Canadiens’ Kaiden Guhle Out Indefinitely With Quadricep Laceration
1:12 p.m.: Guhle sustained a lacerated quadricep muscle that was surgically repaired overnight, the team announced. He’s been released from the hospital but will be out indefinitely.
10:09 a.m.: In a corresponding move, defenseman Jayden Struble has been reinstated from his conditioning loan to AHL Laval. The 23-year-old lefty was held without a point and took two minor penalties with a plus-one rating in a pair of contests for the minor-league club.
8:10 a.m.: The Montreal Canadiens announced that defenseman Kaiden Guhle has suffered a lower-body injury and will need further evaluation. Guhle sustained the injury in the third period of last night’s 4-1 loss to Winnipeg when he fell into the corner awkwardly. He appeared to catch an edge on the play as he was trying to pinch in from the blue line, his right leg fell behind him and jammed into the boards, suffering the full weight of the impact. Guhle required assistance to get to the dressing room and did not appear to bear any weight on his right leg.
The 16th overall pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft is in his third NHL season and has become a huge piece of Montreal’s back end, averaging over 21 minutes a night of ice team and seeing the third most deployment at even strength on the team. Guhle has also been tasked with taking on some of the most difficult minutes in Montreal, starting nearly 60% of his shifts in the defensive zone and taking on the toughest assignments.
Montreal does have some good young defensemen in the AHL right now, however, none will be able to make the jump up from Laval and handle the duties that Guhle has been taking on.
Montreal is in the thick of the Eastern Conference’s race for the Wild Card spots, and losing Guhle for an extended period would be a big blow to their playoff hopes. However, there is a break in February for the Four Nations Face-Off, which could allow Guhle some recovery time, should he need it.
Montreal could also look outside the organization for help as they have 12 draft picks in this year’s draft and will have almost $6.5MM in cap space to work with at the NHL Trade Deadline.
Kings Activate Drew Doughty From LTIR
12:25 p.m.: Doughty is indeed off LTIR, per a team announced. As expected, Helenius was reassigned to AHL Ontario in a corresponding transaction.
10:15 a.m.: The Kings will have star defenseman Drew Doughty in the lineup for the first time this season when they face the Panthers on Wednesday, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports. He’ll come off long-term injured reserve after missing just over four months with an ankle fracture sustained in preseason action.
Los Angeles is short about $84K in cap space to remove Doughty from LTIR, but they also have a full active roster. Opening up a roster space by assigning a player to AHL Ontario will also open the necessary cap space for his activation.
Doughty remains the anchor of the Kings’ blue line, even as he kicks off his age-35 season. The four-time Norris Trophy finalist is coming off a resurgent 2023-24 campaign in which he scored 15 goals, the second-highest total of his 16-season career, and secured a second straight 50-point year for the first time. Doughty also remained the Kings’ average ice time leader by a wide margin last season with 25:48, and he ranked second on the club with 142 blocks and seventh with 109 hits.
That made many believe Doughty’s long-term absence would spell doom for L.A.’s season, especially after they lost No. 2 righty Matt Roy to the Capitals in free agency. Not only are the Kings squarely in the playoff picture, but they’re on pace for 101 points and rank second in the league in goals against despite poor goaltending from backup David Rittich, who’s started 20 of their 47 games.
As expected, no one single player has filled in for Doughty. His absence has been shouldered by committee. 2021 eighth-overall pick Brandt Clarke emerged as their top offensive option in the interim with 24 points in 47 games, while Vladislav Gavrikov shifted to his off-side to replace Doughty alongside Michael Anderson on the top pair. While he’s got just a fraction of Doughty’s offensive upside, the 6’3″ Gavrikov has averaged a career-high 23:56 per game with strong defensive numbers. His 96 blocks lead the team, and his pairing with Anderson has controlled 56.2% of expected goals, per MoneyPuck.
The Kings are already carrying eight defensemen on their active roster, so one of them is likely destined for waivers. That won’t open up space quickly enough to activate Doughty for tonight’s game, though, so the waiver-exempt Clarke (or, more likely, depth center Samuel Helenius) will be sent down today to give the Kings time to do some roster shuffling.
Doughty returns with six games to go until the 4 Nations Face-Off, enough time to put himself in consideration to replace Alex Pietrangelo on Team Canada’s roster after the Golden Knight withdrew from the tournament over the weekend. He still has two years after this one left on his eight-year, $88MM mega-deal he signed with the Kings in 2018.
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Nico Hischier Downgraded To Week-To-Week
Devils captain Nico Hischier‘s injury status has been downgraded to week-to-week, head coach Sheldon Keefe told reporters Wednesday (including Gabriel Trevino of NJ.com). He has not played since sustaining an upper-body injury on a crosscheck from Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki last Saturday.
Keefe initially called Hischier day-to-day following the injury, which held him out of Monday’s loss to the Flyers. However, he left the team’s road trip to return to New Jersey to visit with team doctors for further evaluation. Evidently, it wasn’t positive news for the Swiss centerman, who will now miss another three games at minimum.
Past the halfway point of the season, Hischier leads the team in goals with 24 and has added 19 assists for 43 points in 51 games. He’s putting up career-highs in shooting percentage (17%) and average ice time (20:21), as well as winning 55.5% of his draws and logging a career-high 55.5 CF% at even strength. It’s been a dominant two-way campaign from the 2023 Selke Trophy finalist, one that could put him back in that conversation, assuming his absence doesn’t stretch out for too much longer.
It’s a difficult blow for the Devils, who are 4-5-3 since New Year’s and are already without starting goaltender Jacob Markström until around the trade deadline due to a sprained MCL. They’ve called to 28-18-6, decidedly third in the Metropolitan Division behind the Capitals and Hurricanes, and are now being chased by the red-hot Blue Jackets who are seven points back with two games in hand.
23-year-old Dawson Mercer shifts to center in Hischier’s absence with Erik Haula also on the shelf. The 2020 first-rounder has 23 points in 52 games, up only slightly from last year’s offensive pace.
Kirill Kaprizov To Undergo Lower-Body Surgery, Out Minimum Four Weeks
1:34 p.m.: The Wild moved Kaprizov to IR to open up a roster spot, per a team announcement. They also shifted Brodin from IR to LTIR retroactive to Jan. 7 to open up the cap space for a forward recall, ruling him out of the team’s next two games at minimum.
10:35 a.m.: Wild star winger Kirill Kaprizov missed Tuesday’s practice and will undergo surgery to address his nagging lower-body injury, according to Michael Russo and Joe Smith of The Athletic. Russo and Smith report the surgery, which would address what’s believed to be a muscular issue in his groin and is scheduled for Friday, carries an expected recovery time of six weeks. General manager Bill Guerin handed down an official week-to-week designation with a minimum four-week window, per Jessi Pierce of NHL.com.
The loss of Kaprizov is less devastating than when he missed 12 games over the past month-plus, with most of his absence set to fall while the NHL schedule stops for the 4 Nations Face-Off. They still have six games left before the break, though, and their best player will join top shutdown defenseman Jonas Brodin and middle-six winger Marcus Johansson on injured reserve for that stretch. While the ageless Mats Zuccarello and breakout center Marco Rossi still form two-thirds of a formidable top line, there’s simply no replacement for Kaprizov as the Wild desperately try to hold onto their top-three spot in the Central Division heading into the break.
While second-line winger Matt Boldy is a top-line player in most markets and would likely do well with a bump in ice time, the 27-year-old Kaprizov has solidified himself as a top-three winger in the league this season. In 37 games, the 5’10” lefty has tallied 23 goals and 29 assists for 52 points with a +19 rating. His 1.41 points per game are fifth in the league, and tops among left-wingers, not a level of production Boldy or the other few high-upside offensive options in the organization can aim to touch.
Boldy slid into Kaprizov’s minutes during his previous absence, doing well offensively but causing the line’s two-way dominance to falter. He posted five goals and six assists for 11 points over the 12-game span, but the Boldy-Rossi-Zuccarello trio has conceded 3.61 expected goals against per 60 minutes compared to just 2.38 xGA/60 with Kaprizov on that line, per MoneyPuck. With Johansson also missing from the top nine, 2022 first-round pick Liam Ohgren is likely to get an extended run in increased minutes. It’s a shot in the dark, though – Ohgren has just two points in 13 NHL showings this season, both assists against the Avalanche on Jan. 20.
Kaprizov will be back shortly after the trade deadline if he undergoes surgery this week and the six-week recovery window holds true. That won’t allow Minnesota to keep Kaprizov’s cap hit on long-term injured reserve for the remainder of the regular season, but it should allow them additional options for short-term flexibility as they look to add to their roster. They’ve been linked to Islanders pending UFA pivot Brock Nelson, and The Fourth Period reports they’ve at least demonstrated loose interest in Canucks stars J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson. But they currently project to have just $200K in deadline space, requiring them to move out salary in any deal they make, plus asking for maximum retention on the other end.
Capitals Sign Logan Thompson To Six-Year Extension
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.
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Islanders Acquire Scott Perunovich From Blues
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.
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Penguins Place Evgeni Malkin On Injured Reserve
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
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.
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Canada’s Alex Pietrangelo Withdraws From 4 Nations Face-Off
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
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.