Blue Jackets Place Patrik Laine On Injured Reserve, Recall Brendan Gaunce
The Blue Jackets have placed forward Patrik Laine on injured reserve retroactive to December 14, per a team release. In a corresponding transaction, the team recalled forward Brendan Gaunce from AHL Cleveland under emergency conditions.
The team already announced Laine was expected to miss six weeks of action after sustaining a clavicle fracture in Thursday’s game against the Maple Leafs. The move does not change his timeline for a return and is purely for roster management purposes.
2023-24 is quickly becoming a season to forget for Laine. This is now the third time he’ll be held out of the lineup for an extended period of time this year, missing nine games near the beginning of the season with an upper-body injury and missing three games earlier this month due to illness. He was also made a healthy scratch for a game against the Flyers on November 19, bringing his absence total to 14 out of Columbus’ 32 games this season.
When in the lineup, Laine has been a shell of the near-point-per-game player he’s been over the last two seasons in Columbus. He’s scored just six goals and nine points in 18 games on the season, and his ice time has dipped to a career-low 15:13 per game under first-year head coach Pascal Vincent.
Gaunce comes up to the NHL on his first recall of the season. The 29-year-old minor-league veteran was in the later rounds of the Blue Jackets’ cuts from training camp and cleared waivers in early October.
The 2012 first-round pick does have over 150 games of NHL experience dating back to his debut with the Canucks in the 2015-16 campaign. He made a quick stop in Boston and spent one season overseas with the Swedish Hockey League’s Växjö Lakers before arriving in Columbus in 2021. Since then, he’s primarily served as a top-six option for Cleveland, racking up 61 points in 80 AHL games over the past three seasons. So far this season, he ranks third on the team in scoring, with six goals and 15 points in 24 games. Slated for unrestricted free agency next summer, Gaunce will serve as the team’s 13th forward for the time being and is unlikely to draw into the lineup tomorrow against the Sabres.
Bruins Loan Matthew Poitras To Team Canada For 2024 World Juniors
The Bruins have loaned rookie center Matthew Poitras to Team Canada for the upcoming 2024 IIHF World Junior Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, a team release states.
Poitras, 19, is a tremendous addition to a Canada roster that’s thinner on offense than we’re used to seeing. Canadiens prospect Owen Beck is the only returnee from last year’s group, which captured the gold medal thanks to one of the best single-tournament showings of all time from then-17-year-old Connor Bedard. The roster still features six recent first-round picks on offense and one future first-overall selection: 17-year-old Boston University center Macklin Celebrini, who is third in NCAA Division I men’s hockey in points per game.
When Hockey Canada announced the cuts from their preliminary roster last week, they left a spot open for one forward to join the team, hoping an NHL team would part with a rostered under-20 prospect. That spot will go to Poitras, the 54th overall pick in 2022, who few expected to crack the Bruins’ roster out of camp.
Poitras’ 13 points in 27 games rank eighth on the Bruins in scoring, although he’s seen a diminished role as the calendar shifted to December. Head coach Jim Montgomery has made Poitras a healthy scratch in two of the last five games after playing in all of Boston’s first 24 contests.
Still, given how well he fits into the Boston lineup, Poitras is expected to return to the Bruins after the tournament ends instead of being loaned out to his junior team, the OHL’s Guelph Storm. He’s averaged 14:06 per game this season for Boston, ranking seventh among their forwards and solidly positioning him in a top-nine role.
Assuming Canada advances to the medal games, Poitras will miss the Bruins’ next eight games at a minimum. The tournament wraps up on January 5, 2024, making him doubtful for the Bruins’ game against the Lightning on January 6, meaning at least a nine-game absence is most likely.
Blackhawks Place Joey Anderson On Injured Reserve
The Blackhawks placed winger Joey Anderson on injured reserve Monday morning, Tracey Myers of NHL.com reports. Anderson left Sunday’s loss to the Canucks with a left shoulder injury and did not return.
Anderson, 25, will miss at least seven days, although the team has not issued a specific timeline for his return to the lineup. He had played in 13 straight games since the Blackhawks recalled him from AHL Rockford in late November, recording five assists and a +5 rating while averaging 13:21 per game. His 55.8% Corsi share at even strength leads all Blackhawks players by a wide margin.
Chicago is already without two other regular forwards, Taylor Hall and Andreas Athanasiou, due to long-term injuries. Defensemen Seth Jones and Jarred Tinordi remain on injured reserve with shorter-term ailments.
It’s been a strong showing for a player tabbed as an NHL-AHL tweener, passing through waivers unclaimed at the beginning of the season. A third-round pick of the Devils in 2016, Anderson is now with his third NHL organization after spending parts of three seasons with the Maple Leafs. The Blackhawks acquired him from Toronto in February of last season in the Jake McCabe/Sam Lafferty trade and re-signed him to a one-year, two-way deal worth $800K in the NHL and $475K in the minors in June.
Before his recall, Anderson was off to a torrid start in Rockford, posting seven goals and 16 points through 14 games. While he’s been a strong minor-league producer since turning pro with the Devils in 2018, this is his first time producing above a point-per-game pace.
Now with 109 NHL games under his belt, Anderson is slowly approaching full-time depth NHLer status after playing a career-high 38 games last season for Toronto and Chicago. He’s likely to remain on the Blackhawks’ roster when he’s ready to return. As he’s played more than ten games since last clearing waivers, he must clear again if the Blackhawks attempt to return him to the minors.
Anderson will be a restricted free agent next summer. He is eligible for salary arbitration for the second straight season, although he avoided such a fate last summer by signing an early extension.
Jake Oettinger Out Week-To-Week With Lower-Body Injury
Stars starting netminder Jake Oettinger will be out of the lineup on a week-to-week basis with a lower-body injury sustained Friday against the Senators, head coach Peter DeBoer informed reporters Monday (via Lia Assimakopoulos of the Dallas Morning News).
Oettinger left the contest in the middle of the first period after making a non-malicious looking save on Senators winger Claude Giroux. He skated off the ice under his own power but did not travel with the team to St. Louis for their game against the Blues Saturday, forcing the Stars to sign former Niagara University backup Joe O’Brien to an amateur tryout to sit on the bench due to salary cap constraints. After playing a goalie short, Dallas released O’Brien yesterday and recalled Matt Murray from AHL Texas under emergency conditions.
Notably, the Stars have not said they intend to place Oettinger on long-term injured reserve. DeBoer said Oettinger’s tests were encouraging, and he’ll likely miss less than the ten-game and 28-day absence required for LTIR.
Oettinger, who turns 25 today, has largely avoided injury throughout his four-year, 160-game NHL career. The 2017 first-round selection missed four games with a lower-body injury early last season, but it didn’t impede him from setting career highs with 61 starts, 37 wins, a .919 SV%, and five shutouts en route to finishing fifth in Vezina Trophy voting. The Lakeville, Minnesota-born netminder failed to replicate his breakout regular season in Dallas’ run to the Western Conference Final, though, posting a subpar .895 SV% and 3.06 GAA in 19 starts as the Stars reached the final four for the second time in the last five seasons.
After putting up consistent above-average numbers in his first three campaigns, Oettinger is off to a significantly more tepid start in 2023-24. Through 21 starts, he has a mediocre .901 SV% and 2.93 GAA. His -1.5 goals saved above average is the first time he’s put up negatives in that stat in his career, and it’s a significant downgrade from the 26.1 goals saved above average he posted last season. With backup Scott Wedgewood posting similarly average numbers, their middle-of-the-pack goaltending is a big reason why the Stars sit 15th out of 32 teams in goals against.
Wedgewood will take the lion’s share of the starts until Oettinger is ready to return. The 31-year-old has a 6-1-2 record, .904 SV% and 3.24 GAA in nine appearances this season.
Dallas Stars Recall Matt Murray
The Dallas Stars have used an emergency recall to bring goaltender Matt Murray up to the NHL roster. This move comes after the team was forced to ice St. Louis’ emergency backup goalie, Joey O’Brien, as their backup when they faced the Blues on Saturday. Playing with O’Brien as backup on Saturday made the Stars eligible for an emergency recall.
Murray – who shares a name with a goaltender currently on the Toronto Maple Leafs’ long-term injured reserve – has appeared in 13 games this season with Dallas’ AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars. He’s managed an 8-4-1 record in those matchups, adding a .908 save percentage. The AHL’s Stars have been platooning Murray with 22-year-old Remi Poirier, who has a 6-3-2 record and .901 save percentage in 11 appearances of his own.
But, unlike Poirier, Murray has made his NHL debut, playing in three games for Dallas last season. He went 1-2-0 in the trio of games, saving 54 of a possible 64 shots for a .844 save percentage. Murray, now 25, signed with Dallas as an undrafted free agent after the end of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst’s 2021-22 campaign. The netminder had previously spent five seasons with the school, appearing in a total 121 games and setting a .916 save percentage. Murray has matched that save percentage through his first 53 career AHL games, after making his professional debut at the end of the 2021-22 season.
Murray will join Scott Wedgewood as Dallas’ goalie pair for the foreseeable future, with typical starter Jake Oettinger out with a lower-body injury and without a timeline to return. Oettinger abruptly left in the first period of team’s December 15th game and hasn’t played since.
Travis Boyd, Barrett Hayton Out Long-Term With Upper-Body Injuries
Forward Travis Boyd is worried to be done for the season after suffering what is believed to be a torn pectoral muscle, per Arizona Coyotes insider Craig Morgan on Sunday’s PHNX postgame show. Morgan also shared that Barrett Hayton has suffered a setback in his return from a hand injury and likely won’t return until early-February.
These are two big blows to a Coyotes roster that seemingly can’t get past the injury bug. Boyd and Hayton are joined by Sean Durzi and Vladislav Kolyachonok in missing games due to injury, with Durzi being the only one of the group not currently on injured reserve. Jason Zucker has also missed seven games through the early season.
Boyd loses his season after playing in 16 games and scoring eight points for the Coyotes’ fourth-line. The 30-year-old centerman has come into his own with Arizona, who he joined as an unrestricted free agent in 2021. Boyd has managed the two highest-scoring seasons of his career in his two years with the Yotes, scoring 35 points in 74 games in 2021-22 and 34 points in 82 games last season. He was on pace to maintain that scoring this year, despite seeing his average ice time plummet from 16:32 to just 9:37 between last season and this season. Over a seven year career, Boyd has totaled 296 NHL games and 118 points.
The Coyotes are also losing former-fifth overall selection Hayton for an extended period. The 23-year-old winger has also appeared in 16 games this season, scoring four points. It’s a step down from the career-high 43 points that Hayton managed in 82 games last season. Hayton spent most of his time this season playing alongside Nick Schmaltz and Clayton Keller, a role that has since been filled by rookie Logan Cooley or Zucker, when healthy.
Aaron Dell Joins Carolina On PTO Agreement
Goaltender Aaron Dell has joined the Carolina Hurricanes on a professional try-out contract. This moves comes after Carolina placed Antti Raanta on waivers and subsequently sent him to the AHL’s Chicago Wolves.
Dell hasn’t played yet this season, spending most of last year with the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda. He appeared in 38 games with the club, setting a 15-17-4 record and recording a .898 save percentage. Dell also received four NHL games last season – going 0-3-0 and stopping 94 of a possible 103 shots for a .913 save percentage. Now 34, Dell has become a prominent option for goaltending depth around the league, with Carolina set to become the fourth franchise that the netminder has suited up for.
Dell’s journey to the big leagues began at the University of North Dakota, where he played three seasons before setting his sights on pros. But his options were limited after going undrafted in the NHL Draft, with the goalie opting to move to the Allen Americans of the now-defunct Central Hockey League to kick off his pro career in 2012-13. Dell moved to the ECHL for the following season, playing well enough to warrant an AHL call-up mid-season and an invite to the San Jose Sharks’ training camp ahead of the 2014-15 season. Dell wouldn’t receive an NHL contract out of camp but, after continuing his strong performances in the minors, signed his first deal with the Sharks in March of 2015. He would receive his NHL debut in the 2016-17 season, a year where Dell played in 20 games and set a career-high .931 save percentage.
Now, eight seasons later, Dell will look to continue his NHL career in Carolina. The veteran pro has totaled 130 career NHL games, going 50-50-13 and recording a .905 save percentage.
What Your Team Is Thankful For: Los Angeles Kings
As the holiday season approaches, PHR will be taking a look at what teams are thankful for in 2023-24. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. We’ll examine what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the Los Angeles Kings.
Who are the Kings thankful for?
Playing on his sixth different team in as many seasons, the journeyman netminder signed on with Los Angeles as an unrestricted free agent on a one-year, $1MM contract. Believing at the time that Talbot would likely serve as a 1A or a 1B to fellow netminder, Pheonix Copley, Talbot has completely taken over the net for the Kings.
In 20 games played, Talbot holds a 13-5-2 record, as well as a .926 SV% and a 2.02 GAA. Furthermore, 12 of his 19 starts have been registered as Quality Starts according to HockeyReference, meaning he is beating the league average in save percentage in over 60% of his starts.
Last year, with an assortment of goaltenders including Copley, Jonathan Quick, Calvin Petersen, and Joonas Korpisalo, Los Angeles goaltenders were only able to achieve a collective save percentage of .892, before completely bottoming out in the 2022-23 Stanley Cup playoffs. Now with a steady presence between the pipes this season, Talbot has made a case for being the best-value contract signed this past summer.
What are the Kings thankful for?
Patience.
Although it feels more recent, the Kings are now a decade removed from their last Stanley Cup run and still retain two of their aging stars Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty, as well as Quick as recent as last season. Going through some lean seasons since then, Los Angeles has done a great job stockpiling young talent, to go on another run with their franchise legends. 
In the 2020 NHL Draft, the Kings selected forward Quinton Byfield as the second overall selection in the draft, and although he made his NHL debut a year later, Los Angeles demonstrated tremendous patience with Byfield’s development. From 2020-2023, Byfield played in a total of 99 games for the Kings, scoring eight goals and 33 points over that stretch.
Now, and still only 21 years old, Byfield is nearly a point-per-game player, scoring eight goals and 23 points in 27 games, nearly doubling his career totals in about a third of the number of games. Aside from Byfield, Los Angeles is using a similar method with Arthur Kaliyev, Jordan Spence, and Brandt Clarke, hoping to make the most out of every one of their draft selections.
What would the Kings be even more thankful for?
For Father Time to stay away.
As previously mentioned, the Kings are beginning to reap the benefits of many solid draft choices, and demonstrating the patience required to build a winning team through the draft. However, even all these years later, the team still primarily beats to the drum of Kopitar and Doughty.
Even though both franchise icons are in their mid-to-late 30s, Kopitar continues to lead the team in scoring, and Doughty leads all defensemen in scoring within the organization. Unfortunately, for the most part throughout the league and sports in general, Father Time remains undefeated and will ultimately claim Kopitar and Doughty as its victims.
When these two future Hall of Famers decide to call it quits, given their draft and prospect capital accrued over the last several years, Los Angeles should be pretty well set up for the future of the organization. Nevertheless, they would undoubtedly benefit from having these two as long as possible.
What should be on the Kings holiday wish list?
A potential coaching change.
During the Todd McLellan era of Kings history over the last five seasons, Los Angeles has only made the playoffs, losing in the first round each time. This season, with the team currently fifth in goals for per game, and the best team in goals against per game, this Kings team is the most well set up to get the job done this spring.
Reasonably assuming that Los Angeles will eventually make the playoffs for the third time in a row this spring if they are unable to make it out of the first round, there should be serious questions raised about the future of McLellan within the organization.
In 15 seasons spent as a head coach in the National Hockey League before this year, McLellan has coached his team to the playoffs in nine of those seasons, making it as far as the Western Conference Finals twice with the San Jose Sharks back in 2010 and 2011. This season, if they are going to make it to the Stanley Cup, they will most likely have to go through the defending Champions, the Vegas Golden Knights.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Metropolitan Notes: Andersen, Daws, Oshie
In some incredibly fortunate news for both the player and the organization, reports are confirming that goaltender for the Carolina Hurricanes, Frederik Andersen, has been medically cleared to resume skating, and is about one month away from a potential return (X Link). Andersen has been out for over a month and a half after the discovery of a blood clotting issue during medical testing.
Entering the season as a Stanley Cup favorite out of the Eastern Conference, Carolina’s goaltending carousel this season has been holding them back, as all three of Andersen, Antti Raanta, and Pyotr Kochetkov have a combined save percentage of .876 on the year. These issues have led the Hurricanes to make some tough decisions, most notably by sending Raanta through waivers for reassignment to the AHL, yesterday.
Only playing six games on the season up to this point, Andersen still holds a .894 SV% and a 2.87 GAA, the former still being the best on the team. Currently, Carolina is occupying the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, with only one point separating them from being on the outside looking in. If they hope to regain some momentum for the playoffs, they will need to reintroduce some stability in the crease.
Other notes:
- Already confirming he will serve as a backup tonight behind Akira Schmid, the New Jersey Devils announced they had recalled goaltender Nico Daws from their AHL affiliate, the Utica Comets. Team reporter, Amanda Stein, noted that goaltender Vitek Vanecek felt “off” physically during practice, and the team elected to keep him out of the lineup for the team’s matchup tonight against the Anaheim Ducks.
- The Washington Capitals announced veteran forward for the team, T.J. Oshie, would be out of the lineup tonight with a lower-body injury. The news comes after Oshie already missed 12 days with an upper-body injury a few weeks ago, returning for a four-game stretch in the meantime. Over the four games upon his return, Oshie has scored one goal and two points, averaging just over 16 minutes of ice time per game.
Los Angeles Kings Send Down Moverare, Place Copley On LTIR
Without much clarification as to the nature of the injury, reports emerged two days ago that goaltender for the Los Angeles Kings, Pheonix Copley left the team’s practice and had to be helped off the ice. Today, the Kings announced that they have placed Copley on the long-term injured reserve, and also loaned defenseman Jacob Moverare to their AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign.
Joining forward Viktor Arvidsson on the LTIR, the team will now have a touch over $2.5MM in current cap space, allowing them to comfortably carry David Rittich as the backup goaltender for the foreseeable future. After giving Los Angeles some much-needed stability in the net last season, the Kings rewarded Copley’s efforts with a one-year, $1.5MM extension for this year.
Largely serving as the team’s starting goaltender for much of last season, Copley had returned to the backup role this year, after being handily outplayed by free-agent acquisition, Cam Talbot. In eight starts this year, Copley carries a 4-1-2 record, coupled with a .870 SV% and a 3.16 GAA.
Comparatively, in somewhat of a night-and-day difference, Talbot leads the organization with 19 starts on the season, holding a 13-5-2 record, and impressively maintaining a .926 SV% and 2.02 GAA. With adequate depth in the crease throughout the entirety of the organization, the Kings should be able to weather the storm without Copley for the foreseeable future.
Also a part of the transaction this evening, Moverare is in his third season of being a depth defenseman for Los Angeles, typically finding himself in the AHL with Ontario. Last season being his most successful in the minor leagues, Moverare played in a total of 62 games for the Reign, scoring four goals and 26 points overall.
Although being used as a primary candidate for paper transactions coming out of the Kings organization this season, this will be Moverare’s eighth promotion and demotion of the year. Throughout his lengthy list of callups, Moverare has only suited up in two games for Los Angeles, failing to score a point after averaging 14 and a half minutes of ice time per night.