Lukas Klok Clears Unconditional Waivers; Contract With Coyotes Terminated

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October 29: According to Chris Johnston of TSN and NorthStar Bets, Klok has cleared unconditional waivers and will have his contract with the Coyotes terminated.

October 28: Lukas Klok’s short time playing professional hockey in North America seems to have come to an end. As reported by Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, Klok, a member of the Arizona Coyotes organization, has been placed on unconditional waivers for the purpose of mutual contract termination.

Fellow Czech blueliner Michal Kempny recently took this route to head overseas rather than remain in the AHL with the Coachella Valley Firebirds, and now Klok is following suit.

Klok, 27, was signed by the Coyotes this summer off the back of a successful KHL season. Klok spent 2021-22 with Nizhnekamsk Neftekhimik and scored 31 points in 44 games, which was just a point off of the team lead.

The six-foot-one blueliner had spent the two seasons before that playing for Lukko Rauma in the Finnish Liiga. He also has four seasons of Czech pro experience under his belt, and first popped onto the radar in North America playing for the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms in 2013-14.

Klok’s current club, the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners, will be without Klok now (assuming he clears these unconditional waivers and has his contract terminated) but likely have the defensive depth to make up for his absence. Klok hadn’t registered much of an impact in four AHL games and the Roadrunners (who are 3-1 so far to start their season) should be able to manage to fill his vacated role moving forward.

Ottawa Senators Recall Dillon Heatherington

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The Ottawa Senators have announced that defenseman Dillon Heatherington has been recalled from the team’s AHL affiliate, the Belleville Senators. This recall comes after it was revealed earlier today that top-pairing defenseman Artem Zub will be out for one to two weeks with an upper-body injury.

Heatherington, 27, has become a bit of a journeyman since he was drafted 50th overall at the 2013 draft by the Columbus Blue Jackets. After a solid career with the WHL’s Swift Current Broncos, Heatherington turned pro in the Blue Jackets organization and spent parts of three seasons playing for their AHL affiliates. He was then sent to the Dallas Stars in a trade for Lauri Korpikoski, and he made his NHL debut as a member of their organization.

After a 2019-20 season that did not include any call-ups to the main squad in Dallas, Heatherington left North America to continue his pro career with Barys Nur-Sultan of the KHL. He spent year there before being signed by the Senators, and last season he played in a depth role, getting into 45 games at the AHL level and nine NHL games.

With this call-up, it seems that the well-traveled Heatherington is in place to get some more NHL games under his belt. It’s likely that veteran defenseman Nick Holden will enter the lineup in Zub’s place, but now that Heatherington is on the roster it’s possible he gets a look as well.

The Senators are 4-3-0 at the moment and are looking to endure some early injury troubles and keep pace in an extremely competitive Atlantic Division.

Boston Bruins Recall Jakub Lauko

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The Boston Bruins have announced a roster move today, calling up forward Jakub Lauko from their AHL affiliate, the Providence Bruins.

Lauko, 22, was sent to Providence a few days ago and now returns having not played in a game for the AHL squad. Lauko has gotten into four games for the Bruins this season and has one assist.

A third-round pick at the 2018 NHL draft, Lauko has impressed so far this season and should be one of the Bruins’ depth forwards/priority call-ups this year.

Before this season, Lauko had spent parts of three seasons paying his dues as a hard-working two-way player in Providence. Lauko’s scoring numbers took a bit of a dive last season, going from 19 points in 23 games in 2020-21 to 16 points in 54 games in 2021-22. But his speed, energy level, and work ethic remained despite that drop in production. It’s those traits that have earned him this call-up, and will likely be the reason that he gets chances in the NHL moving forward.

Edmonton Oilers Activate Carter Savoie, Send Him To AHL

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The Edmonton Oilers have announced that forward Carter Savoie has been activated off of the team’s injured non-roster list and been loaned to their AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors.

Savoie, 20, has been out with a lower-body injury that has kept him from making his 2022-23 season debut. With this move, he’ll now head to Bakersfield to continue his young professional career.

One of the Oilers’ top prospects, Savoie turned pro late last season after an extremely successful collegiate career at the University of Denver. At Denver, Savoie was a star sophomore player, scoring 23 goals and 45 points, leading the Pioneers to the NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey National Championship.

A fourth-round pick at the 2020 draft, Savoie’s college success has led to his fast rise in prospect rankings. The Condors are currently 2-2-1 and will certainly stand to benefit should Savoie’s scoring numbers translate from the NCAA level to the pro level.

While he might not be seen in Edmonton anytime soon with the Oilers 5-3-0 and free to be patient with Savoie’s development, the hope will surely be for him to eventually make his way to a scoring line on the big club. For now, though, he’ll continue his development in the AHL, a process that can now continue with his recovery from injury.

Vancouver Canucks Acquire Ethan Bear

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The Vancouver Canucks just got their first win of their season last night, and their front office remains busy. After acquiring Jack Studnicka from the Boston Bruins yesterday, the team has completed another trade.

As first reported by ESPN’s Kevin Weekes, (with additional details from The Athletic’s Thomas Drance) the Canucks have acquired defenseman Ethan Bear and forward Lane Pederson. In exchange, Carolina is receiving a 5th round pick. According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Hurricanes are retaining $400k on Bear’s contract as part of the trade. The deal has now been officially announced. 

In a corresponding move, the Canucks announced that forward William Lockwood has been reassigned to their AHL affiliate, the Abbotsford Canucks.

For the Canucks, this trade could not come at a better time. Vancouver’s blueline has been absolutely ravaged by injuries, and the team is in desperate need of reinforcements on that front. Their help now comes in the form of Bear, a 25-year-old defenseman with nearly 200 games of NHL experience.

Bear never really seemed to find his footing in Carolina, and didn’t play in any of the team’s playoff games last season.

Before he was a Hurricane, though, Bear was seen as a promising young defenseman in the Edmonton Oilers organization, and perhaps the Canucks believe a change of scenery can help him get back to the form he showed as an Oiler.

Even if he doesn’t return to that level of play, he still represents a likely improvement over the current depth blueliners the Canucks are relying on.

In addition to Bear, Vancouver is receiving a forward, Pederson. The 25-year-old was acquired by the Hurricanes as part of the Brent Burns trade, and will now be shipped to Vancouver having played just four AHL games as a member of the Hurricanes organization.

Pederson is a capable AHL scorer who should help bolster the Abbotsford Canucks, and he also has 44 games of NHL experience, albeit with just five points scored.

Possibly the most important aspect of this deal is the fact that the Hurricanes are retaining salary. Bear is on a $2.2MM cap hit this season, a cap hit the Canucks would be hard-pressed to absorb. Now, they’ve found a way to fit him in and will get an upgrade to their defense, an upgrade they desperately need.

For the Hurricanes, the team receives a fifth-round draft pick for a defenseman who they seemingly had no long-term plans for. As mentioned, Bear was never really a fit in Carolina, and now his time there is over.

Just on the basis of his play, Bear is likely more valuable than the fifth-round pick they received for him. But when you factor in how difficult moving money is in today’s cap-strapped NHL, it’s likely that finding a taker willing to take on Bear’s full salary and pay more than a fifth-rounder to do so would have been a challenge.

Pictures courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Vancouver Canucks Acquire Jack Studnicka

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It’s been a busy day in Vancouver. Not only have the Vancouver Canucks placed a player on long-term injured reserve and another on regular injured reserve, they have also completed a trade.

As first reported by TSN’s Darren Dreger, the Vancouver Canucks have acquired center Jack Studnicka from the Boston Bruins. In exchange, the Canucks are sending goaltender Michael DiPietro and defenseman Jonathan Myrenberg. The trade has now been made official.

Studnicka, 23, leaves the Bruins having occupied a place on their roster bubble so far this season. He has appeared in just one game this year, and split time last season between the Bruins and the AHL’s Providence Bruins. Studnicka was formerly one of the Bruins’ top prospects, having been an exceptional junior scorer, quality AHL scorer, and 2017 second-round pick.

Studnicka has proven himself at the AHL level, and last season he had 35 points in 41 games there. It’s success at the NHL level that’s eluded him, and he has struggled to make an impact at the game’s highest level in the chances he’s been offered.

He’ll head to a Vancouver team currently looking for any sort of sign of life to cling onto. The team is seeking its first win of the season, and perhaps the Canucks believe that they can figure out what’s kept Studnicka’s AHL scoring success from translating to the NHL level.

The Canucks’ top-nine is currently filled with players who are more accomplished than Studnicka, but it’s possible the Canucks could use him in Nils Hoglander’s top-nine slot if Hoglander is moved this season.

For Boston, moving Studnicka clears a spot on the team’s 23-man roster, a spot that could go to Mike Reilly, who was sent down earlier today.

In trading Studnicka, the Bruins are ending a developmental project that once held significant promise. In return, the team is receiving two players who represent developmental projects of their own.

The first player they are receiving in return is Myrenberg, a 2021 fifth-round pick. Myrenberg is a right-shot defenseman currently playing for Mora in the Allsvenskan, the second division of Swedish pro hockey. The second player they are receiving is the goaltender DiPietro, a goalie prospect who was once held in high regard across the league.

The Bruins will have until the summer of 2025 to determine if they want to sign Myrenberg to an entry-level deal, meaning he will have a long developmental runway to work with. As for DiPietro, the developmental pathway will be a bit more condensed. The Bruins currently have Keith Kinkaid and Kyle Keyser manning the crease for AHL Providence, and both are performing well. This makes DiPietro’s fit in the Bruins organization not immediately clear.

While the implications of this trade for both organizations will be, in all likelihood, minor, each player involved still has room to grow into something more than they are currently. So while this deal might seem relatively insignificant at the moment, it will definitely be an interesting one to track moving forward.

East Notes: Norris, Blackwood, Palat

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The Ottawa Senators got bad news yesterday when head coach D.J. Smith told the media that he was not confident that Josh Norris, a crucial top-six center in his lineup, would return to the ice this season. This unfortunate development has led many to wonder whether the Senators, led by GM Pierre Dorion, would pursue immediate upgrades to fill the hole left in their lineup by Norris’ absence. Veteran forward Derick Brassard is currently occupying Norris’ old slot in the lineup, and seeing as the Senators have hopes of contending in the Atlantic division, so they may want to upgrade on Brassard, who had 19 points in 46 games last season.

According to TSN’s Darren Dreger on today’s Insider Trading program, that’s not the direction the Senators will be headed. Dreger reports that Ottawa feels “that they are OK” despite Norris’ injury, and they believe that they have the depth in their lineup to overcome the challenges they’ll face in his absence. The Senators certainly have enviable scoring depth, and with Shane Pinto off to a scorching hot start, the need to find an immediate upgrade at center looks to be less urgent.

Some other notes regarding Eastern Conference teams:

  • New Jersey Devils goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood is out with a day-to-day injury and could return as soon as tomorrow, reports Amanda Stein of the Devils’ team website. While this injury appears to be a minor one, it’s worth noting considering the larger situation Blackwood finds himself in. A pending arbitration-eligible restricted free agent, Blackwood is looking to rebound after an injury-plagued 2021-22 campaign that saw him post an .892 save percentage in 25 games. Staying healthy could be the key to him having that rebound season, so hopefully he’ll find his way back into the lineup quickly.
  • In another injury update concerning the Devils, forward Ondrej Palat is “continuing to be evaluated” for a lower-body injury, per Devils head coach Lindy Ruff. According to Ruff, an update on that injury should come in the “next few days.” Palat was the team’s major free agent signing this past summer and has three goals in six games so far this season.

Vancouver Canucks Place Travis Dermott On LTIR, Riley Stillman On IR

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The Vancouver Canucks are still chasing their first win of their season, and now it looks like that chase has been made more difficult. The team has announced that defenseman Travis Dermott has been placed on long-term injured reserve, while defenseman Riley Stillman, who the team recently acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks, has been placed on injured reserve.

This news comes as an especially painful blow in the case of Dermott, as just a few days ago Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau said that Dermott was progressing well. Dermott suffered a concussion in September, and while no specific details on the injury were mentioned, this placement does suggest that Dermott’s recovery process has worsened since Boudreau issued that update.

Dermott, 25, was acquired by the Canucks last season via a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Canucks’ defensive lineup has been ravaged by injuries so far this season, meaning a healthy Dermott could have served as a crucial addition to their beleaguered blueline. Now, they’ll likely have to wait even longer as Dermott works his way back from his injury.

As for Stillman, he had been dealing with an undisclosed injury that was classified as day-to-day. With no word on the nature of the injury or the expected length of his absence, the immediate future of the Canucks’ blueline is made all the more cloudy.

Stillman is far from an elite defenseman, but he has played in five games this season and has over 100 NHL games under his belt, something that cannot be said about Jack Rathbone or Guillaume Brisebois.

These injuries are far from an ideal development for a Canucks team desperate to register its first win of their season, and they likely mean that Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Tyler Myers will be asked to weather significant minutes in Vancouver’s next stretch of games.

While much has been said about how poorly the Canucks have been played recently, perhaps the single biggest issue they face is the wave of injuries they’ve been hit by. With two more defensemen now seemingly out of the picture for at least a little while, those injury issues have only grown.

Colorado Avalanche Recall Martin Kaut

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Oct 24: While earlier today the Avalanche announced that both Kaut and Megna were recalled, that tweet has now been deleted. The AHL transaction portal has Kaut and Mikhail Maltsev recalled, though the team has not yet confirmed it.

Oct 23: The Colorado Avalanche did some roster tweaking late last night, announcing that they’d sent down forwards Martin Kaut and Jayson Megna to the AHL. The move comes just after the Avalanche concluded a 3-2 win over the Vegas Golden Knights, their third win of this young season.

These two reassignments should not come as a surprise to anyone closely watching the Avalanche’s moves this season. As The Athletic’s Peter Baugh notes, this transaction was likely made with the salary cap in mind rather than for any reasons related to Megna or Kaut’s performance. The Avalanche have precious little cap space to work with, so they choose to send players such as Megna or Kaut to the minors on off days in order to “accumulate” cap space—banked room that will be potentially more useful later in the season.

As can be seen here, both Kaut and Megna have been part of up-and-down transactions multiple times already this season, so it’s definitely reasonable to expect the team to bring one or even both of these players back to their active roster in time for their next game, which is on Tuesday against the New York Rangers. It’s also possible that they go in a different direction with their roster, by either calling different replacements up from their AHL affiliate or rolling with a few extra defensemen in their lineup (which would be a highly unconventional choice).

Both Kaut and Megna have split time this season between the Avalanche’s main squad and their AHL affiliate. The 32-year-old Megna is a longtime veteran depth player who has been on the NHL/AHL bubble since making his professional debut in 2012-13. Kaut, 23, is in a bit of a different situation at this time in his career, as he finds himself on the roster bubble just a few years after being selected 16th overall at the 2018 draft. Like Megna, Kaut is yet to score in his three NHL games this season although he has had some production at the AHL level.

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