Defenseman Connor Murphy, currently on the injured reserve list due to a groin injury, is nearing a return to the active roster after fully participating in today’s practice. However, Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times reported that he will not be ready for tomorrow’s game. Additionally, he mentioned that defensemen Seth Jones and Alec Martinez may also miss the game due to illness.

If Chicago has only five healthy defensemen available, they will probably make a brief call-up. With two open roster spots, they don’t need to make any corresponding roster moves. However, this would result in having an abundance of left-handed defensemen for at least one game.

Other injury notes from the Central Division:

• In Chicago, Charlie Roumeliotis of WGN Radio reported that forward Craig Smith has returned to practice wearing a non-contact jersey. Smith has been recovering from a persistent back injury for the past two months, during which he missed 12 days in mid-December and another 17 days in January. So far this season, he has scored six goals and recorded 11 points in 30 games with the team.
• Outside of more immediate news, the potential return of captain Gabriel Landeskog has been a major storyline for the Colorado Avalanche over the last two years. Speaking to that, Evan Rawal of The Denver Gazette reported today that Landeskog has been on the ice more than ever since the 2022-23 season, and fell short of designating him as week-to-week. Landeskog’s hypothetical return could make the loss of Mikko Rantanen more palatable for Colorado’s top-six.

The former 10th overall pick has been effective when available this season, posting 11 goals and six assists in 21 games while averaging 19:38 of ice time per game. However, his game has shown signs of rust, particularly when it comes to protecting the puck. Nichushkin has turned the puck over at an alarming rate this year, something that was uncharacteristic in previous seasons.

Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar denied a previous report on Gabriel Landeskog that said the injured forward couldn’t skate on back-to-back days due to swelling (as per Aarif Dean of Colorado Hockey Now). Bednar was asked by the media if there was any truth to previous reports of the swelling and answered with a simple “no.” He didn’t give any additional details about the 32-year-old’s recovery as he tries to get back into game action for the first time since winning the Stanley Cup in June 2022.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

• The University of Minnesota-Duluth announced (Twitter link) that Ducks prospect Will Francis had a relapse of his leukemia which is why he has been limited to just three games so far this season. Francis was initially diagnosed with it in 2020 and had a relapse in August 2023, leading to a bone marrow transplant back in April.  Francis is hoping to return to the team next month.  PHR wishes Francis well in his continued battle.
• The Hurricanes announced that defenseman Riley Stillman has been sent back to AHL Chicago. The 26-year-old has been sent back and forth this season but hasn’t seen any action with Carolina.  Stillman has four points in nine contests with the Wolves.  Meanwhile, Carolina has also recalled goalie Dustin Tokarski, defenseman Ty Smith, and winger Jackson Blake from Chicago, per the AHL transactions log.  The three were papered to the minors on Wednesday.
• Utah announced (Twitter link) that winger Matias Maccelli was scratched from tonight’s game against Calgary due to an illness. After putting up 57 points last season, the 24-year-old has struggled mightily offensively this year, potting just three goals and seven assists through his first 37 outings.  There was some good news on the health front, however, as Clayton Keller returned after missing Tuesday’s game to an illness himself.

The jury is still out on whether Landeskog can return this season but the expectation is that Nichushkin, Wood, and Drouin will return to the lineup over the coming weeks. This would leave Landeskog and Ross Colton as the only formidable top-six talents left on the injured reserve making the deepest rendition of Colorado’s lineup up to this point in the 2024-25 campaign.

Colorado has stayed afloat in the Western Conference thanks to the team’s usual suspects. Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, and Cale Makar are all well over a point-per-game production this season, and the Avalanche could start to generate rapid success should the team get closer to fully healthy.

Other Central notes:

• Staying in Colorado — one of the most disappointing factors for the team this season has been its goaltending. Avalanche netminders have combined for a .868 SV% over 15 contests leading many pundits to believe Colorado will trade for a goaltender. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman spoke about the issue in his latest episode of ’32 Thoughts’ and reiterated that the Avalanche have circled back on San Jose Sharks’ netminder Mackenzie Blackwood. Colorado’s interest in Blackwood, which reportedly spanned back to last season, could have been reignited by the netminder’s recent 44-save shutout against his former team last night.
• Senior draft writer of the NHL, Mike G. Morreale, recently surveyed the top rookies in the NHL’s Central Division and it’s no surprise that Logan Stankoven of the Dallas Stars is leading the pack. Stankoven currently leads the 2024-25 rookie class with two goals and 12 points in 13 games while averaging top-six minutes. Morreale quoted Stars head coach Peter DeBoer saying, “Anybody you put him with, he complements. Good players want to play with a guy like that because he’s competitive, he’s on pucks, he recovers pucks, he can make a play.”
• Expect forward Mathieu Joseph to be in the lineup tomorrow night for the St. Louis Blues after missing the team’s last six games (X Link). Joseph, who had been nursing a lower-body injury, hasn’t played since October 26th. In his first year with the Blues organization, Joseph has collected two goals and four points in nine contests while averaging just over 13 minutes of ice time per night.

Landeskog’s recovery has been an on-again-off-again ordeal that has required a great deal of patience. Anytime Landeskog has felt discomfort he has stopped skating to rest his ailing knee.

In other Colorado Avalanche notes:

• Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar will travel with the club for their game tomorrow night, but it appears as though he will be a game-time decision (as per Ryan Boulding of NHL.com). The Avalanche take on the red-hot Winnipeg Jets tomorrow night as they try to climb back to .500. The 26-year-old left last night’s 6-3 win over Seattle after a single shift in the third period and is okay to travel, but he and the Avalanche will proceed with caution and see how he feels tomorrow before making a call on his status.
• The Avalanche are set to start netminder Alexandar Georgiev when they take on the Winnipeg Jets tomorrow night (as per Ryan Boulding of NHL.com). Georgiev has struggled immensely to start the season, sporting a 1-4-0 record with a .822 save percentage and a 4.62 goals-against average. In his last start, the 28-year-old stopped 21 of 24 shots as the Avalanche fell 5-2 to the Chicago Blackhawks. Georgiev is in the final season of a three-year deal and is currently carrying a $3.4MM cap hit this season. He will be an unrestricted free agent next summer and will need to turn his season around if he hopes to cash in on the open market in 2025.

Rantanen is coming off yet another career year, posting 42 goals and 104 points – just one point shy of the career high he sent last season, though he played in two fewer games this year. He’s emerged as the clear 1B to Nathan MacKinnon’s 1A – giving Colorado one of the most formidable top lines in the league. Rantanen has climbed to 617 points in 570 career games – with 301 of those points coming in the last three seasons alone. He seems focused on repeating the dominant scoring this season, confident that a new deal with Avalanche will come to fruition when necessary.

Other notes out of the Mile High City:

• Head coach Jared Bednar spoke with the media ahead of Colorado’s start to training camp and among the updates, shared that there’s no news on team captain Gabriel Landeskog per Deen. Bednar mentioned that Landeskog has made big strides but that the situation remains up in the air. He hasn’t played since June of 2022, supporting Colorado’s run to the 2022 Stanley Cup after a trio of injury-shortened seasons. He’s an incredibly effective scorer when he plays, scoring 30 goals and 59 points in 51 games in his most recent season. That’s the production that fans have come to expect from their captain, leading Landeskog to 571 points across 738 career games. There’s hope that he can return to the top flight soon, though it seems he’ll need to overcome more hurdles before he’s back in the NHL.
• Winger Artturi Lehkonen isn’t expected to attend training camp as he continues recovering from a shoulder injury that required surgery in May, shares Meghan Angley of The DNVR.com. Lehkonen only appeared in 45 games last season, but still managed an admirable 16 goals and 34 points. He’s flashed strong scoring over the last three seasons, totaling 123 points in 183 games split between Montreal and Colorado. He’ll sit out of the team’s training camp, hoping to return to a solid lineup role once he’s healthy.
• Bednar also shared high remarks for top goalie prospect Justus Annunen, sharing that he could eat into starter Alexandar Georgiev’s workload, shares Angley. Georgiev has played in 125 games over the last two seasons,  recording a modest 78 wins and .908 save percentage. Annunen split time between the NHL and AHL last season, posting an impressive .928 save percentage in the outings. He emerged as a top-end AHL starter in 2022-23, with 22 wins and a .916 save percentage in 41 appearances. It’s not clear how the Avalanche will platoon their netminders this year, but Annunen’s recent success could be too much for Colorado to ignore.

The NHL has played 20 regular season games in Europe since 2017 and 13 preseason games in Europe, Asia, and Australia and as Daly highlighted, the league would like to go back to London to play games as well as Germany and Switzerland. Daly was asked if the league would consider a return to Australia and Daly was non-committal saying that the league had a good experience down there but they haven’t begun to explore a return trip.

In other evening notes:

• The Vancouver Canucks are expected to announce a new AHL goaltender coach to replace the recently promoted Marko Torenius who has joined the team at the NHL level (as per Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet). Torenius was appointed to replace current head goalie coach and director of goaltending Ian Clark after Clark asked for a new position with the team to begin his transition to an off-ice role.  No word yet on who might be up for the role, but they will join a new-look AHL coaching staff after Vancouver hired Manny Malhotra as head coach of Abbotsford back in May to replace Jeremy Colliton.
• Corey Masisak of The Denver Post is reporting that Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog’s return to the lineup is now a matter of time and no longer an uncertainty. Landeskog reportedly told a fan that he’ll play this year, but he wasn’t sure in what game. The 31-year-old hasn’t played a game since he hoisted the Stanley Cup with his teammates in June 2022 and would be a welcome return for a team that doesn’t boast the depth it used to. Landeskog had 30 goals and 29 assists during the 2021-22 season in just 51 games and was a key catalyst in their run to the championship registering 11 goals and 11 assists in 20 playoff games.

Speaking with NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti, head coach Jared Bednar indicated that Colorado’s captain will not be ready to return when the puck drops on the regular season in October.  However, Landeskog appears to be aiming for an early-season return.  That said, Bednar puts that timeline between the first month or two of the year, noting that the exact timing remains up to Landeskog.

The 31-year-old had quadriceps surgery during the 2020 playoffs and had knee surgery in March and October 2022.  He then underwent cartilage replacement surgery on his knee last May after the procedure six months earlier didn’t fix the injury.  Late last season, the team indicated that there was a possibility that Landeskog could return depending on how far they went in the playoffs.  However, they were ousted in the second round by Dallas and that return never materialized.

When healthy, Landeskog has been a key part of Colorado’s forward group.  In 2021-22, his last season of action, he recorded 30 goals and 29 assists in just 51 games as a mainstay on the top line.  Over his past four years (excluding the last two where he didn’t play), he has 230 points in 232 contests.  While it wouldn’t be realistic to expect Landeskog to come back and produce at a similar rate after being off for so long, his eventual return should still bolster their depth at a minimum while potentially giving them a boost lower in the lineup.

From a salary cap perspective, if the minimum return timeline for Landeskog is a month, he’ll be eligible to land back on LTIR to start the season.  Between that and Valeri Nichushkin not counting against the cap while in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program, Colorado will safely be in cap compliance when the regular season gets underway.  But when (or if) both players can return, then they could be very tight to the Upper Limit depending on how they fill out their roster over the next couple of months.

In other injury news, Bednar indicated that winger Logan O’Connor should be ready to start the season after undergoing hip surgery in March.  However, he’s not as certain that winger Artturi Lehkonen will be medically cleared by the opener; he had shoulder surgery after the playoffs.  If he’s not available on opening night, the Avs will be down three of their top wingers to start the season.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

It remains to be seen whether Landeskog will be ready for training camp in the fall but he’s planning on returning sometime during the 2024-25 regular season, he said. He’s had no setbacks in his recovery for the last two months while slowly ramping up his on-ice workload (via Deen).

While it’s fortunate news for general manager Chris MacFarland that his captain will likely be back on the ice next season, the lack of a real update today muddies his offseason planning. He can operate under the assumption that Landeskog’s $7MM cap hit can be placed on offseason long-term injured reserve for additional flexibility, but with an in-season return expected, he’ll need to leave enough space under the $87.7MM upper limit to activate Landeskog at some point down the line.

Including the cap hits of Landeskog but not Valeri Nichushkin (more on him in a few paragraphs), the Avalanche have $15.9MM in projected cap space next season, per CapFriendly. That’ll evaporate quickly, though, as they only have 13 roster players signed. They’ll need to fill seven to nine spots with that money, plus leaving $6.125MM to activate Nichushkin once his six-month suspension is lifted. That’s an average of around $1.25MM per unsigned player.

Their core remains intact, though, with their top skater unit of Artturi Lehkonen, Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Devon Toews and Cale Makar all signed through next season.

More out of Colorado:

• Speaking to reporters today, MacFarland called it “plausible” that Nichushkin would suit up for the Avalanche once he exits Stage 3 of the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program in November at the earliest (via Deen). Nichushkin does not count against the cap during his suspension, but MacFarland cannot trade, buy out, or terminate the six remaining seasons of his $6.125MM AAV contract. The Russian winger had 53 points in 54 games this season, limited by an earlier stint in the Player Assistance Program.
• Unfortunately, Landeskog isn’t the only important winger whose status for the beginning of training camp is in doubt. Lehkonen needs offseason shoulder surgery, MacFarland said, and may miss the beginning of preseason activities. His absence isn’t expected to stretch into the regular season, though. The Finnish winger missed nearly half of 2023-24 with a neck injury, but managed 16 goals and 34 points in 45 games when healthy. Trade deadline acquisition Casey Mittelstadt was also dealing with an injury during the postseason, but it won’t require surgery and “isn’t a long-term issue.”
• The Avs hope to get 2023 first-round pick Calum Ritchie signed to his entry-level contract this summer, MacFarland said. Ritchie, 19, finished sixth in the Ontario Hockey League in points per game with 80 in 50 appearances for the Oshawa Generals. Likely to slot into a middle-six center role long-term, Ritchie is Colorado’s best forward prospect by a wide margin. He would need to return to Oshawa next season if he doesn’t crack the NHL roster, however. His 20th birthday doesn’t fall until after New Year’s Day.

More from the Central Division:

• The Stars have been without defenseman Jani Hakanpaa for more than two months after initially being listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury. However, it appears he could be available in the somewhat near future as Lia Assimakopoulos of the Dallas Morning News relays that the 32-year-old has been skating on his own and accompanied the team to Colorado for their series-clinching victory on Friday.  While he still needs to get in some practices with the team before getting the green light to return, the fact he’s skating and traveling now suggests he could be cleared at some point next round.
• Still with the Stars, head coach Peter DeBoer told team reporter Mike Heika (Twitter link) that center Roope Hintz would have been doubtful to play in Game Seven had the series gotten that far. Hintz suffered an upper-body injury in the fourth game of their series against Colorado and was designated as out day-to-day at the time.  Now, he’ll have a few more days to rest up for the Western Conference Final.  Hintz has had a quiet playoff performance, notching six points in 11 games but four of those came in one contest in the second round.

Hedman remains one of the NHL’s elite defensemen coming off another strong season in which he posted 13 goals and 63 assists in 78 games while averaging just a tick under 25 minutes of ice time per game.

The Lightning are no longer the perennial Stanley Cup contender of a few years ago but they remain a strong team with a very good core and have been aggressive in extending their group long term having locked up six regulars to contracts beyond the 2028-29 season.

In other afternoon notes:

• Ryan Boulding of NHL.com tweeted that Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar told reporters that forward Gabriel Landeskog is increasing the time he’s on the ice, and increasing the repetition in his workouts but he isn’t close to practicing with the team. Landeskog had knee cartilage surgery exactly one year ago today, and while the projected recovery time for that type of procedure is usually one year, it doesn’t appear as though he will return anytime soon. Bednar remained non-committal when pressed by reporters, simply saying that the team doesn’t know a timeline for a return.
• Stefan Rosner of The Hockey News writes that New York Islanders defenseman Mike Reilly is hoping to sign an extension with the team before his contract expires on July 1st. Reilly has played with six different NHL teams in his short career and it’s not surprising to see him looking for the stability of an extension. Reilly was bought out last summer by the Boston Bruins but then signed a one-year, $1MM contract with the Florida Panthers before he was acquired off waivers in November by the Islanders. He played 50 games for New York, notching five goals and 14 assists during that time and providing the Islanders with a lot of good work in their transition game. The Islanders don’t have much in the way of cap space this summer but would have room to fit Reilly in, should they want to keep him with the team.

Infamously, Landeskog’s last game came on June 26th, 2022, the same date that the Avalanche unseated the Tampa Bay Lightning at the top of the hockey world, claiming their third Stanley Cup Championship in franchise history. After the Stanley Cup celebration, however, Landeskog underwent arthroscopic knee surgery and has missed every game since.

Being that a return is unlikely given that it has never been done in the NHL prior, Landeskog’s drive and determination have at least produced non-zero odds of a potential return. As the Avalanche look to make it beyond the first found of the Stanley Cup playoffs this spring, the return of their captain would certainly help their cause.

Other Avalanche notes:

• In the same report from Flynn, forward Logan O’Connor will also be joining the team on their flight to Manitoba. Nevertheless, there has been no indication that O’Connor is close to returning in time for the start of Round One, as he continues to recover from hip surgery that has kept him out of the lineup since the first week of March.
• Unlike O’Connor, one player who is close to a return is defenseman Samuel Girard once again according to Colleen Flynn of The Hockey News. Girard has been out with a concussion for about a week and remains questionable to return for the first game of the series against the Jets. If the Avalanche are able to get a few players back at the beginning of the series, the hockey world saw not all that long ago how dangerous a fully healthy Colorado lineup can be.

More from the Central Division:

• With the Blackhawks locking up most of their notable pending UFAs to extensions already, Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times posits that their cap space might be their best asset before the March 8th trade deadline. Doing so could allow them to act as a third-party retainer to pick up an extra draft pick while they could also take on a bad contract as they did last season with Nikita Zaitsev to also add draft capital.  However, Pope notes that Chicago won’t be willing to take on a contract that runs past next season, similar to Zaitsev last season with his contract set to expire this summer.
• Avalanche winger Gabriel Landeskog has become a regular participant in team skates as he works his way back from a knee cartilage transplant procedure back in January, The Athletic’s Chris Johnston noted on the latest TSN Insider Trading segment. The 31-year-old last played in June 2022 but a return at some point in the playoffs this season hasn’t been ruled out yet.  If the team feels that there’s a good chance that he’ll be able to suit up in the postseason, that could affect their trade deadline approach.
• A day after being sent down, Mark Jankowski is back up with the Predators, per the AHL’s transactions log. The 29-year-old is one of the top scorers in the minors this season, notching 47 points in 40 games with Milwaukee while also chipping in with a pair of goals in seven games with Nashville while averaging a little less than 12 minutes a night of playing time.

Landeskog has been out of action since he helped the Avalanche win the Stanley Cup back in June of 2022. He attempted to return during the 2022-23 season but suffered several setbacks that prohibited him from getting back on the ice. He worked hard to try and avoid a major surgery but eventually had knee surgery in May of 2023.

In other Avalanche notes:

• The Avalanche announced today that they’ve activated forward Jean-Luc Foudy off of the Injured Non-Roster list and assigned him to their AHL affiliate the Colorado Eagles. The 21-year-old has missed the entire first half of the season and will begin his return in the AHL. He did see nine games on NHL action last season with Colorado and was held pointless. With the Eagles last season, Foudy dressed in 46 games and had 11 goals and 25 assists. The former third-round pick was widely considered to be the best skating prospect in the 2020 NHL entry draft and could fit in well with Colorado once he is able to get back into game shape.
• Evan Rawal of Colorado Hockey Now tweeted today that the Avalanche have some concerns about goaltender Alexandar Georgiev’s workload this season and with good reason. Georgiev is currently on pace to play 68 games this season which would eclipse his career high of 62 games that he played last season. While Georgiev garnered Vezina Trophy consideration with his play last season, this year has been a little bit different. Georgiev has seen his save percentage drop, his goals against average inflate, and his underlying numbers dip significantly. While it could be a slump for the 27-year-old, it could also be a sign that Georgiev is fatigued and could use some rest.

It’s an incredibly promising development for Colorado’s captain. He hasn’t played an NHL game since June 26, 2022, when the Avalanche won Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final over the Lightning to win their third championship in franchise history. His cartilage transplant is the third surgery on his right knee dating back to March 2022.

Landeskog’s second surgery, which took place early in the 2022-23 season, was only expected to keep him out for three months and have him back in the lineup by the All-Star break. Instead, he missed the entire campaign, thus determining a more invasive surgery was needed to correct the issue and improve his long-term quality of life.

While today’s news increases optimism that the 31-year-old will resume his career at some point, expect the Avalanche to be overly cautious with his recovery timeline. Given the nature of a cartilage transplant surgery in an athlete, even a small setback in his progress will take him “back to square one,” Avalanche GM Chris MacFarland told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan last October.

With three months to go until postseason play, it’s too early to rule Landeskog out of playoff action. The Avalanche will be in the mix come April, with 98% odds of making the playoffs and 15% odds of taking the Central Division title from the league-best Winnipeg Jets, per Hockey Reference. Even if he’s cleared to return, though, the likelihood of the Avalanche plopping him into the most rough-and-tumble environment of the season after nearly two years off seems low.

Colorado is certainly of the mind of winning the Cup this season, but it’s fair to assume MacFarland would like to extend the team’s window to compete beyond 2024. Letting Landeskog rest as long as possible in hopes of 2024-25 behind his first season with 70+ games played in six years would help achieve that goal.

At the time of writing, Landeskog’s 738 games played rank sixth in Avalanche history. His 248 goals, 323 assists, and 571 points rank seventh, ninth, and eighth, respectively. His 1.16 points-per-game pace in his final season before the injury, 2021-22, was a career-high.