Atlantic Notes: Skinner, Lundell, Gadjovich
While Sabres fans likely have a bad taste in their mouth after last night’s 9-4 defeat at the hands of the Blue Jackets, it’s not all bad in northern New York. Star winger Jeff Skinner was a full participant in practice today for the first time since sustaining an upper-body injury last Wednesday against the Avalanche and could be a game-time decision against the Maple Leafs tomorrow, head coach Don Granato told reporters (via Paul Hamilton of WGR Sports Radio 550).
The injury has kept Skinner out of the last three games, during which the Sabres have gone 1-2-0 with a -4 goal differential. He is one of three Sabres forwards on the injured list, joining Jordan Greenway and Zemgus Girgensons. His absence hasn’t helped a Sabres team that’s slipping further out of the playoff picture every day, now sitting squarely in seventh place in the Atlantic Division with a 13-17-3 record and 29 points.
It has been a trying season for the team, but Skinner has done his job for the most part. Through 30 games, he’s tied for the team lead in goals with 12 and is now on pace to score 32 this season if he stays healthy. That would be his third straight season above the 30-goal mark, the longest streak of his career. It’s been quite the revival for the 31-year-old Skinner, who’s rebounded nicely since a 2020-21 campaign in which he scored just seven goals in 53 games. His services may not be worth the $9MM cap hit he’s locked into until 2027, but he remains a bonafide top-six winger and one of the team’s highest-scoring threats.
Skinner is currently on injured reserve, although the Sabres have an open spot on their roster after assigning Brett Murray to AHL Rochester this morning.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic Division today:
- Panthers center Anton Lundell will be a game-time decision against the Blues on Thursday as he deals with an illness, head coach Paul Maurice said today. Lundell has missed the last three games with the ailment, which was severe enough to warrant being placed on injured reserve on Monday. The 22-year-old is still in the development stage of his career after the Panthers selected him 12th overall in the 2020 draft, but his stagnating offensive totals since his 44-point rookie season cause some concern. Through 28 games this year, Lundell has two goals and ten assists for 12 points and a +4 rating while averaging 15:38 per game.
- Sticking with Florida, Maurice also confirmed winger Jonah Gadjovich will remain out with an illness for tomorrow’s game. Since signing a one-year deal with the Panthers a few days after the season began in October, the fourth-line grinder has played in nine games, recording one assist and a whopping 43 penalty minutes while averaging 6:42 per contest. He has been unavailable for the team’s last two contests but was a healthy scratch in three preceding games, meaning he hasn’t suited up since December 8 against the Penguins.
Injury Updates: Boyd, Dermott, Acciari, Nieto, Gadjovich
The upper-body injury that Coyotes center Travis Boyd suffered against Colorado on Thursday is not a short-term one, notes PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan (Twitter link). Instead, head coach Andre Tourigny indicated that the 30-year-old will be out for multiple weeks. It has been a rough year for Boyd this season. He cleared waivers at the end of training camp despite coming off a 34-point season; his $1.75MM contract likely played a role in that. While he wasn’t sent down to AHL Tucson, he hasn’t been a regular either, seeing action in just 16 of 22 games so far. To his credit, Boyd has been relatively productive in those games with eight points despite logging less than ten minutes a night but he won’t be adding to those point totals for a little while now.
Other injury news from around the NHL:
- Still with Arizona, Morgan adds in a separate tweet that blueliner Travis Dermott isn’t quite ready to return tonight against St. Louis. The 26-year-old has missed more than three weeks with an upper-body injury of his own. Dermott has played in ten games with the Coyotes this season after signing a two-way deal with them in free agency, picking up one assist while averaging 17:29 per contest.
- The Penguins will be without a pair of veteran forwards tonight versus Philadelphia. Head coach Mike Sullivan told reporters including Justin Guerriero of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that forwards Noel Acciari and Matt Nieto will not play tonight due to lower-body injuries. There’s no word yet on how long the fourth liners will miss. Vinnie Hinostroza and Joona Koppanen will take their place in the lineup.
- Panthers winger Jonah Gadjovich is dealing with an upper-body injury and won’t play tonight against the Islanders, notes team reporter Jameson Olive. The 25-year-old got in a fight in the final minute of Thursday’s victory over Montreal, one that apparently caused the injury. Gadjovich has played in seven games since having his contract converted to an NHL deal, notching an assist and 41 penalty minutes while logging 6:22 per night. Steven Lorentz will suit up in Gadjovich’s absence.
Panthers Activate Aaron Ekblad, Brandon Montour; Place Josh Mahura On IR
The Panthers have activated defensemen Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour off LTIR ahead of tonight’s game against the Ducks, Colby Guy of Florida Hockey Now relays.
Additionally, defenseman Josh Mahura left last night’s game against the Kings with a lower-body injury after six shifts and did not return. Now, the NHL’s media site shows that Mahura has been placed on IR and will be out of the lineup for at least seven days, as David Dwork of Local 10 Miami and The Hockey News relays.
Forward Jonah Gadjovich is also available to play for the Panthers after his conditioning loan with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers ended today, George Richards of Florida Hockey Now says. The moves result in the Panthers having a cap-compliant 23-man roster with less than $100K in cap space (CapFriendly later listed this figure as less than $500K).
Ekblad and Montour were unavailable for the beginning of the season after undergoing off-season shoulder surgeries to address injuries sustained in the Panthers’ run to the 2024 Stanley Cup Final. They are now eligible to play in tonight’s contest and are expected to make their season debuts in top-four roles. Ekblad is expected to suit up alongside Gustav Forsling, who’s logged a +11 rating and is averaging nearly 24 minutes per game. Montour, meanwhile, will comprise the second pairing with offseason addition Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who seems to have new life breathed into his game and leads Panthers defensemen with ten points in 16 games.
To make room for Ekblad and Montour in the lineup, Latvian defender Uvis Balinskis will be a healthy scratch, in addition to Mahura landing on IR. Balinskis, an undrafted free agent in his first NHL season, has appeared in 14 of 16 games for the Panthers this season, notching two points and a +2 rating while averaging 13:58 per game. The team now has eight defensemen on the active roster, with Mike Reilly still hanging around the team as an oft-scratch. Offseason signings Dmitry Kulikov and Niko Mikkola, who have both averaged over 19 minutes per game this season in the absence of Ekblad and Montour, will form a shutdown third pairing with the Panthers’ defense now at near total health.
The return of the Panthers’ top two defensemen provides a boon to a team that’s treaded well in their absence, sitting second in the Atlantic Division with a 10-5-1 record. Their success is largely due to the remarkable play of their first line, comprised of captain Aleksander Barkov with Evan Rodrigues and Sam Reinhart on his flank. Reinhart leads all Panthers in scoring and sits near the top of the league leaderboard with 13 goals and 24 points, while Rodrigues has fit in nicely with three goals and 13 points in 16 games after signing a four-year, $12MM deal in free agency last summer.
Montour is entering the final season of a three-year contract carrying a $3.5MM cap hit, one that proved to be an immense bargain last season. The 29-year-old right-shot D had one of the most notable breakout campaigns of any player in the league, recording a career-high 16 goals, 57 assists and 73 points in 80 games and finished 12th in Norris Trophy voting. Ekblad remains under contract through 2024-25 and logged over 23 minutes per night for a third consecutive season in 2022-23.
It’s a tough break for Mahura, who has seen limited ice time this season and now faces an uphill battle for a roster spot when he returns from injury. The 25-year-old had five assists and a -2 rating, playing in all 16 games, but had failed to see more than 15 minutes of ice in any single game this year. A 2016 third-round pick of the Ducks, Mahura is signed to a one-year, $925K deal and will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights at the end of the season.
Florida Panthers Send Jonah Gadjovich To AHL On Conditioning Loan
The Florida Panthers have announced that forward Jonah Gadjovich has been sent to the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers under the terms of a conditioning loan.
Gadjovich has been on injured reserve for the team while recovering from an upper-body injury, and he was slated to return at some point in November. He’ll now be able to hit the ice for the Checkers, returning to the AHL for the first time since 2020-21.
Gadjovich, 25, has played in 79 career NHL games, almost entirely with the San Jose Sharks. A 2017 second-round pick, the Sharks claimed Gadjovich off of waivers from the Vancouver Canucks, an organization Gadjovich had risen standing with thanks to a 2020-21 campaign where he scored 15 goals in just 19 AHL games.
Gadjovich’s goal-scoring abilities from the OHL (he scored 46 goals in one season for the Owen Sound Attack) and AHL have not translated to the NHL level, where he’s played more as a grinder and occasional fighter. Gadjovich has racked up 148 penalty minutes in his NHL career, and it’s likely that his best chance at carving out a long career at the game’s top level lies in his physicality.
The Panthers lost quite a bit of bite in the offseason when Radko Gudas signed in Anaheim, so the return of Gadjovich to full health could help beef up their NHL lineup. Should Gadjovich land on head coach Paul Maurice’s fourth line in Sunrise, a player such as William Lockwood may shift to the AHL, as he’s currently scoreless through five NHL games but is a relatively established AHL scorer.
Panthers Sign Jonah Gadjovich To One-Year Deal
The Florida Panthers announced today that they’ve signed forward Jonah Gadjovich to a one-year, one-way NHL contract. The 25-year-old native of Whitby, Ontario played with the San Jose Sharks last season where he dressed in 35 games and registered three goals and four assists.
The contract is a nice development for Gadjovich who previously signed in July with Florida’s AHL affiliate the Charlotte Checkers. That was a one-year AHL contract for the former 2017 second-round pick, but it likely contained an out clause allowing him to sign in the NHL with Charlotte’s parent club.
Gadjovich was non-tendered by the Sharks after last season in a move that wasn’t all that surprising given that he was due a qualifying offer of $787,500 and hadn’t produced much offense in the NHL. While he won’t fill the net for Florida, he will offer some sandpaper to the Panthers. Last season Gadjovich threw 92 hits in the NHL while playing less than nine minutes a night in just 35 games. And while those types of hit numbers usually indicate a player who’s chasing the puck, his underlying analytics don’t paint that picture.
The biggest knock on Gadjovich has been his inability to stay on the ice. Over the last two seasons with San Jose, he dressed in just 78 games and found himself out with injury four separate times. The Panthers are hoping that the big forward can have a change of injury luck and become a rugged fixture in the bottom six for the remainder of this season.
Minor Transactions: 07/03/23
NHL free agency has moved from the “frenzy” stage that defines July 1st to more of a steady flow of news, and just as NHL teams are adding players for next season so are teams in minor leagues and pro leagues across the hockey world. We’ll keep track of notable transactions here.
- Former Chicago Blackhawks 20-goal scorer Richard Panik has signed with HC Ocelari Trinec of the Czech Extraliga. Panik, 32, is a veteran of over 500 NHL games, last playing in the league in 2021-22 with the New York Islanders. He signed overseas for 2022-23 and scored nine points in 19 games for Lausanne HC in the Swiss National League. Now Panik will return to the club he played for in his youth and the team the Tampa Bay Lightning selected him out of at the 2009 draft.
- Jonah Gadjovich, a regular on the San Jose Sharks for the past two seasons, signed a one-year AHL deal with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers yesterday. A 2017 second-round pick, Gadjovich played 78 games for the Sharks across two seasons, averaging nearly nine minutes of ice time per game. Gadjovich is a big, physical winger who has 10 career NHL points, and will now return to the AHL for next season. Gadjovich’s last stretch in the AHL was quite successful (15 goals in 18 games for the Utica Comets in 2020-21) so this contract is Gadjovich’s chance to put together a productive season to earn another NHL deal.
- The AHL’s Providence Bruins have signed two players to one-year, two-way AHL/ECHL contracts: goalie Shane Starrett and defenseman Ethan Ritchie. Starrett, 28, was the number-one goalie for the ECHL’s Kansas City Mavericks last season and re-established himself in North America’s third-tier league with a .913 save percentage in 54 games played. That was an important development for Starrett, who spent the year as the starter for the EIHL’s Glasgow Clan. Starrett does have some AHL experience (including a 42-game stretch with the Bakersfield Condors in 2018-19 where he posted a .918 save percentage) and will bolster the goaltending depth behind Brandon Bussi and Kyle Keyser in Providence, likely to spend most of his time with the ECHL’s Maine Mariners. Ritchie, 21, gets signed after his overage OHL season where he scored 44 points in 65 games with the Sarnia Sting. The brother of 2023 Colorado Avalanche first-rounder Calum Ritchie, he’ll now begin his pro career either in Maine or Providence.
- Although his production declined from 19 goals and 43 points in 2021-22 to just six and 19 in 2022-23, John Stevens has earned a two-year AHL contract extension with the Abbotsford Canucks. The 29-year-old former Northeastern Husky has been in the Vancouver Canucks’ minor-league system for the past four seasons, and Abbotsford GM Ryan Johnson said Stevens “personifies what we are as an organization.” He brings leadership value as a former NCAA captain and an alternate captain for Abbotsford, and if he can get back to his 2021-22 numbers he’ll be one of the AHL Canucks’ most important players.
- The Grand Rapids Griffins have poached the captain of the Providence Bruins, signing right-shot blueliner Josiah Didier to an AHL deal. Didier, 30, led the AHL in plus-minus rating in 2019-20 and is a Calder Cup champion. He’s played nearly 400 career games in the American League, and joins recent NHL signing Brogan Rafferty as a move that will help beef up the right side of the defense in Grand Rapids.
- 28-year-old blueliner Ryan McKinnon, a former captain of two different QMJHL teams during his junior career, has signed a one-year, one-way AHL contract with the Belleville Senators. McKinnon split last season between the AHL’s Bridgeport Islanders and ECHL’s Worcester Railers, and hasn’t yet played a season as a full-time AHLer. That’s what makes the one-way status of this deal significant, as McKinnon worked his way up from being a full-time ECHLer in Worcester to a place on the AHL/ECHL bubble, a space he’s lived in for most of his pro career. Now, he’ll have a chance to establish himself as a full-time AHL player in Belleville.
- Longtime minor leaguer Mark Alt spent most of last season as a free agent, ultimately latching on with the DEL’s Straubing Tigers for their playoff push and seven postseason games. Now, the Tigers have announced that Alt will not return to the club as he focuses on a full-time role outside of hockey. While there’s no word on if Alt, 31, is ending his eleven-season pro career, it’s certainly possible that Alt’s decision not to continue in Europe is an indication that he’s moving away from hockey. In any case, Alt has nearly 500 AHL games on his resume and has played in 20 NHL games, meaning regardless of what he chooses for his future he’s had a hockey career to be proud of.
- Two-time AHL All-Star and former NHLer Matt Fraser will remain with his current club, the ICEHL’s EC-KAC, after the team decided not to exercise their opt-out clause for next season. Fraser, 33, has played in Klagenfurt for the last three seasons and took home an ICEHL title for them in 2020-21, scoring the championship-winning goal himself. Fraser last played in North America way back in 2015-16, though he’s had a successful run in Europe since he crossed the Atlantic. Fraser ranked second on Klagenfurt in goals with 14 last season and will likely remain one of the team’s top goal-scoring options moving forward.
- The KHL’s Barys Astana made a few significant moves earlier this month, and perhaps the two biggest were the club’s signings of Eddie Pasquale, one of the KHL’s top goaltenders, and former NHLer Pontus Aberg. Pasquale, 32, returns to Kazakhstan to play for the team he began his KHL career with in 2019-20. Pasquale took home KHL Goaltender of the Year honors in 2020-21 and posted a .927 save percentage in 50 games last season for Metallurg Magnitogorsk. Aberg, 29, was a point-per-game player in 22 games for the Swiss NL’s Rapperswil-Jona Lakers, and now returns to the KHL for the second time in his career. He spent 2020-21 with Traktor Chelyabinsk, scoring 23 points in 49 games before leaving the league that offseason to return to North America.
- Alex Ciernik, a recent fourth-round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers, will play with HockeyAllsvenskan’s Vasterviks IK on a permanent basis after spending 10 games there on loan last season. The 18-year-old was selected 120th overall at the 2023 draft last week, and has 12 points in 37 career games at Sweden’s second-highest level of pro hockey.
This page may be updated throughout the day.
Injury Updates: Comrie, Guhle, Sharks
There should soon be a logjam between the pipes in Buffalo for the stretch run. Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News relays that goaltender Eric Comrie has resumed skating and is expected to return soon from his lower-body injury. The 27-year-old has had a rough first season with the Sabres, posting a 3.95 GAA with a .877 SV% in 17 starts. When cleared, he’ll join Craig Anderson and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen as available options for Buffalo (Luukkonen wasn’t papered down at the deadline and thus is ineligible to play there again this season). Those three will also soon be joined by top prospect Devon Levi who is still waiting for his immigration paperwork to be finalized to allow him to officially join the team.
Other injury news from around the NHL:
- Following their victory last night over Tampa Bay, the Canadiens announced that defenseman Kaiden Guhle will miss the remainder of the regular season due to a high ankle sprain. Despite dealing with injuries off and on, it was still a quality rookie campaign for the 21-year-old who had 18 points in 44 games while averaging over 20 minutes a night on a young Montreal back end. The team also noted that surgery will not be required.
- The Sharks could get a pair of veterans back on their current road trip which runs through Saturday as Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now notes (Twitter link) that blueliners Radim Simek (concussion) and Jacob MacDonald (upper body) are close to returning from their respective injuries. Neither player logs heavy minutes on the back end but their returns would allow Nikolai Knyzhov and Derrick Pouliot to return to the minors to try to help their farm team push for a play-in spot in the Pacific Division. Meanwhile, Peng adds that Jonah Gadjovich isn’t close to returning; the winger has been out week-to-week for the last five weeks with an upper-body injury.
West Notes: Fiala, Stars, Sharks
Los Angeles Kings winger Kevin Fiala is injured and listed as day-to-day according to Zach Dooley of LA Kings Insider. Fiala will miss tonight’s contest when the Kings host the Nashville Predators. Fiala left the Kings game on Thursday night against the Colorado Avalanche after a knee-on-knee hit from Andrew Cogliano. Of course the Kings don’t want Fiala to miss any time, but the fact he is only listed as day-to-day is great news as the collision looked like it could possibly result in a much more serious injury.
Fiala is leading the Kings in scoring with 68 points this season. He has been terrific in Los Angeles after being acquired from the Wild for a first-round pick and Brock Faber in the offseason. The 26-year-old winger plays a great two-way game and has fit in on the team’s top line with Anze Kopitar and also fills in on a tremendous all-around trio with Phillip Danault and Viktor Arvidsson from time to time. It sounds like his absence will be short term and that is great news for Kings fans who were holding their breath since Thursday night.
- The Dallas Stars have provided a bit of an update on their injured players. Mike Heika of NHL.com reports Tyler Seguin is not skating today which means he is not close to returning to action. The veteran center left Thursday night’s game against the Buffalo Sabres after suffering a laceration above his knee from the skate of Jordan Greenway. Luke Glendening and Scott Wedgewood did skate today, meaning they are close to getting back into the lineup. Glendening has not played since February 17 and Wedgewood’s last game was February 18.
- Curtis Pashelka of Bay Area News Group reports San Jose Sharks defensemen Radim Simek and Jacob MacDonald are out week to week. Simek is dealing with concussion symptoms and MacDonald left Monday night’s game early after taking a high hit. There is no update on what the injury is, but the timeline sounds like the Sharks will be without a couple of depth defenders for the next few weeks. In better Sharks news, winger Jonah Gadjovich is getting closer to returning but is not quite ready. He has three goals and seven points in 35 games this season but hasn’t played since February 12 with an upper-body injury.
San Jose Sharks Reassign Eetu Makinemi
Feb 15: Makiniemi, along with Nick Cicek, has been returned to the AHL. Despite having players on long-term injured reserve, the club has a low enough payroll at the moment that they can still accrue some extra cap space. There may be more transactions to follow tomorrow, as they travel to play the Vegas Golden Knights.
Feb 14: The San Jose Sharks recalled goalie Eetu Makiniemi from the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda on Tuesday, the team announced via Twitter. San Jose placed forward Jonah Gadjovich on injured reserve in a corresponding move.
The move leads to a bit of a logjam on the Sharks roster. The Sharks recalled Aaron Dell from the minors just a few days ago, as starter James Reimer is out of the lineup with an undisclosed illness and is day-to-day.
Now, backup Kaapo Kahkonen appears to be out of the lineup short-term, says head coach David Quinn, after he didn’t finish San Jose’s win against the Washington Capitals on Sunday. That makes four goalies on the Sharks’ active roster, with neither Reimer nor Kahkonen expected to miss enough time to qualify for injured reserve.
Gadjovich officially lands on injured reserve less than an hour after the Bay Area News Group’s Curtis Pashelka reported he is considered week-to-week with an injury.
Makiniemi, 23, arrived in the Sharks organization this summer when the Carolina Hurricanes included him in their trade package to acquire defenseman Brent Burns. He posted an impressive .922 save percentage in an injury-shortened 2021-22 campaign with their AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves. Still, the organization’s logjam of young goalies incentivized Carolina to move on.
His AHL numbers have taken a dip this season, down to a .900 save percentage and an 8-10-3 record in 22 appearances with the Barracuda. He made his first NHL start earlier this season, stopping 23 of 24 shots in a 6-1 thrashing of the Anaheim Ducks on December 9, 2022.
Expect the Sharks to return Makinemi to the Barracuda as soon as one of Reimer or Kahkonen can play.
Snapshots: Predators, Shore, Gadjovich
The Nashville Predators aren’t going to be buyers this year. That’s according to general manager David Poile, who joined Nashville radio this morning to explain his trade deadline plans.
I do not think we are a buyer, let’s start with that. If things don’t change more favorably and get into some kind of winning streak, we certainly could be a seller. But that’s not today.
The Predators sit fifth in the Central Division, and despite a 25-20-6 record, actually have a negative goal differential on the year. However, what they would sell isn’t clear, given the only pending UFAs on the roster are Mark Jankowski and Kevin Lankinen. Teams rarely target players with long-term contracts at the deadline, and the Predators have 10 of 23 roster spots inked through at least 2024-25.
- Devin Shore is back up for the Edmonton Oilers, meaning Kailer Yamamoto won’t be coming off injured reserve just yet. Klim Kostin was back on the ice with the team today, and Leon Draisatil was only missing for maintenance and is expected to play tomorrow. For Yamamoto to return, the Oilers need to clear a significant amount of cap space; most expect that to be the waiving or trade of Jesse Puljujarvi, though nothing has materialized to this point.
- Jonah Gadjovich will be out on a week-to-week basis, according to Curtis Pashelka of the Bay Area News Group. Kevin Labanc will jump back into the San Jose Sharks lineup on the fourth line, potentially giving the team a chance to showcase the forward before the trade deadline. The 27-year-old Labanc still carries a $4.725MM cap hit through next season and has 25 points in 45 games.