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New Jersey Devils Reassign Nolan Foote

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Nolan Foote’s most recent NHL run with the New Jersey Devils will end at three games, as the team has reassigned him to their AHL affiliate, the Utica Comets. Foote registered one goal in that three-game stretch, playing under 10 minutes in each contest.

Foote, 22, is a 2019 first-round pick who was acquired by the Devils in the 2020 trade of Blake Coleman to the Tampa Bay Lightning. At that point, Foote was serving as captain of the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets, and he would make his professional debut the next season with the then-Binghamton Devils. Foote has always been a difference-maker at the AHL level, and this season is no different as he has posted 18 goals and 30 points in 48 games.

His career total is a healthy 79 points in 128 career AHL games, but despite that AHL production NHL success has eluded Foote.

He has just 19 NHL games on his resume, and has scored seven points. A lack of foot speed has hurt Foote’s ability to separate himself in an NHL that is getting quicker and quicker.

Foote’s return to the AHL will certainly help the Comets, who are currently second in the AHL’s North Division and looking to lock up their spot in the Calder Cup playoffs.

But heading back to the AHL after again failing to latch on in the NHL for an extended period has to come as a disappointment for Foote.

As numerous other 2019 draft picks are breaking out and establishing themselves as NHL options, Foote is getting closer to a crucial point in his development. He’ll be waivers-eligible next season, so the Devils will have to make the choice next fall whether to finally include Foote in their NHL plans or risk losing him to another NHL team.

Foote could see the possibility of being exposed to and potentially claimed off of waivers next fall as an opportunity rather than a risk, though, as he could be in line to receive more NHL opportunities in an organization without the type of embarrassment of riches along the wings that the Devils can boast.

Regardless, with this reassignment Foote can’t focus on the possibility of waivers next fall. The priority has to be putting together a strong finish to his regular season and helping Utica go on a long Calder Cup playoff run. Doing those two things would likely improve Foote’s standing within the Devils organizational plans, and perhaps inspire more confidence in the team that he’ll be ready to earn a spot on the 23-man roster next season.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Latest From Insider Trading: Walsh’s Plans For NHLPA

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In the latest edition of TSN’s Insider Trading, insiders Pierre LeBrun and Chris Johnston focused on the priorities for new NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh. Though he just took on the job as the leader of the player’s union last month, he has plenty of issues to deal with and it sounds like he is already working on a few of them. LeBrun reported Walsh wants to have greater communication between the players and the union and not just when negotiating new collective bargaining agreements. He has already begun reaching out to players to get feedback on what they think of the current playoff format.

Johnston mentioned Walsh is also willing to discuss negotiating with the league to possibly try and have the salary cap move up more than the projected $1MM this offseason. However, the players still owe a debt to the owners so it is possible they are more comfortable dealing with a modest raise in the salary cap ahead of 2023-24 before a bigger leap is made the following season. This would decrease the likelihood that escrow also rises with the cap in 2024-25.

LeBrun reported that Walsh feels the Arizona Coyotes having NHL players play in a college stadium is a situation that needs to be addressed. There is a vote coming up in May when citizens of Tempe will vote on whether or not to go ahead with plans to build a new arena in the near future. If they don’t go ahead with it, it could be bad news for the Coyotes.

Johnston also said Walsh is eager to start talks about the next World Cup and has his eye on February 2025 for that event. The last time hockey players took part in a best-on-best event was the World Cup in 2016. Walsh apparently is willing to start talking about the next one, even with Russia’s participation unlikely at this point.

AHL Shuffle: 3/30/23

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have sent defenseman Topi Niemela to the Toronto Marlies of the AHL, the Marlies announced on Twitter. Niemela finished his season with Karpat of the Liiga, Finland’s top league, earlier this month, and is set to cross the pond to get his first taste of North American pro hockey. Drafted in the third round by Toronto in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, Niemela played 58 games for Karpat this season, tallying 8 goals and 10 assists for 18 points. It was a dip in production, as he recorded 10 goals and 22 assists in just 48 games in 2021-22. He will join a Marlies squad that has already punched a ticket to the AHL playoffs, and the chance for Niemela to learn while on a playoff run will only be more beneficial. He will likely spend a decent amount of time with the AHL squad before suiting up for the Maple Leafs.

 

  • The Florida Panthers recalled goaltender Mack Guzda from the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL, according to Chris Johnston of NorthStart Bets. Johnston reported Wednesday that both Alex Lyon and Sergei Bobrovsky both took the morning skate before yesterday’s win against the Toronto Maple Leafs, and Lyon got the start, stopping 40-of-42 shots in the 3-2 Panthers win. The Panthers are set to take on the Montreal Canadiens tonight. Guzda, 22, has appeared in 26 games with Charlotte this season, posting an .899 save percentage and 2.86 GAA. If Guzda were to get into a game, it would be his NHL debut.
  • The Anaheim Ducks have recalled defenseman Andrej Sustr on an emergency loan from the AHL, according to CapFriendly. Sustr, a veteran defenseman of more than 350 NHL games, has spent the entire season in the AHL. He played 39 games with the Iowa Wild, then was flipped to the Ducks in the John Klingberg trade, and has played seven games with the San Diego Gulls. Sustr suited up for the Ducks in both 2018-19 and 2021-22, making this his third stint with the team.

Columbus Blue Jackets Issue Injury Updates

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In what’s becoming a tired refrain, the Columbus Blue Jackets have issued multiple injury updates after a blowout loss over the weekend. Defenseman Erik Gudbranson’s season is over with a separated shoulder, while defenseman Nick Blankenburg is week-to-week with an ankle injury and could also be done for the year. Winger Mathieu Olivier may have also played his last game this season, as he’s out two to four weeks with a lower leg bone bruise. Goalie Elvis Merzlikins is also day-to-day with a lower-body injury.

For Gudbranson, the injury ends a rocky first campaign in Columbus after signing a four-year, $4MM average annual value contract in the offseason. The 31-year-old had 13 points in 70 games, seeing his defensive play regress back to some of the worst metrics in the league after a brief spike last season with the Calgary Flames.

Blankenburg has also struggled with injuries most of the year, but the 24-year-old rookie has played well. Some doubted Blankenburg’s NHL viability after signing with Columbus as a free agent out of college to end last season. Still, the 5-foot-9, 175-pound defender finished the year with 14 points in 36 games without being a complete defensive liability on a struggling team.

In his first season in Columbus, Olivier has set career highs in every offensive category, playing in 66 games and registering five goals and 15 points. The 26-year-old hard-nosed winger had found a consistent home on the team’s fourth line.

Without Merzlikins in the fold for the next few games, Columbus is down to minor-league veterans Michael Hutchinson and Jon Gillies as their netminders for the next few games.

Boston Bruins Recall Oskar Steen On Emergency Basis

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The Boston Bruins have announced that forward Oskar Steen has been recalled from their AHL affiliate, the Providence Bruins, on an emergency basis. The recall puts Steen in a position to play his first NHL game(s) of the 2022-23 season.

Steen, 25, has been a developmental success story for the Bruins organization, as the 2016 sixth-round pick has 100 points in nearly 200 career AHL games and has 23 total NHL games to his name. That’s a solid return for such a late draft pick, and with an $800k cap hit through next season Steen should serve as capable, energetic depth for a stacked Bruins team.

Steen scored 35 points in 49 AHL games last season and got 20 games at the NHL level, scoring six points. Due in large part to how talented this year’s Bruins lineup is from line one through four, Steen hasn’t yet played in the NHL this season.

But despite that disappointment, he has remained a healthy contributor to Providence, where he has scored 31 points and helped them clinch a Calder Cup playoff spot.

Now, Steen will potentially get a chance to play some NHL games and show that can be an option for the team next season. With the Bruins potentially set to be tight against the salary cap’s upper ceiling for next season, Steen’s affordable cap hit and progress in the AHL could make him an attractive candidate for a bottom-six role next season. Now called up to his team’s main roster, Steen will have the chance to make his case in front of Bruins decision-makers.

League Notes: Three Stars, Cut-Resistant Equipment, Challenges

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This week’s Three Stars are in, courtesy of the NHL, and it contains a trio of high-octane forwards. Arizona Coyotes winger Clayton Keller earned first-star honors after he led the NHL with nine points in four games last week, helping the Coyotes earn a four-game point streak. Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby took home the second star, while Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner was awarded the third.

Not only has Keller held his own, producing over a point per game on a team near the bottom of the league, but his presence has finally helped crack the offensive game of 2018 fifth-overall pick Barrett Hayton, who now has eight points in his last four games. Crosby’s strong play this week has once again helped keep the Penguins safer in the playoff picture, while Marner recorded six points in two games against two of the league’s best teams in New Jersey and Edmonton.

Some other league notes to begin the week:

  • NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told reporters, including NorthStar Bets’ Chris Johnston, that the league “would like to get to a point where cut-resistant equipment is mandated for all new players.” Daly notes that talks remain ongoing with the NHLPA on creating said regulation. The issue has come to the forefront in recent years in light of some scary injuries, especially incidents of skate cuts on wrists. Notably, players such as Evander Kane and Ilya Mikheyev have missed significant time in the past few seasons.
  • TVA’s Renaud Lavoie reports that NHL general managers have discussed expanding the grounds of coaches’ challenges to include puck-over-glass penalties, as well as two-minute high-sticking infractions. With challenges becoming increasingly rare as the penalties for getting them wrong evolve, the danger of slowing the game down with too many reviews is also decreasing. The managers’ annual meeting is this week.

Washington Capitals Loan Vincent Iorio to AHL

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The Washington Capitals have loaned defenseman Vincent Iorio back to their AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears. This will place Iorio back to where he’s spent most of this season, having played 51 games at the AHL level.

Iorio, 20, is a 2021 second-round pick who has been with the Capitals for about a week. He played in his first three NHL games in that timeframe, getting between 12 and 15 minutes in each contest. He even registered his first NHL point, getting an assist in the Capitals’ 8-3 rout of the San Jose Sharks.

The six-foot-four former Brandon Wheat Kings is in his first season as a professional and has impressed with his mature play in the AHL. Iorio has registered just six penalty minutes despite playing a defense-first game, and while his 17 points in 51 games don’t jump off the page, he appears to be getting closer to NHL readiness.

Now, he’ll get to head back to Hershey for possibly the rest of their season, helping ready them for what the team hopes will be a long Calder Cup playoff run.

San Jose Sharks Recall William Eklund

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The San Jose Sharks top prospect, William Eklund, is set to return to the NHL. After getting a nine-game trial run last season before heading to play for Djurgardens in his native Sweden, the Sharks have put Eklund in a position to get more NHL games under his belt, recalling him from their AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda.

While Eklund’s performance last season for Djurgarden was somewhat uneven (he scored 14 points in 29 games as his side was relegated to Sweden’s second-tier league, HockeyAllsvenskan) he has taken real strides in his development now that he’s on North American ice. Eklund has been a centerpiece offensive generator for the Barracuda, and has scored 17 goals and 41 points in 52 games.

Eklund is a smooth-skating attacker whose play in Sweden last year raised some concerns about his goal-scoring ability, as he often looked deferential with the puck on his stick and finished with just one goal to his name. This season, though, Eklund has taken a meaningful step to add more of a shooting threat to his game and become a real one-timer possibility on the power play.

He’s an exciting attacker in transition and should add some offensive spark to the Sharks lineup. While the Sharks’ season is all but over where the playoffs are concerned, getting a look at Eklund’s progress via this call-up provides some real meaning to the remaining games left on the Sharks’ schedule.

If the Sharks organization wants its fortunes to turn around sooner, rather than later, Eklund’s ability to translate his scoring success in the AHL to the more difficult NHL level will be one of the most important storylines to track.

Eklund has all the tools to be a star scoring winger in the NHL, and his AHL performance this year absolutely supports that line of thinking. With this call-up, now Eklund will get his first extended chance to show what the can do in the most talented hockey league in the world.

No Supplemental Discipline Coming For Austin Watson

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Ottawa Senators forward Austin Watson will not face supplemental discipline from the NHL Department of Player Safety for a hit to the head area he made on New York Rangers forward Tyler Motte last night, according to Larry Brooks of the New York Post.

The hit, which led to Watson receiving a five-minute major penalty and game misconduct, came in the first period of last night’s game. Watson appeared to hit Motte, who was his teammate just a few weeks ago, in the head area with a rising check, one that seemed to include an elbow making contact with Motte’s upper body.

A replay review by officials showed that Watson’s primary point of contact was with Motte’s chin, which is what led to Watson being ejected from the game. ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski reports that the Department of Player Safety determined that the hit “didn’t rise to Illegal Check to the Head,” that it was more of a “North/south hit through the body with unavoidable head contact.”

Motte did not return to the eventual Senators victory, and worth noting is the fact that Motte was knocked out for some time last season with an upper-body injury. He could miss some time now with the upper-body injury he suffered due to the hit, although no firm timeline has yet been released.

Motte, 27, was recently acquired from the Senators and has played six games for the Rangers this year.

Should he miss extended time, the Rangers will be pressed into an even more precarious situation, having already been forced to play with eleven forwards and five defensemen for cap-related reasons.

For the Senators, Watson escaping punishment from the NHL for this hit could help them as they look to make a push for a playoff spot. Watson was suspended last year for a high hit on Boston Bruins defenseman Jack Ahcan, meaning were he going to face discipline again he would be considered a repeat offender.

Now, though, despite the apparent severity of Watson’s hit on Motte, Watson will be able to remain in the Senators’ lineup for their Saturday game against the Columbus Blue Jackets. It appears that the league has decided that the five-minute-major and match penalty is sufficient punishment for Watson, which is not fully out of line with some of their past decisions.

For the Rangers, this decision could come as another point of anger for the team against the NHL Department of Player Safety, especially with their own player, K’Andre Miller, currently serving a suspension.

It was just two years ago that the Rangers’ officially and publicly called for the firing of former NHL enforcer George Parros, the current head of the NHL’s Department of Player Safety. In a statement, they called  him “unfit to continue in his current role” and his choice to not suspend Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson “a dereliction of duty” that seemed to permit what they called a “horrifying act of violence.”

While today’s choice to not levy additional punishment on Watson won’t to draw the same level of ire from the Rangers and the New York market, they’re unlikely to be thrilled to see Watson walk away unscathed while one of their players faces a possible extended absence.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Latest On Patrick Kane

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The Patrick Kane trade saga may be nearing its end, according to NHL insider Chris Johnston. In a tweet Friday afternoon, Johnston reported that a resolution to Kane’s situation is expected “in the next 24 hours or so,” well before the trade deadline on March 3.

As of now, Kane has reportedly not waived his no-movement clause to facilitate a deal, per Johnston.

Kane, who has spent his entire 16-year career with the Chicago Blackhawks, has been the subject of trade rumors in recent weeks as the lottery-bound team continues to rebuild. Yesterday, rumors re-emerged about the possibility of Kane ending up with the New York Rangers, even after the team already bolstered their top-six with the addition of Vladimir Tarasenko. Kane, 34, has recorded seven goals and 10 points in his last five games, quieting many doubts about his scoring ability in spite of a bad hip.

However, Kane’s no-movement clause gives him the power to control his destiny, and it’s still entirely possible all the speculation is for not.

Adding to the rumor mill today, NBC Sports Chicago’s Charlie Roumeliotis reported that Kane was not practicing with the team, taking a maintenance day. Such a vague term is bound to increase speculation about whether Kane is being held out for trade-related reasons, health reasons related to his publicized hip issues, or neither.

Another Blackhawks trade target, defenseman Jake McCabe, also did not practice with a non-COVID illness.

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