Nominees Announced For 2024 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy
The Bill Masterton Trophy is awarded annually to the player who best exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey. Nominees are selected by members of the Professional Hockey Writer’s Association, with finalists being named near the end of the regular season. Previous winners include Kris Letang (2023), Carey Price (2022), and Oskar Lindblom (2021). Today, a new list of 32 nominees has been named.
Below are the nominees from each team:
Anaheim Ducks – Urho Vaakanainen
Arizona Coyotes – Connor Ingram
Boston Bruins – Danton Heinen
Buffalo Sabres – Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
Calgary Flames – Oliver Kylington
Carolina Hurricanes – Frederik Andersen
Chicago Blackhawks – Colin Blackwell
Colorado Avalanche – Jonathan Drouin
Columbus Blue Jackets – Zach Werenski
Dallas Stars – Matt Duchene
Detroit Red Wings – Alex Lyon
Edmonton Oilers – Vincent Desharnais
Florida Panthers – Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Los Angeles Kings – Viktor Arvidsson
Minnesota Wild – Marco Rossi
Montreal Canadiens – Joel Armia
Nashville Predators – Michael McCarron
New Jersey Devils – Curtis Lazar
New York Islanders – Cal Clutterbuck
New York Rangers – Jonathan Quick
Ottawa Senators – Claude Giroux
Philadelphia Flyers – Sean Couturier
Pittsburgh Penguins – Sidney Crosby
San Jose Sharks – Justin Bailey
Seattle Kraken – Joey Daccord
St. Louis Blues – Nathan Walker
Tampa Bay Lightning – Michael Eyssimont
Toronto Maple Leafs – Ilya Samsonov
Vancouver Canucks – Noah Juulsen
Vegas Golden Knights – Alex Pietrangelo
Washington Capitals – T.J. Oshie
Winnipeg Jets – Laurent Brossoit
What Your Team Is Thankful For: Florida Panthers
As the holiday season approaches, PHR will be taking a look at what teams are thankful for in 2023-24. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. We’ll examine what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the Florida Panthers.
Who are the Panthers thankful for?
Tkachuk has not been himself thus far this season, but it is hard to fault him after he suffered a broken sternum in game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals in June. He valiantly tried to play in game 5 but could only take a few shifts before he had to shut himself down. He went through rehabilitation and recovery in the summer and although he was ready for training camp, it’s hard to believe that he had a full summer of his regular training regimen.
Tkachuk hasn’t been bad this year, he just hasn’t lived up to the level of play he’s shown over the past few seasons when he has been regularly in the conversation for league MVP. The 26-year-old has just five goals and 15 assists in 27 games thus far this season but has continued to be a dominant force at even strength. Although his goal numbers aren’t what they’ve been the last two seasons, he continues to drive the play and is snake bit by a career-low shooting percentage of 4.8%. Tkachuk is a career 12.7% shooter, meaning that he should see a surge here in the coming months unless his broken sternum is still a cause for concern. That doesn’t appear to be the case though as Tkachuk continues to play with reckless abandon this season, as his hitting numbers are up considerably from last year.
Tkachuk is not only the on-ice leader of the Panthers, but he is also the heart and soul player that teams covet desperately. Many thought the Panthers had given up too much to acquire the Scottsdale, Arizona native from the Calgary Flames, but a year and a half after the trade it looks like an absolute heist by general manager Bill Zito.
What are the Panthers thankful for?
Pro Scouting.
Over the last few years, not every trade the Panthers have made has worked out, but the bulk of them have been good, and several of them have been home runs.
As was mentioned earlier, the Tkachuk trade was an absolute thing of beauty for the Panthers, It was high profile and high risk, but some of their sneakier trades are almost as impressive.
Acquiring Sam Bennett from the Calgary Flames for Emil Heineman and a second-round pick was another well-crafted trade that ended up one-sided in favor of the Panthers. Another key move was the trade with the Buffalo Sabres to acquire Sam Reinhart who currently leads the team in scoring this season with 17 goals and 20 assists in 27 games. That trade could go either way though as Reinhart is a free agent at year’s end and Devon Levi has shown glimpses of being a star in the making, despite his struggles this season.
But one of Panthers’ best moves was a different trade with the Sabres. One in which Florida acquired Brandon Montour for a 2021 third-round pick. Montour has started slowing this season with just two assists in 11 games, but like Tkachuk, he is returning from a severe injury. Montour was a key catalyst for the Panthers last season as he put up career numbers with 16 goals and 57 assists in 80 games. To cap it all off the 29-year-old had eight goals and five assists in 21 games during Florida’s surprise run to the Stanley Cup finals this past spring. His acquisition remains some of the Panthers’ best work the last few years, and credit goes to the team’s pro scouting who continue to identify diamonds in the rough.
What would the Panthers be even more thankful for?
A few contract extensions.
The Panthers are headed into a summer of uncertainty as they do have a number off key free agents who could be difficult to get under contract long-term.
As mentioned earlier, Reinhart has been terrific this season. He is on pace for a career year and could eclipse 50 goals and 100 points for the first time in his career. The timing could not be better for the 28-year-old as he is just over six months away from hitting the open market. If he gets to market there is no telling how high the cap hit could be on a lucrative long-term deal, especially with the salary cap rising substantially for the first time since before the pandemic. The Panthers are the only team that can offer Reinhart an eighth year, but they do have other extensions to consider and may not be willing to go as high as they need to get a deal done.
Montour is another pending unrestricted free agent, and his negotiations are complicated by the wild variance in his play in the last few seasons. After having a career year last season, he has started slowing this year and may give the Panthers pause when it comes to negotiations. Florida might want to see more from Montour before locking him down long-term. However, he was invaluable to them last year, particularly during their playoff run, and if he can replicate that success this year, he may price himself out of Florida.
Lastly, Gustav Forsling is also just over six months away from being able to sign with any team in the league, and while he hasn’t matched the pace he set last year offensively, he is still a key driver of play and can play in all situations. Forsling remains one of the most underrated defensemen in the NHL, but that could change with his next contract. While he currently is playing under a deal that pays him just over $2.6MM annually, he should be able to double his cap hit on his next deal.
At 27 years old Forsling likely has a lot left to give and should be a priority for the Panthers. He blocks shots, kills penalties, can chip in offensively, and is terrific at even strength. The Panthers would be hard-pressed to replace the minutes he plays in free agency and will likely look to lock him up long-term.
What should be on the Panthers holiday wish list?
A depth defenseman.
It really goes to show you how good this Panthers team is that their big need is a depth defenseman. An argument could be made that they use another center, but with Kevin Stenlund providing a decent defensive presence as the fourth line center, we can table talk about the forwards and focus on the Panthers’ back-end.
Uvis Balinskis has filled in admirably on the Panthers third defensive paring as the 27-year-old rookie has played okay in heavily sheltered minutes for the team alongside Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Despite his decent play in a supporting role, the Panthers will likely need to improve their depth if they hope to make another deep run in the playoffs. Balinskis does have a physical element to his game but isn’t overly big and can be pushed off the puck. He also appears uncomfortable playing on his offside, something he will probably have to do to remain in the Panthers lineup long-term.
Florida would do well to grab a depth right-shot defenseman, who can fill in for Balinskis on occasion, or takeover from him should he begin to falter as the season goes on,
NHL Upholds Charlie McAvoy’s Suspension
Nov. 8: After the appeal process, Bettman has decided to uphold McAvoy’s four-game suspension, Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic reports.
Nov. 2: Sportnet’s Elliotte Friedman tweeted that Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy is planning to appeal the four-game suspension he received for his illegal check to the head of Florida Panthers defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson. McAvoy had a phone hearing with the Department of Player Safety on Tuesday shortly before he received news of the suspension.
Much like the Calgary Flames’ Rasmus Andersson suspension appeal, Gary Bettman would hear a McAvoy appeal because the suspension is for less than six games. In the case of Andersson, Bettman rejected the appeal and kept the suspension at four games.
McAvoy had just scored the game-tying goal mere moments before the hit occurred in the third period of Monday night’s game against Florida. McAvoy hit Ekman-Larsson with a blindside check in which the initial impact was the head of the Panthers defenseman. McAvoy was assessed a five-minute match penalty and was kicked out of the game. Ekman-Larsson was hurt on the play and stayed on the ice but did remain in the game.
The Long Beach, New York native was suspended once before back in 2019 when he was involved in a hit to the head of then Columbus Blue Jackets forward Josh Anderson during the Bruins run to the Stanley Cup Finals.
McAvoy is sitting out the first game of his suspension tonight as the Bruins battle the Toronto Maple Leafs. If McAvoy’s suspension is upheld by Bettman then the 25-year-old won’t be eligible to return to the lineup until November 11th against the Montreal Canadiens.
Panthers Injury Notes: Bennett, Ekman-Larsson, Rodrigues
The Florida Panthers have shared injury updates to three recently hurt players, announcing that Oliver Ekman-Larsson is likely to play, Evan Rodrigues is hopeful, and Sam Bennett is likely out for the team’s Thursday night matchup against the Detroit Red Wings.
More specifically, head coach Paul Maurice said that Bennett will miss a little more time than a typical day-to-day designation would suggest, although the injury isn’t as severe as the one that delayed Bennett’s start to the season.
Bennett’s injury is a tough one to stomach. The 27-year-old centerman was in his first game back from injury but hurt his left leg – seemingly his left ankle – in a net-front scrum with Boston’s Hampus Lindholm. He is now set to miss even more time, making this season the sixth time that Bennett has appeared in fewer than 75 of his team’s games through his nine-year NHL career.
The injury is especially tough given how successful Bennett has been with the Panthers. He tallied a modest 40 points in 63 games last season but exploded for 15 points and 60 penalty minutes in 20 playoff games – operating as a key piece of Florida’s run to the Stanley Cup Finals. He set his career-high in scoring in the 2021-22 season – his first full year with the Panthers – when he scored 28 goals and 49 points in 71 games.
Luckily, it doesn’t seem like Florida will be missing any other key pieces. Ekman-Larsson, who has three points in eight games this season, is good-to-go after taking a sucker punch from Charlie McAvoy. The punch earned McAvoy a four-game suspension that he’s in the process of serving. As for Rodrigues, Maurice said that the team was taking precaution in holding him out of Wednesday’s practice, and he should be good for Thursday night’s game.
Atlantic Notes: Ekman-Larsson, Sabres, Armia, DeBrusk
When Vancouver decided to buy out Oliver Ekman-Larsson this summer, it was the richest buyout in NHL history. It’s a move the blueliner didn’t see coming as he told Thomas Drance of The Athletic (subscription link) that he was surprised by their decision after his exit meetings and discussions with the team had been focused on his role with the Canucks for the 2023-24 campaign. Ekman-Larsson elected to take a one-year deal with the Panthers this summer worth $2.5MM and with the injuries to both Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour, they have leaned on him heavily so far as he is averaging more than 25 minutes a night through Florida’s first four games. The last time he passed that threshold was back in 2014-15 with Arizona and while it’s unrealistic to think he’ll play that much the entire season, they’re certainly pleased with the early returns so far.
More from the Atlantic:
- While Devon Levi and Zach Benson took part in Buffalo’s practice today, neither will be in uniform tonight against the Islanders, relays Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News. Both rookies are listed as day-to-day with lower-body injuries. Neither have been placed on IR because of the short timelines for a return so they’re not able to bring replacements up from AHL Rochester. With Levi unavailable, Eric Comrie will make his first start of the season for Buffalo.
- David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports (Twitter link) that the Canadiens had re-engaged in trade talks around winger Joel Armia last week. The veteran cleared waivers earlier this month and was just recalled earlier today but won’t play tonight against Washington. Armia has another season after this one left on his contract which carries a $3.4MM AAV. Accordingly, it stands to reason that any trade involving him will be a swap of overpaid veterans in need of a change of scenery.
- Bruins winger Jake DeBrusk will be a healthy scratch tonight against Los Angeles, the team announced (Twitter link). The scratching isn’t a performance-based one but rather a disciplinary one as he was late to a team meeting. The 27-year-old has been held without a point through his first three games of the season, not quite the start he was hoping for in a contract year as he’ll be eligible for unrestricted free agency for the first time next summer.
Panthers Notes: Ekblad, Sourdif, Bennett
PuckPedia tweeted that the Florida Panthers made a move today to officially place star defenseman Aaron Ekblad on the long-term injured reserve. The transaction has been months in the making, but the Panthers officially completed the paperwork today. Ekblad is expected to miss at least the first month of the season as he recovers from offseason shoulder surgery.
The move gives the Panthers some breathing room under the salary cap allowing them to facilitate other moves. Florida will be without Ekblad and fellow defenseman Brandon Montour for quite some time which could lead to expanded roles for Gustav Forsling and newcomer Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
One note on LTIR is that once a player is placed on it, they must miss at least ten games and 24 days, which means the earliest Ekblad could return is the first week of November.
The 2014 first-overall pick saw his numbers dip last season as the Panthers marched to the Stanley Cup finals. And with the root cause of his injury unknown, one might wonder if a fully healthy Ekblad could be ready for a monster bounce-back season.
In other Panthers notes:
- The Panthers announced that they have recalled forward Justin Sourdif from the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL. The recall comes mere hours after the team assigned the 21-year-old to the AHL along with veterans Zac Dalpe and Casey Fitzgerald. The Richmond, British Columbia native posted seven goals and 17 assists as a rookie last season in the AHL, dressing in 48 games. The Panthers open the regular season against the Minnesota Wild on October 12th.
- Panthers forward Sam Bennett may be back in Florida’s lineup sooner than later as David Dwork of The Hockey News is reporting that the team is toying with the idea of bringing Bennett on their upcoming road trip. The 27-year-old has been ruled out of their season opener on Thursday but may travel with the team as they head up to Winnipeg for a game on Saturday and New Jersey next Monday. Bennett was seen in a walking boot on October 7th after being injured in a preseason game on October 5th, however, the injury doesn’t appear as severe as first reported.
2009 NHL Draft Take Two: Sixth Overall Pick
Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.” Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended. For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.
We’re looking back at the 2009 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now. Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?
The results of our redraft so far are as follows, with their original draft position in parentheses:
1st Overall: Victor Hedman, New York Islanders (2)
2nd Overall: John Tavares, Tampa Bay Lightning (1)
3rd Overall: Ryan O’Reilly, Colorado Avalanche (33)
4th Overall: Matt Duchene, Atlanta Thrashers (3)
5th Overall: Chris Kreider, Los Angeles Kings (19)
At fifth overall, PHR voters elected to take one of the draft’s better goal-scoring specialists in Kreider, who received 25% of the total votes. Selected straight out of high school, Kreider was drafted as a center but would end up on the wing for the New York Rangers, who took him in the mid-first round. It took him a few years to make the NHL, but he quickly became a dependable middle-six winger once he did, posting solid two-way numbers and routinely scoring over 20 goals. The last two seasons have done wonders for Kreider’s legacy, though, posting 88 markers over 160 games.
Coming up to the podium at sixth overall is the Phoenix Coyotes. The era of Wayne Gretzky behind the bench is now over after four underwhelming seasons, and the franchise is still looking to return to postseason play for just the third time since the year 2000.
They selected Swedish defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who had spent the entire 2008-09 campaign playing pro hockey with Leksands IF in the Swedish second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan. He posted a massive two-way season there, recording 17 points in 39 games and a +44 rating. Few argued with the pick at the time, and given his peak with the Coyotes, it’s hard to argue they truly made the wrong selection.
He played one more season in Sweden before coming over to the Coyotes in 2010, splitting his rookie year between the NHL and AHL but getting decent NHL action with 48 games, albeit in a bottom-pairing role. He broke into a top-four role during his sophomore season and never looked back, routinely earning Norris Trophy votes and was eventually named the team’s captain in 2018 after the retirement of Shane Doan.
His all-around game began to decline significantly beginning with the 2019-20 season, though, and in the summer of 2021, the Coyotes were able to offload his contract on the Vancouver Canucks in a deal that’s turned out quite well for Arizona, in retrospect. That doesn’t change the fact he provided the Coyotes with solid top-pairing performance for the better part of a decade, however, finishing his stint in the desert with 388 points and averaging 23:26 per game across 769 games.
He didn’t last particularly long in Vancouver, either, and the Canucks executed the largest non-compliance buyout in NHL history this summer to get out of the remaining four years of his massive eight-year, $66MM extension signed with the Coyotes that kicked in just as his decline began in 2019. He’ll suit up for the Florida Panthers next season, looking to prove he can turn things around on a one-year deal.
Ekman-Larsson trails only Hedman and Nick Leddy in total games played for a defenseman from the 2009 class with 902, and he’s third in career points behind Hedman and Tyson Barrie with 439. Despite his solid tenure as a member of the Coyotes, though, should the team have gone in a different direction? Let us know who you think the Coyotes should have selected below:
2009 Redraft: Sixth Overall
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Nazem Kadri 29% (216)
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Mattias Ekholm 21% (157)
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Evander Kane 10% (76)
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Oliver Ekman-Larsson 10% (72)
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Brayden Schenn 8% (61)
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Dmitry Orlov 5% (39)
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Anders Lee 5% (38)
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Ryan Ellis 4% (28)
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Tyson Barrie 1% (11)
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Reilly Smith 1% (11)
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Nick Leddy 1% (6)
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Tomas Tatar 1% (6)
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Brian Dumoulin 1% (5)
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Kyle Palmieri 1% (5)
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Darcy Kuemper 1% (4)
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Erik Haula 0% (3)
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Mike Hoffman 0% (3)
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David Savard 0% (3)
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Calvin de Haan 0% (2)
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Marcus Johansson 0% (2)
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Dmitry Kulikov 0% (2)
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Jakob Silfverberg 0% (2)
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Sami Vatanen 0% (2)
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Robin Lehner 0% (1)
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Brayden McNabb 0% (1)
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Craig Smith 0% (1)
Total votes: 757
If you can’t access the poll above, click here to vote.
Florida Panthers Expected To Sign Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Veteran defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson is landing on his feet after getting bought out by the Vancouver Canucks earlier this month. Per TSN’s Darren Dreger and CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal, he’s expected to sign a one-year deal with the Florida Panthers worth $2.25MM.
Ekman-Larsson hadn’t at all lived up to expectations in Vancouver, but the decision to buy him out with four years left on his deal surprised many. It is the largest non-compliance buyout in NHL history, and the Swede will now earn an additional $2.25MM this season on top of the $2.13MM he’s slated to receive in real cash from Vancouver and $290K from Arizona. It’s still less money than the $10.5MM base salary he was owed from his previous contract in 2023-24.
For the Panthers, this signing represents a low-risk, medium-reward move. Ekman-Larsson is a former All-Star and Olympic medalist, but he’s been wildly inconsistent in the past few seasons and has played long stretches of being a defensive liability in both Vancouver and Arizona, where he was a captain for three seasons between 2018 and 2021.
Now 31, Ekman-Larsson could slot into Florida’s top four to start the season and maybe longer. For now, he serves as a direct replacement on the left side for veteran Marc Staal, who’s on the UFA market. He does find himself with the best opportunity to win in quite a while, joining a Panthers team fresh off a miracle run to the Stanley Cup Final.
From a financial standpoint, the one-year, $2.25MM deal is a decent bit of work for the Panthers. It provides them with a cost-effective option to bolster their defensive depth without committing to a long-term contract – something they’d reportedly prioritized achieving.
Last season, Ekman-Larsson logged two goals and 22 points in 54 games with the Canucks, averaging just over 20 minutes per game. He’ll likely see a reduction in those minutes as the season progresses for Florida and they return to full health on the blueline.
Offseason Notes: Wheeler, Staal, Bunting, Ekman-Larsson
Former Winnipeg Jets captain Blake Wheeler is set to part ways with his team this summer, and on TSN’s Insider Trading program Pierre LeBrun put that quite succinctly, stating Wheeler “will not be playing for the Jets next season.” But where the two-time All-Star will end up playing next season remains a mystery, as is what exact method will be used to finalize his exit from the Jets. LeBrun reports that Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff and Wheeler’s representation are working collaboratively to find a solution for Wheeler, and potential outcomes include not only a trade or a traditional buyout, but also a combination of both wherein Wheeler is traded to another club and then bought out by his new team.
The Jets have gone down that route with players in the past, such as in 2018 when they sent Joel Armia and draft picks to the Montreal Canadiens so Montreal would buy out the contract of netminder Steve Mason. A Wheeler buyout would cost a team $2.75MM against the cap for the next two seasons, and with the buyout deadline looming next Friday the Jets will need to either come to terms on a Wheeler trade with another club or figure out whether they or another club will be on the hook for Wheeler’s buyout.
Some other notes from across the NHL:
- It has long been expected that Carolina Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal‘s pending unrestricted free agency was more of a formality than anything else, and that the 34-year-old center would end up re-signing with the franchise he’s been with since the 2012 offseason. But according to TSN’s Darren Dreger on Insider Trading, that may no longer be the case. Dreger reports that Staal’s camp “has supplied” the Hurricanes “with a number of options” on a new deal but that their negotiations are “at an impasse,” and that owner Tom Dundon will need “to move from his position” in order to re-sign his captain. Dreger adds that if that doesn’t happen, we “absolutely could see” Staal “as a free agent on July 1st.” That would be a decently shocking outcome for Staal and the Hurricanes, though it now seems like a once-remote possibility Hurricanes fans may need to begin preparing for.
- A player that is looking like he’ll hit the free agent market at the start of the new league year is Toronto Maple Leafs forward Michael Bunting. TSN’s Chris Johnston reported on Insider Trading that while Bunting “would love to remain” in Toronto there “have been no substantive negotiations” on a contract extension. Johnston adds that Bunting is “likely headed to the marketplace” where he could receive contract offers that exceed what the Maple Leafs are in a position to offer. Bunting, who will turn 28 in September, scored 23 goals and 49 points last season and established himself as a legitimate NHL scoring option in his time with Toronto.
- While the Vancouver Canucks made the decision not to pay Oliver Ekman-Larsson to play for them moving forward, it seems other teams on the open market will be more than happy to add the 902-game veteran to their lineup. TSN’s Darren Dreger reports on Insider Trading that Ekman-Larsson’s next contract “could be one year or as many as four years” in term, and won’t come at a bargain-bin rate simply because Ekman-Larsson is already owed money from Vancouver. Dreger adds that Ekman-Larsson would like to sign with a contending team, and he could be eyeing a trip to the free agent market similar to Ryan Suter‘s in 2021, when Suter landed a four-year $3.65MM AAV deal from the Dallas Stars.
Free Agent Notes: Barbashev, Jost, Ekman-Larsson
One of the top pending UFA forwards is, in fact, expected to go to market – a boon for a weak class that’s only getting weaker. There are currently no talks ongoing between the Vegas Golden Knights and forward Ivan Barbashev, ESPN’s Kevin Weekes says, and he is expected to hit the market on July 1.
The 27-year-old fit in seamlessly with Vegas after a trade deadline deal with the St. Louis Blues, scoring 34 points in 45 combined regular-season and playoff games en route to his second Stanley Cup in five years. The uptick in scoring came with a significant uptick in ice time, and he now enters the free agent market as a bonafide top-six winger in his prime. He could very well double his previous cap hit of $2.25MM on the open market on a long-term deal, something Vegas just doesn’t have the financial certainty at this point to accommodate. His performance this year came on the heels of a breakout 60-point campaign with the Blues in 2021-22.
More notes on this year’s pending free agent class:
- When the Buffalo Sabres re-signed veteran forward Zemgus Girgensons, many wondered what it meant for pending RFA Tyson Jost‘s future with the club, given the team’s depth crunch on offense. Today, general manager Kevyn Adams said he’s spoken with Jost’s agent and informed them he’d like to work out an extension, keeping him in the fold as a decent depth scoring option. The team is expected to trade Victor Olofsson this offseason, but Jost could still slip into the role of a healthy scratch if the team does make any notable free agent acquisition. The 25-year-old notched 25 points in 71 games this season.
- It doesn’t appear defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson will be without a home for long. After getting bought out by the Vancouver Canucks last week, Ekman-Larsson’s agent, Kevin Epp, tell’s CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal that upwards of 10 teams have shown interest in bringing him on, including some contending teams. One team that immediately jumps out as a natural fit for a veteran defenseman on a cheap deal needing some reduced minutes to be successful is the Tampa Bay Lightning. He’d sit on the third pairing behind Victor Hedman and Mikhail Sergachev on their depth chart, and Ekman-Larsson’s situation isn’t all too dissimilar to that of Kevin Shattenkirk a few seasons ago.