Avalanche Reassign Chris Wagner
Dec. 20: It took a couple of days, but the Avalanche announced early this morning that Wagner had been reassigned to the minors. The move occurred before the roster freeze went into effect in Mountain Time.
Dec. 18: Wagner has cleared waivers, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. He will likely head to the minor leagues soon.
Dec. 17: The Avalanche have placed forward Chris Wagner on waivers for the third time this season, reports Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. It’s likely Wagner’s departure from the roster tomorrow, one way or another, will be the corresponding move for defenseman Josh Manson‘s activation from injured reserve. He’s traveled with the team on their road trip and is an option to return against the Sharks on Thursday, head coach Jared Bednar said yesterday.
Wagner, 33, signed a two-way extension with the Avalanche in April after signing as a free agent for his second go-around in Colorado in 2023. He was placed on waivers to begin the season and remained on the opening night roster after clearing, but he was sent to the minors on the opening day of the season after the Avs optimized their long-term injured reserve pool. He’s been ferried between leagues countless times since on paper transactions to extend his temporary waiver exemptions as long as possible. Still, it doesn’t matter how many days he’s been on the active roster once he’s played 10 games since last clearing waivers.
That’s the case, so he ends up back on the wire today as Colorado attempts to sneak him through to the minors without a competing claim yet again. Wagner has played in 22 of the Avs’ 33 games this season but has scored just one goal and is still looking for his first assist of the year. He’s averaged seven minutes per game, won 44.9% of his faceoffs, and has controlled a respectable 48.3% of shot attempts at even strength, given his usage as a defensive specialist.
Teams now have 24 hours to decide whether to submit a claim for Wagner to add him to their active roster or let him continue logging time in the NHL and AHL in Colorado. The Massachusetts native has made 395 career appearances in 11 seasons with the Bruins, Ducks, Avs, and Islanders, scoring 39 goals and 27 assists for 66 points with a -31 rating.
Mackenzie Blackwood Was Open To Extension With Sharks Prior To Trade
Netminder Mackenzie Blackwood is thriving early on in Colorado after the Avalanche acquired him from the Sharks earlier this month. But before the deal, the pending unrestricted free agent was open to inking an extension to stick around in the Bay Area, he told Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now before yesterday’s 4-2 win.
The Sharks didn’t have a similar level of interest, but even with how well Blackwood had played to begin the season, it’s justifiable. San Jose is in no position to make a long-term commitment to a starting or even high-end tandem option between the pipes, with Yaroslav Askarov on the cusp of full-time duties. Both their other veteran options, Vítek Vaněček and short-term Blackwood replacement Alexandar Georgiev, are also due to test the UFA market next summer and shouldn’t be considered likely extension candidates.
But it’s also easy to see why Blackwood would have been comfortable sticking around, even on a rebuilding Sharks squad. San Jose is where the 28-year-old reestablished himself as a legitimate NHL option, a status that was in doubt at the end of his time as a New Jersey Devil. Blackwood, a second-rounder by the Devils in 2015, had allowed 17 goals above average across his final two seasons in New Jersey before they opted to trade his signing rights to the Sharks in the 2023 offseason for a sixth-round pick.
Blackwood landed a two-year, $4.7MM prove-it deal with San Jose. While his overall numbers weren’t pretty at first glance last year, they were strong considering the league-worst Sharks defense he played behind. He posted a .899 SV% and 3.45 GAA in 44 appearances, his highest workload in four years, while saving 2.4 goals above expected.
He took a step forward before the trade in 2024-25, posting a 6-9-3 record with a .909 SV% and 3.00 GAA in 17 starts and two relief appearances. In three starts with the Avs since the trade, he’s allowed only six goals on 97 shots for a .938 SV% and has a 2-1-0 record.
While there will be some regression in his numbers with Colorado, he’s re-positioned himself as a legitimate tandem option who can handle a 30-45 start workload with slightly above-average play. His 5.8 goals saved above expected across both teams ranks 15th in the league this season, per MoneyPuck. There’s likely an argument for his $2.35MM AAV to jump to the $4MM or even $5MM range next season, whether on the open market or on an extension with the Avalanche, who don’t have an up-and-comer on the cusp of handling NHL minutes after trading Justus Annunen to the Predators.
Bruins, Tyler Johnson To Mutually Terminate Contract
Dec. 20: Johnson cleared waivers and will have his deal terminated, reports Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic. The veteran will engage with other teams on signing a new contract for the remainder of 2024-25 after the roster freeze lifts, he adds.
Dec. 19: The Bruins have placed veteran forward Tyler Johnson on unconditional waivers, per Conor Ryan of the Boston Globe. The two sides are likely headed for a mutual contract termination.
The 34-year-old Johnson opened the season with the Bruins after signing a professional tryout during training camp, but they didn’t add him to the active roster until signing him to a one-year, league-minimum deal in early November. He’s been seldom used, especially recently, only appearing in one of Boston’s eight games this month. He made a total of nine appearances for the B’s, posting two assists with a -1 rating while averaging 13:05 per game.
It’s far less offense than Boston was expecting from Johnson. A two-time Stanley Cup champion with the Lightning, Johnson had still been an effective middle-six presence for the Blackhawks over the past few seasons while battling injuries. The Washington native picked up 32 goals and 70 points in 149 appearances with Chicago between 2021-22 and 2023-24, averaging just under half a point per game.
In the early stages of his career, Johnson was a high-end, defensively responsible complementary center in Tampa Bay’s top six. From 2013-14 to 2019-20, he posted 150 goals and 333 points in 520 appearances, averaging 24 and 53 per 82 games, respectively. He played all three forward positions and was never a major liability in the faceoff dot when suiting up down the middle.
Johnson was limited to eight goals and 22 points in 55 games in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season, though. The Bolts, who could no longer afford to allocate $5MM per season to a declining scorer, packaged him with a second-round pick for cap relief to Chicago, taking on injured blue-liner Brent Seabrook‘s contract for long-term injured reserve relief in return.
If Johnson clears waivers tomorrow, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent once again. If there’s still NHL interest in his services, it could result in a rare unconditional waiver claim as he’s already making the league minimum salary.
Trotz: Predators Won’t Enter Full-Scale Rebuild
Things haven’t gone to plan for the Predators this season. After general manager Barry Trotz had the most active free agency period of anyone, adding top-six wingers Jonathan Marchessault and Steven Stamkos while landing Brady Skjei for their defense, they’re the only team in the league without 10 wins this season and sit firmly entrenched in 32nd place with a 9-17-7 record and .379 points percentage.
It’s a weird outcome for a roster in a weird place. The Preds haven’t been bad enough to contend for the draft lottery – far from it, in fact. They’ve made the playoffs every season since 2014-15, aside from missing in 2023, and they still managed a 42-win regular season that year. But they’ve also lost six consecutive postseason series and haven’t advanced past the First Round since 2018. With Trotz, their former head coach, taking over for David Poile as just the second GM in franchise history in 2023, he made it expressly clear that he was planning on making higher-risk moves to help propel Nashville out of league-average purgatory.
That plan has worked in the sense that they’re no longer wild-card fodder, and they now have the chance to draft a legitimate direction-altering talent in next year’s draft if their record holds. But if they continue down that road, it won’t be because they make significant in-season subtractions from the roster. Trotz reaffirmed to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic yesterday that they’ll continue to be active on the trade market but won’t act like traditional sellers.
It’s not a rebuild. I’m not in the business of not winning. I’m in the business of trying to win. We’re not selling off. We are resetting. We know where we are. It’s not where we thought we would be. But we want to move forward.
Trotz’s sentiment, without spelling it out completely, says to expect more moves in the vein of this week’s swap that sent Alexandre Carrier to the Canadiens for the much younger Justin Barron. The latter is a player Trotz has had his eyes on since assuming the GM’s chair, telling LeBrun that he called the Habs about Barron multiple times last season. “We’ve been very good at developing defensemen, so I just felt he was getting underplayed there a little bit,” Trotz said. “Hopefully, with his age and talent, we can get a decent player out of that.”
Carrier may not be the only defenseman on the wrong side of 25 who finds himself on the move before deadline day. 6’3″ lefty Jeremy Lauzon, who’s under contract through next season at a $2MM cap hit, led the league in hits by a wide margin last season with 383. He’s missed time with injury this season, posting one assist and a -5 rating in 23 games, but should carry a decent amount of trade value on his own for his reasonable cap hit or be valuable in a package for a higher-value asset, maybe one that helps Nashville address its nagging center-ice deficiency.
There have been speculative ties to the Sabres’ Dylan Cozens in that vein. While that hasn’t been addressed by Trotz or reaffirmed by a major source, Trotz did tell Emma Lingan of The Hockey News during his media availability yesterday that he expects to use his $11.2MM in current cap space “if there’s the right piece.”
In his conversation with LeBrun, Trotz also vehemently denied the slow-growing, unfounded speculation that he may look to deal Stamkos elsewhere at the trade deadline. The longtime Lightning captain has heavily underwhelmed with nine goals and 19 points in 33 games on the season in the first year of a four-year, $32MM contract. He also has a full no-movement clause.
It’s worth noting that the Predators still have quite a few highly-graded prospects in the pipeline. They have six forwards in the system aged 22 or younger with first-round draft pedigree, although, as Trotz implied by his acquisition of the younger Barron, things are considerably thinner on the blue line.
Kraken Reassign Mitchell Stephens
The Kraken returned center Mitchell Stephens to AHL Coachella Valley yesterday, according to a team announcement. He did not require waivers because he’d been on the active roster for fewer than 30 days since his Nov. 30 recall and played less than 10 games.
Stephens, 27, inked a two-year, two-way deal with the Kraken in July after reaching unrestricted free agency. The right-shot pivot cleared waivers during the preseason, setting him up for his ninth year of play in the minors. He had three goals and an assist in 11 games for Coachella Valley before Seattle announced captain Jordan Eberle would miss extended time following pelvic surgery, creating the need for a forward recall. Stephens played in nine straight contests for the Kraken, posting an assist and a -2 rating while averaging 9:45 per game and winning 55.4% of his draws.
A second-round pick of the Lightning back in 2015, Stephens is now with his fourth NHL organization. He climbed his way up the organizational ladder in Tampa and debuted with them in the 2019-20 season. He stayed in the Bay until the 2021 offseason when the Bolts traded him to the Red Wings for a sixth-round pick. Stephens spent one year in Detroit but was non-tendered after recording six assists in 27 games in 2021-22. He signed on with the Canadiens the following summer, where he spent the last two seasons before heading west to Seattle a few months back.
Stephens graded decently defensively in his recall, controlling 44.5% of shot attempts and 49.2% of expected goals at even strength despite starting the majority of his shifts in the defensive zone. If injuries strike again this season, he’ll likely be in line for another recall, but his path back to NHL minutes was muddied this week when the Kraken acquired Kaapo Kakko via trade from the Rangers.
The Kraken now have two open spots on the active roster and $4.075MM in current cap space, per PuckPedia.
Maple Leafs Recall Matt Murray
Dec. 20: The Maple Leafs made the transaction official today, bringing Murray up and returning Hildeby to the AHL. It’s still unclear whether head coach Craig Berube plans on starting Murray tonight against Buffalo.
Dec. 19: Two-time Stanley Cup champion Matt Murray is expected to join the Maple Leafs’ roster ahead of tomorrow’s game against the Sabres, reports Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. If he makes the start for Toronto, it’ll be his first start in the blue and white since April 2, 2023.
Toronto is without No. 1 option Anthony Stolarz for the next four to six weeks after he underwent a procedure to remove a loose body in his knee. He hasn’t played since Dec. 12 against the Ducks, and Dennis Hildeby has been on the roster ever since as an emergency recall from AHL Toronto to back up Joseph Woll. Hildeby has made three starts this season in relief of injuries to Stolarz and Woll but hasn’t been all that impressive, going 2-1-0 but logging a .875 SV% and 3.68 GAA.
That’s led the Leafs to look for a more secure option to back up Woll for now. They may have that in Murray, who’s been tormented by injuries as of late but does at least have a prior pedigree as a legitimate NHL option. The 30-year-old didn’t play at all last season aside from a brief AHL conditioning stint at year’s end after hip surgery in the summer of 2023. Now healthy, he re-upped with the Leafs on a one-year deal worth $875K at the beginning of free agency and cleared waivers during training camp.
He’s looked rejuvenated in minor-league action, posting a sparkling .931 SV% and 1.85 GAA in eight appearances with a 4-1-3 record. He’s coming off a 27-save shutout of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins last night, so he’d have a day of rest if he plays tomorrow in the first half of the Leafs’ back-to-back. If not against Buffalo, it’s clear he’ll make his season debut on Saturday against the Islanders.
Murray arrived in Toronto in the 2022 offseason, acquired from the Senators in a cap-dump deal to serve in tandem with Ilya Samsonov as the replacement for ex-starter Jack Campbell, who left for the Oilers in free agency. Injuries limited him to 26 starts in 2022-23, although he was serviceable when healthy with a .903 SV%, 3.01 GAA, and a 14-8-2 record. That was good enough for one goal saved above expected, per MoneyPuck, so his most recent NHL experience positions him as an above-average netminder. That can’t be said for the much younger Hildeby.
Murray, who started most games for the Penguins in their back-to-back Stanley Cup wins in 2016 and 2017, has a .910 SV% and 2.79 GAA in 272 career NHL appearances. His recall would necessitate Hildeby heading back to the AHL to keep the Leafs’ active roster at 23 players.
Alex Ovechkin To Return After Christmas Break
Dec. 20: Ovechkin was cleared for contact today, but Carbery told reporters he was overly optimistic about his return date. He won’t play before the Christmas break, putting his likely return date as Dec. 28 against the Maple Leafs. He’ll miss three more games at least, including tonight’s matchup against the Canes (per Bailey Johnson of The Washington Post).
Dec. 19: Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin is nearing the four-to-six-week return window initially outlined for him when he sustained a left fibula fracture last month. After skating in a non-contact jersey at practice over the past week, head coach Spencer Carbery said the superstar winger won’t play tomorrow against the Hurricanes but could return Sunday against the Kings or on Monday versus the Bruins. Sammi Silber of The Hockey News relayed the information.
Coming into the season, doubt was beginning to creep in over whether Ovechkin would be able to pass Wayne Gretzky‘s all-time goals record of 894. His 31 goals in 79 games last year was his lowest total in a full season since the 2016-17 campaign.
Those doubts were silenced within weeks. The Caps as a whole got off to a raucous start, fueled in part by Ovi’s 15 goals and 25 points through his first 18 games of the season. He was playing his best hockey of the season right up until the injury, recording seven goals and two assists in his last five games. Unfortunately, an innocuous knee-on-knee collision with Utah forward Jack McBain hit pause on his chase for the record. He’s still 26 snipes back of tying Gretzky, sitting alone in second in NHL history with 868 goals. He’d have 50 games to score the remainder if he plans on tying the record in 2024-25, assuming he returns Sunday.
Losing Ovechkin for the last month hasn’t significantly impacted Washington’s record. They’re still 8-4-1 in their last 13 without him, outscoring opponents 40-33 and outshooting them 380-337. They’ve continued to dominate possession at even strength, controlling 56.5% of shot attempts during that window. They have only continued to establish themselves as surprise championship contenders after limping into the playoffs last year with a 40-31-11 record and a -36 goal differential.
Ovechkin had been flanked by team assists leader Dylan Strome and Aliaksei Protas on the first line before exiting the lineup. Protas has been moved down to Pierre-Luc Dubois‘ line in Ovechkin’s absence. While The Great Eight will undoubtedly reunite with Strome in his return, he may have Tom Wilson on his opposite wing this time around.
Ovechkin is on injured reserve, and since the Capitals have a full active roster, they’ll likely move today ahead of the midnight roster freeze to free up a space for him to return in the next few days. Carbery told Silber that Ovechkin will take contact in practice either tomorrow or Saturday.
Devils Recall Justin Dowling
The Devils announced yesterday that they have recalled center Justin Dowling from AHL Utica. They had an open spot on the active roster, so no corresponding transaction was necessary. His services were needed in last night’s 4-2 loss to the Blue Jackets with Curtis Lazar, who came off injured reserve Tuesday after undergoing knee surgery, exiting the lineup again due to continued post-surgery swelling, head coach Sheldon Keefe said (via Mark Scheig of The Hockey Writers).
Dowling, 34, had been on New Jersey’s roster for most of the last two months as Lazar’s replacement but was waived and reassigned earlier in the week to make room for the latter’s return. He’s in his second year with the Devils after inking a two-year, two-way deal in free agency in 2023 and has been a solid veteran presence on the farm. He’s posted 16 goals, 28 assists and 44 points in 64 games for Utica since last season, including four points in seven games this year.
The Calgary native’s 22 NHL appearances this season in Lazar’s absence are now his most since the 2021-22 season with the Canucks. He has two goals and an assist with a -2 rating, averaging 8:30 per game and winning 47.5% of his faceoffs. The 5’10”, 180-lb pivot has been serviceable for his limited role, controlling 48.8% of shot attempts and 48.6% of expected goals at even strength. Those shares are below New Jersey’s team averages but don’t paint him as anything worse than the replacement-level call-up he’s made out to be.
Dowling can remain on the active roster for up to 30 non-consecutive days or play 10 games before he requires waivers to return to Utica again. He might hit those numbers depending on how much longer Lazar needs a recovery window before he can play again. Keefe said he’ll likely be on the active roster through the Christmas break. If not, he can still be returned to Utica during the roster freeze.
[RELATED: Allowable Transactions During The Roster Freeze Period]
In 122 NHL games in parts of seven seasons with the Canucks, Devils and Stars, Dowling has 22 points and a -18 rating while averaging 10:24 per game.
Golden Knights Recall Tanner Laczynski
The Golden Knights have recalled depth center Tanner Laczynski from AHL Henderson, per a team announcement. He’ll make his Vegas debut tonight against the Canucks with Ivan Barbashev and Nicolas Roy battling upper-body injuries, per Danny Webster of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
It will be the first NHL appearance in just over a year and a half for the 6’1″ pivot. Laczynski, an Ohio State product, was a sixth-round pick of the Flyers in 2016. He spent his entire professional career in the Philadelphia organization, playing mostly with AHL Lehigh Valley but getting a few call-ups along the way, before reaching unrestricted free agency last summer and signing a two-year, $1.55MM contract with the Knights.
Laczynski hasn’t been an offensive factor in his NHL looks, only managing four points in 38 games with the Flyers. But he’s blossomed into a top AHL point producer in recent years, and his pickup has proved prudent for Vegas’ minor-league depth. He leads the Silver Knights in scoring with 19 points (6 G, 13 A) in 17 games and has a -2 rating, a decent mark on one of the league’s worst teams this season.
Laczynski spent all of last season in the minors, posting 44 points in 49 games for AHL Lehigh Valley. He appeared in a career-high 32 NHL games for Philadelphia the year prior, though, averaging 9:31 per game and recording all four of his career points. He won 51.5% of his draws, although he’ll suit up as a third-line winger tonight for Vegas alongside Tomáš Hertl and Alexander Holtz.
Both Barbashev and Roy sustained their injuries on Sunday against the Wild. It’s a damper on a huge season for Barbashev, who’s got 30 points in 31 games and is on pace to smash his career-high of 60 set with the Blues in 2021-22. Pavel Dorofeyev, who has 12 goals to rank second on the team, moves into his first-line left-wing role alongside Jack Eichel and Mark Stone. Roy, who’s been averaging over 16 minutes per game and has 13 points in 31 appearances, will be replaced more directly by Laczynski.
Vegas had an open roster spot before executing the transaction, so no corresponding moves are necessary.
Oilers Activate Viktor Arvidsson From Injured Reserve
The Oilers announced that winger Viktor Arvidsson has been reinstated from injured reserve and will play in tonight’s contest against the Bruins. The active roster already had a vacancy with defenseman Travis Dermott being claimed off waivers by the Wild last week, but the roster is now full with this move.
Arvidsson, 31, sustained an undisclosed injury against the Islanders on Nov. 12 and was initially ruled out day-to-day, but a lengthier-than-expected recovery period means he ended up sitting out of action for over a month. He missed 15 games, during which time Edmonton went 10-4-1 and now sits third in the Pacific Division after a rocky start to the year.
Arvidsson, who the Oilers signed to a two-year, $8MM contract over the summer, started the year in a second-line role with Leon Draisaitl and Vasily Podkolzin. It didn’t go as planned. The two-time 30-goal scorer was limited to two goals and five points in 16 appearances before exiting with injury, averaging 15:41 per game. Connor Brown, Kasperi Kapanen and Jeff Skinner have all found themselves in Arvidsson’s spot in his absence. None of them have had particularly good results, although Brown has the most production with 13 points through 31 games.
The Swedish winger hit free agency after an injury-plagued 2023-24 campaign that limited him to 18 appearances with the Kings, although he was far more productive when healthy with six goals and 15 points. Dating back to his days as a developing forward in Nashville, Arvidsson has averaged 26 goals and 54 points per 82 games throughout his career. He’s projected to slot into a more conservative third-line role with Brown and Adam Henrique in his return tonight, per multiple reports.