Blue Jackets Recall David Jiricek
4:16 p.m.: Columbus has recalled Jiříček under emergency conditions, per a team release. The move does not count toward their three remaining post-trade deadline standard recalls.
3:26 p.m.: The Blue Jackets plan to recall top defense prospect David Jiříček from AHL Cleveland, reports Aaron Portzline of The Athletic. The move is in response to an injury plaguing top blue-liner Zach Werenski, who Portzline reports was absent from practice on Thursday. Head coach Pascal Vincent said he’s “hopeful” Werenski will be available for Friday’s game against the Avalanche after blocking a shot late in Columbus’ prior game against Detroit, but the team is still waiting on the results of his evaluation (via the team’s Jeff Svoboda).
Jiříček, the sixth overall pick of the 2022 draft, has been buried on the depth chart this season and has even been the subject of a few trade rumors. The 20-year-old had a banner year in 2022-23 as one of the best rookie defensemen in the AHL, earning an All-Star Game nod while also taking home the silver medal, Best Defenseman, and All-Star Team honors at the World Junior Championship with Czechia. He logged his first four NHL games as well but was held without a point in two early-season and two late-season showings. Regardless, most expected him to crack the Blue Jackets out of camp this season, but he ended up as one of their last cuts and started out the campaign in Cleveland.
With continued strong play, Jiříček has forced his way back into the majors multiple times this season with injuries plaguing Columbus’ blue line. His usage has been controversially minimal, averaging 14:47 per game, limiting him to a goal and nine points in 36 contests despite boasting a passable 48.1 CF% at even strength on a defensively challenged team. He’s since been passed over for multiple recalls, with Vincent recently saying the organization preferred to keep him playing heavy, important minutes with Cleveland down the stretch. As such, Jiříček hasn’t played an NHL game in over two months, last suiting up on Jan. 9.
He’s still been quite strong in the minors, boasting seven goals and 17 points in 24 games, although a -15 rating in such a short span is somewhat concerning – it’s already the worst on the team. Cleveland’s other major offensive threat on the blue line, Jake Christiansen, has 40 points in 54 games with a +8 rating. Christiansen was a recent emergency call-up to Columbus with Adam Boqvist sidelined due to an upper-body injury.
Still, Jiříček remains undoubtedly the organization’s best and brightest defense prospect. The right-shot blue-liner would also even out Columbus’ current shot discrepancy, allowing Jake Bean to move back to his natural left side against Colorado if Werenski is absent.
Kraken Recall Cale Fleury
The Kraken announced they’ve recalled defenseman Cale Fleury from AHL Coachella Valley on an emergency basis. As such, one of the Kraken’s six healthy defenders may be unavailable for tonight’s contest against the Golden Knights. That could be Jamie Oleksiak, who Kate Shefte of The Seattle Times said participated in morning skate but missed some of Seattle’s game earlier this week against the Sabres. Fleury’s emergency recall does not count toward the Kraken’s four post-trade deadline standard recalls.
Fleury has been recalled once this season in a peculiar paper transaction on deadline day but has otherwise spent the entirety of 2023-24 with Coachella Valley. He doesn’t have any NHL games logged this year after playing in multiple games in each of the last two seasons with the Kraken. The 25-year-old was the Kraken’s expansion draft selection from the Canadiens in 2021.
This is Fleury’s first season suiting up for the Firebirds, as the franchise didn’t exist during Seattle’s inaugural season, and he didn’t see any AHL time last year. The former captain of the WHL’s Kootenay Ice has done well, recording five goals and 29 points in 57 games with a +20 rating. Coachella Valley sits first in the Pacific Division and second in the entire league with a 37-13-5-3 record.
In 62 NHL games dating back to his debut with the Habs in 2019, however, Fleury has been a nonfactor. He’s been held to just one goal and one assist throughout that time, averaging decidedly bottom-pairing minutes at 14:11 per game. His possession metrics have been decent for his role, rocking a 50.5 CF% at even strength, but owns a career -2.1 expected rating in relatively advantageous two-way usage. There isn’t much there to suggest he should be moved higher up in the lineup.
The 2017 third-round pick has one year remaining on a two-year deal he signed last July. He carries a $800K cap hit and will be an RFA with arbitration rights in 2025.
Stars Reassign Matt Murray
Mar. 21: Dallas returned Murray to AHL Texas on Thursday, per a team announcement. He did not play in yesterday’s 5-2 win over the Coyotes.
Mar. 20: The Stars have recalled goaltender Matt Murray from AHL Texas ahead of Wednesday’s game against the Coyotes, according to a team announcement. Per Brien Rea of Bally Sports Southwest, backup Scott Wedgewood will miss the contest while on paternity leave, so Murray will be the secondary option to starter Jake Oettinger. The recall comes under emergency conditions, per CapFriendly, so it won’t count against the Stars’ four post-trade deadline standard recalls.
Dallas signed Murray, 26, to an entry-level deal in October 2022 after beginning the season on a minor-league contract with Texas. An ever-consistent starter throughout five seasons at UMass Amherst, posting a SV% north of .910 every year, Murray has now taken a sizable step back from what was a strong rookie showing last year in the minors.
Last year’s strong transition signaled he may be an everyday NHL backup in a few years. The Alberta native clutched the starting role in Texas from NHL veteran Anton Khudobin, posting a .911 SV% and 18-10-5 record in 34 games, along with three shutouts and a .909 SV% in eight postseason appearances.
That showing solidified Murray as the third-string option behind Oettinger and Wedgewood on the depth chart heading into 2023-24. Nearing the end of the season, however, he’s started fewer games than his tandem partner, 22-year-old Rémi Poirier, and his numbers have dipped to a .895 SV% and 13-13-2 record for a Texas team that’s hovered around the .500 mark for most of the campaign. His smaller frame (6-foot-1, 196 lbs) was a concern for NHL clubs when he hit free agency two years ago, and it may now be inhibiting him as he tries to solidify his role in the professional ranks.
Murray is still waivers-exempt, although that will drop next season. He’ll be an RFA this summer with arbitration rights upon completing the one-year, two-way ($775K/$110K/$137.5K) extension he signed to remain with the Stars last offseason.
Sharks Activate Mackenzie Blackwood, Reassign Magnus Chrona
The Sharks announced they’ve reassigned rookie netminder Magnus Chrona to AHL San Jose. His weeks-long emergency loan ends because Mackenzie Blackwood is ready to come off injured reserve. As such, their roster size remains at 23, and their cap space increases by Chrona’s $867.5K cap hit.
Chrona has been on the San Jose roster for the last three weeks, except for a brief return to the minors on trade deadline day to make him eligible to play in the AHL down the stretch. The Sharks recalled him under emergency conditions on Feb. 28 when Blackwood landed on IR with what was later revealed to be a groin injury. After getting shelled in his first two NHL appearances earlier this season, Chrona improved over the last few weeks, posting a .891 SV% and a 1-4-1 record in six starts this month. However, his emergency recall meant he must be returned to the minors (or converted to a standard recall) upon Blackwood’s return.
The Sharks will likely keep Chrona in the minors down the stretch while 26-year-old rookie Devin Cooley, picked up from the Sabres in one of the final trades before the March 8 deadline, serves as Blackwood’s backup. Chrona, 23, was initially a fifth-round pick of the Lightning in 2018 but saw his signing rights traded to San Jose in April 2021 for minor-league defenseman Fredrik Claesson. He’s in his first professional season after four seasons with the University of Denver, posting a .892 SV% and 3.51 GAA in 24 games with AHL San Jose and a .940 SV% and 2.94 GAA in two showings with ECHL Wichita. The Swede has one season remaining on his entry-level contract and will be an RFA in 2025.
Blackwood returns after his groin injury sidelined him for all of March to date. He’s had a solid rebound season after the Sharks picked up his signing rights from the Devils in a trade last summer, leading San Jose with 32 starts, a 9-18-3 record, .899 SV%, and 3.48 GAA. He’s also saved 2.6 goals above expected, per MoneyPuck, his first season above expected since his standout rookie season in 2019-20. He signed a two-year, $4.7MM deal with the Sharks just after they failed to issue him a qualifying offer and, like Chrona, will be an RFA in 2025.
Dan Vladar To Undergo Season-Ending Hip Surgery
Flames netminder Daniel Vladař will undergo season-ending surgery on his hip next week, per the team. Vladař, who missed three games in February with what the team termed a lower-body injury, is expected to recover by the start of the 2024-25 season. No corresponding recall will be made as starter Jacob Markström, who missed the last four games with a lower-body injury, “has been cleared for full practice and game participation.”
Vladař, 26, had the worst season of his career in 2023-24, although today’s news offers a plausible explanation as Sportsnet’s Eric Francis reports the goalie “has needed hip surgery for a while.” His only IR stint this year came during February’s absence. With no roster limit in effect after the trade deadline, there’s little reason for the Flames to move Vladař to IR for the rest of the season to open up a roster spot. While LTIR is also an option given the length of his absence, that’s also unlikely as the team has over $10MM in cap space and likely won’t need the relief provided by Vladař’s $2.2MM cap hit.
He ends 2023-24 with 19 starts, an 8-9-2 record, a .882 SV%, and a 3.62 GAA — his worst numbers since the Flames acquired him from the Bruins in 2021. However, it likely won’t be his last chance to prove himself in Calgary. Markström is a likely candidate to get traded this summer after waiving his no-move clause before the deadline for a trade to the Devils that ultimately fell through, opening a spot for Vladař to remain on the roster alongside top prospect Dustin Wolf. 2024-25 is the second and final season of the extension he signed with the club in 2022, and he’s set to earn the same base salary as his cap hit implies.
Vladař’s injury means the Flames do not need to modify Wolf’s emergency loan, which they used to bring him up from AHL Calgary earlier this month when Markström got hurt. Without two other healthy goaltenders on the active roster, Wolf can remain with the Flames on an emergency loan for the remainder of the season and keep Calgary from burning one of their two remaining post-trade deadline standard recalls. Vladař wasn’t likely to get much action down the stretch anyway, having been pulled for Wolf in his last appearance on March 12 against the Avalanche. The 22-year-old Californian has a .931 SV% and 2-1-0 record since entering the Colorado game.
Penguins Recall Jack St. Ivany, Assign Jonathan Gruden
The Pittsburgh Penguins have reversed their minor league moves once again, recalling defenseman Jack St. Ivany and assigning forward Jonathan Gruden (Twitter link), undoing the moves they made on March 18th and 19th. Gruden appeared in Pittsburgh’s March 19th loss to the New Jersey Devils, recording one shot and one hit in just under seven minutes of ice time.
St. Ivany played in just his second game in nine days on Monday – also marking his first game since receiving his first NHL recall. And he was clearly excited to prove himself, recording three assists and breaking a 10-game scoring drought. The hot night brought his scoring up to four goals and 15 points in 53 AHL games. He’ll now return to the NHL roster with the hope that his strong performance on Monday can earn him his NHL debut.
Meanwhile, Gruden will return to the AHL, where he’s already managed 13 goals and 24 points in 43 games this season. Gruden has received his first extended look at the NHL this season, playing in 12 games after earning his first three games in the league last season. He’s managed just one goal in those 15 games, though he’s added 35 hits and five blocks – doing what he can to earn the fourth-line role he’s been assigned.
Jesse Puljujarvi will slot back in to the lineup with Gruden now assigned to the minors. Puljujarvi is on a redemption tour, signing with Pittsburgh in February of this season. He’s since struggled through 11 NHL games, managing just one goal, two penalty minutes, and a -1. Puljujarvi is continuing to search for his scoring groove after undergoing bilateral hip surgery this summer. He managed four goals and nine points in 13 AHL games before signing with the Penguins, showing the potential for high-scoring could still be there. Puljujarvi, the fourth-overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft, managed a career-high 36 points in 65 games during the 2021-22 season, but has since struggled to find his footing in the NHL.
Florida Panthers Recall Uvis Balinskis
The Florida Panthers have recalled defenseman Uvis Balinskis from the AHL, per the AHL Transaction Logs (Twitter link). Balinskis joins the Panthers following Dmitry Kulikov‘s two-game suspension for an illegal hit to the head of Tampa Bay’s Conor Sheary. That suspension could give Florida the ability to use an emergency recall on Balinskis, preserving their few remaining recalls this season.
Balinskis, 27, signed with the Florida Panthers as an undrafted free agent last April, making his move to North America after three seasons in the Czechia Extraliga and five years in Russia’s KHL. He went on to make the Panthers roster out of training camp this year, representing the only first-year player on the opening-day lineup. Balinskis would appear in his first 18 career NHL games to start the season, scoring his first goal and assist, before getting sent to the minor leagues, following the full-time return of Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour. The move represented Balinskis’ first trip to the AHL, and he’s since played in 35 games – scoring three goals and 21 points, ranked second among Charlotte Checkers defensemen in scoring despite playing in 18 fewer games than leading scorer Lucas Carlsson.
It’s been a successful first year in North America for Balinskis and he’ll now be rewarded for his strong AHL play, rejoining the Panthers as soon as opportunity presents itself. He’ll likely immediately step into a gameday role, taking over for Kulikov’s absence on the team’s third pair. Florida also has Tobias Bjornfot serving as a healthy scratch, which could make Balinskis’ path to the lineup a bit more challenging.
Snapshots: Oshie, Protas, Brodin, Gruden
Before the puck drop in the team’s game tonight against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Washington Capitals announced two injuries to their lineup. In the announcement, the Capitals stated that forward T.J. Oshie is out with an upper-body injury, and Aliaksei Protas is out with a lower-body injury.
Although both players were given a day-to-day injury designation, it is much of the same for Oshie this season. Oshie has only played in 43 of a possible 68 games for the Capitals this season, only managing 11 goals and 19 points in the process. With one more year remaining on his eight-year, $46MM contract after this year, the injury concern is certainly piling up for the veteran forward.
Protas, on the other hand, has sustained much more health than Oshie this season, skating in 65 games for Washington. Earning a five-year, $16.875MM contract extension in January, Protas has turned into quite the playmaker for the Capitals, scoring five goals and 28 points altogether.
Other snapshots:
- Moving out West, the Minnesota Wild announced that defenseman Jonas Brodin would miss the team’s game tonight against the Los Angeles Kings with a lower-body injury. It will mark the 19th game that Brodin has missed this season with injury, as an upper-body injury, as well as another lower-body injury, have kept him out of the lineup for multiple games at a time. Nevertheless, Brodin is still the second-highest-scoring defenseman for the Wild this season, putting up seven goals and 23 points in 51 games.
- After filling in for the injured Jeff Carter last night, Jonathan Gruden has been returned to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins after being recalled on an emergency loan. Gruden will return to a situation in WBS where he has been largely successful this year, scoring 13 goals and 24 points in 43 games at the AHL level.
West Notes: Zegras, Pietrangelo, Bjugstad, Smith
In an update today on Anaheim Ducks’ forward Trevor Zegras, Derek Lee of The Sporting Tribune reports that Zegras has been a full participant in two straight practices. Although there is still no set timetable for Zegras’ return, two full practices without restrictions indicate that he could be making his return to the lineup very soon.
It has been a season to forget for Zegras, both due to a broken ankle that has kept him out of the lineup for two months, and due to his play on the ice when he has been healthy. Only managing to suit up in 20 games for Anaheim this season, Zegras has scored four goals and seven points overall, while averaging 17:20 of ice time.
When Zegras eventually makes his return to the active roster, he will have much more responsibility upon his shoulders after the team parted with center Adam Henrique at the trade deadline. As Zegras was also mentioned in trade rumors throughout the deadline season, his play down the stretch may impact the offers that the Ducks receive for his services over the summer.
Other West notes:
- After missing the team’s last game due to an illness, the head coach of the Vegas Golden Knights, Bruce Cassidy, states that defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is feeling better but will be a game-time decision for their game tomorrow night against the Seattle Kraken (X Link). In Pietrangelo’s absence, the team lost an important game to the Tampa Bay Lightning, while still maintaining their grip on the last wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
- Moving to the Central Division, Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports reports that forward Nick Bjugstad will make his return to the lineup tonight for the Arizona Coyotes. This confirms that Bjugstad has shaken off his day-to-day injury designation suffered in the team’s most recent game against the New Jersey Devils. A key offensive contributor for the organization over the last couple of weeks, Bjugstad has scored seven goals and 10 points in his last 13 games for the Coyotes.
- Staying in Arizona, the team has announced they have returned forward Nathan Smith to their AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners. Smith was originally recalled via an emergency loan for insurance if Bjugstad could not play tonight. He will return to a Roadrunners team where he has scored nine goals and 27 points in 48 games this season.
Toronto Maple Leafs Make T.J. Brodie A Healthy Scratch
Hoping to send a message to his veteran defenseman, the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Sheldon Keefe, has decided to make T.J. Brodie a healthy scratch tonight according to David Alter of The Hockey News. Taking Brodie’s spot in the lineup will be defenseman Conor Timmins, who has not played a game for the Maple Leafs since January 24th.
It will mark the first time throughout his tenure in Toronto that Brodie finds himself a healthy scratch in the lineup. Although he is now a four-year veteran of the organization, Brodie’s play this year has left a lot to be desired, leading to this tough decision made by Keefe.
Sharing his reasoning behind the move, Keefe was quoted as saying, “Brods knows he hasn’t been at his best this season here, for most of the season, yet he’s taken on a lot for us …. hardest match-ups every single night & it’s been a lot. A chance for us to give him a night off“.
Playing in his first fully healthy year since the 2021-22 NHL season, Brodie has done much of the same for the Maple Leafs this season. In 66 games played, Brodie has averaged nearly 22 minutes of ice time per night, tallying 18 assists, and blocking a total of 139 shots.
Although his surface-level production is on par, Brodie has seen many of his defensive sub-metrics slip dramatically this season. His CorsiFor% and On-Ice Save Percentage In All Situations have slipped down to career lows of 43.8% and 89.6%, respectively. Furthermore, Brodie has seen his Expected +/- fall to 6.2 on the year, which would mark his lowest total since his last season with the Calgary Flames in 2019-20.
Nevertheless, Keefe’s quote holds in that Brodie has received some tough matchups this season, and the team may be looking to iron out his load management in time for the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs. With the blue line being one of the major question marks on this Toronto team leading into the postseason, they will need Brodie to find his game in the hopes of leveling out the Maple Leafs’ defensive core.