Injury Notes: Vladar, Wilsby, Colton
The Philadelphia Flyers could avoid the worst after taking a blow to their goalie room. Daniel Vladar is only expected to be out short-term after sustaining an injury in the first period of Wednesday’s loss to the Buffalo Sabres, per Kevin Kurz of The Athletic and ESPN’s Emily Kaplan during Thursday’s broadcast. Vladar was replaced by Samuel Ersson while Alexei Kolosov was recalled on Thursday morning.
Vladar has led the charge for the Flyers goaltending room with 16 wins, a .905 save percentage, and a 2.46 goals-against-average in 28 games. He is the only Flyer with a save percentage north of .900 – with Ersson sporting a .853 in 18 games and Kolosov a .886 in three games. The two goalies split the next in Philadelphia’s 3-6 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. They each allowed three goals, though Kolosov had 16 saves to Ersson’s 14. The two will continue an even battle for starting minutes, while Philadelphia hopes for more good news around Vladar’s timeline.
More injury updates from around the league:
- Nashville Predators defenseman Adam Wilsby is out day-to-day with a lower-body injury per Alex Daugherty of The Tennessean. It is unclear when Wilsby sustained the injury. He played more than 21 minutes of Nashville’s overtime win over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday, the fourth-most ice time of any Predators skater. Wilsby recorded one assist and a plus-one in the outing with no clear sign of wear. Either way, Wilsby will be expected to miss Friday’s game against the Colorado Avalanche and could be doubtful for Saturday’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights. Sitting out the back-to-back road games will give Wilsby four days to rest up before Nashville returns home next Tuesday. The 25 year old has seven points and a minus-four in 36 games this season.
- The Colorado Avalanche also face a hole in the lineup. Forward Ross Colton is out day-to-day with an upper-body injury and questionable for Friday’s game against Nashville, head coach Jared Bednar told Evan Rawal of the Denver Gazette. Colton played through regulation, but sat out of the overtime period, in Monday’s loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. He recorded five shots on goal that game. Colton has been a relentless piece of Colorado’s bottom-six this season. He has four points in his last three games, bringing his year-long totals up to 20 points in 45 games. That performance has made Colton a focal piece of Colorado’s gameplan. His absence would likely prompt the Avalanche to once again recal winger Ivan Ivan, who has one assist in five NHL games this season. Ivan has also scored eight points in 31 AHL games.
Ducks Reassign Nikita Nesterenko
The Anaheim Ducks have assigned winger Nikita Nesterenko to the AHL’s San Diego Gulls. This move comes after Nesterenko cleared NHL waivers last week. It is Nesterenko’s first assignment to the minors since signing a two-year, $1.6MM contract with the Ducks in June.
Nesterenko earned Anaheim’s extra forward role in the second half of the 2024-25 season. He recorded six points and a minus-four in 20 games, to go with 34 points in 50 AHL games on the year. The season continued Nesterenko’s gradual climb up Anaheim’s depth chart that started when he signed his entry-level contract out of college in 2023. With a strong training camp, Nesterenko took another step up, and locked himself into an NHL roster spot for the first half of the season.
But the 24-year-old forward has made little work of his extended look. He has one goal and nine points in 29 games – and only one point in his last 11 games. His biggest impact has come in the physical game, where his 53 hits ranks fourth among Ducks forwards. On the heels of a snapped losing streak, the Ducks will send Nesterenko to find a spark in the minor leagues. He has already racked up 71 points in 120 career games in the AHL. His presence will be welcome for a Gulls team riding a 1-3-1 record in January.
Sabres’ Joshua Norris Out Day-To-Day With Upper-Body Injury
Yet another injury has come through for one of the league’s most plagued forwards. Buffalo Sabres centerman Joshua Norris sustained an upper-body injury on Wednesday that will have him out on a day-to-day basis, per a team announcement.
Norris’ final shift came with six minutes remaining in the second period. He received a few cross-checks to the ribs courtesy of Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Nick Seeler. Norris fought through those checks to deliver the primary assist on Buffalo’s fourth goal of the game. It seems those whacks may have caused more damage than it appears, though, and he will now land on the shelf yet again.
Norris missed 25 games between October and December while recovering from a different upper-body injury sustained in the Sabres’ season opener. He has had a bad trend of upper-body injuries through the last few years, sustaining an oblique injury that ended his 2024-25 season early and undergoing multiple shoulder surgeries during his six seasons with the Ottawa Senators.
While this injury doesn’t seem as severe as some Norris has faced, it will still shorthand the Sabres for the near future. Norris has been an electric part of the offense when healthy. His 17 points in 19 games this season gives him the second-highest scoring pace (0.89 points-per-game) on the team behind Tage Thompson (0.98).
This has been a career-year for Norris on the scoresheet. His scoring pace and 0 plus-minus both rank as career-highs. He has reached those heights despite averaging under 16 minutes of ice time each game – a career-low, largely thanks to so often needing eased back from injury. His strong shooting and connection with Buffalo’s stars has still earned Norris a spot on the Sabres’ top power-play unit. They will have to replace that hole, in addition to Norris’ spot in the top-six, for their next slate.
The Sabres have recalled top prospect Konsta Helenius to attempt to fill the gap. Helenius leads Rochester Americans forwards in scoring with 30 points in 34 games. He is in his second AHL season after spending two years in the Liiga, Finland’s top league. Despite yo-yoing prospects like Isak Rosen and Noah Ostlund between leagues, the Sabres have opted for a patient approach with Helenius, leaving him a full-time AHL role through the last two seasons. Now, with Norris out, their patience could come to fruition should Helenius make his NHL debut.
Kraken Activate Brandon Montour
The Kraken announced Thursday that they activated defenseman Brandon Montour from injured reserve. To open a roster spot, they reassigned forward Jacob Melanson to AHL Coachella Valley.
It’s an ahead-of-schedule return for the puck-mover, who underwent hand surgery shortly before Christmas. He was initially expected to miss at least four weeks, but returns with several days to spare.
Last year, Montour led Seattle’s defense with 41 points in 82 games after cashing in with the Kraken on a seven-year, $50MM deal in free agency. He’s been overtaken again now by Vince Dunn, but is still having a reasonably productive year with six goals and 16 points in 27 outings. He’s averaging 21:56 of ice time per game and is having a great year in the possession department, leading Seattle rearguards with a 51.3 CF%.
That possession control makes Montour an increasingly important factor on a Seattle team that is abysmal at generating quality scoring chances but has been propped up by semi-sound defense and elite goaltending. They control just 41.4% of high-danger chances at 5-on-5, but have nevertheless cashed in on them by a score of 31-24.
Melanson had seen consistent ice time as of late, temporarily leapfrogging Tye Kartye on the depth chart, but his waiver-exempt status made him the logical odd man out. After making a one-game NHL debut last year, he’s scored a goal and four points in 15 games this time around. The 22-year-old was a fifth-round pick in 2021 and has 14 points in 23 AHL games.
Sabres Recall Konsta Helenius, Place Joshua Dunne On IR
The Sabres have recalled top forward prospect Konsta Helenius from AHL Rochester, according to Rachel Lenzi of The Buffalo News. He could make his NHL debut tonight in Montreal. In a corresponding move, Joshua Dunne was moved to injured reserve with the mid-body issue that’s expected to keep him out for four to six weeks.
Helenius may be entering the lineup as Joshua Norris exits it. Buffalo’s oft-injured pivot left yesterday’s win over the Flyers with an upper-body injury and is day-to-day, head coach Lindy Ruff said.
Selected No. 14 overall in 2024, Helenius is the latest in a years-long slate of high-drafted Sabres forwards to get his first NHL look. The selection was nearly universally lauded at the time. Most had him touted as a top-10 selection after he rattled off 36 points in 51 games for Jukurit in Liiga, Finland’s top professional league, as a 17-year-old.
Helenius took an unusual path, immediately signing his entry-level contract with Buffalo and reporting to Rochester last season at age 18. First-round picks out of Europe are permitted to do so, but teams and players usually opt to give their prospects a bit more runway in a familiar overseas environment before bringing them to the NHL or AHL.
He didn’t blow the doors off in Rochester last year, but in year two of his North American professional career, concerns over his offensive ceiling have quieted. A two-way center first and foremost, he’s now Rochester’s second-leading scorer with a 9-21–30 line in 34 games.
Given he’s within spitting distance of a point per game in the minors as a teenager, he’s more than deserving of at least a brief NHL trial. He entered the season as the organization’s No. 1 prospect, per NHL.com, a billing he’s lived up to so far.
While injuries have continued to plague Norris, limiting him to 19 appearances this year, he’s played the best hockey of his career when he’s been dressed. He’s been as natural a fit as hoped in Buffalo’s top six and has six goals and 17 points in 19 games, placing second on the team at 0.89 per game. That would also stand as a career-high for the 26-year-old and is his best per-game production in four years.
The Senators Have Some Tough Decisions To Make
The Senators are facing a midseason crossroads. The season has not gone as planned, and they are well out of a playoff spot.
They could stand pat and hope James Reimer provides steady goaltending, push for short-term moves to improve the team, or pivot to a sell-off for this season and hope to reload in the summer. It’s a real dilemma in Ottawa, as the Senators are too flawed to contend but too good to tank.
Even if they wanted to aim for an impact prospect in the 2026 draft, they don’t have their first-round pick this year thanks to the Evgenii Dadonov debacle. The Senators are effectively in the worst possible situation this year, and the next few weeks will be crucial in determining where they go from here.
There will be no easy answers for a club that has dramatically underperformed. Rebuilding is absolutely out of the question, given how much long-term money Ottawa has spent on extensions over the last few years.
However, a quick retool could inject much-needed draft capital or prospects into the Senators’ pipeline and net them a fair amount of assets, given how tight the standings are and how few teams appear set to become sellers before the trade deadline. If Ottawa wanted to dump some of its pending UFAs, it could effectively set the trade market on its own terms rather than responding to what other clubs do.
If the Sens start shipping out veteran talent, they have a decent stockpile of players on expiring deals that could be made available, including several former Stanley Cup champions among the forwards: Lars Eller, David Perron, and Nick Cousins. On top of the trio of former winners, forward Claude Giroux and defenseman Nick Jensen are also pending UFAs, giving Ottawa a healthy list of potential players to move should they slide completely out of playoff contention.
But can the Senators move all of those veterans this year?
Giroux is having another solid season, with 32 points in 46 games. However, at 38 years old and playing close to home, does he really want to serve as a deadline rental?
It’s hard to say. On the surface, it seems unlikely, but Giroux is nearing the end of his career and is missing the one thing every NHL player covets: a Stanley Cup ring.
If Giroux agreed to a trade, he could theoretically make the move for a few months and then return next summer to Canada’s capital, or somewhere else close to home. That has happened in the past, albeit not for a long time.
Mark Recchi did it back in 2006 when he accepted a trade from the Penguins to the Hurricanes, only to return to Pittsburgh the following summer. Keith Tkachuk had a similar sequence when he was traded by the Blues in February 2007 to the Thrashers, only to be returned in a separate trade in June.
Jensen is another interesting case and would have been a highly sought-after trade piece before this year, given that right-shot defensemen are always in demand. But this season has been one to forget for Jensen, who was a healthy scratch just a couple of weeks ago and has been trying to find his game for much of the season.
Ottawa has attempted to manage the 35-year-old’s workload, dropping his playing time from over 20 minutes a night to just north of 16 minutes per game in an effort to keep him fresh, but it hasn’t done much to improve Jensen’s play. The biggest knock on Jensen at the moment is that his once-fluid skating now looks disjointed and robotic, which isn’t surprising given his injury history and the fact that he had offseason hip surgery and missed Ottawa’s training camp in September.
Jensen hasn’t looked like himself this year, and the Senators’ goaltending has been terrible, which has only magnified his struggles and dropped his trade stock and, ultimately, his future contract prospects significantly.
Returning to Eller, he is a low-maintenance, plug-and-play fourth-line center who doesn’t contribute much offensively anymore but can still skate and has reasonable puck-handling ability. The 36-year-old has just two goals and four assists in 32 games this year, but has buried himself in a defensive role, which suits his skill set at this late stage of his career.
Eller is the perfect low-cost veteran for contending teams looking to add depth. He is making just $1.25MM on a one-year deal, and with such a low cost, if the Senators move him before the deadline, they should be able to grab a mid-round draft pick.
As for Cousins, no one should want to acquire him, given that he was voted by the players as the NHL’s most punchable player. That said, he is likely only disliked until he plays on someone’s team.
Cousins is the kind of player that teammates love, and opposing players despise. He has a unique skill set that is often overlooked, but he adds physicality, plays a pest-like game, and brings energy that can spark a team, particularly in the playoffs.
The Belleville, Ontario native has historically drawn a lot of penalties and can chip in with offense (six goals and six assists in 45 games this year), although his defensive work leaves a lot to be desired. Cousins is on a one-year deal, making just $825K this season, so, like Eller, there should be demand given that he can fit into almost any team’s salary-cap structure.
Finally, there is Perron, who has been much better this season after posting just 16 points in 43 games last year. The 37-year-old already has nine goals and 14 assists in 46 games this year, and his underlying numbers are much better than they were a year ago.
Perron is no longer a perennial 20-goal, 50-point scorer, but he remains a useful depth scorer and should be in demand if Ottawa makes him available. He’s one of, if not the, slowest players in the NHL, but he hits and is reasonably productive offensively at this late stage of his career.
Perron isn’t going to net Ottawa a first-round pick, but it’s entirely possible they could get a second-rounder should they opt to trade him. He will likely want to stay close to home, but his 15-team no-trade list covers less than half the league and would leave the Senators with plenty of potential suitors for Perron. It’s also possible that he would embrace the move to a team on his no-trade list if Ottawa is out of the playoff picture and a team is appealing enough to him.
Ottawa has rattled off a couple of wins in the last few days, which could be the start of a turnaround. Ironically, the Senators have been deploying Cousins, Eller and Perron as their de facto fourth line in those two games, and they’ve been terrific as a unit.
But even with four points in their pocket, the Senators sit five points back of a playoff spot, with six teams to leapfrog for the final playoff spot. There is also the consideration that those two wins came against the teams sitting at the bottom of both conferences, the Canucks and Rangers.
If Ottawa is going to go on a run, it will need to beat some outstanding teams in the coming weeks. The next two to three weeks will be crucial for the Senators and could ultimately dictate their short-term intentions.
Golden Knights Activate Adin Hill, Place Two On IR
The Golden Knights activated goaltender Adin Hill from long-term injured reserve on Thursday, per Jason R. Pothier and Ken Boehlke of Sin Bin Vegas. Netminder Carter Hart and winger Brandon Saad were placed on IR in corresponding moves, leaving the Knights with an open roster spot. They announced they’ve used that spot to recall forward Tanner Laczynski from AHL Henderson. With William Karlsson still on LTIR alongside Alex Pietrangelo on season-ending LTIR, Vegas remains cap-compliant.
Hill is expected to start tonight against the Maple Leafs, his first appearance in nearly three months. The 29-year-old has made just five starts this season and none since Oct. 20, when he sustained a lower-body injury in the first period against the Hurricanes.
It was an inauspicious start to the first season of Hill’s six-year, $37.5MM extension that he signed last March. Before exiting the lineup, he started the season on a cold run with a 1-0-2 record, .888 SV%, and 2.73 GAA. He allowed one goal above expected in 220 total minutes of action, per MoneyPuck.
Hart was signed in part due to concern over how much time Hill would miss. That experiment has been an early failure. Hart’s .871 SV% in 12 starts is the worst figure among the four netminders to suit up for Vegas this season. Among goaltenders with at least 10 appearances, only Leevi Merilainen and Petr Mrazek have allowed more goals above expected on a per-60-minute basis than Hart at 0.837.
Now, Vegas gets its true No. 1 back in the lineup. Akira Schmid has operated as the club’s de facto starter with a team-high 24 appearances and has provided great value for his $875K cap hit, logging a .896 SV% and 2.47 GAA with two shutouts and a 14-4-5 record. His 2.0 GSAx is first in Vegas and 34th in the league overall.
His rocky start aside, though, Hill is clearly the better long-term option. He’s never finished a season below .900 aside from a four-game run with the Coyotes in 2017-18 to open his NHL career. For a streaking Vegas team that’s struggled to get consistently above-average goaltending this season, his return could be an X-factor in them widening their lead in the Pacific Division.
Hart has already missed three games with a lower-body injury he sustained one week ago against the Blue Jackets. Since seven days have passed since his injury, he’s eligible to come off IR at any time. However, since he was administered a week-to-week designation last weekend, that won’t be coming anytime soon.
Saad is in the same boat in terms of his activation eligibility, sustaining an undisclosed injury in the Columbus game. He remains day-to-day and will presumably be an option sooner than Hart will. It’s been a trying season for the 33-year-old, who’s shooting at just 3.1% and has been limited to a 2-5–7 scoring line in 39 games with a -1 rating.
Laczynski’s recall comes as Vegas opens the roster flexibility to give itself injury insurance at forward. In addition to the injured Saad taking up a spot on the active roster for the last few games, Brett Howden has missed two contests with a lower-body injury and isn’t expected to be available against Toronto tonight, either.
It would be Laczynski’s season debut if he enters the lineup against the Leafs. The 28-year-old depth option was recalled once from Henderson in November but didn’t play. Now in his second year in the Knights organization, he suited up eight times last season and scored once while averaging 8:36 of ice time per game.
The 6’1″, 205-lb pivot has been the Knights’ most consistent minor-league producer since signing a two-year, league-minimum deal in 2024. After racking up 37 points in 41 appearances for Henderson last year to lead the team in scoring despite only playing in 57% of their games, he’s upped his production to 13 goals and 35 points in 32 games this season, along with a team-high +22 rating. He’s the biggest reason why the Silver Knights are tracking for their first season above .500 since 2021-22.
Image courtesy of Nick Wosika-Imagn Images.
Sharks Place Ty Dellandrea On Injured Reserve
According to Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News, the San Jose Sharks have placed forward Ty Dellandrea on injured reserve with a lower-body injury. The designation has likely been made retroactive to January 6th, meaning Dellandrea is eligible for activation whenever he’s healthy.
Dellandrea, 25, was given a day-to-day recovery timeline, so he should return to the Sharks’ lineup relatively soon. Pashelka suggested that his injury designation might indicate that young player Will Smith could be returning to the lineup tomorrow against the Detroit Red Wings. Smith has been recovering from an upper-body ailment and has not played in a contest with San Jose for over a month.
When healthy, Dellandrea was providing decent tertiary scoring to surprisingly competitve Sharks team. He had scored two goals and 11 points in 42 games, on best for the second-best point production in his career. A few years ago, then with the Dallas Stars, Dellandrea had scored nine goals and 28 points in 82 games.
The biggest part of Dellandrea’s game that San Jose will miss for the time being is his work in the faceoff dot. The former 13th overall pick has managed a 52.3% success rate in the dot across 511 faceoffs this season, which is even more impressive considering he’s begun over 70% of his shifts in the defensive zone at even strength.
Sabres Notes: Dunne, Kesselring, Jones
Jan. 15th: According to Rachel Lenzi of The Buffalo News, the Sabres have officially activated Kesselring from the injured reserve, per the NHL media site.
Jan. 14th: The Buffalo Sabres will be without their typical fourth-line center for quite some time. According to Paul Hamilton of WGR Sports Radio, Joshua Dunne is expected to miss the next four to six weeks with a mid-body injury.
After Monday’s loss to the Florida Panthers, head coach Lindy Ruff indicated that Dunne wasn’t injured from the hit by Panthers defenseman Donovan Sebrango, which was the original thought at the time. Ruff went on to explain that the mid-body injury has been bothering Dunne for the last little while.
With all due respect to Dunne, he’s not an irreplaceable part of the Sabres’ forward core. The 27-year-old center has scored one goal and four points in 28 games with Buffalo this season, with a -4 rating. Still, he’s given them a 50.6% success rate in the faceoff dot, which has been beneficial given that he’s started 78.2% of his shifts in the defensive zone.
Given the duration of the expected recovery timeline, the Sabres will likely place Dunne on the injured reserve by the end of the weekend. This will give Buffalo the space to recall a depth forward as they embark on a five-game road trip next week.
In more positive news on the injury front, Hamilton also reported that defenseman Michael Kesselring is ready to return to the lineup, but won’t play this evening. Kesselring has been on Buffalo’s injured reserve for the last week, and the idea is that the team doesn’t want him returning for a back-to-back homestand.
Kesselring has been relatively disappointing throughout his first year with the team, though much of that can be attributed to injuries. He’s only appeared in 16 games for the Sabres this season, going scoreless while earning a -4 rating. Still, his advanced metrics have been solid, and he’s only one year removed from scoring seven goals and 29 points in 82 games with the Utah Hockey Club.
Meanwhile, Kesselring’s impending return has spurned a proactive roster move from Buffalo. Earlier today, the team shared that they’ve reassigned Zachary Jones to the AHL’s Rochester Americans. Despite spending multiple days on the NHL roster, Jones has yet to play for the Sabres this season, instead scoring three goals and 32 points in 28 games for AHL Rochester.
Blues Place Robert Thomas On Injured Reserve
The St. Louis Blues are losing their highest-scoring player for the next few weeks. The Blues announced that they’ve placed forward Robert Thomas on the injured reserve with a lower-body injury and that he would be re-evaluated in two weeks.
Despite again being the rumor of some trade speculation, Thomas has been his steady self for St. Louis this season. Although he’s tied for seventh in games played, Thomas leads the team in scoring with 11 goals and 33 points across 42 games on the year.
Thomas, 26, has already missed one game for the Blues due to the lower-body ailment and will likely miss a minimum of eight, given the projected recovery timeline. Given that St. Louis is five points back of the final wild-card spot and seven points back of being in last place in the Western Conference, they will be without their top forward for a pivotal stretch of games.
There’s no telling how much more their offense will depreciate without Thomas in the lineup. The Blues are already last in the league with a 2.49 GF/G average, and 23rd with a man advantage, having a 17.07% success rate on the power play.
Thomas’ injury is expected to negatively impact St. Louis’ performance on the ice, and it could also affect other players on the team. If the Blues fall further out of playoff contention, the trade markets for Brayden Schenn, Jordan Kyrou, and Justin Faulk could heat up more than they already are.