NHL

As the calendar turned to November, there was plenty of news of note across the NHL which is recapped in our key stories.

Senators Out A First-Round Pick And A GM: Back at the 2022 trade deadline, a move that would have sent Evgenii Dadonov from Vegas to Anaheim was vetoed after the fact when it was revealed the Ducks were on his no-trade list.  The Golden Knights weren’t aware of that fact, resulting in them asking the league to look into it.  That investigation is now complete and they came down hard on Ottawa, who had dealt the winger to Vegas the previous offseason.  It was determined that they withheld the no-trade details during the trade call and as punishment, they will be required to forfeit a first-round pick in 2024, 2025, or 2026.  It’s their choice as to which year they opt to forfeit and it must be their own selection, not one they acquired from another team (such as the one they received from Detroit in the Alex DeBrincat trade).

New owner Michael Andlauer decided that this was the final straw for GM Pierre Dorion.  While initially termed as a firing, Dorion officially resigned his position.  He was at the helm in Ottawa since 2016 and helped bring in top young talents like Tim Stutzle, Jake Sanderson, and Brady Tkachuk to the fold but more recently, he’ll be remembered for creating an unworkable cap situation that limited them from re-signing Shane Pinto before his gambling suspension.  Steve Staios, who just joined the organization a little over a month ago, will serve as interim GM.

Four For McAvoy: Boston’s back end took a big short-term hit as defenseman Charlie McAvoy received a four-game suspension for an illegal check to the head on Panthers defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson that saw him receive a match penalty at the time.  The 25-year-old had gotten off to a strong start to his year with eight points in nine games but that’s on hold for now.  With Ekman-Larsson returning to Florida’s lineup quickly, McAvoy has appealed the ban, a move that doesn’t typically happen too often (although Rasmus Andersson went that route last month with no success).  Since it’s under six games, the appeal will be heard by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.

Backstrom Takes A Leave: Long-time Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom underwent hip resurfacing surgery back in June 2022 but returned to the lineup earlier than expected.  He made it through training camp and the first few weeks of this season but has decided to take an indefinite leave of absence from the team while he determines his next steps.  The 35-year-old has spent the entirety of his 17-year NHL career with Washington and sits second to Alex Ovechkin for the most points in franchise history; it remains to be seen if he’ll return to add to his 1,033 career points.  Backstrom is signed through next season with a $9.2MM AAV so retirement won’t be on the table but he has already been placed on injured reserve and will likely be shifted to LTIR at some point.

Talks On Hold: Not long ago, it looked like the Flames were making progress on extension talks with prominent pending unrestricted free agents Noah Hanifin and Elias Lindholm.  However, with the team off to a rough start this season, sitting just 3-7-1, those discussions are now on hold.  If GM Craig Conroy determines that the team isn’t as close to winning as he originally hoped, it’s possible that he turns around and becomes a seller at which point locking up his two key UFAs could work against him.  For now, it appears it will be a wait-and-see approach to see if Calgary can turn things around but they’ll need to show some progress sooner than later.

Hanging Them Up: Veteran center Paul Stastny has decided to call it a career, announcing his retirement at the age of 37.  The 2005 second-round pick played in 17 seasons at the top level with five different teams including eight years with Colorado who originally drafted him.  In his prime, Stastny was a quality two-way middleman who was above average at the faceoff dot throughout his career.  He hangs up his skates with 293 goals and 529 assists in 1,145 career regular season games; his 822 points rank him in 20th place among U.S.-born players in NHL history.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

The week around the hockey world ended in tragedy, with former Penguins center Adam Johnson passing away.  Meanwhile, it was a busy week across the NHL which is recapped in our key stories.

Draft Changes: A majority of teams have told the league that they would like to decentralize the draft, meaning teams would no longer send large contingents to the draft city and that it would work more like the drafts of the other major league sports.  With that, the NHL’s intention is now to switch formats no later than 2025 with 2024 not being ruled out either.  In our current reader poll, it’s fair to say that this change is not exactly a popular one.

Lots Of Injuries: It has been a tough week on the injury front across the league.  Blackhawks winger Taylor Hall’s shoulder injury isn’t getting better so he’s now on IR and listed as week-to-week.  That’s the same designation for Coyotes winger Jason Zucker who is dealing with a lower-body issue.  At one point, it seemed like Hurricanes defenseman Brett Pesce was going to be out long-term.  While that’s not the case, he underwent surgery on a lower-body injury and will miss two to four weeks.  Meanwhile, Canadiens blueliner David Savard and Senators rearguard Thomas Chabot both sustained fractured hands that will likely keep them out of their respective lineups until sometime in December.

Pinto Suspension: The bad news in Ottawa didn’t stop with Chabot as the NHL announced that unsigned center Shane Pinto has received a 41-game suspension for activities relating to sports wagering, to quote its press release.  The exact nature of the violation was not revealed publicly with the league noting that Pinto did not bet on NHL games.  The Sens have since rescinded all of their previous contract offers to Pinto, who is now almost certain to sign a low-cost, one-year deal once he is cleared to return in mid-January.  While there is a December 1st deadline for unsigned restricted free agents to sign deals, that rule will be waived for Pinto and the Sens.  Instead of Ottawa potentially getting him back in a week or two, it’ll now be a few more months before that happens.

Retirements: A trio of long-time NHL forwards hung up their skates.  First, after failing to catch on with Anaheim in training camp, winger Zack Kassian retired at the age of 32.  The 13th pick in 2009 played in 661 games over parts of a dozen seasons, collecting 203 points, 913 penalty minutes, and 1,360 hits.  Long-time Montreal center Tomas Plekanec was next to retire; he had been playing for his hometown team in Czechia but suffered an early injury that ended his season prematurely.  The 40-year-old played in 1,001 NHL games, all but 17 of which came with the Canadiens.  Lastly, Joe Thornton officially called it a career at the age of 44.  The top pick back in 1997 last played in 2021-22 and he amassed over 1,500 points in 1,714 games over parts of 24 NHL seasons.  He currently sits 12th in league history in points and sixth in games played.

Bowness Steps Away: The Jets are currently without head coach Rick Bowness as he has taken a leave of absence to be with his wife who suffered a seizure and was hospitalized earlier in the week.  Bowness is in his second season behind the bench in Winnipeg and obviously, there is no timetable for his return.  Associate coach Scott Arniel, who has head coaching experience from his time with Columbus a little more than a decade ago, is currently serving as their interim bench boss.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.