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Zack Kassian

Arizona Coyotes Activate Zack Kassian

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The Arizona Coyotes announced their lines for tonight’s contest against the Carolina Hurricanes, and as part of that announcement, they revealed that forward Zack Kassian had been activated off of injured reserve.

Additionally, the team announced that defenseman Juuso Valimaki will miss tonight’s game due to an upper-body injury, and his status is considered day-to-day.

Kassian, 31, has not played since early month as he’s been dealing with a lower-body injury. He was placed on injured reserve just a short while ago to clear a roster spot, but since his injury happened earlier the placement was retroactive, meaning he could be activated today so soon after his official IR placement.

The bruising winger is a veteran of over 600 NHL games. He’s gotten into eight games so far this season, potting a single goal and zero assists in those games. Last year, Kassian scored six goals and 19 points in 58 games.

Kassian originally arrived in Arizona as part of a cap-dumping move at last year’s draft, a move that got the Coyotes a few draft picks as well as a short move up in the first round so the team could select Maveric Lamoureux.

He’s playing on a $3.2MM cap hit and will become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2024.

Injury Notes: Parayko, Kassian, Red Wings

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The St. Louis Blues are streaking – again. They’ve nearly wiped out a franchise-record eight-game losing streak by rattling off six straight wins, the latter half of which have come without defenseman Colton Parayko in the lineup. Considered day-to-day with a lower-body injury, Parayko will be a game-time decision tonight when the Blues take on the Anaheim Ducks.

Berube even went so far as to say he was “confident” that Parayko would be back in the lineup, but still, it’s not assured. He’ll be an important piece for the Blues this season as he enters the first season of his eight-year, $52MM contract extension. His defensive play this year has been better than his -9 rating would suggest, with his sample size being weighed down by poor goaltending during the Blues’ losing streak. Tyler Tucker will draw out in place of Parayko after playing his first three NHL games, and Vladimir Tarasenko will miss a second straight game with an undisclosed illness.

  • In activating Jakob Chychrun and Nick Schmaltz from injured reserve, the Arizona Coyotes have replaced them with forward Zack Kassian to stay under the 23-player roster limit, according to PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan. Kassian has not played since November 1 and is still day-to-day with a lower-body injury, even though he’s missed nearly three weeks now. He’s eligible to return at any time given he’s well past the seven-day injured minimum required to be on IR, although the team will need to send someone down to accommodate.
  • Forward Elmer Soderblom remains day-to-day for the Detroit Red Wings despite not playing for weeks, per head coach Derek Lalonde today. Lalonde said Soderblom’s return from a lower-body injury is “probably going to take some time,” and there’s still no clear indication when the rookie could return. Defenseman Gustav Lindstrom could play this week, though. The Swede is also day-to-day with a lower-body injury.

Arizona Coyotes Acquire Zack Kassian

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We have another trade. The Coyotes, who earlier tonight cashed in some of their draft capital to move up to the 11th overall pick, are making another move. They have acquired forward Zack Kassian, the 29th overall pick, a 2025 second-rounder, and a 2024 third-rounder from the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for pick 32. To put it more simply, the Oilers are moving down two spots and trading two future mid-round picks in order to clear Zack Kassian’s contract off their books.

The Oilers, desperate to improve their team after an encouraging run to the Western Conference Final, want to be active this offseason in making improvements to their roster. They have been interested in a variety of goalies, but with cap space at an absolute premium, they have now decided they’ll need some more wiggle room in order to get a deal done. Trading Kassian’s cap hit gives GM Ken Holland more room to work with as he chases free agent goalies, such as Jack Campbell, or other established players in free agency.

For the Coyotes, this move adds a few more picks to GM Bill Armstrong’s stockpile. The Coyotes add two decently valuable picks as well as the right to move up a few spots in tonight’s draft in exchange for taking on Kassian, who had six goals and 19 points in 58 games this year. If Kassian can perform well in Arizona, it’s possible that the Coyotes will have the option to retain salary on his deal in order to flip him to another club. For now, though, the main priority will be the draft picks acquired in the deal.

We knew going into this summer that teams such as Chicago and Arizona would be active in weaponizing their cap space in order to acquire future assets. Now, on the night of the draft, both teams have made moves to do exactly that.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was first on the details.

Snapshots: Point, Mock Draft, Kassian

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As the Stanley Cup Final is set to commence in two days, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Colorado Avalanche will retake the ice today to practice ahead of their last four to seven games of the season. Of note from Tampa’s side of things is that injured star center Brayden Point continued to take part in practice today and took line rushes for the first time, centering a line between Nick Paul and Ross Colton, per The Athletic’s Joe Smith. However, assistant coach Jeff Halpern said after practice that “he didn’t know if you could read too much” into Point’s status, noting that it was a light session.

Tampa will be waiting anxiously to get an answer on when Point can return. Given the uncertain health of Nazem Kadri on the other side for Colorado, Tampa Bay having their full center depth available to them would give them a much greater chance at winning their third straight Stanley Cup.

  • With the 2022 NHL Draft now within a month, The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler, one of the top public prospect evaluators, released his 2022 NHL Mock Draft, taking team needs, consensus, and intel into account aside from just his own rankings. Although more and more doubt remains around the status of Kingston Frontenacs center Shane Wright as the Montreal Canadiens’ no. 1 overall pick, Wheeler still has Wright listed in the first spot. Rounding out the top five is winger Juraj Slafkovsky to the New Jersey Devils, center Logan Cooley to the Arizona Coyotes, defenseman Simon Nemec going first off the board among d-men to the Seattle Kraken, and defenseman David Jiricek headed to the Philadelphia Flyers.
  • The first buyout window of the offseason opens July 1, and Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli has Edmonton Oilers winger Zack Kassian at the top of his list of 10 buyout candidates for this summer. Kassian, who carries a cap hit of $3.2MM through 2024, mustered just 19 points in 58 games this season and averaged under nine minutes per game in the playoffs. With the 31-year-old forward only set to continue declining, Edmonton could take the buyout penalty to free up more space to improve their depth scoring. The buyout for Kassian is relatively benign, per CapFriendly, with a cap hit of $666,667 in 2022-23, $1,866,667 in 2023-24, and $966,667 in 2024-25 and 2025-26. It offers $2.5MM in savings upfront in 2022-23, an appealing number for general manager Ken Holland.

Zack Kassian Earns Fine For Unsportsmanlike Conduct

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The Department of Player Safety has handed out a $2,500 fine to Edmonton Oilers forward Zack Kassian for unsportsmanlike conduct, following his actions in last night’s game. Notably, this is not the “maximum allowable under the CBA,” words hockey fans have come to know (and hate) in recent years.

With the Oilers down 3-0 in game two of their third-round series, Colorado Avalanche defenseman Bowen Byram took a hit and ended up partially on his opponent’s bench. Kassian, on the bench, decided to not let Byram leave intact and pulled the helmet off the Colorado defender. When Byram retaliated by shoving the Oilers forward, they both ended up with minor penalties.

Kassian will earn a little bit more on review, as the league hands him a fine today. The Oilers are down 2-0 in the series as they head back to Edmonton, and this incident will cause the league to keep a bit of a closer watch over Kassian the rest of the way. While it isn’t a suspension, the fine can be taken into account in any future disciplinary decisions.

In fact, it’s already the second fine that Kassian has received in these playoffs, following the cross-check he delivered to Sean Durzi earlier on. It’s not exactly a “three strikes” rule in the NHL but the league likely will escalate the penalties at some point if the Oilers forward continues to be involved in supplementary discipline decisions.

Darnell Nurse Suspended One Game

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As expected, the Edmonton Oilers will be without star defenseman Darnell Nurse when they try to stay alive tomorrow night. The Department of Player Safety has announced a one-game suspension following last night’s head-butting incident, ruling Nurse out for game six. As the accompanying video explains:

It is important to note that this is not an accidental collision that occurs when two players are moving at speed and heads collide when attempting to throw a legal body check. This is an unacceptable head-butt delivered with the top of the helmet, delivered with the top of the helmet directly to an opponent’s face, with force. 

The DoPS also handed out a $5,000 fine to his Oilers’ teammate Zack Kassian, for the cross-check he delivered on Los Angeles Kings defenseman Sean Durzi last night.

For Nurse, it is a brutal decision that will leave his team shorthanded in the most important game of the season. The incident occurred late in the second period with the Kings on the powerplay, and was not penalized by the on-ice officials. As the league notes, there is no significant history of this behavior from the Oilers defenseman (at least in terms of supplementary discipline) as he has just one previous suspension–a three-game ban for serving as the aggressor in a 2016 fight.

There was also no injury on the play for Phillip Danault, who would go on to score in the third period and finish the game. Those factors will at least keep Nurse available for a game seven, should the series reach that.

It was actually Kassian’s cross-check that put the Oilers on the penalty kill in the first place, as he delivered a hard shot to the back of Durzi after the Kings’ defenseman was hit by Evander Kane. As Kane and Blake Lizotte engaged and received matching roughing penalties, Kassian cross-checked Durzi and took his own two-minute minor. Luckily, at least for the Oilers, it will only cost Kassian some money and not a chance to play in game six when they will need all hands on deck to avoid a disappointing series result.

In a related move, Edmonton recalled Philip Broberg from Bakersfield of the AHL. He played in 23 games with the Oilers during the regular season and could be an option to take Nurse’s place in the lineup.

Zack Kassian, Duncan Keith Out Multiple Weeks

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5:38 pm: The team also announced that they’ve moved forward Kyle Turris to injured reserve. He’s only played four games since the beginning of January but has been a healthy scratch for most of the time. The nature of his injury is unknown. To fill his roster spot, the team recalled defenseman Philip Broberg from the AHL.

2:41 pm: The Edmonton Oilers will be without Zack Kassian and Duncan Keith for the next several weeks, general manager Ken Holland announced today. Kassian is dealing with a broken jaw that will keep him out four to six weeks, while Keith is in concussion protocol, has upper-body soreness and could miss two to four weeks. The Oilers will recall Markus Niemelainen from Bakersfield to fill one of the roster spots.

Kassian, 31, left last night’s game after playing just 4:52 of ice time, though that wasn’t all that far off from what he had been receiving of late anyway. The veteran forward has just five goals and 14 points through 35 games and will now end up missing at least a month with this latest injury. In the second season of a four-year, $12.8MM contract signed in 2020, Kassian is actually the fifth-highest paid forward on the Oilers. That salary won’t result in much offense this season given this latest absence, especially if he falls closer to the six-week timeline and misses a good chunk of March.

Keith meanwhile might be a bigger loss, even though the 38-year-old is a shadow of the player that helped lead the Chicago Blackhawks to three Stanley Cup championships. The Oilers simply don’t have the defensive depth to lose a top-four option long-term, unless a younger player is able to take a step forward and take on a good chunk of responsibility.

Perhaps that will happen with new interim head coach Jay Woodcroft taking over and defensive coach Dave Manson coming along with him. Niemelainen will obviously be very familiar with both from their time in Bakersfield, though the 23-year-old has just seven games of experience at the NHL level.

Edmonton Oilers Place Zack Kassian In COVID Protocol

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The Edmonton Oilers placed forward Zack Kassian in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol today, per a team tweet.

Edmonton also recalled defensemen Philip Broberg and Dmitri Samorukov from the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors on an emergency basis.

Kassian’s got four goals and eight assists through 25 games this season. He joins Jesse Puljujarvi, Darnell Nurse, Duncan Keith, and William Lagesson in COVID protocol for the Oilers.

Broberg’s already played in eight NHL games this season, getting his first NHL point (an assist) in the process. Samorukov, however, is slated to make his NHL debut on Wednesday against the St. Louis Blues. The 84th overall selection in 2017 is in the final year of his entry-level contract and has three points in 15 games with the Condors this year.

Injury Updates: Oilers, Varlamov, Foote, Rust, Dunn, Maatta

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Oilers winger Zack Kassian will suit up tonight after missing Edmonton’s season opener while in concussion protocol, the team announced (Twitter link).  He suffered the injury in a fight late in the preseason when his helmet came off.  To make room for Kassian, Edmonton has placed forward Devin Shore on IR with an undisclosed injury, notes Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic (Twitter link).  The placement is retroactive to last Saturday which means he’ll have missed seven days already which means Shore could be activated as soon as Tuesday’s game against Anaheim.

Other injury notes from around the NHL:

  • Islanders goaltender Semyon Varlamov missed training camp due to nagging soreness with head coach Barry Trotz expressing optimism that the veteran wouldn’t miss much time. However, Newsday’s Andrew Gross relays that while the netminder took a few shots at the end of practice on Friday, there remains no timetable for a return.  Trotz ruled out the possibility of a conditioning stint but it remains unclear when Varlamov will actually be able to suit up for New York.
  • Lightning defenseman Cal Foote is roughly a week away from returning, notes Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). He had surgery last month to repair a torn tendon in his hand which caused him to miss all of the preseason.  Accordingly, it wouldn’t be surprising if Tampa Bay asked him to start with a short conditioning stint first; he’d have to agree to the move as he’s no longer waiver-exempt.
  • The Penguins have ruled out winger Bryan Rust for tonight’s game against Chicago, head coach Mike Sullivan told reporters including Mike DeFabo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The 29-year-old was injured early in the third period on a hit from Florida’s MacKenzie Weegar on Thursday.  The team is still evaluating Rust’s injury so there’s no timetable yet for his return although he has been placed on IR.
  • Vince Dunn will miss tonight’s game for the Kraken, relays Ryan S. Clark of The Athletic (Twitter link). The blueliner is listed as day-to-day with an undisclosed issue.  Haydn Fleury will take Dunn’s place in the lineup.
  • The Kings announced (Twitter link) that they’ve activated defenseman Olli Maatta off injured reserve. He’ll take the roster spot of Christian Wolanin who was claimed off waivers earlier today by Buffalo.  The 27-year-old had a sparing role with Los Angeles last season, logging less than 17 minutes a game in 41 appearances while recording just four assists.

Zack Kassian Listed As Week-To-Week

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The Oilers will be without winger Zack Kassian for the next little while as head coach Dave Tippett told reporters, including TSN’s Ryan Rishaug (Twitter link) that the veteran is listed as week-to-week after suffering a lower-body injury early in Wednesday’s game against Montreal.

It has been a tough year for the 30-year-old who also missed time with an upper-body injury sustained in a fight that cost him 17 games.  As a result, Kassian has been limited to just 27 appearances this season where he has struggled offensively, notching just two goals and three assists while averaging only 11:51 per night, his lowest ATOI since his rookie season.  Of course, he is more well-known for his physicality and he has delivered at that end, ranking third on the team in hits per 60 minutes at 13.68.  Having said that, it has not been the year he or Edmonton had hoped for, especially with him being in the first season of a four-year, $12.8MM contract.

Kassian joins Jujhar Khaira (concussion) and Joakim Nygard (undisclosed) as forwards that are injured which means that James Neal, who was recalled on an emergency loan earlier in the week, could stay on the active roster for a little while longer.  On the surface, with only 11 healthy forwards on the roster and veterans Tyler Ennis and Kyle Turris being on the taxi squad along with winger Patrick Russell and prospect Ryan McLeod, it would seem that one of those players would be recalled.  However, with only $278K in LTIR room remaining, per CapFriendly, they can’t afford to bring anyone else up unless someone else is transferred to LTIR which could force them to dress seven blueliners for the time being.

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