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Ryan Poehling

Pittsburgh Penguins Activate Ryan Poehling

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The Pittsburgh Penguins activated forward Ryan Poehling from injured reserve today, according to a team tweet.

Poehling had been absent from the lineup with an undisclosed injury since early this month, and he’s been limited to 31 out of 45 games this season overall as he’s been in and out of the lineup with various minor injuries. He has four goals and four assists for eight points in those games, and he’s played decent defensively in that time as well.

He hasn’t had a terribly significant role, receiving fourth-line minutes, and the 25th overall pick in 2017 has yet to make much noise offensively at the NHL level. Still, his overall play has improved from last season with the Montreal Canadiens, where he notched nine goals and 17 points in 57 games.

With Kasperi Kapanen and Josh Archibald still sidelined with injuries, Poehling could return to the lineup and replace call-up, Jonathan Gruden. Gruden, 22, has yet to get on the scoresheet through three NHL games and has played just 5:19 per game under head coach Mike Sullivan.

Poehling could play when the Penguins face off against the New Jersey Devils Sunday afternoon.

Metropolitan Notes: Penguins, Johansen, O’Brien

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The Penguins got some help on the injury front tonight as the team announced that they’ve activated center Ryan Poehling off injured reserve.  The 23-year-old had missed the last three games due to an upper-body injury.  Poehling is in his first season with Pittsburgh after coming over in a summer trade from Montreal and has been a fixture in their bottom six, collecting eight points in 30 games while logging a little over 11 minutes per night.  To make room for Poehling on the roster, winger Drake Caggiula has been sent back to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL.  Caggiula has played in just three games with Pittsburgh so far this season but has 14 points in 23 games at the minor league level.

More from the Metropolitan:

  • Lucas Johansen’s latest stint with the Capitals has come to an end as the team announced that they’ve returned the defenseman to Hershey of the AHL. The 25-year-old was recalled on Tuesday following the roster freeze being lifted but didn’t play.  Johansen has suited up twice with Washington so far this season while he has a goal and an assist in 13 games with the Bears in the minors.  Johansen’s assignment suggests that blueliner Martin Fehervary is ready to return from his upper-body injury.
  • The Flyers don’t have a second-round pick next summer as a result of the Rasmus Ristolainen trade. However, as Charlie O’Connor of The Athletic notes (subscription link), it is possible for Philadelphia to get one next summer for Jay O’Brien.  Assuming they don’t sign the 2018 first-rounder, they’d receive the 19th pick of the second round as compensation.  Normally, since O’Brien plays in college, his free agency wouldn’t start until mid-August which would push the compensatory pick to 2024.  That said, if Philadelphia wants the 2023 selection, there is an appeal process that could play out which would allow O’Brien to become a free agent in June, allowing them to get the second-rounder a year earlier.

Injury Notes: Wild, Penguins, Zub

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A mixed bag of news is coming out of Minnesota Wild practice this morning. The Star Tribune’s Sarah McLellan reports Joel Eriksson Ek is absent from practice, although injured forwards Brandon Duhaime and Marcus Foligno are skating.

Eriksson Ek has been invaluable to Minnesota, even more so on both sides of the puck this year. He’s on pace for a career year offensively, recording 27 points through 35 contests (tied for third on the team). Duhaime has been very limited this year, playing in just 14 games due to two separate upper-body injuries. On the other hand, Foligno has been out with an undisclosed injury since December 22.

Pittsburgh Penguins Recall Ty Smith, Drake Caggiula

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have moved Josh Archibald and Ryan Poehling to injured reserve, recalling Ty Smith and Drake Caggiula to fill the roster spots. Both IR stints are retroactive, meaning Archibald and Poehling can be activated whenever healthy enough to return.

Smith’s recall will excite some fans though, given the upside that he still represents. The 22-year-old defenseman was part of the return in an offseason trade of John Marino and looked like he would be a regular piece of the Pittsburgh blue line during the preseason. Instead, he was sent down to start the year and has racked up 14 points in 26 games with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins instead.

That was Smith’s first experience in the minor leagues, as he jumped right from the WHL to the NHL in 2020 with the New Jersey Devils. He played 114 NHL games during his first two seasons, scoring seven goals and 43 points in the process. The 2018 first-round pick has plenty of offensive potential but can still be inconsistent on the defensive side of the puck.

He will likely get a chance to show off any improvement in that area, given the injury that Chad Ruhwedel suffered last night. The veteran defenseman played just 5:28 before leaving.

Penguins Acquire Jeff Petry

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The Penguins moved out a right-shot defender earlier today when they sent John Marino to New Jersey.  It appears he’ll be replaced by Jeff Petry as Pittsburgh has acquired the veteran along with center Ryan Poehling from Montreal in exchange for blueliner Mike Matheson and a 2023 fourth-round pick.  Both teams have confirmed the swap.

The 34-year-old is coming off a tough season with Montreal that saw him struggle as their top defender in the absence of Shea Weber.  He struggled mightily offensively to start the year as over the first three months of the year, he had just two assists in 27 games.  However, Petry’s performance improved following the coaching change that saw Martin St. Louis take over behind the bench and he was much better down the stretch, picking up 21 points in the final three months of the season.  Overall, Petry finished up the year with six goals and 21 assists in 68 games, his lowest point total since the 2015-16 campaign, his first full season with the Canadiens.

Around the midway point of the year, he also requested a trade for family reasons.  While he was widely expected to move at the trade deadline and again at the draft, it has taken a while for a move to materialize.

Petry has three years left on his contract with a $6.25MM AAV and Montreal GM Kent Hughes stated earlier this week that he wasn’t interested in retaining any salary to facilitate a trade.  While the Marino move freed up roughly $3.5MM in cap flexibility, that wasn’t enough to absorb Petry’s full deal which is what prompted Matheson’s inclusion in the swap.  Petry had been speculated as a possible replacement for Kris Letang if the veteran was to leave in free agency.  Instead, Letang signed a six-year deal and Petry will now help form a quality one-two punch on the right side of their back end with Petry’s AAV checking in just above Letang’s to make him the highest-paid blueliner on the team.

Matheson was a top-four defender early in his career with Florida but his stock started to dip a few years ago, resulting in him being flipped for Patric Hornqvist.  The move worked out well for the 28-year-old as he had a career year offensively in 2021-22, picking up 11 goals and 20 assists in 74 games while logging just under 19 minutes a night.  He was also quite productive for the Penguins in the playoffs, notching a goal and five helpers in seven games to lead all Pittsburgh blueliners in scoring while averaging over 25 minutes per contest.

Matheson has four years remaining on his contract with a $4.875MM AAV on a deal that is somewhat heavily backloaded with his payout set to jump to $6.5MM per season in each of the final three seasons.  He immediately becomes the blueliner with the longest contract on the Canadiens while also being their highest-paid.  He’ll likely take the place of Alexander Romanov on Montreal’s depth chart as the youngster was traded back at the draft to the Islanders for the 13th-overall pick which was then flipped to Chicago to pick up center Kirby Dach.

As for Poehling, the 23-year-old was a first-round pick of Montreal back in 2017 (25th overall) and spent most of last season with the Canadiens, notching nine goals and eight assists in 57 games while averaging just over 12 minutes per game.  He’s likely to have a similar role in Pittsburgh’s bottom six in 2022-23.  Poehling is signed for the league minimum for next season and will be a restricted free agent next summer.

With the move, Pittsburgh now has just under $2MM in cap space with RFA winger Kasperi Kapanen still to sign.  That’s not enough for the 25-year-old so it would appear that GM Ron Hextall has another move to try to make.  Meanwhile, Montreal frees up a little over $2MM with this swap, giving them a little over $2.3MM in cap room with Dach as their most notable RFA in need of a new deal.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.  Contract and cap info courtesy of CapFriendly.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report that Petry was heading to Pittsburgh.  Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli was the first to report the trade details.

Snapshots: Kallgren, Poehling, Smith

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The Toronto Maple Leafs will have Erik Kallgren in net tonight when they take on the Dallas Stars, giving the 25-year-old goaltender his first start as they desperately look for an answer between the pipes. With Jack Campbell hurt and Petr Mrazek playing his way out of town, Kallgren–a seventh-round pick of the Arizona Coyotes in 2015 who signed with Toronto after playing the last two seasons overseas–has a chance to show what he can do at the NHL level.

With so much uncertainty around the Maple Leafs’ goaltending situation, the team might have been looking across the rink at the Stars net for an answer had some complicating factors not occurred in the last few days. Braden Holtby, who was considered by many to be a top trade deadline candidate, is dealing with a minor injury while third-string netminder Anton Khudobin is now out for the year. As Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet tweets, it is “safe to say” that Holtby will remain with the Stars through the deadline as Dallas chases down a playoff berth.

  • Ryan Poehling will be out indefinitely with an upper-body injury, the Montreal Canadiens announced today. Poehling took a hard shot from Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Justin Braun over the weekend and exited the game. Though he still hasn’t contributed a ton of offense, Poehling looked like he was finally finding his stride in the NHL as a big-bodied center, a progression that will now be halted as he deals with this injury. The 23-year-old first-round pick has five goals and 12 points in 45 games this season.
  • Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Brendan Smith has been medically cleared according to team reporter Walt Ruff, though he is still dealing with some pretty scary effects. Smith suffered a fractured skull and is still dealing with partial hearing loss in one ear after taking a puck in the head last month. Smith and fellow injured defenseman Tony DeAngelo both skated today for the Hurricanes.

Montreal Canadiens Sign Ryan Poehling

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The Montreal Canadiens have signed restricted free agent forward Ryan Poehling to a two-year contract. In 2021-22, Poehling will receive $750K at the NHL level and $225K at the AHL level. In 2022-23, he will receive $750K as the contract will be one-way.

It seems like a long time ago that Poehling burst onto the scene with a hat trick in his first NHL game. That was only at the end of the 2018-19 season after he signed out of St. Cloud State, but so much has changed in terms of the Montreal depth chart that it might as well be five years ago. Poehling now enters this season having spent the entire 2020-21 campaign at the minor league level and is certainly not a lock for NHL playing time out of the gate.

The fact that he is still waiver-exempt likely means he’s on his way back to the AHL to start the season, and given the young talent up the middle for the Canadiens it’s not clear when he’ll really get another chance. Nick Suzuki, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, and Jake Evans all have more experience at this point and figure to be on the opening day lineup, not leaving a ton of room for someone like Poehling.

That’s not to say his career in Montreal is over though. The 22-year-old forward is still exactly what they drafted him to be, a big-bodied center with some scoring upside. He had 25 points in 28 games last season for the Laval Rocket and should post strong results in that league again if he does end up in the AHL. A $750K cap hit will actually help him in his quest to earn NHL playing time as the Canadiens navigate a flat cap, but he’s still likely going to need some breaks to go his way.

Ryan Poehling To Undergo Season-Ending Surgery

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It wasn’t so long ago that Ryan Poehling was the star prospect for the Montreal Canadiens. On this day two years ago, after a strong junior season at St. Cloud State, Poehling burst onto the scene in his NHL debut, scoring three goals against the Toronto Maple Leafs. He played just 11:22 that night, but expectations and excitement exploded, with many believing he would never leave the Canadiens lineup again.

After all, this was the 25th overall pick from 2017 and Poehling had the size and skill necessary to succeed at the NHL level. Now, two years later, Poehling has been passed on the prospect depth chart by several exciting Canadiens forwards and spent all of 2020-21 in the minor leagues. His AHL season is ending early, as the team announced he suffered a wrist injury that will require surgery.

Now 22, Poehling was dominant for the Laval Rocket this year. He scored 11 goals and 25 points in 28 games, leading the team in both categories. In his last game, which occurred on April 24, he had three assists and was the game’s first star.

Following the injury, Poehling now enters an uncertain offseason. He will be a restricted free agent for the first time but is not eligible for arbitration. His waiver-exempt status will not expire next year, meaning he could be on the way down the minor leagues once again. Luckily, because of his age when he made that 2019 debut, he is still exempt from the expansion draft and will not require protection. He’ll need a new contract through and with just five points in 28 career NHL games, doesn’t have much leverage to ask for a raise.

Minor Transactions: 02/08/20

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There are a dozen games on the docket today, with start times spanning over eight hours. The action begins with a pair of matinees featuring Western Conference teams in desperate need of points to stay relevant, the Winnipeg Jets and Arizona Coyotes. The night will be capped off with the Carolina Hurricanes facing the Vegas Golden Knights. If the playoffs started today, Vegas would not only be in but would avoid a wild card berth despite having the 16th-best record in the NHL, while Carolina would be on the outside looking in with the 12th-best record. Every game counts at this time of year, especially as time ticks down on the trade deadline with a number of teams trying to decide if they will be buyers or sellers. Every roster move matters as well, and there should be a number of them given the heavy slate of action this weekend. Keep up with all those transactions right here:

  • The Washington Capitals have recalled rookie defenseman Martin Fehervary from the AHL, the team announced. Fehervary is expected to draw into the lineup immediately tonight in place of Nick Jensen. Fehervary, 20, has only played in four games with the Washington Capitals this year but has played meaningful minutes in each appearance. In 45 games with the Hershey Bears this season, Fehervary has 14 points, among the leaders in first-year defensemen in the AHL.
  • Following back-to-back games over the past two nights, the Buffalo Sabres are one of just seven teams with Saturday night off. They have used the occasion to reassign youngsters Rasmus Asplund and Lawrence Pilut to the AHL’s Rochester Americans, the team announced. Pilut has been held scoreless through ten games with Buffalo this season but has 22 points in 30 games with Rochester. Asplund has featured more prominently with the Sabres, albeit recording only three points in 29 games, but has eight points in 18 AHL games as well.
  • The Montreal Canadiens announced that they have assigned Ryan Poehling to Laval of the AHL.  After recording a hat-trick in his NHL debut last season, he has struggled offensively this season, recording just one goal and one assist in 27 games.  Montreal has had several players dealing with the flu in recent days – including Poehling himself – so this move is a sign that some players are starting to get healthier.
  • The Vegas Golden Knights have assigned Cody Glass to AHL Chicago per a team release.  The rookie last played on January 4th and has been out with a lower-body injury since then.  It’s not a conditioning stint but he’ll get a chance to log some big minutes with the Wolves and play in more offensive-oriented situations than he has in Vegas.  Through 37 NHL games this season, the 20-year-old has five goals and seven assists.
  • The Detroit Red Wings announced they have assigned defenseman Dennis Cholowski back to the Grand Rapids Griffins of the AHL. The team’s 2016 first-rounder has split his sophomore season between the Red Wings and the Griffins. He has two goals and eight points in 33 games with Detroit, while scoring two goals and seven points in 19 games with the Griffins.

Minor Transactions: 12/12/19

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Another busy day in the NHL with 12 games on tap, including the first game without Peter DeBoer behind the bench for the San Jose Sharks. Two other teams with new head coaches will battle in Calgary when the Flames take on the Maple Leafs, while the Detroit Red Wings limp into a matchup with the Winnipeg Jets. As those teams and rest prepare for tonight’s action, we’ll keep track of all the minor moves right here.

  • It was apparently a paper transaction for Filip Zadina and Dylan McIlrath, who didn’t actually have to fly to San Diego to get into the AHL lineup last night. They have both been recalled by the Red Wings ahead of tonight’s action. The Red Wings are close to getting a few of their important forwards back, but for now Zadina will continue to get a chance to show what he can do at the NHL level.
  • Ryan Poehling hopes his own assignment isn’t for long after being sent to the Laval Rocket today. The Montreal Canadiens’ prospect could be recalled before Saturday’s game, unless someone is ready to return to action.
  • The Pittsburgh Penguins have recalled Joseph Blandisi from the minor leagues under emergency conditions, never a good sign for a team that has dealt with countless injuries this season. Blandisi has plenty of NHL experience, including eleven games with the Penguins this season.
  • Joachim Blichfeld has been recalled by the Sharks, the first move under new head coach Bob Boughner. Blichfeld, 21, is the top scorer for San Jose Barracuda with 19 points in 20 games.
  • The St. Louis Blues have returned Nathan Walker to the minor leagues after activating Oskar Sundqvist from injured reserve. Walker, 25, scored two points in his five games with the Blues and is still the leading scorer of the San Antonio Rampage with 22 points in 20 games.
  • Austin Czarnik has been recalled from his conditioning stint by the Calgary Flames, but will remain on long-term injured reserve for the time being.
  • The Anaheim Ducks have returned defenseman Brendan Guhle to the San Diego Gulls, reports Eric Stephens of The Athletic.  He has spent most of the season with Anaheim, collecting four points in 18 games while logging over 17 minutes a night but with Josh Manson recently returning, there wasn’t a spot for Guhle in the lineup anymore.

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