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Kraken Activate Jared McCann

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The Kraken will see Jared McCann return to the lineup against the Flyers tonight, teammate Matty Beniers told reporters (including Kate Shefte of The Seattle Times). The team subsequently announced he’s been activated from injured reserve. With an open roster spot, there’s no need for a corresponding move.

McCann’s return comes a few days ahead of schedule. The 29-year-old sustained a lower-body injury against the Kings on Dec. 10 that was expected to keep him out for three weeks. That would have put his return late next week.

Lower-body issues have kept McCann on the sidelines for much of this season. His latest seven-game absence teamed up with a weeks-long one earlier in the year. All told, he’s been limited to 11 appearances but has kept up his longstanding role as the Kraken’s top offensive weapon, totaling five goals and eight points.

Seattle’s woeful offense, 31st in the league at 2.54 goals per game, now gets back its franchise-leading scorer on the heels of a three-game win streak leading into the holiday break. The Kraken were 11-5-5 through their first 21 games, putting themselves in the playoff conversation, before undoing all that work with a 1-9-1 run over their next 11. That win streak has them back above .500 and three points back of the Sharks for the wild-card cutoff with three games in hand, though.

For a group that’s been without Jaden Schwartz for several weeks due to a lower-body injury and lost Mason Marchment when he was traded to the Blue Jackets earlier this month, getting McCann back in on the wing is a true needle-mover. Seattle has gone 4-5-2 with McCann in the lineup this season.

The Kraken will also be getting top-pair staple Vince Dunn back in the lineup on the back end, head coach Lane Lambert said (via Alison Lukan of NHL.com). He missed Seattle’s last game before the break with an upper-body injury but, along with McCann, was a full participant in yesterday’s practice. With 19 points in 34 games this season, he leads Kraken defenders in scoring and is fifth on the team overall but has a team-worst -15 rating.

Image courtesy of Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images.

Lightning Activate Brandon Hagel From Injured Reserve

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12:02 p.m.: McDonagh in fact won’t be available tonight. He’s been placed on injured reserve while defenseman Maxim Groshev was recalled from Syracuse in the corresponding move for Santini’s demotion, the team announced. While Groshev’s been recalled multiple times this season without making his NHL debut, that will change as he’s one of only six defensemen on Tampa’s active roster.

11:32 a.m.: The Lightning have activated left winger Brandon Hagel from injured reserve, Erik Erlendsson of Lightning Insider reports. Tampa returned defenseman Steven Santini to AHL Syracuse in the corresponding move, indicating Ryan McDonagh could be back in the lineup after sitting out last night’s win over the Panthers with an undisclosed injury.

Hagel has been dealing with an upper-body injury since the Bolts’ second-most recent rivalry game against Florida back on Dec. 15. He’s missed the last four games and nearly two weeks as a result. They’ll welcome him back to the lineup this evening against the Canadiens.

The 27-year-old is now in his fifth season in Tampa, continuing to pay dividends after they gave up a steep package to acquire him from the Blackhawks at the 2022 trade deadline. He’s continued to hover near a point per game with an 18-15–31 scoring line in 32 appearances this season. Named to the league’s second All-Star Team last year while finishing top 10 in Selke voting, Hagel’s 121 points in 114 games since the beginning of 2024-25 are tied with Lucas Raymond for 20th in the league.

Tampa dealt with his absence quite well, though. They went 3-1-0 in four games without him while outscoring opponents 15-9, scoring four-plus goals three times. His return will give the Bolts a fully healthy forward group for just the third time this season.

With Erik Černák, Victor Hedman, and Emil Martinsen Lilleberg on IR, Santini was summoned yesterday to fill the gap after they received word that McDonagh couldn’t go. The 30-year-old saw 7:58 of ice time in what was his ninth appearance of the season for Tampa Bay, recording a +1 rating with a hit and a block.

The injury keeping McDonagh out of action was a re-aggravation of the undisclosed issue that sidelined him for over a month, head coach Jon Cooper said yesterday. He returned to play in three straight before the holiday break, but evidently needed some more load management before getting back into the lineup. Whether the extra day of rest ends up being enough to get him back to 100% – or at least healthy enough to play every night – will be something to watch.

Image courtesy of Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images.

Wild Acquire Boris Katchouk

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The Wild announced they’ve acquired left winger Boris Katchouk from the Lightning in exchange for fellow lefty Michael Milne. Both players were on minor-league assignments and will report to their new affiliates in AHL Iowa and Syracuse, respectively.

While the trade is a relatively routine one-for-one swap of minor-league forwards, there’s an unusual gap between where Katchouk and Milne are in their development. At 27, Katchouk is a higher-floor, lower-ceiling call-up option for a Minnesota squad that’s struggled to field a competitive farm team in Iowa for the past several seasons.

Katchouk was a second-round pick by Tampa back in 2016 and bounced around quite a bit before returning to the Bolts on a two-way deal last offseason. He was coming off a 21-goal, 49-point resurgence in 67 games for AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton while on a minor-league deal.

So far, those numbers haven’t carried over into Katchouk’s second stint in the Lightning organization. He’s been limited to four goals and 10 points in 21 games with Syracuse, tied only for 10th on the team in scoring.

Katchouk did get a brief recall earlier this season, making three appearances for Tampa in November, his first NHL action since 2023-24 with the Blackhawks and Senators. He posted zeros across the board, going 7-for-19 (36.8%) on faceoffs as the Bolts opted to deploy the natural winger down the middle.

The 6’2″, 212-lb Katchouk has 15 goals, 21 assists, 36 points, and a -23 rating in 179 career NHL appearances for Tampa, Chicago, and Ottawa. That’s 178 more than what Milne has. The 23-year-old was a third-round selection by Minnesota in 2022.

The Bolts thus net a potential higher-upside piece but one without the experience of slotting in as a bottom-six piece if needed, like Katchouk. Milne’s lone NHL game came last season on Nov. 16, 2024, against the Stars, recording three hits in 6:34 of ice time.

He didn’t get his season underway in Iowa until the beginning of November due to an undisclosed injury. Since returning, he’s managed five points and a -11 rating in 15 games.

A couple of years ago, it looked like the British Columbia native might be able to pan out as a bottom-six energy piece in Minnesota. A good skater with great endurance, he scored 21 points in just 40 games for Iowa in 2023-24 but hasn’t been able to recapture that offensive pace ever since.

The Lightning now take a flyer on him, parting ways with a familiar replacement piece to do so. There’s no impact on either team’s cap or roster situation since they were both in the minors at the time of the swap. Milne’s minor-league salary is $100K, and he’ll be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights at the end of the season. Katchouk is owed a $250K AHL salary with a $350K guarantee and will be an unrestricted free agent in July.

Bruins Activate, Reassign Michael Callahan, Matej Blumel

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The Bruins announced they’ve activated defenseman Michael Callahan and left winger Matěj Blümel from injured reserve and simultaneously assigned both to AHL Providence.

Callahan had been out since early in the month with a lower-body injury, missing Boston’s last 11 games. The 26-year-old Massachusetts native was an injury replacement himself, elevated from Providence just days before when Henri Jokiharju sustained an undisclosed injury that’s still got him sidelined.

A fifth-round pick by the Coyotes back in 2018, the B’s acquired Callahan’s signing rights when he wrapped up his collegiate career with Providence College in 2022. He’s since developed into a reliable call-up option if Boston needs a no-fuss, stay-at-home option to slot in on the left side.

Callahan has now made 22 NHL appearances over this year and last, scoring once with a -6 rating while averaging 13:53 of ice time per game. Callahan’s 48.1% shot share at 5-on-5 ranks ninth among 14 Bruins defenders to play at least 50 minutes since the beginning of last season.

Boston is still dealing with injury concerns on the blue line. In addition to Jokiharju, Jonathan Aspirot and Jordan Harris are IR or LTIR-bound. The team added some younger, higher-end depth in the form of Vladislav Kolyachonok off waivers while Callahan was absent, though, meaning there was no longer a job waiting for him when he returned to health. Since he hasn’t spent 30 days on the active roster since first clearing waivers at the beginning of the season, he can be sent directly to Providence today.

Blümel is in a similar situation. When the 25-year-old was recalled from Providence in November, the B’s were without a pair of top-six pieces in Viktor Arvidsson and Casey Mittelstadt. Both have since returned, leaving Blümel as the only Boston forward on IR or LTIR. Considering fellow call-up Alex Steeves has locked down a spot in the lineup with eight goals and 10 points in 22 games, Blümel wasn’t going to usurp him for a spot and will return to an expansive role in Providence instead of burning away his waiver exemption in Boston’s press box.

Signed as a Group VI unrestricted free agent last offseason, Blümel was one of the more intriguing under-the-radar targets on the open market last summer. He’d rattled off a league-leading 39 goals in 67 games with AHL Texas the year prior while in the Stars’ system. He’d kept up a point-per-game pace with Providence to begin the year, scoring two goals and 11 assists in 13 appearances, but went scoreless with a -3 rating in four games for Boston before landing on LTIR.

Blue Jackets To Activate Mathieu Olivier

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As he signaled would be the case yesterday, Blue Jackets head coach Dean Evason told reporters that winger Mathieu Olivier will come off injured reserve and be available for tonight’s tilt against the Islanders (via Jeff Svoboda of NHL.com).

Evason also confirmed star defenseman Zach Werenski will miss a second straight game with the right foot/ankle injury he sustained on Dec. 20 against the Ducks, but reaffirmed he isn’t expected to miss significant time and is still listed as day-to-day. Since he’s already missed more than a week, he can go on injured reserve retroactively to create the roster spot for Olivier’s activation.

Also unavailable tonight for the Jackets is center Isac Lundeström, Evason said. Lundeström sustained a lower-body injury in Columbus’ first post-holiday practice session Saturday and has not yet finished being evaluated.

The 6’2″, 210-lb Olivier returns after missing more than a month with an upper-body injury. The 28-year-old grinder forced his way into the Jackets’ top nine last year with a career-high 18 goals, 32 points, and 306 hits, earning himself a six-year, $18MM extension in the process.

So far, the Mississippi native has at least kept up the pace from last season’s emergence. His goal-scoring is down, but his total production – a 3-6–9 scoring line in 23 games – mirrors his 0.39 points per game output from 2024-25. He’s doing that while averaging 14 minutes per game, averaging over three hits a night for the third straight year, and seeing some occasional shorthanded deployment.

Per yesterday’s practice, Olivier is ticketed to return as the Jackets’ third-line right wing alongside Boone Jenner and Charlie Coyle, a spot on the depth chart he’s held all season long.

Lundeström’s performance in Columbus since signing a two-year, $2.6MM deal in free agency has been par for the course. A first-round pick by the Ducks in 2018, he profiled as a high-end, bottom-six two-way center but never found his stride offensively. That’s continued in 2025-26, with the Swede posting only one goal and five points through 35 appearances.

He’s been fine in a shutdown role, posting a -5 rating and 43.3% shot attempt share while starting 32.8% of his even-strength shifts in the offensive zone. Either Zach Aston-Reese or Brendan Gaunce will relieve him as Columbus’ fourth-line center in the interim.

Andrej Sustr Signs In Sweden

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Free agent defenseman Andrej Šustr has signed with Kalmar HC of HockeyAllsvenskan, Sweden’s second-tier pro league, per a team announcement.

Šustr, 35, finds a place to finish out the 2025-26 season after spending the last few weeks on the open market. The veteran of 361 NHL games hasn’t appeared at the top level since 2021-22 with the Ducks but decided to attempt a comeback in the fall, landing a professional tryout with the Rangers.

While that PTO was unsuccessful, Šustr did manage to get into regular-season action with the cross-town Islanders’ AHL affiliate. However, the 6’7″ righty only managed one assist and a -6 rating in 11 games for Bridgeport before being released earlier this month.

The move to Kalmar marks a step down for the former Lightning penalty kill specialist. After spending 2022-23 in the minors split between the Ducks and Wild organizations, he’d spent the last two years in top-division European leagues, including Kölner Haie in Germany, HC Dynamo Pardubice in Czechia, and Tappara in Liiga.

Šustr did relatively well for himself there, including a 20-point resurgence in 44 DEL games for Köln (Cologne), and still managed a respectable 1-11–12 scoring line with an even rating in 38 games for Tappara last year. Nonetheless, his underwhelming showing in Bridgeport, plus a roster spot in the top leagues being difficult to find this deep into the season, will result in the Czech rearguard bringing his experience to a Kalmar team that’s 22-5-3, vying for promotion to the SHL just three years after being promoted from HockeyEttan, Sweden’s third division. If so, he’d be part of one of the most remarkable stories in European hockey – Kalmar played in Hockeytrean, the fifth tier, as recently as 2016.

Nashville Predators Activate Justin Barron

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The Nashville Predators are back to a fully healthy defensive core. The Predators announced that the team has activated defenseman Justin Barron from the injured reserve.

Barron, 24, has missed nearly half the season due to a lower-body injury. The ailment was suffered in Nashville’s Global Series matchup against the Pittsburgh Penguins on November 16th, and he hasn’t played since.

If Barron returns to the lineup tonight against the St. Louis Blues, his absence will end at 16 games. Before the injury, Barron was largely disappointing in his offensive output, registering four assists in 19 games while averaging 15:43 of ice time per game.

Still, he’s again averaging above a 50.0% CorsiFor% at even strength, and has managed an 89.8% on-ice save percentage at even strength, his best output with the Predators since being acquired around this time last year.

Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee that Barron will draw into the lineup, even after Nashville traded away Spencer Stastney a few weeks ago. Both defensemen who were expected to stay in depth roles this year, Nick Blankenburg and Adam Wilsby, have performed well this season, with the former scoring four goals and 15 points in 26 games.

Since Barron doesn’t offer an immediate improvement on either blue liner, Nashville may stay the course with its existing options. The Predators are 7-3-0 in their last 10 leading up to the Holiday break and have climbed back into the playoff conversation in the Western Conference.

Canucks To Activate Elias Pettersson Off Injured Reserve

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The Canucks will get some much-welcomed help down the middle tonight against San Jose.  Speaking with reporters after practice today (Twitter link), center Elias Pettersson confirmed that he will make his return to the lineup.

Pettersson, who has missed the last eight games with an upper-body injury, is currently on injured reserve.  However, Vancouver has an open roster spot available so they won’t need to make any moves to bring their top pivot back onto the roster.

The initial hope was that Pettersson wouldn’t be out that long but instead, he wound up missing three weeks with the injury, one that was causing a lot of pain when shooting the puck.  Despite missing their top center, Vancouver wound up winning five of the eight games he missed, including four of their last five following the Quinn Hughes trade.

In the second season of an eight-year, $92.8MM deal, Pettersson hasn’t been able to live up to the price tag in terms of his production.  While he’s on pace to put up more points than the 45 he did in 64 games last season, the 27-year-old has eight goals and 14 assists through 28 games this season.  He’s averaging a career-high 20:37 per game of ice time while taking a regular turn on both special teams units.

While Vancouver GM Patrik Allvin spoke about entering a hybrid rebuilding phase, their recent run in the standings has them only six points out of a playoff spot.  Getting Pettersson back should only help them so if the team continues its recent hot streak, they may not wind up being as much of a seller as initially thought.

Sabres Recall Ryan Johnson

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The Sabres will be without captain Rasmus Dahlin for their game tonight against Boston as he remains back home in Sweden with his fiancée who continues to recover from a heart transplant over the summer.  As a result, the team has recalled defenseman Ryan Johnson from AHL Rochester, per Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald.

To make room for Johnson on the active roster, Dahlin has been designated as a non-roster player as they did when he took a leave of absence earlier this season.  While he won’t play tonight, it’s expected that he’ll be back to accompany the team on their upcoming road trip.

As for Johnson, this is his first recall of the season.  He actually broke camp with Buffalo and played in three games in the opening week but averaged just nine minutes per game of playing time.  As a result, he was quickly sent down to play a bigger role with the Americans.

The 24-year-old, who is in the first season of a three-year deal, has played in 25 games with Rochester so far this season, picking up 11 points.  That’s just two points shy of his personal best, set last season in 66 games.  With six other defensemen already up with the big club, it’s quite possible that Johnson will serve in a reserve role for the time being until Dahlin returns.

Blackhawks Recall Landon Slaggert

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When the Blackhawks assigned goaltender Laurent Brossoit to the minors after he cleared waivers, they opened up a roster spot that they elected not to fill right away.  However, they’ve decided that filling it after the holiday break made sense as the team announced that they have recalled winger Landon Slaggert from AHL Rockford.

It’s the second recall of the season for the 23-year-old who is in the first season of a two-year, one-way contract worth $900K per season.  Slaggert started the season on injured reserve, missing a handful of games before being activated.  He got into four games before being sent down to the IceHogs to get some more playing time.  He was then brought up in mid-November for a few weeks but again, playing time was somewhat limited, leading to his reassignment three weeks ago.  Overall, he has one goal in ten games with Chicago this season while averaging just 9:04 of ice time per contest.

Slaggert has been a bit more productive in Rockford.  He has played in eight games with them this season, picking up two goals and two assists.  However, that production is down in pace from last season when he collected 10 goals and 15 helpers in just 39 contests.  With his recall, Chicago’s roster is now full at 23 players.

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