Five Key Stories: 2/16/26 – 2/22/26
With the NHL continuing its break for the Olympics, it was a relatively quiet week around the league. However, on top of the Olympic tournament ending, there was still some notable news around the hockey world which is recapped in our key stories.
Gold For USA: Heading into the Olympics, a Canada versus the USA matchup was one that many fans were hoping to see after their two memorable matchups at the 4 Nations Face-Off in 2025. With both teams going undefeated through their first five games, that meeting came in the Gold Medal contest. Matt Boldy opened the scoring for Team USA while Cale Makar tied it up for Canada late in the second. After a goalless third period, that set the stage for a three-on-three overtime where Jack Hughes fired home the winner to win USA the gold. It’s a measure of revenge after losing in overtime last year at the 4 Nations while it’s their first gold medal in the men’s tournament since 1980. Meanwhile, on the injury front, Canada’s Sidney Crosby and Finland’s Mikko Rantanen both missed medal round games due to injuries which will be something to keep an eye on.
Back On The Market: When Jeff Skinner signed a one-year, $3MM deal with San Jose in free agency, it felt like one of those cases where the Sharks could give him some playing time, increase his value, and flip him for future assets at the trade deadline. That clearly isn’t happening now after the two sides reached a mutual agreement to terminate the remainder of his contract, making him an unrestricted free agent. The 33-year-old notched just six goals and seven assists in 33 games this season and had been scratched for several weeks before his release. While he’s walking away from more guaranteed money than he’ll get when he gets his next contract, Skinner appears to be willing to make that trade off to land either more guaranteed playing time or a chance to play with more of a contender.
Three For Bussi: Brandon Bussi has been one of the feel-good stories of the season. Claimed off waivers in training camp to serve as Carolina’s third goalie despite never seeing NHL action before, he has since taken on a bigger role and won 23 of his 27 starts. He was rewarded for his efforts as the Hurricanes signed him to a three-year, $5.7MM contract extension that begins next season. With Pyotr Kochetkov likely done for the season with a lingering hip injury and Frederik Andersen having some up-and-down performances, Bussi is likely to be Carolina’s top netminder down the stretch. Meanwhile, assuming Kochetkov is able to return next season, the Hurricanes’ goalie tandem will cost just $3.9MM next season, a significant bargain.
Injury News: The Ducks won’t be getting their backup goalie back to aid in their push for a playoff spot. Instead, Petr Mrazek will miss the rest of the season after undergoing hip surgery. The veteran is in the final year of his contract, one that carries a $4.25MM cap charge, and finishes with just ten appearances. Ville Husso, who started the season as a pricey third-string option, is now the full-time backup behind Lukas Dostal. Meanwhile, Filip Chytil’s rough year continues. After the Canucks center returned from a suspected concussion, he’s now out indefinitely once more after suffering a facial fracture in a mini-game in practice earlier in the week. A key part of the return for J.T. Miller last season, Chytil has been limited to just 27 games in total since then, a number that won’t be increasing for a while.
Back Behind The Bench: The Oilers will have a familiar face behind the bench when play resumes this week. The team announced that Paul Coffey has rejoined their coaching staff. He has held a variety of roles with Edmonton in recent years but joined the staff as assistant coach when Kris Knoblauch took over as head coach in 2023 and helped stabilize their back end. Coffey had moved back into an advisory role ahead of this season but is now being tasked with repeating history and shoring up that group once again to give them a boost for the stretch run.
Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron-Imagn Images.
Alex Ovechkin Undecided On Playing Future Beyond This Season
With this being the final season of Alex Ovechkin’s contract, there has been plenty of speculation as to whether the future Hall of Famer would be hanging up his skates, returning to play in Russia, or staying in the NHL. At various times, it has been speculated that this would be it for him in the NHL while at others, some have suggested that an extension could be coming.
Now several months into the 2025-26 campaign, it doesn’t seem as if Ovechkin is any closer to making a decision on what comes next. Speaking with NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti earlier this week, the 40-year-old indicated that he doesn’t know what comes next. He added that his family and the Capitals organization would be part of the decision-making process, with a final decision unlikely to come until after the season.
Ovechkin has spent his entire 21-year NHL career with Washington after the Caps drafted him first overall back in 2004. He has set multiple league records along the way. On top of taking over the all-time goal record last season (he’s up to 919), he’s also the record-holder for power play goals (330), game-winning goals (140), and shots on goal (7,028). Clearly, there’s nothing left to prove but he can certainly keep adding to his records.
While Ovechkin clearly isn’t the elite winger he was for many years, he’s still a very capable contributor. He has 22 goals and 26 assists this season in 59 games while still logging nearly 18 minutes per night of playing time. His 48 points are one behind Tom Wilson for the team lead. While a decline is likely to come given his age, Ovechkin could certainly contribute for another year.
If Ovechkin decides to re-sign with the Capitals, it’s fair to say that the AAV of the deal wouldn’t check in at the $9.5MM that it’s currently at. However, if he were to re-sign on a one-year pact, he’d become eligible for performance bonuses, which would give Washington some extra flexibility and also give Ovechkin a chance to maximize his earnings.
While the Capitals would undoubtedly like some certainty with Ovechkin’s situation heading into the trade deadline to know if this is his final run or not, it appears that they’ll have to wait a while yet to see what the captain plans to do.
Oilers Expected To Activate Adam Henrique, Kasperi Kapanen Injured Again
The Oilers will get a veteran center back in the lineup when their schedule resumes on Wednesday. Head coach Kris Knoblauch told reporters today (video link) that Adam Henrique is “doing really well,” and it appears that he’ll be ready to play against Anaheim. However, the news isn’t all good, as winger Kasperi Kapanen has picked up a little ailment that could keep him out of the lineup for the first couple of games of their three-game California road trip.
Henrique has been out of the lineup for more than six weeks due to an undisclosed injury, missing the last 15 games as a result. He had a rough first half by his standards, as he has just two goals and eight assists in 43 games, putting him on pace for the worst offensive numbers of his career. However, he’s still winning nearly 55% of his faceoffs and playing an important role on Edmonton’s penalty kill so those areas should at least be bolstered by his return.
As for Kapanen, this has been a rough season for him on the injury front. He returned to Edmonton’s lineup last month after missing more than two months with a lower-body injury. Soon after, he missed three more games with another lower-body issue. This latest setback is not believed to be related to the first two. In between, the 29-year-old has been fairly productive, notching five goals and seven assists in just 19 games, giving the Oilers some decent secondary scoring.
Edmonton is only carrying the minimum of 20 players on its active roster following the recent demotion of Matthew Savoie so there won’t be any roster-related issues in order to activate Henrique. However, putting him back on the active roster would only give them 12 forwards, one of which is Kapanen, who isn’t going to play on Wednesday. Accordingly, the Oilers will have to either dress seven defensemen until Kapanen returns or they will need to call up a forward before Wednesday’s game.
Blue Jackets Not Planning To Trade For More Pending UFAs
Earlier this season, the Blue Jackets surprised many when they traded for pending unrestricted free agent winger Mason Marchment and made a coaching change, bringing in Rick Bowness. So far, those moves have worked out rather well. Marchment has nine goals and four assists in 14 games since being acquired, while Columbus has won 10 of 11 with Bowness behind the bench to get back within striking distance of a playoff spot.
However, don’t expect the Blue Jackets to add further rentals before the March 6th trade deadline. In an interview with Jeff Svoboda on the team’s website, GM Don Waddell indicated that the one thing he’s not looking to do is add more veteran rentals:
“Because you look at it, the one thing we probably won’t do is go out and try to add UFAs at the deadline. You might go around the edges a little bit, but having in particular three forwards that play good roles on our team, to add another (UFA) and give up assets probably doesn’t make sense.”
The three forwards that Bowness speaks of are Marchment, along with centers Charlie Coyle and Boone Jenner. Bringing in another impactful piece of note with that much talent potentially set to go elsewhere in the summer would carry some risk. That said, Waddell spoke of being amenable to trading for an impactful piece that’s signed or under club control beyond this season, so it’s not as if he’s not looking to add to his group.
Meanwhile, Waddell noted that the biggest focus at the moment revolves around discussing contracts with their pending free agents. Not just the group of pending UFAs, either, but pending RFAs like Adam Fantilli and Cole Sillinger as well. Getting some extra certainty about their future costs would certainly help their decision-making process leading into the deadline so it stands to reason that some of those discussions will intensify over the next week or so. But in terms of pure rental players, the focus in Columbus is clear: they’re looking to keep the ones they have and not add to that group.
Wild Make Several Roster Moves
Feb. 22: Gleason and Katchouk have now been returned to Iowa as well, per a team announcement.
Feb. 20: The Wild announced they’ve reassigned Kiersted to Iowa. Katchouk and Gleason remain with the club for now.
Feb. 18: The Wild announced they’ve recalled forward Boris Katchouk and defensemen Ben Gleason and Matt Kiersted from AHL Iowa. All will likely be on their way back to Iowa once Minnesota’s Olympians return stateside.
Katchouk started the season with the Lightning, kicking off his second stint with the team that drafted him 44th overall in 2016 by signing a two-way deal in free agency. All three of his NHL appearances this season – his first in two years – came in a Tampa sweater back in November. He went pointless while averaging 12:11 of ice time per game, going 7-for-19 (36.8%) on faceoffs.
After being returned to the minors, Katchouk remained in the Bolts organization for a month before being sent to the Wild in exchange for Michael Milne shortly after Christmas. The Wild were looking to jumpstart their AHL affiliate’s hapless offense with Katchouk’s veteran presence and 179 games of NHL experience, but it hasn’t worked out that way. An injury kept Katchouk out of the lineup for nearly a month in January, and he’s been limited to a goal and an assist in five games for Iowa as a result.
Gleason and Kiersted are also in their first years in the organization, although both of them arrived in free agency last summer rather than via trade. Gleason, 28 next month, hasn’t played in the NHL since his four-game debut with the Stars in 2018-19 but has been a desirable minor-league asset for the past eight years thanks to his steady two-way game. The cousin of longtime Hurricanes rearguard Tim Gleason has one goal and 17 points with a -16 rating in 44 outings for Iowa, tied for sixth on the team in scoring and second among blue-liners.
Kiersted is the only one of the group to see NHL time for the Wild this season. He’s suited up four times as an injury fill-in, posting one assist and a -1 rating with five blocks while averaging 13:42 of ice time per game. The Minnesota native hasn’t had much of an offensive impact on the farm, though, only notching six points and a -7 rating through 31 games.
Sabres’ Zach Benson Not Expected To Return This Week
The NHL’s three-week break wasn’t long enough for a top Buffalo Sabres forward to kick the injury bug. Winger Zach Benson is not expected to play in the team’s return from the Olympic break due to an undisclosed issue separate from his recent upper-body injury, head coach Lindy Ruff told NHL.com’s Heather Engel. Benson has been practicing on his own, per Engel.
Benson had a hard crash into the boards during Buffalo’s February 2nd win over the Florida Panthers. He scored Buffalo’s fourth goal of the game before going down with injury. With that tally, Benson reached four points over his last six games and 26 points in 42 games on the season. He appears set to crack 20 assists, and a positive plus-minus, for the first time in his three-year NHL career. That growth has coincided with a boost up the lineup. Benson has commanded second-line minutes at points this season, largely on the back of his effort away from the puck.
That tenacity caught up to the 5-foot-10 forward as Buffalo approached the midlde of the season. Buffalo turned toward top prospect Konsta Helenius for their last two games following Benson’s injury. Helenius recorded four hits and an even plus-minus in the matchups. He failed to continue the hot scoring that he kicked off his NHL career with – netting four points in his first three games – but still proved impactful away from the puck.
That will make Buffalo’s decisions a bit tougher when Benson is back to full health. Benson will slot back into the Sabres top-nine while Helenius will push into competition for ice time with Isak Rosen, Tyson Kozak, and Beck Malenstyn. Of the bunch, the Sabres have preferred to keep Helenius in the minors, where his 38 points in 40 games rank third on the AHL’s Rochester Americans.
Mammoth Recall Maksymilian Szuber, Assign Scott Perunovich
The Utah Mammoth have joined many teams in rotating around their roster days before the NHL returns from the Olympic break. Defenseman Maksymilian Szuber has been recalled to the NHL club while Scott Perunovich has been assigned to the minor leagues, per a team announcement.
It is unclear if Szuber will stick with the NHL club through their return to game action but the young prospect has had a strong start to the year. Szuber has recorded 10 goals, 24 points, 38 penalty minutes, and a plus-five in 44 games with the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners. He has been involved all over the ice, using his big frame to dominate play up-and-down the ice. That presence has established Szuber as Tucson’s second-best defenseman behind Utah top prospect Dmitry Simashev – though Szuber is the only blue-liner on the team with double-digit goals.
Narrowly above both Szuber and Simashev in scoring is the veteran Perunovich, who has three goals and 30 points in 43 AHL games this season. The 27 year old has landed in Utah’s AHL system after failing to stick in the NHL lineup for the St. Louis Blues or New York Islanders. He has racked up 32 points in 108 NHL games dating back to 2021 but hasn’t yet debuted with the Utah Mammoth.
With this move, Perunovich seems set to continue filling his top-four role with the Roadrunners, while Szuber could earn his second NHL game. The German defender will compete with Ian Cole, Olli Maatta, and Kevin Connauton for time in the lineup. He made his debut with the Mammoth last season and recorded one penalty and a minus-one.
Blackhawks Sign, Reassign Olivier Rodrigue
2/22: Chicago has officially assigned Rodrigue to the AHL after he cleared NHL waivers.
2/21: The Blackhawks have added some extra goaltending depth for the stretch run. The team announced that they’ve signed goaltender Olivier Rodrigue to a one-year, two-way contract for the remainder of the season. The deal will carry a $775K cap charge at the NHL level while the two-way salary was not disclosed.
The 25-year-old was a second-round pick of Edmonton back in 2018, going 62nd overall. However, he wasn’t able to make much of a push for NHL playing time over his five seasons in their system. Aside from a two-game stint with the Oilers last season, Rodrigue played exclusively in their minor league system between AHL Bakersfield and ECHL Wichita. Last season, Rodrigue posted a 3.12 GAA with a .897 SV% in 42 games with the Condors and became a Group Six unrestricted free agent back in the summer.
It took until mid-August for Rodrigue to find a team as he wound up signing a one-year deal with Barys Astana of the KHL. However, he suffered an injury less than a month later, leading to his release before he had even played a game for them. Since then, Rodrigue hasn’t played but this contract suggests that he’s now cleared to return to game action.
Presumably, Rodrigue’s signing comes in response to prospect goalie Stanislav Berezhnoy, who received a 20-game suspension from the AHL earlier this week for violating the terms of the AHL/PHPA Performance Enhancing Substance Program. Chicago’s intent is likely to have Rodrigue serve as the backup to Drew Commesso for the stretch run while evaluating his possibility as a fit for next season as well. With 131 career AHL regular season appearances under his belt where he has a 2.92 GAA and a .905 SV%, Rodrigue should be well-suited to fill that role.
To do so, Chicago will first have to successfully run Rodrigue through waivers before he can be assigned to the IceHogs. While the NHL is in a trade freeze at the moment, waivers are still allowable during this period and PuckPedia reports that he is indeed on waivers. Assuming he clears, he’ll be sent down on Sunday and will be eligible to play then.
Capitals’ John Carlson Day-To-Day With Injury
The Washington Capitals could be missing a major piece when they return to NHL action on Wednesday. Top defenseman John Carlson sat out of the team’s Sunday practice, instead doing individual drills in a no-contact jersey, per Sammi Silber of The Hockey News. Head coach Spencer Carbery later designated Carlson as out day-to-day with a lower-body injury, adds Silber.
Carlson sustained his injury in Washington’s February 5th win over the Nashville Predators. He left that match late in the first period, after getting tangled up with Predators’ forward Cole Smith. The Capitals had hoped that an extended break would help Carlson heal up from the injury, though it will now follow the club through their return to action.
Carlson has continue to serve as a key offensive-defenseman for the Capitals. He has scored 17 points in his last 17 games, dating back to Washington’s highest-scoring game of the season on January 5th. That streak includes the game that Carlson was injured in, thanks to a secondary assist he earned on Washington’s second goal of the game. It was Carlson’s ninth power-play assist of the season, the most of any Capitals defenseman.
In total, the 36-year-old Carlson has posted 10 goals and 36 points in 55 games this season. He is on pace for 69 points in 82 games, closer to his scoring heights from a few years back after he stuck closer to 50 points in the last two seasons. Part of that is thanks to fellow offensive-defenseman Jakob Chychrun, who has taken the weight of a number-one role off of Carlson’s shoulders. Chychrun will carry the brunt of the load in Carlson’s absence, while Declan Chisholm and Dylan McIlrath vye for the open spot at right-defense.
Nashville Predators Recall Zachary L’Heureux, Matthew Wood
The Nashville Predators announced today that forwards Zachary L’Heureux and Matthew Wood have been recalled from the team’s AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals.
With the Olympic tournament now over, teams are gearing up for a return to the NHL regular season. The Predators’ first game is Thursday against the Chicago Blackhawks, and today’s recalls give head coach Andrew Brunette two additional forward options to work with when constructing his lineup for that game and the games beyond.
Both Wood and L’Heureux are first-round picks who are among the higher-ranked prospects in the team’s system. L’Heureux was a late first-rounder at the 2021 draft, and has spent all of 2025-26 to date in the AHL, scoring 14 goals and 28 points in 28 games. That’s a departure from last season, when he played just four games in the AHL and 62 in the NHL. This recall will give L’Heureux the chance to potentially make his season debut in Nashville. He plays the kind of gritty, aggressive style that teams often covet in bottom-six forwards, so it will be interesting to see whether L’Heureux will be able to hang onto the NHL opportunity he’s set to receive.
Wood, 21, was a first-rounder at the 2023 draft and is in the midst of his first full season as a pro player. The skilled 6’4″ winger scored three points in his three AHL games played during the break, only failing to land on the scoresheet against a juggernaut Grand Rapids Griffins team.
Wood started the year off very well in the NHL, scoring 10 points in his first 11 games of the season, including his first NHL hat trick. His production has slowed down quite a bit, and he’s sitting on 17 points in 46 games this season. He only managed three points in the month of January as his ice time fell noticeably.
With some good games under his belt during the Olympic break, the hope will be that Wood can rediscover some of the form he flashed earlier in the season, and get his production back on track. Nashville is currently in contention for a playoff spot in the Western Conference, and will need contributions from everyone if it hopes to make a surprising run back to the postseason.