While Coyotes center Christian Dvorak has been skating on his own as of late, there’s still no timetable for his return to Arizona’s lineup and it does not appear he’ll be ready for the season opener, notes Richard Morin of the Arizona Republic. It appears that the lower-body injury he’s dealing with is related to the back injury that kept him out of the lineup for the last four games of 2017-18. The Coyotes surprisingly inked Dvorak to a six-year extension this past summer and they’re not going to want this to linger. Accordingly, they will likely be very cautious in terms of his return and won’t be rushing him. Between this and the injury to Alex Galchenyuk, Arizona has quickly gone from a team with surplus depth down the middle to shifting a winger over in the interim to fill the vacancies.
More from the Pacific:
- Ducks winger Brian Gibbons is dealing with a hand injury, bringing the number of injured players up to seven, notes Elliott Teaford of the Orange County Register. The team is waiting for the swelling to subside before they can determine the severity of the injury and how much time he might miss. Gibbons is in his first season in Anaheim after inking a one-year, $1MM deal back in July.
- Oilers goaltender Mikko Koskinen has a no-move clause, GM Peter Chiarelli confirmed to Jason Gregor of TSN 1260 (audio link). This comes as somewhat of a surprise considering he has just four games of NHL experience (all in 2010-11) but he was sought after by quite a few teams so it may have been required to get a deal done. The 30-year-old won the backup job after Edmonton placed Al Montoya on waivers yesterday.
- Kings winger Jonny Brodzinski has undergone shoulder surgery and is out indefinitely, notes Lisa Dillman of The Athletic (Twitter link). The 25-year-old was expected to contend for a full-time spot on the roster after splitting last season between the NHL (35 games) and the AHL (29 games with 30 points).