Golden Knights Recall Jason Garrison
When the Vegas Golden Knights selected 13 veteran defenseman in the NHL Expansion Draft this past June, traded for Shea Theodore, and signed Brad Hunt, it was clear that moves would need to be made to handle their overage on the blue line. Yet, even after trading away Marc Methot, Trevor van Riemsdyk, David Schlemko, and Alexei Emelin soon after selecting them, it still left the NHL’s newest team with a log jam on the back end. The long-term injury status of Clayton Stoner also helped the cause, but by the end of October, the team was faced with no options remaining but to waive Griffin Reinhart and, more surprisingly, Jason Garrison. Both players cleared waivers and were assigned to the AHL’s Chicago Wolves, where they have remained since.
However, Garrison is finally getting the chance to return to the NHL ranks. The Knights announced today that they have recalled Garrison from the Wolves. With Jonathon Merrill and Luca Sbisa both sidelined with injuries, Vegas is in need of some added depth on the blue line for the first time this season. The Expansion Draft pick from the Lightning is expected to join the team on their current road trip in Tampa and could make his return against his former team. A veteran of over 500 NHL games, Garrison was once a formidable defender, though his play has slipped as his age has climbed. Nevertheless, few would have expected the 33-year-old to have just four NHL games under his belt in 2017-18 versus 31 games logged in the AHL.
While Garrison cleared waivers earlier this season, the Knights do face some risk by calling him back up to the big league squad. If Garrison stays on the roster for less than 30 days or plays in less than 10 games, he can safely be returned to the AHL. However, should Garrison exceed either of those limits, he would need to be passed through waivers again if the Knights want to demote him prior to the NHL Trade Deadline. If Garrison performs admirably in that short stint, he could prove to be a tempting option for another contender to grab on waivers. Thus, Vegas faces a situation where they either want to return Garrison to the minors as soon as possible or ensure he stays on the roster until the Trade Deadline has come and gone.
Defense Notes: Phaneuf, Mueller, Methot
While he has a sizable contract, there has been some chatter about Senators defenseman Dion Phaneuf being dealt before the trade deadline, reports Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston. The 32-year-old veteran is in his third season with Ottawa and while he plays an important role on their back end, he hasn’t been living up to his $7MM cap hit and has actually seen his average ice time dip by 2:30 a night to 20:32, the lowest of his career. With three years left on his deal beyond this one, Ottawa would almost certainly have to retain some salary or take a high-priced player back in any trade. Phaneuf has a 12-team list that he can be traded to.
More news regarding blueliners around the league:
- Devils defenseman Mirco Mueller skated at practice for the first time since undergoing surgery to fix a broken clavicle, notes Chris Ryan of NJ Advance Media. While he will still need several more practices before getting the green light to return, it appears he will be returning well ahead of schedule; originally, he was pegged to be out until sometime around the middle of February. Prior to being injured, Mueller was playing a regular role on New Jersey’s third pairing but there’s no guarantee he’ll return in that spot with seven other blueliners already on the roster.
- So much for being ready to play after the bye week. Although that was the original intention for Stars rearguard Marc Methot, the team announced that he has undergone a non-surgical procedure that will keep him out of the lineup for the next two weeks. Methot’s first season in Dallas has been a rough one as he has played just once since November 6th where he first suffered his knee injury. He returned to play one game and then was scratched with soreness for the next one. That’s not what they were hoping for when they acquired him from Vegas after the Expansion Draft to shore up their top-four.
Central Notes: Predators, Methot, Kostin
If the Predators are going to make any moves between now and the trade deadline, it will likely come in the form of adding help up front, notes Adam Vingan of The Tennessean. The team is certainly set on the back end and they’re in good shape between the pipes as well. With winger Filip Forsberg out for the next month or so with a fractured hand though, Nashville could certainly benefit from bringing in a top-six forward in the weeks to come. The Preds find themselves with the ability to take on nearly $6MM today in salary (per CapFriendly), an amount that increases to more than $13MM by the trade deadline so they should be able to be involved in talks for the top wingers on the market without any concerns of having to offset contracts.
Elsewhere in the Central:
- The fact that Stars defenseman Marc Methot was a late scratch on Saturday shouldn’t be cause for concern. Head coach Ken Hitchcock told Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News that although the blueliner experienced some soreness in his knee following the warmup yesterday, he is expected to be ready to go following the conclusion of their bye week. Methot had recently returned to the lineup after missing the previous 26 games with that knee issue.
- Blues prospect Klim Kostin indicated to Sport-Express’ Alexey Shevchenko (link in Russian) that the team told him that they would bring him up to the NHL at some point this season if he had a strong showing at the World Juniors. Kostin certainly lived up to his end of the bargain, recording five goals and three assists in just five games for Russia in the tournament. His first season in North America hasn’t gone as well though with just 11 points (2-9-11) in 28 contests with AHL San Antonio. The 18-year-old also stated that he had promises to be drafted by Tampa Bay (14th overall), Calgary (16th), and Boston (18th) but instead, he wound up falling to 31st overall where St. Louis picked him up.
Methot, Hanzal Return To Dallas Lineup
Like many other teams in 2017-18, the Dallas Stars have struggled with injuries early on this season. The team has lost 55 man-game thus far, and while the total is not overwhelming, 37 of those games are due to the condition of two players. That pair is defenseman Marc Methot and center Martin Hanzal, both off-season additions to the Stars. Methot and Hanzal were expected to be a major reason for the predicted bounce-back season for Dallas, a team who many felt “won the off-season”. Yet, the duo have played in just one game together since October and the Stars have underwhelmed thus far without them.
That will all change starting tonight, as the Stars reported the return of Methot and Hanzal, calling the team “as healthy as it’s been”. Both players are expected to be back at full health and ready to contribute to their full extent. Methot, who was acquired via trade from the Vegas Golden Knights after his selection in the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft from the Ottawa Senators, has missed the last 24 games with a knee injury. Methot is not an offensive juggernaut, but provides a solid defensive effort that Dallas often lacks. Hanzal, a physical, two-way forward, will also impact team defense. Hanzal has missed 13 games off-and-on this season with a variety of ailments including hamstring and hand injuries. His play has clearly been impacted by injury as well, as Hanzal has just six points in 26 games and a -11 rating. A player capable of 40 points – part of the reason he earned a three-year, $14.25MM deal this summer – Hanzal is hoping to have a greater impact on the score sheet moving forward.
Currently fourth in the Central Division, the Stars are far from out of playoff contention at the season’s midpoint. With games coming up against the New Jersey Devils tonight and Edmonton Oilers on Saturday, the team has a chance to pick up some points before their bye week, during which they can really get everyone back to full strength. However, the health of Methot and Hanzal will surely continue to be worth watching as the season continues. In fact, Dallas’ playoff hopes may rest on it, even with the plethora of other talent on the roster. The potential impact that Methot and Hanzal can have on team defense cannot be understated.
Central Notes: Methot, Hanzal, Hutchinson, Cullen
While both Stars center Martin Hanzal and defenseman Marc Methot have resumed skating, it sounds like both will be out of the lineup for a while yet. Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News notes that Methot (knee surgery) is hoping to get back before the holiday break while Hanzal’s timeline is more uncertain. Having dealt with four different injuries dating back to the preseason (the current one is a hamstring issue), head coach Ken Hitchcock stated that the plan will be for the 30-year-old to “practice for an extended period of time” before they put him back in the lineup. That way, they can ensure that he is indeed fully recovered and that he’ll have a better chance of avoiding any recurrences.
More from the Central:
- Postmedia’s Ken Wiebe reports that several teams around the NHL are looking to add some insurance between the pipes. He suggests that as a result, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Jets deal goaltender Michael Hutchinson soon and lists the Panthers (who are without Roberto Luongo) as a logical landing spot. He’s a nice insurance policy for Winnipeg to have but it’s telling that prospect Eric Comrie is up with the big club while Steve Mason is out. If they’re comfortable with that approach, then Hutchinson certainly becomes expendable.
- Wild center Matt Cullen is expected to be a healthy scratch tonight against Anaheim, reports Michael Russo of The Athletic (subscription required). His second stint with Minnesota hasn’t exactly gone swimmingly as he has just a single goal in 27 games after recording 16 and 13 the previous two years with Pittsburgh. He’s also averaging a career-low 11:17 of ice time per night. Russo speculates that the Penguins could be a team that might want to keep an eye on this situation as it could make some sense for them to try to reacquire the 41-year-old closer to the trade deadline.
Opinions Differ On Injury Disclosures
Dallas Stars head coach Ken Hitchcock turned some heads last week when he made comments against the NHL’s injury reporting policies. Hitchcock’s comments were not controversial, however they were the first that anyone within the league had publicly taken a stance against a rather secretive way of doing business. The NHL does not require its teams to submit detailed injury reports like the National Football League does, for example. Instead, fans and opponents are left with the infamous “lower body” and “upper body” injuries which could be anything from a broken toe to a concussion and infinite other ailments in between. Yet, last week Hitchcock’s Stars came out and announced specific injuries: knee surgery for Marc Methot and a hand injury for Martin Hanzal. In addressing the media on his deviation from the norm, Hitchcock was blunt:
“I think we collectively hate playing the game. What I mean by that is we say upper body, then you go on the phone, and then you look up things or you go to the doctors, find out what part of the upper body… We try to make your work easier, quite frankly… Nobody thinks like that. Our feeling is just ‘tell them what the injury is and move it forward, and let’s stop the dance.'”
What Hitchcock alludes to is that secrecy surrounding injuries in the NHL is nothing more than a “game” at this point. The media and thus fans and opponents eventually find out the pertinent information and hiding behind vague “upper-body” and “lower-body” injuries is merely a hindrance on the flow of information.
So what do other coaches think? Since Hitchcock’s remarks, this has been a hot button topic for the league’s other bench bosses. Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock was asked on Saturday what his opinion was on the subject and agreed with Hitchcock on all but one specific injury: concussions. “I don’t like talking about head injuries,” Babcock qualified, “Then there are all these things about concussions and half the time it’s neck or something… I want the player and the right people to work that out.” Despite otherwise agreeing with Hitchcock, Babcock did add that the Leafs plan to stick with “upper-body” and “lower-body”, though he respects the right of all coaches to disclose injuries as they like.
Winnipeg Jets coach Paul Maurice was less cordial about Hitchcock’s comments when he addressed them this morning, completely disagreeing:
“You’re not allowed to tell anybody what a doctor knows. They’ve got laws. People can get sued for letting that kind of information (out). I don’t really have the right to come out and tell you how a guy is feeling…I would think on average (that) somewhere between nine and 11 players, about half your hockey team, every single night, has something that they’re dealing with. Bone bruises, I had a guy playing with cracked ribs. I don’t want anybody to know that.”
Maurice seems to take the stance that not only is revealing a specific injury a violation of a player’s privacy, but it also can be detrimental to the team. The one point on which Maurice agreed with Hitchcock over Babcock was concussions, as Maurice feels that there is a “responsibility to show our league is handling them in a certain way.”
For media and fans, the clear choice is with Hitchcock, as complete information is always a benefit to the spectators. So long as coaches support vague injury reports though, it seems unlikely that the league will implement any blanked changes to injury disclosures.
Stars’ Methot Out 4-6 Weeks, Hanzal Out Too
The Dallas Stars will be without two regulars as the team announced today that defenseman Marc Methot will miss four to six weeks after having his knee scoped today, while center Martin Hanzal will miss three to seven days with a hand injury.
The Methot injury explains the team’s minor transaction earlier today when the team recalled defenseman Julius Honka. The 32-year-old Methot had missed the previous four games with what was described as a lower-body injury. He attempted to practice on Friday, but had to leave the ice after just 15 minutes. Methot has been a fixture in the Stars’ defensive rotation all season since the team acquired the veteran from the Vegas Golden Knights for a 2020 second-round pick. While Methot has not accumulated a point in 15 games, the veteran has averaged 19:23 of ice time and has a -1 plus/minus rating.
Hanzal has been a disappointment so far after the team signed the 30-year-old this offseason to a three-year, $14.25MM deal. He has just a goal and two assists in 17 games so far this season, although there were reports that his play was starting to improve, especially in the team’s victory over the Florida Panthers last Tuesday.
Central Notes: Zucker, Methot, Berglund, Bouwmeester, Yzerman
Minnesota Wild’s Jason Zucker has scored six consecutive goals for the team over the past three games, giving the team all their offense. The 25-year-old wing put up team’s only two goals in their 4-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday. He followed that up with a hat trick in the Wild’s 3-0 shutout of the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
He added the team’s lone goal in last night’s matchup with the Philadelphia Flyers to continue his streak. That goal held up as Minnesota walked away with a 1-0 shutout. While skill has propelled the forward on his hot streak, his goal Saturday just happened to be a lucky bounce that deflected off his stick and got past Philadelphia’s Brian Elliott, according to Rachel Blount of the Star Tribune.
“I have no idea,” the Wild winger said, when he was asked how the puck got past Elliott. “It was an empty net, and it had a lot of spin off the boards. So I think when it hit my stick, it just kind of shot off, and I honestly couldn’t tell you what it hit. That’s just a lucky bounce.”
- NHL.com’s Sean Shapiro writes that Dallas Stars defenseman Marc Methot will miss the next two games with a lower body injury. The 32-year-old defensive defenseman will not travel with the team on their upcoming three-game road trip, but Shapiro also notes the team will not have to add another defender. The team will move defenseman Jamie Oleksiak back into their defensive rotation instead. The team also said that forward Tyler Pitlick, who has been out for the last week, is ready to go and Shapiro suggests that Pitlick will likely move into the lineup for Monday’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes.
- The St. Louis Blues got some good news as Tom Timmermann of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that center Patrik Berglund and defenseman Jay Bouwmeester practiced with the team today and are expected to travel with the team on their upcoming three-game road trip. While coach Mike Yeo said that neither is expected to play on the road trip, both are close to returning to the lineup. Berglund was not projected to return until December after undergoing shoulder surgery and could be ahead of his timetable. Bouwmeester only practiced today for the first time since fracturing his ankle earlier this season.
- Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun tweets that while it may be meaningless, Tampa Bay general manager Steve Yzerman was in attendance at the last two Winnipeg Jets games, having been at the Jets’ 4-1 victory over Arizona last night and the Jets’ 5-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday.
Dylan Ferguson Officially Recalled On Emergency Basis
Amazingly, the Vegas Golden Knights lost another goaltender last night. Oscar Dansk has been moved to injured reserve and the team has recalled Dylan Ferguson from the Kamloops Blazers on an emergency basis. Ferguson was only drafted a few months ago by the Dallas Stars, but dealt to Vegas in a trade for Marc Methot. He signed his entry-level contract in late September, but was sent back to the WHL to continue his development. That development will get a jump start, as he’ll now backup Maxime Lagace in the Vegas net.
While a team is normally not allowed to recall players from their junior clubs after assigning them there, there are extenuating circumstances that allow it. Since the Golden Knights organization literally has no other goaltender under an NHL contract, this certainly qualifies as an emergency situation. The team currently has three goaltenders—Marc-Andre Fleury, Malcolm Subban and now Dansk—on injured reserve, meaning that Ferguson and Lagace are it for the time being.
It’s never a good time to get down to the fifth goaltender on your depth chart, but now may be the worst. The Golden Knights have just started a six-game road trip to the east coast, which concludes with a back-to-back situation in Toronto and Montreal next week. Dansk has to spend at least seven days on injured reserve and was quickly ruled out of the rest of the trip, meaning there is a legitimate chance that Ferguson gets into a game before returning to junior. Luckily (if you can call it that), the team has just one game in the week following the final game of the road trip.
Vegas Golden Knights Sign Dylan Ferguson To ELC
The Vegas Golden Knights have signed goaltender Dylan Ferguson to a three-year entry-level contract after starring for them in training camp. The 19-year old was selected in the seventh round by the Dallas Stars this summer, but immediately flipped to the Golden Knights as part of the Marc Methot trade.
Ferguson is already back in Kamloops for this season, where he was part of one of the best tandems in the league last year. Splitting time with Connor Ingram (a Tampa Bay Lightning prospect), Ferguson recorded a .922 save percentage in 31 games. While Ingram got most of the headlines as a third-round pick and starter for the Canadian World Junior team, Ferguson slowly developed into a legitimate goaltending prospect.
He’s still a long way from the NHL, but Ferguson will be given the reins in Kamloops—Ingram, 20, has moved on to the Syracuse Crunch—this season to try and show what he can do. It’s unlikely that he’ll get a chance to represent Canada at the World Juniors without something catastrophic happening to the other candidates, so instead he’ll just focus on trying to make the WHL playoffs.