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Minor Transactions: 1/4/2016

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A day after calling up Daniel Altshuller from Charlotte of the AHL, the Carolina Hurricanes have returned the goaltender to the Checkers, according to the team’s official Twitter account. Meanwhile, the club has recalled veteran net minder Michael Leighton from their top minor league affiliate to serve as the team’s back-up between the pipes behind starter Cam Ward.

Altshuller did not see action in last night’s 3 – 1 loss to Carolina and has yet to make his NHL debut. The 22-year-old was selected in the third-round of the 2012 draft, 69th overall, by the Hurricanes and has appeared in 33 contests across the last two seasons with Charlotte, posting a record of 11 – 12 – 5.

Leighton, 35, has seen action in three games with Carolina this season, starting two, and has a 2 – 1 – 0 record with a GAA of 3.53 and a Save % of 0.875. He has appeared in 109 games over parts of 10 NHL seasons, spending time in the Chicago, Nashville, Philadelphia and Hurricanes organizations during that time. He famously backstopped the Flyers to a surprising berth in the 2009-10 Stanley Cup Final, ultimately losing to the Blackhawks in six games.

  • The Florida Panthers have loaned blue liner Dylan McIlrath to the Springfield Thunderbirds on a conditioning assignment, the team announced on their website. McIlrath, a first-round pick of the New York Rangers in 2010, has appeared in four games with the Panthers since joining the team after being acquired from New York in a November trade for fellow defenseman Steven Kampfer and a seventh-round pick in 2018. The hulking defender has tallied a single goal and has 14 penalty minutes on the season, while averaging just 9:39 of ice time per game.
  • Yanni Gourde was reassigned by the Tampa Bay Lightning to their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch, tweets Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times. The 25-year-old pivot made two appearances this season, failing to register a point while seeing about nine minutes of action per night. The Lightning welcomed veteran forward Ryan Callahan back into the lineup last night and his return allowed the team enough roster flexibility to send Gourde to the minors.
  • In a procedural move necessitated by the activation of goaltender Michal Neuvirth from IR, the Philadelphia Flyers have placed blue liner Mark Streit on LTIR, according to CSN Philly’s Tim Panaccio. Streit last played on December 11th and is expected to be out until sometime later this month due to a shoulder injury. By placing the veteran defender on LTIR, the Flyers are temporarily able to clear his $5.25MM cap hit from their ledger, thus allowing for the activation of Neuvirth. Had the transaction not been made, Philadelphia would have been over the salary cap by around $682K.

Injury Updates: Crawford, Palat, Kucherov, Vatrano, Honka

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Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford underwent an emergency appendectomy back on December 3rd and it was said then that he was likely to miss two-to-three weeks as a result. Thirteen days later, the 31-year-old is back on the ice skating with his team, reports Tracy Myers of CSN Chicago. Myers adds that Crawford also took some shots today and head coach Joel Quenneville is waiting to see how their #1 net minder is doing when the team returns home from their current road trip.

The team has fared pretty well in Crawford’s absence. After dropping his first two games, Crawford’s understudy, Scott Darling, has won four of his last five starts, allowing just six goals during that time. He is likely at this point to get the call in both of Chicago’s weekend games, at St. Louis on Saturday and in Chicago against the Sharks on Sunday.

Elsewhere on the injury front:

  • Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times reports that the Lightning will be without forwards Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov for tonight and likely for the team’s game tomorrow as well (Twitter link). Additionally, Ryan Callahan is not going to play tonight as Tampa Bay travels to Vancouver to take on the Canucks. In a follow-up tweet, Smith adds that Palat is considered day-to-day while Kucherov has not been placed on IR, suggesting he is also day-to-day. While it’s never a good thing to be without three regular forwards, even if it’s just for a game or two, a prolonged absence of Kucherov would be especially bad news for the Lightning. The fourth-year winger leads the team in both goals (13) and points (30) this season and also topped the club in scoring last season. Palat has tallied 13 points in 30 games for Tampa Bay, while Callahan has added just four points in an injury-marred campaign for the gritty veteran winger.
  • Frank Vatrano, who has been out since September with a foot injury, was activated by Boston and assigned to Providence of the AHL, according to Joe Haggerty of CSNNE. Haggerty states that the young winger needs to play to get back up to speed. Vatrano exploded on the scene as a prospect last year after registering 36 goals in just 36 AHL games and earned his first call up to Boston. While not as successful in the NHL, Vatrano did net eight goals in 39 games for the Bruins, demonstrating the ability to be a solid performer at this level.
  • Finally, the Dallas Stars activated defenseman Julius Honka from IR and reassigned the young Finn to Texas of the AHL, the team announced today. Honka had missed the last five games with an upper-body injury. The team’s first-round draft choice in 2014, the 21-year-old blue liner made his NHL debut this season and in eight games recorded three points. In 16 contests earlier this year with Texas, Honka tallied three goals and 12 points. Dallas already has a roster full of capable NHL defensemen, leading one to wonder when or if the team will recall Honka, as some have suggested the constant shuffling on the back end has contributed in part to the Stars struggles this season.

Atlantic Notes: Toronto Trade Speculation, Yandle, Lightning

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While there have been rumblings that the Maple Leafs could potentially be shopping left winger James van Riemsdyk, he’s not letting that talk affect him, writes Mark Zwolinski of the Toronto Star.  Given his contract ($4.25MM this season and next), the spot that Toronto is currently in, and the demand for top six talent, there is some logic in suggesting the team could possibly deal him.  For his part, van Riemsdyk isn’t too worried about the chatter:

“You’ve gone through it before… That kind of thing, it was different in Philly. It would eat at you a lot more back then. You take it more personally back then and you never thought those things would happen to you. But not so much now, now that you’ve been through it.”

While van Riemsdyk may not be bothered by the speculation surrounding him and, to a lesser degree, William Nylander, head coach Mike Babcock was looking to put an end to it:

“We’re not looking to move those guys. There’s been a bunch of talk, a bunch of talk about Willy too, and I said to those guys, just play hard… We’re not looking to move them. There can be a truth one day and that truth can change the next… There’s noise (media) and you know you guys can make a lot of noise.“

With Toronto being the major media market that it is though, it’s unlikely that the chatter regarding van Riemsdyk will subside any time soon, no matter how much the team publicly indicates that they’re not shopping him.

More from the Atlantic:

  • Keith Yandle’s streak of 577 consecutive games played will come to an end tonight after leaving yesterday’s game in the first period due to a lower body injury, notes the Sun Sentinel’s Harvey Fialkov. Interim head coach Tom Rowe told reporters that Yandle will be out for a while, though there is no specific timeframe for his return.  Dylan McIlrath is expected to draw into the lineup in Yandle’s spot tonight in Philadelphia.
  • The Lightning have assigned defenseman Luke Witkowski and center Michael Bournival to their AHL affiliate in Syracuse, the team announced. The moves leave Tampa Bay with just 12 healthy forwards on the active roster although right winger Ryan Callahan is nearing a return to action and could be ready to return for their next game on Thursday.

Tampa Bay Recalls Vermin, Bournival From Syracuse

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With Ryan Callahan still nursing an injury and a few other players banged up, the Tampa Bay Lightning have recalled Joel Vermin and Michael Bournival from the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL.

Neither player has suited up for the Lightning this year, however both have had good starts in the AHL. Signed to a one-year, two-way deal this summer, Bournival has 11 points in 17 games for the Crunch. A 24-year old former third-round pick, he has 89 games of NHL experience with the Montreal Canadiens. Expected to be a strong scorer when he was drafted, the next two seasons in Shawinigan were solid but not spectacular, and he’s turned into a bottom-six only type in his short professional career.

For Vermin, this is familiar ground having been called up by the team last season for six games. A smaller Swiss forward, Vermin has shown his capability as an energy guy who uses his speed to force turnovers. The Lightning will need some of that energy, as they’re currently on a three game losing streak and have fallen to third in the Atlantic Division.

Injuries: Callahan, Landeskog, Toews

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Injury updates tonight in the NHL:

  • Tampa Bay Lightning forward Ryan Callahan is out tonight against the Columbus Blue Jackets with a lower body injury, reports Tom Gulitti of NHL.com. The Lightning winger is off to a slow start this season with only 2G and 2A in 15 games so far. His ice time has diminished as a result—Callahan is averaging less than 15 minutes a game. It is unclear what caused the injury, but Callahan did participate in the team’s morning skate today, reports Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times.
  • Adrian Dater reports that Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog may be suffering from a charley horse that refuses to heal. According to Cam Tucker of NBC Sports, Landeskog isn’t even skating with the team, indicating that he may be out longer than expected. The Swedish forward had 4G and 4A in 15 games before the injury, and the flailing Avalanche need him back as soon as possible. They currently sit one point out of last place in the Western Conference.
  • The Chicago Blackhawks will be without captain Jonathan Toews for the third straight game, reports the Chicago Tribune’s Chris Kuc. Toews sits out with an apparent back injury suffered last Wednesday against the San Jose Sharks. Coach Joel Quennevillle does not consider the injury serious and labelled the captain day-to-day. Toews is experiencing an uncommonly low shooting percentage so far this season, scoring on only 7.4% of his shots, while his career average is just under 15%. He’ll hope to improve on those numbers when he returns. The Toews-less Blackhawks face the Florida Panthers tonight in what is their first game of five in eight nights.

Full List Of Mandatory-Protection Players In Expansion Draft

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Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston has published the full list of players who, due to no-movement clauses in their current contracts, must be protected in the upcoming expansion draft for the new Vegas Golden Knights. These are players who will count against the protection limits should they choose not to waive their NMC rights prior to the draft.

Each team has the right to protect either:

A) Seven forwards, three defenders, one goaltender

or

B) Eight skaters, one goaltender

These players will count against those numbers, and as Johnston points out, there are some notable inclusions and omissions from this group. Players like Jordan Staal, Rick Nash and Bobby Ryan all had incorrect information spread about their contracts. The former two will now need protection, while the latter will not, due to his deal only having a no-movement to the minors clause.

The Chicago Blackhawks, with eight players listed, will have little flexibility at the draft, with only four forward spots (or one defenseman) left to use. Many others, according to Johnston, including Toronto’s Nathan Horton, are likely to be made exempt if they are still on LTIR as the draft approaches.

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Atlantic Division Snapshots: Anderson, Deslauriers, Conacher, Vanek

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As noted earlier this week, Ottawa Senators goaltender Craig Anderson is going through a tough stretch in his personal life with the recent news of his wife’s cancer diagnosis. At his wife’s insistence, Anderson has returned from a brief leave of absence and will be pressed right back into service tonight between the pipes for the Senators, who are in Edmonton to play the red hot Oilers. Bruce Garrioch confirmed via Twitter that Anderson will get the start tonight as Ottawa attempts to snap the Oilers five-game winning streak.

Anderson has won four of his five starts this season despite a GAA approaching three and a S% just above 90%. Now in his 14th NHL season, Anderson has won 217 career games and has twice finished fourth in Vezina voting. During the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season, Anderson led the league in GAA (1.69) and S% (94.1%).

With Andrew Hammond now on IR the Senators desperately need Anderson, though it would be understandable if the veteran netminder’s focus is somewhat divided. It’s likely most everyone outside of Edmonton is going to be an Ottawa Senators and Craig Anderson fan tonight.

More from the NHL’s Atlantic Division:

  • Physical winger Nicolas Deslauriers of the Buffalo Sabres left Saturday’s win over Florida after a collision along the boards in the game’s final minute, writes Amy Moritz of The Buffalo News. Later, Mike Harrington, also of the Buffalo News, revealed on Twitter that Deslauriers has a knee injury and will be out of the lineup for “weeks.” To replace the four-year veteran in the lineup, at least for the time being, the Sabres have recalled winger Nicholas Baptiste from Rochester of the AHL, once again courtesy of Harrington. Baptiste has already appeared in two games this season for Buffalo – the first NHL action of his career – and scored his first career NHL goal on October 20th.
  • Cory Conacher, who was recalled on Friday to take the place of the injured Nikita Kucherov, has been returned to Syracuse of the AHL, according to Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times. Conacher played 13:26 last night for the Lightning but didn’t register a point and recorded a -1 plus-minus rating. Smith suggests the reassignment of Conacher could mean that Kucherov or perhaps even Ryan Callahan is ready to return to the lineup for tonight’s contest against the New York Rangers. As Smith also notes, it would be fitting for Callahan, who has yet to play this season following hip surgery this summer, to make his 2016-17 debut against his former team. It’s also possible head coach Jon Cooper will simply dress seven defensemen; a tactic he utilized on many occasions last season.
  •  Originally listed as day-to-day due to a lower-body-injury, it now appears as if Detroit forward Thomas Vanek has been downgraded to week-to-week and is expected to miss the next few games, according to Ansar Khan of MLive.com. Vanek is off to a good start in his first year in Detroit, scoring four goals and eight points in his first seven contests. Detroit was considered a fringe playoff team at best coming into the season but the Austrian winger has helped the Wings to a 6 – 3- 0 start and a second place standing in the Atlantic. His extended absence is certainly bad news for a Wings club that has overachieved to this point.

Snapshots: Injury Updates, Andrighetto, Tkachuk, Gerbe

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The Buffalo Sabres have had a tough couple days, with Jack Eichel, Kyle Okposo, and Dmitry Kulikov missing the team’s home opener versus the Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens beat them soundly 4-1 and Evander Kane left the game with what’s believed to be a rib injury. While Eichel is out long-term with a high ankle sprain, there is some good news for Sabres fans as Okposo and Kulikov both skated this morning with the team. The Sabres have not called up anyone from the AHL yet, as they don’t play until Sunday. They’ll let their farm team open the season with a full roster before plucking some players.

Down in Tampa Bay, rugged right winger Ryan Callahan is taking part in Lightning practice. Callahan has yet to play this season after hip surgery in June. We reported on Thursday that Callahan is expected to return by early November.  Callahan was wearing a full-contact jersey, so he appears to be on track to do so.

Atlantic Notes: Ristolainen, Callahan, Zetterberg, Huberdeau

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Despite defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen being signed for the next six years, the team doesn’t anticipate increasing his workload this season, writes John Vogl of the Buffalo News.  If anything, the team may be trying to scale back his ice time slightly.

In 2015-16, Ristolainen saw a significant jump in his playing time, going from an average of 20:37 in his sophomore campaign to 25:17 per night last season.  That ranked him tenth in the league in average ice time and after factoring in that he played in every game, his total ice time on the season slotted fifth overall.

Head coach Dan Bylsma is looking for more balance in his blueline pairings, something that should be aided with the addition of Dmitry Kulikov back at the draft in June.  The 25 year old has logged over 20 minutes per night in each of the last five seasons which will be useful if Bylsma wants to keep the ice time of pairings relatively close.

Buffalo’s back end is relatively healthy heading into tonight’s season opener against Montreal although Kulikov isn’t expected to play.  The same can’t be said for their forwards as they will be without Jack Eichel who injured his ankle on Wednesday and will miss at least a month.  Newcomer Kyle Okposo (bruised knee) also won’t play while Ryan O’Reilly (back) is questionable to suit up although he did participate in the morning skate.

Other Atlantic news and notes:

  • Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper is hopeful that Ryan Callahan should be able to return to the lineup by the beginning of November, notes Roger Mooney of the Tampa Bay Times. Callahan underwent hip surgery back in June and was expected to be out until mid-late November.  The 31 year old had 28 points in 73 games last season, the lowest full season output of his career but was slowed in the back half last year because of the hip problems.
  • Despite knee problems creeping up and tiring as the season went on last year, Detroit left winger Henrik Zetterberg still expects to play out the remaining five years of his contract, reports Gregg Krupa of the Detroit News. Zetterberg played in all 82 games last year for the first time in four seasons but is only two years removed from missing nearly half the season with injury concerns.  The 36 year old will carry a cap hit of just under $6.1MM through the 2020-21 season and if he were to retire early, the team would be subject to salary cap recapture due to the significant decrease in his salary in the final three years of the deal.
  • Panthers forward Jonathan Huberdeau has undergone surgery to repair an Achilles tendon, George Richards of the Miami Herald notes (Twitter link).  There is no change to the expected timetable for his return which should be in the next three to four months.
  • The Red Wings returned goaltender Eddie Pasquale to Grand Rapids of the AHL, the team announced on their team Twitter page.  Pasquale had cleared waivers and was originally sent down last Wednesday but had been recalled on Tuesday afternoon.

The Steven Stamkos Contract And Its Long Term Effects

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Had it happened at any point over the last year, Tampa Bay captain Steven Stamkos re-signing with the Lightning would have been the top story of the day and dominated the conversation. However, on a day where big names were being traded left, right, and center, the Markham-native forgoing unrestricted free agency seemed like a side note.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports the structure of Stamkos’ new contract being heavily bonus-laden: Stamkos will make a $1MM salary with the rest in bonuses. Friedman has the salary at five years of $9.5MM, followed by $7.5MM and two years of $6.5MM. That’s a total of $68MM over 8 years, for a cap hit of $8.5MM, which is only $1MM higher than his expiring contract.

It’s a similar structure to the contracts of David Clarkson and Ryan O’Reilly, with great benefits to the player in the event of a lockout or buyout: Stamkos will still get the signing bonus money if the NHL goes through another lockout in 2023 at the expiration of the current CBA. As well, should the Lightning ever want to buy him out (don’t laugh, they bough out Vincent Lecavalier), it would cost the team $2.83MM per season. That’s 283% of his actually salary. (Buyout calculation done on General Fanager).

The feel-good aspect of the signing is this: Stamkos took less money to stay than he could have gotten on the open market (not factoring taxes). He wants to retire a member of the Lightning. In the Lightning’s press release, Stamkos was quoted as saying “it’s not often that a player gets the chance to spend his career in one organization and I am hopeful that this agreement sets me on that path”.

However, the part that is going to make Lightning fans nervous is how it will affect the team around Stamkos. The team has $9.3MM in space for next season. However, leading scorer Nikita Kucherov still needs a new contract after being qualified earlier this week, as does two-way winger Alex Killorn. Those two contracts are doable; it’s next summer where it could get ugly. Top defenceman Victor Hedman, both starting goalie Ben Bishop and goalie-of-the-future Andrei Vasilevskiy, and forwards Jonathan Drouin, Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat will all see their contracts expire.

One of the goalies will likely be traded before then, but the rest of the group will cost serious money to keep together. Defenceman Matt Carle has two years left at $5.5MM and figures to be traded or bought out to save space for the upcoming group of free agents. This is also where gritty winger Ryan Callahan’s contract is going to hurt. Callahan will make $5.8MM annually until 2020, but scored just 28 points in 73 games last season and is on the wrong side of 30.

Wily GM Steve Yzerman will have his hands full again this season, after masterfully handling the Drouin and Stamkos sagas last season. It’s going to be a very interesting year for the Lightning and their fans.

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