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East Notes: Couturier, Van Riemsdyk, Milano, Canadiens

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Flyers center Sean Couturier had been skating for the last few weeks with the hopes of returning to the lineup before the end of the season.  Those plans have now changed as head coach John Tortorella told reporters, including Charlie O’Connor of The Athletic (Twitter link) that the 30-year-old has now been shut down for the season.  The good news for the Flyers is that Couturier hasn’t suffered a setback.  Instead, the team simply decided that there wasn’t much benefit to bringing him back for a few games and that it would be better for the veteran to simply focus on continuing to rehab the back injury that has sidelined him since training camp.  Suffice it to say, this was not the way anyone in the organization hoped that the first season of Couturier’s eight-year, $62MM contract was going to go.

Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference:

  • Capitals defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk will miss at least a week due to an upper-body injury, notes Roman Stubbs of The Washington Post (Twitter link). The 31-year-old suffered the injury late in Thursday’s game against Tampa Bay.  While Washington has struggled a bit this year, this season has been a good one individually for van Riemsdyk as he has set career highs offensively with seven goals and 23 points while averaging over 19 minutes a night for only the second time.  That helped him earn a three-year, $9MM extension last month.
  • Still with Washington, winger Sonny Milano was a full participant in practice today and is trending towards playing tomorrow, relays Matt Weyrich of NBC Sports Washington (Twitter link). The 26-year-old has been a nice bargain for the Capitals this season, collecting 32 points in 58 games, a nice return on a league minimum contract.  He, too, has a three-year extension in hand already, one that will carry a $1.9MM AAV starting next season.
  • The Canadiens announced that winger Rafael Harvey-Pinard won’t play tonight due to a minor injury. The rookie has impressed since being recalled in January, picking up 14 goals, 55 hits, and 55 blocks in 32 games.  Winger Joel Armia will return after missing more than a month with an upper respiratory infection.  Meanwhile, blueliner David Savard will miss his second straight game due to a lower-body injury.

Atlantic Notes: Harvey-Pinard, Armia, Acciari, Foligno

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Canadiens rookie winger Rafael Harvey-Pinard leads all NHL rookies in goals since being recalled a little over two months ago which is something that should definitely help this summer in restricted free agency.  However, it will be a new agency representing him as Quartexx announced (Twitter link) that the 24-year-old is now one of their clients.  He had previously been represented by CEM Hockey.  Harvey-Pinard has 14 goals and five assists in 32 games since being recalled and is already tied for fourth on Montreal in goals.  Even though he’s just finishing his entry-level contract, he will be eligible for salary arbitration this summer.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic:

  • Canadiens winger Joel Armia participated in practice today with a regular jersey, relays TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie (Twitter link). The 29-year-old has missed more than a month with an upper respiratory infection.  It has been a tough year for Armia who has been limited to just 37 games this season and has just seven points but it appears he’ll have a chance to at least get into a few more contests before their 2022-23 campaign comes to an end.
  • While Maple Leafs forward Noel Acciari returned to practice today, head coach Sheldon Keefe told reporters including TSN’s Mark Masters (Twitter link) that Acciari won’t play this weekend. The veteran missed Wednesday’s game against Florida with an undisclosed injury but Keefe clarified that it is a neck/whiplash injury.  The 31-year-old has three goals and 57 hits in 17 games since being acquired from St. Louis back in mid-February.
  • There is some optimism that Bruins winger Nick Foligno should be ready to return for the playoffs, notes Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch (Twitter link). The 35-year-old has missed the last month due to a lower-body injury and is currently on injured reserve but not LTIR.  Foligno has had a bit of a bounce-back campaign, notching 10 goals and 16 assists in 60 games after recording just two goals and 11 helpers in 64 contests in 2021-22.

Montreal Canadiens Issue Injury Updates

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While the Montreal Canadiens have been better than many might have expected this season — they started off pretty well and are ahead of six teams in the standings, double-digit points out of the fight for the best chance at Connor Bedard — injuries have absolutely decimated whatever chance they may have had at staying on the periphery of the playoff chase.

Beyond the long-term, likely career-ending injury to Carey Price that has landed him on long-term injured reserve, the Canadiens have a whopping seven players on injured reserve and two in addition to Price on the long-term injured list. The players on those injured lists are star winger Cole Caufield, first-overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky, veteran Brendan Gallagher, talented rookie Kaiden Guhle, Sean Monahan, Jake Evans, Chris Wideman, Paul Byron, and Arber Xhekaj.

In addition to the players on the injured lists, there’s also Joel Edmundson, who remains on the active roster but hasn’t played in a month due to injury, leaving the Canadiens further depleted on their back end.

While these injuries have led to some interesting revelations, such as the impressive play of rookie Rafael Harvey-Pinard, they are also quite the frustration for a team looking to use the 2022-23 season as a valuable year of player development.

Today, the Canadiens announced some injury updates on a few important players. Firstly, the Canadiens announced that Xhekaj will undergo season-ending shoulder surgery next week.

Xhekaj seemed to injure his shoulder during a fight with Edmonton Oilers rookie Vincent Desharnais, and that injury will now end what has been an exciting rookie season for the defenseman.

The undrafted blueliner has worked his way up to be quite the rookie surprise in the NHL, playing with the kind of physicality and snarl that made him an instant fan favorite for those who frequent the Bell Center.

He flashed some more skill and talent beyond just his physicality than one might expect, and his injury means the Canadiens’ blueline and player development mission has been dealt a serious blow.

The one potential positive to note is that the Canadiens’ organizational apathy to whether they win or lose games for the rest of the season (coach Martin St. Louis has continually stressed the importance of player development over bottom-line results) has afforded them the freedom to make decisions that are in the best interest of their players’ long-term health.

Whereas a team in a Stanley Cup chase might hope that Xhekaj play through an injury in order to give their team the best chance at winning it all, the Canadiens can afford to let players such as Caufield and Xhekaj get a head start on their recoveries, which is definitely useful.

The second injury update the team issued is related to another breakout young talent: Kirby Dach. The team announced that Dach will not travel with the team to California, and will be out with a lower-body injury. Dach has been out since February 14th, with his absence first attributed to a non-COVID illness. The team then discovered that Dach’s illness symptoms were actually consistent with the effects of a lower-body injury, meaning now the team has yet another injury to manage.

Dach has flown past the career-highs in scoring he set as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks, and was making some major steps forward in his game under St. Louis’ tutelage. The Canadiens announced that Dach was out indefinitely with the injury, meaning the team will have to hope that he’s not another player whose season will be cut short.

Another injury update the team issued was that veteran forward Joel Armia is out day-to-day with an upper respiratory infection. Armia, who hasn’t played since February 21st, hasn’t yet been placed on injured reserve, leaving hope that he can overcome this infection and return to the ice relatively quickly.

A final injury update the team issued regards Edmundson, who as mentioned has not played in a month. The team announced that Edmundson will travel to California, and is expected to be at practice Monday as he nears a return. At this point, Edmundson’s return to the ice may be too late for him to figure in teams’ trade deadline plans, but he should bolster a Canadiens’ back-end that has looked quite a bit thinner due to injuries.

The Canadiens sent defenseman Corey Schueneman back to the AHL’s Laval Rocket last night, lending to the belief that Edmundson is nearing a return to the ice. Shueneman played four games for the Canadiens during this call-up, registering one assist and averaging 15:48 TOI.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Injury Updates: Klingberg, Henrique, Blackwood, Ekman-Larsson, Armia, Mantha

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The Anaheim Ducks have announced that defenseman John Klingberg is out with a lower-body injury. There was no word on whether his status was considered day-to-day or something longer, though the team noted that Nathan Beaulieu would be drawing into the lineup in Klingberg’s place. While this development won’t have any impact on the Ducks’ long-gone playoff hopes, it could have an impact on the trade deadline. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman notes that this is not an instance of a team holding a player out of the lineup for trade-related reasons, as we have seen teams do with other blueliners such as Jakob Chychrun and Vladislav Gavrikov.

While Klingberg, 30, has had a nightmarish season in Anaheim (22 points in 48 games, down in scoring pace from 47 in 74 last season) he’s still a well-regarded offensive defenseman. Just last summer he earned a $7MM one-year deal, and it’s likely that there would be teams interested in acquiring him at the deadline. The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta links Klingberg with the Edmonton Oilers’ search for defensive help at the deadline, and it’s likely that there would be more than just Edmonton looking to add him to their team. Assuming that’s the case, interested teams will likely want to monitor his health status closely due to this news. In addition to Klingberg, the Ducks also announced that Adam Henrique would be leaving the game with an injury, which could be another injury development with trade deadline implications.

  • New Jersey Devils netminder Mackenzie Blackwood is out day-to-day with a lower-body injury, reports NHL.com’s Mike Morreale. Starter Vitek Vanecek will retain the lion’s share of Devils starts in Blackwood’s absence. Blackwood will be eligible for restricted free agency in the summer and will hope to get this injury behind him and improve on his current .900 save percentage in order to put himself in the best position possible for summer contract negotiations.
  • The Vancouver Canucks have announced that defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson has been placed on injured reserve. It was previously reported that Ekman-Larsson would miss several weeks with an ankle injury, and now the Canucks have made that reality official on their roster, as they’ve placed Ekman-Larsson on the injured list. With him out, the Canucks are turning to Riley Stillman and Christian Wolanin on the left side of their defense, and will now have an extra spot on the 23-man roster to work with.
  • The Montreal Canadiens have announced that forward Joel Armia has left tonight’s game against the New Jersey Devils. He left the bench relatively early in the first period, and at the moment it’s unclear the exact nature of what knocked him out of the game. Armia has had a difficult season, with just eleven points in 31 games. He’s had games where he’s looked quite good, but those games have been met with far longer stretches where he’s faded into the background of games. With the Canadiens already ravaged by injuries, they’ll have to hope that this new injury is a relatively minor one.
  • The Washington Capitals have announced that forward Anthony Mantha has an upper-body injury, and will not return to tonight’s game. It’s been a rough season for Mantha and a difficult adjustment in Washington overall. Mantha has scored nine goals and 24 points in 53 games this season and is being outscored by two of the team’s bargain-bin veteran signings, Erik Gustafsson and Marcus Johansson. Hopefully, this injury proves to be just a minor setback so Matha can quickly return to the ice and work towards ending his season on the right foot.

Juraj Slafkovsky Out Three Months With Lower-Body Injury

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The Montreal Canadiens have provided updates on several injured players, and none of them are good. Juraj Slafkovsky, the first-overall pick from 2022, will miss three months with a lower-body injury that does not require surgery. Jake Evans will also not need surgery, but is out for 8-10 weeks. Jonathan Drouin and Joel Armia will be out until the All-Star break (the Canadiens return to play on February 11), and Jake Allen will be out a minimum of a week.

A three-month timeline essentially ends Slafkovsky’s rookie season. The Canadiens will wrap up their schedule on April 13, unless a miraculous playoff run is made in the second half.

With that in mind, 39 games and 10 points are not totals the Canadiens had hoped for. The big winger failed to record a point in his last 15 games, posting a -12 rating during that time and recording just 11 shots on goal. He looked overmatched for long stretches, with many suggesting that he should have been playing in the World Juniors or AHL, instead of struggling with Montreal.

Now, he’ll have to work through this injury and try to come back more prepared in 2022-23, when the Canadiens will hopefully be more competitive. The team is 19-23-3 on the year and very well may position themselves at the deadline to lose as many games as possible down the stretch. They sit 26th in the league overall, and like every other team that isn’t in playoff contention, hope to get closer to the first-overall pick.

Armia, Evans, Slafkovsky Placed On Injured Reserve

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The Montreal Canadiens have moved three forwards to injured reserve, giving the designation to Joel Armia, Jake Evans, and Juraj Slafkovsky. All three will be out indefinitely, while additional testing is performed. In their place, Rafael Harvey-Pinard and Rem Pitlick have been recalled.

Sean Monahan has also been moved to long-term injured reserve as he continues to rehab, though the team does not he is “progressing well.”

Armia is dealing with an upper-body injury, potentially one suffered on a hit from Jacob Trouba on Sunday. The Finnish forward played over 18 minutes in the game, but now is obviously dealing with something that will keep him sidelined. Armia has just seven points so far on the season and has been a healthy scratch several times, as he struggles to reach the heights that he was playing at a few years ago.

Slafkovsky also played in that game, but saw just over nine minutes of ice time. The top prospect is dealing with a lower-body issue. It hasn’t been quite the season many expected of the big Slovak, as Slafkovsky has just four goals in 39 games. He has shown flashes of high-level scoring ability but is too often overmatched by the speed of the NHL. Several times this season he has been caught with his head down by a heavy check, something he will have to adapt to moving forward.

Evans, meanwhile, may be dealing with the worst injury of the bunch. It at least looked that way when he crumpled at center ice on Saturday, piled on after a faceoff scrum. The 26-year-old forward was playing the best hockey of his season but is now dealing with a lower-body injury that kept him out of Sunday’s game.

If you are a proponent of the “tank,” then losing three regular forwards might be time for celebration. But the Canadiens are also trying to build a culture under head coach Martin St. Louis, and losing Slafkovsky in particular doesn’t help that move forward. The team’s depth will be seriously tested, though Harvey-Pinard and Pitlick are capable replacements.

Snapshots: Armia, Lafreniere, Nemec

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The Montreal Canadiens will make Joel Armia a healthy scratch tonight, sitting him along with Johnathan Kovacevic in favor of Anthony Richard and David Savard. Armia is in the second season of a four-year, $13.6MM contract he signed in 2021 after the Canadiens’ run to the Stanley Cup Final. Unfortunately, the five goals he scored during that run are exactly five more than he has this season. Armia hasn’t scored yet in 26 games and has just three assists, following a six-goal, 14-point 2021-22 campaign.

It’s understandable for him to be out of the lineup with that kind of production, but it will cause some speculation about his future in Montreal. The 29-year-old Finn was once an incredibly valuable, versatile player that could move up and down the lineup. Now it looks like his NHL career might be coming to an abrupt end.

  • Alexis Lafreniere entered the rumor mill when the New York Rangers decided to make him a healthy scratch recently, but The Athletic’s staff writes that the team has no intention of trading him at this point. The 21-year-old first-overall pick has struggled to find any level of consistency in the NHL, though his supporters will point to an even-strength scoring rate that is encouraging. One thing is clear: if he doesn’t miraculously find another level in the second half, he won’t be getting the massive second contract that many top picks earn. Lafreniere is scheduled to become a restricted free agent without arbitration rights, meaning he could be forced to accept a qualifying offer under $900K for next season, should the Rangers play hardball.
  • After Slovakia was eliminated from the World Juniors by a Connor Bedard overtime goal, captain Simon Nemec has been assigned back to the Utica Comets of the AHL where he’ll continue to play this season. The young defenseman logged huge minutes for his country at the tournament, racking up five points in five games while barely missing out on a chance to play for a medal. When Nemec was drafted, he committed immediately to playing in North America if the New Jersey Devils wanted him to, even if that meant spending the whole year in the minors. For Utica he has looked right at home, recording 11 points in 24 games so far.

Injury Notes: Brodie, Armia, Yamamoto

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The Toronto Maple Leafs won’t have T.J. Brodie back for a little while, as the defenseman is not progressing as hoped, according to head coach Sheldon Keefe. David Alter of Sports Illustrated reports that Brodie will not travel with the team as they head out for four road games after tonight’s matchup with the New York Islanders.

Here are some more injury updates from around the league:

  • The Montreal Canadiens had Joel Armia back on the ice in a non-contact jersey today, according to Eric Engels of Sportsnet. The versatile forward hasn’t played in over a week, and even then was having a brutal start to the year. With no points in seven games this season and just 14 in 2021-22, the four-year extension Armia signed in 2021 isn’t looking great at this point. While still an excellent defensive presence, the Canadiens need to get some offense out of his $3.4MM cap hit.
  • Meanwhile, Mike Hoffman was missing from Canadiens practice due to a medical evaluation for a lower-body injury. The veteran forward left Saturday’s game early putting an end to what had been a nice little stretch for Hoffman with six points in six games.
  • Mark Spector of Sportsnet reports that Kailer Yamamoto is not with the Edmonton Oilers on their road trip that starts tonight in New Jersey. The 24-year-old forward hasn’t played since November 11 and hasn’t registered a single goal this season. Spector notes that Yamamoto “hasn’t been right” since a big collision in the preseason.

Corey Schueneman Assigned To AHL

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It’s not often that you see a team send their extra defenseman down to the minor leagues before heading out on a road trip, unless of course, they are getting someone back from injury. That’s why there was instant excitement among Montreal Canadiens fans when the team announced that Corey Schueneman has been assigned to the Laval Rocket of the AHL.

The team is about to head out on the road and with them will be both Joel Armia and Joel Edmundson, though there still isn’t a concrete timeline on when they’ll be in the lineup. Neither player appears on the active roster currently, though Edmundson does not have an injured reserve designation any longer. The Canadiens will play in Buffalo tomorrow to kick off a four-game road trip where it seems likely that one, if not both, will return.

Edmundson, 29, has become something of a fan favorite in Montreal thanks to his stability and physicality on defense. He was an integral part of the team’s unexpected run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2021 but has been in and out of the lineup ever since due to injury. Last season he managed to play in just 24 games, and his return on the upcoming road trip will be his season debut for 2022-23.

While this season may not be about winning a championship, you can bet that Montreal still wants to have Edmundson in the lineup around their young defensemen as much as possible. A Stanley Cup winner in 2019 with the St. Louis Blues, he can help them make the transition to the NHL while providing a reliable model to emulate on the defensive end. Edmundson was named an alternate captain before the season began, and is signed through 2023-24.

Atlantic Notes: Robertson, Canadiens, Larkin

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The injury to Matt Murray provided the Maple Leafs with enough cap space to recall winger Nick Robertson and he made an immediate impact, scoring twice in Toronto’s overtime win against Dallas on Thursday.  On the surface, it would seem like this is at least a short-term opportunity for him to prove himself but Postmedia’s Michael Traikos posits that there hasn’t been a better time for them to trade the 21-year-old.  The Maple Leafs don’t have the deepest of prospect pools but Robertson is someone who is NHL-ready or very close which would be appealing to many rebuilding teams.  With the team in need of some help on the back end, a player like Robertson is someone they could potentially dangle to try to add that defensive help.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic:

  • The Canadiens could soon be getting some help on the injury front as TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie relays (Twitter links) that defenseman Joel Edmundson and Joel Armia both took part in practice with a non-contact jersey. Both players have yet to play this season with Edmundson suffering a back injury in a collision with Nick Suzuki in a pre-camp practice while Armia suffered an upper-body late in the preseason.  Montreal is carrying a full-sized roster at the moment so when these two are cleared to return, they will have to make some moves to open up roster spots for them.
  • Still with Montreal, the team announced (Twitter link) that winger Juraj Slafkovsky is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. The first-overall pick is coming off his best game that saw him score his first NHL goal while logging over 14 minutes of ice time for the first time but it appears he’ll have to wait a few days to have a chance at his second tally.  Rem Pitlick is expected to take Slafkovsky’s place on the fourth line tonight.
  • Red Wings center Dylan Larkin left Friday’s game against Chicago briefly with an injury and while he returned, head coach Derek Lalonde told reporters including Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press postgame that Larkin was dealing with some upper-body pain postgame. He’s scheduled to be reevaluated today.  The captain is off to a strong start to his contract year with five points in four games this season.

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