Metropolitan Notes: Gruden, Wotherspoon, Marino
With Jeff Carter out with an upper-body injury tonight, the Pittsburgh Penguins were in a position to recall a forward to fill his spot in the active lineup. In doing so, the Penguins brought up Jonathan Gruden from their AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins via an emergency recall.
Recalled oftenly this season by Pittsburgh, this transaction will mark Gruden’s sixth call-up of the season in total. In now his fourth season with the Penguins organization, Gruden has accrued the most NHL games played in a single year for his short career, scoring one goal in 11 games for Pittsburgh this year.
While still failing to make a name for himself at the NHL level, Gruden is been an solid contributor to the WBS Penguins over the last four years. Over 204 regular season games overall, Gruden has scored 45 goals and 96 points in total, while also chipping in one goal and three points in five playoff games, as well.
Other Metro notes:
- In a similar transaction, Pittsburgh’s opponent tonight, the New Jersey Devils, have recalled defenseman Tyler Wotherspoon by way of an emergency recall. In his second emergency recall in only his last week, Wotherspoon has had an elevated opportunity to play in the NHL due to multiple injuries on New Jersey’s back end. Unfortunately, Wotherspoon has yet to play with the Devils this season, but has registered four goals and 19 points in 54 games for the organization’s AHL affiliate, the Utica Comets.
- Paving the way for another emergency recall to Wotherspoon, earlier reports indicated that defenseman John Marino would miss the game tonight due to an upper-body injury (X Link). With Marino now out with an injury for at least this evening, New Jersey will be without three of their top-four defensemen, leading to a 5-11-0 record over the last 16 games for the organization.
Detroit Red Wings Sign Carter Gylander
In a public announcement coming from the organization, the Detroit Red Wings have signed college goaltender, Carter Gylander to a two-year entry-level contract, beginning in the 2024-25 NHL season. The team also stated that Gylander would be joining the organization’s AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins, for the remainder of the season on an amateur tryout agreement.
Originally drafted by the Red Wings with the 201st overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft, Gylander has spent the last four seasons playing for Colgate University of the ECAC Hockey Division. With his numbers dipping down a bit from last season, Gylander finished his NCAA career with a 14-14-4 season, coupled with a .901 save percentage and 2.93 goals against average over 32 games.
Gylander posted his best numbers during his junior season at Colgate, finishing with a 19-15-5 record in 39 games, posting a .914 SV% and a 2.46 GAA in the process. During the ECAC Hockey Tournament at the end of last season, Gylander led his team to a championship win over Harvard University, winning the tournament’s Most Oustanding Player award as well.
Unfortunately, Colgate’s run of success would end there, as the University of Michigan would eliminate them in a blowout game during the first round of the Frozen Four tournament. This season, Gylander and Colgate would make it to the second round of the ECAC Hockey tournament, but would be ousted by St. Lawrence University, officially ending Gylander’s collegiate career.
In Detroit, Gylander will join a growing list of young goaltending prospects that the team will be looking to graduate to the NHL at some point. With Sebastian Cossa still earning his stripes at the AHL level, the Red Wings still hold the signing rights to Trey Augustine, who is in the midst of a standout season with the Michigan State University Spartans.
Devils Return Tyler Wotherspoon, Max Willman To AHL
March 17: Both Willman and Wotherspoon were returned to AHL Utica after yesterday’s loss to the Coyotes, per CapFriendly. The two depth pieces did not play during their call-ups, as they were healthy scratches against Arizona and the Dallas Stars on Thursday.
March 13: In light of some injuries over the last several days, the New Jersey Devils were put in a position to call up a few players from their AHL affiliate. Coming from the Utica Comets, the team has recalled defenseman Tyler Wotherspoon and forward Maxwell Willman.
Being the veteran of the two call-ups, Wotherspoon has less playing experience at the NHL level as compared to Willman. After being drafted 57th overall by the Calgary Flames in the 2011 NHL Draft, Wotherspoon has only managed 30 games at the NHL level, tallying three assists in total.
In the American Hockey League, Wotherspoon has gained much more experience, playing in a total of 605 regular season games between the Flames, Flyers, and Devils organization. Now in a formal leadership role during the twilight years of his career, Wotherspoon has scored 37 goals and 209 points throughout his minor league career.
Willman is the only one of the two to have played with New Jersey this season, putting together a two-point season over 13 games up to this point. In his first year with the Devils organization, Willman was already a veteran of 50 NHL games over the last two seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers.
Outside of New Jersey, Willman has been a positive addition to the Comets this year, scoring 11 goals and 21 points in 31 games already. Currently sitting five points back of a playoff position in the AHL’s North Division, Utica will have to let go of their seventh-highest scorer for the time being.
West Injury Notes: Martinez, Eriksson Ek, Bjugstad
Alec Martinez is finally back on the ice for practice for the Vegas Golden Knights a short while after being placed on the team’s injured reserve (X Link). Given that he was not in a non-contact jersey this afternoon, it is reasonable to assume that Martinez should be back in the lineup for the Golden Knights soon.
Once Martinez officially returns to the lineup for Vegas, the team will have a really good problem to have. After acquiring Noah Hanifin from the Calgary Flames on March 7th, the Golden Knights have put themselves in a position to place Martinez on the team’s bottom-pairing comfortably.
Unfortunately, this return likely spells the end of consistent playing time for either Nicolas Hague or Zach Whitecloud. Unless the team opts to run with seven defensemen, either Hague or Whitecloud will serve as a healthy scratch as the Golden Knights look to hang on to the last wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Other injury notes:
- After missing the team’s game against the Anaheim Ducks with a lower-body injury, it appears that Minnesota Wild forward Joel Eriksson Ek may not join the team on their upcoming road trip to California. Joe Smith of The Athletic reported that Eriksson Ek is still considered day-to-day, and the team was waiting to see how he responded to the next couple of days of practice.
- Earlier this evening, when the Arizona Coyotes matched up against the New Jersey Devils, Nick Bjugstad left the game after having only accrued 7:24 of ice time and did not return (X Link). It will be a tough blow to a Coyotes lineup if Bjugstad is unable to play for the foreseeable future, as he has recently been a focal point of their lineup. In the last 12 games, Bjugstad has scored seven goals and 10 points in total, averaging just over 17 minutes of ice time per night.
Martin St. Louis Takes Leave Of Absence
Today in a press release, the Montreal Canadiens announced that head coach Martin St. Louis would be taking an indefinite leave of absence from the team. In the report, the Canadiens indicated that the leave of absence was due to family reasons, and that assistant coach Trevor Letowski would be taking over the reins for the time being.
In now his third season as the head coach of the winningest franchise in NHL history, St. Louis has guided the Canadiens to a 70-94-21 record in his 185 games behind the bench. Originally, St.Louis was brought in to take over behind the bench halfway through the 2021-22 NHL season after Montreal parted ways with former head coach, Dominique Ducharme.
With the leave of absence being indefinite, it is difficult to speculate as to when St. Louis will return to the Canadiens. Currently, on their longest road trip of the year, Montreal will not return to the Bell Centre until March 28th when they take on the Philadelphia Flyers.
Much like St. Louis when he originally joined the Canadiens, Letowski does not have any former experience being the head coach of an NHL team. In his third season as an assistant coach with the club, Letowski is the former head coach of the Windsor Spitfires and the Sarnia Sting of the Ontario Hockey League.
Thoughts On Sidney Crosby’s Future In Pittsburgh
When the Pittsburgh Penguins decided to part ways with forward Jake Guentzel last Friday, it was not only emblematic of a retooling period for the storied organization but could be a sign of things to come. Still the oldest team in the National Hockey League by over a year on average, the current iteration of this Penguins team is certainly going quietly into the night.
With the main core of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and Erik Karlsson on the wrong side of 30, Pittsburgh is quickly encroaching upon a future where Bryan Rust, Rickard Rakell, and Marcus Pettersson lead the team. Not to be taken as a knock on either of those three players, but it will certainly not be good enough for the Penguins to be a competitive team in the Eastern Conference unless some major changes take place.
As difficult as it is to imagine Crosby wearing the sweater of any other team, it is becoming a disappointing end to one of the greatest careers in the history of the game. Last season, Pittsburgh failed to make the playoffs for the first time in Crosby’s career since his rookie season, and are headed for the same outcome again this year.
Having one year remaining on his 12-year, $104.4MM contract after this season, Crosby will have the option to leave the only team he has ever known in an attempt to finish his career on a high note. However, being one of the most humble athletes in the game today, there is little to no insight into which way Crosby is leaning.
In this week’s edition of 32 Thoughts, Elliotte Friedman shows a lot of empathy with Crosby’s current frustration with the Penguins organization but believes the organization should do everything in its power to retain their franchise player. Friedman believes that if Pittsburgh were to offer Crosby a three-year, $30MM contract; that should be enough to get Crosby to remain with the Penguins.
However, to push back, Friedman’s ideas appear to be an oversimplification of the factors that have driven Crosby in his career. Even when he signed his mega-contract with Pittsburgh back in 2012, paying Crosby an AAV of $8.7MM was a bargain contract for the Penguins.
Owning three Stanley Cup championship rings, two Conn Smythe Trophy victories, and three Olympic Gold Medals, it is more than clear what has driven Crosby throughout his career. Being one of the most competitive athletes in sports history, Crosby is first and foremost concerned about winning, which is something Pittsburgh is not built to do over the next few years.
Of the top-10 highest point scorers in NHL history; Steve Yzerman, Mario Lemieux, and Joe Sakic are the only three to have stayed with the same team throughout their careers, with the others not having the privilege of spending their entire career in one spot. Given that it is not irregular to see a generational player make a move like this, it would be inappropriate to think it would impact Crosby’s legacy in any way.
Nevertheless, if Pittsburgh pulls off some crafty moves this upcoming offseason, there is a legitimate chance they could turn things around. However, it is becoming increasingly likely that this organization is headed for a lengthy rebuild, which is something Crosby may not want to be a part of to finish off his incredible career.
Injury Notes: Marner, Eriksson Ek, MacDonald
Missing the team’s most recent game against the Montreal Canadiens, concerns began to arise regarding the status of Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner. However, in comforting news surrounding the star forward, it was revealed that Marner was only dealing with a mild ankle sprain, and would take a few more days to fully recover (Article Link).
Down the stretch, with Marner playing in nearly all of Toronto’s games this season, the Maple Leafs may opt to keep him out of the lineup for several games due to load management. Taking into account the recent downturn from the Detroit Red Wings and Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto now holds a comfortable playoff position in the Atlantic Division by a margin of eight points.
The Maple Leafs could theoretically catch up to the Boston Bruins in the Atlantic Division race, but they would only be playing for home-ice advantage in the first round, as it is unrealistic to imagine the team catching up with the Florida Panthers. Keeping this in mind, it will be more important that all the star players on Toronto’s roster are fully healthy for the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs, which will inevitably influence the organizational decision-making over the next several weeks.
Other injury notes:
- Before the team’s game tonight against the Anaheim Ducks, the Minnesota Wild announced that center Joel Eriksson Ek would miss the game due to a lower-body injury. It is a tough loss for Minnesota, as the team has willed their way back into the Western Conference playoff conversation. Eriksson Ek has been a focal point of that effort, scoring four goals and 15 points in his last 12 games for the Wild.
- On a minor note, the San Jose Sharks announced that defenseman Jacob MacDonald would miss the team’s game tonight due to an illness. Recently recalled on March 9th after the Sharks’ trade deadline day moves, MacDonald has played in two games since that transaction. Over the season, on the whole, MacDonald has played in a total of 24 games, scoring six goals and seven points overall.
Snapshots: Ho-Sang, Scheifele, Protas
In a noteworthy ECHL transaction, the Florida Everblades announced today they had signed forward Joshua Ho-Sang to a contract. It will mark the first time since the 2021-22 season that Ho-Sang has suited up professionally in North America.
The former 28th overall selection of the 2014 NHL Draft by the New York Islanders, Ho-Sang was never able to put it all together at the NHL level. In 53 games with the New York Islanders, Ho-Sang was hardly used by the team, scoring seven goals and 24 points while averaging just over 15 minutes of ice time per night.
At the AHL level, Ho-Sang’s professional career has been a completely different story altogether. Playing for the Bridgeport Islanders, San Antonio Rampage, and the Toronto Marlies, Ho-Sang is a veteran of 225 AHL games over five years, scoring 46 goals and 158 points overall.
Other snapshots:
- Before the puck dropped in the team’s game tonight against the Nashville Predators, the Winnipeg Jets announced that center Mark Scheifele would be absent from the game due to an illness. In Scheifele’s stead, utility forward Vladislav Namestnikov slid into the center role on the team’s top line. Since his return from injury on February 6th, Scheifele has been the heart and soul of the Jets’ offense, scoring five goals and 16 points in his last 17 games.
- Turning to the east coast of the United States, Sammi Silber of The Hockey News reports forward Aliaksei Protas of the Washington Capitals will miss tonight’s game with a lower-body injury. Signing a shiny new five-year, $16.875MM extension with the team back in January, Protas has come into his own as a playmaker, tallying 23 assists in 62 games for Washington this season.
Tampa Bay Lightning Injury Updates
Earlier this morning, beat writer for the Tampa Bay Lightning, Chris Krenn reported that forward Tanner Jeannot and defenseman Erik Cernak were trending towards playing tomorrow for the Lightning. Outside of defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, the return of Jeannot and Cernak will give Tampa Bay a completed lineup as they look to hold onto their spot in the Eastern Conference wild-card race.
Not only will the Lightning be expecting continued health from Jeannot, but they will also be expecting an improvement in his play. Acquired at last year’s trade deadline from the Nashville Predators for a package including a first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, Jeannot has certainly not lived up to the lofty price that Tampa Bay had to pay.
Showing an ability to be a bruising forward with a legitimate capability to score goals during his time with the Predators, the Lightning have not received a similar version of that player. In now 62 games spent with Tampa Bay, Jeannot has only mustered a mediocre six goals and 12 points over his tenure.
Now confined to a fourth-line role in Florida, Jeannot will need to do much more than throw hits if the Lightning are planning on being successful in this year’s playoffs. There is an obvious need for physicality come playoff time, but depth scoring will become a tremendous necessity for Tampa Bay moving forward.
On the other side of the injury update, Cernak has been out since the team’s recent game against the Philadelphia Flyers with a lower-body injury. In 53 games for the Lightning this year, Cernak has scored one goal and nine points while averaging over 19 minutes of ice time a night.
Columbus Blue Jackets Recall Mikael Pyyhtia
Now with six regular forwards due to injury, the Columbus Blue Jackets have had to grab multiple players from their AHL affiliate to fill in the gaps on their roster. Continuing with this theme, the Blue Jackets have recalled forward Mikael Pyyhtia from their AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters, on an emergency loan.
There should be some excitement building in Columbus for Pyyhtia, who has now become the sixth-leading scorer on a very solid Monsters team in his first full season of professional hockey in North America. After being selected by the Blue Jackets with the 114th overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, Pyyhtia spent the last two seasons in his native Finland to play for TPS of the Finnish Liiga.
In those last two years spent with TPS, Pyyhtia became one of the better offensive players throughout the league. In his 103 regular season games in the Liiga since being drafted by Columbus, Pyyhtia scored a total of 28 goals and 55 points; which is notably solid production from a player in his early 20s.
Now having fully transitioned to North American hockey, Pyyhtia has scored seven goals and 27 points already this season. Helping lead Cleveland to a 34-18-3-3 start in their first 58 games, there is every reason to believe that Pyyhtia will suit up in the Calder Cup playoffs for the first time this year.