Injury Notes: Penguins, Golden Knights, Avalanche, Wood
The Pittsburgh Penguins received some extremely welcome news today, as head coach Mike Sullivan says centers Sidney Crosby and Jeff Carter are game-time decisions for tomorrow’s contest against the New Jersey Devils as they begin the journey to full health. That’s only 40% of the key contributors they have currently out of the lineup, however, as Kris Letang remains in COVID-19 protocol and Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust are on injured reserve. Still, seeing one of the best players in the world close to full health again and nearly ready to make his season debut is always promising news. The return of Carter shouldn’t be overlooked either, as the veteran forward had four points in four games before entering COVID-19 protocol.
More injury notes from around the league:
- The Golden Knights, along with the Penguins, have been one of the most injury-affected teams in the NHL this season. The Athletic’s Jesse Granger issued updates on the health of many Golden Knights today, as the team has six regulars currently sitting out with injury. The most notable of those updates is Mark Stone, who is still out indefinitely but skated today for the first time since suffering a lower-body injury on October 15. However, it could potentially become seven regulars out of the lineup for tonight’s game as William Carrier suffered an injury Wednesday night against Dallas and is a game-time decision.
- Colorado Avalanche winger Mikko Rantanen is day-to-day with a lower-body injury per head coach Jared Bednar, but defenseman Devon Toews is expected to make his season debut during the next two games. Rantanen was scratched from Thursday night’s game against the Blues. Toews’ return will give Colorado a fully healthy defense core for the first time this season, as Samuel Girard is also ready to go.
- Devils head coach Lindy Ruff gave an update today on forward Miles Wood, who he calls “the furthest away” from returning out of all the Devils’ injuries. Considering Jack Hughes was issued a five-week timeline today, that’s not promising news. Wood has not played this season after suffering a lower-body injury just prior to the start of the campaign.
Michael Amadio Placed On Waivers By Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs placed 25-year-old forward Michael Amadio on waivers today, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
The move leaves Toronto with no extra forwards on the roster as Ilya Mikheyev remains on injured reserve. While Petr Mrazek is healed from injury and ready to return against the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday, he was never officially placed on injured reserve. It’s possible that there’s a corresponding call-up coming from the AHL’s Toronto Marlies.
Head coach Sheldon Keefe inserted Amadio into the lineup in only three games up until this point, averaging only 9:10 per game with no points and a +1 rating. Keefe deployed Amadio exclusively on the fourth line with Jason Spezza and Wayne Simmonds, a role that offseason addition Nick Ritchie finds himself in now after a slow start influenced a massive line shuffle.
Playing parts of five seasons in the league, Amadio’s played 176 contests with the Los Angeles Kings, Ottawa Senators, and Maple Leafs. 168 of those 176 games came in a Kings uniform, as well as all of his 16 goals and 39 of his 40 career points.
The likelihood of a claim here is relatively low, as he’s done little in the past two seasons to show that he’s an everyday NHL player. If he clears, he’ll likely report to a Marlies team that’s dealing with a significant injury to top prospect Nicholas Robertson.
Jack Hughes Out With Dislocated Shoulder
Oct 29: The Devils have announced that after a re-evaluation, it has been determined that there were no unforeseen issues with his shoulder injury. His recovery will be evaluated again in five weeks. That means the Devils will be without their young center for quite some time, but it appears as though surgery is still not on the table.
Oct 21: Jack Hughes will be out indefinitely after suffering a dislocated shoulder, but that’s actually good news for the New Jersey Devils. The young forward will not require surgery and has begun to rehab the injury. Hughes will be re-evaluated next week, meaning he will still miss a good chunk of time, but there was fear that surgery could take away a huge chunk of the season. He has been moved to injured reserve for the time being, which comes with a minimum of seven days.
Hughes, 20, looked like a wholly different player in his first game of the season, scoring two goals and dominating play whenever he was on the ice. He suffered the shoulder injury in his second match, when Seattle Kraken defenseman Jeremy Lauzon sent him sprawling into the boards.
If he has avoided major injury it’s a huge win for the Devils, who are off to a 2-0 start as they try to show the rest of the Metropolitan Division that the playoffs are not out of the question. One of the youngest teams in the league, New Jersey has just three regulars–Tomas Tatar, P.K. Subban, and Jonathan Bernier–over the age of 30. The latter, Bernier, is also dealing with a lower-body injury and will not dress tonight. The team has recalled Nico Daws from the AHL to serve as backup tonight.
Travis Hamonic Reports To Vancouver
Oct 29: CapFriendly reports that Hamonic’s $3MM cap hit is now officially back on the books, though at the buried rate. Just $1.875MM counts toward the cap ceiling while he is in the minor leagues with Abbotsford. To make the money work, the team has also moved Tyler Motte to long-term injured reserve.
Oct 26: The Vancouver Canucks unveiled some good news ahead of their home opener on Tuesday, announcing that veteran defenseman Travis Hamonic had reported to the team. Hamonic had previously taken a leave of absence after failing to report to training camp. The team held out hope that he would report at some point this season and that has now come to fruition before the end of the first month of the season.
Hamonic and the Canucks have both been tight-lipped about the reason for his absence. It has been attributed only to “personal matters” without any further detail. GM Jim Benning also vaguely noted that the issue was “bigger than what you guys think it is” and the team was assisting Hamonic with getting help. This obviously raises questions, which won’t soon go away even after his return, but for now anything is just speculation.
Having cleared waivers previously, Hamonic will initially report to the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks in the coming days. However, once the 31-year-old is up to speed he will surely join Vancouver. Hamonic recorded ten points in 38 games in his first season with the Canucks in 2020-21 and can still be a major piece of the puzzle even if he’s on the back end of this career. The Canucks have depth on the blue line, but Hamonic will still have a place on the team when ready.
NHL Will Not Discipline Kevin Cheveldayoff
The NHL has announced that they will not be handing out any discipline to Winnipeg Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff for his role in the 2010 Brad Aldrich situation with the Chicago Blackhawks. Cheveldayoff was an assistant general manager with the Blackhawks at the time, and one of the men present in the now-infamous meeting that took place on May 23, 2010.
Commissioner Gary Bettman released the following statement:
While on some level, it would be easiest to paint everyone with any association to this terrible matter with the same broad brush, I believe that fundamental fairness requires a more in-depth analysis of the role of each person. Kevin Cheveldayoff was not a member of the Blackhawks senior leadership team in 2010, and I cannot, therefore, assign to him responsibility for the Club’s actions, or inactions. He provided a full account of his degree of involvement in the matter, which was limited exclusively to his attendance at a single meeting, and I found him to be extremely forthcoming and credible in our discussion.
The investigative report, released earlier this week, has so far been followed by the resignations of Stan Bowman, Al MacIsaac, and Joel Quenneville.
Cheveldayoff released the following statement through the Jets:
First and most importantly, I want to express my support of and empathy for Kyle Beach and all he has had to endure since 2010. He was incredibly brave coming forward to tell his story. We can all use his courage as an inspiration to do a better job of making hockey a safer space for anyone who wants to play the game.
Further, I want to express my gratitude to the National Hockey League for the opportunity to meet with Commissioner Gary Bettman, in person, and directly share my role in and recollection of events while I was Assistant GM of the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010.
Cheveldayoff is returning to Winnipeg and will speak with the media on Monday.
Morgan Rielly Signs Eight-Year Extension
The Toronto Maple Leafs have locked up one of their leaders for a long time, announcing an eight-year extension for Morgan Rielly. The defenseman was in the final year of his current deal and will now be under contract through 2029-30. The deal carries an average annual value of $7.5MM, a raise on the $5MM cap hit he currently carries. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic clarifies the trade protection in the deal, explaining that there is a no-movement clause for the entire extension, which also is extended through the rest of this season. An NMC does not actually necessarily include a no-trade clause, however, and in this case, Rielly has received (in addition to the NMC which prevents the player from being placed on waivers) a full no-trade in the first six years and a 10-team no-trade in the final two. CapFriendly reports the full breakdown:
- 2022-23: $4.0MM salary + $4.0MM signing bonus
- 2023-24: $5.0MM salary + $5.0MM signing bonus
- 2024-25: $10.0MM salary
- 2025-26: $8.0MM salary
- 2026-27: $6.0MM salary
- 2027-28: $6.0MM salary
- 2028-29: $6.0MM salary
- 2029-30: $6.0MM salary
Rielly, 27, appears to have taken a discount to stay with the Maple Leafs, at least in terms of annual salary compared to some of the contracts that have been handed out in recent months. Since entering the league in 2013-14, Rielly rank 19th among defensemen in scoring with 309 points in 580 games and finished fifth in Norris Trophy voting in 2018-19. That year he posted 20 goals and 72 points, numbers that do seem to be a bit of an outlier given he has not cracked ten goals in any other season.
In fact, while Rielly’s offensive numbers have been consistent and his durability has been a huge positive, his true upside doesn’t appear to be quite as high as some believed in the past. Last season, for instance, Rielly finished the year with just eight more points than teammate Jake Muzzin, despite seeing drastically easier deployment and spending most of the year on the first powerplay unit.
Even with those questions around his potential upside, there’s little doubt that Rielly could have secured a higher AAV on the open market, had he decided to test free agency next summer. That would have come with offers of only seven years in length though, making it easy to see why he would want to ink the eight-year pact that could very well be a higher total than he could have secured in free agency. He also is now able to stay with the team he’s played with his whole career, and the one that he wears an “A” for as alternate captain.
Still, even at a relative cap hit discount, this is an extremely risky move for the Maple Leafs. The team is already dealing with huge cap hits for three forwards and are now adding $2.5MM per season to a defenseman that hasn’t been able to get them over the first-round hump to this point. Rielly is a core member of the team, but he’ll also turn 28 before this extension even kicks in and now eats up even more of their precious cap space.
It’s hard to argue that this contract gets the Maple Leafs any closer to winning a Stanley Cup, even if it does look like a reasonable amount for a player of Rielly’s skill level.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
AHL Shuffle: 10/29/21
Just six games on the docket for this evening as the NHL gets ready for a busy weekend, but tonight’s schedule does include some interesting storylines. The Florida Panthers are back in action with new interim head coach Andrew Brunette behind the bench, while the Chicago Blackhawks try to secure their first win against the other remaining undefeated team, the Carolina Hurricanes. As preparations are made for tonight’s action, we’ll keep track of all the minor league shuffling:
Atlantic Division
Metropolitan Division
- With T.J. Oshie out week to week, the Washington Capitals have recalled Brett Leason from the Hershey Bears. The 22-year-old has yet to make his NHL debut and has just a single goal in five games for the Bears this season. Even worse, reporters including Samantha Pell of the Washington Post watched Nic Dowd go down in pain during morning skate, meaning Leason may be forced into action this evening.
- The Pittsburgh Penguins have sent Kasper Bjorkqvist back to the AHL, though this doesn’t necessarily mean that Sidney Crosby–who was with the main group again at practice–will be returning, as the team also expected Jeff Carter back from the COVID protocol at the end of the week.
Central Division
- The Minnesota Wild swapped defensemen today, as The Athletic’s Michael Russo reports they’ve recalled Calen Addison and re-assigned Jon Lizotte to the Iowa Wild. Addison, the Wild’s top defense prospect, will likely make his season debut against Colorado on Saturday as Alex Goligoski and Dmitry Kulikov are now sidelined with injuries.
Pacific Division
- The Vegas Golden Knights have recalled Jonas Rondbjerg from the AHL, perhaps giving him another chance at the NHL after making his debut earlier this month. The 22-year-old winger has one goal in two games for the Henderson Silver Knights this season, but failed to score in his one game with Vegas.
- The Vancouver Canucks have recalled Nic Petan from the AHL, moving Matthew Highmore to injured reserve to make room. Petan was a preseason regular in the top-six while Elias Pettersson dealt with his contract negotiation, but found himself sent to the minor leagues when the regular season began. He has two goals in two games for Abbotsford and has routinely shown he can score at a point-per-game at that level.
This page will be updated throughout the day
Pacific Notes: Gibson, Viveiros, Nieto, Hanifin
With the Ducks fully engaged in their rebuild, it stands to reason that some of their veterans could be trade candidates as the season progresses. On the surface, one of those would be goaltender John Gibson, a veteran that has been a capable starter in the past and has struggled a bit behind scuffling Anaheim teams in recent years. However, NHL.com’s Dan Rosen argues otherwise, suggesting that their turnaround should be complete over the next few years and at that point, they’ll still need a starting goalie and Gibson is signed through 2026-27 so it’s quite possible he would still fit their target timeline for contention. The 28-year-old has said he’s tired of losing – he actually led the league in losses the next two years – but if Ducks GM Bob Murray feels the same way as Rosen, Gibson may have to stick it out a while yet.
More from the Pacific:
- Henderson head coach Manny Viveiros revealed (Twitter link) that his medical leave of absence at the beginning of the season was due to a prostate cancer diagnosis. Viveiros, who is in his second season at the helm of the Golden Knights’ AHL affiliate, will be able to return behind the bench for the time being before needing to take another leave of absence in mid-December to undergo surgery.
- Sharks winger Matt Nieto is listed as day-to-day due to a lower-body injury, relays Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now (Twitter link). The injury stems from a blocked shot on Thursday in Nashville. The 28-year-old had suited up in all six games for San Jose in the early going this season, collecting one assist.
- Flames defenseman Noah Hanifin is dealing with an upper-body injury, the team announced (Twitter link). He’s listed as day-to-day and was not in the lineup against Pittsburgh on Thursday night. Michael Stone made his season debut in Hanifin’s absence while Nikita Zadorov remained a healthy scratch.
Joel Quenneville Resigns As Panthers Head Coach
The Panthers are on the lookout for a new head coach after the team announced on Thursday that Joel Quenneville has resigned. Panthers President and CEO Matt Caldwell released the following statement:
After the release of the Jenner & Block investigative report on Tuesday afternoon, we have continued to diligently review the information within that report, in addition to new information that has recently become available. It should go without saying that the conduct described in that report is troubling and inexcusable. It stands in direct contrast to our values as an organization and what the Florida Panthers stand for. No one should ever have to endure what Kyle Beach experienced during, and long after, his time in Chicago. Quite simply, he was failed. We praise his bravery and courage in coming forward.
Following a meeting today with Commissioner Bettman at National Hockey League offices, which was part of the league’s process to decide how to move forward, Joel made the decision to resign and the Florida Panthers accepted that resignation.
The independent investigation referenced in the above statement was released on Tuesday with Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman and Senior VP of Hockey Operations Al MacIssac both leaving the organization immediately thereafter. Quenneville had previously denied being aware of the allegations having been made but the report squashed that assertion. As a result, Quenneville met with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman on Thursday.
Shortly following Florida’s announcement, Quenneville released a statement of his own:
With deep regret and contrition, I announce my resignation as head coach of the Florida Panthers.
I want to express my sorrow for the pain this young man, Kyle Beach, has suffered.
My former team the Blackhawks failed Kyle and I own my share of that.
I want to reflect on how all of this happened and take the time to educate myself on ensuring hockey spaces are safe for everyone.
Should Quenneville wish to return to the NHL at some point, Bettman indicated in a statement of his own that “a meeting with him in advance in order to determine the appropriate conditions under which such new employment might take place”. No further disciplinary action will be coming to the 63-year-old.
Quenneville had three years remaining on his contract (including this one) with a $5.25MM salary plus more than $1MM in bonuses, per CapFriendly. It’s unknown at this time if there is any sort of settlement agreement in place between Quenneville and the Panthers.
The Panthers are off to a hot start this season with a 7-0-0 record to sit first in the league and assistant coach Andrew Brunette will take over as interim head coach, reports Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (Twitter link). A search for a permanent head coach will soon be underway.
In the meantime, ESPN’s Kevin Weekes, who first reported that a change was coming, suggests that veteran bench boss John Tortorella could be a potential candidate to take over behind the bench. Florida GM Bill Zito is certainly familiar with Tortorella having been with Columbus between 2015 and 2020 and with the team performing well for a veteran head coach, it would make sense to go down that path again. Bruce Boudreau, Rick Tocchet, Claude Julien, and Mike Babcock are among the other veteran head coaches that are currently not working in the NHL at the moment.
Kings Looking For Right-Side Defensive Help
With Drew Doughty out for at least the next eight weeks due to a knee contusion and Sean Walker out for the rest of the season after tearing his ACL and MCL, the defensive depth for the Kings has certainly taken a hit, particularly on the right side. To that end, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports in the latest TSN Insider Trading segment (video link) that Los Angeles is looking to add a depth right-shot defender at a minimum.
It’s certainly understandable as their depth chart of healthy right-shot blueliners on the active roster is down to Matt Roy and Austin Strand; Strand cleared waivers earlier this month and was just recalled on Wednesday. A depth piece could allow them to send Strand back to the minors at a minimum but a top-four addition would take some pressure of Roy, who logged more than 28 minutes last game out of necessity. For context, his career average is about 10 minutes a night below that mark.
A complicating factor in this situation is the salary cap. The Kings are basically up against the cap ceiling right now due to their recent recalls and while Doughty is eligible to go on LTIR, the fact he’s coming back this season eliminates the possibility of them spending big to replace him as they’ll need to be cap-compliant to activate him when the time comes.
That leaves Walker and his $2.65MM price tag for GM Rob Blake to try to work with to find a replacement. Unfortunately for him and the Kings, there aren’t a lot of top-four defenders making that type of money and even fewer that are readily available. Accordingly, looking for a depth option or two is a much more realistic target for Los Angeles. The trade market is often quiet at this time of year but don’t be too surprised to see the Kings add a piece before too long, especially since this is a season where they’re hoping to get back into the playoff picture.