East Notes: Anderson, Stamkos, Guhle, Samuelsson, Bonino
The Ottawa Senators are expected to sign free agent netminder Craig Anderson to a one-day contract to officially retire as a Sen, TSN’s Darren Dreger reports Thursday morning. It will likely come Tuesday, October 24, when the Senators host the Sabres, Anderson’s most recent team.
Anderson is arguably the best netminder in Senators history and certainly the longest-serving starter. After coming over via trade from the Avalanche in 2011, Anderson would go on to record a 202-168-46 record, a .914 save percentage and 28 shutouts in 422 starts and 13 relief appearances. He’s most remembered from the team’s storybook 2016-17 campaign when Anderson returned from a lengthy leave of absence to be with his wife, Nicholle, who was battling cancer. He recorded a sparkling .922 save percentage in the postseason as he guided the Sens to the Eastern Conference Final, losing to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins in overtime in Game 7.
He departed the Sens in free agency in 2020, serving as the Capitals’ taxi squad netminder for the COVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign before heading to the Sabres for the final two seasons of his 20-year, 709-game career. While there was never an official announcement, it became clear at the end of last season that Anderson would not return for a 21st year. PHR wishes him and his family the best in his post-playing career and looks forward to providing more coverage of Anderson’s career when an official announcement is made.
Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference today:
- Lightning captain Steven Stamkos told reporters today he expects to make his return to the lineup Thursday night against the Canucks (via the Tampa Bay Times’ Eduardo A. Encina). Stamkos missed the last two games with a lower-body injury after a hot start to the season, already potting two goals and two assists in two contests. His return couldn’t come at a better time for the struggling Lightning, who begin a crucial five-game homestand tonight after going 0-2-1 on an early road trip against key divisional rivals.
- The Canadiens announced Thursday that defenseman Kaiden Guhle is day-to-day with an upper-body injury, likely a wrist ailment. Guhle left Tuesday’s 5-2 drubbing at the hands of the Wild with the injury and has not practiced since. There was some concern in Habs circles that Guhle’s absence would be longer-term, but he appears to have avoided the worst. It’s the second injury to a core Habs player in a matter of days after a dual ACL-MCL injury costed center Kirby Dach the remainder of his 2023-24 season. Guhle, 21, had notched an assist and a +4 rating in three contests, the latter being the second-highest on the team behind Johnathan Kovacevic. Another 21-year-old defender, Justin Barron, is expected to make his season debut Saturday against the Capitals with Guhle out of commission.
- In more positive news, Sabres head coach Don Granato said today that defenseman Mattias Samuelsson has avoided any further absence after leaving Tuesday’s win over the Lightning in the third period and will dress Thursday against the Flames. Samuelsson left the game with an upper-body injury but participated in morning skate today and seems no worse for wear. The 23-year-old is in the first season of a seven-year, $30MM extension signed just over a year ago and leads Sabres defenders with a +2 rating through three contests, adding one assist while averaging over 20 minutes per game.
- After being listed as day-to-day yesterday morning, Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette says center Nick Bonino will be a game-time decision for tonight’s tilt against the Predators. Bonino, who’s still looking for his first point as a Ranger, is dealing with a lower-body injury. The 35-year-old joined the Rangers on a one-year, $800K deal during free agency and has anchored their fourth line alongside a mixture of Barclay Goodrow, Tyler Pitlick and Jimmy Vesey to begin the season.
Morning Notes: Ovechkin, Zub, Avon
It’s been a horrid start to the season for the Capitals, who sit at the bottom of the Metropolitan Division with a 1-2-0 record and just four goals scored. Only the Kraken have potted less while playing in as many games. A fair bit of this poor performance has been precipitated by the unusual early-season struggles of captain Alex Ovechkin – as multiple people have pointed out over the last 12 hours, Ovechkin has now failed to record a shot on goal in back-to-back contests for the first time in his 19-season, 1,350-game NHL career.
Ovechkin had four shots on goal in the team’s season-opening loss to the Penguins last week, and it took him until Wednesday night’s 6-1 defeat at the hands of the Senators to record a point – a primary assist on John Carlson‘s goal. While head coach Spencer Carbery shuffled around some lines ahead of the Ottawa game, Ovechkin had spent the first two games of the season on a line with Nicklas Bäckström and T.J. Oshie – one that expectedly lacked speed in the year 2023 and struggled heavily to limit defensive opportunities. Ovechkin does, however, lead the team in Corsi share at even strength with 54.5%, and he’s likely been a tad unlucky over the past few contests. Still, the scoring will need to kick into high gear soon for Ovechkin to resume his quest of becoming the NHL’s all-time goals leader.
Other items of interest this Thursday morning:
- Senators head coach D.J. Smith does not believe defenseman Artem Zub will be out long-term after taking a puck to the jaw in last night’s win against the Capitals. Early in the third period, a shot close in from Ovechkin rocketed up Zub’s stick and hit him in the face, a concerning incident for a player who missed 12 games last season with a broken jaw. Zub has been outstanding in the early going, recording a goal and two assists in four contests and laying a team-high eight hits. The Sens are on a decisive three-game win streak, outscoring opponents by 11 goals in the process. Possession numbers suggest some team-wide regression may be incoming, but it’s a huge improvement over their poor starts to the past few campaigns, derailing hope and chemistry while trying to return to the playoff picture.
- The Flyers have activated forward Jon-Randall Avon off season-opening injured reserve and assigned him to the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms, per CapFriendly. The 20-year-old center prospect sustained a PCL sprain while preparing for rookie camps that was expected to sideline him for four to six weeks, and he’s returned at the early end of that timeline. A free-agent signing of the Flyers almost immediately after going undrafted in 2021, Avon has put up over a point per game during his past two campaigns with OHL Peterborough and he’s beginning to look like a diamond-in-the-rough type pickup for the Flyers organization. He’ll report to the Phantoms for his first pro hockey experience.
Latest On Conor Garland Trade Market
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported today on the 32 Thoughts podcast that he believes that Luke Schenn’s injury will lower the probability that the Nashville Predators get involved in the Conor Garland sweepstakes. Friedman theorizes that the Canucks’ desired return for Garland could be defenseman Dante Fabbro, but given the injury to fellow defenseman Schenn, the Predators will likely have less of an appetite to make the move.
The Predators announced this morning that Schenn would be out 4-6 weeks with a lower body injury leaving Nashville a man short on the back end and unlikely to further deplete their defense core. The Predators have a need at forward, but given Friedman’s words, it appears that they don’t want to create a hole to fill another one.
For the Canucks, the injury could remove one potential suitor for the 27-year-old Garland from a trade market that already favors the buyer. The NHL Network’s Kevin Weekes reported today that the Canucks are willing to retain around 30% of Garland’s cap hit for the remaining two years, a step that may be necessary to move the player in a difficult trade market that has so many teams within $1MM of the salary cap ceiling.
The Canucks appear to be hopeful that they can clear some cap space with the Garland move to facilitate other transactions and give the team some much-needed salary cap flexibility. But, unless another team has an early season injury to a winger, the Canucks may need to be patient and wait until the trade deadline when teams will have more flexibility under the cap. The Canucks have been proactive in their approach and gave Garland’s agent permission to seek a trade to another, but nothing has materialized at this time.
Garland’s playing time has been down significantly to start the season as he has averaged just 11:34 of ice time through the first three games of the season, down substantially from the 15:16 of ice time he has averaged throughout his six-year career. The native of Scituate, Massachusetts, has posted 84 goals and 111 assists in 325 NHL games and has been difficult to play against throughout his career, despite being undersized.
Nic Dowd Out With An Injury
The Washington Capitals announced that center Nic Dowd wouldn’t dress for tonight’s game against the Ottawa Senators due to an upper-body injury. There is no information as to when Dowd suffered the injury, or how long the 33-year-old will be out of action. Dowd played over 15 minutes in Washington’s 3-2 shootout win over the Calgary Flames just two nights ago, although he did block seven shots in the Capitals first two games of the season.
Dowd missed practice yesterday in what the Capitals referred to as a maintenance day, he did suit up this morning for the team’s optional skate but didn’t dress for the game tonight.
Dowd has been a mainstay in Washington’s bottom six since signing with the team as a free agent in July 2018, however, he has dealt with multiple absences due to injury in nearly every season. Dowd did play in 65 games last season, his highest total since becoming a Capital. In those games, Dowd posted a career-high 13 goals and 25 points, while registering 61 blocked shots, also the most in his career.
While little is known about Dowd’s injury thus far, the Huntsville, Alabama native did have offseason core surgery and spoke during training camp about injuries becoming part of his reality as an aging NHLer. It’s also a reality the Capitals have had to deal with over the last two seasons as the second-oldest team in the NHL. Last year Washington had the fourth most man games lost due to injury and this season they could fare even worse if their current injury pattern continues. The Capitals are already without defenseman Joel Edmundson, goalie Charlie Lindgren and forward Max Pacioretty.
Minnesota Wild Recall Samuel Walker; Place Goligoski On LTIR
Before last night’s game against the Montreal Canadiens, the Minnesota Wild announced that defenseman Alex Goligoski would miss the game due to a lower-body injury suffered in practice the day before. Today, according to a team announcement, the team has placed Goligoski on LTIR, and recalled forward Samuel Walker from their AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild, in a corresponding move.
For the time being, the Wild will likely operate with only six defensemen on the active roster, with Dakota Mermis replacing Goligoski’s spot in the lineup. Team captain, Jared Spurgeon, is still listed as week-to-week as he recovers from an upper-body injury, but would give the team a much deeper blue line upon his return.
After an exceptionally poor start to the season in terms of production and penalties, this lower-body injury is another negative moment for Goligoski in this very young season. At 38 years old, and a pending unrestricted free agent at the end of this year, this may spell the end of the line for the veteran defenseman in Minnesota.
Walker, who was the 200th overall selection in the 2017 NHL Draft by the Tampa Bay Lightning, would end up playing four years at the University of Minnesota, before finally landing with the Wild in 2022 as a college free agent. Primarily playing in Iowa last season, Walker had quite a productive season, scoring 27 goals and 21 assists in 56 games, finishing fourth on the team in points.
Pacific Notes: Pettersson, Okhotyuk, Labanc
Canucks star center Elias Pettersson missed practice today as he was “a little bit banged up,” per head coach Rick Tocchet. However, there’s little concern about his availability for Thursday’s matchup against the Lightning.
Pettersson took friendly fire from defenseman Tyler Myers to one of his legs during last night’s shutout loss to the Flyers but seemed “unencumbered” today when walking around. Pettersson, 24, has been nothing short of electric through three games thus far, displaying an added layer of physical maturity to his game while leading the team in scoring with six points. Entering the final season of a three-year, $22.05MM contract, Pettersson is perhaps the best pending RFA on the market, and his willingness to sign long-term will be a significant storyline to monitor as the Canucks begin their campaign, which is off to an up-and-down start. They’re in relatively good shape with a 2-1-0 record thus far, but a rather dominant performance by the basement-dwelling Flyers on Tuesday did not inspire much confidence.
Elsewhere in the Pacific Division on this Wednesday afternoon:
- It appears Sharks defenseman Nikita Okhotyuk is gearing up to make his debut for the team after he was acquired in last season’s Timo Meier trade with the Devils. A late second-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, Okhotiuk sustained a sports hernia injury at the end of last season that prevented him from playing for either the Sharks or the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda after the trade, and a separate lower-body injury has kept him out of action since the beginning of the month. The Mercury News’ Curtis Pashelka says that Okhotiuk could be an option for Thursday’s game against the Bruins, likely the reason behind sending Henry Thrun to the minors earlier today. Okhotiuk remains on IR for the time being, and the Sharks needed to open a roster spot to activate him.
- Staying with the Sharks, Pashelka also relays word from head coach David Quinn that winger Kevin Labanc will make his season debut against the Bruins after serving as a healthy scratch for the team’s first three games. Labanc, 27, is in the final season of a contract earning him $4.725MM per season, but his production has steadily declined from its 56-point peak in 2018-19, and he’s now fallen far out of favor with the Sharks’ coaching staff. He is, however, expected to get a look in the top six alongside Thomas Bordeleau and Filip Zadina.
Devils Place Keith Kinkaid On Waivers
Oct. 18: Kinkaid has cleared waivers, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports. Per Elite Prospects’ roster log, Kinkaid will be loaned outside of the organization to the AHL’s Chicago Wolves, where he’s expected to assume a starting role.
Oct. 17: The New Jersey Devils placed netminder Keith Kinkaid on waivers today, per Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic.
Kinkaid, 34, was signed by the Devils this offseason to fill a depth role but sustained an upper-body injury during camp that prevented him from hitting waivers before the season started. Now healthy, the Devils can involve him in a transaction and attempt to send him to the AHL’s Utica Comets.
The Devils needed a second netminder for Utica when 22-year-old Nico Daws had to undergo hip surgery this summer, which will likely keep him out of commission until mid-December. For the time being, Utica will go with a veteran tandem of Kinkaid and former Maple Leaf Erik Källgren in the crease.
Kinkaid’s days of being an everyday NHLer are certainly behind him, but Devils fans will remember his play as a fill-in for the oft-injured Cory Schneider in the late 2010s. Kinkaid’s best campaign came during the 2017-18 season, starting a career-high 38 games and posting a 26-10-3 record and .913 save percentage to help lead the Devils to their first playoff berth since losing to the Kings in the 2012 Stanley Cup Final.
Since then, however, he’s primarily served as a third-string option for organizations such as the Canadiens, Rangers, Bruins and Avalanche. He hasn’t made double-digit NHL appearances in a single season since his last year with the Devils in 2018-19. In one contest with the Bruins and one with the Avalanche in 2022-23, Kinkaid recorded a lone win and a .950 save percentage in 88 minutes of play, stopping 38 of 40 shots faced.
Gabriel Vilardi Out 4-6 Weeks With MCL Sprain
Winnipeg Jets head coach Rick Bowness told reporters today that forward Gabriel Vilardi has been diagnosed with a sprained MCL and will miss four to six weeks (via Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press). Vilardi sustained the injury in the first period of Tuesday’s game against Los Angeles in an awkward tangle with the stick of Kings center Blake Lizotte.
Vilardi, 24, was the 11th overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft by the Kings but struggled to make an immediate impact, with multiple long-term injuries sidelining him early in his development. He finally stayed healthy for most of 2022-23, though, and had a breakout campaign with 23 goals and 41 points in 63 contests for Los Angeles. The young forward would never get to realize his full potential with the Kings, however, as his signing rights were the primary piece of the return to the Jets as part of this summer’s Pierre-Luc Dubois blockbuster deal.
The Jets immediately made it clear they viewed Vilardi as a potential high-end contributor for them, signing him to a two-year, $6.875MM deal in July. He got an early look in a high-end role, riding shotgun on the top line with Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele. His strong underlying numbers from last season appeared to carry over in a short sample, as the Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi line has absolutely dominated possession together – controlling 81% of expected goals when they’re on the ice together, per MoneyPuck. It’s a significant blow to the Jets to be without that chemistry until around American Thanksgiving. Vilardi did, however, have just one assist through three contests.
Bowness says Mason Appleton will take Vilardi’s place on Scheifele’s wing for Thursday’s game against the Golden Knights. 23-year-old David Gustafsson, who’s served as a healthy scratch for the first three games of the season, will draw into the lineup in a fourth-line role alongside Morgan Barron and Rasmus Kupari.
In 155 NHL contests since first appearing in a game in 2019-20, Vilardi has 41 goals, 38 assists and 79 points – 17th in career scoring among the 2017 class.
Sharks Assign Henry Thrun To Minors
CapFriendly relays that San Jose Sharks defender Henry Thrun has been assigned to the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda.
Thrun, 22, cracked the Sharks’ opening night roster after joining the team on an entry-level contract to end the 2022-23 season. After recording 31 points in 33 contests as a junior at Harvard, Thrun was ready to turn pro but informed the team that drafted him 101st overall in 2019 – the Anaheim Ducks – that he wasn’t willing to sign with them. Thus, the Ducks sent Thrun’s signing rights to the Sharks in exchange for a third-round pick at the end of February, and he put pen to paper with the Sharks after his collegiate season ended in March.
Across ten appearances thus far between this season and last, Thrun has notched four assists and has posted a relative Corsi share of 4.9% at even strength, meaning he’s managed to stand out as a positive possession force on a paper-thin Sharks blue line. Averaging 19:36 per game, the young Thrun has flashed the potential to end up in the Sharks’ top four long-term – certainly worth the price of admission they paid to the Ducks.
The Sharks, however, likely have some other depth blue-liners they’d like to give a look – namely, 23-year-old Ty Emberson, a shutdown defense prospect they claimed off waivers from the Rangers before the season. Emberson has served as a healthy scratch for the Sharks’ first three games, but with Thrun now set to play top minutes with the Barracuda for the time being, Emberson is likely to enter the lineup for Thursday’s game against the Bruins.
Thrun will be a restricted free agent at season’s end and is due a qualifying offer of $874,125, per CapFriendly.
Minor Transactions: 10/18/23
The Champions Hockey League is entering its final day of the regular season, with five remaining games on the slate. This includes a bout between Oceláři Třinec and the Aalborg Pirates where Oceláři will be looking to solidify their spot in the CHL postseason; currently sitting one win away from a spot in the Top 16. If Oceláři can’t leave with a win, the Belfast Giants may be in place to leapfrog them with a win over Dynamo Pardubice. Belfast sits a win back from Oceláři in the standings, on the fringe of the playoffs.
The transaction wire is staying lively in light of such exciting hockey going on around the world. And as always, we’ll track those moves here.
- 26-year-old centerman Colt Conrad has signed with the Fischtown Pinguins of the DEL, Germany’s top league. Conrad has spent part of the last five seasons in the minor leagues, recording 42 ECHL games and 115 AHL games in that span. The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Conrad out of Western Michigan University in 2019.
- The Laval Rockets have signed goaltender Joe Vrbetic to a one-year, two-way AHL contract. Vrbetic played in four games with Laval last season, recording a .871 save percentage and 2-1-0 record. The bulk of his year was spent with Trois-Rivieres of the ECHL, where he played 28 games and recorded a .896 save percentage. The 2022-23 season was Vrbetic’s first year of professional hockey, after three years of supporting the North Bay Battalion in the OHL.
This page may be updated throughout the day.