Afternoon Notes: Mantha, Grzelcyk, Avalanche
NHL.com writer Tom Gulitti tweeted today that Washington Capitals forward Anthony Mantha suffered a ruptured ear drum when an Evgeny Kuznetsov shot bounced off a defender’s stick and hit Mantha in the ear. The injury happened November 8th in a game against the Florida Panthers and led to the 29-year-old being placed on the injured reserve.
Mantha reportedly lost hearing in that ear for six days and has only now started to get it back. He reported feeling dizziness initially, but according to Tarik El-Bashir, he should be well enough to play on Saturday when he is eligible to come off the IR.
Mantha has three goals and an assist in ten games this season with the Capitals and has been a healthy scratch at times as he hasn’t been able to find his game in Washington. He had two of his goals in the Panthers game when he suffered the injury but was knocked out of the game before he could complete the hat trick.
In other notes:
- Boston Globe writer Conor Ryan is reporting that Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery told the media today that he expects defenseman Matt Grzelcyk to be cleared to return to the Bruins lineup by this Saturday. The 29-year-old has been out of the lineup since October 30th when he suffered an upper-body injury in an overtime win against the Florida Panthers. Grzelcyk played just 3:29 in that game and left during the third period of the win. The native of Charlestown, Massachusetts has dressed in nine games this season and has a single assist but has looked off his game when in the lineup. His average ice time is down, as are many of his defensive numbers which could lead one to speculate if he was dealing with a nagging injury prior to sitting out these past few weeks.
- The Colorado Avalanche have announced that they’ve essentially reversed yesterday’s roster moves. The Avalanche sent Sam Malinski and Caleb Jones to the Colorado Eagles yesterday and today decided to recall both players. No word yet on why Colorado opted to change course, but both players are back on the Avalanche’s NHL roster as of this morning. Jones has an assist in his one NHL game this year while Malinski is pointless in one game.
Boston Bruins Place Matt Grzelcyk On Long-Term Injured Reserve, Recall Three
The Boston Bruins have placed defenseman Matt Grzelcyk on long-term injured reserve, according to a team announcement. As a result, Grzelcyk will not be eligible to play until late November.
In addition to placing Grzelcyk on LTIR, the team has also placed forward Jakub Lauko on traditional injured reserve, and recalled defensemen Mason Lohrei, Ian Mitchell, and Parker Wotherspoon from their AHL affiliate, the Providence Bruins.
Grzelcyk, 29, lands on LTIR after leaving the Bruins’ October 30th contest with an upper-body injury. Grzelcyk has established himself as a top-four defenseman in Boston, having scored at least 20 points in four consecutive seasons and averaged over 18 minutes of ice time per game in his NHL career.
He’s gotten off to a slow start this season, but thanks to his $3.687MM cap hit his LTIR placement provides the Bruins with the financial headroom to make this trio of recalls.
The most noable name in the list of players called up is Lohrei, who ranks among the top prospects in a thin Bruins prospect system. Set to turn 23 in January, the 2020 second-round pick is a rangy, mobile blueliner who scored well across his two-year collegiate career with the Ohio State Buckeyes.
So far, Lohrei has just 15 professional games on his resume. But with this recall, he is now positioned to potentially make his NHL debut on a Bruins’ roster that, before these recalls, boasted just four defensemen eligible to play.
As for Mitchell and Wotherspoon, neither holds the kind of upside or top prospect intrigue that Lohrei has. What they do have that Lohrei doesn’t, though, is significant experience playing pro hockey and some NHL experience. Mitchell, 24, has played 84 career NHL games while Wotherspoon has 12 NHL games and nearly 300 in the AHL.
As a right-shot blueliner, Mitchell is the likeliest candidate to immediately land in the NHL lineup while head coach Jim Montgomery will have to choose between Wotherspoon and Lohrei as to which left-shot defensemen he’ll dress for games.
That being said, the left-shot blueliners may stand a stronger chance at lasting on the NHL roster beyond the next four games. Once Charlie McAvoy‘s suspension ends, a major void on the right side of the Bruins’ defense gets filled.
Meanwhile, Grzelcyk is set for a more extended absence, meaning Lohrei or Wotherspoon could extend their stay on the NHL roster beyond Mitchell, assuming they can handle the NHL minutes thrown their way.
Atlantic Notes: Bennett, Grzelcyk, Finley
David Dwork of The Hockey News is reporting that Sam Bennett of the Florida Panthers has left tonight’s game against the Boston Bruins with what appears to be a left leg injury. Bennett was returning to the Panthers after missing the first seven games with a lower-body injury.
The 27-year-old was battling for position with Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm when Lindholm appeared to put his skate on the back of Bennett’s left leg. Lindholm’s weight then appeared to crash down on Bennett’s ankle. Bennett went down grabbing at his lower leg, as he rolled on the ice in pain. The Panthers helped Bennett off the ice as he put no weight on his left leg before limping to the team’s dressing room.
In other notes from the Atlantic Division:
- The Boston Bruins have announced that defenseman Matt Grzelcyk has left tonight’s game and will not return after sustaining an upper-body injury. Not much is known currently about the injury, but Grzelcyk didn’t play after the halfway mark of the first period in the Bruins game against the Florida Panthers. The 29-year-old has had a bit of a slow start to his eighth season with the Bruins as he has just a single goal in nine games thus far.
- CapFriendly is reporting that the Tampa Bay Lightning have activated forward Jack Finley off the season-opening injury reserve and assigned him to the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL. The 21-year-old Finley scored 12 goals and had 9 assists in his rookie season in the AHL last year as he dressed in 67 games for the Crunch. Finley could make an impact in the NHL in the coming seasons as it is hard to ignore his ability to get around the ice with his 6’6” 223-pound frame. For now, he will remain a depth option in the AHL as he attempts to develop the offensive side of his game.
Snapshots: Shaw, Grzelcyk, Penguins
10/3/2023 – The Minnesota Wild have signed Mason Shaw to a one-year, one-way, AHL contract. Shaw will continue rehabbing his torn ACL with the AHL’s Iowa Wild. Minnesota will need to send Shaw through waivers if they want to turn this into an NHL contract.
10/3/2023 – The Athletic’s Michael Russo recently spoke to the likelihood that the Minnesota Wild re-sign Mason Shaw when the forward is healthy. Russo shares that Shaw seems to still be a member of the Wild in every way except a contract. This includes skating at the team’s practice rink and wearing Wild gear. Head coach Dean Evason seemed to support that sentiment, telling Russo, “[Shaw]’s a big part of our group. He’s a big part of our grit level, our determination level, our drive. We’re hoping this continues to progress the right way.”
Mason Shaw is continuing to rehab a torn ACL suffered late into the 2022-23 season. He’s now in month six of the six-month recovery window he was given at the time of the injury and has resumed skating. But despite making progress, Russo doesn’t shed light on when Shaw may return to routine activities. The 24-year-old forward played his rookie NHL season last year, appearing in 59 games and scoring 17 points. He’s never played outside of the Wild organization and it seems, when he’s healthy again, that pattern will continue.
More notes from around the league:
- An NHL scout shared with Boston Hockey Now’s Jimmy Murphy that teams are expressing interest in Bruins defender Matt Grzelcyk. This interest picks up in the midst of strong camps from young Boston prospects, including defender Mason Lohrei. Murphy’s source shares that the Chicago Blackhawks may be particularly interested in Grzelyck, saying, “Grzelcyk is better than any left-shot D they have now, and they have cap space. He could be great on their powerplay.”
- The Pittsburgh Penguins have recalled Ty Smith, Avery Hayes, and Rem Pitlick to their training camp roster, after assigning all three to the minors just recently. It’s likely this move is just to get the trio more preseason game action but it’s notable, as Ty Smith’s assignment to the minors elicited a strong reaction from fans and onlookers. If this move is temporary, and how Smith will be utilized moving forward, will be items to watch as the Penguins enter the regular season.
Examining A Pivotal Offseason For The Boston Bruins
Ty Anderson of 98.5 The Sports Hub wrote a piece today going over his thoughts on the offseason that was for the Boston Bruins. Anderson writes that while the offseason losses were a challenge for the team, he believes the club can still contend for a division title, and at the very least make the playoffs in the Atlantic Division.
While Anderson offers up many reasons for optimism, he does believe that if the Bruins were to falter, they should look to move on from the eight unrestricted free agents that the Bruins will be dressing on opening night and try to acquire assets for them rather than throwing assets after band-aid solutions. Boston does have an extensive list of unrestricted free agents at the end of this year including Jake DeBrusk, James van Riemsdyk, Milan Lucic, A.J. Greer, Matt Grzelcyk, Derek Forbort, Kevin Shattenkirk, and Jakub Zboril. Moving on from these players would help facilitate a re-tool should the Bruins opt to go down that path.
There is a belief with Anderson and others that the Bruins could be buyers in the summer of 2024 when the cap goes up and the bonuses come off Boston’s cap. An added bonus to selling at the deadline would be that any assets acquired at the deadline could help the team make moves next summer when they have cap space to play with. Now, while it seems silly to be looking at trade deadline moves when the season hasn’t even started, it is an interesting idea for the Bruins for the reasons mentioned above.
One final note, and this could be a big one, is that Boston’s first-round pick this season was dealt in the Tyler Bertuzzi trade. The pick is top-10 protected and if Boston were to fall down the standings, they could grab a top-10 pick this year in a re-tooling year and give Detroit their 2025 pick when they presumably have re-stocked the NHL roster. The risk there of course is that they falter again in 2025 and hand the Red Wings a top-10 pick, but that seems unlikely given that the team will still have some solid pieces in place and possibly some reinforcements to join them.
Snapshots: World Championship, Grzelcyk, Ceci
The medal games have been set at the IIHF World Hockey Championship. After Latvia and Germany were able to pull off significant upsets to get to the semi-finals, one of them was able to do so again as the Germans scored late in the third to tie it at three send their game against Team USA to overtime, paving the way for former Pittsburgh prospect Frederik Tiffels to score the winner late in the extra session. Meanwhile, in the first semi-final, the presumptive second-overall pick next month, Adam Fantilli, picked up the winner in the third period as Canada doubled up the Latvians 4-2. Latvia and the US will face off for Bronze while Germany and Canada will battle for Gold with both games slated for Sunday.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic examines (subscription link) some potential trade options for the Bruins this summer, including defenseman Matt Grzelcyk. The 29-year-old has been a capable secondary producer offensively for the past several seasons, including notching a career-high 26 points in 75 games in 2022-23. However, his $3.6875MM AAV is a bit on the high side relative to his ice time which is that of a player on the third pairing and with the team facing quite a cap crunch this summer, Grzelcyk is a luxury they might not be able to afford. He, along with fellow left-shot defenders Derek Forbort and Mike Reilly, are all a year away from unrestricted free agency and there’s a good chance one of them, if not more, will be on the move in the coming months.
- While the Oilers will need to free up some cap space to re-sign Evan Bouchard and round out their roster this summer, David Staples of the Edmonton Journal argues that one of those money-saving moves shouldn’t involve moving defenseman Cody Ceci. The 29-year-old still has two years left on a contract that carries a $3.25MM price tag and saw his output dip from 28 to 15 points this season while seeing his playing time go down slightly as well. However, the fact that he can still handle second-pairing minutes remains valuable on a team that has some unproven defenders and others that are best served with limited ice time so if they can find a way to cut costs elsewhere, that might be a better way for them to go.
Injury Updates: Grzelcyk, Walman, Wahlstrom
With several key injuries already, the Bruins aren’t the healthiest team heading into the regular season. However, there is good news on one of those fronts as Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic relays (Twitter link) that defenseman Matt Grzelcyk will not begin the year on LTIR. He underwent shoulder surgery in early June that was supposed to carry a minimum recovery time of five months. With the minimum LTIR placement time only being 21 days, the expectation was that he’d be a safe bet to go on there to give Boston a little bit of short-term wiggle room on the cap. The fact that he isn’t going there suggests that Grzelcyk will be ready ahead of schedule. The 28-year-old is coming off a career year offensively with 24 points in 73 games and certainly will be a welcome addition when he’s cleared to play.
Other injury news from around the NHL:
- Red Wings defenseman Jake Walman skated today at practice and told reporters, including MLive’s Ansar Khan (Twitter link) that he is ahead of schedule as he works his way back from offseason shoulder surgery and expects to be back before the original return date of mid-November. The 26-year-old was acquired from St. Louis just before the trade deadline last season and saw his ice time increase considerably from just under 12 minutes a night with the Blues to over 17 minutes per contest with Detroit.
- Islanders winger Oliver Wahlstrom missed the last three preseason games due to an upper-body issue, notes Kevin Kurz of The Athletic (Twitter link). Despite that, it appears as if he’ll be available to suit up in Thursday’s opener. Wahlstrom’s sophomore year was an underwhelming one as he managed just 13 goals and 11 assists in 73 games last season and he’ll certainly be looking for a stronger showing heading into a contract year.
Three Bruins Defensemen Undergo Surgery
A trio of Boston Bruins defensemen underwent significant surgeries today, with two of them expected to miss the beginning of the 2022-23 campaign, per the team. Most notably, Charlie McAvoy had a left shoulder arthroscopic stabilization procedure that’s set to sideline him for six months, meaning he won’t make his season debut until early December. Additionally, Matt Grzelcyk will miss five months after a right shoulder open stabilization procedure and Mike Reilly will miss three months after a right ankle tendon repair and removal of bone fragments.
They all join forward Brad Marchand, who’s also expected to be out until late November, on the injured list for the B’s.
Having Marchand and McAvoy out of the lineup, especially with the uncertainty surrounding Patrice Bergeron‘s NHL future, will be incredibly tough to navigate for this Bruins squad. Taylor Hall and David Pastrnak will be relied on very heavily for the first weeks of the season to keep the team from imploding.
However, if there’s good out of any of this for Bruins fans, it’s salary considerations. With Grzelcyk, Marchand, and McAvoy potential candidates for long-term injured reserve out of the gate, the team could have upwards of $15MM set aside on LTIR. This would give the team ample time into the season to figure out their salary picture, rather than just being constrained by the offseason. Prior to the injuries, the Bruins had just $4MM in cap space without Bergeron on the roster. The team had no real flexibility in free agency, but that might change if they can play their cards right.
It’s still a gutting loss, though, to have a top-ten defenseman in the league out of the lineup. Trade Deadline acquisition Hampus Lindholm will need to live up to his extension immediately, and that’s a lot of pressure for an also injury-prone defenseman. Head coach Bruce Cassidy will open the 2022-23 season undoubtedly facing the rockiest road he’s had so far as coach of this team. The team’s goal will be desperation mode until their stars are back, hopefully not falling too far back of the strong Atlantic Division pack.
Bruins Notes: Bergeron, Marchand, Grzelcyk
After the Boston Bruins fell in seven games to their first-round opponent Carolina Hurricanes, the conversation surrounding the team and its future has centered around its captain: Patrice Bergeron. Bergeron, who turns 37 on July 24th, is one of the franchise’s biggest stars and one of the most widely respected players in the modern history of the game. He’s also set to become an unrestricted free agent at the beginning of the new league year, as the eight-year contract extension he signed in 2013 is expiring. So, naturally, given his age and contract situation, there is a significant amount of attention fixated on Bergeron’s future with the only NHL club he has ever known.
There is at least some uncertainty here. As relayed by The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa, Bergeron said today that he will need time to make a decision about his future and whether he will continue playing. But, with that in mind, when asked if he could imagine playing for another team if he chooses to continue his career, there was no hesitation from Bergeron. He gave a simple answer: “no.” While Bergeron may be now well into his late-thirties, his game is still at an elite level. He is expected to be among the top contenders for a Selke Trophy once again, and he was productive offensively, scoring 25 goals and 65 points in 73 games. So, he would likely have many suitors on the open market if he sought to explore other options. But based on his comments today, it seems that he is making it clear to the hockey world that he will remain a Boston Bruin for the rest of his playing days.
Now, for some other notes regarding the Bruins:
- It seemed that Bergeron’s longtime partner in crime Brad Marchand was his normal self in the team’s playoff series versus the Hurricanes, agitating opposing players and fans while stuffing the net to the tune of eleven points in seven games. But in reality, despite that production, Marchand was not his normal self, at least regarding his health. Marchand revealed today, per Joe Haggerty of Boston Hockey Now, that he had been playing through an injury to his shoulder since suffering the ailment due to a hit from Capitals forward Garnet Hathaway in the regular season. While he remained productive throughout the rest of the regular season and the playoffs, Marchand did say that there was the possibility that he may require surgery this summer. He noted that he would need to “get it checked” with doctors first, though.
- Marchand is not the only Bruin who was playing through an injury in the first round. Today Matt Grzelcyk revealed (per Matt Porter of the Boston Globe) that he had been playing through a dislocated shoulder, and that he would need surgery this offseason. He also noted that his recovery from that surgery could cause him to miss the start of next season. Grzelcyk only got into five games against the Hurricanes and did not manage to score a point, play that could be reflective of the toll the injury was taking on his game. Grzelcyk did have a productive regular season, though, and ranked second among Bruins defensemen in points. He has grown into one of the more important defensemen the Bruins have, so getting him back to health will be crucial if Boston wants to hit the ground running at the start of next season.
Injury Notes: MacEachern, Bruins, Flyers
The regular season is over for Mackenzie MacEachern, but fortunately his Blues are planning to play well beyond then. The team announced today that MacEachern has been placed on the Long-Term Injured Reserve with an upper-body injury. The LTIR placement requires that MacEachern sit for ten games and the Blues have just eight games left on the regular season slate. The 27-year-old forward did his best to stay off the shelf; after missing the past three games, MacEachern was back at practice today but was forced to leave early, reports Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The cap-strapped Blues had little choice but to add MacEachern to the LTIR and recall forward Dakota Joshua from AHL Springfield on an emergency basis. The swap actually adds the superior player to the roster, as Joshua has more games played, average time on ice, goals, points, plus/minus and more with the Blues this season.
- It took injuries to David Pastrnak, Hampus Lindholm, Matt Grzelcyk, Brandon Carlo, and Linus Ullmark to send the Boston Bruins into their first three-game losing streak of the season, the final team in the NHL to fall in three straight this year. As the team looks to right the ship on Saturday against the Pittsburgh Penguins, they’re hoping that improved health could help. Grzelcyk was back in the lineup on Thursday night and defense partner could be the next to return, reports beat writer Eric Russo. Carlo was back at practice on Friday and there is optimism that he can return tomorrow from an undisclosed injury. Ullmark, who left Thursday’s game after the first period, did not practice and could be dealing with a concussion, but for now is considered day-to-day. Pastrnak and Lindholm skated by themselves on Friday and there is still no timetable for their return. While there is something to be said for being bit by the injury bug before the postseason, especially for a Boston team that has been decimated in the playoffs in recent years, this rough patch is potentially costing the Bruins their shot at divisional playoff berth as opposed to a wild card spot.
- The Philadelphia Flyers had no update on injured defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen today, as it is looking increasingly likely that his season is over. Olivia Reiner of the Philadelphia Inquirer relays that head coach Mike Yeo does not expect Ristolainen to return “any time soon” from an upper-body injury. There was also no update on Cam York, who is out with a lower-body injury and considered day-to-day. There is slightly more optimism surrounding Cam Atkinson, who is also out with a lower-body ailment. Atkinson won’t play on Saturday at Buffalo, but could suit up on Sunday for the second game of the home-and-home with the Sabres.