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Atlantic Notes: Cozens, Zub, Motte

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The Buffalo Sabres are switching things up at the top of their forward core to give a struggling player an offensive jolt. The player in question is 23-year-old center Dylan Cozens who’s only mustered three assists in 10 games to start the 2024-25 campaign.

Head coach Lindy Ruff is moving Cozens to the right wing for the next few contests next to Jordan Greenway and Ryan McLeod which also suggests Cozens is moving to the team’s third line. Bill Hoppe from Buffalo Hockey Beat got a quote from Ruff regarding the move saying, “Sometimes a player just gets so consumed with lack of production and then maybe gets locked into as your centerman trying to play better defensively. Trying to free him up to get him a few more opportunities. You get him with a left-handed centermen that can him the puck and possibly use his speed“.

Many underlying statistics indicate that Cozens’s lack of production is merely a consequence of bad luck. His possession numbers are depressed especially when factoring in he starts a shift in the offensive zone 59.1% of the time but his E +/- of 0.0 according to Hockey Reference shows that he’s one of the better two-way forwards on the roster.

Cozens is leading the team in shots with 32 and has maintained his physicality with 19 hits on the year. The Sabres and Ruff hope that with less pressure in the faceoff dot and with positioning the offense will start to come for Cozens before it’s too late.

Other Atlantic notes:

  • In a positive injury update for the Ottawa Senators, TSN’s Bruce Garrioch reports defenseman Artem Zub has resumed skating for the first time since suffering a concussion on October 14th. Garrioch notes that Zub won’t be a full participant with the team until he’s fully medically cleared but it’s a positive step in the right direction. The right side of Ottawa’s defensive core has looked weak without Zub in the top four as the team sits 24th in the league in GA/G at 3.44.
  • Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press reports that Detroit Red Wings forward Tyler Motte is close to returning. Motte has missed Detroit’s last six games with an upper-body injury suffered during the team’s loss to the New York Rangers on October 17th. When healthy, he’s been largely unnoticeable in Detroit’s forward core with zero points through four games averaging just over 11 minutes of ice time per contest.

Pacific Notes: Celebrini, Montour, Brännström, Bains

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Sharks rookie center Macklin Celebrini returned to the ice today for the first time since sustaining a lower-body injury in the season opener, the team relayed to reporters, including Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News. He’s now missed 10 games with the ailment and will miss his 11th tonight when San Jose hosts the Blackhawks. There’s still no change in his status, the team stressed – he remains week-to-week, so it could be well into November before the 2024 first-overall pick hits the ice again.

The 18-year-old’s NHL debut against the Blues earlier this month was a mixed bag. He scored his first NHL goal and added an assist in a 5-4 overtime loss. But he went just 1-for-14 on faceoffs, and he was hemmed in at even strength. The Sharks were out-attempted 31-12 with Celebrini on the ice.

Unsurprisingly, it’s been a tough go for the Sharks with or without Celebrini in the lineup. They remain last in the league with a 2-7-2 record, although they have rattled off back-to-back wins against Utah and the Kings. Their 2.45 goals per game are up slightly from last year’s 2.20, and Celebrini should both help and stand to benefit from that offensive uptick under first-year head coach Ryan Warsofsky.

Elsewhere in the Pacific Division:

  • The Kraken will be without their top two offensive defenders against the Maple Leafs tonight. Vince Dunn is already on long-term injured reserve, and Brandon Montour will now be out as he heads home to be present for the birth of his daughter, Terry Koshan of The Toronto Sun reports. With Dunn missing most of the young campaign, Montour has taken the reins and is tied for second on the team in scoring with four goals and five assists in 10 games. He’s averaging 23:42 per game and had his first career hat trick in his most recent outing, an 8-2 win over the Canadiens on Tuesday. It’s been a strong start for the 30-year-old, who signed a seven-year, $50MM contract with the Kraken in free agency over the summer.
  • The Canucks have papered defenseman Erik Brännström and winger Arshdeep Bains down to AHL Abbotsford, a move they’ve made multiple times this season to accrue cap space and delay the expiration of the former’s waiver exemption. Both will be back on the roster ahead of Saturday’s game in San Jose. Brännström especially has been strong in a depth role since coming over from the Avalanche in an early season trade, posting an assist and a +3 rating in six appearances while averaging 14:15 per game. The Canucks have controlled 53.5% of shot attempts with him on the ice at even strength.

Atlantic Notes: Nosek, Gaudette, Ostapchuk, Harvey-Pinard

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All signs point to Panthers center Tomáš Nosek coming off long-term injured reserve tomorrow. The team will activate him prior to their Global Series matchup against the Stars in Finland “assuming he gets through the morning skate and feels good,” head coach Paul Maurice told reporters, including the team’s Jameson Olive.

It’s the expected outcome for Nosek. Maurice said earlier this month that the team had circled the overseas contests as his likely return date. The 32-year-old has not yet played in the regular season after sustaining an upper-body injury at the beginning of training camp. He was ruled week-to-week at the beginning of the season, an inauspicious start for a player who managed only 36 appearances last season due to injuries.

The Panthers must open up a roster spot to take Nosek off LTIR. That will likely mean assigning one of their waiver-exempt forwards, Patrick Giles or Mackie Samoskevich, to AHL Charlotte. It will likely be the former, who’s been serving as Florida’s fourth-line center in the early going but has yet to record a point and has gotten caved in at even strength. Tomorrow will mark the Czechia native’s Panthers debut after signing a one-year, league-minimum contract with the club this offseason.

There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:

  • Another day, another paper transaction for the Senators. Forwards Adam Gaudette and Zack Ostapchuk are back up with the team today after being sent down to bank cap space yesterday, the team announced. They’ll both be in the lineup tomorrow against the Rangers, with David Perron and Shane Pinto still unavailable.
  • Canadiens winger Rafaël Harvey-Pinard continues to inch closer to a return after undergoing offseason surgery to repair a broken leg. He’s practicing again today in a non-contact jersey and has traveled with the team on their two-game road swing, per Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports. He’s eligible to come off long-term injured reserve at any time. If he does so in the next few days, it’ll be weeks ahead of schedule. He was given a four-month recovery timeline for his late July surgery, which would have put his estimated return around U.S. Thanksgiving. The Habs have an open roster spot and would not need to make a corresponding transaction to activate him.

Frederik Andersen Out Week-To-Week With Lower-Body Injury

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Oct. 31: Andersen will be evaluated weekly while he recovers from a lower-body injury, head coach Rod Brind’Amour told reporters today, including Cory Lavalette of the North State Journal.

Oct. 28: The Carolina Hurricanes made a surprise call-up of netminder Spencer Martin this morning without any additional context regarding their current combination of Frederik Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov. That context has finally come to light with Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reporting that Andersen sustained an injury in the team’s most recent game against the Seattle Kraken.

Seravalli adds that the injury isn’t supposed to be long-term and isn’t connected to Andersen’s blood cot ailment from last year. The Hurricanes couldn’t ask for better timing if there were to be a short-term injury to a rostered player as their six-game road trip concludes tonight against the Vancouver Canucks. The team returns home this Thursday and won’t have to leave Raleigh again until Nov. 9.

That should give the Carolina medical staff enough time to work with Andersen and make for a quicker recovery. Besides securing a victory against the Canucks this evening, it should make for one of the more critical organizational goals for the time being.

Despite solid offensive play from Martin Necas and Sebastian Aho, there is a credible argument that Andersen has been the team’s best player to start the 2024-25 campaign. He’s produced a 3-1-0 record through his first four games with a league-leading .941 save percentage and 1.48 goals-against average. That kind of play in the crease would be a boon for any team, including a Carolina roster that lost several offensive talents up front this past offseason.

Blackhawks’ Alec Martinez, Laurent Brossoit To Remain Out Through October

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The Chicago Blackhawks must continue leaning on their youth, with defenseman Alec Martinez and goaltender Laurent Brossoit out for at least three more games, per Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times. The Blackhawks have three games remaining on a five-game road trip that neither Martinez nor Brossoit will join, meaning the next chance for either to return will come when Chicago hosts Detroit on November 6th. Isaak Phillips and Arvid Soderblom are currently replacing the duo.

Brossoit began the year on IR following knee surgery in late August. Because of the injury, he missed the entirety of training camp and opening day. In September, he received a four-week prognosis that will now be pushed into five weeks or more with the latest update. Brossoit will make his Blackhawks debut whenever he does return, joining the team on a two-year, $6.6MM contract this summer after just missing out on the William M. Jennings Trophy alongside Connor Hellebuyck last season.

While Hellebuyck is undoubtedly an all-time great, Brossoit has flashed tons of upside of his own, posting a .927 SV% through 34 games across the last two seasons. He’s up to a .911 SV% across 140 career games, though he’s yet to appear in 25 games in a single season. Brossoit could leapfrog over Soderblom when he returns and may even find his way into a starting role, with Hawks starter Petr Mrazek boasting a measly .896 through eight games this season.

Martinez will also prove a notable addition when he returns. He filled a top-pair role through Chicago’s first four games and proved impactful despite recording just one assist. Martinez spent the last five years with the Vegas Golden Knights, where he routinely handled top-end minutes – when he could stay healthy. He scored 49 points across 221 games in Sin City but missed 91 regular season games with injury. He’ll try to buck the trend while handling plenty of responsibility when Chicago returns home.

Injury Notes: Capitals, Hakanpaa, Määttä, Kesselring

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The Washington Capitals will have a mess to sort out on defense with Jakob Chychrun (upper-body) and Alexander Alexeyev (personal) each out day-to-day, per Tarik El-Bashir of Monumental Sports Network. El-Bashir also shares that Matt Roy, who has been out since October 12th, is nearing a return but likely won’t play on Thursday.

Chychrun suffered his injury after just four shifts in Washington’s Tuesday night win over the New York Rangers. He was seen nursing his left ribs partway through his final shift, though it’s hard to place exactly when he suffered his injury.

Alexeyev and Roy would stand as the de facto options to fill Chychrun’s top-pair role. But with both also potentially missing Thursday night’s game, the Capitals will have to instead turn towards Rasmus Sandin or Martin Fehervary to fill their role of top left-defender. The team could also turn to the minor leagues for a fill-in, where Hardy Haman-Aktell stands as the top left-defense with three assists in six games to start the year.

Other notes from blue-lines around the league:

  • Defenseman Jani Hakanpaa is nearing his debut with the Toronto Maple Leafs after spending the start of the season on IR with a knee injury, shares David Alter of The Hockey News. Hakanpaa opened the year on long-term injured reserve, nursing an injury that ended his 2023-24 campaign in March. He proceeded to go through contract cartwheels with Toronto throughout the summer, signing with the team in July but not finalizing the deal until September. He joined Toronto’s practices on October 2nd, and even traveled with the team on their recent two-game road trip – all suggesting a return is imminent. Hakanpaa is awaiting clearance from Toronto’s doctors and activation off of LTIR, but figures to support the team’s defensive depth when he returns.
  • The Utah Hockey Club could plan to ice seven defensemen on Wednesday – per Cole Bagley of KSL Sports – with Michael Kesselring returning from illness (link) and Olli Määttä quickly joining the team after trade (link). Kesselring has so far played in all 10 of Utah’s games, and ranks second on the blue-line in scoring with five points. Meanwhile, Maatta has yet to change his stat line at all this season – recording no scoring, no penalties, and no lasting change in +/- through seven games with the Detroit Red Wings. He was flipped to Utah for a 2025 third-round pick, and offers much-needed depth to a Utah club without both Sean Durzi and John Marino for the long-term. Kesselring should maintain his spot on the team’s top pair, while Maatta will join Vladislav Kolyachonok and Maveric Lamoureux in fighting for depth ice time.

Avalanche Place Ross Colton On Injured Reserve

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Oct. 30, 12:39 p.m.: Colton sustained a broken foot and will miss six to eight weeks, head coach Jared Bednar said (via Ryan Boulding of NHL.com). He’ll look to make his return in mid-December.

Oct. 30, 8:38 a.m.: The Avalanche placed Colton on injured reserve yesterday, per the NHL’s media portal. He’ll miss Colorado’s next two games at least before being eligible for activation on Nov. 4, but will likely miss more action than that. The Avalanche now have only 11 forwards on the active roster ahead of tonight’s contest against the Lightning, so expect them to either dress seven defensemen or make a corresponding recall later today.

Oct. 29: Avalanche forward Ross Colton is “going to miss some time” after blocking a shot with his foot in yesterday’s loss to the Blackhawks, head coach Jared Bednar told reporters postgame, including Evan Rawal of the Denver Gazette. He was mobile after the game but left Ball Arena in a walking boot.

It’s another tough break for a Colorado forward corps without Gabriel Landeskog, Artturi Lehkonen and Valeri Nichushkin for the entire season and Jonathan Drouin for every game except for the season opener. The latter is getting close to returning, with Rawal reporting over the weekend that Drouin has been upgraded to day-to-day with his upper-body injury. But for a team with Stanley Cup aspirations, missing its top four wingers simultaneously, especially for the better part of a month, rightfully feels like an unending and insurmountable challenge.

Colton, 28, had stepped up to fill those voids as best he could. Expected to be their No. 3 center behind Nathan MacKinnon and Casey Mittelstadt, Colton has shifted to first-line left-wing duties alongside MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. He’s responded with a team-leading eight goals and a league-leading four power-play goals, averaging 18:38 per game while maintaining his physical standard of play. He leads the team with 28 hits and leads Avs forwards with nine blocks, a tendency that’s unfortunately led to what looks to be a multi-week absence.

While Drouin is nearing a return, there’s no indication of whether he’s an option for tomorrow’s game against the Lightning. If he can, it’ll be a one-for-one swap in the lineup, with Drouin replacing Colton on the top line. The Avalanche also have a full 23-man roster, meaning Colton must take Drouin’s spot on injured reserve. If Drouin can’t return, the Avalanche will likely dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen. They have eight defensemen and three goaltenders on the active roster, so they aren’t carrying an extra forward.

Colton scored the Stanley Cup-clinching goal for Tampa Bay as a rookie in 2021 and had a career-high 40 points in 80 games for the Avs in 2023-24. It was his first season in Colorado after they picked up his signing rights from the Bolts for a 2023 second-round pick. After weeks of negotiations, the restricted free agent inked a four-year, $16MM pact to stick around in Denver. He’s in the second season of that deal and will be an unrestricted free agent in 2027.

Central Notes: Wood, Heinola, Anderson-Dolan, Lipkin

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Even after recalling T.J. Tynan from AHL Colorado earlier today, the Avalanche won’t have a full complement of healthy forwards for tonight’s game against the Lightning. That’s because winger Miles Wood has been ruled out with the undisclosed injury he’s been playing through for the past few days, head coach Jared Bednar said on Altitude Sports Radio this morning (via Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet).

With Wood out but not headed for injured reserve, the Avalanche don’t have a roster spot for another recall. They’ll dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen tonight, but not in the traditional sense. Instead of rotating in on different defense pairs, Oliver Kylington will pinch-hit as a winger in his first appearance since Oct. 16. He’ll skate on the fourth line with Matthew Stienburg and Chris Wagner while Tynan makes his season debut as a third-line left wing with Parker Kelly and Joel Kiviranta, Daily Faceoff projects. Meanwhile, rookie Nikolai Kovalenko slides up to play top-line duties alongside Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen in relief of the injured Ross Colton, who himself had been playing top-six minutes in place of the injured Jonathan Drouin.

Wood’s injury means Colorado will be without a remarkable six regular forwards for tonight’s matchup, joining Colton, Drouin, Gabriel Landeskog, Artturi Lehkonen, and Valeri Nichushkin as unavailable impact pieces for the Avs. With that kind of poor injury luck and a nightmare start to the season for starting goaltender Alexandar Georgiev, it’s remarkable Colorado has been able to tread water with a 5-5-0 record. The 29-year-old Wood had one goal, a -2 rating, 19 shots, and eight hits in 10 appearances to start the season for the Avs.

More from the Central Division:

  • The Jets relayed good news on a pair of injured skaters today. Head coach Scott Arniel told Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press that defenseman Ville Heinola has returned to skating on his own the past few days at home while the team is on a road trip, as has forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan. Heinola, 23, hasn’t played since the beginning of training camp due to an infection in his ankle that he had surgically repaired last season. The 2019 first-round pick was expected to build on his 11 points in 35 career NHL games this season after the Jets lost a few pieces on the blue line but has remained on IR. Anderson-Dolan, meanwhile, has been out since the beginning of the month after blocking a shot in a preseason game against the Flames. The 25-year-old had four points in 31 games last season, split between the Kings and Predators.
  • Utah left-wing prospect Sam Lipkin suited up for AHL Tucson last night, indicating he’s been quietly activated off season-opening injured reserve and assigned to the minors. Lipkin, 21, had missed the first few weeks of the campaign with an undisclosed injury. The 2021 seventh-round pick of the Coyotes turned pro after a standout pair of collegiate seasons with Quinnipiac, where he had 78 points in 78 games and won a national championship in 2023.

Connor McDavid Out 2-3 Weeks With Ankle Injury

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Oilers superstar Connor McDavid will miss “at least a couple of weeks” with the lower-body injury he sustained Monday against the Blue Jackets, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. It’s not expected to be an overly long-term absence, though, implying they’ve avoided the worst-case scenario of a left foot or lower-leg fracture. The team later confirmed it was an ankle injury and said he’ll be out for two to three weeks.

The Oilers haven’t yet placed McDavid on injured reserve, although with him safely ruled out for the next five days, there’s nothing stopping them from doing so. They had two open roster spots at the time of his injury, which they filled yesterday with the recalls of forwards Drake Caggiula and Noah Philp from AHL Bakersfield. They’re now at a full roster with ample cap flexibility thanks to Evander Kane’s LTIR placement but they could move McDavid to IR to open up another roster spot if necessary.

Still, any McDavid absence isn’t welcome news for Edmonton. They’re on their seemingly yearly tradition of underwhelming starts before going on a late-November or December tear. After being trounced 6-1 by Columbus earlier this week, they’re back below .500 with a 4-5-1 record, and their -13 goal differential is third-worst in the league, ahead of only the Penguins and Sharks. McDavid was caught in the mire, too, off to a slow start by his standards with three goals and 10 points in 10 games. He was still his usual dominant self in possession play, though, with the Oilers controlling 62.8% of shot attempts with McDavid on the ice at even strength.

A two-week timeline from today, which is likely the best-case scenario as outlined by Friedman, puts his earliest potential return on Nov. 14 against the Predators. The Oilers have six games between now and then. In the meantime, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is projected to shift from wing to center on the first line with Zach Hyman, while Jeff Skinner will move up from a middle-six role to ride shotgun with that pair.

East Notes: Rust, Dahlin, Romanov, Motte

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The Pittsburgh Penguins organization didn’t get a positive update on forward Bryan Rust’s injury. The team’s play-by-play commentator, Jeff Getzoff, shared that Rust is considered week-to-week with a lower-body injury after evaluations.

Rust suffered the lower-body injury in the team’s most recent game against the Vancouver Canucks after receiving a hit from Nils Hoglander. The veteran forward was quickly ruled out of that game’s action after only 13:18 of ice time and missed the team’s practice yesterday.

The injury could be related to the lower-body injury that kept Rust from the ice at the beginning of the season. He missed Pittsburgh’s first two games of the regular season but has managed three goals and four points in eight straight games. The Penguins only have 12 healthy forwards on the roster meaning Valtteri Puustinen should garner more ice time if the organization doesn’t make a recall from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

Other notes from the Eastern Conference:

  • Buffalo Sabres’ captain Rasmus Dahlin’s two-minute minor for high-sticking and two-minute minor for roughing in last night’s action has turned into more. The NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced they have fined Dahlin $5,000 for yesterday’s incident, the maximum allowable under the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The play took place with seven minutes remaining of the third period when Dahlin swung his stick into the face of Florida Panthers’ forward Anton Lundell after positioning for the puck at the Sabres’ blue line.
  • The New York Islanders will be without defenseman Alexander Romanov for the second straight game. Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News reports Romanov is still considered day-to-day with an undisclosed injury from one of the team’s recent games against the New Jersey Devils. There hasn’t been any indication up to this point that Romanov will be able to dress in tomorrow night’s action against the Columbus Blue Jackets, either.
  • Ansar Khan of MLive reports the Detroit Red Wings are still without forward Tyler Motte who is suffering from an upper-body injury. His unavailability will have a downstream effect on the roster with the organization keeping the ability to keep prospect Marco Kasper on the roster under emergency conditions for the time being. Kasper has skated in five games for the Red Wings during his emergency recall with one assist to show for it while averaging 15:22 of ice time. Once Motte can return, Detroit must make a roster move to comply with the emergency condition protocols.

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