Minnesota Wild Place Kirill Kaprizov On Injured Reserve
The Minnesota Wild have placed star winger Kirill Kaprizov on injured reserve. He joins a long list of Wild players on IR, including Filip Gustavsson – who was injured on the same night – Mats Zuccarello, Vinni Lettieri, Sam Hentges, and Jonas Brodin.
Kaprizov went down after receiving multiple cross-checks in the back from Winnipeg Jets defenseman Brenden Dillon. Dillon wasn’t penalized on the play, though Kaprizov is now labelled with a lower-body injury that will hold him out for a minimum of one week. He adds to Minnesota’s long list of injuries, that has also recently featured Marcus Foligno. It’s the beginning of what will inevitably be a difficult stretch for the Wild, now without their top two scorers in Kaprizov and Zuccarello. Kaprizov is the only player to overtake Zuccarello while the latter has sat out for the last eight games. It’s a testament to Zuccarello’s performances this year, netting 28 points in 28 games. Kaprizov has matched the point-per-game scoring, managing 34 points in 34 games.
Minnesota has lost both of their games since Kaprizov and Gustavsson went down with injury, getting outscored six-to-three. Marc-Andre Fleury served as the team’s starter in both games, backed up by Zayne McIntyre. McIntyre joined forward Nic Petan as the two players recalled in the wake of Kaprizov and Gustavsson’s injuries – though it will be interesting to see if Minnesota swaps out depth pieces now knowing that they will be without their pair of dynamic scorers for some time. Top goalie prospect Jesper Wallstedt is currently serving as the starter for Minnesota’s AHL affiliate, where his .922 save percentage across 18 games ranks fourth in the entire league. Wallstedt received an NHL call-up earlier in the season but has yet to make his NHL debut.
Penguins Place John Ludvig On LTIR, Recall Ryan Shea
11:30 AM: John Ludvig has been moved to LTIR. He has been announced as dealing with an upper-body injury.
10:30 AM: The Pittsburgh Penguins have placed defenseman John Ludvig on injured reserve and recalled Ryan Shea from the minor leagues. Shea has been up-and-down from the minor leagues since clearing waivers on December 18th. He’ll now fill in for Ludvig, whose injury is currently undisclosed, though he did miss the team’s Tuesday matchup against the Washington Capitals. This is Ludvig’s second move to injured reserve this season, previously being placed on the list with a concussion that cleared up in late-November.
Ludvig is playing out his rookie season in Pittsburgh this year, after the Penguins claimed him off of waivers from the Florida Panthers before the start of the season. He was originally a third round draft selection in the 2019 NHL Draft. He played his first professional season two years after his draft, scoring eight points in 13 games as a rookie for the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch. Ludvig spent parts of the next two seasons with the Charlotte Checkers, though he only managed a combined 57 games and 17 points with the club. He now finds himself in Pittsburgh, who briefly assigned him to the AHL for a conditioning stint after returning from his concussion. Ludvig did little in his pair of games with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, recording no points and two penalty minutes.
Pittsburgh is replacing one rookie with another in Shea, a 26-year-old defenseman originally drafted in the fourth round of the 2015 NHL Draft by the Chicago Blackhawks. Shea played one more season of juniors after his draft, before playing in a full four years at Northeastern University. He similarly made his AHL debut in 2020-21, recording six assists in 27 games, and joined the Penguins organization via a one-year, $775K two-way contract signed on July 1st. Shea is still searching for his first NHL point, with six penalty minutes and a -2 being the only changes to his stat line through is first 22 career games. Shea has also gone without a point in four AHL games this year.
East Notes: Samsonov, Meier, Cernak, Fleury
Having just cleared waivers yesterday, questions immediately sprouted concerning Ilya Samsonov, and how the Toronto Maple Leafs plan to deal with the struggling goaltender. Now rostered with the organization’s AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, Jonas Siegel of The Athletic shed a bit more light on the issue this afternoon.
Speaking with the General Manager of the Maple Leafs, Brad Treliving, it does not appear that Samsonov will play nor practice with the Marlies this week, as Treliving is quoted as saying, “It’s a physical and a mental reset where can he get away from preparing for the next game and all the pressures that come with it”.
Although a bold action to take near the middle of the season, Toronto is seemingly running out of ideas on how to maximize Samsonov’s play between the pipes. In what is shaping to be the worst statistical output of his career, Samsonov holds a 5-2-6 record in 15 games, carrying a dismal .862 SV% and a 3.94 GAA.
Other notes:
- Experiencing plenty of injury concerns from multiple significant players this season, the New Jersey Devils will be without forward Timo Meier for an undisclosed amount of time, as he is dealing with a mid-body injury according to team reporter, Amanda Stein. Stein indicates that it is not a re-aggravation of any of Meier’s previous injury concerns this season, something he has been seemingly battling for much of the regular season.
- Taking a hit to their defensive core, the Tampa Bay Lightning will be without Erik Cernak on a day-to-day basis, while Haydn Fleury will be on more of a week-to-week timeline (X Link). In all fairness to Fleury, Cernak is the more significant defenseman to miss time, as he has blossomed into one of the better shutdown defensemen in the NHL with Tampa Bay. Averaging over 19 minutes of ice time per game, Cernak holds a 90.1% on-ice save percentage at even strength this season.
Pacific Injury Notes: Soucy, Hoglander, Gagner, Holloway, Burroughs
In a report from Thomas Drance of The Athletic, the Vancouver Canucks will have to wait a bit longer for the return of Carson Soucy. Making his way back from a fractured leg, Soucy had just recently returned to skating a little over a week ago. In the same report, Drance also points out that forward Nils Hoglander will be a game-time decision for the team’s game tonight against the Ottawa Senators.
With an injury to his knee, foot, and leg all within his first three months as a member of the Canucks organization, Soucy’s tenure with the team has already been plagued by injuries. Of the 36 games played by Vancouver so far this season, Soucy has only suited up in 13 of those, only being available for 36% of the team’s games up to this point. When Soucy eventually returns to the lineup, assuming he can stay clear of injuries for the remainder of the season, the Canucks will own one of the most well-rounded defensive cores across the league.
In the case of Hoglander, it is unclear by the reporting if he is dealing with a nagging injury, or if the Canucks are debating on carrying him as an extra forward tonight. Although he suited up in the team’s most recent game against the Philadelphia Flyers, recent reports indicated that Hoglander had been moved off the second line and recently practiced as an extra forward.
Other injury notes:
- With forward Dylan Holloway ready to return from his knee injury suffered in mid-November, Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic expects both he and forward Sam Gagner to be in the lineup this weekend for the Edmonton Oilers. Although Edmonton has recovered fairly well since the organization’s horrid start to the regular season, the bottom half of their forward core has still been a significant issue across the board. Gagner has been a solid addition in that department in now his third stint with the Oilers, and the reintroduction of Holloway’s physical play will certainly make Edmonton harder to play against each night.
- Having missed the team’s most recent game on New Year’s Eve, San Jose Sharks defenseman, Kyle Burroughs confirms he will be back in the lineup tonight as the Sharks take on the Detroit Red Wings (X Link). Going through a difficult season similar to the rest of his teammates, Burroughs has tallied four assists in 35 games this year, carrying a -22 rating into tonight’s action.
Minnesota Places Vinni Lettieri On IR, Recalls Samuel Walker
In an announcement coming from the Minnesota Wild this afternoon, the organization has placed depth forward Vinni Lettieri on injury reserved due to a lower-body injury. In a corresponding move, the team has recalled Samuel Walker from their AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild.
As reported this morning, veteran Marcus Foligno will be a game-time decision for the team’s game tonight against the Calgary Flames, and with Lettieri also injured, Minnesota was put in a position where they may have only been able to dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen. Instead, with Lettieri’s placement on the injured reserve and the subsequent callup of Walker, the team will now be able to put together four full offensive lines for their matchup tonight.
Even while maintaining their roster flexibility, it will mark another time this season that the Wild’s depth has been tested. In his own right, Lettieri himself was viewed as an extra forward for Minnesota at the beginning of the season, coming over from the Boston Bruins organization on a two-year, $1.55MM contract this past summer.
In what is now his second call-up with the organization since clearing waivers on November 24th, Lettieri has suited up in a total of 19 games for the Wild this season, scoring one goal and four points on the team’s fourth line. Although he has shown spurts of solid play, his 45.8% CorsiFor%, as well as his 6.3% team on-ice shooting percentage in all situations are both below his career averages.
It has been a difficult transition back into the NHL for Lettieri, as a fourth-line role is somewhat foreign territory for him compared to his usage at the AHL level. Throughout his time in the AHL, Lettieri has been nearly a point-per-game player, scoring 237 points in 277 career games. Due to that, and his regular usage of the powerplay, Lettieri will have to add a bit more hard-nosed physicality into his game for a smoother transition.
Walker, an Edina, Minnesota native came over to the organization in the seventh round of the 2017 NHL Draft. Having already made his NHL debut last year, Walker has suited up in two games this season in mid-October. Similarly to Lettieri, Walker has also been a heavily relied upon offensive talent for Iowa, as he currently sits third on the team in scoring.
Central Notes: Hartman, Foligno, Landeskog, Murray
Wild forward Ryan Hartman was fined over $4.4K, the maximum allowable under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, for high-sticking Jets forward Cole Perfetti during Sunday’s 3-2 loss, the NHL Department of Player Safety announced today. This is the seventh fine of Hartman’s career, as The Athletic’s Michael Russo notes, and his second disciplinary punishment of the season after being assessed a two-game suspension for tripping Red Wings winger Alex DeBrincat in November.
The incident in question was confirmed to be deliberate, inexplicably coming out of Hartman’s mouth during gameplay. Perfetti, who was wearing a microphone for Sunday’s game, told reporters today that Hartman told Perfetti that the high stick was retribution for the Brenden Dillon cross-check that injured Wild star Kirill Kaprizov the day before (via the Winnipeg Free Press’ Mike McIntyre). Perfetti, who turned 22 yesterday, was not involved in the Dillon/Kaprizov altercation.
For the Wild, the lack of a suspension for Hartman is great news. Already dealing with injuries to two-thirds of their first line in Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello, middle-six bruiser Marcus Foligno is now a game-time decision for tonight’s clash against the Flames with a lingering undisclosed injury, per NHL.com’s Jessi Pierce. The 32-year-old Foligno, who has four points in his last five games, skated in a third-line role alongside Frédérick Gaudreau and Pat Maroon in Sunday’s loss.
His absence would force the Wild to dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen, as veteran d-man Jonathon Merrill is the only healthy extra skater on Minnesota’s roster. The Wild are eligible to use an emergency recall in Foligno’s absence, but without ruling him out for tonight’s contest, they wouldn’t be able to do so until after the game.
Elsewhere in the Central Division today:
- Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog returned to Denver from Sweden to continue his recovery from a right-knee cartilage transplant earlier this season, leading to increased hope that he could return for a potential 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs berth and suit up for the first time since Colorado captured the championship in 2022. The Denver Post’s Corey Masisak revealed last weekend that Landeskog’s family has now moved back to Colorado, furthering confidence that the long-time first-line fixture will resume his career at some point. The 31-year-old has now undergone multiple knee surgeries over the past three years and has not eclipsed the 70-game mark in a season since the 2018-19 campaign, five years ago.
- After being sent down for salary cap management purposes yesterday, Stars netminder Matt Murray was recalled from AHL Texas today, per team radio analyst Bruce LeVine. The 25-year-old is once again in the NHL on an emergency basis while starter Jake Oettinger is sidelined week-to-week with a lower-body injury. He has not made an appearance since Oettinger exited the lineup over two weeks ago, however, leading to seven straight starts for veteran backup Scott Wedgewood. The 31-year-old Ontarian has been up to the task, posting a 6-1-1 record and .906 SV% since Oettinger left a December 15 game against the Senators less than halfway through the first period. The Stars have not had back-to-back games since Oettinger was injured. Murray, who does not require waivers and has a .908 SV% through 13 games with AHL Texas this season, will continue to back up Wedgewood for the foreseeable future.
Sabres’ Kyle Okposo Out Week-To-Week
Sabres captain Kyle Okposo will be out on a week-to-week basis with a lower-body injury, the team said Tuesday. Okposo was unexpectedly absent from team practice this morning, as relayed by The Buffalo News’ Lance Lysowski. Head coach Don Granato said later Tuesday that Okposo sustained the injury during the team’s loss to the Senators on Sunday, but did not miss a shift.
Okposo, 35, is in his second season as the Sabres’ captain and his eighth in Buffalo since signing a seven-year, $42MM contract as a free agent in the summer of 2016. He’s no longer bound to that initial long-term deal, signing a one-year, $2.5MM contract extension to remain in upstate New York for this season last May.
It’s been another decent season of depth production from the Minnesotan, who missed significant chunks of the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons with severe concussion symptoms. While he had no points in his last four games prior to the injury, he had notched eight goals and six assists for 14 points in 38 games. That puts him on the exact 0.37 points-per-game pace he set last season with the Sabres, although it remains a step back from the 21 goals and 45 points he scored in the 2021-22 campaign.
Okposo hasn’t been the bona fide second-line winger the Sabres thought they were getting almost eight years ago, but the seventh overall pick by the Islanders in the 2006 NHL Draft has grown into a valuable veteran presence on a team largely dominated by young talent. He doesn’t log a ton of time on special teams units, although he does still see occasional usage on the power play and penalty kill and averages nearly 14 minutes per game in all situations. His 49.6% Corsi share at even strength certainly doesn’t make him a chance-suppression juggernaut, but he’s avoided becoming a liability in the late stages of his career.
It’s a tough injury break for a Sabres team that’s already dealt with the longer-term absences of Zach Benson, Zemgus Girgensons, Jack Quinn, and Tage Thompson this year. After an already disappointing start to the season, the Sabres are no closer to turning things around with a 4-5-1 record in their last ten games. Nearly halfway through the NHL calendar, their playoff chances have dipped below ten percent, per MoneyPuck – a tough spot to be in for a rebuilding team expected to take steps forward from their tenth-place finish in the Eastern Conference last season. Their 15-19-4 record has them 14th in the conference at present, ahead of only the Blue Jackets and Senators.
With two extra forwards already on the roster available to replace Okposo in the lineup (Victor Olofsson and Eric Robinson), the Sabres do not need to make a recall from AHL Rochester. If they choose to do so, they currently have a full 23-player roster and would need to move Okposo to injured reserve to accommodate a recall. One of Olofsson or Robinson will likely slot in a fourth-line role alongside Girgensons and Peyton Krebs in their next game against the Canadiens on Thursday.
Metro Injury Notes: Boqvist, Kuraly, Fast
Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Adam Boqvist has not played since December 5th, but he could be inching closer to a return to the ice. According to the Columbus Dispatch’s Brian Hedger, Boqvist skated on his own this morning before Blue Jackets practice, as part of his recovery from a shoulder sprain.
Boqvist has played in a total of 13 games this season, three points. His 17:05 average time-on-ice per game in that span is in line with his career averages, although as he’s now 23 years old one would likely hope to see a step forward from the 2018 eighth overall pick. If he can work his way back into health and into the Blue Jackets’ lineup, the rest of 2023-24 will be his opportunity to take that step forward fans have been waiting for.
Some other injury updates from the Metropolitan Division:
- Blue Jackets head coach Pascal Vincent gave a more firm timeline on the injury to veteran Sean Kuraly, telling Hedger that they expect Kuraly to miss around two more weeks. Kuraly hasn’t played since a scary collision knocked him out of a December 23rd contest, but when healthy he’s a crucial bottom-six leader for the Blue Jackets. He has registered 11 points in 35 games this year.
- Carolina Hurricanes forward Jesper Fast will be out of the lineup for the team’s next game, according to Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour. Fast was on the receiving end of a hit to the head from Toronto Maple Leafs forward Noah Gregor on December 30th, a hit that knocked him out of the game. The 32-year-old veteran winger has 11 points in 37 games this season, skating in his usual bottom-six defensive role.
Eric Comrie Clears Waivers
01/01/24: Comrie has cleared waivers, according to The Athletic’s Chris Johnston. He is now eligible for assignment to the Rochester Americans.
12/31/23: The Buffalo Sabres have placed goaltender Eric Comrie on waivers, opening up room for them to activate forward Zemgus Girgensons off of injured reserve. Girgensons has been out of the lineup since November 24th, battling with a lower-body injury.
Comrie’s waiving comes after Devon Levi‘s resurgence to the starter’s net. Top rookie Levi was briefly assigned to the AHL, playing in two games with the Rochester Americans where he saved 70 of a possible 76 shots, good for a .921 save percentage and 1-1 record. Levi has played in seven games since returning from the minor leagues, setting a 4-1-1 record and .906 save percentage. His new momentum has reestablished him as the Sabres’ starting goaltender, making Comrie’s roster spot expendable. Comrie has appeared in seven games with the Sabres this year, setting a dismal 1-5-0 record and .863 save percentage.
Comrie’s spot will now be used on Zemgus Girgensons, who is progressing in his return from an injury suffered midway through the team’s November 24th win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. The 29-year-old winger has appeared in 20 games with the Sabres this year, scoring two goals and recording seven penalty minutes. He’s in his 10th season with the Sabres, originally joining the team in the 2012 NHL Draft, when he was taken 14th-overall. Girgensons was apart of an interesting 10-15 range that year, which saw him drafted alongside players like Slater Koekkoek and Mikhail Grigorenko. Star players Tomas Hertl and Andrei Vasilevskiy were drafted only a few picks later, going 17 and 19 respectively.
Blackhawks Recall Brett Seney, Place Tyler Johnson On IR
The Blackhawks recalled forward Brett Seney from the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs on Monday, according to a team announcement. In a corresponding transaction, the team moved veteran Tyler Johnson to injured reserve.
This is the first recall of the season for the 27-year-old Seney. The 5-foot-9 natural center has been a bona fide top-six scorer in the minors since turning pro in 2018, but has never been able to truly lock down a full-time NHL role.
After spending the first five seasons of his pro career with the Devils and Maple Leafs, Seney joined the Blackhawks on a one-year, two-way deal with a salary guarantee of $475K prior to last season. He responded with a career-high 23 goals and 31 assists for 54 points in 59 games with AHL Rockford, which resulted in two call-ups in the second half of the season. Skating in seven NHL games with Chicago last year, his most since logging 51 in his rookie season with the Devils in 2018-19, Seney recorded a goal and a -2 rating while averaging 13:08 per game.
In late March, Seney’s strong AHL production earned him a one-year extension with a small pay bump, increasing his salary guarantee to $500K for 2023-24. He’s responded with a slower start in Rockford after clearing waivers during training camp, posting eight goals and 21 points in 29 games, good enough for second in points behind Dave Gust on the struggling IceHogs. However, his -17 rating is the worst on the team, and he’s the only player with more than one point on the season with a rating worse than -10.
Still, he’s one of the better options left in the Blackhawks system to provide a punch to an already-weak offense that’s been destroyed by injuries. Major offseason acquisition Taylor Hall remains out for the season with a knee injury, while Joey Anderson, Andreas Athanasiou and Taylor Raddysh are all also on injured reserve.
Johnson, 33, now becomes the fifth Blackhawks forward on IR. He sustained a right foot injury in yesterday’s game against the Stars, and there is no timeline for his return. The aging Johnson had seen top-six minutes on multiple occasions this season thanks to the team’s rash of injuries and has nine goals and 13 points in 35 games, including a two-goal effort against Dallas last Friday.
He will miss at least the next seven days due to his IR placement, during which period the Blackhawks have four games. He’ll be eligible to return on January 9 against the Oilers.