Toronto’s Auston Matthews Suffers Shoulder Injury
Sunday: Head coach Mike Babcock said that Matthews will be re-evaluated on Monday, according to NHL.com’s Dave McCarthy. However, Babcock did admit that Matthews will not practice Sunday or play in Monday’s game against Calgary.
“He’s not ready right away for sure,” Babcock said.
Saturday: The Toronto Maple Leafs got some bad news as star Auston Matthews suffered a shoulder injury during the second period of their game against the Winnipeg Jets Saturday. The center took a big hit (video here) from Winnipeg’s Jacob Trouba and skated off in pain, immediately exiting the game. It didn’t take long before the team announced that he will not return to the game. This marks the third shoulder injury in his career.
Any significant injury would be devastating for both Matthews and the team. The 21-year-old Matthews is having the best start of his career, posting 10 goals and 16 points in the team’s first 10 games (not including this one), but he missed 20 games due to injury last year (including a second-degree shoulder separation injury) and the Maple Leafs would like to avoid another long stretch of games without their star center. Matthews also suffered a significant shoulder injury in juniors. Any injury would likely push John Tavares into an even bigger role for the team as well as promote Nazem Kadri to the team’s second line.
If Matthews does miss time, it could be a way for restricted free agent William Nylander to get that extra leverage and force the team to hand him a contract closer to the $8MM pricetag that he’s asking for. The two sides have been far apart in contract negotiations as time is starting to run out. A significant injury could force Toronto to add some money to the deal to get him into their lineup as quick as possible to keep their offense rolling.
Central Notes: Laine, Vesalainen, Dickinson, Fortin
Despite winger Patrik Laine finding himself on the fourth line for a second straight game, Winnipeg Jets head coach Paul Maurice came to his player’s defense today. The 20-year-old Laine has just one even-strength point so far this season, prompting Maurice to swap Mathieu Perreault with Laine on Friday in their 2-1 win over Detroit. The move had few ramifications towards Laine’s numbers as he still managed to play 17:08 throughout the game. Yet the coach was quick to defend him.
“He’s 20,” Maurice said (via TSN’s Mark Masters). “He’s going to keep getting better…We need him to continue. He’s 20 & just learning the game.”
Maurice said the main goal of making the switch between Laine and Perrault was that Perrault was “buzzing” and he wanted to give the veteran a bigger role, pointing out that the power play (with Laine) was still “outstanding.”
- Sticking with Jets, the Winnipeg Sun’s Ted Wyman reports that the recall of Tucker Poolman is expected to be the last roster move before the team travels to Finland for their two-game global series with the Florida Panthers. That means that 19-year-old Finn Kristian Vesalainen, the team’s 2017 first-rounder, won’t be going on the trip then as he remains with the Manitoba Moose of the AHL. He has four assists in two games there, but still hasn’t been brought back to Winnipeg.
- Mark Stepneski of NHL.com writes that Dallas Stars winger Jason Dickinson has seen his confidence soar in the last week and is starting to show that he can provide some of that secondary scoring the team desperately needs. The team has gotten 15 of its 19 goals this season from four players, including Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, John Klingberg and Alexander Radulov. However, Dickinson showed some impressive play last Tuesday, although all he got out of it was an assist. However, he followed that up Thursday with a two goal, three-point night, showing he can put up numbers. “I think it’s been building since training camp,” head coach Jim Montgomery said. “For a player to start to gain confidence in this league, it’s not easy. We thought he had a really good training camp and then the season started with a bit of inconsistency, but you’re starting to see it build.”
- The Chicago Tribune’s Jimmy Greenfield writes that Chicago Blackhawks forward Alexandre Fortin is starting to find his place on the Blackhawks’ roster. The 21-year-old has two goals and an assist over the past four games, and while head coach Joel Quenneville keeps changing lines on him, but the coach likes Fortin’s speed a little more than his defensive deficiencies. “(Defense) is a work in progress, but it’s been a good start for him,” Quenneville said. “It’s been a positive beginning because his speed has definitely been a big factor.”
Minor Transactions: 10/27/18
Rivalries are set to renew tonight, with the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens set to square off for the first time this season and the St. Louis Blues looking to bounce back from two early losses to the Chicago Blackhawks. Teams in action tonight as well as teams adjusting from a particularly painful slate of games last night will be making roster moves throughout the day. Keep up with the changes here:
- One of those aforementioned injuries last night was sustained by the Ottawa Senators’ Zack Smith, who sustained a facial fracture in a loss to the Colorado Avalanche. With the Sens currently on a road trip and set to face the Vegas Golden Knights tomorrow, the team has worked quickly to replace Smith’s roster spot. The team announced the recall of forward Jack Rodewald from their AHL affiliate in Belleville. Rodewald skated in four games with Ottawa last season and was held scoreless, but is off to a hot start in the minors with seven points in eight games.
- The Edmonton Oilers have activated defenseman Matt Benning from the injured reserve. Benning was placed on the IR last week with an undisclosed injury and has returned as soon as possible from the mysterious ailment. In a corresponding move, the Oilers have returned Kevin Gravel to the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors. Gravel had been called up to replace Benning, but saw very limited ice time in two games with Edmonton. The free agent addition will have to return to the minors, where he had played well, and continue to show that he is worthy of an NHL roster spot.
- Veteran forward Ryan White has signed a PTO with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose, affiliate of the Winnipeg Jets, the team announced. White, spent the entire 2017-18 season outside the NHL – split between the AHL’s San Diego Gulls and Iowa Wild – for the first time since his first pro season in the Montreal Canadiens’s system in 2008-09. The experienced grinder has had trouble locking down a job at all for this season, attending camp with the Minnesota Wild and then returning to Iowa, but to no avail. The owner of 313 NHL games (and 447 penalty minutes) could bring leadership and grit to Manitoba if he can prove that he can still skate at a pro level. White is the type of player who could even earn a pro-rated NHL contract late in the year with Winnipeg as fourth line depth. Only time will tell how this latest stop works out for the veteran.
- The Jets have recalled defenseman Tucker Poolman from Manitoba, who makes his return to the Winnipeg lineup. The 25-year-old skated in 25 games with the Jets last year in his first pro season, but failed to break camp this year. The University of North Dakota stalwart is a more than capable defender, but suffers from playing in a deep organization. Blocked by Jacob Trouba, Dustin Byfuglien, and Tyler Myers on the right side of the blue line, Poolman is not guaranteed to see the ice on this recall, but will make the most of the opportunity if he does.
- The Tampa Bay Lightning decided to go with a veteran minor league defenseman to replace Victor Hedman in the lineup for the next week until he is re-evaluated while the all-star is forced to sit out with an upper-body injury. The Lightning announced they have recalled Cameron Gaunce from Syracuse of the AHL who likely will be used as an extra defender for the team. The 28-year-old has already played eight full seasons in the AHL, while only having appeared in 32 NHL games during that span. He currently has a goal and an assist in six games with the Crunch.
Agent Mike Liut Set To Bury The “Bridge Deal” This Off-Season
For some time now, the landscape of NHL contracts has been changing, trending away from short and relatively inexpensive contracts for young restricted free agents. These “bridge deals” had long been used by teams to keep promising young talent on a reasonable price tag after their entry-level contract expired. While teams have been complicit in the movement away from bridge deals, players have simply begun to produce at a much higher level far sooner than in the past and, in turn, agents have demanded more term and salary than they ever had the leverage to command previously. The bridge deal is not yet extinct, but players and their representatives are having a much easier time landing expensive, long-term deals as early as possible in recent years.
While the beginning of the end for affordable youth can be traced back to superstars like Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin – whose cap hits now look like bargains some years later – it is within the last few years that young players of a lesser caliber than the all-world exception have been able to land similar pacts. The architect of multiple recent deals of great length and value has been Mike Liut of Octagon Sports. A former NHLer himself, Liut is the director of Octagon’s hockey division. Forbes reports that Liut manages 22 clients and over $325MM in player salary. His efforts to eliminate the bridge deal have played no small part in that impressive total. Liut negotiated the eight-year, $60MM contract signed by the St. Louis Blues’ Vladimir Tarasenko back in 2015, when Tarasenko had less than 200 NHL games to his credit. He then put together the eight-year, $49MM contract of the Winnipeg Jets’ Mark Scheifele in 2016, before he became the point-per-game player he is today. However, the crown jewel of Liut’s collection has to be the massive eight-year, $68MM contract belonging to the Edmonton Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl. Signed last year, Draisaitl’s deal carries an $8.5MM cap hit that is among the top fifteen players in the league. Yet, Liut somehow landed Draisaitl that deal after just two and half seasons, only one of which was truly impressive.
Now, Liut has a chance at a repeat performance of the Draisaitl deal not once, not twice, not even thrice, but with four different prominent players this off-season. Liut counts Patrik Laine, Mikko Rantanen, Brock Boeser, and Jake Guentzel among his clients and each of those four is set to have their entry-level contract expire this off-season. Winnipeg’s Laine has finished in the top ten in goal scoring in each of his first two seasons and was second only to Ovechkin for the league lead last year. Colorado’s Rantanen recorded 84 points in 81 games last year and currently shares the NHL lead in points and assists. Vancouver’s Boeser finished second in Calder Trophy voting last year and led the Canucks in scoring. Pittsburgh’s Guentzel is a Stanley Cup champion and a proven clutch scorer. Liut has shown an ability to bypass the bridge deal before and has an excellent chance at landing each of these players an expensive long-term deal. Other restricted free agents like Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and Sebastian Aho are also certain to land similar deals. As such, in an off-season with an abnormal amount of high-profile RFA’s, each one could end up with an expensive, long-term extension. The effect, as Liut hopes, that the bridge deal dies as a result.
Central Notes: Makar, Dunn, Morrissey, Vesalainen
The Colorado Avalanche may be focused on the present, but their future looks bright as well. Not only do the Avalanche have the Ottawa Senators first-round pick this season, which could be a lottery pick despite the team’s success early on this year, the team likes what it sees from Cale Makar, the fourth-overall pick in 2017.
The 19-year-old, who is in his sophomore year at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, has been dominating so far in the early games of the season. UMass reports that Makar leads the NCAA already in points/game with 2.33 as he has three goals and seven points in three games. Makar, who had a good season last year, had just 21 points in 34 games last season, putting him way ahead of where he was a year ago. There continue to be rumors that he’ll sign with the Avalanche after this collegiate season.
- The Athletic’s Jeremy Rutherford (subscription required) answers questions in a mailbag session and points out that the St. Louis Blues intend to put more responsibilities on the shoulders of second-year defenseman Vince Dunn, who has struggled getting minutes early in the season and has been scratched twice. However, Rutherford writes that the Blues believe he’s been one of their most effective defenders and is likely to receive top-four minutes from now on. Evidently, Dunn suffered through back issues over the summer and wasn’t able to get into top shape before the season started. Now that he’s almost back to the shape he was in last year, Dunn is likely to see an uptick in minutes. He’s already expected to be paired on the top defensive line with Alex Pietrangelo.
- In a notebook, The Athletic’s Eric Duhatschek (subscription required) writes that Winnipeg Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey is developing nicely after being drafted as an offensive-only defenseman back in 2013. Since then, he’s developed into an excellent shutdown defender and with Jacob Trouba, combine as the team’s shutdown defensive line against other team’s top players. However, when veteran defenseman Dustin Byfuglien went down with an injury last week, Morrissey was given his job on the No. 1 powerplay and still maintains that job despite Byfuglien’s return. Byfuglien has moved to the No. 2 power play role.
- With the Winnipeg Jets sending 2017 first-round pick Kristian Vesalainen down to Manitoba of the AHL Friday, Moose head coach Pascal Vincent said that the goal is to give the 19-year-old lots of minutes, especially on the power play to get him more ready to eventually return to Winnpeg. “…we want to put him in a position to be successful so he is going to play a lot of minutes and on the power play and I think for his development that’s the right thing,” Vincent said (via Dave Minuk of illegalcurve.com).
Minor Transactions: 10/15/18
A new week of NHL action is on the docket, with four games set for tonight. Teams will need to adjust their roster for their next test, and we’ll be right here keeping track of all the minor moves.
- The Pittsburgh Penguins have just one regulation win through their first four games, but seem to have gotten some good news today. The team has returned Tristan Jarry to the minor leagues after serving as an emergency call-up, and brought up recently waived Derek Grant to fill in. That surely means that Matt Murray is ready to return to action after suffering a concussion recently. Murray backed up Casey DeSmith this weekend, and is key to the Penguins’ hopes this season.
- Adam Gaudette has indeed been recalled by the Vancouver Canucks to replace Elias Pettersson on the roster, while the young forward deals with a concussion. Gaudette has four points in four games with the Utica Comets of the AHL this season, after signing and making his debut at the end of last year with the Canucks. The fifth-round pick is an exciting prospect for Vancouver, who dominated at the college level with Northeastern.
- After losing Marko Dano on waivers the Winnipeg Jets have activated Nic Petan from the non-roster list. Petan is still looking to break through and establish himself as a full-time NHL player with the Jets, but can’t seem to find much production thus far in his career. With Dano out of the way there is one less obstacle, but he’ll still need to improve his overall play.
- The San Jose Sharks have sent Dylan Gambrell back to the AHL, in order to get the young forward on the ice. He hadn’t yet suited up with the Sharks, but will now get another chance to play with the San Jose Barracuda, where he scored three points in his debut this season. Gambrell is a very interesting prospect for the Sharks who was one of the top playmakers in the country at the collegiate level, but is still waiting on his first NHL point.
- The St. Louis Blues will inject some youth and energy into their lineup, swapping out a veteran grinder for a young power forward. CapFriendly reports that the team has reassigned Chris Thorburn, while recalling Zach Sanford. Thorburn, in his fourteenth season in the NHL, is a serviceable checking line player, but at 35 has slowed down significantly and is no longer much of a two-way threat. He had skated in just one game for the Blues so far this year. Meanwhile, Sanford did not play in the NHL last season, missing most of the year due to injury, but now healthy has looked impressive in training camp and through four games with the AHL’s San Antonio Rampage. In his rookie season with the Blues and Washington Capitals in 2017-18, Sanford scored at a pace comparable to the best seasons of Thorburn’s career and should be a noticeable offensive upgrade over the older forward.
- Joseph Blandisi has been recalled by the Anaheim Ducks, CapFriendly reports. The former New Jersey Devils prospect played in three games for the Ducks last season, but hopes to stick around longer this year. Blandisi notched two assists in his first three games with the AHL’s San Diego Gulls this season.
Colorado Avalanche Claim Marko Dano
It seemed likely that Marko Dano would be claimed by some team in the NHL after he was waived by the Winnipeg Jets yesterday, and this time it was the Colorado Avalanche with the winning claim. The Avalanche will add Dano to their young group and hope he can start to live up to the high potential he’s shown in flashes throughout his career. Today’s waivers include only Stephen Gionta of the New York Islanders after he was signed this weekend, while Alex Biega has cleared and can be sent to the minor leagues.
Dano, 23, was a first-round pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2013, but will now be with his fourth NHL organization. Traded first as part of the package that brought Brandon Saad to the Blue Jackets, he was then flipped to the Jets in a package for Andrew Ladd. In Winnipeg he failed to make much of an impact, registering just 22 points in 82 games while sitting in the press box or the injury room for most of his time there. He’ll try to change that in Colorado, where there is a bigger opportunity given the team’s less polished forward group.
Colorado now has ten forwards on the roster age 25 or under, and only three players on the whole roster—Carl Soderberg, Erik Johnson and Semyon Varlamov—who have had their thirtieth birthday. That young core surprised the entire league last season when they made the playoffs, and are off to a fine start with three commanding wins in their first five games. Dano still has the potential to be a key player in that group, but will have to quickly show his ability and prove that he deserves a long-term spot with the club. On a one-year, $800K contract this season, if he fails to crack the lineup on a regular basis there may be reason to not extend him a qualifying offer this summer given his arbitration rights.
Central Notes: Byfuglien, Suter, MacKinnon, Eriksson Ek
The Winnipeg Jets open up a six-game homestand, but will be without one of their best players as defenseman Dustin Byfuglien will sit out Sunday due to an upper-body injury he sustained in practice Saturday, according to the Winnipeg Sun’s Ken Wiebe.
He is listed as day-to-day, according to head coach Paul Maurice. The 6-foot-5, 260-pound blueliner will be a major loss as the team hosts the red-hot Carolina Hurricanes, who have been impressive in the first week and a half of the season. The team will turn to Dmitry Kulikov to make his season debut in place of Byfuglien and will likely be paired with Ben Chiarot on the bottom pairing.
“It’s been a lot of hard work over the summer and I knew at some point I was going to get in the lineup,” said Kulikov, who dealt with off-season back surgery. “It’s exciting for me. I just want to get out there and play some games.”
- Much praise has been given towards the recent play of Minnesota Wild defenseman Ryan Suter, which has been impressive in the last few games, according to Pioneer Press’ Dane Mizutani. That’s key after the veteran defenseman is returning from a broken right ankle late last season. His numbers have improved in the four games he’s played so far this season as his ATOI has increased in each game that he’s played so far as he played 28:21 in Saturday’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes. He also has posted a goal and three assists in his last two games.
- Nathan MacKinnon has started his season off on a positive note as he has already tallied six goals in his first five games, yet the Colorado Avalanche center indicates that he can do even better. “I think I can dominate more than I am,” said MacKinnon, the reigning Hart Trophy runner-up. MacKinnon currently is tied for third place in goal scoring behind Toronto’s Auston Matthews and Boston’s David Pastrnak.
- Sarah McLellan of the StarTribune reports the injured center Joel Eriksson Ek was skating this morning. He was reportedly expected to miss a week after suffering a lower-body injury. There is no update on his status, however, and the team is still considering recalling a player from the Iowa Wild of the AHL with a back-to-back games approaching. While he hasn’t posted any points yet in three games, many have been impressed by the play of the 21-year-old center.
Alex Biega, Marko Dano Placed On Waivers
Two players were placed on waivers Sunday as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that Vancouver’s Alex Biega and Winnipeg’s Marko Dano have been placed on the waiver wire.
Dano could be an interesting player for teams looking for a winger. The 23-year-old has been unable to grab a full-time role with the Jets over the last few years and now the 2013 first-rounder will be exposed to waivers and could be a legitimate candidate for a team to grab, albeit one who has struggled adjusting to the NHL. However, a new opportunity could change everything. Dano has played 130 NHL games over the course of his career, but just played in 23 last season, putting up two goals and an assist. In 82 games with the Jets, he’s posted 10 goals and 12 assists.
Dano may have been made expendable as Nic Petan is ready to return from the non-roster list, but that hasn’t happened yet. Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun speculates that Winnipeg attempted to trade Dano, but failed to find any takers. The team opted to put Dano on waivers rather than send Brendan Lemieux to the minors.
Biega wasn’t much of a surprise as the team announced those intentions Saturday, but couldn’t put him on waivers until this morning. The team had to make room for forward Antoine Roussel and were forced to make a move, but used provision 16.12b in the CBA to make Biega a non-roster player until he could be waived. The 30-year-old defenseman has played the role of an emergency defenseman for Vancouver for a number of years as he’s appeared sporadically over the past three seasons, totaling 131 games in three seasons, while playing just 15 with the Utica Comets.
Morning Notes: Mason, Van Riemsdyk, Hutchinson, Maroon
While there are a few free agents still out on the market, one may not be coming back. Free agent goaltender Steve Mason may be ready to hang up his skates despite having received an offer from an NHL team looking for a backup, according to Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston on Saturday Headlines.
“He had a ton of injuries last season, he had concussion and knee issues, he’s been through a lot in his career, and the sense is he may actually be done in the NHL,” Johnston said.
Mason signed a two-year, $8.2MM deal last offseason with the Winnipeg Jets, but was limited to just 13 games due to multiple concussions and a knee injury. He finished the season with a 3.24 GAA and a .906 save percentage. The Jets, looking to free up some cap space, sent Mason, Joel Armia and two draft picks to Montreal for prospect Simon Bourque (who has since been released) to unload him. Montreal bought Mason out not long thereafter, making him a free agent.
- The Philadelphia Flyers will have to wait until Monday to find out the injury status of marquee free agent James van Riemsdyk, who was hit in his right knee during the first period of Saturday’s game against Colorado and was forced to leave the game, according to Philly.com’s Sam Carchidi. The 29-year-old posted 36 goals last season for Toronto and would be a big loss if he had to miss any stretch of time. “I’m concerned he wasn’t able to come back,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “I don’t know the extent of it.”
- The Athletic’s George Richards reports that the Florida Panthers intend to recall Michael Hutchinson from Springfield of the AHL at some point in the next few days, but with the team not playing again until Thursday, the team doesn’t have to make an immediate move. The Panthers signed Hutchinson this offseason, who has more than 100 games of NHL experience, as the team’s third-string goalie for this reason as Luongo has a long injury history. Hutchinson played 26 games for the Manitoba Moose of the AHL last season and boasted a .936 save percentage. Due to injuries, however, he only made three appearances with the Jets last year.
- St. Louis Blues’ Pat Maroon could be playing himself into a long-term extension with his play Saturday night, according to The Athletic’s Jeremy Rutherford (subscription required). The 6-foot-3, 225-pound power forward dominated the game for the St. Louis Blues, despite eventually falling in overtime to Chicago. Maroon, who signed a one-year, $1.75MM contract to return to him hometown, could walk away with a more lucrative deal after the season is over if he continues to play the way he did Saturday.