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New Jersey Devils To Recall Nathan Legare

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According to Ryan Novozinsky of NJdotcom, the New Jersey Devils are reportedly recalling forward Nathan Legare from the AHL’s Utica Comets. James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now confirmed the news.

Since the Devils already have 23 players on the active roster, another roster move is incoming. The likeliest outcome is that New Jersey will place defenseman Simon Nemec on the team’s injured reserve after suffering an injury at practice last week. Assuming the transaction is made retroactive to December 12th, Nemec can return when the Devils take on the Buffalo Sabres on December 21st.

Despite being a third-round pick by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2019 NHL Draft, Legare has spent most of his professional career in the Devils organization. After turning pro for the 2021-22 season, Legare spent the next two years with the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, scoring 15 goals and 35 points in 125 games.

He ended up with the Montreal Canadiens for a short time due to his inclusion in the 2023 trade that landed defenseman Erik Karlsson with the Penguins. He registered three goals and nine points in 39 games for the AHL’s Laval Rocket before being sent to the Comets in a minor league swap.

Legare, 24, made his NHL debut with New Jersey last season and has already skated in one game this year, though he’s still searching for his first point. Since joining the organization toward the end of the 2023-24 campaign, Legare has scored 22 goals and 33 points in 105 games with a -12 rating and 158 PIMs.

Blackhawks Place Connor Bedard On Injured Reserve

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Dec. 16th: According to an update from ESPN’s Kevin Weekes, Bedard has reportedly suffered a separated shoulder. Given that the team will re-evaluate Bedard in early January, this suggests that it’s no more than a Grade 2 separation, which typically has a recovery timeline of four to eight weeks. If it’s only a Grade 1 separation, Bedard may only miss a few weeks. The lack of motivation for surgery indicates that Bedard didn’t suffer a Grade 3 separation or beyond, which carries a recovery timeline of multiple months.

Dec. 15th: According to a team announcement, the Chicago Blackhawks have placed star center Connor Bedard on the injured reserve, retroactive to Dec. 12. In a corresponding roster move, the Blackhawks have recalled defenseman Ethan Del Mastro and have returned goaltender Laurent Brossoit from his conditioning stint.

Bedard will be out through the holiday break and will be re-evaluated in early January, head coach Jeff Blashill told reporters (including Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times). They’re not currently considering surgery for his suspected shoulder ailment.

His injury stems from the Blackhawks’ recent game against the St. Louis Blues. In the final moments of the contest, Bedard got tied up with Blues center Brayden Schenn during a faceoff and went down awkwardly. He was seen skating to the bench clutching his right shoulder, and no further updates have been given regarding the severity of his injury.

Losing Bedard for any amount of time is understandably a gut punch to a relatively competitive Chicago team. In the midst of a true breakout before the injury, Bedard had scored 19 goals and 44 points in 31 games, averaging 21:03 of ice time per contest. Nearly every facet of his game had taken meaningful steps forward, from his on-ice save percentage at even strength, CorsiFor% at even strength, to his faceoff percentage.

The Blackhawks already lost their first game without Bedard the following night at the hands of the Detroit Red Wings, and will play the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens before he’s eligible to return. It wouldn’t be surprising to see a noticeable decrease in offensive output over those two games, as the team’s next leading scorer is Tyler Bertuzzi with 16 goals and 26 points in 29 games. Of Bertuzzi’s 16 goals, Bedard has assisted on 11 of them.

Del Mastro, 22, has already suited up in one game for the Blackhawks this season, earning a -1 rating in 17:35 of action. With that, he’s spent the rest of his time with the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs, scoring one goal and 11 points in 27 games with a +6 rating.

Although he will serve as the team’s seventh defenseman throughout their upcoming road trip, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Del Mastro won’t be in the lineup against the Maple Leafs and Canadiens. Throughout much of the 2025-26 campaign, head coach Jeff Blashill has opted to dress seven defensemen instead of the typical six, which may continue now that Chicago is down to 13 forwards on the active roster.

Meanwhile, Brossoit will have the opportunity to play in his first NHL contest since the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs. He’s been recovering from both meniscus and hip surgeries over the last two years with the Blackhawks and is finally healthy enough to debut with the club. His numbers were fairly encouraging over his conditioning loan, managing a 2-1-0 record in three games with a .900 SV%.

Devils Have Discussed Dougie Hamilton, Ondrej Palat In Trade Talks

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Yesterday morning, ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reported that the New Jersey Devils have included defenseman Dougie Hamilton and forward Ondřej Palát in trade talks. That falls in line with what Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman had said regarding the Devils’ pursuit of defenseman Quinn Hughes before he was ultimately traded to the Minnesota Wild on Friday.

Friedman didn’t offer any specifics like Weekes, though he had said that he believed New Jersey had a few cap-clearing trades vetoed. That was always going to be the difficulty in moving off of Hamilton or Palát, as both veterans have no-movement clauses and moderate trade protection throughout the rest of their respective contracts.

The Devils have put themselves into this situation. The Wild only added approximately $1MM in salary by acquiring Hughes, and without knowing New Jersey’s final offer, that would have been nearly impossible for them to absorb.

Assuming the Devils were willing to trade a player or two off their active roster, and somehow only lost $1MM in salary cap space by acquiring Hughes, they would have had around $200K remaining in flexibility. That would have made it impossible for New Jersey to recall extra depth to fill out their roster, and they would have had to continue the season with an incomplete 23-man roster.

Still, their pursuit of Hughes suggests that General Manager Tom Fitzgerald is eager to make a big move to help the Devils’ roster, even as they continue to stall out in the standings. Again devastated by injuries, New Jersey has fallen out of the playoff picture, going 3-7-0 in their last 10 contests.

It would make sense that if the Devils are adamant on acquiring a top-level talent, then they will continue trade negotiations regarding Hamilton and Palát. Each player has provided New Jersey with 10 teams they would accept a trade to.

Unfortunately, considering that it’ll be a cap-clearing trade with little returning to New Jersey, their options are limited. Although this list will grow leading up to the deadline, there are only 12 teams that could acquire Palát outright, and only nine for Hamilton.

Especially for the latter, the Devils will likely need to include a sweetener to the acquiring team. The 34-year-old winger has scored two goals and seven points in 33 games for the Devils this season, making it 28 goals and 66 points in his last 181 games. Factoring in his $6MM cap hit through next season, New Jersey may never be able to move off of his contract.

Hamilton, by comparison, has more value, but marginally. Hit by the same injury bug that much of the roster has sustained, Hamilton has only played in 57.3% of New Jersey’s games over the last three years. Still, by scoring 18 goals and 64 points over that stretch, he’s nearly matched Palát in offensive production over that stretch in approximately 70 fewer games.

Given the difficult hurdles to clear, the Devils may end the season with both players on their active roster. Depending on who becomes available closer to the deadline, New Jersey’s front office may feel that simply getting everyone back healthy will be enough pseudo additions to return to competitiveness. There’s definitely an argument for this approach, as the Devils started the year 16-8-1 through their first 25 games with a fairly healthy team.

Photo courtesy of John Jones-Imagn Images. 

West Notes: Kuemper, Danault, Byfield, Reichel, Connelly

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Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper sustained an upper-body injury in the first period of their game tonight against Dallas, the team announced (Twitter link).  The injury occurred after taking a hit from Mikko Rantanen.  The 35-year-old has quietly been one of the better goalies in the league this season, taking a 2.21 GAA and a .916 SV% in 22 games into this game while posting a 15.5 Goals Saved Above Expected, per MoneyPuck, good for fifth in the league.  That performance could get him on the Olympic radar with Canada set to reveal its roster for the tournament at the end of the month.  Anton Forsberg took over between the pipes following Kuemper’s injury.

More from out West:

  • Still with Los Angeles, the Kings were without a pair of middlemen tonight as Jared Shafran of LA Kings Insider relayed that Philipp Danault and Quinton Byfield were both sidelined due to the flu. It’s the second straight game that Danault has missed; the 32-year-old is still looking for his first goal of the year and only has five assists through 30 games.  Meanwhile, Byfield has just four goals in 31 outings but with 15 assists, he has enough points to sit third on the team in scoring.
  • After clearing waivers over the weekend, the Canucks assigned winger Lukas Reichel to the minors. Ben Kuzma of the Vancouver Province mentions that Reichel’s agent has permission to talk to other teams about trying to facilitate a trade.  While there were no takers for the 23-year-old with his $1.2MM AAV, it’s possible that there could be some interest if they could send a player the other way to offset some of the money.  Either way, Reichel’s stock has certainly fallen after struggling following a late-October trade from Chicago.
  • The Golden Knights’ AHL affiliate in Henderson announced Sunday that they have officially loaned winger Trevor Connelly to Team USA for the upcoming World Junior tournament. The 19-year-old was the 19th pick in 2024 and is holding his own in his first professional season, notching three goals and four assists in 11 outings so far.

Dylan Gambrell Signs With AHL Iowa

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Back in September, veteran center Dylan Gambrell signed a PTO agreement with Nashville with the hopes of securing a full-season contract.  No such deal came to fruition and he had been on the open market since then after not securing a contract with AHL Milwaukee either.  However, he has now caught on with a team as AHL Iowa announced that they’ve signed Gambrell for the remainder of the season.

The 29-year-old was effectively an NHL regular until somewhat recently.  Gambrell played in at least 49 games per season between the 2019-20 and the 2022-23 campaigns, with a career-high of 63 coming back in 2021-22.  He spent most of those games primarily on the fourth line, tallying 17 goals and 23 assists along with a 46.1% faceoff rate in 233 NHL contests between San Jose and Ottawa.

However, aside from preseason appearances (of which he only had two this past preseason), Gambrell has played exclusively in the minors.  Last season, he played on a two-way deal with Columbus, suiting up with their farm team in Cleveland where he had 13 goals and 12 assists in 54 appearances.

One of the challenges that Gambrell likely faced in free agency is that he qualifies for veteran status at the AHL level.  Teams can only dress five skaters with 320 games of professional experience which has resulted in some capable veterans either remaining unsigned or having to go overseas for this season with so many teams at their veteran limit.  Gambrell decided to wait it out for an opportunity in North America and while it took some time, he has now found one.

East Notes: Dvorak, Senators, Fitzgerald

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When the Flyers signed Christian Dvorak to a one-year, $5.4MM contract this summer, the widely held belief was that it was likely that they’d look to flip him at the trade deadline, possibly with salary retention.  However, it doesn’t appear that is the plan at the moment.  Kevin Kurz of The Athletic recently reported (subscription link) that with Philadelphia in the thick of the playoff race and the fact he’s on track for a career year offensively (he has 22 points in 31 games), the team isn’t planning to move him.  Instead, exploring a potential contract extension could be in the cards.  Because Dvorak is on a one-year deal, he’s ineligible to sign a contract until January.

Elsewhere in the East:

  • The Senators are believed to be looking for a top-nine forward and some defensive depth, reports Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. Recent injuries have tested their depth with centers Shane Pinto and Lars Eller out, the latter facing an extended absence while Thomas Chabot has played just once in the last month due to a couple of stints on injured reserve.  Ottawa doesn’t have a 2026 first-round pick to dangle in a move, however, with that pick being forfeited due to their nondisclosure of Evgenii Dadonov’s no-trade clause in an attempted trade in 2021.  The Sens have around $2.7MM in full-season cap space, per PuckPedia, so they may be hard-pressed to try to get both of those wants at this point.
  • Amidst speculation about GM Tom Fitzgerald’s job security, NJ Advance Media’s Ryan Novozinsky reports that Fitzgerald has the full support of ownership and his job is not in jeopardy. There was some disappointment late last week when New Jersey wasn’t able to get a trade in place for Quinn Hughes while the team has struggled as of late, winning just six of 16 games since top center Jack Hughes suffered a hand injury.  But while Buffalo opted for a change in management today, don’t expect the Devils to be doing the same.

Vancouver Canucks Sign Max Sasson To Two-Year Extension

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The Vancouver Canucks announced today that forward Max Sasson has signed a two-year, $1MM AAV contract extension with the club.

Canucks GM Patrik Allvin commented on the signing in the Canucks’ official announcement, saying:

Max has made the most of the opportunity presented to him this season and has provided us with some solid play. Since signing with the organization out of college, he has shown significant improvement, using his speed and skill to build a strong foundation for his future. Max was a key contributor to our championship run last year in Abbotsford, and we’re excited to watch him continue to grow as a player.

Sasson, 25, signed an entry-level deal with the Canucks as an NCAA free agent in March of 2023. He earned that NHL deal off the back of a stellar two-season run playing college hockey at Western Michigan University. He scored 15 goals and 42 points in his second season in Kalamazoo.

Sasson was an instant-impact signing for the Canucks, quickly becoming one of their more reliable centers at the AHL level. After a seven-game cameo in 2022-23, Sasson hit the ground running during his true rookie season of 2023-24, scoring 18 goals and 42 points in 56 AHL games.

He kept growing his game into the following year, earning his first NHL call-up in November 2024. He played in a total of 29 games at the NHL level last season, scoring seven points. He spent the Spring of 2025 back in the AHL, helping the Abbotsford Canucks with the Calder Cup, scoring 14 points in 24 AHL playoff games.

Sasson began 2025-26 in the AHL but quickly rose to the NHL, earning a recall in early October after playing just two AHL games. (He scored a goal in each of those games) Sasson has begun to establish himself this season as a legitimate NHL-caliber fourth-line center, scoring six goals and eight points through 29 games this season. Head coach Adam Foote hasn’t shown a willigness to deploy Sasson much on special teams yet, but he is playing 11:01 time on ice per game mostly at even strength.

Seeing as Sasson is earning a $1MM AAV on his next deal with a relatively thin NHL résumé, it’s likely the Canucks are betting that Sasson’s upward trajectory will continue. He does still have some work to do, such as earning the trust of Foote to the point where he can be reliably used on the penalty kill, as that is usually an expectation of bottom-six centers at some point in their career. Sasson also has to improve at the faceoff dot, as he’s winning just 40% of his draws this season.

But as Allvin said, Sasson has already improved significantly since joining the Canucks, and he’s given every reason to believe he’ll be able to make those adjustments and grow into a more well-rounded NHL player. While this AAV might feel a bit high to some given that Sasson has just 58 career NHL games to his name, it’s important to take into account where the Canucks are as a franchise.

As they pivot into more of a rebuild-like direction, it’s understandable that the Canucks would want to devote some of its cap space to rewarding hard-working players who have proven to be developmental success stories for the organization. Sasson has been exactly that, and this solid contract extension is his reward for his steady growth over the last few years.

Photos courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

Latest On Kris Letang

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The Pittsburgh Penguins got off to a surprisingly strong start to 2025-26, with first-year head coach Dan Muse impressing most observers as he guided the team to a better-than-expected first two months of the season. The past week has not been kind to Pittsburgh, though, as they’ve blown leads on a routine basis leading to some dramatic, highly deflating losses. While the club very much remains in the playoff race, the team’s recent downturn has increased the level of scrutiny faced by a few key underperforming veterans.

One of the most significant underperforming names on the Penguins’ roster right now is that of veteran blueliner Kris Letang. While Letang was the Penguins’ best defenseman throughout the 2010’s and early 2020’s, he’s had a very difficult 2025-26 season.

His offensive production has been decent (16 points in 31 games, a 42-point full-season scoring pace)  but his all-around impact has left much to be desired, and his work in the defensive zone has drawn real criticism.

The Athletic’s Josh Yohe reported today that “There is considerable concern about [Letang’s] performance throughout the organization.” Letang is under contract for another two years at a $6.1MM AAV, and Yohe’s reporting indicated that a trade or a buyout coming his way is an extremely remote possibility. Letang owns a full no-move clause and buying out his deal would not provide Pittsburgh with any cap relief due to his age.

While it might seem that Letang’s steep decline in form might prompt him to consider retirement, Yohe’s reporting indicates that’s not the case, as he wrote “team sources told me [Letang] wants to keep playing in the NHL beyond this contract.”

It’s fair to question, given how he’s playing at this time, whether Letang will really be able to extend his NHL career into his 40s. But at the moment, it appears that Letang’s current level of play combined with his contract status is quickly becoming a problem area for the Penguins and their plans for the short-to-medium-term future.

The Penguins have quite a few young defensemen likely to graduate to the NHL at some point during the remainder of Letang’s contract, including names such as Harrison Brunicke, Finn Harding, and Peyton Kettles, as well as Charlie Trethewey and Quinn Beauchesne, if they develop at a more rapid pace than expected.

While Letang’s presence as the franchise’s longest-tenured blueliner could certainly help the growth of those young defensemen in many ways, those positives could be quickly outweighed by negatives if the Penguins’ reported concerns about Letang’s play materialize into an even more pronounced decline.

Photos courtesy of James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images

East Notes: McDonagh, Kane, Pieniniemi

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have had to manage this season with a large portion of key defensemen injured, but it appears one important veteran is closing in on a return to the ice. Lightning team reporter Benjamin Pierce relayed word from Lightning practice this morning that Ryan McDonagh skated today in a regular jersey, a key milestone in his recovery from his undisclosed injury. McDonagh remains on IR, where he has been since early November.

McDonagh, 36, played in 15 games this season before his injury, scoring six points. The 1,025-game veteran has missed Tampa Bay’s last 17 games due to his injury, an absence that has forced the Lightning to rely on less accomplished defensemen such as Charle-Edouard D’Astous and Emil Lilleberg. D’Astous especially has acquitted himself well, but expect McDonagh to resume his regular top-four role once he’s healthy. In 15 games this season, McDonagh averaged just over 20 minutes of ice time per game and leads the team in short-handed time on ice per game.

Other notes from the Eastern Conference:

  • The Athletic’s Max Bultman reported today that Detroit Red Wings veteran Patrick Kane “tweaked something” upper-body during Detroit’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks, and is out for at least the next two games. Kane, a future Hall of Fame winger, is a key offensive producer for the Red Wings. He has 23 points in 24 games this season and as one might expect plays a significant role on the club’s power play. The Red Wings slotted John Leonard into Kane’s vacated second-line right winger role, per MLive’s Ansar Khan. Leonard was an AHL All-Star last season and has scored 19 goals and 29 points in 20 games for the Grand Rapids Griffins this year.
  • The Pittsburgh Penguins lifted their suspension of prospect Emil Pieniniemi, according to Seth Rorabaugh of Tribune-Review Sports, as a result of the blueliner’s newfound willingness to report to the club’s ECHL affiliate, the Wheeling Nailers. Per Rorabaugh, while the Penguins presented Pieniniemi with a development plan, the player “disagreed with that plan” and elected to train in his native Finland, with Liiga club Karpat, rather than play in the ECHL. Now, it appears Pieniniemi will report to the ECHL and begin his season there. A 2023 third-round pick, Pieniniemi was ranked the No. 20 prospect in the Penguins’ system before the season by Elite Prospects. While the ECHL isn’t typically seen as a prime league to develop skater prospects, Penguins GM Kyle Dubas has shown an increased level of willingness to send prospects to the ECHL, dating back to his time with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Toronto’s 2017 first-round pick Timothy Liljegren played an ECHL game in 2018-19 and the Penguins have had defensive prospect Finn Harding, who the club reportedly thinks highly of, play seven games for Wheeling so far in 2025-26.

St. Louis Blues Recall Otto Stenberg

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The St. Louis Blues announced today that forward Otto Stenberg has been recalled from the club’s AHL affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds.

The move puts Stenberg, 20, in a position to potentially make his NHL debut as soon as tonight during the team’s contest against the Nashville Predators. The club selected Stenberg No. 25 overall at the 2023 draft, the middle selection in the team’s trio of first-round draft choices that year. 2023 No. 10 pick Dalibor Dvorsky has already landed in the NHL, playing in a total of 25 career games so far, while No. 29 pick Theo Lindstein is still waiting, like Stenberg, to make his debut.

Stenberg is in the midst of his second season playing professional hockey in North America, and this year is his first year beginning the season in North America. In 2024-25, Stenberg began his season in the SHL before crossing the Atlantic to play in the AHL after the conclusion of the World Junior Championships. The 5’11” center has been solid at the AHL level, scoring 25 points in 59 games, and drawing positive reviews for the pace and work rate in his game.

With the Blues down an established NHL forward in Dylan Holloway, who was placed on injured reserve today, Stenberg now has an opportunity to prove himself at the NHL level for the first time. While it’s unclear at this point whether Stenberg will dress for any games, he’ll at least get his first, valuable taste of what life is like as a player in the world’s top league.

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