Sabres To Activate Rasmus Dahlin, Sam Lafferty, Jordan Greenway Out Long-Term
Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin will be available for tomorrow’s matchup against the Maple Leafs, head coach Lindy Ruff said Thursday (via Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News). He’ll need to come off injured reserve after missing over two weeks with back spasms. Center Sam Lafferty also told reporters today that he’s healthy and will be available against Toronto. However, it’s uncertain whether he’ll enter the lineup, per Paul Hamilton of WGR Sports Radio 550.
Buffalo only has one open roster spot and must make a corresponding transaction to take both off IR. That will likely mean replacing Lafferty on IR with winger Jordan Greenway, who Ruff said requires surgery to address a mid-body injury and will be sidelined long-term, via Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News. He’s out indefinitely but is expected back “at some point this season,” Ruff said. Pivot Ryan McLeod is also banged up and will be a game-time decision against the Leafs with an undisclosed injury, Hamilton reports. His absence would necessitate Lafferty’s return unless Ruff dresses 11 forwards and seven defensemen in the hopes of breaking their 11-game winless streak.
Dahlin’s absence is one of the chief reasons why Buffalo hasn’t managed a victory since Nov. 23, although it’s not the only one. Their winless streak was already four games deep when Dahlin took a hit in the third period of a game against the Avalanche that aggravated a back issue he’d been dealing with since training camp. Buffalo’s leader in average time on ice at 24:42 per game also has 19 points in 25 contests, exceeding his point pace from last season.
The 2018 first-overall pick has emerged as one of the league’s premier blue-liners, finishing top-15 in Norris Trophy voting two years in a row and currently checking in at 13th among defenders with 0.76 points per game. He also has a +4 rating to lead Sabres defenders and has been their best two-way player, controlling 59.5% of shot attempts at even strength. In contrast, Buffalo has only managed to control 47.8% of shot attempts without Dahlin on the ice. Only the Rangers’ Adam Fox and the Canucks’ Quinn Hughes have had a more significant impact on their teams’ even-strength possession this season among defensemen.
Tomorrow will mark the Sabres’ first game with a healthy blue line since November 11. Mattias Samuelsson missed extended time with a lower-body injury sustained in that game, and Dahlin exited the lineup before he managed to return.
It won’t be a surprise if Lafferty is activated but sits as an extra forward against Toronto, assuming McLeod can play. The 29-year-old hasn’t had the impact the Sabres hoped after signing him to a two-year, $4MM pact in free agency. He has just one goal through 22 games and has only infrequently appeared on the team’s penalty kill, averaging 9:48 per game in all situations. He’s been a net negative in nearly every area of the game, posting a -2 rating, winning 43.8% of his faceoffs, and controlling 46.6% of shot attempts at even strength.
Surgery is a harsh outcome for Greenway, who’s been one of the few Sabres forwards outperforming expectations this season. The New York native has seven points through 20 games and averages a career-high 15:55 per game, adding 54 hits. The checking winger has averaged nearly full three minutes per game while shorthanded and controls 51.2% of shot attempts at even strength despite 60.2% of his zone starts occurring in the defensive zone.
His mid-body issue has limited him to four appearances in Buffalo’s last 15 games, though. He missed 10 games with the problem before attempting to return earlier this month, re-exiting the lineup for Tuesday’s 6-1 drubbing at the hands of the Canadiens.
Meanwhile, the Sabres and McLeod likely hope his undisclosed injury is just a blip in a good season for the middle-six center. He has six goals and 15 points through 32 games, and he’s on pace to break the career-high of 12 goals and 30 points he set with the Oilers last year.
Blues Recall Tyler Tucker
The Blues announced Thursday morning that they’ve recalled defenseman Tyler Tucker from AHL Springfield. He takes Pierre-Olivier Joseph‘s spot on the active roster after the fellow left-shot was traded to the Penguins last night for future considerations.
It’s Tucker’s first recall of the season after he landed on waivers in early October. The 24-year-old was the odd man out in a battle for depth spots that included Joseph, Matthew Kessel and Scott Perunovich. The pending Group VI unrestricted free agent is now in his fourth season as an alternate captain for Springfield and is on pace for a career-best season offensively, posting 10 points in 19 games with 39 PIMs and a +6 rating.
Tucker, a seventh-round pick out of the Ontario Hockey League’s Barrie Colts in 2018, has 52 NHL appearances with the Blues in the past two seasons. The 6’2″, 205-lb checker has two goals and four assists with a -8 rating while averaging a light workload at 13:33 per game. Tucker also leads Blues defensemen in hits per 60 minutes (9.71) since the beginning of the 2022-23 season.
Unfortunately, his physicality hasn’t translated into an effective defensive presence, at least at even strength. Despite Tucker starting 54.4% of his shifts in the offensive zone, St. Louis has only controlled 45.5% of shot attempts and 45.3% of expected goals with him on the ice.
Tucker will likely stick around on the Blues’ roster as a No. 7 option until Nick Leddy is ready to return from the lower-body injury that’s kept him out for over two months. He can remain on the active roster for up to 30 non-consecutive days or appear in 10 games until he requires waivers again to head back to Springfield.
Blackhawks Activate Petr Mrazek Off IR, Drew Commesso Re-Assigned To AHL
The Chicago Blackhawks have reportedly activated goaltender Petr Mrazek off the injured reserve and re-assigned netminder Drew Commesso to the Rockford IceHogs of the American Hockey League (as per Charlie Roumeliotis of WGN Radio 720). Mrazek was considered close to a return on Tuesday but was not activated until this morning. The 32-year-old has been dealing with a left groin strain that has kept him out of action since December 7th.
Mrazek has dressed in 20 of Chicago’s 32 games to start the year and has put up a 7-11-1 record with a respectable .906 save percentage and 2.83 goals-against average. He dressed in 56 games for Chicago last season, posting a goals saved above expected of 1.6 (as per Money Puck), and a save percentage of .907, with an 18-31-4 record.
22-year-old Commesso started his first NHL game on December 14th for Chicago and played okay as he carried a shutout into the third period but ultimately lost the decision 4-1. He spent nearly two weeks in Chicago during Mrazek’s absence but saw just two appearances during that time. The former second-round pick now heads back to Rockford where he has put up pedestrian numbers in ten games this season with a 4-6 record and a 3.34 goals-against average as well as an .879 save percentage.
Chicago is at home tonight to face the Seattle Kraken, and we should know later today whether Mrazek will start or will be the backup.
Senators Recall Cole Reinhardt
The Ottawa Senators have announced that they’ve recalled forward Cole Reinhardt from the Belleville Senators of the American Hockey League. This recall marks the sixth time that the 24-year-old has been brought up from Belleville as he continues to rack up miles along Highway 7 and 401. Reinhardt plays under a two-way contract that pays him $95K in the AHL and $775K in the NHL. If he remains on the NHL roster until tomorrow, he will receive a nice little bonus over the holidays and earn his NHL salary until at least December 27th due to the NHL roster freeze.
Reinhardt is having a terrific season in Belleville, his fifth with the team. In 13 games thus far, he has almost matched all of last season’s production posting six goals and 10 assists. Last year was a difficult one for Reinhardt as he tallied just eight goals and 15 assists in 56 games. He’s never been much of an offensive threat, posting his finest offensive season during his last year in the Western Hockey League when he tallied 31 goals and 24 assists in 56 games.
In the NHL this season, Reinhardt has struggled in five games, turning the puck over three times and being dominated on the possession front with a CF% of 37%. However, he has been a physical presence with 14 hits and has shown a bit of an offensive pulse with a goal and an assist.
The Senators are in Calgary tonight to take on the Flames and it seems likely that Reinhardt will serve as the Senators extra forward for that contest, but we should know more later today.
Atlantic Notes: Lyon, Talbot, Edvinsson, Barkov
Prior to tonight’s game against Philadelphia, the Red Wings announced (Twitter link) that goaltender Alex Lyon was activated off injured reserve. He had missed nearly three weeks due to a lower-body injury. The 32-year-old had played in nine games this season going into tonight’s action, posting a 2.74 GAA with a .911 SV%. Lyon has been strong value on the two-year deal he signed last summer worth $900K per season; he’s well-positioned to command considerably more on the open market in July.
Meanwhile, team broadcaster Daniella Bruce adds (Twitter link) that the team is hopeful that starter Cam Talbot will be able to return by the weekend. The 37-year-old has made just one start in the last two-plus weeks due to a lower-body injury but was off to a strong start before that and has a 2.69 GAA with a .916 SV% in 16 appearances so far. Detroit has a home-and-home set against Montreal starting on Friday so it appears that they’re targeting Talbot to be available for one of those matchups.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic Division:
- Still with the Red Wings, the team announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Simon Edvinsson suffered an upper-body injury against Philadelphia and did not return. In his first full NHL season, the 21-year-old has certainly made an impact, collecting 13 points in 29 games while averaging 21:16 per game, good for second on the team behind only Moritz Seider. Speaking with reporters after the game including MLive’s Ansar Khan (Twitter link), head coach Derek Lalonde indicated that there was no immediate update on Edvinsson’s prognosis.
- Panthers center Aleksander Barkov returned to action tonight against Minnesota, relayed team reporter Jameson Olive (Twitter link). He missed the last two games due to illness. When healthy, the 29-year-old has been an impactful contributor with 29 points in his first 22 games; his 1.31 points per game average matches his previous best which was set back in the 2021-22 campaign.
Canadiens Acquire Alexandre Carrier
The Canadiens and Predators have swapped blueliners before Thursday’s roster freeze. Montreal has acquired Alexandre Carrier from Nashville in exchange for defenseman Justin Barron. Both teams have announced the deal.
Carrier is in his seventh NHL season, all of which came with Nashville after they drafted him in the fourth round back in 2015. He has gone from a depth defender to one counted on inside their top four.
However, the 28-year-old hasn’t been able to duplicate his 2021-22 performance that saw him land a spot on the All-Rookie Team. That year, Carrier had 30 points and 124 blocks in 77 games while logging nearly 21 minutes a night of ice time. He only managed 29 points in the following two seasons and has seven in 28 outings this season while averaging just over 20 minutes per game. Carrier is currently dealing with an upper-body injury but is believed to be ready to return to the lineup, relays TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie (Twitter link).
Carrier had a chance to test unrestricted free agency for the first time this past summer but instead elected to remain in Nashville, inking a three-year, $11.25MM deal that runs through the 2026-27 campaign. With David Savard being a pending unrestricted free agent and a speculative trade candidate as a result, it stands to reason that Carrier will eventually take his role as the veteran option on the right side of Montreal’s back end, ensuring they’ll have one experienced player on that side beyond this season.
As for Barron, the 23-year-old was a first-round pick by Colorado back in 2020, going 25th overall. It’s the second time in his career that he’s been on the move after he was the centerpiece of the package that the Canadiens acquired in exchange for winger Artturi Lehkonen back at the 2022 trade deadline.
At the time, Montreal was hoping that he’d become a key cog on their back end for years to come. However, while Barron has shown flashes of being a capable NHL player, he has struggled with consistency. Last season, despite a stint with AHL Laval, he collected seven goals and six assists in 48 games while averaging 18:38 per game and it appeared as if he’d turned a corner in his development. That earned him a two-year, $2.3MM bridge deal this past summer.
Unfortunately for Barron and the Canadiens, that hasn’t been the case this season. He has been a frequent healthy scratch over the first two-plus months of the year, only getting into 17 of 31 games. In those outings, he has been limited to just one goal (without recording any assists) while his playing time has dropped to just 14:43 per game.
This move gives Nashville a younger player to try to turn into a full-time piece while saving the team $2.6MM on the salary cap. Barron will also still have two years of team control when his deal expires while Carrier will be an unrestricted free agent when his contract is up. With the Preds struggling much more than many expected this season, it will be interesting to see if GM Barry Trotz has any plans to quickly utilize those cap savings with the roster freeze approaching or if he’ll wait until the new year to try to add another piece to their roster.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Minor Transactions: 12/18/24
With the holiday roster freeze coming up shortly, there has been an uptick in smaller moves around the NHL today, not to mention a trade of note. Here’s a rundown of those transactions plus an NHL-drafted prospect on the move at the junior level.
- The Kraken announced (Twitter link) that they have re-assigned winger Ryan Winterton to AHL Coachella Valley. The 21-year-old has found himself on the transactions log quite a few times already this season but has gotten into eight games with Seattle, picking up an assist while logging 10:22 per night of playing time. Winterton has been quite productive with the Firebirds though, tallying 15 points in 16 outings with them.
- The Hurricanes have returned winger Jackson Blake, goaltender Dustin Tokarski, and defenseman Riley Stillman to AHL Chicago, per the AHL’s transactions log. Carolina has made these moves all season long to bank a bit of cap space. Even with the roster freeze, emergency recalls are still permitted for a few more days so expect them to continue this for even after Thursday.
- Capitals prospect Cam Allen is on the move in the OHL. London announced that they’ve acquired the blueliner from Guelph in exchange for defenseman Noah Jenken and seven draft picks. Allen was once rated as a first-round pick but slid in his draft year (2023) to the fifth round, going 136th overall. Washington has already signed the 19-year-old who had 25 points in 27 games prior to the swap.
Rangers Recall Matt Rempe, Assign Victor Mancini To AHL
The Kaapo Kakko swap wasn’t the only transaction the Rangers made today. Not long after the trade was made official, the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled winger Matt Rempe from AHL Hartford while re-assigning defenseman Victor Mancini to the Wolf Pack.
Rempe made his presence felt down the stretch last season and earned a spot with New York in training camp. However, the 22-year-old didn’t play much early on and since he’s still waiver-exempt, the team has elected to largely keep him in the minors this season, allowing him to get more playing time while playing a bigger role than he has typically had with the big club.
With the Rangers, Rempe has been limited to just four games this season where he has been held off the scoresheet although he has seven hits and seven penalty minutes in just 6:26 of playing time per night, an uptick from the 5:38 he played last night. In Hartford, he has suited up 18 times, picking up three goals and two assists along with 22 penalty minutes.
As for Mancini, the 22-year-old is in his first professional season after wrapping up his college career at the University of Nebraska-Omaha last year. Ideally, New York’s preference would have been for him to play big minutes in the minors but a strong early showing down there plus a need to help their back end has resulted in him primarily playing for the Rangers. With the addition of William Borgen, they can now allow Mancini to get that bigger playing time in Hartford.
Mancini has played in 15 games with New York so far this season, picking up a goal and four assists while logging 15:05 per night of playing time. He has also played in six games with the Wolf Pack, recording five points. His cap hit is $50K higher than Rempe’s, allowing them to offset a small portion of the extra $300K pro-rated that they took on in the Kakko-Borgen swap.
Penguins Acquire Pierre-Oliver Joseph
After leaving the Penguins this summer, Pierre-Olivier Joseph is heading back there. The team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve acquired the blueliner from St. Louis in exchange for future considerations.
The 25-year-old spent five seasons in Pittsburgh’s system, split between them and AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Over his time with the Penguins, Joseph primarily played in a depth role and was generally sixth or seventh on their depth chart. Last season, he got into 52 games with Pittsburgh, recording 11 points while averaging a little over 15 minutes a night of ice time. However, they elected not to tender him a qualifying offer of $935K, knowing that doing so would have given him arbitration rights.
That made him an unrestricted free agent and while the Penguins were believed to have interest in keeping him around, Joseph instead elected to sign a one-year, $950K deal with St. Louis on the same day that the Blues acquired his brother Mathieu Joseph from Ottawa. However, the change of scenery hasn’t changed his role as Joseph has remained in that depth role. He has played in 23 games so far this season, picking up two assists while averaging just 13:06 per night, a career low.
With the Blues bringing in Cam Fowler recently, playing time was going to be that much harder to come by for Joseph while they also have Matthew Kessel and Tyler Tucker in the minors, players with some NHL experience. Presumably, they’ll be bringing up a defender – quite possibly one of those two – before long. As for Pittsburgh, Marcus Pettersson landed on injured reserve yesterday while Jack St. Ivany was injured with AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton per Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Twitter link), leading GM Kyle Dubas to seek out some low-cost depth in the interim. Joseph will once again be arbitration-eligible this summer but barring a change in role in the second half of the season, he could be trending toward being non-tendered for the second year in a row.
Following the swap, the team announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Nate Clurman was re-assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. He was recalled on Tuesday but Joseph will take his place on the active roster.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report that Pittsburgh was acquiring Joseph.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Kraken Acquire Kaapo Kakko
The Kraken have added some extra depth up front, acquiring winger Kaapo Kakko from the Rangers. In return, New York receives defenseman Will Borgen, a 2025 third-round pick, and a 2025 sixth-round selection. Both teams have announced the swap.
Kakko was the second overall pick in 2019 but while he has shown flashes of being an impact player, he has also struggled to produce with consistency over his now-six-year career. The 23-year-old has only reached the 40-point mark once thus far, that coming back in 2022-23 when he had 18 goals and 22 assists in 82 games. His output dipped to just 19 points in 61 games last season, resulting in the two sides agreeing on a one-year, $2.4MM contract back in June, a move that didn’t do anything to slow the trade speculation surrounding him.
This move comes not long after Kakko voiced his frustration with being a healthy scratch over the weekend as the Rangers continued to try to shake up their lineup to snap their recent drought. That frustration was justifiable as he is off to a reasonable start this year, picking up four goals and ten assists in 30 games despite spending a lot of time in the bottom six, averaging just 13:17 per contest. Hovering around half a point per game in that role is certainly decent output, one that Seattle will welcome to add to an offensive group that sits in the middle of the pack.
As for Borgen, the soon-to-be 28-year-old has been a physical presence over his four-year tenure with Seattle who selected him from Buffalo in the expansion draft. Last season, he posted career bests in assists (22), points (25), blocked shots (111), hits (195), and ATOI (17:35) and looked to be on his way toward a bigger role on the back end. However, that hasn’t exactly been the case this season as he has been limited to just one goal and one assist in 33 games while his playing time has dropped to 15:12 per night, a career low.
Despite his struggles, NHL.com’s Dan Rosen reports (Twitter link) that the Rangers had been coveting Borgen for a while. With the departure of Jacob Trouba to Anaheim, they needed a bit more defensive depth and this move should allow Victor Mancini to return to AHL Hartford where he can have a bigger role. Borgen is also in the final season of his contract, one that pays him $2.7MM so New York takes on a small amount of money with this swap. Notably, he’s eligible for unrestricted free agency this summer while Kakko will have one more RFA year remaining.
Considering his draft stature, it seems like a fairly low price for Seattle to pay to acquire Kakko and they’ll hope that a change of scenery can help unlock the offensive potential that helped make him the number two pick. Meanwhile, with New York seemingly unsure about committing a long-term deal to him, they’ve elected to make a move more geared toward the present rather than trying to maximize value in the form of higher draft or prospect compensation. With the two selections they added, they now have seven for the upcoming draft.
Interestingly, the 2019 draft class has seen quite a few first-round picks moved already. As Peter Baugh of The Athletic points out (Twitter link), eight of the top 19 selections from that year have already been traded, including three of the top four selections. Among those who haven’t moved, a couple (Dylan Cozens and Trevor Zegras) have been in trade speculation themselves in recent months so the number of high picks on the move from that class could be growing even more soon enough.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.