Ruhwedel, Borgen Enter COVID Protocol
5:34 pm: It turns out that it was likely a false positive that put Ruhwedel on the COVID protocol list. The Penguins defenseman is off protocol the same day he entered, and is available for tonight’s game against Washington.
11:04 am: In the coming days, players entering the COVID protocol will become much less common. The league has amended its procedures to no longer require daily testing for fully vaccinated individuals, and has removed the testing requirement for close contacts. Those are set to come into effect following each club’s final game before the All-Star break, however, meaning that for today and tomorrow, things are business as normal.
It’s not surprising then to see two more players enter the protocol today. The Seattle Kraken have announced that Will Borgen is now in it, meaning he’ll be unavailable for the team’s final pre-All-Star games this week. Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan also announced to reporters including Seth Rorabaugh of the Tribune-Review that Chad Ruhwedel is in the protocol and unavailable tonight.
In Borgen’s case, it’s unfortunate timing given he had started to find a home in the Kraken lineup. The 25-year-old defenseman played just a hair under 16 minutes on Sunday against the New York Rangers, his 15th game of the season. One of the interesting expansion draft selections given how little NHL experience he had with the Buffalo Sabres, Borgen signed a two-year, one-way contract with the Kraken in August and was expected to be a full-time option for the club. Now halfway through the season and he has just a handful of games under his belt after the team loaded up on other defensemen that have sat ahead of him on the depth chart.
For Ruhwedel, it couldn’t come at a worse time, given how he has finally been a regular in the Pittsburgh lineup. The 31-year-old veteran has never played more than 44 games in a single season but has already suited up 41 times this year, as the Penguins continue to deal with injuries to various players. Even tonight, the team has announced that Brian Dumoulin is a game-time decision due to “wear and tear” meaning there may have been even more ice time up for grabs. Instead, he’ll have to miss and likely give Juuso Riikola–recalled to the taxi squad this morning–a chance to get back into the NHL lineup.
Snapshots: Arizona, Mittelstadt, Verbeek
The Arizona Coyotes’ proposed plan to spend the next few years in an Arizona State University facility has drawn plenty of concern across the hockey world, but perhaps none more pointed than the quotes from other NHL executives in Sean Shapiro’s newest piece for The Athletic. Shapiro spoke to executives from nine organizations, who, under an agreement that their identities would remain anonymous, had some pretty harsh words for the ASU plan.
Several of them called it “embarrassing” according to Shapiro, who delves into the financial impact that playing at a small rink, including in-ice and board advertisement revenue that could be at risk. The idea to play at the ASU facility currently seems the most likely outcome of the Coyotes’ search for a temporary home, but they are going to have to face very public criticism in the meantime.
- Casey Mittelstadt will consult with a surgeon over next steps after leaving Sunday’s game in pain, according to John Vogl of The Athletic. The young forward already went under the knife in December for an undisclosed upper-body injury and only returned to the lineup on January 25. He has played in seven games this season, recording a single goal and two points. If he is forced to have another surgery, it looks like this could be a lost season for the 23-year-old, who signed a three-year, $7.5MM deal in September. Since being selected eighth overall in 2017, Mittelstadt has recorded 63 points in 162 NHL games.
- Pat Verbeek appears to be the frontrunner for the Anaheim Ducks vacant general manager position, as Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff names him “the man to beat.” Verbeek, who has served as an assistant general manager under Steve Yzerman in both Tampa Bay and Detroit, played over 1,400 regular season games in the NHL and won the Stanley Cup with the Dallas Stars in 1999. He sits 72nd on the all-time points list with 1,062 and has been linked to potential GM openings for several years.
Dallas Stars, Tampa Bay Lightning Complete Minor Trade
The Tampa Bay Lightning have acquired Tye Felhaber from the Dallas Stars, sending Alexey Lipanov back the other way. Lipanov will report to the Texas Stars of the AHL, while Felhaber is heading to the Orlando Solar Bears of the ECHL.
While neither of these players is expected to make a big impact at the NHL level, it is notable that the Lightning have a history of taking undrafted, high-scoring CHL players and turning them into valuable assets. That describes Felhaber exactly, who had a 59-goal, 109-point season for the Ottawa 67’s in 2018-19 as an overage player.
Undrafted, he’s spent the last few seasons in the Stars minor league system and hasn’t been able to come anywhere near repeating those offensive numbers. He has just two goals in 14 games this season and eight in total over his Texas career.
Lipanov meanwhile was a third-round pick of the Lightning in 2017 but has spent most of his career to this point in the ECHL. The 22-year-old forward is in the final season of his entry-level contract and appears to be a likely candidate to go unqualified as an RFA this summer.
After some interesting performances internationally for Russia that led to his high draft position, Lipanov never really found his footing in the OHL, registering just 30 points in 61 games during his final season there. Last season he did record 15 points in 33 games in Russia’s VHL, but hasn’t even recorded a single goal this year in nine appearances in the Lightning minor league system.
Eric Staal Named Captain Of 2022 Canadian Olympic Squad
Hockey Canada has announced the leadership group for the upcoming Olympic Games, with Eric Staal the obvious choice as captain of the club. He’ll be joined by David Desharnais and Maxim Noreau as alternates.
Staal, 37, has not only appeared in the Olympics previously–he went when the NHL was still participating. A member of the 2010 gold medal-winning squad in Vancouver, the veteran forward is already a member of the exclusive Triple Gold Club, with Olympic gold, World Championship gold, and a Stanley Cup championship. This is the second time he’s served as captain for Team Canada, having also worn the “C” in 2013 at the Worlds.
With the scattered talent that’s on the team, Staal was always going to be the captain as he brings more experience than anyone else. He very well could skate with someone nearly two decades his junior, if Mason McTavish can work his way up the lineup. He’ll have another veteran forward to lean on either way though, as Desharnais gets an “A” after three excellent years playing in Switzerland. The 35-year-old had a strong NHL career of his own, racking up 282 points in 524 career games.
Noreau, a player that might be much less familiar to NHL fans given he played just six games with the Minnesota Wild more than a decade ago, is the other alternate after a long successful career in Switzerland. He’s also a returning member of the 2018 Olympic group, where he also wore an “A” en route to a bronze medal. The 34-year-old defenseman should likely play a role on the powerplay given his offensive skillset, though young Owen Power has the ability to play in all situations including with the man-advantage.
Meanwhile, Canada’s pre-tournament tune-up game in Switzerland before they travel to Beijing has been canceled due to COVID concerns for EV Zug, the scheduled opponent. For Staal and his team, the tournament will begin on February 10.
Taxi Squad Shuffle: 02/01/22
It’s a new month for the NHL, and with that comes a full slate of games. Eleven different matches are scheduled for this evening, including one of the mismatches of the year. The Colorado Avalanche, owners of the best points percentage in the league (.779) and one of two teams averaging more than four goals a game, welcome in the Arizona Coyotes, owners of the second-worst points percentage in the league (.279) and the lowest goals for average (2.19). Can the Coyotes pull off an all-time upset? As they and other teams prepare, we’ll keep track of all the minor league and taxi squad moves.
Atlantic Division
- The Ottawa Senators have sent Dillon Heatherington to the AHL, with just one game left before the All-Star break. Heatherington, 26, has played nine games for Ottawa and 15 games for Bellville this season, his first since spending a year in the KHL. Lassi Thomson has also been reassigned to the taxi squad as Victor Mete makes his return to the lineup.
- The Boston Bruins have made several recalls, bringing Steven Fogarty, Jeremy Swayman, and Urho Vaakanainen back up to the active roster. Jesper Froden and Tyler Lewington are back up with the taxi squad as well.
- The Buffalo Sabres have reassigned Brandon Biro, Oskari Laaksonen, Brett Murray, J.J. Peterka, Arttu Ruotsalainen, and Jimmy Schuldt to the taxi squad, ahead of their game tonight against the Vegas Golden Knights. The Rochester Americans play tomorrow, meaning there will likely be some additional transactions coming after tonight’s game.
Metropolitan Division
- The Pittsburgh Penguins have recalled Juuso Riikola to the taxi squad, as Brian Dumoulin missed practice again today. Riikola has played in just five games for Pittsburgh this season but has been outstanding for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, registering 12 points in 17 games in the AHL. A little later on, the team recalled Michael Chaput from the taxi squad to the active roster.
- The New York Rangers have recalled Morgan Barron to the active roster, while sending Tim Gettinger, Lauri Pajuniemi, Tarmo Reunanen, and Jarred Tinordi to the AHL. After tonight’s game against Florida, the Rangers don’t have another scheduled match until February 15.
- The Washington Capitals have reassigned Brett Leason to the taxi squad, making room for Nick Jensen to be activated from injured reserve. With the taxi squads dissolving this week, Leason will have to soon be sent to the minor leagues if he’s not on the active roster.
Central Division
- The Dallas Stars have recalled Riley Damiani and Anton Khudobin from the AHL, giving them an extra netminder for tonight’s game against the Calgary Flames. Remember, after a team’s last game before the All-Star break the taxi squad will dissolve, meaning these recalls may not necessarily be to play immediately.
- The Minnesota Wild have recalled Zane McIntyre from the AHL to the taxi squad, likely joining the team on the road in Chicago for their last game before the break. The Wild sent Andrew Hammond, their third goaltender, back to the AHL to play yesterday.
Pacific Division
- The Seattle Kraken have recalled Max McCormick, Kole Lind, and Connor Carrick to the taxi squad, while Will Borgen has been put in the COVID protocol. Borgen will miss the last two games before the All-Star break, just as he was getting a rhythm in the Seattle lineup.
- Ahead of puck drop tonight against the Buffalo Sabres, the Vegas Golden Knights recalled a trio of defensemen in Kaedan Korczak, Daniil Miromanov, and Brayden Pachal from the Henderson Silver Knights. Both Korczak (NHL debut) and Miromanov are expected to enter the lineup with Alec Martinez and Dylan Coghlan in protocol and Nicolas Hague and Zach Whitecloud out with undisclosed injuries.
This page will be updated throughout the day
Hossa, Olczyk, Sharp To Assist Blackhawks In GM Search
The Anaheim Ducks brought in franchise greats Paul Kariya and Scott Niedermayer to help out in their general manager search and now the Chicago Blackhawks are following their lead. Marian Hossa, Eddie Olczyk, and Patrick Sharp have agreed to join as a group of advisors to assist in the search for the team’s next GM.
Hossa, a recent inductee to the Hall of Fame, spent eight seasons with the Blackhawks at the end of his career, winning the Stanley Cup three times. A legendary two-way forward that was as comfortable with the puck on his stick as he was backchecking the length of the rink, Hossa ended his playing career with 1,134 points in 1,309 regular season games and Selke Trophy votes in 13 different campaigns. The 12-year, $63.3MM contract he signed with the Blackhawks in 2009 only expired last summer, though he was forced to retire after the 2016-17 season due to a skin condition and the side effects medication was causing. His contract, which was just dead money at that point, was eventually traded to the Arizona Coyotes.
Olczyk meanwhile played 322 games for the Blackhawks, but it was split across two stints at the start and end of his career. Perhaps better known for his broadcasting work these days, as a player Olczyk was a great scoring talent who racked up 794 points in 1,031 NHL games. He too won a Stanley Cup, though it wasn’t with Chicago and it wasn’t in uniform; he raised the chalice with the 1994 New York Rangers despite being part of Mike Keenan’s Black Aces in the press box through most of the playoffs.
Sharp, recently a broadcaster himself, was also a three-time Cup winner with the Blackhawks as a teammate of Hossa. The smooth-skating forward put up 620 points in 939 career NHL games, spending the vast majority of those matches with Chicago. Sharp is now a coaching advisor for the University of Vermont hockey program, and will now help find the next Blackhawks general manager.
The Blackhawks also announced that they have been working with Mike Forde of Sportology since the start of the process. Forde’s work is best explained by the man himself on a recent episode of 32 Thoughts with Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek.
Charlie Roumeliotis of NBCS Chicago reports that interviews for the position will begin this week.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Jake Bean Out Four Weeks With Groin Injury
The Columbus Blue Jackets have lost another young player to injury, this time announcing that Jake Bean will miss four weeks with a groin strain suffered last night.
Bean, 23, was acquired from the Carolina Hurricanes last offseason in exchange for a second-round pick after he was passed over in the expansion draft by the Seattle Kraken. The young defenseman has played in 41 games for Columbus this season, normally averaging more than 21 minutes a night. He played just 6:53 yesterday before leaving and will be a big loss for a Blue Jackets team that is still trying to chase down those Eastern Conference wildcard spots.
A win against Montreal left them at 20-21-1 on the season, still 12 points behind Boston for the final playoff position. After announcing Alexandre Texier‘s injury just recently, the team’s depth is certainly going to be tested in the next few weeks. Luckily for the Blue Jackets, tonight’s game against the Florida Panthers is the last before the All-Star break, meaning they have a full week of rest for any other bumps and bruises.
Bean meanwhile is in the first season of a three-year deal and was playing well enough to be considered a legitimate part of the future in Columbus. Even if the team struggles and decides to sell at the deadline, he seems an unlikely candidate to be traded even if healthy.
Snapshots: Three Stars, All-Star Skills, Muzzin
The NHL has revealed its Three Stars for last week, with Nazem Kadri taking home the top spot. The Colorado Avalanche forward continues his incredible campaign with eight more points in four games, including three game-winning goals. The pending unrestricted free agent is having quite the platform year and is now just two points shy of his previous career-high in scoring with half the season to play. Sitting at 18 goals and 59 points in 40 games, Kadri is in for a huge contract in the offseason.
Second and third went to Frederik Andersen and Johnny Gaudreau respectively after their own outstanding weeks. The Carolina Hurricanes netminder posted another perfect 3-0 record and now leads the NHL with 24 wins. His .929 save percentage is easily the best of his career and puts him directly into the Vezina conversation. Gaudreau meanwhile is another pending UFA having an incredible year, with the difference being that he’s done this before. He registered 99 points in 2018-19, good enough for fourth place in the Hart Trophy race, and is once again playing at that level. With eight points in four games last week he continues to storm up the NHL leaderboard and now sits seventh in the league with 52 points.
- The NHL All-Star Skills competition will have a pair of new events this year, as the league announced the Fountain Face-Off and Las Vegas NHL 21 in ’22. The former will take place in the fountains of the Bellagio and will need players to travel by boat to a platform and attempt to shoot pucks at targets floating in other parts of the water. For the latter, contestants will try to achieve a hand of 21 by shooting pucks at card targets out on the Las Vegas strip. Also making a return will be the Breakaway Challenge, where Trevor Zegras will join special guests Manon Rheaume and actor Wyatt Russell for the first time the event has been held since 2016.
- The Toronto Maple Leafs can’t wait for the All-Star break to come, as the team has already ruled out Jake Muzzin their last two matches before the weekend festivities. The veteran defenseman is dealing with a concussion and after skating the last few days, was absent from morning skate today. Head coach Sheldon Keefe explained that Muzzin “is going to take a bit of a step back” through the break as the team’s medical staff continues to monitor him.
Minnesota Wild Extend Jordan Greenway
1:10pm: Greenway’s extension is now official, and it’s a three-year deal at an even $9MM total. The deal keeps him under contract through the 2024-25 season, buying out one year of unrestricted free agency. PuckPedia adds that it includes an eight-team no-trade clause in the final year.
11:15am: The Minnesota Wild are on fire, winning eight of their last nine games including a 4-3 victory over the New York Islanders last night. Those good vibes are set to continue for one pending RFA, as Michael Russo of The Athletic has heard rumblings that the team is closing in on an extension with Jordan Greenway. The scribe posits that it would come in around the same $3.1MM cap hit that Marcus Foligno earned last January.
Greenway, 24, has just four goals and 13 points in 33 games this season but–as Russo points out–is a part of one of the best defensive lines in the NHL, when deployed alongside Joel Eriksson Ek and Foligno. That line has yet to allow a goal against at 5-on-5, certainly providing good value to the Wild despite Greenway’s relatively pedestrian offensive numbers.
In fact, after posting 32 points in 56 games last season, it seemed like his offensive game was set to really take off in 2021-22. It hasn’t, but the 6’6″ forward has increased his physicality even more and is contributing to the penalty kill. An extension, if it does come down the pipe, could potentially buy out both of Greenway’s remaining arbitration years, as he could become an unrestricted free agent in the 2024 offseason. If it buys out some of those UFA years as well, a $3MM cap hit would certainly be a bargain for a capable middle-six player that can provide value in several different ways.
The interesting part of Greenway’s development, of course, is that he’s no longer really needed to be a top-six player. The Wild have even younger players like Marco Rossi and Matt Boldy that are going to take up those spots, the latter already playing a big role in his short NHL career. According to Russo, Boldy has been told he’s going to stay with the Wild for the foreseeable future after recording nine points in nine games so far.
That ten-game entry-level contract threshold that many prospects deal with is not applicable to the 20-year-old Boldy, who is already in the second year of his ELC after signing last spring.
Latest On Ben Chiarot, Jeff Petry
The Montreal Canadiens lost again last night, allowing four goals in the first period to the Columbus Blue Jackets and eventually going down 6-3. The team is now 8-29-7 on the year, a points percentage of .261 that would be the very worst of the salary cap era–even worse than the Detroit Red Wings 17-49-5 2019-20 campaign. While they continue to suffer brutal results on the ice, a new management group will need to make some decisions on where to go from here.
One player that has been regarded as someone who will definitely be traded by the March 21 deadline is Ben Chiarot, given his position as a reasonably-priced pending UFA. Chiarot’s three-year, $10.5MM contract ($3.5MM AAV) will expire at the end of this season and includes a no-trade list of just ten teams. The 30-year-old played more than 26 minutes last night against the Blue Jackets and has been relied on more than he likely should throughout the season as the team has obviously felt the absences of defensemen like Shea Weber and Joel Edmundson.
Elliotte Friedman noted on the latest 32 Thoughts podcast that the St. Louis Blues are “very much in there” when it comes to Chiarot trade talks, adding that they’re not the only team involved. He believes that the pending free agent defenseman is likely the first move for new Canadiens GM Kent Hughes, who took over earlier this month.
Another name that has been brought up recently though is Jeff Petry, a player in a very different situation. Petry has three more years on his contract after this one, an extension that was only signed in 2020. He has a 15-team no-trade list and obviously signed to stay with the Canadiens, inking that four-year, $25MM deal as a perennial 40-point defenseman.
Hughes made it clear in a recent interview with La Presse that he’s open to moving Petry if there is a fit, but wouldn’t go so far as to guarantee it is coming soon. Friedman, meanwhile, explained how it might not be best to move him now:
All I’ll say with Petry is, there’s time. You can say ‘okay, if someone wants to do it now, they can do it now.’ But because he’s got term, you can wait until the summer. The one thing about now is that there’s not a lot of cap space. If you trade a Chiarot, and you’re retaining [salary] to make your deal better you only have to do it for now. If you’re trading a Petry and have to retain, there’s term on that.
Among the biggest reasons for Montreal’s demise has been the stark difference in play from Petry, who has just six points in 37 games after posting four consecutive seasons with at least 11 goals and 40 points. In last year’s shortened campaign, he put those numbers up in just 55 games, playing incredible hockey all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals. At age 34 with three more years of term, he won’t be an easy deal to make even if someone believes they can get him back to his previous levels.