Golden Knights’ William Karlsson Out Week-To-Week With Lower-Body Injury
11:31 a.m.: Laczynski has been recalled from AHL Henderson along with winger Brendan Brisson, the team announced. The pair of recalls indicates both Karlsson and Schwindt have been placed on IR. This is the first recall for the 23-year-old Brisson since October, after he went pointless in seven games to begin the year. The 2020 first-rounder has struggled with just four goals and 14 points in 31 AHL games since his demotion.
10:48 a.m.: The Golden Knights announced Thursday that center William Karlsson will be out week-to-week with a lower-body injury.
Karlsson, 32, also missed the first eight regular season games with an undisclosed injury. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet wrote this morning that there’s been a lingering injury bothering Karlsson that could prevent him from suiting up for Sweden in next month’s 4 Nations Face-Off, so it stands to reason the two are related.
One of three players remaining on Vegas’ roster from their inaugural season, Karlsson has operated as the Knights’ third-line center when healthy in 2024-25. With the reduction in role has come a slight decrease in minutes, with his 17:11 ATOI clocking in as his lowest during his Vegas tenure by a slight margin.
Likely due to a combination of his reduction in power-play usage and his nagging injury, this season has been a tough one for Karlsson offensively. He’s scored seven goals and 11 assists for 18 points through 38 games, down sharply from last year’s resurgent 30-goal, 60-point campaign.
Karlsson has remained valuable to Vegas in other ways. He’s winning faceoffs at a career-best 58.9% rate, leading the team. He also grades out as their top defensive forward this season, recording team-best marks at even strength in CF% (54.8) and GA/60 (1.8), the latter of which only leads Knights forwards.
The alternate captain’s absence is a big one for the Golden Knights, who will likely turn to Nicolas Roy to increase his minutes at even strength and on the penalty kill to compensate. Roy’s point production isn’t dissimilar to Karlsson’s this season, but his defensive play is a sizeable downgrade. Vegas allows 3.2 GA/60 at even strength with Roy on the ice, and his Corsi share while shorthanded is the worst among the team’s regular penaltykillers.
Vegas has a full active roster, and they also received news Tuesday that depth forward Cole Schwindt carries a week-to-week designation with a lower-body issue. One of them will presumably land on injured reserve today to allow the Knights to recall a forward for tonight’s game against the Blues. Tanner Laczynski, a natural center with a goal in six appearances for Vegas earlier this season, is the likeliest recall option.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Blackhawks Sign AJ Spellacy To Entry-Level Deal
The Blackhawks announced Thursday they’ve signed forward prospect AJ Spellacy to an entry-level contract. The three-year deal has a $975K cap hit.
Chicago selected Spellacy, 18, with the 72nd overall pick in the 2024 draft. The 6’2″, 195-lb power forward can play right-wing and center and was named to the United States preliminary roster for this year’s World Junior Championship, although he didn’t make the cut.
Spellacy’s offensive numbers in junior play don’t jump off the page, but his pro-ready frame and responsible, physically involved defensive game make him a projectable piece. Now in his third season with the Ontario Hockey League’s Windsor Spitfires, he sits ninth on the club in scoring in 2024-25 with 11 goals and 14 assists for 25 points through 40 appearances.
The Ohio native has 39 goals and 41 assists for 80 points in 154 games with Windsor dating back to his major junior debut in 2022, adding 145 PIMs and a -21 rating. Public opinion of the heavy-hitting forward ranges wildly, with The Athletic’s Corey Pronman not even mentioning him in his 2024 pipeline rankings for the Blackhawks but outlets like Bleacher Nation ranking him among the team’s top 15 prospects as recently as October.
Since Spellacy won’t play in the NHL this season, his entry-level deal will slide to the 2025-26 campaign. If he plays fewer than 10 NHL games next year, it can slide again to 2026-27. The second scenario is likelier, making him first eligible for restricted free agency in 2030. Any signing bonuses he’s awarded in the first two years of the deal will be paid out regardless of a slide, and the cap hit of the deal will be slightly lowered when it goes into effect.
Blue Jackets Unlikely To Trade Pending Free Agents At Deadline
The Blue Jackets have “little interest” in selling off their pending unrestricted free agents for mid-round picks at the trade deadline, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet writes Thursday. A big splash from the surging but still rebuilding club is unlikely, but Columbus won’t be in selling mode amid a tight Eastern Conference wild-card race.
Blue Jackets general manager Don Waddell has recently completed work to retain UFA-to-be Zach Aston-Reese and potential RFA Jake Christiansen on low-cost extensions. Other names, like Justin Danforth, Sean Kuraly, Mathieu Olivier up front, and Dante Fabbro and Jack Johnson on the back end, seem likely to stay in Columbus for the rest of the season regardless of how productive extension talks are.
Of course, the Jackets’ highest-value pending UFA is defenseman Ivan Provorov. The 28-year-old lefty has 20 points through 48 games this season while logging over 23 minutes per night but is believed to be interested in signing an extension to keep him off the open market, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic said last month.
Nonetheless, Provorov ranked third on The Athletic’s latest trade board and 21st on TSN’s. His trade candidacy is likely exempt from Friedman’s report as he’d cost quite a bit more than a mid-round pick to acquire, even as a rental option.
After the Blue Jackets defeated the Maple Leafs 5-1 on Wednesday, they moved into what’s effectively a three-way tie based on points percentage for the two Eastern Conference wild-card spots with the Senators and Canadiens. Columbus has 53 points through 48 games for a .552 points percentage, while the Sens and Habs have 52 points through 47 games for a .553 mark.
As Friedman points out, the Jackets will be buyers in effect with the expected addition of captain Boone Jenner to the active roster in the coming weeks. He’s yet to play in the regular season after sustaining a shoulder injury during training camp that required surgery, but has resumed skating and is looking at a potential return in February/
Jenner, 31, would likely rank among the top 10 targets available at this year’s deadline in terms of roster impact. He’s coming off a 22-goal, 35-point campaign in 58 appearances last season
Wild Activate Kirill Kaprizov, Jared Spurgeon
Jan. 23: The Wild officially activated Kaprizov from LTIR and Spurgeon from IR Thursday morning, per a team announcement. Jiříček was indeed reassigned to AHL Iowa yesterday, clearing the cap space for the former’s reinstatement.
Jan. 22: The Wild look to have superstar winger Kirill Kaprizov and captain Jared Spurgeon back in their lineup Thursday against Utah, Michael Russo of The Athletic reports. Both were full participants in Wednesday’s practice.
Kaprizov, 27, has missed 12 games with a nagging groin injury and has not played in nearly a month. On Dec. 23, the date of his last appearance, he was tied for second in the league in goals (23) and fourth in points (50) through 34 games.
Spurgeon, 35, returns after a slew-foot from Predators winger Zachary L’Heureux caused him a lower-body injury on New Year’s Eve. L’Heureux has since served and returned from a three-game suspension for the play, while Spurgeon missed nine contests, assuming he’s cleared to draw into the lineup tomorrow.
Minnesota entered Wednesday with a pair of roster spots, so taking Spurgeon off standard injured reserve won’t be a problem. However, Kaprizov is on long-term injured reserve, and the Wild lack the cap space to reinstate his $9MM cap hit.
They don’t need to open up a ton of flexibility, though, so they have a few ways of creating the required funds quickly. The simplest and likeliest is sending down defenseman David Jiříček, who projects to exit the lineup with Spurgeon returning anyway, Russo adds. They could also retroactively place defenseman Jonas Brodin on LTIR with his lower-body injury if he’s due to remain out until at least Feb. 1 or place defenseman Travis Dermott on waivers with the intent to send him to AHL Iowa.
Kaprizov looks to skate in his usual top-line role alongside Marco Rossi and Mats Zuccarello, according to Minnesota’s line rushes at today’s skate. Spurgeon will return to his new role as the Wild’s No. 2 right-shot defenseman behind Brock Faber with Declan Chisholm on his left flank as usual top-four option Brodin remains sidelined.
Despite missing an extended period, Kaprizov still has a nine-point cushion ahead of Matt Boldy for the team lead in points. He also leads the club with a +21 rating and 4.5 GF/60 at even strength.
While not the Norris nomination threat he once was, Spurgeon is still a comfortable top-four piece coming off left hip and back surgeries that capped his 2023-24 campaign at 16 appearances. In 37 contests this year, he’s posted four goals and nine assists for 13 points with a plus-three rating, averaging 20:43 per game. That’s still the 35-year-old’s lowest usage since his rookie season with Minnesota 14 years ago, though.
Although it hasn’t translated into a dominant rating, Spurgeon still tracks as the Wild’s best possession-controlling defenseman, at least at even strength. His 52.5 CF% leads Minnesota blue-liners and ranks second on the team behind Marcus Foligno‘s 52.7.
NHL Hoping To Set Cap Ceiling For 2025-26 Before Trade Deadline
There’s optimism around the NHL announcing the upper limit for the 2025-26 season’s salary cap before the March 7 trade deadline, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet writes Thursday.
Doing so would allow teams significantly more advanced planning than they’re used to in several ways. Official numbers for cap changes usually aren’t announced until a few weeks prior to the new league year, meaning general managers would now have months instead of weeks to execute extension negotiations better. There’s also a chance that the league’s boom in hockey-related revenue coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic will allow them to announce preset cap numbers for the 2026-27 and potentially 2027-28 campaigns as well, Friedman wrote.
The current projection for next season’s salary cap laid out by commissioner Gary Bettman last month is $92.4MM, but better revenue projections over the past few weeks have added fuel to the fire of a significantly higher increase. Player agents have predicated an increase to as high as $97MM for 2025-26, Friedman wrote, a $9MM jump from this year’s $88MM ceiling.
Surging revenues are also putting more money into players’ pockets this season. Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reported over the weekend that the league has terminated escrow withholding from players’ paychecks for the remainder of the season starting Jan. 30, with current HRR projections indicating the “amount already withheld will also be returned in full following final season accounting.” Players are also set to receive the full amount of escrow they had withheld from their 2023-24 paychecks plus an additional 1.5 to 2% to maintain the 50-50 revenue split between players and owners.
As for negotiations on the next CBA, set to commence soon to prevent a lockout in the 2026 offseason, Friedman writes, “There’s also reason to be optimistic in CBA negotiations. If the financials are sorted out, what on earth could stop a deal?”
News of a significant cap increase comes ahead of a potentially star-studded 2025 unrestricted free-agent market that, for now, is still set to feature names like Mitch Marner, Mikko Rantanen, and Nikolaj Ehlers.
Jets Interested In Jonathan Toews
The Jets will be among the teams pursuing unrestricted free agent center Jonathan Toews if he attempts to continue his NHL career, general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff told Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic on Tuesday.
Toews, who turns 37 in April, told GQ last month he would give resuming his NHL career “his best shot,” and he hasn’t ultimately come to terms with his career being over. He hasn’t played in over a year and a half, missing the entirety of the 2020-21 season due to a severe flare-up of his Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS) and a good chunk of 2022-23 while dealing with long COVID symptoms exacerbated by CIRS.
Unsigned since the 2023 offseason, the lifelong Blackhawk will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer with three Stanley Cups, a Conn Smythe Trophy, a Selke Trophy, and four All-Star Game appearances on his résumé. He was also named one of the 100 greatest players in league history during its centennial season in 2017-18 and, for the Jets, would fill a growing hole down the middle.
Heading to his longtime Central Division rival would also mean suiting up for his hometown team. The first edition of the Jets were relocated to Phoenix when Toews was 8 years old, but he played youth hockey in Winnipeg until age 15, after which he headed south of the border to continue his development at American prep school Shattuck St. Mary’s before a two-year collegiate career at the University of North Dakota.
“It would be a real welcome conversation to see if there’s a fit both ways,” Cheveldayoff told LeBrun. “I think it would be a great story for his career, too. Not that he needs another story to [add to] his career. But I think he’s proud of his roots and would be an interesting fit.”
Whether Toews can factor into the Jets’ or any team’s picture for the 2024-25 campaign is still a gigantic question mark. LeBrun called it a “remote possibility” in an interview with TSN’s Jay Onrait on Wednesday, adding that Toews’ comments to GQ were more about “ramping up for next season.”
The Jets will still have some holes to fill at center for 2025-26. Adam Lowry and Mark Scheifele remain under contract and aren’t going anywhere, but the other half of their center complement, Rasmus Kupari and Vladislav Namestnikov. Coming off an extended absence with significant health concerns, Toews would likely be a Kupari replacement as Winnipeg’s fourth-line center if the two sides have productive conversations about a contract and fit.
Toews posted a career-worst -31 rating in his final season in Chicago, an understandable metric given his health issues and a paper-thin roster that yielded the league’s worst offense and a bottom-five defense. He still operated at a 50-point pace when healthy and won a career-best 63.1% of his faceoffs in 53 appearances, though, so regardless of other concerns about his overall game, he still likely carries value as a fourth-line faceoff specialist with adept two-way wingers.
Any Toews contract, regardless of if and where he signs, is almost certainly a one-year deal with a league-minimum base salary. Any additional value in the contract would almost certainly be through performance bonuses, which he’s eligible for as a 35+ UFA.
PHR Live Chat Transcript: 1/22/25
Use this link to view the transcript from today’s PHR Live Chat with Josh Erickson.
Sharks Claim Walker Duehr Off Waivers From Flames
Jan. 22: The Sharks plucked Duehr off the wire from the Flames on Wednesday, Friedman reports. He’ll provide a likely temporary bottom-six presence for San Jose with Tyler Toffoli, Nico Sturm and Klim Kostin currently sidelined with injuries. The Sharks don’t have an open roster spot, however, and will need to make a corresponding transaction. Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News reports that move will be placing Sturm, who missed Tuesday’s loss to the Predators with a lower-body injury, on IR.
Jan. 21: The Flames placed winger Walker Duehr on waivers Tuesday, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. He’ll presumably head to AHL Calgary if he clears.
Duehr, 27, hits the wire for the second time this season. After making the opening night roster last season, he failed to do so in 2024-25 and cleared without incident near the end of training camp.
The 6’3″, 205-lb righty responded by notching 11 goals and eight assists for 19 points through 20 AHL games. That earned him a recall back to the Flames in early December as they needed a replacement for Justin Kirkland, who underwent season-ending ACL surgery.
Duehr appeared in 10 consecutive games for the Flames to begin his call-up, which was interrupted on a few occasions by paper transactions to extend his temporary waiver exemption. The number of days he’d spent on the roster no longer mattered once he played his 10th game, though.
Since that run of 10 straight, he’s been scratched four times in the Flames’ last 10. On the whole, the South Dakota native only contributed one assist with a minus-six rating.
Given Duehr’s underwhelming offensive performance, limited ice time and his team-worst -12.2 relative CF% at even strength, today’s demotion is unsurprising. The South Dakota native has nine goals and 10 assists for 19 points in 84 games with Calgary since signing as an undrafted free agent out of Minnesota State in 2021.
A pending unrestricted free agent, the Flames may have an interest in keeping Duehr around on a two-way extension, considering his strong AHL production. However, given his poor NHL showing over the past few weeks, the chances of him replicating a one-way deal like he’s had for the past two seasons are slim.
Duehr’s bottom-six spot looks to go to recent call-up Rory Kerins, who’s earned his keep with four assists through his first four NHL games. Kerins, 22, was added back to the roster today after being sent down over the weekend to bank cap space, Ryan Pike of Flames Nation reports.
Ducks, Sharks Swap Justin Bailey, Pavol Regenda
The Ducks and Sharks exchanged minor-league forwards in a trade Wednesday, per announcements from both clubs. Pavol Regenda is heading north from Anaheim to San Jose, while veteran journeyman winger Justin Bailey is heading from the Bay Area to SoCal.
Bailey, 29, is in his 10th season of professional hockey. A second-round pick by the Sabres in 2013, the hulking 6’4″, 212-lb winger primarily suited up for their AHL affiliate in Rochester but did manage 52 NHL appearances for the club before they traded him to the Flyers in 2019 for winger Taylor Leier.
His tenure in the Philadelphia organization was short-lived, spending the back half of the 2018-19 campaign bouncing between the NHL and AHL before they opted not to issue him a qualifying offer at the end of the season. An unrestricted free agent for the first time, Bailey latched on with the Canucks on a two-way deal, where he’d spend three seasons as a call-up option and taxi squad mainstay during the COVID-19 pandemic.
After making a one-year stop in the Oilers organization in 2022-23 that didn’t result in any NHL time, Bailey landed with the Sharks for 2023-24 – first on an AHL contract, but that was torn up and replaced with a two-way deal a few weeks into the season. He quickly established a spot on a thin San Jose offense, turning himself into a full-time NHLer for the first time, even if just for a few months.
Bailey appeared in a career-high 59 games for the Sharks last year, recording five goals and nine assists for 14 points and a -15 rating. He averaged 11:17 per game and ranked eighth on the team with 76 hits.
Understandably, Bailey opted to ink a two-way extension to keep him in the San Jose organization for 2024-25. Also understandably, after the Sharks added multiple veterans in free agency and saw prospects Macklin Celebrini and William Smith make the jump to the NHL, there was no longer a spot for Bailey on the NHL roster.
The Buffalo native landed on waivers and cleared them in the middle of training camp. But after a lengthy history of top-six production in the minors, Bailey has struggled to the tune of seven goals and seven assists for 14 points through 33 AHL games with a minus-six rating. He’s tracking for his worst season in terms of AHL points per game in his career while playing on a San Jose squad having its best season in six years.
The Sharks evidently wanted a bit of an offensive jumpstart for their farm club, while the Ducks wanted a more veteran presence. They certainly land that for San Diego in Bailey but part ways with Regenda, a similarly-sized power forward who Anaheim signed as an undrafted free agent out of Slovakia in 2022.
The 25-year-old Regenda has a goal and two assists for three points in 19 NHL games with the Ducks, none of which have come in 2024-25. He’s been limited to four goals and 16 points in 36 games with AHL San Diego this season, down from his career-best 34 points in 54 games last season.
Both players will report directly to their new farm clubs without incident. Bailey will be a UFA at the end of the season, while Regenda will be a Group VI UFA since he’s logged three professional seasons without recording 80 NHL games.
Avs’ Valeri Nichushkin Downgraded To Week-To-Week
Avalanche star winger Valeri Nichushkin is now considered week-to-week after sustaining a second setback in his recovery from a lower-body injury, head coach Jared Bednar said on Altitude Sports Radio on Wednesday (via Evan Rawal of the Denver Gazette).
Nichushkin last played on Dec. 31 against the Jets, leaving the game midway through the second period. Bednar said later that week he expected Nichushkin to miss seven to 10 days.
He then told reporters early last week that Nichushkin wouldn’t make it back within that window and still had a ways to go in his recovery after sustaining a setback, but he reversed course a few days ago. The 29-year-old practiced over the weekend but hasn’t been on the ice since, leading to today’s update.
Colorado has only had Nichushkin available for 21 of their 48 games. He missed the first 17 games of the campaign while serving the end of his automatic six-month suspension levied by the NHL when he was placed in Stage 3 of the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program during the Avs’ second-round loss to the Stars.
When available this season, Nichushkin has remained an extremely effective top-six piece. His 11 goals and six assists for 17 points through 21 games equate to 0.81 points per game, down from last season’s career-high 0.98 but still fifth on the team.
The Avalanche have a 14-7-0 record with Nichushkin in the lineup in 2024-25 compared to a 14-12-1 mark without. Nonetheless, his reputation as one of the league’s premier two-way wingers hasn’t held up in his small play sample. His 51.2 CF% at even strength is right in line with the team’s average, so while he’s stayed above water, he hasn’t had an overtly positive impact on the team’s puck possession.
Nichushkin, signed through 2030 at a $6.125MM cap hit, remains on the active roster. However, he can be retroactively placed on injured reserve anytime to open a roster spot if necessary.
While Colorado’s forward corps is healthier than it’s been for a good chunk of the season, they’re still without bottom-six energy winger Miles Wood, who hasn’t played since late November because of an upper-body injury. Captain Gabriel Landeskog remains sidelined due to the multiple right knee surgeries that have kept him from playing since the team’s 2022 Stanley Cup win but has become a more frequent participant in morning skates in recent days.