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Senators Recall Hayden Hodgson

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The Ottawa Senators have recalled enforcer Hayden Hodgson from the minor leagues. It is his first call-up this season. Hodgson has amassed 156 penalty minutes in 43 AHL games this season, good for most on the Belleville Senators and second-most in the entire league. He will play in the eighth NHL game of his career, and his first with the Senators, on Friday night.

Hodgson is on the tail end of his first season in the Senators organization. He’s added three goals and 11 points to his lofty penalty minutes, putting him just shy of the scoring pace that earned him 16 points in 49 games last season. But Hodgson’s penalty minutes are a career-high, blowing out his previous high of 116 PIMs recorded in 49 games last season.

Hodgson has worked his way into a full-time role in the AHL over the last four seasons, but he’s made a full turn towards bruiser as of late. He earned an AHL deal in the Philadelphia Flyers for the 2021-22 season, after spending four seasons in the ECHL – and part of one in Slovakia’s Extraliga. Hodgson proceeded to have what appeared to be a breakout season. He scored 19 goals and 31 points in 46 games with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, and stayed true to his style with 70 PIMs. That scoring earned him the first six games of his NHL career in the same year, and Hodgson recorded a modest three points and 11 PIMs. But his scoring saw a spike in 2022-23 – after he posted eight points and 83 PIMs in 44 games. He earned one more NHL appearance but didn’t manage any stat changes – before moving to the Ontario Reign last season and Belleville this year.

Friday’s game will mark Hodgson’s first chance at NHL minutes in two years. He’s a burly six-foot-two, 221-pounds and is often a safe bet to earn at least one penalty per game.

Kyle Dubas Named Team Canada GM For 2025 World Championship

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Hockey Canada has announced that Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas will fill their role of general manager for the upcoming World Championship. The tournament is set to take place from May 9th to May 25th in Sweden and Denmark. Dubas will be supported by former Anaheim Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf and Team Canada’s senior vice president of hockey operations Scott Salmond.

The management team will be joined in their evaluation of NHL talent by a selection committee featuring four NHL executives and former players. They are Dennis Bonvie (Boston Bruins Director of Professional Scouting), Gregory Campbell (Florida Panthers assistant general manager), Andrew Cogliano (Colorado Avalanche special assistant), and Jason Spezza (Penguins assistant general manager). The management team and selection committee were selected by Doug Armstrong, executive director of Canada’s National Men’s team.

Much of the management team was also part of Team Canada’s gold medal win at the recent 4-Nations Face-Off tournament, the first in-season international competition featuring NHL talent since 2014. The winning Canadian squad was dominated by talent headed for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Only Sidney Crosby, Travis Konecny, and Travis Sanheim will be available to return to the World Championship lineup when the 2024-25 season ends. Additional players could become eligible as teams are eliminated from the postseason. Crosby notably hasn’t taken part in a World Championship since 2015, when he scored 11 points in nine games while captaining Canada.

Dubas and his team will begin making decisions on their coaching staff and roster immediately, with a full announcement expected in the coming weeks. Canada kicks off the tournament with an early morning game against Team Slovenia on May 10th.

Capitals Sign Patrick Thomas To Entry-Level Contract

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The Washington Capitals have signed forward Patrick Thomas to a three-year, entry-level contract, per a team release. The contract is slated to begin next season.

The team’s fourth round selection in the 2023 draft, Thomas, 20, spent the last four seasons in the OHL with the Hamilton Bulldogs. This past season he served as team captain and lit up the stat sheets to the tune of 27 goals and 104 points in 66 games. His 104 points placed him fifth in league scoring, while his 77 assists placed first overall. The six-foot, 178-pound forward finishes his OHL career averaging exactly a point-per-game (253/253). Thomas, a left-shooting center, added 28 points in 36-career playoff contests in the OHL, including seven points this season. He finishes his time with the Bulldogs with a plus-61 rating (including playoffs).

Thomas’ contract carries an average annual value of $878,333 at the NHL level and $82,500 in the AHL. It will be interesting to see where Thomas starts the 2025-26 season. If he builds upon his success from his last year in junior hockey and perform well during training camp, he could make a push for a spot in Washington. However, a start in the AHL seems like a logical landing spot to start his professional career.

Lauded for his high hockey IQ and passing abilities, Thomas joins former Boston College forward and fellow Caps prospect Ryan Leonard in recently signing with the team. Selected eighth overall by Washington in 2023, Leonard spent the last two seasons in the NCAA before agreeing to a three-year, entry-level deal with Washington on March 31. However, Leonard, also 20, has already started his career in the NHL, appearing in four games and registering his first career goal since signing his deal just nine days ago.

Ducks Sign Carey Terrance To Entry-Level Contract

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The Anaheim Ducks have signed 2023 second-round draft pick Carey Terrance to a three-year, entry-level contract set to begin in the 2025-26 season. Terrance has spent this season captaining the OHL’s Erie Otters, who are about to take on the London Knights in the OHL Playoffs. Terrance is expected to participate in that series at some point, though he’s working his way back from a scary upper-body injury sustained on February 14th. Terrance and star 2025 NHL Draft prospect Matthew Schaefer are currently participating in Erie’s practices in no-contact jerseys ahead of round two.

Terrance seemed to have a strong step on the season prior to his injury. He had scored 20 goals and 39 points in 45 games, just shy of the scoring pace that led him to 52 points in 56 games last year. But his step back in scoring lined up with a clear improvement in his defensive game. Terrance looked far more comfortable in commanding the center role this season, and provided the safety-net and defensive-zone control needed to let aggressive offensive pieces like Sam Alfano, Malcolm Spence, and Schaefer drive down the ice. Anaheim certainly wanted to lean into those traits when they selected Terrance with the 59th-overall pick in 2023. He scored an impressive 30 goals and 47 points in 67 OHL games – and nine points in eight games with the U.S. NTDP – that season, showing clear upside as a forechecker with a snappy wrist shot.

Two seasons later, Terrance has rounded out those attributes while maintaining his strong goal-scoring. He’ll look to return hot for the Otters in a win-or-go-home playoff series against the top team in the OHL. Should the series go downhill, Terrance would be eligible to make his AHL debut without burning a year of his entry-level contract.

Afternoon Notes: Seguin, Orlov, Hutson, Ostman

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The Dallas Stars may take inspiration from their Central Division rival, the Colorado Avalanche, when it comes to easing a star player back into the lineup. Head coach Pete DeBoer shared that the team is deciding whether or not to place winger Tyler Seguin on an AHL conditioning loan as he eases his way back from a hip injury, per Sam Nestler of DLLS Sports. Seguin has missed Dallas’ last 55 games with injury. He is expected to be back to full health in time for the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but may not be up to full speed in time to contribute to must-win games. Colorado recently assigned team captain Gabriel Landeskog to an AHL conditioning loan. Neither Seguin nor Landeskog have played any AHL games in their careers.

Seguin was a major piece of the Stars lineup at the beginning of the season. He scored nine goals and 20 points in 19 games to start the year, good for third on the team in points and fourth in goals at the time of his injury. It was an offensive explosion for Seguin, who has struggled to cross the 50-point mark in each of his last four healthy seasons. Regardless of a minor-league conditioning stint, Seguin will soon return to a very different Stars lineup – with feisty youngster Logan Stankoven replaced by high-upside veterans Mikko Rantanen and Mikael Granlund. Adding another flashy winger to that mix could make Dallas a sneaky favorite to win games this postseason.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Dmitry Orlov is set to hit unrestricted free agency this season, and seems unlikely to receive a confident extension from the cap-strapped Hurricanes. Speculation has connected Orlov to his native KHL for much of the season, but Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman dispelled those rumors in his recent 32 Thoughts article. Orlov is instead expected to stick in the NHL, where he’ll no doubt get plenty of attention from needy teams this summer. Orlov fills a premium, well-rounded role in Carolina. He has scored six goals and 26 points in 71 games this season, averages 20 minutes of ice time each game, and leads the Hurricanes defense with 97 hits. Those marks fall closely in line with how Orlov has performed throughout his 13-year career in the NHL – maintaining the role of well-rounded bruiser through tenures with the Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins. Orlov signed a two-year contract with Carolina in the summer of 2023 – his first time entering unrestricted free agency.
  • Friedman also reported that there’s plenty of Western Conference interest in Boston University forward Quinn Hutson, with the end of his collegiate career in sight. Hutson has been a major contributor to the Terriers offense over the last three seasons. His scoring has improved in every year – growing from 28 points, to 36, and to 50 this year. Those improvements have been coupled with clear growth in his game. He’s become a stronger skater and more confident in finding space in the middle of the ice. Those improvements – and his scoring track record – lend themselves to clear pro upside. Hutson, who had a late start to his juniors career, went undrafted through the 2020, 2021, and 2022 NHL drafts. With this news, a team could soon reverse their mistake in looking past him and award the third of four Hutson brothers with his pro hockey debut.
  • Finally, the Seattle Kraken have reassigned goaltender Victor Ostman to the minor leagues. Ostman made his NHL debut in relief of Joey Daccord on Tuesday, after the latter allowed seven goals on 22 shots through the first two periods. Ostman saved all 12 of the shots he faced in relief. The 24-year-old netminder is playing through his first season of professional hockey, after spending the last four years at the University of Maine. He’s spent the bulk of the year in the ECHL, where he’s recorded a 21-7-4 record and .903 save percentage in 32 games. Ostman has also contributed a stout 2-1-1 record and .927 save percentage in four AHL games this season. He will head back to the AHL with this move, and could get a chance at plenty more ice time with a clean sheet in the NHL under his belt.

Oilers Expecting Healthy Lineup For Playoffs

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A laundry list of injuries has pulled the end of the Edmonton Oilers season into disarray. The bunch of inactive Oilers is led by superstars Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid, who has missed the team’s last two and eight games respectively. They’re joined by a seemingly endless list of impactful Oilers on the sideline – including starting goaltender Stuart Skinner (six missed games), top-four defensemen John Klingberg (five games) and Mattias Ekholm (six games), and freshly-injured top-six centerman Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. On top of that, Edmonton has only received one game out of Trade Deadline acquisition Trent Frederic, and continues to grapple with uncertainty around Evander Kane.

But with so much to bear through, Edmonton isn’t expecting the injuries to carry into the postseason. Head coach Kris Knoblauch shared in a Wednesday press conference that he expects to get “everybody” back from injury before the end of the season. He further specified that McDavid and Draisaitl will remain out on a day-to-day basis, up to a week. That timeframe puts the pair of superstars on track to return just ahead of Edmonton’s final games of the regular season, which take place on Monday April 14th and Wednesday April 16th.

The Oilers haven’t technically clinched a playoff spot just yet – but with a six-point advantage over the rest of the Pacific Division, a locked-in spot is a matter of when not if. That will make their half-strength run through the end of the season a bit easier to withstand, though the Oilers will still be icing an unprecedented lineup on Wednesday night. They’ll be without eight routine NHL players including Kane. That equates to $42.2MM in cap space that will be left on the shelf, as shared by Jason Gregor of Sports 1440.

The decimated Oilers will move forward with rookies Noah Philp and Olivier Rodrigue respectively filling the role of fourth-line center and backup goaltender. Second-year defenseman Ty Emberson will also stick in the Oilers lineup with this news, giving him a chance to continue the search for his first goal of the season. Emberson has 10 assists in 71 games this season, while Philp has recorded two assists in the first 12 games of his NHL career this year. Rodrigue has also played in the first two games of his NHL career this season, and has 25 saves on 29 shots (0.862 save percentage) and a 0-1-0 record.

Together, the trio of young additions will look to push Edmonton past a hard-nosed St. Louis Blues team, fresh off the end of a 12-game win-streak, on Wednesday night. They’ll be rewarded with a lighter game against the San Jose Sharks on Friday, but then close the year with matchups against the top-ranked Winnipeg Jets, playoff competition Los Angeles Kings, and another match against San Jose.

Evgeny Kuznetsov’s KHL Contract Terminated

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Ex-NHL staple Evgeny Kuznetsov has mutually terminated his contract with SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL today, per a team announcement. The player and team agreed to part ways despite Kuznetsov signing a four-year deal with the club last summer. He put up 12 goals and 37 points in 39 games and led the team in points-per-game.

His return to Russia came after 11 years in the NHL. As a staple for the Washington Capitals, Kuznetsov put up 568 points for the team in 723 games. He added 73 points in 97 playoff games for Washington, including an incredible 32 points on their way to securing the Stanley Cup in 2018. As recent as the 2021-22 season, “Kuzy” put up nearly a point-per-game (78 points in 79 games). It was a rapid decline from that point on, and last season Washington dumped the last year and a half of his $7.8MM cap-hit contract on the Hurricanes at 50% retention in a deadline deal.

Before being traded to Carolina, Kuznetsov spent time in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program and was placed on waivers, but no team claimed the full remainder of his contract. After appearing in just 20 games for the Canes, he had his contract terminated and became an unrestricted free agent, setting the stage for his return to his home country.

The news of Kuznetsov’s departure from his most recent contract comes on the same day that ex-teammate Ivan Demidov signed his three-year, entry-level deal with the Montreal Canadiens. Kuznetsov served as a De facto mentor for the young Demidov this season, and it will be interesting to see if he follows his fellow countryman back to North America for the return to the NHL.

At just 32, Kuznetsov may still have more left in the tank, especially after noting to Russian news outlet Sport-Express that he has learned how to better manage his rheumatoid arthritis that impacted his performance last season.

Kraken Sign Nathan Villeneuve To Entry-Level Contract

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The Seattle Kraken are formally bringing one of their higher-round selections from the 2024 NHL Draft to the organization. According to a team announcement, the Kraken have signed Nathan Villeneuve to a three-year entry-level contract.

Seattle selected Villeneuve with the 63rd overall pick of last summer’s draft. He had just concluded his sophomore campaign with the OHL’s Sudbury Wolves, scoring 23 goals and 27 assists in 50 games with a +10 rating.

This year has been a bit more of a mixed bag. He did improve his offensive output, scoring 34 goals and 70 points in 57 games, but he took far more penalties than at any point in his playing career. He finished the 2024-25 campaign with 120 PIMs, the third-highest of any player in the OHL.

Still, that primarily came from Villeneuve’s physicality and high pace of play. He’s an aggressive forechecker and was known as a pest by opponents during his major junior career. He’ll want to clean up many of those penalties should he have a future in the NHL, but he’s starting with an impressively high motor.

Villeneuve will likely finish the 2024-25 campaign playing on an amateur tryout agreement with the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds. The Firebirds have already clinched a position in the 2025 Calder Cup playoffs and will look to qualify for the Calder Cup Final for a third consecutive year.

Penguins Recall Matthew Nieto Under Emergency Conditions

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have recalled forward Matthew Nieto from the minor leagues under emergency conditions. Pittsburgh continues to face injuries to forwards Tommy Novak, Philip Tomasino, and Bokondji Imama; as well as defenseman Pierre-Olivier Joseph. Nieto will rejoin the NHL ranks to help push the team through their final four games of the season.

Nieto’s season began a month late as he recovered from a pair of knee surgeries last season. He initially returned with a pair of AHL games, but earned a call-up in mid November that glued him to the NHL roster. Serving as Pittsburgh’s extra forward, Nieto stepped into 31 games through the return of the 4-Natiosn Face-Off Break, but only managed a measly three points. That low production earned Nieto a waiver placement and assignment to the minors in late February. The move has proven to be a helpful spark. Intercut with routine call-ups to the top flight, Nieto has managed three goals and seven points in 15 AHL games – productive scoring in his first games since the 2013-14 season.

Nieto will likely serve as Pittsburgh’s extra man in Tuesday’s matchup against the Chicago Blackhawks. The Penguins could also opt to push him into the lineup over a player like Joona Koppanen, who has just one goal in seven games this season, or Connor Dewar, who has one point in his last seven games.

Red Wings Recall Austin Watson Under Emergency Conditions

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The Detroit Red wings have recalled forward Austin Watson under emergency conditions. He will support the Wings as they approach a stretch of must-win games to keep their playoff hopes alive. Watson was on the Detroit roster through early-April, but was returned to the minors for two games this weekend. He recorded three goals, five points, and six shots on goal in the pair of games.

Watson’s hot weekend brought his AHL scoring up to 19 goals and 42 points in 58 games this season. Those marks place Watson second on the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins in total points, and third on the team in goals. He also leads the team with 96 penalty minutes – 45 more than anyone else on the squad. Watson’s high-event style has translated in bits-and-pieces to the Red Wings’ roster, where he has two points and 17 penalty minutes in eight games this season. He scored his pair of goals on his last NHL recall – netting them in back-to-back games on March 24th and 25th.

Watson spent the last five seasons entirely in the NHL – serving in the role of fourth-line enforcer over stretches with the Nashville Predators, Ottawa Senators, and Tampa Bay Lightning. Minor league games this season mark Watson’s first since he was with Nashville in 2018-19. He’s filled a minimal-usage role everywhere he’s gone, with teams leaning on him to generate tons of hits and take fights – while offering the occasional boost of shooting luck. Those will be the traits that Detroit looks to add in as they prepare to face their Wild Card opposition, the Montreal Canadiens, on Tuesday night.

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