Bruins To Activate Hampus Lindholm, Reassign Michael Callahan
The Boston Bruins will have most of their defensive core intact for their upcoming contest tonight. According to Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald, the Bruins have activated Hampus Lindholm and assigned Michael Callahan to the AHL’s Providence Bruins in a corresponding roster move.
Lindholm has already missed eight games for Boston this season due to a lower-body injury. He originally suffered the injury against the Chicago Blackhawks on October 9th, leaving the game after only 4:26 of ice time. He has been skating with the team regularly since and managed a full game against the Colorado Avalanche on October 18th, but has had some lingering concerns since.
Still, considering his injury history from last year, the Bruins are likely being extremely cautious with Lindholm’s health. After scoring 13 goals and 79 points in 153 games with a +67 rating with Boston from 2022 to 2024, a fractured patella limited him to only 17 contests during the 2024-25 campaign.
The fact that he’s already missed eight games should be concerning. He’s been relatively unnoticeable in the three games he has played in, going scoreless with two shots on goal. His possession and defensive metrics have been particularly poor, managing a 34.2% CorsiFor% at even strength, and an 85.0% on-ice SV% at even strength.
Meanwhile, Callahan returns to Providence after three games with Boston. Like Lindholm, he went scoreless while averaging 16:27 of ice time, but managed much better possession metrics. Callahan was originally recalled when the Bruins placed Jordan Harris on IR, meaning Jonathan Aspirot will retain his spot on the roster for the time being.
Sharks Recall Patrick Giles, Place Nick Leddy On IR
The Sharks announced Tuesday they’ve recalled center Patrick Giles from AHL San Jose. Defenseman Nick Leddy was placed on injured reserve retroactive to Oct. 23 to open up a roster spot.
Giles’ recall comes after fellow middleman Adam Gaudette left Sunday’s overtime win over the Wild due to an upper-body injury. Gaudette was not at today’s practice and could miss a longer stretch than just a few days, but the Sharks will know more tomorrow after his evaluation is complete, Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now relays.
San Jose was rostering 13 forwards and eight defensemen as it has for much of the year, so Giles comes up to give them an extra forward if they need one for however long Gaudette is unavailable. Giles was the lone piece that came back from the Panthers for goaltender Vítek Vaněček at last season’s trade deadline. The 25-year-old pivot spent the rest of March on the NHL roster before being returned to the AHL for the last couple of weeks of the season. Giles, waiver-eligible for the first time in 2025-26, then landed on the wire during training camp to complete the process of him being cut and reassigned to the minors.
An undrafted free agent signing by Florida out of Boston College back in 2022, Giles made his NHL debut last season. He made 17 appearances split between the Panthers and Sharks, scoring his first NHL goal and posting a minus-three rating while averaging 9:14 of ice time per game. The Maryland native brought some size (6’4″, 205 lbs) and physicality to both clubs’ fourth line, but doesn’t offer much upside beyond that. He struggled in the faceoff dot, winning only 34% of his draws, and only controlled 41.4% of shot attempts at 5-on-5. He saw some fringe penalty-killing deployment with San Jose down the stretch, though.
If Giles’ services are needed in the next several days, they’ll likely insert him as a fourth-line center and bump Ty Dellandrea, who has four assists through nine games, up into a top-nine role if needed. He’s off to a promising enough start in the minors, registering a goal and an assist through four appearances for the Barracuda, but his lack of offensive utility in the pros so far limits the minutes he’ll get.
Leddy has already missed two games with the upper-body injury he sustained early in their game against the Rangers last Thursday. The IR placement rules him out for their next two games but his absence shouldn’t last much longer than that. Leddy returned to practice this morning, per Curtis Pashelka of the Bay Area News Group. The 16-year vet was claimed off waivers from the Blues during the summer and has two assists with a minus-four rating through his first seven games as a Shark.
Devils’ Brett Pesce Out At Least One Month
Oct. 28: Pesce’s upper-body injury will keep him out of the lineup for at least a month, according to the team’s Amanda Stein.
Oct. 26: The New Jersey Devils will head on their upcoming four-game road trip without defenseman Brett Pesce, head coach Sheldon Keefe told team reporter Amanda Stein after Sunday’s win over the Colorado Avalanche. Pesce left that game in the first period after blocking a shot. Keefe told the media that Pesce’s injury was “not great”.
This is yet another blow to the Devils’ blue line. They are already missing reliable depth defender Johnathan Kovacevic, who is still recovering from a knee injury sustained during the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs. New Jersey has avoided major lineup changes in light of Kovacevic’s injury, largely thanks to young pro Simon Nemec, who has seven assists in nine games this season. But Pesce’s absence will force the Devils to reach into their depth chart. Dennis Cholowski is currently on the NHL roster as an extra defenseman and should receive the first chance to step into a nightly role. New Jersey could also lean on AHL prospects, and collegiate teammates, Ethan Edwards and Seamus Casey.
Even with the promising upside of their young prospects, New Jersey will struggle to fill Pesce’s role entirely. The 11-year pro has recorded three points and a plus-two in eight games this season, while averaging the second-highest ice time on the team (21:21) behind Dougie Hamilton (21:53). Pesce has spent almost all of his even-strength minutes next to top youngster Luke Hughes. Now in their second year playing together, the two have managed to outscore their opponents four-to-one at even-strength. They lead the team’s blue line in Goals-For percentage (80 percent) and Expected-Goals-For percentage (63.1 percent) per MoneyPuck.
Pesce and Hughes were plenty effective together last year as well. They were outscored 31-to-38 at even-strength, but generated a lofty 953 shots across the full season – over 100 more than any other Devils pairing. New Jersey averaged over one shot on net for every minute Hughes and Pesce were on the ice. They won their Expected-Goals battle as a result of the volume shooting, posting a 53.1 xGF% across 70 games together.
Pesce’s absence could push Nemec into an important, top-pair role next to Hughes, which would preserve the high-firing pairing of Hamilton and Jonas Siegenthaler. Nemec received the third-most ice time on New Jersey’s defense (23:35) in Sunday’s overtime matchup. It’s the fourth-most he’s ever played in a regular-season game, and he vindicated it with three assists, two shots, and five blocked shots. That kind of performance will be exactly what New Jersey needs as they face the absence of a 700-game pro.
Washington Capitals Sign, Send Down Brett Leason
Oct. 28: Leason has cleared waivers and has been loaned to Hershey, the team announced.
Oct. 27: The Washington Capitals are bringing back a familiar face to the organization. According to a team announcement, the Capitals have signed forward Brett Leason to a one-year, two-way contract worth $775K. The team subsequently placed him on waivers to eventually reassign him to the AHL’s Hershey Bears.
It’s been several years since Leason last suited up for the Bears. Leason, selected 56th overall in the 2019 NHL Draft, debuted with Hershey in the 2019-20 season after an impressive year with the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders. During his last campaign with the Raiders, the Calgary native scored 36 goals and 89 points in 55 games and another 10 goals and 25 points in 20 postseason appearances.
Unfortunately, Leason’s skill level didn’t transfer to the professional circuit for some time. Throughout his three years with the Bears, he put up relatively modest production, scoring 18 goals and 47 points in 114 games. During a brief run with the Capitals back in the 2021-22 campaign, Leason only registered three goals and six points in 36 contests.
Leason received a separate opportunity one year later, when the Anaheim Ducks claimed him off waivers before the start of the 2022-23 campaign. He became much more productive in an expanded role with Anaheim, scoring 22 goals and 48 points in 184 games while averaging 12:23 of ice time per night. Unfortunately, as they graduated more talent to the NHL level, the Ducks made Leason an unrestricted free agent this offseason when they opted not to extend a qualifying offer to him.
Today’s contract becomes the third one signed by Leason since the beginning of the offseason. He began training camp on a professional tryout agreement with the Minnesota Wild. After that didn’t work out, he has been practicing with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers on a similar tryout agreement.
Lightning Place Mitchell Chaffee On Waivers
Oct. 28: Chaffee has cleared waivers and can now be assigned to Syracuse, per Friedman.
Oct. 27: According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Tampa Bay Lightning have placed forward Mitchell Chaffee on waivers. If he clears by tomorrow, the Lightning will have more flexibility with Chaffee since he’ll be waiver exempt for the next 10 days or 30 games, or they’ll gain the ability to reassign him to the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch.
It marks the second time in Chaffee’s young career that he’s been placed on the waiver wire. Before the start of the 2023-24 campaign, the Lightning placed Chaffee on waivers after he failed to make the roster out of training camp, and he cleared without any issue.
Unlike the 2023-24 campaign, there were higher expectations for the Rockford, MI native this year. Despite being relegated to Tampa Bay’s bottom-six for most of his playing time, he finished eighth on the team in goal-scoring last year with 12 in 66 games. He was additionally one of the Lightning’s most physical forwards, finishing second up front with 133 hits.
Again in a bottom-six role, Chaffee has gone scoreless through seven contests this season, averaging 9:29 of ice time per game. He leads the team in hits by a healthy margin, but has been benched for the team’s two most recent games.
Given his play to begin the 2025-26 campaign, it’s unlikely another team will put a claim on Chaffee over the next 24 hours. Still, for teams looking for some additional scoring punch in their bottom-six (looking at you, Calgary Flames), his 15-goal pace from last season may be enticing.
Ducks’ Mikael Granlund Out Week-To-Week
Ducks center Mikael Granlund will be out for at least two to three weeks after leaving Saturday’s loss to the Lightning in the first period with a lower-body injury, head coach Joel Quenneville told NHL.com. They have not placed him on injured reserve, but made a corresponding transaction in effect over the weekend by activating Jansen Harkins from IR. He’ll make his season debut tonight against the Panthers with Granlund unavailable, Quenneville said.
The injury presses pause on what’s been a banner start to the year for Granlund, who was Anaheim’s big free agent pickup over the summer on a three-year, $21MM deal. The 33-year-old pivot was a point per game through eight appearances, including a two-goal, five-point performance against the Bruins last week. He’s also been the club’s best faceoff man with a 51.9% win rate. That’s despite his linemates not being all too consistent to start the year, seeing Alex Killorn, Nikita Nesterenko, Troy Terry, and Frank Vatrano all spend significant time on his flanks.
After facing some inconsistency in his late 20s, Granlund has made his living in recent years as a top offensive producer on an understaffed Sharks offense and was a rental pickup by the Stars last season before hitting the open market. He’s clicked at a rate of 0.84 points per game since the beginning of the 2023-24 campaign, just outside the top 60 among forwards with at least 100 games played. It’s a newfound luxury for Anaheim to have a veteran who produces at a top-line pace slot into their middle six. It’s working wonders for the Ducks, who are scoring 3.63 goals per game – good for seventh in the league – after managing just 2.54 per game over the previous three seasons.
They’ll now have to navigate their next eight to 10 games without him around. They’ll be looking for more out of veteran names like Killorn and Vatrano, who’ve combined for just one goal and two assists so far, to compensate. Unfortunately for them, seven of their next eight are against teams that made the playoffs last season.
Blues’ Jake Neighbours Out Five Weeks With Right Leg Injury
The Blues announced Tuesday that they’ve placed winger Jake Neighbours on injured reserve with a right leg injury. He’ll be re-evaluated in five weeks, putting him out of the lineup through at least Dec. 2. They did not immediately announce a recall to fill his roster spot.
Neighbours was absent for Monday’s loss to the Penguins with what the team previously labeled a lower-body issue, and he carried only a day-to-day designation. It’s clear now that was a bit of smoke and mirrors as he underwent further evaluation. The team said he suffered the injury in Saturday’s loss to the Red Wings. He didn’t leave the contest, in which he had two of St. Louis’ four goals, but did appear to favor his right leg after losing an edge and sliding awkwardly into the boards later in the game.
Very little has gone right for the Blues this season. Losing Neighbours, who has a team-leading six goals and was finishing at a red-hot 50% clip, won’t change that slide of bad luck. The 23-year-old is beginning his fifth NHL season since being drafted in the first round in 2020 and has been stapled to the Blues’ top line with Robert Thomas to start the year. When deployed with Pavel Buchnevich on their right flank, they’ve controlled play well with a 51.9 xGF% and 50.6 CF%, per MoneyPuck. Poor goaltending has still led them to be outscored 5-4 and for Neighbours to post a minus-four rating despite his individual success, accounting for 22.2% of the goals the Blues have scored this season.
While that one-in-two finishing rate is unsustainable, the writing was on the wall for a breakout campaign from Neighbours in 2025-26. He’s put together back-to-back 20-goal campaigns and hit a career-best 46 points while playing all 82 games last season. Getting more pucks on net, once he returns in December, will be key to getting him back on that path. Neighbours’ 19.7 shooting percentage since the beginning of 2023-24 is ninth in the league among skaters with at least 100 shots on goal during that time, but he’s only averaged 1.55 shots on goal per game for his career.
The Blues were also without Thomas in last night’s loss due to an upper-body injury. He’s still only listed as day-to-day, but for the time being, the Blues are without the two most consistent members of their top line to open the campaign. Jimmy Snuggerud and Pius Suter were elevated from third-line duties to skate with Buchnevich last night. It’s unclear if that will continue into tonight’s rematch against Detroit or if head coach Jim Montgomery will shuffle his lines further in the wake of three straight regulation losses.
Canucks Recall Tom Willander, Place Victor Mancini On IR
Oct. 28: Willander has officially been recalled with Mancini being placed on injured reserve retroactive to Oct. 26 as the corresponding transaction, the team announced. Mancini has been ruled out for the next three games as a result and will be eligible for activation against the Predators on Nov. 3. The Canucks also increased their spending flexibility by moving defenseman Derek Forbort to long-term injured reserve. Forbort was already on IR and has not played since Vancouver’s second game of the season back on Oct. 11 due to an undisclosed injury. An LTIR replacement requires 24 days missed, so he’ll be eligible to return on Nov. 5 against the Blackhawks.
Oct. 27: Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK shared this evening that the Vancouver Canucks are calling up top defensive prospect Tom Willander. The 20-year-old had been assigned to the AHL just two days ago, but now is back on the big club. The transaction may signal that he could be called up, as Willander had just been with the Canucks for salary purposes and has not actually debuted yet.
Since being sent down, Willander appeared in one game with Abbotsford (AHL), adding an assist, now up to two points in his first 5 North American professional games. Drafted 11th overall in the 2023 draft by Vancouver, Willander is widely considered the club’s No. 1 prospect and one of the top defensive prospects in the league.
Despite having limited professional experience so far, the Swede spent the past two seasons starring for Boston University in the NCAA, becoming acquainted with the North American game. Before his time in college, Willander made two appearances for Rögle BK of the SHL as a teenager.
A smooth-skating right-hander at 6’1”, Willander’s ability in his own end could be NHL-ready. The offense may take some time, but not many have his acumen at this stage of their careers, with his quickness and agility. Vancouver could call on Willander for his awaited debut, partly out of necessity. With Quinn Hughes out day-to-day and Victor Mancini also banged up, the team is particularly depleted on the back-end as they prepare to host the Rangers tomorrow night.
Although it may seem like a forgone conclusion given the circumstances, fans will watch closely for updates on whether the prospect will make his debut tomorrow.
Injury Notes: Wood, Bogosian, Nylander
Blue Jackets winger Miles Wood will be in the lineup versus the Sabres on Tuesday, head coach Dean Evason said. It’s Wood’s first outing in over two weeks after leaving an Oct. 13 game against the Devils because of a stick to the eye. He never landed on injured reserve, in part due to Columbus carrying a bare-bones roster to start the year, but was ruled out for at least a week by the team anyway at the time of the injury. It was a significant injury that caused Wood to experience remarkably inhibited vision for multiple days due to blood in his eye. However, he underwent testing last week after it cleared, which indicated he avoided any permanent damage.
The 30-year-old had a goal and two hits in his first three games as a Blue Jacket after he was acquired from the Avalanche over the summer. Zach Aston-Reese will be scratched to accommodate Wood re-entering the lineup alongside Isac Lundeström and Yegor Chinakhov, Evason said. It will be Aston-Reese’s first scratch of the young season; Chinakhov started the season as the extra forward before Wood’s injury created an opening for him in the lineup.
There are more injury notes from around the league:
- Wild defenseman Zach Bogosian‘s status has been downgraded from day-to-day to week-to-week, head coach John Hynes said Tuesday (via Joe Smith of The Athletic). Minnesota already placed Bogosian on injured reserve last week, so he’s eligible to return at any time, but it doesn’t appear they’re going to need to worry about activating him soon. After a decent start to the season in bottom-pairing duties, the 15-year veteran sustained a lower-body injury against the Capitals on Oct. 17 and has now missed five games. Bogosian posted a plus-three rating with nine blocks and six hits in five games before landing on IR, controlling 48.2% of shot attempts at even strength in the process.
- Maple Leafs star William Nylander remains a game-time decision ahead of tonight’s game against the Flames, per head coach Craig Berube (via Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun). Nylander was banged up with a lower-body issue last Friday against the Sabres and was a late scratch for the second half of their back-to-back with Buffalo after taking warmups. The 29-year-old, now in his 11th season, still leads the team with 11 assists, 14 points, and five takeaways through eight games.
Senators Reassign Hunter Shepard
Oct. 28: After Ullmark took his planned rest in last night’s 7-2 win, the Senators announced Tuesday they’ve returned Shepard to Belleville. His services weren’t needed, aside from sitting on the bench, as Merilainen made 26 saves on 28 shots (.929 SV%) in the win.
Oct. 27: According to a team announcement, the Ottawa Senators have recalled netminder Hunter Shepard from the AHL’s Belleville Senators. Since they only had 22 players on the roster before the call-up, no corresponding transaction was required.
Despite recalling a netminder, there are no injury concerns for Linus Ullmark or Leevi Merilainen. Since Ottawa has the first half of a back-to-back tonight, the plan is to give Ullmark the entire day off, making Shepard the backup for tonight’s game. Ullmark is expected to start tomorrow night against the Chicago Blackhawks.
It didn’t matter too much which netminder the Senators recalled. Both Shepard and Mads Søgaard are waiver-exempt for the time being after clearing in late September, and the AHL Senators don’t play again until Wednesday. Still, it’s a little surprising that the team opted for Shepard, given that he played for Belleville last night. He isn’t expected to play for Ottawa tonight, though he could be relatively tired should the team need him in an emergency.
Still, Shepard has a relatively lengthy track record of success in the AHL. Before joining the Senators organization this past summer, Shepard spent the first five years of his professional career with the Washington Capitals, largely with the AHL’s Hershey Bears. Shepard is a two-time Calder Cup champion, one-time Baz Bastien Memorial Award winner, and one-time Jack A. Butterfield Trophy winner.