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Central Notes: Coyotes, Kovalenko, Zaitsev

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The Coyotes had a fairly underwhelming trade deadline after getting minimal returns for Mathew Dumba and Jason Zucker but as PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan notes, GM Bill Armstrong did not have the green light to retain salary which certainly restricted their options on the trade front to teams who had the cap space to take on the full contract of which there were few.

Meanwhile, Armstrong indicated that there was strong interest in centers Nick Bjugstad and Alexander Kerfoot along with winger Michael Carcone.  All three players have one year left on their respective contracts and are at price tags that range from below market value to affordable so it’s no surprise teams were calling the Coyotes about those players.  Clearly, there wasn’t an offer to their liking so all three remain in Arizona, at least for now.

More from the Central:

  • Avalanche prospect Nikolai Kovalenko left his KHL playoff finale today with what looked to be a knee issue, notes Evan Rawal of Colorado Hockey Now. The 24-year-old had another productive year with KHL Torpedo, notching 35 points in 42 games while on loan from Colorado.  Kovalenko is on an NHL contract and has widely been expected to make the jump and play out the stretch with the Avs.  That is, as long as this injury doesn’t change those plans.
  • The Blackhawks will welcome back defenseman Nikita Zaitsev tonight against Washington, relays Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times. The 32-year-old had missed the last 19 games with a knee injury and bone fracture.  Zaitsev has played in 26 games so far this season, recording two goals and five assists along with 52 blocks and 55 hits.  Meanwhile, his average ice time is down to 15:56 per night, a career low.  That’s not exactly the ideal platform season that Zaitsev was looking for as he’ll be hitting unrestricted free agency in July.

Atlantic Notes: Bernard-Docker, Marner, Lindholm, Lightning

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The Senators received some trade interest in defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker, reports Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch.  However, it appears that Ottawa placed a fairly high price tag on the 23-year-old, one that other teams weren’t willing to pay.  Bernard-Docker actually cleared waivers back in training camp but has spent most of the year up with Ottawa, picking up 12 points and 108 blocked shots in 52 games while logging just under 16 minutes a night.  Signed for one more year after this one at an affordable $805K price tag, it’s understandable that the Sens would have had some interest in Bernard-Docker, perhaps not just from buyers either.  Instead, he’ll remain with Ottawa through the rest of the season at least.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic:

  • Maple Leafs winger Mitch Marner is listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury and won’t play tonight versus Montreal, relays David Alter of The Hockey News (Twitter link). He will be re-evaluated in Toronto to assess the extent of the injury.  Marner is once again one of Toronto’s top scorers this season, leading the team in assists with 51 and sitting third in points with 56.  He had been on pace to reach 100 points for the first time but if he misses more than just a few games with this injury, that milestone could ultimately be out of reach.
  • Before their game this afternoon against Pittsburgh, the Bruins announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Hampus Lindholm was cleared to return to the lineup. The 30-year-old had missed the last nine games due to a knee injury.  Lindholm’s second full season in Boston hasn’t been anywhere near as productive as his first when he had 53 points but he still has a goal and 18 assists through 56 games while logging nearly 24 minutes a night.
  • While the Lightning returned defensemen Emil Martinsen Lilleberg and Maxwell Crozier to the minors yesterday, Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times mentions (Twitter link) that one of the two could be recalled as extra depth for their upcoming four-game road trip. Martinsen Lilleberg has played in 23 games with Tampa Bay so far, logging nearly 16 minutes a night while Crozier has made 13 appearances, averaging just shy of 13 minutes per contest.

Golden Knights Place William Carrier On LTIR, Recall Brendan Brisson

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After adding several players in trades leading up to the trade deadline, the Golden Knights needed some more cap space.  To create that room in the short term, CapFriendly reports (Twitter link) that they’ve placed winger William Carrier and his $1.4MM AAV on LTIR.  They’ve used some of that space immediately as they’ve recalled winger Brendan Brisson from AHL Henderson, per the AHL’s transactions log.

The 29-year-old has missed the last two months with an upper-body injury that he underwent surgery for back in January.  At the time he was given a designation of week-to-week so it appears that recovery from the injury has gone slower than anticipated.  He joins Mark Stone and Robin Lehner as players currently on LTIR; newly-acquired center Tomas Hertl is out long-term term but is not on LTIR at the moment.

Carrier is a pending unrestricted free agent and missing this much time due to injury certainly isn’t going to help things if he makes it to the open market in July.  Before getting hurt, Carrier had five goals and two assists along with 71 hits in 33 games while averaging 11L16 per night, his lowest ATOI since the 2020-21 campaign.

As for Brisson, it’s his sixth recall of the season and he has played well in limited action with the big club.  Through 12 appearances so far, the 22-year-old has two goals and four assists while averaging 12:39 a night.  He also has 13 goals and 15 assists in 42 games with the Silver Knights.  With Vegas only having 11 healthy forwards on the active roster before his promotion, they should be able to classify this as an emergency recall, one that wouldn’t count against their post-deadline limit of four.

Penguins Recall Jonathan Gruden

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Yesterday, the Penguins opted to bring up one of the three players they had assigned to the minors in forward Valtteri Puustinen.  Today, they’ve brought up a second one as the team announced (Twitter link) that forward Jonathan Gruden has been recalled from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

The 23-year-old has spent most of the season at the AHL level, tallying 13 goals and 10 assists in 41 games.  Meanwhile, this will be his fourth recall of the year and Gruden got into nine games with Pittsburgh in the first three, scoring once while chipping in with 26 hits in 8:32 per game.  He’s playing on a one-year, two-way deal worth the league minimum at the NHL level and will be a restricted free agent this summer.

Notably, the Penguins don’t have the cap space to execute this recall so there is a secondary transaction that hasn’t been announced.  With Jansen Harkins expected to be out for a while, he has likely been transferred to LTIR which would open up another $850K in LTIR space, enough to cover Gruden’s $775K AAV.

Barring an unannounced injury to one of their current forwards, Gruden’s recall should burn one of their four post-deadline non-emergency recalls.

Canucks Recall Vasily Podkolzin

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After being papered down to the minors yesterday, Vasily Podkolzin is back up with the Canucks as the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled him from AHL Abbotsford.

The 22-year-old was the tenth pick back in 2019 and spent the full 2021-22 season with Vancouver.  However, last season, he split the season between the NHL and the AHL, and this year, they decided he’d be best served playing big minutes in his final season of waiver exemption.

This season, Podkolzin has played in 44 games with Abbotsford, collecting 15 goals and 13 assists.  He also has seen action in three games with Vancouver this month but has been primarily limited to fourth-line duty.  That’s likely to continue to be the case moving forward.

Podkolzin had been shuffled back and forth over the last week but that should change now.  With Vancouver having a dozen healthy forwards before this roster move, that means this will count as one of their four allowable post-deadline regular recalls so his stint with the Canucks should be longer this time around.  Notably, his promotion effectively caps Vancouver out as they won’t be able to afford another recall.  That likely played a role in their decision yesterday not to sign Phil Kessel as an extra depth player after he had worked out with Abbotsford recently.

Sabres Notes: Girgensons, Thompson, Greenway, Captaincy

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While the Sabres had some trade discussions involving forward Zemgus Girgensons, GM Kevyn Adams told reporters including Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News that their preference is to re-sign the pending unrestricted free agent.  The 30-year-old has spent his entire ten-year NHL career in Buffalo after they made him a first-round pick (14th overall) back in 2012.  While Girgensons hasn’t become the two-way threat they envisioned (he hasn’t surpassed the 20-point mark since his sophomore year), he has been an important checker while Adams lauded his dressing room presence.  Girgensons has a $2.5MM salary this season and it’s hard to see him commanding much more than that as he has just seven goals and two assists through 46 games so far this season.

More from Buffalo:

  • The team welcomed back center Tage Thompson back in the lineup today against Edmonton, per a team announcement. The 26-year-old had missed Thursday’s game with an upper-body injury.  It has been a tough year for Thompson who has been limited to 35 points in 53 games after putting up 47 goals and 47 assists last season.  Meanwhile, winger Jordan Greenway was out for today’s contest with an injury after taking a high stick against Nashville on Thursday.  After struggling last season, the 27-year-old has fared a bit better in his first full season with Buffalo, collecting 21 points and 101 hits in 52 games so far.
  • With the Sabres moving captain Kyle Okposo on Friday, they have a decision to make on the captaincy front. Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News relays (Twitter link) that the team will decide on naming a new alternate in the coming days.  However, naming a permanent replacement for Okposo will likely wait until next season.

Sharks Recall Jacob MacDonald

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After moving Nikita Okhotyuk to Calgary in a late move before Friday’s trade deadline, the Sharks were down to just six defenders on their active roster.  They’ve determined who his replacement on the roster will be as the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled blueliner Jacob MacDonald from AHL San Jose.

The 30-year-old has spent most of the year with the Sharks but playing time was limited thanks to three separate injuries that kept him on injured reserve for 29 games.  In between those, MacDonald got into 22 games, recording six goals and one assist along with 37 hits while averaging a little over 12 minutes a night.

Last month, the Sharks opted to place MacDonald, a pending unrestricted free agent, on waivers to give a longer look to some of their other options.  He cleared and was sent to the Barracuda a little more than two weeks ago.  He suited up six times for them, collecting four assists.

There’s a decent chance MacDonald might not wind up back there as Ty Emberson is on injured reserve while Matt Benning is likely done for the season so MacDonald could be in a depth role for the Sharks for the stretch run.  Since this is a post-deadline recall, he would be eligible to return to the Barracuda later on while this will count as one of their four allowable regular recalls unless there’s another blueliner whose availability for their game tonight against Ottawa is in question.

Red Wings Recall Jonatan Berggren

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On Friday, the Red Wings opened up a roster spot when they traded Klim Kostin to San Jose.  Today, they filled that spot, announcing that they’ve recalled winger Jonatan Berggren from AHL Grand Rapids.

The 23-year-old spent most of last season with Detroit, getting into 67 games where he had 15 goals and 13 assists, not a bad rookie campaign by any stretch.  However, GM Steve Yzerman was active over the course of the summer bringing in several new forwards that ultimately pushed Berggren into more of a depth role.  The in-season signing of Patrick Kane bumped him down a bit more on the depth chart.

As a result, Berggren has spent most of this season in the minors with the Griffins, allowing him to play big minutes instead of being in and out of the lineup in a bottom-six role with the big club.  The decision certainly made sense from a development perspective and it has worked out well as Berggren leads Grand Rapids in scoring with 19 goals and 27 points in 43 games.  For perspective, no one else on the Griffins has reached the 30-point mark yet.  He does have nine appearances with the Red Wings as well, collecting two goals and three helpers despite averaging barely over 10 minutes a night.

With Dylan Larkin out due to a lower-body injury, Detroit was down to just 11 healthy forwards following yesterday’s Kostin trade.  Accordingly, the Red Wings should be able to classify Berggren’s promotion as an emergency one, meaning it wouldn’t count against their cap of four post-deadline regular recalls.

Canucks Attempted To Move Tucker Poolman’s Contract

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Tucker Poolman’s tenure with Vancouver has been rough, to say the least.  Concussion and migraine troubles have limited him to just 43 games in his three seasons with the team, 40 of those coming two years ago.  For the rest of the time, he has been on LTIR, allowing the Canucks to spend over the cap by his $2.5MM AAV but his presence there has restricted them from accruing in-season cap space.  Accordingly, that has limited them when it comes to trying to bank cap room for late-season additions.

Speaking with Postmedia’s Patrick Johnston following yesterday’s trade deadline, GM Patrik Allvin acknowledged that he has attempted to move Poolman’s deal but hasn’t been able to find a taker.  It’s not a matter of his contract having value as the Canucks would need to incentivize a team to take it on but evidently, teams aren’t willing to do so or Vancouver hasn’t been offering up enough of an incentive – likely in the form of a draft pick – to take it on.

Poolman has one year left on this one at that $2.5MM price tag so Allvin will need to continue working on this into the summer.  Already without their top two selections and their fifth-rounder in the upcoming draft in June, it stands to reason that they might be hesitant to part with another selection from this class to get a team to take Poolman’s contract on but they have all but their third-rounder for 2025 so moving a pick from that group might make more sense.

One of the other challenges of being in LTIR for the entire season is that any performance bonuses earned roll over as an overage penalty to the following season.  Fortunately for the Canucks, that shouldn’t be much of a concern this year as they’ve been more of a veteran-heavy group but they will have to rely on some of their cheaper prospects to fill out their roster next season.  Those players will likely have bonuses which will provide a bigger impetus for Allvin to find a taker for Poolman’s contract in the coming months.

Parker Kelly Receives Two-Game Suspension

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While it was a busy day on the trade front on Friday, the Department of Player Safety was busy as well.  On top of handing out three fines, they also announced that Senators center Parker Kelly received a two-game suspension for an illegal check to the head on Kings defenseman Andreas Englund.

The incident occurred late in the third period of Thursday night’s matchup.  He received a two-minute minor for an illegal check to the head on the play while Englund also received a minor for roughing as well.

It’s the first suspension of Kelly’s career and he’ll forfeit a little under $8K which goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.  Kelly will miss tonight’s game against San Jose and Tuesday’s contest versus Pittsburgh.  Ottawa shouldn’t need to recall a player to take his place on the roster with their addition of Boris Katchouk off waivers yesterday so they won’t need to use one of their four post-deadline regular recalls.

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