Jets Sign Adam Lowry To Five-Year Contract Extension
Nov. 21st: A few days after signing his new extension, PuckPedia shared the year-by-year breakdown of Lowry’s contract:
- 2026-27: $2.85MM salary, $2.85MM signing bonus, full no-movement clause
- 2027-28: $5.75MM salary, full no-movement clause
- 2028-29: $5.75MM salary, five-team trade clause
- 2029-30: $4.35MM salary, 10-team trade clause
- 2030-31: $3.45MM salary, 10-team trade clause
Nov. 19th: Only a few short months ago, the 2026 UFA class looked like it could be one of the best in NHL history. But since then, the list has been thinned out quite quickly. Another player can now be crossed off that list as the team announced that they’ve signed center Adam Lowry to a five-year contract extension. TSN’s Darren Dreger adds (Twitter link) that the deal will carry a $5MM AAV and be worth $25MM in total.
The two sides were reported to be making progress on an extension earlier this month so it’s not too surprising to see this get across the finish line.
The 32-year-old is in the final season of his five-year, $16.25MM deal signed back in 2021. He has never been a high-end offensive contributor in his 12-year NHL career (his highest point total is 36) but over the past few years, he has become a reliable two-way player. The captain has long been a sound defensive player who brought plenty of physicality to the table and that’s a combination that is especially appealing in a team’s bottom six.
Lowry missed the start of the season while recovering from hip surgery but has jumped right back into his usual role since returning. In seven games, he has a goal and two assists along with 16 hits in 14:22 of playing time. For his career (spent in its entirety with the Jets who drafted him in the third round back in 2011), Lowry has 122 goals and 154 hits in 782 games.
This deal represents a nice raise from his current $3.25MM AAV while getting a long-term agreement for the second straight contract. While a $5MM AAV for someone whose production is more in the third-line range, those other elements he brings made it likely that he could have landed a deal at or higher than this price point on the open market.
Meanwhile, the Jets also get some much-needed stability down the middle. Mark Scheifele is also signed through 2030-31, meaning that Winnipeg has two of their top three centers in place for the long haul. GM Kevin Cheveldayoff still has some work to do to secure a long-term fit for their second center position (a role filled by Jonathan Toews this year) but that’s a strong foundation down the middle to build off of.
With the signing, the Jets now have around $78.7MM in commitments for the 2026-27 season, per PuckPedia. That gives them around $25MM in cap room based on the projected $104MM Upper Limit. Cole Perfetti, a pending restricted free agent with salary arbitration rights, will take up a good chunk of that but the rest of their pending free agents (all unrestricted) are for players more in depth roles. That could give Cheveldayoff a chance to try to make a splash to add another core piece to his roster, either via trade or free agency this summer.
Murat Ates of The Athletic was the first to report that an extension had been agreed upon.
Photo courtesy of Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images.
Flames’ Samuel Honzek Likely Done For Season
Flames center Samuel Honzek‘s regular season is over after undergoing upper-body surgery, Pat Steinberg of Sportsnet 960 reports. He’ll be out for six months, meaning a potential return in May if Calgary makes the playoffs and makes it that far. Considering they’ve been in last place for most of the season with a 6-13-3 record, though, meaning he’s all but played his last hockey of 2025-26.
That’s a jarring change from Honzek’s initial week-to-week timeline. The 21-year-old was injured in last weekend’s game against the Jets when he collided with teammate Mikael Backlund in open ice, leaving the game and not returning. Such a lengthy recovery timeline indicates he sustained potentially significant shoulder damage or a collarbone fracture.
That collision ended what was a disappointing stretch for the 2023 first-round pick. Drafted 16th overall two years ago, the 6’4″ Slovak winger was a late inclusion on the opening night roster after it was apparent Martin Pospisil would miss significant time. While he’s gotten his first extended taste of NHL time, he hasn’t been able to do much with it. Despite being stapled to the left wing with Backlund and Blake Coleman in a top-nine role, Honzek only managed two goals and four points in 18 appearances. That’s no doubt influenced by a lack of power-play usage, which has limited his ice time to 12:21 per game.
Offense has been a consistent concern in Honzek’s game since being drafted, though. He had 56 points in 41 games for the WHL’s Vancouver Giants in his draft year but dipped back under the point-per-game mark for them in 2023-24. Upon turning pro last season, he only scored eight goals and 21 points in 52 games for AHL Calgary. That’s not a bad scoring line for a first-year pro, but for someone with his draft pedigree, the Flames were definitely looking for more production. Nonetheless, he still ranked as the Flames’ No. 2 prospect entering the season, according to Elite Prospects.
The good news is that Honzek was well on his way to establishing his floor as a third-line checking piece. While his unit with Backlund and Coleman hasn’t been explosive offensively, they’ve had great two-way chemistry and have been among the league’s better defensive forward lines. They’re only allowing 1.98 expected goals per 60 minutes at even strength, per MoneyPuck. That’s sixth in the league out of 37 forward trios with at least 100 minutes together this season.
Honzek will remain waiver-exempt next season in what will be the final year of his entry-level contract. With 10 months out of competitive action by the time he suits up in training camp next year and his point production turning pro lacking, it’ll be a storyline to watch to see if the Flames send him to the AHL out of the gate in 2026-27 to try to build up his scoring confidence.
The immediate result will be consistently elevated minutes for fellow first-rounder Connor Zary for the remainder of the season. After a round of drawn-out contract talks last summer, the Flames signed Zary to a three-year, $11.33MM contract but stuck him on the fourth line to begin the year. Understandably, that’s resulted in the 24-year-old only posting a goal and an assist in 20 games for the offense-starved Flames. He’s stepped up onto the wing with Backlund and Coleman in Honzek’s absence and should remain there for the foreseeable future.
Connor Hellebuyck To Undergo Arthroscopic Knee Procedure, Out 4-6 Weeks
Jets superstar goaltender Connor Hellebuyck will undergo a minor arthroscopic knee procedure that will keep him out of the lineup for four to six weeks, Darren Dreger of TSN reports. Winnipeg announced they’ve recalled Thomas Milic from the AHL’s Manitoba Moose in a corresponding move. The Jets have an open roster spot and do not need to move Hellebuyck to injured reserve to accommodate Milic’s addition.
It’s an unanticipated bit of news for Hellebuyck, who’s evidently been playing through or aggravating a knee issue through the first several weeks of the season. While he didn’t start the Jets’ last game on Tuesday against the Blue Jackets, he’s shouldered his normal heavy workload this year by starting 14 of Winnipeg’s 19 games. That put him squarely on pace for his fifth consecutive season with 60 or more starts, but he’ll fall short of that mark now.
Hellebuyck being unavailable is extremely rare. The 32-year-old has only missed six games combined since the beginning of the 2021-22 season, all due to illness or personal reasons. In his 11-year NHL career, he’s only missed one game due to injury, which occurred for undisclosed reasons in May 2021.
The back-to-back Vezina Trophy winner has been on something of a cold streak, which could explain the timing to shut him down – combined with a light schedule interrupted by the holiday break that will still get him back in the lineup in time for the Olympics, where he remains the United States’ projected No. 1 option. Hellebuyck peaked with a year-to-date SV% of .932 following his sixth start of the year back on Oct. 23. Since then, he’s produced a more pedestrian .899 SV% and 4-4-0 record in his last eight appearances.
Entering this season, Hellebuyck had posted a SV% of .920 or better in three straight campaigns. Through his 14 appearances in 2025-26, he’s down to a more conservative .913 mark. A deeper look shows that’s more attributable to the team in front of him than his individual play. According to MoneyPuck, Hellebuyck has still saved 12.5 goals above expected, ranking third in the league. That’s done heavy lifting to cover up a Winnipeg defense that’s arguably been a bottom-10 group in the league so far. They’re allowing 28.9 shots per game, 22nd in the league, and their 3.56 expected goals against per 60 in all situations is sixth-worst. That’s a catastrophic drop from last season, when the Jets’ 2.78 xGA/60 ranked third-best in the NHL.
With Hellebuyck still performing at an elite level, the Jets have a 12-7-0 record and are on pace for 104 points, after finishing with 110-plus points each of the last two seasons. They’ll need to do some major defensive clean-up – and quickly – to help them stay above water as they navigate a stretch of 7 of 11 games against teams that made the playoffs last year.
A four-week timeline as a best-case scenario puts Hellebuyck back in the lineup no sooner than Dec. 19 against the Avalanche. That results in a minimum absence of 14 games, but could stretch to 20 if he misses a full six weeks. With Hellebuyck’s earned reputation as arguably the league’s most durable netminder, Winnipeg understandably hasn’t invested much in its goaltending depth. If he’s out for a quarter of the calendar, that could pose a serious issue as the jockey for playoff positioning in a tough Central Division.
Eric Comrie, who’s coming off a career-high of just 20 starts in 2024-25, is now Winnipeg’s No. 1 option until Hellebuyck returns. He was a perfectly passable backup option last year, recording a .914 SV% and 2.5 goals saved above expected with a 9-10-1 record after a pair of difficult seasons in similar deployment with the Sabres. This season, he’s been similarly effective in spot starts with a 4-1-0 record, .908 SV%, 2.60 GAA, and 3.8 GSAx. He’s never been tested in an extended stretch of starts, though, and has been below-average over his 82-game career sample with a .899 SV%, 3.08 GAA, and 37-37-4 record.
If he falters, the Jets don’t have another option in the organization with NHL experience. Acquiring a veteran third-string option, even if there’s a risk of losing him on waivers when Hellebuyck returns, is a prudent move that general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff will no doubt pursue.
In the meantime, Milic steps up from the minors to get his first taste of an NHL bench. The 22-year-old is in his third season of professional hockey after the Jets selected him in the fifth round of the 2023 draft. The former Western Hockey League goalie of the year and World Juniors gold medalist had yet to gain a foothold on a full-time AHL job, splitting each of his first two years between the Moose and the ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals.
Early this year, though, Milic hasn’t just locked down an AHL job; he’s won the wide-open competition to serve as the organizational No. 3 behind Comrie. He’s been given nine starts in Manitoba to fellow youngster Domenic DiVincentiis‘ seven and has been the far superior option, logging a .921 SV% and 2.14 GAA with a 5-2-2 record and one shutout. His limited track record makes him a risky choice for extended deployment, especially considering he had a .877 SV% in 21 AHL games just last year. Nonetheless, he’s flashed enough promise through the first few weeks of 2025-26 to earn the initial recall.
Suppose the Jets roll with Comrie and Milic for the time being and limit the latter’s usage to relieving Comrie in back-to-back situations. In that case, his NHL debut won’t come for another week until the Jets play Carolina next Friday before traveling to Nashville on Saturday.
Image courtesy of Sergei Belski-Imagn Images.
Ducks’ Pavel Mintyukov Potentially Seeking Trade
In his recent 32 Thoughts blog, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that Anaheim Ducks defenseman Pavel Mintyukov is upset with being scratched in back-to-back games. So much so, in fact, that Friedman indicated that Mintyukov would like to be moved if the Ducks aren’t going to play him.
Mintyukov, 21, isn’t helping his case too much. The former 10th overall pick of the 2022 NHL Draft got off to a decent start to his career during the 2023-24 season, scoring four goals and 28 points in 63 games while averaging 18:51 of ice time per game. He finished 13th in voting for the Calder Memorial Trophy.
Still, concerns remained about his defensive game, evidenced by his -20 rating and 88.9% on-ice save percentage at even strength. Over the next two years, including 18 games during the 2025-26 season, Mintyukov’s defensive play has improved while his offensive contributions have cratered.
Since the beginning of the 2024-25 campaign, Mintyukov has scored five goals and 22 points in 86 contests, averaging 17:07 of ice time per game. Additionally, he’s blocked 109 shots and added 91 hits during that time frame. Further, outside of his boxcar stats, his on-ice save percentage at even strength has improved, averaging around 91.0%.
Struggling to break out in any meaningful fashion, it’s unsurprising that other prospects such as Jackson LaCombe, Olen Zellweger, and Ian Moore have passed Mintyukov on the organizational depth chart.
That adds to the difficulty of hypothesizing a reasonable return for Mintyukov if the Ducks even made him available. It’s relatively rare for a recent top-10 pick to request a trade in the last year of their entry-level contract. It’s much more common for top prospects to request trades before signing their entry-level contract, such as Isaac Howard, Rutger McGroarty, and Mintyukov’s teammate, Cutter Gauthier, as recent examples.
The closest example to Mintyukov’s situation would be netminder Yaroslav Askarov. Drafted with the 11th overall pick of the 2020 NHL Draft, Askarov requested a trade from the Nashville Predators in the final year of his entry-level contract after the team brought in Scott Wedgewood as the backup netminder and signed Juuse Saros to a long-term extension.
Despite playing in far fewer games than Mintyukov at the time, the Predators were able to recoup Magnus Chrona, David Edstrom, and a conditional 2025 first-round pick from the San Jose Sharks for Askarov. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to argue at this point that Mintyukov is worth that price tag.
Furthermore, without arbitration rights, Mintyukov has little power in his situation. His General Manager, Pat Verbeek, is one of the most patient front office leaders in the league, and won’t feel pressure to make a move anytime soon. If Mintyukov is moved at any point during the current campaign, Verbeek will need to be blown away by the offer.
Winnipeg Jets Permit Brad Lambert To Seek Trade
Despite typically being one of the first forwards recalled in case of injury, Winnipeg Jets forward prospect Brad Lambert is reportedly disgruntled about his position within the Jets organization. To that end, insider Frank Seravalli shared that Winnipeg has permitted Lambert and his representation to seek a trade partner.
It wasn’t all that long ago that Lambert was considered one of the best prospects available in the 2022 NHL Draft, with some scouts indicating he could be selected second overall behind then Kingston Frontenac, Shane Wright. Unfortunately, due to a horrific start to the 2021-22 season with the Liiga’s JYP, Lambert was cut from the team only to land with his hometown Pelicans. He finished the season with four goals and 10 points in 49 games with a -16 rating.
Still, Lambert’s previous projections cause him to stay in the first round despite the disappointing season. The Jets selected him with the 30th overall selection and loaned him to the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds for the 2022-23 campaign. He played well in Seattle, scoring 17 goals and 38 points in 26 games with a +27 rating, and finished the year with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose, scoring two goals and three points in 14 contests.
Lambert’s production in the 2023-24 campaign led some to believe that he may have turned a significant corner in his development. In his first full professional season, Lambert scored 21 goals and 55 points in 64 games with the Moose and even earned his NHL debut, where he registered an assist. Despite being one of the youngest players on the team at the time, Lambert led Manitoba in scoring.
He slipped last season. Although the team around him wasn’t altogether great, Lambert took a huge step back in his production, registering only seven goals and 35 points in 61 games with a -30 rating. The Moose themselves finished second-to-last in the entire AHL and had the lowest-producing offense of any team.
Lambert’s primary concern has become his NHL experience. In the last two years, including the first month and a half of the 2025-26 campaign, Lambert has scored one goal and two points in nine games for the Jets, averaging 10:28 of ice time typically in a fourth-line role.
Clearly, Lambert believes he has earned an extended look at the NHL level, and the Jets are seemingly willing to grant him that, albeit with a different team. Several contenders are seeking a second-line center, though there’s no argument that Lambert has worked himself up to that stature quite yet.
Whether through injury or another reason, the Calgary Flames, Minnesota Wild, New Jersey Devils, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Vancouver Canucks could all serve as a potential destination for Lambert. Assuming the Jets aren’t looking to receive anything close to a first-round pick, which they used to select Lambert three years ago, they should have no significant hurdles to clear in swinging a deal.
Lightning Place Victor Hedman On IR, Activate Nick Paul From LTIR
The Lightning have shifted star defenseman Victor Hedman to injured reserve with the undisclosed injury that’s already kept him out for nearly two weeks, according to Erik Erlendsson of Lightning Insider. His roster spot is going to forward Nick Paul, who’s been activated from long-term injured reserve and will make his season debut Thursday against the Oilers. Hedman is eligible to be activated at any time but will remain sidelined for “probably a couple [of] more weeks,” head coach Jon Cooper told the beat this morning (including the team’s Benjamin Pierce).
Losing a No. 1 defenseman for any stretch of time is always worrisome, but an extended return timeline for Hedman is especially disappointing because of the Bolts’ other injury woes in their top four. Ryan McDonagh remains on IR with an undisclosed injury, while Erik Černák sat out Tuesday’s game against the Devils with a lower-body injury, although he’s expected back tonight. With all those absences, Emil Martinsen Lilleberg is the only Lightning rearguard to play in all 19 games this season.
Hedman’s current absence is also tracking to be one of the longest ones in his incredibly durable career. If he’s out for another two weeks from today, that would bring him to 12 games missed. He hasn’t missed that much time since various injuries limited him to 70 out of 82 appearances in the 2018-19 campaign. Before the injury, Hedman had been left without a goal through 15 games but had still racked up 12 assists, a figure that still leads Tampa’s blue line in scoring. He’s continued his dominance on the possession front, controlling 53.8% of shot attempts at even strength, and his pairing with J.J. Moser has outscored opponents 7-5 at 5-on-5.
His absence his perhaps most felt on Tampa’s power play, where he had half of his point production. They’re already at an underwhelming 17.7% on the year and have gone 2-for-12 in the four games Hedman’s been out. Darren Raddysh is now quarterbacking the top unit in Hedman’s place, but he’s got just two assists with the man advantage in 13 games.
While the Bolts’ defense group remains in disarray, they’ll trade that for having a fully healthy top-nine forward group for the first time this season. Only depth piece Pontus Holmberg remains on the injured list. Paul missed the first six weeks of the year and comes back a couple of weeks behind schedule after undergoing an upper-body procedure extremely late in the offseason. The versatile 6’4″ forward will make his season debut on the wing on a line with Jake Guentzel and Brayden Point, per Pierce. That unit has been downgraded to Tampa’s de facto second line because of Point’s sluggish start to the year, with only three goals and 11 points through 19 games and a -9 rating.
Bruins’ Charlie McAvoy Undergoes Facial Surgery, Out Indefinitely
As expected, the Boston Bruins will be without their top defenseman for some time. Zach Cavanagh of The Sporting Tribune passed along a note from Bruins head coach Marco Sturm, confirming that blue liner Charlie McAvoy underwent facial surgery.
Cavanagh directly quoted Sturm, saying, “Charlie had a facial surgery. Successfully. So he’s doing good. He’s recovering right now at home, and we still don’t know how long he’s gonna be out for.” There’s no point in speculating on how long McAvoy will be out, though broken jaw surgeries typically have a recovery timeline of six to eight weeks. There’s no confirmation that McAvoy broke his jaw.
McAvoy suffered the injury in Boston’s recent game against the Montreal Canadiens on November 15th. Partway through the second period, Canadiens defenseman Noah Dobson accidentally struck McAvoy in the face with a puck off a slapshot. McAvoy has already missed one game for the Bruins, though the team hasn’t placed him on the injured reserve yet.
It’s a difficult pill to swallow for a Bruins team that had gotten off to an unexpectedly good start to the 2025-26 campaign. At the time of writing, Boston has a 12-9-0 record through their first 21 games, sitting in second place in the Atlantic Division and sixth in the Eastern Conference.
Much of that has to do with McAvoy’s strong play. The former 14th overall pick of the 2016 NHL Draft had skated in 19 games for the Bruins before the injury, registering 14 assists while averaging more than one blocked shot and hit per game. He was averaging the most ice time of any Bruin by a margin of nearly two and a half minutes.
Boston has moved rookie Jonathan Aspirot to McAvoy’s spot on the top defensive unit next to Nikita Zadorov for the time being. Depending on how quickly the Bruins learn of McAvoy’s recovery timeline, it’s unlikely they’ll stick with that defensive pairing if they hope to remain competitive.
Additionally, McAvoy’s recovery could have implications for Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympics. An eight-week recovery would put McAvoy’s return around mid-January, a few weeks before the start of the tournament. Again, there’s been no confirmation of that timeline, though it could complicate his involvement. The Long Beach, NY native was one of the first six players named to Team USA’s roster already.
Panthers’ Eetu Luostarinen Out Week-To-Week, Cole Schwindt To Undergo Arm Surgery
Panthers winger Eetu Luostarinen suffered significant burns as a result of a barbecue accident and will miss a few weeks, head coach Paul Maurice said (via George Richards of Florida Hockey Now). He also informed reporters that depth forward Cole Schwindt requires arm surgery and will miss two to three months, per the team’s Jameson Olive.
The two-time defending champions are now facing even more significant strain on their top-nine forward group. They were already down Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk to start the season. In their absence, they were relying on Luostarinen heavily – essentially bumping up last year’s third line of him, Anton Lundell, and Brad Marchand, into first-line minutes.
Given the aggressive increase in deployment and the quality of competition, the experiment has largely gone well. Luostarinen has been the definitive third wheel on that line but was still on the best point pace of his career with 10 points (three goals, seven assists) through 18 games. The versatile 6’3″ forward has been the checking conscience of that line with 42 hits and is still tied for fifth on the club in scoring, a solid feat after back-to-back seasons in the 20-point range. He’s helped Lundell along to a strong 5-11–16 start in 19 games as he temporarily assumes Barkov’s role as Florida’s No. 1 center and has added fuel to Marchand’s resurgent 13-10–23 start in 18 games as the Cats’ leading scorer.
Understandably, relying on that trio for more offensive responsibility has come at the expense of defense. After they allowed only 1.14 goals against per 60 minutes in last year’s playoffs, that figure has spiked to 3.07 so far in the regular season. Their 47.8% share of expected goals is the worst among the Panthers’ five lines to play at least 50 minutes together this season, per MoneyPuck.
Regardless, Luostarinen’s absence will force even more line-shuffling from Maurice and even less support for struggling veterans like Sam Bennett, who’s been limited to four goals and seven points in 19 games and has a team-worst -7 rating. As for who replaces him in top-line duties with Lundell and Marchand, it’ll be 2021 first-rounder Mackie Samoskevich getting the first crack, according to Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald. Considering he’s put up similar point production (a 2-7–9 scoring line in 19 games) to Luostarinen this year in less ice time, it’s a logical bet for him to be able to elevate his game.
Florida also loses a fourth-line option in Schwindt, who had played in 10 straight games after sitting as a healthy scratch for the first nine. The former Panthers draft pick returned to the organization via a preseason waiver claim after intermediate stops in the Flames and Golden Knights organizations. He first entered the lineup in place of the injured Jonah Gadjovich in late October and managed two goals on seven shots to kick off his second stint in Sunrise. His minutes were limited at 8:38 per game, but the 24-year-old was still among the Cats’ most freshly experienced options for fourth-line minutes after he made a career-high 42 appearances for Vegas last year.
His absence means more consistent deployment for Noah Gregor, who didn’t make his season debut until Oct. 28 but has now played in six of the last nine. It’ll also mean an extended runway for top prospect Jack Devine, who has 12 points through 13 games with AHL Charlotte this year and was formally elevated earlier Wednesday.
Maple Leafs’ Matthew Knies Out Day-To-Day
The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced that top winger Matthew Knies will miss Tuesday night’s match against the St. Louis Blues with a day-to-day, lower-body injury. He joins a laundry list of injuries in Toronto that also includes Auston Matthews, Brandon Carlo, Chris Tanev, and Anthony Stolarz.
Interestingly, Knies’ injury will bring Toronto up to $36MM in cap sapce on the injury list, nearly 40 percent of their total cap, per James Mirtle of The Athletic.
Knies, Toronto’s star winger, will join the club’s top center and starting goaltender on the sideline. He has been heavily leaned on over the course of the year, averaging over 20 minutes of ice time through 19 games so far. Knies has rewarded that deployment with a career-year early on. He has five goals and 22 points on the year, enough to rank third on the team in scoring behind William Nylander (26) and John Tavares (24).
Knies was well-due for the strong start. He has assumed the role of Matthews’ handcuff after century-scorer Mitch Marner moved to the Vegas Golden Knights this summer. Knies posted 58 points, split evenly, in 78 games from a second-line role last season. That performance was itself a step up from his standout rookie year, when he scored 15 goals and 35 points in 80 games.
Tavares and Nylander will take over the top line with Matthews and Knies on the shelf. Next to them will again be shoot-first winger Nicholas Robertson, while Matias Maccelli will return to a top-six role behind him. Robertson, Maccelli, and rookie Easton Cowan will be the beneficiaries of Knies’ ice time for the duration of his absence.
Blackhawks Place Nick Foligno On IR With Hand Injury
10/17: The Blackhawks have placed Foligno on injured reserve after learning he’ll miss four weeks of action. Chicago has iced 11 forwards and seven defenseman – bringing Louis Crevier into the lineup – in Foligno’s absence. They’ll face one of three options now that their captain is on IR – stick with seven defenders every night; recall a forward like Toninato; or wait for Dickinson, who said he won’t return until he’s back to a full 100% per Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times.
10/16: The Chicago Blackhawks will be without captain Nick Foligno for the next month, head coach Jeff Blashill told Mario Tirabassi of CHGO Sports. Foligno sustained a hand injury after blocking a shot in Saturday night’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. He left the game with a few minutes left in the second period and did not return.
On top of the moral weight of losing their captain, Chicago will lose yet another forward in their middle-six with this news. The team is already without Jason Dickinson and Tyler Bertuzzi, who are both carrying day-to-day designations. Now, Foligno will fall out of the lineup as well, leaving a major hole on the wing. Foligno has filled any role Chicago has needed over the course of the season. He had two points, one fight, and a plus-three in his last five games entering Saturday’s matchup. Those marks brought him up to six points, all assists, in 15 games on the year – to go with 16 penalty minutes, 11 blocked shots, and 41 hits.
Chicago has rotated Foligno between the wing and center based on need. With no extra forwards on the roster, the Blackhawks will need to make a call-up to fill Foligno’s shoes. Unfortunately, the team is also without top call-up option Nick Lardis, who is day-to-day with an undisclosed injury per the Rockford IceHogs. Lardis leads all AHL rookies in scoring with 14 points in 15 games. He could quickly receive his first NHL call-up once he’s back to full health. Until then, Chicago will likely turn towards Dominic Toninato, who has nine points in 15 games for Rockford.