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East Notes: Crosby, Kane, Rasmussen, Zub, MacEwen

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History was made in last night’s matchup between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Utah Hockey Club. Sidney Crosby, the Penguins captain and franchise icon, became the 21st player in NHL history to record 600 goals in his career.

Given that Crosby is still signed for two more years beyond this season in Pittsburgh, it’s a guarantee he will finish much higher than 21st on the all-time goal list. Should he continue to average between 30-40 goals a season, avoid injury, and retire after his extension, Crosby could finish his career 12th all-time in goals and potentially catch another franchise legend Mario Lemieux at 690.

It’s another impressive milestone in arguably the best career of the salary cap era. Crosby is already top-10 in the all-time points list and should pass the likes of Joe Sakic, Lemieux, and Steve Yzerman before he finally decides to hang up his skates.

Other notes from the Eastern Conference:

  • The Detroit Red Wings may be light up front in tomorrow night’s contest against the New York Islanders. Ansar Khan of MLive reported this morning that forwards Patrick Kane and Michael Rasmussen weren’t on the ice for practice. Rasmussen’s absence is likely tied to the body check received from Boston Bruins’ forward Mark Kastelic in last night’s loss. There should be more context regarding Kane’s absence after the practice.
  • TSN Ottawa reported this morning that the Ottawa Senators are without defenseman Artem Zub and forward Zack MacEwen at practice. No additional context was provided regarding the availability of either player for Ottawa’s game tomorrow night against the Calgary Flames. Still, it likely explains the Senators’ call-up of forward Zack Ostapchuk a few hours ago.

Senators Recall Zack Ostapchuk

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The Ottawa Senators have recalled forward Zack Ostapchuk. He was assigned to the minor leagues just under two weeks ago, fitting in three games and three points with the AHL’s Belleville Senators before returning to the top lineup. Ostapchuk serves as an alternate captain for Belleville, where he has eight points in nine games this season.

Ostapchuk has also appeared in six NHL games this season. He recorded one assist – his first NHL point in 13 games through this season and last. He spent the bulk of last season in the minors, scoring 17 goals and 28 points in 69 games. He’s in just the second year of his pro career, after a prolific career in the WHL. Ostapchuk played his rookie junior season in 2019-20 and played through his draft year in 2020-21 – combining for 59 points in 66 games, good enough to earn the 39th-overall selection in the 2021 NHL Draft.

Ostapchuk took on the Giants’ captaincy in the proceeding 2021-22 and held onto it until a midseason trade in 2022-23. He scored 72 points in 81 games with the Vancouver ‘C’ on his chest, and looked even better on a dazzling Winnipeg Ice roster where he managed 38 points in 34 games.

The Senators aren’t likely to need Ostapchuk right out of the gates. Instead, the top prospect will likely serve as an extra forward behind red-hot scorer Adam Gaudette on the fourth line. Ostapchuk will again be searching for his first NHL goal if, or when, he slots back into the Senators lineup.

Blues Fire Drew Bannister, Hire Jim Montgomery

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The St. Louis Blues have fired second-year head coach Drew Bannister and replaced him with recently-fired Boston Bruins coach Jim Montgomery. The move was first reported by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Montgomery has reportedly signed a five-year deal with the Blues, per Fanduel Sports Network’s Andy Strickland.

It’s a shocking coaching change. St. Louis has struggled this season, posting a 9-12-1 record on the year and a 3-6-1 record in what will now be Bannister’s last 10 games with the club. The poor showings have the Blues ranked sixth in the Central Division – but their poor start hasn’t come as too much of a surprise, especially as St. Louis deals with injuries to Torey Krug, Nick Leddy, and Philip Broberg.

But St. Louis has deemed the losing too much, and now separate from Bannister before he could coach a full 82 games. The 50-year-old head coach took over the Blues’ head coaching role from Craig Berube last December, earning a promotion after three years leading the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds. Bannister was quickly productive in Springfield, leading the team to a 43-24-9 record and trip to the Calder Cup Finals in his inaugural season of 2021-22, though the T-Birds would fall to the oft-champions Hershey Bears. Bannister followed the long playoff run up with a 38-26-8 record and qualifying-round exit in the following year, but seemed to have the wind behind him to start the 2023-24 campaign. He started that year 12-8-0 – on pace for 40 wins across a full season.

But Bannister didn’t get a chance to see things through in Springfield, instead jumping to a Blues roster off to a terrible start. Berube left St. Louis at 13-14-1 – again good for sixth in the Central Division, where they find themselves this year. Bannister was forced to pick up the pieces, and led St. Louis to an admirable 30-19-5 record – bringing out the best of young lineup pieces like Jake Neighbours and Scott Perunovich. But his strong run wasn’t enough to lift St. Louis above a slow start, and they’d miss the 2024 postseason by six points.

St. Louis looks to be on track to miss again this year. While they certainly have faced bad injury luck, the team has struggled to find any scoring from down the lineup – with just four Blues with 10-or-more points through 22 games this season. They haven’t been helped along by what was meant to be strong goaltending, with starter Jordan Binnington posting a .891 Sv% and 3.04 GAA in 17 games, and backup Joel Hofer recording a .893 and 3.45 in six games. That paints the picture of top-to-bottom struggles in St. Louis, despite GM Doug Armstrong pushing for a heap of overturn and new faces this season.

That change will now continue, with Bannister ousted by career-Blue Jim Montgomery. Montgomery served two seasons as a Blues’ assistant coach in 2020-21 and 2021-22, getting hired off their bench into Boston’s head coach role. He proceeded to lead one of the greatest seasons of all time, setting the single-season wins record with a 65-12-5 standing. Montgomery brought career performances out of David Pastrnak, Linus Ullmark, and Jeremy Swayman – though Boston couldn’t manage to push back the first round of the playoffs. Unbothered, Montgomery stayed red-hot through 2023-24, following his record-breaking campaign with an impressive 47-20-15 record and second-round playoff exit. Those two seasons – a combined 112-32-20 record – made it all the more surprising when Boston chose to axe Montgomery after an 8-9-3 start to the season.

Despite a bad start, Montgomery is clearly a successful NHL coach – inspiring strong play since his first year at an NHL helm, when he led the 2018-19 Dallas Stars to a 43-32-7 record. He continued with a 17-11-3 record in 2019-20 – but stepped down midseason for personal reasons. His first sighting after that was on the Blues’ bench that he’ll now head back to.

The connection between Montgomery and St. Louis runs deep. The Blues signed Montgomery as an undrafted free agent in 1993, immediately after he captained the University of Maine to their first NCAA championship in school history. It was a legendary season that saw Montgomery and Paul Kariya – another famous Blue – lead perhaps one of the greatest collegiate offenses of all time. Montgomery kept the show going into the pros, earning a quick call-up after scoring 15 points in his first 12 minor-league games. He put up six goals and 20 points in 67 games on the Blues’ roster – but couldn’t hang onto a lineup role on a lineup that routinely turned over their depth lines. That kicked off Montgomery’s journeyman career around North America. He’d go on to play 11 more professional seasons, but changed teams every year – save for a three-year stint with the AHL’s Philadelphia Phantoms from 1997 to 2000, that kicked off with a Calder Cup championship.

Injury Notes: Matthews, Thompson, Jones, McCarron, Samberg

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Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews has returned from Germany where he consulted with a doctor he had worked with in the past in an attempt to relieve his lingering upper-body injury. It appears some progress was made considering he skated with the team during this morning’s practice.

In an article by David Alter of The Hockey News, Matthews was quoted saying, “We’ll take it day to day, continue to try to progress on the ice and see how this week looks and feels. Obviously, I’d love to get out there. I mean, tomorrow, not realistic, but Wednesday possibly, but we’ll just see how the week goes.”

Matthews’s reintroduction into the lineup would give a large boost to the Maple Leafs who’ve produced a 6-1-0 record since their captain went down with injury on November 3rd. He has scored five goals and 11 points in 13 contests for the games he’s been healthy for.

Other injury notes:

  • Forward Tage Thompson has been ruled out of tonight’s contest in another unfortunate turn for the Buffalo Sabres (X Link). There was plenty of expectation that Thompson would return tonight but he will now miss his fifth straight game due to a lower-body injury. Impressively, despite the injury, Thompson still leads Buffalo in goal-scoring with 11 goals in 16 games.
  • According to Colin Stephenson of Newsday Sports, New York Rangers defenseman Zachary Jones is considered day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Jones was likely injured in New York’s recent loss to the Calgary Flames, and he won’t be able to help the Rangers finish off their Western Conference road trip against the Edmonton Oilers later tonight.
  • The Nashville Predators are without forward Michael McCarron tonight due to an upper-body injury reports Alex Daugherty of the Tennessean. McCarron had been enjoying a consistent role down the middle of Nashville’s fourth-line scoring two goals and four points in 18 games on the year while averaging 12:24 of ice time per game. There was no added context of how long McCarron is expected to miss.
  • The Winnipeg Jets won’t have Dylan Samberg for the rest of tonight’s action as the organization announced he has left the game due to a lower-body injury. Samberg took a shot from Nashville’s Steven Stamkos off the foot and was in visible pain afterward. The Jets organization should provide an update on Samberg’s status at some point tomorrow or even after tonight’s game.

Golden Knights Activate Nicolas Hague, Pietrangelo Still Day-To-Day

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The Vegas Golden Knights will see the return of defenseman Nicolas Hague this evening as the organization announced they activated him off the injured reserve shortly before their contest against the Montreal Canadiens. Hague has been on the shelf for three weeks with an undisclosed injury and will play in his first contest tonight since November 2nd.

Hague has been an ultra-consistent defenseman for the Golden Knights since the team selected him with the 34th overall selection of the 2017 NHL Draft. He’s coming off an impressive stretch from 2022 to 2024 which saw him post some of the best defensive metrics of his career.

His 154-game stretch over the last two years only yielded five goals and 29 points on offense. On the defensive side of the puck, Hague racked up 244 blocks, 27o hits, a 91.3% on-ice save percentage in all situations, and an Expected +/- of 2.8. He became a focal piece of the Golden Knights defensive core leading the organization to its first Stanley Cup championship in 2023.

It unfortunately won’t be a completely healthy defensive core for Vegas tonight against Montreal. Danny Webster of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported earlier that defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is still considered day-to-day with an undisclosed injury. Webster confirmed that Pietrangelo is progressing well through his injury but he will still miss his second straight game due to the ailment.

Ducks Assign Jansen Harkins To AHL

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The Ducks have made a roster move on their off day.  Per the AHL’s transactions log, Anaheim has re-assigned forward Jansen Harkins to AHL San Diego.

Harkins is in his first season with Anaheim after signing a two-year, one-way contract with the Ducks on the second day of free agency back in July.  His $787.5K cap hit will come off the books following the demotion.

Harkins was brought up a week and a half ago and played a regular role on the fourth line during that time.  Overall, the 27-year-old has played in six games with Anaheim so far this season, picking up an assist along with 15 hits in 10:40 of playing time per night.  However, Harkins has been quite productive with the Gulls.  So far, he has tallied five goals and 12 assists in 11 games; his 1.55 points-per-game average is second-best among AHL players with five or more appearances.

With Anaheim being off until Monday, it’s possible that this is just a paper move, one that allows them to stall Harkins’ waiver clock for a couple of days.  However, it also could be a sign that one of Mason McTavish (upper body) or Brock McGinn (lower body) are on the verge of returning from their respective injuries in which case they wouldn’t need to bring Harkins back right away.

Penguins Activate Kevin Hayes, Assign Vasily Ponomarev To AHL

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The Penguins will welcome back a veteran forward to their lineup tonight against Utah.  The team announced (Twitter link) that they have activated center Kevin Hayes off injured reserve.  To make room for him on the active roster, forward Vasily Ponomarev has been returned to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

Hayes is in his first season with Pittsburgh after St. Louis paid a second-round pick to offload the final two years of his deal (or at least half of it with Philadelphia retaining the other half) on the Penguins.  The 32-year-old is off to a bit of a quiet start as he has just three goals and one assist in his first 14 games.  However, he’s also averaging just 9:27 per night, by far a career-low.

A veteran of 727 career regular season appearances over parts of 11 years, Hayes has been a productive middleman at times and has five years of 44 or more points under his belt.  But with his playing time basically being limited to the fourth line so far this season, it’s unlikely that Hayes will get close to that mark, barring a change in role as the season progresses.

As for Ponomarev, he was recalled a week and a half ago and got into three games in that stretch, his first three games with Pittsburgh after they acquired him as part of the Jake Guentzel trade at last year’s trade deadline.  The 22-year-old was held off the scoresheet while averaging a little over nine minutes per game.

Ponomarev sustained an upper-body injury late in training camp, derailing any chance he had of making the opening roster and instead landed on season-opening IR until the end of October.  As a result, he hasn’t had much playing time with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton either and he has just one assist in five games at that level.  Still early in his development, consistent playing time will be needed and he’s likelier to get that at the AHL level than battling for fourth-line action with the big club.

Central Notes: Wild, Nazar, Brossoit, Lundkvist

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The Wild will be without a pair of forwards today against Calgary.  The team announced (Twitter link) that winger Kirill Kaprizov and center Marat Khusnutdinov are out with lower-body injuries.  Kaprizov is off to a terrific start to the season as he’s tied for the league lead in scoring with 13 goals and 21 assists in just 19 games, putting him on pace to pass his career highs of 47 and 61 respectively, set in the 2021-22 season.  As for Khusnutdinov, he’s off to a quiet start to his first full season in North America.  The 22-year-old has played in all 19 games but has just two assists along with 15 blocks and 18 hits while averaging 11:26 of playing time.  The injuries will permit Travis Boyd, recalled on an emergency basis last night, to make his Minnesota debut.  Michael Russo of The Athletic adds (Twitter link) that Kaprizov will be evaluated when the team is back home on Sunday while Khusnutdinov is listed as day-to-day.

More from the Central:

  • Blackhawks prospect Frank Nazar is off to an impressive start to his first full professional season. Playing exclusively with AHL Rockford, the 20-year-old has eight goals and eight assists in 13 games.  However, don’t expect him to be recalled for a while yet, at least.  Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times notes that right now, the team feels his development is best served by continuing to play on the top line with the IceHogs while taking a regular turn on both special teams units, something that wouldn’t be the case if he was up with the big club.  Accordingly, Nazar might have to wait until the second half of the season to get another look in Chicago after playing in three games to finish up last season.
  • Still with the Blackhawks, Scott Powers of The Athletic reports (subscription link) that goaltender Laurent Brossoit is still having issues with his right knee after undergoing surgery late in the summer. The 31-year-old has resumed skating at times but has had to shut those attempts back fairly quickly, leaving continued uncertainty as to when he might be able to make his season debut.  In the meantime, current backup Arvid Soderblom is four appearances away from becoming waiver-eligible so by the time Brossoit comes back, they might be in a spot where they have to carry three goalies or risk having someone claimed off waivers.
  • Stars defenseman Nils Lundkvist took part in the morning skate today as he continues to work his way back from a lower-body injury, relays DLLS Sports’ Sam Nestler (Twitter link). The 24-year-old has played in 15 games so far this season, notching just one assist while logging a little under 14 minutes a night.  Lundkvist won’t play tonight and as of yet, he is not on injured reserve.

Predators Receiving Interest In Alexandre Carrier

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After an extremely busy offseason that saw the Predators add several key veteran contributors, expectations were quite high heading into the year.  However, they’re off to a sluggish 6-11-3 start to the season and while they’d like to add to their roster, it appears that teams are calling about one of their veterans as well.  Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports that Nashville is receiving inquiries about the potential availability of blueliner Alexandre Carrier.

The 28-year-old was a speculative trade candidate last season when he was playing on a one-year, $2.5MM contract.  However, Nashville had an exceptional second half including an 18-game point streak, resulting in them vaulting up the standings and going from being potential sellers to light buyers at the trade deadline.  Carrier went on to finish the year with 20 points in 73 games and added three more in six playoff contests.

It looked like Carrier was heading toward testing the opening market but just before free agency opened up, the two sides agreed to a three-year, $11.25MM front-loaded contract.  He’s making $4.6MM in salary this season relative to his $3.75MM cap charge.

As is the case with a lot of Nashville’s veterans, things haven’t gone quite as planned for Carrier this season.  He has a goal and four assists in 20 games while logging over 20 minutes a night but his pairing with Jeremy Lauzon has struggled to keep the puck out of the defensive zone and with the Preds believed to be open to adding to their back end, it stands to reason that they’re hoping to upgrade on this particular pairing.

With a track record of being a reliable and steady fourth or fifth defender and the fact he’s a right-shot player, the Predators should have some interest if they decide to make Carrier available.  Whether that’s part of a bigger move or a smaller side deal remains to be seen but GM Barry Trotz will have to decide if Carrier is still as important to their plans as it seemed he was just a few months ago.

Pacific Notes: Miller, Vladar, Geertsen

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The Canucks have moved forward J.T. Miller to injured non-roster status, relays Thomas Drance of The Athletic (subscription link).  The move allows them to open up an extra spot on their 23-player roster if they need to use it although doing so would require an LTIR placement for Thatcher Demko first, something they’ve been hesitant to do so far.  Miller is currently away from the team on an indefinite leave of absence that started earlier this week, a big hit to their attack as he has 16 points in 17 games so far.  Unlike a typical IR placement, the injured non-roster designation does not carry a minimum amount of time for a player to be on there so if Miller was to come back quicker than expected, he could be reinstated to the active roster immediately.

Elsewhere in the Pacific:

  • Kent Wilson of the Calgary Herald feels that goaltender Daniel Vladar is Calgary’s most logical trade candidate at the moment. The 27-year-old is off to a nice start to his year after recovering from hip surgery and has a 2.65 GAA with a .906 SV% in his first nine starts, numbers that are well above league average.  With several teams looking for goalie help and an affordable $2.2MM cap charge, the Flames could get a decent return for his services.  Vladar is a pending unrestricted free agent and while it could make sense to try to keep him partnered with Dustin Wolf beyond this season, AHL netminder Devin Cooley is off to a dominant start in the minors (1.63 GAA, .947 SV% in ten games) and is making a push to get a look at the NHL level sooner than later himself.
  • Golden Knights winger Mason Geertsen released a statement through AHL Henderson’s Twitter account announcing that he is now cancer-free after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma last November. The 29-year-old missed a month last season following the diagnosis but has been able to play regularly since then.  Geertsen has three assists and 19 penalty minutes in eight games so far with the Silver Knights this season and is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer.

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