Lightning Recall Zach Bogosian
The Tampa Bay Lightning recalled veteran defenseman Zach Bogosian from the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch today, according to CapFriendly. A spot opened up on the roster after forward Alex Barré-Boulet cleared waivers today, and he was assigned to Syracuse in a corresponding transaction.
Bogosian, 33, was waived just a few days ago as a casualty of the Lightning’s moves to capture the highest possible accruable cap space limit before placing netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy on in-season LTIR. After Barré-Boulet sat as a scratch for yesterday’s season-opening win against the Nashville Predators, Bogosian will now return to the team moving forward.
Recalling the 226-pound right-shot defender gives Tampa eight defensemen on the active roster alongside 13 forwards, although only 12 of them are healthy. Tyler Motte sustained an undisclosed injury in the third period yesterday, and assistant coach Jeff Blashill informed reporters today that Motte is listed as day-to-day. Blashill also mentioned the possibility of recalling Barré-Boulet or Gabriel Fortier if they need another healthy forward, but that would require returning Bogosian to Syracuse as they’re up against the 23-player roster limit. Bogosian has 30 days or 10 games played before he requires waivers again to head to the minors.
Bogosian is in the final season of a three-year, $2.55MM deal signed with Tampa in the summer of 2021. The deal’s paid off, as Bogosian has provided some solid veteran duties but now finds himself slipping out of an everyday role. He hasn’t eclipsed the 60-game mark since 2018-19 with the Buffalo Sabres. He recorded five points in 46 games last season, recording a -4 rating and logging 42 penalty minutes.
Maple Leafs Recall Simon Benoit
10/12 – The Leafs have loaned Benoit back to the Toronto Marlies.
10/11 – The Toronto Maple Leafs have recalled defenseman Simon Benoit from the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, according to a team release Wednesday. In a corresponding transaction, they returned forward Bobby McMann to the Marlies after he cleared waivers earlier today.
Benoit will serve as the lone extra skater on the active roster and is not expected to play in tonight’s season-opening contest against the Montreal Canadiens. He can stay on the NHL roster for up to 30 days (or 10 games played) before he requires waivers to be returned to the minors.
The Maple Leafs signed Benoit, 25, to a one-year, league-minimum contract in August. The Laval, Québec, native played in a career-high 78 games last season for the Anaheim Ducks, notching ten points and a -29 rating whilst facing some tough minutes on a poor defensive squad.
Benoit is one of a trio of veteran blueliners signed to league-minimum deals Toronto has stashed in the minors, along with William Lagesson and Maxime Lajoie. Earlier in the preseason, few expected Benoit to be on the active roster for tonight’s game, given the team’s cap constraints, but defenseman Conor Timmins sustained a lower-body injury that has him on long-term injured reserve to start the campaign. He is out week-to-week, and while Benoit will likely remain up with the Leafs for a while, expect him to hit waivers again if needed upon Timmins’ return. Benoit was also sidelined with an injury of his own at one point, dealing with back spasms at the beginning of the preseason schedule.
Kings’ Viktor Arvidsson To Miss Season Opener, Arthur Kaliyev Recalled
1:46 p.m.: Kings head coach Todd McLellan informed reporters that Arvidsson’s timeline for return is “a bit longer than day-to-day” (via The Athletic’s Eric Stephens). Hence, an emergency recall to give the Kings a 12th forward for Saturday’s game is likely.
1:37 p.m.: Los Angeles Kings forward Viktor Arvidsson will miss tonight’s season opener against the Colorado Avalanche with a lower-body injury, team editorial content manager Zach Dooley relays. The Kings are expected to play down a forward and only dress 17 skaters due to cap constraints.
The team recalled forward Arthur Kaliyev from AHL Ontario today and assigned goaltender David Rittich there after clearing waivers. However, Kaliyev will miss the first two games of the season due to a four-game suspension doled out during preseason play for kneeing Anaheim Ducks forward Chase De Leo. Los Angeles does not have the cap space to recall an additional forward to replace Arvidsson.
Slotting in for the suspended Kaliyev, however, will be 21-year-old winger Alex Laferriere. The 83rd overall selection in the 2020 NHL Draft is expected to make his NHL debut on a line with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Kevin Fiala.
Playing short a forward creates the option of a $0 emergency recall for the Kings to execute before their second game of the season, which is Saturday against the Carolina Hurricanes. Of course, that would be unnecessary if Arvidsson is ready to return. He’s listed as day-to-day and has not been ruled out for that contest. Arvidsson, 30, enjoyed quite a strong campaign with the Kings last season, recording 26 goals and 59 points in 77 games. He is entering the final season of a seven-year, $29.75MM contract initially signed with the Nashville Predators in 2017 and is slated for unrestricted free agency in the summer.
Blues Place André Heim On Unconditional Waivers
The St. Louis Blues placed forward André Heim on unconditional waivers for the purpose of contract termination Wednesday, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
Heim, 25, was on assignment to the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds after the Blues cut him from their training camp roster on September 29. The Blues signed Heim to a one-year, entry-level contract worth $950K in May after the 6-foot-2 center notched 12 goals, 19 assists and 31 points in 42 games for Ambrì-Piotta in the Swiss National League.
The Blues were facing a bit of a roster crunch in Springfield after their affiliate accepted two players on loan from the Carolina Hurricanes, who are without an AHL affiliate in 2023-24. Alongside bringing in defenseman Dylan Coghlan, the Thunderbirds also received 22-year-old center prospect Jamieson Rees. Rees notched 14 goals and 42 points in 65 contests for the Chicago Wolves last season and creates competition in the Springfield top-nine, leading to less opportunity for the older Heim.
After failing to crack the NHL roster, it’s fair to assume Heim, who’s played in his native Switzerland for his entire hockey career, would prefer to return home rather than fight for ice time in the minors. He could very well return to Ambrì-Piotta, where he served as a member of their leadership team last season. If not there, another team in the NL is likely.
Canucks Assign Vasily Podkolzin To AHL, Recall Akito Hirose
The Vancouver Canucks assigned forward Vasily Podkolzin to the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks and recalled defenseman Akito Hirose in corresponding transactions, a team release states Wednesday.
This signals that 26-year-old Guillaume Brisebois may not play tonight in the team’s season opener against the Edmonton Oilers. Brisebois is dealing with a lower-body injury, and his unavailability would leave the Canucks with just five healthy defensemen at their disposal. Free-agent addition Carson Soucy is listed as week-to-week with an undisclosed injury, although he remains on the active roster for now.
If Brisebois cannot play, Hirose will suit up on the team’s third pair alongside Noah Juulsen tonight. Vancouver signed Hirose, 24, to a two-year, $1.575MM contract in July. An undrafted free agent, the Canucks initially acquired Hirose’s rights by extending him an entry-level contract in March after he concluded his junior season at Minnesota State University-Mankato.
Playing in seven games down the stretch of the 2022-23 NHL season, Hirose notched three assists and a -1 rating while averaging 17:27 per game. He does not require waivers for assignment to AHL Abbotsford and will likely be returned to the minors once one or both of Brisebois and Soucy are ready to return.
Podkolzin, meanwhile, finds himself on the outside looking in on Vancouver’s roster for their first game of the season. Selected 10th overall in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, the Russian winger is entering his third season in North America. He managed to avoid designation to the AHL in his rookie season in 2021-22, notching 14 goals, 12 assists and 26 points in 79 contests for the Canucks before joining Abbotsford in the postseason. 2022-23, meanwhile, saw Podkolzin appear in just 39 games for Vancouver while suiting up in 28 for AHL Abbotsford. There, he scored seven goals and added 11 assists for 18 points.
Like Hirose, Podkolzin does not require waivers to head to Abbotsford. With his $925K cap hit being slightly higher than most of his fringe NHLer teammates, Podkolzin will likely need a strong start to the season in the minors to find his way back to Vancouver.
Vancouver had $0 in cap space before making this transaction, as the team had not made any moves since turning in their opening night roster on Monday evening. Replacing Podkolzin with Hirose on the active roster now leaves the Canucks with $137.5K in space in their LTIR salary pool created by defenseman Tucker Poolman and his $2.5MM cap hit.
AHL’s Colorado Eagles Sign Joel Kiviranta, Peter Holland
After attending Colorado Avalanche training camp on professional tryouts, forwards Joel Kiviranta and Peter Holland have inked one-year contracts with their AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles. Both players have significant NHL experience, although Kiviranta’s is more recent, logging 70 games for the Dallas Stars last season.
Kiviranta, 27, had high hopes of securing a fourth-line job in the NHL, but he was passed over in favor of a Dallas teammate last season, Fredrik Olofsson. The Finnish winger notched a career-high eight goals last season but only registered one assist for nine points – poor production given his games played total and ice time (12:09 per game). He’ll now try and earn his way back to the sport’s highest level by taking on a significant role in the minors with Colorado. Kiviranta’s lone stint in the AHL came in 2019-20, recording 12 goals, 11 assists and 23 points in 48 games with the Texas Stars.
Holland was much less likely to earn an NHL job, so it’s fair to call this a successful tryout for the 32-year-old center who retired from hockey after the 2021-22 campaign. A 2009 first-round pick of the Anaheim Ducks, Holland last played in the AHL in 2018-19 before departing for overseas play the following season. He was always a strong producer in the minors, recording 222 points in 252 AHL contests across seven seasons, but couldn’t lock down a full-time NHL role outside of a three-year period with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Arizona Coyotes in the mid-2010s. Holland and Kiviranta will play vital roles to begin the season with the Eagles, who are without three projected regulars (Alex Beaucage, Jean-Luc Foudy, and Chris Wagner) due to injuries.
Avalanche Acquire Caleb Jones From Hurricanes
Defenseman Caleb Jones is headed from the Carolina Hurricanes to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for minor-league forward Callahan Burke, per a team announcement. Burke will remain on loan from Carolina to AHL Colorado, as the Hurricanes are without an AHL affiliate for this season. The trade comes after the Hurricanes had also loaned Jones to AHL Colorado earlier this week, but they’ve now transferred his NHL rights to Colorado too.
Jones signed a one-year, league-minimum deal with the Hurricanes this offseason but failed to make a dent in their defensive depth chart and did not earn a spot on head coach Rod Brind’Amour’s season-opening roster.
While he would have served as capable depth for the Hurricanes, it does appear that he has a stronger opportunity to make it back to the NHL (where he spent the entirety of 2022-23) in Colorado.
Since the Avalanche now consider Kurtis MacDermid a forward, the club is only carrying six defensemen on its opening-night roster.
Veteran Jack Johnson is currently slated to be the team’s third-pairing left-shot defenseman. He only played in 25 games last season, though, and at 36 years old the question of whether he’ll be able to keep up with the pace of the NHL for a full season is a fair one. Now that his NHL rights belong to Colorado, Jones has a clearer path back to the NHL.
For Carolina, this move accomplishes two things. First and foremost, it’s a courtesy to a player who spent all of last season in the NHL, as this move as mentioned provides Jones a stronger chance of cracking an NHL lineup.
Beyond that, while this trade doesn’t make any impact on the Hurricanes’ salary cap picture, it does save them quite a bit of actual cash.
Jones was signed to a one-way deal, meaning he is slated to be paid $775k this season, regardless of if he plays in the NHL or AHL. Burke, on the other hand, is on a two-way deal that owes him $125k at the AHL level.
So assuming Burke ends up playing the whole season with the Colorado Eagles, this move could end up saving the Hurricanes $650,000 in cash.
That’s not to say Burke won’t find his way to Carolina this season, in all fairness to him. Now 26, Burke is a capable player, having scored 39 points in the AHL last season. He even made his NHL debut for the Avalanche last season as well.
But a recall does have to be considered somewhat unlikely. In the case of injuries on Carolina’s NHL roster, the Organization could very well prefer to recall a player the Hurricanes have a longstanding investment in such as Jamieson Rees, rather than Burke.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Lightning Place Andrei Vasilevskiy On LTIR, Recall Waltteri Merelä
The Tampa Bay Lightning officially placed goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy on LTIR today as he recovers from back surgery, per CapFriendly. In a corresponding move, the team also brought forward Waltteri Merelä back up from AHL Syracuse, and he could make his NHL debut in a few hours against the Nashville Predators. Merelä was sent down temporarily yesterday to help the Lightning optimize their LTIR capture before opening-night rosters were due, which they did to the tune of $2.
Vasilevskiy underwent surgery late last month and was given an eight-to-ten-week timeline for recovery. That puts him well within the bounds of LTIR, which requires a player to miss at least ten games and 24 days. That means Vasilevskiy won’t return until next month at the absolute earliest, although an early December return is much more likely. The all-world netminder started 60 games for the Lightning last season, going 34-22-4 with a .915 save percentage and 2.65 goals-against average. Those were, unbelievably, his worst numbers since becoming the Lightning’s starter in 2016. Since the Lightning did not make any waiver claims over the past few days, Vasilevskiy’s absence leaves 28-year-old Jonas Johansson, with just 35 NHL appearances under his belt, as their starter for the next two months.
The Lightning signed Merelä, 25, to a one-year, two-way contract worth $870K this summer. Undrafted, the 6-foot-2 right wing has enjoyed back-to-back strong seasons with Liiga’s Tappara and made one appearance for Finland at the 2023 World Championship, scoring a goal. After a strong camp, Merelä was not technically on the team’s opening-night roster but was expected to suit up in today’s game regardless. The pending restricted free agent does not require waivers to go to AHL Syracuse, where he could find himself later on in the season if he can’t hold onto a roster spot.
With Vasilevskiy on LTIR and Merelä recalled the Lightning have $8.55MM remaining in their LTIR salary pool, per CapFriendly. While that’s a lot of flexibility, they won’t be able to take advantage of it for any significant amount of time. The Lightning will need to shed $950K in salary to activate Vasilevskiy when healthy.
Penguins’ Jake Guentzel Will Play In Season Opener
As speculated in the last few days, Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jake Guentzel is healthy and will play in tonight’s home opener against the Chicago Blackhawks, the team confirmed today.
Guentzel, 29, was initially expected to miss at least three months after undergoing ankle surgery at the beginning of August. That timeline put him borderline-LTIR eligible to start the season, which at the time was viewed as a crucial step to help the Penguins alleviate their salary cap concerns. Many transactions later, however, the Penguins are ready to go with Guentzel in the lineup and a nearly full roster of 12 forwards, eight defensemen and two goalies.
Pittsburgh’s top winger aggravated the lingering right ankle injury playing summer league hockey in Minnesota and decided to undergo surgery when it became clear it wasn’t healing on its own as hoped. The Nebraska native is coming off another strong goal-scoring showing for the Penguins, notching 36 goals and 37 assists for 73 points in 78 contests last season. Sidney Crosby‘s right-hand (or left-hand?) man on the team’s top unit has eclipsed the point-per-game mark three times in the last four seasons and will look to do so again this year.
His name often gets lost in the shuffle among Pittsburgh’s star power, now more than ever after the team’s highly-publicized addition of Erik Karlsson to the blue line. However, Guentzel is an incredibly important player to this Penguins squad and sits among the top pending free agents available on the 2024 market – especially after the Winnipeg Jets locked in center Mark Scheifele for an additional seven seasons yesterday.
Guentzel is projected to line up alongside Crosby and Bryan Rust in tonight’s game, potentially matched up against 2023 first-overall pick Connor Bedard in his NHL regular-season debut for the Blackhawks.
Blue Jackets Working On Trade To Move Defenseman
The Columbus Blue Jackets are “engaged in trade dialogue with teams” about moving a defenseman off their NHL roster, sources tell Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli. Seravalli adds these talks are “likely centered” around one of Jake Bean, Adam Boqvist and Andrew Peeke, but that general manager Jarmo Kekalainen is likely to “move whomever they find gets them most back.” The team’s roster crunch on defense left a pair of young defenders expected to earn NHL jobs, Nick Blankenburg and David Jiricek, off the team’s opening night roster yesterday.
This roster crunch didn’t come out of nowhere. After injuries depleted the Blue Jackets’ blueline depth for most of last season, Kekalainen acquired a pair of top-four defenders via trade back in June: Ivan Provorov from the Flyers and Damon Severson from the Devils. It would make sense, then, that both of those players are untouchables, as well as their top defenseman, Zach Werenski. The seventh defenseman on the active roster, Erik Gudbranson, carries a ten-team no-trade list and is locked into a rather unattractive $4MM cap hit through 2026.
That means the three defensemen Seravalli mentioned are the only realistic possibilities to get moved, and it’s hard to imagine Bean and Peeke would attract higher trade value than Boqvist. The 23-year-old right-shot defender was a core piece of the trade that sent Seth Jones to the Blackhawks in 2021. While injuries have affected his time in Columbus, he looks well on his way to becoming an everyday top-four player.
Selected eighth overall in the 2018 NHL Draft, Boqvist has 16 goals, 30 assists and 46 points in 98 games as a Blue Jacket. He’s received sheltered minutes, however, skating an average of just 17:47 per game since 2021. He is entering the second season of a three-year, $7.8MM contract carrying a $2.6MM cap hit. That’s quite an affordable number for his services and could likely fetch a first- or second-round pick in return.
Boqvist is projected to begin the season flanking Provorov on the team’s second pairing. If he’s moved, expect the Blue Jackets to recall Jiricek from AHL Cleveland to occupy the void.
It’s tougher to gauge Bean’s potential trade value. He’s two years older than Boqvist and was limited to just 14 games last season due to a shoulder injury. He also carries the pedigree of being a former first-round pick – the Hurricanes selected him 13th overall in 2016 – but doesn’t have the linear development track record of Boqvist. At a cap hit of $2.33MM and on an expiring contract, there’s more uncertainty attached to acquiring Bean than Boqvist.
Peeke has shouldered the heaviest minutes out of the potential trade trio as of late, but that doesn’t mean he’s done so successfully. The 25-year-old right-shot defenseman logged a -41 rating last season and had the unfortunate honor of being one of Columbus’ few healthy defenders throughout the season, having to take the brunt of the team’s depth issues. He notched 13 points in 80 games and averaged over 21 minutes a game for the second straight season, but his $2.75MM cap hit through 2026 carries some risk if he doesn’t pan out in a bottom-four role somewhere else.