Ty Dellandrea Only Day-To-Day
With a game tomorrow night against the San Jose Sharks, the Vancouver Canucks are continuing their tradition of an off-day paper transaction. Typical recipients Erik Brännström and Arshdeep Bains are back on the NHL roster for tomorrow’s action as announced by the organization.
Macklin Celebrini Returns To Team Activities, Still Week-To-Week
Sharks rookie center Macklin Celebrini returned to the ice today for the first time since sustaining a lower-body injury in the season opener, the team relayed to reporters, including Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News. He’s now missed 10 games with the ailment and will miss his 11th tonight when San Jose hosts the Blackhawks. There’s still no change in his status, the team stressed – he remains week-to-week, so it could be well into November before the 2024 first-overall pick hits the ice again.
The 18-year-old’s NHL debut against the Blues earlier this month was a mixed bag. He scored his first NHL goal and added an assist in a 5-4 overtime loss. But he went just 1-for-14 on faceoffs, and he was hemmed in at even strength. The Sharks were out-attempted 31-12 with Celebrini on the ice.
Unsurprisingly, it’s been a tough go for the Sharks with or without Celebrini in the lineup. They remain last in the league with a 2-7-2 record, although they have rattled off back-to-back wins against Utah and the Kings. Their 2.45 goals per game are up slightly from last year’s 2.20, and Celebrini should both help and stand to benefit from that offensive uptick under first-year head coach Ryan Warsofsky.
Evening Notes: Senators, Rizzo, Musty
The Ottawa Senators announced that they loaned forwards Adam Gaudette and Zack Ostapchuk to their American Hockey League affiliate the Belleville Senators. The move comes on the heels of a two-goal game for Gaudette last night against the St. Louis Blues. Gaudette has had an excellent start to the season with Ottawa, posting four goals and an assist in eight games this season.
Ostapchuk on the other hand had an assist in last night’s 8-1 win, in what was his first NHL game of the season. It was a special moment for the 21-year-old as the assist represented his first NHL point. Ostapchuk dressed in seven games last season for Ottawa, going pointless.
The move is likely to be a paper transaction as the Senators don’t play again until Friday against the New York Rangers and could very well recall either player in the next few days.
In other evening notes:
- San Jose Sharks forward prospect Quentin Musty has returned to the Sudbury Wolves of the Ontario Hockey League and is expected to play this weekend (as per Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News). San Jose re-assigned Musty back to the OHL in late September, but a week later, it was reported that the 2023 first-round pick (26th overall) had requested a trade. That same day, Sudbury released a statement talking about Musty’s trade request, saying that they would field trade offers but would also welcome Musty back if he changed his mind. Musty’s return will be a big boost for the Wolves, who have started the OHL season with a 7-5 record.
- Philadelphia Flyers prospect Massimo Rizzo has reportedly suffered an appendicitis that required him to have surgery a few weeks ago to get his appendix removed (as per Flyers reporter Bill Meltzer). The early reports indicate that Rizzo will require a six to eight-week timeline to recover from the appendectomy. The 23-year-old is slated to play in the AHL for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms but has yet to dress in a game this season. Rizzo was originally drafted in the seventh round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft by the Carolina Hurricanes but was dealt to the Flyers in August 2023, along with a 2025 fifth-round pick in exchange for forward David Kase.
Sharks Acquire Timothy Liljegren From Maple Leafs
The San Jose Sharks have acquired defenseman Timothy Liljegren from the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for defenseman Matt Benning, a 2025 third-round and 2026 sixth-round draft pick. Toronto will get the better of the third-round picks that San Jose previously acquired from the Edmonton Oilers and Colorado Avalanche.
The move ends a tumultuous seven-year run for the 17th overall pick in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. The Maple Leafs were patient with the 25-year-old, waiting for him to realize the potential that made him a first-round pick. Unfortunately for Toronto, that untapped potential never translated to results, as Liljegren could not crack Toronto’s top four on defense.
Liljegren was re-signed to a two-year $6MM contract back in late June, but despite the new contract, Liljegren quickly lost the trust of new head coach Craig Berube and general manager Brad Treliving. Liljegren has only dressed in one regular season game thus far and struggled mightily, as the Maple Leafs were out-chanced 21-2 while he was on the ice for 12 minutes of even-strength hockey.
Coming back the other way is 30-year-old depth defenseman Matt Benning. The Edmonton Alberta native is in the third year of a four-year $5MM contract, meaning that Toronto will realize a cap savings of $1.75MM in the transaction for this season and next. Benning is a useful defenseman who is just two years removed from his best offensive season as a pro (one goal and 23 assists in 77 games). While Benning will serve as valuable depth for Toronto, he is unlikely to see the kind of ice time he was seeing in San Jose and will most likely be Toronto’s eighth defenseman.
San Jose Sharks Recall Ethan Cardwell, Place Ty Dellandrea On IR
With the ninth-youngest roster in the league, the San Jose Sharks are adding more youth to their lineup. The organization announced they recalled forward prospect Ethan Cardwell from their AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda while placing forward Ty Dellandrea on injured reserve.
The Sharks haven’t issued a formal update on Dellandrea’s injury status. Still, the current theory is that he’s dealing with an upper-body injury suffered in the team’s recent game against the Vegas Golden Knights on October 26th. Dellandrea managed 9:02 of ice time before leaving the contest and had previously been ruled out in the team’s win last night against the Utah Hockey Club.
Dellandrea skated in all nine games for San Jose before last night scoring one goal in total on the season. He’s kept his physicality up in his new stomping ground but his defensive play and possession metrics have declined with a weaker supporting cast compared to his time with the Dallas Stars.
On the other side of the roster move, Cardwell looks to make his NHL debut after one full season in the AHL. He scored 23 goals and 43 points in 71 games for the Barracuda in his rookie campaign and has gotten off to a solid start this year with one goal and five points through six contests.
The former 121st overall pick of the 2021 NHL Draft won’t crack many lists of top prospects in the Sharks system but could be a boon for the organization toward the bottom of the lineup. Cardwell is a 200-foot player with an aggressive tendency to jump into every battle on offense and defense.
Warsofsky: Sharks' Start "Truly Embarrassing"
- The Sharks certainly weren’t expected to climb much higher out of last place this year, but few expected last season’s disastrous 19-54-9 record to not see any improvement. Unfortunately, a coaching change and significant roster turnover haven’t changed San Jose’s fortunes, at least so far. They’ve become the first team in NHL history to start back-to-back seasons with nine-game losing streaks, a stat first-year head coach Ryan Warsofsky called “truly embarrassing” following a 7-3 defeat at the hands of the hands of the Golden Knights last night. “I don’t think anyone’s happy by any means,” Warsofsky said post-game (via San Jose Hockey Now’s Sheng Peng). “There’s a lot of emotion in that locker room, frustration, anger, it’s tough right now.“
Grier Hoping Musty Is Traded In OHL Soon
- Late last month, the Sharks assigned prospect Quentin Musty back to OHL Sudbury but he has yet to play since then. It’s not because of an injury, however, but rather a trade request. GM Mike Grier expressed some frustration about the situation to Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News (subscription link), indicating that he has been in contact with Musty’s agent to emphasize the need to find a suitable trade sooner rather than later. San Jose selected Musty with the 26th pick in 2023 and he averaged nearly two points per game last season with the Wolves, notching 43 goals and 59 assists in 53 games. Having him out this long certainly isn’t ideal from a development standpoint.
Sharks Reassign Thomas Bordeleau, Shakir Mukhamadullin
Sharks prospects Thomas Bordeleau and Shakir Mukhamadullin, who started the year on the injured non-roster list, have been cleared to return to play and were subsequently assigned to AHL San Jose, per a team announcement. The move opens up $323,975 in cap space, per PuckPedia.
Bordeleau is no stranger to the Barracuda. That’s where the 22-year-old has spent most of his time since turning pro out of Michigan in 2022. A second-round pick of the Sharks in 2020, he has worked his way into 43 NHL games over the past three seasons, a career-high 27 of which came last year. The center/winger has posted six goals and 12 assists for 18 points, an 11-goal, 34-point pace over 82 games. That’s decent production for a young forward in a middle-six role, especially on a rebuilding club without much support. His possession metrics last season were also exceptionally strong, logging a 5.9% relative Corsi share at even strength. He’s also been decent on the scoresheet in the AHL, posting 33 goals and 69 points in 102 appearances there.
Those numbers generated optimism that Bordeleau could crack the opening night roster this season, but instead, he sustained a lower-body injury early in training camp that knocked him out for most of the exhibition schedule. He’ll now get back up to game speed with the Barracuda before looking to challenge for a call-up in the coming weeks. The Sharks are down a forward with first-overall pick Macklin Celebrini out week-to-week with a lower-body injury, so there should be an opportunity for Bordeleau if he earns it with his play in the AHL.
Mukhamadullin, meanwhile, was dealing with a lower-body injury dating back to rookie camp. The defenseman was a first-round pick of the Devils in 2020 and headed to San Jose in the Timo Meier trade. He made his NHL debut last season, posting an assist with a whopping 11 blocks and five hits in just three games during a brief call-up to the Sharks. He didn’t look entirely out of place while averaging north of 20 minutes per game and, like Bordeleau, should be in line to get NHL action this year after getting his feet wet in the minors.
Morning Notes: Broberg, Holmberg, Walman
One of the league’s most eye-opening offseason acquisitions has been making a significant impact with his new club early on. When the Blues signed former Oilers Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway to successful offer sheets, most viewed their contracts as a bet on their upside rather than their current prowess. That was especially true in Broberg’s case, as the Blues inked him to a two-year deal with a $4.58MM cap hit despite the 2019 eighth overall pick spending most of last season in the minors.
But early on, Broberg’s been worth the cash and then some. He’s embarked on a six-game point streak to begin his tenure in St. Louis, tying for the team lead in scoring with six points (1 G, 5 A) and tying for the team lead with a +6 rating. What’s more – all of that production has come at even strength, and he’s averaging nearly 20 minutes per game. There’s more about Broberg’s early-season emergence in today’s video breakdown from Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic (subscription required).
Here are a couple of more things from around the hockey world this morning:
- A successful offseason by most accounts from Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving means more forward depth for new head coach Craig Berube to play with. That’s led to a rotation of notable healthy scratches thus far, including late-offseason pickup Max Pacioretty. The next one might be Pontus Holmberg, who Berube said “has got to battle a little bit harder” after last weekend’s 4-1 loss to the Rangers (via Nick Barden of The Hockey News). He was potentially looking to lock down a spot as the team’s third-line center, and while he’s done well in the faceoff dot with a career-high 55.2 FOW%, he’s played mostly on the wing thus far and has an assist and a -1 rating through five appearances. Possession numbers have been extremely unkind to him in heavy defensive usage as well.
- Defender Jake Walman was a surprise mover this summer when the Red Wings attached a second-round pick to deal him to the Sharks. Most thought at least one Detroit defenseman would be on the move, but not one of the team’s best skaters who’d flourished in a top-pairing role alongside Moritz Seider over the past couple of seasons. Walman recently spoke to The Athletic’s Max Bultman about the move, which he said left him “shocked and heartbroken.” He’s off to a fresh start in San Jose, where he’s averaging over 23 minutes per game as their top blue-line option with two assists and a -2 rating through six appearances.
Celebrini Likely Out Another Couple Of Weeks
- The Sharks are likely to be without center Macklin Celebrini for at least a couple more weeks, reports Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli. The first-overall pick back in June, Celebrini played in San Jose’s opener and fared well, picking up a goal and an assist. However, he hasn’t suited up since with what’s believed to be a nagging hip issue that the team is opting to try to let him fully recover from over having it flare up at times throughout the year. It appears that a full recovery is still at least a couple of weeks away.