Devils Assign Nico Daws And Tyler Wotherspoon To AHL
The Devils were active at the trade deadline when it came to goaltenders, picking up Jake Allen from Montreal and Kaapo Kahkonen from San Jose. However, they kept Nico Daws up in New Jersey as well. They’ve now decided that’s not the best course of action as the team announced today that Daws along with defenseman Tyler Wotherspoon have been assigned to AHL Utica.
Daws started the year on season-opening injured reserve and was activated in early December. Just weeks later, he was up with New Jersey and, aside from the holiday roster freeze, has been with the Devils since then.
Early on, the 23-year-old did well, posting a .912 SV% in his first dozen appearances, well above the team average of .894. However, Daws has struggled in recent weeks with that mark dropping all the way down to .859, resulting in this move. On the season, he has a 3.15 GAA and a .894 SV%.
Now, he’ll split time with Akira Schmid with the Comets, giving them a leg up in their battle for a playoff spot in the North Division. Daws was eligible to return to Utica as he was papered down before the trade deadline with New Jersey using one of their four post-deadline recalls to bring him back up. Barring an injury to Allen or Kahkonen, recalling Daws later on would burn another one of those allowable recalls.
As for Wotherspoon, he was recalled back on Thursday, his first NHL promotion of the season. His recall was on an emergency basis so he didn’t count against the limit of four. However, the 31-year-old didn’t see any game action. Wotherspoon has 19 points in 54 games with the Comets so far this season.
Wayne Simmonds Confirms Retirement
March 18: Simmonds has officially announced his retirement and will sign a one-day contract with the Flyers, per a team release. He’ll sign the contract and be honored by the team on April 13, the second-to-last home game of Philadelphia’s season.
Jan. 26: Free agent winger Wayne Simmonds told Joshua Clipperton of The Canadian Press on Friday that he won’t continue his 15-season NHL career. The 35-year-old has yet to file retirement paperwork with the league but confirmed he will not attempt a comeback.
Simmonds last suited up in 2022-23, making 18 appearances with the Maple Leafs. The Scarborough, Ontario native reached UFA status after completing a two-year, $1.8MM extension signed with Toronto in June 2021.
He played for six NHL clubs during his career. The first of those was the Kings, who selected him with the final pick of the second round in the 2007 draft from the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack after racking up 49 points and 112 PIMs in 66 games.
Simmonds spent the following season back in junior hockey, breaking out for his first point-per-game campaign and winning gold with Canada at the 2008 World Junior Championship. That was enough of a development jump for the Kings, who named Simmonds to their opening-night roster in 2008-09.
The Kings struggled that season, finishing three games below .500 and scoring only 2.46 goals per game, but Simmonds’ rookie performance was promising. He didn’t earn Calder Trophy consideration, but he played in all 82 games while posting 23 points in a bottom-six role.
His sophomore season wasn’t his defining campaign, but it was a large step forward. The Kings offense went from 28th to seventh in 2009-10, and Simmonds’ 16 goals and 40 points (along with 116 PIMs) helped kickstart the jump. He finished with a team-high +22 rating, too, earning him a handful of Selke Trophy votes.
He took a small step back in the third and final season of his entry-level contract, though, seeing his goal and point output drop to 14 and 30, respectively. With the Kings exiting their late 2000s rebuild and looking to build a more veteran core around Anže Kopitar and Drew Doughty, they decided to cut bait with Simmonds and ship him, along with center prospect Brayden Schenn, to the Flyers in the 2011 offseason in exchange for established top-six threat Mike Richards.
The trade worked out well for the Kings, who won two Stanley Cups over the next three seasons with Richards anchoring their second line. It also worked out quite well for Simmonds, who scored 28 goals in his first season with Philadelphia and spent parts of eight years in the City of Brotherly Love.
With the Flyers, Simmonds became one of the most visible power forwards in the league, inking a six-year, $23.85MM extension within two years of the trade and eventually eclipsing the 30-goal mark twice. He racked up 203 goals, 175 assists and 378 points over his 584 games for the Flyers, consistently logging top-six minutes and serving an important leadership role, as evidenced by his Mark Messier Leadership Award win in his final season with the team.
As the extension wrapped up, though, it was clear Simmonds was in an early decline. His totals had steadily dropped since his 32-goal, 60-point season in 2015-16, and the Flyers decided to part ways with the fan-favorite near the 2019 trade deadline. They dealt him to the Predators, who were two years removed from a Stanley Cup Final appearance, but his play outside of Philadelphia stagnated further. He recorded one goal and three points in 17 games with Nashville after the trade and played in two of six games during their first-round loss to the Stars.
Simmonds spent the following four seasons playing for the Devils, Sabres and Maple Leafs in a reduced role, seeing his ice time dip below 10 minutes per game by the 2021-22 season. He was waived twice over the course of the 2022-23 campaign, recording two assists in 18 games to close out his career.
He ends his time in the NHL with 263 goals, 263 assists and 526 points, along with 1,313 PIMs, over the course of 1,037 games. He also added 22 points in 53 career playoff games.
PHR extends its best wishes to Simmonds in his post-hockey career and congratulations him on a lengthy and impactful NHL stint.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Devils Return Tyler Wotherspoon, Max Willman To AHL
March 17: Both Willman and Wotherspoon were returned to AHL Utica after yesterday’s loss to the Coyotes, per CapFriendly. The two depth pieces did not play during their call-ups, as they were healthy scratches against Arizona and the Dallas Stars on Thursday.
March 13: In light of some injuries over the last several days, the New Jersey Devils were put in a position to call up a few players from their AHL affiliate. Coming from the Utica Comets, the team has recalled defenseman Tyler Wotherspoon and forward Maxwell Willman.
Being the veteran of the two call-ups, Wotherspoon has less playing experience at the NHL level as compared to Willman. After being drafted 57th overall by the Calgary Flames in the 2011 NHL Draft, Wotherspoon has only managed 30 games at the NHL level, tallying three assists in total.
In the American Hockey League, Wotherspoon has gained much more experience, playing in a total of 605 regular season games between the Flames, Flyers, and Devils organization. Now in a formal leadership role during the twilight years of his career, Wotherspoon has scored 37 goals and 209 points throughout his minor league career.
Willman is the only one of the two to have played with New Jersey this season, putting together a two-point season over 13 games up to this point. In his first year with the Devils organization, Willman was already a veteran of 50 NHL games over the last two seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers.
Outside of New Jersey, Willman has been a positive addition to the Comets this year, scoring 11 goals and 21 points in 31 games already. Currently sitting five points back of a playoff position in the AHL’s North Division, Utica will have to let go of their seventh-highest scorer for the time being.
New Jersey Devils To Circle Back On Juuse Saros Trade
The New Jersey Devils made valiant efforts to acquire a top goaltender this Trade Deadline but weren’t able to grab a bona fide star, instead landing Kaapo Kahkonen from the San Jose Sharks and Jake Allen from the Montreal Canadiens. That will have to be enough to get the Devils through the end of the season, but James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now reports that the team isn’t done searching for their top netminder, planning to “investigate” a trade for Juuse Saros this summer. The Devils were interested in Saros ahead of the Deadline, though the Nashville Predators weren’t then eager to move their top goalie.
Only one goaltender – Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck – has played in more games than Saros since 2019. And only five goalies have managed better save percentages in that stretch – Linus Ullmark, Igor Shesterkin, Ilya Sorokin, Jeremy Swayman, and Hellebuyck. Saros is apart of elite company, and boasts some of the best consistency in the league, with a save percentage above .910 in seven of his nine NHL seasons. That includes his career-high .927 set in 36 games during the 2020-21 season. The strong performances have earned him Vezina Trophy votes in each of the last three seasons – finishing sixth, third, and fourth in voting respectively. And while his streak of Vezina voting may end this year, Saros has still been solid, posting 28 wins and a .907 – 17th among the league’s starting goalies (minimum 30 games played).
Saros, 28, has been simply fantastic in Nashville, posting a career .918 save
percentage in 339 games. His departure would leave big shoes to fill – and an exciting opportunity for top goalie prospect Yaroslav Askarov, who Nashville selected 11th-overall in the 2020 NHL Draft. Askarov has since carved out a major role in the minor leagues, posting 22 wins and a .915 save percentage in 33 games this season. It’s his second year in the starting cage of the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals, with Askarov posting an impressive stat line of 26 wins and .911 in 48 games last year. His success has extended to the three NHL games he’s received over the last two years as well, with Askarov saving 58 of the 64 shots he faced while posting a 1-1-0 record. There’s a lot to be excited about with Askarov, who is still just 21 and already has the bravado needed to carry his teams to hard-earned wins, ranking second in the AHL with five shutouts.
Nashville could charge a very, very high price for the consistently-effective Saros. But the deal would be unprecedented, with the St. Louis Blues’ Deadline acquisition of Ryan Miller in 2014 likely the closest trade in terms of scale. That move cost the Blues their current starter – Jaroslav Halak – two depth forwards, and a first and third round draft selection. And that move came without a contract extension, with Miller playing just 25 games in St. Louis before moving on to the Vancouver Canucks. While Saros will also be in the last year of his contract next season, the Devils – or any interested team – will have all season to work out a long-term extension. That opportunity provides value in its own right, likely boosting the already pricey return.
New Jersey currently possesses a first-round pick in 2024, 2025, and 2026, as well as a healthy deal of mid-round selections. They also have plenty of promising young talent in Alexander Holtz, who hasn’t yet carved out a strong NHL role, or Seamus Casey, a fantastic defense prospect who could struggle to find his own role on New Jersey’s impressive blue-line. Nashville will be embracing the future when they move from Saros to Askarov, and high-value picks or prospects will need to be the focus of a return as a result. Hockey fans are set up for an exciting summer, as the Predators see just how much they can receive for their top-notch starter.
Jonas Siegenthaler Out With Concussion
Already without star defenseman Dougie Hamilton for much of the season, it appears that the New Jersey Devils will be without another member of their defensive top-four for quite some time. Team reporter Amanda Stein relayed that defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler will miss significant time with a concussion.
The injury was undoubtedly suffered in the team’s Monday night game against the New York Rangers when Siegenthaler took an elbow to the head from Rangers’ forward Matt Rempe. The conduct was so severe that the Department of Player Safety deemed the action worthy of a four-game suspension for Rempe.
Nevertheless, it has now become clear that Siegenthaler will miss the next several weeks in concussion protocol, and the team may even opt to keep him out of the lineup for the remainder of the season. As the Devils continue to move further and further out of the Eastern Conference playoff race, Siegenthaler may benefit from taking the rest of the year off to make sure he is completely healthy enough to return.
It will not be the first major injury of the year sustained by Siegenthaler, who is in the first year of a five-year, $17MM extension signed with New Jersey last year. In early January, in a game against the Vancouver Canucks, Siegenthaler broke his foot which kept him out of the lineup for six weeks.
If Monday night’s game was the last of the year for Siegenthaler, he still put together a quality season for the Devils. In 49 games played, Siegenthaler scored one goal and nine points, putting up 79 blocked shots and 69 hits, as well.
John Marino Out Day To Day With Upper-Body Injury
- The Devils have downgraded John Marino to questionable for Thursday’s game against the Stars after determining he sustained an upper-body injury, interim head coach Travis Green said (via Amanda Stein of the team’s official site). A team spokesperson told reporters earlier Wednesday that Marino, who did not participate in practice, was absent for maintenance. As such, Santeri Hatakka will likely play in Marino’s place after being recalled from AHL Utica on Wednesday under emergency conditions. Marino is listed as day-to-day.
Devils Recall Santeri Hatakka
The Devils recalled defenseman Santeri Hatakka from the AHL’s Utica Comets on Wednesday, per a team announcement. Hatakka has joined the club ahead of their three-game road trip through the southwest United States.
CapFriendly’s transaction log reflects that Hatakka’s recall is an emergency loan, meaning it does not count toward New Jersey’s four allotted post-deadline recalls. The Devils already used one of them on goaltender Nico Daws, who they briefly assigned to Utica on deadline day to make him eligible for the Calder Cup Playoffs.
This is Hatakka’s third recall of the season after being assigned to the Comets during training camp. New Jersey acquired the 23-year-old Finn from the Sharks in last year’s Timo Meier trade.
Hatakka’s recall coming under emergency conditions suggests that John Marino and Jonas Siegenthaler could be unavailable for Thursday’s game in Dallas. Neither defenseman is on the ice for practice on Wednesday, Ryan Novozinsky of The Star-Ledger reports, although Marino’s absence is only for maintenance.
Siegenthaler left the Devils’ 3-1 loss to the Rangers on Monday after taking an elbow to the head from opposing winger Matt Rempe, who was assessed a four-game suspension for the incident. However, Marino logged a team-high 24:58 and doesn’t yet carry an injury designation. If Marino is available against the Stars, the Devils would have six healthy defensemen without Hatakka and need to convert his recall into a standard one or return him to Utica.
A sixth-round pick of San Jose in 2019, Hatakka has been solid in his NHL auditions with New Jersey. Through seven games, the depth puck-mover has two assists and a +7 rating, the latter of which is second among active Devils skaters behind forward Curtis Lazar (+8). He’s averaged 16:19 per game, logging average possession metrics with a 48.8 CF% and 49.2 xGF% at even strength. He’s had 14 shot attempts, eight of which were on goal, and 11 blocks and nine hits.
Hatakka’s only previous NHL experience came in a nine-game stint with the Sharks in 2021-22, during which he recorded two assists and a -5 rating. He’s in the final season of his entry-level contract, which carries a cap hit of $851K and will be an RFA this summer.
Devils Still Intend To Pursue Starting Goaltender During Offseason
The Devils rebuilt their crease at the trade deadline, swapping out struggling starter Vítek Vaněček for Kaapo Kähkönen in a deal with the Sharks and acquiring Jake Allen from the Canadiens. Neither of their two pickups is a long-term solution as New Jersey continues to build around their young Jack Hughes-led core, though, and GM Tom Fitzgerald knows it. He plans to revisit his team’s uncertainty in the crease over the summer and will pursue a true starter in the process, TSN’s Pierre LeBrun wrote for The Athletic on Tuesday.
“The idea here is to try to finally reel in a stud goalie and have Allen there to create a 1A-1B situation,” LeBrun said. Allen has one season remaining at a $1.925MM cap hit, thanks to Montreal retaining half of his $3.85MM AAV in the trade.
All signs point to the Devils letting Kähkönen, who will be a UFA this summer after completing a two-year, $5.5MM deal, go to market. Fitzgerald said in his post-deadline media availability that the primary objective of the trade with San Jose was shedding Vaněček’s $3.4MM cap hit for this season and next.
A bonafide number-one netminder is Fitzgerald’s first choice, and he’s willing to surrender the assets to make it work. As such, LeBrun said New Jersey will re-engage in talks with the Flames and Predators regarding Jacob Markström and Juuse Saros, who could be on the move regardless of whether the Devils swing a deal for them.
The Devils attempted to acquire Markström, who has a no-move clause in his contract, before this year’s deadline. After talks initially fizzled out due to the Flames’ unwillingness to retain salary in a trade, Fitzgerald re-engaged with an offer that included New Jersey taking on all of Markström’s $6MM cap hit through 2026.
Markström reportedly waived his no-move clause to green-light the trade, but the Flames ended up not moving him as the team was making progress toward a wild-card spot in the Western Conference. This caused the goaltender to publicly voice his discontent with the Calgary front office. The Flames have lost all three games after the deadline, each by four or more goals, and now stand with just a 2.2% chance of making the playoffs, per MoneyPuck.
The Devils also talked with Nashville about Saros but didn’t get as far down the road. Unlike Markström, Saros will be a pending UFA beginning on July 1 and does not have trade protection. He also costs $1MM less than his Swedish counterpart.
If Fitzgerald swings for the fences on both and misses twice, it’s possible the Devils would still rather look for a tandem netminder to partner with Allen, keeping youngsters Nico Daws and Akira Schmid in the minors. Options on the UFA market will be slim, though – in fact, Kähkönen would be one of the better pickups if that’s how they opted to address their crease. Other top options are either on the precipice of decline (Marc-André Fleury, Cam Talbot) or have been inconsistent when given expanded roles (Kähkönen, Alex Nedeljkovic, Ilya Samsonov).
While Daws and Schmid are promising options and have more NHL games in their future, neither projects as a true starter. If New Jersey wants to truly kick off its window of contention with talents like Jack and Luke Hughes, Dawson Mercer and Simon Nemec, all 23 years old or less, they’ll need a more veteran presence as a longer-term answer.
Afternoon Notes: Global Series, Athanasiou, Foote
The NHL has announced their Global Series matchups for the 2024-25 season, with the Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils slated to face off in Prague, Czechia on October 4th and 5th, and the Florida Panthers and Dallas Stars set to play in Tampere, Finland on November 1st and 2nd.
The games will mark homecomings for players on all sides, headlined by Florida star Aleksander Barkov‘s return to his hometown of Tampere. He grew up through Tampere’s youth hockey program, playing for the Tappara Tampere (often shortened to just ‘Tappara’) at every level from U16 in to his professional debut in the Liiga. Barkov’s father, who shares the same name, ranks fifth in Tappara’s all-time scoring, with 416 points in 517 Liiga games. He also coached for the program, though he never oversaw his son. Top Stars scorer Roope Hintz was born in Nokia, Finland – just outside of Tampere. He and Barkov are two of the eight Finns between the Florida and Dallas lineups. When asked about visiting home, Barkov said, “It’s more than a dream come true because you don’t even dream about this… This will probably be one of the best days in my life.”
Meanwhile, New Jersey Devils winger Ondrej Palat will be able to stay at his house in Prague while the team visits. Palat grew up playing in Vitkovice, just a few hours outside of Prague, and told NHL.com that he’s excited to play in front of friends and family. Fellow Devil Tomas Nosek grew up much closer to Prague, in Pardubice. The pair are the only two Czechs on New Jersey’s roster, with recent recall Lukas Rousek being the only one on Buffalo’s roster. However, the two teams do have plenty of other talents from Central Europe – including Germans Nico Daws (NJD) and John-Jason Peterka (BUF), Swiss skaters Nico Hischier, Jonas Siegenthaler, and Timo Meier (NJD), and Slovakia’s Simon Nemec.
Other notes from around the league:
- Andreas Athanasiou is expected to make his return from injury on Tuesday night, when the Chicago Blackhawks take on the Anaheim Ducks. Athanasiou has been out for the last four months with a groin injury, playing just 11 games this season. He’ll re-enter the lineup still searching for his first goal on the year, recording just four assists prior to his injury. Athanasiou has proven to be an effective winger in Chicago, scoring 20 goals and 40 points in 81 games last season.
- The New Jersey Devils have formally activated Nolan Foote off of non-roster injured reserve. He’s been working his way back from an upper-body injury suffered during the pre-season that’s since delayed his season debut. Foote was primarily a minor-leaguer last season, scoring 20 goals and 37 points in 55 games with the AHL’s Utica Comets. He’s also managed five goals and seven points in 19 career NHL games, dating back to his debut in 2020-21.
Devils Acquire Nathan Légaré From Canadiens
The Devils swapped out minor-league forwards on Monday, acquiring Nathan Légaré from the Canadiens in exchange for Arnaud Durandeau. In the one-for-one deal, Legare will report to AHL Utica, and Durandeau will report to AHL Laval.
This is the second time both wingers have been traded in the last year. Légaré, a 2019 third-round pick of the Penguins, was sent to Montreal to balance out contracts in last summer’s three-team swap revolving around Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson. Durandeau, a 2017 sixth-round pick of the Islanders, was acquired by New Jersey in November for minor-league forward Tyce Thompson.
Neither player lived up to expectations with their previous organization. Légaré, 23, carries intrigue as a 6-foot, 205-lb power winger who scored over a point per game in three straight QMJHL seasons with the Baie-Comeau Drakkar and Val-d’Or Foreurs between 2019 and 2021. He hasn’t been able to elevate himself out of a bottom-six role in the minors, however, and is having the worst offensive season of his AHL tenure with six goals and nine points in 39 games with Laval, along with a -10 rating.
Durandeau is older at 25 but has shown much more offensive promise at the professional level. The Montreal native broke out for 24 goals and 55 points in 68 games with AHL Bridgeport last season but got off to a rough start in 2023-24, scoring once through his first 12 games. Things improved in Utica, but not by much, scoring three goals and 14 points in 26 games. He’ll look to give himself a fresh start closer to his hometown.
Since this trade was executed past the March 8 deadline, neither player is eligible to suit up for their new NHL club down the stretch. However, they’ll both be able to play for their new farm teams down the stretch and participate in the Calder Cup Playoffs.
Both players are pending RFAs and will remain under team control if they receive qualifying offers. Légaré is nearing completion of his three-year, entry-level contract and currently earns $70K in the minors, while Durandeau is completing a two-year, two-way deal that pays him a minors salary of $100K with a $125K guarantee. As such, the Devils save a minor amount of actual cash in this transaction.