Evening Notes: Mammoth, Suter, Carlson, Ellis
Even though it’ll take until the last game of the regular season to determine who they’ll face in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Utah Mammoth have a few unfortunate confirmations already. According to Cole Bagley of KSL Sports, forwards Barrett Hayton and Jack McBain are still a few weeks away from returning.
Hayton has been dealing with an upper-body injury since March 26th, whereas McBain has only been out a little over a week with a lower-body injury. Regardless, depending on how many weeks it takes, both Hayton and McBain may miss the opening round of the playoffs for the Mammoth.
Although each player is a respectable tertiary scorer for Utah, the team’s center depth, particularly on the bottom two lines, will be tested. Additionally, the Mammoth will significantly miss McBain’s physicality, especially in a postseason environment. The 6’4″, 219 lbs center leads Utah in hits this season with 271.
Additional evening notes:
- Eligible for an extension or potentially a trade this summer, St. Louis Blues forward Pius Suter is preparing early. According to PuckPedia, Suter has changed his representation to Judd Moldaver. Moldaver represents some of the sport’s top athletes, such as Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid, and Zach Werenski.
- As mentioned in a previous article, conditional draft picks included in trades will finalize now that every potential team has qualified for a postseason spot. Now that the Anaheim Ducks have qualified for the playoffs, the Washington Capitals will acquire Anaheim’s 2026 first-round pick from the John Carlson trade, instead of Anaheim having an option for this year’s or next (via PuckPedia).
- Additionally, the San Jose Sharks will receive elevated draft compensation, too (via PuckPedia). In the Ryan Ellis contract dump earlier this year between the Sharks and the Philadelphia Flyers, the Flyers allowed the Sharks to receive the better of their 2026 sixth-round pick or Columbus’ 2026 sixth-round pick. Since the Flyers qualified for the playoffs, San Jose will receive Columbus’ sixth-round selection in the upcoming draft (via PuckPedia).
Atlantic Notes: Tkachuk, Hovorka, Laughton, Viel
The Ottawa Senators have been without their captain, Brady Tkachuk, for the last few games of their regular season. Fortunately, his absence isn’t expected to creep into the playoffs, as TSN’s Bruce Garrioch reported that Tkachuk is “good to go” for the postseason.
The injury keeping Tkachuk is one of the weirder ones this season. In Ottawa’s recent game against the New York Islanders, Tkachuk was bumped by Islanders’ defenseman Ryan Pulock, causing Tkachuk to return to the bench while wobbling. In recent updates, Tkachuk clarified that his dizziness was unrelated to Pulock and resulted from a prior hit in the game. As of now, he has been cleared of all concussion symptoms.
Regardless, it’s big news for the Senators who are looking to pull off an upset in their opening-round matchup. The heart and soul of the team, Tkachuk has been irreplaceable for Ottawa, scoring 22 goals and 59 points in 60 games, while leveling 162 hits. Despite missing a decent chunk of the season due to injury, Tkachuk remains third on the team in scoring and is likely to finish there.
Additional notes from the Atlantic Division:
- According to George Richards of Florida Hockey Now, the Florida Panthers have recalled defenseman Mikulas Hovorka for their final game of the regular season tomorrow night. The 24-year-old blueliner has seen his name on the transaction report a few times this past month, allowing him to skate in three games for the Panthers. Still, the Praha, Czechia native remains looking for his first NHL point, and he’ll seek to change that tomorrow evening against the Detroit Red Wings.
- With the postseason pool finalized, the impact of conditional draft picks traded this season is now clear. According to PuckPedia, now that the Los Angeles Kings have qualified for the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Toronto Maple Leafs will receive Buffalo’s 2026 second-round pick in the Scott Laughton trade.
- The Maple Leafs aren’t the only team in the Atlantic Division to reap the benefits of another team making the postseason. Since the Philadelphia Flyers made the playoffs, the Boston Bruins will receive the Red Wings’ 2026 fourth-round pick from the Anaheim Ducks in the trade that sent Jeffrey Viel to Orange County a few months ago (via PuckPedia).
Mammoth Reassign Matt Villalta
4/13/26: The Mammoth reassigned Villalta back to Tucson today. He backed up Vanecek yesterday during the Mammoth’s 4-1 loss to the Calgary Flames.
4/12/26: The Utah Mammoth recalled forward Kevin Rooney and goaltender Matt Villalta from the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners before last night’s game against the Calgary Flames. Villalta stepped into Utah’s backup role behind Vitek Vanecek with the usual starter, Karel Vejmelka, out with an undisclosed injury. Vejmelka’s injury isn’t expected to be serious, and his absence could be for a night of rest, per Brogan Houston of Desert News Sports. He saved 26 of 30 shots faced in Saturday night’s loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.
Both Rooney and Villalta were held off the ice in Sunday night’s game. The duo has each carved out productive roles in the minor leagues. Rooney has scored 24 points, split evenly, in 44 games with Tucson to go with one goal in one game with Utah this season. That is the most scoring he has managed in a single campaign since the 2017-18 season, when he scored 34 points in 71 AHL games. Villalta has split starts with Jaxson Stauber for much of the year. He has 16 wins and a .895 save percentage in 33 games, narrowly more wins and a higher save percentage than Stauber (14 wins, .886 Sv%) despite playing two fewer games.
Rooney and Villalta could be options to stick on the NHL roster with two games left in the Mammoth season. Their presence could allow Utah to rest some routine lineup players before the club takes on the franchise’s first appearance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Vejmelka will have the starting role locked in when the postseason rolls around, after he notched 37 wins and a .898 Sv% in 62 games this season. Vejmelka has appeared in the most games of any Mammoth – or Arizona Coyotes – goaltender since 2015, when Mike Smith also played 62 games.
Lightning To Use EBUG With Jonas Johansson Out
The Tampa Bay Lightning took the ice without backup goaltender Jonas Johansson in Monday night’s game against the Detroit Red Wings. Johansson is out day-to-day with an undisclosed injury. In his place, the Lightning will roster emergency backup goaltender Kyle Konin. This is Konin’s third time serving on an NHL bench as an EBUG. He filled in for the St. Louis Blues in 2021 and for the Philadelphia Flyers in 2024.
Konin has been the Tampa Bay-area EBUG since the 2020-21 season. He even wore a mask honoring Tampa Bay Lightning founder Phil Esposito in his 2024 game with the Flyers per Forbes’ Tom Layberger. Konin last took the ice with Grand Valley State University in Division III ACHA club hockey. He played one season in the NA3HL in 2017-18 and recorded a .897 save percentage in 34 games. Konin also played one game of high school hockey with Kimball Union Academy in 2016-17 with teammate and eventual Boston Bruins defenseman Jordan Harris.
While Konin will get to donn the Lightning jersey for the first time, Tampa Bay will hope he isn’t needed behind star starter Andrei Vasilevskiy. The Lightning have two games left in their season, including Monday’s matchup. Johansson’s short-term designation should have him back in the lineup before the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He has recorded 11 wins and a .884 save percentage in 25 games this season and should stick behind Vasilevskiy through the postseason.
Avalanche’s Cale Makar Returns To Full Practice
The Colorado Avalanche received an expected, but exciting, update at Monday morning’s practice. Star defenseman Cale Makar was back on the ice in a regular, practice jersey per Avalanche play-by-play announcer Connor McGahey. This marks the next step in Makar’s return from an upper-body injury sustained on March 30th. He has missed six games since.
Colorado has expected Makar to return before the start of the postseason, head coach Jared Bednar said the day after Makar was injured. He will have three more chances to meet that expectation before the end of Colorado’s regular season. The Avalanche have posted a 3-2-1 record and seen their goals-per-game average dip from a league-leading 3.70 to 3.00 since Makar was knocked out of the lineup.
There is no doubt about the impact that Makar brings. He is a perennial candidate for the Norris Trophy honoring the league’s best defenseman. Playing behind an Avalanche squad that led the league in goals-scored and goals-against should be enough to put Makar back in contention for the trophy this year. The 27 year old scored 20 goals and 75 points in 73 games this season. Those marks sit below the career-year Makar posted with 30 goals and 92 points in 80 games last season, which earned him the 2025 Norris Trophy, but are nonetheless impressive. Makar averaged nearly 25 minutes of ice time each game through this season, a mark only five other players outperformed. He will immediately step back into Colorado’s top defense role when he is back to full health, which could be soon after his return to full practice.
The Avalanche did not provide an update on fellow injured defenseman Josh Manson. The team recalled Jack Ahcan to serve as an extra defenseman with Manson out on Saturday. The return of either Makar or Manson should be enough to bump Ahcan back to the AHL and either Nick Blankenburg or Brett Kulak to the press box.
Dallas Stars To Activate Radek Faksa
The Dallas Stars are inching toward full strength heading into the postseason. According to Lia Assimakopoulos of the Dallas Morning News, the Stars are expected to activate forward Radek Faksa from the injured reserve, and he’ll make his return to the lineup this evening. Additionally, forward Michael Bunting is expected to return to the lineup, too, though he was never placed on the injured reserve.
Faksa’s return has been a long time coming. He first suffered an upper-body injury during the Olympics playing for Team Czechia. The injury wasn’t believed to be serious at the time, and Faksa was only expected to miss a game or two.
Unfortunately, that mild prognosis has turned into a multi-week return. During his rehabilitation, Faksa suffered a lower-body injury, which kept him out until now. A few reports indicated that Faksa may be done for the season, but he has managed to make a fairly quick recovery.
Although he hasn’t been a reliable point-producer for the Stars for many years, he has been one of the most reliable fourth-line forwards in the league. After his one-year hiatus with the St. Louis Blues, Faksa has scored two goals and 17 points in 56 games with Dallas this season, averaging 11:41 of ice time per game.
That doesn’t paint the whole picture with Faksa. He’s a steady penalty killer, owns a career 52.4% success rate in the faceoff dot, and starts more than 70% of his shifts in the defensive zone. He’s the epitome of a shutdown forward, and Dallas feels comfortable playing him against opponents’ best players, which will be a boon for them in the upcoming playoffs.
Meanwhile, Bunting returns to the lineup after missing the first few weeks of April with a lower-body injury. Before the injury, he had struggled with the Stars after being acquired at the trade deadline, scoring one goal and two points in 11 games with a -7 rating.
Avalanche’s Jared Bednar To Miss Two Games With Injury
The Colorado Avalanche will be without head coach Jared Bednar for their upcoming two-game road trip as Bednar recovers from facial fractures and a corneal abrasion, per a team announcement.
Bednar will not require surgery and is expected to make a full recovery. The 54-year-old was struck by a puck during yesterday’s contest against the Vegas Golden Knights. While he is away from the team, Avalanche assistant coaches Nolan Pratt and Dave Hakstol will handle Bednar’s coaching duties.
At this time of year, injury-related absences are par for the course. But that’s typically a fact of life late in an NHL season that’s restricted to players – it’s far more rare for a coach to miss time as the result of injuries suffered during a game. But that’s exactly what has happened, although thankfully for all parties involved, the team made it clear that they expect Bednar to make a full recovery.
Bednar is in the midst of another stellar campaign as Avalanche head coach. The Saskatchewan native has been Colorado’s head coach since 2016, and has been in his position longer than any other coach in the NHL, save for Tampa Bay Lightning bench boss Jon Cooper.
While his tenure in Colorado began with a disastrous 22-56-4 campaign, he has since helped turn the Avalanche into one of the league’s most consistently dominant teams.
He hasn’t missed the playoffs since his rookie season behind the bench, and has gone 442-262-75 as Avalanche head coach overall. He is the franchise’s all-time winningest head coach and won the Stanley Cup in 2022.
Injury Notes: Jets, Marino, Shabanov, Malott
The Winnipeg Jets were all but eliminated from playoff contention yesterday, suffering a 7-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. With three games remaining on the schedule, they’ll need to win all three, as well as get considerable outside help, in order to return to the playoffs. As they seek a miracle over these next three games, they’ll need to do so without winger Morgan Barron. Barron has missed three straight games with a lower-body injury and Jets head coach Scott Arniel told the media yesterday, including Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press, that Barron is done for the regular season. The 27-year-old finishes his 2025-26 season with 11 goals and 23 points in 65 games, a career high in offensive production. He’s under contract through next season at a $1.85MM AAV before he’s set to become a UFA.
In addition to Barron, Arniel also provided an update on the status of injured defenseman Elias Salomonsson. Arniel said Salomonsson is still dealing with concussion symptoms and has not yet returned to the ice. The 21-year-old defenseman suffered his injury April 2 against the Dallas Stars, and has missed four consecutive games. Salomonsson, who was recently ranked the No. 1 prospect in the Jets’ system by The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler, has averaged 17:57 time on ice per game across 32 NHL contests this season.
Other injury notes from around the NHL:
- Utah Mammoth defenseman John Marino couldn’t play in yesterday’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes as the result of an upper-body injury. The team officially classified his status as day-to-day. The 28-year-old has had a strong bounce-back season for the Mammoth after an injury-plagued 2024-25 campaign. He’s been Utah’s No. 3 defenseman in terms of ice time this season, and is a regular penalty killer. He’s also hit a career high in terms of scoring this season, with 35 points in 78 games. With their first playoff series in franchise history coming soon, the Mammoth will hope that Marino can return to 100 percent health, or a reasonable approximation of that, sooner rather than later.
- New York Islanders forward Maxim Shabanov missed yesterday’s loss to the Ottawa Senators with an upper-body injury, per a team announcement. The 25-year-old has dressed for just four Islanders games since the start of February, dealing with a mix of injuries and healthy scratches. His first campaign in the NHL hasn’t gone totally to plan, though he has had his moments. In total, he’s scored five goals and 18 points in 44 games this season.
- Los Angeles Kings forward Jeff Malott missed yesterday’s shutout win over the Edmonton Oilers with an undisclosed injury, per head coach D.J. Smith. The 29-year-old has had the most successful season of his pro career, finally breaking into the NHL on a full-time basis. Malott scored at least 40 points in each of his last four AHL campaigns, but before this season wasn’t able to land an NHL role on more than a spot basis. That changed this year, as he’s skated in 58 contests for the Kings and none in the AHL. The 6’5″ winger has registered nine points and 166 hits in those 58 games this season.
Noah Dobson Out Week-To-Week, Canadiens Recall David Reinbacher
Montreal Canadiens defenseman Noah Dobson left last night’s loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets with an apparent thumb injury, reports Eric Engels of Sportsnet. Dobson appeared to suffer the injury after blocking a shot, his league-leading 188th blocked shot of the 2025-26 season.
The team announced Sunday morning that Dobson sustained an upper-body injury and would be re-evaluated in two weeks. The team also announced that 2023 No. 5 pick David Reinbacher has been recalled from the Laval Rocket.
The news is a brutal development for a team that, at this moment, looks to be one of the league’s most promising. It’s difficult to overstate just how important Dobson is to the Canadiens.
The 26-year-old has been the Canadiens’ No. 3 defenseman in terms of ice time this season, averaging 22:29 per game. While that puts him behind Mike Matheson and Lane Hutson in Montreal, that’s a number high enough to rank No. 1 or No. 2 on other teams.
Dobson brings an immense amount of value to the Canadiens on a nightly basis, on both ends of the ice. His pairing with Matheson weathers some of the team’s most difficult defensive matchups, and he’s often relied upon when the team is defending a late lead. He’s also a key penalty killer, and he pairs that defensive ability with a strong offensive touch, putting up 12 goals and 47 points in his debut campaign as a Canadien.
Montreal surrendered a high price to the Islanders to acquire Dobson – two first-round picks and a solid NHL-ready young forward in Emil Heineman. The way Dobson has played has more than justified that asset expenditure, as well as the $9.5MM AAV contract extension he received.
But at this moment, Dobson’s value only serves to reinforce just how catastrophic this injury could be to the Canadiens’ hopes of making a deep playoff run. His injury exposes the most significant lineup weakness in Montreal: a lack of capable right-shot defensemen. Veteran Alexandre Carrier has already been sidelined with an injury of his own on a week-to-week basis, meaning that after Dobson’s injury, the Canadiens were left without a single right-shot blueliner in their lineup. Hutson and Arber Xhekaj, both lefties, played on the right side of the team’s defense last night.
Dobson’s injury left Montreal without a single healthy right-shot defenseman on their roster just a few days before the start of the playoffs. That’s not an ideal situation for any team to be in, let alone a club with designs on having an extended stay in the postseason, and it’s why they recalled Reinbacher.
The Canadiens are lucky that several of their left-shot defensemen, namely Hutson, Kaiden Guhle, and rookie Adam Engstrom, have real experience on the right side. But both Hutson and Guhle have also demonstrated that while they can certainly handle playing on the right, both players are not quite as effective when forced to play from that side.
With that said, the Canadiens appear to not have an appetite to dress a defense made up entirely of lefties. As a result, Reinbacher has been recalled. While the Austrian blueliner’s development has been slowed due to injuries, he’s still made steady progress with the Rocket and has emerged as their best all-around defenseman. On another team, it’s entirely possible he’d have been in the NHL already, and with Dobson’s injury, he’ll get the chance to make his NHL debut.
Is it ideal for Reinbacher that he might make his NHL debut in such important, high-stakes games for the Canadiens? Probably not, as it doesn’t leave him much room for error. But this injury to Dobson has forced Montreal’s hand in the matter.
At the very least, it’s not as though Reinbacher is without experience. While he hasn’t yet played in the NHL, he does have considerable experience at the pro level, starting all the way back in 2021-22 when Reinbacher helped EHC Kloten win promotion to the top division of Swiss hockey. He also skated in 13 playoff games for Laval last season, helping the club reach the AHL’s Eastern Conference Finals.
The hope for Montreal will be, undoubtedly, that Dobson’s injury does not end up being as severe as it may have initially looked, and that his absence is limited to just a few games. But if he does indeed miss time on a more extended basis, the impact on the Canadiens will be significant – and all eyes will point to one of the team’s top prospects to help fill the significant hole created in Montreal’s lineup by Dobson’s absence.
Photos courtesy of Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
Atlantic Notes: Stolarz, Holinka, Lightning, Ostlund
The Maple Leafs are shutting down goaltender Anthony Stolarz for the final few games of their season after he was injured on Wednesday against Washington, relays David Alter of The Hockey News. On top of that, head coach Craig Berube noted that while surgery isn’t required, the injury could ultimately affect Stolarz’s offseason training plans, which suggests this isn’t a minor issue. After a breakout effort last season that netted him a four-year, $15MM extension in the preseason, it has been a rough year for Stolarz in 2025-26. Injuries have limited him to just 26 appearances while he hasn’t been particularly sharp, putting up a 3.28 GAA and a .893 SV% after having the highest SV% in the NHL in the previous two seasons. Now, it looks like his offseason training could be impacted, adding one more negative note to a year that has had plenty.
More from the Atlantic:
- Still with the Maple Leafs, the AHL Marlies announced (Twitter link) that forward Miroslav Holinka is joining the team. The 20-year-old was a fifth-round pick by Toronto back in 2024 and is coming off a very productive junior season with WHL Edmonton. Holinka played in 59 games with the Oil Kings during the regular season, notching 37 goals and 43 assists, good for second on the team in scoring. He was even more productive in their first-round playoff loss, tallying seven goals and four assists in seven games. Eligible to play full-time with the Marlies next season, Holinka will now get an early taste of the pros.
- While the Lightning welcomed back Brandon Hagel this afternoon versus Boston, they were without a pair of other regulars. Team reporter Benjamin Pierce relayed (Twitter link) that center Zemgus Girgensons and defenseman Darren Raddysh are out with day-to-day injuries. Girgensons was limited after blocking a shot on Thursday in Montreal while Raddysh’s injury is a little harder to pin down after he scored the game-tying goal late in that one. At this point, there doesn’t appear to be any concern about their playoff availability.
- The Sabres are hopeful that center Noah Ostlund will be ready to return for the playoffs, notes Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News (Twitter link). He has missed the last two weeks with an upper-body injury; head coach Lindy Ruff indicated that the 22-year-old is skating daily and that it’s a pain management issue at this point. Ostlund has 11 goals and 16 assists in 60 games for Buffalo this season and should slot back into a bottom-six spot once he’s cleared to return to the lineup.