Lightning Recall Conor Geekie, Jakob Pelletier, Dylan Duke
April 8th: According to a team announcement, the Lightning have sent Duke back to AHL Syracuse. He skated in 9:22 of action last night against the Senators, earning a -1 rating while going scoreless.
April 7th: The Lightning have added forwards Conor Geekie, Jakob Pelletier, and Dylan Duke on recall from AHL Syracuse ahead of tonight’s game against the Senators, Erik Erlendsson of Lightning Insider reports. They’ve reassigned winger Mitchell Chaffee to Syracuse in a corresponding move, Erlendsson adds.
All the roster shuffling comes on the heels of the Bolts’ banged-up forward corps sustaining another injury last night against the Sabres. Pontus Holmberg was checked into the penalty box door as the attendant was opening it for Buffalo’s Zach Benson to return to play in the third period after his roughing penalty had expired. He sustained an apparent left shoulder/upper arm injury on the play and was seen in a sling postgame, per John Wawrow of the Associated Press.
There’s no timeline for his return yet, although it stands to reason Holmberg will be unavailable tonight. With Anthony Cirelli and Brandon Hagel already sidelined with short-term issues, the trio of recalls plus Chaffee’s demotion leaves them with an extra healthy forward.
Geekie sees his second recall of the season as Tampa looks to remain narrowly ahead of the Sabres and Canadiens for the Atlantic Division crown. The 2022 11th overall pick was acquired from Utah in the Mikhail Sergachev trade in 2024 and remains the Bolts’ top prospect. He’s still scratching the surface at the NHL level, but has been a dominant two-way piece throughout his junior and now minor-league career. This year, he’s lighting it up with a 17-42–59 scoring line in 56 AHL games, along with a +13 rating that ranks sixth on the team.
Geekie’s only other recall this season, aside from his brief stint on the roster after making it on opening night, came in early March when Dominic James went down with a leg injury that required surgery. He headed back to Syracuse 11 days later once Nick Paul was ready to come off injured reserve. He managed one assist in five games, bringing his season total up to two and 11, respectively. Even with so many mounting injuries, don’t expect head coach Jon Cooper to use Geekie in high-leverage situations. He hasn’t shown a willingness to recently, averaging only 12:20 of ice time per game last year and just 9:51 this season.
As for Pelletier, the 25-year-old signed one of the more unusual contracts of the 2025 offseason. He agreed to a three-year, league-minimum deal with Tampa after being non-tendered by the Flyers, who had acquired him just months earlier from the Flames in the Morgan Frost/Joel Farabee deal. The 2019 first-round pick is technically on a two-way deal this year before converting to a one-way pact for 2026-27 and 2027-28, but he still has enough pro experience to require waivers.
Pelletier cleared without incident in the preseason, and a handful of teams are likely regretting not putting in a claim. With 28 goals and 75 points in 61 games for Syracuse, he’s well set up to take home the AHL’s scoring crown. It’ll be the second time he’s hit over a point per game in the AHL and has brought his career average there up to 1.03.
Perhaps the most quintessential example of a ‘AAAA’ player in hockey, he still hasn’t managed to latch onto a full-time NHL job. Over the past four seasons, he has a respectable 11 goals and 29 points in 88 games while averaging a shade under 12 minutes per night. His 5’10”, 172-lb frame doesn’t lend him toward being a bottom-six checking threat, though, and his 1.26 career shots on goal per game are low for a player who’s made such a living putting up points in the AHL.
He may get another look tonight as the Bolts face a decision on whether or not to expose him to waivers again in the fall. He could be a natural low-cost replacement for pending UFA Oliver Bjorkstrand, who has essentially transitioned into a power-play specialist for Tampa this season.
Not to be overlooked is Duke, the Bolts’ fourth-round pick in 2021. The former Michigan standout has now had a pair of productive seasons to begin his pro career in Syracuse, upping his production to 31 goals and 55 points in 67 outings this season. This is his first recall of the year, but he did score a goal across a pair of games in his NHL debut late last season.
Given his lack of experience, though, he’s the likeliest candidate to sit in the press box tonight if the Bolts end up having a healthy extra to spare. Their clash with the Senators has a 31-point swing on their chances of finishing first in the division, while it’s got a 29% swing on Ottawa’s playoff hopes. A win for Tampa would move their Atlantic title chances up to 73%, a win for the Senators boosts their playoff odds to 85%, per MoneyPuck.
Canucks Denied Predators Permission To Speak To Ryan Johnson
The Predators had interest in discussing their general manager opening with Canucks assistant GM Ryan Johnson, but were denied permission by Vancouver, Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK reports. As Thomas Drance of The Athletic adds, that stems from a willingness to keep Johnson in the conversation as a promotion candidate to replace Patrik Allvinas the Canucks’ GM if they decide to move in a different direction.
Not to be confused with Sabres defense prospect Ryan Johnson, the Vancouver exec played over 700 NHL games as a center with the Panthers, Lightning, Blues, Canucks, and Blackhawks from 1997 to 2011. After retiring as a player with the Hawks, Johnson returned to B.C. as a development coach two years later. He’s remained in the organization ever since.
Johnson has seen a ladder of promotions over the years. In 2015, he was promoted to assistant director of player development. Two years later, he had the assistant dropped from his title and also took over as the GM of their AHL affiliate, a role he still holds today. The Canucks made him a special assistant to Allvin in 2022, then formalized him as one of Allvin’s assistants in 2024.
While the Canucks’ AHL farm in Abbotsford is wrapping up a season nearly as dreadful as their NHL parent’s, Johnson did help build them into a Calder Cup winner just last year. Since taking over as the minor-league GM (then affiliated with the Utica Comets) back in 2017, Vancouver’s AHL teams have amassed a record of 309-227-57 (.569) under Johnson.
As for Nashville, they still have several other candidates in the running to succeed Barry Trotz. Several other AGMs around the league are believed to be in contention, plus a new face in the equation after the Devils fired former Predators captain Tom Fitzgerald earlier this week.
Sabres Reassign Radim Mrtka To AHL
The Sabres have reassigned top defense prospect Radim Mrtka to AHL Rochester to finish the season, per a team announcement. He had been on loan to his junior team, the Seattle Thunderbirds of the Western Hockey League.
Unlike most players making the jump from juniors to the AHL this time of year, Mrtka won’t be making his pro debut, or even his season debut for Rochester when he inevitably suits up. Last year’s ninth overall pick only spent a portion of the season with Seattle, playing the other half with HC Ocelari Trinec in his native Czechia, meaning he isn’t subject to the NHL’s transfer agreement with the Canadian Hockey League. As such, the Sabres had a choice during training camp whether to cut him to Rochester or Seattle.
They initially chose the former. The two-way Mrtka, who checks in at 6’6″ and 218 lbs, ended up with one assist and an even rating through only four games before Buffalo decided a full year of WHL top-pairing deployment and domination would be the better path for his development.
Mrtka’s physical dominance was on full display. Buffalo was likely hoping for more of a production jump out of him, however. After posting a 3-32–35 scoring line in 43 games for the Thunderbirds last season, he had a strikingly similar output of 1-33–34 in 43 outings this time around. He also went without a point in five games for the Czechs at the World Juniors.
Mrtka was still far and away the best defender on a Seattle blue line that didn’t have much else to offer. They’re hoping his relative lack of point production was a result of the Thunderbirds “only” scoring 3.28 goals per game, a pedestrian figure by WHL standards.
He’ll now return to Rochester as they look to wrap up a likely berth in the Calder Cup Playoffs in the coming days. An especially strong training camp could vault him into the conversation for a roster spot in the fall, but it’s more likely he’ll be heading back to Rochester before being a more serious competitor for an NHL job in 2027-28.
NHL Announces 2026 Masterton Trophy Nominees
Each year, the Masterton Trophy is awarded by the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association “to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to ice hockey.” Voting isn’t done at large; one player from all 32 teams is nominated by their local media chapter. That eventually gets narrowed to three finalists and a winner closer to the awards ceremony, but today, each club announced who they’re putting up for this year’s honor:
Avalanche: F Gabriel Landeskog
Blackhawks: G Spencer Knight
Blue Jackets: F Boone Jenner
Blues: G Jordan Binnington
Bruins: D Charlie McAvoy
Canadiens: D Mike Matheson
Canucks: G Kevin Lankinen
Capitals: F Alex Ovechkin
Devils: D Brenden Dillon
Ducks: G Ville Husso
Flames: G Devin Cooley
Flyers: F Garrett Wilson
Golden Knights: G Akira Schmid
Hurricanes: F Taylor Hall
Islanders: F Kyle Palmieri
Jets: F Jonathan Toews
Kings: F Anže Kopitar
Kraken: F Jordan Eberle
Lightning: D Darren Raddysh
Mammoth: F Clayton Keller
Maple Leafs: D Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Oilers: G Connor Ingram
Panthers: F Brad Marchand
Penguins: F Anthony Mantha
Predators: F Ozzy Wiesblatt
Rangers: D Matthew Robertson
Red Wings: F Dominik Shine
Sabres: D Rasmus Dahlin
Senators: G Linus Ullmark
Sharks: G Laurent Brossoit
Stars: F Jamie Benn
Wild: G Jesper Wallstedt
Penguins Reassign Mikhail Ilyin To AHL
The Penguins announced that they’ve recalled forward prospect Mikhail Ilyin from his loan to Severstal Cherepovets of the Kontinental Hockey League. He was subsequently assigned to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, where he’ll finish the 2025-26 season.
Pittsburgh selected Ilyin, 21, in the fifth round in 2023. The 6’0″ winger has done nothing but be a consistently growing producer ever since, graduating from the middle of Cherepovets’ lineup into a core offensive threat. A cerebral two-way piece, Ilyin split his draft year between a 13th forward KHL role and top-line time in the Russian junior circuit but ended up contending for a full-time job with Severstal in his age-19 season, a rare feat for a player taken that late in the draft.
Ilyin had 12 goals and 29 points in 65 games in his post-draft year before upping that overall scoring line to seven goals and 30 points in 64 games in 2024-25. Those back-to-back seasons of legitimate production were enough for the Penguins to offer Ilyin an entry-level contract. He put pen to paper on it as soon as the KHL league year ended, but was ultimately loaned back to Severstal anyway, with Pittsburgh’s AHL roster not in dire need of his services.
It turned out to be the right move. In his third full season with Cherepovets, Ilyin set career highs with 14 goals, 30 assists, and 44 points in 68 games en route to a KHL All-Star Game selection. With two years now left on his entry-level deal, it stands to reason the Pens would like to keep him in North America next season to see how his playmaking and defensive game adjust.
For now, Ilyin will get the chance to get a preview of life in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. The Baby Pens are headed to the Calder Cup Playoffs, so he could get some more postseason experience after Cherepovets was recently bounced in the first round of the KHL playoffs.
Senators Reassign Carter Yakemchuk
The Senators announced this morning that they’ve reassigned defense prospect Carter Yakemchuk to AHL Belleville. His demotion likely means Dennis Gilbert could be an option tomorrow against the Panthers after he returned to practice in a regular jersey earlier in the week.
Ottawa likely wasn’t planning on giving Yakemchuk, the seventh overall pick in 2024, an extended NHL look until next season. He’s had a rocky defensive performance in Belleville this year. Nonetheless, their rash of injuries on the blue line forced their hand. Yakemchuk stepped into four straight contests for the Sens after his late-March recall before landing on the injured list himself because he entered concussion protocol. After missing the last four, his demotion today implies he’d passed the necessary tests and is cleared to return.
Yakemchuk debuted with a bang, recording a goal, assist, and a +2 rating in just 12:46 of ice time in a key regulation win over the Red Wings back on March 24. In the three games following, his performances were considerably more measured. He was held off the scoresheet and logged a -3 rating, three shots on goal, two blocks, and five giveaways with zero takeaways.
The 20-year-old righty’s possession numbers were ghastly, as well. Despite receiving extremely sheltered usage – 81% of his 5-on-5 starts came in the offensive end – the Sens only controlled 43.4% of shot attempts with Yakemchuk on the ice.
It’s clear that, with a playoff berth on the line, the Sens would prefer not to have such an inexperienced, albeit high-ceiling name, in the lineup for their final four games. The club’s top blue line prospect has 10 goals and 36 points in 50 games with Belleville this season to lead the club in scoring among rearguards, but also owns a team-worst -30 rating. As such, they’ll likely look to get him at least one more full year of defensive development in the AHL before trying to work him into a full-time role in 2027-28.
Gilbert, 29, had been out for the last nine games with an upper-body injury. He was summoned from Belleville in early March after Jake Sanderson went down with his injury. While Sanderson’s returned, Thomas Chabot and Tyler Kleven are now sidelined, so the veteran lefty will stay up for now.
Gilbert’s return is of particular importance as the Sens haven’t been able to dress multiple left-shot defenders in a game since Chabot fractured his right forearm back on March 23. Kleven was their only healthy lefty after that, and Sanderson didn’t return until after Kleven went down with an upper-body injury.
Now in his seventh NHL season, Gilbert posted one assist and an even rating across six games last month while averaging 11:22 per night. The 6’2″, 216-lb shutdown threat owns a career 3-18–21 scoring line and a -18 rating in 117 career NHL appearances with the Blackhawks, Avalanche, Flames, Sabres, and Senators.
Alex Ovechkin Won’t Make Retirement Decision Until Offseason
Capitals legend Alex Ovechkin has continually kicked the can down the road on the concept of retirement over the past several months. The pending unrestricted free agent did so again today, telling John Walton of Monumental Sports Network that he won’t make a call on his future until this summer.
“Not yet,” Ovechkin said when prompted directly about retirement. “We’re going to make a decision in the summer. I have to talk to my family, with Ted [Leonsis, Capitals owner], with [GM Chris Patrick and POHO Brian MacLellan].”
When asked about the most important factor in his decision, Ovechkin said it would be his health. “I’m going to be 41 years old in September, so you just have to be smart about it.”
Of course, Ovechkin’s age-40 season has included his hallmark durability. He’s played in all 78 games for the Caps, albeit averaging a more conservative 17:29 per game, while maintaining his usual position as the team’s scoring leader with 31 goals and 61 points. While it’s the lowest points-per-game figure of his 21-year career, that’s perhaps more indicative of Washington’s offensive struggles as a whole: the team is only scoring 3.15 goals per game after reaching 3.49 last season.
Ovechkin’s decline has been remarkably slow, but it is still evident. He’s only averaging 2.91 shots on goal per game this season, a career low by a wide margin. His physicality isn’t there either, hovering at a career-low 1.64 hits per game.
That’s all to be expected. The fact that he’s still a clear-cut top-six contributor at this stage of his career is remarkable in its own right. He’s in the final year of the five-year, $47.5MM deal he inked in 2021 and will presumably only sign a one-year deal if he does opt to return, likely at a reduced cap hit from his current $9.5MM impact. Defensive warts notwithstanding, he’d still be an effective top-nine piece at worst next year if he stays on his current trajectory.
The question isn’t whether he can, it’s whether he believes it’s a good idea. Ovechkin has long maintained the wish to play at least one full season back home in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League before hanging up the skates for good. Doing so while he could still conceivably be an All-Star level threat there is no doubt of interest to him.
Image courtesy of Danny Wild-Imagn Images.
Maple Leafs Reassign Luke Haymes, William Villeneuve
The Maple Leafs assigned forward Luke Haymes and defenseman William Villeneuve to AHL Toronto on Wednesday morning, per a team announcement. There’s a good chance these moves will be reversed later today. The Marlies, still fighting to clinch a Calder Cup Playoffs berth, have a morning home game against the Utica Comets today, allowing the duo to get some game time in there before rejoining Toronto’s NHL roster for their home tilt against the Capitals later tonight.
Haymes was recalled just yesterday. An undrafted free agent signing out of Dartmouth last year, he’s broken out for 17 goals, 15 assists, and 32 points in 63 games for the Marlies in his first professional season. He got to take part in his first NHL practice yesterday but wasn’t a part of regular line rushes, per Mark Masters of TSN, so it’s unlikely he’ll get to make his NHL debut later tonight after suiting up for the Marlies earlier in the day. He’ll likely travel with the team to Long Island with the hope of making his NHL debut tomorrow in New York on the second half of a back-to-back with travel.
The same goes for Villeneuve, who skated on the Leafs’ extra defense pairing yesterday. He’s been on the roster since April 4 but was scratched for the Leafs’ only game since then, an overtime loss to the Kings last Saturday. A fourth-round pick in 2020, that was the first time Villeneuve had even been rostered for an NHL contest, as he closes out his fourth season in the Leafs organization.
Toronto would be remiss to not get the 6’2″ righty into at least one game down the stretch. The 24-year-old has been among the AHL club’s most consistent two-way threats since beginning his pro career in earnest in 2022. The product of the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs has hovered right around half a point per game each season, aside from his 40-point breakout in 55 games last year. His production has regressed this season, but he still owns a 3-25–28 scoring line in 58 games to lead Marlies defensemen.
Capitals Recall Mitch Gibson
The Capitals recalled goaltender Mitch Gibson from AHL Hershey on Tuesday, the team announced. He is expected to dress as Logan Thompson‘s backup tonight against the Maple Leafs after Charlie Lindgren missed yesterday’s practice due to an undisclosed injury, head coach Spencer Carbery said (via Tom Gulitti of NHL.com).
Gibson started the season as Washington’s fifth-string netminder, sitting behind Thompson, Lindgren, and their initial AHL duo of Clay Stevenson and Garin Bjorklund. He wasn’t on an NHL contract, either. He was a fourth-round pick by the Caps in 2018 and has been playing pro in the organization since 2023, but he wasn’t issued a qualifying offer when his two-way deal expired last summer, making him an unrestricted free agent.
Nonetheless, he returned to Hershey on a minor-league deal and was assigned to ECHL South Carolina to start the season. The former ECAC champion with Harvard impressed with a .917 SV% and 2.32 GAA in 13 games before earning a recall to Hershey in December, as an injury to Lindgren caused an organizational domino effect. He’s essentially remained in the AHL ever since, leapfrogging Bjorklund and competing with Stevenson for positioning as Washington’s primary call-up option. In 22 outings with Hershey this season, Gibson has a .907 SV%, 2.79 GAA, and a 9-8-5 record with one shutout.
His numbers in Hershey prompted the Caps to sign him to a two-year, two-way deal in February, regaining his NHL rights and making him a call-up option. He was waived the same day and cleared. This will be the 26-year-old’s first time dressing for an NHL regular-season game; he’d previously only been rostered as a playoff emergency backup.
If Washington decides to shut Lindgren down for the final four games of the regular season, there’s a chance Gibson could make his NHL debut on either half of this weekend’s back-to-back against the Penguins. The Caps aren’t mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, trailing the Senators by five points for the second wild card spot with three other teams to leapfrog; time isn’t on their side. Their chances to make the playoffs are down to 3%, per MoneyPuck, and would only climb to 5% with a win over Toronto tonight.
Oilers Activate Colton Dach From Long-Term Injured Reserve
Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch told reporters Tuesday that forward Colton Dach will be in the lineup tonight against the Mammoth, signaling he’s been activated from long-term injured reserve (via Jack Michaels of Sportsnet).
Dach, acquired from the Blackhawks before the trade deadline along with Jason Dickinson, hasn’t been an option for the last 12 games due to an undisclosed injury. The cap-strapped Oilers were able to quickly place him on LTIR once it was apparent he would miss at least 10 games and 24 days. That was, of course, before Leon Draisaitl‘s injury likely ended his regular season and gave Edmonton plenty of cap relief by virtue of his LTIR placement.
Ice time was limited for the 23-year-old Dach through his first few games in Alberta. The injury abbreviated his third performance, but he still didn’t see over 10 minutes in any of his three outings, averaging 5:24 per game with an assist and a -2 rating.
A 2021 second-round pick by the Blackhawks, he has some offensive upside but his impact for the Oilers, at least at present, will be most felt in his physicality. He’s totaled 10 points and 195 hits in 56 games on the year, a figure that would rank second on the Oilers behind Vasily Podkolzin had he spent the whole season in Edmonton.
Dach will be getting a look as Edmonton’s third-line left wing tonight alongside Dickinson and Trent Frederic. That line has combined for just 10 points in Oilers colors this season, with Frederic’s six points and -17 rating in 69 outings being especially woeful. The Oilers’ lack of production from their bottom six hasn’t stopped them from putting together a 7-3-0 run in their last 10, usurping the Ducks for first place in the Pacific if they can keep pace.