Flyers Recall Felix Sandstrom, Place Him On IR
Less than a week ago, the Philadelphia Flyers had sent goaltender Felix Sandstrom to their AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms for a conditioning stint. Normally, a team must recall a player on a conditioning loan within the next 14 days, but due to an upper-body injury suffered in last night’s game against the Hartford Wolf Pack, the Flyers have chosen to call up Sandstrom a bit earlier than expected.
This will now be the second goaltender in the last week who is set to miss some time within the Philadelphia organization, as it was reported that Carter Hart would miss a few days due to a mid-body injury. In the meantime, the Flyers are set to roll with a combination of Calvin Petersen and Samuel Ersson as their goaltending tandem.
Unfortunately for the team, at all levels of the organization, aside from Hart, the Flyers have been unable to get adequate goaltending across the board. In only two games played for the Phantoms over the conditioning stint, Sandstrom had a 0-0-1 record, with a .857 SV% and a 3.68 GAA. Primarily serving as a backup for Philadelphia last season, Sandstrom had a 3-12-3 record in 20 games played, posting a .880 SV% and a 3.72 GAA.
Out of training camp, the team opted to carry three goaltenders into the regular season, giving the primary backup position to Ersson. Much like Sandstrom’s subpar season last year, Ersson has gotten off to a similar start, holding a 1-2-1 record in four games, garnering a .815 SV% and a 3.90 GAA.
West Notes: Pavelski, Golden Knights, Killorn, Kahkonen
On January 1st of this year, the Dallas Stars inked veteran forward, Joe Pavelski, to a one-year contract worth a total of $3.5MM. A notable decrease on the $7MM annually that Pavelski was earning in his first contract with Dallas, this new deal did include two performance bonuses worth a total of $1MM each.
Per CapFriendly, when Pavelski plays in his 10th game of the year, he will earn the first bonus, and he will earn the second bonus at 20 games played. Tonight, the Stars will take on the Vancouver Canucks, and if no lineup changes are made, Pavelski would be in line to secure the first $1MM performance bonus included in his contract.
Although typically a minor detail on most contracts, given that Dallas only has approximately $457K in cap space, this performance bonus earned by Pavelski will result in an overage penalty to the Stars, which will be applied to next year’s salary cap bottom line. Also, given his health and availability over the last three seasons with the Stars, the expectation is that Pavelski will make it to 20 games played, adding even more overage penalties to the Dallas organization next year.
Other notes:
- Before tonight’s heavily anticipated Western Conference matchup between the Colorado Avalanche and the Vegas Golden Knights, Ben Gotz of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that forward William Carrier would be a game-time decision for Vegas, and that defenseman Zach Whitecloud will be out for the remainder of the weekend. Placed on LTIR at the beginning of the season, Whitecloud has been dealing with an upper-body injury suffered during this year’s preseason but has returned to practice with the team over the last couple of days.
- Looking to make his debut with the Anaheim Ducks after signing a four-year, $25MM contract with the team this summer, Eric Stephens of The Athletic is reporting that Alex Killorn was seen practicing on a line with Adam Henrique and Jakob Silfverberg, and will likely make his Ducks debut tomorrow night against the Golden Knights. In his absence, Anaheim has gotten off to a better start than most would have expected, climbing up in the standings thanks to a current five-game winning streak.
- As hinted at in last night’s recall of goaltender Magnus Chrona, Sheng Peng of NBC Sports is reporting that San Jose Sharks’ netminder, Kaapo Kahkonen is out with an upper-body injury, and is considered day-to-day. Although Chrona is only in his first year with an NHL organization, San Jose could benefit from another option in the crease, as both of their regular goaltenders have failed to hold a SV% above .900 in the team’s first 10 games of the season.
Montreal Canadiens Send Down Gustav Lindstrom
Earlier today, it was reported that the Montreal Canadiens would be activating forward Christian Dvorak off of their long-term injured reserve in preparation for tonight’s game against the St.Louis Blues, and they have now made a corresponding roster move to make space. The team announces they have sent defenseman Gustav Lindstrom to their AHL affiliate, the Laval Rocket.
Originally, Lindstrom had been emergency recalled to replace David Savard, who was injured in the team’s October 23rd game against the Buffalo Sabres. Since then, he has generally been used as the team’s seventh defenseman, squeaking into two games, averaging just a touch under 12 minutes of ice time per night.
As the main player piece coming back from the trade that sent defenseman Jeff Petry to the Detroit Red Wings back in August, Lindstrom was always going to have a tough time cracking Montreal’s blue line. Although it’s not one of the best defensive cores in the league at this time, the abundance of young talent, as well as a few veterans had Lindstrom on the outside looking in.
Starting the year in Laval, due to the call-up, Lindstrom has only suited up in four games for the Rocket, adding zero points and carrying a -6 rating in that short span. Nevertheless, on a subpar Laval team, Lindstrom should easily fit into the team’s top-four, and attempt to help correct the ugly start to the season.
Ducks Recall Robert Hagg
The Ducks have made a roster move in advance of tomorrow’s game against Vegas. They’ve announced that they have recalled defenseman Robert Hagg from AHL San Diego.
Hagg is in his first season with Anaheim after signing a one-year, $775K one-way deal with them in the first week of free agency. However, despite a decent showing in the preseason where he had a goal and an assist in just two appearances, the Ducks waived him late in training camp. He cleared and was assigned to the Gulls where he has played in three games, recording a single assist. It’s his first AHL action since back in the 2016-17 campaign when he was with Philadelphia,
The 28-year-old battled injuries last season, resulting in him getting into just 38 games with Detroit where he had seven points and 111 hits. For his career, Hagg has 16 goals, 47 assists, and 985 hits in 338 contests over parts of seven seasons.
On the surface, it appears that this is merely a depth-related promotion. Anaheim recently loaned Tristan Luneau to San Diego on a conditioning stint, leaving them with just six healthy blueliners on their roster. Luneau’s stint can last for up to two weeks so it appears that Hagg will serve as injury insurance in the youngster’s absence.
Sabres Place Mattias Samuelsson On IR, Recall Ryan Johnson
Mattias Samuelsson’s lower-body injury from last night’s game against Philadelphia will keep him out for at least a week as he has been placed on injured reserve. Taking his place on the roster will be Ryan Johnson who has been recalled per the AHL’s transactions log.
Samuelsson was averaging over 21 minutes a night heading into last night’s game (third among Sabres blueliners) while being a key cog on Buffalo’s penalty kill. He has a goal and two assists plus 25 hits and 25 blocks through his first 11 games of the season and his absence will certainly be notable inside their top four. The 23-year-old is in the first season of a seven-year, $30MM contract that was signed a little over a year ago when he had less than 60 games of NHL experience under his belt.
As for Johnson, he is in his first professional season after wrapping up his college career last year at the University of Minnesota. He had 18 points in 40 games for the Golden Gophers, giving him 59 points in 143 contests over his four seasons there.
The 2019 first-round pick is off to a decent start with AHL Rochester, notching four assists in his first nine games and now has a chance to get his first taste of NHL action. If he doesn’t take Samuelsson’s spot in the lineup, Jacob Bryson would be next in line after being healthy scratched on Friday.
2009 NHL Draft Take Two: Sixteenth Overall
Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.” Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended. For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.
We’re looking back at the 2009 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now. Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?
The results of our redraft so far are as follows, with their original draft position in parentheses:
1st Overall: Victor Hedman, New York Islanders (2)
2nd Overall: John Tavares, Tampa Bay Lightning (1)
3rd Overall: Ryan O’Reilly, Colorado Avalanche (33)
4th Overall: Matt Duchene, Atlanta Thrashers (3)
5th Overall: Chris Kreider, Los Angeles Kings (19)
6th Overall: Nazem Kadri, Phoenix Coyotes (7)
7th Overall: Mattias Ekholm, Toronto Maple Leafs (102)
8th Overall: Evander Kane, Dallas Stars (4)
9th Overall: Brayden Schenn, Ottawa Senators (5)
10th Overall: Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Edmonton Oilers (6)
11th Overall: Ryan Ellis, Nashville Predators (11)
12th Overall: Dmitry Orlov, New York Islanders (55)
13th Overall: Anders Lee, Buffalo Sabres (152)
14th Overall: Tyson Barrie, Florida Panthers (64)
15th Overall: Reilly Smith, Anaheim Ducks (69)
It’s a nice jump for Smith who goes from being an early third-round pick to a mid first-rounder after being picked here. As was the case with the 14th pick, the margin of victory was quite narrow here with Smith receiving just under 20% of the votes.
Smith opted to forego the major junior route, instead spending his draft-eligible season at a tier below that level, retaining his NCAA eligibility. He was quite productive in his draft year with St. Michaels of the OJHL and then followed that up by averaging just over a point per game in three seasons at Miami University, earning him his entry-level deal in 2012 where he made the jump to the NHL right away, getting into three games with Dallas that season.
While Smith spent half of the following year at the AHL level, he hasn’t been there since then. However, his time with the Stars was limited as in the 2013 offseason, he was a key part of the trade that saw Tyler Seguin go to Dallas with Boston hoping that Smith could be an important piece of their future.
He fared pretty well with the Bruins, notching 20 goals and 51 points in his first full NHL season and followed that up with a 40-point showing the following year in 2014-15. But Boston opted to do in a different direction the following summer, using Smith as an incentive to move Marc Savard’s LTIR contract in exchange for Jimmy Hayes.
Smith responded with a 25-goal, 25-assist campaign in his first year with Florida, earning him a five-year, $25MM contract. Unfortunately for them, his production dipped again, this time to 37 points. At that point, Smith once again became a cap casualty with the Panthers sending Vegas a draft pick to incentivize the Golden Knights to take him in expansion.
The change of scenery worked out well for Smith who once again had a career year in his first season with his new team, picking up 60 points, following that up with two more 50-plus-point efforts. While his output dipped the next two years (one the COVID-shortened year and the other due to injury), the Golden Knights saw fit to give him a three-year, $15MM deal in 2022.
He rewarded them for that confidence with a 56-point performance just last season. But once again, Smith found himself a salary cap casualty this past summer as Vegas sent him to Pittsburgh for a third-round pick. He’s off to a nice start with his new team, picking up four points in as many games so far this season.
Smith sits tenth in scoring among players from this draft class and was the highest-producing player still left on the board.
Now, we turn our focus to the 16th selection which was held by the Minnesota Wild, who selected defenseman Nick Leddy but traded him before he even played an NHL game. Leddy remains available in our redraft; is he still the right pick for them or should someone else go in that slot? Make your selection by voting in our poll below.
If you can’t access the poll above, click here to vote.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Metropolitan Notes: Ristolainen, Pelech, Pacioretty
The Flyers have placed defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen on LTIR, CapFriendly reports (Twitter link). The move was necessary to afford yesterday’s recall of goaltender Cal Petersen. Ristolainen has yet to play this season due to an undisclosed injury, one that he had a setback in recovering from last month. The LTIR placement can be made retroactively; assuming that was done here, he will have already missed the required 10 games and 24 days which means he will be eligible to be activated as soon as he’s cleared to return. The 29-year-old had 20 points, 142 blocks, and 162 hits in 70 games with Philadelphia last season.
More from the Metropolitan:
- Defenseman Adam Pelech is dealing with a lower-body injury and won’t play tonight against Carolina, notes Cory Wright of the Islanders’ team site. The 29-year-old left Thursday’s victory over Washington early in the first period. However, Pelech did skate before practice today (but left before the team’s morning skate) which is an encouraging sign for a possible short-term absence. The blueliner has gotten off to a bit of a slow start this season with just a single point in nine games while once again logging over 20 minutes a night.
- Capitals winger Max Pacioretty skated for the second time today as he continues to work his way back from a torn Achilles, relays Tarik El-Bashir of Monumental Sports Network (Twitter link). The veteran suffered the injury in just his fifth game last season after working his way back from a torn Achilles. Pacioretty inked a one-year deal with Washington this summer, one that carries a $2MM base salary and $2MM in games played bonuses that will be fully payable at the 20-game mark.
Canadiens To Activate Christian Dvorak Off LTIR
The Canadiens will welcome back center Christian Dvorak to their lineup tonight as the team announced (Twitter link) that he will make his season debut tonight, meaning that they will activate him off LTIR.
The 27-year-old was acquired back in 2021 to replace Jesperi Kotkaniemi whose offer sheet with Carolina went unmatched; Montreal flipped the first-round pick they acquired from Kotkaniemi as part of the trade package that went to Arizona. However, Dvorak hasn’t quite been able to lock down a full-time spot in Montreal’s top six since then.
Last season, Dvorak had 10 goals and 18 assists in 64 games before suffering a season-ending knee injury in March and undergoing surgery thereafter. The recovery took a bit longer than normal, resulting in the Canadiens starting him on LTIR. In the end, he’ll miss just the minimum number of games.
With Dvorak returning, Alex Newhook is expected to shift back to the wing. Newhook had been moved down the middle when Kirby Dach suffered his season-ending knee injury last month with the team being thin on center options but now Dvorak can slide into that role.
Montreal will need to create a roster spot to activate Dvorak. That can either be done by assigning defenseman Gustav Lindstrom to AHL Laval or by placing Rafael Harvey-Pinard on IR with the winger already being ruled out for tonight’s game. With the Canadiens having Carey Price on LTIR as well, they won’t face any challenges on the salary cap front with Dvorak’s activation.
Blackhawks Activate Taylor Hall Off Injured Reserve
It has been an eventful first month in Chicago for winger Taylor Hall as shoulder issues have limited him to just five games so far. Now, it appears as if he is cleared to return as Scott Powers of The Athletic relays (Twitter link) that Hall will play tonight, meaning he has been activated off injured reserve.
Hall was injured in the second game of the season and was believed to be out longer term originally. He then decided that he could play through the pain and returned after missing just one game. However, his effectiveness was limited and after three games of playing through the injury, Hall was shut down to allow him ample time to recover.
Hall was brought in to be a capable veteran linemate for top rookie Connor Bedard and he’ll likely be with the most recent top pick quite soon if not right away. He has two assists in the five games he has played so far but if he is indeed fully recovered, he should be able to be more productive.
It’s worth noting that Chicago had a full 23-man roster so a roster move needed to be made to formally activate Hall off IR. Isaak Phillips is the casualty on that front as the defender was just brought up on Sunday and is waiver-exempt; the Blackhawks have returned him to AHL Rockford.
Sabres Notes: Savoie, Olofsson, Samuelsson, Levi
With Matthew Savoie’s conditioning stint coming to an end shortly, the Sabres will have a decision to make with the young forward. Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News suggests that Buffalo will promote the 19-year-old and start his nine-game stint, delaying his likely return to junior. Savoie is doing well in the minors with five points in as many games but is ineligible to play there full-time this season.
However, they’ll need to open up a roster spot to do so. While returning Lukas Rousek to AHL Rochester is the easiest option, Harrington proposes that waiving Victor Olofsson might make more sense. With a $4.75MM cap hit, he’s a lock to pass through unclaimed, allowing the Sabres an opportunity to give Rousek (who is part of their future) a longer look. Olofsson has been scratched in five games so far this season and has been held without a point in the six contests he has played in.
More from Buffalo:
- The team announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Mattias Samuelsson suffered a lower-body injury in the first period of last night’s loss to Philadelphia; head coach Don Granato didn’t have an update on his status post-game. The 23-year-old has been his usual steady self in the early going this season, notching three points along with 25 hits and 25 blocks in his first eleven appearances while averaging over 21 minutes of ice time per night before Friday’s contest. If he’s going to be out for a while, an IR placement would also open a roster spot for Savoie’s promotion although it’d leave the Sabres with only six healthy blueliners.
- Goaltender Devon Levi is expected to start tonight against Toronto, relays Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald. The 21-year-old has missed a little over two weeks with a lower-body injury. Levi had gotten off to a bit of a slow start this season, posting a 3.26 GAA with a .892 SV% in his first four appearances. Buffalo never moved Levi to IR during the injury so no corresponding roster move needs to be made.