Devils Place Jonas Siegenthaler On IR, Recall Two From AHL
The Devils announced that defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler was placed on injured reserve today, likely retroactive to his last appearance on January 6, with a foot fracture. Forward Shane Bowers and defensemen Cal Foote were recalled from AHL Utica in corresponding moves.
Head coach Lindy Ruff said last weekend that Siegenthaler, 26, would likely miss significant time. As such, he’s expected to remain on IR longer than the minimum seven-day stay. The team’s secondary shutdown defender behind John Marino has six goals, 37 assists, 43 points, and a +15 rating in 196 contests with the Devils since coming over to New Jersey from the Capitals in an April 2021 trade.
Now in the first season of a five-year, $17MM extension signed shortly after he became eligible for one in July 2022, Siegenthaler has spent this season riding shotgun with Dougie Hamilton or Simon Nemec on the Devils’ top pairing. Hamilton has been out since late November with a left pectoral muscle tear and is expected to miss the remainder of the season. Meanwhile, the 19-year-old Nemec has effectively shouldered heavy minutes in his first NHL stint since being selected second overall in the 2022 draft.
Before his injury, Siegenthaler had one goal, seven assists and a -1 rating while averaging 19:54 of ice time through 38 games.
Bowers and Foote come up to alleviate the pains of a Devils roster currently without Hamilton and Siegenthaler on defense and Jack Hughes, Timo Meier, Tomáš Nosek, and Ondřej Palát at forward all due to injuries. The two recalls get the Devils to the minimum 18 skaters on the active roster, meaning they’ll both draw in for their season debuts against the Lightning on Thursday.
New Jersey acquired the signing rights for the 24-year-old Bowers, who was originally the Senators’ 28th overall pick in the 2017 draft, from the Bruins in exchange for the rights to minor-league defenseman Reilly Walsh in a June 2023 trade, the third time Bowers has been traded in his young professional career. The Devils promptly inked Bowers to a one-year, two-way deal, which carries a $775K cap hit and sees him earn $125K in the minors this year, where he has six goals and just one assist in 29 games with Utica. The Nova Scotian has one NHL game to his name, taking three shifts as a member of the Avalanche against the Predators in November 2022 before exiting with injury.
Foote was also a first-round pick, selected 14 spots ahead of Bowers by the Lightning in 2017. Dealt to the Predators last season in the Tanner Jeannot trade, he became a UFA last July after not receiving a qualifying offer. The Devils snapped him up in August, joining him in the organization with his brother, Nolan Foote, on a one-year, two-way deal with an $800K cap hit. The 25-year-old didn’t make the team out of camp, but this is not his first recall of the season. He was rostered for eight games in late October and early November, although he was a healthy scratch for all of them. He’s logged nine points and a -14 rating in 24 games with Utica.
Given their pedestrian minor-league performance, Bowers and Foote will likely see limited usage during their time on the NHL roster. Foote’s recall gives the Devils four right-shot defensemen, meaning one of Foote, Marino, Nemec, or Colin Miller will need to shift to their off-side for Thursday’s game and beyond.
Rangers Assign Brennan Othmann To AHL
The Rangers assigned winger Brennan Othmann to AHL Hartford on Tuesday morning, the team announced. NHL.com’s Dan Rosen reports the Rangers are expected to replace Othmann’s spot on the active roster with a corresponding recall from Hartford later today.
Othmann, 21, was the Rangers’ 16th overall pick in the 2021 draft and just completed his first NHL stint. Signed to his entry-level deal shortly after the 2021 draft in August, his contract slid for two seasons because the Rangers returned him to the OHL’s Flint Firebirds to begin the 2021-22 and 2022-23 campaigns. Now that he’s old enough for a full-time AHL assignment under the NHL-CHL transfer agreement, Othmann started his professional career in earnest last Fall. He’s impressed thus far with Hartford, recording nine goals and 14 assists for 23 points in 28 games, ranking fourth on the team in each metric.
After veteran fourth-liner Tyler Pitlick sustained a lower-body injury last week, the Rangers brought Othmann up on an emergency loan to gauge his NHL readiness. He impressed in his first showing, recording five shots on goal in 12:26 of ice time against the Blackhawks in his NHL debut on January 4, but registered under eight minutes of ice time and one shot on goal in the following two games. He’ll head back to the minors, still searching for his first NHL point after averaging 9:05 and posting a subpar 48.2% Corsi share despite extensive offensive zone usage at even strength in three contests.
Sending Othmann down leaves the Rangers with only 11 healthy forwards, but as Rosen mentions, that number will jump back to 12 later today. The Rangers, who lost 6-3 to the Canucks last night, don’t play again until Thursday in St. Louis.
Oilers Recall Phil Kemp
The Oilers have promoted defenseman Phil Kemp from AHL Bakersfield, per a team release issued late last night. Edmonton sat with two open roster spots before the recall and had enough cap space to execute the transaction after assigning top center prospect Dylan Holloway to the minors last week, so no corresponding transaction was necessary.
Edmonton selected Kemp, 24, in the seventh round of the 2017 draft. After three seasons at Yale, he made his pro debut on loan to Väsby IK in the Swedish second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan in the 2020-21 campaign while AHL and NHL action was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of Väsby’s season, the Oilers brought Kemp back to North America to make his AHL debut for Bakersfield, where he’s remained ever since. He’s far from being a major point-producing threat in the pros, with nine goals and 27 assists in 164 games with Bakersfield. Still, he’s steadily taken on more responsibility over his four seasons there and has proven himself an adept defensive player at that level. Playing in all 26 Condors games this season, Kemp has five assists, 13 PIMs and a +5 rating.
He’s best defined as a low-ceiling, low-certainty prospect, as expected for someone selected with ten picks remaining in his draft. Still, it’s a great story to see Kemp potentially get a shot at playing his first NHL game. Whether the 6-foot-3, 212-pound defender will draw in tonight against the Blackhawks or sit as a healthy scratch is unclear.
Technically, this is not Kemp’s first NHL recall, although it is his first during the regular season. After the Condors’ brief Calder Cup playoff appearance ended in a 2-0 first-round sweep at the hands of the Abbotsford Canucks last year, the Oilers recalled Kemp to serve as a Black Ace during their second-round loss to the Golden Knights. He became waiver-eligible for the first time this year and passed through unclaimed on his way to Bakersfield at the end of the 2023 preseason.
Kemp can remain on the Oilers’ roster for up to 10 games played or 30 days, whichever comes sooner before he requires waivers to return to Bakersfield. He is in the first season of a two-year, two-way extension signed last May that carries a $775K cap hit, making him an RFA with arbitration rights in the summer of 2025.
What Your Team Is Thankful For: Tampa Bay Lightning
As the holiday season approaches, PHR will be taking a look at what teams are thankful for in 2023-24. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. We’ll examine what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Who are the Lightning thankful for?
The Tampa Bay Lightning are having a modest season by their standards but that hasn’t meant anything for their star winger, who currently leads the NHL with a comical 67 points in 40 games. That includes 28 goals, a mark that’s ranked second in the league. The 30-year-old Kucherov is on pace for a staggering 57 goals and 137 points which would both be career-highs. While the Lightning are working on extending their reign over the playoffs, Kucherov is working on solidifying his spot as a franchise legend, now in his sixth consecutive season of either scoring, or being on pace for, 100-or-more points. He confidently ranks fourth in all-time Lightning scoring but has the highest point-per-game pace (1.16) in the club’s history. Kucherov also leads all Russian players in points-per-game and broke into the Top 10 in career scoring among Russian NHLers this season.
Kucherov is chasing yet another Hart Trophy, four seasons after his 2019 win, and will undeniably be one of the biggest pieces of Tampa’s push for the playoffs in the second half of the year.
What are the Lightning thankful for?
Plenty of offense.
Tampa’s .524 winning percentage is the lowest the team has had since the 2012-13 season but their defining trait remains the same – their undeniable star talent. Every Lightning leader is performing as expected, with Kucherov’s league-leading season being matched by Brayden Point‘s 42 points in 41 games, Victor Hedman‘s 39 points in 39 games, and Steven Stamkos‘ 38 points in 38 games. Even Brandon Hagel has joined in on the fun, recording 32 points in 41 games of his own. The team’s top-six is certainly fueling each other, helping boost up some scoring totals, but the reliability offered by such consistent top-end scoring has willed Tampa through a shaky start to the year.
The quartet has helped Tampa score the seventh-most goals in the NHL this season, keeping the league’s most notorious offense alive despite a year of lesser success. They’re also pulling forward what is a top-heavy forward group, with Tampa boasting four forwards with 30-or-more, and four with 10-or-fewer, points on the season. While depth scoring has been a key piece of many recent Stanley Cup wins, the Lightning’s top brass is showing that scoring will never be too much of a concern.
What would the Lightning be even more thankful for?
Prime Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Andrei Vasilevskiy is the only star with question marks surrounding him. The netminder returned from an early-season injury in late-November. He struggled in his first four games, allowing 14 goals on 99 shots, but bounced back to form with a 25-shot shutout in his fifth game back. He finished December and started January strong, recording a .914 save percentage across his next 13 games, but recently allowed the Boston Bruins six goals on 26 shots, bringing his season totals to a meager 9-9-0 record and .895 save percentage. The 29-year-old has only made 18 appearances this season, and found a strong streak through December, hopefully suggesting that his season struggles are more a result of a contested start to the season than anything else.
Tampa has allowed the fourth-most goals this season, and the sixth-most on a per-game basis, despite facing a league-average 30.5 shots-against per-game. While they certainly didn’t start the year with the ideal goaltending situation, they’ll need to see Vasilevskiy truly snap back to form if they want to continue their reign of dominance.
What should be on the Lightning holiday wish list?
Good health.
In a year where plenty of teams are hoping for a new top-six forward, star defenseman, or starting goalie in their giftbox, Tampa can calmly hope for good health above all else. Injuries have not been the team’s friend this season, with Vasilevskiy, Stamkos, Hedman, and Kucherov missing at least one game earlier in the year and Mikhail Sergachev, Erik Cernak, and Tanner Jeannot all currently out of the lineup. The team is even without one of their few NHL signings this summer, as Logan Brown has been out the whole season with an undisclosed injury. Vasilevskiy’s up-and-down season has underlined just how important being consistently in the lineup is for Tampa’s chemistry.
Tampa is currently well outside of a playoff spot, ranked behind four teams for the Eastern Conference’s second Wild Card. What’s worse – the Bolts have played in the most games of any NHL team. Time is not on their side but Tampa has shown their stars can do enough to will the team forward… when they’re all healthy. They will need to maintain that health for the rest of the season if they want to pull themselves up the standings in the second half of the year.
Ducks Send Jamie Drysdale To Flyers For Cutter Gauthier
The Anaheim Ducks have swapped top prospects with the Philadelphia Flyers, trading Jamie Drysdale and a second-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft for forward Cutter Gauthier. Gauthier is coming off a 2024 World Juniors performance that saw him record two goals and 12 points in seven games.
This trade comes suddenly but may be deeper rooted than fans expect, with The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun sharing that Gauthier wouldn’t meet with the Flyers front office and that he told the club he didn’t want to sign. This report was backed up by Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, making it seem as though Philadelphia’s arm was twisted in the negotiations.
In sending away Gauthier, the Flyers send away one of the league’s top prospects, with the 19-year-old scoring a dazzling 23 points in 17 games as Boston College’s top centerman. It’s a follow-up to his strong season last year, which saw him manage 37 points in 32 games. Gauthier was the fifth overall selection in the 2022 NHL Draft.
The cost for Anaheim is undeniably steep, with the team moving out a former sixth-overall pick and a second-round pick. Drysdale’s season has, much like his early career, been marked by underachievement, with the 21-year-old defenseman boasting just five points through 10 games this season. These junior year struggles could be in part due to injury, with Drysdale missing 29 games so far this season, battling a series of injuries that delayed his start to the year and earned him injured reserve placements.
Philadelphia will look to breathe new life into Drysdale, backed by a blue line that’s become incredibly robust thanks to Sean Walker’s breakout season. Meanwhile, Anaheim brings in a dazzling young centerman who could serve as the successor to veteran Adam Henrique, who has found himself a part of trade rumors with the Trade Deadline approaching. It’s a deal that works for both sides at a glance, though each player will have the rest of their careers to underline just how foolish of a trade this may have been
Evening Notes: Campbell, Okposo, Beck, Donovan
The Edmonton Oilers are planning to shop around goaltender Jack Campbell as the trade deadline approaches, general manager Ken Holland tells The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun. But LeBrun doesn’t think there will be many suitors for Campbell’s $5MM cap hit ahead of the deadline, speculating that the team will instead have to wait until the summer to decide what to do with the netminder – whether that’s a buyout or trade.
Campbell’s time in Edmonton has certainly not gone as expected. The 31-year-old is in his second team with the club, after signing a five-year, $25MM contract with the club. He lost the starter job to Calder Trophy finalist Stuart Skinner last season, setting a 21-9-4 record and .888 save percentage through 36 games with the team. But he was only allowed five games with the Oilers this year, putting up a meager .873 save percentage before being placed on waivers and sent to the minor leagues. He’s since made 11 appearances with the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors, setting a 5-6-0 record and .893 save percentage.
Campbell was a productive goaltender in the two years he spent playing significant time for the Toronto Maple Leafs earlier in his career but hasn’t looked the same since moving across Canada. His status will be one of the Oilers’ biggest questions to answer this summer.
More notes from around the league:
- Buffalo Sabres captain Kyle Okposo returned to the team’s practices on Monday, working his way back from a lower-body injury that’s held him out of the team’s last two games. Okposo is still designated as day-to-day but is nearing a return. He’s managed 14 points in 38 games this season – his 17th NHL season.
- Polarizing Montreal Canadiens prospect Owen Beck has had his rights traded in the OHL, moving from the Peterborough Petes to the Saginaw Spirit. Saginaw sent Aiden Young and three draft picks the other way. Beck has managed 30 points in 25 points with Peterborough this season, adding one goal in five games at the World Juniors. He went 33rd overall to the Canadiens in the 2022 NHL Draft.
- The Ottawa Senators also had a prospect moved to Saginaw, as the Spirit acquired defenseman Jorian Donovan from the Brantford Bulldogs. Saginaw sent eight draft picks the other way, including two second-round picks and four third-round picks. Donovan has 28 points in 34 OHL games this season and also attended the World Juniors, though he went scoreless in all five Team Canada games. He was a fifth-round selection in 2022.
Tampa Bay Lightning Make Several Roster Moves
01/08/24: The Lightning have now reassigned Thompson back to the Crunch. The 21-year-old made his NHL debut in Tampa’s 7-3 loss against the Boston Bruins on Saturday.
Skating as the Lightning’s seventh defenseman, Thompson received 11:39 time-on-ice in which he managed one shot on goal, two hits, and had a 32.59% expected goals share when on the ice according to Natural Stat Trick.
01/05/24: The Tampa Bay Lightning have announced that defensemen Emil Martinsen Lilleberg and Jack Thompson have been recalled from their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch, while Sean Day and Declan Carlile have been sent down.
Day and Carlile were recalled yesterday, in the aftermath of Mikhail Sergachev‘s placement on long-term injured reserve. As has been a trend for Day, his recall allowed him to serve as a healthy-scratched spare blueliner, but he did not dress for the Lightning’s game. Day has been up and down from the Lightning roster frequently over the last few weeks, and the last game he’s actually played in was on December 20th.
Carlile, 23, actually did get to play and made his NHL debut last night. He skated in almost 11-and-a-half minutes of ice time in yesterday’s game, and while he didn’t end up scoring his first NHL point he did manage two blocked shots, a hit, and a plus-one rating.
Replacing Carlile on the roster (and potentially on Tampa Bay’s third pairing) is 21-year-old Thompson, a right-shot 2020 third-round pick. Thompson is in the midst of his sophomore pro campaign and has had a strong start to the year in Syracuse, scoring 20 points in 31 games. He could make his NHL debut for Tampa tomorrow in Boston.
Although he’s a left-shot blueliner and Carlile’s spot in the lineup was on the right side, there’s a chance that Martinsen Lilleberg makes his NHL debut tomorrow instead of Thompson. The 22-year-old Norwegian defenseman was a 2021 fourth-round pick of the Arizona Coyotes who spent the last two years of his career with IK Oskarshamn in the SHL.
The Lightning signed him this offseason and he’s now playing his first career season in North America. He has 12 points in 31 games alongside 45 penalty minutes for the Crunch.
Seattle Kraken Recall Ryker Evans
The Seattle Kraken have announced that defenseman Ryker Evans has been recalled from the team’s AHL affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds.
Evans, 22, last played for the Kraken on December 27th. He’s spent all of 2024 so far with Coachella Valley, and has done very well there. The Firebirds have collected seven points out of eight available since Evans returned to their lineup, and Evans himself has scored four points in that span of games. That puts him up to 12 points in 22 games at the AHL level, which is not far off from last season’s scoring pace when he put up 44 points in 71 regular-season games.
After a stellar playoff run that saw Evans score 26 points in 26 games en route to a heartbreaking loss in overtime of Game Seven in the Calder Cup final, there was a widespread belief that 2023-24 would be the season Evans broke into the NHL with the Kraken.
The team’s first-ever second-round pick has played in nine NHL games so far this season, averaging 17:58 time-on-ice per game. He’s scored four points in those nine games while also receiving time on the club’s second power play unit.
Evans’ recall gives the Kraken a seventh defenseman on their active roster, and at the moment he figures to be a healthy scratch. With the team beginning a six-game road trip tomorrow, though, he could end up getting into some games seeing as former seventh defenseman Jaycob Megna was recently claimed off of waivers by the Chicago Blackhawks.
Avalanche Recall Sam Malinski, Jason Polin
02:20 PM: The Avalanche have also recalled forward Jason Polin from the Eagles, according to a team announcement. This recall should be seen as an indication that Wood is likely out for tonight’s game against the Boston Bruins. The 24-year-old will likely fill in for Meyers, who was sent down, as the team’s last healthy forward.
That would put Polin, a natural left winger, in Meyers’ spot as the team’s fourth-line left winger alongside Fredrik Olofsson and Kurtis MacDermid. While Polin was a top-end offensive player in his final campaign with Western Michigan University, he’s not found the same level of offensive success in the early days of his pro career. He has just two points in 20 career AHL games, but nonetheless he could end up getting the chance to make his NHL debut tonight against Boston.
10:29 AM: The Avalanche recalled defenseman Sam Malinski from the AHL’s Colorado Eagles on Monday, per a team announcement.
This is the 25-year-old’s fourth recall of the season and his first of the calendar year. His most recent stint on the active roster lasted over a month, heading up to the Avalanche on emergency loan on November 29 before being returned to the Eagles on December 30.
The Avalanche suit up tonight against the Bruins and, without a recall, may have only had 17 skaters available for tonight’s game. Winger Miles Wood is uncertain after missing Saturday’s loss to the Panthers with an illness, and the Avalanche were down to 11 forwards after returning Ben Meyers to the Eagles on Saturday night. Malinski’s recall may indicate head coach Jared Bednar is planning to use 11 forwards and seven defensemen against the Bruins unless an additional recall is made later today.
If he does play tonight, it will be the 15th NHL appearance for Malinski, both this season and in his NHL career overall. The Minnesota-born blueliner is in his first professional season after completing his collegiate career with Cornell University in 2022-23, where he recorded 26 points and a +10 rating in 34 games during his senior campaign, earning First Team honors on the NCAA’s All-Ivy League year-end squad for the second season in a row.
The Avalanche snapped up Malinski, who was not selected in any previous NHL Entry Drafts, as a free agent last March and signed him to a two-year, two-way deal. He began the season with the Eagles but has filled in for the Avalanche on numerous occasions this season when injuries struck, recording a goal and five points along with a +1 rating in 14 games. He hasn’t seen much in the way of heavy minutes, averaging 14:11 per game, and his 45.5% Corsi share at even strength does leave something to be desired. However, Malinski has still seen more NHL action than most expected this year, potentially serving as a precursor to a more lengthy stay in Denver as a sixth or seventh defenseman option.
Calgary Flames Kevin Rooney Clears Waivers
1/9: Rooney has cleared waivers and is awaiting assignment.
1/8: The Calgary Flames have placed forward Kevin Rooney on waivers, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. The move is a precursor to Rooney getting activated off of long-term injured reserve, as should he clear waivers the Flames would be able to activate him and assign him to their AHL affiliate, the Calgary Wranglers.
In addition to this move, Sportsnet 960’s Patt Steinberg reports that forward Jakob Pelletier has been activated off of season-opening injured reserve and been assigned to the Wranglers. Pelletier is recovering from shoulder surgery, and now he can get into some AHL practices as part of that recovery. Long-term, the expectation is likely that Pelletier will return to the NHL level as that is where he scored seven points in 24 games last season.
As for Rooney, the six-foot-two veteran pivot was originally signed by the Flames to a $1.3MM AAV contract in order to serve as their fourth-line center. He’d filled that role admirably for the New York Rangers for the prior two seasons, and was fresh off of a run with the club to the Eastern Conference Final.
Rooney struggled in Calgary, and only played in 17 NHL games last season compared to 51 in the AHL. Now likely to be a Wrangler once again, the Flames will be tagged with $150k against the cap from Rooney’s deal as $1.15MM of the full $1.3MM total is considered “buried” when Rooney is on the AHL roster.