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Anze Kopitar Out Week-To-Week With Foot Injury

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The Kings announced that captain Anže Kopitar has been listed out week-to-week with a foot injury. There’s no IR placement for him yet, but there could be one coming soon to give L.A. a roster spot as they’re down to 12 healthy forwards.

Kopitar, who said last month that 2025-26 will be his final season, is now ticketed for what could be the lengthiest absence of his 20-year career. The ever-durable Slovenian center has never missed more than 10 consecutive regular-season games, and that came all the way back in his rookie season in 2006-07. He hasn’t missed more than a single game in a season since 2016-17. He sustained the injury in Monday’s shootout loss to the Wild, blocking a shot with his foot that caused him to miss yesterday’s loss to the Penguins (although he was initially considered a game-time decision). He hasn’t practiced since the injury, so it’s unlikely he’s stressed it further.

The 38-year-old has been a bright spot in what’s otherwise been a dismal start to the season in Los Angeles. The club is 1-3-1, tied for the second-lowest points total in the league, and is now without its top center for the foreseeable future. Kopitar was still holding down the workload he’s had for so many years, rattling off four assists in four games while averaging 18:45 per game and going 49-for-77 (63.6%) on faceoffs. The Kings were also allowing just 1.1 goals against per 60 minutes with Kopitar on the ice at even strength, the third-best figure on the team among forwards behind Phillip Danault and Samuel Helenius.

Under the hood, things don’t look particularly dire for the Kings. They’re still controlling possession well at 5-on-5 but have fallen victim to poor finishing (8.7%) and goaltending (.861 combined SV%). Missing Kopitar’s still high-end playmaking ability won’t help the former number, though. Losing his intangibles, as well as shouldering the loss of still a top-10 two-way forward in the league, is a hard pill to swallow for a club needing to string together a few wins to avoid sinking too far below the playoff line too early in the season.

Danault was elevated into Kopitar’s role between Andrei Kuzmenko and Adrian Kempe last night. It’s unclear if that will hold or if the club might rather give the younger Quinton Byfield, who’s largely assumed to be Kopitar’s long-term successor as the Kings’ new No. 1 pivot, a shot in those minutes. They’re also without offseason addition Corey Perry, who’s missed the entire year to date with a knee injury.

Avalanche Recall Mackenzie Blackwood From Conditioning Loan

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Oct. 17: Blackwood’s conditioning stint is over, the team announced. He didn’t get into game action with the Eagles; instead, he was only there to face shots in practice with a more consistent schedule there this week than in Colorado. Blackwood was never on IR, so the recall suggests he should be available for tomorrow’s game against the Bruins.

Oct. 13: The Colorado Avalanche should be getting a big reinforcement between the pipes in a few days. The team announced that they’ve loaned netminder Mackenzie Blackwood to the AHL’s Colorado Eagles on a conditioning stint. Additionally, the team has activated defenseman Sean Behrens from the season-opening injured reserve and reassigned him to AHL Colorado.

Colorado’s reasoning behind the conditioning stint this early in the campaign is fairly simple. Blackwood is continuing to recover from a procedure performed in May and didn’t participate in any preseason games for the Avalanche or any training camp activities. Since Colorado can leave Blackwood on the conditioning stint for up to 14 days, it’ll be treated as a pseudo training camp to prepare him for the regular season.

Blackwood was phenomenal for the Avalanche last year. After being acquired from the San Jose Sharks, Blackwood took on a heavy workload, managing a 22-12-3 record in 37 games with a .913 SV% and 2.33 GAA. Unfortunately, he couldn’t help Colorado avoid another first-round exit in last year’s playoffs, registering a 3-4-0 record in seven contests with a .892 SV%.

Still, despite being without Blackwood, the Avalanche have gotten stellar goaltending out of the gates this season. Their backup, Scott Wedgewood, has a 2-0-1 record through Colorado’s first three games with a .925 SV% and 1.95 GAA. Even though it’s a small sample size, Wedgewood has already played the most minutes of any netminder this year.

Meanwhile, Behrens will return to competitive hockey for the first time in two years. After winning the National Championship with the University of Denver in 2024, Behrens signed with the Avalanche, skating in one game with the Eagles to finish the year, with one additional appearance in the postseason.

Unfortunately, a knee injury suffered during last year’s training camp cost Behrens the entire 2024-25 season. He appeared in a few games for the Avalanche’s rookie tournament, though his upcoming time with the Eagles will mark his true return to professional hockey.

Wild Acquire Oskar Olausson

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The Wild announced a trade sending defenseman Kyle Masters to the Sharks for winger Oskar Olausson. Both players were previously in the minors and will now report to their new clubs’ affiliates.

Olausson’s stay in the San Jose organization was a very brief one. The Swedish winger, who turns 23 next month, was a first-round pick by the Avalanche in 2021. After failing to land an NHL job with Colorado and taking a significant step back in the minors last year, the Avs traded Olausson to the Sharks in exchange for the signing rights to Daniil Gushchin. Olausson was waived and assigned to AHL San Jose out of camp, but had yet to play for the Barracuda this season, so he leaves the Bay Area without recording a single appearance in the organization.

It’s a swing on upside by the Wild and a prudent pickup for the cost. While Olausson only has four NHL games to his name, going without a point and averaging just 8:07 per game, there’s no long-term obligation in the pickup as they can non-tender him at the end of the season. At minimum, they’re adding some offensive depth to an Iowa club that hasn’t fared all too well in the past few years, which could, while unlikely, turn into an NHL piece down the line. Even though Olausson hasn’t developed as hoped so far, he’s still young enough to have a decent chance at a turnaround.

The 6’2″ Olausson looked like he was on the upswing as recently as the 2023-24 season. Injuries limited him to 39 appearances with AHL Colorado that year, but he managed an 11-9–20 scoring line after producing the same output in 63 games the year prior. That momentum didn’t continue into 2024-25, though. Olausson wasn’t even a top-10 scorer on the team last year and finished the campaign with an 11-15–26 scoring line in 61 appearances – not production you want to see from someone touted as a scoring winger.

While Minnesota could have had Olausson on the waiver wire for free a few weeks ago, that would have required keeping him on their NHL roster, something they’re not keen to do. They also don’t take on an additional contract by parting ways with Masters, a 2021 fourth-round pick who’s still at the ECHL level as he begins his third professional season. The 6’0″ righty has split the last two years between AHL and ECHL Iowa. He has a 1-5–6 scoring line with an even rating in 35 career AHL games and a 9-23–32 line in 59 ECHL games with a -7 rating.

For San Jose, giving Olausson up is a matter of creating more playing time in the AHL for the names they’ve drafted and continue to develop, like Ethan Cardwell, Cameron Lund, and Quentin Musty. Masters will now report to their ECHL affiliate in Wichita.

Submit Your Questions For The #PHRMailbag

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The 2025-26 NHL regular season is now underway.  As is often the case, we saw a flurry of extensions before the season started, plus one more early on in the year while there has been some interesting action early on.  With that in mind, it’s a good time to once again open up the mailbag.

Our last call for questions yielded enough questions for a pair of mailbags.  Topics in the first included one of the early CBA changes regarding paper transactions, getting out the crystal ball when it comes to non-playoff teams, and the Hughes brothers.  Meanwhile, included in the second column were thoughts on what’s next for the Flyers, what type of impact Jonathan Toews could have with Winnipeg this season, and why we don’t see a lot of prominent players signing short-term contracts compared to other leagues.

You can submit a question by using #PHRMailbag on Twitter/X or by leaving a comment down below. The mailbag will run this weekend.

Sabres’ Justin Danforth Out Several Weeks With Lower-Body Injury

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Sabres forward Justin Danforth will miss more than a month with the lower-body injury he sustained in Wednesday’s 8-4 drubbing of the Senators, head coach Lindy Ruff told reporters today (including Rachel Lenzi of The Buffalo News). It was never made clear what play actually caused the injury, but he left the game early in the second period and didn’t return.

It’s nothing Buffalo isn’t used to by now. Injuries have decimated their forward group early in the season. Jordan Greenway and Joshua Norris remain on injured reserve. New top-line winger Zach Benson only just made his season debut after a rather significant facial injury kept him out of the first three games, and he lit up the Sens for four assists to immediately assume the team lead in scoring.

Danforth, 32, inked a two-year, $3.6MM deal with the Sabres in free agency after spending the first four years of his NHL career with the Blue Jackets. He began the year on the fourth line but was quickly elevated into top-nine duties with Jiri Kulich and Jack Quinn when Norris got hurt in Buffalo’s first game. He’s without a point in any of his four appearances and hasn’t been particularly effective otherwise, aside from taking some faceoffs and going 54.8% on the dot, on pace for a career high. He’s managed four blocks and three hits with a -2 rating, only controlling 41.5% of shot attempts despite starting 55.6% of his shifts in the offensive zone at even strength.

The Sabres can place Danforth on injured reserve at any point if they need his roster spot, although they haven’t done so yet. They have enough cap space ($3.12MM) that long-term injured reserve shouldn’t be a consideration. For now, it appears recent call-up Joshua Dunne will maintain a spot in the lineup in Danforth’s place when Buffalo hosts the Panthers tomorrow afternoon.

Kraken Place Freddy Gaudreau On Injured Reserve

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The Kraken announced that center Frédérick Gaudreau has been placed on injured reserve after leaving last night’s game with an undisclosed issue. Forward John Hayden has been called up from AHL Coachella Valley in the corresponding move.

The nature or severity of Gaudreau’s injury isn’t known, but it looms over what’s otherwise been an inauspicious start to his tenure in Seattle. He’s got one assist through four games and has been centering the Kraken’s fourth line between Tye Kartye and Jani Nyman while factoring in on the penalty kill. He has an even rating but has been tasked with difficult defensive matchups, only controlling 41.4% of shot attempts at even strength as a result.

It’s a small sample size, though, and the Kraken should still be expecting him to be the reliable bottom-six piece he was for the previous four years for the Wild aside from a brief nosedive in 2023-24. Gaudreau averaged a 15-21–36 scoring line per 82 games in Minnesota from 2021-25, winning 49.2% of his faceoffs and averaging 15:33 of ice time per game. His possession impacts have been trailing off for quite some time, though, culminating in a career-worst 44.2 CF% last year. Seattle acquired Gaudreau, who’s signed through 2027-28 at a cap hit of $2.1MM, for a fourth-round pick back in June.

With Gaudreau and Kaapo Kakko on IR, Seattle is already without a pair of lineup regulars up front four games into the young season. They haven’t let it affect them yet, though – they’re one of four teams left without a regulation loss and boast a 2-0-2 record with a +1 goal differential.

The question now is whether the veteran Hayden will replace Gaudreau in the fourth-line center slot, or if 2024 No. 8 overall pick Berkly Catton will get a crack at making his NHL debut tomorrow against the Maple Leafs after sitting in the press box for all four games so far. It will likely be the former. If Catton is scratched for five consecutive games, he becomes eligible for a two-week conditioning stint in Coachella Valley. The 19-year-old isn’t yet eligible for a full-time AHL assignment and must be returned to his junior team, WHL Spokane, if he’s not on the NHL roster. A conditioning stint still counts against Seattle’s roster limit and is thus permitted. The Kraken took a similar approach with top-five pick Shane Wright in 2022-23 before subsequently loaning him back to juniors later in the year.

Hayden, 30, is now in his fourth year with the Kraken. He suited up 20 times for Seattle last year, his highest games played total since making 55 appearances with the Sabres in 2021-22. The bottom-six grinder has 18 goals and 39 points with a -30 rating in 269 career NHL games and has appeared in parts of nine consecutive seasons.

Lightning Recall Steven Santini

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The Lightning announced that they have recalled right-shot defender Steven Santini from AHL Syracuse. With an open roster spot and space in their LTIR pool, they don’t need to make a corresponding move. He comes up following yesterday’s news that fellow rearguard Maxwell Crozier is out for at least the next two games, potentially longer, with an undisclosed injury.

Santini first joined Tampa Bay’s organization as a two-way signing ahead of the 2024-25 season, and he made one appearance for the club last year in December, logging a shot, hit, and two blocks in 11:37 of ice time. He signed a two-year, two-way extension in June to remain with the club through 2026-27. He cleared waivers during the preseason and has one assist in two games in Syracuse’s young season, serving as an alternate captain for the club for the second year in a row.

The 30-year-old Santini was a second-round pick by the Devils back in 2013. He has 124 total games of NHL experience, most of which came in a New Jersey uniform early in his pro career. He made 30-plus appearances in three straight years from 2016-19 but has made just 10 NHL appearances since the beginning of the 2019-20 season. He made stops in the Predators, Blues, and Kings organizations between his departure from Jersey and his arrival in Tampa. The 6’3″, 214-lb righty has a 5-18–23 scoring line in those 124 games with a -8 rating, averaging 17:10 per game with a subpar CF% of 42.1 at even strength.

A defensive specialist, he’ll slot in as a fine healthy extra with Crozier out for the time being. He isn’t expected to draw in tonight against the Red Wings; that will be Darren Raddysh after sitting as a healthy scratch for the Bolts’ last two games. Raddysh had a goal and two assists in Tampa’s first two games of the year alongside Victor Hedman, but was relegated to the press box once J.J. Moser was eligible to return from suspension.

Santini can remain on Tampa’s roster for up to 30 nonconsecutive days until he needs to clear waivers again to head back to Syracuse.

Rangers Reassign Connor Mackey

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The Rangers announced that defenseman Connor Mackey was assigned to AHL Hartford. They’re left with an open roster spot for now.

There are multiple potential motivations for the demotion. Mackey was recalled last weekend to serve as a healthy extra in conjunction with Carson Soucy landing on injured reserve. Soucy is eligible to come off IR tomorrow after sustaining his upper-body injury last Saturday, Oct. 11. He hasn’t skated since then, though, so a return this weekend seems unlikely. The Blueshirts were also carrying eight defensemen on the active roster entering today. They recalled top prospect Scott Morrow on Wednesday amid an injury concern for William Borgen, but Borgen ended up being able to go for yesterday’s overtime loss to the Maple Leafs.

Hartford is also light on its blue line, with the Mackey and Morrow recalls leaving them with just three NHL-contracted defensemen on their roster. Sending Mackey back gives them a fourth and a stable veteran presence as their schedule ramps up.

Notably, the waiver-exempt Morrow stays up for now. That could change when Soucy is ready to return, but reassigning Mackey over Morrow indicates the Rangers may look to get the latter into his season debut sooner rather than later. They’re still ironing out some question marks on their blue line. It’s hard to justify taking rookie Matthew Robertson out of the lineup – after starting the year as New York’s No. 7, he’s been elevated into top-four duties with Borgen with Soucy out. That pairing has dominated to the tune of a 70.4 xGF% and 53.5 CF% at 5v5, per MoneyPuck. While dressing Morrow would give them four righties and two lefties, they may be mulling a benching for Urho Vaakanainen, who’s been a non-factor on the scoresheet through six games.

Mackey, 29, is in his third season with the organization. This recall didn’t result in any playing time, but he did log one appearance for the Blueshirts in 2023-24 and two in 2024-25. The 6’3″ lefty is a pending UFA on a two-way deal and has recorded an 8-27–35 scoring line with a +12 rating in 111 games for Hartford over the past three years.

Mackey does not need waivers for today’s demotion because he’s played fewer than 10 NHL games and spent less than 30 days on the active roster since he last cleared them. This recall lasted five days, so he’s got 25 left on his clock before he needs to hit the wire again to return to Hartford.

Capitals Recall Ethen Frank

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The Capitals have announced the recall of winger Ethen Frank from AHL Hershey. Frank will likely be Washington’s scratch at forward for its game against the Wild tonight, but will be on hand to enter the lineup in case of a last-minute injury. Since a roster spot opened up yesterday when Vincent Iorio was claimed off waivers by the Sharks, no corresponding transaction is required.

Frank, 27, returns to Washington’s NHL roster after making his big league debut last season. Undrafted, Frank has worked his way up the depth chart from AHL signing to reliable call-up option in just a few years. He made his pro debut for Hershey late in the 2021-22 season after a five-year run at Western Michigan and ended up signing his first NHL contract late the following season.

Over 163 career games in the minors, Frank has 82 goals, 45 assists, and 127 points. He’s led Hershey in goals twice, including netting 30 as a rookie, and has been named to the AHL All-Star Classic in all three of his full-time pro seasons. After recording a 4-3–7 scoring line in 24 NHL appearances last year, he was expected to get a long look at a top-nine role in training camp, but was boxed out by rookie Ryan Leonard, 2020 first-rounder Hendrix Lapierre, and returning vet Sonny Milano, who spent most of 2024-25 sidelined with a concussion. He was waived at the end of training camp and, despite fears he would be claimed due to his strong minor-league track record, went unclaimed and was assigned to Hershey.

Frank already has two goals through two games for Hershey this year. He’ll be one of Washington’s preferred call-up options throughout the year, but they’ll be careful with his waiver status. He has a 10-game, 30-day clock on the active roster until he needs to pass through them again to return to the minors.

He’s coming up today to ensure the Caps keep an extra healthy forward around. They’re still without Pierre-Luc Dubois, who’s day-to-day with a lower-body issue and will miss his second straight game tonight. He practiced today, but with a non-contact designation, according to The Hockey News.

East Notes: Tuch, Crozier, Othmann

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There was a heavy expectation heading into the 2025-26 season that the Buffalo Sabres would get an extension done with forward Alex Tuch. Before the campaign, there was no agreed-upon extension, and Tuch’s future is more uncertain following a disappointing start by the Sabres. In a recent interview with David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period, Brian Bartlett, Tuch’s agent, admitted that extension talks had begun to stall.

Bartlett acknowledged that the Sabres wanted to keep Tuch after this season, and Tuch expressed interest in staying as well. However, Bartlett shared further, ” I think we’ve all kind of decided that it’s best to just try to get some wins here. Alex is a leader on that team, both play-wise and kind of, you know, in the room. So he wants to focus on that, not have it a distraction, so we’ve wanted to just kind of let everyone know, like, we’re just gonna put this on the backburner for a little bit – doesn’t mean that we’re closing the door to signing, doesn’t mean anything, just means that, you know, for the time period, he’s gotta try to help the Buffalo Sabres win games.”

Despite earning a win last night, the Sabres haven’t gotten off on the right foot to stave off the 15th year of their playoff drought. If Tuch wants to play on a legitimate contender, few would condemn him for seeking an opportunity outside of Buffalo. Still, there’s plenty of time to correct the disappointing start, and Tuch may feel more inclined to revisit talks if the Sabres can collect more wins.

Additional notes from the Eastern Conference:

  • The Tampa Bay Lightning will be without defenseman Maxwell Crozier for the next few games. After leaving the team’s recent game against the Washington Capitals in the first period, Benjamin Pierce, the team’s manager of media relations, passed along a note from head coach Jon Cooper confirming that he would miss the next few games and potentially the next few weeks. Regardless, the Lightning have a readily available in-house candidate to replace Crozier in Darren Raddysh, who’s scored one goal and three points in two games this year.
  • Earlier, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman asserted that the New York Rangers were listening to offers for forward prospect Brennan Othmann. Vincent Z. Mercogliano of The Athletic provided additional context in a new article, indicating that the writing was on the wall during training camp. Mercogliano confirmed that Othmann hasn’t made a formal trade request, but agrees that a fresh start would be best. He noted that the Rangers were wholly underwhelmed by Othmann’s four preseason performances and sent him down nearly one week before the beginning of the season.

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