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Casey Cizikas

Islanders Injury Notes: Bortuzzo, Fasching, Cizikas

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New York Islanders defenseman Robert Bortuzzo has suffered a setback in his recovery from a high-ankle sprain that’s already forced him out of the team’s last 18 games. He is now out indefinitely, per general manager Lou Lamoriello. Bortuzzo was moved to long-term injured reserve earlier this week.

This news comes as a tough blow to not only Bortuzzo – who’s only played 15 games this season – but the Islanders defense, which acquired Bortuzzo in late November in an attempt to add depth in the face of injuries. It’s been a long season for the Islanders, who have seen six of the nine defenders currently on their roster, including Bortuzzo, miss games due to injury. They’re now back to a mostly healthy form, with Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock both returning from long-term absences.

Other New York Islanders notes:

  • Lou Lamoriello also shared that the Islanders may send Hudson Fasching to the AHL on a brief conditioning stint before activating him off of injured reserve. Fasching has been out since January 25th with illness and, thanks to his place on long-term IR, won’t be eligible to return until February 29th at the earliest. The 28-year-old winger has eight points through 35 NHL games this season.
  • Casey Cizikas will be evaluated when the Islanders return to New York for a hand injury suffered in the team’s Tuesday game against Pittsburgh. Cizikas sustained the injury while blocking a shot from Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson, and immediately left the game. Yesterday the team recalled Kyle MacLean to serve as depth if Cizikas can’t play on Thursday. Cizikas has 12 points, split evenly, through 44 games this season and recently returned from a lower-body injury that held him out for 10 games.

Islanders Recall Kyle MacLean

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The Islanders have recalled forward Kyle MacLean from AHL Bridgeport, per a team announcement Wednesday.

MacLean is expected to center New York’s fourth line while Casey Cizikas, who sustained a hand injury in Tuesday’s win over the Penguins, does not yet have a timeline for a return. Winger Hudson Fasching was moved to LTIR on Wednesday morning in anticipation of MacLean’s recall, opening up a necessary roster spot and space in their LTIR salary pool.

The 24-year-old skated in Cizikas’ normal spot for six games in January and February while the latter was sidelined with a lower-body injury. They were the first appearances of his NHL career, in which he scored once on three shots on goal while averaging 8:11 per game.

MacLean, the son of Islanders assistant coach John MacLean, struggled in the faceoff dot with a 31.8 win percentage. His possession numbers were mixed – he had a poor 47.8 CF% and -6.4 relative CF% at even strength but managed an even expected rating.

While MacLean occupied the same spot in the lineup as Cizikas, his usage was quite different. Cizikas has started just 16.4% of his shifts in the offensive zone at even strength this year, while MacLean’s oZS% was 63.3.

Five of MacLean’s six appearances came under new head coach Patrick Roy. The outgoing Lane Lambert was fired on Jan. 20, the day after MacLean’s NHL debut against the Blackhawks.

Since returning to Bridgeport in early February, MacLean had three assists and a -1 rating in five games. Now in his fourth season with the Isles’ primary affiliate, MacLean has six goals and 22 points in 43 games on the season, setting the highest points-per-game mark of his professional career.

MacLean is waivers-exempt after signing his entry-level contract with the Islanders last May, so he can be shuffled between leagues at will. He will have arbitration rights this summer if he reaches RFA status upon completion of his one-year, $800K deal.

Islanders To Activate Casey Cizikas, Reassign Kyle MacLean

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The Islanders will activate center Casey Cizikas from long-term injured reserve ahead of tonight’s game against the Lightning, as implied by his full participation in Thursday’s morning skate (via Newsday’s Andrew Gross). Center Kyle MacLean has been returned to AHL Bridgeport to open a roster spot.

Cizikas, 32, is still listed as a game-time decision after being upgraded Wednesday night. However, with Hudson Fasching still out with a lower-body injury, the Islanders don’t have an extra healthy forward on the roster and would need to dress seven defensemen if Cizikas is a late scratch.

As expected, Cizikas will return to his long-time home on the team’s fourth line between Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck. Now in his 13th season with the team, Cizikas has five goals and 11 points in 39 contests while averaging 13:30 per game. He remains under contract until 2027 with a $2.5MM cap hit.

Meanwhile, the 24-year-old MacLean returns to Bridgeport on a more permanent basis after being ferried up and down in Cizikas’ absence. The son of Isles assistant coach John MacLean scored his first NHL goal Monday night against the Maple Leafs, his only point during the first six games of his NHL career.

MacLean saw limited action under new head coach Patrick Roy, averaging 8:11 per game. He struggled in the faceoff dot, winning 14 out of 44 draws, and recorded a 47.8% Corsi share at even strength.

The New Jersey native has six goals and 19 points in 38 games with Bridgeport this season, on pace for AHL career-highs. He will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights this summer upon completion of a one-year, two-way contract worth $800K in the NHL and $82.5K in the AHL.

Snapshots: Sergachev, Cizikas, Karlsson, Svoboda

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Earlier today, the Lightning activated Mikhail Sergachev off LTIR, adding a key defenseman back into their lineup.  However, the return was short-lived as the team announced (Twitter link) that the blueliner suffered a lower-body injury, ending his return game prematurely.  The 25-year-old was injured in the second period in a collision with Rangers winger Alexis Lafreniere.  Sergachev, who was coming back from a left leg injury, looked to suffer another injury to that same leg on the play and was stretchered off the ice.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • Islanders center Casey Cizikas has been upgraded to a game-time decision for Thursday’s game against Tampa Bay, notes NHL.com’s Stefen Rosner. The 32-year-old has missed the past 10 games because of a lower-body injury, landing him on LTIR in the process.  New York will have to make some roster moves to get cap-compliant before they can bring Cizikas onto the active roster.  Cizikas has 11 points in 39 games so far this season.
  • Linus Karlsson’s frequent roster shuffling continues as today, the Canucks announced (Twitter link) that the center has been returned to AHL Abbotsford. It’s the fourth re-assignment to the minors in a little over three weeks, even with the All-Star break.  Karlsson has played in four games with Vancouver so far while often being recalled to serve as the emergency option should a forward become unavailable close to game time.  Meanwhile, in the minors, the 24-year-old has 27 points in 30 games.
  • Sharks prospect Brandon Svoboda is on the move as USHL Fargo announced that they acquired the center from Youngstown. San Jose picked the 19-year-old in the third round last June but his production has been limited this year with just 11 points in 25 games so far.  Svoboda is committed to Boston University for next season and will be looking to finish up his USHL career on a high note as he’s joining the league-leading Force.

Metropolitan Notes: Rangers, Cizikas, Fasching

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The Rangers are unwilling to move their first-round pick in the 2024 draft in their pursuit of a forward ahead of the March 8 trade deadline, TSN’s Darren Dreger said on Tuesday’s edition of “Insider Trading.” That directive comes from owner James Dolan, who wants the Rangers to be a part of the final fully in-person draft before decentralization at Sphere in Las Vegas. Dolan is the majority owner of the Sphere property.

Dreger doesn’t rule out the Rangers shopping their 2025 first-round selection in a deal for an impact forward, although that would leave them with just two selections in the first three rounds over the next two drafts. GM Chris Drury dealt away both the Rangers’ 2024 and 2025 third-round picks in deals for wingers Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko before last season’s trade deadline.

The Rangers’ need for a middle-six impact piece is once again obvious if they want to pull ahead of the crowded playoff field in the Eastern Conference, especially with center Filip Chytil sidelined for the remainder of the season. Dreger said the Rangers made an offer to the Flames for Elias Lindholm before they traded him to the Canucks last week, although it’s unclear whether Drury shopped his 2025 first-round pick to do so.

No Ranger on the team’s third or fourth line has cracked ten goals this season, and fourth-line center Barclay Goodrow boasts some of the league’s worst even-strength possession numbers this season. A domino effect-type acquisition would allow 30-year-old Jonny Brodzinski, who’s been effective in a major-league role this season, to slide down to the fourth line and provide added value.

Elsewhere from the Metropolitan Division on Wednesday morning:

  • Islanders center Casey Cizikas skated in a regular jersey at practice for the first time since sustaining a lower-body injury on Jan. 9, per NHL.com’s Stefen Rosner. Cizikas, 32, returned to practice with a non-contact designation on Sunday and is eligible for activation off long-term injured reserve ahead of Thursday’s game against the Lightning. Now in the third season of a six-year, $15MM contract, the Toronto native has five goals and 11 points in 39 games in his usual fourth-line role between veteran enforcers Cal Clutterbuck and Matt Martin.
  • Staying on Long Island, Islanders winger Hudson Fasching was not at practice Wednesday and remains out on a day-to-day basis with a lower-body injury, Rosner said. The 28-year-old has not skated since sustaining the injury in a loss to the Canadiens on Jan. 25. Fasching has been a healthy scratch for multiple stretches this season but played in eight consecutive games prior to the injury. The veteran minor-leaguer earned a two-year, one-way extension worth $1.55MM after working his way into a full-time role in New York in the back half of last season but has been largely ineffective with three goals and eight points in 35 games in 2023-24.

Islanders Move Casey Cizikas, Robert Bortuzzo To LTIR, Activate Ryan Pulock, Recall Two

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The New York Islanders are facing a multitude of injuries and a tight cap. Because of that, they’ve moved forward Casey Cizikas (lower-body) and defenseman Robert Bortuzzo (lower-body) to long-term injured reserve. Both players have been out of action since early January, already missing the required time with injury. That means both can be activated again whenever they are ready to return, though it’s uncertain what their exact timeline is. These moves were necessary for the team to create enough cap space to activate defenseman Ryan Pulock off of injured reserve. Pulock has been out of action since December 7th, missing the team’s last 24 games with a lower-body injury.

With Pulock activated, the Islanders also had enough cap space to recall minor-league forwards Simon Holmstrom and Kyle MacLean. Holmstrom has been a frequent member of the Islanders lineup this season, appearing in 48 games and scoring 12 goals and 18 points, while MacLean has gone without a point in five NHL games this season.

New York could have instead placed Adam Pelech on LTIR, rather than Bortuzzo or Cizikas. But unlike the latter two, Pelech has only been out since January 25th, meaning he would have to miss at least nine more games before being eligible to be activated. Team reporter Stefen Rosner shares that Pelech may be dealing with a concussion, making his return trickier to gauge than other injuries – though the team is hopeful he’ll be able to return within the next nine games.

These moves bring a beat-up Islanders lineup a bit closer to normal. Holmstrom will slot in for Julien Gauthier, who recently cleared waivers and was assigned to the AHL. MacLean will serve as the understudy to Hudson Fasching, who is facing a lower-body injury with an unknown timeline. And Pulock will likely return to his top role with the club. He’s averaged nearly 23 minutes per game through 25 games this season, scoring six points and recording a -6. The Islanders have provided more minutes to Alexander Romanov and Scott Mayfield in Pulock’s absence.

Islanders Put Casey Cizikas On IR, Recall Kyle MacLean

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The New York Islanders announced today that they have placed forward Casey Cizikas on the injured reserve and recalled forward Kyle MacLean from their AHL affiliate in Bridgeport. The move with Cizikas is retroactive to January 9th, meaning that he can return anytime he is healthy enough to do so. He is currently listed as week-to-week with a lower-body injury so he may be out until closer to the all-star break.

Cizikas has been enjoying one of his better offensive seasons this year with five goals and six assists in 39 games. However, his defensive work is his calling card, and it has not been quite as good as in previous seasons. Cizikas has long been one of the top defensive forwards in the NHL, but his overall play at five-on-five and the penalty kill has fallen off this year in comparison to previous seasons.

MacLean is the son of long-time New Jersey Devils forward John MacLean. He will join the Islanders from Bridgeport, where he has spent the past four seasons with the team. In 193 career AHL games, the 24-year-old has 29 goals and 49 assists and is -4. He has yet to dress in an NHL game, meaning that he could make his NHL debut in the coming days. This season with Bridgeport he has six goals and 13 assists in 36 games.

Metropolitan Notes: Pacioretty, Bear, Cizikas, Lazar, Penguins

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5:30 PM: Curtis Lazar has been declared ’out’ for Friday.

5:00 PM: The Washington Capitals will have to wait a little longer for the highly-anticipated debuts of newcomers Max Pacioretty and Ethan Bear, with both players set to sit out of the team’s Friday night game. Both players signed with the Capitals during their recovery from injury, with Pacioretty coming back from his second Achille’s tendon tear and Bear recovering from a shoulder surgery required after taking a big hit during the 2023 World Championships.

Pacioretty joined Washington this summer, signing a one-year, $2MM contract with the club on July 1st. Pacioretty only appeared in five games last season, although he did manage three goals. His 2021-22 season didn’t last for much longer, only seeing 39 games and 37 points. We have to go back to the 2019-20 season to find the last year that Pacioretty appeared in 50 or more regular season games. That year was his second with the Vegas Golden Knights and saw the 855-game veteran record 32 goals and 66 points in 71 games.

Bear’s injury struggles haven’t been as long-running, with the defender managing 61 games with the Vancouver Canucks last season. He scored 16 points through that stretch, marking the second-most points he’s scored in his career, behind his 2019-20 season which saw him net 21 points in 71 games with the Edmonton Oilers. Washington will become the fourth organization that Bear has been apart of through his five-year NHL career, which has been split evenly between two Pacific Division and two Metropolitan Division teams.

Other Metropolitan Division Notes:

Snapshots: Lindholm, Wild, Islanders

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Calgary Flames center Elias Lindholm is one of the biggest potentially available names on the trade market. Potentially is the operative word there, as things still remain up in the air about whether the 28-year-old will consider re-signing in Calgary with his contract set to expire next summer. If he does hit the trade market, however, The Athletic’s Julian McKenzie and Shayna Goldman today examined some potential fits for his services.

The most obvious of these is the Boston Bruins. As we mentioned last week, the team is not shy about looking to replace the roles of David Krejčí and Patrice Bergeron by any means possible. Lindholm, who finished second in Selke Trophy voting in 2022 and posted positive relative Corsi for percentages in the first four of his five seasons in Calgary, is easily the closest stylistic replacement for Bergeron available in terms of his two-way acumen. However, as McKenzie and Goldman rightly note, the likelihood of the Bruins being unable to pony up the assets needed to win a bidding war for Lindholm is high, given the rather ghoulish state of their prospect pool and draft pick stash. McKenzie and Goldman also mentioned the Carolina Hurricanes, Columbus Blue Jackets, Minnesota Wild, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Vancouver Canucks as teams with a need for center help and assets available to spend.

More from around the NHL today:

  • The Minnesota Wild’s offseason hasn’t been dominated by the moves they’ve made, but rather the moves they can’t make because of $14.75MM in dead cap allocated to the buyouts of Ryan Suter and Zach Parise. With their combined cap hits set to decrease to just $1.67MM ahead of the 2025-26 season, Joe Smith and Michael Russo of The Athletic examined what options the additional cap space might open up for the Wild in two seasons. They note the biggest use of that cap space will undoubtedly be an extension for star winger Kirill Kaprizov, who will be entering the final season of his five-year, $45MM contract and will require a hefty extension to avoid him becoming a free agent.
  • While we covered some New York Islanders items of interest from The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz in a notes piece yesterday, Kurz also mentioned in his mailbag that he envisions 2023-24 being the last season of ’The Identity Line’ on Long Island. Made up of Matt Martin, Casey Cizikas and Cal Clutterbuck, the line has been in existence for the better part of a decade, coming together in 2014-15 and taking a two-year break from 2016 to 2018 while Martin was a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs. In that time, they’ve been recognizable as the team’s most consistent unit, providing a desirable mix of defensive acumen, fighting skill and forechecking that set the tone for a number of deep playoff runs over the past while in New York. Martin and Clutterbuck are now both in their mid-30s, and as they’re set to become UFAs next summer, Kurz thinks it’s a strong possibility that one (or both) don’t return to the team. Clutterbuck especially has become injury-prone in his twilight years, not playing more than 70 games in a season since 2018-19.

Snapshots: Crosby, Islanders, Coyotes

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Pittsburgh Penguins franchise center Sidney Crosby has moved into sole possession of second place on an impressive list — the number of point-per-game seasons in an NHL career. By reaching 82 points on the year last night, he clinched his 18th straight point-per-game season, moving past Gordie Howe, who had 17. With a point-per-game season next year, he’ll tie Wayne Gretzky for the all-time record with 19.

Those scoring pace statistics are the best way to quantify Crosby’s greatness, given the sheer amount of games he missed due to injury in the early 2010s. While those injuries may limit his place on the main all-time statistics lists, his scoring consistency and ability to adapt his game as the team changes around him should never be overlooked. Crosby’s 83 points in 68 games this season lead the Penguins.

Also from around the league today:

  • The New York Islanders announced that forwards Casey Cizikas and Josh Bailey are both currently sick with non-COVID illnesses, potentially impacting their availability for tomorrow’s game against San Jose. New York still has the inside track on a Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference but still can’t afford to lose many games down the stretch. Health will be a key factor to watch for them, as Cizikas and Bailey are both key veteran presences with experience in important games.
  • The Arizona Coyotes assigned forward Bokondji Imama and defenseman Michael Kesselring back to the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners today, according to the team. Both have been shuttled up and down frequently since the trade deadline. Expect both players to be recalled back to Arizona tomorrow, as Nick Schmaltz and Josh Brown aren’t expected to be ready for their game against Chicago and remain out with injuries.

 

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