John-Michael Liles Out Indefinitely With A Concussion
The Boston Bruins tweeted that John-Michael Liles has been diagnosed with a concussion, and as such, will be out indefinitely due to league concussion protocol. Boston also issued a release on its’ website.
Initially reported as an upper body injury, Liles was hurt when he tripped over Ben Bishop‘s goalie stick and went head first into the boards. He needed assistance from teammates to leave the ice and didn’t return to the game. Video of the incident is available via NBC Sports.
Liles has five assists in 22 games this season.
Scott Wedgewood Undergoes Surgery, Out Six Months
The New Jersey Devils announced today that goaltender Scott Wedgewood underwent successful shoulder surgery today and will be sidelined for approximately six months. The surgery was to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder. Wedgewood suffered the injury on Friday November 19th, when he relieved AHL backup Mackenzie Blackwood against the Binghamton Senators.
This is the same shoulder that Wedgewood injured last season and forced him to miss time. This summer, the netminder was one of the final cuts from the New Jersey training camp to the surprise of many. With outstanding AHL numbers in 2015-16 (when he was healthy), many believed that he was ready to step up to an NHL job. Instead, he cleared waivers and was assigned to Albany where he’d been playing well again. In 10 games this season he was 5-3-0 with a .912 save percentage and a 2.18 GAA.
The baby-Devils will now ask two rookie goaltenders to fill the pipes for them, as Blackwood and Ken Appleby are the current duo. While Blackwood has struggled in eight games, Appleby has performed extremely well since a callup from the ECHL. In three games, the 21-year old is undefeated with a .932 save percentage. While Blackwood was the Devils’ second-round pick in 2015, Appleby went undrafted after playing his junior hockey with the Oshawa Generals of the OHL.
Peter Holland Stays Home During Maple Leafs Road Trip
2:11pm: Darren Dreger has a quote from Resnick:
Peter and Lou met this weekend. At this time, it appears that Peter’s future with the club is limited and Lou will do his best to trade him. Lou also stated that Peter not go on the road trip during this time frame.
It seems like Lamoriello is trying to protect his asset from any sudden injury by keeping him at home during the road trip, but whatever value he had must have been damaged by the public admission that he’s trying to trade him. We’ll see if the Maple Leafs can get anything of substance for the struggling forward.
1:21pm: Uncertainty around the fringes of the Maple Leafs roster continues, as today Peter Holland was not present at the morning skate in Edmonton. According to Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun, Holland stayed home after talking to his agent Joe Resnick. Luke Fox of Sportsnet also tells us that Resnick met with Lou Lamoriello recently, and Darren Dreger says that he “absolutely wanted to go on Leafs’ trip west in hopes of playing.”
The expectation, from Dreger and Kristen Shilton of TSN, is that either a trade or waivers will follow soon for the 25-year old. Holland cleared waivers earlier this summer while negotiating a new contract and has only seen eight games through the early part of the season, registering a single point.
Since being drafted by Anaheim 15th overall in 2009, Holland has developed into a solid bottom-six player that contributes around 10 goals and 25 points per season. The Leafs and head coach Mike Babcock seem to have grown tired of him however, as even when he’s dressed he’s only seen around ten minutes of ice time per game.
With the impending return of Josh Leivo from injury, the team had a decision to make about the last roster spot, and it seems as though it won’t go to Holland. If he is placed on waivers, it will be interesting to see if another team takes a chance on him this time around. He’s currently earning $1.3MM on his second RFA contract.
Injury Notes: Little, McNabb, Toews
The Winnipeg Jets have scored a respectable 62 goals in 24 games, and they’ve done it without one of their top weapons. Bryan Little has been out since being injured just two and a half minutes into his season, but will return tonight against the New Jersey Devils on home ice. The 29-year old is a proven goal scorer in the NHL, with 163 to his name including four seasons of 20+. The Jets have placed Nic Petan on injured reserve retroactive to November 27th to make room.
While the media has focused on the Jets’ lack of faceoff success, Little thinks he can help the team in that department.
That’s one of my goals to come back. It’s something I feel like I can be good at right away again, to get back into the faceoff dot. I see the guys working on it every day, they’re talking to the coaches, watching video and practicing in practice.
I think we can all help each other a bit. Throughout the game we take faceoffs against different centermen on the other team…we’ve got some good communication through the centers of trying to work through things.
Little is actually a 48.6% faceoff man throughout his career, though he won just over half of his draws last season which led the Winnipeg centers.
- According to Jon Rosen of NHL.com, Brayden McNabb took to the ice today for the first time since injuring his collarbone on October 29th. While he didn’t take part in any drills, it’s a step in the right direction for the big defenseman. Rosen passes on from head coach Darryl Sutter that McNabb is still “at least a month away”. The 25-year old had been logging over 20 minutes a night for the Los Angeles Kings before being injured, skating alongside Drew Doughty in what was considered by some to be the second-best pairing in the league. The Kings, not short on defenders, have continued to be tough to score against even without McNabb or Jonathan Quick, who remains out.
- Jonathan Toews will miss his third straight game tonight when the Chicago Blackhawks take on the Florida Panthers. The team captain was seen in street clothes while the team was practicing, meaning his return might not be imminent. Chicago is 1-1-1 without Toews in the lineup, having lost to the Kings in overtime on Saturday.
Alex Edler To Miss Four To Six Weeks
The Vancouver Canucks will be down another top defenseman for the next little while as the team announced (via Twitter) that Alex Edler will miss the next four to six weeks with a fractured index finger. The team also noted that he will undergo surgery to repair that finger later today.
While Edler is off to a slow start statistically (a goal and two assists through 21 games), he is still logging some heavy minutes for the Canucks, averaging a team high 23:42 per game. With Chris Tanev (lower body) also on IR, Edler had been their go-to blueliner in all situations.
Injuries have been an issue for the 30 year old. Last season, he missed 29 games with a fractured fibula while he has had various other lower body ailments in the years before that as well. He has played a full 82-game season just once in his career, back in 2011-12.
Taking Edler’s place on the roster will be defenseman Alex Biega, who has been recalled from his conditioning stint, Sportsnet’s Irfaan Gaffar reports (Twitter link). He got into just one game with AHL Utica which matches the number of NHL games he has played so far this season, spending most of the time as a healthy scratch.
Edler and Tanev aren’t the only Vancouver defensemen missing either as Philip Larsen is also on IR due to an illness and there is no timetable for his return. With Biega’s recall, Vancouver is now carrying just the minimum number of healthy defensemen so another recall isn’t out of the question either if Larsen isn’t ready to play soon.
[Related: Canucks Depth Chart]
Brendan Smith Out Four Weeks, Tyler Bertuzzi Out Three To Five Weeks
An already long list of injuries continues to grow for the Red Wings as defenseman Brendan Smith is expected to miss the next four weeks with a knee injury, MLive’s Ansar Khan reports (Twitter link). Smith was injured in a collision with Montreal left winger Phillip Danault on Saturday night.
Smith has played a regular role on the back end for Detroit this season, averaging just over 18 minutes per game of playing time while picking up a pair of goals and two assists.
It will be interesting to see if the Red Wings call anyone up to replace the 27 year old pending unrestricted free agent. The team has been carrying eight defenders all season as they have been hesitant to expose either of Ryan Sproul or Xavier Ouellet to waivers. However, with Smith out and Alexey Marchenko (upper body) also on injured reserve, they’re down to the minimum of six but from a cap perspective, they are already well into LTIR, per CapFriendly.
The team announced that Smith, along with forward Tyler Bertuzzi who was also injured on Saturday, have been placed on injured reserve which will free up a roster spot to call up a seventh defender if they deem it necessary. Head coach Jeff Blashill suggested that Bertuzzi is expected to miss the next three to five weeks with a left ankle injury, Khan notes (via Twitter). He was seen walking without crutches or a boot which was a positive sign.
[Related: Red Wings Depth Chart]
Red Wings Notes: Injuries, Jurco, Mantha
The injuries continue to pile up for the Detroit Red Wings after Tyler Bertuzzi, and Brendan Smith both left the game in the Red Wings 2-1 loss to Montreal Saturday night. Dylan Larkin was also roughed up, but he returned to finish out the game. Throw in Jimmy Howard, who was hurt Friday evening against New Jersey, and it’s been a rough stretch for Detroit in terms of losing player to injury. The Detroit Free Press’ Helene St. James reports that Tomas Jurco is about ready to return, but he too, has suffered his fair share of setbacks.
General manager Ken Holland believes that Jurco will be cleared to play in Tuesday’s contest against Dallas, but St. James writes that Jurco’s back continues to be a question mark. After surgery this summer, Jurco’s back flared up during his conditioning stint with AHL affiliate Grand Rapids on Friday. Doctors checked him out, and believe he will be alright for Tuesday’s contest against Dallas.
St. James adds that reports on Smith and Bertuzzi’s injuries won’t be available until Monday. In addition to the aforementioned Wings, Andreas Athanasiou, Alexey Marchenko, and Darren Helm are missing from the lineup. As it stands, the Red Wings lead the league in man-games lost with 140, and the number will certainly rise after yesterday’s tilt.
In other Red Wings news:
- Anthony Mantha has been impressive in his callup to Detroit, sniping a pair of goals that have made the highlight reel. In seven games, Mantha has four points (2-2). Jean-Francois Chaumont spoke with Holland and it sounds as if Holland is still willing to give the nod to a veteran. (The article is in French but can be translated into English). Holland complimented Mantha’s play and his significant improvement since his days in junior hockey, but stopped short of saying his spot in Detroit is secure. Chaumont believes that Mantha will become a top scorer, and others, like Winging It In Motown’s Prashanth Iyer, show the advanced stats that reveal Mantha’s strong play in his first seven games with Detroit.
- Add the Detroit News’ Gregg Krupa to the list of pundits who believes that Mantha is a star in the making. Krupa indicates that Mantha brings the size, scoring, and speed that will light the lamp often. Krupa also defends Holland’s decision to keep Mantha in Grand Rapids:
While praising the Wings brass these days for anything is only occasionally warranted, and fraught with the risk of targeting on social media, the fact of the matter is Holland and Devellano were right about Mantha’s performance and wise to make it plain to the player, perhaps even in publicly prominent ways. And Jeff Blashill gets the primary assist for knowing the player well enough to decide when he could play regularly with Henrik Zetterberg and supply puck retrieval and possession skills, which are as intrinsic to Mantha’s role as his ample finishing skills.
Krupa is careful to emphasize (after heaping praise on an oft-maligned front office) that the Red Wings would be hard pressed to send Mantha back down once the team is healthy again. Regardless of what the front office chooses to do, Mantha certainly has a large number of supporters who want him to stay in Detroit permanently.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Hurricanes Staal Leaves Game, Will Not Return
Jordan Staal suffered an upper-body-injury during the first period of Carolina’s game this evening against Florida and it has since been announced by the team – via Twitter – that he will not return. Michael Smith, who is a contributor on the team’s website, added that Staal did not see a shift in the final seven minutes of the frame.
Staal is currently tied for third on the team in goals with five and his nine points rank sixth. He leads all Carolina forwards in average ice time, seeing 19:15 a night. The 28-year-old center has seven years remaining on what was originally a 10-year, $60MM contract in Carolina. The $6MM AAV makes Staal the Hurricanes highest-paid player.
More to come as details emerge.
Pacific Division Notes: Boedker, Canucks, Peters, Gaudet
After losing to Pittsburgh in the Stanley Cup Final, the San Jose Sharks, with most of their roster set to return, made just a couple of minor changes in the summer. Their headline acquisition was the signing of unrestricted free agent winger Mikkel Boedker to a four-year deal worth $16MM. The Sharks concluded after watching the Penguins storm through the postseason with a quick and deep roster that they needed an infusion of skill and speed and went out on the first day of free agency and signed Boedker to add those elements.
Unfortunately for Boedker and the Sharks, the adjustment to his new team isn’t going as smoothly as hoped. Through 22 games, the Danish forward has just two goals and is averaging less than one shot per contest. Last season, Boedker scored 17 goals and averaged better than two shots per game. Despite the presence of high-end offensive talent up front, Boedker has yet to develop chemistry with any of his fellow forwards. It got bad enough last night that Sharks coach Pete DeBoer benched Boedker for the third period of a game the Sharks would lose 3 – 2, as Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News writes.
DeBoer didn’t mince words in postgame comments regarding the benching:
“Again, we were behind going into the third. Some guys it was just circumstance. Some guys didn’t deserve to play.”
Ryan Carpenter and Micheal Haley, two fourth-line forwards, also didn’t play in the third but that would seem to be due to circumstance, as DeBoer put it.
It’s obviously far too early to label the Boedker signing a bust but it’s clear that 22 games in the investment isn’t paying off to this point for the Sharks.
Elsewhere in the Pacific:
- Jason Botchford pens a piece for The Province listing 10 reasons to feel good about the Vancouver Canucks. Despite internal expectations to compete for a playoff spot, most pundits felt the team simply doesn’t have enough talent still in their prime to challenge for the postseason. Unfortunately for Vancouver, the latter group has proven write. But as Botchford points out, even in the midst of a bad season, there still can be reasons to feel good about the Canucks. Perhaps the topic most relevant for us was Botchford’s mention of Erik Gudbranson‘s potential free agent asking price. Gudbranson was acquired in an offseason deal with Florida and is scheduled to be a restricted free agent next summer. Botchford believes that a figure of $5MM annually has been floated but suggests the early struggles, both of the team and of Gudbranson, could serve to bring that number down to something more palatable for the Canucks.
- The Arizona Coyotes called up a couple of players in advance of their game today against Edmonton – a contest they would win 2 – 1. Sarah McClellan of AZ Central Sports reports that the team recalled goaltender Justin Peters from Tucson to backup starter Mike Smith. Louis Domingue is currently day-to-day with a lower-body-injury. According to Arizona head coach Dave Tippett, the injury is “nothing serious,” but the Coyotes wanted a fully healthy net minder up if needed. Meanwhile, according to KPNX 12 News Sports, Arizona also recalled center Tyler Gaudet from the Tucson Roadrunners of the AHL. Gaudet has made one other appearance this season for the Coyotes and has 17 games overall of NHL experience. In 11 games with the Roadrunners, Gaudet has two goals and seven points. Neither player saw action this afternoon for Arizona.
Atlantic Division Snapshots: Vasilevskiy, Bruins, Leafs
When the Tampa Bay Lightning inked Andrei Vasilevskiy to a three-year contract extension this summer, a deal that doesn’t go into effect until the 2017-18 season, it appeared as if the organization was committed to the Russian net minder as its future number one goalie. With Ben Bishop set to hit free agency next July, the idea was to give Vasilevskiy about 35 starts this season to be sure he was ready to assume the load as a starter. After eight starts this season, it’s becoming clear to all that the 22-year-old is most definitely ready to be the man for the Lightning, writes Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times.
Vasilevskiy is 6 – 1 – 1 on the season and has a GAA of just 1.50 and a Save % of 0.951 in eight appearances. His hot start comes on the heels of helping the Lightning make it to game seven of the Eastern Conference Final against Pittsburgh last season after Bishop was injured. Vasilevskiy was solid in the postseason, stopping 0.925% of the shots he faced in eight games.
Assuming Vasilevskiy continues to develop into a quality starting option, his extension, which calls for an AAV of just $3.5MM, will prove to be a tremendous bargain for a team that already has a lot of its cap space tied up in long-term deals.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic Division:
- The Boston Bruins have long been thought to be in the market for a top-four blue liner, with Kevin Shattenkirk being one name linked to the team. However, given the team’s recent offensive struggles, Bruins management may want to reconsider their plans. Joe Haggerty, of CSNNE, reports that both the players and the coaches are becoming frustrated with the team’s lackluster goal scoring. David Pastrnak, the team’s gifted 20-year-old sniper, leads the team with 12 goals in just 16 games. Brad Marchand, currently out with a lower-body-injury, is second with six tallies while fourth-line pivot Dominic Moore ranks third on the club with five markers. Overall the Bruins rank 25th in the NHL, averaging just 2.3 goals-per-game. However, defenseman Torey Krug is confident the goals will come given the team finished fifth in the league last season in scoring: “When you see other teams get lucky bounces here and there – in Ottawa they’re shooting the puck wide and it goes off one of our guys and in, or in Minnesota the same thing happens – and we find ourselves not getting those bounces, then it starts to get frustrating when you’re getting good looks like we have been. Every team goes through these little lulls and we’ll work our way out of it. Hopefully it’s sooner rather than later.”
- While the Toronto Maple Leafs are certainly a fun team to watch, bouyed by a talented young core of forwards, veteran head coach Mike Babcock knows defense wins championships. Ian Shantz of the Toronto Sun writes that Babcock is asking more from his blue liners as the team battles to stay relevant in the postseason race. Babcock singles out Morgan Rielly as the guy he wants to see play like a #1 defender: “We need (Morgan) Rielly to be our No. 1 guy. We need him to be very good for us, and that’s not racing around the rink. That’s playing without the puck.” The Leafs do have some talent on the back end but it’s likely that if they are buyers at the trade deadline that the blue line is the one area the team will look to improve.