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Devils Place Cody Glass On IR, Activate Juho Lammikko

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The New Jersey Devils will have some notable center depth missing for the next little while. The Devils announced that they’ve placed center Cody Glass on injured reserve with a lower-body injury, and have activated Juho Lammikko in a corresponding roster move.

Although they didn’t mention it in the announcement, Glass’s placement on the IR is likely retroactive to October 21st, the last time he played, making him eligible for activation tomorrow. Before succumbing to the lower-body ailment, he scored two goals in six games and averaged a 40.3% success rate in the faceoff dot on the team’s third line.

Despite the low faceoff success, Glass has been relatively solid for New Jersey’s possession play and on the defensive side of the puck. Regardless, the team is off to an excellent start, winning with and without Glass.

Replacing Glass in the lineup will be Lammikko, who was placed on the IR last week to create space for Stefan Noesen’s activation. Tonight’s game against the Colorado Avalanche will be Lammikko’s first NHL appearance since the 2021-22 campaign, when he scored seven goals and 15 points in 75 games for the Vancouver Canucks. He’s spent the last few years overseas with the NL’s ZSC Lions.

Although it’s well known that the Devils have an excellent team when healthy, the third-line center position could be an area for an upgrade around the trade deadline. New Jersey already has one of the best combinations in their top six with Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier, and a prominent third-line center could put them over the top.

Bruins To Activate Hampus Lindholm, Reassign Michael Callahan

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The Boston Bruins will have most of their defensive core intact for their upcoming contest tonight. According to Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald, the Bruins have activated Hampus Lindholm and assigned Michael Callahan to the AHL’s Providence Bruins in a corresponding roster move.

Lindholm has already missed eight games for Boston this season due to a lower-body injury. He originally suffered the injury against the Chicago Blackhawks on October 9th, leaving the game after only 4:26 of ice time. He has been skating with the team regularly since and managed a full game against the Colorado Avalanche on October 18th, but has had some lingering concerns since.

Still, considering his injury history from last year, the Bruins are likely being extremely cautious with Lindholm’s health. After scoring 13 goals and 79 points in 153 games with a +67 rating with Boston from 2022 to 2024, a fractured patella limited him to only 17 contests during the 2024-25 campaign.

The fact that he’s already missed eight games should be concerning. He’s been relatively unnoticeable in the three games he has played in, going scoreless with two shots on goal. His possession and defensive metrics have been particularly poor, managing a 34.2% CorsiFor% at even strength, and an 85.0% on-ice SV% at even strength.

Meanwhile, Callahan returns to Providence after three games with Boston. Like Lindholm, he went scoreless while averaging 16:27 of ice time, but managed much better possession metrics. Callahan was originally recalled when the Bruins placed Jordan Harris on IR, meaning Jonathan Aspirot will retain his spot on the roster for the time being.

Sharks Recall Patrick Giles, Place Nick Leddy On IR

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The Sharks announced Tuesday they’ve recalled center Patrick Giles from AHL San Jose. Defenseman Nick Leddy was placed on injured reserve retroactive to Oct. 23 to open up a roster spot.

Giles’ recall comes after fellow middleman Adam Gaudette left Sunday’s overtime win over the Wild due to an upper-body injury. Gaudette was not at today’s practice and could miss a longer stretch than just a few days, but the Sharks will know more tomorrow after his evaluation is complete, Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now relays.

San Jose was rostering 13 forwards and eight defensemen as it has for much of the year, so Giles comes up to give them an extra forward if they need one for however long Gaudette is unavailable. Giles was the lone piece that came back from the Panthers for goaltender Vítek Vaněček at last season’s trade deadline. The 25-year-old pivot spent the rest of March on the NHL roster before being returned to the AHL for the last couple of weeks of the season. Giles, waiver-eligible for the first time in 2025-26, then landed on the wire during training camp to complete the process of him being cut and reassigned to the minors.

An undrafted free agent signing by Florida out of Boston College back in 2022, Giles made his NHL debut last season. He made 17 appearances split between the Panthers and Sharks, scoring his first NHL goal and posting a minus-three rating while averaging 9:14 of ice time per game. The Maryland native brought some size (6’4″, 205 lbs) and physicality to both clubs’ fourth line, but doesn’t offer much upside beyond that. He struggled in the faceoff dot, winning only 34% of his draws, and only controlled 41.4% of shot attempts at 5-on-5. He saw some fringe penalty-killing deployment with San Jose down the stretch, though.

If Giles’ services are needed in the next several days, they’ll likely insert him as a fourth-line center and bump Ty Dellandrea, who has four assists through nine games, up into a top-nine role if needed. He’s off to a promising enough start in the minors, registering a goal and an assist through four appearances for the Barracuda, but his lack of offensive utility in the pros so far limits the minutes he’ll get.

Leddy has already missed two games with the upper-body injury he sustained early in their game against the Rangers last Thursday. The IR placement rules him out for their next two games but his absence shouldn’t last much longer than that. Leddy returned to practice this morning, per Curtis Pashelka of the Bay Area News Group. The 16-year vet was claimed off waivers from the Blues during the summer and has two assists with a minus-four rating through his first seven games as a Shark.

Washington Capitals Sign, Send Down Brett Leason

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Oct. 28: Leason has cleared waivers and has been loaned to Hershey, the team announced.

Oct. 27: The Washington Capitals are bringing back a familiar face to the organization. According to a team announcement, the Capitals have signed forward Brett Leason to a one-year, two-way contract worth $775K. The team subsequently placed him on waivers to eventually reassign him to the AHL’s Hershey Bears.

It’s been several years since Leason last suited up for the Bears. Leason, selected 56th overall in the 2019 NHL Draft, debuted with Hershey in the 2019-20 season after an impressive year with the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders. During his last campaign with the Raiders, the Calgary native scored 36 goals and 89 points in 55 games and another 10 goals and 25 points in 20 postseason appearances.

Unfortunately, Leason’s skill level didn’t transfer to the professional circuit for some time. Throughout his three years with the Bears, he put up relatively modest production, scoring 18 goals and 47 points in 114 games. During a brief run with the Capitals back in the 2021-22 campaign, Leason only registered three goals and six points in 36 contests.

Leason received a separate opportunity one year later, when the Anaheim Ducks claimed him off waivers before the start of the 2022-23 campaign. He became much more productive in an expanded role with Anaheim, scoring 22 goals and 48 points in 184 games while averaging 12:23 of ice time per night. Unfortunately, as they graduated more talent to the NHL level, the Ducks made Leason an unrestricted free agent this offseason when they opted not to extend a qualifying offer to him.

Today’s contract becomes the third one signed by Leason since the beginning of the offseason. He began training camp on a professional tryout agreement with the Minnesota Wild. After that didn’t work out, he has been practicing with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers on a similar tryout agreement.

Lightning Place Mitchell Chaffee On Waivers

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Oct. 28: Chaffee has cleared waivers and can now be assigned to Syracuse, per Friedman.

Oct. 27: According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Tampa Bay Lightning have placed forward Mitchell Chaffee on waivers. If he clears by tomorrow, the Lightning will have more flexibility with Chaffee since he’ll be waiver exempt for the next 10 days or 30 games, or they’ll gain the ability to reassign him to the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch.

It marks the second time in Chaffee’s young career that he’s been placed on the waiver wire. Before the start of the 2023-24 campaign, the Lightning placed Chaffee on waivers after he failed to make the roster out of training camp, and he cleared without any issue.

Unlike the 2023-24 campaign, there were higher expectations for the Rockford, MI native this year. Despite being relegated to Tampa Bay’s bottom-six for most of his playing time, he finished eighth on the team in goal-scoring last year with 12 in 66 games. He was additionally one of the Lightning’s most physical forwards, finishing second up front with 133 hits.

Again in a bottom-six role, Chaffee has gone scoreless through seven contests this season, averaging 9:29 of ice time per game. He leads the team in hits by a healthy margin, but has been benched for the team’s two most recent games.

Given his play to begin the 2025-26 campaign, it’s unlikely another team will put a claim on Chaffee over the next 24 hours. Still, for teams looking for some additional scoring punch in their bottom-six (looking at you, Calgary Flames), his 15-goal pace from last season may be enticing.

Blues’ Jake Neighbours Out Five Weeks With Right Leg Injury

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The Blues announced Tuesday that they’ve placed winger Jake Neighbours on injured reserve with a right leg injury. He’ll be re-evaluated in five weeks, putting him out of the lineup through at least Dec. 2. They did not immediately announce a recall to fill his roster spot.

Neighbours was absent for Monday’s loss to the Penguins with what the team previously labeled a lower-body issue, and he carried only a day-to-day designation. It’s clear now that was a bit of smoke and mirrors as he underwent further evaluation. The team said he suffered the injury in Saturday’s loss to the Red Wings. He didn’t leave the contest, in which he had two of St. Louis’ four goals, but did appear to favor his right leg after losing an edge and sliding awkwardly into the boards later in the game.

Very little has gone right for the Blues this season. Losing Neighbours, who has a team-leading six goals and was finishing at a red-hot 50% clip, won’t change that slide of bad luck. The 23-year-old is beginning his fifth NHL season since being drafted in the first round in 2020 and has been stapled to the Blues’ top line with Robert Thomas to start the year. When deployed with Pavel Buchnevich on their right flank, they’ve controlled play well with a 51.9 xGF% and 50.6 CF%, per MoneyPuck. Poor goaltending has still led them to be outscored 5-4 and for Neighbours to post a minus-four rating despite his individual success, accounting for 22.2% of the goals the Blues have scored this season.

While that one-in-two finishing rate is unsustainable, the writing was on the wall for a breakout campaign from Neighbours in 2025-26. He’s put together back-to-back 20-goal campaigns and hit a career-best 46 points while playing all 82 games last season. Getting more pucks on net, once he returns in December, will be key to getting him back on that path. Neighbours’ 19.7 shooting percentage since the beginning of 2023-24 is ninth in the league among skaters with at least 100 shots on goal during that time, but he’s only averaged 1.55 shots on goal per game for his career.

The Blues were also without Thomas in last night’s loss due to an upper-body injury. He’s still only listed as day-to-day, but for the time being, the Blues are without the two most consistent members of their top line to open the campaign. Jimmy Snuggerud and Pius Suter were elevated from third-line duties to skate with Buchnevich last night. It’s unclear if that will continue into tonight’s rematch against Detroit or if head coach Jim Montgomery will shuffle his lines further in the wake of three straight regulation losses.

Senators Reassign Hunter Shepard

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Oct. 28: After Ullmark took his planned rest in last night’s 7-2 win, the Senators announced Tuesday they’ve returned Shepard to Belleville. His services weren’t needed, aside from sitting on the bench, as Merilainen made 26 saves on 28 shots (.929 SV%) in the win.

Oct. 27: According to a team announcement, the Ottawa Senators have recalled netminder Hunter Shepard from the AHL’s Belleville Senators. Since they only had 22 players on the roster before the call-up, no corresponding transaction was required.

Despite recalling a netminder, there are no injury concerns for Linus Ullmark or Leevi Merilainen. Since Ottawa has the first half of a back-to-back tonight, the plan is to give Ullmark the entire day off, making Shepard the backup for tonight’s game. Ullmark is expected to start tomorrow night against the Chicago Blackhawks.

It didn’t matter too much which netminder the Senators recalled. Both Shepard and Mads Søgaard are waiver-exempt for the time being after clearing in late September, and the AHL Senators don’t play again until Wednesday. Still, it’s a little surprising that the team opted for Shepard, given that he played for Belleville last night. He isn’t expected to play for Ottawa tonight, though he could be relatively tired should the team need him in an emergency.

Still, Shepard has a relatively lengthy track record of success in the AHL. Before joining the Senators organization this past summer, Shepard spent the first five years of his professional career with the Washington Capitals, largely with the AHL’s Hershey Bears. Shepard is a two-time Calder Cup champion, one-time Baz Bastien Memorial Award winner, and one-time Jack A. Butterfield Trophy winner.

Sabres Activate Michael Kesselring From Injured Reserve

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Oct. 28: Kesselring will make his Sabres debut tonight and come off injured reserve, Ruff confirmed to Rachel Lenzi of The Buffalo News.

Oct. 27: The Buffalo Sabres have assigned defenseman Zach Metsa to the AHL’s Rochester Americans. The move will open the roster space to activate defenseman Michael Kesselring off of injured reserve. Head coach Lindy Ruff said he expects the team to make that roster move before Tuesday’s game against Columbus, as long as all goes well in the morning.

Kesselring has missed the first nine games of the season with a lower-body injury sustained in an October 1st preseason game. The injury delayed his debut with the Buffalo Sabres after joining the team alongside Josh Doan in the June trade that sent JJ Peterka to the Utah Mammoth.

That trade will be top of mind as Kesselring prepares for his first regular-season game in the blue and gold. Doan has already wowed fans with his early-year performance, netting six points and already rivaling a top-line role. But at the time of the move, many expected Kesselring to have a bigger impact in Buffalo after he proved to be a capable top-four defender in Utah.

Kesselring played in all 82 games of Utah’s inaugural season. He received the lowest average ice time (17:41) among a heavily-rotated Hockey Club defense, but routinely faced challenging roles alongside top defenseman Mikhail Sergachev and against top competition. He was strong on both sides of the puck, showing off a strong stick, lightning-quick speed, and heads-up passing. Those talents led Kesselring to 29 points on the year, the second-most on Utah’s blue line behind Sergachev (53).

Kesselring looked similarly capable in his rookie season of 2023-24. He finished that year with 21 points in 65 games, while operating from a third-pair role with the Arizona Coyotes. With two years of improvement to start his career, he now seems well-poised to bear some more responsibility with the Buffalo Sabres. Buffalo has relied on Conor Timmins and Metsa to fill the right side behind captain Rasmus Dahlin. Timmins has faired pretty well in the second-pair role, recording three assists and 24 blocked shots in nine games. Metsa has been less productive, with no scoring and just two blocks in four games. Kesselring should step ahead of Timmins on the depth chart, placing him next to former first-overall pick Owen Power. Power’s sturdy defense could be a great match for the typically aggressive Kesselring.

Meanwhile, Metsa’s brief appearance in the NHL will come to an end. He played the first NHL games of his career this season, after starting the year with two pointless games with the Americans. Metsa led Rochester’s blue line with 46 points in 69 games last season. It was his second pro season. He posted 24 points in 54 games as an AHL rookie. The 27-year-old will look to return to his top role on the Rochester blue line, and could remain a call-up option should Buffalo face any more injuries.

Penguins Recall Owen Pickering

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The Penguins announced Tuesday that they’ve recalled defenseman Owen Pickering from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. The team had an open roster spot after placing Caleb Jones on injured reserve on Saturday, so no corresponding transaction is required.

Pickering, 21, was in contention for a roster spot for most of training camp but ended up being one of Pittsburgh’s final cuts. The 2022 first-round pick was once the club’s top defense prospect but has since been lapped by Harrison Brunicke. That has more to do with the latter’s emergence than a lack of development on Pickering’s part, though. The 6’5″, 201-lb lefty is technically no longer a rookie, having appeared in 25 NHL games last season. In his first taste of the big leagues, Pickering managed a goal and two assists for three points with a minus-five rating. His ice time was somewhat limited at 14:49 per game, but the smooth-skating rearguard got some looks on the penalty kill and had passable possession impacts at even strength. His 48.9 CF% and 50.0 xGF% were both slightly above what the Penguins managed when he wasn’t on the ice.

Brunicke’s emergence, plus an influx of veterans to Pittsburgh’s blue line depth this offseason, meant Pickering ultimately faced too much of a battle to win an NHL job, at least for the first few weeks of the season. He’ll now get what could be an extended look with Jones not expected back until Christmas. Pickering has shown out well in his first few weeks of play in the minors, scoring a goal and three assists for four points with a plus-four rating in seven games. That has the Penguins’ brass happy with how his two-way game has developed from last season, when he was more offensively reserved for the Baby Pens (a 2-11–13 scoring line in 47 GP) but still managed a +18 rating.

What’s certain is that the Penguins’ season-long bottom-pairing rotation won’t be changing anytime soon. They’ve settled into having Ryan Shea–Kris Letang and Parker Wotherspoon–Erik Karlsson duos as their top two pairings, but have cycled Brunicke, Jones, Connor Clifton, and Matt Dumba into third-pairing duties through their first 10 games. Brunicke and Jones were head coach Dan Muse’s obvious preference for the role, with each logging seven appearances, and Clifton and Dumba only managing three. With Brunicke, Clifton, and Dumba all being righties, there’s plenty of opportunity for Pickering to get a consistent run of games if Muse wants to keep an even left-shot/right-shot balance in his lineup.

Pickering gets elevated into an environment in Pittsburgh that’s brighter than anyone could have imagined a month ago. Expected to be bottom-dwellers, the retooling Pens have instead rocketed up to second in the Metropolitan Division with a 7-2-1 record while, with Pickering now in the fold, seeing all of their top five prospects have stints on the roster (including the IR-bound Rutger McGroarty).

Kings Activate, Reassign Angus Booth

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The Kings announced Monday that they’ve activated defenseman Angus Booth from the season-opening injured reserve/non-roster list and subsequently assigned him to AHL Ontario. Since Booth is on a two-way contract and did not spend a day on the NHL roster last season, he carried no salary cap impact while on SOIR.

Booth, 21, was a fourth-round pick in 2022 and is entering the second season of his entry-level contract. While he signed his rookie deal nearly two years ago, it slid for the 2023-24 season, which he spent entirely in juniors. The 6’0″, 176-lb lefty was a defensive standout in the QMJHL, where he won a championship with the Shawinigan Cataractes in his draft year and had 23 points in 42 games. His offensive numbers never progressed past that point, but he did have a strong sendoff year between Shawinigan and Baie-Comeau in 2023-24, logging a 3-25–28 scoring line in 61 games with a career-best +29 rating.

That showing preceded a fairly linear transition to the pro game for Booth in 2024-25. He didn’t look out of place as a rookie with AHL Ontario last season and slotted in well as a bottom-four piece, rattling off two goals, 11 assists, 13 points, and a plus-six rating with 38 penalty minutes in 50 outings. A lower-body injury sustained early in training camp cost him any shot at making the NHL roster in his second professional season, but he’ll now get his season underway and hope to put himself in consideration for a recall if injuries pile up.

Booth still has this year and the next one ahead of him to prove he’s developed enough to earn a qualifying offer. He’ll be a restricted free agent in 2027.

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