Snapshots: Foligno, Legault, KHL
Minnesota Wild winger Marcus Foligno told The Athletic’s Joe Smith that it would be a “no-brainer” for his brother Nick Foligno to accept a contract extension with the Wild, assuming he is offered one. Foligno said his brother “showed he’s a great role piece for this team” and “likes the makeup of the team” moving forward. With that said, the elder Foligno brother, Nick, said he needs to discuss all of the possibilities for his playing future with his family, and that he will need to be “100 percent committed” if he’s to continue his career with the Wild.
Foligno, 38, was a solid contributor in Minnesota after they acquired him in a mid-season trade with the Chicago Blackhawks. Though he didn’t produce much offense (just four points in 17 regular-season games) he did hold his own on the penalty kill and as a physical presence in the bottom-six. Smith also noted that Foligno, a former captain for two NHL teams, became a “respected voice in the room” for the Wild. If he’s to return in Minnesota, Foligno would likely need to take a steep pay cut from the $4.5MM he earned on his last deal. When Foligno signed that contract, he was in the midst of a season that he finished with 17 goals and 37 points in 74 games. It’s unlikely Foligno will reach that level of scoring again, but he still has something to offer NHL teams, and his brother hopes he’ll do so in Minnesota.
Other notes from around the hockey world:
- The AHL announced today that Chicago Wolves defenseman Charles-Alexis Legault has been suspended one playoff game “as a consequence of a boarding incident” in his team’s playoff game against the Grand Rapids Griffins on May 19. A video of the play in question can be found here. Legault appeared to drive Griffins forward Amadeus Lombardi into the boards, after Lombardi had already tripped and was sliding on the ice. Grand Rapids ended up winning the game in overtime thanks to a goal from first-round pick Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, but the Wolves retain a 2-1 series advantage. They can end Grand Rapids’ season tonight in game four, but will have to do so without Legault.
- Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the KHL won their second consecutive Gagarin Cup title earlier today, defeating Ak Bars Kazan in six games. Lokomotiv’s roster is full of players who are either NHL prospects or who were formerly members of NHL organizations. Their leading scorer, Alexander Radulov, was a lethal scoring winger for the Dallas Stars from 2017 to 2022. Winger Richard Pánik is a former NHL 20-goal scorer. The team also has a few NHL prospects, including 2020 Edmonton Oilers draft pick Maxim Berezkin, and Nashville Predators 2024 first-rounder Yegor Surin. Per Alex Daugherty of The Tennessean, Predators Assistant GM and Director of Scouting Jeff Kealty said Surin “would be an NHL player” right now if not for his contract with Lokomotiv, which runs through 2026-27.
Wild Notes: Foligno, Brodin, Hynes
In this morning’s end-of-season media availability, veteran forward Nick Foligno touched on his future with the Minnesota Wild and his playing future in general. According to Michael Russo of The Athletic, Foligno stated that he would love to return to the Wild next season, but will first decide whether he wants to continue playing.
Minnesota acquired the 38-year-old Foligno at the deadline in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks. He performed admirably, scoring one goal and adding four points in 17 regular-season contests, with two additional goals and three points in 11 postseason games. His two playoff goals came in the series-clinching loss against the Colorado Avalanche in Game 5 of Round Two.
There’s no surprise that retirement is a legitimate question for Foligno. As soon as the Wild acquired him, it had all the makings of a swan song, playing out the final days of his career with his brother, Marcus Foligno. Fortunately for Minnesota, should Foligno return, it’ll assuredly be on a much cheaper deal than his current $4.5MM salary.
Additional notes from the Wild:
- According to Joe Smith of The Athletic, defenseman Jonas Brodin revealed his playoff ailment to the media. Brodin shared that he broke a toe bone after blocking a shot in Round One, a fracture that required surgery. It’s more of the same for Brodin, who has not registered 70 or more games in a single season since the 2021-22 campaign.
- Unsurprisingly, Russo indicated that head coach John Hynes isn’t expected to depart this offseason. The question is fairly typical after a team is bounced from the playoffs, especially a team as talented as the Wild. Hynes has been the main bench boss in Minnesota since the 2023-24 campaign, guiding them to a 125-78-24 record (.604 W%) in that time.
Wild Acquire Nick Foligno
In a tight battle in the Central Division, the Wild continue to add depth pieces. Frank Seravalli of Victory+ reports (Twitter link) that Minnesota is close to acquiring winger Nick Foligno from the Blackhawks. Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic adds (Twitter link) that Chicago is only receiving future considerations in return. The teams have since confirmed the move.
The 38-year-old is in the final season of a two-year, $9MM contract. Notably, Minnesota will be picking up the full cost of his $4.5MM cap charge as Chicago no longer has any remaining salary retention slots having used two earlier this week on Jason Dickinson and Connor Murphy and one last season on Seth Jones. Meanwhile, Chicago will not replace Foligno as their captain for the rest of the season; NHL.com’s Tracey Myers relays (Twitter link) that winger Tyler Bertuzzi will become an alternate captain for the remainder of the season.
Foligno has had a quiet year offensively, notching just three goals and eight assists in 37 games while also missing 21 contests due to injury. Meanwhile, his playing time has dropped sharply for the second straight year. After logging nearly 18 minutes a night in 2023-24 in his first season with the team, Foligno is now down to just 12:28 per night despite seeing playing time on Chicago’s second power play unit and being part of their penalty killing rotation. It stands to reason that his ice time will slide even more with this swap as he’s a strong candidate to be a fourth liner for Minnesota.
This move, assuming it gets finalized, would reunite Foligno with his younger brother, Marcus Foligno, giving them a chance to play together for the first time. Marcus has spent a good chunk of the season on the Wild’s fourth line as well, so on top of getting a chance to play on the same team, they might even wind up on the same line once he returns from his lower-body injury.
Armed with ample cap space at the trade deadline for the first time in a long time, GM Bill Guerin is putting it to use. This will be his fourth forward addition of the week having swung previous trades for Michael McCarron and Bobby Brink, while he also grabbed Robby Fabbri off waivers. With the roster limit no longer being in effect as of today, Minnesota now has considerable forward depth to mix and match with for specific matchups or when injuries arise. Even with those moves, they can still add more than $5MM in full-season salary, per PuckPedia, meaning that they might not be done just yet.
Blue Jackets, Wild Interested In Nick Foligno
Emily Kaplan of ESPN reports that the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild have contacted the Chicago Blackhawks about forward Nick Foligno. Chicago’s captain has connections to both organizations.
Columbus is where Foligno had the most successful period of his career. Ahead of the 2012-13 season, the Blue Jackets acquired Foligno from the Ottawa Senators for defenseman Marc Methot. The 38-year-old winger spent four years with the Blue Jackets before being named the team’s captain for the 2015-16 season.
Throughout his nine-year tenure in Columbus, Foligno scored 142 goals and 334 points in 599 games, averaging 17:47 of ice time. Aside from notching a pair of 20-goal campaigns (one of which was a 30-goal performance), Foligno displayed immense physicality, averaging 2.5 hits per game, and a respectable 91.5% on-ice SV% at even strength.
Pulling back into the playoff conversation of late, Foligno is exactly the type of player the Blue Jackets were expected to add. Yes, the club has a trio of pending unrestricted free-agent forwards it could dangle, but it’s clear the team is looking to reward its group with some low-cost additions. Columbus wouldn’t need Chicago to retain any of Foligno’s $4.5MM cap hit either, which would inevitably lower the Blackhawks’ asking price.
Meanwhile, despite never having played for the Wild, Nick’s brother, Marcus Foligno, has been in Minnesota for the last nine seasons. The two play a very similar style of hockey, and they could slot in on the same line if Minnesota ultimately acquires Nick.
Still, Minnesota is known to be looking for a top-six center, and acquiring Foligno, even at 50% retained, would cut into their financial assets. If the Wild cannot acquire a higher-end center, they could focus their remaining cap space on acquiring veteran depth pieces, such as Foligno. Regardless, if the Wild acquired Nick, it would be the first time the pair has played together, even since their high school days.
Blackhawks, Nick Foligno Discussing Trade Deadline Plans
After a surprising start, the Chicago Blackhawks have fallen out of the playoff conversation over the last few months. That being said, with six pending unrestricted free agents on the roster, they have the option to be a fairly active seller leading up to the trade deadline.
One of those pending unrestricted free agents is captain Nick Foligno, who’s approaching the final season of his NHL career if he isn’t already in it. According to Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times, the Blackhawks have held preliminary conversations with Foligno about his desires leading up to the deadline.
In Pope’s report, he included a quote from Foligno, saying, “When you’re in this situation where you’re not in the playoffs, there’s decisions the organization has to make, and then therefore there’s decisions you have to make. That’s something we’re going to go through the process of. It’s too early to say.”
At this stage of his career, complicated by his age and recent injuries, the Blackhawks would be doing Foligno a service by trading him to a contender. The 38-year-old winger has been limited to 34 games this season, recording two goals and 10 points while averaging 12:56 of ice time.
Despite playing in the middle-six of the Blackhawks’ forward corps the last two seasons, he’s been largely relegated to a bottom-six role this season. If he finds his way to a contending team by next Friday, he’ll undoubtedly continue in that role with his new club.
Theoretically, every playoff-bound team could use Foligno to some degree, especially if Chicago is willing to eat salary. He’s a veteran winger with the ability to play on both sides of the ice, a veteran of 1200+ games at the NHL level, and 68 postseason contests. While not a direct comparison, the Blackhawks trading Foligno would be similar to the Buffalo Sabres trading Kyle Okposo to the Florida Panthers at the 2024 trade deadline. Okposo only recorded two assists in 17 postseason games for the Panthers that spring, but he won the Stanley Cup for the first time in his 17-year career.
West Notes: Levshunov, Foligno, Boeser
According to Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Blackhawks have healthy-scratched defenseman Artyom Levshunov tonight. Pope added that the Blackhawks have put Levshunov into an internal program to fix some “foundational” parts of his game, and he likely wouldn’t play until the league resumes after the Olympics.
Scott Powers of The Athletic added some specifics, reporting that the Blackhawks wanted Levshunov to focus on his play with the puck, defensive fundamentals, and shooting technique. Rather than move Levshunov to the AHL, as they did with fellow prospect Kevin Korchinski, Chicago hopes that their current skills coaches can correct some of Levshunov’s flaws.
Levshunov is having a significantly better season than last year, but he still hasn’t met the Blackhawks’ expectations after being selected with the second overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft. He is the team leader in scoring among defensemen, with two goals and 21 points in 52 games. His even-strength Corsi For percentage stands at 47.4%, and he has an on-ice save percentage of 88.3%, along with a -27 rating.
Other notes from the Western Conference:
- Staying in Chicago, the team is without their captain tonight against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Before tonight’s lone NHL contest, Charlie Roumeliotis of WGN Radio reported that Nick Foligno is considered day-to-day with an undisclosed injury. The 38-year-old veteran has played in 17 games for the Blackhawks since returning from a longer-term injury in late December, scoring two goals and four points.
- Moving further west, there is a possibility that Brock Boeser will return to the Vancouver Canucks’ lineup during their upcoming roadtrip. According to Jeff Paterson of Canucks Army, Boeser will join the Canucks when they travel to Utah and Las Vegas. Still, it’s far likelier that Vancouver will hold Boeser out through the Olympic break as he recovers from an upper-body injury that warranted a suspension to Pittsburgh Penguins’ forward Bryan Rust.
Blackhawks Place Frank Nazar On IR, Activate Nick Foligno
The Chicago Blackhawks have activated captain Nick Foligno off of injured reserve. He is expected to return to the lineup on Sunday night for his first game since November 15th, per Charlie Roumeliotis of WGN Radio. To make room for Foligno’s return, the Blackhawks have moved winger Frank Nazar to injured reserve. Nazar has already missed one week, and is expected to miss three more, with a face injury caused by a Claude Giroux slapshot in Chicago’s December 20th loss to the Ottawa Senators.
Getting Foligno back will be a wave of relief for the Blackhawks. The 38-year-old winger scored six points, all assists, in 15 games before going down with injury. He also added 11 shot blocks and 41 hits – high enough marks to rank Foligno fourth in hits-per-game, and first in blocks-per-game, on Chicago’s offense despite missing the last 19 games. It will be play away from the puck that Foligno impacts most in his return, which should clear up more space for Chicago’s skill players, like Teuvo Teravainen and Nick Lardis, to focus on offense.
The Blackhawks will have to hope that;s the case, at least. They have split results in two games since Nazar’s injury and were outscored four-to-six. Nazar has been a focal piece of the offense all season long – a role that only increased when star Connor Bedard went down with an injury of his own. The second-year pro has scored 21 points in 33 games in the elevated role, good for fourth on Chicago in scoring.
That comes despite the fact that Nazar rode a six-game point drought and 21-game goal drought through November and December. He has proven to be an offensive motor that Chicago can’t easily replace. Foligno’s return will bring in more helping hands but Chicago will still face a tough test with games against the New York Islanders, Dallas Stars, Washington Capitals, and Vegas Golden Knights in their near future.
Blackhawks Place Nick Foligno On IR With Hand Injury
10/17: The Blackhawks have placed Foligno on injured reserve after learning he’ll miss four weeks of action. Chicago has iced 11 forwards and seven defenseman – bringing Louis Crevier into the lineup – in Foligno’s absence. They’ll face one of three options now that their captain is on IR – stick with seven defenders every night; recall a forward like Toninato; or wait for Dickinson, who said he won’t return until he’s back to a full 100% per Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times.
10/16: The Chicago Blackhawks will be without captain Nick Foligno for the next month, head coach Jeff Blashill told Mario Tirabassi of CHGO Sports. Foligno sustained a hand injury after blocking a shot in Saturday night’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. He left the game with a few minutes left in the second period and did not return.
On top of the moral weight of losing their captain, Chicago will lose yet another forward in their middle-six with this news. The team is already without Jason Dickinson and Tyler Bertuzzi, who are both carrying day-to-day designations. Now, Foligno will fall out of the lineup as well, leaving a major hole on the wing. Foligno has filled any role Chicago has needed over the course of the season. He had two points, one fight, and a plus-three in his last five games entering Saturday’s matchup. Those marks brought him up to six points, all assists, in 15 games on the year – to go with 16 penalty minutes, 11 blocked shots, and 41 hits.
Chicago has rotated Foligno between the wing and center based on need. With no extra forwards on the roster, the Blackhawks will need to make a call-up to fill Foligno’s shoes. Unfortunately, the team is also without top call-up option Nick Lardis, who is day-to-day with an undisclosed injury per the Rockford IceHogs. Lardis leads all AHL rookies in scoring with 14 points in 15 games. He could quickly receive his first NHL call-up once he’s back to full health. Until then, Chicago will likely turn towards Dominic Toninato, who has nine points in 15 games for Rockford.
Central Notes: Hague, Duchene, Foligno
The Nashville Predators were dealt a blow in the preseason when defenseman Nicolas Hague suffered an upper-body injury, but the team has adapted well to his absence. The club is off to a solid 2-2-2 start, a notable improvement from where they began last year, and now they’re set to get Hague back from his injury. The Tennessean’s Alex Daugherty noted today that it’s been four weeks since Hague was originally ruled out and prescribed a four-to-six week recovery timeline, and he added that one shouldn’t be surprised if Hague returns to the lineup at some point this week. Later in the day, Daugherty reported that Hague was on the ice for the Predators’ practice, further underscoring the likelihood that his return is coming sooner rather than later.
Hague was first seen back on the ice on Oct. 11, per team reporter Brooks Bratten, for an optional morning skate. He was originally injured during the team’s second preseason game against the Florida Panthers. At that time, Hague was paired with team captain Roman Josi on the club’s first pairing. Josi was paired with Adam Wilsby during the team’s most recent game, and Hague could end up claiming that spot back from Wilsby when he’s ready to make his Nashville debut. The 6’6 blueliner has played in 364 career NHL games and won the Stanley Cup with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2023. Nashville acquired him (and a conditional 2027 third-round draft choice) in June, sending Colton Sissons and Jeremy Lauzon to Vegas in return.
Other notes from the Central Division:
- Dallas Stars forward Matt Duchene missed the team’s practice today, reports the Dallas Morning News’ Lia Assimakopoulos. Stars head coach Glen Gulutzan expressed confidence that Duchene would be able to play tomorrow when the Stars host Duchene’s former team, the Columbus Blue Jackets, but added that Duchene has been battling an upper-body injury suffered last week. Duchene is one of the Stars’ key offensive producers; he led them in scoring last season with 82 points in 82 games.
- Chicago Blackhawks captain Nick Foligno returned to practice today after stepping away to tend to a personal matter, reports NBC Sports Chicago’s Charlie Roumeliotis. Foligno’s leadership has helped the Blackhawks to a surprisingly strong start to their season. The team, which was projected by many media outlets to be among the NHL’s worst for 2025-26, has gone 3-2-2 to start the season, good for 13th in league standings. Foligno has been a core veteran for the club since arriving in 2023, scoring at least 15 goals and 35 points in each of his two seasons there.
Short-Term Absences: Raymond, Foligno, Samuelsson
At least for now, the Red Wings are exhaling that the news isn’t worse regarding the health of star winger Lucas Raymond. He won’t play tonight but is only considered day-to-day with an upper-body injury, the team announced. Raymond left Monday’s win over the Maple Leafs midway through the second period after taking a cross-check into the boards from Toronto defenseman Chris Tanev (video via B/R Open Ice). There was initial fear and speculation that he may have sustained something as serious as a collarbone fracture, but he was back on the ice for morning skate today, according to the team’s Daniella Bruce. He might not even miss a full week, considering there’s been no injured reserve placement. Through two and a half appearances, Raymond had scored twice and added an assist with a +3 rating in what’s otherwise been an iffy start at even strength for Detroit’s top line of him, Dylan Larkin, and rookie Emmitt Finnie.
More short-term absences of note from around the league:
- The Blackhawks announced that captain Nick Foligno will be taking a “brief” leave of absence and will miss tonight’s game against the Blues. He’s stepping away to be with his family as his daughter undergoes a follow-up surgery related to her congenital heart disease. All of us at PHR send our best wishes to the Foligno family. You can visit their foundation for heart health, The Heart’s Playbook, at this link.
- Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson has been ruled out for tonight’s game against the Senators, according to Paul Hamilton of WGR Sports Radio 550. His absence shouldn’t last much longer, though. He skated on his own today and could be an option to play this weekend, head coach Lindy Ruff said. Samuelsson remains on the active roster after departing last weekend’s loss to the Bruins early. He’s only missed one game so far.