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Archives for February 2024

Penguins Place Jake Guentzel On Injured Reserve, Recall Three

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In an announcement coming from the Pittsburgh Penguins, the team has placed forward Jake Guentzel on injured reserve while recalling Jonathan Gruden, Vinnie Hinostroza, and Valtteri Puustinen from their AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. In a subsequent announcement, Chris Johnston of TSN reports that Guentzel is expected to be out for around a month, putting his trade deadline candidacy into question.

Ultimately, Guentzel’s injury status will likely not steer any teams away from acquiring his services by March 8th, given that his playoff track record has been so strong since he first entered the league. As a team already on the bubble of the 2024 Stanley Cup playoff race, the absence of Guentzel will almost certainly hurt Pittsburgh’s playoff hopes.

If the Penguins wait until March 8th to trade Guentzel, the acquiring team will only be missing Guentzel for about a week, unless there is an unexpected setback with his current injury. Because he may only miss a few games on a new team, Guentzel’s price tag likely won’t drop by the time the trade deadline rolls around.

In regards to the trio of players recalled in this transaction, Gruden and Hinostroza have both been in the AHL for a month or more. Of the three, Puustinen has been the most successful playing in Pittsburgh this season, scoring one goal and eight points in 21 games serving in a depth role.

Minnesota Wild Sign Mason Shaw

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Now fully recovered from the second ACL injury of his career, the Minnesota Wild have signed forward Mason Shaw to a one-year, $775K contract, per a team announcement. Shaw has already suited up for the organization’s AHL affiliate in Iowa this season, scoring four goals and seven points in nine games.

Originally drafted by the Wild with the 97th overall selection of the 2017 NHL Draft, it would take a few years for Shaw to eventually reach the organization in a full-time role, scoring 33 points in 76 games during the 2018-19 season in Iowa. Aside from a few shortened seasons from 2019-2021, Shaw finally made his debut in Minnesota over a three-game stint in 2021-22.

Last season, playing 59 games for the Wild of the NHL, Shaw scored seven goals and 17 points overall, before the second tear of his ACL would cut his year short on April 1st. Although he is not an offensive weapon by any stretch of the imagination, Shaw’s style of play does make the Wild more difficult to play against.

During his brief time in the NHL, Shaw’s workhorse mentality, his ability to finish his hits and play physically, and his strong defensive attributes make him a player that General Manager Bill Guerin has prioritized on his roster. Having already played a handful of games in Iowa this season, Shaw will join Minnesota for practice shortly, and will likely be available to play in a game in the near future.

Pacific Notes: Labanc, Kallionkieli, Joshua

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Suffering from what is becoming a career-worst season, San Jose Sharks forward Kevin Labanc is looking for a fresh start outside of the Bay Area. In an article today, Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now confirmed that both Labanc and his agent made the request clear, and referenced that they would like a resolution by the trade deadline or the offseason.

The resolution will eventually come, as Labanc is in the last year of a four-year, $18.9MM contract signed with the Sharks, allowing him to sign with any of the other 31 teams regardless of San Jose’s desires. Unfortunately, with only seven points in 32 games, Labanc may find his market to be incredibly limited both at the trade deadline and when free agency eventually rolls around.

In the article specifically, Peng notes that the Vancouver Canucks had an interest in acquiring Labanc as recently as last offseason, but could not confirm if they still hold any desire for him, especially with some of their additions already this season. Nevertheless, if the Sharks are unable to find a taker for Labanc by the trade deadline, a strong finish to the season should certainly be a priority for him in the hopes of boosting his free-agency stock by the summer months.

Other Pacific notes:

  • Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported today that the Vegas Golden Knights have placed forward Marcus Kallionkieli on waivers for the purpose of contract termination. Having been drafted 139th overall by Vegas back in the 2019 NHL Draft, Kallionkieli has only managed 11 games in the Golden Knights under his belt with six of those coming in the AHL, and other five coming in the ECHL. Currently rostered for Kiekko-Espoo of the Finnish Liiga, Kallionkieli has scored one goal and five points in four games.
  • For their game tonight against the Detroit Red Wings, the Vancouver Canucks will be without valuable depth forward Dakota Joshua (X Link). Supplementary reporting indicates that Joshua has injured his hand by way of a fight coming on Tuesday against Mackenzie Entwistle of the Chicago Blackhawks.

Washington Capitals Place Matthew Phillips On Waivers

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The Washington Capitals have placed forward Matthew Phillips on waivers, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. The 25-year-old winger is set to become a restricted free agent this summer and currently carries a $775K cap hit.

Phillips made headlines this fall when he made the Capitals roster out of training camp. This season has marked his official rookie year, after playing in three games spread across the 2020-21 and 2022-23 seasons with the Calgary Flames. But Phillips has yet to find his scoring at the top level, netting just one goal and five points this season – the only scoring of his NHL career. He’s been much more productive in the AHL, where he scored 36 goals and 76 points last season. That mark ranked Phillips fifth in the league in scoring. He accomplished a similar feat two seasons ago as well, ranking ninth in the AHL with 68 points in 75 games.

This season marks Phillips’ first outside of the Calgary Flames organization. The team originally drafted the winger in the sixth round of the 2016 NHL Draft – taking him in the same round that featured players like Jesper Bratt and Brandon Hagel. Phillips made his professional debut during the 2016-17 season but didn’t play out his full AHL rookie season until 2018-19. He scored 38 points in 65 games that season.

Phillips will now be exposed to the entire league for the second time in his career. He was previously waived by the Flames ahead of the 2021-22 season, passing through and getting assigned to the AHL.

Golden Knights Recall Byron Froese, Reassign Brendan Brisson, Tobias Bjornfot

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The Vegas Golden Knights have recalled defenseman Byron Froese and assigned forward Brendan Brisson and defenseman Tobias Bjornfot to the AHL’s Henderson Silver Knights. Bjornfot’s assignment is part of a long-term injury conditioning loan, per the team.

Froese has spent much of the season in the AHL, scoring eight goals and 15 points in 37 games. He’s also played in seven NHL games, going without a point and recording four penalty minutes. Froese has been a de facto call-up since 2015-16, when he made his NHL debut with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He played in 56 games that season, a mark that remains a career-high. Froese was originally drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks in the fourth round of the 2009 NHL Draft – getting taken in the same round as Casey Cizikas and Mattias Ekholm, and one selection before Ben Chiarot.

The Golden Knights are sending down two young players in Brisson and Bjornfot. Neither player has found a particular scoring edge in the NHL this season, with Brisson netting three points in his first seven NHL games and Bjornfot going without a point in his first two games with Vegas since the team claimed off waivers. Bjornfot is currently grappling with an undisclosed injury that’s earned him a spot on injured reserve. He joins a long list of injured Golden Knights, including Jack Eichel, Pavel Dorofeyev, William Carrier, and Shea Theodore.

New York Rangers Sign Brandon Scanlin To Two-Year Extension

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The New York Rangers have signed defenseman Brandon Scanlin to a two-year, one-way contract extension. The new deal carries Scanlin through the 2025-26 season and pays a $775K base salary in both the NHL and AHL, per CapFriendly. Scanlin has spent all season in the AHL, playing in 43 games and scoring 14 points, split evenly, with the Hartford Wolf Pack.

This season marks Scanlin’s third professional season, making his debut with the Wolf Pack at the end of the 2021-22 season. Scanlin joined the team as an undrafted free agent after his junior season with the University of Nebraska-Omaha ended. He’s since totaled 119 career AHL games and 30 points. It’s been a step down in scoring from his collegiate days when he managed 62 points across 98 games in Omaha.

New York has been clear about rewarding their young minor leaguers this season, recently holding Matt Rempe on the NHL roster during a break in the schedule, earning him a brief taste of an NHL paycheck. Now the 24-year-old Scanlin earns a major pay raise and potentially more NHL consideration, signing a one-way deal. The Rangers currently have $5.178MM in cap space, getting a boost from Filip Chytil’s move to long-term injured reserve. The 24-year-old centerman is out for the season with an upper-body injury that required him to return to his home country of Czechia.

Los Angeles Kings Activate Viktor Arvidsson, Place Two On LTIR

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The Los Angeles Kings have officially activated winger Viktor Arvidsson off of long-term injured reserve. Arvidsson has yet to play this season, sitting out with a back injury. He will make his season debut against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday. The Kings have also placed both Carl Grundstrom and Blake Lizotte on long-term injured reserve with lower-body injuries. LTIR rules will require Grundstrom to miss the team’s next 10 games, making him eligible to return on March 9th, while Lizotte has already missed the required time and can be activated whenever he’s healthy.

Getting Arvidsson back could mark a turning point in L.A.’s season. The 30-year-old forward scored 26 goals and 59 points in 77 games last season, his second-straight season of 20 or more goals. It was the first time he’s flirted with 60 points since the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons when he scored 61 points in back-to-back years. He also boasts a career-high of 34 goals, managed in just 58 games in 2018-19. His return to the lineup gives Los Angeles a lot more flexibility with their winger combinations, and will likely give third-line centerman Pierre-Luc Dubois an upgraded linemate.

Arvidsson’s return also helps L.A. fill the absences left by Lizotte and Grundstrom, who have currently been replaced by Alex Turcotte and Jaret Anderson-Dolan. Turcotte has appeared in four games this season, with his only scoring coming through the first goal and assist of his career, scored in the same game. Anderson-Dolan is also struggling to find his production, with just four points in 22 games.

Snapshots: Bedard, Vanecek, Jeannot

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The Chicago Blackhawks are reportedly working with local doctors to see if Connor Bedard can make a surprise return to the lineup on Thursday night, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. This return would come well ahead of expectations, with head coach Luke Richardson previously stating his hope was for Bedard to return next week. To say Bedard’s return would be impactful is an understatement. The 18-year-old rookie phenom still leads the team in scoring despite missing their last 14 games. The Blackhawks have been abysmal in his absence, going 3-10-1. This includes a seven-game losing streak (0-6-1) that the Hawks currently find themselves on, with the team netting just eight goals over the stretch.

Adding back their top scorer, the most recent first-overall selection, and the highest-acclaimed prospect since Connor McDavid will bring a breath of fresh air to a desperate Chicago lineup. Bedard has 15 goals and 33 points in 39 games this season, on pace for 70 points in his rookie season. That would be the most a Chicago rookie has scored since Artemi Panarin managed 30 goals and 77 points in 80 games during the 2015-16 season.

Other notes from around the league:

New Jersey Devils goaltender Vitek Vanecek has recovered from an illness that held him out of Tuesday’s game. But head coach Lindy Ruff shares that he is now day-to-day with a lower-body injury, and will continue to be unavailable. Ruff shared that Vanecek will miss the next two games, including New Jersey’s Stadium Series matchup against the Philadelphia Flyers. New Jersey is expected to turn towards Nico Daws in Vanecek’s absence.

Tampa Bay Lightning forward Tanner Jeannot has been designated as day-to-day with an undisclosed injury, per team reporter Eduardo A. Encina with the Tampa Bay Times. Jeannot made his return on Tuesday from a lower-body injury that held him out of the team’s last 12 games. Encina adds that head coach Jon Cooper is hoping Jeannot’s new injury won’t be long-term as well. Jeannot has appeared in 42 games when healthy this season, scoring 12 points, split evenly.

New Jersey Devils Sign Isaac Poulter To Two-Year Deal

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The New Jersey Devils have signed goaltender Isaac Poulter to a two-year, entry-level contract. The deal carries an annual average value of $812.5K and carries Poulter through the end of the 2024-25 season.

Poulter, 22, has served as the Utica Comets’ starting goaltender this season, recording 14 wins and a .909 save percentage with the club. He’s been a helpful consistent for the AHL club, serving as one of five goaltenders used by Utica this season. He’s recorded the second-best save percentage of the bunch, behind Nico Daws’ .929 save percentage set in three AHL games.

This is Poulter’s second professional season, with the goaltender spending last season split between the AHL and ECHL. He spent the majority of his time in the latter league, recording 10 wins and a .910 save percentage in 22 games. It’s impressive to see the 2001-born already carving out a starting role in the pros after going undrafted in the NHL Draft. He spent four seasons with the WHL’s Swift Current Broncos between 2018 and 2022, only recording a save percentage above .900 in his final year with the club.

While this deal isn’t likely to immediately impact the NHL lineup, it does give the Devils more secure depth in one of their most-needed positions. The team is continuing to try and find their starter of the future, currently split between starting Daws, Akira Schmid, and Vitek Vanecek. Daws is the only one of the three to have a save percentage above .900, boasting a .906 in 10 NHL games this season. The Devils are also heavily pursuing a goaltender on the trade market, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman who shared that the team recently had an acquisition of Jacob Markstrom fall through. With Poulter avoiding the cycle of goaltenders in Utica, it’s likely that he’s set to stay in the league for much of the season. But this new contract allows Poulter to be recalled to the NHL, offering helpful depth if the Devils do move out any netminders.

Columbus Blue Jackets Fire Jarmo Kekäläinen

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have parted ways with general manager Jarmo Kekäläinen. The team’s President of Hockey Operations, John Davidson, will share the general manager duties with the rest of the hockey operations staff while Columbus searches for a replacement, per team reporter Aaron Portzline.

Kekäläinen has been with the Blue Jackets for 11 seasons, taking over for Scott Howson in 2013. He was just the fourth general manager in the team’s history and became the first to lead them to multiple playoff appearances. Unfortunately, those playoff appearances never turned into much – with a second-round exit in 2014 marking the farthest the team has ever made it. And it seems those days may be behind them, as Columbus hasn’t made the playoffs – or even ranked above sixth in their division – since 2020. They are currently ranked last in the Metropolitan Division with a 16-26-10 record this season.

Columbus’ recent seasons have instead been marked by top 10 draft picks, including taking Kent Johnson fifth overall in 2021, David Jiricek sixth overall in 2022, and Adam Fantilli third overall in 2023. While Johnson did manage 16 goals and 40 points last season, he’s on an 82-game pace of just 36 points this season, even playing in his first 10 AHL games of his three-year pro career. Jiricek has yo-yoed between the major and minor leagues, playing in nine AHL games and 36 NHL games this season – but failing to yet earn a role on the team’s special teams and managing just nine points. The best impact from a recent draft pick has undeniably come through Adam Fantilli, who currently ranks third on the team in scoring with 12 goals and 27 points through 49 games. But even Fantilli hasn’t been safe from headache, playing with 10 different linemates this season, more than his counterparts Connor Bedard and Leo Carlsson combined.

The usage of the team’s top prospects ultimately falls on rookie head coach Pascal Vincent, who was thrust into a head coaching role after the Blue Jackets unsuccessfully tried to bring back Mike Babcock. The long-time Toronto Maple Leafs head coach ran into controversy even before he was able to command the Columbus bench for the first time, leading to his resignation in mid September.

Kekäläinen’s biggest strength – and the talent that will certainly earn him attention from other NHL teams – is his drafting ability. The Blue Jackets boast plenty of top prospects, including Denton Mateychuk, Stanislav Svozil, and Gavin Brindley. These talents, along with their trio of top 10 picks, sets up Columbus well for the future. But there will need to be a lot of polishing around the edges if the team wants to find consistent playoff success. They’ll look to find that success under John Davidson, now the fifth general manager in team history, or whoever may succeed him.

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