Injury Notes: Caufield, Stützle, Tanev
After exiting tonight’s game early in the second period with an upper-body injury, Montreal Canadiens star sniper Cole Caufield will not return, according to the team. He was hit hard in front of the Canadiens’ net by Flames forward Trevor Lewis and reached for his head after the collision.
Caufield and Nick Suzuki‘s chemistry have been instrumental in helping the Habs hover around the .500 mark this far into the regular season. Caufield’s 16 goals lead the team, and his 25 points in 27 games are second behind Suzuki’s 29. Any long-term absence from their top goal-scorer will be extremely difficult to overcome.
- Another Canadian team also lost an important young forward tonight. Ottawa Senators center Tim Stützle left their game against the Anaheim Ducks and did not return after sustaining an upper-body injury in the first frame, per the team. He was checked by Ducks forward Brett Leason, who was given an interference penalty on the play. Stützle’s 27 points are second on the team, and they’re already without their other top center in Josh Norris.
- For Calgary, they lost defenseman Chris Tanev after taking a puck to the face. The veteran stayed down on the ice after the impact but didn’t require a stretcher and was helped off the ice by teammates. If Tanev is to miss time, Calgary will need to recall another defenseman with MacKenzie Weegar battling an illness.
Snapshots: Flames, Board Of Governors, Capitals
The Calgary Flames are without two key players tonight as they take on the Montreal Canadiens. Before puck drop, the team announced center Elias Lindholm and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar are out with an upper-body injury and a non-COVID illness, respectively.
Mikael Backlund slides up to the top line in Lindholm’s absence, while Connor Mackey makes his sixth appearance of the season in place of Weegar. Lindholm isn’t quite producing at last year’s clip, but he still leads the team in scoring with 23 points in 28 games. Weegar’s yet to score his first goal as a member of the Flames, but has six assists in 28 games and is averaging over 20 minutes per game. Still, Calgary would like some more offense out of Weegar, who had a career-high 44 points last season as a member of the Florida Panthers.
- Today wasn’t the most eventful opening day of the NHL’s Board of Governors’ meeting in Florida, but NHL.com’s Dan Rosen expects that to change tomorrow. Rosen notes that tomorrow’s docket includes salary cap projections for the 2023-24 season, updates regarding the ongoing sale process for the Ottawa Senators, and a potential fan code of conduct. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman will likely issue an update after tomorrow’s meetings conclude.
- Speaking to reporters, including ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski, Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis said the team won’t enter a rebuild while Alex Ovechkin is still chasing the NHL’s all-time goals record. Ovechkin has noted a desire to remain competitive while chasing the record, vying for team and individual success. Leonsis also noted that Wayne Gretzky himself will be in attendance for all Capitals games as Ovechkin inches toward his record of 894 career goals.
Vegas Golden Knights Place Jack Eichel On Injured Reserve; Recall Three Players
The Vegas Golden Knights are dealing with several injuries, and have made a few changes to the roster in preparation for their upcoming road trip. Jack Eichel and Zach Whitecloud have been moved to injured reserve, while Jonas Rondbjerg, Brayden Pachal, and Kaedan Korczak have been recalled from the AHL.
Eichel missed last night’s game against the Boston Bruins. Though he was skating recently, his IR stint will be retroactive to his last appearance on December 9, meaning he’ll be forced to miss both of the team’s upcoming road games. The club is headed to Winnipeg and Chicago this week, before returning home for a game against the New York Islanders on Saturday night. Eichel would be eligible to come off IR by then, if healthy enough to do so.
Whitecloud, meanwhile, left last night’s game clutching his leg after fewer than nine minutes of ice time. The 26-year-old defenseman had been averaging huge minutes of late while Alex Pietrangelo is away from the team for personal reasons, but now looks like he’ll miss some time. No timeline has been given to this point, but an IR placement means he’ll miss at least a week.
Rondbjerg has already played one game this season with the club but Pachal and Korczak have been limited to AHL duties. Korczak, 21, was the 41st overall pick in 2019 and has six points in 24 games this season for Henderson. The 6’3″ defenseman has just one NHL game under his belt and is one of the team’s most interesting prospects. Whether all three will enter the lineup remains to be seen.
Blue Jackets Recall Daniil Tarasov, Joonas Korpisalo Out At Least A Week
Dec 12: The Blue Jackets have swapped, sending Greaves back down and recalling Tarasov.
Dec 10: Blue Jackets goaltender Joonas Korpisalo left last night’s game against Calgary after the first period with what was called lower body discomfort. Head coach Brad Larsen told reporters, including Aaron Portzline of The Athletic (Twitter link) that the veteran will be out for at least a week due to the injury. That designation allows him to be placed on injured reserve, creating an open roster spot for the team to recall Jet Greaves from AHL Cleveland.
Korpisalo returned to the lineup last month after missing the start of the season due to the hip surgery he underwent back in March. It’s unknown if this issue is related to that procedure but Columbus will understandably err on the side of caution here. Through his first 12 appearances, he has a 3.53 GAA along with a .903 SV% and while those numbers may not look great, they’re considerably better than what starter Elvis Merzlikins has put up so far (4.82 and .862, respectively).
At first glance, it seems a bit surprising that Daniil Tarasov wasn’t the one brought up from the Monsters. He has held his own in limited action with Columbus this season and as the presumptive backup starting in 2023-24, a chance to get him some more NHL experience at a time when the season is already well off the rails would have made some sense. Instead, they’ll prioritize the 23-year-old getting steady playing time in the minors.
This will be Greaves’ second recall of the season although this one should last a little longer than his first one. The 21-year-old undrafted free agent signing has played in 10 games with Cleveland this season, posting a 4.09 GAA with an .878 SV%. His promotion means that it should be Merzlikins’ net exclusively until Korpisalo is able to return.
Artturi Lehkonen Returning To Colorado Avalanche Lineup
After suffering a concussion on December 3rd, Colorado Avalanche forward Artturi Lehkonen is expected back in the lineup for this afternoon’s contest on the road in St. Louis against the Blues, says Bennett Durando of The Denver Post. Lehkonen was never placed on IR with the injury, missing three games and seven days total. At last report on Thursday, the veteran had been placed in concussion protocol. According to Durando, Lehkonen will skate on the top line this afternoon alongside Mikko Rantanen and Valeri Nichushkin.
Colorado’s injury woes this season have been well reported, the consistent and significant injuries sending the reigning Stanley Cup Champions into a fight for a playoff position even at the one-third mark of the season. After losing Nichushkin for over a month, the team then found out they’d be without perennial Hart Trophy candidate Nathan MacKinnon for four weeks, only compounding the issue. Beyond just their stars, which also includes Gabriel Landeskog, who has yet to play this season, Colorado has lost a number of secondary and depth options for small and large portions of the season.
Lehkonen has been one of the bright spots for the Avalanche so far this season, recording seven goals and 11 assists through 22 games, well on his way to a career-year. The team will need him to keep that scoring pace up in order to do their best to navigate other injuries, like MacKinnon’s, but it’s not yet known what sort of lingering effect, if any, will come with the concussion.
Staying on the injury front, Durando adds that Darren Helm and Evan Rodrigues are not yet ready to return to the lineup. Helm, who has yet to play this season, has been close to returning and was even a possibility to play this weekend, but will clearly need to wait a little bit longer to make his season debut. Rodrigues hasn’t played since suffering a lower-body injury against the Vancouver Canucks back on November 23rd, but had been a bright spot amid the injuries, with nine points in his first 18 games for Colorado.
Injury Notes: Capitals, Jets, Krug
It’s been a tough season thus far for the Washington Capitals, who sit three points out of the New York Rangers and a Wild Card spot in the East and six points back of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Carolina Hurricanes for a spot in the Metropolitan Division. No team will ever make excuses, however injuries have been unrelenting for Washington even before the puck dropped on the 2022-23 season. The organization expected a tough go of it early on without some of their stars and all things considered, 30 points in 29 games is not half bad. They’ll have to have a strong season the rest of the way to get into the postseason, but as of right now, injury updates look positive.
Earlier today, the Capitals placed defenseman Alexander Alexeyev and goaltender Darcy Kuemper on IR and recalled defensemen Lucas Johansen and Dylan McIlrath. For Kuemper, that’s not expected to be much of an issue, eligible to come off of IR as soon as Tuesday, and according to NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti, the netminder participated in the team’s morning skate today for the first time since suffering the injury. Also from Gulitti, veteran Dmitry Orlov, who has not played since November 5th due to a lower-body injury, also skated this morning. Perhaps the best news, even if nothing is imminent, is forwards Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson skated this morning in non-contact jerseys, traveling with the team on the road for the first time this season, which appears to be the norm going forward. Both core pieces of this generation’s Capitals squad, getting either back in the lineup would be a massive boost not only to on-ice production, but to off-ice morale too. Still, one bit of bad news, both Alexeyev and Martin Fehervary did not skate this morning, and fellow defenseman Erik Gustafsson left practice early, head coach Peter Laviolette telling Gulitti the Capitals and Gustafsson are “working through some things.”
- The Winnipeg Jets will be without forward Saku Maenalanen and defenseman Logan Stanley when they take on the Capitals this evening says Scott Billeck of the Winnipeg Sun. No update beyond that was given by associate coach Scott Arniel. Billeck adds that the Jets are trying to get an additional player called up from the Manitoba Moose to join the Jets at home this evening. Billeck adds the Moose, who actually share an arena with the Jets, are on their way to Calgary, however getting a player back from Calgary to Winnipeg by tonight shouldn’t be an issue. As for the injured players, Maenalanen has impressed in a depth role for the Jets this year, recording six points in 25 games, averaging 11:30 a night, his first NHL action since a stint with the Carolina Hurricanes back in 2018-19. Unfortunately for Stanley, who missed a-month-and-a-half, was able to play just two games after coming back before being forced out of the lineup once again.
- The St. Louis Blues confirmed defenseman Torey Krug would rejoin the lineup Sunday after missing two games with an upper-body injury. The veteran, much like his Blues, has had a shaky start to 2022-23, recording 11 points in 24 games, but comes with a -22 rating, the worst mark in the league. Even amid his struggles, if the Blues hope to re-write their 2022-23 story, it’s more likely than not that Krug will have to be part of the solution, and having him in the lineup would be a start. Though Krug is back, forward Pavel Buchnevich, who also hasn’t played since December 5th, will not play this afternoon, the Blues announced.
Washington Capitals Place Alexeyev, Kuemper On IR; Recall Johansen, McIlrath
11:28 am: According to NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti, the Capitals have indeed made those corresponding moves. Alexeyev, as well as goaltender Darcy Kuemper, have both been placed on IR. Kuemper’s IR placement shouldn’t come as too much of a concern, as it is retroactive to December 3rd, meaning he could come back as soon as Tuesday when the team is in Chicago to take on the Blackhawks.
10:44 am: The Washington Capitals announced they’ve recalled a pair of defensemen in that of Lucas Johansen and Dylan McIlrath from the Hershey Bears, their AHL affiliate. While no other corresponding moves were formally announced, the Capitals’ roster is already full at 23 players. The moves could signal an IR stint for defenseman Alexander Alexeyev, who suffered an upper-body injury in Friday night’s game against the Seattle Kraken. Despite being at 23 skaters, the Capitals had just six defenseman before the recalls, which included Alexeyev.
Notably, these two recalls seem to cap off a morning of defenseman shuffling in the Capitals organization. Earlier, the Hershey Bears announced they’ve recalled defenseman Martin Has from the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL. That recall came not only with Johansen and McIlrath’s recalls in mind, but after the Bears lost defenseman Bobby Nardella during the first period of last night’s game with an undisclosed injury. For Has, 21, he could have a chance to take the next step in his development after a solid start to this season in the ECHL with three points in 14 games. This is the defenseman’s first professional season in North America, spending last season with the Shawinigan Cataractes of the QMJHL.
Johansen, 25, is a former first-round pick of the Capitals back in 2016, but has played in just two NHL games to date, one in each of the last two seasons. He may not have hit the ceiling expected of him as a first-round selection however he has turned into a solid defenseman at the AHL level. Given Washington’s injury issues on defense this season, which include Alexeyev and Dmitry Orlov, both left-handed, the left-handed Johansen may get a chance to shine.
McIlrath, 30, is a longtime veteran of the AHL and NHL as well. The former 10th-overall pick back in 2010 to the New York Rangers, has played in 66 NHL games total, spread over six different seasons between the Rangers, Florida Panthers, and Detroit Red Wings. The veteran hasn’t played in the NHL since 2019-20, when he got into 16 games with Detroit. This is McIlrath’s second season with Hershey, recording just five assists in 22 games to start this season, but does have a respectable 36 penalty minutes in that span, playing the role of physical shutdown defenseman.
Interestingly, McIlrath did appear to have a two game NHL suspension awaiting him upon his recall. He had been suspended during the 2021 preseason for two preseason games and two regular season games, but hadn’t played in the NHL, during the regular season, since. However, as NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti reports, according to the Capitals organization, the NHL and NHLPA reached a settlement agreement this fall that allowed McIlrath’s two regular season games to be served during this preseason. Thus, McIlrath should be eligible to play tonight against the Winnipeg Jets, should Washington choose to dress him. Gulitti was also the first to raise the question about the suspension.
Buffalo Sabres Make Several Roster Moves
December 11: The Sabres announced that they have returned Murray on loan to Rochester after yesterday’s recall. Murray did not play in last night’s loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins and has not played in the NHL since last season, though he has been impactful as a member of the Americans.
December 10: The Buffalo Sabres have announced four roster moves in advance of tonight’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. First, they placed defenseman Henri Jokiharju and forward Vinnie Hinostroza on injured reserve. To fill those two roster spots, the team recalled forward Brett Murray and defenseman Kale Clague from their AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans.
Per Sabres coach Don Granato, as relayed by Noted Hockey’s Joe Yerdon, Jokiharju is out week-to-week with a lower-body injury. That’s a major loss for the Sabres as they look to climb back into the Wild Card race.
While Jokiharju’s offensive production (four points in 16 games) isn’t anything to write home about, he was playing over 20 minutes per night (fourth-most on the Sabres) and playing nearly three minutes on the penalty kill per game on the Sabres’ top penalty kill unit.
In Jokiharju’s place, the Sabres bring up Clague, who they signed this offseason to a one-year, $750K two-way deal. Clague has split time between Buffalo and Rochester this year, scoring six points in 14 AHL games and one point in seven NHL games.
In his NHL action so far this year Clague has played just under 16 minutes a night with no penalty-killing time, meaning Granato will need to look to his current stable of blueliners to fill the void left by Jokiharju’s injury.
Hinostroza, 28, is placed on injured reserve just a week after Granato said, per The Buffalo News’ Lance Lysowski, that he had been nursing a day-to-day minor injury. The former Chicago Blackhawk has eight points in 15 games so far this season while playing in a limited role.
He’ll be replaced on the roster by Murray. The 24-year-old was a 2016 fourth-round pick of the Sabres out of the CCHL’s Carleton Place Canadians and signed in Buffalo after a two-year collegiate career as a Penn State Nittany Lion, as well as a final year in the USHL in 2018-19. Murray has nine goals and 15 points in 22 AHL games so far this year and scored six points in 19 NHL games last season.
Morning Notes: Puljujarvi, Heritage Classic, Matheson
Earlier this week, an interview with Edmonton Oilers forward Jesse Puljujarvi in a Finnish newspaper came out, with Puljujarvi saying in sum that he wants to be a productive first line forward, but isn’t sure if he can do that in the NHL. His frustration and lack of confidence is a bit understandable, the former fourth-overall pick struggling to just six points in 28 games to start the season. Last night on Hockey Night in Canada’s 32 Thoughts segment, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman gave an update on the winger and where things stand with Edmonton. According to Friedman, the Oilers and Puljujarvi’s representatives agreed before the season that if things did not go well for Puljujarvi, that Edmonton would try to move him.
It’s not exactly a new story that Edmonton would be interested in moving on from Puljujarvi, the team trying to do so this summer for salary cap purposes, but now it appears both sides are interested in the idea for the benefit of the player. Friedman adds that he does expect the trade to happen eventually, but that it might take time. One reason for this is Edmonton’s injury issues at forward and the fact that they don’t currently have any salary cap issues, at least not until Evander Kane returns to the lineup. There’s no doubt Puljujarvi has struggled to meet expectation this season, however he still can be better than some alternatives while the team works through its injury troubles.
- Also from Hockey Night In Canada’s 32 Thoughts last night, the NHL has confirmed that the Heritage Classic will be returning to Edmonton next season. The game is expected to be played at Commonwealth Stadium sometime in October and will feature a Battle of Alberta between the Oilers and the Calgary Flames.
- After he didn’t play last night against the Los Angeles Kings, the Montreal Canadiens confirmed that defenseman Mike Matheson is in-fact injured, dealing with a lower-body injury. Fortunately, this doesn’t seem to be as bad as the abdominal injury that kept him out the first 17 games of the season., the team announcing the injury as day-to-day. The veteran has only played in nine games so far this season while dealing with injury, but does have an impressive six points in that span. Matheson is in his first season with Montreal after coming back the other way from the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Jeff Petry trade.
Nick Robertson To Miss At Least Six Weeks
It has been somewhat of a frustrating year so far for Maple Leafs winger Nick Robertson. Unfortunately for him, the news continues to be bad for him as Sports Illustrated’s David Alter relays that he will miss six to eight weeks due to the shoulder injury that he sustained on Thursday against Los Angeles. However, he won’t need surgery this time around and will simply rehab the injury this time.
This is the third straight season that he has sustained a significant injury. Two years ago, a knee issue limited him to just 27 games between the NHL and AHL and last season, a non-displaced fracture of his right fibula resulted in him suiting up just 38 times. This setback will cost him upwards of 20 contests as well, more if he winds up being out longer than this projected timeline.
Robertson had a very strong showing in the preseason that saw him pick up eight points in five games but he didn’t break camp with the big club. Early injuries that opted up Toronto’s ability to use LTIR landed the 21-year-old on the NHL roster soon after but he has been a frequent healthy scratch and hasn’t seen a lot of action when he has been in the lineup as he’s averaging less than 11 minutes a night over his first 15 appearances even though he has five points in those outings.
Robertson is still waiver-exempt through next season and it stands to reason that he’ll be back with AHL Toronto when he’s cleared to return in order to give him a few games to get back into playing condition. From there, the battle to lock down a regular spot in the lineup for the Maple Leafs will continue at a time when it will be just a few weeks away from the trade deadline in early March.