Pacific Notes: Tocchet, Hertl, Pietrangelo, Zary, Blueger
Despite being rumored as a coveted option by the Philadelphia Flyers, there’s little expectation Vancouver Canucks’ head coach Rick Tocchet will be available to other teams this summer. In an article from Thomas Drance of The Athletic (subscription required), a source from inside the Canucks organization has indicated the team will exercise their option on Tocchet’s contract for next season, and are already viewing him as next year’s coach.
Furthermore, Drance reports that the team is interested in extending Tocchet beyond next season rather than having him on a one-year contract. Plenty can change in a year, but all signs indicate Tocchet will be the only recent recipient of the Jack Adams Award, outside the Carolina Hurricanes’ Rod Brind’Amour, to remain with the team well beyond winning the award.
There’s no doubting the Canucks’ interest in an extension either. Since taking over for Bruce Boudreau halfway through the 2022-23 season, Vancouver has managed a 104-61-25 record under Tocchet’s stewardship, putting him second in organizational history in points percentage. Additionally, Tocchet helped the Canucks win their first division title since the 2012-13 season, which is even more impressive considering he had to navigate through a murky relationship between the team’s top two forwards at the time, Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller.
Elsewhere in the Pacific Division:
- Don’t expect forward Tomáš Hertl or defenseman Alex Pietrangelo back for the Vegas Golden Knights this weekend. According to a report from Jason R. Pothier and Ken Boehlke at SinBin, neither Hertl (upper body) nor Pietrangelo (lower body) will return by the end of the weekend due to their respective injuries. Fortunately, it doesn’t appear Hertl will miss much more time, as the two reporters indicate he could return as early as next week.
- TSN’s Darren Dreger reports that further tests will be conducted to assess the severity of Connor Zary‘s knee injury. The young forward for the Calgary Flames awkwardly collided with the Dallas Stars’ Mikko Rantanen shortly into the third period of last night’s contest and required help getting off the ice after a lengthy meet with the trainer. Fortunately, Dreger believes the early prognosis of Zary’s injury was positive. Still, as the fifth-highest scoring forward on the Flames with 27 points in 54 games, Calgary will need Zary in the lineup should they have any hope of catching up to the St. Louis Blues for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
- Moving back to British Columbia, context has been provided regarding the Canucks’ call-up of Max Sasson earlier this morning. According to Rick Dhaliwal of The Athletic, forward Teddy Blueger is questionable for tonight’s contest against the Columbus Blue Jackets due to the flu. Unfortunately, if his illness were to prohibit him from playing tonight, it would be the first time Blueger has missed a game all season. The consistent bottom-six forward has scored eight goals and 23 points in 72 games with Vancouver this season.
East Notes: Tortorella, York, Svechnikov, Zadorov
More news continues to come out regarding John Tortorella‘s last few weeks as the head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers. In an article from Kevin Kurz of The Athletic (subscription required), the Philadelphia-based reporter succinctly described Tortorella’s growing feud between Flyers’ management and defenseman Cam York.
For context, York was benched for much of Tortorella’s last game as Philadelphia’s head coach and for the entirety of the Flyers’ game yesterday against the Montreal Canadiens, which interim head coach Brad Shaw described as a “disciplinary issue.” As mentioned in Kurz’s article, and later confirmed by Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, there was a heated verbal altercation between Tortorella and York that led to the former’s ouster as head coach and the latter’s lack of ice time last night.
Kurz noted the growing tension between York and Tortorella dating back to the trade deadline, when after being a healthy scratch, York said, “I mean, I’m not playing to prove him anything. I’m playing for the guys in this locker room and the logo on my chest. I’m not playing for him, necessarily, if that makes sense.”
Questioned about the incident after last night’s contest, Kurz quoted York with a generically pacified response saying, “I’m not going to get into the details of it. I will say this, I take full responsibility for my actions. It’s been addressed here in the locker room. It’s something that I’m going to put behind me and move on from. We’ve got eight games left here and that’s my focus right now. We’ll leave it at that.” Frustration had been mounting around Tortorella at all levels of the Flyers’ organization, leading to his ouster shortly before the regular season’s conclusion.
Other notes from the Eastern Conference:
- According to a team announcement, Andrei Svechnikov will return to the Carolina Hurricanes’ lineup tonight against the Montreal Canadiens. The former second overall pick of the 2018 NHL Draft had missed Carolina’s previous seven games with an upper-body injury. Despite being the fourth-highest scorer on the team, the Hurricanes have fared well without Svechnikov, managing a 5-2-0 record in his absence.
- Moving to the Atlantic Division, the Boston Bruins welcomed back defenseman Nikita Zadorov today, who had missed the team’s last game due to a personal leave (Twitter Link). Hopefully, for the Bruins’ sake, Zadorov’s return to the lineup against the Detroit Red Wings tomorrow night will give Boston a much-needed jolt. The team has performed dreadfully since the trade deadline in early March, managing a 2-7-1 record in their last 10 games while being outscored by a 19-goal margin.
Sharks Defense Notes: Thrun, Desharnais, Vlasic
If being on the cusp of losing 100 games over the last two seasons wasn’t bad enough, the San Jose Sharks are playing with a battered defensive core. Thankfully, they should get one of those defensemen back fairly shortly.
In an update from head coach Ryan Warsofsky, shared by Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now, defenseman Henry Thrun has been upgraded to a day-to-day recovery timeline. Peng adds that Thrun “probably” won’t play this weekend, but his return is nevertheless on the horizon.
Thrun suffered an upper-body injury earlier in March against the New York Islanders, and he’ll have missed eight games by the end of the weekend. He wasn’t having a stellar season by any stretch of the imagination before going down with the injury. Still, he has logged the fifth-highest average ice time for any Sharks’ blue liner who’s amassed more than 20 games played and is still on the roster. Should Thrun return by the beginning of next week, he should break his single season career-high in points (11), which he set last campaign.
Other notes from the Bay Area:
- In another update on the Sharks’ blue line, Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News reported that Vincent Desharnais is questionable for San Jose’s contests this weekend. According to Pashelka’s report, Desharnais, one of the newest Sharks’ defensive core members, is dealing with a “fairly significant upper-body injury.” Since moving to San Jose after a trade from the Pittsburgh Penguins, Desharnais hasn’t registered a point as a Shark in seven games, despite averaging 17:49 of ice time per game.
- In a separate report from Peng, the oldest defenseman on the Sharks’ blue line, Marc-Édouard Vlasic, is day-to-day with an undisclosed injury but could play this weekend. Vlasic is no stranger to missing time with injury, as he’s only featured in 17 of San Jose’s 71 games this season. Still, despite averaging his lowest ATOI since the 2021-22 campaign, the 19-year veteran has already blocked 29 shots in those 17 contests.
Wild’s David Jiříček Done For Season With Lacerated Spleen
The Wild announced defense prospect David Jiříček is done for the season after sustaining a lacerated spleen last weekend while playing for AHL Iowa. His season is over, and he won’t be an option for them, assuming they make the playoffs.
Minnesota acquired Jiříček from the Blue Jackets early in the season. The right-shot defender had averaged just 11:12 of ice time through six appearances with Columbus, who decided a fresh start was the best option for their 2022 sixth-overall pick. On a deeper Wild blue line, the 21-year-old hasn’t had much opportunity to play despite injuries to names like Jonas Brodin, Jacob Middleton, and Jared Spurgeon. He’s played just six NHL games for Minnesota since the trade, posting 1-1–2 with a plus-two rating while averaging a still-paltry 13:02 per game.
Instead, Jiříček has spent most of the season on assignment to Iowa. He’s struggled there, too, ending his season with seven assists and a minus-one rating in 27 games. It’s still a noteworthy loss – Minnesota isn’t particularly deep on the blue line outside of their group of seven regulars. Jiříček would have easily been the highest-upside and most NHL-experienced option to insert into the lineup if injuries boiled over again.
While that holds true, they’ve still got six of their seven available to dress right now (Declan Chisholm is day-to-day with a lower-body injury), so Jiříček’s absence doesn’t throw a huge wrench into their short-term plans to hold onto a playoff spot. They’re still overwhelmingly safe with 92% odds of clinching a berth, but they’ve got about a 20% chance of slipping behind the Blues and falling to the second wild-card spot in the West, per MoneyPuck.
Afternoon Notes: Malkin, Shea, Talbot, Cossa, Svechnikov
The Pittsburgh Penguins will face the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday without lineup pillar Evgeni Malkin, who is set to sit out with a day-to-day upper-body injury per NHL.com’s Michelle Crechiolo. This will mark Malkin’s 12th absence since January 1st.
Malkin has continued to make a strong impact when he’s healthy. He has three points in his last five games, and 15 points in 23 games since the calendar turned over. Those marks have brought Malkin’s season-long scoring total up to 15 goals and 46 points in 62 games. That’s an 82-game scoring pace of just 61 points – the lowest of Malkin’s 19 year career in the NHL. Even still, he’s ranked fifth on the Penguins roster in scoring and fourth among forwards in average ice time (18 minutes). Malkin remains the focal point of Pittsburgh’s second-line, and leaves a noticeable hole in Tuesday night’s lineup. Kevin Hayes will see a boost in minutes in Malkin’s absence, while Joona Koppanen is expected to step into the lineup once again. Koppanen scored his first NHL goal on March 18th – his only point in four games.
While losing Malkin is always terrible news in Pittsburgh, the team will have a silver lining in the return of oft-used defenseman Ryan Shea, who missed the last seven-games with an upper-body injury – per Crechiolo. Shea has just five points in 30 games this season, though he’s heated up as of late – and played a season-high 24 minutes of ice time in his last game on March 9th. Shea has averaged 20 minutes of ice time in 10 games since January 1st. He likely won’t return to those heights immediately upon returning from injury – but could see his minutes slowly climb over Pittsburgh’s next few games.
Other notes around the league:
- Detroit Red Wings goaltender Cam Talbot will be healthy enough to serve as backup in Thursday night’s game, per Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press. St. James adds that Talbot’s return will require Detroit to reassign top goalie prospect Sebastian Cossa, who was recalled with Detroit facing injuries to Talbot and Petr Mrazek. Mrazek remains out. Talbot will ease back into the lineup looking to build on his .898 save percentage through 38 games this season. Meanwhile, Cossa will return to the minor leagues looking to maintain his .913 save percentage through 35 AHL games. Cossa has held steady at a .913 Sv% in each of the last three seasons. The Red Wings’ starter’s crease will continue to be manned by Alex Lyon, who’s saved 39 of 44 shots against over his last two starts. Those marks have brought Lyon to a .899 Sv% in 27 games this season – second-highest on the Wings behind Mrazek’s .902 in five games played.
- The Carolina Hurricanes have received a boost of good news, with winger Andrei Svechnikov set to return to the lineup after he missed the last seven games with an upper-body injury per NHL.com’s Walt Ruff. The missed games brought Svechnikov up to eight absences this season – his fewest since the 2021-22 campaign. The 24-year-old winger has 18 goals and 43 points in 63 games this season. With such a chunk of missing games behind him, and just 11 games left on Carolina’s schedule, the ‘Canes will likely ease Svechnikov back into the lineup. He’ll likely rotate through a top-six role with wingers like Jackson Blake, Taylor Hall, and Jack Roslovic.
Rangers’ Matt Rempe Out Week-To-Week
The Rangers announced that forward Matt Rempe is out week-to-week due to an upper-body injury (via Larry Brooks of the New York Post). A corresponding recall is unlikely because Sam Carrick has rejoined the team after a brief personal leave, Brooks adds, giving the Blueshirts 13 healthy forwards. With less than a month to go in the season, the injury could end his campaign if New York doesn’t make the playoffs.
Rempe, 22, now carries an injury designation for the first time in his brief NHL career. Most of his unavailability over the past two years has been due to suspensions – first, a four-gamer for elbowing Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler last year, then an eight-game ban earlier this season for boarding Stars defender Miro Heiskanen.
While the depth enforcer was ferried between New York and AHL Hartford many times in the early going of the season, he’s remained on the NHL roster since being activated from his suspension. He’s made 36 appearances in 2024-25, more than doubling his 2023-24 total, posting 2-3–5 with a plus-four rating and 63 PIMs. He’s averaging just under eight minutes of ice time per game and ranks sixth on the team with 103 hits.
The 6’9″, 255-lb forward entered the season with one goal – stay on the ice. Penalties and suspensions have overshadowed any upside he has as an effective bottom-six checking presence since he entered the league last season. He’s made some progress in that regard, averaging 1.75 PIMs per game compared to a ridiculous 4.18 last year.
Rempe put up 3-2–5 in 18 games with the Wolf Pack earlier this year. A pending restricted free agent, he should be in line for a sub-$1MM AAV on an extension as the Blueshirts navigate a cap crunch this summer.
Rookie Brett Berard will re-enter the lineup tomorrow against the Ducks in Rempe’s absence. He’d sat as a healthy scratch for the past two games. He’s been a more effective depth scorer than the latter in limited minutes, notching 4-4–8 in 28 games. New York selected Berard, 22, in the fifth round in 2020.
West Notes: Oilers, Stancl, Fischer, Colangelo
Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch provided injury updates to several reporters, including TSN’s Ryan Rishaug (Twitter link). While centers Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid were ruled out for the week recently, Knoblauch clarified that Draisaitl will be the first one to come back, likely after this week ends or soon after; that suggests McDavid could miss a bit more time beyond that. Meanwhile, newcomer Trent Frederic could still be multiple weeks away from skating with the team, calling into question if he’ll be able to get into game action before the end of the regular season. Edmonton recently slipped into third place in the Pacific Division and they’ll have to find a way to at least stay close to getting that spot back while waiting for their two top players to return.
More from out West:
- The Blues’ AHL affiliate in Springfield announced a pair of additions. First, St. Louis reassigned winger Jakub Stancl from WHL Kelowna to the Thunderbirds. The 20-year-old signed his entry-level contract last year but spent the season with the Rockets where he potted 23 goals and 34 assists in 58 games. This was his only year in major junior after playing professionally in Sweden last season. His entry-level deal will officially begin in 2025-26 after sliding this season. The Thunderbirds also added defenseman Lukas Fischer on an ATO for the remainder of the year. The 18-year-old was a second-round pick last year, going 56th overall and spent this season with OHL Sarnia where he had 15 goals and 22 assists in 51 games. If he sees game action with Springfield, it will be his first taste of professional action.
- The Ducks will have winger Sam Colangelo back in the lineup tonight against Boston, relays Eric Stephens of The Athletic (Twitter link). He had been out for the last two weeks with an upper-body injury. Colangelo is in his first full professional season and has split time between Anaheim and AHL San Diego. He has six goals and an assist in 20 games with the Ducks while being quite productive with the Gulls, tallying 19 goals and 16 helpers in 38 outings on the farm.
Latest On Minnesota Wild Injuries
March 26: The Wild returned Crotty to the minors late last night after he didn’t enter the lineup, per a team announcement.
March 25: Throughout each season, a handful of teams fall into the well of persistent injury bugs. For yet another year, the Minnesota Wild have found themselves firmly in that rut – with persistent injuries holding stars like Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Jonas Brodin to fewer than 45 games each. All three options remain sidelined as April rolls around, though recent updates could see them back in the fold soon.
Minnesota recalled depth defenseman Cameron Crotty under emergency conditions on Tuesday morning. The move was made in case Brodin – who sat out of Monday night’s 3-0 loss to Dallas for rest – was unable to go once again, per Michael Russo of The Athletic. But with Tuesday’s matchup against Vegas drawing close, Russo has updated that Brodin will in fact play per head coach John Hynes. Crotty could still get a chance to go, though – as Russo has shared that Declan Chisholm is day-to-day with a lower-body injury after blocking a shot from Matt Dumba on Monday.
Assuming he’s in, Crotty will be playing in just the second NHL game of his career on Tuesday, after debuting with the Arizona Coyotes last year. The right-shot 25-year-old has managed eight assists, 47 penalty minutes, and a minus-nine in 56 AHL games this season. Those totals are a slight downtick from the 13 points he potted in 64 games of the 2022-23 season, then repeated in 55 games of the 2023-24 season.
Crotty landed as the Wild’s emergency recall after top prospect and routine middle-man David Jiricek was himself injured in the Iowa Wild’s Monday night contest. Jiricek had seven assists in 27 AHL games. No specifics have been revealed about his injury or timeline, but Russo shares that he’s expected to be out for a while. None of Minnesota’s other AHL defensemen – including Carson Lambos, David Spacek, Joseph Cecconi, and Ryan O’Rourke – have yet made their NHL debuts.
Despite the mess of news surrounding the Wild’s blue-line, they’ll enter Tuesday’s game with positive momentum. Brodin is a major addition to the lineup, and showed flashes of bouncing back to form when he recorded an assist on Saturday, playing in his first game after a month-long absence due to injury. He skated in 21 minutes of action, just shy of the 22:38 in ice time that Brodin has averaged through 39 games this season. In those minutes, he’s recorded 19 points, 14 penalty minutes, and a plus-11. Those are strong numbers that, mixed with the rookie Crotty, should help make up for the hold Chisholm leaves on Minnesota’s bottom pair. Chisholm has 12 points, 10 penalty minutes, and a minus-five in 61 games this season. He’s playing through his first full year in the NHL after marking his rookie season last year.
The Wild have more good news waiting in their wings. Russo went on to share that stars Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek are both expected to begin skating this weekend. The pair have been in-and-out of the lineup, with Kaprizov missing 21 games and Eriksson Ek missing 14 with their current injuries. It’s an understatement to say the two are crucial to the Wild lineup. They operate as clear top-line and special teams options for the club, and each average near or north of 20 minutes of ice time each game. Kaprizov led the team in scoring at the time of his injury with 23 goals and 52 points in just 37 games. That mark put him on pace for an amazing 115 points, which would have upended his career-high, and the Wild single-season scoring record, of 108 points set in the 2021-22 season. Eriksson Ek has been far more modest, with just 24 points in 42 games – though his all-three-zones impact has made his absences noticeable.
Minnesota has seen a surge from their 23-year-olds in the absence of their stars. Winger Matt Boldy now leads the team in scoring with 23 goals and 60 points on the season. Center Marco Rossi isn’t too far behind him, with 22 goals and 54 points in as many games. The pair will likely both take a hit to their ice time and special teams usage when Minnesota is back to full health, though their breakout performances are a clear indication of what’s soon to come for the Wild.
Red Wings Recall Sebastian Cossa, Petr Mrazek And Cam Talbot Out
The Detroit Red Wings have recalled top goalie prospect Sebastian Cossa under emergency conditions. Detroit is currently dealing with a mix of unavailability and injury in their goaltending room. Petr Mrazek sustained an undisclosed injury just two minutes into the team’s Monday win over Utah, after catching the stick of Dylan Guenther in a netfront collision. Backup Alex Lyon took over for Mrazek and led Detroit to a 5-1 victory. Lyon will have to man the starter’s net for a second night in a row on Tuesday, with Cam Talbot also out of the lineup for undisclosed reasons, per Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press. Talbot has only played four games in the month of March, and just one in the last week.
With Mrazek and Talbot on the shelf, Cossa will receive his first NHL call-up since December. He made his NHL debut in relief of Talbot on his last recall, and managed to lead Detroit to a shootout victory in 45 minutes of ice time. Cossa was returned to the minors in the days after, where he’s been up to his usual antics. He has a 19-11-5 record and .913 save percentage through 35 games on the year and is in firm control of the Grand Rapids Grffins’ starting role. This now marks the fourth consecutive season that Cossa has posted a .913 save percentage. Dating back to his 2021-22 season, Cossa has managed the exact same mark through 46 WHL games, 46 ECHL games, 40 AHL games last year, and now 35 games this year. The performances have been shockingly unwavering through the start of his pro career.
Detroit will be able to hold onto Cossa for 30 days or 10 games before his emergency recall expires. With a full house in the goaltending room, it’s hard to picture Detroit hanging onto their minor-league starter for too long – especially as the Griffins pursue a playoff chase of their own. Mrazek has managed a team-leading .902 save percentage in five games since joining Detroit at the Trade Deadline. Lyon is closely challenging that title, though – with a .944 on Monday bringing his year-long save percentage up to a .901. While Cossa seems like a surefire bet to post a .913 wherever he goes, Detroit might find more comfort in sticking with their vets through the end of the year. The Red Wings are currently three points behind an Eastern Conference Wild Card, down a game.
Blackhawks’ Jason Dickinson Out For Season
Blackhawks head coach Anders Sorensen told reporters today that center Jason Dickinson is done for the year after sustaining a wrist injury (via Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times). For now, Chicago still has 12 healthy forwards, so don’t expect a corresponding move – at least not immediately.
A couple of weeks ago, Dickinson returned to the lineup after a high ankle sprain sustained just before the 4 Nations break held him out of a month’s worth of action. He then hurt his wrist while fighting Blues forward Jake Neighbours in the first period of Saturday’s loss and missed Sunday’s game against the Flyers.
He ends his season with 7-9–16 in 59 games, a far cry from his career-best 2023-24 campaign that earned him a two-year, $8.5MM extension. His career high was 22 points when Chicago acquired the pivot from Vancouver during training camp in 2022, but he put up back-to-back 30-point campaigns to begin his Blackhawks tenure – including 22 goals and 13 assists for 35 points last year while playing in all 82 games. It was Dickinson’s first time hitting double-digit goals in his 10-year career, and his plus-four rating on a team with a -111 goal differential earned him outside Selke Trophy consideration.
While Dickinson’s shooting percentage has remained at a respectable 12.5%, he’s not generating individual chances near the rate he did last year. He averaged 0.95 shots on goal per game in 2024-25 compared to 1.54 in 2023-24. He’s also attempting 12% fewer shots per game than last season. Some of that can be attributed to a marginal decrease in average ice time (15:42, down from 16:34), but it’s still a disappointing regression.
He remains an effective checking forward, winning under 49.5% of his draws while contributing 53 blocks and 102 hits. Unfortunately, his substantial possession impacts from last year also nosedived in 2024-25. His expected rating dropped from -4.3 to -10.9 at even strength, while his CF% decreased from 46.4 to 43.4. That’s amid a slight overall increase in Chicago’s 5v5 possession play, checking in at 44.7% of shot attempts so far in 2024-25 after finishing with 44.3% in 2023-24.
Dickinson had spent the majority of his time in the lineup centering a line with Ilya Mikheyev and Teuvo Teräväinen. Captain Nick Foligno assumed that role against Philly and could do so for the remainder of the year, although the Hawks have shuffled their lines frequently in the past few months.