Leo Carlsson Out Three To Five Weeks
The Ducks, who have been struggling in recent weeks, will now have to try to turn things around without the services of one of their top players for the next little while. The team announced (Twitter link) that center Leo Carlsson will miss the next three to five weeks after undergoing a procedure today to treat a Morel-Lavallée lesion in his left thigh.
After showing some improvement in his sophomore year last season, Carlsson has been one of the league’s breakout performers in 2025-26. He has emerged as a legitimate number one center for Anaheim, playing in all situations with head coach Joel Quenneville entrusting him with a much bigger role.
On the offensive side of things, Carlsson has 18 goals and 26 assists in 44 games so far, making him their leading scorer, two points ahead of veteran Troy Terry who is also dealing with an injury. He has already set a career high in assists and is only one point shy of matching his career high in points. In the final season of his entry-level contract, the 21-year-old is putting himself in line for a significant raise on his next deal with a jump to a double-digit AAV not out of the question on a max-term agreement.
On top of having significant implications for Anaheim’s efforts to get back into the playoff picture (they’re four points out heading into tonight’s action), Carlsson’s absence could also affect a second team as well. He was named to Sweden’s Olympic roster earlier this month with their first game coming on February 12th. If his recovery time is the short end of that range, he should be good to go to participate. However, if it looks like it will be closer to the longer end, he’d miss the first week at a minimum and given the short length of the tournament, Carlsson would become a potential roster casualty. He’ll undoubtedly be reassessed in a few weeks to help determine if he’ll be cleared to suit up in that event.
At the moment, Carlsson is on Anaheim’s active roster. With that currently being at the maximum of 23, he’s likely to be shifted to injured reserve in the near future.
Evening Notes: Ducks, Heiskanen, Sourdif
The struggling Anaheim Ducks will be especially short handed tonight, as Leo Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier, and Troy Terry are all absent, per Derek Lee of The Hockey News. The team updated that Carlsson has a lower-body injury and Gauthier is ill, along with Terry’s known upper-body injury.
Terry was considered a game-time decision, clearly unable to go, while Carlsson and Gauthier were last minute surprises. Lee went on to add that as a result of being down three forwards, Anaheim will have to go into an 11-forward, 7-defensemen configuration, but defender Ian Moore may slot in as a forward.
After a great start to the season, the Ducks have faltered recently, with just one regulation win in their last 10 games, and a five game losing streak. Carlsson, Gauthier, and Terry rank in order as the team’s top three scorers, so all of them out of the mix against the league’s second best team, Dallas, will make an especially formidable challenge.
In such situations, sometimes teams give undersized puck moving defenders the opportunity to move up, but if Moore plays forward, he is known as a more stay-at-home player with size. Regardless, tonight may be a night to remember for the 24-year-old.
Updates on the status of Anaheim’s three top forwards will be watched closely, as the group is back in action Friday and Saturday, with a home-and-home against their in-state rivals from Los Angeles.
Elsewhere across the league:
- Things will also be unusual in Anaheim from the other side, as the Dallas Stars announced that defenseman Miro Heiskanen will not play due to a personal matter. The 26-year-old had yet to miss a contest prior to tonight, posting 36 points in 46 games. In place of their #1 defender who averages just over 26 minutes a night, Ilya Lyubushkin will return to the lineup, who has skated 33 games this season.
- Washington Capitals forward Justin Sourdif missed tonight’s game, as he’s day-to-day with an upper-body injury, reported by Sammi Silber of The Hockey News earlier today. It marks just the second game of the campaign that Sourdif has not dressed. The 23-year-old came to Washington in a summer trade from Florida as a primary AHLer with just four NHL games under his belt. Since then he has earned a real role as a middle six forward under Head Coach Spencer Carbery. Sourdif has 19 points on the year, including a three-goal, five-point effort on January 5, and hopefully will return Thursday against San Jose. In his absence, the Capitals defeated Montreal in overtime.
Pacific Notes: Kraken, Carlsson, Kuemper, Chytil, Coghlan
The Seattle Kraken, who have been bitten by the injury bug as of late, may be returning a few high-end players soon. Earlier today, team producer Scott Malone reported that forward Jared McCann and defenseman Vince Dunn had returned to practice in regular jerseys.
There’s no indication either will return to the Kraken’s game tomorrow against the Philadelphia Flyers, though it is encouraging. McCann has been limited to 11 games with Seattle this season, scoring five goals and three points, with his last contest coming on December 10th.
Still, Dunn only missed the Kraken’s game on Tuesday due to an upper-body injury, and he’s not on the team’s injured reserve, unlike McCann. If there’s any silver lining to what’s shaping up to be another disappointing season for the Kraken, is that Dunn has been healthy for much of the season. Over the last two years, he had played in less than 75% of Seattle’s games due to injury. He has scored five goals and 19 points in 34 games this season.
Other notes from the Pacific Division:
- In a positive update for the Anaheim Ducks, center Leo Carlsson‘s lower-body injury from earlier in the week will only cost him one game. In an article this morning, Derek Lee of The Hockey News confirmed that Carlsson would return to the lineup tonight against the Los Angeles Kings. Aside from an external addition, there truly couldn’t be better news for the Ducks, who are tied for the lead in the Pacific Division after several difficult seasons. Carlsson is leading that effort, scoring 17 goals and 41 points in 34 games as Anaheim’s leading scorer.
- On the flip side of tonight’s matchup, netminder Darcy Kuemper will miss a fifth consecutive game for the Kings due to an upper-body injury. Fortunately, that absence shouldn’t last too much longer. Team reporter Zach Dooley shared earlier that Kuemper had returned to practice for the Kings, joining the team for their morning skate.
- Moving to the Western portion of Canada, host of Rink Wide: Vancouver, Jeff Paterson, reported earlier that Filip Chytil had returned to practice for the Vancouver Canucks in a non-contact jersey. Chytil has not played since mid-October due to what is believed to be another concussion in his nine-year career. Unfortunately, despite the positive update that Chytil has returned to the ice, there’s no timeline for his return.
- On the transaction side, the Vegas Golden Knights quietly reassigned defenseman Dylan Coghlan to the AHL’s Henderson Silver Knights. The Golden Knights exit the holiday break on a three-game homestand, so they likely have little need for a depth defenseman, unlike they would on a road trip. Coghlan didn’t feature in any games throughout the duration of his recall.
Ducks’ Leo Carlsson Day-To-Day With Lower-Body Injury
The Anaheim Ducks will be without a top forward in Monday’s match against the Seattle Kraken. Star center Leo Carlsson has been announced as out day-to-day with a lower-body injury, head coach Joel Quenneville told Derek Lee of The Hockey News. He is expected to return in Anaheim’s first game back from the NHL’s Christmas break – a December 27th matchup against the Los Angeles Kings.
It isn’t clear when or how Carlsson sustained his injury. He has been leaned on heavily over Anaheim’s recent stretch, appearing in at least 20 minutes of ice time in four of his 11 games this month, including three games north of 22 minutes. That’s a heavy load for a 20-year-old pro and it appears it’s beginning to get to Carlsson. He has gone without any scoring in his last three games, after starting the month with four goals and seven points in eight games. It’s tied for the longest scoring drought of Carlsson’s season alongside a dry spell in November.
The Ducks will use a soft matchup against the Kraken, and an upcoming four days off, as a chance to give Carlsson a bit of a break. His absence is expected to be precautionary, more than anything, per Zach Cavanagh of The Sporting Tribune. The Ducks will promote Mikael Granlund to the top-line in Carlsson’s absence. Granlund, who has five points in his last three games, is expected to assume top-center duties while Troy Terry moves to the top right-wing slot.
Carlsson leads the Ducks in scoring with a staggering 41 points in 36 games this season, third-most of any player under the age of 21 in the NHL, behind Macklin Celebrini (54) and Connor Bedard (44). Even without their emerging franchise focal piece, Anaheim should be in good shape for Monday night. They got back on the right side of the scoresheet on Saturday, toppling the Columbus Blue Jackets to bring their record to 6-4-1 in December. Anaheim has been slightly outscored in that span – by a combined score of 36-to-40 – but have averaged 3.5 goals-per-game over their last four games.
With an improved performance on defense, and continued hot play in more minutes from Granlund, Anaheim should be in for a strong game against a Seattle club that’s gone 1-4-0 in their last five games and ranks dead-last in goals scored this season.
Ducks Not Entering Into Substantive Extension Talks With Leo Carlsson Yet
The Ducks have been one of the pleasant surprises through the first month and a bit of the season. After coming up well short of a playoff spot for the past several years, they enter play tonight sitting atop the Pacific Division.
A big reason for that has been the play of center Leo Carlsson. The third-year player is among the NHL’s top scorers in the early going, recording 11 goals and 15 assists through Anaheim’s first 16 games; his 26 points are tied for the second-most in the league.
The timing for that offensive breakout is certainly ideal for Carlsson. He’s slated to become a restricted free agent next summer and this type of production will only be sending the price tag upward. But it doesn’t appear as if the Ducks or Carlsson are in any rush to start substantive discussions on a new deal, according to TSN’s Darren Dreger. Instead, both sides appear content to push things until at least the second half of the season.
The 20-year-old was the second overall pick in 2023 and made the jump right away to the NHL although his minutes were managed in his rookie year. As a result, he played in just 55 games, picking up 12 goals and 17 assists. Last season, he was more productive, tallying 20 goals and 25 helpers in 76 games. Still, few could have expected this type of offensive jump in the early going.
It’s the size of that jump that makes waiting a prudent move for both sides. While there’s a natural inclination to think that the eight-year, $80MM extension Utah recently gave Logan Cooley could stand as a reasonable comparison, the Mammoth’s middleman was a lot more productive in his first two seasons, notching 44 and 65 points respectively. On the other hand, Carlsson’s breakout this season vastly surpasses Cooley’s strong start as he’s doubling him up in points in the early going. How sustainable this hot start is will go a long way in determining if Carlsson comes in below this price tag or if he has a shot at surpassing it.
Ducks GM Pat Verbeek is typically hesitant to hand out long-term contracts to players coming off entry-level contracts and has taken several negotiations deep into the offseason. Fellow center Mason McTavish is the most recent example of that as it took until late September for him to sign his six-year, $42MM deal. If those trends continue, it might not matter all that much how significant talks get in the coming months between the Ducks and Carlsson; it could very well be another long-term discussion.
Fortunately for Anaheim, their cap situation won’t play any role in discussions as they have more than $40MM in cap space for next season, per PuckPedia, meaning all options in terms of the length of a deal should be on the table. But for now, both sides are happy with waiting things out.
Logan Cooley Extension Setting RFA Market
The Utah Mammoth became the first to cave when they signed pending-restricted free agent and star center Logan Cooley to an eight-year, $80MM contract extension. Mammoth owner Ryan Smith said after that the deal gives both team and player the assurance that Cooley will be able to plant his roots. For teams across the league, the move could have a deeper impact. With fellow young stars Connor Bedard, Leo Carlsson, and Adam Fantilli all on expiring deals of their own – Cooley’s $10MM annual price tag could be the start of negotiations, per Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic.
That’s great news for Bedard, who is the only on the list to outscore Cooley through their young careers. Cooley boasts 53 goals and 121 points in 168 career games, including this season, while Bedard has managed 51 goals and 142 points in 161 games. There’s no doubt that Bedard has facen the tougher test as well, looking to buoy a desolate Chicago Blackhawks club while Cooley’s rebranded Mammoth look to make their first playoff push.
The heavier load should earn Bedard a boost when negotiations roll around. His yearly cap hit could match Cooley’s $10MM on a shorter deal, potentially four-to-five years, or could go as high as $12MM on a max-term, eight-year deal per LeBrun, who points out that Bedard holds all of the leverage in negotiations. The 20-year-old centerman is a pillar of Chicago’s nightly lineup, and could even be a candidate for their captaincy on his next deal. With no salary cap concerns in sight, Chicago won’t be pressured to spoil Bedard’s importance by trying to save a few extra bucks.
Negotiations could be a bit tougher for Fantilli, who has elevated his play to a true top-line level but hasn’t yet taken over the top forward role for the Columbus Blue Jackets. That title has to stand with right-winger Kirill Marchenko, whose 10 points in 10 games is double what Fantilli’s five points on the year. Part of that scoring dip comes from Fantilli moved away from centering Marchenko, one season after the two played together more than any other Columbus forward pair. Fantilli scored a career-high 31 goals and 54 points, while shooting at a manageable 16.2 percent, in the elevated role last season. This year, he’s been tasked with commanding the team’s second-line, to mixed results.
Signs of continued growing pains does separate Fantilli from the dominant roles of Cooley and Bedard. With those two rivaling for eight-figure contracts, it seems Fantilli would have better luck pushing for a deal in the realm of $9MM each season. Blackhawks winger Frank Nazar recently signed a surprising seven-year, $46.2MM contract after carrying Team USA to a World Championship Gold alongside Cooley. The deal carries a team-friendly $6.6MM cap hit, but pays Nazar $9.1MM and $8.66MM in salary through the first two years respectively. Those numbers could be significant markers for Fantilli, as he looks to sign his own deal as second-fiddle. Blue Jackets general manager Don Waddell shared that Columbus doesn’t plan to negotiate a new deal with Fantilli until after the Olympic break, per LeBrun.
Just like at the 2023 Draft, Carlsson’s fate lies somewhere between Bedard and Fantilli. The Swedish-native has taken on a major role for the Anaheim Ducks, offering both top-end impacts both on and off of the puck. He scored a career-high 45 points in 76 games last season. That’s the lowest personal-best on this list, though it came with a Ducks squad that scored the third-fewest goals in the 2024-25 season. Anaheim was led in scoring by Troy Terry‘s 55 points last year, a mark that Carlsson could reasonably clear with some bolstered roles around him. He’s proving as much early on this season, with a team-leading 11 points in nine games while playing alongside Alex Killorn and either Cutter Gauthier or Chris Kreider.
Carlsson appears to have taken a big step forward through the early year. Anaheim won’t have to look far for a comparable deal, after signing Mason McTavish to a six-year, $42MM contract extension in the weeks before the season. The resulting $7MM cap hit is likely a bit cheaper than McTavish could’ve managed on a seven-or-eight-year deal. That should well support Carlsson’s push towards a $9MM contract next summer, especially if he can continue to outscore McTavish through the rest of the year.
The NHL salary cap is presently skyrocketting. It is up $7.5MM this season, and expected to rise another $18MM before the 2027-28 season. That growth has made projecting new contracts a much tougher task – which is where timely extensions like Cooley’s help set the market. He’s been awarded $10MM to man his team’s top-forward role for much of the next decade. That’s set a price tag for the role – one that some 2026 restricted free agents could live up to, while others need to keep trying to play their way into a bigger payday.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.
Team Sweden Announces 2025 World Championship Roster
Team Sweden has announced their roster for the upcoming 2025 IIHF World Championships. The ‘Tre Konor’ will look to finish higher than third place in the international tournament for the first time since 2018.
The team will look similar to the one Sweden brought to the 4 Nations Face-Off in February. Filip Forsberg, Lucas Raymond, and Mika Zibanejad will reprise their roles as Sweden’s top forwards, while Rasmus Andersson and Jonas Brodin will lead the defensive core.
Unfortunately, the team will be without forward William Eklund for the tournament due to offseason wrist surgery. Sweden is expected to announce Eklund’s replacement in the coming days. The rest of Team Sweden’s roster is as follows:
F Mikael Backlund (Flames)
F Anton Bengtsson (Rögle BK)
F Leo Carlsson (Ducks)
F Christoffer Ehn (Linköping HC)
F Filip Forsberg (Predators)
F Max Friberg (Frölunda HC)
F Jesper Frödén (ZSC Lions)
F Marcus Johansson (Wild)
F Elias Lindholm (Bruins)
F Isac Lundeström (Ducks)
F Lucas Raymond (Red Wings)
F Alexander Wennberg (Sharks)
F Mika Zibanejad (Rangers)
D Rasmus Andersson (Flames)
D Jonas Brodin (Wild)
D Gabriel Carlsson (EV Zug)
D Simon Edvinsson (Red Wings)
D Adam Larsson (Kraken)
D Marcus Pettersson (Canucks)
G Samuel Ersson (Flyers)
G Jacob Markström (Devils)
G Arvid Söderblom (Blackhawks)
Ducks To Place Trevor Zegras On IR, Activate Brock McGinn
12/7: Zegras will undergo additional testing on Monday to determine how long he’ll miss, per Sporstnet’s Elliotte Friedman on Saturday Headlines. This could be a chance to learn more about what seemed to be a low-contact injury. Zegras underwent surgery in January to repair a fracture in his left ankle – the same ankle that he seemed to injure on Wednesday – though it’s unclear if the two injuries are related in any way.
12/6: Trevor Zegras‘ game-ending injury from a few nights ago will now extend over at least a week. The depth chart manager for The Hockey News and PuckPedia reported that the Anaheim Ducks would place Zegras on injured reserve with a lower-body injury and activate Brock McGinn (X Link).
Zegras quickly left partway through the second period of Wednesday’s contest and couldn’t put any weight on one of his legs. The Anaheim youngster finished the game with a -1 rating over 6:08 of ice time.
There have been no further updates regarding the severity of Zegras’ injury. Still, it was expected he wouldn’t play in the Ducks’ next game after Derek Lee of The Hockey News reported he wasn’t at practice this morning. Zegras will only miss two games should he miss the minimum seven days on the injured reserve. It may be a chance for him to reset on the season as the former 65-point scorer only has four goals and 10 points through 24 contests this year.
McGinn’s return to the active roster might not be Anaheim’s only positive injury development. Lee also shared that Robby Fabbri was back on the ice for the team’s practice this morning despite being on week three of a six-week recovery timeline. Lee’s fellow writer at The Hockey News, Patrick Present, additionally reported that Leo Carlsson was back on the ice in a non-contact jersey.
Anaheim has had a fair number of injury concerns through the first quarter of the 2024-25 NHL season but that appears to be ending soon. The Ducks are on a pathway toward a fully healthy lineup in the coming weeks combined with today’s acquisition of defenseman Jacob Trouba from the New York Rangers.
Ducks Activate Cam Fowler, Place Urho Vaakanainen On IR
Anaheim will welcome back the organization’s longest-tenured player this evening. The Ducks announced they’ve activated defenseman Cam Fowler from the team’s injured reserve and have placed defenseman Urho Vaakanainen on it in a corresponding roster move.
There was an expectation that the Ducks would make a formal roster move after Derek Lee of The Hockey News reported earlier that Pavel Mintyukov would be a healthy scratch for tonight’s contest for Fowler. Lee also mentioned that young forward Leo Carlsson wouldn’t play tonight due to an upper-body injury.
Anaheim has a few reasons to be thankful that Fowler is back in the lineup. First, he gives the team another veteran presence to a blue line that’s struggled this season. The Ducks are 26th in the league in shots against and their shortcomings have largely been covered up by the phenomenal play of Lukáš Dostál. Fowler won’t have much to give on the offensive side of the puck but he is in his 15th straight season averaging more than 20 minutes a night and has a career on-ice save percentage in all situations of 90.3%.
The other reason Anaheim is thankful to have Fowler back is to showcase him to the rest of the league. It’s public knowledge that the Ducks and Fowler hope for a trade to materialize and it would be better for inquiring teams to see how he’s continuing to handle top-four minutes.
Vaakanainen’s move to the injured reserve is curious. The Joensuu, Finland native has played sparingly for Anaheim this season with his last game coming on November 13th. This leads to the idea that Vaakanainen may have been injured for quite some time and the Ducks are just now taking him off the active roster. Still, it’s a big win for Anaheim to get a top-four defenseman back in the lineup.
Poll: Who Will Be The NHL’s Next Captain?
August is finally here, marking the time of year when teams reconvene at their home rink and begin hardy planning for the upcoming season. That step will come with extra work for the six teams around the league who don’t currently have a captain.
Many of these teams, including Seattle, Anaheim, and Utah, have gone years without a captain – instead opting to disseminate responsibilities among multiple assistant captains. All three teams are amidst staunch rebuilds – with Utah even mapping out relocation – and are likely waiting for their top prospects to take a few more steps before earning the role. The trio of Matthew Beniers, Leo Carlsson, and Logan Cooley seem prime for that ascension with their respective teams, though they each have multiple challengers lining up behind them. The Buffalo Sabres are in a similar grouping, as they transition from a veteran-laden lineup to one of the league’s youngest rosters.
The Chicago Blackhawks also fall into the aforementioned discussion – not carrying a captain since legendary centerman Jonathan Toews ended his career in 2022. Toews leaves massive shoes as Chicago’s leader, after co-heading three Stanley Cup wins alongside winger Patrick Kane. Naming a successor will formally carry Chicago into a new era – one without many of the faces that came to define Chicago hockey in the 2010s. Teenage phenom Connor Bedard seems like a great option to lead that transition, after netting 22 goals and 61 points in 68 games last season – the most of any rookie Blackhawk since Artemi Panarin in 2016, and Kane before him. But Bedard is still young and was limited to a partial season last year by a jaw injury. Those factors could hold him back from Chicago’s prestigious ‘C’. If that is the case, it doesn’t seem any of the team’s veteran leaders, including Nick Foligno and Seth Jones, would inspire Chicago to name a captain too early.
And while Chicago’s next captain will lead the team through new scenery, it’s the Tampa Bay vacancy that headlines the off-season. The Lightning now sit without a captain for the first time since 2002, after franchise icon Steven Stamkos chose to sign with the Nashville Predators in his first trip to unrestricted free agency. Stamkos wore the ‘C’ for the last 10 years and established himself as a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer in that span, leading Tampa Bay to two Stanley Cups and setting the franchise’s all-time records in both goals and points scored. Like in Chicago, the Lightning will be entering a new era with their next captain – though they’re much more prepared for the vacancy than their counterparts. While forwards Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point could both serve as strong replacements, it’s defenseman Victor Hedman that offers the same rugged veteran leadership brought by Stamkos. Hedman recently signed a four-year extension in Tampa, taking him through his age-37 season and, potentially, the end of his career. He’s already appeared in 1,052 games with Tampa Bay – the most of any Lightning other than Stamkos – and holds the franchise records in all three scoring stats, among defenders. Transitioning from Stamkos to Hedman should prove more of a light handoff than a total change in power, which could be enough to sway a Lightning franchise that hasn’t gone longer than one year without a captain since naming Paul Ysebaert as their inaugural ‘C’.
Mapping out when captain announcements will come is often a fool’s bet, but the candidates to earn the NHL’s next ‘C’ seem to be becoming clearer. Who will it be? Will Tampa jump to another veteran, will Chicago move into their next step, or will an oft-captain-less team commit to their young guard? Let us know by voting in the poll below and discussing in the comments.
If the embedded poll isn’t showing up, use this link to vote!