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Snapshots: Tomasino, DeAngelo, Tracey, Stephens

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Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan has shared that red-hot winger Philip Tomasino will be held out of Saturday’s game with an upper-body injury. Seth Rorabaugh of Pittsburgh’s Tribune-Review Sports adds that Tomasino is out on a day-to-day basis.

Tomasino has been on fire since joining the Penguins. He’s on a four-game scoring streak, netting three goals and four points along the way. Tomasino has already lapped the one assist he managed in 11 games with Nashville to start the year – likely thanks to the near-four minutes more in average ice time he’s received in Pittsburgh, jumping from 11:18 a night with Nashville to 15:00 with Pittsburgh. Tomasino is one of seven Penguins rivaling point-per-game scoring over the last four games. That standing will earn him a quick return to the Penguins’ top-six when he’s back to full health.

Other quick notes around the league:

  • Polarizing defenseman Tony DeAngelo shared that he’s not optimistic about an NHL return with Larry Brooks of the New York Post. DeAngelo signed a contract with Russia’s SKA St. Petersburg this summer. He’s managed four goals and 24 points in his first 23 games with the club. He told Brooks that his goal is to return to the NHL, but didn’t specify what’s limiting his hopes. DeAngelo played through eight NHL seasons, mostly spent between the New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes. He stood as a high-scoring, but minimal-defense option for both teams. With no NHL deal in sight, DeAngelo moved to Russia over the summer and may be kept there despite scoring above a point-per-game. DeAngelo is joined on the SKA roster by former NHL players Evgeny Kuznetsov, Nikita Zaitsev, and Mikhail Grigorenko.
  • Brayden Tracey, the 29th-overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, has signed a one-year contract with Jukurit of Finland’s Liiga. He’ll move over seas after starting this season with no points through four games with the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors. Tracey has spent the bulk of the last five seasons with the Anaheim Ducks’ minor league affiliate, totaling 84 points through 188 games. He’s received just one NHL game over that tenure – recording nine minutes of ice time and no scoring in a win over Detroit in January of 2022. He was returned to the minors immediately after, and hasn’t earned a look since. Tracey will now try to prove his worth, and earn another NHL contract, with a strong year in Finland’s top league.
  • The Seattle Kraken have returned forward Mitchell Stephens to the minor leagues, per the AHL Transaction Log. Stephens slotted into Seattle’s last four games, recording six shots on net but no scoring while operating on the Kraken’s fourth line. He’ll return to a middle-six role in the AHL, where he currently has three goals and four points in 11 games. Stephens split time between the Montreal Canadiens’ NHL and AHL roster last season, recording three points in 23 NHL games and 35 points in 49 AHL games.

Anaheim Ducks Acquire Jacob Trouba

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3:34 PM: The Ducks organization has made the deal official through a team announcement.

1:28 PM: According to Arthur Staple of The Athletic, the New York Rangers are working on a trade that would send Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks. Staple’s report comes shortly after TSN’s Pierre LeBrun indicated that Anaheim had quickly become the front-runner in acquiring Trouba’s services. ESPN reporter Emily Kaplan shares that Anaheim will send depth defenseman Urho Vaakanainen and a draft pick to the Rangers, completing the trade.

This brings an end to a tumultuous saga for Trouba in New York. The oft-mentioned trade candidate had been in the rumor mill for a year as he was reportedly nearly dealt to the Detroit Red Wings this past offseason before using his modified no-trade clause to nix the deal. It wouldn’t be the last time either as Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports Trouba also used his trade protection earlier today to prohibit a move to the Columbus Blue Jackets organization.

The former ninth-overall selection of the 2012 NHL Draft will now join the third organization of his 12-year career, albeit in a different environment. Trouba is only a year removed from captaining the Rangers to President’s Trophy honors during the 2023-24 NHL season but will now join a team that hasn’t qualified for the playoffs since the 2017-18 season and is sitting 29th in league standings. In the end, it was his choice, as Frank Seravalli of the Daily Faceoff reported Trouba waived his no-trade clause to facilitate a deal with the Ducks.

He’s certainly fallen off in recent seasons which surely influenced New York’s desire to move on. He’ll finish his Rangers’ tenure with 31 goals and 136 points in 364 regular season games with a +16 rating. Most of Trouba’s lack of success in recent seasons can be seen from his possession metrics. He averaged an approximated 47.0% CorsiFor% through his first four years in New York but has fallen to 42.6% and 40.0% in the last two years, respectively.

Still, Trouba provides value via his physicality from the blue line. For better or for worse, Trouba’s massive hits have become well-known throughout the league and that kind of toughness will be received well in Greg Cronin’s system in Anaheim.

The Ducks already boast one of the league’s most rugged defensemen in captain Radko Gudas and will now add Trouba to the equation. The Rochester, MI native has totaled more than 100 hits over the last six years and eclipsed the 200 mark twice from 2021-23.

New York will receive a mild return for their now-former captain in Vaakanainen and Anaheim’s fourth-round pick in 2025 (as per TSN’s Pierre LeBrun). Vaakanainen, who is currently on injured reserve, is a former first-round pick of the Boston Bruins from the 2017 NHL Draft and is a year removed from playing in a career-high 68 games for the Ducks. He won’t provide much on the offensive side of the puck given his career 25 points in 141 games but his $1.1MM expiring contract will give the Rangers increased financial flexibility moving forward.

That’s largely what this deal was about from the Rangers’ perspective. They have now cleared $12MM from their salary cap table after sending Barclay Goodrow through waivers this past offseason and now have the financial freedom to retain key pieces and be aggressive on the trade and free agent market. General manager Chris Drury has stayed adamant on his desire to reshape the Rangers roster and trading Trouba was one of the necessary steps toward that goal.

Ducks Activate Cam Fowler, Place Urho Vaakanainen On IR

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Anaheim will welcome back the organization’s longest-tenured player this evening. The Ducks announced they’ve activated defenseman Cam Fowler from the team’s injured reserve and have placed defenseman Urho Vaakanainen on it in a corresponding roster move.

There was an expectation that the Ducks would make a formal roster move after Derek Lee of The Hockey News reported earlier that Pavel Mintyukov would be a healthy scratch for tonight’s contest for Fowler. Lee also mentioned that young forward Leo Carlsson wouldn’t play tonight due to an upper-body injury.

Anaheim has a few reasons to be thankful that Fowler is back in the lineup. First, he gives the team another veteran presence to a blue line that’s struggled this season. The Ducks are 26th in the league in shots against and their shortcomings have largely been covered up by the phenomenal play of Lukáš Dostál. Fowler won’t have much to give on the offensive side of the puck but he is in his 15th straight season averaging more than 20 minutes a night and has a career on-ice save percentage in all situations of 90.3%.

The other reason Anaheim is thankful to have Fowler back is to showcase him to the rest of the league. It’s public knowledge that the Ducks and Fowler hope for a trade to materialize and it would be better for inquiring teams to see how he’s continuing to handle top-four minutes.

Vaakanainen’s move to the injured reserve is curious. The Joensuu, Finland native has played sparingly for Anaheim this season with his last game coming on November 13th. This leads to the idea that Vaakanainen may have been injured for quite some time and the Ducks are just now taking him off the active roster. Still, it’s a big win for Anaheim to get a top-four defenseman back in the lineup.

Tyson Hinds Assigned To AHL

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  • The Ducks announced that they’ve re-assigned defenseman Tyson Hinds back to AHL San Diego. The 21-year-old was brought up twice by Anaheim over the last couple of weeks but didn’t see any game action.  Hinds, a third-round pick in 2021, has two goals in 13 games so far this season for the Gulls.

Anaheim Ducks Recall Tyson Hinds

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  • According to the AHL transactions log, the Anaheim Ducks have recalled defenseman Tyson Hinds from their affiliate, the San Diego Gulls. It’ll mark the second call-up of the year for Hinds after failing to make his NHL debut on the previous one. He’s collected one goal and three points in 16 games for the AHL Gulls this season.

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Ducks To Place Brock McGinn On Injured Reserve

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  • According to Derek Lee of The Hockey News, the Anaheim Ducks are placing forward Brock McGinn on injured reserve to make room for activating forward Mason McTavish this evening. McGinn’s injury is likely tied to crashing into the boards of last week’s game against the Dallas Stars and while he’s seemingly avoided a worse injury, he’ll still miss a few more games for Anaheim. McGinn had scored three goals and six points in 17 games this season before suffering the injury.

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Ducks To Activate Mason McTavish From Injured Reserve

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The Ducks will activate center Mason McTavish from injured reserve ahead of tonight’s contest against the Kraken, Derek Lee of The Hockey News reports. Anaheim is only carrying 22 out of the maximum 23 players on the active roster, so they won’t need to make a corresponding transaction to have him back in the lineup. Nonetheless, they’ve carried 13 healthy forwards for most of the year, so a demotion to the AHL, either Sam Colangelo or Jansen Harkins, is likely coming.

McTavish, 21, has missed the last six games with an upper-body injury. He landed on IR last week as the Ducks opened up roster flexibility in the wake of injuries to fellow forward Robby Fabbri and veteran defenseman Cam Fowler.

Through 13 games before exiting the lineup, McTavish had two goals and six assists for eight points. That works out to 0.62 per game, down slightly from last season’s career-best 0.66 rate in his sophomore season.

Selected third overall in 2021, the cerebral McTavish has transitioned well to the NHL early on. He’s firmly grasped a top-nine role and was averaging a career-high 16:18 per game before his upper-body injury. He hasn’t looked out of place at all down the middle, either, tying for third on the team in scoring last season with 42 points in 64 games while winning 437 out of 845 faceoffs, good for 51.7%.

The Switzerland-born Canadian national had spent most of his time this season centering Fabbri and Trevor Zegras, although he’ll obviously have some different linemates tonight with Fabbri on the shelf. His return is an important one for the .500 Ducks, who have managed to stay afloat thanks to strong goaltending despite their 24th-ranked offense (2.53 goals per game, up from last season’s 2.48).

Ducks Assign Jansen Harkins To AHL

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The Ducks have made a roster move on their off day.  Per the AHL’s transactions log, Anaheim has re-assigned forward Jansen Harkins to AHL San Diego.

Harkins is in his first season with Anaheim after signing a two-year, one-way contract with the Ducks on the second day of free agency back in July.  His $787.5K cap hit will come off the books following the demotion.

Harkins was brought up a week and a half ago and played a regular role on the fourth line during that time.  Overall, the 27-year-old has played in six games with Anaheim so far this season, picking up an assist along with 15 hits in 10:40 of playing time per night.  However, Harkins has been quite productive with the Gulls.  So far, he has tallied five goals and 12 assists in 11 games; his 1.55 points-per-game average is second-best among AHL players with five or more appearances.

With Anaheim being off until Monday, it’s possible that this is just a paper move, one that allows them to stall Harkins’ waiver clock for a couple of days.  However, it also could be a sign that one of Mason McTavish (upper body) or Brock McGinn (lower body) are on the verge of returning from their respective injuries in which case they wouldn’t need to bring Harkins back right away.

Ducks Reassign Tyson Hinds To AHL

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It’s been an open secret for over a year that the Anaheim Ducks are looking to trade netminder John Gibson. Thanks to the emergence of Lukáš Dostál as a legitimate starting option, the timing has never been better to move on from Gibson. Because he believes a trade is on the horizon, Pierre LeBrun writes in The Athletic (Subscription Required) about a couple of teams that may be interested in Gibson’s services.

He initially lists the Colorado Avalanche as an option. The Avalanche have gotten dismal goaltending this year sitting dead last in the league with an .854 SV% split between Alexandar Georgiev, Justus Annunen, and Trent Miner. However, LeBrun believes Colorado is hoping for a Georgiev rebound given that the goaltender outplayed Connor Hellebuyck and nearly outplayed Jake Oettinger in last year’s playoffs. Still, especially if the Ducks are willing to retain some salary, Gibson’s $6.4MM salary as a starting goaltender is becoming a bargain with the increasing salary cap which may appeal to the cash-strapped Avalanche.

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  • The Anaheim Ducks have reassigned defenseman Tyson Hinds to their AHL affiliate, the San Diego Gulls after the young prospect failed to make his NHL debut over the last two days. Hinds, originally drafted by the Ducks with the 76th overall selection of the 2021 NHL Draft, has played with the AHL Gulls for the last two years. He’s scored four goals and 12 points in 84 career AHL contests.

Ducks Recall Sam Colangelo After Papering Him To AHL Monday

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  • A day after being papered back to the minors, Sam Colangelo is back up with the Ducks, per the AHL’s transactions log. The 22-year-old was initially recalled on Sunday but didn’t play in Monday’s game.  Colangelo is off to an impressive start to his first full professional campaign, tallying six goals and nine assists in 14 games with San Diego.

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