Nashville Predators Sign Nolan Burke
The Nashville Predators have landed an interesting undrafted free agent, signing Nolan Burke to a three-year entry-level contract. The young forward is currently tearing it up with the Sarnia Sting of the OHL, where he will remain for the rest of this season.
Burke, 19, has 15 goals in 16 games with Sarnia this season and appears to be a classic late-bloomer. After recording 13 total points through his first two years of OHL action, he exploded last year with 34 goals and 59 points in 64 games. Passed over twice in the draft, the Predators just couldn’t overlook his performance so far this season and have taken the gamble of an entry-level deal.
As CapFriendly points out, despite still being 19, Burke’s contract will not actually slide forward, meaning the first year will be burned in 2022-23. That’s because he turns 20 in December, meaning he will count toward the 50-contract limit right away. It will also mean that he isn’t eligible for this year’s World Junior squad, something that he potentially could have played his way onto with an incredible goal pace.
Either way, the young center now has an NHL deal in hand and an organization to join at the end of the year. Burke will likely join the Milwaukee Admirals for a short stint once his OHL season ends.
Jake Muzzin Out Indefinitely With Cervical Spine Injury
The Toronto Maple Leafs aren’t getting Jake Muzzin back for a while. Toronto announced today that Muzzin is dealing with a cervical spine injury and is out indefinitely. His status will be re-evaluated in late February. Meanwhile, the team has also placed T.J. Brodie on injured reserve with an oblique injury and recalled Mac Hollowell and Pontus Holmberg from the minor leagues.
Muzzin, 33, has suffered several head, neck, and back injuries over the last few years, leading to his early exit from multiple playoff series and a relatively low number of regular season appearances. In 47 games last year he registered just 14 points, the lowest total of his career, and he failed to make it through even four contests this season before suffering this latest injury.
It hasn’t even been limited to his time in the NHL. Muzzin suffered a serious back injury in minor hockey as well, causing him to miss the entire 2005-06 season after being drafted 11th overall by the Soo Greyhounds in the OHL Priority Selection. While he would return from that injury and play a partial season for the Greyhounds in 2006-07, it caused him to fall considerably in NHL drafts, with the Pittsburgh Penguins eventually taking him 141st overall.
A warrior who can play a physical game but also contribute offensively, he would eventually become captain of the Greyhounds and quickly make his way to the NHL, winning a Stanley Cup with the Los Angeles Kings in 2014. By 2015 he was playing with Canada at the World Championship (where he won gold) and then again at the World Cup in 2016 (where he won gold).
Now, with his career seemingly in jeopardy, he sits at 683 regular season games and 294 career points. Muzzin received votes for the Norris Trophy in both 2016 and 2019, finishing 11th in the latter.
Though they would certainly rather a healthy, effective Muzzin in the lineup, his placement on LTIR earlier this season did open up some flexibility for the Maple Leafs. They still have quite a few question marks on the back end (especially with Brodie now out of the lineup) but inserted Jordie Benn over the weekend to add some extra physicality (and apparently, game-winning goals). If Muzzin is going to spend the entire season on the shelf, it would allow them to make an acquisition of some sort.
Philadelphia Flyers Recall Max Willman
The Philadelphia Flyers have made a roster swap, recalling Max Willman from the minor leagues while assigning Tanner Laczynski back to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the AHL. He’ll be joined there by Patrick Brown, who has been loaned on a long-term injury conditioning assignment as he approaches a return.
Willman, 27, will potentially give the team a better replacement for Wade Allison, who left a game on the weekend. Charlie O’Connor of The Athletic reported that initial tests suggested that it wasn’t overly serious, but he missed yesterday’s game against the Dallas Stars.
In that game, the Flyers actually played decent but were blown out of the building by special teams, allowing two powerplay and one shorthanded goal to the Stars. Laczynski, who played just nine minutes, doesn’t contribute to either of those. Whether Willman gets a chance to kill penalties remains to be seen but it is Brown that could really help on that side of the ice.
Brown won 58.5% of his faceoffs last season and averaged nearly two minutes of short-handed ice time in his 44 appearances. While those games resulted in just nine points, he could give the team another useful body to put in the bottom six. Willman, meanwhile, had just six points in 41 games last season and was rarely used shorthanded. The conditioning loan does not mean Brown has been activated from LTIR, only that he is ready to get into some game action to test out his recovery.
Five Key Stories: 11/7/22 – 11/13/22
As is often the case in the early going of the season, most of the biggest news from the past seven days came on the injury front although it wasn’t all bad news in that regard.
Done For The Year: The Blue Jackets have had a lot of tough luck when it comes to injuries over the first month of the season and they got their worst news yet as Zach Werenski is out for the season after suffering a separated shoulder and a torn labrum against Philadelphia. The 25-year-old has been the number one defender for Columbus for the last several years and he had gotten off to a decent start to his campaign with three goals and five assists in his first 13 games and was logging over 25 minutes a night before suffering the injury (which dragged his ATOI below the 24-minute mark). On top of that, his playing partner Nick Blankenburg fractured his ankle in the same game and will be out for six to eight weeks himself.
Avoiding Surgery: A few weeks ago, it looked like the Senators were going to be without their top center, Josh Norris, potentially for the rest of the season as he was expected to undergo shoulder surgery. Instead, after consulting with five doctors and two specialists, that’s no longer the plan as he won’t go under the knife and instead will just rehab for the time being with a reassessment scheduled for January. Potentially getting the 23-year-old back at some point in the second half of the season would be huge for an Ottawa team that has struggled out of the gate as they find themselves at the bottom of the Atlantic Division.
Kane To LTIR: It was a scary sight in Tampa Bay where Edmonton was playing on Tuesday as winger Evander Kane suffered a skate laceration to the wrist after winger Pat Maroon inadvertently cut it. He underwent successful emergency surgery but will still be out for the bulk of the season as he’ll miss at least the next three to four months with the Oilers quickly transferring him to LTIR. It’s a huge loss for Edmonton as Kane was fitting in quite nicely in his first full season with the team, picking up 13 points in 14 games while logging over 19 minutes a night on their top line. Forwards Mattias Janmark and Klim Kostin were recalled from the minors with the freed-up cap space but with Kane likely to return before the end of the season, the Oilers won’t be able to go out and acquire a more prominent replacement as they’ll need to be cap-compliant in order to activate Kane later on.
No World Cup In 2024: Getting away from the injury news for a moment, the NHL and NHLPA jointly announced that the World Cup of Hockey that was scheduled to be held in 2024 will no longer be staged, citing an infeasibility to hold the event in the current environment. That current environment pertains to Russia and Belarus currently being banned from international play which would have made it difficult to have players from those countries participate in a true best-on-best event. For now, the plan is to instead have the event in 2025. The last time the World Cup of Hockey was held was back in 2016, an eight-team event that featured a young North American squad as well as a Team Europe.
Surgery For Nichushkin: On top of being without Gabriel Landeskog, the Avalanche lost another one of their top wingers when Valeri Nichushkin underwent successful ankle surgery that will keep him out of the lineup for a month. The 27-year-old had gotten off to a very strong start to his season, his first on his eight-year deal, notching seven goals in as many games while chipping in with five assists, good for fifth in the league in points per game heading into Sunday’s action. Unfortunately for him and the Avs, that hot start has now been derailed for a little while at least as their forward depth starts to get tested.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
East Notes: Lajoie, Okposo, Zub
The Hurricanes have brought up some extra defensive depth, announcing the recall of Maxime Lajoie from AHL Chicago. The 25-year-old has seen NHL action in three of the last four seasons, including getting into five games with Carolina in 2021-22 although the bulk of his playing time came back in 2018-19 when he played in 56 contests with Ottawa. This year, Lajoie has played in ten games with the Wolves, picking up four assists. Calvin de Haan was banged up in yesterday’s matchup against Edmonton and it would seem that Lajoie will be up as some insurance in case the veteran isn’t able to play in their next game on Monday. Dylan Coghlan is also on the roster and could be inserted into the lineup if de Haan misses any time.
More from the Eastern Conference:
- Last night’s contest against Boston won’t be the only one that Sabres captain Kyle Okposo misses as Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News notes that the veteran is likely to miss at least a couple more games. For now, the plan is for the 34-year-old to rest for a few days and then re-evaluate him from there. Okposo is off to a nice start to his season with nine points in his first 14 games.
- While the Senators were hoping to have defenseman Artem Zub back by now, it appears that he’ll be out a little while longer. Speaking to TSN 1200 earlier today (audio link), head coach D.J. Smith indicated that the 27-year-old is behind schedule but that he should be able to return by the end of the upcoming week. Zub is a pending unrestricted free agent and was averaging just shy of 22 minutes a game before sustaining an upper-body injury last month.
PHR Mailbag: Kings, Predators, Change Of Scenery Candidates, Blues, Hall Of Fame, Avalanche, Bruins
Topics in this edition of the PHR Mailbag include the early-season struggles for multiple Western Conference teams, possible trade candidates, the Hockey Hall of Fame, and more. If your question doesn’t appear here, watch for it in next weekend’s mailbag column.
J.H.: Could you see the Kings making a change from McLellan if their defensive, structural issues lead to a prolonged slump? The added offense is nice, but the breakdowns, turnovers, and various other miscues have cost them several games. System issues like that probably shouldn’t be happening now in year four, especially since there are actual expectations for this team after last year’s playoff appearance. Are there any other potential coaching changes you could foresee that would be surprising yet plausible like that?
bigalval: Kings have given up the most goals of any team what is wrong with them?
Let’s put the Los Angeles questions together. First, it’s worth noting that they’ve won three straight since the first one was posted which might change things up a bit. I don’t think McLellan’s future is overly secure as yes, there are some structural issues and if you look at his last job with Edmonton, this was around the time when they made a change. But thanks to that three-game win streak, they’re in the top three in the Western Conference so they’re likely not leaning towards making a move.
If I was going to speculate about a coaching change, this feels like a good landing spot for Barry Trotz if he was willing to return. He would fix up some of the defensive breakdowns with his systems although it would likely come at the expense of some scoring, an area where things have been going quite well in the early going. That would also help solve some of the goaltending woes.
One of the concerns I had about the Kings going into this season was between the pipes. Yes, Jonathan Quick had a bounce-back year last season but his last three years were below league average. Accordingly, it was unrealistic to expect that his 2021-22 performance would carry over. It hasn’t. Calvin Petersen had a tough showing last year which was cause for concern this season and his numbers early on are worse than last season. Going into this season with that duo and no demonstrable improvement on the back end (beyond a return to health for Drew Doughty) was risky. Right now, it’s holding them back.
Gbear: The Preds have for the most part looked like a well below-average hockey team so far this season, how long of a rope do you think John Hynes has if this type of play continues?
I think he still has a lot of rope left. GM David Poile is known for being patient and has made a grand total of one in-season coaching change in franchise history, one that dates back to 1998. A slow start alone probably isn’t going to be enough of an indictment to pull the trigger quickly.
How much of their early-season struggles are based on coaching and how much of those struggles are attributable to roster composition? Looking at their roster, there are a lot of fringe or unproven players filling out that lineup. That’s not a good thing.
There’s also the matter of last year having some unsustainable performances. How many think that Matt Duchene and Ryan Johansen will produce at a similar rate this season and beyond? I don’t even think Poile did as his upgrades to the roster were of the free variety, ones that didn’t push in any younger assets as a team with eyes on contending might be willing to do. Poile’s actions this summer were that of a GM that knows his team is a bubble squad.
Right now, the Predators sit near the bottom of the West but aren’t too far out of the playoff race. That’s slightly underachieving but probably not to the point where a coaching change is seriously being considered.
Johnny Z: Where is Bo Horvat going?
Where is Brossoit going?
Will the Sabres go after Kane?
I have a hard time thinking that Vancouver isn’t going to find a way to keep Horvat in the fold. The market rate for centers like him is in the mid-$7MM range and if the Canucks get around there, I think they’d be able to work something out from there. I wonder if they might be waiting to see if they get some sort of indication or an updated estimate of next year’s cap to see if they can afford to give him that extra little bit to get a contract done. I’m not convinced he’s going anywhere unless they really fall out of the mix over the next couple of months and they decide to really shake up the core. If that happens, ask me again closer to the trade deadline.
Laurent Brossoit made it through waivers this week which takes away my original answer of Winnipeg. That is, unless they prefer to trade for him using David Rittich to offset some of the difference in salary; with attendance down, those little differences might matter. Right now, I think he stays put for a little while and gets some regular reps in the minors. If he can do that, stay healthy, and play well, then he becomes a trade candidate with either a little bit of retention or some sort of salary offset for whoever has a goalie go down with a long-term injury over the next month or so. Unfortunately, that makes it next to impossible to predict where he’ll go since we can’t forecast who will have goalie injuries.
Patrick Kane to Buffalo has long been speculated and for obvious reasons. But I still don’t understand the notion of trading for him. They’re probably not making the playoffs and considering he’s a Buffalo native, I don’t think they need to try to sell themselves and the market to him; I’m pretty sure he knows what’s what already. He should be dealt to a legitimate Stanley Cup contender and that’s not Buffalo. Now, come July, the answer should almost certainly be yes. As a free agent, with no cost beyond the contract, Kane would make a lot of sense for the Sabres as a veteran to help drag them from being a non-playoff team into one that should battle for at least a Wild Card spot. But that’s a move for them to make next summer, not before then.
Gmm8811: It’s still early in the season…I usually wait till 20-23 games played to decide if a team needs to be blown up or not. With that being said, what are your thoughts on the Blues dumping players for draft picks? We’ve talked salary cap issues coming up in past conversations…the fact that Armstrong isn’t afraid to let a team favorite go…I think it was a big mistake to give Kyrou and Thomas those huge extensions. Might be time to make some significant moves. 6 mil for Binnington is ridiculous also.
I don’t think St. Louis is at that spot just yet. First, it is still too early to make that type of core shakeup. This is a team that has eyes on contending this season and while they’re at the bottom of the Western Conference, they’re a quick winning streak away from being back in the race. Second, who has cap space to take on a pricey player for a draft pick? 18 teams are currently in LTIR and several of the 14 that aren’t are aiming for the bottom of the standings. That doesn’t create much of a trade market at this point of the season.
We know that GM Doug Armstrong isn’t afraid to shake things up but there’s a different element at play now. With those big extensions to Jordan Kyrou and Robert Thomas kicking in next season, that squad is likely to be weaker than this one. In other words, this is probably the last real kick at the can for this core group. It’s one thing to part with a core player within the context of knowing that the core is still good enough to contend for a little while longer but they can’t say that here.
Is a rough stretch to start the season enough to kickstart what could be a rebuild? Probably not. Don’t get me wrong, if they’re still at the bottom of the conference come midseason, then Armstrong will almost certainly be laying the foundation for trades at the deadline (as again, cap situations around the league make big trades before that point less likely). But that’s a decision to make at the 45-game mark, not 15.
If you want some reason for optimism, the Blues’ shooting percentage suggests they’re due for some good bounces to get closer to that league average. Jordan Binnington might not be worthy of a $6MM AAV but he’s a better goalie than he has shown so far. A better performance from him, a bit more puck luck on the goal side, and this St. Louis team is probably at least back in the mix over the next couple of months.
Snapshots: Allison, Huberdeau, Kravtsov
As the Philadelphia Flyers look for building blocks for the future, one name that has seemed to be part of the answer is forward Wade Allison, who won a spot on head coach John Tortorella’s squad out of training camp. Unfortunately for the Flyers and Allison, the 25-year-old suffered what appeared to be a painful injury in Saturday’s loss to the Ottawa Senators. After throwing a hit on Ottawa’s Jacob Bernard-Docker, Allison fell to the ice and needed assistance getting off the ice and did not return to the game.
No update had been made available heading into this afternoon’s matchup with the Dallas Stars, the only clue Allison wasn’t playing being that he didn’t take warmups. However, The Athletic’s Charlie O’Connor was able to provide an update part-way through the game. According to O’Connor, the injury doesn’t look to be incredibly serious and the initial prognosis is that the forward will not have to miss too much time, though things are subject to change. That update is surely positive news for Allison, as he looks to make him imprint on this next generation of Flyers.
- Jonathan Huberdeau, who has missed the last three games with a lower-body injury, skated with the Calgary Flames this morning, reports Sportsnet’s Pat Steinberg. The nature of the injury had been a bit unclear, however Steinberg adds that Huberdeau said he had blocked a shot during Monday’s loss to the New York Islanders, causing his foot to swell up. The winger added that the foot is fine now and he plans to start wearing shot blockers on his feet going forward. Even though Huberdeau’s early performance this season has been underwhelming, Calgary will need him to produce if they want to get back on track themselves, and that won’t be able to happen until the superstar rejoins the lineup. Right now, the Flames are preparing to host the Los Angeles Kings tomorrow night, but there’s still no official confirmation on Huberdeau’s return, though Huberdeau himself appears confident he’ll be playing, per his media availability. After tomorrow, Calgary departs for a six-game road trip which begins Thursday.
- According to head coach Gerard Gallant, New York Rangers forward Vitali Kravtsov, who missed yesterday’s game at the Nashville Predators with an illness, will be out of the lineup tonight at home against the Arizona Coyotes too, as relayed by Arthur Staple of The Athletic. Vince Mercogliano of USA Today Sports adds that Kravtsov not only has the flu, but a dental issue as well, which necessitated a trip to the dentist this morning.
Colorado Avalanche Recall Andreas Englund
The Colorado Avalanche announced that they have recalled defenseman Andreas Englund from the Colorado Eagles, their AHL affiliate. No corresponding move has been announced. The transaction brings Colorado to 22 of a possible 23 skaters, according to their official roster page.
Englund, 26, has been in the Colorado organization since the start of the 2021-22 season, but has never played a game with the Avalanche. The defenseman isn’t much of an offensive force, coming into today with just three points in 12 AHL games to start the season, but has certainly brought a physical element to his game, recording 38 penalty minutes in those same 12 games.
Should Englund find his way into the lineup with the Avalanche, it would mark his first NHL action since 2019-20, when he played in 24 games as a member of the Ottawa Senators. Once a fairly well-regarded prospect with Ottawa, a second-round pick back in 2014, Englund spent four seasons in the Senators organization before departing North America entirely for the 2020-21 season. He would return for the 2021-22 season, signing on with the Eagles, where he impressed with 12 points, a +1 rating, and a whopping 103 penalty minutes in just 57 games, good enough to earn him a two-way NHL contract for this season.
Blake Coleman Fined For Slew-Footing
The NHL and the NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced today that Calgary Flames forward Blake Coleman was fined $5,000.00, the maximum allowable under the CBA, for slew-footing Winnipeg Jets forward Pierre-Luc Dubois in last night’s game. That money will go to the Players Emergency Assistance Fund.
The incident occurred at 18:30 of the first period, as Coleman and Dubois skated together through the slot area. The two appeared to be tangled up, both falling and crashing into an unoccupied net. Upon a closer look, Coleman appeared to slew-foot Dubois. Both players were assessed a minor penalty on the play, Coleman for tripping and Dubois for holding.
Luckily for both team and player, Coleman was able to avoid suspension and simply earned the fine. However, this fine will go into his record and could be considered in future disciplinary cases, if any. Worth noting, Coleman has been suspended once before. That incident came back in October of last season, when the veteran was banned one preseason game and one regular season game for boarding Jets forward Jansen Harkins.
Pittsburgh Penguins Re-Assign Mark Friedman To AHL
The Pittsburgh Penguins announced this afternoon that they have re-assigned defnemsen Mark Friedman to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL. No corresponding transaction was announced. The move leaves Pittsburgh with 22 out of a possible 23 men on its roster.
Friedman, 26, has spent the bulk of his time this season at the AHL level, recalled to Pittsburgh for the first time on Friday prior to today’s re-assignment. The defenseman has played 10 games this season, all with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, where he’s tallied two points, both assists, as well as a +2 rating. Friedman spent all of 2021-22 in the Penguins organization, suiting up for 26 games in the NHL, recording five points. The team signed Friedman to a two-year, one-way contract extension back in March of this year.
The veteran joined the Pittsburgh organization back in February of 2021 via waiver claim after the Philadelphia Flyers, who drafted him, chose to waive him. Interestingly, Friedman has spent his entire professional career in the state of Pennsylvania; prior to the claim, Friedman played parts of five seasons in the Flyers organization, primarily with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, their AHL affiliate, as well as 11 games with Philadelphia spread over three seasons.