Denton Mateychuk, Four Others Injured To Start Blue Jackets Training Camp
The Columbus Blue Jackets have plans to ease top defense prospect Denton Mateychuk up to speed at the start of training camp as he recovers from a groin injury, per general manager Don Waddell in a recent conversation with Aaron Portzline of The Athletic. Portzline added that forwards Jordan Dumais (lower-body) and Max McCue (undisclosed) will both be day-to-day with injury, forward Owen Sillinger (knee) will be held out of contact all camp, and defenseman Luca Marrelli (shoulder) will be out until December. All five players are listed on Columbus’ training camp roster.
This news will make Mateychuk worth that much more attention at this year’s camp. He was generally injury-free during his first pro season, which spanned 27 AHL games and 45 NHL games last season. Mateychuk posted four goals and 13 points in a Blue Jackets jersey, along with 25 points in the minor-leagues. It was an incredibly productive year for the 2022 12th-overall selection, and one that sets him up well to break into the NHL full-time this season. Mateychuk will boast clear top-four upside when he lands with the Blue Jackets, after averaging 18 minutes of ice time last season. He should be a strong option to play behind top defender Zach Werenski, and next to shutdown defender Ivan Provorov.
Columbus’ remaining injuries will help shape the minor-league roster to start the year. Sillinger held a prominent role in the AHL and seems near the top of Columbus’ call-up sheet entering the new year, though he’ll need to fully recover from a late-season injury before he can prove his NHL worthiness. Marrelli and Dumais have each signed their entry-level contracts, though only Marrelli will be eligible to return to the CHL. That will be his likeliest outcome, while Dumais will look to fully stride into the pro ranks after netting 11 points in 21 AHL games last season. Dumais should sit atop the AHL lineup next season, while McCue – another first-year pro who recorded eight points and 122 penalty minutes in 46 AHL games last season – will sit near the bottom of the lineup.
Mathew Barzal Ready For Islanders Training Camp
Star New York Islanders forward Mathew Barzal will be ready for full involvement in the team’s upcoming training camp, per a recent interview with Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News. He will return after missing 52 games of last season with an upper-body injury early in the year, and a season-ending knee-injury in February. Barzal told Rosner that he’s embraced a strong mindset in the wake of the significant injury. He said:
When you have an injury like the one I did, you can go two ways with it mentally. You can kinda sulk in it, let it kinda own you. And it did early on… but then you flip a switch and you put everything into rehab and getting better. Mentally, it’s just a matter of doing whatever it takes to get back to being the player I was
Barzal performed like New York’s top forward through the mix of injuries last year. He began the season with five points in 10 games, while averaging more than 21 minutes a night, before injury forced him to miss all of November and the first half of December. He returned to scoring quickly once he was back to full health, netting 15 points in 20 games between December 15th and February 1st. But an injury sustained on a blocked shot against the Tampa Bay Lightning proved too much to overcome. What was initially prognosed as a six-week injury turned into a minor surgery that required all summer to recover from. His season ended with six goals and 20 points in 30 games, or an 82-game scoring pace of 55 points.
An injury-riddled season was the last thing Barzal needed after reclaiming the Islanders’ scoring title in the 2023-24 season. He scored 23 goals and 80 points in as many games that year, marking the most Barzal had scored since he posted 85 points in his Calder Trophy-winning season in 2017-18. That performance was, itself, a solid comeback season after Barzal missed 24 games of the 2022-23 season with a separate knee injury. He had scored 51 points in 58 games prior to that injury.
Excitement for Barzal’s return will be a feeling shared by team, fans, and player. The 28-year-old told Rosner that he would be open to playing throughout the lineup, and mentioned that he enjoyed playing on the wing of Bo Horvat. Barzal shared roughly 71 percent of his ice time with Horvat between 2023 and 2025. Together, the two were on-ice for a tremendous 121-to-70 goal differential and 115-to-76 expected goal differential, per NaturalStatTrick. Horvat dropped to a negative goal-differential (83-to-109) in his minutes away from Barzal, likely speaking to the Islanders’ odds of reconnecting the duo next season.
Then again, New York wields a much sharper lineup than when Barzal last played. The squad, commanded by rookie general manager Mathieu Darche, has reeled in multiple new faces – including Jonathan Drouin, Maxim Shabanov, and Emil Heineman. All three forwards offer interesting upside, and wing depth, that could better define Barzal’s long-term role at either center or wing. One of the three will likely join him on the team’s top power-play unit as well. Those changes, plus the excitement of 2025 first-overall pick Matthew Schaefer, will bring Barzal to a Islanders lineup with much more upside than the one that he left behind last season.
Evening Notes: Evangelista, Canadiens Rookies, Cootes
Negotiations between winger Luke Evangelista and the Nashville Predators have begun to stall per David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period, who reports that yearly salary is what’s created the wedge. Evangelista is one of the top unsigned restricted free agents after players like Connor Zary and Marco Rossi both found new deals. The 23-year-old Evangelista posted an impressive 10 goals and 32 points in 68 games last season. It was a suitable encore to the 16 goals and 39 points he posted in 80 games of the 2023-24 season.
A pair of successful scoring seasons would surely make the player’s camp confident in earning a hardy salary. Columbus Blue Jackets forward Cole Sillinger recently signed a two-year, $4.5MM contract extension, while New Jersey Devils forward Dawson Mercer recently signed a three-year, $12MM contract. Those could be the boundaries for a short-term, bridge contract for Evangelista, who has certainly proved he can stick in Nashville’s top nine. Should contract talks continue to stall, the Predators could opt for a one-year, sub-$1MM contract and kick negotiations back to next summer.
Other notes from around the league:
- The Montreal Canadiens have assigned a group of rookies back to their respective leagues after rookie camp came to a close. In turn, Montreal assigned defensemen Carlos Handel to the QMJHL’s Halifax Mooseheads, Andrew MacNiel to the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers, and Bryce Pickford to the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers. Goaltenders Arseny Radkov and Mikus Vecvanags will return to Russia and Latvia, respectively. The team has also returned a handful of rookie camp invites. All of the moves come as expected, though it rings as exciting news for fans of Medicine Hat and Halifax, as their top defenders return for another season.
- Top Vancouver Canucks prospect Braeden Cootes was absent from the team’s final rookie camp scrimmage on Sunday, per Thomas Drance of The Athletic. Drance later added that Cootes was held out for precautionary reasons and will still attend training camp next week. That will keep the reigning 15th overall pick on track to take his first crack at breaking into the NHL. Cootes had a strong season with the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds last year. He dominated the middle of the ice with quick plays all year long, working up to 63 points and 60 games in total. Cootes seems most likely set for a return to Seattle next season, though a strong training camp could earn him the chance at sticking in the pros for nine games.
Injury Notes: Power, Molendyk, Walton
If there was any concern that the knee injury Buffalo Sabres defenseman Owen Power suffered late last season would impact his readiness for 2025-26, those fears can be put to rest. According to Matthew Fairburn of The Athletic, Power “should be ready to go” for Sabres training camp and has been in Buffalo skating with teammates ahead of training camp. Fairburn added that Power “seemed to avoid the worst-case scenario” in terms of his injury, and Fairburn added that the injury should not be cause to lower expectations for Power’s upcoming season.
The upcoming season is a crucial one of the 2021 first-overall pick, as it is the second year of his massive eight-year, $8.35MM AAV contract extension. The 22-year-old blueliner offers rare offensive ability for a defenseman his size, and he set career-highs in 2024-25 by scoring seven goals and 40 points. But Power at times has been a lightning rod for criticism in Buffalo for his lack of physicality (something made all the more noticeable due to the fact that he stands six-foot-six, 226-pounds) and the fact that his steady personal improvement has not resulted in a major reversal of on-ice fortunes for the Sabres franchise as a whole. So, it is good news for both Power and the Sabres that his late-season injury does not look as though it will impact his ability to perform in 2025-26.
Other injury updates from across the league:
- Nashville Predators prospect Tanner Molendyk was the subject of an injury scare Thursday after taking a hit during one of the team’s rookie tournament practices in Tampa. At the time, The Tennessean’s Alex Daugherty reported that Molendyk’s absence from the rest of practice appeared precautionary, and today Daugherty confirmed that Molendyk indeed avoided major damage. Daugherty said today that Molendyk’s injury “isn’t serious,” and that while he may not return to the ice in Tampa, “he will be fine” for the team’s main training camp next week. The 2023 first-round pick is set to begin his pro career and was recently ranked by EliteProspects as the club’s fourth-best prospect.
- Winnipeg Jets prospect Kieron Walton will not return to the team’s rookie contest tonight in Montreal, according to team reporter Jamie Thomas. Per his report, an upper-body injury is to blame. While it’s entirely possible that Walton was taken out of the game for largely precautionary reasons in order to protect his health in advance of the team’s full training camp, that is not clear at this time. Walton, 19, is a 2024 sixth-rounder whose stock as a prospect skyrocketed after a breakout 2024-25 campaign, one in which he scored 38 goals and 92 points for the OHL’s Niagara IceDogs. The 6’6 center is a long-shot to make the Jets out of training camp and any potential injury would only hurt his chances to make an impression in camp.
Kings’ Corey Perry Undergoes Knee Surgery
Saturday: The Kings announced that Perry has undergone successful knee surgery and will be out for six to eight weeks. That means that he will not be available to start the upcoming season and could ultimately miss more than a month if he winds up missing the longer end of that timeline.
Perry has $1.5MM in performance bonuses in his contract that are tied to games played. However, he only needs to get 50 regular season games played to max out on those so this injury alone shouldn’t stop him from having a chance at earning the full amount of those bonuses.
Friday: According to the staff at Mayor’s Manor, new forward for the Los Angeles Kings, Corey Perry, was reportedly injured in an on-ice incident today at the Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo. The outlet suggests that Perry was taken off the ice in a wheelchair for further medical evaluation.
There’s little information regarding the injury, and it’s unknown at this point if Perry suffered the injury as a result of contact or not. The only information that Mayor’s Manor could provide was that the injury happened along the boards, not on open ice.
It would obviously be a significant blow to Perry and the Kings after the 41-year-old veteran signed a one-year, $2MM contract with Los Angeles at the beginning of the offseason, if he misses significant time due to the injury. Perry was expected to contribute in a bottom-six role, both for his offensive and leadership abilities.
Outside of his 14-year career with the Anaheim Ducks, which included a Stanley Cup ring in 2007 and a Hart Memorial and Maurice Richard Trophy in 2011, Perry’s career has become a point of fascination over the last few seasons. Perry has reached the Stanley Cup Finals five out of six times since signing with the Dallas Stars before the 2019-20 season, after being bought out by the Ducks, but lost each time.
Still, he’s been able to stay relevant and productive in the twilight years of his career. Split between the Stars, Montreal Canadiens, Tampa Bay Lightning, Chicago Blackhawks, and Edmonton Oilers, Perry has scored 76 goals and 159 points in 404 games while averaging 12:51 of ice time per game. Throughout his past six playoff runs, the veteran winger has recorded 28 goals and 52 points in 119 games, averaging 13:17 per game.
Fortunately, the Kings have compiled enough depth, especially on the wing, to sustain such an injury. While Perry’s potential replacement may not have the same value, players like Akil Thomas, Andre Lee, Jeff Malott, or Taylor Ward could temporarily fulfill the role.
Mackenzie Blackwood And Samuel Girard Dealing With Injuries
The Avalanche knew that they wouldn’t have their full roster available to start the season with winger Logan O’Connor still working his way back from hip surgery. It appears he’s not the only one dealing with injury concerns though. Brennan Vogt of Hockey Mountain High reports that goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood and defenseman Samuel Girard are also banged up heading into training camp.
Blackwood didn’t skate with the team during captain’s skates all week and on Friday, worked with goalie coach Jussi Parkilla but voiced some pain when pushing off his right leg during one of the drills. Notably, he wasn’t taking shots either; combined, those suggest he’s not fully healthy heading into camp. Blackwood is beginning a five-year, $26.25MM contract signed soon after being acquired in an early-season trade from San Jose. Scott Wedgewood enters camp as the backup and could be in line for a bit more work early on. If Blackwood were to miss time to start the season, Trent Miner would likely break camp as the interim backup.
As for Girard, Vogt relays that the blueliner didn’t take part in any of the optional skates since August 17th until yesterday and was skating gingerly in a non-contact sweater, suggesting he could be dealing with a lower-body issue. The 27-year-old has had some injury trouble for several consecutive seasons now but when healthy, has been a capable top-four blueliner while also being only one of two left-hand shots in their projected top-six.
Colorado currently has around $1.325MM in cap space as things stand, per PuckPedia, meaning that they don’t have to place O’Connor on LTIR. However, if Blackwood and Girard’s injuries drag into the regular season, operating below the cap ceiling without needing LTIR could become a little trickier, a small subplot to keep an eye on over the next few weeks.
Prospect Notes: Frondell, Kraken, Pickford
The Blackhawks were originally hoping to have Anton Frondell with them for rookie camp as well as main training camp this month, relays Scott Powers of The Athletic (subscription link). However, when the center indicated that he felt his development would be best served by staying in Sweden with SHL Djurgarden instead of an early-season interruption, they agreed to that plan instead. Frondell was the third-overall pick back in June on the heels of an impressive showing with Djurgarden in the second-tier Allsvenskan when he had 25 points in 29 games. That team earned a promotion to the SHL this season, which will give Frondell tougher competition to play against. GM Kyle Davidson noted that the expectation is that no matter what, this will be Frondell’s final year in Sweden.
More prospect news from around the NHL:
- The Kraken are without a pair of prospects as their rookie camp begins. The team announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Alexis Bernier is out as he continues to recover from ACL surgery while center Julius Miettinen is dealing with an upper-body injury sustained in training camp with WHL Everett. Bernier had a strong post-draft season with QMJHL Baie-Comeau, collecting 14 goals and 32 assists in 59 games but isn’t eligible to play in the minors this season. As for Miettinen, he notched 39 points in 36 games with the Silvertips and briefly spent time as a reserve with AHL Coachella Valley in the playoffs. However, he also isn’t eligible to play in the minors this season.
- The Canadiens announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Bryce Pickford is dealing with a lower-body injury and didn’t take part in practice today. The 19-year-old wasn’t drafted in his first year of eligibility last year but went in the third round back in June, going 81st overall. Pickford had a breakout year offensively in 2024-25, notching 20 goals and 27 assists in 48 regular season games with WHL Medicine Hat before adding 24 more points in 18 postseason contests.
West Notes: Hague, Makar, Booth
In a recent interview with Danny Webster of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nashville Predators defenseman Nicolas Hague spoke about the end of his tenure with the Vegas Golden Knights. According to Hague, it doesn’t sound like he was given a particularly warm goodbye from the only organization he had ever known.
Even before the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs, Hague believed he would be extended by the Golden Knights, saying, “I thought I had a deal done with Vegas done before the playoffs, and we had agreed on what it was going to be. On both sides, it was a word agreement. Obviously nothing was signed. Because I said to them, ‘We’re going into the playoffs. That’s the No. 1 priority right now and we’ll reconvene and get this done after the season.’ It was all good.”
As it turns out, Vegas pivoted away from their purported verbal agreement with Hague, needing to open the necessary cap space to acquire Mitch Marner from the Toronto Maple Leafs in a sign-and-trade. The day before the trade was made for Marner, the Golden Knights traded Hague to the Predators for Jeremy Lauzon, Colton Sissons, and a 2027 third-round pick. Hague subsequently signed a four-year, $22MM extension in Nashville.
Other notes from the Western Conference:
- Earlier today, Meghan Angley provided a brief injury update regarding Taylor Makar, the younger brother of Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar. Makar is recovering from offseason upper-body surgery, and Angley asserts that he’ll be ready in the next few weeks. In the meantime, he’ll continue skating with the team in a non-contact jersey.
- One defensive prospect for the Los Angeles Kings is looking to avoid the dreaded “sophomore slump” this season. In an interview with Anthony Collazo of The Mayor’s Manor, prospect Angus Booth spoke about his mission to avoid the slump, saying, “I think you just don’t want to think about. The more you think about it, the more it could happen. So, I think you just focus on the moment. You practice, you play hard, you do what you’re going to do usually, and it should… it should be avoided.” The former fourth-round pick spent last season with the AHL’s Ontario Reign, scoring two goals and 13 points in 50 games with a +6 rating.
East Notes: Karlsson, Luukkonen, Morrow
Now that the Pittsburgh Penguins are in rebuild mode, much has been made this offseason about the potential trade candidacy of the trio of Rickard Rakell, Bryan Rust, and Erik Karlsson. Regarding the latter candidate, while speaking on the Kevin Karius Show, Josh Yohe of The Athletic expects a trade to be completed sooner rather than later, with one team in particular leading the pack.
According to Yohe, the Detroit Red Wings have been the most active team in their pursuit of Karlsson. This isn’t to say that the Red Wings are the only interested party, but they are the team that Yohe has heard the most about. Detroit is in a unique position as a team looking to contend, which could also conceivably afford Karlsson’s total $10MM cap hit.
If the Red Wings considered taking on Karlsson’s full salary, it would limit any potential trade return for the Penguins, but it could be the best option for the rebuilding club. It’s not complicated to ascertain Detroit’s purported interest in Karlsson, as the right side of their defense behind Moritz Seider is undeniably thin.
While Karlsson’s defensive weaknesses have become more evident in his game over the past two years, he would certainly be an improvement for the Red Wings behind Seider. Additionally, bringing him in wouldn’t create any long-term commitments, which General Manager Steve Yzerman has generally worked to avoid during his early years managing Detroit’s front office.
Other notes from the Eastern Conference:
- Yesterday evening, the Buffalo Sabres surprised many by inking netminder Alexandar Georgiev to a one-year pact for the 2025-26 season. Given that Buffalo already has Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Devon Levi, and Alex Lyon rostered for next year, there wasn’t an apparent positional need for Georgiev. Giving context to the signing in a new article on The Athletic, Matthew Fairburn reported that team sources indicated that Luukkonen “tweaked” something over summer training, and the Sabres are unsure when he’ll be back to full health. No reports indicate that Luukkonen has sustained a serious injury, but it is something to monitor during training camp.
- Speaking for the first time on the trade that sent him from the Carolina Hurricanes to the New York Rangers, defenseman Scott Morrow described the news as bittersweet. In a recent interview with John Kreiser of Forever Blueshirts, Morrow was quoted as saying, “It was definitely a little bit of disappointment leaving Carolina because it’s a great organization, but I’m super pumped to be here.” As the principal player acquired for K’Andre Miller, Morrow is expected to compete for a spot on the Rangers’ opening night roster.
Islanders’ Jesse Nurmi Out Four To Six Weeks After Knee Procedure
According to a team announcement, New York Islanders prospect Jesse Nurmi will miss the next four to six weeks following a procedure on his left knee. Nurmi was projected to begin the year with the AHL Bridgeport following the conclusion of training camp.
The Islanders drafted Nurmi, 20, with the 113th overall pick of the 2023 NHL Draft after an impressive season with KooKoo in the Finnish U20 league. The winger scored 21 goals and 50 points in 41 games with a +21 rating. He was also successful during that year’s U18 World Junior Championships, scoring one goal and five points in five tournament contests.
Nurmi wasn’t afforded a positive season following his selection by the Islanders. An early-season injury during the 2023-24 campaign limited him to 19 games with KooKoo, where Nurmi tallied two assists. Still, he was selected by the OHL’s London Knights in the CHL Import Draft, and he joined them for the 2024-25 season.
Last season was somewhat of a mixed bag for Nurmi. He had a relatively poor transition to North American hockey, scoring nine goals and 31 points in 58 games for the Knights, while tallying another three goals and eight points in 17 postseason contests. That isn’t to say he showed no development throughout his first year in the OHL.
Nurmi was the leading scorer at the 2024 World Junior Showcase, achieving four goals and six points in four games. He added two goals and five points in seven games during the 2024-25 U20 World Junior Championships.
Though he had a slim chance of cracking New York’s opening night roster out of training camp, today’s injury update eliminates any remaining hope. Assuming his recovery remains on the projected timeline, Nurmi will start the season with the AHL Islanders sometime in mid-to-late October.