Maple Leafs Notes: Matthews, Jarnkrok, Lorentz, Clifford
Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews sustained a minor upper-body injury during practice Tuesday, head coach Craig Berube said (via The Athletic’s Jonas Siegel). He wasn’t slated to play in tonight’s preseason contest against the Sens anyway, and his absence isn’t expected to stretch into regular-season play.
It’s not a particularly auspicious start for the star centerman, who’s led the league in goals in three of the last four seasons. Last season’s career-high 69 were the most by any player since Mario Lemieux in 1995-96.
One of the league’s most well-rounded players, the 27-year-old Matthews finished fourth in Hart Trophy and third in Selke Trophy voting in 2023-24. He scored and had a +1 rating in Toronto’s 6-5 overtime loss to Ottawa on Sunday.
Other injury updates out of Toronto:
- Versatile depth forward Calle Järnkrok is listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury, the team told David Alter of The Hockey News. Various injuries limited Järnkrok, who turns 33 on Wednesday, to 52 appearances last season, recording 10 goals and 11 assists for 21 points. He’s entering the third season of the four-year, $8.4MM contract he signed with Toronto in free agency in 2022.
- Camp invite Steven Lorentz and AHL depth piece Kyle Clifford were back on the ice today after missing brief sections of camp with upper-body injuries, per Alter. It’s a crucial step for the 28-year-old Lorentz, who’s looking to earn a contract and a roster spot in Toronto after playing a depth role for the Stanley Cup-winning Panthers last season. A fourth-line piece at most, he had three points and a -9 rating in 38 games for Florida. Clifford, 33, is signed with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies this season after posting 28 points in 53 games there last year.
Central Notes: Ferguson, Korchinski, Buchnevich
The AHL’s Iowa Wild have inked goaltender Dylan Ferguson to a one-year deal, relays The Hockey News’ Dylan Loucks.
The 26-year-old joins the Wild organization after the Canucks released him from a professional tryout agreement on Sunday. He briefly provided his services in Vancouver’s camp as starter Thatcher Demko remains out with a lingering knee injury, but he became redundant after the Canucks landed free agent Kevin Lankinen on a one-year, $875K deal over the weekend.
Ferguson, a seventh-round pick of the Stars back in 2017, last saw NHL ice with the Senators in the 2022-23 season. He stopped 78 of 83 shots faced in two late-season starts for a .940 SV%, 2.52 GAA, and a 1-1-0 record.
The British Columbia native spent last season with Belarus’ Dinamo Minsk in the Kontinental Hockey League, recording a .904 SV% and 2.51 GAA in 23 games with a 9-9-0 record. The 2021 ECHL Kelly Cup champion with the Fort Wayne Komets now heads to Iowa, where he’ll compete with Minnesota prospect Samuel Hlavaj and Kyle McClellan to serve as veteran Troy Grosenick‘s backup. All indications point toward the Wild carrying three goalies on their NHL roster to begin the season, meaning top prospect Jesper Wallstedt won’t be back in Iowa.
Elsewhere in the Central Division:
- Training camp line rushes indicate that Blackhawks defender Kevin Korchinski continues to trend toward starting the season in the AHL, The Athletic’s Mark Lazerus points out. He’s been paired with depth defender Louis Crevier in recent scrimmages and “will have to do something spectacular over the next two weeks to earn an NHL job out of camp,” Lazerus said. It’s far from a new development – reports last month indicated this was the likely scenario for the 2022 seventh-overall pick. He managed just 15 points in 76 games with Chicago last season with a -36 rating, and a lengthy stint with the Rockford IceHogs to begin the season would allow him to once again dominate offensively.
- Blues star Pavel Buchnevich is back on the ice at practice Tuesday, relays Lou Korac of The Hockey News and NHL.com. He’d sat out the past couple days after blocking a shot from Stars defenseman Mathew Dumba in Saturday’s 2-1 exhibition game loss. It’s an important training camp for the natural winger, who projects to start the season at center after signing a six-year, $48MM extension over the summer.
Metropolitan Notes: Holmström, Martin, Flyers, Nadeau
At long last, Islanders forward Simon Holmström appears ready to push for a top-six role. Head coach Patrick Roy thinks so, at least, he told The Hockey News’ Stefen Rosner.
Holmström, the Isles’ 2019 first-round pick, has established himself as a full-time NHLer over the past two seasons. But he’s been used almost exclusively as a bottom-six option at even strength with some fringe penalty-killing usage as well.
He began to flash some extended offensive upside last season, recording 15 goals and 25 points in 75 games. Those aren’t top-six totals on a playoff team, nor was Holmström ever drafted to be a true game-breaker on the scoresheet, but he’s showing the “compete level” necessary to flash his puck skills more often and fit better in a complementary role alongside Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri, Roy said.
More from the Metropolitan Division:
- Expect Matt Martin‘s professional tryout with the Isles to last past when opening night rosters are due on Oct. 7, Rosner and The Hockey News’ Kai Russell write. Players can remain with a team’s practice group, just not game action, on PTOs up until the trade deadline. The Bruins took advantage of this tactic last season, keeping Danton Heinen around on his PTO for almost a month into the season before they created the cap space necessary to sign him to a contract. The Islanders, which currently have exactly $0 in cap space with an open roster spot (PuckPedia), may need to do the same if they want to bring the 35-year-old back for his 14th season on Long Island.
- Early line rushes in camp suggest Flyers Calder Trophy candidate Matvei Michkov will start his first NHL season in a second-line role at right wing alongside Tyson Foerster and Morgan Frost, The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz writes. Meanwhile, Noah Cates may fall victim to the press box early on in the season after finishing ninth in Calder voting and 15th in Selke Trophy voting just two seasons ago. The 25-year-old has had a continually diminishing impact as the Flyers have built out the rest of their forward corps, seeing his ATOI drop from 17:46 in his rookie season to 13:48 last season.
- Seth Jarvis‘ pathway to the NHL offers hope for Hurricanes winger Bradly Nadeau and his chances of cracking the opening night roster, opines Chip Alexander of The Raleigh News & Observer. Both first-round picks, Jarvis cracked Carolina’s roster as a 19-year-old in his second season after being drafted, skipping the AHL and landing a full-time role in the NHL directly out of juniors. Nadeau has faced older competition, recording 46 points in 37 NCAA games last season for the University of Maine before signing his entry-level contract and making his NHL debut in Carolina’s final game of the regular season.
Training Camp Cuts: 9/23/24
Training camp cuts continue Monday across the league, mostly involving fringe prospects being returned to their junior teams. As always, we’re keeping track of today’s moves with this article, which will be updated throughout the day.
Colorado Avalanche (per team announcement)
F Chad Hillebrand (released from PTO to AHL Colorado)
D Devante Stephens (released from PTO to AHL Colorado)
D Saige Weinstein (to WHL Spokane)
Los Angeles Kings (per team announcement)
F Cole Davis (released from ATO to OHL Windsor)
F Ethan Neutens (released from ATO to WHL Kelowna)
F Oliver Tulk (released from ATO to WHL Calgary)
D Corbin Vaughan (released from ATO to WHL Regina)
F Luke Woodworth (released from ATO to QMJHL Drummondville)
Nashville Predators (per team announcement)
F Kalan Lind (to WHL Red Deer)
D Dylan MacKinnon (to QMJHL Moncton)
F Miguel Marques (to WHL Lethbridge)
G Jakub Milota (to QMJHL Cape Breton)
F Joey Willis (to OHL Saginaw)
New York Rangers (per team announcement)
G Hugo Ollas (to AHL Hartford)
Ottawa Senators (per team announcement)
D Matthew Andonovski (to OHL Kitchener)
F Lucas Ellinas (to OHL Kitchener)
D Gabriel Eliasson (to SHL HV71)
D Filip Nordberg (to USHL Sioux Falls)
San Jose Sharks (per Max Miller of The Hockey News/NHL.com)
D Jérémie Bucheler (released from PTO to AHL San Jose)
F Nolan Burke (to AHL San Jose)
F Joe Carroll (released from PTO to AHL San Jose)
G Dawson Cowan (released from ATO to WHL Spokane)
G Aaron Dell (released from PTO to AHL San Jose) – per Curtis Pashelka of the Bay Area News Group
F Luke Grainger (released from PTO to AHL San Jose)
D Gannon Laroque (to AHL San Jose)
F Ivan Lodnia (released from PTO)
D Nate Misskey (to WHL Victoria)
F Nathan Pilling (released from ATO to WHL Victoria)
D Colton Roberts (to WHL Vancouver)
F Donavan Villeneuve-Houle (released from PTO to AHL San Jose)
F Carson Wetsch (to WHL Calgary)
Seattle Kraken (per team announcement)
D Alexis Bernier (to QMJHL Baie-Comeau)
F Clarke Caswell (to WHL Swift Current)
D Lukas Dragicevic (to WHL Prince Albert)
D Jakub Fibigr (to OHL Brampton)
D Kaden Hammell (to WHL Everett)
F Ollie Josephson (to WHL Red Deer)
D Tyson Jugnauth (to WHL Portland)
F Andrei Loshko (to OHL Niagara)
F Julius Miettinen (to WHL Everett)
D Caden Price (to WHL Kelowna)
Vegas Golden Knights (per team announcement)
F Mikael Huchette (to USports Concordia)
D Viliam Kmec (to WHL Prince George)
D Mazden Leslie (to WHL Vancouver)
F Jacob Mathieu (to QMJHL Rimouski)
F Shane Smith (to WHL Medicine Hat)
F Tuomas Uronen (to OHL Kingston)
Golden Knights Sign Viliam Kmec To Entry-Level Contract
The Golden Knights have signed defenseman Viliam Kmec to a three-year, entry-level contract, general manager Kelly McCrimmon announced Monday.
Kmec, 20, lands his first professional contract after being passed over for the third straight draft in June. He’s been in the Vegas organization unofficially for the past few months, receiving invites to their July development camp and this month’s rookie camp before being extended an amateur tryout for training camp.
The right-shot defender checks in at 6’3″ and 209 lbs, already boasting pro-ready size. That’s an appealing package when combined with his strong all-around performance for the WHL’s Prince George Cougars. Over the past two seasons, Kmec – a stay-at-home defender by trade – still managed 66 points in 118 games with a combined +63 rating.
Prince George’s three 20-year-old slots are full, so Kmec won’t be heading back to juniors for a fourth season. Instead, all signs point to the Golden Knights assigning him to their AHL affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights, when they decide to cut him from their training camp roster.
The Slovakia native is a nice under-the-radar add to a Golden Knights prospect pool that ranked 27th in the league in Elite Prospects’ 2024 rankings. He’s suited up for Slovakia at the past three World Junior Championships, totaling six points and a -1 rating in 14 games.
Matt Boldy Out Week-To-Week With Lower-Body Injury
Wild winger Matt Boldy is listed as week-to-week with a lower-body injury, the team announced Monday. He was an unexpected absence from today’s practice and there’s no clarity on when he sustained the injury. He’s expected to return by the end of training camp and should be ready for opening night, head coach John Hynes said (via Sarah McLellan of the Minnesota Star Tribune).
It’s tough news for Minnesota, which missed out on the playoffs last season for just the second time since 2012. Their poor record was largely due to injuries. Captain Jared Spurgeon was limited to just 16 games, while core pieces Jonas Brodin and Mats Zuccarello also missed significant chunks of the campaign.
Boldy, the No. 12 pick in the 2019 draft, has quickly grown into a core piece for the Wild in his own right. The 23-year-old set career highs last season with 40 assists and 69 points in 75 games, finishing second on the team in scoring behind Kirill Kaprizov.
He shoots the puck with aplomb – his 595 shots on goal rank 40th in the league since he made his NHL debut on Jan. 6, 2022. His strong offensive showing has been backed up by good possession metrics. The Wild have controlled 53.2% of shot attempts and 56.1% of expected goals with Boldy on the ice at even strength over the past three seasons, per Hockey Reference.
Boldy’s importance is magnified on a Wild roster that doesn’t have a ton of other high-skill scoring threats. A potential season-opening absence puts even more pressure on the likes of Kaprizov and the aging Zuccarello to put up points.
There will be a few options to take Boldy’s place in Minnesota’s top six if he’s not ready for opening night. The most intriguing is certainly Liam Ohgren, Minnesota’s first-rounder in 2022. The sharp-shooting Swede made his NHL debut at the tail end of last season, posting a goal and an assist in four games. He’s a likely candidate for a roster spot for no other reason than his cheap entry-level cap hit, but a short-term vacancy higher up in the lineup could be his to fill, at least to start. The 20-year-old had 12 goals and 19 points in 26 games while on loan to Sweden’s Färjestad BK last season.
Boldy is entering the second year of a seven-year, $49MM extension he signed in January 2023.
Antti Raanta Signs In Switzerland
Veteran netminder Antti Raanta has signed a one-year contract with Genève-Servette HC of the Swiss National League, per a club announcement. The move comes after Raanta indicated last week his next deal would come in Europe, effectively announcing his retirement from NHL play.
The Geneva-based club moved to sign Raanta after backup netminder Gauthier Descloux sustained an injury last weekend that will keep him out indefinitely, the team said. Raanta will support 34-year-old incumbent starter Robert Mayer, who was the NL’s Goalie of the Year in 2023 and has a sparkling .923 SV% through Geneva’s first two regular-season contests.
It wasn’t surprising to see Raanta, now 35, put an end to his NHL career due to a lack of interest in him for full-time roles. Interested parties were looking at keeping Raanta in the organization as a third-string option, an understandable assumption after he posted a crater-like .872 SV% in 24 games behind the defensively stout Hurricanes last season. Instead, he’ll now land a full-time tandem role with one of Europe’s better teams. Geneva won the NL title in 2023 and won the Champions Hockey League last season and boasts NHL-experienced talent such as Markus Granlund and Sami Vatanen.
An undrafted free agent signing by the Blackhawks in 2013 out of Finland’s Ässät, Raanta went on to make 277 NHL appearances in parts of 11 seasons. Despite how last season ended, he was an extremely serviceable, if not above-average, netminder when healthy. He owns a career record of 139-80-29 with 20 shutouts, a 2.48 GAA, and .915 SV%.
Chris Tierney Signs With Dinamo Minsk
Free agent center Chris Tierney has signed a one-year deal in the Kontinental Hockey League with Belarus’ Dinamo Minsk, the team announced Monday on Telegram.
Tierney, 30, was one of three UFA centers remaining who logged significant NHL time last season and the only one who wasn’t in an NHL training camp on a professional tryout. He was a serviceable fourth-line piece for the Devils last season, recording 12 points in 52 games with a +3 rating while averaging a career-low 9:02 per game, winning 57.2% of his draws.
A second-round pick of the Sharks back in 2012, Tierney grew into a full-time NHLer down the stretch of his first professional season two years later and never looked back. Within a few years, he was one of the league’s premier third-line centers, capping off his tenure in San Jose with a career-high 17 goals and 40 points in 2017-18.
The Sharks traded Tierney to the Senators the following offseason in the blockbuster swap that sent Erik Karlsson to the Bay Area. Early on, Tierney was a serviceable middle-six piece for Ottawa, averaging north of 17 minutes per game during his first two seasons in the Canadian capital and averaging 0.56 points per game.
But after the pandemic hit, Tierney’s offense dropped off. He was limited to only 12 goals and 37 points in 125 contests over the 2020-21 and 2021-22 campaigns while seeing his ice time drop accordingly. Following the expiry of a two-year, $7MM contract, Tierney had to settle for a two-way deal with the Panthers for 2022-23. He split his brief tenure in Florida between the Panthers and their AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers, before he was claimed off waivers by the Canadiens in February. He finished out the year with seven points in 23 games for Montreal, doing well to rebuild his stock somewhat and stick in the NHL with New Jersey last season.
He wasn’t so lucky this summer, though. With presumably no NHL offers, the Ontario native lands in Minsk to continue his career. He becomes the eighth player with NHL experience on Dinamo’s roster, joining Dillon Dubé, Jordan Gross, Dmitry Korobov, Nicolas Meloche, Xavier Ouellet, Vadim Shipachyov, and Alexander Volkov.
If this marks the end of Tierney’s NHL career, he finishes with 80 goals, 168 assists, 248 points, and a -70 rating in 649 regular-season games.
Predators Sign Hiroki Gojsic To Entry-Level Deal
The Predators have signed forward prospect Hiroki Gojsic to a three-year, entry-level contract, general manager Barry Trotz announced Monday. Financial terms were not disclosed.
It’s a nice reward for Gojsic, who will now likely receive a signing bonus this season after making his preseason debut for Nashville against the Panthers on Sunday. The Predators selected the 18-year-old right winger in the third round of this year’s draft (No. 94 overall).
Gojsic, a British Columbia native, checks in at 6’3″ and 198 lbs. He made his major junior debut for the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets last season, finishing fifth on the team in scoring with 50 points (21 G, 29 A) in 68 games with 51 PIMs and a +5 rating.
Elite Prospects called Gojsic a “powerful winger with an NHL shot” in their 2024 draft guide. While that’s true, his overall defensive awareness and skating don’t yet match the profile of an NHL-projectable power forward. His early showings this season are decent, though – he had two goals and two assists in three games during Nashville’s rookie camp tournament earlier this month.
Gojsic will likely be cut from the Preds’ training camp roster in the next few days and returned to the Rockets, where he’ll likely play the next two seasons in full before turning pro in the Preds organization in 2026. He’s a May birthday, so his deal is eligible for an entry-level slide twice. As long as he plays fewer than 10 NHL games in each of the next two seasons, his ELC won’t go into effect until 2026-27, making him a restricted free agent after the 2028-29 campaign.
Morning Notes: Red Wings, Lardis, Offer Sheets
Expect the Red Wings to open the season once again with three goalies on their opening night roster, writes Max Bultman of The Athletic.
As general manager Steve Yzerman has said this offseason, there’s a lot of waiver math that will factor into what Detroit’s 23-player list looks like when rosters are due Oct. 7. Unless a prospect forces their hand, they’ll turn in the combination of players that requires exposing the least amount of talent to the wire – likely resulting in three goalies and eight defensemen opening night without an extra forward.
“There was no indication in [rookie camp in] Traverse City” that fringe forward prospects Nate Danielson, Marco Kasper, or Carter Mazur were close to winning out a roster spot, Bultman said, although they’ll still get some looks during the preseason. If they do make a waiver placement to free up a roster spot for one of the three or PTO candidate Austin Watson, though, expect it to be netminder Ville Husso, he added. The 29-year-old is coming off an injury-plagued season that limited him to 19 games played with a .892 SV% and a 9-5-2 record. That would allow them to avoid placing defense prospect Albert Johansson on waivers, who’ll likely start the season in the NHL now that he’s no longer waiver-exempt.
More from around the league this morning:
- While not a candidate for a roster spot just yet, Blackhawks prospect Nick Lardis is impressing this month, The Athletic’s Scott Powers writes. “…When it comes to the future, no player may have done as much to build expectations as Lardis in recent weeks,” said Powers. “What Lardis has shown with his shot, quickness and hockey IQ in the last two weeks has Chicago management even more excited for his eventual NHL arrival.” Lardis, a 19-year-old left winger, will return to the OHL’s Brantford Bulldogs for his fourth season of junior hockey after recording 29 goals and 50 points in only 37 games there last year. He was a third-round pick (No. 67 overall) by Chicago in 2023.
- Opinions around the league are mixed on whether the Blues’ successful acquisition of Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway will lead to an uptick in future summers, reports Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic. Player agents were far more optimistic, with Octagon’s Allan Walsh telling LeBrun that “the barn door has been opened” and that “we’ll certainly be seeing more of them going forward.” GMs Tom Fitzgerald (Devils), Bill Guerin (Wild), Ron Francis (Kraken), and Jim Nill (Stars) all countered with “it’s part of the business”-type sentiments, saying not to expect a material change in how often offer sheets are levied.