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Riley Stillman

Snapshots: Landeskog, Francis, Hurricanes, Maccelli

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Avalanche winger Gabriel Landeskog skated before practice today, notes Aarif Deen of Colorado Hockey Now.  The captain hasn’t played since the sixth game of the Stanley Cup Final back in 2022 due to continued knee trouble including a cartilage transplant in May 2023.  While this isn’t the first time Landeskog has taken to the ice before practice, it’s the first time he has done so since mid-November as he suffered a setback at that time.  There remains no timetable for him to return but Landeskog has noted a few times this year that he hopes to get back into the Colorado lineup at some point this season.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • The University of Minnesota-Duluth announced (Twitter link) that Ducks prospect Will Francis had a relapse of his leukemia which is why he has been limited to just three games so far this season. Francis was initially diagnosed with it in 2020 and had a relapse in August 2023, leading to a bone marrow transplant back in April.  Francis is hoping to return to the team next month.  PHR wishes Francis well in his continued battle.
  • The Hurricanes announced that defenseman Riley Stillman has been sent back to AHL Chicago. The 26-year-old has been sent back and forth this season but hasn’t seen any action with Carolina.  Stillman has four points in nine contests with the Wolves.  Meanwhile, Carolina has also recalled goalie Dustin Tokarski, defenseman Ty Smith, and winger Jackson Blake from Chicago, per the AHL transactions log.  The three were papered to the minors on Wednesday.
  • Utah announced (Twitter link) that winger Matias Maccelli was scratched from tonight’s game against Calgary due to an illness. After putting up 57 points last season, the 24-year-old has struggled mightily offensively this year, potting just three goals and seven assists through his first 37 outings.  There was some good news on the health front, however, as Clayton Keller returned after missing Tuesday’s game to an illness himself.

Hurricanes Recall Riley Stillman, Place Jack Drury On IR

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The Hurricanes announced that they’ve recalled defenseman Riley Stillman from AHL Chicago. The team had an open roster spot, but center Jack Drury was moved to injured reserve in a corresponding transaction.

Stillman, 26, has been sent between the NHL and AHL countless times this season. Used as a frequent healthy extra, he’s yet to see NHL ice in 2024-25 but has been rostered for seven games since returning from offseason lower-body surgery in mid-November. He was sent to the minors before the holiday break and wasn’t necessarily expected back after the Canes summoned Ty Smith over the weekend. However, after Shayne Gostisbehere missed Saturday’s win over the Devils with an upper-body injury, they were down to six healthy defensemen on the active roster.

Thus, Stillman comes back up to serve as a familiar extra option for the time being while the more offensively-inclined Smith suits up in Gostisbehere’s absence. Smith and Stillman had been in the same boat for most of the season, serving as a No. 7 but never getting into the lineup. That changed over the weekend when Gostisbehere’s injury marked the first time a regular Carolina defenseman has missed a game all season.

If the left-shot Stillman does get an NHL shot, it will be his first NHL appearance since April 2023 with the Sabres. While on assignment to the AHL this year, he has a goal and three assists with 11 PIMs and a -1 rating in nine appearances. In 158 career NHL games with the Panthers, Blackhawks, Canucks, and Sabres, he has four goals and 22 assists for 26 points with a -19 rating, 104 PIMs, and 318 hits while averaging 15:49 per game.

Drury’s IR placement doesn’t affect his timeline for a return from hand surgery that he underwent earlier this month. He’s not expected back until Jan. 15 against Buffalo at the earliest.

Hurricanes Reassign Riley Stillman

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The Hurricanes announced today that they’ve returned defenseman Riley Stillman to AHL Chicago ahead of tonight’s game against the Predators, their final contest before the holiday break. They now have an open spot on the active roster, which will likely be filled by a recall on the blue line come Friday, whether that’s Stillman or someone else.

Stillman, 26, was signed to a one-year, two-way contract after reaching unrestricted free agency last summer. The Hurricanes picked him up after he spent the entire 2023-24 campaign in the AHL with the Sabres’ affiliate in Rochester, marking his first season without any NHL action since 2017-18.

After missing the first 12 games of the season following offseason lower-body surgery, Stillman cleared waivers in mid-November and has spent the time since heading up and down between the Hurricanes and the Wolves. He’s yet to actually enter a game for Carolina this season, but he has been rostered for seven contests as a healthy scratch and last-minute injury insurance. The endless juggling between leagues also means that Stillman has only played seven AHL games since getting his season underway last month, posting two assists, 11 PIMs, and a +1 rating.

It’s easy to see why Stillman hasn’t gotten an NHL crack on Carolina’s very deep and very healthy blue line. Their top six defenders – Brent Burns, Jalen Chatfield, Shayne Gostisbehere, Dmitry Orlov, Jaccob Slavin, and Sean Walker – have all played all 33 games for the Canes this year, providing no opportunity for Stillman (or other frequent press-box option Ty Smith) to see NHL ice. With 26 points, a -19 rating, and underwhelming possession metrics in 158 career NHL games, Stillman wouldn’t sit higher than No. 7 on pretty much any other team’s defensive depth chart anyways.

Assigning Stillman to the minors will delay his temporary waiver exemption. Between his roster moves, Stillman’s still appeared on Carolina’s roster for less than 30 days since clearing waivers last month, so he won’t be exposed to the waiver wire again today.

Minor Transactions: 12/18/24

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With the holiday roster freeze coming up shortly, there has been an uptick in smaller moves around the NHL today, not to mention a trade of note.  Here’s a rundown of those transactions plus an NHL-drafted prospect on the move at the junior level.

  • The Kraken announced (Twitter link) that they have re-assigned winger Ryan Winterton to AHL Coachella Valley. The 21-year-old has found himself on the transactions log quite a few times already this season but has gotten into eight games with Seattle, picking up an assist while logging 10:22 per night of playing time.  Winterton has been quite productive with the Firebirds though, tallying 15 points in 16 outings with them.
  • The Hurricanes have returned winger Jackson Blake, goaltender Dustin Tokarski, and defenseman Riley Stillman to AHL Chicago, per the AHL’s transactions log. Carolina has made these moves all season long to bank a bit of cap space.  Even with the roster freeze, emergency recalls are still permitted for a few more days so expect them to continue this for even after Thursday.
  • Capitals prospect Cam Allen is on the move in the OHL. London announced that they’ve acquired the blueliner from Guelph in exchange for defenseman Noah Jenken and seven draft picks.  Allen was once rated as a first-round pick but slid in his draft year (2023) to the fifth round, going 136th overall.  Washington has already signed the 19-year-old who had 25 points in 27 games prior to the swap.

Metropolitan Notes: Islanders, White, Kolosov, Stillman

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Islanders star Mathew Barzal practiced Thursday for the first time since sustaining an upper-body injury at the end of October, relays Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News. He was joined by fellow IR-bound impact pieces Anthony Duclair and Adam Pelech, all of whom weren’t carrying any contact restrictions, per Rosner.

None of the trio will play tonight against the Blackhawks, but head coach Patrick Roy told Rosner that they’ve all been upgraded to day-to-day. Barzal is at the end of his four-to-six-week return timeline from his UBI, while Duclair is already a week past his projected four-to-six-week return window from a freak leg injury in just his fifth appearance of the season. Pelech never landed a specific timeline in his return from a jaw injury he sustained against the Sabres on Nov. 1.

Today marked the latter two’s first time skating with the team without a non-contact designation, although they’d both returned to practice within the last week. The Islanders must make a few roster moves to activate their pair of top-six forwards and top-four defender. Their active roster is full with Barzal and Duclair on LTIR and Pelech on standard IR, so they’ll need to make three reassignments to be compliant. One should be goaltender Marcus Högberg, who’s up from AHL Bridgeport on an emergency basis while veteran backup Semyon Varlamov deals with a lower-body injury. Rookie defenseman Isaiah George is waiver-exempt and will likely be the second demotion, but all other likely candidates for reassignment require waivers. Winger Hudson Fasching, who’s averaging just 8:39 per game through 10 appearances this season, seems like the best option to expose to the wire.

While Barzal was averaging a career-high 21:12 per game before his injury, he was off to a slow start offensively, with two goals and three assists for five points in 10 games. His and Duclair’s nearing returns will allow Roy to reunite them on the top line with Bo Horvat, a new-look unit that dominated play with a 64.6% expected goal share before injuries struck, per MoneyPuck.

There’s more out of the Metropolitan:

  • The Devils’ demotion of defenseman Nick DeSimone yesterday wasn’t a paper move. They’ve opted to give a different minor-league mainstay a stint on the NHL roster as an extra defenseman, announcing the recall of Colton White from AHL Utica. White, 27, was a New Jersey fourth-round pick in 2015 and returned to the organization last offseason as a free agent on a two-year, two-way deal after spending the prior two years in the Ducks organization. He hasn’t appeared in an NHL game since skating in a career-high 46 contests with Anaheim in 2022-23, during which time he recorded six assists and 34 hits with a -17 rating while averaging 14:32 per game. The 6’1″ lefty has eight points and a -2 rating in 20 games with Utica this year, matching his point total from last season with San Diego in 53 games.
  • Flyers netminder Aleksei Kolosov has temporarily cemented his spot as No. 2 on their goaltending depth chart behind Samuel Ersson, head coach John Tortorella told reporters today (including Charlie O’Connor of PHLY Sports). The 22-year-old Belarusian has battled it out with fellow rookie Ivan Fedotov this season, and both have gotten extended looks with Ersson missing significant time last month with a lower-body injury. Philadelphia has carried three goalies since Ersson returned to health, though, a plan that doesn’t appear to be imminently changing. Kolosov has a 3-5-1 record in nine showings this year with a .881 SV% and 3.29 GAA but leads Flyers netminders with 0.1 goals saved above expected, per MoneyPuck. That’s a testament to the quality of chances he’s faced – the Flyers are allowing 3.13 xGA per game with Kolosov in net compared to 2.23 with Ersson. His numbers also clearly exceed those of the 28-year-old Fedotov, who has a .877 SV% and -3.5 GSAx through 10 games.
  • The Hurricanes have again swapped extra defenders, adding Riley Stillman to the roster today from AHL Chicago after having Ty Smith fill that role for their past couple of games. Stillman, 26, has been rostered twice since being activated from injured reserve in November but has yet to suit up for Carolina, which inked him to a two-way deal over the summer. The veteran of 158 NHL games with the Panthers, Blackhawks, Canucks, and Sabres has two assists and a +1 rating in seven minor-league contests in 2024-25.

Metropolitan Notes: Provorov, Rangers, Stillman

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It appears the Blue Jackets may be without a key defenseman for the foreseeable future.  Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch notes that Ivan Provorov left Friday’s game with an upper-body injury.  The injury occurred early in the second period when he dove for a puck with his hand hitting the boards; his thumb took the brunt of the impact.  There’s no word yet on how long he might miss.  Provorov has nine points in 26 games so far this season while logging over 23 minutes a night of playing time.  A pending unrestricted free agent, he’s widely expected to be a key trade chip for Columbus in the second half of the year as long as this injury doesn’t keep him out for an extended period of time.

More from the Metropolitan:

  • With the Rangers trading Jacob Trouba to Anaheim yesterday, they now find themselves without a captain. However, don’t expect that vacancy to be filled right away.  Head coach Peter Laviolette told reporters including NHL.com’s Dan Rosen (Twitter link) that the team is not planning to name a new captain.  They’re open to appointing another alternate (to join Adam Fox, Chris Kreider, Artemi Panarin, and Mika Zibanejad) but that won’t happen right away.  New York has now moved its last three captains in midseason swaps with Trouba joining Ryan McDonagh and Ryan Callahan in that category.
  • The Hurricanes announced that they have re-assigned defenseman Riley Stillman to AHL Chicago. The 26-year-old has been sent back and forth a few times in recent weeks but he hasn’t seen any game action yet with Carolina.  Stillman has been limited to just six games with the Wolves after starting the season on injured reserve and has two assists in those outings.  With the move, the Hurricanes now have two vacancies on their active roster for the time being.

Hurricanes Recall Riley Stillman, Assign Yaniv Perets To AHL

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The Hurricanes have made a pair of roster moves leading up to Tuesday’s game against Seattle.  The team announced that they’ve recalled defenseman Riley Stillman from AHL Chicago while they returned goaltender Yaniv Perets to the Wolves.

Stillman signed a one-year, two-way deal with Carolina early in free agency back in the summer.  However, the 26-year-old suffered a lower-body injury in training camp that kept him out of the lineup for the first 14 games of the season.  He was waived upon being cleared to return and has gotten into six games with Chicago since then, picking up a pair of assists.

Stillman has 158 career NHL appearances to his name so far between four different organizations.  Over that stretch, he has 26 points, 197 blocks, and 318 hits while averaging a little under 16 minutes a night.  However, he didn’t see any NHL action last season, instead playing exclusively with AHL Rochester where he had six points and 49 penalty minutes in 47 games before being non-tendered by Buffalo in June.

As for Perets, he served as Carolina’s backup in recent days with Frederik Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov both banged up.  However, the team is hopeful that Kochetkov can return against the Kraken, allowing him and Spencer Martin to be the tandem.  Perets stopped six of seven shots in relief on Saturday for his first NHL appearance of the season.  He has a 3.67 GAA and a .825 SV% in three games with the Wolves so far this year.

Metro Notes: Chytil, Kreider, Lizotte, Glass, Romanov, Stillman

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According to Mollie Walker of the New York Post, the New York Rangers will operate without forwards Filip Chytil and Chris Kreider in the lineup tonight against the Carolina Hurricanes. It’ll mark the second straight game without the pair of forwards.

Chytil has missed considerably more than Kreider having been out since New York’s November 14th matchup against the San Jose Sharks. He was reportedly close to a return on November 21st, but the upper-body injury is still afflicting him. He’s scored four goals and nine points in 15 games this season for the Rangers.

Kreider has only missed one game due to his upper-body injury. Through 19 games, he’s scored as many points as Chytil this year, though all in the form of goals. His offensive production has dipped so significantly that the Rangers are reportedly willing to engage interested teams in trade discussions for the veteran scorer.

Other Metro notes:

  • Josh Getzoff, play-by-play commentator of the Pittsburgh Penguins, gave a few injury updates for the team today. Getzoff shares that forward Blake Lizotte, who hasn’t played since November 13th, will be a game-time decision for the team’s game tonight against the Vancouver Canucks. There’s worse news regarding Cody Glass as Getzoff, unfortunately, shares he will miss his ninth straight game with a concussion.
  • Defenseman Alexander Romanov is expected back in the lineup for the New York Islanders this evening. According to line rushes provided by Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News, Romanov took part in line rushes at practice with Noah Dobson on the first defensive unit. He seemingly missed the team’s last game due to the same nagging injury that’s kept him out for much of the regular season.
  • It was a short stay in the NHL for defenseman Riley Stillman. The Carolina Hurricanes announced they’ve reassigned Stillman to their AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves, after only one day on the active roster. Carolina may have just used Stillman for another option at practice given that he was quickly recalled and reassigned before the Hurricanes’ next game.

Metro Notes: Kochetkov, Stillman, Sillinger

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Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov is out day-to-day (as per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet) . The 25-year-old will not play tomorrow night against the New York Rangers but could play this weekend depending on his status. Kochetkov suffered a concussion on Saturday night after he collided with teammate Sean Walker and entered concussion protocol yesterday.  Hurricanes’ head coach Rod Brind’Amour didn’t have a timeline as of yesterday, noting that concussion recovery is hard to predict.

Kochetkov has been solid this season for Carolina, posting a 10-2-0 record with a 2.42 goals against average and a .904 save percentage. His underlying numbers have been terrific in 13 games, with a goals saved above expected of 3.9 (as per MoneyPuck).

In other Metropolitan Division notes:

  • The Hurricanes have recalled defenseman Riley Stillman from the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League (Twitter link). The 26-year-old hasn’t appeared in an NHL game since the 2022-23 season and will likely be Carolina’s seventh defenseman tomorrow night when they take on the Rangers. Stillman spent all of last season in the AHL with the Rochester Americans and has suited up in four games this year, tallying a single assist. Stillman has played parts of five seasons in the NHL, registering four goals and 22 assists in 158 games.
  • Aaron Portzline of The Athletic is reporting that Columbus Blue Jackets forward Cole Sillinger will miss tomorrow night’s game against the Montreal Canadiens with an upper-body injury. Sillinger took a skate to the head halfway through Columbus’ victory over Carolina on Saturday night, but the Blue Jackets haven’t officially stated the reason for Sillinger’s absence. His loss will be a big one for the team as the 21-year-old is fifth in team scoring with three goals and nine assists in 20 games. He also plays on both the power play and the penalty kill, which will leave Columbus shorthanded on both sides of their specialty teams.

Hurricanes Activate, Reassign Riley Stillman

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Nov. 13: Stillman cleared waivers and is on his way to the AHL, according to Friedman.

Nov. 12: The Hurricanes have placed defenseman Riley Stillman on waivers with the intent to assign him to AHL Chicago, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. The move indicates he’s been activated from season-opening injured reserve after missing the past couple of months with a lower-body injury.

Stillman, 26, hasn’t played in the NHL since April 2023 with the Sabres. He spent all of last season on assignment to their AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans, where the heavy-hitting 6’2″ defender struggled with only six points in 47 games with a -4 rating.

The 2016 fourth-round pick of the Panthers was hoping to get his career back on track with the Canes, who inked him to a two-way deal ($775K/$150K) in the first few days of free agency. There was a small opening for him to potentially stick on the roster as a seventh defenseman, but without a full training camp to evaluate him, it was a foregone conclusion that he’d end up on waivers after he was medically cleared to play.

Over the course of five seasons, Stillman has 158 NHL games under his belt with the Panthers, Blackhawks, Canucks, and Sabres. He’s scored four goals and 22 assists for 26 points, compiling a -19 rating with 197 blocks and 318 hits while averaging 15:49 per game.

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