Utah has been in need of extra bodies on defense seemingly all season long after John Marino sustained a lower-back injury in preseason and Sean Durzi hurt his shoulder just four games into the campaign. Other names, such as Maveric Lamoureux and Robert Bortuzzo, have landed on the shelf in recent days, leading Utah to reach deep into its minor-league depth. Just yesterday, they recalled Kevin Connauton from AHL Tucson – a 34-year-old lefty who last saw NHL ice in the 2021-22 campaign.

Mermis isn’t a gigantic upgrade over internal options like Connauton, but he does have more recent NHL experience. The 30-year-old skated in a career-high 47 games with the Wild last season, posting eight points, a -2 rating, 33 PIMs, and 45 hits while averaging 14:05 per game. He inked a one-way contract with the Maple Leafs over the summer but sustained a jaw injury in training camp. He returned to action on a conditioning loan with their AHL affiliate over the past couple weeks, posting an assist in three outings, and had landed on waivers to continue his tenure in the minors after the two-week limit on his conditioning stint ran out.

Utah had 22 players on the active roster before making the claim for Mermis, so they won’t need to make a corresponding transaction.

Mermis’ waiver placement comes after being presumably activated from long-term injured reserve. The 30-year-old lefty has been on a conditioning loan to the AHL since Nov. 27 and has played three games, notching an assist and a +2 rating.

Those games were his first action since sustaining a broken jaw early in training camp with the Leafs. The longtime depth piece for the Coyotes, Devils, and Wild underwent surgery on Sep. 26 and has provided a small amount of cap relief for Toronto since landing on LTIR at the beginning of the regular season.

Mermis landing on waivers removes his $775K cap hit from the Maple Leafs’ LTIR pool, bringing down their current cap space to $765K. That can increase back to the $1MM range tomorrow after Nylander clears waivers or is claimed by another team.

Mermis, an Illinois native, played in a career-high 47 NHL contests with Minnesota last season, posting eight points and a -2 rating while averaging 14:05 per game. He parlayed that performance into the first one-way contract of his career, albeit a league-minimum one, with Toronto on the open market over the summer.

Save for additional injuries on Toronto’s back end, though, his jaw injury likely cost Mermis a chance at NHL ice in a Leafs organization that shored up their defensive depth in a big way over the offseason. Assuming he clears waivers, he’ll likely spend most of the season in the AHL, where he’s played 434 of his 513 professional games.

Meanwhile, Nylander hits the wire after having his AHL contract torn up and replaced by an NHL commitment on Nov. 22. The 26-year-old got the summons from the minors amid a rash of forward injuries for the Maple Leafs that’s largely cleared up with Auston Matthews, Max Domi, Matthew Knies, and Max Pacioretty all returning from injuries in the past week or so.

The younger brother of Toronto star William Nylander made five NHL appearances for Toronto but did not record a point. He also had a -1 rating and averaged just 9:53 per game. Before the call-up, he had eight goals and 12 points in 14 AHL games.

Despite the lack of production, there may be some interest in his services on the waiver wire after he ended last season with 11 goals in 23 games for the Blue Jackets. The 2016 eighth-overall pick by the Sabres has 25 goals and 49 points in 126 NHL appearances in parts of seven seasons, and claiming him would require no long-term commitment – he’ll be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.

Getting Nylander off the active roster one way or another tomorrow will allow the Leafs to activate one of their few IR-bound players, likely winger Bobby McMann or defenseman Jake McCabe.

Nylander signed for the prorated league-minimum $775K, per the team. It’s a one-way deal, per Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic, so he’ll still be making an NHL salary if he’s placed on waivers later in the year and heads back to the minors.

Now 26, Nylander was a top-10 pick in 2016, going eighth overall to the Sabres two years after the Leafs also drafted William eighth overall. He joined the Maple Leafs organization this summer on a one-year contract with their AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, but remained a free agent in the NHL’s eyes.

Nylander has been off to a hot start, posting eight goals and four assists for 12 points through his first 14 games. He’s second on the team in goals and is tied with Alex Steeves for the team lead in points.

It’s part of a resurgence for Nylander, who hasn’t been a full-time NHL player since the pre-pandemic days with the Blackhawks. After missing all of the 2020-21 campaign with a left meniscus tear, Nylander was assigned to the AHL to kick off the 2021-22 campaign and had 12 points in 23 games with Rockford before Chicago, who had initially acquired him from Buffalo for Henri Jokiharju, traded him to the Penguins for depth forward Sam Lafferty.

While Nylander got into a few games with Pittsburgh over the following couple of years, he spent most of his time in the minors with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. That changed when the Pens traded him and a sixth-round pick to the Blue Jackets for Emil Bemström in February. He finished last season back in the NHL with Columbus and did quite well, thrust into a top-nine role and scoring 11 goals and 15 points in 23 games while averaging 16:46 per game, a career-high by a wide margin.

He’ll now get another crack at NHL minutes in Toronto, although it may be brief, with the Leafs hit hard by short-term injuries. Knies is the latest regular forward to exit the lineup after being hit hard by Golden Knights defenseman Zach Whitecloud on Wednesday. He’d already been ruled out for Sunday’s game against Utah, which will likely mark Nylander’s Leafs debut, but is eligible to come off IR for their following game, a mid-week battle against the Panthers.

Calle Järnkrok, Auston Matthews and Max Pacioretty were all already dealing with injuries entering last week, while Max Domi and David Kämpf landed on IR before the Vegas game and Ryan Reaves was suspended five games for a hit against Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse last weekend. Knies becomes the seventh forward ineligible or ruled out for this weekend’s tilt, joining the rash of injuries that has led to AHL regulars like Steeves and prospects like Nikita Grebenkin and Fraser Minten getting the call in the past week or so.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

The younger Nylander brother was likely hoping for at least a two-way contract headed into this offseason but absent of other information, it’s not apparent any NHL team was willing to use a contract spot for him. Nylander put together one of the better performances of his career this past season but it was not enough to secure a job in the NHL for the time being.

The former eighth-overall pick of the 2016 NHL Draft had played the entire 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins organization before a mid-season swap last year brought him to the Columbus Blue Jackets. With the need for a body in the middle-six of the team’s forward core, Nylander got a solid opportunity for playing time in Columbus.

He started quickly with the team by scoring 10 goals and four assists in only 20 games. Nylander scored another goal over his last three games with the team and ended the season tied for ninth on the team in goal-scoring. Regardless of his production spike with the Blue Jackets, the Marlies will be getting one of the better AHL performers in the league.

Nylander has played 330 AHL games throughout his career split between the Rochester Americans, Rockford IceHogs, and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. The Swedish forward has scored 94 goals and 116 assists in the regular season with another six points in nine playoff contests. My averaging 0.64 points per game in the AHL, the Marlies are adding an effective top-six option to their lineup.

There is always a chance the Maple Leafs could graduate Nylander’s contract during the 2024-25 season and turn it into a two-way deal which may allow the Nylander brothers to play together in the NHL for the first time. However, with better options available to fill in for injured members of the roster, Nylander will likely spend the entire year in AHL Toronto.

Other injury news from around the NHL:

• The Senators won’t have Thomas Chabot in the lineup tonight for the second straight game with a lower-body injury but he shouldn’t be out much longer. TSN’s John Lu relays (Twitter link) that the blueliner is expected to return next week, either on Tuesday or Thursday.  The 27-year-old has had an injury-riddled season, being limited to just 44 games so far.  He has done well in those, however, collecting 28 points while logging 23:31 per night.
• Blue Jackets winger Alexander Nylander is expected to return to the lineup against his former team, reports Aaron Portzline of The Athletic (Twitter link). The 26-year-old had missed the last two games after taking an elbow to the head.  Columbus picked Nylander up in a change-of-scenery swap that sent Emil Bemstrom to Pittsburgh last month and it’s safe to say the deal has worked out well for Nylander and the Blue Jackets as he has eight goals and three assists through 15 games with his new team.
• Flames winger Andrew Mangiapane won’t play tonight and is likely to miss Tuesday’s contest as well, mentions Sportsnet 960’s Pat Steinberg (Twitter link). The 27-year-old is dealing with an undisclosed injury that also kept him out of the lineup on Thursday.  He remains listed as day-to-day.  Two years removed from a 35-goal season, Mangiapane has managed just 30 since then, only 13 of which have come in 69 games so far in 2023-24.

Furthermore, in the most positive development, O’Connor mentions that defenseman Nick Seeler is very close to a return, and may even be available for the team this weekend. With only a one-point lead on the Washington Capitals for third place in the Metropolitan Division, the Flyers could use all the help they can get to capture their first postseason appearance since the 2019-20 season.

Even with Ristolainen unlikely to return, and assuming Philadelphia qualifies for the 2023-24 Stanley Cup playoffs, they should still be able to muster solid depth with their defensive core. Cam York, Yegor Zamula, and Seeler have all taken notable steps forward this season, and the team did bring in Erik Johnson from the Buffalo Sabres at the deadline.

Other Metro notes:

•  Seth Rorabaugh of Tribune-Review Sports is reporting that Columbus Blue Jackets forward Alexander Nylander will miss his second straight game with an undisclosed injury. Although it does not sound like the injury is serious, it will blunt the momentum that Nylander has accrued in his first handful of games with the Blue Jackets. Since coming to Columbus, Nylander has played in a total of 15 games, scoring eight goals and 11 points in total.
• In a separate update from Rorabaugh, it does not appear that Pittsburgh Penguins’ forward Matt Nieto will be back with the team this season, as he’s experienced several hurdles in his recovery process. Initially, it was believed that Nieto would be out between six and eight weeks recovering from knee surgery, but has surpassed that measure.

11/29/23: The Pittsburgh Penguins have reassigned forward Alex Nylander to their AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins.

The 25-year-old former top prospect heads back to the AHL after plying in three games for the Penguins. He got a shot in the team’s top-six playing next to Evgeni Malkin and Reilly Smith, but wasn’t able to make the most of it. Despite receiving over 15 minutes of ice time per game during his call-up, Nylander did not record a point.

But while in the NHL Nylander struggles to be a factor, in the AHL he’s a top player. He scored 25 goals and 50 points for Wilkes-Barre Scranton last season and currently has eight points in 11 games with the club. He’ll now return to his starring role with the AHL’s Penguins just in time for their game tonight against the Hershey Bears.

The Penguins with this reassignment have cleared a spare open spot on their roster to make another move. They could end up bringing an extra forward up to replace Nylander, though it is likely that before the season is done Nylander will get another shot at the NHL level with the team.

Nov. 21: Earlier today, the Pittsburgh Penguins placed both forward Rickard Rakell, and defenseman Chad Ruhwedel, and have been busy today seeking their replacements for the foreseeable future. After signing defenseman Dmitri Samorukov a few hours ago, the team announced it would be recalling forward Alexander Nylander and Jansen Harkins from their AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

Now in his third season with the organization, Nylander has wholly failed to live up to being the eighth overall selection of the 2016 NHL Draft. Playing in 93 games over the course of his career between the Penguins, Chicago Blackhawks, and Buffalo Sabres, Nylander has tallied 14 goals and 20 assists in total.

Skating as almost an entirely different player in the AHL, however, Nylander has been one of the most consistent offensive threats over the last six years. In 298 games played, Nylander has put up 82 goals and 104 assists, averaging nearly a point per game last season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

Harkins, on the other hand, was brought into the Penguins organization providing a much different set of skills. Joining the team via waivers shortly before the beginning of the 2023-24 season, Harkins’ ability to play important minutes in the bottom six was the main factor in Pittsburgh putting in a claim.

Nevertheless, his first few games for the Penguins would not suffice, as the team would put him back on waivers only 17 days later as he failed to score a point in four games played. Much like Nylander, Harkins is a much-improved player in the AHL, scoring four goals and five assists for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton since his demotion in mid-October.

Calgary Flames

D Nick DeSimone
F Mathias Emilio Pettersen
F Martin Pospisil

Pittsburgh Penguins

F Andreas Johnsson
F Joona Koppanen
F Alexander Nylander

Seattle Kraken

D Connor Carrick
F Cameron Hughes
F Kole Lind
F Max McCormick
D Gustav Olofsson
F Andrew Poturalski
D Mitch Reinke
D Jimmy Schuldt
F Devin Shore
F Marian Studenic

In a recent season preview that was completed by Sean Gentille, Shayna Goldman, and Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic, the trio pointed out that one of the biggest issues with the Penguins last season was the lack of support from the bottom six forward group. The group was so bad that nearly half of it was put on waivers before the trade deadline. Kasperi Kapanen was claimed, Brock McGinn was traded, and many others departed in free agency or were traded away.

Kyle Dubas completely overhauled the bottom six almost exclusively through free agency. In the early days of free agency, the Penguins signed Noel Acciari, Lars Eller, Vinnie Hinostroza, Andreas Johnsson, Joona Koppanen, Matt Nieto, and Radim Zohorna. Dubas also traded for Rem Pitlick who was a throw-in as part of the Erik Karlsson trade. These eight players now find themselves competing with the remaining Penguins’ bottom six options Jeff Carter, Alexander Nylander and Drew O’Connor, as well as Colin White who is in camp on a PTO. The group of 12 will be competing for six or seven NHL spots in the Penguins forward group.

Competition is almost always a good thing in the NHL and the Penguins training camp has seen a lot of it. Very little is set in their bottom six, except that it will likely be again void of offence. While the group doesn’t have a ton of offensive firepower, they clearly have an identity, which is something that didn’t exist in previous seasons in Pittsburgh. Dubas has targeted players who are capable defensively, can skate with pace, and won’t hand the game away by giving up backbreaking goals. The same can’t be said for the Penguins’ bottom six last season.

With all this, one must wonder which players will have the inside track to start opening night on the Penguins’ third and fourth line. Let’s look at the way Head Coach Mike Sullivan and the Penguins might utilize their options.

In a perfect world, Eller would be a perfect fourth-line center, but in Pittsburgh, he will likely see duty as a third-line pivot. At 34 years old, Eller’s best days are behind him, but he is still a very capable penalty killer and is defensively sound. Eller doesn’t offer the offensive pop he did in his last 20s, but he is just a year removed from a 31-point season.

Flanking Eller on the left side will likely be O’Connor, the Penguins love his size and speed and are hoping he can piece it all together. It goes to show how top-heavy the Penguins are when they are counting on a player who has eight goals and nine assists in 78 career games to be a key component of their third line.

When healthy, it seems very possible that the Penguins will deploy Nylander. The former eighth-overall pick has the pedigree to be a scorer in the NHL, but he has never been able to produce enough offense to stick with an NHL club. Nylander will start the season on the Penguins second line in the absence of Jake Guentzel, and depending on his production he could find himself flanking the right side of the third line, or exposed to waivers.

The Penguins’ fourth line is where it gets interesting. Nieto and Acciari were targeted by Dubas on July 1st and fit the identity that Dubas and Sullivan are building for that group. Nieto is a terrific penalty killer and will be utilized in that role a lot, while Acciari adds a physical element and is good defensively. Both players can add a bit of offense as well, Nieto is coming off a season in which he posted 12 goals and 12 assists in 81 games, while Acciari had 14 goals and 9 assists last season in 77 games.

Finally, last season’s lightning rod Carter remains under contract for one more season and is still a favorite of Coach Sullivan. Carter was never removed from the Penguins lineup last year, despite having the worst season of his professional career. Carter looked run down at times and was consistently a step behind when it came to both offense and defense. However, he was utilized in a third-line center role and probably shouldn’t have been. Carter could perform better when being deployed less often and in a more sheltered role. Given Sullivan’s affinity for Carter, it would take a lot to remove the 38-year-old from Pittsburgh’s lineup.

How the Penguins bottom six will look on opening night remains a mystery. But it should be one of the more exciting roster battles to see in the final week of training camp. The Penguins will have to expose a lot of players to waivers to trim down their roster and could lose some bodies to other teams depending on how things shake out.

Regarding Hellebuyck, his trade value has decreased in recent months, with teams shying away from doling out large sums of cash to bonafide starting netminders, instead looking for value options in the crease to guide them deep in the playoffs. Goldman posits, however, that it’s a method that can work only for a select few – namely Colorado and Vegas, as it has the past two seasons, given the strengths of their defense corps. While teams should be rightfully wary about handing out too much term to Hellebuyck on an extension, given he’s already 31 years old, acquiring a clear-cut elite starter is still necessary for some teams to reach championship contention. Other names on the list included Anaheim Ducks netminder John Gibson, Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Brett Pesce, Calgary Flames players Noah Hanifin and Elias Lindholm, and Arizona Coyotes forwards Nick Schmaltz and Jason Zucker.

• In a well-deserved and meaningful gesture, KHL club Salavat Yulaev Ufa will be retiring Rodion Amirov’s number 27 after the young forward passed away from a years-long battle with a brain tumor on Tuesday, according to The Hockey News’ David Alter. The 21-year-old Maple Leafs prospect had suited up in 70 games for his hometown team before he had to stop his playing career in 2021 to undergo cancer treatment. Reports indicate Salavat’s captain, 625-game KHL veteran Grigori Panin, initiated the decision.
• Alexander Nylander is a candidate to slide into the Pittsburgh Penguins’ top six to begin the season, says The Athletic’s Rob Rossi. The 2016 eighth-overall pick could get a look at either Sidney Crosby’s or Evgeni Malkin’s left wing with Jake Guentzel sidelined for the first few games of 2023-24 after undergoing ankle surgery earlier this month. Now on his third NHL organization, the 25-year-old Nylander will look to capture a full-time spot in the NHL for the first time since he played 65 games with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2019-20.

Headlining the roster are some prominent NHLers, including seasoned veteran Jakob Silfverberg and younger players like Lucas Raymond, Jonatan Berggren, and Fabian Zetterlund. For Silfverberg, who’s rumored to return to Sweden after his current contract with the Anaheim Ducks expires, this is his first appearance at the Worlds in over a decade. There’s also top 2023 NHL Draft prospect Leo Carlsson, who could see his name called as early as third overall by the Columbus Blue Jackets after spending the entire season up in the SHL with Örebro HK.

On the blue line, Sweden is led by a pair of longtime NHLers in Christian Folin and Patrik Nemeth, but their best defender is undoubtedly Washington Capitals youngster Rasmus Sandin. Others, such as three-time Swiss league defenseman of the year Henrik Tömmernes, provide some valuable depth.

In net, Sweden will be relying on a trio of capable goaltenders led by one of the best prospects in the world – Jesper Wallstedt. The Minnesota Wild prospect posted a .908 save percentage in 38 games with the AHL’s Iowa Wild and put up a .940 mark in international play for Sweden last year at the World Junior Championship. If Wallstedt doesn’t run away with the crease, there’s a high-end second option in SHL and KHL veteran Lars Johansson, who recorded a sparkling .958 save percentage for Sweden at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

The full roster can be found below:

F Pär Lindholm
F Dennis Everberg
F Marcus Sorensen
F Andre Petersson
F Leo Carlsson
F Lucas Raymond
F Oscar Lindberg
F Jakob Silfverberg
F Jonatan Berggren
F Fabian Zetterlund
F Linus Johansson
F Carl Grundström
F Jacob de La Rose
F Alexander Nylander

D Christian Folin
D Henrik Tömmernes
D Patrik Nemeth
D Lukas Bengtsson
D Rasmus Sandin
D Anton Lindholm
D Jonathan Pudas
D Joel Persson

G Jesper Wallstedt
G Lars Johansson
G Jacob Johansson

The 25-year-old played his first full season with the Penguins organization this season after being acquired from Chicago in exchange for Sam Lafferty back in January 2022.  Nylander spent the bulk of the year with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL and did quite well offensively, setting career highs with 25 goals and 25 assists in 55 games.  He got into nine games with Pittsburgh down the stretch, collecting a goal and an assist while averaging a little over 12 minutes a night.

Nylander is only three seasons removed from being pretty much an NHL regular as he had 26 points in 65 games with Chicago back in 2019-20 but hasn’t been able to lock down a full-time spot at the top level since then.  His stock fell far enough to the point where he cleared waivers back in October this season, something that would have seemed unthinkable a few years ago.

But the 2016 eighth-overall selection continues to show flashes of top-six skill and that has earned him at least one more look from a Penguins team that is currently operating without a general manager.  Clearly, the group of individuals helping run things for now – including head coach Mike Sullivan – have seen enough to deem Nylander worthy of another opportunity when training camps open up in September.

The 23-year-old is in his fourth season with Buffalo after coming over to the Sabres in a trade that sent Alexander Nylander to the Chicago Blackhawks. He established a career high in points last season with 19 points in 60 games. While he couldn’t produce the same offense that he did last season, he continued to kill a lot of penalties for the Sabres while providing a steady defensive presence.

Jokiharju has had issues staying healthy as he has never been able to play a full NHL season. Although he is unlikely to miss any time due to this injury, he did miss a month of hockey back in December with another lower body injury. That injury was from blocking a shot against the Pittsburgh Penguins, which isn’t that surprising for a penalty killing defenseman.

Jokiharju will be hoping for a full summer of rest and training as the Sabres look to take the next step in their rebuild. Buffalo didn’t qualify for the playoffs this season but were in the mix until the last week of the year. With much of their core coming back next season, and a potential franchise goalie now in the mix, Buffalo figures to be a team that can contend for a playoff spot in the ultra-competitive Eastern Conference.

Nylander, 25, has this season made himself into an extremely effective AHL scorer. After spending some of the earlier years of his career as an up-and-down player without truly dominant AHL numbers, Nylander’s AHL value has grown as his NHL promise has faded. This year, he has scored 25 goals and 50 points in the AHL, and earned seven NHL games in Pittsburgh.

Nylander has scored two points in that seven-game span, including an important goal yesterday against the Detroit Red Wings, a game the Penguins badly needed to win. Nylander played the bulk of his NHL games this season in a six-game span in March, beginning with a March 7th overtime victory over Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Penguins have gone 4-3 with Nylander on their roster, and he’s helped them at an important time in their season. With AHL Pittsburgh out of the AHL playoffs with three games remaining, this reassignment gives Nylander the chance to put the finishing touches on his successful individual AHL campaign before likely returning to support the Penguins as a reserve player should they reach the Stanley Cup playoffs.