Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

San Jose Sharks Activate Nico Sturm, Reassign Jack Thompson

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The San Jose Sharks will see the return of a bottom-six center before their matchup tonight against the Los Angeles Kings. The organization announced they activated forward Nico Sturm from the injured reserve and reassigned defenseman Jack Thompson to their AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda, in a corresponding roster move.

Sturm hasn’t factored into a game since the Sharks’ November 14th loss to the New York Rangers. He left the game with an apparent upper-body injury and was placed on the team’s injured reserve a few days later on November 18th. He rejoined the team for practice yesterday morning and was seen centering the fourth line between Klim Kostin and Ty Dellandrea.

The former Stanley Cup champion is in his third year with the Sharks organization after signing a three-year, $6MM contract with the club in 2022. He’s seen his ice time dip to 9:50 a game on average with the influx of forward talent to San Jose and has collected three goals and six points through 18 games this season.

The reassignment of Thompson is confusing on paper given the young defenseman has scored two goals and five points in 13 games for the Sharks this season from the blue line. He’s tied for third on the team in scoring amongst defensemen with veteran Cody Ceci and appeared to be a solid introduction into the team’s top-four.

Still, Thompson is only in his third professional season and could use more seasoning in the AHL before becoming a full-time NHL talent. He played in 16 games for the Barracuda last season after being acquired from the Tampa Bay Lightning and scored one goal and nine points with a -13 rating.

Senators Looking To Acquire A Defenseman

at CDT | by 9 Comments

In congruence with today’s news that defenseman Artem Zub will miss time with a fractured foot, it’s no surprise that the Ottawa Senators are looking to trade for a defenseman. TSN’s Bruce Garrioch reports that general manager Steve Staios is aggressively pursuing the trade market for more defensive depth.

Garrioch didn’t mention in his report what handedness the Senators are hoping for but it’ll likely be a right-handed shot. Ottawa already has a solid 1-2 punch on the left side of the defensive core, as shown by Jake Sanderson and Thomas Chabot. It stands to reason the Senators may have already been looking for an upgrade on the right side with Zub and Nick Jensen being the only serviceable top-four options on the right side.

Ottawa has had difficulty keeping the puck out of their net this season but the entire blame can’t be put on the defense. They’ve only allowed 539 shots against in 20 games this season which is good for sixth in the league but 24th in goals against per game with a 3.25 mark. Former Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender Linus Ullmark has only managed a .881 save percentage over 12 starts which is a far cry away from his .918 SV% career average before the move to Canada.

Still, the team could certainly use an upgrade on defense if they hope to compete for a spot in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs in a sturdy Atlantic Division. The Senators own an 8-11-1 record on the year and have 62 games left to build momentum.

Ottawa may have a trade partner in the Columbus Blue Jackets whom Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reported yesterday were listening to offers on right-handed shot defenseman, David Jiříček. The Blue Jackets are reasonably looking for another recent first-round pick on their entry-level contract making the Senators a compatible trade partner.

Ottawa may be unwilling to part with a first-round pick for Jiříček but could build a package around forward Ridly Greig. He’s in the last year of his entry-level contract and was drafted two years before Jiříček with the 28th overall pick of the 2020 NHL Draft. He scored a career-high in points last year with 13 goals and 26 points in 72 games and could provide more for Columbus if he’s bumped into the top six.

Other options for Ottawa include Cody Ceci from the San Jose Sharks, Jacob Trouba from the New York Rangers, or David Savard from the Montreal Canadiens outside of Jiříček. It appears the Senators will land a right-handed shot defenseman sooner rather than later with how aggressive Staios has been in the market since the beginning of the season.

Senators Reassign Zack MacEwen, Recall Cole Reinhardt

at CDT | by 3 Comments

Nov. 25, 2:16 p.m.: The Senators confirmed that they’ve reassigned MacEwen to Belleville. They replaced his roster spot by recalling left-winger Cole Reinhardt. The 24-year-old had an assist in a pair of appearances earlier this season and has 14 points (5 G, 9 A) in 11 games with the B-Sens this season, leading the AHL club in scoring.

Nov. 25, 1:03 p.m.: MacEwen cleared waivers, Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia reports. He can now be assigned to Belleville.

Nov. 24: The reason behind Zack MacEwen’s absence from this morning’s practice has now come to light. The Ottawa Senators organization has placed MacEwen on waivers to reassign him to their AHL affiliate, the Belleville Senators.

MacEwen is no stranger to AHL hockey. He spent the first several years of his professional career with the Utica Comets of the Vancouver Canucks organization scoring 37 goals and 96 points in his first 155 AHL contests.

He even spent a few games with the AHL Senators last season scoring two goals and seven points in 10 games. Still, his time with the Senators organization has been mostly spent in Ottawa.

He’s primarily been a mildly-used depth forward for the Senators. Since signing a three-year, $2.33MM contract with the Senators in 2023, he’s scored four goals and six points in 49 games while averaging 6:59 of ice time per game.

It’s unlikely he’ll get claimed over the next 24 hours but could provide value to some teams. He has a league-minimum salary of $775K and has managed 150 hits in a season twice. For a team looking to add physicality to their bottom six for virtually nothing — MacEwen fits the mold.

Penguins Acquire Philip Tomasino From Predators

at CDT | by 19 Comments

The Penguins announced Monday that they’ve acquired forward Philip Tomasino from the Predators in exchange for the Rangers’ 2027 fourth-round pick. Pittsburgh assigned center Samuel Poulin to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton minutes earlier in a corresponding transaction to make room on the active roster.

Tomasino, still only 23, gets a fresh start in Pittsburgh after having his minutes and overall usage heavily restricted in Nashville ever since the Preds drafted him 24th overall in the 2019 draft. The team confirmed he’s en route to Pittsburgh and will practice tomorrow in hopes of being available for their next game, a Wednesday tilt against the Canucks.

While Tomasino had often been an effective points-per-hour depth piece throughout his first three NHL seasons, the same can’t be said for 2024-25. The Ontario native has struggled on a Nashville team that’s struggled to finish at 5-on-5, posting just one assist in 11 games while averaging a career-low 11:18 per game.

Tomasino had stuck around on the Preds’ roster so far this season after seeing lengthy AHL assignments in both 2022-23 and 2023-24, although that was likely out of fear over losing him on waivers for nothing. This is his first season not being waiver-exempt. Instead, they at least get one asset in return, even if it’s only a mid-round pick that’s years away.

The 6’0″ winger had been a healthy scratch in 10 of 21 games this season, including a stretch of seven straight scratches between Oct. 19 and Nov. 6. He’d also been scratched in two out of Nashville’s last three games.

Given that lack of usage, it’s not at all surprising that the Preds, now fully under the control of general manager Barry Trotz after 20-plus years of David Poile at the helm, decided now was the right time to move on from Tomasino before his value dropped off even more. He still hasn’t come close to sniffing his career-highs of 11 goals and 32 points in 76 games that he set in his rookie campaign in 2021-22 despite averaging under 12 minutes per night.

Still, it stands to reason for Pittsburgh that there’s a fair amount of rebound and breakout potential in Tomasino’s game if he’s deployed in a top-nine role. The forward has 23 goals and 71 points in 159 games over his four-year career – a 12-goal, 37-point average over 82 games squarely in bottom-six usage.

Throughout his Predators career, Tomasino’s possession impacts were negligible. He boasts a career +1 rating, and Nashville controlled 49.6% of shot attempts with him on the ice at even strength since his debut, compared to 48.7% without him.

With the Pens’ offense struggling to click at 2.52 goals per game, Tomasino may get a look in the top nine or even top six alongside Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin to see how he responds in a complementary role. His leash will likely be short. He signed a one-year, $825K deal at the beginning of training camp to end a months-long standoff as a restricted free agent, so he’s at risk of being non-tendered next summer if he can’t perform in Pittsburgh, especially since he’s eligible to file for salary arbitration.

Pittsburgh previously acquired the Rangers’ 2027 fourth-rounder at last year’s trade deadline in exchange for defenseman Chad Ruhwedel.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Ducks To Activate Mason McTavish From Injured Reserve

at CDT | by 10 Comments

The Ducks will activate center Mason McTavish from injured reserve ahead of tonight’s contest against the Kraken, Derek Lee of The Hockey News reports. Anaheim is only carrying 22 out of the maximum 23 players on the active roster, so they won’t need to make a corresponding transaction to have him back in the lineup. Nonetheless, they’ve carried 13 healthy forwards for most of the year, so a demotion to the AHL, either Sam Colangelo or Jansen Harkins, is likely coming.

McTavish, 21, has missed the last six games with an upper-body injury. He landed on IR last week as the Ducks opened up roster flexibility in the wake of injuries to fellow forward Robby Fabbri and veteran defenseman Cam Fowler.

Through 13 games before exiting the lineup, McTavish had two goals and six assists for eight points. That works out to 0.62 per game, down slightly from last season’s career-best 0.66 rate in his sophomore season.

Selected third overall in 2021, the cerebral McTavish has transitioned well to the NHL early on. He’s firmly grasped a top-nine role and was averaging a career-high 16:18 per game before his upper-body injury. He hasn’t looked out of place at all down the middle, either, tying for third on the team in scoring last season with 42 points in 64 games while winning 437 out of 845 faceoffs, good for 51.7%.

The Switzerland-born Canadian national had spent most of his time this season centering Fabbri and Trevor Zegras, although he’ll obviously have some different linemates tonight with Fabbri on the shelf. His return is an important one for the .500 Ducks, who have managed to stay afloat thanks to strong goaltending despite their 24th-ranked offense (2.53 goals per game, up from last season’s 2.48).

Canadiens Recall Joshua Roy, Reassign Lucas Condotta

at CDT | by 1 Comment

12:34 p.m.: While no corresponding transaction was required, the Habs made one anyway by announcing they’d reassigned center Lucas Condotta to Laval. The 27-year-old pivot had one goal and a -2 rating in seven games since being recalled near the beginning of the month, averaging 8:12 per game and winning 58.6% of his draws with three blocks and 10 hits.

9:04 a.m.: The Canadiens announced they’ve recalled right-winger Joshua Roy from AHL Laval. Montreal had an open spot on the active roster, so no corresponding moves are necessary.

The Habs give Roy’s first crack at playing time this season ahead of their home game tomorrow evening against Utah. It’s unclear whether Roy will enter the lineup, as he becomes the 14th healthy forward on the Montreal roster, but it’s hard to see the reasoning behind the 21-year-old getting a summons without the intention of playing him.

If he plays, it’ll mark his second season in the NHL after making 23 appearances across a couple of call-ups between January and March last season. Roy is in just his second professional season after being drafted in the fifth round by Montreal in 2021, spending a pair of post-draft seasons with the QMJHL’s Sherbrooke Phoenix before jumping to pro hockey with Laval in 2023. The 6-foot youngster adjusted better than most expected, earning that recall and posting four goals and five assists for nine points with a -2 rating, averaging 12:08 per game in his first NHL audition.

That led to speculation that Roy would make the opening night roster last month. He remained on the roster until the last round of cuts but was assigned to Laval when opening night rosters were due on Oct. 7.

He’s taken the assignment in stride, posting eight goals and eight assists for 16 points over 17 appearances in the AHL. The Quebec-born forward has a +3 rating after finishing with a team-worst -17 mark last year, and he’s three points ahead of Alex Barré-Boulet and Logan Mailloux for the team lead in scoring.

Roy still has two more pro seasons or 137 NHL games left until he requires waivers, so the Canadiens can return him to Laval without any fanfare. It’s not out of the question that he’ll be returned to the minors in short order, but with them obtaining an extension for winger Rafaël Harvey-Pinard’s conditioning loan as he recovers from offseason leg surgery (per Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports), there could be a bit of an extended opportunity for him to show he belongs on the NHL roster.

Senators’ Artem Zub Out “A While” With Foot Fracture

at CDT | by 1 Comment

Senators defenseman Artem Zub sustained a foot fracture Saturday against the Canucks and will miss significant time, Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia reports.

Zub may have sustained the fracture while blocking a shot from Vancouver defenseman Carson Soucy, although he didn’t leave the game and ended up logging over 20 minutes of ice time for the third time since returning from a concussion earlier this month. It looks like his second long-term absence of the season after missing nine games due to that concussion, his second in as many seasons, limiting him to 11 of Ottawa’s 20 games this season.

It’s another bit of bad news for the Sens, who have dropped four games in a row in regulation and now sit seventh in the Atlantic Division with 17 points and an 8-11-1 record. Their .425 points percentage is sixth-worst in the league, only ahead of the Predators, Canadiens, Penguins, Blackhawks, and Sharks. At the season’s quarter point, it’s a tough spot to be in for a team that had high hopes of ending their seven-year playoff drought, which has a 67.3% chance of stretching to eight, per MoneyPuck.

Zub has been a minute muncher for the Senators ever since arriving from Russia as a free agent in 2020. The 6’3″, 204-lb righty has consistently played a top-four role and averaged 20:17 per game over his 261-game career, although he’s on pace to average a career-low 18:19 this season.

When in the lineup this season, he’s been far less effective than usual. He has two assists through 11 games and has a -7 rating, the first time he’s trending toward ending the season in the red in his career. He’s also averaging only 1.45 hits per game compared to 2.01 last season and his possession numbers have tanked with a career-worst -7.2% relative Corsi share.

Veteran Travis Hamonic will play a top-pairing role alongside Jake Sanderson in place of Zub, per TSN 1200 Ottawa. The Sens play tonight at home against the Flames as they try to avoid extending their losing skid to five. They’ve gone 3-7-1 in November after starting the season 5-4-0.

Hurricanes Reassign Tyson Jost, Pyotr Kochetkov Out Indefinitely

at CDT | by 4 Comments

The Hurricanes announced they’ve reassigned forward Tyson Jost to AHL Chicago. They haven’t done anything to fill his roster spot, although head coach Rod Brind’Amour also confirmed that goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov has entered concussion protocol after leaving Saturday’s shootout loss to the Blue Jackets and doesn’t have a timeline for a return (per the team’s Walt Ruff).

Carolina is now officially without their top two goaltenders for the foreseeable future. Starter Frederik Andersen hasn’t played in nearly a month and recently underwent knee surgery that will keep him out of action until January or February.

Kochetkov, 25, left the Columbus game during overtime after teammate Sean Walker inadvertently skated into his head while trying to stop a rush chance from Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski. There appeared to be significant whiplash on the play, but as with any head injury and subsequent concussion, Kochetkov’s absence could be anywhere from a week to more than a month.

A 2019 second-round pick, the young Kochetkov has had to step up many times in recent seasons with injury-prone veterans Andersen and Antti Raanta ahead of him. He started the year as the undisputed No. 2 for the first time after Raanta became an unrestricted free agent and wasn’t brought back following a brutal 2023-24 campaign. He’s done well in 13 starts, posting a 10-2-0 record with a .904 SV% and 2.42 GAA. That’s been good enough for 3.9 goals saved above expected, per MoneyPuck, up from last year’s 0.7 mark despite his decreased SV% and GAA.

The buck now falls on 29-year-old journeyman Spencer Martin and inexperienced 24-year-old Yaniv Perets, although it’s hard to imagine the championship-contending Hurricanes not making a move to add a more stable name to their crease if Kochetkov trends toward missing significant time. Perets has not logged NHL ice aside from stopping one shot in less than 13 minutes of action in a game against the Kings in January of last season, although he served as a backup for Carolina once earlier this month. Martin, meanwhile, has a 1-2-1 record with a .870 SV% and 3.21 GAA in three starts and one relief appearance since coming up to the roster in October in relief of Andersen.

Perets’ minor-league numbers this season don’t portray him as a legitimate NHL option, even in a pinch. The undrafted free agent signing out of Quinnipiac in 2023 has just a .825 SV% and a 3.67 GAA in three AHL appearances for Chicago this season and had a subpar .889 mark in 34 games for ECHL Norfolk in 2023-24.

Jost, 26, heads back to the minors after going without a point in his last six games. The 5’11” center/left winger signed a one-year deal for the league-minimum $775K with Carolina over the offseason after being non-tendered by the Sabres, but he was waived and assigned to Chicago shortly after making the opening night roster. The Canes recalled him just over two weeks ago after he put up a goal and two assists in eight minor-league games, but he averaged just 9:20 through seven NHL appearances with a goal on eight shots. Since he remained on the active roster for fewer than 30 days and played less than 10 games, he doesn’t need waivers to return to the AHL.

Friedman: Rangers Shopping Chris Kreider, Jacob Trouba

at CDT | by 15 Comments

The Rangers are still squarely in playoff position after last season’s Presidents’ Trophy win, placing third in the Metropolitan Division with a .658 points percentage and a 12-6-1 record. Their 5-on-5 play remains an issue, though, and their subpar shot-attempt and scoring chance shares came to a head Saturday after they allowed 40 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Oilers.

Rangers general manager Chris Drury was evidently so disturbed by their back-to-back losses against the Flames and Oilers in Alberta that he’s “made it very clear they are interested in making moves and shaking up their roster,” Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports Monday. Captain Jacob Trouba is being dangled as trade bait once again after the club aggressively tried to work out a trade for him over the summer, while star winger and lifelong Ranger Chris Kreider has also been made available, Friedman said.

They’re not the only names being considered in moves – assumedly, some cheaper and less consequential pieces could easily be leveraged along with futures for short-term upgrades. However, the fact that Drury is even considering leveraging Kreider, a lifelong Ranger with two years left on his contract, indicates quickly growing panic in New York about their skaters’ underlying play despite their 108-point pace.

Kreider is second on the Blueshirts with nine goals in 19 games but has inexplicably yet to record an assist despite even-strength linemates Mika Zibanejad and Reilly Smith combining for seven goals. He won’t play tonight against the Blues, but it’s not a trade-related scratch – he’s banged up and dealing with an upper-body injury.

After years of Kreider and Zibanejad being some of the Rangers’ most consistent players, they’ve struggled to generate much of anything at even strength. Their trio with Smith, acquired from the Penguins in an offseason trade, has generated just 2.69 expected goals per 60 minutes – the worst among the five Rangers forward combinations with at least 50 minutes together this season, per MoneyPuck. That would be at least passable if they weren’t also allowing 2.85 xG against per hour, the highest mark among those five combos.

Kreider has appeared in 834 regular-season games for the Rangers since they drafted him 19th overall in 2009, ranking third in franchise history with 313 goals and 10th with 561 points. He’s been an invaluable playoff performer for them in recent years, racking up 24 goals and 37 points in 43 postseason games since 2022.

The alternate captain has three years left on his contract at a discount $6.5MM cap hit, given he’s scored at least 35 goals for three years in a row and is on pace to do so again in 2024-25. He has a modified no-trade clause with a 15-team no-trade list, per PuckPedia, so Drury won’t have completely free rein regarding where Kreider ends up if he does end up more aggressively trying to leverage him for a piece to help improve their possession numbers.

Trouba on the trade block is no surprise. The 30-year-old defender was almost dealt to the Red Wings near the draft last summer, per multiple reports, a swap he blocked with his full no-movement clause. That NMC has downgraded to a modified no-trade clause with a 15-team no-trade list, so Drury has much more flexibility this time around in where he could find a home for Trouba’s $8MM cap hit through 2025-26, assuming they don’t retain any salary and instead take a significant amount of money back as they “shake up their roster,” as Friedman put it.

Trouba has six assists and a +3 rating through 19 appearances this season but is averaging a career-low 20:32 per game. He’s been given the most taxing defensive usage of his career, playing much less of an offensive role and starting over 60% of his even-strength shifts in the defensive end for the first time, per Hockey Reference.

Rangers Recall Matt Rempe, Chris Kreider Out Day-To-Day

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The Rangers announced they’ve recalled forward Matt Rempe from AHL Hartford. He comes up with Chris Kreider set to miss tonight’s game against the Blues with an upper-body injury, Vince Z. Mercogliano of USA Today Sports reports. They opened a roster spot with a series of transactions yesterday, so no IR placement or corresponding move is required.

It’s Rempe’s second recall of the season after making the opening night roster but only sticking around for a few weeks, earning a demotion to Hartford in late October. The 2020 sixth-round pick has been in the minors for nearly all of November, last being rostered for an NHL contest against the Senators on Nov. 1, a game for which he served as a healthy scratch.

Even with Kreider out and Filip Chytil not taking line rushes at today’s practice, per Larry Brooks of the New York Post, it’s entirely possible Rempe is only up to serve as additional injury insurance and may sit in the press box for a seventh time this season tonight versus St. Louis. The Rangers gave themselves another forward option last night by recalling Brett Berard, who Brooks says practiced with the second power-play unit today, strongly indicating he’ll make his NHL debut. If Rempe does draw in, that would indicate a healthy scratch for a depth piece like Adam Edstrom.

This month’s lengthy demotion means Rempe has seen 10 games of AHL action this season compared to three NHL contests. The towering 6’8″ enforcer has scored twice and added an assist in those minor-league games, but his -7 rating is second-worst on Hartford. He averaged just 5:26 per game in his trio of NHL appearances last month, down from his already measly 5:38 mark last year, and posted no points with six hits and a fight.

Rempe appeared in 17 NHL contests at the tail end of last season as the Rangers looked to add a physical spark to their fourth line. In his short stay in the lineup, he racked up 71 PIMs and recorded his first two NHL points, a goal and an assist.

Rempe doesn’t yet require waivers to return to Hartford, but the pending restricted free agent will need them starting with the 2025-26 campaign.

Meanwhile, Kreider is on an ice-cold streak, recording just one point in his last six games. It’s not clear if he sustained the upper-body issue in the Rangers’ 6-2 loss to the Oilers on Saturday or if he’s been playing through it. The 33-year-old is second on the team with nine goals in 19 games but has miraculously yet to record an assist.

Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

scroll to top