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Toronto Maple Leafs Recall Pontus Holmberg

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Looking for a change, the Toronto Maple Leafs have recalled Pontus Holmberg from the AHL. To make room, Wayne Simmonds has been sent back to the Toronto Marlies. Simmonds cleared waivers at the beginning of the season, so can be assigned freely for the time being.

Holmberg, 23, has turned into an interesting prospect for the Maple Leafs. A sixth-round pick in 2018, he developed into a star player in Sweden, winning a league championship and being named playoff MVP. He followed up the impressive postseason performance with a 41-point season, and even got a taste of North American hockey with a six-game look with the Toronto Marlies last spring.

Still, despite all that success, it’s hard to imagine Holmberg really being the key to unlocking the Maple Leafs this season. At best he is probably an upgrade in the bottom six, capable of playing center or wing. But with just two assists in seven games with the Marlies this season, the offensive upside of a player like Holmberg is limited.

With Toronto struggling to score at even-strength (and in general), they’ll need their stars to play better – not just the bottom-six.

Seth Jones Moved To Injured Reserve; Alec Regula Recalled

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The Chicago Blackhawks have moved Seth Jones to injured reserve retroactively to October 29 as he deals with a thumb injury. Charlie Roumeliotis of NBCS Chicago reports that the team has recalled Alec Regula in his place.

Jones is expected to miss three to four weeks, meaning there may be a chance for Regula to get into a few more games. He was practicing as an extra today, but the 22-year-old already did play one with the Blackhawks before being sent down last month.

Selected 67th overall in 2018, Regular has 19 career games in the NHL but was excellent for the Rockford IceHogs last season, registering 26 points in 41 games. The 6’4″ defender logged just over 17 minutes in his first game this season.

After an excellent start to the year, the Blackhawks have now lost their last three. Each of those games has been decided by just one goal (or a shootout), and head coach Luke Richardson has his band of misfits playing hard. Losing Jones will be a blow, but no one expected Chicago to even be competitive this season and they’ve proved us wrong, so perhaps they can keep their head above water without the high-priced defenseman.

Cory Conacher Signs AHL PTO

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It’s not often that you can sign an AHL MVP to a professional tryout several games into the season but that’s exactly what has happened for the Belleville Senators. The minor league club has signed Cory Conacher to a PTO and expects to have him in the lineup this weekend.

Conacher, 32, is returning after two years spent in Switzerland, where he won the league championship (for the second time in his career) in 2021. The undersized forward has long been an elite player in the minor leagues, taking home the MVP award as a rookie in 2012 to go along with a Calder Cup.

With 193 games of NHL and 354 games of AHL experience, Conacher qualifies as a veteran in the minor league, something that means a lot more than just years of wisdom. AHL teams are allowed to dress maximum of five veteran players at any one time to make sure there is still room for development purposes.

Still, it’s hard to find many more productive veterans than Conacher, who had 38 points 44 games for the Syracuse Crunch the last time he played in the AHL.

Reid Duke Signs In Slovakia

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He’ll always be the answer to a trivia question. Reid Duke, the first player ever signed by the Vegas Golden Knights, has found a new home overseas. The minor league forward will play this season for HK Nitra of the Slovakian league, after becoming a Group VI unrestricted free agent this summer.

Duke, 26, was signed as a free agent by the Golden Knights soon after they were granted franchise status. Originally a sixth-round pick of the Minnesota Wild in 2014, he hadn’t signed with them, instead going back to junior where he became an impressive player for the Brandon Wheat Kings. When the Golden Knights came into being, he joined their minor league program with the Chicago Wolves and then Henderson Silver Knights, spending five seasons in the AHL.

He never did see any NHL time, as those scoring numbers from junior didn’t follow him to the minor leagues. In 159 AHL games, he scored just 25 goals and 49 points. In Slovakia that could change, and he has a supporter in his corner. Macoy Erkamps, who also signed with Nitra for this season, was a teammate of Duke’s with Brandon and apparently spoke highly of him with team management.

Dallas Stars Sign Matt Murray

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6:44 pm: CapFriendly reports that Murray’s one-year contract carries the league-minimum $750K cap hit, and pays him $82,500 at the minor-league level.

3:08 pm: In what will be a confusing move for many casual hockey fans, the Dallas Stars have signed goaltender Matt Murray to a one-year entry-level contract. This Murray is not the Matt Murray that plays for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but an undrafted netminder who was playing for their AHL affiliate.

With Jake Oettinger sidelined due to a lower-body injury and the Stars without the necessary cap space to recall Anton Khudobin, the team has been forced into handing out another NHL contract. Murray, 24, is the beneficiary of the situation, though his play at the AHL level has certainly warranted consideration for an entry-level contract anyway.

The former UMass-Amherst standout has a .926 save percentage in five appearances with the Texas Stars this year, after joining the club late last season. In his 11 career appearances that save percentage actually climbs to .939, an impressive statistic for any goaltender, let alone an undrafted talent just entering professional hockey.

A one-year entry-level deal will mean that Murray can be recalled to the NHL to serve as backup for Scott Wedgewood until Oettinger returns, or until the team creates enough cap space to recall Khudobin.

Snapshots: Three Stars, Krejci, Stevenson

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The NHL released its Three Stars for last week, with Connor McDavid taking the top spot. The Edmonton Oilers superstar had eight points which, incredibly, all came on goals that either tied the game or gave his team the lead. McDavid seems poised to win the Art Ross once again as the league’s top scorer, and the Rocket Richard is now well within his reach after such an outstanding start.

Second and third went to Jesper Bratt and Marc-Andre Fleury respectively, after their own strong performances. Bratt continues to be one of the most underrated offensive players in the league and now has 15 points in nine games this season. Fleury, meanwhile, rebounded from an iffy start and had a .927 in three appearances last week. His numbers aren’t very inspiring, but Fleury has gone 4-1-1 to start the year.

  • Boston Bruins forward David Krejci will miss at least the next few days with an upper-body injury. He now appears on the Bruins injured reserve list, meaning he’ll miss seven days since his last game. Still, head coach Jim Montgomery said that his veteran center will be traveling with the club and shouldn’t be out too long.
  • The Washington Capitals have assigned Clay Stevenson to the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, suggesting he has recovered enough to start getting back into game action. The 23-year-old was a free agent signing out of Dartmouth and underwent hand surgery at the beginning of October. Given a timeline of four to six weeks from then, his recovery seems to be right on track.

Jamie Drysdale To Undergo Shoulder Surgery

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The Anaheim Ducks are not off to a good start this season (despite their comeback win over the Toronto Maple Leafs last night) and things are getting even worse. Young defenseman Jamie Drysdale suffered a torn labrum last week and will undergo surgery in the near future. His timeline has been listed as four to six months.

That could potentially mean Drysdale’s season is over before it even really gets going, and at best will keep him out through February. The 20-year-old was coming off his first full year in the NHL, which included scoring 32 points in 81 games. He was scoreless through his first eight this season.

Selected sixth overall in 2020, the young Drysdale never returned to junior hockey, splitting his first year between the NHL and AHL because of the canceled OHL season. A brilliant skater with an excellent sense for breaking the puck out of his own end, this season was supposed to be spent developing the rest of his game, even if the Ducks weren’t going to contend.

Instead, he’ll spend it recovering from major surgery, and hoping that it doesn’t significantly hinder his overall development. Missing time at this age can often have many longer-reaching implications.

Without him in the lineup, the Ducks played with seven defensemen last night but gave Colton White just six minutes of ice time. John Klingberg, meanwhile, saw more than 26 as the top right-handed option.

Laurent Brossoit Sent To AHL On Conditioning Loan

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The goaltending issues that the Vegas Golden Knights were expected to face when Robin Lehner was ruled out for the season have certainly not materialized. The duo of Adin Hill and Logan Thompson have been almost perfect, posting a combined save percentage of .941 through ten games.

Hill, acquired from the San Jose Sharks for a fourth-round pick before the season began, is 4-0 and has allowed just seven goals on 123 shots. Thompson, the de facto starter, leads the league with two shutouts in his first six games.

With those two playing at such a high level, it will make for an interesting decision when Laurent Brossoit is healthy enough to play again. The veteran netminder took a step toward that goal today when he was loaned to the Henderson Silver Knights on a long-term injury conditioning stint. Brossoit is coming off hip surgery and there is no concrete timeline for his return to NHL action.

A LTIR conditioning loan is usually limited to three games or six days, though it can be extended in certain circumstances. When it is over, Brossoit does not necessarily need to be activated.

Remember, the Golden Knights are also right up against the cap, meaning activating Brossoit will be a tricky game for the team to play. They will likely have to reduce their roster to fewer than 23 players, plus figure out what to do with their three goaltenders. Brossoit himself might end up on waivers, or even traded, given the performance of Hill and Thompson so far.

That bridge doesn’t have to be crossed yet, but if he proves himself healthy enough to return, it’s coming soon.

Wyatt Johnston Will Stay In NHL

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As we approach the ten-game mark for many teams, decisions will have to be made on young players who are still slide-eligible. That designation means that if they spend the year outside of the NHL, they will not burn a season off their entry-level contract, effectively extending their time as an inexpensive option. For Wyatt Johnston, a return to junior isn’t in the cards. The young forward has done enough to convince Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill to keep him around, confirming yesterday’s report from Jeff Marek of Sportsnet. Notably, Nill did explain that they could return Johnston later in the year if necessary.

For some front offices, the 40-game mark is actually more important for a young player. It is at that point that the season is considered a full year of service time in regard to unrestricted free agent status. That is to say, if Johnston plays more than 40 games this year, he’ll be one year closer to hitting the open market.

Still, with how well he has played so far, this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. After completely dominating the OHL last season, winning the league’s Most Outstanding Player trophy, the Most Sportsmanlike trophy, the scoring race, and the playoff scoring race, it was clear that he was ready for professional hockey. Because of the CHL-NHL agreement, that couldn’t be in the AHL, as Johnston is still only 19. So when the decision is between sending him back to a league where he scored 165 points in 93 games, or keeping him in the NHL, the team would be looking for a reason to keep him at the highest level.

Johnston has provided that reason, scoring three goals and four points in nine games while averaging just over 14 minutes a night. He’s overmatched in the faceoff circle as many young forwards are, and there are some rough edges that still need to be polished on his overall game. But there is oodles of talent in the 2021 first-round pick (23rd overall), and enough maturity to stick around.

Notably, he has averaged more even-strength ice time than players like Roope Hintz, Denis Gurianov, and Jamie Benn, showing just how much confidence head coach Peter DeBoer has in the young forward. The Stars are transitioning to a new wave of talent and now sit first in the Central Division – though that could change over the next little while with Jake Oettinger’s injury. It appears as though they’re willing to let Johnston learn on the job, and make his junior days a thing of the past.

Jake Oettinger To Be Re-Evaluated In A Week

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The Dallas Stars have lost young star goaltender Jake Oettinger for the next little while, after he pulled himself out of Saturday’s game. General manager Jim Nill told reporters including Saad Yousuf of The Athletic that Oettinger will be re-evaluated in a week’s time for the lower-body injury he is dealing with.

Now, the Stars face a difficult issue. The team cannot recall Anton Khudobin without making a significant cap move, like putting Oettinger on long-term injured reserve. The only other two netminders signed to NHL contracts are Adam Scheel and Remi Poirier, who both are playing in the ECHL. Matthew Murray, Khudobin’s partner, is signed to an AHL contract and would have to be signed to an NHL deal in order to be recalled. None of the three has any NHL experience.

That mean’s it is the Scott Wedgewood show, for the time being, something that would’ve been difficult to predict when he was being claimed off waivers by the Arizona Coyotes almost exactly a year ago. While Wedgewood has shown an ability to play at the NHL level in the past, he only actually has 80 appearances and is 0-2-1 this season with an .880 save percentage.

These in-between injuries – ones that don’t keep a player out for more than ten games, thus removing the possibility of LTIR – have become increasingly difficult for some teams to deal with, given cap constraints. As clubs continue to push their salary chart right up to the cap ceiling, they remove any room for in-season maneuvering.

For Oettinger, it’s a difficult break during what was shaping up to be his true breakout season. After starring in last year’s playoffs, he had an incredible .952 save percentage so far, only allowing nine goals on 186 shots. Hopefully the 23-year-old will be able to quickly recover from this injury and get back in the net to continue his early Vezina contention.

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