Blackhawks Notes: Injuries, Lardis, Boisvert
The Blackhawks were without a pair of players for their game tonight against Colorado. Head coach Jeff Blashill told reporters including Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times (Twitter link) that winger Andrew Mangiapane and defenseman Louis Crevier were both injured on Thursday in Minnesota. There’s no word on how much time either player might miss. Mangiapane has a goal and an assist in seven games since coming over in a trade from Edmonton earlier this month while Crevier has held his own as a full-time NHLer this season. He has 17 points in 66 games along with 73 blocks and 107 hits while averaging a little under 17 minutes of ice time per night.
More from Chicago:
- When Chicago recalled winger Nick Lardis after the trade deadline, it looked like he was in line to get an extended look down the stretch. However, he has averaged just 10:33 per game of ice time since the promotion. That led Pope to question how the team has used the 20-year-old. While Blashill has talked about trying to see how Lardis fares in a more limited role to give him a better opportunity to establish himself in the NHL, the youngster has averaged just shy of a point per game in the minors this season and could use a boost in their top six. Giving him a chance in that role could have longer-term benefits than showing that he can handle a fourth-line role if needed.
- Prospect Sacha Boisvert’s NHL debut will have to wait a little longer. Scott Powers of The Athletic relays (Twitter link) that the 20-year-old’s visa paperwork has yet to be processed. Accordingly, it’s more likely that he debuts next week on Chicago’s road trip. Boisvert, a first-round pick in 2024, recently signed his entry-level contract and is burning the first year of that down the stretch. He won’t play enough to accrue a year of service time toward UFA eligibility and if he doesn’t play in at least 10 games down the stretch, Boisvert wouldn’t be eligible for an offer sheet in 2028.
Trent Frederic Out Indefinitely
It has been a rough few weeks on the injury front for the Oilers, particularly up front. Within the last few weeks, Mattias Janmark, Curtis Lazar, Colton Dach, and Leon Draisaitl have all landed on LTIR, with Janmark being done for the season.
Now, another forward can be added to the injury list. Speaking after practice today, head coach Kris Knoblauch told reporters including Sportsnet’s Gene Principe (Twitter link) that winger Trent Frederic is dealing with an injury with no timeline for his return.
The injury was sustained on Thursday against Florida late in the second period while forechecking. He was able to get up and finish the shift but didn’t return to the game for the third.
This is Frederic’s first full season with Edmonton and to say he has underwhelmed would certainly be fair. Signed to an eight-year contract worth $3.85MM per season back in June, the 28-year-old has struggled offensively. Through 67 games this season, he has just four goals and two assists in a little under 11 minutes a night of playing time. However, he does sit second on the team in hits with 170, only behind winger Vasily Podkolzin.
The next man up approach has been used a lot lately thanks to these injuries and the one who will get the next opportunity is winger Roby Jarventie, recalled into the cap space opened up by Draisaitl’s LTIR placement. It will be Jarventie’s first NHL action since November 2023.
In the meantime, Edmonton has more than ample cap space to bring yet another forward up from AHL Bakersfield. However, given that they still have 12 healthy forwards on the roster, they won’t be in a position to utilize an emergency recall. Accordingly, any forward that comes up from the Condors would count against their post-deadline limit of five. If the Oilers want to keep some flexibility on that front for later in the year or into the playoffs should they qualify, they might elect not to bring up a replacement for Frederic right away.
Atlantic Notes: Stecher, Panthers, Reinbacher
It has been a rough stretch lately for the Maple Leafs, who have gone from a bubble team within striking distance of a Wild Card spot to one that is jockeying for seeding in the draft lottery. However, while some veterans may be hoping to move on after the season, blueliner Troy Stecher isn’t one of them. Speaking to Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun, the pending UFA made it clear that he’s hoping to re-sign with Toronto for next season. Claimed off waivers from Edmonton back in November, Stecher is averaging just shy of 20 minutes per game since then, providing the Maple Leafs with a nice return on a deal that sits just above the minimum salary. Given how he has played in Toronto, Stecher could be in line to double his current AAV of $787.5K on the open market this summer should he get there.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic:
- The Panthers were without a pair of forwards as they continued their road trip in Calgary. Team reporter Jameson Olive relayed (Twitter link) that center Anton Lundell and winger Mackie Samoskevich were both banged up on Thursday in Edmonton and are listed as day-to-day. Lundell sits just one point shy of matching his career high in points (45) set last season so as long as Florida doesn’t hold him out too long, he should have a chance to set a new personal best. As for Samoskevich, his second full NHL season has been fairly quiet as he has just six goals and 17 assists in 66 contests, not an ideal platform season heading into restricted free agency this summer with arbitration eligibility for the first time.
- Earlier this week, Quartexx Hockey announced (Twitter link) that they have signed Canadiens prospect David Reinbacher as a client. The blueliner was the fifth overall pick back in 2023 and is still looking to make his NHL debut. Previously represented by Maloney & Thompson Sports Management, the 21-year-old has 23 points in 49 games with AHL Laval this season. The move isn’t in anticipation of contract talks as Reinbacher still has two years left on his entry-level contract after this one.
Canucks Sign Victor Mancini To Two-Year Extension
The Vancouver Canucks are getting more work done early with one of their pending restricted free agents. Vancouver announced that they’ve signed defenseman Victor Mancini to a two-year, $2MM extension.
It’s a fairly straightforward extension since Mancini wasn’t eligible for much of anything extra in his next deal. PuckPedia shared that the 23-year-old blueliner will earn a $905K salary during the 2026-27 season, and a $1.05MM salary in the 2027-28 campaign.
The Hancock, MI native is in his first full season with the Canucks since being acquired from the New York Rangers last year in the trade that sent J.T. Miller back to the Big Apple. He was drafted 159th overall by the Rangers in the 2022 NHL Draft and made his debut on October 9, 2024.
He got off to a solid start to his NHL career. By the end of October last season, Mancini had scored one goal and four points in eight games with a +4 rating, averaging 16:37 of ice time per game.
Unfortunately, not much has gone right since. In Mancini’s next 41 games, split between the Rangers and Canucks, he has scored one goal and four points with a -23 rating.
Still, that’s not the entire picture. Even in limited ice time, Mancini has managed a respectable 90.9% on-ice SV% at even strength. He has also performed well with Vancouver’s AHL affiliate this season, scoring four goals and 12 points in 33 games with the Abbotsford Canucks with a +1 rating.
Given the ongoing rebuild in Vancouver and the $1MM AAV on his new deal, it’s more than likely Mancini will open the 2026-27 campaign with the Canucks. This summer, Vancouver is expected to re-sign Derek Forbort or Pierre-Olivier Joseph, giving Mancini a pathway to the bottom-pairing unless the Canucks make another addition.
Stars Sign Dylan Hryckowian To Entry-Level Contract
The Dallas Stars may again have brothers on the same team next season. According to a team announcement, the Stars have signed Dylan Hryckowian to a two-year, entry-level contract. He’ll finish the year on an amateur tryout agreement with the AHL’s Texas Stars.
Dylan, of course, is the brother of Dallas forward Justin Hryckowian. The two last played together at Northeastern University throughout the 2023-24 season, when Justin was captain, and Dylan was in his freshman campaign.
They’ve had an eerily similar path to the NHL. Each of them played on the same teams in their youth, committed to and played at Northeastern, and signed with the Stars as undrafted free agents.
Even their production in the NCAA was similar as Dylan finished with 107 points in 100 games, and Justin finished with 101 points in 94 games. Each ended their tenure in college averaging 1.07 points per game.
Like Justin, Dylan should be able to carve out a role in the Stars’ bottom six if he makes the team next year or is called up at any point during the regular season. He has an extremely high motor, using his speed to beat opponents to the puck in all three zones.
Assuming his time in the AHL goes well to end the year, it wouldn’t be out of the question for the younger Hryckowian to make the team’s opening night roster. Given their salary cap table, the Stars need all the depth they can get their hands on, especially on the cheaper side of things.
Los Angeles Kings To Activate Joel Armia
Over the last few weeks, the Los Angeles Kings have climbed back into a postseason spot while dealing with multiple injuries to their forward corps. They’ll get some reinforcements for tomorrow.
Dennis Bernstein of The Fourth Period passed along a note from interim head coach of the Kings, D.J. Smith, saying that forward Joel Armia would return tomorrow against the Buffalo Sabres. Armia has been dealing with an upper-body injury for the last few weeks.
It’s certainly longer than Los Angeles expected Armia to miss. He was originally expected to miss a few days with the upper-body ailment. His last game played came on February 26th against the Edmonton Oilers.
While he won’t have as much impact as Kevin Fiala might have, Armia’s return to the lineup will still give the Kings more offensive firepower. He has played in 53 games this year, scoring 10 goals and accumulating 20 points.
Typically, at even strength, Armia plays on Los Angeles’ bottom two lines, while getting a few more minutes with special teams. He has been particularly solid on the penalty kill, tied for second in the league with four shorthanded goals on the year.
Additionally, he is responsible on the defensive side of the puck, which is imperative for a winger playing in the bottom six. Armia has managed a 92.2% on-ice SV% at even strength, making for one of the best outputs of his 12-year career.
Not only are the Kings back in a playoff spot, but they are projected to finish there based on points percentage. Including tonight, Los Angeles will play postseason or near-postseason-bound teams in five out of their remaining 14 games in the regular season, giving them a good opportunity to reach the Stanley Cup playoffs.
New York Rangers Recall Dylan Garand
According to a team announcement, the New York Rangers have recalled netminder Dylan Garand from the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack. The transaction will bring the Rangers’ roster to 25 players.
The decision is somewhat surprising at first glance. There have been no injuries reported regarding Igor Shesterkin or Jonathan Quick, giving the Rangers little need for a third netminder.
However, sitting in last place in the Atlantic Division, it’s becoming increasingly likely that Hartford will miss the Calder Cup playoffs this year. Given that the Rangers’ season is effectively over, it doesn’t hurt to give Garand more experience at the NHL level.
It’s the second time Garand has been recalled this year, with his first coming in late November. At the time of writing, Garand has yet to debut in the NHL.
Regardless, he’s spent his entire four-year professional career playing for the Wolf Pack. He’s generally been reliable, managing a 65-57-19 record in 148 games with a .901 SV% and 2.90 GAA.
Unfortunately, like many of his teammates, Garand’s performance has trailed off this year. In 36 games, he has a 16-15-2 record with a .896 SV% and 2.83 GAA.
At any rate, given the Rangers’ position in the standings, it may be a good time to get Garand into a game or two. New York doesn’t have a firm commitment from Quick that he’ll want to return for a 20th season, so the Rangers have the opportunity to give an early tryout for next season to their third-string netminder.
Blackhawks Recall Dominic Toninato
Forward Dominic Toninato is back with the Blackhawks. After being shuffled between the NHL and AHL Rockford a couple of times earlier in the year, he’s been recalled again today, per a team announcement.
Toninato signed a two-year, two-way deal with the Hawks last summer after spending the previous five seasons as a depth option for the Jets. He cleared waivers early in training camp, and he hasn’t seen enough time on the NHL roster this season to need to clear them again. The 6’2″ pivot has brought some much-needed veteran scoring punch to Rockford, leading the IceHogs with a 16-27–43 scoring line in 52 games. In five NHL appearances earlier this year, he had one assist and a +1 rating while averaging 9:12 per game and going 10-for-22 on faceoffs (45.5%).
He’s sticking around through next season at an $850K cap hit and figures to slot into a similar role, somewhere around #15 on Chicago’s forward depth chart and a #6ish option down the middle. The club has opted to dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen as of late, with Oliver Moore out with what could be a season-ending injury and Sacha Boisvert still awaiting his work visa after signing his entry-level contract earlier this week. Sam Lafferty has been a healthy scratch, so Toninato doesn’t qualify as an emergency recall unless someone else is hurt, but there could be an opportunity for him to step into the lineup tonight against a former team of his, the Avalanche, as a result.
Toninato has rarely been a regular outside of his run as Winnipeg’s full-time 4C in 2021-22, appearing in a career-high 77 games that year. He’s still now suited up in nine straight NHL seasons, putting up a 13-23–36 scoring line in 194 games along the way with a +13 rating.
Rangers Notes: Lafreniere, Fortescue, Edstrom
Rangers right-winger Alexis Lafrenière has had a shaky season, but the 24-year-old former #1 overall pick has finally emerged as a true top-line threat ever since Artemi Panarin‘s departure via trade to the Kings last month opened up some more ice time. Head coach Mike Sullivan had loads of praise for Lafrenière this week, telling Vince Z. Mercogliano and Peter Baugh of The Athletic that “where Laf has improved most recently is in the down-low game in the offensive zone — the grind game.”
With a tally last night against the Blue Jackets, Lafrenière hit 20 goals on the season for just the second time in his six-year career. As Sullivan points out, his willingness to drive toward the middle of the ice is a gigantic part of that. Fourteen of those tallies have come from high-danger areas either in or directly in front of the crease. That’s the same number of goals Nathan MacKinnon has generated from those areas this year, for example. If his finishing from distance and struggle to create perimeter plays are going to remain an issue long-term, he and Sullivan have appeared to have found the necessary adjustment to finally make him into an everyday top-six threat.
The dividends have been immediate. Lafrenière has six goals and 15 points in 12 games since the Olympic break while skating alongside rookie Gabriel Perreault and Mika Zibanejad. While the trio’s underlying numbers have been lacking (48.9% expected goals share, 2.46 xGA/60, per MoneyPuck), they’ve figured out how to be an effective driver of offense for a Rangers team whose season was tanked from the start by a lack of high-danger chance generation.
Mercogliano and Baugh also discussed the future of some of the Rangers’ college-bound prospects. There’s a real chance that 2023 third-round pick Drew Fortescue will turn pro and even make his NHL debut this season while burning the first year of his entry-level contract, they report. The 20-year-old shutdown lefty is wrapping up a junior season at Boston College that’s seen him record a career-best 4-9–13 scoring line in 35 games with a +4 rating.
Fortescue, a 6’2″, 194-lb New York native, has been a fixture of the United States national junior team for the past few years. He suited up at both the 2024 and 2025 World Juniors before aging out, posting four points and a +12 rating across 14 games there with a pair of gold medals. The Rangers view him as someone “who could soon work his way into the mix on New York’s second or third pair,” Mercogliano and Baugh wrote. That checks out considering the Blueshirts don’t have very much left-side depth behind their #1 option, Vladislav Gavrikov.
Shifting back to the NHL roster, Adam Edstrom has lined up at center on the fourth line between Jonny Brodzinski and Jaroslav Chmelar for the past few games. A natural pivot, he’s played exclusively at the wing in the Rangers organization to date, but was thrilled to get an audition down the middle again after incumbent #4C Sam Carrick was sent to the Sabres at the trade deadline.
“I said that I’d be excited to play center again,” Edstrom said to Mercogliano and Baugh. “It’s been a little bit, but I feel like you’re a bit more included in the game, and kind of play low. My defensive game is something that I take a lot of pride in, so I think it’ll fit me well.”
Adam Ruzicka, Spartak Terminate KHL Contract
Former Calgary Flames winger Adam Ruzicka will be on the open market once again. His contract with Spartak Moscow of Russia’s KHL, which was set to run through the 2026-27 season, has been terminated by the club per Russian news source Championat. A club press release said the decision was made due to a breach of contract.
Ruzicka joined Spartak Moscow for the 2024-25 season after failing to find his footing with the NHL’s Flames or Arizona Coyotes. He led Spartak with 26 goals in his first season, en route to 45 points in 65 games. That scoring continued through the KHL playoffs, again leading Spartak with seven goals and tying for the team lead with 12 points in 12 games. He quickly slotted in as a pillar of the Spartak offense and stuck in that role into this season. Ruzicka currently ranks second on the team in scoring with 16 goals and 40 points in 51 games. That pace would have put him on track to exceed last year’s scoring by six points.
Instead, Spartak will part ways with one of their top forwards. Ruzicka has been in the midst of a rare scoring drought as of late, with no points in his last five games dating back to early February. His role in the lineup shrank as a result of the cold spell, with a bump to the third line and second power-play unit.
The Slovakia-native will now search for a better fit elsewhere. He played three seasons in the OHL before moving to the AHL in 2019. Since then, Ruzicka has appeared in 117 NHL games and 98 AHL games, with 40 and 68 points, respectively.
The 26-year-old also joined Team Slovakia at the 2026 Winter Olympics, where he racked up five points in six games. That performance has some speculating if there might be renewed NHL interest this summer. Ruzicka has represented Slovakia at all levels of international play and could now find his way back to the country in search of a new team. He grew up through the HC Pardubice pipeline, appearing with the organization’s U16, U18, and U20 clubs before moving to Canada in 2016.