Matthew Knies To Return To University Of Minnesota
After losing to Minnesota State in this year’s Frozen Four, Toronto Maple Leafs top prospect Matthew Knies won’t be signing his entry-level contract with the team this season, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports. Toronto’s second-round pick in 2021 will instead opt to return to the University of Minnesota for at least another season in search of a national championship.
The 19-year-old Knies took a seismic step forward in his development this season, his first year with the University of Minnesota after a pair of seasons with the USHL’s Tri-City Storm. Using his 6’3″, 205-lb frame to his advantage, the dynamic power forward was named to the Big Ten Conference’s All-Rookie Team and Second All-Star Team. He finished the season with 15 goals, 18 assists, and 33 points in 33 games, also adding a goal and an assist in four games while playing for the United States at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
For Minnesota, this is a huge boost to their chances at a national championship next season. He’ll be there to help mentor a strong incoming class that includes top 2022 American prospect Logan Cooley, as well as potential first-round selections Ryan Chesley and Jimmy Snuggerud. With Hobey Baker finalist Ben Meyers opting to turn pro with the Colorado Avalanche, Knies is left as the bonafide best forward on the team as they aim for another strong season in 2022-23.
For any Maple Leafs fans concerned about Knies’ future in the organization, though, there’s little to worry about. While the organization believed Knies was ready to make the jump to turn pro, as TSN’s Darren Dreger reports, the team supports his decision. It’s important to remember that expectations have skyrocketed for the 51st overall selection over the past few months, and while he would add to the team’s forward depth in the short term, Knies and the team have his long-term interests in mind.
Michael Misa Granted Exceptional Status Into OHL
April 14: The OHL has officially announced the status, releasing the following statement:
Having administered this process since 2005 with John Tavares, Aaron Ekblad, Connor McDavid, Sean Day and Shane Wright, I am continuously amazed by the well-rounded nature of those granted exceptional status. His constant success both in the classroom and on the ice has demonstrated that Michael Misa is well deserving to be among those who have been granted status in the past.
April 13: There will be an eighth player granted exceptional status into the Canadian Hockey League, reports Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek. 15-year-old Michael Misa will reportedly be granted the esteemed status, making him eligible for the 2022 OHL Draft.
The announcement comes after Misa registered 10 goals and 20 points in just seven games with the Mississauga Senators at the OHL Cup, tying Corey Perry for the all-time points record in a single tournament (but doing so in one less game). Misa is eligible for the 2025 NHL Draft, with an early 2007 birthday.
Misa joins Joe Veleno, Sean Day, Connor McDavid, John Tavares, Aaron Ekblad, Shane Wright, and Connor Bedard as players granted exceptional status in the top Canadian junior league. OHL teams near the bottom of the league like the Niagara IceDogs, Saginaw Spirit, Sudbury Wolves, Erie Otters, and Sarnia Sting will have the best chance at landing Misa at the upcoming OHL Draft.
Pittsburgh Penguins To Officially Meet Boston In 2023 Winter Classic
Official now after being reported earlier today by ESPN’s Kevin Weekes, the 2023 Winter Classic, previously announced to feature the Boston Bruins at Fenway Park, will feature the Bruins and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Of note, this will be the third Winter Classic not played on New Year’s Day, due to January 1st falling on a Sunday. The game will be played on Monday, January 2nd.
This is Pittsburgh’s third Winter Classic and Boston’s fourth. The Penguins have a 1-1 Winter Classic record, while the Bruins have gone 2-1. It’s also the first time the NHL has re-used a venue for the Winter Classic, replicating the 2010 edition in which Boston defeated the Philadelphia Flyers by a score of 2-1 in overtime.
While it’s sure to be a good hockey game due to the quality of the teams, the selection is drawing ire from many NHL fans due to its repetitiveness. Only 14 of the league’s 32 teams have competed in a Winter Classic, with nine teams (Chicago, Boston, NY Rangers, Washington, St. Louis, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Philadelphia) appearing more than once. That’s all despite the 2023 game already being the 14th edition of the outdoor game.
Mark Stone Set To Return; Carrier, Patrick, Brossoit Moved To LTIR
Mark Stone is officially playing tonight, and cap gymnastics have ensued for the Vegas Golden Knights. Forwards William Carrier, Nolan Patrick and goalie Laurent Brossoit, who have all missed significant time with injuries, have been moved to long-term injured reserve to permit Vegas to remove Stone’s $9.5MM cap hit from LTIR.
All three players must miss at least 10 games AND 24 days in order to be eligible for LTIR, starting from the retroactive date of placement. Their eligibility dates are as follows:
Carrier is out with a leg injury, and his LTIR placement is retroactive to March 26, 2022. He is eligible to return on April 24 against the San Jose Sharks.
Patrick is out with an undisclosed injury, and his LTIR placement is retroactive to March 24, 2022. He is eligible to return on April 20 against the Washington Capitals.
Brossoit it out with an undisclosed injury, and his LTIR placement is also retroactive to March 24, 2022, so he is also eligible to return on April 20.
Now, whether these players can actually return is uncertain. The most likely to return during the regular season is Carrier, who was classified as day-to-day. The others had an unknown timeline on their injury. Even if they can return, though, it will require yet another round of cap gymnastics to activate them prior to the playoffs. With only a week left in the regular season after April 20th, however, it’s likely all three are done for the regular season.
With Stone back in the lineup, though, the Knights finally have a chance to showcase what could end up as the best line in hockey with him, Jack Eichel, and Max Pacioretty. It’s a giant boost to an already surging team who looks poised to dethrone the Los Angeles Kings for the third playoff spot in the Pacific Division.
Torey Krug Expected To Return For St. Louis
The St. Louis Blues are expected to get defenseman Torey Krug back into the lineup tonight, somewhat ironically against the Boston Bruins.
It’s Krug’s first game against Boston since he departed for St. Louis in free agency. While it’s his second season in St. Louis, the Blues didn’t meet the Bruins last year due to the COVID-restricted 2020-21 schedule. Krug last played on March 22nd, leaving the team’s game against Washington with an upper-body injury.
When in the lineup this season, he and Justin Faulk have exceeded expectations as a high-end first pairing in the NHL. Krug was extremely productive prior to his injury with 35 points in 57 games, and his +24 rating is second on the team behind Faulk’s +36.
With that, Nick Leddy, who had been playing with Faulk since his acquisition, will likely slide onto a pairing with Colton Parayko, giving the Blues a much more solidified top-four defense going into a likely playoff series against Minnesota.
Snapshots: Kadri, Brown, Michigan State
The injury situation for the Colorado Avalanche’s top six forwards went from bad to worse over a week ago when Nazem Kadri went down with an upper-body injury. While the team did expect Kadri to be healthy before the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Colorado Hockey Now’s Adrian Dater reports that he could be back well before then, potentially returning to the lineup within the next week. Kadri actually still leads the Avalanche with 83 points, a mark he’s held as Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog have both missed significant time with injuries this year. The team’s actually only played three games without Kadri, as a sparse schedule over the past week and a half has done them favors. J.T. Compher has filled in Kadri’s spot, registering two points in three games (both came against Pittsburgh on April 5th). With Colorado having a stranglehold on the Western Conference regular-season title, the Avalanche hope to get Kadri back in order to continue building chemistry among their new acquisitions as the playoffs near.
A couple of other hockey-related notes:
- With Logan Brown expected to draw into the St. Louis Blues lineup again tonight, the Blues will no longer receive the conditional fourth-round pick sent to them by the Ottawa Senators in the trade in which they acquired him. The pick, slated to be Ottawa’s 2022 fourth-round selection, is retained by Ottawa if Brown plays in 30 regular-season games this season, which is the mark he’ll hit tonight. The trade will rest as a one-for-one swap for Brown and Zach Sanford, who the Senators flipped to the Winnipeg Jets at this year’s Trade Deadline for a 2022 fifth-round pick. The Blues remain with their own 2022 fourth-round pick.
- There’s coaching news regarding a Big Ten school, but maybe not the one some have been bracing for. Michigan State University announced today that the team has parted ways with head coach Danton Cole, who’d been behind the bench for five seasons with a record of 58-101-12. The team failed to make the NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament under his tenure, and they haven’t been there since 2012. They’ve only made the tournament twice after winning the national championship in 2007, led by future NHLers Justin Abdelkader, Tim Kennedy, and Chris Mueller.
Casey Cizikas To Have Hearing For Boarding
The NHL Department of Player Safety announced today that New York Islanders forward Casey Cizikas will have a hearing for boarding Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Brendan Smith.
Cizikas laid the hit on Smith in the first minute of the third period of last night’s game. Cizikas was assessed a two-minute minor for boarding on the play, while Smith left the game after the hit and did not return. Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour did not have an update on his status postgame.
While Cizikas does have a physical edge to his game, he does not have a history of being fined or suspended by NHL Player Safety, something that ought to work in his favor during this hearing. Cizikas has nine goals and 14 points in 63 games this season in the midst of a rough season offensively and defensively.
New York Rangers Activate Kaapo Kakko, Kevin Rooney
Somewhat quietly last night, the New York Rangers activated both Kaapo Kakko and Kevin Rooney from injured reserve, per CapFriendly.
The news couldn’t come at a better time, as the team just lost a Trade Deadline acquisition, Tyler Motte, to an upper-body injury for an indefinite length of time.
Kakko and Rooney were both playing important roles for the Rangers prior to their injuries, but after the team’s multiple moves at the deadline to solidify their depth, it’s unclear Kakko can slot back into the lineup. While Kakko, who has been out since late January with an upper-body injury, had just five goals and 14 points in 37 games, he spent the majority of his time on the top line with Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad. With the success Frank Vatrano has had in that role since coming over from Florida, though, it’s unlikely Kakko slots back into a top-six role for their impending playoff run. Rooney’s role is more solidified, and he’ll undoubtedly replace the mixture of Jonny Brodzinski and Greg McKegg in the team’s fourth-line center spot.
Kakko does still provide value in his return to the lineup, however. After a horrific rookie season defensively, he’s bounced back strongly in the past two seasons to become one of the team’s better defensive forwards at even strength, although he’s not used on the penalty kill. With the Rangers improving drastically in terms of even-strength possession numbers after the deadline, Kakko’s return should only increase that trend.
AHL Shuffle: 04/07/22
While the majority of attention in the hockey world is on the four schools taking part in tonight’s 2022 NCAA Men’s Frozen Four, there’s still a lot of NHL action on this Thursday. And, while transactions between teams and their minor league affiliates generally calm down as roster limits go away after the Trade Deadline, teams are still looking to tinker with their rosters and give young players a chance during the home stretch. Keep up with today’s list of AHL transactions:
Atlantic Division
- Per the team, the Detroit Red Wings reassigned forward Kyle Criscuolo to the Grand Rapids Griffins today. Criscuolo has played two NHL games this month with Detroit, his first two since a pair of games in mid-December. The 29-year-old AHL veteran has two assists in his four games with the big club this year, but he returns to Grand Rapids now, where the alternate captain is sixth on the team with 32 points in 49 games.
- Forward Cole Reinhardt will make his NHL debut for the Ottawa Senators tonight against the Nashville Predators, as the team recalled him today upon learning Tim Stützle would be unavailable with a lower-body injury. Reinhardt, a sixth-round pick in 2020 (two years after he was eligible), is in his second professional season. With the Belleville Senators this season, he has 11 goals, 15 assists, 26 points, and 56 penalty minutes in 60 games.
Metropolitan Division
Central Division
- The Winnipeg Jets have swapped defenseman, calling up Dylan Samberg on an emergency basis while returning Ville Heinola to the Manitoba Moose, as the team tweeted today. Samberg has the chance to get into his first NHL game since January, where a weeks-long call-up saw him get his first two NHL assists in six games. Heinola is somewhat mysteriously sent down after registering three points in his last four games.
Pacific Division
- The Vancouver Canucks announced that they have recalled forward Sheldon Dries from Abbotsford of the AHL under emergency conditions ahead of tonight’s game at the Arizona Coyotes. In a related move, the Canucks have reassigned defenseman Jack Rathbone to Abbotsford. This season, Dries has played in just two games for the Canucks, but has had a stellar season for Abbotsford, recording 35 goals and 27 assists in 54 games. Rathbone has played in nine NHL games this season for Vancouver, but has not played since November 11th.
This page will be updated throughout the day
Snapshots: Ekblad, Sharks, Valimaki
While he may not be ready for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, things are still looking positive regarding the health of Florida Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad. Head coach Andrew Brunette said today that Ekblad remains week-to-week, but he has started skating and should return sometime in early May. That makes it seem likely that Ekblad will at least make an appearance during Florida’s First Round series, which will likely be against the Washington Capitals. It will be the second season in a row where Florida starts the playoffs without their star defenseman due to a lower-body injury, but this time around, it seems he’ll be ready to step in shortly after. Ekblad will have finished his regular season with 15 goals and 42 assists for 57 points in just 61 games, which is still currently eighth among all NHL defensemen.
More from around the NHL today:
- While San Jose Sharks general manager Doug Wilson had been on a medical leave of absence since November, his departure announcement from the organization today still came as a shock. Long-time assistant GM Joe Will has taken duties since then, and he’ll remain in the interim position, but team president Jonathan Becher said today that the Sharks will hope to have a new GM by the beginning of next year. With that, it’s entirely possible that the Sharks head into a draft and free agency period with Will still at the helm of the club. That may not be an entirely bad thing, considering his familiarity with Becher and the club, but it takes away the chance for his successor to craft their roster ahead of next season.
- After being sent down early in the year and falling out of favor with head coach Darryl Sutter, the Calgary Flames have brought top defense prospect Juuso Valimaki back up to the big club from the AHL’s Stockton Heat. Valimaki played in 49 of the team’s 56 games last season, recording 11 points and never touching AHL ice. But after just two assists in eight games this season in limited minutes, the team opted to send Valimaki back down to the minors, where he had 17 points in 30 games. The team has no injuries on defense, so it’s a clear sign that the organization wants to see what effect his AHL stint this year had on him and whether he can be relied upon to play minutes for the team in the playoffs if injuries strike.