Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Injury

Metropolitan Division Notes: Hischier, Gudbranson, Hurricanes

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

New Jersey Devils reporter Amanda Stein tweeted today that Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald doesn’t think that center Nico Hischier will be travelling with the team on their upcoming four-game road trip. Fitzgerald has reportedly talked with New Jersey’s medical staff and Hischier is being evaluated on a day-to-day basis. The ailment is being called an upper-body issue at this time and could it keep Hischier out of action for the next four games. That would mean that his earliest return date would be November 10th against the Washington Capitals.

The former first-overall pick is off to a slow start this season with just two goals in his first seven games after putting up 31 goals and 49 assists in 81 games last season. His lack of offense hasn’t hurt the Devils thus far as the team is off to a 5-2-1 start and currently sits third in the Metropolitan Division. If Hischier is sidelined for some time it is possible that former NHL regular Chris Tierney could fill in during his absence.

In other Metropolitan notes:

  • Columbus Dispatch reporter Brian Hedger tweeted today that Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Erik Gudbranson has again missed practice. This is the second day in a row that the Ottawa, Ontario native did not skate after playing in Monday night’s game against the Dallas Stars. The 31-year-old was questionable for that game after taking a puck to the foot against the New York Islanders on Saturday night but did play in the 5-3 loss. Gudbranson has no points in nine games thus far this season but has averaged over three blocked shots a game.
  • Carolina Hurricanes reporter Walt Ruff tweeted today that Vasily Ponomarev and Ryan Suzuki are both very close to returning to action and will likely be assigned to the AHL shortly after they do. Ponomarev suffered a knee injury in September and started the season on the injured reserve. Last season he played for the Chicago Wolves of the AHL posting 24 goals and 22 assists in 64 games. Suzuki on the other hand has been dealing with a shoulder injury that has kept him off the ice. He also spent last year with the Wolves in the AHL posting 13 goals and 19 assists in 50 games. Carolina doesn’t currently have an AHL affiliate now meaning that both players could find themselves on different teams once they are assigned to the AHL.

Panthers Injury Notes: Bennett, Ekman-Larsson, Rodrigues

at CDT | by 7 Comments

The Florida Panthers have shared injury updates to three recently hurt players, announcing that Oliver Ekman-Larsson is likely to play, Evan Rodrigues is hopeful, and Sam Bennett is likely out for the team’s Thursday night matchup against the Detroit Red Wings.

More specifically, head coach Paul Maurice said that Bennett will miss a little more time than a typical day-to-day designation would suggest, although the injury isn’t as severe as the one that delayed Bennett’s start to the season.

Bennett’s injury is a tough one to stomach. The 27-year-old centerman was in his first game back from injury but hurt his left leg – seemingly his left ankle – in a net-front scrum with Boston’s Hampus Lindholm. He is now set to miss even more time, making this season the sixth time that Bennett has appeared in fewer than 75 of his team’s games through his nine-year NHL career.

The injury is especially tough given how successful Bennett has been with the Panthers. He tallied a modest 40 points in 63 games last season but exploded for 15 points and 60 penalty minutes in 20 playoff games – operating as a key piece of Florida’s run to the Stanley Cup Finals. He set his career-high in scoring in the 2021-22 season – his first full year with the Panthers – when he scored 28 goals and 49 points in 71 games.

Luckily, it doesn’t seem like Florida will be missing any other key pieces. Ekman-Larsson, who has three points in eight games this season, is good-to-go after taking a sucker punch from Charlie McAvoy. The punch earned McAvoy a four-game suspension that he’s in the process of serving. As for Rodrigues, Maurice said that the team was taking precaution in holding him out of Wednesday’s practice, and he should be good for Thursday night’s game.

Nicolas Hague Out With Injury Through The Weekend

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

Vegas Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy shared that defenseman Nicolas Hague will be out with a lower-body injury until at least next week. Hague was slow to get up after a collision in the team’s October 30th game. He seemed fine in the moment but is now set to miss at least three games, with Vegas playing on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday.

While Hague’s absence is certainly not ideal, the Golden Knights are certainly not strangers to injured defensemen. Hague joined Shea Theodore and Brayden McNabb as the only Vegas defenders to play in all of the team’s games this season – a streak that now belongs solely to Theodore and McNabb. As a result of the slew of injuries, the team has already cycled through eight different defenders this season. They also have Zach Whitecloud and Daniil Miromanov on injured reserve, adding to their list of NHL defensemen to keep in mind.

And while Vegas is certainly capable of filling his role, the loss of Hague is still tough to swallow. He ranks fourth on the blue line in scoring, with three points through 10 games so far this season. He’s managed those numbers while operating comfortably on Vegas’ second pair, averaging 19 minutes of ice time through the early season. Hague, 24, is in his fifth season of NHL action. He was the fourth prospect that Vegas ever drafted, going 34th overall in the 2017 NHL Draft. Hague is one of eight players from Vegas’ 2017 draft class to play NHL games – an impressive feat for the franchise’s inaugural draft.

Ducks Recall Stalock As Gibson Is Day-To-Day With Injury

at CDT | by 2 Comments

The Anaheim Ducks have recalled goaltender Alex Stalock on an emergency basis, as goaltender John Gibson is out day-to-day with injury. Rookie goaltender Lukáš Dostál will fill in as the team’s starter in Gibson’s absence.

Dostal takes on the starter role only hours after being named the NHL’s ’Rookie of the Month’ for his October performance. The 23-year-old goaltender appeared in five games in October, setting a 4-1-0 record and saving 152 of the 165 shots that he faced, good for a .921 save percentage; a stat that ranks 10th in the NHL among goalies with five or more games played. He was just two games shy of losing his rookie eligibility, playing in 23 NHL games prior to this season. He recorded a dismal 5-12-3 record in those games, although his .902 save percentage spoke to the potential for strong future showings. That potential is certainly shining through now, with Dostal poised for a great opportunity as long as Gibson remains out.

Interim backup Alex Stalock is continuing his journeyman career with a call-up to the Anaheim Ducks – now his fourth NHL team. With three games for the San Diego Gulls this season, Stalock has now played for seven different AHL clubs as well – although two of those teams were different affiliates of the San Jose Sharks. Either way, it’s been a winding career for the 36-year-old Stalock, who was originally picked 112th overall in the 2005 NHL Draft. He will become the 11th player from that draft class to play this season, if he finds his way into Anaheim’s crease.

Wild Provide Injury Update On Boldy, Spurgeon

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The Minnesota Wild had a pair of injured players return to the practice ice on Wednesday, with Jared Spurgeon skating for half an hour and Matt Boldy returning in full.  Frédérick Gaudreau has yet to return, though. Wild head coach Dean Evason shared that the plan is for Boldy to play in Minnesota’s Thursday night game, while Spurgeon is still working his way back.

Minnesota currently reps a 3-4-2 record and the ninth-most goals-for in the league. Both of those metrics should start looking stronger with the return of 22-year-old Boldy, who scored 31 goals and 63 points in 81 NHL games last season. The winger has become a focal point of the Wild offense, averaging 18-and-a-half minutes of ice time each game last year – a pace he maintained this year until his upper-body injury limited his playing time in his last matchup. Boldy has two points through two games so far this season.

And while Boldy’s return is exciting, the Wild lineup won’t look right until Spurgeon is back in the mix. The team captain has become a pinnacle two-way defender in the NHL, proving the value that defenders under 5’10” can provide if they have the right skill set. But Spurgeon has yet to play at all this season,  suffering from an upper-body injury sustained in training camp. The Wild placed Spurgeon on long-term injured reserve, retroactive to the start of the season, on October 25th. This means that the soonest he could return is November 4th. He seems on pace to challenge that return date with a return to practice on Wednesday.

Nicklas Bäckström To Take Leave Of Absence

at CDT | by 17 Comments

Washington Capitals center Nicklas Bäckström has decided to step away from the team as he deals with a lingering injury situation, the Capitals announced today.

Bäckström issued a statement on his decision, which reads as follows:

Given my ongoing injury situation, I decided to take some time and step away from the game. This is a difficult decision, but one that I feel is right for my health at this time. I want to thank my teammates, the organization, and fans for their unwavering support throughout this process. I ask for privacy at this time as I determine my next steps and viable options moving forward.

Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan issued a statement of his own, which reads:

We stand behind Nicklas and will support him throughout this process. We know firsthand how hard he has worked and how determined he is to get back to full health. Our organization stands fully behind him while he takes his leave of absence from the team and takes time to evaluate his current health situation.

Bäckström, 35, had hip resurfacing surgery in June 2022, and it was initially believed that the process could cost him the entirety of the 2022-23 season. That didn’t end up happening, though, as Bäckström managed to return to the Capitals’ lineup and skate in 39 games.

To start this season, there was some belief that the hardest phase of Bäckström’s injury-related troubles was behind him, at least based on the fact that he played so many games in 2022-23. The hope was that he would be able to be a full contributor to the Capitals’ efforts to return to the postseason.

But after eight difficult games in which he managed one assist, Bäckström has made the decision to prioritize his long-term health. That’s a reasonable decision for any player dealing with considerable injury issues, let alone a player who has accomplished as much as Bäckström.

Bäckström has played over 1,100 games in the NHL, and is Washington’s all-time leader in assists.

For years the partner-in-crime to franchise face Alex Ovechkin, Bäckström is a former All-Star, Selke Trophy vote-getter, and a Stanley Cup champion.

As to where Bäckström’s decision leaves the Capitals, rookie head coach Spencer Carbery likely won’t be able to replace what Bäckström brings both on and off the ice.

That being said, he does have some options to help fill the void now created in their depth chart.

Rookie Hendrix Lapierre, the 22nd overall pick at the 2020 NHL draft, is still finding his footing in pro hockey but offers considerable offensive skill. Assuming Sonny Milano can return to the lineup, that return could shift Connor McMichael back to the center position and place him in Bäckström’s vacated third-line center role.

This unfortunate news does pose one minor silver lining for the Capitals, related to their salary-cap situation. CapFriendly writes that the Capitals are likely to place Bäckström on long-term injured reserve, adding the player’s $9.2MM cap hit to their LTIR salary pool. The result is an increased cap flexibility to not only add players from other teams via trade but also activate currently injured players such as Max Pacioretty or Joel Edmundson.

In any case, this is undoubtedly a difficult development for both the player and team side of the equation. For Bäckström, one cannot underestimate how hard it must be for the veteran pivot to step away from his teammates in order to prioritize his health. For the Capitals, despite the player’s struggles to start the season, Bäckström remains a crucial part of the franchise’s efforts to return to the playoffs.

This is an unfortunate situation for all involved, but regardless of the on-ice implications of this decision the hope has to be that, by stepping away from the game, Bäckström can achieve the improvements to his health that he both desires and deserves.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Oilers Sign Sam Gagner To Two-Way Deal, Mattias Janmark Day-To-Day

at CDT | by 2 Comments

4:02 p.m.: Edmonton has made the contract official, issuing an announcement via Twitter/X Tuesday afternoon.

2:40 p.m.: The Oilers have signed veteran forward Sam Gagner to a one-year deal, per PuckPedia. The deal carries a $775K cap hit and will pay him $250K in the minors.

This essentially amounts to a call-up in place of depth winger Adam Erne, who the Oilers placed on waivers earlier today. Gagner attended Edmonton’s training camp on a PTO but was not initially signed to an NHL contract, instead signing an AHL contract with the Oilers’ affiliate in Bakersfield while he completed his recovery from hip surgery undergone in March. As such, this contract will not be registered with the league until tomorrow. The Oilers have $429,766 in current cap space, per CapFriendly, and will need to assign Erne to the minors to clear the space for Gagner’s contract.

The 34-year-old, once a sixth-overall pick by the Oilers in 2007, looked no worse for wear in three contests with AHL Bakersfield over the last week. The Condors won by at least three goals in every game in which Gagner played, and he tallied two multi-point efforts en route to a goal, four assists and a +4 rating.

Gagner is likely to make his 2023-24 Oilers debut on Thursday against Dallas, playing on an undermanned fourth line with Derek Ryan as the team ices 11 forwards and seven defensemen while Mattias Janmark is on the shelf with a shoulder injury. Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft told media today that Janmark’s timeline is day-to-day after he missed last Sunday’s Heritage Classic (via Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic).

That will kick off Gagner’s third stint with the Oilers in his 16-season, 1,015-game NHL career. His first lasted seven seasons and 481 games from draft day in 2007 until the 2014 offseason, when the Oilers traded Gagner to the Lightning for winger Teddy Purcell. He would never play a game for the Lightning, however, as they flipped him to the Coyotes (along with enforcer B.J. Crombeen) in exchange for a sixth-round pick the same day.

Gagner would then bounce around the NHL, playing for four teams (the Coyotes, Flyers, Blue Jackets, and Canucks) in the next four seasons. His point output varied to just 16 in 53 games with the Flyers in 2015-16, earning him a brief demotion to the AHL, to a career-high 50 in 81 games the following season with Columbus.

In 2018-19, his second season with the Canucks, Gagner was again demoted to the AHL to begin the season, spending most of the campaign outside the organization on loan to the AHL’s Toronto Marlies. That changed on February 16, 2019, when the Canucks traded him back to the Oilers in exchange for forward Ryan Spooner. Gagner’s second stint with Edmonton helped re-establish his NHL career, as he remained on the NHL roster for the remainder of the season and registered ten points in 25 games.

His time in Alberta would be short-lived this time around, however. Just a few days after the one-year anniversary of his re-acquisition, the Oilers shipped out Gagner at the trade deadline to the Red Wings in a deal for forward Andreas Athanasiou. Gagner would spend the following two seasons after the COVID pause in the Motor City, providing solid depth production and a needed veteran presence on a struggling team. He signed as a free agent with the Jets for the 2022-23 campaign, where he scored eight goals and added six assists for 14 points in 48 games before hip surgery shut down his season.

Now fully recovered, he’ll look to once again bring a solid bottom-six game to Edmonton. He may not have the offensive ceiling of the player who once notched eight points in a game for Edmonton in the early 2010s, but he has a well-rounded offensive skill set that helps drive play further down on the depth chart. He’s posted positive relative possession numbers over the past three seasons with the Red Wings and Jets and should be an upgrade over Erne, who was without a point in six games and had posted a staggering relative Corsi share of -10.7% at even strength.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Sharks Issue Multiple Injury Updates

at CDT | by 13 Comments

Tuesday’s practice brought a lot of news from the San Jose Sharks, none of which was positive. Defenseman Matt Benning has been placed on IR with an undisclosed injury, per Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now, who also added that team captain Logan Couture has sustained a setback in his recovery from a lower-body injury and will stop skating for the next while. He also confirmed that forward Alexander Barabanov, who sustained a broken finger a few days back, will not have surgery and will miss four to six weeks.

Benning played 16:45 in Sunday’s 3-1 loss to the Capitals, recording a -1 rating, one shot on goal, and two blocked shots. The 29-year-old, who’s in the second season of a four-year, $5MM deal, has just one assist in eight games on the season and has struggled defensively even relative to his teammates, posting a career-low Corsi share of just 35.2% at even strength.

No corresponding recall will be necessary, as the Sharks were already carrying three extra defensemen on the active roster. 22-year-old Nikita Okhotyuk, who was recalled from a conditioning loan to AHL San Jose earlier today, could make his Sharks debut in place of Benning when they host the Canucks on Thursday.

It’s been an extremely trying start for the Sharks, who have managed to slide below already ground-level expectations. The team has scored just nine goals through nine games and is the only winless team remaining in the league with a 0-8-1 record. Couture’s season-long absence is a major factor in their poor performance, as the Sharks’ wingers have failed to produce much of any offense unless stapled to center Tomas Hertl on the first line. Before exiting the lineup with injury, Barabanov had been held off the scoresheet through six games and was a non-factor.

Perhaps what’s most concerning is that the development of their forward group, including youngsters like William Eklund and Thomas Bordeleau, was supposed to be the team’s lone goal for 2023-24. Instead, it’s a miracle they haven’t put up worse results – Mackenzie Blackwood and Kaapo Kähkönen have been surprisingly solid in the crease, both posting .907 save percentages while splitting duties. In doing so, they’ve kept the Sharks from having a worse goal differential than their already abysmal -26.

Alexey Toropchenko To Return From Lower-Body Injury

at CDT | by 1 Comment

Oct. 31: Toropchenko will indeed be ready to go for Wednesday’s tilt against the Avalanche, head coach Craig Berube said today (via Lou Korac of NHL.com).

Oct. 29: Dealing with lower-body issues during the preseason for the St. Louis Blues, Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic is reporting that Alexey Toropchenko will once again miss some time with a lower-body injury. Specifically, Rutherford notes that it is considered day-to-day, which should give him solid time to recover, given that the team doesn’t play again until this upcoming Wednesday.

Operating as a bottom-six forward for much of the season last year, Toropchenko became a decent depth scoring option for a middle-of-the-pack Blues offense. In 69 games played, Toropchenko scored 10 goals and nine assists, his best offensive production in a single year over the course of his short career.

In each passing game, Toropchenko appears more and more likely to become a relatively niche part of St. Louis’ offensive scheme. He does play extremely physically, which is a benefit for most teams, but with an unimpressive rating throughout his career, mixed with well below-average possession numbers, Toropchenko does not strike as a player headed for a huge breakout, although it could happen.

Like much of the Blues offense to start this season, Toropchenko has yet to score a goal in the team’s first seven games, averaging about a minute more ice time than he did last year. Being only one of two teams not to average two or more goals a game in the first two weeks of the season, St. Louis will need to make some sort of change to revigorate its offense before things deteriorate too quickly.

Avalanche Provide Injury Update On Makar, Byram

at CDT | by 3 Comments

Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar shared that Cale Makar and Bowen Byram are both banged up, but one of the two will play in the team’s Wednesday matchup.

Makar was on the receiving end of a dangerous play by the Buffalo Sabres’ Kyle Okposo and left the ice briefly. He was able to return for the third period but is still banged up enough to bring his availability into question. Makar has continued his dominant career into this season, netting three goals and nine points through eight games so far this season. The former Norris Trophy winner is undeniably one of the best defenders in the NHL, making even one game without him something tough to stomach.

Byram hasn’t carried the same esteem as Makar this season, though he’s still managed to make impacts through eight games on the season. He’s tallied two points, 14 penalty minutes, and a +2 on the year. Byram’s next game will be his 100th NHL game – an impressive milestone for the former fourth-overall selection. The 22-year-old has managed 45 points and 87 penalty minutes in the 99 career games he’s played so far.

This announcement brings some clarity to Colorado calling up Caleb Jones earlier today. The veteran of 217 NHL games failed to establish himself in Colorado’s training camp, although he has managed four points in eight AHL games this season. It’s the first time that Jones has played in the AHL since 2019-20, when he tallied 11 points in 14 AHL games. He will likely serve as the top fill-in option for an Avalanche team that isn’t currently carrying any other extra defenders. If Jones does slot in, Colorado will become the third NHL team that he’s played for.

Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

scroll to top