San Jose Sharks Reassign Oskar Lindblom
The San Jose Sharks have reassigned forward Oskar Lindblom to their AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda. In order to complete this reassignment, Lindblom was activated off of injured reserve, where he had been placed during his recovery from a lower-body injury.
Lindblom has been out of commission since a November 10th contest against the Vegas Golden Knights. The 27-year-old former 17-goal scorer has struggled since signing a $2.5MM AAV contract with the Sharks.
He spent all of last season in San Jose, skating in 73 NHL games for the club. Lindblom only managed to put together six goals and 15 points in that span, though, and entering 2023-24 his grip on a regular job in the Sharks’ forward corps was shaky.
He ultimately could not secure a regular role in head coach David Quinn’s lineup for 2023-24, and began the season in the minors. He’s now set to return to the Barracuda, who he scored two points in eight games with earlier this season. Lindblom does have some demonstrated production in the AHL level, as he scored 16 goals and 34 points in his last extended stint in the AHL.
If the 2020-21 Bill Masterton Trophy winner can manage to have that sort of season in 2023-24, that would certainly help the Barracuda. San Jose’s AHL affiliate are currently 27th in the AHL with an 8-11-4 record, and have not reached the postseason since 2020-21.
Vegas Golden Knights Recall Jonas Røndbjerg, Jiří Patera
The Vegas Golden Knights have recalled forward Jonas Røndbjerg and goalie Jiří Patera in advance of their game tomorrow against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Additionally, Sin Bin Vegas reports that defenseman Kaedan Korczak has been placed on injured reserve. Korczak suffered a lower-body injury in the Golden Knights’ game on December 10th, and has not played since. Korczak has played in 15 games this season and has scored seven points, averaging 16:29 time-on-ice per game.
Røndbjerg last played in the NHL on November 14th, while Patera got the start in the Golden Knights’ victory over the San Jose Sharks a little over a week ago. Patera was actually reassigned to Vegas’ AHL affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights, late last night, but today’s move has reversed that original decision.
Save for his one start against the Sharks, Patera has spent the year as the number-one goalie in Henderson. He’s currently sporting a 6-6-2 record with a .900 save percentage. Last season, he played 31 games with the Silver Knights and went 14-15-1 with a .911 save percentage. He’s now relatively established as Vegas’ third goalie, and will fill in on the NHL roster whenever a member of the team’s Adin Hill – Logan Thompson tandem is unavailable.
Røndbjerg is the team’s call-up at the forward position, and he’s a relatively experienced depth player for the Golden Knights. He has 49 career NHL games on his resume, all coming with Vegas over the last three seasons. The six-foot-two, 200-pound Danish forward has experience playing both center and the wing, though he has been preferred as a winger at the NHL level. He’s been a solid scorer at the AHL level (he has 11 points in 16 games this season) and has contributed offense sporadically in the NHL. So far this season, he has three points in six NHL games.
Sin Bin Vegas has indicated that forward Keegan Kolesar “may be ailing,” and therefore may be the player Røndbjerg replaces in the lineup if he does indeed dress for a game. That’s not an official confirmation of any unavailability for Kolesar, though, and it’s worth noting that the 11:19 time-on-ice he registered in last night’s game is right around his average ice time on the year.
Metropolitan Notes: Penguins, Sanheim, Svechnikov, Wahlstrom
The Pittsburgh Penguins tweeted today that forwards Rickard Rakell, Noel Acciari, as well as defenseman Chad Ruhwedel will all be game-time decisions when the Pittsburgh Penguins take on the Minnesota Wild this evening. The news was announced by Pittsburgh head coach Mike Sullivan who has been trying to manage a litany of injuries up and down the Penguins lineup.
Pittsburgh has been mired in a cycle of inconsistent and sloppy play that has been a constant throughout the first third of the NHL season. They are currently sitting in seventh place in the Metropolitan division and are five points out of a wild card position.
The Penguins put forward Bryan Rust on IR just a few days ago, which left them with two big holes in their top 6, however, with the potential return of Rakell it seems likely that he will have an opportunity to fill one of those holes. Rakell has been practicing on a line with Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel and given his history with the duo it seems likely he return to that spot either tonight or later this week.
Acciari had been centering the Penguins’ fourth line before his injury and seems likely to take up that spot if and when he does return, while Ruhwedel will likely get a look on the Penguins’ third defensive pairing, presumably with youngster John Ludvig who has emerged on the backend for Pittsburgh in recent weeks.
In other Metropolitan Division notes:
- Kevin Kurz of The Athletic is reporting that Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim was back at practice today and should be good for tomorrow night’s game against the New Jersey Devils. Sanheim was dealing with an undisclosed illness and missed Saturday’s game against the Detroit Red Wings. The 27-year-old had been heating up before getting sick as he had posted two goals and three assists in his previous five games. Sanheim has been a huge part of the Flyers’ surprising start to the season as his 21 points in 29 games has him second in team scoring behind Travis Konecny.
- Carolina Hurricanes reporter Walt Ruff is reporting that Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov was a full participant in today’s practice and even was seen taking power play reps with the team. Ruff goes on to add that the 23-year-old could be back in the lineup as soon as tomorrow night against the Vegas Golden Knights. Svechnikov has missed the last six games with an upper-body injury and struggled the week prior to getting hurt. On the season, the former second-overall pick has just a single goal in 16 games, although he does have 10 assists as well. Carolina has underperformed so far this season but currently sits in the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Getting Svechnikov healthy and productive once again could be a big boost for Carolina as they close in on the mid-way point of the season.
- Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News is reporting that New York Islanders forward Oliver Wahlstrom missed practice today with an illness. The 23-year-old was unlikely to play in tomorrow night’s game even if healthy as he has been a healthy scratch for the Islanders in seven straight games. Wahlstrom has just two goals and three assists in 17 games this season and has been averaging less than 12 minutes of ice time a game when he has been in the lineup.
Washington Capitals Loan Joe Snively To AHL Affiliate
The Washington Capitals announced today that they are returning forward Joe Snively to their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate the Hershey Bears. It was the second move of the day by Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan after the team placed Lucas Johansen on waivers earlier today.
The 27-year-old Snively dressed in three games during his recent recall and didn’t register a point during that time. It was the third season in a row that Snively has received an NHL recall as he has played in 27 NHL games over the past two and a half seasons. To this point in his NHL career the native of Herndon, Virginia has six goals and five assists.
This most recent recall didn’t go particularly well for Snively as he struggled to drive play and found himself sheltered by the coaching staff as he received the bulk of his shift starts in the offensive zone. He played just 5:43 in Washington’s 2-1 shootout win against the Carolina Hurricanes last night.
In the AHL Snively has been a strong offensive contributor having registered 134 points in 176 career AHL games. This season with the Bears, the undersized forward has posted seven goals and 14 assists in 25 games.
Snively might not have had a particularly good showing during this recall, but he will likely remain one of the Capitals’ better options should they need to recall a forward later in the season.
Ducks Recall Calle Clang, John Gibson To Non-Roster
The Anaheim Ducks have announced the recall of goaltender Calle Clang from the San Diego Gulls of the AHL. The move comes as former all-star netminder John Gibson was moved to the Non-Roster to attend to the birth of his child.
The 21-year-old Clang is in his second season with San Diego after dressing in five games last year. This season has been ripe with learning as the native of Olofström, Sweden has struggled through 12 games, posting a 3.76 goals-against average to go along with a 2-7-2 record and a .882 save percentage. Despite the slow start to his professional career in North America, Clang remains a promising young prospect within the Ducks organization. He was originally a third-round pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins back in the 2020 NHL entry draft and was the central piece of the Rickard Rakell trade with the Penguins back in March 2022. The deadline deal saw Rakell head to Pittsburgh in exchange for Clang, Zach Aston-Reese, Dominik Simon and a 2022 second-round selection (Tristan Luneau).
Gibson dressed last night in the Ducks 5-1 win over the New Jersey Devils and left the game in the second period after stopping 18 of 19 shots. No word on what caused him to leave, but the Ducks are back in action tonight as they take on the Detroit Red Wings. With Gibson headed back home to celebrate the birth of his child, Clang will likely serve as the backup tonight as the Ducks look to keep it going after snapping their five-game losing streak last night.
Washington Capitals Waive Lucas Johansen
12/19: Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman confirms that Johansen has cleared waivers, and may now be sent down to Hershey.
12/18: The Washington Capitals have placed defenseman Lucas Johansen on waivers. The 26-year-old has played in six games with Washington this season, recording one assist, four penalty minutes, and a +1.
Johansen made the Capitals roster out of training camp, his first time spending all season with the top club. He spent most of last season with the AHL’s Hershey Bears where he recorded one goal, seven points, and a -5 through 40 games. He also received a pair of NHL games, although he failed to make any changes to his stat-line. Johansen did however manage to record one assist in his NHL debut in the 2021-22 season, although the defenseman is still searching for his first NHL goal. The Capitals drafted Johansen 28th-overall in the 2016 NHL Draft, taking him ahead of a Second Round that has since produced 10 different players who have played in 200-or-more NHL games, including standout names like Alex DeBrincat, Samuel Girard, and Carter Hart.
Johansen going on waivers opens the door for the Capitals to sign Ethan Bear. Bear has been a popular free agent after returning from a shoulder injury suffered during the 2023 IIHF World Hockey Championship. Bear would require surgery, keeping him from signing a new contract despite being an unrestricted free agent throughout the summer. The 26-year-old defenseman appeared in 61 games with the Vancouver Canucks last season, recording 16 points, 25 penalty minutes, and a +6. The Capitals will become the fourth franchise that Bear has played for, if he signs with them, after also spending seasons with the Carolina Hurricanes and Edmonton Oilers.
Pittsburgh Penguins Place Ryan Shea On Waivers
12/19: Shea has cleared waivers according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, and may now be assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
12/18: The Pittsburgh Penguins have placed defenseman Ryan Shea on waivers. Shea has appeared in 22 games with the club this season but is still searching for his first point of the year. The only changes to his stat line have been six penalty minutes and a -2.
This is Shea’s first season in the NHL, although he’s still three games shy of it officially being his rookie year. The 26-year-old defender has spent the last three seasons with the AHL’s Texas Stars, where he consistently ranked as one of the team’s top-scoring defensemen. This includes when he scored 28 points in 70 AHL games last year, ranking behind Will Butcher, Thomas Harley, and Ben Gleason. Shea joined the Penguins organization this summer, signing a one-year, $775K contract with the team on July 1st. He was originally drafted with the last pick of the fourth round in the 2015 NHL Draft by the Chicago Blackhawks. He was picked one pick after Mathieu Joseph and two picks ahead of Conor Garland, both players that now rank in the top 32 of the 2015 draft class in terms of NHL games played.
The Penguins were bound to have to cut ties with one defenseman, as veteran Chad Ruhwedel is slated to return from a lower-body injury that had the defender placed on injured reserve. Ruhwedel has missed the team’s last 12 games, serving as a healthy scratch for the foremost one. He’s scored one assist in the 15 games that he has appeared in, adding two penalty minutes and a -3. Ruhwedel is in his eighth season with the Penguins and the 12th season of his NHL career.
Senators Fire D.J. Smith, Name Jacques Martin Interim Head Coach
The Ottawa Senators relieved head coach D.J. Smith of his duties Monday, per a team announcement. Jacques Martin will take over as the team’s interim head coach, while longtime Senators winger Daniel Alfredsson will step into an assistant coaching role on Martin’s staff. Assistant coach Davis Payne was also relieved of his duties.
The news is far from unexpected after an 11-15-0 start to the season put Ottawa on track to miss the playoffs for the seventh straight season. After beating the division rival Red Wings 5-1 on December 9, the Senators dropped four consecutive games, all in regulation, and allowed at least four goals in all those losses.
While the team has received below-average goaltending from their tandem of Joonas Korpisalo and Anton Forsberg, their possession numbers don’t suggest they should be in the playoff picture, either. The team has controlled under 50% of Corsi events, scoring chances, and high-danger chances at five-on-five – disappointing metrics for a team with a supposedly reformed top-six forward group and top-six defense core set to take them to the postseason.
However, those at the top of the lineup aren’t to blame for the Senators’ struggles. Perhaps no team in the league has had a more prominent dichotomy between the performance of their stars and the performance of their depth players this season than the Senators, who have received spectacular two-way play from players like Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stützle, Thomas Chabot (when healthy), Joshua Norris, Jake Sanderson, and Artem Zub. However, nearly all their depth skaters have been significant liabilities, and their overall defensive structure has been prone to visible, unforgivable lapses in their own zone.
So ends a disappointing tenure for Smith, who ends his first NHL head-coaching role after parts of five seasons and 317 games behind the Ottawa bench. That made him one of the longest-tenured bench bosses in the league before today’s news.
Ottawa brought on Smith in 2019 after parting ways with Guy Boucher just two seasons after the latter led them to double overtime in Game 7 of the 2017 Eastern Conference Final against the eventual Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins. While some of his tenure was during a designed rebuild, Smith’s record isn’t pretty – 131-154-32, or a .464 points percentage, never guiding the Senators to a division finish higher than sixth place. Despite investing in acquiring talent over the past few summers, the team hasn’t shown any signs of life of becoming a playoff contender under Smith.
The 46-year-old had spent four seasons as an assistant coach for the Maple Leafs before taking the job in Ottawa. It seems likely an assistant role is what’s next for Smith if he wants to stay behind an NHL bench. He becomes the fourth head coach to be fired in-season, joining the Blues’ Craig Berube, the Wild’s Dean Evason, and the Oilers’ Jay Woodcroft.
Payne, 53, joined the Senators’ bench as an assistant along with Smith in 2019. Briefly the head coach of the Blues in the early 2010s, Payne lifted the Stanley Cup in 2014 while serving as an assistant with the Kings.
It’s both nostalgic and peculiar to see the Senators pivot back to Martin behind the bench, who previously served as their head coach from 1996 to 2004 and remains the franchise’s all-time leader in games coached. The 71-year-old last served behind an NHL bench in 2020-21 as an assistant with the Rangers and was last a head coach over a decade ago with the Canadiens in 2011-12. He rejoined the Senators organization earlier this month in a senior advisor role after holding the same position with the OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs since 2022.
When Martin was behind the bench last in Ottawa, its leading scorer was a 25-year-old Marián Hossa. Just behind him was Alfredsson, the franchise’s all-time leader in points, who will now work closely with his longtime bench boss to help quickly turn their season around.
The Senators are getting significant experience in Martin, who’s coached nearly 1,300 NHL games for the Senators, Canadiens, Blues, and Panthers. Throughout his nine seasons in Ottawa, Martin only missed the playoffs once in his first year behind the bench, guiding them to their first sustained period of success after they were brought into the league in the 1992-93 season.
This is the 51-year-old Alfredsson’s first chance to show what he can do behind an NHL bench. The team hired Alfredsson earlier this season as a development coach after Michael Andlauer assumed ownership of the team, marking his first time being employed by the Senators since serving as an advisor between 2015 and 2017. Ottawa’s captain from 1999 to 2013 remains their all-time leader in goals (426), assists (682) and points (1,108).
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Sabres Place Jacob Bryson On Waivers
12/19: Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that Bryson has cleared waivers, and may now be freely optioned to Rochester.
12/18: The Sabres placed defenseman Jacob Bryson on waivers for the purpose of assignment to AHL Rochester on Monday, Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic reports. The move is likely a precursor to the Sabres activating winger Jack Quinn off injured reserve before tomorrow’s game against the Blue Jackets, as head coach Don Granato said earlier today he’s an option to make his season debut after rehabbing an offseason Achilles injury (via Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald).
Bryson, 26, has remained on the Sabres’ roster all season but has been a healthy scratch for all but three games, last suiting up on November 4 against the Maple Leafs. He’s since been a healthy scratch in 20 straight games.
With a significant $1.85MM cap hit, there are unlikely to be any takers for Bryson, so he should clear without issue and head to Rochester tomorrow. He’s in the final season of a two-year, $3.7MM extension signed in 2022 and is eligible for salary arbitration next summer. However, it seems unlikely at this stage that the Sabres will opt to retain his rights – with a $1.9MM qualifying offer due, Bryson is an obvious non-tender candidate and could find himself on the open market as a UFA next summer.
When in the lineup, Bryson has barely played, sometimes dressing as a seventh defenseman. He averaged just 9:26 through his three appearances with the Sabres and was held off the scoresheet, posting a -1 rating.
It’s been difficult for Bryson since his extension platform year of 2021-22 when he played a career-high 73 games and averaged significant minutes for the Sabres while being one of their better possession-controlling defenders. His defensive game has lapsed significantly over the past two seasons, however, and the 2017 fourth-round pick now finds himself on the fringes of an NHL job.
If he clears waivers and heads to Rochester, it will be Bryson’s first AHL games since the 2020-21 campaign.
Red Wings Activate Dylan Larkin
12:51 p.m.: Detroit made the transaction official Monday afternoon. To create space on the active roster, the team assigned forward Austin Czarnik to AHL Grand Rapids.
10:38 a.m.: The Red Wings will activate captain Dylan Larkin off injured reserve before tonight’s game against the Ducks, head coach Derek Lalonde said Monday morning.
Larkin landed on injured reserve last Monday with a head injury sustained on December 9 against the Senators. The 27-year-old center took a cross-check from Senators winger Mathieu Joseph during a net-front scrum late in the first period and was briefly unconscious on the ice.
Thankfully, Larkin didn’t sustain a severe injury on the play and is ready to return to game action just over a week after the incident. However, Detroit is still without winger David Perron, who has two games left to serve in a six-game suspension assessed for cross-checking Senators defenseman Artem Zub in retaliation after Larkin went down. Perron will be eligible to return for this Friday’s game against the Flyers.
Larkin’s return comes at a crucial time for the Red Wings. The team went 1-3-0 in their captain’s absence and has undone most of the standings gain created by a late November hot streak. Their 15-11-4 record is a .567 points percentage, which still puts them fourth in the Atlantic Division but behind the Islanders (.600) and Devils (.569) for the two Wild Card spots in the Eastern Conference.
The Waterford, Michigan-born center remains the only point-per-game player on the roster and has 11 goals and 14 assists through 24 contests, leading Red Wings forwards by averaging 19:24 per contest and winning a team-high 52.7% of faceoffs. His 52.8% Corsi share at even strength is the highest among any Red Wings forward to suit up this season.
Tonight marks the second full game with both Larkin and Patrick Kane in the Red Wings lineup. Kane’s Detroit debut came December 7 against the Sharks, Larkin’s last full game before exiting with injury. The two are expected to be linemates tonight, with 23-year-old Joe Veleno riding shotgun at left wing.
Larkin is in the first season of an eight-year, $69.6MM extension with trade protection inked last March. His 462 career points in 608 games rank 18th in Red Wings franchise history.