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West Notes: Sharks, Fleury, Toropchenko

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Earlier today, beat writer for the San Jose Sharks, Max Miller, shared a few injury updates from the team. According to head coach Ryan Warsofsky, defensemen Jack Thompson and Lucas Carlsson, as well as forward Egor Afanasyev, all skated with the rehab group today and are close to returning.

The former two won’t have any impact on the Sharks’ roster upon their return, as neither blueliner cracked San Jose’s opening night roster out of camp. Still, Thompson would likely be a top recall candidate if the Sharks run into any early injury trouble on the blue line, given he scored four goals and 10 points in 31 games for the team last season, averaging 15:47 of ice time per game.

Afanasyev is more of a question mark. He’s in his first year back in the North American professional circuit after spending one season with the KHL’s CSKA Moskva, scoring seven goals and 21 points in 53 games. Given that he’s on the regular injured reserve as opposed to the non-roster injured reserve, it stands to reason that Afanasyev will join the Sharks when healthy. Still, despite the rebuilding nature of the roster, San Jose doesn’t have a ton of places to put him unless he takes a fourth-line role.

Other notes from the Western Conference:

Metro Notes: Angello, Dadonov, Ritchie

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A few days ago, longtime AHL player and brief NHL player Anthony Angello announced his retirement from hockey via his Instagram. According to the announcement, Angello will return to Cornell University to complete his degree, having previously spent three years there from 2015 to 2018.

The Syracuse, NY native was drafted with the 145th overall pick of the 2014 NHL Draft by the Pittsburgh Penguins. After his three years with the Big Red, Angello began playing in the Penguins organization with the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins toward the end of the 2017-18 season. He remained with them for the next several years, primarily as an AHL talent, and made his NHL debut.

After the 2021-22 campaign, Angello suited up for three different teams: the Springfield Thunderbirds, Milwaukee Admirals, and his hometown Syracuse Crunch. Now that his career is officially over, Angello will finish with three goals and five points in 31 NHL contests, with 72 goals and 143 points in 339 AHL games, including another six points in 26 Calder Cup playoff appearances. We at PHR congratulate Angello on his professional career and wish him luck on his next chapter.

Other Metropolitan notes:

  • In some early-season adversity, the early prognosis on New Jersey Devils forward Evgenii Dadonov’s injury isn’t good. According to team reporter Amanda Stein, imaging on Dadonov’s hand has revealed a fracture. He’ll be out for New Jersey’s current road trip, which concludes against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday. The team will know more about his recovery timeline once they return to New Jersey.
  • According to Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News, New York Islanders forward prospect Calum Ritchie resumed skating this morning, though there were no significant updates to his injury rehab. Ritchie, acquired from the Colorado Avalanche at last season’s trade deadline, is currently dealing with a mild lower-body injury. Regardless, despite him skating with the Islanders this morning, the bulk of Ritchie’s season is expected to take place with the AHL’s Bridgeport Islanders.

Atlantic Notes: Kulikov, Lindholm, Batherson, Ratzlaff

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Late last night, the Florida Panthers quietly moved defenseman Dmitry Kulikov to the injured reserve. Unfortunately, although the team hasn’t commented on his status, reporting from George Richards of Florida Hockey Now indicates that it could be a long-term absence for their bottom-pairing blueliner.

The injury occurred during the Panthers’ win over the Philadelphia Flyers, their second game of the season. After attempting to hit Flyers forward Bobby Brink partway through the second period, Kulikov left the game after appearing to hurt his right wrist.

Passing along a note from head coach Paul Maurice, Richards’ report suggests that surgery is on the table for Kulikov, and that the team would make a more concrete decision this evening. Since the IR placement is retroactive to Thursday night, Kulikov is eligible to return from the IR on October 16th. However, if he requires surgery to repair his wrist, he’ll be out significantly longer.

Other notes from the Atlantic Division:

  • Another defenseman in the Atlantic will be sidelined, though not as long as Kulikov. According to Steve Conroy of The Boston Herald, Boston Bruins blueliner Hampus Lindholm is considered day-to-day with an undisclosed ailment. Lindholm left the team’s overtime win against the Chicago Blackhawks after having only skated in 4:26 of the action.
  • In more positive injury news, the Ottawa Senators could be getting a major boost to their forward core. Although he was ruled out for the team’s recent game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, forward Drake Batherson alluded to a return tonight or Monday in an interview with Bruce Garrioch of The Ottawa Citizen. Remarkably, the Senators’ first game of the year was the first Batherson has missed since the 2021-22 campaign, playing in 246 consecutive regular-season contests for Ottawa.
  • In an update unrelated to injuries, the Buffalo Sabres have shifted around some of their organizational goaltending depth. According to a team announcement, the Sabres have reassigned netminder Scott Ratzlaff to the ECHL’s Jacksonville Icemen. Ratzlaff, 20, who was selected with the 141st overall pick of the 2023 NHL Draft, spent last season with the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds, managing a 23-19-4 record in 49 games with a .910 SV%.

Samuel Girard Out Week-To-Week

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A tough day on the injury front around the NHL continues.  The Avalanche announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Samuel Girard is listed as out week-to-week due to an upper-body injury.

It hasn’t been a great start to 2025-26 for the 27-year-old.  Girard missed most of training camp with a lower-body injury, only getting into one preseason game as a result.  Now, he’s set to be out for a little while with this injury sustained just two games into the regular season.

When healthy, Girard has been a reliable top-four defender for Colorado.  Last season, he had 24 points and 111 blocks in 73 games while logging just under 21 minutes a night of playing time while seeing time on both the power play and penalty kill.  He also added three points in their first-round loss to Dallas.

Girard had started this season on Colorado’s second pairing alongside newcomer Brent Burns.  Notably, he’s one of just two left-shot defensemen in their top six, a rarity in a league that typically sees teams carrying more lefties than righties.  Recent waiver claim Ilya Solovyov is expected to take Girard’s place in the lineup for the time being.

It hasn’t been a good start to the season for the Avs on the injury front.  Starting goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood is dealing with a lower-body injury while winger Logan O’Connor is recovering from hip surgery.  They have a pair of injured players with reduced cap charges on season-opening IR in Nikita Prishchepov and Jacob MacDonald and now will have Girard likely heading for injured reserve as well.

The end result from these injuries is that they’re starting to get pretty tight to the cap ceiling with around $1.07MM in cap room, per PuckPedia.  That’s enough to recall a replacement for Girard (who has already been placed on IR to free up a roster spot) but any further injuries before someone comes back could see them having to use LTIR, an outcome they’re trying to avoid after being in it regularly for the past several years.

Vincent Trocheck Out Week-To-Week

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The Rangers will be without a key player for at least the next little while.  Mollie Walker of the New York Post relays (Twitter link) that center Vincent Trocheck is listed as out week-to-week with an upper-body injury.

The injury occurred during the second period of Thursday’s victory over Buffalo after a penalty killing shift with the team announcing soon after that he wouldn’t be returning to the game.

The 32-year-old has been a key cog down the middle for New York for several years now as a true two-way, all-situations player.  Trocheck had his best offensive showing back in 2023-24 when he had 77 points in 82 games.  While that output ticked down to 59 points last season, he managed to lead the NHL in shorthanded goals with six.  He started the season anchoring the top line with the expectations that he’d once again be one of their top offensive performers.

In Trocheck’s absence, Mika Zibanejad’s move to the wing will be short-lived as he lined up in Trocheck’s center spot on the top line at practice today, per Newsday’s Colin Stephenson (Twitter link).  Meanwhile, Juuso Parssinen appears to be set to make his season debut with a lineup spot opened up due to Trocheck’s injury.

How the Rangers try to replace Trocheck on the roster is intriguing.  The team can place him on regular injured reserve, opening up a roster spot.  However, they only have $842K in cap space at the moment, per PuckPedia, which isn’t enough to recall any of Brett Berard, Brennan Othmann, or Gabriel Perreault, the players they likely would want to give a chance to.

As long as Trocheck is set to miss 10 games and 24 days, he becomes eligible for LTIR which would allow them to then bring up one of those three players.  However, they’d then stop accruing cap space, further cutting into their already limited flexibility on that front.  Accordingly, it wouldn’t be surprising for them to opt not to bring anyone up to take his spot in the short term.  That would give Parssinen (or Jonny Brodzinski, who’s also on the roster) a chance to make a mark while allowing them to bank enough regular space to recall a prospect over the next few weeks, keeping them out of LTIR altogether.  Either way, they’ll be navigating through a significant loss in Trocheck for at least a few weeks.

Pyotr Kochetkov To Miss At Least One Week

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Carolina is one of the rare teams choosing to carry three goaltenders this season and that depth is going to come in handy early on.  The team announced that Pyotr Kochetkov will be out for at least a week due to a lower-body injury, noting that while it’s not a serious injury, the recovery timeline is longer than head coach Rod Brind’Amour was hoping for.

The timeline of at least a week suggests that Carolina intends to place him on injured reserve.  That designation means that a player must be out for at least a week.  But with a full 23-player roster, putting Kochetkov on IR would allow the Hurricanes to bring someone up from the minors, though likely not a goalie with Brandon Bussi already with the team after a late-camp waiver claim.

Kochetkov has been the de facto starter the last two seasons, at times on merit and others with Frederik Andersen being on the shelf.  Two years ago, it looked like the 26-year-old had taken a big step forward when he posted a 2.33 GAA and a .911 SV% in 42 outings.

However, things didn’t go quite as well last season.  While he made a career-high 47 starts, his numbers weren’t as strong, checking in at 2.60 GAA and a .897 SV% while he struggled in the playoffs, playing to a 3.60 GAA and .855 SV% in just four outings, two of those coming in relief.  In between, he dealt with a concussion and noted after the season that he had been playing through an injury.

With Kochetkov on the shelf, Andersen now becomes the clear-cut starter, a role that he hasn’t been able to hold onto for extended stretches in recent years due to his own injuries.  Over the last three seasons, he hasn’t made more than 33 starts in a single one so if Kochetkov’s absence winds up being more longer-term, Andersen will be tested much more than he has been in recent years while Bussi could get a chance to make his NHL debut as well.

Injury Notes: Lindholm, Trocheck, Brodin

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The Boston Bruins announced tonight that veteran defenseman Hampus Lindholm has suffered a lower-body injury and will not return to their game against the Chicago Blackhawks. While there is obviously no further information on Lindholm’s status beyond that update, it is nonetheless far from encouraging news for one of Boston’s most important players.

It’s especially unfortunate for Lindholm to be forced out of a game due to injury so early in the season given the injury issues he faced in 2024-25. Injuries limited Lindholm to just 17 games played last season, the fewest of any year thus far in his 763-game NHL career. Lindholm is the Bruins’ clear number-two defenseman behind star Charlie McAvoy, averaging nearly 21 minutes of ice time last season including significant time on each of the two special teams. The hope will be that Lindholm’s removal from this game is more of a precautionary measure, and that this lower-body injury turns out to be something relatively minor, as much of the Bruins’ hopes for this season rest on the availability of one of their top blueliners.

Other notes from across the NHL:

  • The New York Rangers announced tonight that center Vincent Trocheck would not return to their game against the Buffalo Sabres due to an upper-body injury. While there is no word on the extent of Trocheck’s injury beyond being held out of the rest of tonight’s game, any extended absence would be a signifcant blow to the Rangers. Trocheck is an important all-situations second-line center for the Rangers. Not only does he center star winger Artemi Panarin and play on the Rangers’ first power play unit, he also was the team’s most-used penalty killing forward last season.
  • Minnesota Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin remains out while he recovers from offseason upper-body surgery, though his absence may be coming to an end. Wild coach John Hynes told the media today, including the Minnesota Star Tribune’s Sarah McLellan, that Brodin’s return is “imminent.” Brodin is a veteran top-four blueliner who has battled persistent injury issues over the last few years. Last season, he was limited to just 50 games, and he has not reached the 70-game threshold since 2021-22.

Injury Notes: Girgensons, Vlasic, Strome

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Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper was asked by Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times if Zemgus Girgensons could be considered week-to-week, and Cooper confirmed Encina’s suspicions, saying it is “probably a semi-safe assessment of where he’s at right now”. 

The 31-year-old Latvian forward was injured in Saturday’s preseason tilt vs Florida, a game which caught the league’s attention with over 300 penalty minutes combined between the rivals. The Lightning actually faced fines and a hearing with the Department of Player Safety for the festivities that occurred throughout the game. 

Girgensons will miss his first regular season game as a Bolt, having appeared in all 82 games last season, netting 6 points in a largely shutdown role. 

Elsewhere across the league:

  • Chicago Head Coach Jeff Blashill says Alex Vlasic is all set to play tomorrow, as confirmed by Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times. Vlasic was absent in the 2025-26 NHL season opener due to a lower-body injury, as the Blackhawks fell to Florida. Having broken out last season with 30 points, the Blackhawks will be glad to welcome the young Illinois native back to the lineup.
  • The Anaheim Ducks announced today that dependable center Ryan Strome will miss the team’s upcoming road trip due to an upper-body injury, which was previously under wraps. The 32-year-old veteran has only missed three regular season games in his first three seasons with the Ducks, twice being an all-82-game player. Strome has flashed remarkable consistency, netting 41 points exactly in each campaign. Based on the Ducks’ statement, he is set to miss games in Seattle and San Jose, but perhaps could return for the home opener against Pittsburgh next Tuesday.

Wild Recall Hunter Haight, Place Nico Sturm And Mats Zuccarello On IR

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The Minnesota Wild have shaken up their roster a bit ahead of Opening Night. Forwards Nico Sturm and Mats Zuccarello have officially been placed on injured reserve with a back injury and lower-body injury respectively. In their place, the Wild have recalled forward prospect Hunter Haight. It’s not yet clear if the Wild plan to award Haight with his NHL debut in their season-opener against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.

What is clear is that both Zuccarello and Sturm could miss significant time. Zuccarello underwent surgery to address his injury in late-September. The team confirmed that he is expected to miss at least seven-to-eight weeks as he recovers from the procedure. Sturm’s timeline isn’t as clear after he reaggravated a back injury during training camp. Initial reactions to his injury suggest bad news on the horizon, per Michael Russo of The Athletic. That’s unfortunate news after the 32-year-old center signed a two-year, $4MM contract with Minnesota this summer.

The early beneficiary of the two injuries could be Haight. The 21-year-old centerman played his first full season in the minor-leagues last year. He posted a stout 20 goals and 34 points through 67 appearances, enough to rank him second on the Iowa Wild in goals and fifth in points. Before his move to the AHL, Haight was a standout utility-knife in the OHL – routinely rivaling point-per-game scoring with a presence that was felt all over the ice. He’s undersized, but still showed an ability to battle through traffic and win space in front of the net. Those attributes convinced Minnesota to draft Haight with the 47th-overall pick in 2022. Now, three years later, the young center could soon get a chance to show his might at the top level.

Haight was one of only five Wild players to score a goal in the preseason. He played in four games. His training camp showings suggested a lot more improvement was needed, though he never looked much out of place against NHL talent. Should he slot into the lineup, Haight would likely step into the team’s fourth-line center role – potentially next to fellow rookie Danila Yurov.

Oilers Recall David Tomasek, Move Zach Hyman To LTIR

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Oct. 7: While Howard remains down for now, Tomasek has been recalled today after the club set their LTIR capture with Zach Hyman, the club announced. Hyman will remain out until early November while rehabbing the wrist injury that ended his 2025 postseason run prematurely.

Oct. 6: After doling out extensions to Connor McDavid and Jake Walman earlier today, the Edmonton Oilers are hustling to become cap-compliant when opening night rosters are due. In that effort, the team announced they have placed forward Mattias Janmark on the injured reserve, reassigned forwards Isaac Howard and David Tomasek, and recalled forward James Hamblin from their AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors.

Most of today’s cap crunch is because of Janmark. The nine-year veteran is reportedly dealing with an undisclosed injury, which will keep him sidelined for a week or so. Since he’s not expected to miss much time, the Oilers won’t get any cap relief from his $1.45MM salary. He scored two goals and 18 points in 80 games for Edmonton last season, with another three goals and four points in 22 postseason contests.

The biggest casualty of today’s cap crunch is undoubtedly Howard. The reigning Hobey Baker Award winner was acquired by the Oilers this offseason after failing to reach a contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning, and was expected to fill an important need for Edmonton in their top six — inexpensive talent.

He made a strong case to make the roster this preseason, scoring one goal and four points in six games, which makes today’s move a much more difficult pill to swallow. Still, he’s likely to debut with the Oilers at some point this season. In his final season in the NCAA with the Michigan State University Spartans, Howard recorded 26 goals and 52 points in 34 games.

Meanwhile, Tomasek, 29, becomes another casualty of Edmonton’s cost-clearing moves. Although he is no longer considered a prospect, he joined the Oilers this summer by signing a one-year, $1.2 million contract as an international free agent.

Like Howard, he was another inexpensive addition by Edmonton this summer that the team could conceivably put in their top-six. As the reigning Guldhjälmen Award (MVP) winner in the SHL from a season ago, Tomasek recorded 24 goals and 57 points in 47 games for the Färjestad BK.

Of all the forwards the Oilers could have recalled, Hamblin gives them the most flexibility since he cleared waivers a few days ago. The former WHL standout will begin his sixth season with Edmonton. He spent all of last year in Bakersfield, scoring 19 goals and 45 points in 51 games as one of the team’s assistant captains.

According to PuckPedia, after today’s moves, the Oilers now sit a tight $834, yes, you read that correctly, under the upper limit of the salary cap to start the season.

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