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Archives for March 2022

AHL Shuffle: 03/31/22

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Another busy night in the NHL this evening, as nine games are on the schedule. That includes a battle of the top two teams in the Pacific Division, though the Edmonton Oilers are certainly trying to change those designations. The Los Angeles Kings travel to Calgary to take on the Flames after losing in a shootout to Edmonton last night, and now sit just one point ahead of the Oilers in the division standings. As they and others prepare, we’ll keep track of all the minor league shuffling.

Atlantic Division

Metropolitan Division

  • The New Jersey Devils have activated Janne Kuokkanen and Tyce Thompson off injured reserve, with the latter assigned to Utica immediately. Thompson, 22, has played in two games this season and nine overall for the Devils, but is still looking for his first NHL goal.
  • The New York Islanders have recalled Robin Salo under emergency conditions. The 23-year-old defenseman is in his first season of North American hockey and has entered 18 games for the Islanders already. Selected 46th overall, he has four points in those games. Cory Schneider is also back up, though he never really left.

Central Division

  • Morgan Barron has been recalled under emergency conditions, suggesting he could make his Winnipeg Jets debut against the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight. The team is without Kyle Connor and Nate Schmidt because of positive COVID tests, meaning Barron is another forward option as they go on a back-to-back.
  • The Arizona Coyotes have recalled Hudson Fasching from the AHL following the injury to Clayton Keller. Fasching, 26, has played in eight games so far for the team, recording zero points. In fact, he doesn’t have an NHL point since the 2016-17 season, when he registered one as part of the Buffalo Sabres.

Pacific Division

  • The Los Angeles Kings have recalled Jaret Anderson-Dolan, this time under emergency conditions. The 22-year-old forward has 41 points in 45 games this season for the Ontario Reign, but still hasn’t really managed to establish himself at the top level.

This page is updated throughout the day

Petr Mrazek Expected To Miss Six Weeks

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When the Toronto Maple Leafs failed to add a goaltender at the trade deadline, many questioned the decision given the injury history (and struggles) of both Jack Campbell and Petr Mrazek. It appears as though the worst has come true, as while Campbell slowly works his way back from a rib injury, Mrazek is now expected to miss six weeks following his injury earlier this week. According to head coach Sheldon Keefe, who spoke with reporters including Jonas Siegel of The Athletic, the netminder is undergoing further evaluation but is out for the rest of the regular season.

Campbell meanwhile has been medically cleared to return, though the team will go with Erik Kallgren tonight and recalled Michael Hutchinson to serve as the backup. Jake Muzzin is “real close” to a return from his latest concussion, while Ilya Lyubushkin is still dealing with the effects of Taylor Hall’s punch. Justin Holl, who left the Maple Leafs’ last game after being struck in the head with a puck, is expected to play tonight.

It’s not like Mrazek was playing extremely well–though he had seemed to be turning things around–but losing him for the rest of the regular season puts a huge question mark in net for the Maple Leafs. When he returns (if he returns), will Kallgren have solidified himself as a full-time NHL option? Will Campbell be able to regain the form that made him an All-Star in the first half? Will Michael Hutchinson once again be called upon, despite annual struggles at the NHL level?

All of those are valid questions for Toronto fans now, and the situation only amplifies the frustration of losing Harri Sateri on waivers at the deadline to the Arizona Coyotes. Sateri isn’t even in Arizona yet, meaning he’s going to barely play for the Coyotes before the end of the year, with only 15 games remaining. In Toronto, he likely would have been pressed into duty right away, and provided some extra depth for the organization as they try to figure out the most important position on the ice.

For Mrazek, it means his first regular season with the Maple Leafs will end how it began, with a lower-body injury forcing him out of a game. In 20 appearances, he recorded an .888 save percentage and went 12-6.

Nathan MacKinnon Out Indefinitely With Upper-Body Injury

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March 31: So much for that concern. Today on Altitude Sports Radio, Bednar announced that MacKinnon is expected to play tonight for the Avalanche when they take on the San Jose Sharks.

March 29: The Colorado Avalanche will not have Nathan MacKinnon in the lineup tonight when they take on the Calgary Flames, and it’s not clear when he’ll be back. The superstar center has flown back to Denver to have an upper-body injury evaluated, according to Peter Baugh of The Athletic, and there is no timeline for his return at this point. Head coach Jared Bednar told reporters including Baugh that it was “possible” that the injury occurred in MacKinnon’s recent fight against Matt Dumba of the Minnesota Wild and that concern was currently “high” from the team.

MacKinnon took exception to a hit that Dumba laid on Mikko Rantanen the other night, and immediately engaged in a fight with the Wild defenseman. While the Colorado forward didn’t immediately appear to have an injury–he returned to the game for five more shifts after his penalty was served–he now faces an uncertain timeline at one of the worst possible points in the season.

Luckily, the Avalanche have built up quite a lead in the Central Division, as even the surging Wild (currently on a six-game winning streak) are 14 points behind them in the standings. If MacKinnon is out for any length of time, the team should certainly be able to hold onto that lead and still head into the playoffs as the top seed in the Central Division.

The worry obviously is whether the injury will keep him out longer-term, as there are only a little over four weeks left in the regular season. MacKinnon has already missed a good chunk of the season, but has 70 points in 51 games and continues to be one of the most dynamic, valuable players in the entire league.

Toronto Places Kase On LTIR, Recalls Three On Emergency Basis

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After losing three starters in Tuesday night’s game against the rival Boston Bruins, the Toronto Maple Leafs were left with little choice but to tweak their roster. Up against the salary cap and managing a number of injuries, Toronto has opted to move forward Ondrej Kase to the Long-Term Injured Reserve, CapFriendly reports. This raised the Leafs’ LTIR pool just enough to make three emergency recalls while staying under the upper limit of the cap. Promoted to the NHL roster are defensemen Mac Hollowell and Filip Kral and goaltender Michael Hutchinson, who will replace Justin Holl, Ilya Lyubushkin, and Petr Mrazek, each of whom exited last night’s game.

Kase has been out since suffering a head injury earlier this month. As of Friday, the team had still not ruled it a concussion, but given Kase’s extensive history of head injuries it hardly matters. The dynamic, but oft-injured winger will need plenty of time to return to action, allowing the team to move him to LTIR. He joins defensemen Jake Muzzin and Rasmus Sandin on the long-term shelf, bringing the Leafs’ LTIR salary pool to $7.77MM, the amount that they may exceed the salary cap as a means of replacing those players. However, Muzzin and his $5.625MM cap hit are expected to be activated sooner rather than later, which will drastically change the calculus for Toronto.

Meanwhile, Holl, Lyubushkin, and Mrazek join starting goaltender Jack Campbell as the Leafs’ other injured players. Mrazek’s injury history and inconsistency this season make his absence both relatively unsurprising and somewhat inconsequential. However, the major hit to the blue line depth cannot be ignored. While Toronto impressed in a 6-4 win over Boston on Tuesday, they can ill-afford to continue battling this injury bug. They sit just two points ahead of the Bruins and one point behind the Tampa Bay Lightning in the race for Atlantic playoff position and are set to face Tampa and the Florida Panthers next week.

While the veteran Hutchinson is battle-tested and ready for the challenge, he and rookie Erik Kallgren splitting the net for the Leafs is unlikely to be successful for too long. On the back end, Hollowell and Kral have no NHL experience and are an even bigger liability. Toronto is hoping that these emergency recalls are just that and their regulars will be back in action soon.

 

Boston University Fires Head Coach Albie O’Connell

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The Boston University Terriers made waves in the college hockey world today without even making the NCAA Tournament. As first reported by ESPN’s John Buccigross, BU has made the decision to fire head coach Albie O’Connell. In a release, athletic director Drew Marochello noted that it was a “difficult decision” to move on from O’Connell, but cited the historic program’s “high expectations” for why a change was needed. This is the first time in nearly 50 years that BU has fired their head men’s hockey coach, following the legendary 40-year run of Jack Parker, who retired 2013, and the short, but successful run of David Quinn, who left for the New York Rangers in 2018.

In some ways, this is a surprising move for the Terriers. O’Connell, 45, has deep ties to the university. He was a four-year starter for the team from 1995 to 1999, during which time they finished first in the Hockey East regular season standings three times. As a sophomore, O’Connell helped lead the team to a conference championship and a run to the National Championship game. As a senior, he took on the role of captain and led the team in scoring. After a brief stint playing professionally, O’Connell got into coaching in 2002 and worked as an assistant at Niagara, Holy Cross, Merrimack, Northeastern, and Harvard before returning to BU in 2014 under Quinn. When Quinn left for the NHL, O’Connell was promoted to head coach in a move that seemed obvious at the time. Yet, he was only given four seasons at the helm – two of which were impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic – before being shown the door. In that time, the Terriers appeared in the national rankings among the top 20 teams in the country 29 times, made an NCAA Tournament, and just this year won the coveted Beanpot title.

However, in many other ways this move should come as no surprise at all. At Boston University, 29 top-20 appearances over 96 weekly rankings and one NCAA Tournament appearance is nothing to hang your hat on. The expectations for the team are much higher than that, especially as O’Connell has continued to use the Terrier name to recruit elite talent like Joel Farabee, Drew Commesso (CHI), Luke Tuch (MTL), transfer Jay O’Brien (PHI) and a 2019 recruiting class that was arguably the best in college hockey, including Trevor Zegras, Alex Vlasic, Robert Mastrosimone (DET), and this season’s leading scorer, Domenick Fensore (CAR). That talent was largely squandered as O’Connell’s squads lost in the first round of the Hockey East playoffs two out of three years, winning just one game total, and lost in the first round of their lone NCAA Tournament appearance. With his job on the line this season, O’Connell checked both boxes of what coaches want to avoid: he started slow, dropping out of the national rankings by Week 5, and he ended poorly, falling from No. 13 in Week 19 to back outside the top 20 by the final week of the season. That season-ending slump combined with an early conference tournament exit cost BU any chance at an NCAA Tournament appearance this season and likely was the last straw for O’Connell, even though things were looking up mid-season.

The main reason that the decision to move on from O’Connell is not a shock is that BU planned in advance. The forecoming change was all but telegraphed this summer when the Terriers hired Jay Pandolfo as associate head coach. Pandolfo had been an assistant with the Boston Bruins but made the unorthodox decision to make a lateral move but to the collegiate level, a move that only made sense if there was a chance that Pandolfo could take over as head coach of his alma mater. After all, why else would a young assistant coaching for his hometown team and who had received NHL head coach consideration previously drop down to the NCAA? It seemed all but certain that Pandolfo was being groomed to replace O’Connell in the event that this season did not go as planned for the Terriers. That seems to be the case and while there has been no announcement of O’Connell’s successor, anyone but Pandolfo being named the next BU head coach would be much more stunning than the firing itself.

As for O’Connell, the well-traveled coach will land on his feet. O’Connell was a decorated college player, has worked for six different Division I teams, and still has moderate success as a head coach to lean on. O’Connell also exceled in recruiting, a crucial part of coaching in the NCAA, even if the talent didn’t come together as hoped on the ice. Whether he finds a head coaching job somewhere with lower expectations that perennial contention for a National Championship or signs on as an assistant for a top program, O’Connell should be back in college hockey in no time.

AHL Shuffle: 03/30/22

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Six games grace the NHL schedule this evening, including an all-important matchup between the two newest teams in the league. The Vegas Golden Knights can’t afford to lose games like tonight’s match against the Seattle Kraken if they have any hope of making the playoffs, as they currently sit a point behind the Dallas Stars for the final wild card position despite having played three more times. Two other important games between playoff hopefuls happen in Edmonton and Vancouver, while several other teams around the league are also in action. As they and others prepare, here are today’s minor league moves.

Atlantic Division

  • The Grand Rapids Griffins have signed a pair of local college free agents, bringing in Drew Worrad from Western Michigan and Trenton Bliss from Michigan Tech on AHL contracts that run through 2022-23. Both players had outstanding offensive seasons this year, scoring 45 and 40 points respectively and will now try to carry over that play to the professional level.

Metropolitan Division

Central Division

  • Connor Dewar has been returned to the AHL from the Minnesota Wild, after last playing on March 19. The 22-year-old rookie has suited up 30 times this season but has just five points to his name, and has averaged fewer than ten minutes of ice time in those appearances. It’s been different in the minor leagues, where Dewar has 11 points in 12 games.

Pacific Division

This page is updated throughout the day

Krystof Hrabik Suspended 30 Games In AHL

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March 30: After serving 28 of his 30 games, Hrabik has been reinstated by the AHL. This follows an evaluation of his progress in an education and training program, conducted in conjunction with the NHL’s Player Inclusion Committee. He is eligible to re-join the Barracuda for the stretch run, but Curtis Pashelka of the Mercury News tweets that Hrabik will continue training on his own while he awaits assignment to the ECHL.

Jan 21: The AHL has issued a suspension of 30 games to San Jose Barracuda forward Krystof Hrabik for a racial gesture directed at Tucson Roadrunners forward Boko Imama. The incident occurred on January 12, and Hrabik was put on indefinite suspension. He has served three games so far and will be eligible to return to the lineup on April 3. He may apply for a reduction in suspension after March 12, based on an evaluation of his progress in the necessary education and training with the Player Inclusion Committee.

AHL president Scott Howson released the following statement:

The AHL stands with Boko Imama. It is unfair that any player should be subjected to comments or gestures based on their race; they should be judged only on their ability to perform as a player on the ice, as a teammate in the locker room and as a member of their community.

The San Jose Sharks, NHL affiliate of the Barracuda, have also released a statement, which in part reads:

The Barracuda and San Jose Sharks organizations were appalled to learn of this incident. We offer our sincerest apologies to Boko, the Roadrunners organization, the AHL, our fans, and the entire hockey community. While we support the ability for individuals to atone and learn from disrespectful incidents in this context, these actions are in direct opposition to the Barracuda and Shark organizations’ values. 

Hrabik, 22, is not under contract with the Sharks. He signed a one-year AHL contract last summer which covers the 2021-22 season. In 21 games, he has four points.

Imama, 25, was acquired by the Arizona Coyotes last summer in a deal with the Los Angeles Kings and signed a one-year, two-way NHL contract in August. He has played in 27 games for the Roadrunners this season, recording eight points. This is not the first time that an incident like this has occurred to him in the minor leagues. In 2020–exactly two years ago–Brandon Manning, then playing with the Bakersfield Condors, was suspended five games for directing a racial slur at Imama.

Los Angeles Kings Sign Kim Nousiainen

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After signing him to an amateur tryout for their AHL affiliate earlier this week, the Los Angeles Kings have now inked Kim Nousiainen to a three-year entry-level contract. The deal will start in the 2022-23 season and carries an average annual value of just over $859K.

Nousiainen, 21, was selected 119th overall in the 2019 draft, the seventh player off the board for the Kings. He’s now also the seventh player from that class to sign his entry-level deal, following Andre Lee’s just a few days ago. Standing just 5’8″, the undersized defenseman has been a regular in Liiga for three seasons, suiting up with KalPa Kuopio. This season in 35 games, Nousiainen recorded four goals and 14 points, which actually ranked second among the team’s defensemen.

Just last month, the Kings’ prospect pool was ranked second in the NHL by The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler, and Nousiainen landed 18th in their group. Wheeler suggested at the time that it would be prudent to bring the young defenseman into the system and give him a chance to prove himself at the AHL level–exactly what they’ve now done.

Not really an overly offensive player, Nousianien is a non-stop workhorse whose feet never stop moving and even engages physically more than you might expect from such a small frame. Whether that frame can handle those kinds of minutes in North America is unclear at this point, but he’s obviously done enough to land a contract from the Kings. The next step is proving he can compete in the AHL, on an Ontario Reign team he joined this week.

Toronto Maple Leafs Sign Mikko Kokkonen

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have taken care of some prospect business, signing Mikko Kokkonen to a three-year entry-level contract. The deal begins in 2022-23 and will carry an average annual value of $847K.

Kokkonen, 21, has actually already played in 11 games for the Toronto Marlies, joining the club at the end of the season on a tryout contract. He managed seven points in those 11 games and gave Maple Leafs fans a taste of what might be on the horizon.

This season, back in Finland, the young left-shot defenseman had 15 points in 58 games playing for the Lahti Pelicans, his fourth full season in Liiga already. A member of the bronze medal-winning Finnish World Junior team a year ago, the third-round pick has played a huge number of games on the most competitive stages already and will likely join the Marlies once again down the stretch this season.

Of course, the obvious question would be if Kokkonen could help the Maple Leafs immediately after they lost both Ilya Lyubushkin and Justin Holl to injury last night. Since this contract doesn’t start until 2022-23, he is not eligible for recall.

Boston Bruins Sign Brandon Bussi

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The Boston Bruins have another goaltending prospect in the system, announcing today they have signed Brandon Bussi. The one-year entry-level contract will start in 2022-23, and carry an NHL cap hit of $825K.

The undrafted free agent goaltender recently wrapped up his junior season with Western Michigan, where he posted a .912 save percentage in 39 appearances, going 26-12-1 in the process. Standing 6’5″, Bussi will turn 24 later this summer, and will be joining the Providence Bruins on a tryout contract.

Mark Divver of Rinkside Rhode Island tweets that the Bruins have had their eye on Bussi for a while, and that he has been told there is “plenty of room for growth” still in the big goaltender.

Notably, both Troy Grosenick and Callum Booth are scheduled to reach unrestricted free agency at the end of this season, opening up some spots in the minor leagues. If signed, Bussi could potentially fill one of those, though it still remains to be seen whether his game can translate to the professional level.

Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald broke news of the deal on Twitter, while PuckPedia reported the contract details. 

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