Minnesota Wild Recall Matt Boldy, Marco Rossi
It’s time for the kids to have an impact in Minnesota. The Wild have recalled both Matt Boldy and Marco Rossi to the taxi squad, with both expected to make their NHL debuts against the Boston Bruins this Thursday.
The Wild are currently in free fall from the top of the Central Division, losing their last five games and dropping to third place behind the St. Louis Blues and Nashville Predators. They’re also without Joel Eriksson Ek and Jordan Greenway for the time being, opening room for the top prospects to step in and contribute.
Boldy, selected 12th overall in 2019, is the only top-20 player from his draft that has yet to make an appearance at the NHL level. The 20-year-old forward has 28 points in 24 games for the Iowa Wild since signing out of Boston College last year, though only ten of those appearances have come this season. Boldy suffered a broken ankle in October as he was trying to crack the Minnesota roster out of training camp.
Rossi meanwhile was picked even higher, ninth overall in 2020. The 20-year-old center was start the 2020-21 campaign in Switzerland, but a bout with COVID revealed a myocarditis diagnosis that kept him out the entire season. It wasn’t at all clear whether Rossi’s career would continue, with the young forward telling Michael Russo of The Athletic how frightening the diagnosis was:
Every time before I went to sleep, I was so scared that I won’t wake up anymore. Every night, before sleep, I was really sad and always crying because I was scared of that. I told my parents, ‘Could you sleep right next to my bed and be here ’til I fall asleep?’ And every day I woke up in the morning, I was so glad that I woke up. It was really hard.
Now healthy and playing every day in the AHL, Rossi has picked up right where he left off in 2020. Through 21 games with Iowa, he has 23 points, routinely controlling the game with his strong two-way play.
The two youngsters may not be up for the rest of the season, but it will be exciting for Wild fans to see them take the ice in a Minnesota sweater for the first time.
Taxi Squad Shuffle: 01/04/22
Eight games grace the NHL schedule this evening, as things start to get back to normal across the league. The Calgary Flames will face a shorthanded Florida Panthers team, while the defending champions try to get back in the win column against a Zach Werenski-less Blue Jackets’ squad. As those teams and others prepare for action, we’ll keep track of all the minor league and taxi squad shuffling.
Atlantic Division
- With Nikita Kucherov approaching a return, the Tampa Bay Lightning have sent Gabriel Fortier back to the AHL. Fortier, 21, has one goal in ten games for the Lightning this season, his first in the NHL.
- The Florida Panthers have assigned Aleksi Heponiemi to the taxi squad, as they prepare for action without the likes of Sam Bennett, Sam Reinhart, or Mason Marchment. Heponiemi, 22, has played two games for Florida this season.
Metropolitan Division
- Tarmo Reunanen has been recalled to the New York Rangers taxi squad. The team has also moved Matthew Robertson back to the AHL, without the young defenseman actually appearing in the NHL. Robertson, 20, has five points in 23 games for the Hartford Wolf Pack in his first year of professional hockey.
- The Washington Capitals have recalled Aliaksei Protas from the AHL, while sending Lucas Johansen, Michael Sgarbossa, Pheonix Copley, and Alexander Alexeyev to the minor leagues. Protas has been a nice find for the Capitals so far, registering six points in 22 games just two years after dropping to the third round of the draft.
- With Claude Giroux and Ivan Provorov entering COVID protocol today, the Philadelphia Flyers recalled forwards Gerald Mayhew and Max Willman as well as defenseman Cam York to the active roster from the taxi squad.
Central Division
- Arizona Coyotes forward Matias Maccelli is back with the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners, per the team. He didn’t get into a game during his call-up, and he’s still looking for his first NHL action, but he’s impressed with 21 points through 21 games in Tucson this year.
- The Dallas Stars have reassigned Ty Dellandrea, Rhett Gardner, Riley Tufte, and Adam Scheel from the taxi squad to the Texas Stars, giving them some extra bodies for their games this weekend.
Pacific Division
- The Los Angeles Kings have reassigned Martin Frk and Jacob Moverare from the AHL to the taxi squad. Moverare, despite still waiting for his first NHL opportunity, has been involved in ten transactions since the middle of December, bouncing up and down on a near-daily basis.
- The Seattle Kraken reassigned forward Kole Lind and goalie Joey Daccord to the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers today, according to a team tweet. The two have combined to play seven games at the NHL level this season.
This page will be updated throughout the day
Why The 2022 Trade Deadline Could Be A Seller’s Market
The 2022 NHL Trade Deadline is not exactly imminent. The delayed March 21 date this season is 11 weeks away and a lot can change in that amount of time. However, the end of the holiday trade freeze is the unofficial start to trade season leading up to the deadline. In the first few months of the season there have been ten trades completed, but outside of the Jack Eichel deal there have been very few moves of any substance. That may not change any time soon either.
An active trade deadline requires there to be identifiable buyers and sellers and they must be willing and able to deal. Buyers should not be an issue this season; the eight teams currently in a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference may be locked in, as nearly 100 percentage points separate the eighth and ninth team in the conference standings, while the Western Conference includes 13 teams with .500+ records. Therein begins the sellers problem though. Only three teams out west look like potential sellers right now, while there could be more teams willing to sell in the east but many are in a rebuild and don’t have much to offer, while others are merely lacking impact rentals. There are also a number of fringe teams that probably should be sellers, but are close enough to a playoff berth that would mean so much to their players and fan base that they may hold out.
The Athletic’s Eric Duhatschek notes another wrinkle that could limit sellers: five teams are currently operating with an interim GM. The Montreal Canadiens and Vancouver Canucks have hired new heads of their respective front offices in Jeff Gorton and Jim Rutherford, but neither has in turn hired his GM yet and seem unlikely to make major moves independently. This could take Gorton’s Canadiens, one of the most obvious sellers on paper, off the market. Rutherford’s Canucks hope to be in the playoff race, but he has already vowed that the team will either sell or stand pat this season and the longer it takes to hire a GM, the more likely it will be the latter. The Chicago Blackhawks, Anaheim Ducks, and San Jose Sharks are all operating with temporary GMs, all of whom have limited experience. Chicago and Anaheim fired their most recent GMs and have internal replacements for the time being, while San Jose GM Doug Wilson is currently away from the team for medical reasons. As Duhatschek points out, the likes of Kyle Davidson, Jeff Solomon, and Joe Will are not only new to the GM position, but lack the relationships around the league to make impact moves. So while the Blackhawks look like bona fide sellers and the Sharks and possibly the Ducks could get to that point, will they actually be willing to make trades?
The Seattle Kraken also fall into a category all their own. The NHL’s newest team was just put together in its entirety this off-season. Although they struggled mightily all season and do possess a number of expiring contracts, it remains to be seen if GM Ron Francis is ready to blow it up.
On top of all of this, the rental market among potential sellers is not strong. Of the top 20 impending UFA’s in per-game scoring this season, zero are on teams with sub-.500 records and just three are on teams not currently in a playoff spot. Expand that to the top 50, and only ten players are on sub-.500 teams: Phil Kessel, Travis Boyd, and Johan Larsson for Arizona, Vinnie Hinostroza for Buffalo, Chris Wideman for Montreal, P.K. Subban for New Jersey, Tyler Ennis for Ottawa, and Calle Jarnkrok, Colin Blackwell, and Mark Giordano for Seattle. Even if valuable defensemen like Ben Chiarot and Colin Miller or even a future Hall of Fame goaltender like Marc-Andre Fleury are considered, it’s not exactly an inspiring list for teams adding at the deadline. More importantly, it’s a short list for a potentially large group of buyers.
For those teams looking to make a meaningful trade this season, the conundrum is when to make a move. On one hand, with a small group of exciting targets it may be beneficial to make a trade early and possibly avoid the high prices of deadline bidding wars. On the other hand, the pool of sellers could also expand closer to the deadline and prices could drop if there is a flood of supply to meet the demand. Until that happens though – if it even does – there will be few moves to make early on and quite possibly right up to the deadline. Serious contenders should be prepared to pay up or sit tight this season.
Flyers Place Jackson Cates, Nick Seeler In COVID Protocol
The Philadelphia Flyers will be without a pair of depth players for a short while as rookie forward Jackson Cates and veteran defenseman Nick Seeler have landed on the COVID Protocol list. The team announced that the duo and one staff member have entered the protocol.
The Flyers are currently on a west coast road trip, making the situation all the more complicated. The team still has to face the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night before returning to Philadelphia for a rivalry match-up with the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday. It is unlikely that Cates or Seeler will suit up tomorrow and depending on the impact that their predicament will have on travel, not to mention the possibility of a positive test and thus an extended absence, the Penguins game and beyond may also be in doubt.
Seeler has been a frequent recall of the Flyers this season, playing in 23 games. Although his role and his impact on the scoreboard have been minimal, Seeler has still been a reliable option to plug into the lineup – until now. Cates is in his first full pro season out of the University of Minnesota Duluth and has one point in four games so far in Philly. Cates too has played a minimal role, but the rookie has been automatic at the face-off dot and could be in line for more opportunity once he returns to action.
Calgary Flames’ Arena Construction Deal Terminated
The Coronavirus pandemic has claimed another victim. The long-awaited construction of a new arena for the Calgary Flames will no longer begin this year. Instead, the deal is dead. CBC reports that the agreement between the city of Calgary and owners of the Flames on a new arena has officially been terminated. A project that began gaining steam back in 2017, was finalized in 2019, was set to begin construction in 2022, and set to open in 2024 is now completely erased and the Flames are back to square one.
The $600MM project has hit some funding roadblocks along the way as both the city and ownership group have suffered losses during the pandemic. This past summer, with inevitable construction delays on the way, the initial agreement was amended, groundbreaking was pushed to 2022, and the Flames took on an additional $12.5MM in costs. Yet, it seemed like the plan was still on track. However, Calgary mayor Jyodi Gondek stated last month that the team had informed the city that they could not proceed with the agreement as currently constituted. Today, the city announced that the termination of the agreement had been made official due to “unresolved issues”.
Meanwhile, it is estimated that the two sides already contributed $20-25MM into the project, which is now all for not. The city is set to discuss the situation further in the near future, while there has been no word from the Flames side. Today’s announcement did imply that there was no possibility of reformation of any part of the deal, but with financial commitments already made and a concrete plan hammered out, hopefully some semblance of an alternative path forward can be reached.
Otherwise, where the Flames go from here will become a pressing issue in Calgary. The team will continue to play at the Saddledome in the interim, but the old arena is severely outdated and in need of renovations – or replacement, as the team had hoped. Back in 2017, Flames CEO Ken King even publicly threatened relocation of the franchise if the city of Calgary would not help to fund the arena. It then took several years of often heated negotiations for the two sides to reach an agreement. If they have to start from scratch now, the future of the team in Calgary could be cast back into doubt.
Jeremy Lauzon, Alex Wennberg Placed In COVID Protocol
Jan 3: The Kraken have now added Alexander Wennberg to the protocol, joining Lauzon. The team already had their upcoming game against the Ottawa Senators postponed, meaning they will have time to get both back before their next game on January 10, should they test out of the protocol.
Jan 1: The Seattle Kraken have Vince Dunn and Ryan Donato back from the COVID protocol today as they took morning skate, but it’s not back to full strength just yet. The team still has Mason Appleton unavailable and he’ll now be joined on the sidelines by Jeremy Lauzon, who has entered the protocol today.
Lauzon, 24, was the Kraken pick from Boston in the expansion draft and he has played 27 games for the team this season. A second-round selection from 2015, the young defenseman still hasn’t quite come into his own at the NHL level. He does provide a level of physical play that the Kraken defense has become known for, ranking third on the team in hits and first in penalty minutes, but Lauzon has just five points so far on the year.
Notably, Lauzon has avoided Group VI unrestricted free agency by landing a regular gig with the Kraken to start the year. He had just 76 matches to his name before this season, with 80 being the threshold to avoid UFA status. Instead, he’ll be a restricted free agent this summer coming off his two-year deal from 2020. Arbitration-eligible, a good showing this season could result in a healthy raise should the Kraken decide he’s worthy of a qualifying offer.
Snapshots: Three Stars, Greeley, Wild
The NHL has released its Three Stars for last week, with Jordan Kyrou taking home the top spot. The St. Louis Blues forward had seven points in two games, including a four-point effort in the Winter Classic. With 79 points in 128 career games, including 32 in 29 this season, the 2016 second-round pick is establishing himself as a top offensive performer in the NHL.
Second and third place went to Jack Hughes and Jonathan Huberdeau respectively, after their own outstanding weeks. The New Jersey Devils center had eight points in three games and figured into two more overtime victories for the club. Huberdeau meanwhile continues his incredible run and is now up to 41 points in 32 games this season.
- The Dallas Stars have hired Steve Greeley as their new Director of Hockey Strategy/Scouting and Development, bringing him in to oversee the club’s analytics department. Greeley was previously an assistant general manager with the Buffalo Sabres under Jason Botterill and an assistant director of player personnel with the New York Rangers.
- The Minnesota Wild may be giving a young prospect their first chance at the NHL level, as Michael Russo of The Athletic tweets Matt Boldy and/or Marco Rossi could be coming up for Thursday’s game. The Wild placed Jordan Greenway in the COVID protocol today and are already without Joel Eriksson Ek. Boldy, as Russo points out, is the only top-20 pick from 2019 yet to play in an NHL game, while Rossi is only a year removed from his myocarditis diagnosis which put his career on pause.
Senators-Kraken Game Postponed
The NHL has postponed another match, this time between the Ottawa Senators and Seattle Kraken on January 6. The Senators placed several new players in the COVID protocol earlier today.
By postponing this game, the Senators are now off until January 8, at which point they should have several players back from the protocol. This is not the first time that Ottawa has dealt with postponements; quite the opposite, in fact, as the team has seen games rescheduled for both COVID outbreaks and attendance restrictions.
The Kraken are now off even longer, as they don’t have another game scheduled until a week from now. That means they will have played just three games between December 18 and January 10.
There have been more than 90 postponements so far through the first half of the season.
James Neal Clears Waivers
Jan 3: Neal has cleared waivers according to Friedman meaning he can now be sent to the taxi squad or minor leagues.
Jan 2: The St. Louis Blues placed forward James Neal on waivers today, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
Neal did have an impressive training camp with the Blues which led to a one-year, league-minimum contract, but he hasn’t retained that same magic in the regular season. The embattled former 40-goal scorer has just two goals and two assists through 17 games this season.
With the Blues continuing to get back to full health, there’s no clear spot for Neal at the NHL level anymore. He’s been surpassed on the depth chart by names like Logan Brown and Klim Kostin, making him expendable.
Teams have until 1 p.m. CT tomorrow to put in a claim for Neal.
Dallas Stars Activate 10 Players
Jan 3: The Stars have activated ten players today, leaving only Benn in the protocol.
Dec 29: The Dallas Stars have placed Jamie Benn, Luke Glendening, and Ryan Suter in the COVID protocol, raising their number of absent players to 11. The team has also placed an additional support staff member into the protocol, raising that number to three.
The new trio joins Radek Faksa, Jani Hakanpaa, Miro Heiskanen, Roope Hintz, Joel Kiviranta, Esa Lindell, Michael Raffl, and Jason Robertson in the protocol, explaining why the Dallas games against Colorado were both postponed already. The Stars aren’t scheduled to play until Sunday, at which point they could potentially have some of these players eligible again.
With the NHL (slightly) relaxing the isolation rules, teams like the Stars could get players back after just five days, should they be able to provide a negative test. While that’s obviously not a guarantee, in this case, it at least opens up the window a bit for a quick return after ending up in the protocol. For the Stars, who are now missing four of their regular defensemen, it would certainly be a welcome change.