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Christian Dvorak

West Notes: Zellweger, Mintyukov, Suchanek, Canucks, Ritchie

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The Ducks received trade interest in young defensemen Olen Zellweger and Pavel Mintyukov, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports in his latest 32 Thoughts podcast (audio link).  The 21-year-olds are believed to be a big part of Anaheim’s future but were in and out of the lineup at times, something that Friedman notes resulted in both players going to management about their playing time.  Zellweger had 20 points in 62 games last season while Mintyukov had 19 in 68, a drop of nine points from his rookie-season performance.  Despite the trade interest, Friedman relays that Anaheim doesn’t have any interest in moving either youngster.

More from out West:

  • Still with the Ducks, prospect goaltender Tomas Suchanek has fully recovered from the torn ACL sustained last summer just after development camp, relays Derek Lee of The Hockey News. The 22-year-old impressed in his first professional season back in 2023-24 where he put up a 2.92 GAA and a .910 SV% in 29 games with AHL San Diego, earning him an entry-level contract along the way.  As things stand, Suchanek seems likely either to be the backup with the Gulls behind Ville Husso or starting at ECHL Tulsa to give him a shot at more playing time.
  • The Canucks showed strong interest in center Christian Dvorak earlier this week, Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK reports (Twitter link). Dvorak ultimately signed a one-year, $5.4MM contract with Philadelphia while Vancouver is believed to have put a three-year pact on the table worth around $4MM per season.  The 29-year-old had 33 points in 82 games with Montreal last season while winning nearly 56% of his faceoffs.
  • Wild prospect Ryder Ritchie announced on his Instagram page that he has committed to play for Boston University for the upcoming season. The 18-year-old was a second-round pick by Minnesota last year, going 45th overall.  Ritchie spent last season with WHL Medicine Hat, collecting 61 points in 53 regular season games and averaging a point per game in 18 playoff outings.  He then capped off the campaign with four goals and an assist in four Memorial Cup appearances.

Flyers Sign Christian Dvorak, Noah Juulsen, Dennis Gilbert

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12:32 p.m.: The Flyers have confirmed those signings and also announced a one-year deal for defenseman Dennis Gilbert worth $875,000. Gilbert, 28, had six points and 63 hits in 29 games last year with the Sabres and Senators.

11:04 a.m.: According to Rick Dhaliwal of The Athletic, the Philadelphia Flyers are expected to sign defenseman Noah Juulsen. PuckPedia quickly followed up, indicating it’ll be a one-year, $900K investment by Philadelphia. Furthermore, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports the Flyers have also signed center Christian Dvorak to a one-year, $5.4MM contract. PuckPedia added that Dvorak will earn a $4MM base salary with Philadelphia and a $1.4MM signing bonus.

Juulsen will be following his former head coach, Rick Tocchet, with the Vancouver Canucks, to the Flyers organization. He was only afforded a quick trip through unrestricted free agency after a disappointing year with the Canucks. Limited by injuries, Juulsen concluded the 2024-25 campaign with no points over 35 games, averaging 16:17 of ice a night in a bottom-pairing role.

Already carrying quality depth on the right side of their defense, the Flyers are likely expecting Juulsen to fit into a depth role this season. He’s a fairly physical blue liner, averaging nearly three hits per game throughout his career. Furthermore, he earned a 90.3% on-ice save percentage at even strength throughout his tenure in Vancouver.

Meanwhile, the Flyers have also added one of the best remaining free-agent options at center in Dvorak. He’s coming off a quality season with the Canadiens, scoring 12 goals and 33 points in 82 games with a -5 rating. He’ll be a boon for Philadelphia in the faceoff dot, managing a 53.1% success rate throughout his 534-game NHL career.

Still, it’ll be interesting to see how the Flyers utilize Dvorak. He’s a natural center, best deployed in a third-line role. However, if the team hopes to use freshly acquired Trevor Zegras down the middle, Dvorak could move to either wing. It’s a high cap-hit for a third-line forward, but he’ll give Philadelphia some stability toward the bottom of their forward core, especially with an influx of young talent expected next season.

Furthermore, if the Flyers are unable to compete for a playoff spot down the stretch, Dvorak could become a quality trade piece come deadline season. Contending teams are scouring the market for potential centers nearly every season, and Dvorak would be a valuable trade candidate considering his tertiary scoring capabilities and strength in the faceoff dot.

Canadiens Notes: Hutson, Laine, Free Agents, Dach

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Lane Hutson put up historic numbers in his rookie season, and the Canadiens will look to capitalize on that by discussing a long-term extension as he enters the final season of his entry-level contract, general manager Kent Hughes said today (writes Marco D’Amico of RG). He’s not eligible to put pen to paper on a deal until July 1, but doing so immediately would prevent Hutson from a potentially testy ride through restricted free agency in 2026 and allow the Habs to achieve long-term cost certainty before he potentially increases his value in his sophomore campaign.

Hutson’s likely Calder-winning campaign needs no introduction. The 5’9″ defenseman exploded for 66 points in all 82 regular-season games, tying Lightning star Victor Hedman for sixth in the league in scoring among rearguards and leading all rookies in scoring. Not only does that make him the highest-scoring rookie defenseman in Montreal’s 107-year NHL history, but his 60 assists also tied Larry Murphy for most by a first-year blue liner.

Regardless of when they reach an extension, it’s a foregone conclusion they won’t be able to keep him under the internal salary hierarchy they stuck to when negotiating star winger Cole Caufield’s eight-year extension two summers ago. They’ve yet to sign a deal eclipsing captain Nick Suzuki’s $7.875MM cap hit since he signed that deal in 2021. Patrik Laine is technically the team’s highest-paid player at an $8.7MM cap hit, but they acquired that contract via trade. After seeing youngsters like Flames winger Matthew Coronato land a long-term deal at $6.5MM annually, Hughes will almost certainly have to go into the $8-9MM range on a new deal for Hutson.

There’s more on the Canadiens:

  • While it wasn’t a glowing end to the season for Laine, Hughes credits his impact earlier in the year as instrumental in Montreal’s postseason berth (per D’Amico). The 27-year-old managed 20 goals and 33 points in 52 games after a quicker-than-expected return from a preseason knee injury, but 75% of his goals and 63% of his points came on the power play. His 5-on-5 possession numbers were among the worst on the club with a 43.0 CF% and led to diminished usage in Games 1 and 2 of their first-round series against the Capitals before a broken finger sidelined him for the final three games of their season.
  • Hughes hasn’t made a decision either way on whether to pursue contract extensions with the team’s slate of pending unrestricted free agents, notes D’Amico. Luckily for him, he doesn’t have many of those decisions to make. One has already been made for him on defenseman David Savard, who announced his retirement. The comprehensive list of others includes NHL-rostered forwards Joel Armia, Christian Dvorak, and Michael Pezzetta; minor-league centers Alex Barré-Boulet and Brandon Gignac; and depth netminder Connor Hughes.
  • The Canadiens “haven’t given up” on 24-year-old center Kirby Dach after a second major procedure on his right knee in as many years, D’Amico writes. Nonetheless, he relays executive vice president Jeff Gorton “didn’t look overly confident” when discussing Dach and notes he’ll need an eye-opening training camp to regain a top-six role. After playing just twice in the 2023-24 campaign, Dach’s performance wasn’t pretty in 2024-25 before the knee injury ended his campaign in February. He scored 22 points with a team-worst -29 rating in 57 games.

Canadiens Notes: Armia, Savard, Dvorak, Guhle

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In an interview with Pierre LeBrun for The Athletic (subscription link), Canadiens GM Kent Hughes acknowledged that he was initially approaching the trade deadline as if they’d be selling.  But the team went on a run after the 4 Nations break, resulting in a change of plan.  In doing so, he noted that he started to move the goalposts on his asking price for winger Joel Armia, his most notable pending unrestricted free agent.  Hughes admitted that while he wouldn’t say a flat-out no to acquiring teams, he readily stated that it would take a big overpayment to get him.  Earlier this month, it was reported that the Canadiens had a second-round pick on the table for Armia but clearly, the adjusted asking price came in higher than that.

More from Montreal:

  • Also from that interview, Hughes stated that he went into the deadline not expecting to move center Christian Dvorak or defenseman David Savard. He noted that with mid-round picks being the potential return for each of them, it wasn’t worth doing to add those while weakening their farm team in Laval which has been in a close battle for first in the AHL in recent weeks.  Also, with one of the deeper prospect pools in the league and with 21 selections over the next two drafts, there wasn’t as much of a need to add extra picks to the cupboard.  Both Dvorak and Savard are slated to be unrestricted free agents this summer and are likely facing pay cuts from their cap charges of $4.45MM and $3.5MM respectively.
  • Defenseman Kaiden Guhle took part in today’s morning skate in a non-contact jersey, relays TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie (Twitter link). The 23-year-old is working his way back after suffering a lacerated quad tendon in late January.  He’s still likely a little while away from returning to the lineup but if Montreal can hang around the playoff picture a bit longer, they could get a nice boost to their back end for the late push with Guhle being a big part of their top four, logging more than 21 minutes a night before being injured.

Atlantic Notes: Tuch, Tkachuk, Canadiens

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Sabres winger Alex Tuch has been involved in plenty of trade speculation lately with teams believed to be calling Buffalo to see if they might consider moving him.  However, if he has his way, he won’t be going anywhere.  Tuch told Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News that he remains “heavily committed to this organization” and still hopes to be with the team past the upcoming trade deadline.  The 28-year-old has 19 goals and 24 assists in 54 games this season on Buffalo’s top line and is only two years removed from a 79-point campaign.  He’s one of their better bargains at a $4.75MM price tag which means that if the Sabres do decide to move him, they’ll be in line to land a significant return for his services.  But it doesn’t sound like that’s the direction that Tuch would like to see things go.

More from the Atlantic:

  • Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk won’t play against Seattle due to a lower-body injury. Head coach Paul Maurice told reporters including George Richards of Florida Hockey Now (Twitter link) that he will be assessed by Florida’s medical staff in the coming days to get a sense of how long he might be out for.  ESPN’s John Buccigross adds (Twitter link) that the early sense is that Tkachuk could be out for a while.  He suffered the injury playing at the 4 Nations Face-Off and wasn’t able to play much in the championship game on Thursday, logging less than seven minutes of ice time with his last shift coming late in the second period.
  • The Canadiens have had discussions with the agents of pending UFAs David Savard and Joel Armia, reports Guillaume Lefrancois of La Presse. Savard has been in trade speculation going back to last season with teams often looking to add size and grit on their back end for a playoff run and while his ice time is down this season (he has a 17:46 ATOI), there will be teams interested in him as a third-pairing piece if a new deal can’t be reached.  Armia, meanwhile, cleared waivers at the beginning of last season but bounced back to record 17 goals last year and is on pace to set a new career high in points this season while being one of the most-used forwards shorthanded league-wide.
  • One pending UFA in Montreal who hasn’t had discussions with the Canadiens about a new deal is center Christian Dvorak, relays Richard Labbe of La Presse. Dvorak has struggled offensively the past two years and has just 17 points in 56 games so far this season, hardly a great return on a $4.45MM price tag.  He’s winning over 57% of his faceoffs, however, which could draw some interest trade-wise as well.  Notably, Montreal only has one salary retention slot remaining to use between Dvorak, Savard, Armia, or even Jake Evans if the two sides can’t reach an agreement on an extension before March 7th.

Arber Xhekaj Out For Season, Christian Dvorak Returning Tonight

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The Montreal Canadiens have announced that defenseman Arber Xhekaj is out for the rest of the season and will undergo shoulder surgery tomorrow. The 23-year-old hasn’t played in almost a week and will have his left shoulder operated on; the Canadiens believe he will be ready for training camp next season.

Xhekaj will finish his second NHL season with 44 games played and has tallied three goals and seven assists to go along with a +6 plus/minus. The native of Hamilton, Ontario saw his average ice time increase by about 40 seconds a game, and made some improvements to his defensive game, but still struggled with turnovers. The Canadiens did increase his powerplay ice time to roughly one minute per game, but he couldn’t capitalize on it and recorded no powerplay points this season.

In other Canadiens news, center Christian Dvorak will return to the lineup tonight for the first time since December 30th. The 28-year-old had surgery on January 5th to repair a torn pectoral muscle and will dress against the Philadelphia Flyers. It’s been a tough stretch for Dvorak as injuries and inconsistency have limited his impact this season as he has just three goals and four assists in 25 games. Dvorak was never an analytics darling but his underlying numbers have fallen off since joining the Canadiens three seasons ago.

Atlantic Notes: Dvorak, Walman, Greenway

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TSN is reporting that the Montreal Canadiens have upgraded the status of center Christian Dvorak to day-to-day, meaning that the 28-year-old could play before the end of the season. The Canadiens announced on January 4th that the Palos, Illinois native would miss the rest of the season with a torn pectoral muscle, but he was a full participant in the Canadiens’ practice today and wore a regular jersey.

Dvorak was originally acquired by Montreal back in September of 2021 from the Arizona Coyotes. The trade hasn’t worked out as the Canadiens had hoped after sending a 2022 first-round draft pick and a 2024 2nd round draft pick to Arizona in the exchange. Dvorak has battled inconsistency and injury during his tenure in Montreal, particularly this season where he has missed nearly four months of action and has just three goals and four assists in 25 games.

In other Atlantic Division notes:

  • Helene St. James of The Detroit Free Press is reporting that Detroit Red Wings defenseman Jake Walman will draw back into the lineup after being sidelined with a lower-body injury. The 28-year-old missed the last six games with the ailment and will draw in against the Tampa Bay Lightning in place of veteran Olli Maatta. Walman has dressed in 61 games this season and has averaged nearly 20 minutes of ice time per game, registering 12 goals and nine assists to go along with 150 blocked shots and 106 shots on goal.
  • Buffalo Sabres forward Jordan Greenway is reportedly being evaluated for an upper-body injury according to Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News. Lysowski adds that the Sabres are hopeful that Greenway will be day-to-day with the ailment and can get back into game action soon. The Sabres sit seven points back of the Philadelphia Flyers for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with seven games remaining and are all but mathematically eliminated at this point in the season. In his first full season with the Sabres Greenway has contributed nine goals and 15 assists in 62 games to go along with 131 hits.

Christian Dvorak Out For Season With Torn Pectoral Muscle

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Canadiens forward Christian Dvorak will miss the remainder of the 2023-24 season with a torn pectoral muscle, the team announced Thursday. The injury will require surgery, which Dvorak will undergo tomorrow.

It’s another long-term injury for a Canadiens team that’s no stranger to having players out of the lineup for long stretches of the season. After leading the league in man-games lost last year, Montreal lost young top-six forward Kirby Dach to a season-ending knee injury just two games into the campaign. They’ve also been without the services of defenseman Chris Wideman for the whole season up to this point with a back injury, and Jordan Harris, Rafaël Harvey-Pinard, Alex Newhook, and David Savard have all missed significant chunks of the campaign.

The Habs’ 16-16-5 record and sixth-place standing in the Atlantic Division is better than some expected, but Dvorak hasn’t been a major factor in their return to relevancy. The 27-year-old hasn’t been the bona fide second-line center the Canadiens expected to get when they acquired him from the Coyotes days before the 2021-22 season began. Dating back to his acquisition, he’s played in 145 games and notched 24 goals for the Canadiens, adding 44 assists for 68 points. That works out to a rather underwhelming points-per-game pace of 0.47.

Dvorak began this season on long-term injured reserve while he was still recovering from knee surgery that prematurely ended his 2022-23 campaign last March. After missing ten games, Dvorak returned to the lineup in early November, scoring just three times in the 25 games since. While he won nearly 60% of his draws during his stint in the lineup this year, a career-high, Dvorak’s ice time also dipped below the 16-minute average mark for the first time in five years.

Unfortunately, the writing is on the wall for his potential as an everyday top-six forward in the NHL. He last played on December 30, recording a -1 rating in a 4-1 loss to the Panthers. He missed the following two games with what the team termed an upper-body injury.

In Dvorak’s absence, the Canadiens have dressed 11 forwards and seven defensemen, though don’t expect that to continue long-term. The Canadiens will need to recall a forward from AHL Laval to fill his spot in the top nine, or just wait for the returns of Harvey-Pinard and Tanner Pearson from their respective lower-body and upper-body injuries, which are both expected before the end of the month.

If they do look to Laval for help on offense in the short term, there are a handful of young candidates who could use a two- or three-week trial. 22-year-old Swedish winger Emil Heineman could get another bump to the NHL roster after being recalled for two weeks last month, playing his first two NHL games in the process. An injury cost him a solid chunk of the early portion of the season in Laval, although he does have two goals and six points in ten games there. 2021 fifth-round pick Joshua Roy remains tied for the team lead in goals with ten through 30 games, although the team seems content to keep the 20-year-old in the minors all season to adapt to the pro game despite his strong rookie showing on the scoresheet.

Even Dvorak’s overall two-way performance in his abbreviated 2023-24 showing was cause for concern. He spent most of his time in the lineup centering Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky on the team’s top line, and while his aforementioned faceoff skills were strong, the trio’s success at controlling play was not. Out of four Montreal forward lines with more than 100 minutes together this season, the Caufield-Dvorak-Slakovsky line’s expected goal share of 44.3% ranks dead last, per MoneyPuck. When Caufield and Slafkovsky have been centered by Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki this season, meanwhile, that trio has posted an expected goals share of 60.2% – quite a notable swing for swapping out just one player.

Dvorak has not yet been returned to long-term injured reserve, but expect him to end up on IR or LTIR in the near future if the Canadiens need roster and/or salary cap space. He remains under contract through the 2024-25 season at a cap hit of $4.45MM and carries an eight-team no-trade list that kicked in at the beginning of this season, per CapFriendly.

Injury Notes: Mayfield, Dvorak, Oettinger

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It appears as if the Islanders will be welcoming back a key part of their back end tonight against Pittsburgh.  The team announced (Twitter link) that Scott Mayfield has been activated from injured reserve.  The 31-year-old has missed close to three weeks with an upper-body injury.  Before that, he was off to a bit of a quieter start to his season with just four assists in 20 games while his playing time was down to 19:13 per game, his lowest since the 2018-19 campaign.  Mayfield was, however, blocking nearly three shots a night, the best rate of his career.  With both Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock still injured, getting Mayfield back will be a nice boost to their back end.

Other injury news from around the NHL:

  • Canadiens center Christian Dvorak is out indefinitely with an upper-body injury, relays Sportsnet’s Eric Engels (Twitter link). The 27-year-old is having a tough year offensively with just three goals and four assists through his first 25 games.  With Montreal only carrying 12 forwards on its roster – partially a byproduct of carrying three goalies – and being on the road, they will have to dress seven blueliners for their matchup against Tampa Bay tonight.
  • Dallas goaltender Jake Oettinger has been skating for four or five days now but a return to the lineup does not appear to be imminent. Head coach Peter DeBoer told Stars radio analyst Bruce LeVine (Twitter link) that the netminder is “probably further away than he is closer” as it relates to a possible return.  The 25-year-old has missed the last couple of weeks with a lower-body injury after getting off to a rough start to his year with a save percentage of just .901 in his first 23 starts.

Canadiens To Activate Christian Dvorak Off LTIR

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The Canadiens will welcome back center Christian Dvorak to their lineup tonight as the team announced (Twitter link) that he will make his season debut tonight, meaning that they will activate him off LTIR.

The 27-year-old was acquired back in 2021 to replace Jesperi Kotkaniemi whose offer sheet with Carolina went unmatched; Montreal flipped the first-round pick they acquired from Kotkaniemi as part of the trade package that went to Arizona.  However, Dvorak hasn’t quite been able to lock down a full-time spot in Montreal’s top six since then.

Last season, Dvorak had 10 goals and 18 assists in 64 games before suffering a season-ending knee injury in March and undergoing surgery thereafter.  The recovery took a bit longer than normal, resulting in the Canadiens starting him on LTIR.  In the end, he’ll miss just the minimum number of games.

With Dvorak returning, Alex Newhook is expected to shift back to the wing.  Newhook had been moved down the middle when Kirby Dach suffered his season-ending knee injury last month with the team being thin on center options but now Dvorak can slide into that role.

Montreal will need to create a roster spot to activate Dvorak.  That can either be done by assigning defenseman Gustav Lindstrom to AHL Laval or by placing Rafael Harvey-Pinard on IR with the winger already being ruled out for tonight’s game.  With the Canadiens having Carey Price on LTIR as well, they won’t face any challenges on the salary cap front with Dvorak’s activation.

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