New York Rangers Assign Three Players To AHL
4:18 PM: The Rangers announce that all three players have been recalled from Hartford.
9:15 AM: The New York Rangers have reassigned three players to their AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack: forward Jonny Brodzinski, defenseman Connor Mackey, and goaltender Louis Domingue. The trio of players were recalled on November 3rd for the team’s eventual shootout loss to the Minnesota Wild.
Brodzinski filled in as the team’s third-line center with Filip Chytil injured and veteran Barclay Goodrow away from the team to be with his wife for the birth of their child. Mackey was recalled to serve as the team’s seventh defenseman due to the Adam Fox injury, and Domingue was recalled in order to back up Jonathan Quick, due to an injury to starter Igor Shesterkin.
Now the three players have been returned to Hartford with just Brodzinski managing to skate in an NHL game. These reassignments are of significant consequence for the Wolf Pack, who rely on Brodzinski as their captain and offensive engine. (he has six goals, 11 points in seven games) Mackey plays a top-four role in Hartford while Domingue splits starts with prospect Dylan Garand.
For the Rangers, the return of Brodzinski to the minors indicates that, at the very least, Goodrow is ready to return to the lineup. Chytil could still take some time to recover from his injury, though it’s not expected to keep him out long-term.
As for the situation in net, Domingue’s reassignment indicates that Shesterkin could be ready to at least take up backup duties for the Rangers’ next game, which is Tuesday against the Detroit Red Wings.
Beyond the lineup implications, these reassignments have an impact on the Rangers’ salary cap situation. USA Today’s Vince Z. Mercogliano reports that these reassignments mean that the Rangers no longer have to dip into their pool of newly available cap space (due to placing Fox on LTIR) and as a result, the team is now able to accrue cap space.
Latest On David Quinn
The San Jose Sharks haven’t just been winless through 11 games this season, they’ve, generally speaking, been an unmitigated disaster on the ice. Last night’s 10-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins marked back-to-back games in which the team has surrendered 10 goals, while also marking just the second time this season that the team scored more than a single goal in a game. According to Sportsnet Stats, no team has surrendered 10 goals in back-to-back games since 1965.
While the Sharks taking up a place in the NHL’s basement was entirely expected, what hasn’t been expected is just how bad the team has looked in each game this season. The Sharks have scored 12 goals this season, just one more goal than Auston Matthews alone. The team has surrendered 55 goals, which averages out to five per game and is a full eight goals higher than the next-worst team.
All in all, the Sharks’ performances this season have naturally led to questions over head coach David Quinn’s job status. San Jose Hockey Now’s Sheng Peng asked Quinn about his job security after last night’s loss, to which Quinn responded:
I guess it’s an obvious question, but if you’ve been around long, I mean, I don’t think about that for two seconds. I’ve got a job to do.
Veteran Sharks forward Nico Sturm was asked about coaching as well, and he gave this response:
It’s not about the coaches. We lose 10-1, what are the coaches [going to do]? The coaches aren’t out there and playing. It’s far too easy to play against us right now, and that’s certainly not the coach’s fault. It’s up to us as players and we’re not anywhere near where we need to be right now.
Those quotes, which come via the Mercury News’ Curtis Pashelka, indicate that this isn’t a situation where there is discord and tension between coaches and players, the kind of tension that often causes these types of lopsided losses. Instead, the Sharks’ struggles could very well be more of a reflection of the caliber of roster Quinn is working with.
That being said, Peng wrote on X last night regarding Quinn’s job status that the team will “need to show real improvement, and relatively soon.” He added that the improvement can come in the form of simply just “competing consistently & not getting embarrassed” and that the issue for Quinn’s job security may not be the fact that they are losing, but “how they’re losing.”
For Quinn to be fired so early in the season would be something of a surprise, even with how poorly the Sharks have been playing.
Quinn was GM Mike Grier’s choice to lead the team through its rebuild, a former highly successful college coach with extensive experience managing young players and coaching in a rebuilding setting in the NHL.
General Managers typically do not get a large number of head coaches to cycle through before questions start coming in about their own job status, so firing Quinn would represent a significant setback for the Sharks’ front office, an admission that their first head coaching choice had backfired to a massive degree.
But what would also be a significant setback for the Sharks would be continuing this current stretch of downright horrific performances.
The team appears to have no issue stacking losses in order to secure the best chance at projected 2024 number-one pick and San Jose Jr. Sharks product Macklin Celebrini, just as clubs had no issue losing in order to have the best chance for Connor Bedard last season. But in most cases rebuilding clubs would like to pair those losses with genuine steps forward for some of its young players.
So far, that hasn’t happened for the Sharks. The team has lost all of its games and seen many key young players fail to take the steps forward at the NHL level that the organization was hoping for.
Just one player has registered more than five points on San Jose this season (veteran Tomáš Hertl) while valued youth talent such as William Eklund and Filip Zadina have struggled to put points together.
It’s an undeniably brutal situation for a rebuilding club to be in, and it’s a situation without many clear paths out unless the team as a whole significantly improves its play. If Quinn isn’t able to guide his team to more competitive hockey on a nightly basis, the questions on his job status, which began last night, could get quite a bit harder to ignore.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Injury Updates: Brown, McDonagh, Kastelic, Bear
Oilers winger Connor Brown took the pregame today but play-by-play voice Jack Michaels relayed (Twitter link) that he wound up being a late scratch. He’s officially listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Edmonton doesn’t have enough cap space to carry an extra forward so they played today’s game against Nashville short a player. Accordingly, it makes them eligible for an emergency cap-exempt recall of a forward making $875K or less should Brown still be unable to play on Monday against Vancouver.
It’s worth mentioning that when Brown does suit up for his next game, he will receive a $3.25MM bonus as part of the contract he signed with Edmonton this summer, one that guaranteed him just the NHL minimum. Any amount of that bonus that the Oilers can’t absorb on their books this season would be treated as a carryover penalty and would count against their 2024-25 cap charges.
Other injury news from around the hockey world:
- Also a late scratch from the Edmonton-Nashville game today was defenseman Ryan McDonagh. The Predators announced (Twitter link) that the blueliner is dealing with a lower-body injury and that he’s listed as day-to-day. The 34-year-old has played in ten games so far this season, picking up a pair of assists while averaging exactly 20 minutes a night, his lowest ATOI since his rookie year back in 2010-11. Marc Del Gaizo made his NHL debut in McDonagh’s absence.
- Senators center Mark Kastelic is dealing with an ankle sprain, notes Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch (Twitter link). Yesterday, head coach D.J. Smith suggested that the 24-year-old would miss a few games but now stated that Kastelic “won’t play any time soon”. Kastelic was placed on IR yesterday, meaning he’ll be out for at least a week. He has been held off the scoresheet in his first nine games this season.
- Postmedia’s Patrick Johnston relays that free agent defenseman Ethan Bear appears to be on track from his recovery from shoulder surgery and should be ready to play next month. The 26-year-old was injured playing at the Worlds back in May which played a role in him being non-tendered by Vancouver a month later. While a reunion with them could make sense, they’d need to find a way to open up cap space over the next few weeks for that to happen.
Dylan Cozens Out Day-To-Day
Mike Harrington of Buffalo News Sports is reporting that Buffalo Sabres’ forward, Dylan Cozens, will not play tonight and is considered day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Although no other specifics were given, it is likely due to the fight Cozens engaged in against Philadelphia Flyers’ forward, Garnet Hathaway, at the end of the game last night.
Playing in the first year of a seven-year, $49.7MM extension signed with the organization last year, Cozens has gotten off to a solid offensive start for the Sabres. In 11 games played up to this point, Cozens has scored three goals and four assists, coupled with a solid 61.4 CF%.
His play on the defensive side of the puck has left a little to be desired to start the year, but Cozens has never been a particularly solid defensive option down the middle of the ice. However, even after an individually strong start to this season, Buffalo has not gotten off to the start they were expecting, and Cozens showed visible frustration in last night’s loss to the Flyers.
In their first 11 games, the Sabres are carrying a 5-6-0 record into tonight’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, primarily due to some inconsistencies within the high-danger moments of the game. To start the year, Buffalo has only converted on 6.9% of their high-danger scoring chances, while their opponents have executed on those high-danger scoring chances at a rate of 13.8% of the time.
New Jersey Devils Recall Max Willman
Joining the team shortly before the start of the regular season, the New Jersey Devils announced they have recalled forward Maxwell Willman from their AHL affiliate, the Utica Comets, and he will join the team as they take on the Chicago Blackhawks in their next game. Willman is likely getting this call up due to the recent injury to star forward for New Jersey, Jack Hughes.
Over the last two seasons, Willman had spent his time less than 100 miles from the Prudential Center, suiting up for the Devils’ division rival, the Philadelphia Flyers. Joining the team as a college free agent in 2021, Willman played in 50 games for the Flyers, scoring four goals and two assists.
Playing in Utica to start this season, Willman has already broken his point production over two years in Philadelphia, scoring four goals and three assists for the Comets in seven games. Although he will be joining the team on their trip to Chicago, depth forward Chris Tierney will likely get the nod in the lineup over Willman.
Nevertheless, it is detrimental for the Devils to lose a player of Hughes caliber even for a game or two, given how much they rely on his talents on the ice. However, when a star player goes down, it always becomes an opportunity for another player to prove his worth at the NHL level.
Flyers Recall Felix Sandstrom, Place Him On IR
Less than a week ago, the Philadelphia Flyers had sent goaltender Felix Sandstrom to their AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms for a conditioning stint. Normally, a team must recall a player on a conditioning loan within the next 14 days, but due to an upper-body injury suffered in last night’s game against the Hartford Wolf Pack, the Flyers have chosen to call up Sandstrom a bit earlier than expected.
This will now be the second goaltender in the last week who is set to miss some time within the Philadelphia organization, as it was reported that Carter Hart would miss a few days due to a mid-body injury. In the meantime, the Flyers are set to roll with a combination of Calvin Petersen and Samuel Ersson as their goaltending tandem.
Unfortunately for the team, at all levels of the organization, aside from Hart, the Flyers have been unable to get adequate goaltending across the board. In only two games played for the Phantoms over the conditioning stint, Sandstrom had a 0-0-1 record, with a .857 SV% and a 3.68 GAA. Primarily serving as a backup for Philadelphia last season, Sandstrom had a 3-12-3 record in 20 games played, posting a .880 SV% and a 3.72 GAA.
Out of training camp, the team opted to carry three goaltenders into the regular season, giving the primary backup position to Ersson. Much like Sandstrom’s subpar season last year, Ersson has gotten off to a similar start, holding a 1-2-1 record in four games, garnering a .815 SV% and a 3.90 GAA.
West Notes: Pavelski, Golden Knights, Killorn, Kahkonen
On January 1st of this year, the Dallas Stars inked veteran forward, Joe Pavelski, to a one-year contract worth a total of $3.5MM. A notable decrease on the $7MM annually that Pavelski was earning in his first contract with Dallas, this new deal did include two performance bonuses worth a total of $1MM each.
Per CapFriendly, when Pavelski plays in his 10th game of the year, he will earn the first bonus, and he will earn the second bonus at 20 games played. Tonight, the Stars will take on the Vancouver Canucks, and if no lineup changes are made, Pavelski would be in line to secure the first $1MM performance bonus included in his contract.
Although typically a minor detail on most contracts, given that Dallas only has approximately $457K in cap space, this performance bonus earned by Pavelski will result in an overage penalty to the Stars, which will be applied to next year’s salary cap bottom line. Also, given his health and availability over the last three seasons with the Stars, the expectation is that Pavelski will make it to 20 games played, adding even more overage penalties to the Dallas organization next year.
Other notes:
- Before tonight’s heavily anticipated Western Conference matchup between the Colorado Avalanche and the Vegas Golden Knights, Ben Gotz of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that forward William Carrier would be a game-time decision for Vegas, and that defenseman Zach Whitecloud will be out for the remainder of the weekend. Placed on LTIR at the beginning of the season, Whitecloud has been dealing with an upper-body injury suffered during this year’s preseason but has returned to practice with the team over the last couple of days.
- Looking to make his debut with the Anaheim Ducks after signing a four-year, $25MM contract with the team this summer, Eric Stephens of The Athletic is reporting that Alex Killorn was seen practicing on a line with Adam Henrique and Jakob Silfverberg, and will likely make his Ducks debut tomorrow night against the Golden Knights. In his absence, Anaheim has gotten off to a better start than most would have expected, climbing up in the standings thanks to a current five-game winning streak.
- As hinted at in last night’s recall of goaltender Magnus Chrona, Sheng Peng of NBC Sports is reporting that San Jose Sharks’ netminder, Kaapo Kahkonen is out with an upper-body injury, and is considered day-to-day. Although Chrona is only in his first year with an NHL organization, San Jose could benefit from another option in the crease, as both of their regular goaltenders have failed to hold a SV% above .900 in the team’s first 10 games of the season.
Montreal Canadiens Send Down Gustav Lindstrom
Earlier today, it was reported that the Montreal Canadiens would be activating forward Christian Dvorak off of their long-term injured reserve in preparation for tonight’s game against the St.Louis Blues, and they have now made a corresponding roster move to make space. The team announces they have sent defenseman Gustav Lindstrom to their AHL affiliate, the Laval Rocket.
Originally, Lindstrom had been emergency recalled to replace David Savard, who was injured in the team’s October 23rd game against the Buffalo Sabres. Since then, he has generally been used as the team’s seventh defenseman, squeaking into two games, averaging just a touch under 12 minutes of ice time per night.
As the main player piece coming back from the trade that sent defenseman Jeff Petry to the Detroit Red Wings back in August, Lindstrom was always going to have a tough time cracking Montreal’s blue line. Although it’s not one of the best defensive cores in the league at this time, the abundance of young talent, as well as a few veterans had Lindstrom on the outside looking in.
Starting the year in Laval, due to the call-up, Lindstrom has only suited up in four games for the Rocket, adding zero points and carrying a -6 rating in that short span. Nevertheless, on a subpar Laval team, Lindstrom should easily fit into the team’s top-four, and attempt to help correct the ugly start to the season.
Ducks Recall Robert Hagg
The Ducks have made a roster move in advance of tomorrow’s game against Vegas. They’ve announced that they have recalled defenseman Robert Hagg from AHL San Diego.
Hagg is in his first season with Anaheim after signing a one-year, $775K one-way deal with them in the first week of free agency. However, despite a decent showing in the preseason where he had a goal and an assist in just two appearances, the Ducks waived him late in training camp. He cleared and was assigned to the Gulls where he has played in three games, recording a single assist. It’s his first AHL action since back in the 2016-17 campaign when he was with Philadelphia,
The 28-year-old battled injuries last season, resulting in him getting into just 38 games with Detroit where he had seven points and 111 hits. For his career, Hagg has 16 goals, 47 assists, and 985 hits in 338 contests over parts of seven seasons.
On the surface, it appears that this is merely a depth-related promotion. Anaheim recently loaned Tristan Luneau to San Diego on a conditioning stint, leaving them with just six healthy blueliners on their roster. Luneau’s stint can last for up to two weeks so it appears that Hagg will serve as injury insurance in the youngster’s absence.
Sabres Place Mattias Samuelsson On IR, Recall Ryan Johnson
Mattias Samuelsson’s lower-body injury from last night’s game against Philadelphia will keep him out for at least a week as he has been placed on injured reserve. Taking his place on the roster will be Ryan Johnson who has been recalled per the AHL’s transactions log.
Samuelsson was averaging over 21 minutes a night heading into last night’s game (third among Sabres blueliners) while being a key cog on Buffalo’s penalty kill. He has a goal and two assists plus 25 hits and 25 blocks through his first 11 games of the season and his absence will certainly be notable inside their top four. The 23-year-old is in the first season of a seven-year, $30MM contract that was signed a little over a year ago when he had less than 60 games of NHL experience under his belt.
As for Johnson, he is in his first professional season after wrapping up his college career last year at the University of Minnesota. He had 18 points in 40 games for the Golden Gophers, giving him 59 points in 143 contests over his four seasons there.
The 2019 first-round pick is off to a decent start with AHL Rochester, notching four assists in his first nine games and now has a chance to get his first taste of NHL action. If he doesn’t take Samuelsson’s spot in the lineup, Jacob Bryson would be next in line after being healthy scratched on Friday.