Injury Notes: Dach, Petry, Senators
The Montreal Canadiens announced center Kirby Dach will not play in tonight’s game. The Canadiens are taking on the Philadelphia Flyers, in a game that will see prospect Sean Farrell make his NHL debut and goaltender Cayden Primeau will make his first start of the season. However, the team that has dealt with a large number of injuries all season will have yet another impact player out of the lineup. Dach has been ruled out with an upper-body injury.
The 22-year-old center is having a breakout campaign, though he did miss about a month of action with a lower-body injury recently. In his first season with the Canadiens, Dach has scored 14 goals and 38 points in 58 games. He left last night’s game early after being hit from behind while trying to push the puck over the goal line in overtime. He was called off the ice by the concussion spotter at that time and did not return to the game.
- Jeff Petry is ready to return to his team’s lineup, according to Michelle Crechiolo of Pens Inside Scoop. The veteran defenseman missed the team’s past five games with an upper-body injury. The 35 year old has scored five goals and 26 points in 52 games this season, his first in Pittsburgh. His return will help bolster a depleted blue line that is without Marcus Pettersson and Dmitry Kulikov. The Penguins need the support, as they are in the final wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference and need to hold off the Florida Panthers if they want to play in the postseason.
- Bruce Garrioch of The Ottawa Sun reports some positive and negative injury news for the Ottawa Senators. Cam Talbot is ready to return to the lineup for the first time since March 4 when he injured his oblique. However, the team’s top defenseman Thomas Chabot‘s status is questionable. He left the team’s most recent game after jamming his wrist and though he returned to the bench he was not able to return to the ice. The team won’t give an official update until tomorrow.
Montreal Canadiens Recall Cayden Primeau
The Montreal Canadiens announced they have called up goaltender Cayden Primeau. The 23 year old was a seventh-round pick of the Canadiens in 2017, and has split time between the NHL and AHL for the past four seasons after a stellar college career at Northeastern.
Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports added Primeau will join the team in Philadelphia tomorrow and should get the start against the Flyers. It will be Primeau’s second NHL game of this season, though he has played 19 games with the Canadiens to this point in his career.
Primeau has played 35 games for the Laval Rocket in the AHL this season, posting a 3.13 GAA and a .906 SV% along with a 14-14-6 record. In his previous NHL stints, Primeau has put up a 3-10-2 record with a GAA of 4.19 and a .873 SV%, mostly behind Canadiens teams that were struggling mightily.
This recall comes at an odd time as the Canadiens are playing tonight with Jake Allen starting and Sam Montembeault backing him up. Both are healthy, which would mean Primeau is not being called up on an emergency basis, but is a standard recall.
The Canadiens must just want to get a look at their prospect late in the season. They are currently 28th overall in the NHL standings with ten games to play. Now is the time to give a few young players a chance to show what they can do at the highest level.
Snapshots: Three Stars, Scott, Potential GMs/Coaches
The NHL announced its Three Stars of the Week for March 20 through March 26, with Viktor Arvidsson of the Los Angeles Kings earning the top spot. Arvidsson led the league with five goals and two assists, scoring in each of the three games he played. His performance helped the Kings extend their point streak to a franchise-record 12 games as they rocket up the Pacific Division standings.
Montreal Canadiens center Nick Suzuki was named the Second Star after tallying eight points in three games. Suzuki’s four-point effort in an 8-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets was his first career four-point outing. The Third Star went to Minnesota Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson, who posted a 2-0-0 record, a 0.96 goals-against average, and a .972 save percentage. Gustavsson’s 47-save performance in a 2-1 win of the New Jersey Devils was a career-high. The Wild have earned points in 12 of Gustavsson’s past 13 starts dating back to February 11. His excellence in goal for the Wild has helped them continue to climb the Central Division standings without the services of Kirill Kaprizov.
More from around the league this morning:
- Dave Scott, the chairman and former CEO of the Philadelphia Flyers’ ownership group, Comcast-Spectacor, will be retiring from his positive effective April 17th. Comcast-Spectacor announced the news Monday, ending Scott’s 30-year time at the helm of Philadelphia’s ownership. Dan Hilferty, who was recently appointed as CEO of the company, will take over as chairman and assume both of Scott’s former roles, per Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli.
- ESPN’s Emily Kaplan compiled a list of the top candidates for potential coaching and general manager vacancies, with a lot of familiar names near the tops of both lists. Former Florida Panthers interim head coach Andrew Brunette, Toronto Maple Leafs assistant Spencer Carbery, and Seattle Kraken assistant Jay Leach made Kaplan’s “ready right now” tier for coaching vacancies, while former Sabres general manager Jason Botterill, Flyers interim GM Daniel Briere, and Lightning assistant GM Mathieu Darche made the “ready right now” tier for GM vacancies.
Montreal Canadiens Sign Sean Farrell
After speculation yesterday that a deal would be coming soon, the Montreal Canadiens have made it official, announcing that they have signed forward Sean Farrell to a 3-year, entry-level contract. At this time, the financial details of the deal are unknown, but Farrell will be joining the team on their trip to play the Buffalo Sabres and Philadelphia Flyers.
A fourth-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, Farrell easily transitioned from the USHL to the NCAA. After his draft year, Farrel scored 101 points in 53 games played for the USHL Chicago Steel. As he started his career at Harvard University for the 2021-22 season, Farrell once again scored over a point per game, putting up 28 points in 24 contests. This year, on a very good Harvard team, the young forward scored 20 goals and 33 assists in only 34 games played.
On March 24th, Harvard took on the Big Ten’s Ohio State University in the first round of the NCAA DI Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament, losing by a final score of 8-1. In the contest, Farrell was able to put up one point, assisting on the team’s lone goal for the night. Farrell will now join up with a struggling Canadiens team, likely playing in their final nine games of this season.
College Notes: Farrell, Boston University, Minnesota, Gibson
John Buccigross of ESPN reports Sean Farrell is going to sign with the Montreal Canadiens in the next few days. The skilled left-winger was a fourth-round draft pick of the Canadiens in 2020, and could add some scoring punch to a struggling offence in the near future.
The 21 year old just wrapped up his second college season and it was an impressive showing. Though his Harvard squad bowed out rather meekly in a 8-1 drubbing at the hands of Ohio State, Farrell was phenomenal all season. He had an assist in that NCAA Regional Semi-Final, and it gave him 53 points in 34 games, a big improvement from his 28 points in 24 games in 2021-22.
Farrell is a smart player with incredible vision, who had 33 assists in 34 games this season. Add in his 20 goals and he has the second best points-per-game average in college hockey, trailing only Adam Fantilli of Michigan.
Though it is just his second actual college season, it counted as Farell’s junior campaign because the 2020-21 counted as his freshman season even though Harvard did not play due to Covid restrictions. So, Farrell could choose to return for one more season and then become a free agent in August of 2024, but it sounds like we will not get that far as Buccigross suggests the Canadiens could get his name on an entry-level contract soon.
- Also in college hockey, Boston University punched its ticket to the Frozen Four national semi-final with a 2-1 win over Cornell. Wilmer Skoog scored his 16th goal of the season to give BU a second period lead and Ethan Phillips scored the game’s winning goal in the third period on his own rebound. Dalton Bancroft scored in the final minute for Cornell, but BU was able to hold them off and advance to the Frozen Four in Tampa Bay on April 6.
- BU will face Minnesota who also advanced to the Frozen Four today. Minnesota was led by Logan Cooley, the Arizona Coyotes third overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, who had a goal and an assist in a 4-1 win over St. Cloud State. Jackson Lacombe, an Anaheim Ducks prospect also had a goal and an assist, as did undrafted Jaxon Nelson who sealed the game with an empty net goal.
- Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic reports one of Farrell’s teammates is close to signing as well. Goaltender Mitchell Gibson was drafted by the Washington Capitals in the fourth round of the 2018 NHL Draft and just saw his Harvard hockey career come to a close. The 23 year old’s final NCAA game was not flattering as he allowed seven goals before being pulled in that blowout loss, but he had a stellar college career. He finished this season with a 2.25 GAA and a .919 SV% in 27 games. He would add some youth to the Capitals goaltending pipeline as they have been relying on 27 year old goalies Zach Fucale and Hunter Shepard at the AHL level.
Jordan Harris Returns From Lower-Body Injury
- Canadiens defenseman Jordan Harris confirmed to reporters including Arpon Basu of The Athletic (Twitter link) that he will return to the lineup tonight against Columbus. The 22-year-old has missed the last two weeks with a lower-body injury. Harris has 15 points in 60 games in his rookie campaign while averaging 18:34 per contest on a young Montreal back end. He’ll take the place of Chris Wideman in the lineup.
A.J. Greer Suspended One Game
3:45 PM: The NHL Department of Player Safety has suspended Greer for one game after his hearing. This suspension means Greer will miss Boston’s contest tomorrow against the Tampa Bay Lightning,
10:00 AM: Boston Bruins forward A.J. Greer is facing a potential suspension, as a hearing with the NHL’s Department of Player Safety is scheduled today for a cross-check on Montreal Canadiens forward Mike Hoffman during Thursday night’s game.
The incident occurred late in the first period and resulted in a five-minute major penalty and game misconduct for Greer. He approached Hoffman as the two teams were lining up for a faceoff, delivering a cross-check directly to Hoffman’s face.
Greer has been an unexpected story this season, becoming a full-time NHLer for the first time on one of the best teams in league history. The 26-year-old winger has played in a career-high 52 games this season for the Bruins after signing a deal in free agency, recording five goals, six assists, and a team-high 85 penalty minutes in a fourth-line role.
Hoffman missed most of the second period to receive care but did return to the game. If suspended, it will be the first supplemental discipline of Greer’s NHL career.
Josh Anderson Out For Season With Ankle Sprain
The Montreal Canadiens announced late Thursday night that forward Josh Anderson will miss the remainder of the season due to a high ankle sprain.
Canadiens VP of Hockey Communications, Chantal Machabee, adds that Anderson will not receive surgery. Anderson suffered the injury late in the team’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday after Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev hit Anderson into an empty net, resulting in his right foot colliding with the post. He did not play in yesterday’s game against the Boston Bruins with what was deemed a lower-body injury, with the official announcement on his status coming postgame.
The 28-year-old winger had been one of three Canadiens players to hit 20 goals this season, including the injured Cole Caufield. He finishes his season with 21 goals and 11 assists in 69 games.
Anderson’s injury adds to a well-documented laundry list of absent Canadiens players, with Montreal’s injuries over the past two seasons taking a significant toll on the team. He joins Caufield, Christian Dvorak, Joel Armia, Juraj Slafkovsky, Paul Byron, and Sean Monahan on the list of injured Montreal forwards.
As a silver lining, it does mean more ice time for young players who have done well this season, including Rafael Harvey-Pinard, Jesse Ylonen, and potentially current Harvard standout Sean Farrell, who’s expected to sign his entry-level contract with the team after Harvard’s run in the NCAA Men’s Hockey Tournament concludes.
Kaiden Guhle Out For The Season
- Following their victory last night over Tampa Bay, the Canadiens announced that defenseman Kaiden Guhle will miss the remainder of the regular season due to a high ankle sprain. Despite dealing with injuries off and on, it was still a quality rookie campaign for the 21-year-old who had 18 points in 44 games while averaging over 20 minutes a night on a young Montreal back end. The team also noted that surgery will not be required.
Injury Updates On Jake Evans, Jesse Ylonen
- In some rare positive injury news for the Montreal Canadiens this season, Jake Evans has returned to practice in a full-contact jersey, while Jesse Ylonen has returned to practice after missing the team’s last game with an illness, per TVA’s Renaud Lavoie. Ylonen hasn’t looked out of place in his first extended NHL look this season, recording five goals and 12 points in 29 games. Evans is nearing a return after missing over two months with a lower-body injury.