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Avalanche Sign Mackenzie Blackwood To Five-Year Extension

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11:29 a.m.: Blackwood has put pen to paper on a five-year deal, the team announced. The contract carries a $5.25MM cap hit for a total value of $26.25MM, according to Friedman. His deal will be split evenly year-to-year including a $1MM signing bonus in 2026-27, and he has a six-team no-trade clause throughout, PuckPedia adds.

10:08 a.m.: The Avalanche are nearing an agreement on a contract extension with pending unrestricted free agent netminder Mackenzie Blackwood, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports Friday.

Blackwood, 28, had rediscovered his game as a legitimate tandem/1A option with the Sharks over the past couple of seasons. He was open to sticking around in San Jose. Still, with the rebuilding club needing to keep their long-term future open for top prospect Yaroslav Askarov, they opted not to engage in extension talks and instead traded him to the Avs earlier this month. Colorado needed a more stable solution between the pipes with both halves of their opening-night tandem in Alexandar Georgiev and Justus Annunen struggling. So far, Blackwood has provided that. Along with veteran trade pickup Scott Wedgewood from Nashville, they’ve put up save percentages north of .930 in their nine combined starts since being acquired.

Those strong early returns, plus a burgeoning track record behind a thin defense in San Jose, make Blackwood a clear fit in Denver past this season. A few years ago, he was one of the more intriguing young netminders in the league, posting a .915 SV% and 2.77 GAA in 43 starts and four relief appearances with the Devils in 2019-20 while finishing sixth in Calder Trophy voting.

He hasn’t posted above-average numbers since but is on pace to do so this season, logging a .913 SV%, 2.83 GAA, and one shutout in 21 starts and two relief appearances split between the Sharks and Avalanche. He’s stopped nine goals above average and 5.9 above expected, per MoneyPuck, squarely positioning him as a top-20 netminder in the league this season. Twelve out of his 21 starts have been quality ones (SV% above league average).

Blackwood has allowed exactly two goals in all four of his starts for Colorado thus far, allowing eight on 116 shots faced over the past couple of weeks. The Avs’ high-powered offense has given him necessary goal support, leading to a 3-1-0 record to begin what now will be a multi-year run in the Central Division. Whatever his new deal is, it’ll come with a significant raise on his current $2.35MM cap hit as afforded by the two-year, $4.7MM pact he signed with the Sharks in 2022.

Keeping Blackwood around became especially important when Colorado traded one of their higher-ceiling young options in Annunen to the Predators in the Wedgewood deal. That’s not to say Colorado’s prospect pool between the pipes is completely barren. There’s 2024 second-round pick Ilya Nabokov, who’s coming off a Gagarin Cup championship in the Kontinental Hockey League with Metallurg Magnitogorsk, and Pavel Lysenkov of Match TV said Thursday that he won’t re-sign in Russia and will ink an entry-level deal with the Avs for next season. There’s also 23-year-old Trent Miner, who has a .901 SV% in 14 AHL games this season and stopped 12 of the 13 shots he faced against the Capitals in his NHL debut last month.

Regardless, Blackwood figures to be the Avs’ Game 1 starter in the playoffs, assuming they stick around for an eighth consecutive postseason berth. Whatever extension he signs will walk him to unrestricted free agency at its conclusion.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Red Wings Fire Derek Lalonde, Hire Todd McLellan

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The Red Wings have made a long-awaited change behind the bench. The team announced Thursday that former Kings head coach Todd McLellan has been signed to a multi-year deal to become the 29th bench boss in Detroit franchise history. Head coach Derek Lalonde and associate coach Bob Boughner have been relieved of their duties.

Three straight losses heading into the holiday break were the final nail in the coffin for Lalonde, who had been on the hot seat for over a month. Darren Dreger of TSN reported in late November that a three-game homestand, during which they ended up going 1-1-1, was likely Lalonde’s last chance to finish out the season. While he got some grace to continue in his role beyond that, general manager Steve Yzerman’s patience has now run out.

The Wings both expected and needed to take a step forward in 2024-25. They finished with a 41-32-9 record last season, just narrowly missing out on their first playoff berth since 2016 and also marking their first season above .500 since that year. But a horrid campaign offensively so far for the Red Wings, who rank 29th in the league at 2.56 goals per game, has them with a 13-17-4 record at Christmas and eight points back of the Senators for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

Yzerman hired both Lalonde and Boughner in the 2022 offseason after the Wings cleared out their previous coaching staff, led by Jeff Blashill. It was Lalonde’s first crack at being an NHL head coach after winning two Stanley Cups as an assistant on Jon Cooper’s staff with the Lightning. Earlier in the decade, Lalonde had served as a head coach with the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers, the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye and the AHL’s Iowa Wild.

The 52-year-old Lalonde’s tenure behind the Detroit bench ends with an 89-86-23 record (.508 points percentage) in 198 games. Since the beginning of the 2022-23 season, the Red Wings’ record ranks 26th in the league, their 3.03 goals per game ranks 19th, and their 3.33 goals against per game ranks 27th.

Unlike last season, keeping the puck out of their net hasn’t been the Wings’ biggest problem. Thanks to veteran Cam Talbot putting up All-Star numbers in his 17 starts, things are likely better than they would otherwise be under a Lalonde system that’s posted below-average numbers at both ends of the ice. Detroit isn’t close to controlling the majority of shot attempts (46.8%), scoring chances (46.7%), or high-danger chances (45.5%) at 5-on-5, nor were they last year or the year before.

It’s also not surprising to see Boughner leave. His responsibilities included overseeing the team’s penalty kill, which clicked at a near-league-worst 68.8% rate this season. The 53-year-old previously served as the head coach of the Panthers (2017-19) and Sharks (2019-22), where he accumulated a 147-147-45 record for an even .500 record and failed to make the playoffs in any of his five seasons behind the bench.

In comes McLellan and assistant Trent Yawney, who have worked together in McLellan’s previous head coaching stops in San Jose, Edmonton and Los Angeles. It’s also a return of sorts for the veteran McLellan, who served as an assistant on Mike Babcock’s staff in Detroit from 2005 to 2008 and won a Stanley Cup.

Detroit is the 57-year-old McLellan’s fourth stop as an NHL head coach, and today’s news ensures he’ll suit up behind an NHL bench for the 20th straight season in some capacity. His last job with the Kings started in the 2019 offseason and ended last February, replaced midseason by Jim Hiller. In 1,144 regular-season games as a head coach, McLellan has a 598-412-134 record (.581) and has made the playoffs nine times. In those nine postseason appearances, he’s fared worse with a 42-46 record and never advancing to a Stanley Cup Final.

McLellan and Yawney will now be tasked with cleaning up the Wings’ possession game and penalty kill, the former of which should ideally lead to an influx of offense as the season progresses. Unfortunately, it may be too little too late for a playoff berth this season. Detroit has less than a one percent chance of ending their postseason drought at the time of writing, according to Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Rangers Healthy Scratch Chris Kreider

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The Rangers have made veteran winger Chris Kreider a healthy scratch for today’s game against the Devils, Peter Baugh of The Athletic reports. Aside from a pair of late-season precautionary scratches in 2017 and 2022, it’s the first time he’ll sit in the press box while healthy for the Blueshirts since his rookie season in 2013-14.

Much has been made of Kreider’s brutal 2024-25 campaign. After three straight seasons of at least 35 goals, Kreider has 11 in 30 games this season but has added just one assist for 12 points with a -4 rating, his first time in the red since 2020-21. He’s averaging 17:26 per game, his lowest figure since 2020-21, and has three points in 11 games since Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported on Nov. 25 that the Rangers were dangling him and now former captain Jacob Trouba in trade talks.

It’s unclear if Kreider’s scratch is purely performance-based or if it’s to avoid an injury before a trade. No deal will be made in the next few days, but today is the Rangers’ last game before the roster freeze lifts on Dec. 28. 

Kreider’s struggles have underscored much more significant issues with the Rangers, who have now fallen to .500 after starting the season 12-4-1. They’ve gone 4-12-0 in their last 16 games. They could end today in last place in the Metropolitan Division with a regulation loss at New Jersey and wins for the Blue Jackets and Islanders, an unimaginable position for last year’s Presidents’ Trophy winners this far into the season.

Despite Kreider’s underwhelming performance, he’s bounced around the depth chart very little. He’s spent most of the season stapled to Mika Zibanejad and Reilly Smith on the team’s second line, skating there in 24 of his 30 appearances. While he leads the trio in goal-scoring, he’s the weak link in overall point production. Zibanejad has 21 points in 33 appearances, still far below expectations, while Smith has 16 in 32. All of them have struggled defensively, controlling only 47.8% of expected goals together, per MoneyPuck. Rookie Brett Berard will skate in Kreider’s usual second-line left-wing spot today, according to Mollie Walker of the New York Post. He hasn’t been much of a factor offensively either since being recalled last month, posting two goals and an assist in 11 games with a -5 rating and underwhelming possession metrics.

Kreider, 33, is only three seasons removed from leading the league in power-play goals (26) and game-winners (11). From 2021-22 through 2023-24, his 127 goals were seventh in the league behind Auston Matthews, Leon Draisaitl, David Pastrňák, Connor McDavid, Mikko Rantanen, and Kirill Kaprizov. He’s accumulated 315 tallies and 564 points in 845 appearances, all with the Rangers, dating back to his regular-season debut in 2013. That’s good enough for third in franchise history in goals and 10th in points.

Blue Jackets Recall Denton Mateychuk For NHL Debut

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The Blue Jackets are recalling top defense prospect Denton Mateychuk from AHL Cleveland, reports Aaron Portzline of The Athletic. He’ll be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game, which could be as soon as tomorrow against the Canadiens. The team later announced that forward James Malatesta was returned to Cleveland in a corresponding transaction, while Justin Danforth also landed on injured reserve. Additionally, goaltender Jet Greaves was added on an emergency recall and will be available tomorrow against Montreal.

As Portzline notes, it’s unclear if Mateychuk’s recall is in response to an injury to star blue-liner Zach Werenski. He sustained an apparent knee injury early in the third period of yesterday’s overtime loss to the Flyers after getting tangled up with Philadelphia winger Owen Tippett but only missed a couple of shifts before returning. Head coach Dean Evason confirmed postgame that Werenski wasn’t 100%, though, calling his status for tomorrow “hopeful” (via Brian Hedger of The Columbus Dispatch).

Mateychuk, 20, is now undoubtedly the highest-caliber defense prospect in the Blue Jackets organization after they traded David Jiříček to the Wild last month. McKeen’s Hockey ranked him as the second-best prospect in the system behind center Cayden Lindstrom at the beginning of the season, while Scott Wheeler of The Athletic listed him as the No. 35 prospect in the league over the summer. Columbus selected him 12th overall in 2022 after taking Jiříček sixth, and he responded with eight goals, 57 assists and 65 points in 63 games while captaining the Moose Jaw Warriors of the Western Hockey League in his post-draft year.

The Winnipeg native improved further in 2023-24, posting 75 points and a +35 rating in 52 games with Moose Jaw while winning the Bill Hunter Trophy as the WHL’s top defenseman. He added 11 goals and 30 points in 20 playoff games as the Warriors captured their first-ever WHL championship, and he was crowned playoff MVP after leading the postseason in assists with 19. He headed to AHL Cleveland for his first taste of professional hockey after his Memorial Cup run with Moose Jaw was over, posting three assists in four postseason contests.

That showing had Mateychuk in contention to land a spot on the Blue Jackets’ opening night roster, but a logjam of names ahead of him meant he was one of the final cuts from their training camp. He took the demotion in stride and then some, racking up nine goals and 16 assists for 25 points through his first 27 regular-season games with Cleveland. That’s good enough for the league lead in scoring among defensemen – obviously a major accomplishment for a rookie.

A left-shot defenseman, Mateychuk checks in at 5’11” and 192 lbs. He’s in the first season of his entry-level contract, which was signed in 2022 but slid twice due to a lack of NHL service team. He’ll be eligible to test restricted free agency in 2027.

Malatesta, 21, was recalled last Wednesday amid a lower-body injury to Danforth, who hasn’t played since Dec. 10. The 2021 fifth-round pick played in the Jackets’ last two games, posting a -1 rating and averaging 10:34 per game while failing to register a shot on goal. The Montreal native is producing 0.48 points per game through 25 appearances with Cleveland this season, up from last year’s 0.39 mark.

Since Danforth has missed more than seven days with his lower-body injury, he’ll be eligible to come off IR at any time. The Sacred Heart product has three goals and five assists for eight points in 25 games this season and is averaging a career-high 15:20 per night.

Greaves’ recall coming under emergency conditions suggests either Elvis Merzļikins or Daniil Tarasov will be unavailable to dress for tomorrow’s game. Tarasov has been healthy by all accounts but hasn’t appeared in a game since Dec. 5, when he surrendered six goals on 36 shots to the Oilers. The 25-year-old is in danger of losing the No. 2 spot on Columbus’ goaltending depth chart to Greaves after logging a poor .857 SV% and 4.26 GAA through nine starts. The 23-year-old Greaves, meanwhile, has a .896 mark through three games.

Rangers’ Matt Rempe Suspended Eight Games

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Rangers winger Matt Rempe has been assessed an eight-game suspension by the league’s Department of Player Safety for a boarding/elbowing infraction against Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen, the league announced.

Rempe laid the hit on Heiskanen (explained further here) in the third period of Friday’s 3-1 win. He was ejected on the play, the fourth time he’s faced such discipline in his 22-game NHL career. He was also assessed a two-minute minor for elbowing on the play, as well as an additional roughing minor in the aftermath. Unsurprisingly, after being suspended four games for a similar infraction against Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler in March last season, he was offered an in-person hearing, which gives DoPS the option of suspending him for six games or more.

Rempe already missed today’s loss to the Hurricanes, so he has seven more games to serve. He’s considered a repeat offender under Player Safety guidelines and will forfeit $80K in salary during his suspension, relays Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic. He’ll still count against the active roster and the team’s salary cap during that time, reducing the Rangers’ flexibility for an extended period. He can appeal the suspension to league commissioner Gary Bettman, so it’s possible he might be back earlier than Jan. 9 against the Devils if he’s successful.

The incident was one of many controversial ones in Rempe’s young career. The 22-year-old, who the Blueshirts selected 165th overall in the 2020 draft, has accumulated 95 PIMs in just 22 appearances over the last two seasons while averaging 5:46 of ice time per game. The wealth of time spent in the dressing room or in the penalty box has limited his effectiveness offensively and put the Rangers in more shorthanded situations than they’d like, although it’s also worth noting he’s drawn the most penalties per 60 minutes of any Ranger over the last two seasons.

The 6’8″, 240-lb winger has spent most of this season on assignment to AHL Hartford, where he has three goals, two assists and 22 PIMs in 18 showings with a -3 rating. His game against Dallas was only his fifth NHL appearance of the season.

In the meantime, Rempe’s absence will secure more ice time for developing depth options like Brett Berard and Adam Edstrom. They still have veteran Jonny Brodzinski on hand as an extra forward to enter the lineup if necessary as well.

Chicago Blackhawks Activate Seth Jones From IR

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The Chicago Blackhawks are getting a major boost to their blue line. The organization announced they’ve activated defenseman Seth Jones from their injured reserve after missing the last 16 games with a right foot injury.

Jones’ activation couldn’t come soon enough for the Blackhawks. Through the first 17 games of the year with Jones on the roster, Chicago managed a 6-10-1 record with a -10 differential. In the 10 games following Jones’ exit from the lineup, the Blackhawks only had two wins while producing an identical -10 rating. The team has played better of late meaning Jones will only add to the current momentum.

The injury also came at a bad time for Jones personally. He got off to a solid start to the 2024-25 NHL season with two goals and 10 points in 17 games. Should he have continued his scoring pace throughout the regular season unencumbered, he would have finished with 10 goals and 49 points.

Jones can only finish the season with 66 games played meaning his eventual output should be similar to recent campaigns. He’s finished the last two years with 37 and 31 points respectively, a far cry from his five-goal, 51-point performance from 2021-22.

Still, Jones has unequivocally the most responsibility on Chicago’s blue line. He’s averaged 25:26 of ice time over 234 games played with the Blackhawks while playing in all situations. It might be a difficult transition for Jones tonight in his first game in over a month but it’s what’ll be required of him on a needy Blackhawks’ roster.

No corresponding roster move is necessary for Chicago given they only had 21 players on the active roster. However, one player is coming out of the lineup as Jones’ activation gives them seven defensemen.

According to Daily Faceoff’s projected lineups, that player is understandably youngster Kevin Korchinski. He’s scored zero points in six games for the Blackhawks this season and will likely head to Chicago’s AHL affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs, in due time.

Bruins, Tyler Johnson To Mutually Terminate Contract

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Dec. 20: Johnson cleared waivers and will have his deal terminated, reports Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic. The veteran will engage with other teams on signing a new contract for the remainder of 2024-25 after the roster freeze lifts, he adds.

Dec. 19: The Bruins have placed veteran forward Tyler Johnson on unconditional waivers, per Conor Ryan of the Boston Globe. The two sides are likely headed for a mutual contract termination.

The 34-year-old Johnson opened the season with the Bruins after signing a professional tryout during training camp, but they didn’t add him to the active roster until signing him to a one-year, league-minimum deal in early November. He’s been seldom used, especially recently, only appearing in one of Boston’s eight games this month. He made a total of nine appearances for the B’s, posting two assists with a -1 rating while averaging 13:05 per game.

It’s far less offense than Boston was expecting from Johnson. A two-time Stanley Cup champion with the Lightning, Johnson had still been an effective middle-six presence for the Blackhawks over the past few seasons while battling injuries. The Washington native picked up 32 goals and 70 points in 149 appearances with Chicago between 2021-22 and 2023-24, averaging just under half a point per game.

In the early stages of his career, Johnson was a high-end, defensively responsible complementary center in Tampa Bay’s top six. From 2013-14 to 2019-20, he posted 150 goals and 333 points in 520 appearances, averaging 24 and 53 per 82 games, respectively. He played all three forward positions and was never a major liability in the faceoff dot when suiting up down the middle.

Johnson was limited to eight goals and 22 points in 55 games in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season, though. The Bolts, who could no longer afford to allocate $5MM per season to a declining scorer, packaged him with a second-round pick for cap relief to Chicago, taking on injured blue-liner Brent Seabrook’s contract for long-term injured reserve relief in return.

If Johnson clears waivers tomorrow, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent once again. If there’s still NHL interest in his services, it could result in a rare unconditional waiver claim as he’s already making the league minimum salary.

Trotz: Predators Won’t Enter Full-Scale Rebuild

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Things haven’t gone to plan for the Predators this season. After general manager Barry Trotz had the most active free agency period of anyone, adding top-six wingers Jonathan Marchessault and Steven Stamkos while landing Brady Skjei for their defense, they’re the only team in the league without 10 wins this season and sit firmly entrenched in 32nd place with a 9-17-7 record and .379 points percentage.

It’s a weird outcome for a roster in a weird place. The Preds haven’t been bad enough to contend for the draft lottery – far from it, in fact. They’ve made the playoffs every season since 2014-15, aside from missing in 2023, and they still managed a 42-win regular season that year. But they’ve also lost six consecutive postseason series and haven’t advanced past the First Round since 2018. With Trotz, their former head coach, taking over for David Poile as just the second GM in franchise history in 2023, he made it expressly clear that he was planning on making higher-risk moves to help propel Nashville out of league-average purgatory.

That plan has worked in the sense that they’re no longer wild-card fodder, and they now have the chance to draft a legitimate direction-altering talent in next year’s draft if their record holds. But if they continue down that road, it won’t be because they make significant in-season subtractions from the roster. Trotz reaffirmed to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic yesterday that they’ll continue to be active on the trade market but won’t act like traditional sellers.

It’s not a rebuild. I’m not in the business of not winning. I’m in the business of trying to win. We’re not selling off. We are resetting. We know where we are. It’s not where we thought we would be. But we want to move forward.

Trotz’s sentiment, without spelling it out completely, says to expect more moves in the vein of this week’s swap that sent Alexandre Carrier to the Canadiens for the much younger Justin Barron. The latter is a player Trotz has had his eyes on since assuming the GM’s chair, telling LeBrun that he called the Habs about Barron multiple times last season. “We’ve been very good at developing defensemen, so I just felt he was getting underplayed there a little bit,” Trotz said. “Hopefully, with his age and talent, we can get a decent player out of that.”

Carrier may not be the only defenseman on the wrong side of 25 who finds himself on the move before deadline day. 6’3″ lefty Jeremy Lauzon, who’s under contract through next season at a $2MM cap hit, led the league in hits by a wide margin last season with 383. He’s missed time with injury this season, posting one assist and a -5 rating in 23 games, but should carry a decent amount of trade value on his own for his reasonable cap hit or be valuable in a package for a higher-value asset, maybe one that helps Nashville address its nagging center-ice deficiency.

There have been speculative ties to the Sabres’ Dylan Cozens in that vein. While that hasn’t been addressed by Trotz or reaffirmed by a major source, Trotz did tell Emma Lingan of The Hockey News during his media availability yesterday that he expects to use his $11.2MM in current cap space “if there’s the right piece.”

In his conversation with LeBrun, Trotz also vehemently denied the slow-growing, unfounded speculation that he may look to deal Stamkos elsewhere at the trade deadline. The longtime Lightning captain has heavily underwhelmed with nine goals and 19 points in 33 games on the season in the first year of a four-year, $32MM contract. He also has a full no-movement clause.

It’s worth noting that the Predators still have quite a few highly-graded prospects in the pipeline. They have six forwards in the system aged 22 or younger with first-round draft pedigree, although, as Trotz implied by his acquisition of the younger Barron, things are considerably thinner on the blue line.

Allowable Transactions During The Roster Freeze Period

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The NHL’s roster freeze period is now in effect.  While there usually aren’t a flurry of transactions in the days leading up to it, we saw three trades made on Wednesday while numerous teams made roster moves as well.

However, that won’t be the end of things on the roster movement front despite what the term freeze would imply.  Section 16.5 (d) in the CBA goes over what is and isn’t allowed during this period.  Let’s break that down.  The first section is as follows:

(i) For all Players on an NHL Active Roster, Injured Reserve, or Players with Non-Roster and Injured Non-Roster status as of 11:59 p.m. local time on December 19, a roster freeze shall apply through 12:01 a.m. local time December 28, with respect to Waivers, Trades and Loans; provided, however, that Players may be Recalled to NHL Clubs during this period and, provided further, that if a Player is placed on Regular Waivers prior to the roster freeze period and is claimed during such roster freeze period, the roster freeze period shall not apply and the Player shall immediately report to the claiming Club. However, during the roster freeze period a Club can make any Player transactions necessary for the Club to come into compliance with Article 50 as a result of a Player being removed from the Bona-Fide Long-Term Injury/Illness Exception.

From a waiver perspective, we’re unlikely to see any new activity on that front (unless a team needs to make a move to get cap-compliant following an LTIR activation) but Tyler Johnson’s pending termination in Boston will be able to be completed.

You might also notice in the CBA text that there’s nothing prohibiting recalls during this time.  Accordingly, teams can still bring players up and with many teams playing in three games between now and the break that starts on Tuesday, there will undoubtedly be several recalls across the NHL.

Now, let’s look at the other section of this rule which will preview a lot of the transactions that will be coming early next week:

(ii) Notwithstanding Section 16.5(d)(i), a Player on emergency Recall may be Loaned during the roster freeze period and a Player who was Recalled after December 11 may be Loaned through 11:59 p.m. local time on December 23, provided such Player is not required to be placed on Waivers during the roster freeze period in order to effectuate such Loan.

In essence, anyone recalled during the freeze is eligible to be sent down by Monday and in most circumstances, they will.  Meanwhile, anyone recalled (regular or emergency) since December 11th is eligible to be sent down.  There will be quite a few of those in that category as well, even if it’s just in an attempt to save a bit of money on the salary cap.

The one exception to this is if a player becomes waiver-eligible during this time.  This occurs when a player has been on an NHL roster for 30 days or played in 10 games since last clearing waivers.  If that happens to someone during this stretch, they’ll be ineligible to be sent down during the freeze.

With this all in mind, while there technically will be a roster freeze in place for a little over a week, there will still be considerable roster activity for the first half of it so don’t be surprised when the transactions keep coming in over the coming days.

Sabres To Activate Rasmus Dahlin, Sam Lafferty, Jordan Greenway Out Long-Term

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Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin will be available for tomorrow’s matchup against the Maple Leafs, head coach Lindy Ruff said Thursday (via Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News). He’ll need to come off injured reserve after missing over two weeks with back spasms. Center Sam Lafferty also told reporters today that he’s healthy and will be available against Toronto. However, it’s uncertain whether he’ll enter the lineup, per Paul Hamilton of WGR Sports Radio 550.

Buffalo only has one open roster spot and must make a corresponding transaction to take both off IR. That will likely mean replacing Lafferty on IR with winger Jordan Greenway, who Ruff said requires surgery to address a mid-body injury and will be sidelined long-term, via Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News. He’s out indefinitely but is expected back “at some point this season,” Ruff said. Pivot Ryan McLeod is also banged up and will be a game-time decision against the Leafs with an undisclosed injury, Hamilton reports. His absence would necessitate Lafferty’s return unless Ruff dresses 11 forwards and seven defensemen in the hopes of breaking their 11-game winless streak.

Dahlin’s absence is one of the chief reasons why Buffalo hasn’t managed a victory since Nov. 23, although it’s not the only one. Their winless streak was already four games deep when Dahlin took a hit in the third period of a game against the Avalanche that aggravated a back issue he’d been dealing with since training camp. Buffalo’s leader in average time on ice at 24:42 per game also has 19 points in 25 contests, exceeding his point pace from last season.

The 2018 first-overall pick has emerged as one of the league’s premier blue-liners, finishing top-15 in Norris Trophy voting two years in a row and currently checking in at 13th among defenders with 0.76 points per game. He also has a +4 rating to lead Sabres defenders and has been their best two-way player, controlling 59.5% of shot attempts at even strength. In contrast, Buffalo has only managed to control 47.8% of shot attempts without Dahlin on the ice. Only the Rangers’ Adam Fox and the Canucks’ Quinn Hughes have had a more significant impact on their teams’ even-strength possession this season among defensemen.

Tomorrow will mark the Sabres’ first game with a healthy blue line since November 11. Mattias Samuelsson missed extended time with a lower-body injury sustained in that game, and Dahlin exited the lineup before he managed to return.

It won’t be a surprise if Lafferty is activated but sits as an extra forward against Toronto, assuming McLeod can play. The 29-year-old hasn’t had the impact the Sabres hoped after signing him to a two-year, $4MM pact in free agency. He has just one goal through 22 games and has only infrequently appeared on the team’s penalty kill, averaging 9:48 per game in all situations. He’s been a net negative in nearly every area of the game, posting a -2 rating, winning 43.8% of his faceoffs, and controlling 46.6% of shot attempts at even strength.

Surgery is a harsh outcome for Greenway, who’s been one of the few Sabres forwards outperforming expectations this season. The New York native has seven points through 20 games and averages a career-high 15:55 per game, adding 54 hits. The checking winger has averaged nearly full three minutes per game while shorthanded and controls 51.2% of shot attempts at even strength despite 60.2% of his zone starts occurring in the defensive zone.

His mid-body issue has limited him to four appearances in Buffalo’s last 15 games, though. He missed 10 games with the problem before attempting to return earlier this month, re-exiting the lineup for Tuesday’s 6-1 drubbing at the hands of the Canadiens.

Meanwhile, the Sabres and McLeod likely hope his undisclosed injury is just a blip in a good season for the middle-six center. He has six goals and 15 points through 32 games, and he’s on pace to break the career-high of 12 goals and 30 points he set with the Oilers last year.

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