Snapshots: Skinner, Greenway, Hill, Atanasov
Rumoured to be on the horizon for several days now, the Buffalo Sabres have officially activated forwards Jeff Skinner and Jordan Greenway from injured reserve tonight, per a team announcement. According to the stipulations provided in the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the Sabres can activate both, and carry a 24-man roster over the roster freeze since they are under the salary cap.
Barring something extreme, Paul Hamilton of WGR Sports Radio expects both players to be in the lineup tonight as the Sabres take on the Toronto Maple Leafs. Skinner, dealing with an upper-body injury, has missed three games for Buffalo, while Greenway, also dealing with an upper-body injury, has missed a total of nine games throughout his injury.
It is positive news for a Sabres organization seemingly unable to stay healthy up to this point in the 2023-24 regular season. With a 3-6-1 record in their last 10 games, Buffalo has failed to gain any sort of traction this season, sitting stagnantly in seventh place in the Atlantic Division.
Other snapshots:
- Playing in only one game since December 1st, the expectation is that the Vegas Golden Knights will place goaltender Adin Hill on injured reserve (X Link). Not slowing down a bit since his impressive performance in last year’s Stanley Cup playoffs, Hill holds a 10-2-2 record this season, carrying a league-leading .933 SV% and a 1.93 GAA in 15 starts.
- According to Elliotte Friedman, one player who is gaining plenty of overseas traction in the NHL is Vasili Atanasov, currently rostered on Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod of the Kontinental Hockey League. With one year remaining on his current contract, the 21-year-old forward has 19 goals and 38 points in 39 games. Although he has shown quite the ability to score at the professional level, he is a bit undersized standing at 5’11” and 157 pounds.
Roster Updates: Kraken, Larsson, Stalock
Currently sitting in 11th place in the Western Conference and three points back of the final Wild Card spot with three games less in hand, the Seattle Kraken are experiencing somewhat of a playoff hangover from their run to Game Seven of the Conference Semifinals last Spring. Nevertheless, even with a healthy amount of rental assets currently on the roster, the Kraken have no desire to sell at this year’s trade deadline, according to Elliotte Friedman.
Evidenced primarily from their recent acquisition of Tomas Tatar from the Colorado Avalanche, Seattle is still hoping to turn their season around in an attempt to compete for a playoff spot. However, with an ample amount of time before the trade deadline, Kraken could certainly look to move out expiring assets such as Jordan Eberle, Justin Schultz, and Alexander Wennberg.
Whatever the case may be, Seattle will need to become much more consistent in either direction to confirm a trade deadline strategy in the next few months. In a top-heavy Western Conference, Seattle still has plenty of hope to make the playoffs this season.
Other notes:
- After spending a little over a week on the active roster, the Ottawa Senators have sent down defenseman Jacob Larsson to their AHL affiliate, the Belleville Senators, per a team announcement. Unfortunately for Larsson, he was a healthy scratch for every game over that stretch, returning to a Belleville team where he has registered two goals and four points in 18 games.
- Recalled only yesterday, the Anaheim Ducks have now returned goaltender Alex Stalock to their AHL affiliate, the San Diego Gulls. Given the team lines up against the Calgary Flames this evening, it likely spells the return of top goaltender, John Gibson, who was placed on the Non-Roster list only three days ago.
Central Notes: Girard, Lucchini, Avalanche
One of the most notable inclusions in practice this morning for the Colorado Avalanche was defenseman Samuel Girard, who is working his way back from being in the NHLPA Player Assistance Program for nearly a month (X Link). Returning to the ice is positive in its own right, but Girard is not expected to be back in the lineup this evening.
Upon his entrance to the Player Assistance Program, Girard was very public with his reasoning, saying through his agency, “I have made a proactive decision to take care of my mental health, and will be entering treatment for severe anxiety and depression that has gone untreated for too long and led to alcohol abuse” (X Link).
With his return to the team imminent, Girard will look to build upon his season after a month off, scoring one goal and four points in his first 15 games for the Avalanche this year. Aside from Girard’s play on the ice, the fact that he is nearing close to a return shows he has gained an adequate degree of success fighting his personal ailments via the program.
Other notes:
- After placing forward Mats Zuccarello on injured reserve only yesterday, the Minnesota Wild have recalled forward Jake Lucchini to fill the missing spot in the lineup. With over 250 games played at the AHL level since the 2018-19 season, Lucchini is only a veteran of 11 games in the NHL, all of which were played last season for the Ottawa Senators. In his first season in the Wild organization, Lucchini has scored nine goals and 20 points in 24 games for their AHL affiliate.
- Back to the Avalanche, having missed the last handful of games with a lower-body injury, defenseman Cale Makar is once again questionable for tonight’s matchup against the Senators (X Link). Furthermore, although forwards Nathan MacKinnon and Ross Colton were absent from practice due to maintenance days, they are both expected to be in the lineup this evening.
AHL Shuffle: Petersen, Day, Meyers
The Philadelphia Flyers have recalled netminder Cal Petersen back to their NHL roster, indicating that netminder Carter Hart isn’t quite ready to return and back up Samuel Ersson for the Flyers’ game tonight against the Nashville Predators. Petersen was the Flyers’ backup for their last game as well, though he has spent most of the year with the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
The former Los Angeles Kings $5MM man has played in 11 games for the Phantoms, going 4-6-1 with an .898 save percentage and 3.20 goals-against-average. Those numbers are certainly a decline for Petersen, though they are not entirely out of line with his 2022-23 season as he went 16-20-4 with a .904 save percentage and 2.88 goals-against-average last year.
Some other AHL “paper” transactions:
- The Tampa Bay Lightning have recalled defenseman Sean Day from their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch. Day has been recalled to serve as the team’s seventh defenseman, which is a role he’s played relatively frequently over the last week or so. Day did play in the Crunch’s contest last night against the Laval Rocket, but otherwise, he has been on the NHL roster for a decent stretch this season. What he hasn’t done so far this year is dress for an NHL game, and he last played in the NHL in 2021-22.
- The Colorado Avalanche sent forward Ben Meyers back down to the AHL after their most recent game, but today the team recalled him, making the move effectively a paperwork-only transaction. Meyers, 25, has been involved in numerous transactions of the sort so far in his young career. He’s played in four NHL games this year and 17 AHL contests, and has scored 13 points in 21 games across both levels combined.
Minor Transactions: 12/21/23
Although the NHL’s annual holiday roster freeze is in place, player movement has not halted across the wider world of professional hockey, both in North American minor leagues as well as the many pro leagues in Europe. As always, we’ll keep track of notable player movement from those places here.
- Veteran goalie Patrik Rybár has signed a one-year contract extension with his current club: Spartak Moscow of the KHL. The 30-year-old Slovak international is in his second season with Spartak, and his third consecutive season in the KHL. He was signed out of Liiga’s Kärpät by Dynamo Minsk, and then after a year as Minsk’s backup he became Spartak’s starter for 2022-23. Rybár has been excellent since he became Spartak’s number-one goalie, with a .924 save percentage in 45 games last year and a .920 in 24 games this year. The one-time KHL All-Star is best known for the 2022 Winter Olympics, when he posted a .966 save percentage and backstopped Slovakia to a bronze medal.
- 23-year-old former Vegas Golden Knights prospect Peter DiLiberatore has had his PTO with the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners converted to a full-time deal, according to the AHL’s official transactions wire. The former Quinnipiac University alternate captain began the season with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, but then in November he moved to the AHL to play for Tucson. He has played in 13 AHL games this year and scored three points. Now with a full-time deal, DiLiberatore will get the chance to establish himself in the AHL on a more extended basis.
- 2017 Minnesota Wild third-round pick Ivan Lodnia has signed with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays. The 23-year-old was once a strong scorer at the CHL level, potting 27 goals and 62 points in his final 41 games with the OHL’s Niagara IceDogs. He began his pro career in 2020-21 with the KHL’s Dynamo Minsk, before spending 2021-22 with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves. Lodnia has not yet played in the ECHL but has four goals and eight points in 38 career games.
- Former Edmonton Oilers prospect Matt Cairns has been traded in the ECHL, with the Maine Mariners sending him to the Indy Fuel in exchange for future considerations. Maine acquired Cairns from the Cincinnati Cyclones a few days ago but ultimately did not dress him for a single game. The six-foot-three defenseman has split this season between the New York Rangers’ ECHL affiliate, the Cincinnati Cyclones, and their AHL affiliate the Hartford Wolf Pack. He has skated in five games for Hartford and 11 for Cincinnati, scoring three points for the latter club.
- Forward Jake Bricknell has been claimed off of waivers from the ECHL’s Florida Everblades by the ECHL’s Reading Royals. The 26-year-old has played in just two ECHL seasons but is now on his sixth different ECHL team. The six-foot-one, 211-pound grinder has scored two goals and three points so far in this season, and his career-high in offensive production as a pro came when he scored six goals and 17 points in 44 games for the Manchester Storm of the EIHL.
- Jakub Rychlovský, one of the breakout stars of this Czech Extraliga season, has signed a two-year contract extension with an option for a third season with his current club, Bílí Tygři Liberec. Rychlovský currently ranks third on the team in scoring with 12 goals and 23 points in 29 games, and his offense has helped the team sit fourth place in the league standings. Rychlovský has already passed his career-high in points, a high he set last season with 17 points in 52 games.
- 2011 Minnesota Wild first-round pick Zack Phillips has been signed by the EIHL’s Manchester Storm, according to a team announcement. The 31-year-old is a veteran of numerous professional leagues, having already played in England, Sweden, Slovakia, Germany, Poland, Scotland, and Hungary as well as the United States and Canada. After fizzling out in the AHL in 2016, Phillips began his European pro career and was signed by Manchester out of the German third division. Phillips played in the EIHL last season with the Fife Flyers, leading the team in scoring with 45 points in 53 games.
This page may be updated throughout the day.
Pierre-Édouard Bellemare Out Four-To-Six Weeks
The Seattle Kraken have announced that forward Pierre-Édouard Bellemare has suffered a lower-body injury and will be out on a four-to-six-week timeline.
Per the Kraken’s announcement, the 38-year-old veteran forward suffered his injury during the team’s Monday loss to the Dallas Stars. Bellemare was knocked out of the game by the injury, and he ended up playing in just over four minutes.
This injury is a setback for both Bellemare and the Kraken. For Bellemare, he loses the ability to contribute during a crucial time in the Kraken’s season as they work to attempt to re-enter the Pacific Division playoff picture. He’ll also miss the Winter Classic in the new year, which is unfortunate as well. For Seattle, they’ll be without a reliable veteran bottom-sixer for that important stretch.
A veteran of nearly 700 NHL games, Bellemare is a widely respected defensive forward who has appeared on both Selke and Lady Byng trophy ballots earlier in his career.
A winner of 51.5% of his career draws, Bellemare is a valuable presence at the faceoff dot as well as in the defensive zone, and although he’s averaging a career-low ice time per game the loss of Bellemare is still a notable one for coach Dave Hakstol’s squad.
Injury Updates: Rust, Spurgeon, Grzelcyk
Pittsburgh Penguins forward Bryan Rust has not played since the Penguins’ 3-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on December 6th, and in his absence, the Penguins have put together remarkably uneven performances. They’ve collected a few wins but an embarrassing 7-0 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs showed the cracks in the team’s foundation. Today, Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette relays word from Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan, who said Rust skated today on an individual basis, the first time he’s been on the ice since he went down on injured reserve.
Rust’s return to the Penguins lineup would provide the team with a significant boost as it looks to climb in the Metropolitan Division playoff race. Rust has scored 10 goals and 20 points in 22 games this season and scored 20 goals and 46 points last season. Although Valtteri Puustinen has filled in nicely in the team’s top-six with four points in five games, getting Rust back would give the team a needed boost for its playoff chase.
Some more injury updates from around the NHL:
- The Athletic’s Michael Russo reported that Minnesota Wild captain Jared Spurgeon was not present for the team’s morning skate, indicating that he will miss the team’s game tonight against the Montreal Canadiens. Spurgeon is among the Wild’s most important players, but in his absence Brock Faber has emerged as one of the fastest-rising young defensemen in hockey, playing as many as 30 minutes per night.
- Independent Boston hockey reporter Joe Haggerty relayed word from Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery today, who said that defenseman Matt Grzelcyk is out day-to-day. Grzelcyck has not been ruled out for any of the Bruins’ games during their upcoming three-game road trip, although an absence is certainly possible.
Atlantic Notes: Sergachev, Girgensons, Skinner, Greenway
Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev is listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury and will miss the next “one, maybe two games,” head coach Jon Cooper said Thursday morning (via NHL.com Lightning beat writer Chris Krenn). Sergachev blocked a shot with his left foot early in Tuesday’s win over the Blues and was seen in a boot and scooter yesterday at team facilities, per Diandra Loux of The Hockey News.
With Sergachev confirmed out for tonight’s clash against the Golden Knights and questionable for Saturday against the Capitals, veteran Calvin de Haan is projected to slide into a second-pairing role alongside Darren Raddysh. While they’ll be tasked with more arduous minutes over the next two outings, they’ve been the Lightning’s best defensive pairing by a wide margin this season. Playing over 200 minutes together, de Haan and Raddysh have allowed 1.74 expected goals against per 60 minutes, the best among any pairing in the league with over 100 minutes together, per MoneyPuck.
Through 33 games, Sergachev is off to a rocky start. His two goals and 19 points are second among Lightning defenders behind Victor Hedman, but he’s pacing far below the ten goals and 64 points he scored in 79 games last season. His -15 rating is also the worst of his career.
Other notes out of the Atlantic Division today:
- Sabres head coach Don Granato issued multiple injury updates today ahead of their clash against the Maple Leafs, saying that veteran forward Zemgus Girgensons practiced for the first time today since sustaining a lower-body injury nearly a month ago but that he won’t return to the lineup until after Christmas (via Paul Hamilton of WGR Sports Radio 550). Girgensons, 29, has missed the team’s last 13 games. The team has gone 4-8-1 in that span. Before the injury, Girgensons was off to a tough start, scoring two goals in 20 games after notching double-digit totals the last three seasons. The longest-tenured Sabres forward signed a one-year, $2.5MM extension to remain in Buffalo last June.
- Granato also said wingers Jeff Skinner and Jordan Greenway are a “possibility” to return to the lineup tonight, meaning they’ll likely be game-time decisions. Both are currently on injured reserve, but since the Sabres have the cap space to activate them, no corresponding transaction will be needed until after the holiday roster freeze lifts on December 28 to get back under the 23-player limit. Both players returning would give the Sabres a fully healthy top-nine forward group for the first time all season, allowing players like Casey Mittelstadt and Zach Benson to see easier matchups in a third-line role.
Morning Notes: Senators Coaching Candidates, Kuzmenko, Atkinson
The Senators are at an uncertain precipice in their years-long rebuild. As their new core of Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stützle, Thomas Chabot, Jakob Chychrun, and Jake Sanderson enters their primes, the team is no closer to securing their first playoff berth since losing in the 2017 Eastern Conference Final. That led new owner Michael Andlauer to clean house over the past few months, firing longtime general manager Pierre Dorion in November and head coach D.J. Smith earlier this week. 71-year-old Jacques Martin, the Senators’ all-time leader in games coached, took over as interim, but it’s unlikely the Senators are comfortable with him as the long-term solution behind the bench. He’s been out of coaching roles for almost three seasons and only recently re-joined the Senators in a senior advisor role earlier this month.
Smith was the fourth coach fired this season, but the Senators and the Blues are the only teams not to name a permanent successor immediately. Drew Bannister holds the interim title in St. Louis after the team fired 2019 Stanley Cup champion coach Craig Berube earlier this month. That leaves the Senators on the prowl for a permanent bench boss. Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli named an intriguing candidate at number one on his list of targets: John Gruden, head coach of the AHL’s Toronto Marlies.
Some may cringe at the thought of the Senators going with a second straight first-time head coach behind the bench, but it’s a logical fit given Michael Andlauer’s modus operandi since assuming ownership. Andlauer and interim general manager Steve Staios oversaw Gruden’s tenure as head coach of the OHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs from 2016 to 2018, culminating in a league championship. Unlike Martin, Gruden has worked in NHL roles since departing the Bulldogs, serving as an assistant coach for the Islanders from 2018 to 2022 before joining the Bruins as an assistant on Jim Montgomery‘s staff for last year’s record-breaking season. This year, he has the Maple Leafs’ primary minor-league affiliate rolling with a 13-7-4 record, third in the AHL’s North Division.
Behind Gruden on Seravalli’s list are two coaches looking for a new home after being fired earlier this season: former Oilers bench boss Jay Woodcroft and former Wild coach Dean Evason. Longtime NHL coach Claude Julien, who Seravalli reports is “eager to get back on the bench,” earned a fourth-place mention, while former Senators center and current Bruins assistant coach Chris Kelly rounds out his top five.
Other notes from around the league this morning:
- It’s been a disappointing sophomore campaign for Canucks winger Andrei Kuzmenko. The 27-year-old potted 39 goals in 81 games last season after signing with Vancouver as a free agent out of Russia, but his point production and ice time have dipped this year, and he finds himself outside of a top-six role with three healthy scratches this season. As a result, some trade rumors have popped up over the past couple of weeks. However, Kuzmenko’s agent, Dan Milstein, says his camp doesn’t fuel those talks. Speaking with British Columbia-based reporter Joshua Griffith, Milstein said Kuzmenko is on the same page with both the Canucks coaching staff and front office, reiterating his client is “very happy to be in Vancouver” and that there is a path forward for Kuzmenko in the organization.
- Moving from coast to coast, another established winger seeing a gradual decrease in ice time is Flyers veteran Cam Atkinson. The 34-year-old played a season-low 13:48 in Tuesday’s game against the Devils and has no points in his last three games. Head coach John Tortorella said this morning that Atkinson “hasn’t shown enough energy and quickness recently,” a thinly veiled statement that Atkinson could be sitting in the press box for a game or two soon – a move Tortorella isn’t afraid to execute (via veteran Flyers reporter Sam Carchidi). After missing 2022-23 with a neck injury, Atkinson has played in all 31 contests for the Flyers this year, recording eight goals and eight assists. The two-time 30-goal scorer has spent most of his career playing under Tortorella, spending six seasons with him in Columbus from 2015 to 2021, and by all accounts, has a positive relationship with the outspoken coach.
Snapshots: Diamond Sports, Sharks, McMichael, Jagr, Beaudin, Golden Knights
Diamond Sports Group has reached a deal with the 11 NHL teams it has regional broadcast rights for to televise their games through the end of this season, sports business reporter Daniel Kaplan reports (Twitter link). With that agreement being made through bankruptcy court, it stands to reason that those affected will not be receiving the full value of their contracts, some of which lasted until 2030. After this season, the broadcast rights for those teams will revert to the league with future plans uncertain at this point. However, Amazon has held discussions with some MLB teams that are in similar situations (regional rights with Diamond for this season and reverting to the league after) so it’s possible that they could look to hold talks about NHL rights as well. Detroit, Columbus, St. Louis, Anaheim, Carolina, Los Angeles, Tampa Bay, Florida, Nashville, Dallas, and Minnesota are the teams that will be impacted by this news.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- After missing last night’s game, Sharks defensemen Jan Rutta (illness) and Calen Addison (lower-body injury) were both feeling better today and could suit up Thursday versus Arizona, relays Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now (Twitter link). Rutta has five assists and 43 blocked shots in 26 games so far this season, his first with San Jose after being acquired from Pittsburgh. Addison, meanwhile, has picked a goal and five helpers in 19 games since being picked up last month in a trade with Minnesota.
- Before tonight’s game against the Islanders, the Capitals announced (Twitter link) that forward Connor McMichael was a late scratch due to an illness. Matthew Phillips took his place. McMichael is off to his best start, notching six goals and seven assists through his first 28 games; last season, he was limited to just six NHL contests, being held off the scoresheet.
- Veteran forward Jaromir Jagr has officially started his 36th professional season, playing in his first game of the year with Kladno in his native Czechia, the team he owns. The 51-year-old played nearly 14 minutes, picking up an assist. Jagr’s participation in that game will delay his Hockey Hall of Fame eligibility by another season.
- The Canadiens will loan defenseman Nicolas Beaudin to Team Canada for the upcoming Spengler Cup, reports BPM Sports Radio’s Anthony Marcotte (Twitter link). The 24-year-old played in the event on a loan last year as well. Beaudin, a 2018 first-round pick by Chicago, has been in and out of the lineup with AHL Laval this season, recording six assists in 13 games so far.
- The Golden Knights announced (Twitter link) that goaltender Logan Thompson is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. To get a second netminder on the roster for Thursday’s game against Carolina, Isaiah Saville was recalled from AHL Henderson. Thompson has posted a .904 SV% in his first 19 games this season for Vegas while Saville, who was just activated from SOIR recently, has a .950 mark in three games with the Silver Knights.