St. Louis Blues Recall Jake Neighbours, Josh Leivo
After sending them down yesterday to submit a cap-compliant opening night roster, the St. Louis Blues have recalled forwards Josh Leivo and Jake Neighbours ahead of the team’s season opener on Saturday against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Neighbours is attempting to stick in the NHL full-time this season after receiving a nine-game trial in 2021-22. One of the team’s best prospects, the 20-year-old Neighbours can be a dominant power forward at times and is coming off a Memorial Cup appearance with the WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings. Neighbours will now be able to be sent to the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds if he can’t stick in the NHL, rather than having to return to junior hockey. He’s slated to make his season debut along with the rest of the team on Saturday, likely playing alongside Brayden Schenn and Ivan Barbashev.
Leivo is also expected to play Saturday as Logan Brown is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury. A new addition to the Blues organization, Leivo had three points in seven games last season with the Carolina Hurricanes and was dominant in the playoffs with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves en route to a Calder Cup championship, scoring 29 points in just 18 games. With over 200 games of NHL experience, Leivo is a fine fill-in on the team’s fourth line and could make a case for himself to stay up with the team longer-term, albeit if it’s just as a healthy scratch. It wouldn’t be a new experience for him, infamously playing just 16 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2017-18 under then-head coach Mike Babcock despite being healthy and on the active roster virtually all season long.
Edmonton Oilers To Send Down Philip Broberg, Recall Devin Shore
Edmonton Oilers general manager Ken Holland said today, appearing on Oilers Now with Bob Stauffer, that the team will send defenseman Philip Broberg down to the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors and recall forward Devin Shore.
It appears the Oilers need to make this move out of salary cap necessity. With Edmonton’s tricky situation, it could actually cause them to start the season short a player. The team has basically maxed out their LTIR relief coming from Oscar Klefbom, Mike Smith, and Tyler Benson, who combine for a $7.117MM cap hit, meaning they can’t recall an extra player to fill in. Forwards Warren Foegele and Kailer Yamamoto are day-to-day with injuries, and if neither of them can suit up tomorrow against the Vancouver Canucks, the team would need to play with 11 forwards and six defensemen.
Why Broberg and Shore in this transaction? The Oilers had 21 skaters on the active roster, including Foegele and Yamamoto: 12 forwards, seven defensemen, and two goalies. With injuries threatening Edmonton’s forward health, the team opted to send down Broberg, who does not require waivers and was projected to be a healthy scratch for the season opener in favor of Ryan Murray, for Shore.
Shore carries a cap hit of $850,000 and cleared waivers earlier this week. Entering his third season with the Oilers, Shore had five goals, six assists, and 11 points in 49 games last year. He’ll draw into the lineup in the event that either one of Foegele or Yamamoto cannot play tomorrow.
Philadelphia Flyers Recall Tanner Laczynski, Wade Allison, Egor Zamula
The Philadelphia Flyers needed to work around the salary cap to get the opening day lineup they wanted, and that meant several transactions today. Sean Couturier has been moved to injured reserve, Bobby Brink, Patrick Brown, and Felix Sandstrom to the injured non-roster, and most notably, Ryan Ellis to long-term injured reserve.
That last move gives the team enough flexibility to officially recall Tanner Laczynski, Wade Allison, and Egor Zamula from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Ellis is not expected to play this season.
Laczynski, 25, has dealt with his own injuries over the last couple of seasons and has just six NHL games under his belt to this point. The Ohio State standout is still looking for his first point at that level but does have 27 in 42 career minor league matches.
Allison, 24, has done a little better at the highest level, racking up four goals and seven points in 15 career games. All of those points came in 2020-21 though, as Allison was limited to just 29 professional games last season.
It is Zamula who is perhaps the most interesting among the three, if only because of his upside. The 22-year-old defenseman went undrafted out of the WHL but quickly made an impact at the pro level and was playing minutes with the Flyers in 2020-21. After an excellent season with the Phantoms last year, where he scored 29 points in 58 games, Zamula looks like he could be a long-term piece to the back end.
Still, with such little experience, each of these players will be tested at the NHL level and could find themselves back in the minor leagues at some point. The Flyers aren’t expected to contend for the playoffs – but don’t tell them that. John Tortorella is trying to set a “new standard” with the organization and will be doing everything he can do make them as competitive as possible.
Dylan Ferguson Signs Professional Tryout
Oct 11: Two months later, Ferguson’s time in Toronto isn’t over yet. The netminder has signed an AHL PTO to remain with the Toronto Marlies for the time being.
Aug 10: In the Vegas Golden Knights first season, some will remember a short period when every goaltender in the system was injured or unavailable at the same time. Marc-Andre Fleury, Malcolm Subban, and Oscar Dansk all hit injured reserve together, meaning the team had just Maxime Lagace to play. In came Dylan Ferguson, a junior hockey netminder who was only a few months removed from being drafted in the seventh round. He was supposed to only serve as the backup but ended up on the ice in a game against the Edmonton Oilers.
Ferguson stopped one of two shots he faced during his nine-minute stint, and then returned to junior where he re-joined his Kamloops Blazers for the rest of that season, and another. His entry-level contract continued to slide but after three seasons bouncing around the minor leagues, the Golden Knights decided not to issue Ferguson a qualifying offer this summer, making him an unrestricted free agent.
Now, he has signed a professional tryout with the Toronto Maple Leafs according to CapFriendly, as he tries to earn a new deal and get his career back on track. In 13 appearances with the Henderson Silver Knights last season, Ferguson posted a .907 save percentage.
Choosing the Maple Leafs is an interesting path, given how full their goaltending system is at the moment. The team has Ilya Samsonov and Matt Murray at the NHL level, Erik Kallgren and Joseph Woll at the AHL level, and college standouts Keith Petruzzelli and Dryden McKay signed to AHL contracts. Hard to see where Ferguson would fit in, unless someone suffers an injury during camp, but it is important to remember that PTOs aren’t necessarily only to showcase a player’s skill for the team they sign with.
Often, it is to make sure they are in camp with someone, so that they can try to catch the eye of a team in the league. If Ferguson wants an NHL deal, he’ll get the chance to prove it in Toronto.
Latest On Jason Demers
Jason Demers was released from his recent professional tryout with the Edmonton Oilers but he was back on the ice with them today. That led to speculation that he was going to sign a contract but that also may be a little premature. Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff tweets that Demers is expected to stay with the organization on an AHL PTO for the time being – something that will allow him to keep training. Kevin Weekes of ESPN, meanwhile, notes that the situation is “fluid” and Demers may sign an AHL contract.
The 34-year-old Demers hasn’t played an NHL game since 2020-21 and spent last season playing internationally. Once a consistent two-way presence in the league, he has 699 career games under his belt and 214 points. Adding that kind of experience on an AHL contract would certainly help the Bakersfield Condors, while sort of providing the Oilers with extra depth.
Though he couldn’t be recalled, the team could choose to sign him to a deal down the road if they face injury issues. In fact, they did almost this exact thing with Brad Malone last year, keeping him on an AHL deal before converting it to an NHL contract in early February. It wouldn’t cost them anything to do it, though Demers would obviously have to agree to a minor league deal, somewhere he hasn’t spent much time in his career.
Since the start of the 2010-11 season, Demers has played just a single game in the AHL – a match for the Tucson Roadrunners in 2018-19.
Glenn Gawdin Clears Waivers
Oct 11: Gawdin has cleared waivers and can be assigned to the minor leagues.
Oct 10: Over the past couple of weeks, the waiver wire has been a busy place as teams quickly pared down their rosters in preparation for the start of the season. Today, the list of players available is much smaller – just one, in fact – as Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports (Twitter link) that the Ducks have placed forward Glenn Gawdin on waivers.
Anaheim signed the 25-year-old in free agency back in July on the heels of another very productive season in the minors. He spent the bulk of 2021-22 with AHL Stockton, notching 15 goals and 35 assists in 62 games while also getting into a pair of games with Calgary. Gawdin’s market was strong enough that he was able to get a two-year deal from Anaheim worth the minimum in both seasons including a one-way salary for the upcoming season. Assuming he clears successfully on Tuesday, he’ll be sent to AHL San Diego where he’ll be counted on to play a big role with the Gulls.
Earlier in the day, five players were picked up off waivers – goaltender Connor Ingram (Arizona), defensemen Josh Mahura (Florida) and Jarred Tinordi (Chicago), plus forwards Axel Jonsson Fjallby (Winnipeg) and Brett Leason (Anaheim). The other 59 players from yesterday’s waiver class all passed through unclaimed.
John Tavares Expected To Be Ready For Season Opener
After suffering an oblique injury in training camp, John Tavares was given a three-week recovery timeline. That suggested he would miss the first few games of the season for the Toronto Maple Leafs, leading to several questions about who would step into the top-six role in his absence. Now, just two weeks later, the Maple Leafs captain is expected to be ready for tomorrow’s opener after all, telling reporters including Mark Masters of TSN that he is excited to be there “right off the get-go.”
It’s a big season for Toronto after being knocked out of the first round once again, and Tavares’ health will be a key factor in their success. The 32-year-old suffered a scary concussion and knee injury in the team’s playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens in 2021 and missed a good chunk of his offseason preparation because of it.
While he still managed 27 goals and 76 points during the following season, many critiqued his play and pointed to Tavares’ $11MM cap hit as one of the biggest challenges the Maple Leafs face when trying to exorcise their playoff demons. It was a generally healthy offseason for the veteran forward until this injury, so it will be interesting to see if his play will be improved at all, or whether this recent setback will have any ill effects.
Either way, with him in the lineup, things look a bit more natural for the Toronto forward group, with Alexander Kerfoot in the third-line pivot role and David Kampf centering Zach Aston-Reese and Nicolas Aube-Kubel on the fourth.
Carolina Hurricanes Sign Derek Stepan
As expected, Derek Stepan has managed to convert his PTO into an NHL contract. The Carolina Hurricanes have signed the veteran forward to a one-year, $750K deal. General manager Don Waddell explained exactly why:
Having Derek in Carolina last season, we know what he brings to the table and what he adds to our team. He gives us additional forward depth and provides us with yet another veteran presence in the locker room.
The move suggests that the Hurricanes have moved Max Pacioretty to long-term injured reserve to make room for the additional cap space required for Stepan’s new deal.
Now 32, Stepan is coming off a solid season with the Hurricanes that saw him rack up nine goals and 19 points in 58 games, despiting averaging fewer than 11 minutes a night. Playing the veteran mentor to many of the team’s younger players, he once again will return as valuable depth for a club with Stanley Cup aspirations.
While we’re now several years removed from Stepan’s prime when he was a locked-and-loaded 50-point center, there’s still plenty of value in adding him to the group. Not only can he bring a bit of depth scoring but he posted a 55.9% faceoff percentage last season, destroying his career total.
If he can keep that up, there actually may be even more situations when head coach Rod Brind’Amour relies on him. Remember, the Hurricanes lost Vincent Trocheck in the offseason, their only other right-handed center. While Seth Jarvis and Martin Necas do have some experience there, the veteran Stepan will likely be relied on in certain defensive situations.
Montreal Canadiens Recall Arber Xhekaj
Though it was already expected, the Montreal Canadiens have officially placed Paul Byron on long-term injured reserve and recalled Arber Xhekaj from the minor leagues. Byron is now out for at least 24 days, though his actual return is still completely indefinite.
The 33-year-old has been crushed by injuries the last several seasons, an unfortunate end to what was a pretty impressive story. Selected in the sixth round in 2007, he was an undersized offensive player from the QMJHL that needed to revamp his game to make it in the NHL. After several years grinding through the minor leagues in the Calgary Flames organization, he found a home and quickly became an NHL regular.
In 2016-17, he reached a career-high with 22 goals and 43 points, becoming a reliable even-strength scoring threat for the Canadiens. Overall, he has 98 goals and 208 points in 521 games. His contract, which carries a $3.4MM cap hit, will expire at the end of the season.
Xhekaj, meanwhile, has been the talk of training camp with the Canadiens. The 21-year-old undrafted defenseman is a mean, physical presence on the ice that seems to have absolutely no fear. The 6’4″ bruiser may not ever be a Norris candidate but with excellent skating ability and NHL size and strength, he quickly became a fan favorite in Montreal.
With the team focused on the future, young players like Xhekaj will get a great opportunity with the Canadiens this season. Byron’s contract gives the team a little more flexibility to work with, at least until he finds a way to get back on the ice.
Hockey Canada Announces Leadership Changes
After months of public pressure, parliamentary hearings, and sponsorship terminations, Hockey Canada has made a change at the head of the organization. Scott Smith, who only took over as CEO earlier this year, will depart effectively immediately. The entire board of directors will also step down, leaving an interim management committee to run things until a new board appoints a new CEO.
The national organization has come under fire for its handling of sexual assault cases, including an incident in 2018 that involved members of the World Junior team. Two different funds used, in part, for settling sexual assault complaints were discovered by investigative journalists this summer, leading the public, federal government, and businesses to call for the resignation of all senior leadership.
Over the last week, Hockey Canada lost all of its premier sponsors, including Tim Hortons, Scotiabank, Nike, Telus, Esso, and more. Today. equipment manufacturer Bauer announced that it would pause its affiliation with the Canadian men’s teams.
The new board is set to be selected by no later than December 17, 2022.