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Atlantic Notes: Panthers, Talbot, Domi, Pacioretty, Kucherov, Guentzel, Perron

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It’s never too early to start thinking about the trade deadline, despite being three months away. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic agrees, touching on what the Florida Panthers might do to improve their roster between now and March 7 (Subscription Article).

The defending Stanley Cup champions likely don’t have many complaints as they sit second in the Atlantic Division and fifth in the Eastern Conference. The only glaring issue for the Panthers this season is the middling defense as the team sits 25th in GA/G at 3.20. It was always going to be difficult for Florida to recover from the departures of Brandon Montour and Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Still, they’ll want to add a top-four defenseman over the next three months.

The Panthers have some flexibility at the trade deadline with a projected cap space of $5.47MM. This should allow the organization to bring in a rental option for the home stretch of the regular season and the playoffs. Florida could get creative and look beyond this season for their blue line, especially considering that longtime defenseman Aaron Ekblad becomes an unrestricted free agent after this season.

Other notes from the Atlantic Division:

  • According to broadcaster Daniella Bruce, the Detroit Red Wings won’t have netminder Cam Talbot available during their two-game road trip against the Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators. This means rookie netminder Sebastian Cossa will likely be with the team for the remainder of the week under emergency conditions unless Alex Lyon is activated from the injured reserve. Head coach Derek Lalonde has already confirmed Cossa won’t get the start this evening against the Bruins but could make his NHL debut later this week should Ville Husso continue struggling.
  • The Toronto Maple Leafs will be without forwards Max Domi and Max Pacioretty tonight but it appears that won’t be the case for much longer. David Alter of The Hockey News reported earlier that they are getting ’close’ to returning from injury despite being ruled out for tomorrow’s game against the Nashville Predators. Toronto has played extremely well of late despite multiple injuries to their forward group accruing an 8-2-0 record in their last 10 contests.
  • Tampa Bay’s first line could look different in their upcoming matchup on Thursday against the San Jose Sharks. In two separate reports, Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times shared that the Lightning are hopeful that forward Nikita Kucherov will return to practice tomorrow and that Jake Guentzel left today’s practice with an apparent ailment. The team will know more tomorrow regarding the status of both players but there’s growing concern the Lightning will need to pull from their depth up front in a few days.
  • It’s been a difficult introductory season for David Perron with the Ottawa Senators. He’s only suited up in nine games this season and it doesn’t appear he’ll be adding to that total soon (X Link). He missed significant time earlier in the season due to a health scare with his newborn daughter but has missed due to an upper-body injury more recently.

Carolina Hurricanes Sign, Waive Dustin Tokarski

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Dec. 3: Tokarski passed through waivers unclaimed, per Friedman. He’ll return to AHL Chicago with Martin remaining on the NHL roster for now, unless Kochetkov can’t go tonight.

Dec. 2: The Carolina Hurricanes are adding more goaltending depth to the NHL roster due to injuries to Frederik Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov. TSN’s Chris Johnston reported that the Hurricanes have signed goaltender Dustin Tokarski to a one-year, two-way agreement. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman followed up the report by sharing that Carolina has placed Tokarski on waivers.

Placing Tokarski on waivers is a prudent move by the Hurricanes organization. Team reporter Walt Ruff shared earlier that Kochetkov still needs to pass one more test to be medically cleared from concussion protocol. The team is hopeful he’ll be able to return tomorrow night against the Seattle Kraken. Tokarski will back up Kochetkov tomorrow night, assuming he passes through waivers and Kochetkov is medically cleared. He won’t need to go through waivers again for another 30 days, giving the team more flexibility with their netminders.

Tokarski isn’t unfamiliar with the Hurricanes organization either. Up to this point in the season he’s been playing on an AHL contract with the team’s AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves. The veteran netminder has managed a 4-1-0 record in five games for the Wolves with a .933 save percentage and 1.61 goals against average.

The signing of Tokarski also sheds some light on the team’s lack of confidence in third-string goaltender Spencer Martin. Carolina acquired Martin from the Columbus Blue Jackets last year for situations like this and he hasn’t been able to hold his own at the NHL level. Martin appeared in nine games for the Hurricanes in November but disappointed with a .846 SV% and 3.89 GAA.

The organization will now take a different approach to their goaltending with Tokarski. He hasn’t played in an NHL contest since his time with the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2022-23 regular season but could get into action again should Carolina deal with continued injuries in the crease.

Flyers Notes: Konecny, Sanheim, Grans, Ersson

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There are only two days until rosters are announced for the 4 Nations Face-Off but we may already have a sneak peek at a couple of players that will play for Team Canada. According to Anthony Di Marco of Daily Faceoff, Philadelphia Flyers’ players Travis Konecny and Travis Sanheim will be named to Canada’s roster.

Konecny would be an unsurprising addition to Team Canada. He’s been a point-per-game player for the Flyers over the last three years with 77 goals and 159 points in 161 games and has represented Canada well in the past. Konecny tallied eight assists in 10 games during the 2017 IIHF World Championships and two points in five games for Team Canada’s U20 team during the 2016 IIHF World Junior Championships.

Sanheim’s inclusion on the roster would be an interesting development. Along with increased ice time, his scoring has increased over the last two years but Sanheim’s name typically isn’t mentioned with the top Canadian defenseman. He hasn’t suited up for Team Canada since the 2022 IIHF World Championships when he scored one goal and four points in 10 tournament games.

Other Flyers notes:

  • The Flyers organization announced a small roster move earlier today by loaning defenseman Helge Grans back to their AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Grans’ demotion could correlate with the return of defenseman Jamie Drysdale or the team may not feel the need to carry eight defensemen on the active roster. The Ljungby, Sweden native tallied one assist over six games with Philadelphia averaging 14:28 of ice time per game.
  • Philadelphia is nearing the reality of a full goaltending trio as Jackie Spiegel of The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that goaltender Samuel Ersson was a full participant at today’s practice. Ersson hasn’t played since November 11th due to a lower-body injury. Still, over 11 games with the Flyers this year, he’s managed a 5-2-2 record with a .902 save percentage and 2.70 goals against average.

Canadiens Place Rafaël Harvey-Pinard On Waivers

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12/1: Harvey-Pinard has cleared waivers and been assigned to the AHL’s Laval Rocket.

11/30: According to a team announcement, the Montreal Canadiens are ready to activate forward Rafaël Harvey-Pinard from the long-term injured reserve. Harvey-Pinard won’t return to the Canadiens once his LTIR conditioning loan concludes as the organization shared they’ve placed him on waivers.

It’s been a long road to recovery for Harvey-Pinard after undergoing surgery in late July to repair a broken leg. He’s been on the shelf ever since with his last game in Montreal coming on the final game of the 2023-24 regular season.

His offensive output depressed last season going from scoring 20 points in 34 contests during the 2022-23 season to scoring 10 points in 45 games last year. His recent conditioning stint in Laval didn’t do much to inspire confidence as Harvey-Pinard only managed one goal in five games with a -4 rating.

He’ll get an extended look in the AHL should he clear waivers by tomorrow afternoon. It’s been two years since Harvey-Pinard spent significant time with the AHL Rocket scoring 16 goals and 31 points in 40 games during the 2022-23 AHL season. Montreal will also eliminate $1.1MM from their LTIR pool no matter what happens with Harvey-Pinard.

The Canadiens will have a home for Harvey-Pinard should he recover his confidence in the AHL. Montreal is 21st in the league in scoring with a number of their goals coming from the combination of Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield. The organization hopes that Harvey-Pinard will regain his offensive capabilities in the AHL to re-capture a consistent role in the team’s middle six.

Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports was the first to report that Montreal had placed Harvey-Pinard on waivers. 

Metro Notes: Kreider, Chytil, Smith, Tatar, Smith

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The New York Rangers saw the return of Filip Chytil and Chris Kreider (X Link) to the lineup this afternoon in their win against the Montreal Canadiens. According to Vince Z. Mercogliano, the organization surprisingly made Reilly Smith a healthy scratch to open up a roster spot for the returning forwards.

Smith had largely been operating on the team’s second line but hasn’t produced up to that standard in recent games. He got off to a solid start to his tenure with the Rangers organization scoring two goals and eight points through his first 11 games.  In the following 11 games, he’s been much more disappointing with one goal and four points with a -3 rating.

Chytil and Kreider went scoreless in their return to the ice this afternoon though the former did manage a 53.8% faceoff rate. Chytil’s most recent game came on November 14th against the San Jose Sharks although much of his injury absence was due to getting cleared for a concussion by multiple medical teams.

Other notes from the Metro Division:

  • Jim Biringer of RG Media shared that the New Jersey Devils will be without forward Tomáš Tatar this evening due to a lower-body injury. The ailment was likely suffered in the team’s most recent game yesterday evening against the Detroit Red Wings. Tatar has recorded three goals and nine points in his first 26 games for the Devils since the 2022-23 NHL season.
  • In what is becoming a theme for the organization this season, the Carolina Hurricanes have again reassigned defenseman Ty Smith to their AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves. It’s becoming apparent that Smith will serve primarily as a practice player for the Hurricanes this season barring injury to the regular six defensemen on the active roster. The constant movement from Carolina to Chicago has cost him playing time in the AHL as Smith has only managed to suit up in four games for the AHL Wolves this season.

Minnesota Wild Acquire David Jiříček From Columbus

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According to a team announcement, the Minnesota Wild have acquired defensive prospect David Jiříček and a 2025 fifth-round pick from the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Wild organization is sending back defenseman Daemon Hunt, a conditional 2025 first-round pick, Colorado’s 2026 third-round pick, Toronto’s 2026 fourth-round pick, and a 2027 second-round pick to Columbus.

It’s been a long time coming for the former sixth-overall pick of the 2022 NHL Draft. Jiříček will join the second organization of his very young career after several inconsistent years with the Blue Jackets. After scoring five goals and 11 points in 29 games for Czechia’s HC Plzeň, Jiříček was ranked as the fourth-best European skater and second-best defenseman by NHL Central Scouting before the 2022 NHL Draft.

Jiříček immediately came to the Blue Jackets organization upon being drafted, suiting up in 55 games for the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters. He impressed with six goals and 38 points in his rookie campaign in the AHL but unfortunately missed out on the league’s All-Rookie Team. Arguably Jiříček’s most impressive performance of the season came in the middle of the year during the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship.

He scored three goals and seven points in seven games for Team Czechia while posting a +10 rating throughout the tournament. He was voted the best defenseman by the directorate and helped guide Czechia to the country’s first silver medal since 1985 when they shared a country with Slovakia.

Jiříček managed to debut in the NHL in the 2022-23 season but went scoreless over a brief four-game stretch. The following season allowed Jiříček his largest opportunity to make an impact with the Blue Jackets.

He scored one goal and 10 points over 43 games in Columbus last year. The organization kept him incredibly sheltered as the young defenseman only averaged 14:36 of ice time per game. Still, he showed flashes of being an elite two-way defenseman with a 92.4% on-ice save percentage in all situations which was especially good considering the Blue Jackets finished 31st in the NHL in goals-against per game.

Still, infrequent demotions and recalls by Columbus throughout the regular season prohibited Jiříček from gaining any traction for the Blue Jackets or Monsters. He finished the 2023-24 AHL season with seven goals and 19 assists in 29 games for Cleveland with another three goals and 11 points in 14 postseason contests.

The beginning of the 2024-25 season likely put the nail in the coffin for Jiříček’s future in Columbus. He cracked the team’s roster out of training camp but was hardly used by new head coach Dean Evason. He only suited up in six of the Blue Jackets’ first 18 games before being reassigned to the AHL on November 20th. His average ice time slipped even further with Jiříček only averaging 11:12 of ice time.

Jiříček will now join a Minnesota defense that projects to be one of the best in the league in a few years. The organization already deploys defensemen Brock Faber and Jared Spurgeon on the right side of the defense. Things look equally as impressive on the left side of the blue line with Jonas Brodin and recent draft pick Zeev Buium also projected in long-term roles.

The Wild’s already solid defense has helped them to a 15-4-4 record to start the 2024-25 NHL season making this year’s first-round pick expendable. Minnesota announced that the conditions on the first-round pick include top-five protection. The inclusion of a first-round pick was likely a bare minimum for the Blue Jackets organization despite this one likely falling outside of the lottery.  The other three draft draft selections heading to Columbus give the organization eight for the 2026 NHL Draft and eight for the 2027 NHL Draft.

Hunt, reportedly the final part of the deal, is in a similar situation, albeit a lower profile, to that of Jiříček. He’ll be familiar with Evason after having played a handful of games for him last season but didn’t have any legitimate pathway to the NHL in Minnesota. He had been enjoying a quietly productive season with the AHL’s Iowa Wild tallying four assists in nine games.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report the Wild were finalizing a deal for Jiříček.
TSN’s Pierre LeBrun was the first to report Hunt’s inclusion in the deal.
Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli was the first to report a majority of the trade package.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Evgeni Malkin, Nikita Zadorov Fined By Department Of Player Safety

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Last night’s matchup between the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins had plenty of dramatics despite being a modest three-goal event. The NHL’s Department of Player Safety involved themselves this morning bestowing a $5K fine on Pittsburgh forward Evgeni Malkin for slashing and fining Boston defenseman Nikita Zadorov $5K for unsportsmanlike conduct. Both fines serve as the maximum allowable under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Both incidents are a part of the same event and happened relatively early in the game. According to video evidence provided by TSN, Zadorov began poking Malkin from the bench with his stick. Malkin was positioned on the offensive zone blue line and an offside was called on the Penguins shortly after.

Malkin immediately took exception to the poke and violently swung his stick at the Bruins’ bench. His stick made contact with Bruins defenseman Mason Lohrei and a scrum between the two teams began.

Zadorov and Malkin were given minor penalties on the play but the Department of Player Safety reasonably didn’t want it to end there. It’s not the first time either player has received supplementary discipline from the Department of Player Safety in their careers.

Blue Jackets Reassign Jet Greaves, Joseph LaBate To AHL

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The Columbus Blue Jackets made a pair of expected roster moves before their contest tomorrow afternoon against the Chicago Blackhawks. The organization announced they’ve reassigned goaltender Jet Greaves and forward Joseph LaBate to their AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters.

LaBate is back in the American Hockey League with the Monsters after a brief trip on the waiver wire. He’s already collected five games in Cleveland this season on a tryout agreement scoring one goal and four points with six PIMs. His AHL career has lasted a decade with LaBate scoring 64 goals and 137 points in 410 games since entering the AHL in 2014-15.

The 6’5″, 209-lbs centerman also has NHL experience despite not playing in a game since 2016-17. He suited up in 13 games for the Vancouver Canucks but failed to register any points. Still, he made his presence known by collecting three fighting majors in his brief stint.

Similarly, Greaves will return to a familiar environment in Cleveland. Due to Daniil Tarasov’s illness, the Blue Jackets recalled Greaves yesterday to serve as backup against the Calgary Flames. Given that Columbus likely isn’t looking to accrue any more cap space for the trade deadline, this roster move nearly confirms Tarasov’s return tomorrow.

Greaves has been a consistently solid goaltender for the Monsters since debuting in the AHL during the 2021-22 season. In four years, he’s posted a 68-43-14 record in Cleveland with a .905 save percentage and 2.98 goals against average.

Avalanche Place Miles Wood On IR, Recall Chris Wagner

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The Colorado Avalanche won’t have forward Miles Wood for at least a week. The organization announced that Wood has been placed on IR and that they’ve recalled forward Chris Wagner from their AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles, in his stead.

It’s the second time Wood has landed on the injured reserve this season. He missed seven games from late October to mid-November and was only on his sixth game back from his previous activation.

The injury to Wood may be a re-aggravation of the upper-body injury that kept him out of the lineup a few weeks ago. He tried to deliver a hit in last night’s contest against the Vegas Golden Knights and was visibly in pain after missing his mark. Wood had scored one goal and two points in his six games back from injury with another goal in 10 games prior.

Replacing Wood in the lineup will be a frequent recall of the Avalanche this season. Wagner has already played in 12 games for Colorado this season, one game shy of his total mark from a year ago. With the number of injuries Colorado has had in their forward group, Wagner should easily eclipse that total for the most games he’s played since the 2020-21 NHL season.

Wagner has spent most of his two-year stint with the Avalanche organization just north on I-25 with the Eagles. Since returning to the Avalanche last year, he’s scored nine goals and 15 points in 26 games for AHL Colorado.

New Jersey Devils Reassign Nolan Foote

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Nolan Foote is headed back to the American Hockey League after a short two-game stretch with the New Jersey Devils. The Devils organization announced they’ve reassigned Foote to their AHL affiliate, the Utica Comets.

Foote could be recalled before New Jersey’s upcoming back-to-back games against the Detroit Red Wings and Washington Capitals, respectively. He’s making slightly above the league minimum salary ($825K) giving the Devils a one-day window for salary cap capture.

He’s primarily played on the third line in two appearances for New Jersey this season. He’s failed to register any points while averaging 10:46 of ice time per game but has posted a solid 60.5% CorsiFor% in limited action.

Foote is in his fifth season at the professional level since being drafted with the 27th overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft. He’s been a fairly consistent scorer in the AHL with Utica (one season in Binghamton) but hasn’t proven enough to become a full-time NHLer.

Since moving to professional hockey in the 2020-21 season, Foote has scored 48 goals and 99 points in 150 AHL games with another one goal and three points in six postseason contests. Over his lean NHL experience, he’s scored six goals and eight points in 25 games.

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