Senators Activate Lars Eller, Move Linus Ullmark To Non-Roster List
The Senators announced they’ve activated center Lars Eller from injured reserve. To open a spot, they moved goaltender Linus Ullmark to the non-roster list. He’s on an indefinite leave of absence from the club that began on Dec. 28.
Eller’s return tonight against his former team, the Avalanche, comes nearly a month after he sustained a foot injury on Dec. 11 against the Blue Jackets. He’s now missed 14 of Ottawa’s last 16 games due to that and a separate undisclosed injury.
Signed to a one-year, $1.25MM deal in free agency, the 36-year-old has been a serviceable fourth-line piece. No longer expected to churn out the 30-40 points he was good for in his prime, he’s only gotten on the scoresheet six times in 28 games (two goals, four assists). However, he’s been one of the league’s top faceoff men at a 60.5% win rate and has been up to the task as a shutdown specialist at 5-on-5, ranking fourth on the team in GA/60 at 2.45.
For now, his return pushes rookie Stephen Halliday to the press box. It’s unclear how long that arrangement will last. The 23-year-old is still looking for his first NHL goal but has already demonstrated good playmaking skills in limited minutes, notching six assists in 18 games despite averaging just 8:12 of ice time per game. That’s a 27-point pace over a full season, and he’s also averaging a shot on goal per game.
There’s not really a top-nine spot up for grabs for Halliday to push for, though, and Ottawa’s veteran-laden fourth line has had success defensively. If Halliday isn’t going to be a regular, it might behoove the Sens to take advantage of the 6’4″ pivot’s waiver-exempt status while they still can and get him more development time in Belleville.
While the non-roster designation doesn’t stop Ullmark from counting against the cap, it does mean he’s no longer taking up one of the Sens’ 23 available roster spot while he’s on his leave of absence. There’s still no indication as to when Ottawa’s starter might return. In what’s now been six straight starts for backup Leevi Merilainen, he’s posted a .860 SV% with a 2-4-0 record.
Penguins Activate Evgeni Malkin
The Penguins announced they’ve activated Evgeni Malkin from injured reserve. They reassigned winger Ville Koivunen earlier in the day to open a roster spot, so no corresponding move is required.
Malkin will be in the lineup against the Devils tonight for the first time in 15 games. He’s been practicing for about a week as he works his way back from a lingering upper-body injury that he said had been plaguing him throughout the season, but got aggravated to the point where he needed to sit out.
Before exiting the lineup, the future Hall-of-Famer had arguably been having one of his most impressive seasons to date. Now 39 years old, he’s on pace to breach the point-per-game mark for the first time in three years. His eight goals and 21 assists are good for 29 points in 26 games, second on the Pens at 1.12 points per game.
The Penguins, still in the playoff hunt, didn’t shoulder the absence of a franchise icon well. The first game of his absence coincided with the beginning of an eight-game winless streak. They’ve won five out of six since to get back on track, but went 6-5-4 overall in his absence. They’re now 20-12-9, one point up on the streaking Sabres for the second wild-card spot.
Malkin will have some new linemates tonight in rookie Benjamin Kindel and countryman Yegor Chinakhov, recently acquired from the Blue Jackets, per Michelle Crechiolo of NHL.com. His usual wingers, Justin Brazeau and Anthony Mantha, drop to flank Thomas Novak on Pittsburgh’s third line. They’re likely looking to keep up the better underlying numbers that the duo posted with Novak in Malkin’s absence – they weren’t as productive but were more responsible defensively while still being good for a few scoring bursts.
Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.
Devils Activate Simon Nemec From Injured Reserve
The Devils announced they’ve activated defenseman Simon Nemec from injured reserve. He will be in the lineup for tonight’s game against the Penguins. They’ve had an open roster spot for several days, so no corresponding move is required.
Nemec will take to the ice for the first time since sustaining a lower-body injury during a practice on Dec. 12. It’s the first NHL-level injury for Nemec, who’s had a rather spotless health record since being taken second overall in the 2022 draft.
In 12 games without Nemec, the Devils’ situation has gone from bad to worse. They have a 5-6-1 record in their last 12 while only scoring 1.8 goals per game. Nemec, one of their best puck-movers on the blue line, should help get their offense going. The 21-year-old is enjoying a long-awaited breakout campaign, leading New Jersey defenders in points per game (0.58) by posting seven goals and 11 assists for 18 points in 31 appearances. His +4 rating also leads Devils rearguards, although his middling possession numbers point to that figure being unfairly inflated.
While the team continues to grapple with Johnathan Kovacevic‘s knee injury that’s kept him out of action to date, Nemec’s return gives New Jersey its healthiest look on defense it’s had this season. He’s done a lot of work with Dougie Hamilton on the Devils’ second power-play unit, where he’ll slot back in tonight while being flanked by Brenden Dillon in third-pairing duties at even strength, per Sam Kasan of NHL.com.
Rangers Activate J.T. Miller From Injured Reserve
The Rangers have activated forward J.T. Miller from injured reserve ahead of tonight’s clash with the Sabres, Mollie Walker of the New York Post relays. They have an open roster spot, so there’s no need for a corresponding transaction.
Miller hasn’t played since Dec. 20 due to an upper-body injury, keeping him out of a seven-game stretch that included the Winter Classic. Outside of the resounding outdoor victory, the Blueshirts haven’t fared very well without their captain, going 2-3-2 to fall to a 20-18-6 record on the year that has them third-last in the Eastern Conference.
After missing the playoffs last season, the Rangers’ possession game has improved by several degrees under head coach Mike Sullivan, but has been plagued by a lack of finishing ability. Perhaps no player better encapsulates those struggles than Miller, who’s having his worst offensive showing in seven years. The Rangers gave up a first-round pick and young center Filip Chytil to net Miller from the Canucks last year and named him captain at the beginning of this season, but he’s responded with a conservative 10 goals and 22 points in 35 games.
The 32-year-old Miller is seventh on the team in scoring outright and fifth in points per game despite averaging nearly 21 minutes of ice time. He has provided value in other areas, leading the team with a 59.9 faceoff win percentage and ranking fourth with 74 hits, but his -11 rating is second-worst on the team behind William Cuylle.
For a team missing its starting goalie and top defenseman, as well as multiple depth forwards, they’ll take any help they can get, though. Miller will skate as the Rangers’ second-line left winger with Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafrenière in his return, according to Vince Z. Mercogliano of The Athletic.
Sharks Acquire Nolan Allan, Laurent Brossoit
The Sharks have acquired defenseman Nolan Allan, goaltender Laurent Brossoit, and a 2028 seventh-round pick from the Blackhawks in exchange for defenseman Jake Furlong, a 2028 fourth-round pick, and the contract of retired defenseman Ryan Ellis, both teams announced.
While Brossoit is the highest-priced piece of San Jose’s pickups, Allan’s name is of most intrigue. A first-round selection by Chicago out of WHL Prince Albert in 2021, he’s now in his third professional season. The 22-year-old has been in AHL Rockford for the entirety of 2025-26 but gained a fair bit of NHL experience last season, frequently forming a shutdown pairing with veteran T.J. Brodie and recording eight points and a -13 rating in 43 games.
Nonetheless, Allan’s development hasn’t panned out as the Blackhawks hoped. Drafted as a shutdown D-man, his game hasn’t shown much development since debuting in the AHL in 2023. He ends his time in Rockford with 29 points and an even rating in 109 games, including six points and a -2 rating in 29 appearances this year.
Although it’s peculiar to see Chicago leverage Allan’s name in a move that’s otherwise a swap of negative-value contracts, it’s not surprising to see them move on. He was no longer even considered a top-15 prospect in their pool by McKeen’s Hockey entering the season and had little to no pathway to an NHL role with Alex Vlasic, Wyatt Kaiser, Kevin Korchinski, and Ethan Del Mastro all on the Hawks’ roster or system as more certain long-term options on the left side of their defense.
With the blue line being a bit of a weaker spot in the Sharks’ similarly well-stocked prospect pool, it makes sense they’d take up an interest in a shutdown rearguard with first-round pedigree. While Sam Dickinson is ticketed as their long-term left-side anchor, they don’t have very much behind him in terms of younger pieces aside from 2023 fourth-rounder Luca Cagnoni, who profiles as a high-end power play quarterback but faces questions of how well his defensive game will develop at even strength. Allan will thus immediately take on a significant role with the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda as he works to climb back to the NHL.
As for Brossoit, the 32-year-old gets the change of scenery he and the Blackhawks were looking for after he finally returned to play from a year-plus absence last month. One of the best pure backups in the league earlier in the decade, he signed a two-year, $6.6MM contract with Chicago in free agency in 2024 but sustained an offseason meniscus injury that effectively derailed his career.
After multiple knee surgeries and a hip procedure last summer, Brossoit finally returned to practice with the Hawks in November and started in Rockford on a conditioning stint in December. With no real spot available for him on the NHL or AHL depth chart after such a long absence, he cleared waivers without incident, and Chicago has been looking for a trade partner ever since.
Brossoit has done reasonably well in his return to play, logging a .901 SV% and 3.38 GAA and a 3-3-0 record in six games with Rockford. For a Sharks team that faced questions about its goaltending depth entering the season, he’s a legitimately impactful pickup. He won’t be supplanting Yaroslav Askarov or Alex Nedeljkovic on the NHL roster anytime soon, but he’s a significant upgrade as their third-stringer and AHL starter over Jakub Skarek, who owns a .894 SV% in 16 appearances for the Barracuda.
Chicago’s return centers around Ellis. The 35-year-old has now been traded twice since effectively hanging up his skates following a pelvic tear in 2021 that ended his career just four games into his tenure with the Flyers. The longtime Predators top-four piece remained on Philadelphia’s books until the beginning of this season, when the Sharks picked up his contract in the trade that sent Carl Grundström to Philadelphia in order to help them stay above the cap floor.
Ellis’ deal, which carries a cap hit of $6.25MM, runs through next season. Chicago pulled a similar move at last year’s trade deadline to help them stay above the cap floor, acquiring Shea Weber‘s deal from Utah. Weber’s contract expires next summer, though, so adding Ellis will give them floor protection heading into next season as they continue to hand the keys to their roster over to their next wave of young prospects on cheap entry-level deals.
As well as a three-round pick upgrade in the 2028 draft, the Hawks land some AHL depth in Furlong to help offset the loss of Allan and to keep the Sharks from exceeding the 50-contract limit, which they’re currently at. A fifth-rounder in 2022, Furlong was a dynamic two-way rearguard in juniors with the QMJHL’s Halifax Mooseheads but hasn’t yet found any success at the pro level. The 21-year-old is in his second AHL season and has been limited to one goal, 10 points, and a -20 rating in 78 games with the Barracuda, including just 12 appearances this year as a frequent healthy scratch.
Image courtesy of Russell LaBounty-Imagn Images.
Kings Recall Cole Guttman, Place Trevor Moore On IR
The Kings announced they’ve recalled forward Cole Guttman from AHL Ontario on an emergency basis. Winger Trevor Moore was moved to injured reserve, retroactive to Dec. 29, in the corresponding move.
If Guttman plays, it would be his first NHL action in nearly two years. A sixth-round pick by the Lightning in 2017, he opted not to sign with them and instead inked an entry-level deal with the Blackhawks after captaining the University of Denver to a national championship in 2022.
Initially, it looked like the 5’9″ pivot would be able to carve out an NHL role. He spent most of his first year in the minors but impressed with 30 points in 39 games as a rookie. He also didn’t look out of place in his time on Chicago’s roster, scoring four goals and six points through his first 14 NHL games.
Guttman has remained a high-end AHL producer in the years since, but a lack of physicality and inconsistent two-way play have kept him from seeing much NHL time. He did get into another 27 games with the Blackhawks in 2023-24, but after recording eight points and a garish -17 rating, he was sent back to the minors, where he remained through last season until becoming a Group VI unrestricted free agent.
The Kings pounced and signed him to a two-year, two-way deal this offseason. His AHL resume was impressive enough to warrant a rather high $475K guarantee – after all, he’d managed 127 points in 148 games with Rockford over the years.
The California native has largely kept up the pace after returning home. The 26-year-old ranks fourth on the Ontario Reign in scoring with 23 points (nine goals, 14 assists) in 31 games.
He joins a Kings forward group that was forced to dress only 11 forwards in yesterday’s overtime loss to the Sharks. Moore, Joel Armia, and Anže Kopitar were all unavailable and are listed as day-to-day entering tomorrow’s matchup with the Jets. Moore has been out the longest, sitting out four games with an illness and an upper-body injury, so he was the logical IR candidate. He can be activated at any time since he’s already missed more than seven days.
Pre-injury, Moore was having a tough year. He’s been money in the bank for at least a 40-point pace since being acquired from the Maple Leafs in 2020, but has just five goals and 13 points in 37 showings in 2025-26. That’s a points per game pace of 0.35, his worst in a full season in Los Angeles.
Wild Place Tyler Pitlick On Waivers
The Wild have placed forward Tyler Pitlick on waivers, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.
Whether he’ll be assigned to AHL Iowa if he clears remains to be seen. The Wild have already waived Pitlick once this season solely with the intention of resetting his waiver-exempt clock rather than removing him from the roster.
Pitlick, 34, now has more than a decade of experience in the NHL. Once a journeyman bottom-six staple, he’d faded into press box/call-up territory in recent years but has found a bit more stability in Minnesota this season. He didn’t see NHL ice at all in 2024-25, spending most of the year on an AHL contract in the Bruins organization, before landing a two-way deal from the Wild last offseason.
The Minneapolis native peaked as a bottom-six player with some penalty-killing ability in the late 2010s, once recording a career-high 14 goals and 27 points with the Stars in 2017-18. Overall, he’s averaged 11 goals and 20 points per 82 games in his NHL career, but has just one goal in 23 games for the Wild this year.
Averaging 7:49 of ice time per game, he’s the Wild’s least-used forward and ranks near the bottom of the team with a 41.2% Corsi share at even strength. He does rank fourth on the club with 58 hits, at least bringing a physical element to Minnesota’s fourth line.
He’ll now be available for 31 other teams to grab, but after already clearing waivers once in-season, he’s a safe bet to remain in the organization. With Minnesota’s forward group at full health, he’s been a healthy scratch in nine straight and appears set for a press-box role for the foreseeable future.
Blue Jackets Place Mason Marchment On IR, Dysin Mayo On Waivers
Jan. 8: Mayo cleared waivers and has been reassigned to Cleveland, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.
Jan. 7: The Blue Jackets announced they’ve placed winger Mason Marchment on injured reserve retroactive to Jan. 4. He sustained an upper-body injury in that day’s game against the Penguins and is considered week-to-week, the team said. They’ve recalled forward Mikael Pyyhtia from AHL Cleveland in a corresponding move. Additionally, defenseman Dysin Mayo has been placed on waivers and will be assigned to Cleveland tomorrow if he clears.
Marchment, 30, was scratched for yesterday’s 5-2 loss to the Sharks due to the injury. He didn’t appear to miss any action against Pittsburgh, so a week-to-week designation without any obvious-to-sight injury comes across as worse than expected. He would be eligible to come off IR as soon as Sunday against the Mammoth, but will seemingly miss several more games than that.
Acquired from the Kraken on Dec. 19, the trade has breathed new life into Marchment’s game. The 6’5″ lefty is tied with Kirill Marchenko for the team lead in goals since the swap with five. That’s one more than he had in 29 games with Seattle to begin the season.
The top-nine spark plug is now up to 20 points in 36 games on the year. That works out to 0.56 per game, his worst pace since 2022-23 with the Stars. Despite that, he’s still shooting a bit above his career average, so he’ll need to focus on continuing to get more pucks on net with Columbus when he returns to avoid a bout of regression.
Marchment had been skating on the Jackets’ top line with Marchenko and Adam Fantilli. Dmitri Voronkov took over those duties against San Jose and was dominant at 5-on-5, with that line controlling shot attempts 13-2.
It’s not anticipated that Pyyhtia will enter the lineup against the Golden Knights tomorrow. Instead, he comes up as Marchment is flexed to IR to give Columbus a healthy extra for the press box. With Marchment, Isac Lundeström, and Miles Wood now off the active roster, the Jackets’ forward depth has been stretched thin.
There are far worse recall options than Pyyhtia, though. The 24-year-old was a fourth-round pick in 2020 and has 66 games of NHL experience, including a career-high 47 appearances last season. After failing to crack the Jackets’ opening night roster this season, he’s put up nearly a point per game with Cleveland while leading the team in scoring (7-15–22 in 23 GP).
Mayo had become expendable after the club’s signing of Egor Zamula yesterday. He had been serving as a press-box defenseman with Erik Gudbranson and Brendan Smith on IR, but with Jake Christiansen set to be supplanted by Zamula in the lineup, Mayo was a redundancy. The 29-year-old righty has one assist in two outings for Columbus this year, as well as seven points and a -2 rating in 19 games for Cleveland.
Kraken Recall Oscar Fisker Molgaard
Fresh off being named to Denmark’s roster for the 2026 Winter Olympics, center Oscar Fisker Molgaard has been recalled by the Kraken, the team announced. They’ve been operating with an open roster spot for quite some time, so no corresponding move is required.
Molgaard, 21 next month, was a second-round pick in 2023. Just two years on from being drafted, he’s already got NHL games under his belt. Seattle recalled Molgaard for a pair of games in November, recording an assist and going 5-for-7 on faceoffs in the process, before being swiftly returned to AHL Coachella Valley when Jared McCann returned from a lower-body injury.
Now, with Jaden Schwartz on injured reserve and Eeli Tolvanen dealing with an illness, Fisker Molgaard will get another crack at entering the lineup. Even if he’s just around for a few games as an extra forward, it’s an indication of how pleased the organization has been with his development. The lanky 6’0″ pivot had a pair of strong seasons in Sweden’s top league with HV71 after being drafted, notching 40 points in 88 games before coming to North America.
In his first season of pro hockey stateside, Molgaard ranks fourth on Coachella Valley in scoring with a 6-12–18 line in 30 games. A good skater with a great shot, he’s been the centerpiece of Denmark’s national junior teams for several years and already has three World Championship appearances with the senior team under his belt, including a great showing in 2025 with seven points in 10 games. He figures to slot into the Danes’ top-six forward group at the Olympics alongside fellow NHLers Oliver Bjorkstrand, Nikolaj Ehlers, Lars Eller, and Jonas Rondbjerg.
Avalanche Recall Ivan Ivan
The Avalanche announced they’ve recalled forward Ivan Ivan from the AHL’s Colorado Eagles. They were operating with an open roster spot after sending Taylor Makar down yesterday, so no corresponding move is required.
Colorado has shown a tendency to frequently rotate depth forward options on the roster when needing to dip into its minor-league depth to address injuries. With Gabriel Landeskog and Joel Kiviranta now sidelined, that hasn’t changed.
Ivan, 23, gets his second recall of the season and will presumably draw into the lineup tonight against the Senators as the fourth-line left wing. Makar had skated in that role alongside Zakhar Bardakov and Parker Kelly in two of the last three games.
The 6’0″, 190-lb Ivan made three appearances for the Avs near the end of November, scoring one assist with a +1 rating while averaging 8:19 of ice time per game. Initially an undrafted free agent signing by the Eagles out of the QMJHL’s Cape Breton Eagles in 2023, he quickly worked his way up toward landing an NHL contract and being a frequently relied-upon call-up option. He made 40 appearances for the Avs as a rookie last year, notching five goals and eight points.
While the Czech native stood out as a rookie with the Eagles in 2023-24, he hasn’t been able to recapture that offensive success in the minors. He went from a 12-19–31 scoring line in 67 games as a first-year pro to churning out just four goals and 20 points in 64 AHL games since the beginning of last year.
Ivan’s always profiled as more of a penalty-killing forward with good playmaking skills, though, so the lack of goal-scoring isn’t entirely unexpected. Nonetheless, for a talent who twice hit a point per game in high-level junior hockey, he’ll be looking for more production as the season rolls on.