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Chris Tanev Activated From Injured Reserve

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The Calgary Flames are getting a key part of their defensive structure back, activating Chris Tanev from injured reserve after he missed the minimum of seven days. To make room on the roster, Radim Zohorna has been loaned back to the AHL.

Tanev, 33 (today!), was injured blocking a shot against the Montreal Canadiens last week and missed games against the Vancoouver Canucks, St. Louis Blues, and San Jose Sharks. The scary situation saw him fall to the ice motionless when it struck him in the head, before eventually being taken to the hospital. After all of the following tests came back negative, he was cleared return to the team.

The Flames went 1-1-1 in the games he missed and will certainly welcome back their defensive rock to the lineup for the rematch against San Jose this evening.

The veteran hasn’t been quite the player he was last season when he set a career-high with 28 points and received Norris Trophy votes, but Tanev is still a huge part of what head coach Darryl Sutter tries to do. There is no one on the Flames that kills more penalty time than Tanev, who is averaging more than three minutes a night shorthanded.

Calgary’s penalty kill is still ranked ninth in the league but has dropped down without him, as opponents converted on three of the 11 opportunities since he was placed on injured reserve.

The team remains just barely under the salary cap, meaning these short-term injuries can be quite difficult to deal with. Getting Tanev back so quickly was crucial, especially with Dennis Gilbert’s own injury taking him out of the lineup.

Luke Kunin Undergoes ACL Surgery

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The San Jose Sharks will be without Luke Kunin for the rest of the 2022-23 season after he underwent successful ACL repair surgery today. The injury happened a week ago against the Arizona Coyotes. In a statement, the Sharks included an estimated recovery timeline of six to eight months.

San Jose has recalled C.J. Suess from the AHL ahead of tonight’s game against the Calgary Flames.

Kunin, 25, had been good for the Sharks this year, scoring five goals and 13 points while continuing the physical style that he embraced last season.

Signed to a new two-year, $5.5MM contract in the summer, Kunin will at least have some financial security to fall back on now that he heads into a long recovery period. He’ll make $3MM next season and be due an equal qualifying offer in the summer of 2024 as an RFA.

Interestingly, Kunin might actually have been a potential deadline target for clubs looking to add some depth to their lineup. Given his relatively low cap hit of $2.75MM and the fact that the Sharks are going to have to eventually accept a rebuild, he would have been an attractive option. That story will have to wait for next year’s deadline now – if it is told at all.

Evening Notes: White, Subban, Chinakhov

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The Anaheim Ducks announced earlier this evening that defenseman Colton White has been sent to the San Diego Gulls, their AHL affiliate, for a conditioning loan. Unlike most conditioning loans in the minors where the player is either too young to be sent to the AHL otherwise (think Shane Wright and Brandt Clarke recently) or where the player is coming off injury, the 25-year-old White is AHL eligible and has been playing, suiting up as recently as Saturday’s game against the Edmonton Oilers.

For White, the defenseman has been playing somewhat sparingly this season, getting into just 16 of 32 games, not spending any time on IR. By going to the AHL, the defenseman should have an opportunity to play regularly and see top-end minutes during each game of the loan. Through those 16 games, White has just one point, an assist. White had spent his entire career in the New Jersey Devils organization before signing a two-year, two-way contract with Anaheim this summer.

  • The Montreal Canadiens will be paying homage to one of their greats later this season, honoring the recently-retired P.K. Subban in a pregame ceremony on January 12th before the team takes on another of Subban’s former teams, the Nashville Predators. The former Norris Trophy winner spent his first seven seasons with the Canadiens before an infamous 2016 trade sent him to Nashville in a one-for-one swap with Shea Weber. Three years later, Nashville dealt Subban to the New Jersey Devils where he finished out his career. Subban ultimately retired this summer after hitting the free agent market.
  • It would seem as though the injury issues simply couldn’t get any worse for the Columbus Blue Jackets, but on top of this morning’s news that captain Boone Jenner would require surgery, forward Yegor Chinakhov was forced to leave this evening’s game against the Dallas Stars with a lower-body injury. The forward will not return, the team announced. The injury happened early on in the game, Chinakhov colliding with a Stars player and leaving the ice gingerly. At this point, the compounding injuries do little to change things for the reeling Blue Jackets, however the silver lining to them was the ability to get young players like Chinakhov, a 2020 first-round pick, some quality minutes and opportunities. For now, Columbus will have to hold its breath that this injury won’t keep the young forward out for too long.

Buffalo Sabres Activate Ilya Lyubushkin

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The Buffalo Sabres are activating defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin ahead of tonight’s game, putting him right into the lineup. Lyubushkin hasn’t played since November 28th while dealing with an undisclosed injury. In a corresponding move, the team announced that defenseman Jeremy Davies has been returned on loan to the Rochester Americans, their AHL affiliate.

A key veteran and quality shutdown defenseman, the Sabres have surely missed Lyubushkin’s steady presence in their lineup. Though Lyubushkin doesn’t play top minutes for the Sabres, averaging just 15:24 time-on-ice this season, his 76% of defensive zone starts show just how much Buffalo trusts him in their own end.

As for Davies, the former New Jersey Devils prospect got into just one game ont his recall, his only NHL contest of the season, which came this Saturday. He’ll return to Rochester where he’s been a steady piece of their blueline amid a season of injuries and recalls affecting the entire Sabres organization. With Rochester, Davies has five points in 19 games to start the season.

Cam Atkinson To Undergo Neck Surgery; Will Miss Rest Of Season

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The Philadelphia Flyers continue to be haunted by mysterious injury issues, as Cam Atkinson is the latest to be ruled out for the rest of the season. The veteran forward will undergo neck surgery on Wednesday and is not expected back this season, according to Adam Kimelman of NHL.com.

Just a few weeks ago, it appeared as though Atkinson was well on his way to a return, joining the group for practice and competing in battle drills. Now it’s a lost season for the 33-year-old, who won’t play a single game in 2022-23. Unfortunately, that means both players involved in the 2021 trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets are out indefinitely, as Jakub Voracek’s career is in jeopardy because of head injuries.

The Flyers have been very vague on Atkinson’s specific issue, but Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet tweets that it is a “neck/upper arm” issue. Head coach John Tortorella told Charlie O’Connor of The Athletic today that Atkinson is confident this will not end his career.

After a decade in Columbus, Atkinson arrived in Philadelphia last year and continued his high offensive output, scoring 23 goals and 50 points in 73 games. That was good for second on the club in both categories, and set him up to be a key contributor under this new coaching staff. Tortorella has plenty of experience with Atkinson from their time in Columbus and has repeatedly spoken out about how much the team was missing him as a leader on and off the ice.

Signed through the 2024-25 season at a $5.875MM cap hit, he’ll hopefully be able to contribute in both areas next year.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

San Jose Sharks Activate Matt Nieto, Place Luke Kunin On IR

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Just ahead of their game tonight at home against the Calgary Flames, the San Jose Sharks announced they have activated forward Matt Nieto off of IR. To create space for Nieto, the team has also placed forward Luke Kunin on IR.

Nieto has been out nearly two week dealing with an undisclosed injury, last playing on December 4th. It’s unclear exactly how Nieto sustined the injury, the winger playing a not-out-of-the-ordinary 15:51 that game. A longtime member of the Sharks and Colorado Avalanche, Nieto is having himself another solid season with six goals and five assists through 28 games while chipping in on the penalty kill.

Kunin, 25, had been off to a solid start in his first season in San Jose, putting up 13 points in 31 games to date, but suffered a lower-body injury that forced him out of the game early back on December 13th. Kunin hasn’t played since and as of right now, a timetable is unclear. San Jose has three games at home this week, starting tonight, before the Christmas break.

Afternoon Notes: Schedule, Stone, Sabres, Team Canada Captains, Hershey Bears

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More hockey? You’d be hard-pressed to find a fan who wouldn’t want it. Earlier this week, there had been some discussions about the NHL potentially expanding the season back to an 84 game schedule for the first time since the 1993-94 campaign. Last night on Hockey Night in Canada’s 32 Thoughts segment, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman expanded on those rumors with an idea of what that schedule might look like, and how the league could get there.

In effect, the schedule would be expanded an additional two games to promote intra-division rivalries, such as the one between the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers or the one between the New York Rangers and New York Islanders, both of which have seen their head-to-head matchups drop off in recent years. As Friedman details, the schedule would consist of four games against each of the other teams within the division, three games each against each team in the opposing division, and two against each team in the opposite conference. To balance things out, each team’s slate of preseasons games could be cut down. It doesn’t appear that any change is imminent, however Friedman adds that there is a willingness to discuss the change between the league and the NHLPA, however there hasn’t been much dialogue on the subject recently.

  • Things didn’t look good for Vegas Golden Knights captain Mark Stone last night when he went down in obvious pain during the third period of the team’s game against the New York Islanders. The winger struggled to get off the ice with the assistance of his teammates, but surprisingly was able to come back and join them in the final moments of the game. Unsurprisingly, after the game, Vegas head coach Bruce Cassidy was asked about the status of his star forward, telling The Athletic’s Jesse Granger that the hope is Stone’s injury is “just a stinger,” but he wouldn’t know much more until today. Cassidy added that Stone was not 100% when he rejoined the team late in the game. So far, no additional information has come out about Stone’s status. Vegas next plays at home on Monday against the Sabres.
  • Yesterday, the Buffalo Sabres were able to get forward Kyle Okposo back from injury and Jeff Skinner back from suspension, but were without defensemen Owen Power, Jacob Bryson, and Ilya Lyubushkin. The team didn’t have much information on Power or Bryson, and the same holds true today, however according to The Buffalo News’ Mike Harrington, Ilya Lyubushkin is set to return tomorrow against Vegas. Noticeably absent from the ice this morning were defensemen Rasmus Dahlin and Mattias Samuelsson, but as Harrington adds, both were absent simply for rest purposes.
  • With the World Junior Championship just eight days away, Hockey Canada announced its leadership group for this year’s World Juniors team. Captaining the group will be Seattle Kraken forward and fourth-overall pick in 2022, Shane Wright. Assisting him will be Arizona Coyotes forward Dylan Guenther, Dallas Stars draft pick and current Kamloops Blazers forward Logan Stankoven, Anaheim Ducks draft pick and Quebec Remparts forward Nathan Gaucher, as well as Chicago Blackhawks draft pick and Mississauga Steelheads defenseman Ethan Del Mastro. Canada will kick things off against Czechia on December 26th.
  • Many don’t necessarily think about when an NHL team chooses to recall a player from their affiliate, it could set off a chain reaction of needs within their system, and that’s just what happened with the Washington Capitals and their goaltenders. When Darcy Kuemper went down a couple of weeks ago, the team recalled Hunter Shepard, which Hershey was able to cope with by recalling Clay Stevenson from the ECHL. No problem. But, when Washington also recalled Zachary Fucale yesterday in the wake of Shepard’s upper-body injury, Hershey was forced to sign an emergency back-up to a PTO for their game last night. Today, the Bears were able to smooth things out in net prior to their game against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms this afternoon, bringing up netminder Tyler Wall from the South Carolina Stingrays, Hershey and Washington’s ECHL affiliate. In a corresponding move, defenseman Martin Has has been sent to South Carolina. While this is a relatively minor move, it does give context for the transactions NHL teams make that sometimes seem to be done just for the sake of doing them.

Metropolitan Notes: Sedlak, Islanders Injuries, Oshie

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Yesterday, Philadelphia Flyers forward Lukas Sedlak was curiously absent from practice, with it later reported that Sedlak had left the team and returned to his native Czechia. After a couple of hours, the Flyers confirmed that Sedlak had been placed on unconditional waivers for the purposes of terminating his contract. Though the decision was certainly surprising, Sedlak enjoying a solid season in his return to the NHL, one would expect he certainly has good reason to do so.

This morning, it seems Sedlak has already found his new team. HC Dynamo Pardubice of the Czech Extraliga announced they’d signed the 29-year-old earlier today. For Sedlak, it will be his first experience playing in the Czech Extraliga. The forward had come to North America ahead of the 2011-12 season, playing two seasons in the QMJHL before turning pro, spending three seasons in the AHL, making his NHL debut in 2016-17 with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Sedlak would play three seasons with Columbus before signing in the KHL prior to the 2019-20 campaign. In three seasons with Chelyabinsk in the KHL, Sedlak would become a dynamic scorer, but opted to return to North American for 2022-23, signing with the Colorado Avalanche, ultimately claimed by the Flyers earlier this season. A solid NHLer and impactful KHLer, Sedlak should be able to become a star and a key factor for Pardubice while having the opportunity to play in his native Czechia.

  • After a tough loss at the hands of the Arizona Coyotes, the New York Islanders were able to follow it up with a big win over the Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights yesterday evening, however the team did have a rough go of it this weekend, apparently losing three key pieces in the efforts. It was already reported that forwards Cal Clutterbuck and Kyle Palmieri had been injured Friday in Arizona, which forced the pair out of last night’s game in Vegas, and as Newsday’s Andrew Gross writes, there’s still no update on whether either player’s injury could be a longer-term issue. Compounding the injury concerns, mid-way through the third period in Vegas, goaltender Semyon Varlamov abruptly exited the game during a TV timeout and was replaced by Ilya Sorokin, who finished out the remainder of the victory. As Gross adds, no further update on the goaltender was made available either by head coach Lane Lambert.
  • After Washington Capitals forward T.J. Oshie exited last night’s game, many wondered if the veteran had re-aggravated the injury that has forced him to miss fairly significant time this season and last. Though a clearer picture on his injury isn’t available, The Washington Post’s Samantha Pell reports that Oshie is now listed as day-to-day, perhaps a fortunate break for Washington. Oshie, who turns 36 in a few days, did not participate in the Capitals’ optional skate this morning, which might be expected even in a best-case scenario.

Montreal Canadiens Place David Savard On IR

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The Montreal Canadiens announced this evening that they have placed defenseman David Savard on IR retroactive to December 4th. No additional transaction was announced, however the team is carrying seven defensemen, having been without the veteran since December 3rd.

Savard has been dealing with an upper-body injury apparently suffered during that December 3rd contest, and was originally considered day-to-day. On Tuesday of this week though, the Canadiens updated Savard’s status as being out two-to-three weeks. Placing Savard on IR now isn’t necessarily a bad sign as far as his recovery is concerned and could be a matter of giving the Canadiens some roster flexibility heading into the looming Christmas roster freeze, and perhaps indicates the team knows he won’t be back at least until things open up again.

Though some might say the Canadiens are performing above expectations this year, the team likely doesn’t see it that way and continues to fight for a playoff spot in the crowded Eastern Conference, now sitting at 14-15-2 after tonight’s loss. The team would certainly need to step it up a little to get into a Wild Card position, though that’s not unreasonable. However, getting back Savard, who is second on the team in average time-on-ice, only behind Mike Matheson, who’s played just nine games this season, will be key. Savard’s shutdown defense will be necessary considering the team, and its fairly inexperienced blueline, has struggled with keeping the puck out of their own net, ranking 23rd in the league in goals against.

Snapshots: Van Riemsdyk, Clutterbuck, Palmieri, Oshie

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Now approaching Christmas and New Years, we seem to have a lot of the big trade chips at this year’s deadline pretty clear, with Jakob Chychrun, Bo Horvat, Brock Boeser, and Patrick Kane making up the biggest names. Surely, as time goes on and other teams fall out of the race, other exciting names could drop in, and plenty of secondary pieces will be added onto the list. Still, a few solid options that aren’t being talked about as much remain very much in play approaching the deadline.

One of those names, as pointed out by Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek during tonight’s 32 Thoughts segment on Hockey Night In Canada, is Philadelphia Flyers power forward James van Riemsdyk. The winger is in the final year of a five-year, $35MM contract he signed to rejoin the Flyers organization prior to the 2018-19 season. The veteran’s production has been up and down over the life of the deal, but his 10 points in 11 games thus far, while navigating through some injury issues, does make him an attractive trade asset. While he does carry a $7MM cap hit, Marek adds the Flyers would be willing to retain some of that figure. A number of teams would make sense for van Riemsdyk, but for the New Jersey native teaming up with the Devils might be an especially solid fit, given their need for a net-front presence, as detailed in our Thankful For series.

  • The New York Islanders will be down a pair of forwards when they take on the Vegas Golden Knights this evening. Wingers Cal Clutterbuck and Kyle Palmieri will both miss the game with undisclosed injuries, the team announced. Fortunately, it seems the team avoided anything too major, as both are listed as day-to-day, however they’ve both dealt with their own injuries throughout this season, Palmieri only returning from a three week absence last night. It’s unclear how Clutterbuck injured himself, though he did leave last night’s game and didn’t return. Palmieri on the other hand left the game in concussion protocol after taking a big hit from Arizona Coyotes forward Nick Ritchie, but did return to action later on.
  • Washington Capitals forward T.J. Oshie left tonight’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs with an upper-body injury and did not return, per a team announcement. According to the Capitals, Oshie will be re-evaluated tomorrow. What exactly happened to the veteran is unclear, however he did return to the Capitals bench, but declined to actually sit before later heading down the tunnel gingerly.

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