Injury Notes: Forsberg, Cousins, Brown
The Nashville Predators are on a roll, winning seven out of their past 10 games, but they’ve been without their best forward in Filip Forsberg since early November. Placed on injured reserve with an upper-body injury, Forsberg is now “trending in the right direction” according to head coach John Hynes. Forsberg is now skating, a good sign for the 27-year-old Swede. At the time of his injury, he’d scored four goals and seven points in nine games while averaging a tick over 18 minutes per game. Forwards like Mikael Granlund and Matt Duchene (both with 16 points in 16 games) have done an admirable job stepping up in his absence, but still, Forsberg’s return to this lineup gives this team an added scoring boost. Hynes notes, however, that there’s no definitive timetable for Forsberg’s return.
More injury notes from around the league:
- There’s more good news on the Predators front, as the team’s activated forward Nick Cousins from injured reserve. Cousins was originally placed on injured reserve on November 7 and he’s missed the team’s past four games. The versatile 28-year-old forward has been spending most of his time on the wing this season, scoring three points in 12 games while averaging 12:24 per game. He’s expected to ride shotgun with Ryan Johansen and Eeli Tolvanen in his return to the lineup.
- Newly claimed Philadelphia Flyers forward Patrick Brown didn’t get much of a chance to show what he can do with the team before suffering a dislocated thumb earlier in the month. Listed as week-to-week, Brown is now deciding between rehab or surgery for the thumb, per head coach Alain Vigneault. The 29-year-old Brown had gotten into just six games with Philadelphia, notching one assist while playing 9:18 per game. It’s a hit for a team that’s seen a lot of turnover in its bottom six in this short season, gaining Zack MacEwen but losing Nicolas Aube-Kubel to waivers.
Three New York Islanders Added To COVID Protocol
Just under two hours ahead of the New York Islanders’ home opener against the Calgary Flames, Anthony Beauvillier, Adam Pelech, and Andy Greene were added to the NHL’s COVID protocol, per Newsday’s Andrew Gross.
It’s an extremely tough situation for the team, which now has six total players in COVID protocol. Josh Bailey, Anders Lee, and Ross Johnston were added over the past week. Their number one defenseman, Ryan Pulock, is on injured reserve.
The Islanders recalled forwards Richard Panik and Andy Andreoff as well as defensemen Grant Hutton and Paul LaDue today from the AHL’s Bridgeport Islanders. Hutton, along with Robin Salo, who the Islanders recalled earlier, could make his NHL debut.
Losing Beauvillier and Pelech, in particular, is tough to swallow for the Islanders, who sit third-last in the Eastern Conference with a 5-6-2 record after their season-opening 13-game road trip. Beauvillier is one of the team’s top point producers with three goals and seven points through 13 games this season. While Pelech has just two assists, he’s counted on for his defense, not his scoring ability. He’s averaged 21:07 per game and with a +4 rating, his minutes will be tough to replace.
Mika Zibanejad Removed From COVID Protocol After False Positive
4:12 pm: Zibanejad experienced a false positive test and has been removed from COVID protocol, per a team tweet. He’ll be available for Sunday’s game versus the Buffalo Sabres.
10:09 am: The Rangers announced (Twitter link) before their practice today that center Mika Zibanejad has been placed in COVID protocol. As is often the case with these announcements, there is no indication as to whether or not he tested positive or entered the protocol for another reason.
The 28-year-old is off to a bit of a quieter start by his standards this season, scoring just four times in 17 games although Zibanejad has chipped in with ten assists to place him fourth in scoring for New York. Zibanejad once again leads the way in terms of ice time by a forward, logging over 20 minutes a game. He’s in the final year of his contract that carries a $5.35MM AAV, a considerable bargain compared to the eight-year, $68MM extension that he signed last month.
Zibanejad tested positive for the virus prior to training camp for last season but that was only back in January. If this is indeed another positive test, he would be out for at least the next ten days which would cause him to miss New York’s next four games at a minimum. While that wouldn’t be enough time missed to accelerate their shopping for more forward depth, it would still be a tough blow to a team that has gotten off to a solid start this season with a 10-4-3 record.
Washington Capitals Activate T.J. Oshie, Nic Dowd
The Washington Capitals activated forwards T.J. Oshie and Nic Dowd from injured reserve today, per a team release. In a corresponding move, the release states the team also reassigned forward Brett Leason to the AHL’s Hershey Bears.
Oshie’s been absent from the Capitals lineup since October 28, when he was designated as week-to-week with a lower-body injury. At the time, he was in the middle of a good start to the 2021-22 campaign with four goals and six points in seven games.
Dowd, however, has missed just a week and a half with this undisclosed injury. He’s been in and out of the lineup due to injury this year, but after the placement on injured reserve, the Capitals hope he’s good to go at 100%. The 31-year-old has a goal in nine games.
As Washington deals with a variety of absences that include Nicklas Backstrom, Anthony Mantha, and Lars Eller, Oshie’s and Dowd’s returns couldn’t come at a better time. Oshie likely returns as a veteran presence on a line with Axel Jonsson-Fjallby and Garrett Pilon, while Dowd reprises his role as the fourth-line center between Carl Hagelin and Garnet Hathaway.
Despite all the injuries, Washington’s soldiered on to a 10-2-5 record this year and sit at second place in the Metropolitan Division.
Decision Pending For Hurricanes Regarding Seth Jarvis
While teams around the NHL have made decisions on most of the junior-aged players as to whether or not to send them back to their previous team – including one earlier today – another one is soon pending in Carolina’s Seth Jarvis.
Jarvis was a healthy scratch early on in the year which has bought the Hurricanes some extra time to evaluate his development. However, he has played in nine games including today’s action which means the decision on whether or not to activate the first year of his entry-level contract will soon be upon them as that will occur in his tenth contest.
Jarvis has played better as of late, scoring in three straight games including today and is up to four goals and an assist on the season while averaging nearly 14 minutes per night. That’s certainly enough playing time to justify keeping him around although GM Don Waddell will need to weigh that against the benefits of having Jarvis on the books for an extra year on his entry-level deal if his contract was to slide and end in 2024-25 with a slightly lower AAV on the books as well. Mike Johnston, the coach of WHL Portland which is where Jarvis would go if he’s returned to junior, indicated to Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer that he hasn’t heard which way the Hurricanes are leaning but that he doesn’t expect the youngster to return.
The other threshold that has to be brought up in situations like these is the 40-game one. If a junior-aged player is on the active roster for 40 games, he accrues a season of service time, giving him a year towards UFA eligibility. Some teams are okay with a player burning a cheap entry-level season but not losing a year of club control in the process. Edmonton notably did that with Leon Draisaitl back in 2014-15.
So far this season, there has basically been a split on slide decisions. William Eklund (San Jose), Hendrix Lapierre (Washington), Mason McTavish (Anaheim), and Jake Neighbours (St. Louis) were all returned while Dawson Mercer (New Jersey), Lucas Raymond (Detroit), and Cole Sillinger (Columbus) have all played past the nine-game mark already. Carolina will soon need to decide which group their promising winger will be joining in the near future.
No Extension Talks Yet Between Rangers And Ryan Strome
Throughout his tenure with the Rangers, Ryan Strome’s job security has seemed to be relatively thin. Two years ago, the team acknowledged that they gave consideration to not tendering him a qualifying offer in part to avoid the risk of salary arbitration. Instead, they agreed on a two-year, $9MM contract, one that ends in July.
For that money, New York has received a pretty good return. Last season, the 28-year-old had 49 points in 56 games, the highest point per game average of his career (slightly besting his point per game average from 2018-19, his first full season as a Ranger). This year, Strome is off to another good start with 10 points in 13 games. Granted, a lot of that production has come alongside top winger Artemi Panarin but the combination has worked pretty well overall.
With that in mind, it would only seem logical for the two sides to be discussing an extension. Not so fast, as Mollie Walker of the New York Post reports that there have been no such talks nor is there a plan for any to be held in the near future.
New York has some significant additions to their salary cap for next season which certainly plays a role in their current approach. Mika Zibanejad’s AAV goes up by $3.15MM while Adam Fox goes from a base salary of $925K to a $9.5MM cap charge. Add that to the likes of Sammy Blais, Kaapo Kakko, and Alexandar Georgiev all needing new deals as pending restricted free agents and all of a sudden, there isn’t a lot of money left; they have more than $70MM in commitments already per CapFriendly with the Upper Limit only expected to go up by a million or so for next season.
As a result, it looks like Strome could wind up being the odd one out even though it would open up a big hole inside their top six to try to fill, particularly internally with Filip Chytil looking like more of a bottom-six forward than a top-six option. That’s something that GM Chris Drury will need to be mindful of as he looks to add to his current group with Blais out for the year. In the meantime, Strome will look to pile up the points and hope that it will land him a sizable deal somewhere for next season, even if it’s not with Panarin and the Rangers.
AHL Shuffle: 11/20/21
It’s another busy Saturday across the NHL with 24 teams in action today so it should be an active day on the transactions front as well. We’ll keep track of today’s roster movement here.
Atlantic Division
Metropolitan Division
- The Islanders have recalled winger Richard Panik plus defensemen Grant Hutton and Paul LaDue, reports Newsday’s Andrew Gross (Twitter link). Forward Andy Andreoff has also been recalled. Those promotions were needed with the recent injury to Ryan Pulock plus the placements of Anders Lee and Ross Johnston in COVID protocol. New York will finally play their first home game of the season following a whopping 13-game road trip to start while the finishing touches on UBS Arena were put in place.
- In response to T.J. Oshie and Nic Dowd being activated from injured reserve today, the Washington Capitals assigned forward Brett Leason to the Hershey Bears. In his first ten NHL games, all this season, Leason has two goals and one assist after Washington picked him up in the second round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft.
Central Division
Pacific Division
- The Sharks have recalled center Noah Gregor and winger Jeffrey Viel, per the AHL’s transactions log. Gregor played in 30 NHL games with San Jose last season and had five goals but has yet to play with the Sharks this season. Viel, meanwhile, was recently activated off SOIR and played his first game with the Barracuda last night. He played in 11 NHL contests in 2020-21 where he had 23 penalty minutes. Lane Pederson was placed on IR in a corresponding move.
- A day after sending him back to Henderson, the Golden Knights have recalled defenseman Daniil Miromanov, the team announced (Twitter link). The 24-year-old has an assist in three games with Vegas this season but has been more productive with the Silver Knights, recording seven points in 11 contests.
This post will be updated throughout the day.
Ducks Return Mason McTavish To Junior
Mason McTavish‘s time with the Ducks this season has come to an end as the team announced that they have assigned the center back to Peterborough of the OHL. Interim GM Jeff Solomon provided the reasoning for the decision:
While we are happy with Mason’s development to date, we believe it is in his best long-term interests to continue his development playing in the OHL for the remainder of this season and, hopefully for Team Canada in the upcoming World Junior Championships. Among other things, this move should afford Mason the opportunity to gain additional experience playing his natural center position, which we believe will be beneficial to Mason and the Ducks in the long run.
The 18-year-old, who was the third-overall pick in this year’s draft, made the team out of training camp but dealt with a lower-body injury early in the year which stopped his games played clock and actually created a window for him to be sent to AHL San Diego on a conditioning stint, something that can’t be done on a regular assignment as he’s too young to be sent down as part of the CHL-NHL agreement. That allowed Anaheim to delay a decision on what to do with McTavish until now.
McTavish posted decent numbers offensively with two goals and an assist in his nine games but struggled on the possession side of things. What certainly would have complicated the decision for Anaheim is that they’re banged up at the moment with wingers Max Comtois, Max Jones, and Rickard Rakell all out with injuries which has thinned their forward depth as a result but they’ve opted for the longer-term play here.
With this move, Anaheim will not activate the first season of his entry-level deal meaning that McTavish will still have three years remaining on his three-year contract after this season while the Ducks will still have seven seasons of club control. Meanwhile, McTavish will go back to Peterborough, a team he hasn’t spent a lot of time with since that league didn’t play at all last season; he last suited up for the Petes more than 18 months ago.
Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek was the first to report McTavish’s assignment.
Blue Jackets Activate Max Domi From COVID Protocol
This has been a trying season so far for Blue Jackets forward Max Domi. However, things will be looking up for him now as the team announced that they have activated him from COVID protocol. Domi was initially placed there on November 1st which means he missed nearly double the minimum time of ten days while recovering. Columbus had an open roster spot so no corresponding move needed to be made to add him back to the active roster.
Domi was initially expected to miss at least a month of the regular season while recovering from shoulder surgery but was able to get back ahead of schedule, suiting up in their preseason finale and was in the lineup on opening night where he had three points. However, in just his second game, he suffered a fractured rib which caused him to miss four games. Then he was back for two more before this bout with COVID.
It’s hardly the start to the season that Domi wanted, especially with the added importance of this being a contract year as he’ll be set to hit the open market for the first time in July. Coming off a couple of disappointing seasons – one with Columbus and one with Montreal – the 26-year-old needs a bounceback season to rebuild some value. Now with this behind him, he’ll hopefully have a chance to do just that.
Tyce Thompson Expected To Be Out Long-Term
The Devils will be without Tyce Thompson for the next little while as Corey Masisak of The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that the winger will be undergoing shoulder surgery at some point over the next few days. He adds that Thompson has had multiple issues with his shoulder and at this point, they’ll be hoping that the procedure stops the issue from lingering. The expected time for recovery will be several months.
The 22-year-old was brought up from AHL Utica last week and had gotten into two games before suffering the injury, averaging 14:25 per game. Prior to that, he was averaging a point per game in seven contests with the Comets. He also suited up seven times with the Devils last season after finishing his college career at Providence, picking up an assist while primarily playing on the fourth line.
This is the final season of Thompson’s entry-level contract, one that carries $400K in performance bonuses. With him set to miss a substantial portion of the year though, it’s quite unlikely that he’ll be able to reach any of those.