Sharks Recall Igor Chernyshov
The Sharks announced today that they’ve recalled left winger Igor Chernyshov from AHL San Jose. With an ample number of healthy forwards on their roster, Chernyshov is already the third of the five post-deadline standard recalls San Jose can make, joining defensemen Nolan Allan and Nick Leddy.
Chernyshov, 20, was the 33rd overall pick by San Jose in the 2024 draft. He has been on an absolutely torrid trajectory ever since. A dynamic 6’2″ power forward, he spent all of his pre-draft development in his native Russia but opted to immediately sign with San Jose and come to North America. Instead of assigning him to the AHL right away last season, the Sharks loaned him to the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit to make a more comfortable adjustment in junior hockey.
While Chernyshov lost a good portion of the season to injury, he was, bar none, the league’s best player when in the lineup. He had 19 goals, 36 assists, and 55 points in just 23 appearances for Saginaw alongside now-Sharks teammate Michael Misa, leading the league with an incredible 2.39 points per game.
It’s no surprise, then, that Chernyshov’s first professional season has gone as swimmingly as it has. He’s fit in well amid a deep minor-league group in San Jose, posting 13 goals and 33 points in 41 games with 36 penalty minutes and a +11 rating. That got him a look on the NHL roster for about a month across December and January while Will Smith was on injured reserve. He got a long look in Smith’s spot on the top line with Macklin Celebrini and William Eklund and did not disappoint, posting a 3-8–11 scoring line and nine hits in 15 games. He also managed 3.27 shot attempts per game, good for eighth on the team.
He’s now getting another look on the active roster, although it doesn’t appear he’ll be getting into game action immediately. Eklund got banged up with a lower-body issue against the Sabres on Tuesday but took line rushes at this morning’s skate and is expected to play tonight against the Bruins, per Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now.
Flames Sign Tyson Gross To Entry-Level Deal
March 12: Gross has moved quickly and finalized an entry-level contract beginning this season with the Flames, per Eric Francis of Sportsnet. He will report to Calgary’s NHL roster and will see games down the stretch, Francis adds. It will be a two-year deal for Gross, making him a restricted free agent at the end of next season.
March 11: Calgary native Tyson Gross is one of the top undrafted free agents available coming out of college this season. His hometown Flames are on the shortlist of teams the center is considering signing with, and he will make his decision in the next few days, Eric Francis of Sportsnet reports.
Gross, 23, just wrapped up his junior season with St. Cloud State. Serving as the team’s captain, he doubled his previous career high in goals en route to an 18-23–41 scoring line in 36 games. The 6’3″, 194-lb pivot saw his season end last week, getting swept 2-0 by Minnesota-Duluth in the quarterfinals of the NCHC tournament. They won’t be getting an at-large berth to the national tournament, so Gross ends his career in St. Cloud with 34 goals, 52 assists, and 86 points across 106 games over the last three years.
There’s little reason to believe Gross will replicate those offensive totals at the NHL level, but there’s a chance he can carve out a role as a depth checking center in Calgary or be a higher-end minor-league piece. He was initially draft-eligible back in 2021. He’d played just nine junior ‘A’ games that year due to COVID and was understandably passed over. Even against tougher competition in the USHL in his post-draft year, though, he only managed eight points in 23 games with the Fargo Force. It wasn’t until moving to the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders for his DY+2 that he came out of his shell as a playmaker, and he was able to carry that momentum directly into a 20-point freshman season at St. Cloud.
The Flames are in need of some size down the middle in their prospect pool, so their interest in Gross makes sense. Their situation improved somewhat when they acquired the signing rights to 6’2″, 203-lb Jonathan Castagna from the Mammoth in the MacKenzie Weegar deal, and Francis reports the junior center is also open to turning pro with the Flames when his season at Cornell wraps up.
Blues Sign Calle Rosen To Two-Year, Two-Way Extension
The Blues announced today that left-shot defender Calle Rosen has signed a two-year, two-way contract extension. The deal pays him $850K in the NHL and $500K in the AHL next year before seeing an NHL pay bump to $900K in 2027-28.
Rosen is in his second stint with the Blues organization. He hasn’t seen an NHL game since his first go-around in St. Louis ended following the 2023-24 season, though. He signed with the Avalanche on a two-way deal the following summer and did the same with the Capitals last offseason before Washington traded him back to St. Louis for fellow minor-league depth defender Corey Schueneman last November.
Now 32, Rosen has never really been a full-time NHL piece and has had multiple opportunities to return home to Sweden since arriving in North America with the Maple Leafs as an undrafted free agent in 2018. Instead, the 6’1″ lefty has chosen to pursue an often thankless career as a minor-league mainstay who consistently churns out quality bottom-pairing hockey in his NHL call-ups. He’s been quite well-compensated for an AHLer – his new minors salary is actually a small pay cut from the $525K he landed on his deal with the Caps last summer – but still, it’s rare to see an import player opt for that lifestyle instead of a more stable pro career in Europe, especially considering he has previous Swedish Hockey League experience.
Rosen, now in his ninth season stateside, has long been one of the AHL’s better puck-movers. He had seven points in nine games with Hershey to start the year and has since been a valuable contributor on St. Louis’ struggling affiliate in Springfield, leading their blue line with a 7-19–26 scoring line in 47 games. He was an AHL All-Star back in 2019, won a Calder Cup in Toronto the year before, and now is up to 224 points in 407 career minor-league games.
It’s surprising he hasn’t gotten more NHL opportunities. The only time he got an extended run on a roster was with St. Louis in the 2022-23 campaign. While he served mostly as a #7 piece, he was absolutely excellent when deployed, putting up eight goals and 18 points with a +19 rating despite only averaging 15:36 of ice time per game across 49 outings. None of that production came on special teams, either. He’s fairly consistently had positive relative Corsi shares at 5-on-5 and, while he’s far from being a physical threat, has shown he can be an efficient driver of offense in limited minutes.
Maple Leafs Recall Michael Pezzetta
The Maple Leafs announced this morning that they’ve recalled winger Michael Pezzetta from AHL Toronto. With no pressing injuries, he counts as their second of five allotted post-deadline standard recalls, following the team’s recall of Benoit-Olivier Groulx on Tuesday.
Pezzetta, a day ahead of his 28th birthday, hasn’t played in the NHL since the end of last season. The Maple Leafs signed him to a two-year contract as an unrestricted free agent last July, but he was placed on waivers during training camp and didn’t make the opening night roster. He signed a one-way deal for the league-minimum salary each year, giving him a $812.5K cap hit and a full $775K paycheck this season despite not seeing any time on the NHL roster until March.
In 37 games for the Marlies this year, Pezzetta has put up four goals and 10 points with a -7 rating and 52 penalty minutes. His workload is limited by design, as he counts toward the AHL’s veteran maximum and is one of the purest enforcers/grinders in the game. In fact, his 0.27 points per game this season is a career high in both the NHL and the AHL, his six points in just eight AHL games back in 2021-22 notwithstanding.
Selected by the Canadiens in the sixth round back in 2016, Pezzetta will play in his fifth straight NHL season if he gets into a game (which it looks like he will tonight against the Ducks, per Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun). He’s totaled 200 games, all with Montreal, with a 15-23–38 scoring line, a -9 rating, and an average of 8:03 of ice time per game.
Senators No Longer Forfeiting 2026 First-Round Pick
This year, the first round was only going to be 31 picks. The Senators were due to forfeit their first-round selection as a result of failing to disclose Evgenii Dadonov‘s trade protection when trading him to the Golden Knights in 2021, resulting in a botched trade when Vegas attempted to send him to the Ducks the following season. Now, the NHL has modified that penalty – instead of losing their first-round pick entirely, it’ll be moved to the back of the order, giving them the 32nd overall pick, per Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic.
There are additional restrictions on the selection, the league announced. The Sens can’t trade it for an asset or to move up in the draft order. In the realistic scenario that they don’t make the playoffs, they won’t be eligible for the draft lottery, and a redraw will be held if their number is drawn. They’re also getting fined an additional $1MM in Canadian dollars.
The league took into account that the violation five years ago occurred under a different general manager and ownership. As a result, the Senators “behind the scenes have been lobbying the NHL for quite a while” to reach a resolution that didn’t result in a full forfeiture, per Pierre LeBrun of TSN.
There is precedent for this type of reversal of sanctions. Back in 2010, when the Devils signed Ilya Kovalchuk to a massive 17-year deal that the league deemed to be cap circumvention, the NHL voided the deal and stripped them of a first and third-round pick, along with a $3MM fine. Three years later, when Kovalchuk shockingly retired and walked away from the deal, the league acquiesced in a similar manner when pushed by then-New Jersey general manager Lou Lamoriello. The NHL returned half the fine and gave the Devils the 30th overall pick in the 2014 draft (then the last selection of the round) with the same restrictions applied.
“The Senators subsequently applied to the League for reconsideration and relief from the original penalty, citing primarily the change in Club ownership and oversight which, in the Club’s view, changed the appropriateness of the penalty initially imposed,” the league said in its statement. “After due and thorough consideration, the League has decided that a modification of the original penalty is warranted.”
Panthers Recall Mike Benning
The Panthers announced today that they’ve recalled defenseman Mike Benning from AHL Charlotte. They have ample cap space to make the recall and, with only six defensemen on the active roster and Uvis Balinskis listed as questionable with an undisclosed injury, Benning will likely be making his NHL debut tonight against the Blue Jackets, per George Richards of Florida Hockey Now.
Benning, a 2020 fourth-round pick, was once one of the top prospects in a weak Florida pool. While he was technically on the Cats’ roster to close out the 2022-23 campaign after turning pro out of the University of Denver, serving as a Black Ace on their first of three straight trips to the Stanley Cup Final, he never played. He was sent down to Charlotte in camp the following fall, and he’s remained there ever since.
Slowly but surely, the undersized righty has been improving his two-way game in the minors. Coming in at just 5’9″ and 176 lbs, the 2022 NCAA championship winner would need to simply be offensively dominant to warrant an extended look at the NHL level. That hasn’t happened, at least from the jump. After recording 72 points and a raucous +56 rating in 80 games across his sophomore and junior seasons at Denver, Benning had just nine goals and 26 points in a full 72 games as a first-year pro for Charlotte in 2023-24.
Over the past two years, his points per game have begun to spike. He bumped his production from 0.36 that first year in Charlotte to 0.59 last year, although it’s flattened out somewhat again at 0.55 here in 2025-26. He has made 56 AHL appearances this season, posting an 8-23–31 scoring line with 40 penalty minutes and a +10 rating. That’s still good for the team lead in scoring among defensemen – by a significant margin, too, with Trevor Carrick‘s 18 points in 45 games coming in second.
Now 24, Benning was always viewed as a power-play specialist if he made it to the highest level. With Seth Jones still out of the lineup, Balinskis had actually been quarterbacking Florida’s second unit, so there’s a strong chance Benning steps in there tonight while directly replacing Balinskis on Niko Mikkola‘s right side on their second pairing at even strength.
This is Benning’s last waiver-exempt season. At the end of the year, he will have accrued three professional seasons and will require waivers to be assigned to Charlotte during training camp in the fall if he doesn’t make the roster. Before that even becomes a consideration, he’ll need to sign a new contract. He’s on a two-way deal with a $150K guarantee, which he agreed to after being a restricted free agent for a month and a half last year following the expiration of his entry-level contract. This time around, he’s arbitration-eligible, so Florida has some incentive to get a new agreement done quicker – assuming they qualify him at all. The Cats control him for another three years.
Submit Your Questions For The #PHRMailbag
The trade deadline has come and gone with a sequence of moves that have given some teams a boost for the stretch run. Now, the focus shifts to either the playoff race or the race to the bottom as some rebuilding teams will be looking to help their odds heading into next month’s draft lottery. With that in mind, it’s a good time to open up the mailbag once again.
Our last call for questions had enough queries for three columns. Among the topics in the first were Artemi Panarin’s situation before his eventual trade to Los Angeles, what a possible extension for Nikita Kucherov, and the new rule about players playing in the minors before being recall-eligible. The second went over the potential extent of the Rangers’ rebuild this season, predicting which rental Blackhawks would have the most value, and if the time was right for the Flyers to go into a bigger rebuild. Lastly, topics in the third included how Dallas could reach the Stanley Cup Final, if an off-ice shakeup is needed in Winnipeg, and top forward prospects for the upcoming draft.
You can submit a question by using #PHRMailbag on Twitter/X or by leaving a comment down below. The mailbag will run on the weekend.
Canadiens’ Cole Caufield Out With Illness
Montreal Canadiens winger Cole Caufield will miss Wednesday night’s game against the Ottawa Senators due to illness. He will be replaced by Alexandre Texier per Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports.
Caufield has scored four goals and six points in his last five games. His absence will be a heavy blow as Montreal steps up to a Atlantic Division matchup. It will also be a major opportunity for Texier, who hasn’t stepped into the lineup since February 26th. He scored six points in his first 11 games with the Canadiens, then went on a run for 10 points in seven games, with the two stints split by a six-game scoring drought.
But Texier has fallen into another lull, with only two points in his last seven games, dating back to January 13th. He could have a prime chance to snap that cold spell as he steps into a top-nine role in Caufield’s absence.
Montreal will rotate Texier with Alex Newhook, Zachary Bolduc, and Josh Anderson on the left-wing. All four have run into hot-and-cold streaks this season, which could put a lot of weight on Nick Suzuki, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Ivan Demidov to carry the scoring.
Montreal will also be relying on rookie goaltender Jacob Fowler after scratching Sam Montembeault. The weakened Canadiens lineup could present a good chance for Ottawa to begin clawing their way up the standings.
Red Wings Recall Sheldon Dries, John Leonard, Eduards Tralmaks
The Detroit Red Wings have utilized emergency recalls to call-up three forwards from the AHL. Sheldon Dries, John Leonard, and Eduards Tralmaks will all join the Red Wings with two games left on their current road trip. These moves come after Detroit center Andrew Copp sustained a lower-body injury in Tuesday night’s loss to the Florida Panthers. He has been downgraded to doubtful for Thursday’s match against the Tampa Bay Lightning, at least, per Detroit Free Press’ Helene St. James.
Three more forwards will help Detroit balance lines at Wednesday’s practice without captain Dylan Larkin, in addition to Copp’s injury and a recent string of maintenance days for winger Lucas Raymond. Detroit also added winger David Perron to their injured reserve after acquiring him from the Ottawa Senators for a fourth-round pick at the Trade Deadline.
The Red Wings have split their two games since Larkin sustained a day-to-day, lower-body injury. Copp was promoted to the top line in Larkin’s spot and recorded two assists and six shots on net before going down with his own injury. That could force the Red Wings to lean on Marco Kasper as their top center, even if Copp is able to play. Kasper scored one goal on four shots in Tuesday’s loss, bringing him to 10 points in his last 17 games dating back to mid-January. A bump in minutes could be well-timed for Kasper, who has not recorded a game with more than 20 minutes of ice time this season. The former eighth-overall pick had three such games in his rookie season last year. He finished with 19 goals and 37 points in 77 games.
Both Dries and Leonard have played a handful of NHL games this season, with Leonard scoring four points in nine games and Dries scoring one goal in six games with Detroit. The two rank first and third on the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins in scoring with 41 and 37 points respectively. Sixth on the list is Tralmaks, who is receiving the first call-up of his NHL career with this move.
After a quiet three seasons in the Providence Bruins’ organization to begin his pro career, Tralmaks spent the last two seasons with the Kladno Knights in Czechia’s top pro league. He scored 21 goals and 32 points in 52 games of his first Czech season, then jumped to a league-leading 51 points in 48 games last season. He signed with the Red Wings on the heels of that season and has since found his confidence in the AHL. Tralmaks has 18 goals and 28 points in 49 games with Grand Rapids this season. This call-up could now give the six-foot-four, 225-pound Latvian a chance to make his NHL debut.
Detroit may not need to lean on any of their call-ups if Copp can play on Thursday. If not, it will be centerman Dries who gets tapped to fill-in, unless the Red Wings move a winger to the center spot to fit-in the hot-scoring Leonard, or rookie Tralmaks. Bottom-six winger Dominik Shine has filled both forward positions through his career but has only taken one faceoff in the NHL.
Assessing The Hurricanes’ Underwhelming Trade Deadline
There have been many unpredictable developments in the NHL this season, especially in the Metropolitan Division, where the Penguins and Islanders are unexpectedly holding playoff spots while the Devils and Capitals appear to be out of the race. Yet, one constant this year — as it has been nearly every year this decade — is that the Hurricanes are leading the division and poised for a strong playoff run.
Despite their impressive record and deep roster, it still seems like the Hurricanes missed an opportunity at this year’s trade deadline to elevate their team into the top tier of contenders by making just one or two small moves.
The Stars are in a similar position to Carolina, but Dallas made some moves by acquiring forward Michael Bunting and defenseman Tyler Myers. This isn’t to say those players were exactly what the Hurricanes needed, but Dallas only traded a second-, third-, and fourth-round draft pick for them.
Carolina didn’t need to be as bold as the Stars, given the depth on their roster, but they could have made a few small pickups to try and win their first Eastern Conference title in nearly 20 years.
There are reasons why Carolina might have been apprehensive. Sure, they got burned last season with the Mikko Rantanen deal, a short-lived acquisition that led to his quick trade to Dallas, and the year before, they traded for forward Jake Guentzel, only to see him leave and join Tampa Bay after their playoff elimination.
But again, Carolina didn’t need to add much, and what they did felt underwhelming as they only made one move to acquire physical forward Nicolas Deslauriers in exchange for a conditional seventh-round pick.
Much has been said about the Hurricanes’ lack of success in the postseason after the second round, and for good reason. The Hurricanes have made a habit of reaching at least the second round and have regularly played in the Eastern Conference Finals.
However, they have had almost no success advancing past the third round in the last two decades, dating back to 2009 when they were swept by the eventual Stanley Cup champion Penguins. Carolina was also swept in 2019 by Boston and in 2023 by Florida. Last year, they were eliminated in the third round once again, but this time they managed to secure a single win against the Panthers.
While their regular-season success is well documented, it seems their window is beginning to close, as their prospect pool is only average at best, and depth will eventually run out. Now, folks might point to their big acquisitions last summer and say those were the major moves, suggesting they were going all in, which is fair enough.
Last summer, Carolina acquired K’Andre Miller from the New York Rangers and also signed Nikolaj Ehlers as a UFA, giving him a six-year deal worth $51MM. Both moves indicated that the Hurricanes were willing to take risks and aim for a Stanley Cup.
Those moves, however, make the silence at this year’s trade deadline all the more puzzling. Why load up last summer only to hold back and not address shortcomings right before the playoffs?
You might look at Carolina’s lineup and think they have a flawless roster fill-out, but they do have some gaps in the lineup that could have been addressed.
The biggest issue for Carolina is on their fourth line, where journeyman center Mark Jankowski is anchoring the fourth-line center spot. No disrespect to Jankowski, who has kept his NHL career alive after several AHL stints, but he is not a center for a team with visions of winning a Stanley Cup this spring.
Jankowski is a suitable injury replacement or 13th forward, but regularly dressing him in every game of the playoffs probably isn’t ideal in a best-of-seven series. The 31-year-old Jankowski has six goals and nine assists in 51 games this season, which is acceptable for a fourth liner, but he has been used mostly in offensive zone situations, suggesting some sheltered usage.
The bigger issue for Carolina is what would happen to their center depth if someone like Sebastian Aho or Logan Stankoven were to get injured. Jordan Staal could step up to play in the top six, although it wouldn’t be ideal.
But suddenly, Jankowski becomes a top-nine center on a team with Stanley Cup ambitions. It’s a lot of hypotheticals, but injuries do happen, and an injury to a center could be disastrous for the Hurricanes.
Carolina didn’t need to make a big splash with a major acquisition; Teddy Blueger from Vancouver would have been enough, or even a Lars Eller from Ottawa (if he was available) would have worked too. Another option could have been a veteran like Erik Haula out of New Jersey. But Carolina chose to stand pat and hope they have the depth to make a run.
The same could apply to their defense, where Mike Reilly is currently getting regular shifts on their third pairing. Although Reilly has been a solid professional for quite some time, it’s not ideal to have him in the everyday lineup for the playoffs at this stage of his career.
It’s a bit less of a concern with Reilly because the Hurricanes have reinforcements on the way, including returning injured players like Shayne Gostisbehere and Charles-Alexis Legault. Reilly’s underlying stats have been quite good this season, but much like Jankowski, he’s been sheltered when he’s in the lineup.
Given the high costs at the trade deadline, it is understandable why Carolina would hesitate to add to their lineup. However, since they are firmly in their contention window, it was surprising to see them do so little to address their lineup deficiencies.
They might still make a deep run; however, if they fall short of their ultimate goal once again, they could end up regretting their inaction last week.