Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen To Miss Olympics
According to a team announcement, Buffalo Sabres netminder Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen will miss the Olympic Games due to his lower-body injury. In the same announcement, the Sabres shared that Joonas Korpisalo of the Boston Bruins will play for Team Finland and Luukkonen’s stead.
Obviously, even though it’s never a good time to sustain an injury, it really couldn’t come at a worse time for Luukkonen. He’s been fairly healthy since missing the first month of the 2025-26 season. Still, an injury report from a few days ago indicated that Luukkonen would miss the next week of action. It’s unclear if he’ll actually be injured through the Olympic break, or if he and the Sabres agreed it would be best for him to sit it out as a precaution.
Furthermore, it was likely the expectation that Luukkonen would be Finland’s starter for the upcoming international contest. He’s managed an 11-7-2 record across 20 starts with Buffalo this season, earning a .902 SV%, 2.73 GAA, and 3.3 Goals Saved Above Average. His fellow countrymen, Juuse Saros of the Nashville Predators and Kevin Lankinen of the Vancouver Canucks, haven’t come close to matching that production.
It would have also been his first international appearance as a professional netminder. Luukkonen was technically included on Team Finland’s roster for last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off, though he didn’t participate in any action. His last time representing Team Finland in a game came back during the 2018-19 IIHF World Junior Championship. He managed a 3-2-0 record in six games with a .932 SV%.
Meanwhile, Korpisalo was the best available of the remaining options. Despite being a backup netminder with the Bruins, he was the obvious choice over Ville Husso, Justus Annunen, or Leevi Merilainen. He’s managed a 10-8-1 record in 21 games with Boston this season with a .895 SV% and 3.12 GAA.
Like Luukkonen, Korpisalo hasn’t played for Team Finland in some time. His last showing was in the 2017 IIHF World Championships, where he collected two wins in six appearances with an .858 SV%. Finland lost the Bronze medal game to Russia.
Injury Notes: Bennett, Avalanche, Rielly, Foligno
Outside of losing an important divisional matchup to the Buffalo Sabres, the Florida Panthers also suffered a loss to their roster. During the contest, the Panthers announced that Sam Bennett had left the game with an upper-body injury.
At this point, there’s no clear answer for how Bennett sustained the injury. Regardless, he joins a growing list of injured players in Florida as their quest for a third consecutive Stanley Cup Final continues to slip away. Bennett finished the game with a -1 rating in 5:11 of action.
If Bennett is unable to play in tomorrow’s game against the Boston Bruins, the Panthers will assuredly need to make a recall to their forward core. The Panthers were already without forwards Anton Lundell, Brad Marchand, and Tomas Nosek. Additionally, forwards Aleksander Barkov, Jonah Gadjovich, and defensemen Seth Jones and Dmitry Kulikov are all on the team’s injured reserve.
Additional injury updates:
- Despite returning defenseman Devon Toews in last night’s loss to the Detroit Red Wings, the Colorado Avalanche remain waiting for a pair of top-six forwards to return. According to Jesse Montano of Guerilla Sports, the Avalanche hope that Martin Nečas will return tomorrow. Additionally, although he’s expected to play tomorrow, captain Gabriel Landeskog is nearing a return and is poised to play with Team Sweden for the upcoming Olympics. The 33-year-old winger has not played since January 4th due to an upper-body injury.
- Before taking the ice against the Calgary Flames yesterday, The Athletic’s Joshua Kloke reported that the Toronto Maple Leafs won’t return defenseman Morgan Rielly to the lineup before the Olympic break. Rielly left Toronto’s recent win over the Vancouver Canucks due to an upper-body injury. Given that he’s not playing for Team Canada at the upcoming Winter Olympics, Rielly will likely return after the international event, but the Maple Leafs couldn’t specify a recovery timeline.
- The Minnesota Wild were without a middle-six forward last night against the Montreal Canadiens. Before the drop of the puck, the Wild announced that Marcus Foligno would miss the game because of illness. The 34-year-old forward had been playing better of late, scoring three goals and eight points in his last 15 games, including the first hat trick of his career a few weeks ago. He’s not expected to miss the Wild’s final contest before the Olympic break.
Wild Recall Cal Petersen, Activate Zach Bogosian
6:03 p.m: The Wild officially announced Bogosian’s activation in advance of their game tonight against the Montreal Canadiens.
In a corresponding move, they reassigned defenseman Matt Kiersted to the AHL. Kiersted, 27, began his most recent recall on Jan. 27, and ended up serving as a healthy scratch for the club’s game’s on Jan. 29 and Jan. 31. The 27-year-old undrafted blueliner has gotten into four NHL games for the Wild this season, and has four points in 28 AHL games. He’s under contract through next season at a league-minimum NHL cap hit, with a $450K AHL salary.
12:13 p.m.: The Wild have now activated Bogosian from injured reserve, per the NHL’s media site. Since teams can exceed the roster limit to have a third goalie under emergency conditions twice during the season, they won’t need to make a move to reinstate him. He’s been out for 13 games with an undisclosed injury sustained on Jan. 3 against the Kings. In 23 appearances this season, the veteran righty has four points with a +8 rating while averaging 14:52 of ice time per game.
11:30 a.m.: According to regional reporter Jessi Pierce, the Minnesota Wild have recalled netminder Cal Petersen from the AHL’s Iowa Wild. Minnesota confirmed the news, sharing that it’s under emergency conditions. The Wild will need to make an additional transaction before tonight to activate defenseman Zach Bogosian from the injured reserve.
Fortunately, there are no injury concerns with Minnesota’s usual goaltending tandem. Several reports from practice indicate that Jesper Wallstedt is dealing with the flu, and he won’t be available for tonight’s contest. Filip Gustavsson will assume the starting position.
This morning’s roster move is the first call-up of the year for Petersen. He was waived shortly before the start of the 2025-26 campaign after signing a one-year, $775K contract with the Wild last offseason. He’s spent the entire year with AHL Iowa up to this point.
Although his win/loss record isn’t great, it’s not the worst performance Petersen has had throughout his professional career. The 31-year-old veteran has a 4-13-0 record in 17 games with a .897 SV% and 2.82 GAA. Last season, with the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms, Petersen finished with a 13-15-3 record in 31 games with a .885 SV% and 3.14 GAA.
His results are more indicative of the team in front of him rather than his individual performance. It’s much of the same for AHL Iowa, a team that has only made the playoffs twice since the 2013-14 season, though no postseason was held in 2020 or 2021. That’s not expected to change this season, as the Wild are in last place in the Central Division with a 12-26-4-1 record in 43 games.
Predators GM Barry Trotz To Step Down
In a notable announcement from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, Barry Trotz will resign as the Nashville Predators’ General Manager later today. Friedman noted that since no successor has been decided upon yet, Trotz will remain as the General Manager until a replacement is found.
Until the Predators have their press conference formalizing the move, there’s no word whether Trotz will retire or continue his professional career in a different capacity. If it is the end of his hockey career, he’ll leave as one of the most celebrated sports figures in Nashville.
His first year with the team was in the 1997-98 season when he was hired as a scout. He didn’t last long in that role, as he was elevated to the team’s head coaching position ahead of the 1998-99 season. The Predators didn’t know it at the time, but Trotz would become one of the league’s longest-tenured coaches.
Serving as Nashville’s head coach for 15 years, Trotz guided the Predators to a 557-479-60-100 record in 1,196 games. Throughout the last decade of his run as the team’s bench boss, the Predators made the playoffs seven times. Unfortunately, they failed to advance past the Western Conference semifinals, being ousted by the Vancouver Canucks and Phoenix Coyotes in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
At the end of the 2013-14 season, Nashville announced that it wouldn’t be retaining Trotz for a 16th season. A month and a half later, Trotz was named head coach of the Washington Capitals, where he worked as a scout from 1988 to 1991.
His time in the District of Columbia was arguably the most successful of his career, finishing with a 206-89-34 record in 328 games. The Capitals won the Metropolitan Division in three out of four years under Trotz’s tutelage, and he guided the team to its first Stanley Cup championship in 2018. Despite the impressive climax of his tenure in Washington, he resigned as head coach later that summer due to a contract dispute.
Trotz moved quickly, signing on as the New York Islanders’ head coach for the 2018-19 season. The team reached the Eastern Conference Final in 2020 and 2021, but relieved Trotz of his duties after failing to qualify for the postseason in 2022. Being his last coaching experience, Trotz is fifth all-time in coaching wins with 914.
Without a home for the 2022-23 NHL season, Trotz moved to the front office, rejoining the Predators as a special advisor with the understanding he would become the team’s next General Manager after David Poile retired.
Despite the legendary coaching career, it’s safe to say that Trotz’s career as an executive hasn’t gone as well. Back in May, PHR’s Josh Cybulski analyzed many of Trotz’s head-scratching moves with the Predators.
It got off to a relatively good start, ridding the team of high-priced contracts for Matt Duchene and Ryan Johansen. The team used that newfound cap space rather quickly, signing Ryan O’Reilly, Gustav Nyquist, and Luke Schenn to multi-year deals.
Since then, rather than targeting veterans to fill a serious need, Trotz has seemed to throw money at the wall to see what sticks. Highlighted by the summer ahead of the 2024-25 season, the Predators signed Steven Stamkos, Brady Skjei, and Jonathan Marchessault to big-ticket contracts. Infamously, the Predators immediately bottomed out, finishing in 30th place with a 30-44-8 record.
He hasn’t done much to alter the roster in any meaningful way, since. Yes, the Predators have added a few younger players with good potential, but they’ve continued to add veterans like Michael Bunting, Erik Haula, Nicklaus Perbix, and Nicolas Hague, showing little internal direction.
Whether he faced top-down pressure from ownership or if he’s making the decision entirely on his own volition, it’s clear that Nashville is looking for a new voice to lead the front office. It allows the franchise to implement a firm refresh after being governed by the Poile/Trotz regime for the last quarter-century.
Latest On Nazem Kadri
Leading up to the trade deadline, Nazem Kadri of the Calgary Flames remains a speculative trade candidate for contending teams. However, the Montreal Canadiens, who have been frequently linked to Kadri in recent months, have cooled their interest in the former Stanley Cup champion over the last few weeks.
In a new article, Marco D’Amico of RG Media indicates that this perceived lack of interest from Montreal isn’t due to Kadri specifically, but rather to the growing flexibility inside the organization. D’Amico added that the Canadiens believe Oliver Kapanen, who has 17 goals and 30 points in 55 games this season, has become a legitimate top-six option down the middle and that Phillip Danault has stabilized the rest of the center core.
As Montreal approaches the deadline, D’Amico believes that it is far likelier the team will look to add a top-six winger to put next to Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki on the first line. However, pursuing Kadri isn’t completely off the table, either. D’Amico confirmed that the Canadiens are not on Kadri’s no-trade list.
Regardless of Montreal’s internal growth, there are still benefits of adding a player of Kadri’s caliber to a relatively young roster. The 35-year-old center has scored 19 goals and 44 points in 52 games across seven postseason trips, and played an integral part in the Colorado Avalanche’s Stanley Cup title in 2022. However, it’s not difficult to ascertain their lack of urgency. In fact, that lack of urgency may lead to a better price for the Canadiens if Kadri’s market completely bottoms out.
Still, that’s a long shot from Montreal’s perspective. Further down the article, D’Amico suggested that the Carolina Hurricanes, Detroit Red Wings, and Minnesota Wild remain interested in acquiring Kadri in varying degrees. There is no word on whether those teams are on Kadri’s no-trade list.
West Notes: Thomas, Catton, Necas, Blankenburg
There are no expectations that Robert Thomas will return to the St. Louis Blues before the upcoming Olympic break. The Blues announced that Thomas had minor leg surgery yesterday and would return after the Olympics.
Thomas has missed much of January, having last played on January 10th. So far in the 2025-26 season, the 26-year-old center has scored 11 goals and 33 points in 42 games, managing a -3 rating, while averaging 18:58 of ice time per game.
Although Thomas’s injury recovery won’t impact the Blues’ postseason outlook, it could have ramifications leading up to the trade deadline. While it was always unlikely, there was some speculation that St. Louis was entertaining trade offers on Thomas. Prospective buyers will likely shy away from the high price the Blues have set, given that Thomas would be only a few days removed from fully recovering by the deadline.
Additional notes from the Western Conference:
- The Seattle Kraken will be without one of their up-and-coming prospects through the upcoming Olympic break. Earlier today, the Kraken announced that Berkly Catton will miss Seattle’s next three games due to an upper-body injury. Catton, who missed several weeks in December due to a separate injury, has scored five goals and 11 points in 40 games throughout his rookie campaign.
- Despite the lopside afair, the Colorado Avalanche were without their second-highest scorer against the Detroit Red Wings this afternoon. Before the game, Corey Masisak of The Denver Post shared that Martin Nečas is considered day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Regardless, the Avalanche pulled away with the victory, and there’s no expectation that Nečas will be held out through the Olympic break before he suits up for Team Czechia.
- Tied with the New York Islanders at the time of writing, the Nashville Predators are without one of their most underrated defenseman tonight. The Predators announced that Nick Blankenburg would miss tonight’s contest due to illness. Already setting career-highs across the board, Blankenburg sits eighth on the team in scoring with six goals and 21 points in 43 games.
Atlantic Notes: Senators, Lightning, Sabres
In a recent article, Bruce Garrioch from The Ottawa Citizen analyzed the Ottawa Senators’ approach to the trade deadline. To no surprise, Garrioch indicated that the Senators remain committed to winning this season, and that the team is seeking a top-six forward and top-four defenseman.
That’s a hefty wishlist, especially for a team that’s 10 points back of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Garrioch reported that the Senators are interested in forward Blake Coleman and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar from the Calgary Flames, which would immediately fulfill both desires.
Still, Weegar has a full no-movement clause in his contract, meaning he would have to sign off on a trade to Ottawa. He is from there, but there’s been no indication that he is one of the players that the Flames are considering moving this season. At any rate, it’s clear that the Senators are trying to fill a pair of higher-level holes, and they’re looking for players with term.
Additional notes from the Atlantic Division:
- There is more positive news on the injury front for the Tampa Bay Lightning. It’s already been reported that captain Victor Hedman will return to the lineup tomorrow, and the team is only a few days away from returning a few more. According to team reporter Benjamin Pierce, the trio of Brayden Point, Emil Martinsen Lilleberg, and Charle-Edouard D’Astous all skated with the team at practice today. Once Hedman officially returns, they will be the only remaining players on the injured reserve.
- In a separate injury update, this time with the Buffalo Sabres, Bill Hoppe of The Times Herald reported that there are no plans to shut down Joshua Norris through the upcoming Olympic break. Norris has missed the Sabres’ last nine games, including tonight, due to an upper-body injury. Still, he has resumed skating over the last few days and will travel with the team for their road trip next week. Norris specifically shut down the idea of sitting out if he’s healthy, saying, “If you’re ready to go, you’re not just going to sit out. So when I feel like I’m 100 percent, I’m going to play.”
Calgary Flames Recall Zayne Parekh
According to a team announcement, the Calgary Flames have recalled defenseman Zayne Parekh from the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers. The Flames sent Parekh to their AHL affiliate two weeks ago on a conditioning loan and were required to decide his immediate future, given that a conditioning loan may last only 14 days.
Parekh, 19, hasn’t played in a game for the Flames since November 11th. The former ninth overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft was loaned to Team Canada for the U20 IIHF World Junior Championships in December. During the tournament, he scored five goals and 13 points in seven games, contributing to the team’s bronze medal finish.
Although Calgary would have liked to have Parekh see more NHL action before his debut in the World Junior Championship, he lost nearly a month due to an upper-body injury. The Flames sent him on a conditioning loan to the Wranglers almost immediately upon his return.
Fortunately, he performed well throughout his first bout of AHL action. Parekh appeared in four games for the Wranglers, scoring two goals and five points with a +1 rating. Earlier this season, he tallied one assist in 11 games for the Flames, averaging 14:46 of ice time per game.
Unfortunately, Parekh didn’t draw into today’s game against the San Jose Sharks. Calgary acquired defenseman Zach Whitecloud in the recent trade that sent Rasmus Andersson to the Vegas Golden Knights, so he doesn’t have a clear path to playing time. Unless the Flames decide to move Whitecloud leading up to the trade deadline, or take Brayden Pachal out of the lineup on a nightly basis, Parekh may be the odd man out in Calgary, like he has been most of the year.
Lightning Expected To Activate Victor Hedman
The Tampa Bay Lightning should have their captain back for tomorrow’s Stadium Series. According to ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski, the Lightning are expected to activate Victor Hedman ahead of tomorrow’s outdoor matchup against the Boston Bruins.
Unfortunately, it won’t be a straightforward activation. According to PuckPedia, Tampa Bay will need to clear $841K of salary cap space to activate Hedman. Still, it’ll be fairly easy to get there. The Lightning could move Brayden Point from injured reserve to long-term injured reserve, or reassign Maxim Groshev to the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch.
It’s been nearly two months since Hedman last participated in an NHL contest. The 17-year veteran hasn’t played since December 9th after undergoing elbow surgery, limiting him to 18 games on the season.
Still, he’s been his typical self when healthy. Before the injury, Hedman registered 12 assists while averaging more than 21 minutes of ice time per game. Half of those tallies came on the Bolts’ powerplay.
Additionally, he hasn’t missed a step on the defensive side of the puck. Specifically at even strength, Hedman averaged a 53.7 CorsiFor% and 92.1 on-ice SV%. The latter output is the highest he has managed since the 2017-18 campaign.
It’ll be interesting to see how head coach Jon Cooper redeploys Hedman upon his return. He is a natural top-pairing option, but Cooper is likely to be hesitant about breaking up the combination of J.J. Moser and Darren Raddysh, given how well the pair has been performing lately.
Given that fellow veteran Ryan McDonagh recently returned from a foot injury, the Lightning could slide him down to the bottom pairing with Maxwell Crozier. That would give both McDonagh and Hedman ample time to ramp up to their natural playing time and spread out the depth as Tampa Bay returns to full strength.
Maple Leafs Activate William Nylander
The Toronto Maple Leafs are activating forward William Nylander from the injured reserve for the second time in the last three weeks. Additionally, the team has reassigned Jacob Quillan to the AHL’s Toronto Marlies in a corresponding roster move.
Nylander has been on the shelf for much of January. A groin injury has limited him to only four games this month, not including this evening. Still, he was extremely productive during those contests, scoring three goals and seven points with a +2 rating.
Throughout the entire season, Nylander leads Toronto in scoring with 17 goals and 48 points in 37 games with a +1 rating, averaging 18:33 of ice time per night. Unfortunately, that hasn’t translated to much success on the defensive side of the puck, where Nylander is averaging an 85.9% on-ice SV% in all situations. That’s second-lowest on the team, barely ahead of John Tavares.
Regardless, the Maple Leafs have clearly struggled without him in the lineup. Since Nylander exited the lineup for a second time on January 17th, Toronto has managed a 1-5-1 record, averaging 2.57 GF/G. Their current losing streak has dropped the Maple Leafs to second-last in the Eastern Conference, 10 points back of the final wild-card spot.
If Toronto has any hope of clawing back into the playoffs for the 10th consecutive year, they will need Nylander to remain in the lineup. The team has shown dramatic flaws without him.
Meanwhile, Quillan will return to AHL Toronto after one appearance with the Maple Leafs during his recall. The 23-year-old forward has scored eight goals and 27 points in 28 games for the Marlies this season.