Minnesota Wild Activate Mats Zuccarello From Injured Reserve
As alluded to yesterday in recent reports, the Minnesota Wild have officially activated forward Mats Zuccarello off of injured reserve, per a team announcement. Having been injured since December 16th, Zuccarello will likely be in the lineup tomorrow night as the Wild take on the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Before the announcement, Zuccarello was one of five players currently on the injured reserve for Minnesota, with top players such as Kirill Kaprizov and Jared Spurgeon sidelined as well. Even beyond the regular injured reserve, defenseman Jonas Brodin currently finds himself on long-term injured reserve, severely limiting the Wild’s depth over the last couple of weeks.
Specifically with Zuccarello sidelined with an upper-body injury, Minnesota has produced a 4-5-0 record in his absence, with four of those losses coming in their last four games. As the defense and goaltending have held up their end of things, the Wild’s offense has certainly struggled over this stretch, averaging less than three goals a game without Zuccarello.
Even though Zuccarello is largely seen as a complimentary piece next to Kaprizov, he may be tasked with being the focal point of the offense moving forward over the next few games. Impressively, he still sits second on the team in scoring with six goals and 28 points in 28 games, continuing to maintain an elite ability to pass the puck in his age-36 season.
Minnesota still has a difficult path ahead toward a healthy roster, but the addition of Zuccarello back into the lineup should help the team to be more competitive. Luckily for the team, the wild card race in the Western Conference is still relatively tight, as the Wild currently sit five points back of the Seattle Kraken for the final spot, with two games in hand.
Coyotes Recall Justin Kirkland On Emergency Loan
The Arizona Coyotes have used an emergency recall on centerman Justin Kirkland. Kirkland has spent the season with the AHL’s Tuscon Roadrunners, appearing in 12 games and scoring 13 points. This includes 12 assists, a mark that ranks second on the Roadrunners. Arizona operated down a forward in their Thursday loss to the New York Islanders, making them eligible for this emergency recall.
Kirkland’s recall comes in the wake of Jason Zucker‘s suspension, received for a boarding call on Florida’s Nick Cousins. The Coyotes are also facing injuries to both Barrett Hayton and Travis Boyd, a pair that’s managed four points and eight points respectively through 16 games each. Kirkland is unrivaled for the lineup spot left open by these vacancies, setting him up to make his debut with the Coyotes. The 27-year-old centerman’s only experience in the NHL came during a seven-game stint with the Anaheim Ducks last season. He went scoreless through the outings and recorded a -3.
Kirkland was originally drafted in the third round of the 2014 NHL Draft, going 16 picks before Vezina-candidate Ilya Sorokin and 17 picks before star forward Brayden Point. Kirkland has since spent much of his career in the AHL, where he’s totaled 407 career games and 183 career points. His stretch in the league began in the 2016-17 season with the Milwaukee Admirals. Kirkland stayed in Milwaukee until 2019-20 when he joined the Calgary Flames’ affiliate Stockton Heat for three seasons. He then joined Anaheim’s organization last season and Arizona’s this year.
Lightning Expected To Place Mikhail Sergachev On LTIR, Recall Sean Day, Declan Carlile
3:00 PM: The Tampa Bay Lightning are expected to move Mikhail Sergachev to long-term injured reserve.
8:30 AM: The Lightning recalled defensemen Sean Day and Declan Carlile from the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch on Thursday, a team release states. Today’s transaction comes after the Lightning were forced to play their last game, a 4-2 loss to the Jets on Tuesday, with 13 forwards and five defensemen due to an injury to Erik Černák and no salary cap space available for a corresponding recall.
Thus, the Lightning must have made a corresponding transaction to fit Day and Carlile on the active roster. It’s possible the team has transferred defenseman Mikhail Sergachev from standard injured reserve to long-term injured reserve, which would rule him out of the team’s next five games with a lower-body injury. He’s already missed six games and 15 days with the injury, which he sustained in the first period of a December 19 game against the Blues.
Day and Carlile now come up to the Lightning roster to provide reinforcements to a badly bruised blue line without two of its three best players in Černák and Sergachev. This isn’t new territory for Day, 25, who was recalled three times last month to serve as injury insurance but did not appear in a game. The one-time OHL exceptional status nod is in his fourth season with the Lightning organization and has made 17 appearances with Syracuse this year, recording eight assists and a +8 rating. He has not made an NHL appearance since logging a pair of games with the Lightning in the 2021-22 season.
For the 23-year-old Carlile, though, this is a career-first. Signed by the Lightning as an undrafted free agent after completing his junior season at Merrimack College in 2022, the Michigan-born defender earns his first in-season recall in the final year of his two-year, entry-level deal. It’s an important step en route to him potentially earning a qualifying offer at the end of this season and remaining in the Lightning organization.
The 2020 Hockey East All-Rookie Team nominee does his best work in transition, posting solid zone entry denial metrics at the collegiate and AHL levels. He was a monster two-way minutes-muncher for Syracuse last season, recording 24 points in 69 games throughout his first full pro season while posting a team-high +28 rating. His numbers this season (three goals, six assists, nine points, +8 rating in 31 games) aren’t quite as strong, but there’s still reason to believe NHL upside exists in Carlile’s game.
One of Day or Carlile will likely draw into the lineup in a third-pairing role alongside recent call-up Philippe Myers tonight when the Lightning visit the Wild. Day and Carlile are both left-shot defensemen.
Oilers Activate Dylan Holloway, Assign Him To AHL
Oilers forward Dylan Holloway has been cleared to return but he won’t be suiting up in Edmonton for the time being. The team announced that Holloway has been activated off LTIR but he has been assigned to AHL Bakersfield.
The 22-year-old has been limited to just 14 games this season after suffering a knee injury in mid-November. Holloway has also dealt with wrist and shoulder injuries in the past which have certainly slowed down his development.
While in Edmonton’s lineup this season, Holloway struggled offensively as he tallied just one goal while averaging a little over 11 minutes a night. That ATOI is actually an improvement on a year ago when he averaged just 9:35 per contest while notching just nine points in 51 games. For someone who was a first-round pick back in 2020 (14th overall) and was an impactful scorer at Wisconsin, the lack of production has to be some cause for concern.
With that in mind, a stint with the Condors certainly makes some sense. It would allow Holloway to get his skating legs back under him while also playing much higher up the lineup than he would have had he remained with Edmonton. It could also give him an opportunity to play his natural center position after primarily playing on the wing with the Oilers. From a long-term development standpoint, Holloway contributing as a middleman would be a nice outcome for Edmonton but one that they’ll need to be patient for with how much time he has missed already.
Worth noting from a salary cap perspective is that this transaction takes Edmonton out of using LTIR altogether. Accordingly, they’re now in a position to try to bank at least a little bit of cap space between now and the trade deadline, barring further injuries throwing a wrinkle into those plans. If that cap space isn’t used, it would reduce the amount of the carryover penalty from Connor Brown’s games played bonus.
Ducks Place Troy Terry On IR, Activate Isac Lundestrom
Before their game tonight against Toronto, the Ducks announced (Twitter link) multiple injury news. Winger Troy Terry was placed on injured reserve, paving the way for center Isac Lundestrom to be activated from IR. Meanwhile, middleman Ryan Strome is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
Terry missed Sunday’s game with an upper-body injury so it’s likely that the placement will be back-dated to that point, meaning that he could be activated as soon as this weekend, if healthy. The 26-year-old is off to a slower start by his standards, notching nine goals and 13 assists in 35 games; last season, he played in twice as many games while collecting 61 points. Still, Terry sits third on Anaheim in scoring and will be a noticeable absence for however long he’s out.
Lundestrom, meanwhile, will be making his season debut after recovering from a torn Achilles tendon. The 24-year-old was a first-round pick back in 2018 (23rd overall) and looked like he was on his way toward becoming a capable regular after putting up 29 points in 80 games back in 2021-22. However, he struggled offensively last season, collecting just four goals and ten helpers in 61 games. Lundestrom was supposed to miss at least six months from his injury sustained in early August so he is coming back a month ahead of schedule. Considering it’s a contract year and he’ll be owed a $1.8MM qualifying offer with arbitration rights, Lundestrom will be hoping for a big second half of the season.
As for Strome, he is also among Anaheim’s scoring leaders, ranking fourth on the team in total points. The 30-year-old leads the Ducks in assists with 17 and is on pace for his fifth straight season of at least 40 points or more. Benoit-Olivier Groulx will take his place in the lineup, making his first appearance in more than two weeks.
West Notes: Zucker, Geekie, Schwartz, Karlsson
Coyotes winger Jason Zucker is set to have a disciplinary hearing today for his hit on Florida winger Nick Cousins on Tuesday, the league announced. The incident occurred late in the second period with Zucker receiving major penalties for boarding and fighting plus a game misconduct. The 31-year-old is in his first season in the desert after inking a one-year, $5.3MM contract with Arizona in free agency last summer. Zucker, who has no prior fine or suspension history, has six goals and six assists in 29 games so far this season.
More from the Western Conference:
- Still with Arizona, prospect Conor Geekie could be on the move in junior as soon as Thursday, reports Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek (Twitter link). The 19-year-old was the 11th overall pick in 2022 and has been quite productive with WHL Wenatchee, notching 20 goals and 29 assists in just 26 games. Now that his time with the World Juniors has ended following Canada’s elimination, his trade restriction has been eliminated and it appears that little time will be wasted moving him; Swift Current is believed to be his next destination.
- Seattle could be close to getting a key winger back as head coach Dave Hakstol told reporters including Mike Benton of the Kraken Audio Network (Twitter link) that Jaden Schwartz is near a return to the lineup. The 31-year-old has missed a little more than a month with a lower-body injury and is currently on LTIR. Schwartz had gotten off to a nice start to his year with 15 points in 23 games before the injury.
- The Canucks announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled forward Linus Karlsson from AHL Abbotsford. The 24-year-old made his NHL debut earlier this season, getting into three games with Vancouver but has spent the bulk of the year in the minors where he has been quite productive, notching 23 points in 25 games. Vancouver has an open roster spot so no corresponding move needed to be made to bring Karlsson up.
Rangers Recall Brennan Othmann, Tyler Pitlick Week-To-Week With Injury
The New York Rangers have recalled top prospect Brennan Othmann from the AHL. Othmann currently ranks fourth on the Hartford Wolf Pack in scoring and eighth among all AHL rookies with nine goals and 23 points in 28 games. This is the first recall of Othmann’s career after going 16th-overall in the 2021 NHL Draft. He is one of two players from that round to be recalled on Wednesday, with the Los Angeles Kings recalling eighth-overall pick Brandt Clarke. Othmann be looking to become the 16th player from the 2021 First Round to make his NHL debut.
New York also shared that forward Tyler Pitlick is week-to-week with a lower-body injury. This could set up Othmann to make his NHL debut in New York’s Thursday night matchup against the Chicago Blackhawks. Pitlick has three points in 28 appearances this season.
The Rangers signed Othmann to a three-year, $4.1MM entry-level contract in 2021 that is effective from 2023-24 to 2025-26, with the Rangers receiving two entry level slides from Othmann staying in the OHL.
Othmann was traded midway through last year’s OHL season, moving from the Flint Firebirds to the Peterborough Petes. He would go on to serve as the team’s leading scorer through the postseason, netting 25 points in 23 games as Peterborough won the OHL championship and made it to the semifinal game of the 2023 Memorial Cup. Othmann was one of many NHL prospects on the championship-winning Petes lineup, joining Seattle’s Tucker Robertson, Vancouver’s Connor Lockhart, Philadelphia’s J.R. Avon, and New Jersey’s Chase Stillman.
Islanders Place Robert Bortuzzo On IR, Recall Ken Appleby
The New York Islanders are facing a pair of injuries after Robert Bortuzzo and Semyon Varlamov left the team’s Tuesday night matchup early. Bortuzzo has been moved to injured reserve and the team has used an emergency recall on Ken Appleby, with Varlamov expected to miss time.
New York traded for Bortuzzo in early-December amid injuries to Ryan Pulock, Adam Pelech, and Scott Mayfield. And while Pulock and Pelech remain sidelined, Mayfield has returned, continuing the revolving door of injuries to Islanders defensemen. Bortuzzo is the only defender on the team to not record a point yet this year, with the only changes to his stat line being 19 penalty minutes and a -1 across 15 games with the Islanders and Blues.
As if matters couldn’t get worse for the battered Islanders’ back-end, they are now without their dazzling backup goaltender as well. Varlamov has been fantastic in his limited minutes this season, recording a .918 save percentage and 6-4-2 record across 14 appearances. Varlamov has recorded a save percentage above .910 in all four of his previous seasons with the Islanders. He’ll be replaced by Appleby, a nine-year veteran of the minor leagues. Appleby’s only prior NHL experience came in the 2017-18 season, when he appeared in three games with the New Jersey Devils, recording an 0-1 record and allowing three goals on 55 shots. He’s since served as a AHL depth option and ECHL starter, though he’s found his way into the backup role for the AHL’s Bridgeport Sound Tigers this season. Appleby has had a modest showing in the expanded role, setting a 5-5-0 record and .897 save percentage in 11 games.
Devils Recall Graeme Clarke, Timo Meier Out On Wednesday
The New Jersey Devils have recalled Graeme Clarke to the NHL roster and are expected to provide him his NHL debut on Wednesday night. This move comes in the wake of a new injury to Timo Meier, who says he is now dealing with a “mid-body” injury after previously missing seven games due to a lower-body injury. Meier isn’t expected to be out for long, per Devils’ head coach Lindy Ruff, though Meier will sit out of New Jersey’s Wednesday night game.
Meier has appeared in 28 games this year, netting nine goals and 15 points. He still ranks fifth on the team in goals scored despite his absences, though an extended time away from the team is certainly not what the Devils were hoping for when they signed Meier to an eight-year, $70.4MM contract extension this summer. The team also traded away seven assets to get Meier – as well as four depth players – in a blockbuster trade with the San Jose Sharks ahead of last year’s NHL Trade Deadline.
In Meier’s spot slots in Clarke, who has managed 11 goals and 21 points in 27 AHL games this season. His mark ranks second on the Utica Comets in scoring, behind undrafted forward Xavier Parent, who has 22 points. Clarke was drafted by the Devils in the third round of the 2019 NHL Draft and will become the 10th player from that round to play an NHL game if he makes his debut on this recall.
Wednesday is a big day for the Clarke family, as Graeme’s brother Brandt Clarke has also been recalled by the Los Angeles Kings. Brandt has also been a top scorer this year, leading the AHL’s Ontario Reign in scoring with 32 points in 30 games. Brandt is one of the league’s top defense prospects.
Kings Recall Brandt Clarke, Place Tobias Bjornfot On Waivers
The Los Angeles Kings have recalled top defenseman prospect Brandt Clarke and placed Tobias Bjornfot on waivers. Bjornfot has split time between the NHL and AHL this season, appearing in nine minor league games and only one game with the Kings. He has yet to score a point through any of the 10 matchups.
L.A. turns to their AHL team’s leading scorer in defenseman Clarke, who is currently in his first full professional season. The 20-year-old has 32 points in 30 AHL games, adding 30 penalty minutes and a +4. He has yet to play in the NHL this season, although he did receive nine NHL games last year before being sent back to the OHL’s Barrie Colts. Clarke recorded two assists in his first taste of the NHL but is still looking for his first career goal.
Clarke may have to wait to slot into the NHL lineup, though. Bjornfot has served as the team’s seventh defenseman, and no Kings defender has missed more than five games this season. It’s a solid blue-line that’s received plenty of impact in all three zones. Still, L.A. is bringing up a difference-maker in Clarke: the eighth overall selection in the 2021 NHL Draft.
Wednesday marks a special day for the Clarke family, as Brandt’s brother Graeme Clarke has been recalled by the New Jersey Devils as well. Graeme ranks second on his AHL team in scoring, recording 21 points in 27 games with the Utica Comets. The Clarke parents are currently en route to New Jersey from Ottawa to see Graeme make his expected NHL debut, though they may be prime for another road trip with Brandt now with an NHL team on the other coast.