Evening Notes: Senators, Rizzo, Musty
The Ottawa Senators announced that they loaned forwards Adam Gaudette and Zack Ostapchuk to their American Hockey League affiliate the Belleville Senators. The move comes on the heels of a two-goal game for Gaudette last night against the St. Louis Blues. Gaudette has had an excellent start to the season with Ottawa, posting four goals and an assist in eight games this season.
Ostapchuk on the other hand had an assist in last night’s 8-1 win, in what was his first NHL game of the season. It was a special moment for the 21-year-old as the assist represented his first NHL point. Ostapchuk dressed in seven games last season for Ottawa, going pointless.
The move is likely to be a paper transaction as the Senators don’t play again until Friday against the New York Rangers and could very well recall either player in the next few days.
In other evening notes:
- San Jose Sharks forward prospect Quentin Musty has returned to the Sudbury Wolves of the Ontario Hockey League and is expected to play this weekend (as per Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News). San Jose re-assigned Musty back to the OHL in late September, but a week later, it was reported that the 2023 first-round pick (26th overall) had requested a trade. That same day, Sudbury released a statement talking about Musty’s trade request, saying that they would field trade offers but would also welcome Musty back if he changed his mind. Musty’s return will be a big boost for the Wolves, who have started the OHL season with a 7-5 record.
- Philadelphia Flyers prospect Massimo Rizzo has reportedly suffered an appendicitis that required him to have surgery a few weeks ago to get his appendix removed (as per Flyers reporter Bill Meltzer). The early reports indicate that Rizzo will require a six to eight-week timeline to recover from the appendectomy. The 23-year-old is slated to play in the AHL for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms but has yet to dress in a game this season. Rizzo was originally drafted in the seventh round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft by the Carolina Hurricanes but was dealt to the Flyers in August 2023, along with a 2025 fifth-round pick in exchange for forward David Kase.
Sharks Acquire Timothy Liljegren From Maple Leafs
The San Jose Sharks have acquired defenseman Timothy Liljegren from the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for defenseman Matt Benning, a 2025 third-round and 2026 sixth-round draft pick. Toronto will get the better of the third-round picks that San Jose previously acquired from the Edmonton Oilers and Colorado Avalanche.
The move ends a tumultuous seven-year run for the 17th overall pick in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. The Maple Leafs were patient with the 25-year-old, waiting for him to realize the potential that made him a first-round pick. Unfortunately for Toronto, that untapped potential never translated to results, as Liljegren could not crack Toronto’s top four on defense.
Liljegren was re-signed to a two-year $6MM contract back in late June, but despite the new contract, Liljegren quickly lost the trust of new head coach Craig Berube and general manager Brad Treliving. Liljegren has only dressed in one regular season game thus far and struggled mightily, as the Maple Leafs were out-chanced 21-2 while he was on the ice for 12 minutes of even-strength hockey.
Coming back the other way is 30-year-old depth defenseman Matt Benning. The Edmonton Alberta native is in the third year of a four-year $5MM contract, meaning that Toronto will realize a cap savings of $1.75MM in the transaction for this season and next. Benning is a useful defenseman who is just two years removed from his best offensive season as a pro (one goal and 23 assists in 77 games). While Benning will serve as valuable depth for Toronto, he is unlikely to see the kind of ice time he was seeing in San Jose and will most likely be Toronto’s eighth defenseman.
Blackhawks’ Alec Martinez, Laurent Brossoit To Remain Out Through October
The Chicago Blackhawks must continue leaning on their youth, with defenseman Alec Martinez and goaltender Laurent Brossoit out for at least three more games, per Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times. The Blackhawks have three games remaining on a five-game road trip that neither Martinez nor Brossoit will join, meaning the next chance for either to return will come when Chicago hosts Detroit on November 6th. Isaak Phillips and Arvid Soderblom are currently replacing the duo.
Brossoit began the year on IR following knee surgery in late August. Because of the injury, he missed the entirety of training camp and opening day. In September, he received a four-week prognosis that will now be pushed into five weeks or more with the latest update. Brossoit will make his Blackhawks debut whenever he does return, joining the team on a two-year, $6.6MM contract this summer after just missing out on the William M. Jennings Trophy alongside Connor Hellebuyck last season.
While Hellebuyck is undoubtedly an all-time great, Brossoit has flashed tons of upside of his own, posting a .927 SV% through 34 games across the last two seasons. He’s up to a .911 SV% across 140 career games, though he’s yet to appear in 25 games in a single season. Brossoit could leapfrog over Soderblom when he returns and may even find his way into a starting role, with Hawks starter Petr Mrazek boasting a measly .896 through eight games this season.
Martinez will also prove a notable addition when he returns. He filled a top-pair role through Chicago’s first four games and proved impactful despite recording just one assist. Martinez spent the last five years with the Vegas Golden Knights, where he routinely handled top-end minutes – when he could stay healthy. He scored 49 points across 221 games in Sin City but missed 91 regular season games with injury. He’ll try to buck the trend while handling plenty of responsibility when Chicago returns home.
Injury Notes: Capitals, Hakanpaa, Määttä, Kesselring
The Washington Capitals will have a mess to sort out on defense with Jakob Chychrun (upper-body) and Alexander Alexeyev (personal) each out day-to-day, per Tarik El-Bashir of Monumental Sports Network. El-Bashir also shares that Matt Roy, who has been out since October 12th, is nearing a return but likely won’t play on Thursday.
Chychrun suffered his injury after just four shifts in Washington’s Tuesday night win over the New York Rangers. He was seen nursing his left ribs partway through his final shift, though it’s hard to place exactly when he suffered his injury.
Alexeyev and Roy would stand as the de facto options to fill Chychrun’s top-pair role. But with both also potentially missing Thursday night’s game, the Capitals will have to instead turn towards Rasmus Sandin or Martin Fehervary to fill their role of top left-defender. The team could also turn to the minor leagues for a fill-in, where Hardy Haman-Aktell stands as the top left-defense with three assists in six games to start the year.
Other notes from blue-lines around the league:
- Defenseman Jani Hakanpaa is nearing his debut with the Toronto Maple Leafs after spending the start of the season on IR with a knee injury, shares David Alter of The Hockey News. Hakanpaa opened the year on long-term injured reserve, nursing an injury that ended his 2023-24 campaign in March. He proceeded to go through contract cartwheels with Toronto throughout the summer, signing with the team in July but not finalizing the deal until September. He joined Toronto’s practices on October 2nd, and even traveled with the team on their recent two-game road trip – all suggesting a return is imminent. Hakanpaa is awaiting clearance from Toronto’s doctors and activation off of LTIR, but figures to support the team’s defensive depth when he returns.
- The Utah Hockey Club could plan to ice seven defensemen on Wednesday – per Cole Bagley of KSL Sports – with Michael Kesselring returning from illness (link) and Olli Määttä quickly joining the team after trade (link). Kesselring has so far played in all 10 of Utah’s games, and ranks second on the blue-line in scoring with five points. Meanwhile, Maatta has yet to change his stat line at all this season – recording no scoring, no penalties, and no lasting change in +/- through seven games with the Detroit Red Wings. He was flipped to Utah for a 2025 third-round pick, and offers much-needed depth to a Utah club without both Sean Durzi and John Marino for the long-term. Kesselring should maintain his spot on the team’s top pair, while Maatta will join Vladislav Kolyachonok and Maveric Lamoureux in fighting for depth ice time.
PHR Live Chat Transcript: 10/30/24
PHR’s Josh Erickson held his weekly live chat today at 2:00 pm Central. Use this link to read the transcript.
Lightning, Lukas Svejkovsky Mutually Terminate Contract
Oct. 30: Svejkovsky cleared waivers, per Friedman. As a result, he’s assumedly terminated his contract.
Oct. 29: The Lightning placed forward Lukas Svejkovsky on unconditional waivers today, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. Assuming he clears tomorrow, he’ll have his contract mutually terminated.
Svejkovsky, 22, is a new addition to the Lightning organization. A fourth-round pick of the Penguins in 2020, Tampa Bay acquired Svejkovsky from the Penguins for similarly buried depth forward Bennett MacArthur in late June.
Born in Tampa while his father, Jaroslav Svejkovský, was playing for the Lightning, Lukas has just one goal through four games with AHL Syracuse this season. He spent most of 2023-24 in the ECHL with the Penguins’ affiliate in Wheeling, where he impressed with 37 points in 30 games. However, he simply hasn’t managed to break through to the AHL level full-time – he had only four points in 19 games during an audition with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton last season.
While also a Czech national, Svejkovsky has spent his entire hockey career in North America. He played in the British Columbia prep and junior system before playing major junior hockey with the WHL’s Vancouver Giants, Medicine Hat Tigers and Seattle Thunderbirds from 2018 to 2022.
If he clears waivers, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent tomorrow and could sign with any NHL, AHL/ECHL, or European club. With Jaroslav now working as an assistant coach for the Canucks, there might be a home for him back in Vancouver somewhere in the organization, potentially a two-way deal with AHL Abbotsford.
Svejkovsky was in the final season of his entry-level contract. The Lightning already paid him a $92.5K signing bonus for this season, and he was earning a salary of $80K while on assignment to Syracuse.
Wild Reassign Graeme Clarke
Oct. 30: Clarke cleared waivers and will be assigned to AHL Iowa, per Friedman.
Oct. 29: The Wild have activated winger Graeme Clarke from season-opening injured reserve and placed him on waivers to assign him to AHL Iowa, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports.
Clarke, 23, was a third-round pick of the Devils in 2019. The right-winger made his NHL debut last season for New Jersey, going without a point and posting a -2 rating in three contests. Slated to become a restricted free agent last summer, the Devils traded his signing rights to Minnesota in exchange for pending RFA Adam Beckman in June. Clarke went on to sign a two-way deal with the Wild ($800K/$105K) the following month.
The older brother of Kings defenseman Brandt Clarke had an All-Star campaign in the AHL last season with the Devils’ affiliate in Utica, leading them in goals with 25 and adding 24 assists for 49 points in 67 games. The 6’0″, 174-lb winger posted 149 points in 218 career minor-league appearances in the New Jersey organization in parts of four seasons.
There may be some interest in Clarke’s services, given his back-to-back 25-goal campaigns in the minors, but it’s likelier than not that he’ll clear waivers tomorrow without incident. If so, he’ll be a major boon to a weak Minnesota minor-league system. Funnily enough, Iowa and Utica are the only remaining winless teams in the AHL. Through seven games, Iowa is 0-6-1 and has been outscored 36-18.
Clarke will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights next summer. He sustained an undisclosed injury late in Minnesota’s exhibition schedule, landing him on SOIR.
Avalanche Place Ross Colton On Injured Reserve
Oct. 30, 12:39 p.m.: Colton sustained a broken foot and will miss six to eight weeks, head coach Jared Bednar said (via Ryan Boulding of NHL.com). He’ll look to make his return in mid-December.
Oct. 30, 8:38 a.m.: The Avalanche placed Colton on injured reserve yesterday, per the NHL’s media portal. He’ll miss Colorado’s next two games at least before being eligible for activation on Nov. 4, but will likely miss more action than that. The Avalanche now have only 11 forwards on the active roster ahead of tonight’s contest against the Lightning, so expect them to either dress seven defensemen or make a corresponding recall later today.
Oct. 29: Avalanche forward Ross Colton is “going to miss some time” after blocking a shot with his foot in yesterday’s loss to the Blackhawks, head coach Jared Bednar told reporters postgame, including Evan Rawal of the Denver Gazette. He was mobile after the game but left Ball Arena in a walking boot.
It’s another tough break for a Colorado forward corps without Gabriel Landeskog, Artturi Lehkonen and Valeri Nichushkin for the entire season and Jonathan Drouin for every game except for the season opener. The latter is getting close to returning, with Rawal reporting over the weekend that Drouin has been upgraded to day-to-day with his upper-body injury. But for a team with Stanley Cup aspirations, missing its top four wingers simultaneously, especially for the better part of a month, rightfully feels like an unending and insurmountable challenge.
Colton, 28, had stepped up to fill those voids as best he could. Expected to be their No. 3 center behind Nathan MacKinnon and Casey Mittelstadt, Colton has shifted to first-line left-wing duties alongside MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. He’s responded with a team-leading eight goals and a league-leading four power-play goals, averaging 18:38 per game while maintaining his physical standard of play. He leads the team with 28 hits and leads Avs forwards with nine blocks, a tendency that’s unfortunately led to what looks to be a multi-week absence.
While Drouin is nearing a return, there’s no indication of whether he’s an option for tomorrow’s game against the Lightning. If he can, it’ll be a one-for-one swap in the lineup, with Drouin replacing Colton on the top line. The Avalanche also have a full 23-man roster, meaning Colton must take Drouin’s spot on injured reserve. If Drouin can’t return, the Avalanche will likely dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen. They have eight defensemen and three goaltenders on the active roster, so they aren’t carrying an extra forward.
Colton scored the Stanley Cup-clinching goal for Tampa Bay as a rookie in 2021 and had a career-high 40 points in 80 games for the Avs in 2023-24. It was his first season in Colorado after they picked up his signing rights from the Bolts for a 2023 second-round pick. After weeks of negotiations, the restricted free agent inked a four-year, $16MM pact to stick around in Denver. He’s in the second season of that deal and will be an unrestricted free agent in 2027.
Canadiens Reassign Logan Mailloux
The Canadiens returned defenseman Logan Mailloux to AHL Laval today, per a team announcement. They now have two open spots on their active roster, one of which will be used to activate Kaiden Guhle from injured reserve in the coming days. The team said he’s traveling on their road trip after missing their last five games with an upper-body injury.
Justin Barron is also nearing a return from the upper-body injury that’s kept him out for the past three games and will be on the trip, per the club. With those two defenders returning to health, Mailloux’s playing time was going to be limited. He’ll instead head back to the AHL to log top-four minutes.
Mailloux, 21, has looked decent in limited NHL action so far. The 2021 first-round pick was recalled nearly two weeks ago in the wake of Guhle’s injury. He’s played in five straight, notching a goal and two assists with a -4 rating. He’s gotten his 6’3″, 213-lb frame involved physically, posting seven blocks and six hits while averaging 16:30 per game. But he still has some work to do away from the puck. His possession metrics aren’t promising given his sheltered offensive usage. The Habs controlled only 44.3% of shot attempts and 39.2% of expected goals with Mailloux on the ice at even strength despite 63.2% of his zone starts coming in the offensive end.
Before his call-up earlier this month, Mailloux scored twice and added a pair of assists in his first two appearances of the season for Laval. He finished third on the minor-league club in scoring last season with 47 points (14 G, 33 A) in 72 games and was named to the AHL’s All-Rookie Team. He’s still on his entry-level contract and under contract through the 2025-26 season at an $875K cap hit.
Central Notes: Wood, Heinola, Anderson-Dolan, Lipkin
Even after recalling T.J. Tynan from AHL Colorado earlier today, the Avalanche won’t have a full complement of healthy forwards for tonight’s game against the Lightning. That’s because winger Miles Wood has been ruled out with the undisclosed injury he’s been playing through for the past few days, head coach Jared Bednar said on Altitude Sports Radio this morning (via Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet).
With Wood out but not headed for injured reserve, the Avalanche don’t have a roster spot for another recall. They’ll dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen tonight, but not in the traditional sense. Instead of rotating in on different defense pairs, Oliver Kylington will pinch-hit as a winger in his first appearance since Oct. 16. He’ll skate on the fourth line with Matthew Stienburg and Chris Wagner while Tynan makes his season debut as a third-line left wing with Parker Kelly and Joel Kiviranta, Daily Faceoff projects. Meanwhile, rookie Nikolai Kovalenko slides up to play top-line duties alongside Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen in relief of the injured Ross Colton, who himself had been playing top-six minutes in place of the injured Jonathan Drouin.
Wood’s injury means Colorado will be without a remarkable six regular forwards for tonight’s matchup, joining Colton, Drouin, Gabriel Landeskog, Artturi Lehkonen, and Valeri Nichushkin as unavailable impact pieces for the Avs. With that kind of poor injury luck and a nightmare start to the season for starting goaltender Alexandar Georgiev, it’s remarkable Colorado has been able to tread water with a 5-5-0 record. The 29-year-old Wood had one goal, a -2 rating, 19 shots, and eight hits in 10 appearances to start the season for the Avs.
More from the Central Division:
- The Jets relayed good news on a pair of injured skaters today. Head coach Scott Arniel told Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press that defenseman Ville Heinola has returned to skating on his own the past few days at home while the team is on a road trip, as has forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan. Heinola, 23, hasn’t played since the beginning of training camp due to an infection in his ankle that he had surgically repaired last season. The 2019 first-round pick was expected to build on his 11 points in 35 career NHL games this season after the Jets lost a few pieces on the blue line but has remained on IR. Anderson-Dolan, meanwhile, has been out since the beginning of the month after blocking a shot in a preseason game against the Flames. The 25-year-old had four points in 31 games last season, split between the Kings and Predators.
- Utah left-wing prospect Sam Lipkin suited up for AHL Tucson last night, indicating he’s been quietly activated off season-opening injured reserve and assigned to the minors. Lipkin, 21, had missed the first few weeks of the campaign with an undisclosed injury. The 2021 seventh-round pick of the Coyotes turned pro after a standout pair of collegiate seasons with Quinnipiac, where he had 78 points in 78 games and won a national championship in 2023.