Five Players Clear Waivers
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
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
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
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
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.
Snapshots: Canucks, Laine, McCann
The Vancouver Canucks are shopping around a few of their underperforming forwards, and Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet writes in his latest 31 Thoughts column that the Nashville Predators are one of the teams interested in Adam Gaudette. The 24-year-old forward seemed to have a breakthrough season last year for the Canucks, scoring 33 points in 59 games, but was virtually invisible in the postseason and has just two points in 12 games this season. Gaudette is on a one-year, $950K contract this season and will be an arbitration-eligible RFA in the summer.
On the other name that is swirling around, Jake Virtanen, Friedman seems less certain but does note that the Boston Bruins were checking him out at one point. The San Jose Sharks “poked around” in the offseason, which makes sense given it appeared at one point as though Virtanen would not be back with the Canucks this year. The 24-year-old Virtanen still has just one point through 12 games.
- The recent benching of Patrik Laine was because he “verbally disrespected” a member of the coaching staff, according to both Aaron Portzline of The Athletic and Brian Hedger of the Columbus Post-Dispatch. The young forward and Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella told reporters today that the incident was behind them, and Laine is expected to be back on the top line with Jack Roslovic and Cam Atkinson when the team plays tomorrow. Despite all that has happened this season, Laine still has five goals and six points through five games, a testament to just how impressive his offensive ability can be. His is still a very interesting situation to watch unfold, however, after playing just 11 minutes on Monday night.
- The Pittsburgh Penguins will be without Jared McCann a little longer than originally anticipated, as head coach Mike Sullivan told reporters today that the young forward will be out “week-to-week” while he deals with a lower-body injury. McCann played just four minutes in the team’s last game before exiting and has five points on the season.
Mikko Koivu Announces Retirement
In a sudden move, Columbus Blue Jackets center Mikko Koivu has announced his retirement after just seven games this season. The 37-year-old released a statement explaining his decision:
This was not an easy decision for me as I have loved every minute of my short time in Columbus and really hoped to be able to help this team accomplish its goals this season, but the bottom line is I haven’t been able to get to the level of play that I need to be true to myself and fair to my teammates, so the time is right for me to retire from hockey. I have been extremely blessed and I am eternally grateful to the Minnesota Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets organizations for the opportunities they have given me to live out my dreams of playing in the National Hockey League for the past 16 years.
Koivu will forfeit the rest of his one-year contract that carried a $1.5MM salary this season and his cap hit will come off the books for Columbus. His career ends with 1,035 regular season games, all but seven of which came with the Minnesota Wild. Just two of his 711 career points came with Columbus.
This seven-game, two-point season with Columbus is an odd addendum to a great career that was spent almost entirely with one franchise. Koivu is the Wild franchise leader for games played, assists, points, and plus/minus, while also being the longest-tenured captain in Minnesota history. The team decided to part ways with him in the offseason after several down seasons, but instead of retiring Koivu gave it one last try in Columbus.
It has been obvious for some time that Koivu wasn’t the same two-way wizard he was for so long in Minnesota, but this season he was limited to just over 12 minutes a night for the Blue Jackets. He played just nine minutes on Sunday, was a healthy scratch on Monday, and now retired on Tuesday. If he wasn’t going to play much, it never really made sense for the veteran player to put his body through a gruelling COVID-affected season, especially after so many major injuries have taken their toll on Koivu over the years.
Though he unfortunately never found much playoff success, Koivu did reach the postseason on nine different occasions throughout his long career. He’ll be remembered as one of the most consistent defensive centers of his era, receiving Selke Trophy votes in ten different seasons and finishing in the top-five on three different occasions.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Kevin Stenlund Activated Off IR
- The Blue Jackets announced that they have activated Kevin Stenlund off injured reserve. The center suffered an upper-body injury last week that held him out of the last four games. Stenlund had gotten off to a good start before getting injured with a goal and an assist in his first two games.
Snapshots: Zajac, Laine, Pastrnak
The New Jersey Devils have announced that Travis Zajac has been placed on the COVID Protocol Related Absences list, which will be released later today. He joins Mackenzie Blackwood as Devils that won’t make the trip to Buffalo for their matches this weekend due to the protocol. Head coach Lindy Ruff explained that the team isn’t making any excuses while they deal with the absence of some top players:
I think we’re becoming accustomed to it. We start the year without [Jesper] Bratt and Nico [Hischier]. But I think every team is dealing with those situations. It’s no excuse.
Zajac, who was supposed to celebrate his 1,000th regular season game this weekend, will have to wait for at least a little while. The 35-year-old forward has two goals in his first seven games.
- Another player that will have to wait the weekend before joining his teammates is Patrik Laine, who is finally on his way to Columbus this afternoon after acquiring his U.S. work visa. As Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports, Laine will face a 48-hour minimum quarantine period before he’s cleared to play after arriving in Columbus, but he is expected to debut on Tuesday against the Dallas Stars. Because he was dealing with a minor injury at the time of the trade, Laine actually hasn’t played since January 14, seeing very little practice time during that stretch at all. Though the Blue Jackets coaching staff were sending him video work to study, he won’t have much time to prepare if he’s in the lineup Tuesday night.
- David Pastrnak has declared himself fully healthy and ready to get back into the Boston Bruins lineup, a huge boost to a team that is already finding plenty of success without him. The Bruins are now 5-1-1 on the season and have scored 18 goals in their last four games, all wins. The return of Pastrnak will only make the team stronger as they continue their quest for an East Division title. Boston is currently two points behind the Washington Capitals, who are undefeated in regulation this season.
Minor Transactions: 01/27/21
With the NHL season now fully underway and many AHL training camp rosters now finalized, options are running out for remaining free agents. Fortunately, opportunities seem to always be available in Europe and in the ECHL, even with most of those league well through their current campaigns. This keeps minor moves flowing, even on a relatively quiet day for NHL transactions:
- Scouring the recently released AHL rosters, one will find Paul Bittner suspiciously absent. The 24-year-old forward, a second round pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2015, has been a solid contributor for the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters over the past few years. However, when his entry-level contract expired this off-season, Columbus did not extend him a qualifying offer. Unable to find another NHL deal and apparently unable or unwilling to sign in the AHL as well, Bittner is off to Sweden. Vasby IK of the second-tier Allsvenskan has announced a deal with Bittner for the remainder of the season. The 6’4″ power forward should be quite the disruptive force in the Swedish minor league.
- Another former Blue Jackets prospect is also on the move. Defenseman Michael Prapavessis, an NCAA free agent out of RPI, did not receive a qualifying offer this off-season either following the completion of his two-year ELC. Prapavessis was less of a surprise than Bittner, having seen limited action in the AHL as well as some time in the ECHL. Seemingly unable to land an AHL contract, Prapavessis is now in the ECHL on a permanent basis, at least for now, inking a deal with the Orlando Solar Bears for the rest of the season.
- The Anaheim Ducks have reassigned forward Jack Badini from the ECHL’s Tulsa Oilers to the AHL’s San Diego Gulls. The first-year pro, who was expected back at Harvard for his senior season this year, instead signed with the Ducks after the Ivy League cancelled all winter sports. The Ducks won’t rush his development this season, especially after a quiet start in the ECHL, but they want to see what he can do against AHL competition.
- As noted yesterday, former Yale forward Curtis Hall has signed with the Bruins, but for this season it is an AHL deal with Providence rather than an entry-level contract with Boston. The Bruins expected the 2018 fourth-round pick to spend at least one more year developing in the NCAA, but that became an impossibility due to the Ivy League’s suspension of winter sports. The Bruins clearly felt that Hall, who already has pro size and was a dangerous goal scorer last season, was better off in the AHL than back in junior this season. However, they will wait to burn the first season of his ELC.