Tyler Ennis Announces Retirement
Longtime NHL forward Tyler Ennis announced his retirement today, per an announcement from his first and most tenured team, the Sabres. The 34-year-old was playing with Adler Mannheim in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) but has terminated his contract and stepped away from the game after sustaining a neck injury during Champions Hockey League play last November.
Ennis gave the following statement on his retirement, translated from German:
After working hard to get healthy with our great team, I ultimately decided to quit hockey. I would like to thank [Mannheim general manager Daniel] Hopp, my teammates, the coaches, our medical staff and of course our great fans for their support. I will continue to cheer on the Adler Mannheim vigorously in the future.
The diminutive, versatile forward was a true top-six threat in his early days with the Sabres, but multiple serious injuries in his prime forced him into a depth scoring role as he remained effective later into his 30s. An unrestricted free agent since the end of the 2021-22 campaign, Ennis has spent the last 18 months playing overseas with Mannheim and SC Bern in the Swiss National League. Before sustaining the career-ending neck injury, Ennis had five assists through seven games with Mannheim and posted 13-20–33 in 37 games with Bern last season.
The Sabres selected Ennis with the 26th overall pick of the 2008 draft, their second selection of the first round, selecting hulking defenseman Tyler Myers 14 picks earlier. Ennis spent one season in junior hockey after his draft, lighting up the Western Hockey League with the Medicine Hat Tigers and recording seven points in six games for Canada at the 2009 World Juniors as the John Tavares-led squad captured gold. He made the transition to the pro game the following year, spending most of the season with AHL Portland, with whom he finished second in scoring with 23-42–65 in 69 games.
His strong minor-league showing earned him a full-time gig in Buffalo the following season. His rookie campaign wasn’t strong enough to get him Calder Trophy recognition, but it wasn’t bad by any means. His 20 goals and 49 points both finished fourth on the Sabres that year, part of a ninth-place offense that led Buffalo to its most recent playoff berth.
Ennis’ production increased the following season, producing at a 58-point pace. There was one key issue: a left ankle injury limited him to 48 games on the year. He would play 80 games in a season just once more throughout his career, in 2013-14. That Sabres team was one of the least memorable of the modern era, finishing with only 21 wins and 52 points. Ennis led that squad in goals with 21, earning himself a five-year, $23MM extension that summer as a result.
He again led the Sabres in scoring in 2014-15, posting 20 goals and 46 points on a team designed to tank for Connor McDavid in the 2015 draft. The lottery balls gave them the second-overall pick, though, giving them Jack Eichel as a consolation prize.
Unfortunately for Ennis, that season was his last near the top of a team’s depth chart. Upper-body and groin injuries limited him to a combined 74 games over the following two seasons, during which time his production tanked – just eight goals and 24 points – while seeing his ice time dip below 15 minutes per game. That was the end of Ennis’ tenure in Buffalo, as they dealt him and Marcus Foligno to the Wild in June 2017 in exchange for Jason Pominville and Marco Scandella.
In Minnesota, Ennis regained his health but not his production. His lone season with the Wild saw him post 8-14–22 in 73 games, averaging fourth-line minutes on the season. The Wild bought out the final season of his $4.6MM cap hit contract that summer, making him a UFA.
He didn’t last long on the open market. Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas signed Ennis to a one-year, $650K contract to continue his career in Toronto one week after Minnesota bought him out. While he saw even more limited usage than he did with the Wild, Ennis’ 12 goals for Toronto were his first time reaching double digits in four years.
Ennis stayed in Canada but made an intra-provincial move the following summer, signing a one-year deal for a more increased role with the Senators. He responded well, posting 16-21–37 in 70 total games in 2019-10, including a deadline move to the Oilers shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic ended the regular season. His 14:43 average that season was the most he’d averaged since leaving Buffalo.
He continued to bounce between Edmonton and Ottawa over the following two seasons, returning for second stints in each city. Between 2020 and 2022, Ennis recorded 27-43–70 in 157 games while seeing third-line minutes. Still a capable point producer, it was puzzling not to see him field any offers in the summer of 2022 and head overseas to continue his pro career.
There had been rumblings of a PTO for Ennis during last year’s training camp cycle, but none came to fruition. The 5-foot-9 forward wraps up his NHL career with 144-202–346 in 700 games, including 13 game-winning goals and a 15:10 time-on-ice average per game.
PHR wishes Ennis well in his recovery from his neck injury and congratulates him on a spectacular career.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Blues Place Kasperi Kapanen On IR, Out 4 Weeks
Blues winger Kasperi Kapanen will be out a minimum of four weeks with a lower-body injury, the team announced Wednesday. He has been placed on injured reserve.
In a corresponding transaction, the team brought up veteran forward Adam Gaudette from AHL Springfield. The 27-year-old leads all AHLers with 24 goals in 37 games.
The speedy winger has struggled heavily in his first full season with the Blues. Things were looking up for Kapanen after St. Louis claimed him off waivers from the Penguins partway through the 2022-23 campaign, closing out the year with 8-6–14 in 23 games. This season, despite a minimal reduction in usage, he’s notched just 4-9–13 in 42 games, his worst points per game pace since his rookie campaign with the Maple Leafs in 2017-18.
A long-term injury now complicates things further. Kapanen will miss at least ten games and potentially more if his four-week evaluation doesn’t clear him to return.
Blues interim head coach Drew Bannister confirmed today that Gaudette will directly replace Kapanen in the lineup against the Capitals tomorrow, meaning another recent AHL call-up, Nathan Walker, likely sits as a healthy scratch. The Blues are carrying a full 23-player roster, including defenseman Tyler Tucker, who’s suiting up for Springfield on a conditioning loan.
Gaudette didn’t see any NHL action last season, limited exclusively to minor-league play for the first time in his pro career. After notching 34 points in 40 games for the AHL’s Toronto Marlies while under contract with the Maple Leafs, Gaudette found himself in Springfield after his contract was included in the trade return for Blues captain Ryan O’Reilly last season. Tomorrow will be his first NHL game since April 29, 2022, with the Ottawa Senators.
Blackhawks Place Nikita Zaitsev On IR, Recall Louis Crevier
The Blackhawks placed defenseman Nikita Zaitsev on IR with a right knee injury Wednesday, per NBC Sports Chicago’s Charlie Roumeliotis. To replace him on the active roster, the team recalled Louis Crevier from AHL Rockford.
Zaitsev logged 8:46 in last night’s shootout win over the Sharks before leaving the game. The 32-year-old had played in all eight Blackhawks games since New Year’s Day after missing the last two games of 2023 with an illness.
A frequent healthy scratch to begin the campaign, Zaitsev stepped into a more regular role in the lineup last month with injuries decimating Chicago at every position. Their defense has gotten healthier recently with the return of Seth Jones, but veteran Connor Murphy is now day to day with a lower-body injury. Zaitsev is the only Blackhawks defender on IR, joining a remarkable eight forwards – many of whom would be in the team’s top six if healthy.
Zaitsev’s bloated seven-year, $31.5MM contract is coming to an end next summer, but he’s providing a tad more value this season with more zone starts in the offensive end. He’s notched 2-5–7 in 26 games this year, and his pairing with rookie Kevin Korchinski has been Chicago’s best at controlling possession with a 46.9% expected goals share, per MoneyPuck. Interestingly, Korchinski has graded out far better defensively alongside Zaitsev than when paired with either Jones or Murphy.
The massive Crevier, who stands at 6-foot-8 and nearly 230 lbs., receives his second recall of the season. The 22-year-old played in 13 games between Dec. 2 and Jan. 9, logging three assists and a -7 rating in 16:08 of ice time per game. The 2020 seventh-round pick has notably gone without scoring a goal since May 25, 2022, during the QMJHL postseason as a member of the Québéc Remparts. In 80 games with AHL Rockford since turning pro in 2022, he has 10 assists and a -1 rating.
Cody Hodgson Signs PTO With AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals
2008 first-round pick Cody Hodgson‘s comeback to professional hockey was made official this morning. He’s signed a professional tryout with the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals, per the league transactions log, and is now eligible to suit up with the Predators’ primary minor-league affiliate.
Hodgson, 33, last played organized hockey with the Admirals and Predators in the 2015-16 campaign. After reaching unrestricted free agency the following summer, he eventually announced his retirement due to a malignant hyperthermia diagnosis, which can cause muscle rigidity, fevers, elevated heart rate, and arrhythmia. While traditionally triggered by medications used to trigger general anesthesia, prolonged physical activity can also cause flare-ups.
Selected 10th overall by the Canucks, Hodgson was a decorated junior hockey talent and finished eighth in Calder Trophy voting during the 2011-12 campaign, split between the Canucks and Sabres thanks to a controversial midseason trade. When he finished second on the middling Sabres in scoring during the lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign (15-19–34 in 48 games), he looked like a budding long-term top-six center that could fill the role vacated by former number-one center Derek Roy when the Sabres dealt him to the Stars in the 2012 offseason.
Within two seasons, due in part to his malignant hyperthermia symptoms, his production cratered. After posting 6-7–13 in 78 games in 2014-15 while averaging under 13 minutes per game, the Sabres bought out the final four seasons of his six-year, $25.5MM contract, making him a UFA at 25 years old.
Hodgson signed with the Predators for the following campaign, but it didn’t go any better. He posted eight points in 39 games through the first half of the season before being assigned to AHL Milwaukee in January, where he remained for the rest of 2016.
It’s unlikely Hodgson’s second stint in Milwaukee will result in another NHL opportunity after so long away from the game, but it’s promising to see his health improve to the point where pro hockey can be a consideration.
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Dallas Stars Assign Matt Murray To AHL
Jan. 17: The Stars returned Murray to AHL Texas this morning, per a team release.
Jan. 16: The Dallas Stars have recalled goaltender Matt Murray from the Texas Stars of the AHL as they navigate the uncertainty of the injury suffered by backup Scott Wedgewood. Dallas Stars radio analyst Bruce LeVine believes that Murray will see more action during this NHL recall as Dallas is proceeding with caution when it comes to Jake Oettinger and still doesn’t know what the issue is with Wedgewood, who left Saturday’s game with an injury.
Murray’s recall likely means that Wedgewood will be unavailable for Dallas when they take on the Los Angeles Kings tomorrow tonight, although no official announcement has been made as of yet.
Murray has played a single NHL game this season, and it came in the form of his first career shutout against the Minnesota Wild back on January 8th. The 25-year-old made 23 saves in a 4-0 win for the Stars. He didn’t fare so well last season in the NHL, dressing in three games and going 1-2 with a .844 save percentage to go along with a 3.39 goals-against average.
In the AHL, the St. Albert, Alberta native has had a bit of a down season as he is 8-5-1 with a .908 save percentage and a 2.80 goals-against average. Murray was terrific last year for Texas as he appeared in 34 games and posted a record of 18-10-5 with a .911 save percentage and a 2.37 goals-against average.
Murray has been on a yoyo the last few weeks with Oettinger’s injury and now the potential injury to Wedgewood. Just last week, Murray was reassigned twice and recalled once, with his most recent AHL assignment happening five days ago.
Morning Notes: Byram, Lehkonen, Ovechkin, Guentzel
Avalanche defenseman Bowen Byram and winger Artturi Lehkonen will make their returns to the lineup within the next week, head coach Jared Bednar said on Altitude Sports Radio (KKSE-FM). Both players, who are on IR and LTIR, respectively, will be activated by next Wednesday’s game against the Capitals at the latest. They’ve been ruled out for tomorrow’s game in Boston, however. Byram will have missed at least seven games with a lower-body injury sustained Jan. 4 against the Stars, while Lehkonen has been out for over two months with a neck injury and will miss his 34th game tomorrow. The Avalanche will either need to assign one contract to the minors or move Valeri Nichushkin to LTIR while he completes treatment in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program to clear up the cap space for Lehkonen’s $4.5MM cap hit to come off LTIR. They’re currently short about $500K in space to execute the transaction, per CapFriendly.
More from around the NHL this morning:
- The Capitals expect captain Alex Ovechkin to return from a lower-body injury during their next two games, head coach Spencer Carbery said on 106.7 The Fan (WJFK-FM) today. Ovechkin has missed the last three games, but the Capitals have emerged with a 2-1-0 record in a trio of low-scoring affairs without him. Carbery commented further on the nature of his star sniper’s absence, saying the injury isn’t related to an awkward collision he had with Hurricanes center Jordan Staal earlier in the month. While “The Great 8” has had a much-publicized down season in the goal-scoring department (8-19–27 in 39 games), he was on a six-game point streak before exiting the lineup and still holds a slim lead on Dylan Strome for most points on the team.
- Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas is expected to have a conversation with pending UFA winger Jake Guentzel‘s camp about his future with the team during the upcoming All-Star break, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said on Monday’s edition of the “32 Thoughts” podcast. Reports earlier this month indicated Guentzel’s agent, Ben Hankinson, may opt to delay extension talks until the summer. While a 6-2-2 run in their last 10 games now has the Penguins at a 60% chance of making the postseason, per Hockey Reference, they’re not a lock in a competitive Metropolitan Division. If their conversation in a few weeks doesn’t result in Dubas having substantive confidence in his ability to extend Guentzel, the two-time 40-goal scorer may end up the subject of a blockbuster deadline trade.
Wild Could Approach Marc-André Fleury About Waiving No-Movement Clause
The Wild have been one of the league’s most disappointing teams this season. While their latest 5-0 win over the Islanders kept their record from slipping further, they remain two games below .500 and sit eight points out of a wild-card spot in the Western Conference. In the likely event that general manager Bill Guerin‘s prediction of a roaring turnaround doesn’t come to fruition, the Wild could approach goaltender Marc-André Fleury about waiving his no-movement clause for a deadline trade, TSN’s Pierre LeBrun confirms in a piece for The Athletic.
Fleury, 39, signed a two-year, $7MM extension with the Wild in July 2022. He chose to remain in the State of Hockey after they brought him in from the struggling Blackhawks near the 2022 trade deadline, splitting duties down the stretch with then-tandem partner Cam Talbot before assuming the starting role in their first-round loss to the Blues.
In his 79 regular-season appearances with the Wild, Fleury has provided numbers expected from a decent veteran backup with a .905 SV%, 2.87 GAA, three shutouts, and 0.1 goals saved above average with a 41-27-7 record. However, after posting above-average numbers last season, this one has been a struggle: his SV% is down to .897, and he’s conceded 4.2 goals above average in 22 appearances (19 starts).
He isn’t the only Minnesota netminder having a tough season. After last season’s breakout campaign that earned him some season-ending All-Star votes, 25-year-old Filip Gustavsson‘s stat line is in the same mediocre territory as Fleury’s. Things looked to be trending upward during a December hot streak, but he’s come crashing down to Earth during the Wild’s recent run of poor results. In his last five starts, Gustavsson has a 2-3-0 record and .854 SV%, although he’s only played once since missing seven games with a lower-body injury.
However, only Fleury is a pending UFA, while Gustavsson is beginning a three-year, $11.25MM deal signed following an arbitration filing last summer. As such, the veteran is on the trade block over the youngster, and, as LeBrun reports, “a couple of teams” will reach out to Guerin soon to gauge his availability and cost. What’s not sure is if Fleury, who just moved into second place on the NHL’s all-time wins list, will consent to a deal.
LeBrun expects playing time to be Fleury’s primary factor in considering a move. With three Stanley Cups under his belt, he’s not ring-chasing in what could be his final season. However, he may be interested in closing out his career by playing a starting or 1A role on a contender with significant issues in the crease.
In any event, this would likely be a money-in, money-out trade. Any contender pressing to acquire Fleury will be in the same tight salary cap situation as the Wild, albeit for different reasons. No other team has more money allocated toward dead cap than Minnesota, whose buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter still total a $14.74MM penalty through next season.
Two bona fide contenders with undefined netminding situations come to mind: the Oilers and Hurricanes. The goaltending looks to be figuring itself out in Edmonton without outside help, though – Stuart Skinner has a .930 SV% in his last 17 games and is now up to a .903 SV% on the season after a horrid start.
Things haven’t improved much for Carolina, however. 24-year-old Pyotr Kochetkov‘s .900 SV% in 23 games is serviceable, but he’s now out of the lineup after sustaining a concussion last Thursday against the Ducks. Veteran Antti Raanta‘s cringeworthy .868 SV% is enough to sink the team’s chances of winning just one round, no matter how well they play in front of him, and he carries a documented injury risk of his own.
Given the parameters outlined by LeBrun, it’s hard to find a more evident fit for Fleury than in Raleigh. The team is skilled enough in the shot-suppression department that average play from the veteran should be enough to get them over the hump, especially at the rate that offensive stars Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov are producing this season.
LeBrun bandies a trio of other potentially playoff-bound teams that could have an interest – the Maple Leafs, Devils, and Avalanche. The Devils are no playoff lock at this stage, though, and Fleury would have a more difficult path to playing time in Colorado and Toronto.
Senators Have Offered Several Contract Terms To RFA Shane Pinto
Senators center Shane Pinto is skating with the team and is expected to make his season debut on Sunday versus Philadelphia after serving his 41-game gambling suspension but before he can do so, he needs to sign a contract first. As Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reported in an intermission feature on TSN (video link), the team has presented several different contracts to the restricted free agent.
Many expect that the 23-year-old would sign a contract at or around his previous qualifying offer which checked in at just over $874K over the summer. That would give him time to rebuild his value while giving the Senators, who have been up against the cap ceiling throughout the season when they haven’t been in LTIR, as much flexibility as possible.
But Garrioch notes that Ottawa has proposed a two-year term along with four-, five-, and six-year offers. A two-year bridge agreement was believed to be discussed over the offseason before the suspension was announced; at the time, the price tag for that agreement was believed to be in the low $ 2MM range. Such a move could still be palatable while allowing Ottawa to shift more of the salary into the second season, maximizing Pinto’s compensation while keeping the AAV of the deal lower. While it was under vastly different circumstances, Washington recently took that approach when they signed UFA defenseman Ethan Bear last month.
The longer-term agreements would obviously cost more and in some cases, walk Pinto right to free agency; he is under team control through restricted free agency through the 2027-28 campaign. Speculatively, the price tag for those agreements would push more toward the $5MM range which certainly wouldn’t fit in Ottawa’s salary cap structure. If Pinto is amenable to one of those agreements, there would need to be a cap-clearing move before the contract could be registered.
Despite the various offers on the table, the one-year agreement still seems like the most plausible scenario for both sides. Pinto is coming off a 20-goal campaign but only has 99 career games under his belt so committing to a long-term agreement would come with some risk. A one-year deal still wouldn’t make Pinto arbitration-eligible (he’s two years away as he didn’t accrue a season in 2021-22 due to injuries) but it would allow both sides more time to assess his fit on this roster. They only have a few more days to figure out which route they’ll go if they’re going to get Pinto in the lineup on Sunday.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Snapshots: Flyers, Grubauer, Pearson, Engvall, ECHL, Dionicio
Flyers defensemen Sean Walker and Nick Seeler have been speculative trade candidates for most of the season as pending unrestricted free agents but with Philadelphia finding itself in a top-three spot in the Metropolitan Division, there’s a chance they may not move after all. As Kevin Kurz of The Athletic notes (subscription link), that would be an outcome both blueliners would be quite pleased with as both have expressed an interest in remaining with the Flyers beyond this season. Walker carries a $2.65MM cap hit and has 15 points in 44 games while logging over 20 minutes a night on the back end while Seeler makes the league minimum and is averaging more than 17 minutes a night. Both players appear to be heading for raises on the open market next summer.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- The Kraken moved goaltender Philipp Grubauer to LTIR before last night’s late recall of John Hayden, PuckPedia reports (Twitter link). Grubauer has been out for more than a month already so he’s eligible to be activated as soon as he’s cleared to return from his lower-body injury. The 32-year-old has a 3.25 GAA and a .884 SV% in 17 starts so far this season.
- Canadiens winger Tanner Pearson will accompany the team on its upcoming road trip as he works his way back from a hand injury, relays Sportsnet’s Eric Engels (Twitter link). The 31-year-old has missed more than a month with this latest hand issue after undergoing several surgeries last season. Pearson has four goals and four assists in 27 games so far and is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer.
- The Islanders announced (Twitter link) that winger Pierre Engvall is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury. His first full season in New York hasn’t quite gone to plan as the 27-year-old has just five goals and nine assists in 41 games so far, hardly the type of performance they were expecting after giving him a seven-year, $21MM contract last summer.
- The ECHL announced that it has approved the expansion application from Bloomington, Illinois to begin play in the 2024-25 season. The yet-to-be-named team will be the 30th squad at that level. The ECHL has affiliation agreements with 28 of 32 NHL teams this season, a number that could very well go up as a result of this news.
- Ducks prospect Rodwin Dionicio is having a breakout year in the OHL and had a strong showing at the World Juniors but it appears an entry-level deal won’t be coming his way anytime soon. Instead, EHC Biel-Bienne in Switzerland announced that they’ve inked the blueliner to a three-year contract which will begin next season. Anaheim has until June 1, 2025 to sign the 19-year-old who has 31 points in as many games at the junior level this season but will they want to commit two seasons of that contract to someone who will be playing overseas? That’s a decision GM Pat Verbeek will have to ponder down the road.