Western Notes: Brodie, Faulk, Grubauer, Prout
Doctors are still trying to find the cause for Calgary Flames defenseman T.J. Brodie‘s collapse during practice Thursday at the Saddledome, and while there still is no answer, according to Calgary Sun’s Wes Gilbertson, many of the worst-case scenarios have already been ruled out.
“All tests that have been done to date have come back negative,” said Calgary general manager Brad Treliving. “We’re not going to leave any stone unturned in terms of the tests we go through, and there is no set timetable for TJ’s return. We’ll just go through the process and check every box and make sure we administer every test. But there is good news in that he has come through everything thus far and is doing well, feeling good and is on the mend.”
He will remain out for the time being until the team has a better understanding on why he collapsed.
- In his most recent mailbag, The Athletic’s Jeremy Rutherford (subscription required) suggests that it’s far too early to look at the disappointing numbers of St. Louis Blues defenseman Justin Faulk and suggest his acquisition was a mistake. Rutherford admits that his numbers are down from his numbers when he played for the Carolina Hurricanes, however he needs time to adjust to new teammates and a Craig Berube‘s new system. “He’s been fine,” Berube said Thursday. “It takes time for a guy that’s been one place his whole career and he’s moved. It’s not going to happen overnight. We’ve got to be patient and I think we have been patient. He’s played pretty well, though. He doesn’t have a goal, but he’s been shooting the puck. One or two will go in and that will change things.”
- With two minor league goaltenders on their roster, The Athletic’s Ryan S. Clark reports that goaltender Philipp Grubauer is progressing by the day. Grubauer practiced once again, but the scribe reports that this was the first practice that saw him play at full strength. Head coach Jared Bednar also noted that backup Pavel Francouz remains in concussion protocol, although the goalie claims he’s feeling better. Clark also adds that forward Tyson Jost remains day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
- Despite returning and appearing in two games with the San Jose Sharks, the Mercury News’ Curtis Pashelka reports that defenseman Dalton Prout is out again with an upper-body injury and no timeline has been set for when he might return. Prout appeared in two games, going scoreless, but adding seven penalty minutes, while adding a much needed veteran presence at the bottom of their defensive lineup.
Snapshots: Brodie, Luongo, Vande Sompel
There was a frightening moment at Calgary Flames practice today when defenseman T.J. Brodie collapsed and started convulsing on the ice. Paramedics were called to the rink and Brodie was transported to hospital. He was “alert and responsive” according to the team, and has been discharged. A further update is expected on Friday morning.
Everyone in the hockey world is hoping for a speedy recovery for the veteran defenseman.
- When Roberto Luongo took a job with the Florida Panthers, questions started being raised about the cap recapture penalties that his retirement had caused earlier this summer. The Panthers and Vancouver Canucks are currently dealing with cap penalties because of the structure of Luongo’s contract, but Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic (subscription required) reports that there will be no relief given now that he is employed by Florida once again. Both teams and the league addressed the issue before the hiring and determined that it was not cap circumvention in any way. LeBrun goes on to examine the other potential recapture situations around the league.
- While providing updates on several of his injured players, New York Islanders Lou Lamoriello told reporters today that Mitch Vande Sompel will likely be out for the entire season. Vande Sompel suffered an injury in training camp when he crashed into the net and has been on season-opening injured reserve all year. The 22-year old defenseman scored 31 points in 70 games for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers last season and was an up-and-coming prospect for the Islanders.
Minor Transactions: 11/07/19
The NHL schedule is packed with action tonight as 22 of the league’s teams take the ice. Among them are the Colorado Avalanche who will try to right the ship against a division rival, and the New York Islanders who will go for an 11th-straight win against the Pittsburgh Penguins. As teams prepare for the action, we’ll be right here keeping track of all the minor moves.
- The Boston Bruins have recalled Zachary Senyshyn and Peter Cehlarik from the minor leagues before their game tomorrow night. Senyshyn had two assists in his first game of the season on Tuesday despite playing just under 11 minutes. The 22-year old forward is finally getting a chance to show what he can do at the NHL level.
- As expected, the Vegas Golden Knights have recalled both Nicolas Roy and Nicolas Hague from the minor leagues. The team had sent them down to save some cap space while they were between games.
- The same was true with the Islanders, who today recalled Seth Helgeson and Otto Koivula once again. Koivula is still waiting to make his NHL debut, but is at least making an NHL salary whenever he spends a day with the big club.
- Brandon Davidson is back in the NHL, this time with the Calgary Flames. The 28-year old defenseman has been recalled by the team to replace Oliver Kylington, who has been sent back to continue his development. Davidson has 162 NHL games under his belt, but hasn’t been a regular for several years.
- Adam Werner has been recalled by the Colorado Avalanche as an extra goalie while Philipp Grubauer was missing from practice today. The team has yet to give an explanation, but Pavel Francouz appears to be the starter for the time being.
Calgary’s Milan Lucic Suspended Two Games for Roughing
The Department of Player Safety announced that they have suspended Calgary Flames forward Milan Lucic two games for roughing Columbus Blue Jackets’ Kole Sherwood on Saturday.
Sherwood drove to the net during the second period and took a shot that was saved by Calgary’s goaltender David Rittich. After making the save, Sherwood poked at the goaltenders’ pads for which he received a two-minute slashing penalty. However, Lucic didn’t let the play end there. After slashing Sherwood’s stick away, Lucic then skated over to Sherwood, dropped his stick and punched the rookie forward, knocking him to the ground. Lucic did not make it clear that he intended to punch him, making it clearly a sucker punch.
This is the biggest suspension that Lucic has received. While he’s been involved in a number of incidents over the years, he has been suspended only twice, each for one game. He was last suspended in 2016 for punching Arizona’s Kevin Connauton and then was also suspended in 2011 for checking Philadelphia’s Zac Rinaldo. He was fined $10K last season for roughing Tampa Bay’s Mathieu Joseph.
The suspension kicks in immediately as he is expected to miss tonight’s game against in Washington, against the Capitals and then at home against Arizona on Tuesday.
Pacific Notes: Sharks Roster, Lucic, Larsson, Richardson
With a drastically poor start, the San Jose Sharks find themselves at the bottom of the Pacific Division 4-10-1 record, tied for the second-worst record in the NHL. That wasn’t what most people expected at the start of the season and Curtis Pashelka of the Mercury News wonders when change might start happening if the team doesn’t quickly turn things around.
The team is currently in the midst of dropping five straight and being outscored 22-8 in that span. The scribe writes that while the Sharks haven’t had too many poor starts in the last 15 years, general manager Doug Wilson hasn’t sat and watched often. The team made some small moves to shake things up in 2015 when they started 0-5-1, but also made bigger moves back in 2005 when they went out and acquired Joe Thornton to shake up the team.
Now word what Wilson might do now, but the team likely will make some smaller roster moves to start. Assuming he stays healthy during his AHL game Sunday, the Sharks are likely to recall defenseman Radim Simek and place him next to Brent Burns, moving rookie Mario Ferraro next to Marc-Edouard Vlasic. The team may also recall rookie Lean Bergmann, who has looked sharp in four games with the Barracuda with three goals and three assists, and could help the team’s fourth line.
However, if things don’t start to improve soon, don’t be surprised if Wilson begins to make major changes to the roster. Also of note, the Sharks do not have their first-round pick this year as they traded it to the Ottawa Senators for Erik Karlsson back in 2018.
- NHL.com’s John Shannon reports that Calgary Flames winger Milan Lucic, who hit Columbus Blue Jackets’ forward Kole Sherwood late on a play, already had his hearing today. There has been no word on the league’s decision yet, which could come later today, but Shannon mentions that Lucic is not considered to be a repeat offender. He was last suspended in 2016, although he was fined last year. That will likely be considered by the league when they make their decision.
- Kurt Leavins of the Edmonton Journal writes that Edmonton Oilers defenseman Adam Larsson, who suffered a fractured fibula after playing in just one games this season, is now skating and could be back in two or three weeks. Larsson, the team’s best defensive defenseman, was projected to miss six to eight weeks after suffering the injury.
- The Arizona announced earlier today they have recalled Michael Chaput to take the place of injured forward Brad Richardson. However, The Athletic’s Craig Morgan reports that to make room for Chaput, the Coyotes have placed Richardson on injured reserve, retroactive to his injury date, which means he can be activated whenever he is ready.
Travis Hamonic Will Not Negotiate Extension During Season
The Calgary Flames are off to a slow start this season, allowing 39 goals in 13 games. If that continues they’ll have some tough decisions to make with their current defense core, as both Travis Hamonic and T.J. Brodie are set to become unrestricted free agents after the season. According to Darren Dreger of TSN on the latest installment of Insider Trading, any discussions there have been with Hamonic are now over; the defenseman will not negotiate during the season.
Just like general managers that state they won’t trade a certain player, sometimes agents and players are bluffing when they shut down negotiations as well. If that’s not the case with Hamonic, he could very well become a top trade deadline target given his relatively low cap hit and expiring contract. The 29-year old carries just a $3.86MM cap hit, a reasonable amount for almost any team looking to add defensive help.
Obviously Calgary may decide to keep Hamonic and attempt to re-sign him in the offseason, but even that may prove difficult due to Brodie’s presence and the cap situation the team finds themselves in. The Flames will have some money coming off the books at the end of the year but also have to consider a new contract for young defenseman Rasmus Andersson and a potential extension for David Rittich down the line.
Hamonic isn’t a big offensive presence on the blueline, but has been considered one of the better shutdown options for years now. The right-handed defenseman now has 600 regular season games under his belt and is logging close to 22 minutes a night for the Flames. That includes more than four minutes of short-handed ice time, something teams are always looking to improve at the deadline.
Tobias Rieder Placed On Waivers
Tuesday: According to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, Rieder has cleared waivers and can be assigned to the minor leagues.
Monday: The Calgary Flames have decided to place Tobias Rieder on waivers, according to James Mirtle of The Athletic. Rieder has just one goals and zero assists in nine games this season, after signing a one-year, two-way contract with the Flames in September.
Even though Rieder hasn’t been quite the offensive catalyst the team may have hoped for, this move reeks of cap implications more than performance. The Flames in the midst of a delicate cap ceiling dance thanks to injuries, and getting another player through waivers would give them some flexibility. Should Rieder clear tomorrow he could be shuttled back and forth between the NHL and AHL for quite some time, as players don’t need waivers again until they have played in ten NHL games or spent 30 days on the NHL roster.
Still, that lack of offensive production is still concerning for a player that struggled so mightily last season. Rieder was infamously unable to score a single goal for the Edmonton Oilers in 67 games, leading to plenty of frustration from the team leadership.
After earning a contract after skating with the Flames on a professional tryout, there was some hope that Rieder could get back to the level that had him recording double-digit goal totals in four consecutive seasons between 2014-18. This latest move may be a sign that he isn’t ever going to be an impact player for the Flames, though there perhaps will be another team that believes they could use him.
Winnipeg’s Lowry To Have Hearing With Department Of Player Safety
The Department of Player Safety announced that Winnipeg Jets forward Adam Lowry will have a hearing Monday for boarding Calgary’s Oliver Kylington.
The incident happened in Calgary’s zone at the end of the second period during the Jets’ 2-1 overtime victory at the outdoor Heritage Classic at Mosaic Stadium Saturday evening. Once time expired in the second period, Lowry put his shoulder right into Kylington’s head (video here). The 26-year-old received a two-minute minor for boarding, while Kylington seemed to escape any major injury as he returned and played in the third period.
Lowry has had issues with behavior before. He was suspended two games back in March of 2019 for cross-checking Nashville’s Filip Forsberg. He also received a one-game suspension in his rookie season in 2014 for boarding Buffalo’s Patrick Kaleta.
Austin Czarnik Placed On LTIR
Saturday: Head coach Bill Peters told reporters including Sportsnet 960’s Pat Steinberg that Czarnik’s injury is a significant one. He pegs a potential return timeline around Christmas which means that Czarnik would be out for two months.
Friday: The Calgary Flames have placed Austin Czarnik on long-term injured reserve after he suffered a lower-body injury last night against the Florida Panthers. That means Czarnik will have to miss at least 10 games or 24 days. The team has recalled Alan Quine from the AHL’s Stockton Heat in the meantime.
It is unfortunate timing for Czarnik, who had points in three straight games and had carved out a bigger role for himself in Calgary. The 26-year old forward played in 54 games for the Flames last season after signing a two-year, $2.5MM deal in free agency, but was obviously hoping to be a more integral part of the team this time around.
The Flames are in a delicate dance with the cap ceiling, but moving Czarnik to long-term injured reserve will actually give them a little more flexibility—at least for now.
Minor Transactions: 10/22/19
The NHL has a wild Tuesday night on tap with ten games on the schedule, including the Anaheim Ducks traveling to Nashville to prove they’re not just an early-season mirage. The Ducks are off to a 6-3 record to start the year, while the Predators, considered by many to be a Stanley Cup contender in the Western Conference, have recorded a more pedestrian 4-3-1 record through their first eight games. As teams prepare for all the action tonight, we’ll be here keeping track of all the minor moves around the hockey world.
- Griffin Reinhart has signed a one-year deal with Kunlun Red Star of the KHL according to Igor Eronko of Sport-Express. While that certainly wouldn’t have been included in the minor notes a few years ago when Reinhart was a top prospect, he can no longer be considered one. Selected fourth overall in 2012, the 25-year old defenseman has played just 37 games at the NHL level, not many of them very well. He recorded 16 points in 75 games for the Chicago Wolves last season and had skated with the Belleville Senators this year on a professional tryout.
- The Calgary Flames have flipped Oliver Kylington and Alan Quine again, recalling the former while assigning the latter to the minor leagues. The Flames are expected to welcome back Andrew Mangiapane tonight, meaning they didn’t have room for the extra forward.
- After placing Jonathan Ericsson on waivers, the Detroit Red Wings made a few other transactions. Evgeny Svechnikov has been recalled, while Alex Biega was assigned to the Grand Rapids Griffins. Adam Erne has also been placed on injured reserve, retroactive to October 18th.
- The Dallas Stars have sent Rhett Gardner and Joel Hanley back to the minor leagues, though that is likely more to do with banking cap space than anything else. The Stars do not play again until Thursday, and a recall can be expected before then unless Roman Polak and Blake Comeau are both ready to return.