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Ondrej Kase

Ondrej Kase Re-Signs In Czech League

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Back in May, free agent winger Ondrej Kase was said to be generating NHL interest after a strong season back home in Czechia.  However, a deal at the top level didn’t materialize so instead, he has elected to re-sign a one-year deal with HC Litvinov, per a team release.

The 28-year-old had some success in the NHL early in his career, notching 57 goals and 67 assists in 258 games over parts of seven seasons.  However, concussion troubles repeatedly set Kase back to the point where he missed nearly the entire 2022-23 campaign aside from just over 11 minutes of ice time in Carolina’s season opener.

Needing a reset, Kase decided to return home last season and joined Litvinov alongside his brother David Kase.  The move proved to be a strong one.  Not only did Kase stay healthy but he also led his team in scoring with 23 goals and 31 assists in 48 games.  His 54 points were enough to put him in third place league-wide in that department.

That landed Kase a spot on the Czechs’ entry at the World Championship back in May.  Kase played a prominent role for the hosts, picking up seven points in ten games along the way to a gold medal.

With the year he had, it wasn’t surprising to see his name pop up among potential international free agents looking to get back to the NHL.  But in the end, he cited family reasons as a factor in deciding to stay at home for at least one more year.  If he can have another showing like his 2023-24 performance, there’s a very good chance he’ll be back on the NHL radar next spring as well.

Ondrej Kase Drawing NHL Interest

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A return to form overseas and a strong showing for Czechia at the World Championship has free-agent winger Ondřej Kaše drawing interest from NHL scouts once again, The Athletic’s Chris Johnston reports Monday.

Kaše, 28, last suited up in the NHL with the Hurricanes in 2022-23. He skated just 11:02 in their season-opening win against the Blue Jackets before sustaining a concussion that sidelined him for the remainder of the season.

Concussion-related symptoms have plagued Kaše throughout much of his professional career, especially in recent seasons. They limited him to just three showings with the Bruins in 2020-21 as well. His last remotely healthy season before departing for Europe was with the Maple Leafs in 2021-22, when he provided some solid secondary scoring with 14 goals and 27 points in 50 games on a one-year deal.

In desperate need of a reset after essentially a completely lost season with Carolina, Kaše signed a one-year contract with the Czech Extraliga’s HC Litvínov to play with his younger brother, former Flyers depth piece David Kaše. Without a flare-up of his previous symptoms, he exploded for over a point per game, finishing third in the league in scoring with 23 goals and 54 points in 48 appearances. He’s also rattled off five points in six games for Czechia thus far at the Worlds.

A seventh-round pick of the Ducks back in 2014, Kaše has been a good rate scorer when healthy. In 258 career games with Anaheim, Boston, Carolina and Toronto, he has 57 goals and 124 points while shouldering middle-six minutes comfortably.

Speaking to Johnston, Kaše said he hasn’t experienced any setbacks since his October 2022 injury with the Canes. One of the members of his treatment team, Michigan-based sports concussion specialist Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher, told Johnston that Kaše isn’t dealing with a “permanent brain injury” and doesn’t struggle with concussion symptoms in the traditional sense; rather, he has a “complex set of neurological variables that needed to be treated comprehensively.”

For teams looking to add a third- or fourth-line scoring winger, Kaše presents an intriguing high-ceiling, low-risk option. He wouldn’t cost much and has scored 20 goals once in his career, back in 2017-18 with the Ducks, and was on pace for more than 20 on two other occasions, including his 2021-22 campaign with Toronto.

Ondrej Kase Signs In Czechia

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After dealing with significant concussion issues throughout his career and playing just one game in 2022-23, Czech winger Ondrej Kase is healthy enough to continue his pro career. It will be overseas, however, as he’s returning home to Czechia on a one-year deal with Extraliga club HC Litvinov.

Kase was expected to be a solid depth contributor for the Carolina Hurricanes last season after recording 14 goals and 27 points in 50 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2021-22. However, another concussion limited him to just a handful of NHL games for the second time in three seasons, leaving his playing future in significant doubt.

The 27-year-old returns to Czechia after playing 258 NHL games across seven seasons, a North American career cut much too short by those concussion issues. When healthy, especially early in his career with the Anaheim Ducks, he showed flashes of actual top-six upside. However, he was never healthy for a long enough period to round out his game and develop properly.

It makes sense that Kase would want to return home, now playing on the same team as his brother, David Kase. It’s been a trying few years for Kase since coming over to the AHL’s San Diego Gulls in 2015, and he’ll look to, first and foremost, maintain good health while assumedly playing out his pro hockey days overseas.

Kase’s last experience in the Czech pro hockey circuit came in 2014-15 when he registered 21 points in 37 games with second-tier club Pirati Chomutov. He immediately becomes the highest-profile player on Litvinov and the only one with any extended NHL experience.

Afternoon Notes: Ruff, Teräväinen, Kase

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Ryan Novozinsky of NJ.com tweeted today that New Jersey Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerard said that head coach Lindy Ruff is still the right coach for the Devils. It’s no surprise that Fitzgerard would speak of Ruff so highly as the veteran coach just led New Jersey to the playoffs for the first time since 2018 and their first playoff series win since the club lost in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2012. The Devils improved dramatically this season under Ruff as they went from 14th in the Eastern Conference to 3rd this season and won 52 games this year nearly doubling their 27 wins from 2021-22.

There was speculation around the future of the 63-year-old Ruff, but Fitzgerard put those whispers to bed today saying, “”He’s still the right coach. We deserve that, we deserve him.” In his three seasons with New Jersey Ruff has compiled a 98-98-24 record with just the one playoff appearance. While that record isn’t great, it’s hard to argue with this year’s results. The Devils look to be at the beginning of what could be a very special run of hockey these next few years and it appears from the outside as though the Devils stars enjoy playing for Lindy. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of rope Ruff gets next season if the Devils were to stutter out of the gate.

In other afternoon notes:

  • Carolina Hurricanes reporter Walt Ruff tweeted today that head coach Rod Brind’Amour commented on the status of injured forward Teuvo Teräväinen saying that he is hopeful that the forward will be able to dress tomorrow night for game 1. Brind’Amour added that Carolina will likely decide on the 28-year-old after the team’s morning skate tomorrow. Teräväinen has been pointless in two games in these playoffs but would provide a jolt to an already strong Hurricanes forward group.
  • Tyler Madarasz of NHL Morning Skate tweeted that he sat down with Carolina general manager Don Waddell today and the long-time NHL executive discussed Ondrej Kase. Waddell said that Kase is still dealing with issues from concussions and to this day doesn’t feel right. He mentioned that Kase may be forced to call it a career, which would be a real shame for a young player with so much career left in him. Kase dressed in just one game for Carolina this season but is just a year removed from putting up 14 goals and 13 assists in 50 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He showed the potential to be a perennial 20-goal scorer in Anaheim just a few seasons ago, but sadly it looks as though his career could be coming to an end.

Ondrej Kase Not Expected To Play This Season

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The Carolina Hurricanes currently have three players on long-term injured reserve. Max Pacioretty and Jake Gardiner have already been ruled out for the season, but there were still some question marks around Ondrej Kase. The veteran forward played just one game before suffering another concussion, an injury he has experienced several times throughout his career.

In December, Kase resumed skating, and it seemed there might be a chance for him to return. But Hurricanes reporter Walt Ruff relays an update from general manager Don Waddell, explaining that the team is not expecting him back this season.

We’re not planning on him [playing again this season] as of now. If we get a good surprise that he’s feeling better, we’ll work him back in.

Even before this incident with Carolina, Kase’s concussion history was “plausibly into the double digits,” as James Mirtle of The Athletic wrote last year. Starting from his first game in North America, and now potentially ending with his first game as a Hurricane, it has been a long, unfortunate grind for the 27-year-old winger. Kase has never played in more than 66 games in a single season, and has suited up just 258 times since debuting in 2016.

He is an effective middle-six player when he’s on the ice, but it’s starting to look like that will never happen again for the Czech winger. It is disappointing for a seventh-round draft pick that rose so rapidly and looked so promising as a young player. Incredibly, he still ranks 27th in goals among all players drafted in 2014.

Hurricanes, Oilers Have Discussed Jesse Puljujarvi Trade

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Earlier this week, the Oilers opted to drop down to a minimum-sized roster in order to get cap-compliant to activate winger Kailer Yamamoto from LTIR.  As luck would have it, the flu bug hit the team for yesterday’s game against the Rangers and the team wound up playing short a player as Klim Kostin was unable to suit up.  That’s not a viable situation for a playoff contender to have to navigate through for another couple of months before the season comes to an end so there has been an expectation that they will open up some cap space.

Jesse Puljujarvi has been widely speculated as the eventual cap casualty but, for the time being, they haven’t found a trade that works for them.  However, Sportsnet’s Mark Spector reports that there is a belief that the Hurricanes have indicated that they are willing to move winger Ondrej Kase (currently on LTIR with a concussion) to Edmonton for Puljujarvi but only after the Finnish winger has cleared waivers.  That would allow Carolina to shuffle him back and forth between the AHL if needed while seeing if a change of scenery could help get him going.

It has been quite a fall for the 24-year-old who was the fourth-overall pick in 2016 but hasn’t come close to living up to his draft billing.  This season, Puljujarvi has been quite limited offensively, scoring just five goals along with seven assists in 53 games, hardly the type of production they were expecting after he posted 36 points in 65 contests just last season.  It’s also hardly the type of return they were hoping for from someone carrying a $3MM cap hit.

Clearly, GM Ken Holland still believes he can salvage some sort of positive value for Puljujarvi as otherwise, he likely would have hit the waiver wire already.  If he was to be claimed, they’d free up the full $3MM in cap room and if not, the proposed swap with Carolina would open up $1.5MM in regular cap room and $1.5MM (Kase’s cap hit) in their LTIR pool.  While that wouldn’t be a great return by any stretch, it would certainly give them a bit more flexibility to work with as they either look to add a piece by the March 3rd trade deadline or to bring someone back up from AHL Bakersfield to avoid having to play short a player as they did last night.  We’ll find out soon enough if Holland is able to find a better option for Puljujarvi than this one.

Carolina Hurricanes Activate Max Pacioretty

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The Carolina Hurricanes, currently sitting in second place in the entire NHL, are about to get a pretty impressive reinforcement. Max Pacioretty has been activated from the season-opening injured reserve, with Ondrej Kase moving to long-term injured reserve to make room. Pacioretty is coming back from offseason surgery to repair a torn Achilles, and will be making his Hurricanes debut whenever head coach Rod Brind’Amour inserts him into the lineup.

It is a rather incredible return, given Pacioretty’s surgery didn’t take place until August 10. That means he was out for less than five months after originally being given a six-month timeline. The 34-year-old winger was acquired from the Vegas Golden Knights along with Dylan Coughlan in a salary dump last offseason, with the Hurricanes sending back nothing but future considerations.

Carolina assumed all of Pacioretty’s $7MM cap hit for this season, the last in his four-year $28MM deal signed with Vegas in 2018. One of the most consistent goal scorers of his generation, he could potentially be a difference-maker for the Hurricanes for the rest of the year. Pacioretty has topped 30 goals six times in his career, and combined for 43 in 87 games over the last two shortened seasons.

Even if he can’t get back to 100 percent of his former self, he’s joining a group in Carolina that is already poised to contend for a Stanley Cup. Pacioretty was skating with Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Derek Stepan today at practice.

For Kase, it does not appear as though there was a setback, but his placement on LTIR opens the room to fit Pacioretty under the cap. The veteran forward has been skating with the team in a non-contact jersey of late, though there is no clear timeline for his return from another concussion.

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.

Carolina Hurricanes Emergency Recall Pyotr Kochetkov

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Nov 11: Andersen has now been moved to injured reserve, retroactive to November 6. Kochetkov will remain with the team for the time being after his strong performance last night.

Nov 8: The Carolina Hurricanes have recalled goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov from the AHL’s Chicago Wolves on an emergency basis, according to the team Tuesday evening. The team also placed forward Ondrej Kase on injured reserve.

Kochetkov’s call-up comes after starting goalie Frederik Andersen left the team’s practice earlier today. Head coach Rod Brind’Amour noted to reporters this morning that he “didn’t know what happened there, [but] he did something.”

The team’s top goaltending prospect, Kochetkov is off to a 2-2-1 start in the AHL with a 3.00 goals-against average and .911 save percentage. He appeared in three regular-season games and four playoff games last season for Carolina when injuries struck both Andersen and backup Antti Raanta.

Kochetkov will likely back up Raanta tomorrow when the Hurricanes take on the Florida Panthers. Despite a hurricane warning issued for the area surrounding FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, the Hurricanes team charter left Raleigh tonight in anticipation of the game still occurring tomorrow.

Unfortunately, Kase lands on injured reserve with the sixth reported concussion of his NHL career. The 27-year-old Czech forward logged 11:02 in the team’s season opener against Columbus and has not played since.

Ondrej Kase Being Evaluated For Possible Concussion

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Carolina Hurricanes forward Ondrej Kase is returning to Raleigh to be evaluated for a possible concussion, according to team reporter Walt Ruff. While an injury like this may not always make headlines, in the case of Kase, there is a long history of head injuries to consider.

In April, the Toronto Maple Leafs announced that Kase was dealing with a concussion that had held him out for weeks. He suffered the injury on March 19, and didn’t return during the regular season. He would make it back in the playoffs, suiting up in early May against the Tampa Bay Lightning, but struggled to live up to his previous level of play and was quickly moved down the lineup.

That was not his first concussion. James Mirtle of The Athletic detailed the long history Kase has with head and neck injuries, which began in just his third game in North America, while playing for the San Diego Gulls of the AHL. When that story was written, before the Maple Leafs incident and this one with the Hurricanes, the number of concussions that Kase had experienced was unknown but “plausibly into the double digits.”

After the Maple Leafs decided not to issue him a qualifying offer this summer, he ended up with the Hurricanes on a one-year, $1.5MM contract. The 26-year-old has shown an excellent ability to play strong two-way hockey whenever healthy – the problem is that he has struggled to stay in the lineup for years now. In his debut for Carolina, he played just 11 minutes and failed to register a point. If he does have another concussion, it is completely unclear how long it will keep him out.

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