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Connor Bedard

Central Notes: MacKinnon, Bedard, Gustafsson, Plandowski

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Colorado Avalanche announcer Conor McGahey tweeted that Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon is okay after hitting his face on the ice on Saturday night in a game against the Florida Panthers. The 28-year-old superstar didn’t practice today due to a different minor tweak, but the team is hopeful that he’ll be able to play tomorrow night against the Washington Capitals.

MacKinnon is currently second in NHL scoring with 32 goals and 53 assists in 53 games but has been held pointless in three straight games.

In other Central Division notes:

  • Chicago Sun-Times reporter Ben Pope tweeted that the Chicago Blackhawks expect to get rookie phenom Connor Bedard back into the lineup next week. Bedard has a final imaging appointment a week from today and if the appointment goes well Bedard could be back into action by the middle of next week. Bedard’s return will be a welcome development for himself and the Blackhawks as the 18-year-old hasn’t played since January 5th and has 15 goals and 18 assists in 39 games this season.
  • The Winnipeg Jets have activated forward David Gustafsson off the injured reserve and loaned him to their AHL affiliate the Manitoba Moose for conditioning purposes. The 23-year-old has missed the previous 18 games with a lower-body injury and hasn’t dressed since December 22nd. He has just two assists in his last 21 games and hasn’t scored a goal since October 30th. In 27 games this season the native of Tingsryd, Sweden has just two goals and two assists.
  • The Arizona Coyotes have extended the contract of Director of Amateur Scouting Darryl Plandowski. No terms of the deal were released, but the extension will keep Plandowski with the Coyotes for the foreseeable future. Plandowski was a big part of the Tampa Bay Lightning as he spent 12 years with the organization and was part of the club during their two Stanley Cup championships. He worked his way through the Lightning organization into the role of Assistant Director of Amateur Scouting before eventually joining Arizona in 2020.

Injury Updates: Miromanov, Senators, Killorn, Bedard, Raanta

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The Golden Knights welcomed back one of their blueliners for their game tonight versus Arizona as the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve activated Daniil Miromanov from injured reserve.  The 26-year-old had yet to play with Vegas this season as he worked his way back from ACL and meniscus surgery in the summer.  He got into five games with AHL Henderson last month on a conditioning stint and fared quite well, notching a goal and five assists before being recalled a couple of weeks ago.  However, Vegas opted to play it safe with Miromanov, allowing him more time to skate with the team before officially having him suit up for his season debut with the big club.

Other injury news from around the NHL:

  • The Senators are expected to welcome back goaltender Anton Forsberg and defenseman Travis Hamonic for their next game on Saturday, relays Sportsnet’s Wayne Scanlan (Twitter link). Forsberg is currently on LTIR and Ottawa will need to make some roster moves to get cap-compliant before activating him.  The 31-year-old has a save percentage of .889 in 16 games so far this season.  Meanwhile, Hamonic has missed the last couple of weeks due to an upper-body injury but has remained on Ottawa’s active roster so no roster move is necessary for him to return.  The 33-year-old has five points and 69 blocked shots in 40 appearances.
  • Ducks winger Alex Killorn skated before practice today as he works his way back from knee surgery, relays Derek Lee of The Sporting Tribune (Twitter link). The 34-year-old had the procedure two weeks ago and it carried a four-to-six-week recovery period.  While he didn’t stick around for Anaheim’s full practice, the fact Killorn is back on the ice is a promising sign that his return date could come closer to the earlier part of that range.  He has 19 points in 34 games so far this season, his first with the Ducks.
  • While Connor Bedard has been holding out hope that he could return earlier than expected, Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson poured cold water on that idea today. He told reporters, including Charlie Roumeliotis of NBC Sports Chicago (Twitter link) that the rookie center’s return is unlikely to come before the original six-week mark.  Despite missing more than a month now, Bedard still leads all rookies in points with 33 in just 39 games.
  • After coming into tonight’s game in relief of Pyotr Kochetkov, Hurricanes goaltender Antti Raanta suffered a lower-body injury, per a team announcement (Twitter link). Raanta made nine saves in his lone period of work.  It has been a rough year for the 34-year-old who had a save percentage of just .870 coming into tonight’s action and cleared waivers back in December.

Injury Updates: Blackhawks, Girgensons, Johnson, McMann

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Returning to practice after the All-Star break, Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times issued updates on several injured members of the Chicago Blackhawks. Pope reports that Connor Bedard and Anthony Beauvillier were both present in non-contact jerseys, while Connor Murphy only skated for the first half of practice.

Heavily impacted by injuries this season, the Blackhawks have lost a total of 228 man games to injury this year, placing them second in the league in the category behind the Vegas Golden Knights. Although Chicago had no plans on contending this season, the slate of injuries has completely prohibited the team from taking any noticeable step forward in their rebuilding process.

Nevertheless, the organization must get Bedard back into action as quickly and safely as possible. While missing the last four weeks with a broken jaw, Bedard continues to lead the Blackhawks in scoring, setting the team lead with 15 goals and 33 points in 39 games.

Other notes:

  • The Buffalo Sabres are ready to get Zemgus Girgensons and Erik Johnson back into the lineup, as both players have been medically cleared by the team according to Joe Yerdon of Bleacher Report. Johnson had previously missed the team’s last four games, while Girgensons only missed the team’s last game before the All-Star break. Likely a seller at this year’s deadline, both players are obvious trade candidates leading up to the March 8th trade deadline.
  • David Alter of The Hockey News reported today that the Toronto Maple Leafs have activated forward Bobby McMann from the team’s injured reserve. McMann was originally placed on the team’s injured reserve on January 26th with an undisclosed injury. Missing the team’s last game before the All-Star break, McMann has played in a total of 23 games for the Maple Leafs this season, scoring a total of seven points overall.

Nick Foligno Activated, Connor Murphy Placed On IR

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The Chicago Blackhawks have activated forward Nick Foligno off the injured reserve, and it is expected that he will dress tonight against the Vancouver Canucks. The 36-year-old is just a week removed from signing a two-year $9MM extension with the Blackhawks and has been out of action since January 5th when he stood up for Connor Bedard and fought Brandon Smith after he had hit Bedard and fractured his jaw.

Foligno is in his first season in Chicago after coming over in a trade last summer from the Boston Bruins. He has had an uneven offensive season with five multi-point games sandwiched between four stretches of four or more games without a point. Foligno is likely to find himself in Chicago’s top 6 as the team continues to deal with quite a few injury issues to their forward group. Foligno likely won’t duplicate some of his better offensive years from his time with the Columbus Blue Jackets, but he remains a respected leader and a dependable forward for Chicago.

With the move to activate Foligno, the Blackhawks also placed defenseman Connor Murphy on the injured reserve retroactive to January 16th. Murphy is currently sidelined with a lower-body injury that has kept him out of the lineup for the past four games. The 30-year-old will be eligible to return to the lineup when he is healthy enough to do so and is expected to be back at some point during Chicago’s current four-game road trip. Murphy has dressed in 43 games this season and has two goals and six assists while sporting a -19.

Evening Notes: Bedard, Skinner, Islanders

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Jay Zawaski of CHGO Sports is reporting that Chicago Blackhawks star rookie Connor Bedard is still expected to miss at least six weeks as he recovers from a fractured jaw that he suffered on January 5th. Bedard started skating last week in a full-face shield but is unable to exert himself as he tries to allow his jawbone to heal from the surgery he had.

The six-week timeline was given to the media by Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson, who was referring to the original timeline for Bedard’s return. Richardson added that Bedard will need to go through imaging and a medical clearance before he can ramp up his skating and return to action.

The 18-year-old leads all NHL rookies with 15 goals and 18 assists in 39 games. He was named to the 2024 NHL All-Star Game a few weeks ago but is unlikely to attend given that the game will be held on February 3rd.

In other evening notes:

  • Buffalo Sabres winger Jeff Skinner has shared that he is close to returning, and nearly played in the team’s Saturday loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Skinner has been out of the lineup since January 9th with an upper-body injury, missing five games. He’s remained one of Buffalo’s leading scorers despite the absences, though, sitting third on the team with 33 points through 38 games. Skinner also leads the team with 17 goals.
  • The New York Islanders refuted an earlier report from RDS’ Stephane Leroux that the team was hiring Benoit Desrosiers as an assistant coach under new bench boss Patrick Roy. The statement added that Islanders General Manager and President Lou Lamoriello does plan to meet with Desrosiers in the future, but he has not been hired at this time. Desrosiers spent five seasons as Roy’s assistant with the Remparts and won the Memorial Cup in 2023. He was hired as the head coach of the Gatineau Olympiques for this season but has had a rough start as the team currently sits seventh in the Western Conference of the QMJHL with a record of 15-26-4.

Injury Notes: Blackhawks, Red Wings, Engvall

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The Chicago Blackhawks saw a string of players progress in their injury recovery, with Nick Foligno (fractured finger) and Ryan Donato (illness) fully returning to the team’s practice on Sunday, while Connor Bedard (jaw), Samuel Savoie (leg), and Tyler Johnson (undisclosed) were all on the ice for varying times before the team skate started. Connor Murphy was not able to take part in the team’s skate, though, continuing to miss time with a lower-body injury.

Donato has missed the Hawks’ last two games with an illness, while Foligno has sat out of seven games thanks to a placement on injured reserve earlier in the month. Both players are trending towards a return, finally bringing some form of relief to a Chicago lineup that’s currently experiencing injuries to 10 different players. Foligno went down on the same night that star rookie Bedard was injured. Both players falling out of the lineup effectively fractured Chicago’s top six, with the team going 3-4-0 – including one overtime and one shootout win – and scoring just 13 goals since the pair got hurt. That averages out to 1.85 goals-per-game – a mark that’s significantly held up by the two four-goal outings Chicago has had since Bedard’s injury.

Other notes from around the league:

Connor Bedard Undergoes Surgery On Jaw, Out 6-8 Weeks

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Blackhawks star rookie Connor Bedard underwent surgery on Monday to repair his fractured jaw, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports. Bedard will be sidelined between six and eight weeks as a result of the procedure and will miss next month’s 2024 NHL All-Star Game in Toronto. The Blackhawks later confirmed the timeline.

The Blackhawks already placed Bedard on injured reserve last weekend, but he’ll miss far more than the minimum seven days required for an IR stay. The 2023 first-overall pick sustained the injury on an open-ice hit from Devils bruiser Brendan Smith last Friday.

Bedard, still just 18, has bar-none been the Blackhawks’ best offensive player in his first NHL campaign. The team is on pace for only 24 wins and 52 points at the halfway mark of the season, but Bedard has still managed a team-leading 15 goals, 18 assists and 33 points in 39 games while leading Chicago forwards with an average ice time of 19:04. His longer-term injury is reminiscent of Oilers superstar Connor McDavid, who was sidelined for 37 games during his rookie 2015-16 campaign after a big hit from then-Flyers defenseman Brandon Manning.

It will be an extremely tough go for the embattled Blackhawks without Bedard’s services, which could take them up to the March 8 trade deadline. Taylor Hall is done for the season, while Andreas Athanasiou, Anthony Beauvillier, Nick Foligno, and Tyler Johnson are all sidelined longer-term with injuries. It’s forced them to dress a first line composed of Philipp Kurashev, recent trade pickup Rem Pitlick, who’s spent the entire season in the AHL up to this point, and Taylor Raddysh. For a team already sitting near the very bottom of the league, things will get worse before they get better.

In terms of an All-Star Game replacement for Bedard, the league could look to send defenseman Seth Jones to Toronto. Chicago’s highest-paid defender is currently on injured reserve with an upper-body injury, but he’s returned to practice and will likely be cleared to play before the festivities in early February. Jones has no goals and 11 assists in 27 games this year, averaging over 25 minutes per game and posting a respectable -5 rating on a poor defensive team.

Blackhawks Place Connor Bedard And Nick Foligno On Injured Reserve

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Already dealing with a long injury list, things just got even worse on that front for the Blackhawks.  The team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve placed center Connor Bedard and winger Nick Foligno on injured reserve.  Bedard has a fractured jaw while Foligno is dealing with a fractured left finger.

Both players sustained the injuries during Friday’s game against New Jersey.  Bedard was injured on a hit from Brendan Smith, leaving the game immediately after that.  The 2023 top pick has been as advertised this season, leading Chicago in scoring with 15 goals and 18 assists in 39 games, making him the odds-on favorite for the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year.  It also helped him land his first All-Star nod earlier this week.

While no timeline for a return was provided for either player, it’s worth noting that Blue Jackets center Boone Jenner is working his way back from a fractured jaw as well – he skated with the team today.  His recovery timeline was estimated at six weeks at the time of injury so it’s possible the Blackhawks could be without their star rookie through the All-Star break at a minimum.

As for Foligno, the 36-year-old has come as advertised after his rights were acquired during the offseason.  While he’s playing a lot higher in the lineup than he had in recent years, Foligno has been one of Chicago’s more productive forwards, collecting eight goals and nine assists in his 39 appearances so far.  Both sides appear to be open about the possibility of a contract extension for the pending UFA.

Bedard and Foligno join a very crowded injury list that also includes forwards Taylor Hall, Tyler Johnson, Andreas Athanasiou, Anthony Beauvillier, Taylor Raddysh, and Joey Anderson along with defenseman Seth Jones.  Chicago just swung a deal to acquire Rem Pitlick to get back to now 11 forwards on its active roster but another roster move will likely be coming before their game tomorrow against Calgary.

Central Notes: Bedard, Meyers, Kirkland

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In what has become an unexpectedly scary night for the Chicago Blackhawks, the team announced that star rookie, Connor Bedard, would not return to tonight’s game due to injury. The play in question took place during the first period, as New Jersey Devils defenseman, Brendan Smith, distributed a heavy hit to Bedard just over the blue line, causing the young phenom to head to the locker room for the rest of the evening.

For the sake of level-headedness, there could be a plethora of reasons for Chicago to keep Bedard out of the game, ranging from simply being cautionary with their top player, or expecting that Bedard could be out for a lengthy amount of time. Ultimately, it is unlikely that an update on Bedard’s status will be given after the game tonight, as most teams tend to wait until the next day to announce any meaningful news.

It is hard to put into words how detrimental Bedard’s absence would be for the Blackhawks, regardless of the amount of time he is out of the lineup. Even with only 11 wins through 38 games, Chicago’s offense completely runs through Bedard, as he has quickly shown that he was worth all of the hype.

To put his value into perspective on the Blackhawks specifically, with 15 goals and 33 points through 38 games, Bedard accounts for 17% of all goals scored, 12% of all assists, and 14% of all points scored for Chicago this season at 18 years old. With the future of the Blackhawks organization comfortably resting on Bedard’s shoulders, Chicago will likely be extremely cautious with Bedard’s health in hopes that he can be in the lineup as much as possible.

Other notes:

  • The Colorado Avalanche have recalled forward Ben Meyers from the Colorado Eagles after sending him down yesterday, per a team announcement. It is unknown whether or not he will factor into the team’s lineup tomorrow afternoon against the Florida Panthers, as he has largely been used as an extra forward by the Avalanche this season.
  • Unfortunately for Justin Kirkland, it will be his second consecutive emergency call-up without a game played, as the Arizona Coyotes announced they have returned him back to their AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners. Luckily, he has appeared comfortable in his first season in the Coyotes organization, as he’s scored one goal and 13 points in 12 games for the Roadrunners so far.

NHL Names Western Conference All-Stars

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Sportsnet is reporting that the NHL has named the first 16 selections from the Western Conference who will appear in the NHL All-Star Game that will take place February 3rd in Toronto.

The game will be held in Canada for the first time since 2012, when it was held in Ottawa. Toronto hasn’t hosted the game since 2000 and this year will be the first time that the NHL uses a four-team, three-on-three format in combination with the fantasy draft format that was used from 2011-2015. The league will name four captains, one for each team, who will take part in a draft to select their teams on February 1st.

The initial players named from the Western Conference are as follows:

Central Division

Arizona: LW Clayton Keller (4th appearance)
Chicago: C Connor Bedard (1st appearance)
Colorado: C Nathan MacKinnon (3rd appearance)
Dallas: G Jake Oettinger (1st appearance)
Minnesota: LW Kirill Kaprizov (3rd appearance)
Nashville: C Filip Forsberg (1st appearance)
St. Louis: C Robert Thomas (1st appearance)
Winnipeg: G Connor Hellebuyck (3rd appearance)

Pacific Division

Anaheim: LW Frank Vatrano (1st appearance)
Calgary: C Elias Lindholm (1st appearance)
Edmonton: C Connor McDavid (7th appearance)
Los Angeles: G Cam Talbot (1st appearance)
San Jose: C Tomas Hertl (1st appearance)
Seattle: RW Oliver Bjorkstrand (1st appearance)
Vancouver: D Quinn Hughes (1st appearance)
Vegas: C Jack Eichel (1st appearance)

The initial announcements of 32 players (one player to represent each team) tonight will be followed by the naming of the final 12 all-stars in the coming weeks. Those 12 players will be decided by a fan vote on NHL.com as well as several of the NHL’s social media platforms.

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