Afternoon Notes: Robinson, Gostisbehere, Rooney
A new injury hit the Carolina Hurricanes during Monday’s game against the Buffalo Sabres. Forward Eric Robinson left the game with roughly eight minutes left in the first period after being awkwardly knocked down by former teammate and Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin. Robinson appeared to be nursing his left shoulder as he left the ice and has been designated with an upper-body injury.
Robinson has continued to offer all-around utility in a bottom-six role this season. He has 10 goals, 15 points, and a plus-seven in 43 games this season. His performance has been a nice continuation on a strong debut with the Hurricanes last season. Robinson recorded 14 goals, 32 points, and a plus-14 while playing in all 82 games last season – all career-highs. He missed his first games as a Hurricane in late October, when an upper-body injury forced him out of six games.
Other notes from around the league:
- The Hurricanes were again without defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere on Monday per NHL.com’s Walt Ruff. It was Gostisbehere’s fourth straight absence due to a lower-body injury and illness. The 32-year-old defenseman has now missed 14 games on the season. Despite that, he still leads the Hurricanes blue-line in scoring with six goals and 32 points in 35 games. He has 10 more points than K’Andre Miller, who ranks second. Gostisbehere will have a clear path into an important role when he returns from another absence.
- The Utah Mammoth have assigned center Kevin Rooney to the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners. He has served as an extra forward all year long and played his only NHL game in late November. Rooney has built a more prominent role in Tucson, where he has seven goals and 10 points in 20 games. He will slot back into a familiar role with the Roadrunners and could be a top call-up option when Utah needs another hand.
Flyers Activate Bobby Brink, Place Daniel Vladar On IR
The Philadelphia Flyers will get a forward back from injury in Monday night’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights. Winger Bobby Brink was activated off of injured reserve earlier in the day while goaltender Daniel Vladar was placed on IR in a corresponding move, per Jordan Hall of NBCS Philadelphia. Vladar’s IR designation can be made retroactive to his last game on January 14th, making him eligible to be activated before Philadelphia visis the Utah Mammoth on Wednesday.
Brink will return to the lineup after missing six games with an upper-body injury sustained on January 6th. The fourth-year pro had appeared in all 41 Flyers games this season before getting injured. He scored 11 goals and 20 points in those appearances. 14 of those points came in two separate eight-game streaks – one at the beginning of the season and another in early December.
While his scoring around those hot streaks hasn’t popped, Brink has still reestablished his role as a sharpshooter in the middle of Philadelphia’s lineup. He is scoring at roughly the same pace that led him to 41 points in 79 games last season, though is already one goal back from the 12 goals he posted last year. That’s a hardy improvement for the 24 year old and has led to a career-high 15 minutes of average ice time.
Brink will step onto Philadelphia’s third-line in place of Rodrigo Abols, who suffered a scary-looking injury in Philadelphia’s last game. Brink will play above options like Garnet Hathaway, Carl Grundstrom, and Lane Pederson. The Flyers are also nursing an injury to winger Tyson Foerster.
While Brink’s return will add another shooter to the lineup, the Flyers will keep their sights on Vladar’s injury. The 28-year-old netminder has stood up as the top Flyers goaltender. He has 16 wins and a .905 save percentage in 28 games this season, a career-year just above the 13 wins and .906 Sv% he posted in 23 games of the 2021-22 season. A placement on IR, rather than LTIR, should indicate Vladar’s return isn’t far away.
Avalanche Recall Alex Barre-Boulet, Valeri Nichushkin Out
The Colorado Avalanche made one more recall before Monday’s home contest against the Washington Capitals. Depth forward Alex Barre-Boulet was called-up to the NHL roster after it was announced that winger Valeri Nichushkin would miss Monday’s game with an upper-body injury. Fellow recall Ivan Ivan will also appear in the lineup.
This will be Barre-Boulet’s first NHL contest since playing in the first two games of the Montreal Canadiens’ 2024-25 season. He posted no scoring, one penalty, and a minus-two in those contests – prompting the Canadiens to send Barre-Boulet to the AHL’s Laval Rocket for the season. The veteran forward proved a tremendous boost to Laval’s roster. He led the team in scoring with 63 points in 64 regular season games and 11 points in 13 playoff games.
That strong year prompted another change of scenery this summer. Barre-Boulet moved from Laval to the Colorado Eagles, where he has held onto his touch. He leads the Eagles in points in 37 in 36 games this season. Now, the Avalanche will reward that scoring in a time of need, and bring Barre-Boulet back into the NHL fold. He played in 68 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning between 2020 and 2024, scoring 12 goals and 18 points. Much of Barre-Boulet’s time in the NHL has come on the fourth-line, a trend that should continue in Colorado.
The depth addition won’t quite help the Avalanche make up for Nichushkin’s absence. The toolsy, Russian winger has 11 goals and 27 points in 38 games this season. He snapped a six-game scoring drought with a point on Friday – but racked up a lofty 14 points in as many games during December. Even after a recent dry spell, Nichushkin remains cemented in Colorado’s top-nine, and leaves multiple holes in the lineup. The Avalanche will lean on Barre-Boulet, Ross Colton, and Gavin Brindley to collectively make up for Nichushkin’s absence.
Panthers Activate Matthew Tkachuk, Place Seth Jones On LTIR
3 PM: The Panthers have made the roster moves to facilitate Tkachuk’s return. The star winger has been activated off of long-term injured reserve while defenseman Seth Jones has been placed on LTIR retroactive to his last game on January 2nd per PuckPedia. The move to LTIR will force Jones to miss at least one more week of action – as he won’t reach the 24-day minimum required by LTIR until January 26th. That means Jones will have to sit out of Florida’s next three games and hope for a return when the Panthers host the Utah Mammoth on January 27th.
9 AM: Star winger Matthew Tkachuk will be back in the lineup tonight, he told reporters this morning (including Jameson Olive of the Panthers’ website). Tkachuk is on long-term injured reserve, meaning Florida’s demotion of Noah Gregor today to open up a roster spot won’t be enough. Florida has just over $1MM in cap space, per PuckPedia, but needs to up that number to nearly $3.82MM to activate Tkachuk.
Nonetheless, all signs point toward the 28-year-old making his season debut at home this evening against the Sharks. His injury troubles date back to last February, when he tore an adductor muscle while playing for the United States at the 4 Nations Face-Off. He ended up missing the balance of the regular season to recover as much as possible without needing season-ending surgery. That permitted him to suit up in all 23 playoff games as Florida marched to the second of back-to-back Stanley Cups, still producing at a point-per-game rate and leading the league with five power play postseason goals despite being nowhere close to 100%.
Understandably, playing through the injury aggravated it. Tkachuk spent most of the offseason mulling his options before finally electing to undergo a wide-ranging surgery on the area in early August. There was a wide-spanning return timeline that was expected to see him make his 2025-26 debut around New Year’s Day, ideally in time for Florida’s hosting of the Winter Classic, but he ended up blowing through that target by a few weeks.
All that matters to the Cats is that he’s back now, especially with captain Aleksander Barkov likely lost for the regular season and top offensive threat Brad Marchand currently sidelined. He’s set to have his minutes limited in his return, taking third-line rushes this morning with Evan Rodrigues and Mackie Samoskevich, per Steve Goldstein of Scripps Sports. Historically, that hasn’t been an issue for him. In Game 1 of last year’s first-round win over the Lightning, his first appearance in over two months, he logged just 11:43 of ice time but was still good for a three-point game.
Tkachuk has been practicing for several weeks now, though. His return is far from rushed, so the diminished even-strength role from the hop likely has more to do with his game conditioning rather than his health being anything less than 100%. The 2023 Hart Trophy finalist now looks to extend his streak of four consecutive seasons above a point per game, with 35 games left on Florida’s schedule to do so.
Since the Panthers acquired Tkachuk from the Flames in the 2022 offseason’s blockbuster deal, he’s been the most productive Florida player on a per-game basis by a significant margin at 1.20 points/GP. That’s good for 10th in the league during that time – more than names like Jack Eichel, Jack Hughes, and Auston Matthews – and has even exceeded Pavel Bure as the Panthers’ all-time points-per-game leader, at least for now.
With Barkov and Tkachuk out all year to date, the Panthers have had to reach deep into their forward depth. That’s resulted in their offense, which has finished in the top half of the league every year since 2017-18, dipping to a 3.04 goals per game output that ranks 19th out of 32 teams and last in the competitive Atlantic Division. With Florida trailing the Sabres by four points for the last wild card spot with no games in hand, they need more firepower – now – to ensure they don’t miss the postseason cutoff following three straight trips to the Stanley Cup Final.
As for Florida’s salary cap problem, they have an easy short-term solution in moving defenseman Seth Jones from standard IR to LTIR to clear up the necessary space for Tkachuk’s activation. They can add $3.82MM of his $7MM cap hit to their LTIR pool by doing so, since he’s already missed seven games and 17 days – three and seven short of the LTIR minimums, respectively. Having the space to then activate Jones when he’s expected to return early next month remains a problem, though.
Central Notes: Miller, Nazar, Heiskanen, Ivan
1/19: With another game looming, the Avalanche have once again recalled Ivan to the NHL roster. This is already Ivan’s fourth recall of 2026.
1/17: Jets defenseman Colin Miller recently underwent knee surgery, head coach Scott Arniel told reporters including Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press (Twitter link). The bench boss noted that the procedure was similar to the one that goaltender Connor Hellebuyck had, one that kept him out four weeks earlier this season. Officially, Miller remains listed as out week-to-week. The 33-year-old has had a limited role in 2025-26, playing in just 13 games. He’d have had an opportunity to play more regularly with Neal Pionk and Haydn Fleury also out week-to-week but now after having surgery, that doesn’t appear to be in the cards.
More from the Central:
- Blackhawks center Frank Nazar took part in the morning skate today and is expected to be a full participant in practice tomorrow as he works his way back from an upper-body injury, notes WGN Radio’s Charlie Roumeliotis (Twitter link). The 22-year-old has impressed in his first full NHL season, picking up six goals and 15 assists in 33 games while seeing his playing time push past 18 minutes per night. Originally expected to miss four weeks due to the injury, Nazar appears to be pretty close to that recovery timeline although he’s still a few days away from returning.
- After missing Thursday’s game to tend to a personal matter, Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen was back with the team at practice today, relays Sam Nestler of DLLS Sports (Twitter link). The 26-year-old is back in top form this season after a quieter 2024-25 campaign by his standards. Through 46 games, Heiskanen has 36 points and 87 blocks while averaging a career-high 26:04 per game of ice time, third-most in the NHL.
- The Avalanche announced last night (Twitter link) that they have once again assigned forward Ivan Ivan back to AHL Colorado. It’s the third time in barely a week that he has been recalled and subsequently reassigned. The 23-year-old did suit up against Nashville on Friday, his sixth NHL contest of the season. In those outings, Ivan has one assist while in 31 games with the Eagles, he has two goals and six helpers.
Flyers Recall Lane Pederson, Rodrigo Abols Replaced On Olympic Roster
1/19: After being placed on IR by the Flyers on Sunday, centerman Abols has been replaced by Rihards Bukarts on Team Latvia’s roster for the 2026 Winter Olympics per a team announcement. Bukarts currently has eight points in nine games with Presov HC of Slovakia’s Tipsport Extraliga. This move suggests that Abols’ scary-looking injury will indeed knock him out of contention at another Olympic event.
1/18: The Philadelphia Flyers announced today that center Rodrigo Abols has been placed on injured reserve with a lower-body injury. In a corresponding move, the club recalled forward Lane Pederson from their AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
Abols suffered a lower-body injury against the New York Rangers on Jan. 17, and will now miss at least a week as a result of his IR placement. He was centering the Flyers’ fourth line in between Garnet Hathaway and Carl Grundstrom, a role that will likely now go to Pederson, who can play center.
The Latvian international was signed out of the SHL by the Flyers in advance of the 2024-25 season, and he earned his way into the NHL with a solid campaign at the AHL level. In 47 games for the Phantoms, Abols scored 32 points, a performance that helped him get into a total of 22 NHL games that year.
So far this season, Abols has been able to carve out a steady role on the Flyers’ fourth line. Though he only has 10 points in 42 games, he’s been able to provide the kind of size and game-to-game reliability teams are looking for in the fourth-line center position. Abols has also seen sporadic deployment on the penalty kill, where he averages 0:39 time on ice per game overall, but has a single-game high of 2:13.
With this recall, it’s Pederson who will get the chance to replace Abols in head coach Rick Tocchet’s lineup. It’s highly unlikely Pederson alone will be able to reverse the Flyers’ recent struggles, but he does have nearly 80 games of NHL experience and a solid record of scoring at the AHL level.
From Pederson’s perspective, this recall is a significant opportunity for him as he’s a pending unrestricted free agent. Depth players in his position often have to squeeze everything they can out of the limited NHL exposure they receive, so he’ll be under some pressure to step up in advance of an important free agent summer for the future of his career.
Panthers Place Jack Studnicka On Waivers
Now that Matthew Tkachuk is back in action for the Florida Panthers, the team was likely to clear a forward from their active roster. They have done just that, as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that they’ve placed Jack Studnicka on waivers.
Studnicka, 26, has been on the Panthers roster since December 1st. He’s been in an extremely isolated role since, going scoreless in 18 games with a -6 rating, averaging 7:04 of ice time. Furthermore, given his 46.3% CorsiFor% and 85.2% on-ice SV% at even strength, Studnicka provided little to no value to Florida’s lineup even when he was playing.
Still, there wasn’t much indication that the Panthers needed much more from Studnicka, anyway. He signed a one-year, league minimum deal with the organization last summer, meaning it was always likely he would exclusively serve as an injury replacement. Given how many injuries the Panthers have dealt with this year, Studnicka got a longer stay on the NHL roster than he may have expected.
Despite offering little production at the NHL level, the same can’t be said for his play in the AHL. Last season, while playing for the AHL’s Ontario Reign, Studnicka scored 16 goals and totaled 45 points in 72 games, finishing with a +4 rating. Before being recalled by the Panthers this year, he scored one goal and six points in eight games for the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers.
Sharks Reassign Nick Leddy, Activate Vincent Desharnais
Jan. 19th: According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, Leddy has made it through waivers unscathed. A few moments later, the Sharks announced that Leddy has been reassigned to AHL San Jose, and that Desharnais has been activated from the injured reserve.
Jan. 18th, 2:01 p.m.: Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky confirmed today, per Peng, that it’ll be Vincent Desharnais, not Mukhamadullin, who is the injured Sharks defenseman set to take Leddy’s spot in the lineup. Desharnais has been sidelined since late November with an upper-body injury.
Jan. 18th, 1:13 p.m.: The San Jose Sharks have placed veteran defenseman Nick Leddy on waivers. The news was first reported by San Jose Hockey Now’s Sheng Peng.
By placing Leddy on waivers today, the Sharks open up the possibility for Leddy to be reassigned to their AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda. Reassignment to the AHL is contingent on Leddy clearing waivers.
Last week, The Hockey News’ Max Miller reported that defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin would travel with the team on their four-game road trip. It appears, as a result, that Mukhamadullin is nearing the point where he’ll be able to be activated off injured reserve. Since the Sharks already have a full 23-man active roster, waiving Leddy today provides the Sharks with an additional amount of roster flexibility in advance of Mukhamadullin’s return. The Sharks would have just six healthy defensemen with Leddy removed from the roster, so it’s easy to tie Leddy’s waiver placement with an impending Mukhamadullin activation.
If Leddy clears waivers, he can be reassigned to the Barracuda, opening up the necessary roster spot for Mukhamadullin’s activation. If Leddy is claimed off waivers, the same goal is achieved — a roster spot is opened up for Mukhamadullin.
Today’s development is an unfortunate one for Leddy, who, at 34, is a veteran of 1,061 NHL games. He hasn’t played in the AHL in more than a decade, his most recent AHL experience coming in 2012-13 with the Rockford IceHogs. His play in 2025-26 has, unfortunately, paved the way for this sort of transaction. He’s struggled this season, frequently finding himself a healthy scratch as the Sharks linger in the Western Conference playoff race.
Leddy’s time on ice per game is down to 17:30, including no power play time and 1:31 of penalty-killing time per game. That’s a distinct decline from how much he was played as recently as 2023-24. That season, Leddy was the St. Louis Blues’ No. 2 defenseman, averaging 22:21 time on ice per game and serving as a top penalty-killer alongside Colton Parayko.
Leddy’s form in San Jose has made those days seem like a distant memory, but his compensation ($4MM cap hit through the end of the year) is still commensurate with his former steady top-four role.
That mismatch between Leddy’s current on-ice value and his level of compensation is likely to keep him from being claimed off of waivers. Although there might be some teams who believe they can get more out of Leddy than he’s provided San Jose, his cap hit likely means he carries too much risk to be claimed.
There are other possibilities on the table to keep Leddy in the NHL, such as a trade, but the Sharks only have one slot left to retain salary, so they might only look to find a trade where the other team can take on the full freight of Leddy’s remaining salary.
Leddy could also elect to sacrifice the remaining portion of his salary and agree on a mutual contract termination, paving the way for him to freely sign with any team willing to offer him a guaranteed NHL role. Two players have already taken that path this season: Egor Zamula and Alexandre Texier. That option worked quite well for Texier in particular, as he seized on the NHL opportunity he sought and got a two-year, $2.5MM AAV contract extension as a result.
If Leddy and the Sharks were to take this route, Leddy would almost certainly sacrifice the remaining pro-rated portion of his $3MM salary for what is left of 2025-26.
There’s no firm indication at this point as to what lies ahead for Leddy. It’s still possible a team could elect to claim him off waivers, and it’s also possible he feels no great pressure to avoid an AHL reassignment at any cost. In any case, today’s move by the Sharks makes Leddy a name to watch in the near future, especially for a team in need of more experienced defensive depth such as the Buffalo Sabres.
Photos courtesy of Robert Edwards-Imagn Images
Los Angeles Kings Reassign Andre Lee
According to a team announcement, the Los Angeles Kings have reassigned forward Andre Lee to the AHL’s Ontario Reign. The transaction reduces the Kings’ active roster to 21, with only 12 forwards, indicating that another roster move is coming.
Lee, 25, was originally recalled on January 7th. The 6’4″, 190lbs winger appeared in all seven of the Kings’ games since, scoring one goal and one assist while averaging 10:17 of ice time in a bottom-six role.
It’s a similar fashion to how Los Angeles utilized him last year, too. Lee made his NHL debut during the 2024-25 campaign, finishing the season with one goal and three points in 19 games, averaging 9:10 of ice time. He delivered solid physicality, averaging nearly two hits per game.
Despite being a depth forward in the Kings’ depth chart, Lee has carved out a decent career for himself after being a seventh-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft. After completing his collegiate career at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, Lee has primarily played for AHL Ontario since then.
He’s understandably provided much more offense with the Reign. Throughout the last five years, Lee has scored 35 goals and 71 points in 185 games, becoming a decent secondary scorer for the club. He has helped Ontario reach the Calder Cup playoffs on three occasions, scoring four goals in 12 postseason contests.
San Jose Sharks Acquire Kiefer Sherwood
One of the trade deadline’s most sought-after rentals is now off the board. The Vancouver Canucks announced that they’ve traded winger Kiefer Sherwood to the San Jose Sharks for defenseman Cole Clayton, a 2026 second-round pick, and a 2027 second-round pick.
The Sharks’ interest in Sherwood has been known for some time. In late December, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that San Jose was one of the teams involved in Sherwood’s market.
Given the capital needed to acquire Sherwood, it would make sense for the Sharks to begin extension negotiations immediately. The Canucks were known to have been seeking a first-round pick for Sherwood’s services, though acquiring two second-round picks is hardly settling. Still, even if he is only a rental, Sherwood’s particular brand of hockey should help the Sharks considerably as they look to return to the postseason for the first time in seven years.
Vancouver originally signed Sherwood ahead of the 2024-25 season to a two-year, $3MM agreement. Their inspiration for signing him came a year earlier, when Sherwood, then playing for the Nashville Predators, totalled 33 hits against the Canucks in the opening round of the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs. He finished the campaign with 10 goals and 27 points in 68 games.
His offense continued to develop in British Columbia. Throughout the past year-and-a-half with the Canucks, Sherwood has been a reliable scorer, registering 36 goals and 63 points in 122 games. Additionally, his physicality has truly been off the charts, averaging 5.5 hits per game — 672 in total.
That makes his fit with the Sharks remarkably clear. Outside of Ryan Reaves, who has been a healthy scratch on multiple occasions, and Ty Dellandrea, who is currently on the team’s injured reserve, San Jose doesn’t have too many physical forwards in their lineup. Additionally, the team desperately needed to add secondary scoring behind phenom Macklin Celebrini.
Given their value to the team, Sherwood would be a perfect option to play on the top line next to Celebrini and Will Smith, allowing the Sharks to shelter some of their younger wingers on the bottom two lines. If opposing teams aim to counter Celebrini and Smith physically, San Jose can now respond similarly.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the transaction, the Canucks continue to grow their stockpile of draft picks. Entering the season with five picks in the upcoming draft, Vancouver now has seven this year, and eight next.
Clayton, 25, is a big-bodied right-handed shot defenseman. A product of the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers program, Clayton had spent the last four years with the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters before signing with the Sharks last summer. Throughout his five-year professional career, the Alberta native has scored 14 goals and 66 points in 257 games with a -13 rating.
Photo courtesy of Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images.