Florida Panthers Recall Grigori Denisenko
After waiving Zac Dalpe over the weekend, the Florida Panthers have replaced him on the roster with Grigori Denisenko. The young forward is expected to play with Eetu Luostarinen and Nick Cousins this afternoon when the Panthers take on the Buffalo Sabres.
Denisenko, 22, was the 15th overall pick in 2018 but still hasn’t done anything to establish himself at the NHL level. In 14 career games, spread across parts of three seasons, the Russian winger has failed to score a single goal and has just five points for his troubles.
Even in the minor leagues things haven’t gone according to plan. Denisenko has just 18 points in 32 games with the Charlotte Checkers this season, the same total he had in 2021-22.
There’s still time for him to find a place in Florida, but the high hopes that followed his draft year have fizzled out. Instead of a top-line player, the Panthers will have to hope they can just coax an NHL regular out of Denisenko. Perhaps that starts today with this latest recall, though with Anthony Duclair set to return relatively soon, it may not be an extended one.
Florida is going to need to make some additional roster moves to fit in Duclair’s salary, and Denisenko’s waiver-exempt status makes him a ripe option to be sent back down when they need the room.
Morning Moves: Luukkonen, Blidh, Heinola
The shuffle in Buffalo continues, as the Sabres recall Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen once again. Peyton Krebs is the player headed back to the Rochester Americans this time. Luukkonen is the starter for Buffalo still, but as the only waiver-exempt goalie on the roster is moved down between appearances.
The young goaltender showed on Saturday exactly why they are going through all the trouble. He stopped 38 of 41 shots to outduel Juuse Saros for the win against the Nashville Predators, taking the Sabres to 21-18-2 on the year. They begin a back-to-back situation today with an important game against the Florida Panthers, a team they are competing with directly in the Atlantic Division.
- Anton Blidh is back up for the Colorado Avalanche, after last appearing more than a month ago. The 27-year-old forward has failed to score in his nine NHL appearances so far, and has just nine points in 23 games for the Colorado Eagles. He represents nothing more than a fourth-line replacement for this afternoon’s game against the Detroit Red Wings.
- The Winnipeg Jets have swapped Jansen Harkins and Ville Heinola again, recalling the latter. Harkins was up while several forwards dealt with an illness, but will head back to continue his strong play for the Manitoba Moose. Heinola, who still has only 33 NHL appearances spread over four seasons, will try to get back into the lineup with the Jets on a more regular basis.
Anaheim Ducks Recall Nathan Beaulieu From Conditioning Stint
Jan 16: It didn’t last quite the maximum of 14 days, as Beaulieu was recalled today by the Ducks. He played in four games with the San Diego Gulls, recording his first AHL goal in years.
Jan 5: After playing just a few days ago, Anaheim Ducks defenseman Nathan Beaulieu has now been curiously sent to the AHL on a conditioning loan. He’ll join the San Diego Gulls for the time being, with the loan lasting a maximum of two weeks.
Beaulieu, 30, received 15 shifts in Monday’s loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, his 22nd appearance of the season. Nothing has really gone well for the Ducks this year but Beaulieu’s play specifically has been lacking, with the defenseman rarely impacting things in a positive manner. He has a -12 rating in his 22 games, despite only averaging 13 minutes a night.
The curious part is that conditioning loans are usually only for players who have missed a good amount of time due to injury or those that have faced several healthy scratches in a row. While Beaulieu did miss yesterday’s game, against the Dallas Stars and two last week, he has been dressed relatively frequently so far.
Sending him on a conditioning loan doesn’t clear a roster spot the same way a regular loan would. For the latter, he would need to clear waivers, though it’s hard to believe there would be a ton of interest in claiming him, given his $850K salary and struggles this season.
Regardless of why the Ducks did it, Beaulieu will get the chance to play in the minor leagues for the first time in years. He hasn’t appeared in an AHL game since the 2014-15 season with the Hamilton Bulldogs, while still a part of the Montreal Canadiens organization. For his career, Beaulieu has 441 NHL regular season appearances and has recorded 97 points.
Carolina Hurricanes Reassign Pyotr Kochetkov
With all three goaltenders healthy, the Carolina Hurricanes had to make a decision. Since Pyotr Kochetkov is still waiver-exempt, he’s the one on the way out. The young netminder has been reassigned to the minor leagues, despite his strong performance so far this year.
This certainly won’t make many Hurricanes fans happy, as of the three – Kochetkov, Antti Raanta, and Frederik Andersen – there has been only one consistent presence. Andersen has a .903 save percentage in just ten appearances, while Raanta has an .894 despite having one of the strongest defensive teams in the league playing ahead of him.
Kochetkov, 23, has a .913 through 19 games, losing just four of them in regulation. That earned him a four-year extension a few months ago, one that locks him into a roster spot in the future.
Not yet, though, as he now heads back to the Chicago Wolves for the time being. The club will go with an Andersen-Raanta tandem.
If there’s a silver lining for Kochetkov fans, it’s that those veteran goaltenders have never really shown the ability to stay healthy for long. Their combined history suggests that the young netminder will be back up before long, and could very well be the starting goaltender again by the time the playoffs roll around.
Minnesota Wild Extend Matt Boldy
The Minnesota Wild have some good news for fans on a Monday morning. Matt Boldy has signed a seven-year extension, keeping him locked up through the 2029-30 season. The $49MM deal will carry an average annual value of $7MM and avoids any restricted free agency with the young forward. It does not include any signing bonuses. PuckPedia has the full breakdown:
- 2023-24: $8.0MM
- 2024-25: $9.7MM
- 2025-26: $7.7MM
- 2026-27: $6.0MM
- 2027-28: $5.96MM
- 2028-29: $5.82MM + 10-team NTC
- 2029-30: $5.82MM + 10-team NTC
It’s hard to find a more worthwhile young player to extend around the league, as Boldy has been excellent for Minnesota since the moment he entered the lineup. Last season as a rookie, skating mostly beside Kevin Fiala, Boldy managed 39 points in 47 games. He was credited as a huge reason why his linemate finally reached a consistent performance, and it helped Fiala land a massive contract of his own.
This time around, he hasn’t had quite the same level of offensive teammates, most often hitting the ice with 29-year-old undrafted center Frederick Gaudreau. Still, Boldy has 12 goals and 29 points in 42 games, good enough for fourth on the Wild.
While those numbers are down a bit from last year, there’s no one that doubts Boldy anymore. The 12th overall pick from 2019 is a good bet to be a core piece of Minnesota’s attack for the next decade, and they got an early jump on extending him in order to save some money down the line.
Of course, given his youth, it will seem like quite a hefty expenditure. Boldy, 21, becomes the fourth-highest-paid 23-and-under player in the league, only trailing Tim Stutzle, Jack Hughes, and Andrei Svechnikov. Those are big names to follow, but there’s plenty of optimism that he’ll quickly outpace a $7MM price tag.
Notably, despite the excitement, the Wild are going to have some tough decisions to make now. The team now has more than $74MM committed to just 14 players for next season, with several RFAs still to go. Calen Addison, for instance, will be in line for a hefty raise after his breakout season, while Filip Gustavsson, Sam Steel, Brandon Duhaime, and Mason Shaw also need new deals.
With the buyout penalties for Zach Parise and Ryan Suter actually increasing for the next two years, the team is going to need to cut money elsewhere.
Still, Boldy represents a big part of the future of the Wild, and is now locked in at a reasonable rate. If the salary cap does take a substantial jump in a few years, and he continues to develop, it could even look like a bargain.
Five Key Stories: 1/9/23 – 1/15/23
While we’re still a little while away from the trade market picking up, there was still quite a bit of notable news around the hockey world which is recapped here in our key stories.
Pearson Done For The Year: Canucks winger Tanner Pearson was supposed to be back by now after suffering a hand injury in early November. Instead of returning, however, he’s now out for the season after undergoing another surgery. On top of that, there are now investigations by both the team and the NHLPA over how Vancouver handled the situation following reports that multiple other surgeries will be needed that now has Pearson’s availability for next season in question. His season comes to a premature end with just 14 games played and he will now sit on LTIR through the end of the campaign. Pearson has one year remaining on his contract with a $3.25MM AAV and it’s worth noting that injured players can’t be bought out.
Ekman-Larsson Scratched: Pearson’s situation wasn’t the only notable item out of Vancouver. On top of more speculation about an eventual coaching change, the Canucks decided to scratch their key offseason acquisition from 2021 in Oliver Ekman-Larsson. The blueliner has struggled offensively this season and has just a single goal in 41 games while his defensive play has also lagged as well. Originally acquired from Arizona in a move that was designed to help the Canucks win in the short term, Ekman-Larsson hasn’t been able to help accomplish that objective while he is signed through 2026-27 with a $7.26MM AAV on Vancouver’s books (Arizona is covering another $990K per year).
Four For Zacha: The Bruins have a long list of pending unrestricted free agents for next summer including several core players. That list has shrunk by one as the team announced that they’ve signed Pavel Zacha to a four-year contract extension that begins next season and contains partial trade protection in each year. The deal will carry a $4.75MM AAV, a nice raise for the 25-year-old who is on a $3.5MM deal for 2022-23. This is Zacha’s first year in Boston where he has fit in well, collecting 25 points in 42 games and is just four assists shy of matching his career high. While he has mostly played on the wing this season, Zacha is a natural center so keeping him around will give Boston a bit of certainty down the middle with both Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci also having their contracts set to expire this summer.
More Injuries: Florida won the Presidents’ Trophy last season but things haven’t gone as well for the Panthers this year as they find themselves five points out of a playoff spot entering Sunday’s action. They’ll now try to close that gap without their promising young goaltender as the team placed Spencer Knight on IR with an undisclosed injury. Knight has taken some playing time away from veteran Sergei Bobrovsky and has a save percentage that is ten points higher than Bobrovsky so missing Knight will certainly make their battle a little tougher. Meanwhile, not long after returning to Montreal’s lineup from a lower-body injury, winger Brendan Gallagher will now miss at least six weeks with a lower-body issue. The 30-year-old has just four goals and five assists in 25 games this season, hardly the return the Canadiens were hoping for on a $6.5MM cap hit that runs through the 2026-27 campaign.
Midterm Rankings: The 2023 draft class is being hyped as one of the stronger ones in recent memory and the midterm rankings from NHL Central Scouting have been released. Unsurprisingly, center Connor Bedard leads the way for North American skaters with middlemen Adam Fantilli and Will Smith behind him. On the European skater side, there is a new number one as center Leo Carlsson is in the top spot with winger Matvei Michkov second and defender Axel Sandin Pellikka third. Between the pipes, Carson Bjarnason and Alexander Hellnemo are the top-rated goalies in North America and Europe respectively.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Golden Knights Recall Jonas Rondbjerg
With William Carrier being out with an upper-body injury, the Golden Knights needed to bring up a replacement. As Ben Gotz of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports (Twitter link), that replacement is winger Jonas Rondbjerg who has been recalled from Henderson of the AHL on an emergency basis.
It’s the fifth recall in less than six weeks for the 23-year-old who hasn’t yet been able to establish himself as a regular in the lineup for Vegas. Rondbjerg has played in nine games with the Golden Knights this season and has been held off the scoresheet while averaging just over ten minutes per night. He cleared waivers back in training camp which is notable here as once he plays in that tenth game, he’ll require waivers to go back down.
However, that hasn’t been the case with the Silver Knights. Rondbjerg has ten goals and nine assists in 29 games at the minor league level, sitting second on Henderson in goals. He put up similar numbers last season with 14 goals and 13 helpers in 39 contests so it’s just a matter of finding a way to bring that to the NHL.
Vegas now has a full 23-man roster. However, if they need to free up a spot, they can do so by shifting Mark Stone to injured reserve with the veteran set to be out on a week-to-week basis.
Gino Odjick Passes Away At 52
Unfortunately, there’s some very sad news to report on this Sunday. Legendary Vancouver Canucks enforcer and fan favorite Gino Odjick has passed away at 52, according to the team.
Odjick played in 444 games with the Canucks between 1990 and 1998 and was a member of the team that reached the 1994 Stanley Cup Final. He made a strong impression after being drafted in the fifth round in 1990, making the team the following year as a 20-year-old and playing 45 games.
Odjick’s best offensive season came during the 1994 run, where he chipped in a career-high 16 goals and 29 points. Throughout stops with the New York Islanders, Philadelphia Flyers, and Montreal Canadiens, Odjick maintained a hard-nosed game that resulted in 2,567 career penalty minutes in just 605 NHL games.
Vancouver Canucks chairman Francesco Aquilini spoke on the devastating news:
Gino was a fan-favourite from the moment he joined the organization, putting his heart and soul into every shift on and off the ice. He inspired many and embodied what it means to be a Canuck. Personally, he was a close friend and confidant, someone I could lean on for advice and support. He will be deeply missed.
He will be sorely missed by the Canucks community, and the PHR team sends their absolute best wishes to the Odjick family.
Injury Notes: Tarasenko, Avalanche, Carrier
Originally slated to be out for at least a month, St. Louis Blues star winger Vladimir Tarasenko could be back in the lineup sooner than expected. Lou Korac of NHL.com and Inside the Blues reports that Tarasenko was a full participant in Blues practice on Sunday morning, just two weeks after sustaining a hand injury on New Year’s Eve.
Now 31, Tarasenko is having another solid season after missing the majority of play between 2019 and 2021 with injuries. While he’s not on his point-per-game-plus pace from last season, he does have a respectable ten goals and 29 points in 34 games. The six-time 30-goal scorer could be important trade bait for the Blues in March if they continue to slip out of the playoff race.
- While injury news for the Colorado Avalanche has been rather bleak, there was a tidbit of good news today when head coach Jared Bednar told reporters that Valeri Nichushkin is “potentially” an option tomorrow when they host the Detroit Red Wings. He’s been limited to 15 games this season but has played extraordinarily well when healthy, recording seven goals and 16 points. The news wasn’t so positive for Darren Helm, however, who’s re-injured the lower-body ailment that caused him to miss the start of the season. The team isn’t positive that Helm will return to play in 2022-23.
- The Vegas Golden Knights will be without forward William Carrier tomorrow, as he has an upper-body injury that will keep him out against Dallas. Carrier seemed to sustain the injury late in yesterday’s tough loss against the Edmonton Oilers. He’s already set a career-high in goals, scoring 11 times in 43 games in largely a fourth-line role to provide important depth scoring.
Tampa Bay Lightning Assign Rudolfs Balcers On Conditioning Stint
The Tampa Bay Lightning assigned forward Rudolfs Balcers to the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch today on a conditioning stint, according to a team release.
The move signifies Balcers could be close to returning from an upper-body injury that has kept him out of the lineup since Thanksgiving. Claimed on waivers earlier in the season from their intrastate rival Florida Panthers, Balcers has suited up just three times for his new team.
It has been a very tough go of things for Balcers in 2022-23. He was somewhat of a surprise free agent, left unqualified by the San Jose Sharks after a respectable 23 points in 61 games last season. Florida picked Balcers up but then waived him after he scored twice in 14 games. He’s added one goal in his three Lightning appearances.
This figures to be Balcers’ first AHL action since 2019-20 as a member of the Ottawa Senators organization. He scored 36 goals in 33 games with AHL Belleville, and he’ll hope to keep up strong numbers in a short stint with Syracuse to show the Lightning he’s still ready for NHL action.