Pacific Notes: Kraken, Carlsson, Sharks, Andersson
The Seattle Kraken are getting sued by the trademark holder of the old Seattle Metropolitans logo for how the Kraken decided to design their Winter Classic jerseys. Trademark holder Paul Kim claims that the red ‘S’ draws close similarity to the old Metropolitans logo, despite the Kraken telling Kim that they would go in a different direction with the Winter Classic jerseys after dispute over the early design.
This lawsuit details the breakdown between Kim and the Kraken organization over the course of 24 pages, claiming that the logo, colors, and pattern used by the Kraken were ”virtually identical” to the Metropolitans jersey, going as far as featuring “1917” on the collar in reference to the Metropolitans’ 1917 Stanley Cup Win. Seattle Metropolitans Hockey LLC claims they’ve lost an estimated $2.5MM from the release of the Kraken’s Winter Classic jerseys. Seattle will still wear the contentious jerseys in Monday’s Winter Classic, with the lawsuit coming too close to the event to alter the team’s course. The decision made in this lawsuit could help define the future relationship that the NHL’s newest franchise can have with its predecessor.
Other Pacific Notes:
- The Anaheim Ducks have moved Leo Carlsson to injured reserve. The prolific rookie suffered a scary knee injury last Thursday, ending up with a sprained right knee ligament that’s expected to hold him out for four to six weeks. The 19-year-old had managed eight goals and 15 points through his first 23 NHL games.
- The San Jose Sharks have announced a string of injury updates – sharing that goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood is trending in the right direction to play on Sunday, while Ty Emberson and Logan Couture are doubtful for the matchup. San Jose will be looking to snap a seven-game losing streak when they face the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday. The Sharks have been outscored 33-to-10 over their long-term skid.
- The flu bug is continuing to spread around the NHL, with Calgary Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson missing the team’s Friday practice with illness. The team did not share any updates about Andersson’s availability for their Sunday night matchup against the Philadelphia Flyers. Andersson has appeared in 31 games this season, leading Flames defenders in scoring with 18 points.
Kraken Activate André Burakovsky
The Kraken activated winger André Burakovsky from the injured list today, per CapFriendly’s transactions log. He will be an option for tonight’s game against the Flyers after participating in the team’s morning skate. Burakovsky had been listed as week-to-week with an undisclosed injury since early this month, his second long-term absence of the season.
While a true top-six threat, the 28-year-old Burakovsky hasn’t had much of a chance to show off his skills since signing a five-year, $27.5MM pact with the Kraken as a free agent in 2022. He’s played in 56 out of 118 regular-season games (less than half) since the beginning of 2022 due to injuries and missed all 14 postseason contests last year. A groin muscle tear cost him the latter half of 2022-23, while an upper-body injury sidelined him for 20 consecutive games earlier this season.
That’s limited Burakovsky to seven games on the season for the struggling Kraken, notching three assists. With 39 points in 49 games last season, Burakovsky was the team’s second-highest scorer on a per-game basis. His 0.80 points per game were behind only Jared McCann‘s 0.89.
He’s coming back at the right time for Seattle, who’s rattled off three straight wins for the first time this season and are 5-0-2 in their past seven games. It’s been a crucial run for a team looking to right the ship and make their second consecutive postseason appearance. At one game below the .500 mark, they still have a ways to go, but they currently sit just three points back of the Predators for the second Wild Card spot in the Western Conference.
The Kraken only had 22 players on the active roster prior to activating Burakovsky, so no corresponding move is necessary.
Maple Leafs Activate Mark Giordano From LTIR
The Maple Leafs have activated Mark Giordano from long-term injured reserve ahead of tonight’s game against the Blue Jackets, per the NHL’s media portal. He will return to the lineup in a third-pairing role alongside Timothy Liljegren, with William Lagesson sitting as a healthy scratch to make room. With an open spot on the active roster and ample cap space, thanks to the team’s multiple other contracts on LTIR, no corresponding transaction is needed to activate him.
Giordano, 40, will make his first appearance since sustaining a finger fracture against the Panthers on November 28. The injury caused him to miss 12 games, his most significant absence since he missed 32 regular-season and playoff games as a member of the Flames with an arm injury in 2015.
The former Flames and Kraken captain is now the oldest skater in the NHL and is in his third season with Toronto, who nabbed him from Seattle at the 2022 trade deadline along with forward Colin Blackwell for multiple draft picks. Now in the second half of a two-year, $1.6MM extension signed in May 2022, Giordano has one goal and five points in 20 games this season and is looking to advance past the second round of the playoffs for the first time in his 1,122-game career.
Giordano’s defensive impacts have been good this season when not stapled on a pairing with the struggling John Klingberg, who is now done for the season after requiring hip surgery. The Maple Leafs have received solid defensive play from Lagesson and Simon Benoit, who will form a shutdown pairing with Jake McCabe tonight, in the wake of injuries to their more established veterans on the blueline.
Reggie Savage Passes Away
Former Capitals and Quebec Nordiques forward Reggie Savage passed away last Sunday after a battle with cancer, his family announced. He was 53 years old.
Savage’s NHL career may have only included a handful of games, but he managed to find his way into the league record books while amassing an extremely respectable minor-league and overseas résumé. Drafted 15th overall by the Capitals after scoring 68 goals in 68 games for the QMJHL’s Victoriaville Tigres, Savage would record nine points in seven games for Canada at the following year’s World Junior Championship, outscoring future NHLers Rod Brind’Amour, Andrew Cassels, Éric Desjardins, Martin Gélinas, and Mike Ricci. It would be another couple of seasons before Savage would get a shot in the NHL, though, playing just one game with the Capitals in 1990-91.
Two years later, Savage found himself back in the NHL again. On November 18, 1992, he became one of five players in league history to score his first NHL goal on a penalty shot, beating Minnesota North Stars netminder Jon Casey. He played 16 games for Washington that year, recording two goals and five points. The Capitals traded him to the Nordiques the following offseason, where he would play a career-high 17 games and score seven points in 1993-94.
Those would be Savage’s last games at the sport’s highest level, although he remained on two-way NHL contracts for various organizations throughout the decade, and his playing career continued until 2005. Savage was an extremely productive force in the AHL, scoring 259 goals and 442 points in 481 games across ten seasons while accumulating 557 penalty minutes. Overseas, he notched 28 points in 31 games for second-tier Swiss National League clubs EHC Biel-Bienne and EHC Visp in 2001-02, also notching two goals in four games for Team Canada at that year’s Spengler Cup. Playing for Italian league club Asiago in the 1998-99 and 2002-03 campaigns, Savage was an explosive scoring threat with 51 goals and 112 points in 67 games.
Savage is one of 11 Black players in Capitals history and will continue to be honored as part of a permanent display that was erected at Capital One Arena early last year. All of us at PHR send our condolences to his family, friends and loved ones.
Tyson Jost, Michael Hutchinson Clear Waivers
Dec. 29: Jost and Hutchinson both passed through waivers unclaimed, per Friedman.
Dec. 28: According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, forward Tyson Jost and goaltender Michael Hutchinson have been placed on waivers by the Buffalo Sabres and Detroit Red Wings, respectively.
Jost, 25, arrives on waivers in the midst of a difficult contract season in Buffalo. The pending unrestricted free agent is making $2MM against the cap but has not provided much return on investment for the Sabres. He’s scored just four points in 29 games this season and has seen his role on the team erode compared to last year.
Last season, Jost averaged 13:20 time-on-ice per game and saw over a minute of penalty-killing time per game as well.
So far this season, Jost has dropped under a minute short-handed and has seen his overall ice time drop dangerously close to the 10 minute plateau.
That decline in role has come alongside his significantly reduced production, and now he’ll be made available to all 31 other teams.
It’s a relatively quick turnaround for Jost, a player who just last night skated as the Sabres’ number-one center in the absence of Tage Thompson. But in a different sense, Jost’s return to the AHL (which seems likely as his $2MM cap hit makes claiming him a difficult prospect for most teams across the league) has been a long time coming. The former top prospect played well at the BCHL and NCAA levels but has struggled to make his mark on the NHL.
Jost’s ability to play a two-way game meant that earlier in his career, Jost could be trusted to play in a bottom-six role at the NHL level. As a result, he never got to play in the AHL on any sort of extended basis. That meant that he never got the chance to learn how to score on a consistent basis as a professional, and his offensive game never quite took off.
Now he’ll likely land with the Sabres’ AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans, and get the chance to potentially play in a starring offensive role that he never received in the NHL. For the Sabres, sending him to the AHL would save the team some cap space and would also clear a roster spot to be used on a different player.
As for Hutchinson, he’s already cleared waivers this season (for his original assignment to the AHL) and has been through the process numerous times before in his career as a third goalie.
As an established veteran netminder in a league perpetually in need of quality goaltending, there is a chance Hutchinson gets claimed. His league-minimum cap hit is easy for most teams to fit into their financial picture, although his AHL performance (5-7-1 .895 save percentage) is not hugely encouraging.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Kings Sign Angus Booth To Entry-Level Contract
Kings defenseman prospect Angus Booth signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the team on Friday, per a team release. The deal carries an average annual value of $852.5K.
Los Angeles selected Booth in the fourth round of the 2022 draft with the 116th overall pick. The 19-year-old Montréaler is in his fourth season of junior play with the QMJHL’s Shawinigan Cataractes.
The 6-foot, 176-pound left-shot defender grades out as a third-pairing threat who’s adept in transition. Unfortunately, his point production has stagnated since his draft year. He churned out 22 assists and one goal in 42 games with the Cataractes in 2021-22 but followed that up with 19 total points in 62 games the following season with a -7 rating.
His play this season has returned to the level he displayed during his draft year, but he hasn’t gotten much further in either his offensive or defensive stats. That’s why it’s a tad surprising to see the Kings extend an entry-level contract to Booth with six months remaining before he would re-enter the draft if not signed.
Since Booth will play less than ten NHL games this season, the beginning of his deal will slide to the 2024-25 campaign. He will be a restricted free agent upon the expiration of his ELC in 2027.
Blue Jackets Place Zach Werenski On Injured Reserve, Activate Jack Roslovic
The Blue Jackets placed defenseman Zach Werenski on injured reserve Friday, the NHL’s media site reflects. Head coach Pascal Vincent informed reporters yesterday that he’d be sidelined on a week-to-week basis with a lower-body injury. A team release distributed later Friday reflects that Werenski sustained an ankle injury and that the team has also activated forward Jack Roslovic off injured reserve.
Werenski will miss a minimum of seven days, starting from Wednesday when he sustained the injury against the Devils, but he’ll likely be sidelined for much longer given the week-to-week designation. This continues a stretch of horrid injury luck for the Blue Jackets’ top defenseman, who missed two games early this season with a quadriceps contusion and nearly all of last season with a shoulder injury.
He may have just one goal through 34 games, but Werenski has racked up 24 assists for a 0.74 points per game rate that’s the highest of his career – and on the team this season. His two-way play is also at a peak, posting a team-high +1.5 expected rating while averaging nearly 20 minutes per game at even strength and additional time on both special teams units. Simply put, the 26-year-old has been the Blue Jackets’ best player this season by a decent margin.
His absence won’t affect the Blue Jackets’ outlook this season very much, as their 11-18-7 start to the campaign has them with just a 0.6% chance of making the playoffs, per Hockey Reference. However, it is another tough blow for one of the division’s top defensemen who, at 26 years old, is beginning his prime.
If the Blue Jackets can build a playoff contender out of this current group of developing prospects, Werenski will be the leader of the core. He has four seasons remaining after this at a $9.58MM cap hit.
Roslovic will return to the lineup tonight for the first time in over six weeks. He last played on November 12 against the Rangers before sustaining an ankle fracture, resulting in a 21-game absence.
Before getting injured, the 26-year-old had eight points through 14 games. He is expected to play wing on the team’s fourth line alongside Brendan Gaunce and Alexandre Texier in tonight’s game against the Maple Leafs, the teams’ third meeting of the season.
East Notes: Kovacevic, Konecny, Nadeau, Kuraly
The Canadiens have been a popular team in trade talks lately. Veteran netminder Jake Allen is drawing significant interest from teams looking for help between the pipes, and their surplus of young defense prospects has made some think a move to clear space is coming sooner rather than later. Some have discussed veteran David Savard as being the odd man out, but notably, shutdown specialist Johnathan Kovacevic was a healthy scratch in Thursday’s game against the Hurricanes upon Jordan Harris‘ return from injury.
Kovacevic is, by most accounts, the Canadiens’ most adept chance-limiting defender. Acquired via waiver claim from the Jets early in the 2022-23 season, Kovacevic has gone from unknown rearguard to Canadiens blueline staple in a relatively short amount of time. However, as his five points through 33 games suggest, he’s not much of a two-way threat. In all situations, nearly 76.7% of his zone starts have been in the defensive end this season, way up even from last season’s 61.3% mark. At even strength, that number still skews conservative with a defensive zone start percentage of 70.
Even still, Kovacevic could carry some significant trade value if the Canadiens decide he’s on the outside looking in on their long-term core. His expected plus-minus rating of +1.9 is the highest among active Montreal defenders this season, and he averages 2:39 per game on the penalty kill. Toss in the fact that he’s a highly-coveted right-shot defenseman, and you have a player a contending team would love to pick up for the low cost of $767K against the cap at the trade deadline.
Other notes from the Eastern Conference as New Year’s Day draws near:
- Flyers forward Travis Konecny departed yesterday’s 4-1 win over the Canucks prematurely due to illness, head coach John Tortorella told reporters postgame (via NHL.com’s Bill Meltzer). Konecny logged an assist and two shots on goal in 14:55 of ice time but, as Tortorella said, felt worse as the game progressed and had to exit the contest after taking two shifts in the third period. His availability for tonight’s contest against the Kraken is unclear. If he’s not healthy enough to play, 27-year-old Rhett Gardner will make his Flyers debut after being recalled on Wednesday.
- The Sabres demoted forward prospect Olivier Nadeau from AHL Rochester to ECHL Jacksonville on Friday morning, per a team release. Nadeau, 20, has been a frequent healthy scratch in Rochester, playing five out of a possible 26 games in his first pro season. He’s suited up just twice this month and has not played since December 16. While the 2021 fourth-round pick recorded his first professional goal, the lack of playing time is surely not a positive thing for his development. He’ll head to a lower-level club where he could potentially lock down a top-six role after notching over a point per game in the past three QMJHL seasons.
- Blue Jackets center Sean Kuraly will remain out of the lineup for the next two games with what’s now been officially diagnosed as an abdominal contusion, The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline reports. Kuraly has not played since paramedics were summoned to attend to an injury he sustained in last Saturday’s game against the Maple Leafs, which he said was caused by the butt end of his stick jamming into his abdomen when he was checked simultaneously by Toronto players Auston Matthews and Jake McCabe. He confirmed the visible distress he was under when leaving the ice was because he was having trouble breathing, although he told Portzline today that he never lost consciousness throughout the incident. He remains listed as day-to-day.
Sabres Activate Tage Thompson, Assign Ryan Johnson To AHL
4:30 PM: The Buffalo Sabres have recalled Ryan Johnson from the AHL, proving that these moves were merely paper transactions.
10:00 AM: The Sabres activated center Tage Thompson on Friday after a very short stint on the non-roster list, according to a team release. With no existing room on the 23-man roster to execute the move, the team assigned rookie defenseman Ryan Johnson to AHL Rochester to accommodate Thompson’s return.
Thompson was a late scratch for Buffalo’s last contest, a 4-1 loss against the Bruins on Wednesday, for personal reasons. After exceeding the 23-player limit on the active roster over the course of the holiday freeze, the Sabres moved Thompson to the non-roster list before 11:59 p.m. that night to be compliant when the freeze lifted Thursday morning.
The transaction suggests Thompson will be available for Saturday’s game against the Blue Jackets. Buffalo GM Kevyn Adams will need to make an additional roster move to activate Sabres mainstay Zemgus Girgensons from injured reserve, as he’s expected to return from a lower-body injury that’s kept him out since late November. That will likely be assigning center Tyson Jost to Rochester this afternoon, assuming he clears waivers.
Thompson, 26, had four points in his last five games, including a three-point effort in the Sabres’ 9-3 drubbing of the Maple Leafs last week. In ten games since returning from a wrist injury that cost him nearly three weeks, Thompson has struggled with three goals and seven points and a -5 rating.
Johnson, the Sabres’ 31st overall pick in 2019, returns to Rochester to continue his development. The University of Minnesota product had a strong training camp and has looked good in 20 games of NHL action this year. He hasn’t provided much in the way of offense with two assists, and he’s received zero usage on special teams, but he’s graded out well possession-wise in his even strength minutes with a 51.7% Corsi share and an expected plus-minus rating of +0.1. Only Rasmus Dahlin has controlled more shot attempts at even strength than Johnson.
In fact, Johnson has graded out so well defensively that there’s some warranted speculation that the Sabres will make an additional roster move in order to bring him back up to the NHL. Given his waiver-exempt status, though, assigning him to the minors is the most convenient way to make room for both Girgensons and Thompson to suit up tomorrow.
The Sabres would need to make an additional waiver placement or trade to create room to recall Johnson again. The team’s other waiver-exempt talents – Zach Benson, Devon Levi, John-Jason Peterka, Owen Power, and Jack Quinn – have solidified full-time roles, and sending any of them down would be extremely detrimental to a team that needs a major winning streak to get back into the playoff conversation.
In his first nine games with Rochester, the 22-year-old had four assists and a +2 rating. He has not played an AHL contest since being recalled to Buffalo in early November.
Bruins Recall Georgii Merkulov
The Bruins recalled left wing Georgii Merkulov from AHL Providence on Friday, per the AHL’s transactions log (via the New England Hockey Journal’s Mark Divver). In a corresponding transaction, the Bruins assigned center Patrick Brown to Providence to stay at the maximum of 23 players on the active roster.
This is the first recall in Merkulov’s career. The 23-year-old is in his second full season in the Bruins organization after signing as a free agent in 2022.
Merkulov’s development path has been unique, to say the least. First eligible for selection in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, he posted 22 goals and 46 points in 64 games with the MHL’s Kapitan Stupino in the Russian junior ranks in his draft year but did not get selected by an NHL club and wasn’t on the radar of most scouts in the public sphere.
In 2019-20, Merkulov got off to an incredibly disappointing start with two points in ten MHL games and no points in six games with HK Tambov in the VHL, Russia’s second-tier pro league behind the KHL. With an NHL career in mind, Merkulov made the choice mid-season to come stateside to continue his development, signing a tender with the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms to finish out his junior career.
That choice proved fruitful. Even with the COVID-19 pandemic interrupting his playing schedule, Merkulov was productive as a member of the Phantoms, posting 20 goals and 73 points in 74 games there across the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons.
The 5-foot-11 winger then opted to pursue a collegiate career, committing to Ohio State for the 2021-22 season. As a rare 21-year-old freshman, Merkulov exploded offensively, matching his USHL career goal total of 20 in just 36 games for the Buckeyes while adding 14 assists. That breakout finally put him on the map for NHL teams, and, after just one NCAA season, he inked a three-year, entry-level deal with the Bruins as a free agent in April of 2022.
Merkulov continued his momentum in his first pro season. Last year with Providence, he led the Bruins’ primary affiliate in goals (24) and points (55), earning a spot on the AHL’s All-Rookie Team in the process. Through 31 games this season, he’s again leading the team in both categories with 14 goals and 30 points.
Now in the second season of his entry-level deal, Merkulov’s offensive production in Providence has forced the Bruins’ hand to give him an NHL look. He will look to unseat Jakub Lauko or Oskar Steen for a fourth-line role and could make his NHL debut in one of Boston’s two remaining games before New Year’s Day.
Brown, 31, heads down to Providence for the sixth time this season. He’s failed to lock down the fourth-line center spot in Boston after signing a two-year, $1.6MM contract as a UFA last summer and has been relegated to extra forward status. The Bruins have ferried him between leagues often since he last cleared waivers on November 18 to limit his time on the NHL roster and extend his temporary waiver exemption.
In ten NHL games, Brown has recorded one assist and a -1 rating while averaging 8:29 per game. He’s played just twice in December, including an appearance in the Bruins’ 4-1 win over the Sabres on Wednesday, in which he posted a -1 rating and went three for six in the faceoff dot in 7:24 of ice time.
Merkulov carries a cap hit of $925K compared to Brown’s $800K, but with Derek Forbort and Milan Lucic on long-term injured reserve, the Bruins have enough money in their salary pool to accommodate the minimal difference. He will be a restricted free agent when his ELC expires in 2025.