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John Marino

Utah Injury Notes: Marino, O’Brien

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Utah Hockey Club defender John Marino will miss tonight’s game against the Kraken due to an illness, per Brogan Houston of Desert News Sports. Houston adds that there is an illness circulating through the locker room, so it will be interesting to monitor if additional players are impacted to the point of missed time. Just yesterday head coach Andre Tourigny noted Marino would be day-to-day with an upper body injury after taking a puck to the head in Saturday’s contest against the Jets, also per Houston.

In 34 games on the year, Marino has recorded one goal and 14 points. It’s been a tough first season with the franchise for Marino, as he sustained an injury in training camp that eventually resulted in surgery in October. Marino didn’t appear in a game until January.

Utah acquired Marino, 27, from the Devils during the 2024 draft in exchange for a second-round pick. Marino burst onto the scene as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who then signed him to a six-year, $26.4MM contract in 2021. The Penguins then dealt the defender to the New Jersey Devils, where he established himself as an anchor on their back end, and Marino has slowly taken on that responsibility for Utah during the second half of this season. Although he’s missed more than half of the team’s games this season, his current average of 21:10 of ice time per night represents the highest average of his six-year career. While the club is all but assured to miss the playoffs this season, Marino will be a key piece for Utah moving forward.

Tourigny also provided an updated on injured forward Liam O’Brien, noting “there’s a chance” he returns before the end of the season, per Belle Fraser of the Salt Lake Tribune. The enforcer sustained a lower-body during a March 13 contest against Seattle, and the team announced his recovery time would be four-plus weeks, putting his return in question.

On the season, O’Brien has two points and 50 penalty minutes in 27 games. After recording a career-high 14 points and league-leading 153 PIMs in 75 games for the Coyotes last season, Utah signed O’Brien to a three-year, $3MM extension in June.

Utah HC Expected To Activate John Marino

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The Utah Hockey Club could have top-four shutdown defender John Marino in the lineup for the first time this season tonight against the Canadiens. Head coach André Tourigny told Belle Fraser of The Salt Lake Tribune that he’ll be a game-time decision and could come off injured reserve after warmups.

Winger Dylan Guenther was placed on injured reserve to create the necessary roster spot to activate Marino, according to the NHL’s media portal. The 21-year-old was diagnosed with a lower-body injury last week and is out indefinitely.

Utah acquired Marino, 27, from the Devils on the second day of the 2024 draft in exchange for the No. 49 pick. The Massachusetts native had been a top-four fixture on New Jersey’s blue line for the past two seasons and had averaged over 20 minutes per game through his first five NHL seasons, but the Devils needed cap space to pursue unrestricted free agents Brenden Dillon and Brett Pesce.

Marino, now in the fourth season of a six-year, $26.4MM contract he signed with the Penguins in 2021, was projected to serve as a top-four anchor in Utah’s first season to complement the more offensively inclined Sean Durzi and Mikhail Sergachev. Instead, he sustained a lower back injury shortly before training camp and eventually went under the knife in October.

Durzi underwent surgery to repair his right shoulder at the same time after just four games, leaving Utah without two of its best defensemen for the vast majority of the season. They’ve managed to stay in the playoff hunt, going 18-17-7 through 42 games to sit six points out of a playoff spot, but they’re fading fast with a 2-6-2 record in their last 10 games.

Marino’s imminent return and Durzi’s being on the horizon should help aid the club in the lengthy absence of Guenther, their leading goal-scorer this season with 16 through 40 games. The former joins a defense that’s done as well as could be hoped for while shorthanded, ranking 17th in the league with 2.39 expected goals against per 60 minutes at 5-on-5, per MoneyPuck. Netminder Karel Vejmelka, who’s exploded for a .916 SV% and 14.1 goals saved above expected, has kept Utah’s actual goals against per game to 2.93, 13th-best in the league.

He won’t do much to aid a bottom-10 offense, but Marino’s return will eventually allow for easier matchups for overmatched role players like Ian Cole, Michael Kesselring, and Olli Määttä. Utah will ease him back in, though, and the righty will start in a third-pairing role alongside Juuso Välimäki if he can play, per Brogan Houston of Deseret News.

Marino enters his Utah era with 18 goals, 89 assists, 107 points, and a +38 rating in 328 career NHL games with the Devils and Penguins.

John Marino And Sean Durzi Full Participants At Team Practice

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Injured Utah Hockey Club defensemen John Marino and Sean Durzi were full participants at team practice today (as per Brogan Houston of Deseret News Sports). Houston also added that Utah head coach Andre Tourigny believes that both players are still on their original timelines, meaning that they probably won’t be in the lineup during Utah’s homestand, although Marino looks to be closer to returning than Durzi.

The update is welcome news for Utah as injuries have depleted their back end this season, particularly in the cases of Marino and Durzi who have combined to play just four games and were expected to shoulder large workloads this season.

Marino has yet to play for Utah after coming over in a summer trade from New Jersey. The 27-year-old has been sidelined since the start of the regular season with a lower-back injury. Marino had back surgery in late October and will need a reasonable amount of time to get himself into game shape. However, his shedding of the no-contact jersey is certainly an encouraging sign for Marino and Utah. Marino fell out of favor in New Jersey last season. However, he endured very difficult deployment with the Devils and still managed reasonable possession numbers, posting a CF% of 51.1% despite starting 55% of his shifts in the defensive zone.

Durzi has seen some action this season, dressing in four games back in early October. The 26-year-old suffered a shoulder injury in an October 14th game against New Jersey and was thought to be lost for a period of 4-6 months. Given that he is practicing in a regular jersey this early, it seems likely that Durzi will return in the early or middle part of the 4–6-month timeline.

Sean Durzi, John Marino Undergo Surgery; Maveric Lamoureux Recalled

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Utah defensemen Sean Durzi and John Marino have both undergone surgeries that will see them sit out most of the season, the team announced. Durzi will be out four to six months after having his right shoulder surgically repaired, while Marino will miss three to four months after undergoing surgery to address a lower back issue. The team later said that they’ve recalled 2022 first-rounder Maveric Lamoureux from AHL Tucson, but with a full 23-man roster, there’s still a corresponding move coming.

The team didn’t disclose when each player underwent surgery. However, if Durzi underwent it within the last few days, a six-month timeline would mean his regular season is over after just four appearances. Meanwhile, Marino should return in the lead-up to or after the league’s schedule pauses for the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off. Both players are already on injured reserve, and with over $8MM in cap space, a transfer to LTIR is unlikely for either.

It’s a regrettable development for both players and the team, although it’s not unexpected. Reports from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet and Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff indicated earlier this month that an absence of at least four months awaited Durzi. Utah head coach André Tourigny said last Friday that Marino would still be unavailable for “months.”

Durzi, who turned 26 on Monday, is in the first year of the four-year, $24MM extension he signed in June to keep him off this summer’s RFA market. Acquired by the Coyotes from the Kings in the 2023 offseason, he excelled in a top-pairing role in the desert, controlling 54.8% of shot attempts at even strength and posting 41 points (9 G, 32 A) in 76 games. Unfortunately, he’ll now miss most of his first season under that contract.

The 2018 second-round pick of the Maple Leafs has been traded twice – first from Toronto to Los Angeles in 2019’s Jake Muzzin trade and again from L.A. to Arizona in 2023. He’s now averaged 20:48 per game across 216 NHL appearances, recording 108 points with a -20 rating but a strong 51.8 CF%. Through four games this year before sustaining the injury on a hit from Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler over a week ago, he had two assists and a +2 rating.

Durzi is a left-shot but played the right side throughout much of last season in Arizona. He did so again to begin 2024-25, suiting up on the right side on Utah’s first pairing alongside offseason trade acquisition Mikhail Sergachev. With Marino also out long-term, Utah will be without its top two right defensemen for most of its inaugural season.

Marino, also a trade pickup by general manager Bill Armstrong over the summer, has yet to play a game for Utah. He sustained the back injury during offseason training and never practiced with the team during training camp. He was initially listed as week-to-week and was later upgraded to day-to-day, signaling a potential return was near, but an evident setback landed him on IR to start the regular season.

Despite their recent aggressiveness in the trade market, don’t expect Utah to swing a deal for a right-shot defenseman in the coming days. Chris Johnston of The Athletic and TSN reports they “intend to lean on internal solutions,” at least for now. One of those internal solutions is the 20-year-old Lamoureux, a hulking 6’7″ right-shot defender who’s off to a hot start with Tucson in his first professional season. The former QMJHL champion and All-Star has two goals and an assist through his first four AHL games.

Utah’s injured players were already on IR before today’s news, so they’re likely sending someone down to accommodate Lamoureux’s addition to the roster. That will be depth defender Patrik Koch, Belle Fraser of the Salt Lake Tribune reports. Utah recalled the 27-year-old last week after Durzi’s injury, but he was a healthy scratch in three straight contests. Koch, a mainstay in pro leagues in Czechia and Slovakia, jumped to North America with the Coyotes organization last season. He spent most of the year in Tucson but made his NHL debut in March, posting a shot on goal and receiving a 10-minute misconduct penalty in a game against the Wild.

Lamoureux joins Robert Bortuzzo and Michael Kesselring as the right-shot defensemen on Utah’s active roster. However, both Ian Cole and Juuso Välimäki can and have played on their off side in recent days. He could make his NHL debut tomorrow against the Avalanche.

John Marino Still “Months” Away From Returning, Sean Durzi’s Timeline Uncertain

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New Utah Hockey Club defender John Marino must wait significantly longer before making his season debut. After being listed as week-to-week with an upper-body injury at the beginning of camp and later upgraded to day-to-day, he was placed on IR at the start of the regular season. Now, it’ll be “months” before he can return to play, Utah head coach André Tourigny told reporters today, including Belle Fraser of The Salt Lake Tribune.

Utah has still managed to get off to a 3-1-1 start without Marino, who they acquired from the Devils shortly after officially being established out of the ruins of the Coyotes. The 27-year-old right-shot defender was expected to serve as their top shutdown option and stabilize their top four while averaging over 20 minutes per game, but instead, he’s yet to even skate with the team a month after their first training camp began.

It’s an even more difficult blow to a new-look Utah blue line that’s also set to be without last year’s No. 1, Sean Durzi, for quite some time. The team confirmed yesterday that he’ll be out “for the foreseeable future” with an upper-body injury. Some reports, including one from Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli yesterday, indicated he needed surgery and could be out for four to five months. But Tourigny declined to verify that today and only said Durzi’s injury wasn’t season-ending, per Fraser. It’s still unclear what the specific injury is, but he was seen wearing a sling earlier this week after taking an awkward hit from Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler on Monday.

A sixth-round pick by the Oilers in 2015, Edmonton traded his signing rights to the Penguins in 2019, shortly before they expired following his final season of collegiate hockey at Harvard. Marino unexpectedly cracked Pittsburgh’s opening night roster and hasn’t looked back, immediately cementing himself as a top-four defender and holding that role throughout his five NHL seasons to date. He spent the last two seasons in Newark after a 2022 offseason trade sent him to the Devils, where he had 43 points and a +15 rating in 139 games while averaging 21:01 per game.

Initially expected to comprise Utah’s bottom pairing to begin the season, veteran signing Ian Cole and Michael Kesselring have stepped into top-four roles on the right side alongside Juuso Välimäki and Mikhail Sergachev, respectively, to offset the losses of Durzi and Marino. Fringe NHLer Vladislav Kolyachonok and late-summer signing Robert Bortuzzo comprise the bottom pairing for now.

With Utah’s hot start and general manager Bill Armstrong’s recent aggressive streak, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them pursue a right-shot defender on the trade market or waiver wire in the coming days now that Durzi and Marino’s long-term absences are confirmed, even without a specific return timeline.

Central Notes: Boldy, Middleton, Marino, Bjugstad, Kaiser, Barlow

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The Wild have upgraded winger Matt Boldy’s status from week-to-week to day-to-day, head coach John Hynes said Tuesday (via NHL.com’s Jessi Pierce). He hasn’t been ruled out of Friday’s preseason game against the Blackhawks, a strong sign he’ll be available when Minnesota opens its regular season against the Blue Jackets on Oct. 10.

Boldy was initially termed week-to-week on Sep. 23 with a lower-body ailment, but the team wasn’t concerned he’d miss any regular-season action. That appears to be the case. He’s been skating since Saturday.

His presence is crucial for the Wild. The 23-year-old set career highs last season with 40 assists and 69 points in 75 games, finishing second on the Wild’s 21st-ranked offense in scoring. With most of their bottom six either declining or overtaxed in offensive roles, he’s an irreplaceable source of secondary scoring behind Kirill Kaprizov, at least until Minnesota’s next wave of prospects hits their stride.

It’s not all good injury news for the Wild today, though. Defenseman Jacob Middleton is now day-to-day with bruising, Hynes added, but isn’t expected to miss their season opener, which is still nine days away.

There’s more from the Central Division:

  • The Utah Hockey Club may be without a top-four stalwart on defense for its first-ever game. John Marino’s availability for the season opener is now in doubt after missing all of training camp to date with an upper-body injury, per ALL Utah Hockey’s Craig Morgan. The team will know more about his timeline for a return next week, Morgan added, but for now, he hasn’t been ruled out of any action past then and is still day-to-day. They’re also not expecting center Nick Bjugstad back until Nov. 1, per Morgan. He’s out with an upper-body injury, but his absence isn’t new. He was already ruled doubtful for the start of the season last week.
  • Defenseman Wyatt Kaiser has been mysteriously absent from Blackhawks camp thus far, but that’ll end soon. The Blackhawks told the Chicago Sun-Times’ Ben Pope that an undisclosed concern popped up during his pre-camp physical that required “some invasive testing.” He’s passed all of them, though, and will begin ramping up to game speed. The 22-year-old is a strong candidate to land on the opening night roster after posting seven assists and an even rating in 32 games with Chicago last year.
  • Jets prospect Colby Barlow has officially requested a trade in the OHL from the Owen Sound Attack, Postmedia’s Greg Cowan reports. Winnipeg returned Barlow, the No. 18 overall pick in 2023, to Owen Sound on Sunday. The 19-year-old left winger had 40 goals in 50 games last year but recorded only 18 assists for 58 points, placing him fourth on the team in scoring overall. He won’t be reporting to Owen Sound’s camp at all, Cowan adds, so expect him to be on the move before the start of the OHL regular season.

Utah’s Nick Bjugstad Expected To Miss Start Of Season

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Utah center Nick Bjugstad is expected to miss the franchise’s first-ever regular season game with an upper-body injury, a source tells ALL Utah Hockey’s Craig Morgan. The 32-year-old pivot has yet to participate in training camp due to the injury and was listed as week-to-week when it opened last week.

It’s a tough break for a solid veteran fixture that’s done well to shed his injury-prone label. Bjugstad has appeared in 70-plus games in each of the past two seasons, his first time doing that on back-to-back occasions since the 2013-14 and 2014-15 campaigns.

The Minneapolis native spent the last two years with the Coyotes, aside from a brief post-trade deadline stint with the Oilers in 2023, returning to Arizona as a free agent the following offseason. He’s entering the second season of a two-year, $4.2MM deal and followed the rest of the former Coyotes roster to Utah this summer.

Last season marked a career resurgence for Bjugstad, a first-round pick of the Panthers back in 2010. His 22 goals, 23 assists, 45 points, and +11 rating in 76 games were all his best totals since posting a career-high 49 points with Florida in the 2017-18 season. He also logged a career-high 17:27 per game for the Yotes last year, finished seventh among qualified Arizona skaters with a 49.4 CF%, and finished fifth on the team with 118 hits.

The 6’6″, 209-lb pivot is projected to be an all-around fixture for Utah in its first season when he returns to health. But for now, his absence is a good indication that 22-year-old Josh Doan, who finished last season with five goals and nine points in 11 games for the Coyotes after a call-up from AHL Tucson, should crack the opening night roster and take the ice on Oct. 8 for their home opener against the Blackhawks.

In better injury news, defenseman John Marino has been upgraded from week-to-week to day-to-day with his upper-body injury, Morgan said. Marino, acquired from the Devils in a trade for draft picks on June 29, also has yet to skate in training camp. The 27-year-old posted 25 points (4 G, 21 A) with a -6 rating in 75 games for New Jersey last year, averaging over 20 minutes per game for the fifth straight season to begin his NHL career. He’ll slot into Utah’s top four to begin the season.

Utah Hockey Club Acquires John Marino

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The Utah Hockey Club has traded for defenseman John Marino and Pick 153 in the 2024 NHL Draft from the New Jersey Devils, per Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic (Twitter link). In return, the Devils receive Pick 49 and the Edmonton Oilers’ 2025 second-round pick. LeBrun mentions that this opens space for the Devils to sign Brett Pesce when free agency opens on Monday.

Rumors about Marino’s availability kicked into high gear in the week ahead of the draft, as New Jersey became tied to Pesce. It seems that is the path the team will head down, now boasting $19.654MM in cap space, after moving Marino’s $4.4MM bill. That should be plenty enough to beckon Pesce away from Carolina, where he’s so far spent his entire career, though New Jersey will also have to keep their seven pending free agents in mind. That list is headlined by Dawson Mercer, who established a dominant role in the team’s top-six over the course of his entry-level contract. He should be due for a substantial pay raise, though once Mercer is re-signed New Jersey will have their core of Mercer, Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Timo Meier, and Dougie Hamilton signed for the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile, Marino will join Mikhail Sergachev as Utah’s newest defenders – and may even play next to the former Lightning on the team’s top line. Marino recorded four goals and 25 points in 75 games this season, falling just one point shy of the career-high he set in 56 games as a rookie. He’s proven reliable through his tenure with the Devils, after joining the team in July of 2022. New Jersey traded Ty Smith and a 2023 third-round pick to Pittsburgh for Marino – since deploying him in a consistent and reliable second-pair role. But Marino seems to have upside left to give, and could find his stride on a Utah blue-line with plenty of space.

Canucks Won’t Re-Sign Nikita Zadorov, Linked To John Marino

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The Canucks won’t be agreeing to an extension for UFA defenseman Nikita Zadorov, general manager Patrik Allvin confirmed (via Patrick Johnston of The Province and The Vancouver Sun). He’ll be one of the more sought-after defense options available when the free agent market opens Monday.

It may not take them very long to find his replacement, though. The Devils are “actively looking to move” right-shot stalwart John Marino, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reports. He adds Vancouver has been in the mix for his services, specifically as a fallback option if they couldn’t come to terms on a new deal for Zadorov.

We had our first indication that Zadorov may be heading out the door when Allvin moved to get Tyler Myers locked into a three-year, $3MM AAV extension last night. His re-signing, along with the retention of pending RFA Filip Hronek earlier in the month, meant four of the Canucks’ spots on defense next season were firmly accounted for. Noah Juulsen remains an option after skating in 54 games last year, and depth blue liner Mark Friedman will be back in the rotation after signing a one-way extension over a week ago.

Vancouver parted ways with a third-round and fifth-round pick to get Zadorov from the Flames back in November, marking one of the first truly consequential in-season trades. This generation’s “Big Z” was a natural fit in a bottom-four role, putting up 14 points and 102 PIMs in 54 games as a Canuck while seeing 17:04 of ice time per contest. The playoffs were where Zadorov made his killing this year, though, as the normally stay-at-home defenseman became a factor on the scoresheet with four goals and eight points in 13 games.

Where he’ll land is anyone’s guess at this stage, but he’ll have plenty of suitors and won’t take long to find his next home. He’s expected to seek a six-year, $36MM pact ($6MM AAV), per a report from Seravalli last month, although that’s likely too rich for anyone’s blood, given he doesn’t have a consistent history of top-four minutes. He should still be able to cash in significantly with his value at its peak, though, and could land a longer-term deal closer to $5MM per season.

The Canucks may well have to give up significant assets to acquire Marino as his replacement, but he checks in at a much more attractive $4.4MM cap hit for three more seasons compared to what Zadorov was asking for. Marino is also two years younger and has averaged at least 20 minutes per game since breaking into the league with the Penguins five years ago, consistently seeing tougher usage and heavier penalty-kill responsibilities.

Marino served as the Devils’ de facto top right-shot defender for most of last season, with Dougie Hamilton missing all but 20 games with a pectoral injury. He checked in about expected offensively, recording four goals and 25 points in 81 games but did have a career-worst -6 rating. That was certainly exacerbated by poor play from New Jersey’s rotating cast of goaltenders, though, as he still managed to control 51.1% of shot attempts at even strength, roughly in line with his career average.

It’s worth noting Marino has an eight-team no-trade list that goes into effect on July 1. It would be odd to see the reigning Pacific Division winners hold a spot on his NTC, but in any event, it’s likely a reason why Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald is trying so hard to get him moved before free agency opens. They’re looking to upgrade their second-pair right-shot man behind Hamilton, with soon-to-be-former Hurricane Brett Pesce a person of interest.

List Of Players Getting Trade Protection On July 1st

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In the current Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NHL and NHLPA, the league players can procure three types of No-Move Clauses in their contracts. The only stipulations to these clauses are that the player in question must be 27 years of age or older and must have accrued seven years of service time at the NHL level. The three types of No-Move Clauses are as follows: No Movement Clause (NMC), No Trade Clause (NTC), and Modified NMC or NTC.

Per the current CBA, an NMC means that a player cannot be waived, assigned to minors, or traded without their consent, and they also must be protected in the event of an Expansion Draft. An NTC is straightforward — giving the player protection from being traded without their approval. Lastly, a modified NMC or NTC sets an arbitrary number of teams and a time frame when a player can use this protection. In just over a week, an assortment of players will receive trade protection on their current contracts, and CapFriendly has broken it down.

 

No Movement Clauses
D Charlie McAvoy (Boston)
F Sebastian Aho (Carolina)
D Devon Toews (Colorado)
F Roope Hintz (Dallas)
D Gustav Forsling (Florida)
F Kirill Kaprizov (Minnesota)
F Joel Eriksson Ek (Minnesota)
F Jesper Bratt (New Jersey)
F Timo Meier (New Jersey)
G Ilya Sorokin (NY Islanders)
F Pierre-Luc Dubois (Washington)

No Trade Clauses
F Ross Colton (Colorado)
D Nick Seeler (Philadelphia)
D Vince Dunn (Seattle)
F Clayton Keller (Utah)
D Erik Cernak (Tampa Bay)
D Mikhail Sergachev (Tampa Bay)

Modified No Trade Clauses
F Jordan Greenway (Buffalo) – eight-team no-trade list
F Tage Thompson (Buffal0) – five-team no-trade list
D Rasmus Andersson (Calgary) – six-team no-trade list
D Samuel Girard (Colorado) – nine-team no-trade list
F Miles Wood (Colorado) – six-team no-trade list
F Alex DeBrincat (Detroit) – 16-team no-trade list
F Adrian Kempe (Los Angeles) – 10-team no-trade list
F Nico Hischier (New Jersey) – 10-team no-trade list
D John Marino (New Jersey) – eight-team no-trade list
D Jonas Siegenthaler (New Jersey) – 10-team no-trade list
F Mathew Barzal (NY Islanders) – 22-team no-trade list
D Thomas Chabot (Ottawa) – 10-team no-trade list
F Tanner Jeannot (Tampa Bay) – 16-team no-trade list
F Kyle Connor (Winnipeg) – 10-team no-trade list

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