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Jaromir Jagr Ties Mark Messier For Second-Most Points

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Jaromir Jagr played his first NHL game on October 5, 1990 in Washington. He scored the first goal and point of his Hall of Fame career two nights later at home versus the New Jersey Devils.

So far, 766 players have played in the NHL this season. Just 455 of those, or 58%, were born before the end of 1990. Jagr has played against players born from 1951 (Guy Lafleur) to 1998 (Patrik Laine). Yet he’s still here, and reached an incredible milestone on Tuesday night: Jagr is now tied with Mark Messier for second all-time in NHL scoring.

With three assists against the Sabres, Jagr now has 755 goals, 1,132 assists, and 1,887 points. That’s 524 points more than the next highest active player, Joe Thornton. The 45-year-old Jagr is now playing in his twenty-third NHL season, and has played for eight teams.

The new top five for all-time points looks like this, until Jagr gets his next:

1. Wayne Gretzky – 2,857 points in 1487 games
T2. Jaromir Jagr – 1,887 points in 1662 games
T2. Mark Messier – 1,887 points in 1756 games
3. Gordie Howe – 1,850 points in 1767 games
4. Ron Francis – 1,798 points in 1731 games
5. Marcel Dionne – 1,771 points in 1348 games

Jagr has said that he wants to play until he’s at least 50-years-old. Should he average 50 points from now until then, he would end up in the neighborhood of 2,150 points. While he would still be 700 points behind Gretzky, he would be the first, and likely only NHLer to ever surpass Gretzky’s assist total. The first years of fantasy hockey pools had a rule: no one could take Gretzky, it was either his goals or his assists. That rule was there for a good reason, as Gretzky still has more assists than any other player in history has points, with 1,963. TSN’s Frank Seravelli wrote that Jagr would need to start another Hall of Fame career to even come close to Gretzky, but says “finishing second only to Gretzky, though, is sort of like being first among the rest of the nearly 6,000 other mere mortals to play in the NHL.”

While it may seem like a longshot for anyone to play until the age of 50, Jagr is still having fun. He’s brought back his legendary mullet from the 1990s and is still one of the most dedicated players in the league when it comes to staying in shape. He once told Sportsnet Magazine:

“The time between when I quit hockey and I die, I want it to be the shortest. It’s not going to be as exciting, that time. So as long as I can play, that’s what I’m doing. If I can play ’til I die, that’s what I will do. What else are you gonna do?”

Atlantic Notes: Drouin, Khudobin, Vatrano, Panthers

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After a slow start to the season, Lightning left winger Jonathan Drouin has picked up his scoring at the right time, writes Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times.  After a slow start to the season with three goals in his first 17 games, Drouin has scored four times in the last seven contests while picking up a total of eight points over that span.

With injuries to four players up front, Drouin has been thrust into a top role, something he has been craving dating back to last year when he left the team midseason in the hopes of a trade.  (Among the injured players, right winger Ryan Callahan is expected to return during their current road trip while left winger Ondrej Palat hasn’t been ruled out of Tuesday’s game in Detroit.)

Drouin is a restricted free agent at the end of the season as he is in the final season of his entry-level deal.  His career numbers haven’t been too impressive for a former third overall pick (back in 2013) but if he can keep up this type of production on a more consistent basis, it would go a long way towards helping his case for a long-term contract this offseason.

More from the Atlantic Division:

  • The Bruins have not received the type of goaltending they were expected when they brought back Anton Khudobin to back up Tuukka Rask. He has just one win in six starts with a 3.20 GAA and a .886 SV%.  In a reader mailbag, CSN New England’s Joe Haggerty suggests that Khudobin may get another start or two to try to turn things around but if he continues to struggle, they should consider bringing back Zane McIntyre before looking outside the organization.  McIntyre didn’t have the best of starts to his career in a pair of games earlier this year but has been simply stellar in the minors with a 1.31 GAA and a .953 SV% in nine games, numbers that suggest he’s worthy of another look before too long.
  • Still with Boston, the team announced that they have recalled left winger Frank Vatrano from their AHL affiliate in Providence. The 22 year old has yet to play in the NHL this season after undergoing foot surgery in late September.  He got into a pair of games in the minors over the weekend, scoring twice.  Vatrano had 36 goals in just 36 AHL games last year, leading the league in that category despite playing in less than half the games and is an intriguing addition to a lineup that is looking for some secondary offense.
  • With Panthers owner Vinnie Viola being named as Secretary of the Army by U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump, alternate governor Doug Cifu will take over as the chairman and governor for the team, notes George Richards of the Miami Herald. Ownership of the team will remain in the Viola family but will be placed into a trust, subject to the approval of the Board of Governors, the team adds in a press release.

Jackets Place Campbell On Unconditional Waivers

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Today happens to be Gregory Campbell’s 33rd birthday and the Columbus Blue Jackets may have just given him a welcome present. According to Aaron Portzline of The Columbus Dispatch (Twitter link), the Blue Jackets have placed the veteran center on unconditional waivers. Per Portzline, assuming Campbell clears, as he likely will, he would become an unrestricted free agent.

Earlier this season, Columbus waived Campbell with the intent of sending him down to their AHL affiliate in Cleveland. However, once he cleared waivers, the 12-year veteran informed the club he would not report to Cleveland and he was suspended by the Blue Jackets without pay. Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen had tried to trade Campbell prior to placing him on waivers but was unable to find a taker.

Since refusing assignment to Cleveland, Campbell has been working out on his own and waiting for his next opportunity. It now appears as if is that opportunity could be near at hand.

Campbell was in the final season of a two-year deal he inked with the Jackets in the summer of 2015. He was slated to make $1.3MM in salary and would have accounted for $1.5MM against Columbus’ cap had he not been suspended. If a team should place a claim on the 33-year-old center, they would assume the prorated portion of his salary.

Prior to joining Columbus, Campbell played five seasons for the Bruins, where he developed a reputation as a solid fourth-line pivot and quality penalty killer. It’s possible a club looking for depth in its bottom-six and/or some help on the penalty kill will take a chance on Campbell once he officially reaches free agency.

Campbell scored three goals and 11 points while suiting up for all 82 games with Columbus in 2015-16. For his career, he has registered 187 regular season points in 803 games and another 13 in 59 postseason contests. He won a Stanley Cup while with Boston in the 2010-11 campaign.

Snapshots: Capitals, Senators, Bruins

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News and notes from around the NHL this morning:

  • The Washington Capitals have recalled Zach Sanford from the AHL Hershey Bears with no corresponding reassignment. Sanford struggled in his first stint with the Capitals, earning just one assist in 19 games. He then turned it around in the AHL, however, and scored 4G and 3A in six games for Hershey. The Capitals hope to take advantage of Sanford’s newfound production as they play the Montreal Canadiens tonight. The move leaves Washington with just $237 (yes, two hundred and thirty-seven dollars) in cap space today.
  • The Ottawa Senators have recalled Casey Bailey from the Binghamton Senators to replace suspended forward Mike Hoffman, reports Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun. Hoffman is serving a two-game suspension for crosschecking San Jose Sharks’ Logan Couture on Wednesday night. Bailey, his replacement, is having a decent year in Binghamton, scoring 9G and 5A in 25 games. This will be Bailey’s first taste of NHL action since playing six games for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2014-15.
  • The Boston Bruins announced that forward David Pastrnak underwent the successful removal of his olecranon bursa from his right elbow yesterday. Pastrnak will miss both Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Kings and Tuesday’s game against the New York Islanders. The Bruins are no stranger to “popeye elbow” as David Backes also missed time with the same ailment. If Backes’s recovery period is any indication, Pastrnak will be out of commission for approximately two weeks. The young forward is having a breakout season this year, scoring 19G and 7A in 27 games for the Bruins and is 2nd in team scoring.

Injury Updates: Crawford, Palat, Kucherov, Vatrano, Honka

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Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford underwent an emergency appendectomy back on December 3rd and it was said then that he was likely to miss two-to-three weeks as a result. Thirteen days later, the 31-year-old is back on the ice skating with his team, reports Tracy Myers of CSN Chicago. Myers adds that Crawford also took some shots today and head coach Joel Quenneville is waiting to see how their #1 net minder is doing when the team returns home from their current road trip.

The team has fared pretty well in Crawford’s absence. After dropping his first two games, Crawford’s understudy, Scott Darling, has won four of his last five starts, allowing just six goals during that time. He is likely at this point to get the call in both of Chicago’s weekend games, at St. Louis on Saturday and in Chicago against the Sharks on Sunday.

Elsewhere on the injury front:

  • Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times reports that the Lightning will be without forwards Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov for tonight and likely for the team’s game tomorrow as well (Twitter link). Additionally, Ryan Callahan is not going to play tonight as Tampa Bay travels to Vancouver to take on the Canucks. In a follow-up tweet, Smith adds that Palat is considered day-to-day while Kucherov has not been placed on IR, suggesting he is also day-to-day. While it’s never a good thing to be without three regular forwards, even if it’s just for a game or two, a prolonged absence of Kucherov would be especially bad news for the Lightning. The fourth-year winger leads the team in both goals (13) and points (30) this season and also topped the club in scoring last season. Palat has tallied 13 points in 30 games for Tampa Bay, while Callahan has added just four points in an injury-marred campaign for the gritty veteran winger.
  • Frank Vatrano, who has been out since September with a foot injury, was activated by Boston and assigned to Providence of the AHL, according to Joe Haggerty of CSNNE. Haggerty states that the young winger needs to play to get back up to speed. Vatrano exploded on the scene as a prospect last year after registering 36 goals in just 36 AHL games and earned his first call up to Boston. While not as successful in the NHL, Vatrano did net eight goals in 39 games for the Bruins, demonstrating the ability to be a solid performer at this level.
  • Finally, the Dallas Stars activated defenseman Julius Honka from IR and reassigned the young Finn to Texas of the AHL, the team announced today. Honka had missed the last five games with an upper-body injury. The team’s first-round draft choice in 2014, the 21-year-old blue liner made his NHL debut this season and in eight games recorded three points. In 16 contests earlier this year with Texas, Honka tallied three goals and 12 points. Dallas already has a roster full of capable NHL defensemen, leading one to wonder when or if the team will recall Honka, as some have suggested the constant shuffling on the back end has contributed in part to the Stars struggles this season.

Snapshots: Bruins, Maple Leafs, Oilers

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News and notes from around the NHL this evening:

  • Boston Bruins defenseman Kevan Miller is out tonight with the flu, the team announced. Colin Miller will replace him in the lineup.  The flu bug is common this time of year, with Miller joining notable NHLers Nick Foligno and Ryan McDonagh among those sidelined recently because of the flu. Teams take strict care when dealing with players with the flu because the virus’s high contagiousness could wreak havoc on a hockey team sharing close quarters. Meanwhile, coach Claude Julien said that Anton Blidh will draw into the lineup tonight, skating on the fourth line. Blidh, who was called up this morning from the Providence Bruins, has 1 assist in four games for Boston, but 6G and 4A in 21 games for Providence.
  • Toronto Maple Leafs forward—and 2015 1st overall draft pick—Auston Matthews plays his first game against his hometown Arizona Coyotes tonight. Matthews was raised in Scottsdale, Arizona after his family moved there from California when he was small. The American-born forward represents a new wave of American NHLers and is seen as a successful product of the NHL’s sunbelt expansion.
  • The Edmonton Oilers recalled AHL point leader Taylor Beck from the Bakersfield Condors today. They reassigned Anton Slepyshev to make room for Beck, and hope that his offense bolsters an already stacked forward unit. Beck has 9G and 21A in 19 games for the Condors, and many wondered why this move hadn’t come sooner. As for Slepyshev, the Russian forward has struggled with the big club, scoring only 2G and 2A in 15 games so far this season.

Peter Mueller To Sign AHL Deal With Bruins

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After signing a PTO earlier this summer, Peter Mueller will sign an AHL contract with the Providence Bruins for the remainder of the season, according to Mark Divver of the Providence Journal. He also expects Matt Bartkowski to do the same before tomorrow.

Mueller had been playing with Providence on the tryout contract and showed he still has something to give in North American hockey, scoring 14 points in 19 games. The former eighth overall pick has spent the last three seasons in Europe, racking up points in Switzerland and Sweden waiting for an opportunity back home. The world-junior star flamed out of the NHL spectacularly after putting up 54 points as a rookie in 2007-08. Health, consistency and work ethic were all questions he needed to answer, and perhaps he’s done just that this season.

If Mueller has indeed rediscovered what made him such a top prospect, the Bruins may have stumbled into a future NHL piece by giving him a tryout. At just 28-years old still, he still has plenty of youth left for a renaissance in his career.

Bartkowski, a veteran NHL defenseman who played in 80 games for the Vancouver Canucks last season, is a solid piece for the baby-Bruins on the back end. Capable of playing in both ends of the rink, Bartkowski has seven points and 23 PIM in 18 games this season. Still just 28, Bartkowski represents another depth addition to the Bruins system that essentially has cost them nothing to this point.

Roster Moves: Leighton, Andrighetto, Blidh

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Michael Leighton is both the starting goaltender for the Charlotte Checkers, and backup for the Carolina Hurricanes. After coming in to relieve Cam Ward on Tuesday, Leighton was sent down for just one day to make the start last night in Charlotte. He fared much better in the AHL match, stopping 33 of 35 shots en route to an overtime win.

Leighton has played in 15 games between the two levels this year, and actually has the best save percentage of his AHL career thus far at .933. While he hasn’t fared as well in the NHL, he’s given the team a veteran option at both levels while Eddie Lack works his way back from a concussion and Alex Nedeljkovic struggles through his first professional season.

  • The Montreal Canadiens have made another few moves, bringing Sven Andrighetto and Mark Barberio up for another stint with the NHL team. Both players have spent time with the Canadiens this season, and will now get another chance to impress. Andrighetto, the younger of the two, is still considered a prospect in Montreal circles despite playing in more than half a season a year ago. Just 23-years old, he put up 17 points in 44 games for the Canadiens a year ago and will look to contribute offensively again. Both players are off to wonderful starts in the AHL, with 22 and 19 points respectively. At a point-per-game pace, Barberio is showing that he may deserve more than the occasional callup.
  • In Boston, the club has made a swap, calling up Anton Blidh and sending Danton Heinen back to the AHL. Blidh, 21, has played four games for Boston this season, just a year after making the trip to North America. After playing in the Swedish leagues as a teenager, Blidh came over to spend an entire season in Providence last year, registering 14 points in 65 games. Off to a nice start this season with 10 in 21, he’ll likely resume his role on the fourth line with the NHL club. Heinen, 21, has played in eight games for the Bruins this season, registering zero points but logging a fair bit of icetime including a few looks on the powerplay. The former University of Denver Pioneer signed with the Bruins late last season and has scored 15 points in 15 career AHL games.

Boston Bruins Place Matt Beleskey On IR, Recall Matt Grzelcyk

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The Boston Bruins have added another rookie to their ranks today, calling up Matt Grzelcyk from Providence. The 22-year old defenseman will join the team in Pittsburgh for tonight’s game, the first of a back-to-back. The team has placed Matt Beleskey on injured reserve to make room, after the winger was given a six-week diagnosis for his right knee injury.

Grzelcyk (pronounced Grizz-lick) was the Bruins third-round pick in 2012 but decided to attend Boston University for four seasons where he flourished as a smooth skating powerplay quarterback. At almost a point-per-game pace in his university years, he joined the Providence team this season and has fit right in. 12 points in 25 games has earned him a callup. It’s not clear where he’ll fit in on the back end as the Bruins were already carrying seven defensemen.

If he gets into a game, it’ll be another entry in the under-six-foot club this season for the NHL. As the game goes further away from bruising physical play, speed and puck skills have come to the forefront. While Grzelcyk is by no means tiny, his smaller frame would have been looked over in decades past. Now, we’ll see if his skating ability will let him transition to the NHL level well enough to stick around for a while. The Bruins have already turned a similarly sized Torey Krug into one of the best young defensemen in the league.

Comparative Standings: One Year Ago

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With the first third of the season completed for all but Columbus (who have amazingly played just 26 games, six fewer than the Winnipeg Jets), there have been some huge swings from a year ago.

Those Blue Jackets are the league’s most improved team, with a staggering 18 more points through 26 games than last season. Their huge swing is only matched by the Dallas Stars equally amazing drop-off of 18 points the other way. The Jackets can attest their improvement to the development of young players like Zach Werenski and Alexander Wennberg, while the Stars have seen a litany of injuries to their star players including Jason Spezza, Patrick Sharp and Johnny Oduya.

The Central Division as a whole is off to a slower start this year, with only the Chicago Blackhawks bettering their 2015-16 record. The Colorado Avalanche, expected to take a step forward with their young core has suffered the exact same fate with 23 points through 27 games.

The two biggest Canadian rebuild stories, Edmonton and Toronto have both improved, though not as largely as the fan bases in each city might have you believe. Four points for the Maple Leafs and five for the Oilers lend credence to the idea that it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish that counts. Though both franchises have a lot to look forward to, keeping up an advanced pace for an entire season is extremely difficult. The two teams finished last season with just 69 and 70 points respectively.

Below are the current standings. In parenthesis is the difference in points through the same amount of games last year.

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