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Snapshots: Rutherford, Tortorella, Wolf

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It’s still not exactly clear what made Jim Rutherford suddenly resign his post as general manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins earlier this year. Given that he still has “the bug” to help a front office, as he told Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic recently, some have wondered if there was perhaps a philosophical disagreement between Rutherford and his Pittsburgh bosses. When asked on the Cam and Strick Podcast about whether he had tried to trade Kris Letang but ownership stopped it, the legendary executive denied any rumors:

Nope. Not accurate. As a matter of fact, I’ve said publicly a few times. Because you get to a point in a player’s career–should you trade ’em, get something young for them or not–but I’ve actually took the position that because the core guys won Stanley Cups, three Stanley Cups, that [Sidney] Crosby, [Evgeni] Malkin and Letang should play their whole career in Pittsburgh. I wish I could say the same thing about [Marc-Andre] Fleury, but we got squeezed on the cap at an earlier time. But those four guys should have played their whole career in Pittsburgh. There’s three of them still there. That’s how I felt then, that’s how I feel now.

If Letang and Malkin are to play their whole careers in Pittsburgh, they’ll need new contracts before long. Both players are scheduled to become unrestricted free agents after the 2021-22 season. Crosby meanwhile is signed through 2024-25, which potentially could cover the end of his career already. He’ll be 34 this offseason, meaning his contract takes him through his age-37 season.

  • John Tortorella got the infamous vote of confidence from his general manager earlier today, as Jarmo Kekalainen explained he isn’t looking to make changes to the coaching staff and trusts this group to get the Columbus Blue Jackets out of their recent slump. The Blue Jackets have lost five straight and sit fifth in the Central Division, only ahead of the Nashville Predators, Detroit Red Wings, and Dallas Stars (who have only played 16 games, the fewest in the entire league). Tortorella, though respected as a strong systems coach that can get a lot out of a mediocre roster, has been known to eventually have players tune him out in his previous stops. Kekalainen, as Aaron Portzline of The Athletic writes, hasn’t seen that kind of thing yet. A Stanley Cup champion with the 2004 Tampa Bay Lightning, Tortorella has been the head coach of the Blue Jackets since the 2015-16 season and has had a winning record in each season with the club.
  • Dustin Wolf has been reassigned back to the WHL, re-joining the Everett Silvertips after a short taste of professional hockey. The 19-year-old goaltender played three games for the Stockton Heat, winning two of them and posting an .895 save percentage. A seventh-round pick in 2019, Wolf is an extremely intriguing prospect trying to break through despite a significant disadvantage–he stands a (generous) 6’0″ and would be one of the smallest goaltenders in the NHL, should he ever make it. So far that size discrepancy hasn’t stopped him, winning CHL Goaltender of the Year and recently taking home a World Junior gold medal. Now that the WHL is returning, Wolf is no longer eligible to play in the AHL.

Injury Notes: Lundqvist, Teravainen, Merzlikins

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Henrik Lundqvist underwent heart surgery last month, at the very least pausing his legendary NHL career for the moment. Earlier this month he let his fans know that things were going well in his recovery and today tweeted that he’s back on the ice. An attached video has him in full Washington Capitals gear, still an odd sight after spending his entire career to this point with the New York Rangers.

Lundqvist is still not expected to play this season, but his contract was not actually terminated and these updates at least open the door a crack for his playing career to continue at some point. Even if it doesn’t, it’s still great to see him healthy enough to get back on the ice.

More injury updates from around the league:

  • The Carolina Hurricanes announced that Teuvo Teravainen has been diagnosed with a concussion, likely from a Nikita Zadorov hit on February 19. The star forward has already missed a pair of games and it is not clear when he’ll be cleared to return. If you haven’t been paying attention to Carolina, you might have missed that Teravainen has turned into one of the most consistent offensive performers in the NHL over the last few seasons. After breaking out with 64 points in 2017-18, he has scored 148 points in his last 162 regular season games, including nine this year. The 26-year-old is only in the second season of a five-year deal signed with Carolina in 2019.
  • The Columbus Blue Jackets have placed Elvis Merzlikins on injured reserve for the second time this season, this time retroactive to February 20. He suffered an upper-body injury in that game and is considered week-to-week. Matiss Kivlenieks has been promoted from the taxi squad to serve as the backup for Joonas Korpisalo, but this will once again test the goaltending depth of the organization. Korpisalo hasn’t been good this year, registering an .889 save percentage in his 13 appearances, and Kivlenieks has just six games of NHL experience.

Columbus’ Elvis Merzlikins Out Week-To-Week

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have two quality young goaltenders, but can’t seem to get either one back to their 2019-20 form. The team hasn’t got the production it wanted from Joonas Korpisalo, who has struggled with a 3.46 GAA and a .889 save percentage. And despite already being out with an injury once this year, Elvis Merzlikins looks like he’s going back onto injured reserve after the team announced that he will be out week-to-week after suffering an upper-body injury.

Merzlikins suffered what is believed to be a left arm or shoulder injury during the game against Nashville Saturday, according to The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline. No word if the injury is related to Merzlikins first trip to IR, also with an upper-body injury.

Merzlikins has only appeared in seven games this year, and has been quite inconsistent himself with a few flashes of brilliance in between. His numbers remain acceptable with a 2.94 GAA and a .905 save percentage, but not up to his fifth-place finish in Vezina Trophy voting last year either.

The team will now have to put their faith in Korpisalo to find his game with Matiss Kivlenieks serving as the backup until Merzlikins is able to return.

Poll: NHL’s “Thanksgiving Trend” Revisited

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Fans of the NHL are sure to be familiar with the deeper meaning that American Thanksgiving holds each season. With unrelenting consistency, the NHL’s standings on the final Thursday of November have had great predictive ability when compared to the final regular season standings. In fact, over the past seven years the Thanksgiving standings have been about 75% accurate at forecasting eventual playoff teams, predicting 12 of 16 spots on average. Even though American Thanksgiving only rolls around less than two months into the season, three out of four teams in a playoff spot at that time will have retained their postseason berth when the season ends.

The 2019-20 season of course did not have a standard postseason, but if it had then the Thanksgiving trend would have proved even more prophetic in a shortened campaign. Last year, in which teams were limited to between 68 and 71 games apiece prior to the early termination of the regular season, the Thanksgiving standings would have predicted 13 of 16 playoff teams in the standard format. Of the three teams that would have slid out of the postseason, the Florida Panthers trailed the Toronto Maple Leafs by .014 points percentage in the Atlantic Division and the Winnipeg Jets missed out by a measly .001 points percentage behind the Calgary Flames as the final Western Conference wild card. The Thanksgiving standings were that close to predicting 15 of 16 playoff teams in the shortened season, with the unexpected slow start for the Vegas Golden Knights and hot start for the Arizona Coyotes being the other unsurprising course correction.

But how does this trend impact a season that didn’t even begin until well after American Thanksgiving? Based on total games played by Thanksgiving over the past few seasons, Thanksgiving represents about the 30% progress through the NHL season. In the current 56-game season, that comes out to about the 17-game mark. Although postponements and rescheduling have created a wide discrepancy in games played among teams this year, the league as a whole passed that 17-game average on Saturday: Happy Thanksgiving. Admittedly, the 2020-21 campaign does have a different playoff model as well, one that is somewhat stricter than the last few years without the fallback of a wildcard spot for a team on the fifth-place fringe in their division. Yet, it is still a 16-team postseason and the Thanksgiving trend should hold. Using points percentage to rank the standings (the stat may end up determining playoff position for a second consecutive season anyhow) and adjusting for the season’s makeshift divisions, here is the current “Thanksgiving” outlook:

North Division                                                             East Division

Toronto Maple Leafs (.789)                                    Boston Bruins (.733)
Montreal Canadiens (.625)                                     Philadelphia Flyers (.679)
Winnipeg Jets (.618)                                                 Washington Capitals (.594)
Edmonton Oilers (.600)                                          Pittsburgh Penguins (.594)____
Calgary Flames (.472)                                                        New Jersey Devils (.583)
Vancouver Canucks (.405)                                                New York Islanders (.559)
Ottawa Senators (.237)                                                      New York Rangers (.469)
                                                                                                Buffalo Sabres (.429)

West Division                                                                Central Division

Vegas Golden Knights (.700)                                   Carolina Hurricanes (.781)
Colorado Avalanche (.679)                                       Florida Panthers (.750)
St. Louis Blues (.611)                                                  Tampa Bay Lightning (.700)
Minnesota Wild (.571)                                                Dallas Stars (.583)                    
Los Angeles Kings (.531)                                                    Chicago Blackhawks (.579)
Arizona Coyotes (.500)                                                       Columbus Blue Jackets (.526)
San Jose Sharks (.500)                                                       Nashville Predators (.412)
Anaheim Ducks (.417)                                                         Detroit Red Wings (.325)

Now this begs the question, especially seeing how accurate the Thanksgiving standings were in last year’s shortened season but also accounting for the many disruptions for a number of teams early this season, who is the trend currently overlooking? Which teams currently outside the playoff picture, if any, do you think will make the postseason when all is said and done later this season? Use the comments section below as well to discuss which teams may fall out of the postseason and whether you feel the Thanksgiving trend will apply this season.

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Taxi Squad Shuffle: 02/21/21

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As the NHL prepares for another day at Lake Tahoe – one that hopes to run smoothly after Saturday’s debacle – there are also three other games on the Sunday slate. Roster transactions continue to come at a torrid pace this season and today should be no different with a number of teams in action. Keep up with all of the moves right here:

Central Division

  • The Detroit Red Wings have returned a trio of players to the taxi squad. The team announced that veteran defensemen Alex Biega and the recently-waived Danny DeKeyser, as well as rookie forward Mathias Brome, have all been reassigned. After back-to-back games, Detroit is off until Tuesday.
  • Matiss Kivlenieks is on his way back to Columbus after a brief stint in the minors. The Blue Jackets announced that the goaltender has been recalled from the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters to join the taxi squad. While the team may give Kivlenieks spot starts in Cleveland from time to time to keep him fresh, he looks to be locked in to that No. 3 taxi squad role for the franchise this season.
  • The Nashville Predators announced they have reassigned forward Eeli Tolvanen to the squad. The 21-year-old has appeared in eight games with the Predators this season.

East Division

  • The New Jersey Devils have swapped a pair of forwards, sending Yegor Sharangovich to the taxi squad while calling up Mikhail Maltsev as his replacement. Although they have been used differently so far this season, both rookies have been effective in the Devils lineup. However, after a hot start Sharangovich has cooled off while Maltsev has performed in his more recent showings. According to the AHL’s Binghamton Devils, New Jersey has also reassigned forward Nick Merkley from the taxi squad to the minors. Merkley has actually played well in the NHL so far this season, recording three points in five games with the Devils.
  • With the losses of Jake McCabe and William Borgen to injuries, the Buffalo Sabres have promoted two players from the Rochester Americans to the taxi squad. The team announced that Jacob Bryson and Casey Fitzgerald will move up and fill the defensive depth void that the team has dealt with over the last few days.

North Division

  • The Edmonton Oilers announced they have recalled defenseman Theodor Lennstrom from the Bakersfield Condors of the AHL and moved him to the taxi squad. The move was required with the injury to defenseman Slater Koekkoek. Lennstrom will need time to quarantine with Bakersfield being in the U.S., requiring the player to cross the border.
  • Ryan Pike of FlamesNation reports that the Calgary Flames have made a salary cap move, sending defenseman Oliver Kylington to the taxi squad and thereby filling up their taxi-squad roster. The 23-year-old has yet to appear in a game for the Flames this season.
  • The Ottawa Senators announced they have recalled a number of players from the taxi squad for Sunday’s game, including goaltender Joey Daccord, defenseman Braydon Coburn and forward Micheal Haley. The team also assigned forward Artem Anisimov to the taxi squad to make room for them and also moved Logan Shaw from the Belleville Senators of the AHL to the taxi squad.

West Division

  • The Minnesota Wild have moved a pair of young players back to the minors. The team announced that defenseman Calen Addison and goalie Dereck Baribeau have been reassigned to AHL Iowa. Addison, one of Minnesota’s top prospects, logged over 18 minutes of ice time on average through his first three NHL games.
  • The Arizona Coyotes announced they have swapped several players from the Tucson Roadrunners of the AHL and the taxi squad. The team has assigned forwards Frederik Gauthier and Kyle Capobianco from the Tucson to the taxi squad. The Coyotes also assigned forwards Hudson Fasching and Michael Chaput to Tucson to replace them. Capobianco has appeared in two games for Arizona this season.
  • The San Jose Sharks announced they have reassigned forward Maxim Letunov and goaltender Josef Korenar to the San Barracuda of the AHL. Neither player has appeared in a Sharks game this season.

Five Players Clear Waivers

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Despite some major names being available on the waiver wire over the past 24 hours, all five players have cleared. Montreal’s Paul Byron, Detroit’s Danny DeKeyser, and new Carolina acquisition Alex Galchenyuk were all waived for roster flexibility and will be reassigned to their respective taxi squads. Young Columbus defenseman Gabriel Carlsson has been reassigned to the taxi squad for now but will soon join the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters in order to get some play time. Boston’s Par Lindholm has signed a new contract with the SHL’s Skelleftea AIK and will see his NHL contract terminated. No new players have been placed on waivers today.

Of the group, the player who was quietly the most likely to be claimed was Carlsson. The big 24-year-old blue liner, a 2015 first-rounder, lost his waiver exemption this season and the Blue Jackets did not want to risk him on the wire earlier this season. However, through the first quarter of the campaign he has not seen any NHL game action sitting behind a deep Columbus defense corps. With the AHL season now up and running, the team opted to take the chance with Carlsson in order to get him some play time in the minors and it paid off. The stay-at-home defenseman has played in at least one game for Columbus in each of the past four seasons and will likely be back with the team at some point this year. However, the team will try to avoid another trip through waivers as they might not be so lucky a second time putting the sturdy and affordable defender back up for grabs.

Of course, the bigger names available were Byron, DeKeyser, and Galchenyuk. The Montreal Canadiens, short on cap space but not on forward talent, have been playing Byron in a checking role, making him an expensive fourth liner. The club had been trying to trade the veteran, but there were no takers on his contract despite his solid career numbers. The team hoped that Byron would clear waivers so that they could retain the player, who is absolutely still a serviceable top-nine forward, while also opening up some salary cap space by transitioning him to the taxi squad. Galchenyuk was in fact traded already and just on Saturday as a matter of fact. The skilled forward was dealt by the Ottawa Senators to the Carolina Hurricanes as part of a three-player deal. Playing on an affordable and expiring contract, Galchenyuk was a risk-free acquisition for the ’Canes but was even more valuable if he could be stashed on the practice squad and used in case of emergency in a scoring role. Their plan succeeded and now Carolina simply has to decide whether the now-flexible Galchenyuk is worth more to them on their taxi squad or as a trade asset to flip to another team. The surprise inclusion was DeKeyser, one of the few holdovers of the most recent Detroit Red Wings’ powerhouse teams. DeKeyser has been in decline for several seasons now, but playing for a rebuilding club – especially with limited ice time this season – and dealing with injuries does not make for flattering statistics for anyone. A player who still has the support of his coaches and teammates may end up on the taxi squad but is likely to still be a prominent presence for the organization, especially with another year remaining on his current contract.

Lindholm was the outlier of the bunch. After clearing waivers earlier this season, the underutilized veteran was placed on the wire again to begin the process of a contract termination. Lindholm was not expected to be claimed and even if he had been, there still would have been a conflict with the multi-year contract he just recently signed in Sweden. Lindholm may actually be capable of being a reliable fourth line center in the NHL, but that opportunity was not available in Boston and seemingly nowhere else in the league at the current time, so the veteran will return home.

Columbus Blue Jackets Acquire Gregory Hofmann From Carolina

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The Columbus Blue Jackets announced they made a small trade, acquiring the signing rights to Swiss forward Gregory Hofmann from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for a 2022 seventh-round pick. Hofmann is expected to stay with his NL team for the rest of his season, but The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline reports that he could join the Blue Jackets after his season ends, if that is before the Blue Jackets’ regular season ends.

This isn’t a trade, however, for the signing rights to a college player who doesn’t want to sign with the team that drafted him. Hofmann is 28 years old and was drafted in the fourth round by the Hurricanes back in 2011. Because he is Swiss, the forward’s rights never left Carolina. Hofmann has never played in North America and has not signed with the team all these years, spending his entire 12-year career with the NL, including the last two years with Zug EV.

What makes him even more intriguing for Columbus is that he spent four years playing with Blue Jackets’ goaltender Elvis Merzlikins with Lugano from 2015 to 2019, which could be the main reason that he has expressed interest in playing for Columbus. Portzline notes that the timing to Hofmann joining Columbus this year will be quite tight as the Swiss League regular season ends on May 4 and Zug EV is currently in first place in the league and likely to go to the playoffs.

Hofmann has dominated as a top forward in the past few seasons, scoring 70 goals in 132 games over the past three years. He has had eight seasons of double-digit goals.

Michael Smith of NHL.com was the first to report the trade.

Columbus Blue Jackets Activate Zach Werenski

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The Columbus Blue Jackets got some good news as one of their top-line defenders, Zach Werenski, has been activated off of injured reserve. The 23-year-old blueliner has missed the past three games since suffering a lower-body injury on Feb. 4 against the Dallas Stars. To make room for Werenski, Columbus has placed third-string goaltender Matiss Kivlenieks on injured reserve.

Werenski should help strengthen the team’s blueline, which has given up 12 goals in the three games that Werenski has missed, including a pair of five-goal games. Fortunately for Columbus, the Blue Jackets went 2-1 during that span. Werenski has averaged 24:09 of ice time this season and has a goal and three assists, well below his offensive numbers after posting 20 goals a season ago. He did put up three points in his previous five games before getting injured, suggesting that his offense is coming around.

Kivlenieks had been serving as the backup to Joonas Korpisalo with Elvis Merzlikins on injured reserve. Kivlenieks never saw any action and with Merzlikins activated a couple of days ago, the team has opened a roster spot by placing Kivlenieks on IR after he suffered a lower-body injury in practice a week ago and is considered day-to-day.

Injury Notes: Tarasenko, Zuccarello, Werenski

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Vladimir Tarasenko was back on the ice with his teammates today when the St. Louis Blues hit the ice in Arizona, a great sign as he continues to recover from his latest shoulder surgery. On February 3, Blues GM Doug Armstrong told reporters that his Russian sniper was still weeks away, but things were promising. Seeing him in a regular practice jersey with his teammates indicates that his return isn’t as far away as it once seemed.

When he is healthy enough to return, the question will be how exactly the Blues fit him in. The team is currently more than $7MM into their long-term injured reserve relief and though Alex Steen’s $5.75MM cap hit covers a lot of that, adding Tarasenko back onto the books won’t be easy. That has led to the trade chatter surrounding Vince Dunn increasing again, this time with some additional cap-clearing motivation.

  • Speaking of West Division forwards that are coming back from offseason surgery, the Minnesota Wild had Mats Zuccarello back at practice for the first time today, according to Michael Russo of The Athletic. Zuccarello is only in the second season of a five-year, $30MM contract for the Wild, meaning his return to form would be a crucial boost for a team fighting to make the postseason. At his best, Zuccarello has been a top playmaking winger that can elevate the performance of his linemates. Whether the 33-year-old can get back to that level is not at all clear.
  • Zach Werenski is expected to be back in the lineup on Saturday against the Chicago Blackhawks, or at least that is what Columbus Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella implied to reporters today, including Aaron Portzline of The Athletic. Werenski has missed the last three games with a lower-body injury and is off to a rather slow start this season with just four points in 12 games. After scoring 20 goals and 41 points in just 63 games last season, big things were expected of the fifth-year defenseman.

Elvis Merzlikins Activated From Injured Reserve

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The Columbus Blue Jackets are off to a rocky start, going 6-5-3 through their first 14 games. Not only have they struggled on the ice, but they’ve also been swirling in controversy since the start of the year. After trading Pierre-Luc Dubois, benching Patrik Laine, and watching Mikko Koivu retire just a few weeks into the season, the Blue Jackets are due for some good news.

Perhaps they got it today when Elvis Merzlikins was activated off injured reserve. The 26-year-old goaltender, who finished fifth in Vezina Trophy voting as a rookie last season, last played on February 2 in a relief role, before suffering an upper-body injury in practice. Joonas Korpisalo, his tandem partner, hasn’t been playing up to his high standard this season and has just a .901 save percentage through nine appearances.

If there was anything that stood out about the 2019-20 Blue Jackets, it was their excellent tandem, who posted outstanding results regardless of who was in the net. In the postseason, they combined for a .942 save percentage in ten games, winning a qualification round against the Toronto Maple Leafs and even stealing a game from the eventual Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning.

Getting Merzlikins back should help to right the ship in Columbus whenever he gets back into the crease, as even his early-season results were much better than Korpisalo’s.

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