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Injury Notes: Eriksson Ek, Zuccarello, Arvidsson, Chytil, Sturm

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The Minnesota Wild are losing a pair of top-six forwards in their game tonight against the Montreal Canadiens. The organization announced that Joel Eriksson Ek and Mats Zuccarello would not return after the first period due to lower-body injuries.

Zuccarello left tonight’s game with approximately seven minutes left in the first period. He was positioned in front of Montreal’s net when a deflected point shot from defenseman Brock Faber seemingly hit Zuccarello in the groin. He could skate off the ice under his power but was reasonably in plenty of pain.

Eriksson Ek’s injury is a bit more difficult to ascertain. Nothing notable was caught on video regarding the incident leading to the injury but he was seen skating off the ice in some duress. He will exit tonight’s contest after having only managed 3:43 of ice time while Zuccarello only skated in 3:15.

Other injury notes:

  • Jason Gregor of Sportsnet 1440 reported that the Edmonton Oilers would be without forward Viktor Arvidsson against the Nashville Predators tonight. Gregor didn’t allude to any injury concerns for Arvidsson but did say he’s expected to play this weekend. Arvidsson has scored two goals and five points through 16 games in his first season in Alberta.
  • K’Andre Miller and Filip Chytil accidentally collided in the second period of tonight’s matchup between the New York Rangers and San Jose Sharks. Unfortunately, the Rangers announced that Chytil wouldn’t return to the game due to an upper-body injury. Chytil was slow to get to his feet and it’s uncertain whether it’s a precautionary move given Chytil’s recent battle with concussions.
  • Chytil wasn’t the only player in tonight’s game to leave the contest. Shortly before Chytil’s injury took place, the Sharks announced Nico Sturm wouldn’t return due to an upper-body injury. Sturm’s injury appears non-contact in nature which could lead to a larger concern from the Sharks. Now in his third year in San Jose, Sturm has already missed 27 games for the Sharks due to injury.

Mark Pysyk Signs In Finland

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Long-time NHL defenseman Mark Pysyk is heading overseas for the first time. According to a team announcement, Pysyk has signed a one-year contract with Saimaan Pallo, known as SaiPa, in the Finnish Liiga.

The Buffalo Sabres selected Pysyk with the 23rd overall pick of the 2010 NHL Draft from the WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings although he wouldn’t make his NHL debut for another few years. He spent two years serving as the Oil Kings’ captain collecting 25 goals and 125 points in 243 games over five years with the Major Junior program.

He wouldn’t become a consistent member of the Sabres until his sophomore campaign during the 2013-14 season scoring one goal and seven points in 44 contests. Throughout his four years in Buffalo, Pysyk primarily served as a bottom-pairing defenseman averaging 17:24 of ice time over 125 games.

Pysyk proved to be a legitimate talent in a defensive role during his last season with the Sabres managing a 91.7% on-ice save percentage in all situations and a 51.8% CorsiFor%. Believing they could utilize Pysyk’s talents, the Florida Panthers traded Dmitry Kulikov and a 2016 second-round draft pick (Rasmus Asplund) to Buffalo on the second day of that year’s draft.

His time in Sunrise would prove to be the best years of his career. In four seasons Pysyk scored 17 goals and 62 points in 292 games while averaging an impressive 90.6% on-ice save percentage in all situations despite starting in the defensive zone 62.3% of the time.

Because of the depth of Florida’s blue line at the time, Pysyk saw his role slowly diminish. By the time he got to his fourth season with the Panthers organization Pysyk had seen his average ice time drop from 18:34 to 12:45.

Then began a period of migration for Pysyk. He signed three consecutive one-year deals with the Dallas Stars, Sabres, and Detroit Red Wings although he would never play for the latter after tearing his Achilles tendon. He spent last year in the AHL with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and Calgary Wranglers collecting four assists in 37 games.

Coincidentally, this isn’t the first time SaiPa has poached an NHL veteran this week. The organization signed goaltender Michael Hutchinson only a few days ago to a similar one-year agreement. SaiPa has earned 11 wins through the first 21 games of the season and currently sits fourth overall in the league standings.

Sharks May Loan Will Smith To Team USA For World Junior Championships

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The United States could be getting a major boost in its quest to repeat as gold medalists for the first time in the tournament’s history. Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News shared earlier that the San Jose Sharks may loan rookie forward Will Smith to Team USA for this year’s tournament.

Team USA didn’t have any player with NHL experience on their roster last year although several had already been drafted. The potential move would be similar to Matthew Poitras’ situation from last season when the Boston Bruins loaned him to Team Canada after putting 27 NHL contests under his belt.

It wouldn’t be the worst idea for Smith’s long-term development, either. He’s gotten off to an unexpectedly slow start this season, with two goals and three points in 13 games while averaging 13:46 of ice time per game. Much of this concerns how head coach Ryan Warsofsky has deployed him to start the year.

Smith has primarily played on a line next to Barclay Goodrow and Luke Kunin, with the trio combining for a dismal 23.8% xGoals% according to Moneypuck. The only line that Smith has worked particularly well with has been with Goodrow and Ty Dellandrea who’ve combined for a team-best 70.0% xGoals%. Unfortunately, they have only managed a little over 16 minutes together.

Smith would quickly become an early favorite to lead the tournament in scoring should he join Team USA. He tied for ninth in scoring during last year’s tournament with four goals and nine points over seven games while finishing the NCAA season with Boston College scoring a whopping 25 goals and 71 points in 41 contests.

After struggling out of the gates to begin his NHL career, the former-fourth overall pick of the 2023 Draft could use a confidence boost. It’ll be difficult for the Sharks to manufacture anything better for Smith than having him help his home country pursue back-to-back gold medals in the highly regarded junior tournament.

Central Notes: Brodin, Martinez, Jets

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Minnesota Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin will miss tonight’s game with an upper-body injury and is being called day-to-day (as per Michael Russo of The Athletic).  The 31-year-old has become somewhat injury-prone in the last few seasons and appeared in just 62 games last year for the Wild. This season, Brodin has dressed in 15 contests and has registered one goal and five assists for six points.

Brodin’s injury doesn’t appear to be a long-term issue, but the frequency of his injuries is likely starting to concern him and the Wild. Especially given that the Karlstad, Sweden native has three years left on his current contract at a cap hit of $6MM annually.

In other Central Division Notes:

  • Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Alec Martinez will be a game-time decision this evening when the Blackhawks take on the Seattle Kraken (as per Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times). Martinez was activated off injured reserve earlier today and while his move paves the way for him to return to action, the team will decide closer to puck drop. No word yet on who will come out of the lineup if Martinez does return. The 37-year-old is in his first year with the Blackhawks after signing a one-year $4MM deal as a free agent this past summer. The three-time Stanley Cup Champion has played just four games this year and is -1 with a single assist.
  • David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period is reporting that the red-hot Winnipeg Jets could be looking to add to their already impressive lineup. Winnipeg is off to an incredible 15-1-0 start to the season and looks to be a legitimate Stanley Cup contender in the first month and a half of the season. Pagnotta notes that the Jets have a good chunk of cap space that could be utilized to add to the roster if they are so inclined. Pagnotta believes that Winnipeg would target a defenseman if they were to make a move in the season and mentions Penguins defender Marcus Pettersson as a possibility. Given that Pittsburgh general manager Kyle Dubas just declared nearly the whole Penguins roster is available, it is highly likely that Pettersson is in play. If Winnipeg was to show interest in the 28-year-old they would likely be competing with much of the league for the services of the stable defender.

Metro Notes: Johnson, Brindley, Eller, Ersson

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Aaron Portzline of The Athletic is reporting that Columbus Blue Jackets forward Kent Johnson is back practicing today for the first time since he injured his shoulder back on October 17th in a game against the Buffalo Sabres. Johnson has missed ten consecutive games due to the injury he suffered when colliding with a Blue Jackets teammate.

The former fifth-overall pick played in just four games before the injury but was very productive, posting two goals and three assists while averaging 16:46 of ice time per game. Johnson looked as though he was ready to break out two seasons ago when he recorded a 40-point season as a 20-year-old. However, last season, his play fell off dramatically, as he tallied just six goals and ten assists in 42 games.

In other Metropolitan Division notes:

  • The Columbus Blue Jackets have activated forward Gavin Brindley off injured reserve and loaned him to the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League. Brindley broke his finger in a preseason game on October 1st and ended up missing the first 15 games of the regular season. The 20-year-old  made his NHL debut at the end of last season in April after he was drafted by the Blue Jackets in the second round of the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. An undersized forward, Brindley had a very successful run in the NCAA with the Michigan Wolverines, recording 37 goals and 54 assists in 81 career games from 2022-24.
  • New acquired Washington Capitals forward Lars Eller will make his return to the Capitals lineup tomorrow night after he was acquired via trade from the Penguins this week (as per Tarik El Bashir of the NHL Network). Eller practiced today with the Capitals and centered the third line where he was flanked by Andrew Mangiapane and Jakub Vrana. Eller was one of the few bright spots for the Penguins this season and dealt with very difficult deployment in Pittsburgh, starting over two-thirds of his shifts in the defensive zone. Despite the unfavorable zone starts, the 35-year-old still managed to put up four goals and three assists in 17 games.
  • Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Samuel Ersson left practice early yesterday after suffering a small tweak (as per Jordan Hall of NBC Sports Philadelphia). The issue is apparently not something that will keep Ersson out long-term, but it will keep him out of the lineup this evening as Aleksei Kolosov will be the backup to starter Ivan Fedotov. The Flyers already have three goaltenders on their roster and won’t need to make a roster in order to replace Ersson.

Canucks To Activate Dakota Joshua From IR

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Canucks forward Dakota Joshua will make his 2024-25 season debut against the Islanders on Thursday, Ben Kuzma of Postmedia reports. He’ll need to be activated from injured reserve ahead of tonight’s game. The Canucks recalled Jonathan Lekkerimäki and Aatu Räty from their brief demotions earlier today but left Arshdeep Bains on assignment to AHL Abbotsford, meaning he’ll say down for the foreseeable future while Joshua takes his roster spot.

Joshua had been held out of the lineup after undergoing successful offseason surgery to remove testicular cancer. He began practicing in a non-contact jersey a couple of weeks after the season started and had been upgraded to day-to-day last week.

He’ll play what Kuzma called “measured minutes” on the fourth line in his season debut tonight. Line rushes at practice this morning indicate that Joshua will play left wing alongside Räty and Höglander, per Brendan Batchelor of Sportsnet 650.

Joshua, 28, enters his third season in Vancouver coming off a breakout 2023-24 campaign. The Ohio State product recorded career highs across the board last season with 18 goals, 14 assists, 32 points, and a +19 rating while averaging 14:23 per game across 63 contests.

Vancouver’s third line with him, Teddy Blueger and Conor Garland last season was their most consistently deployed at 361 minutes together, and for good reason. They controlled 58.4% of expected goals, per MoneyPuck, ranking eighth among the 41 forward trios to log at least 300 minutes together in 2023-24.

Luckily for Joshua, that breakout came in a contract year. He parlayed that performance into a four-year, $13MM extension with a 12-team no-trade clause.

The Canucks’ active roster is now full at 13 forwards, eight defensemen and two goaltenders.

Bruins Recall Patrick Brown

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The Bruins recalled forward Patrick Brown from AHL Providence on Thursday, per a team announcement.

It’s the first recall of the season for the 32-year-old, who cleared waivers uneventfully at the beginning of the regular season. He was named captain of the P-Bruins shortly thereafter and has three goals and four assists for seven points in 12 AHL games so far in 2024-25.

The Boston College grad signed a two-year, $1.6MM contract with the Bruins in free agency in 2023. After appearing solely in the NHL for the Flyers and Senators in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 campaigns, Brown spent most of last year in Providence but did get some brief NHL action, recording an assist and a -3 rating in 11 appearances while averaging 8:50 per game and going 15-for-33 on draws (45.5%).

The Bruins only had 12 forwards on the active roster after sending Matthew Poitras down to Providence earlier in the week. Brown will likely sit in the press box for tonight’s game in Dallas, but he’s a decent veteran presence on hand if an injury arises and his services are needed.

Brown, initially an undrafted free agent signing by the Hurricanes in 2014, has 10 goals and 25 points in 149 career NHL games with Carolina, Vegas, Philadelphia, Ottawa, and Boston. He will be an unrestricted free agent next summer.

Brown can remain on the active roster for up to 30 days or play 10 games before requiring waivers again to return to Providence.

Atlantic Notes: Thompson, Luukkonen, Bennett, Point

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Neither Sabres starter Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen nor star center Tage Thompson will play versus the Blues on Thursday, head coach Lindy Ruff told Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News. They remain day-to-day with undisclosed and lower-body injuries, respectively.

Both players left Buffalo’s last game, a 7-5 loss to the Canadiens on Monday, and did not return. Ruff said that Luukkonen wasn’t completely healthy going into the game after being banged up in practice over the weekend, and he was pulled after allowing four goals on 18 shots. Thompson left after scoring a goal and logging eight shifts, although it’s unclear on what play he sustained the injury.

Devon Levi will make his fifth start of the season tonight with Luukkonen on the shelf, Lysowski reports. James Reimer will back him up after being re-claimed off waivers from the Ducks yesterday.

Luukkonen, 25, has largely kept up the momentum from last season’s breakout campaign. He’s been quite solid with a 6-4-1 record, .903 SV%, 2.83 GAA, and 1.0 GSAA in 12 appearances.

Thompson, 27, is back in full force after a disappointing showing in 2023-24. The 6’6″ center is tied for the league lead in even-strength goals with 10 and has 11 goals and 18 points in 16 games overall, currently on pace to eclipse the point-per-game mark for the second time in his career.

More from the Atlantic Division:

  • Panthers center Sam Bennett has improved enough to be a game-time decision for tonight’s clash with the Devils, Colby Guy of The Palm Beach Post reports. The 28-year-old missed Tuesday’s 4-1 home loss to New Jersey with an upper-body injury. The pending unrestricted free agent has nine goals and 15 points in 15 games this season and is on pace for career-highs offensively across the board.
  • Lightning star Brayden Point will not play tonight at home versus the Jets, Gabby Shirley of FanDuel Sports Network Florida & Sun reports. It’ll be his third straight game missed with the lower-body injury he sustained back on Nov. 3 in Tampa’s other appearance of the season against Winnipeg. His 38.1% shooting rate still leads the league and gives him eight goals through 12 games. Anthony Cirelli will continue serving as the Bolts’ top-line center in Point’s absence between Brandon Hagel and Nikita Kucherov.

Avalanche Activate Jonathan Drouin, Miles Wood From IR

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The Avalanche have taken wingers Jonathan Drouin and Miles Wood off injured reserve ahead of tomorrow’s game against the Capitals, the team announced. They reassigned forwards T.J. Tynan and Nikita Prishchepov to AHL Colorado early Thursday morning to create roster space.

Colorado, as previously reported, is also getting Valeri Nichushkin back in the lineup now that he’s served his six-month suspension as dictated by Stage 3 of the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program. That means three regular forwards – two of them top-six pieces – are coming in to aid an Avalanche group that’s been absolutely decimated by injuries so far in 2024-25.

Drouin, 29, sustained an upper-body injury in the season opener and hasn’t played since. The winger was initially only ticketed to miss a few games but ended up missing over five weeks with the ailment.

Signed as an unrestricted free agent in 2023, Drouin has thrived in Colorado while playing alongside former major junior teammate Nathan MacKinnon. After initially inking a one-year, $825K pact, he recorded career-highs in assists (37), points (56), rating (+12), and ATOI (18:11) in 2023-24. He then signed a one-year, $2.5MM deal shortly after free agency opened this past summer to return to Denver.

For most of the campaign to date, the Avs had been without all of Drouin, Nichushkin, Gabriel Landeskog, and Artturi Lehkonen – leaving them without four of their top five wingers. Now, just Landeskog remains unavailable as he continues to attempt a comeback from the multiple knee surgeries that have kept him out of action since the 2022 Stanley Cup Final. Lehkonen returned to action earlier this month after offseason shoulder surgery and already has six points in five games.

Drouin is expected to make his second appearance of the season on Colorado’s top line alongside MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. Nichushkin will return in a second-line role alongside Lehkonen and Casey Mittelstadt.

Meanwhile, Wood makes his return to the lineup after missing the last seven games with an upper-body injury. The 29-year-old is in his second season with the Avalanche after inking a six-year, $15MM commitment in free agency in 2023. He had just one goal in 10 games before exiting the lineup but was averaging 13:40 per game, deployment that will allow overtaxed youngsters like Ivan Ivan and Nikolai Kovalenko to face some easier competition along with Drouin’s and Nichushkin’s returns.

After all of today’s moves, the Avs’ active roster stands at the maximum 23 players. They have about $1.185MM remaining in their LTIR pool with Landeskog and Tucker Poolman still on the shelf, so they’ll still need to clear some significant salary if Landeskog and his $7MM cap hit are cleared to return.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Penguins Recall Matt Nieto, Vasiliy Ponomarev; Reassign Joel Blomqvist

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The Penguins announced Thursday that they’ve reinstated Matthew Nieto from his LTIR conditioning loan and recalled forward Vasiliy Ponomarev from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Pittsburgh reassigned goaltender Joel Blomqvist to WBS to open a necessary roster space.

Nieto, 32, has not seen NHL ice since Nov. 30, 2023, against the Lightning. The veteran sustained a left knee injury that game that, after a few setbacks, required laparoscopic surgery in early January.

Even after the initial surgery, setbacks persisted. The procedure wasn’t expected to be season-ending, but Nieto’s late February return window came and went without much news.

In May, the Penguins announced that Nieto underwent reconstructive MCL surgery on the knee, one that carried a far lengthier recovery window but would ideally stop the persistent setbacks. So far, that’s been the case. He’ll look to make his season debut on Friday against the Blue Jackets, six and a half months after his last surgery and nearly one year after his last NHL game.

The second-round pick of the Sharks in 2011 landed with the Pens in free agency in 2023, signing a two-year, $1.8MM contract. The 5’11” left-winger recorded one goal and three assists in 22 games last season, averaging 11:37 per contest, before being shut down.

Nieto scored once in two games for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on his conditioning loan over the past few days. It was his first AHL action in over a decade, last touching minor-league ice while with the Sharks organization in 2013-14.

Recalling both Nieto and Ponomarev indicates that center Blake Lizotte may be unavailable for tomorrow’s game after taking a puck to the face Wednesday against the Red Wings. Lizotte, 26, already missed the first 11 games of the regular season with a concussion he sustained in a similar incident during the preseason. He had two goals in seven games since coming off LTIR at the end of October.

The Penguins acquired Ponomarev, 22, as one of the centerpieces of last season’s trade that sent star winger Jake Guentzel to the Hurricanes. Drafted 53rd overall by Carolina in 2020, the Russian center scored a goal and an assist in two games in his first taste of NHL action last season for the Canes.

Ponomarev sustained an upper-body injury in preseason for Pittsburgh and started the year on IR but was cleared to play a little over two weeks ago. He has one assist in five games for WBS since being assigned there on Halloween.

Combined with last season’s one goal in four games for the Baby Pens after the trade, it’s a little bit of a concerning start in the Pittsburgh organization for Ponomarev. Two points in nine contests is a far cry from the 35 goals and 85 points he’d put up in 114 games for AHL Chicago while in the Hurricanes organization.

Despite those two rather significant storylines, Blomqvist’s demotion may be the most notable of the three roster moves. The 22-year-old had been the Penguins’ best goaltender through the first five weeks of the season, filling in admirably with Alex Nedeljkovic starting the season on IR and de facto starter Tristan Jarry struggling enough to earn a two-week conditioning stint in the minors.

Like Ponomarev, the 6’2″ Finn was a member of the second round in the 2020 draft. He leads Penguins goalies in wins (3), SV% (.904), quality starts (4), and GSAA (1.0). It was a strong showing on the heels of a dominant 2023-24 season for WBS, earning All-Rookie Team and Second Team All-Star honors after posting a .921 SV%, 2.16 GAA and 25-12-6 record for the AHL club.

Yet leaving Blomqvist as part of a three-goalie rotation isn’t what’s best for his development, nor is it what’s best for hopefully getting Jarry back on track after his horrid start to the season. Jarry, who had a .836 SV% in three games before his conditioning loan, is expected to make his first NHL start in nearly a month tomorrow against Columbus. He has four seasons remaining on his contract at a $5.375MM cap hit.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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