Oilers Loan Philip Broberg To Minors
The Edmonton Oilers have assigned defenseman Philip Broberg to the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors, per a team announcement issued Friday.
Broberg has played limited minutes this season, skating in eight games and averaging just 11:12 per game. He’s been held off the scoresheet entirely and has a -1 rating.
However, this isn’t necessarily a performance-based demotion. The Oilers are now without Connor Brown for tomorrow’s game against Nashville as he deals with an undisclosed injury, meaning they’ll need to recall a forward for Saturday’s contest. That won’t solve all their issues, however. The Oilers do not have cap space for two recalls after assigning Broberg to the minors, only one – meaning they’ll still likely roll with 11 forwards and six defenders against the Predators and play a skater short. Assigning Broberg to the minors allows them to carry a more traditional lineup than dressing only ten forwards and seven defensemen.
It’s another bump in the road for the Oilers, who have struggled mightily this season and sit sixth in the Pacific Division with a 2-6-1 record and just five points. They’re receiving poor goaltending from Jack Campbell and Stuart Skinner and receiving little to no depth scoring, with a handful of players in their bottom six still without a point on the season. They did receive a boost last night from Sam Gagner, however, who notched two goals in his first game in his third stint as an Oiler last night against Dallas. Gagner is projected to slide into the top six against Nashville on a line with Evander Kane and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
Broberg, in the meantime, will get some reps in the minors with Bakersfield and play heavier minutes. This assignment will likely last until one or both of the Oilers’ injured forwards, Brown and Mattias Janmark, are ready to return to game action.
Flames Place Jordan Oesterle On Waivers
Nov. 3: Oesterle has cleared waivers and can be assigned to AHL Calgary, Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic reports.
Nov. 2: Chris Johnston of TSN is reporting that the Calgary Flames have placed defenseman Jordan Oesterle on waivers. Oesterle recently joined the Flames organization this summer after finishing up a two-year contract signed with the Detroit Red Wings back in 2021.
Primarily being used as the team’s seventh defenseman, Oesterle would play in a few more games with Calgary due to the four-game suspension given to defenseman Rasmus Andersson over the last week. In four games this season, Oesterle has averaged a touch over 14 minutes of ice time a night, garnering a -2 rating with zero points.
It is unlikely that Oesterle will be claimed within the next 24 hours, but with an affordable cap hit, there are teams such as the Minnesota Wild, Philadelphia Flyers, and San Jose Sharks that could certainly use some short-term help on defense. At any rate, if he is claimed by tomorrow, it shouldn’t be an expectation that Oesterle’s current role with Calgary would change too much in a different organization.
Even with Oesterle’s cap hit being relatively affordable, and with the Flames now running with six defensemen on the active roster, with only $295K in salary cap space after LTIR usage, clearing $925K off of the books is imperative for Calgary for the time being. In the future, if the Flames wish to keep an extra defenseman on the team, there are players such as Colton Poolman and Nick DeSimone currently playing for their AHL affiliate, the Calgary Wranglers, who would provide short-term depth with even lower cap hits than Oesterle.
Columbus Blue Jackets Recall Yegor Chinakhov, Assign Kent Johnson To AHL
The Columbus Blue Jackets have recalled forward Yegor Chinakhov from the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters, per a team release issued Friday. In a corresponding transaction, the team has assigned forward Kent Johnson to Cleveland.
Chinakhov’s return from AHL assignment will likely result in his 2023-24 Blue Jackets debut tomorrow against the Capitals. The 2020 first-round pick missed a handful of games at the beginning of the season with a back injury sustained during training camp, and the Blue Jackets opted to assign him to the Monsters last week when he returned to health. Chinakhov, who signed a one-year, $800K deal to remain in Columbus last summer, had three goals and an assist in three games with Cleveland since returning from injury.
His next NHL game will be his first since December 19, 2022, when he sustained an ankle injury against the Stars that kept him out for multiple months. Expected to slide into a middle-six role on the wing, Chinakhov has 11 goals, 16 assists and 27 points in 92 NHL games dating back to his debut in the 2021-22 season. He has been extremely productive in limited action with AHL Cleveland, though, registering over a point per game.
This is disappointing for Johnson, however, who was selected fifth overall by Columbus just two years ago. He’s been given a reduced role by new head coach Pascal Vincent out of the gate, serving as a healthy scratch on two occasions and only averaging 12:43 when in the lineup, notching three points in eight games. That’s coming off the heels of a strong 16-goal, 40-point rookie season in 2022-23. Johnson has not done particularly well this season, however, with poor possession numbers backing up the dip in production. He’ll now head to the Monsters, off to a strong 5-2-0 start, and work toward regaining an everyday spot in the NHL lineup.
Anaheim Ducks Assign Alex Stalock, Tristan Luneau To AHL
The Anaheim Ducks have trimmed their roster by two, sending goaltender Alex Stalock and defenseman Tristan Luneau to the AHL’s San Diego Gulls. Luneau, 19, is not yet eligible for full-time assignment to the AHL and will play his first games for the Gulls on a conditioning stint.
Anaheim doesn’t suit up again until Sunday against the Golden Knights, so these moves could just be to get Stalock and Luneau some playing time in the minors over the next few days. The Ducks brought Stalock up to the NHL roster under emergency conditions on Wednesday after starter John Gibson exited Monday’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins with an upper-body injury. Listed as day-to-day, Gibson remains on the active roster but did not dress for Wednesday’s overtime win over the Arizona Coyotes.
Stalock, 36, signed a one-year deal worth $800K in the offseason to provide depth and competition for the backup role behind Gibson with youngster Lukáš Dostál. Dostál won the job in camp, however, and he hasn’t looked back. The 23-year-old was named the NHL’s Rookie of the Month for October and has posted a 5-1-0 record in six appearances, boasting an exemplary .920 SV%, although he’s still looking for his first NHL shutout.
The veteran Stalock has battled back from multiple severe injuries in the past few years, including complications from long COVID and a severe concussion sustained last season while playing with the Chicago Blackhawks. Selected by the San Jose Sharks in the fourth round of the 2005 NHL Draft, Stalock has a 2.74 GAA, .919 SV% and a 1-2-0 record in three appearances with the Gulls this season.
Luneau, who projects as a fixture on the Ducks’ power play for years to come, made the team out of camp after signing his entry-level contract in September. After recording 83 points in 65 games with the QMJHL’s Gatineau Olympiques last season, he’s been a healthy scratch in eight of ten games with the Ducks and hasn’t played since October 21 against Arizona. He can head to San Diego for a maximum of two weeks and five games, after which he must be recalled to the Ducks or returned to Gatineau.
Sabres Recall Lukáš Rousek, Place Zach Benson On IR
Nov. 3: Buffalo has now moved Benson to IR to accommodate Rousek making his 2023-24 Sabres debut tonight against Philadelphia, Joe Yerdon of Bleacher Report notes.
Nov. 2: The Buffalo Sabres have recalled forward Lukáš Rousek from the AHL’s Rochester Americans, per a team announcement Thursday.
Buffalo currently has a full 23-man roster, so a corresponding transaction needs to be made along with the recall. This will likely be moving rookie winger Zach Benson to IR. The 18-year-old is listed as week-to-week with a lower-body injury and missed the team’s last contest, a Wednesday night win against the Flyers.
The Sabres are slated for a rematch with the Flyers at home on Friday. Rousek, 24, could be an option to slide into the lineup if winger Alex Tuch is unavailable to play. He was absent from practice today due to a maintenance day, Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News reports. The team also has Swedish winger Victor Olofsson available, although he’s been a healthy scratch in four out of ten games this season and remains without a point in 2023-24.
This is the fourth NHL call-up for Rousek, who was brought up three times on emergency and standard recalls near the end of last season. He made two appearances, notching a goal and an assist on three shots and a +2 rating. A sixth-round pick of the Sabres in 2019, Rousek is off to another strong start with AHL Rochester after posting strong totals in his first full minor-league campaign last year. He’s notched two goals and four assists for six points and a -3 rating in eight games this season, including a multi-point effort against Laval last week.
New York Rangers Recall Jonny Brodzinski
The New York Rangers recalled forward Jonny Brodzinski from the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack on Friday, according to a team announcement.
Brodzinski’s recall comes after the Rangers lost defenseman Adam Fox and center Filip Chytil to injuries in yesterday’s win over the Carolina Hurricanes. Chytil left the contest with an upper-body injury after colliding with Hurricanes forward Jesper Fast and did not return. The 24-year-old Czech had been elevated to top-six duties, centering a line with Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafrenière. He had six assists through ten games while averaging nearly 16 minutes per game.
The Rangers already had an extra forward on the roster that could draw into the lineup, Tyler Pitlick, but he’s been a healthy scratch for eight out of ten games this season. Unlike Pitlick, Brodzinski is a natural center – the position at which the Rangers will need some depth with Chytil sidelined.
The team has not issued a timeline for Chytil’s return to the lineup, nor have they confirmed that he’ll miss time. However, recalling Brodzinski certainly isn’t a good sign for his availability for Saturday’s game against the Minnesota Wild.
Brodzinski, 30, serves as the Wolf Pack’s captain and leads the team in scoring with six goals and 11 points in seven contests. His four years with the Rangers organization have been spent mainly in Hartford, although he has made 44 NHL appearances in that time, recording five points.
It’s his time in the minors that’s borne the most fruit, however. The minor-league mainstay has notched over a point per game in all four of his campaigns with Hartford, including this season, and has 253 points in 304 career AHL games since turning pro in 2015.
The Minnesota-born center has also spent time with the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks organizations, amassing 17 points in 101 career NHL games. He was initially a Kings draft selection, taken 148th overall in the 2013 NHL Draft.
Flames Recall Martin Pospisil, Assign Matthew Coronato To AHL
The Flames recalled forward Martin Pospisil from the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers on Friday, a team release states. To make room on the 23-man roster, the team assigned rookie winger Matthew Coronato to the Wranglers.
This is the first NHL call-up for the 23-year-old Pospisil. The Slovak winger could make his NHL debut Saturday against the Kraken if Dillon Dubé is not ready to return from an undisclosed injury. Dubé, who missed Monday’s game against the Stars, has a goal and two assists through nine games and has a -10 rating, the third-worst on the team.
For Pospisil, this is an excellent opportunity after a solid start to his season in the minors. Selected 105th overall in the 2018 NHL Draft, Pospisil currently ranks second on the Wranglers in goals with three and has added a trio of assists for six points in six games. Injuries sidelined him for most of last season, as he only got into 20 games with the Wranglers, recording ten points. Since turning pro in 2019, the bruising, 6-foot-2 winger has notched 22 goals and 40 assists for 62 points in 113 AHL games.
Pospisil signed a one-year, two-way deal worth $775K in the NHL and $90K in the AHL to remain a Flame in July. He’s on his second consecutive one-year deal after his entry-level contract expired in 2022. He’ll be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights next summer and will be due a qualifying offer of $813,750.
Meanwhile, Coronato gets a shot to play significant minutes in the AHL after seeing his minutes dwindle throughout the first ten games of the season. Calgary’s first-round pick in 2021 has a goal and an assist in 13:53 of ice time per game, which should increase to nearly 20 minutes with the Wranglers.
At even strength, the numbers weren’t pretty for Coronato – he was on the ice for just one goal for and nine goals against. That doesn’t tell the whole story, though – his teammates’ on-ice shooting percentage was just 1.9%, and his on-ice save percentage was just .858% – numbers well below the team averages of 5.2% and .887%, respectively.
Flyers List Sean Couturier, Carter Hart As Day-To-Day
Flyers forward Sean Couturier is out day-to-day with a lower-body injury, while netminder Carter Hart is out day-to-day with a mid-body injury, per an announcement from the team Friday morning.
Hart’s injury, aggravated in Wednesday night’s loss to the Sabres, was previously reported but was expected to be longer-term. An official injury designation of day-to-day from the team suggests it may not be as severe as Crossing Broad’s Anthony SanFilippo reported yesterday.
That’s good news for the Flyers, who have cooled off after a hot start and now sit seventh in the Metropolitan Division with a 4-5-1 record. Hart’s play this season has been strong, recording a .913 SV%, 2.52 GAA, and one shutout. He’s on track to have his second straight season above league average after back-to-back disappointing campaigns in 2020-21 and 2021-22.
The Flyers’ goaltending options behind Hart leave much to be desired. Hopes were high for 24-year-old Samuel Ersson entering the season after a strong campaign in the starter’s net for AHL Lehigh Valley, but he hasn’t been up to the task thus far. In two starts, the Swedish netminder has allowed 14 goals on just 59 shots, resulting in a ghastly .763 SV% and 4.91 GAA. Third-string netminder Felix Sandström, who made the Flyers out of camp, had a 3-12-3 record and .880 SV% in 18 starts last season and is currently on a conditioning loan to Lehigh Valley. 29-year-old veteran Calvin Petersen, recalled yesterday to serve as Ersson’s backup while Hart is injured, has just a .884 save percentage in four games with Lehigh Valley to kick off 2023-24.
Meanwhile, more injury trouble is not a positive for Couturier, who’s missed practices this season with a lower-body ailment. It’s unclear whether this is a different injury or a reaggravation of the one that’s been bothering him, but it is a sigh of relief that it’s not related to the back issues that kept him out for the better part of two seasons between 2021 and 2023.
Couturier has been among the Flyers’ best players so far, and the 31-year-old looks like he’s barely missed a step despite playing in just 39 of 174 games since the 2021-22 season began. He hasn’t missed any action this year and ranks fourth on the team in scoring, with two goals, six assists and eight points. Averaging 19:32 per game (which leads all Flyers forwards), he’s sporting a 51% win rate on draws and boasts a Corsi share of 54.7% at even strength.
Notably, Couturier’s injury leaves the Flyers without any healthy scratches on the active roster for tonight’s rematch against the Sabres. It’s unclear who will replace Couturier’s spot on the top line between Owen Tippett and Cam Atkinson. Shutdown center Noah Cates, who has a goal and three assists in ten contests this year, ranks second among Flyers centers in average ice time with 16:02 and seems like the closest chemistry fit for Couturier’s role. That means Scott Laughton could slide back into a third-line position centering Joel Farabee and Bobby Brink, while Ryan Poehling will re-enter the lineup and center the fourth line after serving as a healthy scratch for the last two games.
Poll: When Will The Sharks Win Their First Game?
To say the San Jose Sharks have been the worst team in the league through ten games would be an understatement. Expectations for the 2023-24 iteration of the squad were low, but the team is on the verge of making history with a 0-9-1 record through ten contests. Two more losses would put them in second place all-time among winless streaks to start a season, trailing only the 1943-44 New York Rangers, who went 15 games without a win.
The numbers behind it aren’t pretty, either. They’ve scored just ten goals, four less than the 31st-ranked St. Louis Blues offense, who have played two fewer games. Through ten games, the Sharks also have a lowly goals-for percentage of 17% at five-on-five – worse than the worst team in NHL history, the 1974-75 Washington Capitals, who controlled 30% of goals at five-on-five through their first ten contests.
Obviously, some positive regression is bound to come offensively. The team is shooting at just 2.9% collectively at five-on-five, far below the 7.7% league average. Their goaltending had helped matters somewhat, although conceding ten goals to the Canucks last night took a significant bite out of both Mackenzie Blackwood‘s and Kaapo Kähkönen‘s save percentages. They’re controlling 40.6% of expected goals at five-on-five (per MoneyPuck), still the worst in the NHL but significantly higher than their actual rate of 17%.
All of this is to say the Sharks are absolutely a slam-dunk pick to finish 32nd in the league at season’s end, but the points will likely start coming soon for players like Tomáš Hertl, Luke Kunin, Mario Ferraro, and Fabian Zetterlund, who all rank top four on the team in shots at the moment. There’s no telling when that positive regression will occur, however, and the clock will keep ticking on perhaps the worst start to a season in NHL history.
With all that in mind, when do you think the Sharks will log their first two points of the 2023-24 season? Vote in the poll below:
When Will The Sharks Win A Game?
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Later 24% (137)
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11/07/23 vs. Philadelphia (4-5-1) 23% (129)
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11/09/23 vs. Edmonton (2-6-1) 21% (117)
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11/04/23 vs. Pittsburgh (3-6-0) 20% (111)
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11/12/23 vs. Anaheim (6-4-0) 7% (42)
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11/10/23 vs. Vegas (10-0-1) 5% (31)
Total votes: 567
If you can’t access the embedded poll, click here to vote.
Injury Notes: Liljegren, Chytil, Senators
The Toronto Maple Leafs have tweeted that defenseman Timothy Liljegren has left tonight’s game against the Boston Bruins and won’t be returning. It is the second time in less than a week that the 24-year-old has had to leave a game with an injury as he was forced to exit a game last week against the Nashville Predators with what was described as an upper body injury.
Liljegren’s injury tonight is being called a lower body injury, but it appears likely it is something in his foot or ankle. The injury happened in the dying moments of the first period as Liljegren and forward Brad Marchand of the Bruins were skating towards the corner and engaging in a puck battle. Marchand appears to give Liljegren the can opener before the Maple Leafs defenseman goes awkwardly into the boards. The move from Marchand was essentially a trip as he appeared to put his stick between Liljegren’s legs and force him to the ice. Liljegren’s skates then smashed into the end boards, likely causing his injury.
In other injury notes:
- Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet is reporting that New York Rangers forward Filip Chytil is done for tonight’s game after colliding with Carolina Hurricanes forward Jesper Fast in the first period of the matchup this evening. Chytil left with what is being described as an upper-body injury and was last seen on the Rangers bench in obvious pain before leaving the game. The 24-year-old center has six assists in nine games this season and has been working primarily as the team’s second-line center. Should he be out for any period it is likely that Vincent Trocheck was moved up to the second line in his absence.
- The Ottawa Senators have tweeted that young forward Ridly Greig left tonight’s game against the Los Angeles Kings with a lower-body injury and did not return. The news was similar for Greig’s teammate Mark Kastelic who also suffered a lower-body injury and was unable to get back onto the ice. Senators coach D.J. Smith offered an update on both players that was covered by Murray Pam of Full Press Hockey. Smith said that he figures both Greig and Kastelic will miss a few games due to their ailments. Greig has been filling in admirably for the suspended Shane Pinto and has registered two goals and five assists in eight games while Kastelic has no points and 21 PIM in eight games this year. Given the Senators’ predicament, it does seem likely that the team will have to recall some players from the Belleville Senators of the AHL.