Ottawa Senators Recall Chris DiDomenico
The Ottawa Senators have recalled Chris DiDomenico from the AHL prior to their matchup with the Toronto Maple Leafs tomorrow night. Zack Smith was injured in the game yesterday and is expected out a week, although both Colin White and Ben Harpur were out on the ice at practice today.
The Senators lost in overtime last night, making if three times already this season that the team has ended regulation in a tie only to lose the game thereafter. That record of 3-1-3 is still good for third in the Atlantic Division, but they’ll have to take on the top team in the 6-1 Maple Leafs. They’ll deploy DiDomenico into the lineup unless White is able to go tomorrow night.
At 28 with only three games under his belt you might think that DiDomenico is a minor league journeyman, but in this case you’d be mistaken. After being taken in the sixth round of the 2007 draft—by those same Maple Leafs he’ll face tomorrow—and completing his junior career, DiDomenico spent just a couple of years in the minor leagues before heading to Europe. Playing in the Italian and Swiss leagues, the undersized forward put up huge point totals before finally re-signing back in the NHL last spring.
In four games with the Belleville Senators of the AHL this season, DiDomenico leads the team with five points and has generally been among the most dangerous forwards on the ice at all times. He’ll try to bring some of that skill and speed to the NHL again should he get into the lineup tomorrow night.
Borowiecki Won't Play Thursday, Listed As Day-To-Day
- The Senators announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Mark Borowiecki is listed as day-to-day and will not play on Thursday night. He sustained what appeared to be a shoulder injury in a fight with Vancouver winger Derek Dorsett and did not return for the third period.
Senators Have Made Kyle Turris A Five-Year Extension Offer
The Senators have made what’s believed to be a five-year offer worth $30MM to pending unrestricted free agent center Kyle Turris, reports TSN’s Darren Dreger on TSN 1040 (audio link). However, as has been reported earlier, Turris is more concerned about the term of the deal over the money and is still focused on securing a longer-term extension. Dreger adds that there hasn’t been any recent substantive discussion between Ottawa GM Pierre Dorion and Turris’ agent Kurt Overhardt.
Turris is off to a strong start this season with two goals and five assists through the first six games while hovering around the 20-minute mark in average ice time. While it’s doubtful that he’ll be able to sustain that level of production over a full season – he has only hit the 60-point mark once – he should be able to come in around the 50-point mark at the very least if he stays healthy which will set him up nicely if he does make it to the open market.
While it’s understandable that the Sens would like to avoid a max-term (eight-year) extension if possible, Turris will only be 29 at the start of next season and should still have several strong seasons ahead of him; the risk isn’t as high as it would be for someone in their early 30s. So even though the offer represents a sizable raise from the $4MM salary ($3.5MM cap hit) he’s getting this season, there isn’t a lot of risk in waiting to see if the team ups their offer (or increases the term) as it’s fairly safe to expect that Turris will receive comparable offers in free agency next July.
Defensive Notes: Karlsson, Nemeth, Schlemko
The Ottawa Senators will welcome back their captain and best player tomorrow night against the Vancouver Canucks, according to head coach Guy Boucher (via Ian Mendes of TSN). That’s a huge step for the Senators, though they haven’t seemed to need it yet. Ottawa is still undefeated in regulation, and have won their last two games with a combined score of 12-1.
Still, Karlsson is among the top handful of players in the league and will really stabilize a defense corps that has had some moving parts throughout the first few games. Nine different defensemen have already suited up for at least one game, with a ton of responsibility being heaped on the trio of Dion Phaneuf, Cody Ceci and Fredrik Claesson. Each of them are averaging at least 21 minutes a night, something that will likely change with as Karlsson gets his legs under him. Last year the captain averaged almost 27 minutes while finishing second in Norris voting.
- Patrik Nemeth has left the Colorado Avalanche on their road trip and flown back to Denver for more tests according to Adrian Dater of BSN Denver. Nemeth suffered a shoulder injury while fighting former teammate Tyler Seguin in a game on Saturday night. Nemeth, who was claimed off waivers just before the season started, has been one of the Avalanche’s best defensemen in the early going.
- David Schlemko was expected back in the Montreal lineup this week, but is not with the team in San Jose according to Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports. The Canadiens take on the Sharks tomorrow night and then will head to Anaheim and Los Angeles before returning home. The 30-year old played one game on a conditioning stint in Laval and was immediately recalled to the team, but still hasn’t suited up for the Canadiens this season.
Minor Transactions: 10/15/17
The Ottawa Senators announced they are sending defenseman Thomas Chabot to the Belleville Senators of the AHL and are returning Alex Formenton to London of the OHL. That means that Erik Karlsson‘s return is close and Bruce Garrioch of The Ottawa Sun writes that head coach Guy Boucher said Saturday that Karlsson could be back for Tuesday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks.
Karlsson’s return will be welcome in Ottawa, who have been without him since last year. The team leader and quarterback of their power play, the 27-year-old defenseman scored 71 points last year and averaged 26:50 minutes of ice time. However with his return, the team freed up some roster space.
Chabot was called up last week, due to multiple defensive injuries, and fared well. In two games, the 2015 first-round pick picked up an assist and had a plus/minus rating of +3. The defense had been an issue without Karlsson, who had foot surgery this offseason. Both Johnny Oduya and callup Ben Harpur were also injured prompting Chabot’s call-up. However, the team has made it clear they want Chabot to get as many minutes as possible and Belleville will provide that for the time being.
Formenton, a surprise keeper after training camp, will be returned to his junior team, the London Knights, who he played with last year before Ottawa made him the 47th pick in the draft this year. He could have played up to nine games in the NHL before his entry-level contract started, but played in just one game and only for 4:54, picking up no points. Instead his contract will slide another year.
- The Minnesota Wild also made a few transactions today, sending forwards Zach Mitchell, Christoph Bertschy, Landon Ferraro and Luke Kunin back to the Iowa Wild. All the forwards were recalled within the last day or two to help fill in holes in their lineup for their game against the Blue Jackets last night due to multiple injuries. Neither Mitchell, Bertschy or Ferraro, who formed the team’s fourth line last night, played more than six minutes in the game, but Ferraro, nonetheless, got on the scoreboard with a second-period goal assisted by Mitchell. Kunin, the team’s 2016 first-round pick, played 13:53 in his first game, but had no points. The Wild also promoted Mike Reilly, who had been demoted Saturday when Minnesota added Kunin to their roster. Reilly, played one game while in Iowa and scored a goal.
Christian Jaros Sent To Belleville, Johnny Oduya Ready To Return
- The Senators announced (via Twitter) that they have returned blueliner Christian Jaros to Belleville of the AHL. The 21-year-old is in his first season in North America and got into a pair of games with Ottawa in his first NHL stint, averaging 7:58 per night. He also has an assist in two contests at the minor league level. His spot on the roster will be filled by defenseman Johnny Oduya, who is set to return to the lineup.
Three Teams Showing Strong Interest In Andreas Athanasiou
The Canadiens, Kings, and Senators are among the teams showing the most interest in unsigned Detroit winger Andreas Athanasiou, reports Ken Campbell of The Hockey News. All three make some sense as potential fits as Montreal is in need of scoring help, Ottawa has been looking for more depth up front since training camp when Clarke MacArthur failed his physical, while Los Angeles is looking to play a faster pace this year and the 23-year-old is one of the speedier players in the league.
Darren Ferris, Athanasiou’s agent, noted to Campbell that this situation will be resolved within the next week. How it gets resolved remains to be seen. Obviously, he could re-sign with the Red Wings but there has been little movement on Detroit’s offers or his asking price over the past several weeks. An offer sheet at this point is unlikely considering it hasn’t been done already. That leaves signing with an international team with the potential for an NHL out-clause by December 1st, his NHL signing deadline.
Campbell adds that although the offer that Athanasiou had received from Ak Bars Kazan of the KHL has now been withdrawn, Avangard Omsk (also of the KHL) has put an offer on the table believed to be worth $2.5MM, the amount he’s seeking from Detroit. He has Swiss NLA offers from HC Lugano (where he’s currently skating), Lausanne HC, and one other team but from a financial standpoint, those teams won’t be able to offer close to that type of money.
MLive’s Ansar Khan suggests that part of the current stalemate may have something to do with his role with the team. Last season, Athanasiou was up and down in the lineup and also found himself a healthy scratch at one point. He averaged 13:28 per night in 2016-17 which is fairly low for a player who had 18 goals in 64 games. GM Ken Holland has reportedly assured him of a top-nine role with some power play time but that’s not really anything beyond the role he had last year.
If Ferris’ expectation that Athanasiou’s situation will be sorted out within the next week holds true, there should be an end to the standoff soon but there are a lot of different ways that this still can go in the coming days.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Overseas Notes: Da Costa, Streit, Steen
Yet another NHL veteran who was trying to hold out for a new contract in North America is now close to settling for European employment. The Swiss Hockey News reports that Stephane Da Costa is nearing an agreement with Geneve-Servette of the Swiss NLA. Da Costa, 28, was a superstar at Merrimack College from 2009 to 2011 and looked to be the next great story in the NHL after signing with the Ottawa Senators – an undrafted player coming from a non-traditional hockey country of France. While Da Costa proved to be a lethal producer in the AHL, he could never quite stick in Ottawa and left the NHL in 2012. Da Costa spent the past three years with CSKA Moscow of the KHL, putting up solid numbers, but it has been his international play on the part of France that has really turned heads. Beginning with a stellar 10-point performance at the World Championships last spring, Da Costa had reportedly been drawing interest from NHL teams and fully planned on playing with the world’s best this season. Yet, with the new season underway, those offers never came and it seems Da Costa is now ready to move on. While Geneve-Servette is off to a tough start in the NLA – second-to-last currently – they are not without considerable talent up front, including NHL veterans Nathan Gerbe, Nick Spaling, and Cody Almond, as well as San Jose Sharks prospect Noah Rod. Da Costa could help kick start a team that typically performs near the top of the NLA and made it to the final of the 2017 Swiss Cup tournament.
- Da Costa hasn’t yet signed with Geneve-Servette, but by the time he does he may no longer be the biggest name in terms of recent additions. With Mark Streit being placed on waivers by the Montreal Canadiens yesterday (with a very good chance of clearing today), it seems more likely that the veteran defenseman will ask for his release than be assigned to the AHL but the Canadiens. Given that the soon-to-be-40-year-old could have simply rode off into the sunset after winning the Stanley Cup last season with the Pittsburgh Penguins, it is clear that he wants to keep playing. That opportunity will likely come in his native country of Switzerland, where Streit has suited up for the NLA’s HC Davos, ZSC Lions, and SC Bern over his career. A return home to much fanfare and a chance to play in the Olympics seems like much more fitting end for Streit than playing in the minors
- A seemingly minor move in the KHL could be of some interest to Boston Bruins fans. In a round-up of their minor transaction over the past few days, the league revealed that the rights to forward Oskar Steen, Boston’s sixth-round pick in 2016, had been acquired by SKA St. Petersburg. While Steen has been playing for Farjestad of the SHL for three years now, an opportunity to play for SKA may be tough for the young Swede forward to pass up. Farjestad is no slouch, but SKA has been wildly successful in recent years, winning two of the past three KHL titles and again tearing up the league with a 17-point lead over the next-best team. SKA graduated players like Vadim Shipachyov and Evgeni Dadonov to the NHL this off-season, but still carry top prospects like Nikita Gusev and Igor Shestyorkin and talented veterans like Ilya Kovalchuk, Viktor Tikhonov, Sergei Plotnikov, and even long-time defenseman Maxim Chudinov, former property of the Bruins. Joining that mix could be a good career-move for the under-utilized Steen, could give SKA a further boost, and could help round out yet another promising prospect to add to the Bruins’ ranks.
Karlsson Hoping To Play Next Week
While the Senators were hoping that defenseman Erik Karlsson would be able to return to the lineup this weekend, GM Pierre Dorion told reporters, including Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch, that he will not be able to do so and that they’re hopeful that he will be able to suit up at some point next week. Dorion was quick to add that Karlsson had not suffered any setback.
The 27-year-old has yet to play this season after undergoing tendon surgery on his foot back in June on an injury he sustained in the Senators’ postseason run. Garrioch adds that Ottawa could get one of their other defenders back this weekend as Johnny Oduya may be ready to play on Saturday in Calgary. He suffered a lower-body injury in the season opener last Thursday.
“No Panic” In Kyle Turris Extension Talks
Recently the Ottawa Senators were thrust into the rumor mill when Darren Dreger of TSN speculated on a possible trade. The fire was only stoked when Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet spoke about a potential gap in terms of contract length for the new deal, but now Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia spoke directly to Senators GM Pierre Dorion on the matter.
“No panic” is the quote Garrioch shared, reporting that Dorion believes something can get done between the two sides. Turris is clearly an important part to the Senators and is averaging 21 minutes a night through the first three games of the season. He’s set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, but could reach a long-term deal to center the Senators’ top line for some time.
An interesting factor in the Senators’ decision may be the long-term health of Clarke MacArthur. The forward’s contract is fully insured, meaning that if he can’t return to the NHL after his latest bout with post-concussion symptoms, not only will the team get potential cap relief but also likely remove a financial burden. That $4.75MM in salary per season would go a long way in helping an internal budget team like Ottawa afford to keep Turris around.
They also have to worry about new contracts for Mark Stone and Cody Ceci this summer, when the pair reaches restricted free agency, and the pending massive deal Erik Karlsson will be signing for the 2019-20 season. Still, watching a 28-year old top line center walk in free agency is almost unheard of, making this a case of extension or trade by the end of the season.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images