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Alex Lyon Out With Minor Lower-Body Injury

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Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews (upper body) remains unavailable for Friday’s home game versus the Red Wings, as head coach Craig Berube told David Alter of The Hockey News.

  • Red Wings goaltender Alex Lyon, who was slated to start tonight’s matchup in Toronto, is instead on the shelf with a minor lower-body injury that he sustained in practice Thursday, head coach Derek Lalonde relayed to FanDuel Sports Network Detroit’s Daniella Bruce. His absence explains the recall of Ville Husso from AHL Grand Rapids earlier today under emergency conditions. He’ll back up while Cam Talbot starts his third straight game. Lalonde is “not overly concerned about [Lyon’s injury] being long term,” Bruce said.

Red Wings Recall Ville Husso Under Emergency Conditions

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The Red Wings announced they’ve recalled Ville Husso from AHL Grand Rapids under emergency conditions. Summoning the netminder indicates that either Alex Lyon or Cam Talbot is at risk of being unavailable for this evening’s game against the Maple Leafs. However, the team hasn’t disclosed who might be out or why.

Husso, 29, started Detroit’s season opener against the Penguins but allowed four goals on 14 shots and was pulled from the game early in the second period. That poor showing put a quick end to the Wings’ brief three-goalie rotation experiment for this season, as he was placed on waivers the following weekend and was subsequently assigned to Grand Rapids.

The Finnish netminder was on a short leash after a tough stretch of play last season. He managed a .893 SV% in 18 appearances to start 2023-24 before sustaining a lower-body injury that put him on the shelf for over a month. After a brief conditioning assignment with Grand Rapids, he attempted to return. However, he allowed a goal on seven shots against the Oilers on Feb. 13 before being pulled from the game with a reaggravation of his injury less than nine minutes in. Husso got another brief AHL conditioning stint at the end of the season but never suited up again for Detroit due to the ailment.

The Red Wings haven’t gotten the level of play out of Husso they anticipated when they acquired his signing rights from the Blues in 2022 and subsequently inked him to a three-year, $14.25MM extension. In 76 appearances for the Wings, he has a 35-28-9 record but has poor numbers to support it with a .894 SV%, 3.25 GAA, four shutouts, and -21.3 GSAA. They’re in the home stretch of that deal, which carries a $4.75MM cap hit ($3.6MM when he’s in the minors) and expires next summer.

If there’s a silver lining, Husso has been lights out in brief action for Grand Rapids this season. He has a .958 SV%, 1.23 GAA, a shutout, and a 2-0-0 record in three appearances.

Atlantic Notes: Ostapchuk, Zub, Laine, Slafkovský, Motte, Benson

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The Senators papered Zack Ostapchuk back up to the active roster today after sending him down to AHL Belleville yesterday, per a team announcement.

Ottawa has now recalled the young center on three separate occasions this season. After initially cutting him from their roster on the final day of training camp, he’s been recalled thrice in the past week to serve as an injury fill-in while David Perron and Shane Pinto are out of the lineup.

Ostapchuk has served as the Sens’ third-line center between Noah Gregor and Michael Amadio and will do so again against the Sabres tomorrow, according to Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia. The 21-year-old went without a point in seven appearances last season but has managed to get on the scoresheet in 2024-25, recording his first career assist and a +1 rating while averaging 11:55 through three games.

While Ottawa will remain without Perron and Pinto for a while yet, they’re getting healthier on the back end. Defenseman Artem Zub will make his return from a concussion “sooner than later,” Garrioch said today. He’s been practicing with the team for the better part of the past week but will likely miss his ninth straight game Tuesday in Buffalo. He sustained the concussion in the Sens’ third game of the season against the Kings on a hit from L.A. winger Tanner Jeannot.

There’s more from the Atlantic Division:

  • Canadiens winger Patrik Laine hasn’t yet debuted for the team after sustaining a knee injury in preseason, but his return timeline predicates he’ll hit the ice and return to regular-season action sometime next month. He’s still done enough throughout his career to put himself in consideration for a spot on Finland’s roster for February’s 4 Nations Face-Off, general manager Jere Lehtinen told Shawn P. Roarke of NHL.com. There’s a solid chance he won’t get to see game action before rosters for the tournament are due in early December, but leaving him off the roster would leave the already-underdog Finns without a dynamic offensive talent. Health has been a significant hurdle for Laine over the past few years, but his 0.91 points per game since the beginning of the 2021-22 season rank fourth among Finnish NHLers behind Mikko Rantanen, Aleksander Barkov and Sebastian Aho.
  • Still with the Habs, winger Juraj Slafkovský practiced today after leaving Saturday’s loss to the Penguins late after a high hit from Pittsburgh forward Noel Acciari, relays Patrick Friolet of RDS. Slafkovský confirmed to reporters that he didn’t suffer a concussion on the play and will remain in the lineup against the Flames tomorrow, albeit in a slightly reduced second-line role alongside Jake Evans and Alex Newhook, while Kirby Dach takes his spot on the top-line alongside Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki. Slafkovský, 20, already missed three games earlier this season with a shoulder injury. When in the lineup, he has a goal and seven assists in nine appearances.
  • The Red Wings will have forward Tyler Motte available on Wednesday against the Blackhawks after he missed the last seven games with an upper-body injury, head coach Derek Lalonde told reporters today, including Ansar Khan of MLive.com. However, he may still be out of the lineup as a healthy scratch after Detroit escaped their division-rival Sabres with a 2-1 win over the weekend. Signed to a one-year, $800K deal on the second day of free agency, Motte did not have a point with a -2 rating in four appearances with Detroit before exiting the lineup.
  • The Sabres may activate winger Zach Benson from injured reserve before tomorrow’s contest against the Sens, head coach Lindy Ruff told Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News. The 19-year-old has sat out the last five games with a lower-body injury he sustained in their Global Series games against the Devils that never wholly resolved. It showed in his performance, as he was held off the scoresheet and logged a -4 rating in six appearances when in the lineup for Buffalo last month.

Ondrej Becher Signs ATO With Griffins

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  • Red Wings prospect Ondrej Becher has signed an ATO agreement with AHL Grand Rapids, per a team release. Detroit took the 20-year-old in the third round of the draft back in June following a dominant showing with WHL Prince George that saw him score 32 goals and 64 assists in 58 games last season, good for 13th in league scoring.  While he remains eligible to spend an overage year at the junior level, it appears the Red Wings would prefer to see how he fares in the pros first but the tryout agreement suggests that they’re open to the idea of sending him back to junior if things don’t go well.

Tyler Motte Is Close To Returning

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  • Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press reports that Detroit Red Wings forward Tyler Motte is close to returning. Motte has missed Detroit’s last six games with an upper-body injury suffered during the team’s loss to the New York Rangers on October 17th. When healthy, he’s been largely unnoticeable in Detroit’s forward core with zero points through four games averaging just over 11 minutes of ice time per contest.

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Red Wings Reassign Austin Watson

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Oct. 31: Watson was demoted back to Grand Rapids on Thursday morning, the team announced. He logged a -1 rating, one shot on goal and four hits in 9:06 of ice time in last night’s loss to the Jets in place of Tarasenko, who wasn’t able to play due to his illness.

Oct. 30: The Red Wings announced today they’ve recalled winger Austin Watson from AHL Grand Rapids under emergency conditions. Detroit has an open roster spot, so no corresponding transaction is needed.

Watson comes up to give the Red Wings 12 available forwards in case Vladimir Tarasenko, who head coach Derek Lalonde told reporters is a game-time decision tonight against the Jets with an illness, can’t play (via Sean Shapiro of EP Rinkside). If he plays, it would be just his second appearance of the season. Signed to a PTO by Detroit in late August, Watson earned a two-way deal after a successful training camp and subsequently cleared waivers. He’s spent the entire 2024-25 campaign in the minors aside from a one-day recall on Oct. 14, which resulted in him entering the lineup against the Rangers. He played under five minutes and posted a -1 rating with a minor penalty.

The 32-year-old has done well in his first taste of minor league action since a conditioning stint in the 2018-19 campaign. Watson is tied for the team lead in scoring with six assists through seven games, leading them in both PIMs (19) and rating (+6). While he’s never shown the offensive upside at the NHL level to be much more than a fourth-line piece, he’s suiting up as one of the best power forwards in the AHL this season.

Watson can remain on the NHL roster for 28 days or play nine more NHL games before he needs waivers again to return to the minors. He spent last year with the Lightning, scoring twice and adding a pair of assists in 33 appearances. The 2010 first-round pick of the Predators has made 519 NHL appearances for Detroit, Nashville, Ottawa, and Tampa Bay dating back to the 2012-13 campaign.

Utah Acquires Olli Määttä From Red Wings

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Utah has acquired defenseman Olli Määttä from the Red Wings in a late-night trade, the team announced. They’re sending a 2025 third-round pick, previously acquired from the Rangers, to Detroit to complete the deal.

It’s no surprise to see the first-year franchise swing a deal for a defenseman. They’ll be without a pair of top-four defenders, Sean Durzi and John Marino, for most of the season after they both underwent surgeries in the past couple of weeks. Durzi could miss the rest of the regular season after having a procedure to repair his right shoulder, while Marino will likely be out until the 4 Nations Face-Off in February while recovering from lower back surgery.

Initial reports suggested Utah would likely lean on internal solutions to fill the void. They recalled 2022 first-round pick Maveric Lamoureux from AHL Tucson and have gotten solid hockey out of 24-year-old Michael Kesselring, who’s now averaging over 20 minutes per night and has five points and a team-leading +5 rating through 10 games. But losses have kept piling up for the Utahns, who remain at .500 with a 4-4-2 record after yesterday’s third-period collapse to the Sharks, which resulted in a 5-4 overtime defeat. A report from Pierre LeBrun of TSN last week suggested Utah had at least checked in on the availability of Blue Jackets defender Ivan Provorov, but they’ll end up netting a much cheaper player in Määttä in terms of both contract and acquisition cost.

Määttä, 30, is in the second year of a two-year, $6MM extension he signed with the Wings in 2023. The Finnish stay-at-home defender has called Detroit home since signing there as a free agent in 2022. He’s inexplicably been pushed down the lineup in recent days, sitting as a healthy scratch in two of the Wings’ last four games despite controlling 57.8% of expected goals when he’s on the ice at even strength. That number jumps out in a big way on a Detroit team that’s again struggled to maintain possession at 5-on-5 this year, controlling 42.5% of shot attempts, 43.7% of scoring chances, and 41.9% of high-danger chances. He’d yet to get on the scoresheet this season and was averaging a career-low 15:52 per game, but his 44.4 CF% was second among Wings defenders only to Simon Edvinsson.

Detroit’s loss is Utah’s gain. Määttä should post better results on a Utah club that’s actually been one of the league’s better 5-on-5 teams this season despite their roller-coaster record. He’s a left-shot but has played on the right side frequently throughout his 12-year NHL career, a task he’ll likely be asked to replicate in Salt Lake City. Whether he immediately steps into a top-four role with Durzi and Marino out remains to be seen, but at the very least, he’s a demonstrable upgrade on either of their current third-pairing options, Robert Bortuzzo and Vladislav Kolyachonok. He had 18 points and a +14 rating in 72 appearances for Detroit last season.

For the Wings, it’s the second time in a few months that general manager Steve Yzerman has traded away one of the more effective defenders on a blue line that has struggled to prevent quality scoring chances. He dealt Jake Walman to the Sharks in a somewhat similar cap-dump move back in June, although that transaction required him to offload a second-round pick to get San Jose to take his entire contract. He’s at least receiving an asset back for Määttä here with no salary retention, but it’s still a puzzling move for a team looking to push for a playoff spot.

Detroit does at least free up a roster spot and a fair amount of cap space with the move. They now have a comfortable $3.58MM in current cap space, per PuckPedia. The flurry of paper transactions to conserve cap space and juggle a full roster should now calm down, and the Red Wings do have far more in-season maneuverability to perhaps address other roster weaknesses in a more cost-effective manner.

Tyler Motte Still Out With Upper-Body Injury

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  • Ansar Khan of MLive reports the Detroit Red Wings are still without forward Tyler Motte who is suffering from an upper-body injury. His unavailability will have a downstream effect on the roster with the organization keeping the ability to keep prospect Marco Kasper on the roster under emergency conditions for the time being. Kasper has skated in five games for the Red Wings during his emergency recall with one assist to show for it while averaging 15:22 of ice time. Once Motte can return, Detroit must make a roster move to comply with the emergency condition protocols.

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Subban Released From PTO With Grand Rapids

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  • The Grand Rapids Griffins, the AHL affiliate of the Red Wings, announced that they’ve released goaltender Malcolm Subban from his PTO deal. The 30-year-old played in 35 AHL games last season, posting a 3.12 GAA and a .901 SV%.  Subban also has played in parts of nine NHL seasons spanning 87 appearances where he has a 3.10 GAA and a .898 SV% and will now look to catch on elsewhere.

J.T. Compher Game-Time Decision, Tyler Mott Still Day-To-Day

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  • Ansar Khan of MLive provided a few updates on a pair of forwards from the Detroit Red Wings. J.T. Compher, who missed yesterday’s game against the New Jersey Devils with an illness, is designated as a game-time decision for tomorrow night’s contest against the Buffalo Sabres. Khan shares that forward Tyler Motte is still considered day-to-day with an upper-body injury but did participate in practice earlier today. Motte suffered the injury after receiving a solid body check from New York Rangers’ rookie defenseman, Vittorio Mancini, on October 17th.

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