Golden Knights Place Michael Amadio On IR, Recall Jonas Røndbjerg
The Vegas Golden Knights have placed forward Michael Amadio on injured reserve, as the 27-year-old is battling with an upper-body injury. Amadio previously missed a handful of games due to personal reasons and illness, but has otherwise played in 42 of Vegas’ 45 games this season. He’s managed six goals and 17 points in those appearances, putting him on pace for 33 points through 82 games – a mark that would represent a career-high, trumping the 27 points that Amadio managed in 67 games last year.
Amadio is in his third season with the Golden Knights, joining them as a waiver claim from the Toronto Maple Leafs partway through the 2021-22 campaign. He’s since served in a bottom-six role, averaging around 12 minutes of ice time in each of his three seasons with the club. The depth he provides was appreciated enough for Vegas to re-sign the forward to a two-year, $1.5MM contract extension only three months after claiming him. He’s serving the last year of that contract in this season.
The Golden Knights have recalled Jonas Røndbjerg to fill the role of the injured Amadio. He will join Byron Froese, Brendan Brisson, and Sheldon Rempal as recent call-ups looking to find their way into a Vegas lineup that currently has four forwards, four defensemen, and their starting goalie on injured reserve. None of Froese, Brisson, or Rempal have scored in their one or two appearances, while Røndbjerg has managed three points in the nine NHL games he’s received this year.
Atlantic Notes: Forbort, Carlo, Poitras, Johnson, Jokiharju
Both Brandon Carlo and Derek Forbort could return to the Bruins lineup in tomorrow’s game against the Canadiens, says Joe Haggerty of the Boston Sports Journal. The Bruins’ bulkiest two defenders have missed five and 20 games with their respective injuries.
Carlo is on IR, while Forbort is on LTIR. With the Bruins carrying 22 players on the active roster, they will need to assign at least one player to AHL Providence today in order to activate both while keeping their roster at 23 players or less.
Carlo has been by far the more impactful of the two this season. His pairing with Hampus Lindholm has seen the most of any Bruins duo on defense at nearly 400 minutes together, and the 27-year-old continues to solidify himself as a bona fide top-four shutdown defenseman. His 2-8–10 stat line through 39 games isn’t awful for a player boasting his role, and he’s managed to keep an even expected plus-minus rating despite receiving a sky-high 76% of his even-strength zone starts in the defensive end.
The 31-year-old Forbort’s role has been a tad more limited, skating 18:22 per game (Carlo plays over 20) and posting four assists in 20 games. His even-strength possession numbers have cratered since the beginning of last season, reaching a poor 43.5% Corsi share in 2023-24. At this stage in his career, the majority of Forbort’s value comes on the penalty kill, where he’s still graded out below average this season. He remains under contract at a $3MM cap hit through the end of this season.
More from the Atlantic Division today:
- Making progress in his return but unlikely to play tomorrow is Bruins rookie Matthew Poitras, who head coach Jim Montgomery told reporters (including Haggerty) today “has a few more boxes to check” before he can play again. The 19-year-old last played on Jan. 9 and has missed four games with a shoulder injury. He’s played in only three of eight games since returning from representing Canada at the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship in Sweden. The 2022 second-round pick has provided great value for the Bruins earlier than expected on his entry-level contract, posting 10-5–15 through his first 30 NHL games.
- The Sabres have listed veteran defenseman Erik Johnson as day-to-day with an upper-body injury, per a team announcement. The 35-year-old left yesterday’s 3-0 win over the Blackhawks early in the third period after he was checked from behind by Blackhawks winger Philipp Kurashev. Kurashev was assessed a five-minute major penalty for boarding on the play, but no supplemental discipline is expected. Johnson has been a healthy scratch four times in 45 games this year after signing a one-year, $3.25MM pact with Buffalo in free agency. He’s notched three goals and a +2 rating in 14:11 of average ice time but is still looking for his first assist as a Sabre. Defenseman Henri Jokiharju is also listed as day-to-day with general soreness, putting both their availabilities for tomorrow’s game against the Lightning in doubt. A rotating cast of injuries may force the Sabres to recall an additional defenseman from AHL Rochester tomorrow after bringing up Jacob Bryson yesterday.
Rangers Recall Matthew Robertson
The Rangers recalled defenseman Matthew Robertson from AHL Hartford on Friday, per a team announcement.
New York adds some blueline depth to their roster as they continue their West Coast swing with three games in four nights. Per The Athletic’s Arthur Staple, Robertson comes up as injury insurance for an undisclosed defenseman who’s not 100 percent healthy. He will likely serve as a healthy extra on the road trip, with Zachary Jones drawing in instead if one of the Rangers’ top six defensemen needs to exit the lineup due to injury.
The 22-year-old Robertson has yet to play in an NHL game, but he’s one of the Rangers’ more intriguing defense prospects. He has NHL-ready size at 6-foot-4 and 201 lbs., but his development in the minors has stagnated over the past 18 months. In 32 games with the Wolf Pack this year, Robertson has two goals, 11 assists and 13 points with a -3 rating.
Notably for Robertson, he is in the final season of his entry-level contract. If he can make his way into the lineup for his NHL debut, it could go a long way toward securing some additional compensation on his second major league deal. The 2019 second-round pick is on track to receive a qualifying offer at season’s end and will not be eligible for arbitration.
This is his second recall of the month. He was ferried up for a brief period on Jan. 11, but was sent down before that night’s game against the Blues.
Hurricanes Claim Spencer Martin Off Waivers From Blue Jackets
The Hurricanes have claimed goaltender Spencer Martin off waivers from the Blue Jackets, per a team announcement. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report the news. Given the Hurricanes have no open spots on the active roster, the team has likely assigned rookie backup Yaniv Perets to ECHL Norfolk to create space for Martin.
Martin, 28, has now been claimed off waivers for the second time this season. He began the campaign with the Canucks in training camp, expecting to serve out the second season of a two-year, $1.525MM extension. After Vancouver made a mid-September trade to acquire Casey DeSmith from the Canadiens to serve as the primary backup to starter Thatcher Demko, though, Martin fell to third on the organizational depth chart. The Canucks waived him at the end of the month, at which point he got picked up by the Blue Jackets to serve as their backup while youngster Daniil Tarasov was on the shelf with a knee injury.
In 13 appearances with Columbus (10 starts), Martin posted a .887 SV% and a 3-8-1 record. He has a 17-25-6 record and .886 SV% in 51 career showings with the Blue Jackets, Canucks and Avalanche dating back to 2016. A third-round pick of Colorado in the 2013 draft, Martin was primarily an AHL starter for the organizations he played in until getting a more extended look as a backup to Demko in Vancouver last season.
Unfortunately, Martin’s poor play last season was a large reason behind the 2022-23 Canucks’ dysfunction. His -23.5 goals saved above expected was third-worst in the NHL, per MoneyPuck, trailing only Columbus’ Elvis Merzļikins and San Jose’s Kaapo Kähkönen. He’s been marginally better this season, but he’s still been far below average, with -4.7 goals saved above expected in his 13 appearances for the Blue Jackets.
He now heads to Carolina as a more permanent answer for the veteran third goalie position they’ve been looking to fill ever since starter Frederik Andersen exited the lineup in November due to blood clots. The club had signed Jaroslav Halák and Aaron Dell to PTOs earlier in the season, but never converted their tryouts into a full-time contract.
Their thin depth at the goalie position was exacerbated last week when Pyotr Kochetkov entered concussion protocols, leaving the Hurricanes with Antti Raanta and his .869 SV% as their lone option between the pipes with NHL experience. Claiming Martin also allows the Hurricanes to let the 23-year-old Perets continue his development in the ECHL, where he has a .906 SV% and 2.62 GAA in his first professional season.
Canucks Sign Jim Rutherford To Three-Year Extension
1:04 p.m.: Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini confirmed the team has signed Rutherford to a three-year extension (via The Athletic’s Thomas Drance).
11:08 a.m.: The Canucks will announce a contract extension for president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford today, TSN’s Farhan Lalji reports. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman believes the deal will carry a three-year term, keeping him in his seat with Vancouver through 2027.
If true, it will be the second straight three-year deal for Rutherford after he was brought on as POHO and interim general manager in December 2021. Rutherford held the GM position for nearly two months before settling on Patrik Allvin for the role in late January 2022.
Rutherford, who will be 75 next month, will spend 32 consecutive seasons in an NHL front office if he serves out the extension. The Canucks are his third organization, having previously served as president and GM of the Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes from 1994 to 2014 and GM of the Penguins from 2014 to 2021.
His front office regime has seemingly ended a decade-long rebuild process for the Canucks. He’s kept together his inherited core of Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser, Quinn Hughes, and Thatcher Demko, and will guide the Canucks to their first full-season playoff appearance in nine years this April.
What’s pushed this team back into contention, however, are recent acquisitions made by the Allvin/Rutherford crew. Filip Hronek has continued his ascent into a true top-pairing defender, making his duo with Hughes one of the most dominant in the league. Players like Teddy Blueger and Dakota Joshua have proved to be valuable depth players on cheap UFA deals, giving the Canucks some needed bottom-six scoring punch.
The Canucks’ 98-63-21 record ranks 14th in the league since Rutherford took over. While most of his work has come to fruition this season, it’s been a slow build for Vancouver since choosing to replace Bruce Boudreau with Rick Tocchet behind the bench midway through last season. In 81 games under Tocchet, the Canucks have a sparkling 50-23-8 record.
With the extension, Canucks ownership is entrusting Rutherford’s regime to handle one of the most important contract negotiations in history with Pettersson, who is a pending RFA and will need a long-term deal past this season. He and Allvin will also need a new contract for Hronek, who, like Pettersson, is slated for restricted free agency this summer. They’ve done a good job at getting out of what was an extremely undesirable salary cap situation a few seasons ago, but they’ll need to work even harder to manage the financials over the next few seasons with some big-ticket deals coming down the pike.
Senators Agree To Terms With Shane Pinto To One-Year Contract
The Senators have agreed to terms with RFA center Shane Pinto on a one-year deal worth $775K, the NHL league minimum salary, per a team release.
Pinto, 23, is eligible to make his season debut in Sunday’s game against the Flyers. He will miss tomorrow’s game against the Jets as he serves the final contest of his 41-game suspension for violating the league’s sports wagering rules. His contract cannot be registered with the league until Sunday.
Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch said earlier this week that the team had offered multiple contract options to Pinto as he neared his return, including multiple longer-term deals. While the Senators’ tight salary cap situation prevents them from giving Pinto a significant salary this season, they continue to work on signing a multi-year deal before Pinto reaches RFA status next summer, reports Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. He is eligible to sign an extension at any time before July 1.
Unfortunately for the Senators, their 16-24-0 record puts them in last place in the Eastern Conference at the time of Pinto re-joining the team. Any impact the sophomore center has in his return will likely be immaterial to their end-of-season fortunes, but his play will still be closely eyed as the Senators determine who to keep and who to shed as their rebuild remains stuck in first gear.
The 2019 second-round pick churned out play worthy of a high-end third-line center last year, his first full campaign with the Sens after a shoulder injury limited him to five games in 2021-22. Posting 20-15–35 in all 82 games, Pinto ranked sixth on last year’s team in goals and, despite his -21 rating, graded well in terms of two-way play with a 51.9% Corsi share at even strength.
He still carries top-six potential despite his significant time away from the game over the last two seasons. He’ll at least find himself in a top-nine role when he suits up on Wednesday, especially as Josh Norris remains sidelined down the middle with an upper-body injury. Whether or not he usurps another promising youngster, 21-year-old Ridly Greig, for first-line duties between Brady Tkachuk and Claude Giroux is unclear.
Pinto will earn $387.5K in actual salary this season as a result of his contract being signed with exactly half of Ottawa’s schedule remaining. If he can’t agree to a new deal with Ottawa by the summer, he will not be eligible for salary arbitration. However, unlike last summer, he will be eligible for an offer sheet.
West Notes: Saros, Gaudreau, Pospisil
Earlier this season, Predators general manager Barry Trotz shut down any trade rumors involving star netminder Juuse Saros, stating he had full intent to re-sign him before his contract expires in 2025. That remains the case, but TSN’s Pierre LeBrun believes Trotz may at least listen to offers he receives for the 28-year-old, he said in his latest for The Athletic.
It would, of course, take a gargantuan offer for the Predators to part with the third cog in their string of superstar netminders that links back to the days of Tomáš Vokoun in the early 2000s. LeBrun says a trade offer centered around draft picks won’t do the trick – rather, Trotz would require a young but established NHLer with first-line-caliber skills.
Further decreasing the likelihood of a Saros deal is a trade market that LeBrun says, later in the same article, is facing an increased level of parity this year. The Stanley Cup contention field is much more open than in recent seasons, and most teams at the top of the standings have a clear weakness that needs addressing. LeBrun that could lead to just a few teams going “all-in” at the deadline, with most preferring to hold onto their assets. That’s also because buyers will have a smaller market to choose from – many fringe playoff teams are expected to avoid being full sellers on March 8 and could hold onto their high-value assets and pending UFAs in hopes of squeaking into the postseason.
Saros’ .903 SV% this season isn’t terribly impressive, but it’s quite easy to see that it’s an outlier. He’s finished within the top eight of Vezina Trophy voting over the last three seasons and, prior to this year, had never posted a SV% south of .914 in a full season.
Elsewhere from the Western Conference:
- Wild forward Frédérick Gaudreau is doubtful for tonight’s game against the Panthers, said The Athletic’s Joe Smith. The 30-year-old skated over nine minutes in last night’s 7-3 loss to the Lightning before leaving with an upper-body injury early in the third period. Per Smith, the Wild don’t yet have a timeline for Gaudreau’s return to the lineup, and he’ll continue to undergo evaluation today. The veteran has three goals in 34 games this year after notching double-digit goal totals in his first two seasons with the Wild. The lack of production is concerning in the first season of a five-year, $10.5MM contract, especially without the aging curve on his side. Winger Adam Raska will return to the lineup in Gaudreau’s absence after being scratched for three straight games.
- Flames rookie Martin Pospisil will avoid a long-term absence after taking a scary fall into the boards last night versus the Maple Leafs, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reports. The 24-year-old will miss roughly two weeks, though, and will likely return soon after the All-Star break. He sustained an upper-body injury after his skates came together with those of Toronto superstar Auston Matthews, causing him to trip and fold awkwardly (video via Sportsnet, viewer discretion advised). The 2018 fourth-round pick has 4-7–11 in 33 games since being recalled from AHL Calgary in early November. In Pospisil’s absence, 23-year-old Adam Klapka (who stands at a hulking 6-foot-8 and 236 pounds) will make his NHL debut at home in tomorrow’s Battle of Alberta.
Morning Notes: Iskhakov, Kucherov, Barkov
Islanders 2018 second-round pick Ruslan Iskhakov could receive his first NHL recall in the coming days as injuries continue to affect the team’s forwards, speculates Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News. He notes the team may prefer a more dynamic replacement at the top of the lineup for winger Pierre Engvall, who missed Tuesday’s 4-2 loss to the Jets with an upper-body injury.
Engvall is listed as day-to-day and remains on the active roster, but head coach Lane Lambert told reporters yesterday that he has no indication when the 27-year-old will resume skating (via Newsday’s Andrew Gross). The Swedish winger has disappointed with 5-9–14 in 41 games this season, the first of his seven-year, $21MM contract, and has been a healthy scratch twice.
28-year-old Hudson Fasching slotted into Engvall’s normal second-line role alongside Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri for the Winnipeg game and is projected to do so again tonight against the Blackhawks. However, the career AHLer/bottom-six depth piece isn’t a sustainable placeholder on a scoring line for a team maintaining playoff aspirations.
Iskhakov, 23, is undersized at 5-foot-8 and 165 lbs., but he’s adjusted well to the North American pro game since joining AHL Bridgeport in 2022. He’s been their best player this season by a wide margin, posting 13-19–32 in 36 games, leading the team in all major offensive categories. If Engvall’s absence from the lineup is long enough to warrant a stint on injured reserve, it would be prudent to give Iskhakov a brief NHL look in the final season of his entry-level contract.
More from the NHL as teams convene for Friday morning practices:
- Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov‘s meteoric season continued last night, recording three assists against the Wild to reach 500 in his career. He remains third among active Russian players in the stat, trailing future Hall-of-Famers Evgeni Malkin and Alex Ovechkin by a significant margin. While the Lightning’s .567 points percentage would have them out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, Kucherov has been pulling his weight and then some this season. His 28 goals are fourth in the NHL, his 47 assists are second, and his 75 points in 44 games give him a slim lead on Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon for the lead in the Art Ross Trophy race.
- Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov was absent from morning skate today as he continues to rehab a lower-body injury, said the AP’s Colby Guy. Head coach Paul Maurice is expected to issue an update on Barkov’s status later Friday. The 28-year-old missed Wednesday’s overtime loss to the Red Wings, his fourth absence of the season. He missed a late October tilt against the Sharks with illness, while a knee injury kept him out of two games in November. His 35 assists in 40 games lead the Panthers.
Evening Snapshots: Wild, Capitals, Drysdale
Earlier today, the Minnesota Wild announced that defenseman Jared Spurgeon would be missing the rest of the season due to back and hip surgery, and Joe Smith of The Athletic speculates that the organization may use their newfound cap space to improve their situation. Only two days ago, General Manager Bill Guerin publicly stated that he is unwilling to give up on the 2023-24 season, and fully expects this team to compete for a playoff spot over the next couple of months.
If Minnesota is going to operate as a buyer come trade deadline time, there are a few options at defense they could look to acquire. Assuming the team looks for a right-handed defenseman to replace the lost minutes left by Spurgeon, they could become a dark horse contender for a defenseman such as Chris Tanev from the Calgary Flames, or even look to acquire Tyson Barrie from their division rivals, the Nashville Predators.
In the next few weeks leading up to the trade deadline, the status of the Wild’s playoff chances should come into much clearer view for Guerin, which should help him steer the ship in a more concrete direction. Whatever the case may be, if Minnesota decides to make a major move to replace Spurgeon for the rest of the season, they will have approximately $5.1MM in cap flexibility to do so.
Other snapshots:
- In tonight’s game for the Washington Capitals, they saw the return of their captain, Alex Ovechkin, who had missed the last three games with a lower-body injury. Unfortunately, the team will be without a few players, as Tarik El-Bashir of Monumental Sports Network reported that defenseman Joel Edmundson would not play in tonight’s game with an upper-body injury, and forward Beck Malenstyn is out due to personal reasons.
- Moving on to another team in the Metropolitan Division, even though Kevin Kurz of The Athletic reported earlier that newly-acquired defenseman Jamie Drysdale was not seen at practice today, he was able to draw into the lineup for the Philadelphia Flyers this evening. Suiting up for the team in two games, Drysdale came down with an illness shortly after arriving in Philadelphia and subsequently missed the next two contests for the team. Drawing back in the lineup against the Dallas Stars, Drysdale has already skated in over 14 minutes of the game and has put two shots on the net.
Pacific Notes: McLellan, Hill, Amadio
In this week’s edition of TSN’s Insider Trading, one of the proposed questions centered around the possibility of the Los Angeles Kings parting ways with current head coach Todd McLellan. Hoping to compete for a Stanley Cup this season, the Kings have produced a 1-5-4 record since December 28th, which has led some to speculate that a change behind the bench could be on the horizon in Los Angeles.
Unlike most teams that have made an in-season coaching change this year, the Kings still find themselves within a playoff spot in the Pacific Division, but the gap has certainly tightened over the last few weeks. Keeping together much of the same core over the offseason and bringing in Pierre-Luc Dubois, it’s safe to say that Los Angeles is not meeting their expectations up to this point in the season.
One of the main drivers in the team’s current misfortune has been the offense, which has only averaged 2.3 goals per game in their last 10 contests. In the year, the Kings rank 14th in the NHL with 3.27 GF/G, which does not appear to be enough firepower to take down a team such as the Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, or Vancouver Canucks. With little salary cap mobility and a coaching change seeming unlikely, the Kings will have to do their best to handle this downturn internally.
Other notes:
- Another team in the Pacific Division that has dealt with some unfortunate play of late would be the Vegas Golden Knights. In their last 14 games, the Golden Knights have produced a 5-9-0 record, now falling well short of the first-place Canucks. Nevertheless, in some positive news for the organization, the head coach of the team, Bruce Cassidy, suggested that starting goaltender Adin Hill is back practicing and should participate in a game sooner rather than later (X Link). Getting Hill back into the lineup should give the team quite a bit of much-needed stability, as he produced a 10-2-2 record in 15 games before going down with an injury in mid-December.
- Sticking in Vegas, Jesse Granger of The Athletic reported that forward Michael Amadio would miss the team’s game tonight against the New York Rangers with an upper-body injury. One of the most valuable depth players across the league this year, Amadio has scored six goals and 17 points in 43 games.