Sabres Officially Move Eric Comrie To Injured Reserve
The Buffalo Sabres have placed goaltender Eric Comrie on injured reserve. General manager Kevyn Adams said that the netminder is likely going to miss a few weeks with a lower-body injury.
Comrie’s injury has coincided with an injury to promising rookie goalie Devon Levi, leaving Buffalo without their top two options. The team has turned towards Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Devin Cooley in their absence. Luukkonen has recorded a 1-1 record in two starts as the team’s newfound starter, setting a .881 save percentage and 4.83 goals-against-average. Cooley has yet to slot into the starter’s net but will be playing in his NHL debut whenever he gets the chance. Cooley was an undrafted free agent that operated as the backup to Yaroslav Askarov for the Milwaukee Admirals last season. He set a .909 save percentage in 26 games throughout the year – his second full AHL season. Now in the Sabres system, Cooley appeared in four games for the Rochester Americans this season, winning all four games with a .903 save percentage.
Buffalo will undoubtedly anticipate the return of Levi, who has recorded a .892 save percentage and a 1-3-0 record through four games this season. The quartet of games brings him to just 11 career NHL games between this season and last. He has a .901 save percentage through those 11 games and was anticipated to enter the season as the clear-cut starter. But the 21-year-old Levi is facing stark competition in Comrie, who has played in three games and set a .914 save percentage so far this season.
Levi, who is considered day-to-day with injury, will have a clear runway upon his return with Comrie now out of action. But how the duo vies for starts when both are fully healthy should be exciting to see. Either Buffalo will continue with the hot hand of Comrie, who has lost twice despite strong stats, or they’ll further empower the young and promising Levi. Either way, the Sabres are certainly due for better days in net once these injuries clear up.
Washington Places Dowd On IR, Recall Lapierre
The Washington Capitals have placed forward Nic Dowd on injured reserved and recalled 2020 First Round pick Hendrix Lapierre from the Hershey Bears. Dowd has been out since the team’s October 18th game with an upper-body injury and will now miss an additional week of action, at least.
And while Washington was able to fill in for Dowd’s injury, they are also anticipating Sonny Milano to miss action with illness. This means the team will need to recall one more forward to ice a full lineup, as they’re not currently carrying any extra forwards. One possible option for this recall could be top prospect Ivan Miroshnichenko, who garnered a lot of attention during Washington’s training camp but narrowly missed the mark for the roster. He has five points through his first seven career AHL games.
Lapierre’s recall is an enticing one for Capitals fans anticipating what the former 22nd-overall selection could become. His only NHL action came in the 2021-22 season when Lapierre played six games and scored one goal. Last season was his first full year of professional hockey, with the winger netting 15 goals and 30 points in 60 regular season games and three goals and six points in 20 playoff games. Lapierre has three points in six AHL games this year, continuing his modest minor-league scoring.
Aliaksei Protas has slotted into the lineup in place of Dowd, recording one assist in six NHL games while averaging just shy of nine minutes of ice time. The 22-year-old forward was drafted in the third round of the 2019 NHL Draft and has 97 career NHL Games under his belt, with 25 career points.
Andrei Svechnikov Set To Return From Injury
The Carolina Hurricanes have announced the return of top scorer Andrei Svechnikov, who received surgery on his ACL in March. Svechnikov shed the no-contact jersey at the team’s Monday practice and is now in line to return to the lineup, with Carolina slated to play the San Jose Sharks on Friday.
The return of Svechnikov has been highly anticipated and should have very interesting on-ice effects. The Hurricanes currently rank second in the league in goals-for, and now add a former 30-goal-scorer back into the fold. His 30-goal season came in 2021-22, when Svechnikov recorded 69 points in 78 games, and was one of four seasons where the 23-year-old Svechnikov has scored 20 or more goals. But more interestingly, Svechnikov tallied the third-worst xGA/60 (expected goals-against per-60) of any Canes forward, per Natural Stat Trick. This will be an area of improvement for Svechnikov, who is rejoining a Carolina team that’s allowed more goals than any other team in the league through their first eight games.
Michael Bunting has been performing well in Svechnikov’s role, scoring two goals and six points operating alongside Martin Necas and Jesperi Kotkaniemi. The Canes have also stuck with the trio of Teuvo Teravainen, Sebastian Aho, and Seth Jarvis as their top line. The seemingly locked-in top-six could spell for a bit of a logjam with Svechnikov returning, who has spent nearly all of the last two seasons alongside one of Necas, Aho, or Jarvis. Having high-scoring wingers sprinkled throughout the lineup is certainly a good issue to have, but how Carolina decides to utilize Svechnikov will be worth watching closely.
Jake McCabe Leaves Game With Lower-Body Injury
Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe left the team’s Thursday night matchup against the Dallas Stars after only one shift, reportedly “pulling” something in his lower body. McCabe only recorded 10 seconds of ice time in the game. His availability for the Leafs’ Saturday match against the Nashville Predators is uncertain.
McCabe has become a prominent member of the Toronto blue line, after joining the team via trade in February of last season. In return for the defender and Sam Lafferty, who now plays for the Vancouver Canucks, the Leafs sent the Chicago Blackhawks a protected 2025 First Round pick, 2026 Second Round pick, Joey Andreson, and Pavel Gogolev.
McCabe has quickly earned a top-four role in Toronto, consistently averaging 19-and-a-half minutes of playing time between his 21 games with the club last season and his six through the early going this year – excluding Thursday night’s early exit. In 27 career games with the club, McCabe has recorded five points, a +12, and a 50.98 CF% (Corsi-For Percentage); the lattermost mark ranking fifth among Leafs defenders with 10 or more games since last season.
It’s unclear how the Leafs, who are already down Conor Timmins, will respond to another blue-line injury. The club is currently only carrying one healthy scratch: rookie forward Fraser Minten, meaning any fill-in for McCabe will likely come on an emergency recall basis. There are certainly plenty of names to choose from with the Toronto Marlies, including Mikko Kokkonen, Topi Niemela, and Simon Benoit. The obvious hope is that McCabe’s lower-body injury doesn’t hold him out long-term. But if he is set to miss time, who the Leafs choose to replace him will be something to monitor.
Ed Sandford Passes Away
Former Boston Bruins captain Ed Sandford has passed away at the age of 95, the team has announced.
Sandford was a veteran of 503 NHL games, gathered across nine different seasons. He made his NHL debut in 1947-48, at the age of 19, appearing in 59 games and scoring 25 points. He built on those numbers for his sophomore season, scoring 16 goals and 36 points in 56 games – good for fifth on the team in scoring. Sandford’s career year came during the 1953-54 season, when he scored 16 goals and 47 points in 70 games, setting a career-high in games played, assists, and points and tying his career-high in goals. Sandford also served as the Bruins captain in 1954-55. The season would serve as his last with Boston, as Sandford was a piece of the trade sending Terry Sawchuk to the Bruins. The full package saw Sawchuk, Marcel Bonin, Lorne Davis, and Vic Stasiuk move to the Bruins in exchange for Gilles Boisvert, Real Chevrefils, Norm Corcoran, Warren Godfrey, and Sandford.
Sandford’s career ended less than one season after this trade. He played in a mere five games with Detroit, getting traded to the Chicago Blackhawks only four months after moving to Detroit. He played in 56 games with the Hawks, recording 12 goals and 21 points. Sawchuk would go on to play 102 games with the Bruins before returning to the Red Wings for seven more seasons. The Hall-of-Fame goaltender set a 40-43-19 record in Boston, recording a .917 save percentage.
Sandford served as an off-ice official following his playing career, working as a goal judge, official scorer, and supervisor of off-ice officials. He was named to the Bruins “Historic 100”, as one of the team’s most legendary players of all-time, earlier this fall. PHR sends our condolences to his family, friends, and loved ones.
NHL Rescinds Automatic Instigator Suspension For Brady Tkachuk
The Ottawa Senators have avoided punishment for a late-game instigator penalty assessed to forward Brady Tkachuk, as the league has announced that Tkachuk won’t face a suspension for a late-game fight with Buffalo’s Alex Tuch. Head coach D.J. Smith also won’t be fined. Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia shared that suspensions are automatically applied to instigator penalties in an effort to curb late-game brawls, which the Senators avoided despite Tkachuk’s penalty. Tkachuk appealed the suspension, which was lifted.
This is refreshing news for Senators fans worried that their top forward may have gotten himself into disciplinary trouble. Tkachuk currently leads the Senators in goal scoring, with four through his first six games of the season. He’s added two assists to this total, getting him up to a point-per-game scoring pace. This keeps him up with the pace he established last season, netting 35 goals and 83 points while appearing in all 82 games of the season. Tkachuk also totaled 126 penalty minutes last year, a tally that ranked third in the entire league – three minutes ahead of his brother Matthew, who ranked fourth.
Ottawa is staggering a bit after a hot start to the year, losing each of their last two games. This brings them to an even 3-3-0 record, with a +4 advantage in goal differential. It’s a fine enough start for a team that faced a lot of questions entering the year. Newcomer Vladimir Tarasenko has been the team’s biggest surprise through the early going, currently leading the team in scoring with three goals and eight points, through six games. Recent lineup addition Joshua Norris is quickly catching up to Tarasenko’s scoring title, though, with three goals and four points through the four games he’s appeared in since returning from shoulder injury. It’s been a strong offensive start for Ottawa, who will look to maintain that now that Tkachuk has avoided a suspension.
Canadiens’ David Savard Out Six To Eight Weeks
The Montreal Canadiens have announced that defenseman David Savard will miss the next six to eight weeks with a fractured hand. Savard suffered the injury attempting to block a Tage Thompson slapshot in Montreal’s Monday night win against the Buffalo Sabres. The Canadiens have used an emergency recall on Gustav Lindstrom in light of Savard’s injury.
This is a major blow for Montreal, who has faced a significant injury in three of their first five games of the season. Savard becomes the fifth Hab to be sidelined, joining Kirby Dach, Christian Dvorak, Chris Wideman, and Kaiden Guhle. These injuries have forced Montreal to take on a much different look than what they entered the season with, primarily on the blue line, where Justin Barron, Jordan Harris, and Lindstrom have been able to establish roles that weren’t previously there for them. Barron is taking particular advantage of the opportunity, netting two goals in three games through the early season, operating on Montreal’s top pair alongside Mike Matheson.
Savard’s long-term injury is another damper on the season. The 33-year-old has two points through Montreal’s five games this season; now in his third year with the club. Savard is signed through the 2024-25 season to a contract carrying an annual average value of $3.5MM. It’s the second-most expensive contract on Montreal’s blue line. Savard is a 740-game veteran of the NHL, playing his rookie season in 2011-12. Nearly 600 of those games came with the Columbus Blue Jackets, whom Savard spent a decade with, before joining the Tampa Bay Lightning for 14 games and a Stanley Cup run and then finding his way to Montreal. With Savard out of the lineup, the average age of Montreal’s defense drops to 23.9.
Snapshots: Vlasic, Ristolainen, Buchnevich
Veteran defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic is slated to be a healthy scratch for San Jose’s game against the Florida Panthers. It’s his first scratching since January 4, 2022 – when Vlasic was held out of a matchup against the Detroit Red Wings. He returned to the lineup in the team’s next game and appeared in 48 more games throughout the 2021-22 season.
San Jose dressed seven defenders in their most recent game and Vlasic proved the odd-man-out, receiving a team-low six minutes of ice time. The matchup was another trip in a tumbling year for the 36-year-old defenseman, who has lost games to injury and now a scratching this season. Vlasic is signed to an annual cap hit of $7MM through the 2025-26 season, with a modified-no trade clause in each of his final three seasons and a signing bonus in the final two. It’s a lofty contract for a player that will now find himself in a press box. Vlasic is a veteran of 1243 NHL games – all of which were spent with the Sharks franchise. He was a pivotal piece of the team’s hefty roster through the 2010s but may be looking back on his glory days at this point in his career. How the veteran responds to the healthy scratching will be worth following for Sharks fans hoping Vlasic can find ways to make an impact.
Other notes around the league:
- Rasmus Ristolainen has experienced a setback in his recovery from an undisclosed injury, pushing his return to action back. No updated timetable for a return has been provided. Ristolainen was hoped to be the fill-in for Marc Staal, who was designated to injured reserve with an upper-body injury. With those hopes now delayed, it looks like Philadelphia will need to rely on U23 defensemen Emil Andrae and Yegor Zamula. The duo have each played in three games this year, with Andrae currently without a point and Zamula tallying one goal and two assists.
- Pavel Buchnevich has been announced as a game-time decision for the St. Louis Blues. The winger sustained an upper-body injury on October 12th and has been sidelined ever since. The veteran was seen interchanging practice reps with Jake Neighbours, operating on a line with Brayden Schenn and Kasperi Kapanen. Brandon Saad has joined the line of Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou.
Devils Place Nosek On Injured Reserve, Recall Cal Foote
The New Jersey Devils have placed forward Tomas Nosek on injured reserve with a lower-body injury. Nosek has been out of action since October 13th and has only appeared in two games on the year, with a stat line limited to one shot and one hit. The Devils have also recalled defenseman Callan Foote.
Nosek signed a one-year, $1.0MM contract with New Jersey this summer. The Devils become the fourth NHL team that the 31-year-old Nosek has played for throughout his nine-year NHL career. He’s tallied an even 400 career games through those nine years, recording 101 points and 146 penalty minutes. Nosek has never been much of a scorer, with his career-high sitting at a mere 18 points – a mark he’s hit twice, including in 66 games with the Boston Bruins last season. But despite the low scoring, Nosek has become a consistent feature of NHL lineups, not playing an AHL game since the 2016-17 season. In fact, his last assignment to the AHL came in April of 2017, only two months before he would be selected in the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft and join the Vegas Golden Knights. It’s been a fruitful career for the undrafted Nosek, who was signed to an entry-level contract after the 2013-14 season, after tallying 44 points in 52 games for Pardubice of the Czechia Extraliga.
Cal Foote receives a call-up in the wake of Nosek’s IR assignment, giving him a chance to make his debut with the Devils. Foote started the season with the Utica Comets of the AHL, where he’s recorded two points in three games. Foote joined New Jersey this summer, signing a one-year, $850K contract with what’s become his third NHL club. He previously appeared with the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Nashville Predators, serving as a focal piece of the Tanner Jeannot trade. Foote has played in 141 career NHL games, recording 19 points.
Injury Notes: Forbort, McDavid, Kostin, Zub
Boston Bruins defenseman Derek Forbort missed Sunday’s game with an undisclosed injury and has been announced as day-to-day. Forbort has appeared in four games so far this season, recording two points and a +3. Fourth-year pro, Ian Mitchell, slotted into the NHL lineup in Forbort’s absence, recording one assist and two penalties in 10 minutes of ice time. Mitchell slotted in for an injured Kevin Shattenkirk on Saturday – earning his first two games of the season over the weekend.
Other injury notes from around the league:
- Connor McDavid has been announced as out for one-to-two weeks with an upper-body injury. This comes at terrible timing, with Edmonton playing in the 2023 Heritage Classic on October 29th. In the latest episode of the 32 Thoughts podcast, Elliotte Friedman was pessimistic that McDavid would play in the matchup, given the uncertainty of outdoor playing conditions. Friedman added that McDavid not appearing in the overtime period of Saturday night’s game is a sign of how serious the injury is being taken. There are few players in the league who impact a lineup more than McDavid, and there’s no doubt the league hoped he would play in the upcoming outdoor game, so all eyes will turn toward how this injury progresses.
- Detroit Red Wings forward Klim Kostin also missed Sunday’s game with an undisclosed injury and is considered day-to-day. He’s played in four games this season, failing to record a point and tallying seven penalty minutes. Jonatan Berggren slotted into Kostin’s lineup spot, only recording one shot on the stat line in 13-and-a-half minutes of ice time. Kostin is on a newly signed, two-year contract that carries an annual average value of $2.0MM.
- Artem Zub is expected to be out for the Ottawa Senators’ next game. In response, Ottawa has recalled Jacob Bernard-Docker from the AHL. Zub has played in four games this season and recorded three points, a mark that ranks Zub in the top three of Senators’ defender scoring. Bernard-Docker has played a sole game for Ottawa this year; only his 33rd NHL game despite being around the league since 2020-21. Bernard-Docker is expected to slot into the NHL lineup again with Zub out, although the Senators are practicing with seven defenders.