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Metropolitan Notes: Rangers, Dowd, Grebenkin

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The Rangers will be without a key forward tonight against Utah as Peter Baugh of The Athletic relays (Twitter link) that center J.T. Miller is listed as out day-to-day due to an upper-body injury.  In his first full season back with New York following a midseason trade in 2024-25, the 32-year-old is logging 20:41 per game and taking a regular turn on both special teams units.  However, as has been the case for a lot of the team so far, offense has been hard to come by as he has just six goals and six assists in 22 games despite seeing a lot of ice time on the top line.

Meanwhile, Baugh also noted that defenseman William Borgen remains listed as day-to-day with his upper-body injury which suggests he’ll miss a second straight game.  He has been a regular on the second pairing for the Rangers this season, picking up three points, 24 blocks, and 26 hits in 19 outings.

More from the Metropolitan:

  • Capitals center Nic Dowd was a full participant in practice today but will miss his third straight game tonight, relays Sammi Silber of The Hockey News. The 35-year-old has missed the last two contests due to an upper-body injury.  Dowd has a goal and four assists in 19 games so far this season while logging over 15 minutes per night of playing time.  Sonny Milano has played the last two games in Dowd’s absence and is expected to stay in the lineup for their game tonight against Tampa Bay.
  • The hope was that Flyers winger Nikita Grebenkin would be able to grab a hold of a full-time spot in the lineup this season. However, he has been scratched in seven of 19 games so far and has played just 9:35 per night in the dozen appearances he has made.  However, Jackie Spiegel of the Philadelphia Inquirer mentions that the organization is okay with how the 22-year-old has been handled, even with the limited action.  Grebenkin is waiver-exempt so if it’s decided that he could benefit from a bigger role and more ice time, they will be able to assign him to AHL Lehigh Valley to get him that opportunity.

Predators Activate Roman Josi Off Injured Reserve

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With the Predators sitting at a 6-10-4 record through their first 20 games, it’s fair to say that things haven’t gotten off to a good start this season.  There is some good news coming today, however, as the team announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Roman Josi will return to the lineup tonight against Colorado and has been activated off injured reserve.  The team had two open roster spots so corresponding moves were needed to activate him.

The 35-year-old has missed the last dozen games due to an upper-body injury sustained just under a month ago against Vancouver.  He was off to a nice start as well, chipping in with five points and 15 blocked shots in his first eight outings while averaging a team-high 24:05 per night of playing time.

When healthy, Josi remains a legitimate top-pairing defender although staying healthy has been a challenge as of late.  He missed the final 25 games last season and was later diagnosed with Postural Tachycardia Syndrome but was cleared to return for training camp.

Arguably, Nashville’s biggest move over the offseason was the trade acquisition and subsequent signing of blueliner Nicolas Hague with the hopes that he and Josi could form the new top pairing.  However, Hague missed the first eight games of the season with an upper-body injury of his own and his first game back was the first one that Josi missed.  Now, more than six weeks later than expected, the Preds will get a chance to see that duo in action as they were paired together at today’s morning skate.

Blues’ Alexandre Texier Considering Contract Termination, Placed On Unconditional Waivers

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Nov. 22: Texier did not report to the minors and he has been placed on unconditional waivers for the purpose of a contract termination, reports Stephen Whyno of the Associated Press.  If he passes through unclaimed as expected on Sunday at 1:00 PM CT, he will become an unrestricted free agent and his $2.1MM AAV will be off the books for the Blues entirely.

He clearly has gotten a head start on talking to other teams even while still signed with St. Louis.  Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports that nine teams are believed to have shown interest in signing Texier when he hits the open market but Texier and his agent Dan Milstein of Gold Star Sports Management have whittled the field down to two Eastern Conference teams.

Nov. 21: Texier has cleared waivers after being placed on them yesterday and has been assigned to AHL Springfield, the team announced. If he fails to report to the minors, he’ll be in breach of contract and can trigger a contract termination.

Nov. 20: Blues winger Alexandre Texier has considered asking for a contract termination to become an unrestricted free agent, reports Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. He remains on the Blues’ roster for now but has played just once since Oct. 28, sitting as a healthy scratch in nine of their last 10 games.

Texier, the first player in NHL history drafted directly from France’s Ligue Magnus, signed a two-year, $4.2MM contract with the Blues in June 2024 after they acquired his signing rights from the Blue Jackets. He was coming off a career-high 12 goals and 30 points in 78 games with Columbus, averaging north of 15 minutes per game, but the team wasn’t interested in re-signing him as they opened roster spots for a younger wave of prospects.

The 26-year-old just hasn’t been a fit in St. Louis. He made only 31 appearances last season and lost 15 games to illness and injury, meaning he spent nearly half the year in the press box. When dressed, he delivered career-average production on a per-game basis, notching six goals and five assists for 11 points. He did so in reduced ice time, averaging closer to 12:30 per game, as his role as a penalty killer in Columbus was stripped entirely from him with the Blues.

This season, Texier’s ice time has been slashed further to 10:15 per game. He’s only made eight out of 20 possible appearances, on track to finish with a similar workload to last season. Skating most commonly in fourth-line deployment with Nick Bjugstad and Nathan Walker, he’s logged one assist and nine hits. Perhaps more importantly, his chance generation is way down. He averaged 1.61 shots on goal per game last year – even more than he managed during his breakout year in Columbus – but that figure has nearly halved to 0.88 in 2025-26.

A contract termination would allow Texier to be uninhibited by his above-market-value $2.1MM cap hit as he looks for a new home. Still, he would be walking away from roughly 75% of his identical base salary for this season to do so. Whether he desires to remain in the NHL also remains to be seen. He’s made a move back to Europe before to be closer to his family in France, asking the Blue Jackets to spend the 2022-23 season on loan to Switzerland’s ZSC Lions, which they granted.

Olle Lycksell Clears Waivers

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Saturday: Lycksell has cleared waivers for the second straight month, Garrioch reports.  That will pave the way for him to be reassigned to AHL Belleville.

Friday: The Senators have placed winger Olle Lycksell on waivers, Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia reports. He hasn’t played since Nov. 8 and has been on injured reserve while in concussion protocol, so today’s news indicates he’s been cleared to return. Because he was on IR, he won’t count against Ottawa’s active roster while on waivers and will instead carry a non-roster designation for the next 24 hours.

Lycksell, 26, was a sixth-round pick by the Flyers back in 2017. He remained in the Philadelphia organization until last summer, when he became a Group VI unrestricted free agent and signed a two-way contract with Ottawa. In parts of three seasons on the Flyers’ NHL roster, he churned out a 1-10–11 scoring line in 45 appearances with a -6 rating. On the whole, he had underwhelming possession impacts with a 49.2 CF% at 5-on-5 and averaged 10:53 of ice time per game. Combined with a relative lack of physicality, he wasn’t much of a fit in a bottom-six role and struggled to land a consistent spot despite some high-end scoring numbers in the minors. Over his three seasons with the Flyers’ AHL affiliate in Lehigh Valley, he was nearly a point-per-game player with a 52-76–128 scoring line in 134 appearances.

Since he signed a two-way deal with the Sens and he wasn’t viewed as a threat to grab a top-nine job on the wings, many expected him to land on waivers during training camp. He did just that, but wasn’t assigned to AHL Belleville, at least not immediately. He’s remained on Ottawa’s active roster for the vast majority of the season, aside from a four-day demotion to Belleville in October and his recent IR placement.

Lycksell was used sparingly as an extra forward, though. He hasn’t appeared in more than two consecutive games this season and has just six total appearances, including just one since Oct. 28. His showing was a mixed bag. He did average a shot on goal per game and recorded his second career NHL tally, but his possession impacts weren’t good in sheltered fourth-line minutes. At 5-on-5 with Lycksell on the ice, the Senators have been outscored 4-2, outshot 33-23, and outchanced 34-30. That’s despite Lycksell receiving just one defensive zone start this year.

Given his minor-league success, Lycksell might generate some interest on the waiver wire, but his poor defensive impacts this season and lack of demonstrated upside at the NHL level point toward him clearing. Since they’re comfortable enough to expose him to waivers, he might be in line for a lengthier stint in Belleville, where he went without a point in two appearances last month.

Rangers Loan Talyn Boyko To Finnish League

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The Rangers have seven goaltenders under contract following the recent signing of Spencer Martin to a two-year, one-way contract.  When everyone’s healthy, that means someone is going to be a third-stringer which isn’t an ideal situation.

For now, at least, the Rangers have found a solution.  The team announced (Twitter link) that they have loaned netminder Talyn Boyko to KalPa in Finland.  It wasn’t specified if this is a rest-of-season loan or something more short-term with an eye on getting him some game action.

The 23-year-old was a fourth-round pick by New York back in 2021, going 112th overall.  At the time, he was the backup with WHL Tri-City but a move to Kelowna the following season put him into the clear starting role, one he held for two seasons before turning pro in 2023-24.

Over his first two professional campaigns, Boyko played primarily at the ECHL level with Cincinnati in his rookie year and Tulsa last season, Anaheim’s affiliate.  He posted a solid 2.66 GAA and a .913 SV% in 33 games with them, earning himself a five-game look with AHL Hartford.

This season, Boyko started off the campaign as the backup goalie with the Wolf Pack, playing behind Dylan Garand.  He has made five appearances, putting up a 3.10 GAA and a .894 SV% but now with Martin in the fold (though he has yet to play since signing), he was set to be relegated to third-string status.

Instead of loaning him to a different AHL or ECHL affiliate (Callum Tung and Hugo Ollas comprise the tandem with ECHL Bloomington), the Rangers have found a different opportunity for Boyko with a look in Finland.  A pending restricted free agent, it doesn’t seem likely that Boyko will be tendered a qualifying offer as things stand so this may be a chance for him to make a case for a contract overseas for 2026-27.

Senators Activate Thomas Chabot, Assign Lassi Thomson To AHL

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The Senators have made a pair of roster moves in advance of their game tonight against San Jose.  First, the team announced that defenseman Lassi Thomson has been sent back to AHL Belleville.  That opened up a roster spot which will be filled by blueliner Thomas Chabot who has been activated off injured reserve, per the NHL’s Media site.

Chabot has missed a week and a half due to an upper-body injury sustained against Dallas.  Before the injury, the 28-year-old was his usual two-way self on the back end, picking up two goals and eight assists in 17 games while blocking 35 shots and averaging a little under 22 minutes per game of playing time, second only to fellow blueliner Jake Sanderson.

Chabot will likely play on the second pairing in his return and it would make sense for Nick Jensen to move back into the other spot on that duo, a pairing that has played a lot together in the early going.  Whose spot Chabot takes in the lineup isn’t as certain though as Nikolas Matinpalo left Thursday’s game due to an injury.  If he can’t play, then Chabot will take his place but if Matinpalo is available, it could be him or Jordan Spence being scratched.

As for Thomson, the 25-year-old was brought up earlier this week as injury insurance for the first leg of Ottawa’s road trip but didn’t see any game action.  He last played in the NHL in the 2022-23 campaign and has five assists in 18 career NHL appearances.  In 15 games with Belleville, he has three goals and an assist.

Atlantic Notes: Maple Leafs, Benson, McAvoy

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While the Maple Leafs had both Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies available at practice yesterday, it appears they’ll be without both of them for at least one more game.  Head coach Craig Berube told reporters including TSN’s Mark Masters (Twitter link) that both forwards are considered as doubtful for tonight against Montreal.  Matthews has missed the last week and a half with a lower-body injury while Knies hasn’t played since last weekend due to a lower-body injury of his own.  Both players are key cogs in Toronto’s top-five attack (in terms of goals scored) with Matthews being tied for second on the team in goals while Knies sits third in points but they’ll have to wait another game at least before returning.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic:

  • After welcoming back Jason Zucker last night against Chicago, the Sabres should get another key winger back on Sunday versus Carolina. Head coach Lindy Ruff told reporters including Matthew Fairburn of The Athletic (Twitter link) before last night’s game that winger Zach Benson probably could have suited up in that one but they elected to be cautious and give him a couple of extra days of rest.  Benson has missed a little more than three weeks with his lower-body injury but had been a strong playmaker beforehand, picking up eight assists in as many games.
  • Earlier this week, Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy underwent facial surgery after taking a redirected puck to the face against Montreal. While there’s no firm timeline for a return, ESPN’s Emily Kaplan recently reported (Twitter link) that the expectation is that he should be cleared to return for the Olympics in February.  McAvoy was part of Team USA’s entry for the 4 Nations Face-Off last winter (before being injured midway through the event) and should have a strong chance of making the Olympic roster which will be announced in early January.

St. Louis Blues Recall Logan Mailloux

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The St. Louis Blues announced today that defenseman Logan Mailloux has been recalled from the team’s AHL affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds.

While Mailloux struggled quite a bit during his first stint on the Blues’ NHL roster, his reassignment to the AHL was never expected to be a lengthy one. TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie reported today that the Blues had always planned for Mailloux to play five games in the AHL before returning to the NHL.

That’s exactly what’s happened thanks to this recall. Mailloux got into five games with Springfield, scoring two goals. The Blues reassigned defenseman Hunter Skinner, the player they recalled to fill Mailloux’s vacated NHL roster spot, yesterday in a move that pre-empted today’s recall.

Mailloux’s ability at the AHL level has never been in question, and his solid play in his recent five-game stint served as further proof of that. Mailloux is a two-time AHL All-Star who landed on the league’s All-Rookie team after his 47-point rookie campaign with the Laval Rocket, and on the league’s “Top Prospects” list last season, one where he scored 33 points in just 63 games.

As a player who offers a rare combination of size, strength, and offensive ability from the blueline, Mailloux has long been a coveted talent. The Blues surrendered Zachary Bolduc, coming off of a strong 19-goal rookie season, in order to acquire him. But his first nine games playing for the Blues were nothing short of a disaster, as routine defensive lapses and an inability to translate his offensive talents left him scoreless with a minus-12 rating.

Those high-profile struggles are what prompted the Blues to send Mailloux down to the AHL in order to help him “reset” his game. After five games, the hope is likely that Mailloux has gained some confidence playing in a level he’s a star at, and will be able to translate that confidence into improved play at the NHL level.

The Blues could badly use the kind of talent Mailloux has shown he could eventually become. They have won just six times in 21 games this season, and need something to help spark a turnaround. If Mailloux can begin to play up to his potential, that could be a big boost to the overall form of the team’s defense.

Central Notes: Korchinski, Bjugstad, Kalynuk

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The Chicago Blackhawks have gotten quality contributions from several young defensemen this season, but the name they haven’t heard from at the NHL level thus far in 2025-26 has been that of Kevin Korchinski. The 2022 No. 7 overall pick played in just 16 NHL games last season and has spent all of this year so far with the AHL’s Rockford Ice Hogs. While Korchinski has played well in Rockford, and has 10 assists in 15 games so far this season, his path back to the NHL in the short term, without an unforeseen injury to an NHL blueliner, looks increasingly cloudy. The Athletic’s Scott Powers wrote on Thursday that while Korchinski is “still a major part of the Blackhawks’ plans,” the emergence of Matt Grzelcyk as a quality NHL option has made it so the path for Korchinski to steal an NHL role has narrowed.

The Blackhawks’ unexpectedly strong start to 2025-26 has also complicated Korchinski’s path to an NHL call-up, according to Powers. While Chicago surrendered nine goals in a loss to the Buffalo Sabres last night, their form in that game is not indicative of how they’ve played for most of the year. Chicago has a 10-7-3 record, with a 5-3-2 record in their last ten games. They’ve positioned themselves firmly in the race for a playoff spot in this early portion of the season. While the team’s focus is still very much towards a future window of real Stanley Cup contention, an NHL team with a chance to make the playoffs is going to do everything in its power to try to reach the postseason, even teams that self-assume the tag (or are assigned the tag by the media) of a “rebuilding team.” Therefore, as s a result of Chicago’s increased focus on short-term results thanks to their success so far this year, Korchinski’s odds of quickly returning to the NHL appear to have decreased.

Other notes from the NHL’s Central Division:

  • One team that hasn’t gotten off to a strong start in 2025-26 are the St. Louis Blues, who have begun the year with just six wins out of 21 games played. While the root cause of their struggles is larger than any one player, some players have gotten off to notably slower starts than others. One player who has struggled recently is veteran Nick Bjugstad, who has been a healthy scratch of late. The Blues signed Bjugstad to a two-year, $1.75MM AAV deal this past summer in part to help stabilize their bottom-six, but that hasn’t happened, with Blues head coach Jim Montgomery telling The Athletic’s Jeremy Rutherford that the veteran is “just not having the same impact he was having” earlier in the year. While Montgomery did note that Bjugstad has “done a lot of good things” defensively, he noted that his all-around impact has slowed down. As recently as 2023-24, Bjugstad scored 22 goals and 45 points. The Blues don’t need that much production from Bjugstad, but they’ll definitely need his play to improve (along with getting similar improvements from numerous other players) if they’re to have any hope of turning around their season and returning to true playoff contention.
  • Former Blackhawks blueliner Wyatt Kalynuk was traded in the KHL yesterday, according to an official release from the league. The 28-year-old was a solid three-year NCAA player with the University of Wisconsin who left school early to begin his pro career in Chicago, getting into 21 NHL games in his rookie professional season in 2020-21. At that point, Kalynuk looked like a potential future NHL player, but his game didn’t take any expected steps forward. He got into only five NHL games in 2021-22, and ultimately left the Blackhawks organization to sign with the Vancouver Canucks. In stints with Vancouver and later the New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues, Kalynuk was unable to find a way back to an NHL roster, and after going two full seasons without an NHL game, he decided to leave the North American pro game and sign in the Finnish Liiga. His strong play in his first year in Finland (33 points in 59 games) earned Kalynuk a deal in the KHL with Ak-Bars Kazan, but he was traded to Ufa Salavat Yulayev after just two games. Now, he’s been traded a second time in 2025-26, this time landing with Gerard Gallant’s Shanghai Dragons. Gallant was the coach of the Rangers in 2022-23 when Kalynuk was in the organization, playing in 15 regular-season games, and nine playoff games for the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack.

Morning Notes: Luukkonen, Morozov, Kindel

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The Buffalo Sabres are currently carrying three goalies on their roster, and while that has worked for the club in the short term as it’s dealt with numerous injuries, keeping three netminders in the NHL over the course of a full season is generally seen as an unconventional, cumbersome roster decision. Yesterday, The Athletic’s Matthew Fairburn identified the Sabres’ NHL goaltending trio as a potential issue as it could very well “prevent the Sabres from being able to carry an offensive player who can help them.” As a result, Fairburn wrote that netminder Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen “seems like the logical odd-man out” if the Sabres do elect to continue on with just two goalies on their NHL team.

That doesn’t mean they’d simply try to send Luukkonen down, of course, and Fairburn notes that they’d need to find a trade partner for Luukkonen, which could be difficult due to the player’s inconsistent form and $4.75MM cap hit. But according to Fairburn, Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff appears to have “lost some faith” in Luukkonen, especially as he has struggled to make timely saves and stay healthy. With veteran Alex Lyon and 25-year-old waiver claim Colten Ellis both under contract through next season, as well as top goalie prospect Devon Levi, it seems the Sabres will have to make a call on which goalies they want to keep and which they would need to move on from at some point in the medium-term future. According to Fairburn, the goalie that they try to move on from could very well be Luukkonen.

Other notes from around the NHL:

  • One prospect who has significantly raised his 2026 draft stock that is University of Miami (Ohio) forward Ilia Morozov, who earlier this week was raised to an “A” grade on NHL Central Scouting’s preliminary watchlist, according to NHL.com’s Mike Morreale. An “A” grade signifies a candidate to be a first-round pick at the draft next year, and when the watchlist was first released, Morozov was assigned a “B” grade by Central Scouting. What appears to have raised Morozov’s stock has been his electric start to the season in the NCAA. Morozov has 11 points through 11 games, a point-per-game rate that is just a shade lower than projected top pick Gavin McKenna. What has helped Morozov garner so much hype has been the fact that he’s not only generating offense in the NCAA (an NCAA that has been flooded with high-level CHL talent thanks to recent rule changes) as a 17-year-old with an August birthdate, but that he’s also doing so as a player listed at 6’3″ 205 pounds on Elite Prospects. If there’s something NHL scouts often can’t resist, it’s a draft prospect who pairs dynamic offensive ability with pro-projectable size and strength. In the early part of the season, that’s exactly what Morozov has been, and his stock is soaring as a result.
  • Looking at last season’s draft, one of the standout players so far has been Pittsburgh Penguins forward Benjamin Kindel, who the team selected No. 11. At the time, most public-facing outlets had Kindel ranked later than the No. 11 slot Pittsburgh selected him at. The Athletic’s Corey Pronman gave the Penguins’ pick of Kindel a “C” grade on draft night, which was tied for his lowest grade for any selection in the 2025 first round. Kindel was ranked No. 22 on Bob McKenzie’s list, No. 21 among North American Skaters by NHL Central Scouting, and No. 33 by Pronman. But the Penguins were far higher on Kindel. Per The Athletic’s Josh Yohe, the Penguins “entered the draft with Kindel ranked as the fourth-best prospect available.” While it remains to be seen if Kindel’s career falls more in line with Pittsburgh’s No. 4 ranking or the public sphere’s evaluation of Kindel as a mid-to-late first-rounder, early returns have favored the Penguins staff. Kindel has looked like an NHL player at just 18 years old this season, scoring seven points in 18 games. He’s just one of three players projected to play all of 2025-26 in the NHL, the other two being Matthew Schaefer and Michael Misa, the top two picks of the draft.

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