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Buffalo Sabres Activate Jiri Kulich, Reassign Tyson Kozak

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The Buffalo Sabres are taking one small step toward a completely healthy roster. The Sabres announced they’ve activated forward Jiri Kulich from the injured reserve and have reassigned forward Tyson Kozak to their AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans, in a corresponding roster move.

Kulich has missed Buffalo’s last four games with a lower-body injury but he’s back in the lineup today as the Sabres take on the Seattle Kraken. He finally cracked Buffalo’s roster out of training camp this season after a few dominant years with AHL Rochester. Unfortunately, Kulich hasn’t been as effective as the Sabres may have hoped.

Similarly to his peers on offence, head coach Lindy Ruff has tried Kulich with multiple combinations throughout the season. He’s had the most success next to Zach Benson and Peyton Krebs but has also been made a healthy scratch numerous times. Overall, Kulich has scored seven goals and nine points in 31 games in Buffalo this year averaging 13:53 of ice time per game.

Kozak returns to the AHL after going scoreless in his last four games with the Sabres. The high-motor forward will look to build upon his quality junior season in the AHL having scored six goals and 12 points in 24 games which ties his career-high from a year ago.

Tom McVie Passes Away

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Former NHL coach and longtime Bruins scout Tom McVie has passed away at age 89, the team announced Monday. McVie played 18 seasons with various minor league clubs from 1956 to 1974, then was the head coach of the Capitals, Jets, and Devils in parts of nine seasons from 1975 to 1992.

McVie began his NHL career behind the bench in a difficult situation, taking over Washington’s bench partway through their second season in the league. He was tasked with molding together one of the worst rosters in league history, one that had finished 8-67-5 in their expansion season and recorded only 11 wins in year two. While he understandably didn’t make the playoffs in any of his three seasons in Washington, he did get the team out of complete embarrassment territory and was behind the bench for a 24-win season in 1976-77.

After being let go by the Caps following the 1977-78 season, McVie headed to the World Hockey Association to take over Winnipeg’s bench midway through their final season before the NHL-WHA merger. He guided the Jets to an 11-8-0 record to end the season before upsetting both the Nordiques and Oilers to win the final Avco Cup championship, with a roster that included future NHL All-Stars Morris Lukowich and Kent Nilsson.

McVie stayed with Winnipeg post-merger but was fired 28 games into the 1980-81 campaign after the team compiled a 1-20-7 record. He then headed to the Devils organization, where he’d serve as an AHL coach for many years but got a few cracks at the NHL head coach gig in the 1983-84, 1990-91 and 1991-92 campaigns. Boston picked up McVie as an assistant coach the following season, and after transitioning through a few different roles, they made him a pro scout in 1998. He held that role until retiring following the 2019-20 season.

We at Pro Hockey Rumors send our condolences to McVie’s family, friends, and peers.

J.T. Miller Receiving Interest From Additional Eastern Conference Teams

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Canucks center J.T. Miller remains in Vancouver for now after a reported trade to the Rangers fell through over the weekend. That deal never got close enough for the Canucks to ask Miller to waive his no-movement clause, multiple members of The Athletic’s NHL staff reported Monday, but it did potentially involve New York sending young top-nine center Filip Chytil, pending unrestricted free agent defenseman Ryan Lindgren, and multiple “future-focused assets” to Vancouver.

A disagreement on the conditions around the prospective first-round pick was the principal reason the deal fell apart, per The Athletic’s report. It doesn’t mean the Blueshirts are out of the running on Miller entirely, as Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet told CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal on Monday that the Rangers and Hurricanes are the two likeliest parties to land Miller, who prefers a trade to the Eastern United States. Friedman mentioned the Stars, Devils, and Islanders as interested but less probable outcomes.

If the reported return for the now-nixed trade is a strong blueprint for other potential Miller deals, though, it signals a continued rocky path for the Canucks down the stretch. The total value of what they’re getting isn’t bad – they need short-term help on the blue line, Chytil still has top-six potential when healthy, and the first-round pick will likely be in the teens – but it doesn’t give them a direct replacement for the near point-per-game Miller.

Even amid a down year for J.T. and time missed due to personal leave, he leads Canucks forwards in scoring with 31 points (8 G, 23 A) in 35 games. That’s below expectations, considering he’d averaged 96 points per 82 games over the prior three seasons, but still elite-level production that’s due for a rebound. His 11.8% shooting rate stands as his lowest in 10 years.

If Carolina wins out with a similar return, it would seemingly involve 24-year-old pivot Jesperi Kotkaniemi, who the Canucks demonstrated interest in acquiring when they nearly dealt Elias Pettersson to the Hurricanes last season. He’s likely a lower-value pickup than Chytil, with an iffy $4.82MM cap hit running through 2030 and just 19 points in 46 games this season. The Canes could easily make up for that by giving Vancouver a higher-value defenseman in return than the Rangers can with Lindgren, though.

Oilers’ Derek Ryan Clears Waivers

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Jan. 20: Ryan has cleared waivers and can be assigned to Bakersfield at will, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reports Monday. That reassignment will pave the way for newly-signed defenseman John Klingberg to come off injured reserve when he’s ready to make his season debut.

Jan. 19: The Edmonton Oilers needed to make a few roster moves to stay cap-compliant thanks to newly-signed defenseman John Klingberg’s contract hitting the books today. According to a team announcement, the Oilers organization has placed depth forward Derek Ryan on waivers for reassignment to their AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors, and have additionally reassigned defenseman Josh Brown.

It’s an unfortunate transaction for Ryan as he’s entered the twilight years of his NHL career. Ryan made his way to the NHL at the age of 29 during the 2015-16 season after an impressive run through European leagues, showcasing one of the more underrated stories of the last decade. After a brief three-year run with the Carolina Hurricanes, Ryan has been a key depth forward in Alberta since the 2018-19 season with the Calgary Flames and the Oilers.

His offensive production has decreased steadily throughout the years, similarly to his average time on ice. Ryan neared the 40-point plateau in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons before hovering around the 20-point total from 2021 to 2023 in Edmonton. Last year saw his biggest decrease in scoring over a full season, with Ryan only scoring five goals and 12 points in 70 games. His only true value anymore is his role in the faceoff dot, as Ryan has averaged a 55.2% success rate over 5,072 career draws, which is even more impressive considering 53.3% of his shift starts have been in the defensive zone.

Joining Ryan on the road to AHL Bakersfield is Brown, albeit unencumbered by the waiver wire. He’s primarily served as organizational depth on the blue line for the Oilers this year on a relatively expensive price tag of $1MM for the next three years. He’s tallied one assist in eight games in Edmonton this season averaging 11:29 of ice time per game.

Predators’ Mark Jankowski Out Week-To-Week

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Predators forward Mark Jankowski is out week-to-week with the upper-body injury he sustained in Saturday’s win over the Wild, head coach Andrew Brunette told reporters Monday (including the team’s Brooks Bratten). He did not return to the game after fighting Minnesota forward Ryan Hartman in the first period.

He hasn’t landed on injured reserve, largely because Nashville is operating with an open roster spot. But he could in the coming days to make room for the activation of winger Cole Smith, who Brunette said has been upgraded to day-to-day after missing nearly a month with a lower-body injury.

It’s a tough loss for Nashville, where the 30-year-old Jankowski has been one of the team’s best defensive forwards in 2024-25. His 55.5% shot attempt share at even strength is fourth on the team among qualified forwards, as is his 2.2 GA/60.

A frequent penalty killer, Jankowski has averaged 12:44 per game – his most in three years – and has won half of his 210 draws. His offensive production of eight points in 37 games is down from last year’s 15 in 32, but the 2012 first-round pick of the Flames has still done well to re-establish himself as an NHL regular after a few years of bouncing between the big leagues and the AHL.

That performance last year after a mid-season call-up from AHL Milwaukee earned Jankowski a two-year, $1.6MM extension, so he’s got another year left under contract with Nashville past this season. He’s now on his fourth NHL organization after stops with Calgary, Pittsburgh and Buffalo.

The Preds will likely give Kieffer Bellows his first NHL game since April 2023 when they face the Sharks tomorrow. He’s the only extra forward on the roster after being recalled on Jan. 11.

Flyers Place Ryan Poehling On Injured Reserve

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Flyers center Ryan Poehling will miss at least two more games after landing on injured reserve Monday morning, per a team announcement. Philadelphia recalled center Rodrigo Abols from AHL Lehigh Valley in a corresponding transaction, keeping their active roster at a maximum of 23.

Poehling, 26, already missed Saturday’s win over the Devils with an upper-body injury. He sustained it last Thursday against the Islanders when New York rookie Maxim Tsyplakov delivered a hit to the head, earning the latter a three-game suspension.

In his second season in Philly, Poehling is delivering arguably the best performance of his six-year NHL career. The bottom-six fixture has four goals and 11 assists for 15 points through 43 games, putting him on track to match last year’s career-high 28 points before the injury but with better defensive play this time.

Averaging 13:18 per game, Poehling has won a career-high 51.2% of his draws, at least over an entire season, and leads Flyers forwards with 51 blocks. He’s started two-thirds of his even-strength shifts in the defensive zone, has seen time on their top penalty-killing unit with Scott Laughton, and his 2.7 GA/60 at even strength is fourth-best among qualified skaters behind Noah Cates (2.5), Garnet Hathaway (2.3), and Emil Andrae (2.0).

The decision to sign the Minnesota native to a two-year, $3.8MM extension midway through last season has turned out prudent for Flyers general manager Daniel Brière. He has 15 goals and 43 points in 120 games as a Flyer since they signed him in 2023.

Up comes the 29-year-old Abols, who receives the first recall of his professional career. A seventh-round pick of the Canucks back in 2016, they let his signing rights lapse before he landed an entry-level contract with the Panthers in the 2019 offseason.

Abols lasted one year in the Florida organization, recording 23 points in 36 AHL games before mutually terminating his contract ahead of the 2020-21 campaign. The Latvia-born Abols returned to the Swedish Hockey League, where he played in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 campaigns. He spent four years suiting up with Örebro HK and Rögle BK before generating NHL interest again this past summer.

On the heels of a 14-goal, 26-point campaign for Rögle, the 6’4″, 205-lb Abols landed a two-way deal with the Flyers. He has nine goals and 10 assists for 19 points in 34 games with AHL Lehigh Valley, tying for fourth on the team in scoring. He’s expected to make his NHL debut Tuesday against the Red Wings, while Laughton is doubtful due to a family matter, Jordan Hall of NBC Sports Philadelphia reports.

Blue Jackets Activate Justin Danforth From Injured Reserve

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The Blue Jackets activated forward Justin Danforth off injured reserve Monday, general manager Don Waddell announced. He’ll play for the first time in 18 games when Columbus takes on the Islanders tonight.

Danforth, 31, sustained a lower-body injury at some point during a 5-3 loss to the Flyers on Dec. 10. He also missed the first three games of the campaign while recovering from offseason wrist surgery, limiting him to 25 of Columbus’ 46 games this season.

Now firmly established as a regular in the Blue Jackets lineup when healthy, the diminutive Danforth has three goals and five assists for eight points with a minus-seven rating. The natural winger has frequently factored in down the middle for Columbus this season, winning 48.2% of his 280 faceoffs, and sees the most average time on ice per game while shorthanded of any Jackets forward.

A late bloomer, Danforth didn’t make his NHL debut with Columbus until 2021-22, his age-28 campaign. In 147 career appearances with the Jackets, he has 25 goals and 26 assists for 51 points. He’s slated for unrestricted free agency this summer after completing a one-year, $1.1MM extension he signed in October 2023.

Danforth has overcome his small frame by playing an aggressive, high-speed game. His 63 speed bursts over 20 mph rank in the 70th percentile among skaters this season, according to NHL EDGE, and he finished fifth on the Jackets in hits last season with 109.

While not a significant impact piece at even strength, his return nonetheless aids a Columbus offense that’s still dealing with injuries to top-six forwards Yegor Chinakhov and Sean Monahan, as well as captain Boone Jenner. The club has still managed a 7-2-1 record in their last 10 games and sits in the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference based on both standings points (51) and points percentage (.554).

The Blue Jackets opened up a roster spot last week when they demoted goaltender Jet Greaves, so no corresponding transaction for Danforth’s activation is necessary. PuckPedia projects that he’ll likely re-enter the lineup in a fourth-line role alongside Sean Kuraly and Mikael Pyyhtia while Kevin Labanc heads to the press box. 

Morning Notes: Halonen, White, Smith

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The New Jersey Devils have reassigned forward Brian Halonen and defenseman Colton White to the AHL’s Utica Comets. Both players served as extras for the team’s last few games. White didn’t step into the lineup at all during his three-day recall, while Halonen appeared in one game during his four days on the NHL roster.

Both players have served at the top of Utica’s lineup for the majority of the season. Halonen is leading the team in goals (13) and tied for the lead in points (21) through 31 games. White has also been productive, with 11 points in 26 games ranking him third on the blue-line in scoring behind Seamus Casey and Simon Nemec. Despite that, neither player has cracked into a routine NHL role. Halonen has earned the first three NHL games of his career between this season and last, though he’s still searching for his first point. White has 84 career NHL games and 10 points, but hasn’t played in the top league since 2022-23. With this move, the duo will return to fighting for a full-time move to the top flight with strong play in the minors.

Across the Metropolitan Division, the Carolina Hurricanes have once again assigned defenseman Ty Smith to the AHL, per NHL.com’s Walt Ruff. Smith has bounced between rosters all season long. He’s ultimately appeared scored two points in eight NHL games, and 10 points in 13 AHL games on the season. Smith has continued to be productive in the minor leagues, after being 43 points in 63 games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton last season. He’s still a swing away from a routine NHL role, especially behind a loaded Hurricanes defense.

Five Key Stories: 1/13/25 – 1/19/25

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Now past the halfway point of the season, the playoff race is truly beginning to take form and deadline rumors are starting to simmer. Some of those notes, along with some notable mid-season injuries, are in our top stories from the last week.

Tavares On The Shelf: Maple Leafs star center John Tavares took a weird fall in practice on Wednesday and hasn’t played since. He landed on injured reserve the next day and will miss at least two more games on top of the two he’s already missed with his right leg injury. He was ruled out week-to-week, so it could be more games than that until Toronto gets their third-leading scorer back in the lineup. Tavares has 20 goals and 42 points in 44 games this season after falling to a 0.81 point-per-game rate in 2023-24.

Jarry To The Farm: Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry’s stock has gone from bad to worse in the second season of his five-year, $26.88MM extension. His .884 SV% through 22 games was enough for the Penguins to risk losing him on waivers, and after no one wanted to pick up the remainder of his deal, he passed through and headed to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for his first extended taste of minor-league play in six years. Jarry did have a sparkling .926 SV% and 4-1-0 record in five appearances for WBS earlier this season on a conditioning loan. Still, the four-time 20-win-getter has failed to convert that momentum into passable play as Pittsburgh’s starter.

Freddie’s Back: After yet another lengthy absence, Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen returned to the lineup this week. He’d been sidelined since late October with a knee issue that ended up requiring surgery in November. He hasn’t played since coming off injured reserve on Friday but could get the nod Monday when Carolina visits the league-worst Blackhawks. Andersen had a .941 SV% in four appearances to begin the season.

Klingberg To The Oilers: After sitting injured for over a calendar year, defenseman John Klingberg is back in the NHL after signing a one-year, $1.35MM pact with the Oilers on Friday. Klingberg, 32, spent last season on a one-year deal with the Maple Leafs but only recorded five assists in 14 games before hip resurfacing surgery ended his campaign. The 2014-15 All-Rookie Team member and six-time 40-point scorer will look to bring his power-play prowess to a weak-ish right side of the Edmonton blue line. He hasn’t hit that 40-point mark since leaving the Stars for the Ducks in the 2022 offseason, however.

Miller Almost Dealt: The simmering trade saga between the Canucks and star center J.T. Miller almost came to a head Saturday night when a reported trade to the Rangers fell through at the last minute, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet said. Instead, he skated over 20 minutes – his most in nearly a month – and had a pair of assists as Vancouver upset the Oilers 3-2. Friedman added that while a trade to the Blueshirts hasn’t yet materialized, he believes the Canucks have granted Miller, who carries a full no-move clause, permission to speak to other teams to facilitate a deal. The 31-year-old is in year two of a seven-year, $56MM extension and has 31 points through 35 games, tracking for his first sub-point-per-game season since 2020-21.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Brendan Perlini Released From KHL Contract

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Former NHL winger Brendan Perlini’s most recent stay overseas was short-lived. After signing with Spartak Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League last month, he was released from his contract Sunday after making four appearances, the team announced.

Perlini, 28, hasn’t played in the NHL since the 2021-22 season, when he skated in 23 games with the Oilers. He then spent the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons on AHL contracts with Chicago and Charlotte before remaining unsigned well into the 2024-25 regular season.

That led the England-born winger to pursue opportunities overseas for the first time since the COVID-laced 2020-21 campaign when he notched 16 points (albeit with a -17 rating) in 21 games for Switzerland’s HC Ambrì-Piotta. This stint wasn’t as productive for Perlini, who was limited to one assist and a minus-two rating in his quartet of games with Spartak.

Perlini was productive on his minor-league deals, so he should spark some mid-season interest from AHL clubs, although any two-way offers from an NHL club will likely have to wait until the summer. Last season, he recorded nine goals and 11 assists for 20 points in 37 games with Charlotte while accompanying the Panthers’ prospects and depth players.

The 6’4″, 212-lb winger has posted 50 goals and 81 points in 262 NHL games since the Coyotes drafted him 12th overall in 2014. In addition to bookending his career to date in Arizona and Edmonton, he made stops with the Blackhawks and Red Wings.

Spartak will retain Perlini’s KHL rights if he returns to the Russian league later in his career.

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