Sharks Reassign Thomas Bordeleau, Shakir Mukhamadullin
Sharks prospects Thomas Bordeleau and Shakir Mukhamadullin, who started the year on the injured non-roster list, have been cleared to return to play and were subsequently assigned to AHL San Jose, per a team announcement. The move opens up $323,975 in cap space, per PuckPedia.
Bordeleau is no stranger to the Barracuda. That’s where the 22-year-old has spent most of his time since turning pro out of Michigan in 2022. A second-round pick of the Sharks in 2020, he has worked his way into 43 NHL games over the past three seasons, a career-high 27 of which came last year. The center/winger has posted six goals and 12 assists for 18 points, an 11-goal, 34-point pace over 82 games. That’s decent production for a young forward in a middle-six role, especially on a rebuilding club without much support. His possession metrics last season were also exceptionally strong, logging a 5.9% relative Corsi share at even strength. He’s also been decent on the scoresheet in the AHL, posting 33 goals and 69 points in 102 appearances there.
Those numbers generated optimism that Bordeleau could crack the opening night roster this season, but instead, he sustained a lower-body injury early in training camp that knocked him out for most of the exhibition schedule. He’ll now get back up to game speed with the Barracuda before looking to challenge for a call-up in the coming weeks. The Sharks are down a forward with first-overall pick Macklin Celebrini out week-to-week with a lower-body injury, so there should be an opportunity for Bordeleau if he earns it with his play in the AHL.
Mukhamadullin, meanwhile, was dealing with a lower-body injury dating back to rookie camp. The defenseman was a first-round pick of the Devils in 2020 and headed to San Jose in the Timo Meier trade. He made his NHL debut last season, posting an assist with a whopping 11 blocks and five hits in just three games during a brief call-up to the Sharks. He didn’t look entirely out of place while averaging north of 20 minutes per game and, like Bordeleau, should be in line to get NHL action this year after getting his feet wet in the minors.
Senators Reassign Matthew Highmore
Oct. 22: Highmore has cleared waivers and will be on his way to Belleville, per Friedman.
Oct. 21: Senators depth forward Matthew Highmore is on the waiver wire today, reports Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. That’s a sign he’s ready to return from an upper-body injury sustained late in preseason that landed him on season-opening injured reserve.
If he clears, he’ll head to AHL Belleville. That’s where the 28-year-old spent most of last season, serving as an alternate captain while recording 31 points (9 G, 22 A) in 43 appearances. That was enough for the Sens, who initially signed Highmore to a two-way deal in free agency in the summer of 2023, to offer him a one-year extension to remain in the organization for 2024-25. The two contracts are identical, paying him $775K in the NHL and $400K in the AHL.
Highmore has 146 NHL appearances under his belt, seven of which came in an Ottawa sweater last season. He can play any forward position, although he’s stuck mainly on the wings at the game’s highest level. A fine fourth-line presence and fringe penalty killer, Highmore has 29 career points (12 G, 17 A) with a -8 rating and averaged 11:22 per game. He’s seen much more success offensively in the minors, where he’s got 59 goals and 97 assists for 156 points in 208 career AHL games. He’s also suited up for the Blackhawks, Blues, and Canucks organizations since signing as an undrafted free agent with Chicago out of QMJHL Saint John in 2017.
Per PuckPedia, the Nova Scotia native currently counts $238,151 against the cap while on SOIR. That will be wiped out tomorrow, whether he’s claimed by another team or clears waivers and is assigned to the B-Sens.
Stars Activate Matt Dumba From Injured Reserve
The Stars will have defenseman Mathew Dumba‘s services again starting tonight against the Sabres. He’s been activated from injured reserve and will dress in Buffalo, relays the team’s Mike Heika.
Dumba has skated less than a half-hour’s worth of game action this season. After signing a two-year, $7.5MM deal to join the Stars in free agency over the summer, he sustained a lower-body injury in just his second game of the year against the Islanders on Oct. 12. It’s an awfully quick turnaround time for the injury, which was initially feared to require surgery and had him downgraded from day-to-day to week-to-week. All in all, the 30-year-old only misses about a week and a half and four games’ worth of action.
Also returning to the ice against the Sabres tonight are forwards Tyler Seguin and Sam Steel. Neither was on IR, but Dallas returning Matěj Blümel to the minors over the weekend was still a good indication they’d be back in the fold. Seguin had a lower-body injury that had kept him out for three straight, while Steel missed just one contest with an undisclosed injury.
The Stars are looking to get Dumba back on track after back-to-back underwhelming seasons. The former top-four fixture with the Wild was let go in the 2023 offseason and signed with the Coyotes, where he struggled to the tune of 10 points and a -13 rating in 58 games before being flipped to the Lightning at the trade deadline. He was a non-factor in a bottom-four role in Tampa before signing his multi-year deal with Dallas a few months ago.
In a small sample, early signs weren’t promising. The right-shot defender logged top-pairing minutes alongside Miro Heiskanen, but the duo struggled to control play with an xGF% of just 33.3, per MoneyPuck. Dumba was held off the scoresheet in his brief stint in the lineup and logged three giveaways, but he did end up with a +2 rating and four hits.
The Stars will go back to the Heiskanen-Dumba experiment tonight, per Robert Tiffin of D Magazine. How long it remains past Tuesday’s contest remains to be seen.
Rangers To Activate Ryan Lindgren From Injured Reserve
Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren will make his season debut tonight against the Canadiens, head coach Peter Laviolette told reporters, including Peter Baugh of The Athletic. He’ll need to be taken off injured reserve in the coming hours, but since he was already counting against the salary cap and the Rangers have an open spot on the 23-man roster, there’s no corresponding transaction necessary.
Lindgren won’t be entering the lineup in his usual top-pairing role, however. Laviolette added that he’ll pair Lindgren with rookie Victor Mancini, who’ll be playing in just his sixth career game tonight. The 2022 fifth-round pick out of Nebraska-Omaha was a surprise inclusion on the opening night roster after a strong training camp and has a goal, an assist and a +3 rating through five appearances this season. He’s averaged 15:03 per game, playing a third-pairing role alongside either Zachary Jones or Chad Ruhwedel.
It’s not entirely surprising to see Lindgren taken off his usual top-pairing home, even if it’s just temporary until he gets back up to speed. The 26-year-old is coming off a difficult season that saw him log the worst possession impacts of his career, posting a 47.8 CF% and 48.6 xGF%. Meanwhile, K’Andre Miller has flourished early on this year after being bumped up to first-pairing duties alongside Adam Fox. The two have controlled 71.3% of expected goals when deployed together, per MoneyPuck, and he’s got a goal and an assist to his name thus far.
Lindgren had been out with an upper-body injury he sustained in a preseason game against the Islanders nearly a month ago. It’s a delayed start to what will be an important season for the injury-prone defender, who narrowly avoided arbitration this summer with a one-year, $4.5MM agreement to walk him to unrestricted free agency next year. With Miller’s continued emergence and Lindgren’s declining defensive impacts, it’s unlikely he’ll be brought back if he can’t turn things around quickly.
While a 2016 second-round pick of the Bruins, Manhattan is the only NHL home Lindgren’s ever known. He was part of the return that sent Rick Nash to Boston at the 2018 trade deadline, and he’s since scored 10 goals and 70 assists for 80 points with a +99 rating in 333 games for the Blueshirts.
Blues Sign Jake Neighbours To Two-Year Extension
The Blues will avoid restricted free agency next summer with young winger Jake Neighbours. He’s put pen to paper on a two-year, $7.5MM extension, per a team release.
It’s a solid bridge deal for the 2020 26th overall pick. Now 22, Neighbours emerged as a top secondary goal-scoring option for St. Louis last season. He tied with Pavel Buchnevich for second on the team in goals with 27, although he only added 11 assists for a more pedestrian 38 points in 77 games. He averaged 15:42 per game, sixth among Blues forwards, and shot at a team-high 18.6%. The 6’0″, 201-lb winger was also one of their more physical players, registering 138 hits.
Neighbours serves in a top-six role, most recently at right wing alongside Buchnevich and sophomore Zachary Bolduc. But last season’s showing demonstrated that the ingredients are there for Neighbours to remain an effective second-line piece or even a complementary first-line one if the Blues return to routine playoff contention soon.
The Calgary native got off to a slow start this season without a point through his first four appearances but rebounded over the past few days with two goals and an assist in wins over the Islanders and the Hurricanes. He’s averaging 15:48 per game so far this season, up slightly over last year’s usage, and has a -2 rating with 12 shots on goal. His luck should continue trending upward – his possession metrics thus far are pristine (59.6 CF%, 50.0 xGF%) compared to last year’s underwhelming totals (45.1 CF%, 46.7 xGF%).
Neighbours is in the final season of his entry-level contract, which counts $835,834 against the cap and pays him just $832.5K in base salary this season. He won’t receive any performance or signing bonuses this year. PuckPedia reports his extension breaks down to a $3.5MM base salary in 2025-26 and a $4MM base salary in 2026-27 with no bonuses included, working out to a cap hit of $3.75MM.
The Blues now have roughly $8.14MM in cap space for next season, with only four roster spots to fill. That’s assuming the upper limit rises to $92.5MM, as expected. They still need to extend or replace a few depth pieces, namely pending RFA netminder Joel Hofer, but there’s no genuinely groundbreaking offseason business left in 2025 for the Blues’ front office.
The base salary breakdown means Neighbours will be due a $4MM qualifying offer upon expiry in 2027. He’ll be an RFA at that time with one year remaining under team control before becoming eligible for unrestricted free agency in 2029.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Islanders Recall Liam Foudy
The Islanders announced that forward Julien Gauthier has been assigned to AHL Bridgeport after clearing waivers yesterday. Forward Liam Foudy was recalled to take Gauthier’s place on the active roster and to enter the lineup in place of Anthony Duclair, who will miss multiple weeks after sustaining an apparent left leg injury against the Canadiens over the weekend.
Gauthier clears waivers and heads to the minors after making the Islanders’ opening night roster for the second year in a row. But while it took until February for him to get demoted to Bridgeport last season, his stint on the NHL roster lasted just a couple of weeks this time around. Gauthier sat in the press box for the first four games of the campaign and made his season debut against Montreal, posting zeroes across the board in 7:42 of ice time.
He never reached the potential most expected from him after going No. 21 overall in the 2016 draft. The 27-year-old has never scored more than 10 goals in a season and only hit double-digit points once, notching 14 in a career-high 57 appearances with the Rangers and Senators in 2022-23. Even that career-best production wasn’t enough for the Sens to keep him after acquiring him from the Blueshirts mid-season, opting not to issue him a qualifying offer at the end of the year. He landed with the Islanders on a two-year, $1.575MM contract.
His return to the minors gives Foudy, another former mid-first-round pick struggling to get off the ground, a chance at NHL minutes on Long Island. Once regarded as one of the better prospects in the Blue Jackets system, he’s looking to re-establish himself as a legitimate NHL option after being waived and claimed by the Predators last season and subsequently being non-tendered.
Foudy has split his professional career fairly evenly between the NHL and AHL by looking at total games played, but he was only ever a true fixture in the lineup for one team – the 2022-23 edition of the Blue Jackets. The results weren’t pretty. He tied for 13th on the team in scoring with 14 points (7 G, 7 A) in 62 games, posting a -26 rating and averaging 12:08 per night. The 6’2″, 188-lb winger was responsible with the puck, though, logging 23 takeaways compared to just seven giveaways.
But after making just one appearance for Columbus the following year, Foudy landed on the waiver wire. He was given a fresh start in Nashville, where he managed three assists and a -2 rating in 12 games before landing on waivers again in December. He cleared and was assigned to AHL Milwaukee, where he played out the rest of the campaign. Foudy ended the year with 16 points (10 G, 6 A) and a +7 rating in 28 games in the minors.
Foudy was a late cut from New York’s training camp roster this time around and looked to be high on the list of potential in-season call-ups after once again clearing waivers. After starting the year with four assists in five games for AHL Bridgeport, he’ll look to prove he can carve out a niche for himself at the game’s highest level. He’s one of 12 healthy forwards available with Duclair on the shelf and, as such, should make his Islanders debut tonight against the Red Wings.
Avalanche Place Jonathan Drouin On Injured Reserve
Oct. 22: According to the league’s media portal, Wagner was returned to AHL Colorado at some point yesterday. He sat in the press box for Sunday’s win over the Sharks.
Oct. 20: The Colorado Avalanche have placed forward Jonathan Drouin on injured reserve with an upper-body injury and recalled Chris Wagner. Drouin played a hardy 21:25 of ice time in Colorado’s season opener and didn’t seem limited, but he hasn’t skated since. Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar recently shared that Drouin would be reevaluated on October 28th, setting him up to miss at least five more games.
Colorado signed Drouin to another one-year contract this summer, awarding him a $1.675MM raise over his previous deal after he scored a career-high 56 points last season. It was a much-needed breakout year for Drouin, who found quick comfort playing next to former Halifax Mooseheads teammate Nathan MacKinnon. The duo contributed to a fantastic 97-14-11 record over two years together in Halifax, capping off their tandem with the first Memorial Cup win in Mooseheads history. Their chemistry translated to Colorado, where Drouin spent 940 minutes, or 65 percent of his total ice time, on the ice with MacKinnon.
Drouin was lined up to continue that top-line role this season, but in his absence, it’s instead gone to Ross Colton. Colton’s taken full advantage of the expanded minutes, scoring four goals and five points in his last four games. Meanwhile, Wagner will join a crowded bottom six, set to compete with Matthew Stienburg and Ivan Ivan for a fourth-line role. Both Stienburg and Ivan are playing through the first games of their NHL careers, though neither has been particularly inspiring – with Stienburg going scoreless through two games and Ivan posting one assist in five games. Wagner hasn’t found much production of his own but does offer 375 games of NHL experience and served as Colorado’s de facto call-up last season. He’ll look to return to his role of fourth-line glue guy quickly as the Avalanche look to buck a dismal 1-4-0 start to the season.
Oilers Sign Sam O’Reilly To Entry-Level Deal
The Oilers have signed 2024 first-round pick Sam O’Reilly to a three-year, entry-level contract, per a team release. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
A likely signing bonus in the deal this season will be a nice gift for O’Reilly, who stuck around on the training camp roster longer than most anticipated. The Oilers, who had traded away their first-round pick to the Ducks in last season’s Adam Henrique trade, swung a deal with the Flyers on draft day to move back into the first round at No. 32 overall.
Edmonton then proceeded to make O’Reilly, who doesn’t turn 19 until March, the last pick of the round. The 6’1″ center’s offensive totals didn’t jump off the page in his draft year on a stacked OHL London team, and they’re also not expected to if he cracks the NHL. He projects as a physical depth piece with strong defensive instincts, making him extremely projectable as the Oilers’ No. 3 or No. 4 center in a few years.
A Toronto native, O’Reilly has been slightly underwhelming out of the gate with London this season – as have most of his teammates. However, his two goals and three assists for five points in seven games are only tied for ninth on the team, and his -3 rating is tied for third-worst. It’s still far too early in his post-draft campaign to write him off, though. Allan Mitchell of The Athletic ranked O’Reilly as the No. 2 prospect in the Edmonton pipeline and their best up-and-coming forward piece over the summer. However, he’s been unseated from that role after they acquired 2022 ninth-overall pick Matthew Savoie from the Sabres.
O’Reilly is unlikely to play 10 NHL games this season, so expect his ELC to slide to the 2025-26 season. If he fails to hit 10 NHL GP next year, too, it’s eligible to slide again to 2026-27.
Predators Recall Zachary L’Heureux
The Predators have called up left winger Zachary L’Heureux from AHL Milwaukee, and line rushes indicate he’ll make his NHL debut tomorrow against the Bruins (per 102.5 The Game’s Nick Kieser). Alex Daugherty of the Tennessean was first to report the move, which doesn’t require a corresponding transaction with an open spot on the Preds’ 23-man roster. It appears he’s entering the lineup for Philip Tomasino, who’s headed to the press box after playing just 5:08 against the Red Wings on Saturday.
L’Heureux, 21, was the 27th overall pick in 2021. Most describe the 5’11”, 196-lb forward as an agitator, which might be a contender for hockey’s understatement of the year award. The Montreal native’s games played totals during his time in juniors with the QMJHL’s Moncton Wildcats and Halifax Mooseheads consistently remained low due to multiple lengthy suspensions, and he wound up posting a whopping 197 PIMs in 66 games with Milwaukee last year in his first professional season.
However, that doesn’t take away from the legitimate upside in L’Heureux’s offensive game. After a 19-goal, 48-point regular season, L’Heureux led the AHL postseason in goals with 10 in just 15 games as the Admirals lost the Western Conference Final to Coachella Valley. He also led all rookies in overall scoring with 15 points.
He was also a legitimate scoring threat in juniors, totaling 190 points in 167 career QMJHL games. In February of this year, The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler ranked L’Heureux sixth in Nashville’s prospect pool. He’s not cracking many league-wide Top 75 or Top 100 rankings, but he still carries great upside. He could be legitimately impactful in a fourth-line scenario long-term, even if his offensive game never pops at the NHL level.
L’Heureux is expected to suit up on a line with Michael McCarron and Cole Smith as the Preds look to record their first win of the season tomorrow and make progress in getting out of a 0-5-0 hole.
Devils Reassign Seamus Casey, Recall Daniil Misyul
Devils rookie defenseman Seamus Casey will get some reps in the minors after being sent down to AHL Utica, per a team announcement. 24-year-old Daniil Misyul was recalled in a corresponding transaction and will likely make his NHL debut tomorrow against the Lightning.
Casey, 20, managed to crack New Jersey’s opening night roster on his first try, undoubtedly aided by injuries to Luke Hughes and Brett Pesce. But the 2022 second-round pick took the opportunity and ran with it, posting three goals and an assist with a +2 rating through his first eight contests. He’s been highly sheltered by head coach Sheldon Keefe, averaging under 12 minutes per game. That’s related to some shoddy possession metrics, especially considering his frequent offensive-zone deployment. He’s controlled just 40.4% of shot attempts, far below the team average, with his rating boosted by a sky-high 97.8 oiSV%.
The former Michigan standout is also one of four right-shot defensemen on the Devils roster, and he’s been the one tabbed to play on his off side with Hughes out. That likely offers some explanation for his poor defensive showing thus far, but regardless, some extended time in Utica logging top-four minutes on his natural right side should do wonders for his development in his first professional season. It’s also why they’ve recalled a left-shot defender in Misyul.
Casey, who checks in at 5’10” and 181 lbs, had 15 goals and 59 assists for 74 points in 77 games in NCAA play for the Wolverines over the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons. His offensive dominance helped guide Michigan to the Big 10 championship in 2023 and earned him a spot on the NCAA’s West Region First All-American Team last year.
Misyul has been in New Jersey’s system much longer than Casey, going 70th overall in the 2019 draft. The Belarusian defender came over to North America just last season and is in the final year of his entry-level contract. A physical, stay-at-home talent, Misyul has no points and a -2 rating with 8 PIMs in three games for Utica so far this season. He had 14 points and a +1 rating in 44 appearances for the Comets last year.