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Minor Transactions: 11/20/2025

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It’s a busy day around the hockey world, but especially on the NHL schedule, with 12 games on the docket. The highlights include a rematch of the 2025 first-round playoff series between the Montreal Canadiens and Washington Capitals, as well as two of the more positive surprise teams of the season (the Chicago Blackhawks and Seattle Kraken) facing off.

While the NHL world is busy with games to play, player movement has been slower. That’s not the case outside the NHL, where a multitude of transactions have been made across the European pro leagues and the North American minors. Here, we’ll run down notable player moves from those leagues:

  • Former NHL defenseman Christian Wolanin has signed an AHL PTO with the Providence Bruins, the AHL affiliate of the Boston Bruins. It’s been something of a surprise to see Wolanin, 30, linger on the free agent market so long. He won the Calder Cup this past spring with the Abbotsford Canucks, playing a key role for the club. He scored 40 points in 58 regular-season games and added 10 points in 17 games during Abbotsford’s playoff run. While finding a place to play in the AHL becomes considerably more difficult for veterans once they are no longer considered “development players” per the AHL’s development rule, it was still surprising to see the 2022-23 Eddie Shore Award Winner (given to the AHL’s Best Defenseman) wait until late November to sign with a team, and especially on a PTO rather than a full-time deal. Beyond being a quality AHLer, Wolanin also brings 86 games of NHL experience to the table.
  • Nikita Artamonov, one of the better prospects whose rights are owned by the Carolina Hurricanes, was loaned from his KHL team, Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, to Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk. Artamonov was one of the top young wingers in the KHL last season, scoring 22 goals and 39 points in 63 games. His production, and overall usage, has declined sharply this season, as he has just one point through 15 games with Torpedo. That appears to have prompted this loan move, where he figures to get a better opportunity. Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk currently sit fifth in the KHL’s Eastern Conference, but are one of the lower-scoring teams of their caliber. The addition of Artamonov should help them in that area, and a more consistent diet of KHL-level minutes is likely to aid Artamonov’s development.
  • Former Ottawa Senators netminder Kevin Mandolese was released from his AHL PTO with the Charlotte Checkers today, per a team announcement. Mandolese, who began the year on an NHL PTO with the Montreal Canadiens for training camp, played in just one game for the Checkers while on this PTO. In the team’s Nov. 8 contest against the Syracuse Crunch, Mandolese saved 28 of 30 shots to backstop Charlotte to a 3-2 victory. Now he’ll have to find his next place to continue his pro career. Mandolese has played in 86 career AHL games, and has an .898 career save percentage.
  • Former Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins and Texas Stars forward Oula Palve has transferred from EHC Kloten of the Swiss National League to Djurgardens IF of Sweden’s SHL. Per a team announcement, Palve will join Djurgardens on Nov. 30 on a contract running through the end of the 2025-26 season. Palve got off to a slow start with Kloten, scoring just five points across 15 games. He’s been moderately successful in the past in Sweden’s top league (he scored 35 points in 2021-22) but has been at his best in his native Finland. Palve was Liiga’s top scorer in 2023-24 with 64 points in 60 games, a performance that landed him a contract in Switzerland’s top league. But after bouncing between three Swiss clubs during his time in the NL, Palve has now landed back in Sweden where he’ll look to help Djurgardens push to climb the SHL standings.
  • 2022-23 Liiga rookie of the year Niko Huuhtanen, a Tampa Bay Lightning prospect, was reassigned from the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch to the ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears today. The 22-year-old, who was the 224th pick in the 2021 draft, looked to be one of Tampa’s more promising prospects just a few years after his selection. He scored 46 points in 52 Liiga games in 2023-24, a significant number for a league that has fewer point-per-game individual scorers compared to North American leagues. There was hope that his success in a top European pro league would allow the 6’3″ winger to translate easily to the North American pro game, but that hasn’t occurred to this point. Huuhtanen only managed 20 points in 51 games as an AHL rookie, and while he has three points in five games so far this season, he spent a month injured and two of his three points came in a blowout loss to Belleville on Nov. 1. The Lightning are likely looking to help Huuhtanen rebuild his game, and now he’ll have the chance to do so in the ECHL.
  • A trade was completed in the KHL today, with Sibir Novosibirsk trading cash considerations and young blueliner Yaroslav Belyakov for veteran KHLer Yegor Zaitsev. Zaitsev, 27, is the big prize for Sibir in this deal. He’s a 2017 New Jersey Devils draft pick who has skated in over 400 KHL games in his career. Belyakov has just 18 games of KHL experience to his name but is a 19-year-old who scored 20 points in 31 games at the MHL (junior league) level last season.
  • Veteran Czech netminder Jakub Kovar has signed a one-year contract extension to remain with HC Sparta Praha through 2026-27. The 37-year-old, who is a 2006 Philadelphia Flyers draft pick, has played for Prague since the 2022-23 campaign. He’s a former star goalie in the KHL for Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg, reaching the KHL’s All-Star game three times and leading the league in shutouts in 2020-21. Kovar has been his usual reliable self so far in 2025-26, posting a .926 save percentage across 12 games in the Czech Extraliga. Besides the Extraliga and KHL, Kovar also has some experience in the Swiss National League, thanks to a 14-game stint with ZSC Lions in 2021-22.
  • 287-game Liiga veteran Otto Makinen has signed a one-year contract extension with his current club, JYP. The 27-year-old pivot has been a revelation so far in 2025-26, scoring 16 goals in 18 games. For a player normally lauded for his two-way ability rather than his offensive production, and as someone with a career-high of 27 points in Liiga, this level of production is almost entirely unexpected. While it remains to be seen if Makinen will be able to sustain that points production over the course of a full season, this contract extension shows JYP have seen enough and would like to keep him around for at least another year.
  • Just a short period into his second ECHL campaign, forward Adam Robbins has elected to transfer overseas. The 25-year-old forward, who is a former USHL champion with the 2020-21 Chicago Steel, has signed a one-year contract with the Coventry Blaze of the EIHL, the top tier of pro hockey in the United Kingdom. Robbins began his pro career in 2024-25 with the Tahoe Knight Monsters, signing there after a solid final NCAA season with Princeton University. Robbins had scored 29 points in 30 games as a senior at Princeton, but only managed 13 points in 51 games as an ECHL rookie. Now after struggling to find a place in the Cincinnati Cyclones’ lineup in 2025-26, Robbins has decided England will be where he continues his professional career.

Injury Updates: Stolarz, Durzi, Cernak

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Toronto Maple Leafs starting netminder Anthony Stolarz has been out with an upper-body injury for a little over a week, and at the moment it’s unclear at what point he’ll be fit to return to the ice. Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube told the media today, including the Toronto Sun’s Terry Koshan, that Stolarz’s injury was “worse than we thought” and that at this point he does not have a timeline for Stolarz’s return to the ice.

While Berube did go on to add that “maybe tomorrow” Stolarz will be back on the ice, it doesn’t sound as though anything related to his recovery is set in stone. The Maple Leafs could certainly use a healthy Stolarz back on the ice and playing at his best. The team currently sits 27th in the NHL with a 9-9-2 record and averages the second-highest goals-against per game. Stolarz has an .884 save percentage in 13 games this season, but performed much better last year with a .926 save percentage in 34 games.

More injury updates from around the league:

  • The Utah Mammoth are set to get one of their better defensemen back from injury. Cole Bagley of KSL Sports relayed word from head coach Andre Tourigny that injured blueliner Sean Durzi is now considered out on a day-to-day timeline and is nearing a return to the ice. Durzi returned to practice in a regular jersey today, having missed all of the Mammoth’s games since their Oct. 11 contest against the Nashville Predators. Injuries also limited Durzi significantly in 2024-25, as he got into just 30 games. The year before that, he was highly effective, scoring a career-high 41 points in 76 games.
  • When Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak stepped onto the ice for practice this morning, most observers assumed he’d be fit to play in the team’s game tonight against the Edmonton Oilers. That didn’t come to fruition though, as his injury kept him from taking on the Oilers tonight, meaning he’ll miss a second game with an undisclosed ailment. Cernak has been Tampa Bay’s No. 4 defenseman in terms of ice time this season, averaging 19:05 time-on-ice per game including 2:48 on average on the penalty kill, second-highest on the team.

Colorado Avalanche Activate, Reassign Nikita Prishchepov

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The Colorado Avalanche announced today that they have activated forward Nikita Prishchepov off injured reserve and reassigned him to their AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles.

Prishchepov has been on injured reserve for all of 2025-26 due to an undisclosed injury. With this transaction, the Avalanche have returned the 21-year-old to the team he spent most of the 2024-25 season with.

2024-25 was Prishchepov’s first season as a member of the Avalanche organization, as he was selected in the seventh round, 217th overall at the 2024 draft as a double-overage player. He had scored 22 goals and 67 points in 63 games with Victoriaville of the QMJHL in 2023-24, and had scored at decent but not stellar rates in the two seasons prior to that.

Due to his status as a seventh-round rookie playing his first year of professional hockey, expectations for Prishchepov’s rookie season were low. He exceeded them by playing in 10 NHL games and scoring 23 points in 51 games in the AHL.

Now healthy and back in the minors, Prishchepov will be tasked with building on his solid rookie season and making a more concentrated push for an NHL call-up over the course of 2025-26.

Penguins’ Philip Tomasino Clears Waivers

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Nov. 20: Despite now being eligible for assignment to AHL Wilkes-Barre, Tomasino was present for practice with the NHL Penguins today and appears to still be on the club’s NHL roster.

He will remain eligible to be reassigned to the minors without needing to be placed on waivers until he plays in 10 cumulative NHL games since when he cleared waivers, or until he spends 30 cumulative days on an NHL roster.

Nov. 19: Tomasino went unclaimed on waivers and can now be assigned to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, per Friedman.

Nov. 18: According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Pittsburgh Penguins have placed forward Philip Tomasino on waivers today.

This move could end Tomasino’s tenure in Pittsburgh, just one year removed from when the team traded a 2027 fourth-round pick to the Nashville Predators to acquire him. The Penguins likely viewed Tomasino as a player who could potentially benefit from a change of scenery. The 2019 first-round pick was once viewed as one of the Predators’ top prospects. The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler ranked Tomasino No. 2 in the Predators’ system in 2021, writing at the time that he saw “clear top-six upside” and a player who was a “multi-faceted play-driver” that could still find a way to impact games even without consistent puck touches.

After Tomasino’s rookie season in 2021-22, it looked like Tomasino was still on track to live up to the hype he’d garnered as a prospect. He scored 11 goals and 32 points, providing useful secondary scoring to a Predators team that reached the playoffs. Tomasino would go on to score 38 points across his next 72 NHL games in 2022-23 and 2023-24, but those numbers didn’t tell the whole story.

Tomasino’s propensity for defensive lapses and inability to consistently win puck battles or play through the middle of the ice cost him the trust of Predators head coach Andrew Brunette, who took the team to the playoffs and won 47 games in his first season at the helm in Nashville. Tomasino averaged 15:36 time-on-ice under John Hynes the year prior, but his ice time fell to just 12:34 per game under Brunette.

After Tomasino scored just one point in 11 games to start 2024-25, the Predators traded him to Pittsburgh. Initially, the Penguins’ bet seemed to be paying off, as Tomasino scored three goals and four points in his first five games with the Penguins. The rest of the way, it was a relatively similar story to Tomasino’s time in Nashville. He had decent box score numbers (23 points in 50 games, a 38-point 82-game pace) but a lackluster all-around impact.

While it’s come on an accelerated timeline, Tomasino’s time in Pittsburgh appears to have followed a similar track to his time in Nashville. There were those aforementioned early flashes, followed by passable scoring numbers and a sense that he consistently left fans and coaches wanting more.

So far in his second season in Pittsburgh, Tomasino’s time has gone similarly to his later tenure as a Predator. A coaching change happened, and he’s not nearly as trusted by the new head coach, Dan Muse, as he was under former coach Mike Sullivan. Tomasino’s ice time has again declined to just over 12 minutes per night, and he’s found himself a healthy scratch on some nights, just as he was in Nashville.

Over the last few weeks, there was a growing sense in the media that Tomasino’s days on the Penguins’ NHL roster could be numbered. The Athletic’s Josh Yohe reported on Oct. 27 that the Penguins were “not thrilled with Tomasino’s current play,” and that when he was still in Pittsburgh, Sullivan “believed that Tomasino concerned himself too much with his statistics and the scoresheet and not enough with the finer aspects of the game.” Yohe also wrote that Tomasino had been “painfully invisible” in games so far in 2025-26.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Matt Vensel wrote earlier this month about how Muse had implored Tomasino to find a way to consistently “impact the game” and forge his own identity as a player at the NHL level. Vensel wrote at the time that Tomasino “would presumably be on a short list of players they would consider sending down” in the event that the Penguins needed to clear a roster spot if his play did not improve dramatically, and if he remained unable to impact the game in the kind of way Muse wanted him to.

Based on his placement on waivers today, it appears the Penguins may feel Tomasino is not likely to discover that identity or find a way to consistently impact the game in Pittsburgh. It’s important to note, of course, that Tomasino remains just 24 years old, and despite his struggle to establish himself as an NHLer, remains a player with legitimate offensive talents. While things haven’t worked out in Pittsburgh, there are only so many players going around who possess the ability to dazzle with puck skills and offensive ability. While Tomasino has only been able to show off those talents on an inconsistent basis at the NHL level, it’s possible another club could look to claim Tomasino and see if their coaching staff can unlock the potential Tomasino wasn’t able to realize with his prior two teams.

Photos courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

Ducks’ Pavel Mintyukov Potentially Seeking Trade

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In his recent 32 Thoughts blog, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that Anaheim Ducks defenseman Pavel Mintyukov is upset with being scratched in back-to-back games. So much so, in fact, that Friedman indicated that Mintyukov would like to be moved if the Ducks aren’t going to play him.

Mintyukov, 21, isn’t helping his case too much. The former 10th overall pick of the 2022 NHL Draft got off to a decent start to his career during the 2023-24 season, scoring four goals and 28 points in 63 games while averaging 18:51 of ice time per game. He finished 13th in voting for the Calder Memorial Trophy.

Still, concerns remained about his defensive game, evidenced by his -20 rating and 88.9% on-ice save percentage at even strength. Over the next two years, including 18 games during the 2025-26 season, Mintyukov’s defensive play has improved while his offensive contributions have cratered.

Since the beginning of the 2024-25 campaign, Mintyukov has scored five goals and 22 points in 86 contests, averaging 17:07 of ice time per game. Additionally, he’s blocked 109 shots and added 91 hits during that time frame. Further, outside of his boxcar stats, his on-ice save percentage at even strength has improved, averaging around 91.0%.

Struggling to break out in any meaningful fashion, it’s unsurprising that other prospects such as Jackson LaCombe, Olen Zellweger, and Ian Moore have passed Mintyukov on the organizational depth chart.

That adds to the difficulty of hypothesizing a reasonable return for Mintyukov if the Ducks even made him available. It’s relatively rare for a recent top-10 pick to request a trade in the last year of their entry-level contract. It’s much more common for top prospects to request trades before signing their entry-level contract, such as Isaac Howard, Rutger McGroarty, and Mintyukov’s teammate, Cutter Gauthier, as recent examples.

The closest example to Mintyukov’s situation would be netminder Yaroslav Askarov. Drafted with the 11th overall pick of the 2020 NHL Draft, Askarov requested a trade from the Nashville Predators in the final year of his entry-level contract after the team brought in Scott Wedgewood as the backup netminder and signed Juuse Saros to a long-term extension.

Despite playing in far fewer games than Mintyukov at the time, the Predators were able to recoup Magnus Chrona, David Edstrom, and a conditional 2025 first-round pick from the San Jose Sharks for Askarov. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to argue at this point that Mintyukov is worth that price tag.

Furthermore, without arbitration rights, Mintyukov has little power in his situation. His General Manager, Pat Verbeek, is one of the most patient front office leaders in the league, and won’t feel pressure to make a move anytime soon. If Mintyukov is moved at any point during the current campaign, Verbeek will need to be blown away by the offer.

Winnipeg Jets Permit Brad Lambert To Seek Trade

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Despite typically being one of the first forwards recalled in case of injury, Winnipeg Jets forward prospect Brad Lambert is reportedly disgruntled about his position within the Jets organization. To that end, insider Frank Seravalli shared that Winnipeg has permitted Lambert and his representation to seek a trade partner.

It wasn’t all that long ago that Lambert was considered one of the best prospects available in the 2022 NHL Draft, with some scouts indicating he could be selected second overall behind then Kingston Frontenac, Shane Wright. Unfortunately, due to a horrific start to the 2021-22 season with the Liiga’s JYP, Lambert was cut from the team only to land with his hometown Pelicans. He finished the season with four goals and 10 points in 49 games with a -16 rating.

Still, Lambert’s previous projections cause him to stay in the first round despite the disappointing season. The Jets selected him with the 30th overall selection and loaned him to the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds for the 2022-23 campaign. He played well in Seattle, scoring 17 goals and 38 points in 26 games with a +27 rating, and finished the year with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose, scoring two goals and three points in 14 contests.

Lambert’s production in the 2023-24 campaign led some to believe that he may have turned a significant corner in his development. In his first full professional season, Lambert scored 21 goals and 55 points in 64 games with the Moose and even earned his NHL debut, where he registered an assist. Despite being one of the youngest players on the team at the time, Lambert led Manitoba in scoring.

He slipped last season. Although the team around him wasn’t altogether great, Lambert took a huge step back in his production, registering only seven goals and 35 points in 61 games with a -30 rating. The Moose themselves finished second-to-last in the entire AHL and had the lowest-producing offense of any team.

Lambert’s primary concern has become his NHL experience. In the last two years, including the first month and a half of the 2025-26 campaign, Lambert has scored one goal and two points in nine games for the Jets, averaging 10:28 of ice time typically in a fourth-line role.

Clearly, Lambert believes he has earned an extended look at the NHL level, and the Jets are seemingly willing to grant him that, albeit with a different team. Several contenders are seeking a second-line center, though there’s no argument that Lambert has worked himself up to that stature quite yet.

Whether through injury or another reason, the Calgary Flames, Minnesota Wild, New Jersey Devils, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Vancouver Canucks could all serve as a potential destination for Lambert. Assuming the Jets aren’t looking to receive anything close to a first-round pick, which they used to select Lambert three years ago, they should have no significant hurdles to clear in swinging a deal.

Maple Leafs Activate Scott Laughton, Place Nicolas Roy On IR

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The Maple Leafs have activated Scott Laughton from injured reserve ahead of tonight’s game against the Blue Jackets, David Alter of The Hockey News reports. The team placed center Nicolas Roy on IR in a corresponding move to open up a roster spot.

Laughton, 31, returns from his second injury absence of the season. He hasn’t played since Nov. 8, when he sustained an upper-body injury against the Bruins in just his second game back in the lineup after a lower-body injury he suffered during the preseason had him out of the lineup for nearly a month to begin the campaign. In 17:10 of total ice time against Boston and Utah three days prior, Laughton recorded a -2 rating, two shot attempts, and seven hits while going 9-for-14 on faceoffs (64.3%).

As Toronto contends with a long list of injuries, it’ll be looking to a 13-year veteran in Laughton to help stabilize its bottom-six forward group. According to TSN’s Mark Masters, Laughton will center the Leafs’ third line in his return between Steven Lorentz and rookie Easton Cowan. That trio was paired together throughout the preseason, and until Laughton sustained his injury late in camp, most thought it would start the year as Toronto’s fourth line. They’ll be getting their first look during the regular season tonight after Max Domi took Cowan’s spot on the right wing during his previous brief stint in the lineup, as Cowan was assigned to AHL Toronto to make room for Laughton rejoining the active roster last time around.

Laughton, a Toronto-area native, is in his first full season in the blue and white after being picked up at last season’s trade deadline from the Flyers, who’d drafted him No. 20 overall back in 2012. While brought in primarily as a two-way conscience for the bottom six, Laughton had routinely been a 30-to-40-point producer over the last several years in Philadelphia. That hasn’t been the case in Toronto, where the 6’1″ pivot has just two goals and four assists for six points in 35 combined regular-season and playoff games since his acquisition. With Roy, Matthew Knies, and Auston Matthews all unavailable, they need more offense out of him to help revitalize an offense that’s been limited to three goals or fewer in four straight.

Roy’s IR placement is retroactive to his last appearance on Nov. 15, so he’s only been ruled out of tonight’s game and will be eligible to return Saturday against the Canadiens. The 6’4″ center sat out Tuesday’s win over the Blues with an upper-body injury after logging a season-high 19:45 of ice time against Chicago three days prior. Acquired from the Golden Knights in the Mitch Marner sign-and-trade over the summer, Roy has struggled to produce in a third-line role and has just one goal and four points through his first 19 appearances as a Leaf.

Wild Place Vladimir Tarasenko On Injured Reserve

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The Wild announced Thursday that they’ve placed forward Vladimir Tarasenko on injured reserve due to a lower-body injury. They didn’t announce a corresponding move, leaving a roster spot open for a potential Zach Bogosian or Nico Sturm IR activation in the coming days.

Tarasenko has already missed three games. The team said his IR placement is retroactive to Nov. 14, not his last appearance on Nov. 11, indicating he sustained it during practice or off-ice. Still, the placement doesn’t technically rule him out for any time as he’s eligible for activation before Friday’s game against the Penguins. Taking him out of the mix now to open up a roster spot indicates he’ll miss more time than that, though.

It’s another pressing injury for a Minnesota top-nine forward group already missing Marco Rossi and Ryan Hartman, both of whom are on IR but have longer return timelines than Bogosian and Sturm. Picked up from the Red Wings for future considerations last summer after a highly disappointing 2024-25 campaign in Detroit, Tarasenko has been a decent fill-in for the Wild with 10 points in 18 games, but he only has a pair of goals. Most of his time has come in second-line duties with Matt Boldy and Joel Eriksson Ek, although Mats Zuccarello’s return from injury bumped him down to a third-line role. He’s averaged 15:18 of ice time per game, a roughly 30-second bump over his usage with the Wings, but hasn’t provided much of any value outside of his point production. The former Blues star has controlled just 44.2% of shot attempts at even strength and has a -6 rating.

His absence is yet another stressor on a Wild forward group that’s struggling with the domino effect of injuries. Four of the six players currently comprising their third and fourth lines haven’t scored a goal this season. The bright side has been the play of rookie Danila Yurov, who’s been elevated to center duties between Zuccarello and Kirill Kaprizov with Rossi out and has three assists in two games while doing so.

Still, adding a forward was a priority for Minnesota from the start and it must only be intensifying now, even if it’s just a waiver claim or depth piece who can contribute more offense in a fourth-line role than their underwhelming internal options.

Avalanche Recall Tristen Nielsen

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The Avalanche have recalled forward Tristen Nielsen from AHL Colorado, according to a team announcement. The team had two open roster spots, so no corresponding move is necessary.

It’s Nielsen’s second recall of his NHL career. The first one came earlier this month, after the Avs, who had initially signed Nielsen only to an AHL contract in August, tore up that deal and converted it into a two-year, two-way contract to make him eligible for a recall. He made his NHL debut on Nov. 4, recording four hits in 5:25 of ice time in a win over the Lightning, before being promptly returned to the minors.

Nielsen, 25, had spent his first four professional seasons in the Canucks organization, all with AHL Abbotsford. He was Vancouver’s property after signing an entry-level deal with them in 2023, but the Canucks non-tendered him back in June. So far, he’s been found money for the Avs’ affiliate. He’s second on the Colorado Eagles in scoring with 14 points (nine goals, five assists) in 16 games and has operated at a point-per-game pace since being returned to them earlier this month.

The British Columbia native will now presumably get another crack at the Avs’ fourth line Thursday against the Rangers, unless they opt to dress seven defensemen. With Valeri Nichushkin sidelined week-to-week, they’ve been elevating names from the minors like Nielsen, Daniil Gushchin, and Taylor Makar on an as-needed basis to slot into the lineup.

Lightning Place Victor Hedman On IR, Activate Nick Paul From LTIR

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The Lightning have shifted star defenseman Victor Hedman to injured reserve with the undisclosed injury that’s already kept him out for nearly two weeks, according to Erik Erlendsson of Lightning Insider. His roster spot is going to forward Nick Paul, who’s been activated from long-term injured reserve and will make his season debut Thursday against the Oilers. Hedman is eligible to be activated at any time but will remain sidelined for “probably a couple [of] more weeks,” head coach Jon Cooper told the beat this morning (including the team’s Benjamin Pierce).

Losing a No. 1 defenseman for any stretch of time is always worrisome, but an extended return timeline for Hedman is especially disappointing because of the Bolts’ other injury woes in their top four. Ryan McDonagh remains on IR with an undisclosed injury, while Erik Černák sat out Tuesday’s game against the Devils with a lower-body injury, although he’s expected back tonight. With all those absences, Emil Martinsen Lilleberg is the only Lightning rearguard to play in all 19 games this season.

Hedman’s current absence is also tracking to be one of the longest ones in his incredibly durable career. If he’s out for another two weeks from today, that would bring him to 12 games missed. He hasn’t missed that much time since various injuries limited him to 70 out of 82 appearances in the 2018-19 campaign. Before the injury, Hedman had been left without a goal through 15 games but had still racked up 12 assists, a figure that still leads Tampa’s blue line in scoring. He’s continued his dominance on the possession front, controlling 53.8% of shot attempts at even strength, and his pairing with J.J. Moser has outscored opponents 7-5 at 5-on-5.

His absence his perhaps most felt on Tampa’s power play, where he had half of his point production. They’re already at an underwhelming 17.7% on the year and have gone 2-for-12 in the four games Hedman’s been out. Darren Raddysh is now quarterbacking the top unit in Hedman’s place, but he’s got just two assists with the man advantage in 13 games.

While the Bolts’ defense group remains in disarray, they’ll trade that for having a fully healthy top-nine forward group for the first time this season. Only depth piece Pontus Holmberg remains on the injured list. Paul missed the first six weeks of the year and comes back a couple of weeks behind schedule after undergoing an upper-body procedure extremely late in the offseason. The versatile 6’4″ forward will make his season debut on the wing on a line with Jake Guentzel and Brayden Point, per Pierce. That unit has been downgraded to Tampa’s de facto second line because of Point’s sluggish start to the year, with only three goals and 11 points through 19 games and a -9 rating.

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