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Kaiden Guhle

Canadiens Notes: Armia, Savard, Dvorak, Guhle

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In an interview with Pierre LeBrun for The Athletic (subscription link), Canadiens GM Kent Hughes acknowledged that he was initially approaching the trade deadline as if they’d be selling.  But the team went on a run after the 4 Nations break, resulting in a change of plan.  In doing so, he noted that he started to move the goalposts on his asking price for winger Joel Armia, his most notable pending unrestricted free agent.  Hughes admitted that while he wouldn’t say a flat-out no to acquiring teams, he readily stated that it would take a big overpayment to get him.  Earlier this month, it was reported that the Canadiens had a second-round pick on the table for Armia but clearly, the adjusted asking price came in higher than that.

More from Montreal:

  • Also from that interview, Hughes stated that he went into the deadline not expecting to move center Christian Dvorak or defenseman David Savard. He noted that with mid-round picks being the potential return for each of them, it wasn’t worth doing to add those while weakening their farm team in Laval which has been in a close battle for first in the AHL in recent weeks.  Also, with one of the deeper prospect pools in the league and with 21 selections over the next two drafts, there wasn’t as much of a need to add extra picks to the cupboard.  Both Dvorak and Savard are slated to be unrestricted free agents this summer and are likely facing pay cuts from their cap charges of $4.45MM and $3.5MM respectively.
  • Defenseman Kaiden Guhle took part in today’s morning skate in a non-contact jersey, relays TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie (Twitter link). The 23-year-old is working his way back after suffering a lacerated quad tendon in late January.  He’s still likely a little while away from returning to the lineup but if Montreal can hang around the playoff picture a bit longer, they could get a nice boost to their back end for the late push with Guhle being a big part of their top four, logging more than 21 minutes a night before being injured.

Atlantic Notes: Domi, Jensen, Guhle

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Toronto Maple Leaf head coach Craig Berube stated today that forward Max Domi has taken his game to “another level,” per The Hockey News Toronto’s Nick Barden.

While Domi has struggled this season to the tune of 28 points in 59 games, he has shown signs of offensive improvement of late. Since March 1, Domi has recorded five points in eight games. This pairs with his usual tenacity, hitting prowess, and solid 51.2 faceoff percentage on the season.

Aided by his improved play, Toronto’s third line of Domi, Bobby McMann, and Nick Robertson are beginning to click as the playoffs loom. The three combined for seven points in Monday’s game against the Flames.

Domi, a veteran of 720 games, has scored 445 points in his career, including 47 points over 80 games last season. He has added 26 points in 50 career playoff games. Domi has three years left on his contract and comes with a $3.75 MM AAV, so his improved play is a welcomed sight for the Maple Leafs as they look ahead to this year’s playoffs and beyond.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic:

  • The Senators’ Nick Jensen missed his second straight game tonight due to a lower body injury, per The Athletic’s Julian McKenzie. The 34-year-old defender has been a key figure in his first season in Ottawa, posting 19 points and a plus-17 rating. He averages a hefty 20:20 average ice time per game and has recorded 74 blocked shots. Ottawa received Jensen and a 2026 third-round pick in a trade with the Capitals that saw defenseman Jakob Chychrun head to Washington. Jensen’s availability will be key to Ottawa as they fight for a place in the playoffs down the stretch run. Prior to tonight’s 6-3 loss to against the Canadians, the Senators were winners of their last six games and find themselves in the first wild card spot in the east.
  • Canadiens defenseman Kaiden Guhle skated prior to the team’s practice today, per TSN. The 23-year-old underwent surgery for a lacerated quadriceps muscle in late January. He returned to skating on March 7, but he remains out indefinitely. In 44 games on the season, he recorded 14 points, 100 blocked shots, and 67 hits.

Canadiens’ Kaiden Guhle Out Indefinitely With Quadricep Laceration

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1:12 p.m.: Guhle sustained a lacerated quadricep muscle that was surgically repaired overnight, the team announced. He’s been released from the hospital but will be out indefinitely.

10:09 a.m.: In a corresponding move, defenseman Jayden Struble has been reinstated from his conditioning loan to AHL Laval. The 23-year-old lefty was held without a point and took two minor penalties with a plus-one rating in a pair of contests for the minor-league club.

8:10 a.m.: The Montreal Canadiens announced that defenseman Kaiden Guhle has suffered a lower-body injury and will need further evaluation. Guhle sustained the injury in the third period of last night’s 4-1 loss to Winnipeg when he fell into the corner awkwardly. He appeared to catch an edge on the play as he was trying to pinch in from the blue line, his right leg fell behind him and jammed into the boards, suffering the full weight of the impact. Guhle required assistance to get to the dressing room and did not appear to bear any weight on his right leg.

The 16th overall pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft is in his third NHL season and has become a huge piece of Montreal’s back end, averaging over 21 minutes a night of ice team and seeing the third most deployment at even strength on the team. Guhle has also been tasked with taking on some of the most difficult minutes in Montreal, starting nearly 60% of his shifts in the defensive zone and taking on the toughest assignments.

Montreal does have some good young defensemen in the AHL right now, however, none will be able to make the jump up from Laval and handle the duties that Guhle has been taking on.

Montreal is in the thick of the Eastern Conference’s race for the Wild Card spots, and losing Guhle for an extended period would be a big blow to their playoff hopes. However, there is a break in February for the Four Nations Face-Off, which could allow Guhle some recovery time, should he need it.

Montreal could also look outside the organization for help as they have 12 draft picks in this year’s draft and will have almost $6.5MM in cap space to work with at the NHL Trade Deadline.

East Notes: Canadiens, Guhle, Senators, Robertson

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While the Canadiens sit in the basement of the Atlantic Division once again and are speculated to be likely to move out more veterans, Stu Cowan of the Montreal Gazette argues that Montreal might be better off retaining two in particular, defenseman Mike Matheson and center Jake Evans.  Matheson has one more year left on his contract at an affordable $4.875MM and had 15 points in 24 games so far this season after finishing in the top ten in scoring among NHL defenders in 2023-24.  But with Lane Hutson impressing early on, some have wondered if he’d be available.

As for Evans, the 28-year-old is off to a career-best start with five goals and nine assists through 26 outings while logging 16 minutes a game while leading all NHL forwards in shorthanded ice time.  A pending unrestricted free agent, he could conceivably double his current $1.7MM price tag on the open market.  With his low cost this season, Evans could be one of the Canadiens’ better trade chips but Cowan suggests that he and Matheson might be the right types of veterans to keep around as Montreal tries to emerge from its rebuild in the coming seasons.

Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference:

  • Still with Montreal, Canadiens defenseman Kaiden Guhle missed Thursday’s game against Nashville due to illness. However, TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie reports (Twitter link) that indications are that the 22-year-old will return to the lineup tonight.  Guhle has recorded six points, 48 blocks, and 26 hits in 20 games so far while averaging a career-best 21:34 per night.
  • While the Senators may have had cursory discussions about acquiring Jacob Trouba, those talks wouldn’t have gone far, reports Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. The veteran blueliner made it known that he had no interest in playing for a Canadian-based team which also took Montreal, a speculative landing spot with former Ranger GM Jeff Gorton in the front office, off the table.  Trouba eventually accepted a deal to Anaheim on Friday.
  • After being recalled yesterday, the Rangers announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Matthew Robertson has been re-assigned to AHL Hartford. The 23-year-old hasn’t made his NHL debut just yet but has started well with the Wolf Pack this season, notching eight points in 19 games so far.  New York is now down to just six healthy blueliners on its roster so this could be a case of Robertson (or someone else) being brought up on game days to serve as a seventh option for the time being.

Evening Notes: O’Connor, Iginla, Guhle, Lee

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Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman published today’s rendition of ’32 Thoughts’ in the written medium. One of the noteworthy items is that the Pittsburgh Penguins are getting interest from around the league in forward Drew O’Connor.

O’Connor is seemingly an ideal trade candidate for the Penguins this season. He’s on a relatively cheap expiring contract with a $925K salary. His offensive production is down this season with three goals and nine points in 27 games but he can play up-and-down the lineup at all three forward positions.

The Colorado Avalanche seems like a perfect landing spot for O’Connor should Pittsburgh trade him. It’s tough to find a team dealing with more injuries this season and O’Connor’s versatility and low cost should make for a decent transition. Colorado doesn’t have much draft capital to work with so the Penguins may have to scout heavily into the Avalanche’s minor league systems.

Other notes from tonight:

  • It’ll be a short year of development for Tij Iginla. The WHL’s Kelowna Rockets announced Iginla has undergone successful hip surgery but will miss the remainder of the 2024-25 WHL season. Iginla has already skated in 21 games for the Rockets this season scoring 14 goals and 32 points with a +18 rating. Still, the Utah Hockey Club can’t be pleased that the organization’s first-ever draft pick will go most of the season without playing.
  • The Montreal Canadiens announced that defenseman Kaiden Guhle wouldn’t play tonight due to illness shortly before the team’s matchup against the Nashville Predators. Justin Barron who’s scored one goal in 12 games for Montreal this season is filling in for Guhle on the blue line. Barron has two shots, one blocked shot, and one hit through 10 minutes in tonight’s game against Nashville.
  • Per a team release from the Los Angeles Kings, Andre Lee has been papered down to the AHL’s Ontario Reign. The move is strictly to capture more salary cap space for a Kings organization with limited space. Los Angeles doesn’t play against until Saturday when they take on the Minnesota Wild and the expectation is that Lee will re-join the team for that contest.

Canadiens Activate Kaiden Guhle From Injured Reserve

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The Canadiens announced that Kaiden Guhle will be back in the lineup tonight against the Capitals. The defenseman will be activated from injured reserve, but with two open roster spots, no corresponding transaction is necessary. Justin Barron will also return after missing the last three games with an upper-body injury.

Guhle’s activation was prefaced yesterday by Logan Mailloux’s return to the minors. It wasn’t necessary to open up a roster spot, but Mailloux was going to be sitting in the press box once Guhle was ready to come back. That’s not the right move for the 21-year-old’s development away from the puck, so he’ll return to the AHL to improve his defensive game.

Guhle, 22, had missed the last five games with an upper-body injury. He was off to a hot start on the scoresheet before exiting the lineup, scoring once and adding three assists with a +4 rating in five appearances. His 20 blocked shots still rank third on the team, but as possession metrics indicate, that’s more indicative of how much time he spent in his own end than anything else. Guhle had been given challenging even-strength deployment, but the Canadiens still only controlled 34.5% of shot attempts and 49.9% of expected goals with him on the ice at even strength in the early going.

A left-shot, Guhle will return to his usual top-pairing role on his off side next to Mike Matheson. Barron, a 22-year-old righty with one goal in seven games this season, will comprise Montreal’s third pairing with Jayden Struble. Arber Xhekaj, a healthy scratch twice earlier this month, will sit in the press box to make way for Barron.

Guhle is in the final season of his entry-level contract. Over the offseason, he signed a six-year, $33.3MM extension that will pay him an average of $5.55MM per season starting in 2025-26.

Canadiens Notes: Guhle, Slafkovsky, Harvey-Pinard

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Montreal Canadiens defenseman Kaiden Guhle was a full participant in today’s morning skate as he donned a regular jersey (as per Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports). Guhle was officially placed on injured reserve two days ago, but the 22-year-old has been out of the lineup since October 17th with an upper-body injury. Guhle is eligible to come off of IR at any time.

Guhle started the season well offensively, posting four points and a +4 rating in his first five games. The start was a bit of a surprise given that he missed almost all of the Canadiens training camp due to his recovery from appendectomy surgery. However, despite his impressive offensive numbers, Guhle had some major struggles away from the puck and was buoyed by a 113.2 PDO (as per Hockey Reference).

In other Montreal Canadiens notes:

  • Canadiens forward Juraj Slafkovsky has dressed tonight after he declared himself pain-free and ready to play (as per Kenzie Lalonde of TSN). Slafkovsky clarified to the media that the issue plaguing him was in fact, not a shoulder injury but was a different issue that he called a “weird injury.” The 20-year-old missed three games with an upper-body injury and slotted in tonight on the second line alongside Alex Newhook and Joel Armia. The 2022 first-overall pick has had a strong start to the season with a goal and five assists in his first six games.
  • Montreal forward Rafael Harvey-Pinard practiced today for the first time since having surgery in July to repair a broken leg (as per Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports). The 25-year-old was wearing a non-contact jersey as he took to the ice with his teammates, Harvey-Pinard was originally ruled out until late November but could return to the lineup sooner than that, depending on the next few weeks of practice. Harvey-Pinard had a disappointing 2023-24, posting just two goals and eight assists in 45 games.

Canadiens Place Kaiden Guhle On IR, Reassign Lucas Condotta

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The Canadiens quietly recalled center Lucas Condotta from AHL Laval over the weekend. While the news evaded PHR at the time, the team announced this morning that he’d been reassigned back to Laval. Condotta was rostered for yesterday’s 4-3 win over the Flyers but did not play. They also moved defenseman Kaiden Guhle to injured reserve, per the NHL’s media site, giving them the 23-man roster spot to house Condotta temporarily.

The 26-year-old Condotta is in his third year of professional hockey after four seasons at UMass-Lowell. He’s spent all of them in the Habs pipeline, signing there as an undrafted free agent immediately after his senior season. The 6’1″, 223-lb pivot saw NHL ice in each of his first two full seasons under contract, recording a goal and a +1 rating in four appearances across the 2022-23 and 2023-24 campaigns.

Condotta hasn’t been a needle-mover offensively with Laval but has shown value as a strong checker. He was named their captain ahead of this season and is off to a good start with three assists and a +2 rating in six appearances. In 150 career AHL games since turning pro at the end of the 2021-22 campaign, he has 24 goals, 30 assists, 54 points, 108 PIMs, and a +1 rating.

The Ontario native is in the back half of a two-year, two-way deal he signed in 2023 as a restricted free agent after his one-year entry-level contract expired. With his 27th birthday coming next week, he’ll be eligible for unrestricted free agency for the first time next summer.

Condotta is no longer waiver-exempt, but he cleared them without incident in September. Based on the timing of each announcement, the Habs only burned one day off his temporary waiver-exempt status, so he can still spend 29 days on the NHL roster (or play up to 10 games) this season until he requires waivers again to return to Laval.

Meanwhile, for Guhle, There’s no material change in his timeline for a return to the lineup. He remains day-to-day with an upper-body injury that’s kept him out of the lineup since Oct. 17. That’s over seven days ago, so he’s eligible to come off IR at any time. There’s now a roster spot for him to walk right into with Condotta being sent down. After missing nearly all of training camp while recovering from appendectomy surgery, Guhle had one goal and three assists for four points and a +4 rating in five showings to begin 2024-25.

Evening Notes: Woll, Guhle, AHL Eligibility

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David Alter of The Hockey News is reporting that Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll could be ready to return to action as early as Tuesday. The news comes from Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube, who said it’s possible the 26-year-old would play tomorrow night when Toronto takes on the Columbus Blue Jackets. Woll has been dealing with groin tightness since training camp in early October. His injury has thrust summer free agent signing Anthony Stolarz into a lot of work early in the season as the veteran netminder has played five of Toronto’s first six games entering action tonight.

Woll signed a three-year extension early in the summer and appeared to have the inside track to the starter role as he entered training camp. The Dardenne Prairie, Missouri native was terrific last season for the Maple Leafs, posting 7.2 goals saved above expected (as per Money Puck) in 25 games.

In other evening notes:

  • Eric Engels of Sportsnet reports that Montreal Canadiens defenseman Kaiden Guhle is out day-to-day with an upper-body injury and did not participate in Canadiens practice earlier today. Guhle has been dealing with the ailment since late last week and didn’t play on Saturday night against the Islanders. The 22-year-old missed nearly all of Canadiens training camp after having his appendix removed and has had an uneven start to the season, posting good offensive numbers, but has been abysmal on the possession front (34.5% CF% at even strength as per Hockey Reference).
  • Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News is reporting that a source of his has told him that the next NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement could have AHL eligibility as an option for 19-year-olds written into it. The news could be another challenge for the CHL who are preparing to navigate the new NCAA eligibility rules. However, the news would be good for players such as Sabres forward prospect Matt Savoie who just spent his age-19 season in the WHL last year.

Atlantic Notes: Red Wings, Canadiens, Woll

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The Detroit Red Wings recalled the eighth-overall pick of the 2022 NHL Draft, Marco Kasper, earlier today under emergency conditions. We now know the context under which that move was made. Max Bultman of The Athletic shares that forward Tyler Motte is being evaluated for an upper-body injury suffered in the team’s recent game against the New York Rangers.

Motte played most of Thursday’s game against the Rangers securing 9:33 of ice time but did receive quite the shot from rookie defenseman Vittorio Mancini in the first period. It became clear that Motte was unappreciative of the hit as he attempted to draw Mancini into a fight on his next shift.

With the team hopeful Kasper can give them an offensive jolt up front, the team will also gain reinforcements on the back end. Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press reports defenseman Jeff Petry is medically cleared to play in the team’s next contest tomorrow afternoon. Petry has only factored into Detroit’s opening night loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins so far as he’s been recovering from an upper-body injury.

Other Atlantic notes:

  • The Montreal Canadiens will be somewhat bruised and battered in their upcoming game against the New York Islanders tomorrow evening. Sportsnet’s Eric Engels reports that defenseman Kaiden Guhle won’t travel with the team as he’s dealing with an upper-body injury but fortunately, defenseman Mike Matheson will make the trip. Engels also shared that forward Juraj Slafkovsky would travel with the team to New York but he’s questionable to participate in tomorrow night’s action. Montreal will look to win their third contest of the season tomorrow night but may have to do so without some important pieces.
  • Goaltender Joseph Woll’s return to game action for the Toronto Maple Leafs is on the horizon as Nick Barden of The Hockey News reported the young netminder was a full participant at the team’s practice this morning. Woll has been on the team’s injured reserve with an upper-body injury since the regular season kicked off on October 9th. Toronto has gotten adequate goaltending in his absence between Anthony Stolarz and Dennis Hildeby combining for a .935 save percentage in four games with 4.2 goals saved above average according to Hockey Reference.

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