Oilers Activate Kasperi Kapanen, Move Tristan Jarry To LTIR
The Oilers announced they’ve activated right winger Kasperi Kapanen from long-term injured reserve, allowing him to return to the lineup for tonight’s game against Nashville. To remain cap-compliant, the club shifted goaltender Tristan Jarry from standard IR to LTIR. Edmonton had an open roster spot after reassigning Quinn Hutson to AHL Bakersfield yesterday, so no corresponding move was required.
Kapanen sustained a lower-body injury when he missed a check in a game against the Red Wings on Oct. 19 and crashed into the boards. He was initially expected to miss about a month, but essentially reset his return timeline when he re-aggravated the injury in practice in November. He played in six straight to open the season, mainly in bottom-six duties. He’ll be getting a bump to the second line in his return, though, as he skated alongside Leon Draisaitl and Vasily Podkolzin in this morning’s practice (via Tony Brar of Oilers TV).
While the Oilers have struggled to get offense out of their left wingers and centers lower in the lineup, their right wing depth has been a strong suit. Kapanen’s return will at least momentarily bump Jack Roslovic to a third-line job with Isaac Howard and Adam Henrique. They’re hoping Roslovic, who has 20 points in 29 games and is among Edmonton’s best finishers this year at 18.5%, can help spread the wealth and give them a third line that’s a legitimate threat to score.
Kapanen, 29, appeared in 57 games last season after being claimed off waivers from the Blues. He scored five goals and 13 points but ended up with a team-worst -16 rating despite his possession numbers not painting him as a severe defensive liability. It was the speedster’s playoff performance, scoring three goals and six points in 12 games on the Oilers’ march to the Stanley Cup Final, that earned him a one-year extension worth $1.3MM.
The Finn had two assists in six games to start this season. He’ll be looking to build on that total starting tonight and has a great opportunity alongside Draisaitl, although the German superstar has gone cold with no goals in his last four and just one assist in his last three.
As for Jarry, Edmonton’s new starter has already missed seven games with a lower-body injury. The shift to LTIR rules him out for at least another three. He’ll be eligible for activation prior to their Jan. 12 game against the Blackhawks.
Injury Notes: Roslovic, Hartman, Foegele
Oilers Head Coach Kris Knoblauch shared several updates, as reported by Jason Gregor of Sports 1440; most notably, Jack Roslovic is set to miss multiple weeks. Kasperi Kapanen will be out at least one week, possibly longer, and Jake Walman is making progress, in time for a possible return next week.
Just yesterday it was thought that Roslovic could be just questionable for Saturday’s game, so the week-to-week diagnosis is a surprise. The forward has been a tremendous fit in Edmonton, with 10 goals and 18 points in 23 games, and will be sorely missed as the team faces mounting pressure to get on track. 21-year-old Matthew Savoie will have an opportunity to step up offensively, as the Oilers will desperately fight for a strong December. Roslovic left last Tuesday against Dallas after blocking a shot.
Meanwhile, Kapanen was back in practice yesterday after a five-week absence, but appeared to re-aggravate the injury, and was visibly frustrated leaving the ice. Walman has been out since November 20th, avoiding the IR, and will be eager to return to the lineup to prove his worth after inking a major long-term extension in October.
Elsewhere across the league:
- Ahead of their hosting of Colorado this afternoon, the Minnesota Wild announced that Ryan Hartman has been activated from injured reserve, and Nicolas Aubé-Kubel has been reassigned to AHL Iowa in a corresponding move. Hartman, thought to be week-to-week with a lower-body injury earlier in the month, is a welcome addition especially with Marcus Foligno set to miss time. Hartman, 31, has seven points in 20 games, a far cry from his 34-goal output four years ago, but the South Carolina native remains a solid third line center for the club. Meanwhile, Aubé-Kubel was called up just yesterday, but is headed back to Iowa without yet appearing for Minnesota this season.
- Zach Dooley, Manager of Editorial Content for the Los Angeles Kings, shared that forward Warren Foegele will not play this afternoon in Anaheim. Foegele, a fixture of the Kings’ bottom six, left practice yesterday with an apparent injury. The 29-year-old has four goals in 18 games this year, after setting a career high 24 in his first season with the black and silver in 2024-25. In his absence, fellow 29-year-old Jeff Malott enters the lineup, bringing major size and physicality in a fourth line role.
Injury Updates: Kapanen, Roslovic, Pageau, Granlund
Recent reporting suggested that the Oilers could get winger Kasperi Kapanen back in their lineup in the near future after missing the last five-plus weeks with a lower-body injury. However, that may no longer be the case. TSN’s Ryan Rishaug noted (Twitter link) that the veteran appeared to injure himself at practice today; he left the ice and did not return. Kapanen has been limited to just six games this season where he has a pair of assists in a little more than 12 minutes a night of playing time. Kapanen is currently on LTIR so his activation was going to require some cap and roster movement but if this injury at practice stops him from being ready to play Saturday, they won’t have to do anything to accommodate his return just yet.
Other injury news from around the NHL:
- Still with the Oilers, winger Jack Roslovic didn’t take part in practice today after blocking a shot in their last game against Dallas, mentions Daily Faceoff’s Jason Gregor (Twitter link). Roslovic has been one of the best free agent signings in the early going this season as he has 10 goals and eight assists through 23 games, good for fourth on Edmonton in scoring. That’s certainly strong value for a $1.5MM price tag and a potential absence would certainly be a big blow to their offense. He’s listed as questionable for Saturday’s game against Seattle.
- Islanders center Jean-Gabriel Pageau is listed as week-to-week with an upper-body injury but it appears that it should be too extended of an absence for him. The team announced Wednesday (Twitter link) that the veteran should return before the holiday break next month. Pageau has a dozen points in 22 games so far while winning nearly 60% of his faceoffs; if the Isles wind up selling by the deadline, Pageau and his expiring contract should be one of their better trade chips.
- Ducks center Mikael Granlund is making some progress as he works his way back from a lower-body injury, relays Derek Lee of The Hockey News (Twitter link). However, head coach Joel Quenneville suggested he’s still probably a week away from returning. Granlund, who was moved retroactively to injured reserve on Wednesday, has missed the last two weeks due to the injury. In his first season with Anaheim, the 33-year-old has done well when he has played, averaging a point per game but injuries have limited him to just nine appearances so far.
Oilers Place Ryan Nugent-Hopkins On IR; Activate Mattias Janmark
The Oilers announced Monday that they’ve placed forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on injured reserve and activated Mattias Janmark in his place. The team also increased their LTIR pool by $1.3MM by shifting winger Kasperi Kapanen from standard to long-term injured reserve, putting them within reach of compliance when they activate Zach Hyman from LTIR as expected in the coming days.
Nugent-Hopkins’ injury, which head coach Kris Knoblauch said won’t keep him out longer than the week required for IR, comes as the Oilers are reeling from a 9-1 loss to the Avalanche on Saturday. The 32-year-old has been the least of Edmonton’s worries through their 6-6-4 start, though. His -11 rating and declining possession metrics through 16 games are something of a concern, but he’s third on the team in scoring with five goals and 11 assists for a point per game. He’s averaging 18:49 of ice time per game and picking up the slack left by depth names like Trent Frederic, Isaac Howard, Matthew Savoie, and David Tomasek, who have a combined nine points despite all being expected to see tryouts higher up in Edmonton’s lineup to help replace the names they lost to last offseason’s cap crunch.
It wasn’t clear when exactly Nugent-Hopkins got hurt, but it most definitely happened during that Colorado drubbing. He played a season-low 14:50 in that game, in which he was held off the scoresheet and posted a -4 rating.
Janmark, who turns 33 in December, is entering his fourth year in Edmonton after initially signing as a free agent in 2022. The 2013 third-rounder had just two goals in 80 games last year but has found a consistent home on the Oilers’ penalty kill. He and Nugent-Hopkins formed the nucleus of that group last year, at least in the forward department, on a unit that finished right around league average at 78.2%. The Oilers have gotten off to a fine start shorthanded without him, killing at an 81.8% rate for 12th in the league. With that in mind, it would be understandable if the Oilers were hesitant to give a regular role to someone with just six goals in the last two seasons, given their existing depth scoring issues.
Still, the Hyman, Kapanen, and Nugent-Hopkins injuries figure to give Janmark a chance at capturing consistent minutes again. Kapanen had two assists through his first six games before sustaining an undisclosed injury in mid-October that has him out week-to-week.
Oilers Place Kasperi Kapanen On Injured Reserve
Oct. 23: The Oilers announced that Kapanen has been placed on injured reserve. They’re now operating with an open roster spot, which could be used to activate Mattias Janmark or Alec Regula from IR in the coming days.
Oct. 21: After leaving the team’s most recent loss to the Detroit Red Wings, the Edmonton Oilers aren’t expecting Kasperi Kapanen back for several weeks. Head coach Kris Knoblauch (via Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic) confirmed the severity of Kapanen’s undisclosed injury earlier today.
Specifically, Knoblauch said this morning, “Right now, it’s looking (like) up to six (weeks). He’ll be unavailable for a while.” That means that Kapanen could be out until the last week of November, which would likely position him for the injured reserve.
However, the Oilers likely won’t be able to replace Kapanen in the active roster anyway, which would negate any reason to place him on the IR. As PHR’s Brian La Rose pointed out, “Notably, the team does not have enough accrued cap space to recall anyone from AHL Bakersfield (even with LTIR) as things stand which could be something to keep an eye on if he’s set to miss any more time.”
Still, it’ll be a missing bottom-six piece for the next month or more. After being claimed off waivers from the St. Louis Blues last season, Kapanen scored five goals and 13 points in 57 games, averaging 12:01 of ice time per game. He had improved play in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs, registering three goals and six points in 12 games, averaging 13:28 of action per night.
Despite some poor defensive play, which isn’t typical of most bottom-six forwards, the Oilers clearly liked what they saw from Kapanen last season, signing him to a one-year, $1.3MM contract one day before the start of free agency this past summer.
Regardless, it’ll mean more ice time for at least one on Edmonton’s roster. Noah Philp and Curtis Lazar have been the most oft-scratched forwards for the Oilers through their first six contests, though the former played in Sunday’s loss to Detroit. Edmonton appears set to keep Philp in for tonight’s game against the Ottawa Senators, while also reintroducing David Tomasek back into the lineup after missing Sunday’s contests.
Pacific Notes: Chytil, Boeser, Stone, Kapanen
While it was a good day for the Canucks on the scoreboard, it was a tough one on the injury front. Ben Kuzma of the Vancouver Province relays that center Filip Chytil exited today’s game on a hit from Washington’s Tom Wilson and had to be helped off the ice. A major penalty was initially assessed on the play but was rescinded after review. The 26-year-old has a long documented history of concussion troubles with five already and while it’s unclear at this point if that’s something he may have or not, it’s something that will ensure the team errs on the side of caution. Chytil had three goals in his first five games to tie him for the team lead heading into today’s action. Meanwhile, Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK and The Athletic adds (Twitter link) that the Department of Player Safety will review the hit but no supplemental discipline is expected.
More from the Pacific:
- Still with the Canucks, the team announced (Twitter link) that winger Brock Boeser missed today’s game for personal reasons; no further details were provided by the club. The 28-year-old had gotten off to a decent start to the season with three goals in five games while also seeing some playing time on the penalty kill, a role he hasn’t filled in a while. Jonathan Lekkerimaki took his place in the lineup but he, too, left today’s game early with an undisclosed injury.
- Golden Knights winger Mark Stone left last night’s game with what looked to be a wrist injury. Head coach Bruce Cassidy told reporters postgame including Danny Webster of the Las Vegas Review-Journal that there was no immediate update and that they were hoping to know more information about the injury by Monday. The captain has had a great start to the season, leading the league in assists with 11 through his first six games.
- Oilers winger Kasperi Kapanen left today’s game against Detroit in the second period with an undisclosed injury, the team announced. The veteran has been a regular in Edmonton’s bottom six through the first six games of the season where he has two assists. Notably, the team does not have enough accrued cap space to recall anyone from AHL Bakersfield (even with LTIR) as things stand which could be something to keep an eye on if he’s set to miss any more time.
Oilers Re-Sign Kasperi Kapanen, Noah Philp
10:46 a.m.: Edmonton has confirmed Kapanen’s new deal as reported.
8:46 a.m.: The Oilers are expected to re-sign pending UFA winger Kasperi Kapanen, PuckPedia reports Monday. It’s a one-year contract worth $1.3MM, PuckPedia adds. The club also announced a two-way extension for center Noah Philp that carries a $775,000 cap hit. His AHL salary is $250,000 with a $300,000 guarantee, per PuckPedia.
Kapanen, 29 in July, gets a small pay bump after signing a one-year, $1MM contract with the Blues in free agency last summer. That commitment didn’t result in the speedy but inconsistent winger landing a regular role in St. Louis’ lineup, though. He was a frequent healthy scratch to begin the season, scoring one goal with a minus-six rating in 10 games before landing on waivers in mid-November.
Considering Kapanen’s offensive ceiling – he has five 30-point seasons under his belt – it’s still fair to characterize his tenure in Edmonton as disappointing. He achieved more consistent deployment, appearing in 57 games, but only managed five goals and eight assists for 13 points, with a -16 rating, in 12:01 of ice time per game.
It was during the playoffs that he made a more significant impact. He wasn’t in the lineup to begin the postseason and didn’t enter the lineup until Game 4 of the second round against the Golden Knights, but once he played, he remained in the lineup for 12 of 13 games. He scored three goals and three assists for six points, including the overtime winner to clinch their series in Game 5 against Vegas, and averaged 13:28 per game.
Getting depth scoring options on cheap contracts is crucial for an Oilers team that faces a cap crunch with star RFA Evan Bouchard still in need of a new contract. They’re likely losing veterans Connor Brown, Corey Perry, and Jeff Skinner to free agency with no deals yet in place and could be set to part ways with Viktor Arvidsson in a cap-dump trade as well. While Kapanen’s most recent regular-season showing wasn’t the most impressive, there’s still a 15-goal, 30-point ceiling there that makes him an attractive re-signee at that price point.
Philp, 27 in August, was an undrafted free agent signing by Edmonton out of the University of Alberta in 2022. After going unsigned for 2023-24 and taking a leave of absence from the game for personal reasons, he returned to the Oilers organization on a two-way deal for last season. He earned his NHL debut in the process, recording two assists and a plus-one rating in 15 games over multiple call-ups in the latter half of the season. He averaged 9:05 per game and won 40 of 102 faceoffs (39.2%).
The 6’3″, 198-lb forward will get a chance to build on those numbers next season, but is best suited as a middle-six AHL option with occasional call-up potential. He put together a 19-16–35 scoring line with a +11 rating in 55 games for AHL Bakersfield this past season.
Oilers Claim Kasperi Kapanen Off Waivers From Blues
The Oilers announced on Tuesday that they’ve claimed winger Kasperi Kapanen off waivers from the Blues.
Kapanen, 28, hit waivers yesterday with St. Louis needing to open a roster spot for Robert Thomas‘ activation from injured reserve. He’d been a healthy scratch in three of their last five games since returning from an upper-body injury and had just one goal in 10 games on the season with a -6 rating, so it wasn’t terribly surprising to see the pending unrestricted free agent hit the wire.
The Oilers are hoping Kapanen, who carries a $1MM cap hit, can rediscover the form that landed him 15 goals and 34 points in 66 games split between the Blues and the Penguins in 2022-23. St. Louis nabbed him off the wire amid that campaign, and a good deal of that production came in his final 23 games of the season after the move.
Edmonton has been in need of forward help for the past couple of games, dressing seven defensemen with Viktor Arvidsson out day-to-day with an undisclosed injury. Instead of making a recall up front – they already had to make one on defense after Darnell Nurse was injured in Toronto over the weekend – they’ll opt to bring in some outside help.
It seems unlikely that Kapanen will make it to Ottawa in time for tonight’s game against the Senators, so the Oilers may need to roll with the 11F/7D formation once more if Arvidsson isn’t ready to return. If Arvidsson is still out for a stretch, though, there could be an opportunity for Kapanen to get a brief audition in his usual spot on Leon Draisaitl‘s wing. Corey Perry has hopped up into that spot with Arvidsson out, but those minutes aren’t sustainable for the 39-year-old with four points in 19 games.
The Oilers had an open roster spot before claiming Kapanen, so no corresponding transaction is necessary. However, they are now over the $88MM salary cap upper limit and are thus using Evander Kane‘s long-term injured reserve placement to stay compliant as PuckPedia breaks down.
Blues Place Kasperi Kapanen On Waivers
The Blues have placed winger Kasperi Kapanen on waivers for the purposes of assignment to AHL Springfield, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports Monday.
Kapanen, 28, has been limited by an upper-body injury and multiple healthy scratches to 10 appearances this season. He has just one goal and a -6 rating with a 45.9 CF%, struggling to limit chances against while failing to generate many chances himself with 11 shots on goal.
That underwhelming showing has led head coach Drew Bannister to slash Kapanen’s ice time to 11:19 per game, his lowest average since his rookie season with the Maple Leafs in 2017-18. With Kapanen now sitting in the press box for back-to-back games and the team needing to clear a forward spot eventually to activate Robert Thomas from injured reserve, it was clear that he was becoming the odd man out.
The Blues had their chance to walk away from Kapanen over the offseason after he recorded six goals and 22 points in 73 games last year, his lowest points-per-game rate as a full-time NHLer. Instead, they opted to re-sign him to a one-year, $1MM contract shortly after the free agent market opened on July 1. While it’s a one-way deal, his cap hit is fully buriable and won’t count against St. Louis’ books if he clears waivers and reports to Springfield.
The Blues acquired Kapanen, a first-round pick by the Penguins back in 2014, by claiming him off waivers from Pittsburgh in Feb. 2023, less than halfway through a two-year, $6.4MM deal he’d signed with the Pens. It initially looked like Kapanen might have found a home in Missouri, posting 14 points in 23 games down the stretch while averaging 16:45 per game, the most minutes he’d ever shouldered as an NHLer. But inconsistency and a career-worst 6.1% shooting rate plagued him in 2023-24, kicking off a slow slide down the depth chart.
As a former 20-goal scorer with Toronto and a five-time 30-point getter, there might be some interest in Kapanen on the wire as a fully buriable expiring contract with some rebound potential. If not, he’ll be staring down his first minor league assignment since the 2017-18 season.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Central Notes: Brunette, Sissons, Kapanen, Jets
Predators head coach Andrew Brunette isn’t entirely on the hot seat yet, despite his club’s horrific run out of the gate, according to Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News.
The third-year head coach is off to just a 4-9-1 start after the Preds went on a highly-publicized free-agency spending spree, sitting squarely in last place in not only the Central Division but the entire league. General manager Barry Trotz hasn’t thrown his newly installed bench boss under the bus just yet, but he did tell Harrington that he thinks “we don’t have enough chemistry on all our lines.”
“Our 5-on-5 play overall has improved defensively since the start of the year,” Trotz continued. “But we haven’t scored a lot of goals.” His assessment is apt. Very few numbers indicate the Predators should be as bad as they are. They’ve controlled the majority of shot attempts, scoring chances and high-danger chances at 5-on-5 while having one of the league’s best penalty kills and a perfectly average power play (20.8%). Juuse Saros hasn’t been outstanding between the pipes, but he’s still been above average, logging a .904 SV%.
The Preds have two main drags. The first is Scott Wedgewood, who’s been borderline unplayable with a .841 SV% and 4.37 GAA in three appearances. The second is a 7.4% shooting percentage that ranks 31st in the league, precisely what Trotz alluded to. That should correct itself over the coming weeks and get Brunette off the media hot seat, especially with Trotz not seriously considering making a coaching change yet.
Also in Nashville, they may be without veteran pivot Colton Sissons again tonight against Utah. He’s a game-time decision with the upper-body injury that kept him out of Thursday’s game against the Panthers, Brunette told 102.5 The Game’s Nick Kieser.
Here’s more from the Central:
- Kasperi Kapanen will return to the Blues’ lineup tonight against the Capitals, head coach Drew Bannister told Lou Korac of NHL.com. The right-winger had missed the last four games with an upper-body injury. The 28-year-old could have been an unrestricted free agent last summer but signed a one-year, $1MM pact to return to St. Louis on July 1. He’s been an on-again, off-again participant in the lineup this season, even when healthy, limited to just one goal in eight games while averaging south of 12 minutes per night. 2021 first-round pick Zachary Bolduc will sit in the press box to accommodate Kapanen’s return, the team said.
- After today’s 4-1 win against the Stars, the Jets have become the first team in NHL history to win 14 of their first 15 games. It’s not quite the best start to a season in league history – that belongs to the 2012-13 Blackhawks and their 21-0-3 run through the season’s first 24 games. But it’s an impressive feat nonetheless, and it has them six points clear of the Wild for first in the NHL, Western Conference and Central Division.