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Ryan Strome Placed In COVID Protocol, Will Miss Saturday’s Game

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The New York Rangers announced Friday afternoon that center Ryan Strome has entered the league’s COVID-19 protocol. He’ll be unavailable for Saturday night’s game against the Montreal Canadiens.

With forward Sammy Blais listed as day-to-day, the Rangers have also recalled Greg McKegg from the Hartford Wolf Pack to have 12 active skaters for their next game.

The circumstances of Strome’s placement on the protocol list are unknown, but he could miss up to 10 days if he can’t produce two negative tests. That could potentially be five missed games for Strome, making him eligible to return on October 29 against the Columbus Blue Jackets. However, he can come back sooner if he produces the aforementioned negative tests.

In Strome’s absence, it’s likely a chance for the young Filip Chytil to step into the second-line center role between Artemi Panarin and Kaapo Kakko. It’s an undeniable upgrade from his current wingers in Barclay Goodrow and Julien Gauthier, and it gives him a chance to show some promise of what he can do in a top-six role. McKegg could draw into the lineup as the fourth-line center, bumping Kevin Rooney up to third-line duties between Goodrow and Gauthier.

The Rangers will look to get their first win of the season without Strome against a similarly hobbled Canadiens team that’s still missing Joel Edmundson, Mike Hoffman, Carey Price, and others.

Injury Notes: Boeser, Severson, Perron, Hoffman

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While Vancouver fans are relieved to see Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes back in action after they signed new contracts to stay with the team, they’ll have to wait a bit longer to see one of their young core members debut this season. Head coach Travis Green said Friday morning that it’s doubtful Brock Boeser plays in that night’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers. Boeser has been on the shelf with an undisclosed injury since October 2. He was expected to only miss one week, but that timeline has passed and his status is now day-to-day. In his absence, it appears rookie Vasily Podkolzin will now get a look on the second line with Pettersson and J.T. Miller.

Some other injury notes from around the league:

  • New Jersey Devils head coach Lindy Ruff notes that defenseman Damon Severson is progressing and could play in New Jersey’s game next Tuesday against the Seattle Kraken. The Devils play their season opener tonight, meaning Severson might only be on the shelf for one game. Severson suffered an undisclosed injury on October 4 and has been listed as day-to-day since then.
  • The Montreal Canadiens could see a big free-agent addition make his debut soon. Head coach Dominique Ducharme says that winger Mike Hoffman could be ready for the team’s Tuesday or Thursday night games next week, but he’ll miss Saturday’s tilt against the New York Rangers. That’s about right on time for Hoffman, who was projected to miss four weeks with a lower-body injury suffered in late September.
  • With the St. Louis Blues’ season opener looming Saturday in Colorado, they could be without forward David Perron, per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Jim Thomas. Perron was absent from the Blues’ practice today but was seen at the facility wearing street clothes. Head coach Craig Berube called it a “maintenance day” for Perron, who’s questionable for the game with an undisclosed injury.

Rangers Looking For Top-Six Potential In Return For Kravtsov

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  • Vitali Kravtsov and his representatives were given permission to seek a trade after he was sent to the AHL again, but it’s not like the New York Rangers are just going to give him away for free. Darren Dreger of TSN reports that while Kravtsov is willing to play in the AHL for another organization, the Rangers are expecting “the potential of a top-six talent” in return for the young forward. Now 21, Kravtsov was the ninth overall pick in 2018 and has four points in 20 career NHL games.
  • The Dallas Stars have placed Blake Comeau on injured reserve retroactive to October 7, according to Matthew DeFranks of The Dallas Morning News. The 35-year-old scored just four goals and 14 points in 51 games last season but was still likely to have a spot on the Stars opening night roster if healthy, as a bottom-six defensive option. The team will have to fill that spot and the one belonging to Jason Robertson, who also isn’t currently traveling with the team as they visit the New York Rangers tomorrow night. Both Comeau and Robertson could join the group later on the road trip according to DeFranks. The Stars aren’t set to play their first home game until October 22, the fifth game of the season.

Vitali Kravtsov Given Permission To Seek Trade

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One of the surprises among yesterday’s opening day roster submissions was in New York, where the Rangers decided to send Vitali Kravtsov back to the minor leagues. Today, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that the team has given Kravtsov’s camp permission to seek a trade. Larry Brooks of the New York Post reports that Kravtsov has refused the assignment to the AHL and will likely be suspended by the team.

The 21-year-old Kravtsov was the ninth overall pick just three years ago, but has had an up-and-down relationship with the Rangers ever since. After playing a handful of games with the Hartford Wolf Pack of the AHL at the start of the 2019-20 season, Kravtsov exercised his European Assignment Clause to return to the KHL. He’d been benched and even made a healthy scratch in the minor leagues, so he returned home to continue his development with a team he expected to play a lot for. That didn’t work out as planned, however, and Kravtsov was back in North America, playing for the Wolf Pack before the season was through.

Last season, with the KHL starting earlier than the professional leagues in North America, Kravtsov once again suited up for Traktor and showed he had reached a new level of consistency. The Rangers left him there through the end of the KHL campaign, and then added him to the NHL roster where he played in his first 20 games. He had just two goals and four points in those contests, but things seemed to be back on the right track.

Notably, Kravtsov changed agents a few months ago and is now represented by Dan Milstein of Gold Star Hockey. In the final year of his entry-level contract, he’ll be a restricted free agent next summer. After seeing Julien Gauthier and Dryden Hunt make the roster over him, it’s clear that Kravtsov’s time in New York may be coming to an end.

Rangers Name Six Alternate Captains

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Alexandar Georgiev Denies That He Requested A Trade

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With Igor Shesterkin quickly establishing himself as the number one goalie for the Rangers, there had been speculation that Alexandar Georgiev had requested a trade.  Speaking with reporters, including Larry Brooks of the New York Post, the netminder put that idea to rest:

The rumors were false, I don’t know where that came from. You can be dealt pretty much as a player without a no-move clause, so I just worked as usual and tried not to think about it.

While he may not have asked for a move, the fact he was in trade speculation was certainly understandable.  The four-year, $22.667MM contract given to Shesterkin this offseason cements him in that starting role moving forward, pushing Georgiev’s future with the team in question.  Georgiev himself indicated that last season was “tough” and “no fun” where he was in the number two role, making just 18 starts while posting a 2.71 GAA along with a .905 SV%.

The 25-year-old is in the final season of his two-year bridge deal, one that carries a cap hit of $2.425MM while he will be owed a qualifying offer of $2.65MM next summer.  Both of those numbers are certainly reasonable for a second-string backup but if Georgiev has eyes on a bigger role, that opportunity will have to come elsewhere barring a long-term injury to Shesterkin.

Young goalies with some upside – Georgiev has a career .912 SV% in 96 games – don’t typically come available too often and there are certainly some rebuilding teams that have openings to give him a bigger role.  As a result, while Georgiev may not have asked out, he’s still quite likely to be in trade speculation for the foreseeable future.

New York Rangers Extend Mika Zibanejad

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The New York Rangers announced Sunday morning that they’ve extended center Mika Zibanejad. The New York Post’s Larry Brooks reports an eight-year deal with a cap hit in the $8.5MM range. Per CapFriendly, the contract breakdown is as follows:

2022-23: $1MM salary + $7MM signing bonus
2023-24: $1MM salary + $9MM signing bonus
2024-25: $1MM salary + $9.5MM signing bonus
2025-26: $1MM salary + $9MM signing bonus
2026-27: $1MM salary + $7.5MM signing bonus
2027-28: $1MM salary + $6.75MM signing bonus
2028-29: $1MM salary + $5.75MM signing bonus
2029-30: $1MM salary + $5.5MM signing bonus

CapFriendly also adds that the deal contains a full no-move clause through the first seven years of the deal plus most of the eighth year.  In 2030, that clause will drop to a 21-team no-trade clause seven days before the trade deadline.

Zibanejad’s extension will begin in the 2022-23 season, taking him through 2029-30 — his age 37 season. He was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent at the conclusion of this campaign.

With Zibanejad’s $8.5MM reported cap hit, it’s an increase of a little over $3MM on his previous $5.35MM cap hit. The center is coming off a five-year, $26.75MM deal he signed with the Rangers prior to the 2017-18 season.

The contract has immediate salary cap ramifications for the Rangers, who’ll have a busy and challenging offseason ahead of them at the conclusion of this season. The team is projected to have $20.2MM in space next year with the cap increasing to $82.5MM. That space is all they have to re-sign Adam Fox, Kaapo Kakko, Vitali Kravtsov, Sammy Blais, and Alexandar Georgiev, as well as filling out the rest of their roster. They’re handicapped by a $3.4MM cap penalty from the combined buyouts of Kevin Shattenkirk, Dan Girardi, and Anthony DeAngelo.

Throughout his 604-game NHL career, Zibanejad’s scored 200 goals, 234 assists, and 434 points. He’s averaged over 20 minutes a game for the Rangers for three consecutive seasons, cementing his role as a bonafide top-line center. He scored 24 goals and 50 points during last season’s shortened 56-game campaign.

Drafted sixth overall by the Ottawa Senators in 2011, he’s done his best work away from the team that drafted him after Ottawa shipped him away to the Rangers in 2016 in exchange for Derick Brassard. He’s scored 283 points in 323 games as a Ranger.

Theoretically, this deal also had a direct impact on another New York squad. The Rangers have long been linked as a possible destination for former Buffalo Sabres captain Jack Eichel via trade. Yet an eight-year commitment of this magnitude to a player that’s served as their first-line center for years now would suggest that the Rangers have placed their bets in-house on a center that can take them to a Stanley Cup.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Images.

All salary cap figures courtesy of CapFriendly.

Ducks, Flames Leading Candidates To Acquire Jack Eichel

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Jack Eichel has been on the trade block for what seems like forever and has not been on the ice for the Buffalo Sabres this preseason as he continues to await neck surgery. Yet, his market is heating back up. As TSN’s Darren Dreger wrote earlier this week, the Sabres have been pushed by Eichel’s new agent, Pat Brisson, to share medical files with interested parties. The result has been more clarity as to Eichel’s serious suitors, which could finally lead to a trade.

Eichel’s desired surgical cure, which has been at the center of his ongoing feud with the Sabres, is a disc replacement surgery that has never been attempted on an NHL player. By sharing the specifics of Eichel’s injury, teams can gain more insight into the nature of Eichel’s condition and whether they would agree to his preferred route rather than the typical fusion procedure. As Pierre LeBrun reports for The Athletic, this has helped Kevyn Adams and the Sabres strengthen their trade pitch, as some of the unknowns of an Eichel deal have been cleared up. While LeBrun believes that there will still be a conditional aspect to any deal, Buffalo now finally has a chance to finally close a deal and closer to full value.

Among the teams that LeBrun feels have backed off of the Eichel pursuit are the Minnesota Wild and Philadelphia, and even the New York Rangers and Los Angeles Kings who seemed like top contenders at one point. However, LeBrun notes that the Anaheim Ducks and Calgary Flames have done their due diligence on Eichel’s condition and the ADR surgery and remain interested in the star center.

Though the cost for Eichel remains a mystery, especially with the suspected conditional component, there will still be a considerable price to pay. Anaheim offers a number of young roster forwards, as well as numerous talented prospects. Calgary offers more current star talent, some of whom would have to move for cap purposes, as well as some top prospects. Both teams would be able to make a strong pitch for Eichel and have good reason for doing so. The Flames may be one major piece away from jumping into Stanley Cup contention, while the Ducks have a budding young core and know that Eichel has expressed some desire to play on the west coast.

While LeBrun stops short of saying a trade is imminent, this is first time that concrete conversations have been had with a media source confirming that Eichel talks are occurring. Eichel needed surgery “like yesterday” per LeBrun and both he and the Sabres desperately need to move on, so for the good of all involved, including NHL fans, hopefully this situation will be resolved before too long.

Injury Notes: Reaves, Bennett, Guentzel

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Despite suffering an injury on Wednesday night that forced him to be helped off the ice, New York Rangers free agent addition Ryan Reaves may not miss any regular season time. The grinder has not been practicing since the injury occurred, but head coach Gerard Gallant is optimistic that he could return by opening night. “I think it’s going to be close,” Gallant told Collin Stephenson on Newsday. “When we left the game, I said no, but… the last couple of days it’s going in the right direction… I can’t really say, but I think it’s going to be real close.” The Rangers prioritized adding grit and physicality this summer, adding Reaves, Barclay Goodrow, Sammy Blais, and Patrik Nemeth, so they hope to be able to roll out their full complement of toughness for Opening Night.

  • Florida Panthers forward Sam Bennett missed the team’s preseason match-up on Saturday night as he has been placed in the NHL’s COVID-19 Protocol, the team announced. Depending on the context of Bennett’s absence, the two-way forward could miss more than just one game. The Panthers certainly hope that the physical center is good to go for the start of the season; Bennett was an excellent addition to the Florida roster at the deadline last season, recording 15 points in ten games while averaging a career-high 18:04 time on ice. As the Cats look to compete in the Atlantic Division this year, every game matters and a healthy Bennett is a difference-maker.
  • The Pittsburgh Penguins expect to have Jake Guentzel back sooner rather than later from COVID Protocol. Head coach Mike Sullivan told The Athletic’s Rob Rossi that Guentzel is asymptomatic and going through the steps of the protocol. Though he has missed a week of practice, Guentzel will jump right back into the lineup if he is healthy. The 27-year-old has scored at a point-per-game pace over the past three years and will be relied on even more with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin injured.

Rangers Recall Greg McKegg

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  • Greg McKegg gets another look with the Rangers as Rick Carpinello of The Athletic notes (Twitter link) that the veteran forward has been recalled for tonight’s game against the Islanders. McKegg returned to New York this season after spending 2020-21 with Boston.
  • Veteran winger Brandon Mashinter has decided to call it a career and has joined Jacksonville of the ECHL as an assistant coach. The 33-year-old played in parts of four NHL seasons with the Sharks, Rangers, and Blackhawks, notching five points and 50 PIMS in 64 games.  Mashinter spent last season in Slovakia after a two-year stint in Germany.

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