Sharks’ Henry Thrun, Jan Rutta Out With Injury Long-Term
The San Jose Sharks are dealing with a pair of injured defenders who could be done for the year per Max Miller of The Hockey News. Head coach Ryan Warsofsky told Miller that veteran Jan Rutta is still weeks away from returning, and hasn’t yet returned to the team’s practices. Warsofsky was a bit less decisive on Henry Thrun, who he dubbed as being just beyond week-to-week. Miller adds that Rutta is at risk of missing the remaining five weeks of the season, while Thrun will continue to fight for a return.
Rutta hasn’t played since suffering a lower-body injury in San Jose’s January 23rd loss to the Nashville Predators. He’s missed 14 games since – a number that would double should Rutta miss the rest of the year. His season would end on a bad note if he does, with Rutta boasting just eight points, 28 penalty minutes, and a minus-six in 51 games. That, surprisingly, marks the lowest scoring pace of Rutta’s historically uneventful career – narrowly beating out his nine points in 56 games of the 2022-23 season. Rutta split the time between that down year and this one with a small resurgence last season. He recorded 19 points, 38 penalty minutes, and a minus-21 in 69 games of the 2023-24 campaign – the most he’s scored since he managed 20 points in 57 games as an NHL rookie.
Rutta filled a menial bottom-pair role throughout the season. San Jose has turned back to career-long Shark Marc-Édouard Vlasic to fill in Rutta’s role. Vlasic has played in nine games in relief, posting no scoring, a minus-eight, and two shots on net. He’s averaged 16 minutes of ice time each night across that stand.
But the Sharks haven’t wanted to tap into their defense depth behind Vlasic, leaving Thrun’s vacancy in the top-four a bit tougher to fill. He has worked his way into more-and-more ice time this season, ultimately rivaling upwards of 24 minutes of ice time in one of his most recent games. Thrun’s new absence comes after he reaggravated the upper-body injury that held him out for a week-and-a-half in early March. He’ll be set to miss even more time, after already missing five games due to the injury.
San Jose has recalled career minor-leaguer Jimmy Schuldt to step into the lineup with Thrun out. Schuldt has scored 18 points in 54 AHL games this season. He’s in his first season in the Sharks organization after spending the last two years with the Seattle Kraken’s AHL affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds. Schuldt tallied 56 points in 139 games with the Firebirds. He’s tagged into two NHL games over the course of his seven-year pro career – one just days after signing his first pro deal with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2018-19, and one earlier this season with San Jose. He has one assist in the pair of outings. The Sharks could need an extended fill-in for Thrun, which could pave the way for Schuldt to find his first NHL goal.
Utah’s Juuso Välimäki Undergoes ACL Surgery, Out 8-9 Months
Utah announced today defenseman Juuso Välimäki underwent surgery to repair a torn ACL and will need eight to nine months for recovery. As a result, the 26-year-old’s season is over. He’ll also miss the first one to two months of the 2025-26 campaign.
It’s a brutal end to a forgettable season for the Finnish defenseman. He hasn’t been on the NHL roster since Feb. 24, when he cleared waivers and was subsequently sent to AHL Tucson for his first minor-league assignment since the 2021-22 campaign. Välimäki sustained the ACL tear in his first game with Tucson on Feb. 28.
While the 2017 first-rounder has finally emerged as a fringe top-four option on the Coyotes’ blue line before the team was sold and moved operations to Salt Lake City, he’s tumbled down the depth chart in Utah despite early-season injuries to Sean Durzi and John Marino creating additional opportunities for depth players for much of the campaign. Touted as an offensive defenseman, the 6’2″ lefty has just 2-3–5 in 43 NHL showings this year. That’s down considerably from the heights of his 34-point campaign in 78 games for Arizona two years ago, when he featured heavily on their power play and led Coyotes defenders with 30 assists (19 EV, 11 PP).
Välimäki’s role this season was naturally going to decrease with their offseason pickups of Marino, Ian Cole, and Mikhail Sergachev, and his role was further reduced when Utah acquired (and now extended) countryman Olli Määttä early in the season. Not being available during training camp next season also doesn’t bode well for his hopes of re-emerging as a regular. Signed through next year at a $2MM cap hit, Välimäki is already the seventh defenseman under contract on a one-way deal next year after the Club recently extended Määttä and Cole. While veterans Nick DeSimone and Robert Bortuzzo are pending UFAs and questionable to return, they’ve also got 2022 first-rounder Maveric Lamoureux in the system who should be pushing for an opening-night roster spot after skating in 15 games earlier this year.
Thus, Välimäki may not have an NHL job waiting for him when he returns to health next year. He costs $850K against Utah’s cap when buried in the minors. He’s destined for unrestricted free agency when his deal expires in 2026 and, save for an unexpected resurgence in 2025-26, won’t be re-signing unless he desires a minor-league role.
More concerning is the Finn’s history with ACL tears and lower-body issues. He missed significant chunks of his early development in the Flames organization, including the first half of the 2018-19 campaign with a lower-body injury and all of the 2019-20 season after undergoing ACL surgery during training camp. He’s managed to stay mostly healthy since then, though. It’s not known whether the tears occurred in the same knee.
Snapshots: Hintz, Lavoie, Canucks, Husso
Stars forward Roope Hintz has returned to Dallas to be further evaluated after sustaining an upper-body injury on Saturday against Edmonton, notes Robert Tiffin of D Magazine (Twitter link). Head coach Peter DeBoer stated that the early indications are that the injury isn’t a long-term one while it appears as if a fracture has been ruled out as well. Hintz had been on quite the hot streak recently; going into yesterday’s game, he had 17 points in his last eight appearances and was anchoring the top line. While it appears the worst-case scenarios are going to be avoided, they’ll be without him tonight against Vancouver and likely a little longer than that.
Elsewhere around the NHL:
- The Golden Knights have placed winger Raphael Lavoie on injured reserve with an upper-body injury, relays Danny Webster of the Las Vegas Review-Journal (Twitter link). After an adventurous stint on the waiver wire to start the year, the 24-year-old has played primarily with AHL Henderson, tallying 21 points in 32 games. Lavoie has made nine appearances with Vegas on a pair of recalls but has been held off the scoresheet while logging just over 10 minutes a game. Lavoie’s placement will keep him out of the lineup until at least Thursday.
- The Canucks have reversed their goalie move from yesterday, announcing (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled Arturs Silovs from AHL Abbotsford while sending Nikita Tolopilo to Abbotsford. The move allowed Silovs to start yesterday against San Jose where he allowed four goals on 28 shots. Silovs has a 3.85 GAA with a .858 SV% in nine outings with Vancouver and is set to be the primary backup with Thatcher Demko back on injured reserve. But to keep him fresh, the Canucks could send him down periodically to get a spot start in with Abbotsford.
- A day after sending him back to the minors, Anaheim’s AHL affiliate in San Diego announced that the Ducks have once again recalled goaltender Ville Husso to the big club. He was acquired for future considerations last month to add some goalie depth and has a 2.84 GAA along with a .908 SV% in 17 AHL contests this season while compiling a 3.69 GAA and a .866 SV% in nine NHL contests. Husso is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer.
Islanders’ Semyon Varlamov Likely Out For Season, Offseason Priorities Forming
New York Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello sat down with media for an in-depth look at the team’s current state after the Trade Deadline and where he plans to head this summer. Among the biggest news was that top backup goaltender Semyon Varlamov will likely miss the remainder of the 2024-25 season with his lower-body injury, captured by Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News.
Varlamov has been out of the lineup since late November, but the root of his injury wasn’t entirely clear. He played through a full 61 minutes of action in what could be his last game of the season – an 5-4 overtime loss to the Washington Capitals on November 29th. He’s been on the shelf ever since, while the Islanders have turned towards Marcus Hogberg and Jakub Skarek to fill backup minutes behind star starter Ilya Sorokin.
Lamoriello went on to speak in depth about the team’s plans for veterans Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri, sharing that their goal was to sign both to extensions beyond this season. That plan went awry with Nelson, who was ultimately flipped to the Colorado Avalanche for top prospect Calum Ritchie and draft capital – but Lamoriello emphasized that the team still hopes to bring Palmieri back into the fold, per Newsday’s Andrew Gross. In the same breath, Lamoriello also pointed out that the Islanders need to get younger. They currently carry the 10th-oldest lineup in the NHL, with an average age of 28.96. Of the nine teams older than them, the Pittsburgh Penguins are the only team in shakier playoff standing than the Wild Card-bound Islanders.
The effort to get younger will mean plenty of change this summer, Lamoriello added. He told Gross that the term “retool” is a relatively new juxtaposition to the long-term idea of a “rebuild”. The Islanders will attempt to stick in the former camp this summer, refreshing the lineup with top prospects and new faces while trimming down on their veteran presence. That could be a challenge if keeping players like Palmieri – a 34-year-old with 20 goals and 41 points in 62 games this season – is at the top of the docket. New York likely won’t want to part with franchise cornerstone Anders Lee, or productive veterans like Bo Horvat and Mathew Barzal – which could make top defenders like Noah Dobson, Ryan Pulock, and Adam Pelech the focus of any large-scale moves.
The Boston Bruins received top prospect Fraser Minten and a first-round draft pick, among other assets, for top-pair defensive defenseman Brandon Carlo at the Deadline. That price was likely hiked up in a seller’s market, but finding a comparable deal could be the start of New York’s efforts to retool. The Islanders will also have to make sure they’re elevating newly-acquired top prospects to important roles as soon as they can with the youth-movement in mind – an effort they’re already headed towards by clearing Nelson’s role for Ritchie in their recent swap.
New York finds themselves three points behind the Eastern Conference’s second Wild Card spot with 20 games left in their season. It’s a hotly contested race, with at least six teams within striking distance of a playoff spot. Moving out Nelson, who was previously tied for the team lead in scoring with 43 points, will make achieving that postseason berth a tough feat. So will losing Varlamov, who had a career-low .889 save percentage this season but posted a far more impressive .917 in his last four seasons with the Islanders. Those absences will require improved performances from the likes of Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Hogberg to keep New York competitive.
The Islanders will have six unrestricted free agents and seven restricted free agents to re-sign when their season ends. Among the pending free agents is top-performing rookie Maxim Tsyplakov, top defenders Dobson and Alexander Romanov, and recent acquisitions Tony DeAngelo, Scott Perunovich, and Adam Boqvist. With only three contracts north of $7MM on their books, the Islanders should have plenty of money to work with this summer – a technical $28.9MM per PuckPedia. With his recent comments, it seems veteran GM Lamoriello is set to use that money to its fullest this summer – in an attempt to rejuvenate an Islanders lineup that’s fallen behind the playoff wave this season.
Evening Notes: Gavrikov, Marchand, Hedman, Jokiharju
Los Angeles Kings general manager Rob Blake spoke in-depth about his efforts to extend defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov in a post-Trade Deadline media availability. Blake shared that keeping Gavrikov around is a top priority for the team, but finding a new deal could take some time after Gavrikov changed agents in February. But even with the flip, Blake reiterated that both the team and the player are confident a deal can get done.
Gavrikov has been a top defender for the Kings. He has averaged nearly 24 minutes of ice time on a nightly basis, good for second on the team behind Drew Doughty‘s average of 25:32. Gavrikov has brought a shutdown presence to those premier moments. He leads the team with 117 blocked shots, to go with 21 points, 14 penalty minutes, a plus-eight, and 34 hits in 60 games. He’s averaged north of 20 minutes of ice time in every season since his 2021-22 campaign with the Columbus Blue Jackets. That season stands as Gavrikov’s career-year, headlined by a career-high 33 points and 68 penalty minutes in 80 games. The 29-year-old defenseman has slowed his scoring since those days, but looks capable of carrying his brick wall style well into his 30s. The Kings will look to bank on that growth on his next extension, which will likely carry Gavrikov to the sunset years of his career.
Other notes from around the league:
- The Boston Bruins offered captain Brad Marchand a three-year extension before opting to trade him to the Florida Panthers, per ESPN’s Emily Kaplan. Kaplan goes on to add that Boston’s original extension offers to the 36-year-old Marchand were stuck at two years, but that the team expanded their offer in the waning minutes to try and secure a deal. Ultimately, the money wasn’t right for Marchand – and he opted to pursue a move to the Panthers instead. Marchand will have a chance to sign a more preferable deal when he enters unrestricted free agency this summer. The Bruins lost their second-highest scorer in dealing away Marchand, who has 21 goals and 47 points in 61 games on the year. He’ll be a major addition for the Florida Panthers, but will first need to overcome a shoulder injury that’s expected to hold him out for a few weeks.
- Tampa Bay Lightning captain Victor Hedman missed the team’s Saturday night matchup against the Boston Bruins and has been listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Hedman has made a major impact on the Bolts lineup over his recent stretch, with five points in his last five games and seven points in his last 10 games. J.J. Moser elevates to the top line in Hedman’s absence, while Emil Martinsen Lilleberg draws back onto Tampa Bay’s third pair. Moser has 10 points and a plus-13 in 35 games this season, while Lilleberg has 14 points, 85 penalty minutes, and a minus-seven in 58 games.
- The newest Boston Bruins defenseman Henri Jokiharju told reporters that he had requested a trade away from the Buffalo Sabres prior to his deadline-day move. He also clamored about his positive relationships with new Boston teammates Casey Mittelstadt and Joonas Korpisalo. Jokiharju joins the Bruins after six tough seasons with the Buffalo Sabres. He earned top-pair minutes at points during his Sabres tenure, as the team struggled to staff a hardy right-defense corp – but Jokiharju could never make much of his minutes. He set a career-high of 20 points in 74 games last season, but had just six points in 42 games with Buffalo this year. Jokiharju should fill a much more manageable bottom-four role in Boston, playing behind shutdown defender Andrew Peeke at least.
Hurricanes Recall Scott Morrow, Reassign Riley Stillman
The Carolina Hurricanes have recalled top defense prospect Scott Morrow and reassigned defenseman Riley Stillman. Stillman will head to the AHL sporting a minor injury after taking a skate to the face in his first shift of Thursday night’s game. He received stitches on the inside of his mouth but continues to practice per Cory Lavalette of the North State Journal.
This move returns Morrow to the NHL after a recent hot streak in the minors. He has 10 points in 10 games since Carolina reassigned him on February 8th. Morrow is now up to 39 points in 51 AHL games, the third-most of any rookie defender in the AHL behind San Jose’s Luca Cagnoni and Anaheim’s Tristan Luneau who each have 42 points. Despite that hot scoring, Morrow hasn’t yet found his way onto an NHL scoresheet. He has no scoring and a minus-four through four career games in the NHL, with the appearances split evenly between last year and this year.
Morrow’s spot in the lineup on Sunday will depend on the availability of Dmitry Orlov, who missed Thursday’s game with a minor injury. Orlov returned to Carolina’s Saturday morning practice in full per NHL.com’s Walt Ruff. He seems good to go, but Morrow will be the quick fill-in should the Hurricanes need an extra hand.
This move also returns Stillman to the minor leagues for the second time in two days. Carolina successfully waived Stillman and assigned him to the minor leagues on Friday, but he was brought back to the NHL roster before Saturday’s practice. But it seems that was only for the extra skate, and Stillman will head back to the Chicago Wolves to build on his five points, 41 penalty minutes, and minus-three in 20 games. Stillman has also stepped into three NHL games this season, setting no scoring, five penalty minutes, and a minus-one.
Sonny Milano Suffers Setback In Injury Recovery
Friday was a fairly quiet day for the Capitals on the trade front with their only move being the acquisition of winger Anthony Beauvillier from Pittsburgh. There’s another winger that they were hoping to get back soon but that’s no longer the case for Sonny Milano. Speaking with reporters Friday including Sammi Silber of The Hockey News, GM Chris Patrick indicated that the winger suffered a fairly significant setback in his recovery from an upper-body injury.
The 28-year-old has been out since early November and has played in just three games with Washington this season, being held off the scoresheet. However, he had been a capable depth scorer in recent years, reaching the double-digit goal mark in three straight seasons, the last two of which came with the Caps.
It looked as if Milano was well on his way toward returning as he had been skating for several months and participating in non-contact drills but Patrick noted that it’s back to the drawing board in terms of a plan for his recovery. Given how long he has been out for, his availability for the rest of the season is certainly now in question.
Milano is currently on LTIR with his $1.9MM AAV contributing to more than half of their current LTIR room which stands at $3.175MM, per PuckPedia. Washington is likely to use a good chunk of that when Ryan Leonard’s season comes to an end as it’s widely expected they’ll try to bring him in for the stretch run and playoffs so even if Milano was cleared to return before the playoffs, it’s likely they’d keep him stashed on there anyway for cap compliance purposes. Regardless, it’s fair to say that the second season of Milano’s three-year deal has not gone the way anyone would have hoped.
Rangers Activate Chris Kreider Off Injured Reserve
The Rangers were one of the more active teams around the trade deadline, moving out several veterans in recent days. But they’re getting one back in the lineup this afternoon against Ottawa as Mollie Walker of the New York Post relays (Twitter link) that winger Chris Kreider has been activated off injured reserve.
Kreider had been dealing with an upper-body injury sustained in the first game back after the 4 Nations Face-Off break. While his goal production has still been reasonably high, it has been a tough year for the 33-year-old overall. Through 48 games this season, Kreider has 17 goals but just four assists, putting him on pace for the lowest full-season point total of his career.
His early-season struggles had him placed on the trade market back in late November with GM Chris Drury looking to shake up the veteran core on his roster. The other veteran put on the block at that time (Jacob Trouba) ultimately was moved but a viable trade market never seemed to materialize for Kreider.
Kreider has two years left on his contract, one that carries a $6.5MM cap charge and a 15-team no-trade list. A strong finish to his season could help bolster his market on the trade front and potentially help New York sneak into the postseason as despite their recent moves as a seller, they enter play today tied for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Laurent Brossoit Not Expected To Return This Season
Laurent Brossoit’s first year with the Blackhawks hasn’t gone well, to say the least. Signed to a two-year, $6MM contract last summer to try to give Chicago some stability between the pipes, he has yet to play for them this season. It doesn’t look like he will either as Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times relays that goalie coach Jimmy Waite recently indicated that he doesn’t expect the netminder to be able to return this season.
The 31-year-old underwent meniscus surgery in late August that was initially expected to carry a five-to-seven-week recovery timeline. While that would mean he’d miss training camp, the thought was that he’d be ready to play early in the regular season and he was originally thought to be ready to debut partway through their opening road trip. Then in late October, he was supposed to begin skating and would need a few weeks to ramp up. Two weeks later, his timeline was changed to being out indefinitely.
Brossoit then underwent a second procedure on his knee at the end of November with no timeline for a return although GM Kyle Davidson was hopeful back in late January that his new netminder would be able to play this season. Clearly, that’s no longer the case although Brossoit recently expressed some optimism to Waite about his recovery which could be a good sign for next year.
Brossoit posted a 2.00 GAA and a .927 SV% in 23 games with Winnipeg in 2023-24, a solid bounce-back performance after being in the minors at times the year before. That made him one of the bigger wild cards heading into free agency but even with his inconsistent track record, he still landed the biggest financial commitment of his career and looked to be part of Chicago’s short-term plans at the very least.
But that fit is much less certain now. Arvid Soderblom, who Brossoit was likely signed to replace in the goaltending platoon, has bounced back quite well after a disastrous performance last season, upping his save percentage by 25 points along the way. In doing so, he’s back to being in at least the shorter-term plans in goal as well with prospects Drew Commesso and Adam Gajan not ready for full-time NHL duty just yet.
Meanwhile, Chicago also picked up Spencer Knight from Florida as a key part of the return in their trade for Seth Jones earlier this month. At 23, he’s now their goalie of the present and future so he figures to be the top option in their tandem with Soderblom as the backup.
Chicago was able to move Petr Mrazek on Friday to avoid an extended stretch of carrying three netminders but assuming Brossoit is able to play next season, they’ll be in that situation once more. But Davidson at least has some time to come up with a plan for how to handle that situation as now with Brossoit effectively ruled out for the rest of this season, it won’t be an issue until training camp in the fall.
Jonas Siegenthaler Out For Rest Of Regular Season
It’s going to be a while before the Devils get some help on the back end. In his post-deadline press conference (video link), GM Tom Fitzgerald indicated that blueliner Jonas Siegenthaler (lower body) won’t be able to return for the rest of the regular season but does have a chance to return in the playoffs. Meanwhile, he declined to put a timeline on the reported week-to-week lower-body injury for Dougie Hamilton but confirmed that his top-scoring blueliner will be out for an extended period.
Siegenthaler has been out of the lineup for a little more than a month due to a lower-body injury and was moved to LTIR in recent days before Jack Hughes’ season-ending shoulder surgery. The 27-year-old isn’t a big point producer from the back end as he had just two goals and seven assists in 55 games before being injured; his nine points matched his total from last season.
But Siegenthaler has long been a capable defensive defender and his absence will be more felt on that end. He primarily played in a shutdown role while taking a regular turn on the penalty kill; all told, he finishes his regular season with 19:36 in ATOI. While that ranks fifth among New Jersey defenders, none of their rearguards are averaging 21 minutes a game on the season with their distribution being quite close, a rarity across the NHL.
New Jersey quickly moved to fill Siegenthaler’s role earlier this week when they acquired Brian Dumoulin from Anaheim while they picked up Dennis Cholowski from the Islanders today to add more defensive depth. But that’s all the help they’re going to have now for a while with no word on how long Hamilton will be out for while we now know that Siegenthaler’s set to miss the final six weeks of the regular season and potentially more.