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Lightning’s Emil Martinsen Lilleberg Receives Two-Game Suspension

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Jan. 27th: The NHL’s Department of Player Safety has announced a two-game suspension for Lilleberg. In the announcement, the Department of Player Safety references the lateness of the hit and the significant contact of Compher’s head as their reasoning behind the supplemental discipline.

Jan. 26th: Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Emil Martinsen Lilleberg is scheduled to have a hearing with the NHL Department of Player Safety for interference against Detroit Red Wings forward J.T. Compher in Saturday night’s loss. The hit came at 11:31 in the second period when Lilleberg stepped up for a late hit after Compher dumped the puck into the zone. The hit seemed high but it wasn’t clear if it contacted Compher’s head. Lilleberg received a two-minute penalty.

Lilleberg has been one of many depth defensemen to step up amid Tampa Bay’s string of blue-line injuries. He’s appeared in 45 of the team’s 48 games this season, rotating through roles on all three pairs. He has 11 assists and 76 penalty minutes on the year while playing in as little as 14 minutes or as much as 22 minutes each night. Lilleberg reached 82 career appearances with his last game, though he’s still searching for his first career goal. He recorded five assists and 16 penalty minutes in 37 appearances last season.

Tampa Bay saw the return of Erik Cernak in their Saturday matchup against Detroit, but they’re still without top-four defender J.J. Moser. Darren Raddysh has continued to serve next to Victor Hedman on the top pair, while Lilleberg and Nicklaus Perbix make up the bottom pair. Should Lilleberg face any form of suspension, the Bolts will likely turn towards one of Maxwell Crozier or Declan Carlile. The former has been the team’s de facto fill-in this month, but Carlile is the only left-shot of the team’s many injury fill-ins. Carlile has seven points and 37 penalty minutes in 36 AHL games this season but has only played in one NHL game.

Adding to this move, Tampa Bay has reassigned Crozier to the minor leagues. He served as the team’s seventh defenseman, but still dressed, for Saturday’s game – and could be called up again should Lilleberg face suspension.

Additional Fallout From The Mikko Rantanen Trade

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Although plenty of new information has emerged regarding the trade that sent Mikko Rantanen from the Colorado Avalanche to the Carolina Hurricanes, we hadn’t heard from the player himself. In an article by Corey Masisak of The Denver Post, Rantanen finally spoke about the trade from his point of view. 

One of the biggest takeaways from the interview with Masisak is that he confirmed he was willing to take a discount to stay with the Avalanche organization, which had been widely reported in the days following the trade. Masisak quoted Rantanen saying, “I was ready to take a significant discount for my market value. We had some chats, like a couple days before. Then they traded me. That’s what happened. That’s why I didn’t expect what happened.”

Despite being blindsided by the trade, it doesn’t appear Rantanen is taking it too personally. Even though he had never been traded in his career, he acknowledged one of the realities of his profession when he said, “I don’t know. I didn’t know we were in a rush. That’s what I felt like. That’s my honest opinion. But it’s business and I understand. They’re trying to think what’s best for them and you’ve got to understand that. You’ve got to understand they are only doing the business how they think it is good for their future.”

Regarding the potential extension, several analysts and pundits have suggested that Rantanen’s starting point was Leon Draisaitl’s eight-year, $112 million extension with the Edmonton Oilers. Still, provided the added context of the Avalanche’s lack of desire to pay anyone more than Nathan MacKinnon’s $12.6MM salary, it was going to be hard to resolve even if Rantanen was willing to take a pay cut.

Moving on to one of the facilitators of the blockbuster deal, the general manager of the Chicago Blackhawks, Kyle Davidson, spoke about his team’s involvement in the deal. In an interview with Scott Powers of The Athletic (Subscription Required), Davidson was quoted saying, “In waiting, you run the risk of things like injury, (and) the role was diminishing almost by the game. It just wasn’t heading towards a way that was going to maximize or enhance value. In moving then, we moved at full price and held (salary) on the other player involved. It just didn’t make sense to wait and not really get a better return later on.”

Davidson was referencing Chicago’s inclusion in the deal beyond retaining half of Rantanen’s remaining salary. The Blackhawks traded former MVP Taylor Hall whose ice time had been precipitously dropping over the last several games. The fourth-year general manager wasn’t convinced Chicago would get a better offer had they waited closer until the trade deadline.

Calgary Flames Reassign Rory Kerins

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For the second time in two weeks, the Calgary Flames announced they’ve reassigned forward Rory Kerins to their AHL affiliate, the Calgary Wranglers. However, given they’re down to 13 healthy forwards after losing Walker Duehr to waivers last week, Kerins should return to the Flames’ active roster tomorrow.

Kerins debuted in the NHL relatively quickly especially given he was a sixth-round pick of the Flames in the 2020 NHL Draft. He scored 16 goals and 32 points in 54 games in AHL Calgary last year during his first full season of AHL hockey.

The Flames finally recalled Kerins in early January after he started the AHL campaign at a point-per-game pace. He’s continued his productivity in the NHL, tallying four assists through his first five NHL contests.

Although today’s move is likely a paper transaction, Kerins shouldn’t expect to have a spot on the Flames’ roster for the rest of the season. He’s only one of two waiver-exempt forwards aside from Matthew Coronato and Calgary will need to open a roster spot for Connor Zary once he returns from his left knee injury.

Still, Kerins shouldn’t be any worse off once he returns to a full-time role with the Wranglers. They are on pace to qualify for the Calder Cup playoffs for the third consecutive year after relocating from Stockton, CA ahead of the 2022-23 AHL season. Kerins would assist in that endeavor and help the Wranglers reach beyond the Division Finals for the first time.

Capitals Sign Logan Thompson To Six-Year Extension

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3:03 p.m: Washington has made the signing official per a team announcement.

1:30 p.m: The Capitals are close to a multi-year extension with pending UFA netminder Logan Thompson, Kevin Weekes of ESPN reports Monday. It’s a six-year commitment with a price tag of $5.85MM per season, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet adds, working out to a total value of $35.1MM.

PuckPedia provided the breakdown of the contract as follows:

  • Year 1: $2MM salary + $5MM signing bonus – 15-team no-trade clause
  • Year 2: $4.85MM salary + $2MM signing bonus – 15-team no-trade clause
  • Year 3: $1.5MM salary + $5MM signing bonus – 15-team no-trade clause
  • Year 4: $3.5MM salary + $2MM signing bonus – 10-team no-trade clause
  • Year 5: $3MM salary + $2MM signing bonus – 10-team no-trade clause
  • Year 6: $2.25MM salary + $2MM signing bonus – 10-team no-trade clause

It’s a sizable commitment to the breakout 27-year-old, who’s quickly ramping up his case for his first career Vezina Trophy nomination. He’s broken away from Washington’s plan to alternate him and Charlie Lindgren between the pipes nightly, erupting for a .925 SV% and 2.09 GAA in 27 appearances with a near-spotless 22-2-3 record. Thompson earned seven straight starts earlier this month, allowing just eight goals on 179 shots.

Despite the tandem workload, Thompson has been among the Capitals’ most valuable players and ranks second in the league in goals saved above expected with 26.8, only slightly trailing Vezina favorite Connor Hellebuyck’s 27.5 mark, per MoneyPuck. It’s night and day compared to what Darcy Kuemper gave the Caps last year in a similar role, making the Washington front office’s decision to send him to Los Angeles for Pierre-Luc Dubois and give up a pair of third-rounders to snag Thompson from the Golden Knights one of the best of the summer.

As expected, the extension amounts to a stratospheric raise for Thompson, who will now earn more than twice per season than the entire value of his previous contract. He signed a team-friendly three-year, $2.3MM commitment with Vegas in January 2022 when he was beginning to emerge as an NHL option. During that time, he’s been arguably the most underpaid player in the league with a 68-29-11 record, .915 SV%, 2.53 GAA, and five shutouts in 110 games for the Knights and Caps over the life of the deal.

The raise is still jarring for a netminder who’s only started more than 40 games once in his career, but Thompson has already solidified his third consecutive 20-win season and will start north of 40 again this year, barring injury. Among the 29 goalies who have played more than 100 games since the beginning of the 2022-23 campaign, that .915 SV% ranks third – higher than clear-cut stars like Andrei Vasilevskiy, Ilya Sorokin, Igor Shesterkin, and Juuse Saros.

He’s now Washington’s present and future between the pipes as they look to end Alex Ovechkin’s career on a high note and keep the momentum going after he inevitably breaks the league’s all-time goals record. If he stays healthy, he should get the chance to also head into the playoffs as his team’s undisputed starter for the first time in his career.

Thompson’s deal runs through the 2030-31 campaign, after which he’ll be a UFA at age 34. The Caps now have $69.375MM tied up in 15 players for next season, not including pending UFAs Lindgren and top-four defenseman Jakob Chychrun. His $5.85MM cap hit will rank 15th among netminders next season as things stand.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Islanders Acquire Scott Perunovich From Blues

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The Islanders acquired defenseman Scott Perunovich from the Blues on Monday in exchange for a conditional 2026 fifth-round pick, both clubs announced.

Perunovich, 26, slots into the Islanders’ blue line after righty Ryan Pulock landed on injured reserve this morning. His acquisition signals the latter is expected to miss significant time, so he and recent free-agent signing Tony DeAngelo now slot in to relieve the void left by Pulock and Noah Dobson, who’s week-to-week with a right leg injury.

While the 5’10” puck mover is a left shot, he has experience playing on his offside. New York will rely on that experience and presumably utilize him on the right, giving them another offensive option in addition to the historically one-dimensional DeAngelo.

A 2018 second-round pick, Perunovich was once one of the most highly-regarded defense prospects in the game. But after winning the Hobey Baker Award with 40 points in 34 games for Minnesota-Duluth in 2019-20, he missed his entire rookie campaign with St. Louis after undergoing left shoulder surgery. Wrist surgery limited him to 19 games with the Blues the following year, and yet another shoulder injury cut into his 2022-23 campaign. Throughout those three seasons, injuries limited Perunovich to just 58 games with the Blues and AHL Springfield.

While wholly healthy for the first time since college in 2024-25, Perunovich hasn’t found much playing time. He’s been a healthy scratch for about half the season, including the last nine games, and has only averaged 14:37 per game when in the lineup. He has six points and nine shots on goal in 24 games, adding 21 blocks and nine hits. The acquisition of Philip Broberg via offer sheet this summer as a young puck-moving lefty largely made Perunovich a redundancy heading into the campaign, so seeing him on the move is not entirely surprising.

He’s far from being the two-way presence Pulock is for the Isles, but he more accurately fills the void left by depth defender Mike Reilly, who remains on LTIR after undergoing heart surgery. He has 29 points in his 97 career NHL appearances but will be in line for a bump in minutes on Long Island, which both sides hope will boost his production.

Perunovich signed a one-year, $1.15MM extension with the Blues last June to avoid hitting restricted free agency. He’ll be an RFA again at season’s end and is arbitration-eligible.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Penguins Place Evgeni Malkin On Injured Reserve

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The Penguins placed Evgeni Malkin on injured reserve Monday, per a team announcement. He left Saturday’s game against the Kraken in the first period because of a lower-body injury. The team recalled winger Jesse Puljujärvi from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to fill his roster spot.

Malkin appeared to injure his left leg in a collision with Kraken center Chandler Stephenson at center ice. He took one shift after the play but departed for the locker room shortly thereafter. The team has not issued a timeline for his return.

Any long-term absence from a top-six forward is likely a season-ender for the Pens, who have gone 3-6-3 since the New Year and sit last in the Metropolitan Division with 48 points. Their above-average offense was the only thing keeping the club afloat – only the Sharks have allowed more goals than Pittsburgh’s 185 – and Malkin is still an extremely important contributor with 25 assists and 34 points through 47 games.

The all-time great missed four games with an unrelated upper-body injury earlier this month. Pittsburgh went 1-2-1 during that stretch and averaged 2.5 goals per game.

Malkin had been skating in his usual second-line center spot, most recently flanked by Michael Bunting and Philip Tomasino. Puljujärvi won’t slide in there as a direct replacement but is expected to see third-line duties while Cody Glass slides up to center Bunting and Tomasino, PuckPedia projects. While Pittsburgh has 14 forwards on the active roster without Malkin, Blake Lizotte and Bryan Rust are day-to-day with an illness and a lower-body injury, respectively, and won’t play Monday against the Sharks.

Puljujärvi, 26, comes back up after being reassigned to WBS nearly two weeks to the day. Prior to his clearing waivers and subsequent demotion, the 2016 fourth-overall pick had three goals and six assists for nine points in 25 games. He barely played in December, at one point going a month between games while sitting in the press box.

The big-bodied Finn logged a goal and two assists with a minus-two rating in a trio of appearances for the Baby Pens this month. He’s among Pittsburgh’s fastest skaters with a top speed of 22.66 mph this season, per NHL EDGE.

Red Wings Sign Dominik Shine To Two-Year Deal

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The Red Wings signed free agent winger Dominik Shine to a two-year, two-way deal Monday, per a team announcement. It’s effective immediately and will carry him through the 2025-26 campaign. He joins the active roster in place of Patrick Kane, who the team subsequently announced has been placed on injured reserve retroactive to Jan. 21.

Shine finally gets his first NHL contract in his ninth season in the Detroit organization. The 31-year-old has been under contract with AHL Grand Rapids since his professional career began in the 2016-17 campaign, now ranking third in franchise history with 462 games played.

The 5’11” forward has primarily been a role player among the Red Wings’ prospects throughout his minor-league career, evidenced by his 0.37 points per game average. But the hometown kid has exploded this season, leading the team with 21 assists and 32 points in 40 games. Just yesterday, PHR listed Shine among the top 10 unsigned AHLers to look for in terms of landing an NHL contract.

That jump in production earns him a contract and recall nearly eight years after a standout senior season at Northern Michigan University, where he led the WCHA club with 20 goals and 30 points in 33 games in 2016-17. He landed with the Griffins immediately following that effort and never looked back.

Shine has been steadily building up to this moment since the COVID-19 pandemic, which marked a turning point for his career for the better. He went his first four full seasons without scoring double-digit goals or topping 16 points, but after things came to a head with just four points in 29 games in 2020-21, he finally broke through with 17 goals and 32 points in 71 games in 2021-22.

Shine doesn’t shy away from conflict, twice recording over 70 PIMs in an AHL season. He’s on pace for 65 this year to complement his 20-goal, 58-point pace.

He’ll make his NHL debut tonight against the Kings if Vladimir Tarasenko, who’s questionable due to illness, can’t play. J.T. Compher is also day-to-day with an undisclosed injury and has been ruled out, head coach Todd McLellan told Ansar Khan of MLive.com.

Kane has missed Detroit’s last two games after aggravating the upper-body injury that held him out of five games back in November and December. The IR placement only rules him out of tonight’s game, but McLellan told Khan that Kane isn’t close to returning to practice.

The future Hall-of-Famer had a rough start to the year after signing a one-year, $4MM extension, only managing five goals and 14 points through his first 30 games. He’s exploded over the past month, however, ranking 13th in the league in scoring since Dec. 29 with 16 points (6 G, 10 A) in 12 games.

That’s the type of depth scoring Detroit needed to get back in the playoff picture, and they’re now at least back over the .500 mark with a 23-21-5 record. That still only gives them an 11% chance at the playoffs in a tight Eastern Conference race, though, so they’ll need to continue to make up ground without him.

Blackhawks “Hopeful” Laurent Brossoit Will Return This Season

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The Blackhawks expected veteran Laurent Brossoit to serve as their No. 2 option between the pipes after they signed him to a two-year, $6.6MM deal over the summer, but he’s instead spent the entire season on injured reserve after two surgeries on the meniscus in his right knee. General manager Kyle Davidson tells Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times that he’s “hopeful” but unsure if Brossoit will play at all in 2024-25.

“If he does come back this year, we’re very confident [goaltending coach Jimmy Waite] will be able to manage that dynamic, which is not traditional, but it’s the situation we’d be in if he’d return,” Davidson said (via Charlie Roumeliotis of WGN Radio 720). “I think we’ll be fine working through that if we end up with three goaltenders on the NHL roster.”

Brossoit, 31, has been a career backup and was quite inconsistent from year to year in limited action during his first few NHL seasons in Edmonton and Winnipeg. While that small workload has never changed, he was among the NHL’s save percentage leaders since returning from injury with Vegas in the 2022-23 campaign. He logged a .927 mark in limited action with the Knights to end the regular season and carried that strong play into a return to Winnipeg in the summer of 2023, replicating his SV% in a career-high 22 starts behind Connor Hellebuyck.

That led to rightful optimism that he could handle an increased workload, but he hasn’t gotten the chance to prove it. He and former Panthers backup Anthony Stolarz were in very similar situations entering the summer, coming off runs of elite play in small samples. Both have dealt with injuries this year, but Stolarz has at least gotten a chance to play and solidified his status as an elite tandem option with the Maple Leafs. He’s close to a return after missing six weeks with knee issues.

After his late-August surgery, Brossoit was initially expected to join Chicago’s roster around the start of the regular season. However, his return was delayed, and his status was continually downgraded until he underwent a second procedure in late November. He’s again blown past his projected return window, as the second procedure had a six-week timeline and should have had him back in the lineup earlier this month.

His absence hasn’t affected the Blackhawks’ record too much. 25-year-old Arvid Söderblom was nearly unplayable as Petr Mrázek’s backup last season but has rebounded in a big way in 2024-25, posting a .906 SV% and 2.97 GAA in 19 starts and two relief appearances. He’s stopped 3.3 goals above expected, per MoneyPuck, playing far more efficiently than Mrázek and his -9.7 figure.

Söderblom would need to go on waivers to head down to the minors, prompting Davidson’s comment that they’d carry three goalies the rest of the way if Brossoit returned. He’d steal more starts from Mrázek, who has a .895 SV% in 29 appearances, than Söderblom anyway.

Jets Recall Brad Lambert

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Jan. 27: It turns out Lambert’s demotion was a paper transaction to bank cap space. The Jets announced he’s been added back to the roster Monday, although it’s not clear if he’ll play Tuesday against the Canadiens.

Jan. 25: Lambert’s stint with Winnipeg was short-lived as the team announced that he has been returned to the Moose.  He didn’t play against Utah on Friday.

Jan. 24: The Jets summoned top forward prospect Brad Lambert from AHL Manitoba on Friday, per a team announcement. They had an open spot on the active roster after placing captain Adam Lowry on injured reserve earlier this week, so no corresponding transaction is required.

Lambert, 21, could be in line for his most extended NHL call-up yet with Lowry sidelined week-to-week with an upper-body injury. Their captain’s absence leaves them without much offensive punch down the middle past Mark Scheifele and Vladislav Namestnikov, so adding the more offensively inclined youngster to the roster gives them more options to get depth scoring out of their bottom six. Running Rasmus Kupari and David Gustafsson down the middle of lines three and four isn’t a good short-term solution with Lowry out.

Since Winnipeg selected him 30th overall in the 2022 draft, Lambert has made five NHL appearances – four of which came early last month with Nikolaj Ehlers sidelined. He went pointless in those but recorded his first NHL assist in his debut last season.

In the minors, Lambert has taken a step back after a 55-point rookie season in 2023-24. He’s been limited to just three goals in 29 games for Manitoba, adding 13 assists for 16 points. Offensive struggles have mired the entire club – those 16 points still have him tied for second on the Moose in scoring – but his -15 rating is also second-worst behind Jaret Anderson-Dolan.

Perhaps some more NHL looks will allow the Jets to more accurately gauge where he’s at in his development instead of accumulating viewings in what’s been a difficult minor-league environment for the organization this season. The center and right winger will be an option to enter the lineup for Winnipeg tonight against Utah.

Islanders Place Ryan Pulock, Marcus Högberg On Injured Reserve

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Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock and goaltender Marcus Högberg have both landed on injured reserve after leaving Saturday’s overtime win over the Hurricanes with upper-body injuries, the team announced. There’s no corresponding transaction yet for Pulock, but the team recalled goalie Jakub Skarek from AHL Bridgeport to temporarily replace Högberg as Ilya Sorokin’s backup.

Pulock and Högberg will miss at least three games due to their IR placements, which are retroactive to Saturday. They’ll be eligible to return on Feb. 2 against the Panthers, although, without further clarity on either’s injury, there’s no indication whether they’ll be medically cleared by then.

Pulock got hurt on his first shift against the Canes, falling awkwardly behind the net as he got tangled up with Carolina winger Jackson Blake. He favored his left shoulder as he left the ice. Högberg, meanwhile, played all of regulation but didn’t come out for overtime after a right-hand injury sustained midway through the third period was actively getting worse, head coach Patrick Roy told Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News. Sorokin thus came in relief, recording the win despite making just one save in overtime.

These are crater-sized blows for the Isles, who are now without their top two right-shot defensemen and are down to their third-best backup option. Pulock joins Noah Dobson as inactive, and PuckPedia reflects that the latter was moved to long-term injured reserve yesterday to add some cap flexibility after the Tony DeAngelo signing. That move ensures Dobson won’t return before the 4 Nations Face-Off break with his right leg injury – not that he was expected to – and also rules him out of their first game back against the Stars on Feb. 23. He’ll be out of action for almost another month at the very least, with his earliest eligible return date standing as Feb. 25 against the Rangers.

Pulock, 30, had yet to miss a game this season after sitting out over a quarter of 2023-24 with a lower-body issue. The Manitoba native had three goals and 13 assists for 16 points with a plus-seven rating through 48 games, continuing a run of seven straight seasons in the black. He’s averaged just shy of 22 minutes per game, and, as usual, his pairing with Adam Pelech has graded out as the Isles’ top shutdown unit at even strength. Pelech’s 1.9 GA/60 and Pulock’s 2.2 GA/60 are the two lowest marks among New York’s regular defensemen.

Scott Mayfield now slots in alongside Pelech as a top-four option with Pulock sidelined, while DeAngelo will likely continue alongside Alexander Romanov as Dobson’s short-term replacement. Depth defender Dennis Cholowski should re-enter the lineup alongside Isaiah George on the third pairing after sitting as a healthy scratch in three of the last four games. They don’t have any other defenders on the active roster to insert into the lineup but they opened a roster spot with Pulock’s IR replacement that they could use to recall one from AHL Bridgeport.

Högberg had been spotless as Sorokin’s backup for the past month while veteran Semyon Varlamov remains sidelined with a lower-body injury. The 30-year-old, who last played in the NHL with the Senators in 2020-21, has a 2-2-0 record in five starts and two relief appearances with a .947 SV% and 1.45 GAA. That’s a big jump on his AHL numbers from earlier in the year, as the Swede struggled behind a bad Bridgeport club to a .898 SV% and 3.26 GAA in 11 showings.

The Isles are hoping for a similar bump from Skarek, who could finally make his NHL debut after six AHL seasons. The 25-year-old was a third-round pick in 2018 but has never been a solid minor-league option, failing to record a save percentage above .900 at any level in a single season since his post-draft year in Finland. Through 20 appearances for Bridgeport this year, he has a 3.22 GAA, .895 SV%, one shutout, and a 5-11-1 record.

Varlamov resumed skating nearly a month ago, so his return likely isn’t too far off. Whether or not he’ll beat Högberg to it remains to be seen, though.

Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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