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Capitals Sign Logan Thompson To Six-Year Extension

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3:03 p.m: Washington has made the signing official per a team announcement.

1:30 p.m: The Capitals are close to a multi-year extension with pending UFA netminder Logan Thompson, Kevin Weekes of ESPN reports Monday. It’s a six-year commitment with a price tag of $5.85MM per season, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet adds, working out to a total value of $35.1MM.

PuckPedia provided the breakdown of the contract as follows:

  • Year 1: $2MM salary + $5MM signing bonus – 15-team no-trade clause
  • Year 2: $4.85MM salary + $2MM signing bonus – 15-team no-trade clause
  • Year 3: $1.5MM salary + $5MM signing bonus – 15-team no-trade clause
  • Year 4: $3.5MM salary + $2MM signing bonus – 10-team no-trade clause
  • Year 5: $3MM salary + $2MM signing bonus – 10-team no-trade clause
  • Year 6: $2.25MM salary + $2MM signing bonus – 10-team no-trade clause

It’s a sizable commitment to the breakout 27-year-old, who’s quickly ramping up his case for his first career Vezina Trophy nomination. He’s broken away from Washington’s plan to alternate him and Charlie Lindgren between the pipes nightly, erupting for a .925 SV% and 2.09 GAA in 27 appearances with a near-spotless 22-2-3 record. Thompson earned seven straight starts earlier this month, allowing just eight goals on 179 shots.

Despite the tandem workload, Thompson has been among the Capitals’ most valuable players and ranks second in the league in goals saved above expected with 26.8, only slightly trailing Vezina favorite Connor Hellebuyck’s 27.5 mark, per MoneyPuck. It’s night and day compared to what Darcy Kuemper gave the Caps last year in a similar role, making the Washington front office’s decision to send him to Los Angeles for Pierre-Luc Dubois and give up a pair of third-rounders to snag Thompson from the Golden Knights one of the best of the summer.

As expected, the extension amounts to a stratospheric raise for Thompson, who will now earn more than twice per season than the entire value of his previous contract. He signed a team-friendly three-year, $2.3MM commitment with Vegas in January 2022 when he was beginning to emerge as an NHL option. During that time, he’s been arguably the most underpaid player in the league with a 68-29-11 record, .915 SV%, 2.53 GAA, and five shutouts in 110 games for the Knights and Caps over the life of the deal.

The raise is still jarring for a netminder who’s only started more than 40 games once in his career, but Thompson has already solidified his third consecutive 20-win season and will start north of 40 again this year, barring injury. Among the 29 goalies who have played more than 100 games since the beginning of the 2022-23 campaign, that .915 SV% ranks third – higher than clear-cut stars like Andrei Vasilevskiy, Ilya Sorokin, Igor Shesterkin, and Juuse Saros.

He’s now Washington’s present and future between the pipes as they look to end Alex Ovechkin’s career on a high note and keep the momentum going after he inevitably breaks the league’s all-time goals record. If he stays healthy, he should get the chance to also head into the playoffs as his team’s undisputed starter for the first time in his career.

Thompson’s deal runs through the 2030-31 campaign, after which he’ll be a UFA at age 34. The Caps now have $69.375MM tied up in 15 players for next season, not including pending UFAs Lindgren and top-four defenseman Jakob Chychrun. His $5.85MM cap hit will rank 15th among netminders next season as things stand.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Islanders Acquire Scott Perunovich From Blues

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The Islanders acquired defenseman Scott Perunovich from the Blues on Monday in exchange for a conditional 2026 fifth-round pick, both clubs announced.

Perunovich, 26, slots into the Islanders’ blue line after righty Ryan Pulock landed on injured reserve this morning. His acquisition signals the latter is expected to miss significant time, so he and recent free-agent signing Tony DeAngelo now slot in to relieve the void left by Pulock and Noah Dobson, who’s week-to-week with a right leg injury.

While the 5’10” puck mover is a left shot, he has experience playing on his offside. New York will rely on that experience and presumably utilize him on the right, giving them another offensive option in addition to the historically one-dimensional DeAngelo.

A 2018 second-round pick, Perunovich was once one of the most highly-regarded defense prospects in the game. But after winning the Hobey Baker Award with 40 points in 34 games for Minnesota-Duluth in 2019-20, he missed his entire rookie campaign with St. Louis after undergoing left shoulder surgery. Wrist surgery limited him to 19 games with the Blues the following year, and yet another shoulder injury cut into his 2022-23 campaign. Throughout those three seasons, injuries limited Perunovich to just 58 games with the Blues and AHL Springfield.

While wholly healthy for the first time since college in 2024-25, Perunovich hasn’t found much playing time. He’s been a healthy scratch for about half the season, including the last nine games, and has only averaged 14:37 per game when in the lineup. He has six points and nine shots on goal in 24 games, adding 21 blocks and nine hits. The acquisition of Philip Broberg via offer sheet this summer as a young puck-moving lefty largely made Perunovich a redundancy heading into the campaign, so seeing him on the move is not entirely surprising.

He’s far from being the two-way presence Pulock is for the Isles, but he more accurately fills the void left by depth defender Mike Reilly, who remains on LTIR after undergoing heart surgery. He has 29 points in his 97 career NHL appearances but will be in line for a bump in minutes on Long Island, which both sides hope will boost his production.

Perunovich signed a one-year, $1.15MM extension with the Blues last June to avoid hitting restricted free agency. He’ll be an RFA again at season’s end and is arbitration-eligible.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Penguins Place Evgeni Malkin On Injured Reserve

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The Penguins placed Evgeni Malkin on injured reserve Monday, per a team announcement. He left Saturday’s game against the Kraken in the first period because of a lower-body injury. The team recalled winger Jesse Puljujärvi from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to fill his roster spot.

Malkin appeared to injure his left leg in a collision with Kraken center Chandler Stephenson at center ice. He took one shift after the play but departed for the locker room shortly thereafter. The team has not issued a timeline for his return.

Any long-term absence from a top-six forward is likely a season-ender for the Pens, who have gone 3-6-3 since the New Year and sit last in the Metropolitan Division with 48 points. Their above-average offense was the only thing keeping the club afloat – only the Sharks have allowed more goals than Pittsburgh’s 185 – and Malkin is still an extremely important contributor with 25 assists and 34 points through 47 games.

The all-time great missed four games with an unrelated upper-body injury earlier this month. Pittsburgh went 1-2-1 during that stretch and averaged 2.5 goals per game.

Malkin had been skating in his usual second-line center spot, most recently flanked by Michael Bunting and Philip Tomasino. Puljujärvi won’t slide in there as a direct replacement but is expected to see third-line duties while Cody Glass slides up to center Bunting and Tomasino, PuckPedia projects. While Pittsburgh has 14 forwards on the active roster without Malkin, Blake Lizotte and Bryan Rust are day-to-day with an illness and a lower-body injury, respectively, and won’t play Monday against the Sharks.

Puljujärvi, 26, comes back up after being reassigned to WBS nearly two weeks to the day. Prior to his clearing waivers and subsequent demotion, the 2016 fourth-overall pick had three goals and six assists for nine points in 25 games. He barely played in December, at one point going a month between games while sitting in the press box.

The big-bodied Finn logged a goal and two assists with a minus-two rating in a trio of appearances for the Baby Pens this month. He’s among Pittsburgh’s fastest skaters with a top speed of 22.66 mph this season, per NHL EDGE.

Islanders Place Ryan Pulock, Marcus Högberg On Injured Reserve

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Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock and goaltender Marcus Högberg have both landed on injured reserve after leaving Saturday’s overtime win over the Hurricanes with upper-body injuries, the team announced. There’s no corresponding transaction yet for Pulock, but the team recalled goalie Jakub Skarek from AHL Bridgeport to temporarily replace Högberg as Ilya Sorokin’s backup.

Pulock and Högberg will miss at least three games due to their IR placements, which are retroactive to Saturday. They’ll be eligible to return on Feb. 2 against the Panthers, although, without further clarity on either’s injury, there’s no indication whether they’ll be medically cleared by then.

Pulock got hurt on his first shift against the Canes, falling awkwardly behind the net as he got tangled up with Carolina winger Jackson Blake. He favored his left shoulder as he left the ice. Högberg, meanwhile, played all of regulation but didn’t come out for overtime after a right-hand injury sustained midway through the third period was actively getting worse, head coach Patrick Roy told Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News. Sorokin thus came in relief, recording the win despite making just one save in overtime.

These are crater-sized blows for the Isles, who are now without their top two right-shot defensemen and are down to their third-best backup option. Pulock joins Noah Dobson as inactive, and PuckPedia reflects that the latter was moved to long-term injured reserve yesterday to add some cap flexibility after the Tony DeAngelo signing. That move ensures Dobson won’t return before the 4 Nations Face-Off break with his right leg injury – not that he was expected to – and also rules him out of their first game back against the Stars on Feb. 23. He’ll be out of action for almost another month at the very least, with his earliest eligible return date standing as Feb. 25 against the Rangers.

Pulock, 30, had yet to miss a game this season after sitting out over a quarter of 2023-24 with a lower-body issue. The Manitoba native had three goals and 13 assists for 16 points with a plus-seven rating through 48 games, continuing a run of seven straight seasons in the black. He’s averaged just shy of 22 minutes per game, and, as usual, his pairing with Adam Pelech has graded out as the Isles’ top shutdown unit at even strength. Pelech’s 1.9 GA/60 and Pulock’s 2.2 GA/60 are the two lowest marks among New York’s regular defensemen.

Scott Mayfield now slots in alongside Pelech as a top-four option with Pulock sidelined, while DeAngelo will likely continue alongside Alexander Romanov as Dobson’s short-term replacement. Depth defender Dennis Cholowski should re-enter the lineup alongside Isaiah George on the third pairing after sitting as a healthy scratch in three of the last four games. They don’t have any other defenders on the active roster to insert into the lineup but they opened a roster spot with Pulock’s IR replacement that they could use to recall one from AHL Bridgeport.

Högberg had been spotless as Sorokin’s backup for the past month while veteran Semyon Varlamov remains sidelined with a lower-body injury. The 30-year-old, who last played in the NHL with the Senators in 2020-21, has a 2-2-0 record in five starts and two relief appearances with a .947 SV% and 1.45 GAA. That’s a big jump on his AHL numbers from earlier in the year, as the Swede struggled behind a bad Bridgeport club to a .898 SV% and 3.26 GAA in 11 showings.

The Isles are hoping for a similar bump from Skarek, who could finally make his NHL debut after six AHL seasons. The 25-year-old was a third-round pick in 2018 but has never been a solid minor-league option, failing to record a save percentage above .900 at any level in a single season since his post-draft year in Finland. Through 20 appearances for Bridgeport this year, he has a 3.22 GAA, .895 SV%, one shutout, and a 5-11-1 record.

Varlamov resumed skating nearly a month ago, so his return likely isn’t too far off. Whether or not he’ll beat Högberg to it remains to be seen, though.

Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Canada’s Alex Pietrangelo Withdraws From 4 Nations Face-Off

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The Vegas Golden Knights have announced that top defenseman Alex Pietrangelo has chosen to withdraw from the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off to tend to what they describe as an “ailment” and prepare for the remaining season.

Pietrangelo has appeared in 46 of Vegas’ 49 games this season, having missed six days of action with an upper-body injury in November. He’s otherwise been as consistent as they come, averaging nearly 23 minutes of ice time and serving roles on both of Vegas’ special teams. He ranks second among the team’s blue-line in scoring with 25 points in 46 games, confidently behind Shea Theodore’s 44 points. Pietrangelo also ranks second on the team in blocked shots with 87. Even at the age of 35, Pietrangelo has continued to serve in a premier role for the Golden Knights.

Pietrangelo was named to Team Canada’s 4-Nations Face-Off roster on December 3rd, alongside Golden Knights teammate Theodore and former St. Louis Blues teammate Colton Parayko. The trio made up half of a blue-line that also featured Cale Makar, Devon Toews, Josh Morrissey, and Travis Sanheim. With Pietrangelo opting to withdraw, Canada will have to go back to the drawing board to find their final defender. Edmonton’s Evan Bouchard, New Jersey’s Dougie Hamilton, and San Jose’s Jake Walman lead all available options in NHL scoring.

The reasons for Pietrangelo’s withdrawal seem unclear. He has shown no signs of injury through the recent stretch and has even recorded an assist in four of Vegas’ last five games. Pietrangelo is also signed through the end of the 2026-27 season, giving him a reasonable chance at making Team Canada’s roster for the 2026 Winter Olympics with a strong showing at the 4-Nations tournament. But he’ll now back out to keep his sights on Vegas’ success.  The Golden Knights currently rank third in the Western Conference and fourth in the NHL with 64 points. They seem clearly in sight of a playoff berth, where they’ll get a chance to chase their second Stanley Cup in the last three years. Pietrangelo also won a Cup in St. Louis.

Blue Jackets’ Sean Monahan Expected Out Six To Eight More Weeks

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The Columbus Blue Jackets will remain thin down the middle for the foreseeable future. Columbus announced that center Sean Monahan is expected to miss an additional six to eight weeks due to the wrist injury he suffered on January 7th.

The injury update will likely change the Blue Jackets’ plans for the trade deadline. They had been looking forward to captain Boone Jenner’s return, which would have significantly boosted the team. However, now they will be without a top-six center until mid-March.

Despite missing the last three weeks, Monahan is still the third-highest-scoring player on the team. He’s tallied 14 goals and 41 points in 41 games for Columbus since signing a five-year, $27.5MM contract as an unrestricted free agent last summer.

Given the organization’s renewed playoff aspirations, the Blue Jackets should enter the market for a rental center in the next few weeks. Adam Fantilli has filled the void nicely, scoring five goals and nine points in eight games since Monahan’s injury, but they could use another center regardless. Furthermore, it would be a nice reward for a team that has shattered all preseason expectations. 

Thankfully for Columbus, there should be plenty of talent available. In no particular order, Trent Frederic, Ryan Donato, Jake Evans, Yanni Gourde, and Alexander Kerfoot all come to mind as potential options. The Blue Jackets have both an abundance of draft picks and cap space which conceivably puts them in the market for any available player if they’re willing to meet the price.

New York Rangers Extend Will Borgen To Five-Year Contract

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5:50 p.m: Per a team announcement, the Rangers have made the five-year contract official.

5:13 p.m: According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the New York Rangers are closing in on a five-year, $20.5MM extension with defenseman William Borgen. He’s been a stable top-four defenseman for the Rangers since being acquired from the Seattle Kraken in mid-December.

It’s a significant increase over Borgen’s current $2.7 million salary. He was set to become an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career on July 1, but he will sign on for another five years with the Rangers.

It’s also a major vote of confidence from the Rangers organization. Borgen is only 17 games into his tenure with New York after being the main piece acquired in the Kaapo Kakko trade with the Seattle Kraken.

After primarily serving in a bottom-pairing role with the Kraken through the beginning of the season, Borgen has been thrust into a top-four role with the Rangers. He’s scored one goal and two assists in 17 games averaging 18:35 of ice time per game. He’s continued being a physical defenseman in New York, racking up 30 hits and 29 blocked shots.

His peripherals are also solid, averaging a 48.2% CorsiFor% at even strength and an 89.8% on-ice save percentage in the same situation — higher than he ever produced in Seattle. Should he continue producing at the same level in New York, his $4.1MM salary could become a steal through the expected prime years of his career.

It’ll also give the Rangers more clarity regarding their blue line. Borgen gives them three right-handed defensemen signed through next season. Braden Schneider will become a restricted free agent next year but they’ll still have two years of team control.

Unfortunately, the same doesn’t hold for the left side of the defense. Every remaining blue liner on the active roster becomes a restricted free agent or unrestricted free agent at season’s end giving the Rangers plenty of remaining work.

Islanders Sign Tony DeAngelo To One-Year Deal

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Saturday: DeAngelo has passed through waivers unclaimed, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports.  That paves the way for him to officially join the Islanders.

Friday: The Islanders signed unrestricted free agent defenseman Tony DeAngelo to a one-year deal on Friday, per a team announcement. He’ll join the club for the remainder of the 2024-25 season after recently being released by SKA St. Petersburg of the Kontinental Hockey League, assuming he clears return waivers. The deal is worth the prorated league minimum of $775K with no bonuses, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reports.

DeAngelo, 29, generated little interest on the open market last summer after completing a one-year, $1.675MM contract with the Hurricanes. He reportedly approached the Oilers about a professional tryout shortly before training camp, but the interest wasn’t mutual. DeAngelo then inked a one-year deal to head to Russia for the first time, a move that had been rumored for much of the latter half of the offseason.

The power-play specialist told Larry Brooks of the New York Post in early December that he wasn’t optimistic about an NHL return, but it appears he felt an opportunity may be materializing when SKA released him on Jan. 13. The New Jersey native lit up the KHL in his brief run overseas, posting 32 points and a +15 rating in 34 games on a St. Petersburg roster that includes longtime Capital and brief Hurricanes teammate Evgeny Kuznetsov and Canadiens top prospect Ivan Demidov.

DeAngelo’s move overseas means he must clear the little-used return waiver process. It’s sometimes resulted in claims, including the Coyotes nabbing Harri Säteri off waivers from the Maple Leafs in 2022 after Toronto attempted to bring him over to bolster their goaltending depth.

The Islanders were in need of blue-line help, especially on the right side. Star defender Noah Dobson sustained a right leg injury Monday against the Blue Jackets and is out week-to-week, while depth puck-mover Mike Reilly remains on long-term injured reserve after undergoing heart surgery in November.

DeAngelo provides a power-play replacement for the duo but certainly can’t replicate Dobson’s minutes at even strength. He returned to Carolina for his second stint with the Hurricanes last season after being bought out for the second time in his career by the Flyers. However, he was limited to 11 points in 31 games and averaged a paltry 14:20 per game while sitting in the press box for most of the back half of the campaign.

The 5’11” righty has 210 points in 371 career NHL games, 89 of which have come on the power play. His 0.57 points per game since debuting in the 2016-17 season ranks 30th among defenders with at least 100 games played during that timeframe.

Defensive deficiencies and constant unavailability due to external and internal suspensions have limited DeAngelo’s ceiling as a top-four option for most of his career. He most notably spent nearly all of the 2020-21 campaign with the Rangers on their taxi squad after an altercation with then-teammate Alexandar Georgiev and was bought out at season’s end, coming just one year after he finished 12th in Norris Trophy voting in 2019-20 with a career-best 53 points in 68 games.

A first-round pick by the Lightning in 2014, DeAngelo now joins his sixth NHL organization. He won’t be eligible to play tonight against the Flyers while on return waivers but could make his Isles debut against Carolina tomorrow if he clears.

The Islanders don’t have an open roster spot, but they won’t need one until DeAngelo’s waiver period ends. They’ll need to clear two places before the Carolina game, as winger Maxim Tsyplakov is also set to return from a three-game suspension for an illegal check to the head of Philadelphia center Ryan Poehling last week. That will likely involve returning forward Marc Gatcomb to AHL Bridgeport and moving Dobson to IR, but they have a few other options too.

DeAngelo will most likely suit up as a third-pairing option while handling top-unit power-play duties in Dobson’s absence. Veterans Ryan Pulock and Scott Mayfield will presumably continue to lock down the Isles’ top two pairings on the right side.

Hurricanes Acquire Mikko Rantanen And Taylor Hall In Three-Team Swap

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Blackhawks winger Taylor Hall was a late scratch from their game tonight against Tampa Bay.  His absence wasn’t injury or illness-related, however, as he was traded to Carolina.  He wasn’t the only one on the move, however, as the Hurricanes also picked up Mikko Rantanen as part of a three-team swap.  The full deal, which has now been announced by all three teams, is as follows:

To Carolina: Taylor Hall, Mikko Rantanen (Chicago retains 50% of his contract), Nils Juntorp
To Chicago: CHI 3rd-round pick in 2025 (via Carolina)
To Colorado: Martin Necas, Jack Drury, 2025 second-round pick, 2026 fourth-round pick

Hall was widely speculated as a trade candidate going back to the start of the season.  Now in the final year of his contract (one that carries a $6MM AAV), the veteran recently indicated that he’d be open to remaining with the Blackhawks but admitted that a trade was the likeliest outcome.  That departure came a bit sooner than expected with the trade deadline still six weeks away.

The 33-year-old is in his second season with Chicago after being acquired in a cap-clearing move from Boston back in 2023.  He was limited to just ten games in 2023-24 though due to a torn ACL but he has remained healthy so far this season.  However, production has been difficult to come by this year as he has just nine goals and 15 assists in 46 games and was even made a healthy scratch earlier in the season.

In his prime, Hall was a legitimate top-line winger and even won the Hart Trophy back in 2015-16 while with New Jersey.  He has been a 20-goal scorer seven times in his 15-year career, most recently coming in 2021-22 with Boston.  While he’s no longer playing at that type of level, he should still be able to give Carolina a boost in their middle six.  A potentially long playoff run could also help him rebuild some value heading into free agency this summer.

As for Rantanen, he’s also in the final year of his contract, a deal that carries a $9.25MM price tag, one that the Blackhawks will eat half of to help facilitate the swap, leaving them with just one remaining retention slot for this season.  While Rantanen’s camp and the Avs were involved in recent extension discussions, the two sides were still well apart as of last week and clearly, they weren’t able to bridge those to either side’s satisfaction, resulting in Colorado deciding to move him now instead of run the risk of having him walk for nothing in free agency.  It was believed that the Avalanche preferred to keep Rantanen’s price below Nathan MacKinnon’s $12.6MM while Rantanen’s side was eyeing Leon Draisaitl’s $14MM AAV (starting next season) as a benchmark.  Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman adds (Twitter link) that there is no extension in place with Carolina at this time.

Rantanen has consistently been one of the NHL’s top scorers in recent years.  Only three players have more points than him since the start of the 2020-21 season, Connor McDavid, MacKinnon, and Draisaitl, certainly lofty company to be in.  The 28-year-old has recorded more than 100 points in each of the last two years and is well on his way toward extending that streak.  Rantanen has 25 goals and 39 assists in 49 games this season, good for sixth in NHL scoring.  He’ll undoubtedly be a big boost to a Carolina attack that’s already among the best in the league, checking in at fourth overall in goals scored.

Necas, like Hall, had been in a lot of trade speculation, especially over the summer.  At one point, it looked as if he’d be moved back at the draft amid reports that he had indicated that he’d welcome a change of scenery but that didn’t materialize.  Instead, the two sides ultimately settled on a two-year, $13MM deal in July, a deal that gave him a fair-sized raise but also didn’t give Carolina any extra team control.

Two years ago, Necas had a breakout year, posting 28 goals and 43 assists in 82 games.  Unfortunately for him and the Hurricanes, those numbers dropped last season to 24 and 29 respectively.  However, things have been much better for the 26-year-old this season, as he has 16 goals and 39 assists in 49 games; his 55 points lead the team in scoring.  But even with that, GM Eric Tulsky has decided that a significant shakeup to his forward group is required and these two moves certainly count as a significant shakeup.

Necas will likely slot in where Rantanen was on Colorado’s top line and a chance to play with MacKinnon could allow his individual production to flourish.  That would certainly be an ideal situation to be in considering he’ll become extension-eligible on July 1st when he’ll have some more leverage only being a year away from hitting the UFA market.

Drury’s first full NHL campaign came last season and it was a good one as he had eight goals and 19 assists in 74 games while winning over 55% of his faceoffs.  That helped earn him a two-year, $3.45MM contract over the summer.  However, production has been harder to come by for him this season as the 24-year-old has just three goals and six assists through 39 games although his faceoff win percentage is up to 58.8%.

Colorado’s bottom six group has been an area of some concern for a couple of years now with the team churning through numerous players with varying degrees of minimal success.  While Drury isn’t producing much more than many of those players, he’ll give the Avs some desired stability down the middle while his faceoff prowess will fit in well on a team that has a success rate at the dot of just 44.5%.  They also get some club control over Drury who isn’t UFA-eligible until 2028.

Juntorp was a sixth-round pick by Chicago in 2022 and is included in the swap as the Blackhawks had to send something out beyond Hall to make the three-team element of the deal work.  He has 20 points in 25 games with HC Dalen in the Hockey Ettan along with three appearances with Vasteras in the second-tier Allsvenskan.

In the end, Carolina has clearly signaled its intentions to go all-in this season and managed to upgrade its roster without touching any of its future assets.  They’ll dip into LTIR for the time being to afford the swap.  Colorado, meanwhile, ensures that they’ll get a top-line talent and some other pieces in exchange for Rantanen, giving them an extra year of club control along the way.  They also free up a bit of cap space in the process which they’ll likely put to use in the coming weeks.  As for Chicago, their return is certainly underwhelming as Hall is effectively given away in this deal while only receiving a third-round pick for eating half of Rantanen’s contract.  However, they were able to clear the full freight of Hall’s contract, giving them one more retention slot to utilize before the deadline.

Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic first reported the three-team element and Chicago’s acquisition of the third-round pick.  Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli was the first to report Colorado’s involvement in the deal.  The Athletic’s Arthur Staple first reported that Necas was part of the swap.  ESPN’s Emily Kaplan was first with Drury’s inclusion and the two picks going to Colorado.

Photos courtesy of Imagn Images.

Islanders’ Noah Dobson Out Week-To-Week With Lower-Body Injury

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Jan. 24: The Islanders placed Dobson on injured reserve Friday, per Daily Faceoff. The transaction opens a roster spot for defenseman Tony DeAngelo should he clear return waivers on Saturday after signing a one-year deal with the Isles for the remainder of the season.

Jan. 23: Dobson has been upgraded to week-to-week with his right leg injury, which evaluation revealed will not require surgery, an Islanders spokesperson told Denis P. Gorman of Newsday on Thursday.

Jan. 21: Star Islanders defenseman Noah Dobson has no timetable for a return from the lower-body injury he sustained in Monday’s win over the Blue Jackets, the team told Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News and NHL.com. Dobson had to leave the contest after falling awkwardly on his lower right leg and ankle while attempting a check on Columbus center Cole Sillinger, although he skated off under his own power.

Dobson will likely be placed on injured reserve at some point before Friday’s game against the Flyers, which will give them the roster space to recall an extra defenseman. Scott Mayfield figures to slide up into a top-four role at even strength in the interim, while Ryan Pulock could see an uptick in ice time by taking Dobson’s spot on their top power-play unit.

New York has failed to keep pace in the wild card race, sitting one game below .500 and seven points back of the Bruins for the second Eastern Conference spot. The Athletic still gave the Isles a 17% chance of rebounding and making up that ground with 36 games remaining, but that number drops at least a couple of percentage points with their most valuable defenseman set to miss multiple weeks.

Dobson hits pause on his 2024-25 season with six goals, 18 assists, 24 points and a minus-eight rating over 46 appearances, translating to a 0.52 points-per-game rate that’s a sharp dropoff from last year’s career-best 0.89. That can partially be explained by the Islanders’ dismal power play, tied with the Ducks for last in the league at 12.5%. 24 of his 70 points last season came with a man advantage, but he’s on pace for half that PP point total this year. Dobson remains the team’s leader in average time on ice (24:01), shots on goal (143), and takeaways (28), so it’s not all bad for the 25-year-old.

Injuries haven’t yet cost Dobson significant time in his six-year NHL career, but that looks to change now. He’s never missed more than four games in a single season due to a non-illness-related injury, but he could easily miss more than twice that before the Isles’ schedule pauses in early February for the 4 Nations Face-Off.

The injury also comes in a contract year for Dobson, who’s ticketed for a big raise on his current $4MM AAV as a pending restricted free agent. The 6’4″ righty has 143 points in 203 games over the life of his current three-year bridge deal and will likely argue for at least doubling his salary on a long-term deal.

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