Flyers’ Michael Del Zotto To Return Saturday
After a suffering a knee injury at the beginning of October, Flyers’ defenseman Michael Del Zotto is set to return to the lineup on Saturday night, according to Sam Carchidi of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Del Zotto was placed on injured reserve on October 7th, and originally given a timetable of 4-5 weeks which was clearly accurate.
After a successful first season with the Flyers in 2014-15, Del Zotto fought his way through another injury plagued year in 2015-16, a situation far too familiar to the 26-year old. He’s played in 80+ games just once in his career, his rookie season with the New York Rangers, and has eclipsed 70 just one other time. If he’s to make the impact many Philadelphia fans hope, he’ll have to avoid injury for the rest of this season.
[Related: Philadelphia Flyers Depth Chart]
Expected to skate alongside Flyers’ star sophomore Shayne Gostisbehere, Del Zotto will deepen a Philadelphia defense corps that has allowed a league-leading 43 goals through 12 contests. Remarkably, the team is at 6-5-1 on the year and still poised to take a run at the playoffs again this season.
The team will have some roster work to do however before activating the defenseman, as they currently sit more than $1MM over the cap and have to be compliant before bringing Del Zotto back into the fold. The team could perhaps move Andrew MacDonald to LTIR, as he’s out at least a week with a lower-body injury.
Injury Notes: Thursday November 3rd
Injury notes from around the NHL this evening:
- The Los Angeles Kings have officially placed forward Andy Andreoff on IR today. Andreoff suffered an upper-body injury in the Kings’ 3-0 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks. It is unknown what caused the injury, but Andreoff left the ice with 2:24 in the second period and did not return, reports LA Kings Insider Jon Rosen. The former third-round draft pick currently has zero points in eight games for the Kings this season.
- The Arizona Coyotes are without Martin Hanzal, Michael Stone, and Tobias Rieder tonight as all three are out with various injuries, reports AZ Central’s Sarah McLellan. The Coyotes have been hit hard with the injury bug, including losing starting goaltender Mike Smith to a lower body injury. Smith has skated with full gear for the past couple of days, but has not faced any shots or done any actual goaltending yet. The Coyotes look forward to the return of all these players as they sit 3-6-0 on the season.
- The Philadelphia Flyers have activated Michael Raffl off of IR today, and expect him in the lineup tonight against the Islanders, reports the team. Raffl missed the last eight games due to an abdominal injury suffered in a match against the Chicago Blackhawks. The Flyers have scratched Dale Weise tonight to make room for Raffl. Weise has only one point in eight games for the Flyers so far this season.
Snapshots: Vrbata, Detroit Injuries, Beleskey, Flyers
Arizona right winger Radim Vrbata holds a unique distinction among the 719 players to suit up in the NHL this season, writes Alex Prewitt of Sports Illustrated. Vrbata is the lone player in the league to be in his third stint with the same organization. Vrbata played with the Coyotes in 2007-08, then was traded back there again in 2009, staying until 2014. After a two year stint with Vancouver, he returned to the desert, signing a one year, incentive-laden deal with Arizona this summer.
When he had signed with the Canucks, Vrbata admitted that he never really wanted to leave the Coyotes and had stayed in touch with plenty of players and staffers over the past two seasons with the hope of returning down the road. The 35 year old enjoyed the familiarity that only Arizona could provide, from the market to the coach (Dave Tippett), to even his linemate in Martin Hanzal.
That comfort level appears to have been quite helpful for Vrbata in his third stint with the team. After following up a 63 point effort two years ago with arguably the worst season of his career in 2015-16, he’s off to a strong start with Arizona this season with four goals and six assists through his first nine games and is currently skating on their top line.
[Related: Coyotes Depth Chart]
Elsewhere around the league:
- Red Wings right winger Thomas Vanek is expected to miss the next 2-3 weeks with a hip strain, GM Ken Holland told MLive’s Ansar Khan. Holland remains hopeful that defenseman Niklas Kronwall, who has yet to play this season with a knee injury, will be able to return to the lineup in the next week or so. Meanwhile right winger Tomas Jurco, who is still recovering from offseason back surgery, is likely to be cleared for contact sometime next week. Holland anticipates Jurco would need another 7-10 days beyond that to get into game shape.
- Bruins left winger Matt Beleskey is set to be a healthy scratch tonight against Tampa Bay, notes CSN New England’s Joe Haggerty. Beleskey is off to a tough start this season with no points and a -7 rating in nine games. Prospect Sean Kuraly will make his NHL debut in Beleskey’s spot on Boston’s third line.
- The Flyers have sent center Scott Laughton to their AHL affiliate in Lehigh Valley on a conditioning assignment, the team announced. The 22 year old suffered a lower body injury back in training camp and is currently on long-term injury reserve. He’s eligible to be activated on Saturday but it would appear that he’ll get into a couple of games in the minors before joining Philadelphia’s active roster. Still with Philly, defenseman Andrew MacDonald is expected to miss at least the next week with a lower body injury, the club announced (Twitter link).
Metropolitan Notes: Flyers Goaltending, Gordon, Rask, Kreider, Murray
While the Flyers were hoping that goaltending would be a strength for them this season, the exact opposite has been the case so far, notes Dave Isaac of the Courier-Post. Through ten games, Philadelphia has a team save percentage of .866, the second lowest in the NHL (Carolina is last at .864). Not surprisingly, head coach Dave Hakstol has changed goalies in-game three times already.
Both Steve Mason and Michal Neuvirth are set to be unrestricted free agents following the season and so far, they aren’t performing well in their contract years. Before the season started, GM Ron Hextall said that he didn’t anticipate signing either to an extension and right now that’s looking like a shrewd move.
For the time being at least, it’s likely that Hakstol will continue to platoon the two in the hopes that one will get on a roll. If neither get going though, they could be a team who looks outside the organization for goaltending help before too long.
More notes from the Metropolitan Division:
- Still with the Flyers, the team announced that center Boyd Gordon will be out for at least a week with an upper body injury. While the release doesn’t specifically note it, Gordon will be placed on injured reserve. He has played in eight games so far this season, picking up a goal while averaging 8:30 per game on the fourth line.
- While Carolina’s decision to sign center Victor Rask to a six year, $24MM extension in the offseason raised more than a few eyebrows, the early returns on the new contract have been quite promising, writes Luke DeCock of the News and Observer. Not only does he lead the team in scoring with ten points (4-6-10) in eight games, he has recorded a point in every game so far. Coincidentally, the only other player in franchise history to pick up at least a point in each of the first eight games of the season is the person who signed Rask to that contract, GM Ron Francis.
- The New York Rangers will welcome back left winger Chris Kreider to the lineup tonight, reports Justin Tasch of the New York Daily News. He has missed the last four games due to neck spasms. Prior to the injury, he was off to a strong start to the season with seven points (3-4-7) in five games. He’s expected to play alongside Mika Zibanejad who he has skated with going back to training camp and Mats Zuccarello. Oscar Lindberg is expected to be a healthy scratch to open up a spot for Kreider to return.
- Blue Jackets defenseman Ryan Murray is expected to return to the lineup tonight, notes Tom Reed of the Columbus Dispatch. It has been a rocky season for the 23 year old so far. He has missed the last four games with an upper body issue and has also missed time with a lower body issue suffered while blocking a shot in the season opener. As a result, he has only seen action in two games this season. Murray logged nearly 23 minutes a game last year and will be a welcome addition for John Tortorella’s blueline moving forward.
Friedman’s Latest: Spooner, Flyers, Canadiens, Trouba, Capitals
As is the case every Tuesday, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman released his latest 30 Thoughts column. As always, the whole article is worth a read but here are some of the highlights, including Ryan Spooner in Boston, the Flyers looking to free up some cap space, an update on Jacob Trouba, and more:
- Teams are expressing an interest in Boston center Ryan Spooner, particularly since he was a healthy scratch for their home opener. He’s one year removed from a 49 point season with a cap hit of just $950K so he’d fit in on the cap for most teams around the league. He’s still just 24 years of age so it’s certainly conceivable that the Bruins still view him as part of their future. Friedman wonders if prospect Austin Czarnik could play a role in whether or not the team looks at moving Spooner. He may not be ready for full-time duty just yet but he could be in the near future.
- With Michael Del Zotto and Scott Laughton are nearing a return to the lineup, the Flyers are believed to be trying to make a move to free up some cap room. Both players are currently on LTIR so the team will need to get cap compliant before they can activate them. Matt Read is off to a strong start this year with five goals already and Friedman suggests they may not be as willing to move him now as they were earlier.
- The Canadiens are shopping for some defensive help but are in particular looking for a top four player. With Cam Fowler presumably off the market and Jacob Trouba not believed to have interest in playing for any of the Canadian teams, there aren’t really many of those available at the moment.
- Speaking of Trouba, he has shown no interest so far in a short-term bridge deal that would allow him to get back to action while still basically maintaining his trade request. We took a closer look yesterday at where things are with Trouba, who has one month to sign or else he’ll be forced to sit the rest of the NHL season.
- With Evgeny Kuznetsov (pending RFA) and Karl Alzner (pending UFA) needing contracts at the end of the year, Washington GM Brian McLellan acknowledges that this could be the last run for the Capitals with their current core group. He believes the team is as strong as it has been in a long time down the middle with the addition of Lars Eller although he is off to a slow start offensively with just one goal so far this season.
Snapshots: Murray, Sceviour, Plager
Matt Murray is finally going to make his 2016-17 debut, it might just have to wait a few more days. Even though the goaltender has been “going full-speed now for almost two weeks” he won’t start this Saturday versus the Philadelphia Flyers. Instead, according to Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Murray will get one of the west coast back-to-back games on Wednesday and Thursday. The Penguins visit the Ducks and then the Kings in some inter-conference action.
Murray is coming back from a broken hand he suffered during the World Cup when he backstopped the young guns (Team North America) in the tournament. While the Penguins claimed Mike Condon off waivers earlier in the season to replace Murray, they’re hesitant to lose any of the three solid pieces they have in net. They view them all as considerable assets, and don’t want to lose any for nothing.
- Colton Sceviour will be moved up in the lineup according to George Richards of the Miami Herald. After getting a season-high 15 minutes in the Panthers latest loss at the hands of the Maple Leafs on Thursday night, the former Dallas Star will replace Kyle Rau on the second line. The Panthers are without Jonathan Huberdeau, Nick Bjugstad and Jussi Jokinen due to various injuries and have had to move pieces in and out of their top-six in recent games. While Jon Marchessault is thriving on the top line, the unit of Rau-Trocheck-Smith weren’t as effective against the Maple Leafs.
- The St. Louis Blues will retire number 5 in honor of Bob Plager this season. Plager has been with the club for almost 50 years since his addition as a player on June 6th, 1967, holding almost every position possible: player, head coach, director of scouting, director of player development and others. Plager’s #5 will join Al MacInnis (#2), Bob Gassoff (#3), Barclay Plager (his brother and #8), Brian Sutter (#11), Brett Hull (#16) and Bernie Federko (#24) among retired numbers for the Blues.
Flyers Recall Leier; Simmonds Avoids Hearing
Update (3:25pm): Panaccio, via Twitter, confirms that the team has placed Raffl on IR creating the need for the recall of Leier.
The Philadelphia Flyers have recalled LW Taylor Leier according to a tweet from Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The reason for the recall is currently unclear though it appears it won’t be to take the place of Wayne Simmonds, who seems to have avoided a hearing with the Department of Player Safety after cross-checking Canadiens defenseman Andrei Markov into the boards during last night’s game. Simmonds defended the hit, arguing he “barely touched” Markov, suggesting the Habs blue liner was trying to sell the penalty call, as Tim Panaccio of CSN Philly adds.
The Flyers currently have the maximum 23 players on their roster and will have to make a corresponding move to make room for Leier. Dave Isaac of the Courier-Post suggests that move may be placing Michael Raffl on IR retroactive to last Wednesday. Raffl was injured in last Tuesday’s game against Chicago.
Leier appeared in six games for the Flyers last season, failing to register a point while averaging just 7:43 of ice time. He was originally selected by the Flyers in the fourth round of the 2012 entry draft. Leier tallied 20 goals and 49 points last season for Lehigh Valley and has netted 81 points overall in 147 AHL games.
More to follow.
Flyers Notes: Manning, Read, Team Size, Mason
Last month, Flyers defenseman Brandon Manning was looking like he might be on the outside looking in for a roster spot. The six game suspension for Radko Gudas gave him a chance to start the season with the team and as Greg Paone of CSNPhilly writes, Manning has made a huge impression for Philadelphia and has arguably been their best defender so far.
Through the first five games, Manning has a goal and three assists to go along with a team high +5 rating. He’s also averaging a career high in minutes with 17:29 per game.
Gudas has one game remaining on his suspension which he will serve tonight, making him eligible to return to Philadelphia’s lineup on Tuesday night against Buffalo. With Manning making his case to stay, Nick Schultz could be the odd man out before too long. The Flyers won’t have to make a roster move to accommodate Gudas returning to game action as he is already part of their active 23-man roster.
[Related: Flyers Depth Chart]
More out of Philadelphia:
- Winger Matt Read, who has been up and down in the lineup in recent years, is off to a strong start this season with five goals in as many games. By comparison, he had just 11 last year and eight the season before that. The 30 year old told CSNPhilly’s Jordan Hall that his early success can be attributed to a willingness to drive towards the net instead of playing on the perimeter as he has in the past. Philadelphia has been rumored to have shopped Read around in the past and with two years to go on a contract worth $3.625MM, he’ll need to keep up his early season performance for a little while yet before any sort of market would open up for him.
- While they were once known as the Broad Street Bullies, this current version of the Flyers won’t be receiving that distinction any time soon. GM Ron Hextall was looking to make the team younger and faster over the offseason (a growing trend in the NHL) but as Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer notes, to do so, the team is currently the smallest in the league. That isn’t to say that the Flyers don’t intend to play physical; forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare believes that smaller players with speed can often make more of an impact physically than bigger but slower skaters. They’re putting that theory into practice as the team currently sits tenth in the league with 115 hits through five games.
- Goaltender Steve Mason will get his third straight start tonight against Montreal despite his struggles on the road dating back to last season. In 2015-16, Mason allowed over a half a goal per game more on the road compared to at home while his save percentage was 17 points lower.
Snapshots: Corrado, Tortorella, Rakell, Weise
Toronto blueliner Frank Corrado finds himself in a familiar situation this season and as Chris Johnston of Sportsnet writes, it’s not a good one to be in. Last year, the Leafs claimed Corrado off of waivers just prior to the start of the season and then proceeded to keep him in the press box for the better part of two months, save for a brief conditioning stint in the AHL. The justification was that the team thought high enough of him to keep him on the roster and not risk losing him for nothing but that he wasn’t quite good enough to be in the lineup.
Fast forward to this year and history seems to be repeating itself for Corrado, who has been a healthy scratch in four straight games to start the year. Toronto is carrying eight defensemen to start the season and their other scratch – Roman Polak – made his season debut on Thursday, suggesting that Corrado once again sits eighth on the depth chart without much hope of getting into the lineup. The belief remains that if Toronto tried to assign him to the minors, he’d be claimed off of waivers, creating an identical situation to last season.
For the time being, it appears that like last season, it’s going to take an injury or two for Corrado to get into the lineup. Until then, he’ll have to bide his time and wait for a chance which is far from an ideal situation for a 23 year old who has yet to play 50 games in each of the last two years.
More from around the league:
- Today marks the one year anniversary of the Blue Jackets hiring John Tortorella as their new head coach. In that time, the team has played to a 34-35-8 record, notes Puck Rakers’ Tom Reed. Clearly, Columbus was looking for more of an immediate impact from Tortorella behind the bench and as a result, he is one of the coaches who came into the season firmly on the hot seat. The Jackets made a quick coaching change last season and if the team continues to struggle, GM Jarmo Kekalainen may be quick to pull the trigger again this year.
- The agent for Ducks center Rickard Rakell told Eric Stephens of the OC Register that the expectation is that Rakell will be able to report to the team sometime next week. Rakell is in the process of securing a P-1 visa which is required before he can resume skating with Anaheim. In the meantime, Rakell will continue to work out on his own in Sweden while waiting for the visa process to be completed which is expected to be shortly after the weekend.
- Philadelphia right winger Dale Weise has been suspended for three games as a result of an illegal check to the head on Anaheim defenseman Korbinian Holzer on Thursday night, the NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced. No penalty had been assessed on the hit during the game. Weise becomes the third Flyer to miss time due to suspension already this season, joining Brayden Schenn and Radko Gudas.
Eastern Conference Snapshots: Hoffman, Warsofsky, Pouliot, Weise
Ottawa Senators winger Mike Hoffman has led the team in goal scoring in each of the last two seasons, a fact which prompted the team to sign the 26-year-old to a five-year, $20.75MM extension this summer. Even though he has totaled 56 goals since the start of the 2014-15 campaign, Hoffman is no stranger to slow starts and this season has been no exception. Despite the fact the Sens are tied for second in goals-per-game, Hoffman has yet to tally his first marker of the season. But, as Ken Warren of the Ottawa Citizen writes, it’s only a matter of time before he breaks through.
Hoffman is currently tied with Chris Kreider and Brent Burns in shots on goal with 20 and says he has been getting plenty of scoring chances.
“I’m just trying to keep a level head, I know the goals are going to come. You don’t want to hit the panic button too early. I feel like I’m getting a lot of shots, a lot of chances every game.”
Like Hoffman, head coach Guy Boucher believes the gifted winger will find his scoring touch soon enough.
“I liked a lot of his game (against Arizona). The work is always when the guy is not getting (any chances) and you can see (the confidence) go down, which is not Mike’s case.”
Goal scorers like Hoffman are prone to slumps but when the get hot they tend to score in bunches. So far Hoffman’s inability to put the puck in the net hasn’t had much of an impact on Ottawa’s on-ice fortunes as the team has won three of their first four. Once he does ratchet up his output, the Senators chances of competing for a playoff spot will only improve.
Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference:
- The Pittsburgh Penguins blue line is a little beat up which today prompted the recall of David Warsofsky from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL, according to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. In a related move, the team placed Derrick Pouliot on IR. Pouliot has made just one appearance for the Penguins, and left that game in the second period with an undisclosed injury. It appears that whatever the injury, it could keep Pouliot out a while. In addition to Pouliot, Olli Maatta and Kris Letang are both banged up as well. Letang is considered day-to-day with an upper-body injury but as Mackey writes, he might be healthy enough to suit up Saturday.
- Dale Weise of the Philadelphia Flyers is slated for a hearing with the NHL Department of Player Safety after his illegal check to the head of Anaheim defensman Korbinian Holzer in a game Thursday night. Weise wasn’t penalized on the play but the league wasted no time calling for the hearing. It appears it will be a phone hearing, meaning Weise won’t receive a suspension longer than five games. Weise, signed this summer as a free agent, has not yet recorded a point for the Flyers in four appearances.