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Evening Notes: Sullivan, Penguins, Blues

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Josh Yohe of The Athletic wrote about the Pittsburgh Penguins freefall and what it means for head coach Mike Sullivan. Yohe wouldn’t lean one way or the other when it comes to Sullivan’s future but did concede that the Penguins’ current predicament is ripe for a coaching change. However, he doesn’t believe that general manager Kyle Dubas or Penguins ownership expected the team to make the playoffs this season.

Sullivan has been at the helm of the Penguins since late 2015 and has guided the Penguins to two Stanley Cup championships. That being said, the Penguins haven’t been out of the first round of the playoffs since 2018 and have missed the postseason in each of the last two years. Combine that with their horrific 7-12-4 start to this season, and it has people wondering if a coaching change is in order. Yohe casts doubt on that possibility but does add that if things get much worse in Pittsburgh, it could happen.

In other evening notes:

  • TSN’s Darren Dreger spoke on TSN690 radio and mentioned that the Penguins have been heavily scouting the Montreal Canadiens. Dreger wonders if a trade could be brewing between the two sides, adding that nothing is in the works yet, but he does see a potential path to a deal between the two teams. Pittsburgh isn’t in fire sale mode yet, but with so many expiring contracts on the books and the playoffs falling out of reach with each passing game, the Penguins may begin to move players out with an eye toward the future.
  • The St. Louis Blues didn’t expect to make a coaching change until Jim Montgomery became available a few days ago (as per Stephen Whyno of the Associated Press). Blues general manager Doug Armstrong spoke to the media today saying that the Blues viewed Montgomery’s free agency as an opportunity to grab a top coach in the NHL and improve the team’s prospects behind the bench. The move certainly came as a shock to many but can’t be that surprising given Montgomery’s coaching experience as well as his deep ties to the Blues organization.

Blues Fire Drew Bannister, Hire Jim Montgomery

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The St. Louis Blues have fired second-year head coach Drew Bannister and replaced him with recently-fired Boston Bruins coach Jim Montgomery. The move was first reported by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Montgomery has reportedly signed a five-year deal with the Blues, per Fanduel Sports Network’s Andy Strickland.

It’s a shocking coaching change. St. Louis has struggled this season, posting a 9-12-1 record on the year and a 3-6-1 record in what will now be Bannister’s last 10 games with the club. The poor showings have the Blues ranked sixth in the Central Division – but their poor start hasn’t come as too much of a surprise, especially as St. Louis deals with injuries to Torey Krug, Nick Leddy, and Philip Broberg.

But St. Louis has deemed the losing too much, and now separate from Bannister before he could coach a full 82 games. The 50-year-old head coach took over the Blues’ head coaching role from Craig Berube last December, earning a promotion after three years leading the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds. Bannister was quickly productive in Springfield, leading the team to a 43-24-9 record and trip to the Calder Cup Finals in his inaugural season of 2021-22, though the T-Birds would fall to the oft-champions Hershey Bears. Bannister followed the long playoff run up with a 38-26-8 record and qualifying-round exit in the following year, but seemed to have the wind behind him to start the 2023-24 campaign. He started that year 12-8-0 – on pace for 40 wins across a full season.

But Bannister didn’t get a chance to see things through in Springfield, instead jumping to a Blues roster off to a terrible start. Berube left St. Louis at 13-14-1 – again good for sixth in the Central Division, where they find themselves this year. Bannister was forced to pick up the pieces, and led St. Louis to an admirable 30-19-5 record – bringing out the best of young lineup pieces like Jake Neighbours and Scott Perunovich. But his strong run wasn’t enough to lift St. Louis above a slow start, and they’d miss the 2024 postseason by six points.

St. Louis looks to be on track to miss again this year. While they certainly have faced bad injury luck, the team has struggled to find any scoring from down the lineup – with just four Blues with 10-or-more points through 22 games this season. They haven’t been helped along by what was meant to be strong goaltending, with starter Jordan Binnington posting a .891 Sv% and 3.04 GAA in 17 games, and backup Joel Hofer recording a .893 and 3.45 in six games. That paints the picture of top-to-bottom struggles in St. Louis, despite GM Doug Armstrong pushing for a heap of overturn and new faces this season.

That change will now continue, with Bannister ousted by career-Blue Jim Montgomery. Montgomery served two seasons as a Blues’ assistant coach in 2020-21 and 2021-22, getting hired off their bench into Boston’s head coach role. He proceeded to lead one of the greatest seasons of all time, setting the single-season wins record with a 65-12-5 standing. Montgomery brought career performances out of David Pastrnak, Linus Ullmark, and Jeremy Swayman – though Boston couldn’t manage to push back the first round of the playoffs. Unbothered, Montgomery stayed red-hot through 2023-24, following his record-breaking campaign with an impressive 47-20-15 record and second-round playoff exit. Those two seasons – a combined 112-32-20 record – made it all the more surprising when Boston chose to axe Montgomery after an 8-9-3 start to the season.

Despite a bad start, Montgomery is clearly a successful NHL coach – inspiring strong play since his first year at an NHL helm, when he led the 2018-19 Dallas Stars to a 43-32-7 record. He continued with a 17-11-3 record in 2019-20 – but stepped down midseason for personal reasons. His first sighting after that was on the Blues’ bench that he’ll now head back to.

The connection between Montgomery and St. Louis runs deep. The Blues signed Montgomery as an undrafted free agent in 1993, immediately after he captained the University of Maine to their first NCAA championship in school history. It was a legendary season that saw Montgomery and Paul Kariya – another famous Blue – lead perhaps one of the greatest collegiate offenses of all time. Montgomery kept the show going into the pros, earning a quick call-up after scoring 15 points in his first 12 minor-league games. He put up six goals and 20 points in 67 games on the Blues’ roster – but couldn’t hang onto a lineup role on a lineup that routinely turned over their depth lines. That kicked off Montgomery’s journeyman career around North America. He’d go on to play 11 more professional seasons, but changed teams every year – save for a three-year stint with the AHL’s Philadelphia Phantoms from 1997 to 2000, that kicked off with a Calder Cup championship.

Central Notes: Athanasiou, Mrazek, Joseph, Heinola

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The AHL’s Rockford IceHogs have announced that forward Andreas Athanasiou has suffered a wrist injury and will miss the next four to six weeks. He’s just three games into a tenure with Rockford, after passing through waivers from the Chicago Blackhawks on November 13th. Athanasiou recorded two goals on four shots in his AHL debut but didn’t manage any scoring in two games this weekend. He’s playing in his first minor league games since the 2015-16 season, working to earn a recall after failing to score in his first five NHL games this season.

The slow start this season has continued Athanasiou’s unpredictable career. He’s only two seasons removed from a 20-goal, 40-point season with a much weaker Blackhawks lineup, but was limited to only 28 games last season by a lower-body injury that lasted nearly five months. He hasn’t rediscovered his scoring on the other side of that injury – and now gets stifled from a potential resurgence in the minor leagues for the time being. Athanasiou carries a $4.25MM cap hit and is set to become an unrestricted free agent next summer.

Other notes from the Central Division:

  • Sticking in Chicago, starting goaltender Petr Mrazek will sit out of the team’s Tuesday night game against Anaheim for personal reasons per Charlie Roumeliotis of WGN Radio 720. Arvid Soderblom will take over the starting crease, and Drew Commesso has been called up to serve as backup. Soderblom has posted a .934 save percentage in five games this season, well ahead of Mrazek’s .906 in 13 games. He’ll need to stay strong, with no indication of how long Mrazek may miss and Chicago currently on a two-game losing streak.
  • It will be Mathieu Joseph stepping out of the St. Louis Blues’ lineup to make room for Robert Thomas’ return from a fractured ankle per NHL.com’s Elise Butler. Joseph only has one point in his last seven games, and has fallen to a fourth-line role after a strong stint in late October. St. Louis acquired Joseph and a third-round pick for future considerations from the Ottawa Senators this summer. Joseph scored a career-high 35 points last year, but has so far struggled to find his scoring in St. Louis. He’ll look to take better advantage of his minutes when he’s called on again, while Oskar Sundqvist also steps out of the lineup in favor of Zachary Bolduc.
  • Winnipeg Jets head coach Scott Arniel said that defender Ville Heinola could rejoin against Minnesota on Monday, shares NHL.com’s Mitchell Clinton. Heinola was assigned to the AHL’s Manitoba Moose for a conditioning stint after starting the year on injured reserve with an ankle injury. He hasn’t slotted into the Jets’ lineup since January of 2023, when he was assigned to the minors after scoring just one point in 10 NHL games. He went on to score 64 points in 89 AHL games over the last two seasons, though he continues to fight with routine injury. Heinola was the 20th-overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft.

Oilers Claim Kasperi Kapanen Off Waivers From Blues

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The Oilers announced on Tuesday that they’ve claimed winger Kasperi Kapanen off waivers from the Blues.

Kapanen, 28, hit waivers yesterday with St. Louis needing to open a roster spot for Robert Thomas’ activation from injured reserve. He’d been a healthy scratch in three of their last five games since returning from an upper-body injury and had just one goal in 10 games on the season with a -6 rating, so it wasn’t terribly surprising to see the pending unrestricted free agent hit the wire.

The Oilers are hoping Kapanen, who carries a $1MM cap hit, can rediscover the form that landed him 15 goals and 34 points in 66 games split between the Blues and the Penguins in 2022-23. St. Louis nabbed him off the wire amid that campaign, and a good deal of that production came in his final 23 games of the season after the move.

Edmonton has been in need of forward help for the past couple of games, dressing seven defensemen with Viktor Arvidsson out day-to-day with an undisclosed injury. Instead of making a recall up front – they already had to make one on defense after Darnell Nurse was injured in Toronto over the weekend – they’ll opt to bring in some outside help.

It seems unlikely that Kapanen will make it to Ottawa in time for tonight’s game against the Senators, so the Oilers may need to roll with the 11F/7D formation once more if Arvidsson isn’t ready to return. If Arvidsson is still out for a stretch, though, there could be an opportunity for Kapanen to get a brief audition in his usual spot on Leon Draisaitl’s wing. Corey Perry has hopped up into that spot with Arvidsson out, but those minutes aren’t sustainable for the 39-year-old with four points in 19 games.

The Oilers had an open roster spot before claiming Kapanen, so no corresponding transaction is necessary. However, they are now over the $88MM salary cap upper limit and are thus using Evander Kane’s long-term injured reserve placement to stay compliant as PuckPedia breaks down.

Blues To Activate Robert Thomas From Injured Reserve

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The Blues will activate Robert Thomas from injured reserve, reports Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic. The star center will return to the lineup against the Wild on Tuesday.

Thomas’ return comes weeks ahead of schedule. The 25-year-old fractured his ankle in a game against the Jets on Oct. 22 and was given a six-week return timeline, which would have kept him out until early December. Instead, he’s back in the lineup less than a month after sustaining the injury.

Before the fracture, Thomas had one goal and five assists for six points in seven games. Now in his seventh year in the league, the 2017 first-round pick was dealing with some poor puck luck and was shooting at a career-worst 8.7%. That should turn around in the next couple of weeks as he looks to record over a point per game for the second season in a row.

Away from goals and assists, Thomas was having an excellent start to the season. He averaged 20:33 per game, won 62.6% of his draws, and posted career-best possession numbers with a 58.1 CF% and 64.9 xGF% at even strength.

The Blues don’t yet have an open roster spot, but they will in about an hour after Kasperi Kapanen is claimed by another team or clears waivers. Thomas’ official activation will thus take place after 1:00 p.m. CT.

“He’s put in a lot of work to get to this point,” Bannister said on Thomas’ quick recovery (via Rutherford). “It doesn’t look like he’s missed a beat; he’s in great shape. He went away for 1-2 weeks to do some work in Toronto with his doctors, and I think that really sped up the process.”

St. Louis is now fully healthy up front, hopefully counteracting a rash of injuries on defense. In addition to Torey Krug being ruled out for the year, Philip Broberg and Nick Leddy have hit injured reserve since the start of the season. Pierre-Olivier Joseph is day-to-day with a lower-body injury but hasn’t been ruled out tonight against Minnesota.

The lack of puck-moving defenders available will lead the Blues to experiment with a five-forward first power-play unit tonight, one that Thomas will be quarterbacking, per Lou Korac of NHL.com. Thomas has just one power-play point this season, but 27 of his 86 points last season came with the man advantage.

At even strength, Thomas will return to his standard first-line center role. After spending most of the early going with Jordan Kyrou on his right and Brandon Saad on his left, Pavel Buchnevich will now slide up to first-line duties while Saad skates on the second line with Brayden Schenn and Jake Neighbours, per Korac.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Blues Place Kasperi Kapanen On Waivers

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The Blues have placed winger Kasperi Kapanen on waivers for the purposes of assignment to AHL Springfield, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports Monday.

Kapanen, 28, has been limited by an upper-body injury and multiple healthy scratches to 10 appearances this season. He has just one goal and a -6 rating with a 45.9 CF%, struggling to limit chances against while failing to generate many chances himself with 11 shots on goal.

That underwhelming showing has led head coach Drew Bannister to slash Kapanen’s ice time to 11:19 per game, his lowest average since his rookie season with the Maple Leafs in 2017-18. With Kapanen now sitting in the press box for back-to-back games and the team needing to clear a forward spot eventually to activate Robert Thomas from injured reserve, it was clear that he was becoming the odd man out.

The Blues had their chance to walk away from Kapanen over the offseason after he recorded six goals and 22 points in 73 games last year, his lowest points-per-game rate as a full-time NHLer. Instead, they opted to re-sign him to a one-year, $1MM contract shortly after the free agent market opened on July 1. While it’s a one-way deal, his cap hit is fully buriable and won’t count against St. Louis’ books if he clears waivers and reports to Springfield.

The Blues acquired Kapanen, a first-round pick by the Penguins back in 2014, by claiming him off waivers from Pittsburgh in Feb. 2023, less than halfway through a two-year, $6.4MM deal he’d signed with the Pens. It initially looked like Kapanen might have found a home in Missouri, posting 14 points in 23 games down the stretch while averaging 16:45 per game, the most minutes he’d ever shouldered as an NHLer. But inconsistency and a career-worst 6.1% shooting rate plagued him in 2023-24, kicking off a slow slide down the depth chart.

As a former 20-goal scorer with Toronto and a five-time 30-point getter, there might be some interest in Kapanen on the wire as a fully buriable expiring contract with some rebound potential. If not, he’ll be staring down his first minor league assignment since the 2017-18 season.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Pierre-Oliver Joseph Listed As Day-To-Day

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  • Blues defenseman Pierre-Olivier Joseph left the road trip to have his injury better evaluated but the test results were good, relays Matthew DeFranks of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Twitter link). Accordingly, the 25-year-old is listed as day-to-day.  Joseph is in his first season in St. Louis after signing with them in free agency following his non-tender from Pittsburgh.  He has played in 13 games so far this season, recording one assist while averaging a little under 14 minutes a night.

Blues Recall Corey Schueneman, Reassign Leo Lööf

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Blues defense prospect Leo Lööf will have to wait until his next recall to make his NHL debut. He’s been sent back to AHL Springfield while veteran Corey Schueneman comes up, the team announced Friday.

Schueneman, 29, is in his first season with the St. Louis organization after signing a two-way deal in free agency on July 1. The Michigan native has 31 games of NHL experience to his name, all coming with the Canadiens in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 campaigns. He recorded two goals and five assists for seven points with a -4 rating, 8 PIMs and 38 shots while averaging 16:10 per game and controlling 45.1% of shot attempts at even strength.

Once a captain for Western Michigan University, Schueneman has had a solid minor-league career since turning pro in 2019. In addition to his time with the Canadiens and Blues, he’s spent time in the Flames and Avalanche organizations on AHL and NHL contracts, respectively. His lone season in Colorado was last year, where he recorded 22 points and a +2 rating in 64 appearances for their AHL affiliate.

So far in 2024-25, Schueneman has a goal and four assists for five points in 13 AHL games with a +1 rating. He could make his Blues debut Saturday against the Bruins after Pierre-Olivier Joseph left Thursday’s overtime loss to the Sabres with a lower-body injury and did not return.

Schueneman cleared waivers on his way down to Springfield at the beginning of October. He can remain on the Blues’ roster for up to 30 non-consecutive days or play 10 NHL games before he needs them again to return to the minors.

With a new face likely needed to replace Joseph tomorrow, it’s possible the Blues wanted a more offensively-inclined option to replace Joseph on the back end. The hard-hitting shutdown Lööf was likely going to get his chance in a third-pairing role, not in top-four usage alongside Justin Faulk like the puck-moving Schueneman may receive. The 22-year-old had been recalled from Springfield on Wednesday after posting an assist, 21 PIMs, and a +1 rating in 11 games.

Blues Recall Leo Lööf With Nick Leddy To Miss Three Games

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4:00 PM: Defenseman Nick Leddy won’t be joining St. Louis on their upcoming three-game road trip, per Lou Korac of The Hockey News. Leddy will continue to sit out after shifting to injured reserve on October 22nd with a lower-body injury. He hasn’t played since October 15th, and went without any scoring or hits through the first four games of the Blues’ season. St. Louis deployed Leddy as a top-pair defender prior to his injury – leaving big shoes to fill in the lineup, and making St. Louis eager for his return.

9:00 AM: The Blues announced Wednesday that they’d recalled defense prospect Leo Lööf from AHL Springfield. If he plays during his recall, it will be his NHL debut.

Lööf, now 22, was a third-round pick of the Blues in 2020. The 6’1″, 201-lb left-shot defenseman spent his first three post-draft years in Europe, skating for top-level clubs in Sweden (Färjestad BK) and Finland (Ilves) before signing his entry-level contract in April 2023 and coming to North America the following season.

Lööf has appeared solely for Springfield during his entry-level contract, though that may change in the coming days. The physical, two-way defender has yet to see his point totals pop in the minors, failing to score a goal and recording only eight assists in 69 games dating back to last season. It’s a sharp downtick from his numbers in the European pros, where he most recently had four goals and 12 assists for 16 points in 55 Liiga games for Ilves in 2022-23.

Only one of those points has come this season while making 11 appearances for Springfield. However, he’s tied for second on the team with 21 PIMs and is tied for the team lead among defensemen with a +1 rating. While the point totals haven’t come, and his ability to read plays offensively is still translating to North American ice, he’s primarily played an intelligent game and has been a factor physically.

That being said, it’s no guarantee that Lööf gets into a game. The Blues already have six healthy defenders on the roster and likely just wanted an extra body on hand for their three-game East Coast road swing over the next few days. Lööf was one of the top waiver-exempt options they had available, so they don’t have to worry about managing their roster or shaving time off the temporary exemptions for Corey Schueneman, Hunter Skinner or Tyler Tucker after the trio cleared waivers during training camp.

Lööf still has one season left on his entry-level contract after this. Even if he doesn’t play, the recall is financially significant for him—temporarily bumping his salary from just $80K in the minors to a pro-rated $775K while he’s on the NHL roster. He’ll be a restricted free agent in the summer of 2026.

Mathieu Joseph Expected To Play Tomorrow

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  • Expect forward Mathieu Joseph to be in the lineup tomorrow night for the St. Louis Blues after missing the team’s last six games (X Link). Joseph, who had been nursing a lower-body injury, hasn’t played since October 26th. In his first year with the Blues organization, Joseph has collected two goals and four points in nine contests while averaging just over 13 minutes of ice time per night.

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