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Blue Jackets Activate, Reassign Jordan Dumais

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One of the Columbus Blue Jackets’ up-and-coming forward prospects is getting back to work in the AHL. According to a team announcement, the Blue Jackets have activated Jordan Dumais from the season-opening injured reserve and have assigned him to the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters.

Dumais has dealt with injuries the past few years, and nothing has changed to start the 2025-26 campaign. Dumais suffered a hip strain during Columbus’s rookie showcase, preventing him from participating in the team’s training camp and preseason.

Still, he’s only a few years removed from an impressive performance in the QMJHL.

Despite being selected in the third round of the 2022 NHL Draft, Dumais was coming off an electric sophomore campaign with the Halifax Mooseheads, scoring 39 goals and 109 points in 68 games with a +7 rating. The next year, he dwarfed his previous output, leading the QMJHL in scoring with 54 goals and 140 points in 64 games, earning the league’s MVP award. Further, he registered five goals and 21 points in 15 postseason appearances.

Due to injuries, Dumais played only 21 games in the 2023-24 season, finishing the campaign with 16 goals and 47 points. He additionally played for Team Canada at the IIHF U20 World Junior Championships, tallying one goal and one assist in five tournament contests.

Again, injuries limited Dumais to 21 games throughout his first year of professional hockey. Still, he made the most of his brief time with the Monsters, collecting four goals and 11 points in his rookie campaign. The Blue Jackets are hoping that with the hip injury behind him, Dumais can participate in most of the Monsters’ games this season to get his development back on the right track.

Sharks’ Jack Thompson, Lucas Carlsson Clear Waivers

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Oct. 13th: According to Friedman, both players have made it through waivers unscathed. The Sharks quickly shared that they’ve reassigned both defensemen.

Oct. 12th: Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet mentioned today a pair of Sharks defenders who find themselves on waivers: Lucas Carlsson and Jack Thompson. 

As the organization goes through its hardcore rebuilding phase, there has been a revolving door on the back end for San Jose. However, GM Mike Grier was very busy last offseason adding veterans headlined by Dmitry Orlov, John Klingberg, Nick Leddy, among others. Unlike a forward group which is full of high-end youngsters, San Jose offers just Sam Dickinson and Shakir Mukhamadullin as the only true young, high-upside defensemen on the roster at this point, as the rest are more established veterans, perhaps who could be flipped at the deadline come spring. 

With this in mind, it appears Carlsson and Thompson have become expendable as the Sharks have seemed to move on from the two who were both in the lineup at times last season. 

Carlsson, 28, was signed as a free agent in 2024. A once intriguing prospect of the Blackhawks and Panthers, the Swede has been extremely productive in the AHL, including a 20-goal effort in 2022-23 with the Charlotte Checkers. However, as many others have found themselves, Carlsson has not managed to carved out a role in the NHL since 2021-22, where he played 40 games as a Florida Panther. It is not highly likely Carlsson will be claimed, and perhaps the San Jose Barracuda will be relieved to have a big contributor back. 

Thompson, on the other hand, could bring some intrigue as a 23-year-old right-hander with two-way potential. Originally drafted 93rd overall in 2020 by Tampa Bay, the Ontario native was sent to the Sharks in the Anthony Duclair trade, after putting up strong numbers with the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch. Thompson posted 10 points in 31 NHL games last season, albeit on a 50-loss team. Several teams could have their eyes on Thompson, including Tampa Bay, who could bring their prospect back in with open arms. It is interesting that the Sharks have opted to keep much older reclamation projects on their back end, than the young player who has legitimate untapped potential.  

Sean Durzi Out Four Weeks With Upper-Body Injury

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The Utah Mammoth have taken a big blow to their defensive core a handful of games into the 2025-26 season. According to a team announcement, defenseman Sean Durzi is expected to miss the next four weeks with an upper-body injury.

Injuries are slowly becoming a theme for Durzi in Salt Lake City. After playing in 76 games for the Arizona Coyotes in the 2023-24 campaign, Durzi only appeared in 30 games last season for Utah due to shoulder surgery. Unfortunately, his current injury is related to the same shoulder.

If the recovery timeline provided is exact, Durzi will miss the Mammoth’s next 11 games and would hypothetically return for their November 8th contest against the Montreal Canadiens. Fortunately, despite only having two additional right-handed defensemen, the Mammoth have eight blueliners on the active roster and should be able to fill in the void left by Durzi without any additional roster moves.

Still, without Durzi for the next several weeks, and having traded Michael Kesselring this past offseason, Utah doesn’t have much offensive talent on the point behind Mikhail Sergachev. By no means is it vital to have offensive prowess from the point, especially considering the team’s impressive crop of forwards, but it’ll certainly be a limitation over the next month.

Despite missing much of last season, Durzi provided quality two-day play for Utah. He provided four goals and 11 points in his 30 appearances, averaging 20:39 of ice time while blocking 52 shots. He again maintained above-average possession metrics, finishing with a 52.9% CorsiFor% at even strength.

Although the injury happened to the Mammoth’s defensive core, it may have a larger impact on the team’s forward group. Typically dressing seven defensemen for games, head coach André Tourigny may have to change his approach if depth defenseman Nick DeSimone doesn’t perform well in Durzi’s absence.

Josh Norris To Miss A Significant Amount Of Time

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Oct. 13th: According to Sabres correspondent Heather Engel, head coach Lindy Ruff suggests that Norris is expected to miss eight weeks of action. Still, he is receiving a second opinion on the injury. Should the second opinion agree on the recovery timeline, that would project Norris’ return in the first week of December, costing him over 25 games of the 2025-26 campaign.

Oct. 11th: On Friday, the Sabres were still evaluating Josh Norris’ upper-body injury to determine how long he might be out for.  The evaluation appears to be ongoing still but the outcome is not ideal as head coach Lindy Ruff told reporters, including Rachel Lenzi of The Buffalo News (Twitter link), that Norris will miss “a significant amount of time” due to the injury.

It is a tough but all-too-familiar blow for the 26-year-old as injuries have dogged him throughout his seven NHL seasons.  The injury occurred late in Thursday’s season opener against the Rangers off a faceoff and while he was eventually able to get up and go to the bench under his own power, he didn’t take a shift after that.

Norris was acquired by Buffalo in one of the bigger trades near the trade deadline last season, coming over from Ottawa with Dylan Cozens being the most significant piece going the other way in a swap of centers that might benefit from the change of scenery.  However, Norris wasn’t able to get a chance to prove that as he suffered a season-ending mid-body injury in just his third game with the team.  Now, he’s suffered another serious setback in his fourth game more than six months later.

Norris was coming off a 21-goal season in 2024-25, the second-best output of his career only coming behind the 35 tallies he had in 2021-22 with Ottawa.  The hope was that he’d be able to bring some extra firepower to their top six forward group and while that still could be the case, it clearly won’t be happening anytime soon.  Fortunately, Ruff later clarified to reporters, including WGR 550’s Paul Hamilton (Twitter link), that the injury isn’t related to any injuries he has had in the past.

If it’s determined that Norris will miss at least 10 games and 24 days with this latest injury, he will become LTIR-eligible.  However, with Buffalo having a little more than $2.2MM in cap space, per PuckPedia, they’re not necessarily in a spot where they should need to use that.  In the meantime, it’s likely that the Sabres will place him on regular injured reserve in the near future, opening up a roster spot for a recall from AHL Rochester.

Canadiens Sign Lane Hutson To Eight-Year Extension

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The Montreal Canadiens have gotten their young defensive star locked up for the foreseeable future. According to a team announcement, the Canadiens have signed Lane Hutson to an eight-year, $70.8MM ($8.85MM AAV) contract extension.

Shortly after the announcement, PuckPedia broke down the structure of Hutson’s new extension:

  • Year 1: $1MM salary, $11MM signing bonus
  • Year 2: $1MM salary, $11MM signing bonus
  • Year 3: $1MM salary, $9.5MM signing bonus
  • Year 4: $1MM salary, $6.5MM signing bonus
  • Year 5: $1.2MM salary, $6MM signing bonus
  • Year 6: $1.2MM salary, $6MM signing bonus, 10 team no-trade clause
  • Year 7: $2.2MM salary, $5MM signing bonus, 10-team no-trade clause
  • Year 8: $7.2MM salary, 10-team no-trade clause

The news is somewhat of a surprise, given last week’s update from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Friedman noted that while both parties were close on terms and salary, there was a disagreement regarding “philosophy” concerning a Retirement Compensation Agreement (RCA). This agreement was the Canadiens’ attempt to maximize Hutson’s after-tax earnings while keeping his salary below $10MM.

In our update regarding Hutson, PHR’s Josh Erickson broke down an RCA, writing, “An RCA agreement allows a player to defer up to 49% of their salary – delaying earnings but retaining more of them. The deferred money isn’t taxed at its usual rate, which can exceed 50% in Canada for top NHL earners. Whatever is deferred is split in half, with one half going to a refundable deposit with Canada’s tax agency and the other half going into the trust. After an American player (i.e., Hutson) retires and returns to the United States, they receive the deposit back with no tax deducted. In contrast, withdrawals from the trust are taxed at American federal and state rates, which are often lower than the rates the player would pay in Canada.”

In their announcement, the Canadiens didn’t allude to the inclusion of an RCA in the new extension, and we’ll likely never know. Still, today’s agreement indicates that it wasn’t as much of a hangup as previously believed.

Objectively, Hutson’s most obvious comparable would be New Jersey Devils’ defenseman Luke Hughes, who signed a seven-year, $63MM deal shortly before the start of the 2025-26 season. Impressively, the Canadiens were able to keep Hutson’s salary lower than Hughes’ (albeit minimally), while gaining another year of him on the roster.

Still, this contract is more of a gamble than Hughes’ is. Despite winning the Calder Memorial Trophy last season as the league’s top rookie, Hutson only has 92 games of NHL experience (including playoffs) compared to Hughes’ 161.

Regardless, Hutson made the most of his only full season in the league. He tied Larry Murphy’s all-time assist record for rookie defensemen (60), and tied Phil Housley with 66 points, the fourth-most in NHL history for a freshman blueliner. Further, Hutson finished 9th in voting for the James Norris Memorial Trophy, joining Rasmus Dahlin, Thomas Harley, and Jake Sanderson as the only under-25 defenseman to finish top-10 in voting.

Unfortunately, although his offensive prowess is palpable, Hutson brings a lot of question marks on the defensive side of the puck. He finished last year with an 88.7% on-ice save percentage at even strength, despite starting 66.7% of his shifts in the offensive zone.

Meanwhile, although he spent much of the year next to Jayden Struble, his primary defensive partner was Kaiden Guhle before he suffered a longer-term injury. According to MoneyPuck, when paired with Guhle, who is his defensive partner this season, the two combined for a 48.1% xGoals%, which was middle-of-the-pack production on a playoff-caliber Canadiens lineup.

Another cause for concern would be Hutson’s size. While height and weight have become less important for forwards, they remain significant qualities for most teams’ defensive cores in the league. Hutson stands at 5’9″, 162 lbs, which may make him more susceptible to injuries, especially if Montreal lines up against a heavy-hitting team such as the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Regardless, Montreal now has three of its top-four defensemen signed to long-term contracts. Even after Hutson’s contract takes effect, the Canadiens will have approximately $28MM in cap space, leaving them plenty of room to sign Mike Matheson and keep their defensive core intact for the foreseeable future.

Photo courtesy of Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images.

New York Islanders Reassign Calum Ritchie

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According to a team announcement, the New York Islanders have reassigned forward Calum Ritchie to the AHL’s Bridgeport Islanders. Ritchie had begun the year on the season-opening injured reserve, working his way back from a lower-body issue.

Ritchie was projected to return as late as October 17th. A report from a few days ago highlighted that he had been practicing with the Islanders, indicating that he was more likely to return early. He had scored one goal and two points in four preseason contests, averaging 15:24 of ice time, before suffering the lower-body ailment.

Despite beginning his season in the AHL, there is some hope that Ritchie could feature for the Islanders by the end of the 2025-26 campaign. Still, it’ll be his first long-term taste of professional hockey, spending most of last season with the OHL’s Oshawa Generals after skating in seven games with the Colorado Avalanche to begin the year. The Islanders acquired Ritchie at last season’s trade deadline in the deal that sent Brock Nelson to Denver.

He had an impressive year with the Generals, scoring 15 goals and 70 points in 47 regular-season games, and adding nine more goals and 25 points in 21 postseason contests. During the 2024-25 U20 World Junior Championships, playing for Team Canada, Ritchie registered one goal and one assist in five games.

Meanwhile, Ritchie could have more responsibility than most 20-year-olds in the AHL. Bridgeport finished the 2024-25 season as one of the worst offensive teams in the AHL, averaging 2.51 goals per game. Given his offensive prowess, Ritchie will likely find himself in a top-six role, giving him a larger opportunity to move up the depth chart should he find success.

Five Key Stories: 10/6/25 – 10/12/25

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The 2025-26 NHL season is officially underway and as expected, it was a busy week around the league.  Here’s a rundown of the week’s key stories.

Cooley Says No: More and more often, teams are now trying to lock up their top young players to max-term deals as soon as possible, a reasonable approach with the salary cap expected to jump quicker.  The Mammoth tried that approach with center Logan Cooley, however, the center reportedly turned down an eight-year, $77MM extension offer.  The 21-year-old had a strong sophomore year last season, tallying 25 goals and 40 assists in 75 games, showing that he’s well on his way to being the number one center of the present and future.  The offer would have made him Utah’s highest-paid forward by a significant margin but it looks like he’s either hoping for a bigger offer (or one that isn’t as long term-wise) or will wait to see how things go this season in the hopes of an improved offer coming next summer.

Big Money For Connor: With Kirill Kaprizov coming off the market last week in a record-setting deal, another top winger won’t be testing free agency in July either.  The Jets will be keeping winger Kyle Connor around for the long haul, inking him to an eight-year, $96MM extension, matching the deals given to Mikko Rantanen and Mitch Marner in recent months.  Notably, Winnipeg broke their long-standing policy on not putting signing bonus money or a no-move clause in contracts in order to get the deal done.  Connor is coming off a career year that saw him surpass the 40-goal mark for the second time in four years while also putting up 97 points.  He now joins Connor Hellebuyck and Mark Scheifele as long-term mainstays that won’t be leaving anytime soon.

Bigger Money For Eichel: While Connor’s contract was big (one of the biggest in NHL history), it wasn’t even the biggest deal signed this week.  That particular distinction belongs to Golden Knights center Jack Eichel, who signed an eight-year, $108MM extension that begins next season.  The $13.5MM AAV will be the third-highest in the league behind only Kaprizov ($17MM) and Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl ($14MM).  Eichel found another gear offensively last season, collecting 94 points in 77 games and is averaging more than a point per game since Vegas acquired him back in 2021.  Once the deal kicks in, he’ll pass Marner ($12MM) as the highest-paid player on their books while Vegas now has their top middleman locked up for the long haul.

Oilers Sign Four: Throughout the offseason, progress (or lack thereof) on Connor McDavid’s contract talks dominated the discussion with some wondering if this was going to drag into the season.  While it took until the eve of the campaign, the captain decided to stick around, inking a two-year, $25MM extension.  As the face of the franchise and one of the elite players in the league, it’s fair to say that McDavid left a lot of money on the table relative to the deal that Kaprizov received just days earlier.  But by sticking with his current cap hit, McDavid is hoping that the extra flexibility can be used to make his team as strong as possible as they look to win a Stanley Cup title.

How have they spent that money?  By keeping some of the back end intact.  At the same time they announced the McDavid deal, they also signed defenseman Jake Walman to a seven-year, $49MM extension.  A cap dump by Detroit in the 2024 offseason, Walman turned around his fortunes last season in San Jose and became a key part of Edmonton’s back end at the trade deadline, a role he’ll have with them for the long haul now.

More of the savings from McDavid’s deal also went to blueliner Mattias Ekholm, who received a three-year, $12MM extension.  It’s a big discount from his current $6.25MM price tag (between Edmonton and Nashville) but it also reflects the fact he’ll be 36 when the contract begins.  A top-four fixture now, that might not be the case at the end of the deal.  However, he should still be an impactful piece for another couple of years.  Meanwhile, they also added to their current roster, signing UFA forward Jack Roslovic to a one-year, $1.5MM contract.  Following a 22-goal season, expectations were high in the summer for a multi-year deal but one to his liking never materialized.  Instead, he’ll settle for this deal and hope to boost his value heading into free agency next summer on the heels of a season in Edmonton’s middle six.

Norris Out Again: Injuries have been an issue for Josh Norris for several years now, a reality that is now impacting the Sabres once again.  He’s now set to miss a significant amount of time due to an upper-body injury.  Acquired at the trade deadline last year in a package deal that sent Dylan Cozens to Ottawa, Norris suffered a season-ending injury in just his third game with Buffalo.  Now, his fourth regular season appearance will see him missing extended time once again.  The Sabres were counting on Norris – who managed 21 goals last season in just 56 games – to be a key contributor but now, he’ll be watching from the sidelines for the foreseeable future.

Photo courtesy of Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images.

Metropolitan Notes: Dadonov, Gudbranson, Slavin, Flyers

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Earlier today, the Devils placed winger Evgenii Dadonov on injured reserve with his fractured hand.  While a full timeline for recovery remains unknown, New Jersey clearly knows he’ll be out a while as PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that the winger has been moved to LTIR.  In doing so, they’re certifying that he will miss at least 10 games and 24 days because of the injury.  With the placement, the Devils have added $1MM in room to their LTIR pool, giving themselves a bit more recall flexibility.  The 36-year-old also has $2.25MM in potential performance bonuses but those aren’t eligible to be added to an LTIR pool.  He’ll need to play in at least 50 games during the regular season to max out on the regular season games played portion of those incentives.

More from the Metropolitan Division:

  • Blue Jackets defenseman Erik Gudbranson exited Saturday’s victory over Minnesota early due to an upper-body injury, notes Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch. The injury occurred on a hit from Marcus Foligno late in the second period but while he came out briefly for the third period, he quickly returned to the dressing room.  Gudbranson was limited to just 16 games last season due to a shoulder injury and an early absence this year certainly isn’t ideal, especially with this being the final year of his contract.  Aaron Portzline of The Athletic adds (Twitter link) that the team won’t be providing any updates on Gudbranson’s status today.
  • Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin left Saturday’s game against Philadelphia in the third period with what looks to be a knee injury, relays Cory Lavalette of the North State Journal. It’s expected that the team will know more on his status on Monday.  Slavin has been a critical piece of Carolina’s back end for several years now and was off to a solid start before the injury.  If he’s unable to play in their next game on Tuesday against San Jose, veteran Mike Reilly would likely make his Carolina debut.
  • While most teams know who their starting goalie is by now, the Flyers appear to be one of the exceptions. Samuel Ersson entered the season as the incumbent after being the starter for the last couple of years but they also added Daniel Vladar in free agency.  Earlier this week, head coach Rick Tocchet told reporters including Jackie Spiegel of the Philadelphia Inquirer that the plan is to rotate the two for a while and see who takes the lead.  It’s actually the same situation that Vladar had to start last season as he platooned with Dustin Wolf before Wolf took over as the full-fledged starter in the second half.  He’ll have to wait a while to have a chance of coming out on the other side of that battle now in Philadelphia.

Oilers Have Held Extension Talks With Brett Kulak

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It has been a busy week for the Oilers on the extension front as they’ve signed center Connor McDavid along with defensemen Jake Walman and Mattias Ekholm to contract extensions.  If they have their way, there’s at least one more to come.

TSN’s Ryan Rishaug recently reported (Twitter link) that Edmonton has engaged in extension talks for pending UFA defenseman Brett Kulak.  However, unlike those other players, nothing appears to be imminent at this time.

The 31-year-old is in the final season of a four-year, $11MM contract and he is slated to become an unrestricted free agent in July if a new deal can’t be reached by then.  At times, Kulak’s contract has been high enough to lead to trade speculation when the Oilers needed to free up some cap space but each time, they’ve found a way to open up the cap room while keeping him around.

This is Kulak’s fifth season in Edmonton after being acquired from Montreal in 2022 for blueliner William Lagesson and a pair of draft picks (one of which was used to select Lane Hutson a few months later).  Early in his tenure with the team, he was used in more of a third-pairing role which made the price point a bit of a premium for that role.

However, head coach Kris Knoblauch leaned on Kulak a lot more last season as his ATOI jumped by more than five minutes a night from 15:23 per game to 20:32.  That jumped even higher in the playoffs to 23:25, second among all Edmonton defenders.

That usage will make locking down an early extension a little trickier.  Edmonton’s preference would likely be to keep paying him in that number five range with a price tag that should slot in around the $3.5MM mark.  On the other hand, Kulak’s camp will probably be seeking a deal more commensurate with a number four defender, something around a million or so more per season.

As things stand, the Oilers have around $17.7MM in cap space for next season, per PuckPedia, based on the original salary cap projection of $104.5MM for 2026-27.  However, they still have half a dozen or so roster spots to fill with that money, including a goalie tandem.  As the market for netminders continues to go up, it’s possible that they’ll need to spend half of their cap room or more on that position which would make it difficult to fit Kulak back onto their books if his next contract is around a quarter of that cap space.

Accordingly, it’s not too surprising that talks haven’t progressed quickly as it makes sense for both sides to see what type of role Kulak will have this season while also seeing if one of their goaltenders will be worth keeping for 2026-27 and beyond.  But at this point, it’s clear that GM Stan Bowman wants to keep the veteran in the fold for a little while longer.  It just might take a while for it to happen.

Panthers Recall Tobias Bjornfot

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With Dmitry Kulikov being placed on injured reserve back on Friday, the Panthers had an open roster spot at their disposal.  They’ve now filled that spot as they’ve recalled defenseman Tobias Bjornfot from AHL Charlotte, per the AHL’s transactions log.

The 24-year-old was an injury recall a couple of times last season, seeing stints with Florida back in January and March last season, getting into 14 games overall where he was held off the scoresheet while averaging just over 13 minutes per game.  For his career, Bjornfot has a goal and 14 assists in 134 NHL appearances between Los Angeles, Vegas, and Florida.

Bjornfot played in three games with the Panthers in the preseason but cleared waivers last weekend, paving the way for him to return to the Checkers.  This stint lasted all of one game and if Kulikov is indeed out longer term as expected, he may be up with Florida for a while this time.  Bjornfot had 18 points in 50 games at the AHL level last season.

With Florida deep into using LTIR (with Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, and Tomas Nosek), they’re not banking any cap room right now, meaning that Bjornfot’s recall doesn’t do much beyond cutting into their current LTIR space.  That sits at just over $1.49MM, per PuckPedia, meaning they have enough cap space for one more recall if more injuries arise.

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