Golden Knights Recall Two From AHL, Place Tobias Bjornfot On IR
Vegas has made a pair of roster moves in advance of their game tonight against Calgary, announcing (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled center Byron Froese and goaltender Isaiah Saville from AHL Henderson. To make room on the roster, defenseman Tobias Bjornfot has been placed on IR.
Froese is in his second season with Vegas after signing a two-year, two-way deal for the league minimum in free agency back in 2022. The 33-year-old got into nine games with the Golden Knights last season where he had a pair of points but has played exclusively with the Silver Knights this year, collecting six goals and six assists in 33 games. Froese has 125 NHL appearances under his belt, many of which have been in a fourth line depth role which is the one he’s likely to fill if he sees any game action. Jack Eichel didn’t take part in the game day skate so it appears Froese’s recall is to hedge against Eichel not being available.
As for Saville, he was just sent back down yesterday and has been shuffled back and forth recently due to the uncertain availability of both Adin Hill and Jiri Patera. The 23-year-old has missed the bulk of the campaign after starting the year on season-opening IR, limiting him to seven appearances with Henderson where he has a 2.52 GAA and a .914 SV%.
Bjornfot, meanwhile, was claimed off waivers from Los Angeles earlier this month. Since then, the 22-year-old has played in a pair of games, bringing his season total to three as he has spent the bulk of the year in a reserve role. There’s no word yet on the nature of the injury and how long he might be out of the lineup. Between IR and LTIR, Vegas now has eight players on injured reserve.
Wild Activate Filip Gustavsson, Assign Jesper Wallstedt To AHL
The Wild will be welcoming back their starting goalie for tonight’s game against Minnesota as the team announced (Twitter link) that Filip Gustavsson has been activated off injured reserve. To make room for him on the roster, Jesper Wallstedt has been returned to AHL Iowa.
Gustavsson has been dealing with a lower-body injury that has kept him out of the lineup for the last two weeks. Before that, he had struggled somewhat relative to last year’s breakout performance. While his .903 SV% is above the league average, it’s a steep drop from the .931 mark he posted in 2022-23. With Marc-Andre Fleury also struggling as of late having only recorded a save percentage above .900 in one of his last six starts, Gustavsson will likely get a chance to play significant minutes fairly quickly as Minnesota looks to keep within striking distance of a Wild Card spot.
As for Wallstedt, Minnesota’s top goalie prospect got a rough introduction to the NHL earlier this week, allowing seven goals on 34 shots to Dallas on Wednesday. However, the 2021 first-rounder has fared quite well with Iowa this season, posting a 2.54 GAA and a .917 SV% in 20 games with them. With Fleury’s contract up at the end of the season, Wallstedt could become the full-time backup in Minnesota before long so getting him back in the minors to maximize his playing time is certainly ideal.
Canadiens Recall Joshua Roy
Following their AHL affiliate’s contest last night, the Canadiens announced that they’ve recalled winger Joshua Roy from Laval. The team had an open roster spot following Thursday’s demotion of Emil Heineman.
The 20-year-old fell to the fifth round in 2021, going 150th overall. However, since being drafted, he was quite a productive player at the major junior level, recording 97 goals and 121 assists in 121 games with QMJHL Sherbrooke in his final two years. Roy added 47 points in 25 playoff appearances over that same stretch. He also played for Canada in two World Junior tournaments, notching eight goals and 11 helpers in 14 contests in those events.
Roy has carried over that production to the AHL level in 2023-24, sitting second on Laval in scoring with 12 goals and 18 assists in 34 games. His 30 points put him third among all rookies in the AHL this season.
Montreal’s offense sits near the bottom of the pack in the NHL this season as they enter play tonight ranking 26th in that department. With the Canadiens down several key forwards including Kirby Dach, Alex Newhook, Christian Dvorak, and Tanner Pearson, Roy should get a chance to play an offensive role with them fairly quickly.
Jets Notes: Dillon, DeMelo, Ehlers, Kupari
Veteran blueliners Brenden Dillon and Dylan DeMelo are among the Jets players set to hit unrestricted free agency this summer. However, speaking with reporters yesterday including Murat Ates of The Athletic (subscription link), GM Kevin Cheveldayoff indicated that the team has had discussions with the agents for both players although he declined to say if those talks are currently ongoing.
Dillon is in his third season with the Jets after being acquired from San Jose, a move that has worked out well for the 33-year-old who has logged steady minutes on the second pairing while providing plenty of physicality and shot-blocking for several years now. With a $3.5MM cap hit, he’s likely to get an increase on that with a multi-year agreement.
As for DeMelo, the 30-year-old is in his fifth year with the team and is playing out the final season of a four-year, $12MM extension to avoid testing the open market back in 2020. He has seen his playing time jump to nearly 22 minutes a night this season which gives him some extra leverage, especially after putting up a career-high 27 points last year. Like Dillon, he’s in line for a raise and a multi-year deal as well. With both players being key pieces on the back end, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Cheveldayoff try to get a deal worked out with at least one of them before the trade deadline.
More from Winnipeg:
- Winger Nikolaj Ehlers left practice today with an upper-body injury, relays Scott Billeck of the Winnipeg Sun (Twitter link). His early exit is believed to be precautionary. Ehlers has battled injury issues over the last couple of seasons but has been healthy and productive in the first half of this season, notching 15 goals and 18 assists in his first 41 games.
- The team announced (Twitter link) that center Rasmus Kupari has been recalled from his conditioning loan with AHL Manitoba. Winnipeg sent the 23-year-old down to the Moose back on Tuesday to get him some game action after missing more than six weeks with a shoulder injury. He only suited up once on assignment – one that could have lasted for two weeks – and was held off the scoresheet. Kupari came to the Jets as part of the Pierre-Luc Dubois trade but he struggled considerably offensively before being injured, notching just one assist in 15 games.
West Notes: Oettinger, Jones, Emberson, Saville
The Stars welcomed back a key player tonight with the team announcing (Twitter link) that Jake Oettinger was getting the start against Nashville. The 25-year-old missed the last four weeks with a lower-body injury, forcing Scott Wedgewood to take on the interim starting role in his absence, a role Wedgewood had some success in. Oettinger had a career year last season with a 2.37 GAA and a .919 SV%, earning him a top-five spot in Vezina Trophy voting but hasn’t had quite the same success this season with those numbers checking in at 2.93 and .901 respectively heading into Friday’s action. If he can get back to being a top netminder in the second half, that could give Dallas a big lift as they jockey for seeding in the Central Division.
More from the Western Conference:
- Blackhawks blueliner Seth Jones was a full participant in practice today for the first time since suffering a shoulder injury just over a month ago, notes Charlie Roumeliotis of NBC Sports Chicago. The original diagnosis was that he’d miss two weeks but further testing doubled that timeline. Jones, who has 11 points – all assists – in 27 games this season, is hoping to be cleared to return to Chicago’s lineup tomorrow against Dallas.
- Sharks defenseman Ty Emberson has returned to San Jose for further evaluation, relays Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now (Twitter link). The 23-year-old is dealing with an upper-body injury that has caused him to miss last night’s victory over Montreal, joining Matt Benning and Jacob MacDonald as blueliners currently out of the lineup. Emberson is currently considered as out week-to-week so he’ll likely land on injured reserve shortly, opening up a spot for Logan Couture whose return is getting closer.
- The Golden Knights announced (Twitter link) that they returned goaltender Isaiah Saville to AHL Henderson. The 23-year-old was recalled recently after Adin Hill was unable to dress for Thursday’s game due to an undisclosed injury. Saville has battled injuries himself this season and has been limited to seven games with the Silver Knights where he has a 2.52 GAA and a .914 SV%.
Pyotr Kochetkov In Concussion Protocol; Hurricanes Recall Yaniv Perets
The Hurricanes will be without another goalie for the foreseeable future as the team announced that Pyotr Kochetkov is in concussion protocol, meaning he is out indefinitely. In a subsequent move, the team announced the recall of Yaniv Perets from ECHL Norfolk.
Kochetkov suffered the concussion in last night’s game against Anaheim, leaving in the second period. The timing of it certainly isn’t ideal as the 24-year-old was in the midst of a nice run, posting a .924 SV% in his last ten games, giving Carolina some much-needed stability between the pipes. He joins Frederik Andersen (blood clots) as netminders who are out of the lineup.
This means that veteran Antti Raanta will take over the number one role for the time being. It has been a rough year for the 34-year-old as his early struggles eventually resulted in him passing through waivers unclaimed last month before being recalled after two AHL games. Raanta has a 3.27 GAA with a save percentage of just .862 in 17 games this season.
He’ll be joined by Perets, the only recallable option the Hurricanes have. The 23-year-old is in his first professional season after a stellar college career with Quinnipiac where he had a 1.34 GAA and a .935 SV% over three seasons with them. This season, he has played exclusively in the ECHL (since Carolina doesn’t have a direct AHL affiliate), posting a 2.62 GAA with a .906 SV% in 15 games.
The Hurricanes have been speculatively linked to a handful of goaltenders in recent weeks but with Kochetkov playing well lately, that speculation had started to cool off. However, if the young netminder is set to miss extended time, GM Don Waddell may have no choice but to seriously explore what options might be out there.
Rangers Recall Anton Blidh
The Rangers recalled winger Anton Blidh from AHL Hartford today, per a team release. His recall guarantees the Rangers will have 12 healthy forwards for tomorrow’s tilt against the Capitals.
This is the second time the Rangers have had to dip into their minor-league forward depth this week. They recalled Jake Leschyshyn, who made his season debut in yesterday’s loss to the Blues, in order to allow 2021 first-round pick Brennan Othmann to return to the minors after making his NHL debut earlier this month.
Now, with the status of top-line center Mika Zibanejad uncertain for tomorrow due to illness, Blidh could make his 2023-24 debut in a fourth-line role. Zibanejad was a late scratch against the Blues, forcing the Rangers to dress Zachary Jones as a seventh defenseman – obviously not a lineup configuration that bench boss Peter Laviolette prefers.
Blidh, 28, is a grinder who’s appeared in NHL games in every season dating back to 2016-17, although exclusively in limited roles. The Rangers acquired him at last season’s trade deadline in a minor-league swap with the Avalanche, later signing him to a two-year, two-way extension before free agency opened. Through 29 games with Hartford, Blidh has four goals and five points for nine assists and a +8 rating. In 14 NHL games with Colorado last season, he went pointless in 14 contests and averaged just 6:35 per game.
Senators Recall Mads Søgaard, Anton Forsberg Likely Headed To LTIR
The Senators recalled top organizational goalie prospect Mads Søgaard from AHL Belleville today, a team release states. As Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch points out, this is likely a precursor to number-two netminder Anton Forsberg being placed on long-term injured reserve, as the Senators would otherwise not have the cap space available to execute the transaction.
Forsberg, 31, left last night’s loss against the Sabres late in the first period with a groin injury and did not return. Head coach Jacques Martin told TSN 1200 this morning that Forsberg’s absence was not expected to be short-term, although he did receive an MRI today to determine the extent of the injury and, correspondingly, a recovery timeline.
It’s been a tough season for Ottawa’s goalie tandem of Forsberg and Joonas Korpisalo, but more so for Forsberg. After missing the last 32 games of the 2022-23 season with a freak double MCL tear, the Swede was looking to re-establish himself after proving he could be a capable NHL option since joining the Sens in 2020.
Instead, he and Korpisalo have been among the ten worst goalies in the league this season. Korpisalo has allowed the third most goals above expected with 9.5, per MoneyPuck, trailing only the Maple Leafs’ Ilya Samsonov and the Devils’ Vítek Vaněček. Forsberg is seventh on the list with 7.9 goals allowed above expected, despite playing in 16 games compared to Korpisalo’s 26. His box stats read out as a 7-8-0 record, .889 SV%, 3.35 GAA, and one shutout.
An LTIR placement rules Forsberg out through the All-Star break in early February. He would be eligible to return to action for the team’s February 10 home game against Toronto.
That means the 23-year-old Søgaard is in for a month-long stint on the NHL roster, his longest of the season. The 6-foot-7 Dane had been recalled on two occasions this year to serve as short-term injury insurance but has not appeared in an NHL game since playing in 19 of them last season. In his first example of extended NHL action, Ottawa’s 2019 second-round pick posted an 8-6-3 record and .889 SV% being an injury-depleted team at the tail end of the campaign.
This season in Belleville, Søgaard’s numbers are pristine. His .920 SV% in 16 games is tied for sixth among AHL netminders with at least ten appearances, and it’s a significant leap forward from his pedestrian numbers in his first two full professional seasons. Carrying that momentum forward into some appearances with Ottawa could help him steal the lion’s share of the starts away from Korpisalo, at least until Forsberg returns.
Blues Activate Justin Faulk, Assign Jakub Vrána To AHL
The Blues activated Justin Faulk from injured reserve on Friday afternoon, per a team announcement. To remain compliant with the 23-player limit on the active roster, the team returned winger Jakub Vrána to AHL Springfield in a corresponding transaction.
Faulk, 31, will likely play tomorrow against the Bruins. He missed the last five games and 13 days with a lower-body injury, during which span the Blues went 3-2-0 and stayed in the hunt for a Wild Card spot in the Western Conference.
With today being the halfway point of the 2023-24 NHL schedule, Faulk is coincidentally at the exact halfway mark of the seven-year, $45.5MM extension he signed with the Blues that began in the 2020-21 season. He’s in his fifth season as a Blue since coming over from the Hurricanes in a late-2019 offseason trade, accumulating 41 goals, 114 assists, 155 points, and a 48.3% expected goals share at even strength, per Hockey Reference, in 318 games.
This season has been average for Faulk’s standards. Playing in 35 straight games to start the season before sustaining the injury late last month, Faulk had scored twice and added 15 assists for 17 points, or 0.49 points per game. That’s just north of his 0.47 career points per game mark. He’s again shouldered heavy minutes with average shot quality control metrics, averaging 22:25 per game while controlling 49% of expected goals at even strength, according to Hockey Reference data.
He’s most commonly factored in on a pairing with Torey Krug this season, which has been a mainstay since the latter joined the Blues in free agency in 2020. Their 537 minutes together is the 12th most of any defensive pairing this season, per MoneyPuck. That means 23-year-old call-up Matthew Kessel, who’s played in five straight games alongside Krug in Faulk’s absence, will likely be a healthy scratch against Krug’s former team this weekend.
Notably, though, the Blues chose to keep Kessel on the active roster instead of returning him to Springfield with Faulk back in the lineup. The 2020 fifth-round pick is still waiver-exempt, so there’s no risk of losing him on the wire by keeping him around as a healthy scratch. The 6-foot-3, 203-pound right-shot blueliner is still looking for his first NHL point but posted decent possession metrics in a small sample alongside Krug, averaging 17:34 per game. Nearly all those minutes game at even strength, as Kessel saw less than a minute combined of ice time on the power play and penalty kill during his stint in the lineup.
Heading down to the minors instead is Vrána, who does not yet need waivers again after he cleared them nearly one month ago. The 27-year-old posted over a point per game in Springfield after being sent down, including scoring four times in his last five games before the Blues summoned him back to the roster eight days ago.
Unfortunately, the 2014 first-round pick was unable to convert that momentum into regaining a full-time NHL role. He played two games during his callup, the latter of which was a poor performance in a 5-1 loss to the Panthers on Tuesday that saw him post a -3 rating in just over ten minutes of ice time. Interim head coach Drew Bannister scratched Vrána in yesterday’s 5-2 win over the Metropolitan Division-leading Rangers, allowing Sammy Blais to re-enter the lineup against his former team.
Vrána is in the final season of a three-year, $15.75MM contract carrying a $5.25MM signed with the Red Wings following an arbitration filing in 2021. The Blues only have him at a $2.625MM cap hit after trading for him with 50% salary retention by Detroit, but that still exceeds this season’s buried threshold of $1.15MM. Thus, the Blues are still on the hook for $1.475MM against the cap when Vrána is stashed in the minors.
Blackhawks Sign Nick Foligno To Two-Year Extension
The Chicago Blackhawks have announced that they’ve signed veteran forward Nick Foligno to a two-year extension worth a total of $9MM. Foligno was acquired by Chicago from the Boston Bruins last June alongside Taylor Hall in a move that saw Ian Mitchell and Alec Regula go the other way. After the trade, The Buffalo, New York native was promptly signed to a one-year extension for $4MM.
Foligno was a first-round draft pick of the Ottawa Senators back in 2006 (28th overall) and is a veteran of 1,120 career NHL games in which he has posted 223 goals and 319 assists.
He has been a steady presence for the Blackhawks this season in what has been a tumultuous year for the team both on and off the ice. In 39 games with Chicago, the 36-year-old has eight goals and nine assists and has provided his usual physicality and steady defensive work.
Chicago has struggled to ice a healthy lineup in recent weeks as their forward ranks have been decimated by injuries. Foligno is currently on the injured reserve with a fractured left finger but that didn’t stop the Blackhawks from locking him up for the next two seasons.
The Blackhawks have a relatively blank slate when it comes to NHL contracts beyond the 2024-25 season. With Foligno’s extension, he becomes one of only three players signed to a one-way NHL contract for the 2025-26 season alongside Seth Jones and Connor Murphy. The new deal is a bit of an overpay but given Chicago’s lack of long-term commitments and the value Foligno’s experience will provide, they likely aren’t too worried about a short-term mid-tier contract.