Canucks Activate Kiefer Sherwood
The Vancouver Canucks have activated forward Kiefer Sherwood off of injured reserve. Sherwood has missed Vancouver’s last four games with an undisclosed injury. His return brings some sense to Vancouver assigning Aatu Raty and, after he cleared waivers, Phillip Di Giuseppe to the minor leagues.
Sherwood is expected to return to the lineup in Sunday’s game against the Detroit Red Wings. He’ll join a lineup full of new faces, including recent trade acquisitions Marcus Pettersson, Victor Mancini, and Filip Chytil. Sherwood should maintain his role on the team’s third line despite the lineup shuffle. He’s been one of the brightest performers in Vancouver’s bottom-six, boasting 13 goals and 21 points in 47 games this season. Sherwood has also recorded a staggering 273 hits – while no other Canuck has managed even 100 (Noah Juulsen has 99). In fact, Sherwood’s lofty hit totals lead the entire NHL by nearly 80 hits – with Philadelphia’s Garnet Hathaway ranked second with 197 hits. So long as he maintains his current hit pace, Sherwood is on track to finish the season with 453 hits – which would stand as an NHL record.
Sherwood has doubled down on the role of goal-scoring wrecking-ball after recording 10 goals, 27 points, and 234 hits in 68 games with the Nashville Predators last season. He seems to be finding plenty of comfort in his first year with the Canucks, sat just seven points shy of surpassing his career-high in scoring from last year. This news sets him up to continue pursuing new scoring heights, and the hit record, in a Canucks roster with plenty of minutes opened up by the trading of top forward scorer J.T. Miller.
Blues’ Robert Thomas, Colton Parayko Expected To Play Despite Illness
5:00 PM: The Blues have announced that Thomas and Parayko are both expected to play through their illness on Sunday. Kessel and Walker will step out of the lineup in their place.
4:00 PM: The St. Louis Blues could be without two pillars of the lineup when they visit the Utah Hockey Club on Sunday. Top centerman Robert Thomas and top defenseman Colton Parayko are both questionable for the matchup due to illness NHL.com’s Lou Korac reports. Parayko also missed St. Louis’ Friday loss to the Colorado Avalanche, while Thomas left the team’s Sunday practice early.
St. Louis turned toward depth defenseman Matthew Kessel to fill in for Parayko on Friday. He was paired with Parayko’s typical partner, Cam Fowler, and recorded no scoring and a -2 in the outing. The Blues aren’t carrying any other extra defenders, meaning Kessel will step up once again should Parayko miss another matchup.
How to fill in for Thomas will be a much harder question. He has served as the team’s top-line center for the entirety of the season. The team struggled significantly when Thomas missed 12 games between October and November, posting a 4-7-1 record and getting outscored 3.75-to-2.33 on average. The Blues turned towards their litany of depth forwards to fill in for Thomas’ vacancy, with each of Alexandre Texier, Radek Faksa, and Nathan Walker earning routine ice time in his absence.
This time around, Oskar Sundqvist seems like the depth option that’d get the nod, with Faksa and Walker already playing routinely. Sundqvist has been a routine healthy scratch under Jim Montgomery‘s reign, and has just three points in 10 games in January and nine points in 38 games this season. He’s fallen to the role of de facto extra forward for the Blues, but Thomas’ absence could force him back into the lineup. That circumstance would likely elevate Brayden Schenn to the Blues’ top line and slot Sundqvist in between Jake Neighbours and Zachary Bolduc on the third line.
Red Wings Activate Patrick Kane, Place J.T. Compher On IR
The Detroit Red Wings have swapped forward on injured reserve, activating Patrick Kane and shelving J.T. Compher. Kane has missed Detroit’s last five games with an upper-body injury. He was moved to injured reserve on January 27th, retroactive to his last game on the 21st. Meanwhile, Compher has been nursing his own upper-body injury ever since taking a high hit from Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Emil Martinsen Lilleberg on January 25th. Lilleberg was suspended for two games for the hit, while Compher will miss his fourth consecutive game on Sunday. Both Kane and Compher traveled with the team on their two-game road trip to the Pacific Northwest, but it could be a long while before Compher returns to the ice. He is currently listed as out indefinitely, per Rotowire.
With this news, Detroit receives back the all-offense, no-defense style of Kane. The future Hall-of-Famer ranks fifth on the team in scoring with 11 goals and 30 points in 42 games. That’s an 82-game pace of 52 points, continuing Kane’s gradual decline in scoring after scoring at a 77-point pace last season (47 points in 50 games) and netting 57 points in the year before. Despite ranking near the top of the team in scoring this year, Kane has also posted a dismal -11 and 2.90 xGA/60 (expected goals-against per-60), ranking him second-worst on the team in both categories per Evolving Hockey.
Detroit has often offset Kane’s near-total lack of defense with the stout two-way play of Compher, who has 21 points in 48 games of his own this year. Compher has also recorded a +4, which leads all Detroit forwards and ranks second on the team to Simon Edvinsson‘s +13. He has been a stalwart centerman in the Red Wings’ middle-six, clearly benefiting from the addition of Andrew Copp to help shoulder responsibility in the middle lane. Compher has averaged nearly 17 minutes of ice time this year, nearly three minutes fewer than he averaged through the last two seasons. But the decreased minutes hardly indicate a decreased role, with Compher still serving time on both special teams and a go-to option in odd-man situations.
The Wings have so far promoted Michael Rasmussen to fill Compher’s tough minutes – to good effect. Rasmussen has two points and a +2 through his last five games, while averaging stout third-line minutes behind Copp and Dylan Larkin. Rasmussen has scored 15 points in 51 games on the year, putting him on pace for just 24 points – his lowest since the 2020-21 campaign. An extended absence for Compher could set Rasmussen up to boost his scoring up, though he’ll need to do it while commanding the team’s second power-play unit and handling tough, top-nine minutes.
Wild Move Kirill Kaprizov To LTIR, Jonas Brodin Expected To Return
The Minnesota Wild have moved star forward Kirill Kaprizov to long-term injured reserve retroactive to his most recent game on January 26th. This move will open up additional cap space and roster flexibility, which Michael Russo of The Athletic suggests could indicate the return of top defenseman Jonas Brodin. Russo shares that Brodin will likely join the team in Boston this weekend and prepare to make his return to the ice on Tuesday. Brodin has missed Minnesota’s last 12 games with a lower-body injury suffered after blocking a shot in the team’s January 7th win over the St. Louis Blues. Brodin was placed on injured reserve 11 days later, then shifted to LTIR on January 28th. Tuesday’s game against the Boston Bruins would mark the soonest that he’d be able to return.
This news comes as sweet and sour for a Minnesota roster that’s faced terrible injury luck all season long. Brodin has played in just 31 of the team’s 53 games this season, but he’s continued to perform as a top-pair option when he’s healthy. He has recorded four goals and 16 points, six penalty minutes, and a +10 on the season. He’s also blocked 67 shots, second-most on the Wild behind Jacob Middleton. Brodin has managed top-end stats while averaging north of 23 minutes of ice time each game. That number – like many of his stats – ranks second on the defense behind Brock Faber‘s near-25 minutes of ice time on average. Brodin will be launched back to Minnesota’s top line as soon as he can handle it, especially after a 6-0 trampling courtesy of the Ottawa Senators on Saturday.
But the sour of the move comes via an extended absence for the Wild’s superstar. Kaprizov has undergone surgery for his lower-body injury that went well, per NHL.com’s Joe Smith. But he’ll now be forced out of the lineup through the rest of February, at least. He has been formally designated as week-to-week, which could stretch his prognosis out even further. Kaprizov was the beating heart of the Wild lineup prior to injury. He led the team in goals (23), assists (29), and points (52) through just 37 appearances. That’s an 82-game scoring pace of 115 points, which would have shattered Minnesota’s previous single-season scoring record – 108 points, set by Kaprizov in 2021-22. He also earned third spot on that list with 96 points in 75 games last year. Minnesota sits firmly in a playoff spot as February rolls around, giving them the chance to focus on getting Kaprizov back to full-health before the postseason begins.
Sharks Recall Vitek Vanecek, Reassign Yaroslav Askarov
The San Jose Sharks have recalled goaltender Vitek Vanecek from a conditioning stint in the AHL. Vanecek fractured his right cheek into “a couple of pieces” and required surgery on December 17th, when an errant puck hit him while he was sitting on the bench, shares Felicia Keller of San Jose Hockey Now. He worked his way back to full health throughout January and was assigned to the minors on January 29th and played his first game since injury two days later. He allowed two goals on 24 shots and won the game – his only appearance of the minor league assignment. In a corresponding move, San Jose has also reassigned Yaroslav Askarov to the AHL.
Vanecek had another spot start in the minors in 2021-22, but hasn’t played multiple AHL games since the 2019-20 season. He was a heavily-used goaltender for the Hershey Bears from 2016 to 2020 – routinely sharing the net with many emerging netminders, including Pheonix Copley and Ilya Samsonov. Vanecek often posted better stat lines than his company, recording a save percentage north of .905 in the 2016-17, 2018-19, and 2019-20 seasons. The lattermost year still stands as his career-best – headlined by a 19-10-1 record and .917 save percentage. That performance earned Vanecek a call-up to the Washington Capitals in the following season, and he’d make the call-up last by again posting save percentages north of .905 in each of his first three NHL seasons.
Vanecek eventually worked his way into the New Jersey Devils’ starting role for 2022-23, and posted a dazzling 33-11-4 record and .911 save percentage in 52 games. It was heavy utilization in the midst of his prime, but he’s struggled to maintain full health or strong performances in the years since. He recorded a measly .890 Sv% in 32 games with New Jersey last year, and has an even lesser .885 in 14 games with San Jose this season.
Where Vanecek will slot in upon returning from injury isn’t as clear. He has played in one more game than his lineup competition – Askarov and Alexandar Georgiev – and his measly save percentage doesn’t look terrible next to Askarov’s .895 and Georgiev’s .879. That could be enough to push Vanecek back into the starting role, though it might not last for long. Askarov has been a force all season long, alternating between dazzling performances only allowing one or two goals; and horrific outings where he’s lit up to the extent of four, five, or even six goals allowed. His year-long save percentage is confused by that inconsistency, but it’s hard to say that the young Russian isn’t still San Jose’s best option in net. He’s recorded a fantastic .938 Sv% in 14 AHL games this season. That’s far-and-away the highest save percentage in San Jose Barracuda history, 12 percent higher than Troy Grosenick‘s .926 through 49 games in 2016-17. This assignment suggests that Askarov will be tasked with maintaining that record through the foreseeable future, though he could quickly jump back to the pros should San Jose’s other netminders continue to falter.
Metropolitan Notes: Haula, Malkin, Duclair, Edstrom, Stillman
It has been one of the busiest weeks of the season for the Metropolitan Division. Five of the division’s eight teams have made trades in the last few weeks, and all eight clubs are dealing with multiple injuries. That’s sparked plenty of news and updates – starting with the New Jersey Devils, who plan to bring centerman Erik Haula on their upcoming two-game road trip despite already ruling him out for Sunday’s game against Buffalo, per team reporter Amanda Stein. Stein added that Haula will practice with the team on the road trip and be questionable for Tuesday’s game against Pittsburgh. Haula suffered an ankle injury on January 5th and has been out of action ever since. He’s missed 11 games and was placed on injured reserve on January 17th. He resumed skating four days later and was upgraded to out day-to-day on January 29th.
Haula is now one step closer to returning. Having already been ruled out of Sunday’s game, he’ll have three more opportunities to get back into the lineup before the team goes on a two-week break for the 4-Nations Face-Off. Whether or not he’ll be able to return before that break will be notable, as Haula has been selected to represent Team Finland at the tournament. He has so far made no indication that he won’t be able to play – but the thought of his absence will weigh on a Finnish club that recently lost top defenseman Miro Heiskanen for the tourney. Haula is in the midst of a down year, with just 11 points in 42 games – his lowest scoring pace since the 2016-17 season. But he’ll still be an important addition to the Finns’ lineup should he return back to full health, likely to slot in as a middle-six winger with Sebastian Aho, Roope Hintz, Aleksander Barkov, and Anton Lundell manning the middle lane.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are gearing up for an even more notable return, after franchise legend Evgeni Malkin has returned to practice in a non-contact jersey on Saturday, per Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Malkin has missed Pittsburgh’s last four games and is still expected to miss a few more with a lower-body injury. He will be hard-pressed to return before Pittsburgh’s 4-Nations break begins on February 8th. The Penguins have lost two of the games that Malkin has missed. They were outscored 9-2 in the pair of outings. With that in mind, Pittsburgh will hope their future Hall-of-Fame Russian can get back to full health ASAP – and get back to building on the 34 points he’s scored in 47 games this season. Malkin continues to play a pivotal role on the team’s second line, averaging north of 18 minutes of ice time this season.
While New Jersey and Pittsburgh gear up for returns, the Islanders will have yet another lineup vacancy to fill, with winger Anthony Duclair set to miss Saturday’s game due to illness, per Andrew Gross of Newsday Sports. Duclair missed over two months of action earlier in the year, sitting out from October 20th to December 21st with a lower-body injury. He scored three points in his first three games back, but has been ice cold ever since – with just two points in his last 14 games. Duclair has held onto top-nine ice time despite the scoring drought, giving the Islanders a hardy role to fill as he misses yet another game. Marc Gatcomb has returned to the lineup to fill the vacancy, earning another chance to find scoring after playing in his first seven NHL games, and scoring his first goal, earlier this season. Gatcomb will fill a fourth-line role, while Simon Holmstrom has been promoted into the top-nine.
Joining the list of Metropolitan absentees is New York Rangers forward Adam Edstrom, who suffered an apparent injury in the team’s Saturday loss to the Boston Bruins. No specifics of Edstrom’s injury or timeline have been revealed. It’s terrible timing for the towering forward, who’s scored two points and seen a boost in ice time over his last five games. His absence will force the Rangers to fill a hole on their fourth line, likely opening the door for Arthur Kaliyev, Jimmy Vesey, or top prospect Brennan Othmann to earn a spot start. Vesey notably voiced concerns over his ice time recently – and could now have a golden chance to prove he can make a lasting impact with minimal minutes.
Closing out the littany of Metro updates – the Carolina Hurricanes have reassigned depth defenseman Riley Stillman back to the minor leagues. Stillman was recalled for his season debut on Friday. He played in just under eight minutes of ice time and recorded one shot and two hits. He’ll now return to the minor leagues, where he’s scored two goals and five points through 15 games.
Kraken Recall Gustav Olofsson, Ryker Evans Day-To-Day
The Seattle Kraken have recalled defenseman Gustav Olofsson under emergency conditions. The move comes in response to sophomore Ryker Evans‘ suffering an upper-body injury that has him out day-to-day, per Mike Benton of the Kraken Audio Network. Evans missed Seattle’s Thursday win over the San Jose Sharks, making the team eligible for this recall. Olofssson is likely to serve as a depth option for the duration of his call-up, with the Kraken carrying six healthy defenders even with Evans out.
Olofsson is playing through his 12th season of pro hockey this year. Every year has been largely the same, with Olofsson earning a spot at the top of his club’s call-up list with stout, shutdown defense in the minors. He’s played NHL games in seven of the last nine years, only being held back by a season-long injury in 2018-19 and a shortened season in 2021. He has totaled 11 assists and 18 penalty minutes in 66 career NHL games over that span but is still searching for his first NHL goal. He hasn’t been much more productive in the minor leagues. Olofsson has totaled 109 points in 349 games in the AHL, with 24 points in the 2016-17 season standing as his career-high. His career has spanned tenures with the Minnesota Wild, Montreal Canadiens, and Seattle Kraken – as well as stints with four different minor league clubs.
Seattle will be able to play Olofsson in upwards of 10 games, or roster him for up to a month, on emergency basis. That should be plenty of time to allow Evans to work back to full health.
Islanders Issue Updates On Multiple Long-Term Injuries
New York Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello met with the media on Saturday morning to provide updates on the team’s endless injury list, captured by NHL.com’s Rachel Luscher. Most notably, Lamoriello shared that backup goaltender Semyon Varlamov has stopped skating on his own or taking shots after a setback in his lower-body injury. Lamoriello dubbed Varlamov as now out indefinitely and referred to his recovery as “a total rehab situation”.
Varlamov has been out of the lineup for over two months but very little about his injury has come to the surface. His last appearance was an overtime loss to the Washington Capitals on November 29th where Varlamov – despite allowing five goals – didn’t seem to suffer a noticeable injury. But he was pulled from skating the following morning, moved to injured reserve on December 14th, then moved to long-term injured reserve five days later. He seemed to be on the rebound when the new year rolled around, returning to skating and individual drills on January 2nd. But after a month of light action, Varlamov still needs more time to recover. He’ll head back to the shelf, forcing the Islanders to continue searching for a backup.
Unfortunately, that search will be made significantly tougher by an injury to Varlamov’s fill-in, Marcus Hogberg, who Lamoriello shared will miss the next four weeks with an upper-body injury. Hogberg was originally injured on January 26th and moved to injured reserve the following day. He’ll now sit out through the two-week break 4-Nations Face-Off from February 9th to February 22nd. Hogberg was in the midst of a small resurgence before going down with injury. He made his return to North American pros with a two-way deal with the Islanders this summer, after spending the last three seasons starting for Linkopings HC of Sweden’s SHL. Hogberg started the year with middling numbers in the AHL – a 2-5-3 record and .898 save percentage in 11 games – but found his momentum in the wake of Varlamov’s injury.
Starter Ilya Sorokin has been New York’s bell-cow, but in seven games relieving him, Hogberg has managed a dazzling, team-leading .947 save percentage. It’s the highest save percentage of his North American career, ignoring sample size. But now, Hogberg will join Varlamov on the absentee list – and force the Islanders to find yet another replacement. After succeeding him as AHL starter, Jakub Skarek has also filled Hogberg’s role of NHL backup in light of his injury. Skarek hasn’t yet made his NHL debut, but he nonetheless seems cushy at the top flight – with Henrik Tikkanen and Hunter Miska both posting save percentages below .840 in their own elevated, minor-league roles.
Moving out of the net, Lamoriello also shared that the team is still unsure when defenseman Mike Reilly will return after undergoing a heart procedure in November. Reilly has been skating on his own since December 14th – just over a month after his surgery – but hasn’t progressed since then. Lamoriello added that Reilly’s situation will be dictated by his doctors. The 31-year-old defenseman is in his second season with the Islanders. He scored a career-high 24 points in 59 games last season, serving as an impactful third-pair option for a deprived Islanders defense. He seemed headed for a cushier role this year, but struggled to manage any scoring through the first 11 games of the season – then fell to injury. Reilly seems to have a winding recovery ahead of him, which could limit his chance to earn another deal when his $1.25MM cap hit expires this summer.
Ending on a positive note, top Islanders defensemen Noah Dobson and Ryan Pulock are both expected to return to skating drills during the 4-Nations break, per Andrew Gross of Newsday Sports. Dobson has missed the Islanders’ last four games and earned a spot on long-term injured reserve with a lower-body injury; while Pulock has missed two games and been placed on standard IR with an upper-body injury. The pair of absences have driven the Islanders to acquire both Scott Perunovich and Adam Boqvist via trade and waivers respectively. This news will lock the new acquisitions into the lineup until the two-week break – but hopefully the blue-line can return to full-health soon after that.
Stars Announce Several Roster Moves; Nils Lundkvist Out For The Season
It’s a busy Saturday in Dallas. The team announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Kyle Capobianco has been assigned to AHL Texas while blueliner Christian Kyrou and winger Kyle McDonald from AHL Texas. To make room on the roster, winger Mason Marchment was placed on injured reserve. The team then revealed that defenseman Nils Lundkvist has undergone season-ending shoulder surgery and that he and Tyler Seguin have been placed on LTIR.
Capobianco made his season debut on Friday and had some early struggles in his first taste of NHL action in two years. The 27-year-old has been quite productive with Texas, however, tallying 28 points in 35 games. Depending on how the back end of these roster moves shuffle out, it’s possible that Capobianco is back with the big club pretty quickly.
It’s the first regular season recall for both Kyrou and McDonald. On the surface, they may be short-lived ones as it’s likely those moves were made to optimize their LTIR placements. Kyrou has 13 points in 26 games with Texas in his sophomore year professionally. McDonald, meanwhile, has just five points in 31 appearances, a big drop after picking up 26 points in 51 outings last season.
Marchment has been out since late December due to a facial injury. Assuming the Stars filed the paperwork to make his placement retroactive, he can be activated at any time and is believed to be aiming to return before the upcoming break so he might not be out for much longer. He was off to a strong start before the injury with 12 goals and 15 assists in his first 33 outings.
As for Lundkvist, he had missed the last week and a half with an upper-body injury which we now know was a shoulder issue. His season comes to an end on a pretty quiet note as he finishes with five assists, 34 blocks, and 23 hits in 39 games while averaging just over 15 minutes a night. He joins blueliner Miro Heiskanen on the shelf as Dallas’ defensive depth starts to get tested.
The 24-year-old is slated to be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights this summer where he’ll be owed a $1.25MM qualifying offer. Dallas declined to tender him last summer when the qualifier was only $874K to avoid giving him arbitration rights so it wouldn’t be surprising if they go that route again if a deal can’t be reached before the end of June.
Seguin, meanwhile, underwent hip surgery back in December, a procedure that carried an expected recovery timeline of four to six months although it’s expected he won’t be back until the playoffs.
Accordingly, by placing both him and Lundkvist on LTIR, Dallas can exceed the cap by up to the amount of their cap hits minus any remaining regular cap room at the time of placement. (Kyrou and McDonald’s recalls allow them to reduce that regular cap room as much as possible to maximize how much LTIR space they have). All things considered, Dallas should have somewhere around $11MM in full-season contracts that they can add between now and the March 7th trade deadline, making the Stars a team to watch for in the coming weeks.
Tampa Bay Lightning Recall Matt Tomkins, Gage Goncalves
Unsurprisingly, the Tampa Bay Lightning’s roster move from yesterday was confirmed as a paper transaction. According to a team announcement, the Lightning confirmed this morning that they’ve recalled goaltender Matt Tomkins and forward Gage Goncalves from their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch.
This evening, Tomkins will again serve as Andrei Vasilevskiy‘s backup while regular backup netminder Jonas Johansson recovers from his lower-body injury. This is Tomkins’s second recall in three days, but he’s still not expected to receive any playing time during his short stay with Tampa Bay.
The 30-year-old goaltender is in his second year with the Lightning organization after a two-year stint in the Swedish Hockey League. He’s been stable but unimpressive during his brief tenure with AHL Syracuse posting a 21-20-6 record in 46 games with a save percentage just above .900. Brandon Halverson is having a much better year than Tomkins in Syracuse, but he is ineligible to be rostered for Tampa Bay because he is still on an AHL contract. contract.
Goncalves has experienced several cap-related roster moves since clearing waivers on January 13th. The Lightning have a few weeks to use Goncalves in this role before they must send him through waivers again.
Still, despite the taxiing between Tampa Bay and AHL Syracuse, Goncalves has already hit a career-high in games played this season. He’s scored one goal and three points in 28 games for the Lightning this season averaging 11:47 of ice time per night in a bottom six role.