Snapshots: Matheson, Schneider, Andersson
Head coach of the Montreal Canadiens Martin St. Louis has announced that Mike Matheson is a game-time decision for the team’s Monday night matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights. The defenseman has been battling a minor lower-body injury that drew his availability into question.
Matheson has become a top defender in Montreal, with a blue line-leading six points through eight games on the season. The tally brings him to 40 points in 56 games since joining the Habs last season, making him the second-fastest Habs defender to reach the 40-point mark. The milestone speaks to Matheson’s scoring ability – something that’s come to the surface in recent years, with Matheson setting career-highs in scoring in both the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons, despite being limited by injury in both years. His presence on Montreal’s back end is a necessity, given the team’s string of defenseman injuries. Matheson will look to avoid that list on Monday night.
Other notes from around the league:
- Standout New York Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider is one game removed from losing his waiver exemption status. This means that the Rangers are facing the decision of whether Schneider is a full-time NHL player or not, although he’s appeared in all eight of the Rangers’ games so far this season, netting two points. There’s no expectation that Schneider will lose his roster spot as a result of this news.
- Top Calgary Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson is returning from a four-game suspension received for a charging call against Columbus’ Patrik Laine. Andersson has three points in five games so far this season and scored 49 in 79 games last year, operating as Calgary’s top defender.
Injury Notes: Maple Leafs, Hischier, Lindgren, Flames
The Toronto Maple Leafs are facing opposing injury news, with defender Timothy Liljegren returning to the team’s practice but Jake McCabe still sitting out. Liljegren took practice reps alongside Mark Giordano, although no update about his availability was provided. Liljegren was announced as “doubtful” for the team’s October 28th game before missing the match; a tag that may carry over to their Tuesday night game.
Liljegren is playing more than ever through eight games this season, averaging over 19 minutes of ice time a game – a step up from the 18 minutes he averaged last season. It’s a continuation of the gradual increase in ice time that Liljegren has seen in each of the last three seasons, speaking to his growing prowess. But despite the increased role, Liljegren has only managed one point through his eight games this year. Scoring has never been his forte, with Liljegren only netting 18 points through 67 games last year.
Liljegren will look to add to those scoring totals with an eventual return to action, while Toronto continues to wait for news of McCabe’s outlook.
Other injury news:
- Nico Hischier remains day-by-day with an upper-body injury after taking a high hit from Connor Clifton in New Jersey’s Friday night game. Clifton would receive a two-game suspension for the blindside hit. The team put added emphasis on calling Hischier, “day-by-day”, emphasizing their goal of staying patient with the recovery.
- Charlie Lindgren had an apparent injury during the Washington Capitals practice, leaving the ice to speak with a trainer after going down. Lindgren was assigned to injured reserve earlier in the season with an upper-body injury. Hunter Shepard operated as the team’s backup in Lindgren’s absence
- The Calgary Flames have sent Ilya Solovyov to the AHL. Solovyov appeared in two games for Calgary, going without a point and recording a -3. He’s appeared in four AHL games this season, netting two points and two penalty minutes.
Sam Bennett A Game-Time Decision, Removed From IR
Update 5:54pm: David Dwork of The Hockey News tweeted that Bennett will indeed make his season debut tonight against the Boston Bruins.
1:42pm: The Florida Panthers have removed Sam Bennett from injured reserve and dubbed him as a game-time decision for their Monday night matchup against the Boston Bruins. Bennett has missed the entirety of the season up to this point with a lower-body injury. He has been on the fringe of returning to play since the team’s October 27th matchup and, with an official removal from IR, seems poised to finally make his season debut.
Bennett tallied 16 goals and 40 points in 63 games with Florida last season, adding 15 points in 20 playoff games. He set his career-high in scoring in the year prior, netting 28 goals and 49 points. The former fourth-overall pick is entering his third full season with the Panthers. His career has been marked by limitations due to injury, with Bennett only playing 75 or more games in a season three times through his nine-year career. He has the potential to add a fourth season to that marker this year if he manages to play in all of Florida’s games for the rest of the year. Now 27, Bennett has accrued 546 career NHL games, tallying 244 career points and 480 penalty minutes.
Who steps out of the lineup to make way for Bennett will be interesting to see. The Panthers have had a relatively unproductive fourth line, with Kevin Stenlund‘s two goals being the only points scored by the line. Each of Stenlund, Steven Lorentz, and William Lockwood can be deployed flexibly, which should work well for the returning centerman. The return could also impact Eetu Luostarinen, who has served as the centerman between Matthew Tkachuk and Carter Verhaeghe – the line that Bennett manned for over 300 minutes of last season. With Bennett’s return, Florida will be one step closer to icing the lineup that willed them to the Stanley Cup Finals last season.
AHL’s Toronto Marlies Sign Kieffer Bellows To PTO
Former Islanders and Flyers forward Kieffer Bellows remained without a contract for 2023-24 after a failed PTO with the Hurricanes during this year’s training camp. He’ll now get another chance to earn a roster spot in North America, this time in the minors. The AHL’s Toronto Marlies have signed Bellows to a PTO, per a team announcement Monday.
Bellows, the Islanders’ 19th overall selection in 2016, had his stint with the team run out early last year. The Islanders waived him in late October 2022 after playing him in just one game, but he didn’t clear – the Flyers decided to pick him up as a reclamation project. Unfortunately, things once again didn’t pop off for Bellows. He notched just three goals in 27 games, averaging under ten minutes a game and cleared waivers two subsequent times throughout 2022-23. In the minors with AHL Lehigh Valley, he managed 10 points in 12 games.
Unsurprisingly, the Flyers did not tender Bellows at the end of the season, given his $1.2MM qualifying offer. Thus he hit the free agent market for the first time in his career, failing to land any guaranteed NHL offers.
The 25-year-old Minnesota product has appeared in 95 NHL games since turning pro in 2018, recording 14 goals and 14 assists for 28 points. It amounts to solid fourth-line production, but inconsistency and extreme dry spells have prevented him from landing an everyday NHL job. He has struggled to make positive impacts defensively, posting a career Corsi share of 46.1% at even strength, 1.9% worse than his teammates.
The Marlies (and their NHL parent, the Maple Leafs) are no stranger to bringing in reclamation projects on both NHL and AHL deals – Alex Galchenyuk and Joshua Ho-Sang are a pair of recent examples that didn’t pay long-term dividends. With a whopping 18 forwards already on the Marlies’ roster, Bellows will need to make a significant impact at the minor-league level to land a deal. That shouldn’t be too tall a task, as aside from posting just 19 points in 73 games during his rookie season with AHL Bridgeport in 2018-19, he’s been an effective contributor in limited minor-league action.
Wild Assign Daemon Hunt, Jujhar Khaira To AHL
The Wild have assigned defenseman Daemon Hunt and forward Jujhar Khaira to AHL Iowa after recalling both last week, a team release states.
Hunt and Khaira were called up to the NHL roster before last week’s road trip thanks to injuries affecting all positions. Hunt was a precautionary recall to have an extra defenseman around on the road trip, something that ended up paying dividends as he appeared in his first two NHL games, averaging a minute 4:52 per game. Khaira, 29, made just one appearance in lieu of injured forward Frédérick Gaudreau, logging 8:05.
The Wild, coming off a 4-3 loss to the Devils yesterday, do not play again until Thursday. The move allows the Wild to bank some cap space by staying out of LTIR and remaining cap-compliant. Both players could very well stay in the minors if one or both of Gaudreau and Matt Boldy are ready to return from their respective injuries later in the week.
While Hunt will not require waivers to return to AHL Iowa this season, Khaira will require waivers after he plays in ten NHL games and remains on the NHL roster for 30 days after clearing waivers preseason. Papering him down even if he requires an eventual recall does carry added benefit in that department.
East Notes: Heinen, Mayfield, Hinostroza, Zohorna
Free agent forward Danton Heinen is still on a professional tryout with the Bruins almost a month into the season, but it appears that’s about to change. The 28-year-old took full line rushes with the Bruins at practice this morning, indicating a contract signing could come ahead of Monday’s game against the Panthers.
The 6-foot-1, 188-pound winger is expected to make his return to Beantown in a fourth-line role with John Beecher and Oskar Steen if he does sign, with Patrick Brown sitting out. The Bruins currently have nearly $1.5MM in cap space to play with – forward Milan Lucic is on long-term injured reserve due to a lower-body injury, giving GM Don Sweeney some flexibility he’s yet to have this season. Heinen, a fourth-round pick of the Bruins in 2014, amassed 103 points in 220 contests with the team before they traded him to the Ducks during the 2019-20 season.
Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference this morning:
- Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield returned to practice today for the first time since sustaining a foot injury early this month, according to Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News. However, he’s not yet ready to return to game action and will miss an eighth straight game against the Red Wings tonight, instead likely aiming for a return against the Capitals on Thursday. The 6-foot-5 defender, already 30 years old, is beginning a seven-year extension earning him $3.5MM per season. The Islanders are off to a decent 4-2-1 start but have struggled to control play, and their 48.3% expected goals share (per MoneyPuck) ranks 22nd in the league. They’ve yet again received spectacular netminding from Ilya Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov.
- The Penguins have once again recalled Vinnie Hinostroza and Radim Zohorna from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and they participated in practice this morning, per Penguins play-by-play announcer Josh Getzoff. The two were papered down after the Penguins’ last game, helping the team bank cap space on off days while netminder Alex Nedeljkovic remains on LTIR. Zohorna has two points through four contests this season, while Hinostroza has yet to make his Penguins debut.
New Jersey Devils Place Colin Miller On IR
Oct. 30: After scratching him for Sunday’s win over the Wild, the Devils have returned Dowling to AHL Utica, per a team announcement. The move is not surprising, given New Jersey does not play again until Thursday.
Oct. 29: Suffering a lower-body injury during a team practice on October 19th, the New Jersey Devils announced that defenseman Colin Miller has officially been placed on the injured reserve, and the team has recalled Justin Dowling to take his place on the roster.
It will not be a huge impact for New Jersey on the ice, as after being acquired from the Dallas Stars this past summer, Miller still has yet to suit up in any games this season, even before the injury took place. Last year in Dallas, Miller was an effective bottom-pairing option for the Stars, averaging almost 17 minutes a night, scoring six goals and 15 assists over 79 games.
With the Devils top-four defensemen essentially set in stone, the team has opted to keep the combination of Brendan Smith and Luke Hughes in the bottom pairing, allowing Hughes to play regular even strength with what the team has deemed a safer defensive partner.
Much like Miller, and potentially even more so, it’s going to be difficult for Dowling to break into the forward unit for New Jersey. He has not played an NHL game since the 2021-22 season with the Vancouver Canucks, and does not appear as an upgrade over any player already in the Devils’ bottom-six forward groups. However, he has gotten off to a strong start in the AHL with the Utica Comets, notching three assists in four games. At the very least, being able to practice with the Devils over the upcoming days will surely help his play once he eventually is sent back down.
Senators’ Artem Zub Expected To Return This Week
The Senators hope defenseman Artem Zub will be ready to return to the lineup for Thursday’s game against the Kings, Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia reports. Zub was on the ice for practice Monday after not playing since taking a puck to the jaw in an October 18 contest against the Capitals.
Zub is widely regarded as Ottawa’s best shutdown defenseman, and the numbers back that up ever since he signed with the team as a free agent out of Russia in 2020. The incident against the Capitals was Zub’s second jaw injury in as many seasons, and it’s caused him to miss the team’s last four games. They’ve gone 1-3-0 in his absence and now sit seventh in the Atlantic Division with a .500 record, another slow start for a team consistently plagued by early-season ineffectiveness.
Through four games this season, Zub had a goal and two assists in 17:57 of average ice time. His +3 rating still ranks first among Ottawa’s defenders thus far.
Head coach D.J. Smith did not initially expect Zub’s absence to be “long-term,” and while he was right, almost half a month is certainly longer than Ottawa would like to be without his services, especially given the circumstances. Later injuries have sidelined both Erik Brännström and number-one defenseman Thomas Chabot, decimating the team’s defensive depth and forcing veterans like Travis Hamonic into top-pairing minutes, albeit temporarily. Those injuries have necessitated recalls from AHL Belleville like Tyler Kleven and Nikolas Matinpalo, who both played under ten minutes and took less than 15 shifts in Ottawa’s 5-2 win over the Penguins last Saturday.
Zub, 28, is in the first season of a four-year, $4.6MM AAV extension signed last December.
Morning Notes: Janmark, Ružička, Dermott
Oilers forward Mattias Janmark did not dress in Sunday’s Heritage Classic win over the Flames, per Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic, and the 30-year-old is listed as out with a shoulder injury with no timeline for a return. Defenseman Vincent Desharnais drew into the lineup in his place, scoring his first NHL goal in the process as the Oilers dressed seven defensemen for the fourth time this season.
Janmark, now in his eighth NHL season, signed a one-year, $1MM extension to remain an Oiler in June. The depth scoring winger has been held off the scoresheet through seven games, however, averaging 13:05 and posting a -2 rating. He hasn’t been shooting the puck as often as we’re used to seeing – he’s averaging just one shot per game, but his teammates haven’t helped him out in the assist department, either. The Oilers are shooting just 2.9% with Janmark on the ice at even strength, and his possession numbers have actually been quite good to begin the season with a 56.5% Corsi share. The Oilers do not have cap space for a corresponding recall, so unless Janmark lands on LTIR as a result of his shoulder ailment, Edmonton will roll with 11 forwards and seven defensemen for the time being.
More from around the NHL this morning.
- Also absent from last night’s Heritage Classic was Flames forward Adam Ružička, who head coach Ryan Huska told reporters pre-game would not dress due to a shoulder injury (via Wes Gilbertson of the Calgary Sun). The Slovak winger was off to a strong start this season, posting two goals and two assists for four points in seven games, but is now listed as day-to-day with the injury. The 6-foot-4, 24-year-old winger is in the second year of a $762.5K AAV deal and will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights next summer.
- Lastly, Coyotes defenseman Travis Dermott is expected to miss his second straight game tonight against the Blackhawks with an illness, Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports reports. Dermott, who’s been one of the Coyotes’ best shutdown defenders through the first month of the season, also missed Friday’s 5-4 loss to the Kings. While he’s been held off the scoresheet thus far, the 26-year-old Dermott is rebounding nicely after missing most of last season due to a concussion, posting a relative Corsi share of 1.6% at even strength despite seeing more than 70% of his zone starts in the defensive end. He’s inked to just an $800K cap hit for this season.
Five Key Stories: 10/23/23 – 10/29/23
The week around the hockey world ended in tragedy, with former Penguins center Adam Johnson passing away. Meanwhile, it was a busy week across the NHL which is recapped in our key stories.
Draft Changes: A majority of teams have told the league that they would like to decentralize the draft, meaning teams would no longer send large contingents to the draft city and that it would work more like the drafts of the other major league sports. With that, the NHL’s intention is now to switch formats no later than 2025 with 2024 not being ruled out either. In our current reader poll, it’s fair to say that this change is not exactly a popular one.
Lots Of Injuries: It has been a tough week on the injury front across the league. Blackhawks winger Taylor Hall’s shoulder injury isn’t getting better so he’s now on IR and listed as week-to-week. That’s the same designation for Coyotes winger Jason Zucker who is dealing with a lower-body issue. At one point, it seemed like Hurricanes defenseman Brett Pesce was going to be out long-term. While that’s not the case, he underwent surgery on a lower-body injury and will miss two to four weeks. Meanwhile, Canadiens blueliner David Savard and Senators rearguard Thomas Chabot both sustained fractured hands that will likely keep them out of their respective lineups until sometime in December.
Pinto Suspension: The bad news in Ottawa didn’t stop with Chabot as the NHL announced that unsigned center Shane Pinto has received a 41-game suspension for activities relating to sports wagering, to quote its press release. The exact nature of the violation was not revealed publicly with the league noting that Pinto did not bet on NHL games. The Sens have since rescinded all of their previous contract offers to Pinto, who is now almost certain to sign a low-cost, one-year deal once he is cleared to return in mid-January. While there is a December 1st deadline for unsigned restricted free agents to sign deals, that rule will be waived for Pinto and the Sens. Instead of Ottawa potentially getting him back in a week or two, it’ll now be a few more months before that happens.
Retirements: A trio of long-time NHL forwards hung up their skates. First, after failing to catch on with Anaheim in training camp, winger Zack Kassian retired at the age of 32. The 13th pick in 2009 played in 661 games over parts of a dozen seasons, collecting 203 points, 913 penalty minutes, and 1,360 hits. Long-time Montreal center Tomas Plekanec was next to retire; he had been playing for his hometown team in Czechia but suffered an early injury that ended his season prematurely. The 40-year-old played in 1,001 NHL games, all but 17 of which came with the Canadiens. Lastly, Joe Thornton officially called it a career at the age of 44. The top pick back in 1997 last played in 2021-22 and he amassed over 1,500 points in 1,714 games over parts of 24 NHL seasons. He currently sits 12th in league history in points and sixth in games played.
Bowness Steps Away: The Jets are currently without head coach Rick Bowness as he has taken a leave of absence to be with his wife who suffered a seizure and was hospitalized earlier in the week. Bowness is in his second season behind the bench in Winnipeg and obviously, there is no timetable for his return. Associate coach Scott Arniel, who has head coaching experience from his time with Columbus a little more than a decade ago, is currently serving as their interim bench boss.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.