Pacific Notes: Rutherford, Myers, Benning, Sturm
Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford is in the final season of his contract with the club, a three-year deal he’d signed after being instated in a permanent role in December 2021. His and GM Patrik Allvin’s short-term surgery on the roster is a significant reason why the surging Canucks find themselves well-positioned to make the playoffs for the second time since 2015.
Speaking with Rick Dhaliwal and Don Taylor on CHEK’s Donnie & Dhali program yesterday, Rutherford said he’s had preliminary extension discussions with team owner Francesco Aquilini but it is not his “top priority right now.” The 74-year-old has been a high-level NHL executive for nearly 30 years, first joining the professional ranks as president and GM of the Hartford Whalers in 1994. Since then, he’s captured three Stanley Cups as a GM: 2006 with the Hurricanes and 2016 and 2017 with the Penguins. He also won the NHL’s General Manager of the Year award in 2016 after making midseason trades to acquire Trevor Daley, Carl Hagelin and Justin Schultz, all of whom played key supporting roles in Pittsburgh’s run to the championship. He was also inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame under the Builder Category in the class of 2019.
Under his watch, the Canucks now find themselves free of most of the bloated contracts signed with former GM Jim Benning at the helm and, in true Rutherford fashion, have already made a sizable trade this season to improve their depth well ahead of the trade deadline, capturing hulking defender Nikita Zadorov from the Flames for a value price.
Elsewhere in the Pacific Division:
- In yesterday’s interview, Rutherford also implied the team had not held extension discussions with pending unrestricted free agent defenseman Tyler Myers. The 33-year-old is Vancouver’s second-oldest defender behind offseason free agent signing Ian Cole and is in the final season of an oft-criticized five-year, $30MM contract carrying a $6MM cap hit signed in 2019 under the Benning regime. His name was featured in offseason trade discussions, namely a deal that almost sent him to the floundering Sharks for the Canucks to free up additional cap space. However, holding onto Myers may have benefitted the Canucks. His trade value has never been higher while with the team. He was paid a $5MM signing bonus at the beginning of the season and is due $1MM in actual salary during this campaign, making him a more palatable financial acquisition for teams. His on-ice stats have never been better as a Canuck. While his minutes have been reduced to under 19 minutes per game, he’s responded with two goals and 11 assists for 13 points in 29 contests, his best points-per-game rate in a full season since he tallied 37 in 80 games with the Sabres during his sophomore season in 2010-11. His two-way game is still an area of major concern, however, as his pairings with Cole and Carson Soucy have been the Canucks’ worst in terms of controlling possession quality this season.
- Sharks defenseman Matt Benning is sidelined indefinitely with a lower-body injury, head coach David Quinn told reporters yesterday (via Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now). Benning last played on November 3 against the Rangers and was moved to injured reserve on Tuesday. Benning had ample opportunity to secure more arduous minutes on a thin Sharks blueline this season, but injuries have dogged him for much of the campaign. He missed ten games with an undisclosed injury in November and one with a lower-body injury in late October. It’s unclear if the injuries he suffered this season are related. The 29-year-old has two assists and a -5 rating in 14 games this season, averaging 18:29 per game.
- Sticking with the Sharks, center Nico Sturm sustained what Quinn called a “mid-body injury” in Tuesday’s game against the Jets and is still being evaluated, Curtis Pashelka of the San Jose Mercury News relays. According to Pashelka, the team expects more information today and is preparing for him to miss enough time to be placed on IR. Sturm missed one game earlier this month with a lower-body injury and a pair of contests in late November for personal reasons. Now in his second season in the Bay Area, the 28-year-old German (who has no relation to longtime Sharks winger Marco Sturm) has two goals, two assists and a -10 rating in 26 games. If Sturm gets placed on IR today, depth forward Ryan Carpenter is ready to come off the injured list after missing four games with an undisclosed injury.
Sabres Notes: Tuch, Murray, Samuelsson, Greenway
Sabres forward Alex Tuch will be activated off injured reserve and return to the lineup tonight against the Avalanche, head coach Don Granato said earlier Wednesday. Winger Brett Murray was assigned to AHL Rochester later in the day to create roster space to activate Tuch, per a team release.
Tuch’s return marks the end of a four-game absence due to a lower-body injury sustained on December 3 against the Predators. The Sabres promptly announced Tuch was expected out of the lineup for roughly one week, just long enough to be eligible for IR placement. It’s the winger’s second multi-game absence of the season after an upper-body injury sidelined him for three games in November. Before exiting the lineup, Tuch had two goals and four points in his last five games and has eight goals and 17 points in 22 games on the season.
The move also ends Murray’s first call-up of the 2023-24 season, which lasted just two days. He replaced the younger Isak Rosen in the lineup Monday in the team’s win against the Coyotes, recording a -1 rating and one shot on goal in 10:41 of ice time. The 25-year-old Murray, who stands at 6-foot-5 and nearly 230 pounds, has two goals and seven points in 12 games with AHL Rochester this season.
Elsewhere from around the Sabres today:
- Also returning to the lineup tonight is defenseman Mattias Samuelsson, per Granato. No corresponding roster move is needed because Sameulsson remained on the active roster while sidelined with an undisclosed injury, which Granato described as general soreness earlier in the week. Samuelsson did not suit up Monday against the Coyotes, his fourth injury-related absence of the season after he missed three games with a lower-body injury in early November. The shutdown blueliner has three points in 25 games this season and is averaging 20:12 per game, nearly two minutes down from last season’s average – although that number is artificially low due to Samuelsson exiting games early with injuries this season on multiple occasions.
- One player absent from tonight’s contest will be forward Jordan Greenway, missing his sixth straight game with an upper-body injury. He did travel with the team on their road trip, but as Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News reports, he’s not expected to play, which would mean also missing games Friday in Vegas and Saturday in Arizona. He remains on injured reserve for the time being and hasn’t played since leaving the team’s December 2 contest against the Hurricanes prematurely. He’s played in two of Buffalo’s last ten games, missing a trio of contests in November for personal reasons. The 26-year-old has seven points in 21 games in his first full season as a Sabre.
Blues Recall Mackenzie MacEachern
The Blues recalled winger Mackenzie MacEachern from AHL Springfield on Wednesday, a team release states. To stay under the 23-player roster limit, the team assigned winger Jakub Vrána to Springfield after he cleared waivers earlier today.
MacEachern, 29, has 115 games of NHL experience, although none of them have come this season. All those regular-season NHL appearances have come in a Blues uniform after they selected him 67th overall in the 2012 draft. The Michigan State graduate made eight postseason appearances for the Hurricanes last season but spent the entirety of the regular season in the AHL with their former affiliate, the Chicago Wolves.
After one year away from the Blues organization, MacEachern returned on a two-year, one-way deal worth $1.55MM last summer. He did not make the team out of camp, however, and was waived in early October as one of their last cuts. He’s responded with four goals, eight assists, 12 points, and a -4 rating in 22 contests for Springfield, ranking seventh on the team in scoring. It’s a sizable step back from the pace he set with the Wolves last season, where he notched 30 points in 37 games.
MacEachern was a Black Ace during the Blues’ run to the 2019 Stanley Cup, appearing in 29 regular-season games that season (the first of his career) but not getting into any playoff action. Since joining the NHL ranks in 2018, MacEachern’s tallied 11 goals, eight assists, 19 points, and a +4 rating while averaging 8:44 per contest. Playing in an exclusively fourth-line role in the majors, MacEachern has historically been a neutral possession force, giving the Blues a bottom-of-the-lineup presence that they don’t have to worry about.
He certainly doesn’t have the scoring upside that Vrána boasts, but given the latter has struggled heavily defensively this season, it makes sense the Blues would opt for a more responsible checking option on the roster. MacEachern will battle with Nikita Alexandrov, Sammy Blais and Hugh McGing for ice time on the team’s fourth line.
Hockey Canada Announces Final 2024 WJC Roster
Dec. 13: After their selection camp process was completed, Canada made eight cuts to arrive at their final roster: Barkey, Firkus, Ludwinski, Vidicek, Buchinger, Donovan, Nelson and DiVincentiis did not make the team. One forward will likely be reinstated before the tournament begins to arrive at a 23-player roster, but for now, the Canadians are leaving a spot open in hopes of an NHL team loaning out a top prospect such as Buffalo’s Zach Benson or Boston’s Matthew Poitras.
Dec. 5: The best time of the year for prospect watchers is right around the corner. The 2024 edition of the IIHF World Junior Championship begins later this month, as normal, on December 26. This year’s event will take place in Gothenburg, Sweden, which was initially slated to host the event in 2022 but needed to be rescheduled due to COVID restrictions.
Yesterday, Team Canada’s biggest rival, Team USA, released their 29-man preliminary roster, building excitement for the tournament at the end of the month. With a different-looking roster than last year, Team Canada will now look to win their third consecutive title in the World Junior Championship.
Last season, the team was led by top prospects Connor Bedard, Shane Wright, Adam Fantilli, and Brandt Clarke, and will now look to compete with more future high-end draft picks. Nevertheless, even without some of the greatest junior players of all time on the roster this season, Team Canada should still be considered a favorite to win. The full roster is as follows:
F Owen Allard (2024 draft-eligible)
F Denver Barkey (Flyers, 2023, 95th overall)
F Owen Beck (Canadiens, 2022, 33rd overall)
F Macklin Celebrini (2024 draft-eligible)
F Easton Cowan (Maple Leafs, 2023, 28th overall)
F Nate Danielson (Red Wings, 2023, 9th overall)
F Jordan Dumais (Blue Jackets, 2022, 96th overall)
F Jagger Firkus (Kraken, 2022, 35th overall)
F Conor Geekie (Coyotes, 2022, 11th overall)
F Paul Ludwinski (Blackhawks, 2022, 39th overall)
F Fraser Minten (Maple Leafs, 2022, 38th overall)
F Carson Rehkopf (Kraken, 2023, 50th overall)
F Matthew Savoie (Sabres, 2022, 9th overall)
F Markus Vidicek (2024 draft-eligible)
F Matthew Wood (Predators, 2023, 15th overall)
F Brayden Yager (Penguins, 2023, 14th overall)
D Oliver Bonk (Flyers, 2023, 22nd overall)
D Michael Buchinger (Blues, 2022, 88th overall)
D Jorian Donovan (Senators, 2022, 136th overall)
D Jake Furlong (Sharks, 2022, 140th overall)
D Maveric Lamoureux (Coyotes, 2022, 29th overall)
D Denton Mateychuk (Blue Jackets, 2022, 12th overall)
D Tanner Molendyk (Predators, 2023, 24th overall)
D Ty Nelson (Kraken, 2022, 68th overall)
D Noah Warren (Ducks, 2022, 42nd overall)
G Domenic DiVincentiis (Jets, 2022, 207th overall)
G Scott Ratzlaff (Sabres, 2023, 141st overall)
G Mathis Rousseau (2024 draft-eligible)
G Samuel St-Hilaire (2024 draft-eligible)
The team will be highlighted by top-10 selections in previous drafts such as Danielson and Savoie, while also the projected first overall selection in the 2024 NHL Draft in Celebrini. The Seattle Kraken will have the most representatives on the team, with three.
Wild Recall Three Players, Move Jonas Brodin To LTIR
The Wild recalled defensemen Daemon Hunt and Dakota Mermis, as well as forward Vinni Lettieri, from AHL Iowa on Wednesday, per a team release. To make the Wild salary cap-compliant, defenseman Jonas Brodin was moved to long-term injured reserve retroactive to December 9. He remains out indefinitely with an upper-body injury sustained last Friday on a hit from Oilers winger Evander Kane.
Doing so gives the Wild a 23-player active roster for the first time this season. Recalling both Hunt and Mermis gives the Wild eight defensemen to choose from on a nightly basis while Brodin is sidelined, while Lettieri will serve as injury insurance as an extra forward with the Wild slated for an East Coast road trip early next week.
This is the fourth recall of the season for Hunt, the 65th overall pick in the 2020 draft. The 21-year-old last suited up for an NHL game on November 9 and has been a healthy scratch in four out of the nine games he’s been rostered for this season.
Including his NHL debut on October 27 against the Capitals, Hunt’s played in five games, recording three shots on goal while averaging a paltry 8:36 per contest. He’s still looking for his first NHL point. The physical two-way defender is beginning to look comfortable at the professional level, notching a goal, eight assists and a +3 rating in 14 games for AHL Iowa this season. He recorded 11 points in 59 games last season, his first in the pros after completing his junior career with the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors.
Mermis comes back up to the NHL promptly after being sent down Monday to extend his waiver-exempt status, which lasts for 30 NHL-rostered days after he last cleared waivers on November 18. The 29-year-old has played in a career-high 14 games this season, recording two goals and three assists while logging 15:29 per game. After playing 13 straight games between October 17 and November 12, Mermis has frequently been a healthy scratch when on the NHL roster and has played just once in the last month, logging 12:37 and a +1 rating against the Oilers on Friday.
Lettieri, 28, returns to Minnesota after a week-long stint in the minors. The high-end minor-league point producer has split the 2023-24 campaign between leagues after signing with his hometown club in the offseason, recording eight points in ten games for AHL Iowa and three points in 13 games for Minnesota. His last appearance came on November 30 against the Predators.
Canadiens Recall Emil Heineman
The Canadiens recalled high-end left-wing prospect Emil Heineman from the AHL’s Laval Rocket on Wednesday, per a team announcement. To make room on the 23-man roster, winger Tanner Pearson, who is out six weeks with an upper-body injury, was moved to injured reserve.
If the 22-year-old Heineman draws into the lineup tonight against the Penguins, it would be his NHL debut. It’s not a guarantee, however, as the Canadiens have 13 healthy forwards on the active roster. Heineman would likely play a third- or fourth-line role in the event he enters the lineup, relegating either Joel Armia or Michael Pezzetta to the press box.
Heineman is already in his third NHL organization after the Panthers selected him 43rd overall in 2020. The Panthers moved on from him less than 12 months after the draft, dealing his signing rights and a 2022 second-round pick to the Flames in exchange for center Sam Bennett in April 2021. Less than a year after that, Calgary flipped his rights to the Canadiens as part of the package that got them Tyler Toffoli near the 2022 trade deadline. Heineman signed his entry-level contract with the Canadiens within a few months of the second trade.
Montreal loaned him out to his Swedish Hockey League club, Leksands IF, for most of last season, where he fell short of his SHL career-highs with eight goals and 15 points in 35 games. After Leksand’s brief playoff run concluded, Heineman finished out the 2022-23 campaign with Laval, recording seven goals and two assists in 11 regular-season games. The strong start to his North American professional career made some believe he could crack Montreal’s roster out of camp this year, and although he was a late cut, Heineman was eventually assigned to Laval before opening-night rosters were due.
An injury suffered early this season sidelined Heineman for most of October and all of November, but he returned to the Rocket lineup this month and has three points and 11 shots on goal in five games post-injury. A speedy winger with a high-end shot, Heineman could bring a skill element missing from Montreal’s depth forward group with Kirby Dach, Rafaël Harvey-Pinard and Alex Newhook all sidelined with long-term injuries.
He is ranked as the third-best left-wing prospect in Montreal’s system behind 2022 first-overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky and 22-year-old American Sean Farrell by Dobber Prospects. At this stage, a long-term future in Montreal’s top six seems unlikely, but he certainly has the potential to churn out a lengthy career as a legitimate third-line scoring threat.
Vladislav Gavrikov Out Week-To-Week With Lower-Body Injury
Kings blueliner Vladislav Gavrikov left Sunday’s game against the Rangers with a lower-body injury, just one night after he was on the wrong end of a knee-on-knee collision with Islanders captain Anders Lee. Today, the team announced that Gavrikov will not be in the lineup for tonight’s game against the Jets and is sidelined on a week-to-week basis.
Gavrikov, 28, has blossomed into a solid second-pairing defender since beginning his NHL career in 2019 with the Blue Jackets. A sixth-round pick of Columbus in 2015, Gavrikov played four seasons in his home country of Russia before joining the NHL ranks, including an Olympics appearance in 2018 and multiple World Championship appearances.
He cracked the Blue Jackets out of camp on his first try, going on to record 18 points and a +1 rating while averaging 18:59 per game through 69 contests during his rookie season. The pandemic-shortened 2020-21 campaign was a tough one for him, recording 12 points and a -13 rating in 55 games, but he broke out as a true top-four threat the following season with five goals, 33 points, and a respectable -3 rating on a Blue Jackets team that finished below the .500 mark while playing over 22 minutes a game.
Amidst a disappointing campaign for Columbus last season, the organization parted ways with Gavrikov near the trade deadline, dealing him to the Kings, along with netminder Joonas Korpisalo, for a package headlined by Los Angeles’ 2023 first-round draft pick. He’s been dynamite in Hollywood since the deal, and he’s posted some of the best possession numbers of any player in the league this season. Through 25 games, Gavrikov is playing nearly 20 minutes per game, has three goals and six assists, and boasts a 57.5% Corsi share at even strength. He also leads the NHL in Hockey Reference’s expected plus-minus metric with a +9.5 rating.
Needless to say, his services will be tough to replace for a Kings team whose .720 points percentage ranks fourth in the NHL and second in the Western Conference. 25-year-old Jacob Moverare, who has been recalled on numerous occasions this season but has yet to see game action with the Kings, will make his 2023-24 debut tonight in place of Gavrikov on their second pairing alongside Matt Roy. Moverare has five assists and a +1 rating through 16 games with AHL Ontario. He’s amassed 21 games of NHL experience with the Kings dating back to 2021, recording two assists and a +2 rating in 16:13 of average ice time.
The Kings do have cap space to make a corresponding recall from Ontario while winger Viktor Arvidsson remains on long-term injured reserve, but their 23-man roster is currently full. Given he’s expected to miss longer than seven days, expect the Kings to move Gavrikov to injured reserve in the near future to accommodate an extra defenseman on the active roster.
Jakub Vrana Placed On Waivers
Dec. 13: Vrana has cleared waivers, per Chris Johnston of The Athletic and TSN. He may now be freely assigned to the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds, which GM Doug Armstrong confirmed was the team’s plan earlier today (via Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic).
Dec. 12: Yesterday, there were conflicting reports surrounding Jakub Vrana and the St.Louis Blues, as there was some indication that the Blues were close to moving on from Vrana in a trade. However, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet is reporting that Vrana has indeed been placed on waivers by St.Louis.
It will be the second time this calendar year that Vrana has found himself on waivers, being placed on the wire during his time with the Detroit Red Wings on January 3rd of last season. He would go unclaimed, largely due to his $5.25MM price tag at the time, and was subsequently traded to the Blues two months later.
Originally a first-round selection of the Washington Capitals back in the 2014 NHL Draft, it wouldn’t be until the 2017-18 season that Vrana would make the full-time jump to the NHL. He quickly became a relatively solid depth scorer for the Capitals, scoring 13 goals and 27 points in 73 games, also chipping in eight points on Washington’s run to the Stanley Cup Final in that year’s playoffs.
Vrana would continue to increase his productivity with the Capitals, posting back-to-back 20-goal seasons, leading to a two-year, $6.7MM extension with Washington. Unfortunately, he would not see out the rest of that contract with the Capitals, as he was traded to Detroit along with Richard Panik and two higher-end draft picks for Anthony Mantha.
After the trade, believing they had found themselves a diamond in the rough, Vrana scored eight goals and 11 points in 11 games with the Red Wings, leading to a three-year, $15.75MM extension. Nevertheless, as things played out in Hockeytown, largely due to injuries and a stint with the NHLPA Player Assistance Program, his time in Detroit quickly faltered, leaving him on the outside looking in with the organization.
Almost identically to when he arrived in Detroit, Vrana got off to a quick start in St.Louis, scoring 10 goals in 20 games down the stretch after last year’s trade. This season, Vrana is back to mild production, scoring two goals and six points in 19 games, leading to his placement on waivers this afternoon. Although he is only making $2.625MM due to the Red Wings retaining half of his salary, it is more than likely Vrana will pass through waivers unclaimed.
Snapshots: Aho, Pacioretty, Rangers Injuries
The New York Islanders have activated defenseman Sebastian Aho off of injured reserve and are expecting him to return for the team’s Wednesday night game. Aho has missed the team’s last eight games with an upper-body injury.
The Islanders are facing a slew of injuries to their blueline, recalling Grant Hutton to the NHL lineup on Wednesday to replace Scott Mayfield, who was announced as day-to-day with an injury of his own. Mayfield joins Ryan Pulock and Adam Pelech on the list of inactive Islanders’ defenders. The team also acquired Robert Bortuzzo via trade, adding to their depth on the back end.
Aho’s return gives New York a small boost. The 27-year-old defenseman has appeared in 19 games this season, netting four assists, six penalty minutes, and a -3. While Aho made his NHL debut in the 2017-18 season, it wasn’t until last year that he played in more than 40 games in one season. He totaled 23 points, 22 penalty minutes, and a +9 through 71 games in the 2022-23 season, ranking fourth among Islanders defenders in scoring.
Other notes from around the league:
- Washington Capitals winger Max Pacioretty took a full practice for the first time this season on Wednesday, taking a major step towards his return from an Achille’s tendon injury. Pacioretty was announced as still being two weeks away from a return on December 6th.
- New York Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette shared a handful of injury updates, noting that “nothing has changed” for centerman Filip Chytil (upper-body injury), Kaapo Kakko (lower-body injury) has yet to resume skating, and that he has no update on when K’Andre Miller (personal reasons) may return.
Jets Place Kyle Connor On IR, Recall Dominic Toninato
The Winnipeg Jets have placed top-scoring forward Kyle Connor on injured reserve with a knee injury. It was recently reported that Connor would be out for six to eight weeks, with the winger slated to undergo an MRI to discover the extent of his injury. Winnipeg has used an emergency recall to bring Dominic Toninato up to the NHL roster in light of Connor’s move to IR.
Connor has been a major focal piece of Winnipeg’s early season, with the winger tied for fourth in goals with 17 in 26 games. He’s also managed 11 assists, bringing him up to a team-high 28 points. With the 27-year-old out for an extended period, the Jets will need to look towards players like Mark Scheifele and Nikolaj Ehlers to carry additional weight. The team has also benefited from NHL sophomore Cole Perfetti, who currently has nine goals and 19 points in 27 games.
Toninato will serve as additional forward depth for the club, after scoring six points through his first nine AHL games this season. The 29-year-old centerman is in his fourth season with the Jets organization, serving as a go-to extra forward for the team. He appeared in one full season with the Jets in 2021-22, recording 14 points and 22 penalty minutes in 77 games. It was the first full season of Toninato’s career, after making his debut in the 2017-18 season. He’s also appeared in 64 games with Winnipeg’s AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose, scoring 24 goals and 45 points with the club. Toninato was originally drafted in the fifth round of the 2012 NHL Draft by the Toronto Maple Leafs and is appearing with his third NHL franchise in Winnipeg.