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Avalanche Acquire Erik Johnson From Flyers

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The Avalanche are bringing 2022 Stanley Cup champion Erik Johnson back to Denver. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports they’re acquiring the veteran defenseman from the Flyers. Colorado sent depth winger Givani Smith to Philadelphia in return, per Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff. The Flyers later made the move official, with general manager Daniel Brière saying they’ve recalled defenseman Emil Andrae from AHL Lehigh Valley in a corresponding move (via Jackie Spiegel of the Philadelphia Inquirer).

In a feel-good move by the Avalanche, Johnson returns to the organization he spent 13 years with. Since being acquired from the St. Louis Blues during the 2010-11 season, the former first overall pick of the 2006 NHL Draft scored 68 goals and 246 points in 717 games with the Avalanche, averaging 21:33 of ice time per night. His tenure in Colorado was defined by his willingness to sacrifice his body nearly every game and by his being an emotional leader for the club when they captured their third Stanley Cup ring in 2022.

Johnson is effectively the same version of the player he was when he last played for the Avalanche in 2022-23. The nearly 37-year-old was rarely deployed by the Flyers this year, scoring one goal and two assists in 22 games, averaging 13:18 of ice time per game. That’s effectively all Colorado will need out of him. Despite being a shell of the player he used to be, the Avalanche likely views Johnson as a solid leader to re-insert into the locker room and even an improvement upon Keaton Middleton in the team’s bottom-pair.

It didn’t take too much to acquire him, either. Smith has barely played in Colorado since the team acquired him in the trade that brought Mackenzie Blackwood to Denver. He’ll finish his tenure in Colorado with zero points in seven games and one assist in six AHL contests.

Meanwhile, Andrae has earned the right to play for the Flyers after a second promising season with AHL Lehigh Valley. Since transitioning to North American hockey in 2022-23, Andrae has scored 10 goals and 54 points in 96 games for the Phantoms.

He’s gotten an extended look with the Flyers, too. Due to multiple injuries on the team’s blue line, Andrae was allowed the opportunity to play in 24 games this year with Philadelphia, scoring one goal and six points, averaging 18:59 of ice time with a +2 rating. His possession and defensive metrics have been solid in limited action, giving the Flyers confidence to give him a full-time role in the NHL for the remainder of the season.

PHR’s Brennan McClain contributed to this article. 

Avalanche Make Four Roster Moves

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It was a busy day for the Avalanche on top of their trade with Nashville earlier today.  The team announced (Twitter link) that they have loaned defenseman John Ludvig to AHL Colorado on a conditioning assignment while also assigning forward Givani Smith to the Eagles.  Meanwhile, the Avs also recalled defenseman Keaton Middleton and winger Jere Innala from the Eagles, per the AHL’s transactions log.

Ludvig was claimed on waivers back in October but playing time has been hard to come by as he has been limited to just eight games so far.  He has a pair of assists and 16 hits while averaging just under 13 minutes a night.  Ludvig has only played three times since November 10th and hasn’t suited up once since December 5th so he’ll be well-served getting some game action in with the Eagles.  The conditioning assignment can last up to two weeks.

As for Smith, he was acquired earlier this month from San Jose after he cleared waivers.  Since then, he has gotten into seven games, bringing his season total to 13.  For the season, the 26-year-old doesn’t have a point while adding 18 penalty minutes and 20 hits in a little over six minutes a night of playing time.  He can only play in three more NHL games before needing to pass through waivers again.

Middleton and Innala, meanwhile, were reassigned to the minors before the holiday break, allowing the Avs to save some money (though not bank cap space since they’re in LTIR).  Middleton has nine blocks and 13 hits in nine games so far while Innala has been held off the scoresheet in his first three NHL appearances.

Minor Transactions: 12/14/24

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It has been a busy Saturday on the transaction front across the NHL.  We’ve covered several of them already but quite a few other teams have made minor moves.  We’ll run through those here.

  • Utah announced (Twitter link) that they’ve re-assigned defenseman Kevin Connauton to AHL Tucson. The veteran was recalled on Wednesday but with Utah claiming Dakota Mermis on Thursday, Connauton was no longer needed as a reserve defender.  The 34-year-old has played in 17 games with the Roadrunners so far this season, notching three goals and three assists.
  • The Senators announced (Twitter link) that forward Cole Reinhardt has been re-assigned to AHL Belleville, one day after being recalled. The 24-year-old has been quite productive in the minors so far, picking up five goals and ten assists in just 12 games which has helped earn him five games with Ottawa.  In those outings, he has a goal and an assist, his first points at the NHL level.
  • After being papered down on Thursday, the Blue Jackets have recalled goaltender Jet Greaves and winger Mikael Pyyhtia, per the AHL’s transactions log. Greaves made his 2024-25 Columbus debut on Thursday against Washington, making 35 saves on 37 shots in a losing effort.  He has a 3.02 GAA and a .902 SV% in 15 appearances with the Monsters.  As for Pyyhtia, the 22-year-old has played in 19 games with the Blue Jackets so far, collecting a goal and an assist while averaging 13:33 per night of playing time.
  • After papering down defenseman Keaton Middleton and winger Givani Smith on Friday, the two are back up with the Avalanche, the team announced (Twitter link). Middleton has played in four games with the Avs this season in his first NHL action since the 2020-21 campaign; he has been held without a point while averaging 11:33 per night of ice time.  Smith, meanwhile, was acquired as part of the Mackenzie Blackwood trade earlier this week after he cleared waivers.  He has played in eight games between the two teams and is still looking for his first point of the season as well.
  • After having his contract terminated earlier in the week, former San Jose prospect Valtteri Pulli has found his next home. HC Lugano of the Swiss NL announced that they’ve signed the blueliner for the remainder of the season.  Pulli played in just two games with the AHL’s Barracuda before requesting his release earlier this week.

Avalanche, Sharks Swap Alexandar Georgiev, Mackenzie Blackwood

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The Colorado Avalanche and San Jose Sharks have gotten together on a big trade regarding their creases. The Avalanche announced they’ve acquired Mackenzie Blackwood, Givani Smith, and a 2027 fifth-round pick from the San Jose Sharks for Alexandar Georgiev, Nikolai Kovalenko, a 2026 second-round pick, and a 2025 fifth-round pick.

It’s quite rare to see an NHL organization entirely move out the netminders they started the year with but that’s exactly what the Avalanche did by early December. Colorado began the year with a combination of Georgiev and Justus Annunen but the two have been replaced with Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood.

The Avalanche have had the league’s worst goaltending this season and it’s not particularly close. Colorado sits dead last in the league with a .866 save percentage and 29th in goals against per game with 3.55.

Blackwood should help considerably in that department. He’s managed a 6-9-3 record with the Sharks this year coupled with a .909 SV% and 3.00 GAA. He’s given up 53 goals this year in San Jose but some of that can be attributed to the poor performance in front of him as his xGA is only 39.7 according to Hockey Reference.

Colorado’s defense has been more than capable of only allowing 766 shots on their netminders this season ranking 11th in the league. They’ll also shed some salary in the deal which is another bonus. TSN’s Chris Johnston reports that the Avalanche retained 14% ($476K) of Georgiev’s remaining salary so the organization will save roughly $700K in the swap.

Smith also provides some flexibility for Colorado toward the bottom of the lineup. He cleared waivers earlier today (as per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman) and can be moved between the Avalanche and their AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles, unencumbered for the next 30 days.

The real surprise in this deal is Georgiev. His inclusion was likely necessary for the Avalanche given their salary cap picture and the lack of desire to carry three netminders on the active roster. Still, it felt like the perfect opportunity for the Sharks to make an opening for prospect Yaroslav Askarov on the NHL roster.

He’s easily having the worst season of his career and will be limping into unrestricted free agency next summer. He’s produced an 8-7-0 record for the Avalanche this year but has a dismal .874 SV%. Georgiev may find more success with less pressure to win in San Jose but this isn’t the year he’d like to have considering his next contract is at stake.

The real prize in this deal for San Jose is Kovalenko. He was a sixth-round pick by Colorado in the 2018 NHL Draft but didn’t come to North America until last year. He saw his ice time reduced in recent weeks as the Avalanche drift toward a healthy lineup but still carries plenty of pedigree as a prospect.

His final two years in the Kontinental Hockey League were especially good. Kovalenko scored 32 goals and 89 points in 98 games with the KHL’s Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod from 2022 to 2024. He’ll likely push for top-six minutes with the Sharks which was a prohibited pathway in Colorado.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report Blackwood had been traded to Colorado. 

Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now was the first to report Smith and SJ’s 2027 fifth-round were also in the deal. 

Peng was the first to report Georgiev, Kovalenko, and draft capital were headed back to the Sharks. 

Sharks Place Givani Smith On Waivers

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The San Jose Sharks are making a small change at the bottom of their lineup. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported earlier that San Jose had placed forward Givani Smith on waivers to reassign him to the AHL should he clear.

Smith’s usage has been dramatically slashed this year with the Sharks. He scored one goal and four points in 36 games last year for the Bay Area franchise but has gone scoreless in six games this year. His ice time has dropped by nearly 90 seconds this season which is a relatively large amount considering Smith was only averaging 7:49 last year.

He’s known for demonstrating a physical edge to his game from his tenure with the Detroit Red Wings. San Jose could theoretically use this toughness in their lineup to protect younger stars such as William Eklund, Macklin Celebrini, or Will Smith but they haven’t found a real need for it yet.

Smith’s skill set unfortunately isolates him in this role. If a team doesn’t need toughness, he won’t have a genuine place on the roster.

This makes Smith a relatively cheap and reliable option for any team looking to add toughness to their lineup, however. At the very least, if he goes unclaimed within the next 24 hours, Smith should find a much more consistent role with the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda. It would be Smith’s first AHL action since the 2022-23 season when he scored two goals and five points in 22 games split between the Charlotte Checkers and Grand Rapids Griffins.

Pacific Notes: Sharks Roster, Sharks Injuries, Karlsson

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The San Jose Sharks have collectively cut 12 players from their training camp roster today bringing their total bodies down to 38. In an earlier article, Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News broke down some of the remaining camp battles on the roster with three games remaining in the preseason.

The organization’s forward core appears locked up with the remaining battles set to determine the 13th and 14th forwards on the opening night roster. Pashelka argues that forward Klim Kostin has already earned himself a spot for the regular season as the team would like to avoid putting him on waivers. The final spot remains a big question for San Jose. Will the team opt for an enforcer like Givani Smith to protect the youngsters when needed or look to add more available talent in Ethan Cardwell or Daniil Gushchin? Guschin likely has the inside edge if the team chooses the latter after scoring 20 goals and 54 points in 56 games for AHL San Jose last year.

The Sharks have a bigger question on defense with notable injuries to start the year (more on that later). Jack Thompson, acquired from the Tampa Bay Lightning and debuting last season, should be the odds-on-favorite for the seventh defenseman position by the end of training camp. Pashelka warns that even if Thompson represents the youngster with the most professional experience up to this point he still needs to play most nights rather than sit as a healthy scratch if he does make the roster.

Other Pacific notes:

  • Pashelka gave a few updates on the injured members of the Sharks’ defensive core earlier today. He shares that defensemen Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Shakir Mukhamadullin skated today and are still considered day-to-day. Still, their regular season opener availability is questionable. Circumstances appear to be different between the pipes with Pashelka also sharing that Yaroslav Askarov practiced with the team “for a little bit” today. Askarov has not practiced with the team once since the start of training camp a few weeks ago and his presence on the ice is a positive development.
  • Vegas Golden Knights center William Karlsson was not on the ice for practice again today and there appears to be a growing concern he may not be ready for opening night (X Link). It’s been over a week since he took the ice but the organization remains hopeful he will be healthy for the team’s regular-season opener on October 9th. Karlsson is set to be the second-line center for the Golden Knights this season although Nicolas Roy has been filling that void in the lineup for the last week.

Injury Updates: Werenski, Carpenter, Cates

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Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski has dealt with significant injury issues in recent years, including an injury that knocked him out for most of last season. That bad luck continued last night when Werenski was knocked out of the team’s game against the New Jersey Devils after an awkward collision with Devils forward Ondřej Palát.

Today, team reporter Jeff Svoboda relayed word from Blue Jackets head coach Pascal Vincent, who said that Werenski is still being evaluated but the injury is most likely going to keep Werenski out on a week-to-week basis. An extended Werenski absence could very well deal a killing blow to the Blue Jackets’ already long-shot playoff hopes, as the team would need to replace a defenseman scoring at a 60-point pace who plays over 24 minutes per night, including on both special teams units.

Some other injury updates from across the NHL:

  • The San Jose Sharks announced that forward Ryan Carpenter has been activated off of injured reserve. In a corresponding move, the team placed forward Givani Smith on injured reserve, retroactive to December 21st. Carpenter has missed the last 10 games with an undisclosed injury and has five points in 18 games so far this season playing as a defensive/penalty-killing specialist in San Jose. Smith 25, has played in 26 games this season and has logged three points and 33 penalty minutes.
  • According to The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz, Philadelphia Flyers forward Noah Cates skated today as part of his recovery from a lower-body injury that was originally slated to cost him six to eight weeks. Cates was not having the strongest sophomore campaign before his injury, and his offensive production had declined sharply compared to last season. But in his rookie year he showed himself to be a promising defensive forward, so regardless of his struggles so far this year the Flyers have to be hoping that he’ll return to full strength relatively soon.

Snapshots: Zadorov, Sillinger, Smith

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Although Nikita Zadorov has yet to make his debut for the Vancouver Canucks, talk has already begun on his longer-term future with the club. The pending unrestricted free agent defenseman would be open to extending his contract with the team, according to his agent, Dan Milstein. Milstein said in an interview with CHEK TV’s Rick Dhaliwal that he and the Canucks “will sit down and exchange thoughts,” adding that “hopefully there is a deal” to be had on a new contract.

Zadorov, 28, is currently playing on a $3.75MM cap hit. Whether or not he can match that kind of yearly outlay on his next contract will likely depend on how he fits into Vancouver’s overall defensive structure and coach Rick Tocchet’s system. Without much offense to speak of in his game, it’s fair to wonder whether Vancouver can afford to offer Zadorov a pay raise. With Filip Hronek on pace to score 79 points and in need of his own contract extension, the Canucks may not have the kind of room to pay Zadorov on a market-rate contract.

Some other notes from across the NHL:

  • Columbus Blue Jackets center Cole Sillinger is out day-to-day with an upper-body injury, according to team reporter Jeff Svoboda. That’s less than ideal news for Columbus, as Sillinger is still widely seen as a core part of the team’s future. While he hasn’t quite reached the heights of his 16-goal, 31-point rookie season, Sillinger has managed nine points in 24 games this year and seemed to build some solid chemistry with other young Blue Jackets forwards such as Dmitri Voronkov and Yegor Chinakhov.
  • The Hockey News’ Max Miller relays word from San Jose Sharks head coach David Quinn, who says forward Givani Smith will be a game-time decision for tonight’s game against the New Jersey Devils. Smith, 25, is dealing with a “mid-body injury” according to Quinn. A relentless, physical forward, the injury cost Smith most of yesterday’s game against the Boston Bruins. He has three points and 29 penalty minutes in 21 games this year.

San Jose Sharks Sign Three Players

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The San Jose Sharks have signed enforcer Givani Smith to a two-year contract worth $1.6MM, or $800K per season, the team announced. They’ve also signed forward Ryan Carpenter to a cheap one-year, two-way contract as well.

The team would later announce a two-year, two-way contract for minor-league enforcer Scott Sabourin. He recorded a career-high 33 points and 177 penalty minutes in 51 games with the AHL’s Belleville Senators last season.

Unqualified by the Florida Panthers, the Sharks should know exactly what they’re getting in Smith. One of the most underrated enforcers in the game, Smith has always shown an ability to lay some heavy hits and drop the mitts as well. As San Jose starts employing younger talent on the ice, Smith will provide some extra safety for those players.

Beginning last season with the team that drafted him, Smith was traded to the Panthers from the Detroit Red Wings in a three-team swap also including the Anaheim Ducks. His ice time was significantly decreased in Florida, but Smith still added a powerful presence to the team’s bottom six. In 34 games for the Panthers, Smith scored one goal and three assists, racking up 63 hits and 72 penalty minutes.

Carpenter is a well-traveled bottom-sixer who has largely played in the NHL over the past few seasons save for last year, when he played mostly in the AHL. Carpenter scored 21 goals and 44 points in 51 AHL games and provides defensively sound bottom-six play when in the NHL.

He has some playoff experience and actually began his career with the Sharks, meaning with this deal he returns to San Jose after a half-decade playing elsewhere.

Snapshots: Murphy, Tkachuk, Michkov

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While the New York Rangers filled the final head coaching vacancy in the league today, officially hiring Peter Laviolette, their offseason work is far from over. The Rangers and Laviolette will need to fill out the rest of his staff, which, per The New York Post’s Mollie Walker, will not include assistant coach Gord Murphy.

Goalie coach Benoit Allaire will be the only returning member from last year’s coaching staff. The Rangers relieved former head coach Gerard Gallant’s other assistants, Mike Kelly and Jim Midgley, early last month.

Murphy had been on the Rangers’ staff only as long as Gallant had: two seasons. He was an internal promotion, though, spending two years with the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack as an associate head coach from 2019 to 2021. The long-time NHL defender and father of Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Connor Murphy, Gord also spent lengthy stints with the Columbus Blue Jackets, Florida Panthers, and Philadelphia Flyers as an assistant.

More from around the league today:

  • Florida Panthers head coach Paul Maurice offered no update on the status of star winger Matthew Tkachuk before tonight’s do-or-die Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final. Tkachuk has not practiced with the team since their Game 4 loss, and his availability for tonight remains up in the air after a hard hit from Vegas Golden Knights forward Keegan Kolesar in Game 3. Already without the services of Eetu Luostarinen at forward as well, either Givani Smith or Grigori Denisenko could slot into the lineup tonight if Tkachuk can’t go. Smith played just over five minutes in one game during the First Round against Boston, while it would be Denisenko’s playoff debut.
  • Yesterday, reporting indicated that early presumptive top-two pick Matvei Michkov could fall completely out of the top 10 choices when the 2023 NHL Draft occurs this month. Today, The Athletic’s Corey Pronman spoke to a panel of anonymous NHL executives and scouts about a myriad of topics, including the perception of Michkov around the league. Multiple executives and scouts still had Michkov pegged in the top two or three spots in the draft, even considering his contract situation and the Russian geopolitical climate. Others were harsher on his play, with one scout saying, “you have a [5-foot-9] not-amazing-skating, average-compete winger.” What did appear clear in the responses, though, was that the extraneous factors surrounding Michkov’s development and NHL future weren’t a huge concern.

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