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Shane Wright Assigned To AHL On Conditioning Loan

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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 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

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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.

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