Penguins Reassign Ville Koivunen, Rutger McGroarty
The Penguins reassigned wingers Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton following last night’s win over the Islanders, per the AHL’s transactions log. Neither dressed for that game but were listed as scratches.
Koivunen and McGroarty, viewed as the #5 and #3 prospects in the Pens’ system by Scott Wheeler of The Athletic, now must suit up at least once for the Baby Pens before being eligible for a recall again. Both their most recent summons were quite short. Koivunen has been on and off the roster a couple of times this month, but McGroarty was recalled last Saturday for the first time since the Olympic break.
There’s been a roster move out of Pittsburgh virtually every day as of late as they navigate some injuries, but they’ll do some trimming today ahead of their second half of a back-to-back against the Red Wings, in part because they got Sidney Crosby back in the lineup against the Isles after he missed a game with a lower-body injury. The pair of demotions leaves veteran Kevin Hayes, who hasn’t suited up since March 3, as the lone healthy extra.
Both Koivunen and McGroarty entered the lineup for Saturday’s loss to the Stars before sitting out last night. While both are enjoying exceptional minor-league campaigns, they haven’t been able to make the NHL impact that Pittsburgh surely hoped for entering the season. Both were held off the scoresheet against Dallas, bringing Koivunen’s pointless streak to six games with a 2-5–7 scoring line in 36 NHL appearances this year on the whole. McGroarty, who turned 22 yesterday, hasn’t been any better with a 2-3–5 line in 21 outings.
Their stocks may have dipped slightly from the beginning of the season as a result, but it’s still impossible to ignore that both have produced above a point per game in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton this year. Koivunen’s 11-22–33 scoring line is good for fifth on the team despite only playing in 29 games, while McGroarty has tossed up seven goals and 26 points in 25 games.
With the Pens’ NHL group healthier, the pair of 20-somethings will get some added development time down the stretch before being playoff options for Pittsburgh if need be. Their playoff chances jumped to 83.9% after last night’s trouncing of the Islanders, per MoneyPuck.
Panthers’ Evan Rodrigues Out For Season With Broken Finger
Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues is undergoing surgery to repair his broken finger and will not return this season, head coach Paul Maurice said Tuesday (via George Richards of Florida Hockey Now).
Rodrigues hasn’t played since March 26 against the Wild. He left that game after his first shift with the fracture and didn’t return. Maurice said he assumed Rodrigues’ season was over after the fact, but was still awaiting confirmation of whether he’d need surgery.
With nothing left to play for, there likely wasn’t any hesitation to opt for surgery on both ends. The Panthers aren’t mathematically eliminated from playoff contention yet, but sitting 15 points out with nine games to go, while on a three-game losing streak, their season will end in April for the first time since 2019.
Injuries were really the only storyline in Sunrise this season. Rodrigues’ year will end with a comparably respectable 69 games played that could still very well end up being top 10 on the team when all is said and done. The 32-year-old did his part to step up in the absence of multiple top-six names, putting up an 11-20–31 scoring line. That goal output is his lowest at face value since the 2020-21 campaign, but his 0.45 points per game is right in line with his career average and a step up from last season’s 0.39, his worst as a Panther.
Rodrigues will be eligible to sign an extension on July 1. He will be entering the final season of the four-year, $12MM contract he signed with Florida as a free agent in 2023.
Canadiens’ Alexandre Carrier Out Two To Four Weeks
Canadiens defenseman Alexandre Carrier will miss two to four weeks with an upper-body injury, the team announced Tuesday. Montreal recalled Adam Engstrom from AHL Laval yesterday to replenish their blue-line depth with Carrier sidelined.
In all likelihood, Carrier’s regular season is over. The Habs’ last game is on April 14, two weeks to the day from today’s announcement. With a playoff berth all but locked up, there’s no need to rush him back for any regular-season action in the hope that he can be ready for Game 1 of the first round. If he’s out closer to four weeks, though, he may not be an option until the elimination-game stage – or even the early second round, if the Canadiens make it there without him.
Carrier logged a full game’s worth of action in his last appearance against the Hurricanes on Sunday, skating 19:05 of ice time with a +1 rating. There was no apparent injury that hobbled him during the game, nor did he ever head to the room.
The 29-year-old has spent the year either as Montreal’s second or third-pairing right-shot option. Outside of their top pairing of Mike Matheson and Noah Dobson, their defense combos have been in a blender all year long.
It’s the penalty kill where the Habs will feel Carrier’s absence the most. A good chunk of his time has come shorthanded, where he forms half of the top unit’s blue line with Matheson and has averaged over three minutes per game this season. The results haven’t been great, though. The Habs allow 10.6 goals per 60 minutes when Carrier is on the ice shorthanded, the highest figure among their four regular penalty killers.
On the whole, Carrier has put up a 7-15–22 scoring line with a +2 rating in 77 outings. That’s right around the offense he produced for the majority of last season after the Canadiens swapped Justin Barron to the Predators for him in December. He’s settling in around that 25-point pace for a career average, and he hasn’t varied from it too much over the past three years.
The Habs are carrying seven healthy defensemen with Engstrom’s recall, but, due to forwards Josh Anderson, Kirby Dach, and Alexandre Texier being unavailable, dressed Arber Xhekaj as a winger in Sunday’s win over the Hurricanes. If Anderson and Texier, who are both day-to-day, still can’t go tonight against the Lightning, Xhekaj will likely suit up on the fourth line again, while the left-shot Engstrom enters the lineup on his off side to replace Carrier.
Lightning Sign Noah Steen To Entry-Level Deal
The Lightning signed winger prospect Noah Steen to a two-year, entry-level contract on Monday that begins next season, PuckPedia reports. The deal has a total value of $1.95MM, with a cap hit of $972.5K. He will be owed a qualifying offer of $990K upon expiry as a restricted free agent in 2028.
Steen will earn a prorated base salary of $850K in 2026-27 and $900K in 2027-28, based on how much of the schedule, if any, he’s in the NHL. That’s accompanied by a yearly signing bonus of $97.5K and up to $27.5K in performance bonuses next season. His minor-league salary in both years of the contract will be $85K.
Tampa Bay had just over two months left to sign the 21-year-old before they risked losing his exclusive signing rights on June 1. The 6’1″ Norwegian was a seventh-round pick in 2024, two years after he was initially eligible for selection. After spending his earlier development climbing through Sweden’s junior ranks and then making the jump to the pro level in the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan, Steen has been playing top-flight European pro hockey since the puck dropped on the 2024-25 campaign.
Viewed as a potential penalty kill specialist near the bottom of the lineup, Steen showed this season he may be more than that. After only scoring five goals and one assist in 51 games in his first season with Örebro HK of the Swedish Hockey League last year, he broke out for a 12-10–22 scoring line in 52 games here in 2025-26. That’s the same points per game rate he posted in his only full season of second-division play with Mora IK two years ago.
Steen’s existing contract with Örebro runs through 2026-27. That makes him subject to the NHL’s transfer agreement with the SHL, which stipulates that, as a non-first-round pick under the age of 24, he must be offered back to Örebro first if he doesn’t make the Lightning’s roster out of training camp in the fall before they can assign him to AHL Syracuse. With that in mind, there’s no guarantee he’ll play in North America next season, but he could do so in the back half of his entry-level deal if Örebro doesn’t retain his rights for 2027-28.
Steen wasn’t included as a top-10 prospect in Tampa’s system by Steven Ellis of Daily Faceoff last offseason, but he did jump into 10th place in Scott Wheeler of The Athletic’s rankings earlier this month. He “can play with jump and has good goal-scoring instincts around the offensive zone,” Wheeler wrote, but his ceiling “might top out as a second-line SHLer/AHLer.”
Stars Recall Cameron Hughes
The Stars have recalled forward Cameron Hughes from AHL Texas, per a team announcement on Monday.
Hughes is expected to dress for Tuesday’s game against the Bruins in place of Michael Bunting, who left Sunday’s overtime loss to the Flyers in the first period with a lower-body injury. If he does, it will be the 29-year-old’s first NHL appearance in nearly five years. He only has two games to his name, one each with Boston in November 2019 and May 2021.
A sixth-round pick by the Bruins back in 2015, Hughes has since become an extremely productive AHL mainstay. The first sign of a breakout came when the former University of Wisconsin captain had 21 points in 25 games for the Providence Bruins in the COVID-shortened 2021 season. He has since played a top-six, veteran leadership role on two-way deals in the Boston, Seattle, and now Dallas organizations.
Ever since that initial breakout, Hughes has produced close to a point per game but has never been able to crack it. He’s found a new gear in Cedar Park, Texas, this season. Through 63 games for the AHL Stars, he has a league-leading 50 assists and is tied for second in overall scoring with 66 points.
A one-time AHL All-Star who was part of back-to-back Calder Cup Final runs with the Kraken’s affiliate in Coachella Valley, he’ll now get a chance to play fill-in duties for Dallas down the stretch. He can play both center and left wing, an important factor for a club now missing four regular forwards in Bunting, Radek Faksa, Roope Hintz, and Sam Steel, plus frequent press-box option Nathan Bastian.
Senators, Kevin Reidler Agree To Entry-Level Contract
The Senators have agreed to terms with goalie prospect Kevin Reidler on a two-year, entry-level contract starting next season, general manager Steve Staios said. He will report to AHL Belleville on an amateur tryout to finish the 2025-26 campaign. Per PuckPedia, the deal comes with a $946.3K cap hit, a $990K qualifying offer upon expiry, and the following breakdown:
| Year | NHL salary | Signing bonus | Minors salary |
| 2026-27 | $850K | $72.5K | $82.5K |
| 2027-28 | $900K | $70K | $82.5K |
Reidler, 21, was a fifth-round pick by the Sens in 2022. Since then, he has appeared for four different teams in three different leagues. He remained in his native Sweden for his post-draft season, suiting up for AIK’s under-20 squad in that country’s top junior division.
The 6’6″, 203-lb lefty has played in North America ever since. He spent an additional year in juniors with the USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints before committing to the University of Nebraska-Omaha in 2024 and arriving as their freshman backup the following fall.
Reidler played well for the Mavericks, but his playing time was extremely limited behind junior starter Simon Latkoczy. He only recorded eight appearances and five decisions but had a .920 SV%, 2.74 GAA, and a 4-1-0 record.
Once it was clear Latkoczy was returning to Omaha for his senior season, Reidler entered the transfer portal in search of more playing time. He found it at Penn State, where he served in tandem with undrafted freshman Josh Fleming. Fleming ended up winning out the starting job heading into tournament play but Reidler still managed 18 appearances, putting up an 11-7-0 record with a .901 SV% and 3.31 GAA.
With Fleming likely set as Penn State’s clear-cut #1 next season, Reidler’s options were to either stick around as his backup, enter the transfer portal again in search of a starting role, or turn pro and continue his development while under an entry-level deal with Ottawa. He chooses the latter, becoming just the third Sens goalie signed through next season behind Linus Ullmark and ECHL starter Jackson Parsons. Leevi Merilainen and Mads Sogaard are both pending restricted free agents under team control, though, so he could fall down to No. 5 on the depth chart if those two return.
As such, Reidler might get a spot start with Belleville in the coming days but is likely destined for ECHL time, as is usually the case with first-year pro netminders, out of the gate in the fall. Reidler was the #8-ranked prospect in Ottawa’s pool last offseason by Steven Ellis of Daily Faceoff and held the same ranking in Scott Wheeler of The Athletic’s analysis earlier this month. He’s not viewed as his ceiling being much higher than a #2/3 option, but his turning pro earlier than expected could allow him to get a leg up on the depth chart.
Sabres Expected To Activate Jordan Greenway
Sabres winger Jordan Greenway was a full participant in Monday’s practice and is a candidate to come off injured reserve before Tuesday’s game against the Islanders, per Heather Engel of NHL.com.
Greenway, 29, hasn’t played since Jan. 22 due to the effects of a lingering abdominal/mid-body injury. He has been dealing with recurring pain after undergoing two sports hernia surgeries in the last few years, but he told Bill Hoppe of Buffalo Hockey Beat last weekend that a new rehab regimen has left him with “zero pain” and that he’s resumed skating with no complications.
It’s evident that he’s been playing less than 100% for a good while now. He’s managed only 67 appearances since the beginning of 2024-25 and has a 4-9–13 scoring line and a -13 rating in that time.
Once a highly-regarded defensive winger in the Wild’s top nine, he’s never really had the impact the Sabres were hoping for when they traded a pair of draft picks to acquire him from Minnesota at the 2023 trade deadline. He did have a decent showing in his one full, relatively healthy season in Buffalo in 2023-24, notching 10 goals and 28 points in 67 games while averaging a career-high 17:15 per game, but the Sabres were likely still hoping for a bit more production given how much they were playing him.
Greenway is wrapping up the first year of a two-year, $8MM extension he signed just over a year ago – a puzzling decision from now-former GM Kevyn Adams in hindsight, considering the team was well-aware he was playing through a significant amount of pain. He’s expected to return to the lineup in a fourth-line role alongside Beck Malenstyn and trade-deadline pickup Sam Carrick, the most natural fit for him at this stage of his career and one he’s held almost exclusively when he has been in the lineup this season.
The 6’6″, 231-lb lefty’s return comes as they’re still projected to be without rookie Noah Ostlund, who’s missed the last two games with an upper-body issue and remains day-to-day. Zach Benson, who’d gotten some reps as 4LW with Carrick as of late, will continue to flex up into Ostlund’s third-line spot with Joshua Norris while Greenway gives Buffalo a far more physically imposing and defensive-minded archetype to slot into a checking role than Tanner Pearson and Tyson Kozak, who have slotted in the lineup with Ostlund out.
Penguins Recall Avery Hayes
The Penguins have recalled forward Avery Hayes from the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, per a team announcement Monday morning.
Hayes, 23, sees his second recall in the past four days. After being sent back to the minors on March 18, he was summoned for a game against the Senators on March 26 but did not dress. He was returned to WBS on Saturday and played in the Baby Pens’ game that night against the Laval Rocket, making him eligible to come back up today.
Pittsburgh’s continued roster shuffling comes as they manage injuries to the two cornerstones of their forward group, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Crosby has missed one game with a lower-body injury, while Malkin has missed three with an upper-body injury. Both were full participants in practice Sunday, though, and Crosby traveled with the team for their one-game road wing to visit the Islanders tonight.
That means Malkin will remain out tonight, but Crosby’s status – as well as the availabilities of Noel Acciari and Bryan Rust, who were absent from yesterday’s practice for maintenance but still traveled – is up in the air. In case all three can’t go, Hayes’ presence gives the Penguins enough healthy extras to still ice 12 forwards tonight.
An undrafted free agent, Hayes has rocketed up Pittsburgh’s pipeline with some spectacular minor-league showings over the past couple of years. Never has the 5’10” winger been more dominant than this season, tossing up a 22-13–35 scoring line in 39 games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, leading them in goals despite playing in only 60% of their games.
However, he hasn’t been able to convert that production into meaningful NHL minutes across multiple recalls this season. In 11 outings, the Michigan native has scored twice with no assists and a -6 rating. Both of those goals came in his big-league debut against the Sabres back on Feb. 5, so it’s been several games now of Hayes not being able to generate chances. On his 10-game pointless streak, he’s averaged 11:40 of ice time per game with 28 shot attempts (13 on goal).
Hayes still has another season left on his entry-level contract and three seasons or 49 NHL games left before he loses his waiver exemption, so the Pens aren’t at risk of losing him as an intriguing recall option anytime soon.
Panthers Reassign Jack Studnicka
3/29/26: The Panthers announced they have reassigned Studnicka back to AHL Charlotte. Studnicka skated in 7:32 time on ice in the Panthers’ loss to the New York Islanders yesterday, his lone NHL game of this one-day recall.
With Greer now eligible to return against the Rangers, Studnicka’s services were no longer required on the Panthers’ NHL roster. He’ll return to Charlotte, but it is unclear at this time whether he’ll be able to play in the Checkers’ game this evening against the Rangers’ AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack. The logistics are in his favor: the Checkers are on the road in Hartford while the Panthers have been in New York for their two-game swing against the Islanders and Rangers.
3/28/26: The Panthers recalled forward Jack Studnicka from the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers on Saturday morning, according to the AHL’s transactions log.
With A.J. Greer not eligible to return from his three-game suspension until tomorrow afternoon’s game against the Rangers, Studnicka will dress for today’s matinee against the Islanders. Evan Rodrigues sustained a broken finger in Thursday’s loss to the Wild and is out for at least four weeks, head coach Paul Maurice said postgame, ending his season.
Rodrigues’ injury brings Florida’s injured list up to 10. Six of them – Uvis Balinskis, Aleksander Barkov, Anton Lundell, Brad Marchand, Niko Mikkola, and Rodrigues – have effectively been shut down for the year. Jonah Gadjovich, Sam Reinhart, Mackie Samoskevich, and Cole Schwindt are all day-to-day and could be options in the next week, but for now, the Cats will need to dig even further into their AHL depth.
Studnicka, 27, was recalled in December after Eetu Luostarinen was sidelined following burns sustained in a home barbecue grill accident. He played a routine fourth-line role in the six weeks that followed but was held pointless in 18 games, posting a -6 rating before being waived and returned to Charlotte in January.
Once a top prospect for the Bruins, those games earlier this season were Studnicka’s first in the NHL since getting a look with the Sharks down the stretch in 2023-24. The 6’1″ center/right-winger has settled in as a top-six name in the minors but hasn’t demonstrated the offensive utility to seriously contend for an NHL job. In 34 games with the Checkers this season, he has an 8-14–22 scoring line with a +7 rating.
There’s a chance Studnicka could be on his way to his sixth organization in five years this summer. He only landed a one-year, two-way deal with the Cats last offseason and will be an unrestricted free agent again in July. He was traded from the Bruins to the Canucks in 2022, flipped to San Jose in 2023, and signed a two-way deal with the Kings in free agency in 2024 before landing in Florida.
Senators Reassign Jorian Donovan
3/29/26: The Senators announced Sunday morning that Donovan has been reassigned back to AHL Belleville.
The move comes after Donovan was made a healthy scratch for the team’s loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning yesterday. Thomson drew back into the lineup for that game, ending a brief absence due to a lower-body injury. It appears Thomson’s return has cost Donovan his spot on the Senators’ NHL roster.
The 21-year-old got to make his NHL debut during this recall. He skated in just 4:42 time on ice during Ottawa’s crucial road win over the Detroit Red Wings last week. He got into just under 10 minutes of ice time the following game, a loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Donovan ends his first stretch in the NHL with two games played, two hits, and a blocked shot.
3/24/26: The Senators’ push for the playoffs got a lot murkier despite last night’s defensive standout win over the Rangers. The two points cost them both Thomas Chabot and Lassi Thomson on the blue line, who, head coach Travis Green said, would miss multiple games with apparent right wrist injuries and undisclosed injuries, respectively. Ottawa was already without Dennis Gilbert, Nick Jensen, and Jake Sanderson on defense, so they would need to recall a pair of rearguards from AHL Belleville before tonight’s game against the Red Wings to have six healthy ones. Those two beneficiaries are Jorian Donovan and Carter Yakemchuk, the team announced Tuesday morning.
Both will be making their NHL debuts tonight. It comes right on schedule for Yakemchuk, who, at seventh overall in 2024, Ottawa hopes will be the last high pick of their years-long rebuild. The 6’4″, 207-lb righty was a physically dominant offensive threat in his draft year for the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen, leading the league in goals by a defenseman that year with 30.
Since then, Yakemchuk’s development has hit some speed bumps. His post-draft year with the Hitmen immediately raised some red flags as his offensive production took a step back from 1.08 points per game in 2023-24 to 0.88 in 2024-25, particularly concerning considering he was already one of the oldest players in his class. Those concerns have only persisted as he made the adjustment to professional life in Belleville this season. He’s slotted in as their top offensive weapon on the blue line as expected, ranking fourth on the team in scoring with a 10-26–36 line in 50 games, but that’s been accompanied by a team-worst -30 rating and some glaring concerns regarding his defensive play.
He’ll need to work on that moving forward to ensure he doesn’t top out as a third-pairing threat at even strength to limit his minutes while serving as a power-play quarterback for the Sens. For now, while everyone involved hoped it would be under better circumstances, he’ll at least get his first taste of NHL play this year while getting a chance to boost his shot at a roster spot next October with a strong run of play in the absence of Ottawa’s two top two-way threats on defense in Chabot and Sanderson.
Donovan is a more unheralded prospect but an intriguing talent nonetheless. A fifth-round pick in 2022, the 6’2″ lefty is now 21 years old in his second season with the B-Sens. He’s coming along nicely as a well-rounded two-way piece who can wash out opponents with ease, recording a 4-17–21 line in 58 outings this season with a -12 rating and 70 penalty minutes.
His development at this stage significantly outpaces the normal curve of a fifth-rounder. Donovan now ranks #5 in Ottawa’s prospect pool and is their top left-shot option in the system, Scott Wheeler of The Athletic opined this month. The Calgary native “has the tools to become a No. 5-8 D and play NHL games” with “pro size and excellent skating,” Wheeler wrote.