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Capitals Notes: Fehervary, Oshie, Pacioretty, Edmundson

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Bailey Johnson of The Washington Post is reporting that Washington Capitals defenseman Martin Fehervary didn’t practice this morning and will not play in tomorrow night’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights. Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery also told reporters that Fehervary is a maybe for Saturday night’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Fehervary is currently on injured reserve and wouldn’t have been eligible to return tomorrow even if he was healthy enough to play but is eligible to play Saturday if he can. The 24-year-old has had a decent start to the year and has been very good on the Capitals’ penalty kill. While he has just two assists in 12 games, he has been much more effective at even strength this year despite starting most of his shifts in the defensive zone.

In other Capitals notes:

  • Bailey Johnson also reported that Capitals forward T.J. Oshie took a maintenance day today and did not practice with the team. Oshie has had a brutal start to the season with just one assist in 13 games thus far and it appears the Capitals are hoping that some rest can help kickstart some offense for the 36-year-old. Oshie has seen over three minutes of powerplay time per game this season which is about the same average time he saw last year, but even with the work on the first powerplay unit he has been unable to find the back of the net.
  • The NHL Network’s Tarik El-Bashir is reporting that Capitals forward Max Pacioretty skated on his own this morning before the team’s practice as he attempts to ramp back up to return to game action. The 34-year-old faces a long battle back after tearing his right Achilles for the second time this past January and there is no timetable for his potential return. Both the Capitals and Pacioretty appear to be very cautious in their approach to a return which makes sense given how difficult the past 15 months have been for the six-time 30-goal scorer.
  • Bailey Johnson tweeted that Capitals defenseman Joel Edmundson is getting closer to a return after he was a full participant in practice today. Edmundson is trying to work his way back from a hand injury and was dressed in a non-contact jersey during this morning’s practice. The 30-year-old has yet to make his debut in Washington after he was acquired in July for two draft picks. He injured his hand in preseason and required surgery which has ultimately delayed the start to his Capitals career. A return to action would be good news for Washington as they are currently without defensemen Fehervary and Trevor van Riemsdyk.

Golden Knights Assign Kaedan Korczak To AHL

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With Vegas set to welcome back Zach Whitecloud to their lineup tonight, they needed to create the salary cap and roster room needed to do so.  That move has been made as PuckPedia relays (Twitter link) that blueliner Kaedan Korczak has been assigned to AHL Henderson.

The 22-year-old was sent down at the end of training camp before being recalled following Whitecloud’s LTIR placement.  While he didn’t suit up in every game, he has been relatively productive when he has played, notching a goal and three assists in seven contests while logging a little under 16 minutes a night.  For his NHL career, Korczak has six points in 18 appearances, impressive numbers considering he’s coming off a 14-point showing in 50 games with the Silver Knights last season.

Meanwhile, Whitecloud’s return will be a welcome one.  The 26-year-old was a steady part of their third pairing last season, notching 12 points, 97 hits, and 90 blocks in 59 regular season games while averaging a little over 17 minutes per appearance.  That playing time went up in the playoffs to a little under 19 minutes per contests while he added eight points in 22 games to help Vegas win the Stanley Cup.

With this assignment and Whitecloud’s subsequent activation, Vegas is down to just $85K in LTIR space while Robin Lehner and Daniil Miromanov still on there.  That said, the Golden Knights are still carrying a full 23-man roster so they shouldn’t be facing a situation where they have to play short a player for a game (due to not being able to afford a recall) for a little while at least.

Injury Notes: Markstrom, Nosek, Zegras, Whitecloud

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Calgary Flames head coach Ryan Huska shared that starting goaltender Jacob Markstrom is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. He will sit out of the team’s Friday night game, with Daniel Vladar taking over the starting role.

This is timely news, as the Flames just recalled back-to-back AHL Goalie of the Year winner Dustin Wolf to the NHL club. Wolf has yet to carve out an NHL presence but the 22-year-old goaltender has more than proven his capability, going as far as winning the AHL’s Les Cunningham Award last season, given to the league’s most valuable player. Calgary plays Toronto on Friday and Ottawa on Saturday, which could give Wolf a chance to relieve Vladar.

The team will hope that their backups getting added opportunities can turn into some sort of spark in net. Markstrom has struggled through the early season, recording a .896 save percentage and 2-6-1 record across nine games played. Vladar has managed better outcomes in his appearances, earning a 2-1-0 record in his three games, but carries a .844 save percentage.

Wolf has recorded a .924 save percentage and 5-1-0 record in six AHL games this season.

Other injury notes from around the league:

Pacific Notes: Sharks, Benning, Golden Knights, Hamblin

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While the Sharks snapped their season-long losing streak at 11 games yesterday with a win over the Flyers, clearly, there’s a lot of work to be done still.  However, don’t expect any reinforcements coming from the minors.  Speaking with Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News, GM Mike Grier indicated that while they’ve thought about bringing up some of their better prospects from the minors (including defensemen Henry Thrun and Shakir Mukhamadullin plus forward Daniil Gushchin), they’d like to see things get more stabilized first over putting those youngsters into a less than ideal situation from a development perspective.  Getting captain Logan Couture back would help on that front but with him suffering a recent setback in his recovery lately, there’s no timeline for when he’ll be able to join the lineup.

Elsewhere in the Pacific Division:

  • Still with the Sharks, Pashelka reports in a separate piece that blueliner Matt Benning has resumed skating as he works his way back from an undisclosed injury. The 29-year-old is coming off a career year offensively but, like many San Jose players, is off to a rough start this year with just a single point in his first eight appearances while averaging 18:29 per night.  Benning is on injured reserve but has already been on there for more than a week, meaning they’ll be able to activate him as soon as he’s cleared to return.
  • Ben Gotz of the Las Vegas Review-Journal relays (Twitter link) that Vegas center Chandler Stephenson will miss at least the next two games with an upper-body injury. The 29-year-old is off to a strong start in his contract year with 10 points in his first 12 games, good for fifth on the Golden Knights in scoring.  Jonas Rondbjerg was recalled yesterday for the fifth time in less than a month and is expected to take Stephenson’s spot in the lineup.  Meanwhile, Gotz adds that blueliner Zach Whitecloud is with Vegas on the road and could potentially be back as soon as Friday.  The 26-year-old has yet to play this season due to an upper-body injury and is currently on LTIR but is eligible to be activated as he has missed both 10 games and 24 days.
  • PuckPedia notes (Twitter link) that the Oilers have converted forward James Hamblin’s emergency exception recall into a regular one. When they sent Jack Campbell and down and recalled Calvin Pickard earlier today, Edmonton had enough cap space to fit Hamblin into its cap structure, meaning they were no longer eligible for the cap exemption he was recalled with.  The 24-year-old logged nearly 11 minutes in his season debut back on Monday.

Afternoon Notes: Tippett, Drysdale, Vegas

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The Fourth Period’s Anthony Di Marco reported that the Philadelphia Flyers are willing to sign 24-year-old winger Owen Tippett to a long-term deal, as long as the average annual value is reasonable. Di Marco added that “long-term” could mean a deal similar to the eight-year extension that Brandon Hagel received in Tampa Bay, although Hagel’s $6.5MM AAV would be “a little high” for Tippett, a source told Di Marco.

The Flyers only have five players currently signed beyond the 2025-26 season. Of that list, only one – 23-year-old Joel Farabee – is under 27. So the interest in signing young players to long-term deals is both timely and refreshing. It’s another step in new general manager Daniel Briere building out something sustainable over time, and locking up core lineup pieces like Tippett is a great way to start. While the young winger hasn’t jumped off the page with his scoring – recording over half of his career scoring when he netted 49 points last season – he’s found other ways to make his impact felt, ranking fourth on the team in CF% (Corsi-For Percentage) since 2021-22, among plays with 25-or-more games.

Tippett’s pending extension, and how it affects other young pieces of the Flyers lineup, will be exciting to monitor over the course of the season.

Other notes from around the league:

Injury Notes: Couturier, Barabanov, Golden Knights, Hoffman, Knyzhov

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Philadelphia Flyers center Sean Couturier, who has not played in either of the team’s last two games, will return tonight against the San Jose Sharks, according to Kevin Kurz of The Athletic. It will be an important reinforcement for the Flyers who are currently on a 1-4-0 stretch in their last five games.

After missing the entire 2022-23 regular season due to injury, Couturier has picked up right where he left off in Philadelphia. In 10 games played up to this point, he has scored two goals and six assists, tied for fifth on the team in scoring. Still maintaining a positive faceoff percentage, as well as solid possession numbers, Couturier is still a player the Flyers can trust with heavy usage.

Unfortunately, when one player returns from injury, another player must exit the lineup, and Kurz also reports that Morgan Frost will be a healthy scratch for the game tonight. Trying desperately to earn more minutes for Philadelphia, Frost has played in six games so far, scoring zero points after averaging over 15 minutes of ice time per night.

Other notes:

  • Max Miller of The Hockey News reports there is still no timeline for the return of Sharks winger, Alexander Barabanov, but he is progressing nicely from injury. Barbanov has been out of the lineup with a finger injury since the team’s game against the Florida Panthers on October 24th. After finishing fifth on the team in scoring last season, Barabanov is one of six members of San Jose’s forward core that has not scored a point yet this year.
  • As he is rehabbing his way back from injury, Vegas Golden Knights’ defenseman, Zach Whitecloud, was practicing with the team today in a non-contact jersey (X Link). Other notable pieces missing from today’s practice were Nicolas Roy, Nicolas Hague, Alec Martinez, and Chandler Stephenson. For the last three mentioned, it is likely that they were merely taking maintenance days, as no injury concern was alluded to in the report.
  • Back to the Sharks, Max Miller also mentioned that Mike Hoffman and Nikolai Knyzhov were late additions to today’s practice, meaning they may be out of the lineup tonight against the Flyers. Both players were present during the team’s blowout loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night.

Golden Knights Reassign Jonas Røndbjerg To AHL

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The Vegas Golden Knights reassigned forward Jonas Røndbjerg to the AHL’s Henderson Silver Knights on Monday, per the team’s Twitter/X account.

Røndbjerg, 24, does not require waivers for the time being after he passed through unclaimed during the preseason, and the team is taking full advantage of his temporary exempt status. The Danish winger was on his fourth recall of the season, two of which have come in the last week.

A third-round pick of the Golden Knights in their inaugural 2017 draft class, Røndbjerg is inching ever closer to becoming an everyday NHL option for the Knights. He’s in the second season of a three-year, $2.3MM extension signed in 2022 that converts from a two-way deal to a one-way pact starting this year.

The strong-bodied winger was off to a strong start this season, recording a point in each of his first two appearances for Vegas back in mid-October. He last played in a game on November 2, logging a shot on goal in 10:20 of action in a 5-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets.

Since then, he’s been on the roster as needed for the team to have an extra body around. The team has been without center Nicolas Roy for nearly two weeks with an undisclosed injury, and he remains on injured reserve.

In six appearances with AHL Henderson, Røndbjerg has three assists and a +2 rating. Ideally, he can get some sustained action in the minors for the next while to continue his development, although it’s likely he may get recalled again before the Knights face the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday. Røndbjerg can stay on Vegas’ NHL roster for up to 30 days (or play in ten NHL games) before he requires waivers to head to Henderson again.

West Notes: Pavelski, Golden Knights, Killorn, Kahkonen

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On January 1st of this year, the Dallas Stars inked veteran forward, Joe Pavelski, to a one-year contract worth a total of $3.5MM. A notable decrease on the $7MM annually that Pavelski was earning in his first contract with Dallas, this new deal did include two performance bonuses worth a total of $1MM each.

Per CapFriendly, when Pavelski plays in his 10th game of the year, he will earn the first bonus, and he will earn the second bonus at 20 games played. Tonight, the Stars will take on the Vancouver Canucks, and if no lineup changes are made, Pavelski would be in line to secure the first $1MM performance bonus included in his contract.

Although typically a minor detail on most contracts, given that Dallas only has approximately $457K in cap space, this performance bonus earned by Pavelski will result in an overage penalty to the Stars, which will be applied to next year’s salary cap bottom line. Also, given his health and availability over the last three seasons with the Stars, the expectation is that Pavelski will make it to 20 games played, adding even more overage penalties to the Dallas organization next year.

Other notes:

  • Before tonight’s heavily anticipated Western Conference matchup between the Colorado Avalanche and the Vegas Golden Knights, Ben Gotz of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that forward William Carrier would be a game-time decision for Vegas, and that defenseman Zach Whitecloud will be out for the remainder of the weekend. Placed on LTIR at the beginning of the season, Whitecloud has been dealing with an upper-body injury suffered during this year’s preseason but has returned to practice with the team over the last couple of days.
  • Looking to make his debut with the Anaheim Ducks after signing a four-year, $25MM contract with the team this summer, Eric Stephens of The Athletic is reporting that Alex Killorn was seen practicing on a line with Adam Henrique and Jakob Silfverberg, and will likely make his Ducks debut tomorrow night against the Golden Knights. In his absence, Anaheim has gotten off to a better start than most would have expected, climbing up in the standings thanks to a current five-game winning streak.
  • As hinted at in last night’s recall of goaltender Magnus Chrona, Sheng Peng of NBC Sports is reporting that San Jose Sharks’ netminder, Kaapo Kahkonen is out with an upper-body injury, and is considered day-to-day. Although Chrona is only in his first year with an NHL organization, San Jose could benefit from another option in the crease, as both of their regular goaltenders have failed to hold a SV% above .900 in the team’s first 10 games of the season.

Nicolas Hague Out With Injury Through The Weekend

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Vegas Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy shared that defenseman Nicolas Hague will be out with a lower-body injury until at least next week. Hague was slow to get up after a collision in the team’s October 30th game. He seemed fine in the moment but is now set to miss at least three games, with Vegas playing on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday.

While Hague’s absence is certainly not ideal, the Golden Knights are certainly not strangers to injured defensemen. Hague joined Shea Theodore and Brayden McNabb as the only Vegas defenders to play in all of the team’s games this season – a streak that now belongs solely to Theodore and McNabb. As a result of the slew of injuries, the team has already cycled through eight different defenders this season. They also have Zach Whitecloud and Daniil Miromanov on injured reserve, adding to their list of NHL defensemen to keep in mind.

And while Vegas is certainly capable of filling his role, the loss of Hague is still tough to swallow. He ranks fourth on the blue line in scoring, with three points through 10 games so far this season. He’s managed those numbers while operating comfortably on Vegas’ second pair, averaging 19 minutes of ice time through the early season. Hague, 24, is in his fifth season of NHL action. He was the fourth prospect that Vegas ever drafted, going 34th overall in the 2017 NHL Draft. Hague is one of eight players from Vegas’ 2017 draft class to play NHL games – an impressive feat for the franchise’s inaugural draft.

Ottawa Senators To Forfeit First-Round Pick

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The NHL has announced that the Ottawa Senators will forfeit a first-round draft pick for their role in the July 2021 trade of Evgenii Dadonov from the Senators to the Vegas Golden Knights and the subsequent, invalidated March 2022 Dadonov trade between the Golden Knights and the Anaheim Ducks.

According to the league’s announcement, the Senators will have 24 hours after the conclusion of the NHL Draft lottery to determine if they will surrender their first-round pick in that given year, and they will be able to choose between giving up a pick in either the 2024, 2025, or 2026 drafts.

The Vegas Golden Knights issued a statement regarding the Senators’ punishment, stating:

We appreciate the league’s diligence on this matter and respect the decision. The club will have no further comment.

This issue originates from 2021, when the Golden Knights acquired Dadonov from Ottawa. No official statement regarding how exactly the Senators mishandled that trade has been released, but The Athletic’s Jesse Granger writes on X that the issue relates to the Senators’ handling of the no-trade list in Dadonov’s contract.

While the league did not elaborate on any specifics as to what the Senators did that merited such a punishment, the fact that a first-round pick has been docked sends a signal that the league deemed serious punishment in order for the Senators.

Per the league’s statement, the NHL nor any of the involved clubs will comment further on this matter, meaning no official explanation of the reasons for this punishment will come.

Thankfully, reporting from Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch sheds some light on the situation. Garrioch reported that today’s punishment has come “as a result of general manager Pierre Dorion giving the Knights the wrong information about the existence of Dadonov’s 10-team ‘no move’ clause.”

The Golden Knights, seemingly believing that Dadonov did not possess no-trade protection, attempted to trade the player to the Anaheim Ducks in a move that was eventually vetoed by the league.

Garrioch added: “The Knights were under the impression that Dadonov hadn’t entered a 10-team no-trade list before the 2021-22 campaign so he no longer had one.”

This appears to have been an issue for Golden Knights management, as Garrioch cites a source who said: “Vegas president of hockey operations George McPhee and GM Kelly McCrimmon refused to let this matter go and appealed to the NHL’s head office to look into it,” a move that resulted in today’s punishment.

Garrioch also laid out the Senators’ argument in defense of their actions, stating that at the time of the trade, the Senators “argued that Vegas had the contract on its books for eight months” and had not looked “at the details” of the contract. While it’s true that the Golden Knights had employed Dadonov for quite a bit of time before the trade, it seems this argument was not sufficient to stave off punishment from the league.

This reported chain of events has not been officially confirmed, and the league’s statement today makes clear that no official confirmation is set to come. But regardless of what exactly happened in Ottawa to merit this kind of punishment, the reality the Senators now face is that they have lost a key asset for their future.

Their right to choose which draft pick they surrender does offer them some crucial flexibility in the matter, especially if the team misses the playoffs this season and ends up in the draft lottery. Just a few years after the Senators had to watch the Colorado Avalanche draft Bowen Byram fourth-overall with a draft pick that once belonged to them, the Senators will not want a repeat of that situation.

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