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Archives for February 2021

NHL Postpones Sabres-Islanders

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The NHL has postponed another game, this time between the Buffalo Sabres and New York Islanders tonight. The release explains as follows:

The National Hockey League announced that tonight’s Buffalo Sabres vs. NY Islanders game is being postponed due to the League’s COVID Protocol.  Due to weather conditions yesterday, the Sabres altered their travel schedule so as to fly today to New York.  So that required COVID contact tracing and testing protocols can be completed appropriately, the decision has been made to re-schedule the game for a future date.

The Sabres recently played the New Jersey Devils, who have experienced a COVID outbreak and had ten players on yesterday’s COVID Protocol Related Absences list. John Vogl of The Athletic tweets that a source has told him “Buffalo is furious” and that the Sabres asked the league for more information when Travis Zajac and Kyle Palmieri were added to the list but did not receive it.

This will be the 15th game postponed so far this season and fourth in the East Division just over the past two days. The Devils will be shut down for at least a week while they try to contain the spread. The Sabres are scheduled to play the Islanders again on Thurdsay, before heading to Boston for a Saturday night game against the Bruins.

2021 Hobey Baker Nominees Announced

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With the collegiate hockey season (such as it is this year) entering the home stretch, voting for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award has opened with 50 players nominated for the award. The trophy is given to the top NCAA player in the country and has an impressive line of winners over the past few years. In 2014, Johnny Gaudreau took home the award as a junior for Boston College, followed by Jack Eichel in his only year for Boston University in 2015. Jimmy Vesey, Will Butcher, and Adam Gaudette don’t bring quite the same impact but are still NHL regulars after winning from 2016-18.

2019’s winner was University of Massachusetts defenseman Cale Makar, who has gone on to win the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s best rookie and is now dominating the league with the Colorado Avalanche. Last year the award was given to Scott Perunovich, but his chance to debut late in the season with the St. Louis Blues was taken away. Perunovich currently sits on the Blues’ taxi squad but could find his way into the lineup soon enough.

The award also has several top NHL alumni in its small fraternity, including Neal Broten, Tom Kurvers, Paul Kariya, Chris Drury, Ryan Miller, and Brendan Morrison. With that group behind them, this year’s winner is certainly not someone to take lightly.

The fan vote will be added to the opinions of NCAA head coaches to come up with a 10-man finalist group, which will then have another fan vote and go through a selection committee. The nominees are as follows:

Owen Power – University of Michigan
Grant Cruikshank – Colorado College
Alex Limoges – Pennsylvania State University
Ronnie Attard – Western Michigan University
Alex Jefferies – Merrimack College
Jordan Harris – Northeastern University
Tyce Thompson – Providence College
Joseph Nardi – Northern Michigan University
Nick Swaney – University of Minnesota-Duluth
Noah Cates – University of Minnesota-Duluth
Marcel Godbout – Sacred Heart University
Ethen Frank – Western Michigan University
Keaton Mastrodonato – Canisius College
Shane Pinto – University of North Dakota
Brennan Kapcheck – American International College
Nick Perbix – St. Cloud State University
Declan Carlile – Merrimack College
Jakov Novak – Bentley University
Cam York – University of Michigan
Jordan Kawaguchi – University of North Dakota
Alex Steeves – University of Notre Dame
Jack LaFontaine – University of Minnesota
Mareks Mitens – Lake Superior State University
Jonny Evans – University of Connecticut
David Farrance – Boston University
Tyrone Bronte – University of Alabama-Huntsville
Taylor Ward – University of Nebraska-Omaha
Josiah Slavin – Colorado College
Kent Johnson – University of Michigan
Eduards Tralmaks – University of Maine
Dryden McKay – Minnesota State University-Mankato
Keith Petruzzelli – Quinnipiac University
Lukas Kaelble – Lake Superior State University
Odeen Tufto – Quinnipiac University
Ryan Steele – Sacred Heart University
Matt Kiersted – University of North Dakota
Adam Dawe – University of Maine
Veeti Miettinen – St. Cloud State University
Nathan Smith – Minnesota State University-Mankato
Braeden Tuck – Sacred Heart University
Chayse Primeau – University of Nebraska-Omaha
Cade Borchardt – Minnesota State University-Mankato
Alex Young – Colgate University
Zach Solow – Northeastern University
Spencer Knight – Boston College
Cole Koepke – University of Minnesota-Duluth
Logan Hutsko – Boston College
Matt Boldy – Boston College
Ashton Calder – Lake Superior State University
Jacob Schmidt-Svejstrup – University of Maine

UPDATE Feb 2: There are some notable omissions from the group, including Wisconsin Badgers forward and Montreal Canadiens prospect Cole Caufield, who currently leads the nation in scoring. Todd Milewski of the Wisconsin State Journal tweets that Caufield is expected to be added after “an email got lost in the shuffle,” though he still does not appear on the fan vote page.

Tony DeAngelo Clears Waivers

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4:45pm: At a press conference this evening, Rangers GM Jeff Gorton made it clear that DeAngelo “has played his last game for the Rangers.” As Stephen Whyno of the Associated Press relays on Twitter, Gorton felt that DeAngelo “wasn’t able to move on” from being a healthy scratch earlier in the season and if anything else happened, the team was ready to move on instead. DeAngelo will not be around the team, despite currently being on the taxi squad, while they search for a trade. At this point, the Rangers are not looking to void his contract.

11:05am: New York Rangers defenseman Tony DeAngelo has cleared waivers today, meaning he can now be assigned to the taxi squad or minor leagues. DeAngelo was waived after an incident occurred following Saturday’s overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, in which he and goaltender Alexandar Georgiev had a physical altercation in the hallway outside the locker room. As Larry Brooks of the New York Post reports, the altercation was broken up by rookie defenseman K’Andre Miller.

DeAngelo, 25, signed a two-year, $9.6MM contract just a few months ago after his breakout 15-goal, 53-point 2019-20 season. He received Norris Trophy votes for the outstanding campaign but was still overshadowed by assistant captain Jacob Trouba and young star Adam Fox on the right side in New York. This is not the first time DeAngelo has been involved in altercations with teammates. In 2014, he was suspended by the OHL for violating the league’s harassment, abuse, and diversity policy by directing a slur at one of his Sarnia Sting teammates. It was the second time he had been suspended for violating the league’s policy. DeAngelo has also been suspended in the NHL for the abuse of an official, serving a three-game ban in 2017.

As Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic tweets, the Rangers are now still determining what the next step is for the organization and DeAngelo. They are working with his agent Pat Brisson on the matter, though a trade seems very unlikely at this point. Putting DeAngelo on the taxi squad or minor leagues would bury $1.075MM of his cap hit, while an offseason buyout would require the Rangers to only pay out one-third of the remaining salary owed because he is still under the age of 26. That would mean relatively minuscule cap penalties moving forward, though they would have to wait until the end of the year.

COVID Protocol Related Absences: 02/01/21

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Each day, the NHL will publicly release the list of players that are unavailable to their respective teams due to being in COVID-19 protocol. Here is today’s group:

Carolina – Jesper Fast
Chicago – Nicholas Beaudin, Adam Boqvist, Ryan Carpenter; Alex DeBrincat, Lucas Wallmark
Dallas – Andrej Sekera
Detroit – Adam Erne, Robby Fabbri, Sam Gagner, Jonathon Merrill, Filip Zadina
Los Angeles – Andreas Athanasiou, Blake Lizotte
Minnesota – Marcus Foligno
New Jersey – Mackenzie Blackwood, Connor Carrick, Aaron Dell, Kyle Palmieri, Sami Vatanen, Travis Zajac, Andreas Johnsson*, Janne Kuokkanen*, Michael McLeod*, Pavel Zacha*
NY Rangers – Kaapo Kakko*
Vegas – Alex Pietrangelo
Washington – Evgeny Kuznetsov, Ilya Samsonov
Winnipeg – Pierre-Luc Dubois

As a reminder, inclusion on this list does not mean that a player has tested positive for Coronavirus or even that they have been confirmed as a close contact to another positive person. Included in the NHL’s list of possible reasons for someone being on the list is are the following:

(1) an initial positive test which remains unconfirmed until confirmatory testing is completed pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (2) mandated isolation for symptomatic individuals pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (3) required quarantine as a high-risk close contact in accordance with the Positive Test Protocol; (4) isolation based on a confirmed positive test result and/or; (5) quarantine for travel or other reasons as outlined in the COVID-19 Protocol

Players removed today: Patrik Laine, Columbus Blue Jackets

The big news is the huge outbreak in New Jersey, where three games have been postponed because of the ten players on the CPRA list. The Devils will not play for the next week, though obviously test results could extend that even further. Several of these players took part in yesterday’s game against the Buffalo Sabres, but thankfully no Sabres players were included here today. It’s important to remember that at least some of the Devils listed are because of travel protocols (Vatanen, Dell), or, in the case of Carrick because he left the team for the birth of a child.

Laine meanwhile hit the ice today for the first time since his trade to the Blue Jackets after serving his 48-hour quarantine. He’s expected to be in the lineup tomorrow night to make his Columbus debut.

Kakko too was added today for the Rangers, who recalled Jonny Brodzinski from the AHL earlier today. The young forward has two goals in eight games and will now miss some time as he moves through the protocol. The Rangers play this evening against the Penguins and Thursday against the Capitals.

*denotes new addition

NHL Postpones Several New Jersey Devils Games

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More NHL games have been postponed, this time because of a COVID outbreak among the New Jersey Devils. At least the team’s next three games, including two against the Pittsburgh Penguins and one against the New York Rangers, have been postponed due to the COVID protocol. The Devils have ten players on the COVID Protocol Related Absences list today.

This makes 14 games that have been officially postponed during the first few weeks of the 2020-21 season. All of those contests were outside of the East Division, meaning this is the first disruption to the schedule for the Devils, Penguins, and Rangers.

The team’s training facilities have been closed to all players on the active roster effective immediately and will remain so until further notice. The league is continuing to review the Devils’ schedule. There could be further postponements beyond February 6, but at this point, only the next three games have been pushed.

Brayden McNabb Placed On Long-Term Injured Reserve

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The Vegas Golden Knights are expecting to be back on the ice Wednesday as they prepare for a Friday night tilt against the Los Angeles Kings, their first game back after COVID protocols postponed three matches. Unfortunately, they’ll be without defenseman Brayden McNabb, who suffered a lower-body injury last Tuesday and was placed on long-term injured reserve. That means he will miss at least ten games, though his exact recovery timeline has not been announced.

While other Golden Knights defenders like Shea Theodore and Alex Pietrangelo get most of the headlines, McNabb is still an integral part of the Vegas blue line. The 30-year-old has averaged nearly 20 minutes a game this season and is the most physical defenseman on the team, routinely racking up 200+ hits in a full season. His absence will likely lead to increased responsibility for young defenseman Nicolas Hague, but it certainly does weaken the Golden Knights’ depth.

In a shortened season, missing ten games is a huge chunk of the schedule and that is just the minimum for McNabb at this point. Being placed on LTIR however does open some added flexibility for the Golden Knights, who have been flirting with the salary cap ceiling all season after adding the expensive Pietrangelo.

Postponed Vegas Golden Knights Games Rescheduled

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Feb 1: The league has announced schedule changes following the three postponements. The following has been rescheduled:

  • Game #122, St. Louis at Vegas, originally scheduled for Jan. 28, is now scheduled for Monday, March 22 at 10 p.m. ET
  • Game #149, Vegas at San Jose, originally scheduled for Feb. 1, is now scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 13 at 4 p.m. ET
  • Game #162, Vegas at San Jose, originally scheduled for Feb. 3, is now scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 25 at 10:30 p.m. ET
  • Game #241, Anaheim at San Jose, originally scheduled for Feb.13, is now scheduled for Tuesday, April 6 at 10:30 p.m.  ET
  • Game #325, Vegas at Anaheim, originally scheduled for Feb. 26, is now scheduled for Friday, April 23 at 10 p.m. ET
  • Game #326, St. Louis at San Jose, originally scheduled for Feb. 26, is now scheduled for Monday, March 8 at 10:30 p.m. ET

Jan 29: The NHL has postponed two more Vegas Golden Knights games, despite no other players from the team appearing on the COVID Protocol Related Absences list. Games against the San Jose Sharks scheduled for Monday and Wednesday have both been postponed and will be played later in the schedule.

In the release, the league specifies that three members of the Golden Knights coaching staff and one player (presumably Alex Pietrangelo, who is on the CPRA list) are isolating currently. The teams training facilities will remain closed until further notice.

The Golden Knights are currently scheduled to welcome in the Los Angeles Kings next on February 5, though it is not clear if the situation will have resolved by then. The league has not announced when the two games against the Sharks will be played, but that is now three postponed matches the Golden Knights must fit somewhere into their remaining schedule.

Perhaps the team’s four-day break in April, which follows a series against the Sharks will be the easiest place to fit the games in, though these postponements mean there will be very little rest for Vegas down the stretch.

Injury Notes: Mrazek, Letang, Thornton

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The Carolina Hurricanes are going to be without starting goaltender Petr Mrazek for longer than initially thought. Head coach Rod Brind’Amour said today that the injury suffered against the Dallas Stars on Saturday is “more serious” than they originally believed and Mrazek may even require surgery. That’s terrible news for a goaltender who was leading the league with a .955 save percentage and 0.99 goals-against average through his first four appearances. Mrazek had already recorded two shutouts on the year and looked to be playing at an entirely different level in the early going.

For the Hurricanes, it means James Reimer will take most of the load, while minor league netminder Alex Nedeljkovic will get a chance to serve as the primary backup. The 25-year-old Nedeljkovic was placed on waivers earlier this season but the Hurricanes managed to hold onto him. He has just six appearances at the NHL level but won the AHL Goaltender of the Year award in 2019, leading the Charlotte Checkers to a Calder Cup.

  • The Pittsburgh Penguins won’t have Kris Letang in the lineup tonight as the star defenseman continues to be evaluated for an injury he suffered on Saturday night. The Penguins have lost almost all of their defensive depth to injury this season, but at least one silver lining continues to grow. Pierre-Olivier Joseph has been a shining light for the team in the early going and logged nearly 26 minutes against the New York Rangers on Saturday in just his fifth NHL game. He’ll be asked to carry a heavy load if Letang is out long-term, given the lack of offensive upside many of the other options possess.
  • Joe Thornton and Nicholas Robertson were both on the ice for the Toronto Maple Leafs today as they continue to work their way back from injury. Head coach Sheldon Keefe told reporters including Kristen Shilton of TSN that nothing has changed in the recovery timelines originally given, which were a minimum of four weeks. The Maple Leafs have a few days off before resuming the grind of the condensed season on Thursday in the first of three straight games against the Vancouver Canucks.

AHL, PHPA Ratify CBA Amendments

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The AHL and Professional Hockey Players’ Association, union for minor league players, have announced the ratification of modified terms of the CBA for the 2020-21 season. The agreement allows the upcoming AHL season to move forward. League president Scott Howson released a statement:

We are very pleased that the players and the member clubs of the AHL have come together to find a solution for playing the 2020-21 season during these difficult times. We remain committed to the health and safety of our players, coaches, officials and fans, as well as everyone else who will be contributing to our league this season.

Very basically, this agreement will make an AHL season possible, but it doesn’t come without some controversy. Sean Shapiro of The Athletic reported last week that many AHL players felt very unhappy with the options in front of them and eventually agreed to protect the overall financial health of union members. If it was turned down and a season was not held, it would be the players on AHL-only deals that would take the brunt of the losses. Some players told Shapiro that they believed the AHL delay was a negotiating tactic to get better terms.

Still, for hockey fans at least, this is good news. The AHL is set to kick off their season on February 5, meaning prospects and veterans alike will get back on the ice and continue their careers. The first game of the season will be between the Bridgeport Sound Tigers and Providence Bruins, scheduled for 1pm EST on Friday afternoon. The league has still not announced a schedule for the North Division as they continue to work with provincial health officials in Canada.

Update On Sam Bennett, Victor Mete

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Over the weekend Darren Ferris, the agent for both Sam Bennett and Victor Mete, voiced some displeasure through the media. First Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported that Bennett hoped for a change of scenery, not using the term trade request but implying that the young forward would welcome a move. Then later that evening, several reports surfaced of Mete also wanting out, this time from the Montreal Canadiens where he had not played a single game this season.

Both players obviously want more opportunity, but both the Flames and Canadiens have since denied that formal trade requests were made. Today, Eric Francis of Sportsnet published a piece examining the situation in Calgary, reporting that though the organization does not question Friedman’s report, they were “blindsided” by it. They had not been given a trade request from Bennett or his agent and will not comment on the matter publicly. That’s not to say Bennett doesn’t want out, just that the two sides were not on the same page.

Meanwhile, in Montreal, GM Marc Bergevin quickly told Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic on Saturday that he wouldn’t be trading Mete, but it appears the agent’s gambit may have worked in part. The young defenseman will be in the lineup tonight against the Vancouver Canucks, skating on a pair with rookie Alexander Romanov as Brett Kulak draws out. This could have been Montreal’s plan all along—in fact, head coach Claude Julien tells Eric Engels of Sportsnet exactly that—but it certainly is coincidental that Mete would receive his first game of the season less than 48 hours after the agent went public with his displeasure.

At any rate, it appears as though Mete will get a chance to prove he belongs in the Montreal lineup. Bennett, who was already in the lineup but being deployed on the third or fourth line, is a story to keep an eye on. If he truly wants out, you can bet the situation will likely get worse before it gets better.

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