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Canadiens Place Kaiden Guhle And Kirby Dach On LTIR

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When the Canadiens acquired Phillip Danault a little before the holiday roster freeze, they added a $5.5MM price tag to their books.  Even after assigning Jared Davidson to the minors, they still weren’t cap-compliant.  As a result, GM Kent Hughes revealed during his media availability today (video link) that the team has placed defenseman Kaiden Guhle and center Kirby Dach on LTIR.

Guhle has been out of the lineup since mid-October due to an adductor injury.  The original plan was to simply rehab it but after returning to the ice a few weeks later as he tried to work his way back to full health, the decision was made to have the surgery.  The recovery timeline for that procedure is eight to ten weeks, meaning he’s still four to six weeks away from returning.  Guhle has averaged over 20 minutes a night of playing time in each of his first three NHL seasons and, when healthy, is a top-four fixture on Montreal’s back end.

As for Dach, he has missed the last month after sustaining a fractured foot.  The initial recovery timeline was six to eight weeks and it appears he’s on track as he has resumed skating.  Hughes indicated that the 24-year-old won’t be back before the holiday break but shouldn’t be out much longer than that.  Dach has five goals and two assists in 15 games this season, his last one before becoming a restricted free agent with a $4MM qualifying offer and arbitration rights next offseason.

With the two placements, Montreal now has around $2.5MM in its LTIR pool, per PuckPedia.  That gives them ample room to afford recalls if more injuries strike in the short term.  Meanwhile, if they still need LTIR room when Dach returns, they can transfer either Patrik Laine or Alex Newhook on there; both are out for multiple months as well.

Devils Activate Timo Meier, Assign Two To AHL

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The Devils made a trio of roster moves before Friday’s freeze.  The team announced that winger Timo Meier has been activated off the non-roster list while winger Xavier Parent and defenseman Calen Addison were assigned to AHL Utica.

Meier had been away from the team for a little more than a week due to a family health matter.  The 29-year-old is a key cog in New Jersey’s attack and got off to a strong start this season with 11 goals and 12 assists in 30 games while averaging a little under 19 minutes per game of playing time.  Considering that the Devils are without five forwards at the moment (headlined by Jack Hughes and rookie Arseny Gritsyuk), his return will certainly be a significant one.

As for Parent, he received his first career NHL promotion earlier this month.  The 24-year-old got into five games with the Devils while on recall but was held off the scoresheet while recording two shots and seven hits in 8:34 of ice time per night.  Parent has been fairly productive in the minors with the Comets though, chipping in with six goals and six assists through 20 appearances so far.

Addison, meanwhile, received his first recall of the season last weekend but didn’t see any game action.  A veteran of 152 career NHL appearances over parts of four seasons, the 25-year-old has gotten into 21 games with Utica, picking up two goals and seven assists.  He and Parent will have to play in at least one game with the Comets before becoming recall-eligible again.

As a result of these moves, New Jersey now has one vacancy on its 23-player roster.  That spot could be filled before long by one of their players currently on IR or a recall later on from the Comets.

Atlantic Notes: Chabot, Tuch, Matheson

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It has been a tough year on the injury front for Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot.  He has dealt with a pair of upper-body injuries, the second of which came in his first game back from the first one.  They’ll now hope that the second time is the charm as Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch relayed that the veteran was activated off injured reserve as expected to suit up in their game this afternoon against Chicago.  The 28-year-old has been limited to just 18 games so far this season due to those injuries and has done well when he’s in the lineup, picking up 10 points while averaging nearly 22 minutes per game of ice time.  Chabot has been one of Ottawa’s better two-way threats from the back end for quite some time and if he stays healthy this time around, he’ll give their blueline a big boost.  With his activation, Ottawa’s active roster is now full at 23 players.

More from the Atlantic:

  • While former GM Kevyn Adams held contract talks with pending UFA winger Alex Tuch, it appears they were using Tage Thompson’s deal ($7.14MM AAV) as a benchmark, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman in his latest 32 Thoughts podcast (audio link). Considering the escalation that’s coming to the Upper Limit of the salary cap in future years, that number is certainly too low relative to what he could get on the open market.  New Sabres GM Jarmo Kekalainen has said that working out an extension with the 29-year-old will be a top priority but clearly, there’s a big gap to bridge based on where talks left off.  Tuch enters play today with 11 goals and 18 assists in 32 games.
  • The Canadiens will get a boost to their back end tonight as they begin a home-and-home set with Pittsburgh. The team announced that Mike Matheson will return to the lineup after missing the last two games with an upper-body injury, taking the place of Jayden Struble who will be a healthy scratch.  Matheson, who signed a five-year, $30MM extension late last month, has four goals and 12 assists in 32 games this season while averaging nearly 25 minutes per game of ice time.

Lightning Recall Jakob Pelletier And Jack Finley, Place Brandon Hagel On IR

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The Lightning have brought up a pair of wingers in advance of their game tonight against Carolina.  The team announced that they have recalled Jakob Pelletier and Jack Finley from AHL Syracuse.

Pelletier is in his first season with Tampa Bay after signing a three-year deal with them in free agency.  However, he didn’t make the team in training camp and cleared waivers, paving the way for him to be sent down.

The 24-year-old played in one game with the Lightning in mid-November but has been with the Crunch exclusively beyond that.  Pelletier has been quite productive in Syracuse as he’s tied for the league lead in scoring with 15 goals and 16 assists in just 24 games.  Nearly a career point-per-game player in the minors (161 points in 163 outings), it will be interesting to see if he gets more of an offensive look with some of Tampa Bay’s better forwards banged up.

To that end, team reporter Benjamin Pierce relays that winger Brandon Hagel will miss his second straight game with an upper-body injury sustained earlier in the week against Florida.  While not announced by the team, he has been moved to injured reserve, per the NHL’s Media Site, meaning he’ll likely be out through the holiday break.  The 27-year-old has been one of Tampa Bay’s top performers this season, collecting 18 goals and 13 assists in 31 games.  Meanwhile, winger Nikita Kucherov is listed as a game-time decision due to illness.

Finley, meanwhile, returns from a conditioning stint that lasted just three games.  He did well in those outings, picking up a goal and two assists while getting a chance to play a much bigger role than he did with Tampa Bay.  The 23-year-old has been limited to just 11 games with the Lightning this season where he has a goal and an assist while averaging 8:49 per game of ice time.  More specifically, he had only suited up twice since November 25th so the timing was right for him to go down and get some work in with the Crunch.

Sabres Fire Associate GM Jason Karmanos

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It turns out a GM change wasn’t the only front office move the Sabres are making this week.  New GM Jarmo Kekalainen has made his first big change as the team announced that associate GM Jason Karmanos has been relieved of his duties.

The 51-year-old has been involved with an NHL team for the better part of three decades now.  Karmanos started his career in Carolina as an assistant GM in 1998 while his father was the principal owner of the team.  He remained in that role until 2013.

After a year out of the league, Karmanos resurfaced in Pittsburgh’s front office under GM Jim Rutherford, with whom he worked in Carolina.  It wasn’t long before he became an assistant GM there as well, a title he held until being let go in October 2020.

Later that season, now-former Buffalo GM Kevyn Adams brought Karmanos in with a more prominent role as associate GM and GM of AHL Rochester.  However, he remained based out of Pittsburgh, often working remotely.  At this point, no replacement has been named for either role so in the interim, either Kekalainen or assistants Mark Jakubowski or Jerry Forton will shoulder the extra responsibilities.

Wild Activate Four Players, Place Two On IR

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The Wild have been quite active when it comes to roster moves today.  Michael Russo of The Athletic relays (Twitter link) that defensemen Jonas Brodin and Jacob Middleton along with forwards Mats Zuccarello and Vinnie Hinostroza have all been activated off injured reserve.  In corresponding moves, defenseman Zach Bogosian and Daemon Hunt were both moved to IR.

Brodin has missed a little more than a week with a lower-body injury.  The 32-year-old has been his usual reliable self defensively for Minnesota this season, sitting second on the team in blocked shots with 66 while being one of their most-used penalty killers.  Through 30 outings, he has three goals and six assists and is logging over 22 minutes per game of ice time for the sixth straight year.  With them facing Edmonton’s strong attack this afternoon, his return to their shutdown pairing will certainly be a welcome one.

As for Middleton, he has missed the last couple of weeks with an upper-body issue.  After averaging nearly a career-high 22 minutes per game last season, his role has been more limited this year.  Through 28 games, the 29-year-old has six assists along with 43 blocks and 42 hits while playing 18:08 per night, slotting in fifth among Minnesota’s defenders.  He also takes a regular turn on their penalty kill and should give that unit a boost as well.

Zuccarello has also missed the last couple of weeks with an upper-body injury but that’s not the only time he has been on the shelf this season.  As a result, the 38-year-old has been limited to just 15 games so far.  However, Zuccarello has been productive in those outings, picking up two goals and ten assists in a little under 18 minutes per night of playing time.  He should slot back into a top-six role and deepen Minnesota’s offensive depth.

Hinostroza, meanwhile, had missed the last month with a lower-body issue.  Before being sidelined, he had been a regular in the bottom six for the Wild although offensive production was hard to come by as he has just two goals and three assists in 22 games thus far.  While Hinostroza has spent a lot of this season on the wing, he is a natural center and with their depth down the middle taking a hit with last week’s trade that saw Marco Rossi go to Vancouver, having another veteran who can play down the middle when needed will help.

As for those landing on IR, Bogosian has missed the last two games with a lower-body injury.  If the placement is backdated to December 14th (the day he was injured), he technically would be eligible to be activated as soon as Sunday.  Having said that, they have an open roster spot after these moves so if Bogosian was that close to returning, they likely wouldn’t have placed him on IR in the first place.  An 18-year NHL veteran, Bogosian has had a fairly limited role when he has been in the lineup this season, logging around 15 minutes per game of ice time while chipping in with two points in 17 outings.

Lastly, Hunt has played sparingly this season, suiting up in just a dozen games, suffering an undisclosed injury in the last of those on Tuesday.  The 23-year-old is waiver-eligible and it’s clear that Minnesota doesn’t want to risk putting him on the wire so he has often served as their reserve defender.  Hunt has two assists and 18 blocks in a dozen outings but is averaging just 12:26 per night.  There is no word on how long he or Bogosian will be out.

Sharks Notes: Dickinson, Dellandrea, Gaudette

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Earlier today, the Sharks officially loaned forward Michael Misa to Canada’s entry for the upcoming World Juniors.  Not included in that announcement was defenseman Sam Dickinson, who is also eligible to participate.  However, the team still hasn’t made a final decision on whether they will loan him out for the event, notes Sharks Hockey Digest’s Max Miller.

The 19-year-old has played fairly regularly this season, getting into 26 games though he was a scratch last night against Calgary.  However, his minutes have been somewhat limited and sheltered as he’s averaging a little under 15 minutes per game of ice time.  He would play a much bigger role on Canada’s back end, potentially as their number one defender.  However, head coach Ryan Warsofsky also noted that he doesn’t want Dickinson to potentially slip into some bad habits if he were to be loaned out so that’s something they’ll have to weigh over the next few days before making a final decision.

More from San Jose:

  • Center Ty Dellandrea is listed as questionable for tomorrow’s game against Dallas due to an upper-body injury, relays Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now (Twitter link). The 25-year-old was injured while blocking a shot on Tuesday but managed to stay in the game.  Dellandrea has already surpassed his production from last season (10 points compared to eight) in half the games played while also averaging just under three hits per game.  A pending restricted free agent with an affordable $1.3MM AAV, Dellandrea could be an intriguing under-the-radar trade target should the Sharks decide to listen to offers.
  • Center Adam Gaudette is good to go for Thursday’s contest after missing last night’s game with a lower-body injury, Peng mentions (Twitter link). The 29-year-old had a breakout year last season with Ottawa where he had 19 goals in 81 games, earning a two-year, $4MM deal for his efforts.  Gaudette is scoring at a similar clip this season with seven goals through 29 games while averaging 12:01 per night, his highest ATOI since 2019-20.

The CBA Change That Makes The Holiday Roster Freeze More Significant

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While the official trade deadline in the NHL isn’t until March 6th, there is an earlier trade deadline of sorts with the annual holiday roster freeze.  During that time, while a limited number of NHL-AHL roster moves can be made, trades are a no-go from December 20th through December 27th.  While this can spur the odd move including last season, it typically comes and goes without much fanfare.

But things are a little different this time around.  In the new CBA, there are restrictions on teams retaining salary on a player whose salary has already been retained on.  Put in the new CBA to seemingly quash the three-team double-retention trades that became quite commonplace in recent years, a player must spend 75 in-season days on a roster before they can be moved with retention again.

While most of the CBA won’t come into effect until mid-September when the current agreement officially ends, this is one of the elements that was brought into play a year early.  As a result, if a team wants to acquire a player with salary retention and still be able to move that player with retention before the trade deadline, they have to get the deal done before the 20th.  Otherwise, while the acquiring team can still flip that player before March 6th, they won’t be able to retain salary to facilitate that move.

While there aren’t a lot of defined sellers at the moment, there could be some potential buying teams out there who might be interested in taking a look at a player while leaving themselves some flexibility to move the player later on if he’s not a fit or they fall out of the playoff race.  Having the ability to retain in that scenario would make the player more valuable so it wouldn’t be surprising to see an uptick in trade talks as a result.

Last year, there were a trio of trades made before the roster freeze, headlined by the Kaapo Kakko trade to Seattle, but none of them involved salary retention.  We’ll soon see if this rule change spurs on a more active trade period by Friday or if it will come and go more quietly as it often does.

Snapshots: Sabres, Tkachuk, Hagel, Lucic

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Sabres defenseman Michael Kesselring is expected to return on Thursday against Philadelphia after missing the last 14 games with a lower-body injury, reports Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald.  A key part of the JJ Peterka trade over the offseason, the 25-year-old has been limited to just nine appearances so far this season after also sustaining a knee injury in the preseason.  It wouldn’t be surprising to see him get eased back in but he’ll likely get a chance to take on a bigger role after the holiday break.

Meanwhile, among other injured Sabres, winger Jason Zucker has missed the last three games with a lower-body injury and is hoping to return after the break.  Forward Justin Danforth has missed 28 games with what’s believed to be a broken kneecap but head coach Lindy Ruff says he’s doing okay now.  Lastly, goaltender Colten Ellis (concussion protocol) is expected to be reevaluated on Friday after missing the last two games.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • While Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk has been skating on his own recently, he has yet to join the team for practice. As a result, GM Bill Zito told NHL.com’s Nick Cotsonika that they don’t know if Tkachuk will be available for the Winter Classic in a little more than two weeks.  The 28-year-old had surgery to repair a torn adductor muscle and a sports hernia back in August and has yet to play this season.  He’s averaged more than a point per game in four straight years and whenever he comes back – be it for the outdoor game or later on – he’ll be a huge boost to a Florida team that sits around the middle of the pack in the East.
  • Lightning winger Brandon Hagel is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury and hasn’t been ruled out of Thursday’s game against Los Angeles, relays Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). Hagel was injured on a hit from Seth Jones on Monday, resulting in him leaving the game.  He has been a key contributor for Tampa Bay this season, notching 18 goals and 13 assists in 32 games.
  • Veteran winger Milan Lucic has decided not to hang up his skates. Released from an AHL tryout with Springfield late last month, he has found his next team as the Fife Flyers of the EIHL announced that they’ve signed the 37-year-old for the remainder of the season.  Lucic has only played in nine games since the 2022-23 campaign ended so it’s far from a guarantee that he’ll be able to be an impactful player as he looks to continue his career.

West Notes: Kuemper, Danault, Byfield, Reichel, Connelly

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Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper sustained an upper-body injury in the first period of their game tonight against Dallas, the team announced (Twitter link).  The injury occurred after taking a hit from Mikko Rantanen.  The 35-year-old has quietly been one of the better goalies in the league this season, taking a 2.21 GAA and a .916 SV% in 22 games into this game while posting a 15.5 Goals Saved Above Expected, per MoneyPuck, good for fifth in the league.  That performance could get him on the Olympic radar with Canada set to reveal its roster for the tournament at the end of the month.  Anton Forsberg took over between the pipes following Kuemper’s injury.

More from out West:

  • Still with Los Angeles, the Kings were without a pair of middlemen tonight as Jared Shafran of LA Kings Insider relayed that Philipp Danault and Quinton Byfield were both sidelined due to the flu. It’s the second straight game that Danault has missed; the 32-year-old is still looking for his first goal of the year and only has five assists through 30 games.  Meanwhile, Byfield has just four goals in 31 outings but with 15 assists, he has enough points to sit third on the team in scoring.
  • After clearing waivers over the weekend, the Canucks assigned winger Lukas Reichel to the minors. Ben Kuzma of the Vancouver Province mentions that Reichel’s agent has permission to talk to other teams about trying to facilitate a trade.  While there were no takers for the 23-year-old with his $1.2MM AAV, it’s possible that there could be some interest if they could send a player the other way to offset some of the money.  Either way, Reichel’s stock has certainly fallen after struggling following a late-October trade from Chicago.
  • The Golden Knights’ AHL affiliate in Henderson announced Sunday that they have officially loaned winger Trevor Connelly to Team USA for the upcoming World Junior tournament. The 19-year-old was the 19th pick in 2024 and is holding his own in his first professional season, notching three goals and four assists in 11 outings so far.

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