Sidney Crosby Leaves Olympic Game With Injury
During Canada’s dramatic overtime victory over Czechia in the quarterfinals of the ongoing Winter Olympics men’s hockey tournament, Pittsburgh Penguins forward Sidney Crosby was forced out of the game with an injury.
ESPN’s Emily Kaplan relayed word from Canadian head coach Jon Cooper post game, who said that he didn’t know the extent of Crosby’s injury. According to Kaplan, Crosby will undergo medical imaging to determine the extent of the lower-body injury he suffered. The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reported that Hockey Canada is expected to issue an update on Crosby’s status on Thursday.
As one of the most iconic players in the history of Canadian international hockey competition, Crosby’s status is one of the key storylines to watch as the tournament progresses into the semifinal stage. At this point in time, one can only speculate on whether Crosby will be available for the rest of the tournament.
If Crosby is unavailable, it goes without saying that would be a massive loss for Canada. Crosby has six points in the tournament and his line with Mitch Marner and Mark Stone has been one of Canada’s best.
Any extended absence would also impact the Penguins. Pittsburgh is in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race, in large part powered by Crosby’s 59 points in 56 games. Losing Crosby, even for a brief period of time, would make winning on a nightly basis far more challenging for the Penguins.
As of right now, all Canada and Penguins fans can do is wait for Hockey Canada to issue an update regarding Crosby and hope it’s positive.
Kings Recall Pheonix Copley, Place Kevin Fiala On IR
Earlier today, the Los Angeles Kings announced that they’ve recalled netminder Pheonix Copley from the AHL’s Ontario Reign. Additionally, the Kings have placed forward Kevin Fiala on the injured reserve, as expected.
Copley has likely been brought on as a practice player before Los Angeles returns to action next week. Darcy Kuemper, the Kings’ typical starter, is rostered on Team Canada for the Olympics, and they’ve already clinched a spot in the Bronze Medal game at the very least.
Despite a brief stint with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Copley has been with Los Angeles for the past four years. Still, he’s spent much of the past two years with AHL Ontario. In 24 games for the Reign this season, Copley has managed a 13-11-0 record with a .890 SV% and 2.95 GAA.
Meanwhile, Fiala’s placement on the injured reserve was a formality. Playing on Team Switzerland in the Olympics, Fiala infamously suffered multiple leg fractures in a game against Canada.
The fractures required nearly immediate surgery, which has prematurely ended Fiala’s 2025-26 campaign. Los Angeles could have placed Fiala on long-term injured reserve, but their sufficient cap space made that unnecessary.
Fiala’s absence from the Kings’ lineup the rest of the way should undoubtedly alter Los Angeles’ approach leading up to the trade deadline. Yes, the team already acquired high-scoring winger Artemi Panarin before the Olympics, though that was with Fiala healthy. Given the drastic need for goal-scoring help in Los Angeles, it’s likely they’ll seek to acquire some additional reinforcements.
Kings’ Kevin Fiala Suffers Sustains Multiple Left Leg Fractures, Out For The Season
Sunday: The Los Angeles Kings updated today that Fiala underwent successful surgery due to fractures in his lower left leg. As expected, he will miss the remainder of the season, and will be reevaluated in the spring.
Saturday: Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that Fiala is having surgery today. There still is no word on the precise nature of the injury but Friedman adds that it is indeed season-ending, a significant blow for both Switzerland and the Kings. Fiala will now be eligible to be placed on LTIR but with Los Angeles having ample cap space, it’s unlikely they’ll need to put him there.
Friday: One of the main reasons NHL teams opposed player participation in the Olympics was the concern over injuries that could be avoided. That fear has come to fruition for the Los Angeles Kings. Toward the end of today’s game between Canada and Switzerland, Kevin Fiala had to be stretchered off the ice due to an apparent leg or knee injury.
As mentioned, the injury happened with approximately three minutes left in the game. Fiala absorbed a hit from Tom Wilson and was in immediate pain on the ice. Although the hit was leveled, the incident causing the injury seemed accidental, and more like a freak play. According to Mark Lazerus of The Athletic, after the game, Wilson said, “It’s the Olympic Games and I feel terrible that he may not be able to keep playing. Just sending his family and him my best. You never want to see a guy go down, in a tournament like this, especially.”
Still, accident or not, it doesn’t make the situation any easier for the Kings. Fiala is the team’s second-highest scorer with 18 goals and 40 points in 56 games while averaging over 19 minutes of ice time per game.
Considering how starved Los Angeles is for offense, it’s a worst-case scenario. The team recently acquired high-scoring Artemi Panarin before the Olympic break, but that didn’t relieve all of the team’s goal-scoring woes. No, the Kings haven’t yet played with Panarin on the ice, but losing a player with Fiala’s goal-scoring capabilities will objectively make it more difficult for them to put the puck in the net.
There haven’t been many updates regarding Fiala’s immediate status. Arpon Basu of The Athletic reported that Fiala has been taken to a local hospital, and there are concerns that the injury could be season-ending. If that’s the case, the Kings’ uphill climb toward playoff contention just became remarkably more difficult.
Golden Knights’ Jonas Rondbjerg Ruled Out Of Olympics
2/8: Denmark has announced their replacement following Rondbjerg’s injury. They’ve added left-defenseman Malte Setkov, bringing the roster to a conventional 14 forwards and seven defenders after Denmark originally rostered 15 forwards. Setkov has spent the last four seasons in Denmark’s top league. He has 13 goals and 30 points in 39 games this season, a career-high scoring pace.
2/6: Team Denmark will enter the 2026 Winter Olympics without one of their five NHL forwards. Vegas Golden Knights winger Jonas Rondbjerg has been ruled out due to a lower-body injury sustained during Vegas’ Sunday loss to the Anaheim Ducks, Denmark general manager Morten Green told local news channel TV 2 Sport.
Rondbjerg was placed on Vegas’ injured reserve on Monday. He missed the Golden Knights’ last two games before the Winter Olympics break, replaced by rookie forward Kai Uchacz.
Now, Rondbjerg will lose his first chance to represent Denmark at the Olympic Games. He joined the country at the Olympic Game Qualifiers in 2025 and scored one goal in three games. That chip, and his physical presence, helped lift Denmark to the top of Group F.
Rondbjerg was one of only seven NHL players on Denmarks 2026 Olympics roster. His peers include the Hurricanes’ Nikolaj Ehlers, Lightning’s Oliver Bjorkstrand, Senators’ Lars Eller, and Kraken’s Oscar Fisker Molgaard on offense.
That bunch will make up the bulk of Denmark’s top lines, while Rondbjerg was set for a pillaring role in the team’s bottom-six. The 6-foot-2 forward has split the season between the NHL and AHL, netting one point in four games with Vegas and 23 points in 36 games with the Henderson Silver Knights. He offers a reserved, physical presence that could have boosted Denmark’s odds against physical teams like Finland and USA.
Who Denmark will choose to replace Rondbjerg will be an interesting question to answer. Winger Felix Maegaard Scheel, 33, joined Denmark’s national team for three games earlier this season. He has served an extra forward role at the last four World Championships and currently has 11 points in 29 games in Germany’s DEL. Denmark could also opt for Viktors Čubars, who leads the country’s top league in scoring with 57 points in 40 games. Other local options could include Patrick Bjorkstrand or Oliver True, Ehlers’ cousin.
Or, if Denmark wants to maintain their NHL connection, they could opt for former Chicago Blackhawks draft pick (2016 fifth-round) Mathias From, who has 53 points in 42 games in Austria’s IceHL.
Flyers’ Ty Murchison Expected To Be Out For Season With Injury
The Philadelphia Flyers will lose a strong call-up option for the rest of the year. Defenseman Ty Murchison, who made his NHL debut in December, has sustained an upper-body injury and isn’t expected to return this season per Lehigh Valley Phantoms broadcaster Bob Rotruck. Murchison sustained the injury during Lehigh Valley’s January 11th loss to the Providence Bruins. He has missed eight games since.
Murchison was having a succesful start to his pro career. The AHL rookie only had six points in 29 games – but his 46 penalty minutes ranked third on Lehigh Valley, and his staunch defense earned him a call-up to the NHL while Philadelphia adjusted to blue-line injuries. Murchison went on to play in three games with the Flyers, netting no scoring and a plus-one. He earned incremently more ice time over those three games, before being reassigned.
Murchison brings an physical, defense-first presence that proved quickly valuable in Lehigh Valley. That continues the pattern of hard-earned hockey that followed Murchison through four years at Arizona State University. He only scored 23 points in 145 games with the Sun Devils – but, again, his propensity for hard-hitting hockey proved intimidating at the college flight.
The 23-year-old Murchison seems well set to vie for a bottom-pair role in Philadelphia one day. He could have even earned that role at the tail-end of this season, after Philadelphia traded Egor Zamula following Murchison’s NHL debut. Now, it seems he’ll have to wait for a smooth recovery next season before he rejoins the fight for NHL minutes.
Panthers Reassign Mikulas Hovorka
2/6/26: The Panthers reassigned Hovorka back to AHL Charlotte today. He played 11:27 time on ice in Florida’s loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning yesterday.
2/5/26: With the Panthers dealing with several injuries for their final game before the Olympic break against Tampa Bay, they needed some help on the back end. Accordingly, the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled Mikulas Hovorka from AHL Charlotte. To make room on the roster, blueliner Tobias Bjornfot was placed on injured reserve.
The 24-year-old is in his second season in North America since signing as an undrafted free agent with Florida back in 2024. Prior to tonight’s game, he had exclusively played in the minors with the Checkers. This season, Hovorka has two goals and eight assists in 30 games, meaning he has equaled his rookie-season output in half the games he played in 2024-25. However, given that the break is coming after tonight’s game, it’s a lock that he’ll be returned to Charlotte in the very near future.
As for Bjornfot, the nature of the injury is currently undisclosed but he sustained it on Wednesday against Boston. The 24-year-old was recalled last month and has seen fairly regular action since then. Bjornfot has played in 10 games with Florida this season, picking up two goals and one assist in 11:20 per night of playing time. Meanwhile, he hasn’t been much more productive in Charlotte as he has a goal and six helpers in 22 games with them. Bjornfot will be eligible to be activated in time for Florida’s next game on February 26th against Toronto.
Penguins Recall Avery Hayes, Three Out
The Pittsburgh Penguins are facing a shakeup on offense in their final game before the Olympic break. Winger Avery Hayes was recalled to the NHL and will make his NHL debut to help Pittsburgh address absences for Noel Acciari, Rickard Rakell, and Blake Lizotte.
Acciari entered the day with an illness. He was designated as a game-time decision and ultimately scratched. Rakell has been designated as day-to-day with a lower-body injury. It isn’t yet clear if or how that injury will impact his availability for the Olympic games. Finally, Lizotte will be away from the team to attend to the birth of his child. All injury updates come per Josh Yohe of The Athletic.
The lineup shift will leave Penguins forward Benjamin Kindel and Egor Chinakhov as focal pieces of the offense, with the rookie Kindel even earning top power-play reps. Chinakhov has scored six points in his last six games, while Kindel has five points. They will help make up for the glaring holes left by Pittsburgh’s absentees. All three have made their marks felt over the last two weeks, though surprisingly Lizotte and Acciari have proven the hotter hands, with four points to Rakell’s three.
Pittsburgh will get another boost from one of their AHL leading scorers. Hayes has racked up 23 points and 41 penalty minutes in 31 AHL games this season. It’s a ramped up year across the board after the two-way winger posted 23 goals, 42 points, and 58 PIMs in 60 games last season. The undrafted Hayes is in his third AHL season. He was a two-time OHL champion across four years in the league, where he made a name for himself as a plug-and-play winger capable of fitting next to any linemates. Pittsburgh will hope Hayes brings that same flexibility into his first game at the top flight.
Team Canada To Replace Injured Brayden Point With Seth Jarvis
After five days of practices, Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brayden Point has determined he will not be healthy enough to join Team Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics. He has been removed from the roster and will be replaced by Carolina Hurricanes’ winger Seth Jarvis, per Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic and Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
Point sustained a knee injury in Tampa Bay’s January 12th win over the Philadelphia Flyers. The injury knocked him off the ice until last Saturday, when he returned to practice with the hopes of working back to health in time for a trip to Milan, per Eduardo A. Encina of Tampa Bay Times. Despite that return, Point has determined he won’t be at 100 percent before games kick off. Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois commended Point – and Tampa Bay teammate Anthony Cirelli – for their selflessness in giving up their spot rather than trying to play through injury in a text to LeBrun.
This switch will bring on some stylistic changes for Team Canada. Point is often used as a center, though seemed headed for a wing-role in Milan in part thanks to his 45.9 faceoff percentage this season. He is a reserved scorer who has managed 11 goals and 30 points in 37 games, typically finding his scoring chances from the slot. Jarvis has proven much more aggressive in recent years, typically operating as the first-man-in on Carolina’s forecheck and cutting his teeth in board battles. He has 69 hits on the season to Point’s four. Jarvis has also scored 25 goals and 43 points in 48 games, continuing his knack for strong scoring after cresting the 30-goal and 65-point mark in each of the last two seasons.
Both players found an impact for Team Canada at the 2025 4-Nations Face-Off. Point served up the lineup and managed two points in four games, while Jarvis defaulted to the bottom-six and scored one assist in three games. They were both on the ice for the tournament finale against Team USA, where Point’s 21 minutes of ice time ranked second on the offense behind only Connor McDavid. Jarvis played roughly 13 minutes in that game – second-lowest on the team ahead of Brad Marchand.
That deployment goes far in painting Canada’s view of the two stars. While Jarvis has acheived more success this season, he is still the junior to two-time Stanley Cup winner Point. Jarvis is six years younger and still carving out his presence in the NHL. This year’s Winter Olympics could go far in helping cement his status, especially after Jarvis only attended two tournaments with Canada – the 2019 World U-17 Hockey Championshp and Hlinka Gretzky Cup – prior to his selection to the 4-Nations roster. This will be his biggest stage yet and it comes at a perfect time. Jarvis is red-hot, with 10 points and a plus-eight in his last nine games, of which Carolina has won seven.
Notably, this decisions will leave Winnipeg Jets star Mark Scheifele and Chicago Blackhawks cornerstone Connor Bedard both at home. Scheifele hasn’t represented Canada internationally since the 2017 World Championship when he scored eight points in 10 games. Nearly a decade later, the Jets alternate captain is on pace for 40 goals and 100 points this season – so far at 27 goals and 68 points in 56 games. Bedard has offered plenty of offensive punch of his own, with 23 goals and 53 points in 43 games on a struggling Blackhawks offense. The duo are two of the league’s most skilled scorers but will be superceded by a winger who offers a bit more intangibles.
Photo courtesy of Sergei Belski-Imagn Images.
Kraken Reassign Oscar Fisker Molgaard, Place Berkly Catton On IR
2/5: As expected, Fisker Molgaard was reassigned on Thursday morning. He played just under seven minutes of ice time in Seattle’s Wednesday night win over the Los Angeles Kings, and did not record any notable stat changes.
2/4: The Seattle Kraken have swapped around the rookies on their active roster. Winger Berkly Catton has been placed on injured reserve with an injury sustained in Seattle’s win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on January 29th. The rookie took a hit to the head from Leafs defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson but was able to get off the ice under his own power, after a moment. He has missed two games since.
Catton was knocked out of the lineup in the midst of a running cold-streak. He has fallen to a depth role with one goal, two points, and a minus-one over his last nine games. Through what is officially his NHL rookie season, Catton has totaled only 11 points in 40 games. It has been a quiet year after back-to-back 100-point seasons in the WHL. Catton hasn’t yet made his AHL debut – something that could come on the other side of his recovery from this long-term injury. He will have the next three week to heal up before Seattle returns of February 25th.
With the roster spot created by Catton’s designation, the Kraken have called up winger Oscar Fisker Molgaard. He will have a chance to step into the lineup in Seattle’s final game before the three-week break for the Winter Olympics. Fisker-Molgaard will likely be returned to the minors before NHL rosters freeze on Friday, allowing him to stay on the ice while Kraken teammates Kaapo Kakko, Eeli Tolvanen, and Philipp Grubauer represent their countries in Milan.
Fisker Molgaard played the first two games of his NHL career in November. He recorded one assist, one shot on goal, and one hit. He has spent the rest of the season in a prominent role with the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds, where his 22 points in 36 games rank fourth in scoring. Fisker Molgaard has served as the team’s second-line center in his rookie season in North American pros. He spent the last three speasons in Sweden’s SHL, where he racked up 47 points in 129 games. It isn’t clear if Fisker Molgaard will step into the NHL lineup before the break. He was briefly recalled, but didn’t play, in January.
Anthony Cirelli To Miss Olympics
In an unfortunate update, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman shared that Tampa Bay Lightning forward Anthony Cirelli will be unable to play for Team Canada in the upcoming Olympics due to injury. Friedman added that Sam Bennett would replace Cirelli on Team Canada’s roster.
Cirelli, 28, sustained the injury in Tampa Bay’s Stadium Series win over the Boston Bruins. He was on the receiving end of a hard hit from Bruins forward Mark Kastelic in the first period and didn’t return to the game. He finished the game with a +1 rating in 6:25 of action.
Since then, there haven’t been any firm updates. After the game, head coach Jon Cooper was quoted as saying, “It was kind of a stinger. Cirell’s a tough kid. For him not to come back, clearly, there’s something wrong with him. So hopefully he’ll be okay. There’s some big games coming up ahead of him.”
Unfortunately, those big games will have to wait for the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs. It’s a tough break for a player who has dramatically turned his career around in recent years and helped Team Canada win the 4 Nations Face-Off last season.
Back in the 2022-23 season, after scoring 11 goals and 29 points in 58 games, Cirelli became a legitimate trade candidate for the Lightning. Tampa Bay had just signed him to an eight-year, $50MM extension, a high price to play for a center that wasn’t always available.
Still, over the last two years, he’s made that contract look well worth it, scoring 42 goals and 94 points in 129 games with a 49.4% success rate in the faceoff dot. Furthermore, he’s responsible on his own end, managing a 91.2% on-ice SV% at even strength through 49 games this season.
While it’s a depressing development for Cirelli, Team Canada has added more snarl to their forward core at the very least. Bennett scored one goal in three games during last year’s 4 Nations tournament. He famously got into a fight with Brady Tkachuk during the opening minutes of the much-awaited tilt with the United States. Outside of the obvious, Olympic opponents will be extra intimidated by Team Canada, which will also have Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson.
It’ll be interesting to see how Bennett responds offensively. Due to the number of injuries suffered by the Panthers this year, Bennett has earned more responsibility. At this time last year, he had scored 17 goals and 33 points in 53 games. This season, he has 19 goals and 42 points in 55 contests.
While that isn’t the typical production of a forward on Team Canada, Bennett tends to raise his game when the lights are brightest. Over the past three postseasons, Bennett has helped Florida reach three consecutive Stanley Cup Finals, scoring 27 goals and 51 points in 62 games, culminating in the Conn Smythe Trophy last season.