East Notes: Stamkos, Olofsson, Mayfield
Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos will likely miss his second straight game Tuesday with a lower-body injury as he did not take line rushes with the team at morning skate, Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times relays. It’s another significant injury blow for the Lightning, who remain without star goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy and depth forward Tyler Motte with longer-term injuries.
The Bolts have dropped back-to-back games against key divisional opponents and have struggled to keep the puck out of their net, although their patchwork goaltending tandem of Jonas Johansson and Matt Tomkins isn’t entirely to blame. The team has controlled just 41.7% of scoring chances at five-on-five play thus far and has conceded 80 shots over its last two defeats at the hands of the Red Wings and Senators. Missing Stamkos, who has two goals and two assists through two games, makes it harder for the team to outscore their problems. He’s in the final season of an eight-year, $68MM extension signed in 2016 and is one of the best pending free agents available, notably without any extension conversations to date.
Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference this morning:
- Sabres winger Victor Olofsson will serve as a healthy scratch tonight against the Lightning, head coach Don Granato confirmed Tuesday morning. Tyson Jost, who’s served as a healthy scratch for their first two games of the season, will make his 2023-24 season debut. Olofsson, set to become a free agent next summer, was featured in trade talks this offseason. However, the team held onto him for scoring depth after youngster Jack Quinn sustained an Achilles injury that will keep him out until December. Olofsson is a skilled shooter who’s notched 20 goals in three out of the last four seasons, but his defensive impacts are poor, and his possession numbers are average at best, leading him to become viewed as a power-play specialist. He’s been held off the scoresheet through two contests this season and has a -2 rating, averaging 14:07 per game. 22-year-old Peyton Krebs is projected to fill Olofsson’s vacated spot in the top six, while Jost will slide in at fourth-line center to fill Krebs’ previous role.
- Islanders head coach Lane Lambert told reporters that defenseman Scott Mayfield is officially out for Tuesday’s contest against the Coyotes. The veteran shutdown man is day-to-day with a lower-body injury after blocking a shot late in last Saturday’s win against the Sabres and did not practice yesterday due to swelling in his leg. Lambert confirmed Samuel Bolduc would replace Mayfield in the lineup and make his season debut. The 2019 second-round pick skated in 17 contests with the Islanders last season, recording two goals and an assist.
Minor Transactions: 10/17/23
It’s a busy hockey day across the world, as the Champions Hockey League prepares for Game Day 6. This brings together a slew of exciting matchups, including a bout between Sweden’s Farjestad and Germany’s Munich Red Bulls. Farjestad has excelled in the CHL so far this season, winning four of their five games and averaging 4.4 goals-for and 1.8 goals-against on a per-game basis. Munich is coming off a tough loss in their home league but boasts one of the few offenses that can keep up with Farjestad. Munich also has the league’s scoring leader: former NHL first-round pick Jonathon Blum.
Hockey fans will have plenty to keep them busy with seven CHL games, and nine NHL games, on the slate today. The transaction wire remains as busy as the action on the ice and, as always, we’ll track notable player movement here.
- Scott Harrington has been released from his professional try-out with the AHL’s San Diego Gulls and decided to head overseas, signing a one-year deal with the ZSC Lions of Switzerland’s National League. Harrington, now 30, joins a handful of NHL cast members on the Lions – including Dean Kukan, Mikko Lehtonen, and Yannick Weber. That’s a lot of former NHL talent on the Lions blue line, where Harrington will look to carve out a role. ZSC is also home to Montreal Canadiens prospect Vinzenz Rohrer, who is playing his first year with ZSC’s top team after playing for their U17 team prior to his move to Canada.
- Tyler Sikura has left the Wilks-Barre/Scranton Penguins in favor of HC Bolzano in Italy. Bolzano plays in the ICE Hockey League, or ICEHL, along with top teams like EC Salzburg Villacher SV. Bolzano now boasts seven North Americans in their forward group, including former 40th-overall pick Christian Thomas.
- Libor Hajek has signed a minor-league deal with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the AHL. This contract comes after Hajek attended the Pittsburgh Penguins’ training camp on a professional try-out. Hajek split the 2022-23 season between the New York Rangers and the Hartford Wolf Pack, recording a single assist in 16 NHL games and six points in 24 AHL games. Hajek has been apart of the Rangers organization since 2018, when he was a feature of the trade that sent Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
- Veteran forward Brendan Perlini has signed a PTO with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers, per a team release. Perlini attended Carolina Hurricanes training camp this season on a PTO but did not earn a contract. With Charlotte, Perlini replaces forward Jonah Gadjovich on their roster, who was snapped up by the Checkers’ NHL affiliate, the Florida Panthers, on a one-year deal yesterday. The 2014 12th overall pick spent last season with the Chicago Wolves, recording ten goals and five assists for 15 points in 26 games. He last appeared in the NHL with the Edmonton Oilers in 2021-22, and it doesn’t look like he’ll be doing so again anytime soon.
This page may be updated throughout the day.
Red Wings Healthy Scratch Jeff Petry
It’s been a strange 14 months for Detroit Red Wings defenseman Jeff Petry. The 35-year-old defenseman was traded in July 2022 by the Montreal Canadiens to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for a package that included defenseman Mike Matheson and forward Ryan Poehling. Petry spent one uneven season with the Penguins only to be traded back to Montreal 13 months later in a salary dump as part of the Erik Karlsson trade. Petry was then flipped to the Red Wings for a fourth-round draft pick and Gustav Lindstrom.
Now, just two games into his time with Detroit, Petry already finds himself a healthy scratch as per the Red Wings X account. Petry was in the press box during the Red Wings 4-0 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight as Detroit dressed six defensemen and 12 forwards for the game.
The Red Wings traded very little to acquire Petry, but it is difficult to understand the logic of the move given how many other NHL veterans are currently signed to play on Detroit’s blue line. The Red Wings made several moves this summer to acquire veteran defensemen with Petry coming into the organization along with Justin Holl and Shayne Gostisbehere.
Petry was a bit of a wild card as he hasn’t been overly effective since the 2020-21 season when he was with the Canadiens and has been shuffled through multiple organizations in that time. Last year in Pittsburgh he wasn’t terrible, but he wasn’t particularly good either, which prompted the Penguins to make the Karlsson move to replace Petry and add more power to their offense.
In his first two games in Detroit, Petry has really struggled posting no points and a -2 while averaging 16:44 of ice time. A dramatic decline from the 22:14 he has averaged throughout his career. While his ice time is down substantially, his play hasn’t warranted additional ice time as he has found himself on the wrong side of puck possession more often than not in the first two games.
How Detroit handles their defense going forward could make for interesting theatre. Moritz Seider and Jake Walman aren’t coming out of the lineup for Petry and given their play as of late it seems unlikely that Olli Maatta or Gostisbehere are coming out of the lineup either. The likeliest candidate is Holl, but like Petry, he was just brought in this summer, and it wouldn’t be a great look to scratch him after a handful of games.
Detroit has alternated using six or seven defensemen this season and may continue to do so with the logjam in their defensive core. However, constantly sitting newly acquired veterans is often frowned upon and could lead to some bitter feelings among veterans.
Anthony Mantha A Healthy Scratch For Washington
The Washington Capitals announced tonight that they’ve made former 25-goal scorer Anthony Mantha a healthy scratch for their game against the Calgary Flames. The forward has struggled with the Capitals since coming over from the Detroit Red Wings in an ill-fated 2021 trade for Jakub Vrana and Richard Panik.
Less than a decade ago, the 29-year-old looked like he would blossom into a perennial 30-goal threat as he posted 25 goals in 67 games during the 2018-19 season. He continued his torrid pace in 2019-20 posting 38 points in 43 games during an injury-marred campaign.
The following offseason the Red Wings signed Mantha to a four-year extension with a $5.7MM cap hit that began to look like a misfire almost immediately. Mantha returned from injury and was never able to get back to the level of play he enjoyed from 2017-2019 as he registered just 11 goals and 10 assists in 42 games before he was dealt to Washington at the NHL trade deadline.
After the move to D.C. Mantha posted slightly improved offensive numbers with 13 goals and 18 assists in his first 51 games as a member of the Capitals. However, last season his point totals fell off a cliff as he had just 11 goals and 27 points in 67 games.
Mantha’s struggles led to speculation that he could be bought out this past June, however, the Capitals elected to keep the forward for the final season of his contract and put him on the trade block to see if they could find him a change of scenery. Nothing materialized on the trade front, which isn’t shocking given how difficult it was to move salary this summer.
The healthy scratch of Mantha early in the season is interesting for several reasons. It shows that the Capitals’ new head coach Spencer Carbery isn’t afraid to sit veterans to ice the best lineup possible, but it also serves as a reminder that Mantha is unlikely to remain in Washington beyond this season. Teams usually like to spend ten games assessing what they have before they decide on a direction for the season but given what has transpired with him over the last year in Washington it appears the Capitals have already made up their mind on the direction to take with Mantha’s future.
Panthers Sign Jonah Gadjovich To One-Year Deal
The Florida Panthers announced today that they’ve signed forward Jonah Gadjovich to a one-year, one-way NHL contract. The 25-year-old native of Whitby, Ontario played with the San Jose Sharks last season where he dressed in 35 games and registered three goals and four assists.
The contract is a nice development for Gadjovich who previously signed in July with Florida’s AHL affiliate the Charlotte Checkers. That was a one-year AHL contract for the former 2017 second-round pick, but it likely contained an out clause allowing him to sign in the NHL with Charlotte’s parent club.
Gadjovich was non-tendered by the Sharks after last season in a move that wasn’t all that surprising given that he was due a qualifying offer of $787,500 and hadn’t produced much offense in the NHL. While he won’t fill the net for Florida, he will offer some sandpaper to the Panthers. Last season Gadjovich threw 92 hits in the NHL while playing less than nine minutes a night in just 35 games. And while those types of hit numbers usually indicate a player who’s chasing the puck, his underlying analytics don’t paint that picture.
The biggest knock on Gadjovich has been his inability to stay on the ice. Over the last two seasons with San Jose, he dressed in just 78 games and found himself out with injury four separate times. The Panthers are hoping that the big forward can have a change of injury luck and become a rugged fixture in the bottom six for the remainder of this season.
Canadiens’ Kirby Dach Out Long-Term With Lower-Body Injury
4:04 PM: It has been reported that Dach suffered a torn ACL and MCL in his knee. He will undergo further testing to officially determine the injury soon.
10:39 AM: Montreal Canadiens forward Kirby Dach is expected to miss “significant” time with a lower-body injury, Sportsnet’s Eric Engels reports. Dach sustained the injury in Saturday’s win against the Chicago Blackhawks after he was on the receiving end of a large hit from Blackhawks defenseman Jarred Tinordi.
Dach, 22, looks like a future top-six fixture for the Habs – if he can stay healthy. He recorded 14 goals, 24 assists and 38 points in 58 games in 2022-23 – his first season in Montreal – a career-high pace of 54 points in a full season. The 2019 third-overall pick of the Chicago Blackhawks logged two assists through his first two games this season, but it appears he’ll need to wait a while to add to that total.
Dach missed 16 games at the tail end of last season with another lower-body injury. In his absence, another young forward on the cusp of a breakout, Alex Newhook, will center the team’s second line. Montreal acquired Newhook from the Colorado Avalanche this summer in exchange for a first- and second-round pick as well as defense prospect Gianni Fairbrother.
Montreal hopes this isn’t a sign of things to come. The team lost over 600 man-games to injury last season, believed to be an NHL all-time record. For a team hyper-focused on the development of their young core, this is far from an ideal situation.
With Dach out of the lineup, look for the Habs to place him on injured reserve and make a corresponding recall of a forward from AHL Laval. They now have just 12 healthy forwards on the roster.
Snapshots: Lindgren, Schmid, Mermis
Charlie Lindgren has been announced as day-to-day with an undisclosed injury, after prematurely leaving the team’s Monday practice. Lindgren played the entirety of Washington’s recent game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, saving 31 of the 35 shots that he faced. Lindgren is in the second year of a three-year, $3.3MM contract with the Capitals. He played in 31 games last season, starting in 26, recording a 13-11-3 record and a .899 save percentage.
Washington has recalled Clay Stevenson in response to Lindgren’s injury. Stevenson has appeared in two games for the AHL’s Hershey Bears so far this season, recording a split record and .900 save percentage. Washington signed Stevenson out of Dartmouth College at the end of the 2021-22 season. He appeared in 36 ECHL games last season, recording a .916 save percentage.
Other notes from around the league:
- There have reportedly yet to be talks of a contract extension between the New Jersey Devils and goaltender Akira Schmid. This report comes after Elliotte Friedman speculated whether extension talks have started yet, as the Devils have shown a pattern of wanting to extend younger players earlier in the season. Schmid has played in one game this season, allowing three goals and recording an overtime loss.
- The Athletic’s Michael Russo expects the Wild to send defender Dakota Mermis to the AHL and recall a forward for the team’s upcoming three-game homestand – assuming they get through the final game of their road trip unscathed. The Wild only have $51K in cap space, limiting their options to recall. They currently have six forwards with a cap hit equal to, or less than, Mermis, including recent signee Jujhar Khaira.
Pacific Injury Notes: Vlasic, Vegas, Vancouver
William Carrier was spotted in a no-contact jersey at Vegas’ Monday practice, taking reps in his usual fourth-line role. He’s been announced as a game-time decision for the team’s next game. Of note, fellow Golden Knight Alex Pietrangelo was absent from the practice. Pietrangelo had a scary moment in the team’s Thursday night game against the San Jose Sharks when a high hit from Nicolas Hague left the defender bloodied.
Pietrangelo missed the team’s subsequent game and was announced as day-to-day, although the exact nature of the injury wasn’t disclosed. It appears he’s still grappling with this ailment as the team prepares for their October 17th game. Pietrangelo has recorded one point through two appearances so far this season. Kaedan Korczak stepped in for the injured Pietrangelo, playing in 14 minutes in the alternate captain’s absence.
Vegas has also sent Jonas Rondbjerg to the AHL, now that Brett Howden‘s suspension has expired.
Other Pacific Division injury notes:
- Curtis Pashelka of the San Jose Mercury News has shared that defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic won’t play in the team’s Tuesday night matchup against the Carolina Hurricanes. Vlasic missed the team’s Monday morning practice, after sustaining a lower-body injury in the first period of the Sharks’ Saturday night game against the Colorado Avalanche. Vlasic scored 18 points in 78 games for the Sharks during the 2022-23 season, his 17th season with the club.
- Vancouver head coach Rick Tocchet shared optimism on Ilya Mikheyev‘s injury, saying there’s a chance he will play on the team’s upcoming four-game road trip. Tocchet also shared that Carson Soucy will be a game-time decision for the team’s upcoming match against the Flyers.
Seattle Forward Brandon Tanev Out Four-To-Six Weeks
The Seattle Kraken have announced that forward Brandon Tanev will miss the next four to six weeks with a lower-body injury. This injury was suffered in Seattle’s October 10th matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights. Tanev appeared in 10 minutes of that game, before taking an illegal check to the head from Vegas’ Brett Howden. Howden received a two-game suspension for this hit.
This is difficult news for Tanev, who was heavily limited during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons, playing fewer than 35 games in each year. His 2020-21 season was cut short with upper-body injuries and a bout with COVID-19, and an ACL tear ended his 2021-22 campaign.
But despite past injuries, Tanev was able to appear in all 82 games for the Kraken last season. He tallied 16 goals and 35 points in that span, both career-highs. He also added 44 penalty minutes in those games, while playing in just over 14 minutes of ice time. Tanev was a stout member of Seattle’s roster, even earning a top-30 nomination for the 2023 Selke Award. This was the third time that Tanev has received Selke votes in his nine-year NHL career, speaking to the value he brings to an NHL lineup.
Seattle has yet to make any roster moves in response to Tanev’s long-term injury designation. Tye Kartye has served as the fill-in since Tanev’s injury, representing the first two games that he’s played during an NHL regular season. Kartye appeared in 10 postseason games with the Kraken this Spring, netting five points. He has yet to score this season but seems to be the team’s current go-to in Tanev’s absence.
Atlantic Notes: Heineman, Fabbri, Sourdif
Montreal Canadiens forward prospect Emil Heineman is out indefinitely with an upper-body injury, per an announcement from their AHL affiliate, the Laval Rocket.
Heineman, 21, is one of the better prospects in the Canadiens’ system and was knocking on the door for a lineup spot after a strong training camp. After finishing out the 2022-23 season with his club in Sweden, Leksands IF, Heineman came over to North America and notched seven goals and nine points in 11 games with Laval down the stretch. He had an assist through two games with Laval this season before sustaining the injury. Dobber Prospects has Heineman ranked as the team’s third-best left-wing prospect behind 2022 first-overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky and Harvard product Sean Farrell.
A versatile, well-rounded forward, Heineman can comfortably slot in on either wing and in any role. He’s got a beast of a shot, too, hinted at when he notched 26 goals in 29 games during his draft year for Leksand’s U20 team. He’s the second young Habs player to get bad injury news today, joining center Kirby Dach as a player with high hopes in Montreal out long-term.
Some more notes from the Atlantic Division:
- The Detroit Red Wings were down a forward on Saturday as Robby Fabbri was held out of the lineup with an undisclosed injury, necessitating the recall of Zach Aston-Reese (who’s since been returned to the AHL). It doesn’t appear he’ll miss much more time, however. EP Rinkside’s Sean Shapiro reports Fabbri was in attendance for Detroit’s morning skate today and is nearing a return, although he’s not projected to draw into the lineup Monday night against the Blue Jackets. Injuries have limited Fabbri’s performance for nearly his entire career, and the winger has played just 85 out of 166 games since the 2021-22 campaign. He did notch a goal in 14:44 of ice time in the team’s season-opening loss to the Devils last week.
- A third Florida Panther is expected to make his NHL debut this season. 21-year-old Justin Sourdif will draw into the lineup tonight against the Devils instead of another rookie, Mackie Samoskevich, who will serve as a healthy scratch. Sourdif, the 87th overall selection in the 2020 NHL Draft, made his pro debut just last season, scoring seven goals, 17 assists and 24 points in 48 games with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers. He was a surprise inclusion on the Panthers’ opening night roster this year, and he’ll now get the chance to show what he can do at the NHL level skating alongside Nick Cousins and Anton Lundell on the team’s third line.