Avalanche Reassign Alex Barre-Boulet To AHL
8:28 PM: Today’s recalls were short-lived as following the game, the Avs announced that both Barre-Boulet and Ivan were sent back to the Eagles.
3:07 PM: The Colorado Avalanche made one more recall before Monday’s home contest against the Washington Capitals. Depth forward Alex Barre-Boulet was called up to the NHL roster after it was announced that winger Valeri Nichushkin would miss Monday’s game with an upper-body injury. Fellow recall Ivan Ivan will also appear in the lineup.
This will be Barre-Boulet’s first NHL contest since playing in the first two games of the Montreal Canadiens’ 2024-25 season. He posted no scoring, one penalty, and a minus-two in those contests – prompting the Canadiens to send Barre-Boulet to the AHL’s Laval Rocket for the season. The veteran forward proved a tremendous boost to Laval’s roster. He led the team in scoring with 63 points in 64 regular season games and 11 points in 13 playoff games.
That strong year prompted another change of scenery this summer. Barre-Boulet moved from Laval to the Colorado Eagles, where he has held onto his touch. He leads the Eagles in points in 37 in 36 games this season. Now, the Avalanche will reward that scoring in a time of need, and bring Barre-Boulet back into the NHL fold. He played in 68 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning between 2020 and 2024, scoring 12 goals and 18 points. Much of Barre-Boulet’s time in the NHL has come on the fourth-line, a trend that should continue in Colorado.
The depth addition won’t quite help the Avalanche make up for Nichushkin’s absence. The toolsy, Russian winger has 11 goals and 27 points in 38 games this season. He snapped a six-game scoring drought with a point on Friday – but racked up a lofty 14 points in as many games during December. Even after a recent dry spell, Nichushkin remains cemented in Colorado’s top-nine, and leaves multiple holes in the lineup. The Avalanche will lean on Barre-Boulet, Ross Colton, and Gavin Brindley to collectively make up for Nichushkin’s absence.
Golden Knights Recall Jaycob Megna
The Golden Knights have added some extra defensive depth in advance of their game tonight against Philadelphia. The team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled Jaycob Megna from AHL Henderson. To make room on the roster, newly acquired defenseman Rasmus Andersson has been moved to non-roster status.
It’s the fourth recall of the season for the 33-year-old but the first few stints with the big club haven’t yielded much in the way of playing time. Megna has played in just three games so far with Vegas, averaging 10:29 per game while posting a minus-five plus-minus rating. For his career, he has suited up in 196 contests over parts of eight seasons at the top level, notching four goals and 23 assists.
Megna has spent the bulk of the campaign with Henderson, playing in 27 games where he has three goals and seven assists. That production is at a similar rate to last season when he was with Charlotte and had 16 points in 64 appearances with the Checkers.
As for Andersson, the non-roster designation shouldn’t be any cause for concern. He’s still working through the process of getting a work visa and there’s no word yet on when he’ll be cleared to make his Golden Knights debut, though this process is usually finalized well within a week. Moving him to non-roster status allows them to get Megna up to fill a spot on the third pairing in the short term.
Afternoon Notes: Robinson, Gostisbehere, Rooney
A new injury hit the Carolina Hurricanes during Monday’s game against the Buffalo Sabres. Forward Eric Robinson left the game with roughly eight minutes left in the first period after being awkwardly knocked down by former teammate and Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin. Robinson appeared to be nursing his left shoulder as he left the ice and has been designated with an upper-body injury.
Robinson has continued to offer all-around utility in a bottom-six role this season. He has 10 goals, 15 points, and a plus-seven in 43 games this season. His performance has been a nice continuation on a strong debut with the Hurricanes last season. Robinson recorded 14 goals, 32 points, and a plus-14 while playing in all 82 games last season – all career-highs. He missed his first games as a Hurricane in late October, when an upper-body injury forced him out of six games.
Other notes from around the league:
- The Hurricanes were again without defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere on Monday per NHL.com’s Walt Ruff. It was Gostisbehere’s fourth straight absence due to a lower-body injury and illness. The 32-year-old defenseman has now missed 14 games on the season. Despite that, he still leads the Hurricanes blue-line in scoring with six goals and 32 points in 35 games. He has 10 more points than K’Andre Miller, who ranks second. Gostisbehere will have a clear path into an important role when he returns from another absence.
- The Utah Mammoth have assigned center Kevin Rooney to the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners. He has served as an extra forward all year long and played his only NHL game in late November. Rooney has built a more prominent role in Tucson, where he has seven goals and 10 points in 20 games. He will slot back into a familiar role with the Roadrunners and could be a top call-up option when Utah needs another hand.
Flyers Activate Bobby Brink, Place Daniel Vladar On IR
The Philadelphia Flyers will get a forward back from injury in Monday night’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights. Winger Bobby Brink was activated off of injured reserve earlier in the day while goaltender Daniel Vladar was placed on IR in a corresponding move, per Jordan Hall of NBCS Philadelphia. Vladar’s IR designation can be made retroactive to his last game on January 14th, making him eligible to be activated before Philadelphia visis the Utah Mammoth on Wednesday.
Brink will return to the lineup after missing six games with an upper-body injury sustained on January 6th. The fourth-year pro had appeared in all 41 Flyers games this season before getting injured. He scored 11 goals and 20 points in those appearances. 14 of those points came in two separate eight-game streaks – one at the beginning of the season and another in early December.
While his scoring around those hot streaks hasn’t popped, Brink has still reestablished his role as a sharpshooter in the middle of Philadelphia’s lineup. He is scoring at roughly the same pace that led him to 41 points in 79 games last season, though is already one goal back from the 12 goals he posted last year. That’s a hardy improvement for the 24 year old and has led to a career-high 15 minutes of average ice time.
Brink will step onto Philadelphia’s third-line in place of Rodrigo Abols, who suffered a scary-looking injury in Philadelphia’s last game. Brink will play above options like Garnet Hathaway, Carl Grundstrom, and Lane Pederson. The Flyers are also nursing an injury to winger Tyson Foerster.
While Brink’s return will add another shooter to the lineup, the Flyers will keep their sights on Vladar’s injury. The 28-year-old netminder has stood up as the top Flyers goaltender. He has 16 wins and a .905 save percentage in 28 games this season, a career-year just above the 13 wins and .906 Sv% he posted in 23 games of the 2021-22 season. A placement on IR, rather than LTIR, should indicate Vladar’s return isn’t far away.
Panthers Activate Matthew Tkachuk, Place Seth Jones On LTIR
3 PM: The Panthers have made the roster moves to facilitate Tkachuk’s return. The star winger has been activated off of long-term injured reserve while defenseman Seth Jones has been placed on LTIR retroactive to his last game on January 2nd per PuckPedia. The move to LTIR will force Jones to miss at least one more week of action – as he won’t reach the 24-day minimum required by LTIR until January 26th. That means Jones will have to sit out of Florida’s next three games and hope for a return when the Panthers host the Utah Mammoth on January 27th.
9 AM: Star winger Matthew Tkachuk will be back in the lineup tonight, he told reporters this morning (including Jameson Olive of the Panthers’ website). Tkachuk is on long-term injured reserve, meaning Florida’s demotion of Noah Gregor today to open up a roster spot won’t be enough. Florida has just over $1MM in cap space, per PuckPedia, but needs to up that number to nearly $3.82MM to activate Tkachuk.
Nonetheless, all signs point toward the 28-year-old making his season debut at home this evening against the Sharks. His injury troubles date back to last February, when he tore an adductor muscle while playing for the United States at the 4 Nations Face-Off. He ended up missing the balance of the regular season to recover as much as possible without needing season-ending surgery. That permitted him to suit up in all 23 playoff games as Florida marched to the second of back-to-back Stanley Cups, still producing at a point-per-game rate and leading the league with five power play postseason goals despite being nowhere close to 100%.
Understandably, playing through the injury aggravated it. Tkachuk spent most of the offseason mulling his options before finally electing to undergo a wide-ranging surgery on the area in early August. There was a wide-spanning return timeline that was expected to see him make his 2025-26 debut around New Year’s Day, ideally in time for Florida’s hosting of the Winter Classic, but he ended up blowing through that target by a few weeks.
All that matters to the Cats is that he’s back now, especially with captain Aleksander Barkov likely lost for the regular season and top offensive threat Brad Marchand currently sidelined. He’s set to have his minutes limited in his return, taking third-line rushes this morning with Evan Rodrigues and Mackie Samoskevich, per Steve Goldstein of Scripps Sports. Historically, that hasn’t been an issue for him. In Game 1 of last year’s first-round win over the Lightning, his first appearance in over two months, he logged just 11:43 of ice time but was still good for a three-point game.
Tkachuk has been practicing for several weeks now, though. His return is far from rushed, so the diminished even-strength role from the hop likely has more to do with his game conditioning rather than his health being anything less than 100%. The 2023 Hart Trophy finalist now looks to extend his streak of four consecutive seasons above a point per game, with 35 games left on Florida’s schedule to do so.
Since the Panthers acquired Tkachuk from the Flames in the 2022 offseason’s blockbuster deal, he’s been the most productive Florida player on a per-game basis by a significant margin at 1.20 points/GP. That’s good for 10th in the league during that time – more than names like Jack Eichel, Jack Hughes, and Auston Matthews – and has even exceeded Pavel Bure as the Panthers’ all-time points-per-game leader, at least for now.
With Barkov and Tkachuk out all year to date, the Panthers have had to reach deep into their forward depth. That’s resulted in their offense, which has finished in the top half of the league every year since 2017-18, dipping to a 3.04 goals per game output that ranks 19th out of 32 teams and last in the competitive Atlantic Division. With Florida trailing the Sabres by four points for the last wild card spot with no games in hand, they need more firepower – now – to ensure they don’t miss the postseason cutoff following three straight trips to the Stanley Cup Final.
As for Florida’s salary cap problem, they have an easy short-term solution in moving defenseman Seth Jones from standard IR to LTIR to clear up the necessary space for Tkachuk’s activation. They can add $3.82MM of his $7MM cap hit to their LTIR pool by doing so, since he’s already missed seven games and 17 days – three and seven short of the LTIR minimums, respectively. Having the space to then activate Jones when he’s expected to return early next month remains a problem, though.
Los Angeles Kings Reassign Andre Lee
According to a team announcement, the Los Angeles Kings have reassigned forward Andre Lee to the AHL’s Ontario Reign. The transaction reduces the Kings’ active roster to 21, with only 12 forwards, indicating that another roster move is coming.
Lee, 25, was originally recalled on January 7th. The 6’4″, 190lbs winger appeared in all seven of the Kings’ games since, scoring one goal and one assist while averaging 10:17 of ice time in a bottom-six role.
It’s a similar fashion to how Los Angeles utilized him last year, too. Lee made his NHL debut during the 2024-25 campaign, finishing the season with one goal and three points in 19 games, averaging 9:10 of ice time. He delivered solid physicality, averaging nearly two hits per game.
Despite being a depth forward in the Kings’ depth chart, Lee has carved out a decent career for himself after being a seventh-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft. After completing his collegiate career at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, Lee has primarily played for AHL Ontario since then.
He’s understandably provided much more offense with the Reign. Throughout the last five years, Lee has scored 35 goals and 71 points in 185 games, becoming a decent secondary scorer for the club. He has helped Ontario reach the Calder Cup playoffs on three occasions, scoring four goals in 12 postseason contests.
San Jose Sharks Acquire Kiefer Sherwood
One of the trade deadline’s most sought-after rentals is now off the board. The Vancouver Canucks announced that they’ve traded winger Kiefer Sherwood to the San Jose Sharks for defenseman Cole Clayton, a 2026 second-round pick, and a 2027 second-round pick.
The Sharks’ interest in Sherwood has been known for some time. In late December, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that San Jose was one of the teams involved in Sherwood’s market.
Given the capital needed to acquire Sherwood, it would make sense for the Sharks to begin extension negotiations immediately. The Canucks were known to have been seeking a first-round pick for Sherwood’s services, though acquiring two second-round picks is hardly settling. Still, even if he is only a rental, Sherwood’s particular brand of hockey should help the Sharks considerably as they look to return to the postseason for the first time in seven years.
Vancouver originally signed Sherwood ahead of the 2024-25 season to a two-year, $3MM agreement. Their inspiration for signing him came a year earlier, when Sherwood, then playing for the Nashville Predators, totalled 33 hits against the Canucks in the opening round of the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs. He finished the campaign with 10 goals and 27 points in 68 games.
His offense continued to develop in British Columbia. Throughout the past year-and-a-half with the Canucks, Sherwood has been a reliable scorer, registering 36 goals and 63 points in 122 games. Additionally, his physicality has truly been off the charts, averaging 5.5 hits per game — 672 in total.
That makes his fit with the Sharks remarkably clear. Outside of Ryan Reaves, who has been a healthy scratch on multiple occasions, and Ty Dellandrea, who is currently on the team’s injured reserve, San Jose doesn’t have too many physical forwards in their lineup. Additionally, the team desperately needed to add secondary scoring behind phenom Macklin Celebrini.
Given their value to the team, Sherwood would be a perfect option to play on the top line next to Celebrini and Will Smith, allowing the Sharks to shelter some of their younger wingers on the bottom two lines. If opposing teams aim to counter Celebrini and Smith physically, San Jose can now respond similarly.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the transaction, the Canucks continue to grow their stockpile of draft picks. Entering the season with five picks in the upcoming draft, Vancouver now has seven this year, and eight next.
Clayton, 25, is a big-bodied right-handed shot defenseman. A product of the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers program, Clayton had spent the last four years with the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters before signing with the Sharks last summer. Throughout his five-year professional career, the Alberta native has scored 14 goals and 66 points in 257 games with a -13 rating.
Photo courtesy of Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images.
Sabres Activate Alex Lyon, Place Joshua Norris On IR
The Buffalo Sabres will again carry three netminders on their active roster. According to Rachel Lenzi of The Buffalo News, the Sabres have activated goaltender Alex Lyon from the injured reserve and have placed forward Joshua Norris on it in a corresponding roster move.
Although unfortunate, Norris’ placement on the IR was expected. After suffering an upper-body injury on Wednesday, Norris had his recovery timeline downgraded to week-to-week, following initial reports that it would only be a few days.
Still, it doesn’t appear that a week-to-week timeline is set in stone yet. According to Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News Sports, there’s no sense that Norris will be held out of Buffalo’s lineup through the Olympic Break, with head coach Lindy Ruff saying, “This can turn around in a day or two.”
Meanwhile, Lyon will return to the Sabres lineup after missing several weeks of action due to a lower-body issue. Before losing nearly a month due to injury, Lyon was arguably Buffalo’s best option in net, managing a 10-6-3 record in 21 games with a .906 SV% and 2.82 GAA.
Still, regardless of the stability that he’s provided between the pipes, his tenure in Buffalo could be nearing its end. In his introductory press conference, General Manager Jarmo Kekäläinen stated that he has little interest in carrying three netminders on the roster for the rest of the season.
Given his play this season and an affordable contract through the 2026-27 season, Lyon projects as the most movable netminder if the Sabres go that route. Additionally, Buffalo still has youngster Devon Levi knocking on the door in the AHL, meaning there could be a few goaltenders moved out of upstate New York by the end of the season.
Blue Jackets Reassign Mikael Pyyhtia
According to a team announcement, the Columbus Blue Jackets have assigned forward Mikael Pyyhtia to the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters. Pyyhtia was originally recalled on January 7th.
Pyyhtia, 24, is in his fourth season in the North American professional circuit after being selected by the Blue Jackets with the 114th overall pick of the 2020 NHL Draft. The Turku, Finland native had played for the Finnish Liiga’s TPS for a few years after the draft, scoring 28 goals and 55 points in 103 games between the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons.
Since moving to Ohio, he has primarily played for the Monsters. Still, after being brought to North America toward the end of the 2022-23 campaign, Pyyhtia featured in two games for the Blue Jackets to close out the regular season, registering one assist.
Throughout the 2023-24 season, he appeared in 17 games with Columbus, tallying two assists while playing in a bottom-six role. He understandably performed much better in the AHL, scoring seven goals and 28 points in 60 games, his highest offensive production to date.
Last season, Pyyhtia enjoyed his longest run in the NHL so far, though it didn’t go particularly well. He finished the campaign with four goals and seven points in 47 games with a -11 rating, averaging 12:06 of ice time per game. Additionally, his possession metrics didn’t indicate any bad luck on the offensive side of the puck, as he finished with a 43.2% CorsiFor% at even strength.
Back in AHL Cleveland this year, Pyyhtia is one of the team’s best performers, scoring seven goals and 22 points in 23 games. This has made him a quick recall candidate whenever the Blue Jackets have needed him. Largely serving as an extra forward, Pyyhtia has tallied one goal in five games with Columbus this season.
Maple Leafs Recall Jacob Quillan
The Maple Leafs announced they’ve added forward Jacob Quillan back to the NHL roster. They’ll need to make a corresponding move to open a spot on the active roster. That could be yet another injured reserve placement for William Nylander, who’s already missed one game after reaggravating his lower-body injury and won’t be in the lineup tonight, either.
Quillan gives the Leafs some extra forward depth amid yet another major injury concern up front – this time concerning top left-winger Matthew Knies. He’s missed the last couple of skates due to maintenance, but did not take part in this morning’s gameday skate preceding tonight’s matchup with the Wild, per David Alter of The Hockey News. If he’s unavailable, Quillan would be needed in the lineup to give the Leafs 12 healthy forwards.
It’s the third NHL stint this season for the 23-year-old Quillan. Across the past two seasons, the undrafted free agent pickup out of Quinnipiac had logged his first four big-league appearances with a +2 rating but is still looking for his first NHL point. The 6’0″, 205-lb pivot has been quite productive in the minors, though. That’s especially true this season, boasting an 8-19–27 scoring line in 28 games with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies.
His waiver-exempt status, plus his strong AHL showing, means Quillan will continue being Toronto’s most frequented call-up option down the stretch. A pending restricted free agent, it won’t be much of a surprise if he finds his way onto the Leafs’ opening night roster next fall.