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Evening Notes: Tortorella, Askarov, Joseph, Suzdalev

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Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella made history on Friday, become the eighth man to coach in 1,500 NHL games. The milestone was reached via a matchup with the Seattle Kraken that ended in a 2-1 overtime loss for the Flyers. But despite dropping his most recent game, Tortorella has been fantastically successful for much of the rest of this season, currently boasting a 19-11-5 record that has Philadelphia ranked third in the Metropolitan Division. This comes despite Philadelphia being considered one of the league’s rebuilders entering the season, with many expecting the team to start off slow under a new general manager and a second-year head coach.

But Tortorella has pulled the Flyers above their expectations, following an interesting pattern of missing the playoffs in his first full season with a new team but driving towards the post-season in his second year. Tortorella has done the same for every club that he’s coached for, save for the Vancouver Canucks, who he only spent one season with.

Tortorella joins an exclusive list by hitting the 1,500-game mark. Only seven other head coaches have hit the mark – and, interestingly, only three coaches in the Top 10 of games played are officially retired. Four coaches on the list are currently behind NHL benches – with Tortorella joined by Florida’s Paul Maurice, New Jersey’s Lindy Ruff, and New York’s Peter Laviolette. The list also features Barry Trotz, who is taking a break from coaching to serve as the Nashville Predators general manager, and Joel Quenneville and Darryl Sutter, who are both coaching free agents with differing levels of optimism around if they may coach again in the future.

Other notes from around the league:

  • The Nashville Predators have sent top goalie prospect Yaroslav Askarov to the minor leagues. Askarov played in two games while with the Predators roster, saving 33 of a possible 35 shots. Askarov has also played in 15 AHL games this season, setting an 8-6-1 record and .908 save percentage.
  • Pierre-Olivier Joseph is set to miss the Penguins’ Sunday night matchup against the New York Islanders, continuing to sit out with illness. Joseph’s last game was on December 16th. He’s played in eight NHL games this year, recording one assist and a -3.
  • Washington Capitals 2022 second-round draft pick Alexander Suzdalev has had his WHL rights traded from the Regina Pats to the Saskatoon Blades. Regina received three players and three draft picks in return, including a first round pick in the 2026 Draft. Suzdalev scored 86 points in 66 WHL games last season, adding 10 points in seven playoff games. But he’s since returned to Sweden, playing in 13 games and scoring three points with Mora IK of Sweden’s second league. This blockbuster WHL move could be a sign that Suzdalev is poised for a return to Canadian juniors.

Marc-Andre Fleury Becomes Fourth Goalie With 1,000 Games Played

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With his appearance in Minnesota’s 3-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday, Marc-Andre Fleury has officially joined one of the most exclusive clubs in all of hockey, playing in his 1,000th NHL game. While hundreds of skaters have managed the feat, only three other goaltenders have had careers long enough and performances strong enough to reach the mark – Martin Brodeur (1,266 Games), Roberto Luongo (1,044), and Patrick Roy (1,029). The trio is arguably three of the best goaltenders of all time and will now be joined by Fleury, whose 55 percent win-percentage is the highest of any of the four goalies.

Fleury’s path to this milestone came largely thanks to his 13 years with the Pittsburgh Penguins, where the French Canadian was able to become the winningest goalie in club history with 375 wings through a team-high 691 games played. But it was Fleury’s postseason performances that turned him into a legend for one of the league’s most prolific clubs. Fleury established himself as the team’s long-term starter in the 2008 Stanley Cup playoffs, carrying the Penguins to the Stanley Cup Finals thanks to a dazzling .933 save percentage in 20 starts. He immediately became the guy in the 2008-09 season, ranking eighth in the league with 62 games played. The major uptick in ice time didn’t faze Fleury, who held it together enough to record a .908 save percentage in 24 games during the 2009 Playoffs, helping lift the Penguins to their first Stanley Cup in 17 years.

But as much as it built up his early career, postseason performances were also the downfall of Fleury’s time in Pittsburgh, who ultimately lost his starting role to the hot hand of rookie Matt Murray during the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Murray would go on to lead the Penguins to another Stanley Cup win, on the back of a .923 save percentage in 21 games. Fleury would continue in Pittsburgh for one more season, platooning with Murray during the 2017 postseason, but the writing was on the wall – and after Murray won over the starting role en route to a second Cup, it was time for Fleury to move on. The Penguins traded the Vegas Golden Knights a second-round draft pick to incentivize them to take Fleury int he 2017 NHL Expansion Draft.

The Golden Knights were quickly rewarded for taking the veteran, with Fleury bouncing immediately back to his postseason form – leading Vegas to the Stanley Cup Finals in their first year with a .927 save percentage in 20 games. He continued to thrive in the postseason with Vegas, setting a combined .914 save percentage over his next three seasons with the team, which saw 27 playoff games.

Fleury moved away from the Golden Knights in 2021, briefly joining the Chicago Blackhawks before being traded to the Minnesota Wild for a conditional second-round pick. Now 39 years old, Fleury is relishing on a successful .905 save percentage and 39-23-6 record in three years with the Wild. He’s lost the everyday starter role to Filip Gustavsson but still boasts an .893 in 14 games this year.

It’s been a prolific career for Fleury, emphasized by a Gold Medal win at the 2010 Winter Olympics and a Vezina Trophy and William Jennings Trophy win in the 2020-21 season. Fleury is set to become a free agent at the end of this season. If he decides to call it a career, he will be retiring as one of the winningest goaltenders of all time – one of only 21 goaltenders to win three-or-more Stanley Cups and ranked in the top 10 of all-time wins. The question now becomes whether his 1,000th game can combine with all of his other accolades to earn Fleury a Hall of Fame induction.

Pittsburgh Penguins Recall Ryan Shea

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have announced that they’ve recalled defenseman Ryan Shea from their AHL affiliate. Shea was recalled last night before the Penguins 4-2 win over the St. Louis Blues but did not play as John Ludvig and Chad Ruhwedel took shifts on the third pairing.

Shea spent the first 22 games of this season in the NHL with the Penguins and didn’t post any points during that time. He was placed on waivers back on December 18th and reassigned to the AHL after the Penguins’ defense core was fully healthy. Once Shea found himself in the AHL with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, he dressed in four games and registered no points while going +2.

Shea’s recall comes after Pierre-Olivier Joseph missed last night’s game due to an illness. Shea will likely be a healthy scratch today when the Penguins take on the New York Islanders to close out 2023. The Penguins seem keen to keep the third pairing of Ludvig and Ruhwedel as neither player has done anything to play their way out of the lineup.

Shea was signed to a one-year, one-way contract by the Penguins in the offseason to add depth to their blueline and has played far more in the NHL than he or the Penguins likely anticipated heading into the season. Before this season, Shea had never dressed in an NHL game and spent three seasons with the Dallas Stars AHL affiliate. Shea posted a +37 last year in 70 games with the Texas Stars and registered seven goals and 21 assists.

Pierre-Olivier Joseph Out With Illness

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Puljujarvi Takes Part In Practice On Friday

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  • Winger Jesse Puljujarvi skated with the Penguins on Friday for the first time since joining them on a PTO earlier this month, relays Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The 25-year-old has been working his way back from double hip surgery and still hasn’t been fully cleared to play.  If that comes after a few more skates with Pittsburgh, Puljujarvi could be an intriguing addition in the second half of the season on what’s quite likely to be a deal at or near the league minimum.

Metropolitan Notes: Pacioretty, Bear, Cizikas, Lazar, Penguins

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5:30 PM: Curtis Lazar has been declared ’out’ for Friday.

5:00 PM: The Washington Capitals will have to wait a little longer for the highly-anticipated debuts of newcomers Max Pacioretty and Ethan Bear, with both players set to sit out of the team’s Friday night game. Both players signed with the Capitals during their recovery from injury, with Pacioretty coming back from his second Achille’s tendon tear and Bear recovering from a shoulder surgery required after taking a big hit during the 2023 World Championships.

Pacioretty joined Washington this summer, signing a one-year, $2MM contract with the club on July 1st. Pacioretty only appeared in five games last season, although he did manage three goals. His 2021-22 season didn’t last for much longer, only seeing 39 games and 37 points. We have to go back to the 2019-20 season to find the last year that Pacioretty appeared in 50 or more regular season games. That year was his second with the Vegas Golden Knights and saw the 855-game veteran record 32 goals and 66 points in 71 games.

Bear’s injury struggles haven’t been as long-running, with the defender managing 61 games with the Vancouver Canucks last season. He scored 16 points through that stretch, marking the second-most points he’s scored in his career, behind his 2019-20 season which saw him net 21 points in 71 games with the Edmonton Oilers. Washington will become the fourth organization that Bear has been apart of through his five-year NHL career, which has been split evenly between two Pacific Division and two Metropolitan Division teams.

Other Metropolitan Division Notes:

What Your Team Is Thankful For: Pittsburgh Penguins

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As the new year 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 Pittsburgh Penguins.

Who are the Penguins thankful for?

Sidney Crosby.

There is very little doubt as to who the Penguins should be thankful for. Sidney Crosby is the face of the franchise, he saved the team, and in his 19th NHL season, he has had to drag the lifeless Penguins to victory on more than one occasion.

Crosby has quietly played at a level this season that few 36-year-olds have ever played at. In 33 games this season, Crosby has 19 goals and 16 assists. While it isn’t one of his best offensive seasons, he has put up those numbers without the benefit of a productive power play. The Penguins’ current power play is tied for the sixth worst in the entire NHL despite having Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Erik Karlsson, and Jake Guentzel on it.

Crosby’s productivity this season goes well beyond what he does in the offensive zone. He’s been downright dominant in the faceoff circle, stronger defensively, and has been more physical than in recent years. His two-way play is elite, and while it would be surprising to see this happen, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that we could be seeing his name in the Selke Trophy conversation come the end of the season.

Crosby will likely end his career in Pittsburgh, and he should. He is not only the on-ice leader of the Penguins, but he is also the heart and soul of the entire organization, particularly with Mario Lemieux less involved with the team now. Many people have waited for Sid the Kid to see his play tail off but given his work this season it doesn’t appear it will happen anytime soon. And for that the Penguins and their fanbase should be very thankful.

What are the Penguins thankful for?

Their top six forwards.

The Penguins’ power play might be amongst the worst in the league, but their top-six forward group is one of the strongest in the NHL. Crosby, Malkin, Guentzel, Bryan Rust, Reilly Smith, and Rickard Rakell are a very strong group of scorers, and they have to be because they are the only ones who score on most nights for Pittsburgh.

Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan has been very busy this season shuffling the forwards around, and while he has dropped Rakell and Smith to the third line on occasion, he has largely kept the six men as a constant on the top two lines. Many Penguins fans have called for Sullivan to spread the offensive wealth over the top three lines as the Penguins have struggled to generate depth scoring, but anytime the Penguins coach has done so the results have been meek at best. The Penguins lack offensive forwards outside of the ones that play in the top six, and anytime they have sent a top-six forward to the third line, they have been unable to generate any additional offense, and the top two lines have suffered.

It’s been pretty obvious all year that the Penguins’ third and fourth lines lack an offensive component and that will be general manager Kyle Dubas’ biggest obstacle to overcome if he’s going to help Pittsburgh get back to the playoffs. But for now, Pittsburgh will have to continue to heavily rely on their top six forwards, as they have for most of this season.

What would the Penguins be even more thankful for?

The continued undoing of the Ron Hextall era.

Ron Hextall had a very tumultuous run as Penguins general manager and much of the work he did during his two-and-a-half-year run was undone by Dubas when he took control of the Penguins this past summer. Dubas was quick to identify Jeff Petry, Mikael Granlund, and Jan Rutta as players that didn’t fit the mould of how Sullivan wanted the Penguins to play and in two separate trades, Dubas was able to move on from those three players. Dubas was also able to let Ryan Poehling, Josh Archibald and Danton Heinen walk and move on from Mark Friedman in an additional trade. When all was said and done, Dubas was able to turn over nearly half of the Penguins roster from last year to this season, and while the group is improved, there are still many relics from the Hextall era that the Penguins could stand to move on from.

The most obvious is Jeff Carter, who is virtually unmovable thanks to an ill-advised two-year contract that Hextall gave him in January 2022. Fortunately for the Penguins, Carter’s deal finishes up at the end of this season and that $3.125MM should be allocated more effectively going forward.

The Penguins also have Ty Smith and Alex Nylander who are toiling away in the AHL after they were unable to show they belonged on the NHL roster. Smith was acquired in an ill-fated trade with the New Jersey Devils for top-four defenseman John Marino and Nylander was exchanged for speedster Sam Lafferty who has been a very effective depth piece in Vancouver.

The biggest change Hextall made was to the Penguins’ bottom two lines, they were dismantled under his watch as he moved on from Freddy Gaudreau, Jared McCann, Evan Rodrigues, Brandon Tanev, and the aforementioned Lafferty while choosing to hold on to more defensive-minded forwards who provided little in the way of offense.

The Penguins would do well to buck this trend in favor of more offensive-minded bottom-six forwards, which leads us to our next section.

What should be on the Penguins holiday wish list?

Bottom-six help.

It wasn’t until their 11th game that Pittsburgh received a goal from their fourth line, and while two-thirds of that line has been part of a very effective penalty kill, they need to get on the scoresheet a lot more if Pittsburgh is going to make a run at the playoffs.

In the previous section much was made about Hextall and the previous management regime making moves to create a bottom six that couldn’t score, however, current general manager Dubas failed to address the Penguins depth scoring woes in the offseason and doubled down on defensive-minded forwards by signing Matthew Nieto, Noel Acciari, and Lars Eller at a time when Pittsburgh needed to add a scoring forward. The Penguins have responded with strong team defense as they sit sixth in the league in goals against, however, they have struggled to score sitting 25th in the league in goals for.

In a perfect world, the Penguins would acquire a true third-line center with some offensive output who could push Eller into a fourth-line role. This would perhaps allow the Penguins to create a third scoring line and push some of those in the current bottom six into slots that better suit their skillset.

Kris Letang Sets NHL Record For Assists In Single Period

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  • The Maple Leafs recalled center Pontus Holmberg from AHL Toronto yesterday, per CapFriendly. Holmberg, who is still waiver-exempt, has been ferried up and down between leagues frequently this season to serve as injury insurance for the Maple Leafs. He last played on December 16 against the Penguins and has one assist in eight games this season, averaging 8:53 per game. He was a healthy scratch for last night’s loss against the Senators. The 24-year-old Swede has excelled at the AHL level this season, potting ten points in 11 games.
  • Penguins defenseman Kris Letang is a member of one of the most venerable trios in hockey history with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, but he’s often been overshadowed by the achievements of his peers. He took home a milestone of his own last night, however, setting an NHL record by registering five assists in the second period against the Islanders – the most ever in a single period by a defenseman. He added another assist in the third, giving him a six-point night and bringing him to 0.7 points per game on the season, much closer to the pace we’re accustomed to seeing from him. The 36-year-old is still barely ahead of Erik Karlsson for the highest average time on ice on the team (24:40) and is now second on the team in assists behind Jake Guentzel with 20. Letang has four seasons remaining after this on a contract carrying a $6.1MM cap hit.

Keeping Jake Guentzel Could Be Penguins Big Trade Deadline Move

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The Ottawa Senators announced today that they have recalled forwards Angus Crookshank and Jiri Smejkal from their AHL affiliate in Belleville. Both players had been previously assigned to the AHL after the Senators 5-4 overtime win on Saturday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Both Crookshank and Smejkal had been with the Senators on an emergency recall prior to the break and were unable to stay with the club because the emergency conditions wouldn’t be satisfied. But with the team in Toronto tomorrow night to take on the Maple Leafs both players were able to be recalled joining the club as they get set to begin a busy stretch of games over the next few weeks. The Senators play three times before the new year and 15 times in January as they try to play catchup to the rest of the Eastern Conference.

In other evening notes:

  • The Minnesota Wild announced a pair of recalls as they brought up Daemon Hunt and Jake Lucchini from the Iowa Wild of the AHL. Both players were reassigned to Iowa on Sunday making this move a paper transaction similar to that of the Senators. Lucchini has spent most of the year in Iowa and played his first game with Minnesota on December 23rd. His recall could mean that forward Ryan Hartman will remain out of action when the Wild resume play against the Detroit Red Wings tomorrow night. Hunt will likely serve as the Wild’s extra defenseman for tomorrow night’s game.
  • Dan Kingerski of Pittsburgh Hockey Now writes that he believes it is possible the Pittsburgh Penguins could hang on to pending unrestricted free agent Jake Guentzel until the end of the season and treat that as their big trade deadline acquisition. The Penguins currently sit five points back of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference but hold three games in hand on the Tampa Bay Lightning who currently occupy that position. Kingerski believes that the Penguins will forgo a potential trade package for Guentzel if they remain within six points of the playoffs by the end of January.

Ty Smith To Play At Spengler Cup

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  • Penguins defenseman Ty Smith has been loaned by AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. It has been a disappointing year for the 23-year-old in the sense that he passed through waivers unclaimed.  However, he has been quite productive in the minors so far, collecting 22 points in 27 games.

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