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Snapshots: Wild, Krejci, Salt Lake City

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The Minnesota Wild, already rolling near the top of the Western Conference, are set to get two key pieces into their rotation soon. The Athletic’s Michael Russo reported today that both forwards Kirill Kaprizov and Gustav Nyquist could be options to return during their game next Saturday against the St. Louis Blues.

Head coach Dean Evason indicated further that only one of Kaprizov or Nyquist would play in the Saturday game, with the team opting to work both players back into the lineup slowly. The team has three games next week, including a back-to-back set on Monday and Tuesday. Neither player will suit up for both of those games. When Nyquist does suit up, it will be his Minnesota debut after he was traded mid-recovery from a shoulder injury sustained with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Kaprizov’s return would obviously be the more monumental of the two, although the Wild have still managed to string multiple wins together without their superstar winger.

  • Boston Bruins forward David Krejci is questionable to play in tomorrow’s matchup against the Toronto Maple Leafs, per The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa. Krejci left today’s practice early and did not play in the team’s Sunday win against the Blues, held out with a lower-body injury. The veteran playmaker has 56 points in 70 games during his return campaign to North America.
  • Preseason hockey will return to Salt Lake City next year, with Vivint Arena, the home of the NBA’s Utah Jazz, announcing an October 5 matchup between the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks. Salt Lake City has long been viewed as a dark horse for expansion, and they’ve seen sustained preseason action over the past number of years, mainly highlighted by the Kings playing against various opponents.

Snapshots: Three Stars, Moore, Briere

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The NHL released its Three Stars of the week ending April 2 and it shows a trio of league superstars who are gearing up for the postseason. Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy was named the first star of the week. He started three games for the Lightning, winning them all, getting shutouts in two of those games and allowing just one goal in those three starts. Vasilevskiy shut out the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Islanders while stopping 99 out of the 100 shots he faced in the past seven days.

Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers was the second star of the week. He helped the Oilers win all four of their games by scoring five goals and eight points as the Oilers officially clinched a playoff spot. His best game of the week came on Saturday night against the Anaheim Ducks when he scored a hat trick in a 6-0 victory for the Oilers.

The league’s third star of the week was Boston Bruins winger David Pastrnak. He continued his hot pace that has lasted all season, just like his team. The Bruins won three of their four games last week with Pastrnak scoring five goals and six points in those four games. He now has 56 goals and 103 points on the season and has played a big role in the Bruins already reaching 60 wins and clinching the President’s Trophy as the team with the best regular season record.

  • Per Mark Divver of NHL.com, Detroit Red Wings prospect Cooper Moore found a new place to play next season. The defenseman has played the past three seasons at North Dakota, but will be heading to Quinnipiac next season as a senior. The 22 year old was a fifth-round pick of the Red Wings in 2019 and scored 13 points in 31 games at North Dakota last season.
  • Mercyhurst forward Carson Briere has been released from the team, per Ian Kennedy of The Hockey News. Briere was caught on video pushing a wheelchair down a flight of stairs last month. He just finished his third season of college hockey, scoring five goals and 13 points in 30 games, but will not be back for a fourth season at Mercyhurst.

Snapshots: Gibson, Merilainen, Kessel

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Although he was set to join the Hershey Bears, goaltender Mitchell Gibson will instead be joining the Washington Capitals on an amateur tryout deal. Gibson will serve as a backup tonight for Darcy Kuemper, as goaltender Charlie Lindgren is out with an illness.

Gibson was selected 124th overall in the 2018 NHL draft by the Capitals and has spent the last four years playing for Harvard University. In what will now be his last season in the NCAA, Gibson played in 27 games for Harvard, producing a record of 18-7-2, garnering a .919 SV% and a 2.25 GAA. Unfortunately for Gibson and Harvard, the team was knocked out in the first round of the 2023 DI Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament, losing to Ohio State University in a blowout contest.

Gibson will join a particularly interesting situation in Washington, as the team has its goaltenders locked up for at least the next three seasons. The Capitals signed Kuemper to a 5-year, $26.25MM contract, and they also signed Lindgren to a 3-year, $3.3MM deal, giving Gibson a difficult pathway to the crease. As the Capitals were sellers at this year’s deadline, they may need to move out one of their goalies shortly or let Gibson primarily grow in the AHL.

Other notes from around the league this morning:

  • Continuing with goaltending news, Bruce Garrioch of TSN reports that the Ottawa Senators have recalled Leevi Merilainen from their AHL affiliate Belleville Senators, as Mads Sogaard will be out of the lineup with an illness. Although the Senators have dealt with a goalie carousel this season, this will mark Merilainen’s first official call-up to the NHL, although it remains to be seen if he will play in any games. In his first and only start in Belleville, Merilainen recorded a shutout.
  • Because defenseman Marco Scandella left Saturday’s game with a lower-body injury, the St.Louis Blues have recalled Matt Kessel on an emergency loan. Kessel currently has 31 points in 66 games played this year in the AHL but has yet to crack the Blues’ roster.

Snapshots: Wisconsin, Sabres, Perunovich, Krys

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The Wisconsin Badgers have announced the hiring of new head coach Mike Hastings. Most recently, Hastings had been the head coach of the Minnesota State Mavericks.

Since he took over as head coach during the 2012-13 season, Hastings led Minnesota State to eight appearances in the NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament, topping out in a finals appearance against the eventual champion Denver University Pioneers last season. In total, Hastings will leave the state of hockey with a 299-109-25 record. In Wisconsin, he will be replacing the vacancy left by NHL veteran Tony Granato.

Since Granato took over for Wisconsin before the 2016-17 season, the team went 105-129-16, ending up in the NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament one time in 2021. As the Big Ten already features top teams such as the University of Michigan Wolverines and the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers, it appears that Wisconsin is looking to turn the corner and become a competitive team once again.

More from around hockey this afternoon:

  • Bill Hoppe, a beat writer for the Buffalo Sabres, gave several updates on some key injuries to the lineup before tomorrow night’s game against the New York Rangers. As top prospect Devon Levi looks to make his NHL debut, Hoppe writes that forwards Tage Thompson and Jordan Greenway, as well as defenseman Mattias Samuelsson could all see their return to the lineup the same night. Currently, the Sabres sit five points back of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with nine games remaining in the regular season.
  • Speaking with St.Louis Blues head coach Craig Berube today, Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic reports that St.Louis defenseman Scott Perunovich will finish his season with the Springfield Thunderbirds, the Blues AHL affiliate. Since being activated from LTIR on February 20th of this season, Perunovich has scored one goal and 10 assists for the Thunderbirds in 17 games.
  • Contributor for the NHL, Mark Divver reports that now-former Brown University captain Luke Krys will be transferring to Providence College for the 2023-24 NCAA season. In his 92 games playing at Brown, Krys scored nine goals and 29 assists, wearing a letter in his final two seasons.

Snapshots: Clarke, O’Reilly, Rousek

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Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News reports that Los Angeles Kings’ prospect Brandt Clarke will take home Player and Defenseman of the Month honors for the month of March in the Ontario Hockey League. In just nine games, playing for the Barrie Colts, Clarke put up an extremely impressive 11 goals and 11 assists, all while carrying a +/- of 16.

Drafted eighth overall in the 2021 NHL Draft, Clarke has spent the majority of his last four seasons playing in Barrie, while also spending one season for HC Nove Zamky of the Slovak Extraliga on loan. The young defenseman has now suited up in 143 OHL games, scoring 40 goals and 118 assists. Clarke has primarily been commended for his ability as a defenseman to create the rush and join in with it.

This season, Clarke was able to suit up in nine games for the Kings earlier in the season, scoring two assists during his time. Averaging over two points a game in the OHL this season, Clarke should be expected to earn a full-time job with the Kings next season.

More from around the league this afternoon:

  • After speaking with the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Sheldon Keefe, this morning, Mark Masters of TSN passes on that center Ryan O’Reilly is unlikely to return to Toronto this week. This is still within the timeline that the Maple Leafs initially gave, as they stated O’Reilly would be out for four weeks with his injury. Getting off to a dismal start to the year with the St.Louis Blues, O’Reilly picked up his play a bit, scoring three goals and two assists after eight games in Toronto.
  • After scoring one goal and one assist in his first-ever game in the NHL, Buffalo Sabres’ forward Lukas Rousek will be returned to the team’s AHL affiliate Rochester Americans. Drafted 160th overall in 2019, the Sabres forward has scored 49 points in 62 games for Rochester and seemed to translate that talent to the NHL in the team’s loss to the Montreal Canadiens. As Rochester is in the midst of a playoff hunt coming down the wire, expect Rousek to be a big part of that.

Snapshots: Three Stars, Scott, Potential GMs/Coaches

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The NHL announced its Three Stars of the Week for March 20 through March 26, with Viktor Arvidsson of the Los Angeles Kings earning the top spot. Arvidsson led the league with five goals and two assists, scoring in each of the three games he played. His performance helped the Kings extend their point streak to a franchise-record 12 games as they rocket up the Pacific Division standings.

Montreal Canadiens center Nick Suzuki was named the Second Star after tallying eight points in three games. Suzuki’s four-point effort in an 8-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets was his first career four-point outing. The Third Star went to Minnesota Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson, who posted a 2-0-0 record, a 0.96 goals-against average, and a .972 save percentage. Gustavsson’s 47-save performance in a 2-1 win of the New Jersey Devils was a career-high. The Wild have earned points in 12 of Gustavsson’s past 13 starts dating back to February 11. His excellence in goal for the Wild has helped them continue to climb the Central Division standings without the services of Kirill Kaprizov.

More from around the league this morning:

  • Dave Scott, the chairman and former CEO of the Philadelphia Flyers’ ownership group, Comcast-Spectacor, will be retiring from his positive effective April 17th. Comcast-Spectacor announced the news Monday, ending Scott’s 30-year time at the helm of Philadelphia’s ownership. Dan Hilferty, who was recently appointed as CEO of the company, will take over as chairman and assume both of Scott’s former roles, per Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli.
  • ESPN’s Emily Kaplan compiled a list of the top candidates for potential coaching and general manager vacancies, with a lot of familiar names near the tops of both lists. Former Florida Panthers interim head coach Andrew Brunette, Toronto Maple Leafs assistant Spencer Carbery, and Seattle Kraken assistant Jay Leach made Kaplan’s “ready right now” tier for coaching vacancies, while former Sabres general manager Jason Botterill, Flyers interim GM Daniel Briere, and Lightning assistant GM Mathieu Darche made the “ready right now” tier for GM vacancies.

 

Snapshots: Talbot, Toews, Reilly, Lalonde

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The Senators should be getting some help between the pipes soon as Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports that Cam Talbot is expected to return to the lineup sometime this week.  He has been out for the last three weeks due to an oblique muscle injury.  The 35-year-old has a 2.85 GAA and a .905 SV% in 32 games this season, numbers that aren’t the greatest but at the moment, Ottawa is trying to hang in the race for a Wild Card spot in the East with rookies Mads Sogaard and Dylan Ferguson.  Accordingly, getting Talbot back should give them a boost for the final few games.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews has been out for nearly two months due to symptoms from long COVID and Chronic Immune Response Syndrome but hasn’t given up on returning this season. To that end, head coach Luke Richardson told Mark Lazerus of The Athletic (Twitter link) that the center has been skating in an effort to get back before the end of the campaign.  There was a recent report that Toews may be considering retirement and if that’s true, that could be fueling his desire to get back for the final few games.
  • Bruins defenseman Mike Reilly suffered a serious injury in the minors today, one that saw him knocked unconscious and stretchered off the ice. Fortunately, AHL Providence announced after the game (Twitter link) that he is alert, conscious, and able to walk around.  The veteran has spent the bulk of the year in the minors but is likely to be a Black Ace recall at some point in Boston’s playoff run.
  • The Blue Jackets announced (Twitter link) that they’ve reassigned goaltender Nolan Lalonde from OHL Erie to AHL Cleveland. The 19-year-old signed with Columbus as an undrafted free agent in October but had a tough year in junior, posting a 4.09 GAA along with a .868 SV% in 41 games with the Otters.  With Jon Gillies being recalled today and Daniil Tarasov being injured in Cleveland’s game today, Lalonde could have a path to make his pro debut fairly soon.

Snapshots: Stars, Stalock, Gaber, Caulfield

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While the Stars are in a tight battle for seeding in the Central Division, they’re doing so without some key veterans in their lineup.  Saad Yousuf of The Athletic provided (Twitter link) some updates on those injured players.  Veteran center Tyler Seguin has resumed skating while his stitches have been removed with head coach Peter DeBoer indicating he could be an option to return later this week.  The 31-year-old has been an important secondary scorer for Dallas this season, notching 42 points in 65 games so far.

Meanwhile, Mason Marchment isn’t as far along in his recovery although DeBoer hopes that they’ll be able to get him back before the playoffs.  The winger has 31 points in 67 contests in his first season with the Stars and his grit would certainly be useful in the postseason when things get more physical.  As for Scott Wedgewood, while his day-to-day injury has dragged on for more than a month, DeBoer noted that the goaltender is progressing and is expected to be back sooner than later.  Wedgewood has posted a solid .913 SV% in 18 appearances as the second-stringer this season.

Other injury news from around the NHL:

  • Although Alex Stalock has had an impressive season with Chicago, John Dietz of The Daily Herald suggests that the Blackhawks might not be the best fit for him. The 35-year-old has been a nice story this year, posting a .915 SV% in 21 games.  However, with Petr Mrazek signed for another season and youngsters Arvid Soderblom and Jaxson Stauber showing they’re worthy of NHL looks as well, there just might not be a viable opportunity for Stalock to stick around.
  • One of the top college free agent forwards is off the market. No, Riese Gaber didn’t sign anywhere but instead, Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald reports that the winger informed North Dakota that he’ll remain with them next year for his senior season.  Gaber had a productive junior year, notching 37 points in 39 games, equaling his output from 2021-22.  He indicated that he did have interest from NHL teams but instead will give it one more go with the Fighting Hawks.
  • Schlossman also notes that Penguins prospect Judd Caulfield has not yet made a decision about turning pro or opting for his bonus year; players impacted by the pandemic have a fifth year of eligibility. The 22-year-old winger was a fifth-round pick by Pittsburgh back in 2019 (145th overall) and put up nearly identical numbers this season (10 goals, nine assists) compared to a year ago (11 goals and nine helpers).  Caulfield has reached the double-digit point mark in each of his four college seasons but hasn’t recorded more than 20 in a single campaign either.

Snapshots: Tychonick, Ruotsalainen, Brink

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An interesting signing took place this morning, permitted only by a technicality. Ottawa Senators 2018 second-round pick Jonny Tychonick signed a two-year AHL contract with the Toronto Marlies, beginning this season, according to the team.

While he’s signing with a team in the Maple Leafs organization, his NHL rights are still held by Ottawa, albeit for what will likely be a short period of time. Tychonick’s exclusive signing rights will expire on August 15, 2023, standard procedure for collegiate players who have exhausted their college eligibility and have not yet signed an NHL contract.

The move signals it’s unlikely Tychonick will sign an NHL deal with Ottawa by that time. After a pair of disappointing seasons at the University of North Dakota, Tychonick transferred to the University of Nebraska-Omaha in 2020, where he finally saw an offensive breakout this season as a fifth-year player, recording eight goals and 18 assists in 35 games.

More from around the hockey world this morning:

  • Forward Arttu Ruotsalainen’s time with EHC Kloten of the Swiss National League has ended, according to a team announcement. Ruotsalainen, 25, did not accept his qualifying offer from the Buffalo Sabres last offseason, instead opting for more opportunity in Europe, where he scored 42 points in 52 games with Kloten. If a return to the NHL is in the cards for Ruotsalainen this summer, it will be with Buffalo barring a trade, as the Sabres still hold the undrafted forward’s NHL rights.
  • Sam Carchidi of Philly Hockey Now says the Philadelphia Flyers are expected to give winger Bobby Brink an NHL look soon. After an offseason hip injury cost him the beginning of the 2022-23 season, the 21-year-old Brink has 19 points in 31 games with the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The 34th overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft also had four assists in 10 games with the Flyers last year, his first stint in the NHL.

Snapshots: Panthers, Kuznetsov, Boldy, NCAA Bracket

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The Panthers have once again flipped their backup goalies, announcing (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled Alex Lyon from AHL Charlotte while sending Mack Guzda back to the Checkers.  Lyon was sent down on Wednesday to get in some game action with starter Sergei Bobrovsky in the middle of a 12-game consecutive start streak.  Lyon has a 3.89 GAA with a .887 SV% in six starts with Florida this season while he has been much better in the minors, putting up a 2.43 GAA with a .910 SV% in 23 contests.  Guzda, meanwhile, is in his first professional season after signing as an undrafted free agent a little over a year ago.  He hasn’t seen any NHL action while posting a 2.85 GAA and a .900 SV% in 25 games with Charlotte.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov was injured in today’s game against Minnesota. Roman Stubbs of the Washington Post relayed (Twitter link) that there was no word following the contest about how long he might be out.  The 30-year-old has 12 goals and 39 assists in 70 games so far this season.
  • After recording a hat trick today against Washington, Wild winger Matt Boldy has reached one of his Schedule A bonuses, triggering a $212.5K payout, notes Michael Russo of The Athletic (Twitter link). Minnesota is projected to finish well below the salary cap despite making several additions at the trade deadline so barring a significant rash of injuries, they should be able to absorb that on their cap this year instead of using the bonus cushion to push it to 2023-24.
  • The NCAA has released the official bracket for the tournament leading to the Frozen Four and the DI Men’s Ice Hockey Championship. The action gets underway on March 23rd and as teams get eliminated, there should be an influx of players signing with NHL teams soon after, both drafted prospects and undrafted free agents.

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