PHR Mailbag: Flyers, Canadiens, Knight, Blues, Summer Acquisitions, 4 Nations, Scouting
Topics in this edition of the PHR Mailbag include Philadelphia’s sluggish start, the top offseason acquisitions, and much more. If your question doesn’t appear here, check back in our last mailbag.
Emoney123: The Flyers rebuild has stalled… how does it begin again? Ersson, Fedotov, and Kolosov seem like a circus in goal; scoring and defense are horrible… will the 2025 draft offer hope since they hold their own, Colorado, and potentially Edmonton’s [top-12 protected] first-round pick plus three second-round picks? Is Tortorella the right coach or Briere as GM? One playoff appearance in seven years, and that was six years ago.
I feel like the Flyers are a victim of misplaced expectations. Going into last season, pretty much everyone thought they’d be one of the bottom feeders in the East. But they proved to be more competitive early on and while they fell off the proverbial cliff down the stretch, they didn’t miss the playoffs by much. That led to higher expectations for this season which was a mistake.
This is still a team that, on paper, isn’t all that good. Yes, they added Matvei Michkov. But this team wasn’t a rookie-season Michkov away from being a legitimate playoff threat.
So, has the rebuild really stalled? Or is it actually back where it was supposed to be last season where they were expected to bottom out?
Will the draft provide some hope? It should as their own selection should be relatively high and while the other two first-rounders are likely to be closer to the back, they still should get players who project to be NHL-quality pieces. Three second-rounders give them a chance to deepen the prospect pool or to try to trade up from those late firsts to get a few spots higher. The rebuild will be in better shape when the draft is completed.
I’ll hold off on the Tortorella part of your question (it comes up in the next one) but as for Daniel Briere, this is his second full season on the job. Rebuilds take a lot longer than that to try to assess and as much as they didn’t have much success before then, they weren’t really in a full-scale rebuild either. Realistically, it’s probably two years too early to really sit down and evaluate if they’re going in the right direction or not. I think they’re in the right direction though and while the goaltending isn’t pretty right now, this is what they need to learn. Will one of the three find another gear and show he’s part of the future plans? They need to find that out but the process of getting to that answer isn’t always pretty.
Black Ace57: How do you think the season will go with Torts and Michkov? I don’t think it’s a bad thing at all to hold him accountable and bench him at times if he’s making mistakes or not putting in effort. Saying that, sometimes Torts goes too far with the Couturier benching last year being a good example. Do you think Torts will manage Michkov well or do you think he will be fired before the season is over?
I’m a bit old-school by nature and still think there’s a place for Tortorella-type coaches in the NHL. I actually think he’s a good fit for Michkov in the youngsters’ early career. Tortorella is generally viewed as firm but fair with his players; there isn’t much favoritism. That means there shouldn’t be any thought that when Tortorella sits Michkov down that he’s going out of his way to pick on the youngster; he’s doing what he’d do with just about anyone.
I’ve always thought of Tortorella as someone who really wants to focus on the fundamentals and good work habits. Isn’t that exactly what Michkov needs? Learning to best weaponize his offensive skills will come over time but having someone really drill home the other stuff in the early stages of his career should only pay dividends down the road.
Going back to the Tortorella part of the last question, I think he’s a good fit for this group (including Michkov) for now. But he generally doesn’t have a long shelf life with his teams and he’s probably not the coach who will lead them out of the rebuild. I think he lasts the rest of this season but an offseason change wouldn’t shock me if they stay on this trajectory for the rest of the season.
Jaysen: Jake Evans is attracting a lot of interest right now. Personally, I don’t want my beloved Habitants to trade him. Really like the player. I hope they re-sign him. 3 yrs/3.5aav would be the max in terms of yrs and AAV.
The Habs are also looking for a forward with edge. What would be your top three targets that would fit with our rebuild/progression?
Let’s talk about Evans. He’s off to a decent start to his season but he only has reached eight goals or more once and is on pace for 17 this year so this is probably an outlier of a start. Going to that high of a price tag for someone with a track record of very limited production might not be the wisest move, especially with Owen Beck and Oliver Kapanen waiting in the wings. I believe Montreal would like to keep him at the right price as an insurance policy and a capable defensive player but I’d be surprised if that number starts with a three.
On the other side of the coin, knowing that this is his first trip through unrestricted free agency, why would Evans limit himself to a three-year deal at this point? Chances are he can get longer than that on the open market so if Montreal does want to lock him up, it’s probably going to take more years than three to get him.
As for the forward with edge, I’ve seen that report as well, coupled with the notion that it needs to be someone who fits their rebuild timeline. In essence, they’re looking for a 23-year-old power forward (or someone around that age). Those are in short supply and I’m not sure there’s a single one who realistically would be available. This feels like the type of thing a front office leaks to make it look like they’re trying to add while knowing they’re basically looking for a unicorn so I can’t give you three suggestions there unfortunately; I can’t even come up with one that might plausibly be had.
Having said that, I think they might be open to a Denis Gurianov type of pickup like they did a couple of years ago for someone that’s a bit older than their prospect pool. He was a younger player who had a bit of success in the past and they felt he could be a possible reclamation project. And if that player happens to play with a bit of bite, even better. We’re still a bit early in the season to know which younger players will be in this situation. Frankly, my first inclinations of who could be in that spot in the coming weeks/months (Pontus Holmberg and Rasmus Kupari) don’t play with much jam. If Buffalo decides to move on from Peyton Krebs though, he might be one they look at but generally speaking, players in this type of category are sell-low and I’m doubtful the Sabres are at that point with him yet.
Schwa: How is Spencer Knight viewed relative to other top young goalies at this point?
It wasn’t that long ago that Knight was viewed as one of the top young goalies in the league. After a strong college career, he impressed in his first taste of action in the pros and was rightfully seen as Florida’s goalie of the future. The three-year, $13.5MM contract he signed back in 2022 hasn’t aged well, however, and that deal might be influencing his perception a little bit.
For those who haven’t followed him, Knight missed a big chunk of the 2022-23 campaign after enrolling in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program. Ken Campbell of The Hockey News interviewed him if you want to learn more about why he was in there. Then the following year, Florida opted to bring in Anthony Stolarz as the backup to Sergei Bobrovsky (a move that worked out quite well) to allow Knight to get a bigger workload in the minors. He had a 2.41 GAA with a .905 SV% in 41 games with AHL Charlotte last season, numbers that were decent but not at the level of a top prospect either.
This year, Knight has been around NHL average in his first six outings with a 2.85 GAA and a .897 SV%. Again, those numbers are decent (the average save percentage is hovering around .900 league-wide) but that’s not great bang for their buck. Frankly, if he stays around that level, I wonder if Florida considers a buyout next summer, a move that would save them $3.75MM on the cap next season while adding $750K for 2026-27. I don’t know if they’d do it but I think it’d be considered.
If I’m musing about a buyout, it’s fair to say he isn’t in the tier of other top young goalies anymore. But with only 63 career NHL appearances, he’s not that far removed from prospect status either. I expect Knight will get a little better as the season goes on and while he won’t get back to that top tier (where Yaroslav Askarov and Jesper Wallstedt are, for example), he’ll show enough to stay in Florida’s plans.
Gmm8811: I think the Blues have proved to be exactly what everyone thought they would be this year. How much further do they sink before Army starts showcasing youth and moving older vets for draft picks?
I don’t expect they’re going to sink much lower than they are, to be honest. They’re 12th in the West which feels about where they should be and I agree, they’ve played up to a reasonable level of expectation so far.
But I don’t expect a sell-off to come anytime soon. For starters, it’s too early in the year. Teams with cap space don’t want to blow it this early unless it’s a highly impactful piece and St. Louis probably isn’t moving any of those. The second is that the Blues don’t exactly have a whole lot to offer up veteran-wise.
Their most prominent rental up front is Radek Faksa and Dallas gave him away for free four months ago; it’s not as if he carries a lot of trade value. With retention, maybe they get a late-round pick but that’s someone’s Plan C or D at the trade deadline, not now. On the back end, Ryan Suter will be a solid trade chip but teams will want more of his games played bonuses to be reached before acquiring him which pushes him closer to a deadline move as well.
Among non-rentals, Brandon Saad has some value but at $4.5MM, that’s a hard salary to fit on the books this early in the season. I could see him fetching a good return in late February/early March though when his remaining salary for this season is a lot lower. Jordan Binnington at $6MM through 2026-27 could be a trade candidate but he might be easier to move in the summer than now.
I just don’t see a big sell-off from this team. They’re going to want to keep most of their core guys and avoid a longer-scale rebuild which means most of what they have to offer are supporting pieces. In the meantime, if they want to open up a spot for a youngster, it might come through someone landing on waivers (much like Kasperi Kapanen) and the prospect coming up into that vacated position.
DevilShark: Sample size is getting reasonable now… I’m curious who you think have been the best acquisitions at each position this season (FA or trade) in terms of driving their teams’ success.
Goalie: It’s hard not to pick Jacob Markstrom here. Last season, injuries and bad goaltending were costly on a team that talent-wise should have been in the playoff mix. Markstrom has come in and given them that stable goaltending and they’re first in the division. And yet, he’s not my pick. Instead, it’s Anthony Stolarz in Toronto. With Joseph Woll injured to start the year, Stolarz took the starting job and has run with it and is once again among the league leaders in GAA and SV%. If he wasn’t up to the task, they could easily be on the outside looking in at the playoffs right now.
Defense: Considering the Kraken are a .500 team, it’s hard to pick Brandon Montour here but I’m going to anyway. His addition raised some eyebrows as he was coming off a tough year by recent standards in Florida. But with Seattle, he is an all-situations impactful player which is exactly what they needed. With Vince Dunn on LTIR, he absorbed even more responsibility. I’d say his play is a big reason why they are where they are right now and not even lower in the standings.
Forward: This one’s a bit harder as some of the top performers statistically with new teams (such as Sean Monahan) are on teams who have struggled so far while others (someone like Stefan Noesen) are doing well but are in supporting roles. So I’m going to use a different definition of success than you probably intended with this pick of Tyler Toffoli in San Jose. The Sharks wanted to be more competitive this season and they have been; they’re far from the easy win they were a year ago. They brought him in to be a leader on a young group and help take some offensive pressure off of them. He checks both of those boxes and sits second on the team in scoring. For what their goals are for this season, Toffoli is doing exactly what San Jose wants from him.
Minor Transactions: 11/19/24
As teams continue to try to bank as much cap space as possible, there were quite a few paper moves made today. We’ll run those down here.
- The Flames announced that winger Adam Klapka was recalled from AHL Calgary. He was sent down on Saturday and got into two games, picking up two goals and an assist. While Klapka is now on a five-game point streak at that level, he hasn’t recorded a point in his first five NHL contests so far this season. He’s likely to serve as the reserve forward tonight versus the Islanders.
- The Hurricanes are continuing their near-daily movement as they’ve recalled winger Jackson Blake and goaltender Spencer Martin from AHL Chicago, per the AHL’s transactions log. Blake has been sent down five times already but hasn’t played with the Wolves and with five goals and two assists in 17 games with Carolina, he probably won’t anytime soon. Meanwhile, even though Carolina is using Pyotr Kochetkov and Martin as their tandem with Frederik Andersen injured, the Hurricanes haven’t moved Andersen to IR which allows them to continue to paper Martin down on off days while technically remaining compliant with roster minimums.
- The Lightning have recalled winger Gage Goncalves, per a team release. He was sent back to the AHL on Sunday in a cost-clearing move and didn’t suit up while on assignment. The 23-year-old has six assists in five games with Syracuse from earlier in the year and has been held off the scoresheet in his first four appearances with Tampa Bay.
- A day after being papered back to the minors, Sam Colangelo is back up with the Ducks, per the AHL’s transactions log. The 22-year-old was initially recalled on Sunday but didn’t play in Monday’s game. Colangelo is off to an impressive start to his first full professional campaign, tallying six goals and nine assists in 14 games with San Diego.
- While not a direct paper transaction, PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that the Maple Leafs have transferred winger Max Pacioretty to LTIR, freeing up the cap space for today’s recall of Fraser Minten. Pacioretty suffered a lower-body injury on November 9th and must now miss at least 10 games and 24 days from that point.
Submit Your Questions For A Salary Cap/Transactions FAQ
Have any burning questions about the NHL’s CBA, salary cap, or any sort of transaction? Ask away.
We’re opening up questions for the second edition of our Salary Cap/Transactions FAQ, which we ran for the first time back in August. Now that we’re in-season, it’s a good time to clear up any confusion or uncertainty regarding the rationale behind some day-to-day moves or explain some larger concepts. Anything is fair game, although you can check out the first two editions of the FAQ to see if what you’re wondering about has already been answered.
Submit your questions in the comment section below, or contact us directly using this form. The next edition will run on Friday.
Central Notes: Athanasiou, Mrazek, Joseph, Heinola
The AHL’s Rockford IceHogs have announced that forward Andreas Athanasiou has suffered a wrist injury and will miss the next four to six weeks. He’s just three games into a tenure with Rockford, after passing through waivers from the Chicago Blackhawks on November 13th. Athanasiou recorded two goals on four shots in his AHL debut but didn’t manage any scoring in two games this weekend. He’s playing in his first minor league games since the 2015-16 season, working to earn a recall after failing to score in his first five NHL games this season.
The slow start this season has continued Athanasiou’s unpredictable career. He’s only two seasons removed from a 20-goal, 40-point season with a much weaker Blackhawks lineup, but was limited to only 28 games last season by a lower-body injury that lasted nearly five months. He hasn’t rediscovered his scoring on the other side of that injury – and now gets stifled from a potential resurgence in the minor leagues for the time being. Athanasiou carries a $4.25MM cap hit and is set to become an unrestricted free agent next summer.
Other notes from the Central Division:
- Sticking in Chicago, starting goaltender Petr Mrazek will sit out of the team’s Tuesday night game against Anaheim for personal reasons per Charlie Roumeliotis of WGN Radio 720. Arvid Soderblom will take over the starting crease, and Drew Commesso has been called up to serve as backup. Soderblom has posted a .934 save percentage in five games this season, well ahead of Mrazek’s .906 in 13 games. He’ll need to stay strong, with no indication of how long Mrazek may miss and Chicago currently on a two-game losing streak.
- It will be Mathieu Joseph stepping out of the St. Louis Blues’ lineup to make room for Robert Thomas‘ return from a fractured ankle per NHL.com’s Elise Butler. Joseph only has one point in his last seven games, and has fallen to a fourth-line role after a strong stint in late October. St. Louis acquired Joseph and a third-round pick for future considerations from the Ottawa Senators this summer. Joseph scored a career-high 35 points last year, but has so far struggled to find his scoring in St. Louis. He’ll look to take better advantage of his minutes when he’s called on again, while Oskar Sundqvist also steps out of the lineup in favor of Zachary Bolduc.
- Winnipeg Jets head coach Scott Arniel said that defender Ville Heinola could rejoin against Minnesota on Monday, shares NHL.com’s Mitchell Clinton. Heinola was assigned to the AHL’s Manitoba Moose for a conditioning stint after starting the year on injured reserve with an ankle injury. He hasn’t slotted into the Jets’ lineup since January of 2023, when he was assigned to the minors after scoring just one point in 10 NHL games. He went on to score 64 points in 89 AHL games over the last two seasons, though he continues to fight with routine injury. Heinola was the 20th-overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft.
Bruins Fire Head Coach Jim Montgomery
Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney announced that the club has relieved head coach Jim Montgomery of his duties. Associate coach Joe Sacco will assume an interim head coach role. Montgomery’s ousting comes after a 5-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday. It was Boston’s third consecutive loss, and the 10th in their last 15 games. The Bruins have been outscored 51-to-28 in those games, good for a -23 goal differential – the worst in the NHL since October 19th.
To say Boston’s early season has fallen short of expectations would be an understatement. The team stands with an 8-9-3 record, and needed overtime to achieve half of their wins. No aspects of the lineup seem to be firing properly, with David Pastrnak (17) and Brad Marchand (13) the only Bruins to pass 10 points through 20 games – and even they’re scoring below their typical pace. Netminder Jeremy Swayman hasn’t been any better, with his .884 save percentage in 14 appearances outmatched by backup Joonas Korpisalo‘s .901 in seven appearances. It’s been top-to-bottom struggles in Boston, sparking the first coach firing of the young season.
Montgomery will be replaced by Boston-native, and Boston University alum, Joe Sacco, who’s served on the Bruins bench since the 2014-15 season. Sacco worked under three different head coaches in that span – serving as an assistant up until this summer, when he received an aptly-timed promotion to associate coach. He’ll now take one step further, moving into his first head coaching role since 2012-13, when Sacco was fired after a four-year tenure with the Colorado Avalanche. He only led Colorado to the postseason once, in 2009-10 – his first year as an NHL head coach. He set a 43-30-9 record that year, only to fall to a dismal 88-104-21 record through his next three seasons. That includes a 16-25-7 record in the 2012-13, which paved way for Colorado to select Nathan MacKinnon first overall in the 2013 NHL Draft. Before his time in the NHL, Sacco achieved a 60-79-21 record across two seasons with the AHL’s Lake Erie Monsters.
But while past precedent may not shine favorably on Sacco, his decade in Boston has provided plenty of learning experience. He’s become known for overseeing Boston’s penalty-killing unit, which ranks as the second-most effective in the NHL over the last decade. More specifically, the Bruins have three separate seasons in the top 10 of penalty-killing percentage since 2014-15 – posting a second-ranked 87.3 percent in 2022-23, a seventh-ranked 86 percent in 2020-21, and a 10th-ranked 85.7 percent in 2016-17. That’s in large part thanks to Sacco, who amassed 738 career NHL games of his own – standing out as a stout defensive-forward. Those traits will come in handy for a Bruins team currently allowing the fourth-most goals in the league.
Meanwhile, Montgomery will now look for new work less than two seasons after leading Boston to a record 65 wins in 2022-23. The Bruins were promptly ousted in the first round of the postseason, but the year was nonetheless monumental. It ended in Linus Ullmark winning the Vezina Trophy, Patrice Bergeron – again – winning the Selke Trophy, and Montgomery winning the Jack Adams Trophy as coach of the year. Montgomery followed it with a very strong 47-20-15 record last season, commanding Boston through the loss of longtime lineup pillars Bergeron and David Krejčí and making it to the playoff’s second round.
Montgomery’s hockey roots run deep. He was a star at the University of Maine, captaining the team’s 1993 NCAA Championship run while serving strong opposite of Paul Kariya. He signed in the NHL as an undrafted free agent soon after and became a star scorer in the minor-leagues – amassing 328 points across eight years and 451 games in the AHL. He retired from an 11-year pro career in 2005 and didn’t take on his first head coach role until 2010 – but his winning tendencies quickly came back. Montgomery led the Dubuque Fighting Saints to the USHL Clark Cup in both 2010 and 2012 – earning a move step up to the University of Denver, where he won another NCAA Championship in 2017. He was hired by the Dallas Stars in 2018, and led the team to a 60-43-10 record, though he stepped down as head coach partway through the 2019-20 season. Still, his hockey resume is as strong as it comes, and it likely won’t be long before Montgomery finds himself once again commanding an NHL lineup.
Golden Knights Make Multiple Roster Moves
The Golden Knights announced Tuesday that they placed defenseman Ben Hutton on long-term injured reserve with an upper-body injury and moved captain Mark Stone, who hasn’t played since Nov. 6 with a lower-body injury and remains day-to-day, to standard IR. Those roster spots were filled by the recalls of forwards Callahan Burke, Mason Morelli and Jonas Røndbjerg from AHL Henderson, per the NHL’s media site.
Per PuckPedia, the order of transactions here is especially relevant. Vegas assigned winger Victor Olofsson, who had been on LTIR since last month, to AHL Henderson on a conditioning loan yesterday but activated him before doing so, keeping them briefly cap-compliant without using LTIR.
This resets their capture, allowing them to re-optimize how much temporary flexibility they could achieve from Hutton’s LTIR placement. They moved Stone to IR and recalled Morelli and Røndbjerg all before placing Hutton on LTIR, then recalled Burke as the final transaction. After the moves, the Knights have a full active roster with 15 forwards, six defensemen and two goaltenders with $200K left in their LTIR pool.
For Stone, the IR placement is purely for roster management purposes and doesn’t affect his return timeline. He can be activated at any time since he’s already missed more than seven days, and since he’s on IR and not LTIR, his $9.5MM cap hit still effectively counts against Vegas’ books. The captain shouldn’t be too far off from a return after starting the season on a tear with six goals and 15 assists for 21 points in 13 games.
Hutton, 31, sustained the injury early in Sunday’s game against the Capitals and left after just four shifts and 2:40 of ice time. Vegas’ seventh defender for the past four years was a healthy scratch for 12 games in a row to begin the season but had played in five of their last six games, posting no points, five hits and three blocks while averaging 11:40 per contest and occasionally suiting up at right wing while Vegas dressed only 11 forwards.
He’s listed as week-to-week and won’t be eligible to return until Dec. 12 at the earliest now that he’s on LTIR. It’s far from a monumental loss, given how little he’d played, but it still stretches their defensive depth thin with Nicolas Hague already on IR with an undisclosed injury.
The moves mean that the Golden Knights’ recent stretch of running 11 forwards and seven defensemen is over, with only six blue-liners available on the roster. That means that one of Burke, Morelli or Røndbjerg will enter the lineup Wednesday against the Maple Leafs, likely the latter.
The 25-year-old Røndbjerg has played in a pair of games already for Vegas this season amid some short-term call-ups, posting a -1 rating and averaging just 7:33 per night. The Danish winger was a third-round pick in the Knights’ inaugural 2017 draft class and has three goals and seven assists for 10 points in 65 career NHL games dating back to his debut in 2021-22.
Burke, 27, is in his first season in the Vegas organization after signing a two-way contract as a UFA over the summer. The 5’10” forward has two goals and four assists for six points in 11 appearances with Henderson this season. The undrafted Notre Dame product is still looking for his first NHL point despite playing in a trio of games with the Avalanche and Hurricanes in spot duty over the past two years.
Morelli, 28, made his NHL debut for the Golden Knights last season amid a rash of forward injuries, scoring three times in nine games while adding an assist. The North Dakota native spent the first four seasons of his professional career on AHL contracts before earning an NHL deal with Vegas last year. He now serves as an alternate captain for Henderson and is tied for the team lead with five goals in 13 games, adding four assists for nine points.
Red Wings Reassign William Lagesson
Nov. 19: The Red Wings announced Tuesday that they’ve reassigned Lagesson back to Grand Rapids. With Edvinsson returning to the lineup, he did not play and instead burned a day off his waiver exemption.
Nov. 18: The Red Wings summoned defenseman William Lagesson from AHL Grand Rapids on Monday, per a team announcement. Detroit had an open spot on the active roster, so no corresponding transaction is necessary.
It’s the first recall for Lagesson after he cleared waivers before the regular season. He comes up from the AHL with the Red Wings in need of an extra defenseman after Simon Edvinsson missed Saturday’s game against the Kings with a lower-body injury.
Lagesson, 28, signed a one-way deal worth $775K with Detroit in the offseason. He’s coming off an eventful 2023-24 season that saw him unexpectedly set a career-high in games played with 40, making 30 appearances as a depth option for the Maple Leafs before being selected off waivers by the Ducks on trade deadline day and playing 10 games for Anaheim down the stretch.
A serviceable option to slot in anywhere between seventh and 10th on a team’s defense depth chart, Lagesson has 11 assists in 100 career NHL games dating back to his debut with the Oilers in the 2019-20 season. The 2014 fourth-round pick has long since solidified himself as a premier defensive option at the AHL level, playing a well-rounded game and leveraging his 6’2″, 207-lb frame to be an effective physical factor. His possession numbers at the NHL level have routinely been passable for a depth role, controlling 49.4% of shot attempts when on the ice at even strength.
Lagesson is off to a good start in Grand Rapids, too. In his first AHL action since a five-game run with Toronto early in 2023-24, the Swede has five points in 11 games with a team-high +10 rating, including a +9 mark in his last five outings.
It’s unlikely that strong showing will result in a meaningful NHL audition with Detroit, though. He’s projected to sit in the press box for tonight’s game against the Sharks while serving as last-minute injury insurance with Edvinsson ruled out.
Lagesson, who will be an unrestricted free agent again next summer, can remain on the roster for up to 30 non-consecutive days or play 10 games until he needs waivers again to return to Grand Rapids.
Oilers Claim Kasperi Kapanen Off Waivers From Blues
The Oilers announced on Tuesday that they’ve claimed winger Kasperi Kapanen off waivers from the Blues.
Kapanen, 28, hit waivers yesterday with St. Louis needing to open a roster spot for Robert Thomas‘ activation from injured reserve. He’d been a healthy scratch in three of their last five games since returning from an upper-body injury and had just one goal in 10 games on the season with a -6 rating, so it wasn’t terribly surprising to see the pending unrestricted free agent hit the wire.
The Oilers are hoping Kapanen, who carries a $1MM cap hit, can rediscover the form that landed him 15 goals and 34 points in 66 games split between the Blues and the Penguins in 2022-23. St. Louis nabbed him off the wire amid that campaign, and a good deal of that production came in his final 23 games of the season after the move.
Edmonton has been in need of forward help for the past couple of games, dressing seven defensemen with Viktor Arvidsson out day-to-day with an undisclosed injury. Instead of making a recall up front – they already had to make one on defense after Darnell Nurse was injured in Toronto over the weekend – they’ll opt to bring in some outside help.
It seems unlikely that Kapanen will make it to Ottawa in time for tonight’s game against the Senators, so the Oilers may need to roll with the 11F/7D formation once more if Arvidsson isn’t ready to return. If Arvidsson is still out for a stretch, though, there could be an opportunity for Kapanen to get a brief audition in his usual spot on Leon Draisaitl‘s wing. Corey Perry has hopped up into that spot with Arvidsson out, but those minutes aren’t sustainable for the 39-year-old with four points in 19 games.
The Oilers had an open roster spot before claiming Kapanen, so no corresponding transaction is necessary. However, they are now over the $88MM salary cap upper limit and are thus using Evander Kane‘s long-term injured reserve placement to stay compliant as PuckPedia breaks down.
Canucks’ J.T. Miller Takes Leave Of Absence, Out Indefinitely
The Canucks will be without star forward J.T. Miller indefinitely while he takes a leave of absence for personal reasons, general manager Patrik Allvin said Tuesday.
“Right now, our sole focus is making sure that J.T. knows the entire organization is here to support him,” Allvin said in a statement. “Out of respect to J.T., we will have no further comment at this time.”
Miller, 31, is tied with Brock Boeser, Elias Pettersson and Pius Suter for the team lead in goals with six. He’s added 10 assists for 16 points in 17 games, placing second on the team in scoring behind defenseman Quinn Hughes‘ 18 points.
Despite recording five points in his prior three games, Miller was benched by head coach Rick Tocchet for a significant portion of Sunday’s loss to the Predators and played a season-low 11:41. On the whole, his 18:24 ATOI is his lowest since Vancouver acquired him from the Lightning in 2019, and he’s on pace to record under a point per game for the first time since the 2020-21 campaign.
The Ohio native is still one of the Canucks’ best offensive players, though, and his 53.7 CF% at even strength means he’s controlling the most possession he has since his first season in Vancouver. Miller is in the second season of the seven-year, $56MM extension he signed in September 2022 to keep him in British Columbia through the 2029-30 campaign.
He’s a major loss for the Canucks, especially without any indication when he’ll be back in the lineup. With Boeser on the shelf with a head injury, he’d been centering a makeshift first line between Suter and rookie Jonathan Lekkerimäki.
Vancouver recalled winger Arshdeep Bains from AHL Abbotsford in a corresponding transaction to give them 12 healthy forwards for tonight’s game against the Rangers, but they’ll still need to shift someone to center to replace Miller – likely Suter, while any of Bains, Danton Heinen or Dakota Joshua could shift into a top-six role at left wing. In order to open a roster spot for Bains, the Canucks returned defenseman Elias Pettersson to Abbotsford after recalling him Sunday for injury insurance. Pettersson didn’t make his NHL debut and instead sat in the press box for the loss to Nashville.
Bains, 23, has been ferried between leagues frequently this season but had spent the last week in Abbotsford as part of a demotion that the Canucks likely intended to be more permanent. He played in eight contests for Vancouver throughout the first month or so of the season, recording one goal, a -3 rating and a 46.9 CF% while averaging 11:30 per game.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Blues To Activate Robert Thomas From Injured Reserve
The Blues will activate Robert Thomas from injured reserve, reports Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic. The star center will return to the lineup against the Wild on Tuesday.
Thomas’ return comes weeks ahead of schedule. The 25-year-old fractured his ankle in a game against the Jets on Oct. 22 and was given a six-week return timeline, which would have kept him out until early December. Instead, he’s back in the lineup less than a month after sustaining the injury.
Before the fracture, Thomas had one goal and five assists for six points in seven games. Now in his seventh year in the league, the 2017 first-round pick was dealing with some poor puck luck and was shooting at a career-worst 8.7%. That should turn around in the next couple of weeks as he looks to record over a point per game for the second season in a row.
Away from goals and assists, Thomas was having an excellent start to the season. He averaged 20:33 per game, won 62.6% of his draws, and posted career-best possession numbers with a 58.1 CF% and 64.9 xGF% at even strength.
The Blues don’t yet have an open roster spot, but they will in about an hour after Kasperi Kapanen is claimed by another team or clears waivers. Thomas’ official activation will thus take place after 1:00 p.m. CT.
“He’s put in a lot of work to get to this point,” Bannister said on Thomas’ quick recovery (via Rutherford). “It doesn’t look like he’s missed a beat; he’s in great shape. He went away for 1-2 weeks to do some work in Toronto with his doctors, and I think that really sped up the process.”
St. Louis is now fully healthy up front, hopefully counteracting a rash of injuries on defense. In addition to Torey Krug being ruled out for the year, Philip Broberg and Nick Leddy have hit injured reserve since the start of the season. Pierre-Olivier Joseph is day-to-day with a lower-body injury but hasn’t been ruled out tonight against Minnesota.
The lack of puck-moving defenders available will lead the Blues to experiment with a five-forward first power-play unit tonight, one that Thomas will be quarterbacking, per Lou Korac of NHL.com. Thomas has just one power-play point this season, but 27 of his 86 points last season came with the man advantage.
At even strength, Thomas will return to his standard first-line center role. After spending most of the early going with Jordan Kyrou on his right and Brandon Saad on his left, Pavel Buchnevich will now slide up to first-line duties while Saad skates on the second line with Brayden Schenn and Jake Neighbours, per Korac.
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