Five Key Stories: 12/18/23 – 12/24/23

The holiday break is upon us so it was a relatively quiet week around the NHL.  Nonetheless, there was some news of note which is recapped in our key stories.

Hutton Extension: Not long after signing with Vegas the first time, Ben Hutton inked a two-year extension, the last season of which is 2023-24.  But instead of testing the open market next summer, he has decided to stick with the Golden Knights, signing another two-year extension.  The new deal will carry a cap hit of $975K, a raise of $125K on his current contract.  The 30-year-old was expected to be a depth defender but has basically been a regular this season, getting into 29 games so far, picking up nine points while logging over 16 minutes a night.

Poitras Loaned: The Bruins will be without one of their regular centers for the next couple of weeks as they loaned Matthew Poitras to Team Canada for the upcoming World Juniors.  The 19-year-old made a strong early impression in Boston this season, earning a full-time spot in the lineup and while he had slowed down a bit lately, he still has 13 points in 27 games.  Notably, this delays Boston’s timeline for needing to decide on allowing him to accrue a full season of service time toward free agency.  That threshold is 40 games on the roster (not 40 games played) but since he’s on loan, that clock will stop for the time being.

Smith Fired: The Senators have been a trendy pick to be a playoff team for a few years now but they have continually come up short.  After another sluggish start this season, the team opted to make a change, firing head coach D.J. Smith.  Taking his place is long-time NHL bench boss Jacques Martin who had joined Ottawa earlier this month as a consultant.  Smith departs Ottawa with a 131-154-32 coaching record, good for just a .464 points percentage while the Sens never finished higher than sixth in the division under his tutelage.  At 71, Martin is hardly a long-term option behind the bench but it seems likely he’ll serve as the coach for the rest of this season.  He’ll be tasked with trying to fix Ottawa’s consistency issues along with their challenges in the defensive end.  However, they hit the break 15 points out of a playoff spot so a second-half postseason push seems rather unlikely at this point.

Bear To Washington: Over the last few weeks, free agent Ethan Bear has been speculatively linked to Washington.  That deal is now one step closer to being made official as the team announced that they expect to sign him at a later date.  The reasoning for not doing so right away likely corresponded with the holiday break; with Bear still working his way back from a shoulder injury, there’s little need for them to sign and pay him until he’s ready to play.  Speculatively, a deal should be finalized this coming week or soon after.  The 26-year-old logged over 18 minutes a night on the back end with Vancouver last season and will give the Capitals some quality depth as they look to hang onto a playoff spot.

Injury News: There was some good and bad news on the injury front across the NHL.  The Red Wings welcomed back captain Dylan Larkin after missing a little more than a week of action after sustaining a head injury against Ottawa, one that yielded a six-game suspension for David Perron which is still going through the appeal process.  Meanwhile, in Minnesota, the Wild will be without Mats Zuccarello on a week-to-week basis due to an upper-body injury.  The 36-year-old is still going strong this season, averaging a point per game in his first 28 contests.  Anaheim had plenty of injury news as well as they welcomed back center Mason McTavish and Jamie Drysdale early in the week while losing Leo Carlsson for four to six weeks in that same game.  Then on Saturday, they activated Trevor Zegras off IR after he missed 20 games with a lower-body injury.  The Ducks are well out of playoff contention but getting some of their top young players back will certainly be beneficial from a development standpoint.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.