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Flames Recall Matt Coronato, Reassign Samuel Honzek

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Forward Samuel Honzek’s return to the NHL will be shortlived despite playing in the Calgary Flames’ loss to the Utah Hockey Club last night. The organization announced Honzek has been reassigned to their AHL affiliate, the Calgary Wranglers, while forward Matthew Coronato has been recalled in his stead.

Honzek skated in 10:52 of yesterday’s action registering one block, two hits, one giveaway, and one takeaway. It was his first game back from an upper-body injury since October 15th after cracking Calgary’s roster out of training camp. It will be Honzek’s first time with the AHL Wranglers since registering two games last season after concluding his time with the WHL’s Vancouver Giants.

The former 16th overall pick of the 2023 NHL Draft could likely use an extended look in the AHL especially with the Flames regressing toward the mean. He was productive during his tenure in the WHL with 33 goals and 87 points in 76 games. Still, he only has seven professional games under his belt.

Calgary drafted Coronato 13th overall two years before Honzek and he’s a more established talent at the AHL level. He spent much of last year in AHL Calgary maintaining a point-per-game output with 15 goals and 42 points in 41 contests. His season was not as positive in the NHL with three goals and nine points in 34 games with a -15 rating.

He got off to a solid start this season scoring two goals in five games but was reassigned on October 25th in response to the activation of Yegor Sharangovich. As one of the top blossoming offensive talents in the Flames organization, it’ll be imperative for the coaching staff to find Coronato middle-six minutes throughout his time on the NHL roster.

Colorado’s Matthew Stienburg Suspended Two Games, Reassigned

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The Colorado Avalanche are losing another player up front, although this time it won’t be for an injury. The NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced they have suspended Avalanche rookie forward Matthew Stienburg for two games for charging Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Erik Černák in last night’s contest. Shortly after the suspension was issued, the Avalanche announced they had reassigned Stienburg to their AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles.

The news came roughly seven hours after the Department of Player Safety shared that Stienburg was scheduled for a hearing regarding the incident. The discipline served by the Department of Player Safety is in addition to the on-ice referees giving Stienburg a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct.

In the video shared by the Department of Player Safety, the contributing factor to the suspension was that Stienburg turned his back on the hit and lifted himself off the ice causing the focal point of the hit to be Černák’s head. They also noted that Stienburg’s NHL experience of eight games played a part in the length of the suspension.

He’s been one of Colorado’s most physical players since being recalled from AHL Colorado on October 16th. He’s seventh on the team in hits with 16 despite only being 16th in games played with eight. Consequently, thanks to the illegal hit on Černák yesterday evening, he now sits first on the team in PIMs with 22. According to Evan Rawal of The Denver Gazette, Stienburg must wait to serve his suspension until he’s recalled back to the NHL.

The biggest implication of this suspension and subsequent demotion is that the Avalanche only have 10 healthy forwards and an upcoming game on Saturday against the Nashville Predators. Gabriel Landeskog, Artturi Lehkonen, Valeri Nichushkin, Ross Colton, and Jonathan Drouin are all on the shelf for one reason or another, and Colorado will now have to pull from their organizational depth even further with Stienburg being sent down.

New Jersey’s Curtis Lazar Out Indefinitely After Knee Procedure

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The New Jersey Devils will be without a key bottom-six forward for the foreseeable future. The organization announced that Curtis Lazar is out indefinitely after undergoing a procedure on his left knee.

The team shared that Lazar sustained the injury in Sunday night’s win against the Anaheim Ducks. Expectations are that the Devils will utilize Justin Dowling to replace Lazar in the bottom six as the veteran center tallied one assist in his season debut yesterday.

Lazar has been a solid contributor for New Jersey since the organization acquired him from the Vancouver Canucks during the 2022-23 season. He skated in 71 games for the Devils last year scoring seven goals and 25 points while managing a +10 rating and racking up 179 hits.

His offensive play from last year hasn’t translated to the early part of this season but there are little expectations from a bottom-six forward. New Jersey has historically utilized Lazar for his defensive makeup with 62.1% of his shift starts coming in the defensive zone.

He’s responded well in the defensive zone with a 92.1% on-ice save percentage in all situations through 12 games — a slight uptick compared to his career average. The team will also have to look elsewhere for an experienced penalty killer with Lazar helping the Devils to their current 81.08% kill percentage.

Recovery from knee injuries typically takes a long time but the vagueness of New Jersey’s announcement clouds Lazar’s timeline. The team opted to use the word ’procedure’ rather than ’surgery’ indicating that Lazar didn’t have his knee opened up under the knife which would shorten his time on the shelf.

Atlantic Notes: Cozens, Zub, Motte

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The Buffalo Sabres are switching things up at the top of their forward core to give a struggling player an offensive jolt. The player in question is 23-year-old center Dylan Cozens who’s only mustered three assists in 10 games to start the 2024-25 campaign.

Head coach Lindy Ruff is moving Cozens to the right wing for the next few contests next to Jordan Greenway and Ryan McLeod which also suggests Cozens is moving to the team’s third line. Bill Hoppe from Buffalo Hockey Beat got a quote from Ruff regarding the move saying, “Sometimes a player just gets so consumed with lack of production and then maybe gets locked into as your centerman trying to play better defensively. Trying to free him up to get him a few more opportunities. You get him with a left-handed centermen that can him the puck and possibly use his speed“.

Many underlying statistics indicate that Cozens’s lack of production is merely a consequence of bad luck. His possession numbers are depressed especially when factoring in he starts a shift in the offensive zone 59.1% of the time but his E +/- of 0.0 according to Hockey Reference shows that he’s one of the better two-way forwards on the roster.

Cozens is leading the team in shots with 32 and has maintained his physicality with 19 hits on the year. The Sabres and Ruff hope that with less pressure in the faceoff dot and with positioning the offense will start to come for Cozens before it’s too late.

Other Atlantic notes:

  • In a positive injury update for the Ottawa Senators, TSN’s Bruce Garrioch reports defenseman Artem Zub has resumed skating for the first time since suffering a concussion on October 14th. Garrioch notes that Zub won’t be a full participant with the team until he’s fully medically cleared but it’s a positive step in the right direction. The right side of Ottawa’s defensive core has looked weak without Zub in the top four as the team sits 24th in the league in GA/G at 3.44.
  • Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press reports that Detroit Red Wings forward Tyler Motte is close to returning. Motte has missed Detroit’s last six games with an upper-body injury suffered during the team’s loss to the New York Rangers on October 17th. When healthy, he’s been largely unnoticeable in Detroit’s forward core with zero points through four games averaging just over 11 minutes of ice time per contest.

Frederik Andersen Out Week-To-Week With Lower-Body Injury

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Oct. 31: Andersen will be evaluated weekly while he recovers from a lower-body injury, head coach Rod Brind’Amour told reporters today, including Cory Lavalette of the North State Journal.

Oct. 28: The Carolina Hurricanes made a surprise call-up of netminder Spencer Martin this morning without any additional context regarding their current combination of Frederik Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov. That context has finally come to light with Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reporting that Andersen sustained an injury in the team’s most recent game against the Seattle Kraken.

Seravalli adds that the injury isn’t supposed to be long-term and isn’t connected to Andersen’s blood cot ailment from last year. The Hurricanes couldn’t ask for better timing if there were to be a short-term injury to a rostered player as their six-game road trip concludes tonight against the Vancouver Canucks. The team returns home this Thursday and won’t have to leave Raleigh again until Nov. 9.

That should give the Carolina medical staff enough time to work with Andersen and make for a quicker recovery. Besides securing a victory against the Canucks this evening, it should make for one of the more critical organizational goals for the time being.

Despite solid offensive play from Martin Necas and Sebastian Aho, there is a credible argument that Andersen has been the team’s best player to start the 2024-25 campaign. He’s produced a 3-1-0 record through his first four games with a league-leading .941 save percentage and 1.48 goals-against average. That kind of play in the crease would be a boon for any team, including a Carolina roster that lost several offensive talents up front this past offseason.

Nashville Predators Reassign Marc Del Gaizo

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Oct. 30: It appears Del Gaizo’s demotion was a temporary one to bank cap space. He’s back up with the Preds today, the team announced.

Oct. 28: The Nashville Predators are switching things up on their blue line. The organization announced they reassigned defenseman Marc Del Gaizo to their AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals.

The transaction indicates the Predators are ready to re-insert defenseman Dante Fabbro into a starting role. Five defensemen on Nashville’s roster have played in each of the team’s eight games while Fabbro (five) and Del Gaizo (three) are the only two with less than eight.

Nashville won two out of the three games with Del Gaizo in the lineup with promising results from the defenseman. Del Gaizo failed to crack the scoresheet during this call-up while averaging 14:23 of ice time per game but his possession metrics proved encouraging. His 59.6% CorsiFor% and 0.8 E +/- according to Hockey Reference show that the Predators performed better with Del Gaizo on the ice despite the small sample size.

The results haven’t been as promising with Fabbro. The former 17th overall pick of the 2016 NHL Draft has been held scoreless after five games with Nashville this season and has produced relatively null possession metrics with a 51.6% CorsiFor% and 0.0 E +/- while averaging 13:24 of ice time.

He didn’t perform much better next to captain Roman Josi two nights ago although the team secured an overtime victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Nashville must have seen something encouraging in Fabbro’s game giving them confidence to reassign Del Gaizo.

The latter will return to an Admirals team after already registering two games played earlier in the season. The team hasn’t missed him much with a promising 6-1-0-0 record to begin the 2024-25 AHL campaign.

East Notes: Rust, Dahlin, Romanov, Motte

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The Pittsburgh Penguins organization didn’t get a positive update on forward Bryan Rust’s injury. The team’s play-by-play commentator, Jeff Getzoff, shared that Rust is considered week-to-week with a lower-body injury after evaluations.

Rust suffered the lower-body injury in the team’s most recent game against the Vancouver Canucks after receiving a hit from Nils Hoglander. The veteran forward was quickly ruled out of that game’s action after only 13:18 of ice time and missed the team’s practice yesterday.

The injury could be related to the lower-body injury that kept Rust from the ice at the beginning of the season. He missed Pittsburgh’s first two games of the regular season but has managed three goals and four points in eight straight games. The Penguins only have 12 healthy forwards on the roster meaning Valtteri Puustinen should garner more ice time if the organization doesn’t make a recall from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

Other notes from the Eastern Conference:

  • Buffalo Sabres’ captain Rasmus Dahlin’s two-minute minor for high-sticking and two-minute minor for roughing in last night’s action has turned into more. The NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced they have fined Dahlin $5,000 for yesterday’s incident, the maximum allowable under the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The play took place with seven minutes remaining of the third period when Dahlin swung his stick into the face of Florida Panthers’ forward Anton Lundell after positioning for the puck at the Sabres’ blue line.
  • The New York Islanders will be without defenseman Alexander Romanov for the second straight game. Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News reports Romanov is still considered day-to-day with an undisclosed injury from one of the team’s recent games against the New Jersey Devils. There hasn’t been any indication up to this point that Romanov will be able to dress in tomorrow night’s action against the Columbus Blue Jackets, either.
  • Ansar Khan of MLive reports the Detroit Red Wings are still without forward Tyler Motte who is suffering from an upper-body injury. His unavailability will have a downstream effect on the roster with the organization keeping the ability to keep prospect Marco Kasper on the roster under emergency conditions for the time being. Kasper has skated in five games for the Red Wings during his emergency recall with one assist to show for it while averaging 15:22 of ice time. Once Motte can return, Detroit must make a roster move to comply with the emergency condition protocols.

Edmonton Oilers Recall Drake Caggiula, Noah Philp

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4:07 PM: According to a team announcement, the Oilers organization has confirmed the roster move.

4:00 PM: In light of Connor McDavid’s predicted absence over the next few days and potentially longer, the Edmonton Oilers are bringing some depth to their forward group. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman shares the organization is calling up forwards Drake Caggiula and Noah Philp from their AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors.

One of the two is bound to enter the lineup as the Oilers only carried 11 healthy forwards before the transaction. There will be a learning curve for both with Philp having yet to make his NHL debut and Caggiula’s last time in the NHL being a four-game stretch with the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2022-23 NHL season.

Caggiula is in his second stint with the Oilers organization after signing out of the University of North Dakota in 2016. He spent three years with Edmonton scoring 27 goals and 49 points in 156 regular-season contests before being traded to the Chicago Blackhawks partway through the 2018-19 campaign.

He returned to the organization last season but spent the entire season with AHL Bakersfield. He scored 13 goals and 37 points in 43 AHL contests being good for fifth on the team in scoring. He’s off to a solid start in the 2024-25 AHL season with three goals and five points through his first five games.

Philp joined the organization in 2022 after finishing his career at the University of Alberta. He was a solid scorer in limited USports action but has struggled to produce in the AHL. He scored 19 goals and 37 points in 70 games for the Condors in 2022-23 but missed all last season due to personal reasons. Philp has suited up in all six games for the Condors this season scoring one goal and three points overall.

San Jose Sharks Recall Ethan Cardwell, Place Ty Dellandrea On IR

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With the ninth-youngest roster in the league, the San Jose Sharks are adding more youth to their lineup. The organization announced they recalled forward prospect Ethan Cardwell from their AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda while placing forward Ty Dellandrea on injured reserve.

The Sharks haven’t issued a formal update on Dellandrea’s injury status. Still, the current theory is that he’s dealing with an upper-body injury suffered in the team’s recent game against the Vegas Golden Knights on October 26th. Dellandrea managed 9:02 of ice time before leaving the contest and had previously been ruled out in the team’s win last night against the Utah Hockey Club.

Dellandrea skated in all nine games for San Jose before last night scoring one goal in total on the season. He’s kept his physicality up in his new stomping ground but his defensive play and possession metrics have declined with a weaker supporting cast compared to his time with the Dallas Stars.

On the other side of the roster move, Cardwell looks to make his NHL debut after one full season in the AHL. He scored 23 goals and 43 points in 71 games for the Barracuda in his rookie campaign and has gotten off to a solid start this year with one goal and five points through six contests.

The former 121st overall pick of the 2021 NHL Draft won’t crack many lists of top prospects in the Sharks system but could be a boon for the organization toward the bottom of the lineup. Cardwell is a 200-foot player with an aggressive tendency to jump into every battle on offense and defense.

Transaction Notes: Benson, Smith, Commesso

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The Buffalo Sabres will have to wait a little longer for the return of their top prospects. As expected, Paul Hamilton of WGR Sports Radio reported earlier that the organization placed forward Zach Benson on injured reserve to make room for Nicolas Aube-Kubel tonight.

Buffalo has been fairly vague regarding Benson’s timeline, but he has sat out the last two games and the team’s most recent practice with a lower-body injury. There is some indication the injury has plagued Benson for much of the regular season with the youngster going scoreless in six games to start the year.

Line rushes from yesterday morning indicated that Aube-Kubel will assume the left-wing role on the team’s second line where Benson should end up upon his return. The organization will likely make the IR placement retroactive to Benson’s last game on October 19th meaning he’s already eligible to be activated once fully healthy.

Other transactions:

  • With their road trip ending tonight, it was inevitable that the Carolina Hurricanes would shorten their roster. The team has done just that announcing they reassigned defenseman Ty Smith to their AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves. Smith has been with the team as a seventh defenseman for much of the road trip with his original recall coming on October 18th. Unfortunately for Smith, the team’s blue line was fully healthy during the road trip eliminating any chance for him to enter the lineup.
  • Chicago Blackhawks netminder Arvid Soderblom has fully recovered from his illness meaning the team no longer requires goaltender Drew Commesso on the NHL roster. Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times reports the team has reassigned Commesso to their AHL affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs. It marked Commesso’s first call-up with the Blackhawks this season although he has yet to make his NHL debut. He’ll return to an IceHogs roster where he’s already played two games this season with a .854 save percentage.

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