Kings Recall Kenny Connors
The Kings announced this afternoon that they’ve recalled center Kenny Connors from AHL Ontario. With Anže Kopitar still on injured reserve, there’s no need for a corresponding move.
Connors, 22, will be making his NHL debut if he gets into a game. The 6’2″ pivot was a fourth-round pick in 2022 from the Dubuque Fighting Saints of the United States Hockey League. He went on to be a key player at UMass for the next three years, including an appearance for the United States at the 2023 World Junior Championship, recording 26 goals and 77 points in 109 career collegiate games. He was named to the Hockey East’s All-Rookie Team in 2022-23 following a 26-point effort as a freshman, but his offensive production remained relatively stagnant from there.
Nonetheless, the Kings liked what they saw from Connors enough in college to offer him an entry-level contract last summer. In his first year pro, he’s been among the better two-way forwards in Ontario with 24 points and a +13 rating in 41 games, which ranks second on the team.
Whether his offensive game will pop enough for him to be a long-term NHL fixture remains to be seen. He’s not considered a top-10 name in the system and was described as a “long [shot] to ever make the big club” by Daily Faceoff’s Steven Ellis just last offseason. Now, he gets his first chance to prove that descriptor wrong.
For now, he gives the Kings a needed option down the middle after Alex Turcotte sustained an upper-body injury in Saturday’s game against the Blues. He’s listed as day-to-day, per the team’s Zach Dooley, and isn’t looking likely to play tomorrow against the Red Wings. With no options on the wing who are natural fits at center, the tea leaves point toward Connors entering the lineup if Turcotte can’t go, especially since Joel Edmundson is also banged up, removing the possibility for head coach Jim Hiller to dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen.
Simon Edvinsson To Remain Out Through Olympic Break
The Red Wings have been without left-shot defender Simon Edvinsson for the past two games due to a lower-body injury, and it doesn’t sound as though he’ll be rejoining the team anytime soon. Head coach Todd McLellan told reporters today, including The Athletic’s Max Bultman, that Edvinsson will be out through the Olympic break.
For a Detroit team thin on defensive depth and in the thick of the race for the Atlantic Division title, it’s a brutal injury. The timing is the only saving grace – Detroit only has five games left before the schedule goes on pause for most of February, so even if Edvinsson is out for over a month of real time, he’ll only miss seven games. Whether he’s able to suit up when the Wings hit the ground running against the Senators on Feb. 26 remains to be seen, but considering he was only listed as day-to-day to start, it seems likely.
Edvinsson, who’ll turn 23 over the break, hasn’t upped his offensive stats from last season’s breakout showing but is taking on increased responsibility as the Wings’ top blue-line support piece to Norris candidate Moritz Seider. That was due in part to a slow start – just one goal and a -3 rating through his first eight games – but his play has stabilized now. Past the halfway point, the 6’6″ Swede has contributed six goals and 11 assists for 17 points in 48 outings with a +6 rating. He’s averaging 22:35 of ice time per game, up more than a minute from last year and top-45 in the league overall.
Selected sixth overall in 2021, Edvinsson’s two-way play has been outstanding. Instead of having him slot in separately from Seider as the Wings did last year, the two have played together at even strength for most of this season with spectacular results. The duo controls 55.3% of expected goals at 5-on-5, per MoneyPuck, and have outscored opponents 31-21. Only Seider has a better shot attempt share on the Wings at even strength beyond Edvinsson’s 51.7%.
Detroit’s gone 1-0-1 so far without Edvinsson, and they’ll hope to keep that record up in the interim. They don’t have many great options to elevate alongside Seider. For now, they’re back to relying on overtaxed veteran Ben Chiarot in those top-pairing duties. He has the worst possession numbers among any Detroit regular on the blue line this season, although his two-way results with Seider have been much improved on years past, with a 53.1 xGF%. If the Wings can keep getting that level of chemistry out of them in the short term, they should be able to navigate this stretch fairly well.
The Wings technically remain in first place in the Atlantic Division with a 32-16-5 record and 69 points, but they’ve trailed the Lightning in points percentage for the last several days by virtue of the Bolts having multiple games in hand. They’ve yet to pull away from them and, with the streaking Sabres hot on both their tails for a top-two spot in the division, an extended losing streak can still spell significant doom with only an eight-point cushion between them and the outside of the playoff picture.
Blue Jackets To Activate Denton Mateychuk From Injured Reserve
The Blue Jackets are expected to activate defenseman Denton Mateychuk from injured reserve in the coming days, per head coach Rick Bowness (via the team’s Jeff Svoboda). He was ticketed to enter the lineup for tonight’s game against the Kings, but that contest has been postponed to March 9 due to inclement weather in Columbus, the league announced. With no roster spots available, they’ll now have until their next game on Wednesday against the Flyers to make a move to activate Mateychuk.
Mateychuk, 21, is in his second NHL season. After being selected 12th overall in the 2022 draft, this year was the first time he made the team out of camp. However, he did record 13 points in 45 games for the Blue Jackets last year after a midseason recall from AHL Cleveland, earning 12th place in Calder Trophy voting.
This season, the 5’11” lefty has done a much more consistent job of flashing his ceiling as a high-end top-four piece. Averaging 20:20 of ice time per game, he’s split the year between playing alongside veteran righty Damon Severson and seeing top-pair duties on his off side with Zach Werenski. He’s third on the team with a +5 rating and has already trounced his offensive production from last season with an 8-13–21 scoring line in 44 games. He’s tied with Blackhawks rookie Artyom Levshunov for fifth in the league in scoring among defensemen 22 or younger.
He’s missed the last six games with an upper-body injury sustained early in a Jan. 11 matchup against the Mammoth. That was Dean Evason’s last game behind the Jackets’ bench before being swapped out for Bowness, so Wednesday will be Mateychuk’s first outing with Columbus’ new boss. With the Blue Jackets’ youngsters largely receiving a longer leash under the new regime, Mateychuk shouldn’t be concerned about his ice time dropping.
Jets Recall Isaak Phillips
The Jets announced they’ve recalled defenseman Isaak Phillips from AHL Manitoba. He was up with them for nine days earlier this month, but since he played twice for Manitoba over the weekend after being sent down Friday, he’s eligible to be recalled again today.
The Blackhawks took Phillips, now 24, in the fifth round of the 2020 draft. He immediately jumped to the pros thanks to the pandemic and remained in the organization until last season, at one point ranking among the team’s top 15 prospects according to the Chicago Sun-Times in 2022. His NHL debut had arrived the season prior, and after he put up five points in 16 games with a 0.4 relative CF% at even strength across multiple call-ups in 2022-23, there were plenty of reasons for optimism.
Unfortunately, Phillips faltered when given a longer leash the following season. He made 36 appearances for Chicago from 2023-25 but managed only seven points with a -26 rating and porous possession metrics, getting outscored 39-13 when he was on the ice at 5-on-5. For a player whose profile was built around his defensive game, his negative net possession impacts during that time sank his momentum. After spending the vast majority of the first half of the 2024-25 campaign in the minors, the Jets acquired him in a prospect-for-prospect swap in January.
Things didn’t go well for Phillips in Manitoba down the stretch, limited to eight points and a -11 rating in 39 games. This season, though, he’s flipped the script. The 6’3″ lefty is amid a resurgent campaign with 15 points in 35 games for the Moose, among the best offensive production of his professional career, along with a +5 rating that ranks near the team lead. That performance got him his first call-up as a Jet earlier this month when Colin Miller hit injured reserve. He played in two of the six games he was rostered for, deployed as a bottom-pairing defensive specialist while averaging just 8:12 of ice time per game.
With Miller, Haydn Fleury, and Neal Pionk still on IR, Phillips will again get the chance to serve as Winnipeg’s extra defenseman and maybe get some playing time as the Jets head out on a four-game road trip that will nearly take them to the Olympic break. He signed a two-year, two-way, $1.625MM deal with a $812.5K AAV as a restricted free agent last summer, so he’s not in a contract year.
Senators Activate Linus Ullmark From Non-Roster List
The Senators have reinstated Linus Ullmark to the active roster for today’s game against the Golden Knights, per Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia. He won’t be getting the start but will serve as the backup to Mads Søgaard.
Tonight will be Ullmark’s first time dressing for a game in nearly a month. After conceding four goals on 14 shots against the Maple Leafs on Dec. 27 and being pulled from the game, he took a personal leave of absence from the team the following day.
He’s been practicing with Ottawa for more than a week to get back into game conditioning, though. He first returned to team skates on Jan. 16 and will likely be ticketed for his first start next Wednesday against the Avalanche without a conditioning stint with AHL Belleville.
Ottawa hasn’t gotten good goaltending out of any personnel they’ve tried this season. It’s toughest to swallow, though, when those numbers are coming from a goalie with the fifth-highest cap hit among active netminders. Even still, Ullmark’s .881 SV% and 2.95 GAA are the best among the five goalies to suit up for the Sens this year, and he’s the only one with a winning record at 14-8-5. Regardless of his struggles, he’s been the Sens’ clear-cut best option this season and will be their best chance to win down the stretch.
While this season looks more and more like a lost one, Ullmark getting his numbers back to last season’s form and retaining his confidence after his reset would bode well for the Sens’ chances of getting back to the playoffs next year. With a .909 SV% and 13.8 goals saved above expected, he was one of the biggest reasons Ottawa ended its eight-year playoff drought in 2024-25.
Image courtesy of John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images.
KHL Notes: Kostin, Wilson, Loktionov, Kisakov
Today was the KHL’s deadline for both trades and free-agent moves, leading to a flurry of activity. Among the notable moves included CSKA Moscow acquiring former first-round pick Klim Kostin from Avangard Omsk.
Kostin, 26, headed back home last summer after being non-tendered by the Sharks. San Jose was his fourth NHL stop after being selected 31st overall by the Blues in 2017, coming after short stints with the Oilers and Red Wings. He only got into 35 games last year and was limited to a goal and seven points, so letting him go in exchange for more roster flexibility was a no-brainer move for San Jose.
Unfortunately for Kostin, his fortunes haven’t changed back in Russia. Drafted as a potential top-nine power forward, his offense simply never developed where it needed to. He was likely hoping a drop in competition against KHL talent compared to NHL players would boost his numbers, but he’s only managed two assists and a -7 rating in 21 outings for Avangard this year.
More out of Russia’s top league:
- Former NHLers Andrei Loktionov and Scott Wilson were swapped for each other, with the former headed from SKA St. Petersburg to Sibir Novosibirsk while Wilson heads to SKA. Both have Stanley Cup rings in depth roles, Loktionov’s coming with the Kings in 2012 and Wilson with the Penguins in 2017. The former is now 35 years old, and while he’d remained a productive piece late into his career, he’s been deeply affected by decline this season and has just one goal in 34 games for SKA. Wilson, who last played in North America in 2022 and is in his fourth KHL season, has 10 goals and 18 points in 43 outings.
- Ex-Sabres prospect Alexander Kisakov is also on the move, going from Dynamo Moscow to Traktor Chelyabinsk in exchange for cash. A second-rounder in 2021, he had just 14 goals and 25 points in 93 games for AHL Rochester before being non-tendered last summer. His return home hasn’t gone well, either. He had just one goal in 17 showings for Dynamo and has even spent some time in the second-tier VHL, where he’s expected to remain with Chelyabinsk’s affiliate, Chelmet.
Wild Reassign David Spacek
The Wild have reassigned defenseman David Spacek to AHL Iowa, the team announced. There is no corresponding move yet, although it could be an indication that Zach Bogosian will be ready to come off injured reserve for Tuesday’s game against the Blackhawks.
Taken in the fifth round of the 2022 draft, Spacek is in his third season with the organization and has earned his first set of recalls – three of them, to be exact – this season. The 6’0″ righty has been mostly used as press box fodder but finally made his NHL debut this month, suiting up twice against the Jets on Jan. 15 and against the Canadiens on Jan. 20.
The son of longtime NHL defender Jaroslav Spacek had his ice time capped at just 10:45 per game, recording a -1 rating with two blocks and one hit. He was otherwise held off the scoresheet and controlled just 19.6% of shot attempts at even strength, the worst figure among any Wild skater to step on the ice for them this season.
The Czech puck-mover has put together some good seasons in a disastrous minor-league environment in Iowa, though. He led the team’s blue line in scoring last season with 31 points in 72 games and is now second on the team in scoring overall this season with a 3-16–19 line in 35 showings. He’s also suited up for the Czech men’s national team at the last two World Championships and will be joining the club at next month’s Olympics as NHLers return to the event.
It’s a contract year for Spacek, who’s a pending restricted free agent in the final season of his entry-level agreement. He’s due a two-way qualifying offer of $813,750, something the Wild are likely to offer him if they haven’t reached an agreement by the end of June, given his promising AHL performances.
Blues’ Dylan Holloway Had MRI, Remains Day-To-Day
When Dylan Holloway returned to the Blues’ lineup last weekend after missing 15 games with an ankle fracture, his comeback was short-lived. He made just one appearance, logging a -2 rating in 12:45 of ice time against the Oilers, before coming back out of the lineup.
He hasn’t been placed on IR again, and for now, it doesn’t appear he will. Head coach Jim Montgomery told reporters yesterday (including NHL.com’s Lou Korac) that Holloway had an MRI this week to see if any structural damage remained following the fracture, but that the results were negative.
Instead, his absence from the lineup is more about pain management and getting used to the scar tissue that formed as a result of the fracture, Montgomery said. “It’s a tough injury. It’s just him now getting used to the fact that there’s going to be some scar tissue that he’s going to have to deal with. I guess it’s a little more painful when you come back a little earlier than if you let it heal another week.”
Whether the Blues will be willing to hold Holloway out – or if he’s even willing to sit out long enough to get back to 100% – remains to be seen. It’s clear he wanted playing time as soon as possible and pushed the envelope on his initial return. On a damaged ankle, though, it’s going to be tough for him to turn around what’s been a disappointing second season in St. Louis.
The offer-sheet acquisition from Edmonton in 2024 was one of the league’s best breakout stories last season, emerging as the true top-six threat he was expected to become when the Oilers took him No. 14 overall in 2020. He finished third on the Blues in scoring behind Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou with 26 goals and 63 points in 77 games before a late-season lower-body injury kept him out of the playoffs.
This season, though, he’s clicked at a 41-point pace despite averaging nearly a minute more of ice time per game. His shooting percentage has dropped back down to a more sustainable 10.1% after finishing at a 14.6% last year, giving him eight goals and 17 points in 34 appearances on the year.
His possession impacts have remained far more beneficial than his -13 rating would otherwise indicate, too. There’s plenty of motivation to chalk up his disappointing scoring line to the Blues’ league-worst offense and subpar finishing from everywhere in the lineup, but the pending restricted free agent’s outlook for his next contract has certainly dipped from when his stock was at an all-time high last summer.
Senators Recall Mads Sogaard, Reassign Hunter Shepard
Jan. 25: After making it through last night’s game without a goalie injury, the Senators reassigned Shepard to Belleville today, Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports. After Reimer allowed four goals on 19 shots for a .789 save percentage in last night’s loss to the Hurricanes, that means Søgaard is the likely starter this evening against the Golden Knights. They’re now back to having an open spot on the active roster.
Jan. 24: The Senators have recalled goaltender Mads Søgaard from AHL Belleville, per a team announcement. To open a roster spot, they placed winger David Perron on injured reserve, per PuckPedia. They announced on Thursday that Perron will miss five to seven weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a sports hernia.
Ottawa has spent much of the season swapping depth goaltending options to serve as backups to Linus Ullmark or, now, to recent free-agent signing James Reimer while Ullmark remains on leave. This isn’t that. The Senators have had Hunter Shepard backing up Reimer for the last two games, and he’s sticking around. Instead, Ottawa plans to carry three goalies amid the winter storm slated to hit the Eastern seaboard during their back-to-back home games tonight and tomorrow, to avoid a situation where weather prevents them from adding a Belleville netminder in case of injury.
It is the 25-year-old Dane’s third recall of the season. He backed up Ullmark in an overtime loss to the Oilers on Oct. 21 and also dressed for a pair of games earlier this month. He entered an 8-2 loss to the Avalanche on Jan. 8 in relief of Leevi Merilainen and allowed five goals on 16 shots for a harsh .688 SV% and 17.22 GAA.
Small sample size aside, it hasn’t been a kind season for Søgaard, nor has it been one for virtually any Sens netminder in the NHL or AHL. In 18 games with Belleville, he’s posted a .889 SV% and 4-8-4 record with a 3.30 GAA and one shutout.
While Søgaard was the third goalie taken in the 2019 draft behind Spencer Knight and Pyotr Kochetkov, it’s becoming abundantly clear that a stable NHL future isn’t in the cards for the 6’7″, 231-lb giant. In 30 appearances for the Sens since debuting five years ago, he’s logged an 11-11-3 record with a .875 SV% and 3.70 GAA.
Nonetheless, he will be heading to Italy next month to serve with teammate Lars Eller on Denmark’s Olympic team. It’s his second time on the men’s national team roster for a non-qualifying tournament, last suiting up as the backup at the 2021 World Championship.
Hurricanes Working To Extend Brandon Bussi
Most of the smoke around first-year goalies this season has rightfully come against the youngest ones – Yaroslav Askarov, Arturs Silovs, and Jesper Wallstedt featuring at the top of the class. One of the brightest stories, though, has come in Carolina.
27-year-old Brandon Bussi started the season as the Hurricanes’ third-string option with no NHL experience. He was claimed off waivers from the Panthers, who had signed him to a two-way deal just this past offseason, to serve as insurance for a banged-up Pyotr Kochetkov.
Fast forward past the halfway mark, and the former AHL standout in the Bruins’ system would likely be Carolina’s Game 1 starter if the playoffs started tomorrow. He’s now wrestled away the lion’s share of playing time from the struggling Frederik Andersen and, with Kochetkov likely done for the season, there’s little in-house challenge for him as the No. 1 option.
His raw numbers are good but not great. Behind one of the league’s elite possession systems in Carolina, they don’t need to be. His .904 SV% and 2.20 GAA in 22 starts have been enough to propel the Canes to a raucous 18-3-1 record when he’s between the pipes. That’s worked out to 7.4 goals saved above expected, per MoneyPuck, 18th in the league. Among goalies with at least 20 games played, his 0.332 GSAx/60 ranks 12th.
That promising breakout story, plus Andersen’s pending unrestricted free agency and unlikelihood of returning, has the Canes deep in talks to get a contract extension worked out for Bussi, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports. “Everything that I’ve been told is that things are positive and it looks like it will get there,” Pagnotta said. “I would imagine, in the foreseeable future, Brandon Bussi will be extended with the Hurricanes, so good news on that front.”
What that deal may look like is hard to pin down. Initially signed by Boston as an undrafted free agent out of Western Michigan in 2022, he’s only ever been on entry-level or two-way deals, with the latter all carrying league-minimum cap hits. A one-way deal worth at least seven figures is a given. Whether Carolina pushes for a multi-year deal remains to be seen, but with no young goalies in the system making a real push for NHL ice time, it’s likely they envision he and Kochetkov as their tandem for the foreseeable future, barring an external upgrade – although Kochetkov could be a UFA himself in 2027.
His age makes it hard to imagine his extension being a particularly rich one. The last real comparable is Alex Lyon landing a two-year, $1.8MM contract from the Red Wings in free agency in 2023, following his age-30 breakout as a legit NHL option with the Panthers. It’s a richer goalie market now, but seeing Bussi land more than $2MM annually on a two-year pact would be a sharp departure from usual trends.