Tyler Ennis Signs In Switzerland
After lots of discussion about whether he would head to Europe, O2K Sports Management today confirmed that their client, free agent forward Tyler Ennis, has signed on with SC Bern in the NL for the remainder of the 2022-23 season.
Bern is already off to a strong 8-2-4 start, but only three of those eight wins have come in regulation. Ennis essentially replaces another former NHL forward on their roster, Dominik Kahun, who is expected back from a shoulder injury in early December. Kahun had eight points through his first seven games.
Ennis should headline what is already a red-hot offense for Bern to start the year, spearheaded by a trio of former NHLers: Christopher Didomenico (18 points in 12 games), Colton Sceviour (11 points in 14 games), and Oscar Lindberg (10 points in 14 games). In his last stint in the NL (then the NLA) during the brief 2012-13 lockout, Ennis had eight points in nine games with the SCL Tigers.
The veteran of exactly 700 NHL games had a rather productive season last year with the Ottawa Senators in a depth role, notching 24 points in 57 games, but there were no takers for Ennis on the free agent market last offseason. Now 33 years old, the speedy, diminutive forward likely closed the book on his NHL career by heading overseas. If so, he finished with 144 goals, 202 assists, and 346 points across 13 seasons with the Senators, Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Minnesota Wild, and Buffalo Sabres, who drafted him 26th overall in 2008.
Snapshots: Samuelsson, Bear, Wright
Buffalo Sabres fans held their breath last night when freshly extended defenseman Mattias Samuelsson went down with an injury in their game against Vancouver. Now, The Buffalo News’ Lance Lysowski reports that Samuelsson avoided a long-term injury but is still set to miss at least “a few weeks,” joining Henri Jokiharju on the list of injured Sabres top-four defensemen.
An exact timeline won’t be had on Samuelsson until the team returns to Buffalo, head coach Don Granato said today, and the injury will force some depth defenders to shine in order for Buffalo to keep up its strong start. Lawrence Pilut will make his season debut in the team’s next game after two seasons overseas, and free-agent acquisition Ilya Lyubushkin will be tasked with replacing Samuelsson as the defensive anchor on the top pairing alongside the red-hot Rasmus Dahlin.
- It’s no secret the Canucks are in trouble, winless so far to start the year. With injuries and general positional depth weakness hampering their defense, the team has been looking to add, and Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on 32 Thoughts that the team has checked in on defenseman Ethan Bear as a potential trade acquisition. Bear, the 25-year-old right-shot defenseman, has been thrust down the depth chart in Carolina and has yet to appear in a game this season. The Hurricanes were shopping him prior to the season’s start, and the Canucks have more than enough room thanks to LTIR to accommodate his $2.2MM cap hit. He still has some upside and could provide some better matchups once Quinn Hughes returns to the lineup.
- Sportsnet’s Jason Bukala ponders whether the Seattle Kraken may opt to send Shane Wright back to the OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs after an unimpactful start to the season. Wright hasn’t received many opportunities, he has shown smooth skating and pace, but Bukala points out that Wright’s had some positional issues defensively and may need a bit more development before being able to execute his playstyle properly at the NHL level.
Colorado Avalanche Reassign Jayson Megna, Recall Mikhail Maltsev
The Colorado Avalanche have made a roster swap today ahead of a week-long East Coast road trip, reassigning forward Jayson Megna to the AHL’s Colorado Eagles and recalling forward Mikhail Maltsev.
Megna has played five games this season, including three with the Avalanche and two with the Eagles. The veteran of 408 AHL games is entering his fourth season in the Avalanche organization and has one point in those two games with the Eagles. He’s coming off one of his strongest AHL campaigns on record, recording 33 points in 38 games.
The 32-year-old Megna offers less upside than the 24-year-old Maltsev, though, who’s struggled to find a full-time role in Colorado after recording nine points in 33 games with the New Jersey Devils in 2020-21. He’s been off to a strong start in the minors, though, recording four assists through four games to help fuel a 2-2-0 start. The Avalanche are looking for a depth spark, as they’ve got just two goals from their bottom six to start the year. The team hopes Maltsev’s strong puck distribution carries over to the NHL for now and can help ignite some depth scoring.
Rick Bowness Still Dealing With COVID Symptoms
As announced today by the team, Winnipeg Jets head coach Rick Bowness is still dealing with post-COVID symptoms after testing positive last week and will not be behind the bench for tonight’s game against the St. Louis Blues. Assistant coach Scott Arniel will once again resume coaching duties in Bowness’ absence.
Bowness first tested positive on October 14, missing the team’s season-opening game against the New York Rangers. He returned from COVID for just one game, a 4-1 loss Saturday against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The veteran head coach was feeling generally unwell today and cut his media availability short this morning due to dizzy spells.
The Jets are off to a 2-3-0 start to the season, limited in part due to a crucial injury to Nikolaj Ehlers. The Jets did outshoot the Leafs in Bowness’ lone appearance, but the team overall has scored 12 goals over the course of five games, one ahead of the last-place Blues who have played just three times. Arniel will need to focus on sparking depth scoring in his return to interim duties, as no forward outside of the team’s top six not named Sam Gagner has scored this year.
PHR sends its well wishes to Bowness in his recovery.
Vancouver Canucks Place Tucker Poolman On LTIR
4:37 pm: Just a few hours later, Poolman has now been moved to long-term injured reserve, according to the team. Hughes, who was listed as week-to-week earlier in the day, has been moved to injured reserve so the Canucks can recall another defenseman from the AHL – Noah Juulsen, who has a -1 rating in two games this year with the Canucks. Assuming the LTIR placement is retroactive to October 18, Poolman is ineligible to return until November 11.
12:50 pm: Vancouver Canucks defenseman Tucker Poolman has been moved to injured reserve, and the team has recalled Guillaume Brisebois in his place. Poolman was listed as a game-time decision for the team’s game on Saturday but didn’t end up playing. His IR placement can be retroactive to the last time he did play (Oct 18), meaning he can be activated in just a few days if deemed healthy.
The 29-year-old just can’t seem to stay healthy and has played in just 43 games since signing a four-year, $10MM contract in 2021. Poolman has just four points in those games and has averaged fewer than 17 minutes a night as a Canuck. With the team in the midst of a firestorm of criticism after an 0-4-2 start (that has included blowing several multi-goal leads), his absence certainly won’t help things.
In his place is Brisebois, a 25-year-old that has just ten NHL games to his name. The third-round pick from 2015 is still looking for his first point at the highest level, but does at least bring some of the same defensive attributes that Poolman offers. With Quinn Hughes also missing today’s morning skate, the Canucks are potentially icing a defense group that looks anything but imposing. Thomas Drance of The Athletic reports that Brisebois is skating with Luke Schenn, Kyle Burroughs is with Jack Rathbone, while Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Tyler Myers make up the veteran portion of the blue line.
Columbus Blue Jackets Recall Gavin Bayreuther
According to a team release, the Columbus Blue Jackets have recalled defenseman Gavin Bayreuther from the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters.
The move comes after rookie defenseman Nick Blankenburg left last night’s game with an upper-body injury, speculated to be an injury to his left arm. The 24-year-old undrafted free agent signing out of the University of Michigan had two points through his first four games this season and had even earned a look on the team’s top pairing alongside Zach Werenski. His brief emergence pushed another young defender, Adam Boqvist, out of the lineup. Boqvist had been held off the scoresheet in three games this season and averaged just a few ticks over 16 minutes per game, though.
Bayreuther comes up from Cleveland to serve as the team’s seventh defenseman, suggesting Blankenburg may miss some time. Blankenburg has not been placed on injured reserve, but there’s no pressing need to as the team was carrying 22 out of a maximum of 23 players anyways. The 28-year-old Bayreuther has three assists in his first three games in Cleveland and is in the second year of a two-year, $750,000 cap hit deal which is a one-way contract for 2022-23. Bayreuther spent the majority of the 2021-22 season on the Jackets’ active roster, usually as a healthy scratch, registering eight assists in 43 games.
Alex Iafallo Moved To LTIR, Austin Wagner Shuttled
October 24: The Kings have now loaned Wagner back to the Reign, according to the team. The Kings did not have a game yesterday, and Wagner’s recall was likely just a paper transaction to optimize LTIR relief.
October 23: The Los Angeles Kings announced a series of roster moves this afternoon, headlined by forward Alex Iafallo, who has been moved from regular IR to LTIR. In addition to Iafallo, the Kings have loaned defenseman Jacob Moverare to the Ontario Reign of the AHL and recalled forward Austin Wagner. The move gives Los Angeles 14 forwards to go along with seven defensemen on its active roster.
Iafallo had already been out and on IR since October 18th with a lower-body injury which he suffered in a game on October 17th against the Detroit Red Wings, but placing him on LTIR will create additional cap space that allows the Kings to call up Wagner, who carries a $1.133MM cap hit while sending down Moverare and his $762.5K cap hit. Prior to the transaction, Los Angeles had $521K in cap space. Of note, due to Iafallo’s $4MM cap hit, his trip to LTIR will give the organization more than enough room to work with on the salary cap front while he’s out. Despite the injury, Iafallo has had a tremendous start to the season, contributing two goals and three assists in four games.
Sending Moverare down simply gives the Kings more flexibility when setting a lineup by subtracting their eighth defenseman for another forward, flexibility they’ll continue to need in Iafallo’s absence. The defenseman had yet to play a game this season in the NHL, but does have a pair of AHL contests under his belt in 2022-23, prior to his call-up on October 18th. Wagner on the other hand, is receiving his first call-up of the season after starting the year with Ontario. There, he has two points in three games to start.
Injury Notes: Chytil, Danforth, Carlo
The New York Rangers will be without one of their young forwards for the next little while, telling reporters including Mollie Walker of the New York Post that Filip Chytil will be out for at least a week. While they called it an upper-body injury, Larry Brooks of the New York Post tweets that it is believed to be a concussion keeping Chytil off the ice.
The injury likely occurred on a hit from Cole Sillinger at the very beginning of yesterday’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets, which left Chytil on the ice for several moments. The 23-year-old had been one of the team’s best players through the first part of the year, with Vince Mercogliano of USA Today noting that he is the only regular who hasn’t been on the ice for a goal against to this point.
- Justin Danforth is out indefinitely with an upper-body injury, though there is also no clarification on his timeline. The Blue Jackets forward left Saturday’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins and missed yesterday’s tilt against the Rangers. The 29-year-old had two goals and three points in his first five games, even playing a whopping 20:23 in the second game of the year.
- Brandon Carlo was back on the ice today practicing in a regular jersey, and head coach Jim Montgomery said he was “getting close” to a return. He also said that he’ll be cautious with the big defender though, as Carlo confirmed he suffered another concussion – his fifth since entering the NHL in 2016 – against the Arizona Coyotes last week. He’s been out since then, and the Bruins will do everything they can to make sure he is at no further risk before he re-enters the lineup.
Quinn Hughes Out Week-To-Week
The Vancouver Canucks didn’t have Quinn Hughes on the ice this morning and won’t for a little while longer. The team has announced Hughes is out week-to-week. Travis Dermott is too, while Brock Boeser and Riley Stillman are out on a day-to-day basis.
The Hughes news comes after Tucker Poolman was moved to injured reserve earlier today, with Guillaume Brisebois recalled to fill in tonight. When Brisebois hits the ice, he’ll already be the tenth defenseman that the Canucks have used this season.
Without Hughes (who is tied for second in scoring despite playing only five of the team’s six games) the Canucks were torn apart by the Buffalo Sabres. That included Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Kyle Burroughs, and Tyler Myers all playing at least 21 minutes, something that will have to continue for the next while.
Vancouver had the ominous jersey toss from fans in that loss to Buffalo, and as Farhan Lalji of TSN tweets, J.T. Miller had a choice quote about this situation. Things aren’t going well with the Canucks, and now they will be without their most dynamic defenseman for at least another several games.
Snapshots: Three Stars, Gurianov, Kessel
The NHL released its Three Stars for last week, with Buffalo Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin taking the top spot. While he was good through the first few years of his career, Dahlin has really taken another step under Sabres head coach Don Granato. Last season he set career highs with 13 goals and 53 points, and he’s off to an incredible start this year with five goals and eight points in five games. Dahlin became the first defenseman in NHL history to score in the first four games of a season and then broke his own record by scoring again on Saturday night.
Brady Tkachuk and MacKenzie Blackwood take home the second and third spots, after having their own impressive weeks. Blackwood’s was especially impressive because of the poor start that the New Jersey Devils goaltenders got off to. In three starts, Blackwood posted a .932 save percentage and silenced some of the chatter over the future of head coach Lindy Ruff. Tkachuk, meanwhile, had seven points in three games, recording at least two in each contest.
- Denis Gurianov figures to be a healthy scratch when the Dallas Stars take on Tkachuk and the Ottawa Senators tonight, as his inconsistencies have once again pushed him out of the lineup. Head coach Peter DeBoer spoke with Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas Morning News, explaining that Gurianov is “not a young player anymore” and will be held to the consistency standard that other veterans are expected to maintain. The 25-year-old Gurianov doesn’t have a point through his first five contests.
- Vegas Golden Knights forward Phil Kessel will tie the NHL consecutive games streak tonight, when he takes on his old club the Toronto Maple Leafs. The veteran forward will play his 989th straight game, matching the record set by Keith Yandle. The last time Kessel missed a game was his first year with the Maple Leafs, back in 2009-10. He is also just 43 points away from 1,000 for his career.