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Minnesota Wild Activate Marcus Johansson From Injured Reserve

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The Minnesota Wild are suddenly must-see television after adding Kirill Kaprizov, arguably the most exciting player in franchise history. With a record of 18-10-1 it’s not just Kaprizov that should be drawing your attention though, the entire Wild roster seems energized and competitive. Today, they’ll get back another important piece, activating Marcus Johansson from injured reserve.

Johansson, 30, is on the second season of a two-year, $9MM contract signed with the Buffalo Sabres in 2019 but has been out for weeks with an upper-body injury. He has missed Minnesota’s last 16 games and has suited up just 11 times this season. Despite his regular season struggles the last two years, Johansson showed exactly what he was capable of with the Boston Bruins in the 2019 playoffs, routinely being one of the team’s best players and recording 11 points in 22 games.

It’s that postseason performance that should excite fans of the Wild, given how that wasn’t the only time Johansson has gone past the first round of the playoffs. That’s something Minnesota hasn’t accomplished since 2015 and the team hasn’t gone past the second round since 2003. If this team is to change that trend, they’ll need Johansson firing on all cylinders and making his $4.5MM cap hit a worthwhile investment. If he’s not playing up to that level, perhaps his expiring contract could be one shipped out to open up room for a different addition.

Carson Soucy Suspended One Game

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The NHL’s Department of Player Safety has issued a one-game suspension to Minnesota Wild defensemen Carson Soucy for his hit on Arizona Coyotes forward Conor Garland. The punishment is for charging, and the accompanying video explains:

It is important to note that this is not a case of a player elevating slightly as part of a natural hitting motion while delivering a full body hit. Nor is it a case of a player coming off the ice after contact because of the force of the collision. If Soucy wishes to deliver this check legally, he must stay low and hit through Garland’s shoulder or core, rather than elevating upward and into his head.

Soucy’s clean record with no fines and suspensions kept the punishment to a minimum, along with the fact that Garland did not suffer a significant injury on the play. Still, the Minnesota defenseman will be held out of their next game and this incident will be taken into account down the line.

Minnesota is back in action tomorrow against the Colorado Avalanche, but Soucy will not be eligible to dress. The 26-year-old has become an important piece for the Wild since the start of the 2019-20 campaign and has eight points in 22 games this season.

Zach Parise To Be Scratched By Minnesota Wild

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The Minnesota Wild will not have one of the cornerstones of their franchise in the lineup on Wednesday night, as according to Michael Russo of The Athletic, Zach Parise will be made a healthy scratch. This will be the first time Parise has been a healthy scratch since signing a 13-year, $98MM contract to join the Wild in 2012.

The Wild have recalled Gerald Mayhew and Kyle Rau from the taxi squad, as Ryan Hartman is also expected to miss the game with an injury, but the big news here is Parise. Now 36, the star forward has racked up 801 points in a 1,034-game NHL career, including nine this season in 19 games. Russo connects the scratch to the end of Monday’s game, where Parise was on the ice for more than a minute and a half. The Vegas Golden Knights ended up tying the game with Parise on the ice, then winning in overtime.

Parise hasn’t been as effective this season but has long been one of the most marketable players in Minnesota, racking up points and goals on the regular. He’ll be 37 this summer though, and new GM Bill Guerin will have to make some tough decisions. There are still four years remaining on that contract and though it includes a full no-movement clause, Parise actually waived it last year to potentially go to the New York Islanders and rejoin Lou Lamoriello, the executive who drafted him with the New Jersey Devils in 2003.

It’s not at all clear if Parise will be dealt at some point this season, given how difficult it is to trade a contract like his, but there’s an obvious change coming in Minnesota. The team is rejuvenated with a new star at the forefront in Kirill Kaprizov, and they sit in a playoff spot today in the West Division. A scratch may be a one-time thing, but a quick look at Parise’s ice time numbers this season shows a player that is slowly being phased out. After averaging at least 17 minutes a night in every season since his rookie year, he’s well under that mark now and played just 12:42 in a game against the Los Angeles Kings last week.

Parise and teammate Ryan Suter signed identical contracts in that summer of 2012, ones that would not be allowed under today’s CBA. The 13-year deals are so heavily front-loaded that the last three years see just $4MM in total salary paid out. Those numbers mean that Minnesota would be on the hook for recapture penalties if Parise retires early, something that potentially could be out of their hands if he is traded to another team. It does mean however that anyone acquiring him wouldn’t be shelling out the $7.54MM that his cap hit indicates. After this season, just $10MM remains to be paid to the veteran forward.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Alex Stalock Claimed By Edmonton Oilers

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The Edmonton Oilers have nabbed a goaltender off waivers, claiming Alex Stalock from the Minnesota Wild according to Chris Johnston of Sportsnet. Elliotte Friedman confirms that Stalock is expected to report to the Oilers, meaning he’ll have to go through a mandatory quarantine after arriving in Canada.

Edmonton has been struggling to find any sort of goaltending depth since losing Anton Forsberg on waivers earlier this season and had a stretch where Mikko Koskinen was forced to play nine games in a two-week stretch. Mike Smith has returned of late to carry some of the burden, but the Oilers still desperately needed to add a third option in case another injury struck.

Currently, the team is carrying Dylan Wells as their taxi squad goaltender and it isn’t clear exactly how they’ll handle things once Stalock is able to practice. He won’t be eligible to move to the taxi squad, but the Oilers also don’t have much cap flexibility to carry three goaltenders on the active roster.

Still, there’s reason to believe that Stalock could be a real help for this Oilers team. His .910 save percentage last season was better than the .902 Smith recorded and his .909 career mark is better than Koskinen’s .908. The 33-year-old Stalock isn’t a true starter, but it’s not unthinkable to believe he could unseat one of the two at some point.

Of note is Stalock’s contract, which extends through 2021-22 at a very reasonable $785K. The Oilers will be able to leave him exposed to Seattle in the expansion draft and potentially use him as a backup next year.

Minnesota Wild Place Alex Stalock On Waivers

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The Minnesota Wild have placed goaltender Alex Stalock on waivers, according to Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston. The 33-year-old veteran led the Wild in wins and starts last season, but has yet to make an NHL appearance this year.

Stalock, who took over as the Wild’s starter last year after a disappointing season by long-time starter Devan Dubnyk, has been out since the beginning of the season due to an upper-body injury. Stalock was coming off a season in which he posted 20 wins, a 2.67 GAA and a .910 save percentage last year in 38 games. He also played in all four postseason games in the bubble last year, but didn’t fare as well, going 1-3 with a 3.03 GAA and a .897 save percentage.

The Wild then changed up their goaltending during the offseason, trading Dubnyk to San Jose and signing Cam Talbot as a free agent. The team also had last year’s AHL Goaltender of the Year Kaapo Kahkonen, leaving Stalock’s status on the team shaky already. Both Talbot and Kahkonen have played extremely well with Minnesota this year. Talbot has a 2.19 GAA and a .926 save percentage in seven appearances, while Kahkonen has 2.41 GAA and a .914 save percentage in 12 games.

That leaves Stalock, who is finally healthy and ready to come off injured reserve, as the odd man out and a serious candidate to be claimed by other teams in need of a veteran goaltender. On top of all that, Stalock is quite inexpensive as he is earning just $725K this year, just his second year in a three-year, $2.36MM deal he signed back in 2019.

With several teams in need of goaltending help, it would seem improbable that the Wild can slip him through to assign him to the taxi squad. One interesting fact is the team could have assigned him to the AHL for a conditioning stint first, but opted not to do that, perhaps hoping that Stalock, who hasn’t appeared in a game since the playoff bubble in August, might not be ready to jump into a game for any time right away, thereby dissuading teams to claim him.

However, there are plenty of teams in desperate need of help in goal (especially veteran help), with many people pointing to the Buffalo Sabres, who just lost Linus Ullmark for a month due to injury, who would be strong candidates to take a chance on him.

The Athletic’s Michael Russo was the first to report that Stalock was going to be put on waivers.

WHL Notes: NHL Loans, Guenther, Knak

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The Western Hockey League is finally back in action. Nearly a year since the top junior league canceled the remainder of its 2019-20 season due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the WHL has returned to play. The league announced a 24-game season back in early January with a to-be-determined late-February start date and that date was Friday, as four Central Division teams matched up. As one might expect, the re-opening of the WHL has a number of previously displaced players rushing back to their respective teams. Below are the signed NHL prospects who had been playing in the AHL that have been officially reassigned to the WHL:

Adam Beckman, Minnesota Wild –> Spokane Chiefs
Gianni Fairbrother, Montreal Canadiens –> Everett Silvertips
Kaiden Guhle, Montreal Canadiens –> Prince Albert Raiders
Ridly Greig, Ottawa Senators –> Brandon Wheat Kings
Ozzy Wiesblatt, San Jose Sharks –> Prince Albert Raiders
Tristen Robins, San Jose Sharks –> Saskatoon Blades

  • The WHL season may only be one day old, but the league’s leading scorer is a name to know. Dylan Guenther, a consensus top-ten prospect in the 2021 NHL Draft, started his campaign with the Edmonton Oil Kings with a pair of goals and a pair of assists to take the WHL’s top scoring spot. Guenther is one of the greatest beneficiaries of the WHL’s return, however brief, if the NHL does not postpone the 2021 draft. The top prospect was facing the possibility of missing out on his entire draft year, having only played in four games in the Alberta Junior Hockey League. While many CHL players jumped to the USHL this season, Guenther held out hope that the WHL would return and is now rewarded with 24 games to show what he can do. Likely a top-ten pick either way, the lack of certainty in this NHL draft class will now allow Guenther to fight his way into the top-five and potentially even to the top overall spot with an elite performance. A supremely skilled scoring winger, Guenther is the biggest name to watch in the WHL’s shortened season.
  • Another name to watch is Swiss forward Simon Knak. Despite some expectation that he would be selected last year in his first NHL Draft go-round, Knak slipped through the cracks. That was despite finding success in his first season in North America, recording 34 points in 49 games for the Portland Winterhawks. However, the draft dream is still alive. Knak has spent this season back home in Switzerland, suiting up for powerhouse HC Davos at the top level of the Swiss National League. He held his own too, recording eight points in 25 games in his first pro experience. Knack very easily could have stayed in Davos and continued his pro career. However, possibly inspired by his recent success as well as a strong run as captain of Switzerland’s U-20 team, Knak has decided to stay true to his plans and head back to Portland. Davos announced that Knak has been recalled from his loan and is returning to the WHL, hoping to catch the eye of NHL scouts by playing a top role for the Winterhawks. The question is whether he can do enough in a shortened season to earn a selection as an overage pick.

Bruce Boudreau Expresses Interest In Seattle’s Head Coach Vacancy

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It should be assumed that any free agent head coach with NHL experience will have interest in taking over the reigns of the league’s newest team next season. The Seattle Kraken have yet to name their inaugural head coach, but the team has surely begun the process of vetting candidates. However, there have been no potential names made public, at least until now. Long-time NHL coach Bruce Boudreau has officially thrown his hat in the ring, telling The Athletic’s Ryan Clark that he is “extremely interested” in the position:

The thing about that job is it would be great to start with a team that is starting fresh and to be the builder of something. I think that is a real exciting thing… It is not like an expansion team in 1967. You knew then you were not going to be very good or have the dregs of every team. The way they have gone about it now, Seattle is going to start off with a pretty good team.

Who knows if the call will ever come? I don’t want to get the call and say I am not ready and I don’t know what I would do and I don’t want to feel that way. This is the only thing I have ever known my whole life… If someone offers you a job, it is an amazing thing.

As Boudreau notes, he has not formally contacted Seattle yet, nor has anyone formally reached out to him. GM Ron Francis has previously stated that the club will not rush to name a head coach and by all accounts have not interviewed any candidates to this point. However, the odds are that Boudreau has at least had some contact with the team. The veteran coach has previously worked with Kraken owner Tod Leiweke, as well as other members of the front office. He also stands out as one of the top available names and is likely a seriously candidate for the position, even if only being discussed behind closed doors.

Boudreau, 66, was most recently in the NHL just last season, fired mid-season by the Minnesota Wild in his fourth year with the franchise. Boudreau has more than a decade of experience as an NHL head coach, previously leading the Washington Capitals and Anaheim Ducks as well. Prior to that, he coached for many years and found great success in the minors. Among his career accolades are a Jack Adams Award, a number of NHL playoff appearances, and championships in the AHL and ECHL. If the Kraken decide to go for the most experienced candidate as their inaugural head coach, few can rival Boudreau.

Poll: NHL’s “Thanksgiving Trend” Revisited

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Fans of the NHL are sure to be familiar with the deeper meaning that American Thanksgiving holds each season. With unrelenting consistency, the NHL’s standings on the final Thursday of November have had great predictive ability when compared to the final regular season standings. In fact, over the past seven years the Thanksgiving standings have been about 75% accurate at forecasting eventual playoff teams, predicting 12 of 16 spots on average. Even though American Thanksgiving only rolls around less than two months into the season, three out of four teams in a playoff spot at that time will have retained their postseason berth when the season ends.

The 2019-20 season of course did not have a standard postseason, but if it had then the Thanksgiving trend would have proved even more prophetic in a shortened campaign. Last year, in which teams were limited to between 68 and 71 games apiece prior to the early termination of the regular season, the Thanksgiving standings would have predicted 13 of 16 playoff teams in the standard format. Of the three teams that would have slid out of the postseason, the Florida Panthers trailed the Toronto Maple Leafs by .014 points percentage in the Atlantic Division and the Winnipeg Jets missed out by a measly .001 points percentage behind the Calgary Flames as the final Western Conference wild card. The Thanksgiving standings were that close to predicting 15 of 16 playoff teams in the shortened season, with the unexpected slow start for the Vegas Golden Knights and hot start for the Arizona Coyotes being the other unsurprising course correction.

But how does this trend impact a season that didn’t even begin until well after American Thanksgiving? Based on total games played by Thanksgiving over the past few seasons, Thanksgiving represents about the 30% progress through the NHL season. In the current 56-game season, that comes out to about the 17-game mark. Although postponements and rescheduling have created a wide discrepancy in games played among teams this year, the league as a whole passed that 17-game average on Saturday: Happy Thanksgiving. Admittedly, the 2020-21 campaign does have a different playoff model as well, one that is somewhat stricter than the last few years without the fallback of a wildcard spot for a team on the fifth-place fringe in their division. Yet, it is still a 16-team postseason and the Thanksgiving trend should hold. Using points percentage to rank the standings (the stat may end up determining playoff position for a second consecutive season anyhow) and adjusting for the season’s makeshift divisions, here is the current “Thanksgiving” outlook:

North Division                                                             East Division

Toronto Maple Leafs (.789)                                    Boston Bruins (.733)
Montreal Canadiens (.625)                                     Philadelphia Flyers (.679)
Winnipeg Jets (.618)                                                 Washington Capitals (.594)
Edmonton Oilers (.600)                                          Pittsburgh Penguins (.594)____
Calgary Flames (.472)                                                        New Jersey Devils (.583)
Vancouver Canucks (.405)                                                New York Islanders (.559)
Ottawa Senators (.237)                                                      New York Rangers (.469)
                                                                                                Buffalo Sabres (.429)

West Division                                                                Central Division

Vegas Golden Knights (.700)                                   Carolina Hurricanes (.781)
Colorado Avalanche (.679)                                       Florida Panthers (.750)
St. Louis Blues (.611)                                                  Tampa Bay Lightning (.700)
Minnesota Wild (.571)                                                Dallas Stars (.583)                    
Los Angeles Kings (.531)                                                    Chicago Blackhawks (.579)
Arizona Coyotes (.500)                                                       Columbus Blue Jackets (.526)
San Jose Sharks (.500)                                                       Nashville Predators (.412)
Anaheim Ducks (.417)                                                         Detroit Red Wings (.325)

Now this begs the question, especially seeing how accurate the Thanksgiving standings were in last year’s shortened season but also accounting for the many disruptions for a number of teams early this season, who is the trend currently overlooking? Which teams currently outside the playoff picture, if any, do you think will make the postseason when all is said and done later this season? Use the comments section below as well to discuss which teams may fall out of the postseason and whether you feel the Thanksgiving trend will apply this season.

Which Of These Teams Will Buck The "Thanksgiving" Trend And Make The Playoffs?
New York Islanders 23.09% (263 votes)
Chicago Blackhawks 18.88% (215 votes)
Los Angeles Kings 9.66% (110 votes)
None - "Thanksgiving" goes 16/16 8.96% (102 votes)
Columbus Blue Jackets 7.73% (88 votes)
Calgary Flames 6.41% (73 votes)
New Jersey Devils 5.62% (64 votes)
New York Rangers 4.39% (50 votes)
Arizona Coyotes 3.69% (42 votes)
Vancouver Canucks 3.69% (42 votes)
Buffalo Sabres 2.19% (25 votes)
San Jose Sharks 1.58% (18 votes)
Detroit Red Wings 1.49% (17 votes)
Nashville Predators 1.23% (14 votes)
Anaheim Ducks 0.79% (9 votes)
Ottawa Senators 0.61% (7 votes)
Total Votes: 1,139

[mobile users click here to vote]

Taxi Squad Shuffle: 02/21/21

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As the NHL prepares for another day at Lake Tahoe – one that hopes to run smoothly after Saturday’s debacle – there are also three other games on the Sunday slate. Roster transactions continue to come at a torrid pace this season and today should be no different with a number of teams in action. Keep up with all of the moves right here:

Central Division

  • The Detroit Red Wings have returned a trio of players to the taxi squad. The team announced that veteran defensemen Alex Biega and the recently-waived Danny DeKeyser, as well as rookie forward Mathias Brome, have all been reassigned. After back-to-back games, Detroit is off until Tuesday.
  • Matiss Kivlenieks is on his way back to Columbus after a brief stint in the minors. The Blue Jackets announced that the goaltender has been recalled from the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters to join the taxi squad. While the team may give Kivlenieks spot starts in Cleveland from time to time to keep him fresh, he looks to be locked in to that No. 3 taxi squad role for the franchise this season.
  • The Nashville Predators announced they have reassigned forward Eeli Tolvanen to the squad. The 21-year-old has appeared in eight games with the Predators this season.

East Division

  • The New Jersey Devils have swapped a pair of forwards, sending Yegor Sharangovich to the taxi squad while calling up Mikhail Maltsev as his replacement. Although they have been used differently so far this season, both rookies have been effective in the Devils lineup. However, after a hot start Sharangovich has cooled off while Maltsev has performed in his more recent showings. According to the AHL’s Binghamton Devils, New Jersey has also reassigned forward Nick Merkley from the taxi squad to the minors. Merkley has actually played well in the NHL so far this season, recording three points in five games with the Devils.
  • With the losses of Jake McCabe and William Borgen to injuries, the Buffalo Sabres have promoted two players from the Rochester Americans to the taxi squad. The team announced that Jacob Bryson and Casey Fitzgerald will move up and fill the defensive depth void that the team has dealt with over the last few days.

North Division

  • The Edmonton Oilers announced they have recalled defenseman Theodor Lennstrom from the Bakersfield Condors of the AHL and moved him to the taxi squad. The move was required with the injury to defenseman Slater Koekkoek. Lennstrom will need time to quarantine with Bakersfield being in the U.S., requiring the player to cross the border.
  • Ryan Pike of FlamesNation reports that the Calgary Flames have made a salary cap move, sending defenseman Oliver Kylington to the taxi squad and thereby filling up their taxi-squad roster. The 23-year-old has yet to appear in a game for the Flames this season.
  • The Ottawa Senators announced they have recalled a number of players from the taxi squad for Sunday’s game, including goaltender Joey Daccord, defenseman Braydon Coburn and forward Micheal Haley. The team also assigned forward Artem Anisimov to the taxi squad to make room for them and also moved Logan Shaw from the Belleville Senators of the AHL to the taxi squad.

West Division

  • The Minnesota Wild have moved a pair of young players back to the minors. The team announced that defenseman Calen Addison and goalie Dereck Baribeau have been reassigned to AHL Iowa. Addison, one of Minnesota’s top prospects, logged over 18 minutes of ice time on average through his first three NHL games.
  • The Arizona Coyotes announced they have swapped several players from the Tucson Roadrunners of the AHL and the taxi squad. The team has assigned forwards Frederik Gauthier and Kyle Capobianco from the Tucson to the taxi squad. The Coyotes also assigned forwards Hudson Fasching and Michael Chaput to Tucson to replace them. Capobianco has appeared in two games for Arizona this season.
  • The San Jose Sharks announced they have reassigned forward Maxim Letunov and goaltender Josef Korenar to the San Barracuda of the AHL. Neither player has appeared in a Sharks game this season.

Snapshots: Rescheduling, Avalanche, Wild, Thompson

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In a season that has been disrupted by several COVID-19 outbreaks and historically-bad weather in Texas, the NHL schedule maker has been forced to constantly snip and edit things to fit in all 56 games. Today, the league announced that tomorrow’s game between the Chicago Blackhawks and Carolina Hurricanes will be postponed to another date, with the Hurricanes taking on Tampa Bay Saturday night instead. The Lightning and Hurricanes were already set to start a three-game series on Monday, meaning they’ll now face each other in four consecutive games. The Blackhawks-Hurricanes game? It doesn’t have a date yet.

Some more updates from around the league:

  • The Colorado Avalanche have almost everyone available for tomorrow’s outdoor game at Lake Tahoe, including captain Gabriel Landeskog and defenseman Samuel Girard, who were recently on the COVID Protocol Related Absences list. That doesn’t necessarily mean Girard, who was still on the list as of yesterday, will play but he is eligible to. According to Dan Rosen of NHL.com, Cale Makar is still a game-time decision as he continues to deal with an upper-body injury.
  • The Minnesota Wild also welcomed back several familiar faces to practice today, now that the team is down to just Andrew Hammond on the COVID Protocol list. Michael Russo of The Athletic reports that Dakota Mermis, Luke Johnson and Kyle Rau have all been sent to the taxi squad to make room for the returning players, though Calen Addison will currently stay on the active roster.
  • Nate Thompson has been activated from injured reserve by the Winnipeg Jets and he is expected to be in the lineup tonight when the team faces off against the Vancouver Canucks. Thompson has played just four games for the Jets this season after signing a one-year, $750K deal in October. The veteran forward is expected to take the spot of Kristian Vesalainen, who is still looking for his first NHL goal.

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