Kirill Kaprizov Avoids Suspension, Earns Fine
The Department of Player Safety is busy today. While they hold a hearing with Juraj Slafkovsky for his hit on Matt Luff, the league has also handed out a $5,000 fine to Kirill Kaprizov for his incident last night.
Kaprizov was ejected from a game against the Los Angeles Kings after he swung his stick down and hit Drew Doughty in the face and neck area. The league has called it “roughing” in the announcement of the fine, though last night they gave him a match penalty for intent to injure. That came with a five-minute major, a game misconduct, and an automatic review from the DoPS.
The Wild ended up losing the game 1-0 without their star forward but will have him back in the lineup this evening when they take on the Anaheim Ducks. Kaprizov has eight goals and 13 points through 12 games so far this season while the Wild struggle to stay competitive in the Central Division. The club is now 5-6-1 and has lost two in a row, falling into a tie with the Arizona Coyotes and Nashville Predators for fifth in the division.
Matt Luff To Undergo Wrist Surgery
Montreal Canadiens Juraj Slafkovsky might face a short suspension after his hearing with the Department of Player Safety later today but Matt Luff, the player he hit, is out much longer. Detroit Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde told reporters including Ansar Khan of MLive that Luff will miss 10-12 weeks after wrist surgery on Thursday.
Luff, 25, had seen regular action on the Red Wings’ fourth line the last little while, playing in seven games and scoring a goal against the New York Rangers on Sunday. That spot will now have to be filled by someone else for the next few months, potentially leaving Luff without a role to return to. It’s a tough result for a player still trying to establish himself as an everyday NHL player, one who played just 23 games at that level last season.
Slafkovsky, meanwhile, may actually face a stiffer penalty as the league does take injury into consideration when doling out supplementary discipline. The hit from behind that sent Luff sprawling into the boards was enough for a hearing, and this news will only create more reason to hand the first-overall pick his first suspension.
Philadelphia Flyers Re-Assign Samuel Ersson
Nov 9: Ersson has been returned to the AHL, with Zamua recalled once again.
Nov 8: Philadelphia Flyers starting netminder Carter Hart will miss tonight’s game against the St. Louis Blues with an illness, reports The Athletic’s Charlie O’Connor. Backup Felix Sandstrom will get the start, with Samuel Ersson recalled from the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms to be the backup.
In order to make room on the roster, the Flyers assigned defenseman Yegor Zamula to the Phantoms, but The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Olivia Reiner notes it’s a temporary stay. Head coach John Tortorella likes what he’s seen from Zamula so far, and he’ll be up on the active roster as soon as they have the space.
For the Flyers, it’s an immeasurable loss to their lineup, even if it’s just for a game. Hart has arguably been the league’s best goaltender to start the year, putting up All-Star numbers behind a Flyers team that’s in the bottom sect of the league analytically. He boasts a 6-0-2 record, a .946 save percentage, and a 1.97 goals-against average through eight starts.
Ersson impressed in training camp for Philadelphia, and he’s tracking a .908 save percentage through six games in Lehigh Valley. He remains the team’s third option in net ahead of veteran Troy Grosenick, who’s off to a rough start in the minors despite a longstanding track record of AHL success.
Colorado Avalanche Recall Sampo Ranta
The Avalanche have been busy with roster shuffling this season, and their streak of moves continues today with the recall of forward Sampo Ranta from their AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles.
This move comes after it was revealed that the Avalanche would be without forward Valeri Nichushkin for a month as he recovers from ankle surgery. Martin Kaut had been playing alongside Evan Rodrigues and Alex Newhook but was sent down on Sunday. This recall paves the way for Ranta to take Kaut’s role on that line, or perhaps he will replace Mikhail Maltsev (who was also sent down) on the team’s fourth line.
Ranta, 22, was a third-round pick at the 2018 NHL draft and has been a solid mid-tier prospect for the Avalanche since he concluded his collegiate career. Ranta was a strong scorer in his final year at the University of Michigan, scoring 31 points in 31 games, and has been a modest scorer at the AHL level with 14 points in 38 games last year.
Ranta has 10 total NHL games on his resume, all coming last season. He’s in a position to grow that number in the coming weeks as the Avalanche look to stabilize their forward corps in the midst of injury troubles that have shaken up the team’s roster.
Juraj Slafkovsky To Have Hearing With Department Of Player Safety
The Montreal Canadiens are once again under the microscope of the NHL’s Department of Player Safety. NHL Player Safety announced on Twitter that Canadiens forward Juraj Slafkovsky will have a hearing today for boarding Detroit Red Wings forward Matt Luff in last night’s game.
The incident in question came close to the end of the third period of the Red Wings’ shootout loss to the Canadiens. The Red Wings won a defensive zone faceoff, and Luff had carried the puck up to the red line. He attempted to chip a puck past Canadiens defenseman Joel Edmundson, who promptly swatted Luff’s chip attempt back down towards Luff. At that point, Luff attempted to send the bouncing puck into the offensive zone, but after whiffing on his first attempt was driven into the boards by Slafkovsky, who was gliding through the neutral zone.
Slafkovsky hit Luff in the numbers, driving him head-first into the boards. Luff looked to be in pain as he got up and left the ice, and coach Derek Lalonde said postgame that Luff would be out “long-term.”
As the 2022 first-overall pick, last night’s game was Slafkovsky’s tenth in the NHL, so it should not be a surprise that this is his first run-in with the Department of Player Safety. The Canadiens have already lost winger Josh Anderson to a two-game suspension, and it would not be a surprise to see the other Canadiens power forward be handed a similar punishment.
Carolina Hurricanes Activate Ryan Suzuki, Assign To AHL
The Carolina Hurricanes announced today that they have activated forward Ryan Suzuki off of the injured non-roster list and assigned him to their AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves.
Suzuki had been out due to an upper-body injury, an injury that caused him to miss the entirety of the Hurricanes’ training camp and preseason.
Suzuki, 21, was the 28th overall pick at the 2019 NHL draft and has thus far struggled to translate his success at the OHL level into success in the pro ranks. Suzuki has just 24 points in 60 career AHL games, and the increased physicality has in particular been a challenge for Suzuki.
Last season, Suzuki scored 14 points in 34 AHL games. Worth noting is the developmental environment Suzuki has been placed in at AHl Chicago. The Wolves are an independently-owned AHL franchise whose first priority is competing for Calder Cups, not player development.
That’s something they do successfully, as they won the Calder Cup last year, and an entirely respectable organizational priority. But on the flip side, the club is more eager to give AHL veteran scorers such as Stefan Noesen and Andrew Poturalski the sort of offensive opportunities other organizations might reserve for their top prospects.
So while Suzuki certainly hasn’t met expectations thus far at the AHL level, it is important to note the unique developmental situation he’s been placed in, as it undoubtedly has played a role in his growth as a professional player.
Buffalo Sabres Assign Jeremy Davies To AHL
The Buffalo Sabres have assigned defenseman Jeremy Davies to the AHL Rochester Americans, per a team announcement.
Davies was originally recalled by the Sabres on October 31st after forward Riley Sheahan was sent down, and now heads back to Rochester despite having not skated in a single game for the big club.
Davies, 25, signed in Buffalo this summer as part of a trio of depth defenders who joined the Sabres on one-year deals. He earned that contract after a solid year in the Nashville Predators organization, one where he scored 31 points in 54 AHL games. That performance earned Davies six NHL games, a decline from the 16 games he played in 2020-21.
This year, Davies has played seven games, all in Rochester. With Ilya Lyubushkin back at full health, there was simply no more need to keep Davies on the Sabres’ active roster. He now heads back to the AHL looking to help Rochester climb the AHL’s North Division standings.
Kristian Vesalainen Signs In Finland
After a run of 15 games in the SHL, 2017 first-round pick and former Winnipeg Jets forward Kristian Vesalainen is headed home. Per a team announcement, Vesalainen has signed a contract spanning the rest of this season with Liiga club HIFK.
This signing comes after his contract with the SHL’s Malmo Redhawks was terminated, and allows Vesalainen to play in Helsinki, the city where he was born. Vesalainen has actually been a member of HIFK before, as he developed there as a junior player before heading to Frolunda in Sweden to continue his development.
Vesalainen, 23, signed in Malmo this past summer with the goal of playing a major role in the SHL, one that would allow him to flourish offensively in ways his limited role in the Jets organization wouldn’t.
That didn’t happen in Malmo, though, as Vesalainen scored just three points in 15 games and has not been used as the top-six offensive centerpiece he likely signed there to be.
He’ll now head to Liiga and join HIFK with the hope that he can find a better role in Helsinki. HIFK could certainly use the help, as they currently sit near the bottom of the Liiga standings, and their top scorers have just nine points in 20 games.
Vesalainen’s rights are still owned by the Jets until June 30th, 2026, so he’ll have a relatively long runway to build himself a strong scoring resume in Europe before attempting a potential return to the NHL.
Evander Kane “Stable” After Wrist Injury
There was a scary scene in tonight’s game in Tampa between the Lightning and the Edmonton Oilers when forward Evander Kane left the game after suffering a skate laceration to the wrist. The Oilers announced later during the game that Kane is stable after the concerning cut and has been transported to a local hospital.
Kane was off to yet another strong start in Edmonton, notching five goals and eight assists for a point-per-game pace through 13 contests. He was also averaging more than 20 minutes of ice time per game for the second time in the past five years.
He suffered the injury after Lightning winger Pat Maroon inadvertently cut Kane’s wrist with his skate.
While there’s no timeline for the injury at this point, skate lacerations to any part of the body are generally not a short-term absence. Then-Toronto Maple Leafs winger Ilya Mikheyev missed 31 games with a similar injury in the 2019-20 season.
Minnesota Wild Place Brandon Duhaime On Injured Reserve
The Minnesota Wild have placed Brandon Duhaime on injured reserve, according to CapFriendly. Duhaime has missed the team’s last game with an upper-body injury and did not travel on their current road trip, meaning he’ll miss at least three more games.
Entering his second NHL season, Duhaime had scored twice and added an assist through his first 10 games in 2022-23. Averaging just 9:01 per game, Duhaime is reprising his fourth-line role and continues to provide a solid energy boost to the Wild.
Duhaime was injured in a November 1 win against the Montreal Canadiens. With his IR placement retroactive to that date, he is technically eligible to be activated at any time.
His IR placement allows the Wild to convert Adam Beckman‘s emergency recall into a spot on the NHL roster in earnest, as the Wild technically had 24 (out of 23 maximum) players on the active roster. Duhaime joins Ryan Hartman and Marcus Foligno on the team’s injured list.