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Eastern Notes: Carolina GM Search, Simmonds, Islanders

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With just a 9.9 percent chance to finish in the top three, the Carolina Hurricanes beat the odds Saturday when they moved up from a team with the 11th-worst record in the league and were awarded the No. 2 pick in the 2018 draft. While that gives the franchise lots of new options that they weren’t expecting, it also makes their general manager and coaching openings much more attractive, according to Chip Alexander of the News & Observer.

The general manager position, which has been open since the team transitioned former general manager Ron Francis to President of Hockey Operations on Mar. 7, was not a popular destination after new owner Tom Dundon ousted Francis and multiple candidates declined to interview, forcing to team to announce they would wait until the offseason to address their needs. On top of that, the team then lost head coach Bill Peters when he triggered an out-clause in his contract and took the head coaching position with the Calgary Flames.

However, Alexander writes both openings are now more intriguing with the No. 2 pick as adding an impact player immediately after they take the job is always a positive. Adding a winger like Andrei Svechnikov could change the team dramatically as he would likely be the No. 1 overall pick if Rasmus Dahlin not been there.

  • NHL.com’s Bill Meltzer writes the Philadelphia Flyers have a lot of work ahead of them this offseason. To start with, the team must depend on the continued development of their youth, including Nolan Patrick, Travis Konecny, Oskar Lindblom, Travis Sanheim, Robert Hagg and Samuel Morin. However, general manager Ron Hextall intends to make many roster changes to improve the team with the idea of adding more speed, especially to the special teams. Hextall, who is known for making offseason trades, is likely to be active again on the trade market and could attempt to move winger Wayne Simmonds. While Simmonds has said he wants to stay, the team could get a good return as the 30-year-old will enter the final year of a reasonable $3.975MM deal. With plenty of youth in their system working their way up, it would seem unlikely the Flyers would extend his contract.
  • With two picks in the lottery, the New York Islanders have multiple options in front of them, writes Arthur Staple of The Athletic (subscription required). While the team could use the 11th and 12th picks in the 2018 NHL Draft to trade down and pick up a top forward, the team could also stay where they are and rebuild the team’s prospect pool, which isn’t as strong as it once was. The scribe also adds that the team could use one of the picks in a package to acquire a veteran defenseman who could help fix their leaky blueline.

 

Injury Updates: Luongo, Manning, Fleury

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It looked bad when Roberto Luongo was forced out of Monday’s game with an apparent lower-body injury, and the update won’t be very comforting to Florida Panthers fans. Head coach Bob Boughner told reporters that Luongo will miss an “extended period of time,” going as far as claiming five weeks could be a possibility. The Panthers wouldn’t confirm what the injury exactly is, though it’s believed to be the goaltender’s groin.

The 38-year old was playing exceptional this season, and carries a .928 save percentage on the season. While his play hasn’t suffered, injury was always a risk for a goaltender at his age as he showed by missing a large chunk of the season last year, and already being held out with a hand injury in the early going this season. The Panthers will turn to James Reimer and Harri Sateri for the time being, who will have to try and turn things around to keep the team in the playoff race. Florida currently sits seventh in the Atlantic, with just 24 points through 27 games.

Philadelphia Flyers Activate Andrew MacDonald, Send Samuel Morin To Minors

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Bite your tongues Philadelphia Flyers fans. Defenseman Andrew MacDonald has been activated from injured reserve, meaning 22-year old Samuel Morin is on his way back to the minor leagues. Morin played in just two games with the Flyers, both overtime losses to the New York Islanders. MacDonald on the other hand has been out for more than a month with a leg injury, and has had to watch as his team plummeted towards the bottom of the league. Philadelphia have lost seven straight games, and sit dead last in the tough Metropolitan Division.

MacDonald has been the whipping boy for several years in Philadelphia thanks to his large contract and relatively uninspiring play. Signed to a six-year, $30MM contract just a month after being acquired by the Flyers in the 2014 season, MacDonald has never been able to quite find his footing in Philadelphia and even spent a huge chunk of the 2015-16 season in the minor leagues. He has just 43 points in 186 games for the Flyers, and has generally had poor possession numbers in his career. That wouldn’t be so frustrating for fans if it weren’t for the existence of young players like Morin, who are seemingly blocked from making a real impact while MacDonald’s contract and role on the team remains.

Still, Morin hasn’t done quite enough yet to warrant a full-time role. The 11th-overall pick from 2013 has all the measurables to succeed in the NHL—he stands 6’6″ and skates well for his size—but hasn’t quite been able to live up to the shutdown billing he brings from the high draft pedigree. Compared many times to a young Chris Pronger thanks to his size and propensity to engage physically, Morin’s overall game still needs work as he continues to develop in the minor leagues. With other rookies already dotted throughout the Philadelphia lineup, Morin will have to wait his turn to make an impact this season.

Minor Transactions: 11/22/17

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With everyone but St. Louis in action tonight before the day off tomorrow, it could be a busy day for promotions and demotions across the NHL. Keep up with all the action right here:

  • The Montreal Canadiens have recalled blue liner Jakub Jerabek from the AHL, according to TVA’s Renaud Lavoie. Jerabek is in his first season in North America after signing with the Habs this summer. However, the Czech native has yet to make his NHL debut, as Montreal has plenty of veteran albeit under-performing defensive depth. However, with the Laval Rocket, Jerabek has 11 points in 17 games and is a +10; impressive totals worthy of a recall. Jerabek also had the option of returning to Europe if he had not been recalled by mid-December, so there is strategy to the Canadiens’ move as well.
  • Another young import, Finnish forward Henrik Haapala, could also make his NHL debut tonight. Per NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti, the Florida Panthers have called up the small scoring winger. Haapala is in his first season in North America after scoring 60 points in 51 games in the Finnish Liiga last year. Thus far in 2017-18, Haapala has seven points in 11 games for the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds. The Panthers have been liberal with number of call-ups and variety of players called up so far this season, as Haapala is just the latest to join the list.
  • Philadelphia is bringing in reinforcements. The team announced the return of young defenseman Samuel Morin and the first recall for forward Danick Martel. Morin is a name most fans recognize as a former first-round pick of the Flyers, however it is Martel who may be more intriguing. In his fourth pro season, Martel has exploded this year, leading the AHL with 14 goals. Martel scored just 20 goals last season and already has half as many points in 17 games as he did all of last year in 68 games. The Flyers surely hope that his hot hand continues at the next level.
  • In a corresponding move, Philly also sent defenseman Mark Alt and veteran forward Matt Read to the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms. It was only a matter of time (and health) before Morin replaced Alt on the NHL roster, but the demotion of Read is certainly a big deal. The long-time Flyer cleared waivers last week and will now head to the minors, his 400+ games of NHL experience not enough to keep him around.
  • Colorado has recalled goalie Andrew Hammond and the former Senators keeper could make his Avalanche debut sooner than expected. Hammond was acquired as more or less a salary dump by Ottawa in the recent Matt Duchene–Kyle Turris blockbuster. With Semyon Varlamov and Jonathan Bernier in the net, no one thought Hammond would be anything more than a depth asset for the Avs. However, with Varlamov too sick to even suit up, “The Hamburglar” will get his chance. After a remarkable run for the Sens in 2015-16, Hammond struggled greatly in both the NHL and AHL last season and could use a fresh start.
  • The Edmonton Oilers have made a flurry of moves already today, first terminating the contract of Ziyat Paigin, who predictably cleared unconditional waivers yesterday. Paigin came over from the KHL last season, but it was never a good fit between the two sides. Paigin failed to record a point in the only 12 AHL games he played. With no chance of a bump up to the NHL, Paigin wished to return to Russia and the Oilers were more than willing to oblige him. Edmonton then recalled defenseman Ryan Stanton from the Bakersfield Condors. A free agent acquisition this off-season, the journeyman rearguard could help out the struggling Oilers with his sound defensive game. In a corresponding move, veteran forward Brad Malone was reassigned to the AHL.
  • Julius Honka is headed back to the minors, as the talented, young blue liner was demoted by the Dallas Stars today in exchange for forward Curtis McKenzie, per a team announcement.  The Stars have been underwhelming in 2017-18, but their biggest issues continues to be goal prevention. As promising an offensive defenseman as Honka may be, he’s not what Dallas needs right now. Perhaps two-way forward McKenzie, who is also scoring at a point-per-game pace in the AHL, can help the cause.

Suspension Could Be Coming For Radko Gudas

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Friday: The Department of Player Safety has offered Gudas an in-person hearing, meaning they retain the right to suspend him for more than five games. The hearing does not have a date or time as of yet, but John Shannon of Sportsnet reports that Gudas cannot play for the Flyers until he has the hearing.

Thursday: It might be two days in a row that the NHL’s Department of Player Safety needs to hand out a substantial suspension, as Radko Gudas has been thrown out of the Philadelphia-Winnipeg game tonight. Gudas brought his stick down hard on a grounded Mathieu Perreault, and was given a five minute major for slashing and game misconduct penalty.

Should Gudas receive additional discipline, it wouldn’t be the first time. The Philadelphia Flyers defenseman has received six game misconducts in his career, but had avoided suspension until 2015-16. He’s since been suspended twice, once for an illegal check to the head of Mika Zibanejad and once for interference on Austin Czarnik. The latest suspension was for six games, and since he’s a repeat offender the league could come down hard on him for this incident.

Gudas has seen his minutes reduced this season with the young crop of Flyers defenders taking some more responsibility this season. Should he miss a long period of time, it would be interesting to see who Philadelphia would insert into the lineup. Mark Alt is up with the club as the seventh defender, but Samuel Morin could potentially be recalled from the minor leagues.

Philadelphia Calls Up Samuel Morin

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Given the rash of recent injuries on the Philadelphia blue line, it came as no surprise when the Flyers announced this evening that they had recalled rookie defenseman Samuel Morin from the AHL’s Adirondack Phantoms. Morin is expected to suit up for the team when they host the Arizona Coyotes tomorrow night.

In Saturday night’s contest against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Shayne Gostisbehere left early with injury and his status is still unknown. With Andrew MacDonald out long-term with a lower body injury, an extended absence for Gostisbehere would have left the Flyers down two starters with only five defenseman on the roster. Morin rounds that number back up to six and provides Philly with another capable defenseman.

However, the Flyers may need to think about looking around for another defenseman, if they aren’t already. The “future is now” mentality may be exciting, but Philadelphia will square off with the Coyotes tomorrow with three rookies – Morin, Robert Hagg, and Travis Sanheim – and 20-year-old Ivan Provorov, a severe lack of experience on the back end. Add in just two stay-at-home defenders in Radko Gudas and Brandon Manning as their veteran support, and Philadelphia could benefit from another body on the blue line. With four waiver-exempt assets, the Flyers have the flexibility to add another defenseman without causing themselves any sort of roster crunch down the road.

NHL Snapshots: MacDonald, Haula, Marchessault, Bennett

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The Philadelphia Flyers announced today that defenseman Andrew MacDonald will miss four to six weeks with a lower body injury. According to NHL.com’s Bill Meltzer, MacDonald stepped into a path of a slap shot from Edmonton’s Milan Lucic during a penalty killing shift of Saturday’s 2-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers. It hit his knee and MacDonald suffered a deep bone bruise, according to CSN’s Tim Panaccio.

Despite the injury, MacDonald stayed in the game. In fact, after taking the hit and going down, he still forced himself to get up and help clear the puck. The 31-year-old blueliner had a dominant performance against the Oilers, as he recorded three shots on goal, six blocked shots and played the second-most minutes on the team at 22:03.

No corresponding moves have been made, although its possible the Flyers will promote defenseman Samuel Morin, who made the team out of training camp, but was a healthy scratch for four games before he was sent down to Lehigh Valley. In five games with the AHL team, he has put up a goal, three assists, 10 penalty minutes and a plus/minus of +3.

  • While the Vegas Golden Knights await the injury status of goaltender Malcolm Subban, Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Steve Carp tweets out that Erik Haula, who was put on injured reserve eight days ago, practiced with the team today and told Carp he is ready to return to the team, but wouldn’t say when. David Schoen of the Las Vegas Review-Journal tweets that Jon Marchessault, who was placed on injured reserve on Oct. 15, also says he is ready to return to the Golden Knights lineup and said he expects to be activated for Tuesday’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks after practicing today. The team may reverse their transactions from last week and send Vadim Shipachyov and Alex Tuch back to the AHL. Both Shipachyov and Tuch tallied no points and neither had any shots on goal in Saturday’s game against the St. Louis Blues. Shipachyov received only 10:22 of ice time, while Tuch had 8:49.
  • Kent Wilson of The Athletic (subscription required) answers mailbag questions about Calgary Flames center Sam Bennett, who has zero points after eight games. Wilson writes the lack of offense would be acceptable if he was impacting the game in other ways, but that isn’t the case. Bennett, whose first full season showed a lot of promise two years ago when he finished with 18 goals and 18 assists, took a step down last year when he only had 13 goals and 13 assists. Now his numbers look even more bleak. Wilson suggests the team move the 2014 fourth-overall pick to the wing in hopes of helping the 21-year-old’s success and promoting Mark Jankowski, who is tearing up the AHL right now with five goals and four assists in six games.

Eastern Notes: Fast, Bruins, Koekkoek, Morin

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The New York Rangers tweeted that head coach Alain Vigneault announced injured forward Jesper Fast will play tonight vs. the New Jersey Devils. Fast, who had hip surgery on June 5, missed all of training camp and the first five games of the season so far this year. He was cleared for contact last week, and completed on-ice skills testing before practice and had the fourth-highest score. The 25-year-old wing scored six goals and 15 assists in 68 games last year, which was disappointing after a promising second-season in which he put up a 30-point campaign. Regardless, his work as a bottom-six player has been missed. The Rangers have come out of the gate slowly this year, as the team has started with a 1-4 record and have lost two straight.

  • Joe Haggerty of NBC Sports writes that the Bruins, who have struggled both offensively and defensively to start the year and find themselves as 1-2, are attempting to simplify their offense for their game tonight against the Arizona Coyotes. Haggerty writes the team had the most success recently in the third period against Colorado when they posted two goals in that period. “The third period [in Colorado] we scored two goals and I don’t think we did anything spectacular other than win pucks, go to the net and be belligerent there. If that’s what it takes to get going, that’s what it takes sometimes to score goals in this league,” said head coach Bruce Cassidy.
  • Tampa Bay Times’ Joe Smith writes that despite the Lightning’s logjam of eight defenders on the roster, the team is slowly giving more playing time to Slater Koekkoek. After he received two healthy scratches and playing in only 3:09 in his season debut Monday, Koekkoek got 9:44 in playing time on Thursday’s game, rewarding Tampa Bay with two goals. Despite playing under 10 minutes, Koekkoek still got more playing time than Mikhail Sergachev (5:22) and is starting to earn the coaching staff’s trust and could see another increase in time tonight when they play the St. Louis Blues.
  • The Athletic’s Charlie O’Connor breaks down (subscription required), why Philadelphia Flyers rookie Samuel Morin was sent down to Lehigh Valley. Many people were upset that Morin was sent down, because they feel he is NHL-ready now. The scribe breaks down some of the criteria of whether he belongs in the NHL, pointing out that he is physically ready for the NHL at 6-foot-6, 202 pounds and he has had success in the AHL so far with two solid seasons there. He then looks whether Morin showed off enough skill in training camp to deserve a spot before finally analyzing whether he is better than another defenseman on the roster, which is where O’Connor points out the problem. He writes that while Morin is right there, he didn’t prove to be better than the other two rookies in Robert Hagg and Travis Sanheim and is not ready to beat out veterans like Radko Gudas or Andrew MacDonald.

Philadelphia Flyers Send Samuel Morin To AHL

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The Philadelphia Flyers have decided that it’s not quite time for Samuel Morin in the NHL. The team loaned the young defenseman to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms today in a move that will allow him to get back into game action. In the first four games of the Flyers’ season, Morin has been a healthy scratch.

Morin made his NHL debut last season, playing in just a single game in March. He showed then what Flyers’ fans had hoped to see, and flashed that same impressive potential in the preseason again this year. The 6’6″ defender has immense upside, able to shut down attackers and provide capable outlet passes. Still, he’ll have to put his head down and keep working in the AHL until his chance comes.

The Flyers are already icing three young defensemen, as Ivan Provorov (20), Travis Sanheim (21) and Robert Hagg (22) all suited up in their most recent game. While Brandon Manning will likely work his way back in at some point, the team clearly didn’t want to add another rookie to the mix. Morin, apparently the odd man out, could be the first call-up should the Flyers face an injury at some point.

With the move, the team is down to 22 players on the roster meaning they could make a corresponding move before Saturday night’s matchup with the Washington Capitals. It even technically could be Morin, as the Phantoms play once before the weekend (Friday versus Wilkes-Barre/Scranton). Perhaps they just wanted to get him into a game and keep his legs fresh.

Evening Notes: Sanheim, Palmieri, Subban, Rasmussen

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The Philadelphia Flyers chose to carry eight defensemen out of training camp, but Sam Carchidi of Philly.com writes that general manager Ron Hextall wants to drop that to seven soon, perhaps even after tonight’s game with the Anaheim Ducks. The Flyers are going to give rookie defenseman Travis Sanheim a chance to redeem himself after some opening night struggles. If he can play well, the scribe writes the team will hold onto the 21-year-old former first-rounder.

Sanheim’s NHL debut on Thursday was disappointing and has left the Flyers wondering if the blueliner is ready for the NHL or might need more time developing in the AHL. He was responsible for allowing the first goal against the Kings (they lost 2-0) and then took a four-minute high sticking penalty and was on the ice for the other goal. That type of performance doesn’t look good when the team has another former first-rounder in Samuel Morin who will be a healthy scratch tonight for the third straight game.

If Sanheim shows some success on the ice, Carchidi believes the team will likely send down Morin. However, another disappointing game could lead to Sanheim heading out of town.

  • The New Jersey Devils suffered through a few injuries during their game today against the Colorado Avalanche, including injuries to Kyle Palmieri, Andy Greene and Drew Stafford. Palmieri went knee-to-knee with Colorado defenseman Eric Johnson and didn’t return, while Stafford suffered a lower-body injury and also didn’t return. Greene returned for the third period from an undisclosed injury. Stafford and Palmieri will be further evaluated Sunday, according to Chris Ryan of NewJersey.com.
  • Cat Silverman of The Athletic (subscription needed) writes that Vegas Golden Knights’ goaltending coach Dave Prior was a big fan of recently claimed Malcolm Subban and might be the reason why the team swapped backup goaltenders recently. Subban, a flashy, quick-moving goaltender becomes Prior’s long-term project. The goaltender has only two games of NHL experience, but had solid numbers for the Providence Bruins and had a good preseason. According to Silverman, Prior was not overly thrilled to work with Calvin Pickard, who lacked the speed and was a more by-the-book goaltender. Pickard has since been moved to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
  • Corey Pronman of The Athletic (subscription required) writes about the enigma that is 6-foot-7 center Michael Rasmussen, who he says was being hyped as a top-10 pick when he shouldn’t have been, and yet, the Detroit Red Wings ended up taking him No. 9 and being criticized for it. He writes, however, despite all the criticism, Detroit looks like it got a good investment from it after all. The youngster has developed nicely and looked good during Red Wings training camp.

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