Dallas Stars Place Mikko Rantanen On IR
Feb. 24: Rantanen will be out for at least two weeks and possibly longer, head coach Glen Gulutzan told reporters today, although he doesn’t expect the injury to end his regular season (via Lia Assimakopoulos of the Dallas Morning News). That will nonetheless put him out through the trade deadline and keep him out of at least Dallas’ next seven games.
Feb. 23: The Dallas Stars announced today that they have placed star forward Mikko Rantanen on injured reserve, retroactive to Feb. 20, the date of Finland’s loss to Canada in the quarterfinals of the recent Winter Olympic tournament.
Stars head coach Glen Gulutzan told the media today, including Stars Thoughts’ Robert Tiffin, that Rantanen is doubtful to play in the Stars’ first game back from the break, and is questionable beyond that point. According to Tiffin, Gulutzan “didn’t want to speculate” on Rantanen’s status beyond this week.
The team’s roster move suggests Rantanen isn’t set for an extended absence. Since his IR placement was made retroactive to Feb. 20, he will be eligible for activation as early as Feb. 27. If the team held a firm expectation that Rantanen would miss well over a week, it is less likely that they would have directly clarified the retroactive nature of his IR placement in their announcement post.
Rantanen’s injury didn’t end up costing Finland, as they cruised past Slovakia to earn a bronze medal. His injury, while seemingly minor in the grand scheme of the Stars’ season, threatens to seriously impact their odds of winning the games he’s set to miss. Rantanen is arguably Dallas’ most talented forward, currently leading the team in scoring with 69 points in 54 games.
Rantanen leads all Stars forwards in time-on-ice per game and is widely considered one of the game’s top wingers. Missing him, even for a handful of games, will hurt the Stars. With that said, Gulutzan’s comments combined with how the Stars have announced Rantanen’s IR placement suggest the star winger won’t be sidelined for too long, which is certainly good news for Dallas.
Penguins Acquire Samuel Girard From Avalanche
The Penguins acquired left-shot blue-liner Samuel Girard and a 2028 second-round pick from the Avalanche in exchange for defenseman Brett Kulak, both teams announced Tuesday.
Girard has been in the rumor mill for what seems like years. Colorado hoped to make him a future top-four anchor behind Cale Makar and Devon Toews – he actually predates both of them and was the Avs’ longest-tenured defenseman – when they acquired him from the Predators in 2017. After the puck-mover impressed and sniffed 20 minutes per game of ice time in his first full season in Colorado, the Avs inked him to a seven-year, $35MM extension.
Some warned the commitment was premature. Now, in the penultimate season of the contract, they’d be right, at least based on his recent play. Girard’s performance back in the pandemic-shortened 2021 campaign made it look like he’d be the final piece of a true three-headed monster behind Makar and Toews, rattling off 32 points and a +15 rating in 58 games. His trajectory has been largely downhill from there. His minutes were steadily reduced from the 23-plus minutes he logged that year, his playoff performances were negligible, and he never churned out the same level of two-way play. He’s topped 30 points just once since then and has had negative relative Corsi impacts three times in the last five seasons at 5-on-5.
Still, Girard remained Colorado’s clear-cut No. 2 left-shot option behind Toews, especially after the Avs jettisoned Bowen Byram at the 2024 trade deadline. Then came this season. Girard sustained an upper-body injury in Colorado’s second game of the season that left him on the shelf for a month. During that time, veteran righty Brent Burns got the bump up to second-pairing minutes with Josh Manson moving to his offside in lieu of Girard. That duo, with over 2,200 combined games of NHL experience, has put up fantastic results – even posting better possession numbers than Makar and Toews have with a 56.8 xGF%, per MoneyPuck.
That pushed Girard down to a third-pairing role along with Sam Malinski, averaging only 17:41 of ice time per game. Even there, Malinski’s 25-point, +30 breakout through 55 games had rendered Girard as something of an expensive depth redundancy, especially with Malinski now extended through 2029-30 and Girard costing $5MM against the cap.
That cap impact, in a season where the Avs are the top Cup favorites by a significant margin, is why general manager Chris McFarland was willing to offload a second-round pick to get out of the last year and a half of his deal – especially if they’re receiving a much cheaper third-pairing option in Kulak in return, who’s having a strong season. Swapping out Girard for the pending UFA Kulak, who costs only $2.75MM, now leaves the Avs with a projected $10.82MM in cap space on deadline day, per PuckPedia. They’ve also given themselves $13MM even in cap space for next season, up from just $8MM to fill seven spots before the deal.
Kulak’s time in Pittsburgh ends after 25 games. It’s his second time being traded this season, having been acquired from the Oilers in December as part of the Tristan Jarry/Stuart Skinner swap. During that time, he’d gotten a bump in minutes alongside Kris Letang in top-four deployment and showed he was up to the task. He’s having a tough season offensively, even by his limited standards as a shutdown bottom-four piece, but managed seven points with a +2 rating while playing almost exclusively with Letang. That duo controlled 52.2% of expected goals as well, per MoneyPuck.
Given how both players grade out this season, it’s likely a lateral move at worst for both clubs. It’s a bit more of a long-term focused move for the Pens, though. They have little to no long-term security in their top four. Parker Wotherspoon has impressed this season, elevated as a top-pairing shutdown partner for Erik Karlsson, although he’s been a career third-pairing option and, at age 28, the prospects for regression next season are bright. Ryan Shea is, like Kulak, a pending UFA. Their veteran depth options are uninspiring, and it’s questionable if 2022 first-rounder Owen Pickering will be ready to log NHL minutes next season.
They now have a year and change of a 27-year-old Girard, plus the ability to discuss an extension with him starting July 1. He immediately becomes their most offensively dynamic threat on the left side and becomes the youngest name in Pittsburgh’s aging top-four group. They’re banking on Girard, who has 12 points in 40 outings this season, to return to his 30-plus point form back in expanded minutes, but considering he’s averaged over 20 minutes per game for his career, it’ll be a familiar situation for him.
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was first to report the trade.
Image courtesy of Steven Bisig-Imagn Images.
Bruins Recall Michael DiPietro
Feb. 24: DiPietro was recalled back to Boston today, per Ryan. It’s unclear if he’s up solely for practice purposes or if they’re expecting to need him to back up Korpisalo against the Blue Jackets if Swayman doesn’t return to the team by Thursday.
Feb. 20: Boston has assigned DiPietro back to Providence, Conor Ryan of the Boston Globe reports.
Feb. 18: The Bruins announced Wednesday that they’ve recalled goaltender Michael DiPietro from AHL Providence on an emergency basis. He’ll serve as Boston’s lone NHL-contracted practice netminder for the time being, as Jeremy Swayman (USA) and Joonas Korpisalo (Finland) are still representing their respective countries at the Olympics.
Back during training camp, there was concern DiPietro wouldn’t make it through waivers on his way to Providence. The 26-year-old had emerged as one of the AHL’s top netminders over the previous two seasons, including a .927 SV% in 40 games last year that earned him the Baz Bastien Memorial Award as the league’s best goaltender.
He’s well on his way to taking home that hardware for a second straight season. In 28 appearances for the P-Bruins, he’s put up a downright ridiculous .942 SV% and 1.64 GAA with a 21-5-0 record – but somehow only has one shutout to his name. Nonetheless, he has a 12-point lead in save percentage on the second-place netminder with at least 20 appearances.
He’s signed through next season at a $812,500 cap hit, giving the Bruins almost no choice but to work with Korpisalo’s 10-team no-trade list and find a new home for the veteran backup this summer. If they can’t, they’d essentially be forced into trading DiPietro to avoid the near certainty of losing him for nothing on waivers next October.
Sabres Recall Anton Wahlberg
The Sabres announced they’ve recalled center prospect Anton Wahlberg from AHL Rochester. He’s expected to make his NHL debut tomorrow against the Devils with Zach Benson and Jordan Greenway both banged up. The team will need to make some sort of roster move before the game; while they have two open spots, those are expected to go to Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Joshua Norris as they come off injured reserve.
Wahlberg, 20, was selected 39th overall in 2023 with a second-round pick the Sabres acquired from the Flyers in the Rasmus Ristolainen trade two years earlier. He quickly emerged as a top-nine piece in his native Sweden’s SHL in his post-draft year before arriving in Rochester in 2024. Since his arrival in March of that year, he’s played in 119 games. In that time, he’s put up 18 goals and 41 assists for 59 points with a +16 rating and just 24 penalty minutes.
That includes 47 games with Rochester this year. He hasn’t dominated offensively, although he’s still sixth on the team in scoring with six goals and 25 points. He’s been leveraged as a two-way piece down the middle, though, and has been up to the task with a team-best +12 rating.
Coming into 2025-26, Wahlberg was still a consensus top-10 prospect in an above-average Sabres pipeline. Steven Ellis of Daily Faceoff gave Wahlberg the #6 spot, NHL.com put him at #5, and Elite Prospects had him at #10. “What the Sabres organization wants to see is more production in the dirty areas around the crease,” NHL.com wrote in their blurb, an understandable criticism given his 6’4″, 205-lb frame.
Wahlberg likely won’t remain up past when Greenway or Benson returns in the coming days. It’s nonetheless a good reward for a player who’s still got another season or two before he’s expected to make a significant NHL impact and should give Buffalo a better barometer of where his game is at.
Jets Place Josh Morrissey On IR, Recall Kale Clague
The Jets announced today they’ve recalled defenseman Kale Clague from AHL Manitoba. In the corresponding move, they moved star lefty rearguard Josh Morrissey to injured reserve with the upper-body injury he sustained in Canada’s group stage opener at the Olympics. Since it’s retroactive to Feb. 12, he’s eligible to come off at any time.
Yesterday, there were conflicting reports on how much time Morrissey would miss. TSN’s Darren Dreger said Morrissey would likely miss a significant chunk of time coming out of the break, while head coach Scott Arniel left the door open for him to join the team on their three-game road trip that wraps up in San Jose on March 1. They’ll have more clarity on his status later this week when he’s fully evaluated by their own doctors.
In any event, the Jets can’t afford any notable absences. A postseason push would be miraculous at this stage, sitting tied with the Flames for the third-worst record in the Western Conference while being 11 points out of a playoff spot. That’s especially considering Morrissey remains the team’s most impactful two-way player, posting a 10-32–42 scoring line in 56 games while sitting in the co-lead with even-strength partner Dylan DeMelo with a +10 rating.
With an already decimated defense group that has Neal Pionk, Colin Miller, and Haydn Fleury on IR to kick off the restart, Winnipeg needed another defenseman to ensure they could still ice six of them if a last-minute injury to anyone else presented itself on their road trip. Clague, who’s settled in as more of a minor-league option than NHL extra over the past few years, is in his first season in the organization after landing a two-way deal in free agency last summer. He has an 8-13–21 scoring line with a -12 rating in 44 games for Manitoba, tied with Ville Heinola, who was recalled over the break and remains up for the team scoring lead among defensemen.
The 27-year-old lefty has 94 NHL appearances to his name but hasn’t appeared at the top level since April 2024 with the Sabres. A second-round pick by the Kings in 2016, he had an intermediate stop with the Canadiens after being claimed off waivers in the 2021-22 season before heading to Buffalo and then Winnipeg. He owns a career 2-19–21 scoring line at the top level with a -22 rating, averaging just over 16 minutes per night.
Stars Recall Remi Poirier
The Stars announced that they’ve recalled goaltender Remi Poirier from AHL Texas. They have an open roster spot after placing Mikko Rantanen on injured reserve yesterday, so no corresponding move is required. Poirier is expected to back up Casey DeSmith tomorrow against the Kraken before starter Jake Oettinger returns to the team for Saturday’s home tilt against the Predators, needing some extra time after serving as Connor Hellebuyck‘s backup en route to an Olympic gold medal for Team USA.
Poirier, 24, was a sixth-round pick of the Stars in the 2020 draft. He’s been their best minor-league option since the 2023-24 campaign, although he was often passed over by the more veteran Matt Murray two years ago and Magnus Hellberg last year for spot recalls like this one. Since turning pro in 2022, he’s made 119 AHL appearances with a .906 SV%, 2.82 GAA, six shutouts, and a 59-46-13 record.
With his veteran competition gone, Poirier has emerged as the undisputed No. 3 option this year. His only real competition has come from 23-year-old Arno Tiefensee, a 2023 fifth-rounder who’s in his first season in North America.
His numbers this year are in line with his career average – a good AHL tandem/starting option, but they don’t exactly jump off the page. He’s made 34 appearances, quickly encroaching on his career high of 38, with a .906 SV%. During the preseason, Elite Prospects ranked him as the #13 prospect in the system. Daily Faceoff’s Steven Ellis also had him out of his top 10, trailing 2025 fifth-rounder Måns Goos as the team’s top goaltending prospect.
Islanders, Blues Swap Matt Luff, Julien Gauthier
The Islanders announced Tuesday that they’ve acquired forward Matt Luff from the Blues in exchange for Julien Gauthier. Both players were on AHL assignments at the time of the deal and will report to their new affiliates without needing to re-clear waivers.
Luff, 28, has held a very limited role as a call-up in St. Louis this season. He’s only appeared in five games, during which he’s scored once with a -2 rating. Head coach Jim Montgomery used Luff in the fourth-line slot he’s held for most of his career whenever he’s gotten a chance at the top level, averaging a career-low 9:08 of ice time per game. His lone call-up that led to playing time, back in December, marked his first NHL action since the 2022-23 campaign with the Red Wings.
In the interim, the 6’3″ Luff has been an exceptional minor-league producer. He’s appeared in 321 AHL games over the last 10 seasons, split between the Kings, Predators, Red Wings, Panthers, and Blues organizations, recording 0.78 points per game. The both-sides winger has clicked closer to a point per game over the last few seasons, though, and has 14 goals and 39 points in 42 games for the Springfield Thunderbirds this season. While the Isles do pick up Luff’s 111 games of NHL experience, he immediately becomes Bridgeport’s leading point-getter and will essentially operate as an AHL rental and call-up insurance before becoming an unrestricted free agent this summer.
Gauthier can be a similarly impactful AHL producer when healthy, but that’s been a rarity since he first signed with the Islanders in 2023. The former first-round pick last appeared in the NHL in October 2024 and has only made 25 AHL appearances since then, recording an 8-7–15 scoring line in that timeframe. The Isles were reportedly looking to find a fresh start for him, according to Stefen Rosner of NHL.com, even though he was set to become a UFA this summer anyway.
The 28-year-old Gauthier will now make the Blues his fifth NHL organization. Selected 21st overall by the Hurricanes in 2016, the 6’4″ power forward was involved in a change-of-scenery swap with the Rangers four years later before being leveraged as bait to land Tyler Motte from the Senators at the 2023 trade deadline. He then landed with the Isles as a non-tendered RFA, and he ends his time there with nine points in 28 NHL games as well as 25 points in 40 games for Bridgeport, giving him just 68 total appearances over the last three years.
Senators Recall Stephen Halliday, Carter Yakemchuk
4:00 p.m.: The Senators reassigned Boucher back to Belleville, confirming that his recall earlier today was simply for practice purposes. Belleville’s schedule resumes on Friday, when the team travels to take on the Utica Comets, who are AHL affiliates of the New Jersey Devils.
10:03 a.m.: The Senators announced they’ve recalled forwards Tyler Boucher and Stephen Halliday, as well as defenseman Carter Yakemchuk, from AHL Belleville. They’ll give the Sens some roster insurance as they await the returns of captain Brady Tkachuk and top defenseman Jake Sanderson from Olympic play, with both questionable to return in time for Ottawa’s first game back against the Red Wings on Thursday.
This is Boucher’s first time being rostered during the regular season. The 23-year-old was summoned as a Black Ace for last year’s playoff run but has yet to make his NHL debut nearly five years after being selected 10th overall in the 2021 draft. He remains the only active player in the top 20 that has yet to make his NHL debut (Winnipeg’s Chaz Lucius, selected 18th overall, was forced into medical retirement).
That could now change. The 6’2″, 216-lb winger was viewed as a late first-round choice at best by prospect evaluators in his draft year, so it was a highly controversial decision for the Sens to spend such a high pick on him. The gamble hasn’t worked out. Boucher disenrolled from Boston University 17 games into his post-draft season after struggling to catch on and spent the following year and a half in junior hockey with the OHL’s Ottawa 67’s, where he struggled through injuries and managed 17 goals and 31 points in 45 games – not nearly the level of offense expected out of a top-10 pick after his draft date.
Boucher’s struggles persisted after he turned pro with the Sens in 2023. He’s spent his entire career to date in the AHL and had just two goals and five points in 21 games as a rookie two years ago. Last year’s 10 points in 47 games weren’t much better.
This season, though, the Arizona native has picked up a little bit of steam. He’s already set new career-highs across the board with six goals, 10 assists, and 16 points in 29 games with a +9 rating. Injuries have again limited him to just over half of Belleville’s schedule, but getting his offensive output up over half a point per game is a definitive step in the right direction. He’ll now get a shot to at least get some practice reps in with the Sens over the coming days until Tkachuk is back in the mix.
Halliday’s recall is more of a formality. He’s been up with the Sens for a big chunk of the season already and was only sent down over the break so that he could keep getting some playing time in Belleville. The 23-year-old figures to remain up with Ottawa’s NHL group for the stretch run, serving as a depth forward option while David Perron continues his recovery from sports hernia surgery.
The 6’4″ pivot had something of a difficult time generating offense in Belleville over the break, limited to three assists in seven games. That only brought him down to a point per game in 29 AHL contests this year, though. He’s also been exceptionally productive in a fourth-line role for Ottawa, managing four goals and 11 points in 25 NHL games despite averaging just 8:08 of ice time per night. Only Nikita Kucherov, Nathan MacKinnon, and Martin Necas have scored more points per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 than Halliday’s 3.14 (min. 10 games played).
Like Boucher, this marks the first regular-season recall for Yakemchuk, who gives Ottawa a seventh defenseman available while Sanderson makes his way back to the club. The 20-year-old’s stint on the NHL roster isn’t likely to last any longer than necessary. Drafted seventh overall in 2024, he’s a first-year pro and hasn’t had a smooth transition from the WHL to Belleville. Yakemchuk has demonstrated the offensive acumen Ottawa’s hoped for, leading the B-Sens’ D group with 25 points in 41 games, but has a team-worst -33 rating in the process. The hard-hitting puck-mover will need to build out his two-way game a lot more before he’s considered for NHL minutes.
Sharks Activate Ryan Reaves From Injured Reserve
The Sharks announced Monday that they’ve activated winger Ryan Reaves from injured reserve. They do not have an open roster spot and will need to make a corresponding move, although that can be as simple as transferring Macklin Celebrini to the non-roster list while they wait to reincorporate him into team activities following his electric run for Team Canada at the Olympics.
The Olympic break saved Reaves from a longer absence. The veteran enforcer sustained an upper-body injury against the Blackhawks on Feb. 2, although it wasn’t clear when it happened. He only missed the following game against the Avalanche before San Jose’s schedule paused.
Most thought Reaves would be a press-box fixture after San Jose picked up the final year of his deal at a $1.35MM cap hit from the Maple Leafs last offseason, especially if the rebuilding Sharks were to take a step forward. He’s instead been a regular in a fourth-line role, suiting up 46 times already after only making 35 appearances all season with Toronto last year. His offense has been as limited as always, notching three goals with no assists, but his possession impacts haven’t been a huge drag considering he’s playing under eight minutes per game.
He’ll be stepping back into a consistent fourth-line role with a mix of Adam Gaudette, Barclay Goodrow, and Zack Ostapchuk on the other side of the break. A three-game losing streak didn’t do San Jose any favors earlier this month, and they resume play five points out of a playoff spot with one game in hand. They have the Ducks, Kings, and Predators now to leapfrog to get back into playoff position, with MoneyPuck giving them a 21.6% of ending up in the picture.
Canucks Reassign Aku Koskenvuo, Recall Nikita Tolopilo
The Canucks announced Monday that they’ve reassigned goaltender Aku Koskenvuo to AHL Abbotsford and recalled fellow netminder Nikita Tolopilo in his place. They continue to carry three goaltenders on the active roster, with Kevin Lankinen still working his way back into the mix after representing Finland at the Winter Olympics.
Koskenvuo, 22, wraps up a brief look in practice amid his first professional season. A fifth-round pick in 2021, he played three years at Harvard before signing his entry-level contract with Vancouver last March.
He’s spent the year bouncing between Abbotsford and ECHL Kalamazoo, receiving relatively equal workload in both leagues, although he’s been rostered with Abbotsford since mid-January thanks to the organizational ripple effect of Thatcher Demko‘s season-ending hip surgery. He hasn’t jumped off the page at either level. He has a 3.20 GAA, .895 SV%, and one shutout with a 2-5-0 record in nine appearances with Abbotsford, and a .898 SV% and 2-4-0 record in six games with Kalamazoo.
Tolopilo, 25, continues to jockey for position with Jiří Patera to serve as the third goalie on the depth chart behind Demko and Lankinen, a spot that will earn someone the backup job for the stretch run due to Demko’s absence. Tolopilo’s numbers lag behind Patera’s in the AHL, but the Belarusian has been the far superior option when given NHL spot starts this season.
In seven starts and nine appearances, he’s put up a 3-3-1 record with a .910 SV% and 3.04 GAA – excellent numbers, especially considering the porous defense Vancouver’s exhibited this year. He leads Canucks netminders with 3.5 goals saved above expected this season, per MoneyPuck. It wouldn’t be all too surprising to see the 6’6″ netminder usurp Patera quickly if given the chance and help relieve Lankinen’s workload down the stretch.