Golden Knights Make Multiple Roster Moves
The Golden Knights announced Tuesday that they placed defenseman Ben Hutton on long-term injured reserve with an upper-body injury and moved captain Mark Stone, who hasn’t played since Nov. 6 with a lower-body injury and remains day-to-day, to standard IR. Those roster spots were filled by the recalls of forwards Callahan Burke, Mason Morelli and Jonas Røndbjerg from AHL Henderson, per the NHL’s media site.
Per PuckPedia, the order of transactions here is especially relevant. Vegas assigned winger Victor Olofsson, who had been on LTIR since last month, to AHL Henderson on a conditioning loan yesterday but activated him before doing so, keeping them briefly cap-compliant without using LTIR.
This resets their capture, allowing them to re-optimize how much temporary flexibility they could achieve from Hutton’s LTIR placement. They moved Stone to IR and recalled Morelli and Røndbjerg all before placing Hutton on LTIR, then recalled Burke as the final transaction. After the moves, the Knights have a full active roster with 15 forwards, six defensemen and two goaltenders with $200K left in their LTIR pool.
For Stone, the IR placement is purely for roster management purposes and doesn’t affect his return timeline. He can be activated at any time since he’s already missed more than seven days, and since he’s on IR and not LTIR, his $9.5MM cap hit still effectively counts against Vegas’ books. The captain shouldn’t be too far off from a return after starting the season on a tear with six goals and 15 assists for 21 points in 13 games.
Hutton, 31, sustained the injury early in Sunday’s game against the Capitals and left after just four shifts and 2:40 of ice time. Vegas’ seventh defender for the past four years was a healthy scratch for 12 games in a row to begin the season but had played in five of their last six games, posting no points, five hits and three blocks while averaging 11:40 per contest and occasionally suiting up at right wing while Vegas dressed only 11 forwards.
He’s listed as week-to-week and won’t be eligible to return until Dec. 12 at the earliest now that he’s on LTIR. It’s far from a monumental loss, given how little he’d played, but it still stretches their defensive depth thin with Nicolas Hague already on IR with an undisclosed injury.
The moves mean that the Golden Knights’ recent stretch of running 11 forwards and seven defensemen is over, with only six blue-liners available on the roster. That means that one of Burke, Morelli or Røndbjerg will enter the lineup Wednesday against the Maple Leafs, likely the latter.
The 25-year-old Røndbjerg has played in a pair of games already for Vegas this season amid some short-term call-ups, posting a -1 rating and averaging just 7:33 per night. The Danish winger was a third-round pick in the Knights’ inaugural 2017 draft class and has three goals and seven assists for 10 points in 65 career NHL games dating back to his debut in 2021-22.
Burke, 27, is in his first season in the Vegas organization after signing a two-way contract as a UFA over the summer. The 5’10” forward has two goals and four assists for six points in 11 appearances with Henderson this season. The undrafted Notre Dame product is still looking for his first NHL point despite playing in a trio of games with the Avalanche and Hurricanes in spot duty over the past two years.
Morelli, 28, made his NHL debut for the Golden Knights last season amid a rash of forward injuries, scoring three times in nine games while adding an assist. The North Dakota native spent the first four seasons of his professional career on AHL contracts before earning an NHL deal with Vegas last year. He now serves as an alternate captain for Henderson and is tied for the team lead with five goals in 13 games, adding four assists for nine points.
Red Wings Reassign William Lagesson
Nov. 19: The Red Wings announced Tuesday that they’ve reassigned Lagesson back to Grand Rapids. With Edvinsson returning to the lineup, he did not play and instead burned a day off his waiver exemption.
Nov. 18: The Red Wings summoned defenseman William Lagesson from AHL Grand Rapids on Monday, per a team announcement. Detroit had an open spot on the active roster, so no corresponding transaction is necessary.
It’s the first recall for Lagesson after he cleared waivers before the regular season. He comes up from the AHL with the Red Wings in need of an extra defenseman after Simon Edvinsson missed Saturday’s game against the Kings with a lower-body injury.
Lagesson, 28, signed a one-way deal worth $775K with Detroit in the offseason. He’s coming off an eventful 2023-24 season that saw him unexpectedly set a career-high in games played with 40, making 30 appearances as a depth option for the Maple Leafs before being selected off waivers by the Ducks on trade deadline day and playing 10 games for Anaheim down the stretch.
A serviceable option to slot in anywhere between seventh and 10th on a team’s defense depth chart, Lagesson has 11 assists in 100 career NHL games dating back to his debut with the Oilers in the 2019-20 season. The 2014 fourth-round pick has long since solidified himself as a premier defensive option at the AHL level, playing a well-rounded game and leveraging his 6’2″, 207-lb frame to be an effective physical factor. His possession numbers at the NHL level have routinely been passable for a depth role, controlling 49.4% of shot attempts when on the ice at even strength.
Lagesson is off to a good start in Grand Rapids, too. In his first AHL action since a five-game run with Toronto early in 2023-24, the Swede has five points in 11 games with a team-high +10 rating, including a +9 mark in his last five outings.
It’s unlikely that strong showing will result in a meaningful NHL audition with Detroit, though. He’s projected to sit in the press box for tonight’s game against the Sharks while serving as last-minute injury insurance with Edvinsson ruled out.
Lagesson, who will be an unrestricted free agent again next summer, can remain on the roster for up to 30 non-consecutive days or play 10 games until he needs waivers again to return to Grand Rapids.
Oilers Claim Kasperi Kapanen Off Waivers From Blues
The Oilers announced on Tuesday that they’ve claimed winger Kasperi Kapanen off waivers from the Blues.
Kapanen, 28, hit waivers yesterday with St. Louis needing to open a roster spot for Robert Thomas‘ activation from injured reserve. He’d been a healthy scratch in three of their last five games since returning from an upper-body injury and had just one goal in 10 games on the season with a -6 rating, so it wasn’t terribly surprising to see the pending unrestricted free agent hit the wire.
The Oilers are hoping Kapanen, who carries a $1MM cap hit, can rediscover the form that landed him 15 goals and 34 points in 66 games split between the Blues and the Penguins in 2022-23. St. Louis nabbed him off the wire amid that campaign, and a good deal of that production came in his final 23 games of the season after the move.
Edmonton has been in need of forward help for the past couple of games, dressing seven defensemen with Viktor Arvidsson out day-to-day with an undisclosed injury. Instead of making a recall up front – they already had to make one on defense after Darnell Nurse was injured in Toronto over the weekend – they’ll opt to bring in some outside help.
It seems unlikely that Kapanen will make it to Ottawa in time for tonight’s game against the Senators, so the Oilers may need to roll with the 11F/7D formation once more if Arvidsson isn’t ready to return. If Arvidsson is still out for a stretch, though, there could be an opportunity for Kapanen to get a brief audition in his usual spot on Leon Draisaitl‘s wing. Corey Perry has hopped up into that spot with Arvidsson out, but those minutes aren’t sustainable for the 39-year-old with four points in 19 games.
The Oilers had an open roster spot before claiming Kapanen, so no corresponding transaction is necessary. However, they are now over the $88MM salary cap upper limit and are thus using Evander Kane‘s long-term injured reserve placement to stay compliant as PuckPedia breaks down.
Blues To Activate Robert Thomas From Injured Reserve
The Blues will activate Robert Thomas from injured reserve, reports Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic. The star center will return to the lineup against the Wild on Tuesday.
Thomas’ return comes weeks ahead of schedule. The 25-year-old fractured his ankle in a game against the Jets on Oct. 22 and was given a six-week return timeline, which would have kept him out until early December. Instead, he’s back in the lineup less than a month after sustaining the injury.
Before the fracture, Thomas had one goal and five assists for six points in seven games. Now in his seventh year in the league, the 2017 first-round pick was dealing with some poor puck luck and was shooting at a career-worst 8.7%. That should turn around in the next couple of weeks as he looks to record over a point per game for the second season in a row.
Away from goals and assists, Thomas was having an excellent start to the season. He averaged 20:33 per game, won 62.6% of his draws, and posted career-best possession numbers with a 58.1 CF% and 64.9 xGF% at even strength.
The Blues don’t yet have an open roster spot, but they will in about an hour after Kasperi Kapanen is claimed by another team or clears waivers. Thomas’ official activation will thus take place after 1:00 p.m. CT.
“He’s put in a lot of work to get to this point,” Bannister said on Thomas’ quick recovery (via Rutherford). “It doesn’t look like he’s missed a beat; he’s in great shape. He went away for 1-2 weeks to do some work in Toronto with his doctors, and I think that really sped up the process.”
St. Louis is now fully healthy up front, hopefully counteracting a rash of injuries on defense. In addition to Torey Krug being ruled out for the year, Philip Broberg and Nick Leddy have hit injured reserve since the start of the season. Pierre-Olivier Joseph is day-to-day with a lower-body injury but hasn’t been ruled out tonight against Minnesota.
The lack of puck-moving defenders available will lead the Blues to experiment with a five-forward first power-play unit tonight, one that Thomas will be quarterbacking, per Lou Korac of NHL.com. Thomas has just one power-play point this season, but 27 of his 86 points last season came with the man advantage.
At even strength, Thomas will return to his standard first-line center role. After spending most of the early going with Jordan Kyrou on his right and Brandon Saad on his left, Pavel Buchnevich will now slide up to first-line duties while Saad skates on the second line with Brayden Schenn and Jake Neighbours, per Korac.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Blackhawks Recall Drew Commesso
The Blackhawks announced Tuesday that they’ve recalled goaltender Drew Commesso from AHL Rockford. Arvid Söderblom is the projected starter tonight against the Ducks, Charlie Roumeliotis of WGN Radio 720 relays, indicating that Petr Mrázek likely isn’t available for a yet-to-be-disclosed reason.
Commesso, 22, has already been recalled once this season. He came up to the NHL roster for a few days in late October while Söderblom was dealing with an illness, but Mrazék started a set of back-to-back games against the Predators and Stars while Commesso remained on the bench as the backup.
A 2020 second-round pick, Commesso has been a contender for Chicago’s “goalie of the future” moniker for a few years. The 6’2″ netminder isn’t off to a promising start in Rockford this season, though, posting a 3.71 GAA, .854 SV%, and a 2-4-0 record in six appearances. He’s likely earned some grace after a spectacular run of play at Boston University and a decent .906 SV% in 38 games for Rockford last year, but being outperformed by the AHL-contracted Mitchell Weeks so far this season is undoubtedly a cause for concern.
Nonetheless, Commesso gets what’s likely a short-term summons to relieve Mrázek as the Blackhawks’ only available recall option. Chicago entered the season with only four goalies under contract, including veteran UFA signing Laurent Brossoit, who’s been on injured reserve since the beginning of the year while recovering from meniscus surgery.
Brossoit’s missed around a month more than expected, leaving the Blackhawks in a pinch. They have seven contract slots remaining, though, and could easily sign Weeks to an NHL deal if necessary to give themselves another option to add to the roster.
Nonetheless, goaltending hasn’t been an issue for the Blackhawks this season. Mrázek has floated around last year’s numbers with a .906 SV% and 2.79 GAA, along with some improved team defense, while the 25-year-old Söderblom has taken leaps and bounds forward in his development with a sparkling .934 SV% and 2.22 GAA in five appearances. Despite that stellar play, Chicago has just a 1-3-1 record with him between the pipes.
Canadiens Assign Rafaël Harvey-Pinard On LTIR Conditioning Loan
The Canadiens reassigned winger Rafaël Harvey-Pinard to AHL Laval on a long-term injury conditioning loan on Tuesday, per a team announcement.
Harvey-Pinard, 25, has missed the entire season after sustaining a broken leg during offseason training in late July. He was given a five-month return timeline, so being close to ready for game action is no surprise.
The 5’9″ left-winger started skating at the end of October and has been taking contact in practice for around a week. Eric Engels of Sportsnet reported Saturday that the 2019 seventh-round pick was close to a return.
He can spend up to two weeks in Laval before the Habs must decide whether he’s healed enough to return to NHL action and activate him from LTIR. He remains off the active roster for now, but with an open spot and $7.6MM remaining in their LTIR pool, there will be no issue fitting him back on the roster when he’s ready to return.
Last season was Harvey-Pinard’s first as a full-time NHLer, although a nagging lower-body injury limited him to 45 games. He skated squarely in a bottom-six role, averaging 12:38 per night and scoring two goals and eight assists for 10 points with only 26 shots on goal.
That was a far cry from the numbers RHP put up after being recalled from Laval midway through the 2022-23 campaign. The diminutive winger got a shot at top-six minutes with star sniper Cole Caufield undergoing season-ending right shoulder surgery, and he responded with 14 goals and 20 points in 34 games, tying for fourth on the team in goals by season’s end.
Harvey-Pinard’s injuries were likely one of many factors that limited his production last year. In 83 career NHL appearances, the Quebec native has 17 goals and 31 points with a +3 rating. That’s likely more indicative of his long-term ceiling, given his strong offensive numbers with Laval, which would be a spectacular result for such a late-round pick.
Harvey-Pinard will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights next summer after completing the two-year, $2.2MM deal he signed as an RFA in 2023.
Maple Leafs Place David Kämpf On IR, Recall Fraser Minten
The Maple Leafs announced Tuesday that they’ve placed center David Kämpf on injured reserve with a lower-body ailment retroactive to Nov. 16. In a corresponding transaction, they recalled forward prospect Fraser Minten from AHL Toronto, keeping their active roster size at a maximum of 23.
Kämpf, 29, has played in all but one of Toronto’s 19 games this season. His absence wasn’t due to injury; instead, he was a healthy scratch against the Blue Jackets on Oct. 22.
It’s unclear if Kämpf sustained the injury in the Leafs’ last outing, an overtime win over the Oilers on Saturday, or if he’d been playing through it for multiple games. He didn’t miss a shift against Edmonton and has logged at least 14 minutes of ice time in his last four contests.
Kämpf is in the second season of the four-year, $9.6MM extension he signed days before the unrestricted free-agent market opened in 2023. Lauded far more for his competency in the faceoff dot and on the penalty kill than his even-strength impacts, the Czechia native is coming off his worst season in Toronto since arriving as a free agent in 2021. Kämpf’s 11 assists, 19 points and -4 rating in 78 games were his lowest totals as a Maple Leaf, as were his 79 shots on goal, 13:29 ATOI and 50.9 FO%.
While Kämpf has improved up to a 53.6% rate in the dot, it’s been more of the same everywhere else in 2024-25. He’s yet to score a goal and has three assists and a -2 rating, averaging 12:18 per game. He’s still influential on the penalty kill, but for a player who receives little to no offensive zone usage at even strength, $2.4MM per season is a significant salary cap commitment.
The retroactive placement means Kämpf has already been out for three of the seven days required for IR. He’ll miss Wednesday’s game against the Golden Knights but will be eligible to return for Sunday’s contest against Utah.
The news means the Maple Leafs will be down two of their regular four centers when they take on Vegas tomorrow. Captain Auston Matthews is expected to miss his seventh straight game as he remains day-to-day with an upper-body injury, David Alter of The Hockey News reported Monday.
While the Leafs have more than a few players on their roster who could shift from wing to center, including Connor Dewar, Pontus Holmberg, or William Nylander, they don’t have an extra forward available on the active roster to slide into the lineup to replace Kämpf. Unless head coach Craig Berube opts to deploy 11 forwards and seven defensemen tomorrow against the Knights, Minten will make his season debut.
Minten, 20, was the Maple Leafs’ first selection in the 2022 draft, coming off the board early in the second round at 38th overall. He was expected to challenge for a job on the opening night roster in training camp this year, but a high ankle sprain sustained in rookie camp kept him on the shelf until late October.
Since being activated from season-opening injured reserve and assigned to the AHL, the 6’2″ pivot has two goals and two assists for four points with a +4 rating in five games. Minten got a brief taste of NHL hockey early last season as a 19-year-old, posting zeroes across the board while averaging 11:26 per game before being returned to his major junior team.
In his fourth and final season of WHL hockey in 2023-24, split between the Kamloops Blazers and Saskatoon Blades, Minten had 22 goals and 26 assists for 48 points with a +18 rating in 43 games. He also captained Canada at the 2024 World Junior Championship, posting a goal and two assists in five outings.
Pacific Notes: Olofsson, Nurse, Arvidsson, Miller, Wright
The Vegas Golden Knights should only be a few days away from the return of an injured forward. The organization announced they assigned forward Victor Olofsson to their AHL affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights, for a conditioning loan. This confirms the Golden Knights are quickly expected to activate Olofsson from the long-term injured reserve.
Olofsson has only been on the team’s LTIR for approximately a week but hasn’t suited up for a game in Vegas for over a month due to a lower-body injury. He had scored three goals in his four games before succumbing to the injury while averaging 15:03 of ice time per game.
It’ll be interesting to see how much playing time Olofsson can manage once he returns from injury despite the strong scoring pace to begin the season. The Golden Knights will have a clearer picture of their roster construction once Mark Stone returns to the lineup but Olofsson may become a healthy scratch upon activation. He projects as an upgrade on the right wing as the lineup is currently constructed but the team might prefer continuity as they’ve risen to the top of the Pacific Division standings.
Other Pacific notes:
- Jack Michaels, the play-by-play commentator for the Edmonton Oilers, confirmed today that defenseman Darnell Nurse is only expected to miss five to 10 days from the illegal check to the head from Toronto Maple Leafs forward Ryan Reaves this past weekend. Thankfully, the Oilers have a five-day break at the beginning of next week which should give Nurse ample time to recover. The Oilers will have a difficult time without him this week should he miss all four games with Edmonton deploying a subpar supporting cast behind Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard.
- In the same update from Michaels, he shares that the Oilers will also be without forward Viktor Arvidsson tonight. Tonight will mark the third straight game Arvidsson has missed with an undisclosed injury. When healthy, he’s scored two goals and five points in 16 games in his first year with the Oilers organization.
- Through the first 16 games of the 2024-25 NHL season for J.T. Miller, he had been averaging 18:49 of ice time. It’s dropped by more than a third of a minute thanks to getting benched in the Vancouver Canucks’ loss to the Nashville Predators last night. In an explanation of the benching, head coach Rick Tocchet said, “I went with the guys I thought could get us back into the game.” (X Link)
- Miller wasn’t the only notable benching last night with Seattle Kraken forward Shane Wright also enjoying some time on the pine. According to Kate Shefte of the Seattle Times, head coach Dan Bylsma said, “As the games have gone along here, I think Shane’s game has been trending in not the best direction. Really the message is: Take a reset, watch the game tonight, which he did, and get back focused on playing the way you can play.” Wright has only scored two points in 18 games for the Kraken this season and the recent message from Bylsma isn’t exactly a vote of confidence for the former fourth-overall pick of the 2022 NHL Draft.
New Jersey Announces Several Roster Moves
Before their game in a few days against the division-leading Carolina Hurricanes, the New Jersey Devils are adding more pieces to their roster. The organization announced they have placed Nathan Bastian on long-term injured reserve retroactive to November 1st, Curtis Lazar on injured reserve retroactive to October 27th, and has recalled Shane Bowers, Justin Dowling, Nolan Foote, and Nick DeSimone from their AHL affiliate, the Utica Comets.
None of the moves are shocking from the cap-conscious Devils who’ve been slowplaying Bastian and Lazar’s designation to capture more salary cap space for the trade deadline. With a projected deadline space of almost $10MM, New Jersey could place both players on their respective injury reserve designations and fill out the rest of the roster.
Bastian has the less serious injury of the two after sustaining a jaw injury during a fight with Calgary Flames forward Ryan Lomberg. He was originally expected to miss several weeks with the injury and if he’s fully recovered, can return on November 26th when the Devils take on the St. Louis Blues. The more serious injury concern lies in Lazar who may finish the year with only 12 games played after undergoing a procedure on his left knee keeping him out indefinitely.
Dowling is the only member of the call-up quartet that has already suited up for New Jersey this season. He was originally recalled to replace the lost minutes of Lazar and has tallied one assist in nine games while averaging 8:13 of ice time.
Foote was an obvious choice for a call-up as the former 27th overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft. He’s already accrued 23 games of NHL experience in his young career and was leading the AHL Comets in scoring this season with four goals and nine points in 12 games.
The other two recalls are largely AHL-bound veterans at this point in their respective careers although Bowers may carry some prospect pedigree as a first-round pick of the 2017 NHL Draft. He’s seen his scoring drop precipitously since transitioning to professional hockey in the 2018-19 season scoring a career-high 27 points for the AHL’s Colorado Eagles in 2019-20. DeSimone, who reached a one-year extension with the Devils last season, has already been recalled this season but failed to register any games.
The downstream effects of the roster moves will be greatly felt in the AHL. The Comets have yet to earn a victory this season through 13 games and may have to play this weekend’s contests against the Syracuse Crunch and Rochester Americans without three of their top-10 scorers.
Winnipeg Jets Activate, Re-Assign Ville Heinola On Conditioning Stint
In a positive update on his recovery from ankle surgery, the Winnipeg Jets organization announced they have activated defenseman Ville Heinola off injured reserve and have reassigned him to the American Hockey League on a conditioning stint. Heinola has been shelved since September 20th after undergoing a procedure to remove an infection from his previously fractured ankle.
The 2024-25 NHL season was expected to be big for the former 20th overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft. Thanks to a few departures this past offseason, Heinola was thought to have a consistent role on the Jets’ blue line this season. Heinola hasn’t suited up for Winnipeg since January 19th, 2023 because of his ankle fracture and subsequent surgery a few months ago.
He’s spent much of the last three seasons playing for the AHL’s Manitoba Moose and has performed quite well. He’s scored 19 goals and 90 points in 130 games for the Moose since the start of the 2021-22 season with an additional one goal and eight points in 11 postseason contests.
The conditioning stint will allow Heinola to spend a maximum of two weeks with AHL Manitoba while still collecting his NHL salary. Once the conditioning loan has run its course it will be interesting to see how the Jets incorporate Heinola into the lineup.
He should have a guaranteed spot in the bottom pairing next to Colin Miller as an objective upgrade over Haydn Fleury. Winnipeg may even choose to move Dylan Samberg down a pair allowing Heinola minutes next to fellow puck-moving blue liner Neal Pionk.
In all likelihood, Winnipeg will slowplay Heinola back into the NHL especially considering the team’s average defensive play despite the impressive start. The Jets have allowed the 15th most shots against of all the teams in the league and are sitting 24th in Expected Goals Against according to Hockey Reference. Winnipeg’s fourth-best GA/G average to start the campaign is primarily because of the stellar play of goaltender Connor Hellebuyck which may give the team the confidence to give more responsibility to Heinola out of the gate.