Evening Notes: Ekman-Larsson, Abols, Whitecloud
The Toronto Maple Leafs announced mid-game that Oliver Ekman-Larsson won’t return due to a lower-body injury.
Ekman-Larsson did not come out to start the second period against Detroit. He was seen battling with Lucas Raymond for a loose puck, where the defenseman seemed to catch an edge awkwardly.
Dealing with health issues over the last few years, the 34-year-old has been durable this year, not yet missing a game, a distinction shared only with teammate John Tavares. With 31 points in 50 games, Ekman-Larsson has had his best output since 2018-19, although seasons since then were shortened from injury. He has averaged 20:54 a night, leaned on in all situations, as a top pairing defender on both the power play and penalty kill.
He had another lower-body injury scare in December, but avoided missing any time.
The veteran of 1,108 games is expected to help lead Team Sweden in the upcoming Olympic Games, but such could be in jeopardy with tonight’s news. The Swedes are already dealing with a shake up, as just yesterday, it became apparent that Jonas Brodin, another left-handed defender, would likely miss the Olympics along with forward Leo Carlsson.
Options such as Mattias Ekholm, Hampus Lindholm, and Simon Edvisson are thought to be replacements for Brodin if needed, and possibly, another of the trio could come along to Milan if Ekman-Larsson will miss time. Both Sweden and the Maple Leafs will hope such is not the case. Toronto is back in action on Friday, hosting Vegas.
Elsewhere across the league:
- Kevin Kurz of The Athletic shared additional details on Philadelphia Flyers forward Rodrigo Abols’ injury. The 30-year-old suffered a fractured right ankle, and according to Kurz, there is a chance he could make a return by the “final month or so of the regular season”. Abols landed on injured reserve on Sunday, with what was considered a lower-body injury, but the incident against the Rangers last Saturday appeared to be a gruesome leg injury, immediately serious. With the Flyers still in the Wild Card hunt, losing their steady fourth line center was a tough blow. 28-year-old Lane Pederson was recalled in a corresponding transaction, and figures to fill in for now. Also with Olympics implications, Abols unfortunately will not get to appear for Team Latvia next month.
- New Calgary Flames blueliner Zach Whitecloud could have a short stay in Calgary, as David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period wrote that “several teams” reached out. Acquired from Vegas in Sunday’s Rasmus Andersson deal, Pagnotta emphasized Whitecloud’s very manageable $2.75MM cap hit, which runs through 2027-28. The longtime Golden Knight played 22:33 in his Calgary debut in a top pairing role, evident that he is valuable to the retooling club as a solid stop-gap capable of eating minutes. GM Craig Conroy has no reason to rush into such a move, but strong offers later in the spring may bring intrigue, especially with top prospect righty Zayne Parekh in waiting.
Golden Knights Acquire Rasmus Andersson
The Golden Knights have acquired defenseman Rasmus Andersson from the Flames in a move now announced by both teams. In exchange, Calgary receives defenseman Zach Whitecloud, Vegas’ 2027 first-round pick, a conditional 2027 second-round pick, and the signing rights to University of North Dakota defender Abram Wiebe.
If the Golden Knights win the Stanley Cup this year, that 2027 second-rounder will upgrade to a 2028 first-round pick. Calgary is retaining 50% of Andersson’s $4.55MM cap hit in the deal, Friedman adds, bringing his impact down to just $2.275MM on Vegas’ books this season. Vegas’ 2027 first-rounder is also top-10 protected, Dreger notes.
It’s far from a stunning move. Andersson was first implicated in trade talks nearly two full calendar years ago. Ever since, Vegas has been one of the teams most consistently linked to the right-shot blue liner. That’s only ramped up since this past offseason, when reports indicated Nevada was the Swede’s preferred long-term destination and, naturally, would yield a larger return for Calgary because he’d be willing to sign an extension with the Knights. However, any extension won’t be registered today – David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports there’s no new contract in place at this time.
That means Andersson, 29, is still set to reach unrestricted free agency this summer as the top defenseman available – for now. He is in the final season of the six-year, $27.3MM extension he signed with Calgary in January 2020, coming off his entry-level contract. A second-round pick by the Flames in 2015, his tenure in Calgary ends with him seventh on the franchise defenseman leaderboard in games played (584), sixth in assists (204), and sixth in points (261).
Back in training camp, it looked like the Flames’ ongoing retool had removed any possibility of their top-four anchor remaining in Calgary. Captain Mikael Backlund said in August that Andersson didn’t want his future to be a “distraction” but that a trade was inevitable. Talk of separation softened after he reported to camp, with reports indicating he’d reopened extension talks. Over the past few days, though, it became clear the Flames had received the type of trade offers they wanted and would pull the trigger on a deal.
The other team that was in it to the wire – as late as this morning – was the Bruins. According to Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic, the Flames gave Andersson permission to discuss an extension with Boston, presumably upon which the deal was contingent. They weren’t able to come to an agreement on a contract, though, putting Vegas back in the driver’s seat despite the Golden Knights not being able to talk contract with Andersson’s camp prior to the deal. If Andersson’s long-reported interest in Vegas is true, though, they shouldn’t have much trouble coming to a resolution before July 1.
The Flames’ retool is only further accelerated by the move. They already owned Vegas’ first-round pick this year as a result of 2024’s Noah Hanifin trade, giving them four guaranteed first-rounders over the next two drafts. If the Knights take home the Cup, they’ll have six first-rounders in the next three years.
Those hopefully high-value draft choices are the principal point of the return for the Flames. Whitecloud’s inclusion in the deal primarily serves as cap management for Vegas, but also gives the Flames a stable veteran option to, in part, replace Andersson’s minutes as they try to avoid overloading their young blue line talent too early in their development.
Whitecloud, 29, signed with the Knights as an undrafted free agent out of Bemidji State in 2018 and has thus remained in the organization since its inaugural season. The 6’2″ 210-lb righty has posted some tough numbers this season but has 78 points and a +42 rating in 368 games for his career, serving as their staple third-pairing option on the right side behind Alex Pietrangelo and Shea Theodore for the past several seasons. With Pietrangelo injured, he’d been averaging 18:46 of ice time per game this season, nearly a career-high.
Wiebe, 22, isn’t without ceiling, either. The nephew of longtime Blackhawks defenseman Keith Brown was a seventh-round pick by Vegas in 2022 but has since gone on to put up some solid numbers with the Fighting Hawks. He’s now in his junior season, is an alternate captain, and has scored 48 points with a +13 rating in 102 games on North Dakota’s blue line. He owns a pro-ready 6’3″, 209-lb frame, giving him a legitimate shot at being a mobile piece near the bottom of Calgary’s lineup in the next few years.
For the Knights, acquiring Andersson means they’re back to their ethos of big in-season swings after taking last year off. Their acquisition of a high-end right-shot defender was a foregone conclusion ever since it was announced that Pietrangelo wouldn’t play this season, with his career likely over due to various lingering injuries.
They get a resurgent name in Andersson, who’ll be heading to the Olympics with Sweden. With 10 goals and 30 points in 48 games this season, he’s 20th in the league in scoring among defenders and immediately becomes the Knights’ leader in overall production from the blue line.
The question becomes how his defensive game will slot in on a Vegas club that’s been above-average in the possession department this year. He’s coming off a -38 rating last season and has posted negative relative Corsi shares at 5-on-5 in nine of his 10 NHL seasons, including this one. Might he be eating into the already sheltered offensive zone minutes that his now-reunited teammate Hanifin has been receiving?
Nonetheless, it’s nearly impossible to criticize the deal from Vegas’ perspective. They’ve already got a clear path to a deep playoff run through a weak Pacific Division but, with Pietrangelo gone and Theodore and Brayden McNabb missing significant time this year, have lacked the identity that their historically overloaded top-four group has provided. Now, that blue line power is back with Andersson, Hanifin, McNabb, and Theodore comprising one of the most experienced and dynamic groups in the league.
They also do so while actually increasing their cap space for this season. Whitecloud was signed through next season at a $2.75MM cap hit, so Vegas frees up nearly $500K in space with this deal.
Image courtesy of Brett Holmes-Imagn Images.
Darren Dreger of TSN was the first to report that Andersson was going to Vegas. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was the first with the trade details.
Evening Notes: Arvidsson, Allen, Whitecloud, Sasson
Edmonton Oilers winger Viktor Arvidsson has resumed skating for the first time since exiting the lineup last month with an undisclosed injury, Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch shared with Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic. Knoblauch added that the hope is that Arvidsson will return to team practices next week. Little about the veteran winger’s injury has been revealed. He played through 14 minutes of ice time in his most recent game – an overtime win over the Islanders on November 12th. The Oilers announced Arvidsson as banged up shortly after that game, designating him as day-to-day. He was placed on injured reserve nine days later, and has since missed Edmonton’s last 11 games.
Arvidsson signed a two-year, $8MM contract with Edmonton this summer, but hasn’t found his footing in the new setting just yet. He’s played in 16 games and scored five points this season, though the bulk of that scoring came from a three-assist night against Pittsburgh on October 25th. Arvidsson has scored two goals in eight games since then, but still sits far away from the 31-goal season he managed in 2016-17. Repeated lower-body injuries held Arvidsson out of all but 18 games with the Los Angeles Kings last season, though he still managed an impressive 15 points. He’ll look to return to the lineup, and quickly rediscover his scoring kick, before the calendar turns over.
Other notes around the league:
- New Jersey Devils goaltender Jake Allen is questionable for the team’s Tuesday game against Toronto per a team announcement. No specifics were provided as to what may limit the veteran backup. Allen was on the wrong side of a shutout on Sunday, allowing three goals on 22 shots in the Devils’ 4-0 loss to Colorado. Despite the losing efforts, Allen’s season-long stat line has been more encouraging – with a 5-4-1 record and .904 save percentage through 10 games. New Jersey would need to recall a backup for Jacob Markstrom should Allen miss Tuesday’s game. Utica Comets starter Nico Daws would likely stand as the next man up. Daws has three wins and a .897 in 13 AHL games this season.
- Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Zach Whitecloud returned to full practices on Monday shares Jesse Granger of The Athletic. It’s the next step towards a return after Whitecloud returned to practices with a no-contact jersey on Friday. Head coach Bruce Cassidy told Danny Webster of the Las Vegas Review-Journal that Whitecloud is expected to play at some point on Vegas’ upcoming three-game road trip. The 28-year-old defender has two points, 14 penalty minutes, and a +5 through 21 games this season; while operating out of a bottom-four role. He’ll be quickly slotted back into the lineup when back to full health, likely bumping Kaedan Korczak to the press box.
- The Vancouver Canucks are taking advantage of their off-days, assigning waiver-exempt forward Max Sasson to the minor leagues to help accrue cap space ahead of their Tuesday night game. Sasson made his NHL debut earlier this season and has since recorded two assists and a +2 in seven games. The 24-year-old has operated from Vancouver’s fourth-line, and is likely to return with a call-up before the Canucks’ next game. If he does stay in the minors, he’ll be returning to an AHL stat line featuring four goals, nine points, and six penalty minutes through nine games.
Pacific Notes: Hronek, Vlasic, Hyman, Evans, Whitecloud, Stone
It’s already been public knowledge for a week that the Vancouver Canucks would be without defenseman Filip Hronek for the foreseeable future. We now have a more concrete timeline for Hronek as the Canucks announced he’s expected to miss the next eight weeks after undergoing a lower-body procedure. On a positive note, the team shared in the same announcement that Hronek avoided surgery for his upper-body injury.
Vancouver has won two games in a row without Hronek on the top defensive-pairing but will have a much more difficult matchup tonight against the Minnesota Wild. The Kralove, Czechia native had one goal and nine points for the Canucks in 21 games and will look to build upon that when he returns in late January or early February. Tyler Myers has filled the void left by Hronek over the last two games but Vancouver would do well to add a better right-handed option on defense from the trade market.
Reports from a few days ago indicated that the New York Rangers were interested in acquiring J.T. Miller from Vancouver. Assuming that the reports are true, and factoring in the Rangers’ recent desire to move on from Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba, the two teams could get involved in a blockbuster deal that would benefit both sides.
Other Pacific notes:
- According to Tom Gulitti of the NHL, the San Jose Sharks are expecting defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic back before the conclusion of their current six-game road trip. An upper-back injury has prohibited Vlasic from debuting in his 19th NHL season up to this point in the NHL calendar. His return will give a slight boost to the surprisingly solid left side of the defense for San Jose.
- Zach Hyman‘s absence from the Edmonton Oilers will reportedly enter its fifth game tonight (X Link). Edmonton is lucky it’s only been five games for Hyman but the team had a five-game break at the end of November to lean on. Still, on the opposite side of a 50-goal campaign, the Oilers could use Hyman’s goal-scoring touch back in the lineup if they hope to stay competitive in a tough Pacific Division.
- The Seattle Kraken won’t have defenseman Ryker Evans in the lineup tonight due to injury. Television broadcaster Piper Shaw shared that Evans is out with an undisclosed injury but there were no further updates regarding his timeline. It’s a big loss for the Kraken before a tough contest against the Carolina Hurricanes as Evans sits tied for second on the team in scoring with three goals and 16 points in 25 games.
- It’ll still be a few days before defenseman Zach Whitecloud returns to the Vegas Golden Knights lineup. According to Jesse Granger of The Athletic, Whitecloud is still considered day-to-day with an upper-body injury and will miss his fifth straight game tonight. It’s not all bad news on the injury front for the Golden Knights as Granger later reported that captain Mark Stone was upgraded to a full-contact jersey at today’s practice meaning he should return soon.
Pacific Notes: Hyman, Arvidsson, McGinn, Vlasic, Musty, Whitecloud, Karlsson
The Edmonton Oilers won’t have a healthy forward core for the rest of the week. The team’s radio commentator, Bob Stauffer, shared a note from head coach Kris Knoblauch earlier this morning indicating that forwards Zach Hyman and Viktor Arvidsson are still a week or more away from returning.
Hyman has missed the last two games with an undisclosed injury dating back to the Oilers’ recent contest against the Ottawa Senators on November 19th. He’ll now miss his second straight week with Stauffer all but confirming Edmonton won’t have Hyman in the lineup for this weekend’s matchups against the Utah Hockey Club and Colorado Avalanche. It’s salt on the wound for Hyman who’s only mustered three goals and eight points in 20 games this season after scoring 54 goals in 80 games last year.
Arvidsson, who hasn’t played since November 12th, will now miss his third straight week for the Oilers. Edmonton placed him on the injured reserve over a week later on November 21st and he will now miss eight straight games after this weekend’s action. His production and availability are certainly not what the Oilers expected after giving the veteran forward a two-year, $8MM contract this past offseason.
Other notes from the Pacific Division:
- According to Derek Lee of The Hockey News, the Anaheim Ducks are placing forward Brock McGinn on injured reserve to make room for activating forward Mason McTavish this evening. McGinn’s injury is likely tied to crashing into the boards of last week’s game against the Dallas Stars and while he’s seemingly avoided a worse injury, he’ll still miss a few more games for Anaheim. McGinn had scored three goals and six points in 17 games this season before suffering the injury.
- The San Jose Sharks may get one of their longtime veterans back during their upcoming road trip. Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News wrote earlier that defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic is nearing a return to the active roster after being a full participant in the team’s practices on multiple occasions. Vlasic is now in his 19th season in San Jose but hasn’t skated for the team since April 18th, 2024 due to an injury in his upper back.
- The Sharks also have some injury concerns further down their organizational hierarchy. Jeff Marek reported earlier that Sharks’ prospect Quentin Musty suffered a hand fracture in last night’s contest between the OHL’s Sudbury Wolves and Oshawa Generals. The fracture will unfortunately keep Musty off Team USA’s roster for the upcoming 2025 IIHF World Junior Championships and may extend until the OHL trade deadline. Musty had scored eight goals and 20 points in 11 games for the Wolves this season while the team sits ninth in the OHL standings with a 12-8-3 record through 23 games.
- There will be a few missing players for the Vegas Golden Knights this evening. The organization announced that defenseman Zach Whitecloud is out with an upper-body injury and is considered day-to-day. Vegas also added that forward William Karlsson won’t participate in tonight’s contest against the Philadelphia Flyers due to personal reasons. The injury to Whitecloud will strain the Golden Knights’ blue line with defenseman Alex Pietrangelo set to miss his third consecutive game.
Vegas Golden Knights Updates
As the Vegas Golden Knights took the ice for practice this morning in preparation for their upcoming game against the Minnesota Wild on Monday, they issued a plethora of updates regarding key players. The team announced that Mark Stone, Zach Whitecloud, and Jonas Rondbjerg would all miss practice due to illness, indicating that there may be a bug making its way around the team. In the same announcement, the team has also sent defenseman Kaedan Korczak to their AHL affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights.
Outside of those missing practice, the team also announced that defenseman Shea Theodore was back at practice in a non-contact jersey, indicating that he may be close to returning. Out for much of the season, Theodore has scored four goals and 18 points in 20 games for the Golden Knights this year before an upper-body injury took him out of the lineup back on November 22nd.
Given that the team does not play until after the weekend, it would be reasonable to assume that Stone, Whitecloud, and Rondbjerg could all return without missing any games. However, it is important to note that Vegas has dealt with several injuries to key players throughout much of the season, and losing three players from illness would severely limit their depth moving forward.
In Korczak, this transaction will mark his third demotion of the season, with the other two coming in early January and early November, respectively. In December, Korczak suffered an undisclosed injury keeping him out of the lineup for nearly a month, limiting his play in Henderson to only five games on the year.
At the NHL level, Korczak has skated in 26 games for the Golden Knights this year, marking a career-high in terms of games played over the last three seasons. Averaging 16 and a half minutes of ice time a game, Korczak has scored one goal and nine points while also sporting a productive 50.4 CorsiFor% and a 94.2% On-Ice Save Percentage in All Situations.
Golden Knights Assign Kaedan Korczak To AHL
With Vegas set to welcome back Zach Whitecloud to their lineup tonight, they needed to create the salary cap and roster room needed to do so. That move has been made as PuckPedia relays (Twitter link) that blueliner Kaedan Korczak has been assigned to AHL Henderson.
The 22-year-old was sent down at the end of training camp before being recalled following Whitecloud’s LTIR placement. While he didn’t suit up in every game, he has been relatively productive when he has played, notching a goal and three assists in seven contests while logging a little under 16 minutes a night. For his NHL career, Korczak has six points in 18 appearances, impressive numbers considering he’s coming off a 14-point showing in 50 games with the Silver Knights last season.
Meanwhile, Whitecloud’s return will be a welcome one. The 26-year-old was a steady part of their third pairing last season, notching 12 points, 97 hits, and 90 blocks in 59 regular season games while averaging a little over 17 minutes per appearance. That playing time went up in the playoffs to a little under 19 minutes per contests while he added eight points in 22 games to help Vegas win the Stanley Cup.
With this assignment and Whitecloud’s subsequent activation, Vegas is down to just $85K in LTIR space while Robin Lehner and Daniil Miromanov still on there. That said, the Golden Knights are still carrying a full 23-man roster so they shouldn’t be facing a situation where they have to play short a player for a game (due to not being able to afford a recall) for a little while at least.
Injury Notes: Markstrom, Nosek, Zegras, Whitecloud
Calgary Flames head coach Ryan Huska shared that starting goaltender Jacob Markstrom is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. He will sit out of the team’s Friday night game, with Daniel Vladar taking over the starting role.
This is timely news, as the Flames just recalled back-to-back AHL Goalie of the Year winner Dustin Wolf to the NHL club. Wolf has yet to carve out an NHL presence but the 22-year-old goaltender has more than proven his capability, going as far as winning the AHL’s Les Cunningham Award last season, given to the league’s most valuable player. Calgary plays Toronto on Friday and Ottawa on Saturday, which could give Wolf a chance to relieve Vladar.
The team will hope that their backups getting added opportunities can turn into some sort of spark in net. Markstrom has struggled through the early season, recording a .896 save percentage and 2-6-1 record across nine games played. Vladar has managed better outcomes in his appearances, earning a 2-1-0 record in his three games, but carries a .844 save percentage.
Wolf has recorded a .924 save percentage and 5-1-0 record in six AHL games this season.
Other injury notes from around the league:
- Tomas Nosek is expected to return to the New Jersey Devils lineup on Friday, despite head coach Lindy Ruff saying he wanted to see a few more practices from the forward. Nosek has played in two games with the Devils this season, going without a point or any change in his +/-. He’s been battling a lower-body injury and was placed on injured reserve earlier in the year.
- The Anaheim Ducks will be without Trevor Zegras on Friday, as he’s battling a nagging lower-body injury. The dynamic forward is off to a slow start this season, with a mere two points through his first 12 games. Contract negotiations held him out of much of the team’s training camp.
- Zach Whitecloud is set to return make his season debut on Friday. The defenseman went under the knife in early October to address an issue in his hand. He was announced as week-to-week at the time and makes his return nearly one month later, holding to his history as a quick healer. Whitecloud scored 12 points in 59 games last year.
Pacific Notes: Sharks, Benning, Golden Knights, Hamblin
While the Sharks snapped their season-long losing streak at 11 games yesterday with a win over the Flyers, clearly, there’s a lot of work to be done still. However, don’t expect any reinforcements coming from the minors. Speaking with Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News, GM Mike Grier indicated that while they’ve thought about bringing up some of their better prospects from the minors (including defensemen Henry Thrun and Shakir Mukhamadullin plus forward Daniil Gushchin), they’d like to see things get more stabilized first over putting those youngsters into a less than ideal situation from a development perspective. Getting captain Logan Couture back would help on that front but with him suffering a recent setback in his recovery lately, there’s no timeline for when he’ll be able to join the lineup.
Elsewhere in the Pacific Division:
- Still with the Sharks, Pashelka reports in a separate piece that blueliner Matt Benning has resumed skating as he works his way back from an undisclosed injury. The 29-year-old is coming off a career year offensively but, like many San Jose players, is off to a rough start this year with just a single point in his first eight appearances while averaging 18:29 per night. Benning is on injured reserve but has already been on there for more than a week, meaning they’ll be able to activate him as soon as he’s cleared to return.
- Ben Gotz of the Las Vegas Review-Journal relays (Twitter link) that Vegas center Chandler Stephenson will miss at least the next two games with an upper-body injury. The 29-year-old is off to a strong start in his contract year with 10 points in his first 12 games, good for fifth on the Golden Knights in scoring. Jonas Rondbjerg was recalled yesterday for the fifth time in less than a month and is expected to take Stephenson’s spot in the lineup. Meanwhile, Gotz adds that blueliner Zach Whitecloud is with Vegas on the road and could potentially be back as soon as Friday. The 26-year-old has yet to play this season due to an upper-body injury and is currently on LTIR but is eligible to be activated as he has missed both 10 games and 24 days.
- PuckPedia notes (Twitter link) that the Oilers have converted forward James Hamblin’s emergency exception recall into a regular one. When they sent Jack Campbell and down and recalled Calvin Pickard earlier today, Edmonton had enough cap space to fit Hamblin into its cap structure, meaning they were no longer eligible for the cap exemption he was recalled with. The 24-year-old logged nearly 11 minutes in his season debut back on Monday.
Injury Notes: Couturier, Barabanov, Golden Knights, Hoffman, Knyzhov
Philadelphia Flyers center Sean Couturier, who has not played in either of the team’s last two games, will return tonight against the San Jose Sharks, according to Kevin Kurz of The Athletic. It will be an important reinforcement for the Flyers who are currently on a 1-4-0 stretch in their last five games.
After missing the entire 2022-23 regular season due to injury, Couturier has picked up right where he left off in Philadelphia. In 10 games played up to this point, he has scored two goals and six assists, tied for fifth on the team in scoring. Still maintaining a positive faceoff percentage, as well as solid possession numbers, Couturier is still a player the Flyers can trust with heavy usage.
Unfortunately, when one player returns from injury, another player must exit the lineup, and Kurz also reports that Morgan Frost will be a healthy scratch for the game tonight. Trying desperately to earn more minutes for Philadelphia, Frost has played in six games so far, scoring zero points after averaging over 15 minutes of ice time per night.
Other notes:
- Max Miller of The Hockey News reports there is still no timeline for the return of Sharks winger, Alexander Barabanov, but he is progressing nicely from injury. Barbanov has been out of the lineup with a finger injury since the team’s game against the Florida Panthers on October 24th. After finishing fifth on the team in scoring last season, Barabanov is one of six members of San Jose’s forward core that has not scored a point yet this year.
- As he is rehabbing his way back from injury, Vegas Golden Knights’ defenseman, Zach Whitecloud, was practicing with the team today in a non-contact jersey (X Link). Other notable pieces missing from today’s practice were Nicolas Roy, Nicolas Hague, Alec Martinez, and Chandler Stephenson. For the last three mentioned, it is likely that they were merely taking maintenance days, as no injury concern was alluded to in the report.
- Back to the Sharks, Max Miller also mentioned that Mike Hoffman and Nikolai Knyzhov were late additions to today’s practice, meaning they may be out of the lineup tonight against the Flyers. Both players were present during the team’s blowout loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night.