Sabres Place Justin Danforth On Injured Reserve
Oct. 18: Danforth landed on IR following today’s impressive 3-0 win over the Panthers, according to the NHL’s media site. Buffalo hasn’t yet made a corresponding recall, but they now have the flexibility to in case defenseman Jacob Bryson misses time. He’s now in concussion protocol after colliding with Florida’s Jonah Gadjovich early in the game, Ruff said (via Heather Engel of NHL.com).
Oct. 17: Sabres forward Justin Danforth will miss more than a month with the lower-body injury he sustained in Wednesday’s 8-4 drubbing of the Senators, head coach Lindy Ruff told reporters today (including Rachel Lenzi of The Buffalo News). It was never made clear what play actually caused the injury, but he left the game early in the second period and didn’t return.
It’s nothing Buffalo isn’t used to by now. Injuries have decimated their forward group early in the season. Jordan Greenway and Joshua Norris remain on injured reserve. New top-line winger Zach Benson only just made his season debut after a rather significant facial injury kept him out of the first three games, and he lit up the Sens for four assists to immediately assume the team lead in scoring.
Danforth, 32, inked a two-year, $3.6MM deal with the Sabres in free agency after spending the first four years of his NHL career with the Blue Jackets. He began the year on the fourth line but was quickly elevated into top-nine duties with Jiri Kulich and Jack Quinn when Norris got hurt in Buffalo’s first game. He’s without a point in any of his four appearances and hasn’t been particularly effective otherwise, aside from taking some faceoffs and going 54.8% on the dot, on pace for a career high. He’s managed four blocks and three hits with a -2 rating, only controlling 41.5% of shot attempts despite starting 55.6% of his shifts in the offensive zone at even strength.
The Sabres can place Danforth on injured reserve at any point if they need his roster spot, although they haven’t done so yet. They have enough cap space ($3.12MM) that long-term injured reserve shouldn’t be a consideration. For now, it appears recent call-up Joshua Dunne will maintain a spot in the lineup in Danforth’s place when Buffalo hosts the Panthers tomorrow afternoon.
Wild Recall David Jiricek And Tyler Pitlick, Assign Liam Ohgren To AHL
The Wild have made a trio of roster moves heading into their game tonight against the Flyers. The team announced that they’ve recalled defenseman David Jiricek and winger Tyler Pitlick from AHL Iowa while assigning winger Liam Ohgren to Iowa.
Jiricek has been up for most of the season but has played just once, resulting in his assignment to the minors yesterday. He suited up for Iowa last night, making him eligible to be recalled as he has fulfilled the one-game requirement, part of the new rules brought into play this season to try to cut down on paper transactions.
Jiricek hasn’t had a lot of success at the NHL level since Columbus drafted him sixth overall in 2022. He has played in just 60 games at the top level since then, 43 of which came in 2023-24; since then, he has been more of an AHL player, even after Minnesota dealt four draft picks and Daemon Hunt to acquire him last season.
Pitlick, meanwhile, is in his first season with Minnesota after signing a two-year, two-way deal with them on the opening day of free agency back in July. He’s off to a good start in Iowa with two goals through three games and has 420 career NHL appearances over parts of ten seasons with eight different franchises. His best showing came back in 2017-18 with Dallas when he had 14 goals and 13 assists in 80 games.
As for Ohgren, while he has played in all five games so far, playing time has been rather limited as he’s averaging just 9:10 per game while failing to record a point. Given that he’s still just 21 and waiver-exempt, it might be better for his development to play in a more prominent role with Iowa for a little while Pitlick, a 33-year-old veteran, is better suited to play a low-minute role on the fourth line. Ohgren had 37 points in 41 games with Iowa last season.
Kraken Place Freddy Gaudreau On Injured Reserve
Saturday: Gaudreau is set to miss some time as the team announced that he will miss four-to-six weeks with an upper-body injury.
Friday: The Kraken announced that center Frédérick Gaudreau has been placed on injured reserve after leaving last night’s game with an undisclosed issue. Forward John Hayden has been called up from AHL Coachella Valley in the corresponding move.
The nature or severity of Gaudreau’s injury isn’t known, but it looms over what’s otherwise been an inauspicious start to his tenure in Seattle. He’s got one assist through four games and has been centering the Kraken’s fourth line between Tye Kartye and Jani Nyman while factoring in on the penalty kill. He has an even rating but has been tasked with difficult defensive matchups, only controlling 41.4% of shot attempts at even strength as a result.
It’s a small sample size, though, and the Kraken should still be expecting him to be the reliable bottom-six piece he was for the previous four years for the Wild aside from a brief nosedive in 2023-24. Gaudreau averaged a 15-21–36 scoring line per 82 games in Minnesota from 2021-25, winning 49.2% of his faceoffs and averaging 15:33 of ice time per game. His possession impacts have been trailing off for quite some time, though, culminating in a career-worst 44.2 CF% last year. Seattle acquired Gaudreau, who’s signed through 2027-28 at a cap hit of $2.1MM, for a fourth-round pick back in June.
With Gaudreau and Kaapo Kakko on IR, Seattle is already without a pair of lineup regulars up front four games into the young season. They haven’t let it affect them yet, though – they’re one of four teams left without a regulation loss and boast a 2-0-2 record with a +1 goal differential.
The question now is whether the veteran Hayden will replace Gaudreau in the fourth-line center slot, or if 2024 No. 8 overall pick Berkly Catton will get a crack at making his NHL debut tomorrow against the Maple Leafs after sitting in the press box for all four games so far. It will likely be the former. If Catton is scratched for five consecutive games, he becomes eligible for a two-week conditioning stint in Coachella Valley. The 19-year-old isn’t yet eligible for a full-time AHL assignment and must be returned to his junior team, WHL Spokane, if he’s not on the NHL roster. A conditioning stint still counts against Seattle’s roster limit and is thus permitted. The Kraken took a similar approach with top-five pick Shane Wright in 2022-23 before subsequently loaning him back to juniors later in the year.
Hayden, 30, is now in his fourth year with the Kraken. He suited up 20 times for Seattle last year, his highest games played total since making 55 appearances with the Sabres in 2021-22. The bottom-six grinder has 18 goals and 39 points with a -30 rating in 269 career NHL games and has appeared in parts of nine consecutive seasons.
Evening Notes: Lycksell, Cooley, Zamula
The Ottawa Senators assigned forward Olle Lycksell to the AHL’s Belleville Senators early on Friday. Lycksell appeared in two games with Ottawa this week, but sat out of the team’s most recent game on Thursday. He didn’t manage any scoring in those appearances.
Lycksell is in his first year in the Senators’ organization after signing a one-year, two-way, league-minimum $775K contract with the club on July 1st. He spent the last three seasons bouncing between the Philadelphia Flyers’ major and minor league rosters. He totaled 11 points in 45 NHL games, and 128 points in 134 AHL games with the Flyers. He’ll look to maintain near point-per-game scoring in the minors with Belleville. If he can, he could soon return to a depth role with Ottawa.
Other notes from around the league:
- The Utah Mammoth have a colossal extension looming when top center Logan Cooley hits free agency next summer. But despite minimal talks of an extension, Cooley’s agent, Brian Bartlett, told the Daily Faceoff that he’s not worried about getting a deal done. Bartlett emphasized that Cooley still has plenty of time to work something out. There’s no doubt Mammoth fan will be watching closely for Cooley’s next contract, after he posted 109 points in 157 games with the club over his first two seasons in the NHL. He’s likely to sign a hardy extension that should cement his spot as Utah’s top center.
- The Calgary Flames are interested in acquiring a big-bodied, left-shot defenseman per Daily Faceoff’s Anthony Di Marco, who adds that Flyers defender Egor Zamula could be a prime target. Zamula played in 120 games with the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen before beginning his pro career. Now, he’s found himself on the outside of Philadelphia’s daily lineup, despite mixed results. Zamula boasts a career stat line of 40 points in 157 games. He posted a career-high 21 points and plus-three in 66 games of the 2023-24 season, but fell to just 15 points and a minus-14 in 63 games last year. That dip in scoring could make him a relatively cheap acquisition, should Calgary swing a trade.
Blackhawks Activate Landon Slaggert From IR
The Chicago Blackhawks have activated forward Landon Slaggert off of injured reserve. Slaggert missed the first five games of Chicago’s season with a lower-body injury. He took warmups before the team’s Friday night matchup against the Vancouver Canucks, but won’t play, as he continues to ease back into the lineup.
Slaggert operated on Chicago’s third-line throughout the team’s training camp. He seems well set on solidifying that standing once he’s back to full health, after clinging onto a lineup spot through the second-half of last season. Slaggert recorded just six points and a minus-seven in 33 NHL games last season – far below the 25 points and plus-nine he posted in 39 AHL games. But despite that, his hard-drive and grinder style stood tall on a fairly undersized Blackhawks team.
Slaggert racked up 92 points in 136 NCAA games between 2020 and 2024, then turned pro with the Blackhawks at the end of the 2023-24 season. He’s since appeared in 49 NHL games and scored 10 points, while filling a bottom-six role at left-wing. Should his training camp role stick, Slaggert will soon return to a line with Jason Dickinson and Ilya Mikheyev. That move would free up Ryan Donato to move back into the team’s top-six. Donato has just two points in five games this season, after posting 31 goals and 62 points in 80 games last year. Promoting him back into the top-six, and backing him with a dirty-nosed winger like Slaggert, could be the first step to getting Donato back to that lofty scoring.
Ducks Recall Ian Moore
The Anaheim Ducks have recalled defenseman Ian Moore from the AHL’s San Diego Gulls. They still have one open roster spot available, after placing forwards Jansen Harkins and Ryan Strome on injured reserve. Strome could be a candidate to join Anaheim on their upcoming five-game road-trip, though if he will won’t be clear until Saturday.
This stands as the first call-up of Moore’s young career. He signed to the Ducks’ roster directly out of college last season, and recorded one point in his first three NHL games before being assigned to the minor-leagues. That assignment continued through the start of this season – though Moore will now return to the NHL with five points in 10 AHL games to his name. He’s a defense-first defender, who excels in the technical areas of breaking up play and winning positioning. His strong on-ice presence earned Moore the captaincy at Harvard University in his junior and senior seasons, in 2023-24 and 2024-25.
Moore will offer a replacement for bottom-pair, right-defender Drew Helleson, who has two points in four games to start the year. Helleson played through his rookie NHL season last year, marked by 13 points and 47 penalty minutes in 56 games. He has operated as the young backer to veterans Radko Gudas and Jacob Trouba on Anaheim’s right-side.
Lightning Place Maxwell Crozier On IR, Recall Scott Sabourin
The Tampa Bay Lightning have placed rookie defenseman Maxwell Crozier on injured reserve per Erik Erlendsson of Lightning Insider. The move is retroactive to Tuesday, which will force Crozier out of the lineup for at least two days. Tampa Bay then used the vacant roster spot to recall Scott Sabourin from the minor leagues.
Crozier is bearing through an undisclosed injury after leaving the team’s Tuesday matchup against the Washington Capitals in the first period. He only played 4:27 in total ice time. The injury was a hit of bad luck after the top Bolts rookie scored three points in his last two games. He was the productive motor of Tampa Bay’s bottom pair, next to third-year-pro Emil Martinsen Lilleberg.
Crozier broke camp with the Lightning after posting 34 points and 75 penalty minutes in 52 AHL games last season. He entered this season with 18 games of NHL experience under his belt, though only two assists to go with it. That production set a low bar that Crozier has well cleared to start the season, making his injury timeline worth following closely.
Tampa Bay will use Crozier’s IR placement to award Sabourin for a strong start in the AHL. He scored a point in each of the Syracuse Crunch’s two games to start the season. It’s a quick start, after Sabourin posted 25 points and 111 penalty minutes with the San Jose Barracuda last season. He has played in 25 NHL games over the course of his career – stretched across stints with the Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, and San Jose Sharks. He’s scored 15 points in those appearances. Now, Sabourin could suit up for a fourth club, and offer Tamp a hotter stick than rookie Curtis Douglas, who is without a point through three games so far.
Flames Assign Matvei Gridin, Activate Jonathan Huberdeau
The Calgary Flames have assigned winger Matvei Gridin to the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers to make room to activate Jonathan Huberdeau off of injured reserve. Huberdeau has been sidelined since sustaining an undisclosed injury in a preseason matchup against the Vancouver Canucks on October 1st. He missed the first seven games of Calgary’s season.
Gridin played in the first four games of his NHL career to start the season, but found his way to the press box after posting one goal and a minus-three. He is among Calgary’s top prospects, and is set to become one of just six 19-year-olds in the AHL. A taste of NHL minutes, and continued pro challenge in the minors, could be exactly what Gridin needs to grow his game.
He looked fast and flashy in the QMJHL last year, posting 96 points in 72 games over the course of the Shawinigan Cataractes’ full season. That performance earned him the QMJHL’s ‘Rookie of the Year’ award. The 2024 first-round pick spent two seasons in the USHL prior to his draft. He scored 99 points in 108 total games in the league. That includes a league-leading 83-point season in 2023-24, the second-highest scoring season in Muskegon Lumberjacks history.
While Gridin develops in the minors, Huberdeau will look to keep up his momentum from last season. He scored 16 points in 18 games to finish the 2024-25 season, pushing him to 28 goals and 62 points in 81 games on the year. It was Huberdeau’s highest-scoring season since he posted 115 points with the Florida Panthers in 2021-22. His dip in scoring with the Flames has shadowed his last three seasons, but he showed a click next to Morgan Frost and Matthew Coronato that could propel the Flames’ offense this season. Coronato currently leads Calgary in scoring, with three points in five games. Frost has two points.
Avalanche Recall Mackenzie Blackwood From Conditioning Loan
Oct. 17: Blackwood’s conditioning stint is over, the team announced. He didn’t get into game action with the Eagles; instead, he was only there to face shots in practice with a more consistent schedule there this week than in Colorado. Blackwood was never on IR, so the recall suggests he should be available for tomorrow’s game against the Bruins.
Oct. 13: The Colorado Avalanche should be getting a big reinforcement between the pipes in a few days. The team announced that they’ve loaned netminder Mackenzie Blackwood to the AHL’s Colorado Eagles on a conditioning stint. Additionally, the team has activated defenseman Sean Behrens from the season-opening injured reserve and reassigned him to AHL Colorado.
Colorado’s reasoning behind the conditioning stint this early in the campaign is fairly simple. Blackwood is continuing to recover from a procedure performed in May and didn’t participate in any preseason games for the Avalanche or any training camp activities. Since Colorado can leave Blackwood on the conditioning stint for up to 14 days, it’ll be treated as a pseudo training camp to prepare him for the regular season.
Blackwood was phenomenal for the Avalanche last year. After being acquired from the San Jose Sharks, Blackwood took on a heavy workload, managing a 22-12-3 record in 37 games with a .913 SV% and 2.33 GAA. Unfortunately, he couldn’t help Colorado avoid another first-round exit in last year’s playoffs, registering a 3-4-0 record in seven contests with a .892 SV%.
Still, despite being without Blackwood, the Avalanche have gotten stellar goaltending out of the gates this season. Their backup, Scott Wedgewood, has a 2-0-1 record through Colorado’s first three games with a .925 SV% and 1.95 GAA. Even though it’s a small sample size, Wedgewood has already played the most minutes of any netminder this year.
Meanwhile, Behrens will return to competitive hockey for the first time in two years. After winning the National Championship with the University of Denver in 2024, Behrens signed with the Avalanche, skating in one game with the Eagles to finish the year, with one additional appearance in the postseason.
Unfortunately, a knee injury suffered during last year’s training camp cost Behrens the entire 2024-25 season. He appeared in a few games for the Avalanche’s rookie tournament, though his upcoming time with the Eagles will mark his true return to professional hockey.
Wild Acquire Oskar Olausson
The Wild announced a trade sending defenseman Kyle Masters to the Sharks for winger Oskar Olausson. Both players were previously in the minors and will now report to their new clubs’ affiliates.
Olausson’s stay in the San Jose organization was a very brief one. The Swedish winger, who turns 23 next month, was a first-round pick by the Avalanche in 2021. After failing to land an NHL job with Colorado and taking a significant step back in the minors last year, the Avs traded Olausson to the Sharks in exchange for the signing rights to Daniil Gushchin. Olausson was waived and assigned to AHL San Jose out of camp, but had yet to play for the Barracuda this season, so he leaves the Bay Area without recording a single appearance in the organization.
It’s a swing on upside by the Wild and a prudent pickup for the cost. While Olausson only has four NHL games to his name, going without a point and averaging just 8:07 per game, there’s no long-term obligation in the pickup as they can non-tender him at the end of the season. At minimum, they’re adding some offensive depth to an Iowa club that hasn’t fared all too well in the past few years, which could, while unlikely, turn into an NHL piece down the line. Even though Olausson hasn’t developed as hoped so far, he’s still young enough to have a decent chance at a turnaround.
The 6’2″ Olausson looked like he was on the upswing as recently as the 2023-24 season. Injuries limited him to 39 appearances with AHL Colorado that year, but he managed an 11-9–20 scoring line after producing the same output in 63 games the year prior. That momentum didn’t continue into 2024-25, though. Olausson wasn’t even a top-10 scorer on the team last year and finished the campaign with an 11-15–26 scoring line in 61 appearances – not production you want to see from someone touted as a scoring winger.
While Minnesota could have had Olausson on the waiver wire for free a few weeks ago, that would have required keeping him on their NHL roster, something they’re not keen to do. They also don’t take on an additional contract by parting ways with Masters, a 2021 fourth-round pick who’s still at the ECHL level as he begins his third professional season. The 6’0″ righty has split the last two years between AHL and ECHL Iowa. He has a 1-5–6 scoring line with an even rating in 35 career AHL games and a 9-23–32 line in 59 ECHL games with a -7 rating.
For San Jose, giving Olausson up is a matter of creating more playing time in the AHL for the names they’ve drafted and continue to develop, like Ethan Cardwell, Cameron Lund, and Quentin Musty. Masters will now report to their ECHL affiliate in Wichita.