Aleksander Barkov Returns To Practice
Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov appeared to be lost for the season when he tore both his ACL and MCL in his right knee on his first day of training camp. He’s been pushing for an early return, though, and has been doing light skating work on his own as part of his rehab since the end of December. That culminated in Barkov joining the team for a practice session, albeit in a non-contact jersey, for the first time this morning, the team’s Jameson Olive relays.
Florida and Barkov both hoped that if he did push the envelope for his return, it would be with the intent of captaining them to a third straight Stanley Cup. Unfortunately, a wide range of other impactful injuries completely derailed the Cats’ season. They’re not technically eliminated from playoff contention, but, with 19 games to go, are third-last in the East and sit 11 points back of a playoff spot. Their chances of making the playoffs are down to just 1.5%, per MoneyPuck, with a greater chance at winning the draft lottery for the first overall pick.
With that in mind, there’s little reason to work him into the lineup if he’s anything less than 100%. Outside of Sergei Bobrovsky, all of Florida’s core is signed long-term and still has a chance at multiple deep playoff runs with their group. Those long-term hopes will be dashed if Barkov sustains any additional damage or prevents his knee from fully healing, though.
Nonetheless, one of the most competitive individuals in the sport will bite at the chance to get back on the ice, even if it’s for a few ultimately meaningless games at the end of the schedule. It’s incredibly rare for a player of Barkov’s caliber to miss an entire season in his prime. Even the most notable examples this century, Peter Forsberg in 2001-02 and Nikita Kucherov in 2020-21, saw their clubs make the postseason without them and return to be their club’s top contributors on long playoff runs.
Hopefully, the fact that Barkov’s recovery has seemingly gone as smoothly as it has is a promising sign that he’ll hit the ground running in the fall for his age-31 season. He’s won back-to-back Selke Trophies and has passed the point-per-game threshold six times in the last seven seasons.
Blackhawks’ Oliver Moore Out Multiple Weeks
The Blackhawks will be without center Oliver Moore for at least a “couple of weeks” due to an undisclosed injury, head coach Jeff Blashill said last night (via Tab Bamford of Bleacher Nation). Chicago only has 12 healthy forwards without him, but with just six minor-league forwards under NHL contract, they’ll be mindful of recalling anyone unless they absolutely have to, so as not to decimate AHL Rockford’s roster.
Moore, 21, hadn’t missed a game since his recall in November until getting tangled up with Stars forward Colin Blackwell behind the net Sunday night. He left the game and was immediately ruled out for yesterday’s overtime loss to the Mammoth, which wasn’t a good sign for his long-term availability. With just over five weeks left in the regular season, there appears to be a chance this is season-ending for Moore.
It’s been a good rookie season from Moore, who’s stuck mostly on the wing in a middle-six role but has seen some time at center, too. The 19th overall pick in the 2023 draft signed out of the University of Minnesota last spring and began his NHL career with four assists in nine games with the Hawks to close out the schedule. He didn’t make the opening night roster in the fall, but after lighting up Rockford with nine points and a +8 rating in nine games, Chicago recalled him less than a month into the schedule.
Moore’s skating and two-way acumen, not necessarily his production ceiling, were what got him drafted that high. Mission accomplished on the former. Moore ranks in the 83rd percentile or higher in the four skating speed stats tracked by NHL EDGE, and especially excelled with 131 bursts between 20 and 22 miles per hour, sitting in the 91st percentile there.
If it’s the end of the road for him in 2025-26, he ends his rookie year with a 5-14–19 scoring line in 51 games with a -15 rating. That’s not awful production for a first-year player by any means, and it’s good for 10th in scoring on a Chicago team with a bottom-10 offense. His possession impacts didn’t blow anyone out of the water, but were certainly fine in a tough environment in the Windy City. His 47.1% Corsi share ranks sixth among Blackhawks forwards, and his 48.0% expected goals share ranks second at 5-on-5 (min. 50 minutes), per Natural Stat Trick.
The Blackhawks would have loved to see more of Moore down the stretch. They’ll lose him, but should see the addition of at least one first-round pick on offense in the coming days. 2024 #18 pick Sacha Boisvert will be joining the team after his sophomore season with Boston University ends, which could be as soon as tomorrow if they’re upset by last-place Vermont in the first round of the Hockey East tournament. Last year’s third overall selection, Anton Frondell, is also expected to be recalled from his loan to Djurgårdens IF of the Swedish Hockey League when his season ends. The SHL’s regular season ends this weekend, but Djurgården has all but booked a spot in the play-in round.
Snapshots: Benak, Cruikshank, Heartlanders
Minnesota Wild prospect Adam Benak announced on social media today that he has committed to play college hockey at Western Michigan University. Benak, a 2025 fourth-round pick of the Wild, has elected to join the reigning NCAA champions, presumably for the 2026-27 season. Benak is currently playing for the Brantford Bulldogs of the OHL, where he has been one of the league’s most productive 18-year-old players. Of players his age, Benak’s 68 points in just 42 games ranks third in total points and second in scoring rate.
The move to college hockey will be the next test for a player who has found a way to be a productive force at the USHL level, OHL level, and on the international stage. Entering the season, Benak was ranked as the No. 15 prospect in the Wild’s system by the team at Elite Prospects, with scout Sebastian High writing that while he has middle-six upside, his “path to an NHL role is long and winding,” in large part due to his status as an undersized forward. Today’s announcement settles that the next step for Benak on his road to pro hockey will be the NCAA, and scouts will likely be curious to see if he’ll be able to translate his quality production from junior hockey to the college ranks.
Other notes from around the NHL:
- The AHL’s Hershey Bears announced that veteran forward Grant Cruikshank has signed a one-year AHL contract extension to remain with the organization for the 2026-27 season. The 27-year-old has had a solid 2025-26 campaign, setting a career-high for games played (52), goals (nine), and points (14) in a single AHL season. After a five-year college career, Cruikshank began his time as a professional in the ECHL, but after scoring 43 points in 35 games as a rookie, he quickly elevated himself to the AHL side of the AHL/ECHL bubble. Last season, he got into 31 games for the Bears, and this year, he’s been able to carve out a regular role in head coach Derek King’s lineup. He’s become a far more regular fixture on the Bears’ penalty kill, a unit that ranks No. 15 in the AHL, and it’s his development into a reliable defensive forward that has likely earned him this early extension. While he may not have a clear path to the NHL, he could look forward to a long AHL career as a penalty-killing defensive forward, perhaps in the mold of longtime Bridgeport forward Jeff Kubiak.
- The ECHL’s Iowa Heartlanders announced today that the league’s Board of Governors approved the team’s decision to voluntarily suspend operations for the 2026-27 season. In their announcement, Heartlanders owner Michael Devlin called the move “an incredibly difficult decision” but one that “is the most responsible course” as the team reviews options for the franchise’s long-term sustainability. The Heartlanders are the ECHL affiliate of the Minnesota Wild, and have players who are signed to, or have previously signed, NHL contracts on their roster, including Elliot Desnoyers, Cameron Butler, and Stevie Leskovar. Iowa went 36-25-11 last season but has fallen to 19-30-5 this year, No. 28 of 30 teams in league standings. According to HockeyDB, they rank last in the ECHL in average attendance per game.
Blue Jackets’ Erik Gudbranson Suffers Upper-Body Injury
Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Rick Bowness told the media, including team reporter Jeff Svoboda, that veteran defenseman Erik Gudbranson will not travel for Columbus’ upcoming three-game road trip after suffering an upper-body injury during today’s game against the Los Angeles Kings.
The injury limited Gudbranson to just five minutes of ice time today. The 34-year-old had a late start to his 2025-26 season as he was on injured reserve until mid-January with a hip injury.
The Blue Jackets did not reveal a full recovery timeline for Gudbranson, but that is presumably because the full extent of the upper-body injury is likely still being evaluated.
Should Gudbranson miss more than just this upcoming three-game road trip, the consequences could be significant both for Columbus and for Gudbranson himself.
The Blue Jackets have turned their season around since hiring Rick Bowness as their head coach, and are in the midst of a furious push up the Eastern Conference standings. The playoffs currently look like a very realistic possibility for the team, if they can sustain their pace.
Gudbranson has been a key defensive specialist for the Blue Jackets since making his season debut, and his efforts have helped propel the stunning reversal the team has experienced in its competitive fortunes for 2025-26. He’s the Blue Jackets’ No. 3 defenseman in terms of ice time, skating nearly 21 minutes per night.
He’s also a key player on the penalty kill, sitting just a few seconds behind Ivan Provorov for the team lead in short-handed time-on-ice per game. His 2:55 short-handed time on ice per game ranks just outside the top-20 in the NHL in that metric. While Columbus doesn’t have one of the league’s better penalty kills, it’s clear Gudbranson retains the trust of Bowness in key defensive situations.
With all of that in mind, it’s clear losing Gudbranson will pose a challenge for the Blue Jackets. It could present an opportunity for Yegor Zamula or Jake Christiansen to take on some of Gudbranson’s minutes in his absence, but neither is an ideal replacement for the defenseman.
From Gudbranson’s perspective, an extended injury absence would come at an extremely inopportune time. He’s playing out the final year of the four-year, $4MM AAV deal he signed in Columbus, and is set to become an unrestricted free agent in the summer.
While he will be able to offer interested teams a wealth of experience and some coveted traits (his size, physicality, and status as a right-shot defenseman), if he ends up missing even more time this season, his free agent case will be presented with questions attached. More specifically, Gudbranson’s trip to free agency (assuming he does not sign an extension in Columbus) could be dogged with questions over whether teams can trust him to stay healthy as he progresses deeper into his thirties.
It’s Gudbranson’s upcoming free agency, combined with his team’s playoff chase, that gives this development a clear set of stakes. The hope will be, for all parties involved, that the extent of Gudbranson’s absence is limited to just the team’s upcoming road trip.
Photos courtesy of Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Flyers’ Travis Konecny, Nick Seeler Return From Injury
Two veteran Philadelphia Flyers players returned from injury-related absences for the team’s game tonight against the Rangers: winger Travis Konecny and defenseman Nick Seeler.
Konecny is the more notable name of the pair, as he has led the Flyers in scoring each season for the last half-decade.
The 28-year-old has 57 points in 58 games this season, and holds a six-point lead over teammate Trevor Zegras for the scoring lead.
Last week, it was announced that Konecny would be sidelined on a day-to-day basis as he dealt with an upper-body injury. He missed the team’s victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on March 2, as well as their following two contests.
With his return tonight, his injury absence is capped at three games, a stretch in which the Flyers went 2-1-0.
With the Flyers clinging to slim playoff hopes at this stage of the season (their 29-22-11 record puts them seven points behind the Boston Bruins for the Eastern Conference’s final playoff spot, with a game in hand), getting Konecny back now gives the team a boost to its competitive chances.
Were the Flyers somehow in the Western Conference, they would actually be in playoff position, but their geographic position puts their playoff hopes in a precarious spot. For them to build any momentum to go on a run and challenge for a playoff spot for the rest of the season, they’ll need Konecny healthy and playing at his best.
The other injured Flyer to be returning, Seeler, isn’t quite as important to the team as Konecny, but that’s not to say he doesn’t play a useful role in head coach Rick Tocchet’s lineup. The 32-year-old is the Flyers’ No. 5 defenseman in terms of ice time, averaging 18:21 per game.
He’s a regular penalty killer, averaging over two minutes of ice time per game short-handed. He also adds imposing size and a physical edge to a Flyers defense staffed with other players (outside of veteran Rasmus Ristolainen) who are not known for having that kind of dimension to their game.
Seeler missed the Flyers’ last two games nursing a lower-body injury. While Seeler was sidelined, 24-year-old Emil Andrae played in Seeler’s former role on the Flyers’ third pairing, next to veteran Noah Juulsen. With Seeler back, Andrae will exit the lineup and serve as a healthy scratch.
That sort of development has larger implications for Andrae. He is a pending arbitration-eligible restricted free agent, meaning each game carries significant stakes – he’s playing to prove he deserves a spot in the Flyers’ future plans. Each game spent as a healthy scratch is a lost opportunity for Andrae to make his case for a new contract with the Flyers.
But putting the consequences of Seeler’s return for Andrae aside, it’s clear his relatively quick recovery is a positive development for the Flyers as a whole. Seeler, like Konecny, is a valuable veteran for the team, and if they are to continue to play meaningful hockey down the stretch, they’ll need to have both players healthy and productive for as long as possible.
Photos courtesy of Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports
Afternoon Notes: Hutson, Ovechkin, Carlson
The Washington Capitals will be watching closely as top prospect Cole Hutson heads to the Hockey East postseason this weekend. The defenseman could head to Washington as soon as Boston University’s season ends per Chris Cerullo of RMNB. Both team and player have expressed interest in coming together soon, with Capitals general manager Chris Patrick recently mentioning that trade acquisition Timothy Liljegren could be a smart veteran partner for Hutson if he leaves college, “like [the team] hopes”.
Hutson has emerged as a star prospect since joining the Terriers last season. He scored 14 goals and 48 points in 39 games as a freshman, becoming the X-factor addition that drove Boston University to their first National Championship appearance since Jack Eichel‘s great 2014-15 season. Hutson has dwindled to 30 points in 33 games this season, on the back of a struggling Terriers offense as a whole. Those struggles will be their challenge as the playoffs roll around. If and when Hutson moves to the pros, he will rival Rasmus Sandin and Martin Fehervary for minutes on the left-side, and could be the reason one of the veterans moves to the right-side as the team tries to replace John Carlson.
Other notes from around the NHL:
- Sticking in Washington, franchise great Alex Ovechkin said that his retirement decision will hinge on how his body feels in an interview with Ian Oland of RMNB. Ovechkin has scored 24 goals and 50 points in 64 games this season, keeping up a tendency for strong scoring into his age-40 season, though he’s dipped from the pace that led him to 44 goals and 73 points in 65 games of his historic 2024-25 season. Ovechkin holds the NHL’s all-time goals record, racking up 921 in 1,555 career games so far. How many he’ll add to those totals seems to be up in the air as he continues to weigh a closely-followed retirement decision.
- Speaking of Carlson, the former Capitals star is hoping to make his debut with the Anaheim Ducks at the end of their current, four-game road trip as he works back from a day-to-day, lower-body injury per Derek Lee of The Hockey News. The Ducks’ road-trip ends with a back-to-back against Ottawa and Montreal on Saturday and Sunday. Anaheim pulled off the surprise of the Trade Deadline in their acquisition of Carlson for conditional-first-round and third-round draft pick. Carlson scored 10 goals and 46 points in 55 games with the Capitals before the trade. He has surpassed the 50-point mark in each of the last two seasons and reached 71 points in 78 games of the 2021-22 season. He should bring a boost of offense to a veteran Ducks blue-line.
Kraken’s Jaden Schwartz Out Indefinitely With Upper-Body Injury
The Kraken announced this afternoon that winger Jaden Schwartz is out indefinitely after sustaining an upper-body injury, suspected to be his face/head, in Saturday’s loss to the Senators. No corresponding roster move was made, but with Frederick Gaudreau sick and Bobby McMann still working on acquiring a work visa following his acquisition from the Maple Leafs on Friday, Seattle will be eligible to make an emergency recall for tomorrow’s game against the Predators if both remain unavailable.
Thankfully, Schwartz’s injury wasn’t worse. He was skating by the bench area when teammate Eeli Tolvanen laid a check on Ottawa forward Nick Cousins, who lost his footing in the collision and his skate boot rocketed up into Schwartz’s face. He didn’t sustain any drastic cuts but the force of the collision understandably caused him to leave the contest.
Schwartz, who’s been with the Kraken since day one in 2021, is a pending unrestricted free agent. Seattle opted to hold onto him and all their other pending UFAs at the deadline last week amid a playoff race that currently has them in the second wild-card spot, just one point ahead of the Sharks, who have a game in hand. They’ve dropped four of six since the Olympic break and, only scoring 2.84 goals per game on the year, don’t exactly have offense to spare.
The 33-year-old has already missed time once this season, sitting out around six weeks with a lower-body injury between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. In 42 appearances on the year, he has 10 goals and 21 points. He’s one of Seattle’s eight double-digit goal-scorers but is still having the third-worst offensive performance on a per-game basis over his 14 full NHL seasons.
He’d been skating mostly on a line with Tolvanen and Chandler Stephenson down the middle. McMann, acquired from the Maple Leafs, could be a natural fit to step into Schwartz’s vacated left-wing slot tomorrow against Nashville if his visa gets sorted by then.
Blues Recall Theo Lindstein, Otto Stenberg
The Blues’ sell-off at the deadline wasn’t as wide-spanning as it could have been, but they still moved out a pair of key veterans in Justin Faulk and Brayden Schenn. Those roster spots will be going directly toward some of the organization’s brightest prospects, as they announced today that they’ve recalled defenseman Theo Lindstein and center Otto Stenberg from AHL Springfield.
St. Louis held three first-round picks in the 2023 draft, holding their own at 10th overall. That turned into center Dalibor Dvorsky, who’s been a top-nine contributor for most of this year. The others, 25th and 29th, were acquired in a deadline sell-off that year for Ryan O’Reilly and Vladimir Tarasenko in separate deals. Those turned into Stenberg and Lindstein, respectively, with today’s moves bringing all three into the NHL for the first time.
The Blues now have eight defenders on their active roster, but they’ll presumably rotate in Lindstein multiple times down the stretch. It will be his NHL debut when he gets into the lineup. He was the #5-ranked prospect in St. Louis’ system entering the year by Elite Prospects, but hasn’t really answered the bell so far in his first season in North America.
Lindstein operated in a consistent yet limited role for Brynäs IF in the Swedish Hockey League last year, helping the club to a league-best record in their first year after gaining promotion back up from the country’s second division. St. Louis was hoping that momentum could translate into Lindstein playing a bigger role in the AHL, but that simply hasn’t been the case. In 56 games, the two-way lefty has been limited to a 6-8–14 scoring line with a team-worst -24 rating.
Granted, Springfield hasn’t been a great environment this season. They’ve received subpar goaltending, never recovering from the loss of Colten Ellis on waivers to the Sabres at the beginning of the season, and are seventh in their division with a 22-27-7 record and a -45 goal differential. That said, it’s undeniably been a difficult adjustment so far after Lindstein “increased his defensive efficacy, too, shining as a calming presence on the backend” over the past couple of seasons in Sweden, Elite Prospects’ Lassi Alanen wrote.
It’s been the opposite story for Stenberg, who started the year down at #8 in the Blues’ pool rankings but may have surpassed Lindstein in prestige at this point. The all-three-positions forward already got a lengthy look on the NHL roster earlier this year, skating 18 games for the club in December and January, and didn’t look out of place in the slightest with a goal and seven assists while averaging 14 minutes per game. He slotted in mostly on the wing in a defense-oriented role, making that production all the more impressive, while recording a +4 rating and 1.83 hits per game.
Down in Springfield, Stenberg has also been the club’s best two-way forward. His four goals and 15 points in 33 games don’t jump off the page, but a team-high +4 rating does. In fact, he’s the only Springfield regular whose rating is in the black.
He will be an NHL player if he’s not already. The question becomes how much upward mobility in the lineup he’ll offer based on how much he develops offensively. He averaged under a shot on goal per game in his earlier recall. He’ll need to start generating more if he wants to slot in as the true middle-six playdriver he was drafted to be.
Jake Sanderson Out Week-To-Week
Senators star defender Jake Sanderson is out week-to-week with the upper-body injury he sustained against the Kraken on Saturday, head coach Travis Green announced (via Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia).
Ottawa recalled Dennis Gilbert from AHL Belleville in a related move this morning, but he will not play tonight against the Canucks. Nikolas Matinpalo has been cleared to return from his undisclosed injury and will replace Sanderson in the lineup, sliding in as their #3 lefty alongside Nick Jensen, the team said.
Sanderson’s first significant injury since undergoing season-ending hand surgery in March 2022 couldn’t come at a worse time. After beating Seattle 7-4 over the weekend, the Sens have kept pace in the wild-card race and entered play Monday five points back of the Bruins for the second spot with a game in hand. They still have the Blue Jackets to leapfrog before putting themselves in duel mode with Boston, though, and considering Columbus has matched them with a 7-1-2 record in their last 10, they’ll need to keep all the pressure on.
While the Eastern Conference field has separated into the haves and have-nots post-deadline, there are still 10 teams truly in the mix for eight playoff spots. Ottawa currently sits 10th in that group, and while MoneyPuck gives them a 50.8% chance of making the playoffs, fifth and 10th place in the conference are so close that there are seven teams in the 50-85% range, with Ottawa bringing up the rear there as well.
All that means a lot still needs to go right for the Sens to get back to the playoffs for the second straight season. One saving grace is that they don’t have a particularly difficult schedule with around league-average opponents the rest of the way. They get their easiest remaining matchup out of the way tonight in what is an absolute must-win against the last-place Canucks. Meanwhile, three teams they’re chasing – Boston, Detroit, and Pittsburgh – have three of the five most difficult remaining schedules.
It will get even more difficult to make up ground without Sanderson. On the heels of a 10th-place Norris Trophy finish last season, he’s upped his points per game from 0.71 to 0.77 while posting a career-best +9 rating, averaging 24:49 of ice time per game, and posting spectacular 5-on-5 possession numbers. Ottawa is controlling 56% of shot attempts, 57.1% of scoring chances, and 56.8% of expected goals with Sanderson on the ice.
Green must now shuffle the deck regarding his defense pairings. He has the luxury of another top-pair caliber lefty, Thomas Chabot, sitting behind Sanderson on the depth chart. He’ll go back to being the Sens’ #1 in terms of ice time, moving up to slot in alongside top shutdown righty Artem Zub. Tyler Kleven and Jordan Spence, who have been so effective as Ottawa’s third pairing, will receive second-pairing deployment tonight while Jensen, who’d served as Chabot’s partner at even strength for much of the year, will see reduced minutes alongside Matinpalo.
Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.
Canadiens Were “In The Mix” Late On Nazem Kadri
From the moment the Avalanche expressed interest in bringing Nazem Kadri back into the fold, they became the frontrunner to land him from the Flames, although that didn’t stop other teams from pursuing the top-six pivot. Part of why the initial Kadri to Colorado report didn’t come out until an hour after the deadline passed was because of how aggressively the Canadiens were pushing to land him until ultimately backing out with less than a couple of hours to go, The Athletic’s Peter Baugh reports.
Montreal’s interest in Kadri isn’t a new storyline. It was well-documented that they were in the market for a top-six forward (although preferably a winger), but they were still limited in how many assets they were willing to give up at this early stage of their contention window. The Flames and Habs also had talks surrounding Blake Coleman throughout the year, and Montreal was also linked to Calgary defender Zach Whitecloud last week, although none of those deals ended up getting done.
Instead, the Habs were silent last week. General manager Kent Hughes told reporters Friday after the deadline passed that they spent all their time that morning and afternoon on a “significant deal” and didn’t devote their attention anywhere else (via Arpon Basu of The Athletic). Given Baugh’s report, it stands to reason that the potential pickup was Kadri.
A first-round pick, a second-round pick, a B-tier prospect in Max Curran, and a salary ended up going back Calgary’s way – and that was with the Flames retaining cash, which they wouldn’t have had to do if they took Patrik Laine off Montreal’s hands in a Kadri deal. It was a matchable price, but evidently one Hughes determined Montreal wasn’t willing to exceed before making a more serious playoff challenge with their existing core.
The Habs will instead roll into what they hope will be a second consecutive playoff berth with a top-six forward group that, as currently constructed, has three players aged 22 or younger and no one over the age of 26. Montreal only has three forwards over the age of 30 – Josh Anderson, Phillip Danault, and Brendan Gallagher – and they’re all on a line together.