Juuse Saros Will Not Play Again In Regular Season
The Nashville Predators will not have star goaltender Juuse Saros for the last two games of the regular season, ruling him out today with a lower-body injury. Connor Ingram has been recalled to take his spot for the next few days, though it is not clear yet if Saros will be ready for the start of the postseason.
The 27-year-old, who has played in more games this season than any other netminder, left last night’s game against the Calgary Flames in the third period after sustaining what appeared to be an injury to his left leg. There was no update given (and likely none forthcoming) from head coach John Hynes after the game, but if he misses any extended length of time, the Predators would obviously be in trouble.
With 67 appearances, Saros has been incredibly important to a Predators team that is still jockeying for position in the Western Conference playoff race. Two games remain and they are currently tied with the Dallas Stars in the wild card chase, meaning they’ll play either the Colorado Avalanche or Calgary Flames in round one, depending on how the next two games go.
Given how much responsibility Saros has received, it’s hard to fathom the Predators competing without him. David Rittich, the normal backup, has posted an .883 save percentage in 16 appearances, only 11 of them starts. Ingram, the third-string option, has a .906 save percentage in two career NHL games. While improbable goaltending stories seem to happen every year, filling Saros’ pads would be an extremely difficult ask for either one.
Hopefully, at least for Nashville’s sake, the next week is enough rest to get him back into the net. The team will finish their regular season schedule on Friday.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Seth Jones Will Play For Team USA At World Championship
Now that the NHL season is coming to an end, some players will be focused on joining new teams. The IIHF World Championship is right around the corner, scheduled to start on May 13, and players eliminated from the playoffs have already started discussing it with their respective country’s management groups. In Chicago, Seth Jones told reporters including Charlie Roumeliotis of NBCS Chicago that he will be on the U.S. squad at the tournament next month.
Jones, 27, was acquired by the Blackhawks last summer in a blockbuster deal that saw multiple first-round picks and top prospect Adam Boqvist change hands. He was supposed to elevate Chicago to a legitimate playoff contender for years to come, as signaled by the eight-year, $76MM contract extension they quickly signed him to. His $9.5MM cap hit next season will tie him for the fourth-highest among defensemen.
Unfortunately, playoff contention didn’t follow Jones to Chicago. The Blackhawks are currently 27-42-11 on the season and closer to the bottom of the league than the postseason, with a clear mandate from new general manager Kyle Davidson to rebuild this offseason.
For Jones, the Worlds will be a relatively unfamiliar experience. He hasn’t taken part in the tournament since 2015 when he was still a member of the Nashville Predators, as four out of the six years he was in Columbus the team qualified for the postseason. He does however have plenty of experience suiting up for Team USA, and won gold medals at the U18 and U20 events.
He might have another Team USA standout coming with him, as Cole Caufield told reporters including Eric Engels of Sportsnet that he also received a call from the management group. The Montreal Canadiens sniper would “love to play” according to Engels, though he won’t make a final decision until after the season is actually finished.
Joe Snively Sent To AHL On Conditioning Loan
The Washington Capitals could be getting Joe Snively back as a depth option in the next little while, as the injured forward has been sent to the Hershey Bears on an LTIR conditioning loan. Snively is coming back from wrist surgery and will be eligible for the Bears first-round playoff series, should they want to insert him into the lineup.
Of course, while it’s great news for the Bears and their Calder Cup hopes, there is a bigger prize that the Capitals have their eyes on and Snively could potentially help them get there. This is a player that recorded four goals and seven points in his first 12 NHL games, and could potentially step into an offensive role should the Capitals suffer any injuries along the way.
For now, he’ll need to get back up to speed in the AHL. Snively had 38 points in 35 games to start the year with Hershey and should immediately give them another top-line player to help their playoff run. The team had middling success through the second half of the year and ended up going 34-32-10 on the year, good enough for fifth place in the Atlantic Division.
AHL Shuffle: 04/27/22
Just a few days of action remain in the 2021-22 NHL regular season, and today has five games on tap. Notably, both the Dallas Stars and Vegas Golden Knights are back in action after their thrilling game last night. The Stars need just a single point (or a Vegas loss) in their last two games to clinch the playoffs, and tonight’s opponent is the lowly Arizona Coyotes, fighting for last in the entire league. As those teams and others prepare, we’ll keep track of all the minor league shuffling.
Atlantic Division
- The Detroit Red Wings have sent Riley Barber back to the AHL, a near-daily transaction at this point. Barber has played in just four games this season and is still without a point.
- With nothing really to play for, the Florida Panthers have recalled Matt Kiersted, Aleksi Heponiemi, and Cole Schwindt from the AHL. The team has clinched first place in the Eastern Conference, though technically the Colorado Avalanche could still take the Presidents’ Trophy from them, depending on what happens in the next few days.
Metropolitan Division
- The New York Rangers have recalled Zac Jones from the AHL, as the team may end up resting some players in the next few days. The Rangers have clinched second place in the Metropolitan Division and will now wait to see whether they play the Pittsburgh Penguins or Washington Capitals in the first round.
- The New Jersey Devils have recalled Alexander Holtz from the AHL, now that there is no danger of him burning the first year of his entry-level contract. With seven games played so far and just two remaining in the Devils’ season, Holtz can’t hit the ten-game threshold that would start his deal. Still, he’ll get a chance to prove himself in the NHL over the next couple of contests.
Central Division
Pacific Division
This page is updated throughout the day
Looking At Max Domi’s Impending Free Agency
After taking a look at the upcoming free agency situation of Vincent Trocheck, we now pivot to looking at the future of his Hurricanes teammate, Max Domi. Tonight Domi hit an important milestone in his career: 500 NHL games played. Domi is famously the son of enforcer Tie Domi, who spent the majority of his career with just one team: the Toronto Maple Leafs. The stability that Tie Domi found once he established himself in Toronto is not something Max has managed in his career, and as a pending unrestricted free agent, the second Domi looks set to potentially land on the fifth NHL team of his career despite being just 27 years old.
As we previously mentioned when going over the situation of Trocheck, the Hurricanes already have significant cap dollars tied to their forward corps, (and more specifically their top three centers) and have important extensions to consider down the line. As a result, it is likely that Domi, who arrived in Carolina as part of a buzzer-beating deadline-day trade, is a pure rental for the team. So the former London Knights star looks primed to hit the unrestricted free-agent market for the first time in his career.
But what should his market look like? Domi is a bit of an enigmatic player. He is very talented offensively, having produced at an elite level once before (when he had 72 points for the Montreal Canadiens in the 2018-19 season) and having the overall skill level to appear on highlight reels. Additionally, Domi plays with a level of energy and enthusiasm that one would expect from the son of Tie Domi, and he plays a style that allows him to quickly endear himself to fans. Although coaches have mostly preferred to keep him on the wing, Domi also has experience playing center, which adds to his value. But with those positives comes a sometimes maddening level of inconsistency, as well as a shaky defensive game. Domi butted heads with coach John Tortorella in Columbus, and near the end of his tenure in Montreal, he found himself relegated to fourth-line center duty. So despite his intriguing package of skills and desirable work ethic, Domi’s overall offering as a free agent is more mixed than it may initially seem.
All of those factors make assessing what Domi could cost on the open market a challenging prospect. With many players, there are typically some generally accurate comparable players to use as a benchmark for estimating what kind of contract a player can command in free agency. But with Domi, are there many comparables that make sense for his situation? One tool we have to assess how Domi is viewed leaguewide is his trade value. It’s not perfect, as there are a whole host of factors that go into an in-season trade that are not present in the summer, but it can paint a somewhat accurate picture. 
Domi’s trade was a complicated three-way deal that involved a “cap broker” and multiple assets being swapped just to account for the financial aspects of the deal. But in the end, the Blue Jackets, the team trading Domi, got just one asset in return for him, the rights to prospect defenseman Aidan Hreschuk, a 19-year-old playing for Boston College. Hreschuk was a third-round pick in 2021 and had 8 points in 37 games in this NCAA season. If that return is any indication, Domi’s value has declined sharply since a few years ago, when he was the main return in Columbus’ Josh Anderson trade and earned a contract worth over $5MM AAV.
This offseason’s market for offensive skill players is one that theoretically offers teams many options, with elite scorers such as Johnny Gaudreau, Filip Forsberg, and Nazem Kadri as the headliners, meaning Domi may not be the beneficiary of a bidding war caused by an imbalance between the supply and demand of scoring talent on the market. That means that Domi may not reach the $5.3MM AAV mark he is currently earning if he wants a long-term contract. But if Domi wants a shorter-term deal, one where he can prioritize role and fit in order to re-enter the market on the back of a better platform year, that would likely make him a desirable player for many cap-strapped teams. Domi’s 2018-19 season showed that he can score at a high level in the NHL, but he hasn’t come close to that since. His decision this offseason regarding where he wants to sign as a first-time UFA could determine if he reaches those heights again.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Snapshots: Kuzmenko, Boudreau, Price
While the IIHF recently announced an additional sanction on hockey in Russia, and the NHL has cut ties with the KHL, Russian players are still permitted to sign as free agents with NHL clubs. With the KHL season set to end shortly, KHL free agents seeking to cross the Atlantic and sign with an NHL team have come under the microscope. Perhaps the most attention has been paid to Andrei Kuzmenko, who is set to become a free agent on May 1st. Kuzmenko, 26, had 53 points in 45 games in this KHL campaign, along with 14 points in 16 playoff games. Kuzmenko’s offensive profile is tantalizing to many NHL teams, and since he is still just 26 years old it is not unreasonable to think there is room for him to grow.
Like many of the KHL free agents who came before him, Kuzmenko is expected to have a competitive market when he and his representatives choose to begin negotiations. On TSN’s Insider Trading program, TSN Hockey Insider Chris Johnston reported that next week Kuzmenko will begin the interview process with NHL teams. Johnston reports that it is believed that 20 NHL teams will reach out to Kuzmenko with at least “some degree of interest.” In terms of what factors may play into Kuzmenko’s decision-making process, Johnston says that Kuzmenko “wants to go somewhere where he can play, where he’s going to have a role,” and that the market and city a team plays in is a less important factor. That should certainly make the competition to secure Kuzmenko’s services a bit more wide-open, and given that he only costs a signing team cap space and no assets to acquire, there will likely be many fanbases across the NHL hoping their team can be the one to land this intriguing KHL veteran.
Now, some more snapshots from across the NHL:
- While Bruce Boudreau’s contract situation has been a major storyline in recent months, it seems the fears of a potential offseason departure for the 67-year-old Canucks skipper can be all but dismissed. In an interview with CHEK’s Don Taylor and Rick Dhaliwal, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman gave an update on Boudreau’s status. In his interview, Friedman states that Boudreau will return as Vancouver’s coach “if everybody is reasonable.” Friedman believes that as long as neither party is “being ridiculous,” as he terms it, then there should be no real issue securing an agreement on Boudreau’s return. Both the Canucks’ players and fanbase have responded extremely well to Boudreau’s coaching, and since he arrived in Vancouver the Canucks have been among the tougher teams to beat in the NHL. So while there may have once been fears of an offseason divorce for Boudreau and the Canucks, it now seems that there is very little chance of those fears becoming reality.
- Carey Price has made his return to the Montreal Canadiens, but that doesn’t mean his future is made any more certain. In another note from TSN’s Insider Trading program, TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun gave an update on Price’s status. LeBrun reports that Price “wants to play next season” as a number-one priority for him, but in order to do so, he needs to have full health in the injured knee that cost him so many games this season. According to LeBrun, not a certainty that Price’s knee can get there. Lebrun doesn’t cast any majorly pessimistic forecasts on Price’s health, but he does state that there is “a bit of uncertainty” to Price’s health situation that may complicate not only his future but also the future of the Canadiens.
Injury Notes: Maple Leafs, Avalanche, Blue Jackets
The Toronto Maple Leafs, while still remaining competitive with a tough schedule, have faced significant injury setbacks over the past few weeks. A mass of updates came today during a press conference with head coach Sheldon Keefe, where he revealed that forward Michael Bunting will miss the final two games of the regular season, defenseman Rasmus Sandin is likely to return for the team’s finale on Friday versus the Boston Bruins, and forward Ondrej Kase remains day-to-day with no timeline to return.
As the Maple Leafs prepare for a likely impending First Round matchup with the back-to-back Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning, this is mostly positive news. The language surrounding Bunting’s injury wasn’t initially positive after he fell awkwardly during an April 23 game against Florida, but his prognosis has improved since then and it looks like a possibility that he could be ready for the beginning of the series. Sandin has missed over a month with a knee injury, while Kase has missed the same duration with a concussion.
- There are some more updates on various players on a Stanley Cup contender, as the Colorado Avalanche deal with some injury issues of their own. Head coach Jared Bednar spoke to reporters today, saying that defenseman Devon Toews will return to the lineup tonight after dealing with an undisclosed injury, forward Mikko Rantanen is working toward a return on Thursday against the Nashville Predators, and captain Gabriel Landeskog won’t return until the postseason. Toews has missed just around a week and a half, but his absence cannot be understated, as he continues to be one of the most underrated defensemen in the league with 57 points in just 64 games this year (while averaging over 25 minutes per game). Meanwhile, the Colorado captain has been out since early March with a leg injury.
- The Columbus Blue Jackets announced today that both captain Boone Jenner and Sean Kuraly will miss the short remainder of the season with respective injuries. Kuraly, in his first season with Columbus, suffered a foot injury last Sunday and will miss the remaining three games. Jenner will have missed the last month and a half of the season with a back injury.
Frederik Andersen Expected To Miss Beginning Of First Round
There have been many conflicting reports over the past few days regarding the health of the Carolina Hurricanes’ goaltenders, and while there’s largely an optimistic tone around the health of their top netminders, it may not be all sunshine and roses just yet. ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski reported today that the “current expectation” is that Frederik Andersen could miss the first few games of Carolina’s First Round series, which likely looks to be against the Boston Bruins. The report comes after sources suggested to The Athletic’s Sara Civian just yesterday that Andersen would be “good to go” for Game 1.
An undisclosed injury has sidelined Andersen since April 16, when he left the late third period of a game against the Colorado Avalanche. He’s run away with the starter’s crease in Carolina this season with a Vezina-consideration-worthy campaign, compiling 35 wins (7th in NHL), four shutouts (tied for 5th in NHL), a 2.17 goals-against average (2nd among qualified goalies), and .922 save percentage (tied for 3rd among qualified goalies).
With backup netminder Antti Raanta becoming injured a few days ago, it put Andersen’s potential return under the spotlight to shut down any goaltending issues for Carolina ahead of the playoffs. Pyotr Kochetkov, Carolina’s 36th overall selection in 2019, entered the game in relief and started the team’s game the night prior as well. While he’s earned a victory in both games, he has just a .889 save percentage in his now 89 career minutes of NHL ice time.
Especially as the Bruins have caused Carolina fits during their last two playoff meetings, continued stellar goaltending will be essential for the Hurricanes to avoid an upset. They’re just 1-8 in their last nine playoff games against their most likely First Round opponent.
Vegas Golden Knights Sign Ivan Morozov
The Vegas Golden Knights have landed an interesting Russian prospect, signing Ivan Morozov to a two-year entry-level contract. The deal begins in 2022-23, and Morozov has signed a professional tryout with the Henderson Silver Knights for the rest of this season.
Selected 61st overall in 2018, Morozov has been playing in the KHL for the last few seasons and even scored 31 points in 55 games during the 2020-21 campaign. Unfortunately, he ended up demoted to SKA St. Petersburg’s VHL team for part of this year and then was moved to HK Sochi, where he had three points in five games to end the year.
A representative for Russia at two World Juniors and last summer’s World Championship it was a curious fall for Morozov this season in the SKA program. Even in his 17 games with the KHL club he managed eight points, a fine performance for someone who was receiving just 15 minutes a night. Those minutes skyrocketed in his short stint with Sochi, as the young forward averaged over 20 minutes for his five games there, with the brief glimpse in January showing that he could still compete at that level.
Coming to North America now certainly seems like the right move, especially given how the Golden Knights will be desperately looking for inexpensive contributions next season as they continue to deal with salary cap issues. Morozov could very well break camp with the team in the fall should he perform well enough, or at least come up at some point during the regular season.
Tucker Poolman Placed On LTIR; Arturs Silovs Recalled
The Vancouver Canucks are not technically eliminated from the postseason. When Timo Meier scored with 0.9 seconds left for the San Jose Sharks, who then went on to win in a shootout against the Vegas Golden Knights, the slimmest sliver of hope was saved for the Canucks. If they win out, the Golden Knights beat the Dallas Stars tonight and then both of those teams lose the rest of the way, the Canucks would get in on a complicated tie-breaker. It’s not much, but it’s hope.
Unfortunately, it appears they’ll have to do their part without Thatcher Demko, at least for tonight. The team has moved Tucker Poolman to long-term injured reserve in order to recall Arturs Silovs from the minor leagues. Silovs is expected to serve as the backup for Spencer Martin tonight, as Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK TV tweets that Demko is dealing with an undisclosed injury.
The 21-year-old Silovs has never played a game at the NHL level and has just 11 appearances in the AHL, not many of which have gone very well. He’s spent more than half of this season with the ECHL’s Trois-Rivieres Lions, where he has a .920 save percentage in ten appearances.
Poolman, meanwhile, has played in just one game since January and lasted just seven shifts. The 28-year-old defenseman was signed to an inexplicable four-year contract in the offseason and averaged 17 minutes a night through the first half of the season, recording three points in 40 games overall. His first year with the Canucks has certainly not gone to plan, and the team has been much better without him on the ice (though he hasn’t had much of a chance to play for head coach Bruce Boudreau, who turned the team around and has them this close to the playoffs).
For Martin, it is a bit of a showcase for next season, when he figures to be the regular backup for Demko at the NHL level. The 26-year-old netminder signed a new two-year, one-way contract extension earlier this month and Jaroslav Halak‘s deal will expire at the end of the season. With Michael DiPietro likely needing more time in the minor leagues before he really pushes for an NHL opportunity, it’s likely Demko-Martin for 2022-23, unless the team acquires another option in net. So far, so good, as Martin had a .958 save percentage in three appearances earlier this season.