Canadiens Recall Joel Armia, Place Arber Xhekaj On IR
In preparation for tomorrow’s game against the Los Angeles Kings, the Montreal Canadiens announced they have recalled forward Joel Armia from their AHL affiliate, the Laval Rocket. In a corresponding move, the team has placed defenseman Arber Xhekaj on injured reserve, and it is retroactive to his last game on November 16th.
Notably failing to make the team out of training camp and being placed on waivers shortly thereafter, this will be Armia’s second call-up of the season. After receiving a promotion to the Canadiens on October 21st, Armia played in six games for Montreal and scored one goal in that time before being sent back down on November 12th.
While in Laval, Armia has been an effective point producer for the Rocket, scoring six goals and three assists in eight games, placing him seventh on the team in overall scoring, even while playing in about as half as many games as the rest of the roster. Nevertheless, with a relatively high salary of $3.4MM for this season and next, Armia should still largely factor as a sunk cost for the Canadiens on the remainder of the contract.
Xhekaj, on the other hand, is indicative of another growing trend with Montreal recently, making him the third player on the team to go on the injured reserve in the last several days. Fellow defenseman Jordan Harris, as well as forward Rafael Harvey-Pinard, have also gone down with injuries in recent days.
After a relatively strong start to the season given the talent level on the NHL roster, the play of the Canadiens has slipped dramatically over the last several weeks. Starting off the season with a 5-2-1 record, Montreal has slipped to last place in the Atlantic Division after going 3-7-1 in their next 11 games.
T.J. Oshie Leaves Game With Upper-Body Injury
In a disappointing effort up to this point, the Washington Capitals received more bad news involving their forward core during their game against the Edmonton Oilers. The team announced that T.J. Oshie has left the game with an upper-body injury, and will not return to the ice.
Before he had left, Oshie had nine shifts during the game, playing in just under seven minutes, and scoring zero points. Much like the rest of the Capitals’ offense this season, Oshie has struggled immensely in generating any production whatsoever. In 16 games played, Oshie has scored one goal and one assist, considerably lower than his point production over the last several years.
Over the life of the eight-year, $46MM contract that Oshie signed before the start of the 2017-18 season, he has only managed to score 50 points in one year, having the rest of his seasons mired by injuries. Over 383 games played during this contract specifically, Oshie has scored a total of 122 goals and 133 assists which would be approximately 55 points a year over a full 82-game schedule if Oshie had remained healthy.
Oshie still has two years and $11.5MM remaining on the contract, which could quickly become the last that he signs in the National Hockey League. Once a receiver of Selke Trophy votes in multiple years, Oshie has seen both his Corsi For % and his On Ice Save % drop over his time with Washington.
It is unknown how severe the current injury sustained by Oshie is, but it was enough to relieve him of his duties for the rest of the evening. Over the next couple of days, the Capitals will give more clarity as to his short- and long-term status.
Minnesota Wild Activate Alex Goligoski, Assign Mermis And Lettieri To AHL
After some recent indication that defenseman Alex Goligoski was healthy and ready to return to the Minnesota Wild lineup, the team has officially announced his activation of the LTIR. In order to make cap space to return Goligoski to the lineup, the team also assigned Vinni Lettieri (placed on waivers yesterday) and Dakota Mermis to their AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild.
According to CapFriendly, with these moves, Minnesota has a projected cap space of $617K, which translates to roughly $806K in actual salary cap space. With only 21 players on the active roster, two of those being goaltenders, the Wild really only have the capability to bring up one league-minimum salary unless other changes are made.
Goligoski will likely return to a bottom-pairing role, or even become an extra defenseman on the Minnesota blue line, given his level of play and injury history over last season and the current one. He has missed all but two games for the Wild this season, carrying a -3 rating with zero points.
Mermis, on the other hand, has done relatively well filling in the shoes of Goligoski. In 13 games played in his absence, Mermis has two goals and three assists and has shown a skill for blocking shots in his defensive zone. With a $775K salary for the 2023-24 season, it wouldn’t have been unreasonable for the Wild to keep Mermis rather than Goligoski down the stretch.
For Lettieri, it was not a major surprise to see his name on the waiver wire yesterday, as he has operated as a depth forward option in the NHL for the last several years. In 11 games for Minnesota this year, Lettieri chipped in two goals but regularly averaged less than 12 minutes of ice time per night, indicating the Wild were not giving him very important minutes.
Pittsburgh Penguins Recall Alex Nylander
Nov. 22: While Nylander remains on the active roster and will play in tonight’s contest, the Penguins reassigned Harkins to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Wednesday afternoon.
Nov. 21: Earlier today, the Pittsburgh Penguins placed both forward Rickard Rakell, and defenseman Chad Ruhwedel, and have been busy today seeking their replacements for the foreseeable future. After signing defenseman Dmitri Samorukov a few hours ago, the team announced it would be recalling forward Alexander Nylander and Jansen Harkins from their AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
Now in his third season with the organization, Nylander has wholly failed to live up to being the eighth overall selection of the 2016 NHL Draft. Playing in 93 games over the course of his career between the Penguins, Chicago Blackhawks, and Buffalo Sabres, Nylander has tallied 14 goals and 20 assists in total.
Skating as almost an entirely different player in the AHL, however, Nylander has been one of the most consistent offensive threats over the last six years. In 298 games played, Nylander has put up 82 goals and 104 assists, averaging nearly a point per game last season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
Harkins, on the other hand, was brought into the Penguins organization providing a much different set of skills. Joining the team via waivers shortly before the beginning of the 2023-24 season, Harkins’ ability to play important minutes in the bottom six was the main factor in Pittsburgh putting in a claim.
Nevertheless, his first few games for the Penguins would not suffice, as the team would put him back on waivers only 17 days later as he failed to score a point in four games played. Much like Nylander, Harkins is a much-improved player in the AHL, scoring four goals and five assists for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton since his demotion in mid-October.
Pittsburgh Penguins Activate John Ludvig From LTIR
Taking on the Metropolitan Division-leading New York Rangers tonight, the Pittsburgh Penguins are in dire need of defensive depth and will receive that as the team announced John Ludvig has officially been activated off of the LTIR. It is unknown at this point whether or not the Penguins will dress six or seven defensemen tonight, but Ludvig will be in the lineup regardless.
Over the last several days, the Penguins have seen injuries to defensemen Chad Ruhwedel and Pierre-Olivier Joseph, while also losing out on forward Rickard Rakell for the foreseeable future. To address the lack of defensemen, Pittsburgh signed Dmitri Samorukov last night and put him on the active roster this morning.
Somewhat clamoring to add more bodies to the roster last night, the Penguins also recalled forwards Alexander Nylander and Jansen Harkins from their AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Being one of the principal points of the offseason, the new President of Hockey Operations and General Manager, Kyle Dubas, made a point to add more depth throughout the entirety of the Penguins organization, specifically for situations such as this.
For Ludvig in particular, he was acquired via waivers only three days before Pittsburgh’s first game, coming over from the Florida Panthers organization. Ludvig was originally drafted 69th overall in the 2019 NHL Draft, and experienced the best AHL season of his career last for the Charlotte Checkers, scoring three goals and 14 assists in 54 games played.
There is not a high expectation for Ludvig to become a main factor of the Penguins blue line, but at 23 years old, he has plenty of potential to become an important part of the team moving forward. Injured in the only game he played this season, Ludvig managed just under five and a half minutes of ice time, holding a -1 rating.
Mattias Janmark Returns For Oilers
Having been placed on LTIR only a week ago, Mattias Janmark‘s placement was retroactive to when he suffered his shoulder injury on October 26th, meaning his requirements have now been satisfied. In preparation for the team’s game tonight against the Carolina Hurricanes, the Edmonton Oilers announced that Janmark will draw back into the lineup.
Sustaining an injury only two weeks into the 2023-24 season, Janmark has only been able to play in seven games so far this year, scoring zero points while playing a bit over 13 minutes a night. Although Edmonton has been a tad better lately, the Oilers produced a 1-5-1 record when Janmark was in the lineup earlier in the year.
Given the depth in the team’s bottom six, Janmark should once again slot into the bottom six for Edmonton, being a part of one of the most underperforming facets of their team. With varying amounts of games played, Janmark is one of four Oilers’ forwards to not score a point this year.
Historically speaking, throughout his career, Janmark has been an effective depth scorer for nearly every team he has suited up for, including last year in Edmonton. In 66 regular season games, Janmark scored 10 goals and 15 assists, finishing seventh on the team in scoring among forwards.
Although he has failed to score 40 points once in his career, but regularly scores between 10-15 goals, and 15-20 assists effectively since his rookie campaign back in 2015-16. Even on the defensive side of the puck, Janmark has carried an average expected +/- of 2.2 throughout his career, showing he is not a detrimental forward in the defensive zone by any means.
Moving forward, if the Oilers are hoping to get back into contention by the end of the season, they will be relying on Janmark heavily to generate more offense out of the bottom six. The problems that exist for Edmonton are clearly multi-faceted in nature, but to get one of those back on track may create a domino effect for the rest of the year.
Snapshots: Goligoski, Kuznetsov, Klingberg, Osipov
Having already fulfilled the requirements of being on LTIR, defenseman for the Minnesota Wild, Alex Goligoski, has not yet made his return to the roster. However, Michael Russo of The Athletic reports that Goligoski has fully recovered from his lower-body injury, and is ready to get back to game action at any point.
Currently sitting at 31st in the league in GA/G with a 4.00 mark, the Wild could certainly use all the help they can get on the blue line. Much of the blame is associated with the poor play of the team’s netminders up to this point, but an improved defensive presence should shore up some of the issues.
Unfortunately, with extremely limited cap space, Goligoski’s $2MM salary will be a tough one for the team to fit into their salary cap table. With Goligoski getting back into the lineup, and a quarter of the season already behind us, Minnesota will have less than $10K in salary cap space to work with moving forward.
Other snapshots:
- Washington Capitals forward, Evgeny Kuznetsov, will miss another game due to illness, according to Tarik El-Bashir of Monumental Sports Network. This will be the second game in a row that Kuznetsov has missed for the team, severely limiting their center depth. In somewhat mild offensive output to start the season, Kuznetsov has scored three goals and five assists in 14 games.
- Continuing to deal with an undisclosed injury, Mark Masters of TSN reports that there is no status update in regards to Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman, John Klingberg and that the defenseman will not play at all this week. Quickly becoming a swing-and-a-miss for Toronto on the free-agent market, Klingberg has five assists in 14 games for the Maple Leafs, coupled with a -7 rating.
- After playing on a professional tryout contract for the Hershey Bears for his first three games of the AHL season, the Bears announced they have signed defenseman Dmitri Osipov to a one-year AHL contract for the 2023-24 season. Osipov is a veteran of seven years in the AHL, playing in 174 regular season games, scoring eight goals and 10 assists in total.
Anaheim Ducks Place Chase De Leo On Waivers
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman is reporting that the Anaheim Ducks have placed forward Chase De Leo on waivers this afternoon, for the purpose of sending him to their AHL affiliate, the San Diego Gulls. Not playing a game this season, De Leo has been on the Season-Opening Injured Reserve from a play resulting in a suspension to Los Angeles Kings’ forward, Arthur Kaliyev, in the preseason.
De Leo is on the second year of a two-year, $1.525MM contract signed with the Ducks organization back in 2022, spending much of his time with the Gulls. Last season, although only playing 22 games in the AHL, De Leo scored nine goals and 14 assists, finishing over a point-per-game pace.
This being his second stint with the Ducks organization, De Leo spent 2018-2021 in the organization after coming over from the Winnipeg Jets in an offseason trade. In his original stint in Anaheim, De Leo played three games in three years in the NHL, producing zero points.
However, much like he was last year, he was an impressive player in San Diego, scoring 45 goals and 70 assists in 154 games, becoming one of the better playmakers for the team. Now that De Leo is presumed healthy, he will have his work cut out for him at the AHL level, as the Gulls currently hold a 2-9-3-0 record, sitting dead last in the Pacific Division.
Atlantic Notes: Quinn, Greig, Kastelic, Walman
Still working his way back from an Achilles tear suffered in late June of this past summer, Jack Quinn is making significant progress in returning from injury. There still is no firm timetable for his return, but Mike Harrington of Buffalo News Sports confirmed Quinn was practicing in full pads before the team’s practice today.
The recovery timeline for Achilles tears is anywhere between five and six months, meaning Quinn could reasonably return by next week, or even towards the end of the calendar year. Nevertheless, the fact that he is practicing is positive news for the Buffalo Sabres, who could certainly use his skill back in the everyday lineup.
In 75 games played last year, Quinn scored 14 goals and 23 assists, finishing eight on the team in scoring, and 12th in Calder Trophy voting. Quinn likely could have scored quite a bit more last season, but he was limited in his usage by head coach Don Granato, only averaging around 14 minutes of ice time per game.
Other Atlantic notes:
- The Ottawa Senators could be getting some reinforcements back into their forward core, as Bruce Garrioch of TSN reports Ridly Greig and Mark Kastelic were seen practicing today on their own. Both players have been on the injured reserve since November 2nd, and both have been considered week-to-week. Of the two, Greig has been one of the most impressive young forwards on the team, scoring two goals and five assists in nine games.
- In the Detroit Red Wings loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs in their second game of the Global Series in Sweden, defenseman Jake Walman would leave the game with an injury, and his status was unknown up until now. Sean Shapiro of EP Rinkside reports that Detroit plans on using seven defensemen tomorrow night against the New Jersey Devils, meaning Walman will not miss any time due to the injury.
Columbus Blue Jackets Recall Eric Robinson
In an effort to shake things up regarding their forward core, the Columbus Blue Jackets announced they have recalled Eric Robinson from their AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters. Playing on the second year of a two-year, $3.2MM contract with the Blue Jackets, Robinson has only been able to play in one game for Columbus this season.
A well-known problem throughout the league, the Blue Jackets offense has been anemic this year, not generating much from any level of their forward unit. Through 19 games, Columbus is averaging 2.68 G/GP, which puts them 27th in the league. Similarly, the organization’s powerplay has been equally as abysmal, generating a 9.84% success rate on the season, good for 30th in the league.
Although Robinson will not correct the ship on his own, he has been a quality depth scorer for the Blue Jackets over the last three seasons. Playing in 196 games since the start of the 2020-21 season, Robinson has scored 30 goals and 39 assists for the team, including five shorthanded points.
Before the callup, he was not tearing up the AHL level by any means but did score one goal and three assists in nine games for the Monsters. Given his playstyle, while he is back with Columbus, Robinson should feature in the bottom six of the team’s forward core.