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Snapshots: Leafs, Kinkaid, Cristall, Brunicke

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The Toronto Maple Leafs welcomed both John Tavares and Calle Jarnkrok back to the practice rink today shares David Alter of The Hockey News. Both players have been bearing through day-to-day lower-body injuries. Tavares notably suffered his on a hit from Montreal’s Michael Pezzetta in Toronto’s Thursday night preseason action. Both he and Jarnkrok will now have two preseason games remaining before the Leafs kick off their season against Montreal on October 9th.

Both Tavares and Jarnkrok could both be headed for Toronto’s third-line amid William Nylander’s move to center and the growing presence of young prospects Matthew Knies and Nicholas Robertson. The diminishing role lines up with Tavares’ decreasing scoring, with 65 points last season falling 15 short of his 2022-23 totals. He’s finally been knocked off his streak of routine point-per-game scoring, even as his ice time saw a small uptick last year. Meanwhile, Jarnkrok has proven a utility tool in Toronto’s bottom six, recording 21 points and 65 faceoff wins in 52 games last season. Both players are pulling into their 30s and will work to bring gut-punch offense down the depth of Toronto’s lineup this year.

Alter adds that the Leafs were also joined by Jani Hakanpaa at today’s skate – the defender’s first appearance in a Maple Leaf after prolonged contract discussions this summer.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Veteran goaltender Keith Kinkaid will play in his 14th pro season this year, as he’s signed a one-year contract with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers. Kinkaid spent last season as the backup for the independent Chicago Wolves, recording eight wings and a .880 save percentage in 24 appearances. He’s been a depth option for the last three seasons, spending them split between the Rangers, Bruins, and Avalanche organizations. Kinkaid, 35, has managed 250 career AHL games and 169 career NHL games. He’s totaled a 70-58-21 record and .905 save percentage at the top flight, though he hasn’t played in multiple NHL games since the 2020-21 campaign.
  • The Washington Capitals are open to starting top prospect Andrew Cristall in the NHL, head coach Spencer Carbery told Sammi Silber of The Hockey News. Cristall has been perhaps the top standout in Washington’s camp, and will be eligible to play in nine NHL games before he burns the first year of his entry-level contract. He’s been among the hottest scorers across the CHL for years now, totaling a dazzling 280 points across 191 career WHL games. That scoring has translated into the preseason, with Cristall boasting two goals and three points in three games so far – tied for the team-lead in Washington.
  • Not to be outdone by their rivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins are also considering promoting a rookie – with head coach Mike Sullivan telling Kelsey Surmacz of The Hockey News that defender Harrison Brunicke could also receive a nine-game trial. Brunicke has been among the best defenders in Pittsburgh this preseason, forming strong connections with the team’s star scorers in the early going. It’s a blazing return-to-form for the WHL defender, who had his 2023-24 season ended by an upper-body injury in February.

Injury Notes: Pesce, Sorokin, Lehkonen, Seeler

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The New Jersey Devils could soon receive a silver lining in their long list of injury news, with general manager Tom Fitzgerald designating defender Brett Pesce as day-to-day with a strong chance of playing in the team’s home opener, per NHL.com’s Mike Morreale. Pesce suffered a fractured fibula in May, forcing him to miss the final nine games of Carolina’s postseason. Recovery didn’t dissuade teams from talking with Pesce when he hit the open market, with New Jersey ultimately signing the 29-year-old to a six-year, $33MM contract.

Pesce could get a chance to earn that money soon. The Devils have been careful not to rush him back to action – instead opting to take top prospect Seamus Casey in their trip to Prague – though Pesce will have a clear spot in the team’s top-four whenever he returns. He’s averaged at least 20 minutes of ice time in each of the last eight seasons, including playing upwards of 23 minutes a night in the shortened 2020-21 campaign. Pesce’s held onto that role despite never being much of a scorer, with a career-high of 30 points set two seasons ago. New Jersey could be the fiery offense to boost Pesce’s scoring, though it’s his stalwart defense that’ll prove invaluable on a team that allowed the fifth-most goals in the league last season.

More injury updates:

  • Star New York Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin was spotted on the practice ice today, shares Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News. It’s Sorokin’s first appearance on the training camp ice, after undergoing back surgery this off-season. The details of Sorokin’s surgery and timeline have been kept quiet by New York, though head coach Patrick Roy recently shared that he expects the star to be ready for opening day. Sorokin is among the best in the league when he’s healthy, posting a combined .919 save percentage across 192 games in the last four seasons – and previously recording 134 wins, a .930, and one championship across eight seasons and 244 games in the KHL.
  • Colorado Avalanche winger Artturi Lehkonen returned to the ice in a no-contact jersey, shares the Denver Post’s Corey Masisak. In speaking with head coach Jared Bednar, Masisak adds that the team wants to keep Lehkonen away from contact as long as possible, though he’ll ramp up quickly when he’s fully cleared. Lehkonen has scored 38 goals and 85 points in 109 games with the Avalanche over the last two seasons, though upper-body injuries routinely pull him out of the lineup.
  • The Philadelphia Flyers have shared that defender Nick Seeler is fully healthy despite sitting out most of Tuesday night’s third period, per Charlie O’Connor of All Phly Sports. Seeler is fighting to retain his role on Philadelphia’s third-pairing, where he’s served admirably in each of the last two seasons. He’ll face competition from Yegor Zamula, who outscored Seeler by eight points last season.

Sharks’ Macklin Celebrini Day-To-Day With Lower-Body Injury

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The San Jose Sharks have avoided the worst news with reigning first-overall pick Macklin Celebrini, who is day-to-day with a lower-body injury per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, after careening into the boards in San Jose’s Tuesday night matchup. The injury forced Celebrini out of the game midway through the second period – though it seems his status for the team’s home opener is still hopeful.

The Sharks have taken extra precautions with Celebrini throughout his first training camp, limiting some of his activities as he worked through what head coach Ryan Warsofsky described as a minor injury. When describing that injury to NHL.com, Warsfosky said, “It is a little bit of everything. He’s been through a lot, the last 2-3 weeks, from the travel and whatnot. We’re just trying to watch him a little.” Celebrini’s new injury seems unreleated to those woes, though it could lead San Jose to amp up their caution ahead of their October 10th opener.

Celebrini has been manning the team’s top line throughout training camp, flanked by William Eklund and Tyler Toffoli. Celebrini’s offensive upside in the pros hasn’t been tested, but he was a point-per-game scorer in both college and juniors – last season becoming the youngest player to win the NCAA’s Hobey Baker Award. If those knacks translate to the top flight, San Jose could already wield more offensive upside than they did through the entirety of last season. The Sharks will likely turn toward fellow high-scoring college athlete Will Smith to man the top line, should Celebrini be forced to miss any part of the early season.

Waiver Wire: 10/2/24

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Twelve new faces were placed on waivers Wednesday, per PuckPedia. All who were waived yesterday cleared, aside from goaltender Jiří Patera, who’s heading from Vancouver to Boston. Here’s the listing of today’s players who hit the wire:

Carolina Hurricanes

G Spencer Martin

Colorado Avalanche

D Jack Ahcan
F Matthew Phillips
D Calle Rosén

Columbus Blue Jackets

F Trey Fix-Wolansky

New York Rangers

F Benoit-Olivier Groulx

Pittsburgh Penguins

D Mac Hollowell
F Jimmy Huntington
F Marc Johnstone

Philadelphia Flyers

G Calvin Petersen

San Jose Sharks

F Andrew Poturalski
F Scott Sabourin

Bruins Claim Jiří Patera From Canucks

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The Bruins have claimed goaltender Jiří Patera off waivers from the Canucks, PuckPedia reports.

Patera is the only player out of 28 who were waived yesterday to be claimed. The 25-year-old reached Group VI UFA status this summer with only eight career NHL appearances under his belt with the Golden Knights.

Patera signed a two-year, two-way deal in Vancouver to initially serve as their No. 3 option behind Thatcher Demko and Arturs Silovs, but he’d slipped to fourth on the depth chart after they signed Kevin Lankinen late in the summer. He was still projected to start the season as their third-stringer, with Demko set to start the year on the shelf with a continuing knee injury, but became more expandable with the veteran Lankinen in the fold.

It’s still a blow to Vancouver’s thinning goalie depth and a boon for the Bruins, who add some insurance between the pipes with RFA Jeremy Swayman still likely to be unsigned by the time their season opener rolls around next week. It’s now a two-man competition between Patera and 26-year-old Brandon Bussi, who also requires waivers, to start the year as Joonas Korpisalo’s backup. They’ll now choose which name to expose to the wire before opening night.

Given their similar ages, Bussi is probably the higher-ceiling option for the B’s. He has a strong .918 SV% in 78 AHL games with Providence over the past three years, although he’s yet to make his NHL debut. Patera has worse but still solid career AHL numbers with a .907 SV% through 85 appearances, and his brief NHL action with Vegas was fine – a .902 mark with a 3.57 GAA through seven starts and one relief appearance over the past two years.

Suppose Boston keeps Bussi as the backup to open the season and places Patera on waivers again to try and pass him to Providence. In that case, the Canucks can re-claim him and send him directly to their AHL affiliate in Abbotsford if they’re the only team to submit a claim.

If the Bruins decide/manage to retain Patera, it’s a solid move to acquire some experienced goalie depth for not just this season but the next one, too. Vancouver likely hoped the second year of the two-way pact would dissuade teams from making a claim, but it didn’t work out that way.

Blue Jackets Recall Three, Make Other Roster Moves

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Oct. 2: Clayton, Svozil, and Sawchenko were returned to Cleveland today while Gaudet was released from his PTO, the Blue Jackets confirmed.

Oct. 1: The Blue Jackets have recalled defensemen Cole Clayton, Stanislav Svozil, and goaltender Zachary Sawchenko from AHL Cleveland, general manager Don Waddell announced Tuesday. They’ve also signed forward Jake Gaudet, who is under contract with Cleveland for this season, to a PTO and assigned forward Hunter McKown to the minors.

The moves come with three preseason games still left on Columbus’ schedule this week, including a home-and-home against the Penguins on Thursday and Friday. Adding some of their earlier training camp cuts back to the training camp roster gives them more flexibility to rest their regulars, likely saving most of them for the finale against Pittsburgh.

Clayton, 24, is an intriguing name to watch entering his fourth professional season. The right-shot defender went undrafted out of the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers, signing an AHL deal with Cleveland in 2021 and spending three years there before landing a one-year entry-level deal with Columbus this past summer.

The Alberta native has good size at 6’2″ and 209 lbs and is coming off a career-best year on the farm, finishing fourth among Cleveland defenders in scoring with 20 points (5 G, 15 A) in 59 games with a +4 rating. His skating is a concern, and he’s not overly physical for his frame, but he does have good playmaking skills and could be a fringe NHL option down the line. He’ll get at least one more chance to prove his worth in exhibition competition before returning to Cleveland in the coming days.

Svozil was a third-rounder back in 2021, later than some thought he’d go after spending nearly the entire season in the top-level Czech Extraliga. Now 21, the left-shot blue liner is coming off a strong rookie season with Cleveland that saw him post five goals and 18 assists for 23 points in 57 games with a +1 rating.

He didn’t see NHL action last season but did make his debut at the tail end of the 2022-23 campaign, recording an assist and a -3 rating in two appearances. He has two years left on his entry-level contract and is expected to log top-four minutes for Cleveland this year. He should be considered for a mid-season recall if injuries strike.

Sawchenko, 26, was signed purely as organizational depth between the pipes this summer as a Group VI UFA. He spent last season on a two-way deal with the Canucks, but injuries limited him to just six appearances with AHL Abbotsford. He was strong in his limited run, though, posting a 2.12 GAA and .924 SV% with a 4-1-0 record. His career-average .898 SV% in the minors leaves much to be desired, though. He’s the fourth goalie on the Blue Jackets’ depth chart and will serve as the backup to Jet Greaves this season in Cleveland after clearing waivers last Saturday.

Gaudet, 28, will likely get a nice opportunity to skate in an exhibition game but don’t expect it to lead to an NHL deal down the line. The 6’2″, 201-lb center split last season between AHL Cleveland and ECHL Cincinnati, posting 12 points in 49 AHL contests and seven points in 10 ECHL games. He’s spent his entire professional career under contract with Cleveland after a four-year run with UMass, which ended with him captaining them to a national championship in 2021.

McKown, 22, will start the season in Cleveland after being cut from camp for the second year in a row. An undrafted free agent signing out of Colorado College in 2022-23, he played out the final 12 games of the season with Columbus and had two assists with a -4 rating. He didn’t crack the opening night roster in 2023-24, though, and proceeded to post a lukewarm nine goals and 24 points in 53 games with Cleveland.

Alex Nedeljkovic Out Week-To-Week With Lower-Body Injury

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The Penguins announced that goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic is listed as week-to-week with a lower-body injury, with Wes Crosby of NHL.com among those to relay the news. The news puts the netminder’s availability for their season opener against the Rangers on Oct. 9 in serious doubt.

Nedeljkovic departed his start on Monday midway through the first period. In the likely scenario that he’s not ready to go by the time the opening night roster is due, expect him to start the year on the non-roster list with 22-year-old Joel Blomqvist, the organization’s top goaltending prospect, backing up Tristan Jarry in his stead.

It’s tough news to swallow for the Penguins, who kept Nedeljkovic off this offseason’s UFA market with a two-year, $5MM extension. He stole the crease from Jarry down the stretch last season as Pittsburgh tried but failed to avoid missing the postseason for the second year in a row.

Nedeljkovic, 28, put up perfectly average numbers in a 1B role behind Jarry last year. The former Hurricanes second-rounder made 38 appearances, the second-highest mark of his career, and posted an 18-7-7 record with a .902 SV% and a 2.97 GAA with one shutout.

In the meantime, there are certainly worse fallback options than Jarry and Blomqvist. Jarry is entering his fifth season as the Pens’ starter, and while his .903 SV% last year was certainly underwhelming, he’s long been an above-average starter and has finished in the top 10 in Vezina Trophy voting twice. Blomqvist was likely due for some NHL looks this season anyway after shutting the door with a .921 SV% and 2.16 in 45 games for AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in 2023-24, earning himself a spot on the league’s All-Rookie Team.

The Pens also announced a bevy of other minor injury updates. Chief among them is defenseman Erik Karlsson, who skated again today as he attempts to heal from an upper-body injury before the season opener. The three-time Norris winner has yet to be a full participant in camp but is still listed as day-to-day. They also said that potential fourth-line piece Blake Lizotte is out with a concussion and has no timeline yet for a return. Forward Vasiliy Ponomarev is also day-to-day with an upper-body injury but will likely be ready for the beginning of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s season.

Wild’s Troy Grosenick Underwent ACL Surgery, Out For Season

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Wild goaltender Troy Grosenick sustained a torn ACL in his right knee and underwent surgery Tuesday, per a team announcement. He’ll miss the 2024-25 season but is expected to be cleared to play for the 2025-26 campaign.

Grosenick, 35, signed a one-year, two-way deal ($775K/$250K) with the Wild in the offseason. He’ll still collect his pro-rated NHL salary while spending the entire campaign on season-opening injured reserve. Grosenick spent one day on the Predators’ roster last season, meaning he’ll cost $4K against Minnesota’s cap, per PuckPedia. He’ll become an unrestricted free agent next summer, meaning he’ll potentially never suit up for a regular-season game in the Minnesota organization.

An undrafted free agent signed by the Sharks in 2013, Grosenick has played sparingly in the NHL. He’s only made four career appearances, two with San Jose in 2014-15 and two with the Kings in 2020-21. He was strong in spot duty, logging a .933 SV% and 2.27 GAA.

Those numbers aren’t entirely surprising – it’s more surprising that he never got a more extended look at the top level. The Wisconsin native has long been one of the AHL’s best talents between the pipes, posting a career .913 SV%, 2.52 GAA, 13 shutouts, and 169-101-42 record in 324 appearances in parts of 11 seasons. He’s a two-time All-Star and won the league’s Best Goaltender award in 2016-17.

The Wild were to be Grosenick’s fifth organization in the past five years. After playing 2020-21 in the Kings’ system, he’s also played for the Bruins’, Flyers’, and Predators’ minor-league affiliates. He was projected to be AHL Iowa’s starter this season after logging a .907 SV% in 30 games for Milwaukee in 2023-24. His absence leaves the Wild affiliate in a tough spot with top prospect Jesper Wallstedt set to jump to the NHL as part of a three-goalie rotation with Marc-André Fleury and Filip Gustavsson. They’ll instead turn to 26-year-old Dylan Ferguson, who signed an AHL deal with them last month after a failed PTO with the Canucks. He had a .904 SV% in 23 KHL games last year for Belarus’ Dinamo Minsk.

Luke Hughes Recovering Slower Than Expected From Shoulder Injury

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Highly-touted Devils sophomore defenseman Luke Hughes is recovering slower than expected from his offseason shoulder injury and has been given a new five-to-seven-week timeline from today for his return, general manager Tom Fitzgerald told NHL.com’s Mike Morreale. The Devils initially announced on Sep. 12 that he was expected to miss six to eight weeks with the injury, which doesn’t require surgery, but he’ll no longer be making his season debut in that window.

Still just 21 years old, Hughes made his NHL debut at the tail end of 2022-23 and immediately looked like he belonged with a goal and an assist in a pair of contests. He kept up the momentum in his rookie season last year, posting 38 assists and 47 points in 82 games to tie the Wild’s Brock Faber for the scoring lead among first-year defensemen. He’s considered one of the best U-23 defensemen in the game, and while his -25 rating shows he has room for improvement away from the puck, his possession metrics were far from marking him as a true defensive liability.

Hughes was initially expected to return to action for the Devils in late October or early November, missing the first 10 to 13 games of New Jersey’s regular season. His new timeline puts his return between Nov. 6 and Nov. 20, meaning he could miss up to a quarter of the Devils’ regular-season schedule.

His absence provides a major opportunity for former University of Michigan teammate Seamus Casey, who’s on track to make the opening night roster and his NHL debut when the Devils open their regular season against the Sabres in Prague later this week. The 20-year-old has been skating in a third-pairing role alongside Simon Nemec after leading Wolverines defenders in scoring last year with 45 points in 40 NCAA games. The Devils will also be without Brett Pesce to begin the season while recovering from surgery to repair a fractured fibula back in May, leaving them without two likely top-four pieces for the beginning stretch.

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