Sharks No Longer Expected To Waive Kevin Labanc
12:02 p.m.: Seravalli has backtracked his initial report, saying that the Sharks did inform Labanc’s camp this morning that he’d be placed on waivers but have now “reversed course.” Labanc is expected to make his season debut Thursday against Boston. Sharks general manager Mike Grier also contradicted Seravalli’s report, saying the team never planned on waiving him.
11:33 a.m.: Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports the Sharks will place winger Kevin Labanc on waivers today at 1 p.m. CT for the purposes of assignment to the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda.
Labanc, a sixth-round pick in the 2014 NHL Draft, quickly looked like a steal after exploding for back-to-back 100-plus point seasons in the OHL after his draft year. The transition to pro hockey was rather smooth, posting a point per game with the Barracuda in 2016-17 and potting 20 points in 55 games with the Sharks during his rookie season. His scoring would increase year-by-year until his peak in the 2018-19 campaign when he notched a career-high 17 goals and 56 points in 82 contests and played a key secondary scoring role in guiding the Sharks to the Western Conference Final, where they would fall to the eventual champion St. Louis Blues.
He was an RFA at the end of that season, but cap constraints forced him into taking just a one-year, $1MM contract to remain in San Jose. His value would, unfortunately, fall off a cliff in 2019-20, when he dropped to 33 points in 70 contests and posted an eye-opening -33 rating, but that didn’t stop then-Sharks GM Doug Wilson from signing him to a four-year, $4.725MM cap hit deal to remain in San Jose.
Over the life of that contract, he’s scored 30 goals and 67 points in 148 games while seeing his average ice time slip to third-line minutes. He was a healthy scratch at times near the end of last season after he put up 33 points in 72 games, and he has not played yet in 2023-24 after serving as a healthy scratch for the team’s first three contests.
With one season remaining on his deal, it’s extremely unlikely anyone will take a flyer on Labanc at such a rich cap hit. The Sharks will be able to bury $1.15MM of his $4.725MM hit in the minors, resulting in a cap charge of $3.575MM if he’s assigned to the Barracuda.
Luke Schenn Out Four To Six Weeks With Lower Body Injury
The Nashville Predators have announced that defenseman Luke Schenn will be out long-term after sustaining a lower-body injury. Schenn has been out of action since the team’s season opener. He played 15 minutes in the inaugural game, recording four hits, a blocked shot, and no points.
The source of Schenn’s lower-body injury hasn’t been narrowed down, but it will hold him out until closer to December. The Predators signed Schenn to a three-year, $8.25MM contract this summer, carrying an annual cap hit of $2.75MM. Schenn earned the deal after a strong 2022-23 season, split between the Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs. Schenn played 70 games throughout the season, netting four goals and 22 points. But it was Schenn’s extra stats that stood out, with the defender recording 318 hits and 81 shot blocks throughout the year. His postseason earned a lot of attention as well, with Schenn showing out as a stalwart defender and a major piece of the Leafs first-round series win. Schenn added 54 hits in 11 Stanley Cup Playoff games, the second-most “hits-per-game” of the postseason.
Dante Fabbro has slotted into the Predators lineup in place of Schenn. Fabbro appeared in 79 games for the Predators last season, recording 11 points and 50 penalty minutes. This was a step down in scoring from Fabbro’s 2021-22 campaign, where he netted 24 points in 66 games. The 25-year-old defender has tallied a total of 256 games and 59 points through his career so far, entering his sixth year of NHL experience.
The Predators are 1-3-0 to start the season, allowing an average of 3.5 goals-against. If and how they are able to reduce that number, despite being down their latest blue line signing, should be telling for the club.
Rangers Have Shown Interest In Patrick Kane
It’s nearing decision time for the best free agent remaining on the market. Longtime Chicago Blackhawk and brief New York Ranger Patrick Kane is almost at the end of a long recovery process from hip resurfacing surgery, and multiple reports expect Kane to start contract discussion with teams in the coming days to determine his playing home for 2023-24.
Multiple teams have reported interest in Kane throughout the summer and into the season. Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli threw a new name into the mix today: a reunion with the Rangers, whom Seravalli says “are paying attention to Kane” as he nears a return. Seravalli had the following to say about the Rangers’ interest:
You saw what they had to give up last year to get him; they knew at the time he wasn’t fully healthy. It didn’t quite come together like it probably should have, but I think they were really impressed with the way he entered and was a leader. They were just kind of hoping, wishing and praying he’d be at the Kane 88 showtime level we are used to. I think in the back of his mind, he’s also certainly intrigued on what it would be like to go back there. Maybe sort of finally put that piece back together.
The Rangers acquired Kane in a three-way deal with the Coyotes last February, trading a second and fourth-round pick to the Blackhawks and a third-round pick to the Coyotes to retain half of his contract. They also sent minor-league defenseman Andy Welinski to the Blackhawks in the trade. Kane’s stint in the Big Apple was underwhelming considering his reputation, but many fans weren’t surprised at his solid but not star-level play. He potted five goals and seven assists in 19 games down the stretch and added a goal and five assists in the team’s first-round loss to the Devils. Still, his nagging hip injury and long-declining advanced metrics limited his effectiveness.
Most wrote off an offseason reunion due to the Rangers’ cap constraints, which will remain a considerable roadblock in a potential deal. CapFriendly lists the Rangers with just $675K in cap space with a roster of 22 players, not even enough to accommodate a league-minimum deal. Hypothetically, the Rangers could send a player down and use the cap space to sign Kane, but they’d only be able to offer around $1.4MM per season in that case. That’s an offer other teams are likely to beat, namely the Buffalo Sabres, whom Seravalli affirms have interest in the forward after previous reports linked them into the conversation last month. Trading a forward – potentially $3.6MM man Barclay Goodrow – seems likelier.
Seravalli also acknowledged previous reports that Kane is interested in joining the Red Wings and reuniting with former Chicago linemate Alex DeBrincat. However, like others who reported on the link, he did not say if Detroit was interested in signing him.
Seattle Forward Brandon Tanev Out Four-To-Six Weeks
The Seattle Kraken have announced that forward Brandon Tanev will miss the next four to six weeks with a lower-body injury. This injury was suffered in Seattle’s October 10th matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights. Tanev appeared in 10 minutes of that game, before taking an illegal check to the head from Vegas’ Brett Howden. Howden received a two-game suspension for this hit.
This is difficult news for Tanev, who was heavily limited during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons, playing fewer than 35 games in each year. His 2020-21 season was cut short with upper-body injuries and a bout with COVID-19, and an ACL tear ended his 2021-22 campaign.
But despite past injuries, Tanev was able to appear in all 82 games for the Kraken last season. He tallied 16 goals and 35 points in that span, both career-highs. He also added 44 penalty minutes in those games, while playing in just over 14 minutes of ice time. Tanev was a stout member of Seattle’s roster, even earning a top-30 nomination for the 2023 Selke Award. This was the third time that Tanev has received Selke votes in his nine-year NHL career, speaking to the value he brings to an NHL lineup.
Seattle has yet to make any roster moves in response to Tanev’s long-term injury designation. Tye Kartye has served as the fill-in since Tanev’s injury, representing the first two games that he’s played during an NHL regular season. Kartye appeared in 10 postseason games with the Kraken this Spring, netting five points. He has yet to score this season but seems to be the team’s current go-to in Tanev’s absence.
Wild’s Matt Boldy Out Week-To-Week
Minnesota Wild forward Matt Boldy is out week-to-week with an upper-body injury sustained against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday, GM Bill Guerin tells The Athletic’s Michael Russo. At this time, he’s not expected to be out long enough to be eligible for long-term injured reserve, but the Wild will re-evaluate him when they return from their road trip.
Boldy, 22, has quickly cemented himself as a core member of the Wild’s attack since turning pro in 2021. Last season – his first full one in the NHL – he notched 31 goals and 63 points in 81 contests, finishing second on the team in goals. The performance was strong enough to earn him a sizable seven-year, $49MM extension from the Wild mid-season.
The 12th overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft is well on his way to putting up high-end point totals with responsible defensive impacts, posting a 52.6% Corsi share last season while receiving a near-equal amount of offensive and defensive zone starts. He notched a goal and assist through two contests this season before leaving the game against Toronto early.
His absence adds to a tricky cap situation for the Wild, who now have a combined $14.575MM on the shelf with captain Jared Spurgeon dealing with a shorter-term upper-body injury. That’s on top of the $14.75MM in space the Wild have tied up in the buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, meaning Minnesota has nearly $30MM in dead money on the books for the time being until one of Boldy and Spurgeon can return. The Wild do not have cap space to make a corresponding transaction here and will likely dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen against Montreal on Tuesday.
If there is a player likely to slide up to the top-six in Boldy’s wake, look for veteran winger Marcus Foligno to reprise his role as a winger on a line with Joel Eriksson Ek, something he’s done with regularity over the past few seasons. Normally, Jordan Greenway was riding shotgun with them, but he’s now a member of the Buffalo Sabres after a trade last season.
Devon Toews Signs Seven Year Extension In Colorado
4:46 p.m.: PuckPedia has the full breakdown of Toews’ deal, which reads as follows. Toews has a full no-movement clause in 2024-25 and 2025-26, which downgrades to a 12-team no-trade list in 2026-27 and remains in place for the life of the deal.
2024-25: $7.75MM salary
2025-26: $7.75MM salary
2026-27: $5.25MM salary, $1MM signing bonus
2027-28: $7.75MM salary
2028-29: $7.75MM salary
2029-30: $7.5MM salary
2030-31: $6MM salary
11:16 a.m.: Devon Toews has signed a seven-year contract extension with the Colorado Avalanche. The contract will start in the 2024-25 season and end following the 2030-31 season. The new deal carries an annual cap hit of $7.25MM, per The Athletic’s Peter Baugh, or a $50.75MM total value. The deal starts in Toews’ age-30 season and ends following his age-37 year. This likely means that Toews will spend the rest of his career with the Avalanche, something he expressed interest in before the season started. Toews joined the Avalanche via trade ahead of the 2020-21 season, when Colorado sent two second-round picks to the Islanders for him.
Since then, Toews has played in an even 200 games with the Avalanche, recording 139 points along the way. He’s become a featured piece of the Avalanche roster, averaging around 25 minutes of ice time each night through his first three seasons with the club. He was also a major piece of the Avalanche’s 2022 Stanley Cup run, playing in 20 games and netting 15 points while averaging nearly 26 minutes of ice time through the postseason.
Despite multiple 50-point seasons and a track record of success with the Avalanche, Toews didn’t make the NHL until he was 24. The defender was drafted in the fourth round of the 2014 NHL Draft, following his freshman year at Quinnipiac University. He would go on to play through his junior year, before moving to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the AHL for the 2016-17 season. Toews recorded 45 points in 76 AHL games that year – his first season of pro hockey. He would go on to play in 54 more AHL games over the next two seasons, before playing his rookie season in the NHL in 2018-19. He appeared in 116 games with the Islanders over two seasons, scoring 47 points, before being dealt to Colorado.
Toews has one assist and a +2 rating in one game this season.
Kings Place Viktor Arvidsson On LTIR
Oct 13, 3:10 p.m.: The Kings reversed the AHL swaps today, per CapFriendly’s transactions log. Kaliyev is back up on the active roster to serve the final game of his suspension tomorrow, while Laferriere is also joined by Jaret Anderson-Dolan and Jordan Spence, who were brought up with the cap space afforded by Arvidsson’s LTIR placement. This move affords the Kings an extra skater on the roster for the time being, a number that will increase to two when Kaliyev is eligible to play.
Oct 12, 2:33 p.m.: The Los Angeles Kings have placed winger Viktor Arvidsson on long-term injured reserve. This will require him to miss at least 10 games or 24 days of action. The Kings have coupled this with a pair of AHL swaps – sending Arthur Kaliyev and Alex Laferriere to the AHL and recalling Alex Turcotte and Brandt Clarke.
Arvidsson, 30, originally suffered this lower-body injury at a team practice and was originally listed as day-to-day. He now finds himself on LTIR and will miss the rest of October. This is a major blow for a player who was slowly working his way back from bouts with the injury bug. Arvidsson played in 77 games last season, the most he’s played in one year since the 2017-18 season. He tallied 26 goals and 59 points in those games, ranking third on the team in goals and fourth in points.
The Kings now turn towards a pair of rookie talents in Turcotte and Clarke – two high-end prospects that have yet to find their way into consistent NHL playing time. Turcotte has seen 12 career NHL games over the last two seasons but has yet to record a point. This is contrary to the scoring he’s managed in the AHL, where he’s tallied 35 points through 59 games since 2021-22. Brandt Clarke appeared in nine games for the Kings last year, netting two points and recording six penalty minutes. This was an exciting cap to a journeyman season for Clarke; a year that saw him play in the OHL, AHL, and NHL. Both players are former top-10 draftees (Turcotte #5 in 2019, Clarke #8 in 2021) and will look to prove their worth as new members of the 2023-24 Kings roster.
By recalling Turcotte and Clarke prior to placing Arvidsson on LTIR, the Kings made enough cap space to afford the duo’s performance bonuses. They can send the pair down, and recall Kaliyev and Laferriere, prior to their Saturday game with Carolina if they would like.
Blue Jackets Place Zach Werenski On Injured Reserve, Recall David Jiricek
The Columbus Blue Jackets announced a pair of roster moves this morning, placing defenseman Zach Werenski on injured reserve after sustaining a quad contusion in last night’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers on a hit from forward Garnet Hathaway, which resulted in a minor penalty and $5,000 fine. Werenski will miss between one and two weeks. In response, the team recalled top defense prospect David Jiricek from AHL Cleveland.
This continues to be a tough stretch of injury luck for Werenski, who missed the last 69 games of last season with a shoulder injury. Werenski skated 13:43 last night and recorded a -1 rating before exiting the game, which ended up being a 4-2 loss for Columbus in their home opener. It was the start of a four-game homestand for the Jackets, who don’t play on the road until October 21st at Minnesota.
It opens the door for Jiricek, the sixth-overall pick in 2022, to force his way onto the roster over the next few games. The Blue Jackets are reportedly shopping a defenseman to make room for Jiricek on the active roster, but a trade might now wait until later in the month with Werenski on the sidelines. Jiricek was one of the best rookies in the AHL last season, logging 38 points in 55 games for the Cleveland Monsters and earning a look in four NHL games with Columbus. He’s still looking for his first NHL point, however.
Columbus head coach Pascal Vincent confirmed earlier this morning that it wasn’t likely to be a long-term absence for Werenski, the team’s undisputed number-one defender. However, Jiricek, a right-shot defenseman, won’t be able to directly replace the role of Werenski, who plays on the left side. While Jiricek could get some significant minutes over the next few weeks, the most direct effect of this injury will be on offseason addition Ivan Provorov, who will now likely slide up to the top pairing alongside Damon Severson. Provorov had a tough outing against his former team last night, recording just two shot attempts and a -2 rating in over 25 minutes of ice time.
Daniel Alfredsson Returns To Ottawa In Coaching Role
Daniel Alfredsson has returned to the Ottawa Senators organization, this time in a key development and coaching role, per the Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch. Alfredsson took the ice with the Senators during their Friday morning practice – fans’ first look at Alfredsson in his new role. The exact details of Alfredsson’s role, or his job title, aren’t known yet, although President of Senators Hockey Operations Steve Staios said, “He’s going to be with our players, our coaches, he’s going to be around the room and he’s going to help them out. It’s player development, but also coaching Certainly D.J. was thrilled with the possibility of Alfie being part of this.”
All but 68 games of Alfredsson’s Hall-of-Fame career were spent with the Senators, who drafted the forward in the sixth round of the 1994 NHL Draft. He made his debut with the club during the 1995-96 season, scoring 26 goals and 61 points. This earned him the Calder Trophy, given to the Rookie of the Year, beating out runner-ups Éric Dazé and Ed Jovanovski. Alfredsson would go on to become an integral piece of the Senators organization for 17 seasons, netting a 100-point season in 2005-06, winning the King Clancy Memorial Trophy in 2011-12, and the Mark Messier Leadership Award in 2012-13.
Garrioch points out that new Senators owner Michael Andlauer was a piece of returning Guy Lafleur to the Montreal Canadiens organization when he was a part-owner of the team. Alfredsson’s eyes apparently “lit up” when he was offered this new coaching and development role. On bringing him back, Staios said, “Never mind that he’s Daniel Alfredsson, I look at his character and his acumen, I was eager to get him in wherever he wanted… His role will grow, as we discussed, but he’s got a great deal of passion for the game. We wanted to get him on the ice and get him started.”
Blackhawks’ Taylor Hall Out Week-To-Week
Oct. 12: 7:57 a.m.: Hall is listed as week-to-week with an upper-body injury, head coach Luke Richardson told reporters postgame. After splitting their first two games of the season, Hall’s absence likely means one of Mackenzie Entwistle or Reese Johnson will make their season debut Saturday against the Montreal Canadiens.
Oct. 11, 9:02 p.m.: The Chicago Blackhawks have announced that veteran forward Taylor Hall left tonight’s game with an apparent injury he suffered in the first period of their matchup with the Boston Bruins. Little is known about Hall’s status as he did return in the second period of the game to take a shift on the powerplay but then left the ice and went straight up the tunnel immediately after.
The injury likely occurred when Hall took a hit in the neutral zone from former Bruins teammate Brandon Carlo. He stayed on the ice for some time before returning to the bench and making his way to the dressing room. The Hawks then ruled Hall out at the start of the third period leading to speculation about the severity of the 31-year-old’s injury.
Hall was expected to be a big part of the Blackhawks’ offense this season as they traded for him to be rookie Connor Bedard’s winger. With Hall out of action, veteran Andreas Athanasiou filled in along with Bedard and Ryan Donato. The Blackhawks don’t exactly have the depth to manage a long-term injury to a top 6 winger, and while they hardly view themselves as contenders this season, they likely want to give Bedard every opportunity to thrive with offensively capable linemates.
Hall didn’t have a very good season last year in Boston and was looking for a bounce-back campaign in Chicago. The former Hart Trophy winner posted just 16 goals and 20 assists last season in 61 games and was traded by the Bruins in a summer move that was basically a cap dump. Hall is now five years removed from his MVP season; however, he still is an impact player that could do a lot of damage with Bedard this season.
If Hall is out any length of time, it could make things more difficult for the Blackhawks to insulate Bedard, as they would have very few offensive weapons to line up alongside the rookie phenom. Chicago has plenty of capable NHLers, but there aren’t many of them who should be playing top 6 minutes in the NHL, and even fewer who should be playing on a team’s top line.