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Snapshots: Gronborg, Heiskanen, Talbot

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One of the names that used to come up every summer in connection to vacant NHL coaching jobs is Rikard Gronborg, former long-time coach of the Swedish national team programs. Gronborg has plenty of experience on this side of the ocean, after playing college hockey at St. Cloud State, coaching in the AWHL, and serving as an assistant in the WHL. For the last few years, his candidacy hasn’t been brought up for a while because of his commitment as head coach of the ZSC Lions in Switzerland, one of the most successful and popular teams in Europe.

Today, news has broken that Gronborg won’t be back with the Lions and instead is likely taking a multi-year contract with Tappara Tampere in Finland. However, the report out of Switzerland also states that if the NHL were to come calling, Gronborg’s new contract with Tappara has an out clause to let him pursue a North American opportunity. With seven World Championship medals, six World Juniors medals, and an Olympic silver, Gronborg has one of the most impressive international coaching resumes of all time. Whether that ever translates into an opportunity in the NHL remains to be seen.

  • Miro Heiskanen is still listed as day-to-day for the Dallas Stars and isn’t expected to play tonight, he could be back on Saturday according to head coach Pete DeBoer, who spoke with reporters including Saad Yousuf of The Athletic. Without Heiskanen in the lineup against the Boston Bruins, Nils Lundkvist played a career-high 22:04. Lundkvist had never gone above 16:39 with the New York Rangers but has now matched or exceeded that in six of seven games with Dallas.
  • Cam Talbot might be back ahead of schedule, according to Ottawa Senators head coach D.J. Smith. As Claire Hanna of TSN reports, Talbot was on the ice facing shots today and is “certainly ahead of the timeline” that had been set for him. There’s still no clear date set for his return but they could still use him, with Anton Forsberg dealing with a minor injury of his own. On that front, Forsberg was back at practice as well and is expected to be the starter when the team takes on the Minnesota Wild tonight.

Ottawa Senators Extend Mark Kastelic

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Hard work pays off. That’s the lesson to be taken from today’s announcement by the Ottawa Senators that Mark Kastelic has signed a two-year extension. The deal will carry an average annual value of $835K, paying the young forward $800K in 2023-24 and $870K in 2024-25. Senators general manager Pierre Dorion released a statement:

Mark has worked tirelessly to earn all that has come his way since being a late round draft pick three years ago. He’s reliable, competitive, takes exceptional pride in his conditioning and routinely showcases a willingness to take on any challenge. He’s set a very good example for the young players and prospects throughout the organization.

Not only was he a late-round pick, selected 125th overall by the Senators in 2019, but it was in his third year of eligibility after going undrafted twice. The WHL tough guy just kept getting better as he worked harder and harder on the ice, to the point where NHL teams couldn’t overlook him anymore. His 47-goal, 122-point campaign with the Calgary Hitmen in 2018-19 landed him with Ottawa, and he would make quick work of the AHL.

Partway through last season Kastelic would come up to the Senators and make an impact right away, racking up hits and providing energy in the bottom six. He was winning draws, landing checks, and dropping the gloves, even chipping in a little bit of offense despite limited minutes. This year he’s a regular on the fourth line, and has already scored two goals in six games. It’s those faceoff numbers that are so impressive though, and why Kastelic could have a long career as a depth forward in the NHL.

He’s now won 37 of 52 draws this season for an incredible 71.2% win rate. That’s a weapon head coach D.J. Smith has relied on, despite not actually playing Kastelic very much. Even though he’s averaged just 8:23 of ice time so far, he actually leads the team in won faceoffs – and that’s on a team that doesn’t have a single centerman under 50%.

The offense that he brought in his junior days probably won’t ever come to the NHL, but at 23, Kastelic is a great story of how dedicated work can secure a spot. He’s found a niche and is excelling at it, leading to some financial security for the next two seasons.

Josh Norris Out Several Months

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Oct 26: The results of the MRI are not what any Senators fan wanted to hear. Ian Mendes of TSN reports that Norris will be out long-term (three to five months was a rough estimate), though surgery has not been confirmed yet. Head coach D.J. Smith is not confident that the young forward will even play again this season, though he is holding out hope.

Oct 24: The Ottawa Senators will be without one of their top centers for at least the next two weeks. Josh Norris will miss that time after suffering a shoulder injury over the weekend, according to Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia, who adds that the young forward is waiting on the results of an MRI before getting a more accurate timeline.

Ottawa moved Derick Brassard into the second-line center role, for the time being, quite an opportunity for a player on a PTO just a few weeks ago. He’ll line up between Alex DeBrincat and Claude Giroux, though the team could always move Shane Pinto into that role during Norris’ absence.

It’s a tough start for the 23-year-old Norris, who is coming off a breakout 35-goal campaign and starting an eight-year, $63.6MM contract. Norris did score against the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday but ended up playing just 14:32. Missing a couple of weeks isn’t the end of the world, but if the injury is deemed more serious and keeps Norris out for longer than that, it could be a huge blow to an Ottawa team that has turned things around after a slow start.

With wins in each of their last three, the Senators are now back in the mix in the Atlantic Division, exactly what they expected after an impressive offseason. Their potential was always tied to the forward depth they accumulated but now with Norris on the sideline and Alex Formenton still unsigned, there are some cracks showing.

The team is back in action tonight against the Dallas Stars.

Ottawa Senators Assign Kevin Mandolese To AHL

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Oct 25: It doesn’t matter who is in net for the Senators these days, they’ll win it anyway. After Hellberg secured the victory, the team has sent Mandolese back to the AHL.

Oct 24: After announcing this morning that Joshua Norris would miss at least two weeks, it doesn’t come as a surprise that the Ottawa Senators have moved him to injured reserve. The player the team has decided to recall in his place, however, will certainly cause some panic among the fan base. The team has called up goaltender Kevin Mandolese, and Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia tweets that Anton Forsberg was on the ice ahead of morning skate but did not participate in it.

That means Magnus Hellberg might be in line for his first start with Mandolese as the backup, something that no one would have expected a few weeks ago. As the season approached, it appeared as though the Senators would be going with a veteran tandem of Cam Talbot and Forsberg. After Talbot’s preseason injury and now Forsberg apparently dealing with something of his own, the team is onto a tandem with just five appearances at the NHL level.

Hellberg, 31, has all of them, though just one has come since 2017. The former Nashville Predators prospect left for the KHL at that point and spent five years playing overseas, before making his return as a member of the Detroit Red Wings last season. After signing a one-year deal with the Seattle Kraken, Hellberg was nabbed off waivers following Talbot’s injury and hasn’t yet appeared for the Senators.

Mandolese, meanwhile, has never played in the NHL and has just 29 appearances at the AHL level. The 22-year-old has posted an .863 in three starts this year with the Belleville Senators, allowing 11 goals on 80 shots.

If there is any silver lining, it is that after tonight against the Dallas Stars, the team won’t play again until Thursday. If Forsberg was healthy enough to get back on the ice this morning, perhaps he won’t miss much more time than this evening.

Tyler Ennis Signs In Switzerland

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After lots of discussion about whether he would head to Europe, O2K Sports Management today confirmed that their client, free agent forward Tyler Ennis, has signed on with SC Bern in the NL for the remainder of the 2022-23 season.

Bern is already off to a strong 8-2-4 start, but only three of those eight wins have come in regulation. Ennis essentially replaces another former NHL forward on their roster, Dominik Kahun, who is expected back from a shoulder injury in early December. Kahun had eight points through his first seven games.

Ennis should headline what is already a red-hot offense for Bern to start the year, spearheaded by a trio of former NHLers: Christopher Didomenico (18 points in 12 games), Colton Sceviour (11 points in 14 games), and Oscar Lindberg (10 points in 14 games). In his last stint in the NL (then the NLA) during the brief 2012-13 lockout, Ennis had eight points in nine games with the SCL Tigers.

The veteran of exactly 700 NHL games had a rather productive season last year with the Ottawa Senators in a depth role, notching 24 points in 57 games, but there were no takers for Ennis on the free agent market last offseason. Now 33 years old, the speedy, diminutive forward likely closed the book on his NHL career by heading overseas. If so, he finished with 144 goals, 202 assists, and 346 points across 13 seasons with the Senators, Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Minnesota Wild, and Buffalo Sabres, who drafted him 26th overall in 2008.

Josh Norris To Have MRI

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  • Earlier this afternoon, Ottawa Senators forward Joshua Norris left their game against the Arizona Coyotes after appearing to injure his arm off the faceoff. Norris immediately left the ice in pain and appeared to throw his stick in the hallway. After the game, no update was offered on the injury itself, and that is still the case this evening. However, Friedman did say on 32 Thoughts that the plan was for Norris to have an MRI once the swelling in his arm went down. No update thus far could be seen as a bit concerning, but an MRI should give more clear results and lead to a timeline once complete.

Senators Interested In Chychrun Still; Won't Discuss Greig, Pinto, Sanderson

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This evening on the 32 Thoughts segment of Hockey Night in Canada, Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek discussed the current market for Chychrun. Marek notes the asking price on Arizona’s end holds firm at two first-round draft picks, “plus,” meaning some combination of additional draft choices, prospects, or roster players. This ask has appeared palatable for a number of teams in theory,  but talks appear to become difficult when the “plus” is brought up. This has become most apparent when it comes to the Ottawa Senators.

Marek reports that discussions on the likes of forwards Ridly Greig and Shane Pinto or defenseman Jake Sanderson are not on the table for the Senators. Considering Chychrun’s talent, age, and cost-controlled contract (three-years, $13.8MM including 2022-23), the player makes perfect sense for an Ottawa team that is just turning the corner in their rebuild, but could use a boost on their blueline.

Still, it’s unclear exactly what the package requested from Ottawa looks like. The Senators aren’t the only team looking at Chychrun, and realistically many teams are likely interested at the possibility of acquiring him given the above, but Marek does list the Los Angeles Kings as another possibility beyond Ottawa, a name we’ve hear before in the Chychrun rumors. With Arizona’s high asking price for the 24-year-old, and the win-now nature of the move, a team like Ottawa or Los Angeles who have a deep system of young talent and are ready to take the next step are two of the most conceivable trade partners in the Chychrun sweepstakes.

Snapshots: Zub, Toews, Megna

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While he might soak up more of the headlines, Alex DeBrincat isn’t the only Ottawa Senator on playing expiring contract. Defenseman Artem Zub, a fan favorite in Ottawa, is a pending unrestricted free agent, and most believe that he is sure to get a sizeable raise on his current $2.5MM cap hit. Zub, 27, is in his third season in the NHL and is now playing top-pairing minutes next to franchise defenseman Thomas Chabot. Zub has gotten off to a hot start this year with two points in three games, and is sure to want to put the best platform season forward as he readies for a potential trip to the unrestricted free agent market.

According to TSN’s Chris Johnston on tonight’s Insider Trading program, he may get to the market, and if he does, he’s unlikely to stick around long. Johnston reports that there haven’t been substantive extension talks between the Senators and Zub, and if Zub does indeed hit the open market he “won’t be an easy player” for the Senators to keep. It’s expected that there will be leaguewide interest in acquiring Zub’s services should he hit the open market, so if the Senators wish to keep their budding star it might be best for them to hammer out an extension sooner rather than later.

For some other notes from across the NHL:

  • Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar issued an update today on defenseman Devon Toews. As relayed by the Denver Gazette’s Kyle Fredrickson, Bednar says Toews is being evaluated for an injury and his status for tomorrow’s game against the Seattle Kraken is unknown. The Avalanche recently found out that they’d be without captain Gabriel Landeskog for quite a while, so they have to be hoping that whatever Toews is dealing with won’t keep him out for long.
  • In other Avalanche news, the team announced today that forward Jayson Megna had been recalled from their AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles. As The Athletic’s Peter Baugh detailed, Megna was only sent down for cap purposes and his recall was expected. The Avalanche are one of the many teams trying to manage with extremely limited cap space, so paper transactions such as this are likely to become more common as the season wears on.

Cam Talbot Still Weeks Away For Ottawa Senators

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The Ottawa Senators have played three games so far this season and Anton Forsberg has been in the net for every single minute of action. The 29-year-old netminder has been the only option in town since Cam Talbot suffered an injury in the preseason. When Forsberg missed the morning skate today, alarm bells went off in Ottawa, as fans wondered whether they would need to turn to Magnus Hellberg to carry the load. While Forsberg was just taking the morning off because of his heavy workload, there’s still no firm timeline for Talbot to return to game action.

In fact, Talbot still hasn’t been cleared to take shots, though he’s back on the ice according to head coach D.J. Smith. The veteran netminder was given a five to seven-week recovery timeline when he suffered the upper-body injury (believed to be a cracked rib) at the beginning of the month. It has been just two and a half to this point, meaning fans can at least take solace in the fact that he’s already on the ice.

While they have faith in Forsberg after his performance last season, Talbot was meant to carry a large chunk of the load this season after being acquired from the Minnesota Wild. Now, they’ll have to hope they don’t need to turn to Hellberg and his five games of NHL experience anytime soon.

The Senators don’t have a back-to-back situation on the schedule until the start of December, meaning there’s at least a chance that Forsberg can play every single game until Talbot gets back. Hopefully, with the progress he has made to this point, that date is sooner rather than later.

Latest On Jakob Chychrun

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While defenseman Jakob Chychrun and the Arizona Coyotes are likely shared in their belief that finding a trade for the 24-year-old defenseman is the best path forward for them both, the more immediate priority is getting Chychrun back to full health. And while there hasn’t been much progress on the trade front, it seems that we do have some progress on Chychrun’s health.

On the 32 Thoughts segment of last night’s Hockey Night in Canada broadcast, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that Chychrun is scheduled to rejoin the Coyotes in Montreal and begin to practice with the team. Friedman clarified that the timeline for his return to game action is “not as firm,” but regardless this should be considered a positive development for both Chychrun and the Coyotes.

The Coyotes are currently 0-2-0 in this young season, and while adding Chychrun back into their lineup is unlikely to instantly make them a competitive team, his return to full health could yield benefits in both the short and long-term.

In the short term, getting Chychrun back will bolster the left side of the Coyotes’ blueline, potentially allowing both Shayne Gostisbehere and J.J. Moser to play less demanding minutes and possibly a number of minutes more suitable to their current capabilities. Additionally, Chychrun could provide a boost to the level of offense the Coyotes can generate from their back end, as he is a more dynamic offensive blueliner than Dysin Mayo, the player currently playing as the third left-shot defender.

From a long-term perspective, getting Chychrun back into games could potentially be the factor that speeds up the process of finding a suitable trade for him. Chychrun had a down year in 2021-22 as he battled injuries and saw his offensive production dry up.

With that down year in mind, if Chychrun returns to the lineup and returns to the form that saw him score 18 goals and 41 points in 56 games in 2020-21, perhaps a team will be more willing to meet the reportedly sky-high asking price the Coyotes are demanding in any Chychrun trade.

On that front, Friedman notes that the Ottawa Senators, a long-rumored potential destination for Chychrun, are likely out of the running, at least for the moment. Friedman cites multiple sources to report that there “isn’t a path” to a Chychrun deal between Ottawa and Arizona.

But while the Senators may not end up being the team Chychrun is shipped to in a deal, simply getting him back into the fold should help the Coyotes not only remain competitive but also get to the conclusion of a trade saga that all parties involved would likely concede has dragged on far too long.

Pictures courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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