West Notes: Ekman-Larsson, Johnson, Vegas, San Diego Gulls
While there was some concern that he might miss significant time, Arizona Coyotes head coach Rick Tocchet said that defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who took a big hit from San Jose’s Evander Kane (video here), Saturday, is considered to be day-to-day with a lower-body injury, although he is expected to skip the road trip to Las Vegas, according to azcsports’ Jose Romero. That likely means he will miss at least two games.
Ekman-Larsson was forced to leave the game and only played 17:11 Saturday, but still managed to pick up three assists. No word on who will be recalled to replace him, but Coyotes’ insider Craig Morgan believes it will either be Kyle Capobianco or Jordan Gross.
- The Colorado Avalanche got some good news as veteran defenseman Erik Johnson returned to the Avalanche after missing training camp, while dealing with a positive COVID-19 test and quarantining,” according to The Athletic’s Peter Baugh. He is now practicing with the team, although he may need a few more days to get back into game shape. “I had some symptoms, but in the grand scheme of things it wasn’t that big a deal compared to what some people are dealing with. I just consider myself lucky to recover,” Johnson said.
- The Vegas Golden Knights, who played the first two games of the season with just five defensemen could be ready to make a change. The team’s new practice lines suggest the team could be ready to use Nicolas Hague as their sixth defenseman, despite the team’s success. The Athletic’s Jesse Granger writes that head coach Peter DeBoer likes what he’s seen from his five-man defense, but also said he’s worried about the workload that might create on them. Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo played 29:26 Saturday, a lot to ask out of any blueliner.
- The San Diego Gulls, the AHL affiliate of the Anaheim Ducks, announced they have postponed Sunday’s exhibition game against the Ontario Reign out of an abundance of caution due to COVID-19 protocols. This was supposed to be the second exhibition game. The first game, originally scheduled for Saturday, was postponed as well. This game was pushed back for the same reasons. The team will make a decision at a later date on when to play these game.
East Notes: Kase, Reinhart, Varlamov, Frost
The Boston Bruins will be without one of their top wingers as head coach Bruce Cassidy said that Ondrej Kase is doubtful for Monday’s game against the New York Islanders with an upper-body injury, according to Boston Hockey Now’s Joe Haggerty.
Kase took a high hit against the boards from New Jersey’s Miles Wood during the second period of Saturday’s game. Already with a history of concussions, the forward skated off the ice on his own, but was holding his face.
On a positive note, winger Craig Smith, out with a lower-body injury, is likely to be available on Monday. Smith did make his debut on Saturday, playing 17:07 of ice time and should find himself on the second line. Jake Debrusk is expected to move over to the right side and fill in on the team’s first line as well.
- The Sabres were missing a pair of wingers in practice Sunday as Sam Reinhart was not at practice and remains questionable after suffering a lower-body injury Friday in a collision against the boards, according to the Buffalo News’ Mike Harrington. Reinhart was skating uncomfortably after going down awkwardly, but still played 21:25. The forward was moved to the top line during the game, giving that line better opportunities. The team was also missing Kyle Okposo, who hasn’t played a game yet this season and remains day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
- While no update on the severity of the injury, The Athletic’s Arthur Staple reports that the injury that New York Islanders goaltender Semyon Varlamov suffered during warmups is a jaw issue, not a neck issue. The netminder took a shot that went underneath his mask and forced him to leave the ice. Rookie Ilya Sorokin got the start instead with veteran Cory Schneider serving as the backup.
- With their lines developing chemistry, Philadelphia Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault said he’s not interested in rotating the lines after the injury to Sean Couturier. Therefore Morgan Frost, who was expected to step in for the Selke winner, will take over for Couturier and take over top-line centering duties and will play with Travis Konecny and Oskar Lindblom, according to Philadelphia Inquirer’s Sam Carchidi. “I think Morgan deserves this opportunity to play with TK and Oskar,” Vigneault said. “What went into our decision, also, was that the other lines are building some chemistry. … Instead of shuffling everything (he made just one move). Morgan is considered to be a skilled offensive player. I might as well put him in that role. With TK and Oskar, he’s playing with two pretty good players.”
Defense Notes: McQuaid, Klefbom, Yandle, DeAngelo
Although it was fair to assume that the career of Adam McQuaid was over, seeing as he has not played in close to two years, the physical defenseman has officially announced his retirement to CBC’s Shane Ross. McQuaid, who played ten seasons in the NHL but routinely struggled with the injuries associated with his aggressive style, tells Ross that the pain became too much for him to handle and ultimately made him realize that he could not continue playing. “I guess I’ve known for awhile now that I wouldn’t be playing again,” McQuaid said, “It got to a point where I felt like I really kind of tapped out my body.” McQuaid, who spent the vast majority of his decade-long career with the Boston Bruins, still calls the city home and is feeling much better after hanging up the skates. McQuaid was traded by the Bruins ahead of the 2018-19 season that would be his last, which he split between the New York Rangers and Columbus Blue Jackets. Following off-season knee surgery and still feeling pain from a neck injury, McQuaid did not sign with anyone for the 2019-20 season and made the decision not to attempt a comeback this season either. He finishes his NHL playing career just eight hits short of one thousand and also racked up 834 blocked shots and 694 penalty minutes in 512 games. A feared opponent and a Stanley Cup champion, the rugged blue liner can enjoy retirement having had a strong career.
- Oscar Klefbom is not retiring, but he is set to miss the entire 2020-21 season with a shoulder injury. Yet, the Edmonton Oilers defenseman still does not have a timeline for his return to action. The player and team decided that Klefbom needed to undergo major surgery to repair his chronic shoulder condition, which has caused him pain and has knocked him out of the lineup on multiple occasions over the past few years. However, that surgery has yet to even be scheduled. Klefbom, who is currently at his home in Sweden, is hoping to have the procedure done with a specialist in Cleveland, but complications due to Coronavirus and its impact on travel and medical scheduling has made setting a date for the surgery more difficult than expected. Klefbom is hoping to go under the knife and begin his recovery sooner rather than later, especially since the length of that recovery period is unknown, but for now will have to wait until the logistics become easier to manage.
- Could Keith Yandle‘s iron man streak be saved after all? In the long run, probably not. However, TSN’s Frank Seravalli does admit that there is a chance that the respected veteran could be in the Florida Panthers’ lineup when they make their season debut on Sunday. Yandle had previously been told that he was not in the team’s plans and would be a healthy scratch moving forward, as evidenced by his exclusion from the “starters” group in recent practices. However, Yandle was back working with the first-team power play on Saturday and then reportedly met with coaches and management after practice to “clear the air”, per Seravalli. It still seems as though Yandle’s future in Florida is in doubt and his full No-Movement Clause and substantial salary will make it difficult for him to be traded, so Yandle’s chances of extending his iron man streak to the NHL record of 965, especially with the Panthers, is extremely unlikely. However, he could further extend his current streak of 844 consecutive games – the fourth-most in NHL history and most for a defenseman – to 845 on Sunday.
- Another established defenseman who is not in his team’s current plans (however briefly) is the New York Rangers’ Anthony DeAngelo. DeAngelo was a liability defensively in the Rangers’ disappointing debut on Thursday and as a result he will be a healthy scratch on Saturday night, reports the New York Post’s Larry Brooks. DeAngelo, 25, is young and talented and New York is not paying him $4.8MM to sit in the press box for the next two years, but perhaps this benching by head coach David Quinn will instill some more defensive accountability in the dynamic defender.
Sean Couturier To Miss At Least Two Weeks
The Flyers will be without their top center for a little while as the Flyers announced (Twitter link) that Sean Couturier will miss at least the next two weeks with a Costochondral separation. That injury is more commonly known as a rib separation. The injury was sustained on Friday night against Pittsburgh in just his second shift.
Couturier’s absence is a big loss for Philadelphia as he has been one of their top offensive performers in recent years. On top of that, the reigning Selke Trophy winner for the NHL’s top defensive forward is a key part of their penalty kill and has become one of the top players at the faceoff dot in recent years.
With the schedule being more compact than normal, Couturier will likely miss at least the next six or seven games, roughly one-eighth of the entire regular season. His absence could open up an opportunity for Morgan Frost to join the lineup after serving as a healthy scratch in their first two games. Frost had seven points in 20 games while Philadelphia last season and as an offensive-minded forward, a spot in their top six may be an ideal spot to slot him in but even so, filling Couturier’s shoes considering all of the ways he makes an impact for Philadelphia will be tough for him or anyone to accomplish.
Oilers Place Mike Smith On LTIR
Mike Smith’s season debut was originally thought to be coming on Thursday in the second half of their back-to-back set against Vancouver. However, he was a late scratch with Stuart Skinner joining the Oilers from their taxi squad as Mikko Koskinen’s backup. Whatever the issue is will hold him out for a little while as Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston reports (Twitter link) that Smith has been placed on LTIR, meaning he will miss at least 10 games or 24 days.
The 38-year-old is in his second season with Edmonton after signing a one-year deal with them in October after other options didn’t materialize in free agency. Noteworthy is that the contract contains up to $250K in games played bonuses at varying thresholds between 20 and 40 games; any extended absence will all but cement the top ones becoming unachievable and make the smaller ones a little tougher to get. With Edmonton well into LTIR, any earned bonuses this season will be charged against the 2021-22 salary cap.
Smith’s expected absence and Skinner’s inexperience (two minor pro seasons with no NHL action) could force GM Ken Holland to try to make a move for a more proven short-term backup. That was supposed to be Anton Forsberg’s role but he has since been claimed off waivers twice, the second of which came today by Winnipeg. With players needing to go through a quarantine period (seven days for Canadian-based players, 14 for those elsewhere), if such a move is coming, it’s one that will need to happen sooner than later. In the meantime, Olivier Rodrigue has been recalled to the taxi squad but he was playing in Austria so he is facing a lengthy quarantine before he can join them so that recall alone may not be enough.
Sharks Place Radim Simek On IR
While San Jose was hoping that blueliner Radim Simek would be available for their season-opening set against Arizona, it appears that won’t be the case as Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News notes (Twitter link) that the blueliner has been placed on injured reserve retroactively. Simek had been complaining about lingering knee soreness even after undergoing surgery last year and it appears it’s enough to hold him out for at least a couple of games to start.
The 28-year-old is in the first season of a four-year, $9MM deal signed last year after putting up two goals and seven assists in 49 games in 2019-20 while logging 17 minutes a night. Defenseman Nicolas Meloche has been recalled from the taxi squad to give the Sharks seven healthy defenders on the roster.
San Jose announced several other transactions as well today. Wingers John Leonard and Noah Gregor were both recalled from the taxi squad as well. With three players coming up, they opted to fill two of the vacant spots as they promoted Sasha Chmelevski and Jeffrey Viel from their AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda.
Bankruptcy Filing Warns Evander Kane May Opt Out Of 2020-21 Season
Tuesday: Obviously without commenting on any of his player’s personal financial issues, San Jose Sharks head coach Bob Boughner tells Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports “I don’t think we’re worried” about Kane’s availability this season, nor his ongoing bankruptcy case becoming a distraction. Boughner stated that Kane “seems ready to go” and that “I am assured that he will be here for the whole season.” Of course, the status quo could still change given the ongoing proceedings, but as of right now there does not appear be any risk of missed time. This would lend itself to the idea that Kane’s inclusion of his contractual rights in his bankruptcy filing was a required or otherwise strategic move and less of an actual threat.
Monday: In the middle of a wild and seemingly unrelated story pertaining to San Jose Sharks forward Evander Kane, a small note in a legal document could have a major impact on the Sharks’ season. As detailed by The Athletic’s Daniel Kaplan, Kane filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in federal court in San Jose on Monday, citing $26.8MM in dept. In detailing his income, a current seven-year, $49MM contact signed with San Jose in 2018, Kane issues this warning:
Debtor may terminate his contract and he may opt out of the season, as allowed under current rules, because of health concerns given the recent birth of his first child. Should he terminate his contract or opt out at a point in the season, Debtor will not receive his salary.
Now, Kane is not going to terminate his contract with the Sharks. The deadline to opt out of the season, which begins in just two days, was this past Saturday, January 9. However, if Kane’s decision to opt out is motivated by health concerns related to his family, there is already precedent that he will be allowed to do so. Boston Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask opted out of the 2020 postseason after it had already began due to concerns over his own daughter’s health. Kane would not need to terminate his deal to get out of playing this season and that’s unlikely the outcome the Sharks would pursure anyway.
That of course does little to comfort Sharks fans. After a season in which San Jose struggled greatly despite a strong roster on paper, there was hope for a rebound this year. They now face the possibility that the player who was arguably their very best in 2019-20 could miss the new campaign. Kane led the Sharks with 26 goals and was second in total scoring with 47 points, all while missing six games due to injury. He was also the only effective trigger man on the power play, notching 14 power play goals of San Jose’s 33 total. Replacing that offense would be next to impossible for the Sharks. The physical Kane was also expected to pick up some of the slack in the checking game left behind by the departures of Brenden Dillon and Barclay Goodrow.
Kane clearly has more on his mind than the Sharks’ hopes for the season, what with a newborn daughter as well as a a bankruptcy case that cites gambling debts, civil lawsuits, and claims from upwards of 47 creditors. However, missing the season certainly won’t help the latter and in the long run won’t help the former. All involved are definitely hoping that the resolution to this whole situation involves Kane suiting up for the San Jose this season. His full participation in training camp as well as the unknown intricacies of what he was required to disclose in the bankruptcy filing lend hope that this will be the outcome, but the end result remains to be seen.
Snapshots: Yandle, Podkolzin, Cizikas, Grubauer
While no decisions have been made yet or will be made in the coming weeks, Florida Panthers head coach Joel Quenneville split his roster in practice, with the core of the team on one side and the fringe players on the other. One notable name on the wrong side of the ice was veteran defenseman Keith Yandle, who was working with the fringe players, according to FloridaHockeyNow’s George Richards.
Quenneville said those groups can change throughout this week, but he said he wants to see some of the team’s younger defensemen for a while. While it might be easy to dismiss a move like this, the team is trying to develop a better defense-first attitude, something that the highly-paid Yandle can struggle with at times. The 34-year-old blueliner still has three years remaining on his contract at $6.35MM per season, meaning there is a chance that Yandle may sit from time to time this season. Yandle’s playing time dropped last season under Quenneville after years of averaging more than 20 minutes. He averaged 19:42, almost three minutes less than the previous year.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman points out that this is worth keeping an eye on, especially since he is currently the top active player in the league in consecutive games with 866 and is fourth all-time.
- The Vancouver Canucks are expected to sign and begin playing 2019 first-round pick Vasili Podkolzin later this season after his contract with KHL’s SKA-St. Petersburg expires on April 30. Of course after being a healthy scratch by SKA Saturday, rumors began that the 19-year-old Russian could be heading to Vancouver sooner than later. However, TSN’s Rick Dhaliwal reports that there is no truth to the rumor. According to his sources, the plan remains to leave the forward with SKA for the remainder of the season.
- Despite an injury prone season last year, New York Islanders forward Casey Cizikas was hoping for a healthy season in 2021. Cizikas missed time with a left leg laceration and then suffered a detached retina in the postseason bubble last season. However injuries keep hitting the fourth-line forward. Newsday’s Andrew Gross reports that Cizikas went down Sunday in a team scrimmage. Linemate Matt Martin and Cizikas sandwiched defenseman Thomas Hickey along the boards during the scrimmage and Cizikas went down in pain. He was attended to on the ice, then on the bench and taken into the locker room after the game. “He’s getting checked out,” coach Barry Trotz said. “The first indication may be more positive than negative. But I don’t have a firm update.”
- Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said he expects goaltender Philipp Grubauer to be the team’s starting goaltender entering the season and expects him and Pavel Francouz to split games 60/40, according to The Athletic’s Peter Baugh. Bednar is confident that Grubauer, who missed the first three days of camp, will be ready for opening night.
Minnesota Wild’s Marco Rossi Out Indefinitely
Troubling news on the Wild front as Minnesota announced that the team will be without 2020 first-round pick Marco Rossi indefinitely with an upper-body injury. The 19-year-old just returned from captaining Team Austria in the World Junior Championships.
“They tell me he’s unavailable,” Wild coach Dean Evason said when asked how long he might be out for (via NHL.com). “He’s unavailable for me.”
It’s a tough blow for Rossi. While most first-round picks usually need more seasoning after being drafted, many predicted that Rossi had a legitimate chance to earn a spot in the Wild’s lineup this season. Despite being just 5-foot-9, the centerman has elite skills and is believed to be close to NHL ready. Unfortunately, while the severity of the injury is unknown, this likely doesn’t help Rossi force his way into the lineup.
Rossi dominated the OHL last season with 39 goals and 120 points and has little to prove if the league ever gets going, suggesting that he might still get a chance to earn playing time in Minnesota. He was loaned to ZSC Lions in the NL, but only appeared in one game before play was shut down there.
Many now will suggest that it was a mistake of general manager Bill Guerin to allow Rossi to play for his home country during the World Juniors (since that could very well be where he was injured). Chicago has been faced with a similar situation when it lost Kirby Dach to a fractured wrist and will be without him for at least four months. Unfortunately, Rossi was unable to make much of an impact at the WJC, playing with little elite talent on the Austrian team. He did not score a point in the four games with most of the games being blowouts.
Buffalo Sabres Sign Riley Sheahan
It’s hard to say that Riley Sheahan was hoping for an injury when he took a PTO with the Buffalo Sabres, but it certainly benefited him when Zemgus Girgensons went down with a hamstring injury that will keep him out the whole year. Just a few days later, the Sabres have signed Sheahan to a one-year, $700K contract for the upcoming season.
The 29-year-old Sheahan isn’t just some minor league journeyman that is getting a chance just before the start of the season. The 2010 first-round pick has played in more than 500 NHL games and twice recorded more than 30 points in a season. Even last year in a depth role with the Edmonton Oilers he managed to score eight times in 66 games, more than Girgensons has tallied in four of his seven seasons in Buffalo. Sure, it seems unlikely that Shehan will be given all of the exact same responsibilities and ice time that Girgensons would have, but he does make a handy replacement to have in training camp, making his PTO quite a savvy move for Sabres GM Kevyn Adams.
A $700K league-minimum contract won’t do anything to the Sabres financial situation and is the lowest amount that Sheahan has signed for in his career. In 2018 he earned himself a $2.1MM deal from the Pittsburgh Penguins and last season brought a $900K contract with Edmonton. If nothing else, that suggests that he could be a nice little bargain piece for Buffalo if he can turn back the clock a few years and reach his former level of play as a responsible two-way pivot.