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Thomas Chabot Out With Broken Toe

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The Ottawa Senators have had a bright spot all season in Thomas Chabot, who has developed into a top defenseman in the NHL at a very young age. Unfortunately that bright spot will be snuffed out for at least a few weeks, as Chabot deals with a broken toe. Brent Wallace of TSN reports that the team has listed Chabot as week-to-week, but are hopeful he can play again this season. The Senators finish their season on April 6th, three and a half weeks from now.

Chabot, 22, has racked up 49 points through 62 games this season, establishing an early career high and proving himself to be one of the most dynamic offensive weapons in the league. Logging more than 24 minutes per night for the Senators, Chabot is a huge centerpiece for their rebuild and will be relied upon moving forward.

Unfortunately, that may have to wait until next season if he doesn’t recover quickly. There’s not much point in rushing him back, though the Senators have said that they’re trying to win as many games as possible down the stretch. Tanking for a higher draft pick isn’t a problem for them, but they seem destined to finish in last place.

Minor Transactions: 03/13/19

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The NHL is quiet on this Wednesday evening, with only three games on the schedule. In Edmonton, the Oilers will try to keep their season alive against the New Jersey Devils, while in Toronto they just try to forget the beat down they suffered earlier this week. With most of the league resting today, there will likely be several minor moves to keep track of. Like always, we’ll do that right here.

  • The Boston Bruins have recalled Paul Carey from the minor leagues according to Mark Divver of the Providence Journal. Carey has 20 points in 21 games since being acquired by the Bruins in mid-Januaray, and could potentially jump right into the NHL lineup. The 30-year old forward has long been an excellent scoring threat at the minor league level, but has totaled just 16 points across 97 NHL appearances.
  • The Bruins have also recalled Connor Clifton from Providence, while assigning Peter Cehlarik back down to the AHL. Clifton, 23, has played in just nine NHL games this season but has been dynamic in the minor leagues with 27 points.
  • Colton White was returned to the minor leagues last night, without actually getting a chance with the New Jersey Devils. The 21-year old defenseman has 25 points in 61 games for the Binghamton Devils this season, but will have to wait a little longer to make his NHL debut.
  • The Ottawa Senators have sent Filip Chlapik back down, since he was only on an emergency recall. The young forward will get plenty of opportunity in the coming years to make an impact for Ottawa, but for now will continue his development with the Belleville Senators.
  • With Robin Lehner getting ready to make his returned to the New York net, the Islanders have reassigned Christopher Gibson back to the AHL’s Bridgeport Sound Tigers. The 26-year-old Finnish keeper has been stellar in two appearances with the Isles this season, posting a .941 save percentage and 1.50 GAA in two periods of relief. However, he may be yet another beneficiary of the team’s system; his underlying AHL numbers – a .900 save percentage and a 2.89 GAA – and his previous NHL outings suggest he’s still not playing at an NHL level.
  • The AHL’s Hershey Bears have signed veteran Joey Leach to a contract for the remainder of the season. Leach, 27, had been loaned to Hershey from their AHL affiliate, the South Carolina Stingrays, but did enough in 17 games with the Bears to earn a contract. Leach was both the captain of the Stingrays and one of their most valuable player. He had 20 points in 28 games with the team prior to his loan, suiting up at both defense and forward.

Three Princeton Free Agents Sign NHL Contracts

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Princeton Tigers head coach Ron Fogarty may be disappointed with the way his hockey club’s season ended, but today he’ll be proud of several of his players. Three Princeton free agents have signed entry-level contracts. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports on each, tweeting that Max Veronneau has signed with his hometown Ottawa Senators, Ryan Kuffner is heading to the Detroit Red Wings, and Josh Teves will sign with the Vancouver Canucks.

Veronneau, 23, signed a two-year entry-level contract with the Senators after nearly the entire league expressed interest in him. That two-year deal is all he could sign at his current age, but the Senators have offered him the chance to burn the first year immediately by joining them for the rest of the season. Veronneau will be in Ottawa in time for practice on Wednesday. GM Pierre Dorion explained the process of signing another prospect:

We are very excited to have Max join the Ottawa Senators. We aggressively pursued Max, whose talents made him one of the highly sought-after college free agents available this year. He plays the game with tremendous pace and has terrific offensive instincts. Max will be given the opportunity to compete to be part of the Senators team, both now and in the future.

The talented forward had 37 points in 31 games this season after trailing only Adam Gaudette in 2017-18 with 55 points. He had previously attended development camps with several teams, and has been on the radar as a potential college signing for years. Veronneau will become a restricted free agent after the 2019-20 season.

Kuffner meanwhile actually led Princeton in scoring this season with 44 points and is certainly another sought after talent. The 22-year old forward is also from the Ottawa area and was a star in the CCHL before heading to college. In four years at Princeton the 6’1″ winger recorded 152 points in 132 games, and will join a Red Wings organization that is slowly rebuilding their talent pool after many years of Stanley Cup contention. Like Veronneau, Kuffner has signed a two-year entry-level contract with the Red Wings that will start this season, making him a restricted free agent in the summer of 2020.

Teves, the lone defenseman of the trio is also the oldest at 24 but has had great success as a puck-mover over the years. The Calgary-born Teves has signed a one-year entry-level deal with Vancouver given his age, and if it is for this season—which Rick Dhaliwal of Sportsnet has heard it is—it would make him a restricted free agent in just a few months. He’s certainly familiar with the area, given he attended Canucks development camp and played much of his junior hockey in British Columbia.

Senators, Oilers Making “Major Push” To Sign Max Veronneau

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It’s college free agent season and one of the top names available is Princeton’s Max Veronneau. The 23-year old forward recorded 37 points in 31 games this year and has apparently attracted teams from all around the NHL. Bob McKenzie of TSN reports that at least 25 teams had expressed interest in Veronneau, who is an unrestricted free agent and can sign anywhere he wants.

According to McKenzie, both the Ottawa Senators and Edmonton Oilers are teams making a “major push” to sign Veronneau, who enters the market as one of the most dynamic free agents available. The Ottawa native recorded 144 points in 130 games during his Princeton career, including a whopping 55 last season to trail only Adam Gaudette for the leading scorer in the nation. Adding that kind of offensive presence for nothing more than a contract slot is exactly what teams like the Senators and Oilers have to do in order to fill their ranks and build a successful program.

Veronneau has previously spent time with the Calgary Flames, New Jersey Devils and Los Angeles Kings in various development camps, but it is not clear if those teams have made an effort to sign him.

Because Veronneau is already 23, the maximum contract he can sign is a two-year entry-level deal. Teams could potentially offer up the chance to burn the first year of that deal by signing it for this season, a negotiating tactic top college players often take. That would mean Veronneau would become a restricted free agent in the summer of 2020, though we’ll have to wait and see what he secures in the coming days.

Minor Transactions: 03/11/19

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We’re another week closer to the 2019 NHL Playoffs, and every game is incredibly important for those teams looking to snatch the final few spots. The New York Islanders will welcome in the desperate Columbus Blue Jackets tonight in a game that could make the Metropolitan Division race even more interesting. As teams prepare for all the action tonight, we’ll be here keeping track of all the minor moves.

  • The New Jersey Devils have recalled Colton White from the minor leagues, his first chance to join the NHL team. White, a fourth-round pick of the Devils in 2015, has 25 points in 61 games this season in his first full season at the AHL level. The 21-year old defenseman split the 2017-18 season between the AHL and ECHL, turning in a brilliant performance in the Kelly Cup playoffs.
  • Lee Stempniak has been assigned to the Providence Bruins after suiting up twice for the Boston Bruins. Stempniak signed a deal just before the trade deadline to provide some veteran depth for the Bruins, but isn’t expected to play a big role with the NHL club. Instead he’ll return to Providence where he had five points in seven games before being called up.
  • Filip Chlapik is on his way back to the Ottawa Senators, recalled under emergency conditions. Chlapik was held out of the Belleville Senators’ afternoon game in Toronto, but has an impressive 30 points in 45 games for the AHL club.
  • The Pittsburgh Penguins have recalled Joseph Blandisi under emergency conditions, giving them some insurance in case Zach Aston-Reese can’t play tomorrow night. Blandisi has played just a single game for Pittsburgh since coming over from the Anaheim Ducks, but does have 15 points in 17 games for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

Senators Unsure On Whether Or Not To Extend Anders Nilsson

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The Senators are likely to give Anders Nilsson a lot of action down the stretch as they have yet to decide on whether or not to offer the pending UFA a deal for next season, suggests Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch.  The 28-year-old has fared better with Ottawa since being dealt from Vancouver, posting a respectable .910 SV% in 18 appearances compared to the .895 mark he had in a dozen games with the Canucks.  Veteran Mike Condon is still under contract for next season but his hip issues continue to be problematic; Garrioch noted that he had a recent setback as he continues to rehab his current injury.  With that in mind, the Sens will likely want to have some insurance if Condon can’t play next season which could come by keeping Nilsson around.

Snapshots: Hart, Forsberg, Ferland, Debrusk, Hirose

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The Philadelphia Flyers got some good news as it looks like rookie goaltender Carter Hart is healthy once again and could find himself in net as early as Monday against the Ottawa Senators, according to Philly.com’s Sam Carchidi.

Hart has been out since Feb. 21 with an ankle injury, but he was also coming off two of his worst performances, having been pulled in back-to-back games in which he allowed three goals on just six shots in both appearances. If the team opts to start him against Ottawa, it would be an opportunity to ease him back into the lineup as the Senators are 1-8-1 in their last 10 games.

The 20-year-old Hart is having a impressive season considering he was not meant to spend it in the NHL. Originally slated to spend his first professional season in the AHL, he appeared in just 18 games before being promoted alongside interim head coach Scott Gordon when he was hired. Since then, Hart was helped the Flyers rebound from a tough start with a 13-8-1 record with a 2.79 GAA. While that number doesn’t stand out, his .917 save percentage does.

  • Paul Skrbina of The Tennessean writes that Nashville Predators forward Filip Forsberg missed Saturday’s game and remains day-to-day with an upper-body injury, according to the team. Forsberg missed practice Thursday and Friday, but was believed to be available for Saturday’s game, but didn’t play in the end. Forsberg missed 19 games with an upper-body injury earlier this season, although there is no word on whether this injury is related to that one. The 24-year-old has 22 goals and 41 points in 52 games this season.
  • Michael Smith of NHL.com reports that Carolina Hurricanes forward Micheal Ferland remains day-to-day with an upper-body injury and did not travel with the team on their three-game roadtrip that started in Nashville today, according to head coach Rod Brind’Amour. Ferland has been having a solid season, putting up 17 goals and 35 points in 52 games. The 26-year-old has played under 14 minutes combined over the last two games.
  • The Boston Bruins’ Jake Debrusk is expected to miss a few more games as the forward is still in a walking boot, according to The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa. While he’s expected to miss this weekend’s games, he could be back not long after that as head coach Bruce Cassidy said that Debrusk was the closest, of all their injured players, to return.
  • Fox Sports’ Jon Rosen reports that the Los Angeles Kings are interested in undrafted Michigan State forward Taro Hirose, currently the NCAA leading scorer. According to Rosen, Hirose is friends with Kings’ prospect James Anderson-Dolan and could be convinced to sign with L.A. although there is no word on whether the junior forward is ready to leave college. He has 16 goals and 37 points this season for Michigan State.

Oscar Lindberg Undecided About Plans After This Season

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  • While Senators center Oscar Lindberg has been productive since joining the team from Vegas, he told Postmedia’s Ken Warren that he hasn’t given any thought about potentially re-signing with the team. The pending UFA has 15 points in 41 games between the two teams this season and likely will have difficulty matching or surpassing his current $1.7MM AAV on the open market unless he gets on a big run offensively between now and the end of the season.

Snapshots: Three Stars, Rule Changes, Percy

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The NHL has released their three stars for last week, and familiar names occupy each spot. Marc-Andre Fleury is in the top spot after going 3-0 with two shutouts for the Vegas Golden Knights. Fleury allowed just one goal on 77 shots and is now carrying a .911 save percentage on the year. While that number is down from last season, Fleury leads the league with 32 wins and eight shutouts while also having played the most minutes of any goaltender. The Golden Knights are leaning heavily on their starter, a strategy that will be tested when the playoffs roll around.

Blake Wheeler and Sidney Crosby were awarded second and third respectively, each scoring eight points in three games. Wheeler’s performance was capped by a four-goal game against the Columbus Blue Jackets yesterday, giving him 80 points on the season. Crosby, who has 83 this year is actually on pace to record his best offensive season since 2009-10 and crack the 100-point mark for the sixth time in his career.

  • The GM meetings began this week in Florida, and Frank Seravalli of TSN examines ten potential rule changes that the group will be discussing. These include things like changing standings tiebreaker rules, changing how much a player can be fined for certain incidents, and perhaps even forcing players to wear helmets during warm-ups. It doesn’t sound like any huge changes will come out of this week’s discussions, but there might be a few tweaks.
  • The AHL trade deadline passed today with very little fanfare, but not for Stuart Percy. The former top prospect was traded from the Belleville Senators to the Providence Bruins in exchange for Austin Fyten. Percy, originally selected in the first round eight years ago, has just 12 NHL games under his belt and is currently on a minor league contract.

Atlantic Notes: Senators, Kadri, Howard, Rosen

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With Guy Boucher out as head coach in Ottawa Friday, and 18 games left in the season, the young Ottawa Senators must make a quick decision on their head coaching job this summer. The team gave the interim tag to Marc Crawford, but unless he can turn around the franchise in those 18 games, the Sporting News’ Murray Pam writes that general manager Pierre Dorion may opt to look for a new voice to coach the franchise.

Among the top potential candidates that could take over this summer, Pam suggests that 66-year-old Jacques Martin could be an interesting candidate that can give the team a fresh voice. The veteran coach, who was raised in Saint-Pascal, Ont., not far from Ottawa, has been an assistant coach with the Pittsburgh Penguins for the last six years, 31 years of NHL experience and has two Stanley Cup rings.

One obvious candidate could also come from within as the Belleville Senators’ head coach, Troy Mann, who has done an impressive job in his first year as head coach of the AHL franchise and already knows many of the players on the team’s roster. His recent track record is the most interesting as he has led the team to a 16-game unbeaten streak as the team has gone 11-0-5 and is on the cusp of the AHL playoffs. He’s in his fifth year as an AHL head coach. The scribe throws in several other candidates, including Montreal Canadiens’ assistant Luke Richardson and Columbus Blue Jackets’ assistant Brad Shaw.

  • Despite missing his sixth straight game Saturday, Toronto Maple Leafs Nazem Kadri, who has been out with a concussion, seems to be improving. According to The Star’s Kevin McGran, Kadri skated this morning, which is a good sign for his recovery. “Obviously, our medical staff has to do a good job with those guys and keep them out as long as they’re supposed to be out,” said Leafs coach Mike Babcock. “I think it’s obviously good for him to be out there, just morale-wise. It looks like he’s going in the right direction. I didn’t talk to the coaches since he’s been out, just to see what kind of skate they were able to give him and what he was able to handle. (We’ll) still monitor that and see, and then we’ll see how hard we can push him. I don’t know when he’s ready.”
  • Detroit Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard has struggled immensely in the month of February, posting a 3.97 GAA and a .866 save percentage in nine games. On top of that, he has been pulled from his last three games, not exactly what you’d expect from a goaltender who represented the Atlantic Division at the All-Star Game. However, don’t expect the veteran to give up. Howard has spent countless hours studying video of his play, trying to figure out what’s gone wrong, according to Dana Gauruder of the Detroit Free Press. “To be honest, going through the video, it’s just being off by a fraction,” he said. “Not having the correct angle. When you don’t have that as a goalie, guys can put the puck in tight areas and that’s what’s happened.”
  • With recent injuries to Toronto Maple Leafs’ defensemen Travis Dermott and Jake Gardiner, many fans have wondered why Toronto hasn’t turned to promising young defenseman Calle Rosen. The 25-year-old has been tearing up the AHL with the Toronto Marlies this year and signed a two-year extension with the team back in December. However, Rosen can’t be recalled yet, according to the Toronto Sun’s Lance Hornby, because he took a puck off his foot a few days ago and isn’t ready to return to the ice just yet. Regardless, Rosen, who has seven goals and 44 points in 52 games with the Marlies, could be called up soon.

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