Snapshots: Carlson, Gibson, Hartman
The Washington Capitals’ status as a conservative seller at the deadline may have surprised fans just a few months ago. A relatively secure Wild Card position in late 2022 has since fallen by the wayside, mainly due to injuries to key players.
Their longest-term absence has been that of defenseman John Carlson, who hasn’t played since December 23 after taking a slapshot to the head in a game against the Winnipeg Jets. Head coach Peter Laviolette had some positive news to share today regarding the All-Star defenseman, who joined Capitals practice today wearing a non-contact jersey. While Washington won’t be making a playoff run this year, barring a miracle, a return to health is positive news for Carlson after such a scary injury. The 33-year-old is under contract until 2026 and had 21 points in 30 games this year before exiting the lineup.
- The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun today speculated on the future of goalie John Gibson with the Anaheim Ducks, whose name has begun to creep into trade speculation over the past months. LeBrun noted that some teams still view the netminder as a difference-maker, especially with the 29-year-old posting a string of elite performances lately. After this season, Gibson still has four years remaining on a contract carrying a $6.4MM cap hit. A move to a contender, especially as Gibson has partial trade protection, likely hinges on the Ducks retaining some salary.
- According to a Twitter announcement, Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Hartman was fined $4,594.59 today by the NHL Department of Player Safety for slashing Calgary Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson. The figure is the maximum allowable under the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Hartman received a minor penalty on the play, which occurred in the middle of the first period of last night’s 1-0 shootout loss to the Flames.
Colorado Avalanche Issue Multiple Injury Updates
Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar was busy with the media today, issuing multiple updates on the team’s swath of injured players.
Most notably, Bednar still has no timeline for a return on captain Gabriel Landeskog, who’s missed the entire season with a knee injury. Bednar called Landeskog’s recovery a “slow-moving process,” There remains no guarantee he will play at all this season.
There’s also the matter of veteran defenseman Erik Johnson, who’s been out for almost a month since sustaining a broken ankle in a game on February 11. His initial timeline for recovery was eight to 10 weeks, and although he remains on that timeline, Bednar said he was “startled” by Johnson’s quick recovery progress. Johnson skated today for the second time since sustaining the injury, and Bednar is hopeful his return will come closer to the eight-week mark, right at the end of the regular season.
Another tenured skater has missed most of the season for Colorado – two-time Stanley Cup champion Darren Helm has played just five games all year. Although he’s returned to skating at practice, Bednar’s only update was that he’s “cautiously optimistic” Helm will play again this season. Helm was an important fourth-line piece for Colorado last year, recording five points in 20 games en route to the Cup.
Defenseman Josh Manson is still dealing with a reaggravated lower-body injury that kept him out for 31 games earlier in the year, but Bednar sees his return is on the horizon. He remains hopeful Manson will return by the end of the month, giving him a chance to get his feet back under him before the playoffs start. An important defensive presence for Colorado, Manson has played just 27 games during the first season of a four-year, $4.5MM average annual value contract.
On a less positive note, backup goalie Pavel Francouz is recovering slower than expected from a lower-body injury that’s kept him out since mid-February. Francouz has now passed the expected recovery timeline of three weeks, but Bednar is hopeful he will return before the end of the season. Colorado has rotated backups in his place, recalling Keith Kinkaid, Jonas Johansson, and Justus Annunen at times.
Pittsburgh Penguins Place Ryan Poehling On LTIR, Recall Alex Nylander
The Pittsburgh Penguins today placed forward Ryan Poehling on long-term injured reserve and used an emergency recall on forward Alex Nylander, per a team release.
Poehling’s LTIR placement is retroactive to February 14, meaning he’s eligible to be activated as soon as tomorrow. The 24-year-old forward has missed the past 10 games with a lingering upper-body injury.
Nylander, the eighth overall selection in the 2016 NHL Draft and the younger brother of William Nylander, earns his first recall as a member of the Penguins organization. Acquired in a one-for-one swap for Sam Lafferty with the Chicago Blackhawks last year, Nylander is amidst a breakout season in the AHL with 25 goals and 50 points in 54 games.
While he won’t reach the ceiling of a top-ten draft pick, his steady offensive increase in the minors over the past few years suggests Nylander can carve out a consistent NHL role for himself shortly. It wasn’t long ago that he produced decent numbers in a full-time opportunity with Chicago, recording 26 points in 65 games in 2019-20 before a knee injury held him out of the 2020-21 season.
Victor Hedman Out Day-To-Day
Per Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper, star defenseman Victor Hedman is out day-to-day with an injury and won’t play in tonight’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Hedman took a spill into the endboards during Saturday’s 6-0 defeat at the Carolina Hurricanes and remained on the ice, favoring his lower back. He attempted to return to the game but skated a short shift before exiting for good.
While it’s never good to be without your number-one defenseman, Cooper’s announcement that Hedman’s injury isn’t long-term is a relief for those invested in the organization.
It’s not all bad news on the injury front for Tampa, too. Defenseman Erik Cernak is slated to return tonight after missing the last two games with a lower-body injury. While his advanced metrics suggest a slip in his defense this year, the team still struggled to keep the puck out of the net in his absence, conceding 11 goals in those two games.
Haydn Fleury, a frequent healthy scratch this season, will draw into the lineup without Hedman available. The team will lean heavily on Mikhail Sergachev, who’s tied for the team lead in points from defensemen with Hedman, during what’s hopefully a short-term absence for the latter.
The 32-year-old Hedman has recorded six goals and 42 points in 60 games for the Lightning this season, skating nearly 24 minutes per game, down slightly from his totals the last two seasons.
Injury News: Monahan, Cernak, Carrier, Bjorkstrand
One veteran that wasn’t on the move yesterday was Canadiens center Sean Monahan. Speaking at his post-deadline press conference (video link), GM Kent Hughes indicated that the 28-year-old suffered another injury while rehabbing his foot injury, one that has no timeline for a return. However, it’s possible that he’s able to return this season. Monahan has been out since early December and was off to a nice start with Montreal with 17 points in his first 25 games. Unfortunately for him, this extended absence coupled with hip injuries the past two seasons certainly won’t help his cause as he gets set to hit the open market for the first time this summer.
Other injury news from around the NHL:
- The Lightning announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Erik Cernak is listed as out day-to-day with a lower-body injury. The 25-year-old left Thursday’s game early but he did take the warmup prior to today’s contest against Buffalo so it would appear that he won’t be out too long. Cernak has a goal and ten assists in 53 games so far this season while logging over 19 minutes a night on their back end.
- Predators defenseman Alexandre Carrier will miss the next four-to-six weeks due to an upper-body injury, notes Alex Daugherty of AtoZ Sports Nashville (Twitter link). The 26-year-old has dealt with multiple upper-body injuries this season with this most recent one being sustained on Thursday against Florida. A pending restricted free agent, Carrier has just nine points in 43 games this season after putting up 30 in 77 contests in 2021-22.
- Kraken winger Oliver Bjorkstrand’s return to Columbus last night was shortened as Kate Shefte of The Seattle Times relays that the veteran suffered a lower-body injury in the third period and did not return. No update was available following the game. Bjorkstrand got off to a slow start this season but has been better since the calendar turned to 2023, collecting 17 points in 28 games since the beginning of January.
Avalanche Activate Cale Makar, Josh Manson Out Indefinitely
The Avalanche are getting some good news and some bad news regarding their back end. NHL.com’s Ryan Boulding relays that Cale Makar has been activated off injured reserve and will play today against Dallas. However, Josh Manson’s lower-body injury sustained on Wednesday is going to keep him out for a while; Boulding lists him as out week to week.
Makar is returning from his second stint in concussion protocol in a matter of weeks with this one keeping him out for the last five games. Fortunately for both him and the Avs, he told reporters including Kyle Frederickson of the Denver Gazette (Twitter link) that the symptoms were “very, very mild”.
When healthy, the 24-year-old is one of the premier offensive defensemen in the NHL and is hovering around the point-per-game mark with 13 goals and 32 assists in 46 games so far while averaging 26:57 per night, a career-high. Makar will undoubtedly be a big boost for their back end, especially on the power play.
As for Manson, his first full season with Colorado has not gone according to plan. Injuries have limited the 31-year-old to just 27 games so far in 2022-23 which is not what anyone was hoping for as he begins a four-year, $18MM deal. At this point, the Avalanche are likely just hoping that he’ll be able to get back late in the season to get ready for the playoffs next month. Even with his absence, there are seven blueliners on the active roster so no recall from AHL Colorado is likely.
Ondrej Kase Not Expected To Play This Season
The Carolina Hurricanes currently have three players on long-term injured reserve. Max Pacioretty and Jake Gardiner have already been ruled out for the season, but there were still some question marks around Ondrej Kase. The veteran forward played just one game before suffering another concussion, an injury he has experienced several times throughout his career.
In December, Kase resumed skating, and it seemed there might be a chance for him to return. But Hurricanes reporter Walt Ruff relays an update from general manager Don Waddell, explaining that the team is not expecting him back this season.
We’re not planning on him [playing again this season] as of now. If we get a good surprise that he’s feeling better, we’ll work him back in.
Even before this incident with Carolina, Kase’s concussion history was “plausibly into the double digits,” as James Mirtle of The Athletic wrote last year. Starting from his first game in North America, and now potentially ending with his first game as a Hurricane, it has been a long, unfortunate grind for the 27-year-old winger. Kase has never played in more than 66 games in a single season, and has suited up just 258 times since debuting in 2016.
He is an effective middle-six player when he’s on the ice, but it’s starting to look like that will never happen again for the Czech winger. It is disappointing for a seventh-round draft pick that rose so rapidly and looked so promising as a young player. Incredibly, he still ranks 27th in goals among all players drafted in 2014.
Detroit Red Wings Expected To Sign John Lethemon
The Detroit Red Wings have signed goaltender John Lethemon to a contract for the rest of this season worth $750k with a $65k minors salary, according to PuckPedia.
The 26-year-old has spent most of this season with the Red Wings’ ECHL affiliate, the Toledo Walleye, and by signing him to this standard player contract the Red Wings have ensured his eligibility to play in the playoffs, giving them some added depth in case the team makes the postseason and runs into some injury trouble.
Notably, this deal will give the Red Wings the ability to make Lethemon a restricted free agent at the end of the year, meaning they could keep him from hitting the open market.
Lethemon has had a strong season for the Walleye, splitting the crease with 2021 15th-overall pick Sebastian Cossa. Playing in the shadow of the Red Wings’ presumptive goalie of the future, Lethemon has actually outperformed Cossa this season, albeit in a smaller sample of games.
In 24 contests Lethemon has posted an extremely impressive 16-1-3 record, 2.08 goals-against-average, and .927 save percentage. Lethemon is a former Michigan State Spartan who starred with a .935 save percentage in his final season playing college hockey.
Not only does this contract signing provide an added layer of emergency depth for the Red Wings in net, it’s also a nice reward for Lethemon’s quality performances this year. With Magnus Hellberg, Alex Nedeljkovic, and Victor Brattstrom all on expiring contracts, the situation in net could clear up for Lethemon to even parlay this year’s impressive performance into a chance to become an AHL netminder.
One would presume that the Red Wings would like to have Cossa get some AHL games under his belt next season, so they could even choose to retain Lethemon on another similar contract for next season and simply move Toledo’s tandem up a level.
One other factor worth noting with this signing, should the Red Wings have interest in keeping Lethemon beyond this season, is any impact it could have on the team signing Colgate University netminder Carter Gylander before the end of next season, when their exclusive rights to sign him will expire according to CapFriendly.
The Red Wings will also have 2020 fourth-rounder Jan Bednar to potentially sign to an entry-level deal, so their continued investment in Lethemon and the presence of Cossa could mean Gylander is squeezed out of a future in Detroit.
Gylander has taken a step forward this season for the Raiders, posting a .916 save percentage and 2.37 goals-against-average as essentially the exclusive starting netminder on the team, a performance that could draw the interest of some pro clubs intrigued by his progress and six-foot-four frame.
No Supplemental Discipline Coming For Austin Watson
Ottawa Senators forward Austin Watson will not face supplemental discipline from the NHL Department of Player Safety for a hit to the head area he made on New York Rangers forward Tyler Motte last night, according to Larry Brooks of the New York Post.
The hit, which led to Watson receiving a five-minute major penalty and game misconduct, came in the first period of last night’s game. Watson appeared to hit Motte, who was his teammate just a few weeks ago, in the head area with a rising check, one that seemed to include an elbow making contact with Motte’s upper body.
A replay review by officials showed that Watson’s primary point of contact was with Motte’s chin, which is what led to Watson being ejected from the game. ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski reports that the Department of Player Safety determined that the hit “didn’t rise to Illegal Check to the Head,” that it was more of a “North/south hit through the body with unavoidable head contact.”
Motte did not return to the eventual Senators victory, and worth noting is the fact that Motte was knocked out for some time last season with an upper-body injury. He could miss some time now with the upper-body injury he suffered due to the hit, although no firm timeline has yet been released.
Motte, 27, was recently acquired from the Senators and has played six games for the Rangers this year.
Should he miss extended time, the Rangers will be pressed into an even more precarious situation, having already been forced to play with eleven forwards and five defensemen for cap-related reasons.
For the Senators, Watson escaping punishment from the NHL for this hit could help them as they look to make a push for a playoff spot. Watson was suspended last year for a high hit on Boston Bruins defenseman Jack Ahcan, meaning were he going to face discipline again he would be considered a repeat offender.
Now, though, despite the apparent severity of Watson’s hit on Motte, Watson will be able to remain in the Senators’ lineup for their Saturday game against the Columbus Blue Jackets. It appears that the league has decided that the five-minute-major and match penalty is sufficient punishment for Watson, which is not fully out of line with some of their past decisions.
For the Rangers, this decision could come as another point of anger for the team against the NHL Department of Player Safety, especially with their own player, K’Andre Miller, currently serving a suspension.
It was just two years ago that the Rangers’ officially and publicly called for the firing of former NHL enforcer George Parros, the current head of the NHL’s Department of Player Safety. In a statement, they called him “unfit to continue in his current role” and his choice to not suspend Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson “a dereliction of duty” that seemed to permit what they called a “horrifying act of violence.”
While today’s choice to not levy additional punishment on Watson won’t to draw the same level of ire from the Rangers and the New York market, they’re unlikely to be thrilled to see Watson walk away unscathed while one of their players faces a possible extended absence.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Sean Kuraly Out Six Weeks
Columbus Blue Jackets forward Sean Kuraly is expected to miss six weeks after suffering a left oblique strain during practice on Thursday. The team made the announcement on Friday, adding another name to a long list of Blue Jackets injuries this season.
Game 82 of Columbus’ season, against the Buffalo Sabres, is exactly six weeks from today, meaning Kuraly may have played his last game of 2022-23. If so, he finishes the campaign with 10 goals and seven assists in 59 games, his second consecutive season hitting double-digit goals.
Kuraly had averaged 14:49 per game, serving as a quintessential bottom-six checking center for Columbus. His line with Eric Robinson and Mathieu Olivier had been Columbus’ most consistently deployed unit of the season, per MoneyPuck, surviving many injury-related lineup changes.
While the Blue Jackets are the healthiest they’ve been in quite some time, they’re still without Zach Werenski, Jake Bean, and Justin Danforth, none of whom are expected to return this season. Lane Pederson, claimed on waivers from the Vancouver Canucks at the end of January, could slide into Kuraly’s spot in the lineup between Robinson and Olivier.