Aleksander Barkov Out Two To Three Weeks
The Florida Panthers will be without top center Aleksander Barkov for the next 2-3 weeks with an undisclosed injury, reports NHL.com’s Alain Poupart. While Barkov left Wednesday’s game against Toronto after taking a shot to the ribs from Keith Yandle, head coach Tom Rowe stated that this is not the injury that will keep Barkov out of the lineup. He noted that the injury occurred a couple of games ago and that the 21 year old had been trying to play through it. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman adds (Twitter link) that Florida has placed him on injured reserve.
Barkov leads the Panthers in scoring this season with nine goals and 18 assists through 36 games and had a five game point streak snapped against the Leafs.
The injury opens up a spot on Florida’s top line alongside Jaromir Jagr and Seth Griffith. Center Nick Bjugstad, who has struggled mightily since returning from a broken wrist, got the first look in that spot last night against Montreal. Through 18 games, he has just a single goal and an assist but has put up at least 15 goals in each of the last three seasons.
Injuries And Recalls: December 29
Injury Updates:
- 4:20pm: The Kings have activated defenseman Brayden McNabb off IR, Elliott Teaford of the Southern California News Group relays. He last played on October 29th before suffering a collarbone injury.
- 1:20pm: The Devils announced that center Jacob Josefson has been activated off of injured reserve. He had missed the last five games with a concussion and has two assists in 14 games this year.
- 11:17am: The Lightning announce that rookie forward Brayden Point will miss the next four-to-six weeks with an upper-body injury. Point has 15 points in 36 games so far this season.
- 10:28am: After leaving last night’s game, Florida Panthers center Sasha Barkov will undergo an MRI. This is according to TSN’s Pierre LeBrun, who says Barkov’s injury does not appear to be serious at this time. Barkov has been one of the Panthers’ few bright spots in an otherwise difficult year, with 27 points in 36 games. He will not be in the lineup on Thursday night when the Panthers host the Montreal Canadiens.
- According to Bill Hoppe of the Buffalo Times-Herald, Sabres defenseman Dmitry Kulikov will be out of the lineup on Thursday night. Kulikov aggravated a prior back injury and will be replaced by Cody Franson, who is returning from a mid-to-lower-body injury. Kulikov was one of the Sabres’ bigger additions this past summer, but only has one assist in 20 games, and that came on Tuesday night.
- Also via Hoppe, Tyler Ennis is once again skating with the team seven weeks after undergoing surgery. His initial timeline was around six weeks. There is no timetable for his return.
- Oilers winger Iiro Pakarinen is skating, according to Mark Spector. Pakarinen has yet to play a game this season after suffering an ugly knee injury in a pre-season game versus the Kings on October 2. He has 16 points in 80 games over the past two seasons with the Oilers.
Recalls:
- 5:20pm: The Minnesota Wild announced that they have demoted forward Kurtis Gabriel to the AHL’s Iowa Wild. The 2013 third-round pick recorded his first NHL point while on recall, an assist in an early December win over the Toronto Maple Leafs, but has failed to build on that. He has just the one point in 13 games with Minnesota over the past two seasons. The fourth liner was averaging just under six minutes of ice time so far this season. Not known for his offensive ability, the 23-year-old Gabriel will have to prove in the AHL that he is an NHL-caliber checker to earn another shot.
- In light of Point’s injury, the Lightning have recalled Erik Condra and Yanni Gourde from Syracuse. Condra has played seven games for the Bolts so far this season, but has been held pointless. He does have 19 points in 21 AHL games. Gourde has just two NHL games under his belt, both last season. He has 26 points in 29 AHL games so far.
- Columbus has recalled left winger Markus Hannikainen as they look to win their fourteenth straight game. He’s not expected to be in the lineup on Thursday night versus the Jets. Hannikainen has no points in five NHL appearances this season, but has 13 points in 23 AHL games in Cleveland.
- The Panthers have recalled Michael Sgarbossa to fill Barkov’s roster spot, according to NBC Sports. The Panthers originally acquired Sgarbossa last month from the Ducks. He has 12 points in 14 games for the Panthers’ AHL affiliate.
Matt Murray Out Week-To-Week With Lower Body Injury
Penguins goaltender Matt Murray, who left yesterday’s game in Carolina early, has been diagnosed with a lower body injury and is out on a week-to-week basis, head coach Mike Sullivan told reporters, including Bill West of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Twitter link).
The rookie netminder has picked up right where he left off after a stellar postseason performance, posting a 13-3-1 record this year in 19 appearances with a 2.18 GAA and a .928 SV% along with two shutouts, taking over as the undisputed starter from incumbent Marc-Andre Fleury.
Murray has long been viewed as Pittsburgh’s goalie of the future and signed a three year, $11.25MM extension in mid-October. That has called Fleury’s future with the team into question, especially with the expansion draft coming up in June. Fleury has struggled considerably this year with a subpar 3.13 GAA and a .908 SV% but could help his potential trade value with a strong showing in Murray’s absence.
The timing of this could be worse for the Penguins who play just once in the next ten days as they are one of the first teams to receive the CBA-mandated ‘bye week’ at the beginning of January.
In the meantime, Pittsburgh has called up a top prospect, Tristan Jarry, who is off to a strong start with their AHL affiliate this season in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, posting a 2.15 GAA and a .921 SV% in 19 games, to serve as Fleury’s backup.
Blues Extend Robert Bortuzzo
Robert Bortuzzo will remain in the Show-Me State for another two seasons.
The St. Louis Blues signed the rugged defenseman to a two-year extension with an AAV of $1.15MM, according to Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He currently makes $1.05MM on the contract he signed with the Blues in July of 2015.
The 6’4, 221 lb Bortuzzo has two points in 11 games so far this season, and has been out of the lineup since early December with a lower-body injury.
St. Louis acquired Bortuzzo (and a seventh round pick) from Pittsburgh at the 2015 trade deadline for defenseman Ian Cole. Bortuzzo has a total of seven points in 64 games over the past three seasons with the Blues. For his career, Bortuzzo has played in 177 contests between Pittsburgh and St. Louis, recording 20 points (4-16-20).
With the deal, St. Louis now has $15.85MM tied up in four defensemen for next season – Bortuzzo, Alex Pietrangelo, Jay Bouwmeester, and Joel Edmundson. Most notably among their unsigned blueliners is Kevin Shattenkirk, who is likely to be the most sought after defender if he makes it to unrestricted free agency in July. Colton Parayko is also unsigned but will be a restricted free agent.
Tom Renney Stepping Down As President Of Hockey Canada
Hockey Canada President and CEO Tom Renney announced that he will be stepping down as president later next year.
Renney will be replaced as president by Scott Smith, the current COO of Hockey Canada, as of July 1, 2017. Renney will remain the CEO of the organization. Smith has been with Hockey Canada since 1995, and was appointed COO in 2007. He will be taking on a more public role, according to Hockey Canada.
Renney believes that he and Smith have “very complementary skillsets and approaches,” which will benefit the organization’s mandate to grow hockey in Canada and around the world.
The chair of the board, Joe Drago, told the media that Renney approached them with the plan to promote Smith. Renney was hired by Hockey Canada in July of 2014 to replace Bob Nicholson, who had held the position since 1998. Nicholson is now the CEO and vice-chair of the Oilers entertainment group. Incidentally, Renney has previously served as the coach of the Oilers from 2009 to 2012.
Blackhawks Officially Announce Panarin Extension
The Chicago Blackhawks officially confirmed left winger Artemi Panarin‘s two-year extension on Thursday morning.
While the club did not reveal any of the financial details regarding the new contract, we reported on Wednesday that several hockey insiders, including Bob McKenzie, Elliotte Friedman, and Scott Powers, have all pegged the value at $6MM per season with a little more than half coming in the form of signing bonuses.
The 25-year-old Panarin is in his second season with the Blackhawks after playing the previous seven seasons in the KHL. He scored 77 points in 80 games as a rookie playing alongside Patrick Kane and Artem Anisimov, winning the Calder Trophy. Panarin and Kane showed especially strong chemistry, as Kane hit a career-high 110 points last season.
Panarin is the Blackhawks leading scorer so far this season, with 37 points in 37 games. That’s good for fifth in the NHL, behind only Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Vladimir Tarasenko.
Panarin is the final season of his two-year entry-level contract, which carries a cap hit of just $925K. Unfortunately for the Blackhawks, he has over $2.5MM of potential bonuses. He’s currently on pace to max out those bonuses for the second straight year. That represented a major part of Chicago’s cap overage of more than $3MM this season. Panarin is one of six players on the Blackhawks who have performance bonuses in their contract, adding up to a possible total of over $4.4MM which could be added to their cap. They currently have just over $427K in cap space.
With Panarin’s extension signed, GM Stan Bowman will once again have to get creative this summer to keep the band together in Chicago.
Blackhawks Agree To Terms On Contract Extension With Artemi Panarin
The Chicago Blackhawks and left winger Artemi Panarin have agreed to terms on a contract extension, reports Scott Powers of The Athletic. The scribe notes that the deal was finalized earlier today and is expected to be announced on Thursday morning. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that it’s a two year deal with a cap hit of $6MM. He will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the contract while TSN’s Bob McKenzie adds via Twitter that more than half of the money in the deal will be in the form of a signing bonus.
Panarin, last year’s Calder Trophy winner for Rookie of the Year, is Chicago’s leading scorer this season with 37 points (15-22-37) in 37 games and sits fifth in scoring league-wide. He’s in his second year with Chicago and recently became only the 27th player in NHL history to record his first 100 points in 110 games.
Panarin is in the second and final season of his entry level contract that carries a cap hit (before bonuses) of just $925K. However, he has over $2.5MM of potential Schedule A and B bonuses that he maxed out on last season, which helped contribute to Chicago’s bonus overage this year that’s greater than $3MM. If he continues his current pace, he’ll likely max out of them again which will result in another overage for the Blackhawks next season given that the team is quite tight to the salary cap and already have a $750K bonus achieved by defenseman Brian Campbell.
Fitting in this contract may be a challenge for Chicago next year as they already have over $60MM committed in payroll, per CapFriendly before factoring in Panarin. It has been speculated that if they were to get him signed, they would have to move one of their core players in order to stay under the cap for next season. With the deal now done, GM Stan Bowman now knows exactly how much space he’ll have to try to free up between now and next October.
Troy Brouwer Suffers Broken Finger, Undergoes Surgery
Flames right winger Troy Brouwer has undergone surgery to repair a broken finger, reports Postmedia’s Kristen Odland (Twitter link). Sportsnet’s Roger Millions adds via Twitter that Brouwer will be out week-to-week. The injury was sustained on December 23rd against Vancouver.
Teammate Johnny Gaudreau also had a broken finger this year and missed ten games as a result. In a follow-up tweet, Millions suggests the circumstances for Brouwer’s injury are similar to Gaudreau’s but that the break is in a different location.
Brouwer is in his first season with Calgary after signing a four year, $18MM contract back in July and has recorded eight goals and nine assists in 36 games this season while primarily playing a top six role. He also leads the team with 76 hits.
The Flames did get some good news on the injury front as well. Mikael Backlund left yesterday’s game in Colorado with a lower body injury after blocking a shot. However, it appears his injury is a minor one. He took a maintenance day today and is expected to be ready to play tomorrow against Anaheim.
[Related: Flames Depth Chart]
Devils Injury Notes
The injury bug has struck the New Jersey Devils forward core.
Veteran center Vern Fiddler will be out of the lineup for the next 3-4 weeks with a lower-body injury, while superstar Taylor Hall will miss Thursday night’s game and is considered day-to-day with a lower-body injury that is unrelated to his knee surgery.
Fiddler has three points in 35 games this season. He signed a one-year, $1.25MM contract back on July 1st. With center Jacob Josefson on IR battling a concussion suffered earlier this month, look for the Devils GM Ray Shero to perhaps make a call to Albany of the AHL later this week.
Hall has 23 points in 27 games this season after being acquired from Edmonton in the first blockbuster move of June 29. He missed two weeks in November with a torn meniscus in his left knee. He had a beautiful assist in Tuesday night’s loss to the Penguins, and also took a stick to the face. Neither the prior knee injury nor the mouth are responsible for Hall’s status, according to the Devils. While Hall will miss Thursday night’s game for sure, it’s not clear how long he’ll be day-to-day or what exactly has struck him down.
Two Players Sent To AHL As Roster Freeze Ends
With the NHL’s holiday roster freeze over, Washington and Toronto made a pair of minor transactions on Wednesday morning.
The Capitals sent rookie Zachary Sanford back to Hershey of the AHL, the Bears announced this morning. Sanford has played for both the Bears and Capitals this season, with one assist in 20 NHL games and four goals and seven points in just six AHL games. The Washington Post’s Isabelle Khurshudyan isn’t surprised by the move, considering Sanford had been a healthy scratch for three of the past four games after being recalled on December 17.
Meanwhile the Toronto Maple Leafs’ goaltending carousel continues, as the team demoted backup goaltender Jhonas Enroth to the AHL. The move has not been announced by the team as of this being written, but the move is already up on the AHL’s official transaction page and Enroth is listed on the Marlies roster. This comes one day after the Leafs recalled a trio of players, including goaltender Antoine Bibeau. Enroth was expected to be a solid backup for new starter Frederik Andersen, but has struggled mightily with no victories in six appearances and a 0.872 SV%. Because he makes under $950K, ($750K), he will not count against the Maple Leafs’ salary cap.
Enroth joins Karri Ramo, Garret Sparks, and Jeff Glass as goaltenders on the Marlies’ roster. Enroth and Sparks are under contract with the NHL club, Ramo is with the team on a tryout basis, and Glass is on an AHL-only deal after spending the past seven years in the KHL.