Blue Jackets Sign Max McCue To Entry-Level Deal
2:01 p.m.: The contract carries a cap hit of $858K, per PuckPedia. The deal pays him $775K salary in all three years, a $82.5K signing bonus in 2024-25 and 2025-26 that jumps to $85K in 2026-27, and a minors salary of $82.5K in all three years.
10:37 a.m.: Today marks the first day teams can sign unaffiliated prospects in free agency, and the Blue Jackets are the first team to make a splash. They’ve inked 21-year-old center Max McCue to a three-year entry-level contract that begins in 2024-25, per a team release. Terms were not disclosed.
McCue was a fifth-round pick of the Sharks in 2021, but San Jose lost his exclusive rights after opting not to sign him to an entry-level contract by June 1, 2023. He’s suited up for the OHL’s London Knights since 2019 but lost out on the 2020-21 campaign entirely due to COVID-19, putting a pause on his development.
Still with London as an alternate captain, McCue has set or tied career highs with 24 goals, 26 assists, 50 points, and a +20 rating in 52 games. The 6-foot-1, 174-lb native of Sudbury, Ontario, relies on his speed to generate offense and projects as more of a playmaker than a goal-scorer at the professional level.
McCue has ideal size for the NHL level if he can add more muscle. However, his delayed offensive production in juniors doesn’t bode well for his chances of being a full-time major leaguer.
He’ll likely begin his pro career next season with the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters, although an assignment to the lower-level ECHL isn’t out of the question. Columbus is one of the handful of NHL teams without a dedicated ECHL affiliate.
Columbus now has 32 out of a maximum of 50 standard player contracts signed for next season, so they still have plenty of room to re-sign their pending RFAs and add a few more bodies to the organization in free agency.
Sabres Reassign Tyson Jost, Dustin Tokarski
The Sabres returned center Tyson Jost and goaltender Dustin Tokarski to the AHL’s Rochester Americans on Friday, per a team statement. In doing so, Buffalo is back below the 23-player roster limit after bringing both players up on emergency loans.
Jost, 25, was recalled on Monday amidst fears of an injury to top-line winger Jeff Skinner, who departed practice with an undisclosed injury that required imaging. Skinner didn’t miss any time and played in both of the Sabres’ games this week against the Panthers and Lightning, so Jost did not play for the first time since being waived in late December.
Buffalo had Tokarski join the team in Tampa for precautionary measures while an illness was running through the group, allowing them to have a third goalie on hand in case Eric Comrie or Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen became unavailable. He did not dress for last night’s overtime win, though; only veteran defenseman Erik Johnson could not dress due to illness.
Both players have struggled in the minors after previously holding full-time roles for Buffalo in recent years. Jost had just four points in 29 NHL games with a -7 rating after signing a one-year, $2MM deal to remain in Buffalo last summer, and has three goals and 13 points in 23 games for Rochester since his reassignment. While solid, it’s not the type of production the Sabres were hoping for from a player selected with the 10th overall pick in 2016.
Tokarski has settled firmly into an AHL role after making some noise as Buffalo’s backup goalie a few seasons ago. The 34-year-old Saskatchewan native has a 3.32 GAA, .892 SV%, and 7-7-3 record in 18 games for Rochester and has not seen NHL action this season.
Senators Recall Zack MacEwen, Move Josh Norris To LTIR
10:03 a.m.: Norris has been placed on LTIR, per CapFriendly. The Senators are now cap-compliant.
9:21 a.m.: The Senators recalled right-winger Zack MacEwen from AHL Belleville on Friday, per a team statement. The 27-year-old enforcer had been on a minor-league assignment since clearing waivers over two weeks ago.
Ottawa doesn’t have cap space for any recalls, so a corresponding transaction must be made to accommodate MacEwen. That will likely be moving center Josh Norris, who’s expected to miss “extended time” with an upper-body injury, to long-term injured reserve.
Moving Norris to LTIR rules him out through most of March. If his pending placement is retroactive to the date of the injury, Feb. 27, the earliest he could return would be March 23 against the Devils, satisfying a minimum 24-day absence.
That would cause him to miss Ottawa’s next 11 games. Norris also missed four games in January with an upper-body injury, plus the first three games of the season while he was completing his recovery from shoulder surgery that limited him to eight games last season.
MacEwen returns from Belleville to serve in a fourth-line role for tonight’s game against the Coyotes. The lack of any recalls on defense indicates that Jake Sanderson and Artem Zub, who were questionable with undisclosed and lower-body injuries, respectively, will play.
The Prince Edward Island native has struggled to lock down an everyday role after signing a three-year, $2.325MM deal to join the Sens in free agency. He has two goals, one assist and 46 PIMs in 22 games but has been productive in limited AHL action with five goals and two assists in 10 games for Belleville.
That’s nothing new for MacEwen, who has been a solid point producer in the AHL despite his limited scoring and enforcer role at the major league level. He has 43 goals, 63 assists, and 106 points in 167 minor-league games since turning pro in 2017.
MacEwen’s recall puts the Senators at 21 players on the active roster. With Norris on LTIR, they would have cap space to fill their two vacant slots if they so choose.
Sabres Recall Dustin Tokarski
The Sabres have recalled netminder Dustin Tokarski from the AHL’s Rochester Americans, according to a team announcement Sunday.
It’s unclear why the Sabres added a third goalie to the roster ahead of tonight’s game against the Lightning. Tokarski has joined the team in Tampa Bay, but multiple reports from practice indicate that expected starter Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and backup Eric Comrie are both present.
Additionally, Buffalo does not have an open roster spot. They will need to remove someone from the active roster to recall Tokarski, which will likely come in the form of an injured reserve placement. Defenseman Erik Johnson is not with the team at practice this morning after playing just 3:31 against the Panthers on Tuesday, per WGR Sports Radio 550’s Paul Hamilton.
The 34-year-old Tokarski has been recalled multiple times this season after the Sabres opted to keep top prospect Devon Levi in Rochester for the rest of the year, but he hasn’t seen any NHL action. He’s struggled in the minors this year, posting a 7-7-3 record and .892 SV% behind a strong Rochester team. Levi, in contrast, has a .924 SV% in his 13 AHL showings this year.
Tokarski has mainly served as AHL depth throughout his professional career but did have time as a full-time backup in Buffalo from 2020 to 2022. He’s made 67 starts and 13 relief appearances since making his major-league debut in 2010, compiling a 23-34-12 record, 3.15 GAA, and .902 SV% with Buffalo, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, Anaheim, and Montreal.
Flyers Place Jamie Drysdale On IR, Recall Two
The Flyers have announced multiple roster moves, including recalling defender Ronnie Attard from AHL Lehigh Valley. To open up a spot on the active roster, the team moved Jamie Drysdale to injured reserve. He’s been listed as week to week with an upper-body injury sustained Sunday against the Penguins.
In another pair of moves, the Flyers said they’ve loaned netminder Calvin Petersen to Lehigh Valley and recalled Felix Sandström as starter Samuel Ersson‘s backup. However, this transaction cannot be registered until Petersen clears waivers later today.
The IR placement doesn’t reflect Drysdale’s timeline for a return; it’s solely to create roster space for an additional recall on defense. He’s expected to miss more than the seven days required for an IR stint. Concerns remain that his upper-body injury is related to the torn labrum that sidelined him for nearly all of last season, although the team hasn’t disclosed any specifics.
Drysdale hasn’t exactly been impressive since coming over in a blockbuster swap with the Ducks for top forward prospect Cutter Gauthier early last month, recording four points and a -9 rating in 17 games while averaging 18:37. The 2020 sixth-overall pick still carries high upside, however, and experience logging important minutes down the stretch while the Flyers attempt to secure their first playoff berth in four years would have been beneficial.
The Flyers are slowly losing their grip on third place in the Metropolitan Division, however, and the gap could continue to close between them and the Devils and Capitals as long as leading scorer Travis Konecny remains sidelined with an upper-body injury. They’re expected to deal one or both of their high-end shutdown defense pairing of Nick Seeler and Sean Walker before the March 8 trade deadline, too.
Drysdale missing extended time leaves the Flyers with only one right-shot blue-liner in the lineup in Walker, so it makes sense that Philly would want to summon another righty option to compete for minutes with depth defenders like Marc Staal and Yegor Zamula. In comes the 24-year-old Attard, who leads Phantoms defenders in goals with 10 and has added 15 assists in 46 games, along with a +2 rating.
A third-round pick in 2019, Attard signed his entry-level deal with the Flyers after wrapping up his collegiate career at Western Michigan in 2022 and has since become a top-four fixture for Lehigh Valley. He hasn’t seen NHL action yet this season, although he’ll likely draw into the lineup at some point over their next few games, given head coach John Tortorella’s penchant for rotating his cast of third-pairing defenders.
After representing the United States at the World Championship last year, Attard inked a two-year, $1.7MM deal to remain in Philly after reaching restricted free agency. A two-way deal this year that sees him earn $775K in the NHL and $125K in the minors, it shifts to a one-way deal in 2024-25 and will pay him $925K no matter which league he’s assigned to.
The Flyers hope Sandström can provide a tad more relief for Ersson than Petersen, who struggled with a .864 SV% in his five appearances this season. Sandström’s .880 SV% in 20 games last season doesn’t offer much more optimism, though, nor does his .882 SV% and 3.23 GAA in 20 games for Lehigh Valley this season.
In fact, both Petersen and Sandström have been significantly outplayed by 30-year-old ECHL mainstay Parker Gahagen, who’s played a career-high 14 AHL games for the Phantoms with a 5-6-3 record and .908 SV%. He’s not signed to an NHL contract, however, and can’t be recalled by the Flyers unless that changes.
Dallas Stars Acquire Chris Tanev From Calgary Flames
The Dallas Stars have acquired defenseman Chris Tanev from the Calgary Flames, and goaltender Cole Brady from the New Jersey Devils, per a team announcement. The Stars will send defensive prospect Artyom Grushnikov, a 2024 second-round pick, and a conditional 2026 third-round pick back to Calgary. Dallas has also sent a 2026 fourth-round pick to the Devils for their part in retaining 50% of Tanev’s salary for the remainder of the 2023-24 season.
As the Flames also retained 50% of Tanev’s contract, that brings his AAV down to just $1.125MM for the Stars. As far as the conditions on the conditional third-round pick headed to Calgary, the Flames will only receive this pick if Dallas makes it to the 2024 Stanley Cup Final.
With Tanev now in the fold, this gives Dallas a formidable top-four of their defensive unit with Miro Heiskanen, Thomas Harley, and Esa Lindell also in the mix. As Tanev was previously one of the grittier defensemen on this year’s trade market, he will make the Stars much more difficult to play against leading into the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs.
In the last season of a four-year, $18MM contract signed with the Flames organization, Tanev has averaged over 20 minutes a night in Calgary during his tenure. In 259 games played with the Flames, Tanev has scored a total of 10 goals and 67 points during his tenure in Alberta. 
Nevertheless, the Stars undoubtedly targeted Tanev due to his defensive prowess, as he averaged close to a 90.0 on-ice save percentage in all situations over his career. Aside from carrying solid defensive awareness, Tanev has also averaged more than 100 blocked shots each season, and he will become the new leader in that category in Texas with 171 already this year.
Currently, in a backup role at the University of Massachusetts, Brady was brought to the Devils organization as a fifth-round selection in the 2019 NHL Draft. In now his fourth season in the NCAA, Brady has played in a total of 46 games for Massachusetts and Arizona State, earning a 16-18-4 record with a .902 SV%.
In return to Calgary, Grushnikov was originally drafted 48th overall by the Stars in the 2021 NHL Draft. In his first full season in the American Hockey League, he has played in 44 games for Dallas’ AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars, scoring one goal and five points overall. Nevertheless, Grushnikov does have solid defensive awareness like Tanev and can frustrate opposing players in his zone.
By adding the second-round selection and the conditional third-round pick, the Flames now have a total of 24 draft picks available to them in the next three NHL Drafts. Intent on rebuilding the team through the draft to supplement their core, General Manager Craig Conroy continues to stockpile picks through his trades this season to do just that.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports images.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report the deal.
The Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli was the first to report the return to Calgary.
The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun was the first to report the full return to Calgary.
Seravalli was the first to report New Jersey’s involvement in the trade.
Philadelphia Flyers’ Cal Petersen Clears Waivers
2/29: Petersen has cleared waivers, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
2/28: The Flyers placed netminder Cal Petersen on waivers Wednesday, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
It’s been a tumultuous first season in Philadelphia for Petersen, who failed to make the Flyers out of camp but shuffled frequently between leagues in November and December with then-starter Carter Hart battling illness and injuries. He’s been rostered as the backup to Samuel Ersson over the past month after Hart took leave from the team to surrender to London, Ontario, police in connection with sexual assault charges against him and four other members of the 2018 Canadian national junior team.
This is Petersen’s second time on waivers this season, passing through unclaimed at the beginning of October when the Flyers assigned him to AHL Lehigh Valley to start the season. The 29-year-old once looked like the goalie of the future for the Kings, but they were forced to trade him, and his $5MM cap hit to Philadelphia last summer to clear cap space after a disastrous showing last year that saw him sent to the minors a few months into the season.
Things haven’t changed for Petersen in the City of Brotherly Love, as he’s been borderline unplayable through four starts and one relief appearance. While he has a 2-2-0 record, he’s posted a .864 SV% and 3.90 GAA, slightly worse than last year’s numbers with Los Angeles that got him demoted for the first time since 2020. His last appearance was Sunday’s 7-6 loss to the Penguins, in which he allowed all seven goals on 32 shots.
As such, he’s nearly guaranteed to pass through waivers again. The Flyers can give him a non-roster designation over the next 24 hours if they need a roster spot, otherwise, he can be assigned to Lehigh Valley and his cap hit can be reduced to $3.85MM after 1 p.m. CT tomorrow.
Sharks Place Mackenzie Blackwood On Injured Reserve
3:09 p.m.: Blackwood is expected to miss between seven and 15 days with the injury, Sharks coach David Quinn said Wednesday (via Max Miller of The Hockey News).
12:48 p.m.: Before tomorrow’s game against the Ducks, the Sharks placed goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood on injured reserve with an undisclosed injury. Magnus Chrona was called up from AHL San Jose in a corresponding move to give starter Kaapo Kähkönen his backup for the next few games.
Blackwood will not be available for the Sharks’ weekend back-to-back against the Wild and Stars. He can be activated before Tuesday’s game against Dallas at the earliest, although it’s unclear how much time he’ll miss. He left yesterday’s loss to the Devils in the first period after catching a shot in the midsection from a New Jersey player (video link).
In his first season with the Sharks, Blackwood has posted a 9-18-3 record with one shutout over 32 starts and three relief appearances, recording a .899 SV%. It’s been a nice bounceback season for the 27-year-old, who signed a two-year, $4.7MM deal with the Sharks last summer after they acquired his signing rights from the Devils for a 2023 sixth-round pick.
The 2015 second-round pick has saved 2.6 goals above expected in all situations, per MoneyPuck, his first season in the black since he finished sixth in Calder voting with New Jersey in 2019-20. He’s done so while facing 34.5 shots per 60 minutes, the most of any starter in the league.
Despite starting eight fewer games, Kähkönen has put up slightly better numbers with a .901 SV% and 4.1 goals saved above expected in 28 appearances. Slated for UFA status this summer and carrying a reasonable $2.75MM cap hit, he could be on the move at the deadline as an attractive option for teams looking for more affordable goalie help. If Blackwood will miss extended time past his minimum seven-day IR stint, however, that could dissuade the Sharks from moving Kähkönen unless they can get an NHL-capable goalie to carry them down the stretch.
That’s because the 23-year-old Chrona has struggled in his limited NHL minutes this season, conceding eight goals on just 29 shots across one start and one relief appearance. While still a promising prospect, he’s not ready for the major-league level, and the Sharks would prefer to keep him in the AHL as much as possible.
West Notes: Lankinen, Kempe, Pouliot
During media availability today, the General Manager of the Nashville Predators, Barry Trotz, mentioned that the team has received trade calls on backup goaltender Kevin Lankinen (X Link). This announcement now confirms that both Nashville goaltenders are receiving trade interest, as some viable playoff candidates remain interested in Juuse Saros, as well.
In his second season within the Predators organization, Lankinen has continued to be a serviceable backup option for the team, producing an 8-4-0 record in 17 games played, coupled with a .892 SV% and 3.23 GAA. For any acquiring team, it is more than unlikely that Lankinen will become a serviceable starting option, although he has been required to play nearly half the season earlier in his career with the Chicago Blackhawks.
Fortunately, if Nashville ends up moving either goalie in their current tandem at this year’s deadline, Yaroslav Askarov appears ready to make the full-time jump to the NHL. Currently rostered on the Milwaukee Admirals, Askarov holds a 21-7-1 record, a .920 SV%, 2.11 GAA, as well as riding a current 19-game winning streak in the American Hockey League.
Other West notes:
- TSN’s Darren Dreger is reporting that Los Angeles Kings forward Adrian Kempe is returning to California to receive an MRI. Although the Kings have not performed as well as initially expected this season, the team still sits in the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference. With Kempe being the team’s leading scorer at this point in the year, and the recent injury to forward Viktor Arvidsson, Los Angeles may be an active team at the deadline in acquiring a top-six forward.
- The Dallas Stars have loaned defenseman Derrick Pouliot to their AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars, per a team announcement. Taking part in a critical game against the Colorado Avalanche tonight, the loan of Pouliot means that either Nils Lundkvist or Jani Hakanpaa are ready to return to the lineup tonight. In five games with the Stars since February 19th, Pouliot has failed to score a point while averaging a touch over 12 minutes of ice time per night.
West Notes: Seguin, Ferraro, Duclair, Afanasyev
Stars center Tyler Seguin missed Saturday’s game with a lower-body injury and he’ll be out for at least a little while longer as Lia Assimakopoulos of the Dallas Morning News relays that Seguin is listed as out week to week. Head coach Peter DeBoer noted that he has been dealing with a lingering injury that hasn’t been getting better and actually got worse after his last game back on Thursday. The 32-year-old is in the middle of his best offensive season in a little while with 45 points through 58 games; his 0.78 points-per-game average is his best since 2018-19. If Dallas believes Seguin will miss at least 10 games and 24, he could be shifted to LTIR to give them some short-term salary cap flexibility.
Elsewhere in the Western Conference:
- Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro has been a speculative trade candidate. He’s not a typical rental player who moves at this time of year as he’s signed through 2025-26 at a reasonable $3.25MM price tag which would be appealing to several teams. However, his agent Peter Wallen told San Jose Hockey Now’s Sheng Peng that GM Mike Grier informed him that Ferraro is not actively being shopped. The 25-year-old is fifth in the NHL in blocked shots so far with 151 in 52 games.
- Still with San Jose, winger Anthony Duclair told Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News (Twitter link) that there have been no discussions about a possible extension with the Sharks. Duclair, who represents himself in negotiations, is a pending unrestricted free agent and it’s reasonable to infer that if a new contract isn’t in place by the March 8th trade deadline, he’d be a likely candidate to be traded. Duclair is having a down year after putting up 31 goals with Florida last season as he has just 11 goals and eight assists in 59 games.
- The Predators announced that they’ve returned winger Egor Afanasyev to AHL Milwaukee. The 23-year-old was recalled two weeks ago but didn’t see much game action with Nashville, suiting up just twice where he was held off the scoresheet. Afanasyev has been quite productive with the Admirals, however, collecting 21 goals and 21 assists through 42 games so far this season.