West Notes: Kane, Zatkoff, Las Vegas
While it doesn’t appear that talks are currently ongoing, the Minnesota Wild and Buffalo Sabres have held trade discussions regarding left winger Evander Kane, Michael Russo of the Star-Tribune notes in a reader mailbag.
Kane has had an adventurous last few seasons both on and off the ice. When it comes to his on ice performance, he has shown signs of stardom but hasn’t been able to deliver that with any sort of consistency since before the last lockout. He’s in his second year in a Buffalo uniform but has only played once after being injured in the season opener.
Off the ice, he was charged with four counts of non-criminal harassment, one count of disorderly conduct, and one count of misdemeanor trespass after an incident back in June but it was announced last week that those charges will be dropped as long as he stays out of any legal trouble between now and March 30th.
Kane has two years remaining on his contract with a cap hit of $5.25MM and a salary of $6MM in each season. For any deal to work the Wild, who will be back into LTIR this week after they make a pair of recalls before their next game, would have to send matching salary Buffalo’s way.
More news from the West:
- The Los Angeles Kings have activated goaltender Jeff Zatkoff off of injured reserve and assigned goalie Jack Campbell to Ontario of the AHL as first reported by Jon Rosen of LA Kings Insider. Zatkoff started the season as the backup to Jonathan Quick but was thrust into the starting job after Jonathan Quick suffered a long-term groin injury that will still have him out for another 2-3 months. However, Zatkoff had a groin issue of his own come up in practice, forcing veteran Peter Budaj into the starting job. There’s no word on when Zatkoff will make his next start but with the Kings on a lengthy Eastern road trip, he should see some game action soon. He has an 0-3 record so far this year with a 4.38 GAA and a .839 save percentage.
- The expansion Las Vegas franchise will officially unveil their team name and logo at a press conference on November 22nd, the team announced in a press release. It’s believed that the team colors will be available at that time as well although the actual look of the uniforms are expected to be revealed at a later date.
Minnesota Assigns Bertschy, Schroeder To Iowa
With a few days off until their next matchup, the Minnesota Wild have assigned Christoph Bertschy and Jordan Schroeder to the Iowa Wild (AHL) on Monday. The Wild will not play until Thursday, when they embark on a three game road trip that will take them through the Eastern Conference. In their announcement they note that both could return for the Thursday night game against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Bertschy has one point in three games with the NHL club this season after making his debut last year. The former sixth-round pick is a Swiss-born winger who scored 35 points in the AHL last season.
Schroeder brings a much higher pedigree, as he was selected 22nd overall in 2009, though he has found little NHL success in his career. In 109 games, the 26-year old has 27 points but has shown an ability to score at the lower levels. The 5’9″ centerman was signed after the Vancouver Canucks decided not to extend a qualifying offer in 2014.
Central Notes: Wild Roster Woes, Bourque, Eakin, Sharp
The Minnesota Wild are finding themselves in a bit of a cap crunch due to a rash of recent injuries, writes Michael Russo of the Star-Tribune. The team is currently without forwards Zac Dalpe and Zach Parise as well as defenseman Marco Scandella, who are all week-to-week. Additionally, wingers Erik Haula (injured, out 7-10 days) and Chris Stewart (sick) were also unable to skate on Monday. As a result of the injuries, the team had just 14 skaters at practice.
The team currently has just shy of $1.5MM in cap space according to Cap Friendly but that’s only enough cap space for two recalls. The team could put Scandella on LTIR but that would make it that he’d have to be out for at least 24 days (retroactive to October 27th when he was injured) and if he’s not expected to be out that long, that’s far from an ideal scenario for the Wild. The team could also put Victor Bartley on LTIR but his cap hit doesn’t count in full already as he is currently on season-opening injured reserve (his cap hit only counts for the percentage of time he was on an NHL roster last year) so that wouldn’t free up much more space for Minnesota to work with. Dalpe underwent arthroscopic knee surgery on Monday so he too is a potential LTIR candidate.
Suffice it to say, it’s going to be a busy time for GM Chuck Fletcher as he navigates the cap in order to give the Wild a full roster (or as close to one as possible) in advance of their next game on Tuesday against Buffalo.
Other news from the Central:
- The Avalanche have assigned left winger Gabriel Bourque to San Antonio of the AHL, the team announced (Twitter link). Bourque has played in five games with Colorado so far this season after earning a contract off a PTO, being held pointless while logging 10:46 per game. The 26 year old cleared waivers just prior to the start of the year and since less than 30 days had passed since then, he was able to be sent down now without going back on waivers. The team does not plan to call anyone up to take Bourque’s spot on the roster, adds Mike Chambers of the Denver Post.
- Dallas center Cody Eakin has done some light skating and head coach Lindy Ruff told reporters including Mark Stepneski of Stars Inside Edge (Twitter link) that he is about 2-3 weeks away from returning. Still with the Stars, Patrick Sharp (concussion-like symptoms) worked out on Sunday. Both of those should come as positive signs considering it was announced earlier today that Ales Hemsky is out for the next 5-6 months after undergoing hip surgery.
Zach Parise, Marco Scandella Out With Lower Body Injuries
Zach Parise will be out with a lower body injury writes Sportsnet’s Cory Wilkens. Parise suffered the injury in the Wild’s 4-0 victory over Buffalo on Friday night. Parise is second in points on the team, notching six points (2-4) in eight games. Parise wasn’t the only one injured in Friday’s affair. Marco Scandella is also listed with a lower body injury, and like Parise, is listed week to week. Scandella has one assist this season.
The Wild are off to a 5-2-1 start this season and much of their success have come from Ryan Suter and Parise. The Wild also called up Christoph Bertschy and Tyler Graovac while assigning Teemu Pulkkinen to Iowa after he cleared waivers today.
Wild Waive Teemu Pulkkinen; Assigned To Iowa
Saturday: Pulkkinen has cleared waivers and been assigned to the Iowa Wild of the AHL.
Friday: Only 17 days after claiming him from the Detroit Red Wings, the Minnesota Wild waived forward Teemu Pulkkinen after just eight games with the team. In those eight games, Pulkkinen had one goal and was a -1. Though many felt Pulkkinen didn’t get a fair shake in Motown, his performance in Minnesota fell short of what the Wild brass certainly thought they were getting in a player expected to score goals.
NBC Sports’ Mike Halford wonders if Pulkkinen could be reacquired by the Red Wings, since he would be able to go back to Grand Rapids, not impacting the NHL roster as he did three weeks ago. Halford quotes Wings coach Jeff Blashill as having “an unreal amount of respect” for him. Perhaps a return to Detroit isn’t far fetched after all.
Should Pulkkinen clear waivers, he will report to the AHL’s Iowa Wild.
Red Wings Notes: Vanek, Howard, Pulkkinen
The Detroit Red Wings are off to a great 6-2-0 record this season, and part of it has been the exceptional play from Thomas Vanek. The Austrian winger has scored eight points in seven games this season, but missed the Wings last game against the Blues with a lower-body injury. He’s not at the morning skate again today, according to Ansar Khan of MLive.com and won’t play again tonight.
Vanek signed a one-year, $2.6MM deal with the Red Wings this summer, a huge bargain if he could get back to the ~60 point player he was once a lock to be. The former forty-goal man has been on a steady decline in recent years, and has big question marks defensively.
- Jimmy Howard will start tonight, his third of the season. After Petr Mrazek took the job last season, Howard has been fighting to prove that he is capable of starting at this level still, in order to entice another team to go after him. The 32-year old has been heavily rumored to be on the market, but since he comes with such a big price tag Detroit might ultimately have to keep him as the backup. Howard is owed almost $5.3MM annually for the next three seasons.
- Former Red Wing Teemu Pulkkinen has been waived again, this time by the Minnesota Wild. The AHL sniper can’t seem to find his footing in the NHL, and will likely be claimed by a team once again. He had one goal in his eight-game stint with Minnesota that was filled with concern about his foot speed at the NHL level. While his shot is incredibly strong, he often couldn’t keep up with the level of play.
- Tomas Jurco was back skating today at practice, according to Khan. While the young forward hasn’t played this season, he’s set to make his return from a back injury in mid-November.
Wild Notes: Dumba, Niederreiter, Spurgeon, Stewart, Haula
Mike Russo of the Minneapolis Star Tribune had a productive morning today, publishing an article with news and notes on a number of intriguing Minnesota Wild-related topics. The full post is of course worth a read but here are some of the highlights:
- Mathew Dumba was set to be scratched for Thursday night’s game against Toronto but drew into the lineup because Marco Scandella was ill and could not suit up. Wild bench boss Bruce Boudreau thinks the threat of a benching alone might have served as a wakeup call for the talented, fourth-year pro: “I think the fact he was supposed to sit out one game and go back in could be the Wally Pipp syndrome. It might have opened his eyes for him to start playing the way he’s capable of playing.” Dumba agreed with his coach, saying: “I didn’t like it. I took it in a way that if I got back in the lineup I was never going to let that happen again. That’s the kind of motivation that I have. Just pride as a player. I hold myself to a higher standard. Just what the be the best I can for my teammates.” The 22-year-old Dumba tallied an assist in the Leafs game and followed that up with a solid performance against New Jersey last night, finishing with four shot attempts and five hits, according to Russo. Dumba was moved up to the top pairing to play with Ryan Suter since Jared Spurgeon – more on him in a bit – sat out with an upper-body-injury.
- Through five games this season, six-year veteran winger Nino Niederreiter is averaging just 12:18 of ice time per game. That’s down 1 1/2 minutes off his average from 2015-16. The diminished ice time might be a factor in Niederreiter’s sluggish start – two points, both assists – but as Russo writes, Boudreau hasn’t seen enough from Niederreiter to award him additional ice time: “Not enough. Not enough. Granted he hasn’t played a lot of minutes, probably averaged 10 ½ minutes, 11 minutes a game. He’s a big, strong guy with a good shot. He’s got to get more.” When asked whether moving him up in the lineup would spark the Swiss left-wing, the coach said: “I don’t think you get anything for free in this league. Hopefully he’ll earn them. I thought he was better last night than he was the previous night, which is good. So he might get a few more minutes tonight.” Niederreiter has posted back-to-back campaigns of 20 or more goals and has averaged 1.9 shots-per-game over the last two years. The Wild need Niederreiter to be better though the usual disclaimer about small-sample sizes applies here.
- As noted above, Jared Spurgeon missed Saturday’s game with the Devils due to an upper-body-injury he originally suffered Thursday when Matt Martin of the Leafs crunched the Wild defender against the boards. As Russo indicates, Spurgeon will miss his second consecutive game tonight and there doesn’t appear to be a timetable for his return.
- Erik Haula, like Spurgeon, is expected to be held out of the lineup tonight. According to Russo, Haula has been wearing a walking boot since the home opener though last night was the first time the injury has kept him out of the lineup. Russo considers a potential lengthy absence of Haula “a significant loss for the Wild.”
- Finally, free agent addition Chris Stewart, who inked a two-year pact with the Wild over the summer, is off to a slow start despite recording three points in five games. The big winger was signed to add physicality and some scoring punch to the club’s bottom-six. However, Stewart has just two hits and three shots on goal while averaging better than 13 minutes per contest. During a career which has spanned 524 regular season games, Stewart has averaged 1.25 hits and more than two shots per game, numbers which suggest the big winger does in fact have more to offer the Wild on the ice.
Minnesota Recalls Joel Eriksson Ek; Assigns Mike Reilly To Iowa
The Minnesota Wild have recalled Joel Eriksson Ek prior to tonight’s game against New Jersey. To make room, the team sent Mike Reilly to Iowa. Reilly was just recalled on Thursday after bouncing up and down over the first few days of the season. The young defender looks to be ticketed for a season full of flights between the two clubs.
Eriksson Ek was the Wild’s first round pick (20th overall) just two years ago, and is set to make his NHL debut after just a single professional game in North America. The forward has spent the last two seasons in the Swedish Elite League, playing for Farjestad.
Though he hasn’t turned in eye-popping numbers thus far in his career, the 19-year old center possesses a laser fast shot and is expected to develop into a solid offensive contributor. With the Wild already 3-1-0 in four games, the injection of youth should keep the train rolling along.
Injury Updates: Coyotes, Winnik, Rask, Wild
Coyotes goaltender Mike Smith has been sent back to Arizona to be evaluated by team doctors, notes Sarah McLellan of AZ Central. He left Tuesday’s game in Ottawa with what is believed to be a knee injury. Head coach Dave Tippett stated that no firm diagnosis has been given and accordingly, there’s no word yet on how long he might miss although the team has placed him on injured reserve. Craig Morgan of AZ Central adds (via Twitter) that the placement was made retroactive to October 18th.
Also from McLellan, winger Jamie McGinn is expected to rejoin the team on Saturday although he’s not expected to play right away as the team wants to get him into some practices before putting him in the lineup.
In the meantime, the team will run with backup Louis Domingue (who is between the pipes again tonight against the Islanders despite being pulled early last night in Montreal) and third stringer Justin Peters.
Other injury news from around the league:
- While Washington left winger Daniel Winnik was able to return to the game on Thursday despite taking a puck to the head, he didn’t come away completely injury free, writes Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post. After the game, head coach Barry Trotz told reporters that Winnik lost a small piece of his ear on the play.
- Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask did not skate with the team on Friday as he once again is dealing with ‘general soreness’, reports CSN NE’s Joe Haggerty. Rask was dealing with this issue when he sat out last Saturday against Toronto although he returned to the lineup this week and made 28 of 29 saves in a win against New Jersey on Thursday. As a result, he is now listed as questionable to play on Saturday night against Montreal.
- Minnesota blueliner Jared Spurgeon suffered an upper body injury in the third period against Toronto, notes Michael Russo of the Minnesota Star-Tribune. Meanwhile, left winger Erik Haula looked to further aggravate an existing lower body issue on Thursday night and Russo adds that he is not walking particularly well off the ice. Both players did not practice. Defenseman Marco Scandella, who didn’t play due to an illness versus the Leafs, did skate and potentially could slide into Spurgeon’s spot in the lineup if he is unable to play Saturday against New Jersey.
Injury Notes: Scandella, Marincin, Redmond
Tonight’s injury update in the NHL:
- The Minnesota Wild report that defenseman Marco Scandella is out of tonight’s Wild game versus the Toronto Maple Leafs because of an undisclosed illness. Michael Russo of the Minnesota Star-Tribune reports that Matthew Dumba will take his place. Scandella is logging 2nd-pairing minutes with the Wild—averaging just under 20 minutes a night—but remains pointless so far. Dumba has had more luck, scoring 1G in his first three games while logging just over 18 minutes a night. Minnesota drafted Dumba 7th overall in 2012 and has seen the defenseman progress in each of first three years in the NHL.
- The Toronto Maple Leafs announce that defenseman Martin Marincin is also out of tonight’s game with the Minnesota Wild. Marincin is replaced by Roman Polak. Marincin has been a nice surprise for the Maple Leafs since they acquired him last year, and he is currently played over 21 minutes a night. He has 1A in the team’s first three games. Polak makes his second Toronto debut tonight—he re-signed with the team in the offseason after being traded to the San Jose Sharks near the 2015-16 NHL Trade Deadline.
- The Montreal Canadiens reported that defenseman Zach Redmond will be out for six weeks after suffering a broken foot in practice. The Canadiens signed Redmond to a two-year deal this summer but he has yet to play for the big club. Redmond was expected to get playing time if the Canadiens sent rookie Mikhail Sergachev back to the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires. Last Season Redmond spent time between the Colorado Avalanche and its AHL affiliate San Antonio Rampage. The blueliner put up 2G and 4A in 37 NHL games.