Panthers Sign Uvis Balinskis To Two-Year Extension
According to an announcement from his agent, Dan Milstein, defenseman Uvis Balinskis has agreed to a two-year extension with the Florida Panthers. TSN’s Chris Johnston added that it’ll be a two-year, $1.75MM ($875K AAV) deal.
Balinskis, 29, didn’t have a straightforward path to the NHL. The Latvian spent multiple years in the European professional circuit, primarily in the KHL and Extraliga. He began garnering NHL interest throughout his last two years overseas, scoring 20 goals and 58 points in 92 games split between Czechia’s HC Litvínov and Bílí Tygři Liberec.
The Panthers ultimately landed Balinskis toward the end of the 2022-23 campaign, with his one-year, $840K contract beginning in the 2023-24 season. Throughout his first year with the club, Balinskis scored one goal and three points in 26 games with Florida. Additionally, he tallied three goals and 21 points in 37 games for their AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers.
Needing defensive depth and being encouraged by his performance in the AHL, the Panthers signed Balinskis to a two-year, $1.7MM extension almost as soon as he became eligible. It proved to be a wise investment, as Balinskis finished fifth on the team in scoring among defensemen with four goals and 18 points in 76 games. His defensive metrics were solid as well, finishing with a 90.4% on-ice SV% at even strength, and an expected +/- of 12.0.
Suffering a handful of injuries this season, Florida has again deployed Balinskis fairly regularly, sometimes in a top-four role. His scoring has dissipated somewhat, though he’s second amongst defenseman in oiSV% behind Niko Mikkola.
A pending unrestricted free agent once again, Balinskis didn’t appear headed for a large payday this summer. Still, it was a no-brainer for the Panthers, who retain a familiar option for a mere $25K bump in salary.
Canadiens Reassign Owen Beck, Jacob Fowler
The Canadiens announced they’ve loaned center Owen Beck and goaltender Jacob Fowler to AHL Laval. They’re now left with two open roster spots – one of which could go to LTIR-bound Kirby Dach as he nears a return from a foot fracture, Eric Engels of Sportsnet speculates.
Beck and Fowler have been up with the Habs for over a month. They were summoned on Dec. 10 as the Habs opted to further embrace the youth movement in the wake of injuries to Dach, Patrik Laine, and Alex Newhook, as well as a spell of underwhelming goaltending.
The 21-year-old Beck has now put up back-to-back seasons with good defensive play in a fourth-line role during a double-digit games played window. In 15 contests this season, he’s only scored once – his first NHL goal – but has a +4 rating while controlling 52.0% of shot attempts at even strength. He’s averaging 9:11 of ice time per game and, after going 44-for-75 on draws, he’s the best faceoff-taker on the Habs with a 58.7% win rate.
All those points point toward Beck establishing his floor as a bottom-six defensive stalwart sooner rather than later. Selected 33rd overall in the 2022 draft, the 6’0″ pivot was viewed by many as potentially the best defensive-minded forward available in the class, although concerns abounded about his offensive upside.
So far, both of those statements appear to be on track. He had a promising showing on the scoresheet as a rookie in Laval last year with 44 points in 64 games. This season, though, he’s lit the lamp just three times in 22 AHL games with 11 total points.
Beck had been a healthy scratch in two straight games anyway to make way for Josh Anderson to get back into the lineup after an upper-body injury. Regardless of Dach’s status, it made sense for the Habs to get Beck more consistent reps in Laval instead of sitting in the press box in Montreal.
Fowler’s demotion means Montreal’s three-goalie rotation is coming to an end, at least for now. They have a light schedule for the rest of the month, and with his next “scheduled” start for the Habs not until next Thursday – assuming they continue to stick religiously to the rotation – it would make sense for him to get a game in Laval in the interim.
It’s hard to imagine Fowler’s demotion carrying any sort of permanence for a team in the playoff race. Through his first 10 NHL starts, the 21-year-old has clearly shown why he’s the organization’s top goalie prospect and one of the highest-ceiling netminders in the league.
His .902 SV% and 2.62 GAA are better than his counterparts, Jakub Dobes and Sam Montembeault, by significant margins, even if his 4-4-2 record doesn’t jump off the page. He’s recorded the team’s only shutout this season – a 31-save performance against the Penguins before Christmas – and leads them with 1.8 goals saved above expected, per MoneyPuck.
Ducks Reassign Nikita Nesterenko
The Anaheim Ducks have assigned winger Nikita Nesterenko to the AHL’s San Diego Gulls. This move comes after Nesterenko cleared NHL waivers last week. It is Nesterenko’s first assignment to the minors since signing a two-year, $1.6MM contract with the Ducks in June.
Nesterenko earned Anaheim’s extra forward role in the second half of the 2024-25 season. He recorded six points and a minus-four in 20 games, to go with 34 points in 50 AHL games on the year. The season continued Nesterenko’s gradual climb up Anaheim’s depth chart that started when he signed his entry-level contract out of college in 2023. With a strong training camp, Nesterenko took another step up, and locked himself into an NHL roster spot for the first half of the season.
But the 24-year-old forward has made little work of his extended look. He has one goal and nine points in 29 games – and only one point in his last 11 games. His biggest impact has come in the physical game, where his 53 hits ranks fourth among Ducks forwards. On the heels of a snapped losing streak, the Ducks will send Nesterenko to find a spark in the minor leagues. He has already racked up 71 points in 120 career games in the AHL. His presence will be welcome for a Gulls team riding a 1-3-1 record in January.
Kraken Activate Brandon Montour
The Kraken announced Thursday that they activated defenseman Brandon Montour from injured reserve. To open a roster spot, they reassigned forward Jacob Melanson to AHL Coachella Valley.
It’s an ahead-of-schedule return for the puck-mover, who underwent hand surgery shortly before Christmas. He was initially expected to miss at least four weeks, but returns with several days to spare.
Last year, Montour led Seattle’s defense with 41 points in 82 games after cashing in with the Kraken on a seven-year, $50MM deal in free agency. He’s been overtaken again now by Vince Dunn, but is still having a reasonably productive year with six goals and 16 points in 27 outings. He’s averaging 21:56 of ice time per game and is having a great year in the possession department, leading Seattle rearguards with a 51.3 CF%.
That possession control makes Montour an increasingly important factor on a Seattle team that is abysmal at generating quality scoring chances but has been propped up by semi-sound defense and elite goaltending. They control just 41.4% of high-danger chances at 5-on-5, but have nevertheless cashed in on them by a score of 31-24.
Melanson had seen consistent ice time as of late, temporarily leapfrogging Tye Kartye on the depth chart, but his waiver-exempt status made him the logical odd man out. After making a one-game NHL debut last year, he’s scored a goal and four points in 15 games this time around. The 22-year-old was a fifth-round pick in 2021 and has 14 points in 23 AHL games.
Sabres Recall Konsta Helenius, Place Joshua Dunne On IR
The Sabres have recalled top forward prospect Konsta Helenius from AHL Rochester, according to Rachel Lenzi of The Buffalo News. He could make his NHL debut tonight in Montreal. In a corresponding move, Joshua Dunne was moved to injured reserve with the mid-body issue that’s expected to keep him out for four to six weeks.
Helenius may be entering the lineup as Joshua Norris exits it. Buffalo’s oft-injured pivot left yesterday’s win over the Flyers with an upper-body injury and is day-to-day, head coach Lindy Ruff said.
Selected No. 14 overall in 2024, Helenius is the latest in a years-long slate of high-drafted Sabres forwards to get his first NHL look. The selection was nearly universally lauded at the time. Most had him touted as a top-10 selection after he rattled off 36 points in 51 games for Jukurit in Liiga, Finland’s top professional league, as a 17-year-old.
Helenius took an unusual path, immediately signing his entry-level contract with Buffalo and reporting to Rochester last season at age 18. First-round picks out of Europe are permitted to do so, but teams and players usually opt to give their prospects a bit more runway in a familiar overseas environment before bringing them to the NHL or AHL.
He didn’t blow the doors off in Rochester last year, but in year two of his North American professional career, concerns over his offensive ceiling have quieted. A two-way center first and foremost, he’s now Rochester’s second-leading scorer with a 9-21–30 line in 34 games.
Given he’s within spitting distance of a point per game in the minors as a teenager, he’s more than deserving of at least a brief NHL trial. He entered the season as the organization’s No. 1 prospect, per NHL.com, a billing he’s lived up to so far.
While injuries have continued to plague Norris, limiting him to 19 appearances this year, he’s played the best hockey of his career when he’s been dressed. He’s been as natural a fit as hoped in Buffalo’s top six and has six goals and 17 points in 19 games, placing second on the team at 0.89 per game. That would also stand as a career-high for the 26-year-old and is his best per-game production in four years.
Golden Knights Activate Adin Hill, Place Two On IR
The Golden Knights activated goaltender Adin Hill from long-term injured reserve on Thursday, per Jason R. Pothier and Ken Boehlke of Sin Bin Vegas. Netminder Carter Hart and winger Brandon Saad were placed on IR in corresponding moves, leaving the Knights with an open roster spot. They announced they’ve used that spot to recall forward Tanner Laczynski from AHL Henderson. With William Karlsson still on LTIR alongside Alex Pietrangelo on season-ending LTIR, Vegas remains cap-compliant.
Hill is expected to start tonight against the Maple Leafs, his first appearance in nearly three months. The 29-year-old has made just five starts this season and none since Oct. 20, when he sustained a lower-body injury in the first period against the Hurricanes.
It was an inauspicious start to the first season of Hill’s six-year, $37.5MM extension that he signed last March. Before exiting the lineup, he started the season on a cold run with a 1-0-2 record, .888 SV%, and 2.73 GAA. He allowed one goal above expected in 220 total minutes of action, per MoneyPuck.
Hart was signed in part due to concern over how much time Hill would miss. That experiment has been an early failure. Hart’s .871 SV% in 12 starts is the worst figure among the four netminders to suit up for Vegas this season. Among goaltenders with at least 10 appearances, only Leevi Merilainen and Petr Mrazek have allowed more goals above expected on a per-60-minute basis than Hart at 0.837.
Now, Vegas gets its true No. 1 back in the lineup. Akira Schmid has operated as the club’s de facto starter with a team-high 24 appearances and has provided great value for his $875K cap hit, logging a .896 SV% and 2.47 GAA with two shutouts and a 14-4-5 record. His 2.0 GSAx is first in Vegas and 34th in the league overall.
His rocky start aside, though, Hill is clearly the better long-term option. He’s never finished a season below .900 aside from a four-game run with the Coyotes in 2017-18 to open his NHL career. For a streaking Vegas team that’s struggled to get consistently above-average goaltending this season, his return could be an X-factor in them widening their lead in the Pacific Division.
Hart has already missed three games with a lower-body injury he sustained one week ago against the Blue Jackets. Since seven days have passed since his injury, he’s eligible to come off IR at any time. However, since he was administered a week-to-week designation last weekend, that won’t be coming anytime soon.
Saad is in the same boat in terms of his activation eligibility, sustaining an undisclosed injury in the Columbus game. He remains day-to-day and will presumably be an option sooner than Hart will. It’s been a trying season for the 33-year-old, who’s shooting at just 3.1% and has been limited to a 2-5–7 scoring line in 39 games with a -1 rating.
Laczynski’s recall comes as Vegas opens the roster flexibility to give itself injury insurance at forward. In addition to the injured Saad taking up a spot on the active roster for the last few games, Brett Howden has missed two contests with a lower-body injury and isn’t expected to be available against Toronto tonight, either.
It would be Laczynski’s season debut if he enters the lineup against the Leafs. The 28-year-old depth option was recalled once from Henderson in November but didn’t play. Now in his second year in the Knights organization, he suited up eight times last season and scored once while averaging 8:36 of ice time per game.
The 6’1″, 205-lb pivot has been the Knights’ most consistent minor-league producer since signing a two-year, league-minimum deal in 2024. After racking up 37 points in 41 appearances for Henderson last year to lead the team in scoring despite only playing in 57% of their games, he’s upped his production to 13 goals and 35 points in 32 games this season, along with a team-high +22 rating. He’s the biggest reason why the Silver Knights are tracking for their first season above .500 since 2021-22.
Image courtesy of Nick Wosika-Imagn Images.
Sharks Place Ty Dellandrea On Injured Reserve
According to Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News, the San Jose Sharks have placed forward Ty Dellandrea on injured reserve with a lower-body injury. The designation has likely been made retroactive to January 6th, meaning Dellandrea is eligible for activation whenever he’s healthy.
Dellandrea, 25, was given a day-to-day recovery timeline, so he should return to the Sharks’ lineup relatively soon. Pashelka suggested that his injury designation might indicate that young player Will Smith could be returning to the lineup tomorrow against the Detroit Red Wings. Smith has been recovering from an upper-body ailment and has not played in a contest with San Jose for over a month.
When healthy, Dellandrea was providing decent tertiary scoring to surprisingly competitve Sharks team. He had scored two goals and 11 points in 42 games, on best for the second-best point production in his career. A few years ago, then with the Dallas Stars, Dellandrea had scored nine goals and 28 points in 82 games.
The biggest part of Dellandrea’s game that San Jose will miss for the time being is his work in the faceoff dot. The former 13th overall pick has managed a 52.3% success rate in the dot across 511 faceoffs this season, which is even more impressive considering he’s begun over 70% of his shifts in the defensive zone at even strength.
Sabres Notes: Dunne, Kesselring, Jones
Jan. 15th: According to Rachel Lenzi of The Buffalo News, the Sabres have officially activated Kesselring from the injured reserve, per the NHL media site.
Jan. 14th: The Buffalo Sabres will be without their typical fourth-line center for quite some time. According to Paul Hamilton of WGR Sports Radio, Joshua Dunne is expected to miss the next four to six weeks with a mid-body injury.
After Monday’s loss to the Florida Panthers, head coach Lindy Ruff indicated that Dunne wasn’t injured from the hit by Panthers defenseman Donovan Sebrango, which was the original thought at the time. Ruff went on to explain that the mid-body injury has been bothering Dunne for the last little while.
With all due respect to Dunne, he’s not an irreplaceable part of the Sabres’ forward core. The 27-year-old center has scored one goal and four points in 28 games with Buffalo this season, with a -4 rating. Still, he’s given them a 50.6% success rate in the faceoff dot, which has been beneficial given that he’s started 78.2% of his shifts in the defensive zone.
Given the duration of the expected recovery timeline, the Sabres will likely place Dunne on the injured reserve by the end of the weekend. This will give Buffalo the space to recall a depth forward as they embark on a five-game road trip next week.
In more positive news on the injury front, Hamilton also reported that defenseman Michael Kesselring is ready to return to the lineup, but won’t play this evening. Kesselring has been on Buffalo’s injured reserve for the last week, and the idea is that the team doesn’t want him returning for a back-to-back homestand.
Kesselring has been relatively disappointing throughout his first year with the team, though much of that can be attributed to injuries. He’s only appeared in 16 games for the Sabres this season, going scoreless while earning a -4 rating. Still, his advanced metrics have been solid, and he’s only one year removed from scoring seven goals and 29 points in 82 games with the Utah Hockey Club.
Meanwhile, Kesselring’s impending return has spurned a proactive roster move from Buffalo. Earlier today, the team shared that they’ve reassigned Zachary Jones to the AHL’s Rochester Americans. Despite spending multiple days on the NHL roster, Jones has yet to play for the Sabres this season, instead scoring three goals and 32 points in 28 games for AHL Rochester.
Blues Place Robert Thomas On Injured Reserve
The St. Louis Blues are losing their highest-scoring player for the next few weeks. The Blues announced that they’ve placed forward Robert Thomas on the injured reserve with a lower-body injury and that he would be re-evaluated in two weeks.
Despite again being the rumor of some trade speculation, Thomas has been his steady self for St. Louis this season. Although he’s tied for seventh in games played, Thomas leads the team in scoring with 11 goals and 33 points across 42 games on the year.
Thomas, 26, has already missed one game for the Blues due to the lower-body ailment and will likely miss a minimum of eight, given the projected recovery timeline. Given that St. Louis is five points back of the final wild-card spot and seven points back of being in last place in the Western Conference, they will be without their top forward for a pivotal stretch of games.
There’s no telling how much more their offense will depreciate without Thomas in the lineup. The Blues are already last in the league with a 2.49 GF/G average, and 23rd with a man advantage, having a 17.07% success rate on the power play.
Thomas’ injury is expected to negatively impact St. Louis’ performance on the ice, and it could also affect other players on the team. If the Blues fall further out of playoff contention, the trade markets for Brayden Schenn, Jordan Kyrou, and Justin Faulk could heat up more than they already are.
Blue Jackets Activate Erik Gudbranson
The Columbus Blue Jackets will return a veteran defenseman to the lineup tonight. According to team reporter Jeff Svoboda, the Blue Jackets will activate Erik Gudbranson for tonight’s matchup against the Vancouver Canucks.
Gudbranson, 34, has not played in an NHL contest since shortly before Halloween. He’s been dealing with a hip injury that has cost him much of the 2025-26 campaign.
That has been the status quo for Gudbranson throughout the final two years of his four-year, $16MM contract with Columbus. The veteran defenseman also lost much of the 2024-25 season, finishing with four assists in 16 games, averaging 17:46 of ice time per game.
Given that he’s carried major injury concerns since the end of the 2023-24 season and hasn’t been particularly good when healthy, Gudbranson will likely serve in a depth role for the foreseeable future. Still, the Blue Jackets are dealing with other injuries and ailments on their blue line, which will allow Gudbranson to have consistent ice time in the near future.
Regardless, Columbus will have to make a corresponding roster move to make Gudbranson’s activation official. That will likely result in the demotion of defenseman Dysin Mayo, whom the team recalled yesterday on an emergency basis. Mayo played in the Blue Jackets’ win over the Calgary Flames a few days ago, earning a +1 rating while playing in 8:03 of the action.