Dallas Stars Recall Matt Murray
The Dallas Stars have used an emergency recall to bring goaltender Matt Murray up to the NHL roster. This move comes after the team was forced to ice St. Louis’ emergency backup goalie, Joey O’Brien, as their backup when they faced the Blues on Saturday. Playing with O’Brien as backup on Saturday made the Stars eligible for an emergency recall.
Murray – who shares a name with a goaltender currently on the Toronto Maple Leafs’ long-term injured reserve – has appeared in 13 games this season with Dallas’ AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars. He’s managed an 8-4-1 record in those matchups, adding a .908 save percentage. The AHL’s Stars have been platooning Murray with 22-year-old Remi Poirier, who has a 6-3-2 record and .901 save percentage in 11 appearances of his own.
But, unlike Poirier, Murray has made his NHL debut, playing in three games for Dallas last season. He went 1-2-0 in the trio of games, saving 54 of a possible 64 shots for a .844 save percentage. Murray, now 25, signed with Dallas as an undrafted free agent after the end of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst’s 2021-22 campaign. The netminder had previously spent five seasons with the school, appearing in a total 121 games and setting a .916 save percentage. Murray has matched that save percentage through his first 53 career AHL games, after making his professional debut at the end of the 2021-22 season.
Murray will join Scott Wedgewood as Dallas’ goalie pair for the foreseeable future, with typical starter Jake Oettinger out with a lower-body injury and without a timeline to return. Oettinger abruptly left in the first period of team’s December 15th game and hasn’t played since.
Travis Boyd, Barrett Hayton Out Long-Term With Upper-Body Injuries
Forward Travis Boyd is worried to be done for the season after suffering what is believed to be a torn pectoral muscle, per Arizona Coyotes insider Craig Morgan on Sunday’s PHNX postgame show. Morgan also shared that Barrett Hayton has suffered a setback in his return from a hand injury and likely won’t return until early-February.
These are two big blows to a Coyotes roster that seemingly can’t get past the injury bug. Boyd and Hayton are joined by Sean Durzi and Vladislav Kolyachonok in missing games due to injury, with Durzi being the only one of the group not currently on injured reserve. Jason Zucker has also missed seven games through the early season.
Boyd loses his season after playing in 16 games and scoring eight points for the Coyotes’ fourth-line. The 30-year-old centerman has come into his own with Arizona, who he joined as an unrestricted free agent in 2021. Boyd has managed the two highest-scoring seasons of his career in his two years with the Yotes, scoring 35 points in 74 games in 2021-22 and 34 points in 82 games last season. He was on pace to maintain that scoring this year, despite seeing his average ice time plummet from 16:32 to just 9:37 between last season and this season. Over a seven year career, Boyd has totaled 296 NHL games and 118 points.
The Coyotes are also losing former-fifth overall selection Hayton for an extended period. The 23-year-old winger has also appeared in 16 games this season, scoring four points. It’s a step down from the career-high 43 points that Hayton managed in 82 games last season. Hayton spent most of his time this season playing alongside Nick Schmaltz and Clayton Keller, a role that has since been filled by rookie Logan Cooley or Zucker, when healthy.
Aaron Dell Joins Carolina On PTO Agreement
Goaltender Aaron Dell has joined the Carolina Hurricanes on a professional try-out contract. This moves comes after Carolina placed Antti Raanta on waivers and subsequently sent him to the AHL’s Chicago Wolves.
Dell hasn’t played yet this season, spending most of last year with the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda. He appeared in 38 games with the club, setting a 15-17-4 record and recording a .898 save percentage. Dell also received four NHL games last season – going 0-3-0 and stopping 94 of a possible 103 shots for a .913 save percentage. Now 34, Dell has become a prominent option for goaltending depth around the league, with Carolina set to become the fourth franchise that the netminder has suited up for.
Dell’s journey to the big leagues began at the University of North Dakota, where he played three seasons before setting his sights on pros. But his options were limited after going undrafted in the NHL Draft, with the goalie opting to move to the Allen Americans of the now-defunct Central Hockey League to kick off his pro career in 2012-13. Dell moved to the ECHL for the following season, playing well enough to warrant an AHL call-up mid-season and an invite to the San Jose Sharks’ training camp ahead of the 2014-15 season. Dell wouldn’t receive an NHL contract out of camp but, after continuing his strong performances in the minors, signed his first deal with the Sharks in March of 2015. He would receive his NHL debut in the 2016-17 season, a year where Dell played in 20 games and set a career-high .931 save percentage.
Now, eight seasons later, Dell will look to continue his NHL career in Carolina. The veteran pro has totaled 130 career NHL games, going 50-50-13 and recording a .905 save percentage.
What Your Team Is Thankful For: Los Angeles Kings
As the holiday season approaches, PHR will be taking a look at what teams are thankful for in 2023-24. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. We’ll examine what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the Los Angeles Kings.
Who are the Kings thankful for?
Playing on his sixth different team in as many seasons, the journeyman netminder signed on with Los Angeles as an unrestricted free agent on a one-year, $1MM contract. Believing at the time that Talbot would likely serve as a 1A or a 1B to fellow netminder, Pheonix Copley, Talbot has completely taken over the net for the Kings.
In 20 games played, Talbot holds a 13-5-2 record, as well as a .926 SV% and a 2.02 GAA. Furthermore, 12 of his 19 starts have been registered as Quality Starts according to HockeyReference, meaning he is beating the league average in save percentage in over 60% of his starts.
Last year, with an assortment of goaltenders including Copley, Jonathan Quick, Calvin Petersen, and Joonas Korpisalo, Los Angeles goaltenders were only able to achieve a collective save percentage of .892, before completely bottoming out in the 2022-23 Stanley Cup playoffs. Now with a steady presence between the pipes this season, Talbot has made a case for being the best-value contract signed this past summer.
What are the Kings thankful for?
Patience.
Although it feels more recent, the Kings are now a decade removed from their last Stanley Cup run and still retain two of their aging stars Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty, as well as Quick as recent as last season. Going through some lean seasons since then, Los Angeles has done a great job stockpiling young talent, to go on another run with their franchise legends. 
In the 2020 NHL Draft, the Kings selected forward Quinton Byfield as the second overall selection in the draft, and although he made his NHL debut a year later, Los Angeles demonstrated tremendous patience with Byfield’s development. From 2020-2023, Byfield played in a total of 99 games for the Kings, scoring eight goals and 33 points over that stretch.
Now, and still only 21 years old, Byfield is nearly a point-per-game player, scoring eight goals and 23 points in 27 games, nearly doubling his career totals in about a third of the number of games. Aside from Byfield, Los Angeles is using a similar method with Arthur Kaliyev, Jordan Spence, and Brandt Clarke, hoping to make the most out of every one of their draft selections.
What would the Kings be even more thankful for?
For Father Time to stay away.
As previously mentioned, the Kings are beginning to reap the benefits of many solid draft choices, and demonstrating the patience required to build a winning team through the draft. However, even all these years later, the team still primarily beats to the drum of Kopitar and Doughty.
Even though both franchise icons are in their mid-to-late 30s, Kopitar continues to lead the team in scoring, and Doughty leads all defensemen in scoring within the organization. Unfortunately, for the most part throughout the league and sports in general, Father Time remains undefeated and will ultimately claim Kopitar and Doughty as its victims.
When these two future Hall of Famers decide to call it quits, given their draft and prospect capital accrued over the last several years, Los Angeles should be pretty well set up for the future of the organization. Nevertheless, they would undoubtedly benefit from having these two as long as possible.
What should be on the Kings holiday wish list?
A potential coaching change.
During the Todd McLellan era of Kings history over the last five seasons, Los Angeles has only made the playoffs, losing in the first round each time. This season, with the team currently fifth in goals for per game, and the best team in goals against per game, this Kings team is the most well set up to get the job done this spring.
Reasonably assuming that Los Angeles will eventually make the playoffs for the third time in a row this spring if they are unable to make it out of the first round, there should be serious questions raised about the future of McLellan within the organization.
In 15 seasons spent as a head coach in the National Hockey League before this year, McLellan has coached his team to the playoffs in nine of those seasons, making it as far as the Western Conference Finals twice with the San Jose Sharks back in 2010 and 2011. This season, if they are going to make it to the Stanley Cup, they will most likely have to go through the defending Champions, the Vegas Golden Knights.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Metropolitan Notes: Andersen, Daws, Oshie
In some incredibly fortunate news for both the player and the organization, reports are confirming that goaltender for the Carolina Hurricanes, Frederik Andersen, has been medically cleared to resume skating, and is about one month away from a potential return (X Link). Andersen has been out for over a month and a half after the discovery of a blood clotting issue during medical testing.
Entering the season as a Stanley Cup favorite out of the Eastern Conference, Carolina’s goaltending carousel this season has been holding them back, as all three of Andersen, Antti Raanta, and Pyotr Kochetkov have a combined save percentage of .876 on the year. These issues have led the Hurricanes to make some tough decisions, most notably by sending Raanta through waivers for reassignment to the AHL, yesterday.
Only playing six games on the season up to this point, Andersen still holds a .894 SV% and a 2.87 GAA, the former still being the best on the team. Currently, Carolina is occupying the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, with only one point separating them from being on the outside looking in. If they hope to regain some momentum for the playoffs, they will need to reintroduce some stability in the crease.
Other notes:
- Already confirming he will serve as a backup tonight behind Akira Schmid, the New Jersey Devils announced they had recalled goaltender Nico Daws from their AHL affiliate, the Utica Comets. Team reporter, Amanda Stein, noted that goaltender Vitek Vanecek felt “off” physically during practice, and the team elected to keep him out of the lineup for the team’s matchup tonight against the Anaheim Ducks.
- The Washington Capitals announced veteran forward for the team, T.J. Oshie, would be out of the lineup tonight with a lower-body injury. The news comes after Oshie already missed 12 days with an upper-body injury a few weeks ago, returning for a four-game stretch in the meantime. Over the four games upon his return, Oshie has scored one goal and two points, averaging just over 16 minutes of ice time per game.
Los Angeles Kings Send Down Moverare, Place Copley On LTIR
Without much clarification as to the nature of the injury, reports emerged two days ago that goaltender for the Los Angeles Kings, Pheonix Copley left the team’s practice and had to be helped off the ice. Today, the Kings announced that they have placed Copley on the long-term injured reserve, and also loaned defenseman Jacob Moverare to their AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign.
Joining forward Viktor Arvidsson on the LTIR, the team will now have a touch over $2.5MM in current cap space, allowing them to comfortably carry David Rittich as the backup goaltender for the foreseeable future. After giving Los Angeles some much-needed stability in the net last season, the Kings rewarded Copley’s efforts with a one-year, $1.5MM extension for this year.
Largely serving as the team’s starting goaltender for much of last season, Copley had returned to the backup role this year, after being handily outplayed by free-agent acquisition, Cam Talbot. In eight starts this year, Copley carries a 4-1-2 record, coupled with a .870 SV% and a 3.16 GAA.
Comparatively, in somewhat of a night-and-day difference, Talbot leads the organization with 19 starts on the season, holding a 13-5-2 record, and impressively maintaining a .926 SV% and 2.02 GAA. With adequate depth in the crease throughout the entirety of the organization, the Kings should be able to weather the storm without Copley for the foreseeable future.
Also a part of the transaction this evening, Moverare is in his third season of being a depth defenseman for Los Angeles, typically finding himself in the AHL with Ontario. Last season being his most successful in the minor leagues, Moverare played in a total of 62 games for the Reign, scoring four goals and 26 points overall.
Although being used as a primary candidate for paper transactions coming out of the Kings organization this season, this will be Moverare’s eighth promotion and demotion of the year. Throughout his lengthy list of callups, Moverare has only suited up in two games for Los Angeles, failing to score a point after averaging 14 and a half minutes of ice time per night.
West Notes: Sturm, Anderson, O’Brien
It had already been known that San Jose Sharks’ forward, Nico Sturm, wouldn’t be joining the team on their current road trip against the Arizona Coyotes and Colorado Avalanche, and it appears he could miss a few more games as well. Max Miller of The Hockey News is reporting that Sturm will be out on a week-to-week basis with an undisclosed injury.
Already suffering from a serious lack of depth at the beginning of the season, Sturm now becomes the sixth current member of the Sharks to hit the injured reserve, even with forwards Filip Zadina and Alexander Barabanov recently returning from their injuries. Even with so many injuries over the past several weeks, San Jose holds a 6-3-1 record in their last 1o games, moving ahead of the Anaheim Ducks and Chicago Blackhawks in the league standings.
Nevertheless, the team should be able to effectively weather the hole left by Sturm, as he has not been a primary offensive factor for the team this season. Operating as a bottom-six forward for much of his career, Sturm has two goals and four points in 26 games for the Sharks this season, placing him 17th on the team in scoring.
Other notes:
- Another Western Conference team severely struggling with depth this season, the Blackhawks announced forward Joey Anderson would not return to the ice tonight as the team takes on the Vancouver Canucks. Much like the Sharks, Chicago has a total of five players currently on the injured reserve, most notably players such as Andreas Athanasiou, Seth Jones, and Taylor Hall.
- Brien Rea of Ballywood Sports Southwest is reporting that the Dallas Stars have released goaltender Joe O’Brien from his tryout agreement with the club, further clowding the future of Dallas’ solution in the crease moving forward. It was always going to be difficult for O’Brien to secure a contract with the Stars, as the Niagara University product failed to secure a save percentage above .885 over 26 games in the NCAA.
Hurricanes Assign Antti Raanta To AHL
Dec 17, 3:23 p.m.: The Hurricanes reached an agreement with their former AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves, to find Raanta a home in the minors, per a team release. Raanta joins another NHL veteran, Keith Kinkaid, in the struggling Wolves’ crease. Chicago’s decision to go independent has quickly backfired, and they sit near the bottom of the league with a 6-13-3 record. If Raanta suits up, it will be his first AHL appearance since suiting up with AHL Tucson in 2019-20 while on a conditioning stint.
Dec. 17, 1:03 p.m.: Raanta has cleared waivers and can now be assigned to a minor-league team, according to Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic. Without a dedicated AHL affiliate, it’s unclear where the team will assign Raanta. It’s unlikely he would accept an assignment to ECHL Norfolk.
Dec. 16: The Hurricanes have had a tough time between the pipes lately and a shakeup could be on the way as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that goaltender Antti Raanta has been placed on waivers.
The 34-year-old inked a one-year, $1.5MM contract on the opening day of free agency to stay with Carolina, taking a $500K pay cut in the process. Raanta opted to do so despite coming off of a pretty strong showing, one that saw him post a 2.23 GAA and a .910 SV% in 27 games last season, numbers that were better than league average. Clearly, he was comfortable with the Hurricanes and vice versa so him sticking around certainly made plenty of sense on the surface.
Unfortunately for both sides, things have not gone well at all. Raanta has struggled mightily this season, putting up a 3.61 GAA along with a .854 SV% in 14 games. Friday’s game against Nashville was one to forget as he allowed six goals on 30 shots in an overtime loss which appears to be the last straw.
That said, it’s not as if Carolina’s other two netminders have been demonstrably better either. Prior to being sidelined with blood clots, Frederik Andersen had a career-low .894 SV% in his six appearances while Pyotr Kochetkov has been hit or miss in his 14 games, checking in with a .890 SV%. Those numbers are below the NHL average this season as well.
With Andersen still out indefinitely, the timing of this move is particularly noteworthy. The only other goalie that Carolina has on an NHL contract is prospect Yaniv Perets who is playing with ECHL Norfolk with the Hurricanes not having their own AHL affiliate this year. Are they really comfortable running with him as the backup to Kochetkov?
Accordingly, it’s possible that Raanta’s waiving is the precursor to a trade. Speculatively, the other team might not want to take Raanta’s contract on, or, conversely, want to make sure he’d be available to be recalled from the minors if they were to move a netminder. Montreal, Columbus, Buffalo, and Detroit are currently carrying three goalies on their active roster at the moment with those teams having varying degrees of interest in dropping to two. Meanwhile, there may be other teams that are willing to move one of their two current goaltenders as well.
Of course, it’s also worth noting that Raanta doesn’t have to be sent down if he clears waivers on Sunday at 1 PM CT. This could just be a move to give them a bit of extra flexibility when it comes to day-to-day cap management or to try to send Raanta a message to help try to get him back on track. With the roster freeze now just a week away, it shouldn’t be long before we find out what route Carolina intends to take with the veteran. If he does clear and is sent down, Carolina will be able to clear a prorated $1.15MM off their salary cap.
Slovakia Announces Roster For 2024 World Juniors
Hockey Slovakia has announced its contingent for the upcoming 2024 World Junior Championship in Gothenburg, Sweden, via Matej Deraj of Dennik Sport.
It’s a testament to the state of Slovak hockey to see a bevy of first-round picks and NHL-drafted names on the roster, even without the country’s two top youngsters in Canadiens forward Juraj Slafkovsky and Devils defenseman Simon Nemec, both of whom will stay with their pro squads and were not loaned out for the event. Nonetheless, they’re still a potential upset candidate for a medal and have a strong, well-rounded offense. The full roster is here:
F Peter Císar (undrafted)
F Alex Čiernik (PHI)
F František Dej (undrafted)
F Dalibor Dvorský (STL)
F Samuel Honzek (CGY)
F Roman Kukumberg (undrafted)
F Patrik Masnica (undrafted)
F Filip Mešár (MTL)
F Martin Mišiak (CHI)
F Juraj Pekarčík (STL)
F Servác Petrovský (MIN)
F Peter Repčík (undrafted)
F Markus Suchý (undrafted)
F Adam Sýkora (NYR)
F Alex Šotek (undrafted)
F Adam Žlnka (ARI)
D Richard Baran (undrafted)
D Jakub Chromiak (undrafted)
D Viliam Kmec (undrafted)
D Marián Moško (undrafted)
D Dávid Nátny (undrafted)
D Milan Pišoja (undrafted)
D Luka Radivojevič (undrafted)
D Maxim Štrbák (BUF)
D Boris Žabka (undrafted)
G Rastislav Eliaš (undrafted)
G Adam Gajan (CHI)
G Samuel Urban (undrafted)
The roster is undoubtedly highlighted by Dvorský, the only top-ten selection on this list. After a disappointing start to the season on loan to the Swedish Hockey League’s IK Oskarshamn, in which he recorded no points in ten games, he signed on with the OHL’s Sudbury Wolves and has dominated since coming to North American ice. The 18-year-old has 18 goals and 34 points in 20 games on the season, including 11 goals and 22 points in his last ten games at the time of writing. He’s quickly looking like a threat to jump to the NHL full-time in 2024-25.
Honzek is also a player to watch. The 19-year-old sustained an injury at last year’s tournament, which limited him to two appearances, and a separate injury has limited him to just five games with the WHL’s Vancouver Giants this season. If he can remain healthy, the hulking winger will be among the team’s leading scorers at the tournament and will play a key role in helping them to some upset wins en route to a potential medal.
Mešár rounds out the first-round picks on this roster, selected 26th overall by the Canadiens in 2022. Like Dvorský, he’s putting up great production in the OHL, notching 32 points in 20 games. After recording six points in five games for Slovakia at last year’s tournament while serving as an alternate captain, he’ll assume the role of the team’s main leadership figure in Gothenburg.
Things thin out on defense. Kmec is expected to log big minutes for the Slovaks on the back end in his third trip to the World Juniors, although Štrbák will challenge for the de facto number-one role as the only NHL-drafted prospect. Radivojevič, who is 16 years old and not draft-eligible until 2025, is an intriguing inclusion after making his professional debut for the SHL’s Örebro HK this season.
Gajan, a second-round pick of the Blackhawks last season, will hold down the starter’s crease. He excelled in the 2023 World Juniors, recording a sparkling .936 SV% in four appearances en route to a very close quarterfinal loss against the Canadians.
Latest On Edmonton Oilers Trade Needs
The Edmonton Oilers suffered a deflating loss at the hands of the Florida Panthers last night, their second-consecutive loss by at least a three-goal margin. Their turnaround under new head coach Kris Knoblauch has been strong regardless, but these past two losses have made clear that there are still underlying issues with the Oilers’ roster construction.
It’s not just a goaltending issue, either. The Athletic’s Daniel Nugent-Bowman wrote late last night that the Oilers are currently receiving “nothing” from their middle-six forwards, and the team will likely need to look for external additions to strengthen that weak area. (subscription link)
Nugent-Bowman specifically singled out two players as “the biggest disappointments” in the middle-six relative to the offense they were expected to produce: Ryan McLeod and Connor Brown.
McLeod, an energetic pivot who helps keep play flowing in a positive direction, has just seven points in 28 games and is no longer receiving power-play ice time. Brown, 29, lost all of last season to a knee injury but as recently as 2021-22 had scored 39 points.
Brown has two 20-goal seasons on his resume but has yet to score his first goal as an Oiler, despite playing in 22 games for the club so far. Brown is owed a $3.225MM bonus, and with the Oilers up against the salary cap the team will be tagged with that number on next year’s cap sheet.
With just one point in his time in Edmonton, it’s looking less and less likely that Brown will be able to produce like the difference-making middle-six winger he was signed to be.
This leaves the Oilers in a difficult spot: their eight-game winning streak demonstrated that they are a team capable of making the playoffs, but their horrific start to the year makes that task more challenging than it is for other teams.
Without an abundance of trade assets to draw from in order to make deals, one wonders if the Oilers are better off using those scarce resources in the often price-inflated in-season trade market, or waiting until the offseason to make more meaningful roster surgery.
Beyond just an issue of assets available, the Oilers’ lack of cap space also threatens their ability to add external help over the course of the season.
With netminder Jack Campbell in the minors and taking up $3.85MM against the cap, the Oilers may not be able to add anyone impactful, such as the Montreal Canadiens’ Sean Monahan, for example, without money going the other way in the deal. As a result, the challenge of finding a suitable trade is made all the more difficult.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images