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Brenden Dillon Receives Three-Game Suspension

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After conducting a phone hearing with Jets defenseman Brenden Dillon earlier today, the Department of Player Safety has issued its ruling, handing the blueliner a three-game suspension for an illegal check to the head.  The incident occurred early in the second period of last night’s game against Pittsburgh’s Noel Acciari, a match penalty was assessed on the play.  Acciari left the game and did not return; there is no word yet on the severity of his injury.

In the Department’s video ruling, they indicated that Dillon’s hit satisfied both ends of the criteria in Rule 48 for an illegal check to the head.  The principal point of contact was the head while the hit itself was avoidable, leading to the suspension.

It’s the second suspension of Dillon’s career as he received a one-game ban back in 2017 for slashing.

As a result of the suspension, Dillon will be out of Winnipeg’s lineup until February 17th when they take on Vancouver.  He will forfeit just under $61K in salary which instead will go to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

Winnipeg Activates Mark Scheifele, Axel Jonsson-Fjällby Clears Waivers

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2/7: Jonsson-Fjällby has cleared waivers. He will be assigned to the AHL’s Manitoba Moose, per the Winnipeg Free Press’ Ken Wiebe.

2/6: The Winnipeg Jets have placed forward Axel Jonsson-Fjällby on waivers to make space for the return of star forward Mark Scheifele. Scheifele has been out since January 11th, missing the team’s last six games. Winnipeg has felt the effects of Scheifele’s absence, going 2-3-1 without the forward, getting outscored nine to 14. The team’s performance has been a far, far cry from the dazzling 16-1-2 record they set in Scheifele’s most recent 18 games.

Scheifele was nursing a four-game point streak prior to his injury, helping build his season total to 14 goals and 41 points in 41 games – a mark that still leads the team in scoring despite his absences. Scheifele has been Winnipeg’s most-used forward, averaging just over 20 minutes of ice time this season. The mark has brought his career average ice time to an even 20 minutes through 764 career games. Every single one of those games has been spent with the Jets, who drafted Scheifele seventh overall in the 2011 NHL Draft. He has since played in the 10th-most games of anyone in that draft class, though he’s scored the fourth-most points. Scheifele was part of a loaded 2011 Draft that also featured Nikita Kucherov, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Mika Zibanejad, and Dougie Hamilton.

With Scheifele returning, the Jets will now risk losing winger Jonsson-Fjällby, who is in his second season with the organization after being claimed off of waivers from the Washington Capitals. Jonsson-Fjällby was drafted by Washington in the fifth round of the 2016 NHL Draft and made his professional debut with the AHL’s Hershey Bears in 2018-19. He’s since played in 99 career NHL games, scoring 23 points. Jonsson-Fjällby has five points in 26 NHL games this year, as well as five points in 10 AHL games. He will look to jump back into the NHL lineup soon, eyeing the 100th game of his NHL career.

Brenden Dillon To Have Hearing With Department Of Player Safety

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The NHL’s Department of Player Safety tweeted this morning that Winnipeg Jets defenseman Brenden Dillon will have a hearing today for his illegal check to the head of Pittsburgh Penguins forward Noel Acciari. According to Frank Seravalli of DailyFaceoff, the hearing will be a phone hearing, meaning that Dillon will receive a suspension of five games or less.

The hit happened at the 4:15 mark of the second period in a game that was 1-0 Pittsburgh at the time. Dillon was originally given a two-minute penalty and then received a match penalty on the play after it was reviewed.

Acciari hit the ice hard and in a scary moment tried to get up to his feet but fell back to the ice. He eventually skated off with assistance from the Penguins training staff and left the game with an undisclosed injury. Acciari was visibly bloody from the incident. The Penguins scored twice on the five-minute powerplay and eventually beat the Jets 3-0.

It wasn’t Dillon’s first run-in with the Penguins as Dillon has had some tough battles with Pittsburgh while he was a member of the Washington Capitals. He also had an incident back in January 2022 where he broke the jaw of former Penguins’ center Teddy Blueger with what appeared to be a check to the head. Dillon escaped discipline for that hit, but that doesn’t appear to be the case this time around.

Dillon’s absence will create a hole on the Jets’ backend as he has been playing over 18 minutes a night this season and is having one of his better offensive seasons while still providing sound defensive play for the team.

Snapshots: Kochetkov, Monahan, Cousins, Hughes

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Pyotr Kochetkov has been confirmed as the starter for the Carolina Hurricanes’ Tuesday night game against the Vancouver Canucks, per head coach Rod Brind’Amour. This will be Kochetkov’s first game since suffering a concussion on January 11th. He was red-hot before the injury, going 7-1-2 and setting a .924 save percentage in his last 11 games. That includes a four-game winning streak leading up to the injury that saw Kochetkov post a .936 save percentage on 110 shots against.

Carolina has felt the impact of Kochetkov’s absences, seeing their average goals-against jump from 2.45 in Kochetkov’s last 11 appearances to 2.71 in the seven games that he’s missed. That hasn’t been enough of a difference to stifle the red-hot Hurricanes, though the team’s goal-differential has gone from +17 to just +1 in the same periods. The Hurricanes have relied on five different goalies through the 2023-24 season, facing multiple injuries and absences in net. They will hope to find their starting goalie for the second half of the season soon, with both Kochetkov and Frederik Andersen progressing in their return from injury. Andersen has been out since November 2nd with a blood clotting disorder.

Other notes from around the league:

Jets To Activate Mark Scheifele From Injured Reserve

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The Jets will activate Mark Scheifele off injured reserve before Tuesday’s game against the Penguins, head coach Rick Bowness told reporters Sunday (via Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press). Winnipeg’s leading point-getter has not played since he sustained a lower-body injury against the Blackhawks on Jan. 11.

Scheifele, 30, will resume a first-line role between Kyle Connor and Gabriel Vilardi as the Jets aim to regain the top spot in the Central Division. They were 6-3-1 in their last 10 games heading into the All-Star break and trail the division-leading Avalanche by two points with two games in hand.

It will be a bit of a new look for Scheifele, who’s rarely played with both Connor and Vilardi together at even strength this season. His return will give the Jets a fully healthy top-six for Sean Monahan’s debut with the team on Tuesday after an All-Star break acquisition from the Canadiens.

Winnipeg’s all-time leader in goals since the franchise moved from Atlanta in 2011 has recaptured his point-per-game form, posting 14 goals and 27 assists for 41 points in 41 games. He leads all Jets forwards in ice time by averaging 20:16 per game, narrowly ahead of Connor’s 20:10 mark.

His goal-scoring may not be at last year’s 42-goal pace, but he is shooting 1.8% below his career average. His finishing should improve marginally in the second half of the campaign.

Scheifele is in the final season of an eight-year, $49MM deal signed in 2016. He’s already inked a seven-year, $59.5MM extension that will keep him in Winnipeg through 2031.

The Jets have a full 23-player roster, so they’ll need to reassign someone tomorrow to create space for Scheifele to come off IR. That could be Dominic Toninato, who will require waivers for the third time this season if he’s the odd man out. He’s spent more than 30 days on the active roster since his last recall on Dec. 27, removing his temporary exemption.

Jets Acquire Sean Monahan From Canadiens

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10:39 a.m.: The Canadiens have confirmed the deal as reported.

9:44 a.m.: The Jets are nearing a deal to acquire center Sean Monahan from the Canadiens, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports Friday. Montreal will receive a first-round pick plus a conditional later-round pick in return, per TSN’s Darren Dreger. Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press confirms the first-round pick is Winnipeg’s 2024 selection. Dreger adds the conditional pick is a third-round choice in 2027, which will be transferred to Montreal if the Jets win the Stanley Cup this season.

TSN’s Darren Dreger said earlier Friday that interest in Monahan had spiked after the Flames opened trade season by dealing first-line center Elias Lindholm to the Canucks on Wednesday for an expansive return. The Jets and an undisclosed team were still in talks with the Canadiens as of Friday morning, according to Dreger’s report.

Monahan, 29, is on a one-year contract carrying a $1.985MM cap hit with a $2MM AAV. The difference comes from a $15K performance bonus awarded if he reached 26 games played in 2023-24 that the Canadiens have already paid out, per CapFriendly.

The Jets will not have to concede a roster player in this deal for financial purposes. They have $3.8MM in accumulated cap space at the time of the deal and can absorb Monahan’s full contract without retention. The Athletic’s Arpon Basu confirmed the Canadiens are not retaining salary in the trade.

While Monahan may not have the two-way acumen and minute-munching reputation of Lindholm, he’s outpaced his former Flames teammate on the scoresheet this season. The 2013 sixth-overall pick has managed to avoid injury this season and, as such, is having his best offensive campaign since his career-best 34-goal, 82-point season in 2018-19.

At the time of the deal, Monahan is tied for second on the Habs in goals with captain Nick Suzuki (13), third in assists (22), and ranks third on the team with 35 points. His 399 faceoff wins are the most of any Canadien. After missing the last 57 games of last season with groin and foot injuries, he looks no worse for wear and is shouldering top-six minutes in the process, averaging 18:27 per game.

That production comes despite Montreal head coach Martin St. Louis using Monahan in a shutdown role. 61% of his zone starts at even strength have come in the defensive zone, 16% higher than his career average. As such, he’s struggled to replicate his strong possession numbers from last season’s limited stint in the Habs lineup, but he has posted a positive relative possession share in limited minutes on the penalty kill and contributed two shorthanded goals.

The Jets don’t need Monahan to shoulder such heavy defensive zone usage – captain Adam Lowry has that handled down the middle. He can, however, fill the second-line center role behind Mark Scheifele and create a domino effect in the Jets’ middle six. With Monahan in the fold, capable secondary scoring options Mason Appleton and Nino Niederreiter can now anchor a third line with Lowry, and 22-year-old Cole Perfetti can maintain a second-line role with a little less responsibility on the wing. Monahan isn’t a long-term acquisition – at least not yet – and making the deal doesn’t impact Perfetti’s long-term standing as a potential piece down the middle in Winnipeg.

Notably, Canadiens GM Kent Hughes has now recouped two first-round picks for two seasons and 74 games of Monahan’s play. Montreal acquired a conditional 2025 first-round pick from the Flames to take on the final season of Monahan’s previous contract, which carried a $6.375MM cap hit. After posting six goals and 17 points in last season’s 25-game showing, Hughes signed Monahan to his current one-year deal in June.

While the Jets won’t need to make any salary cap-related moves to get this trade done, they may need to waive two players after the All-Star break if Scheifele and David Gustafsson are ready to return from their respective injuries. Both players are currently on injured reserve, but after acquiring Monahan, the Jets have a full 23-player roster with no room to activate them. The only waiver-exempt player on the Jets’ roster is Perfetti, who won’t be sent down.

Central Notes: Jets, Blues, Blackhawks

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Scott Billeck of The Winnipeg Sun speculated today about what the Winnipeg Jets might do with their available extra roster spot. The Jets currently sit third in the Central Division with a 30-12-5 record and could be looking to make a big swing at the upcoming NHL trade deadline.

The Jets will need a roster spot to activate center Mark Scheifele off the injured reserve but have some other roster moves they could make including waiving Dominic Toninato or Axel Jonsson-Fjallby and sending them down to the Manitoba Moose. Billick wonders if the Jets might opt to do that and call up Ville Heinola so the team can have eight available NHL defensemen.

He also wondered if the Jets might offer up Heinola in a trade if they are looking to make a bigger move at this year’s trade deadline.

In other Central Division notes:

  • Elliotte Friedman mentioned on his 32 Thoughts podcast that St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong has made several players available on the NHL trade market but hasn’t been able to generate much in the way of interest. There is one player that Friedman believes that the Blues could trade easily and that is forward Pavel Buchnevich. Friedman adds that moving the 28-year-old would be a pretty easy trade to make which indicates to Friedman that the Blues likely aren’t interested in moving on from him. Buchnevich is having a terrific year in St. Louis with 17 goals and 22 assists in 46 games while averaging almost 20 minutes a night in ice time.
  • Elliotte Friedman indicated on his 32 Thoughts podcast that the Chicago Blackhawks had kicked the tires on Vancouver Canucks forward Andrei Kuzmenko. A potential trade makes sense from both sides given that the Blackhawks are in desperate need of scoring and the Canucks need to move out some salary. Kuzmenko would be a bounce-back candidate for the Blackhawks if they were able to facilitate a move as he had 74 points in 81 games last season but has struggled this year with just eight goals and 13 assists in 43 games. Kuzmenko has a year left on his contract after this season at $5.5MM meaning that the Blackhawks would be acquiring a player they could move at next year’s deadline as a rental if he isn’t a fit with their core.

Minnesota Wild Claim Declan Chisholm Off Waivers From Winnipeg

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The Minnesota Wild have claimed defenseman Declan Chisholm off of waivers from the Winnipeg Jets. Chisholm has played in two games with the Jets this season, scoring one point. He’s also appeared in six games and scored five points with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose.

Chisholm will leave a Jets organization that he’s been with since being drafted in the fifth round of the 2018 NHL Draft. He made his professional debut in the 2020-21 season when he appeared in 28 games and scored 13 points with the Moose. He’s since only played in four career NHL games, though he has totaled 116 games and 91 points in the AHL – including 43 points in 59 games last season.

Chisholm provides the Wild with another option on defense besides Dakota Mermis and Daemon Hunt, who has served as the de facto fill-ins when Minnesota has faced injury. And they have been needed, with every Wild defender except for Brock Faber and Jacob Middleton missing some duration of time this season. That includes team captain Jared Spurgeon, who is out for the season with a hip injury. While the injuries have been a defining weakness of Minnesota’s season, they could provide Chisholm the chance to receive extended ice time in the NHL for the first time in his career. He will look to beat out Mermis, who has appeared in 33 games and scored seven points this season.

Jets Place Declan Chisholm On Waivers

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The Jets placed defenseman Declan Chisholm on waivers for the purposes of assignment to AHL Manitoba on Sunday, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

The 24-year-old Chisholm has played sparingly this season and is currently on a run of 23 straight healthy scratches. His only two NHL games came in back-to-back showings against the Blackhawks and Hurricanes in early December, in which he recorded one assist and controlled 47.8% of Corsi events at even strength while averaging 11:33 per game.

He does have five assists in six games with AHL Manitoba this season, coming by way of a mid-November conditioning stint. The Jets have been hesitant to expose last year’s AHL All-Star Classic participant to waivers for fear of losing him for no return.

As Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press points out, placing Chisholm on waivers today is likely an attempt to sneak him through the wire while most teams are beginning their All-Star break. The 2018 fifth-round pick finished second among Manitoba defensemen with 43 points in 59 games last season.

Chisholm signed a one-year, two-way deal worth $775K with a minimum salary guarantee of $120K to remain with Winnipeg after reaching restricted free agency last summer. He was one of the last remaining RFAs without a contract nearing training camps, waiting until Sep. 13 to put pen to paper on a deal. He will be an RFA again next summer but is not yet eligible for salary arbitration.

Central Snapshots: Vilardi, Gustafsson, Dermott, Gurianov

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The Winnipeg Jets are expecting the return of forwards Gabriel Vilardi and David Gustafsson soon, per team reporter Mike McIntyre with The Free Press. Both players are out with lower-body injuries, with Vilardi missing the team’s last two games and optimistic he can return soon, while Gustafsson has been on injured reserve since December 30th.

Vilardi missed roughly a month-and-a-half earlier in the season with a sprained MCL. He made his return on November 30th and has since scored 11 goals and 19 points in 23 games, while averaging over 17 minutes of ice time each game. That’s a scoring pace of 67 points across 82 games, which would mark a new career high for Vilardi, topping the 23 goals and 41 points he scored in 63 games last season. Vilardi is in his first season with Winnipeg, with the 24-year-old forward serving as a focal piece of the trade that sent Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Los Angeles Kings this summer.

Gustafsson has appeared in 27 games of his own this season, scoring four points while averaging roughly nine minutes of ice time. He appeared in his 100th NHL game on December 20th, recording one assist in the Jets’ 5-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings.

Other notes from the Western Conference:

  • The Arizona Coyotes have shared that defenseman Travis Dermott will miss the team’s Saturday night game with a lower-body injury. Dermott missed 12 games earlier in the season with a hand injury, making his return on December 7th. He has just two points in the 22 games he’s played since then, adding a -8 and eight penalty minutes.
  • Nashville Predators forward Denis Gurianov has lost his waiver exemption status, with Nashville’s Saturday afternoon game marking his 10th game since being recalled on January 6th. He’s scored two points in his stint with the Predators, who have become the third NHL club that Gurianov has played for across his seven-year NHL career. The 26-year-old has totaled 289 career games and 113 points, spending six years of his career with the Dallas Stars.

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