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West Notes: Nichushkin, Arvidsson, Gourde

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The Avalanche could have a key winger back in the near future as head coach Jared Bednar told reporters including Evan Rawal of The Denver Gazette (Twitter link) that Valeri Nichushkin is getting close to returning.  He has been out since suffering a lower-body injury at the end of December.  He also missed the first month of the campaign while being in the Player Assistance Program but when he has been in the lineup, Nichushkin has been quite productive.  He has 11 goals and six assists through 21 games so far this season, good for eighth in team scoring despite missing more than half of their games.

Elsewhere out West:

  • Oilers winger Viktor Arvidsson left yesterday’s game against Colorado late in the third after blocking a shot. However, Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic relays (Twitter link) that the undisclosed injury isn’t believed to be too serious.  That’s certainly good news for Edmonton as the 31-year-old has been a solid performer for them when healthy.  While he missed 15 games earlier in the campaign with an undisclosed injury, Arvidsson has picked up 15 points in 30 games thus far, giving them some much-needed secondary scoring.
  • Given the number of teams believed to be looking for center help, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli believes that the Kraken could be able to receive a first-round pick for pending UFA middleman Yanni Gourde. It has been a fairly quiet year for the 33-year-old who has six goals and ten assists in 35 games thus far.  However, as someone who can kill penalties, play an important defensive role, play the wing if needed, and has a track record of some playoff success, Gourde is sure to receive significant interest.  However, Seattle will almost certainly have to pay down the contract, one that carries a $5.167MM price tag that few contenders can afford.

Avalanche And Mikko Rantanen Not Making Progress In Extension Discussions

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Avalanche winger Mikko Rantanen has been one of the top-scoring players in the NHL over the past several seasons.  His contract is set to expire this summer, making him arguably the top pending UFA in the league.  Colorado has been trying to re-sign him but to this point, obviously no deal has been reached yet.

It doesn’t seem like the two sides are particularly close either.  Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reported in a recent segment on Amazon Prime (Twitter link) that the two sides are believed to effectively be at a stalemate in their discussions.

Seravalli reports that the Avs are hoping to keep Rantanen’s price tag below the $12.6MM that Nathan MacKinnon makes.  However, Rantanen’s camp is more interested in taking aim at Leon Draisaitl’s record-breaking contract, one that begins next season and carries a $14MM cap charge.  Suffice it to say, that’s a pretty significant cap to try to bridge.

The 28-year-old had a very strong first half of the season, picking up 25 goals and 37 assists in his first 46 games though a league-high 13 empty-net points help inflate those totals a bit.  Nonetheless, Rantanen finds himself on pace to surpass the 100-point mark for the third straight year while surpassing his career high of 105, putting himself in a great position heading into his first time potentially testing the market.

Since the 2020-21 season, only three players have recorded more points than the 429 that Rantanen has put up in a 335-game span.  Two of them have already been mentioned here as the benchmarks that both sides are working with while the other is Edmonton’s Connor McDavid.  All things considered, that’s quite the company to be in.  Being in that tier of scorers means that Rantanen should get offers around the price point he’s believed to be seeking if he hits the open market, especially if the Upper Limit of the salary cap goes up by more than the current maximum of 5% as some expect.

Even with a higher-than-expected cap, affording a deal of that magnitude for Rantanen could be difficult for Colorado.  Per PuckPedia, they have just over $79MM on the books for next season with 16 players on their current roster under contract.  Even if they are able to get him in just below MacKinnon at, say, $12.5MM per year, they’d be over $91MM with several players still needing to be signed to get to the minimum-sized roster.  If Gabriel Landeskog remains unable to play, they’d have more wiggle room with him on LTIR but Landeskog is still trying to get back to game action this season so at this point, management can’t count on that potential flexibility being available to them.

This could be a scenario where deferred money could help solve the issue on both sides.  As we’ve seen multiple times this season, players who take deferred money carry a lower cap charge.  Accordingly, it’s possible for Rantanen’s camp to get around $14MM per season on average but include enough deferred money to keep the cap hit below MacKinnon’s.  Of course, Rantanen would have to agree to such an arrangement and considering he’s set to be the top player on the open market, he’ll undoubtedly receive offers that won’t have deferrals in there.

It doesn’t appear as if talks will be picking up right away either.  Instead, Seravalli, who noted that the team has no interest in moving him should an agreement not be reached, relays that discussions are likely to resume during the break in mid-February.  We’ll see if the next few weeks enable the two sides to bridge the gap or if the stalemate will last beyond that.

Photo courtesy of Imagn Images.

Metropolitan Notes: Kovacevic, Yegorov, Blue Jackets, Letang

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The Devils are discussing the idea of potentially trying to re-sign defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic, reports Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli (video link).  Acquired for a fourth-round pick from Montreal in the summer to add defensive depth, the 27-year-old is logging nearly 20 minutes a game for New Jersey and has become an important piece of their back end.  His presence helped push Simon Nemec to the minors, something the youngster recently voiced some frustration about; keeping Kovacevic could make it a bit harder for Nemec to get back to the NHL.  Signed to a cap hit below the league minimum this season, Kovacevic could push for $3MM or more on the open market if his second half play is similar to how things went in the first few months.

More from the Metropolitan:

  • Still with the Devils, prospect Mikhail Yegorov has found a new place to play. USHL Omaha announced that the goaltender has transferred to play at Boston University, effective immediately, a rare midseason enrolment.  The 18-year-old was a second-round pick by New Jersey last June, going 49th overall.  Yegorov improved his save percentage with the Lancers by 20 points this year, going from .892 to .912 but won just three of his 19 outings.  He’ll now get his feet wet at the college level and becomes the 14th NHL-drafted player on the Terriers.
  • Earlier this week, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reported (Twitter link) that the Blue Jackets are open to the idea of holding onto their pending unrestricted free agents. Widely expected to be near the bottom of the division this season, Columbus instead has been on a nice run as of late to get into a Wild Card spot.  The sustainability of that position will be challenged over the next couple of months but given the value of a young core playing meaningful games down the stretch, it seems it might not be a given that their rentals will move if they slide back in the standings over the coming weeks.
  • The Penguins announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Kris Letang was scratched from tonight’s game due to illness. The 37-year-old had a quiet first half of the season by his standards, collecting seven goals and 10 assists in 40 games while still logging over 23 minutes a night of playing time.  That comes on the heels of putting up 51 points just last season.

Bruins Notes: Kastelic, Lindholm, Koepke

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The Boston Bruins received a handful of injury updates at Friday morning’s practice. Most pressing, winger Mark Kastelic returned to full practices and could possibly return to the lineup when the Bruins visit the Ottawa Senators on Saturday. In a video posted on the team’s social media, Kastelic told media after practice that he’s hoping to return, but doesn’t want to rush anything. Kastelic has missed Boston’s last two games with an upper-body injury. He was placed on injured reserve on January 14th.

This is already Kastelic’s second injury of the season. He previously missed three days with a lower-body injury in November. He has been a key piece of Boston’s third line when healthy, recording 12 points in 43 games and averaging 11:19 in ice time this season. Kastelic is in his first season with the Bruins, after joining the team in the trade that sent Linus Ullmark to Ottawa. The change of scenery came with a boosted role – bumping Kastelic up after three years on Ottawa’s fourth-line. He’s clearly satisfied the Bruins’ expectations, earning a three-year, $4.7MM extension with the club earlier this month. Kastelic fell to injury just a few games after signing that deal, meaning a return from injury will mean a return to vindicating his new price tag.

In other Bruins news, top defender Hampus Lindholm returned to practice in a non-contact jersey on Friday, shares Joe Haggerty of the Boston Sports Journal. Lindholm has missed Boston’s last 29 games after he suffered a lower-body injury on November 12th. He was one of the Bruins’ most-utilized defenders in November, averaging 22:44 in ice time in his last four games before injury. Lindholm also managed seven points in 17 games, putting him on pace for 34 points across 82 games before he fell for the long-term. That total would have stood as the third-highest scoring season of Lindholm’s 12-year career. This news marks one step closer to Lindholm working back into the role of routine scoring and top-pair minutes.

Finally, Haggerty shared that forward Cole Koepke won’t play in the team’s Saturday game, per head coach Joe Sacco. Koepke sustained an injury with 10 minutes left in Boston’s Tuesday win over Tampa Bay, after taking a big hit from Bolts defenseman Darren Raddysh. Koepke immediately left for the locker room. Raddysh did not receive a penalty on the play. Koepke has so far been designated as day-to-day, though no specifics of his injury have been revealed. He’s also rotated through Boston’s middle-six this season, netting 12 points in 44 games while averaging just under 11 minutes of ice time each game. This is Koepke’s first full season on an NHL lineup, after combining for three points in 26 games with Tampa Bay over the last two seasons.

Islanders’ Maxim Tsyplakov Suspended Three Games

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The NHL Department of Player Safety has issued New York Islanders winger Maxim Tsyplakov a three-game suspension for an illegal check to the head of Philadelphia Flyers winger Ryan Poehling on Tuesday night. The hit came in the latter half of the first period, with Tsyplakov flying into Poehling while he was crashing the net. Poehling left the game with a head injury, which NHL Player Safety points to as part of the reason why first-time offender Tsyplakov received a multi-game suspension. He did not receive a penalty during the game.

Additionally, Flyers center Scott Laughton has been fined $5K, the most allowable under the CBA, for cross-checking Tsyplakov in retaliation later in the game. Laughton cross-checked Tsyplakov in the back after he made a pass in the offensive end.

The aftermath of the chippy game, which ended in a Flyers win, will see the Islanders move forward without their third-line left wing. Tsyplakov has had a successful rookie season with New York. He has 19 points through 44 games, ranked sixth among all first-year players. The 26-year-old winger signed with the Islanders as an undrafted free agent this summer after spending the last seven seasons with Moscow Spartak of Russia’s KHL. Tsyplakov climbed every wrung of Spartak’s lineup, ultimately working his way up to a top-line role and 47 points in 65 games last season. He’s rotated through the Islanders’ middle-six in his first NHL season, ultimately averaging just over 16 minutes of ice time each game – seventh-most among New York’s forwards.

The Islanders will likely turn towards Hudson Fasching in Tsyplakov’s absence. Fasching has served as New York’s extra forward this season and hasn’t played a game since January 5th. He’s totaled 19 appearances but is still searching for his first point of the season.

Islanders Place Hudson Fasching On IR

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The Islanders moved winger Hudson Fasching to injured reserve on Friday, per The Hockey News’ Stefen Rosner. His roster spot goes to forward Marc Gatcomb, who comes up from AHL Bridgeport for the second time this week and will suit up in his second career NHL game Saturday against the Sharks.

Fasching, 29, has already missed four games with an upper-body injury, so he can come off IR at any time. He isn’t expected back until late next week, general manager Lou Lamoriello said.

The move keeps their already-open active roster spot open while still getting Gatcomb on the roster. They’ll need that additional roster spot for another forward recall if winger Maxim Tsyplakov, who earned a hearing Friday for an illegal check to the head against the Flyers’ Ryan Poehling in last night’s loss, gets a suspension as a result of his actions as well. The open spot could also go to winger Simon Holmström, who’s on IR and has missed seven games with an upper-body injury but was a full participant in practice Friday, per Rosner.

Fasching has been a non-factor with no points and a minus-six rating in 19 appearances this season. The Islanders waived the Wisconsin native to begin the season but recalled him from Bridgeport in late October after an injury to Anthony Duclair, and he’s managed to stay on the roster since with continuing injuries creating the need for an extra forward.

Now in his third season on Long Island, Fasching is averaging a career-low 8:56 per game, second-lowest on the team among qualified skaters ahead of Matt Martin. He’s in the back half of a two-year, one-way extension he signed after a 2022-23 campaign where he recorded a career-high 10 goals and 19 points in 49 games with a +10 rating.

Gatcomb, 25, made his NHL debut in Tuesday’s shutout loss to the Sens, skating 7:27 in place of the sick Jean-Gabriel Pageau. Pageau is back, but Gatcomb projects to enter the lineup to give veteran enforcer Martin a night off against San Jose. He has 17 points in 35 games for Bridgeport this season, his first in the Islanders organization after landing a two-way deal in free agency. 

Oilers Sign John Klingberg

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2:31 p.m.: Klingberg’s bonus is a signing bonus, not performance incentives, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reports. There are no performance bonuses in the deal, but the prorated cap hit now rises to $1.35MM instead of $1MM.

1:57 p.m.: Klingberg’s contract carries a prorated base salary and cap hit of $1MM, Dreger reports. He can earn an additional $350K in performance bonuses. The Oilers confirmed the signing in quick succession.

12:37 p.m.: The Oilers are nearing an agreement with unrestricted free agent defenseman John Klingberg, Darren Dreger of TSN reports Friday.

Edmonton was one of a few Canadian teams and a smaller handful south of the border to express interest in Klingberg over the past few weeks, according to earlier reporting from Dreger. The 32-year-old, who finished as high as sixth in Norris Trophy voting twice early in his career, hasn’t played in well over a year after undergoing season-ending hip resurfacing surgery with the Maple Leafs in December 2023.

Klingberg became an unrestricted free agent last summer after the one-year, $4.15MM deal he signed with Toronto in 2023 lapsed after just 14 appearances. As a player with at least 400 NHL games played who spent at least 100 days on injured reserve in the prior season, he’s eligible to sign a one-year contract with performance bonuses that could lower the initial cap hit of the deal.

As with any contract involving performance bonuses, the Oilers must have the cap room to accommodate any bonuses he may earn as part of his deal. If they don’t, any amount they exceed the salary cap will be applied as a bonus carryover penalty to their 2025-26 picture.

Thanks to Evander Kane’s continuing recovery from multiple surgeries, Edmonton should be in the clear with over $5MM in its LTIR pool. His availability for the rest of the regular season is in doubt after he underwent additional knee surgery earlier this month, carrying an eight-week recovery period and halting his rehabilitation from offseason abdominal surgery.

If he stays healthy, Klingberg serves as an early deadline pickup for the Oilers and takes some pressure off general manager Stan Bowman to give up assets for an additional right-shot defender. Edmonton’s left side of Mattias Ekholm, Darnell Nurse and Brett Kulak have all averaged north of 20 minutes per game this season and done so with decent possession metrics, but the same can’t be said of depth righties Ty Emberson and Troy Stecher.

The Oilers needed another body to throw into the mix on either their second pairing alongside Nurse or their third pairing next to Kulak, and adding Klingberg gives them a far more offensively inclined option – albeit one that comes with significant defensive shortcomings. While still a serviceable power-play quarterback who posted five assists in last year’s injury-shortened campaign and has averaged more than 20 minutes per game in all of his 10 NHL seasons, his -60 rating between the 2021-22 and 2023-24 campaigns is sixth-worst among defensemen. In the 2022-23 season, which he split between the Ducks and Wild, he was on the ice for more expected goals against per game at even strength (1.13) than any other qualified defender in the league.

Edmonton will need to free up a roster spot to sign Klingberg officially. That will likely be demoting center Noah Philp or defenseman Josh Brown to AHL Bakersfield.

Klingberg will be a UFA again in months if his contract is a one-year pact, as expected. It will mark his third consecutive one-year deal after completing a seven-year, $29.75MM commitment with the Stars in 2022.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Latest On The Wild’s Injuries

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The Wild have not had a pleasant past few weeks. They haven’t had a fully healthy lineup since Nov. 10, and injuries have really come to the forefront recently. Cap restrictions forced them to transfer star winger Kirill Kaprizov to long-term injured reserve yesterday.

Things are beginning to turn around, albeit slowly. Top defenseman Brock Faber is expected to return to the lineup tomorrow in Nashville after missing four games with an upper-body injury, head coach John Hynes told NHL.com’s Jessi Pierce. He also confirmed that winger Jakub Lauko will play after being previously activated from LTIR on Thursday.

They’ll still remain without Kaprizov for their next two games, though, as neither he nor captain Jared Spurgeon will make their brief Central Division road trip, Hynes added. Kaprizov is eligible to come back off LTIR at any time after already missing the required time with his lower-body injury, while Spurgeon remains sidelined due to the lower-body injury he sustained on a slew foot from Predators forward Zachary L’Heureux on New Year’s Eve.

Stalwart defender Jonas Brodin is also staying home while he continues to nurse a lower-body injury and Marcus Johansson is unavailable after his recent concussion landed him on IR yesterday, so that makes four roster regulars, and impactful ones at that, sidelined for at least Minnesota’s next two games. All of their roster maneuvering allowed the club to recall forwards Brendan Gaunce, Liam Ohgren, and Devin Shore from AHL Iowa over the past 24 hours, per PuckPedia, who detailed how the order in which those transactions were executed affected their delicate salary cap situation. After the moves, they’re back to having ample breathing room with $7.45MM in their LTIR pool, although they’ll need to figure out how to reinstate Kaprizov when he’s ready to come back in the next week or so.

While the Wild have understandably dropped three of their last four games, they’re still in a battle for second in the Central Division with a 27-14-4 record. They’re a virtual playoff lock at a 96.5% chance and still have a 9.7% chance of winning their second division title in franchise history, per Hockey Reference.

While Gaunce, Ohgren and Shore bring a decent mix of veteran professional experience and, in Ohgren’s case, long-term top-six upside, they’ve combined for just one assist in 38 appearances this season. Each has averaged under 10 minutes per game and posted ghastly possession numbers, particularly in Gaunce’s case with a 29.2 CF% at even strength in five showings.

Blue Jackets Sign Jake Christiansen To Two-Year Extension

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The Blue Jackets signed defenseman Jake Christiansen to a two-year, $1.95MM contract extension Friday, per a team announcement. The deal, which will count $975K against the cap beginning next season, keeps him in Columbus through the 2026-27 season and off this summer’s restricted free agent market.

Christiansen, 25, is logging full-time usage on the Blue Jackets blue line this season for the first time. The two-time AHL All-Star has leapfrogged players like Jordan Harris and Jack Johnson on the Columbus depth chart, appearing in all 45 games this year in a bottom-pairing role.

An undrafted free agent signing by the Jackets out of the WHL’s Everett Silvertips in 2020, Christiansen has routinely lined up to the left of Damon Severson this year. The duo has outscored opponents 17-11 at even strength and boasts a team-high 56.1 expected goals percentage, per MoneyPuck.

While those are substantial underlying numbers, Christiansen’s lack of outright point production and minimal usage limited his earning potential on his next deal. He has a goal and six assists for seven points, but he isn’t a significant part of the Jackets’ special teams units.

Christiansen was a restricted free agent last summer and lasted 10 days on the market before agreeing to a two-way deal with a $400K guarantee to return to Columbus. The minor-league structure hasn’t been relevant, though, as he’s remained on the NHL roster all year and collected his league-minimum $775K salary. Christiansen would have had to clear waivers to head to the AHL at the beginning of the season, but after he posted a career-best 46 points in 62 games for Cleveland last year, the team wasn’t sure he’d go unclaimed after he passed through to begin the 2023-24 campaign.

Christiansen could have chosen to take the Blue Jackets to arbitration this summer but will instead lock in an average of a $200K raise for the next two years, even if things turn sour and he ends up on waivers and back in the minors. His salary breaks down as $950K in 2025-26 and $1MM in 2026-27, Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports. He joins his partner Severson, Zach Werenski, and Erik Gudbranson as Columbus defenders under contract next season on a one-way deal.

The extension walks Christiansen to UFA eligibility in the summer of 2027. A one-year pact would have given Columbus one more opportunity to negotiate with him as an RFA.

He’s the second depth player who’s established or re-established himself as an NHL regular with the Jackets this season to ink an extension in the past few days. Veteran winger Zach Aston-Reese put pen to paper on a one-year, $775K extension on Monday after resurfacing in Columbus as a bottom-six fixture.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Hurricanes Activate Frederik Andersen From Injured Reserve

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The Hurricanes activated starting goaltender Frederik Andersen from injured reserve Friday, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reports. Carolina returned third-string netminder Dustin Tokarski to AHL Chicago in a corresponding transaction to keep their active roster at the 23-player limit.

Whether Andersen makes his first start in nearly three months tonight against the Golden Knights remains to be seen, but he’s been cleared to resume game action after missing almost all of the regular season to date with a knee injury. The 35-year-old last played in a 4-1 win over the Kraken on Oct. 26 before landing on the shelf and undergoing surgery nearly one month later after non-surgical options for his recovery failed.

When Andersen underwent knee surgery in late November, the team issued an eight-to-12-week timeline. His activation comes exactly eight weeks after the Nov. 22 procedure.

Andersen has been gearing up for about a week and a half, returning to the ice on his own early this month. For now, his return should quiet talks of the Hurricanes aggressively pursuing a netminder, although that could change in an instant with Andersen missing the vast majority of the past three seasons due to various injuries and a blood-clotting issue.

The Danish netminder told reporters today, including the team’s Walt Ruff, that he didn’t have any “real setbacks” during his recovery. Andersen missed nearly half of the shortened 2020-21 season with a knee injury while he was a member of the Maple Leafs, and he was also held out of the 2022 postseason with Carolina due to a lower-body injury.

If he can remain healthy, which is a huge caveat at this stage of his career, Andersen is far and away the team’s best option between the pipes. Since signing with the Canes in 2021, he’s had a .919 SV% and 2.19 GAA in 106 appearances, including a .933 SV% in his 20 appearances since the beginning of the 2023-24 season.

In four appearances to begin the year, Andersen sparkled with a 3-1-0 record, .941 SV%, and 1.48 GAA. He saved 2.9 goals above expected at even strength and stopped all 14 of the high-danger chances he faced.

When iced, he’s still an elite netminder, a higher-ceiling option than the far younger but more consistent Pyotr Kochetkov. The 25-year-old has been serviceable as Carolina’s de facto starter this season with Andersen on the shelf, guiding them to a 16-9-2 record in his 28 appearances. His SV% is .901 and his GAA is 2.54. Considering Carolina’s staunch defense has allowed the fewest 5-on-5 shot attempts of any team in the league, those league-average numbers aren’t particularly impressive.

Andersen’s return ends the veteran Tokarki’s first stint on an NHL roster that involved game action since February 2023. The 35-year-old farmhand played well in temporary backup duty behind Kochetkov, posting a 4-2-0 record, a .902 SV% and a 2.18 GAA in six appearances.

It concludes a nice story for Tokarski, who started the season at home after failing to land a contract from a camp tryout with the Senators. He eventually landed an AHL deal with the Hurricanes’ affiliate, the Chicago Wolves, before Andersen’s injury and Kochetkov’s brief absence led Carolina to tear it up and replace it with an NHL pact. Tokarski posted a sparkling .933 SV% in five AHL contests earlier this year and will continue backstopping the Hurricanes’ minor-league prospects.

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