Florida Panthers Recall Four Players
With a lengthy injured list and five players on COVID-19 protocol, the Florida Panthers recalled four players from the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers today, per Florida Hockey Now’s George Richards.
Three of the callups have at least a handful of NHL games under their belt at this point (forward Grigori Denisenko and defensemen Matt Kiersted and Chase Priskie). Forward Cole Schwindt was also recalled and could make his NHL debut if Thursday night’s game against Los Angeles happens as scheduled.
Florida has a heavily depleted roster. Their COVID protocol list includes Carter Verhaeghe, Ryan Lomberg, Sam Bennett, Brandon Montour, and Radko Gudas. That’s bad enough on its own, but captain Aleksander Barkov, Mason Marchment, Noel Acciari, Markus Nutivaara, and Maxim Mamin are all unavailable due to injury. Gustav Forsling is out with an undisclosed illness.
Despite that, though, they still sit second in the Atlantic Division with an 18-6-4 record. They’ve dropped three out of four, though, as the absences begin to take their toll.
Buffalo’s Robert Hagg Out Month-To-Month With Lower-Body Injury
The Buffalo Sabres announced in today’s injury report that defenseman Robert Hagg is out month-to-month with a lower-body injury. Hagg was injured in the second period of the team’s last game on Wednesday against the Winnipeg Jets, playing 16 shifts and 11:30 before leaving.
Hagg is in his first season with the Sabres after the team acquired him from the Philadelphia Flyers this summer in the Rasmus Ristolainen trade. He’s put up results consistent with the rest of his career in a slightly increased role, seeing his highest ice time average since his rookie season in 2017-18.
Through 25 games, Hagg has a goal and four assists for five points and a -12 rating.
He’d most recently been playing on his off-side on a pairing with Jacob Bryson. Colin Miller, who’s seen some time in the press box recently despite putting up a respectable 11 points in 26 games (while averaging 20:01 per game), will slot back into the lineup.
It’s not all bad news on the injury front for the Sabres, however. New acquisition Alex Tuch is now listed as week-to-week and is no longer practicing in a non-contact jersey. He could look to make his Sabres debut before the New Year after having shoulder surgery last offseason.
Team Canada’s Alex Pietrangelo Uncertain About Olympic Participation
In a piece by David Schoen of the Las Vegas-Review Journal, Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo, who was one of the three players initially named to Team Canada’s roster for the 2022 Winter Olympics, now says he’s uncertain if he’ll participate in the Games.
Pietrangelo’s concerns come after the International Olympic Committee confirmed a three-to-five-week quarantine period for a positive COVID-19 test. As Pietrangelo notes in the Schoen report, he has a young family and multiple kids and, understandably, doesn’t want to risk being away from his family for that long.
It’s a recent memory for a lot of NHLers, who were forced into a similar situation for the bubble-style 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs. After the fact, many players expressed concerns and regrets about being away from their families for such a long length of time.
If he does proceed to opt-out, Pietrangelo would be the first confirmed member of an Olympic roster to do. Golden Knight teammate Robin Lehner said publicly last week that he wouldn’t be attending, but was not one of the first three players named to his native Sweden’s Olympic roster.
Obviously, losing a player of Pietrangelo’s caliber won’t be great for Team Canada. However, assuming they still have a large pool of NHLers to select from, they still prove to have the most dynamic puck-moving group of defensemen in the tournament.
Pietrangelo is third on the Golden Knights with 18 points in 26 games this season.
Jonas Johansson Placed On Waivers
Per TSN’s Chris Johnston, the Colorado Avalanche have placed netminder Jonas Johansson on waivers.
The move isn’t surprising in the least bit after the team recalled Pavel Francouz from his conditioning loan today. Francouz is gearing up to dress for an NHL game for the first time in over a year.
After a decent end to last season when Colorado acquired him from the Buffalo Sabres, Johansson’s struggled mightily this year. Behind an injured but still sound Avalanche team, he’s posted just a .880 save percentage in nine games played.
Considering his historical struggles at the NHL level, it’s unlikely Johansson gets claimed on waivers. However, he’s one of the better third-string goalies in the league and he does now have 30 NHL games under his belt.
Injury Notes: Shesterkin, Landeskog, Kadri
There’s some good news for the New York Rangers coming soon. NHL.com’s Dan Rosen reports that although goalie Igor Shesterkin won’t dress tonight, he’s “making progress” after taking the ice at practice this morning. Shesterkin was classified as day-to-day after a scary-looking lower-body injury last week forced him out of the lineup and onto injured reserve. He had an impeccable .937 save percentage through 18 games this year, and should certainly still be considered a candidate for the Vezina Trophy at this point in time. Backup Alexandar Georgiev has risen to the occasion after a tough start, though, posting a save percentage above .920 in three straight Rangers wins with Shesterkin absent.
More injury notes, both from Denver:
- Injuries continue to hold back the Avalanche in 2021-22, as head coach Jared Bednar said today that captain Gabriel Landeskog will miss roughly two weeks with a lower-body injury. All of their top trio of him, Nathan MacKinnon, and Mikko Rantanen has missed time this season. Landeskog was a main focal point of Colorado’s offense, netting 27 points through 22 games this year. Andre Burakovsky will slot in his place alongside MacKinnon and Rantanen for the time being.
- After missing Friday’s game with a lower-body injury, Nazem Kadri will be out again tonight but will likely be back Tuesday, according to Colorado Hockey Now’s Adrian Dater. Kadri has been the glue of this team throughout their injury troubles this year, scoring 23 assists and 34 points through just 22 games. Mikhail Maltsev, who was recalled today, will get into the lineup with Kadri’s absence.
Colorado Avalanche Recall Pavel Francouz From Conditioning Loan
Some good news is on the horizon for the goalie situation in Denver. Per Colorado Hockey Now’s Adrian Dater, the team has recalled goalie Pavel Francouz from his conditioning loan with the AHL’s Colorado Eagles, paving the way for his NHL return after missing over a full season due to injury.
Francouz last played an NHL game on August 30, 2020, during Colorado’s Second Round playoff loss to the Dallas Stars in 2020. He then spent the entire 2020-21 campaign on injured reserve.
He looked to return to his position as backup in Colorado this season, but was injured again during a preseason game. After an excellent four-game conditioning stint (.945 save percentage, 3-1-0 record) in the AHL, it looks as though Francouz is finally healthy enough to reliably return to NHL action.
Francouz has put up impressive numbers in limited appearances, but his career .923 save percentage and 21-9-4 record should give some hope to an Avalanche team that’s had goaltending inconsistencies early this season.
Minor Transactions: 12/12/21
With a lighter schedule at the NHL level today, expect some moves from other niches of the hockey world. For those more minor moves, we’ll keep an ongoing list of today’s transactions right here.
- There’s a junior trade on the block today, as WHL netminder Cole Tisdale was dealt from the Tri-City Americans to the Prince Albert Raiders Saturday night in exchange for a 2025 seventh-round pick, a team release from the Raiders confirms. The 19-year-old netminder is playing his first full WHL season but now finds himself on his third team. Originally a draft pick of the Kelowna Rockets, he was moved to Tri-City after six games with Kelowna this year. After just two games there, he now finds himself in Prince Albert looking for some stability.
- As the Pittsburgh Penguins organization becomes healthier, the baby Penguins in AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton are making corresponding moves. Today, they re-assigned forward Shaw Boomhower to the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers, per a team tweet. The 23-year-old Boomhower took last season off from hockey entirely but has impressed with six points in 12 games in Wheeling. He didn’t get into a game with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton during his callup.
Latest On NHL Olympic Participation
The opening ceremony for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, is now just under two months away.
Yet it’s still not clear whether or not NHL players will be a part of the multi-week-long tournament, with the possibility of the league missing two straight Winter Olympics looming large. Information provided Saturday by the International Olympic Committee provided some more clarity on the situation, for better or for worse.
The key portion of all of it, summarized in this Twitter thread by TSN’s Chris Johnston, is the official word on the quarantine regulations if an athlete does test positive for COVID-19 while in China. Any positive test will yield an automatic quarantine that can last between three and five weeks. While players can test negative twice within a 24-hour span to exit protocol, similar to NHL guidelines, this is only applicable in China after the mandatory minimum 21-day quarantine.
That poses some serious issues for a variety of reasons. For one, if a player tests positive, they won’t get a chance to rejoin their team for the rest of the tournament as the quarantine period is simply too long. It’s also a giant question mark for players financially, especially if they test positive near the end of the tournament, as Johnston notes that teams aren’t required to pay players if they miss time on the other side of the Olympic break. However, a joint call between the IOC, IIHF, NHL, and NHLPA is expected soon to “review these matters,” per Johnston.
It’s a lot of food for thought for players, and the league is now making it clear that it will be entirely the players’ choice on whether they go, with deputy commissioner Bill Daly stating that “[he doesn’t] anticipate being on a different page than the players’ association on these issues.”
There are two paths in that regard. Players could just individually opt-out of playing in Beijing, something Vegas Golden Knights netminder Robin Lehner already did, justifiably citing mental health reasons. However, the possibility remains that the players could collectively elect to not attend the Olympics, marking the second straight Winter Games without an NHL presence.
While it was previously believed that the NHL had a strict deadline of January 10, 2022, to decide on their Olympic participation, it’s now clear, per Johnston, that it’s only a soft deadline. The NHL can opt-out after that point, but will incur financial penalties if they do so.
AHL Shuffle: 12/12/21
There’s only a light five-game schedule on tap for this Sunday, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a lack of movement across leagues. We’ll keep track of all the action on the NHL/AHL pipeline right here.
Atlantic Division
- The Toronto Maple Leafs have made a three-person swap today, assigning Kristians Rubins back to the Marlies and recalling forward Brett Seney and defenseman Carl Dahlstrom. Rubins, the first Latvian player to suit up for the Leafs, had no points in three games with the Leafs but looked solid defensively at times. After a game that saw the Leafs blow a 4-1 lead to Chicago and escape with a last-minute 5-4 win, however, the team wants to make some changes. Dahlstrom has just four assists in 18 games with the Marlies this year, while Seney has 16 in 19.
- For the first time in a decade, Michael Del Zotto is headed to the AHL. The veteran defenseman cleared waivers today and has been subsequently reassigned to the minors, the Ottawa Senators announced. Del Zotto will join AHL Belleville for the time being and stay fresh with some game action until the point in time that Ottawa decides they want his experience and expertise back on the NHL roster.
Metropolitan Division
- Early this morning, the Washington Capitals re-assigned goaltender Zach Fucale to the Hershey Bears, per a team release. Fucale was called up over the weekend to ensure the team would have an extra goalie if an injury occurred during their back-to-back set. The former junior hockey standout recorded a shutout in his first NHL game this season, and he has an .898 save percentage and 4-1-3 record with Hershey this season.
Central Division
- After a lengthy absence from NHL play, Colorado Avalanche goalie Pavel Francouz could be back soon. Per Colorado Hockey Now’s Adrian Dater, he was recalled today from his conditioning loan with the Colorado Eagles. Francouz missed the entire 2020-21 season and beginning of this season with injuries. He had an impressive .945 save percentage in four games on his conditioning loan, going 3-1-0 while in the AHL. Mikhail Maltsev was also recalled, per Dater.
- Ville Heinola is back with the Manitoba Moose after the Winnipeg Jets had him on the NHL roster over the weekend as an extra body. The 20th overall pick in 2019 had an impressive 14 points through 18 games in Manitoba this year.
Pacific Division
- With Ryan Getzlaf off the injured reserve, the Anaheim Ducks have reassigned his young replacement, Benoit-Olivier Groulx, to the AHL. The San Diego Gulls are sending goaltender Lukas Dostal back in return. Dostal will serve as the backup to Anthony Stolarz on Sunday as the Ducks evaluate the injury status of starter John Gibson. Should he play, it will be the NHL debut for the 21-year-old prospect.
This page will be updated throughout the day
Jakob Chychrun, Ryan Dzingel Day-To-Day For Coyotes
According to the team, Arizona Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun and forward Ryan Dzingel are both day-to-day with upper-body injuries, suffered in Friday’s game against the Florida Panthers.
Both are unavailable tonight as the team plays the second half of a back-to-back at home, this time against Philadelphia.
Chychrun has just seven points through 26 games after back-to-back 10-plus goal seasons. However, he had a long pointless streak to start the year and has been heating up as of late. He’s playing nearly 25 minutes per game, not an easy task for such a flawed Coyotes team.
Dzingel has had injury issues all year, and because of that, he hasn’t found stability in the lineup. Flip-flopping between wing and center, he has just four points through 16 games this season.
Alex Galchenyuk and Cam Dineen likely draw into the lineup in place of Chychrun and Dzingel.