Devils Recall Justin Dowling
The Devils announced yesterday that they have recalled center Justin Dowling from AHL Utica. They had an open spot on the active roster, so no corresponding transaction was necessary. His services were needed in last night’s 4-2 loss to the Blue Jackets with Curtis Lazar, who came off injured reserve Tuesday after undergoing knee surgery, exiting the lineup again due to continued post-surgery swelling, head coach Sheldon Keefe said (via Mark Scheig of The Hockey Writers).
Dowling, 34, had been on New Jersey’s roster for most of the last two months as Lazar’s replacement but was waived and reassigned earlier in the week to make room for the latter’s return. He’s in his second year with the Devils after inking a two-year, two-way deal in free agency in 2023 and has been a solid veteran presence on the farm. He’s posted 16 goals, 28 assists and 44 points in 64 games for Utica since last season, including four points in seven games this year.
The Calgary native’s 22 NHL appearances this season in Lazar’s absence are now his most since the 2021-22 season with the Canucks. He has two goals and an assist with a -2 rating, averaging 8:30 per game and winning 47.5% of his faceoffs. The 5’10”, 180-lb pivot has been serviceable for his limited role, controlling 48.8% of shot attempts and 48.6% of expected goals at even strength. Those shares are below New Jersey’s team averages but don’t paint him as anything worse than the replacement-level call-up he’s made out to be.
Dowling can remain on the active roster for up to 30 non-consecutive days or play 10 games before he requires waivers to return to Utica again. He might hit those numbers depending on how much longer Lazar needs a recovery window before he can play again. Keefe said he’ll likely be on the active roster through the Christmas break. If not, he can still be returned to Utica during the roster freeze.
[RELATED: Allowable Transactions During The Roster Freeze Period]
In 122 NHL games in parts of seven seasons with the Canucks, Devils and Stars, Dowling has 22 points and a -18 rating while averaging 10:24 per game.
Wild Place Yakov Trenin On IR, Recall Devin Shore, Travis Boyd
Dec. 20: Shore is back on the active roster today, as is forward Travis Boyd, according to Michael Russo of The Athletic. Boyd made a pair of appearances with the Wild last month amid one of a couple of recalls this season, averaging just 7:39 per game and controlling an abysmal 21.9% of shot attempts at even strength. The 31-year-old leads Iowa in scoring this season with 18 points (3 G, 15 A) in 17 games and has nearly 300 games of NHL experience under his belt with the Coyotes, Capitals, Maple Leafs and Canucks in addition to his brief stint in Minnesota. The Wild’s active roster is now full.
Dec. 19: The Wild made a pair of roster moves in advance of their next game against Utah on Friday. The team announced (Twitter link) that winger Yakov Trenin has been placed on injured reserve while winger Devin Shore has been assigned to AHL Iowa.
Trenin has missed three straight games due to an upper-body injury. Assuming this placement is back-dated, he’ll be eligible to return as soon as this weekend. The 27-year-old is in his first season with Minnesota after signing a four-year, $14MM contract with them back in free agency, a move that hasn’t worked as well as anyone would have hoped.
After putting up double-digit goals in each of the last three years, Trenin has struggled considerably offensively this season, lighting the lamp just twice while adding one assist in 29 games. While he sits second on the team in hits with 82, it’s safe to say that GM Bill Guerin was expecting more from his biggest free agent addition from July.
As for Shore, he cleared waivers on Tuesday but stayed with Minnesota for a couple of extra days and played last night against Florida. He has played in 13 NHL contests so far but has been held off the scoresheet while averaging a little over eight minutes a night. The veteran has been a strong contributor with Iowa, however, notching two goals and eight assists in 14 appearances with them.
Avalanche Recall Jere Innala
One of Colorado’s more intriguing offseason signings is about to get an NHL opportunity. The Avalanche announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled winger Jere Innala from AHL Colorado. He won’t be available for tonight’s game against San Jose but will join the team on Friday in Anaheim.
The Avs signed the 26-year-old to a one-year entry-level deal back in June after a strong showing internationally for Finland at the World Championship where he had five points in eight games. While he hadn’t played in North America at the time, Innala had a strong track record of success at home in the Liiga with HPK and HIFK before spending the last two seasons with SHL Frolunda where he had 28 points in 42 regular season games in 2023-24 before adding 11 goals and 15 points in 14 postseason contests.
With that success and the fact that Colorado struggled to find a working fourth line for a lot of last season, Innala was a speculative end-of-roster candidate in training camp. While he had two points in three preseason games, they elected to start him in the minors with the Eagles. With them, he got off to a solid start to his first season in North America, potting five goals and ten assists in 21 games so far.
Once again this year, the Avalanche have churned through numerous forwards at the bottom of their roster. Chris Wagner, T.J. Tynan, Calum Ritchie, Matthew Stienburg, Givani Smith, Chase Bradley, Nikita Prishchepov, and Tye Felhaber are all forwards who have played at least once in Colorado’s bottom six this season but none of the group have more than one point (the first three have one each, the rest zero) so it appears that they’ve decided it’s time to give Innala a chance to try to secure a spot.
Predators Activate Jeremy Lauzon, Place Roman Josi On IR
The Predators made two roster moves leading into tonight’s game versus Pittsburgh. Per a team announcement (Twitter link), they have activated defenseman Jeremy Lauzon off injured reserve. In a corresponding move, blueliner Roman Josi was placed on IR.
Lauzon has missed the last three weeks due to a lower-body injury. The 27-year-old is off to a particularly quiet start offensively as he has just one assist in 22 games after putting up a career-best 14 points in 2023-24. However, Lauzon’s physicality is the hallmark of his game and he leads the team in hits per game, checking in at 4.58, down only slightly from last year’s rate when he recorded 386 to lead the NHL by a significant margin.
As for Josi, he last played last Tuesday, meaning he will be eligible to be activated as soon as he’s cleared to return, assuming they back-date the IR placement (meaning he has already missed the required seven days). The captain isn’t producing at quite the same rate as last year when he passed the point-per-game mark for the second time in his career but he’s still Nashville’s leader in scoring with 23 points in 29 games.
Red Wings Assign Ville Husso To AHL
Last season, the Red Wings primarily had three goaltenders on their roster, unwilling to run the risk of losing one through waivers. They haven’t been willing to do so this year, however. That continued today as the team announced (Twitter link) that goaltender Ville Husso has been sent down to AHL Grand Rapids.
Husso cleared waivers early in the season and has primarily played with the Griffins. However, with injuries lately to both Alex Lyon and Cam Talbot, the 29-year-old was seeing regular action with the big club, including six appearances this month. Lyon was activated off injured reserve on Wednesday while Talbot was expected to return this weekend; this move indicates that Talbot will indeed be good to at least serve as the backup on Friday against Montreal.
Husso has played in eight NHL games overall this season, posting a 3.47 GAA with a .877 SV%. However, he has fared much better in limited AHL action, compiling a 1.58 GAA with a .944 SV% in five outings with the Griffins. A pending unrestricted free agent, Husso is heading for a significant drop on his current $4.75MM price tag but a good showing in the minors could help him land at least a one-way deal from someone this coming summer. That said, playing time for him will likely be limited with Sebastian Cossa and Jack Campbell both in the fold.
With this move, the Red Wings now have one open roster spot. Even with the roster freeze about to come into effect, that spot could still be filled by someone in the next few days.
Golden Knights Recall Tanner Laczynski
The Golden Knights have recalled depth center Tanner Laczynski from AHL Henderson, per a team announcement. He’ll make his Vegas debut tonight against the Canucks with Ivan Barbashev and Nicolas Roy battling upper-body injuries, per Danny Webster of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
It will be the first NHL appearance in just over a year and a half for the 6’1″ pivot. Laczynski, an Ohio State product, was a sixth-round pick of the Flyers in 2016. He spent his entire professional career in the Philadelphia organization, playing mostly with AHL Lehigh Valley but getting a few call-ups along the way, before reaching unrestricted free agency last summer and signing a two-year, $1.55MM contract with the Knights.
Laczynski hasn’t been an offensive factor in his NHL looks, only managing four points in 38 games with the Flyers. But he’s blossomed into a top AHL point producer in recent years, and his pickup has proved prudent for Vegas’ minor-league depth. He leads the Silver Knights in scoring with 19 points (6 G, 13 A) in 17 games and has a -2 rating, a decent mark on one of the league’s worst teams this season.
Laczynski spent all of last season in the minors, posting 44 points in 49 games for AHL Lehigh Valley. He appeared in a career-high 32 NHL games for Philadelphia the year prior, though, averaging 9:31 per game and recording all four of his career points. He won 51.5% of his draws, although he’ll suit up as a third-line winger tonight for Vegas alongside Tomáš Hertl and Alexander Holtz.
Both Barbashev and Roy sustained their injuries on Sunday against the Wild. It’s a damper on a huge season for Barbashev, who’s got 30 points in 31 games and is on pace to smash his career-high of 60 set with the Blues in 2021-22. Pavel Dorofeyev, who has 12 goals to rank second on the team, moves into his first-line left-wing role alongside Jack Eichel and Mark Stone. Roy, who’s been averaging over 16 minutes per game and has 13 points in 31 appearances, will be replaced more directly by Laczynski.
Vegas had an open roster spot before executing the transaction, so no corresponding moves are necessary.
Oilers Activate Viktor Arvidsson From Injured Reserve
The Oilers announced that winger Viktor Arvidsson has been reinstated from injured reserve and will play in tonight’s contest against the Bruins. The active roster already had a vacancy with defenseman Travis Dermott being claimed off waivers by the Wild last week, but the roster is now full with this move.
Arvidsson, 31, sustained an undisclosed injury against the Islanders on Nov. 12 and was initially ruled out day-to-day, but a lengthier-than-expected recovery period means he ended up sitting out of action for over a month. He missed 15 games, during which time Edmonton went 10-4-1 and now sits third in the Pacific Division after a rocky start to the year.
Arvidsson, who the Oilers signed to a two-year, $8MM contract over the summer, started the year in a second-line role with Leon Draisaitl and Vasily Podkolzin. It didn’t go as planned. The two-time 30-goal scorer was limited to two goals and five points in 16 appearances before exiting with injury, averaging 15:41 per game. Connor Brown, Kasperi Kapanen and Jeff Skinner have all found themselves in Arvidsson’s spot in his absence. None of them have had particularly good results, although Brown has the most production with 13 points through 31 games.
The Swedish winger hit free agency after an injury-plagued 2023-24 campaign that limited him to 18 appearances with the Kings, although he was far more productive when healthy with six goals and 15 points. Dating back to his days as a developing forward in Nashville, Arvidsson has averaged 26 goals and 54 points per 82 games throughout his career. He’s projected to slot into a more conservative third-line role with Brown and Adam Henrique in his return tonight, per multiple reports.
Avalanche Reassign Tye Felhaber
Dec. 19: The Avalanche announced that Felhaber has cleared waivers and was subsequently assigned to AHL Colorado.
Dec. 18: The Avalanche have placed forward Tye Felhaber on waivers to return him to the AHL’s Colorado Eagles, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports Wednesday.
Felhaber, 26, signed an AHL contract with the Eagles over the offseason, which the Avalanche tore up and replaced with a two-year NHL contract on Sunday. The left-shot forward had a team-leading eight goals and 13 points through 23 AHL games, putting him on pace for his best season offensively in the high-level minors since turning pro five years ago. He made his NHL debut on Monday in a loss to Canucks, taking just seven shifts for 4:34 worth of ice time. Aside from one hit, he recorded zeroes across his box score, and the Avalanche out-attempted opponents 6-4 with him on the ice.
Felhaber, originally an undrafted free agent signing by the Stars from the Ontario Hockey League’s Ottawa 67’s, has 67 points in 187 AHL contests in parts of seven seasons. He’s been far more productive when demoted to the ECHL, where he’s logged 26 goals and 83 points in 71 games. The former OHL All-Star remains a middle-six minor-league option at best as he enters his prime, though, and there’s likely little interest in his services on an NHL roster elsewhere.
While unlikely, teams have 24 hours to submit a claim and take Felhaber out of the Avs organization and onto their NHL roster. It’s a likelier scenario that Felhaber will clear waivers tomorrow and head back to the Eagles, allowing the Avs to carry a trim roster throughout the holiday freeze, which begins at midnight Eastern tomorrow and runs through Dec. 27.
Jets Activate Nikolaj Ehlers, Waive Dylan Coghlan
Dec. 19: The Jets announced that Coghlan cleared waivers and was subsequently assigned to AHL Manitoba along with the waiver-exempt Chibrikov.
Dec. 18: The Jets have placed defenseman Dylan Coghlan on waivers ahead of the upcoming roster freeze, reports Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. In a related but not quite corresponding move, winger Nikolaj Ehlers has been activated from injured reserve ahead of tonight’s matchup with the Ducks, per the league’s media site. Center David Gustafsson, who’s been in concussion protocol since fighting Bruins forward Trent Frederic on Dec. 10, was placed on injured reserve to keep the Jets’ active roster at the maximum 23 until Coghlan can be removed tomorrow.
Ehlers had missed the last nine games with a lower-body injury that he sustained against the Golden Knights on Nov. 29. The Jets managed to go 5-3-1 in his absence and haven’t lost in regulation over their last four outings. The injury interrupted a resurgent season for the pending unrestricted free agent, who still ranks fifth on the team in scoring with 25 points (9 G, 16 A) in 24 games. If his pace holds, the Danish winger will crack the point-per-game threshold for the first time in his 10-year career. If he plays tonight, he’ll likely resume his place on the second line alongside Vladislav Namestnikov and Cole Perfetti while rookie Nikita Chibrikov, who has two goals and an assist in four showings this season, heads to the press box.
Coghlan, 26, signed a two-way deal with the Jets in the offseason after they acquired his signing rights from the Hurricanes. He made the team’s opening night roster but has been stuck in the press box, playing just once this year despite not carrying an injury designation. Winnipeg has had eight defensemen on the active roster nearly all season but hasn’t had the impetus to make many lineup changes. Their relatively healthy blue line has helped power a 23-9-1 record.
His lone appearance came against Vegas, his former team, in the game Ehlers got hurt. He posted a -1 rating in 14:38 of ice time with two shots on goal. Winnipeg out-attempted opponents 15-8 with Coghlan on the ice at even strength despite two-thirds of his zone starts coming in the defensive end.
Thirty-one other teams will now have the chance to claim Coghlan, who only costs the league minimum of $775K against the cap when in the NHL and has 107 games of experience to his name over the last five years. If there are no takers, it’s back to the AHL for him, this time with the Manitoba Moose. The British Columbia native played in 61 games for the Springfield Thunderbirds last season while under contract with Carolina, leading their defenders with 41 points (16 G, 25 A).
Blues Recall Tyler Tucker
The Blues announced Thursday morning that they’ve recalled defenseman Tyler Tucker from AHL Springfield. He takes Pierre-Olivier Joseph‘s spot on the active roster after the fellow left-shot was traded to the Penguins last night for future considerations.
It’s Tucker’s first recall of the season after he landed on waivers in early October. The 24-year-old was the odd man out in a battle for depth spots that included Joseph, Matthew Kessel and Scott Perunovich. The pending Group VI unrestricted free agent is now in his fourth season as an alternate captain for Springfield and is on pace for a career-best season offensively, posting 10 points in 19 games with 39 PIMs and a +6 rating.
Tucker, a seventh-round pick out of the Ontario Hockey League’s Barrie Colts in 2018, has 52 NHL appearances with the Blues in the past two seasons. The 6’2″, 205-lb checker has two goals and four assists with a -8 rating while averaging a light workload at 13:33 per game. Tucker also leads Blues defensemen in hits per 60 minutes (9.71) since the beginning of the 2022-23 season.
Unfortunately, his physicality hasn’t translated into an effective defensive presence, at least at even strength. Despite Tucker starting 54.4% of his shifts in the offensive zone, St. Louis has only controlled 45.5% of shot attempts and 45.3% of expected goals with him on the ice.
Tucker will likely stick around on the Blues’ roster as a No. 7 option until Nick Leddy is ready to return from the lower-body injury that’s kept him out for over two months. He can remain on the active roster for up to 30 non-consecutive days or appear in 10 games until he requires waivers again to head back to Springfield.