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Predators Recall Zachary L’Heureux

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The Predators have recalled left-winger Zachary L’Heureux from AHL Milwaukee, according to a team announcement. The team has an open roster spot with captain Roman Josi on injured reserve, so no corresponding transaction is necessary.

L’Heureux, 22, is in contention to make his season debut tonight against the Wild after being an unexpected cut from Nashville’s training camp. The 2021 first-round pick spent most of 2024-25 up with the Preds after starting in Milwaukee, making 62 appearances in his rookie season. The aggressive 5’11” forward settled nicely into a bottom-six role, posting five goals and 15 points while averaging a shade over 12 minutes of ice time per game. L’Heureux’s 198 hits led Nashville forwards. He was middle-of-the-pack defensively – the Preds allowed 28.7 shots and 2.84 goals per 60 minutes while he was on the ice at 5-on-5.

The Preds have carried a slim forward group for most of the season. They needed an extra body, though, after the weekend’s announcement that Cole Smith will be out for at least three weeks with an upper-body injury. L’Heureux has thoroughly earned the promotion. Through seven games for Milwaukee, he’s among the club’s top scorers with four goals and two assists.

L’Heureux spent most of his time in the lineup last season in fourth-line duties alongside Smith and center Michael McCarron. It stands to reason he’d have a similar deployment this time around if he slots back in, particularly with fellow early-season call-up Matthew Wood performing well in a top-nine role for the Preds over the last couple of weeks. He’s in the final season of his entry-level contract and needs a new contract to avoid becoming a restricted free agent next summer.

Sabres Recall Noah Ostlund

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The Sabres announced the recall of center Noah Ostlund from the AHL’s Rochester Americans. Buffalo does not have an open roster spot, but placed winger Jason Zucker on injured reserve in a corresponding move, per the NHL’s media portal. He’s expected to miss tonight’s game against the Mammoth due to an illness, but the IR placement rules him out for another two games after this one.

It’s the second recall in recent succession for the 21-year-old Ostlund. A first-round pick out of Sweden’s Djurgården in 2022, he still ranked as the Sabres’ No. 3 prospect entering the season. He’s an undersized but extremely cerebral pivot who demonstrated high-end two-way acumen against professionals in his home country. He made the jump to North America last year and has played primarily with Rochester since then, but has gotten a handful of NHL chances – including an 11-day call-up last month.

Ostlund has arguably been the Amerks’ best forward since his arrival. He put together a 19-17–36 line in 45 games last season, along with a +20 rating that led Rochester forwards. The defensive play hasn’t quite been at that level so far in 2025-26, but he’s been a scorching hot playmaker, rattling off a pair of goals and five assists for seven points through his first six minor-league games.

He’s fallen victim to limited ice time and role when given NHL call-ups, though. In 12 career appearances, he’s averaged just 10:50 per game and is still looking for his first career point. His defensive impacts haven’t yet translated, either. That was particularly true during last month’s recall, when Ostlund controlled just 41.3% of shot attempts at 5-on-5 despite starting 75% of his shifts in the offensive zone. He’s struggled in the faceoff dot, too, going 36% on draws.

He’ll nonetheless get another chance here to squeeze into a role as Buffalo’s forward group is decimated by injuries. Not only will Kulich be unavailable tonight, but they’re also expected to be without center Jiri Kulich as he deals with an undisclosed injury. That’s on top of the four forwards they already had on injured reserve before today, a list that includes a pair of top-six names in Zach Benson and Joshua Norris. As such, Buffalo’s lineup card will be submitted tonight without five of its top 12 forwards on the organizational depth chart.

Blues Release Milan Lucic

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The Blues have released left-winger Milan Lucic from his professional tryout, according to a team announcement. He’ll nonetheless remain in the organization for now and will report to the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds, also in a tryout capacity.

Lucic, 37, landed a PTO with St. Louis all the way back in August and showed up for his first NHL training camp in two years. He skated in four preseason games for the Blues, recording a goal and an assist. He then sustained a lower-body injury that shut him down late in camp, removing any hope he had of converting his PTO into an opening night roster spot.

The Blues quietly kept extending Lucic’s PTO in 10-day increments – a new vehicle in the recent CBA extension – while he rehabbed his injury. Evidently, he’s now healthy. Even with the team’s 4-7-2 start to the season, though, they didn’t see enough out of him to warrant giving the 17-year veteran a look on the fourth line, at least not yet. Releasing him from his tryout does nothing to preclude the club from giving him a contract later if they like what they see during his return to action in Springfield.

If Lucic suits up for the Thunderbirds, it will be the first AHL action of his career. He made the transition straight from the WHL to the Bruins’ roster when he first broke into the NHL in 2007 as a 19-year-old. It will also be his first action of any kind in over two years. Lucic’s last appearance came for Boston on Oct. 21, 2023, his fourth of the young season. He then sustained an ankle injury and missed the rest of the season after entering the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program following an alleged domestic incident, although those charges were dropped.

Minor Transactions: 11/03/2025

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It’s not a hugely packed day on the NHL schedule, with just four games on the docket. That’s also the case outside of the NHL, where most European pro leagues aren’t playing and the AHL has just one contest – a game between the Manitoba Moose, the affiliate of the Winnipeg Jets, and the Texas Stars who are the affiliate of the Dallas Stars. What has been active today, though, even without many games to be played, has been player movement outside of the NHL. There are quite a few transactions to go over from the wider world of professional hockey, so we’ll recap all the notable moves here:

  • Veteran goalie Louis Domingue, a longtime NHL backup or organizational third goalie, left KHL side Sibir Novosibirsk after just 11 games played. Per a translated copy of the team’s official announcement, Novosibirsk cited “family reasons” as the reason for Domingue’s release. The 33-year-old goalie, who has played in 144 games over the course of his NHL career, signed in Russia in July, marking his first entry into the European pro hockey circuit. His adjustment to the KHL game did not go well, as he posted an 0-9-0 record with an .892 save percentage and 3.83 goals-against average. Domingue played last season on a one-year, one-way $775K contract, and will now look to continue his career elsewhere. He has performed well as an AHL goalie throughout his time in North America, so given his level of experience and track record, a return to North America, perhaps even on an AHL contract, cannot be ruled out. A team such as the Chicago Wolves could be a fit for his services, as they could benefit from some veteran reinforcement in the crease. Their two incumbent netminders, Amir Miftakhov and Nikita Quapp, are short on AHL experience and have posted respective save percentages of .878 and .852 so far this season.
  • 2019 Anaheim Ducks first-round pick Brayden Tracey has found a place to play out the 2025-26 season, signing a one-year contract with Mora IK of HockeyAllsvenskan, Sweden’s second-tier league. Tracey originally signed his entry-level contract in November 2019, but was unable to secure a second NHL contract after three underwhelming pro campaigns with the San Diego Gulls. He was reasonably productive, scoring 31 points in 55 games as a rookie, for example, and even earned the right to make his NHL debut. But he wasn’t retained by the team and started 2024-25 on an AHL PTO with the Bakersfield Condors, one that did not materialize into a full-time AHL deal. Tracey then split the rest of the season between Jukurit of the Finnish Liiga (scoring six points in 13 games) and Slovan Bratislava of the Slovak Extraliga, scoring eight points in 11 combined regular season and playoff games. The 6’0″ forward, still just 24 years old, heads to a Mora team that has gotten off to a slow start to the season, and they will likely look for him to help boost an offense that currently ranks fourth-to-last in goals scored in the league.
  • Former Philadelphia Flyers goalie Felix Sandstrom has left Finnish Liiga side Karpat Oulu, as his fixed-term contract with the team expired Nov. 2. Sandstrom originally signed the deal in September as part of the club’s response to an injury suffered by incumbent starter Visa Vedenpaa, who is a 2023 draft pick of the Seattle Kraken. Sandstrom didn’t have a great stretch with Karpat, going 3-6-1 with a .872 save percentage. A 2015 third-round pick of the Flyers, Sandstrom ultimately became the organization’s No. 3 goalie, playing in a total of 30 NHL games across his six-year career in North American pro hockey. Sandstrom played well enough to earn a one-way contract year for 2023-24, but the Flyers ultimately moved on from him in 2024 and he signed a one-year, two-way deal with a $450K guarantee with the Buffalo Sabres for 2024-25. Sandstrom struggled to get into games for the Rochester Americans, getting into just 19 contests, in large part due to the success of top prospect goalie Devon Levi. Now that his short-term deal in Liiga has expired, the experienced goalie will need to find another spot to continue what has been a solid pro career.
  • Another goalie who was once playing on an NHL contract was involved in player transaction news today: Hugo Alnefelt. Liiga’s HIFK confirmed that the 2019 Tampa Bay Lightning draft pick would remain with the club for the duration of the 2025-26 season after passing through the trial period of his loan. Alnefelt is contracted to Swedish side HV71, but after he went 8-16-1 with a .899 save percentage in 28 SHL games last season, the club elected to move forward with other goalies for 2025-26. HV71 worked with Alnefelt to find a place for him to get playing time in 2025-26, and they elected to loan him to HIFK in Liiga. Alnefelt has played in six games so far in Finland, posting a .889 save percentage and 2.94 goals-against average. Alnefelt was a tandem goalie for the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch for three seasons, from 2021-22 through 2023-24. He posted an .895 save percentage across 86 games, and was not signed to an NHL contract extension upon the expiry of his entry-level deal, prompting his move back to Europe.
  • 2017 Detroit Red Wings fifth-round pick Cole Fraser was traded in the ECHL today, as the Worcester Railers traded the defenseman to the Cincinnati Cyclones for future considerations. The big right-shot blueliner has been in the ECHL since he signed with the Kansas City Mavericks at the conclusion of his junior career with the OHL’s Peterborough Petes. Across his 288-game career in North America’s third-tier pro league, Fraser has scored 62 points and has earned a call-up to play in the AHL once. That call-up came in 2021-22, when he skated in a Nov. 14 contest for the Belleville Senators against the Utica Comets, a 4-1 loss for the Senators. Fraser played a defensive role through six games this season with the Railers, ranking second on the team in shorthanded ice time per game.
  • The ECHL’s Maine Mariners acquired forward Owen Gallatin from the Fort Wayne Komets in exchange for cash considerations, according to a team announcement. The 23-year-old is in the first full season of his professional career, having dipped his toes into pro hockey late last season after the conclusion of his NCAA career. Gallatin signed with the Komets after playing four seasons with the University of Minnesota-Duluth, including a strong junior campaign where he scored 30 points in 37 games. Gallatin’s production dipped in his senior year, and he wasn’t able to earn consistent ice time at the start of 2025-26 with Fort Wayne, leading to this early-season trade to Maine.
  • Another first-year pro player was traded in the ECHL today, with the South Carolina Stingrays acquiring forward Tanner Edwards from the Toledo Walleye. The 25-year-old was the most penalized player in the USHL in 2019-20, his lone season of USHL hockey, racking up 206 penalty minutes in just 37 games. He then played four years of college hockey, his first three with Minnesota State (where he won two CCHA conference titles) before spending his senior year with his hometown program Alaska-Anchorage. Edwards has just one pro game to his name at this point, an Oct. 25 game against the Bloomington Bison in which he registered his first pro fight.
  • There was a trade in the Czech Extraliga today, with HC Energie Karlovy Vary acquiring Jan Bambula from HC Vitkovice Ridera in exchange for forward Jan Sir. Bambula, 24, was in the midst of his second season with Vitkovice. He scored 13 points in 35 games last season and began this year with five points in 19 games before today’s trade. A speedy, offensively-oriented undersized winger, Bambula’s acquisition could boost Karlovy Vary’s offensive attack. Sir, 25, joined Karlovy Vary for 2024-25 after a five-year pro career with Bili Tygri Liberec, which was also his junior team. The 6’2″ pivot doesn’t offer the speed or offensive ability that Bambula is credited with, but brings the ability to play down the middle, additional size, and defensive versatility. He’s gone scoreless through 20 games this season, though he has been the team’s leading penalty-killing forward so far this season. While Bambula isn’t a direct replacement in that role as a winger, his speed did allow him to carve out a role on Vitkovice’s penalty kill, meaning he could end up taking Sir’s vacated spot on Karlovy Vary’s penalty kill.
  • Liiga side Ilves Tampere announced today that forwards Julius Hermonen and Joel Kerkkanen would not continue with the club upon the recent conclusion of their fixed-term contracts. Hermonen, 28, has nearly 300 games of Liiga experience, though he only managed two assists across 14 games for Ilves. He did score a goal in Champions Hockey League play, as part of a 5-0 victory over HC Kometa Brno. Kerkkanen, 26, isn’t an established quantity in Finland’s top division the way Hermonen is, with just 41 Liiga games to his name. But he has been quite successful in Finland’s second-tier Mestis, even putting together a point-per-game season in 2022-23 with JoKP. That scoring ability hasn’t translated to the Liiga level, though, and he registered just one point in his four games in Tampere.
  • Veteran Swedish netminder Jonas Gunnarsson, who was once a member of the Nashville Predators organization, signed a deal with HockeyAllsvenskan club AIK today. The 33-year-old has experience in Sweden’s second division, helping teams to promotion to the SHL on two separate occasions: 2014-15 with the Malmo Redhawks, and 2021-22 with HV71. 2021-22 was Gunnarsson’s most recent season in the Allsvenskan, and he performed very well, registering the most shutouts in the league and posting a .907 save percentage. He served as Joni Ortio’s backup for HV71 in its first year back in the SHL in 2022-23, before earning a role as a starter in Liiga with Ilves in 2023-24. He was solid in Liiga, posting a .912 save percentage in 36 games, and then spent 2024-25 with Graz in the ICEHL. Now he’s back in the league where he’s been successful in the past, and will look to stabilize an AIK goaltending situation that has been an issue for the team so far in 2025-26.
  • The SHL’s Vaxjo Lakers signed veteran forward Erik Andersson to a one-year contract, according to a team announcement. The 31-year-old winger is a defensive specialist who brings a large amount of experience in Sweden’s top league. He has played in 471 games, and while he’s only registered 74 points, he should be able to contribute on Vaxjo’s penalty kill in short order. Vaxjo’s penalty kill currently ranks fifth in the league in success rate, but with the potential for injuries, the signing of Andersson provides the team with suitable cover to be able to sustain its shorthanded success in the event that natural attrition of a long hockey season leads to regular penalty killers becoming unavailable.

West Notes: Eklund, Giles, Fink, Stadium Series

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San Jose Sharks forward William Eklund missed the team’s loss yesterday to the Detroit Red Wings with a lower-body injury, but the team is reportedly “hopeful” that Eklund will be fit to play as soon as Wednesday, per Sharks Hockey Digest’s Max Miller. Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky told the media that Eklund has been dealing with the injury for about a week, but the fact that it “got a little bit worse” is what necessitated his removal from the lineup.

The injury did not appear to slow Eklund down much, as he had an exceptional three-game stretch to finish the month of October, scoring three goals and five points. The 2021 seventh-overall pick ranks second on the Sharks in scoring so far this season, behind only second-year sensation and emerging franchise face Macklin Celebrini. He scored a career-high 17 goals and 58 points in 77 games last season, and assuming he can stay healthy, should cruise past those totals if he can manage to sustain his early-season form.

Other notes from the Western Conference:

  • The San Jose Sharks made a roster move today, sending forward Patrick Giles back to their AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda. Giles, 25, was elevated to the Sharks’ NHL roster on Oct. 28 when veteran blueliner Nick Leddy was placed on injured reserve. He ultimately played in three games for the Sharks, registering his second career NHL point (and first career assist) on top prospect Sam Dickinson’s game-tying goal late in the third period of yesterday’s game. The goal was also Dickinson’s first career NHL goal and first career point. Giles played in a fourth-line role across his three games, averaging under nine minutes of ice time per game.
  • Penn State Nittany Lions head coach Guy Gadowsky announced today, per Penn State CommRadio’s Matt Becker, that star forward Aiden Fink has suffered an upper-body injury and will be out “foreseeable future.” Fink, 20, is a Nashville Predators prospect, selected in the seventh round of the 2023 draft as Hall of Fame GM David Poile’s final draft pick in charge of the club. Fink was a finalist for the Hobey Baker award last season after he scored 53 points in just 40 games, leading Penn State to its most successful season in program history. He had scored nine points through nine games this season, but now sees his momentum stopped as he’ll need to recover from this upper-body injury before he can hit the ice again.
  • The NHL announced today that the Dallas Stars will play in the 2027 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series at AT&T Stadium on February 20, 2027. AT&T Stadium, located in Arlington, Texas, is the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, and has a seating capacity of 80,000. The game marks the second outdoor game hosted by the Stars in their franchise history, the first being the 2020 Winter Classic, played against Nashville at the Cotton Bowl. Per the league’s announcement, the Stars’ opponent will be announced at a later date.

Metro Notes: Henricks, Acciari, Brazeau

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Columbus Blue Jackets prospect defenseman Tanner Henricks is out for three months with a lower-body injury, per St. Cloud Live’s Mick Hatten. Per Hatten, Henricks’ brother Ty Henricks, a forward for Western Michigan University, delivered a body check on his younger brother, and was given a five-minute major penalty for contact with the head. Falling from the hit, Tanner reportedly suffered a lower-body injury, and “was seen in a walking boot after the game.”

Henricks is a 6’3″ defenseman who was drafted in the fourth round, 101st overall, by Columbus at the 2024 draft. The injury wipes out most of Henricks’ freshman season at St. Cloud State, one that had started off positively. Henricks had scored four points in his first six games of NCAA hockey and was getting a significant opportunity to play on the team’s power play. Now, not only will he miss a large chunk of college games, he’ll also miss the chance to represent the United States at the upcoming IIHF World Junior Championships. According to FloHockey’s Chris Peters, Henricks “was legitimately in the mix” to earn a spot on Team USA, but this injury will now cost him his chance at selection.

Other notes from the Metropolitan Division:

  • Pittsburgh Penguins forward Justin Brazeau has had an exceptional start to the 2025-26 season, scoring six goals and 12 points in just 12 games. For a player who signed in Pittsburgh after a stretch where he managed just two points in 19 games for the Minnesota Wild, that extremely productive stretch is significant for his hopes of establishing himself as someone who can have a long-term NHL career, something doubly important as an undrafted player. That’s what makes his recent upper-body injury so unfortunate, and today, Penguins play-by-play voice Josh Getzoff confirmed that Brazeau’s status is unchanged: he remains out with an upper-body injury. While the Penguins’ success has largely been driven (as it has been for about two decades) by its two star centers, this injury suffered by Brazeau is nonetheless a discouraging development for the team’s hopes of maintaining its positive momentum.
  • Brazeau isn’t the only forward dealing with an injury. The team announced tonight that veteran Noel Acciari left the team’s contest against the Toronto Maple Leafs with an upper-body injury. Acciari appears to have suffered the injury on what was just his second shift of the game. While he hasn’t been a big scorer the way Brazeau has been so far this season, losing Acciari for any notable stretch of time would nonetheless pose a challenge for the Penguins. Acciari has been a key first-unit penalty killer during his time as a Penguin, leading all Pittsburgh forwards in short-handed ice time in 2024-25. Since Acciari’s arrival in Pittsburgh, the Penguins rank 14th in the NHL in penalty kill success rate, so if the veteran forward does end up missing more than just tonight’s game due to injury, first-year head coach Dan Muse will need to find a way to sustain his team’s positive momentum without a key special teams contributor.

Atlantic Notes: Maccelli, Gadjovich, Lindholm

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Toronto Maple Leafs forward Matias Maccelli has been made a healthy scratch for today’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, reports The Hockey News’ David Alter.  The move comes as Toronto sits 23rd in the NHL, having had a slower-than-expected start to the season. Their 6-5-1 record places them 23rd in the league standings at this early point in the season. While a player getting healthy scratched is a relatively routine occurrence and not hugely noteworthy on its own, tracking Maccelli’s standing in Toronto is of a heightened importance due to the transaction he was involved in over the summer.

When Toronto acquired Maccelli in June, they sent a conditional 2027 third-round pick to the Utah Mammoth, with the condition being that if Maccelli scores at least 51 points (and Toronto reaches the playoffs), the pick upgrades to a 2029 second-rounder. At this stage, not only is Toronto outside of a playoff spot, but Maccelli is scoring at a 35-point pace. So, at this stage, it does not seem as though Utah will receive the upgraded draft choice, though it is important to stress how early in the season it is. It was just two years ago that Maccelli looked like one of the more promising young wingers in the game after he scored 106 points in 146 games across two seasons, so while his start to his season as a Maple Leaf hasn’t been ideal, it’s still far from a certainty that he won’t end up passing the thresholds for his former team to get the 2029 second-rounder.

Other notes from the Atlantic Division:

  • Florida Panthers winger Jonah Gadjovich will not travel with the team on its upcoming road trip as the full recovery timeline for his upper-body injury is still being worked out, per team reporter Rob Darragh. Gadjovich hasn’t played since Oct. 25, when he sustained the injury in a game against the Vegas Golden Knights. The physical 6’3″ winger has played a reserve role on the Panthers’ back-to-back championship teams, skating in 81 total regular-season games and scoring eight points across the 2023-24 and 2024-25 campaigns. Gadjovich also played in 16 playoff games last season and has three points in 10 games so far this season. Gadjovich skated as the fourth-line left winger when he last played, alongside Cole Schwindt and A.J. Greer. That spot has since been filled by Noah Gregor, one of Gadjovich’s former teammates from their shared time with the San Jose Sharks.
  • Last week, we covered news that Boston Bruins center Elias Lindholm would be out on a week-to-week basis with a lower-body injury suffered in the team’s Oct. 30 victory over the Buffalo Sabres. Today, the team confirmed to the media (including WEEI’s Scott McLaughlin) that Lindholm’s MRI confirmed that the center would be out with a week-to-week recovery timeline. It’s a significant loss for the Bruins, who count on Lindholm as a key top-six center. Lindholm lined up as the team’s number-one center in that Oct. 30 contest against Buffalo, a spot that has since been filled by Marat Khusnutdinov. Lindholm had gotten off to a solid start to the 2025-26 season, scoring nine points in 13 games. That’s a 57-point 82-game scoring pace, a notable improvement from last season when he scored 47 points across 82 games.

Detroit Red Wings Reassign Austin Watson

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11/3/2025: The Red Wings announced today that they’ve reassigned Watson back to AHL Grand Rapids. The Red Wings played in three games from Oct. 30 through Nov. 3, but Watson didn’t dress for any of them.

The main benefit for Watson during this recall was financial: he will receive a prorated bump in pay, as he has a $775K NHL salary and a $375K AHL salary. That will make it more likely he will be able to exceed his $400K guarantee by the end of the season, should he be recalled again down the line. He also gains pension credits for those three games for which he was on the NHL roster.

Therefore, while this recall did not pay any on-ice dividends for Watson, the Red Wings’ choice to provide the veteran with some additional time on its NHL roster did have some financial benefits for the player.

10/30/2025: According to a team announcement, the Detroit Red Wings have recalled forward Austin Watson from the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins. Detroit has had an open roster spot for the last few days after reassigning prospect Michael Brandsegg-Nygard on Monday.

Despite taking Brandsegg-Nygard’s spot on the active roster, there’s little chance for consistent playing time for Watson. Even without veteran Patrick Kane for the foreseeable future, the team has Elmer Soderblom, who has a much higher ceiling than Watson, to fall back on.

If Watson does enter the lineup at any point over the current recall, the Red Wings will know exactly what to expect. The 11-year veteran is in his second year with the organization, scoring three goals in 13 games for Detroit last year, averaging 7:51 of ice time.

The only value Watson can provide is his physicality and aggression. Since debuting with the Nashville Predators during the 2012-13 season, Watson has accrued 722 PIMs in 528 games while collecting 1,245 hits. Interestingly, he’s been more of an offensive contributor in the AHL, scoring 94 goals and 176 points in 298 games while managing 221 PIMs. It’s important to note that before his time with the Griffins, Watson had only managed 90 PIMs in the AHL.

Detroit begins a four-game road trip through the NHL’s Pacific Division tonight against the Los Angeles Kings. Given that no teams on the trip are particularly physical, the earliest Watson could be expected to enter the lineup is next Friday against the New York Rangers, who have the third-most hits to start the 2025-26 campaign.

Capitals Promote Tim Barnes To Assistant General Manager

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The Washington Capitals have promoted Tim Barnes to an Assistant General Manager position. He had previously served as the team’s Director of Analytics since the 2017-18 season, and filled an analyst role from 2014 to 2017.

Barnes graduated from the University of Calgary in 1989 and worked in the oil and gas, petrochemical, and financial industries. Throughout those jobs, he became one of the hockey world’s earliest analytics-bloggers, covering early advanced statistics under the pseudonym ’Vic Ferrari’. Barnes covered an array of topics, but most notably invented the statistics of ’Corsi’ and ’Fenwick’ – which track shot attempts on net. Both values count all goals, shots on goal, and missed shots – though Corsi also tracks blocked shots.

The invention of Barnes’ two stats was, in many ways, the precipice of hockey analytics as they’re seen today. It brought shrewd attention towards the importance of generating shots, and dangerous scoring chances, that would eventually, directly lead to the creation of expected-goal models. Barnes’ website ’timeonice.com’, now defunct, was also a main contributor in the advent of league-wide, advanced analytics tracking in the 2007-08 season.

To the world of hockey statisticians, Barnes’ hire in Washington was cause for celebration in 2014. That excitement will follow him as he takes yet another step up the org chart. He will become one of three assistant general managers in the Capitals organization, alongside Ross Mahoney and Don Fishman. Barnes will undoutbedly handle statistical oversight, while Mahoney handles Washington’s drafting and Fishman handles roster management. The three align with general manager Chris Patrick, who worked to the top chair himself after three years as an assistant GM.

Flames’ Prospect Henry Mews Suffers Season-Ending Injury

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Calgary Flames prospect and University of Michigan defenseman Henry Mews will miss the rest of the season with a lower-body injury, per Matthew Auchincloss of The Michigan Daily. Mews was on the receiving end of a knee-to-knee hit delivered by University of Notre Dame forward Sutter Muzzatti on Saturday. The hit came in the first period, behind Michigan’s net. Mews was on the ice for a moment after but did get to the bench and down the tunnel under his own power.

Mews is among the Flames’ top prospects. To many, he’s already outgrown his third-round selection in the 2024 NHL Draft, after being highly acclaimed for much of the prior year. He’s a high-motor, offensive-defenseman who excels at pushing the puck down the ice and creating plays on the blue-line. That talent earned Mews 82 points in 68 OHL games last season, second-most of any OHL defender behind ’Defenseman of the Year’ Sam Dickinson.

That standing made Mews one of the top CHL talents to commit to the NCAA following the rule change this summer. He was expected to be an instant impact on Michigan’s blue-line, and lived up to the hype early on. Mews had nine assists and a plus-five through nine games before going down with injury, including four points in four games against tough opponents Notre Dame and Western Michigan University. His aggressive offensive immediately clicked with Michigan’s downhill style, and Mews looked noticeably stronger and more confident defensively than last season.

He was riding a four-game point-streak entering Saturday’s matchup. His promising start makes a painful, and long-term, injury all the tougher to bear. Now, it will stick as the silver lining to a missed year, and fuel confidence in Mews’ ability to take on a top-pair role in his sophomore season. The Wolverines – who are carrying an unusual 11 defensemen on their roster – will most likely turn towards Anaheim Ducks prospect Drew Schock, and undrafted defenders Matthew Mania and Hunter Hady, to step up in Mews’ absence.

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