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Penguins Notes: Puustinen, Ludvig, Shea

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have assigned forward Valtteri Puustinen to their AHL affiliate the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Puustinen began his NHL recall on a tear in December with a goal and five assists in his first eight games. However, since his early surge he has posted just two assists in his last 13 NHL games.

Puustinen’s skill set is much better suited to play in the team’s top six and he posted very good numbers while playing alongside center Evgeni Malkin. However, once top six wingers Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell returned from injury it bumped Puustinen to the third line where he hasn’t been able to produce much in the way of offense.

Puustinen’s move to the AHL is likely a paper move but it will also afford him the opportunity to play in a scoring role once again and maybe re-capture some of the confidence he displayed early in December.

In other Penguins notes:

  • The Penguins also announced that they’ve sent defenseman John Ludvig to the AHL on a conditioning loan. The 22-year-old has been working his way back from an upper-body injury in recent weeks and has been on the injured reserve. Yesterday Ludvig began practicing in a regular contact jersey but didn’t dress in last night’s game. With the Penguins on a break until February 6th Ludvig will have a chance to practice regularly with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and get into game action if he is healthy enough.
  • The Penguins also assigned defenseman Ryan Shea to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL. Shea had been on recall since January 17th but did not dress during the recall as he served as the team’s seventh defenseman. Shea has dressed in 22 NHL games for the Penguins this season but is unlikely to be the team’s first defensive recall after the break as Ludvig is most likely destined to occupy that spot should he be healthy by February 6th.

Oilers Assign Dylan Holloway To AHL

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The Edmonton Oilers have assigned forward Dylan Holloway to the Bakersfield Condors of the AHL, presumably for the NHL all-star break. Holloway missed nearly two months with a lower-body injury before returning for a brief AHL stint that preceded an eventual recall to the Oilers last week.

Holloway had two goals and two assists in his brief trip to the AHL earlier in the month as he worked his way back into game shape. At the NHL level, Holloway has dressed in 17 games for the Oilers and has been used sparingly in a bottom-six role. He has two goals and a single assist while averaging 11:20 of ice time per game.

Despite the minimal usage and the injury, Holloway returned last week to the Oilers and impressed as he centered the fourth line with Sam Gagner and Connor Brown on either side. Holloway assisted on Gagner’s game-winning goal last Friday against the Calgary Flames and then added a goal on Monday against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Now with the Oilers out of action until February 6th it appears likely that the team would like Holloway to keep playing through the break to maintain the momentum he has built up since returning from injury. The former 14th overall pick might have to cancel his vacation plans over the next week, but he should receive an opportunity to play some big minutes in Bakersfield and will likely receive a call-up sometime during the first week in February.

Snapshots: Newpower, Husso, Amadio, Emberson, Thrun

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The Detroit Red Wings have recalled defenseman Wyatt Newpower and goaltender Ville Husso. This marks the first recall of Newpower’s career, while Husso is returning from a conditioning stint in the minor leagues.

While Husso sat out on Saturday, he is poised to make his first appearance in the lineup since December 18th, when he suffered a knee injury 17 minutes into Detroit’s eventual 3-4 loss to the Anaheim Ducks. Husso appeared in 18 games before his injury, recording nine wins and a .893 save percentage. It’s a slight step down from the .896 save percentage he posted in 56 games last season – his first with the Red Wings. He may face significant challenges regaining the team’s starting role, with Alex Lyon posting 12 wins and a .923 save percentage in 19 games this year. That includes the 30-save shutout Lyon posted in his last game.

Newpower has appeared in 20 games with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins this season, recording six points, 39 penalty minutes, and a +7. He’s in his third season with Grand Rapids and his fourth professional season. His professional career kicked off with the Cleveland Monsters in the 2020-21 season, after four seasons at the University of Connecticut, where he totaled 114 games and 47 points.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Vegas Golden Knights forward Michael Amadio made his return from injury on Saturday, getting activated off injured reserve before the matchup with the Detroit Red Wings. Amadio has appeared in 42 games with Vegas this season, scoring six goals and 17 points. The campaign has brought Amadio’s career totals to 338 games and 102 points.
  • The San Jose Sharks have activated defenseman Ty Emberson off of injured reserve, moving counterpart Henry Thrun to IR. Emberson has played in 21 games this season, just a few shy of officially marking it as his rookie season. He has seven points on the year, tied for third among the team’s defenders. Fellow rookie Thrun has yet to pass Emberson’s scoring totals, netting just three points through 23 games of his own this season.

Central Snapshots: Vilardi, Gustafsson, Dermott, Gurianov

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The Winnipeg Jets are expecting the return of forwards Gabriel Vilardi and David Gustafsson soon, per team reporter Mike McIntyre with The Free Press. Both players are out with lower-body injuries, with Vilardi missing the team’s last two games and optimistic he can return soon, while Gustafsson has been on injured reserve since December 30th.

Vilardi missed roughly a month-and-a-half earlier in the season with a sprained MCL. He made his return on November 30th and has since scored 11 goals and 19 points in 23 games, while averaging over 17 minutes of ice time each game. That’s a scoring pace of 67 points across 82 games, which would mark a new career high for Vilardi, topping the 23 goals and 41 points he scored in 63 games last season. Vilardi is in his first season with Winnipeg, with the 24-year-old forward serving as a focal piece of the trade that sent Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Los Angeles Kings this summer.

Gustafsson has appeared in 27 games of his own this season, scoring four points while averaging roughly nine minutes of ice time. He appeared in his 100th NHL game on December 20th, recording one assist in the Jets’ 5-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings.

Other notes from the Western Conference:

  • The Arizona Coyotes have shared that defenseman Travis Dermott will miss the team’s Saturday night game with a lower-body injury. Dermott missed 12 games earlier in the season with a hand injury, making his return on December 7th. He has just two points in the 22 games he’s played since then, adding a -8 and eight penalty minutes.
  • Nashville Predators forward Denis Gurianov has lost his waiver exemption status, with Nashville’s Saturday afternoon game marking his 10th game since being recalled on January 6th. He’s scored two points in his stint with the Predators, who have become the third NHL club that Gurianov has played for across his seven-year NHL career. The 26-year-old has totaled 289 career games and 113 points, spending six years of his career with the Dallas Stars.

Metropolitan Notes: Islanders, Laine, Pacioretty

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The New York Islanders are considering hiring a third assistant coach for new head coach Patrick Roy’s staff, though Roy noted that the decision will be up to general manager Lou Lamoriello, not Roy’s, per team reporter Ethan Sears with the New York Post.

The Islanders are 1-2-0 after a week under their new head coach, with the team seeing a small drop in average goals for and against compared to the 45 games they played under Lane Lambert this season. They’ve also seen a substantial boost in their powerplay in the short sample of games, raising their powerplay percentage from 22.8 to 27 percent. Roy’s last coaching stint in the NHL came between 2013 and 2016 when he served as head coach for the Colorado Avalanche. The legendary goaltender set a combined 130-92-24 record with the Avalanche, making the playoffs once.

Other notes from the Metropolitan Division

  • Star Columbus Blue Jackets winger Patrik Laine has experienced a setback in his injury and is no longer expected to play before the end of the team’s current three-game road trip, per team reporter Brian Hedger. The trip takes the Blue Jackets up to the All-Star Break. If Laine does indeed sit out the trip, his next chance to return will come on Saturday, February 10th when the Blue Jackets host the Tampa Bay Lightning.
  • Washington Capitals winger Max Pacioretty experienced a lower-body injury in the team’s Saturday afternoon overtime loss to the Dallas Stars. Few details have been provided about Pacioretty’s injury, other than that it is not linked to the Achilles tendon injury that held the winger out of the first 35 games of the season, per team reporter Tom Gulitti. He’s since appeared in 11 games, netting one goal and seven points.

Central Notes: Scandella, Wild Injuries, Savoie, Kaiser

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The Blues are one of the teams that are still in the mix for a Wild Card spot but even if they fall out of the race, Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic wonders (subscription link) if it could be a quiet deadline as a seller.  Their most prominent rentals up front are the struggling Kasperi Kapanen and Jakub Vrana, who is currently playing in the minors; neither would likely have much of a market.  However, Rutherford suggests that blueliner Marco Scandella could be the likeliest player to garner attention around the league if he isn’t signed to an extension first.  The 33-year-old has had a very limited role this season but can still kill penalties and is the type of depth player that playoff teams will often look to add for injury insurance purposes.  That said, at $3.275MM, St. Louis would certainly have to pay half of that to facilitate any sort of move while an extension, if one was to be reached, should check in closer to the $1MM mark.

Elsewhere in the Central Division:

  • Wild winger Vinni Lettieri is listed as questionable for tonight’s game against Anaheim, relays John Shipley of the Pioneer Press. The 28-year-old has been out since late December with a lower-body injury after seeing some consistent minutes as he had played in 19 games on recall.  Meanwhile, Shipley adds that winger Adam Raska skated before practice Friday.  He was injured last weekend; head coach John Hynes suggested the injury isn’t a significant one and is more soreness-based.  The 22-year-old was acquired in November from San Jose and has played in five games since being recalled earlier this month.
  • The Blackhawks activated prospect Samuel Savoie off season-opening IR and assigned him to QMJHL Rouyn-Noranda, CapFriendly reports (Twitter link). The 19-year-old recorded just shy of a point per game with the Huskies last season, notching 59 in 60 appearances, helping him earn his entry-level contract in July.  However, he was injured in a preseason game and underwent femur surgery, keeping him unavailable to play until now.  This should be Savoie’s final junior season as he’ll be AHL-eligible in the fall.
  • Still with the Blackhawks, blueliner Wyatt Kaiser has been placed in concussion protocol, per an announcement from AHL Rockford (Twitter link). The 21-year-old has split the season between Chicago and the IceHogs but any potential recall is out of the question for the time being now.  Kaiser has played in 23 games with the Blackhawks, picking up four assists while logging nearly 17 minutes a night.  With Rockford, his numbers have been similar, notching a goal and two helpers in 15 contests.

Jacob Trouba Receives Two-Game Suspension

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With the Rangers playing tonight, the Department of Player Safety needed to make a quick ruling following their disciplinary hearing with defenseman Jacob Trouba today.  That ruling has now been made as the league announced that the blueliner has been suspended for two games for his elbow on Golden Knights winger Pavel Dorofeyev.  The incident occurred late in the second period and no penalty was called on the play.

In the video announcing the suspension, the league acknowledged that elbows can be raised as part of a natural motion when skating, stopping, or making a play on the puck.  However, with the incident occurring off a faceoff, Trouba was deemed to not be making a play on the puck while his elbowing motion was not viewed as a natural motion while skating.

This is Trouba’s second career suspension while he has also been fined twice; that history was noted in the disciplinary video.  He will miss tonight’s game against Ottawa as well as their first game back after the break on February 5th versus Colorado.  Trouba will be eligible to return on February 7th against Tampa Bay.  Based on his AAV, he will forfeit a little over $83K in salary; that money will go to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

Rangers Recall Connor Mackey

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With the availability of two blueliners in question for tonight’s game against Ottawa, the Rangers have brought up some insurance, announcing (Twitter link) the recall of defenseman Connor Mackey from AHL Hartford.  New York had an open roster spot following yesterday’s assignment of Nick Bonino to the Wolf Pack.

The 27-year-old is in his first season with the Rangers after signing a one-year, two-way deal with them in free agency back in July.  While this marks his seventh recall of the year already, Mackey has yet to get into an NHL game.  Instead, he has only played in Hartford where he has been quieter than expected offensively with just eight points in 28 games.  By comparison, Mackey had 36 points in 53 games with AHL Stockton in 2021-22 while he was on an NHL roster full-time last year.

The two defenders whose availability is in question are defensemen Ryan Lindgren and Jacob Trouba.  Lindgren left last night’s loss to Vegas early with an upper-body injury while Trouba had a disciplinary hearing today, the outcome of which has not yet been announced.  If those two aren’t available, Mackey should see his first NHL action of the season.

Kings Recall Alex Turcotte

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With the Kings struggling as of late, they’ve decided to give a different youngster an opportunity.  The team announced that they’ve recalled center Alex Turcotte from AHL Ontario.  They had an open roster spot so no corresponding move needed to be made.

The 22-year-old was the fifth-overall pick back in 2018 after a strong showing in the U.S. National Team Development Program but has struggled to live up to that draft billing so far.  Turcotte has played just a dozen NHL games so far – eight in 2021-22 and four in 2022-23 – and is still looking for his first point.  This marks his second recall of the season, the first of which just lasted one day.  This one could last longer as Los Angeles is one of the few teams that will be playing right up to the All-Star break and will get their bye week after.

Turcotte has shown some improvement with the Reign this season, posting career-bests in goals (seven), assists (16), and points (23) in 28 games, good for fifth in team scoring so this is a merited opportunity.

This is Turcotte’s final season of waiver exemption which is something worth keeping an eye on.  It’s not a bad idea to give Turcotte a few games to get a better idea as to if he’s going to figure into their plans for 2024-25.  If he doesn’t show well, perhaps he becomes a candidate to be moved before the March 8th trade deadline if a selling team wants someone closer to being NHL-ready over a draft pick that will still be a few years away.

Trade Deadline Primer: Anaheim Ducks

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With the All-Star break approaching, the trade deadline looms large and is about a month and a half away. Where does each team stand, and what moves should they be looking to make? We start our look around the league with the Anaheim Ducks.

At this point of the season, there aren’t many teams that are going to be sure-fire sellers.  The Ducks are one of the exceptions.  GM Pat Verbeek’s squad is right in the heart of a full rebuild and after a surprisingly good start, they’ve fallen off as of late and are well out of the playoff picture.  Of course, they at least have some strong core pieces to build around and while they likely won’t be able to add any of those in the coming weeks, they should be able to add to their prospect cupboard and pick up an extra draft pick or two.

Record

16-30-2, 7th in the Pacific

Deadline Status

Seller

Deadline Cap Space

$35.446MM on deadline day, 0/3 retention slots used, 47/50 contracts used, per CapFriendly.

Upcoming Draft Picks

2024: ANA 1st, ANA 2nd, BOS 2nd, ANA 3rd, PIT 3rd, SJ 3rd, ANA 4th, ANA 5th, ANA 6th, ANA 7th
2025: ANA 1st, ANA 3rd, ANA 4th, ANA 5th, ANA 6th, ANA 7th

Trade Chips

The likeliest Duck to move is Adam Henrique.  It wouldn’t have been surprising to see him be dealt last season but an injury put an end to that fairly quickly.  The 33-year-old is believed to be drawing strong interest already, understandably so in a center market that isn’t particularly deep at the moment.  Henrique has been one of the top scorers for Anaheim this season with 15 goals and 15 assists in 45 games while being an all-situations player who also is winning over 53% of his faceoffs.  This is the type of player who ticks off a lot of boxes for what a contender is typically looking to add at this time of season.  At $5.825MM, the cap hit is going to be somewhat prohibitive, even with 50% retention so some creativity might be needed but there will be a strong market for the veteran that should net Verbeek a solid return.

When Frank Vatrano signed a three-year, $10.95MM contract with Anaheim back in 2022, it raised some eyebrows as he had only reached the 20-goal mark once.  However, it proved to be a worthwhile move as he had a career year last season and should beat those numbers in the coming weeks to set new benchmarks.  His value might not get any higher while whoever gets Vatrano would also have him for next year so if the opportunity is there to cash in, Verbeek could look to take it.  Trevor Zegras was in trade speculation before he broke his ankle and while a move could be the eventual outcome, it feels like that might be more of a summer swap over trying to move him as he’s just coming back.

One possible under-the-radar candidate to move could be Isac Lundestrom.  The center just came back from a torn Achilles tendon and has been quiet, producing at a similar level to last year, one that was a big step back.  With Anaheim’s depth down the middle and a $1.8MM qualifying offer with arbitration rights looming, it’s fair to wonder if the Ducks might consider going in a different direction.  If that happens, he could be moved for another young player in a change of scenery type of move.

On the back end, Ilya Lyubushkin might be the only one to move (with Jamie Drysdale having already been dealt).  The 29-year-old was added as a rental player two years ago by Toronto and fit in well on their third pairing and it’s fair to think teams will be looking to add some grit once more.  The return might not be the highest as he’s on an above-market deal but they should be able to pick up a draft pick and perhaps even beat the fourth-rounder they gave up to get him.

Then there’s John Gibson.  The netminder has been in trade speculation going back a few years now and frankly, until one happens, he’s going to likely continue to be in that speculation moving forward.  The 30-year-old has shaved nearly a full goal off his GAA this season while a .900 SV% on a rebuilding squad isn’t bad the way that stat is trending.  However, a $6.4MM cap hit through 2026-27 will be an issue.  Sure, the Ducks can retain 50% but in terms of real money, that’s more than $10MM in salary they’d owe to someone not playing for them.  How much is that worth in a return?  Couple that with a goalie market that has teams mostly bargain-hunting and it would be a bit of a surprise if a deal gets done although teams will certainly call.

Other Potential Trade Chips: F Sam Carrick, F Jakob Silfverberg (a $5.25MM AAV will limit his market though), G Alex Stalock

Team Needs

1) Young Wingers: With Mason McTavish, Leo Carlsson, and Zegras in the mix, Anaheim is set down the middle for a while.  They have a young core group of defensemen and while odds are all won’t pan out, they should have a good core group.  On the wing, however, it’s a bit thinner, even with the Cutter Gauthier acquisition.  If there’s an opportunity to get a young winger in any of these moves, it would certainly help to shore up that portion of the prospect pool.

2) Draft Picks: While Anaheim has ten picks so far this season, they only have six for 2025 and between the two years, they don’t have any extras in the first or second round.  Some rebuilding squads have a multi-year surplus of selections and the Ducks aren’t there yet.  They can at least take a step in that direction before March 8th.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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