Morning Notes: Rempe, Capitals, Ducks
Rangers forward Matt Rempe has served his four-game suspension and is eligible to return Tuesday against the Jets. Last week, the NHL Department of Player Safety handed down the first supplemental discipline of Rempe’s brief career after he illegally elbowed Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler in the head in the second period of last Monday’s game. Devils interim head coach Travis Green said Siegenthaler sustained a concussion on the play and is out indefinitely.
Rempe, 21, has played 10 games for the Rangers since they recalled him in mid-February. The 2020 sixth-round pick stuck in the lineup after fighting Islanders heavyweight Matt Martin less than two minutes into his first NHL game, last month’s Stadium Series event at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. While a decent bottom-six checking forward at the minor-league level, Rempe has dialed it up to full-on enforcer status in the majors, posting nearly as many PIMs (54) as he has total time on ice (56). Despite logging double-digit ice time in a game just once thus far, the Calgary native has logged a goal, an assist, and eight shots. If he draws back into the lineup against Winnipeg, Jonny Brodzinski, who was a healthy scratch in two straight before Rempe’s suspension, would likely come out.
Other updates to kick off the week:
- The Eastern Conference wild-card race is heating up like a game of hot potato. The two leading contenders for the final playoff spot, the Islanders and Red Wings, are both on significant skids. The Isles have lost four straight, and the Red Wings have only won two out of their last 10. That’s paved the way for the Capitals to take advantage despite their remarkable -30 goal differential. With a point against the Flames on Monday on a two-game slate, they can move into the second wild-card spot in earnest, surpassing the Red Wings. They’ve already moved into the spot based on points percentage, as they trail Detroit by one point with two games in hand entering Monday night’s action.
- On the other side of the coin, the Ducks became the third team to be mathematically eliminated from playoff contention after losing 4-2 to the Blues on Sunday night. Sitting with a 23-42-3 record (49 points) through 68 games, they trail the current second wild card, the Golden Knights, by 30 points but can only earn 28 if they win out. This marks the sixth straight season without playoff hockey in Anaheim, last cracking the field in 2018, when the Sharks swept them in the first round. Only four players who suited up in regular-season games for the team that season remain in SoCal – forwards Jakob Silfverberg and Troy Terry, defenseman Cam Fowler, and goaltender John Gibson.
Dmitry Kulikov To Have Player Safety Hearing
Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov will have a hearing Monday for an illegal check to the head of Lightning winger Conor Sheary, the NHL Department of Player Safety announced.
Early in the second period of yesterday’s 5-3 loss, Kulikov pinched to join a net-front scrum that resulted in a Florida goal, although it was disallowed due to the penalty on the play. While entering the slot, Kulikov leaned to lay a check on Sheary, who was slightly bent over in an attempt to play the puck. Kulikov’s principal and only point of contact on the hit was Sheary’s head and shoulder. Kulikov did not leave his feet or extend his elbow on the hit, leading into the check with his upper arm (video link).
Kulikov was assessed a match penalty on the play by on-ice officials and missed over half the contest, which could factor into the length of a potential suspension. He’s been suspended once in his 15-year, 936-game NHL career, receiving four games for clipping Stars forward Tyler Seguin during his first stint with the Panthers in 2015. However, since the discipline occurred nearly a decade ago, he will not be considered a repeat offender by the Department of Player Safety.
The 33-year-old has 16 assists and a +9 rating in 64 games for the Panthers this season, averaging 16:22 per game. Now on his sixth team in the past four years, he inked a one-year, $1MM deal last summer to return to the team that selected him 14th overall in 2009.
Ryan Johansen’s AHL Assignment Reversed Due To Injury
The hip injury keeping Flyers forward Ryan Johansen out of the lineup is already inhibiting their roster flexibility. The ailment, which may prevent the Flyers from executing a buyout on his contract this summer if not healed, has now reversed the team’s attempt to assign him to the minors after he cleared waivers earlier this month, GM Daniel Brière told Jonathan Bailey of Philly Hockey Now.
Brière told Bailey that the Flyers were surprised by Johansen’s injury at the time of his acquisition. He was included as part of the return from the Avalanche for defenseman Sean Walker a few days before the deadline. Johansen, who has a reduced $4MM cap hit and was limited to 23 points in 63 games with Colorado, landed on waivers the same days. Brière stated shortly after the deal that he didn’t expect Johansen to ever suit up in an NHL game for Philadelphia, and he was only included in the trade for salary cap management on Colorado’s end.
According to Brière, Johansen informed the Flyers directly after the trade that he was dealing with a hip injury, which did not keep him out of the lineup for any period of time in Colorado. Philadelphia’s team doctors then confirmed the injury. While the initial plan was for Johansen to rehab with their AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the league reversed the reassignment because an injured player cannot be sent down on a non-conditioning loan. Per Brière, the team does not have a timeline for Johansen’s return to health. If he remains on the roster for under 30 days, he won’t need to clear waivers again to head to Lehigh Valley.
If the Flyers can provide documentation that Johansen’s injury healed before this summer’s buyout window, they may buy out the final season of his eight-year, $64MM contract. They would only be responsible for half of the buyout cost — the Predators, who retained half of Johansen’s salary in last summer’s trade that sent him to Colorado, would shoulder the other half.
League game reports show that Johansen was reinstated to the NHL roster sometime between Tuesday’s 3-2 win over the Sharks and Thursday’s 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. As such, his cap impact for the Flyers is now $4MM instead of the reduced $2.85MM they have as a buried penalty while Johansen is in the minors. Per CapFriendly, this reversal leaves Philadelphia just over $500K in cap space.
Golden Knights Activate Alec Martinez From Injured Reserve
The Golden Knights have taken left-shot defenseman Alec Martinez off injured reserve, per the NHL’s media site. As Martinez was not on long-term injured reserve, his $5.25MM cap hit continued to count toward their salary pool usage, so no corresponding transaction is necessary.
Martinez, 36, was placed on IR on March 6 with a lower-body injury. Failing to place him on LTIR ahead of the March 8 trade deadline suggested that he wouldn’t miss too much time, and that has held true. GM Kelly McCrimmon told Jesse Granger of The Athletic that Martinez underwent an undisclosed procedure earlier this month to address the injury.
Prior to this IR stint, Martinez had landed on the list twice this season due to upper and lower-body injuries. As such, the once-premier shutdown defender had his worst showing in the possession quality control department in quite some time, posting a negative expected rating (-5.3) for the first time since he was traded to Vegas in 2020. His 42.6 CF% at even strength is also a career-low, although his four goals in 16 points in 45 games is double the rate of offensive production he offered last season.
The veteran routinely finishes atop the league leaderboard in shot blocks, averaging 3.15 per game since joining the Golden Knights, which have taken an immense toll on his ability to stay in the lineup. He’s played over 70 games in a season just once over the past six years.
With his return, Vegas has a fully healthy defense corps after needing to cycle through their minor-league depth for most of the season. In addition to Martinez, Shea Theodore and Zach Whitecloud have each missed significant time this year, including a 34-game absence for an upper-body injury in Theodore’s case. They’ve gotten solid fill-in performances from depth blue-liner Ben Hutton and AHL call-up Kaedan Korczak in the interim, and the deadline pickup of Noah Hanifin for the Flames adds yet another premier name to what’s arguably the league’s deepest defense.
Hanifin has replaced Martinez’s longtime spot on the team’s top pairing with Alex Pietrangelo, so he’s expected to slide down to a third-pairing role alongside Whitecloud in his return to the lineup against the Devils today. Nicolas Hague is expected to be a healthy scratch for the first time this season.
The Golden Knights hope Martinez can help stabilize a team that’s suddenly failed to live up to their stingy reputation. The defending Stanley Cup champions are 3-7-1 in their last 11 games, surrendering three or more goals in 10 of those outings. They remain with a three-point cushion on the second wild-card spot in the West with two games in hand on the ninth-place Wild, but they’ll need to return to .500-plus hockey the rest of the way to ensure they don’t miss the playoffs for only the second time in franchise history.
Wild Reassign Vladislav Firstov To AHL
The Wild reassigned forward prospect Vladislav Firstov to AHL Iowa on Sunday, per a team announcement. The 22-year-old returns to North America after spending most of the last two seasons on loan to Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod of Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League.
Firstov inked his entry-level contract with the Wild in March 2022, nearly three years after they selected him in the second round of the 2019 draft. The left winger had a highly unusual development path, playing his youth hockey with his local Russian club before heading to North America to suit up for the USHL’s Waterloo Black Hawks in his draft year. Firstov then headed to the University of Connecticut for three seasons after being drafted, also suiting up for Russia at the 2021 World Juniors. The 6-foot-1, 181-lb winger barely played for the Wild organization inking his ELC, however. He logged two assists in eight games for AHL Iowa to close out the 2021-22 season after signing and played just one game to kick off 2022-23 before the Wild loaned him to the KHL at the player’s request.
The move has proven beneficial for the speedy forward, who’s emerged as a top-six threat for Torpedo. Over the past two seasons, Firstov logged 28 goals, 33 assists, 61 points, and a +12 rating in 114 games, routinely averaging north of 15 minutes per game. His 17 goals and 35 points ranked third on Nizhny Novgorod this season. The Yaroslavl native also recorded a team-high 68 PIMs in 2023-24 and has overall displayed upside as a bottom-six grinder with strong possession numbers overseas.
Firstov now gets a shot down the stretch to show if he can translate his strengths to North American ice with Iowa. Unfortunately for the Wild, they likely won’t see him in postseason action – Iowa ranks last in the AHL’s Central Division with a 20-33-5 record and is nine points back of a playoff spot.
While Firstov signed his ELC in March 2022, the contract didn’t begin immediately, instead deferring to the 2022-23 campaign. The deal, which carries a cap hit of $925K, still has one season remaining and makes him an RFA in 2025. As such, Firstov will likely remain in Iowa next season and has an outside shot to compete for an NHL spot out of camp later this year.
Flames Activate A.J. Greer From Injured Reserve
The Flames have activated winger A.J. Greer from injured reserve ahead of tonight’s game against the Canadiens, Wes Gilbertson of Postmedia reports. Sportsnet’s Pat Steinberg relays that Greer is skating in warmups ahead of the contest, but it’s unclear if he’ll draw into the lineup.
Greer missed the last 18 games with a foot fracture sustained in a Jan. 25 contest against the Blue Jackets. He had only missed one prior game due to a healthy scratch after Calgary claimed him off waivers from the Bruins just before the start of the season.
The 27-year-old didn’t play a significant role, averaging only 8:44 per game, but he has continued his solid run of play in limited minutes after breaking into the league full-time with Boston last year. Previously a minor-league farmhand with nearly 300 games of AHL experience, Greer recorded career-highs across the board with the Bruins in 2022-23, logging five goals, seven assists, 12 points, a +9 rating, and 144 PIMs in 61 contests. He’s set a new career-high in goals with the Flames, lighting the lamp six times and adding four assists in his 47 showings this season.
His possession impacts remain suboptimal, recording a 47.5 CF% at even strength that’s around 3% worse than the team average. His expected rating has also dipped to -2.2 after posting a +1.7 with the Bruins.
Initially a second-round pick of the Avalanche in 2015, the Flames are Greer’s fifth NHL organization. Between Colorado and Boston, Greer also spent time on the farm with the Devils and Islanders. Now in the back half of a two-year, $1.525MM deal, he’ll be a UFA this summer.
East Notes: Teräväinen, Oshie, Jeannot
Hurricanes winger Teuvo Teräväinen didn’t travel with the team on their road trip and will be out for Saturday’s contest against the Maple Leafs, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet said. He’s listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
The playmaking winger didn’t appear to sustain anything serious during his last showing, a win over the Panthers on Thursday. He logged a +1 rating and three shots on goal in the game, playing 16:01 – normal usage for the top-six fixture. A pending UFA nearing completion of his five-year, $27MM extension signed with the Canes in 2019, Teräväinen has reached the 20-goal plateau for the fourth time in his career and has 47 points in 66 games on the season, right around his career-average pace. He’s back on the upswing after a 2022-23 season where he struggled to produce, recording 12 goals and 25 assists for 37 points in 68 games. It was his worst scoring pace since the 2016-17 campaign, his first in Carolina.
With Teräväinen sidelined, Jesper Fast took line rushes in a first-line role alongside Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov and will likely occupy that role tonight with youngster Jack Drury also dealing with a lower-body injury. Fast, 32, has six goals and 17 points in 63 games this season and still carries solid value as a competent defensive winger.
Elsewhere out East:
- Capitals veteran T.J. Oshie‘s 1,000th game in the league may be on hold. The 37-year-old sustained an upper-body injury in practice on Saturday morning and will be a game-time decision tonight against the Canucks, head coach Spencer Carbery said (via Bailey Johnson of The Washington Post). The 2018 Stanley Cup champion has been plagued by injuries this season, missing 24 of Washington’s 65 games with lower and upper-body injuries. When in the lineup, they’ve dragged down his ability to contribute on the scoresheet. His 11 goals and 19 points in 41 games work out to 0.46 points per game, the lowest rate of his remarkably consistent 16-year career. Possession control has been an issue this season as well – his 46.4 CF% at even strength is also a career-low. Despite that, he’s still logging consistent top-six usage, averaging 16:33 per game.
- The Lightning will again be without Tanner Jeannot as they exercise caution in his return from a lower-body injury that’s kept him out for most of the last two months, head coach Jon Cooper said (via Chris Krenn of the team’s official site). Indications pointed toward Jeannot returning from his absence earlier this week, but his return has now been delayed twice ahead of a rivalry matchup with the Panthers tonight. Cooper said they’re aiming for Jeannot to return at some point over their West Coast road trip, meaning there’s no guarantee he’ll be ready for Tuesday’s matchup in Vegas, either. Jeannot attempted to return from the injury, which he sustained early in January, during a Feb. 13 contest against the Bruins but played less than six minutes before sustaining an aggravation. When in the lineup, the 26-year-old has been limited to six goals and 12 points in 42 games with a -11 rating.
Blue Jackets Recall Jake Christiansen On Emergency Basis
The Blue Jackets summoned defenseman Jake Christiansen on an emergency basis from AHL Cleveland on Friday, per a team release. The recall is on response to an injury blue-liner Adam Boqvist sustained in last night’s 3-2 loss to the Senators, per Aaron Portzline of The Athletic.
Christiansen is expected to draw into the lineup for the fourth time this season when Columbus faces the Sharks on Saturday. The Blue Jackets were only carrying six defensemen on the NHL roster after dealing Andrew Peeke to the Bruins at last week’s trade deadline, so they’re eligible to use an emergency recall to ensure they have six healthy defenders for their next game. As such, Christiansen does not count toward Columbus’ four post-deadline standard recalls, of which they’ve already used one.
Boqvist is still being evaluated for an upper-body injury. The Blue Jackets have not issued a timeline for his return to the lineup.
The 24-year-old Vancouver native is in his fourth season with the Blue Jackets organization after signing as an undrafted free agent in March 2020. The former Everett Silvertips star has consistently put up solid offensive numbers in the minors, solidifying a top-four role in Cleveland but never earning a spot on Columbus’ opening night rosters over the years. He signed a one-year, two-way extension ($775K NHL/$275K AHL/$350K gt’d) to remain with the Jackets before his entry-level deal expired last summer.
After leading all AHL defensemen in goals two seasons ago, Christiansen is now on pace for career-highs across the board with 13 goals, 27 assists and 40 points in 54 minor-league games this season. His +8 rating leads Monsters defenders, his 40 points are second on the team, and only Colorado’s Brad Hunt and Manitoba’s Kyle Capobianco have more points among defenders league-wide.
Unfortunately, he hasn’t shown the ability to replicate that success in the majors. He’s suited up for 35 NHL games since his debut in 2022, three of which came this season, logging one goal and five assists with a -5 rating while averaging 14:02 per game. His possession numbers have been middling in a sheltered offensive role, posting a career 43.9 CF% at even strength, suggesting he’s not ready to take on more minutes, either.
He remains an intriguing call-up option for Columbus, though, who are still getting bang for their buck based on his minor-league contributions. If they opt to issue him a qualifying offer, Christiansen will be an RFA with arbitration rights this summer.
Rangers Sign Hugo Ollas To Entry-Level Contract
4:17 p.m.: The contract begins next season, per CapFriendly. As such, Ollas will reach RFA status in 2026. The deal carries a cap hit of $855K and will see him earn $775K in base salary, $80K in signing bonuses, and $75K in minors salary in each of the next two years.
1:43 p.m.: The Rangers have signed goaltender Hugo Ollas to a two-year, entry-level contract, according to a team release. He’ll likely finish the season with their AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack. The team did not specify if Ollas’ deal began immediately or was signed for the 2024-25 campaign.
Ollas was a seventh-round pick of the Rangers in the 2020 draft, and they had until Aug. 15, 2025, to sign him before losing his exclusive rights. The 21-year-old has spent the last three seasons in collegiate hockey with Merrimack, where he was named to the Hockey East Third All-Star Team in 2022-23.
His upside comes from his calm yet fluid movements in the crease—although at 6-foot-8 and 238 lbs, he doesn’t have much ground to cover to move from post to post. His numbers at Merrimack have consistently declined since his strong freshman season, though, going from a .920 SV% and 2.24 GAA in 2021-22 to a .908 SV% and 2.84 GAA this season.
The Rangers did not disclose the financial terms of Ollas’ contract. The Linköping, Sweden, native will be an RFA in either 2025 or 2026, depending on if his contract begins immediately or defers to next season.
Stars Sign Tristan Bertucci To Entry-Level Deal
The Stars signed left-shot defenseman Tristan Bertucci to his entry-level contract on Friday, per a team announcement. The three-year deal with a cap hit of $878K will begin in 2024-25, making him an RFA upon expiry in 2027 – which could push to 2028 if he plays less than 10 NHL games next season and activates an entry-level slide. PuckPedia has the full breakdown of the deal, which is as follows:
2024-25/2025-26: $775K base salary, $95K signing bonus, $80K games played bonus, $82.5K minors salary
2026-27: $800K base salary, $95K signing bonus, $55K games played bonus, $82.5K minors salary.
The initial $95K signing bonus will get paid out next season regardless of whether he plays more than 10 NHL games or not, which, in the case of a slide, would lower the cap hit of his deal slightly when it does go into effect in 2025-26.
Bertucci, 18, was a late second-round pick of the Stars in last year’s draft. Taken off the board at 61st overall, the Ontario native’s production has stagnated in his post-draft season, logging 41 points and a +10 rating in 56 games with the OHL’s Flint Firebirds this season compared to 50 points and a +12 rating in 63 games last season. He’s still a solid two-way presence with good shutdown and transition potential at the NHL level, though, and doesn’t have much support on a Firebirds team that’s been relegated to mediocrity this year with a 29-30-4 record.
Standing at 6-foot-2 and 180 lbs, Bertucci has to fill out his frame a little bit more before he’s ready for NHL action. He’ll likely return to the Firebirds next year for his fourth season of major junior play, sliding the beginning of his ELC to 2025, and will join the AHL’s Texas Stars at the end of next season. He’ll take a year or two of development there as well before hopefully cracking the NHL roster in 2026 or 2027.
Bertucci’s deal will not count against the 50-contract maximum next season if he’s not in the NHL. The Stars had until June 1, 2025, to sign him to an ELC before his draft rights lapsed.