Canucks Assign Jett Woo To AHL
The Canucks assigned defenseman Jett Woo to AHL Abbotsford on Sunday, per a team announcement.
Woo, 23, has advanced up the Vancouver depth chart in recent weeks to become a tweener option after spending all of his pro career in the minors. The 2018 second-round pick has been recalled twice this month but has been healthy scratched in every game he’s been rostered for, so he’s yet to make his NHL debut.
He projects as a defensive-minded blue-liner with some decent puck-moving skills, posting 18 points in 44 games with Abbotsford this season. He’s in his fourth professional season after wrapping up his junior career with the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen in 2020.
Woo is signed to a one-year, two-way extension that pays him $775K at the NHL level and $100K in the minors, and he will have arbitration rights if the Canucks extend him a qualifying offer this summer. The Winnipeg native is unlikely to see NHL ice this year unless injuries strike the Canucks’ blue line, as the emergence of Nikita Zadorov and Noah Juulsen as a strong shutdown third pairing has limited opportunities for other depth defenders, such as Mark Friedman, to enter the lineup.
Sending Woo to Abbotsford extends his temporary waiver exemption, as he must clear waivers to return to Abbotsford if he’s on the roster for more than 30 days this season. It also opens one spot on the 23-man roster, which could be used to activate Dakota Joshua or Carson Soucy off IR in the coming days.
East Notes: Johnson, Olofsson, Lajoie, Texier
Sabres defenseman Erik Johnson will dress against the Hurricanes on Sunday night, head coach Don Granato said (via Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald). The 35-year-old missed Friday’s 2-1 road win in Columbus with an illness.
It’s been an underwhelming first season in Buffalo for the 16-year veteran, who signed a one-year, $3.25MM contract when free agency opened on July 1. Signed to provide defensive stability at the bottom of the lineup, he’s averaged a career-low 14:06 per game, save for his injury-shortened 2020-21 campaign. Despite his minimal usage, his possession metrics are among the worst on the team, logging a 46.5 CF% at even strength. He has three goals, no assists, and a -3 rating through 48 games, partially limited by an upper-body injury that cost him Buffalo’s final four games before the All-Star break.
Recent AHL call-up Kale Clague will likely be scratched to make way for Johnson’s return to the lineup. He has one assist and an even rating while averaging 10:21 through a pair of NHL contests this season.
More updates from the Eastern Conference:
- Winger Victor Olofsson will also be available to the Sabres tonight after recovering from an illness that kept him home during their two-game road trip, per Heather Engel of NHL.com. However, he’s projected to serve as a healthy scratch for the 20th time this season. The 28-year-old has just four goals and 12 points in 35 games this year, both pacing out as career lows, and he’s only made five appearances since the beginning of 2024.
- Maple Leafs defenseman Maxime Lajoie is no longer listed on the NHL roster on the league’s media site, indicating he’s been returned to the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, Jonas Siegel of The Athletic relays Sunday. Toronto has ferried Lajoie, 26, in between leagues multiple times over the past few weeks, although this move will likely be longer-lasting. Lajoie last played in Wednesday’s win over the Coyotes, and the Maple Leafs need roster space to reinstate Joseph Woll from LTIR and defenseman Mark Giordano from the non-roster list, both of which should occur over the next week. He’s been a decent reserve option when called upon, recording one assist and a +1 rating in seven games while averaging 12:43.
- Blue Jackets winger Alexandre Texier won’t play Sunday against the Rangers due to illness, Jeff Svoboda of the Blue Jackets’ official site says. As such, 2016 eighth-overall pick Alexander Nylander will make his Blue Jackets debut after being acquired from the Penguins on Thursday. The France-born Texier has only missed two games this season, also due to illness, coming around U.S. Thanksgiving. He has eight goals in 18 points in 54 showings for Columbus after playing last season in the Swiss National League while on personal leave from the club.
Philadelphia Flyers Recall Olle Lycksell
The Philadelphia Flyers have recalled forward Olle Lycksell from their AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, for the third time this season, per a team announcement. In his most recent call-up to Philadelphia, Lycksell skated in four games for the Flyers, tallying two assists.
Although he has been more of a depth forward for Philadelphia this season, Lycksell has been a premier player for the Phantoms in the AHL. Over 38 games in Lehigh Valley this year, Lycksell has been one of the best players on the roster, scoring 18 goals and 32 points, including a two-goal, four-point performance last evening. Currently sitting second on the team in points, Lycksell is still leading the way with the most goals on the team and the highest point-per-game average.
It’s been more of the same for Lycksell at the AHL level, who had a highly productive rookie season in the AHL as recently as last year. In 53 games during his first year in North America, Lycksell put together a 14-goal, 45-point performance. Being a former-sixth-round selection of the Flyers back in the 2017 NHL Draft, they could have found a potential diamond in the rough if Lycksell can keep up this offensive production at the NHL level.
Even though Lehigh Valley is not competing for the Calder Cup this season, it may still be advantageous for the Flyers to keep Lycksell down in the minor leagues for more exposure. Competing for their own hardware this year, Lycksell may not have much opportunity at the NHL level with Philadelphia opting to put forward a more rugged bottom-six.
Devils Recall Akira Schmid, Reassign Isaac Poulter
Feb. 24: New Jersey reversed the transaction today, recalling Schmid and returning Poulter to Utica. Schmid will be rostered for Sunday’s game against the Lightning. Poulter did not play during his recall, backing up Daws, who has started seven straight.
Feb. 21: The Devils swapped their backup netminders Wednesday, assigning Akira Schmid to AHL Utica and recalling Isaac Poulter, per a team release.
Today marks Poulter’s first NHL recall after New Jersey signed the 22-year-old to an entry-level contract last week. The undrafted free agent has been the Devils’ best AHL goalie this year, appearing in 24 of Utica’s 47 games while posting a .908 SV% and a 14-7-1 record with three shutouts.
Poulter is in his second professional season after signing a minor-league deal with Utica in 2022. He played four seasons of junior hockey with the WHL’s Swift Current Broncos from 2018 to 2022, amassing a 35-87-12 record in 137 games behind a struggling squad with a relatively strong .898 SV%.
The struggling Vítek Vaněček remains on IR with a lower-body injury and is listed as day-to-day, so Poulter will back up the 23-year-old Nico Daws when he dresses for his first NHL game tomorrow against the Rangers. New Jersey has enough cap space to absorb Poulter’s $812.5K cap hit with number-one defenseman Dougie Hamilton still on LTIR.
Schmid, 23, dressed for five games as Daws’ backup this month but has not played since being demoted to Utica in December. After a solid postseason performance in 2023, he made the team out of camp as Vaněček’s backup. However, a .893 SV% and 5-7-1 record through 13 starts and two relief appearances meant he fell to third on the Devils’ depth chart with Daws returning from a season-opening hip injury. His numbers have dipped further while on assignment to Utica, posting a .885 SV% and a 3-5-4 record in 12 games.
Coyotes Waive Adam Ružička For Purposes Of Contract Termination
Feb. 24, 1:04 p.m.: Ružička cleared waivers Saturday, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. The Coyotes will now terminate his contract. The NHLPA has 60 days to file a grievance on his behalf.
Feb. 23, 1:09 p.m.: In a statement Friday, the Coyotes confirmed they placed Ružička on unconditional waivers and will terminate his contract if he clears. The team declined to comment on the reasoning.
Feb. 23, 1:04 p.m.: Ružička is on waivers today, Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic confirms. Teams will have 24 hours to issue a claim for the remainder of his $762.5K cap hit deal, which expires this summer. If he passes through unclaimed, he will have his contract terminated by the Coyotes on Saturday.
Feb. 23, 12:41 p.m.: The Coyotes are expected to place forward Adam Ružička on waivers Friday for the purposes of contract termination, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports.
Friedman’s report comes hours after a screen recording began circulating on social media of Ružička’s Instagram story, which showed a video of him next to an unidentified white powdered substance. It is unclear if the video spurred the beginning of the termination process or if this is a mutual termination for Ružička to find other playing opportunities as a UFA.
In 2019, responding to an IIHF suspension handed down to Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov for a positive cocaine test, NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly confirmed that cocaine is “not a Prohibited Substance under the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program.” If the unidentified substance shown with Ružička is cocaine, and he has his contract terminated with Arizona as a result, he will likely not be subject to further discipline by the league based on precedent. Under league policy, cocaine is considered “a drug of abuse that is tested for and for which intervention, evaluation and mandatory treatment can occur in appropriate cases,” Daly said.
Ružička, 24, was claimed off waivers by the Coyotes from the Flames on Jan. 25. Work visa issues and multiple healthy scratches limited him to three appearances in Arizona, in which he recorded no points, a -1 rating, and one shot on goal while averaging 8:17 per game. A fourth-round pick of Calgary in 2017, Ružička has 14 goals, 26 assists, and 40 points in 117 NHL games since his debut in 2021.
Central Notes: Vejmelka, Blackhawks, Landeskog, Jankowski
Coyotes goaltender Karel Vejmelka’s name has come up in trade speculation in each of the last two trade deadlines. It doesn’t appear as if that will be the case this time around as Pierre LeBrun wrote in his latest column for The Athletic (subscription link) that Arizona GM Bill Armstrong doesn’t intend to break up his current tandem of Vejmelka and Connor Ingram. Their netminders have played to a combined .902 SV% this season, a number that’s around the league average which isn’t bad for a rebuilding team. However, Vejmelka’s rate is a career-low .891 so even if Armstrong was looking to move him, Vejmelka’s value wouldn’t be at its highest.
More from the Central Division:
- With the Blackhawks locking up most of their notable pending UFAs to extensions already, Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times posits that their cap space might be their best asset before the March 8th trade deadline. Doing so could allow them to act as a third-party retainer to pick up an extra draft pick while they could also take on a bad contract as they did last season with Nikita Zaitsev to also add draft capital. However, Pope notes that Chicago won’t be willing to take on a contract that runs past next season, similar to Zaitsev last season with his contract set to expire this summer.
- Avalanche winger Gabriel Landeskog has become a regular participant in team skates as he works his way back from a knee cartilage transplant procedure back in January, The Athletic’s Chris Johnston noted on the latest TSN Insider Trading segment. The 31-year-old last played in June 2022 but a return at some point in the playoffs this season hasn’t been ruled out yet. If the team feels that there’s a good chance that he’ll be able to suit up in the postseason, that could affect their trade deadline approach.
- A day after being sent down, Mark Jankowski is back up with the Predators, per the AHL’s transactions log. The 29-year-old is one of the top scorers in the minors this season, notching 47 points in 40 games with Milwaukee while also chipping in with a pair of goals in seven games with Nashville while averaging a little less than 12 minutes a night of playing time.
Kings Place Viktor Arvidsson On LTIR, Recall Jordan Spence
It was less than two weeks ago that the Kings got Viktor Arvidsson back from his back injury. However, after already returning to injured reserve recently, the team has gone a step further, announcing that they’ve transferred him to LTIR for the second time this season. Meanwhile, the Kings also recalled defenseman Jordan Spence from AHL Ontario.
Arvidsson missed the first four months of the season before returning to the lineup on February 15th. The 30-year-old picked up two assists in his first three games but then suffered a lower-body injury on his first shift on Tuesday versus Columbus. The good news is that this injury won’t carry as long of a recovery time as the first one did as he is expected to be back before the end of the regular season. Assuming that the placement was back-dated to the time of injury (their release didn’t specify the effective date), Arvidsson could be eligible to return as soon as March 15th against Chicago.
As for Spence, his recall was needed due to Michael Anderson suffering an upper-body injury on Thursday versus Nashville. The exact timeline for his recovery isn’t known but he has been ruled out for tonight’s game against Anaheim already. That would have put the Kings down to five defenders and they had nowhere near enough cap space to bring Spence up, resulting in them needing to transfer Arvidsson to LTIR to create the short-term cap room.
It’s the fourth recall of the season for Spence, who has spent the majority of the campaign in the NHL. The 22-year-old has played in 44 games so far with Los Angeles, collecting 16 points (all assists) while averaging just shy of 15 minutes a night on the third pairing. Spence has made just one AHL appearance with the Reign which was one Wednesday; he was held out of Ontario’s lineup on Friday with his recall pending.
Maple Leafs Assign Marshall Rifai To AHL
After making his NHL debut earlier this week with a pair of appearances, the Maple Leafs announced (Twitter link) that they have re-assigned defenseman Marshall Rifai to AHL Toronto.
The 25-year-old was brought up earlier in the week to give the Maple Leafs a bit of extra depth on the back end and suited up twice where he had four hits and averaged a little under 12 minutes per contest. Rifai, who is on his first NHL contract after playing on an AHL deal last year, has spent most of the season with the Marlies where he has 11 points and 38 penalty minutes in 34 games.
William Lagesson (injury) and Morgan Rielly (suspension) both returned to Toronto’s lineup on Thursday which pushed Rifai back to the press box. Mark Giordano has also been away from the team for a little more than a week following the death of his father; the timing of this assignment suggests he might be ready to return.
Toronto now has an open roster spot which is notable with Joseph Woll’s LTI conditioning loan set to expire in a few days. With Rifai’s demotion, they could elect to carry three goalies upon Woll’s recall and activation to avoid the risk of having to place Martin Jones on waivers who might be more likely to be claimed this time around.
Lightning Recall Max Crozier, Assign Alex Barre-Boulet To AHL
The Lightning made a pair of roster moves in advance of their game this afternoon against the Islanders, announcing they’ve recalled defenseman Max Crozier from AHL Syracuse. To make room on the roster, winger Alex Barre-Boulet was sent to the Crunch.
Crozier has played in seven games for Tampa Bay this season, all coming last month. The 23-year-old has a pair of assists in those outings along with ten hits and ten blocks while averaging 14:30 per night in his first taste of NHL action. Crozier also has played in 32 games with Syracuse, collecting a goal and seven assists. His recall is likely a precautionary one with Erik Cernak’s status being uncertain for this game having missed Thursday’s contest.
As for Barre-Boulet, his demotion shouldn’t come as much of a surprise after he cleared waivers on Friday. The 26-year-old has six goals and three assists in 36 games with the Lightning so far and has yet to see any action in the minors despite also clearing waivers at the beginning of the season. Barre-Boulet finished second in AHL scoring last season with 84 points in 69 games and will be a big boost to a Syracuse team that enters play today four points out of first in the North Division.
East Notes: Tarasenko, Tomek, Bruins
With the Senators being nowhere close to a playoff spot, pending UFA winger Vladimir Tarasenko sits atop their list of trade chips. However, Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch notes that there is some talk that the 32-year-old might prefer to finish the year in Ottawa. Tarasenko can control his fate as he has a full no-move clause. Sticking with them might allow Tarasenko to play a bit higher in the lineup which certainly doesn’t hurt from a negotiating perspective but at the same time, the potential to go deep in the playoffs and contribute could also help his case for securing a multi-year deal on the open market, something he wasn’t able to do last July, instead settling for a one-year, $5MM pact.
Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference:
- Flyers goalie prospect Matej Tomek has signed a one-year extension with Litvinov of the Czech Extraliga, per a team release. The 26-year-old was a third-round pick (90th overall) back in 2015 but struggled in limited college action, resulting in him heading back overseas in 2019. Since then, Tomek has spent time in both Slovakia and Czechia. This season, he has a 3.00 GAA and a .911 SV% in 31 games with Litvinov. The Flyers hold his rights indefinitely so this extension won’t have any impact on that front.
- A day after recalling defenseman Ian Mitchell and assigning Justin Brazeau to the minors, the Bruins reversed those moves, per the AHL’s transactions log. Brazeau scored in his NHL debut back on Monday after his AHL deal was converted to a two-year NHL pact. Mitchell, meanwhile, has been shuffled back and forth several times this season. He has two assists in 13 NHL games so far while adding 14 points in 22 games with Providence.