Flames Unwilling To Move Rasmus Andersson, Interested In Dylan Cozens
The Flames have “no interest” in trading star defenseman Rasmus Andersson ahead of the March 7 deadline as things stand, Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports Wednesday. LeBrun adds that they’re also “among the very long list of teams that have checked in” with the Sabres about trading for center Dylan Cozens.
Calgary general manager Craig Conroy has continued to receive calls on the 28-year-old Andersson, who is in the fifth season of a six-year, $27.3MM contract. According to a report from David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period, they listened earnestly to those offers over the summer but had set a high threshold for a return price that other teams didn’t meet.
With the Flames still holding onto a playoff spot in the Western Conference past the halfway point of the season, Conroy has been shutting down those inquiries entirely. He’s “even talked to Andersson recently to make sure he knows the trade speculation is not real,” LeBrun wrote.
Their optimism about agreeing on an extension with Andersson this summer likely factors into their unwillingness to discuss trade options. Andersson told Eric Francis of Sportsnet over the weekend that he prefers to stay in Calgary for the long term. So, assuming Conroy is willing to pay market value for the righty, there shouldn’t be many issues in getting a deal done.
It’s been a somewhat slow campaign offensively for Andersson, whose 18 points through 42 games is his worst pace (0.43) since his 0.38 points per game in the 2020-21 season. Nonetheless, he’s averaging a career-high 24:21 per game and leads the club with 105 blocked shots.
Unfortunately, his defensive play has lapsed slightly with the increase in usage. His 3.0 on-ice goals against per 60 minutes at even strength is tied with Tyson Barrie for worst on the team among defenders, and his 49.3% share of shot attempts at EV play is the lowest of his nine-year career.
Nonetheless, he’s a core piece on a Calgary blue line that’s seen a lot of turnover as part of a roster retool over the past couple of seasons. His 156 points in 282 games since the start of the 2021-22 campaign rank 24th among defenders league-wide.
Regarding Cozens, they join the Red Wings as teams that have firmly demonstrated interest throughout the season, at least from what’s been reported. Their pursuit of a young middle-six center dates back to an early-season report from Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff.
Goal-scoring has been the limiter for the Flames, who rank 27th with 2.63 goals per game. But buoyed by solid team-wide possession play and expert goaltending from rookie Dustin Wolf, they’re still firmly in the playoff race far later in the season than most expected.
However, they have just six players with at least 20 points and none even in the neighborhood of a point per game. Cozens, who’s struggled by his standards with nine goals and 21 points in 43 games, would still rank seventh on Calgary in scoring.
Cap space won’t be an issue in any transaction the Flames want to make. They’ve already accumulated $36.66MM in space as of today’s writing and will have a whopping $81.18MM to add on deadline day if their roster remains as is, per PuckPedia.
Whether they’re willing to move any of their four first-round picks over the next two years will be the determining factor in how aggressively they can continue their retooling in the coming months. Cozens, selected seventh overall in 2019, would likely require at least a first-rounder for Buffalo to consider parting ways, but with Buffalo likely desiring a roster player back in return, the Flames don’t have much to offer that would be appealing.
Senators Reassign Max Guenette
The Senators loaned defenseman Max Guenette to AHL Belleville on Wednesday, per a team announcement. The club’s active roster is now at 22.
With Ottawa back in action tomorrow against the Capitals, Guenette could be summoned again after delaying the expiry of his temporary waiver exemption by one day. Injured reserve-bound Jacob Bernard-Docker and Travis Hamonic aren’t close to a return, so demoting Guenette leaves them without an extra healthy defenseman.
His presence is primarily contingent on the health of fellow blue-liner Thomas Chabot, who left Tuesday’s shutout win over the Islanders after taking an Adam Pelech shot to the face in the first period. He didn’t return to the contest, and head coach Travis Green said postgame that they would have an update on his status today.
Ottawa recalled Guenette, 23, from Belleville last week after Hamonic landed on IR the day before. He’s purely been up as injury insurance, though, and has been a healthy scratch in five straight since the elevation.
Selected 187th overall in the 2019 draft, Guenette has eight NHL games to his name, all coming with the Sens in the last two campaigns. His recall this month was his first this season after clearing waivers during training camp.
While in Belleville, the defensively responsible Guenette has excelled with nine points and a team-leading +16 rating in 27 games. The 6’2″, 209-lb righty serves as an alternate captain for the AHL club in what’s now his fourth professional season.
Senators Trending Toward Buying At Deadline
The Senators are commencing discussions about trade acquisition targets with over seven weeks to go until the March 7 trade deadline, general manager Steve Staios told Bruce Garrioch for the Ottawa Citizen yesterday.
“We still have some runway leading into the trade deadline so we have some time, but it’s nice to be having these conversations with how the group has performed,” Staios said. The Sens are one point out of a wild card spot in the Eastern Conference but have games in hand on both clubs ahead of them in the race, putting them in a good position to keep their seven-year playoff drought from extending to eight.
The most significant change from years past is the increased stability between the pipes and making injuries a blip on the radar instead of an insurmountable obstacle. Goaltending is no longer an imminent concern in the absence of starter Linus Ullmark due to a back injury after Leevi Merilainen has impressed in his six appearances over the past month, going 4-2-0 with a .913 SV% and a 2.34 GAA.
Ottawa’s skater depth will be where Staios looks to make some conservative additions over the next several weeks, but as he told Garrioch, they’ll be getting some in-house help. Personal leave and a back injury have limited veteran winger David Perron to no points in nine games after he inked a two-year, $8MM deal over the summer.
He’s looking to return to the lineup in the next week or so after resuming skating earlier this month. The 36-year-old is coming off a 47-point campaign in 76 games with the Red Wings last year, a point pace that would aid a Senators offense that’s only clicked at 2.88 goals per game, 21st in the league.
While Perron will be essentially a free pre-deadline pickup, and many other of their injured forwards are expected back in the next couple of weeks, adding some forward depth was always going to be this team’s focus at the deadline if they were in a position to add. They’re likely to look for a winger with more upward mobility than Perron, Michael Amadio, or Adam Gaudette, who’s struggled with just one assist in his last 11 games after a scorching start to the campaign.
Amadio and Perron are nicely suited as third-line pieces, and they’re full-up on bottom-six grinders in the form of Nick Cousins, Ridly Greig, and Zack MacEwen. Another right-shot defenseman as an insurance policy behind the injury-prone Travis Hamonic and Artem Zub is also likely on the table. They’ve already been linked to unrestricted free agent John Klingberg, who is attempting an NHL comeback after undergoing hip resurfacing surgery in December 2023.
The Sens are in a cap crunch as things stand – only $80K in deadline cap space before their LTIR pool of $3.715MM, per PuckPedia. Those financials will change drastically between now and deadline day with Perron coming off LTIR and at least Amadio and Hamonic coming off IR, though.
Latest On Mason Marchment And Tyler Seguin
Dallas Stars forward Mason Marchment is expected to be out for at least a few more weeks (as per Sean Shapiro of DLLS Sports). Marchment needed surgery after he took a puck in the face in a game against the Minnesota Wild on December 27th. The 29-year-old continues to skate in Texas as he looks to return to the lineup, but his timeline will ultimately come down to his breathing as he will need to wear a cage when he comes back.
Marchment needed surgical intervention due to the fractures in his nose and facial area and there was a delay in even having surgery because of the swelling in the area.
Marchment was having a solid season prior to the injury, posting 12 goals and 15 assists in 33 games and was a fixture in the top six. The Stars initially used Evgenii Dadonov in Marchment’s absence but have moved on to Jamie Benn, who has filled in admirably in the top six, posting four goals and an assist in his last six games.
Shapiro also reported that Dallas forward Tyler Seguin could still be another five or six months before he recovers from hip surgery. The 32-year-old had surgery a little over a month ago to repair a left-side femoral acetabular impingement as well as the hip labrum. Seguin had tried to manage the injury before surgery and was even playing some of the best hockey of his career to start the season. But the wear and tear eventually made the injury unbearable, which forced Seguin to shut down and have surgery. Seguin had nine goals and 11 assists in 19 games, as well as a plus-14 rating.
Penguins Expected To Be Sellers At Trade Deadline
Josh Yohe of The Athletic believes that the Pittsburgh Penguins will be sellers regardless of their position in the standings. Yohe wrote about the unusual position the Penguins find themselves in heading into the second half of the NHL season. Pittsburgh has fought its way back into the Wild Card conversation in the Eastern Conference, and despite being largely made up of veteran players, general manager Kyle Dubas has his eye on the future and intends to sell.
Yohe says that his league sources predict the Penguins will make multiple moves to jettison veterans and that “no one is safe” on Pittsburgh, except for the players holding full no-trade protection (Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin to name a few). Marcus Pettersson is certainly a name Pittsburgh will move on from given his contractual status, but one name that could also go is forward Rickard Rakell. The 31-year-old is having a nice bounce-back season with 22 goals in 45 games. However, Yohe pours cold water on that notion, saying that Pittsburgh is likely to hold onto him for this year unless they receive a big offer.
While all signs point to Pittsburgh packing it in for the season and missing the playoffs for a third straight year, Yohe believes that the Penguins may see the trading of veteran players as an opportunity to call up some of their prospects who are NHL-ready, most notably goaltender Joel Blomqvist who is arguably the best netminder in the Penguins entire organization and their best chance at steady goaltending. Tristan Jarry has struggled for well over a calendar year and doesn’t look like an NHL goaltender at the moment, and Alex Nedeljkovic has been wildly inconsistent this season after putting together a nice campaign a year ago.
While the Penguins would love to move on from some of their pricier veterans, they will be in tough to do so as Jarry has three years left on his contract after this season with an AAV of $5.375MM, and defenseman Ryan Graves has four years on his deal at $4.5MM. Those deals were two of the first contracts Dubas handed out in Pittsburgh, and they’ve aged like milk. In previous years, those types of contracts would have been untradeable, but with the cap rising next season, it’s not out of the question that the Penguins could move on from those players in the next six months.
Oilers Recall Noah Philp
The Edmonton Oilers have recalled forward Noah Philp from their AHL affiliate in Bakersfield (as per Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic). The 26-year-old will be an option for Edmonton heading into tomorrow night’s game against Minnesota and could get an extended look before the NHL Trade Deadline if he is a good fit in their bottom six forward group.
The Oilers dressed just 11 forwards last night and have a real issue with depth at the center position which should give Philp an opportunity to center the fourth line before Edmonton pulls the trigger on a move. Derek Ryan has struggled as of late and has been a healthy scratch on multiple occasions. The Oilers likely see their center depth as a concern that they will need to address before March 7th.
Philp nearly made the Oilers out of training camp but was sent to Bakersfield where he has had a strong first half of the season, registering nine goals and eight assists in 28 games. He did get a three-game audition with the Oilers in late October/early November and filled in admirably as Connor McDavid was out of the lineup with an ankle injury. Philp saw limited minutes, averaging just 10:44 of ice time per game during that mini-run. However, he did pick up an assist and appeared to grow more comfortable and assertive as the games went on. It’s hard to make much out of 31 minutes of NHL action, but Philp’s size, speed, and his defensive work certainly make for an intriguing option in Edmonton’s bottom six.
Philp’s story is certainly a feel-good one. The Canmore, Alberta native played junior hockey in the Western Hockey League before spending two seasons with the University of Alberta. He then was able to catch on with Bakersfield as an undrafted free agent in 2022. After a successful first AHL season, Philp went on a hiatus from professional hockey last season before signing a one-year two-way contract with Edmonton last summer.
Predators Expecting Increase In Trade Talks, Interest In Ryan O’Reilly
The Nashville Predators entered the 2024-25 season with, on paper, one of the best rosters in the NHL. They won the sweepstakes for Tampa Bay Lightning legend Steven Stamkos in his first trip to unrestricted free agency, and bolstered him with impact players in Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei. But Nashville now sits with a dismal 13-22-7 record halfway through the season. They rank as a bottom-three team in the NHL, and have responded to the disappointing year by kicking off a fire sale of trades and roster moves. The Predators have already made five trades this season, shipping off Philip Tomasino, Scott Wedgewood, Alexandre Carrier, and Juuso Parssinen; while also losing Dante Fabbro to Columbus via a waiver claim.
Despite all of that change, it seems Nashville’s novice general manager Barry Trotz is preparing for even more action. He told Nick Kieser of Nashville’s 102.5 The Game that the team is expecting an uptick in trade conversations now that the league’s winter meetings are winding down. Trotz went on to mention former Selke Trophy and Conn Smythe Trophy winner Ryan O’Reilly specifically, sharing that he’s expecting plenty of teams to be interested in the depth forward. Trotz didn’t rule out a trade but emphasized that the team will talk with O’Reilly before making any sort of move.
O’Reilly is no stranger to Trade Deadline swaps, joining the Toronto Maple Leafs via a Deadline move in 2023. He scored 20 points in 24 total games with the Leafs before signing with Nashville in the following summer. He’s seen an uptick in his production in two years with the Preds, netting 26 goals and 69 points in 82 games last year and on pace for 53 points this season. Both marks sit in line with O’Reilly’s scoring during his prime years with the St. Louis Blues. Now 33, the shutdown forward’s overall impact is starting to dwindle – though his 55-percent faceoff win rate and 37 still rank second among Predators forwards, behind only Colton Sissons (56.2 faceoff percent, 44 hits).
With the trade deadline the point of conversation, Trotz also emphasized to Kieser that the team’s big blow up has already occurred. He said that, “this trade deadline is going to look a little different.” That comment likely references the four trades Nashville made ahead of last year’s Deadline, used to acquire Anthony Beauvillier, Jeremy Hanzel, Jason Zucker, and Wade Allison. Hanzel is the only one of the four still in the Predators organization.
If the Predators acquire anyone, Trotz says they’ll be looking for players with term on their contract, in an effort to build around their emerging young players rather than replacing them in the lineup. Both Zachary L’Heureux and Fedor Svechkov have been notable pieces of the Predators’ lineup at some point this season. L’Heureux has scored nine points in 34 games – officially marking his rookie season – while Svechkov has four points in 13 games and was returned to the AHL. Svechkov is joined by other top prospects Joakim Kemell and Reid Schaefer in the minor leagues. Kemell has scored 18 points in 30 AHL games, while Scahefer – who has been out of the lineup since early December with an upper-body injury – has 14 points in 19 games. Both players could also be candidates for NHL ice time sooner rather than later, especially if the Predators continue to move out veteran pieces.
The Predators will be in a bind at the Deadline, no matter if they choose to buy or sell. The team has five picks in the top two rounds of the 2025 NHL Draft, plenty of ammunition to bring in a potential difference-maker, though that’s a hard sell for a team so far away from playoff contention. Nashville seems more likely to trim some lineup weight by moving players like Thomas Novak and Michael McCarron. Both players have offered stout depth behind Nashville’s presumed stars, though neither has reached 10 points this season despite playing 33 and 34 games respectively. A more hopeful team could see the duo’s slumping scoring as a chance to buy low on two potentially impactful depth forwards ahead of their own playoff push.
Penguins Activate Evgeni Malkin, Reassign Jesse Puljujarvi
The Pittsburgh Penguins have activated star forward Evgeni Malkin off of injured reserve. Malkin missed the Penguins’ last four games with an upper-body injury. He was named a game-time decision for the team’s Tuesday bout against Seattle, and his activation seems to be a good indication that he’ll play. Malkin was placed on injured reserve on Sunday, retroactive to his last appearance in the lineup on January 5th. To make room for the move, the squad has also assigned winger Jesse Puljujärvi to the minor leagues. Puljujarvi successfully cleared waivers on December 30th, and will now carry waiver exemption status through the month of January.
The Penguins will relish in Malkin’s return to the lineup. They’ve gone 1-3-0 in the four games he’s missed, getting confidently outscored 17-to-10. Malkin was on a hot streak leading up to his injury, with seven points in his last nine games. Despite that, the future Hall-of-Famer has been tame on the year as a whole, so far sat with eight goals and 32 points in 41 games this season. That puts him on pace for 64 points in 82 games, which would mark a career-low in seasons where Malkin played more than 50 games. He even surpassed that mark last season, when he scored 27 goals and 67 points while continuing his iron-man streak through its second consecutive season. Malkin’s role has been unwavering despite the slight dip in scoring. He’s averaged 18:35 in ice time this year, the exact same average that he posted in each of the last two seasons. Malkin sits just 14 games shy of his 1,200th NHL game. When he hits it, Malkin will join partner-in-crime Sidney Crosby as the only two to reach that mark with Pittsburgh. If he stays healthy, he’ll hit the milestone in Philadelphia on February 8th.
Meanwhile, Puljujarvi will head back to the minors after playing in his first five games since early December in Malkin’s absence. The former top draft pick only managed one point – an assist – in the matchups, while averaging nearly 12 minutes of ice time each game. He now has just nine points in 25 games this season – surpassing the four points he managed in 22 games last year but still far from the mark Pittsburgh would hope for. This assignment will likely set Puljujarvi up to play in his first AHL games of the season. He appeared in 13 games and scored nine points with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins last year. They were Puljujarvi’s first minor league appearances since the 2018-19 season, when he was assigned to the minors for four games and scored at point-per-game pace. While this move is fairly inconsequential, given Puljujarvi’s waiving in December, it could be the start of an extended minor-league assignment – bringing a tough end to Puljujarvi’s chase for a role with the Penguins.
Rangers Activate Chris Kreider, Reassign Bo Groulx
The New York Rangers have activated winger Chris Kreider off of injured reserve and reassigned Benoit-Olivier Groulx to the AHL Hartford Wolf Pack, per Mollie Walker of the New York Post. Kreider has missed the Rangers’ last four games with an upper-body injury. He had three points in three games prior to his injury – the longest scoring streak of Kreider’s season.
It’s been a year to forget for Kreider. He has just 13 goals and 15 points in 34 games on the year, putting him on pace for a career-low 36 points across a full season. He ranks ninth on the team in scoring, despite receiving the fifth-most minutes, on average, of any Rangers forward. Even worse, Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette chose to healthy scratch Kreider in their match against Tampa Bay on December 23rd, their last game before the holiday break. New York still lost that match 5-0, and didn’t rebound much when Kreider stepped back into the lineup. But the team has found some footing while he’s been on the shelf. They’re 3-1-0 in their last four games, already reaching four wins in January – a mark the team fell short of in December.
Filip Chytil also returned to full practices on Monday and Tuesday, per Walker, and could soon return from his own upper-body injury. If he does, Chytil and Kreider will likely both step into roles on New York’s third-line and second power-play unit. That will likely bump Jonny Brodzinski and Jimmy Vesey back out of the lineup. Brodzinski contributed a goal and an assist while serving as Kreider’s relief, while Vesey hasn’t scored since December 22nd. Also notable, Kreider and Chytil could line up next to Arthur Kaliyev at even strength. The Rangers claimed the 2019 33rd-overall pick off of waivers from Los Angeles last week. He’s since played in two games with his new club, recording three shots on net and three hits but so far no scoring. While a lineup shakeup is far from ideal for a Rangers team that seemed to finally be in a groove, the pair of returnees could be the piece that helps Kaliyev find his footing in New York.
Meanwhile, Groulx will return to the minors still waiting for his first game in the Rangers lineup. Groulx signed a one-year, two-way, league-minimum contract with New York this summer and received his first call-up of the season on January 10th. While he didn’t receive any NHL ice time, Groulx has been surprisingly productive in the minors – ranked second on the Wolf Pack in scoring with 11 goals and 29 points in 32 games. That type of production could soon make him an invaluable piece of New York’s bottom-six, and give Groulx a chance for a better NHL showing after posting just two points in 45 games with Anaheim last season.
Utah HC Expected To Activate John Marino
The Utah Hockey Club could have top-four shutdown defender John Marino in the lineup for the first time this season tonight against the Canadiens. Head coach André Tourigny told Belle Fraser of The Salt Lake Tribune that he’ll be a game-time decision and could come off injured reserve after warmups.
Winger Dylan Guenther was placed on injured reserve to create the necessary roster spot to activate Marino, according to the NHL’s media portal. The 21-year-old was diagnosed with a lower-body injury last week and is out indefinitely.
Utah acquired Marino, 27, from the Devils on the second day of the 2024 draft in exchange for the No. 49 pick. The Massachusetts native had been a top-four fixture on New Jersey’s blue line for the past two seasons and had averaged over 20 minutes per game through his first five NHL seasons, but the Devils needed cap space to pursue unrestricted free agents Brenden Dillon and Brett Pesce.
Marino, now in the fourth season of a six-year, $26.4MM contract he signed with the Penguins in 2021, was projected to serve as a top-four anchor in Utah’s first season to complement the more offensively inclined Sean Durzi and Mikhail Sergachev. Instead, he sustained a lower back injury shortly before training camp and eventually went under the knife in October.
Durzi underwent surgery to repair his right shoulder at the same time after just four games, leaving Utah without two of its best defensemen for the vast majority of the season. They’ve managed to stay in the playoff hunt, going 18-17-7 through 42 games to sit six points out of a playoff spot, but they’re fading fast with a 2-6-2 record in their last 10 games.
Marino’s imminent return and Durzi’s being on the horizon should help aid the club in the lengthy absence of Guenther, their leading goal-scorer this season with 16 through 40 games. The former joins a defense that’s done as well as could be hoped for while shorthanded, ranking 17th in the league with 2.39 expected goals against per 60 minutes at 5-on-5, per MoneyPuck. Netminder Karel Vejmelka, who’s exploded for a .916 SV% and 14.1 goals saved above expected, has kept Utah’s actual goals against per game to 2.93, 13th-best in the league.
He won’t do much to aid a bottom-10 offense, but Marino’s return will eventually allow for easier matchups for overmatched role players like Ian Cole, Michael Kesselring, and Olli Määttä. Utah will ease him back in, though, and the righty will start in a third-pairing role alongside Juuso Välimäki if he can play, per Brogan Houston of Deseret News.
Marino enters his Utah era with 18 goals, 89 assists, 107 points, and a +38 rating in 328 career NHL games with the Devils and Penguins.