Atlantic Notes: Edvinsson, Senators, Nylander, Joshua
Red Wings defenseman Simon Edvinsson will miss his second straight game tonight against Winnipeg due to a lower-body injury and it appears he’ll be out longer than that as well. Team reporter Jonathan Mills relays (Twitter link) that the blueliner will be reevaluated when the team returns home from their current road trip with a decision to be made on which path he will be taking at that time. That type of decision typically implies that a longer absence is potentially on the table. That would be a big blow to Detroit’s defensive group as the 22-year-old has been a big part of their success this season. Through 48 games, Edvinsson has 17 points and 104 blocks while averaging a career-high 22:35 per game.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic:
- Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark will return to the lineup soon, possibly as early as Sunday, relays Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch (Twitter link). He stepped away for a leave of absence for mental health reasons just after the holiday break and Ottawa’s goaltending has struggled mightily since then, with backup Leevi Merilainen recently being sent back to the minors for a reset. Meanwhile, Garrioch also notes that assistant coach Mike Yeo has taken over the penalty kill from Nolan Baumgartner. Ottawa’s shorthanded play this season has been an issue as the Sens rank 31st in the league with a success rate of just 71.7%.
- Maple Leafs winger William Nylander skated today as he continues to work his way back from a lingering groin issue, mentions David Alter of The Hockey News. He missed six games earlier this season with the same issue and was reinjured in his fourth game back. There remains no timetable for his return with the team likely to be extra cautious but the fact he’s back on the ice is an important first step toward returning.
- In the same piece, Alter also noted that forward Dakota Joshua skated for the first time since suffering a lacerated kidney that has kept him out for the last 13 games and counting. However, head coach Craig Berube was quick to indicate that the 29-year-old is still a long way away from returning to the lineup. Joshua is in his first season with Toronto and had been fairly quiet prior to the injury, picking up 10 points and 127 hits in 36 games.
Ottawa Senators Round Out Coaching Staff
Having already committed to Travis Green as head coach for the next four years, the Ottawa Senators rounded out their coaching staff this morning with a pair of hires. According to a team announcement, the team has hired Mike Yeo and Nolan Baumgartner as assistant coaches for the 2024-25 NHL season.
Coming over from the Vancouver Canucks in a lateral move, Yeo brings over two decades of coaching experience to the Senators’ bench. Yeo started his professional coaching before the 2000-01 AHL season with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins as an assistant coach before taking the same role with the Pittsburgh Penguins from 2005-10. After being a part of a successful run with the Penguins, Yeo spent one season as the head coach of the Houston Aeros in the AHL before taking over the head coach position with the Minnesota Wild after the organization fired head coach Todd Richards after the 2010-11 regular season.
In four and a half seasons with the Wild, Yeo coached the team to a 173-132-44 record over 349 games but failed to take the team beyond the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Minnesota moved on from Yeo during the 2015-16 season which led the coach to an assistant coaching role with the St. Louis Blues for the 2016-17 season. Since then, Yeo briefly served as the head coach of the Blues for two seasons and spent time with the Philadelphia Flyers as an assistant coach before finally landing with the Canucks organization in his most recent role.
Focusing primarily on Vancouver’s penalty kill throughout his tenure with the organization, Yeo helped raise the team’s success percentage from 71.60% in the 2022-23 season to 79.13% this past year. For the Senators, after finishing last year with the 29th-ranked penalty kill across the league, Yeo will likely once again be tasked with elevating the team’s play during a man disadvantage.
On the other hand, Baumgartner’s only coaching experience at the NHL level came during a five-season run as an assistant coach in Vancouver from 2017-22. In a fascinating twist, once Baumgartner was eventually let go by the Canucks, the opening created a vacancy that Yeo would ultimately fill. In a short gap, Baumgartner spent two years as an assistant coach for the Manitoba Moose, the top affiliate of the Winnipeg Jets.
In the same announcement, Ottawa also relayed the team would be retaining franchise legend Daniel Alfredsson while also bringing back Ben Sexton as an assistant coach, Justin Peters as the goaltending coach, Mike King as the video coach, as well as keeping Jacques Martin as a Senior Advisor to the coaching staff.
Snapshots: Myers, Necas, Buyalsky, Yeo
Defenseman Tyler Myers is one of Vancouver’s many notable pending unrestricted free agents but that might not be the case for much longer. In the latest 32 Thoughts podcast (audio link), Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman noted that there is optimism that the Canucks will be able to work something out with the blueliner. Myers has spent the last five seasons in Vancouver after inking a $30MM deal with them back in 2019. He struggled in a prominent role but found some traction in more limited minutes this season, notching 29 points in 77 games along with 136 blocks and 110 hits in just under 19 minutes a night. It’s safe to say that a new agreement for the 34-year-old won’t reach the $6MM mark but half that on a multi-year deal could be double.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- The Canadiens are among the teams to have inquired about Hurricanes forward Martin Necas, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic recently reported in an appearance on RDS (video link). The pending restricted free agent has been frequently mentioned in trade speculation in recent weeks with Carolina having a lot of players to re-sign and not enough cap space to bring everyone back. Necas had 24 goals and 29 assists in 77 games during the regular season and added nine points in 11 postseason contests. He’s owed a $3.5MM qualifying offer but stands to earn much more than that this summer while also carrying salary arbitration rights.
- Avalanche prospect Andrei Buyalsky entered the transfer portal back on April 1st and has now found a new place to play next season. However, it’s not at the NCAA level as Barys Astana of the KHL announced on their Instagram page that they’ve signed they forward to a one-year contract. The 23-year-old was a third-round pick of Colorado back in 2021, going 91st overall. Buyalsky spent the last three years at the University of Vermont but saw his production dip this season to just three goals and eight assists in 25 games.
- After parting ways with Vancouver yesterday, veteran coach Mike Yeo might not be out of a job for long. Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports that the Senators have interviewed Yeo for an assistant’s job on Travis Green’s bench while suggesting that he could be on the Maple Leafs’ radar as well having worked with Craig Berube before. Yeo spent the last couple of years in that role with Vancouver and also has head coaching experience with Minnesota, St. Louis, and Philadelphia.
Coaching Notes: Carle, Pandolfo, Yeo, Snowden
Before the New Jersey Devils officially hired Sheldon Keefe as their next head coach, the organization looked into some rookie options. Earlier today, Greg Wyshynski of ESPN reported that New Jersey had also interviewed David Carle of the University of Denver and Jay Pandolfo of Boston University.
Given this report, it is more than likely the Devils were looking for coaches who have excelled with young talents, no matter the amount of previous NHL coaching experience. Both coaches have collegiate and international experience leading some of the best programs in the United States.
Carle, who has spent the last six years as head coach of the Pioneers, has already collected two National Championships and an IIHF World Junior Championship gold medal. The 34-year-old Carle is one of the best coaching prospects in the game after experiencing so much success in only half a decade manning the bench.
After retiring from the NHL after the 2012-13 season, Pandolfo has served in numerous professional roles, ranging from scouting to developing. Taking over as the head coach of the Terriers last year, Pandolfo has led the famous program to 36 wins in only 48 regular season games, as well as two appearances in the Frozen Four.
Other coaching notes:
- The Vancouver Canucks have mutually parted ways with assistant coach Mike Yeo according to a team announcement. The news comes as a bit of a shock as Yeo oversaw the transformation of a Canucks’ penalty kill unit that dramatically improved one of the league’s worst penalty kill in just one year. Nevertheless, Vancouver may be allowing Yeo to pursue other options as he looks to find a head coaching role in the NHL once again.
- At the AHL level, Anthony Di Marco of TheFourthPeriod reports that John Snowden has been heavily linked to the head coaching vacancy of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Snowden, currently serving as an assistant coach for the interstate Lehigh Valley Phantoms, has a connection to the Pittsburgh Penguins’ current General Manager, Kyle Dubas. Before his stint with the Phantoms, Snowden was an assistant coach for the Toronto Marlies during the last two years of Dubas’ tenure with the Toronto Maple Leafs organization.