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Tyler Wotherspoon

New Jersey Devils Recall Isaac Poulter, Send Down Tyler Wotherspoon

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Circumstances have changed quickly for goaltender Isaac Poulter over the last week, as the New Jersey Devils have recalled him after being demoted to the ECHL only five days ago. In the same transaction, the team also announces they have returned Tyler Wotherspoon to the Utica Comets of the AHL after recalling him on an emergency loan less than a week ago.

Poulter originally joined the Devils organization by way of an AHL contract after his tenure with the Swift Current Broncos came to an end after the 2021-22 WHL season. Primarily playing for the Adirondack Thunder of the ECHL last year, Poulter produced a 10-8-2 record in 22 games, posting a .910 SV% and a 2.93 GAA.

Continuing to improve this season, Poulter has gotten off to a strong start with the Comets, putting up a 17-8-1 record in 28 games, while also managing a .911 SV% and a 2.55 GAA. Poulter played so well for Utica that New Jersey opted to sign him to a two-year, two-way NHL contract on February 15th of this year, taking him to the end of next season.

Unfortunately, even with Poulter’s strong record and four shutouts this season, poor play from Akira Schmid and Erik Kallgren has capped the Comets at 27 wins in 60 games, causing them to sit in last place in a strong North Division. Now, with his second callup of the season to the NHL level, Poulter will have the chance to practice with the Devils before their game today against the New York Islanders.

In Wotherspoon, it will be his second straight recall to New Jersey on an emergency basis in which he was unable to play in any games. Only suiting up for Utica this year, Wotherspoon has scored four goals and 19 points in 54 games.

Metropolitan Notes: Nedeljkovic, Blue Jackets, Devils

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Heading into the trade deadline, many expected that the Penguins would move pending UFA goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic.  However, they instead moved third-stringer Magnus Hellberg.  Nedeljkovic told reporters including Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that there weren’t any discussions about a contract extension before the deadline but that he’d be very happy to return for next season if Pittsburgh showed interest.  After spending a good chunk of last season in the minors, the 28-year-old inked a one-year, $1.5MM deal with the Penguins last summer and has done relatively well, posting a 2.98 GAA and a .904 SV% in 24 appearances.  At a minimum, even if he doesn’t wind up staying with Pittsburgh, Nedeljkovic should be able to land a raise in the coming months.

More from the Metropolitan:

  • The Blue Jackets have made a very deep preliminary list of candidates for their vacant GM position. In the latest TSN Insider Trading segment, Pierre LeBrun indicated that the team has between 30 and 40 candidates on their initial list and more could be added depending on how things go early in the playoffs.  Columbus has been without a GM since Jarmo Kekalainen was fired five weeks ago with John Davidson serving in an interim capacity since then.
  • The frequent shuffling of Max Willman and Tyler Wotherspoon continues. A day after sending them back to AHL Utica, the Devils have recalled both players today, per the AHL’s transactions log.  Both recalls are once again on an emergency basis.  The reason for New Jersey sending them down between games could have to do with their waiver exemption; once they play in ten games or are on the NHL roster for 30 days, they’d have to clear to return to the Comets.  By papering them down here and there, they can delay getting to that point with both players.

Metropolitan Notes: Gruden, Wotherspoon, Marino

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With Jeff Carter out with an upper-body injury tonight, the Pittsburgh Penguins were in a position to recall a forward to fill his spot in the active lineup. In doing so, the Penguins brought up Jonathan Gruden from their AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins via an emergency recall.

Recalled oftenly this season by Pittsburgh, this transaction will mark Gruden’s sixth call-up of the season in total. In now his fourth season with the Penguins organization, Gruden has accrued the most NHL games played in a single year for his short career, scoring one goal in 11 games for Pittsburgh this year.

While still failing to make a name for himself at the NHL level, Gruden is been an solid contributor to the WBS Penguins over the last four years. Over 204 regular season games overall, Gruden has scored 45 goals and 96 points in total, while also chipping in one goal and three points in five playoff games, as well.

Other Metro notes:

  • In a similar transaction, Pittsburgh’s opponent tonight, the New Jersey Devils, have recalled defenseman Tyler Wotherspoon by way of an emergency recall. In his second emergency recall in only his last week, Wotherspoon has had an elevated opportunity to play in the NHL due to multiple injuries on New Jersey’s back end. Unfortunately, Wotherspoon has yet to play with the Devils this season, but has registered four goals and 19 points in 54 games for the organization’s AHL affiliate, the Utica Comets.
  • Paving the way for another emergency recall to Wotherspoon, earlier reports indicated that defenseman John Marino would miss the game tonight due to an upper-body injury (X Link). With Marino now out with an injury for at least this evening, New Jersey will be without three of their top-four defensemen, leading to a 5-11-0 record over the last 16 games for the organization.

Devils Assign Nico Daws And Tyler Wotherspoon To AHL

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The Devils were active at the trade deadline when it came to goaltenders, picking up Jake Allen from Montreal and Kaapo Kahkonen from San Jose.  However, they kept Nico Daws up in New Jersey as well.  They’ve now decided that’s not the best course of action as the team announced today that Daws along with defenseman Tyler Wotherspoon have been assigned to AHL Utica.

Daws started the year on season-opening injured reserve and was activated in early December.  Just weeks later, he was up with New Jersey and, aside from the holiday roster freeze, has been with the Devils since then.

Early on, the 23-year-old did well, posting a .912 SV% in his first dozen appearances, well above the team average of .894.  However, Daws has struggled in recent weeks with that mark dropping all the way down to .859, resulting in this move.  On the season, he has a 3.15 GAA and a .894 SV%.

Now, he’ll split time with Akira Schmid with the Comets, giving them a leg up in their battle for a playoff spot in the North Division.  Daws was eligible to return to Utica as he was papered down before the trade deadline with New Jersey using one of their four post-deadline recalls to bring him back up.  Barring an injury to Allen or Kahkonen, recalling Daws later on would burn another one of those allowable recalls.

As for Wotherspoon, he was recalled back on Thursday, his first NHL promotion of the season.  His recall was on an emergency basis so he didn’t count against the limit of four.  However, the 31-year-old didn’t see any game action.  Wotherspoon has 19 points in 54 games with the Comets so far this season.

Devils Return Tyler Wotherspoon, Max Willman To AHL

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March 17: Both Willman and Wotherspoon were returned to AHL Utica after yesterday’s loss to the Coyotes, per CapFriendly. The two depth pieces did not play during their call-ups, as they were healthy scratches against Arizona and the Dallas Stars on Thursday.

March 13: In light of some injuries over the last several days, the New Jersey Devils were put in a position to call up a few players from their AHL affiliate. Coming from the Utica Comets, the team has recalled defenseman Tyler Wotherspoon and forward Maxwell Willman.

Being the veteran of the two call-ups, Wotherspoon has less playing experience at the NHL level as compared to Willman. After being drafted 57th overall by the Calgary Flames in the 2011 NHL Draft, Wotherspoon has only managed 30 games at the NHL level, tallying three assists in total.

In the American Hockey League, Wotherspoon has gained much more experience, playing in a total of 605 regular season games between the Flames, Flyers, and Devils organization. Now in a formal leadership role during the twilight years of his career, Wotherspoon has scored 37 goals and 209 points throughout his minor league career.

Willman is the only one of the two to have played with New Jersey this season, putting together a two-point season over 13 games up to this point. In his first year with the Devils organization, Willman was already a veteran of 50 NHL games over the last two seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers.

Outside of New Jersey, Willman has been a positive addition to the Comets this year, scoring 11 goals and 21 points in 31 games already. Currently sitting five points back of a playoff position in the AHL’s North Division, Utica will have to let go of their seventh-highest scorer for the time being.

Waivers: 9/29/23

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As training camps and the preseason continues, teams continue to trim down their roster to get closer to the final group of players they’ll carry when the regular season gets underway next month. We’ll keep track of the names that hit the waiver wire here.  Today’s list was provided by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (Twitter link).

Colorado Avalanche (per team Twitter)

D Keaton Middleton
F Spencer Smallman

New York Rangers

F Alex Belzile
F Anton Blidh
F Turner Elson
D Ty Emberson
D Connor Mackey
F Riley Nash

New Jersey Devils

D Tyler Wotherspoon

St. Louis Blues

F Adam Gaudette

The Rangers have the players of some note on this list.  Belzile held his own as a midseason recall with Montreal last season, notching six goals and eight assists in just 31 games.  That allowed the 32-year-old to get a two-year commitment from New York this summer including a one-way salary in 2024-25.  Nash didn’t see any NHL action last season but is no stranger to playing at the top level as a fourth-line center, suiting up 627 times over parts of 11 years.  Blidh struggled in limited action with Colorado last season while Elson has just three NHL appearances thus far in his career.

Mackey could be a name to keep an eye on.  The 27-year-old split last year between Calgary and Arizona, getting into a career-best 30 games.  His performance there also earned him an opportunity to play at the Worlds for Team USA, his second appearance in that tournament over the last three years.  This will be Emberson’s first time on waivers.  The 23-year-old saw his production in the minors improve considerably last season, going from 11 points to 27 but he still sits fairly low on New York’s depth chart.

As for the other players on waivers today, Gaudette has 218 career NHL appearances under his belt and last season was the first time he didn’t see action at the top level in his six-year professional career.  He was a productive scorer in the minors in 2022-23, notching 51 points between the affiliates of the Maple Leafs and Blues, who acquired him at the trade deadline.  Wotherspoon last played in the NHL back in 2016-17 with Calgary while Middleton has three NHL games under his belt back in the 2020-21 campaign.  Smallman, meanwhile, hasn’t seen any NHL action over his seven professional campaigns and is coming off a career-best 13 goals with AHL Colorado last season.

These players will be on waivers until 1 PM CT on Saturday.

Snapshots: Domi, Kraken Prospects, Vrana, Wotherspoon

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As soon as Max Domi signed with Chicago just minutes into free agency last summer, the expectation was that he’d be traded at the deadline when there wasn’t much money left on his one-year, $3MM contract.  However, in a recent 32 Thoughts appearance, Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek reports (video link) that it’s not a guarantee that Domi moves.  He’s enjoying a nice bounce-back year with the Blackhawks, collecting 11 goals and 13 assists in 36 games so far, good for second on the team in scoring.  He’s also winning draws at a career-best clip of 56.3%.  If he’s happy in his role and having some success, it may make more sense for Chicago to try to extend the 27-year-old.  That’s a discussion GM Kyle Davidson is expected to have with Domi’s representation in the coming weeks.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • A pair of Kraken prospects are on the move in the CHL. OHL London announced that they’ve acquired forward Ryan Winterton from Hamilton as part of a four-player trade.  The 19-year-old was a third-round pick (67th overall) in 2021 and has 46 points in 37 games so far this season.  Meanwhile, Sherbrooke of the QMJHL announced the acquisition of winger Jacob Melanson from Acadie-Bathurst.  The 19-year-old has 25 goals in just 27 games this season.  Both prospects have already signed their entry-level contracts with Seattle.
  • The Red Wings will extend Jakub Vrana’s conditioning stint by three more games, relays MLive’s Ansar Khan (Twitter link). The 26-year-old has already played in three games and was held off the scoresheet and the team feels he could benefit from a longer stretch in the minors.  This is the only extension that Detroit can give Vrana; he’ll have to be recalled once these three games are up.
  • The Devils announced (Twitter link) that they’ve assigned defenseman Tyler Wotherspoon to AHL Utica. He was recalled last week for his second stint with the big club this season but didn’t get into a game with New Jersey; his last NHL appearance came back in January 2017.  So far this season, the 29-year-old has two goals and seven assists in 23 games with the Comets.

John Marino, Ryan Graves Placed On Injured Reserve

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The New Jersey Devils have come out of the break with some unfortunate news, moving John Marino and Ryan Graves to injured reserve. The transaction allows them to recall Tyce Thompson and Tyler Wotherspoon from the AHL while their two defensemen continue to recover. Ondrej Palat has also been moved to long-term injured reserve to make the cap work.

Marino was ruled out week-to-week just before the Christmas break, his second stint on the shelf this season. The 25-year-old has been a nice pickup through 32 appearances, playing more than 21 minutes a night and recording nine points.

Graves, meanwhile, will be out on a similar week-to-week timeline, though not much information has been released about his injury. The 27-year-old left a game against the Florida Panthers on December 21 during his second shift. While he doesn’t carry quite the same level of responsibility, Graves is still an important piece of the Devils’ back end, averaging over 18 minutes and scoring nine points in 33 games so far.

Wotherspoon, 29, hasn’t played in the NHL since the 2016-17 season but has been good for the Utica Comets the last couple of years. It remains to be seen whether he will get into the lineup.

The more interesting recall, perhaps, is Thompson, who played a handful of games for the Devils in each of the last two seasons. The fourth-round winger has 13 points in 22 games for Utica this season and would be looking for his first NHL goal should he get into the lineup. The 23-year-old has just one point in nine career games at the NHL level.

New Jersey Devils Re-Assign Tyler Wotherspoon

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November 27: The Devils have returned Wotherspoon to the minors, according to the team Sunday morning. Wotherspoon did not spend enough days on the active roster to warrant being placed on waivers to go back to Utica. Wotherspoon didn’t get into any games on his call-up.

November 23: After sending a pair of youngsters down to the AHL yesterday, the New Jersey Devils have recalled Tyler Wotherspoon to take their place on the roster. The minor league veteran shouldn’t be expected to get into the lineup, but a recall is a nice reward for depth players in the organization.

Wotherspoon, 29, signed a new two-year, two-way deal this summer to stay with the Devils organization after a solid year with Utica in 2021-22. He had 21 points in 53 games, and helped the club reach the AHL postseason. While he has a solid minor league salary built into the deal, a few days in the NHL will only help the bottom line for the former top prospect.

Selected 57th overall in 2011, Wotherspoon quickly made his way to the NHL with the Calgary Flames. Over parts of four seasons, starting in 2013, he played 30 regular season games and six postseason contests at the highest level. For the last six seasons, however, he’s been stuck in the minor leagues, playing for the Stockton Heat, San Antonio Rampage, Lehigh Valley Phantoms, and now Utica.

He did get the unique opportunity to play for Team Canada at the 2022 Olympics, recording two points in five games after the NHL decided not to attend.

The Devils play the Toronto Maple Leafs this evening before heading on the road for a Friday tilt in Buffalo. Wotherspoon is likely just an extra body to take along as injury insurance.

New Jersey Devils Sign Four Players

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The New Jersey Devils are bringing back tough guy Mason Geertsen, according to Chris Johnston of TSN. PuckPedia reports that the one-year deal is worth $750K at the NHL level, $300K in the AHL, and includes a minor league guarantee of $350K.

Geertsen, 27, made his NHL debut this season and suited up 25 times for the Devils. In those games, he averaged nearly as many minutes in the penalty box as on the ice, being used almost entirely for his fighting ability and intimidation factor. The 6’4″ forward logged 58 hits and 77 penalty minutes on the year, while averaging fewer than seven minutes of ice time and failing to score a single point.

It’s not really different in the minor leagues, where Geertsen has only ever scored nine goals, despite more than 300 AHL appearances. One of the last remaining enforcers, he does have over 500 penalty minutes and a lengthy fight card.

New Jersey added more depth this evening, signing forward Brian Pinho to a one-year, two-way contract, says CapFriendly (link). The contract will pay Pinho $750K at the NHL level and $325K at the minor league level.

After an impressive four-year tenure at Providence College, Pinho, a sixth-round selection by the Washington Capitals in 2013, turned pro, spending parts of the previous four seasons as a member of the AHL’s Hershey Bears, putting up 17 points in 27 games this past season. Though primarily an AHLer for his career, Pinho did appear in two games for the Capitals in 2020-21.

Forward Jack Dugan will also head to New Jersey, signing a one-year, two-way contract according to CapFriendly (link). Dugan’s contract will pay him $750K at the NHL level and $125K at the minor league level and leaves him an RFA at its expiration. A fifth-round pick in the Vegas Golden Knights’ inaugural draft class, Dugan spent a year with the Chicago Steel fo rhte USHL before heading to Providence, like Pinho, then eventually turning pro, spending the previous two seasons with the Henderson Silver Knights of the AHL.

The Devils also brought back defenseman Tyler Wotherspoon on a two-year, two-way contract, per CapFriendly (link). Wotherspoon’s deal is worth $750K at the NHL level in year one and bumps up to $775K in year two. At the minor league level, the deal is wroth $300K in the first year and $325K in the second.

A veteran of 30 NHL games spread over four seasons in the Calgary Flames organization, Wotherspoon represents solid depth for a Devils organization that has had its share of injuries that have forced them to dig deep to find replacements. The defenseman has carved out a career for himself in the AHL as a reliable defenseman, blending in and producing for whatever team he has been on, the 2021-22 Utica Comets representing his fifth team, all in the AHL, in the previous five seasons.

Speaking of the Comets, Wotherspoon, as well as Pinho and Dugan, will have a chance to help Utica run it back once again after an absolutely dominant 2021-22 campaign that saw them go 43-20-8-1, clinching first place in the AHL’s North Division.

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