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Max Domi

Snapshots: World Juniors, Poehling, Domi

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The World Junior tournament is coming quickly, with the first game just over six weeks from now. As players are sent back to their respective junior teams after short NHL stints, the available options for the event are becoming more clear. Scott Wheeler of The Athletic projects the rosters for the U.S., Canada, Russia, Sweden, and Finland, the groups that are dominated by NHL-drafted prospects.

He also gives his predictions on how the tournament will play out, including medals for three of the usual powerhouses. The tournament is always a point of attention on the hockey calendar as fans around the world get a chance to see the next wave of NHL stars compete at a high level.

  • Ryan Poehling, who won silver and bronze medals at the World Juniors a few years ago, will make his season debut for the Montreal Canadiens tonight. The 22-year-old is off to a great start in the minor leagues with six points in seven games for the Laval Rocket and will get a chance to show he’s ready for the next level. After making quite a splash by scoring a hat trick in his NHL debut more than two years ago, Poehling has only managed two points in 27 games at the highest level.
  • Though he’s completed his mandatory quarantine, Max Domi remains in the protocol for the Columbus Blue Jackets as he goes through the other health screenings involved to make sure he’s strong enough to return. The 26-year-old forward hasn’t played since October 31 and has just four games under his belt this season.

Max Domi Placed In COVID Protocol

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It’s been a tumultuous start to the season for Max Domi, and he now finds himself on the sidelines once again. The Columbus Blue Jackets forward has been placed in the COVID protocol and is out indefinitely. The team has recalled Kevin Stenlund to take his place on the roster.

According to Aaron Portzline of The Athletic, Domi tested positive on Sunday and will be out at least ten days. He is currently in New York City, while the team traveled to Denver after last night’s game.

Domi already missed four games earlier this season with a fractured rib, but made his return a few days ago. In four games on the season he has four points, with his only goal coming in his season debut last month. The 26-year-old forward is averaging just over 13 minutes a night, by far the lowest ice time of his career to this point.

Stenlund meanwhile has yet to play a game for the team this season after suiting up 32 times in 2020-21. The 25-year-old center cleared waivers just before the start of the season and has three points in seven games for the Cleveland Monsters.

Max Domi Activated From Injured Reserve

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The Columbus Blue Jackets are getting a key player back a little ahead of schedule as Max Domi has been activated from injured reserve. Domi was ruled out with a fractured rib and given a two- to four-week timeline on October 18, just ten days ago. The team has also sent Justin Danforth to the AHL to make room on the roster.

Domi will end up missing just four games should he return tomorrow night for the Blue Jackets as expected. It had been quite the start for the 26-year-old forward before he went down to injury, scoring four points in two games despite averaging just over 12 minutes of ice time. He may not be the top-line player that some hoped he could develop into, but he’s an important forward for the Blue Jackets as they continue to try and compete in the Metropolitan Division.

Without him, the team went 2-2 over the past four games but still sits fifth in the Metro despite a 4-2 record. Emil Bemstrom and Dean Kukan remain on injured reserve, but getting Domi back so quickly will obviously be a welcome sight. The lines at practice today, tweeted out by team reporter Jeff Svoboda, indicate that if Domi goes in, he will likely be knocking rookie Yegor Chinakhov out and playing on the second unit with Gustav Nyquist and Cole Sillinger.

Max Domi Out 2-4 Weeks With Rib Fracture

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The Columbus Blue Jackets will be without Max Domi for the next few weeks after placing him on injured reserve today with a fractured rib. The injury, which Domi suffered in Saturday’s game against the Seattle Kraken, is expected to keep him out between two and four weeks.

Domi was off to a great start for the Blue Jackets, with four points in his first two games. He played just over ten minutes in the game on Saturday, but was still on the ice when Patrik Laine scored the overtime winner. He’ll now miss at least the rest of the month, which would be six games for the Blue Jackets.

The depth of the Columbus organization is already being tested, as both Domi and Emil Bemstrom have sustained serious injuries in the early going. The team is expected to insert top prospect Yegor Chinakhov into the lineup to make his NHL debut tomorrow night against the Detroit Red Wings, after he was recalled yesterday.

Chinakhov, 20, was the 21st overall pick in 2020 and scored in his AHL debut (on his only shot) on Saturday night.

Metropolitan Notes: Domi, Trocheck, Ovechkin, Flyers

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While he was expected to be out until at least November, Blue Jackets forward Max Domi has progressed quicker than anticipated in his recovery from shoulder surgery back in June to the point where he could be ready for next week’s season-opener.  To that end, the team announced today that he’ll be in their preseason finale tonight against Pittsburgh to assess his readiness to start the season.  The injury plus his $5.3MM cap hit resulted in Columbus leaving him unprotected in expansion with Seattle shying away.  While Domi’s long-term future with the team remains somewhat uncertain after a tough first year with them, it looks like he’ll have a full season or very close to it which should help his value on the open market next summer and in the trade market in the months to come.

More from the Metropolitan:

  • While the Hurricanes haven’t yet started extension discussions with Vincent Trocheck, GM Don Waddell told John Matisz of The Score that they do intend to sit down at some point to try to work out a long-term deal. Trocheck’s first ‘full’ season in Carolina was a strong one as he notched 43 points in 47 games last season so it’s understandable that they’d want to keep him around.  However, youngsters Martin Necas and Jesperi Kotkaniemi – both natural centers – are in need of new deals as well next summer and it’s possible that they could view one of them as a replacement for Trocheck if his asking price gets too high.  He has a $4.75MM AAV this season and should be getting more than that on his next deal.
  • Capitals winger Alex Ovechkin will be re-evaluated today after leaving Friday’s game with a lower-body injury, relays Samantha Pell of the Washington Post. He was injured in the first period on a hit on Philadelphia winger Travis Konecny.
  • Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher acknowledged to Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer that they may start the season with a minimum-sized roster in order to bank some extra salary cap space early on. Philadelphia’s campaign begins with four games at home and with their farm team in Allentown fairly close by, they can carry the minimum knowing they can recall someone without much difficulty over that first week of the season.

Metropolitan Notes: Nyquist, Domi, Hajek, Jarvis

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While Blue Jackets winger Gustav Nyquist has yet to suit up in the exhibition season, don’t interpret that as a setback in his return from a shoulder injury.  Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch notes that the veteran is cleared for contact and is on the second line in practice but clearly, they’re being cautious after the 32-year-old missed all of last season.  Meanwhile, center Max Domi did some drills at practice on Friday as he works his way back from shoulder surgery of his own.  He’s still expected to be out until November at the earliest but his participation in practice suggests his recovery could be on the shorter end of the five-to-six-month timeline.

More from the Metropolitan:

  • Once viewed as one of the centerpieces of the trade return for Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller, Rangers defenseman Libor Hajek’s time with New York could be in jeopardy, suggests Larry Brooks of the New York Post. The 23-year-old has yet to lock down a full-time role and eventually settled for accepting his qualifying offer earlier this offseason.  Hajek has to go through waivers if the Rangers try to send him down and with the potential he was viewed to have just a few years ago, it wouldn’t be surprising if another team put in a claim.  That has him as a bubble player with a lot on the line the next week and a half as a result.
  • With the Hurricanes not being able to send top prospect Seth Jarvis to the AHL due to his age, Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer suggests that Carolina may opt to keep him with the big club to start the season. The 19-year-old could play up to nine NHL games before the first year of his entry-level deal would kick in while he wouldn’t accrue a season towards UFA eligibility until he was on the roster for 40 games.  Going that route would allow them a bit more time to evaluate Jarvis’ readiness although the likeliest outcome at this time is an eventual return to Portland in the WHL which isn’t great from a development perspective considering how productive he has been there the last two years.

Poll: What’s The Biggest Protection List Surprise?

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The past 48 hours across the NHL have been nothing short of chaos. With protection lists for all 30 teams due at 3:00 PM ET yesterday, along with the ensuing transaction freeze, a flurry of movement at the deadline drastically changed how many teams were to approach the expansion draft. Projected Seattle picks such as Jason Dickinson and Adin Hill were dealt, along with bigger names like Ryan Ellis and Jared McCann.

That frenzy didn’t stop yesterday, however. With the protection lists not being made available to the public until this morning, nobody was quite sure what their team was going to do. All those questions were answered this morning, some of those answers having potentially seismic implications.

There were many surprise omissions from teams’ protection lists, but let’s start with the elephant in the room. After being first reported by TSN’s Pierre LeBrun last night, Montreal Canadiens netminder Carey Price waived his no-movement clause and was not protected by the team. It’s an incredible turn of events after the netminder guided the team to their first Stanley Cup Final since 1993 while being inarguably their most valuable player.

Another Canadian team made some waves this morning too. The Toronto Maple Leafs opted for a 4F-4D-1G protection scheme, leaving out the newly acquired McCann from their protected list. It doesn’t appear that there’s a side deal to protect him in place, as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman notes that McCann’s acquisition purely ensures that one of him or Alexander Kerfoot will remain on the roster in 2021-22. There were some other big surprises out of the East and Canada too, as Nino Niederreiter, Max Domi, Jordan Eberle, Evgenii Dadonov, and James van Riemsdyk were all somewhat unexpectedly left unprotected by their teams.

And then there’s the Vladimir Tarasenko saga in Missouri. The former St. Louis Blues superstar had requested a trade from the team earlier this offseason after a souring relationship, mostly caused by the team’s handling of his recent various shoulder injuries. He’s been left exposed by the team, meaning that they could use him for nothing rather than taking the best available trade offer. It breaks from practice, including the Columbus Blue Jackets’ protection of disgruntled defenseman Seth Jones.

So, we ask you, PHR readers, what shocked you the most about this weekend’s expansion news? Who was the biggest exposure surprise? Vote in our poll below.

[Mobile users, click here to vote!]

Blue Jackets Considering Leaving Max Domi Unprotected

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The Blue Jackets don’t have much in the way of impact center depth and it has been an area that they have been trying to address for several years now.  Last summer, they picked up Max Domi from Montreal in a trade for Josh Anderson to try to help that issue but he had a tough year.  Now, TSN’s Darren Dreger is reporting (Twitter link) that Columbus is leaning towards leaving Domi unprotected on their expansion list which is due to the league later today.

The 26-year-old struggled considerably last season, posting just nine goals and 15 assists in 54 games, hardly the type of production they were expecting considering he had at least 38 points in his previous five NHL campaigns.  Along the way, he went from playing down the middle to being shifted back to the wing and was dropped down the depth chart as the season progressed.

To make matters worse, Domi underwent shoulder surgery last month to repair a torn labrum.  The expected recovery time for that procedure is five to six months which means he will miss at least the first month of next season and potentially more.  Perhaps it’s for that reason that GM Jarmo Kekalainen is considering the possibility of leaving him exposed.  However, he’s also owed $6MM in salary for the upcoming season which could also serve as a deterrent although Dreger believes Domi would likely be selected by the Kraken.

[Related: Blue Jackets Expansion Draft Primer]

At any rate, it certainly doesn’t appear as if Domi will be in the long-term plans for the Blue Jackets and he’s set to become an unrestricted free agent next summer which makes him a trade candidate as a rental by either Columbus or Seattle if they do indeed select him.  At any rate, Kekalainen’s search for impact centers is sure to continue.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Max Domi Undergoes Shoulder Surgery

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The hits keep coming for the Columbus Blue Jackets. The team announced today that Max Domi underwent successful surgery to repair a labral tear of his right shoulder and has been given a recovery timeline of five to six months. The surgery was performed today in Colorado. Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen released a short statement:

Max had been experiencing some discomfort in his shoulder, which he brought to our attention last week and a subsequent examination revealed a labral tear. It was determined that surgery was the best course of action and we look forward to Max’s return early next season.

As Aaron Portzline of The Athletic points out, this is the same surgery that Blue Jackets forward Gustav Nyquist underwent in November, causing him to miss the entire season. Domi will miss at least the first month of the 2021-22 campaign.

Domi, 26, was supposed to be an answer for Columbus down the middle when they acquired him from the Montreal Canadiens, but it certaintly didn’t work out in his first year as a Blue Jacket. Things quickly deteriorated between Domi and head coach John Tortorealla, who obviously didn’t trust him in the middle of the ice or in the defensive zone. Only three forwards—Patrik Laine, Jack Roslovic and Cam Atkinson—started a lower percentage of their shifts in the defensive zone and Domi ended up taking fewer than 400 draws on the year, his lowest total since 2016-17.

Tortorella certainly wasn’t the first coach to question whether Domi could handle the defensive responsibility that the center ice positon brings, but it will continue to be an issue for whoever replaces him behind the Columbus bench. The team traded away Pierre-Luc Dubois early in the year and then moved Nick Foligno and Riley Nash at the deadline. While a return to Columbus for Foligno seems like a plausible outcome this summer, even he isn’t a true center. The team doesn’t have a ton of options down the middle, so when Domi does eventually return, he may get another chance to take that role for the team.

Of course, given Domi is set to hit unrestricted free agency after next season, he’ll be motivated to show potential suitors what he can do. He also is another trade candidate for that reason, though the injury complicates things. The Blue Jackets seemingly have several hard decisions to make this summer on who will be the core moving forward.

Max Domi To Be A Healthy Scratch For Blue Jackets

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April 20: After their loss last night, the Blue Jackets will again scratch Domi in the rematch this evening. The only change, according to team reporter Jeff Svoboda, is Dean Kukan going in for Andrew Peeke. It appears as though the 26-year old Domi is firmly in the doghouse.

April 19: Players on the Columbus Blue Jackets have exactly ten games remaining to make a case for themselves heading into what could be a turbulent offseason. Well, at least most of them have ten games. As Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports, Max Domi won’t be in the lineup tonight for Columbus, as he joins Mikhail Grigorenko and Scott Harrington as the team’s healthy scratches. The 26-year-old forward has lost his head twice in the past three games, earning himself four minor penalties and two misconducts, though head coach John Tortorella wouldn’t explain why he was putting him in the press box tonight.

Domi was supposed to help answer the question at center for the Blue Jackets after the team acquired him in exchange for Josh Anderson in the offseason. It gave them a relatively young 1-2 punch when combined with Pierre-Luc Dubois, who was just coming into his own after an excellent postseason bubble. Now, just a few months into the season, Dubois is in Winnipeg and Domi is watching as a scratch. The Blue Jackets have come undone, losing their last five and selling off key pieces at the deadline, including captain Nick Foligno.

After a 2018-19 campaign that saw Domi record 28 goals and 72 points, it appeared as though he was back on top as one of the up-and-coming talents in the NHL. His offensive skill combined with a feisty, physical nature, made him an uncommon player in today’s NHL. Though his 44-point 2019-20 campaign can’t be called a complete disaster, it certainly wasn’t the same level, leading the Canadiens to trade him in the offseason as a restricted free agent. The Blue Jackets signed him to a two-year, $10.6MM deal, one which will carry a $6MM salary next season.

After that, Domi will hit unrestricted free agency, which means this summer he will be considered a trade candidate once again. Seven goals and 19 points through 44 games isn’t good enough for a player making that kind of salary, and Tortorella has never seemed completely comfortable with him in the middle of the ice. In fact, after averaging more than 17 minutes a night in each of his two seasons with Montreal, Domi has eclipsed that mark just nine times this year.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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