Boston Bruins Place Karson Kuhlman In COVID Protocol
The Boston Bruins announced Saturday night that forward Karson Kuhlman entered the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol. In a corresponding move, they recalled forward Oskar Steen from the AHL’s Providence Bruins to the taxi squad.
Kuhlman, a 26-year-old native of Esko, Minnesota, has a goal and an assist in 18 games with Boston this season, his fourth season in the NHL after graduating from the University of Minnesota-Duluth. So far, it’s his first year in the organization where he hasn’t played any games with Providence.
He’s in the final year of a two-year, $1.45MM contract and is a pending restricted free agent. Kuhlman has largely been the team’s 13th forward this year, often serving as a healthy scratch. He’s averaged 10:12 of ice time in the 18 games he’s played.
Steen comes back up the taxi squad with the chance of cracking the Bruins lineup for the fourth time this year. Through three games this season, he’s posted two assists. It adds on to what’s been a successful season for him in Providence, scoring 10 goals and 10 assists through just 16 games.
What Your Team Is Thankful For: Philadelphia Flyers
In the spirit of the holiday season, PHR will take a look at what teams are thankful for as the season passes the one-quarter mark. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. We’ll examine what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the Philadelphia Flyers.
What are the Flyers thankful for?
Their new coach.
It’s hard to gauge time with all the postponements, but the Flyers have only played eight games since firing Alain Vigneault on December 6. Since then, however, the Flyers have either gotten lucky or turned a corner, going 5-2-2 under interim coach Mike Yeo so far. The two regulation losses were their first two games under Yeo, a 7-5 loss to Colorado on December 6 and a 3-0 loss to New Jersey on December 8. Since then, they’ve yet to lose in regulation and have won by multiple goals in two of their five wins.
The defensive bleeding is starting to improve, albeit slowly. Philadelphia hasn’t allowed more than three goals since that Colorado loss.
Better goaltending this season will help the Flyers in the long run, and under Yeo, it looks like the team is starting to turn a corner in front of Carter Hart and Martin Jones. If Ryan Ellis can stay healthy later in the season, he’ll be a big help as well.
Who are the Flyers thankful for?
Not much was made of the Atkinson-for-Jakub Voracek swap this summer. It was a trade of ageing wingers who’d underperformed in recent years, and it allowed the Flyers to gain some salary cap flexibility for future moves. That trade’s paid dividends for both teams, though, especially the Flyers. Atkinson holds the team lead with 12 goals in 31 games and has the best +/- rating on the team by far (+13).
He’s on a 32-goal pace, which would be the third-highest total of his career. COVID hit right after his career-high 41-goal campaign in 2018-19, but he’s now already hit his 12-goal mark in 2019-20 and is only three goals shy of his 2020-21 mark. The +/- mark is especially impressive for a team that’s had the defensive struggles of Philadelphia. That +13 rating is already tied for the second-best in his career. It may be a stretch to say it’s a career season for Atkinson given the 41-goal mark, but it’s certainly one of his best.
What would the Flyers be even more thankful for?
Health and more production from Sean Couturier.
Philadelphia’s defensive struggles this year were exacerbated by a somewhat unexpected lack of scoring. Couturier’s still been as trustworthy as ever defensively, but after signing an eight-year, $62MM extension this offseason, he’s got just six goals and 17 points through 29 games. It’s not awful by any stretch, but he’s been hovering around a point-per-game for the past few seasons and the dip is somewhat concerning.
It won’t be happening anytime soon, though. Couturier was injured recently and team announced he’s now out week-to-week with an upper-body injury.
What should be on the Flyers’ Holiday Wish list?
A Rasmus Ristolainen deal at the trade deadline.
Philadelphia, barring a miracle, is extremely unlikely to make the playoffs. They are tied for ninth in the conference with the Bruins, but Boston has four games in hand on them. With other teams behind Philadelphia looking to make runs as well, it doesn’t seem like they’ll be able to pull away from the pack by the trade deadline.
The Flyers paid a pretty penny to acquire Ristolainen from Buffalo this offseason, but it just hasn’t worked out. He’s still struggled mightily in his own end, and he has just eight points in 29 games this year. The team needs cap space and assets, and shipping out Ristolainen in the last year of his deal would allow them to at least recoup some assets for the ill-advised acquisition.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Brayden Schenn Likely Out For Winter Classic
Per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Jim Thomas, St. Louis Blues forward Brayden Schenn seems to be unavailable for the Winter Classic tonight in Minneapolis. He didn’t take warmups.
Schenn’s been day-to-day with an upper-body injury since the middle of December, but many were hopeful he could return in time for the biggest outdoor game of the year.
His absence is compensated for by the return of other key portions of the team. Pavel Buchnevich and Ivan Barbashev are back in the lineup and will be counted on to play larger roles tonight.
Schenn’s struggled to stay healthy this year. Through just 19 games, he still has 10 points.
Pacific Notes: Oilers, Donato, Comtois
The Edmonton Oilers are in a deep slide, exacerbated by a 3-2 overtime loss today to the New York Islanders. Now, Sportsnet’s Mark Spector reports two pieces of bad news on the injury front. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins returned to Edmonton to get his undisclosed injury looked at, and Spector says to assume he’s “out a while.” Additionally, he notes that goalie Mike Smith, who just returned from injury, is now day-to-day with an upper-body injury separate from the one that just kept him out for over two months. Smith’s struggled this year, the first of a two-year extension he signed this summer, posting a .897 save percentage in five games. It’ll mean more action for the 23-year-old Stuart Skinner, who’s helped buoy the team with a .916 save percentage through 10 games. They’ll also be in tough with Nugent-Hopkins for the next little bit, who only has three goals but is still on a great pace with 26 points in 30 games.
Other rumblings from around the Pacific Division on New Years Day:
- Seattle Kraken forward Ryan Donato will return tonight after being activated from COVID-19 protocol. Donato last played December 18 against Edmonton, and he’s been a decent contributor for the expansion Kraken with eight goals and 13 points in 27 games. He’ll likely get back in on the team’s third line, playing left wing with Alexander Wennberg and Joonas Donskoi.
- Some good news injury-wise — Anaheim Ducks forward Max Comtois is expected to make his return to the lineup tonight against Colorado. Comtois has played just once since suffering a hand injury on November 11. It’s been a tough year for him with just one assist through 14 games, but after his 16-goal, 33-point season last year, expect some bad shooting luck to turn around for him in a short manner.
Snapshots: Paquette, Zuccarello, Canadiens Quarantine
The Montreal Canadiens are absolutely ravaged at the moment by injuries and COVID, and bad turned to worse today when forward Cedric Paquette didn’t finish Saturday’s game against the Florida Panthers due to a neck injury, per TVA’s Renaud Lavoie. Montreal dressed just 11 forwards and five defensemen for that game, a 5-2 loss. They had just three players dressed with a cap hit greater than $1MM, with the majority of their lineup filled out by rookies and AHL call-ups. Paquette played a third-line role, centering Lukas Vejdemo and Alex Belzile. Paquette’s only played in 18 games this season, missing some time due to injury and suspension, but he only has one assist while averaging 9:11 per game. More injury news is certainly concerning for the 28-year-old Paquette, who signed a one-year deal with Montreal this offseason.
More notes from around the league on the first day of 2022:
- With the Minnesota Wild missing captain Jared Spurgeon from tonight’s Winter Classic due to a lower-body injury, The Athletic’s Michael Russo tweets that right wing Mats Zuccarello will serve as the third alternate captain for the outdoor spectacle. Matt Dumba and Marcus Foligno are healthy and will serve as the other two alternates, as per usual. Zuccarello fought back from an early-season injury to have one of the most productive starts of his career, posting 24 points through 24 games. The Norwegian winger will likely reprise his role on the team’s top line, playing alongside Kirill Kaprizov and Ryan Hartman.
- The Canadiens aren’t playing again until January 12th at the earliest as their entire upcoming four-game homestand is postponed. The team won’t complain due to the aforementioned excessive amount of lineup absences, but now, head coach Dominique Ducharme says that a five-day quarantine for the entire team upon their return to Montreal is possible and will be discussed. While it won’t affect their playing schedule, it could give a chance for players to stay healthy and help their lineup get back to having experienced NHLers in the mix.
- UPDATE: the Canadiens and Laval Rocket have officially paused all team activities through January 6, following up on Ducharme’s statement from earlier.
New York Islanders Make Several Roster Moves
Dec 30: Brock Nelson entered the protocol on December 28. He joined Beauvillier, Clutterbuck, Wahlstrom, Parise, Salo, and Martin at that point but the latter three have now cleared. Today, Sebastian Aho has been placed in the protocol, while Cole Bardreau, Austin Czarnik, and Michael Dal Colle have all been recalled from the taxi squad. Grant Hutton has also been recalled from Bridgeport, while Kyle Palmieri has gone on injured reserve.
Dec 26: After their roster was decimated by COVID cases earlier in the season, the New York Islanders placed Anthony Beauvillier, Cal Clutterbuck, Zach Parise, and Oliver Wahlstrom into the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol today.
In a corresponding move, the Islanders assigned forwards Cole Bardreau and Simon Holmstrom, as well as defenseman Grant Hutton, to the freshly re-introduced taxi squad as COVID cases continue to climb around the league.
It’s not all bad news, however. The team activated center Mathew Barzal from protocol, and general manager Lou Lamoriello says winger Matt Martin and defenseman Robin Salo will be activated on Wednesday.
Beauvillier is in the midst of a truly tough season, like most of the team. The 24-year-old winger has just four goals and four assists through 24 games.
The toughest loss at this point for the Islanders is Wahlstrom, who’s finally been elevated to top-line duties and has eight goals and seven assists through 26 games. Clutterbuck and Parise have combined for six goals and five assists through 26 games each.
Ottawa Senators Activate Erik Brannstrom From Injured Reserve
Per CapFriendly, the Ottawa Senators activated defenseman Erik Brannstrom from injured reserve on Wednesday night.
A broken hand in mid-November gave Brannstrom an expected return timeline of two months. However, it appears as though he’ll be returning to the lineup about two weeks ahead of schedule, which is great news for both him and the Senators.
Ottawa’s current depth on defense is running a tad thin with both Nikita Zaitsev and Josh Brown on injured reserve. With Michael Del Zotto waived and sent to AHL Belleville, names like Dillon Heatherington and Jacob Bernard-Docker are on their list of six healthy defensemen at the NHL level.
Brannstrom had played sparingly prior to the injury, however. The 15th overall pick in 2017 got into just two games with Ottawa, recording no points and an average ice time of 16:54. He did, however, spend some time in Belleville, recording three points in nine games.
Now healthy again, Brannstrom’s short-term future in the Ottawa lineup may seem unclear due to him jumping up and down between the NHL and AHL this season. However, with the current state of their defense personnel, it’s likely he gets another shot in an NHL role.
IIHF Will Attempt To Reschedule 2022 World Junior Championship
International Ice Hockey Federation president Luc Tardif told Russian outlet Championat on Wednesday that they’d like to reschedule the 2022 World Junior Championship, which was cancelled today due to a series of forfeited games at the tournament due to COVID cases among teams.
Tardif says that the summer of 2022 is the most likely outcome and that the tournament would likely stay in Canada. From a financial and television perspective, it would make sense to hold the tournament after the conclusion of the 2022 Stanley Cup Final in July.
Translated from Russian, Tardif had this to say on the tournament’s cancellation:
The integrity of the tournament was violated, for reasons of player safety, we decided it was necessary to hold the [WJC] for real… Hockey is excellent, but the [Omicron] situation is disappointing. We preferred to end the tournament now, we will develop a proposal for all federations with new dates.
One important note from the interview is that teams will be able to modify their rosters for the tournament, should it be rescheduled. It’s big news for players like Finland’s Aatu Raty, who weren’t taken to the tournament due to testing positive for COVID during the selection process.
Tardif says he doesn’t know if the tournament will be held in a bubble this time around. To be fair, it’s impossible to predict the nature of COVID six months from now, and it’s therefore impossible to make a call on that front.
Still, optimism remains for these junior players to get an honest crack at medalling at the World Juniors in 2022.
Minnesota Wild Facing Organizational COVID Issues
Some tough news hit the Minnesota Wild organization today, as four Iowa Wild players entered the AHL’s COVID-19 protocol, per the team, including center Mason Shaw, who’s gotten into two games with the Wild this season and was a potential call-up option for the team in the coming days.
It’s apparent at this stage that the Minnesota Wild won’t be playing in the Winter Classic on January 1 with a full squad. Center Joel Eriksson Ek is out with an upper-body injury, and head coach Dean Evason confirmed earlier this week that he won’t play. Captain Jared Spurgeon is on injured reserve, listed as week-to-week with a lower-body injury. He won’t be in either.
Now with defenseman Jonas Brodin entering COVID protocol yesterday, it became apparent that the Wild will need depth options in the coming days to continue to field a competitive team. There’s also the very viable concern of more Wild members entering COVID protocol – they’re one of the very lucky teams who have just one COVID-related absence as of now.
It’s important to note that Minnesota still stands in pretty good shape right now. Young Calen Addison and Jordie Benn are legitimate NHL options who can fill in for Brodin and Spurgeon on the back-end, and assigning more minutes to players like Ryan Hartman and Frederick Gaudreau down the middle can help alleviate Eriksson Ek’s absence.
But ahead of the Winter Classic, one of the most-talked-about and most-watched regular-season games of the year, it’s concerning. Over the past few weeks, the hockey world’s seen seemingly endless times how quickly situations like this can devolve.
It’s what makes the news out of Iowa so concerning. Minnesota still has quality depth options available for recall, including forwards Matt Boldy, Kyle Rau, Adam Beckman, Connor Dewar, and defensemen Dakota Mermis and Kevin Czuczman. If the COVID situation worsens in Iowa, however, it could seriously affect Minnesota’s ability to construct a competitive roster for the Winter Classic.
Florida Panthers Add Jonathan Huberdeau, Three Others To COVID Protocol
Dec 28: Olli Juolevi is the latest Panther to enter the protocol, joining the four added on Sunday who are still unavailable.
Dec 26: The Florida Panthers announced Sunday afternoon that wingers Jonathan Huberdeau and Owen Tippett, center Eetu Luostarinen, and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar entered the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol.
An expected day of COVID news continues as teams return to practice after the holiday break. It now makes 12 Florida players in COVID protocol. Wingers Frank Vatrano, Carter Verhaeghe and Ryan Lomberg, center Sam Bennett, and defensemen Aaron Ekblad, Gustav Forsling, Radko Gudas, and Brandon Montour were already in protocol.
After the NHL postponed all games on December 27, the team was supposed to return to play on December 29 against the New York Rangers. With these four skaters at the least likely being unavailable for this game, it’s entirely a possibility that the game could get postponed as well.
It’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility that the NHL could postpone the entire schedule further as these cases continue to come in. Nearly every team’s roster is seriously affected by COVID cases at this point.
For the Panthers though, returning to play without these four is tough. Huberdeau is their team leader in scoring with 10 goals and 23 assists for 33 points through 29 games, while Tippett and Luostarinen have been good depth pieces, combining for 19 points in 29 games each. Weegar is playing nearly 24 minutes a night and is an integral part of the defense.