Anaheim Ducks Acquire Jeffrey Viel
According to a team announcement, the Boston Bruins have traded bottom-six forward Jeffrey Viel to the Anaheim Ducks for a conditional 2026 fourth-round pick. The Ducks originally had the Detroit Red Wings and Philadelphia Flyers’ fourth-round picks for the upcoming draft, and the highest one will go to Boston.
Viel, 28, had spent the last two years in the Bruins organization after signing a two-year, $1.55MM contract with the team ahead of the 2024-25 season. He spent much of last season with the AHL’s Providence Bruins, scoring 13 goals and 37 points in 68 games with a +14 rating. Additionally, he was again one of the most penalized forwards in the league, finishing with 148 PIMs.
That’s been the status quo for Viel throughout his professional career. Since the 2018-19 campaign, with the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda, Viel has recorded 75 goals and 170 points in 349 AHL games with 688 PIMs. It averages out to nearly one minor penalty per game.
Instead of beginning this season in the AHL, Viel cracked Boston’s opening night roster as the team was looking to become more hard-nosed. Still, he’s been a healthy scratch most nights, going scoreless across 10 games, averaging 9:30 of ice time per game.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Ducks utilize Viel in their lineup, if at all. The team already has a comparable forward in Ross Johnston, though Johnston offers more offensive upside, at least this season. There’s certainly a chance they will send Viel to the AHL’s San Diego Gulls, where he would usurp Travis Howe as the team’s “tough guy,” given that he could also be a reliable secondary scorer.
Meanwhile, the Bruins had an opening on their roster after sending Viel to Orange County. Moving quickly, Boston announced that they’ve recalled defenseman Billy Sweezey from AHL Providence.
Sweezey, a native of Massachusetts, is in his second year with the Bruins organization. He’s already surpassed his scoring totals last year, starting with one goal and 11 points in 34 games to start the year with a +22 rating. Sweezey’s recall is likely linked to the status of Andrew Peeke, who left Boston’s game last night due to a lower-body injury.
Avalanche Recall Ivan Ivan, Zakhar Bardakov
Jan. 16th: According to a team announcement, the Avalanche have also brought Ivan back to the NHL roster. Colorado now has a full 23-man roster for their return to action today.
Jan. 15th: As expected, the Avalanche announced that they’ve recalled Bardakov ahead of tomorrow’s contest against the Nashville Predators.
Jan. 13th: The Colorado Avalanche have shedded a few depth forwards from their active roster. According to a team announcement, the Avalanche have reassigned Ivan Ivan and Zakhar Bardakov to the AHL’s Colorado Eagles.
Despite the new rules that stipulate a player must play at least one game with their respective AHL team before being eligible for recall, Colorado is in a brief window to make a “paper transaction” to accrue cap space. The Avalanche don’t play again until January 16th, and the Eagles play tonight and tomorrow at home, giving each player more than enough time to meet the requirements. Additionally, as their name alludes to, Colorado’s AHL affiliate plays approximately an hour north of Denver, making for a brief trip back to the NHL roster.
Ivan, 23, hasn’t spent as much time in the NHL as he did last season. Particularly due to multiple injuries, Ivan spent half the season with the Avalanche last year, scoring five goals and eight points throughout his rookie season, averaging 10:02 of ice time per night. Fortunately, Colorado hasn’t needed him as much this season, as he’s featured in only five contests.
Given his youth, it’s more beneficial for Ivan to play in the AHL, where he has access to more ice time. He has not exhibited the same scoring ability as in previous years, tallying only two goals and eight points in 30 games this season. Two years ago, his first with the Eagles, Ivan scored 12 goals and 31 points in 67 games.
Meanwhile, Bardakov, 24, has spent much more time in the NHL this year. Much like Ivan, he’s been used in a depth role, scoring one goal and eight points in 32 games, averaging 7:17 of ice time per night. However, unlike Ivan, the former standout for the KHL’s SKA St. Petersburg has yet to appear in an AHL contest, meaning he’ll make his debut for the Eagles either today or tomorrow.
Panthers Sign Uvis Balinskis To Two-Year Extension
According to an announcement from his agent, Dan Milstein, defenseman Uvis Balinskis has agreed to a two-year extension with the Florida Panthers. TSN’s Chris Johnston added that it’ll be a two-year, $1.75MM ($875K AAV) deal.
Balinskis, 29, didn’t have a straightforward path to the NHL. The Latvian spent multiple years in the European professional circuit, primarily in the KHL and Extraliga. He began garnering NHL interest throughout his last two years overseas, scoring 20 goals and 58 points in 92 games split between Czechia’s HC Litvínov and Bílí Tygři Liberec.
The Panthers ultimately landed Balinskis toward the end of the 2022-23 campaign, with his one-year, $840K contract beginning in the 2023-24 season. Throughout his first year with the club, Balinskis scored one goal and three points in 26 games with Florida. Additionally, he tallied three goals and 21 points in 37 games for their AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers.
Needing defensive depth and being encouraged by his performance in the AHL, the Panthers signed Balinskis to a two-year, $1.7MM extension almost as soon as he became eligible. It proved to be a wise investment, as Balinskis finished fifth on the team in scoring among defensemen with four goals and 18 points in 76 games. His defensive metrics were solid as well, finishing with a 90.4% on-ice SV% at even strength, and an expected +/- of 12.0.
Suffering a handful of injuries this season, Florida has again deployed Balinskis fairly regularly, sometimes in a top-four role. His scoring has dissipated somewhat, though he’s second amongst defenseman in oiSV% behind Niko Mikkola.
A pending unrestricted free agent once again, Balinskis didn’t appear headed for a large payday this summer. Still, it was a no-brainer for the Panthers, who retain a familiar option for a mere $25K bump in salary.
Canadiens Reassign Owen Beck, Jacob Fowler
The Canadiens announced they’ve loaned center Owen Beck and goaltender Jacob Fowler to AHL Laval. They’re now left with two open roster spots – one of which could go to LTIR-bound Kirby Dach as he nears a return from a foot fracture, Eric Engels of Sportsnet speculates.
Beck and Fowler have been up with the Habs for over a month. They were summoned on Dec. 10 as the Habs opted to further embrace the youth movement in the wake of injuries to Dach, Patrik Laine, and Alex Newhook, as well as a spell of underwhelming goaltending.
The 21-year-old Beck has now put up back-to-back seasons with good defensive play in a fourth-line role during a double-digit games played window. In 15 contests this season, he’s only scored once – his first NHL goal – but has a +4 rating while controlling 52.0% of shot attempts at even strength. He’s averaging 9:11 of ice time per game and, after going 44-for-75 on draws, he’s the best faceoff-taker on the Habs with a 58.7% win rate.
All those points point toward Beck establishing his floor as a bottom-six defensive stalwart sooner rather than later. Selected 33rd overall in the 2022 draft, the 6’0″ pivot was viewed by many as potentially the best defensive-minded forward available in the class, although concerns abounded about his offensive upside.
So far, both of those statements appear to be on track. He had a promising showing on the scoresheet as a rookie in Laval last year with 44 points in 64 games. This season, though, he’s lit the lamp just three times in 22 AHL games with 11 total points.
Beck had been a healthy scratch in two straight games anyway to make way for Josh Anderson to get back into the lineup after an upper-body injury. Regardless of Dach’s status, it made sense for the Habs to get Beck more consistent reps in Laval instead of sitting in the press box in Montreal.
Fowler’s demotion means Montreal’s three-goalie rotation is coming to an end, at least for now. They have a light schedule for the rest of the month, and with his next “scheduled” start for the Habs not until next Thursday – assuming they continue to stick religiously to the rotation – it would make sense for him to get a game in Laval in the interim.
It’s hard to imagine Fowler’s demotion carrying any sort of permanence for a team in the playoff race. Through his first 10 NHL starts, the 21-year-old has clearly shown why he’s the organization’s top goalie prospect and one of the highest-ceiling netminders in the league.
His .902 SV% and 2.62 GAA are better than his counterparts, Jakub Dobes and Sam Montembeault, by significant margins, even if his 4-4-2 record doesn’t jump off the page. He’s recorded the team’s only shutout this season – a 31-save performance against the Penguins before Christmas – and leads them with 1.8 goals saved above expected, per MoneyPuck.
Injury Notes: Vladar, Wilsby, Colton
The Philadelphia Flyers could avoid the worst after taking a blow to their goalie room. Daniel Vladar is only expected to be out short-term after sustaining an injury in the first period of Wednesday’s loss to the Buffalo Sabres, per Kevin Kurz of The Athletic and ESPN’s Emily Kaplan during Thursday’s broadcast. Vladar was replaced by Samuel Ersson while Alexei Kolosov was recalled on Thursday morning.
Vladar has led the charge for the Flyers goaltending room with 16 wins, a .905 save percentage, and a 2.46 goals-against-average in 28 games. He is the only Flyer with a save percentage north of .900 – with Ersson sporting a .853 in 18 games and Kolosov a .886 in three games. The two goalies split the next in Philadelphia’s 3-6 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. They each allowed three goals, though Kolosov had 16 saves to Ersson’s 14. The two will continue an even battle for starting minutes, while Philadelphia hopes for more good news around Vladar’s timeline.
More injury updates from around the league:
- Nashville Predators defenseman Adam Wilsby is out day-to-day with a lower-body injury per Alex Daugherty of The Tennessean. It is unclear when Wilsby sustained the injury. He played more than 21 minutes of Nashville’s overtime win over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday, the fourth-most ice time of any Predators skater. Wilsby recorded one assist and a plus-one in the outing with no clear sign of wear. Either way, Wilsby will be expected to miss Friday’s game against the Colorado Avalanche and could be doubtful for Saturday’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights. Sitting out the back-to-back road games will give Wilsby four days to rest up before Nashville returns home next Tuesday. The 25 year old has seven points and a minus-four in 36 games this season.
- The Colorado Avalanche also face a hole in the lineup. Forward Ross Colton is out day-to-day with an upper-body injury and questionable for Friday’s game against Nashville, head coach Jared Bednar told Evan Rawal of the Denver Gazette. Colton played through regulation, but sat out of the overtime period, in Monday’s loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. He recorded five shots on goal that game. Colton has been a relentless piece of Colorado’s bottom-six this season. He has four points in his last three games, bringing his year-long totals up to 20 points in 45 games. That performance has made Colton a focal piece of Colorado’s gameplan. His absence would likely prompt the Avalanche to once again recal winger Ivan Ivan, who has one assist in five NHL games this season. Ivan has also scored eight points in 31 AHL games.
Ducks Reassign Nikita Nesterenko
The Anaheim Ducks have assigned winger Nikita Nesterenko to the AHL’s San Diego Gulls. This move comes after Nesterenko cleared NHL waivers last week. It is Nesterenko’s first assignment to the minors since signing a two-year, $1.6MM contract with the Ducks in June.
Nesterenko earned Anaheim’s extra forward role in the second half of the 2024-25 season. He recorded six points and a minus-four in 20 games, to go with 34 points in 50 AHL games on the year. The season continued Nesterenko’s gradual climb up Anaheim’s depth chart that started when he signed his entry-level contract out of college in 2023. With a strong training camp, Nesterenko took another step up, and locked himself into an NHL roster spot for the first half of the season.
But the 24-year-old forward has made little work of his extended look. He has one goal and nine points in 29 games – and only one point in his last 11 games. His biggest impact has come in the physical game, where his 53 hits ranks fourth among Ducks forwards. On the heels of a snapped losing streak, the Ducks will send Nesterenko to find a spark in the minor leagues. He has already racked up 71 points in 120 career games in the AHL. His presence will be welcome for a Gulls team riding a 1-3-1 record in January.
Kraken Activate Brandon Montour
The Kraken announced Thursday that they activated defenseman Brandon Montour from injured reserve. To open a roster spot, they reassigned forward Jacob Melanson to AHL Coachella Valley.
It’s an ahead-of-schedule return for the puck-mover, who underwent hand surgery shortly before Christmas. He was initially expected to miss at least four weeks, but returns with several days to spare.
Last year, Montour led Seattle’s defense with 41 points in 82 games after cashing in with the Kraken on a seven-year, $50MM deal in free agency. He’s been overtaken again now by Vince Dunn, but is still having a reasonably productive year with six goals and 16 points in 27 outings. He’s averaging 21:56 of ice time per game and is having a great year in the possession department, leading Seattle rearguards with a 51.3 CF%.
That possession control makes Montour an increasingly important factor on a Seattle team that is abysmal at generating quality scoring chances but has been propped up by semi-sound defense and elite goaltending. They control just 41.4% of high-danger chances at 5-on-5, but have nevertheless cashed in on them by a score of 31-24.
Melanson had seen consistent ice time as of late, temporarily leapfrogging Tye Kartye on the depth chart, but his waiver-exempt status made him the logical odd man out. After making a one-game NHL debut last year, he’s scored a goal and four points in 15 games this time around. The 22-year-old was a fifth-round pick in 2021 and has 14 points in 23 AHL games.
Sabres Recall Konsta Helenius, Place Joshua Dunne On IR
The Sabres have recalled top forward prospect Konsta Helenius from AHL Rochester, according to Rachel Lenzi of The Buffalo News. He could make his NHL debut tonight in Montreal. In a corresponding move, Joshua Dunne was moved to injured reserve with the mid-body issue that’s expected to keep him out for four to six weeks.
Helenius may be entering the lineup as Joshua Norris exits it. Buffalo’s oft-injured pivot left yesterday’s win over the Flyers with an upper-body injury and is day-to-day, head coach Lindy Ruff said.
Selected No. 14 overall in 2024, Helenius is the latest in a years-long slate of high-drafted Sabres forwards to get his first NHL look. The selection was nearly universally lauded at the time. Most had him touted as a top-10 selection after he rattled off 36 points in 51 games for Jukurit in Liiga, Finland’s top professional league, as a 17-year-old.
Helenius took an unusual path, immediately signing his entry-level contract with Buffalo and reporting to Rochester last season at age 18. First-round picks out of Europe are permitted to do so, but teams and players usually opt to give their prospects a bit more runway in a familiar overseas environment before bringing them to the NHL or AHL.
He didn’t blow the doors off in Rochester last year, but in year two of his North American professional career, concerns over his offensive ceiling have quieted. A two-way center first and foremost, he’s now Rochester’s second-leading scorer with a 9-21–30 line in 34 games.
Given he’s within spitting distance of a point per game in the minors as a teenager, he’s more than deserving of at least a brief NHL trial. He entered the season as the organization’s No. 1 prospect, per NHL.com, a billing he’s lived up to so far.
While injuries have continued to plague Norris, limiting him to 19 appearances this year, he’s played the best hockey of his career when he’s been dressed. He’s been as natural a fit as hoped in Buffalo’s top six and has six goals and 17 points in 19 games, placing second on the team at 0.89 per game. That would also stand as a career-high for the 26-year-old and is his best per-game production in four years.
The Senators Have Some Tough Decisions To Make
The Senators are facing a midseason crossroads. The season has not gone as planned, and they are well out of a playoff spot.
They could stand pat and hope James Reimer provides steady goaltending, push for short-term moves to improve the team, or pivot to a sell-off for this season and hope to reload in the summer. It’s a real dilemma in Ottawa, as the Senators are too flawed to contend but too good to tank.
Even if they wanted to aim for an impact prospect in the 2026 draft, they don’t have their first-round pick this year thanks to the Evgenii Dadonov debacle. The Senators are effectively in the worst possible situation this year, and the next few weeks will be crucial in determining where they go from here.
There will be no easy answers for a club that has dramatically underperformed. Rebuilding is absolutely out of the question, given how much long-term money Ottawa has spent on extensions over the last few years.
However, a quick retool could inject much-needed draft capital or prospects into the Senators’ pipeline and net them a fair amount of assets, given how tight the standings are and how few teams appear set to become sellers before the trade deadline. If Ottawa wanted to dump some of its pending UFAs, it could effectively set the trade market on its own terms rather than responding to what other clubs do.
If the Sens start shipping out veteran talent, they have a decent stockpile of players on expiring deals that could be made available, including several former Stanley Cup champions among the forwards: Lars Eller, David Perron, and Nick Cousins. On top of the trio of former winners, forward Claude Giroux and defenseman Nick Jensen are also pending UFAs, giving Ottawa a healthy list of potential players to move should they slide completely out of playoff contention.
But can the Senators move all of those veterans this year?
Giroux is having another solid season, with 32 points in 46 games. However, at 38 years old and playing close to home, does he really want to serve as a deadline rental?
It’s hard to say. On the surface, it seems unlikely, but Giroux is nearing the end of his career and is missing the one thing every NHL player covets: a Stanley Cup ring.
If Giroux agreed to a trade, he could theoretically make the move for a few months and then return next summer to Canada’s capital, or somewhere else close to home. That has happened in the past, albeit not for a long time.
Mark Recchi did it back in 2006 when he accepted a trade from the Penguins to the Hurricanes, only to return to Pittsburgh the following summer. Keith Tkachuk had a similar sequence when he was traded by the Blues in February 2007 to the Thrashers, only to be returned in a separate trade in June.
Jensen is another interesting case and would have been a highly sought-after trade piece before this year, given that right-shot defensemen are always in demand. But this season has been one to forget for Jensen, who was a healthy scratch just a couple of weeks ago and has been trying to find his game for much of the season.
Ottawa has attempted to manage the 35-year-old’s workload, dropping his playing time from over 20 minutes a night to just north of 16 minutes per game in an effort to keep him fresh, but it hasn’t done much to improve Jensen’s play. The biggest knock on Jensen at the moment is that his once-fluid skating now looks disjointed and robotic, which isn’t surprising given his injury history and the fact that he had offseason hip surgery and missed Ottawa’s training camp in September.
Jensen hasn’t looked like himself this year, and the Senators’ goaltending has been terrible, which has only magnified his struggles and dropped his trade stock and, ultimately, his future contract prospects significantly.
Returning to Eller, he is a low-maintenance, plug-and-play fourth-line center who doesn’t contribute much offensively anymore but can still skate and has reasonable puck-handling ability. The 36-year-old has just two goals and four assists in 32 games this year, but has buried himself in a defensive role, which suits his skill set at this late stage of his career.
Eller is the perfect low-cost veteran for contending teams looking to add depth. He is making just $1.25MM on a one-year deal, and with such a low cost, if the Senators move him before the deadline, they should be able to grab a mid-round draft pick.
As for Cousins, no one should want to acquire him, given that he was voted by the players as the NHL’s most punchable player. That said, he is likely only disliked until he plays on someone’s team.
Cousins is the kind of player that teammates love, and opposing players despise. He has a unique skill set that is often overlooked, but he adds physicality, plays a pest-like game, and brings energy that can spark a team, particularly in the playoffs.
The Belleville, Ontario native has historically drawn a lot of penalties and can chip in with offense (six goals and six assists in 45 games this year), although his defensive work leaves a lot to be desired. Cousins is on a one-year deal, making just $825K this season, so, like Eller, there should be demand given that he can fit into almost any team’s salary-cap structure.
Finally, there is Perron, who has been much better this season after posting just 16 points in 43 games last year. The 37-year-old already has nine goals and 14 assists in 46 games this year, and his underlying numbers are much better than they were a year ago.
Perron is no longer a perennial 20-goal, 50-point scorer, but he remains a useful depth scorer and should be in demand if Ottawa makes him available. He’s one of, if not the, slowest players in the NHL, but he hits and is reasonably productive offensively at this late stage of his career.
Perron isn’t going to net Ottawa a first-round pick, but it’s entirely possible they could get a second-rounder should they opt to trade him. He will likely want to stay close to home, but his 15-team no-trade list covers less than half the league and would leave the Senators with plenty of potential suitors for Perron. It’s also possible that he would embrace the move to a team on his no-trade list if Ottawa is out of the playoff picture and a team is appealing enough to him.
Ottawa has rattled off a couple of wins in the last few days, which could be the start of a turnaround. Ironically, the Senators have been deploying Cousins, Eller and Perron as their de facto fourth line in those two games, and they’ve been terrific as a unit.
But even with four points in their pocket, the Senators sit five points back of a playoff spot, with six teams to leapfrog for the final playoff spot. There is also the consideration that those two wins came against the teams sitting at the bottom of both conferences, the Canucks and Rangers.
If Ottawa is going to go on a run, it will need to beat some outstanding teams in the coming weeks. The next two to three weeks will be crucial for the Senators and could ultimately dictate their short-term intentions.
Golden Knights Activate Adin Hill, Place Two On IR
The Golden Knights activated goaltender Adin Hill from long-term injured reserve on Thursday, per Jason R. Pothier and Ken Boehlke of Sin Bin Vegas. Netminder Carter Hart and winger Brandon Saad were placed on IR in corresponding moves, leaving the Knights with an open roster spot. They announced they’ve used that spot to recall forward Tanner Laczynski from AHL Henderson. With William Karlsson still on LTIR alongside Alex Pietrangelo on season-ending LTIR, Vegas remains cap-compliant.
Hill is expected to start tonight against the Maple Leafs, his first appearance in nearly three months. The 29-year-old has made just five starts this season and none since Oct. 20, when he sustained a lower-body injury in the first period against the Hurricanes.
It was an inauspicious start to the first season of Hill’s six-year, $37.5MM extension that he signed last March. Before exiting the lineup, he started the season on a cold run with a 1-0-2 record, .888 SV%, and 2.73 GAA. He allowed one goal above expected in 220 total minutes of action, per MoneyPuck.
Hart was signed in part due to concern over how much time Hill would miss. That experiment has been an early failure. Hart’s .871 SV% in 12 starts is the worst figure among the four netminders to suit up for Vegas this season. Among goaltenders with at least 10 appearances, only Leevi Merilainen and Petr Mrazek have allowed more goals above expected on a per-60-minute basis than Hart at 0.837.
Now, Vegas gets its true No. 1 back in the lineup. Akira Schmid has operated as the club’s de facto starter with a team-high 24 appearances and has provided great value for his $875K cap hit, logging a .896 SV% and 2.47 GAA with two shutouts and a 14-4-5 record. His 2.0 GSAx is first in Vegas and 34th in the league overall.
His rocky start aside, though, Hill is clearly the better long-term option. He’s never finished a season below .900 aside from a four-game run with the Coyotes in 2017-18 to open his NHL career. For a streaking Vegas team that’s struggled to get consistently above-average goaltending this season, his return could be an X-factor in them widening their lead in the Pacific Division.
Hart has already missed three games with a lower-body injury he sustained one week ago against the Blue Jackets. Since seven days have passed since his injury, he’s eligible to come off IR at any time. However, since he was administered a week-to-week designation last weekend, that won’t be coming anytime soon.
Saad is in the same boat in terms of his activation eligibility, sustaining an undisclosed injury in the Columbus game. He remains day-to-day and will presumably be an option sooner than Hart will. It’s been a trying season for the 33-year-old, who’s shooting at just 3.1% and has been limited to a 2-5–7 scoring line in 39 games with a -1 rating.
Laczynski’s recall comes as Vegas opens the roster flexibility to give itself injury insurance at forward. In addition to the injured Saad taking up a spot on the active roster for the last few games, Brett Howden has missed two contests with a lower-body injury and isn’t expected to be available against Toronto tonight, either.
It would be Laczynski’s season debut if he enters the lineup against the Leafs. The 28-year-old depth option was recalled once from Henderson in November but didn’t play. Now in his second year in the Knights organization, he suited up eight times last season and scored once while averaging 8:36 of ice time per game.
The 6’1″, 205-lb pivot has been the Knights’ most consistent minor-league producer since signing a two-year, league-minimum deal in 2024. After racking up 37 points in 41 appearances for Henderson last year to lead the team in scoring despite only playing in 57% of their games, he’s upped his production to 13 goals and 35 points in 32 games this season, along with a team-high +22 rating. He’s the biggest reason why the Silver Knights are tracking for their first season above .500 since 2021-22.
Image courtesy of Nick Wosika-Imagn Images.