Snapshots: Penguins, Stauber, Avalanche, Duclair
If the Penguins are going to be buyers for next month’s trade deadline, there’s at least one key asset that they’re not willing to move. Speaking with reporters including Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, GM Ron Hextall stated that they won’t be willing to move their first-round pick. At this time, Hextall plans to try to add a piece if he can, stating that “If we can do something to make us better this year, I’m looking to do it”. However, with limited space to work with (they have just $1.35MM in LTIR space at the moment per CapFriendly), any move they’re looking to make at this point is probably going to be of the depth variety.
Elsewhere around the NHL:
- The Blackhawks announced that they have recalled goaltender Jaxson Stauber from AHL Rockford. The 23-year-old was sent down over the All-Star break but didn’t see any game action with the IceHogs during that stretch. Stauber won his first two career NHL starts last month, allowing just four goals on 67 shots and has a 3.06 GAA and a .896 SV% in ten minor league contests.
- There’s some good news on the horizon for the Avalanche when it comes to the injury front. Peter Baugh of The Athletic relays (Twitter link) that defenseman Bowen Byram and winger Valeri Nichushkin will return on Tuesday against Colorado. Byram has missed the last 38 games due to a lower-body injury but had been logging nearly 21 minutes a night in his first ten appearances where he picked up five points. Nichushkin, meanwhile, returns from his second ankle injury of the year. He has been quite productive when he has been in the lineup, collecting 18 points in 20 games. Meanwhile, it’s also possible that blueliner Josh Manson accompanies the team on the trip; he has been out for more than two months with a lower-body injury.
- The Panthers are hopeful that winger Anthony Duclair will be able to rejoin the team for practice this week, notes Katie Engelson of Bally Sports Florida (Twitter link). The 27-year-old has missed the entire season so far as he recovered from a torn Achilles. Last season, Duclair had a career year with 31 goals and 27 assists and Florida could really use him back as they look to get back into the playoff picture. With Patric Hornqvist (concussion) on LTIR, they’re not currently in a spot where they need to trade someone in order to free up the cap space to activate Duclair when he’s ready to return.
Injury Notes: Duclair, Pettersson, Kane
The Florida Panthers had a nice bonus at practice today when Anthony Duclair joined the group, albeit in a non-contact sweater. The injured forward is coming back from an Achilles tear last summer, and finally getting closer to getting back into game action. Head coach Paul Maurice spoke with reporters including David Dwork of WPLG Local 10, explaining that the timeline.
I’m hopeful we can get him into a full practice prior to the [All-Star] break, where he’s banging. That way he knows how to train in the break. There’s a chance [he could play] before, but realistically we’re thinking just after the break he can be a player for us.
Maurice went on to explain that as soon as he is fully healthy, Duclair will go right back into the lineup, even if there is some rust on his game. Of course, to activate him the Panthers will need to make some other transactions, as some of his $3MM in cap space is currently being used while he is on long-term injured reserve. Duclair had 31 goals and 58 points in 74 games last season.
- Not only is Marcus Pettersson out of the lineup tonight for the Pittsburgh Penguins – he’s not even on the trip. Pettersson did not travel and is still dealing with the illness that has kept him off the ice. The 26-year-old has turned into one of the team’s most reliable players this year, logging nearly 21 minutes a night and providing outstanding defense in a bigger role.
- As expected, Patrick Kane confirmed to reporters including Mark Lazerus of The Athletic that he will make his return to the Chicago Blackhawks lineup tonight after missing a few games with a lower-body injury. All eyes are on Kane as the trade deadline approaches, and while he continues to climb up the all-time points list. His 1,207 regular season points put him 48th, just two behind Bernie Nicholls and three behind Bobby Clarke.
Central Notes: Avalanche, Leddy, Commesso
With Colorado not really going out and replacing Nazem Kadri who left in free agency last summer, there has been an expectation that the Avalanche would add an impact center at the trade deadline. While there are several rentals that are expected to be available, Bennett Durando of The Denver Post posits that there could be a different direction they could go. If they’re comfortable with Evan Rodrigues and J.T. Compher as their middle-six middlemen, they could look to upgrade on the wing instead. Durando suggests Panthers winger Anthony Duclair as a plausible target; Florida will have cap issues once he and Patric Hornqvist are able to return so there could be an opportunity to buy low. At a $3MM AAV both this season and next, Duclair could be an intriguing option for Colorado, especially since his speed would fit in well with their style of play.
Elsewhere in the Central:
- The Blues could have defenseman Nick Leddy back in the lineup tonight against Tampa Bay, notes Joe Lyons of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The 31-year-old has missed the last four games due to an upper-body injury. Leddy has 11 assists in 39 games so far this season and with Torey Krug out for a while, he’ll likely be called upon to play a bigger role offensively for St. Louis which is something he has been able to do with success in the past.
- While he has another year of NCAA eligibility remaining, goalie Drew Commesso is likely to turn pro for next season, suggests Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times. The 20-year-old was the 46th pick in 2020 by the Blackhawks and has had a bit of an up-and-down third season with Boston University. His GAA (2.58) and SV% (.910) are actually a little worse than last season although a pair of rough starts out of his 14 appearances skew that somewhat. Commesso has also dealt with a hamstring injury which has limited his playing time thus far.
Anthony Duclair Suffers Achilles Injury
July 2: The Panthers have announced that Duclair has undergone successful surgery with an anticipated return of midseason.
June 29: The start of the 2022-23 season isn’t going well for the Florida Panthers. According to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic and Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, Panthers forward Anthony Duclair suffered an Achilles tendon injury during offseason training and will likely require surgery. Though Friedman notes that the current timeline is unclear, surgery would mean a lengthy recovery.
In 2018, for instance, Jean-Gabriel Pageau suffered a torn Achilles during the first day of training camp with the Ottawa Senators and was given a six-month recovery timeline. Panthers fans will be happy to know that it took nowhere near that long for him to actually return. Pageau was activated less than four months later and was in the lineup in early January.
Of course, there are other instances that weren’t so successful. Michal Kempny of the Washington Capitals underwent Achilles surgery in October 2020 and ended up missing nearly the entire 2020-21 season.
For Duclair, this is brutal timing given his recent performance. The 26-year-old winger is coming off a 31-goal season with the Panthers–the best of his career–and is finally an important member of a team’s attack. The 2013 third-round pick worked his way through the New York Rangers, Arizona Coyotes, Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Ottawa Senators before arriving in Sunrise but has found a home with Florida.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Nominees Announced For 2022 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy
The Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy is given out annually to the NHL player who exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey. The award has been voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association since 1968, and today they announced their nominees for 2022.
Past winners of the award include Oskar Lindblom (2021), Bobby Ryan (2020), Robin Lehner (2019), Brian Boyle (2018), Craig Anderson (2017), Jaromir Jagr (2016), Devan Dubnyk (2015), Dominic Moore (2014), and Josh Harding (2013).
Below are the nominees from each team:
Anaheim Ducks – Ryan Getzlaf
Arizona Coyotes – Andrew Ladd
Boston Bruins – Jake DeBrusk
Buffalo Sabres – Kyle Okposo
Calgary Flames – Chris Tanev
Carolina Hurricanes – Antti Raanta
Chicago Blackhawks – Dylan Strome
Colorado Avalanche – Jack Johnson
Columbus Blue Jackets – Justin Danforth
Dallas Stars – Tyler Seguin
Edmonton Oilers – Kris Russell
Florida Panthers – Anthony Duclair
Los Angeles Kings – Blake Lizotte
Minnesota Wild – Jared Spurgeon
Montreal Canadiens – Carey Price
Nashville Predators – Mark Borowiecki
New Jersey Devils – Nico Hischier
New York Islanders – Zdeno Chara
New York Rangers – Chris Kreider
Ottawa Senators – Anton Forsberg
Philadelphia Flyers – Kevin Hayes
Pittsburgh Penguins – Brian Boyle
St. Louis Blues – Vladimir Tarasenko
Seattle Kraken – Jaden Schwartz
Tampa Bay Lightning – Alex Killorn
Toronto Maple Leafs – Ondrej Kase
Vancouver Canucks – Luke Schenn
Vegas Golden Knights – Jack Eichel
Winnipeg Jets – Josh Morrissey
Washington Capitals – Nicklas Backstrom
Anthony Duclair Day-To-Day After Unexpected Scratch
The Florida Panthers lost Friday night against the Washington Capitals in part because of an Alex Ovechkin hat trick, but they went into the game down one of their best forwards after winger Anthony Duclair was unexpectedly pulled from warmups and scratched.
Now, interim head coach Andrew Brunette says Duclair is day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Speaking after the game, Brunette called the scratch “unexpected,” and that he was mostly pulled as a precaution. However, he does say that Duclair will be evaluated in the coming days.
Maxim Mamin, who has a goal in four games this season, filled in on a line with Jonathan Huberdeau and Sam Bennett in Duclair’s absence.
Duclair was finally rewarded with some stability this offseason when the Panthers gave him a three-year, $9MM contract extension this offseason. He’s lit up the scoresheet this season, posting 17 points in 19 games en route to an extremely hot start for the Panthers.
Florida Panthers Re-Sign Anthony Duclair
Busy day in Sunrise. The Florida Panthers have signed another one of their pending restricted free agents, inking Anthony Duclair to a three-year contract. Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reports the deal will carry an average annual value of $3MM. The announcement included a statement from Panthers GM Bill Zito.
Anthony brought great speed and skill to our club this season. We look forward to seeing him continue to be a creative playmaker for us on the ice and a valuable member of our community. We are thrilled to have him as a part of the Panthers family for years to come.
Duclair, 25, has found a home in Florida, finally receiving some contract stability and financial security. The young forward had signed exclusively one-year contracts since his entry-level deal expired in 2017, and never made more than $1.7MM in a single season. Now, with a three-year, $9MM contract in hand, he can continue the strong offensive production he has shown the past few seasons. In 2020-21 for the Panthers, Duclair posted ten goals and 32 points, almost all of which came at even-strength. He had just two powerplay points the whole season, meaning there is potential for even more production if the Panthers ever decide to bump up his usage with the man advantage.
Even if that doesn’t come, the fact that Duclair has proven to be a valuable secondary scorer at 5v5 is an important asset for the Panthers moving forward. There is always a potential downside, and that is that Duclair’s role on the team did decrease significantly in the playoffs. He averaged just 12 minutes a night against the Tampa Bay lightning and registered zero points, something that would be unacceptable now that he’s carrying a $3MM cap hit.
Still, even though his career has been bumpy, betting on a player that has 72 points in his last 109 regular season games seems like a pretty safe gamble, especially given he’s still in his prime years. This move, like the one to sign Gustav Forsling earlier in the day, hints at the Panthers protection strategy for the upcoming expansion draft. Though there was some question to whether the team would leave Duclair exposed as an unsigned RFA, a new reasonably-priced deal should mean he is one of the forwards protected.
Central Notes: Kucherov, Hurricanes, Hofmann, Panthers
While he was ruled out for the year before the regular season got underway, Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov has resumed skating and is on pace to return for the start of the playoffs, notes Joe Smith of the Athletic (Twitter link). The 27-year-old actually did some light work with Tampa Bay in practice although he’s still long way away from being ready to return.
The big question will be when he is indeed ready to play. The Lightning can’t afford to activate him off LTIR at all this season due to their salary cap situation but if he has started light skating drills already, it may also be difficult to argue that he’ll need two full months to recover and then immediately be ready for game one of the playoffs just days later. It’s certainly going to be something to keep an eye on although Tampa Bay is certainly thrilled that their top-scoring forward is doing well in his recovery from offseason surgery.
Elsewhere in the Central:
- The Hurricanes have a few areas that they’d like to improve between now and the trade deadline, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports in the latest 31 Thoughts podcast (audio link). In particular, a stay-at-home defenseman to offset some of their more offensive-minded options, a depth forward, and goaltending depth are the areas that Friedman highlighted although they may be hard-pressed to try to address all three of those.
- The Blue Jackets’ acquisition of Gregory Hofmann from Carolina last month came as a surprise considering the 28-year-old had two years left on his deal in Switzerland. However, EV Zug GM Reto Klay told Zentralplus’ Andreas Ineichen that Hofmann is expected to sign with Columbus as soon as later this season once the NLA playoffs are over. The winger has 17 goals and 21 assists in just 33 games this season and will not be subject to entry-level restrictions on his first NHL contract due to his age and could be an intriguing addition for the stretch run.
- The Panthers will have winger Anthony Duclair and defenseman Anton Stralman back in their lineup tonight against Chicago, relays George Richards of Florida Hockey Now (Twitter link). Duclair has done relatively well in his first season with Florida, picking up two goals and eight assists in 19 games and had missed the last six games with a lower-body injury. Meanwhile, Stralman, who had missed four straight with a lower-body issue of his own, sits third among Florida blueliners in ATOI at 20:09 per contest.
Injury Updates: Saros, Hischier, Anderson-Dolan, Panthers
The Predators aren’t getting much good fortune on the injury front. Just a day after losing a pair of core players to injury and Ryan Johansen to the CPRA list, Nashville is now without one of their goaltenders. The team announced (Twitter link) that Juuse Saros is day-to-day with an upper-body injury that was sustained in yesterday’s game in a collision with Nino Niederreiter, one that netted the winger a fine. Saros earned the starting role last season but has struggled this year, posting a .895 SV%, the lowest of his career. Veteran Pekka Rinne has been the better goalie statistically this year and will hold down the fort while Saros is out while Kasimir Kaskisuo will likely be recalled from the taxi squad on Thursday.
Other injury news from around the NHL:
- The Devils expect to have an update on Nico Hischier’s status over the next few days, notes Sean Farrell of the Bergen Record. The center has missed the last two games after getting hit in the face with a puck on Saturday, extending his tough luck to start the season. While he was named captain, he has hardly played, missing time due to a leg injury sustained in offseason training as well as a stint on the CPRA list. As a result, Hischier has played in just five games so far, collecting two goals and an assist.
- Kings center Jaret Anderson-Dolan has resumed skating as he tries to work his way back from an upper-body injury, relays Zach Dooley of LA Kings Insider. However, head coach Todd McLellan indicated that it’s unlikely that the 21-year-old will be available for the rest of their homestand, spanning the next three games. Anderson-Dolan was off to a strong start to his year before being injured against Arizona, collecting five points over his first six games.
- Panthers defenseman Markus Nutivaara and winger Anthony Duclair will accompany the team on their five-game road trip, reports Jameson Olive of Florida’s team website (Twitter link), suggesting the veterans are nearing a return. Nutivaara has missed the last nine games with an upper-body injury while Duclair missed his first game Monday due to a lower-body issue but it appears he won’t be out for long.
COVID Protocol Related Absences: 02/13/21
Each day, the NHL will publicly release the list of players that are unavailable to their respective teams due to being in COVID-19 protocol. On a positive note, no new players have been put on the list, but quite a few have been removed from the list. The Los Angeles Kings list is being put together now, but there has been a report from John Hoven that both Blake Lizotte and Andreas Athanasiou are both off the list:
Arizona – John Hayden
Buffalo – Dylan Cozens, Rasmus Dahlin, Curtis Lazar, Jake McCabe, Casey Mittelstadt, Brandon Montour, Tobias Rieder, Rasmus Ristolainen
Colorado – Samuel Girard, Tyson Jost, Gabriel Landeskog
Detroit – Calvin Pickard
Los Angeles – TBA
Minnesota – Nick Bonino, Jonas Brodin, Ian Cole, Brad Hunt, Victor Rask, Carson Soucy, Nico Sturm, Cam Talbot
New Jersey – Nathan Bastian, Jesper Bratt, Connor Carrick, Eric Comrie, Nikita Gusev, Nico Hischier, Jack Hughes, Dmitry Kulikov, Damon Severson, Ty Smith, Matt Tennyson, Sami Vatanen, Travis Zajac
NY Rangers – Filip Chytil
Philadelphia – Justin Braun, Morgan Frost, Claude Giroux, Travis Sanheim, Jakub Voracek, Scott Laughton, Oskar Lindblom*
Tampa Bay – Steven Stamkos
Vegas – Tomas Nosek
As a reminder, inclusion on this list does not mean that a player has tested positive for Coronavirus or even that they have been confirmed as a close contact to another positive person. Included in the NHL’s list of possible reasons for someone being on the list is are the following:
(1) an initial positive test which remains unconfirmed until confirmatory testing is completed pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (2) mandated isolation for symptomatic individuals pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (3) required quarantine as a high-risk close contact in accordance with the Positive Test Protocol; (4) isolation based on a confirmed positive test result and/or; (5) quarantine for travel or other reasons as outlined in the COVID-19 Protocol
Players removed today: Taylor Hall (Sabres), Ryan Carpenter (Chicago), Andreas Johnsson (Devils), Janne Kuokkanen (Devils), Michael McLeod (Devils), Kyle Palmieri (Devils), Pavel Zacha (Devils); Anthony Duclair (Panthers), Jesse Puljujarvi (Oilers), , Marcus Johansson (Wild), Jared Spurgeon (Wild), Joel Eriksson Ek (Wild), Nick Bjugstad (Wild)