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Metro Notes: Panarin, Rust, Shabanov

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New York Rangers star forward Artemi Panarin told the media today that he’s feeling good and is expecting to be able to play Wednesday when New York begins the regular season (as per Peter Baugh of The Athletic). Panarin returned to Rangers practice today for the first time since he left a preseason game almost a week ago with a lower-body injury. It was the second time he’d exited a preseason game with an ailment; however, it appears that he is optimistic he can play when the Rangers take on Pittsburgh in two nights.

Panarin took his usual spot on a line with Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafreniere and appeared set to open the season, however, Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette was a bit more conservative with his comments after practice saying that the Rangers were taking things slow with Panarin and they would see how he feels over the next two days.

In other Metropolitan Division notes:

  • The Pittsburgh Penguins have placed forward Bryan Rust on IR, retroactively to last Sunday (as per Michelle Crechiolo of Pens Inside Scoop). Rust will be able to come off IR at any time and could play in the Penguins opener on Wednesday night as Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas called him day-to-day. Dubas admitted that the Penguins are being cautious with Rust and are trying to avoid his ailment becoming a long-term complication. Rust has had trouble staying healthy throughout his career and has never played a full 82-game season. Last year, he missed time and dressed in just 62 games but was very effective posting 28 goals and 28 assists.
  • The New York Islanders are reportedly among four NHL teams that have already expressed an interest in KHL forward Maxim Shabanov (as per Ethan Sears of The New York Post). Shabanov is off to a good start in the KHL this season with 14 points in his first 12 games and is coming off a season in which he posted 25 goals and 25 assists in 64 games with Traktor Chelyabinsk. Shabanov is expected to decide at the end of the KHL season as to whether he will sign in the NHL or not and many expect that his list of suitors will grow into the double digits by that time. The Islanders are fresh off signing another young Russian in Maxim Tsyplakov who should receive playing ample time in the Islanders’ top-six forward group this season.

Evening Notes: Watson, Doughty, Kaliyev

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Max Bultman of The Athletic tweeted that the recent moves by the Detroit Red Wings point to the team signing forward Austin Watson to a contract. The 32-year-old is on a PTO for the second straight season and is hoping to grab an NHL job out of training camp for the second year in a row.

Watson turned last year’s PTO into a one-year deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning and could do so again this year, especially after he endeared himself to the team by sticking up for his teammate in Friday’s affair against the Ottawa Senators. Watson‘s presence would give the Red Wings a 13th forward and provide the team with a bit of toughness, something that they didn’t have a ton of last season.

PuckPedia has reported that Watson will likely sign a two-way contract with the Red Wings.

In other evening notes:

  • The Los Angeles Kings have announced that defenseman Drew Doughty will be placed on injured reserve. The news is not surprising given that Doughty just had surgery last week and was ruled out month to month. The 34-year-old suffered the injury back on September 25th after a collision with former teammate Tanner Pearson. Doughty’s absence will certainly complicate the Kings’ first month of the season as Doughty remains among the league leaders in ice time and averaged nearly 26 minutes a game last season.
  • The Los Angeles Kings announced that forward Arthur Kaliyev has been placed on the injured reserve. Much like with Doughty, Kaliyav’s move to the IR was strictly a formality as the 23-year-old suffered a fractured clavicle in a training camp scrimmage a few weeks ago. Kaliyev is currently out indefinitely and there is no timetable for a potential return. The former second-round pick had seven goals and eight assists in 51 games last season and suffered a steep drop in his offensive production which ultimately led to him settling for a one-year deal for $825K just a few days before the start of training camp.

Pacific Notes: Ryan, Dermott, Garland

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Edmonton Oilers forward Derek Ryan took part in the team’s practice today as a full participant (as per Oilers reporter Tony Brar). Ryan was only on the ice for the latter stage of the team’s morning skate on Friday and didn’t play in their preseason game on Friday evening. He was deemed day-to-day with an undisclosed injury, but it does appear as though the 37-year-old  should be good for opening night.

Ryan will likely see significant time as the Oilers’ fourth-line center and could be flanked by Vasily Podkolzin and Corey Perry. Edmonton waived two forwards earlier today, one of whom (Raphael Lavoie) was in the running Ryan’s role on the fourth line and was a bit of a surprise cut given his young age and potential upside. Ryan is nearing the end of his career and is coming off the least productive offensive season of his nine-year NHL career.

In other Pacific Division notes:

  • Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch spoke to the media today about the status of defenseman Travis Dermott (as per Oilers reporter Tony Brar). The 27-year-old has had a great training camp with Edmonton but remains unsigned and is working under a PTO. The Oilers waived Josh Brown today who they signed earlier this summer, and his demotion could signal that the Oilers are ready to commit to Dermott for this season. Dermott could explore his options elsewhere like Kevin Labanc did when he left his PTO with New Jersey to sign with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
  • Vancouver Canucks forward Conor Garland skated today by himself for the team’s practice (as per Ben Kuzma of Postmedia). Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet told the media that the team is hopeful that Garland will be ready to play on opening night this Wednesday. Garland suffered an undisclosed injury on Friday morning during practice and was considered day-to-day as he sat out Friday night’s preseason game for precautionary reasons. Given the injuries that Vancouver is currently dealing with, it’s easy to see why the team was cautious with Garland.

Canucks Sign Nils Höglander To Three-Year Contract Extension

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The Vancouver Canucks have signed forward Nils Höglander to a three-year contract extension worth a total of $9MM (twitter link). The new deal will begin in the 2025-26 season and carry an average annual value of $3MM. Höglander is entering the final season of a two-year, $2.2MM contract and will almost triple his cap hit with his new deal.

The 23-year-old set career highs last season in games played (80), goals (24) and points (36) and shot a whopping 20% with a +23 plus/minus rating. He then made his NHL playoff debut, dressing in 11 games and posting a goal and an assist.

This year the Canucks were very happy with the way Höglander came into training camp and elected to sign him to an extension rather than waiting until the end of the season. Whether the extension will be a bargain will depend on which version of Höglander they get going forward. In 2022-23, the former second-round pick struggled, dressing in just 25 games and posting just three goals and six assists. His shooting percentage that season was just 10.3%.

The native of Bockträsk, Sweden is entering his fifth NHL season and has dressed in 221 games with Vancouver, posting 50 goals and 40 assists and has become somewhat of an analytics darling. Last season, Höglander had terrific possession numbers posting a CF% of 53.1% at even strength.

At this early stage of his career, Höglander could just be scratching the surface and may end up being a bargain for Vancouver. On the other hand, Höglander is unlikely to duplicate his shooting percentage from last season, which could lead to a drop in goal scoring. The good news for Vancouver is that Höglander does enough good things without the puck so even if his goal-scoring drops off he should remain good value on his new contract.

Evening Notes: Yakemchuk, Lizotte, Ponomarev

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Ottawa Senators 2024  first-round pick (seventh overall) Carter Yakemchuk is making a bid to make the team this season (as per Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia). The Fort McMurray, Alberta native was expected to be shuttled back to the Calgary Hitmen of the WHL but has made things interesting with his terrific play in the preseason, leading the Senators with five points.

The 19-year-old has shown good offensive instincts and could earn himself a nine-game NHL audition if his strong play continues. The one issue he might face is that his defensive game needs work, and the Senators have been a team that has struggled defensively in recent seasons which might give management, and the coaching staff pause as they try to assemble the best possible lineup for opening night.

In other evening notes:

  • Rob Rossi of The Athletic is reporting that Pittsburgh Penguins forward Blake Lizotte has a concussion and will be sidelined indefinitely. Lizotte took a puck to the face in a game on Sunday and may miss the Penguins season opener next Wednesday against the New York Rangers. Lizotte signed a two-year $3.7MM deal with the Penguins on July 1st and remains likely to start the season as the Penguins fourth line center. Lizotte had seven goals and eight assists in 62 games last season with the Kings but is just a year removed from posting 34 points in 81 games.
  • Rossi is also reporting that Penguins forward Vasily Ponomarev will be out of the lineup for the next few days with an upper-body injury. The 22-year-old likely won’t play tomorrow night against the Blue Jackets and might miss Friday’s game as well. Ponomarev has been good in the preseason but remains a long shot to make the NHL roster. His injury likely squashes his opportunity to make the opening night roster, but it shouldn’t hinder him from being called up later in the regular season. The former second-round pick was acquired by the Penguins back in March as part of the package Pittsburgh received from the Hurricanes for Jake Guentzel.

Wild Intend To Outbid Teams On Kirill Kaprizov

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Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold spoke this week about the future of star forward Kirill Kaprizov saying that the Wild will offer more money and term than any other team may offer in free agency when the former Calder Trophy winner is eligible for an extension next summer (as per Michael Russo of The Athletic). Kaprizov has registered three straight 40-goal seasons and will certainly hit the jackpot whenever he does put pen to paper on his next deal. Whether that is with Minnesota or not remains to be seen, but according to Leipold, that is certainly the Wild’s intention.

Leipold is aware that Kaprizov’s focus is on winning, and while the Wild have been a perennial playoff contender for the past decade (last year aside), the team hasn’t had much playoff success to speak of. Minnesota hasn’t made it out of the first round of the playoffs since 2014-15 and will have their work cut out for them if they want to prove to their 27-year-old star that they are serious about winning.

The Wild do have an opening though, and it begins next summer when the pain of the Ryan Suter and Zach Parise buyout begins to dwindle. This season the Wild are dealing with $14.7MM in dead money on their salary cap, but next year that dead money drops to just $1.7MM from 2025-29. That reduction opens the door for Minnesota to have more than $20MM in cap space to make moves to improve their team, and given the list of potential free agents next summer the Wild could be positioned to make a splash. Whether or not that will entice Kaprizov to sign long-term remains to be seen, but the Wild appear set to make the best possible push that they can with Leipold acknowledging that the team might have to give out large signing bonuses, something they’ve been hesitant to do in recent years.

The other variable that will work in Minnesota’s favor is that they can offer an eighth year on a long-term contract and will be the only team positioned to do so as other teams will only have the option to offer seven-year contracts in unrestricted free agency.

Evening Notes: Salary Cap, CBA, Suter

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TSN’s Pierre LeBrun tweeted that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told the media that the early ballpark projections for the salary cap next season have pegged the number at $92.5MM. The $4.5MM increase would be sizable in comparison to previous summers but Bettman cautioned that the number was very preliminary.

The NHL salary cap for this season is set at $88MM and with hockey-related revenues rising once again, it could lead to a significant salary cap increase when the NHL and NHLPA renegotiate the next collective bargaining agreement. Until that time the salary cap will likely keep climbing by a few million dollars each year, which should help some of the teams who have struggled with salary cap issues in recent years.

In other evening notes:

  • Bettman spoke about those upcoming collective bargaining agreement talks telling the media that the NHL plans to begin those conversations with the NHLPA in the new year (as per Pierre LeBrun of TSN). One of the items on the docket will be reducing the number of pre-season games to four and potentially adding two regular-season games to the schedule (as per LeBrun). The news isn’t overly surprising given the recent run of injuries during the pre-season, and the fact that fans appear to be largely disinterested in the preseason games this week.
  • Vancouver Canucks forward Pius Suter was injured in last night’s preseason game and is being evaluated by the team’s medical staff (as per Canucks play-by-play voice Brendan Batchelor). Suter was banged up in a scrum with Edmonton Oilers forward Corey Perry after Perry dropped his gloves following a hit on teammate Connor McDavid. Suter tried to avoid the confrontation, which didn’t look all that physical but caused some discomfort for the 28-year-old. Suter is entering the final season of a two-year $3.2MM contract that he signed last summer and is expected to center the Canucks fourth line this season.

Metro Notes: Panarin, Karlsson, Vilen

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The New York Rangers have announced that forward Artemi Panarin will not return to their preseason game tonight against the Devils due to a lower-body injury. Panarin suffered a similar fate last week in the Rangers second preseason game against the Islanders when he also left due to a lower-body injury. Panarin returned after missing a practice day and told the media he had left that game to err on the side of caution.

The extent of Panarin’s injury remains in question as the Rangers’ tweets have been vague thus far. Given the fact that it is just preseason, the Rangers could be exercising an abundance of caution with their superstar. Panarin has been relatively durable since joining New York, missing just seven games in the past three seasons. The 32-year-old finished fourth in NHL scoring last season with 49 goals and 71 assists in 82 games.

In other Metropolitan Division notes:

  • Rob Rossi of The Athletic reports that Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson took a positive step today and skated for the first time in almost a week. Karlsson has missed all of Penguins training camp after suffering an apparent upper-body injury and took time away from the ice which created a murky picture around his injury. Today, the mood seemed more optimistic after Karlsson’s solo skate, and it seems possible that Karlsson could get back into the Penguins lineup before they start the regular season on October 9th against the Rangers.
  • New Jersey Devils defenseman Topias Vilén suffered an upper-body injury last night in a preseason game against the New York Rangers and will miss the next 3-4 weeks (as per New Jersey Devils reporter Catherine Bogart). The 21-year-old joins a growing list of Devils defensemen who are dealing with injuries alongside Luke Hughes, Brett Pesce, and Santeri Hatakka. The Finnish defender was unlikely to start the season in the NHL, but with the injury, he will start the AHL season a few weeks late.

Pacific Notes: Nurse, Jarventie, Lehner

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Edmonton Oilers reporter Tony Brar tweeted that Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse will most likely play tomorrow. Nurse has missed Edmonton’s first six preseason games to rest an undisclosed injury. Nurse might have missed some games, but he has been on the ice skating during his absence as he can ill afford to start slowly this year after a difficult 2023-24 season.

The Oilers are firmly in their Stanley Cup window and need everything they can get from the 29-year-old especially when he is counting $9.25MM against the salary cap. Nurse has historically been a solid two-way defenseman for Edmonton but struggled considerably last year, especially in the playoffs where his even-strength play fell off a cliff.

In other Pacific Division notes:

  • Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic tweeted that Oilers forward Roby Jarventie will be out for a few days beyond the season-opening rosters being finalized and then will go to the AHL. The 22-year-old has been dealing with a knee injury that has kept him out of training camp and will be looking to build on a successful albeit brief AHL run last season with the Senators. Jarventie had nine goals and 11 assists in 22 AHL games last season with the Belleville Senators and a single assist in seven NHL games. Edmonton acquired Jarventie (along with a fourth-round pick) in a trade that sent Xavier Bourgault and Jake Chiasson to Ottawa.
  • ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski tweeted that NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly says there will be more information about Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Robin Lehner later this week. Lehner was deemed unfit to play just two weeks ago and didn’t report for training camp. At the time, Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon said that “”There are unique circumstances surrounding this situation that the NHL, the NHLPA and the club are currently working through. Collectively, we are assessing our next steps and when we have more to say, we will.” One would have to assume that the news later this week will be a follow-up to McCrimmon’s comments from September 19th.

Morning Notes: Kadri, Kuznetsov, Hughes

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Calgary Flames Forward Nazem Kadri left yesterday’s practice with an apparent knee injury (as per Salim Nadim Valji of TSN). Kadri suffered the injury after a collision with teammate Blake Coleman and went to the locker room right away. No word yet on the severity of the injury to the 33-year-old but Kadri and Coleman did collide knee on knee. Flames head coach Ryan Huska commented after practice that the team got off lucky, so the news sounds encouraging.

Kadri is expected to be one of the Flames’ on-ice leaders this year as the team has entered a rebuild. He was one of Calgary’s most consistent contributors last season posting 29 goals and 46 assists in 82 games. The Flames reportedly listened to offers on Kadri this past summer but opted to keep the veteran with the Flames.

In other morning notes:

  • Former Washington Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov was reportedly injured and will miss the next two months (KHL twitter link). Kuznetsov has dressed in nine KHL games this season for SKA St. Petersburg and posted a goal and four assists. Specific details about his injury are murky but the ailment is being called a serious one. Kuznetsov has been playing on the third line this year after mutually terminating the final year of his NHL contract with the Carolina Hurricanes.
  • Jack Hughes was a scratch last night for the New Jersey Devils after he was originally slated to play in their preseason game (as per James Nichols of NJ Hockey Now). Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe clarified the reason for the scratch post-game saying that Hughes experienced a Charley horse in the previous game, and the team opted to hold him out of the game before their trip to Prague. Hughes is expected to play when the team arrives overseas and did work yesterday with the second training camp group before getting the evening off to rest.

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