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Marcel Bonin Passes Away

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Four-time Stanley Cup champion winger Marcel Bonin passed away Sunday, according to an announcement from the Canadiens. He was 93.

Montreal was where Bonin was born and where he played his best hockey, but it wasn’t where his NHL career started. Acquired by the Red Wings in 1952 from the Quebec Aces of the Quebec Senior Hockey League, where he was briefly teammates with all-time great Jean Béliveau, Bonin made his NHL debut at age 20 that season.

He posted four goals and 13 points in 37 games during his rookie campaign with Detroit in 1952-53, splitting the year between the NHL and the Wings’ AHL affiliate at the time, the St. Louis Flyers. After spending nearly all of 1953-54 in lower-level leagues, he returned to Detroit full-time for 1954-55. Bonin was an impact piece, finishing sixth on the team in scoring with 36 points in 69 games and adding a pair of assists in 11 playoff games as he won his first of four Original Six championships.

That summer, Bonin was part of the blockbuster deal that sent Terry Sawchuk, the reigning Vezina Trophy winner and future Hall-of-Famer, to the Bruins. He spent one year in Boston, recording nine goals and nine assists for 18 points in 67 games on a Bruins offense that limped to a league-worst 2.10 goals per game.

Bonin returned to lower-tier hockey with his old stomping grounds in Quebec the following year before being claimed by his hometown Canadiens in the Inter-League Draft preceding the 1957-58 campaign. Reunited with Beliveau, then a perennial MVP candidate, and names like Henri Richard, Maurice Richard, and Bernie Geoffrion, Bonin resurfaced as a high-end complementary piece.

Bonin won Stanley Cups with Montreal in his first three seasons back in the league, recording 133 points in 182 games between the 1957-58 and 1959-60 campaigns. In year four, he recorded a career-high 35 assists and 51 points in 65 games. He was off to a good start in 1961-62, notching 21 points in 33 games, before sustaining a career-ending back injury in a game against the Red Wings in February.

He recorded 11 goals and 22 points in 34 games across four trips to the postseason with the Habs. All but one of those goals came in the 1959 playoffs, where he led the league with 10 goals in 11 games en route to Montreal’s fourth of five straight titles.

All of us at Pro Hockey Rumors offer our deepest condolences to the Bonin family and his loved ones.

Detroit Red Wings Reassign Ville Husso

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Now that Alex Lyon has fully recovered from his upper-body injury and is expected to start tonight against the Dallas Stars, the Detroit Red Wings no longer require three goaltenders on the active roster. On the chopping block is netminder Ville Husso, who the team announced has been reassigned to their AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins.

After passing through waivers unscathed at the beginning of the season, Husso is only one game away from needing waivers for reassignment again. There’s little chance he’s claimed given his subpar play this season and relatively high salary of $4.75MM but any team can become desperate for a goaltender at a moment’s notice.

Still, whether he departs via the waiver wire or unrestricted free agency, Husso is likely entering the last several weeks of his tenure with the Red Wings organization. Detroit acquired Husso as a restricted free agent from the St. Louis Blues in 2022 for a 2022 third-round pick and quickly signed him to a three-year, $14.25MM contract on the same day.

The Red Wings likely had high hopes for Husso to stabilize the team’s production between the pipes given he had just managed a 25-7-6 record in 38 starts for St. Louis with a .919 save percentage. Unfortunately, partly due to the poor defensive play in front of him, Husso has fallen well short of expectations in Hockeytown.

Over 82 starts in Detroit including eight this season, Husso has amassed a 36-32-11 record with the Red Wings with a .892 SV% and 3.26 goals-against average. According to Hockey Reference, despite some blame being laid at the feet of the team’s defense, Husso has produced a more than disappointing -25.6 goals saved above the average line and 3.34 adjusted goals against average.

For what it’s worth — Husso has been more productive at the AHL level, earning a 6-1-0 record over eight games in AHL Grand Rapids, with a .935 SV% and two shutouts. This may give a goalie-needy team confidence he can rebound under the right environment at the NHL level, but it’ll be difficult to gloss over his uninspiring play with Detroit.

Tyler Motte Ruled Out For Road Trip

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The Detroit Red Wings should get one player back this weekend while losing another for the foreseeable future. Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press reported earlier that goaltender Alex Lyon will likely start tomorrow’s contest against the Dallas Stars. She later reported that forward Tyler Motte has been ruled out until next Thursday due to an upper-body injury.

Lyon, who’s had multiple injuries this season, hasn’t played since Detroit’s overtime win against the Ottawa Senators on January 7th due to an upper-body injury. He’s still managed a similarly solid season as last year with the Red Wings when healthy managing an 8-5-0 record in 14 starts with a .902 save percentage and 2.71 goals-against average.

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  • The Tampa Bay Lightning will be without one of their best defensive defensemen tonight. Gabby Shirley of FanDuel Sports Network Florida reports that Erik Černák was made unavailable for tonight’s contest against the Red Wings but added the prognosis is better than expected so he shouldn’t be on the shelf for too long. Maxwell Crozier will replace Cernak tonight, joining Ryan McDonagh on the second defensive pairing. Crozier will play in his first game with Tampa Bay this season after tallying two assists in 13 contests last year.

Red Wings' Alex Lyon Close To Returning, Tyler Motte Out With Upper-Body Injury

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The Red Wings are close to having netminder Alex Lyon back in the lineup, as head coach Todd McLellan told reporters Wednesday (including Daniella Bruce of the team’s official site) he’ll travel on their upcoming four-game road trip. They don’t have a specific date circled for his return, so he likely remains unavailable tonight against the Panthers, his former team. This is the third injury-related absence of the season for Lyon, who missed a combined 12 games with a lower-body injury before New Year’s and has now missed the last three games with an upper-body injury he sustained on Jan. 7 against the Senators. Lyon has a .902 SV% and 2.71 GAA in 16 appearances, translating to 1.4 goals saved above expected (per MoneyPuck). Struggling veteran Ville Husso will continue serving as Cam Talbot’s backup.

Viktor Lodin Could Return To The NHL Next Season

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Viktor Lodin’s first stint in North America came and went with little fanfare.  However, now that he’s having a strong season back home in Sweden, a return could be back on the radar.  Aftonbladet’s Tomas Ros and Hans Abrahamsson report (subscription link) that there are multiple NHL teams (including the Blues and Red Wings) believed to be scouting the forward and that Lodin could look to take another crack at the NHL next season.

The 25-year-old was a fourth-round pick by Ottawa back in 2019, going 94th overall.  After spending the first season of his entry-level deal with SHL Timra, Lodin came to North America late in the year, getting into one appearance with the big club and ten more with AHL Belleville where he impressed with eight points.  That seemed to position himself to push for an NHL roster spot for 2022-23.

That didn’t happen, however.  Lodin was limited to just 28 games with Belleville that year and while he held his own with 15 points in those outings, the Senators elected to walk away at the end of the season, non-tendering him instead of issuing a qualifying offer.

Lodin returned to Sweden last season, spending the year with IK Oskarshamn where he fared well with 11 goals and 20 assists in 40 games.  However, that team was relegated for this season so Lodin moved on to Farjestad for this year and his production has improved.  Through 31 outings in 2024-25, he has 12 goals and 21 assists, good for a tie for second in SHL scoring.

Because Lodin already had his entry-level contract, there are no more restrictions on what type of deal he can sign.  With the year he’s having, it’s possible that he could command a strong two-way deal or even a one-way pact which makes him someone to keep an eye on when the international transfer window opens up in the spring.  If Lodin doesn’t get an offer to his liking, he can fall back on the security of his current deal with Farjestad, one that runs through the 2028-29 season.

Red Wings Recall Ville Husso, Place Jeff Petry On IR

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After Alex Lyon left last night’s game against Ottawa after one period due to an upper-body injury, it appears his availability for Friday’s contest versus Chicago is in some question.  The team announced (Twitter links) that goaltender Ville Husso has been recalled from AHL Grand Rapids.  To make room on the roster, defenseman Jeff Petry has been placed on injured reserve retroactive to January 2nd.

Husso is up with Detroit for the fifth time already this season after he cleared waivers back at the start of the season.  The 29-year-old has played in eight games with the Red Wings so far in 2024-25, putting up a 3.47 GAA and a .877 SV%, numbers that don’t come close to justifying his $4.75MM price tag on a contract that expires at the end of the season.

However, he has fared quite better in his limited action with the Griffins.  In eight appearances with them, Husso has a 1.86 GAA with a .935 SV% in his first taste of longer-term AHL time since the 2018-19 season.  He is very close to reaching 30 days on the NHL roster and when that threshold is reached (or if he plays in two more games in Detroit), he’ll need to pass through waivers again before he can be returned to Grand Rapids.

As for Petry, he has missed the last two games with an undisclosed injury.  The 37-year-old has had a quiet season offensively, notching just one goal and five assists in his first 37 outings although he’s still averaging over 19 minutes a night of playing time.  The retroactive placement means he’ll have missed seven days before Friday’s matchup, meaning that he’ll be eligible to be activated as early as that game if he’s cleared to return.

Red Wings Have Shown Interest In Dylan Cozens

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The Sabres and Red Wings were linked as speculative trade partners earlier in the season, with Max Bultman of The Athletic suggesting at one point that Detroit may be interested in prying defenseman Bowen Byram away from Buffalo. It turns out there was some smoke to that fire, but center Dylan Cozens is the Sabres player that the Wings have expressed interest in acquiring, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet wrote Tuesday.

While most reports indicate the Sabres’ desired path forward is to stay the course despite currently ranking last in the Eastern Conference with a 15-21-5 record, that hasn’t stopped Cozens’ name from appearing in a fair amount of trade speculation through the first half of the season. Things haven’t gone well for the soon-to-be 24-year-old, whose point totals have steadily regressed since a career-best 31 goals and 68 points in 2022-23 that earned him a seven-year, $49.7MM extension.

Cozens is posting just 0.49 points per game in 2024-25, down from last year’s 0.59 mark and even further from that breakout year’s 0.84. He’s shooting 8.6% for eight goals through 41 games, adding 12 assists for 20 points and a team-worst -14 rating.

As our Gabriel Foley wrote last month, Buffalo’s poor record this season extends far past Cozens’ woes. Moving on from him would also risk continuing a trend of the Sabres moving on from still-developing players too soon, parting ways before they break out again on a new team.

If he were to be on the move, the Wings make a lot of sense. They have an old center corps for a supposedly still-rebuilding team, with top three pivots Dylan Larkin, Andrew Copp and J.T. Compher all between the ages of 28 and 30. Marco Kasper, 20, is well on his way to capturing a top-nine spot down the middle, but inserting Cozens there gives them an extended window to return to playoff relevance.

Despite the poor rating, possession play hasn’t been a huge issue for Cozens this season. His 50.6 CF% ranks 10th on the team at even strength, and while his -3.3 expected rating is in the middle of the pack, it’s far from the worst. His 165 shot attempts are fifth on the team, and he’s been the best Sabre at actually getting pucks through on net, converting 56.4% of his attempts into shots on goal.

Trading Cozens carries a fair amount of risk for both teams. There’s the chance of Buffalo cutting bait too early, but there’s also a financial risk for an acquiring team with five years left on his contract if his numbers don’t rebound to the 60-point range at a minimum.

But even at his current low point, Cozens is a middle-six upgrade for Detroit over Compher and Copp. Both are producing at worse point-per-game rates than Cozens, with far worse possession metrics, both raw and relative.

The Wings’ biggest issue this season is generating offense, especially high-danger chances. They only have 233 high-danger chances at 5-on-5 compared to the league average of 297, and they’re also only converting on 6.8% of those. Cozens should help with that to some degree.

Alex Chiasson Announces Retirement

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A long-time middle-six scorer is officially hanging up his skates. Originally announced by himself and then shared by the National Hockey League Players’ Association, Alex Chiasson is retiring after spending a few years off the ice.

The Dallas Stars drafted Chiasson with the 38th overall pick of the 2009 NHL Draft out of the USHL’s Des Moines Buccaneers program. Instead of immediately turning professional, Chiasson joined the Boston University Terriers for the 2009-10 NCAA season one year after they won the National Championship. Unfortunately, Chiasson would fail to reach the Frozen Four throughout his three-year tenure with Boston University.

He still became an effective playmaker at the collegiate level. He finished his NCAA career with 36 goals and 99 points in 108 games before signing his entry-level contract after the 2011-12 campaign. Chiasson started quickly with the AHL’s Texas Stars, scoring one goal and five points in nine contests.

Much of the next calendar year was spent in AHL Texas until Dallas recalled Chiasson in early April of the 2012-13 season to debut in the NHL. After scoring six goals and seven points in seven games to end the regular season, Chiasson became an NHL regular for the next decade.

Chiasson scored 13 goals and 35 points in 79 games during his official rookie season, which would be his last with the Stars. The following summer, he was acquired by the Ottawa Senators organization as a part of the return package for franchise icon Jason Spezza.

Although he became one of the better players from the trade for Spezza, his time in Canada’s capital was mostly disappointing. He finished his tenure in Ottawa with 19 goals and 40 points in 153 games before arduous contract negotiations led to a trade to the Calgary Flames in the summer of 2016.

After a solid year as a depth scorer for the Flames, Chiasson signed with the Washington Capitals for the 2017-18 season. He won his first and only Stanley Cup that year, scoring one goal and one assist in 16 playoff games for the Capitals.

It wasn’t until he joined the Edmonton Oilers that Chiasson experienced the most personal success of his career. During his time with the Oilers, Chiasson scored 42 goals and 78 points in 183 games, including a 22-goal campaign in the 2018-19 season.

Chiasson’s final game came on April 13, 2023, as a member of the Detroit Red Wings one year after spending the season with the Vancouver Canucks. He ended his career with 120 goals and 233 points in 651 games with another four goals and seven points in 37 postseason contests.

All of us at PHR extend our best wishes to Alex as he enters the next chapter of his life.

Jeff Petry Out With Undisclosed Injury

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As mentioned yesterday, the Detroit Red Wings’ concerns regarding the availability of veteran defenseman Jeff Petry have unfortunately been realized. According to team broadcast reporter Daniella Bruce, the Red Wings won’t have Petry in the lineup tonight due to an undisclosed injury suffered in the team’s recent game against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

There is a valid argument that either option may prove to be an improvement over Petry. He’s experiencing one of the worst offensive seasons of his career, reminiscent of the 2013-14 season when he had only seven goals and 17 points in 80 games with the third-to-last-place Edmonton Oilers. While Petry has performed slightly better defensively this year with the Red Wings, he has not approached the level of the consistent 40-point defenseman he once was.

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Detroit Red Wings Recall William Lagesson

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Defenseman William Lagesson will join the Detroit Red Wings for their game tomorrow night as an insurance option. The organization announced they’ve recalled Lagesson from their AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins.

Lagesson’s recall is likely in response to Jeff Petry’s status tomorrow night. Petry sustained an undisclosed injury in the team’s recent win against the Columbus Blue Jackets last night limiting him to 17:17 of ice time despite averaging nearly 20 minutes for much of the season.

Even if Petry’s injury keeps him out of the lineup tomorrow night, his minutes will likely go to Albert Johansson, who hasn’t factored into Todd McLellan’s scheme since taking over behind the bench on December 26th. Johansson has largely skated in a depth role for Detroit this season, tallying one assist in 17 contests.

That’s more than Lagesson can say. This roster move marks Largesson’s fourth recall to the Red Wings’ active roster this season but he’s only appeared in two games. He skated on a third-pairing role in those contests averaging 15:57 of ice time without finding the scoresheet.

His real value has come in AHL Grand Rapids where Lagesson continues to be a defensive boon. He’s only scored three goals and nine points in 23 games for the Griffins this year but leads the team with an impressive +13 rating.

If Detroit is sure that Petry can suit up against the Jets by tomorrow morning, there’s a real chance that Lagesson could head back to Grand Rapids as early as tomorrow. The Griffins line up against the Milwaukee Admirals tomorrow night but won’t have another game until January 10th meaning Lagesson may not participate in a game for a week.

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