Toronto’s John Tavares Stretchered Off Ice In Game One
May 21: Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe told reporters including Chris Johnston of Sportsnet after the game that Tavares is “conscious and communicating well” but will spend the night in hospital for further testing. An update came from the team in the morning when the veteran forward was discharged from hospital:
Toronto Maple Leafs captain John Tavares has been discharged from the hospital this morning. He was thoroughly examined and assessed by the neursurgical team at St. Michael’s Hospital and the club’s medical director. He was kept overnight for observation and is now resting at home under the care and supervision of team physicians. Tavares will be out indefinitely.
May 20: The long-awaited postseason reunion of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens got off to a start that no one hoped to see. Maple Leafs captain John Tavares was forced from Game One on Thursday night just over ten minutes into the game following a serious head injury. Tavares required the use of a stretcher to leave the ice. He has been taken to a local hospital. There has been no further update as to his condition.
Tavares’ injury, while horrific, was completely unintentional. The Leafs star was checked by Montreal Canadiens defenseman Ben Chiarot while in transition. Montreal’s Corey Perry, following the play at full speed, skated by Tavares just as he fell to the ice. Perry’s knee struck Tavares directly in the head, launching the Hab into the air and knocking the Leaf to the ice. Toronto’s medical staff attempted to help Tavares from his prone position up to his knees, but he could not maintain his balance and fell back to the ice in a scary display of the immediate aftermath of a violent collision. The decision was made to bring the stretcher out in order to get Tavares off the ice. The captain was able to signal with a thumbs up as he exited, but this will not eliminate the fear and concern surrounding his condition.
Tavares, 30, is unlikely to return to the ice any time soon for the Maple Leafs, if at all this postseason following what was obviously a major head injury. It is a huge loss for the team, both on the ice and in the locker room. Tavares played in all 56 games for the Leafs this season, recording 50 points along the way. The anchor of the Leafs’ second line and a key piece of the top power play unit, Tavares was third on the team in scoring and second in assists. He is also Toronto’s top face-off man, enjoying a second consecutive season with career-best success at the dot with a 55.3% FOW. Tavares, of course, is also a locker room presence and an important part of the Leafs’ leadership group. Toronto will have to regroup and refocus in order to make sure that they don’t let Tavares’ loss, no matter how shocking it was to watch, cost them their first-round series.
Everyone at PHR wishes Tavares and his family the best during this frightening time.
KHL Notes: Demchenko, Weal, Kampfer
The Montreal Canadiens won’t be bringing back Vasili Demchenko next season, as the minor league goaltender has decided to return to Russia. Demchenko signed a new one-year contract with Avangard Omsk, meaning his North American sojourn lasted all of one year.
Signed to a one-year two-way contract in April of 2020, the 27-year-old ended up playing just four games at the AHL level, posting a .905 save percentage with the Laval Rocket. He was recalled to the taxi squad for just one day earlier this month and was ticketed for unrestricted free agency this summer.
- Another Canadiens player likely headed to the KHL is Jordan Weal, as Eric Engels of Sportsnet reports that the minor league forward has signed a one-year deal with Ak Bars Kazan in the KHL. Weal, who actually played in 49 games for the Canadiens last season and has more than 200 games played at the NHL level, spent the entire 2020-21 campaign in the minor leagues. In 34 games for the Rocket, he registered 24 points.
- Weal will likely be joined by Steven Kampfer, according to Engels and a report from Sport-Express in Russia. Kampfer has played in 20 games for the Boston Bruins this season but is also a pending unrestricted free agent. The 32-year-old defenseman has 39 points in 231 career games.
Minor Transactions: 05/18/21
With the playoffs underway for almost everyone, the taxi squad shuffle has ended. The unique season that saw more daily transactions than ever before is coming to an end, hopefully never to return. Still, there are going to be some moves from teams preparing for their first-round matchups, or players signing overseas. We’ll keep track of the notable minor moves right here.
- The Washington Capitals have recalled Connor McMichael, Brett Leason, Paul Ladue, and Alexander Alexeyev from the AHL, though the group won’t be traveling to Boston with the active roster. McMichael especially has a lot of excitement surrounding him after scoring 27 points in 33 games during his first professional season at the AHL. The 20-year-old was the 25th overall pick in 2019 and should compete for a spot on the Capitals roster next season, even if he doesn’t get into any playoff matches this spring.
- The Pittsburgh Penguins recalled some “Black Aces” of their own, bringing Anthony Angello, Kasper Bjorkqvist, Drew O’Connor, and Pierre-Olivier Joseph up from the AHL. Joseph, 21, played 16 games for Pittsburgh earlier this season and showed off his incredible potential, recording five points in the process and helping the team stay above water while nearly their entire defense corps was injured.
- The Montreal Canadiens have recalled Carey Price and Brendan Gallagher from their short conditioning stint, bringing them back from the AHL along with Xavier Ouellet. The Canadiens start their series against the Maple Leafs on Thursday night, with Gallagher expected to play in his first NHL game since April 5.
- The Nashville Predators have recalled Philip Tomasino from the Chicago Wolves, but he will report to the non-game group for the time being. The top prospect led the Wolves in goals this season and scored 32 points in 29 games. Just 19, he took advantage of the fact that the OHL didn’t play this season and showed what he could do at the professional level.
Further transactions will be added throughout the day.
Shea Weber Expected To Rejoin Team For Practice Later In The Week
- Canadiens defenseman Shea Weber did not participate in practice today but instead skated on his own, relays TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie (Twitter link). The veteran is dealing with an upper-body injury that’s believed to be a thumb issue but Dominique Ducharme expressed optimism that Weber will be able to rejoin the team later in the week and suit up for Thursday’s opener against Toronto.
Jonathan Drouin Not Expected To Return During The Playoffs
While the Canadiens will be getting some key veterans back for the postseason in defenseman Shea Weber, winger Brendan Gallagher, goalie Carey Price, and center Phillip Danault, it does not appear they will be getting winger Jonathan Drouin back in their lineup. Sportsnet’s Eric Engels reports (Twitter link) that Drouin is not expected to return for the playoffs as things currently stand.
The 26-year-old took a leave of absence in late April after missing several games to what was called an illness and the team asked for his privacy to be respected at that time. Montreal then placed Drouin on LTIR but with the retroactive placement, enough time has elapsed for him to be activated for their series opener against Toronto but instead that won’t be the case.
Drouin had a tough season offensively; while he managed to put up 21 assists in 44 games which is the best assist per game ratio of his career, his two goals made him a lynchpin for criticism, especially with a $5.5MM contract. Nevertheless, he still would have been an interesting wild card addition to Montreal’s lineup given that he tied for the team lead in scoring in the bubble last summer. Instead, the focus will now shift to him hopefully being able to return for next season.
Brian Leetch Resigns From Hockey Ops Role With Rangers
At least one member of the New York Rangers front office is seemingly not happy with all of the major changes made in the past two weeks. The New York Post’s Larry Brooks reports that Hall of Famer Brian Leetch has resigned from his advisor role with the hockey operations department in New York. The move comes on the heels of President John Davidson, GM Jeff Gorton, and head coach David Quinn and his staff all being fired in recent days.
Leetch, like Drury, is a famous former Ranger, although the two never played together. Leetch’s storied NHL career began with 17 years manning the blue line for the club before final short stops in Toronto and Boston. Leetch retired in 2006, but re-entered the scene in 2017 by taking this role with New York. He has spent the past four seasons working with the Rangers’ prospects in a development role while consulting on the NHL Draft and other elements of hockey ops.
However, after spending that time working closely with several names who are now gone, Leetch seems to have decided to move on as well. He may not be the last either. Many have criticized the Rangers for removing their front office leadership and coaching staff, many of whom had not spent much time in those roles, following a season in which the team finished with the best record of any non-playoff team while facing an all-divisional schedule against arguably the deepest and most talented division in the East. It stands to reason that there are some within the organization who agree with that sentiment, and it feels as though Leetch is among them.
Montreal Canadiens Agree To Terms With Rafael Harvey-Pinard
The Montreal Canadiens may be focused on a playoff matchup with one of their rivals, but that doesn’t mean the front office isn’t working on the future. Rafael Harvey-Pinard has agreed to terms on a two-year entry-level contract. The deal kicks in next season and carries an average annual value of $825K.
Harvey-Pinard, 22, was the Canadiens’ seventh-round choice in 2019, 201st overall. He spent this season with the Laval Rocket of the AHL on a minor league contract and showed he was more than ready for the challenge of a professional season. In 32 games, the 5’9″ winger registered 19 points and didn’t receive a single penalty minute.
Once a star at the QMJHL level, Harvey-Pinard won the Memorial Cup with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in 2019, scoring 27 points in 20 playoff games along the way. That kind of offensive dominance will be difficult to reproduce at the professional level, but the Canadiens obviously believed he was worth an NHL contract slot. Had Harvey-Pinard not signed his entry-level deal by the end of the month, he would have become an unrestricted free agent.
Montreal’s Molson, Bergevin Have Been Talking About Future
There is still one more year remaining on the contract of Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin, but that hasn’t stopped owner Geoff Molson from beginning discussions on what the future will look like and whether Bergevin will be a part of it.
During Saturday’s Headlines segment on Hockey Night in Canada, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said the owner and GM have sat down already and begun looking at the team’s future.
“Marc Bergevin and the owner Geoff Molson have been kind of talking about the future; how the owner feels, how the general manager feels, if there is an extension what it could potentially look like. So we’ll see where those decisions go and where those conversations go, but I think they are underway about the GM’s future with the Canadiens.”
Bergevin’s nine-year tenure in Montreal has had its ups and downs, including a rebuild in the last couple of years, which has had some success as their young players have, for the most part, developed well. Bergevin added a number of veteran players during the offseason in order to post a playoff caliber team, including adding Tyler Toffoli, Josh Anderson, Jake Allen and Joel Edmundson, but Bergevin did fire head coach Claude Julien midseason with pressure mounting for the team to make a playoff run, which they have done this year under interim coach Dominique Ducharme.
Bergevin, who signed his present contract in November of 2015, may have to wait until after the postseason to see whether he will get an extension. The Canadiens are currently the fourth seed in the North Division and are likely going to play the top-seeded Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round.
Department Of Player Safety Hands Out Three Fines
The Department of Player Safety has been busy since Saturday’s slate of games. The DoPS has already announced a hearing for Tampa Bay Lightning forward Pat Maroon, but it was also busy handing out fines as well. Two of the three fines came from the Tampa Bay-Florida showdown, including fines to Florida Panthers defensemen MacKenzie Weegar and Brandon Montour as well as a fine to Montreal Canadiens’ Joel Edmundson.
Montour received a $5,000 fine, the maximum allowable under the CBA, for spearing Maroon. The incident with Maroon occurred with six minutes remaining in the game, stirring up quite a fight between the two. Weegar also received a $5,000 fine for high-sticking Tampa Bay’s Mathieu Joseph. The infraction happened at the same time as the Maroon/Weegar incident. Weegar did not receive a penalty.
The third fine went to Edmundson, who received a $1,000 fine for a dangerous trip on Toronto’s John Tavares. The incident occurred late in the second period of the game between Montreal and Toronto. Tavares was not injured on the play. There was no penalty on the play.
Phillip Danault Diagnosed With A Concussion
- Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme told reporters today, including Sportsnet’s Eric Engels (Twitter link), that center Phillip Danault has been diagnosed with a concussion. He had previously been listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury. He had already been ruled out for tonight’s game against Toronto but with that diagnosis, he will likely miss the final two games against Edmonton as well.