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Evening Notes: Dubois, Marchessault, Lowry

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Washington Capitals centerman Pierre-Luc Dubois donned a non-contact jersey for a second-straight practice on Friday. He won’t be ready for Washington’s Sunday matchup against the Vancouver Canucks, but could return on Tuesday, head coach Spencer Carbery told Washington Post’s Bailey Johnson. Dubois has been day-to-day with a lower-body injury for much of the last week.

Dubois appeared in three games before sustaining his injury. His only notable stat changes came in the form of five shots on net, two hits, and a plus-one. He continued to serve as a top-six center for the Capitals, centering Aliaksei Protas and Tom Wilson. Washington has turned towards Connor McMichael to fill that role in Dubois’ absence. McMichael has one point – his first of the year – and a plus-one in the relief role. That scoring surely won’t be enough to command Dubois’ spot once he’s back to full health. Dubois should be expected to return in the coming week, and continue his hunt for his first score of the year.

Other notes from around the NHL:

  • Winger Jonathan Marchessault sat out of the Nashville Predators’ Saturday matchup against the Winnipeg Jets. He is day-to-day with a lower-body injury, per a team announcement. Nashville opted to ice seven defensemen in the matchup – pulling defender Nick Blackenburg into the lineup. They went on to lose by a score of 1-4. Marchessault is tied for the Predators’ lead in scoring with four points through five games this season. He finished second on the team in scoring last season, with 56 points in 78 game placing him behind only Filip Forsberg, who scored 76 points in 82 games. That standing will make Marchessault’s absence quickly felt, even if he’s only out for the short term.
  • On the other side of that matchup, Winnipeg received a bit of positive injury news when captain Adam Lowry returned to practice in a no-contact jersey on Saturday, per NHL.com’s Mitchell Clinton. Lowry has been recovering from hip surgery he underwent in late May. He is still working back to full health this season, but did manage 13 appearances and scored four goals in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs. He also scored 34 points in 73 regular season games. Lowry is a core piece of Winnipeg’s lineup when healthy, offering stout two-way play from a middle-six center role. He will be slotted back into a busy role as soon as he’s ready to make his season debut.

Injury Notes: Dickinson, Mikkola, Harkins

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Chicago Blackhawks centerman Jason Dickinson is day-to-day with an undisclosed injury and will be a game-time decision on Sunday, head coach Jeff Blashill told Charlie Roumeliotis of WGN Radio. Dickinson headed to the locker room partway through Friday’s game against Vancouver after receiving a heavy, awkward hit from Canucks winger Conor Garland. He returned, left again, then returned again throughout the remaining game – though it seems the injury is sticking around a day later.

Dickinson has been a core piece of one of Chicago’s best lines this season, centering fellow NHL veterans Ryan Donato and Ilya Mikheyev. The trio have outscored their opponents four-to-one in six games together, more than any other Hawks line. Dickinson sitting out of Sunday’s match against the Anaheim Ducks would force Chicago to break up their starting forward line against stingy competition. The Ducks sit with a 2-2-0 record and negative goal-differential (-3) but they’re led by legendary Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville and roster a long list of promising youngsters who can takeover games. Chicago has been thriving as of late – with a 2-1-1 record in their last four – but this injury news could bring that down.

Other injury news from across the NHL:

  • Speaking of Anaheim, bruising forward Jansen Harkins returned to the team’s practice in a no-contact jersey on Saturday, captured by Patrick Present of The Hockey News. Harkins is recovering from an upper-body injury sustained in a preseason match against the Los Angeles Kings on September 21. He was originally expected to miss about eight weeks, placing his return date still three weeks away. But already returning to practice could be enough to shorten that timeframe for Harkins. Then again, the Ducks may want to monitor their bottom-line bruiser a bit closer, after he ranked third on the team with 136 hits in 62 games last season.
  • Florida Panthers defenseman Niko Mikkola left Saturday’s match against the Buffalo Sabres with an upper-body injury. He sustained the injury after getting tangled up with Sabres winger Tyson Kozak and falling awkwardly into the boards. Mikkola only appeared in seven minutes of ice time prior to the injury. He remains without any scoring through seven games this season, though the physical impact Mikkola brings to each game will still be sorely missed should he have to sit out any more. He was a nightly feature in both of Florida’s Stanley Cup wins, and continues to play upwards of 24 minutes a night this season. That role will be tough to replace. Recent waiver claim Donovan Sebrango would be the next in line for ice time. He recorded 20 points and 79 penalty minutes in 50 games with the Belleville Senators last season, and has no scoring in four career appearances in the NHL.

Sabres Place Justin Danforth On Injured Reserve

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Oct. 18: Danforth landed on IR following today’s impressive 3-0 win over the Panthers, according to the NHL’s media site. Buffalo hasn’t yet made a corresponding recall, but they now have the flexibility to in case defenseman Jacob Bryson misses time. He’s now in concussion protocol after colliding with Florida’s Jonah Gadjovich early in the game, Ruff said (via Heather Engel of NHL.com).

Oct. 17: Sabres forward Justin Danforth will miss more than a month with the lower-body injury he sustained in Wednesday’s 8-4 drubbing of the Senators, head coach Lindy Ruff told reporters today (including Rachel Lenzi of The Buffalo News). It was never made clear what play actually caused the injury, but he left the game early in the second period and didn’t return.

It’s nothing Buffalo isn’t used to by now. Injuries have decimated their forward group early in the season. Jordan Greenway and Joshua Norris remain on injured reserve. New top-line winger Zach Benson only just made his season debut after a rather significant facial injury kept him out of the first three games, and he lit up the Sens for four assists to immediately assume the team lead in scoring.

Danforth, 32, inked a two-year, $3.6MM deal with the Sabres in free agency after spending the first four years of his NHL career with the Blue Jackets. He began the year on the fourth line but was quickly elevated into top-nine duties with Jiri Kulich and Jack Quinn when Norris got hurt in Buffalo’s first game. He’s without a point in any of his four appearances and hasn’t been particularly effective otherwise, aside from taking some faceoffs and going 54.8% on the dot, on pace for a career high. He’s managed four blocks and three hits with a -2 rating, only controlling 41.5% of shot attempts despite starting 55.6% of his shifts in the offensive zone at even strength.

The Sabres can place Danforth on injured reserve at any point if they need his roster spot, although they haven’t done so yet. They have enough cap space ($3.12MM) that long-term injured reserve shouldn’t be a consideration. For now, it appears recent call-up Joshua Dunne will maintain a spot in the lineup in Danforth’s place when Buffalo hosts the Panthers tomorrow afternoon.

Joel Kiviranta Out Indefinitely; Avalanche Assign Jack Ahcan To AHL

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The Avalanche will be without a veteran winger as they take on Boston tonight.  The team announced (Twitter link) that winger Joel Kiviranta is out indefinitely with a lower-body injury.  In a separate move, the club also announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Jack Ahcan has been reassigned to AHL Colorado.

Kiviranta is coming off a career showing in 2024-25.  After only reaching the double-digit plateau once before (an 11-point effort in 2020-21), the 29-year-old potted 16 goals last season along with seven assists while also averaging a career-high 12:31 per game of ice time.  That helped him eventually earn a new contract with a small raise as he re-signed a one-year, $1.25MM deal back in August.

However, he has been quieter in the early going so far this season.  Through five games, Kiviranta has been held off the scoresheet and has managed just three shots on goal while his playing time has dipped by nearly two minutes a night despite still taking a regular turn on their penalty kill.  Now, he’ll be waiting a while to put up his first point on the season as head coach Jared Bednar clarified to reporters including Aarif Dean of Colorado Hockey Now that Kiviranta will be out several weeks at a minimum.

As for Ahcan, he was recalled from the Eagles on Sunday following a strong start that saw him put up four points in his first two AHL appearances.  However, he didn’t see any action during this recall, keeping his career NHL total at 11.

With these moves, the Avs have just a dozen healthy forwards and six healthy blueliners.  While that’s optical from the perspective of accruing as much cap space as possible, it’s a strategy that certainly carries some risk as well when it comes to injury exposure.  Accordingly, it wouldn’t be shocking to see the team make at least one recall from the minors before too long.

Canadiens Announce Multiple Injuries, Recall Owen Beck

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While the Canadiens pulled off a comeback victory on Thursday against Nashville, it came at a cost as three players are now injured.  The team announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Kaiden Guhle will miss four-to-six weeks with a lower-body injury while center Kirby Dach and winger Patrik Laine are day-to-day with lower-body injuries as well.  In a corresponding move, center Owen Beck has been recalled from AHL Laval on an emergency basis.

Guhle had gotten off to a solid start to the season, playing alongside Lane Hutson on Montreal’s second pairing.  He had a goal and an assist through the first five games while adding five blocks and 16 hits in a little over 19 minutes a night.  Guhle has missed at least a dozen games due to injuries in each of his first three NHL campaigns and that streak will now be extended with this injury.  After being scratched on Thursday, Arber Xhekaj will take Guhle’s place in the lineup while the Canadiens will likely recall a defenseman in the near future to give them a seventh option.

Dach, meanwhile, is working his way back from a knee injury that ended his 2024-25 campaign prematurely.  After managing his usage in the preseason, the Canadiens have limited his minutes a bit early on as he’s logging just 14:29 per night where he has a goal and an assist while anchoring their third line.  As for Laine, he’s off to a quiet start in his contract year with just one assist through his first five appearances while predominantly playing on the fourth line.  That’s not an ideal start but now this day-to-day injury will give him a quick reset.

Beck was one of Montreal’s final training camp cuts for the second straight season after Oliver Kapanen beat him out for the final spot on the roster.  He has played in three games with AHL Laval so far this season, picking up a goal and an assist.  Beck had 44 points in 64 games with the Rocket in his rookie year while also getting into a dozen games with the Canadiens where he had one assist.

Blackhawks Activate Landon Slaggert From IR

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The Chicago Blackhawks have activated forward Landon Slaggert off of injured reserve. Slaggert missed the first five games of Chicago’s season with a lower-body injury. He took warmups before the team’s Friday night matchup against the Vancouver Canucks, but won’t play, as he continues to ease back into the lineup.

Slaggert operated on Chicago’s third-line throughout the team’s training camp. He seems well set on solidifying that standing once he’s back to full health, after clinging onto a lineup spot through the second-half of last season. Slaggert recorded just six points and a minus-seven in 33 NHL games last season – far below the 25 points and plus-nine he posted in 39 AHL games. But despite that, his hard-drive and grinder style stood tall on a fairly undersized Blackhawks team.

Slaggert racked up 92 points in 136 NCAA games between 2020 and 2024, then turned pro with the Blackhawks at the end of the 2023-24 season. He’s since appeared in 49 NHL games and scored 10 points, while filling a bottom-six role at left-wing. Should his training camp role stick, Slaggert will soon return to a line with Jason Dickinson and Ilya Mikheyev. That move would free up Ryan Donato to move back into the team’s top-six. Donato has just two points in five games this season, after posting 31 goals and 62 points in 80 games last year. Promoting him back into the top-six, and backing him with a dirty-nosed winger like Slaggert, could be the first step to getting Donato back to that lofty scoring.

Lightning Place Maxwell Crozier On IR, Recall Scott Sabourin

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have placed rookie defenseman Maxwell Crozier on injured reserve per Erik Erlendsson of Lightning Insider. The move is retroactive to Tuesday, which will force Crozier out of the lineup for at least two days. Tampa Bay then used the vacant roster spot to recall Scott Sabourin from the minor leagues.

Crozier is bearing through an undisclosed injury after leaving the team’s Tuesday matchup against the Washington Capitals in the first period. He only played 4:27 in total ice time. The injury was a hit of bad luck after the top Bolts rookie scored three points in his last two games. He was the productive motor of Tampa Bay’s bottom pair, next to third-year-pro Emil Martinsen Lilleberg.

Crozier broke camp with the Lightning after posting 34 points and 75 penalty minutes in 52 AHL games last season. He entered this season with 18 games of NHL experience under his belt, though only two assists to go with it. That production set a low bar that Crozier has well cleared to start the season, making his injury timeline worth following closely.

Tampa Bay will use Crozier’s IR placement to award Sabourin for a strong start in the AHL. He scored a point in each of the Syracuse Crunch’s two games to start the season. It’s a quick start, after Sabourin posted 25 points and 111 penalty minutes with the San Jose Barracuda last season. He has played in 25 NHL games over the course of his career – stretched across stints with the Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, and San Jose Sharks. He’s scored 15 points in those appearances. Now, Sabourin could suit up for a fourth club, and offer Tamp a hotter stick than rookie Curtis Douglas, who is without a point through three games so far.

Flames Assign Matvei Gridin, Activate Jonathan Huberdeau

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The Calgary Flames have assigned winger Matvei Gridin to the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers to make room to activate Jonathan Huberdeau off of injured reserve. Huberdeau has been sidelined since sustaining an undisclosed injury in a preseason matchup against the Vancouver Canucks on October 1st. He missed the first seven games of Calgary’s season.

Gridin played in the first four games of his NHL career to start the season, but found his way to the press box after posting one goal and a minus-three. He is among Calgary’s top prospects, and is set to become one of just six 19-year-olds in the AHL. A taste of NHL minutes, and continued pro challenge in the minors, could be exactly what Gridin needs to grow his game.

He looked fast and flashy in the QMJHL last year, posting 96 points in 72 games over the course of the Shawinigan Cataractes’ full season. That performance earned him the QMJHL’s ’Rookie of the Year’ award. The 2024 first-round pick spent two seasons in the USHL prior to his draft. He scored 99 points in 108 total games in the league. That includes a league-leading 83-point season in 2023-24, the second-highest scoring season in Muskegon Lumberjacks history.

While Gridin develops in the minors, Huberdeau will look to keep up his momentum from last season. He scored 16 points in 18 games to finish the 2024-25 season, pushing him to 28 goals and 62 points in 81 games on the year. It was Huberdeau’s highest-scoring season since he posted 115 points with the Florida Panthers in 2021-22. His dip in scoring with the Flames has shadowed his last three seasons, but he showed a click next to Morgan Frost and Matthew Coronato that could propel the Flames’ offense this season. Coronato currently leads Calgary in scoring, with three points in five games. Frost has two points.

Avalanche Recall Mackenzie Blackwood From Conditioning Loan

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Oct. 17: Blackwood’s conditioning stint is over, the team announced. He didn’t get into game action with the Eagles; instead, he was only there to face shots in practice with a more consistent schedule there this week than in Colorado. Blackwood was never on IR, so the recall suggests he should be available for tomorrow’s game against the Bruins.

Oct. 13: The Colorado Avalanche should be getting a big reinforcement between the pipes in a few days. The team announced that they’ve loaned netminder Mackenzie Blackwood to the AHL’s Colorado Eagles on a conditioning stint. Additionally, the team has activated defenseman Sean Behrens from the season-opening injured reserve and reassigned him to AHL Colorado.

Colorado’s reasoning behind the conditioning stint this early in the campaign is fairly simple. Blackwood is continuing to recover from a procedure performed in May and didn’t participate in any preseason games for the Avalanche or any training camp activities. Since Colorado can leave Blackwood on the conditioning stint for up to 14 days, it’ll be treated as a pseudo training camp to prepare him for the regular season.

Blackwood was phenomenal for the Avalanche last year. After being acquired from the San Jose Sharks, Blackwood took on a heavy workload, managing a 22-12-3 record in 37 games with a .913 SV% and 2.33 GAA. Unfortunately, he couldn’t help Colorado avoid another first-round exit in last year’s playoffs, registering a 3-4-0 record in seven contests with a .892 SV%.

Still, despite being without Blackwood, the Avalanche have gotten stellar goaltending out of the gates this season. Their backup, Scott Wedgewood, has a 2-0-1 record through Colorado’s first three games with a .925 SV% and 1.95 GAA. Even though it’s a small sample size, Wedgewood has already played the most minutes of any netminder this year.

Meanwhile, Behrens will return to competitive hockey for the first time in two years. After winning the National Championship with the University of Denver in 2024, Behrens signed with the Avalanche, skating in one game with the Eagles to finish the year, with one additional appearance in the postseason.

Unfortunately, a knee injury suffered during last year’s training camp cost Behrens the entire 2024-25 season. He appeared in a few games for the Avalanche’s rookie tournament, though his upcoming time with the Eagles will mark his true return to professional hockey.

Brady Tkachuk Out 6-7 Weeks Following Hand Surgery

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Oct. 16: Tkachuk underwent surgery to repair a ligament issue in his right hand in New York today, Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia reports. The procedure extends his return timeline to six to seven weeks and, with the clock resetting to today, won’t be back in the lineup until Thanksgiving at the earliest. That’s a 20-game minimum absence, including last night’s loss to the Sabres.

Oct. 14: Senators captain Brady Tkachuk will miss at least four weeks due to the right wrist injury he sustained in yesterday’s game against the Predators, head coach Travis Green said (via Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia). They’ve yet to decide on whether surgery is required. If so, his return timeline will be extended.

Tkachuk sustained the injury early in the game. While on the power play, he took a cross-check from Nashville captain Roman Josi near the goal line that carried enough force to cause Tkachuk to fall forward into the boards, bending his right wrist awkwardly in the process. He didn’t immediately leave the game but ended up taking his last shift midway through the third period. Green said immediately after the match that Tkachuk was going for evaluation and that his absence wasn’t precautionary.

This will stand as Tkachuk’s largest absence to date. While he’s missed games due to injury in four of his seven full NHL seasons, none of them were serious enough to warrant lengthy recovery times. The most time he ever missed was nine games due to a leg injury early in his rookie season. His four-week minimum means his earliest return is Nov. 11 against the Stars, meaning at least a 13-game absence for the star winger.

Thankfully for Ottawa, they have a relatively easy stretch of games ahead. Only three of those 13 contests are against teams that made the playoffs last season. They’ve gotten off to a tough start, though, especially defensively. They’re 1-2-0 through their first three contests and have yet to give up fewer than four goals, averaging a 4.67 GA/GP mark that ranks 31st in the league. While their 26.0 shots against per game figure is sixth-best in the NHL, their 64.3% success rate on the penalty kill – fifth-worst in the league – hasn’t helped matters. Linus Ullmark has also allowed a league-worst 5.4 goals above expected in his three starts, per MoneyPuck. Tkachuk doesn’t factor in shorthanded, so in that sense, his absence won’t mean much as Ottawa looks to address its biggest early-season weaknesses.

His missing offense and intangibles will, though. Tkachuk had three assists and a +1 rating through his first three outings and, although his 29-26–55 scoring line in 72 games last year was underwhelming by his standards, he received Hart Trophy consideration for the first time as he captained Ottawa to its first playoff berth since 2017. Despite missing a good portion of yesterday’s contest, he still ranks third on the team so far with 10 hits, is tied for the team lead with 21 shot attempts, and has controlled possession well with a 56.5 CF% at even strength.

Now, it’ll be mid-November until he’s consistently in the mix this season. The Senators can place him on injured reserve whenever they need a roster spot. That will likely come in conjunction with activating Drake Batherson, who is expected to come off IR before tomorrow’s game, according to Garrioch. Tkachuk is eligible for long-term injured reserve as well and can yield up to $3.82MM in cap relief, but with the Sens already banking over $2.45MM in space, that won’t be necessary, at least for now.

Luckily for the Sens, they don’t have any mounting injuries behind their leader. They have all available options, including Batherson, to elevate into top-line duties alongside Tim Stützle and Fabian Zetterlund in his absence.

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