Avalanche’s Jared Bednar To Miss Two Games With Injury
The Colorado Avalanche will be without head coach Jared Bednar for their upcoming two-game road trip as Bednar recovers from facial fractures and a corneal abrasion, per a team announcement.
Bednar will not require surgery and is expected to make a full recovery. The 54-year-old was struck by a puck during yesterday’s contest against the Vegas Golden Knights. While he is away from the team, Avalanche assistant coaches Nolan Pratt and Dave Hakstol will handle Bednar’s coaching duties.
At this time of year, injury-related absences are par for the course. But that’s typically a fact of life late in an NHL season that’s restricted to players – it’s far more rare for a coach to miss time as the result of injuries suffered during a game. But that’s exactly what has happened, although thankfully for all parties involved, the team made it clear that they expect Bednar to make a full recovery.
Bednar is in the midst of another stellar campaign as Avalanche head coach. The Saskatchewan native has been Colorado’s head coach since 2016, and has been in his position longer than any other coach in the NHL, save for Tampa Bay Lightning bench boss Jon Cooper.
While his tenure in Colorado began with a disastrous 22-56-4 campaign, he has since helped turn the Avalanche into one of the league’s most consistently dominant teams.
He hasn’t missed the playoffs since his rookie season behind the bench, and has gone 442-262-75 as Avalanche head coach overall. He is the franchise’s all-time winningest head coach and won the Stanley Cup in 2022.
Avalanche’s Valeri Nichushkin, Nicolas Roy Back From Injury
The Colorado Avalanche will have to shake up their lineup in Tuesday’s game against the St. Louis Blues. Forwards Valeri Nichushkin and Nicolas Roy are both set to return from their upper-body injuries per Corey Masisak of The Denver Post. Roy was knocked out of the lineup before March 24th’s win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was not clear when he sustained the injury, though head coach Jared Bednar emphasized that the team was being careful to not rush him back. Nichushkin sat out of Sunday’s loss to the Blues but has otherwise had a healthy stretch as of late.
The pair of additions will bring Colorado up to a fully healthy roster, except for one crucial piece. Star defenseman Cale Makar isn’t expected to return for “a few more games” Bednar told Masisak. Makar is still expected to return before the end of the season, which would set his return as one of Colorado’s three games next week.
Colorado will wield a fully-healthy offense, plus Trade Deadline additions Nazem Kadri and Roy, for the first time with this news. The top line of Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas, and Artturi Lehkonen is likely inseparable, which would leave Colorado’s middle-six as the housing for Roy and Nichushkin. The latter has spent much of the year alongside Gabriel Landeskog and Brock Nelson. The trio have recorded nine goals-for and six goals-against in their time together – but Kadri’s recent run of seven points in his last 10 games could force Colorado to bump him into the top-six. If it does, Nichushkin will move to Roy’s wing on the third line, likely across from Ross Colton.
That would bring some serious firepower to the Avalanche’s bottom-six. Nichushkin has scored 15 goals and 45 points in 66 games this season. That is a 56-point scoring pace across 82 games, a mark that would narrowly beat out Nichushkin’s career-high 53 points set in 54 games of the 2023-24 season. Roy has notched three goals, 13 penalty minutes, and a minus-two in nine games since joining the Avalanche at the Trade Deadline. The combination of skill and aggression between the pair could be a secret weapon as Colorado looks to make another deep run in the playoffs.
New York Islanders Fire Patrick Roy, Hire Peter DeBoer
The New York Islanders announced that head coach Patrick Roy has been relieved of his duties, and the team has hired former Dallas Stars head coach Peter DeBoer as his replacement. The move comes with four games remaining in the Islanders’ regular-season schedule.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that, unlike other recent mid-season coaching changes, such as the Columbus Blue Jackets’ hire of Rick Bowness and the Vegas Golden Knights’ hire of John Tortorella, this hire has not been made with just a one-year term. DeBoer’s contract to coach the Islanders includes multiple years. Specifically, DeBoer will reportedly be signed through the 2028-29 season per ESPN’s Emily Kaplan. This deal will align with Mathieu Darche’s GM contract. Roy had two years remaining on his deal as Islanders coach, per Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic.
Just one week ago, it looked as though the Islanders were on their way to the playoffs. New York won three games on its four-game homestand, and although a loss to the Chicago Blackhawks was deflating, a regulation win over the rival Blue Jackets gave the team a significant boost. New York sat second in the Metropolitan Division, three points clear of their closest out-of-the-playoffs division rival.
The Islanders have not won since that victory over the Panthers. They suffered an 8-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on March 30, paving the way for Pittsburgh to vault to the No. 2 spot in the division. They lost to the Buffalo Sabres the following day and have since dropped games to divisional rivals (Philadelphia and Carolina) on back-to-back days.
With playoff odds that once looked relatively certain, the Islanders have responded to a rapid, albeit relatively brief downturn in on-ice fortunes by making a coaching change. Their decision to swap coaches, likely in search of a spark to keep the team in a playoff position, is similar to the aforementioned decision by the Golden Knights to fire Bruce Cassidy in favor of John Tortorella.
Roy himself arrived in New York as part of an in-season coaching change. The 60-year-old, who was widely considered one of the greatest goalies of all time during his playing days, won the Jack Adams award as coach of the year in 2013-14. He went 20-12-5 in his first season with the Islanders, leading them to the playoffs, where they would fall in five games in the first round. The team took a step back last season, going 35-35-12, but appeared to have rebounded this season.
Fueled by star rookie Matthew Schaefer, the Islanders were one of the league’s resurgent organizations. Their prospect pool has significantly improved (rising from No. 25 in the NHL to No. 12 in just one year, according to The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler rankings), and, just a week ago, they looked poised to return to the playoffs after a one-year absence. But the last week has not been kind to the Islanders, as mentioned, and, with time running out to secure a playoff spot, they decided to swap coaches.
DeBoer comes in a little under a year after his tenure in Dallas came to a shocking end. The Stars reached the Western Conference Finals in all three seasons he was at the helm and compiled a 149-68-29 (.665) regular-season record, his best run with any of the five NHL teams he’s coached and the best regular-season record in the league from 2022 to 2025. Their inability to get past the third round, plus his decision to pull star goaltender Jake Oettinger after he allowed two goals on his first two shots faced in what became a season-ending Game 5 loss to the Oilers last year, ended up resulting in one of the more high-profile firings in recent memory. They waited to ultimately relieve him of his duties after all the other coaching vacancies last offseason had been filled, leading to him not being on an NHL bench for the first 95% of the season.
One could argue that DeBoer is the most accomplished active coach without a Stanley Cup ring. He has an exceptional record of deep playoff runs, particularly in his first couple of years with a club, and has reached a Conference Final in six of the last eight seasons. Despite the Isles now being his sixth team in the last 18 years, he’s been behind an NHL bench as head coach for at least one game every year since breaking into the league with the Panthers in 2008.
DeBoer’s 662 wins are 18th all-time, and he has a 662-447-152 (.525) lifetime record across 1,261 regular-season games with Florida, New Jersey, San Jose, Vegas, and Dallas. Only Barry Trotz had more experience as a new head coach hire in team history.
DeBoer now must correct a four-game losing streak in regulation to help the Isles recover. Their playoff odds had dropped to 31.4% ahead of today’s games, per MoneyPuck, with all the teams chasing them having one or multiple games in hand.
Image courtesy of James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images.
PHR’s Josh Erickson contributed significantly to this article.
Snapshots: Carrick, Yakemchuk, Berube
Buffalo Sabres spring acquisition Sam Carrick appeared to suffer a serious arm injury after fighting Anders Lee of the Islanders tonight, seen in a clip shared by Bleacher Report Open Ice.
Carrick dropped the mitts with Lee in retaliation after the Islanders captain delivered a hard hit on Buffalo’s Josh Norris. As he went down at the end of the scrap, he was immediately in serious pain. The center did not return, and with just seven regular season games on the schedule for the team after tonight, there’s a real possibility Buffalo has lost a key veteran for the playoffs.
Acquired on March 6 from the Rangers in exchange for a third and sixth rounder, Carrick has been a great fit with the Sabres. He has five goals in 12 games, of course not sustainable with a shooting percentage just under 28%. Even when that inevitably cools off, he’s winning 58.2% of his face-offs and killing penalties as a solid fourth line center right as advertised.
Also evident considering his willingness to take on a larger player in Lee for the sake of a teammate, Carrick plays a role any team needs in the playoffs. Especially a younger group, who will end a 15-year-long drought and enter uncharted territory.
The hope is that Carrick has somehow not suffered a season-ender, but if so, Joshua Dunne might have to step back in at a crucial time. Buffalo is back at it Thursday as they aim to put the keep their foot on the gas rolling into a potential run.
Elsewhere across the league:
- Senators defenseman Carter Yakemchuk suffered a concerning injury tonight as observed by Julian McKenzie of The Athletic. He sustained a hard hit from Florida’s Noah Gregor which was concentrated in the head area, and had trouble getting back up, eventually requiring help to get off the ice. Gregor was assessed a game misconduct. It was a tough night for the Sens as they lost convincingly to the bottom-feeding Panthers while in desperate need of points. Ottawa’s top prospect, Yakemchuk made his NHL debut one week ago today, getting a look especially as Jake Sanderson remains out. The 20-year-old burst onto the scene with a goal and an assist in his first game. As a righty, he fits perfectly into a well-assembled core from the other side for years to come. Ottawa hopes their youngster will be back by Thursday against Buffalo.
- Insider David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period said on yesterday’s edition of The Leafs Nation that head coach Craig Berube was likely not anticipating yesterday’s firing of general manager Brad Treliving. Pagnotta suspects that he hasn’t been told anything as to his future with the club. The 60-year-old has a contract which runs through 2027-28, but his Leafs tenure could be winding down, about to finish only his second season with the team, where he’s had an 84 – 56 – 17 record. Toronto’s constant turnover behind the bench needs to change, but it only makes sense for the team to start fresh this summer. Any new GM typically prefers bringing in their own selection, especially with some strong candidates available, headlined by Bruce Cassidy. Berube, known for leading the Blues to a remarkable run to a Stanley Cup in 2019, could also benefit from a new challenge with the Leafs sputtering despite his efforts.
Snapshots: Mantha, Granato, Rasmussen
Penguins winger Anthony Mantha has been a pleasant surprise this season, having a resurgent campaign. However, that’s now on hold for the time being as the team announced (Twitter link) that he’s listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury. The 31-year-old missed most of last year due to injury, allowing him to sign a one-year deal with incentives this season. He has made the most of it, tallying 26 goals and 27 assists in 71 games, setting new career highs across the board offensively. He has reached the first seven levels of his various games-played bonuses (totaling $1.75MM) but will need to play in nine of Pittsburgh’s 11 remaining games in order to receive an additional $250K, giving him some extra incentive to return quickly beyond their battle for a playoff spot in the tight Eastern Conference.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- Former Sabres head coach Don Granato is set to run a bench once again. USA Hockey announced that Granato has been named as their head coach for the upcoming World Championship. The 58-year-old led Buffalo to a 122-125-27 record over parts of four seasons before being dismissed following the 2023-24 campaign. This will be his first coaching opportunity since then. The tournament is set to run from May 15-31 in Switzerland.
- Red Wings center Michael Rasmussen has yet to resume skating as he continues to work his way back from an undisclosed injury, relays MLive’s Ansar Khan (Twitter link). At this point, he’s still in treatment mode according to head coach Todd McLellan, who noted that he’s still probably at least a week away from returning. While Rasmussen hasn’t been particularly productive this season – just 14 points in 61 games – he’s still an important part of Detroit’s bottom six and penalty kill; getting him back would certainly help in their late-season playoff push.
Gabriel Landeskog To Return To Avalanche Lineup
Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog will return to the ice against the Washington Capitals, head coach Jared Bednar told the media (including NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti) today. Landeskog has been out since March 6 with a lower-body injury, and has missed seven consecutive games.
Landeskog’s return will give the Avalanche a boost as they ready for what the team hopes (or even expects) is to be a deep playoff run starting next month. Landeskog, who missed nearly three full years of hockey recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery he underwent after winning the Stanley Cup in 2022, has returned to being a top-six player for the Avalanche.
While he hasn’t produced at the same level he was at when he was last a healthy NHL player (he scored 30 goals and 59 points in just 51 games in 2021-22), he’s still been a productive member of an Avalanche team that has been the class of the league in 2025-26. Through 47 games, he’s scored nine goals and 29 points, which is a 16-goal, 51-point 82-game scoring pace. He’s scored at that rate despite no longer being a staple on the team’s first power play unit.
With Landeskog injured, the Avalanche elevated veteran Valeri Nichushkin to Landeskog’s previous role, which was as the first-line left wing alongside Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas.
Nichushkin is coming off of a game two days ago in which he scored a goal and added an assist in the team’s win over the Chicago Blackhawks, so it’s possible Bednar won’t want to separate that first line even with Landeskog returning. If that’s the case, he could find a landing spot on Colorado’s second line, which is currently a trio of three centers (Nazem Kadri, Brock Nelson, Nicolas Roy).
If anything, Landeskog’s return could provide better balance to the Avalanche lineup, as the team is currently staffing its bottom-six with players relatively short on NHL experience. In the team’s most recent game, their fourth line combined for 41 games of total NHL experience from before 2025-26.
Dallas Stars Place Mikko Rantanen On IR
Feb. 24: Rantanen will be out for at least two weeks and possibly longer, head coach Glen Gulutzan told reporters today, although he doesn’t expect the injury to end his regular season (via Lia Assimakopoulos of the Dallas Morning News). That will nonetheless put him out through the trade deadline and keep him out of at least Dallas’ next seven games.
Feb. 23: The Dallas Stars announced today that they have placed star forward Mikko Rantanen on injured reserve, retroactive to Feb. 20, the date of Finland’s loss to Canada in the quarterfinals of the recent Winter Olympic tournament.
Stars head coach Glen Gulutzan told the media today, including Stars Thoughts’ Robert Tiffin, that Rantanen is doubtful to play in the Stars’ first game back from the break, and is questionable beyond that point. According to Tiffin, Gulutzan “didn’t want to speculate” on Rantanen’s status beyond this week.
The team’s roster move suggests Rantanen isn’t set for an extended absence. Since his IR placement was made retroactive to Feb. 20, he will be eligible for activation as early as Feb. 27. If the team held a firm expectation that Rantanen would miss well over a week, it is less likely that they would have directly clarified the retroactive nature of his IR placement in their announcement post.
Rantanen’s injury didn’t end up costing Finland, as they cruised past Slovakia to earn a bronze medal. His injury, while seemingly minor in the grand scheme of the Stars’ season, threatens to seriously impact their odds of winning the games he’s set to miss. Rantanen is arguably Dallas’ most talented forward, currently leading the team in scoring with 69 points in 54 games.
Rantanen leads all Stars forwards in time-on-ice per game and is widely considered one of the game’s top wingers. Missing him, even for a handful of games, will hurt the Stars. With that said, Gulutzan’s comments combined with how the Stars have announced Rantanen’s IR placement suggest the star winger won’t be sidelined for too long, which is certainly good news for Dallas.
Snapshots: Maurice, Morrissey, Davies
Finland wound up in second place in its group at the Olympics and have a chance at a bye before the quarterfinals. However, at one point, it looked like the team could have been led by a different bench boss. Helsingen Sanomat’s Sami Hoffren and Teemu Suvinen report that following a tough showing at the 4 Nations Face-Off and World Championship, a group of NHL veterans made an effort to try to get Panthers head coach Paul Maurice appointed to Finland’s coaching staff for these Olympics. GM Jere Lehtinen acknowledged discussing the idea with the players who wanted the change but nothing further came of it with head coach Antti Pennanen remaining in charge, a role he will hold through the spring of 2027 at a minimum.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey missed Friday’s Olympic game against Switzerland and has already been ruled out for Sunday’s contest against France, relays Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press (Twitter link). However, Canada’s head coach Jon Cooper indicated that “by no means is he out for the tournament.” That suggests that the undisclosed injury is at least relatively minor if he’s going to potentially be back within the next week. That would be a big boost for Canada’s back end as well as Winnipeg’s with a busy stretch of games coming up after the break.
- After having his contract with Florida terminated a little more than a week ago, Josh Davies has found a new team. The AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals announced that they’ve signed the forward to a deal for the remainder of the season. Drafted in the sixth round in 2022, Davies has played primarily in the ECHL over his professional career and it appears he was willing to walk away from the rest of his NHL deal to get an opportunity to play at the AHL level for the first time this season.
Poll: Who Should Win The 2026 Jack Adams Award?
The NHL season is beyond its halfway point and the standings have turned into one of the closest races in recent memory. Teams like the Detroit Red Wings and Buffalo Sabres sit in playoff contention, while the back-to-back Stanley Cup-winning Florida Panthers are on the outside looking in. Such a tight year has brought on a heap of questions. Buried under the team projections and playoff hopes sits an almost-impossibly tough question to answer: who should take home the Jack Adams Award as ‘Coach of the Year’ in a year like this?
The evergreen candidates are certain to be at the top of the list. Jared Bednar has worked out a miracle season with the Colorado Avalanche. Just one week away from February, the Avalanche have only lost six games in regulation and 15 in total. Their 35 wins in 50 games is the third-highest win-percentage (.790) since 2000, behind only the 2022-23 Boston Bruins and the 2012-13 Chicago Blackhawks. Bruins’ head coach Jim Montgomery won the Adams for his record-setting season but Chicago’s Joel Quenneville wasn’t awarded the same honors. That could mean Bednar has more to prove, even as his team decimates a quiet Western Conference.
Jon Cooper, Bruce Cassidy, and Rod Brind’Amour have each continued their own success through a new year. Each of the three – representing Tampa Bay, Vegas, and Carolina – sit in playoff contention on the back of familiar stars and breakout years.
But their success has become routine over recent years. The same can’t be said for the Buffalo Sabres, who have blazed a shocking season thanks to Lindy Ruff in his second year back with the club. Buffalo boasts a 29-17-5 record or .618 win-percentage, miles above the 36-39-7 and .482 win-percentage they set last season. Ruff was the last head coach to lead Buffalo to the postseason, all the way back in 2011. He took the club to eight postseason appearances, and one Stanley Cup Final, over 12 years with the club from 1998 to 2011. After a year to settle back into his spot, it appears Ruff could do it again, and snap the longest-running playoff drought in major men’s sports.
Ruff will lead a class of underdog candidates for the Jack Adams. He’s sat next to rookie NHL coach Dan Muse, a former staple of USA Hockey who brings unique tactics behind the bench. Muse is one of the league’s younger head coaches and has made do with a transforming Penguins lineup, bringing the best out of rookie Benjamin Kindel and second-chance winger Anthony Mantha. If that is enough to win out the Adams in a tight year is yet to be seen – though it’s certainly a statement way to start an NHL career.
Red Wings’ head coach Todd McLellan will hold a flame after leading the club to the top of the Atlantic Division following his usurping of Derek Lalonde last season. Montreal’s Martin St. Louis, Boston’s Marco Sturm, and Utah’s Andre Tourigny could also make the list – thanks to how well they’ve pulled together rosters in flux.
The race for Jack Adams is often closely-followed, but seems to carry a bit more weight in a season split between record-setting winners, drought-enders, and unsuspecting stars. Each candidate holds a strong case for taking home hardware this summer. Who do you think should hear their name called?
Who Should Win The 2026 Jack Adams?
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Lindy Ruff, BUF 29% (222)
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Dan Muse, PIT 22% (164)
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Jared Bednar, COL 17% (127)
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Jon Cooper, TBL 15% (116)
Total votes: 757
Mobile users click here to vote.
Golden Knights’ Adin Hill Out Week-To-Week, William Karlsson Targeting Olympic Return
The Vegas Golden Knights received two important injury updates on Tuesday. Most pressing, goaltender Adin Hill was designated as week-to-week by head coach Bruce Cassidy, per Jesse Granger of The Athletic. Cassidy also said that forward William Karlsson is expected to be back in the lineup before the two-week break for the Winter Olympics in February.
Hill has been out of the lineup since sustaining a lower-body injury in the first period of Vegas’ October 20th win over the Carolina Hurricanes. He has carried a week-to-week designation for much of the time since then, though that’s turned into a two-month absence that appears set to drag on even further. Cassidy shared that Hill is “getting closer”. That confidence, pitted against a mention on the Olympics’ in Karlsson’s timeline, could be enough insinuation to hope that Vegas can get their starting goaltender back before January ends.
Karlsson has also missed a substantial amount of time already. He sustained a lower-body injury in Vegas’ November 8th loss to the Anaheim Ducks that earned a spot on long-term injured reserve. Karlsson has now missed 50 games since the start of the 2024-25 season – continuing a stretch of routine absences that extends back to the 2019-20 season.
Both Hill and Karlsson have strong Olympic hopes in mind. Hill was one of three goaltenders invited to Team Canada’s preliminary camp, suggesting that he’s a shoo-in to head to Milan. Hill joined Canada at the 2025 Four-Nations Face-Off but didn’t play in any of the four games. His only experience representing his country came in 2021, when he won one game and set a .909 save percentage in three games at the World Championships.
While Hill pushes for a backup role, Karlsson could carve out a solid role for Team Sweden. The 32-year-old center did not represent Sweden at the 2025 Four-Nations tournament, and has only played in four World Championship games dating back to 2018 – though that is often thanks to his NHL team sticking in the playoffs for too long. When he does adorn the tre kronor, Karlsson finds strong impact, with four points and one Gold Medal in 14 World Championship games across his career. He will be one of Sweden’s top center options as they assemble their Olympic roster.
More than their Olympic hopes, both players will hope they can quickly get back on ice with a Vegas team that ranks top in the Pacific Division. Karlsson maintained a key role in the lineup this season and scored seven points in his first 14 games of the season. Hill was an initial favorite for the starter’s crease, but began to share it with Akira Schmid and Carl Lindbom after posting one win and a .888 Sv% in five games. Since his injury, Vegas has also signed Carter Hart, bringing even more competition into the goalie room. It seems the Golden Knights will be set to sort out that goalie crowd early in the new year, with a similar logjam coming for their center depth soon after. The Golden Knights rank 16th in goals-for and eighth in goals-against in the NHL at Christmas break.