Flyers Expected To Activate Cam York From Injured Reserve
Flyers defenseman Cameron York will likely make his return to the lineup on Saturday against the Blackhawks, indicating he’ll be activated from injured reserve, Kevin Kurz of The Athletic reports.
York, 23, has been on IR with an upper-body injury for nearly a month. He’s been a full participant in practice for more than a few days now, though, and is well past the initial two-week timeline for his return that was assessed on Oct. 26.
The Flyers were evidently cautious with rushing the young defender back, but “all signs point to” him playing this weekend after sitting out the last 13 games, Kurz said. The lefty, who the Flyers selected 14th overall in the 2019 draft, had skated at least 20 minutes in each of his first seven appearances of the season and had scored twice with one assist and a -2 rating.
Philadelphia head coach John Tortorella didn’t use consistent pairings at Friday’s practice, so it’s unclear where York might slot back into the lineup if he’s ready to go. He spent nearly all of his time stapled to Travis Sanheim on the team’s top pairing while playing his off-side though, and that would be his likely spot.
He might not be the only Flyers blue-liner returning, either, with Emil Andrae also taking line rushes and power-play drills today, per Charlie O’Connor of PHLY Sports. The 22-year-old had three assists in 10 games this season after a call-up from AHL Lehigh Valley before sustaining a mid-body injury against the Sabres last week. He’s missed the last two games but never landed on IR.
The Flyers have a full active roster and will need to open a spot to activate York. That could be accomplished by retroactively moving Andrae to IR if he’s not ready to play, or they could opt to return rookie defender Helge Grans to the minors after the 22-year-old recorded an assist and averaged 16:02 of ice time across a pair of appearances this week. Placing Andrae on IR would not impact his ability to return for Monday’s game against the Golden Knights, but they would need to make another corresponding transaction to activate him at that time.
York is in the second season of a two-year, $3.2MM contract and will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights next summer. He’s coming off a career-best 10-goal, 30-point campaign in 2023-24.
Maple Leafs Notes: Myers, Ekman-Larsson, Knies, Domi
The Maple Leafs announced Friday that they’ve recalled defenseman Philippe Myers from his conditioning loan to AHL Toronto.
No corresponding moves are necessary. Myers remained on the active roster and counted against the salary cap while on his conditioning stint, which could have lasted up to two weeks but ended after six days.
Toronto needs more available healthy players amid a rising tide of injuries. The 6’5″, 220-lb righty didn’t record a point in three games on the farm but managed 4 PIMs and a +2 rating.
Myers has played just once for the Maple Leafs this season after signing a one-way, $775K contract over the summer. He sat in the press box for 17 of 18 games before his brief reassignment. His only appearance came on Oct. 26 against the Bruins, when he recorded a -1 rating and one hit in 12:11 of ice time.
If the Maple Leafs want to send Myers back to the AHL on a longer-term basis, they’ll need to place him on waivers. He’s been exposed to the wire four times in his career, all in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons with the Predators and Lightning, and cleared each time.
Elsewhere in Leafland:
- Myers’ summons comes with Oliver Ekman-Larsson under the weather. He didn’t practice today due to an illness, the team said. It’s hopefully a non-factor in what’s been a strong start in Toronto for the 33-year-old, who signed a four-year, $14MM contract in free agency last summer. He has a +2 rating and is on pace for 33 points, which would be his highest offensive output since finishing 11th in Norris Trophy voting in 2018-19. He’s also averaging 21:09 per game, his highest usage in three years, and is posting his best relative possession numbers in six years. There’s a chance Myers could draw into the lineup on Sunday against Utah if OEL can’t play, with Toronto expected to dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen.
- The Leafs will be going with the 11F/7D formation because winger Matthew Knies has been ruled out with the upper-body injury he sustained on a hit from Golden Knights defenseman Zach Whitecloud in Wednesday’s win, head coach Craig Berube told Jonas Siegel of The Athletic. It’s unclear how much time the 22-year-old, who has eight goals and 12 points in 20 games, might miss beyond this weekend’s game.
- Toronto might have 12 healthy forwards on hand if forward Max Domi can come off injured reserve, which Berube told Mark Masters of TSN is a possibility ahead of the Utah game. Domi landed on IR earlier this week and missed the win over Vegas with a lingering lower-body injury, but since the placement was retroactive to his last appearance against the Oilers on Nov. 16, he’d be eligible to come off IR after the one-game absence. Domi, 29, has yet to score in 19 games this season after inking a four-year, $15MM extension last summer.
Rangers Recall Victor Mancini
The Rangers have recalled defenseman Victor Mancini from AHL Hartford, per the minor league’s transactions log. They returned center Jake Leschyshyn on loan to Hartford to keep their active roster at a maximum of 23 players.
After unexpectedly making the opening night roster, the 6’3″, 215-lb Mancini was sent to the minors last week after a run of four straight healthy scratches. Evidently, the stay-at-home righty has done enough to earn a second chance in the NHL after scoring once and logging an even rating in three games for Hartford.
Mancini, a fifth-round pick in 2022, is in his first full professional season after spending the last three years with the University of Nebraska-Omaha. The Michigan native had one goal and three assists with a +3 rating in his first nine NHL games earlier this season.
However, Mancini graded out quite poorly away from the scoresheet. Bolstered by a .948 SV% from his goalies while on the ice at even strength, the Rangers controlled just 35.4% of shot attempts and 34.5% of expected goals while Mancini was skating. Those are the worst possession numbers on the Blueshirts this season by a significant margin.
The Rangers already have an extra defenseman on the roster in Chad Ruhwedel, and no reported injuries. Mancini’s recall could be for a yet-to-be-disclosed injury issue, or it could just be to give the youngster another look on NHL ice.
Leschyshyn, 25, had been on the Rangers’ roster for the better part of the last week but did not play, sitting as a healthy scratch for three straight games. He was the club’s only extra healthy forward with Filip Chytil out, signaling that the latter may be available tomorrow against the Oilers after missing three games with an upper-body injury.
In 13 games with Hartford this season, Leschyshyn has one goal and three assists for four points with a -4 rating. He has just two goals and four assists for six points in 77 career NHL appearances and hasn’t played an NHL game since Jan. 11, 2024, against the Blues.
Bruins Recall Marc McLaughlin
The Bruins announced Friday that they’ve recalled forward Marc McLaughlin from AHL Providence. They had an open spot on the active roster, but nonetheless, forward Georgii Merkulov was returned to the minor-league club in a corresponding transaction.
McLaughlin, 25, earns his first recall of the season after posting five goals, five assists, and a +5 rating through his first 15 games for the P-Bruins. The undrafted free agent signing out of Boston College in 2022 signed a two-way deal over the summer to return to the Bruins organization after a brief bout with restricted free agency.
The 6’0″, 199-lb forward saw just one game of NHL action last season, which was understandable given his significant regression on the farm. After putting up 13 goals and 30 points in 66 games during his first extended run with Providence in 2022-23, the defensive pivot scored just eight goals and 14 points in 68 appearances last year with a -7 rating.
Now, back on the right track, the hometown kid may get a chance to build on his four goals in 14 career NHL appearances. He’s one of 13 healthy forwards on the active roster, and he could make his season debut on Saturday against the Red Wings.
That could come in the third-line wing role vacated by Merkulov, who’s headed back to Providence after recording one assist and a -1 rating in a three-game call-up. The 24-year-old Russian graded out well defensively in his second NHL call-up, posting a 49.3% shot attempt share and a 70.% expected goal share at even strength.
Despite the stint in the NHL, Merkulov still ranks second on Providence in scoring with 11 points (2 G, 9 A) in 12 games. He has 136 points in 154 AHL contests since signing with Boston out of Ohio State in 2022.
Golden Knights Sign Brett Howden To Five-Year Extension
The Golden Knights announced Friday that they’ve signed forward Brett Howden to a five-year extension, keeping him in Vegas through the 2029-30 season. The deal is worth $2.5MM per season and will pay him $12.5MM in total.
Howden, 26, was set to become an unrestricted free agent next summer. He was in the final season of a two-year, $3.8MM pact he inked with the Knights as a restricted free agent in 2023.
The Alberta native has never scored more than 10 goals in a season, but he’ll do so in 2024-25, barring anything unforeseen. He’s gotten more consistent top-nine usage in the early going this season with injuries to Victor Olofsson and Mark Stone, responding with eight goals in 20 games to tie with Ivan Barbashev for second on the team.
It’s a significant breakout for the 6’2″ center, who was on the road to becoming a bust a couple of years ago. Drafted 27th overall by the Lightning in 2016, he was traded to the Rangers in the 2018 blockbuster involving Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller heading south before he made his NHL debut.
Howden jumped directly from major junior to the NHL the following season, recording a career-best 23 points in 66 games for the Blueshirts during his rookie season. He spent two more seasons in New York as a bottom-six pivot but saw his point totals and ice time steadily decline, culminating in a brutal 2020-21 campaign that saw him score just once on 33 shots in 42 games. He also struggled on draws, winning 46.6% of his faceoffs, and continued a run of poor possession impacts that had plagued him since entering the league.
The Rangers cut bait with Howden the following offseason, dealing him to Vegas for a fourth-round pick and depth defenseman Nick DeSimone. It’s turned out to be a frugal move for the Knights, who’ve slowly shifted him over to the wing and turned him into a slightly more dependable offensive presence.
Howden was quite valuable in Vegas’ run to the 2023 Stanley Cup, posting five goals and five assists for 10 points in 22 playoff games while finishing third on the team with 63 hits. His possession numbers remain a concern, with just a 44.8% shot attempt share at even strength since joining Vegas, but he’s totaled 31 goals and 61 points in 190 appearances as a Knight. He’s responded to increasing usage with correspondingly increasing point totals.
His extension is the third that general manager Kelly McCrimmon has gotten over the finish line for a pending UFA in the last month. Day-one defensemen Shea Theodore (seven years, $51.975MM) and Brayden McNabb (three years, $10.95MM) have each inked multi-year deals to keep them in Nevada past this season in the past few weeks.
The Golden Knights have now committed just north of $76.25MM in projected cap hits to 15 players for the 2025-26 campaign, per PuckPedia. That leaves roughly $16.25MM in space for eight roster spots, assuming a conservative upper limit increase to $92.5MM next season, with Nicolas Hague, Keegan Kolesar and Victor Olofsson among their other notable pending free agents.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Salary Cap/Transactions FAQs: Tax Differences, Luxury Cap, LTIR, Accruing Cap Space, And More
It’s time for more reader-submitted questions about the salary cap and the details and regulations behind day-to-day transactions. If you have more questions than the ones answered below, check out the first and second editions of our Salary Cap/Transactions FAQs from August.
PyramidHeadcrab: Has the league had any meaningful talks about cap equalization for differences in income tax in different territories? I’ve often heard that many Canadian teams can’t get top talent because the income taxes are higher, while Florida and Tennessee are popular destinations because the taxes are lower. It makes sense to modify the cap based on these numbers. If income tax is 25% in Ontario, the salary cap should be 25% higher, so the actual pay given to players is equivalent.
There’s been a rumbling occasionally, but I wouldn’t characterize any talks about tax-based salary cap adjustments as “meaningful.” If there were, especially given the big markets that would be affected (looking at you, Toronto), that would be snapped up by Sportsnet or TSN immediately and dominate a news cycle for weeks.
Given how the NHL calculates cap space (more on that later), I can’t see what you outlined as a feasible solution in practice, even though it makes sense on a macro level. It would require creating a whole new infrastructure for trades and waiver claims because a player’s cap impact for one team would be significantly different than another.
There’s likely a way for teams to deal with this on their own without the league needing to step in – changing their willingness to pay out excessive portions of contracts in signing bonuses rather than actual salary, as I believe they’re taxed differently in most jurisdictions. Some already do, so the actual dollar difference a player earns in Ottawa compared to Tampa, for example, isn’t as significant as it may seem.
Players also get taxed based on the city where the income is generated (so a Tampa player is getting taxed at New York rates if they’re playing the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, for example), so that would be an incredibly minute and complex day-by-day calculation that I don’t think the league (or teams) is willing to devote the time and money to deal with. I imagine that changes to local tax codes that go into effect during the season would complicate this further. Essentially, I don’t think it’s something that’s seriously being talked about, nor do I think it’s something that will ever be implemented.
FeeltheThunder: With the CBA discussions beginning early next year, there was a report on the NHL app that many NHL players would be open to the NHL having a luxury cap of sorts to help grow the pay rate for players (which hasn’t grown in the last 20 years or so). It didn’t explain precisely how that would work in the NHL, and I don’t think it would be a blank check for teams like those in MLB. But maybe the NHL does have a luxury cap for teams to be able to go over a certain percentage of the salary cap. Some teams that come to mind, like Tampa, Vegas, New York (Rangers specifically), Boston, Florida, and such, would be entirely willing to pay a luxury tax to bring more top-level talents to their roster. What are your thoughts on this luxury cap notion?
Again, I don’t think there have been meaningful discussions here among owners or GMs, but I believe this is at least in the realm of possibility. I don’t think it would be a considerable percentage – five percent, if that – at least not while Gary Bettman is still at the helm. It would defeat the purpose of the stone-cold hard cap he lobbied for and won in the 2004-05 lockout.
But I’m not sure if the owners would approve of it. I imagine the league would stipulate that “tax” money be added to the revenue-sharing pool, injecting even more cash for smaller-market, smaller-budget teams in the league with the most robust revenue-sharing program among the major North American leagues. If that’s where the league draws the line, I’m not sure the Bruins owner would approve of sending more of their generated revenue to the division-rival Senators, for example.
Zakis: I thought I saw an article in which the Avs would be able to bank space, but they are in LTIR. How is this possible, if at all? As an aside, can you demonstrate how LTIR works?
Matt Studley: How does accruing cap space during the season work? How does it affect trade deadline transactions? How significant is the benefit of teams like the Avalanche papering down players on off-days?
I’ll answer these questions together, mainly because of the misconceptions about how the Avalanche are using paper transactions. Zakis, you’re on the right track. The Avalanche’s paper transactions this year (constantly reassigning and recalling players like Nikolai Kovalenko and T.J. Tynan) have day-to-day salary cap implications but no long-term ones. They’re not accruing cap space because they use long-term injured reserve to stay compliant.
That doesn’t mean that these transactions are without benefit, though. Keeping veteran players like Tynan who aren’t waiver-exempt on the roster for as few days as possible helps extend their temporary 30-day, 10-game exemption until they must clear waivers again to return to the AHL. In Kovalenko’s and Ivan Ivan‘s case, they’re waiver-exempt, but since they’re on entry-level contracts and, by extension, have a two-way salary structure, stashing them in the minors for a couple of days at a time on non-game days does save the Avalanche organization actual money, because they’re paying out their prorated minor-league salary for those days instead of their NHL salary. That’s often significant financial savings daily – for example, Kovalenko’s NHL base salary this season is $775K, but his minors salary is only $70K.
For “how LTIR works,” let’s keep using the Avalanche as an example. It’s not cut and dry. The Avalanche have $9MM worth of cap hits on LTIR in Gabriel Landeskog ($7MM) and Tucker Poolman ($2MM), but they can only exceed the cap by $8.938MM while staying compliant, not the full $9MM.
That has to do with something called LTIR capture, which is why you’ll see teams making a bunch of small moves for their opening night rosters before reversing them the next day. How much space you gain from LTIR is directly related to your current cap space when entering LTIR. Some teams do well with this – the Maple Leafs are consistently among them. Essentially, for teams needing to use LTIR, the goal at the beginning of the season is to construct a roster as close to the upper limit ($88MM) as possible. If a team could enter the season with exactly $0 in cap space, they would have full access to the cap hits they’re placing on LTIR. In the Avs’ case, they started the season with $62.5K in cap space, which was deducted from their LTIR “pool.”
As mentioned earlier, the accruing cap space discussion can be thrown out for teams who stay in LTIR the whole season up to deadline day to remain compliant. For most teams that don’t, though, it’s essential to know that cap space is calculated by the league daily, meaning all those paper transactions add up significantly. If a team starts the season with $1MM in cap space and makes no changes to their roster, they could have banked enough cap space to acquire a player with a $2MM cap hit on the 96th day of the season, exactly halfway through the 192-day in-season calendar. Making little changes to increase their cap space on non-game days where extra players aren’t required could add up and give them significantly more flexibility to add (I won’t bore you with the actual math, but I hope that’s broken down well conceptually).
Raymond: With so many teams nearing the cap limit, shouldn’t the NHL finalize the new salary cap limit sooner so these clubs can better plan?
There’s not a whole lot of choice in the matter, at least with how the upper limit is currently calculated. It’s derived directly from a percentage of hockey-related revenue from the previous season, so the upper limit for 2025-26 can’t be determined until there’s an accurate enough figure for 2024-25’s HRR. That’s why the cap for the following season is usually announced multiple weeks before free agency, enough time to give teams enough planning for draft-day trades, RFA extensions and UFA pickups, but not any earlier – they don’t have the numbers necessary to make an exact determination.
Dan Mar: Could a team hypothetically put themselves in a position where they can’t field a 20-man on-ice roster due to salary cap shenanigans? For example, if the year before, they had a lot of 35+ contract/ELC bonuses they rolled over, bought out/retained salary on transactions, then had suspensions, putting their allowable max at something like $15MM? What would happen in that case, just an automatic forfeit?
I assume you mean a cap situation so dire that they wouldn’t be able to ice a full roster of league-minimum players at any point during the season. Teams have had to play games a skater short because of day-to-day cap restraints, actually relatively often in recent memory. As far as I can tell, there’s no clear-cut language regarding the situation in the CBA, assumingly because it’s operationally impossible with an NHL-level management group. The solution/result would be at the commissioner’s discretion; without precedent, it’s not easy to speculate what that would be.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Blackhawks Notes: Teräväinen, Commesso, Frost
A few teams have alternated the dubious distinction of last place this season, but after dropping three in a row for the second time, the Blackhawks now hold that honor with a 6-12-1 record and .342 points percentage.
That skid has the team getting “less confident for sure,” free-agent returnee Teuvo Teräväinen told Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times on Wednesday. He said the team’s lack of scoring is frustrating – an understandable sentiment considering he has just one goal on 28 shots in his last 16 games after starting the year with three goals in three outings.
“I’ve got to work harder or something,” Teräväinen continued. “I’m chasing the game a lot. [My] confidence is just getting lower and lower — like everybody, I feel like — but it’s just how it is.” Chicago’s 2.32 goals per game are 31st in the league, ahead of only the Predators. Their 19.6% power-play success rate, though, is exactly middle of the pack.
Other items of note from Chicagoland:
- With Petr Mrázek back in goal tonight after a brief personal leave, the Blackhawks have returned Drew Commesso to AHL Rockford, per the NHL’s media site. Chicago recalled the 22-year-old on Tuesday to back up Arvid Söderblom against the Stars, but he didn’t enter the game. It’s the third Blackhawks game he’s sat on the bench for this season without playing. Their current lone AHL recall option with Laurent Brossoit on the shelf has a 3.71 GAA, .854 SV%, and a 2-4-0 record in six games for Rockford this season.
- Keep Flyers center Morgan Frost in mind as a potential trade pickup for Chicago general manager Kyle Davidson, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet opined Thursday. Frost is now fully in trade speculation after sitting in the press box for four of Philadelphia’s last five games, and the 25-year-old has just one goal and six points in 16 games on the year and is seeing his lowest average ice time since the 2021-22 campaign. The Blackhawks are casting a wider net in their search to add down the middle, but Friedman zeroed in on Frost as an age-appropriate option for their rebuild without too high of an acquisition cost.
Alex Ovechkin Out 4-6 Weeks With Left Fibula Fracture
Nov. 21, 4:41 p.m.: Additional testing revealed a left fibula fracture for Ovechkin, per the team. He’ll miss the next four to six weeks, putting his return around Christmas at the earliest. He was already moved to injured reserve.
Nov. 19, 11:33 a.m.: It’s a lower leg injury for Ovechkin that will leave him out on a week-to-week basis, the Caps announced. He’ll undergo additional evaluation tomorrow.
Nov. 19, 8:59 a.m.: Capitals star Alex Ovechkin is being evaluated for a lower-body injury after leaving last night’s game against Utah following a knee-on-knee collision with Jack McBain, head coach Spencer Carbery told reporters postgame, including Tarik El-Bashir of Monumental Sports Network.
The Capitals will likely issue a further update on Ovechkin’s status at some point on Tuesday, Carbery said. He left the game early in the third period after his and McBain’s left legs inadvertently collided while Ovechkin was attempting to carry the puck out of the Washington zone (video via Sportsnet). The 39-year-old tried to remain on the bench, but after testing out his leg during a stoppage in play, he went to the room.
It puts a significant damper on a monster season for the future Hall-of-Famer. After scoring twice last night, Ovechkin had five goals in his previous two outings to accelerate him to the top of the NHL leaderboard with 15 in just 18 games. Not only is he on pace to break Wayne Gretzky‘s record of 894 career goals this season, he’s currently tracking to become the oldest player ever to lead the NHL in goals while also breaking Gordie Howe‘s record for most goals by a player in their age-39 season with 39.
Ovechkin missing any length of time puts all those marks in jeopardy. Injuries have been a rare occurrence for the 2004 first-overall pick, who’s played in 1,444 of a possible 1,503 regular-season games over his 20-year career. His last injury absence was a three-gamer in January 2024 due to a lower-body issue, and he’s never missed more than six consecutive games in his career.
In addition to his 868 overall goals, Ovechkin is also the active leader in even-strength goals (547) and game-winning goals (132). His 316 power-play goals and 6,690 shots on goal are already league records.
His potential injury also deprives the Caps of their best goal-scoring weapon amid an incredibly resurgent start to the season. After barely making the postseason in 2023-24 with a shocking -37 goal differential, Washington is 13-4-1, has the league’s best offense and eighth-ranked defense, and ranks second in the Metropolitan Division with a .750 points percentage.
If Ovechkin is set to miss any length time, all eyes will immediately turn to Dylan Strome, who leads the team with 22 assists and 28 points and a +18 rating. While his breakout has certainly helped The Great Eight along in his chase for the all-time record, Strome’s point totals have almost certainly benefitted in kind from having the Russian on his wing. How much of that pace he can keep up remains to be seen, while others like Connor McMichael (12 goals, 19 points) and Aliaksei Protas (seven goals, 18 points) will need to keep up their scorching pace to help the Caps stay in contention for the Metro title.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Golden Knights Recall Robert Hägg
The Golden Knights announced Thursday that they’ve recalled defenseman Robert Hägg from AHL Henderson. They returned winger Jonas Røndbjerg to Henderson after a brief recall to create a spot on the active roster, per the NHL’s media site.
Vegas was carrying 15 forwards and six defensemen, so the swap gives them an extra defenseman for the four remaining games on their road trip. Nicolas Hague is dealing with an undisclosed injury and has been on injured reserve for nearly two weeks, while the team placed Ben Hutton on LTIR on Tuesday after he sustained an upper-body injury against the Capitals over the weekend.
It’s Hägg’s first time being recalled since clearing waivers and heading to the AHL during preseason. The 29-year-old lefty signed a one-way, league-minimum deal on the second day of free agency to give Vegas some reinforcements on the back end, although it was clear he was low enough on their depth chart heading into camp that he would end up on waivers despite the one-way structure indicating otherwise.
Hägg has nearly 350 games of NHL experience, although his five appearances with the Ducks last year were his fewest since 2016-17, indicative of his decline into a minor-league fixture. He’s one of just four players to play in all 14 games for Henderson so far this season, ranking second among their defensemen in scoring with eight points (1 G, 7 A) and a -1 rating.
Meanwhile, Røndbjerg’s second recall of the young season ends without an appearance. The 25-year-old Dane appeared twice for Vegas earlier this month, posting a -1 rating in under 15 minutes of total ice time. The 2017 third-round pick has six points in 10 games for Henderson.
Oilers Place Viktor Arvidsson On Injured Reserve
The Oilers placed winger Viktor Arvidsson on IR today, per a team announcement. The placement is retroactive to Nov. 12, so he can be activated at any time. Defenseman Josh Brown was recalled in a corresponding transaction after being sent down to AHL Bakersfield last night.
Arvidsson, 31, has already missed four games with an undisclosed injury and will miss a fifth tonight when Edmonton hosts the Wild. After signing a two-year, $8MM contract in free agency, the 5’9″ Swede has been limited to two goals and three assists for five points in 16 games despite spending most of his time on Leon Draisaitl‘s wing.
It’s certainly not the level of production the Oilers expected out of Arvidsson, who had been an effective top-nine piece for the Kings over the past few seasons. Back surgery and a lower-body injury limited him to 18 appearances last season, but he still managed to record six goals and nine assists for 15 points. He was coming off a 26-goal, 59-point campaign the year prior, just two points short of his career-high set with the Predators in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 campaigns.
He’s not the only top-six forward that Edmonton will be down tonight. Zach Hyman will miss the next four to seven days with the undisclosed injury he sustained against the Senators on Tuesday, head coach Kris Knoblauch told Mark Spector of Sportsnet. Neither Arvidsson nor Hyman will return for Saturday’s game against the Rangers, but both could be options when Edmonton returns to action against Utah after Thanksgiving.
As for Brown’s recall, it’s uncertain if he’ll play after suiting up as a seventh defenseman in each of their last two games. The Oilers now have 12 forwards available on the active roster after recalling Drake Caggiula earlier Thursday, and Kasperi Kapanen has joined the team after being claimed off waivers from the Blues earlier in the week.
Brown logged 7 PIMs and averaged 11:29 per game across Edmonton’s back-to-back earlier this week, his first NHL appearance since inking a three-year, $3MM contract over the summer. The 30-year-old landed on waivers before the season started and has spent most of his time in Bakersfield, where he has two assists and a +5 rating in 12 games.