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Avalanche, Oilers Pursuing Adam Henrique

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The Avalanche and Oilers are among the teams that have expressed interest in Ducks forward Adam Henrique ahead of the March 8 trade deadline, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet said Monday. Now on an expiring deal with a $5.825MM cap hit, the 34-year-old Henrique is nearly guaranteed to be moved in the coming days after receiving strong interest from contenders going back months.

Both teams have 2024 first-round picks to dangle for Henrique, and Edmonton has made it known theirs is on the table. However, it appears they’re more likely to leverage that asset for a defenseman – meaning, speculatively, that their offer for Henrique revolves around a high-end prospect, not a pick.

Henrique would immediately slot into a second-line role for either team, although he’d more likely be utilized as a center in Colorado. He, along with Valeri Nichushkin, would anchor the Avs’ second line behind their top unit of Artturi Lehkonen, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. That’s not considering the potential return of captain Gabriel Landeskog from back-to-back knee surgeries during the postseason, which could give them an absolutely dominant two-way trio of Henrique, Lehkonen and Nichushkin backing up their stars.

The Ducks are expected to retain 50% of Henrique’s salary in a potential deal, bringing his cap hit down to $2.91MM. Colorado and Edmonton would need to carry a third party into trade talks to retain an additional 25% of his salary to remain cap-compliant. The Avs have $2.23MM in projected deadline space, while the Oilers have $2.37MM with an artificially small 21-player roster. At a 75% discount, Henrique would cost $1.46MM against the cap.

For Edmonton, Henrique would help stabilize a second line alongside Leon Draisaitl or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins at center. He also helps shelter Evander Kane on the opposite wing, whose possession impacts have been considerably worse than his linemates.

Henrique is among the Ducks’ scoring leaders with 18 goals, 24 assists and 42 points in 60 games. In addition to logging 17:35 per game and winning 53% of his draws, Henrique has some of the better possession stats on the team, boasting a 48.2 CF% at even strength. The Brantford, Ontario, native reached the Stanley Cup Final as a rookie with the Devils in 2012 and earned Selke Trophy votes in 2013 and 2016.

Ducks Recall Alex Stalock

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The Ducks made a roster move just minutes before their game tonight against Vancouver was set to start, announcing that they’ve recalled goaltender Alex Stalock from AHL San Diego.  His promotion was needed with John Gibson being scratched due to illness.

The 36-year-old is in his first season with Anaheim after signing a one-year, $800K one-way contract with them back in August.  While it’s his fourth recall of the year, Stalock has yet to play for the Ducks.

Instead, he has spent the majority of the year with the Gulls but has been limited to just 11 appearances at that level where he has a 3.84 GAA along with a .892 SV%.  But with 179 career NHL games under his belt where he has a 2.70 GAA and a .908 SV%, it’s possible that a team or two might be interested in adding Stalock to stash in the minors as injury depth for the stretch run and it’s doubtful the asking price would be too high for his services.

Ducks Recall Olen Zellweger

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The Ducks recalled top defense prospect Olen Zellweger from AHL San Diego on Friday, per a team release.

This is the 20-year-old’s second recall of the season. He played in four games for the Ducks just before the All-Star break, recording an assist and a +2 rating while logging 16:20 per game.

Zellweger had middling possession impacts with a 46.8 CF% at even strength and an expected -0.5 rating, but that’s not awful on a bottom-dwelling team. He also looked decent in limited power-play reps, recording his only point as a primary assist on a Sam Carrick marker with the man advantage.

An early second-round pick of Anaheim in 2021, Zellweger leads his team’s defenders and all AHL rookie defensemen with 12 goals and 37 points in 44 games. He fell in the draft due to scouts being concerned about his 5-foot-9, 174-lb frame, but he’s quieted most of those concerns in his transition to the minor leagues.

The Calgary native is coming off a 2022-23 campaign in which he added significantly to his trophy cabinet. After posting 32 goals, 48 assists, 80 points, and a +30 rating in just 55 games with the WHL’s Everett Silvertips and Kamloops Blazers, he took home the league’s Bill Hunter Trophy, awarded to the top defenseman, as well as the Canadian Hockey League’s Defenseman of the Year honors. He also took home the gold medal with Canada at the 2023 World Junior Championship, recording six assists in seven games.

Zellweger could be in for an extended stint in the NHL after the Ducks traded veteran shutdown blue-liner Ilya Lyubushkin to the Maple Leafs on Thursday night in a three-team deal. At the very least, he earned the first recall in Lyubushkin’s vacancy ahead of more experienced options like Trevor Carrick, Robert Hägg and Colton White.

It’s unclear if Zellweger will return to the Ducks’ lineup tonight against the Devils or if he’ll sit as a seventh defenseman. He’ll mainly compete for minutes with bottom-pairing blue-liner Gustav Lindström, who’s been an occasional healthy scratch since the Ducks claimed him off waivers from the Canadiens in January.

Toronto Maple Leafs Acquire Ilya Lyubushkin From Anaheim

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have acquired defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin from the Anaheim Ducks. The deal formally sent Lyubushkin from Anaheim, who retained 50 percent of his cap hit, to the Carolina Hurricanes, who retained another 25 percent, and then to the Leafs. Lyubushkin carries a $2.75MM cap hit, meaning that Toronto is only due $687,500 against their cap – less than a league-minimum contract.

In return, Toronto sent Anaheim a 2025 third-round draft pick and Carolina a 2024 sixth-round pick. The trade broke after Lyubushkin was surprisingly absent from Anaheim’s Thursday night game against the San Jose Sharks.

This marks the second time that Toronto has traded for Lyubushkin, with the previous coming during the 2021-22 season when they sent Nick Ritchie and a 2025 second-round pick to the Arizona Coyotes for Ryan Dzingel and Lyubushkin.  Lyubushkin would go on to play in 31 games for the Leafs, recording six points and 25 penalty minutes. He signed with the Buffalo Sabres in the following summer and was traded to Anaheim from Buffalo last season. The formerly undrafted defenseman has totaled 334 games across his journeyman career, adding 43 points and 181 penalty minutes. He joined the league in the 2018-19 season, making his debut with the Arizona Coyotes after four seasons with the KHL’s Yaroslavl Lokomotiv.

Toronto has also received the rights to Kirill Slepets from Carolina, to facilitate their retention of Lyubushkin’s cap hit. Slepets has played in the KHL  since the 2018-19 season, growing up through Russia’s juniors league. He remains unsigned in the NHL. Carolina originally drafted him in the fifth round of the 2019 NHL Draft.

Troy Terry Returns To Practice

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  • According to Derek Lee of the Sporting Tribune, Anaheim Ducks forward Troy Terry was practicing today in a non-contact jersey and will travel with the team for their upcoming road game against the San Jose Sharks. Thankfully, Terry has only been out a total of four days, so it does not sound like the upper-body injury will keep him out of the lineup long-term. Enjoying a mildly healthier season than last year, Terry has skated in a total of 54 games for the Ducks this season, scoring 17 goals and 45 points in the process.

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Ducks Will Retain Salary In Adam Henrique Trade

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Teams’ interest in the services of Ducks center Adam Henrique continues to intensify ahead of next week’s trade deadline, The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta reports. “It’s a matter of when, not if, he’s traded,” Pagnotta said, also reporting it’s “all but certain” the Ducks will retain up to half of Henrique’s $5.825MM cap hit in a deal.

All signs are pointing for the Ducks potentially adding a first-round pick in the next nine days after centers Elias Lindholm and Sean Monahan fetched first-rounders a few weeks back. Henrique, who can also seamlessly shift to a left-wing role, has 16 goals and 38 points in 57 games this season. His 0.67 points per game are the third-most of his career, trailing the pace he set with Anaheim in 2021-22 (0.72) and the Devils in 2011-12 (0.69).

Trevor Zegras Ready To Return To Ice

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In a report from Eric Stephens of The Athletic, Anaheim Ducks forward Trevor Zegras has been off crutches for about a week and can return to the ice in a week or two. If the predicted time of his return is accurate, the Ducks may have a potential trade chip available for the March 8th trade deadline.

Outside of this season, Zegras has typically maintained a clean bill of health, averaging over 75 games in his first two full-time seasons in the NHL. Over four years with the Ducks, Zegras has played in a total of 200 games in Anaheim, scoring a total of 53 goals and 146 points in the process.

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Former Duck Derek Grant Signs Extension In Switzerland

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  • Veteran NHL forward Derek Grant has signed a one-year extension with the ZSC Lions of the National League, Switzerland’s top league. Grant, 33, is in his first season in Switzerland after not landing an NHL deal this summer. He has 13 goals and 30 points through his first 45 games in Switzerland. Grant spent the last 10 seasons in the NHL, playing with seven different organizations. He totaled 427 career games in that span, netting 57 goals and 132 points. His career-year came in 2021-22, when he scored a career-high 15 goals and 29 points in 71 games with the Anaheim Ducks.

Ducks Activate Alex Killorn, Place Brock McGinn On IR

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The Ducks have made a pair of roster moves in advance of their game tonight versus Toronto.  The team announced (Twitter link) that winger Alex Killorn has been activated off IR.  To make room on the roster, winger Brock McGinn has been placed on IR retroactive to February 10th with an upper-body injury.

Killorn is in his first season with Anaheim after signing a four-year, $25MM contract with them back in July.  However, it’s been a campaign riddled with injuries.  The 34-year-old fractured his finger in the preseason, causing him to miss the first month of the season.  Then last month, he underwent arthroscopic knee surgery.  Fortunately for him and the Ducks, Killorn recovered quicker than anticipated as he was supposed to miss four to six weeks and came back a little before the four-week mark.

In between recovering from those injuries, Killorn got off to a decent start offensively with his new club, collecting 19 points in 34 games.  While those numbers are down from a year ago, it would have been unrealistic for Anaheim to expect Killorn to beat his career-best numbers from a much deeper Tampa Bay team in his first year with a rebuilding club that was expected to be near the bottom of the league in the goal department.

As for McGinn, he last played back on January 25th, making the placement back to February 10th a bit of an odd choice.  However, since the placement has been dated back by a week, he’s eligible to be activated at any time.  The 30-year-old has had a very limited role this season, suiting up in just 24 games where he has three points in 37 hits while averaging just over 11 minutes per game.

Pavel Mintyukov And Mason McTavish Return To The Lineup

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The Vegas Golden Knights made some roster moves today as they’ve assigned goaltender Jiri Patera and forward Sheldon Rempal to the Henderson Silver Knights of the AHL.

Patera dressed last night as starting netminder Adin Hill’s backup as netminder Logan Thompson was out of action due to an illness. The 24-year-old Patera has appeared in five games this season for Vegas, registering a 1-3 record with a 3.75 goals-against average and a .901 save percentage.

Rempal has also appeared in five games at the NHL level this season and has posted the first two goals of his NHL career. The Calgary, Alberta native has appeared sparingly over parts of five NHL seasons and once again finds himself in the AHL where he has posted solid offensive numbers with 21 goals and 12 assists in 43 games.

In other Pacific Division notes:

  • Roots Sports reporter Scott Malone tweeted that the Seattle Kraken have activated forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare off the injured reserve. The 38-year-old has been out of action since suffering a lower-body injury back on December 18th and has appeared in 29 games this season for the Kraken, posting four goals and a single assist while averaging 9:34 of ice time per game. Bellemare is in his tenth NHL season as he was a late arrival to the NHL having spent his first 11 professional seasons playing in his native country of France.
  • Derek Lee of The Sporting Tribune is reporting that the Anaheim Ducks have welcomed back defenseman Pavel Mintyukov as the rookie 20-year-old was activated off the injured reserve today. According to Lee, Mintyukov skated on the Ducks’ third pairing tonight alongside Ilya Lyubushkin. Mintyukov has had a solid first season in the NHL, posting two goals and 17 assists in 41 games this season while averaging over 18 minutes a night in ice time.
  • The Ducks also welcomed back forward Mason McTavish after a one-game absence. The 21-year-old was dealing with an upper-body injury that kept him sidelined briefly but was healthy enough to be reinserted into the lineup tonight as the Ducks fell to the Montreal Canadiens 5-0. McTavish is mired in a six-game goalless drought but still has 13 goals on the season to go along with 18 assists in 44 games.

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