Kirby Dach Leaves Due To Injury
A potentially major storyline has emerged tonight as Oilers superstar Leon Draisaitl left tonight against Nashville, noted by Ryan Rishaug of TSN. The team has still yet to confirm his status, but he did not return to start the second or third period.
Early in the game Draisaitl was hit into the Predators’ bench. He stayed on his feet, but it caused a hard impact in the vulnerable lower back area. It was a routine check which Calgary native Ozzy Wiesblatt is expected to finish in his fourth line role, but naturally it was met with retaliation from Edmonton.
The 30-year-old returned momentarily, but didn’t seem right, and did not come back again, likely ending his night after just 3:12. Even in the limited time, Draisaitl buried a power play tally. It’s the norm against the Predators, as he has an unbelievable 29 goals in 31 career games against the club in gold.
Post game updates on the superstar will be watched urgently. With 96 points in 64 games, it hardly requires much analysis to speak on Draisaitl’s importance to Edmonton. In a season where things haven’t come easily for the group, he and Connor McDavid are forced to drive even more offense than normal to overcome their 231 goals surrendered; third worse in the league.
Edmonton is back in action Tuesday hosting San Jose. The team is third in the Pacific, likely to make the playoffs but still not where the back-to-back runners up would like to be by mid-March. If Draisaitl has to miss any time, their odds may swing dramatically.
Elsewhere across the league:
- The Montreal Canadiens shared mid-game that Kirby Dach would not return due to an upper-body injury. Dach absorbed a hard hit from Anaheim grinder Jeffrey Viel with an impact concentrated in the shoulder area. The 25-year-old has had to deal with various injuries throughout his Habs tenure, as he underwent knee surgery last year, along with a fractured foot last November. Dach has only managed 31 games in 2025-26, where he’s put up 14 points. A former third overall pick, he’s is still chasing his 2022-23 Canadiens debut, breaking out with 38 points in 58 games. Unfortunately it’s starting to look like Dach won’t flourish as a top six center for the storied franchise, but based on all the health issues, it’s hard to be critical. As long as Dach has avoided another serious injury, he will likely return to the playoffs for the first time since 2019-20 as a Blackhawks rookie.
- Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has returned tonight against Nashville, per the team. The 32-year-old missed last game against St. Louis due to personal reasons, the team falling in overtime without their longest tenured player. Nugent-Hopkins has missed 10 games this year, otherwise posting 50 points in 57 games, a nice improvement from last year’s 49 in total. He has been durable over the past several seasons, as 2025-26 will mark the first time he’s played in under 78 regular season games since 2021-22. Nugent-Hopkins is back on the third line, flanking center Jason Dickinson as Edmonton works to balance their attack.
Montreal Canadiens Sign Dillan Bentley To AHL Deal
- The Laval Rocket, AHL affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens, signed NCAA free agent Dillan Bentley to a two-year, one-way AHL contract that runs through the 2027-28 season. Bentley will join Laval on a tryout for the rest of the 2025-26 campaign. Bentley, 24, joins the pro ranks after a four-year college career at UMass-Lowell. He was an alternate captain for the team this season, scoring 14 goals and 25 points in 33 games. He formerly served as the captain of his junior team in the NAHL. The signing returns the Canadiens to some familiar territory. This isn’t the first time the team’s management group, which has deep roots in the state of Massachusetts, has signed a top player out of Lowell; the Canadiens signed Lowell captain Lucas Condotta as an NCAA free agent in 2022. Condotta now serves as the Rocket’s captain.
Senators Acquire Riley Kidney From Canadiens
The Ottawa Senators completed a minor-league trade with the Montreal Canadiens, acquiring center Riley Kidney in exchange for center Jake Chiasson and goaltender Hunter Shepard per PuckPedia. The move will bolster the Laval Rocket with two AHL veterans ahead of a playoff run, while adding another young forward to the Belleville Senators with 14 games left in the regular season.
Kidney, 23, was a star scorer across four seasons in the QMJHL. He debuted with the Acadie-Bathurst Titan in the 2019-20 season after being drafted with the 11th-overall pick in that year’s QMJHL Entry Draft. Kindey quickly translated to the junior flight and scored five goals and 33 points in 59 games as a rookie. His passing ability stood out early, highlighted by an appearance at the 2019 World U17 Hockey Challenge, where Kidney’s five points in six games ranked above Team Canada teamamtes Mason McTavish and Dylan Guenther.
Kidney moved into his age-18 season with momenutm. He scored nine points in the first nine games of the season – before the QMJHL season was suspended from late-November to mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He scored four points in his second game back from the pause and finished the year with 38 points in 33 games. That was enough to earn convince Montreal to draft Kidney in the 2021 second-round pick. He rewarded that selection by notching 100 points in 66 games of the QMJHL’s return to a full schedule in 2021-22. Kidney repeated that feat in 2022-23, combining for 110 points in 60 games between the Titan and the Gaitneau Olympiques.
Despite high-scoring junior seasons, the nimble passer hasn’t found his scoring touch in the pros just yet. He racked up 37 points in 117 games with Laval between 2023 and 2025, slim enough to earn a demotion to the ECHL’s Trois-Rivieres Lions this season. Kidney has scored 11 goals and 33 points in 46 games with the Lions, one point shy of the team lead. Now, he could find space in the bottom-six of a Belleville squad that has promoted Arthur Kaliyev, Xavier Bourgault, and Stephen Halliday into NHL stints this season.
Laval will add Chiasson and Shepard to round out the lineup following Kidney’s move and Jacob Fowler‘s call-up to the NHL. Chiasson scored one point in 20 AHL games and eight points in 14 ECHL games. Shepard has notched six wins and a .885 save percentage in 15 AHL games, and made 12 saves on 14 shots in a mid-game appearance with Ottawa in January. Shepard should assume the backup role behind Kaapo Kahkonen, though his addition could indicate that Fowler is set for an extended stint at the top level. He stopped 32 of 34 shots in his return to NHL action on Wednesday.
Canadiens Sign Luke Mittelstadt To Entry-Level Deal
The Canadiens announced they’ve signed 23-year-old defender Luke Mittelstadt to a two-year, entry-level contract starting next season. He’ll finish out the year with AHL Laval on a minor-league contract.
The Habs took Mittelstadt in the fifth round of the 2023 draft. He had already been passed over twice and was coming off his freshman season at the University of Minnesota at the time of his selection.
After spending a full four years with the Golden Gophers, the younger brother of Bruins center Casey Mittelstadt will turn pro with the club that drafted him. He was the top name on an absolutely gutted Minnesota defense corps this season, finishing fifth on the team in scoring with a 2-19–21 line in 32 games with a -10 rating. The 5’11” lefty finishes his collegiate career with 11 goals, 80 points, and a +46 rating in 152 games.
He’s had some good seasons as an undersized but adept two-way defender. In a prospect pool as deep as Montreal’s, though, the pathway for him to break through is slight. He doesn’t feature in top-10 or top-15 rankings anywhere, and his long-term NHL future is likely that of a fringe call-up option.
Mittelstadt will hit restricted free agency after the 2027-28 campaign. Montreal now has 29 standard contracts on its books for next year.
Poll: Who Had The Best Deadline In The Atlantic Division?
While it was a slower day than normal, the trade deadline is now behind us. There were still a good number of impactful swings made on deadline day and in the week leading up to it. Over the next week, PHR will be running a series of polls asking which team had the best deadline in each division. Today, we’re starting out with the Atlantic. Here’s a synopsis of all eight teams, sorted by best to worst points percentage in 2025-26:
Tampa Bay Lightning
It was a relatively quiet deadline season for the Bolts. Despite dealing with several injuries this season, the only trade the team made was acquiring Corey Perry from the Los Angeles Kings for a 2028 second-round pick.
Perry has already registered two goals and one fight since returning to Tampa Bay, adding to his 13-goal, 30-point campaign this season. He’s appeared in five of the last six Stanley Cup Finals, losing them all, giving the Lightning a familiar, hungry, and experienced veteran winger in the bottom-six.
Buffalo Sabres
Although they were unable to acquire defenseman Colton Parayko from the St. Louis Blues, the red-hot Sabres were still one of the most active teams on deadline day. In three separate deals, the Sabres acquired Sam Carrick, Tanner Pearson, Luke Schenn, and Logan Stanley for Jacob Bryson, Isak Rosen, a 2026 third-round pick, a conditional 2026 fourth-round pick, Chicago’s 2026 sixth-round pick, a 2026 seventh-round pick, and a 2027 second-round pick.
Outside of Carrick, the other three acquisitions will become unrestricted free agents this summer, unless Buffalo extends them before July 1st. Additionally, even though they parted with five draft selections in the next two drafts, the Sabres still have 10 picks available, with plenty of time to replenish their cupboard. It was a shift from the big-game hunting the Sabres were expected to pursue, but it was a wise strategy to enhance their depth for the upcoming playoff run.
Montreal Canadiens
The Canadiens were arguably the most surprising team on deadline day. Montreal was active on several fronts leading up to the deadline, yet it was one of the few teams that did not make a single trade.
Although it’s defensible that the team didn’t pull the trigger on acquiring a second-line center, given the asking price for many of them, it was surprising that the Canadiens couldn’t find a way to move on from Patrik Laine. During the Olympics, it was reported that Montreal wasn’t expecting Laine back with the team this season, even if he became healthy. The Kings were one of the few teams interested, but the Canadiens will hold onto him until the summer.
Boston Bruins
Like the Canadiens, the Bruins were another quiet team on deadline day. Although they made a few trades, they were only made to build up their AHL squad, the Providence Bruins.
Unlike Montreal, there were very few expectations around Boston to make a move. A few reports linked them to some of the higher-level names available, though the Bruins are only one year removed from being one of the most active sellers at the deadline. Boston likely could have made some additions to reward the team’s performance this year, but they weren’t in a position to give up significant assets.
Detroit Red Wings
Of all the teams in the Atlantic Division, the Red Wings likely had the highest expectations leading up to the deadline. Over the past two years, despite being in a wild-card spot, Detroit effectively stood pat at the trade deadline, leading many to question the team’s commitment to getting back to the postseason.
Connected to most of the market’s top names, the Red Wings arguably landed the best player of any of their divisional opponents. Just before the deadline, Detroit acquired top-four defenseman Justin Faulk from the Blues for prospect Dmitri Buchelnikov, Justin Holl, a 2026 first-round pick, and a 2026 third-round pick. Earlier in the day, the Red Wings traded Elmer Söderblom to the Penguins for the third-round pick that was eventually sent to St. Louis, and acquired veteran winger David Perron from the Senators for a fourth-round pick.
Ottawa Senators
If only the Senators had gotten league-average goaltending for the first part of the regular season. Because of the lackluster play between the pipes, the Senators are on the outside of the playoff conversation, though they do have plenty of time to make up the ground. Still, it made for a complicated deadline strategy.
By the end of the deadline, the only move of consequence Ottawa made was sending Buffalo’s 2026 second-round pick and a 2026 conditional third-round pick to the Los Angeles Kings for Warren Foegele and a Dallas’ conditional 2026 third-round pick. Effectively, Foegele replaces Perron in the lineup after a difficult start to the year with the Kings. Foegele is only one year removed from back-to-back 20-goal campaigns.
Florida Panthers
Nothing stops a juggernaut like injuries. Although they aren’t mathematically eliminated, it’s highly unlikely that the Panthers will have the opportunity to defend their back-to-back Stanley Cup championships this spring.
According to most reports, the Panthers were thought to have been looking to deal some of their pending unrestricted free agents, but only parted ways with defenseman Jeff Petry with the Minnesota Wild. It appears that Florida is more interested in keeping the group together and hopes for better health during the 2026-27 campaign.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Like every other team, the Maple Leafs aren’t mathematically eliminated from the postseason yet, but it is highly unlikely they’ll continue their postseason streak. Given that, Toronto was thought to be listening to nearly every player on the roster to maximize their potential return.
By the end of deadline day, the Maple Leafs had traded Nicolas Roy, Scott Laughton, and Bobby McMann for Colorado’s 2027 first-round pick, Colorado’s 2026 fifth-round pick, Ottawa’s 2026 third-round pick, Columbus’s 2027 second-round pick, and Anaheim’s 2026 fourth-round pick. Toronto still lacks its top two selections this season, unless they finish fifth overall or higher. However, they managed to re-stock some of their draft capital over the next two years.
Of all the teams in the Atlantic Division, which do you think had the best deadline season? Vote below!
Who Had The Best Deadline In The Atlantic Division?
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Buffalo Sabres 54% (282)
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Detroit Red Wings 18% (93)
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Tampa Bay Lightning 11% (60)
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Montreal Canadiens 6% (30)
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Toronto Maple Leafs 5% (28)
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Boston Bruins 3% (14)
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Ottawa Senators 2% (10)
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Florida Panthers 2% (10)
Total votes: 527
Photo courtesy of Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images.
Canadiens’ Cole Caufield Out With Illness
Montreal Canadiens winger Cole Caufield will miss Wednesday night’s game against the Ottawa Senators due to illness. He will be replaced by Alexandre Texier per Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports.
Caufield has scored four goals and six points in his last five games. His absence will be a heavy blow as Montreal steps up to a Atlantic Division matchup. It will also be a major opportunity for Texier, who hasn’t stepped into the lineup since February 26th. He scored six points in his first 11 games with the Canadiens, then went on a run for 10 points in seven games, with the two stints split by a six-game scoring drought.
But Texier has fallen into another lull, with only two points in his last seven games, dating back to January 13th. He could have a prime chance to snap that cold spell as he steps into a top-nine role in Caufield’s absence.
Montreal will rotate Texier with Alex Newhook, Zachary Bolduc, and Josh Anderson on the left-wing. All four have run into hot-and-cold streaks this season, which could put a lot of weight on Nick Suzuki, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Ivan Demidov to carry the scoring.
Montreal will also be relying on rookie goaltender Jacob Fowler after scratching Sam Montembeault. The weakened Canadiens lineup could present a good chance for Ottawa to begin clawing their way up the standings.
Candiens Recall Jacob Fowler
The Canadiens announced that they’ve recalled goaltender Jacob Fowler from AHL Laval. With no corresponding moves or injuries, arguably the top goalie prospect in the world returns to Montreal’s NHL roster to potentially form a three-goalie rotation down the stretch with Jakub Dobes and Sam Montembeault.
Fowler, 21, was a third-round pick in 2023. Five other goalies were taken before him in that class, including another top-five goalie prospect in Detroit’s Trey Augustine, but he’s the first one from the group to have made his NHL debut.
It remains to be seen whether Fowler’s recall is simply to get him a spot start tonight against the Senators or if it’ll lead to a heftier handful of NHL starts down the stretch. The Habs, who’ve gotten inconsistent play from Dobes and Montembeault all year long, first recalled Fowler in early December. After starting him in back-to-back games to open his NHL career, head coach Martin St. Louis committed quite strictly to a nightly three-goalie rotation.
Fowler made 10 starts before being returned to Laval in mid-January, posting a 4-4-2 record with a .902 SV% and 2.62 GAA with one shutout. He ended on a bit of a sour note, allowing four goals on 26 shots against the Sabres, and he only had a .900 mark once in his last five starts. Nonetheless, his 1.8 goals saved above expected over the sample still exceed what Dobes and Montembeault have produced over the entire season, per MoneyPuck, and his raw numbers are preferable as well.
Coming out of the Olympic break, Montreal has moved to essentially anoint Dobes as the starter and Montembeault as the backup, deviating from a rotation. Montembeault has only started two of six since the Olympic break, one coming in the first half of a back-to-back, and has recorded extra-time losses in both with sub-.850 save percentages. Dobes, on the other hand, has won three of four and has been exceptional in those wins, although the loss – allowing six goals on 27 shots (.778 SV%) against the Sharks last week – was a real stinker.
Meanwhile, Fowler has only consistently improved in the minors in his first pro season. The 6’2″ netminder has started seven out of Laval’s last 10 and has a .923 SV% in that span, moving his numbers on the year up to a .916, 2.23 GAA, three shutouts, and a 19-7-2 record in 27 appearances.
Fowler’s immediate transition to being a top-level AHL starter comes after two dominant seasons at Boston College. He compiled a .932 SV% and 1.90 GAA in 74 games as the Eagles’ starter, being named a Hockey East First Team All-Star on both occasions and winning the Mike Richter Award for the NCAA’s top collegiate goalie as a sophomore.
Canadiens Were “In The Mix” Late On Nazem Kadri
From the moment the Avalanche expressed interest in bringing Nazem Kadri back into the fold, they became the frontrunner to land him from the Flames, although that didn’t stop other teams from pursuing the top-six pivot. Part of why the initial Kadri to Colorado report didn’t come out until an hour after the deadline passed was because of how aggressively the Canadiens were pushing to land him until ultimately backing out with less than a couple of hours to go, The Athletic’s Peter Baugh reports.
Montreal’s interest in Kadri isn’t a new storyline. It was well-documented that they were in the market for a top-six forward (although preferably a winger), but they were still limited in how many assets they were willing to give up at this early stage of their contention window. The Flames and Habs also had talks surrounding Blake Coleman throughout the year, and Montreal was also linked to Calgary defender Zach Whitecloud last week, although none of those deals ended up getting done.
Instead, the Habs were silent last week. General manager Kent Hughes told reporters Friday after the deadline passed that they spent all their time that morning and afternoon on a “significant deal” and didn’t devote their attention anywhere else (via Arpon Basu of The Athletic). Given Baugh’s report, it stands to reason that the potential pickup was Kadri.
A first-round pick, a second-round pick, a B-tier prospect in Max Curran, and a salary ended up going back Calgary’s way – and that was with the Flames retaining cash, which they wouldn’t have had to do if they took Patrik Laine off Montreal’s hands in a Kadri deal. It was a matchable price, but evidently one Hughes determined Montreal wasn’t willing to exceed before making a more serious playoff challenge with their existing core.
The Habs will instead roll into what they hope will be a second consecutive playoff berth with a top-six forward group that, as currently constructed, has three players aged 22 or younger and no one over the age of 26. Montreal only has three forwards over the age of 30 – Josh Anderson, Phillip Danault, and Brendan Gallagher – and they’re all on a line together.
Canadiens Linked To Zach Whitecloud
The Canadiens have held discussions with the Flames around acquiring defenseman Zach Whitecloud from Calgary, Pierre LeBrun of TSN said on Thursday’s “Insider Trading.” He’s one name in a larger push from the Habs to add a right-shot rearguard for their playoff push, LeBrun said.
It would be Whitecloud’s second trade in a matter of weeks. A career-long Golden Knight, Vegas sent him to the Flames in January’s Rasmus Andersson deal, largely as a cap casualty to permit them to make more additions closer to the deadline. Vegas achieved that goal and was able to pick up Cole Smith and Nic Dowd this week to augment their forward depth without moving out a contract or having retained salary involved.
He wouldn’t be a rental for the Habs, either. He’s got two more years left on his deal at a $2.75MM cap hit. That’s strong value for the high-end bottom-pairing role he played in Vegas, but he’s been exceptional in a short sample for the Flames while essentially operating as their top defender now without Andersson or MacKenzie Weegar. He’s averaged over 23 minutes per game, a sharp rise from the 17-to-19 he routinely saw in Nevada, and has posted four assists with an even rating while controlling 54.9% of shot attempts at 5-on-5.
Whitecloud wouldn’t be slotting into a top-four role in Montreal – Kaiden Guhle (on his off side) and Noah Dobson have that covered – but he could be an upgrade over current #3 righty Alexandre Carrier, who’s having an underwhelming season. There’s also the opportunity, by augmenting their right-shot depth, to ice lefties Guhle, Lane Hutson, and Mike Matheson on three different pairings and sending Jayden Struble to the press box.
As for what the return might look like, the Habs have just $1.49MM in cap space and can’t take Whitecloud on outright without Calgary retaining salary, something they’re not keen on doing to keep their retention slots open for higher-priced targets. Herb Zurkowsky of the Montreal Gazette earlier this week said that the Flames have an eye on the Habs’ Arber Xhekaj.
He’s decisively Montreal’s #7 defender and has just two points in 51 games this season while averaging under 12 minutes per night, but his 6’4″, 240-lb frame and physical style have always generated intrigue. He carries a $1.3MM cap hit, and the Habs may not be too keen on qualifying him at that price, given how little he’s been used, so moving him out would give them just enough cap flexibility to take on Whitecloud but wouldn’t allow them to make any other moves without shipping out more salary.
Kings Circling Back On Patrik Laine
The Kings were reported to have a degree of interest in Canadiens winger Patrik Laine last month after losing Kevin Fiala to a season-ending leg injury at the Olympics. Those talks quickly fizzled out, but after another rash of injuries in L.A., they’ve demonstrated renewed interest in the former 40-goal scorer, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports.
As things stand, the Kings’ injury list has effectively derailed their chances of making the playoffs, even after swinging a trade for Artemi Panarin last month. One of their better scoring options, Andrei Kuzmenko, had surgery to repair a torn meniscus last weekend and is effectively done for the regular season. They also recently lost Joel Armia to injured reserve and are now dealing with an upper-body injury to Quinton Byfield.
That’s a third of the Kings’ regular forwards unavailable, not including Trevor Moore, who’s currently dealing with an illness. To no surprise, they’re 1-3-0 coming out of the break while only averaging 2.25 goals per game. They fired head coach Jim Hiller on Sunday and promoted associate coach D.J. Smith as the interim head coach to finish out the year, but lost 4-2 to the Avalanche in their first game under Smith last night.
As things stand, the Kings are only four points out of a playoff spot with a game in hand, but have three teams – the Predators, Sharks, and Oilers – to leapfrog in that order – to get back into the picture. The crowded field leaves them with a 27.7% chance of making the playoffs at this stage, per MoneyPuck.
Scoring isn’t just a recent problem for the Kings, though. L.A.’s offense has clicked at just 2.52 goals per game, fourth-worst in the league. Their 16.8% success rate on the power play isn’t much better at 26th out of 32 teams. Panarin has yet to score since his acquisition, but does have three assists in four games.
Still, the situation is untenable with Fiala and Kuzmenko now out long-term. That’s led general manager Ken Holland to consider a reclamation hail-mary project like Laine, who will carry little to no acquisition cost thanks to his exorbitant $8.7MM cap hit destroying most of his trade value. The Habs, in desperate need of cap flexibility to augment their roster at the trade deadline, have been trying to move him for weeks to no avail. He hasn’t played since late October due to core muscle surgery, but has been practicing in a non-contact jersey since January, so he’s on the verge of a return and could be simply held out of the lineup for trade protection at this point.
Laine was a non-factor to start the year with one assist and a -3 rating in five games. He was nonetheless an effective secondary scoring presence in a more limited role in Montreal last season despite missing nearly 30 games with a left knee sprain. He had 20 goals and 33 points in 52 games for the Habs last year. That works out to a 0.38 goals per game figure that would currently lead the Kings.
If healthy, the pending free agent could get a long leash in the Kings’ top nine and feature on their top power-play in an effort to give them enough offense to eke out a heater over the last few weeks.