Mammoth Reassign Ben McCartney, Kevin Connauton, Maksymilian Szuber
The Mammoth announced Monday they’ve reassigned forward Ben McCartney and defensemen Kevin Connauton and Maksymilian Szuber to AHL Tucson. That wipes their active roster of all the players they’ve summoned for practice purposes over the Olympic break, signaling they expect both of their Olympian skaters who advanced to the medal games, Clayton Keller and Olli Määttä, to be available Wednesday night against the Avalanche.
McCartney, 24, is in his fifth pro season, all in the Utah and Arizona organizations. He was a seventh-round pick by the Coyotes in 2020 and has panned out nicely for them and now the Mammoth as an impact winger for Tucson. He only has two NHL games to his name, coming with Arizona back in 2021-22, but has been a consistent scoring piece for Tucson in the interim and has been an alternate captain for the club since 2023.
This season, the physical winger’s game has assumed new heights. He’s already set new career highs with 21 goals and 46 points in 47 games and leads Tucson in scoring. Along with 2023 first-rounder Daniil But, who Utah returned to Tucson last week, he’ll be among the Mammoth’s top forward recall options down the stretch.
While McCartney had been practicing with the Mammoth for the better part of a week, Connauton and Szuber were both just summoned over the weekend. The two defenders are at polar opposite stages in their careers and have had wildly different campaigns in Tucson. Connauton, who turns 36 today, is a veteran of 360 NHL games but hasn’t played at the top level since 2022. He likely won’t be adding to that total as he’s had a nightmarish season in the AHL, recording just two assists and a -11 rating in 23 games.
Szuber, meanwhile, continues to build his way toward competing for an NHL roster spot. The 23-year-old has far outpaced the development the Coyotes expected of him when using a sixth-round pick on him in 2022. The Polish-born German ranks sixth on Tucson in scoring this season with a 10-14–24 line in 44 games, along with a +5 rating. That’s promising production for someone touted as a potential third-pairing shutdown piece on the left side.
Predators Sign Jake Lucchini To Two-Way Extension
The Predators announced they’ve signed forward Jake Lucchini to a two-way contract extension for the 2026-27 campaign. It will be worth the new league minimum of $850K at the NHL level, Alex Daugherty of the Tennessean reports. Defenseman Kevin Gravel, a pending unrestricted free agent, also agreed to a two-year contract extension that will take him off Nashville’s books but keep him with AHL Milwaukee, the team announced.
Lucchini, 30, is solely a veteran top-six AHL option at this stage of his career, but can serve as an experienced call-up option when needed. He inked a two-year, two-way deal with Nashville as a free agent in 2024. He’s yet to see a recall for them this season, but suited up three times for the Predators last year, going without a point.
The British Columbia native has now spent time in the Penguins, Canadiens, Senators, Wild, and Predators systems since turning pro out of Michigan Tech in 2019. He’s been on two-way NHL contracts for most of that time, managing three goals and six points in 54 games with Ottawa, Minnesota, and Nashville across the 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25 campaigns.
Lucchini established himself as an AHL impact piece with a 20-goal, 51-point breakout for the Belleville Senators in 2021-22 and hasn’t looked back. He’s kept up similar point paces in every season since and currently ranks second on Milwaukee in scoring with 13 goals, 25 assists, and 38 points in 48 games.
He’ll now gain even more stability with a one-year extension. It’s rare enough for a journeyman AHL type to suit up for the same franchise in back-to-back seasons, let alone three in a row. Lucchini should be a contender to serve in a leadership capacity for Milwaukee next season as well, as he looks to continue anchoring a Nashville prospect pool that includes Joakim Kemell, David Edstrom, and Ryan Ufko, among others.
Jets Recall Four Players
Feb. 23: DiVincentiis is back up today to practice with the Jets, the team announced. As the team waits to see if Hellebuyck will arrive in time to join the team in Vancouver for their first game back against the Canucks on Wednesday, DiVincentiis might need to stick around to back up Eric Comrie for that game if Hellebuyck isn’t available until later in the week.
Feb. 22: The Jets announced this morning that DiVincentiis has been reassigned to AHL Manitoba. Since the league is still on break for the Winter Olympics, DiVincentiis’ recall did not come with any NHL games played. With Hellebuyck returning as an Olympic hero (although not for most Jets fans), he’s going to resume his place as Winnipeg’s undisputed No. 1 goalie.
The path for DiVincentiis to return to the NHL roster and perhaps even make his NHL debut in 2025-26 is likely to come as a result of either injury. That’s especially true since the Jets are highly unlikely to reach the playoffs and therefore would not have a pressing need to rest Hellebuyck for one of the final games of the season.
Feb. 17: NHL teams are permitted to practice today starting at 1:00 p.m. Central. Everybody will be down at least one player while the Winter Olympics are still ongoing in Milan-Cortina, so clubs will have the option to add practice players from their AHL affiliate in the meantime. The Jets were the first team to announce such a move Tuesday morning, recalling forward Walker Duehr, defensemen Ville Heinola and Elias Salomonsson, and goaltender Domenic DiVincentiis from AHL Manitoba.
Salomonsson was rostered right up until the break began, with blue-liners Haydn Fleury, Colin Miller, and Neal Pionk on injured reserve. Depending on their status next week, he could remain on the roster. There’s also a question mark surrounding star Josh Morrissey, who hasn’t played since Canada’s first group-stage game at the Olympics due to an undisclosed injury, though he returned to practice today ahead of tomorrow’s quarterfinal matchup against either Czechia or Denmark.
The 21-year-old Swede has surpassed Heinola as Winnipeg’s top-ranked defense prospect. A right-shot coming in at 6’2″ and 185 lbs, the smooth skater has a goal and 10 points in 29 AHL games with Manitoba this season. It’s his second year stateside after earning an AHL All-Star nod as a rookie. Now nearly four years removed from his second-round selection in 2022, he’s suited up in the first 13 games of his NHL career over the last several weeks with no points and a -5 rating. He’s averaging 16:58 of ice time per game and controlling 47.8% of shot attempts at even strength, a strong figure considering he owns a relatively low offensive zone start percentage of 43.8.
Heinola, the 20th overall pick back in 2019, will turn 25 next month and looks to be in the final months of his time in Winnipeg. Because he’s played fewer than 80 career NHL games, he’ll become a Group VI unrestricted free agent this summer. He’s yet to log any NHL time this season after making a career-high 18 appearances in 2024-25. The Finnish lefty remains Manitoba’s best offensive weapon on the blue line, though, ranking fifth on the team in scoring with 21 points (three goals, 18 assists) in 44 games.
Duehr had played at least 20 NHL games in three consecutive seasons but hasn’t seen any this year after passing through waivers during training camp. The 28-year-old was a free agent signing by the Flames out of Minnesota State in 2022 and remained in the organization up until he got claimed off waivers by the Sharks in January 2025. He hit unrestricted free agency last summer and landed a two-way deal with Winnipeg, recording 12 goals and 26 points with a +12 rating in 39 games for Manitoba.
DiVincentiis was recalled to back up Eric Comrie for a handful of games in December while Connor Hellebuyck was recovering from knee surgery, but didn’t see any ice. The 21-year-old was a seventh-round pick in 2022 but has impressed in his pro career so far. He’s split Manitoba’s crease with fellow youngster Thomas Milic and has posted a .908 SV%, 2.68 GAA, and a 10-11-3 record with two shutouts in 24 games as a second-year pro.
Capitals Activate Charlie Lindgren From Injured Reserve
The Capitals announced Monday that they’ve activated goaltender Charlie Lindgren from injured reserve. Washington loaned goaltender Garin Bjorklund to AHL Hershey in the corresponding move, keeping their active roster at the 23-player limit.
After injury troubles derailed both Lindgren and starter Logan Thompson before the Olympic break, the Caps will have both of their NHL options on hand coming out of it. Lindgren was banged up in a Jan. 29 win over the Red Wings and sat out the following four games with a lower-body injury.
His play has experienced a steep decline since making a career-high 50 starts in 2023-24, leading Washington to an unexpected playoff berth. He was still used virtually in tandem with Thompson last season, even as his save percentage fell to a .896 mark. Further decline here in 2025-26 has bumped him back into a traditional backup role behind a Vezina Trophy candidate in Thompson, though. He’s made 17 starts compared to Thompson’s 39 while churning out a career-worst .884 SV% and 3.37 GAA. While he’s faced a more difficult workload than Thompson in terms of expected goals against, his GSAx is still in the red at -2.0, per MoneyPuck.
With two more years left on a still pretty fresh extension at a $3MM cap hit, though, the Caps are committed. That’s especially considering the lack of inspiring minor-league options or prospects waiting to take a job from him. That includes Bjorklund, who sits fourth on Washington’s depth chart behind Thompson, Lindgren, and veteran AHL starter Clay Stevenson. Bjorklund, 23, was a sixth-round pick by the Caps in 2020 and has put up great ECHL numbers the past two years, but has struggled up a level in Hershey. In 12 games this season, he’s put up a 3.47 GAA, .881 SV%, and a 4-5-3 record with one shutout.
Bruins, Oilers Interested In Rasmus Ristolainen
“Five or six teams” have expressed interest in acquiring Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen during the Olympic break, Anthony Di Marco of Daily Faceoff reports. Among those are the Bruins and Oilers, Di Marco writes, although “neither has stepped up as a ‘serious’ landing spot to this point.”
Ristolainen was a talked-about name heading into last year’s deadline season, too. The 31-year-old enjoyed the best two-way showing of his career in 2024-25, and the Flyers were eager to capitalize on it by landing a high-value return for a reasonably cost-controlled, right-shot defenseman. His market wasn’t as fervent as Philly hoped, though, and he ended up staying with the Flyers past the trade deadline.
At the time, they were reportedly looking for a first-round pick as the starting piece of a package. According to Di Marco, that hasn’t changed. The Flyers are using last year’s Brandon Carlo trade between the Bruins and Maple Leafs as a comparable to set their price. Toronto ended up parting ways with a top-five protected first-round pick, a fourth-rounder, and center prospect Fraser Minten – selected as an early second-rounder not all that long ago – to acquire Carlo, who had an additional two seasons remaining on his deal, with 15% of his salary retained by Boston.
Even assuming Carlo’s and Ristolainen’s on-ice value is equal, the Flyers aren’t in a position to command quite that strong a return. The first-round pick may still be possible, but they’ll be hard-pressed to land a prospect of Minten’s caliber as well. Ristolainen only has one year left on his deal following this season, and his $5.1MM cap hit is a greater chunk of change than what Carlo costs. That’s notwithstanding Ristolainen’s much shoddier long-term record of poor defensive play that’s seen him own a career -183 rating in 795 games.
Still, the 6’4″ Ristolainen seems to have stabilized nicely as a high-end second-to-third-pairing piece in Philadelphia over the past two years. The 2013 eighth overall pick was overtaxed for several years to begin his career in Buffalo, but since the 2023-24 campaign in Philly, he’s consistently posted above-average possession impacts while seeing his usage slowly climb back up to the 20-minute range per game.
Injuries are a concern, though. Issues with his right triceps muscle have ended his season weeks early in back-to-back years. He had a more extensive surgery last year to address the issue that delayed his 2025-26 debut until mid-December, and he missed another six games with a separate upper-body issue last month. He’s made just 19 appearances this season as a result, but has churned out a goal and six points with a -4 rating while averaging 19:35 of ice time per game. When given top-pairing deployment with Travis Sanheim, they’ve had great defensive impacts in an 87-minute sample, allowing just 1.93 expected goals against per 60 minutes, according to MoneyPuck.
As for his known suitors, it appears Boston isn’t taking itself out of the mix to add to their blue line after going down to the wire in Rasmus Andersson talks with Calgary. Right-shot depth is an issue for them, with Charlie McAvoy and Henri Jokiharju as their only NHL options signed past this season (and it’s likely pending UFA Andrew Peeke won’t be back). With an abundance of first-round picks for the next two years, it wouldn’t deter their retooling too much to part with one, although it was clear they were looking for a more offensively dynamic piece like Andersson, if possible. As such, Ristolainen isn’t “someone the Bruins are especially high on,” Di Marco writes, although they’re at least keeping tabs on him as a backup option if other targets also fall through.
There’s a more pressing short-term fit for Ristolainen in Edmonton. They don’t have any options in the organization behind Evan Bouchard who can comfortably sniff top-four deployment on the right side. Lefty Jake Walman has spent most of the year on his off side as a result, and his possession impacts have taken a nosedive. Stomaching Ristolainen’s cap hit would be an issue for the Oilers, who have just over $1MM in projected cap space on deadline day, but as Di Marco writes, there could be a fit if the Flyers were willing to take on struggling winger Andrew Mangiapane in the deal.
Penguins Recall Avery Hayes
The Penguins announced they’ve recalled right winger Avery Hayes from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. They have an open roster spot, so no corresponding move is required.
Pittsburgh has one of the league’s more intriguing prospect pools. Perhaps no one has seen his stock rise more in the last few months than Hayes. The 23-year-old has exploded in the minors this season, leading the Baby Pens with 19 goals in 36 games. That includes a pair of hat tricks in his last five outings over the course of the Olympic break. In his last 10 games, including an NHL spot against the Sabres back on Feb. 5, the 5’10” forward has 11 goals and 13 points with a +6 rating.
Amid a slew of relatively high draft picks over the past few seasons, Hayes arrived in the organization in 2023 as an undrafted free agent signing by Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, not Pittsburgh. He remained on an AHL contract until the Pens tore up that agreement at the 2025 trade deadline and gave him his entry-level deal, which still has another year left after this one.
Hayes made his NHL debut in the Pens’ final game before the break. His recall was mostly motivated by a slew of absences, but it was also a long time coming, considering his minor-league output. Adding him back to the roster ahead of Pittsburgh’s return to play this week indicates that they plan to keep his promotion active for the stretch run. After all, he did come up with a pair of goals and managed six shots in just over 10 minutes of ice time. While an extremely small sample, that works out to a league-high 35.47 shots per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 – a league-best number by more than double the second-place figure.
The Pens’ forward group is nearly at full health. Filip Hallander is close to returning from the blood-clot issues that have kept him out since November, as he’s on a conditioning assignment to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. It’s not clear when captain Sidney Crosby will rejoin the team following the knee injury that ended his Olympics with Team Canada in the quarterfinals, but given he was listed as day-to-day as late as the morning of the gold medal game, it’s very likely not a season-ending ailment.
That means – at least, for now – that Hayes has leapfrogged younger, more high-profile names like Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty on Pittsburgh’s short-term depth chart. With a great chance at ending their three-year playoff drought on the line, it’ll be curious to see what kind of deployment Hayes gets in the coming weeks.
Wild Make Several Roster Moves
Feb. 22: Gleason and Katchouk have now been returned to Iowa as well, per a team announcement.
Feb. 20: The Wild announced they’ve reassigned Kiersted to Iowa. Katchouk and Gleason remain with the club for now.
Feb. 18: The Wild announced they’ve recalled forward Boris Katchouk and defensemen Ben Gleason and Matt Kiersted from AHL Iowa. All will likely be on their way back to Iowa once Minnesota’s Olympians return stateside.
Katchouk started the season with the Lightning, kicking off his second stint with the team that drafted him 44th overall in 2016 by signing a two-way deal in free agency. All three of his NHL appearances this season – his first in two years – came in a Tampa sweater back in November. He went pointless while averaging 12:11 of ice time per game, going 7-for-19 (36.8%) on faceoffs.
After being returned to the minors, Katchouk remained in the Bolts organization for a month before being sent to the Wild in exchange for Michael Milne shortly after Christmas. The Wild were looking to jumpstart their AHL affiliate’s hapless offense with Katchouk’s veteran presence and 179 games of NHL experience, but it hasn’t worked out that way. An injury kept Katchouk out of the lineup for nearly a month in January, and he’s been limited to a goal and an assist in five games for Iowa as a result.
Gleason and Kiersted are also in their first years in the organization, although both of them arrived in free agency last summer rather than via trade. Gleason, 28 next month, hasn’t played in the NHL since his four-game debut with the Stars in 2018-19 but has been a desirable minor-league asset for the past eight years thanks to his steady two-way game. The cousin of longtime Hurricanes rearguard Tim Gleason has one goal and 17 points with a -16 rating in 44 outings for Iowa, tied for sixth on the team in scoring and second among blue-liners.
Kiersted is the only one of the group to see NHL time for the Wild this season. He’s suited up four times as an injury fill-in, posting one assist and a -1 rating with five blocks while averaging 13:42 of ice time per game. The Minnesota native hasn’t had much of an offensive impact on the farm, though, only notching six points and a -7 rating through 31 games.
Olle Lycksell Linked To Swiss League
Senators forward Olle Lycksell is spurning interest from clubs in his native Sweden in an effort to move to Switzerland’s National League next season, Johan Svensson and Mattias Persson of Expressen report. In any event, it’s clear the pending Group VI unrestricted free agent won’t be re-signing with Ottawa or any other NHL team, for that matter.
Lycksell is in his fourth season stateside, but just his first in the Sens organization. A sixth-round pick by the Flyers in 2017, he spent several years coming up through the SHL before signing with Philadelphia in 2021. Philly loaned him back to Sweden’s Växjö Lakers for the following campaign, where he had a career-best 14 goals and 34 points in 47 games before being brought to North America the following season.
The 5’11” winger has been a consistently high-end AHL producer ever since. He averaged over a point per game twice through his four seasons to date and has 61 goals and 145 points in 160 career minor-league games, including 17 points in 25 outings with the Belleville Senators this year. It hasn’t translated into NHL success, though. He’s seen big-league action each year, three times with the Flyers and back earlier this season with the Sens, but only has two goals and 13 points in 52 career games. Being an unnatural fit for a fourth-line role, he’s had some wildly inconsistent possession impacts and hasn’t shown enough to push for a top-six role.
The 26-year-old will now be a Group VI UFA for the second summer in a row since he’s stayed under 80 career NHL appearances. His archetype makes him primed for offensive success in one of Europe’s top leagues in Switzerland, where he should immediately become one of the league’s leading scorers if he transfers there.
Canucks’ Filip Chytil Out Indefinitely With Facial Fracture
Canucks center Filip Chytil sustained a facial fracture in Wednesday’s practice and will be out indefinitely, Jeff Paterson of Rink Wide: Vancouver reports.
Considering Chytil’s long history of concussions, a simple fracture is far from the worst-case scenario after he was dazed by taking a puck to the face in the session. The 26-year-old has only been good for 12 appearances this season, missing three months early in the season with an upper-body injury that was suspected to be at least his third concussion in the last three years. He returned for a six-game stretch before the Olympic break, before sitting out of Vancouver’s last contest with migraine headaches.
Concussions and facial injuries have now limited Chytil to less than a full season’s worth of games over the past three years. He’s only played in 78 of 221 possible regular-season games, equal to 35.3%, since the beginning of the 2023-24 campaign. That window of inavailability came just after the Czech center finally seemed to break through into a top-nine role with the Rangers, rattling off a career-high 22 goals and 45 points in 74 games in the 2022-23 campaign.
That type of production might just be too far gone for Chytil to get back to that level, though. Acquired from New York in last year’s J.T. Miller trade, he’s suited up 27 times for Vancouver in the last 13 months with five goals and four assists for nine points with a -18 rating. That’s a 15-goal, 27-point pace over 82 games – closer to fourth-line production than the second-line role behind Elias Pettersson they were initially hoping he could fill.
There’s little left to play for in Vancouver. They’re already 21 points back of the playoff cutoff in the West and are in a seven-point hole for last place in the league. While not mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, they’re a non-factor by all intents and purposes. That means the stretch run is exclusively about trying to get individual talents back on the right track – including Chytil – but whether he’ll heal enough to get back in the lineup before mid-April now remains to be seen.
Maple Leafs Reassign Bo Groulx, William Villeneuve
Feb. 20: Groulx is headed back to the AHL today along with defenseman William Villeneuve, who was summoned two days ago, per a team announcement.
Feb. 19: The Maple Leafs announced they’ve recalled center Benoit-Olivier Groulx from AHL Toronto. He’ll join the team for today’s practice with forward Max Domi absent due to personal reasons, in addition to Auston Matthews remaining unavailable as he looks to captain Team USA to a gold medal at the Winter Olympics.
Groulx, 26, was a second-round pick by the Ducks in 2018. He has 65 NHL games to his name, all coming with Anaheim from 2021-24. After making a career-high 45 appearances in the 2023-24 campaign, the Ducks non-tendered him. He’s spent the last two seasons exclusively in the AHL on NHL. deals, first on a two-way pact with the Rangers in 2024-25 before signing a two-year, one-way, league-minimum deal with Toronto last summer.
The 6’2″, 205-lb pivot has only demonstrated limited offensive upside in the NHL but has been one of the best two-way forwards in the minors over the last two seasons. Once named the QMJHL’s best defensive forward during his junior days, he’s racked up 22 goals and 42 points in 47 games to lead the Marlies in scoring, along with a +9 rating.
He’ll now look to make a strong impression in whatever practice deployment he gets to boost his chances of a call-up heading into next season. Since he signed a two-year deal, his $812,500 cap hit next season will actually be less than the new league minimum of $850,000.