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Mathieu Joseph

Senators Recall Angus Crookshank From AHL’s Belleville

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The Ottawa Senators have recalled winger Angus Crookshank from the AHL’s Belleville Senators. Crookshank has appeared in 24 games for the minor league club this season, scoring a team-high 10 goals and 21 points. This performance comes after Crookshank managed 26 goals and 47 points in 71 AHL games last season, good for fourth on Belleville in scoring.

This is the first call-up of the 23-year-old Crookshank’s career, which began after Ottawa drafted the forward in the fifth round of the 2018 NHL Draft. Crookshank went on to play in three seasons with the University of New Hampshire, totaling 90 games and 63 points with the school. He turned pro following the conclusion of New Hampshire’s 2020-21 season, finishing the year with 16 points in 19 AHL games. But despite the hot start to his professional career, Crookshank was forced out of the entire 2021-22 season after undergoing surgery on his knee. He’s returned strong for the Belleville Senators, though, and earned his first shot at an NHL debut as a result.

Ottawa is currently facing a string of forward injuries, missing both Mathieu Joseph and Rourke Chartier for their Sunday game against the Vegas Golden Knights. The team is also uncertain when Vladimir Tarasenko will return, with the top scorer questionable for Sunday.

The Senators also recalled forward Jiri Smejkal in response to their list of injuries. Smejkal recently appeared in his first two career NHL games, going without a point in either contest. The 27-year-old is in his first NHL season after seven years in various top leagues across Europe. Ottawa will need to turn to an extra forward – likely Smejkal – with Rourke and Chartier out. But if Tarasenko also misses Sunday’s matchup, Crookshank could find himself primed for his first NHL game.

NHLPA Files Appeal On Behalf Of David Perron

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Sportsnet is reporting that the NHLPA has filed an appeal on behalf of Detroit Red Wings forward David Perron after he was suspended six games for cross-checking Ottawa Senators defenseman Artem Zub on Saturday night. Perron cross-checked Zub after a battle in front of the Senators net turned ugly resulting in Perron’s teammate Dylan Larkin being severely injured after taking multiple shots to the head and neck area from Mathieu Joseph and Parker Kelly. While Larkin lay motionless on the ice, Perron went after Zub and crosschecked him in the face which ultimately resulted in the suspension.

The incident was out of character as Perron doesn’t have a history of suspensions or supplemental discipline. It was certainly a heat of the moment reaction from the 35-year-old but one which will cost him to miss some games. The fact that Perron doesn’t have a history of disciplinary actions could play in his favor while he goes through the appeal process.

Perron’s appeal will go right to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman who will make a decision on the matter. If Bettman opts not to grant Perron the appeal, he can go to an independent arbitrator who will then decide. If the suspension remains in place at six games, the native of Sherbrooke, Quebec wouldn’t be able to return to the Red Wings lineup until their matchup on December 22nd against the Philadelphia Flyers.

The six-game suspension to Perron is the longest suspension handed down by the NHL’s Department of Player Safety in nearly two years and highlighted a busy weekend for George Parros and company.

Philadelphia Flyers Willing To Take On Salary

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Anthony Di Marco of The Fourth Period is reporting that the Philadelphia Flyers are prepared to weaponize their cap space to acquire additional assets. The Flyers begin today with less than $1MM in salary cap space, a number that would translate to roughly $3.9MM at the NHL trade deadline. Now that number might not seem significant, but the Flyers can easily free up over $6MM by placing defenseman Ryan Ellis on LTIR, something they’ve been hesitant to do thus far, but are willing to do to make a trade work.

After years of being slammed up against the salary cap, the Flyers have finally created roster and salary cap flexibility after a summer in which they moved on from veterans Kevin Hayes, Tony DeAngelo, and Ivan Provorov. General Manager Daniel Briere seems fully committed to rebuilding the Flyers and appears willing to take on undesirable contracts in exchange for future assets.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported just two weeks ago that the Flyers were open to taking on Ottawa Senators forward Mathieu Joseph and his $2.95MM cap hit in exchange for a high prospect or a first-round pick, something Ottawa appears uninterested in entertaining. However that could change if they start the season slow without their second and third-line centres.

While a Joseph deal hasn’t materialized the Flyers will likely have their pick of suitors as the flat cap has created a financial landscape in which 19 NHL teams are within $1MM of the salary cap ceiling (including Philadelphia). There are a lot of teams that see themselves as Stanley Cup contenders who will be hard-pressed to make in-season improvements unless they can move out some salary, this is where the Flyers cap space could be leveraged to acquire assets.

The Flyers are early in their rebuild and are at least three or four years away from turning the corner. With that in mind, any contract they take on will probably fall into the one to three-year range similar to the contract they acquired with Cal Petersen. Philadelphia has several of their own undesirable contracts as well as over $5MM in dead cap space for the next few seasons in the DeAngelo buyout and the retained salary on Hayes.

Latest On Mathieu Joseph

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The Ottawa Senators began their preseason on a high note, but still have one major issue remaining. One of the team’s key young players, center Shane Pinto, still does not have a contract for next season and the Senators simply do not have the cap space at the current moment to pay for Pinto’s next deal.

Pinto, 22, is coming off of a strong rookie season where he displayed impressive two-way abilities and potted 20 goals and 35 points.

In order to clear enough cap space to retain someone who profiles as a long-term middle-six center in Ottawa, the Senators have reportedly looked at moving Mathieu Joseph, who is under contract through 2025-26 at a $2.95MM cap hit.

Joseph struggled in his first full season in Ottawa, posting just three goals and 18 points in 56 games. He drew praise for his work on the Senators’ penalty kill, but otherwise was viewed as a disappointment.

Joseph’s relatively high cap hit came from last summer, when he was coming off of a blisteringly hot first 11 games as a Senator. He connected with two of the team’s stars, Brady Tkachuk and Tim Stützle to score 12 points in that span.

The Senators were likely optimistic that Joseph, a former QMJHL star, could build on that chemistry and potentially find a long-term home in the team’s top-six.

While Joseph proved himself to be a useful player in Ottawa, it seems unlikely at this point that he’ll become quite as good as the Senators were betting on. That leaves the team in a position where dumping his $2.95MM cap hit might be the best course of action to take in order to clear the room to sign Pinto.

That’s where the Philadelphia Flyers enter the picture. The Fourth Period’s Anthony Di Marco reports that the cost the Senators will have to pay in order to entice another team to take on Joseph’s deal is “a first-round pick or a prospect equivalent.”

The Flyers are undergoing a full-scale rebuild under new GM Daniel Brière, so it’s understandable that they would be interested in leveraging some of their available cap space to add a high-end future asset.

Di Marco specifically mentioned the name of 2021 tenth-overall pick Tyler Boucher as a possible player of interest for the Flyers in any Joseph trade. Boucher already has some ties to the Flyers, as his father is a former Flyers netminder who is now serving as an analyst on the team’s local broadcasts on NBC Sports Philadelphia.

Although Boucher was widely considered a “reach” pick at the number-ten slot and has struggled mightily with injuries and underperformance since he was drafted, his prototypical power-forward game and impressive physical tools keep him a prospect with an intriguing amount of upside.

Boucher was ranked the number-four prospect in the Senators’ system by EP Rinkside, (paywall link) and would represent a major price to pay for Dorion. But if paying Boucher or another top-end future asset is what allows Dorion to carve out the cap space to afford an extension for Pinto, he just might have to consider it.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

East Injury Notes: Sabres, Bastian, Aho, Joseph

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The Buffalo Sabres are all but out of the playoff race after a tough stretch of games, and life won’t get any easier for them down the stretch run. The Buffalo News’ Lance Lysowski reports Tage Thompson is absent from morning skate, as he’s day-to-day with an upper-body injury that caused him to miss much of the team’s win last Friday against the New Jersey Devils. In response, Lukas Rousek has been added to the Sabres roster for the second time in three days on an emergency loan, per CapFriendly.

In more positive news for the Sabres, Lysowski also notes forward Vinnie Hinostroza has returned to the team after a personal absence that kept him out of the team’s last two games. Hinostroza had been a healthy scratch for the two games prior, meaning he’s not played in over a week. Left winger Jordan Greenway, who remains day-to-day with an upper-body injury, also rejoined the team at practice. He has just one goal in eight games and a -5 rating since the Sabres acquired him on deadline day.

Other injury notes from around the Eastern Conference this morning:

  • Per New Jersey Devils team reporter Amanda Stein, winger Nathan Bastian is on the ice for morning skate for the first time since March 12. Bastian has missed just over two weeks since suffering an upper-body injury in a game against the Carolina Hurricanes, his second lengthy injury-related absence this season. He missed nearly two months with an upper-body injury between Thanksgiving and mid-January, limiting him to 39 games on the season. When in the lineup, he’s been effective in a fourth-line role, recording 12 points and forming a solid unit with Miles Wood and Michael McLeod.
  • New York Islanders defenseman Sebastian Aho has returned to skating this morning, according to a report from Newsday’s Andrew Gross. Aho has missed three games with an upper-body injury sustained on March 18 against the San Jose Sharks. The 2017 fifth-round pick is enjoying a breakout season, recording 21 points in 66 games in a depth role while helping keep the team competitive in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
  • Winger Mathieu Joseph will be a game-time decision for the Ottawa Senators tonight, says Bruce Garrioch of TSN and the Ottawa Sun. Joseph last played on March 12, leaving a game against the Calgary Flames after just a handful of shifts with a lower-body injury. The 26-year-old has scored three goals and added 14 assists in 47 games for the Sens this year, averaging 14:05 per game.

East Notes: Roslovic, Harris, Joseph, Greig

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Teams looking to add center help this summer might want to keep their eye on Columbus.  Aaron Portzline of The Athletic speculates (subscription link) that with the likelihood of the Blue Jackets landing a top center in this summer’s draft and the expected signing of prospect Dmitri Voronkov, the team might be willing to part with Jack Roslovic.  The 26-year-old has struggled with consistency this season but has once again reached the 40-point mark, pocketing nine goals and 31 assists through 68 games so far.  He has one year left on his contract with a $4MM cap hit so there wouldn’t be a long-term commitment for acquiring teams to worry about.  If Columbus was willing to use one of their three retention slots to lower that cap charge, they could land a quality prospect or pick if they were to move on from Roslovic in the coming months.

Elsewhere in the East:

  • Canadiens defenseman Jordan Harris confirmed to reporters including Arpon Basu of The Athletic (Twitter link) that he will return to the lineup tonight against Columbus. The 22-year-old has missed the last two weeks with a lower-body injury.  Harris has 15 points in 60 games in his rookie campaign while averaging 18:34 per contest on a young Montreal back end.  He’ll take the place of Chris Wideman in the lineup.
  • Senators winger Mathieu Joseph has returned to practice but has been ruled out of at least the next two games, notes Postmedia’s Ken Warren. The 26-year-old has been dealing with an upper-body injury for the last two weeks.  This season hasn’t gone great for Joseph; after scoring four goals in 11 games after being acquired last year at the deadline, he has just three tallies in 47 contests so far this season.
  • Still with the Senators, head coach D.J. Smith told TSN 1200 (Twitter link) that center Ridly Greig is out for the rest of the season with a sternum injury. The 20-year-old was recalled earlier this month but got into just five games before suffering the injury.  Greig’s first professional campaign comes to an end with a goal and five assists in 16 NHL contests plus 13 goals and 14 helpers in 35 contests with AHL Belleville.

Snapshots: Gavrikov, Maurice, Joseph

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One of the names you will hear a lot as the trade deadline approaches is Vladislav Gavrikov, the Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman that is coming to the end of his three-year, $8.4MM deal. A pending free agent with a relatively low $2.8MM cap hit, he is one of the top rental defensemen on the market, given his size, mobility, and experience. Gavrikov had 33 points last season, and is still logging more than 22 minutes a night this year.

In an article by Arthur Staple of The Athletic, it is revealed that the New York Rangers are one of the teams to have called on Gavrikov. The ask from the Blue Jackets, reportedly, is a first-round pick plus a mid-round pick. Recent years have seen players like Ben Chiarot, and David Savard land first-rounders at the deadline, while Josh Manson was dealt for Drew Helleson and a second last deadline. The key to Gavrikov’s market is how inexpensive he will be. If the Blue Jackets retain half of his contract, the $1.4MM cap hit is easy to absorb for many of the league’s contenders.

  • Florida Panthers head coach Paul Maurice has been fined $25,000 for his comments after Tuesday’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Those comments were critical of the officials, with the veteran coach saying the referees “weren’t Florida Panther-friendly,” and pointing out a specific situation when Radko Gudas received a charging penalty. He also referenced an issue he has with one of the referees in particular. Today, when speaking to reporters including David Dwork of WPLG Local 10, Maurice said it would be “fiscally irresponsible” for him to answer any more questions about the officiating.
  • Mathieu Joseph missed a chance to play against his brother for the first time in their NHL careers because of a disciplinary scratch from Ottawa Senators head coach D.J. Smith. Today, Joseph explained that he takes full responsibility for it and is excited to get back into the lineup on Friday. As Ian Mendes of The Athletic tweets, it appears as though whatever it was is behind both Joseph and Smith.

Atlantic Notes: Edmundson, Jokiharju, Beck, Joseph

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After a relatively hot start, the Montreal Canadiens’ season has seemingly gone off the rails. The team is mired in a six-game losing streak, and has lost nine of their last ten games. The team also came in last place in the entire NHL last season, but the difficulties that have hit the Candadiens haven’t stopped some of their players from wanting to remain a member of the NHL’s most storied franchise.

One of those players who’d like to stay is defenseman Joel Edmundson, whose contract is expiring at the end of next season. As reported by The Athletic’s Marc Antoine Godin, Edmundson has communicated a desire to remain in Montreal despite trade rumors featuring his name. (subscription link) The 29-year-old blueliner didn’t have the best season last year, but he remains a crucial member of the team’s leadership group and had an impressive campaign two years ago as the Canadiens made a run to the Stanley Cup final. One does wonder, though, if the Canadiens would be best suited to retain Edmundson beyond the trade deadline and into next season when instead they could potentially trade Edmundson to another team seeking a rental defenseman in order to net a younger player or draft pick.

Some other notes from across the Atlantic Division:

  • Buffalo Sabres coach Don Granato told the media, including the Olean Times Herald’s Bill Hoppe, that defenseman Henri Jokiharju could return to play in a week. The 23-year-old defenseman was placed on injured reserve on December 11th.  Should Jokiharju return at that point, the Sabres will likely need to create room on their roster, as they’re currently running a full roster of 23 players. Since they have seven defensemen currently active, it stands to reason that a depth blueliner such as Kale Clague would be the odd man out.
  • Ottawa Senators forward Mathieu Joseph has made progress in his recovery from a lower-body injury that’s kept him sidelined since early December. Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports that Joseph wore a contract jersey during practice this morning, meaning he could be nearing a return to full health. The former Tampa Bay Lightning winger has scored nine points in 25 games this season and has scored 21 points in 36 games in his Senators career.
  • The Sabres have announced that two of the team’s top prospects, Jiri Kulich and Isak Rosen, have been re-assigned to the team’s AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans. Both Kulich and Rosen are returning from the World Junior Championships. Kulich has had a wildly successful year in the AHL so far, scoring 16 points in 24 games as an 18-year-old rookie, while Rosen has been solid, scoring 15 points in 25 games.
  • Canadiens prospect Owen Beck has been traded to another OHL club, sent to the Peterborough Petes as part of a major blockbuster deal. Beck, 18, was drafted 33rd overall by the Canadiens at the 2022 draft and has 40 points in 30 games in the OHL this season.

East Notes: Kase, Joseph, Clutterbuck

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After suffering a concussion in Carolina’s season opener, winger Ondrej Kase has resumed skating, relays team reporter Walt Ruff (Twitter link).  While there remains no firm timetable for his return, the fact he has resumed on-ice activities is certainly an important step.  That said, with his lengthy concussion history, expect the Hurricanes to proceed very carefully with the 27-year-old.  Kase signed a one-year, $1.5MM deal in the offseason to provide Carolina with some secondary scoring, an area in which they’ve had some issues in the early going this season.

More from the East:

  • Senators winger Mathieu Joseph’s lower-body injury in last night’s game will keep him out of the lineup for the next two weeks, reports Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch (Twitter link). It has been a tough first full year with the Sens for the 25-year-old; after recording 12 points in 11 games down the stretch last season following his trade from Tampa Bay, Joseph has been limited to just two goals and seven assists in 25 contests despite averaging a career high in ice time.  With the holiday break coming a couple of weeks from now, it’s possible that they’ll hold Joseph out until after that pause in the schedule.
  • The Islanders welcomed back winger Cal Clutterbuck to their lineup in tonight’s game against New Jersey. The veteran had missed the last three games with an upper-body injury sustained a week and a half ago against Philadelphia.  Clutterbuck has just three points in 22 games but is second on the team in hits, averaging just under four per contest.  New York didn’t bother placing Clutterbuck on IR when he was injured so they didn’t have to make a corresponding roster move for him to return.  He was injured midway through the first period but did return for the second.

Snapshots: 2024 Draft, Joseph, Dorion

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There’s a lot of focus on the 2023 draft and for good reason. Connor Bedard leads an impressive group that could seriously shift the balance of power in the NHL depending on who goes where, and there are several teams tanking for the opportunity to pick as high as possible. But 2024 isn’t that far away, and Craig Button of TSN is already talking up the top name. Button believes Cole Eiserman from the USNTDP is the clear number one, and that he would go in the top five this year if he were eligible.

The 16-year-old left-shot forward absolutely dominated the World U17 Hockey Challenge with 12 goals and 20 points in just seven games, and is committed to play for the University of Minnesota in 2024-25. His older brother Shane Eiserman was a fourth-round pick of the Ottawa Senators in 2014, who played in the ECHL for a few years. So remember, if your team fails to secure the top spot – there’s always next year.

  • Mathieu Joseph of the Ottawa Senators has received a $5,000 fine for high-sticking Sebastian Aho last night, avoiding any suspension. The 25-year-old forward hasn’t had quite the impact that some expected after his brilliant end to last season and has been held scoreless in his last six games. The Senators as a group aren’t doing much, losing eight of their last ten and sitting 29th in the league. Joseph has three points in 15 games so far.
  • Speaking of the Senators, Pierre Dorion has been a busy man at the general manager meetings going on in Toronto. Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia reports that Dorion admitted to having a lot of trade talks so far, though there were no specifics given. He certainly hasn’t been shy about pulling the trigger in recent months; the Senators have completed nine trades since March 20.

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