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Senators Loan Nikolas Matinpalo To Belleville

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The Montreal Canadiens tweeted that defenseman Mike Matheson and forward Patrik Laine will not take part in today’s team practice. The tweet wasn’t overly detailed and described their absences as a “Therapy day.”

The Canadiens have been cautious with Laine as he just returned from injury and has played just four games this season. The former second-overall pick suffered a knee injury in the preseason and there were concerns he could miss the entire season. However, the 26-year-old fortunately was able to recover without surgery and missed just two and a half months of action. Laine has been sensational since returning, posting three goals and an assist.

There are no further details on Matheson at this time, but the 30-year-old did miss two games at the end of November with a lower-body injury. Matheson has been terrific once again this season for Montreal, registering two goals and 13 assists in 26 games.

In other Eastern Conference notes:

  • Washington Capitals injured superstar Alex Ovechkin skated this morning as he tries to work his way back into game action (as per Tom Gulitti from NHL.com). Ovechkin skated in a non-contact jersey and had former teammate Nicklas Backstrom join him on the ice in a track suit. The 39-year-old Ovechkin is trying to overcome a fractured fibula that has kept him out of action since November 18th. Ovechkin had seven goals in the five games prior to the injury as he closes in on the NHL’s all-time goals record.
  • The Ottawa Senators announced that they have loaned defenseman Nikolas Matinpalo to the Belleville Senators of the American Hockey League. Matinpalo was recalled yesterday, but is being returned to Belleville as his shuttling back and forth continues. Matinpalo has yet to play an NHL game this season but did dress in four games last season. This year, the 26-year-old has dressed in 17 AHL games, picking up two goals and four assists.

Matinpalo Recalled From Belleville

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  • The Senators announced (Twitter link) that they’ve once again recalled Nikolas Matinpalo from AHL Belleville. The 26-year-old has been shuffled back and forth in recent days but has yet to see any game action with Ottawa in 2024-25 but got into four games with the big club last season.  Matinpalo has played in 17 games with Belleville this season, collecting two goals and four assists, nearly halfway to his point production from 2023-24.

Senators Owner Accuses Rangers Of ‘Soft-Tampering’

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The first day of the NHL Board of Governors meeting has started with some dramatics. According to TSN’s Pierre LeBrun, the owner of the Ottawa Senators, Michael Andlauer, has accused the New York Rangers of  “soft-tampering.”

It’s safe to say there’s now a Brady Tkachuk-sized wedge between the two organizations. Andlauer’s statement was regarding a report from Larry Brooks of the New York Post indicating the Rangers were aggressively pursuing Tkachuk in a trade with the Senators.

Nothing indicates that Brooks’ report came from a leak within the Rangers organization but the Senators organization believes it did. Andlauer told LeBrun that Ottawa hasn’t discussed Tkachuk with any team and he hopes he will be the team’s leader for many years.

The accusation is understandably heavy and will likely be discussed at the Board of Governors meeting. Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reports the Rangers responded to the accusation by saying, “This is an irresponsible accusation and we defer to the Commissioner’s office.”

It’s a situation the league will likely investigate given its updated policies on tampering. The league was reportedly displeased with the number of contracts preemptively announced before free agency began on July 1st and sent a memo to all 32 teams.

Any team caught tampering could face fines as large as $5MM, lose draft capital, or even have contracts voided (although that wouldn’t apply in this scenario) should they be caught tampering. The last time a team has been charged with tampering by the league came back in 2016 when former-general manager for the Vancouver Canucks, Jim Benning, made public comments regarding P.K. Subban and Steven Stamkos which resulted in a $50K fine.

Sens Weren't In Trouba Trade Talks For Long

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  • While the Senators may have had cursory discussions about acquiring Jacob Trouba, those talks wouldn’t have gone far, reports Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. The veteran blueliner made it known that he had no interest in playing for a Canadian-based team which also took Montreal, a speculative landing spot with former Ranger GM Jeff Gorton in the front office, off the table.  Trouba eventually accepted a deal to Anaheim on Friday.

Steve Staios Unhappy About Tkachuk Rumors

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Before the New York Rangers traded defenseman Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks, rumors began to swirl around the team’s reported interest in Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk. These rumors were quickly squashed when Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Citizen immediately reported the Senators had no interest in moving on from their leader.

General manager Steve Staios was more than displeased to see Tkachuk’s name in the rumor mill. Garrioch hinted that any working relationship between the Senators and Rangers organization may have been tarnished. In his article regarding the speculation, Garrioch wrote, “Rangers GM Chris Drury may have some explaining to do to the Senators organization due to this talk. Staios won’t be the least bit pleased to hear Tkachuk’s name floating around out there. It’s believed Staios planned to have a conversation with Tkachuk to reiterate there is absolutely nothing to this“.

This update from Garrioch should quiet any future rumors regarding Ottawa and their captain. Tkachuk is in the fourth year of a seven-year contract signed with the Senators in 2021 and there’s been no indication from the player or the team that Tkachuk is close to leaving.

[SOURCE LINK]

Nikolas Matinpalo Dealing With Illness After Call-Up

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David Perron Not Expected Back Soon

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  • According to broadcaster Daniella Bruce, the Detroit Red Wings won’t have netminder Cam Talbot available during their two-game road trip against the Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators. This means rookie netminder Sebastian Cossa will likely be with the team for the remainder of the week under emergency conditions unless Alex Lyon is activated from the injured reserve. Head coach Derek Lalonde has already confirmed Cossa won’t get the start this evening against the Bruins but could make his NHL debut later this week should Ville Husso continue struggling.
  • It’s been a difficult introductory season for David Perron with the Ottawa Senators. He’s only suited up in nine games this season and it doesn’t appear he’ll be adding to that total soon (X Link). He missed significant time earlier in the season due to a health scare with his newborn daughter but has missed due to an upper-body injury more recently.

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Senators Recall Nikolas Matinpalo

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The Senators announced they’ve recalled right-shot defenseman Nikolas Matinpalo from AHL Belleville. He’ll serve as Ottawa’s extra defender for the time being while lefty Donovan Sebrango, whom they summoned last week before scratching him for three straight games, returned to the minors in a corresponding move.

Matinpalo has four career NHL games, all coming in an Ottawa uniform last season. The Sens signed the 26-year-old Finn as an undrafted free agent from Liiga’s Ässät in 2023, playing him mostly with Belleville since.

A defensive-minded blue liner with good size at 6’3″ and 212 lbs, Matinpalo averaged just seven minutes per game across last year’s early-season call-up. He recorded a +1 rating, two shots, two blocks, and four hits while controlling 53.6% of shot attempts at even strength, but he’s still looking for his first NHL point.

In 84 games for the B-Sens since the beginning of last season, Matinpalo has six goals and 14 assists for 20 points with a +13 rating. He signed a one-year, two-way extension in June, shortly before his one-year entry-level agreement was set to expire.

Meanwhile, Sebrango’s first NHL recall ends without incident. The 22-year-old, whom Ottawa acquired from the Red Wings in 2023’s Alex DeBrincat trade, is on pace for the best season of his five-year professional career with six points in 14 games for Belleville this year.

Sebrango, a third-round pick of Detroit in 2020, is set to be a restricted free agent next summer. The 6’1″, 220-lb lefty will likely stay out of NHL action until an injury affects one of the Sens’ other lefties – with their injury-related absence being righty Artem Zub, it made sense to swap Sebrango for Matinpalo on the active roster. Matinpalo will require waivers to return to Belleville if he remains on Ottawa’s roster for over 30 days or plays 10 or more games.

Senators Hoping To Have First-Round Pick Forfeiture Reduced

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Last November, the NHL ruled that the Senators must forfeit one of their first-round selections in either the 2024, 2025, or 2026 drafts due to their failure to disclose Evgenii Dadonov’s no-trade clause when they traded him to Vegas in 2021.  The issue came to light less than a year later when the Golden Knights tried to flip him to Anaheim at the 2022 trade deadline, a team that was on that no-trade list.  (He eventually was moved to Montreal later that summer.)  Management in Vegas was understandably displeased about the matter and asked the league to investigate, eventually leading to the penalty to Ottawa.

The last time the NHL took this step was with New Jersey and their initial 17-year contract to Ilya Kovalchuk, a deal that was later reworked to a 15-year agreement.  The Devils were fined $3MM and stripped of a first-round pick between 2011 and 2014.  They elected not to forfeit in the first three years and in 2014, after Kovalchuk left the team, New Jersey successfully lobbied the league for a lesser penalty; half the funds were returned and instead of losing the first-rounder outright, it was moved to the back of the first round.

It appears that Senators owner Michael Andlauer is hoping that history will repeat itself with his franchise.  In an appearance on Amazon’s Monday Night Hockey earlier this week (video link), he lobbied for similar relief when it comes to Ottawa’s penalty:

It is what is it, we move forward, it was before my time. I accept a lot of deliberation went through. I just hope that being good citizens we can get the same type of relief New Jersey did some years ago with a similar situation.

The team elected not to forfeit the pick in this year’s draft, instead selecting defenseman Carter Yakemchuk seventh overall in June.  The Sens currently sit 25th in the overall standings and if they wind up finishing the season somewhere around there, it stands to reason that they’ll keep their 2025 selection, push the penalty to 2026, and hope for relief from the league at that time.

However, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told reporters including Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch earlier this month that he has no inclination to lessen the penalty on the Senators.  Of course, things can change between now and then but it certainly doesn’t appear to be trending in that direction for now.

It’s worth noting that the pick that Ottawa has to forfeit must be their own selection and not one acquired from another team.  That means that if they trade one of their 2025 or 2026 picks, it would lock in them forfeiting the other one as things stand.  That will likely play an impact in trade talks as they look to acquire help on their back end as those selections are trade chips that are probably off the table in discussions.

Noah Gregor A Game-Time Decision

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  • Depth forward Noah Gregor will be a game-time decision for the Ottawa Senators tonight (X Link). Gregor has missed five straight games for the Senators after scoring two goals and three points in his first 16 contests.

    [SOURCE LINK]

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