Morning Notes: Hughes, Pettersson, Murray, Skinner
Exactly how much longer the Canucks will remain without stars Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson remains to be seen. The club certainly won’t have their services for this week’s intra-division road trip, though, head coach Rick Tocchet told Jeff Paterson of CanucksArmy.
Pettersson’s return is more imminent than Hughes’, Tocchet said. Pettersson hasn’t been ruled out for Friday’s home game against the Predators, but a return on Monday in Montreal seems more likely, with Tocchet saying Pettersson will likely miss another week. Hughes’ timeline is muddier. After missing Saturday’s overtime loss to the Kraken with an undisclosed injury, he’s been labeled week to week and could likely miss another five games at a minimum.
The latter’s absence is an especially tough one to swallow for the Canucks, who have won one out of their last five games and are already missing their No. 2 defenseman, Filip Hronek, for another few weeks. Hughes has easily been their most valuable player this season, leading the club in scoring with 42 points (8 G, 34 A) in 34 games and ranking second among NHL defensemen in points behind the Avalanche’s Cale Makar. He’s averaging 25:08 per game and posting better offensive and defensive possession metrics at even strength than last season’s Norris Trophy-winning campaign.
Hughes missing action wouldn’t be so awful if Vancouver had their second-best offensive producer this season. But they won’t have Pettersson, who has 10 goals and 28 points through 34 appearances, for the time being, either. Like Hughes, the 26-year-old has only missed one game with an undisclosed injury so far.
More from across the league this morning:
- The Maple Leafs have continued to shuffle NHL backup options in the absence of emergent No. 1 Anthony Stolarz. Veteran Matt Murray has been returned to AHL Toronto with Dennis Hildeby coming up to take his place for the time being, the team announced. Murray, 30, has allowed seven goals on 58 shots faced in two starts this month while sitting behind Joseph Woll on the depth chart, his first NHL action since the end of the 2022-23 regular season. In a small sample size, that tracks as a career-worst .879 SV% and 3.54 GAA for the two-time Stanley Cup champion. Hildeby’s NHL numbers this season haven’t been any better with a .875 SV% in three starts, but he does have a .916 SV% in his last four minor-league contests. It’s unclear if this is a paper move to extend Murray’s waiver-exempt period or if the Leafs intend on rostering Hildeby for tomorrow’s matinee game against the Islanders.
- Oilers winger Jeff Skinner sat in the press box while healthy for the first time in a while yesterday as Edmonton was upset 5-3 by the Ducks. It was a foreseeable result, writes Sportsnet’s Mark Spector. Skinner had no points and a -4 rating in his five most recent outings, and the 32-year-old has been an overall disappointment with only six goals and 12 points in 35 games after signing a one-year, $3MM pact with the Oilers following a buyout by the Sabres. He’s now averaging 12:58 per game on the year, the lowest usage of his 15-year NHL career, and his 48.6% shot-attempt share at 5-on-5 is also a career low.
Maple Leafs Recall Matt Murray, Reassign Dennis Hildeby
Dec. 26: Murray will get another crack at NHL minutes in the coming days. The team announced Thursday that he’s back on the roster with Hildeby heading back to the minors, indicating that he’ll start either tomorrow against the Red Wings or Saturday against the Capitals.
Dec. 21: Matt Murray’s return to the NHL was short-lived, at least for now. The Maple Leafs announced (Twitter link) that they’ve returned Murray to AHL Toronto while recalling netminder Dennis Hildeby.
Murray made his first NHL start in more than 600 days on Friday in Buffalo where he turned aside 24 of 27 shots in the win. The 30-year-old also has a 1.85 GAA and a .939 SV% in eight appearances with the Marlies.
This demotion isn’t a performance-based one but one that appears to be made with waivers in mind. Murray cleared waivers in training camp and thus is waiver-exempt until he either plays ten NHL games or is up with the big club for 30 days. With the holiday break approaching and Joseph Woll likely to start their remaining two games before then, it then makes sense to send Murray down and stop the clock on the number of days he’s up. With Anthony Stolarz out for four-to-six weeks, Murray would almost certainly become waiver-eligible again if he stayed up the full length of Stolarz’s absence.
As for Hildeby, he has won two of his three NHL starts this season and conceivably could get some work in with Stolarz out as well though he’s likely to be flipped with Murray again before too long. The 23-year-old also has played six times for the Marlies, posting a 2.73 GAA with a .895 SV%, numbers that are well down from the 2.41 GAA and .913 SV% he had in 41 outings in 2023-24.
Maple Leafs Recall Matt Murray
Dec. 20: The Maple Leafs made the transaction official today, bringing Murray up and returning Hildeby to the AHL. It’s still unclear whether head coach Craig Berube plans on starting Murray tonight against Buffalo.
Dec. 19: Two-time Stanley Cup champion Matt Murray is expected to join the Maple Leafs’ roster ahead of tomorrow’s game against the Sabres, reports Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. If he makes the start for Toronto, it’ll be his first start in the blue and white since April 2, 2023.
Toronto is without No. 1 option Anthony Stolarz for the next four to six weeks after he underwent a procedure to remove a loose body in his knee. He hasn’t played since Dec. 12 against the Ducks, and Dennis Hildeby has been on the roster ever since as an emergency recall from AHL Toronto to back up Joseph Woll. Hildeby has made three starts this season in relief of injuries to Stolarz and Woll but hasn’t been all that impressive, going 2-1-0 but logging a .875 SV% and 3.68 GAA.
That’s led the Leafs to look for a more secure option to back up Woll for now. They may have that in Murray, who’s been tormented by injuries as of late but does at least have a prior pedigree as a legitimate NHL option. The 30-year-old didn’t play at all last season aside from a brief AHL conditioning stint at year’s end after hip surgery in the summer of 2023. Now healthy, he re-upped with the Leafs on a one-year deal worth $875K at the beginning of free agency and cleared waivers during training camp.
He’s looked rejuvenated in minor-league action, posting a sparkling .931 SV% and 1.85 GAA in eight appearances with a 4-1-3 record. He’s coming off a 27-save shutout of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins last night, so he’d have a day of rest if he plays tomorrow in the first half of the Leafs’ back-to-back. If not against Buffalo, it’s clear he’ll make his season debut on Saturday against the Islanders.
Murray arrived in Toronto in the 2022 offseason, acquired from the Senators in a cap-dump deal to serve in tandem with Ilya Samsonov as the replacement for ex-starter Jack Campbell, who left for the Oilers in free agency. Injuries limited him to 26 starts in 2022-23, although he was serviceable when healthy with a .903 SV%, 3.01 GAA, and a 14-8-2 record. That was good enough for one goal saved above expected, per MoneyPuck, so his most recent NHL experience positions him as an above-average netminder. That can’t be said for the much younger Hildeby.
Murray, who started most games for the Penguins in their back-to-back Stanley Cup wins in 2016 and 2017, has a .910 SV% and 2.79 GAA in 272 career NHL appearances. His recall would necessitate Hildeby heading back to the AHL to keep the Leafs’ active roster at 23 players.
Atlantic Notes: Stolarz, Hildeby, Sabres
TSN’s Darren Dreger is reporting that the Toronto Maple Leafs are waiting for results on the severity of an injury that forced goaltender Anthony Stolarz from last night’s game. The 30-year-old Stolarz has had a torrid start to his first season in Toronto, going 9-5-2 with a 2.15 goals-against average and a .927 save percentage. Stolarz is currently ranked sixth in the NHL in goals saved above expected with 9.3 (as per Money Puck).
Stolarz’s injury has forced Toronto to recall netminder Dennis Hildeby from the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League. Hildeby will presumably take on a backup role to Joseph Woll during Stolarz’s absence. Hildeby has seen action in two NHL games this season, going 1-1 with 4.03 goals against and a .869 save percentage.
In other Atlantic Division notes:
- Buffalo Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff benched two of his top players on Wednesday night as the team dropped their eighth straight game (as per Bill Hoppe of Buffalo Hockey Beat). Ruff sat defenseman Owen Power and winger JJ Peterka for significant stretches of the game after they made crucial mistakes. Both players responded well, with Power scoring a goal in the third period of the game. The Sabres sit sixth in the Atlantic with a record of 11-14-4 but hold a goal differential of just -8. They have lost six one-goal games in their eight-game skid.
- Speaking of the Sabres, Darren Dreger reported on TSN’s Insider Trading yesterday that Buffalo’s general manager Kevyn Adams is looking to make moves to shake up his roster but might not find a desirable move. Adams is receiving calls on younger players like Jack Quinn but doesn’t appear likely to force a move like that. The Sabres would like to make a trade that helps them now, but if they continue to slide it does appear that they will miss the playoffs once again. Should that happen, it would likely mean that veterans on expiring deals, such as Jason Zucker would be moved.
Maple Leafs Activate Joseph Woll From Injured Reserve
The Maple Leafs announced they’ve activated goaltender Joseph Woll from injured reserve. Netminder Dennis Hildeby was returned to AHL Toronto from his emergency loan in a corresponding transaction to open a roster spot.
There’s a chance Woll will make his season debut and start tonight against his hometown Blues, per TSN’s Darren Dreger. Even if not, he’ll dress as the backup to Anthony Stolarz, who initially signed with Toronto in free agency to be a 1B option behind Woll but has stolen the show thus far with a .938 SV% and 1.83 GAA through five games.
Woll, 26, spent the first couple of weeks of the regular season on the shelf due to what head coach Craig Berube called “lower-body tightness.” He was on Toronto’s opening night roster but landed on IR hours before their season opener against the Canadiens on Oct. 9. The netminder spent over a week off the ice before returning to practice last Friday.
A third-round pick of the Leafs back in 2016, Woll was a full-time NHL option for the first time last season. A high ankle sprain cost him nearly three months in the middle of the season and limited him to 25 appearances in what amounted to a three-goalie rotation with Martin Jones and Ilya Samsonov, neither of whom are still in the organization. He churned out slightly above-average numbers, logging a .907 SV%, 2.94 GAA, and 2.6 GSAA with a 12-11-1 record.
That showing, plus a sublime .964 SV% and 0.86 GAA in nearly 140 minutes of postseason action in Toronto’s first-round loss to the Bruins, earned him a three-year, $11MM contract extension over the summer that goes into effect for the 2025-26 season. This year, he still costs just $766.7K against the salary cap as part of a three-year, $2.3MM deal he signed back in 2022.
Assuming he can stay healthy for the rest of the campaign, he’ll surely eclipse the career-high 23 starts and 25 appearances he set last season. Whether he takes the lion’s share of the starts the rest of the way is another question entirely, given how well Stolarz has started the campaign, but it would be surprising to see the Leafs deviate too far away from a 50/50 split between the pipes the rest of the way.
For the 23-year-old Hildeby, his NHL debut was a mixed showing. The 2022 fourth-round pick had been on emergency call-ups at some points last season but never got into a game. Now the No. 3 option behind Stolarz and Woll after outplaying veteran Matt Murray during training camp, he was called up as soon as Woll landed on IR. He made two starts while backing up Stolarz to begin the season, looking excellent in his debut against the Devils in Toronto’s second game. But after making 21 saves on 23 shots in his debut, the Swede gave up six goals on 38 shots against the Blue Jackets in a 6-2 loss on Tuesday.
Hildeby now returns to the Marlies, where he posted a .913 SV%, 2.41 GAA, 21-11-7 record, and four shutouts in 41 games last season. It was his first in North America after spending his entire development in his native Sweden. The 6’7″, 223-lb netminder earned an All-Star Game nod for those strong numbers.
Maple Leafs Recall Dennis Hildeby On Emergency Basis
The Maple Leafs announced they’ve recalled goalie Dennis Hildeby from AHL Toronto on an emergency basis. He’ll back up Anthony Stolarz in tonight’s season opener against the Canadiens. Joseph Woll won’t dress after experiencing “lower-body tightness” and is also questionable for tomorrow’s game against the Devils, head coach Craig Berube told reporters (including David Alter of The Hockey News).
It’s another cup of coffee in the NHL for Hildeby, who’s yet to make his in-game debut but spent a few days on the roster last season under similar circumstances. The 23-year-old Swede was an overage draft pick out of the Färjestad BK organization in 2022, going to Toronto in the fourth round. He was one of the first players from the class to sign his entry-level contract but spent his post-draft season back on loan to Färjestad.
Hildeby arrived in North America full-time last season, emerging as a legitimate No. 3 option. The 6’7″, 223-lb netminder was excellent for the Marlies, recording a 2.41 GAA, .914 SV%, four shutouts, and a 21-11-7 record in 41 appearances. He was named to the AHL’s All-Star Game and tied for second in shutouts among rookie goaltenders.
He’s not yet breaking down the door to challenge Woll, one of the league’s better young goaltenders when healthy, or Stolarz, arguably the league’s best backup goaltender last season with the Panthers, for full-time NHL minutes, though. Nonetheless, he’ll look to at least make his NHL debut in spot duty at some point this season, the last one of his entry-level contract before becoming a restricted free agent for the first time.
That means Stolarz is landing the opening-night start in a pivotal campaign for both player and team. The 30-year-old landed a two-year, $5MM commitment from the Leafs on the open market this offseason after recording career highs across the board with Florida last year, posting a 16-7-2 record in 27 appearances with a league-leading .925 SV% and 2.03 GAA among qualified netminders. While he’s never taken on much of a significant workload, Stolarz has been an above-average netminder in his NHL minutes, recording a .915 SV% and 18.0 GSAA across 108 games.
Bruins/Maple Leafs Notes: Matthews, McMann, Toronto Black Aces, Heinen
Unlike Game 5, we won’t have to wait until warmups of tonight’s Game 6 to know whether star Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews will be available. He’s already been ruled out of the lineup as Toronto aims to push the series back to Boston for a Game 7, head coach Sheldon Keefe said this morning (via The Toronto Sun’s Lance Hornby).
Matthews hasn’t played since the second period of Toronto’s Game 4 loss, missing Game 5 with what multiple reports indicate is a combination of an illness and an undisclosed injury. The Leafs responded well to keep their season alive without him on Tuesday, outshooting Boston 33-28 en route to an overtime win off the stick of rookie Matthew Knies.
After scoring a franchise-record 69 goals in the regular season, Matthews was held without a point in three of his four appearances in the series thus far. He did have a dominant performance in Game 2, though, factoring in on every goal Toronto scored in a 3-2 win.
His line with Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi has been the most high-event trio Toronto has iced, leading them in both expected goals for (4.68) and expected goals against (4.83) per 60 minutes, per MoneyPuck. Domi shifted to center between Bertuzzi and Mitch Marner for Game 5, controlling 65.7% of shot attempts and factoring in on defenseman Jake McCabe‘s game-opening goal. That trio projects to stay together tonight.
Other updates ahead of Game 6, tonight at 7 p.m. CT:
- Leafs depth forward Bobby McMann is “progressing” in his recovery from a lower-body injury that’s kept him from making his playoff debut, but Keefe said today he isn’t close to returning and shouldn’t be expected back tonight or for a potential Game 7. McMann, 27, had 15 goals and 24 points with a +13 rating in a career-high 56 appearances in the regular season but hasn’t been a full participant in practice since sustaining the injury on April 10 against the Red Wings.
- Toronto’s AHL club was eliminated by the Belleville Senators in a best-of-three First Round series in the Calder Cup Playoffs earlier this week. With Marlies players’ seasons done, the Leafs added nine players to their playoff roster, per CapFriendly. Forwards Nicholas Abruzzese, Kyle Clifford, Dylan Gambrell and Alex Steeves; defensemen Mikko Kokkonen, Maxime Lajoie, Topi Niemelä and Marshall Rifai; and goaltender Dennis Hildeby are now available to dress for Stanley Cup Playoff games for the Leafs if needed.
- Switching over to the Bruins’ side, forward Danton Heinen will not be in the lineup for Game 6 due to an undisclosed injury, The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa reports. He’s listed as day-to-day, and while he hasn’t missed any game action yet in the series, he’s missed some practices over the last few days. Now in his second stint in Boston, the 28-year-old has been riding shotgun on the first line with Pavel Zacha and David Pastrňák for most of the series but has been moved down the lineup after managing a lone assist and a -1 rating in five games. Rookie John Beecher is expected to re-enter the Boston lineup in a fourth-line role alongside Jesper Boqvist and Pat Maroon after being scratched in Game 5.
Maple Leafs Recall Marshall Rifai, Loan Dennis Hildeby To AHL
The Toronto Maple Leafs have recalled defenseman Marshall Rifai and sent goaltender Dennis Hildeby back to the AHL. This is just the second call-up of Rifai’s career, with the first coming in October of this season but not resulting in any NHL games. Instead, the 25-year-old defenseman has spent his season with the Toronto Marlies, playing in 34 games and scoring 11 points. He also ranks fourth on the team with 48 penalty minutes.
Rifai is in just his second professional season after playing three years at Harvard University. He earned a contract with the Maple Leafs this summer, after signing a professional try-out with the team at the end of the 2021-22 season. Rifai was persistent in his first AHL season, recording 16 points and a team-leading 118 penalty minutes across 69 games. He became just the sixth AHL rookie since the 2017-18 season to record 100 or more penalty minutes, joining a list led by Montana Onyebuchi‘s 137 penalty minutes in just 46 games in 2021-22.
Rifai will hope that his recall proves more fruitful than Dennis Hildeby’s. The 22-year-old goaltender has yet to make his NHL debut, despite spending a combined 16 days on the NHL roster this season. Hildeby has served as the Marlies’ go-to starter when he’s in the AHL, recording 12 wins and a .913 save percentage in 24 games. He’s proven much more reliable in net than backup Keith Petruzzelli, who’s recorded just six wins and a .868 save percentage in 16 games of his own. Hildeby will look to bring a spark back to a Marlies lineup that’s gone 2-4-0 over their last six games, getting outscored 19-to-26.
Maple Leafs To Recall Dennis Hildeby
The Maple Leafs will recall rookie netminder Dennis Hildeby for the second time this season ahead of Tuesday’s game against the Blues, TSN’s Mark Masters reports. Backup Martin Jones is unavailable with an undisclosed injury after missing Monday’s practice.
That means Toronto needs to clear two roster spots in the next few hours – one to allow them to temporarily carry three goalies, and one to activate center David Kämpf off injured reserve. Head coach Sheldon Keefe confirmed Tuesday morning that Kämpf will return against St. Louis after missing three games with an undisclosed injury (via Masters).
To do so, the Maple Leafs will likely place defenseman Conor Timmins on injured reserve and return Maxime Lajoie to AHL Toronto from his emergency loan. Timmins, 25, is out indefinitely with mono, Keefe said Tuesday.
The 22-year-old Hildeby spent nine days on the Maple Leafs roster last month with Joseph Woll sidelined with a high ankle sprain and starter Ilya Samsonov on a short-term AHL assignment after a difficult start to the season. The 6-foot-7, 223-pound Swede is having a strong first professional season in North America, logging a .913 SV% and four shutouts in 24 AHL games, although he’s yet to make his NHL debut.
Jones, 34, stopped 27 of 31 shots faced in a 5-3 loss to the Senators on Saturday, ending a run of five straight starts for Samsonov. A pair of underwhelming showings now has Jones’ SV% on the year down to .908, although it’s still his best in six years. He’s started 16 games and made two relief appearances for Toronto this year in a third-string role behind the inconsistent Samsonov and the injured Woll, posting a 9-7-1 record and two shutouts.
Maple Leafs Recall Ilya Samsonov
After clearing waivers early last week, Ilya Samsonov‘s brief stint on the AHL roster is over. The Maple Leafs recalled last season’s starting netminder this morning, returning youngster Dennis Hildeby to AHL Toronto in a corresponding transaction.
Samsonov, 26, has had a horrid go of things this season that culminated in a minor-league assignment to work with the team’s development staff. He did not suit up in any game action for the AHL’s Marlies during his ten-day stint. To go along with a rather peculiar 5-2-6 record, Samsonov had a .862 SV% in 15 NHL games – second-worst in the league among qualified netminders only to the Hurricanes’ Antti Raanta.
Without any stats from his AHL run, it’s hard to gauge from an outside viewpoint if Samsonov is mentally ready to rebound from his struggles. There’s no doubt he’s a skilled, capable netminder. After all, he started 40 out of 82 games for Toronto last season and stopped 18 goals above expected, which was tenth in the league, per MoneyPuck. It’s also unclear whether or not the Leafs plan to play Samsonov anytime soon, as they’ve shown a willingness to ride the hot hand and start Martin Jones in back-to-back contests already once this month. The recall could be just to get Samsonov back working with the Leafs’ NHL staff as he gets closer to being deemed ready to play.
This has to be a tad disappointing for Hildeby, who didn’t see any action during his first NHL recall. After backing up Jones in four games, the monstrous 22-year-old Swede heads back to the Marlies, where he has a 2.20 GAA, .919 SV%, two shutouts, and a 7-5-3 record in 15 games this year.